TWD: Mixed Berry Cobbler

This weekend, I went to Memphis to visit my best friends April & Greg and of course, their dog, Banner. I know that April loves fruit as much as I do, and since cobblers usually seem to be fairly easy recipes to make, I decided that I could just make this cobbler while I was there!

My fellow Tuesdays with Dorie participants had been talking all week about how their cobbler toppings just weren't that impressive. That it was kind of flavorless. So, what did I decide to do? I decided to use a different cobbler topping from Dorie's Recipe for Cherry & Rhubarb Cobbler and instead of ginger (which I didn't have) I opted for Cinnamon. Ummm.. lots of cinnamon. Too much cinnamon, in fact.

The berries (raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries) weren't super flavorful and the topping just turned out too dang cinnamon-y. Uggh. My bad on this one. Better luck next time.

Thanks to Beth of Our Sweet Life for this summery selection! Be sure to check out everyone else's cobblers at Tuesdays with Dorie!

Cherry Pie

This past weekend, I took it upon myself to officially dub it as, Family Extravaganza Weekend. Aside from Father's Day, this weekend was also my Grandma's 89th birthday, as well as my brother Jason's birthday. Busy weekend, no? You could say that.

As has become customary, I asked Jason what he wanted for his birthday dessert. I had assumed that he'd ask for either a coconut cake or banana pudding. But, instead... he surprised me and willingly shared his selection with my dad. He chose Cherry Pie (which, is my dad's favorite dessert). I was pretty excited about this selection, because you see... Cherry Pie is probably one of the most favorite things that I make. And this Cherry Pie is a recipe that I came up with all on my own. Which makes it even more special to me. It's like my little baby.

Usually, I make a double crust and use an Emeril Pie Crust Recipe, but this time, I decided to try a pie crust recipe from my book Baking From My Home To Yours (which is incidentally on sale for 12.99 from Amazon right now!). And you know what folks? As much as I love Emeril, I gotta say... Dorie's pie crust was better. Tender and thick. And I made it without a food processor. Just me, a pastry blender and raw palms.

This time around, I decided to do things a little differently...
I decided to attempt a lattice top. Using this wonderful guide from Elise at Simply Recipes, I rolled my dough, cut my strips and started assembling the lattice top, using the instructions constantly.

And it turned out beautifully...

I brushed the top with heavy cream and then even sprinkled a little brown sugar on top to get a caramel-y color to the top. I then wrapped aluminum foil (that I had sprayed cooking spray on...learned that one the hard way, last time) around the edges of the pie, so they wouldn't brown too quickly. And away into the oven it went.

It was a delicious pie, if I do say so myself. And I am so excited that I gave the lattice top a try. It made for a much prettier pie that screamed "homemade with love!"

Happy Birthday and Happy Father's Day!Good for Almost Everything Pie Dough
- makes enough for a 9-inch double crust -
Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour
¼ cup sugar
1 ½ teaspoons salt
2 ½ sticks very cold (frozen is fine) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-size pieces 1/3 cup very cold (frozen is even better) vegetable shortening (non-trans fat), cut into 2 piecesAbout ½ cup ice water
Procedure

Put the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor fitted with a metal blade; pulse just to combine the ingredients. Drop in the butter and shortening and pulse only until the butter and shortening are cut into the flour. Don't overdo the mixing—what you're aiming for is to have pieces the size of fat green peas and others the size of barley. Pulsing the machine on and off, add 3 tablespoons of the water—add a little water and pulse once; add some more water and pulse again; and keep going that way. Then use a few long pulses to get the water into the flour. If after a dozen or so pulses, the dough doesn't look evenly moistened or form soft curds, pulse in as much of the remaining water, or even a few drops more, to get a dough that will stick together when pinched. If you've got big pieces of butter, that's fine. The dough is ready and should be scraped out of the work bowl and on to a smooth work surface.

Separate the dough and shape the dough into two disks and wrap them. Refrigerate the dough at least 1 hour before rolling. (If the ingredients were very cold and you worked very quickly, you might be able to roll the dough immediately—you'll know: the dough will be as cold as if it had just come out of the fridge.) The dough can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or frozen for up to 1 month.

