This week's Project Pastry Queen was picked by Amanda of Homekeeping Adventures: Blackberry Pie Bars. I'm not a huge fan of blackberries so I was thinking about what kind of berries to put in them when I went into Sam's Club and saw two pounds of blueberries for $5. Sold! In true form of The Pastry Queen, these bars were delicious. Soft, buttery, and a little tangy from the sour cream. You could adapt these in a variety of ways...different berries, nuts, chocolate. I love the buttery crust on top and bottom, and I know that I'll be making these again since they are easy to make (much easier than pie). I think these would be great on a road trip or picnic when you want something sweet and portable. Be sure to check out the Project Pastry Queen website to see everyone's take on the recipe and check out Amanda's page for the recipe.
Happy ice cream month! I hope you're celebrating. I love ice cream, but I usually forget about it. With brownies or cupcakes or cake or cookies on my counter, I forget about the lonely ice cream in the freezer. You know that chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream I made awhile ago? It's still in there. The other problem is that the hubs is lactose intolerant, so he hardly ever partakes in ice cream. Therefore, I decided to scale down an ice cream recipe to a more manageable size. Not to mention that with so many wonderful flavors, I don't want two quarts of one flavor. Give me options!
This is a great strawberry ice cream recipe. Instead of eggs and milk, it has sour cream in it. It tastes great (not like sour cream though), it's creamy, and it's easy to make. Plus, with a small portion, it only takes about five minutes to churn. You'll be eating ice cream before you know it! I like to eat this ice cream with a little basil syrup poured on top...love that strawberry basil combo! Strawberry Ice Cream for Two Recipe Makes about 2 cups Print this recipe 6 ounces (about 1 1/2 cups) strawberries, hulled and sliced 1/4 cup sugar 1 teaspoon vodka (optional) 1/3 cup sour cream 1/3 cup heavy cream 1/8 teaspoon lemon juice Combine the sliced strawberries, sugar, and vodka in a bowl and let sit at room temperature for about an hour. Stir occasionally. Transfer this to a blender or food processor and add the sour cream, cream, and lemon juice. Process a few times until blended, but you'll want to leave a few clumps. Chill in the refrigerator for about an hour. Churn in your ice cream machine according to the manufacturer's instructions. You'll probably only need to churn it for about 5-10 minutes, so keep an eye on it. If you want a harder consistency, freeze overnight. Recipe scaled down from Annie's Eats. Fresh strawberries. Chocolate. Cheesecake. Pie crust. Need I say more? This is the first time I've made this pie, and I absolutely love it. Not only is it beautiful, but it's easy and tasty. The pie crust is brushed with melted semisweet chocolate that hardens and offsets the sweetness of the strawberries. The cheesecake-ish filling is sweet but not too sweet and provides a great tang. The combination of flavors is incredible. Did I mention that other than baking the pie crust, you don't have to turn on your oven? Perfection.
As an added bonus, I used light sour cream and fat free cream cheese with great results. Since I make so many desserts, it's great when I can lighten things up without sacrificing taste or texture. Let's just say there were three people eating this, and we killed almost three-quarters of it in one sitting. The only mistake I made was that I pulled it out of the fridge about an hour before serving. Don't be like me because the cheesecake part got soft and runny. It's much better to serve it cold, straight out of the fridge. This pie takes a bit of time, but a lot of it is inactive time waiting for it to chill and set in the fridge. Strawberry Cheesecake Pie Recipe Makes one 9-inch pie Print this recipe One 9-inch pie crust, baked 3 ounces semisweet chocolate 1 tablespoon butter 6 ounces cream cheese 1/2 cup sour cream 3 tablespoons sugar 1/2 teaspoon vanilla 3-4 cups strawberries, hulled 1/3 cup strawberry jam, melted In a small saucepan or microwavable bowl, slowly melt 2 ounces of chocolate and the butter, stirring frequently. Spread this over the bottom of the baked pie crust. Chill until hard. In a mixing bowl, beat the sour cream, cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla until smooth. This works best with an electric mixer. Spread this over the chilled chocolate layer. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours. Arrange the hulled strawberries on top of the filling. Brush the melted strawberry jam on top of the strawberries. Melt the remaining 1 ounce of chocolate and drizzle it on top of the berries. Source: Taste of Home Winning Recipes Cookbook I chose to make peach cobbler for this week's Project Pastry Queen. The recipe I was supposed to make was Shawnda's choice: Prosciutto Tostadas. You should head over to the Pastry Queen website to check out everyone's take on the recipe. I was intrigued by the tostadas part, but topping the tostada was shrimp and prosciutto. Since I'm not a seafood lover, I scanned the cookbook to find something else. Peaches usually aren't very good yet in Colorado, but when I walked into the grocery store, I could smell them. Maybe they're early this year like everything else. I grabbed a bunch of peaches and brought them home.
