Traditional Fruit Crisp

Everyone loves the classic cobbler, and what's great about this one, is that I use a mixture of frozen and fresh fruit! Now of course you don't have to use frozen, but think about it.....frozen fruit is fruit that's been harvested while it's at it's ripest, and then flash frozen so you can use it anytime of the year! And.....I royally hate peeling and slicing peaches, to be honest, so that might be the real reason for the frozen fruit :) So, here's a wonderful classic that is so easy, you can whip it up last minute! All the ingredients are one's you'd have already around the house. I've also experimented with many different combos of fruit, so just use what you have hanging around! The bulk of this recipe came from my wonderful mother-in-law, Beth, and from my grandmother-in-law, Duval Lee. Love ya'll and thanks!

Crisp Topping
- 6 tbsp butter, room temp
- 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
- 2/3 cup flour
- 1/4 cup rolled oats
- 1/4 cup chopped pecans (or sub with more oats)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix all topping ingredients together with hands, mashing, until coarse and crumbly. Set aside while putting the fruit part together.

Fruit Part (for lack of a better name...)
- peaches - frozen or fresh, enough to fill a small casserole dish
- a small package of blueberries
- 1/2 cup sugar, more or less based on the sweetness of the fruit
- 2 tbsp flour

Mix all of the fruit filling ingredients together. Just as a note, if you plan on using frozen peaches, I've found it's nice letting them come to room temperature before mixing with the other filling ingredients so you can drain off some of the excess liquid, or you'll end up with soup! Put the fruit mixture into a buttered baking dish or small casserole dish, and top with the crumble mixture. Bake for about 45 minutes, until the juices are bubbling and the topping is slightly browned and crisp! Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.....mmmmmmmm!

 

Decadent Chocolate Cheesecake

Some people say that you should never mess with a classic.  In the baking world, this translates to: don't mess with really good plain cheesecake - ie.  stop making funky flavors and messing with the original!  The graham cracker crust, the smooth cream cheese filling, the sour cream topping.  There was a time in my baking life that I believed this wholeheartedly, but no more!  Especially when daring to make a chocolate cheesecake, there's a huge potential of over-doing it - when the chocolate masks the fact that it's actually cheesecake you are eating!  While this recipe has LOADS of chocolate in it, you will find there to still be a light filling and a strangely familiar crust, considering it is also made with graham crackers...just chocolate ones!  So, dare I say, break out of your shell, and dare to be blown away by a *tasteful* rendition of the classic!

Crust

- 2 packets of chocolate graham crackers, crumbled in the food processor
- pinch of salt
- 2 tbs cocoa powder
- 4 tbs granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter (3/4 cup), melted

Heat the oven to 400 degrees.  Mix all the dry crust ingredients together in a bowl, then add the melted butter, stirring until combined.  Dump the mixture into a 9 - inch springform pan, pressing the crumble down with your fingers, and allowing the crust to travel up the sides of the pan, about half way.  Place in the oven, baking the crust for about 10 minutes - be careful to not over bake!  Because it's chocolate, you can't see any browning, so keep alert with your nose :)  Remove from the oven and allow to cool while you whip up the filling - reduce the oven temp to 300 degrees while you're at it.

Filling

- 8 oz bittersweet chocolate
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp instant coffee granules
- 3 bricks of cream cheese (24 oz), room temp is best
- 4 tbs cocoa powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 3 eggs, room temp
- To decorate, a chocolate bar

Melt the chocolate first, giving it time to cool off on the counter (I put the chopped chocolate in a glass bowl and heat it in the microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until most is melted and then just keep stirring it until it's smooth).  In a separate bowl, mix the sour cream, vanilla, and instant coffee until the coffee has dissolved - set aside.  In a stand mixer (or with a handheld mixer), beat the cream cheese until smooth, then add the cocoa and salt.

Scrape down the bowl and paddle, and continue beating until the mixture is light and fluffy.  Keep doing this until the mixture has no clumps and is smooth - at this point, you can't over mix!  Add the sugar and beat until smooth.  Now, scrape the mostly cooled chocolate into the batter, and blend until combined well.  Beat in the sour cream mixture.  Add eggs one at a time, mixing completely after each addition, but don't over beat the eggs!

Pour the filling over the baked crust, smoothing out the top with a spatula.  Bake at 300 degrees for approximately 45 minutes (rotating if needed).  Then, turn the oven off and leave the door closed with the cake still in there for 30 more minutes!  Don't open the oven during this time (doing this helps the cheesecake not crack).  After the 30 minutes, take the cheesecake out of the oven an place on the counter to come down to room temp by itself - this takes a few hours!  After it's cooled down, you should store it in the fridge with aluminum foil over it until you serve it, at least about 3 hours (warm cheesecake is not good!).

