Category Archives: Desserts
Mmm… Cream Horns
Making these was a fun way to spend a sweltering late August day.
Cut a flat of puff pastry into strips like so. These are roughly 3/4″ wide – each one will become one horn when wound around the specialty pastry molds. We had 6 so we had to run relays, I ordered more.
Mrs J brushed them all with an egg wash and sprinkled on some sugar. They will bake for about 12 minutes at 350, check them every 5 minutes, turning them once.
When they’ve cooled use a pastry bag to fill with cream. We tried this recipe:
MARSHMALLOW FLUFF ICING
1 stick butter (no substitutes)
7 oz jar of marshmallow creme
4 oz confectioner’s sugar
1/2 tsp. vanillaBeat butter until creamy. Add marshmallow fluff and incorporate into butter. Slowly add sugar and vanilla. Continue beating until light and fluffy.
Alas, we didn’t read the method closely enough and dumped everything into a bowl and set at it with a hand mixer, I think the cream we ended with was a bit heavier and not quite as stiff as it could have been. Delicious, though!
Here’s a cream recipe we didn’t go with:
1 lb. confectioners’ sugar
1 c. Crisco
1 t vanilla
Dash of salt
1/4 c. boiling water
Whip this all together and it will last about a month
And another one that we did try:
1 cup cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup marshmallow cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar
This last one was Mrs J’s favorite, and seemed to work a tad better:
Plum Crumble
What to do with all those plums? We’ve been eating as many as possible and I’m thinking of freezing some more. If frozen, this recipe is the perfect way to use them.
Plum Crumble
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 1 cup flour
- 1 cup oatmeal
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 stick butter
- 4 oz chopped pecans or almonds
- 1 tbsp butter, melted
- 2 cups plums, pitted, peeled and sliced
- 2 tbsp orange juice
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp flour
- ¼ tsp ginger
8×8 baking dish, greased
bowl
In bowl, cut together ½ cup sugar, brown sugar, 1 cup flour, oatmeal, cinnamon & butter until crumbly. In greased baking dish, spread crushed nuts on the bottom and drizzle with melted butter. Mix together orange juice, 2 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp flour and ginger. Toss gently with fruit and spread over nuts. Top with crumbled mixture and bake at 350° for 25 to 30 minutes. Top should be golden and filling bubbly. Let cool 10 minutes before serving to let fruit set.
Dutch Chocolate Gelato
Pictured above is Hazelnut Gelato – recipe here.
There will be a photo in the recipe exchange tonight of the chocolate gelato and I’ll copy it here…
It’s ice cream time and gelato is so easy in my ice cream maker. The first batch in the new house.
Dutch Chocolate Gelato
Begin with the Gelato base (below)
After you beat the eggs and sugar, sift in 2/3 cup dark chocolate cocoa. Combine well and then continue recipe as directed below.
Gelato di Crema (Gelato Plain Base)
- 2 cups whole milk
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 4 large egg yolk
- 2/3 cup sugar (for the Hazelnut Gelato, reduce to 1/2 cup)
In a heavy-bottom saucepan, combine the milk and cream. Place over medium-low heat and cook, stirring occasionally so a skin doesn’t form, until tiny bubbles start to form around the edges and the mixture reaches a temperature of 170°F.
Meanwhile, in a medium heat-proof bowl, whisk the egg yolks until smooth. Gradually whisk in the sugar until it is well incorporated and the mixture is thick and pale yellow. Temper* the egg yolks by very slowly pouring in the hot milk mixture while whisking continuously. Return the custard to the saucepan and place over low heat. Cook, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon, until the custard is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon and it reaches a temperature of 185°F. Do not bring to a boil.
*The best way to temper is to add a tablespoon at a time until you’ve added about 1/4 cup. Then you can add a full ladle at a time, slowly.
Recipe makes 1 to 1-1/2 quarts
Apple-Raisin-Walnut Crisp
I love fruit crisps. They are quick and easy to make and with all the good ingredients I feel less guilty about the sweet treat. This one kicks up traditional apple crisp a notch.
Apple-Raisin-Walnut Crisp
- 3 Granny Smith apples, cored & sliced (peeling opt)
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ½ cup raisins
- ½ cup chopped walnuts
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- ½ cup butter, softened
- 1 cup rolled oats (not instant)
- 1 cup flour
8×8 glass baking dish, lightly greased, small mixing bowl
Place apples, cinnamon, raisins, nuts and ¼ cup sugar in baking dish, mix well.
In mixing bowl, cream butter and remaining sugar, add flour and oats, mix until crumbly. Crumble over the apple mixture.
Bake at 375° for 15-20 minutes until top is golden brown. Let cool.
Alternately you can use this cast iron skillet method for making the crisp.
Friday Recipe Exchange: Sweet Tart
Since lemons were on sale, I was planning on this recipe last week, but I never found time. This week I made time because I really wanted some lemony-blueberry goodness. It was very, very simple. Though I did manage to unnecessarily dirty quite a few dishes in the process.
