Cantaloupe Sherbet

Oh, man, between moving and Baby-Wait 2011, I've been pretty busy! But one of the great things about moving is unearthing all the stuff I'd all but forgotten about. I don't know how I forgot I had an ice cream attachment for my Kitchen-Aid, it's practically brand-new, but I did forget. No matter, I'll make up for it.

So, anyway, I bought a cantaloupe this week and was completely overwhelmed by the amount of fruit it yielded. I'm only one person, I can't eat that much fruit before it goes bad! Sherbet to the rescue

Cottage Cheese Pancakes

I LOVE pancakes, Every one of my friends knows this because when Andy is gone for the evening a couple of them never fail to ask me if I'm making pancakes for dinner and a lot of the time the answer is "Yes, of course I am." It's a snack/meal/dessert all in one and they are an awesome vehicle for whatever: fruit, bacon, whipped cream, you name it. So, yeah, pancakes are the best.

Recently, I found a recipe over at a health site that intrigued me because as much as I LOVE pancakes, I have gained a ton of weight this pregnancy and really need to watch my carbohydrate intake. Boring, I know. At any rate, I whipped these up yesterday and, holy crap, I'm sold. They are packed with protein and they taste so much like real pancakes that I still felt guilty. And guilt is the byproduct of a really good snack/meal/dessert. SMD? I'll work on it.

Whole Lemon Pie with Walnut-Cranberry Crumble

Filling from Smitten Kitchen 

I had never heard of Shaker Lemon Pie until yesterday when I went searching for a way to use lemons that had gone soft over the holidays in my refrigerator and a par-baked crust in the freezer that really needed to be used. Not that it would have gone bad in the freezer but just...what kind of lunatic sits on a homemade pie crust? So, anyway, there are a kajillion recipes for this kind of pie that I had never heard of before and they are all easy. Well, it would have been super easy if I had had hot water in the house to wash all the dishes before I got started and if my sink wasn't backed up from all the rain. But, still, a great pie got made and that's all that counts; it doesn't even matter that my husband thinks I'm a loon for baking in a basically unusable kitchen. It is (was) a great pie.

Dulce de Leche Sauce

It's so easy it's almost hard to justify an entire post but it's also the yummiest sauce ever so it's hard to excuse the omission. So, here we go.

Lemon Curd and Meringue

I wish I had painted the tree blue; that would look cool. I'm totally addicted to Foodgawker.com and Tastepotting.com and always wanted pics on this site but I'm not a photographer..but I'm gonna try. This lemon curd has been waiting patiently for me to figure something out for about a week and it did not turn our as I would have liked. At all and the next day this was on Foodgawker to taunt me. Oh, well. I had time to paint the tree but the curd and meringue cookie were eaten before that could happen. By who, I can't say. It just sort of happened. Yumm...I mean, umm, yeah. Recipes follow...

Lemon Buttermilk Snow

Yellow snow* you can eat! This ice cream seriously reminds me of being a kid, eating handfuls of snow off my mittens. It's got the wet but dry, crumbly mouth feel that is followed close by lemon and cream. Omigosh, I drove home on my lunch break to dig into it again; it's that good. Perfect winter dessert.

Buttermilk Syrup

I used to get so frustrated that recipes would call for buttermilk because who the hell has buttermilk laying around? But now that I'm making my own butter (btw, whipping cream works as well as heavy whipping cream), I have all this buttermilk I have to use. Suddenly, it makes sense why all these old recipes call for it and I really don't need another excuse to make this Buttermilk Syrup.

Homemade Marshmallows

I'm working on Xmas gift ideas that won't break the bank and I think I've hit on at least one: a hot cocoa recipe with homemade marshmallows. Seriously, these things have so little in common with the bags at the supermarket: they are airy, they melt, and they taste fantastic.

Best Brownies Ever

Seriously gooey and amazing and will make a great base for Rocky Road Brownies. With Homemade Marshmallows, of course

Almond Cheesecake

From Epicurious. (I didn't know cheesecake was so easy to make and now that I do, I'm doomed.)

Ingredients:
3 packages of 8oz cream cheese, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
1 tsp almond extract (or vanilla if you prefer)

Vanilla cookies, crumbled
1/2 stick butter, melted
extra butter for coating pan

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350.

Crust: Mix cookie crumbles with melted butter and press into the buttered bottom of whatever you're using to bake. I used a silicone muffin baking sheet that holds 6 heart-shaped and another small casserole dish. (You can use a mini muffin tin or cupcake pan or a baking dish but whatever you use keep in mind that the larger the receptacle, the longer the baking time.) Leave some crumble left over to put over the top of the cheesecake.

Cake: With an electric blender mix the sugar, cream cheese and extract until smooth. Add the eggs and egg yolks one at a time. Divide the mixture up into baking dishes and place them in the bottom of a large roasting pan. Fill the pan with hot water, about halfway up the baking dishes.

Bake until cheesecakes are firm. My smaller cakes took 45 minutes while the larger took a little over an hour.

Baked Apple from 10/4 Menu

Ingredients:
1 apple (not granny smith unless you want apple sauce)
1 tbs of brown sugar
1/4 cup white wine
pinch cinnamon or allspice
pinch salt

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350. Core apple leaving bottom intact. Mix cinnamon, brown sugar,* and salt and pack into the cavity. Bake covered with tin foil for one hour. Let cool for a bit and top with whipped cream.** Pour a tablespoon of the juices in the baking dish on top. (I thought briefly about reducing the juices to make a syrup and I might do that next time.)

*Did you know that brown sugar is just white sugar mixed well with a dollop of molasses? And if you mix it to order, you'll never have to deal with that brick in a box you chip away at every time you need brown sugar. Add less molasses to make light and more to make dark sugar.

**Whipped cream is just heavy cream whipped til it forms peaks (5 minutes give or take on hi). I don't add sugar because chances are the dessert is always sweet enough without it; add a dash of salt for character.

Easy Banana Muffins

makes 12 muffins

Ingredients:

3-4 ripe, mashed bananas (can use as few as two)

1/2 c. sugar (original recipe calls for 1 whole cup but, yikes, that's sweet especially with chocolate chips! might have to play around with that to get perfect ratio)

1 1/2 c. flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 egg beaten

1/4 c. melted butter

1/4 tsp salt

nuts and chocolate chips are optional (if you're the type of person who thinks nuts and chocolate chips are, in fact, optional...I'm not.)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix ingredients, divide in buttered or Pam-med muffin tin, bake until tops are golden brown, about 15 - 20 minutes.

Chewy Flourless Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

From Martha Stewart's Everyday Food Magazine

Ingredients:
makes 12 to 24 cookies

3 c. confectioner's sugar
3/4 c cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 bag chocolate chips
nuts(optional)
4 egg whites, room temperature

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350. Mix together the sugar, cocoa and salt then stir in the chocolate and nuts. Blend in your egg whites until just blended (do not over mix) and bake on a parchment lined baking sheet for 20 min.

Quickstep Strawberry Cobbler

Ingredients:
Pint strawberries, sliced
1/2 c brown sugar
couple squeezes of lemon
2 tbs butter
1/2 c milk
1 cup flour
pinch salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder

Whipping cream
Mint, chiffonade

Preparation:

Mix strawberries and brown sugar and lemon juice together in heavy saucepan until juicy (10 min) then bring to boil and bring temp down to a simmer (10 min).

Meanwhile, mix dry ingredients. melt butter into milk and then mix into dry ingredients. Spoon in balls of dough onto the top of the simmering strawberries mixture, spacing them 1/2 inch apart. cover with lid and let cook for 15-20 minutes until the top of dumplings are dry.

Spoon into dishes warm and top with of drizzle cold whipping cream and a chiffonade of mint.

Matzo Brittle

From Martha Stewart Everyday Food Magazine (June, 09)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 c unsalted butter
2 tbs water
2 cups unsalted matzo crackers, broken up
1/2 cup sliced almonds
2 cups semi-sweet choc chips

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bring butter, sugar and water to a boil, stirring continuously. Combine crackers and almonds. Quickly toss the crackers and nuts with the syrup, and layer thickly on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Sprinkle chocolate chips on top of brittle and bake for 25 minutes. Smear the chocolate once out of the oven and allow to cool. Refrigerate brittle til hard and break into pieces.

Strawberry-Blonde Layer Cake

Ingredients:

cake:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
6 large egg whites, beaten to blend
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

frosting:
4 1/2 cups chilled whipping cream
1 cup strawberry preserves
2 pounds strawberries, hulled, sliced
1 pound strawberries, hulled

prep:
preheat oven to 350. Mix cake ingredients in order and bake in 9" round pans til set, 25 minutes or so. Frost layers with whipped cream and top with strawberries.

Banana Nut Muffins

From elise.com


Ingredients:
makes 12 muffins

3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup melted butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 Tbsp espresso or strong coffee (optional)
1 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
1 1/2 cup of flour
1 cup chopped walnuts (toasted or raw)

Prep:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mash the bananas in a large bowl then mix in the rest of the ingredients except the flour. Once everything else is mixed, add the flour incrementally then the walnuts until incorporated. Pour mixture into prepared muffin pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Marshmallow Fondant

http://whatscookingamerica.net/PegW/Fondant.htm

Remember to:

a. Refrigerate frosted cake for 30 minutes or so before layering on fondant.

b. Roll fondant very thin.

c. Recipe says cornstarch but vegetable shortening works, too, to keep from sticking to the counter.

Cocoa Cake

From recipes4cakes.com
(Takes lots of bowls, might not be such a good idea in a small kitchen)



Ingredients:


1 cup boiling water
3/4 cup cocoa
1 1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup shortening (you can use butter, sub 1 for 1)
2 eggs, separated
2 cups sifted cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 375 and prepare two 9" pans with non-stick spray, the bottom lined with parchment paper.


Bowl 1: pour boiling water over cocoa and stir until mixture is smooth.


Bowl 2 (your largest): cream sugar and shortening. add egg yolks. beat again.


Bowl 3: sift dry ingredients together 3 times. add alternately to creamed mixture, the dry ingredients and the milk. add cocoa mixture and vanilla.


Bowl 4: beat egg whites until peaks form. fold into cake mix.

Bake in prepared pans for allotted time.


Ice with desired frosting.

Toasted Coconut Shortbread Cookies

Bon Appetit, April 2004.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (about 1.5 ounces) unsweetened shredded coconut (impossible to find, if you get the sweetened variety just dial back your sugar by a few teaspoons, a little less than half a cup)
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks or 6 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup plus 1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 325.


Spread coconut on rimmed baking sheet, stirring occasionally, bake until coconut is golden. Cool completely Grind in a coffee grinder, food processor or blender until coarsely ground.

Beat butter and sugar in large bowl until well blended. Mix in salt and vanilla. Beat in flour in 2 additions, 2/3 cups at at time. Stir in toasted coconut. Flatten dough into a thick disc, wrap in plastic; chill at LEAST 1 hour. (can be prepared 2 days ahead. keep chilled. soften slightly at room temperature before rolling out.)

Again, preheat oven to 325.


Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Roll out dough disk on floured work surface to 1/4-inch thickness.

Using 1 3/4- to 2-inch-diameter cookie cutters (or an empty soup can) cut dough into rounds.


Bake cookies until light golden, about 20 minutes. Cool on baking sheets 10 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks and cool completely. while they are baking, you can make the chocolate sauce.


Melt chocolate chips and dip completely cooled cookies. Place on parchment paper until chocolate sets (takes hours).