It’s the last Monday of 2016! How were your holidays? Were things crazy busy or low-key and relaxing? Did you get everything on your wishlist?
My Christmas and the days leading up to it were pretty perfect. My sister was in town and we did a ton of baking for friends and neighbors, and I spent Christmas day with my family during which, I ate waaaaay too much good food.
With Christmas over, 2016 is very nearly in the rear view mirror. And while I’m more than happy to say goodbye to this year, before we do, I thought it’d be fun to take a look at what was popular on Baking Mischief in 2016.
Aside from my ridiculous(ly good) S’mores Cupcakes and its sister recipe, Easy Marshmallow Frosting , the Baking Mischief 2016 Top 10 list is a wonderfully practical group of recipes. Easy dinners, one decadent special occasion dessert/breakfast, a perfect quick vegetable side, and simple healthy treats for four-legged best friends.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the most popular recipes on the site are also the ones I find myself making over and over again in real life.
Top 10 Recipes of 2016
#9 – Slow Cooker Baked Potatoes With Broccoli and Cheese Sauce
#8 – Pesto Chicken Sandwich on Sourdough
#7 – Easy and Comforting Ham and Potato Soup
#6 – Easy Marshmallow Frosting
#5 – Easy Overnight Cinnamon Rolls for Two
#4 – Gooey Chocolate S’mores Cupcakes
#3 – Chicken Shawarma With Yogurt Sauce
#2 – Carrot Oat Applesauce Treats for Dogs and Horses
#1 – No-fail Butter and Garlic Green Beans
Stay tuned later in the week for my favorite recipes of 2016!
These Individual Chicken Pot Pies are easy to make, stuffed with chicken, carrots, and celery, and topped with a delicious flaky buttermilk crust.
Chicken pot pie is one of my favorite meals. It’s everything warm and comforting about food all wrapped up in a flaky pie crust. The thing is though, they’re kind of big. And messy. And did I mention big? When you’re not cooking for a family, there’s no way you are finishing one off unless you are eating leftovers for days, which is just not my thing.
Whelp, problem solved: Let’s make some Individual Chicken Pot Pies!
This recipe is super scalable, so you can follow this recipe exactly and make 2 individual pot pies or you can scale up to make 12, making them perfect for quiet nights in or serving a small crowd.
Bonus: you can customize them to your heart’s content. Like peas? (Ew. Gross. I don’t.) Add some peas. Like corn? Throw some corn in there. Don’t feel like making your own pie crust. You can totally cut down a store-bought crust or use puff pastry over the top instead.
(Though I will say, if you have a couple minutes and some buttermilk, you should absolutely follow the recipe as written and make your Individual Chicken Pot Pies with My Favorite Buttermilk Pie Crust to go on top. It’s so flaky and the easiest pie crust to make and work with! )
The pot pie filling is a simple mix of carrots, celery, and chicken simmered in chicken broth. It takes only a few minutes to throw them together, then you let that simmer away, make a tasty chicken gravy and stir everything together, and boom. Perfect pot pie filling so good you’ll probably be tempted to just eat that and call it a night.
Pop the mixture into some ramekins, roll out some dough, lay, bake, and eat. When you’re done, you have a perfectly portioned serving of the world’s best comfort food sitting in front of you.
You Might Also Enjoy
- Easy Baked Ziti
- Homemade Shepherd’s Pie
- Easy Slow Cooker Beef Ribs
- Chicken Pot Pie Soup
- Small-batch Chocolate Chip Cookies
You’re probably going to have some pie scraps left after making these pies. Check out my post, What to Do With Leftover Pie Dough , for some fun ideas to use up the extra!
Ingredients
Special Equipment
- ▢ 2 12-ounce ramekins
Pie Crust Top
- ▢ 1/4 batch My Favorite Buttermilk Pie Crust divided in two and chilled (store-bought works too)
Pot Pie Filling
- ▢ 10 ounces (about 1 ) boneless skinless chicken breast cubed
- ▢ 1 cup sliced carrots
- ▢ 1 cup sliced celery
- ▢ 1/4 cup diced onion
- ▢ 2 cups chicken broth
- ▢ 2 tablespoons ( 1 oz) butter
- ▢ 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- ▢ 1/3 cup milk (any percentage)
- ▢ 1/4 teaspoon salt
- ▢ 1/8 teaspoon pepper
Egg Wash
- ▢ 1 egg
- ▢ 1 tablespoon milk
Instructions
Prepare Ingredients
- Prepare pie crust. At the end of the chilling time, start the pot pie filling. (If using store-bought, frozen crust, remove from freezer so you will be able to cut it.) Preheat your oven to 425°F and line a baking sheet with foil.
Pot Pie Filling
- In a medium pot, combine cubed chicken, carrots, celery, onion, and chicken broth. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat and cook for 15 minutes, until chicken is cooked through and vegetables are just fork tender.
- Drain chicken broth into a separate container (do not discard).
Make Gravy
- Measure out 1 cup of reserved broth (you can discard the rest) and 1/3 cup milk. Set them next to the stove.
