Cranberry Pistachio Bars

Another holiday treat that I tried for the first time this Christmas season was Cranberry Pistachio Bars and this recipe comes from Christmas Cottage Magazine. My oh-so-classy mother describes them as having "a refined taste". They are a good combination of sweet and salty and the red from the cranberries and the green from the pistachios make them the perfect treat for Christmas!

Ingredients:

- 3 cups graham cracker crumbs (about 26 graham crackers crushed up)
- 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
- 1 cup unsalted butter, melted
- 1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
- 1 cup white chocolate morsels
- 1 cup milk chocolate morsels  ***Next time, I am going to try 1/2 cup milk and 1/2 cup dark chocolate
- 1 cup dried cranberries
- 1 cup chopped pistachios
- 1 cup dried cherries      ***I didn't have cherries, so instead, I doubled the amount of cranberries
- 1/4 package (16 oz package) of vanilla-flavored candy coating, melted (for the drizzle)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF and grease a 13x9 baking pan
2. Combine the graham cracker crumbs, brown sugar and melted butter in a large bowl. Press the mixture to the bottom of the pan.
3. Pour the sweetened condensed milk over the crust. Sprinkle the white and milk chocolate morsels, dried cranberries, pistachios and dried cherries over the sweetened condensed milk.
4. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the edges are brown. Melt the vanilla flavored candy coating and drizzle over the top. Let cool for 20 minutes on a wire rack.

Cut into bars and serve!

Quiche Lorraine

To show my state pride, this recipe comes from the magazine Our State: North Carolina, which is obviously the best state! Mixing my southern pride with my love for France, my mother (who is obviously a classy, southern woman) has made this classic French quiche several times and she loves this recipe. I mean, who doesn't love bacon??? We have eaten it on various types of occasions: baby showers, Sunday brunch and Christmas breakfast. 

Ingredients

- 1 (9-inch) pie crust (if you prefer the easier route of getting a store-bought crust. If you would like to make your own pie crust, which is super easy, check out this simple pie crust recipe.)

- 8 slices of bacon cooked crisp and crumbled 

- 1 cup Swiss cheese, shredded

- 1 cup yellow onion, finely chopped

- 4 large eggs

- 2 cups heavy whipping cream

- 1/4 t salt

- 1/4 t pepper

- 1/8 t cayenne pepper

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 425ºF

2. Mold the pie crust to a tart dish and sprinkle the cheese, bacon and onion on the bottom of the crust. 

3. Beat the eggs slightly and mix together the remaining ingredients. Pour the mixture into the dish over the cheese, bacon and onion. 

4. Bake for 15 minutes then reduce the temperature to 300ºF and bake for another 30 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out clean. Let stand for another 10 minutes before cutting.

Bon appétit!

Gingerbread Bûche de Noël

Being the francophile that I am, my baking goal for this Christmas was to make a Bûche de Noël. It is a traditional French dessert that is eaten during the Christmas season. A typical Bûche de Noël is either chocolate or vanilla sponge cake and filled with chocolate buttercream frosting or ganache. "Bûche" in French means "log" which is why most Americans call this dessert a "yule log". Traditionally, the cake is decorated to resemble a log. Most of the time, the end is cut off and attached to the side to make it look like a real log. Bakers will also create candies that look like mushrooms to make the dessert look even more log-like. Here are some images.

Of course, Americans have given this French dessert their own twist and there are multiple variations including pumpkin and gingerbread. For my first attempt, I went with a gingerbread bûche. I made a few alterations to the recipe that I used and I have included both the original and my suggestion.

Gingerbread Cake Ingredients
- 3 eggs - separate the yolks from the egg whites
- 1/4 cup molasses        ***I decided not to use honey and I used 1/2 cup of molasses instead for a
- 1/4 cup honey                  stronger molasses taste
- 1 T butter (melted)
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/4 t baking soda
- 1/2 t cinnamon
- 1/2 t ground ginger
- pinch of salt
- powder sugar (for dusting)

Frosting Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
- 1/3 cup powder sugar
- 1 t cinnamon

Directions
1. Line a 15x10 jelly roll pan with parchment paper. Grease both the pan and the paper.
***Next time, I am going to use a bigger pan (16x12in) because I found that the cake was too thick and difficult to roll
2. Pre-heat the over to 375ºF
3. Beat the egg yolks in a mixer until thickened. Add the molasses, honey and melted butter. Mix well.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form. Slowly add the sugar and continue to whisk until firm peaks form.
5. Carefully fold the egg whites into the egg-yolk and molasses mixture.
6. Sift the flour, spices and salt over the egg mixture, slowly fold the mixtures together.
7. Spread the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 10 minutes,
8. Let the cake cool in the pan for about 3 minutes.
9. Heavily sprinkle powder sugar on a damp tea towel (you will use this towel to roll the cake).
10. Carefully flip the cake face-down on the tea towel, remove the parchment paper.
11. Roll the cake with the towel starting for the short side. Let the rolled-up cake cool completely.
12. While the cake is cooling, prepare the frosting. Whisk together the heavy cream, powder sugar and cinnamon until firm peaks form.
13. Unfold the cake and spread about 1/2 of the frosting over the cake. Keep in mind, the most frosting you put on the inside, the harder it will be to roll the cake. I also found that you should not put too much on the side where you will start to roll from. If you want a tighter spiral, I suggest putting less frosting on the side. I had to re-roll the cake about three times until I was satisfied.
14. Spread the remaining frosting on top and on the edges of the cake. Sprinkle with cinnamon.

*It's best to let the cake sit for several hours before serving.

Enjoy!

Gingerbread Cookies

The Christmas season is by far my favorite time of year. Family gatherings, Christmas music and good food! It's also the time of year to enjoy my second favorite holiday flavor: gingerbread (if that considered a flavor)! Even though I enjoy everything gingerbread (bread, cookies, cupcakes, lattes), I have never made it before. Last week, I made gingerbread cookies and attempted to decorate them. I am not a pro at icing cookies, but that didn't change the way that they tasted - which was delish! I highly recommend eating them for breakfast with a cup of coffee (they remind me of speculoos cookies for those of you who are familiar with this european cookie). Here is the recipe to make gingerbread cookies:

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1.5 t baking soda

1/4 cup hot water

1 cup molasses

5.5 cups all-purpose flour

1.5 t ground ginger

1.5 t ground cinnamon

1/4 t salt

1/4 t ground allspice

Aluminum foil (if you are using cookie cutters to make fun shapes)

Parchment paper for baking

Preparation:

1. Beat butter and sugar at medium speed with a heavy-duty electric stand mixer until fluffy.

2. Stir together baking soda and 1/4 cup hot water until dissolved; stir in molasses.

*Once you stir in the molasses, the mixture will begin to turn into a foam-like consistency. 

3. Stir together flour and next 4 ingredients. 

4. Add flour mixture to butter mixture alternately with molasses mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Shape mixture into a ball; cover and chill 1 hour.

*I am a dough-taster (to ensure that it will taste good of course) and I was not overly fond of the dough (even though I kept eating it), it tasted too much like molasses. However, after I baked the cookies, the molasses taste mellowed down and the cookies tastes like traditional gingerbread cookies.

5. Preheat oven to 350°. Roll dough to 1/4-inch thickness on a lightly floured surface. Cut dough with a 4-inch gingerbread man-shaped cookie cutter. Place 2 inches apart on parchment paper-lined baking sheets.

6. Bake at 350° for 15 to 18 minutes. Let cool on baking sheets 2 minutes; transfer to wire racks. Cool completely (about 30 minutes).

Decorate as desired!

Pumpkin-Pecan Cheesecake

This Thanksgiving dessert recipe comes from Southern Living. I made this cheesecake two years ago for Thanksgiving and it was a big success! It is worth the long, timely process! I have made a few tweaks to the original recipe...

Ginger Snap Crust:

1.5 c ginger snap crumbs (took about 25 ginger snaps)

1/2 c graham cracker crumbs

1/3 c finely chopped pecans

5 T butter, melted

3 T light brown sugar

Pumpkin Cheesecake Filling:

4 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, softened

1 c granulated sugar

1 t vanilla extract

4 eggs

1.5 c canned pumpkin

Praline Topping:

1 c firmly packed brown sugar

1/3 c whipping cream

1/4 c butter

1 c powdered sugar, sifted

1 t vanilla extract

Glazed Pecan Garnish:

1/4 c dark corn syrup

2 T sugar

2 c pecans


Preparation Crust:

Preheat oven to 325°. Stir together ingredients in a bowl until well blended. Press mixture on bottom and 1 1/2 inches up sides of a 9-inch springform pan. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned.


Preparation Cheesecake Filling:

Beat cream cheese and next 2 ingredients at medium speed with a heavy-duty electric stand mixer until blended and smooth. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended after each addition. Add pumpkin, beating until blended. Pour batter into prepared crust. (Pan will be very full.)

Bake at 325° for 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes or until almost set. Turn oven off. Let cheesecake stand in oven, with door closed, 15 minutes. Remove cheesecake from oven, and gently run a knife around outer edge of cheesecake to loosen from sides of pan. (Do not remove sides of pan.) Cool completely on a wire rack (about 1 hour). Cover and chill 8 to 24 hours.

Remove the sides of the pan and transfer to a serving dish.

Preparation Praline Topping:

1. Bring first 3 ingredients to a boil in a 1-qt. saucepan over medium heat, stirring often. Boil, stirring occasionally, 1 minute; remove from heat. Gradually whisk in powdered sugar and vanilla until smooth. Let stand 5 minutes, whisking occasionally. Pour immediately on top of cheesecake.

Preparation Glazed Pecan Garnish:

Mix the corn syrup and sugar together, add in pecans. Mix until all the pecans are coated. Prepare cookie sheet with parchment paper and spray with non-stick cooking spray. Spread pecans evenly on cookie sheet. Bake at 350° for about 15 minutes or until the mixture starts to bubble and thicken. Remove from oven and allow pecans to cool completely. Place pecans around the edges of the cheesecake and on the sides for garnish. 

Happy Thanksgiving y'all!

Cinderella Cheesecake

Today's recipe comes from October's Southern Living. I didn't even have to read the ingredients in order to want to make this, the picture spoke for itself. I mean, what's better than the chocolate peanut butter combination??? This cheese cake has a brownie crust and a creamy peanut butter cheesecake filling, it's absolutely divine!

Ingredients:

• Brownie Crust
• 3 (1-oz.) unsweetened chocolate baking squares
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup sifted all-purpose flour 
• 1/8 teaspoon table salt
• 1/8 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 large eggs 
• 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract 
• 1/2 (1-oz.) bittersweet chocolate baking square, finely chopped
• Cheesecake Filling and Topping
• 1 1/2 (8-oz.) packages cream cheese, softened 
• 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 3 large eggs 
• 1/2 cup sour cream 
• 1 1/3 cups creamy peanut butter 
• 
  
• Sour Cream Topping
• 3/4 c sour cream
• 2 tsp granulated sugar
• 
  
• Chocolate curls for garnish

Preparation

1. 1. Prepare Brownie Crust: Preheat oven to 350°. Microwave first 2 ingredients in a small microwave-safe bowl at MEDIUM for 1 1/2 minutes or until melted, stirring at 30-second intervals. 
2. 2. Stir together flour, salt, and baking powder in a bowl.
3. 3. Beat 2 eggs and 1 cup brown sugar at medium-high speed with an electric mixer 3 to 4 minutes or until batter forms thin ribbons when beaters are lifted. Add vanilla, bittersweet chocolate, and melted chocolate mixture, and beat just until blended. Stir in flour mixture just until combined.
4. 4. Spread 1 cup brownie mixture on bottom of a greased and floured 9-inch springform pan. Bake at 350° on center oven rack 13 to 15 minutes or until set. Cool on a wire rack 10 minutes; freeze 15 minutes. Remove from freezer; spread remaining brownie batter up sides of pan to 1/4 inch from top, sealing batter to bottom crust.
5. 5. Prepare Filling: Beat cream cheese and 1 cup brown sugar at medium speed with a heavy-duty electric stand mixer until blended. Add 3 eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until yellow disappears after each addition. Beat in sour cream just until blended. Beat in peanut butter until blended.
6. 6. Pour filling into prepared crust. (Mixture will not completely fill crust.) Bake at 350° for 35 minutes or until center is almost set.
7. 7. Remove from oven. Spread Sour Cream Topping over center of cheesecake, leaving a 2-inch border around edge. Bake at 350° for 1 more minute. Remove from oven; gently run a knife around edge of cheesecake to loosen. Cool completely on a wire rack.
8. 8. Cover and chill 8 to 12 hours. Remove sides of pan. Top with chocolate curls.

***I am a JIF snob, so I used JIF creamy PB to make this recipe

Fall Gathering

Yesterday, we had our second annual "fall gathering". It's a time for friends and family to gather and make new memories. There was an assortment of soups which included, chili beans, south western black bean soup and chicken chili, cornbreads and desserts - pear cheesecake, apple dapple cake, pumpkin cake, pumpkin cookies, and pumpkin dip. We had a great day hanging out around the fire place and watching the little ones play in the backyard.

Fall Table Setting: the table was decorated with mini white and orange pumpkins, a burlap table runner and the center piece was a hollowed-out pumpkin filled with a beautiful flower arrangement and it was made by a family friend, we used golden table cloths and mis-matching chairs

Behind the fire place we set up our "photo booth" - we used two old wicker chairs and decorated the table with pumpkins and a flower arrangement, we had all of the families get pictures here

Apple Dapple Cake

Fall-time calls for anything and everything apple. For my family's annual "fall gathering", I made an Apple Dapple Cake. This recipe comes from the kitchen of our dear family friend, Mrs. Charlotte who went home to Jesus this past summer. I will always think of her when I make this cake.

Ingredients:

Cake

3 c flour
1 t salt
1 t baking soda
1.5 c oil
2 c sugar
3 eggs
2 t vanilla
1 t cinnamon
1 c pecans, chopped
3 c apples, peeled & chopped

Icing

1 c brown sugar
1 stick butter (1/2 c)
1/4 c evaporated milk (5oz can)

Mix the first eight ingredients together. Add in pecans and apples. Pour the batter into a greased bunt pan. Bake at 350º for 35-45 minutes or until the cake has set. Let the cake cool completely.

For the icing, melt the three ingredients and boil for 2 1/2 minutes or until the mixture has thickened. When the icing has set, pour it over the cake and enjoy!

Pecan Ice Cream Pie

Last week, my brother-in-law got up at 3:45am to smoke some pork that we finally got to enjoy 15 hours later. It was well-worth the wait! He did a fabulous job and everyone left uncomfortably full. As any proper guest knows, it's always polite to bring a side dish or dessert when you're invited over for dinner. My sister suggested that I make a pecan ice cream pie that she found on pintrest. I am so glad that I took her advice because it was fabulous (if I do say so myself). Even though we were all stuffed on BBQ, we all had our fait share of dessert too!

the recipe can be found here:
Pecan Ice Cream Pie

Spinach, Tomato & Fontina Tarts

This recipe comes from Southern Lady and is a keeper! I have made this tart several times and I can't get enough! The first time that I made it was a little crazy with all of the prep work and the leaky tart dish, but it was good enough that I made it again. This time, I decided to make it into several mini-tarts rather than one big tart. I saved a few of them and took them with me to work. Even after a few days in the freezer they were delish!

Ingredients:
1 box pie crust - I made my own crust and I used a simple pie crust recipe
2 T butter
2 T EVOO
1 T minced garlic
1 large yellow onion
2 (6 oz) bags baby spinach
4 large eggs
1 cup half-and-half
1 3/4 t salt, divided
3/4 t pepper, divided
3/4 t dry mustard
2 cups shredded fontina cheese, divided
5 Campari tomatoes, sliced 3/4 inches thick

Preheat the over to 450

Fit the pie crust (box crust or homemade) into an 11-inch removable-bottom tart pan (or mini-tart pans). Prick the bottom with a fork and bake for 8 minutes, set aside.

Reduce the oven to 375

In a large skillet, heat the butter and EVOO over medium heat until the butter is melted. Add the garlic and cook for about a minute, stirring constantly (attention: this will make your house smell!) Add the onion and cook for about 8-10 minutes stirring frequently until the onion is tender. Add the spinach in batches stirring constantly and until the spinach is wilted and all of the liquid has evaporated. Remove from heat.

In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, half-and-half, 1 t salt, 1/2 t pepper, and mustard.

To assemble the tart, sprinkle 1 1/2 cups cheese over the bottom of the crust. Layer the spinach mixture on top of the cheese then pour the egg mixture over the spinach. Layer the tomatoes on top of the cheese and spinach layers. Sprinkle the tomatoes with the remaining 1/4 t salt and 1/4 t pepper and sprinkle the remaining cheese on top.

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until the middle is set.

Let cool before serving.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Scones

Fall is in the air which means it's time to make pumpkin treats! I was in the mood to do some baking yesterday and I decided to try the Starbuck's Pumpkin Scone recipe via Pintrest. I followed the recipe to a tee and I wasn't disappointed. They were amazing! Of course they didn't look just like the picture but they tasted 10x better!!

Here is the link to the recipe:

Starbuck's Pumpkin Scones

Love it!

Chocolate & Zucchini

New favorite blog, I think you'll see why.

Lemon Tarts

Tarte cirtron meringuee (lemon meringue tart) is my favorite French pastry and is the perfect summer dessert. Today's recipe comes from...

I first started with the sweet pastry crust.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 3/4 cups flour

1 egg

7 tbsp butter (softened)

pinch of salt

makes four-five mini tarts or one large tart

Mix together the sugar, flour and salt

Add the butter

Add the egg

I transferred the dough to a bowl and used my hands to thoroughly mix it until it became dough-like consistency.

Cover and refrigerate for 20 minutes

While the dough was in the refrigerator, I greased the tart tins with butter and preheated the oven to 410ºF

Flour the rolling pin and a flat surface and roll out the dough

Divide the dough and mold one section to a tart tin

Repeat this process with all tart tins

Cover with baking paper and pie-weights (in this case little sauce bowls) to prevent the crust from rising. Bake for 15-20 minutes

*I tried baking a few without pie-weights and decided to poke holes in the bottom, thinking that the crusts would not rise, this did not happen. A few of my crusts had inverted bottoms and they baked more quickly because I did not cover them with parchment paper or tin-foil. Lesson learned!

While the crusts were baking, I made the lemon cream filling.

Ingredients:

scant 1/2 cup sugar

1 stick butter

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 egg

1 egg yolk

**If you like a larger ratio of cream to crust, I would increase this recipe. This amount made just enough for four mini tarts, next time I am going to increase this recipe because I like more filling.

Combine all ingredients in a pot, bring the mixture to a boil while stirring vigorously

Remove mixture from stove and cool

By the time you are finished with the cream, the crusts should be finished. Remove the paper and weights and let the crusts cool

While the cream and crusts were cooling, I made the meringue (or attempted to).

Ingredients:

scant 1/2 cup egg whites (about 4 egg whites)

1/4 cup powered sugar

1/4 cup sugar

zest of 1 lime

Beat the egg whites. Gently add the two sugars. I highly recommend a hand mixer unless you have freakishly strong forearms.

**Here is where I went wrong. I needed to beat the the mixture longer because the meringue didn't rise fully while baking. Note to self - use an electric hand mixer or a kitchen aid!

Once the mixture is stiff, add in the lime zest

Spoon little balls of meringue on an oven tray and bake for two hours on 210ºF.

While the meringue was cooking, I spooned the lemon cream into the tart crusts.

(This picture is from my second attempt with this recipe. I made whip cream with heavy whipping cream rather than making the meringue.)

Once the meringue has cooled, garnish the tarts and serve!