New Name

Well, I have decided to finally do it.  I have decided to change my name here.  Unfortunately Yeast Wrangler just doesn't seem to cover all the bases anymore.  I have branched out into other baking adventures and have been wanting a name that reflects that.  So now, I have decided to go with Heather's Sweets and Treats.  Hopefully I can make the transition smooth, but this is not my forte, so who knows.

Wordless Wednesday

Pizza on the grill

Summer here in Illinois is finally right around the corner.  Spring here has been cold and rainy and now finally at the end of May we are just starting to enjoy the outside.  One of my favorite parts about the spring and summer is cooking on the grill.  Grilled food tastes amazing and it is fun to chill out on the deck and enjoying the outside while preparing dinner.

A couple days ago, we decided to try making pizza on the grill*.  Last summer, we tried it once and had mixed results.  We realized that making personal sized pizzas was far easier than trying to make one giant sized pizza.  Flipping a large pizza was too difficult for us.

Pizza on the Grill
1 recipe of your favorite pizza dough.**
1/2 cup tomato sauce
6 ounces fresh mozzarella cheese
10 fresh basil leaves
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon garlic salt (or fresh minced garlic)
1 tablespoon olive oil

Take your pizza dough and split in half (or quarters if you prefer even smaller pizzas).  Roll very thin.  Lightly brush with olive oil.  Put olive oil side down on the hot grill for 3-4 minutes or until the bottom is crusty.  Brush top of crust with olive oil.  Flip crust over so the doughy side is now on the grill.  Cook for 2-3 minutes.  Spread on desired toppings.  Ours were tomato sauce, fresh basil leaves, fresh mozzarella, red pepper flakes, and garlic salt.  Cook until the cheese is melty.  Enjoy!

*We used a gas grill, we have never grilled pizza on a charcoal grill so cooking times may vary drastically.

** I like the Pioneer Woman's Pizza Dough.  It rolls nice and thin.  Her recipe makes enough for 2 full sized crusts, so I usually freeze half for a later date.  The only change that I make is I substitute 1 cup whole wheat flour for 1 cup of the all-purpose flour.

Interesting Things

Creative cheese for a wedding shower!

Something tasty to make with leftover sourdough starter

Beets!

I love love love strawberries and this strawberry cake makes me drool.

My husband introduced me to the wonderful world of nutella, but I have never had it baked into a cupcake!

Hi Ho Silver Away!

 I made these equine cupcakes for a co-worker for her birthday.  She, like me, loves horses.  The horse cupcake toppers are chocolate and the cupcakes are Martha Stewart's strawberry cupcakes with strawberry buttercream.  They were so light and tasty!  The only drawback is the frosting will melt if it is too warm in your car, which I learned the hard way with some leftovers :(

Horse Cupcake Toppers adapted from various places
1/2 bag dark chocolate Wilton Candy Melts
1 12" piping bag
outline of horses (hand drawn or from an image you like)
wax paper

Melt candy melts according to the directions.  If you have a disposable plastic piping bag, you can melt the chocolate right in the bag, if not, fill piping bag with the melted chocolate  Snip the teeniest tiniest end off of the piping bag.  Place wax paper over the image you want to outline.  Carefully trace over the image with chocolate.  Fill in the outline if desired.  I chose to fill in the outline because the horses' legs were extremely fragile.  Allow to dry for several hours or overnight.

A Day Late...

Well, I am a day late and a dollar short, but these chicks are too fun to leave until next Easter.  So simple too, a Nutter Butter dipped in yellow Candy Melts with mini chocolate chip eyes and orange piping gel beaks...perfect.  When dipped in white chocolate with chocolate chip eyes, these make fantastic ghosts at Halloween.

Nutter Butter Chicks

• 1 package Nutter Butter sandwich cookies (make sure you find the ones shaped like peanuts, I hear rumor there are round ones that are not as cool
• 64 mini chocolate chips
• 2 packages yellow Candy Melts
• small tube of orange piping gel

Melt Candy Melts according to the directions.  Dip Nutter Butter's into the Candy Melts.  Place on wax paper to dry.  While cookies are still wet, place two chocolate chips for eyes.  Allow to dry for a few hours.  Once dry, using the orange piping gel, pipe a triangle "beak" below the eyes.  Enjoy!

Drywall dust

 

When I was a kid, my family remodeled the house.  Completely gutted and redid everything.  Of all the cleanup involved in gutting a house, the one thing that my mother always hated the drywall dust.  The thin layer of white powder that coated everything, requiring twice the cleaning because it managed to hang on despite the copious amounts of soap and water.

Making Wilton buttercream icing reminds me of the drywall dust that would be the bane of my mother's existence.  No matter how careful I am, or whether or not I use the guard on the mixer, the powdered sugar always manages to poof all over my kitchen.  I always have to scrub everything twice, because the powdered sugar is so sticky.  But it's worth it.  That extra sweet buttercream is so tasty!

I made this cake for my friend's mom's surprise birthday party.  Buttercream flowers and gumpaste butterflies.