Once the dough is fitted into the pie plate, refrigerate it again. If you don't have time for a longish chill, just keep the pie plate in the fridge while you preheat the oven.

Cherry Pie
2 cans of Sweet Pitted Bing Cherries (14.5 oz cans)
1 can of Tart Cherries
3 tbsp cornstarch
½ cup Dried Sweet & Tart Cherries (about 3 ozs)
¼ cup Granulated Sugar
1 tbsp Butter
½ tsp Almond Extract
Red Food Coloring
Cream or milk
Pie crust for a double crust pie

Strain syrup from bing cherries and reserve juice. Strain tart cherries and reserve it’s juice separately. Combine the bing cherries and the tart cherries in a bowl with ¼ cup of the sweet juice (save the leftover juice), 2 tbsps of the tart juice, and the cornstarch; stir to blend and set aside.

Combine 1 cup of the sweet juice along with 1 tbsp of the tart juice with the dried cherries in a large saucepan. Cover and let simmer for 10 minutes on medium low heat to allow the dried cherries to plump up. Uncover and increase the heat to medium and simmer until mixture bubbles thickly and it has reduced to about ¾ cup, stirring occasionally (about another 10 minutes). Add your other cherry mixture to the saucepan mixture along with the butter and sugar and heat thoroughly over medium heat until mixture bubbles and thickens (about 3-5 minutes). After mixture has thickened, pull off heat and add almond extract and a few drops of red food coloring. Transfer pie filling to a medium bowl and let it cool completely.

After it has completely cooled, position a rack in the second to the bottom row in your oven and preheat oven to 400 F.

Roll our pie disk on a floured surface to 12 inch round. Transfer to a 9 inch diameter pie dish. Trim dough overhang to 1 inch. Put pie plate into the fridge while you roll out your top. Roll the top crust to 12 inch diameter. Spoon pie filling into bottom crust and then cover with top crust. Crimp edges decoratively (you may refrigerate pie for a little while at this point, if dough is very warm)and lightly brush the top and edges of the pie with cream lightly. (I also sprinkled brownsugar on top the crust). Make four slits in the top of the crust to allow the steam to escape (unless making a lattice top). Place aluminum foil strips around the edges of the pie to keep them from browning too quickly. Put pie on a baking sheet with a rim and place into the preheated oven.

After 25-30 minutes, remove the aluminum foil and continue to cook.Cook for about 50-55 minutes, until crust is golden.

Transfer pie to rack and allow to cool for 2 hours. Serve pie lukewarm or room temperature.

TWD: La Palette's Strawberry Tart

This week, for Tuesdays with Dorie, Marie of A Year from Oak Cottage selected Dorie’s La Palette’s Strawberry Tart. Yay! An easy, refreshing recipe that incorporates a summer fruit!

When I was growing up… we grew strawberries (well, at least for 3-4 years). It was great to have fresh strawberries, but man.. picking them sucked. Luckily, I was young enough, where I wasn’t expected to hunch over in the garden and pick the strawberries. All I was expected to do was sit around and not get into trouble (too much). Ahhhh… to be a young child again with low expectations for your actions.

I guess my maternal grandma grew strawberries too (though, I don’t remember) because, she almost always had strawberries that had been sliced and sugared till they formed this delicious strawberry syrup and she’d freeze it all in a little Tupperware container. She’d take one out and thaw it to go on hot biscuits for breakfast. Yum.

Strawberries are one of my favorite fruits and with them being so good for you, I was so excited to try this simple dessert.

So, this recipe is supposed to be made in a tart crust. You make the crust and bake it completely, then spread some strawberry jam on it and cover that with fresh cut up strawberries! Easy!

I decided to half the tart dough recipe though and I rolled it out and cut out little cookie sized dough rounds and baked those off. So, I essentially had very hard shortbread cookies.
The only thing I had to buy was strawberry jam…I went to my neighborhood Harris Teeter and perused the jam aisle. I was getting ready to just pick up a jar of Smuckers Strawberry Jam when I saw this near the top of the shelf…
Trappist Rhubarb Strawberry Preserves.

