Mother-Daughter Tea

Every year our church, West Twin Grove Christian Church, hosts a spring tea for not only mothers and daughters, but for all interested women.  I've had so much fun planning, decorating and preparing the food for these events and the ladies are all so appreciative.  The best part of the tea is constructing and decorating the glass dessert tower.  I've used this so many times I've lost count, but it's always a hit.  Our theme this year was "Be Still and Know that I am God".  I used a pretty light acqua blue as my colors because it reminds me of calm water.  The desserts every year are different, but the cucumber tea sandwiches are requested each year and I always make chicken salad along with some fruit and vegetable trays. 

Chocolate Cupcakes w/Coconut Frosting - Vegan!

After I had an amazing vegan coconut cupcake at Bartertown in Grand Rapids last weekend, I set my mind to duplicate them. The vanilla cupcake was moist and dense similiar to a pound cake and topped with a frosting that had an intense coconut flavor.  I decided to use a chocolate cupcake recipe from Chef Chloe, the young woman who won an episode of Cupcake Wars with her all vegan cupcakes.

Her secret to replacing the butter and eggs is to use baking soda and vinegar to give the cupcakes moistness & texture.  I used almond milk for the liquid but you could use coffee or water with good results.  I used her frosting recipe replacing the liquid with cream of coconut.   I didn't get  the strong coconut flavor as the Bartertown cupcake and I did miss the taste of my traditional buttercream frosting. 

These are incredibly good cupcakes!  Who knew without butter and eggs?  There's an endless number of variations on these on her website - take a look and let your imagination lead you.

Chocolate-Peppermint Thumbprints

Since I bake all year long, I usually don't make Christmas cookies and treats that alot of people enjoy this time of year.  Our family isn't that wild about Christmas cookies and would much rather eat a warm chocolate chip cookie or apple pie.  So when I received my Martha Stewart's Food magazine the other day, I figured there wouldn't be any recipes to entice me, but her take on the traditional thumbprint cookie looked so good that I had to give it a try.

 Super easy to make, I rolled out small balls of dough and dipped in sugar before baking.  After baking just a few minutes I made an indentation for filling, then baked another few minutes.  The best part of the cookie is the chocolate-peppermint filling that is piped into the "thumbprint."  Yummy - give it a try!

Martha's Chocolate-Pepperment Thumbprints

2 c. flour
2/3 c. cocoa powder
1/4 t. salt
1 1/4 c. butter - room temp
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 egg
1 T. vanilla
3/4 c. chocolate chips
1/2 t. peppermint extract

Whisk flour, cocoa and salt - set aside.  Beat1 cup of the butter and 1 cup of the sugar with mixer about 3 minutes.  Add egg and vanilla and gradually add dry ingredients until combined thoroughly.  Place 1/2 cup sugar in bowl.  Roll dough into 1 inch balls and dip in sugar.  Place on parchment lined baking sheets and bake at 350 for 5 minutes.  Remove and make small indentation with melon baller or teaspoon in center of cookie.  Return to oven and bake another 4 minutes - do not overbake.  Let cool.  Melt chocolate chips and 1/4 c. butter in microwave.  Stir in extract and transfer to a zip lock bag.  Snip end of bag and pipe small amount into cookie indentation.

Chocolate Torte

This chocolate torte is my number one no-fail dessert.  Sometimes called a flourless chocolate cake, it is great for those on a gluten-free diet but certainly not for dieters.  Consisting mainly of chocolate, sugar and butter it is off the calorie charts.  What's great about this recipe is that it can be adapted to most any baking pan, cut or formed into different shapes and plated in any of number of ways.  It is a versatile dessert which can be made several days in advance and even frozen if need be. 

Torte dusted with cocoa and served with a spicy caramel sauce after a Mexican meal.

This was cut into rounds and served with a raspberry sauce for dessert at our annual Christmas Dinner

at my sorority house.

Chocolate Torte

2 c. chocolate chips

5 oz. unsweetened chocolate

1 1/2 c. melted butter

1 1/2 c. sugar

1/2 c. water

7 eggs

1/4 c. sugar

Grease 10 inch springform pan and line with parchment paper.  Chop unsweetned chocolate and add chocolate chips and melted butter.  Heat sugar and water to boiling and pour over chocolate.  Stir until melted.  Beat eggs with remaining sugar until well blended.  Mix into chocolate thoroughly.  Pour into pan and place on rimmed cookie sheet.  Pour hot water onto bottom of cookie sheet and bake 40-45 minutes at 350.  Cool and then fridgerate overnight.  Garnish with whipped cream.

