Bread Pudding

I was cleaning out my inbox and found this bread pudding recipe that my cousin Ruth made. She omitted the coconut flakes and substituted more milk for the coconut milk, and only made half the sauce. But it was divine :) I found this blogger has it all typed up so I'll just link you here. New Orleans Style Bread Pudding
(yes I see the irony in linking a New Orleans recipe when the Detroit Lions lost to the Saints yesterday).

Apples!

Went to Brookwood Fruit Farm on Friday with my MOMs group and little miss. Got a big bag of apples; cortlands, jonathons, and jonamacs (jonathon-macintosh hybrid). Mmmm. Apples. Means its time for apple cooking. Made some of Mom's apple sauce right away, plan to have that tomorrow with the apple pork loin roast I love.

Tonight we had hamburger soup and then had apple dumplings (new recipe, I still want to try the other one, this is a quick one) for dessert. YUM. I halved the recipe (only had one sheet of pastry and 4 people to feed) and didn't allow them to cool all the way before we inhaled, or make the glaze. That's what vanilla bean ice cream is for, duh ;) So good when melty ice cream and apples meet.

If you have a tried/true apple recipe please share :) my friend from college is coming Thursday so I may make an apple coffee cake for us to munch on Thursday & Friday.

Apple Dumpling Supreme

Found the elusive apple dumpling recipe that a previous boyfriend's mother made (that was OMG amazing) when I "came home to meet the parents" once. Yeah, not the man I married ;) but the apple dumplings that woman made made me obsessed with finding the recipe for awhile. I follow a live journal community called vintage recipes and someone posted this today.

Anyways, onto the recipe :) typed as written, for sure an old recipe as the layout is not the common day recipe layout. I wonder if I could cheat and use Pillsbury premade pastry? ;)

Betty Crocker Apple Dumpling Supreme
pastry makes 6 dumplings

sift together: 2 1/4 cups flour
3/4 tsp salt

cut in with pastry blender or two knives: 3/4 cup shortening... first adding most of it until mixture looks like "meal" and then cutting in the rest until particles are the size of giant peas.

Sprinkle over mixture 5 Tbsp of water... mixing enough to make dough stay together.

Round up into a ball, let stand for a few minutes to make easier to roll out. (If desired, divide into 2 or 3 parts to make it easier to handle). Roll out dough 1/8inch thick on lightly floured cloth covered board. Cut into six 7-inch squares.

Now...

Pare and core 6 medium sized tart juicy apples. Place an apple on each square of pastry.

Fill apple cavities of apples with a mixture of:
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Dot with 1 tbsp of butter.

Then the ad shows a song lyric "button up your overcoat" with the instructions for sealing the dumpling.

Moisten points of the pastry square (be sure not to use too much water). Fold up opposite points up over apple, overlapping them. Seal well.

Place about 2-inch apart in a 9x13x2 baking pan. Pour hot syrup (recipe below) around dumplings in pan. Bake immediately for 40 to 45 minutes in a hot oven (425).

Syrup:
Boil together for 3 minutes: 1 cup sugar, 2 cups water, 4 Tbsp butter, 1/4 tsp cinnamon.

For less rich syrup use 1/2 cup each of sugar and corn syrup, 2 Tbsp butter, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, and only 1 cup of water. (or use maple syrup)

Mom's Double Chocolate Brownies

I swore I already posted this, but apparently not. This is my Mom's amazing brownie recipe. If made as written use an 8x8 or 9x9 pan (unless you want thin brownies). If doubling the recipe, then use a 9x13.

DOUBLE CHOCOLATE BROWNIES

3/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons water
2 cups chocolate chips, divided
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 325 F.
Combine dry ingredients – set aside. Combine butter, sugar and water; bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add 1 cup chocolate chips and vanilla; stir until smooth. Transfer to a large bowl. Add eggs one at a time, beating well. Gradually add dry ingredients. Stir in the remaining 1 cup chips. Spread in a treated 8” greased glass baking pan. Bake 30-35 minutes.

A not so low fat recipe

But one I've wanted forever...
Elly Says Opa's Baklava!