- In a medium saucepan, over medium heat, melt butter. Whisk in flour and cook until flour is golden, 30 seconds to 1 minute.
- Slowly whisk in broth and milk, whisking out any lumps as they form. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and begins to bubble, 2 to 5 minutes.
- Remove gravy from heat, stir in salt and pepper and chicken and vegetable mixture, and divide between 2 12-ounce ramekins.
Assemble
- Allow chilled dough to sit at room temperature for about 5 minutes to soften slightly so you can roll it out without it cracking.
- While your dough sits, make the egg wash. In a small bowl, whisk together egg and milk, and set aside.
- On a well-floured surface, roll out the first disk to 1/8-inch thick and drape over the first filled ramekin. Trim the extra, leaving about 3/4-inch overhang. Gently press the edges over so the dough drapes over the sides slightly (it won’t sit flush). Use a sharp-tipped serrated knife to cut a couple slits in the top for steam to escape.
- Repeat with the second crust and ramekin. Brush egg wash over the top of the pie crusts.
- Place ramekins on your prepared baking tray and bake for 15 to 20 minutes until tops are golden and filling inside is bubbly.
- Cool for at least 5 minutes before serving. Enjoy!
Notes
This rich and decadent mini chocolate sheet cake starts with a light and fluffy chocolate cake base and then gets smothered in a dreamy chocolate icing.
Hey, guys, this will be the last recipe of 2016. I’ll be posting a round up of my f avorite Baking Mischief recipes of the year on Friday, but if you don’t drop by again before New Year’s, happy New Year!! I hope your New Year’s Eve is joyful and safe and New Year’s Day fresh and energizing.
Today’s recipe is another of my favorites from Baking for Two , and in the book it’s titled “Death by Chocolate Sheet Cake” (a name I deemed no longer charming in late 2016). It’s been penciled in on my editorial calendar as “FU 2016 Cake” since sometime around the beginning of November, and I figured it would at least be a delicious way to end a bummer of a year.
Year-end gloominess aside, this is a pretty superb little chocolate dessert. The cake is light, almost delicate, and comes together quick and easy. But the real show stopper is the chocolate icing over the top. It is completely decadent and delicious.
I’m a big fan of frosting cakes with pourable icing because there’s no skill or stress to it. You just mix the icing up on the stove and the pour it over your cake–the cake doesn’t even have to be completely cooled. The top of the icing sets after a few minutes, but the rest stays gooey and fudgy and so good. It doesn’t look like much when you are pouring it on, but trust me, it’s a substantial layer and so rich you’ll definitely need a glass of milk to go along with it.
This Mini Chocolate Sheet Cake recipe will make four big cake slices or six smaller ones. I baked it in a ceramic baking dish for these photos, but if you plan on transporting your cake, I totally recommend making it in a 7×5-inch Pyrex container so you can just pop a lid on and go.
Ingredients
Special Equipment
- ▢ 7x5-inch Baking Dish
Chocolate Cake
- ▢ 1/4 cup ( 30 g) all-purpose flour
- ▢ 1 tablespoon ( 5 g) natural cocoa powder sifted if lumpy
- ▢ 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- ▢ 1/4 teaspoon salt
- ▢ 4 tablespoons ( 2 oz) unsalted butter room temperature
- ▢ 1/4 cup ( 50 g) granulated sugar
- ▢ 1 large egg white
- ▢ 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
- ▢ 2 tablespoons milk
- ▢ 2 tablespoons hot coffee or water
Chocolate Icing
- ▢ 2 tablespoons ( 1 oz) unsalted butter
- ▢ 1 tablespoon milk
- ▢ 1 teaspoon light corn syrup
- ▢ 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ▢ 2 heaping tablespoons finely chopped semisweet chocolate (high-quality chips are fine)
- ▢ 1/2 cup ( 60 g) powdered sugar sifted
- ▢ Sprinkles optional
Instructions
Chocolate Cake
- Preheat your oven to 350°F and grease a 7x5-inch baking dish.
- In a small bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt.
- In a medium bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Whisk in egg white and vanilla until well-combined.
- One at a time, stir in half of the flour mixture, all of the milk, and the remaining flour mixture, mixing until just-combined after each. Stir in hot coffee (or hot water) and mix until combined. Mixture will be thin.
- Pour into prepared baking dish. Bake for 14 to 18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool for at least five minutes before starting the glaze.
Chocolate Icing
- In a 1-quart saucepan, combine butter, milk, corn syrup and vanilla. Heat over medium heat, whisking until butter is melted and ingredients are mixed. Add chocolate and whisk until chocolate is melted and incorporated. Turn heat down to low and add sifted powdered sugar. Whisk until sugar melts into the chocolate mixture. Remove from heat and pour immediately over the slightly cooled cake. Add sprinkles if desired.
- Allow glaze 5 to 10 minutes to set before serving the cake in the baking container. Slice and enjoy with a strong cup of coffee.
Notes
