Tag Archives: dessert

Fudgy Brownies With Mini Peanut Butter Cups

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Fudgy Brownies With Mini Peanut Butter Cups

Fudgy Brownies With Mini Peanut Butter Cups




We all know I am NOT a fan of peanut butter. Well, to qualify again, not “normal” peanut butter. I do have a soft spot for Peanut Butter & Company’s Cinnamon Raisin Peanut Butter and Jifs new Salted Caramel Hazelnut is pretty amazing as peanut butter type spreads go. You’ll notice I did NOT say it was “to die for”. I believe I’ve mentioned before that that is one of those phrases that makes me want to gouge my eardrums out with a spoon. That one along with “EVOO” and “Sammy”. Damn you for your evil influence, Rachael Ray, damn you. But back on tangent, as much as it possible for me, no “to die for”…. I will only die for medium rare ribeyes and roasted brussel sprouts. I have my standards.

But every once in a while, cause I love you all so much (“I just cain’t quit you” 😛 ), I have to make something peanut buttery for all of you. I realize how peculiar I am with my dislike of PB.  I realize how peculiar I am for many reasons and that that is but one of many, but lets not go there.

I was actually pleasantly surprised with these. Yes, they have a strong peanut buttery taste so those of you into that will love that aspect, but they are also fudgy/chewy enough and of course, chocolatey enough, that even I enjoyed them. They have a perfect, shiny crackly top crust, which I personally love. I found myself, after cutting off the edges, picking up stray bites here and there. Sooo chewy and yummy. 😀 Oh yeah, just for good measure, I threw in a bag of Heath Chips, so that added yet another level of crunchy, salty/sweet goodness. You can thank me later. 😀

You know the drill… 🙂

Fudgy Brownies With Mini Peanut Butter Cups

  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
  • 12 ounces semisweet chocolate
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3 eggs, lightly beaten (use a large bowl)
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1/4 cups sugar
  • 8 ounces mini peanut butter cups (I used Trader Joes Brand)
  • 1 bag (12 ounces) Heath Bar chips
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 11×7 glass pan (I used a standard Pyrex) or a 13×9 inch pan. If you use the 13×9, be more aware of your cooking time as these will cook quicker.
  2. Melt your butter in a medium pot over medium high heat. Add the chocolate, stir once, then remove the pot form the heat. Let it sit for five minutes then stir for about 2 minutes to finish melting the chips.
  3. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl and whisk to blend.
  4. Slowly pour the chocolate mixture over the beaten eggs, whisking the whole time. Add the sugar and vanilla extract and beat well.
  5. Pour in the flour and beat JUST until combined. Fold in the peanut butter cups and heath chips.
  6. Spoon into the prepared pan. bake at 350 for approximately 40 minutes or until the top is shiny, firm and crackly looking and inserting a skewer in the center shows only a few moist crumbs, not a loose or liquidy batter.
  7. Let cool in the pan on a rack until thoroughly cool before cutting. You cut them before this and you will get goop. Tasty goop, but goop nonetheless. If you have these room temp, they are creamier and silkier in texture. If you chill them, they take on more of a candylike fudge texture. try it both ways to see which you prefer. 🙂

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Cherry Browned Butter Crumb Cake

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Cherry Browned Butter Crumb Cake

Cherry Browned Butter Crumb Cake



I haven’t made a foodie confession in a while, so I guess it’s time for a new one. Well, I did mention to a friend the other day that I like Spam, but since he is from Hawaii, where they very wisely love the canned meat, it didn’t really phase him as it would have many other food bloggers 😛

On to the confession. It’s no secret that I used to love Twinkies and Ho-Hos when they were owned by the original company. Now however, they are pretty bad. I’m still mourning and have been blocked from the Hostess site because of my insistence on periodic candlelight vigils lamenting the passing of the REAL Hostess products. One other thing I loved? Those horrid, dry, overly sweet crumb cakes. I can’t recall if they were Hostess or Dolly Madison. All I know is that every couple of months, I had to go to a convenience store and grab a pack. We won’t discuss how I also would buy a Little Debbie Brownies that was topped with fake M&Ms.

