Shrimp Louie Spread

Wow.  For the first time, I'm not food-posting about baked goods! :O You know the world is gonna end now.

Anyway, I got this recipe from Joanne Fluke (again :D) in Plum Pudding Murder.  I don't think this is in the Lake Eden Cookbook, but I may be wrong.  You can always buy her book or visit her website.

Here it is!

Shrimp Louie Spread
REQUIRES SOFTENED CREAM CHEESE
REQUIRES DEFROSTED SHRIMP
REQUIRES CHILLING TIME (4 hours)

  8 oz. cream cheese, softened
  1/2 cup mayonnaise
  1/4 cup chili sauce
  1 tablespoon horseradish
  1/8 teaspoon pepper
  6 green onions
  2 cups finely chopped salad shrimp (measure AFTER chopping)
  salt to taste

1. Mix cream cheese with mayonnaise.  Add chili sauce, horseradish, and pepper.  Stir until smooth.
2. Clean the green onions and cut off the bottoms.  Use all of the white part and up to an inch of the green part.  Do whatever you like with the leftover tops.  Mince the onions as finely as you can and add them to the sauce.  Stir in well.
3. Chop salad shrimp into fine bits.  Mix in shrimp and check to see how salty the spread is.  Add salt if needed.
4. Chill spread in covered bowl for at least 4 hours.  Makes 3 cups.

Breakin' it down:
Mix cream cheese...

...with mayonnaise...

Add chili sauce, horseradish, and pepper...

...and stir until smooth.

Clean green onions and cut off bottoms...

Use white part and up to an inch of the green...

Mince.

Add to sauce and mix well.

Defrost your salad shrimp...

Chop finely...

Add to spread...

And stir in well.  Add salt if needed, and there you have it!

This is what the finished Shrimp Louie Spread looks like.  I served it at Christmas, and it was the hit of the day! :) Serve it with water crackers or your favorite kind of cracker, bread, whatever.  It's also good a few days after you make it if you keep it chilled! ;)
-JJ

Chocolate Peppermint Cake Pops

As you know, cake pops are currently a very popular - and often expensive - fad.  I buy mine at Starbucks, and I recently had the pleasure of eating a seasonal cake pop - a brownie cake pop covered in white chocolate and candy cane bits.  It was my first cake pop ever - and it tasted great.
I became determined to make these.  I scavenged and found a recipe from 52 Kitchen Adventures.  As usual, you can find the original recipe on the actual blog, but my modified one is here:

Chocolate Peppermint Cake Pops
REQUIRES SOFTENED BUTTER
REQUIRES CHILLING TIME (15 min)
Makes 40-50 cake pops

Chocolate Cake
  2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
  1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  1/2 teaspoon salt
  3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
  1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
  1/2 cup unsalted butter, very soft
  1/3 cup vegetable oil
  1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  1 cup milk
  1/2 cup water
  4 large eggs

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F and lightly grease a 9″ x 13″ pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cocoa, and sugar.
3. Cream butter, add dry ingredients, and mix at low speed for a minute. Keep the mixer running while you add the oil and mix until the mixture looks like sand.
4. In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine vanilla with milk and water. Add to sand-like mixture and mix for a couple of minutes at low speed.
5. Add eggs one at a time, beating at medium speed between each one until thoroughly combined.
6. If needed, scrape the sides of the bowl and mix for a minute more. At this point, the batter will be thin.
7. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for around 35 minutes. When the cake is done, the sides will just begin to pull away from the edge of the pan and the top will spring back when lightly touched. You can also test it by inserting a toothpick, which should come out clean.

Peppermint Buttercream Frosting
  3/4 cup butter, at room temperature
  1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  3 cups powdered sugar, sifted
  1-2 tablespoons of milk
  4 candy canes (around 6.5 tablespoons), crushed to powder in a food
      processor or blender

1. In a large bowl, cream butter and vanilla until combined.
2. Adding 1 cup of sugar at a time, mix into butter until thoroughly combined.
3. Mix in milk until you reach the desired consistency.
4. Add crushed candy canes and stir until combined.

Assembling the cake pops
  18 oz. white chocolate
  1/8 cup canola oil (you can use less for a thicker coating/more for a thinner
    coating)
  40-50 four-inch lollipop sticks
  6 candy canes (around 3/4 cup), crushed
  Styrofoam block

1. Once cake is completely cooled, cut into 6 pieces. Using your hands, crumble each piece into a large bowl.
2. Add frosting to bowl and mix with the back of a spoon until thoroughly combined.
3. Roll into 1 1/2-inch balls (I used a cookie scoop to measure the cake and rolled it with my hands).
4. Place cake balls on a baking sheet covered in wax paper and chill for 15 minutes in the freezer.  (While dipping cake balls, keep the other cake ball refrigerated.)
5. In a double boiler or in a microwave, melt the chocolate and oil together, stirring until all lumps are gone.
6. Once chocolate is melted, remove from heat and pour into a small cup. Let cool for a few minutes.
7. Place crushed candy canes in a bowl and set aside.
8. Remove cake balls from freezer. One at a time, dip the tip of a lollipop stick in the melted chocolate, then insert the stick straight into a cake ball, pushing almost all the way through.
9. Hold the lollipop stick and dip the entire cake ball into the melted chocolate until it is completely covered and quickly remove.
10. Hold pop over cup while excess chocolate drips off.
11. Once excess and dripped off, let chocolate set for a few moments and then roll in crushed candy cane.
12. Push stick into styrofoam and let chocolate harden.
13. Once all cake pops are completed and cooled, cover and store in refrigerator.

