celestial confections

Another birthday cake

2012-01-07T09:08:00.000-08:00

We had another birthday. Our 8 year old requested a horse birthday cake.

Mint Chocolate Cookies

2011-11-02T18:23:00.000-07:00

Now that baby is here it is fortunate & unfortunate that I like baking again. It has been fun being back in the kitchen and enjoying it too (not too good for dropping the baby weight). I baked these goodies up when we ran out of our year supply of Guittard chocolate chips. I was forced to use what I could scrounge up in my pantry. I happen to have a bag of Nestle dark chocolate chunks and mint chips. I usually don't prefer nestle, but I found them on sale. I used Rach's recipe for her Mint Chocolate Cookies and we were in heaven for a night. Yes, they only lasted a night. They were deep chocolaty and the mint was perfect. They were the perfect amount of soft and crisp. Yum!

Mint Chocolate Cookies
Rachael

2 ¼ c. flour
½ c. cocoa
1 t. baking soda
½ t. salt
1 c. butter soft
1 c. packed brown sugar
¾ c. sugar
1 t. vanilla
2 eggs
1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 c. mint morsels
1.Combine first 4 ingredients.
2.In a separate bowl combine next 4 ingredients. Beat well.
3.Add eggs, gradually beat in flour mixture.
4.Stir in chips and morsels. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheet.
5.Bake in 375° oven 8-10 minutes.

The Best Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

2011-10-26T11:30:00.000-07:00

I am pretty loyal to my Big Fat Chocolate Chip cookie recipe, but I thought I would go outside the awesomeness of the Big Fats and try a different recipe. Of course we have all tried a million chocolate chip recipes and some don't work so well and others are steller. I have now made these twice and have been thoroughly delighted each time. These cookies are nice and soft even after they have cooled. The Big Fats are more like a bakery cookie - crisp on the outside & soft on the inside and these ones are smaller and softer all around. I loved them! This doesn't mean they will replace the Big Fats in my life, but another go to amazingly delicious chocolate chip cookie recipe that makes me happy each time I make them.

I found the recipe via pinterest. It was originally posted on the blog Apple a Day

Best-Ever Chocolate Chip Cookiesbarely adapted from Anna Olson, Food Network Canada

Ingredients:
3/4 c. unsalted butter, softened
3/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. granulated sugar
1 egg
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 c. all purpose flour
2 tsp. cornstarch
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. bittersweet chocolate chips

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugars until fluffy and light in color. Add egg and vanilla and blend in.
3. Mix in flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt. Stir in chocolate chunks.
4. Using a standard-sized cookie scoop or tablespoon, drop dough onto a prepared baking sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until barely golden brown around the edges. (The tops will not brown, but do NOT cook longer than ten minutes.)
5. Let cool, on the sheet, on a wire rack for five minutes. Remove from baking sheet and let cool completely. Try not to eat them all

Birthday Cake

2011-10-20T11:24:00.000-07:00

Okay so these pictures are horrible. The battery of course went dead right when I finished the cake. By the time it was recharged it was evening time and so the pics are not great at all. I just snapped a few and he blew out the candles and we ate.

So this little 3 year old wanted a puppy cake. Now that it is done I wish I had made it Red and had it be Clifford, because it looks a lot like Clifford. And once again I made brownies instead of cake. Cake doesn't get eaten around here, but brownies do. Plus I think brownies are actually easier to work with. Less crumbly and more stable.

The next day we had cupcakes with Grandpa & Grandma & Aunts & Uncles. I made pumpkin chocolate chip cupcakes, which were steller, and the frosting was delish. It was a cream cheese white chip frosting. Yum!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
From allrecipes w/ adaptations

3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon ginger
3/4 to 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1.Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease and flour muffin pan or use paper liners.
2.Mix sugar, oil, eggs. Add pumpkin and water. In separate bowl mix together the baking flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices and salt. Get chocolate chips a bit wet then mix in with flour (this helps them not sink to the bottom). Then mix dry & wet ingredients.
3.Fill muffin cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes

White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
adapted a bit from Baking Bites blog

4-oz cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup white chocolate, melted and slightly cooled
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 tsp milk or cream
2-3 cups confectioners’ sugar

In a large mixing bowl, cream together cream cheese, butter and melted white chocolate. Beat in vanilla and milk, then add in the confectioners’ sugar gradually until the frosting reaches your desired consistency (make it a bit stiffer if you wish to pipe it onto the cupcakes instead of spreading it with a knife).
Spread frosting onto cupcakes with a knife, or transfer to a pastry bag fitted with a wide tip and pipe onto cooled cupcakes.

TWD-Creamy Dark Chocolate Sorbet

2011-07-26T21:07:00.000-07:00

Happy late-Pioneer Day! Every July 24th, we commemorate the arrival of Brigham Young and the first Mormon pioneers to the Salt Lake Valley. It's a big deal here. Parade. Rodeo. Fireworks. Family. Friends. Food. It gives us a reason to celebrate on a hot summer night! Last night we had a lovely evening with neighbors, eating this delicious sorbet and lighting fireworks.

Dorie's Creamy Dark Chocolate Sorbet was the perfect cool dessert on a warm summer night. I actually made the sorbet on Sunday. It came together in a snap and I was able to get it in the fridge before we went to church. Later in the evening I put it in the ice cream maker and then into the freezer.

I served the sorbet with a Chocolate Crinkle Cookie and fresh strawberries. It was divine. Deep, dark, creamy chocolate. We loved this recipe and I will definitely put it in the keepers along with many other Dorie recipes!

Should you care to give this a try on a hot Summer day (which I'm sure you do), head on over for the recipe at A Whisk and a Spoon.

Birthday Cake Fun

2011-07-20T13:40:00.000-07:00

My sweet Miriam had her 5th birthday! I can't believe it. She is such a fun girl. Since Christmas she has been talking about having a rudolph (family) party and cake. I was kind of hoping that by the time May rolled around she might forget, but she did not. We have listened to Christmas music in the car nonstop for months. So I found myself having to make a rudolph cake. I am not the best at creative cakes in general. I am pretty proud of how it turned out. I went google images and just pulled up an image of rudolph from the movie and used it as an outline. She wanted brownies instead of cake. Awesome! Because I don't really love cake and Brownies were much easier to work with.

I made the extra pieces on top out of sugar cookies dough. I just traced the outlines of the ears, eye, and antlers onto the dough. I used a mini york mint for the eye and a red gumball was the perfect solution for the nose. It was a hit. Gone in seconds, because brownies are so much better than cake and so are sugar cookies. All the kids went crazy over the gumballs, so it is good I bought extra. I love that this girl thinks out of the box and is not afraid to follow through. She was teased by her sister for months that she wanted rudolph, but Miriam stuck with it without a care in the world. Love that girl

The hubby had a Birthday too. Just last week. He made it easy on me (so nice since I am 8 months pregnant and still not on a first name basis with my kitchen). He chose key lime pie, which I made, and a costco bought apple pie (awesome, I didn't have to slave over it, bless him).

The key lime pie recipe came from a Betty Crocker Cookbook that we got for a our wedding, I think it is even the Bridal edition (aka: non baking savvy people).

TWD: Chocolate Chocolate Chunk Muffins

2011-07-05T19:26:00.000-07:00

My kids say "a muffin is just an ugly cupcake", but I disagree!! A muffin is so much more... THIS muffin is so much more!! Its rich and dense and chocolatey. Because it isn't so sweet, you can really taste and appreciate the bittersweet chocolate. The flavor is SOOOOO spectacular. I think it really pays to use a high-quality chocolate. Plus, any time you can eat chocolate for breakfast, I'm in!! What? Its legit. Muffins are a breakfast food. They are.

My sweet boy was being so patient waiting for his muffin. We all agreed, it was worth the wait!! It didn't take long though, these came together in a snap!! Next time I may let the kids make them. Thanks Bridget at "The Way The Cookie Crumbles" for this weeks choice!! If you would like to give it a try (and I'm sure you do) click here. :)

TWD-A little late...

2011-06-28T23:01:00.000-07:00

This month has been a bit hectic. You would think with Summer and all there would be more time but that hasn't happened yet. I thought one of the other girls had posted already this month, but somehow with one cross-country move and one very pregnant sister things have been a bit unorganized so we didn't have all our ducks in a row. That said, I am going to make the Sour Cream Chocolate Cake Cookies sometime this week. On Friday night I was cleaning the front of my oven with my handy steamer and was trying to get under the glass to get some of the gunk out when the entire piece of glass fell out and shattered all over the floor. Thankfully I was the only person in the kitchen at the time and it only gave me a small cut on the top of my foot. I found a replacement online but can't use my oven until it comes. Ooops! The part should be here tomorrow so my goal is to post but do so a day late.

If you want the recipe now, head on over and check it out here. My review will be coming soon!

TWD-Caramel Pots de Creme

2011-05-31T19:54:00.000-07:00

What doesn't sound good about a dessert with the words "caramel" and "creme" in it? I would have been crazy to pass on this one! Funny thing is, I totally forgot that I needed to make it so we had our minimum of 2 posts this month. Things have been busy with the end of school and what not so this afternoon I remembered and got right to it. Thankfully, I had all of the ingredients in the house and didn't have to run to the store. We had whole milk thanks to having a 15-month-old in the house. We had heavy cream thanks to a yummy fruit crisp we had after dinner on Sunday. And, of course, we had plenty of sugar, eggs and vanilla. We keep the pantry well-stocked around here because I can't seem to go more than a few days without getting the baking bug and wanting to make something. It's a good thing we have neighbors who love it when we share our goodies!

I decided to half the recipe so there was enough for sampling but not too much, resulting in overindulgence! The recipe was simple and came together quickly. The most time-consuming part was caramelizing the sugar. I followed Dorie's instructions to use plastic wrap over the top while the custards baked, unfortunately it didn't work very well for me. Maybe my plastic wrap was too cheap? When I removed the pan from the oven, the plastic wrap had split down the middle right between the two holes I had put in it. Thank goodness it didn't melt and ruin the dessert! I pulled off the plastic as soon as it came out.

The pots de crème came out of the oven a bit darker than I thought they were going to be. I wonder if it had something to do with the plastic wrap not really doing it's job? It didn't seem to affect the flavor in a negative way. The custard was creamy and had the a subtle hint of the caramelized sugar. It was delicious!

This is a recipe I would definitely make again when company came for dinner. It was simple, quick and amazingly good. If you are interested in the recipe, which I'm sure you are, head on over to Peggy's blog.

Until our next post! Happy Baking!

TWD: Brown Sugar Bundt Cake

2011-05-10T14:53:00.000-07:00

I am not sure why but this one always caught my eye when flipping through Dorie's book over the last few years. Maybe it is because I LOVE brown sugar. It smells good and as a child I used to sneak spoonfuls or finger fulls of brown sugar whenever it was out on the counter. The best part of making this recipe is that my house smells like brown sugar at it's best. Anyone who walks into my house can smell the sweet aroma. I almost don't want to make dinner, because I don't want to mix beef and cumin in with brown sugar. Maybe we will have to stick with something not as smelly....hmmm pancakes anyone.

This cake uses ground walnuts as part of the dry ingredients and I could not help but add some chopped walnuts to the cake as well. I left out the almond extract and prunes, neither are to my liking. The cake tastes as good as it smells. I may have to give some away tonight. A whole bundt cake will not work well in this house. The hubby is trying to lighten his load to say it best and the kids never like anything that is truly delicious. Who can I bring this to?

Now to figure out my next baking adventure. My 4yr old turns 5 on Saturday and has requested a Rudolph the red nose reindeer cake. She mentioned it at Christmas and I thought I would cross that bridge when it came (hoping she would forget), but here I am trying to figure out how to make a Rudolph cake and I am not the best at making decorative cakes. Wish me luck. If you have any ideas please comment and let me know what you would do.

If you are interested in making this bundt head on over to Pantry Revisited by Peggy.

TWD-Cornmeal Shortbread Cookies

2011-04-26T19:38:00.000-07:00

When April sent out the email with the April recipes, the name of these little cookies caught my attention. I don't know why but I'm glad they did. They were a snap to put together. I didn't roll them out in a sheet as the recipe suggests, instead I rolled them into a log and then cut them before baking. The sweet, lemony smell was divine. As I write this they are cooling upstairs. I'm not sure if I will get to tasting these tonight or if it will have to wait until tomorrow. With Easter I am a bit sugared out and as lovely as these smell, and I'm sure taste, I just don't have it in me to eat anything else sweet!

If you are interested in the full recipe, head on over to Valerie's blog.

Happy Baking!

TWD: Chocolate Ice Cream Tart

2011-04-06T15:16:00.000-07:00

One day Late:

I finally got this done. It took a lot for me to get this done. Between kid craft projects, play dates, playing at the park, and cleaning up after EVERYONE I got this done. It isn't pretty, but it is pretty good. I was a little disappointed that the edges of my crust got a little darker than I wanted. I probably should have covered the crust in tin foil as well as the base. I thought the crust would be hard, but when I tasted it, it was fine.

The original recipe was for Coffee ice cream. I don't love the coffee flavor, but of course I do love chocolate. After I had already made the crust I had a stroke of genius and thought it would be amazing with a butter pecan ice cream and replace the almonds in the crust with pecans. Seriously I have got to try that. I love the salty sweet taste of butter pecan icecream.

If you are interested in the recipe head on over to Domestice Deep Thought of the Day.

TWD: Pecan Powder Puffs

2011-03-29T14:59:00.000-07:00

We have all had these, I promise. Surely on a plate of Christmas goodies from a neighbor, a church function, or even a wedding. There is a reason we have all had them, they are delicious!

This was my first time making them and I was pleased at the ease I had throwing them together. What an easy make for such a delicious treat. My mother in law makes these, but in a crescent shape. They are beautiful. I am sure we established long ago that I am not a baker that easily makes the end result beautiful, but I can make it delicious. Since we knew what to expect with the taste I did change things up a bit just for fun. I covered half the cookies in powdered sugar per the recipe and then of course I can't make a treat without throwing some chocolate into the mix. I dipped the other half in chocolate. After tasting them my husbands comment was, "Why didn't you cover the whole thing in chocolate, this is good." So we were fans of the chocolate. Surprisingly so my kids liked the powdered sugar version better and I think I did too, but they were both delicious and I found myself popping one into my whenever I walked by. Yum!

My little gal always likes to make her presence in my pictures. Funny girl!

I think what makes these cookies so amazing is the amount of butter as well as the ground pecans mixed in as part of the base of the cookie. Pecans are such a sweet and soft nut packed full of flavor. You just can't go wrong.

If you want to give these beauties a try you can visit Buttercream Barbie for the recipe.

Buttermilk Oat Pancakes & Buttermilk Syrup

2011-03-17T09:39:00.000-07:00

These are our most favorite pancakes. I serve breakfast for dinner at least every other week around here and sometimes I even serve breakfast for breakfast. I know I am kind of a lazy mom and do cereal most mornings in order to get kids off to school and such. But sometimes I will make a double batch of these one morning and put them in the fridge and my kids have pancakes everyday (score!).

Two of my biggest issues with pancakes and well most breakfast food is 1 there are not enough good whole grains and 2 sugar. I don't like to start my kids and myself off with a big heaping amount of sugar. So this recipe certainly solves problem number one. It uses oats and wheat flour and very little oil and buttermilk as actually pretty good for you. It doesn't solve problem number 2 with the sugar intake. Every kid/adult loves syrup, right? Well we started about 4 years ago serving yogurt on our pancakes. Some do call us weird (uhum...Liz), but it makes me feel a little better about what is going in their mouths (let's get this straight, I am not perfect, we still have honey nut cheerios and frosted mini wheat's on the off days). I am not such a horrible mom that my kids never experience syrup on pancakes, they can have syrup on their last one if they want and lucky me sometimes they don't.

