{ Profiteroles with Butterbeer Sauce }

Do you know what yesterday was? Well, it was Ron Weasley's 36th Birthday! In honor of him, I decided to whip up a treat. What could be more fitting of Ron than for me to post it a day late?

Ron is one of my favorite characters. I mean, I have a LOT of favorites, but Ron ranks right up there in the top, top. He's probably my 2nd favorite right after Luna. The thing I love about Ron is how fabulously flawed he is. Jo can really write her some fantastic true to life people. Ron is a good friend, but he's also very jealous, he's a slacker, but he can do amazing things when he puts his mind to it, Ron needs attention, Ron pouts, Ron is caring, Ron is a good son, Ron can be a brat. I love him.

Rupert Grint is perfection as Ron.

My favorite movie is quite controversial: Half Blood Prince. HBP is famously panned as being the least accurate movie. I can't help that I love it. It has great humor, it's a lot of fun but with very serious moments, and I enjoy it tremendously. My favorite scene in all the Potter movies is this one- starring, you guessed it- Ron.

He eats a box full of candy with a very strong love potion in them. I love the way Rupert Grint plays this scene. I've seen it 100 times, but I still laugh every time.

In HBP Hermione, Harry, Neville, and Ginny are all invited to go to the Slug Club dinner party with Professor Slughorn. Ron is not invited. Not only is Ron not invited, Slughorn can never even get his name right. At the party, Slughorn serves a lovely dessert: Profiteroles.

Since my buddy Ron didn't get to have any- and let's be honest, he'd of loved to, I made him some for his birthday. Mine have a Butterbeer sauce. I win, Slughorn. I win.

Profiterole is just a fancy name for your basic cream puff. They are made from a Pâte à Choux pastry. I know that sound intimidating, but Pâte à Choux is easy. SO easy. Fancy names are scary, but this stuff is easy peasy.

You can fill your profiteroles with a variety of things like your basic whipped cream, a pastry cream, custard, ice cream etc. You can even fill them with jam. For these, I filled them with vanilla pudding. Yes, from a box mix.  You can make your own if you'd like though!

The Butterbeer sauce is also very easy to make. You basically just cook and stir. Anyone can do that, right?

When you are finished you will have a most impressive looking dessert that really wasn't hard at all! Your friends and family don't need to know that (cue the 80's Rice Krispy Treat commercial).

Happy Birthday, Ron! Have a profiterole tower or two!

Tina

See all my Harry Potter posts here, including crafts, recipes, travel tips for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and two massive parties.

Profiteroles with Butterbeer Sauce

by Tina @ Sugar Bean Bakers

1 recipe Pâte à Choux- prepared and baked as instructed here

2 boxes Instant Vanilla Pudding prepared as stated on boxes, cooled and thickened

1 recipe Butterbeer Sauce (below)

After your cream puff pastry has fully cooled, use a spare icing tip (or a knife) and carefully poke a hole in the bottom of each puff.

Using a pastry bag fitting with an injector tip and filled with your pudding, inject each puff with pudding until full.

Drizzle with slightly warm Butterbeer Sauce and serve. Great with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Fill only puffs you intend to eat at that time. Save the rest of the shells in an airtight container. They will keep for a few days. You can re-crisp these if they become soft by baking for about 5 minutes on 350 F. 

Butterbeer Sauce

by Tina @ Sugar Bean Bakers

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 tablespoons light corn syrup

In a small sauce pan, melt butter over medium heat. Add in milk, brown sugar and corn syrup. Cook until thickened, but do not allow to boil. Remove from heat, add vanilla. Allow to cool until warm. Serve warm. Store in refrigerator for  up to one week.

{ Apple Flautas }

In High School, I had a weird, wacky, and wonderful Spanish teacher. Let's be honest here, aren't nearly ALL the langugage teachers weird and wacky? Our favorite thing she did was yelling "Ducles!" as she threw candies around the classroom.

