Coconut Macaroons

With Easter just around the corner and our Lenten sacrifice of dessert about to end I thought coconut macaroons would be the perfect treat.  After perusing numerous recipes and conducting research on ingredients I finally came up with a plan.  Any question I had of whether or not they turned out okay was quickly put to rest by my husband and his two friends who inhaled nearly half the batch I left to cool while I was in the shower.  Needless to say I'll be returning to the store this afternoon for more coconut and making a second batch, but I'm really glad they turned out as well as they did.  One note about the recipe itself, if you don't have cream of tartar that's okay.  It's not something most people have on hand, and if you don't plan on using it routinely for baking it's probably not worth the investment. That said, it's purpose is to maintain the fluffiness of the macaroon while baking so if you leave it out your macaroons may be a little more dense, but they'll probably taste the same.

Coco-Banana Muffins

Every week I buy bananas.  Every morning I eat a half of one of those bananas and head out to the gym for my workout.  And every Friday, I still have 2-3 bananas, and I think to myself "How can this be?!".  Somehow I never finish the bananas!  So what does one do with several, overripe bananas? Make banana bread or muffins of course.  Muffins have been my selection du jour lately, and since I've had plenty of opportunity to make them I've been able to try a bunch of different variations of the same recipe.  This week I tried to beef up the health factor a bit by incorporating wheat germ and wheat flour.  In just 20 minutes you can have 12 delicious muffins packed with wheat, perfect for dessert or snacking!  The coconut is optional but adds a fun, sweet taste on top :)

Basil Infused Strawberry Sauce

If you're wondering where I've been for the past few weeks (okay, more like a month, eek!) I promise, I have a very good reason.  That fiance I've mentioned several times in posts is now my husband!  We were married May 5th in Napa, CA and then ran off to Kauai for a couple of weeks for our honeymoon.  Now we're back on the East Coast, and we're entering my favorite time of the year.  No, I am not referring to summer because, as my fellow Philadelphians will probably tell you, summer can be pretty unpleasant around here.  As a matter of fact, a quick glance at my weather app tells me the mercury is hovering around 92 degrees with 59% humidity.  It's still May, right? 

Back to why this is my favorite time of year.  For the past 7 months I've been at the mercy of the grocery store's produce offerings, but now we begin to embark on harvest season where fresh fruits and vegetables abound.  Seedlings I planted months ago are flourishing, and local farms are boasting the news of fresh fruits and vegetables for sale.  Up first is a personal favorite of mine, strawberries!  The recipe below is for a very versatile sauce and will be the foundation of the next two posts so stay tuned....


Basil Infused Strawberry Sauce (Yields approximately 1 cup)

Ingredients
2 cups quartered fresh strawberries
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup fresh basil leaves
1/4 cup water

Instructions
1.  Rinse basil leaves squeeze excess water from them.  This will "bruise" them which will allow the flavors to release when combined with the berries.
2.  Combine berries, lemon juice, sugar, basil leaves and water in a medium saucepan on medium-high heat.  Once the mixture begins to boil, stir frequently and reduce heat to medium-low.  Simmer for 5 minutes, remove from heat and place the pan in an icebath.
3.  Store in a glass container for use with icecream, sponge or pound cake or to liven up your lemonade.

Fresh Coconut Macaroons

"I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts deedle-leee deeee..." Okay so I just had one coconut, but that song [from The Lion King, for those of you wondering] has been stuck in my head ever since I bought the darn thing (almost two weeks!).  Anyway, I was at the produce store, and in the middle of the fruit display was a box of coconuts with a sign "$0.99 each" hanging over it.  I bypassed it by on a mission to get lettuce, tomatoes, carrots and garlic thinking "That's interesting; I don't think I've ever seen coconuts for sale here before."  On my way to check out I walked by the box again, and I couldn't help myself.  I reached my right hand out and snatched one up.  It felt like a hollowed tree branch yet slightly imbalanced so I shook it and heard liquid sloshing around inside.  "Oh I'm definitely buying this now", I thought.  "I have to see what this is about."  So I headed home with my coconut.  I proudly showed Ryan my new find when he arrived home from work.  He mentioned that it wasn't going to taste like the store-bought coconut flakes.  "What do you mean?" I naively said seemingly forgetting that mother nature doesn't infuse insane amounts of sugar in her produce.  "What are you going to do with it?", he asked.  "I have no idea."...and so the search for a recipe began.  There are very few recipes using fresh coconut aside from those that suggest it be used as a vessel for fruity drinks.  I think I have a pretty good idea why, but I digress.  Back to the matter at hand, I settled on a recipe for macaroons thinking they would be a perfect spring dessert.  Naturally, I could just make the recipe as is; I had to tweak it.  So here's my version.  While I don't recommend this recipe for those in a rush or those with little patience I will say that I had fun with the project and I've received numerous compliments on these delicious treats.

