Sub"lime" Cake Bar

I am a self proclaimed horrible baker. Horrible. I have a half dozen desserts that I can do well, and I make them anytime I need to make dessert. For someone, like me, who is organized, specific, and loves to plan; baking should come easily.  Baking is about following directions, precise measurements, and sticking to the original. You know, everything I aspire to in everyday life. So it's shocking, honestly, how bad I am at it. And, conversely, how much better I am at cooking off the fly, ignoring recipes, and "feeling out" what ingredients work together.

All that being said, I got a bug to try a dessert recipe on my own. It's a little bit cookie bar, a little bit cake, and a whole lotta bit easy. I cheat a little bit and use a cake mix for the base, but that's how I bake, so bear with me.

Ingredients

1 box yellow extra moist cake mix

4 eggs

8 tablespoons (1 stick) melted butter

8oz cream cheese, softened

4 cups powdered sugar

4 tablespoons butter (1/2 stick), softened

Zest and juice of 4 limes

Directions

Preheat oven to 350. Butter the bottom and sides of a 13 x 9 pan.

Whisk two eggs in a bowl. Add cake mix and 8 TBSP melted butter. Combine. Batter will be thick and sticky. Layer batter in the bottom of the 13 x 9 pan.

Using an electric mixer, combine softened cream cheese, and softened 4 TBSP butter. When fluffy, add remaining two eggs, lime zest, and juice.

1 cup at a time, add powdered sugar. Spread mixture on top of cake batter. Place pan on the middle rack. Bake for 45 minutes. Cake should still jiggle in the middle when you pull it out. 

That's it! Enjoy!

Hamentaschen

I can't guarantee that Hamentaschen is a real word, or even a real cookie. What I am sure of, is how delicious these cookies are. Hamentaschen is what my Dad called them, when he would whip these little morsels out, so forevermore Hamentaschen is what they will be to me.

What they will be to you, is a tender cookie, rolled flat, filled with fruit, and popped in your mouth one after another. 

Whatever you want to call them, you'll love them. This? I can guarantee.

My dad said they were traditionally filled with prunes or poppy seeds, but he always filled them with an apricot mixture. When I first started making these as a Thanksgiving complement, I also created a Cran-raspberry flavor. I loved how the cookies looked with vibrant orange and red fruit poking out of the middle; playing off both the colors and the flavors of the Holiday. My favorite is the apricot... try them both and see what you think. Either way, you'll find them delicious.

For the dough...

Ingredients:

2 eggs

1 1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla paste

Zest of one orange 

Juice of one orange

2 3/4 cup all purpose flour (up to 1 additional cup may be necessary)

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.

In an electric mixer, cream eggs and sugar. Add oil, vanilla, juice and zest. Mix until thoroughly combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk together 2 3/4 cups of flour, salt, and baking powder.  Add to wet ingredients, 1/2 cup at a time, blending on low until incorporated. Add additional flour 1 tablespoon at a time, until the dough reaches the constancy of sugar cookie dough-- moist, but not sticky.

Roll dough out on a generously floured surface.  Approximately 3/16" thick. Using a 4" diameter cookie cutter, or wide-mouth glass, cut dough into rounds and place on a parchment-lined cookie sheet.

Place a spoonful of filling in the center of each round. Fold three edges of the cookie together, leaving only a portion of the center uncovered, and pinch the ends together.

When finished you will have created about two dozen triangular shaped cookies, highlighting the filling in the middle.

Bake for 30 minutes, or until just barely golden brown.

For the filling...

Ingredients:

Apricot

1 package of dried apricots

Water

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 tsp almond extract

Cran-Rasp

1 package of dried cranberries

2 TBSP Raspberry jam

Water

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla extract 

Directions:

Place dried fruit in a sauce pan. Add just enough water to cover the top of the fruit. Simmer slowly over low heat, until the fruit has softened enough to mush together. Stir frequently while waiting,mad you don't want toe fruit to burn. If the fruit hasn't softened, yet all the water has been absorbed, add more water in 1/4 cup increments. Once the fruit has reached the consistency of a thick jam, whisk in sugar, extract, and jam (if called for). 

