Straight out of a Paula Deen Magazine, this recipe combines the wonderful flavor of pumpkin, ginger and cream cheese. Use decorative glasses to serve your family and guests this gorgeous and flavorful dessert.
3 tables butter
1/2 of a 1-lb box gingersnap cookies, coarsely crushed (1/2 of the box, crushed)
2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup pump0kin puree (you can use canned if you desire to do so, but the fresh is definately worth the trouble)
1/2 cup plus 2 tables sugar, divided
2 teas pumpkin pie spice
1 teas vanilla
1 cup heavy whipping cream
Gingersnap cookies
In a medium skillet, melt butter over medium heat. Add crushed gingersnap and cook, stirring constantly for 2 min or until ilghtly toasted. Remove from skillet immediately and cool.
In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese at medium speed with a mixer until smooth; add pumpkin puree, 1/2 cup sugar, pumpkin pie spice and vanilla, beating just until combined. In parfait glasses, layer crushed gingersnaps and cream cheese mixture as desired, starting with gingersnaps. Cover and chill for a least 1 hr.
In a small bowl, beat whipping cream and remaining 2 tables sugar at medium-high speed with mixer until soft peaks form. Dollop cream over parfaits. Sprinkle with pumpkin pie spice, if desired. Cover with plastic until ready to serve and then top with a gingersnap cooking sticking out of parfait, right before serving.
Author: Chocolate Castles
Welcome to Chocolate Castles, a blog about food, family and stories that hopefully will bring a smile to your heart.
Thanks for reading chocolate castles and may the recipes and stories help bring your family and friends a little closer around the table!
Remember that Princess On The Porch is still available on Amazon! Makes a great gift for anyone who enjoys being in the kitchen and needs a little laughter in their lives.
A Blessed Sunday
This has just been a very blessed day. We began our day with church, which just was such a wonderful way to celerate this glorious day. In spite of several decisions which we will be having to make regarding my parents, it was a grand reminder of how faithful God is to our burdens and meets us at our point of need. This beautiful Fall day is full of just little reminders of how we can find joy in the midst of pain, because of our Lord and Savior. We are having a new couple over tonight for dinner. They moved here from Colorado, but were in Ft. Worth several years before that and have family in Plano, where we moved from in January. They live 5 blocks down from us and her husbands name is Randy. So we already have so much in common it will be interesting to see how much more we have to talk about.
We decided to keep it simple tonight. Thus, homemade vegetable soup is in the oven and fresh bread will be awaiting them. Mushroom Tarts to much on and finish with homemade chocolate pudding with whipped cream.
It is so nice to know that you don’t have to have a gourmet meal spread out over the table to have friends over. A simple meal is fine, when you realize that it is not the meal they are coming for. It is the excitement of gathering around the table with new friends and talking about your lives and families that were both left behind when our husbands jobs brought us to California.
It is so thrilling to realize that no matter the part of the country, the table seems to be he gathering place. When you are around the table, boundaries are removed as each person shares stories about their past and hopes for the future. This will be a great evening. Breaking bread with new friends and ending the evening knowing that 5 blocks down, we have some new friends who will answer when we yelll “git on over here and let’s have some grits and greens, we’re “fix-in to put them on the table.” Ah……that will be music to our ears when they respond, “ya’ll ready for us to come on down?” We most certainly are!
Swiss Steak and Potatoes
This is one of my very favorite meals and I can remember eatting this over 40 plus years. It makes a great Sunday meal or a great dish to serve company or take to those “pot luck” dinners.
5 cups thinkly sliced small red potatoes
1 large onion, chopped
1 clove minced garlic
1 pound beef top round steak, trim off all fat and diagonally cut into 1 in strips
1 15 oz can tomato sauce
1/3 cup ketchup
3 tables packed light brown sugar
1 tables cider vinegar
1/2 teas dried thyme
1/4 teas salt
1/2 teas pepper
1 large bay leaf
Combine potatoes, onions and garlic in a 2 1/2 qt saucepan and cover with water.Cook until potatoes are partially done. Drain water off of potatoes. Set aside. Lightly coat a dutch oven with Pam cooking spray. Add meat and saute over medium heat until meat is browned. Stir in tomato sauce, ketchup, brown sugar, vinegar, thyme, salt, pepper and bay leaf. Stir in the potato mixture. Bring to a boil; reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 25-30 min or until meat is tender. Remove bay leaf. Serve immediately.