I found this recipe in our a church cookbook that was made last year on using oats.
Enjoy!!

Buttermilk Oat Pancakes

1 c rolled oats
1 c buttermilk
1 c wheat flour *see note at bottom
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c water
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 Tablespoons maple syrup
2 Tablespoons oil

Combine oats and buttermilk, let stand 15 min. Add flour, sugar, baking
powder, baking soda, and salt to oat buttermilk mixture. Mix together the water, egg, maple syrup, and oil. Add wet ingredients to flour/Oat mixture. Stir until blended. You can add more milk or water for consistency Pour on hot
griddle. (I use a 1/3 c batter to pour on griddle).

I 1 1/2 x or 2x this recipe for a family of 2 adults and 3 kids.

*note - with the flour, if I have wheat flour that has been ground from white wheat kernels I do the whole amount with wheat flour. If I only have wheat flour ground from red kernels I add either half or 3/4 wheat flour and half or 1/4 white flour. The taste and texture are just a little more doable for kids this way.

And after my spiel about sugary syrup if you are looking for an amazing syrup for your pancakes try this. Liz sent me the recipe and here is what she said about it.

Here's one more reason to buy buttermilk! I've been out of regular syrup and so I whipped this up this morning and I don't know if Mike will go back to Mrs. Butterworth!

Buttermilk Syrup
1 1/2 cups white sugar
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup butter
2 tablespoons corn syrup
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Directions
In a saucepan, stir together the sugar, buttermilk, butter, corn syrup, and baking soda. Bring to a boil, and cook for 7 minutes. Remove from the heat, and stir in the vanilla.

TWD-Citrus Sunshine Muffins

2011-03-15T08:46:00.000-07:00

Citrus Sunshine Muffins...sounds like Summer in a muffin to me! Winter has been LONG and COLD here in Utah and I am ready for some sunshine and warmer weather. Spring is definitely on the horizon but it doesn't seem like we've had very many days that make me believe it!

I made these goodies last night so my family could have them for breakfast this morning. I always have good intentions not to do the cold cereal thing for breakfast, but when you are trying to get 5 kids out the door to get kids to school it just isn't doable for me right now. I didn't have any currants but I did have some fresh blackberries so I added those to the batter. (You can see a little bit of blackberry in the front muffin.) The citrus smell was so fresh. I loved it! They smelled wonderful as they baked.

This morning I warmed them up and served them with a little butter. They were a huge hit. A big enough hit that my kids asked for more when they came home from school. I think we have a winner!

Check out the recipe on Bella Baker.

Until next week! Happy Baking!

TWD: Corniest Corn Muffins

2011-03-08T21:06:00.000-08:00

I loved these corn muffins! They came together quickly and were so delicious! I always love when muffins have buttermilk in them, you just can't go wrong. They're moist and flavorful and I can't wait to make them when corn is in season and I can use fresh corn.

My boys each at two and my big boy ate three at dinner tonight. Check out Jill's blog for the recipe!

TWD: Chocolate Pots de Creme

2011-03-07T05:01:00.000-08:00

In my mind, I have this dream that I'm like Ina Garten in the Barefoot Contessa and my dear friends come to my home to see what my next ingenius culinary creation will be. Then, we all sit around the table and enjoy the delights that emerged from my brilliant kitchen while we laugh and engage in extremely intelligent conversation. Then somebody spills the milk and one of the kids announces their extreme protest to the meal placed before them and I'm snapped instantly back to reality.

But last night, I got to live a little part of that dream. We had our sweet friends over and we had an actual conversation and minimal complaints from the kids as they were strategically placed in the other room at the "kids table".

The Chocolate Pots de Creme were the perfect finish to such a fun night!! They are so rich and creamy and amazingly delicious, better than most restaurant desserts!! Its definitely a new favorite at our house! Great pick Black Cat Cooking!! For the recipe, click here.

TWD-Toasted Almond Scones

2011-02-22T20:42:00.000-08:00

When we were discussing who would do which recipe this month, both Lizzie and April said this recipe sounded like a Whitney recipe. I completely agree. I love all things almond, especially almond flavored sweets. I also enjoy a good scone so this recipe seemed to have all the makings of a fabulous, keeper recipe.

They came together quickly, weren't too messy, and smelled wonderful baking in the oven. The texture was tender. In the end I was a little disappointed in the lack of the almond extract flavor. The toasted almonds overpowered everything else. I will make them again but will use more almond extract. I enjoyed mine warm with some butter and some homemade peach jam that I canned this past Summer. It was delish! My kids enjoyed them as an after-school snack.

If you want to give the Toasted Almond Scones a try, Mike at Living Out West has the full recipe. Until next week...

Happy Baking!

TWD: Chocolate Oatmeal Drops

2011-02-15T15:41:00.000-08:00

These were a surprisingly delicious make. They came together quickly (which I love these days) and they were very enticing. I think the first pan of a new recipe of cookies are always an experiment. After pulling out the first batch from the oven and finding them flat and crispy (still yummy though) I decided to make the cookies smaller than the tablespoon recommended. More like a large teaspoon and I lessened the baking time to 10 min. They were perfect. Still thin (however that is how I think they are supposed to be) but very chewy and rich rich rich. I loved the hint of cinnamon. The kids gobbled up their portions and asked for more. These were a scrumptious treat.

I thought it would be fun to include this picture. Sometimes I think the blogging world looks a little too perfect and unreal. Beautiful and the pictures and creative stories are amazing (not mine really, but others). I think most lives are not really that perfect and here is the proof. Who doesn't need a blue sparkly seahorse gracing their pictures? I do, always! So my lovelies think!

If you want to make these rich little chocolaty cookies you can visit Caroline and Claire of the blog Bake with Us. Happy Baking!

TWD: Lemon Poppy Seed Muffin

2011-01-18T19:48:00.000-08:00

I've been gone from Celestial Confections through the holidays and it's nice to be back. I LOVE lemon and these muffins were a perfect treat. I made them a couple of years ago and they were dry, I must have done something wrong. I made them again and I must have done something right! They were moist, yummy, lemony and devoured by all! They came together quickly and the glaze on top was perfect! Sorry for the lack of pictures, but check out A Cup of Sweetness for complete recipe and pictures.

A more interesting post next time...I promise.

TWD- Midnight Crackle Cookies

2011-01-04T16:20:00.000-08:00

For the 3rd Anniversary of Tuedsays With Dorie, Laurie (who started this all), picked Midnight Crackle Cookies. These were wonderful little cookies! They came together in a snap and were enjoyed warm, out of the oven with a tall glass of cold milk. A little crispy on the outside and nice and chewy on the inside. I will definitely make these again and want to try the variation with ginger. Thank you Laurie for the great pick and for starting this great group. We started about 9 months into the group and have loved baking along every month and look forward to finishing this great book.
Happy Baking!!

TWD-Rewind My Best Chocolate Chip Cookie

2010-12-28T21:19:00.000-08:00

Well, last week was actually my week to post but I didn't. I had great intentions to make the Cardamom Crumb Cake, but with it being the week of Christmas my good intentions never actually got me into the kitchen to bake. This year I didn't spend the month of December baking away like I usually do. Maybe it has something to do with the baby weight that is haunting me! If I know homemade baked goods are near, I have a hard time resisting so instead I don't bake. That said, I will definitely still make the Cardamom Crumb Cake as it sounds wonderful.

For the TWD Rewind week, I took the simple route and decided on a cookie. For Christmas this year I got a Cuisinart Food Processor so I wanted to see how it can handle cookie dough. The thought had never even occurred to make cookie dough in a food processor. When I was reading through the recipe booklet there were multiple cookie recipes so, I decided to give Dorie's My Best Chocolate Chip Cookie a try in the Cuisinart. I have made the cookies before in my KitchenAid and have thought they were a very good chocolate chip cookie.

Mixing the dough in the Cuisinart was definitely different. My guess is it will take some time to figure out the best way to do it. The butter and sugar had a hard time "creaming" and by the time I added the chocolate chips it seemed that the dough was too wet so I added an extra 1/2 cup of flour. Even then it was still warm so I decided to chill the dough before baking them. I think that if I had put them in the oven straight from the Cuisinart, I would have had pancakes instead of cookies on the tray! After 15 minutes in the freezer the dough was the perfect consistency and they baked up into a soft and chewy cookie. I believe my first attempt of cookies in the Cuisinart was a success!

Because of the late hour, I am not even going to attempt my own pictures of the cookies. I know the lighting would be horrible and I would just frustrate myself. So, I'll share the lovely photo from Kait's Plate, the original host for this recipe.

Photo from Kait's Plate

If you want to give Dorie's chocolate chip cookies a try, the recipe for My Best Chocolate Chip Cookies can be found here.

Until next week/next year...Happy Baking!

TWD: Apple-Coconut Family Cake

2010-12-14T15:29:00.000-08:00

This was a fun Dorie make. It was easy enough to put together. I love apples and coconut, I do not usually put them together so it was fun try this duo out. The presentation of the cake is lovely. The texture ended up similar to a cake my mother-in-law makes called Belgium cake which is made with cooked oatmeal. I added pecans which made the cake for me. The nuttiness (is that a word?) matched the apple and coconut perfectly. I am not a fan of jam in/on desserts so I did not use apple jam for the topping. After tasting it I decided it definitely needed a topping. So we pulled out the caramel syrup and that worked wonderfully. Next time I will make a homemade caramel sauce. Overall this cake was quite tasty, the kind of cake where when you walk by you take a bite. My kids or husband were not huge fans, but I snacked on it through the afternoon.

If are interested in making this you can visit Amber of Cobbler du Monde for the recipe.

birthday cakes

2010-12-02T11:53:00.000-08:00

We have had a few birthdays within the last month or so. Here are a few pictures of the different cakes made.

Liz made this one. There were lots of boy cousins who had birthdays in September, so here is their collective cake. Nothing special, except a million candles. There was a 12 year old and three 3 year old boys.

Here is my little guys cake from his birthday in October. He turned 2.

His second cake. We were on vacation during his birthday. Family wanted to celebrate so we had a second more simple cake. Turns out candles kind of freak him out.

This cake was a bear to make. While it has MANY embarassing imperfections I am still oddly proud of myself for finishing it. My 7 year old was so excited about it. We had a under the sea birthday party for her so the mermaid went well with the theme.

Just a fun thanksgiving craft that I made with the kids. My 7 year old could make these all day, my 4 year old made two and ate one, my 2 year old just ate the fixings for the turkeys with pure joy and satisfaction. Holidays are so fun with kids.

TWD: Cranberry Lime Galette

2010-11-16T07:42:00.000-08:00

After a little over two years of enjoying Tuesdays with Dorie it is finally our turn to host. The three of us....Elizabeth, Whitney, and myself (April) decided to go with the fall theme. We were able to work out all our schedules and get together last week and bake this beautiful dessert.

There is nothing like fresh cranberries they have such great color and flavor. The holidays just aren't the same with out them.

After mixing all the ingredients together for the filling it smelled so good! It was hard to stay away from that area of the kitchen. Anytime one of us walked past we could not help but hover over the the cranberry ginger bliss!

It was even better baked. First off Dorie's crust recipe is AMAZING. Everyone has their tried and true crust and this beat mine out of the water. It was so buttery and delicious. I would have been happy with just the crust. Then for the wonderful cranberry, ginger, lime filling. When baked it melted in your mouth. We split the dessert three ways sending a third home with each of us. Later we learned that very little if any was shared with husbands or children. Two of us even ate it for breakfast the next day and guilt free may I add. It was so delicious and is sure to be made again, very soon...if not this week definitely for Thanksgiving. We hope everyone else enjoyed this as much as we did.

We also made another version with pears, cinnamon, orange zest, and cranberries. It too was delicious, but I did use a store bought crust, which was a big mistake and did not compare at all with Dorie's crust.

Cranberry Lime Galette (pg 364)

Good for Almost Everything Pie Dough for a single crust (pg 442), chilled
3 TBsp ground nuts (walnuts, almonds, pecans or skinned hazelnuts)
3 TBsp dry bread crumbs (unseasoned, store bought)
2 cups cranberries, fresh or frozen (let thaw and pat dry)
1 medium apple, peeled, cored, and cut into 1/2 inch chunks
1/2 cup moist, plump dried cranberries (optional)
3/4 cup (packed) light brown sugar
a 1 1/2-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
grated zest of 1 lime
juice of 1/2 lime
3 Tbsp raspberry jam or jelly

decorating (coarse) or granulated sugar, for dusting
confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment (see below) or a silicone mat.
To make it easier to move the pie dough onto the baking sheet, roll it between sheets of parchment (in which case, you can use one of the rolling sheets to line the baking sheet) or wax paper or plastic wrap. Alternatively, work on a well-floured surface, taking care to keep the dough moving by turning it and flouring the surface often.
Roll the dough into a large 1/8-inch circle. Using a pastry wheel or a paring knife, trim the dough to a 13-inch diameter. Transfer the dough to the baking sheet and keep it covered in the refrigerator while you make the filling.
Mix together the nuts and bread crumbs.
Toss together the remaining ingredients (except the decorating and confectioners' sugars for dusting) in a bowl, stirring just to mix.

Good for Everything Pie Crust

1 1/2 c. all purpose flour

2 Tbs. sugar

3/4 tsp. salt

1 1/4 stick (10 Tbs.) very cold (frozen is fine) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-sized pieces

2 1/2 Tbs. very cold (frozen is even better) vegetable shortening, cut into 2 pieces

about 1/4 c. ice water

Put the flour, sugar and salt into a food processor fitted with a metal blade; pulse just to combine the ingredients. Drop in the butter and shortening and pulse only until butter and shortening are cut into the flour. Don't overdo the mixing- what you're aiming for is to have some pieces the size of fat green peas and others the size of barley. Pulsing the machine one and off, gradually add about 3 Tbs. of water. Add a little water and pulse once, add some more water, pulse again and keep going that way. Then use a few long pulses to get the water into the flour. If, after a dozen or so pulses, the dough doesn't look evenly moistened to form soft curds, pulse in as much of the remaining water as necessary, or even a few drops more, to get a dough that will stick together when pinched. Big pieces of butter are fine. Scape the dough out of the work bowl onto a work surface.

Shape dough into a ball and then flatten into a disk and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate the dough for at least one hour before rolling. (If your ingredients were very cold and you worked quickly, you might be able to roll the dough immediately: the dough should be as cold as if it had just come out of the fridge.)

Remove the crust from the refrigerator. Using a cake pan or pot lid as a template and the tip of a blunt kitchen knife as a marker, gently trace a 9-inch circle in center of the dough--this is the area for the filling. Sprinkle the center circle with the nut and crumb mixture and top with the filling. Now gently lift the unfilled border of dough up and onto the filling: as you lift the dough and place it on the filing, it will pleat. Brush the dough very lightly with a little water, then sprinkle it with a teaspoon or two of decorating or granulated sugar.

Bake the galette for 35-40 minutes, or until the crust is brown, the cranberries have popped and the filling is bubbling. Place the baking sheet on a rack to cool for 10 minutes.
Very carefully slide a small baking sheet or a cake lifter under the galette and slip the galette onto a rack to cool. Serve the galette with it is just warm or when it has reached room temperature, lightly dusted with confectioners' sugar.

