Blogiversary

Hello, dear friends, we have such big news for you today!!  This is our last post on the blogspot blog because today we launched out BRAND-NEW-REDESIGNED-WE-HAVE-OUR-OWN-DOMAIN-NAME-BLOG!!! From here on out (or as soon as we finish the migration), all traffic from our blogspot blog will be forwarded to http://thespatularettes.com.  Click on over to check it out and let us know what you think!  We are so excited!! Seriously, we can't contain ourselves!!  Apologies for all the exclamation points... We just can't help ourselves.  We’re that excited!!!!!

Today, dear friends, is also our blogiversary.  What better day to launch out newly designed site than on the 1 year anniversary of the day we decided to start this crazy project!  On September 29th 2011, we posted this...

We really had no idea what that meant or where this blog was going to take us, but that's exactly where it all began.  Blogging has been such a fun adventure thus far, and we can't wait to see what the next year will hold for The Spatularettes!

Before we get to today's receipe want to take a moment to say a huge thank you to all of you who have been following us for the past year.  We cannot tell you how much your positive feedback has meant to us or the way we puff up with pride a little bit every time someone tells us they tried one of our recipes.  We love food.  We love blogging.  And we love you for following our food blog!

Now we want to take a moment to say an even bigger thank you for following us through the past year despite our often times subpar photography, not-so-user-friendly format, our lack of style, direction and all around disorganization.  Before we actually launched The Spatularettes, we thought, oh hey blogging looks fun and easy let's give it a try!  Well we were right... it is fun.  But we were also wrong... because it's not easy.  Honestly, we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into and have spent the last year floundering around trying to figure it all out!

[On a side note: the description of our blogging experience thus far sounds like a pretty good metaphor for the last year of our lives. (if you were 25 years old once, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about--hello quarter life crisis!!)]

So as we try and create some structure, direction, and focus in our lives, we’ll be doing the same thing with our blog.  We've upgraded the formatting and are working on upgrading the photography (who knew snapping pictures of food would be so hard!?).  We've kept our focus on the food this past year, but it is time to start giving you more insight into to what it actually means to be a spatularette.

Enough about the new features though.  You can check back all week to get a better feel for what's coming down the pike.  For now... let's celebrate!  It's cake time!

Actually, it's tart time.  Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookie Tart time to be exact.

Cake time just had a nicer ring to it.  And was less of a mouth full than Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookie Tart.  But to be honest, you're going to want a mouth full of today's recipe.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 stick butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powser
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
• 1 3.9 oz package instant chocoalte pudding
• 1 1/2 cups cold milk
• Whipped cream or whipped topping

SPECIAL EQUIPMENT:

• Tart Pan

*This would probably work in a pie pan, although I haven’t tried it.  I would just recommend greasing a pie pan well since it doesn’t pop apart the way a tart pan does.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease the inside of a tart pan.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy.  Mix in the egg, vanilla, baking soad, and baking powder.  Next, mix in the flour, one half cup at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition.  Once the dough is well combined, fold in the mini chocolate  chips with a spatula.

To avoid sticking, generously flour a piece of parchment paper or waxed paper.  Dump all of the dough onto the floured surface and roll to a 1/8 inch thickness with a rolling pin.  The chocolate chips acutally create a pretty good measure for the ideal thickness of the dough.  Add more flour while rolling if needed.  Once the dough has been rolled, slide your hand under the parchment paper and flip the whole thing into the prepared tart pan.  Peel away the parchment paper and use your fingers to press the dough into the bottom and sides of the pan, patching up any tears as you go.  Pull the exccess dough off of the pan, and use your finger to create a smooth edge along the top.  Roll the excess dough into small ball and place on a cookie sheet to make mini cookies.  I usually end up with enough dough for about a dozen minis.

Bake the "crust" and the cookies for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.  Keep an eye on the crust as it bakes.  If it's really puffy in the center after about ten minutes, reach into the oven with an oven mit and gently press down on the center to release the extra air.  It will return to looking like a crust again.  Once finished baking, place the crust and the cookies on a wire rack to cool.  After the tart has cooled for about 20 minutes, gently slide a think knife down into the edges of the pan to make sure the crust isn't sticking.  When it has cooled completly pop the crust ot of the tart pan.

While the crust is cooling, prepare the filling.  Mix the packet of instant pudding with 1 1/2 cups of cold milk and whisk vigerously for 2 minutes.  Let the filling chill in the refrigerator for one hour before pouring it into the prepared cookie crust.  Top the pie with whipped cream or whipped topping.  The first time I made it I used an 8 oz container of Cool Whip.  The second time I made homemade whipped cream with 6 oz of heavy cream and 2 Tbs of granulated sugar.  Both were delicious!

The Inspiration:

As if an anniversary and a redesign weren't enough excitement for one week, we just caught wind that ABC's The Bachelor has begun filming their umteenth season, featuring one of our ALL TIME FAVORITE BACHELORS!!!  So as Sean continues his quest to find love on national television, we continue our quest to find and share the best recipes on the web.

And yes Sean, we will gladly accept your rose.  Will you accept our recipe?

HAPPY BLOGIVERSARY!!

XOXO,

Tall and Small