To decorate, use your peeler to shave curls of chocolate onto the top of the cheesecake.  I do this by placing your chocolate bar on the counter near your oven while whipping up the cake - the warm oven softens it up just a bit so the curls form easily and don't break apart.

Hope this is everything you wished for in a chocolate cheesecake!  Enjoy, and happy indulging!

Chocolate Chip and Coconut Meringue Cookies

The challenge was: bring dessert to bible study that can accommodate a person with celiac disease (ie no gluten, ie no flour) and another person that is deathly allergic to dairy (yup, that means no butter *tear*)...oh, and another person that's allergic to nuts. Individually, none of these things are impossible, but together, I found this to be quite the challenge!

After a while of google-ing without finding anything remotely appetizing or dessert-worthy, I resorted to scouring my many bent-up and flour-covered cookbooks....lo and behold MERINGUE!  No dairy, no flour (score!) and no nuts.  Lets just say, I did a little dance in my 6 x 8 foot kitchen :)

So here it is, from my no-name, wedding present, chocolate cookbook.....I don't think you can get much easier that this :)

- 3 large egg whites (or 1/3 cup plus 3 tbs of egg beaters)
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp cream of tarter
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 cups chocolate chips (and there are some kinds without any dairy, believe it or not!)
- 2 cups coconut
- Cooking spray

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.  Beat the egg whites until they begin to get foamy, and then add the salt and the cream of tarter.  Continue beating until soft peaks form (when lifting up a spatula from the mixture, a peak forms that then flops over into a pretty little "Dairy Queen" curl, and then gradually add the sugar and vanilla.  Then beat until stiffer peaks form.  Using a spatula, fold in 1 1/2 cups of the chocolate chips and all of the coconut.

Line two baking sheets with aluminum foil and grease them with the cooking spray. Drop by small spoonfuls onto the sheets, leaving about 1 1/2 inches between cookies (they don't spread much).  I actually bought a small ice cream scooper for cookies like this - speeds up the process and keeps all of the cookies the same size so everything bakes evenly.  Use the remaining 1/2 cup of chocolate chips to press 3 or 4 chips into the batter of each cookie. 

Bake for 20 minutes until the edges get oh-so-slightly brown, and the top begins to crack.  Don't attempt to move cookies off the aluminum foil until they are completely cooled or they will crumble. 

These simple cookies were quite the success - no leftovers to take back home (sorry John!).  Who knew a dessert without butter could be so tasty???? 

Enjoy!

Aggression Cookies

Weird name, but quite a tasty cookie!  The wonderful molasses-sweet crunch of demerara sugar (also known as turbinado sugar, or "sugar in the raw") combined with the richness of rolled oats - plus you can snaz them up with whatever you have lying around the kitchen (I find that white chocolate chips taste wonderful in these cookies, but nuts or dried fruit could also work).  I have to say, I'm not much a fan of oatmeal raisin cookies mostly due to the raisin part, so these are quite a nice alternative. 

Oh, and in case you were wondering, they are called aggression cookies given that you can punch, smoosh, squeeze, smash, and take all your frustrations out on the dough in order to combine all the ingredients.  You can't over mix it!  Great for kids :)

- 1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
- 1 1/2 cups softened unsalted butter
- 3 cups old fashioned rolled oats
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 1/4 cups white chocolate chips
- about 1 cup demerara sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine brown sugar, butter, oats, flour, baking soda, vanilla, salt, and white chocolate chips, if you desire.  Mix/mash/squish/punch with hands until all ingredients are combined.  

Form dough into small balls around 1 inch in diameter.  I find that using a small ice cream scoop works amazingly well for this, and makes the cookies identical in size so they cook evenly.

Pour around a cup of demerara sugar into a bowl (or substitute granulated if you can't find demerara sugar).  One-by-one, place a ball of cookie dough into the sugar, and press to flatten, until it's about 1/2 inch thick.  Flip the flattened dough and press to coat the other side of the cookie with sugar.  Place coated cookies onto parchment-lined cookie sheets, keeping at least 2 inches between the cookies - they spread!

Bake the cookies for about 12-15 minutes, based on your oven, until they turn slightly browned around the edges and flatten significantly.  Turn cookie sheets once in the middle of baking to ensure even baking.  Once done, let the cookies cool a few minutes on the baking sheet before you move them to a cooling rack or a paper towel-lined counter or else they will crumble everywhere - and then you will be forced to eat them :)

I think you'll find these to be quite the crowd-pleaser.  Enjoy!

Bird's Nest Cookies

Gotta give it to Ina.  In her book "Barefoot Contessa Family Style," she shares this wonderful recipe.  So, I'm not claiming as my own due to the fact that it's wonderful as-is.  Only thing I'm claiming is the name :)  Originally know as "jam thumbprints," but now known as the "birds nest cookie."

