Peanut Butter Pie

I'm a teeny bit obsessed with peanut butter pie at the moment. It started when we grabbed some for dessert at one of our favorite restaurants a couple weeks ago. Since then I have been scouring the interwebs for recipes, below you will find my fave which is a mish mash of a couple recipes I have found and enjoyed!

For Crust:
8 ounces chocolate cookies
4 tablespoons butter, melted

For Filling:
1 cup heavy cream
8 ounces cream cheese (I used 1/3 fat cream cheese, because the heavy whipping cream makes me feel guilty)
1 cup creamy-style peanut butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 – 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice


First, add the cookies to the bowl of a food processor and pulse into fine crumbs (I used dark chocolate Fudge Stripe cookies-yum!). Combine melted butter and cookie crumbs in a small bowl, and stir with a fork to mix well. Press mixture into the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch pie pan. I decided I wanted to make 3 smaller dishes of this pie, so I distributed my crust evenly between 3 ramekins about 5 inches in diameter. I still had plenty of filling for all three!

Next, pour the heavy cream into a bowl and beat using a stand mixer or hand mixer until stiff peaks form. I put my bowl in the refrigerator as I find this helps speed up the process a little bit. Store in refrigerator until ready to use. Place the cream cheese and peanut butter in a deep bowl, beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low and gradually beat in the confectioner’s sugar. Add the sweetened condensed milk, vanilla extract and lemon juice. Increase speed to medium and beat until all the ingredients are combined and filling is smooth.

4) Stir in 1/3 of the whipped cream into the filling mixture (helps lighten the batter, making it easier to fold in the remaining whipped cream). Fold in the remaining whipped cream. Pour the filling into the prepared pie pan. Top with a drizzle of melted chocolate on top (or if you are like me put more cookie crumbs or pieces of these cupcakes leftover from Husband's birthday on top), and refrigerate for three hours or overnight before serving.

Fluffer Nutter Cookie Sandwich

Have you ever had a Fluffer Nutter (a peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwich)? I was never really into them as a kid, but I've been on a real S'mores kick lately. S0 when I made some more of my awesome Peanut Butter Cookies for my husband the other day, I decided to slap a "roasted" marshmallow between a couple of them and it was pretty fantastic.

To make these for a crowd you will need:

My Peanut Butter cookies (recipe makes 4 dozen cookies)
1 bag of marshmallows
a campfire or microwave (for roasting or heating up your marshmallows


I popped my marshmallows in the microwave for about 10-15 seconds to get them ooey and gooey, but I really wish I had been camping. Nothing beats roasting marshmallows over a campfire. Put two cookies around your marshmallow and YUM! Fluffer nutter cookie sandwiches. You could always add chocolate for an extra S'moresey experience, I wouldn't hold that against you.

Hope you are enjoying the last days of Summer!

Edible Glitter

With lots of holidays coming up, I decided maybe I would try out making some edible glitter. This would work well for decorating cupcakes or cookies, rimming cocktail glasses, or even use some as face or body glitter on Halloween (it will sure wash off easier than regular glitter!).

To make your own edible glitter at home you will need:

1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon fluid food coloring of your choice
baking sheet
parchment paper(optional but recommended)

Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees and measuring out your sugar and adding in your food coloring. You can use more or less food coloring than this recipe calls for depending on how vibrant and deep you want your colors to be. I chose yellow food coloring, but added enough that my final product really looks more golden orange. I highly recommend liquid food coloring for this as it mixes in much easier and gives a nice even coating without too much stirring and mess. It also doesn't have all the additives that many gel or powdered coloring do. Mix your sugar and coloring together well.

Once you have mixed your sugar and food coloring together, dump it onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. The parchment paper helps keep your sugar from sticking to the baking sheet and will be really helpful when it comes time to put the final glitter into a container (just lift, fold and pour!).

Spread out the sugar as evenly as you can before baking. As you can see in the photo above, it is pretty clumpy and not that easy to spread out, just do the best you can.

I put my sugar in the oven for about 1 minute, then opened it up to give the sugar a little stir. If you don't mix this often you will get lots of huge clumps, or some of the sugar can melt together into a puddle of deliciousness (though not glitter, so keep an eye on this). I turned my oven off after about 3 minutes, as there is plenty of residual heat to finish drying out your glitter. My total "bake time" was about 10 minutes, I stirred the sugar around about every minute or so.

