Baking

Thanksgiving Pie Stencils

5 · Nov 25, 2014 · 3 Comments

When it comes to Thanksgiving… I’m the pie girl. I LOVE making pie. I even have the PERFECT pie crust recipe. However, I do understand that pies can sometimes be intimidating. Whether you’re baking your own pies or bringing store bought pies to your Thanksgiving celebration… I have a fun little way to add a little more bling to your pies… Have you ever thought to stencil your pies?

I thought I would experiment with ways to make you look like a rockstar when you serve your pies, homemade or store bought!

First step… If you are bringing a store bought pie, put your pie in a pie plate if you have one. That will mask the store bought pie tin.

If you don’t have that… No worries.

Bust out your Silhouette CAMEO or Portrait. (I’m giving away TWO Silhouette Portraits this week!) I have created some fun Thanksgiving pie stencils that are super easy to cut and dress-up your pies with.

Download the Thanksgiving Pie Stencils Silhouette Files HERE

Cut your stencils out of just basic 8 1/2 x 11 card stock.

Once they are cut, set them aside until you are ready to serve your pies. When you are ready to serve them place your stencil right onto of the pie.

Put some powdered sugar into a mesh strainer and gently tap the mesh strainer with a spoon and dust the top of the pie.

Remove the stencil and voilà… Your boring old pie has a little flair!

Now with pumpkin pies, your powdered sugar will melt, so make sure you do this right before you serve. Other pies like apple will stand-up for quite a while.

And… They look amazing!!

All three of these pies are from the store, and they don’t look boring anymore!

If you have a Silhouette cutting machine… this is a fun way to dress-up any pie.

This is reason #586 why you need to have a Silhouette cutting machine!

I will have some GREAT Black Friday Deals here in a day or two will all the details on how you can grab a machine of your very own!

Disclaimer // This is not a sponsored post.

Holiday Nog Pull Apart Bread + Neighbor Gift

74 · Nov 12, 2014 ·

+ This Holiday Nog Pull Apart Bread post brought to you by Silk +

I’m so excited for this time of year… I LOVE baking and creating goodies for my friends and neighbors. I grew-up with a Mom who kicked it into high gear for a few weeks in December every year, pumping out Holiday goodies like peanut brittle, chocolate peanut butter bars, and fudge along with cookies galore. I remember watching both my parents working together on those scrumptious neighbor treats, and it always made my heart happy.

I remember the year when I ate SO MUCH of my favorite Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars, I swore I would never eat chocolate again! It took me a few years, but I eventually found my way back.

Now that I’m the Mom, I try to come up with some fun goodie each to year to share with our friends. A few weeks ago, I was at the Pillsbury Bake-Off and was inspired. A few of the entires were fun pull-apart breads with various different flavor profiles. I thought it would be fun to have a Holiday Nog Pull Apart Bread for a neighbor gift.

This is really just a simplified cinnamon roll with the addition of a Silk Holiday Nog glaze on top. Why Silk Holiday Nog you ask?

Well… First off, I LOVE it! It has all the Holiday flavor without all the guilt. It is free of dairy, egg, casein, MSG & lactose. It has no cholesterol or saturated fat and has a fraction of the calories of traditional Egg Nog. It’s the perfect Holiday treat minus the guilt. I thought it would be the perfect flavor profile for my pull-apart bread!

Now, the real secret to this pull apart bread is how EASY it is to make! You will look like you slaved over it for hours, but no… It really only took minutes to make. Here’s how you make it.

Holiday Nog Pull Apart Bread Recipe

1 can of Pillsbury Crescent Seamless Dough Sheets

3 tablespoons melted unsalted butter

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie seasoning

2 teaspoons of sugar

1 teaspoon of Swedish Pearl Sugar (optional)

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon Silk Holiday Nog

pinch of salt

non-stick baking spray

Preheat the oven to 350˚

You will need small paper loaf baking pans to bake your bread in. This will also make it easier to give as gifts to your friends. Spray the pan with a non-stick baking spray and set aside.

Open your Pillsbury dough and unroll on a clean surface and brush with melted butter.

Then sprinkle the entire surface with pumpkin pie seasoning and sugars.

I like to add the Swedish Pearl Sugar to my bread, but it’s not totally needed. It just gives it that little extra something. You can find this in most grocery stores these days in the baking isle.

Next, cut your dough into squares roughly the width of your baking pan.

Stack your squares, and place them in your pan.

You should have some extra room for the dough to expand. Brush the top with more melted butter and sprinkle with more sugar.

Place in a 350˚ oven for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.

