Easy Co-worker Present Ideas

It is that time again Christmas present season.  It is always hard trying to figure out what to make or get for your co-workers to say hey I like working with you but not breaking the bank.  This year I made two different things for co-workers.  

The quick and easy gift was cute little pumpkin bread!  

I found these neat single use baking pans with a lid!  They were at my local Target for about $4.  (I am not affiliated with or being paid/given anything by the companies listed in this post.  I just am trying to make it easier for you to find the products I am talking about.  I like the items in this post and am passing it along to you.  All opinions in this article are my own.)  I just used one Pillsbury Pumpkin Quick Bread mix and it filled up all the pans.  

It was super quick and easy.  All I had to do was reduce the cooking time by a few minutes and Bam Christmas presents!

The next gift was a bit more involved still cheap because I had all the ingredients. However it was more time consuming as I made the cookies from scratch.  

I made these little boxes of cookies but this year I only iced the top ones and then added icing dipping cups!  This is the best idea I have had in awhile.  It cut down on the icing or decorating time and I could add more than one layer of cookies without them sticking together. 

One little thing I did was use my Mug Cookie Cutter from World Market.  Because I chilled the dough overnight they really seemed hold their shape while baking.  Definitely a cookie cutter to use again.

 

Mud Pie or the Upside-down Cake

Looks a mess doesn't? It was a mess......

My brother-in-law and I decided we needed a cake the last time I visited. I had brought a new cookbook with me that I was working through. He wanted a chocolate cake, so I found a devil's food cake recipe with an interesting frosting that called for melted chocolate. I don't think I will mention the cookbook, as the recipe didn't really turned out anything like it was suppose to. I read through the recipe and happily started pulling out bowls and ingredients. The recipe said to start the frosting first as it needed time to cool, so I found the baking chocolate and started melting it. I also started the cake batter and it wasn't until I went to look for the baking cocoa that things started to go downhill...... 

No baking cocoa.

 How are we suppose to make a cake without baking cocoa?!!? Of course we could have just ran out to the store and bought some, but that sounded like a lot of work. I rummaged around looking for more baking chocolate, but decided I needed to deal with the frosting first. That is when Crisis #2 reared it's head. 

As I was reading the recipe again and noting that there really wasn't a lot of sugar in the frosting a little thought began niggling in the back of my mind. I had just assumed when it said baking chocolate it was talking about chocolate with an 70-80% cacao ratio. But with the amount of sugar called for that couldn't be right. I quickly mixed in the sugar and gave it a taste...... bitter, very bitter. I checked the cookbook for an explanation of ingredients, it called for baking chocolate to be around 60-70%. I checked the ratio of the baking chocolate....... 100% cacao!!! Opps!

Now I had a cake will no chocolate and frosting with too much chocolate!! We should be able to work this out, right? Just put a bit of chocolate "frosting mixture" in the cake batter and add more sugar to the rest of the frosting. Simple.

Not sure if that was the best idea, but we did get a cake of sorts in the end. I think the "frosting mixture" made the batter too thin, when we tried to remove it from the pans it just crumbled. In the end we piled the pieces on the plate put the crumbles on top and patted everything into a cake shape. I was afraid of putting too much powdered sugar in the frosting so it was also too thin and almost ran off the cake. At this point we were tired of fussing and decided this was as good as it was going to get. Time to eat it!

Boy, was it yummy! One of the messiest cakes I have ever eaten, but so good! A deep dark chocolaty-ness, like eating a fudge cake A small piece went a long way!

Some day I am going to give that recipe a try........the right way. 

Rice Crispie Cake

We have a fetish for rice crispies in my family, they are eaten before they get a chance to be poured in the pan or even before they firm up. When my husband came up with this idea to make a rice crispie cake for my parents anniversary surprise, I was skeptical. But nothing ventured, nothing gained. 

 

 

We started by pressing the crispies into two round cake pans, we needed to make a double batch to fill them both. Then we chased each other out of the kitchen to let them form.

Then I suggested we try using marshmallow cream for the filling and icing, it seemed to go so well.

Until we started topping the cake....

You can see the marshmallow is not as thick as I imagined and started sliding off, we even put it in the fridge overnight. Next time we might try adding a little cornstarch or powdered sugar to firm it up.

It was a big surprise when Mom tried to cut into the cake. At first she thought it was a prank and we had frosted cardboard, but then we explained the cake was gluten-free and might have gotten a little over-baked. In the end it was a success and there was none leftover.

 

Sweet Valentine.....

Happy Valentine's Day!

A new cookie/cake recipe I just tried and a Valentine's message from our sweet Auntie in NM! Doesn't the little pup look right at home on there?

As I mentioned before, this was the first time I made this recipe. Oh my goodness! What we have been missing! At first I was so sad I couldn't make my favorite soft sugar cookies. I looked through my Baking Companion by King Arthur Flour and found these amazing scone-like cookie! They really don't even need frosting, but that was one of the reasons I was making cookies!

These cookies are amazingly soft and chewy because they have yogurt in them! Isn't that cool? The dough is kind of spongy in texture because of it.

Half and Half Cookies
because you dip half of them in chocolate

1 1/2 sticks butter
1/2 cup shortening
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon extract
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
In a mixing bowl cream shortening and butter with extracts. Beat in sugar and then eggs one at a time, beating well after each one.

4 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup yogurt or sour cream
Whisk together flour. baking soda and baking powder in a separate bowl. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients alternately with the sour cream or yogurt, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Roll out dough 1/4" thick and bake at 400 until lightly brown on edges, about 10-11 mins.
 

Happiness Cookies

This had to be one of the most excited days of the year! I discovered in an old church cookbook a recipe for easy peanut butter cookies which unexpectedly did not call for any flour. With a little tweaking of my own, they are fabulous gluten-free choice. I have to confess I ate the whole batch myself, not all in one day of course....

They just look so delicious! And that comforting smell in the house of fresh baked cookies.

Milk and cookies, gotta have milk with mine, especially peanut butter cookies. They were so fabulous, I can't even begin to tell you how good they were. This was the first batch before I had the bright idea to add some chocolate chips.

The Recipe: 1 egg, 1 cup of peanut butter, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup brown sugar. 

 

Reduced sugar version: 1 egg, 1 cup of peanut butter, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup honey, 1/2 cup Bob's Mill all purpose gluten-free flour.