Weekend Food: “Baby sister” Edition!

The “baby” of the family is my sister, (Codename: DSN Engineer), who is finishing up her undergraduate studies at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. Often times, I’ll receive a random email from her instructing me to bake certain things that she finds interesting. She’s done this before with Thousand Dollar Bars, or fancy Twix bars. I found out she does this so that I’m the one doing a “test run” of the recipe. That way, she doesn’t waste time or money on a bad recipe. Hence, I am her recipe “guinea pig”. If I okay the recipe, then she and her boyfriend (Codename: CS 411 Cook) will make the dish.

This time DSN Engineer’s email included two recipes: one for homemade toaster pastries (Pop-Tarts) and one for garlic cheddar biscuits (Cheddar Bay Biscuits from Red Lobster). To be honest, I’ve seen a recipe for homemade toaster pastries before and skipped it because I don’t usually eat them. But, the link DSN Engineer sent me said I could use pre-made pie crust, which I happen to have in my refrigerator. Also, I’ve made garlic cheddar biscuits before (from the Bisquick mix no less!) and they turned out pretty good. This time, I’ll be making these biscuits using Bisquick’s Heart Smart mix to see if the taste is any different. If they’re a hit, then I’ll make these for my mother when she comes to visit again because she can’t get enough of these at Red Lobster.

RESULTS: The toaster pastries were super simple to make since I had the ready-made pie crust. Feel free to make your own crust as the recipe includes that as well. If you do make these, make sure to keep to the 1 teaspoon amount of jam because some oozing may occur during the baking process. By the way, I used the spreadable all-fruit strawberry jam. I also made the sugar glaze instead of the egg wash. However, my glaze was a bit runny (too much milk) and it’s harder to see. Use less milk, and you’ll get a thicker, whiter glaze. You can find the original recipe at bake me more.

Blue & Gold: The UAF colors!

The crust cracked open a bit and the jam oozed out

As for the garlic cheddar biscuits, there was no difference in taste using the Heart Smart mix! So, feel free to buy this healthier mix and pat yourself on the back for buying a “heart smart” ingredient! These biscuits were absolutely delicious and are probably one of the key reasons Red Lobster stays in business. If you make these, be sure to use the garlic powder in the mix as it will highlight the melted garlic butter that’s slathered over these yummy biscuits. (I had to omit the garlic powder because I didn’t have any.) I feel that the garlic salt might cause a bit of a problem for CS 411 Cook because he’s on a mission to cut down DSN Engineer’s salt intake. But, I’ll let them sort that one out themselves. The original recipe can be found at gimme some oven!

After making these two recipes, I took advantage of my baking mood and made one more recipe, red velvet cream cheese swirl brownies. I was intrigued by this recipe because I’ve had an on-again off-again craving for red velvet cake. Usually, I wait a couple of days and it passes, mainly because I have more pressing recipes to try. This time, I gave in mainly because DSN Engineer sometimes asks me what to make for dessert. For instance, last week she asked me what to make for her roommate dinner. I suggested she make the Galette des Rois. It was a hit with her roommates and CS 411 Cook! Here are photos of DSN Engineer’s galette:

Anyway, I thought these red velvet cream cheese swirl brownies would be a nice dessert option for DSN Engineer to make at a future date. They’re pretty easy to put together, and you get to use red food coloring which always makes the recipe instantly more fun! Mine had a bit more of the cream cheese layer showing because I didn’t swirl the red brownie topping enough. Also, make sure to let them completely cool before cutting. I was too impatient and ended up having the top layer turn into a bit of a gooey mess. But, they tasted awesome nonetheless! You can find the original recipe at What’s Cookin, Chicago?