In the meantime, you can whisk-up your glaze. In a small bowl add 1 cup of powdered sugar and pour 1 tablespoon of Silk Holiday Nog into the sugar, whisk together. The sugar should melt right into the Holiday Nog. Play with the consistency, If you like a thick glaze, don’t add as much liquid, if you like a thinner glaze, add more. Once you get your desired consistency, add a good pinch of salt. Carefully drizzle glaze over your pull-apart bread.

Package it up in a cellophane bag for your friends and neighbors. I think I am also going to add a carton of Silk Holiday Nog to the basket when deliverthis treat! It will taste so good with the bread!!

Now this recipe makes one loaf. If you are wanting to make more than one, you will need to grab more cans of dough and double or triple the recipe.

I will have you know… NONE of the bread that I made for this post even left the house! My husband and the kiddos got to it first and they inhaled them before they even had time to cool and be photographed. Yep they are that tasty!

For more fun holiday treat ideas from Silk, sign-up for their club and get special deals as well. You can also find great ideas on the Silk Facebook page.

What’s your favorite Holiday treat to share?

This conversation is sponsored by Silk. The opinions and text are all mine.

The Classic Jif Peanut Butter Cookies Giveaway

3 · Oct 20, 2014 · 6 Comments

+ This Classic Jif Peanut Butter Cookies Giveaway sponsored by Jif® Peanut Butter +

As much as I love old recipes dolled-up with fun new ingredients, I am a huge fan of the classics. Sometimes you don’t need to mess with a good thing. I have fond memories of my Mom baking peanut butter cookies when I was a kid. Everyone tends to lean towards the classic chocolate chip recipe when it comes to cookie baking, my Mom sure did. When she broke out of the norm and baked peanut butter cookies I thought I was something pretty special. Don’t get me wrong… I love a good chocolate chip cookie, but there was just something extra special about baking those peanut butter cookies with my Mom. I would push a chair up to the counter and my job was to press the cookies with the fork. I thought had made it to the big times then…

I would dip the fork into a bowl of sugar and then gently pressing the cookie with the fork creating that classic peanut butter cookies hash tag!

Ahhhhh, sweet memories! Have you baked peanut butter cookies with your kiddos lately?

Here’s a link to the perfect Peanut Butter Cookie recipe from Jif®

What an even bigger excuse to make some scrumptious Peanut Butter Cookies? How about a fun GIVEAWAY from the folks at Jif®!

Jif® Peanut Butter Cookie Prize Pack Giveaway

Here’s what you may win from Jif®, this is a $80 Value…

Jif® Creamy Peanut Butter
Crisco® Baking Sticks All-Vegetable Shortening Pillsbury BEST® All Purpose Flour
Jif® apron
Customized J i f® cookie j a r
J i f® branded fork for cookie imprint

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Brownie Ghosts

2 · Oct 12, 2014 · 9 Comments

+ This spooky Brownie Ghosts are brought to you by Pillsbury Baking +

I love the whimsey that this time of year brings. There is just something special about Halloween and all of the cool little treats you can make for your little ghouls and goblins. This super cute treat is so easy to make, you can even do it with your kiddos.

All you need is a box of Pillsbury Brownie mix, some Cool Whip topping and some of the super cute candy eyes.

Mix-up your brownie mix according to package directions and then bake in cupcake liners rather than your typical brownie pan. Reduce your baking time a bit to account for the smaller size. I baked mine for about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool completely.

Next, fill a pastry bag that is fitted with a jumbo round tip with Cool Whip. (I order all my baking supplies from Sweet Baking Supply, love that shop!) Then I pipe the ghosts on top of the brownies. They don’t have to be perfect. Ghost come in all shapes and sizes, don’t ya know.

Then I place the candy eyes on my cute ghosts.

Isn’t it so cool how you can whip something up so easy with your kiddos and feel like a ROCKSTAR! No advanced skills needed here, just a little box of Pillsbury and a little spooky love!

For more fun baking ideas, visit the Pillsbury Baking site or their Facebook, Pinterest & Instagram feeds. Each of these sites are packed full of ideas that can turn your ho-hum cake mix into something aaaamazing!

Disclaimer // This post is sponsored by Pillsbury Baking. All thoughts, ideas and opinions are my very own. However, I want you all to know that I will never promote a product or company that I do not love and use in my normal day to day life.

Baking

Download the Thanksgiving Pie Stencils Silhouette Files HERE

Holiday Nog Pull Apart Bread Recipe

Here’s a link to the perfect Peanut Butter Cookie recipe from Jif®

Jif® Peanut Butter Cookie Prize Pack Giveaway

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