Showing posts with label Dessert. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dessert. Show all posts

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Famous Dave's Bread Pudding

1 loaf cinnamon-swirl bread
2/3 C. golden raisin
1 1/2 C. sugar
4 C. milk
2 C. heavy whipping cream
1/4 C. vanilla extract
8 eggs, beaten
1 tsp cinnamon

Praline Sauce:
2 C. unsalted butter, cubed
1 1/2 C. chopped pecans
3 Lbs. light brown sugar
1 1/2 C. heavy whipping cream
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 1/2 C. sour cream
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Coat bottom and side of a 2" deep baking dish heavily with butter. Tear bread into 1" pieces. Mix with raisins and spread it evenly in the prepared dish; be sure to turn crusts side down as they tend to burn easily. Whisk sugar, milk, 2 cups whipping cream, vanilla, eggs and cinnamon until blended. Pour over bread mixture. Place baking dish in a 4" deep baking pan. Add water to reach halfway up side of the baking dish. Bake for 1 hour in 325 F oven. Remove from water bath and let stand 20 minutes. Spoon warm into dessert bowls and drizzle each serving with warm praline sauce. Top with whipped cream and add a scoop of ice cream. PRALINE SAUCE: Heat 1 cup butter in large saucepan until melted. Add pecans and mix well. Bring to a boil. Cook until pecans begin to change color. (Mixture will foam over, so use a large saucepan.) Add remaining butter and mix well. This will cool the pecan mixture and stop the cooking process. Remove from heat. Combine brown sugar, whipping cream and cinnamon in a saucepan and mix well. Cook over low heat until blended, stirring constantly; increase heat. Cook to 230 degrees on a candy thermometer. Stir in pecan mixture. Add sour cream and vanilla and mix well. Remove from heat.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Peach Cobbler with Cake Mix

1 large can peaches drained, 1 yellow cake mix, 1/4 cup butter cut into little squares and sprinkled on top of the cake mix, 1 can sprite. Layer in that order in a 9x13 pan. Don't mix. Bake at 350 for 1 hour or until top is golden brown. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream! You will die!!

Homemade Peach Cobbler

Beat 1 egg, then add 1/2 cup sugar, 3 TBS melted butter, 1/3 cup milk. Mix. Combine 1 cup flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt and add to egg mixture. Peel and slice 7-8 peaches and add 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1/4 tsp ginger. Arrange in baking dish and top with batter. Bake 375 for 30 minutes.

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Apple-Cinnamon Rice Pudding

1 1/2 cups water
3/4 cup short-grain rice, such as arborio
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups low-fat milk, divided
2 large egg yolks
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tart tart apples, such as Granny Smith
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 cup raisins
Ground cinnamon for garnish

More Healthy Recipe Ideas

Halloween Party Recipes
Healthy Recipes for Fall Desserts
Quick Dessert Recipes
See It, Make It: Instant Desserts
Easy Pudding Recipes

You Might Also Like

Apple Cupcakes with Cinnamon-Marshmallow Frosting
Cinnamon Baked Apples
Rice Pudding
Aromatic Rice Pudding
Rice Pudding with Dried Fruits

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat an 8-inch-square baking dish with cooking spray.
Bring water to a boil in a 2-quart saucepan. Add rice and salt. Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until water is absorbed, 10 to 12 minutes.
Add 2 cups milk to rice and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 8 minutes. (Discard any skin that forms on the surface.) Remove from the heat.
Whisk remaining 1 cup milk, egg yolks, maple syrup, brown sugar and vanilla in a medium bowl until smooth.
Peel and coarsely shred apples. Place in a small bowl and toss with lemon juice.
Stirring constantly, add about 1 cup hot rice mixture to the egg mixture. Scrape back into remaining rice mixture, stirring constantly. Add raisins and shredded apples.
Scrape mixture into prepared baking dish. Place dish in a shallow roasting pan and pour enough simmering water into roasting pan to come halfway up the sides of the baking dish.
Bake pudding until barely set, 35 to 40 minutes. Serve warm or chilled, dusted with cinnamon.

Nutrition

Mock Tapioca Pudding

16 cups milk
2 1/4 cup sugar
dash of salt
1 1/2 cup Cream of Wheat
8 eggs, separated
4 Teaspoon vanilla

PREPARATION:

Combine milk, sugar, and salt and bring to a boil. Slowly sprinkle in Cream of Wheat, stirring constantly. Return to boil and lower heat. Cook until thick (approx. 15 minutes) stirring frequently.
Remove from heat. Beat in egg yolks and vanilla. Cool to room temperature. Beat egg whites until stiffened and fold into cereal.