The basis for the custard pie is my Key Lime Pie recipe, found here.
Key Lime Coconut Bars and Key Lime Gelato recipes are here and here. I LOVE Key Lime.
JeffreyW made Cabbage Rolls this week, pictured above – recipe, instructions and more photos are here
That’s it for this week. I’ve been busy with many new clients and switching everything over to a new computer. I’m really looking forward to a relaxing weekend. What’s on your plate this weekend. What’s cookin’ in your kitchen?
Tonight’s featured recipe, pictured at top, satisfied a craving for a sweet-tart dessert. Starting with my standard custard pie recipe and adding blueberry filling turned out to be just what I wanted.
Blueberry Lemon Pie
Blueberry filling:
- 1 1/2 cups wild blueberries (I use frozen, thawed)
- 1 tsp corn starch
- 1/4 cup sugar
saucepan
Add ingredients to the saucepan. Bring to a low boil and immediately reduce heat to low and let simmer until thickened. Stirring occasionally. Let cool completely.
Lemon pie:
- 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
- 4 egg yolks
- 6 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp lemon zest
- 9 inch graham cracker pie crust
Preheat oven to 250°
Combine milk & yolks with mixer until well blended. Add lemon juice and zest, mix well. Add enough blueberry filling to thinly coat the bottom of the pie shell. Pour the lemon mixture into pie shell – try to pour it in evenly, because you don’t want to spread it with a spatula and disturb the blueberries. Bake for 25 minutes. Let cool completely and top with remaining blueberries. Refrigerate before serving, and any leftovers.
That’s it for this week. Have a great weekend – TaMara
Future Desserts
I just bought a set of four of these to make individual cookie desserts for a dinner party. If they turn out, of course there will be photos and a recipe. I’m sure I will find may other uses for them. Stay tuned….
The Art of Granita
Relaxing after a long, busy day, watching Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing. I’m a sucker for anything Whedon, well, except Dollhouse, which I bailed on after the first few months. The locusts are competing for my attention, singing their late summer song. They always bring back childhood memories of sitting on the porch swing, reading a book in the evening, trying to stay cool.
Went out to dinner with friends earlier and told them I made Watermelon Granita and their response was similar to mine, watermelon is perfect on its own, why mess with it? Why indeed? Partly because it is so pretty, partly because it is nice to have something cold, not too sweet and easy to make during the heat of summer. Granitas can be made with many flavors, I just happened to have a large seedless watermelon on hand this week.
Strawberries, lemons, oranges, a mix of berries, even coffee can be made into granita. Just substitute for the watermelon in the recipe below. Perfect, light and a burst of sophisticated flavor to top off any meal.
Watermelon Granita
- 4 cups seedless watermelon, cut into large chunks
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar
- fresh limejuice from 1 large lime or 2 small limes
- dash of lime zest
- mint leaves for garnish
blender, shallow dish
Blend together the ingredients (except mint) until smooth. Start with 1/4 cup sugar and add more as desired. 1/2 cup is the standard recipe, but I preferred less to let the watermelon shine through.
Pour into a shallow dish and place in the freezer for 1 hour. Remove and with a fork, scrape the mixture into small ice crystals. Place back into the freezer for another hour and repeat scraping. Freeze for additional hour, scrape again and serve with mint garnish. You can also top with fresh blueberries for a very pretty dessert.
Critters Do Crazy Things and a Recipe
I was shopping the other day and found myself wandering through the cookie aisle. I really wanted something lemon or lime, but couldn’t find anything that fit the craving. Probably because these Key Lime Bars are difficult to beat. They’re simple enough to make and really hit the spot when you want something cold and tart. You can find the recipe here.
Kitteh update. They are doing well and have grown accustomed to Bixby. Everyone has their own routine with him. Jake (above) has just started to take him on by standing his ground and daring the Beast to invade his space. It took him a while to come out of his shell after Missy died, but the last few weeks he’s more his old self.
I have a vibration plate that I use every day. It sits between the cat tree and a shelf that serves as a cat perch. Jake and Zander have decided the time working out is a good time for a scritch and perch on either side of me. It doesn’t matter that I am actually working out, they make their demands known and woe to me if I ignore them.
One day, I picked Jake up and held him while the plate was on. He clearly liked it. The next day when I plugged the machine in, he jumped up on the plate. Human nature dictated that I must turn the machine on, at it’s lowest setting. I assumed he’d jump right off, but I was wrong. He stood on it and rubbed against the cat tree and thoroughly enjoyed it. It lasted for two minutes and then he was off on his way. Every once in a while, he again jumps on and I turn the machine on. I’ve up the speed a bit…the higher it goes, the smoother the vibration. I now have to limit him to five minutes, because I think he would stay on the full ten minutes if I let him.