But, me being me, when Hostess became “Hostess Wanna Be” (and yes, I’m astute enough to realize they weren’t exactly gourmet in the first place), and they AND Dolly Madison products disappeared, I knew it was time to make my own goodies. I never really got around to the Twinkies and Ho-Hos, but I CAN make a killer crumb cake. Does it taste like theirs? No and this is a good thing lol. The one I make is better. The original recipe is from Food And Wine and while it was good, it was rather plain. I wanted to give it some flavor and I think I succeeded quite nicely.

You know the drill… 🙂

Cherry Browned Butter Crumb Cake

  • Crumb Topping-
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, chilled and sliced thin
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • Cake-
  • 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, room temp
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon cardamom
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 1 1/2 cups good quality cherry preserves
  1. Make your topping first- combine the flour, baking soda, sugar, salt and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Use a pastry blender to cut the chilled butter into the flour mixture until it resembles small crumbs. Then get in there with your fingers and smoosh together the mix between your fingers to heat it up a bit and make larger pieces. Refrigerate while you make the cake batter
  2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 inch springform pan well with baking spray (the kind with both flour and oil in it) and put the pan on a baking sheet. This will protect the bottom of your oven from possible leakage. Put the butter into a medium pot and cook over medium heat until it has turned a golden brown color and has a nutty scent. Do NOT turn away form it as it begins to color as it can go from browned and delicious to burned and garbage very quickly. Pour into a bowl and set in the freezer for 15 minutes.
  3. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom.
  4. In another bowl (remember, always have someone nearby who has dish duty 😀 ), beat together the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the vanilla extract, eggs and egg yolk and beat until well combined.
  5. Alternating the flour and the sour cream (start and end with the flour mixture) add them to the butter/egg mix. Beat just until combined after each addition.
  6. Pour half of the batter into the prepared pan. Spread to the edge of the pan. Cover with dollops of the cherry preserves and spread them to within a half an inch of the edge of the batter. Top with the other half of the batter and spread it carefully to the edges. Sprinkle the chilled crumbs over the top of the batter.
  7. Bake at 350 for 45 -60 minutes or until it is golden brown and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean, with a few moist crumbs, but no loose batter.
  8. Cool on a wire rack, still in the pan. When completely cool, open outside of pan carefully then gently slide a butter knife under the bottom of the cake to loosen it and carefully lift it off of the bottom of the pan and transfer to a plate.

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Toasty Browned Butter Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

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Toasty Browned Butter Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Toasty Browned Butter Oatmeal Raisin Cookies




My husbands favorite cookie is a plain old fashioned oatmeal raisin cookie. While I like them, they aren’t my favorite and because of that and cause my husband is diabetic yet would eat every single cookie made, I don’t make them often. But I had been craving some the last week or so and decided to see what I could do to change them up a bit. I love using browned butter in baking so that was one thought. It adds such a delicious nutty flavor to foods. But then I decided to take the nuttiness one step further and I toasted the oats for these cookies.

These turned out wonderfully. They have a yummy, toasty, almost butterscotch flavor due to the browned butter and toasted oats. The edges have that sought after crispness with nice soft chewy middles. I was rather tickled with myself on how these turned out and can’t think of anything I would change next time I make them. I wasn’t sure what to name them so I asked my facebook readers to help me. Unfortunately, though they made some awesome suggestions, none quite resonated with me so the above name is what we ended up with.

You know the drill… 🙂

Toasty Browned Butter Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

  • 1 cup unsalted butter
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/2 cup wheat germ (I used the honey crunch flavored type)
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3 eggs
  • 1/2 cup raisins
  • 1/2 cup dried cranberries (you can obviously sub out all of one or the other if you prefer)
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1 tablespoon orange zest (optional)
  • 1 cup dark brown sugar
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 2 cups oats
  1. Preheat the oven to 350.
  2. Place the butter in a medium pot. Over medium to medium high heat, let the butter melt and cook, swirling the pot periodically, until the butter is a dark golden brown and has a nutty scent. Do NOT turn our back on it once it starts to color. This can go from browned to a smelly burned mess quickly. When done, set it aside to cool.
  3. While this cools, toast your oats. Pour the oats onto a cookie sheet and shake to settle them into a single layer. Toast them until they are a light brown color, stirring and spreading again a couple of times,  about 20 minutes. Cool for about ten minutes.
  4. Meanwhile, combine the eggs, orange zest if using and vanilla and beat well. Dump the raisins and cranberries in there and just let it sit while the butter cools. This gives the fruits time to soften a bit.
  5. In a large bowl, combine the cooled butter and the two sugars. Beat well to combine. Add in the flour, wheat germ, baking soda and salt. Beat on medium speed to combine. Add in the egg/fruit mix and beat just until combined.
  6. Fold in the oats. Make balls of dough about 2 inches in diameter (you can make smaller or larger but adjust the cooking time accordingly) and place on an ungreased cookie sheet about 8 to a sheet.
  7. Bake at 350 until the tops are firm and cookies are a medium golden brown, about 13 to 15 minutes, depending on size. Let cool on pan for a minute then transfer to a rack to finish cooling.