Molasses Cookies

2010-11-15T21:38:00.000-08:00

I LOVE ginger cookies and had been on the lookout for a fabulous recipe for quite some time. I found this one a couple of years ago and it has become a favorite. It is perfectly chewy on the inside with a little crisp ring around the outside. When I made them with my kids last week, I had a very proud parenting moment. I had my 5-year-old smell the ginger and asked her what spice it was. Without hesitation she smiled and said, "Ginger!" That's my girl!

Molasses Cookies

1 cup butter, soft

2 3/4 cups sugar

1/2 cup molasses

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

a pinch of allspice, nutmeg and cloves

extra sugar for rolling

Cream together butter and sugar until fluffy. Add molasses, eggs, and vanilla. Sift together remaining dry ingredients and add, mixing until just combined. Refrigerate dough at least a half hour. Shape dough into balls, roll in sugar, and place on parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 15-18 minutes at 275°F or until cookies are cracked on top. Cool on the sheet.

Scrumptuous Cake

2010-11-15T19:03:00.000-08:00

My sister-in-law asked if I would be willing to create a cake and post on the blog, so here it goes for the first time ever!

I love making cakes and I'll take any excuse I can to make one. The cake I decided to do is two layers. One a classic white and the other a rich dark chocolate with semi-sweet chocolate chips added to the batter. I filled the cake with a dark chocolate syrup and marshmallow cream. Yummy, yummy. I used a basic vanilla frosting to cover the cake and decorated it with dark chocolate shavings, sugar beads and the same vanilla frosting tinted blue. I used tip #2D to add the swirl across the top.

Some cake baking tips that I have learned:
1. Always place wax paper at the bottom of your pan so that you have a flat surface for layering and decorating.

2. Give your layers a "tummy tuck" by inverting them on a cooling rack right after they come out of the oven. This helps to decrease the bulge on top.

3. Make your layers before hand so that they can be frozen. Pull them out of the freezer in the morning if you are going to work on them that afternoon. The cakes stay moist and are much easier to work with. (keep in mind that you need to let them thaw a little. Working with a frozen cake is like trying to work with a rock)

4. When torting and filling the cake put a dam around the edge to prevent the filling from oozing out the sides.

5. Place a little bit of frosting on your cake board so that the cake stays in place and does not slide all around.

Snickerdoodle Blondies

2010-11-14T22:31:00.000-08:00

Okay, yes, you heard me, a snickerdoodle blondie bar. I had these at my friend Alexis' house. She introduced me to the blog cjaneinthekitchen where there is a much more attractive picture of these delicious goodies. I made a batch of these and rushed off to deliver half of them to a friend who just had a baby. Came home and found this....

the crust. While it still looks delectable I am a little dissappointed not to give you a pic of just how wonderful these are. Apparently my husband had to fight off little fingers to save just these morsels for me. If you give this recipe a try, put it in a 9x13 pan (the recipe doesn't specify). I didn't use any vanilla or cinnamon in the glaze because I knew they were cinnamon-packed and I wanted to keep the contrast - you can use white vanilla if you want though. Mmmmmm...they were so good - even just the crusts :)

Easy and Delicious Cheesecake

2010-11-14T19:37:00.000-08:00

Okay so there are a million recipes out there for a million different types of cheesecake and admittedly I probably would love all of them. What I like about this one is that it is so insanely easy that anyone can do it. It does not require a springform pan, water bathing, an hour of baking, or even eggs. So easy and it works every time.

I acquired this recipe at a church function a few years ago and we have loved it ever since. Especially my husband. Sometimes, I bake them in ramekins, cover them and freeze. Then my hubby can pull one out at will on a Sunday evening and enjoy a treat when I have not baked.

Easy and Delicious Cheesecake

1 (8 oz) pkg. cream cheese
1/4 c. lemon juice
1 c. sour cream
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 prepared graham cracker crust (if you make your own, add a little cinnamon)

1. Beat or food process cream cheese until very smooth.
2. Add everything else. Mix until well combined.
3. Pour into prepared graham cracker crust. Bake at 350 for 10-15 min - just until it is barely set.
4. Refrigerate for a few hours or freeze until cold (30 min?)

Enjoy with fresh or frozen fruit
(we just used frozen blueberries and the blueberries and cinnamon in the crust were a seriously good combo)

Mike's new birthday cake!

2010-11-12T21:47:00.000-08:00

Ever since Mike was a child, he has requested German Chocolate cake for his birthday; however, the last few years he requested this chocolate beauty! I have to admit, it's wonderful and amazing, and the confession....it includes a cake mix (gasp)!!!
I beg you not to be a cake mix snob and just make this cake, if only once! It's decadent, rich, and delicious. Mike likes it best the next day when it's been chilled, I prefer it warm with a dollop of whipped cream on top.

Chocolate Bundt Cake

1 dark chocolate cake mix

1 small box instant chocolate pudding

¾ c. oil

¾ c. water

4 eggs

1 c. sour cream

4 oz. cream cheese

1 12oz. package semi-sweet chocolate chips

Mix all ingredients until smooth. Pour into greased and floured Bundt pan. Bake at 350 for one hour. After cooling, drizzle with chocolate ganache and caramel.

Chocolate ganache glaze:

½ c .heavy cream

½ Tbs. butter

1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Over medium-low heat, bring cream and butter to boil. Pour over chocolate chips and mix until smooth.

TWD-Not-Just-For-Thanksgiving Cranberry Shortbread Cake

2010-11-09T19:35:00.000-08:00

I love Fall baking! I love cranberries, pumpkin, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg. The smell of something-warm- and-tasty-in-the-oven filling the house is heavenly. It seems that the cool Fall weather finally hit us in Utah this week. On Saturday, it was a beautiful 70 degrees and we were working in the yard in t-shirts. This morning, we woke up to SNOW! So the chilly weather was just perfect to pop this lovely little dessert in to the oven.

We had grand plans to do a double baking day at April's house today, but Lizzie's kiddos were sick so April and I got together to bake today, and we are all gathering on Friday to bake for next week. We missed you Liz!

This was a simple recipe to prepare. I made the "jam" while April made the dough. The "jam" was wonderful, a little too tart for our tastes so we added a bit more sugar when it was done cooking. I might just use it as a cranberry sauce recipe for Thanksgiving, it was that good. The dough came together quickly and it was easy to see what Dorie meant when she said the dough was a delicate one. After chilling the dough we assembled the cake in the springform pan. It was a tricky dough to work with. For the bottom layer we rolled it out a little and then pressed it into the bottom of the pan with our hands. After putting the filling in, the challenge came in putting the top layer on. It rolled out alright, but was hard to put on without having it crack. So, we ended with a bit of a rustic top layer.

When it came out of the oven it smelled wonderful! I sent a piece with April and then kept the rest here. My hubby loved it and he isn't normally a huge cranberry fan. He said that he liked the contrast between the sweet shortbread and the tangy cranberry filling. I thought it was a wonderfully simple dessert and will definitely make it again. It will be fun to play around with the fillings too. If you are interested in the full recipe, head on over to Jessica's blog. She also did the apple version and has some beautiful pictures as well.

Next week we it is finally our week to host TWD! We are super excited and are getting together on Friday to bake up a storm. Leading up to our hosting day, we are going to post some of our favorite recipes. So, until next week, Happy Baking!

TWD: Double Apple Bundt Cake

2010-10-05T12:07:00.000-07:00

Welcome Fall!! Some of the best baking happens during the fall. It competes pretty evenly with Christmas. The picks for this month for Tuesdays with Dorie (TWD) are fabulous. Or at least fabulous sounding. I made the Double Apple Bundt Cake. Dorie spoke VERY highly of this cake. She even said that you can go ahead and put a blue ribbon on it, because it will beat out any apple cake at the county fair (or something like that). So expectations were high.

sorry, it was getting dark.

This did not disappoint. It was delicious. It calls for two shredded apples as well as apple butter. So the apple flavor comes through nicely. It had the perfect mixture of spices. I am pretty sensitive to spices so if there is a smidge too much of one spice I can taste it and it bugs me. This was perfect. I must say my favorite part about this apple cake which makes it stand out above other apple cakes was the icing. The icing was fresh lemon juice mixed with powdered sugar. It added just the right amount of tart to such a sweet dessert. I did double the amount of icing though, which still isn't much.

I must admit, while this apple cake did not disappoint it did not earn the blue ribbon according to my taste buds. I have been using Aunt Lyn's apple butter cake for the last three years and I am hooked. Even though blue ribbon goes to The Apple Butter Cake I truly enjoyed the Double Apple Bundt Cake. Dorie's cake is surely much more beautiful in presentation and the taste is stellar, but the butter cake has a warm sweet butter sauce poured on top that warms you right up. I am positive it will be made this fall and most likely posted on....so look for the recipe.

If you are interested in this delicious Bundt you can visit Lynne of Honey Muffin

Happy Baking!

TWD-Tarte Fine

2010-09-28T19:55:00.000-07:00

Apples and puff pastry. The two are a magical combination. I threw this beauty together in 15 or so minutes and a half-hour later had a great little Autumn dessert for me and Josh after the kiddos were in bed. I did the sweet and buttery version and it hit the spot. The simplicity sealed the deal and made this a real winner. I was too tired to do any pictures tonight so if you want the recipe and some lovely pictures, head on over to Lethally Delicious where Leslie has some great tips as well as pictures of the finished tarte.

TWD: Peanut Butter Crisscrosses

2010-09-07T15:49:00.000-07:00

A delicious classic cookie. Kids love it. I love it and I am guessing that my hubby will love it too.

If you want to check out this Dorie recipe you can visit Jasmine of Jasmine Cuisine.
Happy Baking!

TWD-Crunchy and Custardy Peach Tart

2010-08-24T18:03:00.000-07:00

Well, it's my turn to do TWD this week and lucky me, my turn this month ended up falling on my birthday. Yes, today I am one year older. I'm still not quite sure what to think of birthdays at this stage of my life, but I can say that it has been a pretty good day.

This tart sounded divine when I first read the recipe. There is nothing quite like the perfect peach and I absolutely love things that are almond flavored so I knew this combination would be something very "Whitney" and therefore be a perfect birthday treat. I also love Dorie's Sweet Tart Dough. It is the perfect crust.

Everything came together quickly. I loved that the custard didn't have to be cooked on it's own and that it cooked right along with the rest of the tart. My only complaint came with my peaches. You see, peach season in Utah hits it's peak in September. That is when they are about the best thing you could eat on the planet earth. I made the mistake of buying them at the grocery store, mid-August, from California. They were gross, mealy and unripe so I made another trip to a local fruit stand and got some Brigham City peaches. Although they weren't quite perfectly ripe, they were much better than the alternative.

I have yet to taste this wonderful creation. My sweet hubby is on his way home from work right now, we have a great friend on her way over to watch the kiddos and we can go out to dinner. I think one of the best "presents" is to not cook dinner on my birthday, especially when cooking for kids. I love them dearly but sometimes it is pulling teeth to get them to try new things.

Sorry for the tangent. I will be treating myself to a nice slice when we get home from dinner tonight. If you're interested in the full recipe, head on over to sweet tarte. Until next time, Happy Baking!

TWD: Oatmeal Breakfast Bread

2010-08-17T09:27:00.000-07:00

I love crumb toppings. They can make any bread good. What a moist little bread. This bread has the perfect amount of spices. They give the bread a little deliciousness, but they are not overpowering. I used dried apricots which work well with the cinnamon, nutmeg,and cloves flavors.

I made mini loaves, because they are so cute and fun. That way I don't over eat and I can give some to neighbors and friends. I am off to go do deliver some goodies to neighbors.

If you are interested in this recipe you can visit Natalie of Oven Love. Happy Baking!

TWD: Chewy, Chunky Blondies

2010-07-27T14:21:00.000-07:00

This was a fun make. Mainly because my sister, Rachael, was in town and visited for one day and we hung out, chatted, and made these chewy chunky blondies. We were happy to have the company of KT (sister-in-law), but Whit was regrettably out of town.

I must admit two things with this recipe. First....I did not personally make the recipe. I don't know what I was doing. Cleaning up lunch or something. Rachael made these blondies. And secondly...We were talking a lot and maybe not paying as much attention to our baking. These were yummy....come on they are full of chocolate and toffee....yum, but I don't think they were as fluffy as they should have been. We may have undercooked them. Or missed something else... I don't know.

The kids inhaled them. We might have inhaled a few too many too. So even with getting a little less attention these blondies still turned out decent.

Note: We added skor toffee bars instead of the butterscotch chips. I think it would be delicious either way.

If you are interested in trying these blondies out head on over to Cookies on Friday. Happy Baking!

Also: Liz posted an apple crostada recipe she made about a month ago. I made the same recipe, but with blueberries. Yum! It looked super fancy too. I thought I would post a picture as well.

TWD-Brrrr-ownies

2010-07-13T09:10:00.000-07:00

Brownies. Who doesn't like brownies? Especially brownies and mint. One of my all-time favorite brownie recipes is for what I called As Good as BYU Mint Brownies but have more recently started to refer to as Magnificent Mint Brownies. They really are magnificent and I am always asked for the recipe when I take them to any event.

I got a little sidetracked here! Back to this weeks Brrr-ownies. I thought I had double checked to make sure I had all the ingredients but when I went to make them I realized I didn't have any unsweetened baking chocolate so instead I used Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa Powder. I used 3 T cocoa power and 1 T vegetable oil for each ounce. I don't think it made any difference in the final product. These came together quickly and I loved that it was a one bowl deal.

My hubby said they were "stellar" and he would definitely want me to make them again. I liked that they were fudgy with little mint surprises mixed throughout.

Because I used the dark cocoa powder, my brownies came out nearly black! That said, they weren't much to look at so I didn't even bother taking a picture because I don't think any amount of "dressing up" would have made them look appetizing. The photo would not have done the brownie justice as to how good it really was. Next time around I will definitely use normal cocoa powder.

This will be another Dorie recipe that will go into my favorite recipes. I saw some people used peanut butter cups instead of peppermint patties so I think the next time I give these a try that is what I will use. If you're interested in the recipe and some great photos head here.

Until next time, Happy Baking!

Cinnamon Roll Trick

2010-07-05T22:02:00.000-07:00

Cinnamon rolls are one of our favorites around here. Definitely a special occasion treat. I will admit making these babies has taken a little practice and a good amount of instruction from a few baking experts (aka:mothers and mother like figures, susie). Last fall Liz and I had a bake off to see whose cinnamon roll recipe was better. I cannot really say who won, because I am pretty sure that we had too many kids in one house to be able to properly pay attention to our rolls. Sometimes mothers do too much at one. Both turned out great and I think we are both partial to our own recipes and our husbands are definitely partial to their own wife's recipes. So really with no clear judge who is to pronounce the winner? Can you really go wrong with cinnamon and sugar with fresh rolls. NO WAY!!

Okay so not to tempt and leave no recipe, but out of request from the owner of my cinnamon roll recipe I have agreed not to share her recipe. However I will share with you one of my favorite tips that you can use with your cinnamon roll recipe.

First off here is my average cinnamon roll. Yummy!

My favorite tip is: Make your own homemade caramel sauce and pour on top of chopped pecans in your pan before adding your cinnamon rolls and after it bakes flip them over and enjoy AMAZING caramel pecan rolls, which we happen to like better than regular. And if you want you can make it easier and even just pour in some store bought caramel icecream topping (blasphemy, I know....store bought) over your pecans and you will still be in heaven. Enjoy!

Barefoot Contessa's Crostata

2010-07-03T20:17:00.000-07:00

I think I'm in love! A few weeks ago a friend of mine passed along Barefoot Contessa's Apple Crostata recipe. I made it and loved it, seriously loved it! The crust is so easy to throw together in my food processor and it's buttery and flakey. The apples with the orange zest--a great combination.