My Spanish teacher was also my Odyssey of the Mind coach. Yeah, I was that kid. We'd often get together at her house to go over plans for our competiton. She would serve us up snacks and we pondered how to create machines, write our skit, go over music choices, etc.

One of the snacks she often had was Apple Flautas. I'd never had one before and I was instantly smitten. Her's were frozen and I've searched for them on and off over the years, but have never found them.

She'd bring them out and declare, "Flautas!", as she mimicked playing the flute so we'd know exactly what 'flauta' meant.

I finally decided to make them. They are really easy, so I'm not sure what took me so long.

You need minimual ingreidents, probably things you already have in house, and minimual time and effort. Let's be honest here, those are our favorite recipes, amiright?

You can garnish them with a little powdered sugar, caramel sauce, whipped topping, and sprinkles too!

They are also amazzzzing with vanilla ice cream.

So this one goes out to you, Senora Morton, where ever you are! Dulces! Dulces para todos!


Tina


Apple Flautas
by Tina @ Sugar Bean Bakers

12 flour tortillas (8"- taco sized)
1 -21 oz can apple pie filling
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

For garnish:
whipped topping
powdered sugar
sprinkles
caramel sauce
-or-
serve with vanilla ice cream

Preheat oven to 350 F, line rimmed pan with parchment paper, set aside.

Dice up the apples in the filling.

In a small bowl, mix together cinnamon and sugar.

Brush the outside of tortilla with melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon mixture. Lay on prepared sheet and do the same to the inside. Repeat for remaining shells. Spoon filling in tortillas, roll up. Lay seam side down on baking sheet. Brush with a bit more butter and sprinkle again with cinnamon sugar.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until the apple filling is bubbly (A small amount may ooze out while baking, this is to be expected). Allow to cool slightly, serve warm.

{ Disney World Inspired Recipe: The Grey Stuff }

"Ma chère mademoiselle. It is with deepest pride and greatest pleasure that we welcome you tonight. And now, we invite to relax, let us pull up a chair, as the dining room proudly presents... your dinner."  -Lumière

As I mentioned in my last post, one of my favorite things we did at Magic Kingdom was take in dessert at Be Our Guest restaurant. It is situated under the Beast's castle and is just so much fun.

We all (except Bean) chose a Master's Cupcake for our desserts. During lunch hours you can only get The Grey Stuff on top of a cupcake. If you go to dinner you can order just The Grey Stuff. It comes on a plate proclaiming, "Try the Grey Stuff!". The Master's Cupcake, however, is lovely. Not only does The Grey Stuff top it, the center is filled with it too. That's a GOOD thing. It's pretty delicious, right, Lumière?

It's a creamy, whipped, cookies and cream panna cotta, and it is divine! It's light and airy. Not too sweet, it's just delish.

Here's what the cupcake looked like.

The serving at night looks the same, sans the cupcake. Just a swirl of grey on your plate.

I'd of been perfectly happy without the cupcake, personally!

I've seen a lot of recipes for The Grey Stuff using pudding mix and Cool Whip. This is a true Panna Cotta recipe & I think you will be very surprised just how easy it is.

Making this should take you under 10 minutes not including chill time.

While quick and oh, so easy, Panna Cotta is a very decadent dessert consisting of nearly all heavy cream (so you know it's got to be good!). Give it a try. You won't need to ask the dishes either!

This is easily thick enough to top a cupcake. I did make this twice, once with half heavy cream and half 1/2 and 1/2. While I actually liked this flavor a little better, it wasn't thick enough to pipe. If you are going to serve it in a dish (and not try to unmold it like you would a panna cotta), it it great!

If you want to pipe it or unmold it, I suggest using all heavy cream.

As I'm sure Lumière would say- "C'est Magnifique!"



Ta for now,

To find out more about Be Our Guest and New Fantasyland, see my post here: New Fantasyland & Festival of Fantasy Parade.