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Cherry Garcia Pudding

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Cherry Garcia Pudding




I love ice cream. It’s my go to treat on nights when I allow myself dessert. Well, sometimes I’ll mix it up with something else, but 99% of the time, it will still resemble ice cream in that it will have a creamy texture. I’m one of those people whose downfall is creamy and rich, whether it’s something sweet or something savory. Creamy is my friend. But Ben & Jerry are even better friends. Have any of you tried their new “Core” flavors? I tried the salted caramel one (of course) and I have to admit it, I was rather disappointed. It was….boring. The best part was the little chunks of Blondie but even that wasn’t enough to make it worth the calories.
I DO however, love many of their other flavors. My favorite will always be Phish Food. It used to be that running a close second was Cherry Garcia, but now for strangely personal reasons, I don’t eat it anymore. It brings back memories I prefer to forget because they make me mentally queasy; one of those “omg, did I really get involved with someone that disgusting” memories. Yep… from an ice cream lol. I’m strange that way. Doesn’t take much; a smell, a flavor, a sound and I’m transported to other times, some good, some bad.
But I still love the flavor combo, that creamy texture, the cherries, the chocolate and that slight almondy background. I eat other brands of ice cream with it and have *gasp* even found brands that are better than Ben & Jerry’s. But I also love a dessert I began making about 9 years ago that has the same flavor profile. I usually call it “Cherry Garcia Wanna-Be” mousse. But for the sake of brevity, Cherry Garcia Pudding works also lol.

This is a cinch to make. The most time consuming part is chopping the chocolate and cherries and that’s still pretty quick if you have a decent knife. You can have this knocked out and chilling inside of 20 minutes. Then you just let it chill and serve it. This is oh so good. Creamy and rich with all those lovely flavors meshing into puddingish (yes, that too is now a word) perfection.

You know the drill…. git to cooking 🙂

Cherry Garcia Pudding

 

  • 8 ounces semi sweet chocolate, finely chopped
  • 16 ounce jar Maraschino Cherries, drained, syrup reserved, cherries coarsely chopped (redrain and pat dry the cherries after chopping as they will let off more liquid)
  • 1 can sweetened condensed milk
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1  teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2  teaspoon almond extract (I love the almond flavor so I tend to use more)
  • 1 cup heavy cream, whipped
  • 1 8 ounce container Cool Whip (you can sub sweetened whipped cream, but this is one of those rare cases where the flavor and texture of cool whip works)
  1. In a large bowl, on low speed, beat together the sweetened condensed milk, 3 tablespoons of the maraschino cherry juice (You don’t need any more of it, but it makes an awesome cherry coke, thus why I said to reserve all of it 😛 ), the lemon juice, vanilla extract and almond extract
  2. Gently fold in the cool whip and whipped cream, then the chopped chocolate and chopped cherries.
  3. Cover, then put the mixture into the fridge and chill until thickened, at least 3 hours.
  4. Pour the filling into individual glasses. You can then lightly cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate it until ready to serve or serve now. Garnish with some extra cherries and chopped chocolate.

