Category: Desserts

Desserts · Fruit

Slow Cooker Cobbler

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Our daughter in law,Mandy, made this for us Sat night and topped it with Blue Bell ice cream! What a great welcome “back to Texas” dessert!  So easy and you can use different fruit if you desire! Just be sure the fruit you use is cut up into small chunks! 

1 cup flour

3 tables sugar

1teas baking powder

1/4 teas cinnamon

1 egg

1/4 cup milk

2 tables oil

1/8 teas salt

2 cups raspberries

2 cups blueberries

1/2 tables lemon juice

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup flour 

in a large bowl combine 1 cup flour, 3 tabls sugar, baking powder and cinnamon.

in a small bowl, combine egg and oil! Whisk together until completely blended.

Add egg mixture to flour mixture and stir just until combined. 

Spread over bottom of a 5 qt slow cooker. 

In a medium bowl, combine 1 cup sugar and 1/4 cup flour with salt! Next add in fruit (fresh or frozen works) 

and lemon juice. Stir to completely and evenly coat fruit with sugar-flour.

Evenly distribute the fruit over batter.  Cover and cook on LOW for 2 to 2 1/2 hours or until batter is cooked through! 

Top with ice cream or whipped cream!  

 

Desserts

Falling In Love with Italian Desserts

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Last night we drove into one of Randy’s favorite places…Santa Fe, NM. We were on a mission to get to the shed, 18 which is always the first place we eat upon arriving here. For some reason Randy loves to feel his mouth on fire, hence…the blue corn enchiladas with red chile sauce. I knew in 1995 that if this marriage was going to last that I would need to adopt a love of New Mexico Mexican food, which is totally different fro Tex-Mex. I remember the first time he brought me here to meet his parents. By the time we finished eating lunch that day at the shed, my mouth was numb from the heated enchiladas that I had never experienced before. Besides being nervous to meet them, now I couldn’t talk well for the swollen tongue from the red chile that I was told was “less spicier than the green chile sauce”

But 18 years later I can truly say that I love the food here. It is still spicy to me, but because of the ambiance which surrounds you here, it just seems right. Because we have not been back here in quite some time, even Mr. Spicy Red Chile sauce admitted that it was hotter than he remembered. You think? When the waiter came to ask if we needed anything else, I happened to ask him what the dessert listed on the board was. I had remembered seeing it, but could not for the life of me remember what it was. When he began to explain that it was an Italian dessert that helps take the heat out of your mouth, we immediately ordered one. When it arrived  and was set in front of us, I fell in love. Before me was the prettiest swirl of whipped cream with a hint of color, which I later learned was from the Amaretto  liquor that was added. It was the creamiest of creams that I had eaten.. Before I left the restaurant I googled to get a recipe for this wonderful dessert.

I do not know if it is the exact recipe that we ate last night, but as soon as I can get to a kitchen where I am free to cook, I will be making it.

From Mario Batali

4 egg yolks

4 teas sugar

4 tables marsala wine

Whisk all ingredients over a double boiler until thickened like pudding. Take on and off the heat while cooking so s no to scramble the eggs. When mixture is thickened, allow to cool. *Beat in 1 cup heavy whipped cream that you have beaten until stiff peaks form. *I have added he whipping cream to his recipe because the waiter last night told us that the chef used whipped cream in his recipe and served it cold, as opposed to Mario who says to serve it hot.  Our mouths were already on fire so we needed all the “cold” we could get.                                                                ”

Cakes · Desserts

Peanut Butter & Honey Pound Cake

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Being at our daughters house the last two days, gives me the chance to do baking. With 3 grandchildren in the house (plus a son-in-law that has the baking pans and mixer out on the cabinet when we walk through the door), it is exciting to try new recipes that I have found the last weeks, but because we were packing, have not had the chance to bake..

This is from the new Southern Lady Magazine that I am finally having time to look through. What a perfect little cake to serve at Bridal or Baby Spring showers.

Since

Makes 1 9″ cake

2 cups sugar

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

5 large eggs

1/2 cup half & half

1 teas vanilla

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 teas salt

1 (10 oz) bag peanut-butter morsels

1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup honey

2 tables heavy whipping cream

Garnish: chopped peanuts, honey

Preheat oven to 300. Spray a bundt pan with Pam with flour.

In a large bowl, combine sugar, butter and peanut butter. Beat at medium speed with mixer until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add half & half and vanilla, beating to mix well.