My friend's amazing pumpkin cake

1 29 ounce can pumpkin
4 eggs
1 can evaporated milk (13 ounces)
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 Teaspoon cinnamon
1 Teaspoon ginger
1/2 Teaspoon nutmeg
1 package yellow cake mix (spice and white cake mix work as well)
1 cup melted butter or margarine
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

PREPARATION:

Beat all ingredients except cake mix.
Put in ungreased 9x12 pan. Sprinkle dry cake mix over mixture. Pour melted margarine over the cake mix and sprinkle with nuts.
Bake at 350 degress for 1 hour – no longer. Top with whip cream once it cools. Serve.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Paula Deen's Brownies

* 1 cup (2 sticks) plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
* 3 ounces chopped unsweetened chocolate
* 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
* 2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
* 3 large eggs, at room temperature
* 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
* 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare an 8 by 8-inch square baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.

In a double boiler, or a microwave set on low power, melt the butter and chocolate, stirring frequently. Transfer the chocolate mixture to a large bowl and let cool. Whisk in the cocoa until smooth. Whisk in the granulated sugar. Whisk in the eggs and vanilla. Fold in the flour and salt until just blended.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake until the brownies are slightly overdone (they should be gooey inside), 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes.


Use that recipe and turn it into a brownie trifle:

* 1 Brownie Cake
* 3 cups heavy cream
* 3 tablespoons instant vanilla pudding mix
* 1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar
* 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
* 3/4 cup raspberry jam, divided
* 3 medium bananas, thinly sliced, divided

Directions

Cut the Brownie Cake into 1/2-inch chunks, about 4 cups. Set aside.

Using an electric mixer, whip the cream, pudding mix, confectioners' sugar, and vanilla until stiff peaks form.

In a large bowl, place 1 cup of the whipped cream mixture. Cover with one-third of the brownies in a single layer. Top with 4 tablespoons of the raspberry jam, then one-third of the sliced bananas. Repeat with 2 more layers of each ingredient, ending with sliced bananas. Finish off by topping it all with the remaining whipped cream mixture. Chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes and up to 8 hours before serving.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Black Bean Brownies

* Butter, for greasing pan
* 3/4 cup cooked black beans
* 1/2 cup vegetable oil, or olive oil
* 2 eggs
* 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
* 2/3 cup sugar
* 1 teaspoon instant coffee or espresso
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips, divided
* 1/3 cup flour
* 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 by 9-inch square baking pan.

In a blender, puree the beans with the oil. Add the eggs, cocoa, sugar, coffee, and vanilla. Melt half the chocolate chips and add to the blender. Blend on medium-high until smooth. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to the blender and pulse until just incorporated. Stir in the remaining chocolate chips. Pour into the prepared pan. Bake until the surface looks somewhat matte around the edges and still a bit shiny in the middle, about 20 minutes. Let cool at least 15 minutes before cutting and removing from the pan. Dust with confectioners' sugar and serve.

Cook's Note: Place a small cutout or stencil on the brownie before dusting to make a design.


Melissa d'Arabian from Food network

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Best Buckeyes

8 oz. cream cheese (at room temp)
14 oz. condensed milk
24 oz. peanut butter chips
1 cup. finely chopped peanuts (I make half with nuts and half without)
6 oz. semi-sweet chips (I prefer milk chocolate chips)
2 T. shortening


In a mixer: Beat cream cheese until fluffy. Beat in condensed milk.



In a heavy saucepan: melt peanut butter chips. Stir into cheese mixture & add nuts. Chill 2-3 hours. I think we shaped them into 1 inch balls first and then refrigerated them (can't remember for sure).

Melt chocolate & shortening.
Dip & refrigerate.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Microwave Fantasy Fudge

I know you're probably thinking I'm on crack right now, but this REALLY works! Fudge and I were like oil and water it just wasn't happening, until NOW! lol :o)

3 C. sugar (Don't use Walmart brand, it doesn't melt...use the pink bag!!)
3/4 C. butter
1 small can 5 oz. evaporated milk (about 2/3 cup)
1 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 jar 7 oz Jet-Puffed marshmallow creme
1 tsp vanilla

To prepare the fudge in the microwave, place butter in 4-qt. microwaveable bowl. Microwave on HIGH 1 minute (took me a little over that)or until melted. Add sugar and milk; mix well. Microwave 5 min. or until mixture begins to boil, stirring after 3 min. Stir well, scraping down side of bowl. Microwave 5 - 1/2 min (I did 6), stirring after 3 min. Let stand 2 min. Add chocolate and marshmallow creme continue as directed.