Mmmmm. Baklava. *drooooool* I'm not a huge walnut fan so I'll probably use pistachios for at least part of it as I've often had it that way. Now to find a reason to make yummy baklava. So I don't eat the whole pan. Because I could.

Chocolate cookies

I am in a Christmas cookie exchange tomorrow, so I decided on 3 varieties of cookies, all chocolate. Now they are all cooling and I'm resisting (somewhat successfully) the urge to eat them myself.

First up were my favorite from last Christmas, the Chocolate Mint Cookies I found on allrecipes. Only thing I add to the batter is 1/2 tsp vanilla and 1/4 tsp mint extract. Then I use 1/2 an andies mint on top of each instead of whatever the mint was they wanted you to hunt down. Andies mints are easy to find.

While the batter for those was chilling, I made the fudgey bon-bon cookie recipe; I used the new dark chocolate Hershey kisses this year, and they're good :)

Fudgey bon-bons
(recipe says 60 cookies but I don't get that many)

ingredients:
12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup butter
14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
60 Hershey's kisses (your favorite flavor)
2 oz chocolate
1 tsp shortening
sprinkles/decors (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. In double boiler combine chips and butter; cook and stir over very low heat until chips and butter are melted and smooth. Remove from heat. Add sweetened condensed milk, mix well. Stir in vanilla. In medium bowl add flour then pour over chocolate. Mix well. Shape 1 tablespoon of dough around each kiss, covering completely. Place 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 6-8 minutes. Cookies will be soft and may appear shiny, but will firm up as they cool. DO NOT OVERBAKE. Remove cookies from cookie sheet and let them cool completely. Melt chocolate and shortening in microwave. Place cookies on wax paper, drizzle chocolate over cookies and add sprinkles. Store tightly covered.

Next I made the cookie dough for the brownie cups I found on the mint Hershey kisses bag (yes I have more than one kind of Hershey kisses in my house, don't judge).

Mint Capped Brownie Cookie Cups
(4 dozen)
48 Hershey Kisses mint truffles wrapped in dark chocolate
2/3 cup butter, softened
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbsp water
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup Hershey special dark cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
(powdered sugar optional)

Preheat oven to 350. Line 48 mini muffin cups with paper or foil baking cups. Remove kisses from wrappers. Beat butter, sugar, water, and vanilla on medium speed until well blended. Add eggs, beat well. Sift together flour, cocoa, salt, and baking soda. Gradually add to sugar mixture, beating on low speed until just blended. Refrigerate dough until firm enough to handle. Shape dough into 1 inch balls, place in prepared muffin cups. Bake 11-13 minutes or until cookie surface is set. Cookies will appear soft and moist. Do not overbake. Cool about 5 minutes on wire rack, then press one kiss into center of each cookie cup. Cool completely. Sprinkle each cookie with powdered sugar if desired.

apple cheesecake

Yes, I'm a cheesecake fan, won't deny it. :)

I'd printed this one out back in 2005 and found it again this weekend and decided to finally try it. I'd bought a bag of jonamac apples at the store and some cream cheese so it was bound to happen. My aunt had an open house this weekend so I had an excuse to make a cheesecake, that's all I needed. ;)

Here is the original recipe, I naturally changed things up immediately, so I'll post the recipe I followed below. I'm not sure I'm done tweaking this one, but as is its pretty good, other than the non-existent crust.

Apple crumble cheesecake

1 1/2 cup nilla wafer crumbs
3 tablespoons white sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

cinnamon sugar
3 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 cups apples - peeled, cored and thinly sliced (about the size of nickles)
1/3 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
dash of cloves

1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter softened

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). In a large bowl, stir together the nilla wafer crumbs, 3 tablespoons sugar, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and melted butter; press into the bottom of a 9 inch springform pan. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar after cooled. (not sure I'm in love with the crust, seemed thin and got soggy... anyone have a great not chocolate crust for cheesecake?)

In a large bowl, combine cream cheese and 3/4 cup sugar. Mix at medium speed until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Blend in vanilla; pour filling into the baked crust.