The Grey Stuff
by Tina @ Sugar Bean Bakers

2 cups heavy cream*
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 packet unflavored gelatin
3 Tablespoons cold water
1 cup chocolate sandwich cookies (re: Oreos)- finely crushed
Sugar Pearls, optional.


Place 3 Tablespoons water in a large bowl. Sprinkle gelatin over and allow to 'bloom' for 5-10 minutes.

In a heavy saucepan, add 1/4 cup sugar to 2 cups heavy cream. Allow to heat until sugar is dissolved, but do not boil.

Once sugar has dissolved, remove from heat and add vanilla extract.

Pour the warm mixture over the gelatin and stir until dissolved.

Add crushed cookies to mixture and stir well.

Chill for at least 4 hours.

The cookies will fall to the bottom and create a sort of crust. You will need to stir the panna cotta create The Grey Stuff look. I used a whisk for a couple minutes. Return to fridge for 30 minutes. Pipe onto plates just before serving and garnish with sugar pearls.

*for a looser set (not for piping), use 1 cup Half and Half and 1 cup heavy cream. Serve in bowls.



Adapted from David Lebovitz

{ Peach Coffee Cake }

Sorry, I've been MIA lately. Last week was Vacation Bible School at our church. Then, sadly, this Sunday our beloved Luna Dog ran away. We've spend the entire week looking for her and hanging up fliers.

It's been three days now, but we are trying not to give up hope. I keep hearing all these inspiring stories about dogs that have made their way back home days, weeks, even months later. I really hope she's one of those. We miss her and her silly personality so, so much.

So, I've been a little preoccupied.

*Update: Luna was found exactly one week later less than a mile from home :)

I did make a dessert for Father's Day that I'm just getting around to posting.

It was quick and easy, and was a huge hit with everyone. Especially hubs. This may be his new favorite thing!

It doesn't take long at all to make, and it's very tasty.

It has peaches and streusel, what could be better than that??

Not much.

Tina



Peach Coffee Cake
by Tina @ Sugar Bean Bakers

For the cake:
1 box yellow cake mix & ingredients listed on back, less the water
2 - 15 to 16 oz cans of yellow cling peach slices in heavy syrup

Preheat oven to 350, grease a 13x9 pan and set aside.

Drain peach juice into a bowl. Using the measurement listed on the back of the cake mix box, use the peach juice in place of the water called for. Mix in other ingredients listed on back of box. Cut peaches down, but do not dice. Stir into cake mix. Pour into pan. Top with streusel.

For the streusel:
1/2 stick (4 Tablespoons) cold butter

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup quick oats

1/2 cup flour

Cut the dry ingredients into the cold butter with a pastry cutter or fork (or you can use a food processor), until the mixture resembles peas. Sprinkle over cake.

Bake according to back of box.

Top with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, if desired.

{Nutella Krispy Treats}

I really hate spoilers. Yet, I somehow end up always being the spoiled one. I think it's written somewhere, "And Tina shall have all the shows cast upon her spoiled. And so it was."

It's not even just shows. I knew about Snape killing Dumbledore before the book release. I looked Rory Williams up on wiki before we saw the Doctor Who episodes with him as a companion. I ended up finding out basically the entire story arch. That stuff is never supposed to be in the opening lines of a wiki article, people. I searched (I'm not sure what now), something entirely innocent having to do with The Walking Dead, and ended up finding out who survives the comic book series. I knew what happened this season on Downton Abbey with Anna. I knew how Breaking Bad ended. I'm just a spoiler magnet. No fair! *pouts*

A couple weeks ago I googled Call The Midwife to see when Series 3 was arriving on PBS. It was last night. DON'T GOOGLE CALL THE MIDWIFE. The first return is a spoiler for the season finale. Thank you very much Huff Post UK. Now, I don't know how this said spoiler happens, but I know too much. Blergh.

Yes, I'll still watch, but still. Hmph.

