Healthier Carrot Cake

This cake is awesome.  I have made it twice now and think I might have the (sheet cake) recipe perfected.  I may eventually try cupcakes and a full size round cake in the future.
The reason I love this cake is because I’m pretty proud of my skills in the kitchen.  The last few months have been a fun challenge for me, as I’ve tried to make our meals healthier and better for us.  We aren’t doing anything too hardcore, like moving straight into a vegan diet or cutting out sugar or anything like that.  We are just gradually trying to move into eating better, more organic and real food.  In the past when I’ve tried to cut something cold turkey, it doesn’t really stick with me and I give up and feel defeated.  However, with these gradually changes with substituting better and healthier ingredients to cut calories and fat but not compromising taste, it’s been pretty successful!  And I think I’ll be able to keep this up and eventually become a *True Master of the Kitchen*, which is a term I just made up.

My logic to this cake was to make a better, healthier cake so that I could have a more indulgent cream cheese frosting.  There are some things in this world that I can’t say no to and one of them is cream cheese frosting.  I didn’t want to make a ‘skinny’ version of the frosting because I wanted to make sure it tasted good.  I think it’s a fair compromise!

Ok, this recipe.  I can’t even remember where I found this recipe, but here’s the original one that I adapted can be found. It’s not a very involved recipe, but I like making sure that when I bake, everything is done accurately and well.  For this recipe, I substituted unsweetened, natural applesauce for the oil and splenda sweetener for the sugar.  I might try it with a combo of white and whole-wheat flour…we’ll see.


2 c. flour
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
4 eggs (room temperature)
1 tsp. vanilla
1 c. unsweetened, natural applesauce
1 c. Splenda sweetener substitute
4 c. grated carrots (I used 1 small bag of pre-grated carrots and chopped them up so they’d be smaller)

1 batch cream cheese frosting:
            ¼ c. unsalted butter (room temperature)
            8 oz. cream cheese (room temperature)
            1 tsp. vanilla
            3 c. powdered sugar

1.       Preheat oven to 350 degrees, grease a 9 x 13” baking dish.
2.      Whisk together dry ingredients; beat eggs in with vanilla and set both aside.
3.      In a large bowl, beat together the applesauce and splenda in a mixer until they reach a uniform consistency.  With mixer on low, add in 1/3 of the flour.  Beat until incorporated.
4.      Add in 1/3 of the eggs mixture and beat until well incorporated.  Add another 1/3 of the flour, beat.  Add remainder of the eggs and beat well.
5.      Add last of the flour.  Stop mixing once last of the flour is barely incorporated. 
6.      Fold the carrots into the batter with a spatula, until no more dry flour remains and carrots are well mixed in.
7.      Pour batter into greased baking dish and tap against the counter a few times to get any air bubbles out. 
8.      Bake 40 – 45 minutes.  Let cake cool completely before frosting.
9.      For frosting, beat together butter and cream cheese.  Once they are well mixed, add in vanilla and powered sugar, slowly. 
10.  Beat until creamy, scraping down the sides of the bowl.

Turkish Baklava

I made this recipe for the Bethlehem Dinner we had with Zak's family in Connecticut.  I was pretty nervous because I had never made baklava and while I've cooked for his family, it's always been recipes I've made before.  But I am super proud to say that this turned out very well!  Next time we will be sure to add pistachios and raisins and to work on letting it sit to soak up the syrup for a longer period.  It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, but it did require some skill.  Zak was a great helper with assembling it and I plan on making this again for our friends.

Filling
2 c. (8 oz.) finely chopped almonds
1 c. (4 oz.) finely chopped walnuts
1/4 c. caster (superfine) sugar (used regular sugar)
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. cloves
Syrup
2 c. sugar
2 c. water
1 stick cinnamon
1 Tbl. lemon juice
Cover
12 oz. packet filo pastry, thawed
melted butter

1.  Place all filling ingredients in a bowl, combine until well blended.
2.  Place syrup ingredients in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar.  Simmer for 10 minutes and leave to cool.
3.  Brush a 9" x 13" baking dish with butter.  Add 10 sheets of filo, brushing each with butter before placing on top of the other.
4.  Spread the filling evenly in the dish.
5.  Add 10 - 12 sheets of filo, brushing each with butter as needed.  Be sure to press down on the layers to get it soaked in well.
6.  With a large knife, score the top into large diamond shapes.
7.  Bake in oven preheated to 325 degrees for 1 hour or until top turns slightly brown.
8.  Remove from oven and slowly pour the syrup over the top.
9.  The most difficult part: letting it sit for at least 5 - 6 hours before serving.

right after pouring syrup on, don't have any of it after

Cherry Vanilla Ice Cream

Zak's grandparents mailed us a big box of cherries last week and we decided to try a new cherry vanilla ice cream.  The recipe we tried a year or two ago was ok, but froze very hard.  This new recipe was like the peach raspberry ice cream we made a few weeks ago--we basically used the base and then added cherries. My friend let us use her cherry pitter, which was awesome!  It is a great tool.  The ice cream was great, soft and creamy and perfect on a hot summer day.