This is a fantastic cobbler recipe, and it's really easy. You brown the butter, which gives it an awesome nutty quality and adds tremendous flavor. Then you mix a few other ingredients together and dump it on top of the butter. Finally, you slice your peaches (but you can leave the skin on) and arrange those on top. While it bakes, the batter moves to the top, forming a great crust. I halved the original recipe and made them in ramekins for individual cobblers. Also, since it's 800 degrees outside, I made these in my convection toaster oven, and I think that's why the batter spilled over the edges a bit. I think if I would have baked them in the regular oven, that wouldn't have happened. These left me wishing I had a big scoop of vanilla ice cream to put on top. Individual Peach Cobbler Recipe Print this recipe Serves 4 If you want to make this recipe for a crowd, double the ingredients and make it in one 8x8 pan, following the same directions. Bake it for 40-45 minutes. 1/4 cup butter 1/2 cup sugar 1/2 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 tablespoon baking powder 1/8 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon vanilla 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons milk 1 peach, cut into 16 slices with the skin on 1/4 cup packed brown sugar Four 7-ounce, oven-safe ramekins Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a small saucepan, melt your butter over medium-high heat until it bubbles and turns brown. It'll start to smell nutty. Keep an eye on it because it will turn from brown to burned quickly. Remove from heat and divide evenly between the ramekins (about 1-2 tablespoons per ramekin). In a medium bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Stir in the vanilla and milk until combined. Divide this evenly among the ramekins, but do not stir it in. Just place it on top of the butter. Wash and dry your peach and cut it into 16 slices (you'll want 4 slices per quarter). Arrange 4 slices on top of the batter in each ramekin. Again, do not stir the peaches in--just place them on top. Bake for 25-30 minutes until the tops turn golden brown. While baking, the batter will rise to the top and form the crust. Let cool slightly before serving. Slightly adapted from The Pastry Queen. While I tend to be a purist, I've been wanting to make a variation on rice krispie treats for awhile. I remember being a kid and making rice krispie treats with my mom using a very simple recipe: 1 stick of butter, a bag of big marshmallows, and enough cereal to soak up the marshmallow goo. I was the stirrer, which became less fun the longer I had to stand there and stir. It was, however, a small penance to pay for those treats. I still love rice krispie treats, especially on car trips or when camping. I have a tendency to eat little pieces out of the pan until there are none left...they are one of my many weaknesses.
To make my variation, I decided to use Golden Grahams instead of the Rice Krispies, and then I debated for awhile about adding chocolate. I added it, and I'm so happy I did. These, my friends, taste like s'mores. And if you live somewhere like Colorado where there is a ban on all fires, fireworks, flames, and fun, these will get you the s'more fix without the open flame. (Not really a ban on fun, but it was a strange 4th of July with no fireworks booming.) These will take you about 15 minutes to make, you don't have to turn on your oven, and you can consume them just as quickly. As my friend said, they're rice krispie treats on steroids. Good luck not devouring them as soon as they cool (or even while they're still warm). Speaking of Colorado and fire, there have been a lot of devastating, destructive wildfires in Colorado this year, and hundreds of homes have been lost. Erin of Dinner, Dishes, and Desserts is hosting a bake sale with the proceeds going to Colorado Disaster Relief. I'm contributing my snickerdoodle bars, and there are a lot of other items up for sale. It starts this Sunday, so head over to Dinners, Dishes, and Desserts to bid on the many items. S'more Treats Recipe Makes a 9x9 pan Print this recipe 1/2 cup butter 1 (10 ounce) bag marshmallows 8 cups Golden Grahams cereal 1 cup chocolate chips Grease a 9x9 square pan and set aside. In a large saucepan, melt the butter and marshmallows over medium heat, stirring frequently, until smooth. Once melted and smooth, remove from heat and add half the cereal. Mix until combined, add the remaining cereal, and stir together. (If you like your bars to be more gooey, add less cereal. If you like them to be pretty dry/firm, add more cereal.) Add in the chocolate chips, quickly stir until incorporated, and dump into your greased pan. Using wet hands, press firmly into the pan and let cool before cutting into bars. A She Makes and Bakes Recipe I'm not really sure where I came across a pavlova, but I know I've never tried one until I made them. Coincidentally, these are a great red, white, and blue dessert for those of you looking to show your spirit on Wednesday. I actually made these for Mother's Day, and I've been holding on to them.