In a small bowl, stir together 1/3 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Toss the cinnamon-sugar with the apples to coat. Spoon apple mixture over cream cheese layer. In the future I may combine the apples & sugar first, then set to strain juices out before adding the spices and then top it.

Combine the butter, brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon with a pastry cutter until a crumby texture forms. Sprinkle over apples.

Bake in preheated oven for 75-85 minutes in a water bath. Let cool, then remove the rim of pan. Chill cake before serving.

bar cookies

Today I'm in a baking mood and since we're going on a walk in a park with a big group tomorrow I can bake a few things and not have to eat them all myself :)

First up are these strawberry cheesecake bars from Betty Crocker, I had some strawberries, cream cheese, and a sugar cookie mix to use up and so this recipe worked out perfectly. Didn't change anything about that, except instead of using "fruit spread" I made my own strawberry topping of sorts. I got the original recipe from a diabetic cooking site but I changed a lot so I'll just post what I did ;)

strawberry topping:

1 tsp corn starch
1/4 cup Orange Juice
1 cup Mashed OR Pureed Fresh Strawberries
couple of tsp of sugar
1 tbsp Orange Peel Slivers
1/4 tsp Coriander

I poured the orange juice into a sauce pan then sprinkled the corn starch over top and stirred to combine. Then added the remaining ingredients and stirred on the stove over medium heat. Let it come to a boil and simmered it for awhile until it thickened up. Then I let it cool pretty much completely. It made just about 3/4 cup of topping from my one standard package of berries (less a few my 2 year old berry thief stole). Smells a little orange-y from the juice/peel but that should still be good with the cheesecake. May help counteract the sweetness of the sugar cookie crust.

I texted my sister if she had any requests for tomorrow and she wanted me to make my oatmeal jam squares so here's the recipe for that too. Really easy and pretty good :) and since it involves oats you can pretend its good for you.

Oatmeal Jam Squares

2 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 3/4 cups flour
1 cup melted butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 jam (I like seedless raspberry for these)

Preheat oven to 375, treat a 9x13 with cooking spray.

Mix everything except the jam together in a bowl (I just use a spatula, don't need a mixer). Separate 2 cups of the mixture and press the rest into the pan.

Spread the jam over top so its as even as possible. If you have thick jam you may need to warm it a little in the microwave to make it spread better.

Sprinkle the rest of the oat mixture over top of the jam. Bake 25-30 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Cool completely, cut into bars.

Kathleen's 2nd Birthday

I am entertaining the idea of making cupcakes for Kathleen's 2nd birthday instead of buying a cake from Sweet & Savory (though their cakes are soooo good). Tricia sent me this cookie monster cupcake recipe awhile ago, I may have to try them. The only thing that concerns me is the blue frosting all over two 2 year olds (her and Joey) ;) so I'm going to still poke around and see what inspires me ;) I've seen cute monkey ones before where you use round pretzels for ears on the cupcakes... so who knows. Or the lure of the mousse filling in the sweet and savory cake may lure me into their bakery. That and they have bumpy cake cupcakes. If you're not from Michigan, this is a bumpy cake. Evil. Imagine a cupcake like that ;)

yummy blueberry crumb bars

It's Michigan blueberry season, so last weekend we picked up 2 pints at the little farmer stand downtown. I am not a huge raw blueberry fan, but like to cook with them so I searched for something I could make (other than the usual muffins) that my husband could take to his day long meetings in a hotel conference room this week.

I found this blueberry crumb bar recipe on allrecipes, then edited it to my own baking preferences :) so here is my version, italics where I changed ingredients.

