Vanilla Baked Doughnuts

I need to start baking donuts more often. They're a cinch to make, requiring no mixer - just a bowl and a quick mix with your hand. Easy peasy lemon squeezey. And the results? I mean, come on.

This time around, I was not a dummy and did not try to force all of the dough into the 6 cavity donut pan. That was just silliness when I made the brown butter donuts. When you have two donut pans, just use them both, duh! Also? Please do make sure you spray these with non-stick spray for these. I know when your pan is supposed to be non-stick, usually you don't need to do it, but trust me here - just do it.

These are really quite like little delicious cupcakes in doughnut form. Light and airy little round cupcake doughnuts? Sure, we'll go with it. But seriously, I don't think you'd regret making these! Get to it!

Vanilla Baked Doughnuts
Author: Jen @ Fresh From The...
Servings: 8 Doughnuts
Prep time: 00:05 

Cook time: 00:11

Total time: 00:21

Lightly flavored baked doughnuts that are super easy to make at home.

Ingredients:

For the Doughnuts:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 6 Tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 6 Tablespoons buttermilk
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
For the Glaze:

• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1-2 teaspoons milk (or heavy cream or half and half)

Instructions:

1. Preheat your oven to 325°F. Lightly grease, or use cooking spray, your donut pan(s).
2. In a medium-sized bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Add in the buttermilk, egg, vanilla and melted butter. Whisk or stir to get all combined together.
3. Spoon (or go crazy and use a pastry bag) the dough into your prepared pans, about 2/3 full for each donut.
4. Bake for 8-11 minutes until the donuts spring back when touched. They won't look browned or anything, but they should be a bit set. Mine took 10 minutes. Then let that sit in the pan for about 5 minutes before removing.
5. While they're cooling, make your glaze. Whisk together your powdered sugar, vanilla and milk until you get your desired consistency. I did about 1 1/2 teaspoons of milk. Dip your donuts into the glaze and then let set on a plate. You can always add some sprinkles for extra flair at this point as well.

Recipe via Averie Cooks

In photos:

Mix up your dry ingredients - flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.

Then mix in your wet - egg, buttermilk, vanilla.

You can pipe that into your cooking-sprayed pans, or just spoon them in. That's what I did. As you can see, I got 7 donuts out of the deal.

Bake those for 8-11 minutes until they are springy to the touch. Mine took about 10 minutes. Let those sit in the pan for 5 more minutes while you prepare your glaze.

For your glaze, mix up your powdered sugar, milk (or water) and vanilla.

Then get to dipping. It's up to you which side you dip, but it usually tends to be the side that was in the bottom of the pan.

This glaze didn't stick out a lot on these. If you want a thicker glaze that is more apparent, add more powdered sugar. 

Eat 'em up!

Supernatural: Running it into the Ground?

Did you know, I used to be one of the biggest Supernatural fans? I wish I had kept a blog back when it first started, because my recaps would've likely been much more glowing than they are now. Alas, blogging was a mystery back in 2005. Oh wow, 2005. It somehow seems like ages ago and just yesterday at the same time. It was when I first moved to LA, first started graduate school, first tried out online dating. A lot of firsts back then. Have I really lived in LA that long? Egads! That's a topic for another day.

Back in the day.

Supernatural's first season definitely was not its best, but it set up something that would become one of the longest-running shows on TV. It wasn't even certain the show would continue on after the first season, and now here we are, barreling down to the end of season nine and on into season ten. But I'm feeling fatigued. I've made a promise to myself that I will keep reviewing it until the bitter end, but right now that end does sadly look bitter. A show I once was so excited about I can now hardly garner much more than a shrug of indifference toward.

That's not to say it's bad now, but is it really still good? The epic love story of Sam and Dean has tread the same waters over and again with their characters, because there's only so many places you can go. Death has become somewhat meaningless on the show now, whereas back when John died it was this huge thing. Now if someone dies, you can almost guarantee they're going to come back in some way, especially if they're a fan favorite, and almost certainly make us annoyed about it. Both Bobby and Kevin came back as ghosts. Yes, they're gone now, but the episode where Bobby originally died nearly lost all meaning after the numerous ones after where he was this sort of vengeful spirit.

And now.

Back at the end of season five, I wasn't ready to say goodbye either. The show was running on all four cylinders. The end of season five was a natural ending point, but here we are, four years later, and I'm starting to think it really should've just ended back then, with the original ending Kripke intended, whatever that may have been (though we can speculate). Back when it was at the top of its game, rather than becoming a shadow of what it once was.

The real test for me came when I started thinking about if I would actually change my top 10 episodes list I made back when season 5 ended. I'm really not sure I would. Maybe to add The French Mistake, but that's about it.