Even though it was like 5 bucks for a little jar, I had to have it. And folks, I could easily take a spoon and eat this entire jar without batting an eyelash. This stuff is like crack.. The monks are surely getting by with their chastity vows because of these preserves. SERIOUSLY.
Overall, I really liked this dessert. It was light and refreshing and you could easily keep some frozen dough rounds in your freezer and pop them in the oven whenever you have some particularly yummy strawberries. The tart dough is VERY crunchy though. And for whatever reason, I’m kind of a soggy food girl. I know, it’s weird. I like plain untoasted bread for my hamburgers and sandwiches and I like nachos after they’ve had the queso sitting on them for awhile and the chips are all soft and soggy. Weird, right? I made up a couple of theses and put them in the fridge, hoping that they would sog (is sog a word? According to spell check, it is not) up some. But it didn’t. Still, very delicious.

TWD: French Chocolate Brownies

Fruit? Good.
Chocolate? Good.
Fruit and Chocolate together? Not good.

Or so I used to think. You know how it is… it’s hard to shake your childhood palette sometimes. In my head, some things just aren’t supposed to go together and to illustrate that… I present the following evidence…
Russell Stover’s Boxed Chocolates.

Oh sure, they are innocent looking enough, with all the deliciously draped milk and dark chocolates. But beneath that luscious, silky chocolate… lies potential secret grossness. Oh, sure there are a couple in there that have caramel in them.. (my bet was always on the milk chocolate square shaped ones… and I was usually right) and there are a few nutty type ones that were good. But, the majority of these are filled with yucky orange, strawberry, lemon, or raspberry creams. Presenting a tastebud game of roulette that I could never resist, but always regretted (sounds eerily familiar to the vegas roulette, no?).

Whenever I hear of chocolate and fruit, I think back to those chocolates.

There was one exception though. The cordial cherry. For whatever reason, a chocolate covered cherry got a free pass in my culinary world. My argument would be that the chocolate didn’t actually touch the cherry… the syrupy goodness served as a buffer between the two.

As I’ve grown older, I’ve slowly warmed up to some fruit and chocolate marriages. For instance… chocolate covered strawberries. While, I’d probably enjoy them more, if they were separately on their own, I do like chocolate covered strawberries and will eat them happily.

So, when I first saw that Di of Di's Kitchen Notebook chose something called French Chocolate Brownies, I was initially very excited. Yum. Brownies. Then I read the recipe…

RAISINS? WITH CHOCOLATE? WHO EATS RAISINS AND CHOCOLATE TOGETHER??

… oh yeah…apparently lots of people do (raisinetes. duh). And then I realized… my palette has grown, but it hasn’t grown quite that far yet. So, instead of raisins, I subbed dried cherries. Problem solved. .
The only other issue I had with the recipe, is that while I do love rum, rum doesn’t love me. In fact, it hates my body so much, that I can have one rum and coke and about 15 minutes later… well… I’ll just leave it with the comment, that I need a ponytail holder close by. I realize that by baking with rum, I’d not have a problem… but, I didn’t want to make a special trip to the liquor store to buy a mini bottle of rum (basically, because instead of leaving with just the one mini bottle of rum, I’d presumably leave with 5-6 bottles of wine, some tequila and maybe some vodka, oh yeah and hopefully I wouldn’t forget that mini bottle of rum. Okay, you’re right, I would). At first I thought, well I’ll just plump the cherries in some water and skip the flambéed part. But, I started snooping around in my cabinets and fridge looking for a sufficient cherry plumper. That’s when I saw the unfinished bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon sitting on my counter. People drink wine with chocolate, don’t they? So, that’s what I used instead of rum.

These brownies are what I would call sophisticated brownies. These are the type of brownies that you’d bake for your significant other’s snooty sister that lives in some up and coming chic neighborhood outside of Seattle or Chicago or Austin or something. You know what I mean… these are pretentious brownies. They present a multi-leveled flavor buffet for your palette. I think it has more to do with the cinnamon than anything else. I’ve never had cinnamon with chocolate, and the jurys still out on whether or not I actually like the two together.

