Tag Archives: dessert

Award-Winning Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

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I must admit, I felt a little bit lame picking chocolate chip cookies as my recipe for the Secret Recipe Club this month. Especially since this month my assigned blog was Veronica’s Cornucopia. She had my blog last month and wrote a hysterical post about baking NINE loaves of whole wheat bread and having not one turn out right.

When I saw, though, that these cookies not only had brown butter in them but also won an award at her state fair, I simply HAD to make them. They are a little more labor intensive than a “normal” cookie, but the outcome is well worth it. Mr. V said that while he wasn’t ready to throw out every other chocolate chip cookie recipe ever, these were VERY good. And he’s quite the cookie expert.

I made only a slight variation and used half a bag of chocolate chips and half a bar of very dark chocolate, chopped up. I love the combination!

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Award-Winning Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yield: about 4 dozen cookies

Award-Winning Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Very slightly adapted from Veronica's Cornucopia

Ingredients

  • 1 c. butter, divided
  • 1/2 c. old-fashioned oatmeal
  • 3/4 c. packed light brown sugar
  • 3/4 c. granulated sugar
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1 T vanilla
  • 1/2 tsp. white vinegar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
  • 2 c. unbleached, all-purpose flour
  • 1 c. chopped walnuts or pecans
  • 6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 3-6 oz. dark chocolate chips or small chunks

Instructions

Put one stick of butter aside to soften. Preheat oven to 350F.

In a small nonstick skillet, melt other stick of butter over medium-low heat. Continue cooking until butter is foamy and light golden brown. Pour into a bowl to cool.

Wash skillet out with water and dry. Add 1/2 c. oats and toast over medium heat. Cook about 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Transfer oats to food processor and process until very fine, like flour.

Toast the nuts in the skillet for 4-5 minutes, until they are fragrant. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine softened butter, brown butter, sugars, salt, vanilla, vinegar, and ground oats. Combine with an electric mixer on low, then turn to high [speed 6 or 7] and let go 3-4 minutes, until mixture is paler in color and fluffy.

With mixer on medium speed, add in eggs, then baking soda. Turn to low and add flour one cup at a time, until just combined.

Stir in chocolate chips/pieces and nuts.

With a tablespoon or small cookie scoop, scoop dough onto parchment-paper lined cookie sheets. Bake 10-11 minutes, until cookies are light golden brown.

Cool cookies for 3 minutes on sheets, then transfer to cool on wire racks.

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Summer Treat: Butterfinger Cake

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Thank you COOL WHIP for sponsoring this post. Join us on Facebook for inspiration and recipes for everyday treats. What you add makes it. #coolwhipmoms


There’s just something about summer. We do things like swim instead of take naps, do puzzles instead of work, and have dessert … sometimes twice. I find that during the summer I gravitate to lighter dinner fare like grilled meats, fresh farmer’s market veggies, and fruit salad. So why shouldn’t we eat dessert!?

I first made this cake when I tested all the recipes for No Other Gods, and I go back to it when I need a simple and exceptionally tasty dessert for us or for a crowd. (No Other Gods is on my cookbook shelf right along with Betty Crocker! It’s supplied the awesome recipes for Black Beans and Brown Rice, Grandma’s Mac and Cheese, and Mom’s Sauce, too.)

I used extra creamy COOL WHIP whipped topping for this, which I had never seen in the store before. It was just the extra touch of special the cake needed for a Wednesday-night treat. We took some to our neighbors and all had a slice after an hour of bike-riding and running for the kids and some nice catch-up time for mamas.

Ain’t summer grand?

This is a poke cake, which means after it cooks, you poke holes and pour stuff on top of it. This creates an exceptionally moist cake. The COOL WHIP balances well with the rich dark chocolate cake. You can use any chocolate or devil’s food cake you want as your base.

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Butterfinger Cake

Yield: one 9x13 pan

Butterfinger Cake

Devil's Food Cake adapted from A Pastry Affair

Ingredients

  • 3 eggs
  • 2/3 c. sugar
  • 1 c. dark cocoa powder (regular is fine, too)
  • 1 T baking powder
  • 2 1/2 c. cake flour or flour with some cornstarch whisked in
  • 1/8 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 c. oil (I used expeller-pressed coconut, which is not flavored)
  • 1 c. buttermilk (or a scant cup soured with vinegar or lemon juice)
  • 3/4 c. brewed coffee
    • Toppings
  • 7 oz. sweetened condensed milk
  • 2 T creamy peanut butter
  • 1 8-oz tub COOL WHIP, thawed
  • 2 full-size Butterfinger bars, chopped (divided)

Instructions

Crack your three eggs into a large mixing bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer if you are going to use it. Let sit while you prepare the wet and dry ingredients.