If you've never heard of a pavlova, it's sweetened egg whites (meringue) that are baked low and slow to dry them out. These are topped with fresh whipped cream and berries. Traditionally, a giant pavlova is made and then cut into pieces like a pie. However, it tends to crack so these are a better option. Plus, I like individual desserts...better portion control. Unless you eat more than one! But no one does that, right? When I was in Ireland last week, I popped into a lot of bakeries. Most of them had these individual pavlovas in them, so I think they're more popular in Europe than they are in the States. Those Europeans know what they're doing because these are good! The beauty of these is that they're light, simple, and can be made in advance. You can make the shells up to two weeks in advance, the whipped cream in advance (or use store bought), and then you just need to slice up the fruit, which you can do ahead of time, too. All you have to do is assemble them when you're ready to serve. Beautiful, easy, and light. A great dessert! Individual Pavlova Recipe Print this recipe Serves 6 For the shells: 4 egg whites, room temperature 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar For the whipped cream: 1 cup heavy cream 1 tablespoon sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla For the topping: 1 cup strawberries, hulled and diced 1/4 cup blueberries Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Whip the egg whites, vanilla, and cream of tartar together with an electric mixer on medium low speed until foamy. Increase the mixer to medium high speed and whip to soft mounds, about 1 minute. Gradually add in 1 cup of the sugar while the mixer is running. Beat the whites until they are glossy and form stiff peaks, about 1-3 minutes. Place a piece of parchment paper on a large baking sheet. Scoop 1/2 cup of the whites onto the baking sheet and form into nests using the back of a spoon. Or fill a large Ziploc bag with the meringue, cut off the corner, and pipe the meringue into nests on the baking sheet. You'll want to make an indentation in the middle so you can fit more whipped cream and berries in it. Make 6 of these, and space them about 1 inch apart. Bake the meringues until they have smooth and dry exteriors, about 1.5 hours. Turn the oven off and let them sit in the oven for about 2 hours (I let mine sit in there overnight). Toss the cut strawberries with the 1 tablespoon sugar. To make the whipped cream, whip the cream, sugar, and vanilla with an electric mixer on high onto soft peaks form. Place the pavlovas on a serving plate(s), fill the nests with whipped cream, and top with the berries. Serve immediately. You can make the pavlovas ahead of time and store in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks. You also can add or substitute other fruits, such as cherries, peaches, kiwi, raspberries, etc. Source: The America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book What's better than an oatmeal cookie and chocolate fudge together? Um, nothing. My friend, Adria, sent me this recipe over a year ago. In fact, it was closer to two years ago, and now I'm kicking myself that I haven't been enjoying these beauties that long. The funny thing is that what stopped me was that the instructions said to cook the fudge on the stovetop, and I was too lazy to do that. When I finally made them, I put all the fudge ingredients into a microwave-safe bowl, and melted them until smooth. Problem solved for this lazy bones. I still can't believe that's what stopped me. The girl who cooked and stirred 15 pounds of fudge last year during the holidays.
