Chocolate Praline Cake

This is one of those simple to do cakes, but looks amazing and tastes like you spent hours slaving over it. One warning though, it gets messy while you serve it, so don't be afraid to dig right in :)
Chocolate Praline Cake
from the Cake Mix Doctor

1 stick butter, cut up
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup pecans, chopped
1 package devil's food cake mix with pudding (it works without pudding as well)
1 cup water
1/2 cup oil
3 large eggs
1 (8 oz) tub cool whip or fresh whipped sweetened cream

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a small saucepan over low heat, stir together butter, cream, and sugar just until the butter melts--about 3 minutes. Divide the mixture between 2 nine-inch pans. Sprinkle each mixture with the chopped pecans and set aside.

In a large bowl, mix the cake mix, water, oil, and eggs. Blend on low for 1 minute, scrape down the sides, then blend on medium for 2 minutes. Divide into the 2 pans and spread smooth. Place the pans side by side in the oven and bake for 35-37 minutes. The cakes should spring back when lightly pressed.

Let the cakes cool in their pans for 10 minutes. Then run a dinner knife around the edges and turn out onto wire racks, praline side up. To serve, place on cake praline side up on a cake plate and spread half of your whipped cream/cool whip on top. Place the next cake, praline side up, on top and then spread again with the rest of the cool whip.

You can also make this in a 9x13 pan. Just put everything in the one pan (instead of dividing between 2 nine-inch pans) and bake for 55 minutes. Cool the same way and just spread all of the cool whip on top of the cake instead of stacking it. Enjoy!

German Chocolate Cake Balls

I can't take any of the credit for this recipe other than the variations we've made. The original I got from bakerella.com who is the queen of cute cake balls and such (you should totally check out her website--it's amazing what she can do with these!). The basic recipe involves crumbling up a baked cake, adding a can of frosting, and then forming it into balls and then dipping them. Her original recipe calls for Red Velvet Cake and Cream Cheese Frosting dipped in chocolate. We've tried a few different variations, and hope to try many, many more :) One of our favorites thus far is German Chocolate complete with homemade coconut pecan frosting. You could totally use the canned frosting for this in a pinch, but isn't homemade just that much nummier?
This is actually the only picture I've been able to snap of my cake balls. It's from my youngest son's 1st birthday a couple years ago. We had a "Ball" theme since he was so in love with balls of any variety at that point. So I tried doing the bakerella thing and making the cake balls look like actual balls (we were going for basketballs, baseballs, yellow bouncy balls, and kickballs). I think this variety was Devil's food cake with cream cheese frosting dipped in colored candy melts (like almond bark-- you can get them at joann's/roberts etc.).

German Chocolate Cake Balls
a variation of the original cake balls by bakerella

1 German Chocolate Cake, baked according to package directions
1 recipe Coconut Pecan Frosting (recipe below, or in a pinch--1 can of coconut pecan frosting)
3-4 bags Guittard Chocolate chips (or almond bark or other chocolate)*

Dump the cake into a really big bowl and break it up with your hands or fork or whatever you find useful. Stir in the coconut pecan frosting. Using your hands, start rolling the mixture into balls and placing on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or freezer paper. Make sure they're not touching, but cram as many as you can on there. You may need to wash the mixture off your hands several times while rolling these, as your hands will get very messy which makes for messy balls. After rolling a full pans worth of balls, place the pan in the freezer for at least 20 minutes (this helps them stay firm while you're dipping them in warm chocolate).

Melt your chocolates in a bowl. I just use the microwave for this. Heat it initially for 30 seconds and then stir. Then heat it for 15 seconds and stir, repeating until the chocolate is melted. During the dipping, you'll have to keep reheating the chocolates or keep them in a double boiler or a crockpot to help it stay warm and melted.

Carefully, using two forks (or official dipping forks if you're lucky enough to have them), dip each frozen cake ball into the chocolate and carefully place on a sheet of parchment to dry and set. After the chocolate has set, dig in and enjoy!

*For a full recipe, you'll need about 1 package plus a bit of another package of almond bark. It melts and dips thinner than chocolate chips. So you won't need as much as you would chocolate chips. Chocolate chips just taste tons better (especially the good kind like guittard), but they stay thicker, so you need more.

Coconut Pecan Frosting
Better Homes and Gardens cookbook

1 egg
2/3 cup evaporated milk (regular milk works fine too)
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 1/3 cup coconut
1/2 cup chopped pecans

In a medium saucepan, slightly beat egg. Stir in milk, sugar, and butter. Cook and stir over medium heat about 12 minutes or till thickened and bubbly. Remove from heat; stir in coconut and pecans. Cover and cool. Tastes great on German Chocolate Cake, Brownies, you name it :).