A couple of weeks later, I stumbled upon BC's recipe for her Summer Fruit Crostata. It's truly heavenly. I omitted the plums and made it with peaches and blueberries and it was wonderful! So delicious, beautiful, and packed full of flavor.

Check out the apple recipe as well as the summer fruit version and hopefully you'll enjoy as much as we did!

TWD-Dressy Chocolate Loafcake

2010-06-22T16:38:00.000-07:00

This weeks TWD recipe was for Dressy Chocolate Loaf Cake. When I read the recipe I knew this was going to be a winner and it did not disappoint. This simple recipe was rich and moist and just an all-around wonderful cake. The sour cream in the cake makes it moist and in the frosting makes the chocolate a bit tangy. It was a great combination.

Our friends came over for Sunday night dessert and they couldn't stop talking about how good it was and I have to agree. This is a definite keeper. For the full recipe, which you won't want to pass up, head on over to Amy Ruth Bakes.

Happy Baking!

TWD: Raisin Swirl Bread

2010-06-14T21:40:00.000-07:00

I LOVE raisin bread! It is such a treat in our house, only you can have it for breakfast and feel okay about it.

I made two loaves of this bread. My kids and husband don't like raisins so I did one loaf with and I couldn't bear going without them myself so I did a second laof with raisins. Hands down the loaf with raisins was better. I made the mistake of cutting the bread and eating it while warm, because I think bread is best when it is warm. It kind of fell apart and the flavor did not pop. This bread was best after it cooled and then toasted and buttered. I loved it so much I think this is what I ate for all three meals for two days. Let's just say I am not counting carbs. Yum!

My dough did not look as Dorie described it (satiny). It looked like most roll dough does, but it still turned out great. I loved that the sugar and cinnamon were pre measured so I let my 4 year old sprinkle the cinnamon and sugar on top. It was a fun make, but it did take time. It wasn't too difficult, but as always for homemade bread you have rising times and such.

My little guy woke up from his nap in my last stages of baking so I set him on the counter and let him play with the flour. At first he wasn't too happy about getting flour all over himself, but he quickly got over it.

If you want to give this a try you can go over to food.baby for the recipe.

As Good as BYU Brownies

2010-06-13T19:32:00.000-07:00

Many of the Bakers on celestial confections attended BYU for our undergraduate degrees. And those that did not have had their fill of BYU experiences as Mom and Dad Alumni took us there many times as children. One specialty BYU has are their brownies....both regular and mint. And if you have not noticed chocolate is kind of the main squeeze around our house. So a good brownie is essential. Whitney found this recipe....I am not sure where, but she has been making it for years and shared it with all of us. These babies will not last 24 hours in your house...I promise!

As Good As BYU Brownies

Brownies
2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
4 eggs
1/2 cocoa powder
2 sticks butter
1/2 tsp salt

Chocolate Frosting
4 T butter
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2 cups powdered sugar
2 T milk
1 tsp vanilla

Mint Frosting
4 T butter
2 T evaporated milk
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp peppermint or mint extract

Chocolate Glaze
6 T butter
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Brownies
Cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs one at
a time. Add flour, cocoa powder and salt. Spray
9x13 pan with cooking spray and bake at 350
degrees for 28 minutes. (The 28 minutes is very
important according to the owner of the recipe.)

-April note: I have made these before when they ended up dry. This time I added a smidge less flour and a tiny bit extra cocoa powder and underbaked them slightly. They turned out fabulous. Do what you need to bakers!

Frostings-
Mix all together

Glaze
Melt at low heat in microwave stirring frequently.

For regular brownies just use the chocolate
frosting. For mint brownies chill with mint frosting
before spreading glaze on top.

White Chocolate Brownies

2010-06-01T10:47:00.000-07:00

What a delicious little treat! I thought these brownies came together quickly and I loved the taste of almond, orange, and raspberries. They seemed more like a cake than a brownie, but they had great flavor. I'm not a huge meringue fan and next time I would probably omit the meringue. I'm not sure if I would just dust them with powdered sugar or top them with cream.

If you want the full recipe check out Marthe at Culinary Delight.

The Best Oatmeal Cookies!

2010-05-31T16:32:00.000-07:00

April mentioned the other day that I should really post more about the baking happening in my kitchen. Right now, it's happening a little too often! We have gone through 4 lbs. of butter in less than three weeks! I'd feel better if I was taking all these baked yummies to others, but we're currently residing in Ohio for the summer where we hardly know people, so we've consoled ourselves with cookies, cakes, breads, brownies, etc.

This is one of our favorite cookies! A few years ago I was on a quest for the perfect oatmeal raisin cookie and I made lots and lots of cookies trying to find the perfect one. I think I ended up combining a few recipes and came up with this. I took them to a Memorial Day picnic and people were literally fighting over them! Make a batch today, your family with love love love you!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

3 eggs beaten

1 c. raisins

1 t. vanilla

1 c. butter

1 c. brown sugar

1 c. sugar

2 ½ c. flour

1 t. salt

2 t. baking soda

2 c. rolled oats (old fashioned, not instant)

1 c. pecans (optional)

Combine 3 eggs, raisins and vanilla, cover and let sit for 1 hour (sounds gross, but it helps soften the raisins). Cream butter, sugar and brown sugar. Add flour, salt and baking soda. Then stir in raisin mixture and oats being careful not to over mix. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes.

May cooks

2010-05-28T14:23:00.000-07:00

We had a birthday this month. 4 years old and she is such a big girl now. Here are some pictures of her birthday bakes.

Flower cupcakes

Butterfly cake

This was my mother's day pick for a dessert. My cute husband made me a no bake rocky road cheesecake. He did a fabulous job. It was super rich. Love that guy!

Here is the recipe from kraft foods.

Rocky Road No-Bake Cheesecake

What You Need!3 squares BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate, divided 2 pkg. (8 oz. each) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened 1/3 cup sugar 1/4 cup milk 2 cups thawed COOL WHIP Whipped Topping 3/4 cup JET-PUFFED Miniature Marshmallows 1/3 cup chopped PLANTERS COCKTAIL Peanuts 1 OREO Pie Crust (6 oz.) Make It!
MICROWAVE 1 of the chocolate squares in small microwaveable bowl on HIGH 1 min; stir until chocolate is completely melted. Set aside.

BEAT cream cheese, sugar and milk in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add melted chocolate; mix well. Gently stir in whipped topping, marshmallows and peanuts. Coarsely chop remaining 2 chocolate squares; stir into cream cheese mixture. Spoon into crust.

REFRIGERATE 4 hours or until set. Store leftover pie in refrigerator.
Kraft Kitchens TipsSize-WiseSince this indulgent cheesecake makes 10 servings, it is the perfect dessert to serve at your next party. How to Soften Cream CheesePlace completely unwrapped packages of cream cheese on microwaveable plate. Microwave on HIGH 15 to 20 sec. or until slightly softened.

Ed's Caramelitas

2010-05-17T14:24:00.000-07:00

I am still not positive who Ed is, but he is a genius. This is a sinful caramel bar. It has caramel, chocolate chips, and nuts sandwhiched between a oat butter cookie mixture. A must have recipe. No human can eat just one (well, maybe our Dad, definitely not me).

Ed's Caramelitas

32 Kraft caramels
10 T heavy cream
¾ c. brown sugar
¾ c. melted butter
1 c. flour
1 c. quick oats
1 t. baking soda
6 oz. chocolate chips
½ c. chopped nuts

1.Melt caramels in cream on double broiler. Set aside.
2. Mix melted butter, brown sugar, oats, flour and soda.
3. Divide mixture in half. Press ½ into well greased 8x11 pan.
4. Bake 10 minutes at 350°.
5. Remove and sprinkle chocolate chips right away, then nuts. Drizzle caramel mixture on top. Top with remaining crumb mixture.
6. Bake 15-20 min at 350°

Let these caramelitas set up for a while before cutting or they will be too gooey to cut into bars. Or you could just grab a fork and dig in….I won't tell anyone.

TWD- Quick Classic Berry Tart

2010-05-11T16:11:00.000-07:00

Fresh fruit tarts are one of my all-time favorite desserts so I jumped at the chance to make this! Two weekends ago we had Hasler siblings in town from all over the country to celebrate blessing baby Rosie and baby Eli. At our gathering on Saturday night, I brought Dorie's Quick Classic Berry Tart. It was a huge hit!

I think the title is a bit misleading because I certainly wouldn't call this a quick dessert. I used Dorie's sweet tart dough for the crust and received many compliments as to the flavor and texture of it. Pastry cream comes together quickly, but then has to cool down before the tart can be assembled. Once you have all the parts prepared, it is easy to put them all together and serve. So I guess in that respect it could be considered quick.

I chose to top it with strawberries and blackberries. There is something just perfect about the combination of a crisp, sugary crust, smooth pastry cream and fresh, sweet berries. There wasn't any left when we went home. It was that good. The kids wanted some but I had dubbed this a dessert for the adults. I'm sure the kids would have gobbled it up and loved it, but they wouldn't have appreciated it the way the adults did.

This is a recipe I am sure to make time and time again. It is that good. If you're interested in the complete recipe, check out Cooking With Cristine.

TWD: Burnt Sugar Icecream ....not really

2010-05-04T14:49:00.001-07:00

Well....I must say I gave this one a try. Maybe too much of a try. I am sorry to say I am done trying to make this Dorie treat. It sounds incredibly delicious. I was curious to see how it turned out. However for the life of me I could not get the caramel mixture to turn to that nice amber color Dorie speaks of. Very frustrating. I have made homemade caramels before and been successful, but not this time I guess. Sometimes making my TWD the day of doesn't work out so well. I can't take my time as much as I would like. After three batches of what ended up as dry white chunks instead of amber thick liquid I decided my kitchen was a mess my kids have been plopped down in front of the TV for too long while my attempts failed. I think this ice cream session is over and maybe will resume another time. Off to play with my kids or weed in the yard. I hope the other and surely better TWD bakers did much better than me.

For pictures of the real deal which I am sure was spectacular you can visit Becky at Project Domestication.

TWD: Chockablock Cookies

2010-04-27T21:53:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been a couple of months since I last did a TWD post. Our sweet baby girl was born March 1st and the past two months have been a bit crazy at our house as we adjusted to life with a baby again.

We did our monthly TWD Dessert Night a few weeks ago and I chose to bring the Chockablock Cookies. When I read the recipe I was intrigued and wondered what these cookies would be like. I had high expectations and hoped they would be just fabulous, but ended up thinking they were just OK. I think that was the overall consensus of the group. I really love molasses but felt that the molasses flavor was far too strong. It was worth a try but these cookies won't be ones I will make again. If I'm going to make cookies, I'm making ones that I know will be a hit.

I wasn't going to be the one to post on these, but Liz is making her way across the country with her little family for a summer internship so I decided, last minute, to fill in for her. I didn't take any pictures because I wasn't going to post. So, if you really want pictures, head on over to Popsicles and Sandy Feet, where Mary has pictures and the full-recipe.

TWD: Sweet Cream Biscuits

2010-04-18T21:12:00.000-07:00

Well....I realize it has been a good long time since we have posted a Tuesday with Dorie. Some recipes have been made and not posted on. I guess life gets busy with new babies in most houses here on Celestial Confections and I really have no excuse other than life is still busy even without a baby in my life. Anyhow I am finally posting about a delicious recipe.

I think our home has been overloaded with treats lately so it was a nice change to make biscuits for my Tuesday with Dorie. I was shocked that these biscuits were so flaky and delicious even without butter. I suppose replacing butter and milk for heavy cream still allows for a good amount of fat and richness so the biscuit is bound to be good.

These were a cinch to throw together. Dare I say....just as easy as a mix, truly. Mix the dry ingredients...pour in the cream...blend with fork, roll out, cut in circles. Bake and enjoy! Holy easy and so tempting straight out of the oven.

I made our favorite honey butter recipe and together the combination was heavenly. The Honey butter recipe is from my good friend Susie whom I lived with in Arizona during my husbands internship. Here is the recipe for any who would like to try it out next time they make, biscuits, rolls, or bread.

Honey Butter

2/3 c. butter, softened (10-11oz)
1 1/3 c. honey

Beat until fluffy
Add:
1 cup whipped, whipping cream
Shake in a little cinnamon

Anyone who is interested in making these sweet cream biscuits visit Melissa at Love at First Bite

TWD: Dulce De Leche Duos

2010-03-23T15:13:00.000-07:00

Like most of Dorie's recipes this is some serious richness. These little babies were excellent, especially considering they had no chocolate in them. I do love my caramel too and dulce de leche is close enough.

These soft little sandwich cookies had a caramel cookie made of butter and sugars and even a good amount of dulce de leche added to the dough. I am a huge cookie dough person and lapped up a good portion even before baking (good thing I did a little exercise today, I think I can't skip tomorrow now). Dorie's instructions were to bake them using a measurement of a heaping teaspoon full. Whenever that is the instruction I never know if that means a teaspoon from my silverware set or a measuring teaspoon. I used a measuring teaspoon, because I thought the small portions would be better for my kiddos.

I thought that after they baked up they would loose the caramel flavor, but luckily they did not. Then I sandwiched them with more Dulce de Leche and dug in. Wow! My kids downed them in seconds....the baby was covered in dulce de leche head to toe and begged for more at my feet.

Dorie gave the option to melt a little bittersweet chocolate and lightly spread it on the cookie before the dulce de leche. That sounds steller too, but I didn't have any on hand....so next time and there will be a next time. For those that don't like dulce de leche....I wonder if you could try a caramel sauce and it could work out similarly. Who knows?

If you want to give this one a try head on over to Jodie's blog called Beansy Loves Cake.

TWD: Soft Chocolate Raspberry Tart

2010-03-16T19:52:00.001-07:00

Hello fellow bakers! It's been a while since I've posted and it's good to be back. Thanks sisters for covering for me while having baby #4!

Unfortunately, my camera can't be found and my four-year-old assures me that the twin two-year-olds are to blame. So, no pictures as of now. I'll post them if I find the camera in the next 24 hours.

The tart crust was buttery and yummy. I don't have a food processor, so I used a pastry blender and it seemed to work just fine. I used ground pecans in the recipe and thought it was great. The chocolate raspberry portion of the tart came together nicely, but when it baked up it wasn't as pretty as I thought it would be. I questioned whether the tart would truly be soft and creamy, but was it ever!! This tart was delicious! I made it for April's "birthday cake" and it was a hit...with the adults! I think it was a little too rich for the kiddos, but we sure enjoyed it.

I love the way Rachelle served her tart with shaved chocolate and whipped cream. Check out her blog for the recipe and...pictures!

Found the camera!

TWD: Honey-Wheat Cookies

2010-02-23T19:07:00.000-08:00

I made this Tuesday with Dorie out of pure curiosity. After reading the title and ingredients I really wanted to see how these would taste and turn out. I was picturing an airy cake like little cookie with some great texture from the wheat germ. They were not what I was expecting, but they were still good and a fun make.

The Making
These cookies were a cinch to whip up. I had the batter finished in minutes and let it stiffen for a few hours in the fridge. These cookies do have wheat germ, which makes you think they are a healthy snack, however I must admit that the butter might not make it as healthy, but hey that is the part that makes it like a cookie. I used orange zest instead of lemon. I like the orange flavor quite a bit, but I think it would be great with the lemon.