In a small bowl, sift together the flour and salt. Gradually add flour mixture to sugar mixture. Beat to mix well. Stir in peanut butter morsels. Spoon batter into prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until cake tests done when wooden pick inserted in middle comes out clean. (Might take a little longer than the time listed).

Loosely cover with foil the last 20 or so minutes of baking time to prevent excess browning. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes. Remove from pan to a wire rack to cool.

In small bowl, combine cream cheese, honey and whipping cream. Beat until smooth. Drizzle over cooled cake. Garnish with chopped pecans and a little honey if desired.

*Since the cake is baked in a bundt pan, after cake is cooled and drizzle had time to dry, you might like to place a small glass of edible flowers in the middle of cake to serve.

 

 

 

 

Cakes · Chocolate · Desserts

The Joy of Chocolate

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This cook book…The Joy of Chocolate is the same one I talked about re: the chocolate buttermilk cake the other day.  Yesterday, I made this new chocolate-coffee pound cake. It is half gone already. I took some to 3 different friends and all of them have texted me saying that it is absolutely amazing. It is. so moist, a little dense, but the smooth flavor of coffee comes through beautifully. We will be making it again, soon.

1 cup cocoa powder

2 cups sifted all purpose flour

1/2 teas baking soda

1 teas salt

2 table instant coffee

3 sticks unsalted butter

3 cups sugar

2 teas vanilla

5 eggs, room temperature

1 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup water

Preheat oven to 325. Butter and flour a 10″ tube or bundt pan.

Sift together the flour, cocoa, coffee powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

Cream the butter in a separate mixing bowl until it is light and fluffy. Continue beating while adding the sugar gradually. Beat at high speed about 5 mn. Add the vanilla and the eggs, 1 at a time, beating briefly after each addition.

Mix in dry ingredients alternating with the liquid, starting and ending with the dry ingredients. Scrape down the batter as needed in bowl.

Pour into the prepared pan and bake in the upper 3rd of the oven for 1 hr and 15-20 minutes, testing for doneness after an hour and 15 min. Let cake rest in the pan for 20 min before tuning out onto a platter. The cake will stay moist for days, but trust me, it won’t last more than 2….

Cakes · Chocolate · Desserts

Chocolate Buttermilk Cake with Sour Cream Frosting

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While packing up my cookbooks (Randy had forgot just how many I had and told me that I have more than Barnes & Noble), I sat down to look through a book that a friend had given me back in 85 with all chocolate recipes. This recipe caught my eye and tomorrow, it will be baking in our oven.

Serves 10-12

2 sticks butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup cocoa

1 teas baking powder

1 teas baking soda

1 teas cinnamon

2 cups flour

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

1 teas vanilla

1 tables instant coffee powder, dissolved in 1 table hot water

 

Sour Cream Frosting

1 cup sour cream

1 cup powdered sugar

1 cup heavy whipping cream

Preheat oven to 350. Butter a 10″ spring form pan. Line the bottom with a round of wax or parchment paper and lightly butter the paper.

In the bowl of mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, and continue beating until thick and light. Add vanilla.

Sieve together the cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and flour. With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients in 4 portions, alternating with the buttermilk and coffee. beat until perfectly blended.

Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake for 60 min, or until cake tests done.

Run a knife around the edge of cake. Let the cake cool completely in the pan. Make the frosting shortly before needed.

Mix together the sour cream and the sugar. Whip the heavy cream until Is firm. Mix the cream into the sour cream/sugar mixture.

Release the cake and turn it out upside down on a platter. Use a long serrated knife to cut the cake into 2 layers. Spread the frosting generously over the bottom layer, then top with other layer. Swirl the filling over the entire top and sides of cake. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Daily Thoughts · Desserts