Pistachio Cupcakes for St. Patrick's Day

I love holidays! They give me an excuse to come up with or try a festive recipe that I normally wouldn't attempt.  This usually translates in to a baked good of some sort because we don't eat a lot of sweets otherwise.  This year I zeroed in on some pistachio cupcakes and dressed the icing up with a little bit of green food coloring for St. Patrick's Day.  I really wanted to make an amaretto buttercream icing to top them, but since I knew most of them would end up at work for immediate consumption, I refrained.  If you're headed to a friend's this weekend for some St. Patty's fun I would definitely recommend the amaretto version of the icing (see notes below for how to make it).  Also, in the interest of full disclosure, I'd lke to say that I have even more respect and admiration for bakers and those in the cupcake biz after this experiment.  I tried to be fancy and ice my cupcakes using the whole frosting bag with a fancy tip set up...major fail.  Oh well, at least I tried. They might not look as pretty as they could, but they're absolutely delicious, and that's what really counts ;-)  Slainte!

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Quick Coffee Cake with a twist

Have you ever heard of mead?  I hadn't either until I was on a winery tour several years ago in the Finger Lakes (New York).  By definition mead is a fermented beverage made of water, honey, malt, and yeast.  At the winery I took a sip and immediately regretted it.  It was WAY too sweet and not in a good way.  That tasting experience had all but become a distant memory until Ryan brought home a bottle of mead one day.  He presented the pretty dark blue glass bottle to me with an excited look on his face "B Nektar's cider mead! They [the store] finally got it in!", he exclaimed as he went foraging in the cabinet for an appropriate tasting glass.  Excited, he quickly poured two glasses as a pre-dinner appertif.  With the once faint memory of my previous mead experience now looming vividly, I briefly hesitated before taking a sip. This time I was pleasantly surprised, it was delicious!  

A few weeks later he brought home another bottle, this time a vanilla mead, and we both were looking forward to trying it.  Alas, we were disappointed by the vanilla mead.  Even my honey loving fiance couldn't finish his glass.  Back in the bottle it went.  "Can you cook something with this?", he asked.  I'm not usually one to say no to a question like that especially when it involves figuring out a new way to use something so I said "Sure, put it in the fridge."  And the wheels in my brain began turning.  Of the two sips I managed to drink I immediately thought it could be incorporated in to a sweet bread of sorts...perhaps a coffee cake?  So I started digging through cookbooks and Googling like mad to find a recipe suitable for modification.  Finally, I found a "Quick Coffee Cake" recipe on AllRecipes.  The 30 minute total prep and cook time reeled me right in.

The recipe below is a product of making the mead coffee cake 4 times, twice with the vanilla mead and twice with a coffee mead.  In reality the mead is optional.  You can probably use any type of sweet wine or maybe rum or other liquer or substitute milk instead for a booze-free treat.  If you do use something in place of the mead, I'd love to hear about it!

Ingredients
For the cake:
1 1/2 c. flour
3 Tbsp. white sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg
1/3 c. heavy cream
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 c. honey mead
1/4 c. unsalted butter, melted

For the crumbs:
1/4 c. brown sugar
1 Tbsp. flour
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1 tbsp. unsalted butter

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Grease a 9 x 9 inch square pan.
2. Using an electric mixer combine the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt.
3. In a separate small bowl, beat the egg well, then stir in the heavy cream, mead and vanilla. Add the liquid mixture to the flour mixture all at once. Mix carefully until just blended. 
4. Add the melted butter to the mixture in #3 and mix thoroughly.
5. Pour batter into prepared pan and spread evenly.
6. In a small bowl mix together brown sugar, 1 tablespoon of flour and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon. Cut the tablespoon of butter in to this mixture.  Combine with your hands until a coarse, crumb-like appearance is achieved.  Sprinkle on top of the batter and press the crumbs lightly in to the batter.  
7. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. 
8. Cut in to 9 square pieces, and serve warm.  To store leftovers, cover with foil or plastic wrap. Leftovers are best if consumed within three days.