Try these brownies sometime when you are looking to serve something that looks simple, but tastes different. I might make these again sometime, especially as a dessert for a wine tasting party or something.

Be sure to check out everyone elses over at Tuesdays with Dorie.


French Chocolate Brownies
- makes 16 brownies -Adapted from Baking From My Home to Yours.


Ingredients
1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

1/3 cup raisins, dark or golden

1 1/2 tablespoons water

1 1/2 tablespoons dark rum

6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons; 6 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature and cut into 12 pieces

3 large eggs, at room temperature

1 cup sugar


Getting ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 300°F. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with foil, butter the foil, place the pan on a baking sheet, and set aside.


Whisk together the flour, salt and cinnamon, if you're using it.


Put the raisins in a small saucepan with the water, bring to a boil over medium heat and cook until the water almost evaporates. Add the rum, let it warm for about 30 seconds, turn off the heat, stand back and ignite the rum. Allow the flames to die down, and set the raisins aside until needed.


Put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl and set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Slowly and gently melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally. Remove the bowl from the saucepan and add the butter, stirring so that it melts. It's important that the chocolate and butter not get very hot. However, if the butter is not melting, you can put the bowl back over the still-hot water for a minute. If you've got a couple of little bits of unmelted butter, leave them—it's better to have a few bits than to overheat the whole. Set the chocolate aside for the moment.
Working with a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until they are thick and pale, about 2 minutes. Lower the mixer speed and pour in the chocolate-butter, mixing only until it is incorporated—you'll have a thick, creamy batter. Add the dry ingredients and mix at low speed for about 30 seconds—the dry ingredients won't be completely incorporated and that's fine. Finish folding in the dry ingredients by hand with a rubber spatula, then fold in the raisins along with any liquid remaining in the pan.
Scrape the batter into the pan and bake 50 to 60 minutes, or until the top is dry and crackled and a knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and allow the brownies to cool to warm or room temperature.


Carefully lift the brownies out of the pan, using the foil edges as handles, and transfer to a cutting board. With a long-bladed knife, cut the brownies into 16 squares, each roughly 2 inches on a side, taking care not to cut through the foil.


Serving: The brownies are good just warm or at room temperature; they're even fine cold. I like these with a little something on top or alongside—good go-alongs are whipped crème fraiche or whipped cream, ice cream or chocolate sauce or even all three!


Storing: Wrapped well, these can be kept at room temperature for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months.

TWD: Florida Pie

Back from Oregon! And just in time to whip up something for mom on mother's day. How serendipitious that this weeks Tuesdays With Dorie Recipe chosen by Dianne of Dianne's Dishes was something that I knew my mom would love! (And she did, incidentally).

So... I love me some key lime pie. The mix of a sweet and crunchy graham cracker crust with the tart and creamy lime filling is something that I absolutely adore and when you throw in an layer of chewy, sweet coconut goodness between the two... I'm sold. One thing I'm not a fan of, though.... meringue. So, I skipped that and opted for some whipped cream. I loved this pie and would definitely make it again.

Happy Mother's Day Mom! I love you and appreciate all the big and small things you've done for me and I hope that one day I will be at least half as good of a mom as you are!

There always has to be one photo where we're squatting down for no reason. At Mt. Hood.
Happy Mothers Day, Mom!

Florida Pie

1 9-inch graham cracker crust (page 235), fully baked and cooled, or a store-bought crust
1 1/3 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 cups shredded sweetened coconut
4 large eggs, separated
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup fresh Key (or regular) lime juice (from about 5 regular limes) **
1/4 cup of sugar

Getting Ready:Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Put the pie plate on a baking sheet lined with parchment of a silicone mat.

Put the cream and 1 cup of the coconut in a small saucepan and bring it to a boil over medium-low heat, stirring almost constantly. Continue to cook and stir until the cream is reduced by half and the mixture is slightly thickened. Scrape the coconut cream into a bowl and set it aside while you prepare the lime filling.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl beat the egg yolks at high speed until thick and pale. Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in the condensed milk. Still on low, add half of the lime juice. When it is incorporated, add the reaming juice, again mixing until it is blended.