These take a little bit of time because you have to make the cookie mixture and the fudge, but everything bakes at once, so it's not too bad. I also halved the recipe, which was a great idea for me (since on the day I made these, I also made salted caramel brownies and chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream sandwiches). If you're going to a BBQ this summer, bring these. Your friends will be thrilled. Oatmeal Fudge Bars Recipe Makes a 9x13 pan Print this recipe For the cookie bars: 1 cup butter 1 1/2 cup brown sugar 1/2 cup sugar 2 eggs 2 teaspoons vanilla 2 1/2 cups oats 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (optional) For the fudge filling: 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips 14 ounces sweetened condensed milk 1 tablespoon butter 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon vanilla Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and grease a 9x13 pan. In a stand mixer or using an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugars. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix. Stir in the baking soda, salt, and cinnamon until combined. Mix in the flour until combined and the oats until combined. Press a little more than half of the mixture into the bottom of the pan. In a saucepan, cook the chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk, butter, salt, and vanilla over medium low heat until creamy (you also could do this in the microwave in 30-second intervals, stirring in between). Pour this mixture over the dough in the pan, but avoid pouring it near the edges. Flatten pieces of the remaining dough and put on top of the fudge. You'll want to leave windows for the fudge to peek through. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until topping is light brown and fudge is set. Cool for 30 minutes and store at room temperature. After I made my chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, I needed to do something with the rest of it. Since the hubs is lactose intolerant, he doesn't partake in ice cream too frequently. This means that I have a lot of leftovers when I make a batch of ice cream. I have a lot of other sweets usually sitting on the counter and I forget about the lonely ice cream in the freezer. I won't be forgetting about these sandwiches though.
These are pretty incredible, and they're really not difficult to make. Also, you don't have to make your own ice cream. You could use any store bought ice cream you like. And, truth be told, you don't really have to make cookies. You could buy your favorite kind. But for now, let's stick with these cookies. They are a very rich and indulgent chocolate cookie; when paired with the ice cream, they take you back to summer days when you were a kid and the ice cream truck rolled around. These are about a million times better than that though, and I just found out they're way cheaper. Apparently the ice cream truck charges $4 or $5 for an ice cream sandwich. Whaaa? Try these out. They're perfect on a hot summer day. Cookie Dough Ice Cream Sandwiches Recipe Makes 8 sandwiches Print this recipe 1 recipe chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream For the cookies: 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 5 tablespoons butter 7 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa 2/3 cup sugar 1/3 cup brown sugar 1/3 cup sour cream or plain yogurt 1 teaspoon vanilla Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt. Melt butter in a saucepan and remove from heat. Whisk in the cocoa until fully incorporated and stir in the sugars until it looks like coarse sand. Add in the sour cream or yogurt (use what you have; I've used both at different times and they both work great) and vanilla. Add in the flour mixture and stir until combined. Drop dough by rounded teaspoon-fulls onto a greased baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes until set. Let cool completely. Meanwhile, let your ice cream thaw for about 10 minutes or until scoopable. Scoop it into a 9x13 pan and press it down into a single layer using plastic wrap. Place in the freezer until solid. Once your ice cream is solid and your cookies have cooled, use a round cookie cutter to cut circles of ice cream that are slightly smaller than your cookies. Pair up your cookies according to size, place the ice cream round in between, and place in the freezer. Once solid, you can serve or place in a freezer bag for later. Cookies barely adapted from Two Peas & Their Pod Idea was all mine This week's Project Pastry Queen is celebrating the upcoming birth of Emily of Ruf Love's baby boy. Emily from A Gilt Nutmeg is kind enough to host this sailing-themed baby shower, so I decided to bring a lemon blueberry sailing cake. I wish my pictures were a little better for this one, but oh well. It was made with love.