Call The Midwife, if you don't know, is an EXCELLENT show. It's a BBC show, but much like Downton, it doesn't come to BBCA, but to PBS here in the States. The first 2 series (seasons) of the show are on Netflix streaming. Watch ittttt.

The show is about Midwives in London's East End during the 50's. I love it.

Anyway, after spoilers, I need snacks, because who doesn't.

Here's a quick and easy way to dress up some Krispy Treats... Nutella!

It takes Krispy Treats to the next level. Drizzle with chocolate to make them even more 'gourmet'. ;)

And yes, I totally think Krispy Treats can be gourmet. Gourmet doesn't mean hard, it means amazing!

Krispy Treats are anything but hard, of course!

You know what's hard?

Me avoiding spoilers...

Tina


Nutella Krispy Treats

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
10 ounces marshmallows
6 cups crispy rice cereal (for extra chocolatey, use cocoa rice cereal)
1/2 cup Nutella

melted chocolate for drizzling

In a large sauce pan over low heat, melt the butter. Add in marshmallows, and stir constantly until fully melted. Mix in nutella. Pour in cereal, and toss until evenly coated. Pour into 9x13 baking dish prepared with cooking spray and press into pan. When cooled, turn out onto foil and drizzle with melted chocolate.

{Knickerbocker Glory}

I don't know if you know this or not, but yesterday was a very important day.

It was Dudley Dursley's birthday.

Ok, first of all, I can hear the non- Harry Potter fans sighing already. "ANOTHER Harry Potter post?"

I'm sorry, I have a problem.

Then, I can hear the fans sighing, saying, "Tina, really? You are celebrating DUDLEY'S birthday??"

Well, no, not really. See, the second chapter of the Sorcerer's Stone/Philosopher's Stone, the one in which we actually MEET Harry, takes place on Dudley's birthday.

For Dud's birthday, they go to the London Zoo.

"They ate in the zoo restaurant, and when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbocker glory didn't have enough ice cream on top, Uncle Vernon bought him another one and Harry was allowed to finish the first."  Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Chapter 2

I'm totally not making this to celebrate mean ole Diddykins. This is all about Harry. :) It is in this chapter that we are introduced to who he is. It is in this chapter that we start to fall for the messy, black haired, bespectacled orphan.

Now, as an American, I had to wonder, what the heck was a knickerbocker glory? I, of course, googled it. I finally decided it was time to make and post on here.

A Knickerbocker Glory is a fruit and ice cream sundae. I did a lot of reading up on the subject.  I know, I know, I have problems (see above).

It seems it originated in the 1930's as a British Seaside treat. It is served in a tall glass to allow for all the layers. There seems to be no actual right or wrong way to make a Knickerbocker Glory, but traditional ingredients are strawberries, grapes, peaches and bananas along with a fruit sauce. Other fruits can be used, as well as a chocolate sauce, but all are less traditional. They are layered in the glass starting with the fruit, then the ice cream, then the sauce. Repeat. A KBG has at least 2 layers of ice cream. It is topped with "squirter cream" as  the British recipes call for. This would be what we American's know as canned whipped cream. It can then be topped with nuts, if desired, and some form of fancy wafer cookie. Unfortunately, I forgot to buy those, so a Vanilla Wafer had to do. According to recipes, you can use fresh or "tinned" (canned) fruit, fruit cocktail, or a mixture of both. I also forgot to put the cherry on top. Oops. What was I thinking?!

Anyway you slice it, you've got a fruit and ice cream sundae and who can say no to that? Well, Dudley, who obviously wanted more ice cream and less fruit. That's ok though, it worked out well for Harry.

For my KBG, I used sliced strawberries and peaches. I also made a simple strawberry sauce by blending up a few strawberries and adding a bit of sugar (just add to taste).

Sadly, it was over 90 degrees outside yesterday, so my layers kind of melted. It's still pretty though, eh?

Tastes good too!