Lemon Bars

I don't make lemon bars that often (ok, never), as I've never really been a fan of them. But Dave asked if I'd make some... so I figured I'd give it a try. This recipe was the highest rated lemon bars on good ol' Allrecipes. It was delicious and definitely a keeper! And I'm now a huge fan of lemon bars :) (yes, it was that good!).

Crust
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt

Lemon Topping
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 lemons, juiced and zested (you'll need 1/2 cup juice and about 2 tsp of zest)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, blend together softened butter, 2 cups flour, salt, and 1/2 cup sugar. Press into the bottom of an ungreased 9x13 inch pan. Bake for 20 minutes, or until firm and golden. In another bowl, whisk together the remaining 1 1/2 cups sugar and 1/4 cup flour. Whisk in the eggs, lemon juice, and zest. Pour over the baked crust. Bake for an additional 25 minutes. The bars will firm up as they cool.

German Chocolate Pie

This is one of our favorite pies at Thanksgiving time. It is really divine! Make sure you bake it long enough. The last time I made it, I was rushing and I took it out too soon and it never set up :( Huge fail at our neighborhood recipe club. It was a sad day :(. Thankfully my kids and hubby all knew it's an incredible pie and devoured it, so....I'm sorry to you gals from recipe club, but my kids thank you for saving them so much ;)

German Chocolate Pie
Family Recipe

(4 oz) package Baker’s German Sweet Chocolate, broken in pieces
¼ cup butter
12 oz can evaporated milk
1½ cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/3 cup coconut
½ cup chopped pecans
1 unbaked 9” pie shell

Melt chocolate and butter over low heat until blended. Remove from heat and gradually blend in milk. In separate bowl, mix sugar, cornstarch and salt thoroughly. In a separate bowl blend eggs and vanilla. Add egg mixture to dry mixture and blend together. Gradually blend chocolate mixture into egg/dry mixture. Pour in pie shell. Sprinkle with coconuts and pecans. Bake at 375 for 45-50 minutes or until puffed and brown. Before/If it starts to burn, cover with foil. Cool 4 hours.

Brown Sugar Chews

2 eggs
2 cups brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups chopped walnuts or pecans

Preheat oven to 350. Mix together eggs, sugar, and vanilla. In a separate bowl, mix flour, salt, and soda. Add flour mixture to the wet mixture. Add nuts. Spread in a greased 9x13 pan and bake for 20 minutes. Cool before cutting.

Coconut Bread

Miracle of miracle--I'm actually posting again! :) This is a bread we actually tried a few months ago, but the kids liked it so much they've been begging for it ever since and since I'm actually blogging again I decided I'd share :) This really is a delicious bread! It's not overly coconut-ty but it's definitely got a coconut flavor to it. It's soft and really yummy. If I can remember to grab so more coconut milk when I'm at the grocery store we'll make it again soon :)Coconut Bread
The Knead for Bread

Dough
2/3 cup coconut milk
2/3 cup lukewarm water
2 tablespoons shortening (melted)
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoon milk powder
4 teaspoon instant yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg (beaten)
2 tablespoon coconut (finely chopped)
4 cups bread flour (I just used regular flour which was great, but bread flour would make it more tender)

Topping
1 egg white
1 tablespoon water
3 tablespoon flour
2 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoon butter, soft
2 tablespoon coconut (finely chopped)

In a small bowl mix some of the water and a bit of sugar. Add in the yeast and set aside for a few minutes. In your mixer add the rest of the lukewarm water, beaten egg, coconut milk, melted shortening, rest of the sugar, salt, finely chopped coconut, and 2 cups of the flour. Mix and then add in the instant yeast mixture and 1 more cup of flour. Mix on high for 8 minutes, then slowly add the rest of the flour. You may not need it all--you don't want the dough to stick to your hands, but you don't want it to be too dry either. Mix for 2 more minutes. Let the dough rest for a couple minutes while you prep your work area.

Turn dough out onto lightly floured work area and cut dough into two equal pieces. Take one piece and cut into 16 more pieces. Roll the first eight piece of dough into a ball and place into the bottom of an 4 1/2 X 8 greased loaf pan. Now, roll out the other 8 pieces of dough and place them on top of the other 8 pieces. Do the same with the other large piece of dough and you should end up with two loaves. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rest for about an hour or till the dough reaches about 1 inch from the top of the pan.

Next make the topping. In a small bowl add the flour, butter, sugar and coconut. Using your fingers mix till the mixture becomes a crumble. In a separate bowl combine the egg white and the tablespoon of water. Beat with a wire whisk till foamy. Brush the tops of the loaves with the foam and then add the crumble topping. Place into a 350 degree preheated oven for about 25-30 minutes. Remove from pans and allow to cool on a wire rack.

