Bacon makes everything taste better!!!

Who doesn't just love bacon??? I have had the pleasure of tasting a couple of savory sweets, such as, chocolate covered bacon and chocolate covered potato chips. I recently came across this recipe on Pinterest and knew it was going to be amazing!
I made a few changes to the original recipe so you can use my changes or go with the original, either way it will come out delicious.

My changes are as follows:
I'm not a fan of bitter and semi-sweet chocolate. Anytime a recipe calls for these I use milk chocolate. That's just me! So instead of adding the bittersweet chocolate, I added 1/2 cup of milk chocolate chips. I had mini semi-sweet chips on hand so I added those as well. One other thing not listed is the flavor of bacon. I think any smoked or hickory flavor will come out good in these but I used maple flavored bacon. Wright's bacon is my fave! It has the perfect thickness and flavor.
Lastly, be careful on baking time. I cooked mine about 8 minutes give or take. On your first batch watch them closely so they do not burn. Everyone's oven is different in temp. Hope this helps.

This is the best chocolate chip cookie I've ever had!! Go and make them immediately! :)


Brown Butter Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies
(adapted from Cooks Illustrated)
1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
14 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon table salt
2 teaspoon vanilla
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
4 oz semisweet chocolate bar, diced into 1/4" pieces
1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chops (I like Ghirardelli 60% cacao)
3 tablespoons milk chocolate, grated
1 cup bacon that's been fried until crispy and diced into roughly 1/4" pieces

Adjust your oven rack so it's in the middle position. Pre-heat to 375 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

Whisk flour and baking soda together in a medium bowl and set aside.
Heat 10 tablespoons of butter in a 10 inch skillet over medium-high heat until melted. Continue cooking, swirling pan constantly. Watch this carefully - butter can go from brown to burned very quickly. When butter is dark-golden brown and has a nutty aroma, remove from heat and immediately transfer to a heatproof bowl. Stir the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter into hot butter until melted.
Add granulated sugar, dark brown sugar, salt and vanilla to bowl with butter and whisk until completely mixed. Add egg and egg yolk and whisk until mixture is smooth and there are no lumps of sugar remaining.
Let sugar/egg/butter mixture stand for a few minutes. Then whisk again for 30 seconds. Do this several times - you want to make sure that the sugar has "melted" into the liquid. When ready, mixture will be smooth, thick and shiny.
Using wooden spoon, stir in the flour mixture until just combined. Stir in grated chocolate, chocolate chunks, chocolate chips and bacon pieces. Don't overmix but make sure no flour pockets remain.
Using a teaspoon, place a heaping teaspoon of cookie dough on the baking sheet lined with parchment paper. I get about 14 on a baking sheet. Bake for 10-14 minutes (my oven takes 11 minutes) until cookies are golden-brown and set along the edges but the middle is still soft. Remove from oven and set baking sheet on a wire rack and let cool for at least 10 minutes.

Homemade Maple Syrup. Yum!

I know y'all are wondering how I could possibly make maple syrup without tapping an actual maple tree. Well, I guess you can say it's an affordable "artificial" method that makes a delicious syrup! I was in need of maple syrup for a cupcake recipe. I, of course, didn't have any on hand and want wasn't willing to go and purchase a small, yet expensive, bottle of maple syrup. So I googled and came up with a recipe that worked for me. After a couple of tweaks to the recipe I came up with a winner! So here it is:

1 Cup Water

1 Cup Sugar

2 Cups Brown Packed Sugar

1 Tbsp Maple Extract

Bring the water and sugars to a boil in a medium saucepan at med-high heat. After it starts to boil lower your heat to med-low. Reduce sauce to desired consistency and then add Maple Extract. It's as simple as that! Enjoy!

Hair Updo Experiment!

First of all, let me just say, I LOVE Pinterest! I have found so many amazing ideas that range from hair (as seen below) to crafts and cooking. Some of my favorite things!
I am always looking for neat ideas to put my long hair up out of my way. I came across this cute little blog on Pinterest that has tutorials on hair updos.

This is "The Messy Side Updo!" I love this updo because it is a messy updo! The longer the hair the more bobby pins you will need. I think I put at least 15 but I have very long hair.

Front.

Here is where you'll find awesome tutorials! Enjoy!

Halloween Teacher's Gift

I wanted to do something special for my 2nd grader's teachers this Halloween. I had extra cupcakes but no cupcake holders so I decided to make my own.

The finished product.
You'll need cupcakes, of course, and a cute Halloween bag!

Poster board paper of any color.

Cut and measure your poster board to fit the inside of the Halloween bag. I placed a piece of posterboard on the bottom of the bag and drew lines so I would know where to fold. Then cut sides, fold and tape. Finished product below. Cut X's large enough to hold cupcakes and place in the bottom of the bag.

Place your cupcakes in the bottom of the bag and fold the top down. Punch a hole in the center for a piece of ribbon or tulle.

The finished cupcake treat bag! Great teachers gift!

Halloween!

Wow! This month has sped by and I can't believe tomorrow is already Halloween.



Mason had his 2nd grade class party on Friday and requested Whoopie Pie cookies. The party was a huge success especially since the main treat was ice cream and lots of delicious toppings!





More Halloween treats! Mini Chocolate cupcakes with Buttercream icing! Yum!


Presentation is everything!

Change!

Hello everyone!

Well, some changes have come to pass. First, the name of my blog has changed from Shutter Bug Scraps to The Gourmet Housewife. I have halted my digital scrapbook business for a while. With this new change, I hope to share with you my hobbies and interests. This new blog will be full of my passion for baking, crafts, along with other things that I enjoy in life. Basically, My favorite things!

Thanks for stopping by, I have so much to post, can't wait to get started!

Invitation Templates

I also offer a service creating invitations. I always make my boys birthday party invites. It saves money and I can get really creative with their party themes. Here are some of the invites I have created for the boys parties:




Contact me at ambercave_5@hotmail.com for pricing info.