1 c. milk
3/4 c. sugar + 1/8 c.
1 c. half & half
1/2 Tbl. vanilla
2 c. cream
2 c. pitted, quartered cherries
1 1/2 Tbl. vanilla

1.  Scald milk on stove until bubble form around the edges, remove from heat.
2.  Pour into a heat-proof bowl and stir in sugar and salt until it's all dissolved.
3.  Add in half & half, vanilla and heavy cream.
4.  Cover tightly, refrigerate for 30 minutes.
5.  Freeze ice cream according to ice cream maker's directions.  Once it has churned for about 20 minutes (starting to stiffen up), add pitted, quartered cherries and continue mixing another 5 - 10 minutes.
6.  Freeze in freezer for a few hours.

delicious!

Fudgy Chocolate Brownies

I have been craving brownies, and decided to make some for tonight, when we go see a movie with friends.  But I wasn't really into some of my family or other recipes, and went on the hunt for a fairly simple brownie recipe with ingredients I already had.  I found this one at simplyrecipes.com, and holy cow it is amazing!  The brownies are thick, dense and so full of chocolate!  This might be my go-to recipe for brownies from now on!

*Update: these are seriously amazing.  They are dense, moist and basically taste like fudge.  They were a huge hit!  Everyone told me they were the best brownies they ever had!

10 Tbl. (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter
1 1/4 c. sugar
3/4 c. + 2 Tbl. unsweetended cocoa powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. almond extract
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1/2. flour

1.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees, with rack in the lower third of the oven.  Line the bottom and sides of an 8" square baking pan with foil or parchment paper, spray with nonstick spray.
2.  Cut butter into pieces and place in a medium heatproof bowl.  Set bowl in a wide skillet of barely simmering water.  Stir butter until it has mostly melted, then add cocoa, sugar and salt to bowl.  Stir until mixture is smooth and well-combined.  Remove from skillet and set aside until mixture is only warm, not hot.
3.  Stir in almond and vanilla extract.  Add eggs one at a time, stirring with a wooden spoon.
4.  Stir in flour, until flour is no longer visible, then beat for 40 strokes with wooden spoon.  Spread batter evenly in prepared pan.
5.  Bake for 25 - 30 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out only slightly moist with batter.  Let brownies cool, lift out of pan and cut into pieces.

perfect!

so moist

yummy!

Oreo Cheesecake Cookies

I found this recipe and let's just say they are amazing.  I love cream cheese, Oreos and the combination of the two.  They were pretty easy to make, as long as you can restrain from eating the Oreos in the meantime. I made a double batch so I could send some to my family to try, so here is that recipe with my slight alterations.

1 c. (unsalted) butter, softened (I only had salted, worked fine)
8 oz. cream cheese, softened (used low fat)
2 c. sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
2 c. flour
1 c. mini chocolate chips
2 c. Oreo cookie crumbs (about 16 cookies, had a little bit left over)

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees, line baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.  I didn't have parchment paper, but used my air-bake cookie sheets or whatever and it worked just fine.
2.  Cream together butter and cream cheese on medium speed until smooth and well-combined.
3.  Add in sugar and vanilla; mix until ingredients are well-combined.  Add the flour and mix on low until it is incorporated.
4.  Stir in the mini chocolate chips with a spatula (I just set the mixer to low and ran it a few times).
5.  Roll dough into 1/2 - 1 inch balls and roll in the cookie crumbs.
6.  Bake 12 - 15 minutes, or until tops are slightly puffy.
7.  Let cool on pan for about 2 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool.

This made about 4 dozen decently sized cookies.

little cookies, ready to be tossed with Oreo crumbs

about halfway through

fresh out of the oven

delicious!