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Lemony White Chocolate Double Berry Bread Pudding

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Lemony White Chocolate Double Berry Bread Pudding

Lemony White Chocolate Double Berry Bread Pudding




When we get to this part of Winter, that time when you have some warm days then Winter has a hissy fit, backpedals and becomes cold again, I start having major cravings for fresh fruits. Citrus is always a good bet since it’s still in season, but I want berries, darn it! Problem is, what I can find in stores around here, besides being outrageously expensive, has been shipped either from the other side of the U.S. or from another country altogether. So it’s no longer very fresh and it just doesn’t have the flavor that in season berries have. So I compromise. I buy frozen berries. Believe it or not, they are a damned good substitute. With any company worth buying from, the berries are frozen within hours of being picked so you are still getting something that is extremely close to fresh. You may not be able to use it in ALL the same ways you can fresh ones, but in baking, so long as you remember the rule of thumb to use it still frozen, not thawed, you can use it in a LOT of recipes.

You may know I love bread pudding. I used to hate it, but have come to love it since I began making it myself and realized it didn’t always have to be an insipid nursery food with no flavor. Like I mentioned to my husband the other day, I like foods with strong flavors and that includes in bread pudding. This one definitely satisfies. I have made bread pudding enough now that I have no need of a recipe; I just change up the basics to go with whatever add ins I’m doing. This one turned out wonderfully. You have a mild lemon tang and peel taste in the pudding with a bit of smooth white chocolate in there. Then practically every bite, you get some nice tangy berries. It’s bright and fresh tasting and perfect for this time of year. I loved this both warm and chilled. Warm, it’s softer and the flavors are more intense. Chilled it has the texture of a firm mousse, which I love. So far I’ve had it only with some cream poured over it, but I can see this going quite nicely with a berry sauce or custard sauce.

You know the drill… 🙂

Lemony White Chocolate Double Berry Bread Pudding

  • 6 cups cubed Kings Hawaiian Bread (about 12 ounces or 3/4 of a 16 ounce round loaf)
  • 11 ounces good quality white chocolate, chopped
  • 3 cups heavy cream
  • 6 eggs
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
  • zest of two lemons (about 3 tablespoons zest)
  • 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
  • 1 1/2 cups frozen blackberries
  • 1 1/2 cups frozen raspberries
  • boiling water for the water bath
  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter a 4 quart baking dish or 2 2 quart ones. I used 2 2 quart souffle dishes. Place the baking dish/dishes into a large pan. An 11×15 works well.
  2. Place the bread cubes in a large bowl and set aside.
  3. Put your chocolate and lemon zest into a medium bowl. Heat the cream up in the microwave until very hot, but not boiling. Pour cream over the white chocolate in the bowl, stir once, then let sit for five minutes. Stir well to combine the cream and chocolate and complete the melting process.
  4. In a large bowl (I know; lots of bowls. Have your kids, neighbors, stranger off the street or husband or wife do the dishes 😛 ), beat together the 6 eggs and the vanilla until frothy. Add in the 1/2 cup sugar and beat well.
  5. Slowly pour the warm cream into the egg mixture. Make sure you spoon out any lemon zest that may have sunk to the bottom and get it in there too. Beat in the lemon juice.  Let this mixture sit for about an hour so the bread can soak up the custard. When ready to bake, carefully fold in the frozen berries.
  6. Pour the pudding mix into the buttered dish and place it in the middle of the oven. Pour boiling water in the outer dish to reach about a third of the way up the sides of the dish the pudding is in. Carefully push the oven shelf back in to avoid sloshing.
  7. Bake at 325 degrees for about 75 minutes or until the top is nicely browned and a knife inserted into the center of the pudding doesn’t come out liquidy and no liquid wells up in the hole left behind.
  8. Cool the pudding at room temp for about an hour. Then you can either serve it warm or chill it for later.

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Cinnamon Roll Pound Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting

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Cinnamon Roll Pound Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting

Cinnamon Roll Pound Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting




I remember the first time I tried Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls. It was at a mall in Louisville Kentucky. I immediately loved them. I also started to buy them far too often. We went bankrupt, had to live in a cardboard box on a street corner with me holding a sign that said, “please help support my Cinnabon habit. Oh yeah, and help us get a new home too.”  My husband wasn’t pleased with me. But I was happy with all the nice people who dropped Cinnabon money in my tin cup. We eventually got a new place to live. Unfortunately, it was nowhere near a Cinnabon store. The closest one was across the state. So I had to learn to make my own. Which I did. And yes, I’ll post those someday too. So when the idea occurred to me to mix one of my favorite desserts, pound cake, with cinnamon rolls, I ran with it. Of course, upon googling it, I found that a lot of other people had also run with the idea lol, but that’s ok. I’ve come to realize that it is very hard to have a totally original idea in cooking anymore. All you can do is put your own spin on it. And that I have done. I used my favorite pound cake recipe, turned half of it into a cinnamon flavored cake and covered it all with half a batch of the icing I use on cinnamon rolls. This is far from my prettiest photo ever. The light stunk, I was having a crap photo taking day and I’m still sick. But you know what? The cake tastes good. 😛 It has that nice crispy crust that is so good on a pound cake,  a delicate vanilla flavor in half the cake and a tasty cinnamon flavor in the rest. All of that is smothered in a thick cream cheese frosting. All in all, this is a good rendition of a cinnamon roll that had a sex change operation and became cake.

You know the drill…. 🙂

Cinnamon Roll Pound Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting

  • Cake-
  • 3 cups cake flour (yes, it makes a difference)
  • 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, room temp
  • 2 12 cups sugar
  • 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
  • 6 eggs, room temp
  • 2 tablespoons cinnamon
  • Frosting-
  • 4 ounces cream cheese, room temp
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temp
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray a 10 cup bundt cake pan with a flour and oil non stick baking spray.
  2. In a large bowl, on medium speed, beat together the butter, sugar and vanilla extract. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat well after each addition.
  3. Add the flour in and beat on LOW speed just until thoroughly combined.
  4. Pour half the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Add the cinnamon to the other half of the batter and beat well to combine. Spoon the cinnamon batter on top of the plain batter and smooth it also.
  5. Bake at 325 until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean with no loose crumbs and the top is a nice golden brown, about 75 to 85 minutes.
  6. Let cool in the pan on a rack for ten minutes, then carefully turn the cake out onto the rack to finish cooling.
  7. Meanwhile, make your frosting- combine all the frosting ingredients in a medium bowl and beat until light and fluffy.
  8. Spread over the cooled cake. You can also thin it down some with cream or milk and drizzle it over the cake.

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Triple Lemon Bars

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Triple Lemon Bars

Triple Lemon Bars



There are times when you just need comfort, usually in the form of some sort of food or drink. Whether your idea of that is a bag of chips and a beer and old reruns of Andy Griffith, some chicken & dumplings and a cold glass of milk, sitting under a warm blanket reading Little Women while you sip at some tea or anything involving chocolate, or downing a bottle of Smirnoff, going clubbing dressed in only a thong and high heels and then spending the night over a toilet (which btw, if that’s your form of comfort, I have some numbers you may want to call for help 😛 ) you just have to have some form of comfort. For me, it always involves baking and usually not something new, but something tried and true, something that brings back good memories, which for me would mean when my kids were little. One of the things I baked often then was lemon bars. I mean, who (other than my 17 year old and he’s strange) doesn’t like lemon bars? Well, except for (also) those strange people who just don’t like lemon desserts at all. personally, I think they are aliens come to destroy our world. but I also watched War Of The Worlds last night so I may still be caught up in bad 1950’s movie effects.

Lemon Bars have always been one of those quintessential “you need to know how to make these” sort of recipes to me. SO when I realized that after almost 3 years of blogging, I hadn’t yet posted my go to lemon bar recipe, I knew I needed to change that. These are the ones I have been making for about 20 years, though with some changes form the original, which came from (again) one of those monthly Pillsbury cookbooks. You will notice however, the addition of Boyajian Lemon Oil . I have always added either lemon extract (back in the day) or lemon oil (when I realized it was better than extract) but it’s just been in recent months that I have gained an extreme fondness for their specific brand. Give it a try. You can omit the lemon oil but it does definitely add to the overall flavor.