Spread the coconut cream in the bottom of the graham cracker crust, and pour over the lime filling. Bake the pie for 12 minutes.

Transfer the pie to a cooling rack and cool for 15 minutes, then freeze the pie for at least 1 hour.

To Finish the Pie with Meringue: Put the 4 egg whites and the sugar in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan and heat over medium-low heat, whisking all the while, until the whites are hot to the touch. Transfer the whites to a stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment, or use a hand mixer in a large bowl, and beat the whites at high speed until they reach room temperature and hold firm peaks. Using a rubber spatula, fold the remaining 1/2 cup coconut into the meringue.Spread the meringue over the top of the pie, and run the pie under the broiler until the top of the meringue is golden brown. (Or, if you've got a blowtorch, you can use it to brown the meringue.) Return the pie to the freezer for another 30 minutes or for up to 3 hours before serving.

** Recipe Note: I had just shy of a full 1/2 cup with 5 limes... so, you might want to have 6 limes just in case.

TWD: Russian Grandmother's Apple Pie Cake

Apparently, grandma's and apple pie go together like peanut butter and chocolate. It seems like everyone's grandma had some sort of apple dessert that they made. Mine certainly did. My maternal grandma had a dried apple cake that she used to make. It was layers and layers of cake and a dried apple mixture spread between the layers. It seems like she always had some in her refrigerator. And I only liked it every once in awhile. The cake part was rather dry (It was supposed to be that way) and I'm not much of a cold cake type of person. But, I did love the part of the cake that sat right next to the dried apple filling. Yum.

I love apples and apple flavored things, but honestly, I'm not a huge apple pie fan. I just don't like the texture of mushy, cooked apples. But, I was really excited to make this apple pie cake, especially after reading the story in Dorie's cookbook of how she finally found a recipe similiar to the pie/cake that her grandma always made.

The recipe came together very easily for me. I ended up not needing the extra 1/4 cup of flour in the dough and after refrigerating overnight, the dough rolled out like a charm. I used fuji apples in the filling and also added a touch of vanilla (I have to have vanilla in everything). Also, I made the version in the deep dish pie dish.

It was delicious. It was almost like a apple cobbler. The top got pretty crispy, but the sides and the bottom of the cake were so cakey and moist. When I ate a piece last night, after it had cooled for about an hour, it tasted like I was eating apples and biscuits (which was good), but this morning, it was definitely softer and more cakey. Very delicious. And the apples stayed crunchy, which I loved.

I would definitely make this cake again for apple lovers. It's so homey tasting and different. The only problem is, it doesn't really keep its pie slice shape when you try to get it out of the pan. Oh well, who cares what it looks like on the plate, right (well, except for food bloggers)?

Maybe one day, I'll run across a recipe that is similiar to my grandmas dried apple cake...

Be sure to check out everyone elses Russian Grandmothers Apple Pie Cake, too!

UPDATE: This cake is unbelievable a couple of days later! The crust gets soft and moist and wow. This is an incredible pie/cake. I had to force myself to throw the rest of it out last night, because I couldn't stop eating it. Even as I was scraping it out of the pie plate and into the sink, I was sneaking bites in. Yum. This is a definite favorite of mine, now.

Russian Grandmothers Apple Pie Cake
Chosen by Natalie of Burned Bits

For The Dough
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Juice of 1 lemon
3 1/4 - 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

For The Apples
10 medium apples, all one kind or a mix (I like to use Fuji, Golden Delicious and Ida Reds; my grandmother probably used dry baking apples like Cordland and Rome)
Squirt of fresh lemon juice
1 cup moist, plump raisins (dark or golden)
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Sugar, preferably decorating (coarse) sugar, for dusting

To Make The Dough: Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together on medium speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs and continue to beat until the mixture is light and fluffy, about 3 minutes more. Reduce the mixer speed to low, add the baking powder and salt and mix just to combine. Add the lemon juice - the dough will probably curdle, but don't worry about it. Still working on low speed, slowly but steadily add 3 1/4 cups of the flour, mixing to incorporate it and scraping down the bowl as needed. The dough is meant to be soft, but if you think it looks more like a batter than a dough at this point, add the extra 1/4 cup flour. (The dough usually needs the extra flour.) When properly combined, the dough should almost clean the sides of the bowl.