Allow your sugar to cool completely before putting it into a container (I used a small mason jar). While my sugar was cooling, I used the back of a spoon to crush it back up into smaller pieces against the baking tray (a poor man's mortar and pestle if you will). This definitely looks a lot more like glitter in smaller crystals, it's so shiny!

Use a small spoon to sprinkle this over cupcakes or frosted cookies for a little extra shimmer. I also recommend using honey or agave nectar around the rim of a glass and dipping to make festive cocktail rims for a party. If you want to use this as glitter face paint, use a clean paintbrush to apply a design to your cheek, etc. with light corn syrup and then sprinkle the edible glitter on top! Technically, this is more like the brightly colored sugar sprinkles you can get at the store. If metallic glitters are more your style try this recipe I found on Pinterest.

Are you looking forward to Fall and Holiday party season or are you still clinging to the last days of Summer?


This post is featured on the Made From Pinterest Saturday Link Party.

Chocolate Avocado Pudding

I'm sure that when most of you see an avocado at the store, the first thing to pop into your head isn't chocolate pudding. However, I can assure you that this pudding is super rich, chocolatey, and not as bad for you as many other desserts (I'm not going to go so far as to say it's "healthy", it's dessert, go with it).

To make this pudding for yourself you will need:

2 ripe avocados
3-4 Tablespoons cocoa powder (depending on taste)
1/3 cup dark chocolate, chopped up and melted*
1/3 cup honey (you could substitute real maple syrup or agave nectar)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pinch salt
a food processor or blender


*Chocolate may be melted in a double boiler, or in the microwave at short intervals-stir well after each 20 second interval. I melt my chocolate first and set it aside.

Once you have melted your chocolate and have it sitting aside waiting for you, cut your avocados in half and remove the pits. Then scoop out the avocados and blend them up a little bit in your food processor or blender before adding the rest of the ingredients.

Add your remaining ingredients and blend until smooth, scraping down the sides until everything is incorporated. Store in refrigerator in an air tight container for up to one week. Makes approx. 4 servings, 1/2 cup each. This is VERY rich, and I was surprised how creamy it was. I will definitely try it again :)

Double Ginger Cookies

I got the original recipe for these from my Brother-in-law, Reed. It was for soft ginger bread cookies. I decided to jazz them up by adding in crystallized ginger in addition to the ground ginger already in the recipe. You could certainly omit my addition, or take it another step further by grating in some fresh ginger as well. These cookies are delicious! I made them as a Valentine's Day treat for the husband.

Ingredients:

1 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cinammon
4 oz. crystallized ginger pieces
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup melted margarine
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1 cup unsulfured molasses
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon lemon extract
5 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, lightly grease cookie sheets (or line with parchment paper)

In a large bowl, stir together all dry ingredients.

In a separate bowl, stir together all wet ingredients.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture one cup at a time, fully mixing each cup into the batter before adding the next cup. Mix until fully incorporated.

Once dough is smooth, roll dough to 1/4 inch thick on a floured surface and cut out cookies with the cookie cutter of your choice.

Place onto cookie sheets and bake 10 to 12 minutes (the cookies will spring back when gently touched when done).

Remove cookies from oven and cool on wire racks.




I know a lot of people that are turned off by the idea of roll out cookies. All the cutting, re-rolling, etc. If you are among them, you should still try these cookies just use a pizza cutter to easily cut your entire rolled out sheet of dough into cookie "sticks". These are extra snackable and great for dunking in milk!

Dark Chocolate Peppermint Truffles

Oh, hello there! Guess who remembered she writes a blog? Yeah, I've been MIA for a few reasons and now I'm back for more crafty fun. First I thought I'd beg your forgiveness by sharing these yummy truffles with you. Am I forgiven? Excellent.

Not only did the holidays get me bogged down, I also changed up my work life by quitting one job to go Full Time at the other! Yay! I'm super happy about it, but I have had to adjust to a new schedule, which now allows me to actually see my husband more than a few minutes each day while we are both awake. Don't worry too much, I have lots of crafty projects I am working on that I will share with you soon. Now, on to the truffles.