Key Lime Pie

And.....we're back! Sorry for the break there :) Summer just got to be too much fun and blogging less fun (and less time for it with all the kids home). So let's end the summer right with a delicious key lime pie. I've not had many key lime pies, but thought I'd give this one a try. I decided to try this recipe out because it had the same review situation as Sam's famous carrot cake I found on allrecipes.com--out of hundreds of reviews, hardly any bad reviews. You can't beat a recipe like that, so I thought I'd give it a go, especially since we had a bagful of key limes that were on sale at the grocery store.

Overall we really liked this pie and have made it twice already :) The first time I diligently squeezed 30-ish key limes (after zesting several to get the Tablespoon of zest the recipe calls for). It took forever, and in the end I was just shy of the 3/4 cup of key lime juice needed. But it really tasted phenomenal.

The next time we made it, I just used regular lime zest (about 3 limes) and then key lime juice in a container. The end result was just as good, the only difference being it had a more potent lime taste probably because I actually got the 3/4 cup and it's a bit more concentrated. Either way you go though, it's delicious!!
Key Lime Pie VII
allrecipes.com (annrichardson)

1 prepared 9-inch graham cracker crust
3 cups sweetened condensed milk (2 cans)
1/2 cup sour cream
3/4 cup key lime juice
1 Tablespoon lime zest

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Make your graham cracker crust or get your pre-made one ready to go. In a medium bowl combine sweetened condensed milk, sour cream, key lime juice, and lime zest. Mix well and pour into crust. Bake for 5-8 minutes. DO NOT BROWN. Chill pie thoroughly before serving. Garnish with lime slice and whipped cream if desired.

Here's the recipe for the graham cracker crust I use:

Graham Cracker Crust
1 1/2 cup finely crushed graham cracker crumbs (about 1 sleeve graham crackers)
1/3 sugar
6 Tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (didn't use it with the key lime pie--but it's good in other recipes)

Mix all ingredients until well blended. Press into an 8- or 9-inch pie plate. Bake at 375 for 7 minutes. Cool. If recipe calls for an unbaked graham cracker crust, just chill for an hour instead of baking before filling.

Gourmet German Chocolate Brownies

This was what we threw together last night for family night. I didn't have the ingredients for the treat I wanted to make and didn't want to brave the Memorial Day crowds at the store, so we used what we had on hand.

We just used a brownie mix and made it according to the package. After it came out we topped it with some homemade coconut pecan frosting (see the recipe below--but of course you can use store bought from a can or mix) and then drizzled some melted milk chocolate frosting from a can. Easy peasy and oh, so tasty!
Coconut Pecan Frosting
Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook

1 egg
2/3 cup evaporated milk (regular milk works fine too)
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 1/3 cup coconut
1/2 cup chopped pecans

In a medium saucepan, slightly beat egg. Stir in milk, sugar, and butter. Cook and stir over medium heat about 12 minutes or till thickened and bubbly. Remove from heat; stir in coconut and pecans. Cover and cool. Tastes great on German Chocolate Cake, Brownies, you name it :).

Brought to you by Techno-color :)

So, this isn't a recipe per se but it is a treat we tried recently and will explain why I missed posting on Tuesday this week. It was my son's birthday this week, and because he was so excited about it, my brain has been bantered with his incessant discussions about the upcoming festivities. :) One of his requests was a Herbie cake. He's completely enamored with all things Herbie (as in The Love Bug, Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo, etc.). He's even renamed our van "Herbie" and constantly begs to get a new paint job to look like Herbie.

As we discussed what this cake should look like, I was worried he wanted me to draw Herbie on a cake. It's a joke in the family that I tend to go overboard with our kids' birthday cakes to the point of driving myself (and everyone else) crazy. But even then, Herbie seemed a bit much. I can usually pull of a cartoon-y looking character, but where Herbie is an actual car, I was a bit stuck. Thankfully, Herbie, being a race car, has a simple number design that is easy to replicate. And thankfully, this route satisfied him. So we went with that, but he insisted it had to have Herbie's racing stripes on it: red, white, and blue. Wanting to try something new, we decided to go for coloring the cake instead of the icing.

To achieve that intensity of color you have to use icing colors, like the Wilton icing colors in the small plastic jars, and not food coloring. The blue here was Royal Blue, and the red was the No Taste Red (mostly for my sake since I can taste the red coloring and believe-you-me--it's nasty!)

Obviously you don't have to use red or blue, your color options are pretty much endless :) You just need a white cake mix. Mix it up according to the directions. Then divide it in half as best as you can. (divide into more parts for more colors obviously :) )

Add 1 teaspoon of your coloring to each half. Mix well and pour into your cake pans. I used two 8" round cake pans--one for the red layer, and one for the blue layer. Bake and cool according to the package directions.