I dipped Oreos,Clementines, Maraschino cherries (must be drained and dried REALLY well), Big marshmallows, and gummy bears. Yummy!!! Enjoy!

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Wedding Mints

These are called wedding mints but can easily be made for any event or even made with different flavors. I got this recipe from Debbie, or rather I made her a batch and stole it. :) I know she made these for our wedding, but I don't recall eating them...or much of anything else really. I've never seen them or had them before then, but they are pretty good and definitely worth posting.
The recipe uses simple ingredients and is easy to make. The only down side is that they are a little time consuming.

Wedding Mints


3 oz. cream cheese (use the lines on the packaging)
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar (plus 1 extra)
1 tsp. flavoring of choice.
(Debbie's recipe used 3/4 tsp, but trust me the full tsp is so much better!)
Blend in a food processor until combined.
Drizzle in the flavoring.
Add in the extra sugar until it no longer sticks.
* Place on wax paper and keep covered because it dries quickly. Debbie has some silicone molds that she uses to make shapes. Not sure what else you could use to form them, maybe just make them into balls or rounds even.
** We used our food dehydrator as a drying rack to place the molded mints on to dry.
*** Take a pinch at a time, (enough to fit the mold) and roll into a ball and then into granulated sugar.
***Press into the mold and then pop them out onto the drying rack. Try not to move them until they are completely dried.
***You can use any kind of extract to flavor them. May I suggest raspberry and of course the mint.
I wondered if they were ok to sit out since it has cream cheese in them...Just so you know, I've eaten plenty these last couple of days and no problems.
These are melt in your mouth good and no taste of cream cheese!
Enjoy!

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Peach Cobbler

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup butter, melted
  • 4 cups fresh peaches - peeled, pitted and sliced
  • 2 tablespoons white sugar
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup milk

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Pour butter in to the bottom of a large casserole or 9 x 13 inch pan.
  2. In the prepared dish, toss together the peaches and 2 tablespoons sugar.
  3. In a mixing bowl, combine the 1 cup sugar, salt, baking powder, flour, cinnamon, and milk. Spoon batter over the peaches.
  4. Bake for 45 minutes in the preheated oven, or until top is golden brown.

*Mix the cinnamon in with the peaches instead of the batter. Use a couple TB less of butter. That's what was recommended on allrecipes.com. Mine is baking in the oven right now, we'll see how it turns out. :)

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Banana Beignets

I really like the Disney movie, "The Princess and the Frog" and since I've never been to New Orleans, I had no idea what a Beignet was and they ate alot of them in the cartoon. This recipe was a winner of the Food Network magazine reader challenge. Each month they pick an ingredient and reader's send in their recipes to win a prize and last issue was for bananas. I wonder how many millions of banana bread recipes they got...
I read through the ingredients and saw that it was a fairly simple recipe and decided (with Charlie's encouraging) to give it a go this weekend.
I consider doughnuts to be a dessert, not a breakfast. I was sweetly surprised, however, that these were heavier than a traditional doughnut, yet not too light.
They reminded me of hot Malasadas we used to get from Leonard's Malasada truck in Laie, HI. while going to school. Everyone loved them; couldn't get enough of them. These were delicious and I'm happy to share the recipe.


Banana Beignets

Mix dry ingredients:

1 1/2 cups cake flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/3 cup granulated sugar (for the dough mix)

Wet Ingredients:

2 T Vegetable oil
1 large egg

1/2 cup whole milk (I only had 2% and it worked fine)
1/2 cup mashed over-ripe banana ( I ended up doubling the recipe and used 3 medium bananas)
1/4 tsp. banana extract ( I didn't have any, might have made it taste a little better, but still great without it)

You'll also need enough oil for frying and a frying thermometer as well as extra sugar (1/2 cup)and cinnamon (1 tsp) for rolling the fried beignets in. I went through the cinnamon/sugar mix a couple times, I may have rolled them a little thick in the sugar, but it tasted so good!