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together cocoa powder, baking powder, flour, and salt. Make sure there are no lumps from the cocoa.

In a large mixing cup or small bowl, combine buttermilk, oil, and coffee. Stir well.

Add sugar to eggs and beat for 1-2 minutes, until creamy. Alternately add dry and wet ingredients, starting and ending with dry. Beat until just combined.

Pour into a greased 9×13 pan and bake at 325F for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

During the last 5 minutes of baking time, combine condensed milk and peanut butter in a small saucepan or skillet and melt together. Keep over lowest heat until cake is done.

When cake is done, immediately poke holes all over top with a fork or skewer.

Pour condensed milk/peanut butter mixture over the top of the cake. Spread around with a spatula, easing any that pools on the sides back into the middle.

Sprinkle one chopped Butterfinger over the top of the cake. Let cool completely.

When completely cool, spread COOL WHIP over the top of the whole cake. Sprinkle with remaining chopped Butterfinger. Refrigerate until serving.

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Do you have a special dessert you’d like to share? Enter COOL WHIP’s Fan Dessert of the Month Contest for a chance to win $500! Simply make a COOL WHIP dessert, take a photo, and upload it here. Enter now!


What’s your favorite special summertime dessert?
 

Sponsored posts are purely editorial content that we are pleased to have presented by a participating sponsor. Advertisers do not produce the content. I was compensated for this post as a member of Clever Girls Collective, but the content is all my own.

French Lemon Yogurt Cake

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So, you have a giant tub of plain yogurt. It seemed like such a good idea at a time. Sure, you’ll eat plain yogurt with honey and granola for breakfast every day for a week. And definitely not a doughnut, again.

Oops.

The solution? Grab a couple lemons and make French Yogurt Cake. I’ve made it a few times before with different types of citrus. Orange yogurt cake with chocolate chips is amazing.

It’s easy yet impressive, and everyone will love it. Two mixing bowls, one loaf pan, a little saucepan, and voila. Wash the evidence and tell everyone you slaved over it for hours.


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French Lemon Yogurt Cake

Slightly adapted from Barefoot Contessa

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
  • 1 c. plain yogurt (preferably whole milk)
  • 1 c. sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • zest of two lemons
  • 1/2 tsp. vanilla
  • 1/2 c. flavorless oil, like vegetable or expeller-pressed coconut
    • Lemon Syrup
  • juice of two lemons
  • 1/3 cup sugar

Instructions

Grease a large loaf pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper and spray with oil or nonstick spray. Preheat oven to 350F.

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. In a larger bowl, stir together yogurt, sugar, eggs, lemon zest, vanilla, and oil. Add in dry ingredients and stir to combine.

Pour into prepared loaf pan and bake 50-60 minutes, until a toothpick placed in the center comes out clean.

Meanwhile, combine 1/3 cup sugar and lemon juice in a small saucepan. Heat over medium-low until all the sugar is dissolved. Set aside.

Cool cake in pan 10 minutes, then flip out onto a wire cooling rack over a jelly roll pan. Pour syrup over it. Let cool. Slice and serve.

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Added to Things I Love Thursday, Ingredient Spotlight: Yogurt, and Full Plate Thursday at Miz Helen’s Country Cottage.

 

Thanksgiving Recipes

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I shared these recipes on Vanderbilt Wife … three years ago! They are still two of my favorite holiday recipes and make an appearance pretty much every Thanksgiving and Christmas. The cranberry chutney makes canned, jellied sauce seem laughable and can be cooling in the fridge in 15 minutes. The lattice crust on this pie seems fancy but is simple; and because it is served cold, you can make the pie a day or two ahead and have extra time – and oven space – for your holiday feasts!

From our kitchen to yours, enjoy.