Now, if we weren't going for the racing stripes here, I probably would have gone with a chocolate frosting, but since we needed some white, we went with a buttercream frosting recipe (see below). To further try something new, I added in a tub of cool whip after mixing up the buttercream frosting to make it a bit lighter and hopefully add some creamy flavor to the frosting.

So, all in all, it was a fun recipe to try, although I didn't care much for the cake (not a huge white cake fan) but everyone else (especially the birthday boy) said it turned out awesome and tasted great. So have fun experimenting :)

Buttercream Recipe
Adapted from Wilton's Buttercream Recipe

1 cup butter or margarine (butter tastes better :) )
4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or other flavoring)
4-6 tablespoons water (depending on how thick you want it)
1 tub cool whip (optional)

Mix the butter, sugar, extract, and water until well blended. Carefully fold in the tub of cool whip. Makes enough frosting to frost one 2 layer cake.

Lemon Chocolate Cream Cheese Filled Cupcakes

How's that for a mouthful of a name? :) One of my boys came home from church with one of those chocolate hostess cupcakes and the other kids were clamoring for one as well. We decided to try and experiment making our own, but we didn't have anything to make exactly what he had so we improvised :) We ended up with a lemon cupcake and filled it with the pastry cream from the fruit tart recipe I posted last week and topped it off with a chocolate cream cheese frosting. It was actually pretty good, quite messy (what do you expect when you have 4 boys 'helping' you bake? :) ), but good. So, for better or worse, here's our take on a filled cupcake. Obviously you can adapt this to your own taste and come up with other variations. I would've loved to put a chocolate ganache (that's my favorite part of the hostess cupcakes) on top of this, but I was completely out of chocolate other than cocoa powder, so we went with the cream cheese frosting instead.

Lemon Chocolate Cream Cheese Filled Cupcakes
from Us :)

Lemon Cake mix, made into cupcakes according to package directions
1 Recipe Pastry Cream
1 Recipe of Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

Pastry Cream
from The Modern Baker by Nick Malgieri

1 cup milk
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup sugar
3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 large egg yolks
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Bring the milk, cream and half of the sugar to a simmer. In a bowl, whisk the remaining sugar with the flour, then whisk in the egg yolks. Whisk 1/3 of the simmering milk into the yolk mixture. Return the milk to a simmer and add the yolk mixture, whisking constantly until the cream thickens and comes to a boil. Allow to boil, whisking constantly, until slightly thickened, about 30 seconds. Remove from the heat and whisk in the vanilla. Scrape the pastry cream into a glass bowl and press plastic wrap directly against the surface. Chill until cold.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
from The Cake Mix Doctor by Anne Byrn

1 package (8 oz) cream cheese
8 Tablespoons (1 stick) butter
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups powdered sugar

Blend cream cheese and butter in a large mixing bowl on low speed until combined, 30 seconds. Add cocoa, vanilla, and sugar and blend on low speed until moistened, 30 seconds. Increase speed to medium and beat until frosting is fluffy, 2 minutes more.

Assembling the Cupcakes
Fill a pastry/icing bag attached with a small round decorating tip with the pastry cream. Carefully push the tip into the center of the cupcake through the top. Gently, but firmly, squeeze the cream into the cupcake until it starts to swell. Be careful not to overfill (although my boys found the few exploding cupcakes quite fascinating :) ). If this method isn't working, you can slice off a section of the top of the cupcake and scoop out some of the cupcake. Fill with cream and then put the top back on. Frost with the Chocolate Cream Cheese frosting. These are tasty right away, but we found that they were easier and less messy to eat if we refrigerated them for a while to allow the cupcake and pastry cream to set up.

Fruit Tart

I got this recipe from the same book as the puff pastry. It's such an awesome book! The only complaint I had about these fruit tarts was the state of the blackberries I added to the fruit part of the fruit tart. They weren't as firm as I'd have liked so they leaked and fell apart coating all of the fruit in lovely dark juice and specks of blackberry. Didn't make for a very pretty looking fruit tart, but they sure tasted good! I've ended up using the pastry cream this calls for in several other recipes--it's divine!

Parisian Fruit Tarts
from The Modern Baker by Nick Malgieri

1 recipe Press-In Cookie Dough, Six 4 1/2 tart crusts, baked and still in the pans (you can use a muffin pan and cupcake liners if you don't have tart pans)

1 Recipe Pastry Cream

About 5 cups of assorted fruits and berries, such as blueberries, raspberries, cut up strawberries, sliced kiwis, diced pineapple, diced mango, etc.