Heavenly Hots
These are those amazing little pancakes I told you about yesterday. A sweet friend, Karen commented yesterday to say that she agrees with me on this. She has been making them for years. So here is the recipe:
1 cup sour cream
3 tables flour
1 1/2 teas sugar
1/2 teas baking soda
2 eggs, beaten
Mix all ingredients together. Spoon onto hot griddle. When browned on one side, flip onto other side, just like you would with pancakes. Serve with fresh fruit, melted butter and syrup…..these truly are a little “slice of heaven” on a plate.
Doyle Springs with Dee and Jeff
Oh my goodness, what can I say that would allow you to picture where we went this weekend. These precious friends invited us to their cabin at Doyle Springs up in the Sequoia Natl Forest for 3 days and what a 3 days it was. We feasted on food that caused a slight (well 3 lbs to be exact) gain in weight. Not only were we able to sleep at night with windows open, listening to the waterfalls under their cabin at night, but we were introduced to the most amazing pancakes we have ever had. They are called Heavenly Hots and trust me on this, they are heavenly…the lightest and most tasty morsel topped wtih blackberries, raspberries and butter AND………..Dee made homemade maple syrup..Randy has now told me that he will expect this every Saturday morning. You can probably guess my reply to Randy. But…..we snacked on cheese toast that consisted of mayo, parmesan cheese and broiled to perfection on crustless bread.
We dined on Flank steak, zucchini topped with onions, tomatoes and cheese, cheesy twice baked potatoes and more. We ate homemade breakfast tacos that were simply scrumptious. Just when I thought I couldn’t take another bite, Dee would sit another taco in front of us. We would always find a little room for more. Some of their granchildren were up there and surprised us with homemade blackberry cobbler, that the girls had gone out and picked themselves. Plus they brought over a jar of elderberry jam that they had gathered the berries and made. This family makes Martha Stewart look bad. On the way home, they took us to one of their favorite places to eat dinner where I even tasted, are you ready for this, “pickled tongue”,and it actually still looks like a tongue; It made me glad I talk alot and fast, that way no one can catch my tongue to pickle it. oh my, I am just not ready for that, so went on to other foods, such as Veal smothered in cream gravy. We stopped at their favorite stop in Bakersville, which was Dewar’s Ice cream and got a pink & white…strawberry ice cream with strawberries and vanilla with hot fudge..we had just left the restuarant saying that we were so full and couldn’t eat another bite, when Jeff says, “let’s make one more stop for ice cream” which Randy quickly responds, “we just got through saying we couldn’t eat another bite, but here we sit eatting not only one plain dip, but two dips with toppings” Well, it just goes to show you that “there is always room for more” as long as it’s either mexican food or ice cream. As soon as I ask Dee if she minds me sharing the Heavenly Hots recipe, will post that on the site. They were the winner for “best food for the weekend” as far as I am concerned, well, maybe it was the flank steak, or no, maybe the breakfast tacos..hum…..it seems like all the food she prepared was the winner. Thanks Dee and Jeff for your hospitatlity and a most memorable weekend.
Fabulous Friday
Don’t you just love Friday’s? They just feel so carefree. Maybe it’s knowing all day that because it’s Friday, you can stay up and watch a movie because you don’t have to get up early on Saturday. So let’s celebrate Fri and make this delicious Meatball Lasagna. Because I am in my carefree mood, I’m not even going to beat you over the head with a wet noodle if you buy the meatballs, instead of making them homemade.