These are super easy, to make them all you need is:

1 pound of dark chocolate
1 cup heavy cream (you can substitute full fat coconut milk for the vegans in the house)
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
1/2 cup crushed peppermint sticks (I prefer the soft peppermint sticks, but you could use candy canes as well)

Start by chopping up your chocolate into small pieces, you want them to be as small and as uniform in size as possible so they melt evenly. Once the chocolate is all chopped up, pour it into a heat safe bowl.

Next, heat your cream in a small saucepan on the stove top. Stir continuously to prevent scorching. Your cream should be all ready to go once small bubbles start forming around the edges of the pan, we aren't bringing this to a boil, just getting it nice and hot.

Add your teaspoon of peppermint extract to the chocolate, then pour all of your cream on top. Don't stir yet, just let it all hang out for about 3-5 minutes. Then, go ahead and stir slowly and watch all the chocolate and cream melt together into yummy truffle goodness. If you have some small chunks that don't melt all the way, you can pop this in the microwave for 10 second intervals and stir after each one until your mixture is nice and smooth.

Let this stand for about an hour, then scoop out small balls of chocolate and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet. If your truffles need to firm up more before dipping them in crushed peppermint candy, refrigerate them for about 10 minutes. Otherwise, you can start dipping them right away and place them in the refrigerator to set up afterward.
Keep them in an air tight container in the refrigerator and they last a couple weeks (well, if they actually stay in there that long). If you plan to server these at a get together, I generally take them out of the fridge an hour ahead of time and serve them room temperature. SO GOOD!

With Valentine's Day on the way, I have another remix on these you could try: Instead of peppermint extract add a couple Tablespoons of Amaretto and then roll these in sliced almonds! You can also mix up your chocolate flavors: dark, milk, bittersweet, just make sure you have a pound of chocolate (chocolate chips will taste fine if it's all you have, but the stabilizers in them will make your final chocolate mixture a little grainy looking, so go forthe big chocolate blocks if you can).

Caramel Apple Dip

I am so excited that Fall is well on it's way! I am not a fan of hot hot weather and I just burn to a crisp in the sun no matter how much sunblock I slather on. What better way to celebrate weather's return to Fall than with a yummy Caramel Apple fruit dip?

This recipe is so easy and when you dip apples in it, it really does taste like a caramel apple (without the hassle of trying to eat a whole apple off a stick without getting sticky sweet caramel all over yourself--not that that has ever happened to me).

To make this yummy fruit dip you will need:

1 8oz. package of cream cheese, softened (I used 1/3 reduced fat cream cheese)
1/2 cup of your favorite caramel sauce, room temp

Whip the cream cheese and caramel sauce together in a bowl with a hand mixer (you can use a stand mixer if you want, but I find you have to scrape the bottom far too many times and still hand mix some unless you use a hand mixer).

Serve with sliced apples, or any other fruit you have on hand. I am also a huge fan of this dip with sliced pears! Store in the refrigerator in a sealed container (if you happen to have some leftovers). One of my favorite parts about this dip is that it is still creamy and usable right out of the fridge, while a regular caramel sauce hardens and needs to be heated. Gotta love the magical powers of cream cheese!

Coconut Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

I know I haven't had a recipe post in awhile. Heck, I have been so busy it has been hard to get ANY posts up in awhile. I do appreciate you all hanging with me, I'll try to squeeze in some more posts soon! I came across this recipe the other day and had to try it! These cookies did not disappoint, and I have to say that if you are not a fan of coconut, I think you could easily substitute something like marshmallows (and even add nuts for a Rocky Road cookie that'd be AWESOME!). To make these cookies you will need:

1-¼ cup All-purpose Flour
¼ cups (Rounded) Cocoa Powder, Unsweetened
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
⅛ teaspoons Salt
6 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter, Room Temperature
3 Tablespoons Coconut Oil
½ cups Granulated Sugar
½ cups Light Brown Sugar, Packed
1 whole Large Egg
1-½ teaspoon Pure Vanilla
1 cup Shredded Coconut (sweetened was all I had, so I used it and it was yummy, you can also use unsweetened)
1 cup Old Fashioned Rolled Oats
1 cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips


Combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl; set aside.

In a stand mixer, cream together the butter, coconut oil, and sugars. Scrape down the sides and then add the egg and vanilla; mix to combine. On a low speed, gradually add the flour and cocoa mixture, until incorporated.

