I found this recipe I really like and it is easy and fast to make, I found it on a recipes exchange site you can find more there, I hope you like it.

Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
half cup sugar
1 pkg. (4 serving size) instant pudding, any flavor
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
4 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 pkg. (12 oz.) mini morsels
Directions
Step 1 Preheat oven to 375F.
Step 2 Beat butter, sugars, pudding mix, and vanilla in large bowl until well blended. Add eggs; mix well. Gradually add flour and baking soda, beating until well blended. Stir in mini morsels. Drop dough by teasponfuls, 2 inches apart, onto baking sheets.
Step 3 Bake at 375F for 8 to 10 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from cookie sheets. Cool on wire racks.

Is there a technique for avoiding the "mountain bulge" in the middle of the cake when baking? How do you achieve a cake with a flat evenly baked top?

I need to make a batch of cinnamon buns to be delivered early tomorrow morning and I would like to deliver them fresh from the oven.  Is it OK to make them tonight and let them do the final rise overnight?  Should I just bake them tonight and deliver them at room temp tomorrow?

I made a 9x12 pan of cinnamon buns and I've got a problem.  I have made this recipe several times, and the buns taste Great!  In making them the dough feels great, it rises nicely, the buns roll out and cut just fine, and after the second rise they look simply awesome!  Even when they come out of the oven they look (and smell) wonderful.  However, as they cool, the center two buns "fall".  I make 12 buns in my 9x12 metal cake pan (3 rows of 4 buns).  The outer buns stay nice and tall on the side next to the pan wall, but slope toward the center of the pan.  The center two buns are maybe half the height of the outer edge, and maybe half as tall as they were when they came out of the oven.

I suspect my problem has to do with oven temperature and time, but I follow the recipe I have religiously (375' oven; 18-20 minutes).  After 20 minutes the buns are quite brown on top, and I would hesitate to leave them in longer as I fear they would become too dark.  Any suggestions???

First of all, I want to thank everyone who replied to my thread requesting a chocolate cake recipe.  Being the sweetie (as in, "person who likes sweets") that I am I'm sure that I'll end up making all of them within the year.  In this post I want to especially thank paddyscake for the suggestion and qahtan for the recipe for Guinness Chocolate Cake, which is soooo worth making if you get the chance!

Before topping.....

Plain whipped cream (not the greatest decorating job but by this time I was in a big hurry since I underestimated the cake's cooling time)

No one at the party could believe that it was made with Guinness!  Deeeeelicious!

Summer

Hello everyone!  One of my friends is having a birthday party this weekend and I'm going to be making the cake.  She loves chocolate in pretty much any form so I was going to start there.  I've made lots of cakes over the years but I can't think of a seriously chocolatey chocolate cake recipe that really stands out.  Does anyone have one that you love so much that you go back to it over and over?  My friend makes a very nice flourless chocolate cake herself, so I don't want to do that.  I was thinking more along the lines of a traditional layered birthday cake, but I'm open to creative twists.  I also have fun doing decorations even though I'm no expert.  Any suggestions (hopefully with recipes or recipe links) would be much appreciated!

Summer

Watched Cook's American Test Kitchen on PBS today, and saw, what was for me, a very novel approach to making pastry dough.

The ingredients began with the usual: flour, butter, shortening, and cold water.

Then it got interesting. In addition to the water, an equal amount of vodka was added.

The result was a wetter than usual dough, that after the usual chilling, rolled out more easily, stayed together excellently, yet after baking was flaky and crisp.

The chef stated that alcohol and flour will not form gluten, like the water and flour will, and most or all of the alcohol content evaporates during the bake, leaving the dough wetted only with the usual amount of water that would normally result in a rather dry, and less manageable crust.

I'm happy with the pastry dough I make--flour, butter, lard, and water--but this is too interesting to not try at least once.

David G.

I'm making scones today after some posts I saw from HenryD, and it has sparked a question for me.

Why do the most of the scone recipes I come across call for chopped up cold butter?

Maybe the answer will be obvious to me once I combine the ingrendients. I'm trying to think; wouldn't you want everything to be fully incorporated, and not risk chucks of butter in your dough?

Hi,  

 You're all so helpful and knowledgeable and I need your help.  

Can you please tell me how to prepare doughnut batter/dough in advance so that I can fry it off as needed.   I'm a caterer and thinking about doing fresh, hot doughnuts for a party. If you do cake doughnuts can the batter be chilled and then piped as needed?

If I'm using a yeast-risen dough how do I have it ready when I need it at different times during the party?  I've been to restaurant that make doughnuts per order and I'd like to know how that's done.

 I truly appreciate your help. I hope I've made my question clear..  

Thanks...

Sharon

I just want to let yall know of a great combo I made a couple of weeks ago for market.  We are knee deep in peach season so finding new recipes is a must.  In a Martha Stewart  mag a few years ago there was a recipe for a peach basil crumble well thought bout it and didnt try it soooooooooo I did and altered the recipe for me. 

I will try to remember to bring the recipe home from the kitchen tomorrow and post it this weekend for yall but I made a bottom crust with my sweetened pie dough, filled it with our  fresh sliced peaches, added a bit of sugar, butter  almond extract and toasted sliced almonds along with some of our fresh chopped basil leaves, then made a butter crumb topping for the top.   OH my goodness what a combo it was just fantastic and the almonds were amazing in it!!

Definetly a must try one!! I will take some pics of it as I am planning on making it for market tomorrow!!

Have a good night!

my blog http://chickenscratchfarm.blogspot.com