Now it's your turn to speak. Do you think I'm totally off base? Do you think the show is still as good as it was, or even better? Or do you agree? You can vote in my poll, and/or head to the comments and discuss. I'm all ears!

When should Supernatural end/have ended?
	Season 5
	Season 10
	It should go on forever!
	Other
pollcode.com free polls

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Peanut Butter Cornflake Marshmallow Bars

You know what I love? When a yummy treat takes about 10 minutes to make. And when they can use up stuff in your cupboards that you just know you're not going to use before they go stale, because you bought them for one other recipe specifically, and now they're just sitting there, lonesome and unused.

Yes, dear cornflakes, I have found a use for you! And a delicious one at that. Now, in the past I've made Browned Butter Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Treats, and those are no doubt just as yummy and amazing, but I had cornflakes this time that I wanted to use. This is a slightly tweaked recipe, and in fact I didn't even look at that recipe before basically just making this up on the fly.

That's the beauty of a marshmallow treat bar, they're super easy and adaptable! And I'm not kidding when I say this takes 10 minutes to make. The only drawback of using cornflakes instead of rice krispies is that the cornflakes are a bit chewier. So, if you like huge bites, your jaw may get the teensiest bit of a workout. That just means these are healthy, right? Because you get a workout to go with it!

These don't have a huge peanut butter flavor, but more of a hint of it without being overpowering. You can up the amount of peanut butter if you want to get more of that flavor, but I don't think it's necessary with these.

Peanut Butter Cornflake Marshmallow Bars
Printable Recipe
Author: Jen @ Fresh From The…
Servings: 9 Bars
Cook time: 00:15

Delicious and simple peanut butter mixed with cornflakes and marshmallows to create a new take on the rice krispie treat.

Ingredients:

• 5 Tablespoons unsalted butter
• 4+ cups mini marshmallows
• 1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
• 6 cups cornflake cereal

Instructions:

1. Spray an 8x8" pan with nonstick spray. Or if the pan is already nonstick, you can skip this.
2. In a large, heavy saucepan, brown your butter on medium heat. I recommend browning it rather than just melting it to give it an extra dimension of flavor. Dump in your marshmallows and stir until they are completely melted. Then add in your peanut butter and stir until smooth.
3. Turn off the heat, then add in your cornflakes. Stir until the marshmallow goo is evenly distributed. Add in a few extra marshmallows at this step for the dollops of white color throughout.
4. Press into your prepared pan. Let them cool for 30 minutes until you cut in and eat them up

In photos:

Melt and brown your butter. You'll know it's browned when it foams up and, you know, turns brown, and a wonderful aroma hits your nostrils.

Put in your marshmallows and stir until they are all melted. Those little flecks are the browned butter bits of yum.

Then, stir in your peanut butter until smooth.

Then dump in your cornflakes and get mixing. Make sure you evenly distribute the marshmallow goo. Add in some extra marshmallows here to get little bits of white in your end result.

Then put that in your pan and start pressing it down.

The extra marshmallows you added melt a bit and add a little visual flair.

After about 30 minutes, you can cut 'em up and chow down!

Delicious!

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Supernatural 9x17 "Mother's Little Helpers"

Gonna try to be quick with tonight's recap. I'm currently in Vegas for a work convention and just fell asleep watching the episode. Whoops! But I forced myself awake so I could get this review done on time. See how much I love ya!

So close but so far.

Anyway, Dean is hard at work trying to find Abaddon, so he can get the blade from Crowley and kill the both of them. But, he's not having much luck. Sam, meanwhile, finds a case and wants Dean to come along, but Dean's all like oh no I'm too busy with this, sorry dude. Really, he's just feeling all weird about what the blade made him feel when he touched it, which Crowley points out to him later when they have a little chat in a bar. Which is really all just Crowley apparently testing Dean to see if he's "ready." Ready to just kill Abaddon, or ready for something else?

Meanwhile, Sam goes to investigate a weird case that turns into multiple cases where normal people basically lose their sh*t really easily for no apparent reason. But it reminds him of a similar time when he had a particularly short fuse as well. Back when he was Soulless Sam. But how can these people be losing their souls? Well, luckily he happens upon a lady in the police station while he's doing research that claims the demons are back again...

Unrequited love can lead to demon possession, you know.

And she sends us into flashback territory, back to the Men of Letters days when Henry Winchester and young Josie, future Abaddon, are investigating a strange and similar occurrence at a local convent. Turns out, Abaddon and some lackey demons were there taking souls from people, though they never really did figure that out back then. They did, however, afford Abaddon the chance to possess Josie, but only after she requested Abaddon possess her rather than Henry, who was her original target. Bum bum bum.