These have a lemony crust, a tart lemon filling and a glaze that I make using lemon zest and lemon oil, but very little lemon juice so that it can offset the tartness of the filling. These have been worked on over the years to make, what I think is, the best lemon bar around. These make a nice thick bar so cut the pieces small unless you’re trying to send everyone, even your healthy friends, into a diabetic coma 😀

You know the drill… 🙂

Triple Lemon Bars

  • Crust-
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/2 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 cup unsalted butter, room temp
  • 1 tablespoon lemon zest
  • 1 tablespoon water, if needed for crust to come together
  • Filling-
  • 6 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 3 cups sugar
  • 2 tablespoons lemon zest
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon Boyajian Lemon Oil  (if you don’t have it, these will be almost as delicious without it; just not quite as lemony)
  • 1/3 cup flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 3/4 cup fresh lemon juice (use room temp lemons to get the most juice)
  • Glaze-
  • 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • Few drops of lemon oil
  • 1 teaspoon lemon zest
  • 3 to 4 tablespoons milk
  1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 13×9 inch baking pan with non-stick foil. That is of course optional, but I highly recommend it.
  2. In a large bowl, using a hand mixer on low speed, combine all the crust ingredients until mixture is crumbly and holds together when pressed in your hand. if you need to add more water, add a little at a time to get it crumbly and not dry.
  3. Press the mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan and then bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until the crust is a light golden brown.
  4. Meanwhile, make your filling- combine the eggs, sugar, lemon zest, vanilla extract, lemon oil, flour and baking powder in a large bowl. Beat on low speed until thoroughly combined. Add in the lemon juice.
  5. When the crust is browned, pour the lemon mixture over the warm crust. Return to the oven and bake at 350 for 35 to 45 minutes, or until the filling is firm, lightly browned and set. If you insert a skewer halfway to the center, it should come out just moist, not liquid, rather like a thick lemon curd. It will set up more as it cools.
  6. Cool the bars completely before glazing. For the glaze, simply whisk all the glaze ingredients together in a small bowl, then pour over the cooled bars and spread gently.
  7. Cut these into small squares or triangles and you can either store them, covered, on the counter for a day or two, or in the fridge for about a week. The fridge is a better bet because they become quite soft and hard to handle when left out.

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Blood Orange Curd

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Blood Orange Curd

Blood Orange Curd




I may have mentioned once or twice that I absolutely love citrus fruits. The plethora of lemon posts on the blog shows how much I love them, but my heart really lies with oranges. Back when I was young, eating an orange if you lived in most of the U.S. meant a navel orange. While those are good and I still love them, now, with the world so much smaller in many ways thanks to good methods of transportation, they are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Now, this time of year, you can get in season citrus of so many varieties it boggles the mind. Cara Cara, navel, Sweet lemons, Myer lemons, Mandarins. Tangelos, Pummelos, Kumquats, Clementines and so many others. But my favorite, one that is only around for a couple of short months, is the Blood Orange. Such an ick name for such a tasty fruit. In case you don’t know what it is, a blood orange is a somewhat smallish variety of orange with a reddish-orange rind and a medium to dark red flesh. The flavor is similar to a “regular” orange, but with a bit of a raspberry or even a somewhat winey flavor to it. The scent is intense and a bit more floral. They are absolutely delicious oranges. You can usually find them at any decently stocked grocery store these days.

Since they are in season for such a short time, after I get my fill of eating them, I like to do things with them that keeps around the house for a while longer. This curd is one of those things. It’s made like a basic lemon curd, but obviously subbing in the blood oranges. I personally add in the zest and juice form one lemon because otherwise, the flavor can be a bit one dimensional and flat since oranges are sweeter than a lemon. I also add in a few drops of orange oil at the end of cooking, but that is entirely optional, though I DO recommend it. It adds just a but more of that orange zest flavor and brings it out in the curd itself.

As yummy as this is, hold on to a good portion of it because we’ll be using it in something else that will be utterly delicious in a few days. So resist the temptation to just stand in front of the fridge with the bowl and a spoon. Or just make two batches. 😀

You know the drill… 🙂

Blood Orange Curd

  • Zest from 3 Blood Oranges (about 3 to 4 tablespoons. If there is more, use it)
  • Zest from one lemon (about 1 tablespoon. Again, use it all)
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temp
  • 6 eggs
  • juice from the oranges and the lemon (you should end up with just about 2/3 a cup of juice)
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/8 teaspoon Boyajian Orange Oil (optional)
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  1. In a large bowl, cream the butter until smooth. Blend in the citrus zest and the sugar.
  2. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, just until combined.
  3. Add in the blood orange/lemon juices, the vanilla and the salt. Blend well.
  4. Pour the mixture into a medium saucepot. Over medium heat, cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture reaches a temp between 170 and 175. Do NOT let this boil. It should take about ten minutes.
  5. Remove from the heat and strain through a fine mesh strainer to get rid of all the zest and any lumps of eggs that may have cooked too fast.
  6. Pour into a container and store in the fridge. The curd will keep for about a month or so. But we’ll be using some of it up here this week. 😀