So here's the deal with frying. First of all you need to have the oil at 375F, which was tricky trying to work with a glass top stove. I heard the trick is to get it approx. ten degrees higher than what you need because it fluctuates so much. I really couldn't keep it at 375 for very long or very often.

Also, I burned myself several times before I finally figured out how to get the dough in the oil without plopping and spraying oil or making funnel cake. I used a regular cereal spoon and got about a heaping teaspoon and set the tip of the spoon right above the oil and it slid off without plopping and formed a decent ball. It worked really well.

Fry the beignets about 15 seconds on each side. Since the oil temp fluctuated so much, it was easier to watch for a dark coloring and then check with a toothpick after you've taken them out and placed on the paper towel lined plate.

Back to how to make the dough. It's super simple. Whisk together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, and the wet into your mixer. Be sure to mash the banana before you actually put it into the mix because you don't want to over mix the dough and this will ensure that the banana is smashed completely.

Mix all together until just combined, be sure to scrape the sides and beneath. My KitchenAid just doesn't get the bottom of the bowl very well.

I also heated the oven to 200F so that I could keep the beignets warm while frying the rest. I did a double batch so it took forever.

Enjoy!

Monday, July 19, 2010

MMMMMMMMMM...Strawberry pie! So ONO! Not even Hawaiian, but that just seems to fit how it tastes to me. It was a recipe handed down to me from my mom who got it from my Grandma Williams. I grew up with it pretty much always having frozen strawberries in them and then when my mom told me that my grandma only ever made it with fresh, it just clicked and I tried it and just can't go back to using frozen. But, you can do whatever you want, just know that using fresh is 100 times better. I'll still eat the frozen berry pies, I'm not that snobby. :)
Strawberry Pie
  • 1 large box Strawberry Jello (6 oz.) -I have used another berry flavor before when I was all out and it still tasted great.
  • 8 T. cornstarch
  • 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
  • Whisk together in a small saucepot on the stovetop.
  • Add 3 cups of water while stirring well.
  • Turn on the heat to med-hi
  • Cook approx 6 minutes or until it's thick and bubbly with a clear appearance

* Line a PRE-BAKED pie crust with hulled and halved strawberries one level high. No stacking.

**Pour warm mixture into the crust and place more strawberries on top to make it look pretty and be sure that you have strawberries evenly distributed. Sometimes when you pour the berries move.

Let cool for several hours in the fridge before serving.

So Easy!!!

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Mini Brownie Turtles

Once again, I found this in my nifty dessert book that nearly found it's way to the thriftstore. I made these for the family BBQ we had for when Scarlet's bone marrow donor, Ralf, was here.
Super easy and very yummy!

What you need to do:

  1. Prepare a package of brownie mix; toss in a handful of chopped pecans/walnuts-fold in.
  2. Fill mini muffin liners in a pan 2/3 to the top- Bake @350 for approx. 18 minutes (watch them)
  3. Let them cool, spread with dark chocolate frosting. (make it or buy it, I bought it)
  4. On the stovetop, melt 12 caramels and 1T of whipping cream on low heat until completely melted.
  5. Drizzle a bit on the cupcakes and put a piece of pecan on top...or you can make it fancy and decorate them nicely.
  6. Cool in the fridge to let the caramel set-up-I didn't do this and totally regret it, most of the caramel slid off the sides- thus, no pictures. They weren't pretty, but they were tasty!

You can store these for several days. The book even said you can freeze the muffins after you've baked them and before you've topped them for 3 months in the freezer!

Give these babies a try!

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Chocolate Macaroon bars


I got this recipe from a cookbook my mom got from the thriftstore. I de-junked my millions of cookbooks I haven't used awhile back and very nearly threw this one into the pile. Thank goodness I didn't! It's got lots of yummy desserts that I am pretty anxious to try! I made these macaroons when my mom was here because I know she and Debbie both love coconut (maybe because they both lived in Hawaii??) I made a change to how they reccommended making it and would suggest a couple more. Overall they were very good, despite my bad photography!

Mini Kisses Coconut Macaroon Bars


3 3/4 c. sweetened coconut flakes
3/4c. sugar
1/4 c. A.P. flour
1/4 tsp. salt
3 egg whites
1 whole egg, slightly beaten
1 tsp. almond extract
1 cup mini kisses


*I couldn't find any mini kisses, so I used milk choc. chips instead
**I didn't like using a whole tsp of almond extract; it was a bit too strong for my taste.
1- Pre-heat oven to 350F; grease a 9-inch square baking pan. (i used a 7X11 and it worked fine)

2- Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl; add egg whites , whole egg and almond extract; stir until well blended.

