Archive for the ‘Desserts’ Category

To my amazing luck, I ended up on a 3 day business trip (per se) for my blog in June.  I was staying in West Hollywood at the most amazing hotel known to man (Thanks Dole).  I got to eat TONS of delicious food and drink lots of yummy alcoholic drinks.  It really was a weekend to splurge and by the time Sunday rolled around I was SUPER hungover and looking for something relaxing to do before my plane left for Arizona Sunday evening.  My ever faithful friend “Foodie Bear” told me I really needed to hit up the Hollywood Farmer’s Market.  It was only 2 miles from my hotel and he told me I would love it.  His recommendations have never failed me so I typed the address into my handy Garmin and off I went!

Living in Arizona, I’m always singing praises about our all year round farmer’s markets here, but Hollywood Farmer’s market was the coolest market I have ever been to. I toured the whole market which was about four different aisle ways of  fresh produce, flowers, food, and gourmet goodies.

On my way back to the car port I saw the cutest little orange bicycle with a freezer cooler hooked to the front.  Two people were passing out mysteriously wrapped packages out of this cart and there was a line…I was curious.

I get closer and I see that it’s a popsicle bike/cart!!! “OMG, how freaking cool;” is what I’m thinking in my head.  Also cursing myself because I had just had a mint chocolate cacao chip ice cream sandwich from the Carmela Ice Cream stand.  I really couldn’t eat anything else, my stomach was in a bad place already, being hungover, but I still wanted to get the scoop on this awesome popsicle making duo!

Chef Michelle Sallah has been in the food arena her whole life having parents who owned a diner. She’s worked in the restaurant world since she was 12 years old,  so culinary school and fine dining was the next logical step.  After awhile she decided to become a freelance chef to have more freedom to work on her own projects and this is how Popcycle Treats came about!

The “legs” of this project is John.  He rides the bike around everywhere toting these delicious handmade gourmet pops. He even designed and constructed the whole bike himself which I believe is quite an amazing feat!

Michelle makes the pops and she offers many different flavors, depending on what fruits and veggies are in season in their area.  When I spotted them they were carrying salty cucumber lime, peach ginger, and lemon mint blueberry organic popsicles.  I really wish I would have found them before I found Carmela, but now I have something to look forward to next time I am in L.A.  Even as I was  speaking to them they quickly sold out, as they do on every trip out.  I know they frequent the Hollywood Farmer’s Market, Silverlake Farmer’s Market and the  Cinespia screenings in L.A.   Just like a food truck, if you want to know where you can find them simply follow them on twitter or fan them on facebook. 

salty cucumber lime, orange blackberry

coconut milk chocolate, raspberry Arnold Palmer

I really wanted to show you guys this unique foodie find, I just thought it was the coolest thing EVER…wish we had one at the Scottsdale Farmer’s Market…hmmmmm???

If you’ve never made ice cream at home before, you should try it! It’s really fun and especially if you’re adventurous in the kitchen.  So much fun to invent your own flavors and find out what your favorite may be.  So far I’ve made mint chocolate chip, candied bacon/chocolate chip, and peach ice cream.  The family is REALLY loving the peach, they said it is the best yet.  There are many ways you can make ice cream.  The traditional way is a custard based, meaning eggs mixed with sugar and half cream half milk mix. Since my husband and I are lactose intolerant to milk products I’ve had to be creative in this process.  Thai style ice cream is dairy free, made with coconut milk and that was the first ice cream I’ve ever made.  It was rich and creamy and we all loved it, however, not being able to find unsweetened coconut milk meant that every batch would have a coconutty taste of some sort.  For the peach ice cream I switched to using Lactaid whole milk.  It has the fat content I needed but no lactose which is what we need to avoid.  If you are not lactose intolerant I would recommend mixing heavy cream with whole milk.  I use all lactose free milk and our ice cream is very delicious, but would be even creamier if I could use heavy cream. 