So, here's a fun new treat to make for pudding (British speak for dessert).

Also, if you, like me, ever wondered just exactly what a Knickerbocker Glory is, now you know.

Read even more here.

Tina

Click HERE to see all my Harry Potter posts.

P.S. If you haven’t already,  you can ‘like’ my Facebook page here, and follow me on twitter here, and you can follow me on instagram here.

Linked up at 30 Handmade Days Pity Party 

Knickerbocker Glory

Ice cream
Fresh or canned fruit
Whipped Cream
Nuts (if desired)
Fruit based ice cream sauce
Cherry
Wafer cookie

Layer fruit, ice cream, sauce, fruit, ice cream sauce in a tall glass.

Top with whipped cream, nuts, cherry, and a wafer cookie

{Strawberry Cheesecake Parfaits}

Shrek: For your information, there's a lot more to ogres than people think.
Donkey: Example?
Shrek: Example... uh... ogres are like onions!
Donkey: They stink?
Shrek: Yes... No!
Donkey: Oh, they make you cry?
Shrek: No!
Donkey: Oh, you leave 'em out in the sun, they get all brown, start sproutin' little white hairs...
Shrek: NO! Layers. Onions have layers. Ogres have layers. Onions have layers. You get it? We both have layers.
Donkey: Oh, you both have LAYERS. Oh. You know, not everybody like onions. What about cake? Everybody loves cake!
Shrek: I don't care what everyone else likes! Ogres are not like cakes.
Donkey: You know what ELSE everybody likes? Parfaits! Have you ever met a person, you say, "Let's get some parfait," they say, "Hell no, I don't like no parfait"? Parfaits are delicious!
Shrek: NO! You dense, irritating, miniature beast of burden! Ogres are like onions! End of story! Bye-bye! See ya later.
Donkey: Parfait's gotta be the most delicious thing on the whole damn planet! 

 So, Shrek is one of my very favorite movies on all of planet earth. Also, Shrek 2, which is veerd since most sequels kinda, well, let's not mince words here, suck.

Donkey is one of my all time favorite characters. Eveeer.

copyright Dreamworks

I luff him. I cannot, cannot, cannot make a parfait without thinking of the above conversation. Ever. Ever. Donkey resides in my brain and randomly quotes things, like, "we took a magic potion, and now, we're SEXY!". Yes. Donkey. In my brain. Which can be entertaining, but probably annoying to those closest to me. Quoting Shrek & Harry Potter lines all day long. There's nothing wrong with that, right? I know.

I wanted to make a quick and easy dessert for hubs for Father's Day. Two of his favorite treats are Aunt Rosie's Strawberry Delight and Grammy's Strawberry Pie. So, what I did today was kinda combine the two.

Funny story. The Bean took hubs to the movies today to see Man of Steel for Father's Day. While they were gone, I made this. I was editing the pictures when hubs saw them.

Hubs: WHAT'S THAT?
Me: a dessert
Hubs: Is there more?
Me: I ate it all.
Hubs: Those pictures are at our house!
WHERE IS IT?
Me: It's GONE.
Hubs: runs to fridge and proceeds to gobble it down.

So, I guess it was A-OK, huh?

Hope you've had a wonderful day celebrating all the special men in your life!

Tina



Strawberry Cheesecake Parfait
serves 4 (photo above is a very large serving)

For the graham layer: 
3 full sheets of graham crackers
2 Tablespoons sugar

Add together in food processor and crush until very fine

For the cream cheese layer:
1- 8 ounce package cream cheese, softened (I used 1/3 less fat for a softer set)
1-2 Tablespoons milk
1/2 cup sugar

Starting with 1 Tablespoon milk, beat together cheese and sugar in mixer until well combined. Should be the consistency of pudding. If too thick, add the other tablespoon of milk.

For the strawberry gel layer:
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons corn starch
2 Tablespoons strawberry jello powder (mix)*

*store the rest in a ziploc baggie for making this again! 
 

