Category Archives: Desserts

June 20, 2010 · 3:27 pm

Strawberry Cream Pie

With strawberries in full swing here on the eastern half of the country, this pie is wonderfully refreshing, full of fresh strawberries and flavored whipped cream. Chilled, fresh-fruit pie: perfect for the end of a hot, humid summer day.

RECIPE:

Strawberry Cream Pie

Servings: 6-8
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1 baked pie crust
1 small package (4 servings) strawberry gelatin
2 cups (1 pt) heavy cream
8 oz cream cheese, softened
¼ cup powdered sugar or Splenda (or Stevia equivalent)
1 quart strawberries, sliced
Whole strawberries for garnish, if desired

Dissolve gelatin with ¾ cup boiling water in a small bowl. Stir in 1/3 cup cold water. Place in freezer for approximately 15-20 minutes (until it just begins to gel).

In a large bowl, use a mixer to whip the cream until stiff. Beat in cream cheese and sugar on low speed, just until combined. Fold in gelatin. Fold in strawberries. Pour into cooled baked pie crust, mounding the filling in the center. Garnish with additional strawberries, if desired.

Chill until firm, about 2 hours.

NoEmptyChairs.me

Turning Teen and Three Chocolate & Peanut Butter Creations

Last week was my Middle K’s 13th birthday! While she is technically the “middle child”, she is in the unique position to play, as it suits her, the role of oldest, middle or youngest child.

In terms of birth order, you can’t get much more middle than our Middle K. The third of five children, with both a younger and older brother, and a younger and older sister. But as there is a five-year age gap between Middle K and Little A, she spent a fair amount of time as the “baby” of the family. This age gap often divides our family when it comes to activities: the “big kids” and the “little kids” (think amusement parks here). So in these settings, she fills that youngest child role. But at home, she has really stepped into the “oldest child” role with respect to the little ones. She is the one they come to when they want to play, and she is often the one to help them and put them to bed when Brian and I are out.

I guess it is in her adaptability that her strength as a middle child really shines. What a blessing to our family.

If only she would look at a camera willingly!

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Middle K loves to cook, as long as it is something sweet, and she has been on a real chocolate and peanut butter kick lately. Here are some of her most recent endeavors:

Peanutty Buckeye Bars

Peanut Butter Heart Kisses

These Hershey’s Bliss chocolates make a great alternative to traditional Kisses.

Some of the peanut butter cookies were left “heartless”, for our chocolate-adverse Little A.

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Chocolate Peanut Butter Buckeyes

(Traditional Buckeyes will have some of the peanut butter middle showing at the top like an “eye”, but Middle K was in this for speed and volume, not appearance)

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RECIPES:

Peanutty Buckeye Bars

Servings: 18-24
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1 (19.5-oz) package brownie mix
2 eggs
1/3 cup oil
1 cup chopped peanuts
1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk
½ cup creamy peanut butter

Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9×13” baking pan.

In a large bowl, combine the brownie mix, eggs, and oil. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until combined. Stir in peanuts.

Remove about one-third of the brownie batter and set aside. Spread the remaining two-thirds of the brownie batter evenly into prepared pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk together sweetened condensed milk and peanut butter until smooth. Spread evenly over brownie mixture in pan. Separate the remaining brownie mixture into pieces, flatten them with your fingers (you want them to be pretty thin), and lay them on top of the peanut butter layer. Do not completely cover the peanut butter layer.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until top is set and edges are lightly browned. Cool completely in pan on a wire rack. Cut into bars.

Makes 18-24 bars.

From Better Homes and Gardens

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Peanut Butter Heart Kisses

Servings: 3 dozen
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½ cup butter
½ cup coconut oil or additional butter
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
1 ½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
Hershey’s Bliss Chocolate Hearts (or Dove Hearts or other “shaped” chocolate)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Cream butter, coconut oil (if using), peanut butter and sugars. Beat in vanilla and eggs. Add dry ingredients. Roll dough into balls. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake at 350°F for 8-10 minutes. Immediately press 1 chocolate heart into each cookie; cool on a wire rack.

NoEmptyChairs.me

Chocolate Peanut Butter Buckeyes

Servings: 3-4 dozen
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1 ½ cups creamy peanut butter
½ cup butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 cups chocolate chips (semi-sweet or bittersweet)
2 Tbs shortening

In a large bowl, mix peanut butter, butter, vanilla, and powdered sugar. (This will be a stiff dough; hands work best for mixing)

Shape dough into balls. (If the dough is too sticky to work with, refrigerate for about 20 minutes before rolling into balls) Place on a waxed paper lined baking sheet or cutting board. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

Using a double boiler, melt chocolate and shortening. Alternately, melt chocolate and shortening in the microwave (for 30 seconds at a time, stirring after each time).