Topping Glaze: 3/4 cup apricot preserves
2 Tablespoons water

Press-In Cookie Dough
10 Tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg yolk
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

One 10- or 11-inch tart pan with removable bottom, eight 4 1/2-inch fluted tart pans with removable bottoms, or twenty-four 2-inch tartlet pans, buttered, or regular sized muffin pan with cupcake liners

Combine the butter, sugar, and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat with the paddle on medium speed until whitened, about 5 minutes. Beating the butter and sugar aerates the mixture, and the air helps the dough bake to a light texture.

Add the egg yolk and continue beating until it is absorbed and the mixture is smooth. Use a large rubber spatula to incorporate the flour.

Scrape the dough from the bowl onto a floured work surface and shape the dough into a round cylinder. (For a large tart do the following, adjust for smaller tarts) Cut off about a third of the dough and set aside. With floured hands, carefully press the other 2/3 dough into the bottom of the pan. Divide the remaining dough into 3 pieces and roll each into a cylinder
about 10 inches long. Arrange the 3 cylinders of dough against the inside of the pan, slightly overlapping where they meet, to form the rim of the tart. Using floured fingertips, press the dough against the side of the pan, making sure it is well joined to the dough in the bottom of the pan.

Cover the pan with plastic wrap or slide it into a plastic bag and seal securely. Refrigerate the formed crust for at least 1 hour or up to 2 days. About 20 minutes before baking, set an oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350. Use a fork to pierce the chilled tart crust(s) at 1-inch intervals to keep it from puffing up and distorting while it's baking.

For the large or medium tart crusts, bake the tart shell until it is evenly golden, 20 to 25 minutes. Check occasionally after it has been baking for about 5 minutes. If large bubbles appear on the bottom of the crust, slide out the pan on the oven rack and quickly pierce the bubbles with a fork to flatten them. The tartlets take 5 to 10 minutes less. Cool the tart crust(s) on a rack.

Pastry Cream
1 cup milk
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup sugar
3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 large egg yolks
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Bring the milk, cream and half of the sugar to a simmer. In a bowl, whisk the remaining sugar with the flour, then whisk in the egg yolks. Whisk 1/3 of the simmering milk into the yolk mixture. Return the milk to a simmer and add the yolk mixture, whisking constantly until the cream thickens and comes to a boil. Allow to boil, whisking constantly, until slightly thickened, about 30 seconds. Remove from the heat and whisk in the vanilla. Scrape the pastry cream into a glass bowl and press plastic wrap directly against the surface. Chill until cold.

Assembling the Tart
Layer a little of each fruit in a large bowl, repeating the layers until you have used all the fruit--this method will cut down on mixing and bruising the fruit too much later on.

To make the Topping glaze, put the preserves and water in a small bowl and stir will to mix. Strain into a small saucepan and bring to a boil over low heat, stirring occasionally. Let the glaze reduce to about 2/3 its original volume, then pour into a shallow bowl and let cool for 10 minutes.

Carefully spread 1/6 of the chilled pastry cream in each tart crust (Divide it equally between all the tarts). Don't whisk it first or it might liquefy. Just scrape it into the crusts and use a small offset metal spatula to spread it evenly.

Drizzle the cooled glaze over the fruit. Use a large rubber spatula to gently toss the fruit and coat with glaze. Scrape the glazed fruit over the pastry cream neatly, making sure it comes all the way to the edge of the crust and mounds evenly in the center.

Unmold the tarts and slide them from the pan base onto a platter.

Storage: Try to assemble the tarts as close as possible to the time you intend to serve them, though they can certainly wait a few hours at a cool room temperature. If you do want to assemble these at the last minute, keep the fruit separate so the berries won't stain the other fruit. Leave the glaze in the pan and just reheat it gently. Then all you'll have to do just before serving is spread the pastry cream in the crusts, mix the fruit with the glaze, and arrange the fruit in the tart shells.

Raspberry Crisp

One of my favorite treats my mom made while we were growing up was a berry cobbler. We would eat it with ice cream for dessert, then we would warm it up again and have some with cream or milk on it the next morning for breakfast--yum!! It's quite simple to make and so delicious! Enjoy!

Raspberry Crisp

from my mom, Carin

4 cups raspberries
1/4 cup to scant 1/3 cup tapioca (depending on how ripe or juicy the berries are)
1 cup sugar

Crisp topping
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup oats
1/2 butter
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped nuts, opt.

Mix the tapioca and sugar together until well blended. Mix in the raspberries and pour into small pan (8x8 or 9x9 or a pie dish). Let sit for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, make the topping by mixing the flour, oats, salt and cinnamon together. Cut in the butter until it resembles coarse crumbs. Top the raspberries with the topping. Bake at 350 until bubbly (about 30-45 minutes). Serve warm with ice cream, milk, or cream.