Turn the dough out onto a work surface, gather it into a ball and divide it in half. Shape each half into a rectangle. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or for up to 3 days. (The dough can be wrapped airtight and frozen for up to 2 months; defrost overnight in the refrigerator.)

To Make The Apples: Peel and core the apples and cut into slices about 1/4 inch thick; cut the slices in half crosswise if you want. Toss the slices in a bowl with a little lemon juice - even with the juice, the apples may turn brown, but that's fine - and add the raisins. Mix the sugar and cinnamon together, sprinkle over the apples and stir to coat evenly. Taste an apple and add more sugar, cinnamon, and/or lemon juice if you like.

Getting Ready to Bake: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Generously butter a 9x12-inch baking pan (Pyrex is good) and place it on a baking shee tlined with parchment or a silicone mat.

Remove the dough from the fridge. If it is too hard to roll and it cracks, either let it sit at room temperature for about 15 minutes or give it a few bashes with your rolling pin to get it moving. Once it's a little more malleable, you've got a few choices. You can roll it on a well-floured work surface or roll it between sheets of plastic wrap or wax paper. You can even press or roll out pieces of the dough and patch them together in the pan - because of the baking powder in the dough, it will puff and self-heal under the oven's heat. Roll the dough out until it is just a little larger all around than your pan and about 1/4 inch thick - you don't want the dough to be too thin, because you really want to taste it. Transfer the dough to the pan. If the dough comes up the sides of the pan, that's fine; if it doesn't that's fine too.

Give the apples another toss in the bowl, then turn them into the pan and, using your hands, spread them evenely across the bottom.

Roll out the second piece of dough and position it over the apples. Cut the dough so you've got a 1/4 to 1/2 inch overhang and tuck the excess into the sides of the pan, as though you were making a bed. (If you don't have that much overhang, just press what you've got against the sides of the pan.)

Brush the top of the dough lightly with water and sprinkle sugar over the dough. Using a small sharp knife, cut 6 to 8 evenly spaced slits in the dough.

Bake for 65 to 80 minutes, or until the dough is a nice golden brown and the juices from the apples are bubbling up through the slits. Transfer the baking pan to a cooling rack and cool to just warm or to room temperature. You'll be tempted to taste it sooner, but I think the dough needs a little time to rest.

Rugelach Pinwheels

So, I've had my fair share of baking disasters. But, usually, it's because I did something wrong. Like, halved part of the recipe and not the other part of the recipe or made alterations to the recipe.

But, this recipe... this recipe is just one of those recipes that I just couldn't get right.

It all started with my parents christmas party (which is this weekend), I offered to make all the sweets for the party. Along with brownies and hidden kisses cookies, I felt like we needed a fruity, festive cookie. This decision has haunted me for weeks.

I tried Lemon Thumbprints, I tried Razmatazz Bars, and finally I decided that this rugelach pinwheels recipe with cherry preserves and dried cherries would be perfect.

And they would have been.... had they turned out.

I found the recipe on one of my favorite blogs, Smitten Kitchen. Don't they look so pretty on her site? Perfectly rounded, perfectly filled, perfectly photographed....



Wanna see how mine turned out?

This was the best looking batch. Seriously. I tried about 5 batches of these cookies. I tried them thin, I tried them thick and they always came out spread way all over the pan and looking like a mess. I still have one log and one batch of the dough still chilling in my fridge. I dont know what to do with it. I attempted to make two batches of these, because of all the chilling time, etc, I didn't want to run out of time to make them. Oh, and I had one batch completely stick to my greased non-stick pan and had to dispose of them down the garbage disposal... so, there's that, too.

Now, they taste REALLY good. But seriously... if you saw these sitting out on a platter at a party... you'd run far, far, far away.

So, I bagged them up all in a ziploc and I thought they'd make a good ice cream topping.