Next, add the shredded coconut and oats and mix. Add chocolate chips and mix until just folded in. The dough will be pretty solid. Form into balls about the size of a heaping tablespoon and place on a lined baking sheet (I lined mine with parchment paper, you could also use a Silpat Baking Mat).

Bake at 350ºF for 11 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for about 2 minutes more on the sheet, then remove and place on a cooling rack. This recipe makes about 36 cookies, and they disappear fast. Between my husband and I they didn't last a week, I'm both ashamed and proud of this :)

If you should happen to try these with nuts and marshmallows, let me know, I'd love to hear how they turned out!

*This post contains an affiliate ad, by clicking the ad and purchasing this item I will be granted a small commission.

Cherry Upside Down Cake

I love Cherry season, and while usually the cherries don't make their way into anything but my mouth, I decided to take extra care to make an actual recipe with some this year. What better than an upside down cake? This is super yummy, and could easily be made in muffin form if slicing cake and slightly messy cleanup isn't your thing.

To make this yummy cake you will need:

1-1½ cups of Bing Cherries, pitted
½ cup brown sugar, packed
2 Tablespoons cold butter, cut into pieces
½ teaspoon lemon or lime juice

1½ cup All-purpose Flour
¾ cups Sugar
½ teaspoons Salt
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
⅓ cups Vegetable Oil
1 whole Egg
⅓ cups Milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon Cinnamon

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Grease a 8"x8" cake pan (a 9" circle would also work great, or you can line muffin tins and make muffins!) I always use softened butter, spray would be fine I'm sure.

I start by pitting my cherries and adding in some lime juice (I don't use any fancy cherry pitter, I savagely take out the pits by hand and look like quite a barbarian by the time I'm finished). Stir this together and set aside.

After your pan has been greased, evenly spread your 1/2 cup of brown sugar over the bottom. Spread on your layer of cherries, then dot with 2 Tablespoons of butter.
Next, make your batter. Combine flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 2 cup measuring cup; add the egg, milk and vanilla. Mix this together and add to the flour mixture. *This makes a very thick batter that bakes up surprisingly light, you've been warned.

Pour the cake batter over your cherries and spread evenly. Bake for 20-25 minutes in a 400 degree oven, then remove to a cooling rack to cool. When ready to remove, slide a knife around the edges of your pan and invert onto a plate. Enjoy all the yummy cherries and sugar seeping into that cakey goodness. MMM.

Food Craft: Lime Bars

Finally another food craft! These Lime Bars are not only super yummy, but super easy and are perfect to take to all your Summer get togethers! I made mine to take over to a friend's place for Gin and Tonic (G&T) night. Truth be told, I could have eaten the whole pan myself, they were that good. I am a very unselfish friend sometimes.

I found the original recipe at MarthaStewart.com but naturally tweaked it to my own personal taste, which my pals all seemed to agree with :) To make your own batch of tasty lime squares you will need:

For the crust:

half a sleeve of graham crackers (4.5-5 whole cracker "sheets"), about one cup
1/2 cup shelled pistachios
5 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/4 cup granulated sugar
zest of 2 limes


For the filling:

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
2 egg yolks
1/2 cup fresh lime juice*

*Feel free to substitute lemon or other citrus in this recipe

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and prepare a 8"x8" pan. I sprayed some non stick spray on the bottom and lined mine with parchment paper.

In a food processor, combine your graham crackers, pistachios, sugar and lime zest until finely ground and well combined. I pulsed mine until the graham crackers were very fine, but I still had some larger chunks of pistachios. I love pistachios. Add in your melted butter, mix together well and pour the mixture into your prepared pan.

Press mixture into pan and up the sides slightly, bake about 8-10 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool for about 30 minutes.

To make the filling, whisk together your sweetened condensed milk and egg yolks until well combined. Add your lime juice and whisk until smooth. Pour into cooled crust and spread evenly. Bake at 350 degrees about 15 minutes, until the filling has just set. Cool on cooling rack completely and refrigerate at least one hour before serving. I refrigerated mine overnight (it was a long night).

If you want to make a full 9"x13" pan of these (and why wouldn't you?), just double the recipe :)

Chocolate Cupcakes

As promised, here are the cupcakes I made for the beloved husband's birthday this year. They were super yum!