Peach Raspberry Vanilla Ice Cream

We have been itching to make homemade ice cream, but it hasn't been very "summer-y" around these parts until the last few days.  After much debate, we decided on a vanilla ice cream with peaches from Zak's grandparents and raspberry jam or syrup to swirl in.  We ended up using the basic vanilla ice cream recipe from our ice cream maker book and went from there.  The result was simply delicious.  We were too eager to try it after a few hours in the freezer that we completely forgot about the sugar cones we bought.  Anyways, this was supposedly a 2 quart recipe, but we separated it into two containers to fit into the freezer, so I don't know how much total it made.  But it was worth it!

1 c. milk
3/4 c. + 2 Tbl. sugar
pinch of salt
1 c. half & half
1/2 Tbl. vanilla
2 c. heavy whipping cream
2 c. pureed peaches (2 fresh peaches)
about 4 Tbl. seedless raspberry jam (didn't have any homemade stuff, but Smucker's worked just fine)

1.  Scald milk on stove until bubbles form around the edges, remove from heat.
2.  Pour into a heat-proof large bowl and stir in sugar and salt until it's all dissolved.
3.  Add in half & half, vanilla and heavy cream.
4.  Cover tightly, refrigerate for 30 minutes.
5.  For the pureed peaches, Zak blended them with about a Tbl. of plain yogurt to smooth the texture out.  And then he heated up the jam in the microwave so we could pour it easily.
6.  Add peaches to refrigerated mixture and freeze according to ice cream maker's directions.
7.  We added the jam after about 20 minutes of mixing it, just on top and let it run for a few minutes.
8.  Freeze for at least 2 - 3 hours before tasting, it will be tempting though!

before freezing

it was a bit soft when we ate it, but it was so good (also check out the cute bowls Zak's parents got us, we love them)

delicious!

Irish Chocolate Guinness Cake

For St. Patrick's Day, in addition to corned beef, our friends requested I make this cake.  I agreed because I really love making cakes and it looks like it'd be a delicious, moist cake.  Plus I can't say no to a recipe with cream cheese frosting.  I'm a sucker for the stuff.  Anyways, this cake is delicious.  It's very thick, moist and easy to eat.  It's so very good, so good that Zak didn't want me to give any away to our friends!

Cake
1 c. Guinness
1/2 c. butter, cubed
2 c. sugar
3/4 c. cocoa
2 eggs
2/3 c. sour cream
3 tsp. vanilla
2 c. flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

Frosting
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 c. powdered sugar
1/2 c. heavy whipping cream

1.  Grease a 9" spring-form pan, then line with parchment paper.  Set aside; set oven to 350 degrees.
2.  Melt butter in a small saucepan.  Once butter is mostly melted, add beer and stir until butter has completely melted.  Remove from heat.
3.  In a large bowl, combine sugar and cocoa.  Add in beer mixture and stir until smooth.
4.  In a small bowl, beat eggs.  Add vanilla and sour cream, mix well.  Add to large bowl with beer and chocolate.
5.  Mix in flour and baking soda until completely smooth.  Pour in prepared pan.
6.  Bake for 40 - 45 minutes, until toothpick is inserted in middle and comes out clean.
7.  Cool completely on wire rack, still in pan.  Once cake has cooled, remove from pan and place on cake plate.
8.  Beat cream cheese until fluffy.  Slowly add in powdered sugar and heavy cream and beat until smooth.
9.  Frost cake and refrigerate.  Bring to room temperature about half an hour before serving.  Store leftovers in fridge.

delicious

a thick, moist piece of cake!

Carmelitas

Warning: you will want to consume the entire pan of these, try your best not to.  These are delicious.  And are way too easy to eat.  They are called 'carmelitas' and I found them on a cute blog, and decided to give them a try, with the idea that we'd give some away.  We did give some away, just not as many as I had hoped.  Because we ate most of them.  They are just amazing, oh man.  They're a combination of cookie and bar, and are very rich, but kind of addicting.  They're also pretty simple to make, they just require a lot of time to cool.  I didn't get more than a few pictures, because I was too busy eating them.  Enjoy!

32 caramel squares, unwrapped
1/2 c. heavy cream
3/4 c. butter, melted
3/4 c. packed brown sugar
1 c. flour
1 c. oats
1 tsp. baking soda
6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.  Combine caramels and cream over low heat until completely melted and smooth.  Set aside.
3.  In a medium bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, oats, baking soda and butter.  Pat half of the mixture in an 8x8" pan.  Bake for 10 minutes.
4.  Remove pan and sprinkle chocolate chips over baked crust.  Pour caramel mixture over chocolate chips; sprinkle remaining oats mixture on top of caramel layer.
5.  Return to oven and bake additional 15 - 20 minutes, or until sides are slightly browned.  Remove and let cool completely before cutting.  To make a 9x13" pan, simply double ingredients.

fresh out of the oven

I tried to get a good picture...

...but then I devoured them...

Lemon Chiffon Cake

I made this recipe for our 5 year anniversary dinner celebration.  This is the last year we'll celebrate it, since our wedding anniversary is more important.  Plus, it's kind of a pain because it's 2 days before Valentine's Day which translates to me planning two special meals.  Which I don't mind, but still!  Anyways, I wanted to make some sort of lemon dessert, but use my cute heart pan to make individual heart cakes.  This recipe was pretty simple and actually really tasty, but I had some trouble with it.  I normally don't have too many issues with baking or cooking, but I now think it might have been because I forgot the cream of tartar (it's mentioned in the ingredient list, but not in the directions), and also because that pan is just difficult.  But the cake itself was delicious, so light and fluffy, yet substantial.  I whipped up some whipped cream and added some sugar and lemon extract and it was a nice, lemon-filled dessert for us.  I modified the recipe a bit (the instructions were a bit vague about the sugar, so I kind of just added until I felt it tasted good; I used way more lemon juice, because it initially did not taste the way I wanted it to), and I'm sure I'll try it again, using a normal cake pan next time.

5 eggs, separated
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1 c. sugar, divided
2/3 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
4 Tbl. vegetable oil
6 Tbl. milk
juice from 1 lemon (original recipe called for 1 tsp. lemon extract)
1 Tbl. lemon zest

1.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into a small bowl.
2.  Add cream of tartar to egg whites and mix.  Add in 1/2 c. sugar once slightly stiff, and continue beating until stiff.
3.  In large bowl, add oil in with egg yolks and mix until color is a pale yellow.  Add other 1/2 c. sugar, continue to mix.
4.  Add in milk, lemon extract/juice, zest and beat until well blended.
5.  Add in dry ingredients and mix well.
6.  Gently fold in egg whites and mix well.
7.  Pour into pan and bake 20 - 25 minutes.

not the best picture, but you get the idea

Andes Mint Cookies

I found this recipe on Pinterest the other day, and decided to make them yesterday.  A few of my friends are having birthdays, so I figured I could mail them some and give a few plates away to our friends here, just because!  They were super easy to make (and eat, warm or cooled!), and came out beautiful.  I doubled the recipe and made about 5 1/2 dozen, because it was a bit difficult getting the cookies the size I wanted; they expand quite a bit, so I'd advise making a sheet of small balls and seeing how happy you are with the size.

1 package Devil's Food cake mix
1/2 c. oil
2 eggs
1 package Andes mints

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.  Mix oil, cake mix and eggs until smooth.  Drop by spoonfuls onto a baking sheet (I used parchment paper, worked perfectly).
3.  Bake 6 - 9 minutes, but more longer than that!  They will be a bit airy and soft, but they'll firm up quite nicely.
4.  Take cookie sheet out of oven, and place a mint on the top of each cookie (it's ok to smush it down a little).  A few minutes later (3 - 5), take a small spatula or spoon and spread the melted mint around the top of the cookie.  Transfer to cooling rack.

So simple and delicious!  Enjoy!

with mint first on cookie

melted mint, yum!

melted and swirly

with flash

look how yummy!

Christmas Treat Boxes (Oreo Truffles, Chocolate Cookie Bark)

This year I made treat boxes for our friends for Christmas.  I made the Oreo truffles that were a hit the year before, and a peppermint crunch variation.  I also made a very simple cookie bark, some covered in semi-sweet chocolate, the other in white chocolate.  I had a fun time making these, I just put on some Christmas music and went about my day, and eating pieces of the goodies here and there.  These recipes are all very simple, and everyone told me how much they loved them.  So here you go, enjoy!

Oreo Truffles

1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened

1 package (16 oz.) Oreo cookies (also can use other cookie variations, if desired)

16 oz. semi-sweet chocolate 

optional white chocolate to drizzle

1.  Crush cookies in food processor or blender, or by simply putting them in a bag and pounding on them with a rolling pin.  It worked well enough for me.

2.  Pour into bowl with softened cream cheese and mix until well blended.  Place in fridge for about 30 minutes to firm up before rolling.