S'Mores Cupcakes

First let me say that I really don't care all that much for s'mores.  Sure I'll make and eat one around the campfire but they just don't hold that much appeal to me.  But cupcakes are my thing and after I heard about the s'mores cupcakes I couldn't resist.  These so far have topped all the cupcakes I've ever made.  Yes, they've beaten out Red Velvet, Oreo, Snickers & Caramel and even the Chocolate Chip Cookie cupcakes - they are that good.  There are several very different s'mores cupcake recipes out there and some far easier than these but don't bother with them - these are winners.

My recipe comes from annies-eats.net and first starts with a graham cracker crust topped with a thin layer of chocolate.  This is prebaked for 5 minutes then a thin chocolate cupcake batter is poured over top and baked another 20 minute.  The topping consists of an egg white and sugar confection that is cooked over stovetop then whipped into a marshmallow consistency.  This topping is piped onto the cupcakes and then torched - the fun part!  A piece of Hershey's chocolate tops the cupcake.

I wanted to see how much topping I could get on one of these without it collapsing and it came out looking like an ice cream cone.  I would call this a Freshour cone.

Playing around with the fluff you can make all kinds of funky looks!

I made four dozen cupcakes for girls at work this week and this batch will go to John's office for their Halloween/Chili Cookoff. 

The best part of making these was busting out my new torch that hubby bought for me. 

Chef John dressed for his office Halloween party.

Jam Filled Raspberry Cupcakes

Our new raspberry patch has been supplying us with fresh berries everyday for the past month.  The berries have been small due to dry weather but still have that delicate and sweet raspberry flavor. So far they have only been tossed on our cereal in the mornings, but I've been wanting to do something fun with them. 

Raspberries make such pretty decorations on desserts so I dressed up some cupcakes with them.
the cupcake itself is just a white cake mix with some berry jam piped into the middle.  Frosting is butter, cream cheese and powdered sugar whipped till it's fluffy. 

I took these cupcakes to our church's hog roast where they were scooped up immediately.  No worries though Alex - there's some in the freezer for you when you come home.

Cinnamon Chips

In downtown Holland, Michigan, there is a delightful restaurant-cafe called Alpen Rose that has wonderful baked goods.  A while back I tried their Oatmeal Cinnamon Chip Cookies and vowed immediately to duplicate them at home.  I had never baked with cinnamon chips before and not every store stocks them, but you can find them at Meijers.  Cinnamon Chips look just like mini chocolate chips but are flavored little bits of cinnamon and sugar.  They make wonderful little additions to cookies, muffins, scones, quick breads and pancakes.  I first tried the recipe on the back of the package but it didn't produce the thick, chewy cookie I was looking for.  Since I have a wonderful Oatmeal-Raisin Cookie recipe, I simply added the cinnamon chips for a dense, chewy bakery-style cookie.

Oatmeal-Raisin Cinnamon Chip Cookies

2 c. flour

1 t. each baking soda and baking powder

1 t. salt

1/2 c. butter

1/2 c. crisco

1 c. sugar

1 c. brown sugar

2 eggs

2 t. vanilla

3 c. oatmeal

1 1/2 c. raisins

1/2 c. or more cinnamon chips

Preheat oven to 350.  Whisk dry ingredients together and set aside.  Cream butter, shortening, sugar and brown sugar well.  Add eggs and vanilla and mix.  Stir in dry ingredients just until mixed in, then add oatmeal and cinnamon chips.  Drop generous scoops of dough onto greased cookie sheet and bake 10-12 minutes.

Every friday we have the TGIF Brunch at the sorority and I love to come up with new pastries.  The cinnamon chips were an excellent addition to this scone recipe and something the girls had never had before - they loved them.  Score!

Cinnamon Chip Scones

1 c. cinnamon chips

2 c. flour

1/4 c. brown sugar

1 t. cinnamon

1 t. baking powder

1/4 t. salt

1/4 c. butter

3/4 c. buttermilk

1 egg

1 t. vanilla

Cut butter into dry ingredients until coarse crumbs form.  (pastry blender works great, but your fingers will do just find)  Beat milk, egg and vanilla together in small bowl.  Gently mix wet ingredients into the dry and stir till coated.  Turn out onto lightly floured counter and  form into ball.  Transfer to parchment lined cookie sheet and gently form into 9 inch circle.  With knife cut into triangles but do not seperate. Sprinkle with raw sugar if desired.  Bake in preheated 375 oven for approximately 20 minutes.  Serve warm. 