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Cranberry, Cherry, and Walnut Chutney

Yield: about 1 quart cranberry sauce

From Cooking Light, November 2005

Ingredients

  • 1 c. sugar
  • 1 c. water
  • 1/2 c. port, sweet red wine, or 100% grape juice
  • 1/4 tsp. ground allspice
  • 1/2 c. dried tart cherries
  • 1 pkg. fresh cranberries
  • 2/3 c. chopped walnuts, toasted
  • 1/2 tsp. grated orange rind
  • 1/4 tsp. almond extract
  • orange rind strips, optional

Instructions

Combine first 4 ingredients in a medium saucepan; bring to a boil. Add cherries and cook 1 minute. Stir in cranberries; Return to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes, until all cranberries pop.

Remove from heat. Stir in walnuts, rind, and extract. Garnish with orange rind strips if desired. Cover and chill.

[Combine leftovers with a can of mandarin oranges and pour over raw chicken, then bake in the crockpot on low 6-8 hours for an amazing dinner!]

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Cherry Cheesecake Pie

Slightly adapted from Woman's Day Magazine

Ingredients

  • 1 box refrigerated pie crusts (2 crusts) (or homemade)
  • 1/2 c. sugar
  • 1 T cornstarch
  • 2 (8 oz.) bricks cream cheese
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/2 tsp. almond extract
  • 1 can cherry pie filling
  • 1 egg white, beaten

Instructions

Heat oven to 350.

Fit 1 crust in a 9-inch pie plate. Cut other crust into 1-inch strips.

Mix sugar and cornstarch in a medium bowl. Add cream cheese; beat with mixer until smooth. On low speed, beat in egg and extract.

Spread batter evenly in crust; spoon pie filling on top.

Brush crust strips with egg white. Place strips over top in lattice pattern.

Bake 50-60 minutes, until crust is golden brown.

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Linking up with:
Sweet Tooth Friday
Mouthwatering Monday
Tasty Tuesday

 

Healthy Strawberry Popsicles

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Secret Recipe Club

This month for the Secret Recipe Club, I was given This Mama Cooks (On a Diet!) as my assigned site. If you’re new or have forgotten about Secret Recipe Club in the midst of all the reading around here, it’s a “club” where bloggers are each assigned another blog from which to make a recipe.

This Mama Cooks was started in 2004, which makes it ancient in blog world! Anne-Marie is a professional blogger and social-media professional, also working for giants like Mom Central and CafeMom.

I decided to take inspiration from her recipes for popsicles. She’s made Orange-Coconut Popsicles (YUM.) and Green Apple and Flaxseed Popsicles, among several others. I sort of adapted the green apple popsicles to accommodate what I had in the fridge and cabinets, as well as the fact that my daughter won’t eat whole fruit except peel-less apple slices and bananas.

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I found that she will HAPPILY suck down a popsicle that is made entirely of fruit and fruit juice, even if she won’t eat those fruits by themselves. So I think I’ll be making a whole lot more popsicles in the future. I didn’t sweeten these at all, and they are slightly tart, so you could add a little honey, sugar, or other sweetener if you so desire.

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Loving our monster popsicle molds! They make smaller popsicles for little hands.

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Healthy Strawberry Popsicles

Yield: 4-6 popsicles, depending on size of molds

Ingredients

Instructions

Add all to blender, blend until very smooth. Add more juice or water if mixture is too thick to pour.

Pour into popsicle molds and freeze.

To get out of molds once frozen, you can run them under hot water or let sit at room temperature for 5-10 minutes.

Enjoy!

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31daysbutton
Since I don’t really want to write another, separate post for my 31 days series and I make the rules around here, I thought I’d talk about cookbooks briefly. They are books. Right?

Here are some of my favorite cookbooks:
Rachael Ray 365
Betty Crocker Cookbook (although I prefer the 70s version!)
The Pioneer Woman Cooks
Barefoot Contessa at Home

Let’s be real, though? At least ninety percent of the recipes I make come from the Internet; many I find on Pinterest.

Do you still use cookbooks, or do you just glean from the Internet?

 

Chocolate Avocado Cake

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It’s time for the Secret Recipe Club once again! (Last month, in spite of my blogging break, I made Chocolate Coconut Oat Bars.)

