Two Happy Bellies

Fresh Strawberries

I have finally gone berry picking as desired. Friends told us about Valley Home Farm down in Wartrace, TN. We immediately planned some Saturday fun. I will admit, I have no need to make a habit of this. However, there are definite rewards. Not only did we enjoy local popsicles made only from (their) strawberries, (their) honey, sparkling water, and pectin . . . we also have local strawberries to make strawberry vanilla lemonade. What a treat! And we will be going back come blueberry season in a few weeks. I can't wait!

Found via Pinterest, this recipe for Strawberry Vanilla Lemonade is very tasty.

However, it is a bit more work than I'm willing to do on a regular basis (although once we found our hand juicer, at least the lemon part became much easier!). Instead, we want to play around with the strawberry simple syrup and see how it works in club soda, or as a popsicle, even as a basis for pancake syrup. And the next time we go berry picking and get those blueberries? Well there is a blueberry port jam recipe from BH&G calling my name.

Mudslide Cupcakes

I had a craving the other day . . . one that I wasn't quite sure how to fix . . . however with some experimentation I succeeded.

I started with my favorite chocolate cake recipe: Black Magic Cake. This cake never fails me!

• 2 C. sugar
• 1 3/4 C. all-purpose flour
• 3/4 C. cocoa
• 2 t. baking soda
• 1 t. baking powder
• 1 t. salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 C. buttermilk* or sour milk**
• 1 C. strong black coffee (OR 2 t. powdered instant coffee plus 1 C. boiling water)
• 1/2 C. vegetable oil
• 1 t. vanilla extract

*instead of buttermilk, I use Saco Cultured Buttermilk Blend.

**to sour milk: use 1 T. white vinegar plus milk to equal 1 cup.

For cupcakes: Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Place 24 liners in two cupcake tins.

Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and 4 T. Saco* in a large bowl. Add eggs, coffee, oil, vanilla, and 1 C. water. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes - batter will be thin. Pour batter evenly into prepared tins.

Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely.

While you are waiting for the cupcakes to cool, feel free to make your Kahlua Ganache.

• 8 oz. bittersweet chocolate
• 2/3 C. heavy cream
• 2 T. butter, room temperature
• 2 t. Kahlua

Finely chop the chocolate and transfer it to a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream until simmering and pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for one minute, then using a rubber spatula, stir it from the center outward until smooth.  Add the butter and Kahlua, then stir until combined. Let the ganache cool until thick, but still pipe-able.

Once the cupcakes are cooled completely, take an apple corer or some similar utensil and core out the middle of the cupcakes (save those pieces for nibbling).

Fill an icing bag with your ganache and using any tip you want (I used a star), plug those holes . . .

Now it is time to make your Baileys Frosting.

• 2 C. unsalted butter, room temperature
• 5 C. powdered sugar
• 6 T. Baileys Irish Cream

Using a stand mixer with a whisk attachment, whip the butter on medium-high speed for 5 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally. Reduce speed to medium-low and gradually add all of the powdered sugar until it is incorporated. Add the Baileys, increase your speed back to medium-high, and whip for another 2 - 3 minutes until it is light and fluffy.

Place frosting into a decorating bag and fit with your favorite tip (some I did with a round, others with a star), and frost your cupcakes. You can also use an offset spatula if you choose.

Last, but definitely not least, sprinkle with colored sugars or something that makes you happy.

Enjoy!

French Toast Bake

I've had this recipe sitting around for quite a while now and Aaron needed to be spoiled this past Saturday morning. Luckily I had enough of the ingredients to make a half batch so this is what I whipped up for brunch. (The recipe below is at written.)

• 1/4 C. butter (no clue why they want this much, we used hardly any)
• 2 cans cinnamon rolls
• 6 eggs
• 1/2 C. heavy whipping cream
• 2 t. cinnamon
• 2 t. vanilla

Coat a 9 by 13 baking dish with butter and preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Open cans of rolls, set rolls and icing aside.

Beat eggs, whipping cream, cinnamon, and vanilla until smooth in color and consistency, set aside.

Tear rolls into thumb sized pieces and place into greased baking dish (they say 8 pieces per roll, I cut them into quarters).

 
Pour egg mixture over torn cinnamon rolls and lightly mix to ensure even coverage.

Bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until top is golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 to 10 minutes.

Now the original recipe said to "garnish each delicious bite with whipped light cream" but what are you supposed to do with the icing? Icing which I love by the way . . . so I used it instead of whipped cream. I suppose we could have been *really* decadant and done both? But our sweet tooths were satisfied just fine as it was.

I'm not sure if cutting the recipe in half or using a smaller cinnamon roll was the culprit, however I did find this too eggy and next time would only use 2 eggs. Just so you know . . .

I won't say we LOVED this one, but it was quick and easy.

Tollhouse Pie

Does anyone remember this fondly from their childhood?

Well, I needed to bring a dessert to an event last Saturday night and even though it has been 15 or so years since I've made Tollhouse Pie, I decided to whip one up. Mine? Didn't turn out looking quite so nice . . .

