Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Rocky Road Chocolate Muffins




I'm a sucker for chocolate. And Rocky Road is my favorite ice cream flavor so these muffins were right up my alley. I was a bit disappointed though. I found them to be not as flavorful or chocolately as I would have liked. I think next time I will just use a chocolate cake mix or muffin mix and put the white chocolate chips and marshmallows in. I also think this muffin would be great to pull out of the oven put a large marshmallow on top and put back in the oven for 5 minutes to melt--marshmallow frosting! Delicious!

If you have the 1 Mix, 100 Muffins cookbook, this recipe can be found on page 129.

Rocky Road Chocolate Muffins
Makes 12 (though mine made a little bit more)

Oil for greasing
heaping 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 T. baking powder
1/8 t. salt
heaping 1/2 cup superfine sugar
heaping 1/2 cup white chocolate chips (i'm not a white chocolate fan, but these were good)
1/2 cup white mini marshmallows, cut in half (I used scissors)
2 large eggs
1 cup milk
6 T. sunflower oil or melted, cooled butter

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 12-cup muffin pan or line with paper liners. Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt into a larger bowl. Stir in the sugar, chocolate chips, and marshmallows.

Beat the effs in a larger pitcher or a bowl, then beat in the eggs and oil or butter. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the liquid in. Mix until just combined. Just so you know, it is going to look like fecal matter. Just ignore it.

Spoon the batter into the muffin cups. Bake in a preheated oven for about 12 minutes, until the muffins are firm.

Let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes, resist eating. Then serve warm and transfer to a wire rack and let them cool.

Potato Leek Pizza



There are a few things I have always wanted to cook with and leeks are one of them. So, when I saw the Potato Leek Pizza in the Pioneer Woman cookbook I was so excited to try it. My opinions on leeks? Delicious. My husbands? Not so much. Leeks are from the onion family and I am an onion person, he isn't so much. But it was still good.

What is really essential in this recipe is a mandolin. If you don't have one, go get one. It is an essential kitchen gadget and will save you so much time in the kitchen. Use it on the potatoes and leeks in this recipe.

Pioneer Woman provides her pizza dough recipe to use for this. I tried it and compared to the (one) other pizza dough I've made from scratch, it was great. But I like my pizza dough sweeter so I'm going to try a different one next time. I don't see any reason why you couldn't use a store-bought one. Also, I used cooked bacon instead of cooking it myself. What can I say? I have a baby and will find any excuse to cut down on some time.

For those of you with the Pioneer Woman Cookbook this recipe can be found on page 110.

Potato Leek Pizza
Makes 1 Pizza

1 Pizza Crust
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Kosher Salt
6 slices thick-cut bacon cut into 1-inch pieces (I used already cooked bacon)
3 Leeks, rinsed well to remove dirt, thinly sliced (I used the mandolin, and when it calls for 3 leeks--USE 3! You sautee them a little in this recipe and they really reduce down!)
5 small red or yukon gold potatoes, sliced paper thin (MANDOLIN TIME! I used red and they were delicious)
1 pound fresh mozzarella (I didn't use the whole pound, but leftover mozzarella? Who's complaining?)
4 oz. goat cheese crumbled (Now, I learned the goat cheese is expensive. 4 oz. cost me $5. I found the goat cheese to be good in this recipe but more or less inconsequential. If you don't want to stand the cost, go ahead and leave it off.)
Grated Parmesan Cheese
Freshly Ground Pepper

Preheat oven to 500 degrees.

Prepare your pizza crust, whichever you choose, and brush on some olive oil. Then sprinkle some salt on. I was rather generous with the salt, but I like salt. Fry the cut bacon over medium heat until it is cooked but not crisp, or do like I did and use already prepared bacon. Take the bacon out of the pan and set it aside. Pour off some of the grease from the bacon, but not all, and turn the heat to medium low. (If you use already prepared bacon, just get out a fry pan and put about 1-2 T. olive oil in the bottom and let it heat up to medium-low.) Add the leeks and sautee. Enjoy the delicious fragrance. Let them go for about 3 minutes, stirring often to prevent burning, and then remove. Notice that the leeks really reduced down and be happy you listened and cut three leeks down.

USing a mandolin or a sharp knife, slice the potatoes very thinly. Pioneer woman recommends doing this right before you are going to use them because potatoes go brown but I cut mine about 2 hours before cooking and they were fine. Arrange the potatoes on a single layer on the pizza crust, I let some of the edges overlap. Sprinkle the potatoes with some salt AND some herbs. Pioneer Woman does not have you do this but I found the pizza was a little bland without some kicking up. Some garlic or basil might be nice. Then lay slices of mozzarella on top. On top of the mozzarella sprinkle the leeks. The bacon goes on top of that, then the goat cheese. Oh deliciousness. Sprinkle some parmesan and pepper on top and pop that sucker in the oven.

Bake for 8 to 11 minutes or until the edges of the crust are golden brown and the cheese is bubbly. Serve immediately.



ENJOY!

Welcome!

Welcome to Give Me Something Good to Eat! We are two sisters (and the best of friends) who love to cook and bake. We want to share our recipes with each other and with anyone else who will listen.

Enjoy!

Jackie and Amanda