Rogers Yums!

I was playing with the Our Best Bites Mint Brownie recipe, and I came up with a version that tastes remarkably similar to chocolate orange sticks. One change I made was to the chocolate. Instead of using baking chocolate and chocolate chips, I used a dark Belgian chocolate bar from Trader Joe's. This required reducing the sugar in the brownie batter a bit, and increasing it in the glaze. Then, of course, I made an orange frosting instead of using mint. I don't bother lining the pan with foil or parchment paper.  That would be useful it you wanted to remove the brownies from the pan before cutting them, but I find that cutting and serving from the pan works just fine. Brownies 6 ounces Trade Joe's Pound Plus 72% dark chocolate 1 cup butter 4 large eggs 1 3/4 cups sugar 2 teaspoons vanilla 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1 1/4 cups flour Frosting 2 cups powdered sugar 4 tablespoons butter, softened 1 teaspoon orange extract 1/3 - 1/2 cup orange marmalade orange food coloring Choc...

Here's my new favorite brownie recipe.  This started out as Adam Ragusea's recipe from  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhnzdRD-hX8 .  He has two versions: thin and chewy, and thick and cakey.  I went with the cakey version.  The texture was perfect, but it needed a bit more salt and chocolate.  So, I switched the kosher salt to an equal measure of table salt, and I added some regular cocoa to supplement the Dutch cocoa.  The result is fantastic! Adam likes to use a parchment paper sling to make the brownies easy to remove from the pan before cutting.  I prefer to skip the parchment paper and simply cut the brownies in the pan. 1 stick (1/2 cup, 113g) butter (I use salted butter) 1/2 cup (50g) Dutch process cocoa powder 1/4 cup (25 g) regular cocoa powder 1 14 oz (396g) can sweetened condensed milk 1 cup (120g) powdered sugar 2 teaspoons vanilla (I like to use 1 1/2 teaspoons imitation vanilla + 1/2 teaspoon Mexican vanilla) 2 teaspoons molasses 1...

We had a stale French bread baguette, so I made bread pudding.  I found a recipe that looked good at  https://www.pressurecookingtoday.com/pressure-cooker-raspberry-orange-bread-pudding/ , but there were some problems.  First, I didn't have all the ingredients.  Second, I had the wrong size pan.  Third, I wanted to pair it with a different sauce.  (I guess that third problem wasn't technically a problem.)  So, I made a bunch of changes to the recipe and came up with this version: Pudding Ingredients 4 large eggs 1/2 cup sugar 1 1/3 teaspoons orange extract zest of 1 orange 2/3 cup orange juice 12 ounce can evaporated milk 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted 1/4 cup milk 10 cups cubed stale bread (1-2 inch cubes) 1/3 cup dried cranberries or strawberries 1 1/3 cup frozen raspberries Sauce Ingredients 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter 1/2 cup buttermilk (or 1/2 cup milk + 1 1/2 teaspoons white vinegar) 3/4 cup sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 teaspoon baking soda In a lar...

Do you have some leftover rice?  Make pudding!  We like calrose rice, but you can use any type for this recipe. The recipe is from https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/228914/old-fashioned-creamy-rice-pudding/. 3 cups cooked rice 4 cups milk, divided 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 1/3 cups raisins (optional) 2 egg, beaten 2/3 cup white sugar 2 tablespoons butter 1 teaspoon vanilla extract Combine cooked rice, 3 cups milk, and salt in a saucepan over medium heat; cook and stir until thick and creamy, 15 to 20 minutes. Stir remaining 1 cup milk, raisins, beaten egg, and white sugar into the rice mixture; stirring continually. Continue cooking until egg is set, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove saucepan from heat; stir butter and vanilla extract into the pudding. When I made it, I added some finely chopped apple to the rice right at the beginning.  That gave it a nice flavor.  A bit of cinnamon and/or nutmeg would also be a welcome addition.

Okay, so calling this "low fat" isn't totally accurate because there's still a fair amount of fat.  But, it's quite a bit less than the original recipe, so I'm sticking with the name.  This was originally an Instant Pot recipe.  I cut out some fat, increased the cake size, and replaced the Instant Pot with a regular oven. Adapted from https://www.simplyhappyfoodie.com/instant-pot-chocolate-cheesecake/#wprm-recipe-container-2377 Crust 30 Oreos, filling removed, crushed 1 ½ tablespoons sugar 3 tablespoons melted butter Filling 3 8-ounce packages low fat cream cheese 1 8-ounce package Neufchatel cream cheese 1 cup sugar 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 2 cups (12 ounces) semi-sweet chocolate chips 1 cup light sour cream 2 tablespoons cocoa powder 2 large eggs 3 large egg whites Allow all cold ingredients to come to room temperature. Preheat oven to 350.  Prepare a 9 inch spring form pan using oil spray and parchment paper. Mix the crust ingredients and press into the ...