 Now, to break it down:

For the cake:
Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cocoa, and sugar...

Cream butter, add dry ingredients, and mix.  Add oil and mix until it looks like sand...

Combine vanilla, milk, and water...

And add to "sand" mixture.

Add eggs and mix thoroughly...

Pour into pan and bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.

For the frosting:
Cream butter and vanilla...

Mix sugar into butter, 1 cup at a time.  Mix in milk until you get a frosting-like consistency, like this:

Add crushed candy canes and stir.

To assemble:
Crumble cake into a bowl...

Add frosting...

Stir until combined...

Form into balls and chill.

Melt white chocolate and oil...

Dip pops and roll in candy cane pieces...

Let cool, and there you have it!

Of course, these cake pops aren't exactly like the Starbucks pops, but they taste just as good! :)

And they're rather photogenic, too! XD

Chocolate-Peppermint Cookies

Martha Stewart has her ups and downs.  Pros: her recipes produce great-tasting results.  Cons: they are very complicated.

Needless to say, I tried a certain cookie recipe from, you guessed it, Martha Stewart.  Basically, the spawn of Thin Mints and white chocolate.  The recipe can be found on her website or in the December 2008 Martha Stewart Living magazine, but since I'm too lazy to post a link, I'll just post the whole recipe - at least the way I made it - instead! :)

Chocolate-Peppermint Cookies

*REQUIRES SOFTENED BUTTER
**REQUIRES CHILLING TIME, SEE BOLD
(Now, at the beginning of all my posted recipes, you'll see warnings, like above, because if you're like me and you just "skim" the recipe, you're going to end up short on time and come late to a Christmas party or something.  So now, you can still skim as long as you pay attention to the pre-notes.)

1 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for surface
1/2 cup baking cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoonms unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
3/4 teaspoon pure peppermint extract
8 large candy canes or 30 peppermint candies, crushed (I used candy canes)
2 pounds white chocolate, coarsely chopped (or white chocolate
       chips/morsels)

1. Sift flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a bowl.  In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar.  Add egg, then egg yolk, beating well after each addition.  Beat in peppermint extract.  Slowly add flour mixture, and beat until just incorporated.  Shape dough into 2 disks, wrap each in plastic, and refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour (or up to 2 days).
2. Roll out 1 disk of dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/8-inch thickness.  Freeze until firm, about 15 minutes.  Using a 2-inch round cutter (or in my case, the lid of a water bottle), cut out circles, and place 1 inch apart on parchment-lined baking sheets.  Roll and cut scraps once.  Freeze cookies until firm, about 15 minutes.  Repeat with remaining disk.
3. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Bake until cookies are dry to the touch, about 12 minutes.  Transfer parchment, with cookies, to wire racks, and let cool.  (Undecorated cookies will keep, covered, for up to 3 days.)
4. Sift crushed candy, and separate larger pieces from dust, reserving both.  Melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of gently simmering water.  Remove from heat.  Dunk cookies into melted chocolate.  Using a fork (or wooden toast tongs), turn to coat, let excess drip off, and gently scrape bottom against edge of bowl.  Place on parchment-lined baking sheets (you can reuse the parchment from before for this), and sprinkle 1/4 teaspoon of either candy pieces or dust on top.  Repeat, sprinkling half the cookies with pieces and the rest with dust.  Refrigerate until set, up to 3 hours.  (You can also freeze for about 20 minutes.)  Decorated cookies are best served the same day.

Now, to break it down:

Sift flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

Cream butter with sugar, and add egg and yolk.

Gradually add flour mixture...

and beat until it just comes together.

Form into 2 disks and wrap in plastic.

Refrigerate.  Roll out on a floured surface and freeze until firm.  Cut out circles...

Freeze until firm and repeat with remaining disc.  Bake for 12 minutes at 325 degrees F. and let cool.

Crush your candy (I used a rolling pin)...

Sift and separate dust...

from peppermint pieces.

Melt chocolate...

dip cookies, and sprinkle with pieces or dust.

Sadly, there are no pictures of the dried, finished cookies, because, well, I was late to a Christmas party! XD

Three-Way Fudge

This fudge is, yes, three layers: semisweet chocolate, white chocolate, and milk chocolate.  And it tastes ahhhh-mazing.  :)

This is another recipe from Joanne Fluke - this one from the special edition of Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder, in "Candy for Christmas."  You can find the recipe in the Lake Eden Cookbook that came out September 2011, but I'll post the recipe here if you're dying to try it:

Three-Way Fudge

Ingredients
   1cup semisweet chocolate chips

   1cup white chocolate chips

   1cup milk chocolate chips

   1 can (14oz) sweetened condensed milk

   6 tablespoons butter

Directions
   Line an 8-inch square pan with waxed paper. In a Pyrex cup or other microwaveable container, place the semisweet chips, 2T butter, and 4-5oz. (1/3 can) of the condensed milk. Microwave 70-80 seconds, and stir for a minute until consistency is uniform. Pour into lined pan and spread; allow to cool slightly. Repeat with white chocolate and milk chocolate. Refrigerate for at least two hours.

I've made this fudge recipe many, many, many, many times.  Many times.  Did I mention I've made it many times?  It's fantastic, and always works.  For St. Patrick's day, I dyed the middle layer green with food coloring and added peppermint extract, just for kicks.  Tasted pretty good, too! :D
This is an AWESOME recipe that ALWAYS tastes good and never fails.  It's really great for Christmas and good for giving to friends, family, neighbors, etc.

You can find more recipes at Jo Fluke's website, murdershebaked.com.  Have a fudgy day! :)  (Did I mention I've made this fudge many times?)