Archive for the ‘Desserts’ Category

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A trip to the farmer’s market…

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

… left me with slightly more strawberries than I intended to eat and a pound of ground bison.  The bison went quickly, and the strawberries followed suit… all the way up until the last pint or so.  Those just sat in the fridge for days.  I would open the door to get milk for my cereal in the morning, contemplate for a few moments whether I wanted to add strawberries to my bowl, notice their many bruises, and shut the door with only a gallon of milk in hand.  There’s something so very unappetizing about fruit that is past ripe.

This recipe was my attempt to deal with that.  The basic cobbler recipe (this minus the cinnamon) is something I got from Rebecca.  Where it came from before that, I cannot say.  I added the cinnamon because cinnamon and strawberries are on of the best food combos of all time… right up there with orange juice and cheez-its.  Don’t judge.  We served with strawberry ice cream, another excellent food combo.  Enjoy!

Photo by Nathan Clendenin

Photo by Nathan Clendenin

Strawberry Cobbler:

  • Strawberries
  • 1 stick butter, melted (8 Tablespoons)
  • 1 c. sugar
  • 1 c. flour
  • 1 c. milk
  • 1 Tbs. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375.  Chop up strawberries.  Set aside.  Mix remaining ingredients.  Pour into a greased 13 x 9 pan.  Place the strawberries over the batter.  Bake 35ish minutes or until golden brown.

Posted in Comfort Food, Desserts, Recipes | 1 Comment »

The Silly and Serious Sides of Dessert

Monday, April 19th, 2010

I made some fun desserts these past two weekends!  One was definitely “grown-up” and sophisticated, while the other was more whimsical and fun.

French Baguettes with Brie and Raspberry Sauce

Baguettes look good coming out of a paper grocery bag.

Baguettes look good coming out of a paper grocery bag.

I tried my hand at making homemade baguettes after finding this recipe.  I made them for my Mom’s birthday party.  We actually ate the bread as dessert rather than cake.  To go with it, I bought some brie and made raspberry sauce:

  • 2 cups fresh raspberries
  • 4-6 tablespoons sugar
  • 1-2 tablespoons water
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  • a few mint leaves, torn into small pieces

I put the raspberries into a small saucepan with the water and sugar and cooked them over medium.  While they were cooking, I continuously stirred them and added the honey, lemon juice, and mint leaves.  The raspberries quickly lost their shape and became part of the sauce.  I brought the sauce to boiling for a short time, but mostly I let it steam and cook down until it thickened a bit.  Taste the sauce to see if it needs more sugar – the raspberries can be really tart!

I served this by slicing the bread and placing a couple of pieces on each plate with slices of brie and a serving of raspberry sauce.  Everyone had fun combining the pieces as they ate.

Candy Sushi

Colorful array of candy sushi

Colorful array of candy sushi

I simply had to try this when my friend tweeted about making Rice Krispy sushi.  I used this recipe (using Fruit By the Foot instead of fruit leather), which made a lot of pieces!  I thought it would be too sweet with all that candy, but the Rice Krispies helped to balance out the strong flavors.  Besides, it was really cute, and that’s all that matters in this case!

Posted in Breads, Desserts, Recipes | No Comments »

Here we go a-waffling

Saturday, March 6th, 2010
Photo by Nathan Clendenin

Photo by Nathan Clendenin

When I tell people about my new favorite blog, I seem to get one of two responses:

1) Wow! That sounds really neat. I think I’d like to waffle things. Do you dip things in batter, or what? How does this work? I want to know!

2) … the things people blog about. I might as well start a blog about my cats.

The only outlier thus far has been during this conversation between Valerie and another coworker:

V: I didn’t know “waffle” could be a verb.
H: It can; remember that Christmas song… “here we go a-waffling*”?

*She means wassailing, although, frankly, I’m a fan of her version of the song..

… back to the first group, though…

You’re wrong, and here’s why: at the root of that statement is an idea that fundamentally shapes your worldview. This idea is essentially that waffles are just pancakes in a funny shape. This is false, and if you don’t know why, I have nothing more to say to you.

To the second group…

Will you be my best friend?

