Food/Health

How To Make the Perfect Fried Oreo 



Whoever thought that dipping cream-filled cookies in batter and deep frying it in greasy, fattening oil would be a fabulous idea...thank you. I truly appreciate your genius. I made these delicious little treats yesterday when I went home for the weekend and, if I do say so myself, they came out looking and tasting amazing! No one in my family could stop at just one or two! The idea behind fried Oreos is that you dip an Oreo cookie into a batter of flour, milk, sugar, and an egg. I have seen people use pancake mix in place of those ingredients. Here, I'll share my secrets to amazing fried Oreos!

1. Replace whole milk with buttermilk.
I usually substitute buttermilk for regular milk in my baking because buttermilk gives my cake or cupcakes an overall more moist texture. The buttermilk in the fried Oreo dipping batter definitely gives the dough a lighter and slightly buttery taste, which is good because you don't want a doughy taste to ruin Oreos for you!

2. Less is more - go light on the sugar.
If you're making your own batter for dipping the Oreos in, you might not want to go sugar-crazy. Oreos are already sweet and you don't want an overly sweet fried dough to accompany it. I used just three tablespoons of sugar in my batter to accompany 1/2 cup of flour.



3. Don't be afraid to get your fork dirty.
I used a fork to help coat the Oreos with my batter. Once the Oreos were covered, the slits in the fork let the excess batter drip back into the bowl. You don't want too much dough around your Oreo. I also used the fork to lower the Oreo into the hot oil. My fried Oreos came out looking really neat using this method.

4. Go for the gold.
You want the dough to turn slightly golden brown when frying - that's when you know you've hit the mark! The dough is perfectly cooked and the cookie will be nice and gooey on the inside. Make sure you don't burn them! They will not take too long to get to that light golden brown!




Follow these four tips and you'll just about have perfect fried Oreos in the palm of your hand!



DIY S'mores Breakfast Bars 


The popular campfire treat has become enjoyable even without the need for a campfire. We see s'mores flavored drinks from Starbucks and in many other tasty treats. Does not having those warm, crackling orange flames take away from the experience? Maybe. But as a college student who's always looking for creative ways to enjoy breakfast, I was willing to omit the wood-burning for now.

Yes, you read me right - I made these delicious s'mores breakfast bars in the comfort of the kitchen in my dorm building! These are super easy, require minimal effort, and are absolutely delicious! The ingredients and materials I used are:

  • Cascadian Farms Graham Crunch cereal 
  • Marshmallow fluff
  • 2 Hershey's chocolate bars 
  • two spoons 
  • one mixing bowl 
  • one small plastic storage bowl 
  • microwave 

Step 1: Break up the chocolate bar into squares and place them inside a microwave-safe bowl. The chocolate takes a bit of time to melt so you'll want to soften and slightly melt it beforehand. 

Step 2: Measure out the desired amount of cereal. When the chocolate comes out of the microwave, add the cereal and a few spoonfuls of marshmallow fluff. Mix it all together thoroughly. 

Step 3: Microwave the mixture for just 5-10 seconds to get it gooier. Afterwards, spoon the concoction into the plastic storage bowl. Make sure it's evenly spread out. 

Step 4: If you have a mini fridge, put it in there for about 30 minutes to set. If you don't have a mini fridge in your room then it's cool - they will just take a little longer to set. Once set, cut into them and enjoy! 

Why I'm in love with them:
  • This is not just a sweet snack; I used actual cereal so it's great for putting a spin on a boring bowl of cereal and milk! 
  • The cereal I used is organic, relatively low in sugar, and high in fiber so it's a great way to get that graham cracker taste without the usual amount of sugar and more fiber. 
  • These breakfast bars are surprisingly less sweet than most granola bars on the market. You're probably wondering how this is even possible if I used chocolate and marshmallow fluff but rest assured I can never lie to you! This is a huge plus for me because I feel that though most granola bars claim to be "healthy" they taste beyond sweet, which defeats the purpose. 
  • They are super easy to make and don't require many ingredients! 



These delicious s'mores breakfast bars are a great twist on breakfast and something you can just grab and go. Get creative and try other combinations with other cereals. 



10 TIPS FOR AMAZING HOMEMADE COOKIES

You may or may not know this about me but I'm a huge lover of baked goods. I've been baking by myself since Elementary school! No, I'm not the world's #1 Teenage cookie expert (I wish!) but I've come up with some very helpful hints that make all the difference when baking cookies.

1. Go Easy On the Butter
I've had those experiences where I put a little too much butter in the cookie dough and while the cookies bake, it's like they secrete oil that bubbles up around them - yuck! I've also had those unlucky experiences where I add exactly the amount of butter I'm supposed to and the same thing happens! I learned to always add just a little bit less butter than what the recipe calls for. Even adding one tablespoon less can be the difference between a cookie baked in an oil bath and a scrumptious cookie!

2. Cream together the butter and sugar well
You need to make sure that you cream together the butter and sugar really really well before adding any other ingredients to the mix. Typically, for chocolate chip cookies you use brown sugar and white sugar. I like to use around a quarter cup more brown sugar than white sugar because the brown sugar gives the chocolate chip cookie its unique flavor. You don't want to see the granules of sugar in your cookie! This is why you must make sure the sweetness is dissolved into the batter completely.

3. Never add Baking Soda
I've come across lots of recipes in my time that call for about a teaspoon or so of baking soda in the chocolate chip cookie batter. I used to faithfully abide by those recipes by adding the correct amount of baking soda - not anymore! Baking soda will cause your cookie to spread out - and sometimes a little more than you'd like! I no longer add baking soda to my cookie dough, since I don't like how much the cookies spread out and I've started using techniques that give me the perfect batch every time. Those obnoxiously large and thin cookies are super annoying anyway! Skip the baking soda if you feel the same way!