The Tasting
The cookies were a bit more dense than I thought and perhaps a little dry. Not really bad dry. They tasted more like a heavy biscuit for dipping in hot chocolate. You can taste the butter flavor and it complimented the orange nicely. The wheat germ added some texture and a little nuttiness. My husband and I like them and our one year old liked them, but not our 6 and 3 yr. olds. They really aren't fans of anything citrusy and zest is way out of the question. When my 3 yr. old tasted the batter she first asked me if it had chocolate chips in it. So her expectation were set pretty high when she thought it was "cookie dough." After tasting it she said...."This is disgusting....Mom, I think we need to throw this in the garbage." I had to laugh a little. I baked them up anyway and Glenn and I enjoyed a few. While this was a fun different treat I may not repeat it again. Everyone has to like it or it causes me problems on the scale later.

If you are interested in making these little cookies you can get the recipe from Michelle of Flourchild.

My second baking adventure of the day was some whole wheat banana bread. I got this recipe from my friend Jill. My husband is not eating treats during the week right now so I am trying to keep my baking relatively healthy. These had less butter and had both wheat and oat flour as opposed to white flour. It was more dense than I thought and I had to bake it for longer to get it cooked through. But when it came out my kids ate a ton, so that was worth it to me. Here is the recipe if you are interested.

Banana Bread
This banana bread is moist and delicious with loads of banana flavor!
INGREDIENTS:
2 cups flour (mix wheat, white, and or/ oat flour)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter
¼ cup applesauce
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 1/3 cups mashed overripe bananas
DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

TWD: My Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

2010-02-16T16:28:00.000-08:00

Happy Be-lated Valentines Day! Hope it was filled with love and if you have kids lots of cheer and amusement.

Our Valentines Day consisted of valentine scavenger hunts, hours of crafting homemade valentines, cousin fun, making and eating sweet lovable treats (homemade heartshaped oreos, sugar cookies, and cherry fudge brownie torte).

On to the Tuesdays With Dorie for the week. I had was lucky enough to get her best chocolate chip cookies for my week. Oh how we love chocolate chip cookies around here. I will be honest though....we delight so much more in the dough than in the actual cookie. Once a chocolate cookie is baked it looses its magic....except maybe not our favoite Big Fat chocolate chip cookies. Each time I make cookies I will save at least 1/3 of the dough shaped in a log so we can pull it out of the refidgerator at will and cut a good chunk off. Yum!

So unfortunately Dorie's favorite was not my favorite. It was still a good cookie, but not amazing. I felt like they were drier than I wanted even when I underbaked them. I am sure it has more to do with the baker than the recipe. I have made these before and accidently turned them into a steller cookie. My kids still loved them and my toddler begged and begged me for a bit while I baked them and finally sweet peace he got one and I think probably three, because Nana was in town. Naughty Nana!

If you want to try these cookies out head on over to Kait's Plate for the recipe.

KT (sister-in-law) also brought up a delicious cookie as well. These patties were super rich so one was enough, but they were very delectable. I took pictures of hers at night so it is not that great of a shot sorry!

Creamy Peppermint Patties

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
1 tsp peppermint extract
9 cups confectioners' sugar
¾ cup milk chocolate chips
¾ cup semisweet chocolate chips
3 Tblsp shortening

In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese and extract until smooth. Gradually add confectioners' sugar, beating well. Shape into 1-in balls. Place on waxed paper-lined baking sheets. Flatten into patties. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or until chilled.

In a microwave, melt chips and shortening; stir until smooth. Cool slightly. Dip patties in melted chocolate; place on waxed paper until firm. Store in the refrigerator. Yield: about 4 dozen.

Here is a viewing of our sugar cookie decorating with the kids.

Miriam

TWD: Rick Katz's Brownies for Julia

2010-02-09T19:29:00.000-08:00

Well, I am down to 2 1/2 weeks until baby makes her arrival. Right now I am in full nesting mode which means I am doing a ton, probably too much on some days. On top of the nesting frenzy, I have done a lot of baking over the past week. After the success of our last family TWD night, April and I decided it would be fun to do it again. She took the cookies and I took the brownies.

When I first read the recipe I thought to myself, this is a lot of work for brownies so they had sure better be good. I have a recipe that I love and use often enough that I have it memorized. These brownies were more labor intensive than I prefer brownie recipes to be. When they came out of the oven they were still quite gooey so I put them in for an extra 5 minutes. Even at that point they still seemed a bit gooey but I figured that the recipe said they should be fudgy so hopefully when they cooled, they would be more fudge-like and less runny.

Saturday I spent the day cleaning the house with my sister and mom to make room changes for the baby's arrival. I made the brownies in the morning and by the time it came to go to the TWD night, I was exhausted and couldn't walk. My hips were killing me so Josh was nice enough to take the brownies, and the kids, to a family evening while I stayed home and enjoyed the quiet and a bath. It was heavenly.

I actually never got to taste the finished product, or take a picture of it. I sent a plate with Josh and kept a few for photos but didn't take pictures quickly enough as the rest of the brownies were eaten by my dad and my hubby on Sunday. Oops! Josh came home and said that the brownies were a huge hit. As he finished off the last one he told me they were addicting, so much so that he said he had been thinking about them all day. So having never tasted them, I'll have to take the word of family that these were good brownies.

Even with the good review though, I still don't know that I will make them again because of the extra work involved. I know it's not huge, but I think brownies should be a one bowl dessert. Josh loved them though, so maybe he could persuade me to make them again at some point. For the full recipe and great photos, head on over to Chocolate Chic.

Until next time, happy baking!

English Toffee Cookies

2010-02-03T12:39:00.000-08:00

It is actually quite embarassing admitting that I have eaten 2/3 of a pan of these goodies on more than one occasion. Usually when i make them though I have help from mom or sisters in devoring the richness. My dear friend Susie gave me this recipe when our family lived with her 3 years ago for a summer. So not only are these super yummy, but I always think of Susie when I eat them so I am of course always happy when I make them. The pictures of these treats doesn't look like much, but you will be surprised at how addictive they are.

English Toffee Cookies

1 c. brown sugar
1 c. butter
1 egg yolk
2 c. flour
1 tsp vanilla
Bake for 12 min at 350 (will be pale), add 6 chopped Hershey bars (or two large milk chocolate symphony bars) as soon as they come out of oven. Spread when melted and add chopped nuts (pecans are best, but good with almonds) on top.

TWD:Cocoa-Nana Bread

2010-01-26T10:00:00.000-08:00

Things have changed a bit around here so we won't be posting every week. With the New Year there are always resolutions to eat better, and these recipes certainly don't help that at all. :) Two of us are having babies, one within days and myself in about a month, so it seemed that right now was the time to slow it down a bit. That said, there is no way we could completely abandon Dorie and her fabulous recipes!

For January, we decided it would be fun to have a TWD Dessert night. We met the first Saturday evening of January at April's house and it was great! Fun for the cousins to get together and play, and fun for the adults to get to taste all of the great treats. Lizzie made the Cocoa-Buttermilk Birthday Cake, April made the Chocolate-Oatmeal Almost Candy Bars, and I made the Cocoa-Nana Bread. Lots and lots of chocolate!

So, onto the recipe. The Cocoa-Nana Bread came together easily, and came out of the oven looking, and smelling divine. When it came time to slice it to serve, it fell apart. I was disappointed with the final product. It was dry and crumbly and not the best banana bread I have ever had. Of the three treats that night, April's definitely took the prize.

If you want to give it a try check out Obsessed With Baking for the full recipe, or find it on page 46 in Baking From My Home to Yours.

TWD: Chocolate Oatmeal Almost Candy Bars

2010-01-19T09:01:00.000-08:00

This month we did something a little different. We had a Tuesdays with Dorie night where we each made a Dorie treat and then we got together and taste tested the treats for the month. I would have to say for this month this particular treat was my favorite of the three.

This recipe was very similar to a recipe that is one of our families favorites called Chocolate Revel Bars from the Betty Crocker cookbook. This recipe had a few differences like cinnamon in the oatmeal cookie part of the treat. And then salted peanuts and raisons were added to the chocolate middle section. I must say it surprised me how much liked the salty peanuts mixed with raisons and chocolate. It really made a difference in the flavor of the whole treat.

Basically there is an oatmeal brown sugar cookie like layer with melted chocolate and sweetened condensed milk on top of the cookie base (along with the nuts and raisons I was talking about), and then dabs of oatmeal cookie on top. This makes for a rich gooey treat that must be accompanied by milk.

Thanks Lillian of Confectiona’s Realm for the great Dorie pick. If you are interested in the recipe you can visit Lillians website or it is on pages 114 and 115 of Dorie Greenspans book.

Baby Shower Menu

2010-01-16T21:31:00.000-08:00

Last Weekend we had a lovely baby shower for Liz. It was so much fun!! There were people from all different times in Lizzie's life so it was fun to catch up with high school friends, childhood friends, cousins, aunts, college friends, and more. I really wish I took pictures of the food, because it was beautiful and delicious. I thought the least I could do was post the list of yummy things we had and the recipes that I have for some of the items.

Appetizers
boursin cheese and water crackers (costco)

Texas caviar (yummy salsa) & chips made by Whit (maybe she will post the recipe)
Veggie cream cheese pastries (made by Mother Teresa)
Veggie tray *** Thanks KT
Fruit Salad (costco)
Valdosta Pecans w/ Sweetend cranberries, black pepper and orange rind (sold at Costco & Walmart)

Desserts
Whit's delicious Molasses cookies (maybe she will post)
Cherry juju hearts
Cherry Fudge Brownie Torte (from a TWD post)
Banana-Raspberry cupcakes with Lemon cream cheese frosting

(from Cooking Light)
Cooking spray
1 Tbsp. flour
1 1/3 c granulated sugar
1/4 c butter, softened
3 large eggs
1 3/4 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 c low-fat buttermilk
1 c mashed ripe banana (about 2 bananas)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Frosting
3/4 c (6oz) 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, chilled
2 Tbsp butter, softened
2 tsp grated lemon rind
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Dash of Salt
2 1/2 c powdered sugar
1 1/2 c fresh raspberries

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Coat 2 (8in) round cake pans with cooking spray (I did cupcakes for cuteness sake for the baby shower); line bottoms with wax paper. Coat wax paper with cooking spray; dust each pan with 1 1/2 tsp flour.
3. Place granulated sugar and 1/4 c butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at med speed until well blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.
4. Combine flour, baking powder, and 1/2 tsp salt, stirring well with a whisk.
5. Combine buttermilk, banana, and 1 tsp vanilla. Add flour mixture and buttermilk mixture alternately to sugar mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture (mix after each addition just until blended). Pour batter into prepared pans.
6. Bake cake at 350 for 25 min. Cool on wire wrack for 10 min; remove from pans. Peel off wax paper. Cool layers completely on wire wrack.
7. To prepare frosting, combine cream cheese and next 4 ingredients in a large bowl. Beat with mixer at high speed until fluffy. Gradually add powdered sugar; beat at low speed just until blended (do not over beat).
8. Place 1 cake layer on a plate, and spread with 1/3 c frosting. Arrange raspberries in a single layer over frosting. Top with remaining cake layer. Spread remaining frosting over top and sides of cake. Store cake loosely covered in refrigerator. Garnish with fresh raspberries, if desired.

All the food was loved by the guests. It was a delicious menu and such a memorable day. Now we are just waiting for baby Lulu (original name given by her brothers) to arrive. Can't wait!

TWD: My Favorite Pecan Pie

2009-12-22T15:44:00.000-08:00

I can hardly contain my excitement. Christmas is three short days away. Christmas is the beloved of all holidays in this house. I love it even more with kids. I love their excitement and cheer. My three year old has been belting frosty the snow man and Rudolph the red nose reindeer for a few weeks now. I love the songs, the dancing that surely accompanies the songs, the stories, the decorating, the parties, the crafts, the cold (when accompanied by Christmas only), and of course the TREATS. This house has been nonstop treat zone for a few weeks. This beauty of a treat is a Tuesday with Dorie treat. It was a fun make. Here is the short breakdown.

The making: So this awesome pecan pie is not your average. Some of the extras it calls for are cinnamon, bittersweet chocolate chunks, and espresso powder. I of course omitted the espresso powder. I think it would have been delicious and richened the taste, so I think I need to research non-caffeinated espresso powder. Do you think there is such thing? Dorie uses A LOT of espresso powder and it would be fun to add it to our dishes without the caffeine. Okay....I am rambling. I used cocoa powder in place of espresso powder (not a bad alternative, yum!).

The Tasting: Quote directly from my hubby after his first bite, "this is definitely the best pecan pie I have ever tasted." Chocolate makes all the difference. It was rich, but a different kind of rich than your average pecan pie. I LOVED the cinnamon after taste!!! The bittersweet chocolate made for some wonderful surprises. This may be my regular pecan pie recipe from now on.

This treat was a fun one, because we had a baking day at my house where Lizzie and KT came and enjoyed the fun. Liz made toffee which was amazing and KT was a great nut chopper (there were lots of nuts)

Beth of Someone’s in the Kitchen with Brina chose My Favorite Pecan Pie, page 327 of Dorie's book.

Some of our Christmas treats this year have included:
pumpkin roll
toffee
Big Fat Chocolate Chip Cookies
Gingerbread men cookies
Apple cake
And I am sure there are more that I am not remembering, but I did tone it down quite a bit this year.

Please note that these gingerbread men where decorated by children

I hope everyone else is enjoying the baking season. What will we do when spring hits? (hopefully loose 10 lbs and stop baking)

TWD: Sables

2009-12-09T12:04:00.001-08:00

TWD: Sables

So, just to be clear, this week its Thursdays with Dorie and its a week late too. Sorry. Its December and everything is at the top of my priority list, which pretty much makes the whole list null and void.

This will probably eventually kill me, but this is one of my favorite things to see in the mixing bowl because it means deliciousness is about to happen. (No, I didn't make it in the shape of a "T" on purpose, but I did smile when I noticed it.)

The recipe was super simple and straightforward. You mix the dough, minimally once the flour is in. Then you roll into long tubes and store in refrigerator for several hours. I rolled mine in white sparkling sugar, then sliced and baked.

I do not think these are good when they are warm. The texture is weird. However, if you can have some patience, they are delicious once they are cooled and even better with hot cocoa, even if you live in Florida and its 80 degrees in December. These would be a nice addition to a Christmas cookie plate too!

This recipe was chosen by Bungalow Barbara. For the recipe and to see how she fared, click here. She also did some kind of science experiment with these involving different kinds of flour, egg, and sugar. I thought it was kind of interesting. It made me wonder if she has a fourth grader.

Merry Christmas and Happy Baking!!

TWD-Rosy Poached Pear and Pistachio Tart

2009-12-01T19:12:00.000-08:00

Tarts are one of my favorite desserts. I love a fresh fruit tart, especially in the Summer months. Pastry cream is also a favorite of mine so this dessert seemed to be right up my alley, although I have never made a tart with "Fall" fruit so this was new for me.

This recipe was definitely labor intensive, but in the end I felt it was well worth the work. When I went to start the pastry cream, I realized I had forgotten to get pistachios at the grocery store and I wasn't about to head back with three little ones in tow, so I made due with the almonds I already had in the freezer and I think it worked out just fine. Nuts were a nice addition to the pastry cream. I love all things flavored almond, so this pastry cream hit a home run.

For religious reasons, I chose not to use wine as my poaching liquid. After talking with my husband and checking the P&Q on the TWD site, I decided that a combination of cranberry juice and apple juice would make a good alternative to red wine. The pears were beautiful in color and had a nice hint of citrus to them when they were done poaching.