So, this christmas party will be without a fruity, festive cookie and after all these bad cookies I've made... i'm done with fruity and festive. Well, at least till next Christmas.

Raspberry Lemon Thumbprint Cookies

The half recipe that ruined a whole recipe

So, the raspberry bars didn’t turn out as great as I expected… so, I was still searching for that festive fruit cookie. I did some searching and found a recipe from Emeril for lemon and raspberry thumbprint cookies. Fruity and festive. Jackpot.

Well, the thing is… they aren’t that great. I mean, they’re good. But they’re not like… wow, whats the recipe? (That’s my gauge on whether something is good or not.. if I know people will be asking for the recipe, then its good). Luckily, I only made a half batch. Now, immediately after making this half batch. I intended to make a full batch of Hidden Kisses cookies, little powdered sugar cookies with Hershey kisses inside. But, I ended up halving some of the ingredients (like the flour) and using the whole amount of other ingredients (like the butter). And I didn’t realize that this was the problem until the 3rd sheet was in the oven. Yuck they were so greasy and spread out.. such a waste. Such a disappointment… Maybe bad baking experiences come in 3s and I got them all out of my system in 2 days?

Raspberry Lemon Thumbprint Cookies

RazMaTazz Bars

Sometimes… things just don’t go the way you hoped they would.

This weekend, I tried to get a head start on baking for my parents big Christmas party.

80+ people = lots of preparation.

Preliminarily, my mom and I decided to make Wanda's Rich & Dark Brownies , Hidden Kisses (a paula deen cookie recipe that I’ve made before), and we wanted a fruit cookie, so we first decided to try Raspberry Bars (also called RazMaTazz Bars).

So, Friday afternoon, after helping my mom to put up the main Christmas tree in the house, I decided to give the RazMaTazz Bars a try.

They came together fairly easily… raspberry jam and white chocolate, how can you go wrong, right??

Well… you can overcook them.

And it’s not that I wasn’t watching them, because I was! I was checking them like every 5 minutes, but I didn’t really know how they were supposed to look on top. And so, they were way overcooked. Not burned. But dry and overcooked. Also, I felt like they weren’t sufficiently raspberry enough. I doubled the recipe and made them in a 13x 9 pan.

They were okay, but I’m not sure that they would wow me, even if they weren’t overcooked. But, I think I’ve decided to give them another try. Because, they would look really festive and a bar cookie is so much easier to make for a party.

More cooking failures from this weekend to come…

RazMaTazz Bars Recipe

Guest Blogger: Steph's Key Lime Cookies

First of all, I must admit that I am a virgin blogger... this will be the first blog I've ever written my entire life. Intimidating? Yes, a little... but I will not be discouraged. I accept the challenge wholeheartedly!

Here is my recipe from what Amy has referred to as our Baking Date, or what I like to call "The Big Bake".

I love key lime. And when I say "love", I mean LOVE it. I love key limes all by themselves (they're so cute!), key lime soda, key lime truffles (thank you, Godiva), and of course, key lime pie. So, when I was browsing for my Big Bake recipe, I saw a recipe for key lime cookies and couldn't resist. There are a lot of key lime cookie recipes out there, actually, but don't be fooled. I chose this one from Cookie Madness because it specifically said they were "chewy" which is an absolute MUST in my cookie book. These may be a little tart for some folks, so watch out!

The recipe was very straightforward and easy. Because Amy and I are such baking fiends, we decided to double the recipe (of course, there is no such thing as too many key lime cookies!) After baking about half the dough, we added some green food coloring just for giggles. No, they didn't taste more limey that way, but it was still fun.

The recipe below is the DOUBLED recipe, which makes about 6 dozen cookies.

1 cup butter — softened

2 cups sugar

2 large eggs

2 large egg yolks

3 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup key lime juice

1 tablespoon lime zest (which I didn't use, because my hand started cramping)

1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips

Cream butter, sugar, egg, egg yolk in a large bowl — blend in flour,baking powder, salt, lime juice and lime zest.

Fold in white chocolate chips.

