Maple Blondies | Fall

Earlier this month Hurricane Sandy swept through the east coast leaving people and their homes devastated. Admittedly I was not in one of the worst areas during the hurricane, but I was definitely affected by it. My heart goes out to those who lost everything because of the hurricane. I only lost power for a week, and it was hard enough living that way, I can’t even fathom what others are going through.

In the end, this experience left me with many things to be thankful this thanksgiving. That includes my parents, my sister, my friends, my home…I suppose I could go on, but I’ll sum it up into one sentence: I’m thankful that I have everything and everyone that I need in my life. Quite honestly, not many are as fortunate as me, and even though I do complain frequently  and face problems, I only deal with a fraction of what others have to go through in life.

I know this post is a little early for a thanks giving post, but this was the only time I could do it, and I’m trying to keep posting frequently! So, dear readers: Happy thanksgiving, I hope you have a wonderful meal with your family and your friends :)

For this post I baked these maple blondies, and quite frankly, I am in love with maple flavored anything right now! It’s just such a wonderful flavor to enjoy during the fall, and I’ve been trying to put maple syrup in or on literally everything. I think I may be a little ridiculous, but it’s just so delicious. These blondies are very sweet, however, not heavy, because the texture is much lighter, so in the end it all balances out.

Maple Blondies

Adapted from Southern Lady Magazine via Baked Bree

• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 10 Tablespoons melted butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup pure maple syrup
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon maple flavoring
• optional: 1 cup pecan or walnut pieces [ I didn't include any in the blondies I made in the picture, because I was making these for someone with a nut allergy, however I highly reccommend putting in nuts if you like them :) ]

Instructions

1. Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl & set aside.
2. In another, whisk together the butter, brown sugar, and maple syrup, until well mixed.
3. Add the eggs, and the two flavorings, and whisk until combined.
4. Add a half cup of the dry ingredients to the wet and blend until combined
5. Repeat step five, until you’ve added all of the dry ingredients to the wet.
6. If you are adding nuts, stir them in now.
7. Spread into a 9×13 pan that has been coated with cooking spray.
8. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Enjoy & happy thanksgiving!

Deepshikha :)

Fudge | Summer

It’s really hard to believe that my first year as a freshman is over. It really feels like I was ranting about my fears of high school years just yesterday. I honestly anticipated this year to take forever, just like everything I don’t like seems to take, but really it just rushed right by. I’m surprised that I’m now a sophomore. I can still remember clearly of how I walked into the high school for the first time as a student, and wondering why school decor was always so drab.

And so sophomore year starts…

On a brighter note: I have a quick and simple recipe to share!

It’s fudge.

A fudge shortcut. Its ridiculously easy to make, and you can make it in ten minutes.

Seriously.

Oh and one last little thing: I made a face book page for the blog! Go and check it out and like it!

Here’s the link: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Notorious-Experiments/182235575167065?ref=hnav

and here is the recipe:

Simple Fudge

PS: before you start making this recipe, know that it is very, very sweet. I rarely eat more than one or two pieces in a sitting because it is simply that sweet.

Adapted from Baking Addiction

•  3 cups chocolate chips(semi-sweet or dark chocolate is good, in the pictures above I used dark chocolate)
• 14 oz of sweetened condensed milk
• 1/4 a tsp of salt(fleur de sel is preferable but i have used regular table salt sometimes)
• 1 1/2 a tsp of vanilla
• if you really want to add some sort of nuts or something go ahead!(i recommend about a cup)

1. Line an 8 x 8 pan with aluminum foil
2. Mix together the chocolate, condensed milk, and salt in a medium pan, until the chocolate is completely melted and blended in.
3. Remove from heat and add in the vanilla.
4. working quickly pour the mixture into the lined pan(or else it will cool and harden, and when you’re smoothing the top, it’ll start cracking[it will look like its cracking], and it will look strange)
5. Cool in the refridgerator for at least 45 minutes or until it is completely cold and firm.
6. To cut it: make sure you use a knife with no ridges, or anything on the blade, other wise the edges of the fudge pieces will look strange. You want a knife like this:

Enjoy!

~Dee D.

Blondies | Hello Spring

I love spring, its one of the most beautiful seasons, with birds coming out of hibernation, flowers blooming, and the very best part: more sunlight.

The lack of sunlight is one of the biggest reasons I despise winter. The sun used to set at five everyday, and even then it was so drab and depressing because the sun almost never came out from the clouds…but now a five, the sun is still out shedding its vibrant rays of sunshine upon us.

I would say flowers are my very favorite part, however I have ridiculous pollen allergies…although I’m not experiencing  the allergies that badly this year, the occasional sneezing fits…well they’re not fun.

I remember back in first grade where they used to be truly horrible, that one day in class my teacher took pity on me, and let me be teacher for half a day, because she felt bad for me. She even colored my project in for me. I loved that day, and i still do :)

But even with that I still think spring is wonderful. And to celebrate I baked some of my favorite baked goods: Blondies.

I really love blondies. In fact I love them more than brownies!