Packin & Puddin

Chocolate Castles2 Comments
Coconut Cream Pie
Coconut Cream Pie

I know, I know, I kept saying that I was going to post soups everyday. Then yesterday I posted Preacher Cake instead of soup, BUT, because I felt so guilty about not following through with my plan, today I am posting a soup and a dessert. Since we are in the middle of packing and like Abraham, we don’t have a clue where we are ending up, but that does have a ring of excitement to it! After 3 years of living in California where it feels like you are on a continual vacation, we are going to go travel a couple of months visiting family and friends. We hope that after we stay with them a few nights, we can still call them family and friends. Since we are headed to the East Coast, our goal is to eat at Paula Deen’s restaurant and her brother’s place,Bubba’s. That will be a thrill for us both. But before we head out, we are trying to use u everything in our cabinets. Last night a friend of ours, Lorrie, came over to eat dinner with us as her husband was out of town. Randy wanted chile so she brought cornbread. About 4:30 I decided that what we needed was a coconut cream pie. I panicked. There was no whipping cream in my house. That is almost like not having toilet paper. That just is never suppose to be. You can’t have coconut cream pie without whipped cream, but neither of us wanted to go to the store. Since making meringue has always caused a panic attack, I tried to figure out what else I could do, but there was no choice, I had to make meringue. I had a little pep talk with myself and told myself that if it didn’t turn out, I would just dish up the pudding into glasses and tell Randy and Lorrie we were having coconut cream trifle with shortbread cookies crumbled up between the layers.

I got out 4 eggs and separated them. Since I had 3 egg whites already in the fridge, I got those out also. Working with 7 egg whites, surely I could make it work this time. I Goggled “how to make meringue” and read step by step how to have it come out successfully. It worked. I couldn’t sleep last night. I kept going to the fridge and opening up the door just to look at it. It turned out so pretty, I didn’t want to cut it. But we did and my goodness, it was so good. Here is the recipe

Coconut Cream Pie

3 cups milk

1 cup sugar

4 egg yolks

1/3 cup plus 2 tables all purpose flour

1/2 teas salt

1 teas vanilla

1 cup shredded coconut

2 tables butter

Whisk all ingredients except vanilla, butter and coconut,  together in a saucepan and cook over medium heat until thick . When pudding is thick, remove from heat and add vanilla, butter and coconut. Stir until butter is melted and it is mixed well. Pour into a baked pie shell (it doesn’t have to cool before pouring pudding in) and cover with meringue. Be sure that the meringue covers all the hot pudding mixture, right up to the edge. Bake at 325 for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. I sprinkled more coconut over the top before baking. Cool completely before cutting.

Meringue

4-5 egg whites at room temp

2/3 cup sugar

1 teas vanilla

Beat egg whites until they begin to thicken. Adding the sugar gradually, continuing to beat while adding, to be sure sugar is completely dissolved. Beat in vanilla and beat until peaks form and hold their shape. Spoon over hot pudding mixture. (The instructions said to even make the meringue before you make the pudding because it will do better the hotter the filling is when you spoon it on). It did work so much better doing that.

 

Cakes · Desserts · Fruit

Preacher Cake

Chocolate Castles4 Comments

I know I said I was going to post a different soup each day this week, but I am changing my plan. I made this cake last night and it is so easy and so good. Found it on a blog called, Two Chums and since it looked like such a great cake, I think you should just open up a can of soup tonight and save your cooking time to make this cake.
The origins of this cake was apparently during the depression, when money was scarce, this cake was economical to make and since it was also quick to make, people would make it when the “preacher came acalling”

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

2 eggs, room temp

2 teas baking soda

2 teas vanilla

1 (20 oz) can crushed pineapple with juice

Combine all ingredients and pour into a 9×13″ greased pan. Bake about 30-34 minutes at 350 or until cake is golden brown an test done in middle.

Frost with Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 box (1 lb) powdered sugar

1 stick softened butter

Mix all ingredients until light and fluffy. Frost cooled cake. Refrigerate leftovers, covered.

Cakes · Desserts · Fruit

Banana Snack Cake

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I always get a little down the day after Christmas, when we have to change our phone recordings from “Hi, this is Frosty and Noel, I’m baking cookies and Frosty’s at the mall,  when we get through, we’ll give you a calll” to just plan ole, “Hi, you have reached Randy and Trudy, please leave a message). It is just so boring. So to drown our sorrows, we thought a banana cake with cream cheese frosting would do the trick. We will sit and get our creative juices flowing for a new Janurary phone message. Hum…”Be a dear and leave your message, Happy New Year” nope, guess I need another piece of cake…

Taken from new Southern Living

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

3 large eggs

1 1/3 cup mashed very ripe bananas (about 3 med)

1 teas vanilla

2 cups all purpose flour

1 teas baking soda

1 teas cinnamon

1/4 teas ground nutmeg

1/4 teas salt

1 cup chopped toasted chopped pecans

Cream Cheese Frosting

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour a 15×10″ jelly-roll pan. Beat butter at medium speed 1-2 min until creamy. Gradually add both sugars, beating well. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended after each addition.

Add mashed bananas and vanilla. Beat at low speed just until blended.