Blueberry crumb bars

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup shortening (I used butter flavored Crisco)
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 cups fresh blueberries
1/2 cup white sugar
3 teaspoons cornstarch
grated lemon peel

DIRECTIONS (changed with my ingredients)
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch pan.
In a medium bowl, stir together sugars, 3 cups flour, and baking powder. Mix in salt and cinnamon. Use a fork or pastry cutter to blend in the shortening, vanilla, and egg. Dough will be crumbly. Pat half of dough into the prepared pan.
In another bowl, stir together the sugar and cornstarch. Gently mix in the blueberries and sprinkle in some lemon peel (I used probably about 1 tsp). Sprinkle the blueberry mixture evenly over the crust. Crumble remaining dough over the berry layer.
Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until top is slightly brown. Cool completely before cutting into squares.

giant peanut butter cup cookies

Making these for the party...
They smell really evil ;)Hersheys Giant Peanut Butter Cup cookies

Key Lime Pie

Realized I don't have my Mom's favorite key lime pie on this blog yet, will have to fix that ;) best part is you can just buy one of those store bought graham cracker crusts if you don't feel the need to use your own.

KEY LIME PIE

21 oz sweetened condensed milk
6 oz fresh-squeezed key lime juice
6 egg yolks
1 – 10” Graham Cracker Crust

Preheat oven to 350F. Blend sweetened condensed milk and egg yolks on low speed. Gradually add the key lime juice and mix together well. Pour into the pie shell and bake for 20 minutes. Cool. Cover with plastic wrap and chill.

NOTE: FOR 9” pie shell, use 14 oz sweetened condensed milk, 4 oz key lime juice, and 4 egg yolks.

Yes folks its just that easy, and its really good. Can garnish with whipped cream :)

work party ideas

So I've been told that the management team from Chris' company is coming over here for a work dinner, since they can't talk to everyone if they go to a restaurant. They are getting carryout dinner from Italia Gardens but I am gonna have to do some appetizer and dessert magic.

Appetizers.... hmmm. I may make the Neimen Marcus spread referenced in this post or maybe the spinach/artichoke dip.

Dessert I am making that chocolate chip cheesecake (again) per my husband's request and may make key lime pie. Just to have something if someone doesn't *gasp* like chocolate very much. Plus its a good summery dessert.

Any other recommendations/suggestions?

Cheeeeeeesecake

Made some cheesecake this weekend, thought I'd share the recipes ;)

Got this one from my high school friend, she'd posted making it a few times on facebook, I asked her for the recipe ;)

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

1 package oreo cookies (1 lb)
1 stick of butter.

12 oz chocolate chips (I like to use the mini-chips)
3 bricks of cream cheese (8 oz each)
14 oz sweetened condensed milk
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp flour

Using food processor, combine the cookies and butter. Press the mixture into the bottom of a spring form pan.

Beat the cream cheese and slowly add the milk. Then add the eggs and the vanilla.

Mix half the chocolate chips with the flour. (This will prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the cake.) Carefully fold into the batter.

Pour into pan.

Sprinkle with the rest of the chocolate.

Bake at 300 degrees for 1 hour. Cool and the refrigerate before serving

Note: best to bake on a cookie sheet to catch anything that may spill.


I also made these chunky cheesecake brownies, using the hershey special dark chips and threw a little vanilla into the cheesecake and to the brownie batter. Otherwise pretty good :)

Banana Split Freeze

This is one of my husband's family recipes, they compiled recipes from his Dad's family back in the early 90s and made a spiral cookbook just for the family. I got his Grandma's copy after she passed. This was apparently his favorite dessert ever and he's been begging me to make it forever so I finally did. It's pretty good! Frozen bananas are an acquired taste but once you get over that its really good. Could see changing up the flavors of ice cream and chips and fruit and making different tasty things. I made it with reduced fat evaporated milk and reduced fat ice cream and it tasted fine.

Banana Split Freeze

1 cup crushed graham cracker crumbs
2-3 bananas sliced
1/2 gallon of ice cream, softened (I used vanilla, recipe called for marbled fudge)

13oz can evaporated milk
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter or margarine
2 cups powdered (confectioners) sugar
1 cup chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla

whipped cream and nuts optional

Spray or butter a 9x13 pan. Spread crushed graham crackers over the bottom, line with banana slices then spread ice cream over top. Freeze. Combine the evaporated milk, butter, powdered sugar, and chocolate chips in a saucepan over medium heat until melted. Bring to a boil then remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Pour over top of the ice cream (it will all melt it and combine, I guess this is normal). (The original recipe called for covering it in whipped cream and nuts, I didn't.) Cover and stick it back in the freezer. Best made the night before so it can be totally frozen.

sweets :)

I was finally printing these out, after Tricia had sent them to me weeks ago.

