Welcome back!  It’s Day 4 of Dancing Deer’s CEO Trish Karter’s 1,500 mile bicycle trek from Atlanta to Boston, which she is doing it to raise awareness for family homelessness.  Hopefully you’re following her progress on Dancing Deer’s website.  As a point of personal pride, I would like to say that I did, in fact, post on the 22nd.  WordPress has it recorded on the 21st.  Just sayin’. 

Anyway, for today’s entry, we’re going to make:

The Best PB&J Ever

Why are they the best ever?  Because we’re making them with Dancing Deer brownies.

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And we’re back!  It’s Day 3 of Dancing Deer’s CEO Trish Karter’s 1,500 mile bicycle trek from Atlanta to Boston, which she is doing it to raise awareness for family homelessness.  Hopefully you’re following her progress on Dancing Deer‘s website.

Anyway, family homelessness is a sour subject, but maybe we can add a little sweetness with:

Peppermint Brownie Trifle

Now, I realize technically my picture is a parfait, but you know, this is my blog and I get to make the rules!  And yes, I don’t own a trifle glass so I can’t really make a trifle.  But the concept is the same.  Take delicious Dancing Deer peppermint brownies (for which my wife pines during the year since they only sell them in Kansas City during the Christmas season), add layers of peppermint whipped cream, and crushed peppermint candies and you have dessert.

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Well this is officially of Day 2 Dancing Deer’s CEO Trish Karter’s 1,500 mile bicycle trek from Atlanta to Boston.  She’s doing it to raise awareness for family homelessness while I am writing for the next fourteen days to both share her story and to evangelize Dancing Deer products.  Even before I found out about the ride, I loved Dancing Deer brownies.  Now I’m proud to tell the world about their products and to share this recipe for:

Caramel Brownie Phyllo Cups

So me, the master un-baker, really got excited about this recipe since it was a way to use that oven thingy to make a dessert without actually having to bake.  Yay science!  I also got to use the little decorative phyllo cups you can find in the freezer section at your local grocer, which I think look cool.  (BTW, we’re not done with phyllo.  Not by a long shot!)

Now, for this recipe, I used the peanut butter brownies because I like peanut butter and caramel.  My wife (who ate about 8 of the cups) said she would have preferred caramel or chocolate chunk brownies, but obviously she wasn’t too concerned. 
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This is a basic pie dough recipe that can be used for tarts, crostadas, and pies. It is a simple recipe that is balanced for both savory and sweet applications. Because this recipe is basic, it can easily be expanded through experimentation.

Basic Pie Dough

Yield: 1 9 inch Tart

• 1 ½ Cups Flour
• 1/4 Cup Sugar
• 1/8 Teaspoon Salt
• 8 Tablespoons, Chilled Unsalted Butter Cut into 1 Tablespoon Pieces
• 4 Tablespoons, Ice Cold Water

Add the flour, sugar, and salt to a food processor and pulse several times to mix. Add one tablespoon of butter into the food processor and pulse until the butter has been incorporated into the flour. Repeat this until there is no more butter remaining. Try to use as few pulses as possible as too much friction from the blades will melt the butter. The finished product should contain pea-sized bits of butter covered in flour.

To make this a dough, add the ice cold water one tablespoon at a time. Pulse the dough and see if it starts to come together to look like a dough. If it does not, continue adding the water and pulsing. The exact amount of water needed to bring the dough together will vary depending on the humidity that day, the type of flour, and other factors. Sometimes less than four tablespoons of water is needed and every now and then, the flour will need a bit more. However, it is better if the dough is slightly dry than too wet.

Once the dough looks right, remove it from the food processor and gently roll it to combine it into a ball. Do not overwork the dough, or the resulting crust will be chewy.

Add flour to a rolling surface and cut the ball into five to eight pieces. Roll each piece once on the mat using the palm of your hand, then collect the dough and set aside. Repeat for the other pieces, combine the dough, and form it into a disk at least one inch wide. Chill in the freezer for at least eight hours.

While the dough is chilling, find a recipe for a good filling. Because this dough can be used in all types of tarts, just about any filling will do. After eight hours, preheat the oven to the temperature specified by the recipe. Roll out the dough on a pastry mat that has been covered with a little flour. Use a cold rolling pin if possible.

After the dough has been rolled, follow the rest of the recipe instructions for making the filling, bake, and enjoy.

Thanks to thebittenword.com for the image.

Okay now, be honest now.  Who’s surprised that I am doing fried Twinkies for unResolution month?  Anyone?  Didn’t think so!

By the way, I wanted to say hi to Kelly who was absolutely horrified by the concept of fried Twinkies.  This one’s for you!  

Anyway, let’s skip all the rest and get to the giant font:

Fried Twinkies

Okay, so in all honesty, the first time I had fried Twinkies, I was pretty disappointed.  They weren’t all that.  I was expecting more.  More sugar.  More sweetness.  More dental work.  Something.  So, of course, when I make my own, I had to rectify this situation.

‘Cause I’m crazy like that.

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