Roll dough into walnut sized balls. Actually I used a spoon because the dough was pretty wet, and there was no way I could roll them without making a big mess.

Place on ungreased sheet. These spread out quite a bit, so give them plenty of room.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 10-12 minutes.

--Stephanie, Guest Blogger.

Lemon Bars (that aren't lemon-y).

I really enjoy the tart flavor of lemon and lime. My mom used to make my grandma a lemon bundt cake every year with a lemon glaze for her birthday. YUM. It was a favorite of mine.

So, the other day, I was browsing some lemon bar recipes and came across this one. It had good reviews, so I decided to give it a try last night. I didn't want to make a whole recipe, and the measurements seemed easily divisible, so I decided to halve the recipe. I think that's a mistake. Since there isn't an exact pan that is half the size of a 13x9 inch pan... I was forced to use an 8 inch square pan. I ended up with bars with a very thick (but yummy) crust and then a very thin layer of lemon topping. So thin, that I overcooked it. A lot. They are pretty tasty though, but they have a very light lemon flavor. I would almost call these sugar biscuits or something. I wouldn't even mention that they had lemon in them.

I'll definitely try the recipe again, but I'll try it whole. But, that makes me think... surely someone makes a pan that is exactly half the volume of a 13x9 inch pan. I'll look into it and if not.. then maybe I will!

Orange-ies

I've had this recipe printed ever since I saw Paula Deen make them on her show. I love Paula Deen's recipes. I've made a ton of her cookies, cakes, etc. Hell, she practically catered my friend April's bridal shower... I used like 3-4 of her recipes for that party (all delicious). And this one doesn't disappoint either.

The thing is though... I didn't really get a big orange flavor from it, it was more of a citrusy-lemon flavor. Really refreshing though and definitely the texture of chewy brownies. It features a cream cheese icing which is of course delicious. It was a nice summery dessert for my family's cookout this afternoon. Try it when you are craving a refreshing but rich citrus dessert.

I made a half recipe in a circle pan and then I used a biscuit cutter to cut out little rounds and then sliced them in half to serve.

I also thawed a bunch of my previously made cookies and brownies for dessert, too.

Peach Buckle

Cobbler is a southern staple. My grandma used to make it a lot and my mom. Peach, Cherry, and Blackberry Cobbler were the most popular in my family. Honestly, I was never a huge fan. I ate it, but it was never a particular favorite of mine. Their cobblers consisted of the biscuit top and my grandma always included dumplings inside hers (which I always picked around). So, since I never really loved cobblers, I never considered making one.

And then, I saw a "cobbler" on Pioneer Woman site and I examined the pictures very closely... it didnt look like the cobblers I had seen. No, it looked like it had crispy, buttery edges (which, incidentally, I'm a HUGE fan of). I decided that this is a cobbler I could fall in love with. Hers was a blackberry cobbler, but not liking the seeds (and I couldnt find fresh ones at the store) I opted to try a peach one and boy, is this recipe simple and delicious. But, folks... it's not technically a cobbler... it's a buckle. You should definitely try this. Hot out of the oven, it's divine. It gets pretty soggy on day two, but the flavor is still excellent.

Incidentally, I only made a half batch of pioneer woman's recipe and I used all splenda, so I calculated the whole buckle as having about 700 calories. Not bad when you can get 4 good sized servings out of it (or if you just sit down with an oven mitt in your lap and consume the whole thing straight of the oven, hey, it's only 700 calories...).

Peach Buckle
1/2 stick butter
1/2 cup self rising flour
1/2 milk
1 cup splenda (if using real sugar, only use 1/2 cup)
2 fresh peaches peeled and sliced
extra splenda for the top

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Cut your butter up and pit in the pan you are going to be using to bake the buckle. Melt the butter in the oven while it's preheating (dont burn it!)

Meanwhile, mix your sugar, flour, and milk together with a whisk. Pour mixture into the melted butter and place your peaches on top.

Bake till golden brown. Now, I put extra splenda on the top right before I took it out of the oven and thats why mine has that white-ish tint to it. If you used real sugar it would melt better and look prettier.

DELICIOUS.