Strawberry-Rhubarb Sorbet

I expanded my rhubarb patch this spring and with all the summer rains I'm still picking tender pink stalks.  I've got an endless supply of new recipes I want to try using the rhubarb, but the first one I had to make is this sorbet.   A recipe adapted from David Lebovitz's "The Perfect Scoop", this is a super easy recipe that I put together in minutes this afternoon and was churned, frozen and ready to eat for dessert tonight.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Sorbet

12 oz. rhubarb

2/3 c. water

3/4 c. sugar

10 oz. strawberries

1 t. lemon juice

Cook rhubarb, water and sugar for 5 minutes or until tender.  Cool to room temp.  Puree rhubarb, strawberries and lemon juice in food processor.  Chill in fridge for at least one hour.  Process in ice cream maker according to directions.  Makes 1 quart.

Very Berry Pie

I've finished my first school year of blogging and looking forward to new adventures.  Testing new recipes, learning new photo tricks and food styling are all on my to-do list. A week long cooking vacation in southern Italy will top off my summer and help jump start the fall semester.  I'm looking forward to taking my cooking in a new direction - simplier with more complex flavors using fresh ingredients.  I have stacks of recipes that await me and I'm thrilled to have the time to experiment, test and learn.  This recipe for Very Berry Pie is a combination of strawberries, raspberries, blueberries & blackberries with fresh lemon juice.  I made up the recipe as I went and it turned out to be one of the best pies I've ever made.  My main reason for making this pie was to do the cool cut-out on the crust.  I had seen a similar picture in a magazine and just copied it. This is just an example of the fun things I will be doing this summer. 

Very Berry Pie

Pie crust for 9 inch double crust pie
1 c. blackberries
1 1/2 c. blueberries
1 c. raspberries
2 c. strawberries
1 c. sugar
½ c. flour
1 T. lemon juice
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Roll out bottom crust and fit in pan. Combine all berries with flour, sugar and lemon juice. Spoon filling into crust. With small sharp knife cut out letters from top crust. Gently roll crust onto top crust and flute edges. Bake 50 minutes until golden brown.

Molasses Crinkles

With the weather being so cold and nasty, I got the hankering for something comforting and molasses cookies fit the ticket.  These are cookies that most people make around Christmas time.  Some are baked to a crispy crunch but I like mine soft and chewy.  I've been experimenting with turbinado sugar or sugar in the raw as a pretty garnish to my baked goods.  Turbinado sugar is a natural, coarse brown sugar which is just partially refined, unlike regular brown sugar which is refined sugar with molasses added.  Good coffee shops usually offer turbinado sugar as an alternative to regular sugar for coffee or tea.  I sprinkled a liberal amount of it on the last muffins I baked and liked it so much that I rolled these cookies in it before baking.  They came out with a bakery shop look and taste with a touch of sparkle.

Molasses Crinkles

1/2 c. butter

1/2 c. shortening

1 1/2 c. sugar

1/2 c. molasses

2 beaten eggs

4 c. flour

1/2 t. salt

2 t. baking soda

2 t. ginger

1 1/2 t. cloves

1 1/2 t. cinnamon

Turbinado sugar for tops

Cream butter, shortening and sugar till fluffy.  Beat in molasses and eggs.  Meanwhile sift dry ingredients in small bowl.  Gradually mix dry ingredients into wet until blended.  Roll dough into balls and dip in raw sugar.  Bake on greased cookie sheets at 350 for 11 minutes.  Do not overbake.  Store in tightly covered container.

Oreo Truffles

sWe're down to the final days of the semester and the girls are hitting the books big time.  My job this time of year is to keep them in snacks and keep them happy.  This is where Oreo Truffles comes in to play.  A super easy recipe with only three ingredients- cream cheese, oreos and chocolate.  Girls have many moods, but Chocolate satisfies them all!

Oreo Truffles

1 lb. cream cheese

2 pkgs crushed Oreo wafers

2 c. chocolate chips

Beat cream cheese and oreo crumbs until well mixed.  Using very small ice cream scoop, form small

truffles and place on cookie sheet - freeze.  Melt chocolate and dip truffles.  EAT