Elephant Ears

While I was in Europe, I tried these delectable delights called Palmiers (I've also heard them called Elephant Ears--my kid's favorite--and Butterflies). They are a crispy and tantalizing combination of puff pastry and caramelized sugar. When I found a simplified recipe--not only for puff pastry, but then in turn, Palmiers, I had to try it out. Unfortunately though, it does require a food processor. It just doesn't work as nicely and easily otherwise--you're stuck doing it the old fashioned way. With this recipe for puff pastry you can make a host of pastries and other fun treats, both savory and sweet. We'll visit those in the future, but this will give you a good start :) The good news is that if you want to make the Elephant Ears, but don't have a food processor, you can use refrigerated puff pastry from the grocery store.
Instant Puff Pastry
from The Modern Baker by Nick Malgieri

4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
4 1/2 sticks cold unsalted butter (if you use salted, reduce the salt you add)
1 cup cold water

Combine the flour and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Pulse several times to mix.

Cut each stick of butter into about 10 pieces and add to the bowl. Pulse twice.

Remove the cover and use a thin-bladed metal spatula to stir the flour and butter mixture up from the bottom of the bowl. Cover and pulse twice more.

Add the water and pulse twice. remove the cover and use the thin-bladed metal spatula to stir the flour and butter mixture up from the bottom of the bowl. Cover and pulse twice more.

Invert the food processor bowl over a floured work surface to turn out the dough. Carefully remove the blade and transfer any dough on it to the work surface. Press the dough into a rough rectangle.

Flour the dough and press (don't roll) it with a rolling pin to flatten. Move the dough, making sure there is still flour under it to prevent it from sticking, and give the dough a 90-degree turn. Press again.

Again making sure that the surface and the dough are adequately floured, roll the dough into an 18-inch square.

Ccut the square in half to make two 9 x 18-inch rectangles. roll on to make it 12 x 18 inches. From the 18-inch edge closest to you, fold the bottom third of the dough over the middle third adn the top third down over that. Roll the dough into a tight package from one of the short ends and press down on it with the palm of your hand to make a rough square. Repeat with the other piece of dough.

Wrap and refrigerate the 2 packages of dough (or you may cut them in half again and store them in 1/4 batches). Chill for at least 1 1/2 hours, before using.

Storage: You may keep the dough refrigerated for 2 or 3 days. If you intend to make the dough in advance, freeze it and defrost it in the refrigerator overnight before using.

Perfect Elephant Ears
from The Modern Baker by Nick Malgieri

1/4 batch of Instant Puff Pastry, or about 12 ounces prepared all-butter puff pastry
3/4 cup sugar for rolling the dough

Sprinkle the Instant Puff Pastry dough and the work surface with about half the sugar and press the dough to soften it, turning it 90 degrees and continuing to press, until the dough is soft enough to roll. Keeping the work surface and the dough generously covered with sugar, roll the dough into an 8 x 12-inch rectangle.

Trim the edges of the dough to be even, if necessary. Fold or roll in each of the 12-inch sides of the dough a little less than halfway toward the middle, a little more than 1 1/2 inches. Repeat folding/rolling each edge in toward the middle--there should now be about a 1/2-inch gap between the 2 folded/rolled pieces of dough. Fold/Roll over again, so that the ends meet in the middle, without stretching the dough in the gap, which would cause the ears to open up while they're baking.

Use the palm of your hand to slightly flatten the formed pieces of dough. Cut it in half, wrap each half in plastic, and refrigerate them for at least 1 hour. Scrape any sugar remaining on the work surface into the bowl to use after the ears are cut.

Set a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 375 degrees.

Remove one of the pieces of dough from the refrigerator and place it on a cutting board. Use a sharp thin-bladed knife to cut the ears crosswise into 1/2-inch thick slices. Dip the cut sides in the reserved sugar and place them cut-side down on a parchment lined cookie sheet. If you want to bake all of the elephant ears on the same day, cut the second piece of dough and arrange it on another pan, but bake only one pan at a time.

Bake the elephant ears until they have expanded and puffed and the sugar has caramelized, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove individual elephant ears as they are finished, as some may burn before others are baked through. Cool the elephant ears on a rack--the "public side" is the one that was baked against the pan.