Cookies & Cream cake - Not tried but have been told this is amazing.

And 2 frosting recipes I tried on chocolate cupcakes Tricia made over the holidays :)

Easy Vanilla Buttercream

Ingredients:
20 tbsp. (2 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1/8 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tbsp. heavy cream

Directions:
In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat butter at medium-high speed until smooth, about 20 seconds. Add confectioners’ sugar and salt; beat at medium-low speed until most of the sugar is moistened, about 45 seconds. Scrape down the bowl and beat at medium speed until mixture is fully combined, about 15 seconds. Scrape bowl, add vanilla and heavy cream, and beat at medium speed until incorporated, about 10 seconds. Then increase the speed to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes, scraping down bowl once or twice.

Source: The Way the Cookie Crumbles, originally from Cook’s Illustrated, April 2007


Kathleen's Peanut Butter Icing:

• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
Place the confectioners' sugar, peanut butter, butter, vanilla, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on medium-low speed until creamy, scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula as you work. Add the cream and beat on high speed until the mixture is light and smooth.

Oatmeal Raisin cookies

Also found on the inside of the lid of your standard tube of Quaker Oats, but in case you buy another brand of oats or something...oh and Sunmaid raisins sells a "baking" raisin that is pretty good... and make sure you use real butter, sugars, eggs, and vanilla or you need not bake IMO. ;) These are also the cookies Nate (my now husband's roommate) devoured in a day in college ;) got this off of the quaker website awhile ago to send to someone.

vanishing oatmeal raisin cookies

ingredients
1/2 pound (2 sticks) margarine or butter, softened
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
3 cups Quaker® Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
1 cup raisins preparation

1. Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, beat margarine and sugars until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. Add oats and raisins; mix well.

2. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

3. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. Cool completely. Store tightly covered.

Servings: ABOUT 4 DOZEN

variations

Bar Cookies: Press dough onto bottom of ungreased 13 x 9-inch baking pan. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars. Store tightly covered,24 BARS

VARIATIONS: Stir in 1 cup chopped nuts. Substitute 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips or candy-coated chocolate pieces for raisins; omit cinnamon. Substitute 1 cup diced dried mixed fruit.

HIGH ALTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: Increase flour to 1-3/4 cups and bake as directed.

Summer Berry Pie

Another low fat dessert recipe :) and also involves jell-o so kids should like it. Got this from my friend Anne at my bridal shower back eons ago.

Summer Berry Pie
Yields: 2 pies (6-8 servings each)

Ingredients:
1 ½ cups sugar
3 cups cold water
6 Tbsp corn starch
1 package (6oz) berry flavored gelatin
2 cups fresh blue berries (or blackberries are good too)
2 cups fresh strawberries
2 cups fresh raspberries
2 9-inch graham cracker crusts
4 cups whipped topping

In a saucepan combine sugar, cornstarch & water until smooth. Bring to a boil; cook & stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat. Stir in gelatin until dissolved. Refrigerate 15-20 minutes or until mixture begins to thicken. Stir in berries. Pour into crusts & chill until set. Garnish with whipped topping and extra berries.

Orange Creamsicle Pie

This is a low fat low sugar recipe my mother in law gave me a few years ago. It can be modified to any kind of jell-o you'd prefer by changing the yogurt to another flavor or just vanilla.

Orange Creamsicle Pie

Ingredients:
1 8oz package fat free cream cheese
1 8oz container light orange yogurt
5 tsp sugar or substitute
¼ tsp vanilla extract (I use a bit more, overflow the measuring spoon)
1 small package sugar free orange gelatin
1 cup fat free cool whip
1 reduced fat graham cracker pie crust

Beat cream cheese and yogurt until creamy, add sugar and vanilla extract and continue mixing. Stir in orange gelatin and beat to blend. Fold in cool whip. Pour into pie crust and chill at least 2 hours.