J@H - Moon Pies

Continuing with my quest to finish my 2015 challenge, I bring you Homemade Moon Pies!

Now, I'm not really sure what part of the country you find moon pies. I feel like they are not a nationwide snack. I managed to locate one at my local Foodtown and was able to taste test the original.

What Did I think? Blech, not terribly impressive. To be perfectly honest, it wasn't at all what I was expecting. The only version of the Moon Pie that I could locate was a vanilla, double-decker version. Thankfully I only bought one, rather than an entire box, because they would have all gone to waste.

Making a homemade version of this treat was going to be easy. Bake some graham cracker rounds, fill them with marshmallow and cover them in chocolate. That was right up my alley, I'm old hat at making marshmallows and I love coating things in chocolate. I went to my favorite vanilla marshmallow recipe and made a small change to my graham cracker recipe. The whole thing came together pretty quickly.

These homemade Moon Pies were so much tastier than the store-bought version. The recipe made about 24 sandwich cookies. I ate about half of them without the chocolate coating and shared the completed cookies with my friends. They were amazing both ways! You should definitely think about making your own moon pies before picking them up at the store.


One Year Ago: Girl Scout Samoa Cookies
Two Years Ago: Cookie Dough Stuffed Chocolate Cupcakes
Three Years Ago: Cherry Kuchen Bars
Four Years Ago: Cherry-Coconut Bagels
Five Years Ago: Cherry Turkish Taffy

J@H - Fauxritos

It's time to finish my 2015 challenge! First up, Fritos! Or as I've called them "Fauxritos".  I don't know why I didn't make these earlier, they were really easy.

The only issue you might have with these is if you don't like deep frying. The boyfriend got me an electric deep fryer for christmas last year and it really takes the worry out of frying. Set the temperature and it will take care of everything else!

It took me a few batches before I was able to decide on the idea thickness for the dough. To make things easy for myself I used these rolling pin guides.  An offset spatula made it really easy to transfer the dough from the counter to the fryer.

The recipe doesn't make a huge batch of chips, just enough for one evening of TV watching. You can always increase the batch size if you have a big Super bowl party this weekend!
 
One Year Ago: Parmesan Fries
Two Years Ago: Magnolia's Banana Pudding
Three Years Ago: Homemade Granola
Four Years Ago: Thai Sweet Potato Stew
Five Years Ago: Cranberry-Walnut Celebration Bread

Fauxritos

From Classic Snacks - Made from Scratch

Vegetable oil for frying

1/2 cup masa harina
1/3 cup yellow cornmeal
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Heat about 2-inches of vegetable oil in a deep pot or your electric deep fryer to 350 °F. Line a baking tray with paper towels and top with an upside down wire cooling rack.

Whisk together masa harina, yellow cornmeal, kosher salt and sugar. Whisk water and vegetable oil together, add to dry ingredients and stir until the dough comes together into a ball. Let the dough sit for 5 minutes.

Roll out dough to a little less than 1/8-inch thickness. Using a pizza cutter, cut dough into 1/2-inch x 1 1/2-inch rectangles. Fry rectangles until they are golden brown and most of the bubbling subsides. Remove chips from the oil with a wire spider strainer. Place on the prepared baking sheet and let the oil drain.

Eat within two days, otherwise they get soggy.

Greta Bars

This year for Christmas I asked for only one cookbook. If you've seen my collection, then you know that this is a strange occurrence. I love getting new cookbooks and spending my weekends reading through them. Whether it's to get new ideas for dinner, gain blogging inspiration or to just look at the pretty pictures, I have a massive collection of cookbooks.

The cookbook I requested this year was Milkbar Life, by Christina Tosi. I already own her original cookbook and have baked my way through a good portion of it. I have also taken three of her baking classes in Brooklyn and fell in love with her food attitude. Milkbar Life promised simpler recipes with delicious results. 

Christina didn't lie.

I decided to break in the cookbook by trying out The Greta. A classic sugar cookie bar from her mothers kitchen, these cookies are heaven. Just barely under-baked and covered in a serious amount of sprinkles, this pan of cookies quickly disappeared from my kitchen.

While I probably won't try every single recipe in the book (Hanky-pankies on page 24? No, thanks), many of the recipes are classic, grandma approved recipes. I think the boyfriend will be a big fan of this book, the food isn't fancy or pretentious.

Now excuse me while I go finish off the last of these cookies...

One Year Ago: Sauteed Chicken and Pears
Two Years Ago: Chocolate Heart Sandwich Cookies
Three Years Ago: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Yogurt Popsicles
Four Years Ago: Poffertjes: Cheese Pancakes
Five Years Ago: Orange Chiffon Cupcakes