Yields 9 servings

Decadent Mocha Chocolate Mousse

Ryan's birthday was last weekend. The big 2-8!  I was a bit stumped when it came to an appropriate dessert for the birthday dinner. The obvious answer was to bake a cake, but since it's just the two of us, we're trying to eat less sweet stuff, and his grandmother had baked a wonderful cake the weekend before I wanted to do something different.  Importantly, something that wouldn't linger for a week and inevitably result in at least an extra pound because, seriously, who can throw leftover cake out?  A chocolate mousse of sorts seemed to be the right answer.  I spent a few minutes googling for recipes and ultimately went to my own recipe box in search of a recipe my mom had given me instead. The reason?  Uncooked or questionably cooked eggs freak me out and most mousse recipes out there call for eggs that fall in to those categories. Having witnessed Ryan's bout with food poisoning last year, I tend to be extra careful with eggs, chicken, other meats, etc. so those recipes weren't doing it for me.  The recipe I have uses unflavored gelatin to firm up a smooth mixture of cocoa, sugar and heavy cream. The best thing about this recipe is that it's totally modifiable.  I added coffee to this one, but you could add a liqueur, other flavoring or nothing at all and it will still be delicious.

Ingredients 

1 tsp. unflavored gelatin
1 tbsp. cold water
1 c. heavy cream, very cold
1 tsp. vanilla extract
4 tbsp. white sugar
1/4 c. Hershey's cocoa powder
2 tbsp. boiling water
2 tbsp. dark brewed coffee
2 tbsp. shredded coconut for topping (optional)

Directions
1.  In a small bowl combine the tbsp. of cold water with the unflavored gelatin.  Mix and let sit while you complete step 2.
2. In a mixer using the whisk attachment beat the heavy cream, vanilla extract, white sugar and cocoa powder until stiff peaks form.
3.  Add the boiling water to the mixture in step 1 and stir until the gelatin has completely dissolved.  The mixture should be slightly yellow, but clear.
4.  Add the gelatin mixture from step 3 to the mixing bowl and combine thoroughly.
5.  Add the 2 tbsp. of coffee and combine thoroughly.
6.  Divide in to 4 serving dishes or cups.  I like to use stemless martini glasses.
7.  Top with coconut and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Yields: 4 servings

Chocolate Stout Cake

I realize that "Chocolate Stout Cake" is an obvious contradiction to my New Year's resolution of eating healthier, but this is so delicious that I couldn't resist writing about it now.  After all, even the best of healthy eaters deserve a treat once in a while.  

Last night while Ryan and I were watching an episode of our current TV series addiction, "Breaking Bad", I received a text message from my brother:  "Made a stout chocolate cake tonight!".  

"A what?", I thought, "That sounds amazing!".

So needless to say this idea and recipe comes via my brother whose main hobby for the past year and a half has been Battery Brewing, run by him and his buddy. Photos are courtesy of his girlfriend Alexa.  For a full description complete with photos click here.

Ingredients (Yields 1 9x13 inch cake)

Cake

1 c. stout (they used Dominion Oak Barrel Stout)

1 c. (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 c. unsweetened Dark cocoa powder

2 c. all purpose flour

1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. salt

2 large eggs

1/2 c. sour cream

Icing

1 c. whipping cream
1/2 lb. semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

For cake:
1.  Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter one 9x13 inch rectangular cake pan.  Line with parchment or waxed paper. Butter paper. 

2.  Bring the stout and butter to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly. 

3.  Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in large bowl to blend. 

4.  Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend. 

5.  Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. 

6.  Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed until completely combined. 

7.  Pour the batter in to the prepared cake pan.

8.  Bake cakes until tester inserted into center of cakes comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes.

9.  Remove cake from pan, peel off parchment and allow it to continue to cool.

For icing:
1. Bring cream to just before boiling in heavy medium saucepan. Remove from heat. 

2.  Add chopped chocolate and whisk until melted and smooth. 

3.  Refrigerate until icing is spreadable, stirring frequently, about 2 hours.

4.  Spread icing over cake.  To make a layer cake, cut the 9x13 cake in half and stack the layers, spreading the icing in between.

Note:  This recipe is an adaptation of one found on epicurious.com.

Vanishing Sugar Cookies and a very Merry Christmas to all!