Use a toothpick to dip balls into warm, melted chocolate. Leave an “eye” shape at the top by not completely dipping peanut butter ball. Return coated balls to the waxed paper lined pan.

Refrigerate to set.

Makes 3-4 dozen

NoEmptyChairs.me

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Filed under Cookies, Desserts, Uncategorized

Tagged as birthdays, buckeye, chocolate, Cookies, heart kisses, Hersheys Bilss, peanut butter, Valentines day

April 27, 2010 · 1:16 pm

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bundt Cake

OR: How to Make a Chocolate Cake When All You Have Is a Vanilla Cake Mix

This is a quick and easy dessert that looks much more complicated than it really is. With only 5 real ingredients (7 if you frost the cake) that I always have on hand, it makes a great last minute dessert.

This cake actually starts with a vanilla cake mix. You could use a chocolate cake mix for a richer chocolate flavor, but then you would have to make your own peanut butter filling, or use part of a vanilla cake mix for that. I’m all for simplicity, so I transformed my vanilla cake mix into a chocolate one by mixing a chocolate pudding mix into most of the vanilla cake batter. The remaining vanilla batter is mixed with peanut butter for the peanut butter filling layer.

When filling your bundt pan, start by adding about 1/3 of the chocolate batter to the pan. Spoon the peanut butter batter over the chocolate layer, keeping batter away from the edges of the pan (so it won’t show on the outside of the cake). Spoon remaining chocolate batter over the peanut butter layer.

You can eat this cake plain, but it is so much better with a simple chocolate glaze (or ganache if you want to sound fancy!). Just a mixture of cream and bittersweet (you could use semi-sweet) chocolate. Lovingly drizzled over the edges of your cake.

RECIPE:

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bundt Cake

Servings: 12-16
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1 box (about 18 oz) yellow or white cake mix
1 cup water
1/3 cup oil
4 eggs
½ cup creamy peanut butter
1 small package (4 servings) chocolate pudding mix
Chocolate Ganache Frosting, optional

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a large mixing bowl, use a mixer to beat together the cake mix, water, oil, and eggs. Remove one cup of batter to a small bowl. Beat peanut butter into reserved one cup of batter. Add the chocolate pudding mix to the large bowl of batter. Beat until well combined.

Grease and flour a 10-12 cup bundt pan (or use non-stick baking spray with flour). Spoon about 1/3 of the chocolate batter into the prepared bundt pan. Spoon peanut butter batter over the chocolate layer, keeping batter away from the edges of the pan. Spoon remaining chocolate batter over the peanut butter layer.

Bake at 350°F for 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Invert onto serving plate and cool completely. Top with Chocolate Ganache frosting, if desired.

Yield: 12-16 servings

Chocolate Ganache Frosting

8 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped into small pieces
1 cup heavy cream
Optional flavorings: vanilla, almond, orange, or peppermint extract (amount varies depending on strength of extract)

Place chopped chocolate in a mixing bowl. In a saucepan, heat cream until it comes to a boil. Pour cream over chocolate in mixing bowl and stir until chocolate is melted and glossy. Stir in flavoring, if using.

For a glaze (this is what I use for the bundt cake):
Cool ganache slightly (until thick enough that it won’t run off of the cake, but warm enough that it will still drizzle). Pour ganache over cake, starting in the center of the cake, allowing it to drip down the sides.

For a cake frosting, or for piping:
The longer you allow the ganache to cool, the thicker it will set. For piping or for a regular cake frosting, allow the ganache to completely cool and set up at room temperature. Mix with a whisk slightly just before frosting the cake.

For a whipped filling or frosting:
For a thicker, fluffy frosting, or filling for a cake, chill the ganache in the refrigerator until slightly cold, then whip with a mixer until light and fluffy.

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Tagged as bundt, cake, chocolate, chocolate cake, dessert, ganache, peanut butter, peanut butter cake, quick and easy, tunnel, vanilla cake

April 13, 2010 · 9:25 pm

How To . . . Make Butterfly Cupcakes (and a totally delicious frosting!)