Back in present day, Sam heads over to the old convent, which was shut down years ago so appropriately creepy at night. One of the same nuns who was left possessed the last time has still been at it, harvesting souls. For what, you may wonder? Some kind of demon army. And that's not the only place this has been happening, apparently Abaddon has farms all over the country.

So, after getting into a skirmish with the demon and, duh, ultimately becoming victorious, Sam frees the souls there and then heads back to let Dean in on the news with renewed vigor in their search for Abaddon. And, of course, Dean does not tell Sam how he's really feeling about the whole blade situation, which always turns out well for them.

Random Thoughts:

- When Crowley went to the bathroom, I was thinking to myself - demons need to pee? Then when Dean brought that up a few moments later, I was like ah ha! No! What? That's a random thought.

- I'm not sure how the soul harvesting leads to demons, exactly. Does it mean the people are easier to turn into demons, or the souls are turned bad and then put back into the people? Not quite sure what that means.

- What exactly does Crowley have up his sleeve with regards to Dean and the blade and all that shizz? Seems he has an ulterior motive, though I'm not sure what.

- This episode was directed by Misha Collins, our erstwhile Castiel, in case you didn't know. Bets on whether Jared ever does one? I don't think he will based on past statements, but who knows.

Quotes:

Dean: What you call obsessed, I call doing my job.

Crowley: You're lying to Sam like he's your wife. Which... kind of makes me your mistress.

Dean: Go to Hell.
Crowley: Oh, if only.

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

Vanilla Pudding Mix Chocolate Chip Cookies

I know, I know. I've been posting a LOT of cookie recipes on here lately! Sometimes I just get in a cookie phase and cannot be stopped, what can I say. These particular cookies are a take on a traditional chocolate chip, which I have made many varieties of as well. These are one of those ones that are no fuss and pretty easy to whip up on a weeknight if you're just really craving some chocolate chip cookies. Which, let's face it, is most nights. And these cookies are a great solution. Because, um, yum! They are really some of the best quick chocolate chip cookies out there that I have tried. You should try them too, for reals.

What's nice about the pudding mix in these is that it sort of acts in much the same way that cornstarch does, but adds in an extra touch of flavor. It keeps the cookie from spreading too much, and makes it so you don't really need to refrigerate it. The original recipe says you absolutely must do so, and normally I would agree, but when the dough for this came out as being rather stiff to begin with, I decided to give it a try as it was. And the cookies turned out just fine. They did not spread all over the place at all. In fact, they stayed in just the right size. So, I say you can skip the refrigeration this time.

I also only put in half the amount of chocolate chips that the original recipe called for. If you're super into chocolate, go ahead and double that up, but personally I like to have a little higher dough-to-chip ratio in my cookies. But everyone is different. Feel free to mix these up as you choose!

Vanilla Pudding Mix Chocolate Chip Cookies
Author: Jen @ Fresh From The...
Servings: 30 Cookies
Prep time: 00:05
Cook time: 00:11

Total time: 00:26

An easy weeknight chocolate chip cookie recipe that doesn't require refrigeration!

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 3.5 ounce box instant vanilla pudding mix
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• pinch salt
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. In a mixer, beat together the butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla on medium-high speed for about 4 minutes until creamed and light. This is easier with a stand mixer, obviously.
3. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then add in your flour, pudding mix, baking soda, salt and beat on low speed until just combined, maybe a minute.
4. Scrape again and add in your chocolate chips. I usually do this by hand, but you can use your mixer if you like for about 30 seconds.
5. On a parchment or silpat-lined baking sheet, scoop out your mounds of dough into cookie shapes. You can refrigerate if you want, however I do not find it necessary with this recipe. They will form very much like how you place your dough, so if you want it perfect-looking, make sure you don't have any stray bits along the edges of your cookie mounds.
6. Bake for 11 minutes until the edges just start to brown and the middles are just set, then take it out and let it sit on the pan for another 10 minutes to finish cooking the insides. Remove to a wire rack and get another pan going!

Recipe adapted from Averie Cooks

In pictures:

Mix together your butter, sugars, egg and vanilla for four minutes until it looks light and creamed like this.

Next, your dry ingredients - flour, vanilla pudding mix, baking soda, and salt. Mix until just combined, about a minute.

Now mix in your cup of chocolate chips. You can put in more if you like, but I like more dough to chocolate in my cookie ratios.

Plop those out onto your cookie sheets. You can actually fit another row, which I did on the subsequent sheet.

After 11 minutes, take them out and let them rest on the sheet for another 10.

So good, you can't resist having more than one!