The pie itself doesn't look too bad:

But the slice? Looks more like black bottom pie than tollhouse!

My theory is the fact that I only had bittersweet chocolate chunks in the house (perfect for Rachel Ray's Kahlua Chocolate Chunk Cookies) might have something to do with them all sinking to the bottom. I'm just going to have to try again with chocolate chips and see if I can get it "right" (although everyone did really enjoy the pie).

Tollhouse Pie

• 1 9" unbaked pie shell (either from your favorite crust recipe or favorite purchased crust - I won't judge)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 C. all-purpose flour
• 1/2 C. sugar
• 1/2 C. brown sugar
• 3/4 C. butter, melted and cooled
• 1 C. semi-sweet chocolate chips

and they call for 1 C. chopped nuts, but ICK! I hate nuts in my cookies and pies and brownies and things so I always leave it out.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl beat eggs until foamy. Beat in flour, sugar, and brown sugar until well blended. Beat in melted butter. Stir in chips and pour into pie shell. Bake for one hour (covering edges of pie after 15 minutes). Serve warm.

It should also be served with vanilla ice cream either on the side if you are like me or melting over the top if you are like Aaron. And that is all I want to admit about my food issues tonight!

Linking to Foodie Friday.

Ohhh Creme Brulee

There are a few recipes in this world that I think should be memorized and practiced enough that a cook can do them in their sleep or at least without hesitation. For me, I want to master Creme Brulee. My mother is phenomenal at all things in the dessert genre but the love of making desserts did not get passed down to me. It just is not my thing. I want this one to be an exception.

I really like Alton Brown and I think he is fun to watch. He may be a bit too cerebral for some people but I also think he genuinely wants to teach people how to do a recipe right. I turn to his recipe for Crème Brulee. I have made this several times now so I can say his recipe is a good place to start but it needs a few tweaks because sometimes "Your Mileage May Vary".

His recipe says it yields 6 servings. I can follow the recipe using what I think are standard sized ramekins and get 10 servings.
But if I double the recipe I almost get more than my oven can handle.

Alton's recipe calls for taking the 1/2 cup of vanilla sugar and spreading it among his 6 ramekins. I find it is easier to pour one packet of Sugar in the Raw into each dish.
Once the sugar is evenly spread around the top of the dish the next step of caramelizing the sugar with a torch is the hardest part of the whole recipe. It takes a little practice and a few mess-ups are allowed. Tracy and I have it on good authority from several chefs we have talked to that the torch used for this should be a basic BernzOmatic Soldering Torch found at Home Depot or Lowe's. They cost about $20 and are much better than the small butane torches found in a kitchen gadgetry area. Plus, the BernzOmatic comes in handy for bonfires in the backyard should the need arise.

The recipe link also has videos of Alton doing this recipe and are worth watching. I prefer the "hand held" method of torching the sugar.
Now that I have done this recipe a few times I am thinking about taking that next step. A little raspberry puree swirled inside? Melted dark chocolate on top? A dash of hazelnut liqueur instead of vanilla? Ohhh Creme Brulee...

Devonshire Cream

Yes I promised this one yesterday however I was exhausted by the time I got home from the tea (I was there from 10 AM until 6 PM) and couldn't fathom doing anything more. I have also decided it is very hard to get good pictures of white fluffy tasty cream. The below is as good as I got!

I made two batches of about 3 cups each. While I have used the below recipe for many years (found it in some tea party cookbook from a now out of business tea shop - one of those stapled no official ISBN ones), I do see the same recipe on joyofbaking.com where I got my scones recipe I shared on Friday in a smaller quantity. I have made this is "halves" or even "one-eighth" before when I wanted only a little bit. I've never doubled it as it would just take too long to beat.

• 8 oz. mascarpone
• 2 C. heavy whipping cream
• 2 t. vanilla extract
• 3 T. granulated white sugar
• zest of lemon or lime (optional)

Place all ingredients in a large (preferably chilled metal bowl) and beat until the mixture holds its shape. This takes me about 13 minutes with my hand mixer and the result is the light puffy clouds you can (maybe?) see above. Serve immediately or cover and refrigerate until time.

We served that tasty goodness on our heart shaped scones and everyone had happy bellies.

Hope you enjoyed this little snapshot into teatime.

Cream Scones

I volunteered to make food for a ladies' tea tomorrow at church. I bit off more than I could chew. Luckily happy belly #1 (aka as Aaron) volunteered to make me look good. One of our items is Cream Scones and we were inspired by the ones made by Stephanie of joyofbaking.com (she even has a video). If you have not checked out her website, it is chock full of goodies. I definitely plan to do more exploring there!

We needed to make a lot of scones so eight batches of dough later we are starting to think we have enough?