To make some for the special people in your life you will need:

* 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 cups sugar
* 3/4 cups good cocoa powder
* 2 teaspoons baking soda
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1 teaspoon kosher salt
* 1 cup buttermilk, shaken (if you don't have buttermilk, you can pour 2 tablespoons of vinegar into a liquid cup measure and fill it the rest of the way with milk, let sit 10 minutes)
* 1/2 cup vegetable oil
* 2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
* 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
* 1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee (if you don't have coffee you can just use 1 cup of boiling water)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 cupcake pans with liners, or grease well and flour (really though, go with liners).

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 20 to 23 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. I made some mini cupcakes as well, and they baked for about 18 minutes.

*Note: this makes a very runny batter, don't be alarmed.

Top them with some of my yummy Peppermint Buttercream and you have a great little snack :)

Friday Food Craft: Thin Mints

I'm feeling a little under the weather today (my voice is completely gone) so I have a super easy food craft for you all. Who doesn't like thin mints? These are a super easy "cheater" version with no cookie making required!

To make these yummy little Thin Mints at home you will need:

Ritz crackers
1 (12 oz) bag of chocolate chips (I use dark or a mix of dark and milk chocolate)
1 Tablespoon oil (I use coconut oil, you could use butter or margarine as well)
1 teaspoon peppermint extract


In a microwave safe bowl, melt your chocolate chips and oil together in the microwave. I generally use 30 second intervals and stir well after each. It has never taken me more than 1 minute 30 seconds to get my chips all melted.

Next, add in your peppermint extract. Stir well to combine. Then start dipping your Ritz crackers*, tap off excess chocolate and set them onto a parchment lined cookie tray to set up. I stick mine in the refrigerator so they set faster (because I need my Thin Mints now!). Store in a zip top plastic bag at room temp (or in the fridge if you prefer them cold). Enjoy!

*My husband often uses chopsticks or straws when dipping his crackers to avoid messy fingers. Small tongs would also be great.

I love sweet and salty treats, so to me these are even better than the real Thin Mints!

Also, this is my 200th post! Thanks for reading everyone!


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Friday Food Craft: Cheesecake

I know some of you may be running to hide at the mere mention of cheesecake. It is something that I myself always considered too difficult to tackle. When you see recipes on tv and in books it usually involves spring form pans, water baths and more. Let's face it, I'm not always down for the theatrics. This recipe came from my friend Melissa whom got it right off of a cream cheese box years ago. I can't figure out why they stopped printing this recipe on the box, it's amazing. Better still? There are 4 ingredients in the actual cheesecake portion of this cheesecake. Best? It's probably the creamiest, most delicious cheesecake I have ever had!

So how do you make this amazing cheesecake? For starters you will need:

2 8oz. packages of cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 whole eggs

You also need a graham cracker crust. Here's fantastic Holiday news: feel free to go out and buy one pre-made. If that doesn't suit you, you can use the graham cracker crust recipe listed on my Mounds Bars recipe.

Heat your oven to 325 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, or stand mixer, beat together cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until well combined. Add in your eggs, one at a time, beating until fully incorporated after each. You should end up with a very smooth creamy "batter".

Pour your batter onto your graham cracker crust and smooth. Bake in 325 degree oven for 40 minutes, until center is ALMOST set (it will continue to bake slightly while cooling, do not worry if it looks a little runny to you, I thought the same but it came out perfect). Place on cooling rack and allow to cool to room temperature. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours. I refrigerated mine overnight (with visions of cheesecake dancing in my head).

That's it! You will have a perfectly moist and creamy cheesecake with no hassle :)

Serve plain or with fruit topping (you could also get really awesome and make a caramel or chocolate sauce!).

Friday Food Craft: Chocolate Chunk Cookies

What better to warm up the house on a dreary day than some yummy chocolate chunk cookies? Nothing better came to my mind, so that is just what you get for today's food craft! Speaking of dreary, how sad am I that I had the settle for a crummy picture taken in my kitchen with a flash? Ugh... Bear with me.


For this recipe you will need:

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cups Brown Sugar
1/4 cups White Sugar
2 whole Eggs, room temperature
1/4 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 pinch Salt
2 cups dark chocolate chunks (I cut up part of a Dark Chocolate "Pound Plus" bar from Trader Joe's)


Start by creaming your butter and both sugars together until smooth. Then, add in your eggs, oil, vanilla and salt and mix until combined. Sift in your flour and baking soda to avoid lumps, and finally add in your chocolate chunks!