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Lemon Pots de Crème

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Lemon Pots de Crème

Lemon Pots de Crème



I will now join the club.. I’m ready for Spring to be here. I want to go out and have adult dirt playtime, otherwise known as gardening. I want to see my Hyacinths bloom as well as put in all of my yearly herbs, flower bulbs and seeds. I want to see leaves on our fruit trees and smell the scent of freshly cut grass. I want to hear the crickets and frog serenade me in the evening.

But… what I want doesn’t mean squat to mean old Mother Nature. She is a harridan who does things on her own schedule and this Winter, she has been in a really really bad mood. Kentucky (the part I live in at least) has seen more snow and ice than I recall seeing here in over a decade. But compared to what other parts of the country have endured, it’s been a cake walk here. I don’t know anyone at this point who isn’t ready for a little warmth. I feel like an aging cat who wants nothing more than to find the nearest sunbeam and let it soak into my body lol.

Spring isn’t going to be here for a while though, even here in the south, so I have to content myself with making foods that make me feel like it is almost here. This Lemon Pots de Crème is definitely one of those foods. This is smooth, ultra creamy and rich and intensely tangy; very much a taste of Spring. The recipe is straight from FineCooking.com. The only change I made was to add 1/4 cup of Limoncello to the lemon syrup mixture, but you can always omit that if you don’t want to bother with it. The Mascarpone Cream is also my own touch. I adore having an excuse to make it and use it and it adds so much to a tangy dessert like this one. This is also a touch more involved than some recipes I post, but nothing you can’t handle. Like I’ve said before, just remember to get your ingredients ready beforehand and it makes putting this together a lot quicker and easier. Prep in cooking is SOOOO important.

What is a  Pots de Crème btw for those of you who may not know? Simply a fancy name for a rich baked pudding/custard. This is egg yolk and cream rich so bakes up very smooth if you don’t overcook it.

You know the drill… 🙂

Lemon Pots de Crème With Mascarpone Cream

  • zest of 4 lemons
  • 3/4 cup lemon juice
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup Limoncello Liquor (optional)
  • 3 1/2 heavy cream
  • 1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped out (hold onto the pod; you’ll use it too) or 2 teaspoons good quality vanilla extract (but the sight of the speckles form the beans in there adds some visual appeal)
  • 10 egg yolks (save those whites and make some meringue cookies or egg white omelets!)
  • Boiling water for the water bath
  • For the mascarpone cream-
  • 4 ounces mascarpone cheese
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  1. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Place 8 6 ounce ramekins inside a large baking dish. Set aside.
  2. In a small pot, combine the lemon zest, lemon juice, 1/4 cup of the sugar and the Limoncello (if using). Simmer the mix until it has reduced down to about 1/2 cup. This will take about 15 minutes. Set aside.
  3. In a medium pot, combine the 3 1/2 cups cream, 1/4 cup of the sugar and the vanilla beans and reserved pod (if using extract instead, you’ll add it later) and bring the mixture to just below boiling over medium heat. Remove from the heat and set aside.
  4. Gently whisk the egg yolks with the last 1/4 cup of sugar, just until smooth. Don’t make it airy, just smooth.
  5. Add a ladleful of the hot cream into the egg yolks, whisking the whole time. Do this one more time to temper your yolks. Whisk the egg yolk mix into the rest of the cream mixture.
  6. Cook slowly, stirring constantly (wooden spoons or silicone spatulas work best to make sure you hit all edges of the pot), until the mixture reaches 170 degrees on an instant read thermometer. Stir in the reserved lemon syrup, then strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve to get rid of the lemon zest and vanilla pod. Add your vanilla extract now if that’s what you’re using.
  7. Divide the mixture between the ramekins and carefully transfer the whole baking dish to the 325 degree oven.
  8. Gently pour in boiling water, using enough to reach about halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Be careful here, it’s easy to splash it into the puddings and you don’t want to do that. Cover the pan with a large sheet of foil. Don’t tighten it, just lay it over the top. This holds in the steam and also prevents browning.
  9. Bake at 325 for 25 to 45 minutes (start checking it at the 25 minute mark), until the  Pots de Crèmes  are set at just about 1/4 inch in from the edges. You’re not making a firm pudding here; these are looser. If you insert an instant read thermometer in the center, the temp should be between 150 to 155. If so, they’re ready to come out. If you’ve made other baked puddings or custards, you’ll think “no way are these done”. They ARE. They will firm up to the perfect texture as they cool. Take them one at a time out of the baking pan and let cool for about an hour at room temp, then transfer to the fridge to finish chilling and firm up.
  10. When ready to serve, combine all the ingredients for the mascarpone cream and beat at high speed until it forms nice creamy semi firm peaks.
  11. Garnish the Pots de Crème with lemon zest and the mascarpone cream. I also used some sliced Kumquats because I love them. They’re so darn cute!