Lemon Almond Tart with Blackberries

Ta da! I'm back! I've got things set up now so we'll have a new recipe every Tuesday, so be sure to come visit again :)

Today's recipe is one I found while I was trying to figure out how to preserve some veggies in case we didn't eat all of them from our co-op veggie/fruit baskets we buy each week. This tart was on the front cover of my canning book and looked divine. As luck would have it, we'd just gotten a container of delicious looking blackberries in our basket this week, so we thought we'd give 'er a go! The original recipe called for a Blackberry Liqueur Sauce, but I substituted blackberries and sugar, since we don't do alcohol. Next time I think I'll actually make a blackberry preserve or pie filling or something so there's more blackberry flavory goodness to go on each slice rather than just a couple sweetened berries. It was really good, I think it just needed a bit more blackberry flavor along with the fresh berries.Lemon Almond Tart with Blackberries

from the Ball Blue Book of preserving

Tart Shell
1/2 cup sliced almonds, lightly toasted
1 cup flour
1/2 cup unsalted butter
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 large egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 to 2 Tablespoons water

Place toasted almonds in a food processor and pulse until almonds are finely ground. Add flour, butter and sugar, blending until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add egg yolk and almond extract; pulse to combine. With food processor running, add water through the feed tube a few drops at a time, just enough for the dough to hold together. Form dough into a ball and wrap with plastic wrap. Chill 1 hour. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to a diameter of 10 inches. Place dough in an 8-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom. Fit dough evenly in bottom and around sides. Trim dough even with top edge of pan. Chill 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 375. Line the tart shell with aluminum foil and fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake at 375 for 20 to 30 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Remove weights and foil. Cool.

Filling
6 large egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
Grated peel of one lemon
1 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces

Press egg yolks through a sieve set over a heavy saucepan to remove all egg whites. Add sugar, lemon peel, and lemon juice. Whisk just to combine. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Make sure to stir down the sides of the saucepan. Cook until mixture coats the back of the wooden spoon, about 20 minutes. Remove saucepan from heat. Add butter, one piece at a time, stirring after each addition to assure the mixture is smooth. Transfer the lemon curd to a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, allowing the wrap to lay on the surface of the lemon curd to prevent skin from forming. Chill until set, about 1 hour.

To Assemble Tart
Pour chilled lemon curd into tart shell; spread evenly to fill shell. Top with fresh blackberries (sprinkled with sugar and left to sit for 10-15 minutes). Leave a small portion of the lemon curd showing around the outer edge of the tart. Refrigerate.

Good Boy Muffins

Family legend has it that after church on Sunday if you'd been a good boy, you'd get one of grandma's deliciously infamous Brown Sugar Muffins, hence the family name for these: Good Boy Muffins :) They're usually made with nuts, but I was out when I made these for dinner the other night. I love pecans in them, but walnuts are good as well :) Because my oldest doesn't care for nuts, I usually fill a few muffin cups with nut-less batter, then add the nuts, and put a whole pecan on top of each muffin to indicate which ones have the nuts in them. (Plus, you just can't go wrong with more pecans... or at least I think so ;) )
Good Boy Muffins
Mom Whitaker

1/2 cup shortening
1 cup brown sugar
1 Tablespoon vanilla
1 egg
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 scant cup milk
Nuts (optional)

Cream shortening, sugar, vanilla. Add egg, flour, soda, salt, milk, and nuts. Spoon into muffin cups. Bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

Raspberry Pie

Raspberries are just starting to ripen around here, and I've been craving some good berry treats. My friend Kerri told me about this "Pick Your Own" raspberry farm near us. So we went out and got a small taste of what's to come :) (here's a link to the farm if you're in the area: www.westmountainraspberries.com.) They have a couple recipes on their site as well, and since I don't have a family or tried-and-true recipe for raspberry pie, I figured I'd give it a go. On the other hand, the pie crust recipe is a family recipe. It came from my Grandma and is very simple and delicious! Overall, I thought the pie was delicious. If anyone has any "tried-and-true" or family recipes for raspberry pie I'd love to try them out too :)
Pie crust
from Grandma Jane

3/4 cup butter flavored shortening
1/3 cup boiling water
1 Tablespoon milk
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt

Pour boiling water over shortening and beat until fluffy (like whipped cream) with a mixer. Add milk. Mix flour and salt with whisk. Add all at once to shortening mixture and mix just until blended. The less you work the dough, the better. Roll out. Makes 2 crusts.

Raspberry Pie
from westmountainraspberries.com

4 cups fresh raspberries (heaping)
1 cup sugar
3 Tablespoons tapioca (optional to grind the tapioca, but I honestly didn't notice them)
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (I actually left this out)
1/8 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons butter
1 Tablespoon cream or milk
Sugar for sprinkling

Gently mix together the raspberries, sugar, tapioca, lemon juice, cinnamon, and salt. Let sit for a few minutes. Pour into bottom crust in a pie tin. Dot with butter. Cover with other crust and pinch closed. Cut slits or decorations in top of crust. Brush with cream or milk. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake in 425 degree oven for 15 minutes, then at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Watch carefully. If it starts to get too brown, place a piece of parchment paper or foil over the pie. Let cool a bit and enjoy!

