Copy Cat Recipes

 Can you recreate an Oreo? Or a Taco Bell favorite?The answer is yes. It's amazing what you copy in your kitchen. The best part .The copies taste better than the original in most cases.

There are dozens of recipes on the Web that show the exact ingrwdients and steps  as your favorite restaurant foods and grocery store picks. They're more or less easy to replicate and can be a nice alternative to constantly eating out. One of the easiest is Taco Bell's bean burrito.I've made this at home and I found that the secret ingredient here is red wine vinegar mixed with chopped onions and beans. If the family like Taco Bell's Mexican pizza then make this easy recipe at home.It's simply frying a tortilla and layering on a variety of different toppings. Layer on refried beans beef crumbles and cheese. Top with another fried tortilla and warm in the microwave for a few minutes. Top with diced tomatoes and scallions.  Who doesn;t love Panda Express? You can easily make their famed Chili Crisp Shrimp at home. It's frying the shrimp tempura  style in a coating of flour cornstarch and club soda. Onions and bell peppers are also added in after being chopped. Chili crisp oil is added for fire. You can buy it at any Asian grocery store

Craving Oreos' or Hostess cupcakes? These ,too, can be baked in your oven.The Oreo recipe yields up a slightly chewier cookie but withthe same deep chocolate-y taste. It's actually the filling that fills home bakers with dread.It a very sweet buttercream(although the commerical ones are made without butter) made with unsalted butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and a pinch of sea salt. Bake the cookies first , using a Dutch cocoa to produce that famed blackish brown cookie and then fill. You can also turn them into double stuffed for the ultimate treat. You could add mint or freeze dried coffee to copy the many Oreo fillings. Another fun copy is the iconic Hostees cupcake with the white squiggle down the middle.It's a moist scratch chocolate cupcake filled with an easy to make marshmallow creme. Again this filling is always off putting to home bakers but it's really a buttercream with marshamallow fluff added. The icing is a ganache and the white squiggle is a milk based vanilla one. It's just a but more labor intensive the average cup cake with the assemblage but so worth it.

Yes, you can make and bake your favorite restaurant and storebought goodies at home. They're a fun try. Best of all they're a fun eat.

A Basket Of Brownies

 One of the best baked goods to come out of any kitchen is a pan of brownies. Who doesn't love a square of chocolate decadence/ Yet can you make them lusher and richer? Yes! You can!

Melissa Clark knows this and gave us three variations on the treat in Wednesday's New York Times Food section. Her recipes are true to her tastes - and they reflect ours as well. She has salted pretzel ones that brings in savory and crunch and ones that are an homage to the classic Mounds bar. Those have a well of coconut in the middle. Then there are her pecan pie brownies rife with the flavorful nut and the sweet filling that goes with it.  The salted pretzel brownies have the added surprise of a graham cracker and crushed pretzel crust underneath to also give them a cookie vibe. There's also the richness of one stick of butter added to this , giving the treat a nice buttery flavor too. The rest of the recipe is the classic brownie one, with processed Dutch cocoa and chocolate chips. A whole pretzel is placed  on top so each square gets a whole pretzel. You could sub in one of those buttery checkerboard ones for a fancier look or even sticks for a more rustic appeal.

The coconut macaroon ones have the added creaminess of condensed milk and egg white to create a homemade macaroon. These would be good on their own but they'll take the simple but delicious brownie to the next level. Ms. Clark makes the brownie batter first and then the coconut. A tablespoon of the last is put in what would be the middle of each square or four by four rows. Flaky sea salt such as Malden's is sprinkled on top and then the batter is baked for half an hour. The pecan pie brownie is another decadent treat. The top is true pecan pie filling with dark sugar and the nuts. Usually the filling has corn syrup added but Ms. Clark subs in a quarter cup honey and omits the egg. It is still rich with a stick of butter and two tablespoons of heavy cream. The topping then poured on top of the brownie batter and spread in an even layer. Again sea salt is scattered over it to give it a jolt of savory. It's then cut into squares. You could sub in walnuts which has always been a brownie add in. Another idea is grating eighty-five percent chocolate over all three to cut the sweetness and add to the decadence. All three would be a great dessert with a scoop of chocolate gelato or an afternoon snack with a big glass of milk.

Brownies are a treat unto themselves. However make them extra special with either a pretzel crust, a mound of coconut macaroon or a layer of pecan pie. It's taking them to the next layer of goodness.