• 10 oz. all-purpose flour (yes we weighed it out)
• 1/4 C. sugar
• 2 t. baking powder
• 1/4 t. salt (if using unsalted butter, if your butter is salted, no salt!)
• 1/3 C. cold unsalted butter (cut into small pieces)
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 t. pure vanilla
• 1/2 C. half-and-half or heavy cream (we ran out of one and switched to the other)

In a large bowl whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt (yes you see our butter in a large lump - deal with it!). We were making four batches at a time in separate bowls, hence the ingredients just dumped in to begin with.

Cut the butter in however you wish . . . we used a pastry cutter.

Next, we have our egg and vanilla . . .

which we added to our half-and-half.

We added this to the dry and mixed just until everything was incorporated (doesn't Aaron make a lovely hand model?)

Then we patted and rolled them out and cut the dough into heart shapes (yes, I didn't take a photo of that)

brushed them with cream and sprinkled sugar on some of them. Fresh from the oven they look like this:

And below you see some from our first test batch last weekend, complete with lemon curd (purchased) and devon cream (homemade - the easy kind).

The above really does not tell you HOW to make these scones. I suggest you go to the website listed at the top and watch the video while reading her recipe to get a good feel for making your own. However I do hope the pictures help with some of the various steps and I will post the devon cream recipe tomorrow. 250+ scones later, we're tired!

Updated to add: linked over to Foodie Friday I said I was tired . . .

Buckeye Bars

Another favorite from many years ago would be these tasty little treats. The recipe actually came out of a children's cookbook which I thought was on the shelf, but I can't find it. I was once told by a friend that if I could ever find a way to make these in bulk, she'd take them over Reese's Peanut Butter Cups any day of the week. Not sure I would give up a peanut butter cup, however these sure are good (and easy!) I don't remember what they were originally called, I nicknamed them Buckeye Bars after I got tired of making actual Buckeye Candy.

• 1 C. butter
• 1 1/2 C. graham cracker crumbs
• 1 t. vanilla
• 1 C. peanut butter
• 2 1/2 C. powdered sugar
• 12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Melt butter. Stir in graham cracker crumbs. Add vanilla, peanut butter, and powdered sugar. Mix well. Spread into a 9 by 13 inch pan. Melt chocolate chips. Spread over peanut butter mixture. Put in refrigerator to chill. Cut into small squares.

These didn't last long when I took them in to work . . . I love happy co-workers.

Fudge Jumbles

Anyone remember these from back in the 80s? Pillsbury used to make a box mix called Fudge Jumbles and I loved them. They discontinued it, however my Granny found a recipe in the newspaper one day for "Fudgey Oatmeal Bars" and gave them a try. You know what? We can't tell the difference and I continue to enjoy my Fudge Jumbles. They were a huge hit when we took them into work this week.

• 2 C. brown sugar
• 1 C. margarine, softened
• 2 eggs
• 1 t. vanilla
• 2 1/2 C. flour
• 1 t. baking soda
• 1/2 t. salt
• 3 C. oats

Mix together brown sugar, margarine, eggs, and vanilla. Add flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir in oats. Reserve 1 C. oat mixture and pat remaining into a cookie sheet.

• 2 T. margarine
• 1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 (12 oz.) package semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 t. vanilla
• 1/2 t. salt

Heat margarine, milk, and chocolate chips over low heat until melted. Remove from heat and add vanilla and salt. Spread over oat mixture.

Drop reserved oat mixture randomly over the top.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes at 350 degrees F.

Cool and cut.

Two notes:

1. The recipe actually calls for one cup nuts to be added to the fudge layer. I don't remember nuts in the original and I don't like nuts in my cookies/brownies/etc. so I leave them out.
2. While I don't expect to ever reach the level of photography on many of the blogs I enjoy (Pioneer Woman comes immediately to mind), I just decided that in 2012 I'm going to work on my food styling skills. These pictures are horrible! Of course, I have some photos already taken for upcoming posts so you'll have to suffer through some more terrible ones while I work my way up to mediocre and hopefully to decent ;-)

Cookie Exchange 2011

Yesterday was our annual cookie exchange. This is the ninth annual one I've hosted since moving to Tennesee (started in 2002, however we skipped 2003 due to my Thanksgiving in Paris). While I'll be posting recipes in separate entries over the next few days, once again it was a huge success both in terms of cookies we swapped and the appetizers we served.

No picture of the cider we served, however from left to right you see Olivada Crostini (recipe from one of The Farm Chicks books, but I can't remember which one), Apple-Blue Cheese Chutney (Cooking Light December 2011), Black Bean Hummus (Cooking Light March 2011), and Ham and Cranberry Cream Cheese Sandwiches (Christmas With Southern Living 2000) although some are without ham for my vegetarian friends. The cider, Warm Spiced Cran-Pom Toddies, also came from Cooking Light December 2011.

And here you see the cookies . . . of course there are cherry dots made both traditional and polka dot style. I also made molasses cookies using G's recipe. While they are very tasty, Aaron and I both remember hers as being chewy and mine are crunchy. I'm going to have to investigate this next time we see his mom. As for the rest of the cookies, well every one of them is tasty goodness and my neighbors are thrilled I have once again shared (because we don't need all those cookies in our house!).