Sweet Summer

Whew! Can you believe it's already time for school to start up again? Where did the summer go? I've been baking like crazy the last couple months, just not had a moment to post anything... so I have lots to post in the coming weeks :) In honor of the first day of school, I'll have a new post this Wednesday (19th). So be sure to come back then and check it out!

English Muffins

When I typically try to make bread by hand, it flops fairly fantastically. I rely very heavily on my bosch and previously on my bread maker to make my doughs. I was a bit sceptical that the English Muffins would turn out, but they looked a little less intimidating to me than making a loaf of bread by hand. It became a fun challenge to see if I could recreate something as different as an English Muffin. Believe it or not, these actually turned out pretty well. Well enough, that my family decided it was a keeper and we'd have to try them again (If my kids ask me to make something again, that's usually a good indicator it turned out ok :) ). The only thing I messed up on was putting the salt in a step too early. It ended up killing the yeast a bit, so the english muffins didn't become as fluffy as they should have, but they were still good so next time when I do it right they should be even better, eh?

English Muffins

by cookingbread.com

1 1/4 cups lukewarm water
4 cups bread flour
2 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 small egg whites
fine cornmeal

In a large bowl pour in your lukewarm water. Add in the instant yeast, baking soda and 2 cups of bread flour. Mix till smooth. Allow the mixture to sit for 5 minutes uncovered. In the meantime, add the egg whites into a separate bowl and beat with an electric mixer. You want the egg whites to become stiff and moist. Once the egg white have formed stiff peaks; add to the dough batter. Using a rubber spatula fold in the egg whites till all the eggs are incorporated into the batter.

Start to add in the rest of the flour, a 1/4 cup at a time. After the first 1/4 cup add in the salt and mix. When the mixture becomes to hard to mix in the bowl. Pour out onto a flat surface. Knead the dough for about 5 to 6 minutes till the dough becomes smooth and silky.

Add a little oil to a clean bowl and place the kneaded dough into the bowl. Turn over the dough till all sides of the dough are very lightly coated. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rest till double in bulk, about 1 hour.

Afterwards, pour out the dough onto a flat surface. Press to release some of the air from the dough. Now, using a rolling pin roll out the dough to a 1/2 inch thick. Allow the dough to rest for 3 minutes to relax. Using a 3 inch cookie cutter, cut out the circles. Place the cut out pieces onto some cornmeal. When you have left over dough just gather together and cut out a few more circles. Sprinkle the tops of the dough with more cornmeal. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rest for 45 minutes.

About 5 minutes before you are ready to cook the english muffins turn on your griddle or fry pan to 350F or medium heat. Spray with a little oil spray and once the griddle is hot. Place the muffins on and fry. If you are using a fry pan you may only be able to fry 3-4 at a time. Fry on one side for about 4 minutes. Then turn over and fry for another 4 minutes. Do this once more to a total of 16 minutes. Allow to cool if you can and enjoy!

Dinosaur Chow

This is just a basic no-bake cookie recipe. I'm still trying to track down the recipe of the one I really like. This is just a fun take on the traditional recipe, and having all boys, it's a huge hit. Feel free to apply it to your favorite no-bake recipe.

Dinosaur Chow

1/4 cup Dirt (cocoa)
1/2 cup Swamp Water (milk with green food coloring)
2 cups Crushed Bones (sugar)
1/2 cup Fat (butter)
2 cups Dead Grass (oatmeal)
1/2 cup Squashed Bugs (peanut butter)

In a large pot over medium heat mix dirt, swamp water, bones and fat. Let boil about 2-2 1/2 minutes. Add bugs and grass and stir until melted and mixture is thickened. Remove from heat. Drop by tablespoons onto wax or parchment paper. Cool, eat and enjoy!

Italian Cream Sodas

As much as I love food, I actually love drinks more (non-alcoholic of course!). On our honeymoon, my husband and I discovered the Old Spaghetti Factory. We really enjoyed their food, the inexpensive-ness and, of course, their italian cream sodas. Since then, we've discovered many places that make them, but until I go to Italy and try them there, my 2 favorite places to get them are: Old Spaghetti Factory and Jaxies (they have tons of flavor options and are just an incredible place anyhow....if you haven't been yet--GO!). If you'd like to make them at home, the syrups are available online or at the grocery store (usually down the coffee aisle).

Italian Cream Soda
2-3 Tbsp flavored syrup (we like the Torani ones)
Club Soda
2-3 Tbsp Half and Half
Ice

Pour syrup in bottom of glass. Add some ice. Fill the glass with club soda leaving room to add a few tablespoons of half and half. Stir really well and enjoy!