On the stovetop, add all ingredients into a heavy saucepan. Stir together. Heat over medium heat. 

It will be kind of a milky red. Allow to boil, stirring constantly. As it begins to thicken, it will turn a clear, bright red. When thickened, remove from heat. Allow to cool for about 10 minutes before assembling parfaits.

 

For the strawberry layer:

sliced strawberries

Assemble:

Graham cracker layer, cream cheese layer, gel layer, strawberries. Repeat. Top with whipped cream and sprinkles.

{Raspberry Shortbread Crusted Brownies}

Ok, confession time.

My favorite cookies? Plain jane.

Sugar. Butter. Shortbread.

I don't need that extra stuff. Delicious, pure flavors. That's what I like.

Shortbread cookies are probably my favorite. I love the rich, butteriness of them.

I was recently invited to join the Ambassador Program for Walkers Shortbread. The awesome news here is that Walker's was the brand I already buy!

Here's a little info about Walkers:

The brand is imported directly from Scotland. The company was started in 1898 by Joseph Walker. It is still family- owned & ran today. They bake their shortbreads, cakes, traditional cookies, oatcakes, and puddings in the village of Aberlour in the Highlands of Scotland.

Authentic Scottish Shortbread? YOU BETCHA.

What I love most about Walkers' is that their shortbread products are guaranteed to contain no GMOs, preservatives, hydrogenated fats. In addition, no antibiotics or bovine growth hormones are given to their grass fed cows.

The classic shortbread is made of only FOUR ingredients: Flour, Sugar, Butter, and a pinch of Salt.

I love that. Seriously.


Walkers Shortbread products are also 100% vegetarian and certified Kosher OUD.


 My first shipment from Walkers contained Raspberry Thins. I knew right away what I wanted to make.

The raspberry in these cookies (biscuits? I want to feel Scottish, so, I'm going with biscuits!) is intensely real tasting. No 'fake' raspberry taste. They smell amazing.

What pairs perfectly with raspberries? Why, chocolate of course!

I decided to make a Raspberry Crusted Shortbread Brownie.

Super easy to do. Just pulverize your biscuits, add a bit of sugar, flour, and butter to make a crust. Press into an 8x8 pan. Then, whip up this 1 pan brownie from my friend Darla, at Bakingdom. I love her recipe because it has the slightly crisp crust and the deep, fudgey middle. Yum.

After cool, dust with a little powdered sugar & top with fresh whipped cream if you wish! You could also top with fresh raspberries.

Honestly, I intended to put a chocolate glaze on these, it it was NOT needed. They are so good as is!

The biscuit I topped the brownie with is the Vanilla Shortbread, which is not only delicious, but a really lovely looking cookie.

Walker has extended an offer to my readers! You can get 20% off your purchases made at www.walkersus.com when you use my promo code #SBBSPRING until May 24, 2013. This code excludes sale products.

I think you'll love these all natural, delicious biscuits as much as I do!

You know what makes brownies even better?

Shortbread.

You know what makes shortbread crusted brownies even better better?

Raspberries.

Yeah.

Tina

As part of the Walkers Blogger Buzz Ambassador program, I was sent this product to review. However, opinions expressed are my own.

Raspberry Shortbread Crusted Brownies

Preheat oven to 350 F

For the crust:

1 package (4.2 oz) Walkers Raspberry Shortbread Thins
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 Tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted

Pulverize the cookies in a food processor. Stir in the melted butter, flour, and sugar until well mixed. This should be a 'wet sand' texture.

Press into a greased 8x8 glass dish. Set aside.

For the Brownies:
(recipe by Darla of Bakingdom)

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup  unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix together the cocoa, flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Set aside.

In a medium saucepan, melt butter. When butter is melted, remove from heat and mix in sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time. Stir in the vanilla. Slowly, whisk the dry ingredients into the sugar mixture.

When well combined, pour batter on top of the shortbread crust.

Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean with only a few crumbs clinging to it. Allow to cool totally before cutting and serving.

P.S. If you haven’t already,  you can ‘like’ my Facebook page here, and follow me on twitter here, and you can follow me on instagram here.

· 

{Chocolate Calzones}

 Two days ago my keyboard just decided that it had had enough. It was going on strike. It worked the night before, but when I woke up...The jig is up, Mufasa, I'm outtie.

Weird thing is, it was a new keyboard. Like, a month old. *I'm looking at you HP*. I had had it over a year, it came with my computer, but I just kept using my old one, until I got a new desk. Don't ask why, but for some reason, new computer doesn't = new keyboard. New desk, however, totally = new keyboard. Don't ask.

I just plugged the new guy in. Look, I'm not even correcting my mistakes if I make them, because sometimes keyboards are , like, way different for some unknown, companies are tryinta drive us crazy, reason. So, yeah, mistakes... they stay. We'll call this an organic post. Unaltered, man, unaltered.

So, my old new keyboard decided that it would only capitalize the letters it wanted to. And just the punctuation it felt like. There was no rhyme or reason. At first I thought it was just the bottom row of keys, but no, my T wouldn't work either. (Oh! lookit! A capital T! I haven't seen one of those in 2 days!). The biggest problem though? (HELLO QUESTION MARK! I'VE MISSED YOU, MY FRIEND). The lack of a question mark. I started sending emails and Facebook posts where I would say something like "Do you know what time that starts question mark", "Have you see that yet question mark", "Do you know what I mean question mark".

In case you've ever doubted this fact, question marks are important and ? is much easier than typing 'question mark' every time you ask something.

True. Fact.

Last week, I made Pie Pops for the Bean to take in to Math Class for Pi Day. Last year I made apple. This year I decided to make cherry, but at the last second, I also decided to make chocolate. Those were such a hit that it inspired this SUPER EASY recipe.

It's also one that the Bean declared "Stupid good".

And. Easy. Did I say easy? Cause. Easy.

Oh, and these aren't really calzones at all, they are made of pie crust, not pizza crust, I just called them that because of the shape :)

Pie Crust. Chocolate chips. Egg Whites. Sugar.

That's it.

And if you want a glaze, you'll only need a few more ingredients!

Butter. Powdered Sugar. Water. Vanilla. Cocoa Powder.

Cut out crust, add chips, fold, bake.

Yuh-hummmy.

The dip puts these lil guys OVER THE TOP!!!!!

These have become a new quick treat for the Bean. 

And you know what? I'm not even fond of pie crust, but... I like these!!

I wouldn't eat them without the dip though, they are a bit too dry for my liking.

Stupid good.

Tina

Did I make it through this post typo free??

* * *

Chocolate Calzones

by Tina @ Sugar Bean Bakers

For the Calzones:

Pie Crust

Chocolate Chips

Sugar

For the dip:

1 cup powdered sugar

4 Tablespoons butter, melted

1 Tablespoon hot water

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

For chocolate dip:

add 1-2 tablespoons of cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 375F

Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicon mat or grease cookie sheet

Roll out your pie crust (refrigerated is fine!). Using a standard sized biscuit cutter, cut out circles of dough. Add a scant teaspoon of chocolate chips (or white chocolate chips, or add some caramel bits, or nuts, etc!), moisten the rim of the crust, and fold over. Press to seal. Brush with egg whites and dust with granulated sugar.

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden.

Serve warm!

As they are baking, whip up your dip.

In a medium sized bowl, mix together the butter and powdered sugar. Add in your water. Whisk until glossy. Stir in vanilla.

If making a chocolate glaze, add 1-2 Tablespoons of cocoa to taste. Whisk well.

Yields: 9*

This is what I got from 1 refrigerated pie crust, I cut 18 circles to make 9 calzones.

I didn't reroll the crust after cutting, if you did that you could certainly get a few more.