I keep thinking I’ll get video, but I’m guessing the moment I pick up the camera, he’d be off and throwing me a dirty look. No patience for paparazzi.
I have all the ingredients for the Jicama Slaw and I’ll put it together tomorrow. Today I made a granita and I’ll post photos and recipe tomorrow. Until then…. TaMara
Friday Recipe Exchange: Ice Cream Delights
It’s that time again. Time to dig out the ice cream maker and try out some new recipes. I cannot express how much I love the ease of the frozen bowl style machine. No fuss, no mess.
Pictured above is this summer’s first batch, Vanilla Nut Crunch, recipe here (where there is also a bonus kitteh)
And here are four of my favorites from the past summers:
Key Lime Pie Gelato, click here for recipes and photos.
Strawberry Ice Cream, two recipes here.
Blueberry Sorbet, recipe and photos here.
Chocolate-Hazelnut Gelato, really my very favorite of all the recipes, is here.
For the pet lovers, in case you missed it, Bixby needed to cool off in a cute video here. He now has his own kiddie pool in the yard because flooding the bathroom nightly was not an option.
What’s on your menu for the weekend? Getting ready the big holiday? Any favorite frozen treat recipes?
Tonight’s featured recipe is one of the most chocolaty ice creams ever. It takes a full cup of dark dutch cocoa and just enough sugar so it’s not too sweet. The ice cream scoop in the photo was my very first Kickstarter contribution. It works great on the hardest frozen ice cream with little effort. But in all honesty, I contributed because the presentation was so funny and the inventor was a riot. I❤ engineers.
Dutch Chocolate Ice Cream
- 1 cup dark dutch cocoa, unsweetened
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup lightly packed brown sugar
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1-1/2 cups milk
- 3-1/4 cups heavy cream
- 2 tsp good quality vanilla extract
mixing bowl, ice cream freezer
In the mixing bowl, combine cocoa, sugars and salt, until well blended, add milk and use a hand mixer on low speed to combine until sugar is dissolved (about 2 minutes). Stir in cream and vanilla by hand.
Freeze according to manufacturer’s direction for your ice cream maker (for mine, I place the frozen bowl on the machine, add the paddle and the top, turn it on and then pour the ice cream mixture in while it’s turning. 30 minutes later I have ice cream).
After it has completed its freezing cycle, you usually have a soft serve consistency, you can freeze it until hard. Makes about 1-1/2 quarts.
That’s it for this week. There won’t be an exchange next week because of the holiday. I hope you have a great week and a terrific 4th! – TaMara
Frozen Treats: Vanilla Nut Crunch (and Bonus Kitteh)
It was time to break out the ice cream maker and cool things off. I’d been focusing on gelatos the last couple of summers, but yesterday I wasn’t interested in standing over the stove and stirring an egg mixture. I dug out the instruction manual for my Cuisinart machine and sure enough, there were some simple cream-only recipes. I decided to start with vanilla.
I have two favorite ice creams, one was Ben and Jerry’s Wavy Gravy, RIP (their new hazelnut is inedible IMHO) and Blue Bell’s Moo-llenium Crunch (fingers crossed they can come back from the shut down). I’ve mastered Chocolate-Hazelnut Gelato and it’s a fine substitute for Wavy Gravy, so this time I thought I’d tackle the crunchy vanilla ice cream from Blue Bell.
From their description:
Classic vanilla ice cream with a combination of dark chocolate chunks, creamy caramel chunks, roasted pecan halves, chopped almonds and walnut pieces.
Vanilla ice cream recipe? Check. Dark chocolate? Check. Caramel chunks? Nope, but we’ll get to that. Roasted pecans? Nope, will have to live without because I was not going to drop everything and run to the store. Almonds and walnuts? Check and check. On to the recipe:
Vanilla Nut Crunch
- 1-1/2 cups whole milk
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 3 cups heavy cream
- 2 tsp really good vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup chopped dark chocolate
- 1/4 cup chopped almonds (raw or roasted, unsalted)
- 1/4 cup chopped walnuts (raw)
- 1/4 cup chopped pecans (optional😉 )
mixing bowl, ice cream maker
In the mixing bowl, combine milk, sugar and salt, use a hand mixer on low speed to combine until sugar is dissolved (about 2 minutes). Stir in cream and vanilla by hand.
Freeze according to manufacturer’s direction for your ice cream maker (for mine, I place the frozen bowl on the machine, add the paddle and the top, turn it on and then pour the ice cream mixture in while it’s turning. 30 minutes later I have ice cream).
After it has completed its freezing cycle, fold in nuts and chocolate. Freeze until hard. Makes about 1-1/2 quarts.
Remember the caramel bits? I had a bottle of caramel syrup which made a nice topping and when I was done, it was pretty darn close to Moo-llenium Crunch. I’m sure pecans will make all the difference next time.
And here is a bonus kitteh because he had to “help” me take the photos today.
For tomorrow – Dutch Chocolate Ice Cream. Until then – TaMara