3.  Roll mixtures into 48 (1 inch) balls and place in freezer for 30 - 60 minutes.  If the mixture gets to soft while rolling, place bowl in fridge until it becomes more firm.  

4.  Right before removing from freezer, melt chocolate.  Dip each ball into chocolate and place on a wax or parchment paper lined baking sheet.  

5.  Place baking sheet in fridge for 30 - 60 minutes.  Before removing, melt remaining chocolate or white chocolate and melt.  Remove balls from fridge and drizzle chocolate on each ball.  Refrigerate again until ready to serve or package up.

should make at least 48 truffles, depending on size

Peppermint Crunch Oreo Truffles

6 - 10 candy canes, finely chopped, divided (save some for sprinkling on top)

1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened

1 package Oreos

16 oz. semi-sweet chocolate

1.  Follow same directions and fridge/freezer times as above.  Except add in a fair amount of the crushed candy canes with the Oreos and cream cheese.  When you're dipping them in chocolate, sprinkle some of the saved candy canes on top immediately after.

so yummy and pretty!

Chocolate Cookie Bark [I doubled this recipe, and did half with semi-sweet chocolate, half with white chocolate, but feel free to use your own variations, etc.]

1 package Oreos

2 2/3 c. white chocolate chips

2 2/3 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 tsp. vanilla extract (use with semi-sweet)

1.  Line a 9-inch baking pan with wax paper.  Coat with nonstick spray and set aside.

2.  Take half of the cookies from the package and crush them.  They don't need to be as small as the truffles.

3.  Melt the semi-sweet chips and, once it's cooled a bit, add in extract.  

4.  Add cookies into chocolate and mix until incorporated.  

5.  Pour into prepared pan and spread to a 1/2-inch thickness.  Refrigerate until solid, about 1 hour.

6.  Remove from pan, carefully peel off wax paper, and place on cutting board.  Using a sharp knife, cut into bars or triangles.  

7.  Repeat and use the remaining cookies with the white chocolate chips.

Makes a couple dozen pieces, it depends on the size.

I cut them into bite-sized chunks, more or less

in the cute boxes 

ready to be delivered!

Thick, Soft Christmas Cookies

These cookies are so delicious!  My mom made these almost every Christmas for our family.  I still have fond memories of helping her roll out the dough, cut out shapes and sneaking pieces of excess dough (it's so yummy!).  I decided to make these for my first time for a Christmas party we went to at our friends'.  The original recipe makes about 9 dozen, so I thought maybe to do 3/4 of the recipe.  And then I ended up with like, 100 cookies.  It probably was because my cookie cutters weren't very big.  But, no matter!  Our friends will just enjoy a bunch of cookies for Christmas.

The frosting was always my favorite part, because my mom did several different flavors and colors.  Usually green peppermint trees, red cherry or strawberry bells, yellow lemon stars, etc.  For the party, I did: green peppermint trees, red cherry candy canes, yellow lemon stars, blue/purple/white almond snowflakes!

Cookies
4 eggs
2 c. sugar
1 c. Crisco
1 c. sour cream
1 tsp. baking soda
4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla
6 c. flour

1. Mix ingredients in order.  Make sure the batter is light and fluffy before adding the flour.  Also, use the whisk attachment for the ingredients before the flour, then switch to the paddle attachment.  It makes it much easier.
2.  Let dough chill in the fridge for awhile, up to an hour.
3.  On a floured surface, roll out the dough.  Cut with cookie cookies.  Place on cookie sheets (air-cushioned ones are amazing) lined with parchment paper (the best baking tool ever).
4.  Bake at 325-degrees for 8 minutes.  Let cool on pan a few minutes before using a spatula to move to cooling racks.

Frosting
2 c. powdered sugar
1/4 c. butter, melted
2 Tbl. milk
1/2 tsp. peppermint extract (or other flavors)
4 - 5 drops green food coloring (or other colors)

[to do 4 different colors, do about 1/2 c. sugar, 2 Tbl. melted butter, 1/2 Tbl. milk, 1/8 tsp. extract, and 2 drops food coloring]

1.  Blend powdered sugar and butter.
2.  Add other ingredients to taste and color preference.  Also, you will probably need to add a bit of milk every now and then to keep the frosting spreadable.

ready to start frosting!

yum!

double yum!

Apple Pie

Since we had a ton of apples, I figured we needed to have an apple pie!  I used the recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens book and it turned out pretty much perfect!

Pastry for Double-Crust Pie
2 c. flour
3/4 tsp. salt
2/3 c. shortening
8 - 10 Tbl. cold water


1.  In a medium bowl, stir together flour and salt.  Using a pastry blender, cut in shortening until pieces are pea size.
2.  Sprinkle 1 Tbl. of water over part of the flour mixture; toss with a fork.  Push moistened pastry to side of bowl.  Repeat moistening flour mixture, using 1 Tbl. of the water at a time, until flour mixture is moistened.  Divide pastry in half, form into balls.
3.  On lightly floured surface, use hands to slightly flatten one pastry ball.  Roll it from center to edges into a 12 inch circle.
4.  Wrap pastry circle around rolling pin; unroll it into a 9 inch pie plate.  Ease pastry into pie plate without stretching it.  Trim pastry even with rim; transfer filling to pie plate.
5.  Roll remaining ball into another 12 inch circle, place on top of filling.  Cut slits in pastry and trim to 1/2 inch beyond edge of plate.  Fold top pastry under bottom pastry and crimp edges as desired.

Apple Pie
1 recipe Pastry for Double-Crust pie
6 c. thinly sliced, peeled cooking apples (about 2 1/4 pounds)
1 Tbl. lemon juice
3/4 c. sugar
2 Tbl. flour
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
1/3 c. dried cranberries (optional)

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Prepare and roll out Pastry for Double-Crust Pie.  Line a 9 inch pie plate with a pastry circle.
2.  If desired, sprinkle apples with lemon juice.  In a large bowl, stir together: flour, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg (I added a little vanilla as well).  Add apples slices and, if desired, cranberries.  Gently toss until coated.
3.  Transfer mixture to pastry-lined pie plate.  Trim bottom pastry to edge of pie plate.  Place remaining pastry on top, cut slits in the top.  Crimp edges as desired.
4.  If desired, brush top pastry with milk and sprinkle with additional sugar.  To prevent over-browning, cover edge of pie with foil.
5.  Bake for 40 minutes; remove foil.  Bake 20 minutes more or until fruit is tender and filling is bubbly.  Cool on a wire rack.  To serve warm, let pie cool at least 2 hours.

delicious apples!

this is the best I could do, haha

so yummy with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!

Apple Cream Cheese Danish

We have all these apples from our apple picking trip and I was aching to make some delicious pastry.  Then I found this recipe and went for it.  It was a bit more tricky than I imagined, because I had bought a box of two big puff pastry sheets, and they didn't roll out as well as I had hoped.  So I just kind of winged it, and with the leftover filling made blintzes, yum!  Zak devoured these, and I did my best not to eat them all in one day.  But they are certainly tasty!

24 oz. cottage cheese
3 apples (peeled, cored & thinly sliced)
1 tsp. lemon juice
8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 c. sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
17 1/2 oz. puff pastry, thawed
3 Tbl. sugar (decoration)

1.  Place cottage cheese in a strainer lined with cheesecloth or heavy paper towel; pat dry and set aside.
2.  Place apples in a bowl, sprinkle with lemon juice to prevent browning.
3.  Combine cream cheese, drained cream cheese, 1/2 c. sugar, egg, vanilla in a bowl.  Mix with electric mixer for 1 - 2 minutes on medium high, until almost smooth.
4.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees, line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
5.  Cut each of the puff pastry sheets into 9 pieces, to have 18 total (make sure they are relatively square-shaped).  Roll pieces out, one by one, to make about 5 x 5 inch squares.  Avoid rolling with too much pressure or over the edges, to ensure they puff up.
6.  Place a square in front of you (so it's diamond-shaped).  Spoon a generous of cheese filling, leaving some room at the top and bottom edges.  Fan out 3 - 5 apple slices in the center.  Bring the left and right corners together to meet in the center and pinch to seal.
7.  Transfer danish to baking sheet; repeat with remaining pastries.  Sprinkle sugar over each bundle and bake until pastry is golden brown, about 20 minutes.

mine didn't turn out super pretty, but they sure were tasty, warm or room temperature!

Peach Cake

I made this cake for Zak's birthday this year, and it turned out really well!  I was a bit nervous, since it was a new recipe and didn't know what to expect, but everyone seemed to really like it!  I got the recipe from this site, and made it on Saturday for the party Sunday.  My only complaint is that, with the brown sugar/cinnamon sugar combo on top, it didn't look really pretty/edible because it was brown.  So to cover that up, I put some fresh peach slices that I let sit in some sugar and vanilla for a few hours on the top and it made it look much nicer!