Sugared Strawberries

Sugaring fruit, and letting it sit, helps it to release it's natural juices. (It's similar to salting eggplant or cucumbers to  release excess water). I use this recipe for strawberries, over everything. Shortcake, vanilla ice cream, vanilla pudding, and tonight? Over Pancakes for dinner.

Ingredients

1 basket of fresh strawberries
1 1/2 TBS granulated sugar
1 tsp almond extract

Directions:

Stem and slice your strawberries. Sprinkle sugar over them, and add almond extract. Gently mix to coat all strawberries. Set in the refrigerator to chill and juice, at least 1 hour before serving, no more than 4. Serve.

Stephanie's Turtles

Every Christmas that I can remember, my mom's friend Stephanie brings over a plate of miscellaneous holiday cookies. She bakes all kinds of cookies-- sugar cookies, fudge, Hersey Kisses cookies-- they are all on the plate. This plate of cookies is highly anticipated each and every year... but the cookie that is most coveted, and sparks a race to the plate? A cookie she calls: The Turtle. 

A layer of oatmeal crumble, a layer of chocolate, a layer of caramel, and a second layer of crumble. Pure heaven in a bite. The only problem? There are only three of them. Growing-up, my brother and I would battle as to who would be home on cookie day, so that we could remove, re-plate, and hide the turtles. Chores would be negotiated, bribes would be made. They are that good.

So good, that for the last five years, I've been attempting to recreate them, so that I can have a whole plate of these bad boys, all to myself. I've seen similar cookies called carmelitas, I've seen turtle candies that look and taste nothing like the originals. What follows below, is my own adaptation, and a pretty close approximation of what I imagine the original must be... my own version of "Stephanie's Turtles."

Ingredients:

40 square caramels

3/4 cup heavy whipping cream (don't skimp- really cream is a MUST)

12 Tbs butter, melted

1 cup light brown sugar

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup uncooked rolled oats

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

8oz semi-sweet chocolate chips (avoid nestle, use a high quality chocolate such as Ghirardeli, or Scharffenberger... it will make a difference, trust me). 

Directions:

Peel individual caramels and place in a rounded bottom sauce pan. This sounds tedious, and it is, but it's a great task to give to your kids.  My two-year-old takes this job VERY seriously, and it occupies her for close to 10 minutes (a feat in and of itself!). Add cream, and heat on low until caramel is completely melted and combined. Set aside to cool slightly.

Preheat oven to 350. In a bowl, combine oats, sugar, flour, baking soda, salt, and melted butter. Using a fork, combine until ingredients form a crumble-- similar to the texture of a crisp topping.

Grease a 8x8 baking dish with butter, bottom and all sides. Press approximately 2/3 of the mixture into the bottom of the dish.

Bake for 20 minutes. You will notice that the mixture will puff up and double in size. Make sure it does this, before you remove it from the oven. 

Remove dish and cover the oatmeal mixture with the chocolate chips. They should form an almost solid layer.

Pour the melted caramel over the chocolate chips. 

This will create three distinct layers, however, don't worry if the melted caramel oozes around the spaces between chocolate chips-- trust me, it will all work out evenly in the oven.

Sprinkle the remainder of the oatmeal mixture over the caramel - you should be able to see caramel peeking through. Just like the bottom layer, this top layer of crumble will puff up, and completely cover the top when finished.

Return to the oven. Bake for 20-30 minutes at 350. You want to make sure that the chocolate has completely melted, the top of the crumble has puffed up and has turned a golden brown.

Trust me, once you've had these? You won't want to stop making them. For this reason, I don't recommend doubling the recipe. You won't stop eating them until you've eaten them all... it's better to keep temptation at a minimum, and stick with an 8x8 pan.

Okapi (Copy) Bread

On Christmas Morning, my sister-in-law (who is a trained chef and amaze-balls cook) posted a picture on Facebook of the Monkey Bread she made that morning... ever since then? I've been obsessed. I love the idea of Monkey Bread, and loved the idea that she used Grands Biscuits instead of making her own dough. (Although, I do make my own dough, and would totally use this recipe as an excellent alternative if I were making this the night before).

In the course of moving three times in the past four years, I inadvertently misplaced my bundt pan- which is a necessary ingredient to making Monkey Bread... so I've been creating my own version. One that doesn't require a bundt pan, but that tastes just as yummy, can be made the morning of, with minimal prep. It's an excellent copy (okapi bread... get it? My six year-olds helped me with that one).

Ingredients:

1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 TBS cinnamon
3 cartons of biscuits (I use the ones from Trader Joe's)
3/4 cup of melted, salted butter


Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Generously butter a large baking dish, I used the one below, it's a 9x12.

In a gallon ziploc bag, combine the sugars and cinnamon. 

 Open all those biscuits up, and let them breathe for a minute or two.

Using kitchen shears, cut each biscuit into six equal pie sized pieces.  The shears help to keep each piece separate, and make them easier to handle. (it also minimizes your work... if you were to pull the biscuits apart, you would need to roll each piece in order to create a piece that will draw in the sugars, and play nicely with the others).

Dump a handful of the pieces into the sugar mixture and shake until completely covered, then place in the baking dish.

Layer haphazardly, until the entire pan is full.  It should be about 3-4 pieces deep all over.

Lest your worried about the copious amounts of sugar that go into this dish? You will be left with the amount below.  You just need enough to make the coating process easy for you, and to ensure that there is enough of the mixture to coat each and every piece completely.  If you don't want to waste it, it goes wonderfully well sprinkled on toast with butter (or earth's best, if you prefer).

Pour the melted butter over the entire pan, making sure to get a bit on all the exposed pieces of biscuit. Bake in the oven for 1 hour.

The typical monkey bread is dumped out onto a platter, allowing the butter to drip over all the place.  I prefer to just cut into it as is, making the mess a little more minimal....however, if you were bringing this to a brunch, or serving for friends, that is exactly what you would do.

If you are choosing to prepare your own dough, I would prepare it the night before, rolling it into equal sized balls, and coating with the sugar mixture before the second rise, the placing it in the buttered dish, and allowing it to rise in the refrigerator over night.

Pumpkin Custard Pie

It's no secret that fall is my favorite time of the year. I love the holidays, the traditions, and of course...the food. The best part about the food?  The smells.  Fall means soups, stews, and roasting meats and vegetables. The whole house is perfumed by the smells emanating from the oven.

Yesterday was Halloween-- and as part of the school celebration, the kids classes were having potluck lunch parties.  I made fruit plates, and salads, and my favorite fall treat-- pumpkin pie.

My pumpkin pie is a little different that the traditional, it's much less dense, and more custard like. It's not as heavy, and? In my opinion? Much, much tastier.

Ingredients

Pie Crust

Use your favorite pie crust recipe, mix, uncooked store-bought, or mine (once I post it).  If using pre-made, I prefer the Betty Crocker boxed pie mix.  I use the entire box, adding water as directed, and combining by fork until water is incorporated.  You should be able to gather the dough in a ball and place in an ungreased, deep quiche pan. I use my fingers to spread out over bottom and sides of pan, crimping the top to create an even look.  Prick bottom and sides in a circular pattern with a fork.


Filling
1 sugar pumpkin
3 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 t salt
1 heaping tbsp all purpose flour
1 1/2 t pumpkin pie spice
2 cups whole milk

Cut the top (with stem) and bottom of pumpkin to create a flat surface.  Cut the pumpkin in half, and remove seeds and pulp.  Place pumpkin, center down, on a parchment paper lined jelly roll pan. Pierce the skin with a fork. Roast at 400 degrees for 45 minutes.

Remove Pumpkin from oven and scoop out pulp. Set aside to cool, and raise oven temp to 450 degrees.

In a saucepan, bring milk just to boiling and remove from heat.  Set aside.

In an electric mixer, beat eggs until fluffy and light in color.

In a separate bowl, whisk sugar, salt, pumpkin pie spice, and flour, until combined. Add to eggs and blend until combined. Stir in milk a little at a time.

Add pumpkin and beat on low for 1-2 minutes. Pour mixture into pie shell.  Cover top edge of pie crust with tin foil.

Bake in oven for 5 minutes.  Turn heat down to 350 and bake for 1 - 1 1/2 hours.  After 30 minutes, remove tin foil. The pie is done when the middle is firm, if you jiggle the pan. You can also insert a bread knife into the center of the custard-- if it comes out clean, it's ready.

(Disclaimer: If you wanted to, you could substitute 4 heaping TBS of canned pumpkin for the fresh).