Stir together flour and next 4 ingredients in a small bowl. Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture, beating at low speed just until blended. Stir in 1/2 cup pecans. Spread batter in the pan.

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes. (Test with inserted knife in center)

Cool completely before frosting.

1 stick butter, softened

1 8 oz softened cream cheese

4 cups powdered sugar

2 teas vanilla

Beat all ingredients together at low speed until well combined and fluffy. Spread over cooled cake.

Cakes · Daily Thoughts · Desserts · Fruit · Holiday Fare

Five Golden Ring Recipe: Cherry Date Pecan Cake

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How did it get to be 5 days before Christmas? The days just go by so quickly before I make it halfway down my “to do” list of grand ideas to make this Christmas more special than ever. I haven’t even had time to sit by the fire and look through Christmas magazines yet this year to see all the great new recipes. Last night, I actually went to pick up our Christmas cards and addressed them and mailed them this morning.. I am so proud. The salon where I get my nails done had an open house today. They had trays of egg rolls, spring rolls,meat pies and cookies and invited all the customers to come by to say Merry Christmas. It was a very nice gesture and makes it feel like Christmas. Enjoying the festivities today made me want to do something nice for someone so I am going to really try to do something nice for someone these next 5 days. Someone who could never repay me and someone who would never expect it. .

The next 5 recipes are what I would call “golden” and have become very special through the years. They just make it feel like Christmas. This first one is Cherry Date Pecan Cake which I use to watch my mom make for years, before she passed it down to me. When I saw her buying dates and cherries, I knew it was Christmas baking time. Have just finished mixing this cake and is in the oven as we speak. Am using them as hostess gifts for several open houses we are invited to attend. My favorite way to eat them is with a big dollop of fresh whipped cream.

1st Golden Ring Recipe: Cherry Date Pecan Cake

1 lb chopped dates

1 lb candied cherries ( I live my whole, but you can chop them if you like)

3 cups chopped pecans

1 cup sugar

4 eggs, separated (works better at room temperature)

1 cup flour

2 rounded teas of baking powder

1 teas salt

2 teas vanilla

Cream sugar and egg yolks until creamy. Add vanilla. Add flour, baking powder and salt. to creamed mixture. With clean beaters, (no grease on them as egg whites do not whip up stiff if grease is on bowl or beaters) whip 4 egg whites until they are still, around 4-5 minutes. Add fruit  and pecans to batter with heavy spatula. This is hard to mix but keep folding until fruit is distributed into batter. Add beaten egg whites and fold in to mixture until it is all folded in. Pour into individual greased loaf pans or a greased bundt pan . Bake until toothpick comes out clean when inserted in middle of cake. Baking time depends on size of pan you use. The batter made 4 small loaf pans and 1 long loaf pan. When finished baking, cool and wrap as gifts. These little cakes keep for a long period of time in the fridge. So make them this weekend and eat on them all through Christmas.

Cookies · Desserts · Fruit · Holiday Fare

Triple Ginger Cookies

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This was my first time to participate in the Food Bloggers Cookie Swap. I received 3 different types of cookies from 3 other bloggers. One of the cookies that were sent to me were these delicious Triple Ginger Cookies from, “loveandflour.com”   There were amazing, so I went to her blog to obtain her recipe. This was also my first time to use fresh ginger in a cookie recipe. These are now my favorite cookies and had so much fun making them today. Thanks Leandra for sharing these awesome cookies with the world! They have won my heart.

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour ( I used just all purpose since I didn’t have wheat)

1 tables ground ginger

1 teas baking soda

1/8 teas salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

1/4 cup molasses

2/3 cup light brown sugar

2 tables fresh ginger, finely grated

1 large egg, beaten

1 cup dried chopped apricots

1/2 cup crystalized ginger, finely chopped

1 cup turbinado sugar

In a large bowl, stir together flours, ground ginger, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium low heat.

Remove from the heat once the butter is melted and stir in the molasses, brown sugar and fresh ginger. Allow to cool.

Add the beaten egg to the cooled molasses mixture and stir to combine.

Slowly stir this mixture into the dry flour mixture.

Fold in the apricots and crystalized ginger into the dough.

Cover with plastic wrap and chill at least 1 hour.

Once chilled, shape the dough into half-inch balls and roll in the turbinado sugar.

Place the cookie balls on parchment lined baking sheets.

Bake in a preheated 350 oven for 8-10 minutes.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool.