Category Archives: dessert

Cappuccino fudge crinkles

baking, dessert 12 Comments

Kiddo and I had the urge to make cookies, and since he doesn’t actually eat any of them, I get to pick the recipes. This one jumped right off the page at me, I swear: cookies plus chocolate plus coffee? Sign me up.

This one is from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook — you know, the red and white one. It’s a classic.

You will need:

  • 1/3 cup butter
  • 1 packed cup brown sugar
  • 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 Tbsp instant coffee (I used two packets of Starbucks VIA sent to me gratis by the awesome Maris)
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 2 egg whites
  • 1/3 cup vanilla yogurt
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar

To make:

  1. Preheat oven to 350F
  2. With a mixer, beat butter on medium to high speed for about 60 seconds to soften it up, then add in brown sugar, cocoa powder, coffee, baking soda, and cinnamon (not granulated sugar). Beat till combined, scraping bowl as necessary
  3. Add in egg whites and yogurt, and beat till combined
  4. Add in flour, 1/2 cup at a time, beating till just combined (if you’re using a hand mixer you may need to finish off with a wooden spoon — the batter gets pretty thick and sticky)
  5. Pour granulated sugar in a shallow bowl, then drop teaspoons of the cookie dough into the sugar, a few at a time. Roll the dough into balls, coating with sugar as you go. The dough will be crazy sticky, but you’ll be able to handle it easier once the white sugar is stuck to it
  6. Place cookies 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for about ten minutes, or until edges are firming up. Cool on a wire rack
  7. Eat with abandon Carefully pack up to give away

Hot chocolate

dessert, drinks, kids 5 Comments

The Kiddo loves him some Polar Express. He loves the hot chocolate song and wanted to make some to enjoy while we watched the movie. And by “enjoy” I mean “direct me to drink on his behalf” because he has very strict rules about drinking anything other than milk and water. Alrighty then.

This is actually so easy that it barely deserves to be called a recipe. Don’t you love that kind of recipe?

Stir together in a mug:

  1. 3 teaspoons cocoa powder
  2. 3 teaspoons sugar
  3. Pinch of salt

Now add either boiling water or steaming hot milk and stir. Add marshmallows at will.

Feel free to entertain your taste buds by adding peppermint syrups, Bailey’s, cinnamon, etc.

That’s all. Isn’t that easy? Don’t you want to quit buying those little packets?

Stay warm! 🙂

Strawberry layer cake

baking, dessert, kids 9 Comments

Yesterday was the first birthday of One Particular Kitchen! Yay! So I did what anyone would do: I made a cake. My mother made this cake for my birthday a few times and it was always spectacular and pink and fluffy. I was am the kind of little girl who thinks there can never be too much pink, and this cake was just the prettiest, most precious thing my birthday-girl self could dream up while I was running around in Gunne Sax dresses (which were, of course, pink).

Did I mention I make this in my pink Kitchenaid mixer?

I have a copy of this recipe, officially called Strawberry Layer Dessert, that came out of my mother’s cookbook, and I’m afraid I’m not sure which one it was; likely early versions of the Better Homes and Gardens or Betty Crocker picture books, but it’s nowhere to be seen in either one of those books I have on my shelf.

This one involves some downtime between steps, so be sure to allow yourself time to get everything done.

Strawberry layer cake

Ingredients

  • Two 10-ounce packages frozen sliced strawberries, thawed
  • Two 3-ounce packages strawberry-flavored gelatin
  • 2 cups boiling water
  • 2 cups whipping cream, whipped to stiff peaks
  • One 10-inch angel food cake

Instructions

  1. Drain strawberries, reserving 1 cup syrup (see note below)
  2. Dissolve gelatin in boiling water, add reserved strawberry syrup, then chill mixture till partially set
  3. Beat mixture using whisk attachment of stand mixer until light and fluffy — this took quite a few minutes for me till it was lighter pink and fluffed up nicely
  4. Fold in whipped cream and chill another 30 minutes or so till the mix is thickened up again
  5. Transfer 1 1/2 cups of mixture to a separate bowl and fold in strained strawberries
  6. Split angel food cake into three layers, and use the smaller bowl of mixture with the strawberries to fill between layers, then frost top and sides of cake with remaining mixture. Garnish with fresh strawberries if you have them on hand

Notes

I ended up with frozen whole strawberries that did not have syrup, so I put them in a bowl with some sugar while they thawed, which produced some lovely syrup. Instead of slicing I just broke them up a little with a fork before folding into the whipped cream mixture and they were lovely!

Skillet apples

baking, breakfast, dessert 5 Comments

This is another one of those recipes that I have written down on a scrap of paper and tucked away. I have no idea where it came from, but it’s so yummy.

It’s also what I had for breakfast this morning. Is that wrong? It’s fruit, people.

Try this. Seriously. Gather:

  • 1 skillet (I used my smallest cast iron)
  • 2 Granny Smith apples
  • 2 Tbsp. butter
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
  • Sprinkle of nutmeg

And then:

  1. Core and slice apples (uniformly sized pieces are your friends so they’ll cook evenly; you can also peel them if your little heart desires, but I dig the peels)
  2. Melt butter in skillet
  3. Add apples, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg to skillet and stir to combine and coat apples (note: the mixture will look a little dry at first and you’ll be tempted to add more butter, but don’t; as the apples cook down they’ll get nice and juicy and everything will be great)
  4. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 15-20 minutes or until apples are nice and tender and sauce is starting to thicken
  5. Serve for breakfast

I can neither confirm nor deny that these are crazy good with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Just sayin.

White chocolate oatmeal Craisin cookies

baking, dessert, kids 3 Comments

I had a morning appointment at Redo in Franklin (if you haven’t been, go now — love them) today and, as I am wont to do, brought The Kiddo with me. Fortunately he travels well, especially when the iPod is loaded up with Super Why. Know what else travels well? These cookies! I can neither confirm nor deny that they are lovely for breakfast sandwiched around a healthy smear of peanut butter.

This varies just a bit from the recipe on the Craisin bag, so here ’tis:

  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
  • 3/4 cup white sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups oats
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 bag Craisins
  • 1 cup white chocolate chips

To make the goodness:

  1. Preheat oven to 350F
  2. Beat butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla for 5 minutes at medium speed till mixture is light and fluffy
  3. Combine dry ingredients in a second bowl and add to butter mixture one cup at a time, mixing till just incorporated
  4. Stir in Craisins and white chocolate chips
  5. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto nonstick or greased cookie sheets and bake for about 10 minutes until they’re just starting to brown around the edges
  6. Cool on cookie sheets for 2 minutes, then move to wire rack to completely cool

This makes about 5 dozen, and they  freeze beautifully! Enjoy!