4. Cold dough is the best dough 
Always refrigerate your cookie dough prior to scooping them onto your baking tray. First of all, cold dough is way easier to shape into a ball using your hands - room temperature dough is very sticky and can get messy quickly. Additionally, cold dough can prevent the cookie from turning out to be a little too spread out. I recommend refrigerating the dough for about 5-6 hours before use. If you have more time than that, I highly suggest you refrigerate the dough overnight for use the next day.

5. Cubes are cool too
Instead of shaping my cookie dough scoops into balls and plopping them down on my baking tray, I like to shape my tablespoons of dough into the shape of cubes. Yes, cubes. No, the cookies will not come out looking like some sort of prism - I find that shaping the dough into small cubes gives the cookies an overall neater shape. I find that they spread out a little more evenly compared to if I were to roll the dough into a ball or just plop a heaping tablespoon on the tray. They aren't perfectly circular but they're very aesthetically pleasing when they come out of the oven.

6. Electric mixers can be your worst enemy
This is also something I tend to avoid when baking brownies. When using electric mixers, you run the risk of over-mixing your dough and you can end up with very tough cookies. You want light, chewy cookies - not dense ones. Mix everything by hand so you are way less likely to over mix. When incorporating the flour (which is where people go wrong) you want to do just that - just incorporate not blend in thoroughly! The only thing I'll allow you to use an electric mixer for would be to cream together the butter and sugar - that's it! 

7. Time is precious - bake for 11 minutes
Some recipes might tell you to bake your cookies for about 13 minutes. Others might tell you to keep your baking time to 9 minutes. I find that the optimal baking time is 11 minutes exactly. I know some people like to undertake their cookies because it's a commonly known fact that cookies harden a little even after being removed from heat however I don't like a super duper soft cookie. At the same time I don't like rock solid cookies either. I like them somewhere in between (as most people do) - chewy. Heat your oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit and bake your cookies for 11 minutes. Once they are completely cooled, the result will be fabulous!

8. Chocolate Bars add Gooeyness 
If you like chocolate chip cookies that give you some gooey goodness from the chocolate then use chopped chocolate bar pieces in place of chocolate morsels. I sometimes buy a regular Hershey's chocolate bar, chop up the chocolate into chunks (not too tiny but not too large) and incorporate it into my dough. Some of the chunks become slightly melted which gives your cookie the right amount of gooeyness!

9. Avoid melted butter
You've probably realized that I've been talking about creamed butter every time I mention butter. This is the technique I choose to follow because it yields the best results for me. I told you all about how I hate those thin, crispy, spread out cookies. If you're the same way then NEVER melt your butter when baking cookies! First of all, they will crack like a sidewalk and second, they will be very thin and spread out. Cream your butter with your sugar combinations for well-structured cookies. Make sure the butter is room temperature since this creams the best.

10. Skip the parchment paper
I find that when I use parchment paper on top of my baking tray, my cookies end up slightly drier than if I just plop them down on a non-stick pan. This is because parchment paper tends to suck up oil  (moisture) from the cookies. Cookies already dry and harden on their own after being removed from heat so we don't want them to be extra dry!

Hopefully I was able to provide you with some insight from my trials and errors in the kitchen. If you've been having problems with your homemade cookies then definitely let me know if one of these tips was the solution to your problem! Happy baking! =)





OBSESSED WITH THIS YOGURT!!!
Image obtained from Target.com

Hey y'all! This page will be full of random fun things of any category and my food obsessions will be one of them! For the last two weeks I have been loving this Chobani Coconut Greek Yogurt! First off, I LOVE coconut flavored things but I HATE the texture of coconut! When I first saw this I wanted to try it out because we all know that plain Greek Yogurt is extremely tart but good for you. I was keeping my fingers crossed that there was no shredded coconut in this cup and...there was! BUT there, surprisingly, wasn't that much of it! The amount of shredded coconut in the yogurt was tolerable even though I don't like shredded coconut. 

This yogurt seriously tastes really good! I've opted for this over ice cream for the last two weeks!!!! I'm SO serious about that!!!! Pinky swear!! I'm not saying that this yogurt is as sweet as ice cream (that would just counter the benefits of Greek Yogurt, wouldn't it?) but it definitely was like a treat to me and satisfied me enough to not even look at ice cream. 

I also bought the Chobani flips where there was the yogurt on one side and sliced almonds and dark chocolate pieces on the other. I pick out the almonds because I'm allergic but sometimes I don't even add the dark chocolate because the yogurt itself is a treat! I glanced at the nutrition label one day and saw that this yogurt contains 13g of protein!!! Sadly, there is about 20g of sugar in this (Awwwwwww!) Looks like I made a good call not having that ice cream with this! 

This yogurt does not keep you full for very long at all. This morning I had one cup of this yogurt for breakfast and left the house to go to Costco. Halfway there and I was starting to feel hungry again! Usually, though, I'll have this yogurt with a cup of sliced bananas or green apple slices, which keeps me full a little bit longer. 

All points considered I still recommend this yogurt to anyone who is willing to try it! If you can get past the insane amount of sugar in this yogurt then this could be your go to! Since eating this yogurt I haven't really touched any sweet snacks! Believe me I used to grab at cake and cookies and would eat any chocolate that was in the house but, surprisingly, I haven't in the last two weeks! Def give this yogurt a shot and maybe you'll be loco for coco! 

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