Just because I’ve encountered a lot of confusion when I’ve mentioned blondies, I ‘ll explain what they are: Like chocolate cake is the opposite to vanilla cake, the opposite to brownies, are blondies! Where brownies depend upon chocolate to flavor it, blondies depend on butterscotch like flavor. Both have the same density(between a cake and fudge), its simply their flavoring that differentiates them.

They are amazing, so buttery and lighter in taste than brownies, which are rich and somewhat heavy tasting.

Blondies

Adapted from Whipped 

• 1 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 c. & 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 c. brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• any extra toppings that you want such as nuts or chocolate chips and such.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees farenheit.
2. Line an 8 inch baking pan with baking parchment, or aluminum foil.
3. Sift together flour baking powder and salt into small bowl. Set aside.
4. In a medium saucepan melt the butter down, and cook until it starts looking brown and smells nutty.
5. Add the brown sugar, and continue to cook until this darkens slightlfy, smells like butterscotch and the sugar is fully melted down. *If the sugar for some reason isn’t melting, which has happened to me sometimes, remove it from heat and put it in a medium sized bowl letting it cool for two minutes, then add in the eggwhisking the whole time. If you stop whisking the eggs will scramble. If the sugar starts chunking up its okay! Mix as much as you can until the bottom of the bowl feels very mildly warm to the touch, then grab a sieve, and drain the what ever liquid-y parts you have in to a small bowl and reserve that. Grab your food processor, and put the chunky sugar parts in the sieve into the food processor and blend until it is no longer chunky, then put this back in the medium sized bowl that you started with, and add that liquid part that you had reserved. Stir in the vanilla.* How ever if your sugar did properly melt down, remove it from heat, stir it a little with a wooden spoon until cool down a little for approx 4 mins. Then add in the eggs and the vanilla mixing constantly.
6. Stir in the flour mixture, and any additional toppings that you chose, spoon the batter into the baking pan, and spread it evenly.
7. Bake until the center of the batter seems set(approx 20-25 mins)
8. After taking it out, let it cool completely, then remove the baking parchment or aluminum foil, cut and enjoy! :)

~Dee D.

“Not So Nutella” Brownies | A Craving

I woke up on valentines day with my ears still ringing from my alarm and a utter craving for something chocolaty and baked. The simple answer to that craving? Chocolate cake. But then again it was five thirty and in the morning and the possibility getting any chocolate cake was near impossible, so I rushed off getting myself ready for school, and for the whole week kept this chocolate craving at bay.

Finally on Thursday, I had time. We had a four day weekend ahead, which meant a lot of time to bake, do home work and anything else I fancied at that moment.

After I got off the bus that afternoon, I walked up the icy driveway, fiddling the the worn edges of my scarf and trying to remember where I had kept my go-to chocolate cake recipe. I was quite sure I had either stashed it in one of my desks drawers or I had book marked it. I rushed into the house, pulled off my coat, and scarf and dashed into the study.

After a frustrating ten of searching through dozens of recipes, papers, and a menagerie of my sisters art utensils with no results, I finally set off to sort through my book marks, a scarier prospect, considering I had hundreds of recipes bookmarked. I went through at least two dozen links before finding some: a recipe for Nutella brownies.

I love nutella, and I love brownies, and then finding these two combined while having a craving for something chocolate and baked? It was like finding gold.

With much zest I scribbled down the recipe and rushed off to the kitchen to bake them. A jar of nutella and fifteen minutes later, I had these in the oven. Another half an hour later I had these out of the oven, with one excited sister watching them like a hawk.

After they cooled, I cut into them, and finally tried one. But I was slightly dissapointed. They tasted excellent. But not like nutella, just like really good brownies. The hazelnut taste seemed to have completely vanished and all was left was the chocolate taste.

My sister insisted they did taste a little like nutella but I didn’t see it at all.

You’re probably wondering why I bothered sharing this recipe with you even though it was a dissapointment.

Well, because: Even though they didn’t taste like Nutella they tasted rich and chocolaty, and have the most amazing crinkly  crust on top(which you  saw in the pictures above) with a perfect dense, fudge-y inside, which is my vision of a perfect brownie.

Take a closer look at the inside:

Doesn’t it look absolutely and completely moist and delicious?

“Nutella” Brownies

Adapted From: ricardocuisine.com

• 1/2 a cup of all-purpose flour(unbleached)
• 1/4 a tsp of salt
• 1/2 a cup of butter(melted and cooled slightly)
• 1 1/3 a cup of nutella
• 1/2 a cup of brown sugar
• 1 tsp. of vanilla extract
• 2 eggs(large)

1. Preheat the oven to 325 F.
2. Sift together the salt and the flour in a bowl. Set aside.
3. Then in a different bowl, beat the nutella, brown sugar, vanilla extract and eggs together until completely smooth.
4. Then add one third of the flour mixture and one third of the butter to the nutella mixture and blend until smooth.
5. Repeat step three until all the flour and butter is used up.
6. Pour the batter into a eight by eight baking pan lined with either foil or parchment paper.
7. Bake until you can put a tooth pick and it comes out with only a couple of crumbs.
8. Cool for a hour, and then cut and enjoy :)

~Dee D.