This month my assigned blogger was Six Kilos of Pumpkin. Emily Jane is a university student in Australia. She moved away from home “to be able to study,” and now she’s learning how to cook on her own. She doesn’t post too often, but when she does the quick synopses of her life are cute and remind me of my own college days.

I decided to pick this recipe for Chocolate Avocado Caketo attempt because:

  • It looked like something my family would eat
  • Emily Jane made her own tweaks to it
  • And the recipe wasn’t in metric!

Avocado

I actually went back through the train of who made this cake. I believe it was created by Think Write Eat, then made by Joy the Baker, then Not Quite Nigella, and THEN Six Kilos of Pumpkin. And now me!

I went back and read each of those posts, taking tips from all of them. Joy the Baker and Not Quite Nigella actually made avocado buttercream for their cakes (Joy liked it; Nigella did not). I wasn’t feeling brave enough for that, so I decided to create a blackberry cream cheese frosting with the massive amounts of blackberries the kids and I picked at Crabtree Farms.

The cake is actually vegan; my frosting is not. So if you want to keep it vegan, you can always try the avocado buttercream.

The cake is fudgy and rich and I thought it went very well with the cream cheese frosting. If you have kids with an egg allergy, this would be a great recipe for a birthday cake!

(Vegan) Chocolate Avocado Cake with (UnVegan) Vanilla Blackberry Cream Cheese Frosting

Cake
3 cups white whole wheat (or AP) flour
6 T dark cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 avocado, mashed
2 cups water
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp white vinegar
1 cup turbinado sugar (can sub regular sugar or sucanat)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease two 8-inch cake pans.

In one bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking powder. In a large bowl, mix oil, avocado, water, vinegar, and vanilla. Stir in sugar. This will seem like a big watery mess; that’s OK.

Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, combining until smooth. Pour into cake pans. I always whack my pans flat on the counter to release air bubbles, then make a shallow well in the middle by pushing batter to the outsides of the pan. This helps the cakes not to be as domed.

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Bake 30 minutes. Cool 10 minutes in pans; then remove from pans and cool completely on a wire rack.

Frosting
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 to 3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup blackberries, crushed (if I did this again, I would probably strain the blackberries through a fine-mesh strainer to try to remove seeds)

Beat together cream cheese and butter with a mixer until smooth. Add powdered sugar one cup at a time (until it’s as sweet as you prefer). Add blackberries and vanilla and continue beating until well-combined.

Frost cake with frosting; garnish with additional blackberries if desired.

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Countdown to 2011 with Finding Joy in My Kitchen

Ingredient Spotlights: Avocado and Cream Cheese at Eat at Home

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De-luscious Lemon Cake

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I’m a sucker for lemon desserts. Tart and sweet is kind of like chocolate and salty–you can just keep eating its perfection forever. (OK, that’s not necessarily a good thing.)

I came across the recipe this morning on VocalPoint and something in it just screamed, “Make me, Jessie!” I knew all I would need was lemons, so I listened the voice. I am bringing dinner to my Bible-study group tomorrow night and thought it would make a perfect sweet ending. As a somewhat wise cook, however, I also knew I’d better test it before I took a new recipe to a bunch of people I’m just getting to know. Wouldn’t want to poison anyone.

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This dessert is like a sponge cake on top and a custard on the bottom. Mmmmm. It’d be even better with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top to balance out the tart lemon. Maybe I’ll pick up a pint for tomorrow night. (If you’re interested, I’ll also be serving Jo-Lynne’s beef enchiladas and Mexican Corn Dip AKA Magically Delicious Dip according to Amanda.)

I modified the recipe to fit with my whole-foods-hopeful lifestyle. If you use white flour and white sugar, it will probably be a much lighter color.

De-Luscious Lemon Cake
3/4 cup sucanat or turbinado sugar
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp salt
3 large eggs, separated–let the whites warm to room temperature while you prepare the rest of the recipe
3 T  butter, very soft
1 tsp lemon zest (from about 1 lemon–zest before you juice)
3/4 cup lemon juice (from about 3 lemons. Meyer lemons are actually cheaper than regular ones right now, and very flavorful!)
1 1/2 cups milk

Heat oven to 350°F. Coat an 8×8 pan with cooking spray (or butter it, if you’re anti-Pam).

In a small bowl, whisk together sugar, flour, and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk egg yolks about 1 minute. Stir in butter, lemon zest, lemon juice, and milk. Add sugar mixture and stir together well.