Once assembled, this dessert is quite the show stopper. My guess is it is more so when pistachios are used, as the pastry cream is a different color. The sweet, cookie-like crust, combined with the nut-filled pastry cream, topped with rosy poached pears, made for a lovely combination, and the reduced syrup from the poaching liquid gave it the perfect finishing touch. I will definitely make this recipe again, but would want to make it for a crowd to ooh and ahh over! For the full recipe, head on over to I'll Eat You. As for pictures, I hope to get some posted tomorrow. We just returned from a wonderful Thanksgiving at Disney World with my parents, sisters, their husbands and kids and life has been a bit hectic here. Until next week!

Happy Baking!

Birthday Cakes

2009-12-01T14:43:00.000-08:00

We had a birthday in October and one in November and having young children that means we get to make fun cakes. Here are my latest creations. I am actually quite impressed with myself since I have never been a super creative cake maker.

This is a little truck cake I made for my now one year old. The cake itself was a spice cake with cream cheese frosting, which he downed in minutes. The idea for the polka dots came from a blog from a woman I knew for a bit in Brooklyn. She is amazingly talented and creative, I LOVE looking at her stuff.

This cake is for my now 6 year old daughter. She alwasy requests chocolate cake and pink frosting. So I jazzed it up this year with a crown. I found this idea on the family fun website. The cake was chocolate cake mix mixed with cherry pie filling, chocolate chips, a little oil, and some eggs. It was very rich. The middle layer was a cherry cream cheese filling inspired by a Dorie recipe. Last years attempt at a barbie cake turned out a little mediocre so I am happy this turned out better.

TWD: All in One Holiday Bundt Cake

2009-11-24T22:42:00.000-08:00

This was a pretty good one. My family liked it and so did all my neighbors. I LOVED the fresh cranberries. I of course added some things. If it was all in one I might as well really make it all. The girls begged me to use their ideas of marshmallows and m&m's, but I did refrain. I ended up adding orange zest to the sugar which livened up the whole thing. I also added chocolate chips and they made it oh so yummy! I thought white chips would be good, but I did not have any on hand. All in all I liked it. I also loved that it was easy enough for my kiddos to sit and stir and stir and it did not ruin the treat.

For the recipe visit The Nitty Britty

TWD: Sugar-Topped Molasses Spice Cookies

2009-11-17T23:30:00.000-08:00

I was excited to see that Pamela from Cookies with Boys (a blog name I love and completely identify with) chose Sugar-Topped Molasses Spice cookies. Molasses cookies are some of our favorite and it was fun to try a new recipe.

First of all, the dough was amazing! I feel like I would eaten all the dough if I didn't have to post pics of the cookies! It was buttery and yummy and had the perfect amount of spice. I debated whether or not I would add the black pepper, but in the end I did it and my husband loved it! It wasn't too much for the boys and I took the cookies to book club where they were loved by all.

If I could change one thing about this recipe, I really love a cookie that has a chewy texture to it. This seemed to be a little more crunch for my preference, although the great flavor made up for the crunch. This is a recipe that will definitely be made again in our house, especially during the holidays! Check out Pamela's blog for the full recipe!

TWD-Cran-Apple Crisp

2009-11-17T16:09:00.000-08:00

Fall. One of my very favorite times of the year. What could be more Fall than apples and cranberries? I actually made this last November, not long after getting Baking: From My Home to Yours, because it looked like such a great recipe.

Well Fall has come again and with it the chance to make the Cran-Apple Crisp again. Mmmmm! I actually made a double batch, one for my neighbor's dinner party, and a small one for our family. This is an easy and delicious recipe. I love the ginger in the crisp. It adds a lovely zing. My neighbor served it hot, with homemade pumpkin ice cream on top. That sounded delicious to me, something I might try next year.

This is a real winner of a recipe. I haven't been able to upload a picture yet, but might get to it tomorrow. If you are interested in the full recipe, head on over to The Repressed Pastry Chef. You won't be disappointed!

TWD: Cherry-Fudge Brownie Torte

2009-10-26T09:36:00.000-07:00

Fabulous!!! I really did love this dessert. It was super rich though so only one piece was enough for all. I had to change it a little so it would work for us. I don't really like making things we can't or won't eat so I altered it a bit.

The Review:
The brownie bottom was sensational. It surprised me how much I liked the dried cherries mixed in. The brownie torte was extremely fudgie and rich...just the way I like it. I ended up halving the recipe since we have a small family and we were not planning on having guests over. I actually kind of liked the pepper added to the brownie, but I think the torte would have been just as good without it.
The mousse was a nice offset to the rich brownie layer. It needed something to tame the fudginess. I liked the added cherry filling (my addition), because it made it a little different than your normal whip cream topping. It also served the purposes of making it more like a black forest torte.

The alterations:
The brownie portion of this lovely dish called for kirsch that is added to the dried cherries then you ignite it. Since we don't do alcohol here I omitted the kirsch and added a few tablespoons of apple juice and let it simmer with the cherries and thicken a little. It worked fine.
The second alteration I made was to the mousse. The original recipe calls for mascarpone cheese. I am not a huge fan of the mascarpone flavor. I thought of using ricotta instead but opted to add more cream cheese and some cherry pie filling to get more of a cherry flavor to the mousse. It turned out beautifully!
I did not have a springform pan small enough so I just used a 6 inch cake pan and carefully removed the torte about 10 min after it came out of the oven. Then in order to get the mousse layer shaped with the brownie I put wax paper in my 6 inch pan and topped the torte with the mousse. After freezing it I pulled it out of the pan easily. I also had a little extra batter that I put into mini muffin tins. It was very fun to have these rich little brownie bites with a dollop of cherry mousse on top.

Overall we loved it and will surely make it again. If you are interested in making these you can visit April of Short + Rose.

TWD: Allspice Crumb Muffins

2009-10-13T18:40:00.000-07:00

I was excited when my sister, Sarah, asked me to fill in for her this week. Fall is here and an allspice crumb muffin sounded great! These muffins were quick and easy to mix up, but I was really wanting more flavor out of them. I opted not to add the lemon, but I think should have. I think I'll give them a try with the lemon another time.

To check out the recipe go to Grandma's Kitchen Table.

TWD-Split Level Pudding

2009-10-06T18:39:00.000-07:00

I am a sucker for a really good homemade pudding so I was excited that this was the recipe I got to make this month. I stuck to the basics and kept the flavors of vanilla and chocolate. Some other TWD members had posted that they had problems with their pudding being a bit runny after it went into the blender. Mine thinned out some but not significantly. It did, however, mix with the ganache when I poured it into the bowl and did not stay in any kind of layered form. Try more like marbled. I made the pudding in one large bowl so that might have been part of the problem. When all was said and done the taste was fantastic. Smooth and creamy, a perfect pudding. The rich ganache was a nice compliment to the simpleness of the vanilla. I think it would be fun to play around with different flavors as well.

I took a few pictures but felt they didn't look very nice. I'm still trying to figure out how to take good food pictures. I also couldn't find the cord to upload the ones I took so I decided just to post my thoughts now and maybe add some pictures tomorrow.

This is a simple recipe and one I will definitely try again. If you are interested in the full recipe, head on over to The Flavor of Vanilla. The pictures there, as well as many others I saw today, did the recipe justice.

TWD: Chocolate-Crunched Caramel Tart

2009-09-29T19:23:00.000-07:00

DELICIOUS!!!

That could pretty much sum up this divine rich desert. Similar to many of Dorie's recipes this delightful dish was a very detailed treat to make. Luckily I had an extra baker this time to help and a much more adept baker at that. Thanks Lizzie (sister and TWD baker as well) for helping out and thanks Mike for studying ALL night so I could borrow your wife!

For the first time I did not change a thing...I think.
Here is the run down:

The crust was a short bread crust. It was very buttery and delicious. It was slightly time consuming so next time I may use a faster recipe...Liz has a no roll nut crust that is similar. Maybe she will post it sometime.

I turned the caramel responsibilities over to Liz. She is the family caramel expert (at least that is what I think). This caramel used a very unique technique done in a skillet with heating just the sugar first. She did a fabulous job. After the caramel has cooled the recipe called for honey roasted peanuts, which I thought were super fun in the desert.

The ganache. Wow!!! This stuff was rich. This wasn't too hard to make. I think this is the best ganache I have ever made. I used ghiradeli bittersweet chocolate and it was crazy rich. If I were serving it to guest I may tone it down a little and use at least semisweet or maybe milk. Although the caramel is so sweet you have to be careful with the balance. It was good!

The finished product. Oh so good. When we sat down to eat (at 11pm) my husband said he didn't think he could eat the whole thing because it was so rich. Oh he totally finished it. It is too good pass up. All of the flavors worked well together without one over powering the other. If you are interested in giving it a try you can hop on over to Chocolate Moosey for the recipe.

TWD: Cottage Cheese Pufflets

2009-09-22T09:11:00.000-07:00

Hello Bakers.....happy fall as it is the first day of fall. I love fall treats. It is the best time of year to bake. I hope you are enjoying it as much as I am. The TWD this week is yummy, but not neccesaryily fallish. Don't you worry though we still had some fun with it.

These were a fun little change in pace. These pufflets were more like tiny little pastries that I think would be good served as appetizers. My husband's family has a Cottage Cheese Pancake recipe that is delicious so I thought these cookies could be similar. I am not sure what the cottage cheese adds to something like this, but they were tastey. The original recipe calls for a dot of fruit preserves in the middle, but I am not a fan of preserves in my desserts so I changed it up a bit. I did three variations.

The dough is refridgerated for a while before rolling out.

My filling variations were as such:
1. cinnamon, brown sugar, a little butter, and chopped pecans
2. sweetened cream cheese and chocolate chips
3. sweetened cream cheese and frozen raspberries

It seems like the favorite by my taste testers was the cinnamon version. It was delicious, but didn't turn out as pretty as the others. I preferred the raspberry version, but may have sweetened the raspberries a little next time. The chocolate was a fun variation as well. Next time I think I will make the pufflets bigger and more like puffs so I can add more filling. While these were yummy they may not be a regular in our house. Perhaps an occasional fun treat.

If you are interested in the recipe you can visit Daisy Lane Cakes.

TWD: Flaky Apple Turnovers

2009-09-15T18:07:00.000-07:00

This weeks TWD recipe was a fun one! I enjoyed making Dorie's sour cream dough, although it was a bit difficult to work with when it softened. It made the flakiest, butteriest turnover I can imagine. The filling was a simple apple pie filling that complimented the dough perfectly.

I only made up 3 turnovers, and I saved the rest of the dough and filling in the fridge. I think I'll bake these up as a warm "welcome home after school treat" for the kids. -And maybe one for me too! ;)

If you would like to see how others fared with this recipe, you can go to Tuesdays with Dorie and if you want to try your hand at homemade apple turnovers, you can visit Julie at Someone's in the kitchen.

TWD - Chocolate Souffle

2009-09-08T16:19:00.000-07:00

I was so excited for this weeks recipe! Although I knew it would be a challenge, I was up for it and was ready to face it head on. I had all my ingredients out and got everything ready to make the Chocolate Souffle. I pre-heated my oven and headed out to the garden to pick the late-summer bounty. When I came in a half-hour later, my oven was only at 190 degrees. Right then I knew things were not going my way. I called my neighbor to see if I could use her oven but no one was home. At that point everything was ready to go in a hot oven so I opted to use my new, shiny convection counter oven (a fancy toaster oven) I got for my birthday.

I had my doubts as to whether it could handle something as delicate as a souffle. I watched with great anticipation and saw it rise. Those hopes were dashed when minutes later it fell. I finished the cooking time and decided it was worth at least tasting. I even plated it and took a few pics. Alas, the pictures didn't do the dessert justice so I decided not to post any. I did taste it though and thought the taste was nice. It wasn't eggy, as I feared it might be having possibly been cooked too long. I put a dollop of sweetened whipped cream on top of a scoop of warm souffle and took a few bites. I'm sure the texture was completely off but the taste was nice and chocolaty.

So, if you are brave and want to try Dorie's Chocolate Souffle, head on over to She's Becoming DoughMesstic for beautiful pictures and the full recipe. Maybe when my oven is fixed I'll attempt it again. I guess every week can't be a smashing success.

TWD Espresso Cheesecake Brownies

2009-09-01T20:03:00.000-07:00

I have been so excited to make these brownies! While they were cooling, I could hardly contain myself. I've been wanting a rich chocolaty treat. I read the P&Q's and saw that many people had dry brownie. I was tempted to use my own brownie recipe, but was true to Dorie and used hers. I decreased the temperature to 325, yet I still had dry brownies! I was bummed!
I also chose to fore go the topping, as my sour cream was expired. I thought it was fine to bake with, but was hesitant to put it on top (and I'd already thrown up once for the day! I'm loving this 3rd pregnancy!).

The cheesecake was delicious and creamy, but my brownie was a let down. I would love to make this recipe again using my no fail brownie recipe. I hope others had better luck! To check out the recipe see Life in a Peanut Shell.

TWD Creamiest Lime Cream Meringue Pie

2009-08-25T20:34:00.000-07:00

Lime pie in the summertime, what more could you ask for? Once again I had a recipe that tempers eggs, it makes me so nervous! Fortunately, this was a success and my pie had a creamy and delicious lime flavor, rather than egg!

Linda, from Tender Crumb, selected this recipe and her photos are amazing! Seriously, some people really put me to shame. I love the creamy lime flavor, but agree with Linda that I was wanting more ginger. I am, however, not a meringue fan, so I opted to top my pie with whipped cream. I believe whipped cream can top anything and make it better!

I loved the pie in a graham cracker crust and thought Linda's suggestion not to sweeten it was a good idea. I'll have to try that next time. If you're interested in a zingy and delicious summer pie, head over to Tender Crumb and check out the recipe and amazing pictures!

TWD: Applesauce Spice Bars

2009-08-18T06:23:00.000-07:00

I'm now officially ready for autumn! The kids are on their way back to school and we have amazing apple bars. Now if I could get Tampa, Florida to cool down a bit...

These spicy little bars were DEE-licious!!! We loved every bite!! They had a cake-like consistency with a perfect buttery-carmelly icing on top. The bits of apple and chewy raisins were a perfect pair mixed into all the homey deliciousness. The crazy thing about these is that they were even better the next day. Of course, I omitted the nuts because they would have ruined this yummy treat. But we all devoured them.

Thanks Karen for choosing this delicious recipe. I will definitely add this to my list of favorites!!!

TWD-Brownie Buttons

2009-08-11T16:14:00.000-07:00

It was my pleasure this week to "test" these little wonders that are called Brownie Buttons! Personally, I think chocolate and orange were meant to go together. Such a lovely combination. They were a snap to put together. I made batch #1 last week to give to a friend I was taking dinner to. The verdict, she was surprised to have liked them as much as she did because she is not usually a fan of chocolate and orange. (In my defense, I had no idea that was the case, otherwise I would have done them plain.) My thought is that the soft, fudgy brownie was just too good and couldn't be ruined by a bit of orange zest!

I made a double batch yesterday for the Fam, seeing as they were sorely disappointed that all of the first batch went out the door without even a little bite. Here at our house they were gobbled up. In fact, I had to make sure the husband knew he could eat a few but had to leave some for my pictures. This morning he told me how hard it was to not eat the entire plate of them, they were that good in his book.

Another five star Dorie recipe! If you are interested in trying out Brownie Buttons yourself, head here for the full recipe.

Happy Baking!

P.S. If you haven't been to see Julie and Julia yet, you are missing out and should definitely see it this week. It was fabulous!

p.p.s. When I was taking the pictures my almost 4-year-old kept saying, "Smile little brownie bites! Smile for your pictures!" I loved it.