3- At this point you add the chips...but I thought it would taste better to leave the chips out of the mix and melt the chocolate at the end and spread over the macaroons. I did that for mine but left the chips in the mix and I felt it would have been better the other way with some whole almonds on top of each cut out bar.
4- Press into greased pan.

5- Bake 35 mins. or until lightly browned. Cool completely, spread chocolate on top and refrigerate overnight or for 8 hours.
Melting the chips: Using a microwave safe bowl pour the chips in and microwave for 30 secs. at a time stirring after each interval.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Fantasy Fudge in a Cloud

This is sooo Heavenly it's not even funny!

Fantasty Fudge in a Cloud

  • 1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
  • 1 (3.3 ounce) package instant white chocolate pudding mix
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, room temperature
  • 1 (8 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed
  • 3 bananas, sliced
  • 1 cup chopped toasted pecans
  • 1 1/4 cups chocolate fudge topping
  • 1 (21 ounce) can cherry pie filling

Directions

  1. Prepare cake according to package directions and bake in a 9x13 inch pan. Let cool completely. Cut half the cake into 1-inch cubes (saving the other half for another dessert).
  2. In a large bowl, beat together pudding mix and milk until thick and creamy. Beat in cream cheese until fluffy. Fold in half the whipped topping.
  3. In a large punch or trifle bowl, layer one-third of the cake cubes, one-third of the cream cheese mixture, one-third of the banana slices and one-third of the pecans. Top with one-third of the fudge sauce.
  4. Repeat cake and cream cheese layers and top with half the cherry pie filling. Cover the pie filling with one-third of the bananas, one-third of the pecans and one-third of the fudge sauce.
  5. Repeat step 4, omitting the pecan layer. Top with remaining whipped topping; drizzle with remaining fudge sauce; and sprinkle with remaining pecans. Refrigerate 4 hours before serving.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Cocoa Apple Cake

This recipe comes from Rachel who got it from Allrecipes.com. She made it for me as part of her dinner to us after Ginger was born and it is amazing!!!
Holy Cow! It was so good!

Cocoa Apple Cake:

3 eggs 1 tsp. baking soda
2 C. gran. sugar 1 tsp. cinnamon
1 C. Butter, softened 1 tsp. allspice
1/2 c. water 1/2 c. semi-sweet choc. chips
2 1/4 c. A.P. flour 2 C. grated apple
2 T. cocoa powder 1 T. vanilla

*Directions:
-Cream together eggs, sugar, butter, & water until fluffy
-In separate bowl combine dry ingredients
- Add dry to wet ingredients
- Fold in choc chips, apple, & vanilla. Stir until evenly distributed
-Spoon into greased, floured 10 inch pan or bundt pan
-Bake @ 325 F 60-70 minutes

Monday, April 5, 2010

Easter/Conference Sunday Breakfast




This Easter I thought I would make sticky buns and orange julius for breakfast. It's taken many tries at cinnamon roll making and my bread making class to finally feel like I can call myself "good at it." Plus, I haven't had an orange julius since I was in high school and blowing 5 bucks on a tall orange juice was no big deal like it is now. So, when you can't afford to buy something, you make it, right? That's what I think.

I made the orange julius in our magic bullet and it made a bit more than I expected, so after the initial mix I realized I would need to take some out before adding in the ice cubes. Which ended up working out great because sometimes when you blend too many cubes in a blender it doesn't quite get them fine enough and I don't know about you, but I don't like chewing hunks of ice. I'm sure it would have been fine either way...I just like to think that making the extra mess was worth it. The recipe was from a friend of mine's missionary cookbook that I copied when in school in Hawaii so I don't know the lady who put it in there, but it tasted amazing! So, Thank you to Sister Campbell of South Jordan Utah.

Orange Julius:
1/2 can frozen orange concentrate (6oz)
1 cup milk
1 cup water
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sugar
approx. 10 ice cubes

Blend everything together adding the ice cubes at the very last.


Sticky Buns:

I feel like, in a way, that I can call this recipe my own because I've blended 2 recipes together to get what I made yesterday. Tell me what you think. Can I make my own name for this? Because if I can I would need to call it something pretty amazing...like on Charlotte's web.