If you don’t have an ice cream maker, they are easy to find, but a little expensive.  Since I have a Kitchen Aid mixer, I purchased the ice cream attachment bowl at Bed Bath and Beyond.  It retails for $80.00, but I always have 20% off coupons for BBB, so I saved $16.00 which was nice.  They have many great plug in models, and the best deal I’ve ever seen was a model at Costco that was about $50. The only thing you need to know, is that you cannot make ice cream right away…every ice cream maker has a bowl that has to be frozen in your freezer for at least 12 hours prior to making it.  My bowl stays in my freezer at all times, so I can pull it out whenever I feel like making some.  I’m really happy with my ice cream maker attachment for the Kitchen Aid.  It is easy to use and comes with lots of yummy ice cream recipes too.  Another thing you may be surprised to see is that this ice cream recipe uses A LOT of eggs!!  However, if you love ice cream, you’ve been eating essentially, raw eggs mixed with sugar and cream and frozen into ice cream your whole life.  This is just how it is made, you won’t get sick so don’t worry. The best and tastiest ice cream needs to have eggs. If you find a recipe that doesn’t use eggs, you’ll taste the difference, it won’t be as good.

Peach Ice Cream

Ingredients

8-10 peaches ( I only had 5 yesterday and it still turned out delicious!)

6 eggs

3 1/2 cups sugar

2 cups heavy cream

4 cups whole milk 

2 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 tsp salt

whisk eggs, then add sugar to form a custard.  Skin and cut peaches away from pit, put peaches in blender or food processor until desired consistency.  I like chunks of peaches that I can taste in my ice cream so I don’t process it too much, but it does need to be blended a little to break the peach down to add the peach flavor into the ice cream.  Add milk and peach puree into custard.  Mix well, put into your ice cream maker and mix per manufacturers instructions.  Put in sealed container mark date and kind of ice cream and freeze.

Use 13 x9 cake pan

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (I wait till they get very spotted then put in fridge until they turn black on the outside)

1- 2 tsp lemon juice

3/4 cup unsalted butter

2  1/8 cups white sugar

3 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1  1/2 cups milk  (with at least 2% milk fat)

3 cups flour

Frosting

1- 8oz pkg cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup unsalted butter

3 1/2 cups confectioners sugar

For cake: With hand blender cream butter, sugar, and eggs.  Add bananas, vanilla, salt, baking soda, lemon juice, and milk.  Slowly add flour and incorporate well each time, then add more until all flour is used.  Pour into greased 13×9 cake pan.  Bake for 70 minutes at 275 degrees.  Check the cake after 60 minutes then remove when appropriate, every oven is different. 

For frosting: simply blend cream cheese, butter, and confectioners sugar.  Spread on top of cooled cake.  This cake is best when stored in the refrigerator.  Soooo good cold with a tall glass of milk!

This recipe was found on RecipeZaar

Okay folks, we’re comin down the wire here! Only 10 days until Christmas and I haven’t even baked my normal Christmas cookies yet!!  However, it will all start tomorrow along with pots and pots of strong coffee to keep me alert thru the next 10 long, long days and nights trying to make sure my children have a very memorable Christmas this year! And, of course to make sure we all have enough yummy cookies to eat.  I keep my list to only these four recipes as they each offer their own distinct and delicious flavors.  The most moist and simple butter cut-out I’ve ever made; classic thumbprints where you can choose your own favorite jam filling; a very simple yet decadent toffee; and my personal favorite, the Russian tea cake…the lightest, most delicate and sinfully sweet cookie I have ever tasted!  For now I will simply post the recipes, as I start this endeavour tomorrow I will add the pictures as I go.  Just wanted to give you all a chance to try these recipe gems out!