All of that said, I’ve taken up waffling as my new hobby, and thus waffled shortcake that I served with strawberries and vanilla yogurt, topped with a sprinkling of cinnamon.

Photo by Nathan Clendenin

Photo by Nathan Clendenin

A few things I’ve learned about waffling:

  1. Since waffling things is generally experimentation, it may not come out great the first time. Try before serving.
  2. Do not overcook.
  3. Do not undercook.

Expect more waffled recipes in the future.

Posted in Comfort Food, Cookies, Desserts, Recipes | 2 Comments »

Success!

Saturday, February 20th, 2010

I chatted with a coworker who follows a strict gluten free diet about what kind of cookies to make for my brother’s birthday, and he recommended flourless peanut butter cookies. The idea intrigued me.  After all, the best gluten free recipes are those that are naturally so, not those that have all sorts of gluten substitutes in them. Food Blog Search helped me find this recipe, which not only matched the ingredients I had on hand, but also addressed the many doubts I had about making cookies without flour.

Mad props to Joy the Baker. The cookies were AMAZING! Don’t believe me? See the text my I got from my brother just a couple days later:

Do you even need to read the rest of it?

Do you even need to read the rest of it?

I must confess that I did get lazy. On two counts. So my recipe is a little different than the original, though I cannot claim that mine were better.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup peanut butter
  • 1 cup sugar (I skimped on the brown sugar; it’s true)
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda

Procedures:

Cream all ingredients together.  Place by rounded teaspoons onto greased baking sheet.  Use your thumb to press the cookie down a bit in the middle.  (I just wasn’t going to worry about dirty-ing forks for a silly little criss-cross pattern.)  Bake for 10-ish minutes.  Let cool on baking sheet for a bit, then transfer to wire racks.

Photo by Nathan Clendenin

Photo by Nathan Clendenin

Do you really miss the criss-cross pattern?

Posted in Cookies, Desserts, Gluten Free, Recipes | 1 Comment »

Pink Peppermint Pie – A story of unrequited love

Saturday, February 13th, 2010

I made a beautiful pie for Valentine’s Day. In order to make it, I scraped the cream off half a box of Oreos, whipped up cream by hand (this took a loooong time), and invented my own recipe for chocolate drizzle. It turned out splendidly – a work of art that made me proud. I’m sorry to say it didn’t receive the love I hoped it would.

See, I made this pie for a party. And this party had a ton of sweets. Everyone was handed a little molten chocolate cake (which tasted awesome, by the way) at the beginning of the party. After molten chocolate cake, how could anyone have room for peppermint pie? Sadly, only two or three pieces of my pie got eaten. It was disappointing to see my beautiful pie cut up and melting (it needs to be refrigerated) and not even being eaten.  This may seem silly, but it really was an unfortunate situation.

Pink Peppermint Pie

Pink Peppermint Pie

Anyway, the recipe is awesome, and I hope your experience with this pie will be better fated than mine. I found this recipe in Betty Crocker (the copy from the 70’s that my parents gave me for my 15th birthday). Here it is:

  • Oreo crust (I made my own)
  • 24 large marshmallows
  • 1/2 c milk
  • 1 t vanilla
  • 1/8 t salt
  • 6 drops peppermint extract
  • 6 drops red food color
  • 1 c chilled whipping cream
  • 2 T crushed peppermint candy

Bake pie crust.  Heat marshmallows and milk in saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly, just until marshmallows are melted.  Remove from heat; stir in vanilla, salt, peppermint extract, and food color.  Refrigerate, stirring occasionally, until mixture mounds slightly when dropped from a spoon.

Beat whipping cream in chilled bowl until stiff.  Stir marshmallow mixture until blended; fold into whipping cream.  Pour into crust.  Refrigerate at least 12 hours.

In order to decorate this, I melted chocolate chips (about 1/3 cup) with shortening (about a tablespoon) in a saucepan. I dipped a heart-shaped cookie cutter in the melted chocolate, then made heart-shaped impressions on the pie. Then I used the cookie cutter again to sprinkle peppermint candy inside the hearts. I had so much melted chocolate left over, I covered the whole edge of the crust too.

Posted in Desserts, Recipes | 1 Comment »

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