- 3 sticks butter at room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1 egg mixed with 1 tbs water for an egg wash
- 3 cups sweetened flaked coconut
- Any flavor jam you like - I used some left-over spiced cranberries I made for the holidays, but apricot jam also tastes wonderful

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a mixer, cream together butter, sugar and vanilla.  Gradually add the flour and salt until dough comes together.  Dump onto a floured surface and form into a ball.  Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for only 30 minutes (or it will get too hard to work with).

Remove dough from the fridge and form 1 inch round balls.  Dip each ball of dough into the egg wash, the press into the coconut.  Place on parchment paper lined baking sheets 1 inch apart - they won't expand much.  Flatten slightly and use a finger to make a depression in the middle of each cookie.  Using a spoon, place enough of your desired jam in the center of each cookie to fill the indentation, but don't overfill because the jam will boil off the sides of the cookie and burn.

Bake for about 25 minutes until the coconut has browned nicely.  Keep an eye on them while they bake, turning the baking sheets as needed to bake the cookies evenly - the coconut is prone to burn!

 

The cookies taste best when cooled. Enjoy, and thank Ina!

Mexican Pecan Bars

Initially, I had little faith in a recipe that combined cinnamon, chocolate, caramel, and pecans, but who knew...it's pretty darn good after a couple of tweaks and about 6 go-arounds!  This is definitely a go-to recipe that is sure to please.  Because they are so sweet and rich, they are great cut into small squares for little "poppers."

Cookie Base

- 3/4 cup room temperature butter

- 2 cups flour

- 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

- 2 tsp cinnamon

- 1/2 tsp kosher salt

- 1 cup chocolate chips (approximate)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

To make the cookie base, start by greasing a 9x13 inch baking pan.  Combine all ingredients (except chocolate chips).  The mixture will be very crumbly, which is ok, but make sure that the butter is pretty soft, or it will be hard to get everything to come together.  Press the dough into the greased baking pan.   Bake in the oven until firm and lightly browned, about 25 minutes.   When removed from oven, spread chocolate chips over the hot cookie base and let rest for a few minutes until melted.  When melted, carefully spread melted chocolate chips over the base.

Pecan Topping

- 3 cups roughly chopped pecans

- 1/2 cup butter

- 1 cup packed dark brown sugar

- 1/3 cup honey

- 2 tbs milk

- 1/2 tsp kosher salt

Feel free to start preparing this mixture while the cookie base is baking.  In a medium sized saucepan placed over medium heat, melt the butter.  Add in the brown sugar, honey, milk and salt.  Gently cook for 1-2 minutes until all sugar is dissolved and mixture has bubbled throughout.  Turn off heat and stir in pecans. 

Spread pecan mixture over cookie/chocolate base and bake at the same temperature for around 20 minutes until the pecan filling is bubbling in middle as well as on the edges.   The color should not change dramatically. 



Remove the bars from oven and let them cool completely before cutting.  I wouldn't speed the cooling process up in this situation by putting the bars in the fridge or freezer, or the caramel becomes a rock.  Just be patient, and in about an hour, you can eat all the bars you want!

Don't expect them to stick around too long...enjoy!



Traditional Apple Pie

I just love it when I find that recipe that never seems to fail.  Now if the person using that recipe goofs, that's another story - believe me it happens all the time in my kitchen!  But nevertheless, there's nothing better than tweaking a recipe to just your liking.  After doing some research and experimenting myself with various recipes, I have finally come up with an almost fool-proof apple pie recipe that is sure to impress....while not being too too hard to whip together.

One tip that helps keep the crust flaky (even after reheating multiple times for leftovers) is to add a splash of vinegar to the ice water that goes in to the pie crust.  Weird, yes.  But it's incredible how it works!  And don't worry, no vinegar flavored crust :)

Perfect Pie Crust
- 12 tbs (1 1/2 sticks) very cold butter, cubed
- 1/3 cup vegetable shortening, also very cold in cubes
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 2 tbs granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (about) water mixed with 1 tsp white vinegar, with ice added to make it very cold


Take the cubed butter and shortening, put it in a bowl and place in the freezer to get very cold...this is the key to flaky (and not tough) crust.  The colder, the better.  Decide if you will make the dough by hand or in the food processor....

By hand:  Mix the flour, salt and sugar in a cold metal bowl (previously stored in the freezer).  Add the cubed butter and shortening, and "cut" into the dry ingredients using either a bread dough blender tool, or literally two sharp knives.  Tedious, yes, but results are good!  The goal is to not "mush" or melt the butter, so I would not use your hands.  Do this until the butter is the size of peas.  Add 6 or 8 tbs of the iced liquid, enough to make the mixture form into a ball when mixed (you can do this part with your hands, but don't overwork).  Follow further directions below.