I'll just do it anyway.
Something Pretty Amazing sticky buns:

Dough:
(mix all ingredients in a SUPER large bowl and don't plan on using a mixer at all, it's all by hand girls)
1c. pretty warm water to activate the yeast
2T. yeast (active dry...but whatever is probably ok)
1T. granulated sugar
Wait for approx. 10 minutes to let the yeast get busy.
5T. more sugar
2 eggs, slightly beaten

4c. milk
6T. butter
1T. salt
In a 4cup pyrex measuring cup microwave the milk & butter to a pretty warm/nearly hot temp.
If it's too hot it will kill the yeast, so not too hot.
Add the salt at the very last, after you've mixed in the milk and butter mix.

Start slowly adding in 10-11c. AP flour. Don't just dump it all in at once; add a little, mix a little.
You may not even need the entire amount of flour. I just go by the feel and appearance of the dough to know when to stop or keep adding. I like to get mine to feel pretty squishy and even still a little tacky. That way, after it rises, I can have more control over it after I've started rolling it out, etc. I just keep some in a a pile close by and add a little here and there.

This dough makes a TON! I decided since I wanted dinner rolls for Easter dinner that I would just divide the dough and put what I would use later on into the fridge and bake up some rolls with it later.

Let the dough rise for about an hour, punch it down, divide it if you want, then roll it out.
Roll it onto a floured surface in a large rectangle shape. The dough should be really stretchy and still very soft and pliable. When handling dough that you've just let rise, it's good to punch it down to get some of the air out of it, but don't squish it do death. I punch it down just enough to release some of the gases but leave enough to keep it fluffy and when you divide the dough, use a sharp knife instead of tearing.

Dough topping:
3/4 c. brown sugar
1T cinnamon
4T. butter (soft enough to spread over the dough without tearing it)

*Spread the butter all over, mix the sugar with the cinnamon and lay a thick covering over the entire surface leaving the edges bare.
Roll it up tightly. Since I like mine still tacky, it makes it a little more tricky to roll it up without a plastic scraper. I bought a couple dollar bowl scrapers that are awesome. Once it's all rolled up nicely (or not, doesn't really matter), let it hang out and rise for a little while.

Topping:
3/4c brown sugar packed
4T. butter (softened)
3T. honey
1T. light corn syrup
1 1/2c. coarsely chopped pecans

*in a 1 qrt. saucepan, combine it all and cook on low heat until melted and then some.
Grease up a 9x13 glass pan ( I save the butter wrapping and grease it up with that). Pour the melted mixture into the pan and sprinkle the pecans all over.
Cut the rolls gently (or use floss) and about the same size and fill up the pan.

**Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes...you'll just have to check it (I wait until it's mostly golden).
*** When it's done, have a platter or I used freezer paper (the dull side) to flip the rolls onto.
Do this immediately after pulling them out. All the hot gooey stuff slides down and coats the whole bun. Eat them warm, they are Awesome!

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Paula Dean Lemon Squares

These are SOOO good and it's no wonder because the recipe calls for a ton of butter! I swear I ate at least 6 of them when I made them this past week, and I'm talking about 6 in a row. This isn't including what I had eaten the night before or later that day.

I had tried a lemon bar recipe that was given to me by a friend and it never quite set up right and I thought that maybe it was me...it wasn't. Or at least even after a couple of shots at it, it still wouldn't set up right. It ended up being really gooey, which is ok, if you like it like that. I've been looking for a recipe that was more...let's say, lemon bar-ish. I found this recipe from Paula Dean on the foodnetwork website and I just love it.
So here it is:

For the crust: mix 2 cups AP flour
1c. pwd. sugar
pinch of salt (really, could you be a little more specific??)
2 sticks butter @ room temp.

I treat most crusts the same in that I mix the dry ingredients first and then incorporate the butter. I also cube it into pieces so that I have to work the mix less making the crust flakier (hopefully).

Filling:
In a mixer- 4 eggs
2c. granulated sugar
6T. AP flour
6T. Lemon juice

* Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9x13 pan and press in dough ( or mix, it really doesn't end up looking like dough at all, It's kind of a dry mixture. It should cling together nicely, just press what flour may still seem loose into the moist parts).
**Bake the crust for 20 minutes. Pour filling into the pan (give it a swirl or two in the bowl first) and bake another 25 minutes. Let them cool, then cut and sprinkle powdered sugar on top.

Sorry, no picture. I made them for Charlie's office the other day and ate the ones left behind too quickly!