3/4 c. butter, softened
3/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. brown sugar, packed
3 eggs
2/3 c. milk
2 c. flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
4 fresh peaches, peeled and cut into slices (I used 5, since we had so many)

topping:
1/2 c. brown sugar, packed
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

4 (? I don't know how many I used) peaches, peeled and sliced -- let sit in mixture of sugar and vanilla  (optional, do after cake has cooled)

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease (or line with parchment paper) 12 - inch spring form pan.
2.  Beat together butter and sugars until light and fluffy.  Add in eggs one at a time.
3.  In a separate bowl, mix together dry ingredients.
4.  Add vanilla in with the milk.
5.  Alternately add dry ingredients with milk and vanilla.  When mixed well, gently fold in peaches.
6.  Pour batter into prepared pan and sprinkle together with topping.
7.  Bake 50 - 60 minutes.
8.  Let cool 10 minutes in pan before removing spring form collar.  Cool completely before serving.

before adding topping and baking

all cooled, you can see why I wanted to add peaches on top, right?

pretty!

kind of caught him off guard, but look how nice the cake looks!

it was very moist and soft inside-I was a bit worried I didn't cook it as long as I should've, but everyone really enjoyed it, so whatever!

Crescent Napoleons with Strawberries

I somehow found this recipe and showed Zak yesterday morning. His response, over & over again, "Make that tonight, make that tonight," until I finally agreed. I'm not trying to be snobby, but I don't normally go for recipes where you use pre-made mixes or whatever; it's just that I grew up having really delicious, from-scratch cakes and desserts. But this looked easy and delicious enough, so I figured why not?

I did have few little hiccups with it, however. Well, for starters, I was too busy paying attention to the prices of vanilla pudding instead of reading if it was actually instant or cooked pudding on the box. So I ended up with 2 boxes of cooked vanilla pudding instead of 1 box instant. And I figured that out, after whisking and whisking and then finding the box and realizing my mistake. But I just threw it in a saucepan and cooked it over medium heat until it bubbled and thickened up. I had to let it cool for awhile, which was disappointing, because we were so excited to try them. The other hiccup was that we didn't beat the whipped cream stiff enough, so when I added the whipped cream to the pudding, it didn't mix in well, and was very runny. I decided to put it in the fridge to thicken up. Another agonizing twenty minutes went by, but it had done just what I wanted.

Assembling these wasn't too difficult; I had a fair amount of leftover pudding, but it was difficult not to put a lot on the wafer, because it'd squish out everywhere. But I got it done, they looked pretty decent and were divine! Zak called them, 'everything a strawberry shortcake should be', and I envisioned myself making these many times in our future, because they are simple and delicious. Maybe I'll make some kind of fancy cake with them. Zak didn't even want to think about sharing these with our friends (I normally give away about 75% of the cookies and treats I make, just so we aren't too tempted). They are that yummy!

1 can (8 oz.) Pillsbury refrigerated crescent dinner rolls

1 c. milk

1 box (small, 4-serving size) instant vanilla pudding/pie filling mix

1 c. whipped topping or whipped cream

1 1/2 c. sliced strawberries

sugar

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Unroll roll dough, separate into 4 rectangles. Press perforations to seal.

3. Cut each rectangle into quarters, place on ungreased cookie sheet. Press each rectangle to form 3x2" rectangles. Sprinkle each with sugar.

4. Bake 8 - 10 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool on cooling rack until completely cool, about 15 minutes.

5. Meanwhile, in medium bowl, beat milk and pudding mix with wire whisk until mixture begins to thicken. Fold in the whipped topping/whipped cream.

6. Just before serving, place 8 baked dough rectangles on serving platter or tray. Reserve 1/2 c. pudding mixture. Divide remaining mixture onto rectangles and spread to edges.

7. Reserve at least 8 pretty strawberry slices for garnish. Divide remaining strawberries onto rectangles.

8. I had enough remaining pudding mixture that I put some on the bottom of the remaining dough rectangles to 'cement' the two crescent wafers together.

9. Garnish tops with about 1 Tbl. reserved pudding mixture and 1 strawberry slice. Store in refrigerator and/or enjoy!

Banana Custard Pudding

So we had some bananas that were getting on the old side. I didn't feel up to making banana bread, especially since we had about a dozen blueberry muffins lying around the house. Then I somehow got the idea for banana pudding, because who doesn't like pudding? And I've made pudding before, so I figured it wouldn't be too difficult. This recipe was only challenging because I wasn't paying enough faithful attention to it, while on the stove. So the texture wasn't what I wanted, but overall, it was pretty tasty. I would definitely cut the sugar amount by at least a quarter or more, because it was super sweet. The original recipe called for basically making a vanilla custard, then adding in sliced banana pieces before serving. We decided to mush and whisk up the bananas with some milk and add it in with the vanilla. Next time, we will blend them up. But, still, yummy!

1/2 c. sugar (like I said, I bet it'd be fine with anywhere from 1/3 c. - 1/4 c.)

1 Tbl. cornstarch

dash of salt

1 1/2 c. milk

3 egg yolks, beaten

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

2 bananas, mushed/blended with a little bit of milk

1. Combine sugar, cornstarch and salt in saucepan.

2. Over medium heat, slowly add milk, stirring until mixture comes to a boil, keeping a close eye on it!

3. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.

4. Temper egg yolks by adding a small amount of hot liquid to them, then return all to the saucepan.

5. Cook until thickened, stirring constantly, then remove from heat.

6. Stir in vanilla and bananas, then chill for 1 hour..

Sorry there are no pictures, it wasn't as pretty as I wanted! Maybe next time I make it!

Blueberry Muffins

Zak and I love blueberry muffins, so naturally, when I got a big box of them last week, decided to make some. I looked around for awhile for a healthier version, and finally stumbled across the one I tried out. They were delicious, moist and will be made again soon. Plus, they are under 100 calories for each muffin, not bad at all!

1 3/4 c. flour

3/4 c. light brown sugar

1/2 c. whole wheat flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 1/4 c. low fat buttermilk

1 1/4 c. unsweetened applesauce

1 large egg

1 tsp. vegetable oil

1 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 - 2 c. fresh blueberries

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees; lightly coat muffin pan with cooking spray, or place baking cups in pan.

2. Mix together 1 1/2 c. flour, sugar, whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon in large bowl. Make a well in the center of the mixture.

3. Whisk together buttermilk, applesauce, egg, oil and vanilla in a medium bowl.

4. Lightly coat the blueberries by tossing them with the 1/4 c. flour in a small bowl.

5. Pour the buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture and stir until batter is just moistened. Fold in the blueberries.

6. Divide the mixture evenly among muffin cups. Bake for about 20 minutes.

This recipe made 24 beautiful, similar-sized muffins.

Nutella Cookies

My family told me they had this recipe for Nutella cookies awhile ago. At first, I was a bit hesitant, because I was unsure of how Nutella would translate in cookie form. They even sent some cookies up when my sister came to visit. I wasn't crazy about them; they tasted more like chocolate in my opinion. But I reasoned that maybe I would like them better if they were super fresh, right from the oven. Then I realized that my parents had given us 2 two-packs of big jars of Nutella, and we had barely gone through one in the past year. So I decided to make these cookies; I had Nutella to spare! This was a classic example of mistaking first impressions, because these cookies were amazing. And they tasted like Nutella, which is what I wanted. They are just yummy; Zak had more than he should've yesterday when I brought some to his work. However, this recipe makes a lot of cookies; probably about 4 dozen. I had a friend over and made her take a ton of them; I gave away at least a dozen, and frozen a fair amount of them as well. But it's worth it, Nutella cookies = brilliant. Enjoy these with a cold glass of milk, mmm.

2 1/2 c. flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 c. butter, softened

1 c. packed dark brown sugar (we used light, and they were just fine)

1 c. white sugar

26 oz. Nutella (one large jar)

1 c. chopped hazelnuts (did not use this time [my dad's not a nut person, so I'm always hesitant about putting them in cookies, etc.], but I think they'd be great with them!)

2 large eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

1. In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.

2. In mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugars until fluffy.

3. Mix in Nutella (do not heat it in order to make it easier; it takes some time and it is messy, but heating it will ruin everything (not from experience, just know that)), beat until all incorporated.

4. Add in chopped hazelnuts if you're going that route, then eggs, one at a time, followed by the vanilla. Mix well.

5. Add in flour slowly and/or in three stages, making sure after every addition that it's mixed in well.

6. Chill dough while oven preheats to 350 degrees. Scoop dough into balls and cook for about 10 minutes.

we had enough leftover dough for about 4 cookies, so instead, we just made a giant one

yum!