Couscous Salad

2009-08-10T19:15:00.001-07:00

When we left California, we very sadly left behind The Athenian Grill, a waterfront Greek restaurant with some of the tastiest foods I've ever had. Sometimes I long for their hummus with grilled pita or Lamb stew with a big hunk of feta, but with no avail.

Then one day, I found this tasty salad in a South Beach Diet book and adapted it to suit my taste. I love the way all the fresh flavors combine in my mouth. It almost takes me back to the patio by the water in Suisun. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Couscous Salad

Ingredients:
1/2 c couscous (flavored, if not flavored, add some chicken boullion when cooking)
1 large cucumber
2 or 3 tomatoes, depending on size
2 cups spinach
1/2 c crumbled feta (or the pre-packaged combo of feta, provelone, and parmesan)
1/2 c balsamic vinaigrette

Directions:
Prepare couscous according to package directions. Set aside to cool. Chop cucumber, tomatoes, and spinach. Mix all ingredients and serve. This actually keeps pretty well in the fridge for a day or two. For variety, I sometimes make this salad with navy beans or chickpeas in addition to the existing ingredients.

TWD: Classic Banana Bundt Cake

2009-08-04T12:27:00.000-07:00

Happy August bakers. This week's TWD was chosen by The Food Librarian and it was delicious. I loved that it was quick to whip up. There was no drawn out process in order to get this goodie in the oven. It was like a slightly more moist banana bread, so if you like banana bread this is definitely worth a try.

This time around I was happy to have more mouths to feed a whole cake to. Our little family can eat a whole cake (unfortunately), but it is so much more enjoyable (and better on the hips) with more people to share it with.

First off...I love bundt cakes. They are so incredibly easy. You don't have to layer or spend a long time frosting. All you do is pop it out of the pan and it looks pretty. You can drizzle a little icing on top, but it looks fancy either way. The sour cream of course added a little extra moisture. The only changes I made was adding chocolate chips and a chocolate drizzle atop. I was deciding between chocolate ganache or the buttery chocolate frosting from a Texas sheet cake recipe. I went with the Texas sheet cake frosting. It was rich and delicious, but not quite as dark chocolatey as the ganache.

I served it up to a house full of people and it was enjoyed by all. I do believe the chocolate chips were a necesity in order to cut the strong banana flavor, but I think chocolate is better in anything.

If you want to give this recipe a try you can visit The Food Librarian or it is on page 190 of Baking: From My Home to Yours

Happy Baking

TWD: Vanilla Ice Cream

2009-07-28T20:14:00.000-07:00

I LOVE homemade ice cream and I was thrilled when I realized this was my recipe/week to "bake." This week I made a batch of my own vanilla ice cream recipe and it was nice to compare and contrast Dories recipe with our old standby.

Dorie's recipe is a cooked custard-like cream that you cool and then put in the ice cream maker. I use egg beaters in mine and just dump it in and go. I'll admit that I was a little nervous when I realized I was dealing with boiled milk/cream and tempering eggs because of my blundered lemon custard months ago. I was anxious that I would have egg flavored ice cream to serve to my in-laws! I was, however, pleasantly surprised at my success this time around. I think it had something to do with a little more patience when adding boiling milk to eggs and sugar.

When my ice cream maker came to a stop, I was amazed at how creamy the ice cream looked and tasted! My standby recipe is delicious, but never this creamy.

This is my final presentation picture! I had the family chomping at the bit, children begging for ice cream. As we all sat down and started chowing I realized I hadn't taken a picture! Luckily, my brother-in-law, Adam, hadn't gotten too far and I was able to snap a picture of his bowl. The family loved it and our ice cream was devoured in minutes!

I really loved the creamy texture of Dorie's ice cream, but have to admit that I prefer the flavor of my old stand by recipe. I will definitely make this again and play around. I think the mint chip sounds delicious, but wanted to compare this recipe to mine.

If you'd like to see the recipe, check out Cafe LynnLu and her amazing photographs. I am always amazed at the creativity and talents of others.

Happy Baking!

TWD: Raspberry Blanc Manger

2009-07-21T19:07:00.000-07:00

Happy Tuesday!!

Dorie, Dorie, Dorie, always finding new twists and turns in the kitchen. Keepin' it fresh, I like that! The Raspberry Blanc Manger is not something I ever would have thought up or even imagined. I really loved its smooth, creamy texture with raspberries popping with flavor here and there. I know its simple, but we really loved the raspberry coulis too. My kids all lined up for more coulis.

It was pretty easy to make. The recipe was very straightforward. I thought it would be jello-like, but it had a much more sophisticated texture. I served it on plates with coulis for the adults and scooped it like ice cream for the kids.

Something I'm working on: I love the almond flavor, but don't really enjoy the bits of almonds. Do I need to grind the almonds better? I've had this issue with a few recipes. Would a coffee grinder put out a finer granule than my mini food processor? I would also like to try it stacked on a yellow cake layer....

If you want to check it out, you can go to Sticky Gooey Creamy Chewy, but I should tell you that hers looks WAY better than mine. You can also find it in "Baking From my home to yours" by Dorie Greenspan. Enjoy!!

TWD- Brioche Plum Tart

2009-07-14T08:00:00.000-07:00

This was my first attempt at making a brioche dough. When I initially read the Brioche Plum Tart recipe, I was concerned about the amount of time and attention it took to prepare the brioche dough. With four kids, a house and yard to care for, babysitting my brioche dough was not at the top of my priority list! As I read through the P&Q comments on the TWD site, I noticed someone asked if it would work to use the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day brioche recipe and a light went on in my head.

The recipe varied slightly from Dorie's recipe in ingredients. The Artisan Bread recipe used honey as its sweetener instead of sugar, and did not have milk as Dorie's recipe did. Other than that the ingredients were the same. What I liked was I only had to mix it, let it rise once and then put in the fridge until I used it. That's my kind of dough.

I was able to find plums for only 88 cents a pound at Sunflower Farmer's Market (my favorite store right now!), but was unable to find plum jam. I had a jar of Cherry Boysenberry Preserves I had left over from a previous TWD recipe that I decided to use. I wanted to use almonds but didn't have any so I had to settle for walnuts.

The assembly was rather simple and quick. As the tart baked it smelled divine! It came out of the oven nicely browned and the plums were tender and juicy and plump. I made half the Artisan Bread brioche recipe, and used about 2/3 of the dough that I had. I think it was probably more than there would have been with the original recipe.

The finished product was quite good. The plums were a bit tart, but the sugar balanced it nicely. The walnuts gave a slightly crunchy texture and the brioche was light and tender. This is definitely more a breakfast pastry. Not quite sweet enough for dessert but it made for a great evening snack for the hubby and I and I think the kiddos will enjoy some for breakfast in the morning. At some point I will attempt brioche dough the way it is supposed to be made, but it just wasn't in the cards for me right now. If I were to try it again I would love to experiment with other fruit combinations.

If you are interested in the complete recipe, head on over to Chez Us. Until next week!

Happy Baking!

Lucky Me

2009-07-08T18:22:00.000-07:00

My family is moving this week from New Jersey. We have spent the last year living here and I don't think I knew how much I would enjoy it. It has truly been a joy. I am having such a hard time leaving. So in the process of our move my most wonderful neighbors threw the kids and I the best garden party. I really do have the best neighbors!! They set out tables in front of our complex with a bounty of food and drink. I wanted to share some of the goods because they were special. One thing that makes this complex unique is that there are several mothers who stay at home, but each is so different and from different cultures. So my friends shared food from their own culture. Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of everything, but here is what I have.

Gunjan made an Indian dish called Pakora which is potatoes and cauliflower breaded in chickpea flour and fried. It was delicious!

Wipha made a Thai dish of pan fried talapia with fried garlic. It was very flavorful. I am just barely starting cook fish and my talapia is not nearly as delcious.

Wipha also made another delicious Thai dish made with Tuna, mint leaves, lime juice, red onion, and lemongrass.

Ulrika served a sweedish dish of sour cream with chives meatballs with Lingonberry jam. I loved the sweet flavor of the jam along with the savory meatballs...yum. I might just eat my meatballs with jam from now on.

Ulrika also served pickled herring and herring in mustard sauce, I have memories as a child of my Dad eating pickled and creamed herring. I can't say I ever tried it as a child. I am glad that I finally got a chance to try it.

Ulrika also served potatoes sweedish style. They were boiled potatoes with dill sprinkled atop. They were pretty and delicious.

Joanne brought a delicious cake from the most loved Bakery in downtown Summit called Natale's. I heard about Natale's from the very first week I moved here. You can check out their delicious website here. Marcus my little non-eater ate up little bits of this cake like crazy.

Ulrika brought some sweedish goodies. So if you want to experience a bit of my lucky day go to Ikea and buy your self some of these Ballerina Kex cookies.

I have been blessed with the opportunity to get to know these wonderful women. There is something unique about the bond of motherhood. I have loved watching these women mother their beautiful children. Each in a different way. It has been so enriching to learn from them. One of the best parts of the afternoon was this beautiful painting Wipha painted for me. She was so incredibly sweet about the resemblance to the uniqueness and beauty of each mother in comparison to the beautiful flowers and how together they are beautiful. I will miss these great women in my life. Thank you for the grand afternoon.

Thank you Ladies!!!

TWD-Tribute to Katherine Hepburn Brownies

2009-07-07T11:38:00.000-07:00

With Rach moving, she has decided to take a break from TWD until they have a house and are somewhat settled in their new place. I kindly offered to take her recipe this month so that she didn't have to worry about it. Who wouldn't want to try a new brownie recipe?

I loved the story behind these brownies. Who would have thought that Katherine Hepburn had a fabulous brownie recipe! I also loved the fact that this entire recipe was assembled in one pan and didn't require the use of a mixer. The less mess the better! I have never made brownies in this method before. Adding all the ingredients to the melted butter pan was new to me.

I made mine minus the coffee for religious reasons. There are some times I will purchase decaf for recipes like this but I didn't have it on hand so I just made do with what I had. When they were finished baking and I took them out of the oven, I could tell they were very soft. I let them rest for the time recommended but they still fell apart when I took them out of the pan. No harm done, they still tasted fabulous. They were rich and fudge-like and required a tall glass of milk. The cinnamon was a subtle, but nice addition to the brownies and you got little chunks of gooey chocolate in every bite.

These are a definite keeper and are a recipe I will make again. Thanks to Lisa at Surviving Oz for the pick this week. Head on over to her site for the full recipe.

Happy Baking!

TWD: Perfect Party Cake

2009-06-30T04:49:00.001-07:00

I LOVED the look of this cake. It really is beautiful and will wow everytime. The coconut adds to the beauty. I ended up halving the recipe, because a whole double layered cake was a little much for our family. So we ended up with this darling little square cake that was the perfect size for our family.

The Cake: I haven't had a lot of luck with with layered cakes. I am sure it is due to lack of practice. I was happy when this one turned out well. Dorie describes the cake as a tight crumb cake and that is just what it was. I expected it to be heavy, but it was very refreshing and light. It's color was a beautiful white. The lemon zest in the cake was not necesarilly recognizable in the finished product but lightened up the taste significantly.

The filling: I made a raspberry sauce from frozen raspberries for the filling instead of raspberry jam as I am not a huge fan of jam in my treats.

The frosting: This frosting was light and elegant. It finished off the cake charmingly. I was really curious about how the frosting would turn out and taste. It was a hot meringue buttercream frosting. This was no ordinary buttercream. Basically you take egg whites and sugar and warm over simmering water while whisking. It turns into a shiny white mixture that looks like thin marshmellow cream. You then whisk the egg whites and sugar in a stand mixer to make a meringue. I was unsure whether the frosting would take on the pristine white whipped frosting that was described. However as I whipped the meringue and added the butter and watched and watched my frosting transform into a soft beautiful flowing buttercream.

I assembled the cake and cooled it in the refridgerator. Glenn and I both sampled it that night. The cake was delicious as was the filling. The icing, while beautiful, might have been heavy on the butter flavor. I may use a whipped cream next time. But it is hard to pass up the beautiful look of that frosting. However...my other taste testers (my lovely neighbors) loved the cake and felt the whole thing was refreshing and delicious...frosting and all.

This was a fun make and I would surely make it again for a special event. If you are interested in the recipe you can visit mix, mix...stir, stir.

TWD-Coconut-Roasted Pineapple Dacquoise

2009-06-23T20:07:00.000-07:00

You're probably thinking this looks nothing like Coconut-Roasted Pineapple Dacquoise....well, it's not! I made a valiant effort, but had a bit of a problem. My dacquoise looked and smelled beautiful! I was so excited when I pulled it out of the oven; however, my excitement quickly dissolved when my dacquoise was stuck to my paper!
This is definitely a recipe I will try at another time, but time did not permit me to start the three hour plus process again. In the meantime, I whipped up my ganache and we've been eating it with strawberries, pineapple, graham crackers, and anything else we can think of! It is delicious and we're in heaven eating it!

The recipe isn't super hard, just requires a good amount of time. Make sure you have plenty of time when you get started. Thanks Andrea for the recipe, we'll give it another try!

Ooooops La La

2009-06-19T18:10:00.000-07:00

So, I made a delicious baking mistake a few weeks ago. My family is just waiting for me to make this mistake again.

I wanted to make a quick batch of chocolate chip cookies...I expanded on the recipe and accidently made it even more delicious. Okay so I decided to add some toasted almonds and coconut. And of course I toasted them myself and in my haste get these cookies in the oven and in our mouths faster I added the warm toasted almonds and coconut right on top of the chocolate chips (instead of allowing time for the nuts and coconut to cool). As I stirred the chocolate chips melted into the cookie dough making the most amazing chocolate dough. Once the dough had cooled a bit I added more chocolate chips to make the cookies a deep chocolate chocolate chip cookie. The dough was AMAZING and the cookies could not have been more perfect. Yummers!! I really need to make these again. I think they rivaled The World Peace Cookies.

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies w/ toated almonds and coconut

Dorie's Best Chocolate Chip Cookie
2 c. flour
1 tsp salt (1 1/4tsp if you really like salt)
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 sticks butter, at room temp.
1 c. sugar
2/3 c. (packed) light brown sugar
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
12 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chips, or 2 c. store bought chocolate chips
My Additions
1 c. chopped almonds
1 c. coconut
2 c. semisweet chocolate chips

1. Center rack in oven and preheat to 375
2. Whisk flour, salt, and baking soda
3. Beat butter on medium speed for 1 min, until smooth. Add sugar and beat for another 2 min or so, until well blended. Beat in vanilla.
4. Add eggs, one at a time, beating for 1 min after each egg.
5. Reduce mixer speed to low. Add dry ingredients in three portions making sure dry ingredients are incorporated each time (I added a little bit more flour, a few Tablespoons).
April's Additions
6. Pour 2 c. chocolate chips over dough, set dough aside.
7. Put coconut and chopped almonds in dry frying pan on low stiring constantly. Cook until coconut and nuts are toasted (coconut will be just starting to turn golden, but the majority will be white...it will smell really good).
8. Pour warm nuts and coconut on top of chocolate chips and stir into dough. Keep stiring until chocolate is melted into the dough and nuts and coconut are incorporated. Let dough cool for a few minutes. Stir in 2 more cups of chocolate chips (these ones should not melt).
9.(Dorie again) Spoon dough by slightly rounded tablespoonfuls onto baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches between spoonfuls. Bake cookies one sheet at a tiem rotating the sheet at the midway point for 10-12 min. They may still be a little soft in the middle and that's fine. Pull from oven and allow to rest for 1 min, then transfer to cookie rack and cool.