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Coconut Tres Leches Cake

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Coconut Tres Leches Cakes

Coconut Tres Leches Cakes



It’s been an interesting few weeks. The weather practically nationwide has been astonishingly cold. We even got noticeable snow (like 6 inches) of snow here in Kentucky. More mass chaos world wide, politics still suck donkey toes and I STILL haven’t won the lottery. Go figure. Plus, I had surgery and surgery when you’re an old fogey like me is just not quite as easy as when you’re a young pup.

Today was the first day I had cooked since having the surgery. I stood and wobbled over the stove making dinner as my field of vision got smaller and smaller and things got gray while I tried not to pass out lol…. I have this really really bad habit of overdoing things.

I did finally manage to make the cake I mentioned wanting to make a few days ago on my facebook page. Wow, that sentence was awkward grammatically. Sorry… moving on… cake, facebook, yada yada… I said days ago that I was gong to make a Tres Leches Cake. Well, here it is. This was my first time ever having Tres Leche cake and I’m going to be 100% honest with you….. I know this cake is a favorite dessert of many people and quite a popular recipe with many variations if you google it. But…. it just wasn’t my cup of tea. I am, of course, still posting it, because it isn’t always about what I like. Sure, most of what I blog about I enjoy but sometimes I will post things that I didn’t care for just because I know some of you WILL enjoy it. This was a nice moist cake and the way I flavored it, it was wonderfully flavored. But the whole sauce soaked into cake thing didn’t work for me. But again, I know some of you will love this…. soft cake, creamy coconut flavored sauce, and not difficult to make.

The original recipe for this came from Bon Appetit. I made only minor changes, those being the use of coconut extract and coconut milk as well as the lime zest.

You know the drill…. 🙂

Coconut Tres Leche Cake

  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 tablespoon lime zest
  • 6 egg whites
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 3 egg yolks
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon coconut flavoring
  • 1/2 cup half and half
  • 1 cup coconut milk
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1 cup sweetened condensed milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon coconut flavoring
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 13×9 inch baking pan. Set aside.
  2. In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and lime zest.
  3. In a large bowl, beat the egg whites on high speed until stiff peaks form, about 5 minutes. Add in the sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, beating well after each addition.
  4. Add in the egg yolks, one at a time, beating just to blend after each one. Beat in the 2 teaspoons vanilla and 1 teaspoon coconut flavoring.
  5. Alternately add in the flour and the 1/2 cup half and half,  starting with and ending with the flour (flour, half and half, flour, half and half, flour), beating well after each addition.
  6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Lower heat to 325 and continue to bake until the cake is golden brown and springs back when lightly touched on top.
  7. While cake is baking, in a large measuring cup, combine the coconut milk, heavy cream, sweetened condensed milk, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and 1/4 teaspoon coconut flavoring.
  8. Cool the cake in the pan for about 15 minutes. Then poke holes all over it with a wooden skewer or fork.  Slowly pour about half of the cream topping over the cake, smoothing it to get it down in the holes. Let that soak in for a few minutes, then pour about half of what is left on it, again letting it soak in. The rest can be used to pour over individual slices of cake (or just eaten with a spoon…hey, i said I liked the topping! 😛 )
  9. Serve the cake with extra topping poured over it, if desired.

Copyright Notice: From Cupcakes To Caviar images and original content are copyright protected. Please do not publish these materials anywhere without prior permission.