These are the cupcakes we made for Little J’s 6th Birthday Party. The butterflies were easy to make, and look so cute sitting on top of a brightly frosted cupcake!

I first saw these butterflies on the blog Annie’s Eats. They are also shown in the book Hello Cupcake!

I used a boxed mix (as I had 6 party-going 6 year olds helping bake and decorate) for the cupcakes, but made a homemade frosting for the girls to tint and ice their cupcakes with. The frosting was absolutely decadent! I normally dislike most frostings: buttercream, royal icing, fondant—they all get scraped off onto the side of my plate. But this frosting is amazing; it tastes like a rich buttery whipped cream. Maybe I like it because it doesn’t use powdered sugar. That and the butter!

The frosting recipe is below, at the end of the post. It is different from many frostings in that it is thickened with a cooked milk and flour concoction (that looks like glue!), and uses granulated sugar instead of powdered. This will be my go-to cake frosting from now on!

What really makes the cupcakes, of course, are the butterflies. They were surprisingly easy to make.

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Making Chocolate Butterflies

— Assemble ingredients: Melting chocolate (both chocolate and colored), waxed paper, toothpicks, writing tip, Ziploc bags or pastry bags, butterfly stencil, “sprinkles”

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Trace wing and antennae pattern onto a piece of white paper.

Place a small amount of colored and chocolate melting disks into separate Ziploc bags (or small bowls). Melt in microwave—Start with 30 seconds, squish bags, then add an additional 10 seconds if not completely melted.

I used a writing tip to pipe the chocolate, but I just cut off a small end of the bag to squeeze out the melted colored vanilla candy. I used Ziploc bags simply because I did not want to clean out pastry bags. I don’t recommend store-brand bags for this; I have had the seam rip while squeezing out the chocolate. Huge mess!

Place a small square of waxed paper over your stencil paper.

Pipe chocolate around the edge of one wing at a time. Squeeze a small amount of colored chocolate into the center of each wing section. Use a toothpick to spread colored candy to fill the wing. Use a toothpick to gently swirl chocolate and colored candy. Sprinkle edges of wings with sprinkles, if desired.

Work with just one wing at a time. The chocolate hardens quickly!

Place your bag of chocolate back in the microwave for a few seconds if it becomes too stiff (don’t forget to take off the metal writing tip!).

Trace the antennae. Let wings harden completely.

There are two ways to assemble the butterflies: create self-standing butterflies, or assemble the butterflies on the cupcakes.

I was making these for Little J’s party, where the girls were making and decorating their own cupcakes. I thought assembling them on the cupcakes would be too time consuming for the party, so I made mine self-standing. The down side of trying to make self-standing butterflies is that the cute little segmented bodies (see picture below) don’t stay quite so cute when you are trying to balance the wings in the still-wet chocolate.

For a great tutorial on how to assemble the butterflies on the cupcakes, visit Annie’s Eats.

For self-standing cupcakes: using the melted chocolate, pipe a body onto a separate piece of waxed paper. Make little dollops of chocolate, being sure that they touch.

Now for the tricky part: find some odds and ends in your kitchen drawers to use to prop up your butterfly wings and antennae while the chocolate body hardens (I used plastic mason jar lids and medicine cups). Place the wings at an angle in the still soft chocolate body. Prop them up underneath. Place the antennae at the head of the butterfly and prop that as well.

I tried just holding the wings while the chocolate hardened, but the wings started to melt in my fingers before the body was hard enough to support the wings. Propping them was much easier!

Gently peel the butterflies off of the waxed paper when you are ready to put them onto your cupcakes.

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RECIPE:

Vanilla Cupcake (or Cake) Frosting

Servings: frosting for 24 cupcakes
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1 cup whole milk
5 Tbs flour
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup butter
1 cup granulated sugar (do not use powdered sugar)
Optional: food coloring

In a small saucepan, mix the flour and milk until combined. Heat over medium heat, stirring constantly with a whisk, until mixture thickens (and is just about to boil). Remove from heat and let it cool completely to room temperature. Stir in vanilla.

In a large mixing bowl (a stand mixer works best for this) cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the cooled milk mixture and beat for 5-7 minutes, until frosting is light, fluffy and completely uniform throughout. Beat in food coloring, if desired.

This frosting looks best when piped with a large decorating tip (1M), but can also be spread with a spatula.