Beat egg whites in a large bowl with an electric mixer until stiff peaks appear. Add contents of other bowl and mix on medium for a minute or until the batter is smooth.

Pour batter into your prepared pan. Place that pan in a larger dish (like a lasagna pan or roaster) and fill with hot water to about 1 inch up the sides of your cake pan.

Cook for 40-50 minutes or until top is brown and starting to crackle. Serve warm or chilled, preferably with ice cream!

Linked up to Tasty Tuesday & Lemon Recipes at The Happy Housewife.

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C is for Cupcakes

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When the cold weather starts to bite, I start to bake. I don’t know why. The Christmas-ness of it, I guess.

See evidence A:

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Erm, yes. My stove really is THAT dirty. Unfortunately the cold weather doesn’t make me want to CLEAN.

Friday night I dragged Libbie out in the cold to Target, to which I had a gift card, so I could buy baking supplies. A cart full of butter, eggs, oats, M&Ms, chocolate chips, and a size 18 month shirt later, I was back at home and tucked Libbie in. Then I was tired. Heh.

I did make Crystal’s Lazy Granola on Friday and then called it a night.

But Saturday I was back in the kitchen with a vengeance and started to attack these Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes.

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I followed the cake recipe exactly, so I’m not going to repost it here–you can see it at that link. It is a very tasty chocolate cake recipe and the surprise peanut butter ball on the inside only adds extra goodness! I ended up only making 18 cupcakes rather than 24, but I think I filled the cups a little too full trying to cover the PB ball.

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I forgot to get Cool Whip at the store so I had to improvise on the peanut butter cream cheese frosting. Here’s what I did.

Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz. cream cheese, softened
3 T butter, softened
2/3 tsp. vanilla
1/3 cup peanut butter
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted or whisked

With a electric mixer, whip the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla until well mixed. Add peanut butter. With mixer on low, add the powdered sugar one cup at a time until you reach desired consistency.

(Make sure you refrigerate anything you make with cream cheese frosting, of course!)

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I didn’t have any tools with which to pipe the frosting on nicely, but they still taste pretty darn good. The frosting is heavenly. These 12 are all sitting nicely in my Wilton cupcake/cake carrier, ready to go to work tomorrow. To a party for me. Because I don’t have anyone to feed them to here, and I’m not going to eat them all by myself!

Linked to Mouthwatering Mondays, Tasty Tuesday, and Cupcake Tuesdays.

Blueberry Pie

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Since I’m not a photographer, I don’t have a picture … but this pie turned out great. I was surfing the web yesterday and came across a picture of double-crust blueberry pie. Well of course I decided I MUST MAKE ONE RIGHT THEN. By the time it came out of the oven last night I was pooped and fell straight asleep. So I *might* have had a slice for breakfast. With strawberry cheesecake ice cream.

It’s gotten rave reviews from my co-workers so I thought I’d share the recipe! I kind of took a bunch of recipes from online and picked and chose what I wanted to do, and it worked out well!

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Double-Crust Blueberry Pie

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 55 minutes

Yield: 6-8 slices

Ingredients

  • 1 pkg. refrigerated pie crusts (2 crusts) (or you can make you own if you are more ambitious than I am)
  • 2 to 2 1/2 pints fresh blueberries, stemmed and washed
  • 1 lemon
  • 3/4 c. sugar
  • 4 T cornstarch
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • dash nutmeg
  • 1 T butter, cut into small pieces
  • 1 egg white, beaten (optional)

Instructions

Spray the bottom of a deep-dish pie plate with cooking spray. Preheat oven to 350.

Mix together blueberries, zest of the lemon, juice of half the lemon, sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Pour into the pie crust and spread out evenly. Dot the top with pieces of butters. Place the second crust over the top and crimp the edges together. Cut a few slits into the crust. Optional: brush the top with egg white for a good brown color. If you do this though you will need to check the pie after 30 minutes. If it’s getting too brown, cover the edges with aluminum foil.

Bake at 350 F for 45 minutes or until the crust is brown and the filling is set. Let cool before serving.

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Linking this oldie but goodie to Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam, Ingredient Spotlight at Eat at Home, and Works for Me Wednesday, Summer Recipe Edition.

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