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe was taken from Dorie Greenspan's book...Baking from My Home to Yours on page 68.

TWD: Honey-Peach Ice Cream

2009-06-16T18:13:00.000-07:00

Dear Summer,

Thank you for your hot days, your bright sun, your warm breeze.

Thank you for the happy sounds of children giggling, splashing in the water, carefree in every way.

Oh ya, and thanks for honey peach ice cream. It really is perfect!!

Love,

Sarah

Thank you Tommi of Brown Interior for choosing this recipe. It was such a sweet treat for summer. I received a Cuisinart ice cream maker for Christmas and just didn't get around to using it until now. This recipe reminds me of old-fashioned peach cobbler. My peaches weren't great, so I used peaches for the honey blend and nectarines for the mix-ins. I made ice cream sandwiches with Grandma's all-occasion sugar cookies, (which happen to be the best sugar cookies ever.) Together, they made a perfect pair.

This recipe originally comes from "Baking: From my home to yours" by Dorie Greenspan, but you can also find it at www.browninterior.blogspot.com.

Happy Summer!!

Brown Butter Icing

2009-06-14T09:38:00.000-07:00

Admittedly...I am a chocolate girl through and through. I do enjoy most treats even if they are not chocolate, but unfortunately chocolate is my true weakness and temptation. However, I must say that I may have enjoyed this icing/frosting simply as much as I do chocolate. I have been craving it since I had it last. I am sure there are other recipes of this. The recipe I am posting is not the exact one from the picture as I have not retrieved that from a friend yet, but I have had this fabulous version of it before. This recipe is from Martha Stewart...how can you go wrong a Martha cookie, right. The icing would be good on a pumpkin bread (as pictured above) or anything pumpkin or spice. Really all you need is a vehicle. Enjoy!!!

Pumpkin Cookies w/ Brown Butter Icing

Ingredients
Makes about 6 dozen
FOR THE COOKIES
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 1/4 cups packed light-brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups canned solid-pack pumpkin (14 ounces)
3/4 cup evaporated milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
FOR THE ICING
4 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted (add more icing for thicker frosting for beads and such, according to preference)
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon evaporated milk,
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Directions
Make cookies: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg in a medium bowl; set aside.
Put butter and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Mix in eggs. Reduce speed to low. Add pumpkin, evaporated milk, and vanilla; mix until well blended, about 2 minutes. Add flour mixture; mix until combined.
Transfer 1 1/2 cups batter to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch plain tip (such as Ateco #806). Pipe 1 1/2-inch rounds onto parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing 1 inch apart. Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until tops spring back, about 12 minutes. Cool on sheets on wire racks 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire racks; let cool completely.
Make icing: Put confectioners' sugar in a large bowl; set aside. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, swirling pan occasionally, until golden brown, about 3 minutes. Immediately add butter to confectioners' sugar, scraping any browned bits from sides and bottom of pan. Add evaporated milk and vanilla; stir until smooth. Spread about 1 teaspoon icing onto each cookie. If icing stiffens, stir in more evaporated milk, a little at a time. Cookies can be stored in single layers in airtight containers at room temperature up to 3 days.

TWD - Parisian Apple Tartlet

2009-06-09T08:00:00.000-07:00

When I first read this recipe I was thrilled that it was so easy! Puff pastry from the freezer, apples, a little brown sugar and a bit of butter. How in the world could you go wrong with that combination? After reading other's reviews I decided I was going to be brave and make my own puff pastry. I didn't want to try and track down a butter puff pastry and didn't want to use one with shortening after reading Dorie's opinion on puff pastry.

So, I pulled out my binder from Cook Street and had a go at puff pastry for the first time in seven years. Yikes! The weather here in Utah has been very mild for this time of year so I figured it was a good time to try this as it wasn't so hot that the butter would become too soft and melt while I was working with it. It was a lot of work and required a lot of time because the dough needs to rest between the series of rollings and foldings. By repeating those steps multiple times, this creates alternating layers of butter and pastry, thereby creating a flaky, light puff pastry crust.

When I put the tarts in the oven I was apprehensive that my puff pastry wasn't going to work out and that I would have a big melted butter mess on the bottom of the pan. I watched carefully and was relieved when it appeared to be doing exactly what it was supposed to do!

We had our friends over for Sunday night dessert and the Parisian Apple Tartlet was a huge hit! I served them slightly warm, with a small scoop of Butter Pecan ice cream on top, which added a creamy element which complimented the baked apple and pastry in a lovely way. In fact, I thought it was so good I had two servings. Good thing I hit the gym hard Monday morning!

Although the puff pastry was a lot of work, I would definitely make these again, and would try my hand at puff pastry again. If you are interested in this simple, fabulous dessert, head on over to My Baking Heart for the full recipe.

Until next week! Happy Baking!

Latest Dishes

2009-06-02T23:40:00.001-07:00

I just thought I would share some of my latests and greatests!

Happy Birthday, Lindsey. She wanted a bear cake in the likeness of her Build-A-Bear except she wanted blue eyes like hers and a pink crown. I think we got it all! She was tickled and I was too. It was my first time to use the Wilton cake decorating bag and tip and I think it turned out okay!

Okay, we had some leftover flank steak that had marinated for a LONG time so it was really soft and delicious. It had marinated just in BBQ sauce. But with the leftovers I tossed it with spinach, gorgonzola, strawberries and homemade poppyseed dressing and it was delicious! You know how there are some dishes that you inhale rather than eat. This was one of those.

This one sounds like a cop-out but it's really good and my kiddos just kept eating and eating. We bought some of that frozen puff pastry dough and let it thaw. Then I made scrambled eggs with ham and cheese and put it into the dough and baked it. My kids were literally fighting over the last one. It's not exactly healthy because the dough is similar to pie dough but it made for some full tummies. Next time we're going to try eggs with sausage and cream cheese!

TWD: Cinnamon Chocolate Squares

2009-06-02T21:36:00.000-07:00

Yum! This was a seriously easy recipe to make. I didn't even have to go to the store for any special ingredients. For whole milk I used some canned evaporated milk and from experience with Dorrie's recipes I have stocked up on "store bought mini chocolate chips". This is a pretty little cinnamon cake with a thin layer of chocolate, sugar and cinnamon in the center. As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we don't drink coffee so I switched the espresso powder to cocoa. I figure a little extra chocolate couldn't hurt a recipe like this!

It was fun to make and I loved the little crunch of the cinnamon/sugar/cocoa layer. I never thought chocolate and cinnamon would really go together. I thought the chocolate would over power the cinnamon...I was wrong. It has a very strong flavor and is delicious! If you'd like to try making this recipe or see other delightful dishes check out Tracey's website.

TWD - Chipster-Topped Brownies

2009-05-19T09:36:00.000-07:00

Brace yourselves people this Tuesdays With Dorie has a high dosage of chocolate. It was pure heaven. I went from no baking at all to this beauty. Hallelujah!!!! Chipster-Topped Brownies are basically a thick layer of the richest chocolaty brownie ever with a layer of chocolate chip cookie spread on top. Here is the run down.

THE MAKING - I felt like this was an easy make simply because both brownies and cookies are such common treats around here that I didn't need to be paranoid about how it was supposed to look during the process. I used the Ikea dark chocolate bars for the bittersweet chocolate in the brownie portion of the treat. It did the job superbly. For the cookie part of the treat I felt like there was A LOT of butter. The batter tasted like butter to me, but in the end it cooked up nicely so maybe you need all that butter. The recipe calls for bittersweet chocolate chips, but it also says you can change it up according desire. I ended up using peanut butter chips in combination with an Ikea milk chocolate bar. The peanut butter cookie and deep chocolate brownie complimented each other nicely.

THE EATING -
Like I said these were heaven. You must be a chocolate person to truly appreciate them. Miriam (my chocolate obsessed 3 yr.old) quickly gobbled them down wanting more. Rebekah (my chocolate obsessed want-a-be but truly a lightweight, 5yrs) ate half a one and then gave the rest to Daddy who inhaled it quickly. Glenn and I both loved them and ate way too many. I made the whole 9x13, but I was glad I did. The day I made them we had play dates in and out of our house. So we sent treats home with two different families who all came back raving saying that they ate them all quickly and even began hoarding and hiding what was left. This recipe is definitely a keeper.

I LOVE the Ikea chocolate bars. This was the first time I used the dark chocolate bar in baking and it was just as fantastic. My chocolate bars usually do not make it into my baking because I eat them soon after making it home from shopping (sometimes before). Yum!

If you want to give it a try you can go visit Beth at Suppilicious for the recipe.

TWD- Fresh Mango Bread

2009-05-19T06:00:00.000-07:00

Lucky me! This wasn't my normal week for TWD but Liz thought it would be a bit too much to make this while trying to pack for a move cross country so she asked me to fill in for her. This was actually a recipe that I thought I would make even if I wasn't the one to post on it because it looked too good to pass up!

I didn't make any changes to the recipe at all. In terms of mangoes, I have no idea how one mango would yield 2 cups of diced mango. It took me two mangoes and I was good to get as much as possible out of each one. The batter was definitely more like a dough and took a bit of mixing by hand to get all of the dry ingredients to fold in.

Once in the oven, sweet tropical smells filled my house! I knew I was in for a real treat. I baked mine for the length of time recommended in the recipe but it seemed that the ends of the loaf were over done while the center was just perfect. I covered the loaf with foil for the last 20 or so minutes of baking so I'm not sure how to avoid that when I make it again.

The finished product was wonderful! My only complaints were one, I wished I could taste more of the lime zest once the bread was baked. In the batter I could taste the hint of lime but once it was finished it seemed non-existent. Second slight issue was that the bread just kind of fell apart and was difficult to cut. It is so packed with mango that it was difficult to slice. That said, the taste more than made up for the fall-apart slices.

I actually baked two loaves and served one at a church activity one night and then at a lunch I catered the following day. It was received with rave reviews! I even had some women say that they really don't like mango at all but they loved the bread. I think that is because the mango flavor is more subtle once it is baked.

This bread was wonderful and I will definitely make it again. Thanks to Kelly at Baking with the Boys for the great pick this week. If you want the full recipe head on over to her site.

Happy Baking!

Monkey Fun

2009-05-17T17:35:00.000-07:00

We had a birthday this week. I thought I would share the cake with everyone. I got the assembly instruction from parenting.com . There is always a debate as to whether I should do a specialty delicious cake or a fun one. This fun one was the way to go. Miriam giggled and giggled over her cake. She thought it was so funny that the monkey kept smiling at her. Such a funny girl

The Happy Birthday girl

Peanut Butter Cheesecake Brownie Babies

2009-05-17T10:09:00.000-07:00

Did this one pique your curiosity?

These are awesome!! And they don't just have a little bit of peanut butter cheesecake flavor swirled around inside, it has a real mass of deliciousness in the middle that you can enjoy and let linger in your mouth for a while. Yummy!!!

I found this recipe in Kraft's Food and Family magazine. They always have fun (and easy) recipes and its free!! They even have archives online if you missed something.

1 pkg brownie mix (19-21 oz., I prefer Ghiradelli mixes!!) + ingredients to make

1 pkg cream cheese (8 oz.)

1/3 c sugar

1 egg

1/4 c peanut butter

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups cool whip

20 maraschino cherries (optional)

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Prepare brownie mix according to package directions. Spoon into 20 muffin cups. I like the silicone ones, they just pop right out.

In a separate bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, egg, peanut butter, and vanilla with mixer until blended. Spoon a rounded Tbsp into each muffin cup and use another spoon to pull brownie mix over the top. You should still be able to see some of the cheesecake on top. Bake 30 minutes or until centers are set. Cool to room temp, then transfer to refrigerator.

True cheesecake needs to be refrigerated for at least 24 hours. I found that to be true with these as well. These are great on the first day, but if you can wait 24 hours, they're even yummier!

Serve topped with cool whip and maraschino cherries.

TWD: Tartest Lemon Tart

2009-05-12T13:12:00.000-07:00

Pucker up baby!! This one is SOUR!! Here is a recipe that truly lives up to its name. It really is the TARTEST lemon tart ever! It contains whole lemons (sans seeds) pureed with the rest of the filling.

I took the liberty of omitting 2/3 of the rind. I zested the lemon, then cut off and discarded the white part of the rind, then added the flesh of the lemon. I made the original version of the sweet tart dough. (I've just had my fill of nuts ground up in things lately.) I have to say how much I LOVED the dough!! I'm sure I'll be looking for reasons to use that one again.

Even with the changes, it was super sour, but very tasty. I served it with a sweet cream and thought it was really good. I even had to put it in the freezer, so I wouldn't eat it all in one night.

Thanks to Barbara of www.babettefeasts.com! This was a fresh, fun change from some of the things I've made lately. If you haven't checked out "Baking, from my home to yours" by Dorie Greenspan, check it out. There are some amazing and delicious things in there!!

TWD: Tiramisu Cake

2009-05-05T10:56:00.000-07:00

Although we are not coffee drinkers for religious reasons, I have always loved the smell of coffee and the taste of coffee flavored desserts. The smell of coffee reminds me of mornings spent on summer vacations visiting grandparents. I guess you could say I am a bit nostalgic. So, when I read that the choice for this week was Tiramisu Cake I was intrigued. Turning Tiramisu into a cake. Genius!

I splurged and purchased the marscapone cheese at my local Sunflower Farmers Market (my new favorite place to buy produce). Although a bit pricey, I think it was well worth it. Because we don't have coffee around our house I had to find some instant coffee granules. I opted out of the espresso granules and instead chose to use a decaf coffee. And to substitute for the liquor I used almond extract. That said, even with my substitutions I think the cake turned out fabulous. I didn't have a chance to have it sit overnight or even for a couple of hours in the fridge. I'm sure the flavors would have been more pronounced if I had. I had friends over for dessert and all plates were licked clean. This probably won't be a regular recipe for me to make, but it will be saved for those times when the husband is craving Tiramisu. If you are interested in the recipe head on over to My Baking Adventures where Megan has it posted.

Until next week...Happy Baking!

Stove-Top Broccoli Mac-and-Cheese

2009-05-02T16:02:00.000-07:00

Good Eats is one of my favorite shows on The Food Network. I enjoy learning about kitchen science and Alton Brown makes it fun and informative. A few months ago I saw an episode on Macaroni and Cheese. Most of the show was dedicated to Baked Macaroni and Cheese but at the end he quickly showed a recipe for Stove Top Mac-and-Cheese. I was intrigued and decided it was a must try. It doesn't take much longer than box macaroni and cheese and the taste is amazing. As long as I keep evaporated milk in my pantry this will be my go-to recipe when the kids request macaroni and cheese. I made it this week and decided to add some broccoli to it to see how the kids would react. Much to my surprise they all loved it! Kids and adults will love this recipe. It is now a permanent addition to the Hasler Family Favorite Recipes. Enjoy!

Stove Top Broccoli Mac-and-Cheese

adapted from an Alton Brown recipe

1/2 pound elbow macaroni
Two broccoli heads cut into small florets
4 tablespoons butter
2 eggs
6 ounces evaporated milk
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Fresh black pepper
3/4 teaspoon dry mustard
10 ounces shredded cheese (I've just used what I had on hand.)

In a large pot of boiling, salted water cook the broccoli and pasta until the pasta is al dente. Drain and return to the pot and melt in the butter. Toss to coat.

Whisk together the eggs, milk, hot sauce, salt, pepper, and mustard. Stir into the pasta and add the cheese. Over low heat continue to stir for 3 minutes or until creamy.