In food processor:  Mix flour, salt and sugar with a few pulses.  Add the cubed butter and shortening, pulsing until they are the size of peas.  With machine running, pour iced liquid down the feed tube, pulsing until a crumbly dough forms...this will take about 6-8 tbs of the liquid...add less or more of the liquid as needed. The dough will be pretty crumbly, as you can see in the picture to the left.

Dump the dough onto floured board and form into two rough balls, wrap separately in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.  The goal is to actually be able to still see chunks/flecks of butter in the finished dough....it means super flaky crust!

Apple Filling
- 8 large apples (I used half granny smith and half braeburn)
- 1 tbs lemon juice
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar, plus some extra for the top
- 1/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tbs ground cinnamon (or to taste)
- 1 egg beaten with 1 tbs water for the egg wash
- 1 or 2 tbs cubed butter

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Peel and core apples.  Cut each apple quarter into three or four slices depending on size of apple.  Combine the apples with the lemon juice, 1/2 cup sugar, flour, salt, and cinnamon.  If it's not sweet enough, you can add more sugar.

Take the dough out of the refrigerator and roll one ball out on a floured surface (for me, this was my kitchen floor lined with plastic wrap...hey, you do what you have to do!), making the rolled out dough large enough to drape over the pie dish by about an inch around all sides.  I use the rolling pin to transfer the dough to the dish, as you can see below.

Fill the pie with the apple mixture.  Sprinkle 1-2 tbs sugar on the top, and tuck in small bits of cubed butter around the apples.  Brush the edge of the bottom pie crust with the egg wash to help it adhere to the top layer of pie dough.

Roll out the top pie dough in the same manner as the bottom, and place over the apple layer, making sure there is about 1 inch overlap of dough on the edges.  Roll up both layers of dough together along the edges to form the crust, and crimp/press with the handle of a fork as desired to create classic crust look. 

Brush the top of the pie with the egg wash, and sprinkle with around 1 tsp sugar.  Lastly, cut three slits on the top of the pie for vent holes.  Bake in the oven for 1 hour, to 1 hour and 15 minutes, until top is golden brown, juices are bubbling and apples are cooked (you can use a knife and slip it through one of the slits in the crust to check the apples).  There will be lots of juices if you cut into it immediately, but if you wait about 30 or 45 minutes, it will still be warm and most of the juices will have been reabsorbed.

Serve the pie warm with some vanilla ice cream. Yum!

Let's Break Bread...

And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, "Take this, and divide it among yourselves. For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes." And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body, which is given for you.  Do this in remembrance of me." And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, "This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.  Luke 22: 17-20

So, one day while I was working at the hospital, a nurse named Liz shared with me that she knows a great and super easy no-knead bread recipe.  Of course, I jumped on the opportunity and have been making this bread ever since.  John and I are members of our local church, Portico (http://www.porticocville.org/), and the thought popped into my head one day to serve by providing the bread for communion.  So Liz, thanks!  You probably don't even know how many people your recipe has impacted!

- 7 cups King Arthur Unbleached All Purpose flour
- 1 tbs coarse kosher salt
- 1 1/2 tbs instant yeast
- 2 tsp sugar or honey
- 3 cups warm water

Thoroughly combine all dry ingredients in a large glass bowl.  Add water and mix into dry ingredients with rubber spatula until a rough dough forms - you can also use your hands, but this stuff gets sticky!  Turn dough out on to floured surface and knead a little until the dough becomes smooth and not sticky - this should only take a few minutes (I know, this recipe's not completely no-knead).  It's ok to add a little flour or more water as needed to make the dough the right consistency.  Put the dough ball back into the mixing bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set in the counter until the dough has tripled in size, about 2-4 hours.

At this point, its up to you.  You can either place the bowl with the risen dough in the refrigerator to use later, or you can proceed to forming the loafs and bake the dough right after the first rise.  If you decide to place the risen dough in the fridge, it lasts for up to a week, and as it ages, it becomes more like sourdough - yum!

So, when you are ready to make some bread, you can use whatever amount of dough you want (just place the remaining amount in the fridge for later...the entire recipe makes 2 very large loafs).  Take the dough ball and form into whatever shape you desire.  I have made just large loafs, or I recently braided some loafs - turned out very pretty!  Place the dough on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and let rise again covered with more plastic wrap or a towel, for about 1 to 2 hours.  Preheat the oven to 450.  Right before baking, slash the top of the loaf if you want to.  Bake for around 30 minutes, but this will depend on the side of the loaf you are baking.  When the dough is finished baking, it will sound hollow when tapped, and the loaf will have a beautiful darkened brown color. 


I really hope you enjoy this recipe and can bless those around you with some wonderfully smelling, homemade bread.  God bless.