Yield: frosting for one cake or about 24 cupcakes

NoEmptyChairs.me

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Filed under Desserts, Kids' Cakes

Tagged as birthday, butterfly cupcakes, butterfly wings, childrens birthday party, colored candy, cupcakes, dipping chocolate, flour frosting, frosting, kids birthday, melted chocolate, swirled wings

April 12, 2010 · 10:13 pm

Butterfly Wings and Apron Strings

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This weekend was my baby girl’s 6th birthday.

As we count down the days to the end of kindergarten, I am also counting down to the first time in 18 years that I will have all of my children in school all day. So what is more fitting for the birthday of my last stay-at-home-at-least-part-of-the-day child than a party full of apron strings (that I’m longing to keep tied) and butterfly wings (that she is yearning to open and fly).

So we planned a “Cooking Party” for 6 little girls, complete with hand-sewn aprons, chef hats, and a make-your-own menu of mini pizzas, fruit kabobs and butterfly cupcakes.

Our butterfly cupcakes, inspired by Annie’s Eats.

Little J modeling the apron she helped design and make. And if you look close enough, you can see (or not see) the first tooth that she lost on the night of her birthday!

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So, how come no one ever told me that there was such a thing as a “bias tape maker” before I made about 600 yards of bias tape with just a pair of scissors and an iron!? (Actually it was closer to 20 yards, but it sure felt like 600)

— All of my love to my sweet Little J, who is growing into such a lovely young lady! As you stretch your wings and fly, I hope you never completely forget those apron strings we tied together.

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Tomorrow: a tutorial on how to make Butterfly Cupcakes, plus a totally delicious cupcake frosting (from someone who picks the frosting off of just about every cake around).

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Filed under Desserts, Kids' Cakes, Uncategorized

Tagged as apron strings, aprons, butterflies, childrens birthday cake, chocolate butterflies, cupcakes, girls birthday, kids aprons, kids birthdays, kids cooking party

February 21, 2010 · 6:45 pm

Cinnamon Twists

There is something about a soft dough rippled with cinnamon and oozing sweet cream frosting that almost makes you forget about the water dripping into your house from the slowly melting snow on your roof. Almost.

These cinnamon twists are a variation on cinnamon rolls, and just as certain to please.

The dough is easy to put together and easy to work with. It goes together quickly, not requiring an initial rise. So you can have warm cinnamon twists on your plate in under an hour. Unless you have a bunch of girls staying at your house, and then you will be lucky to snag even one to try and snap a picture of. You might have to settle for the broken one shown above.

This is half of the batch of dough.

Be sure to use a sharp knife to cut the dough into strips. A round pizza cutter works amazingly!

Twist the strips and put into a pan coated with melted butter. This pan is actually a little too crowded. I should have separated them a little more.

Let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, and then bake for about 10 minutes and you are ready to eat!

I like to use a basic powdered sugar glaze to top these. If I have it on hand, I use cream and powdered sugar. Cream gives the glaze a wonderfully rich taste. You can also use milk, but the cream is definitely worth the extra calories-and if you’re eating cinnamon twists it’s not like you’re counting calories anyway!

On a side note: if you make these on the same night you make Fettuccine Alfredo, be sure to label your leftover icing and alfredo containers. While making Big J’s breakfast the next morning (yes, he was having the pasta alfredo and not the cinnamon twists for breakfast), I topped his pasta with a big scoop of icing. Luckily I licked my finger before putting the concoction in the microwave!

RECIPE:

Cinnamon Twists

Servings: 18
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FEB 6, 2010 077-1

1 ½ cups warm water
½ cup sugar
1 egg
1 Tbs yeast
1 tsp. salt
3 ½ – 4 cups flour
½ cup butter, divided
¼ cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon

Glaze:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
about 2 Tbs cream (or milk)

Mix water, sugar, egg, yeast, salt, and flour. Add more flour, if needed, to make a soft dough. Knead until a soft dough forms.

Melt ¼ cup butter in a jellyroll pan. Roll dough into rectangle. Spread with ¼ cup softened butter. Mix ¼ cup sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle dough with cinnamon and sugar mixture; cut into 1-inch wide strips (a pizza cutter works really well for this); twist each strip gently and place in buttered pan, about ½ inch apart. Let rise 30-60 minutes (until doubled).

Bake at 400°F for 10-12 mins.

Prepare glaze: Mix powdered sugar with cream, a small amount at a time, until mixture can be drizzled with a spoon.

Cool twists slightly, and then drizzle with powdered sugar glaze.

Yield: about 18 twists

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Tagged as cinnamon rolls, cinnamon twists