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and scoop out cookies about 1 rounded Tablespoon in size (I have a special cookie scoop I use). Cookies should sit at least one inch apart on the sheet.

Bake your cookies for about 12 minutes, until golden brown around the edges. Let cool on tray for a few minutes before removing to a cooling rack. Enjoy!

Friday Food Craft: Caramel Pear Tart

Have I mentioned yet that I love Fall? Another reason for this love is fresh pears! They are great in so many desserts, as well as just on their own. Here is a rich caramel tart with some fresh pears I got at the Farmer's Market! My favorite part about this recipe? I don't use a candy thermometer, you judge your caramel by color, and there is a tiny bit of wiggle room, but don't walk away or you are sure to burn it and then we'd all be very sad.


To make your own delicious Caramel Pear Tart you will need:

For the Crust:

1 stick (8 Tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup plus 1 Tablespoon confectioner's sugar
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour



For the Caramel:

1/2 cup water
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 stick butter

Topping: about 1/2 a ripe pear, cut into slices


Start with your tart shell. This recipe will yield a crust for one 10 inch tart shell. I happen to have a 7 inch tart pan, so I had some extra, I can verify that it wrks quite well if you want to shape it by hand into a Galette and be more rustic, as that is what I did with my extra dough and some pears. If you lack a tart pan, I'd go this route, it's still super tasty.

To make the dough, start by creaming your butter and confectioner's sugar, then add the vanilla extract and egg yolk, until smooth. Then add in your flour and mix until combined. Form dough into a disc and refrigerate for about 30 minutes to let the dough firm up a bit. On a floured surface, roll out your tart shell (about 1/8-1/4" thick) and put it in your pan. Don't worry if it tears, you can stick it all back together in the pan, this dough is very forgiving. In a 325 degree F oven, blind bake for 15 minutes (I place parchment paper over top and fill it with some beans. I keep my beans in a clearly labeled bag so I know not to use them for anything but blind baking crusts--they will not taste good after doing this). After 15 minutes, remove the beans and parchment and bake an additional 10-15 minutes, until the dough starts browning slightly around the edges. Remove from oven and allow to cool. This can be done up to one day in advance (for those of you not having time to do the whole dessert in one day).


For the caramel, start by placing your water, sugar and corn syrup in a fairly large pan (when you add the butter and cream at the end it will bubble up quite a bit, so leave plenty of extra room) and place on stove top burner at medium to medium high heat, stirring occasionally. Once your mixture starts to bubble up you will want to stir continuously, but slowly, and start monitoring the color. Once your mixture is a medium to dark amber, you want to remove it from the heat and add your butter and cream. I generally get my husband to help me with this so I can stir while everything is being added. Keep in mind that the caramel will continue to cook once removed from the heat, so don't let your sugar get too dark. I generally stir my caramel until it stops bubbling entirely. This time around I added 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon to my final caramel as well, this is optional but sure does smell and taste wonderful!


At this point you can place your caramel into your tart shell and let it set up in the refrigerator*, or if you will be serving it within a few hours it can set up at room temperature. Slice your pear (apples would work just as well if you prefer) and arrange your slices on top. Keep in mind, if you will not be serving it immediately you may want to wait to add your fruit topping as the sugar in your caramel will pull some of the juices out of your fruit and no one wants a soggy tart. Well, I'd eat it anyway, but you get the idea. :)

This caramel also makes a great fruit dipping sauce as long as you keep it warm in a fondue pot.


Enjoy!


*If refrigerating, make sure to remove and set at room temperature for 20-30 minutes before serving.

Friday Food Craft: Red Velvet Cake

Food craft time! This week's food craft is Red Velvet Cake, and I apologize for the pictures being not all that great, it really is delicious. So delicious in fact, I could not bother to wait until I had decent lighting to eat my yummy cake. I am sure we will all still have a good life despite my photographic shortcomings on this post. This is a yummy classic, and I have seen several variations, but this is the recipe I have come to use whenever I want a velvet cake.