We actually ate this cake last weekend since we were celebrating Father's Day early because today I'm arriving in Ireland! The hubs and I are spending two glorious weeks here. By the way, happy Father's Day to all the dads out there. I know I love mine more than anything so I hope all of you feel very loved today. My parents loved this cake (I'm not a fan of lemon), and they were very happy to take the rest of it home. I made this one with some vanilla bean frosting I had on hand, but I think cream cheese frosting would be best, so that's what I put in the recipe below. Also, this cake is for high altitude, so if you're at a regular altitude, use your favorite lemon cake recipe or box mix and add in blueberries. It's a great combination. By the way, I made a 6-inch cake and cut each cake in half, so that's why mine looks like it does. The recipe below is for a 9-inch cake; if you want to do 6-inch cakes instead, just halve the recipe. Happy Father's Day and Happy Baby Shower Day, Emily. I hope everyone feels very loved on this special day! I'll have a Guinness for ya! Lemon Blueberry Cake Recipe (High Altitude) Print this recipe For the cake: 3 cups cake flour 2 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup butter, salted 1 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar 5 eggs + 1 egg white 1 1/2 cups buttermilk 1/2 cup lemon juice 1/2 cup instant vanilla pudding mix 1 teaspoon lemon zest 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries For the Cream Cheese Frosting (any altitude): 1 1/2 packages cream cheese (12 ounces) 12 tablespoons butter 1 1/2 pounds powdered sugar 1/4 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons vanilla For the Filling: 1 vanilla pudding snack pack (we are going easy here people) 1/2 cup blueberries Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and spray 2 9-inch cake pans with Baker's Joy. To make the high-altitude cake, in a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time until incorporated. Add in the baking powder, salt, and lemon zest and mix. Combine the buttermilk and lemon juice. In three additions, add the cake flour and vanilla pudding mix, alternating with the buttermilk/lemon juice mixture. Mix until just incorporated. Pour half the mixture into your greased 9 inch pan. Fold the blueberries into the remaining batter and pour into the second pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool your cakes completely before frosting. To make the cream cheese frosting, in your mixing bowl fitted with the paddle, cream together the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add the vanilla and salt and mix until incorporated. Add the powdered sugar one cup at a time and mix until smooth. It's best to weigh your powdered sugar because your amount in cups will depend on your humidity. Store leftover frosting in the fridge or freezer. To assemble the cake, if the cakes are rounded on top, slice the tops off. Place the first cake on the plate, bottom side down. Put some frosting in a piping bag or a ziploc bag with the corner cut off and pipe a circle of frosting around the edge of the cake (this will hold the filling in). Spread the vanilla pudding on top of the cake inside the frosting circle and sprinkle the blueberries over it. Place the second cake layer, bottom side up, over the blueberries. Press down slightly. Frost the cake using the remaining frosting. If you want to make the ruffles or waves, tint your frosting blue, place the frosting in a piping bag fitting with a wide flat tip and move the bag back and forth sideways about one inch in width. Start from the bottom and work your way to the top and then move to the next one-inch section. Continue until there are ruffles around the cake. Man, I hope that makes sense! Souce: Cake adapted from Annie's Eats; frosting from The Pioneer Woman Cookbook. First of all, we leave for Ireland in one day, and we'll be gone for two weeks. Do you guys know how much work has to be done to be ready to leave your house and your country for two weeks? I feel like my brain is on overdrive as I'm constantly thinking about what needs to get done and packed. I'm sure you all feel very bad for me, right? Right? Anyone? I wish I had a piece of this cake. I think it would relax me. When strawberries finally come into season, I may have a tendency to go a little crazy. I keep buying them and then I finally get a little strawberried out and I have a batch sitting in the fridge about to go bad. Does this happen to anyone else? Because I do this at least once every year. Sometimes I don't learn and it happens a couple times a year. I am very brilliant. Thankfully I found this strawberry cake recipe last year on Smitten Kitchen, and it's awesome. You can make it really quick and use up your almost questionable strawberries. Those strawberries turn into a quasi jam-like consistency, and the cake is sweet without being too sweet. Plus, it's really pretty with the sunken strawberries, and it looks like it took you all day to make it. Easy Strawberry Cake Recipe Makes a 9-inch cake Print this recipe 6 tablespoons butter, softened 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, divided 1 egg 1/2 cup milk 1 tablespoon vanilla 1 pound strawberries, hulled and halved Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Cream together the sugar and butter with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the egg, milk, and vanilla and mix until combined. Add in the flour, baking powder, and salt and stir until incorporated. Pour the batter into a greased 9-inch cake pan. Place the strawberries, cut side down, on top of the batter. Sprinkle the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar on top and bake for 10 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 325 degrees and bake for another 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Let cool in the pan. Source: Smitten Kitchen By the way, I added some pretzels to the batter, but it really didn't add anything to the recipe other than a weird texture. I wouldn't recommend it. So ignore those pretzels in the photo. I'm not good enough in Photoshop to take them out of the picture.
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Welcome!Cooking is fun and easy at high altitude, but baking can be frustrating. About 90% of my recipes work everywhere, but some are adjusted so us mountain dwellers can enjoy baked goods from scratch. I hope you find great recipes on here for your family, and I'll let you know if any are adjusted for high altitude. Stay Updated!
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