2 (14 1/2 oz) cans diced tomatoes, drained
1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
1 cup water
1 (6 oz) can tomato paste
1 medium onion, chopped
1 garlic clove,minced
1 tables dried basil
4 teas dried parsley flakes
2 teas sugar
Dash of garlic salt
8 uncooked lasagna noodles
24 cooked meatballs ( small as 1 1/2 ” to 2 ” in diam)
1 egg
1 cup rocotta cheese (I use small curd cottage cheese, just because I like the texture better)
2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Add first 10 mingredients in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer for 20 min. Cook noodles (unless you are using the precooked ones) according to directions. Drain them and set aside. Crumble meatballs into tomato mixture. In a seperate bowl, mix the egg and ricotta or cottage cheese. Spoon 1 cup of meat sauce into a greased 13x9x2 inch dish. Top with 4 noodles, half of egg mixture, half of remaining meat sauce, and half of mozzarella and parmesan cheeses. Repeat the layers. Cover and bake at 350 for 45 min. Uncover and bake another 5-10 min or until light brown. Let stand 15 min before serving.
East & Good Meatloaf
Randy comes home quite frequentely asking for a meatloaf sandwich. This is a really old fashioned recipe that is quick and makes a great meatloaf sandwich. When it is used for meatloaf instead of sandwiches, we serve it with mashed potatoes, fried okra or green beans, sliced tomatoes and it really is one of our favorte meals.
2 pounds uncooked ground beef (you can use ground turkey if you are trying not to eat alot of beef)
1 cup cracker crumbs
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/2 cup milk
1 teas each salt and pepper
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup finely chopped bell pepper
1/2 cup ketchup
Mix all ingredients. Form mixture into a large loaf and bake at 350 for 1 hour…we like to drizzle more ketchup over the top the last 10 min of baking….
Persimmon Cake
When we moved in to our new place here in California, our neighbor brought over a Persimmon cake to us. It was so moist and so tasty that I immediately went to every store and every farmers market to find these little gems so I could make one myself. I learned that they were not in season until Oct. When I asked Claudette, who made the cake, she told me that she had used the persimmons that she had put away last year when they were in season. I have been waiting until Oct to buy some and make this cake. It is so good and so different. It is almost like a pudding cake. In fact, Claudette using Nancy Reagan’s recipe for her persimmon cake. But the one below has already been converted from metric to our regular measurments so am posting this one. Last night, Randy (or Peter, if you are in the Pumpkin mood already) brought home a huge sack of persimmons from a lady at the office who had talked to me and knew that I was waiting for these little gems to get to the stores. Her husband is in produce delivery and so she sent me a sack full and just told me to allow them to ripen for a few days in the brown sack. So they are sitting there waiting to ripen. I have been told that in another 2 weeks they will be in the stores. It will be fruit freezing time at our house in a few weeks. I don’t want to have to wait again like the last few months before I can have them to make a cake any time I want. If you see them in the store, buy them and try this cake. It is just so good and so perfect for Thanksgiving and Christmas. The recipes I am finding have it with cream cheese frosting, but Claudette only sprinkled powdered sugar over the cake….which is how I will serve mine….
2 cups sugar
1 cup light vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon each, salt, allspice and cinnamon
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup persimmon pulp
1 cup chopped walnuts, pecans or hickory nuts
In a large bowl use an electric mixer to combine the sugar, vegetable oil, eggs and vanilla. Mix well.
Sift together the flour, salt and spices. Combine the buttermilk and baking soda. Add the sifted ingredients to the first mixture alternately with the buttermilk. Add the persimmon pulp and mix well. Stir in the chopped nuts. Pour the batter into a greased and floured tube pan and bake at 300 degrees F for 75 minutes. Cool and frost with buttermilk frosting (recipe below). Makes 10 to 12 servings.
Brownie Chocolate Cheesecake
Oh my, am going to make this tomorrow. It is just one of those recipes that you can tell the minute you read it, it will be a favorite. Can’t wait to bite into the first bite. It was on the Just A Pinch web site.
1 bx brownie mixed and baked according to directions
CHOCOLATE CRUST
1 1/2 c crushed vanilla wafer(about 45 cookies)
6 Tbsp powdered sugar
6 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 stk butter melted
CHEESECAKE
4(8oz) pkg cream cheese, room temperature
1 c sugar
4 eggs
choclate sundae syrups in a bottle..or any kind
1 tsp pure vanilla
Mix crust ingredients..press mixture into a 9 inch springform pan. bake 8 min and allow to cool slightly 3Beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla. Gradually add eggs one at a time. Pour batter into crust. 4Cube up about half the pan of brownies. sprinkle the pieces into the batter and push them down. Drizzle chocolate sundae syrup on top and with a butter knife swirl gently to give it the marble effect. 5Bake 50-55 min 6Lossen from pan after cooled. Cover and refrigerate.