To make your own delicious Red Velvet Cake at home you will need:

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
2 eggs, room temperature
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons vinegar
2 Tablespoons Red food coloring
2 teaspoons cocoa powder

To start, preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and prepare your cake pan(s). Two 9 inch pans is generally the standard*. Butter and flour them so you final cake doesn't stick. Set these aside.

Cream together your butter and sugar, set this aside. In one bowl, mix together all of your dry ingredients. In a second bowl, mix together all of the wet ingredients (I generally beat my eggs a little first before adding everything else).

Once you have your wet and dry bowls of ingredients start adding them to your butter and sugar in several alternating additions. First add 1/3 of your dry ingredients, then 1/3 of your wet. Mix your batter slowly and as soon as it is incorporated do you next addition until everything is mixed together.

Pour batter into your pans (you may need to smooth the top out evenly, this is a fairly thick batter).

Place into oven on center rack and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted comes out clean.

*Baking time will vary depending on size of your pans, if you use 8 inch round pans it will likely be closer to 25-30 minutes, a sheet pan will be closer to 20 minutes. Be sure to check with a toothpick or knife to make sure it is done before removing from the oven.

Cool in the pans on a cooling rack for 10 minutes, then remove from pans and allow to fully cool. Frost and enjoy!

Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1-8oz. package cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla flavoring
2 cups confectioner's sugar

Beat together butter, cream cheese and vanilla flavoring until smooth. Sift your powdered sugar and mix well until incorporated. Refrigerate for 5-10 minutes before frosting cake to firm up frosting (you could also add a little extra confectioner's sugar if you prefer).



Enjoy!

NOM NOM NOM

Friday Food Craft: "Sugar Shock" Bars

It is Friday once again, and time for another food craft. This week's craft is easy, delicious and no baking is required!! It's also pretty rich, when we were kids my sister and I referred to these as "Sugar Shock" bars, though I'm pretty sure they were supposed to be called Reese's bars or chocolate peanut butter bars. They take very few ingredients, and including refrigeration, are done in about an hour. I will warn, you probably want to cut these into pretty small squares as a little goes a long way! Also, if you want to make these into peanut butter cups, I would recommend doubling the chocolate topping and using a mini muffin tin, with hand rolled peanut butter centers. Now on to the recipe!

To make your own delicious Sugar Shock Bars you will need:

1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter (you can use crunchy if you prefer)
1 3/4 cups confectioner's sugar
1 heaping cup brown sugar, packed
4 Tablespoons melted butter


For chocolate topping:
1 cup chocolate chips (or chopped chocolate bar of your liking)
4 tablespoons butter

Mix together your peanut butter, melted butter, and both sugars until well incorporated. Pat mixture into an even layer in an 8"x8" pan. No greasing is required as the peanut butter and butter in this "dough" will keep it from sticking. I generally use a glass baking dish.

In a microwave safe bowl, melt your chocolate chips and the other 4 Tablespoons of butter at 30 second intervals. For me, it generally only needs to be microwaved for 1 minute, I find that extra stirring after this much time will melt the chocolate without lumps, but if necessary place back in microwave at 10 second intervals after 1 minute of time has elapsed. Nothing is worse than scorched chocolate. :(

Spread your chocolate layer evenly over the peanut butter layer and refrigerate for one hour. I like sweet and salty desserts, so I sprinkled a pinch of flake salt over the top of half of my bars. This is totally optional. Store in refrigerator.


I have also seen recipes similar to this where a layer of shortbread (baked of course) is used on the bottom with the peanut butter and chocolate layers then on top, but It is August and I really try to avoid baking as much as possible. It just makes the apartment too HOT. Should you try it though, let me know how that works out :)

Friday Food Craft: Blueberry Butter Cream

Welcome back for another food craft! Ok, this one isn't much of a food, it's a frosting only post! This is great on cakes, but also can be spread on your favorite cookies or dare I say graham crackers would be mighty tasty with some as well.

It is a pretty simple recipe, and great for Summer, especially right now as it is Blueberry season.




To make some of this yummy Butter Cream frosting at home you will need:

2 cups ripe blueberries
1 Tablespoon granulated sugar
1 tsp fresh lemon juice

1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon Vanilla flavoring
1 egg yolk (room temp)

To start, you will need to make a blueberry syrup. To do this just place your blueberries, granulated sugar and lemon juice into a saucepan over medium to medium low heat. Cook for approximately 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Your berries will open up and give out tons of yummy juice. You want to cook this down just a little bit and then pass the mixture through a fine mesh sieve, catching all the yummy blueberry goodness. Set this in the refrigerator to chill. This makes about 5-6 tablespoons of blueberry syrup.

