You are here: Home / Archives for desserts

Coconut Macaroon Cookies Dipped in Chocolate

Posted by on December 18, 2009

I love this recipe, it’s beautiful and festive and doesn’t involve that much time for decorating.  Dipping them in chocolate is optional, I perefer them with chocolate, of course!  I also love that the ingredient list is so short, you just mix the first three ingredients together, top with a cherry, & bake. 

I also love to package my cookies in a small goodie bag, I usually put 1/2 dozen in each bag and tie with a pretty ribbon.  These make the most beautiful gifts, and I feel like I’m sharing a small piece of my heart!  Merry Christmas!

Recpie:

1 14 oz. package sweetened flaked coconut
3 tablespoons flour
1 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1 jar of maraschino cherries, halved
1 ½ cup semi sweet chocolate chips (optional)

1)  Preheat oven to 350’.  Line your cookie sheet with parchment paper-very important!
2)  Empty bag of coconut into a large mixing bowl.  Measure flour into coconut and toss to coat.
3)  Add vanilla and pour condensed milk over coconut mixture.  Mix well.
4)  Using a 1 ½ teaspoon cookie scoop, portion out onto parchment paper, being sure to level off when scooping to make for evenly sized cookies.  There is no levening in this cookie, so you can place them pretty close together on your sheet.
5)  Top cookie with maraschino cherry, I cut them into pieces if they’re too large.
6)  Bake for 20 minutes.  Remove from oven, slide entire sheet of cookies off of baking sheet onto cooling rack.  Cool completely.
7)  Pour chocolate chips in a microwaveable glass dish, shallow enough to dip the bottoms of your cookies into.  Microwave in 30 second increments, stirring between, do not over heat chocolate, it will burn!  You want to stir until smooth and all chips seem to be melted.  It does not have to be hot.
8)  Carefully dip each cookie bottom into the chocolate and place right back onto your parchment paper.  Allow to set up.  To move the process along, you can place the entire sheet in your refrigerator.  When they’re set you’re good!  They can be packaged or put onto a tray without mess.

Enjoy!

Filed Under: Cookies and Bars, Desserts | Tagged: Tagged With: , , ,

French Silk Parfaits

Posted by on December 7, 2009

Bottom crumb layer:

1 ½ cups graham cracker crumbs
¼ cup sugar
3 tablespoons melted butter

Filling:

¼ cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 ½ cups milk
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tub cool whip topping
1 large Hershey bar for garnish

In a small mixing bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs, sugar and melted butter, mix well to combine.  Divide evenly among 6-8 margarita or martini glasses. (depending on the size)  Set aside.

In a medium sized sauce pan, whisk sugar and cornstarch together, add milk and whisk until blended.  Stir constantly over medium-low heat until it thickens and comes to a boil.  Remove from heat and add chocolate chips, mix well.  Place pan into a large bowl with ice for quicker cooling.  When cooled completely, spoon into a medium size bowl and fold in half of the cool whip until nicely blended.  Divide evenly among prepared dishes.  Top with remaining cool whip.  Using a vegetable peeler, make chocolate curls to top your beautiful dessert.  Refrigerate until you’re ready to serve.  Enjoy!

Filed Under: Desserts | Tagged: Tagged With: ,

Apple Crumb Pie

Posted by on November 22, 2009


FILLING:
6-7 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored & sliced
½ cup sugar
½ t. cinnamon
2 T. lemon juice
2 T. flour

CRUMB TOPPING:
 ¾ cup flour
½ cup brown sugar
1/3 cup chilled butter
½ t. cinnamon

One prepared pie crust.

Preheat oven to 400’.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the filling ingredients, mix well to evenly coat the apples.  Pour into prepared pie crust.

Using your pastry blender, combine the crumb topping until all ingredients are incorporated and you don’t have large butter clumps. Top apples with crumb topping.

Bake at 400’ for 15 minutes, lower temperature to 350’ for an additional 35-40 minutes. Serve with real vanilla ice cream.  Simply fabulous!   (single pie crust recipe below)

Filed Under: Desserts | Tagged: Tagged With: ,

Butter Pie Crust (single)

Posted by on November 22, 2009

The main thing to remember is that you want to handle the dough as little as possible.  You want to incorporate the butter into the flour/salt mixture very well, you do not want chunks of butter in your crust.  Also, don’t be afraid to handle it when you are forming the ball of dough, you need to knead it a few times so that you have a nice smooth ball.  When rolling it out, start from the center of the dough and roll, try not to stretch the dough.  Make sure you make your circle for your pie pan large enough so that there is no need to stretch it to fit.  If you stretch the dough, it will shrink during baking and the crust will cave in.

RECIPE:
1 ¼ cup flour

6 T. cold butter, cut into ½” pieces
½ t. salt
5-7 T. ice water

In a large bowl, mix flour, salt, & add cubed butter.  With a pastry blender, incorporate butter into flour.  This will take a few minutes, you want it to resemble cornmeal.  One tablespoon at a time, add the water.  Mix using a fork.  Once the flour seems to be moist, use your hands to bring together into a ball of dough, you may need to knead about 4-5 times.   You do not want to over handle the dough as this will create too much gluten and it will be tough.  Wrap with saran and refrigerate for up to 2 hours.

Filed Under: Desserts | Tagged: Tagged With: ,

Traditional Pumpkin Pie

Posted by on November 22, 2009

RECIPE:
1- 14 oz. can pumpkin
1- 12 oz. can evaporated  milk
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 T. flour
1 t. salt
1 t. cinnamon
½ t. ginger
½ t. nutmeg
¼ t. cloves

Preheat oven to 350’.

In a large bowl, whisk all ingredients well until completely incorporated.

Pour into prepared pie crust and bake for 50-55 minutes. Center should be set. Cool completely before covering loosely with foil and refrigerating.

Filed Under: Desserts | Tagged: Tagged With: , ,

Texas Sheet Cake

Posted by on November 11, 2009

This cake is so moist and delicious! The recipe is very easy and will become a family favorite for years to come. There is just a hint of cinnamon in the recipe that gives it a very interesting twist.

RECIPE: For the cake:
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1 t. baking soda
½ t. ground cinnamon
½ t. salt
¾ cup water
½ cup butter
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa
1 t. cider or white vinegar
1 t. vanilla; 2 large eggs

ICING:
6 T. butter
1/3 cup milk
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa
3 cups powdered sugar
2 t. vanilla.

1) Preheat oven to 375’.
2) Coat a 15”x 10” jelly roll pan with cooking spray, dust with 2 teaspoons flour.
3) In measure out 1 cup milk, add vinegar & stir. (we are making a buttermilk substitute)
4) In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, soda, cinnamon, & salt; stir well with a whisk.
5) Into a small saucepan, combine ¾ cup water, ½ cup butter, and ¼ cup cocoa, bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Pour into flour mixture and beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended. Add milk, vinegar, 1 t. vanilla, and eggs; beat well. Pour into prepared pan; bake at 375’ for 17 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool on wire rack.
6) To prepare icing, combine 6 T. butter, milk & ¼ cup cocoa in medium saucepan; bring to a boil stirring constantly. Remove from heat, with your electric hand mixer, gradually in powdered sugar and 2 t. vanilla. Spread over hot cake. Cool completely. **if you do not have a 10” x 15” pan, you can use a 9” x 13” pan, bake at 375’ for 20-24 minutes.

Filed Under: Cakes, Desserts | Tagged: Tagged With: , , ,
« Previous Page