Better served cold.
Gingerbread Cupcakes with Browned Butter Frosting
This time of year gives us Gingerbread lattes at Starbucks and Pumpkin Spice Frappachino’s and what better treat to go along with these wonderful cups of smooth Fall flavors than a gingerbread cupcake. I found this recipe in a Food Newwork magazine and they are so good. They had them frosted with Caramelized Mango buttercream which I will also share with you but I liked them with the browned butter frosting, so thought I would give you both recipes and let you choose which one you liked.
Before you start making the cupcakes, make the ginger syrup so it can be cooling while preparing the cupcake batter.
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 2″ piece fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped
To make the syrup combine the granulated sugar, fresh ginger and 3/4 cup water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Cook until the sugar has melted and the mixture thickens slightly, about 2 min. Remove from the heat and leet infuse for 30 min. Strain the syrup before using.
Cupcake batter:
1 3/4 cup flour
1 tables baking powder
3/4 teas baking soda
1/4 teas salt
1 tables ground ginger
2 teas ground cinnammon
1/4 teas ground cloves
3 tables unsalted butter, melted
3 tables vegetable oil
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
6 tables molasses
3/4 cup water
Preheat oven to 350. Line 12 muffin tins with cupcake liners and spray the liners with cooking spray.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ground ginger, cinnammon and cloves into a medium bowl.
Whisk the melted butter, oil, brown sugar, eggs, molasses and 3/4 cup water in a large bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until the batter is smooth.
Fill each paper liner with 1/3 cup batter, about 1/4 ” below the top of the liner. Bake just until the tops feel firm and a tooghpick inserted into the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached. (about 12-15 min)
Remove from oven and brush the tops liberally with the ginger syrup. Let sit in the pan for 5 min before removing. Let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting.
Mango Buttercream
2 cups (4 sticks) plus 2 tables slightly cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
3 small or 2 large ripe mangoes, coarsely chopped
6 large egg yolks
Cooking spray
34 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 tables vanilla extract
1/4 cup finely diced candied ginger, for garnish
Heat 2 tables butter in a large saute pan over high heat. Add the mangoes and cook until caramelized and soft, about 10 min. Transfer to a food processor and process until smooth. Pass the mixture through a medium mesh strainer into a bowl. Discard the solids.
In the bowl of a stand mixer (If you don’t have one, just use your hand mixer, it will take a little more energy, as you will have to stand there and mix it), fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the egg yolks on high speed until creamy and pale yellow, about 5 min.
Spray a heatproof measuring cup with cooking spray. Combine the sugar and corn syrup in a saucepan and bring to a full rolling boil over medium -high heat. Cook without stirring until the syrup reaches the soft-boiled stage (238-242 degrees) on a candy thermometer. Immediately pour the syrup into the measuring cup to halt the cooking. Add a small amount of the sugar syrup to the beaten egg yolks. Turn the mixer on to high speed and bat for about 5 sec. Continue stopping the mixer adding syrup and bating until all the syrup is incorporated. Beat the mixture until it is completely cool.Add the remaining 2 cups butter a few pieces at a time, beating until mixed before adding more. When all the butter has been blended in add the vanilla and the mango puree and beat until combined. Frost the top of each cupcake liberally with the mango buttercream and garnish wih the candied giner.
Browned Butter frosting:
1 cup butter
1 16 oz box of powdered sugar
1/4 to 1/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
Cook butter in a small heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly, 6 to 8 min or until butter begins to turn golden brown. Remove pan from heat immediately, and pour butter into a small bowl. Cover and chill 1 hour or until butter is cool and begins to solidify. Beat butter at medium speed with mixer until fluffy; gradually add powdered sugar alternately with milk, beginning and ending with sugar. Beat mixture at low speed until well blended after each addition and stir in vanilla. Spread over cooled cake. Sprinkle pecans over top..Store covered in fridge but take out about an hour before serving, or leave at room temp if serving same day…
Chocolate Castles 