In a separate bowl, cream together your butter, vanilla and egg yolk. Slowly add confectioners sugar until incorporated. Remove your blueberry syrup and add 3 or more Tablespoons (depending on taste--I used all of mine, yum!). Mix on high for about 30 seconds until incorporated, the frosting should be light and fluffy. Spread onto your favorite cake, cupcakes or cookies (cooled, of course).

I kept my cake in the refrigerator until it was gone, it keeps the frosting from getting all melty. Take it out about 30 minutes before you plan to serve.

Friday Food Craft: Almond Joy Cookies!

I've got another sweet treat for you all today, and it can be done a couple different ways, both delicious! I adapted together a couple cookie recipes, and added some yummy mix-ins to get these chewy cookies with the chocolate, coconut and almond goodness of an Almond Joy candy bar! If you have a nut allergy, don't worry, you could easily leave out the almonds and have your own Mounds flavored treat instead. Actually, you can easily adapt this recipe to just about any cookie flavor you want, don't let me influence you too much :)

To make these scrumptious cookies you will need:

2 sticks Unsalted Butter, At Room Temperature
¾ cups Brown Sugar
¼ cups White Sugar
3.4 ounces-a 4 serving size box of Jello Coconut Cream Instant Pudding Mix*
2 whole Eggs
2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
2-¼ cups Flour
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 pinch Salt
1 cup Bittersweet chocolate chunks
½ cup Unsweetened coconut flakes or shredded coconut pieces
½ cup sliced or slivered almonds

Preheat your oven to 350ºF and line two baking sheets with some parchment paper, or a Silpat Baking Liner. Set these aside.

In the bowl of your mixer, combine the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy.

On medium speed, beat in the pudding mix, eggs, and vanilla extract.

On low speed, mix in the flour, baking soda, and salt. Be careful to mix only until combined (do not over mix!).

Stir in the chocolate chunks, coconut and almonds (I happened to have some Almond Joy Pieces candies, so I threw those in for good measure with my other mix ins).

Use a measuring tablespoon or cookie scoop to scoop out the cookie dough onto the lined baking sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the cookies are just turning golden and the centers are just set.

Let cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes, before cooling completely on cooling racks. Enjoy!


* You can easily substitute Vanilla or French Vanilla pudding into this recipe, or use any flavor you like and any mix ins you prefer!

Friday Food Craft: Deathly Hallows Brown Sugar Shortbread

For our Harry Potter edition of Friday Food Craft we have some super yummy Shortbread cookies made to look like the Deathly Hallows symbol (the triangle represents the cloak, the circle is the stone and the line is the wand). I chose to cut out my cookies into triangle shapes and then press in the circle and line with the back of a knife, and a bottle cap (washed, of course). You could just as easily cut out circle or squares and draw on a symbol with some frosting or chocolate. Yum!

To make these cookies (with or without Harry Potter theme) you will need:

1 cup (2 sticks) of butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

That's it! You could probably add some lemon zest or the inside of a vanilla bean if you are feeling a little fancy, but these are tasty on their own, and the brown sugar rather than white sugar gives them a little added something.

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees.

In the bowl of a stand mixer (or just use a hand mixer and a bowl of your choosing) whip together your butter and brown sugar. Then, slowly add in your flour until incorporated.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead until the dough is smooth, this doesn't take more than 30 seconds to a minute. Roll out your dough to about 1/3" thick, and cut out using your desired shape cookie cutter.

I have been known to roll my dough into a log shape, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate it when I'm not making fancy cookies. Then all you have to do is take the log out of the refrigerator, cut off discs about 1/3" thick and place them on a cookie sheet, and you can keep re-wrapping it to only make a few cookies at a time!

Place onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake these in your 300 degree oven for about 20-25 minutes, until slightly golden.

Allow to cool slightly then transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.

As with all shortbread, you can eat them plain, give them a sweet frosting glaze, or sandwich them together with some chocolate or caramel! This is really a quick and delicious recipe, one of my favorites!