 Butter Cut-Outs

350 degree oven

10-12 minutes

 yeilds- A LOT of cookies, I’ve had this recipe for years copied down from my grandmother and I never wrote down the amount

 1 cup unsalted butter

4 egg yolks

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup sour cream

1 1/2 cups sugar

5 cups flour

1 tsp salt

 Cream butter and sugar, one by one add egg yolks, then vanilla and sour cream. Add flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder together in separate bowl. Slowly add flour mixture until a dough is formed.  wrap in parchment paper or plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.  Roll out onto lightly floured surface until 1/8 thick.  Cut out and bake, decorate with your favorite royal icing and decorations

 Chocolate-Almond Saltine Toffee

 makes 2 1/2 lbs

 1 1/2 cups sliced almonds (6ozs)

approx 60 saltine crackers (enough to line a cookie sheet)

1 1/2 cups of sugar

3 sticks unsalted butter

2 tbsp light corn syrup

1 bag semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips

 Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and completely cover with saltine crackers in single layer. In a saucepan combine butter, sugar, and corn syrup on low heat until sugar is dissolved. Raise heat to med-high and cook undisturbed until the sugar mixture starts to turn golden, around five minutes.  Keeping the heat pretty high, insert candy thermometer and stir occasionally with wooden spoon.  Leave cooking until a deep caramel color forms and until it reaches 300 degrees.  Pour hot toffee over saltines, using a rubber spatula to spread.  Let sit for two minutes, then sprinkle bag of chocolate chips on top.  Wait another few minutes, then with the rubber spatula spread the chocolate evenly over the toffee.  Dust with almonds and place in freezer to harden.

 Russian Tea Cakes

 400 degree oven

ungreased cookie sheet

10-12 minutes

 1 cup unsalted butter

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup confectioners sugar

2 1/4 cups flour

1 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup chopped walnuts

 Cream butter and powdered sugar.  Add vanilla, slowly add in flour/salt mixture, then nuts.  Wrap dough in parchment or plastic wrap and chill in fridge overnight.  Roll into 1 inch balls and roll in confectioners sugar.  Bake, then after they’ve cooled for a few minutes roll again in confectioners sugar.

 Jam Thumbprints

 350 degree oven

13-15 minutes

makes 20 cookies so double or triple this recipe if need be

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/4 cup granulated white sugar

1 large egg separated

1 cup flour

1/8 tsp salt

3/4 cup of your favorite finely chopped nuts

1/2 cup favorite jam

 Cream butter and sugar, add egg yolk.  Slowly add flour/salt mixture. If needed, chill dough for an hour or so.  Roll into 1 inch balls and dip in egg white then roll into nuts.  Place on cookie sheet an inch apart.  Using thumb make an imprint in middle of ball.  Add desired jam then bake, cool and enjoy!

After just finishing up the daunting barbie cake four weeks ago, I went through a dilemma about my son’s cake.  I knew I was doing a farm theme because I had already purchased the decorations.  I wasn’t sure if I should use round pans and make animal cake faces or do a 3d farm and make cupcake animals??? Boy am I glad I did cupcake animals!  However, this may be dangerous as I may never go back to a regular cake again.  The cupcakes were so much fun to make and the kids just adored them.  Also, so easy to serve and much less mess!!  I made the farm out of two eight inch square pans and had the exact perfect amount to even make a pitched roof with cake.  Used rice chex to do the roof and yellow colored coconut to show hay coming out of the window.

The decorating was easy but time consuming.  Just frosting and decorating the cake and animals took four hours.  I made two batches of the frosting recipe I have posted in a previous blog and used gel coloring to make yellow, red, and pink frosting.  I also kept some plain white aside for the chicks and the sheep. 

For the pigs I used strawberry wafer cookies for the ears, strawberry full sized marshmallows for the nose, and chocolate chips  for the eyes.  The chicks I frosted white and then tinted sweetened coconut flakes a bright yellow color.  You can tint coconut easily with a tiny bit of gel coloring mixed with a minuscule amount of warm water, then toss into coconut, and voila!  I also used mini orange marshmallows for the chick’s beak and chocolate chips for the eyes.  The sheep were the cutest in my eyes and the best to make.  They just look so fluffy   These I made with the large strawberry marshmallows, vanilla and chocolate wafers for the ears and lots of mini marshmallow (cut in half) to make a fluffy fleece.  I tinted coconut for the grass and turned two cupcakes upside down and used a grass tip on my piping bag to make it look like haystacks.  Easily doable and the kids will be very happy…just like my little bubba was right here….

the birthday boy