I hope your shopping is done!  Every year, I can't believe how fast Christmas comes and goes.  We celebrate and cook and bake all month, and it's all gone in a day.  24 hours.  My last holiday baking blitz for this year is pictured below.  If these look familiar then you must have read my Thanksgiving post. Same recipe (doubled!), different cookie cutters and different colored sugars, but the same great taste.  My family LOVES these at Christmas and we literally consume 2 big tins worth in just a few days.  Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

Baking with Booze Part 1: Rum Balls

My Grandma always used to make whiskey balls for the adults for Christmas. When my brother and I were younger we tasted them out of curiosity, but at the ages of 6 and 8, respectively, we were ultimately repulsed by their spicy, slightly boozy nature. Even in my adult life, I don't like whiskey anything, but I was compelled to resurrect Grandma's tradition for some reason, perhaps because for some reason the holidays always inspire me to cook or bake with booze. I couldn't find her recipe, but my mom referred me to "The Twelve Days of Christmas" cookbook which has a fabulous Whiskey Ball recipe. I followed the recipe to a T the first time, but this only reaffirmed my dislike for whiskey.  So I gave the balls to my dad and decided to try again, this time using rum and modifying some other components of the recipe.  The result is below.  These balls are a quick, no bake, crowd-pleasing treat.  Even my fiance who doesn't consume liquor thinks they're delicious!

Rum Balls* - (Preparation time: 25 minutes; Yields:  approx. 24 balls)

Ingredients:
1 c. vanilla wafer crumbs
1 c. walnuts, chopped
1/2 c. pecans, chopped (optional)
1 c. confectioners (powdered) sugar
2 heaping Tbsp. of Hershey's cocoa powder
1/3 c. of Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum
1 tbsp. white Karo syrup

Directions:
1.  Crush vanilla wafers until you have 1 c. of crumbs.  (see Tips #1 and #2 below)
2.  Finely chop 1 c. of walnuts
3.  Combine vanilla wafer crumbs, walnuts, pecans, cocoa and confectioners sugar.  Blend thoroughly.
4.  Add the rum and Karo syrup.
5.  Mix well and form in to 1/2-1 inch wide balls
6.  Roll the balls in powdered sugar and store in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator.

*A few tips before you start:
1.  Don't buy generic vanilla wafers. The difference in taste compared to the original "Nilla" wafer is apparent.
2.  If you have a Kitchen Aid mixer, and you have the slicer attachment, use the smallest serrated insert which will grind the wafers and nuts nicely (and save you a lot of work!).
3.  Be generous with the booze.  I use Captain Morgan's Spiced rum.
4.  When rolling the balls scrape your hands with a spatula or wash them halfway through the batch otherwise the balls get sticky and gooey and lose their smooth texture.
5.  For best results, make 2 weeks ahead of when you plan to serve to give the balls time to age.  If you don't have two weeks, at least make them a couple of days before so they have time to firm up.

Gobble Gobble! Turkey Cookies!

Gotcha, didn't I?  They are turkey cookies, but they are not made with turkey.  These sugar cookies are a hallmark contribution of mine to Thanksgiving dinners past, present and future.  You may be wondering why I didn't highlight a pumpkin pie, pumpkin roll or pumpkin cookie recipe as my Thanksgiving post.  I'll tell you why:  because everyone makes or writes about those.  Yes, pumpkin this and that deserves a proper place at the Thanksgiving table, but sometimes it's just too much.  Pumpkin pie is a great, timeless staple.  Pumpkin rolls nauseate me because they're a dense lump of fat upon fat, and I can practically hear my arteries closing while I'm eating it (PS that's a challenge to those of you reading this...comment with a pumpkin roll recipe that's light and I'll try it out and publish it here if it lives up to the hype).  Pumpkin cookies are a refreshing change of pace, but sometimes it's nice to see something that's not orange or brown on the dessert table. Cue my Turkey Cookies!


These cookies are always a crowd pleaser, they're festive, they're tasty, they keep well, and they make for a great host/hostess gift should you need one. Make sure you set aside plenty of time though as the dough needs to chill for a few hours before baking. I usually make the dough the night before or early in the day and then bake them that evening.

Mom's Apple Crisp

Yesterday I realized that apple season is drawing to a close and I have not made a single apple crisp (the horror!).  I blame the weather. We've had a particularly warm fall around here which has prevented even the faint thought of stews, roasts, soups and other cold weather foods from crossing my mind. As if on cue, last night a storm rolled in and I woke up this morning to 36 degrees of brisk, damp air.  Mind you, I don't care much for the cold, but it sure gets me motivated to cook all things fall so here comes my Mom's apple crisp recipe with just a few modifications (I couldn't help myself, plus I was one apple shy of the required amount). For a real treat, serve it fresh out of the oven with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream!