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Triple Berry & Nectarine Crisp With Buttery Streusel & Lime Cream Topping

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Triple Berry & Nectarine Crisp With Buttery Streusel & Lime Cream Topping

Triple Berry & Nectarine Crisp With Buttery Streusel & Lime Cream Topping



I can see some of you (yes, even you, my dear brother) scratching your heads and saying, “Who is this blogger? I don’t remember this blog at all. Ohhhh, wait, this is that crazy woman who hasn’t blogged in weeks, isn’t it? NOW I remember”. I also then envision you running into the night, screaming in terror. Please tell me I’m wrong on that last part? But… yes, I was gone for a couple of weeks. Reasons don’t matter; it’s just time now for you to rejoice, throw confetti and be glad I’m back. Or something like that.

Did I ever mention that my husband does NOT like peaches or nectarines? He doesn’t care for stone fruits in general, actually. Why I stay with this man with these fatal flaws he has is beyond me. he also doesn’t like sushi, mushrooms, the skin on fried chicken or any sort of fat on meat. Pray for me.

But I like nectarines, so he has to deal with it; that or just not eat any of this deliciousness. I had a bag of nectarines that I needed to use in some way other than my normal sliced in a bowl with a little bit of sugar and cream. Plus, I had berries in the fridge that were getting long in the tooth. Not that that takes very long with berries, mind you. I wish there was a fool proof way to keep them fresh for longer than three days or so.

So I decided I wanted a crisp. I think my love for streusel is well known at this point considering I have about 9,452 recipes in here that use streusel. Fine, not quite that many. But I do love streusel. Add in some of my favorite fruits and I’m in heaven. With this one though, I went a bit further. The other night, I was having my usual bowl of berries and cream, but on a whim, I mixed some homemade lime curd into the cream. It was wonderful, so I decided to make it for this crisp. It adds a nice creamy yet tart finish to this. All in all, this was quite good (if I do say so myself). Buttery crispy streusel, sweet juicy fruit, all topped with a creamy topping. What else do you need? Other than ten million dollars. I can’t help you there.

You know the drill…

Triple Berry & Nectarine Crisp With Buttery Streusel & Lime Cream Topping

  • Streusel-
  • 3/4 cup oats, not instant
  • 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 7 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and sliced thin
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • Fruit filling-
  • 2 pounds (about 7 to 9, depending on size) ripe nectarines (could sub peaches), peeled and chopped
  • 6 ounces (one small container) fresh raspberries
  • 6 ounces (one small container) fresh blackberries
  • 1 pint fresh blueberries
  • 1/3 to 1/2 cup sugar
  • 3 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon almond extract
  • Lime Cream Topping-
  • 1 cup heavy whipping cream
  • 1/2 store bought or homemade lime (or lemon) curd
  1. Make your topping and refrigerate it. In a small bowl, combine the cream and curd. Use a whisk and beat until soft peaks form. Cover and chill until ready to use.
  2. Preheat oven to 400; butter 6 8 ounce ramekins or a 13×9 inch baking dish (preferably glass, as metal dishes tend to discolor fruits) In a large bowl, combine all the filling ingredients. Stir well, then set aside.
  3. For the streusel, in a medium bowl, combine the oats, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and salt. Stir well to break up any large lumps in the sugar.
  4. Using a pastry blender or your fingers (I usually start with the pastry blender, then go to my fingers to finish it up), cut in the cold butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs
  5. Divide the fruit mixture evenly among the buttered ramekins. Top with the streusel. If, by chance, you don’t use all the streusel, it freezes wonderfully.
  6. Bake at 400 until golden brown and bubbly, about 20 minutes. Serve at desired temp, topped with the lime cream.
Triple Berry & Nectarine Crisp With Buttery Streusel & Lime Cream Topping

Triple Berry & Nectarine Crisp With Buttery Streusel & Lime Cream Topping

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Tangy Key Lime Bars With A Vanilla Bean Marshmallow Meringue

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Tangy Key Lime Bars With A Vanilla Bean Marshmallow Meringue

Tangy Key Lime Bars With A Vanilla Bean Marshmallow Meringue



I’ve decided that Key Limes are a pain in the butt and I totally prefer working with Persian Limes. Why? Because I’m lazy and zesting little teeenieeeee tinyyyyy limes takes 500 years and I’m already old. I don’t have time for that stuff. Who would finish baking if I were to keel over in the middle of zesting, dead from a zesting induced coronary?

Well, I have now managed to use the word zesting (which spell check says isn’t even a word in the first place) more in a few sentences than I had in the previous year. Zesting, zesting, zesting, zesting. There. That should take care of the next year or two.

I had planned to go on a raging bender tonight, which for me means two beers and then I fall asleep. But I came to the realization that 3 and a half hours of sleep the night before doesn’t leave much room for even picking up a beer bottle, much less enjoying it. So I shall instead drink tea fixed for me by my loving husband, eat dinner, inhale two one of these utterly delicious lime bars, then fall asleep watching M*A*S*H on Netflix. Yes, I live on the edge like this often. It’s an adrenaline filled life that few can handle. Feel free to live vicariously through me.

In the meantime however, bake these bars. Crunchy graham cracker crust, creamy, tangy lime filling, all topped with a sweet vanilla bean meringue. These are soooo good. Have I led you astray yet? WHAT!? DARN! Quit bringing up the danged Emu!!!

You know the drill…. 🙂

Mrs. Cupcake, who is too pooped to pucker

Tangy Key Lime Bars With A Vanilla Bean Marshmallow Meringue

  • 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
  • Filling-
  • 2 14 ounce cans sweetened condensed milk
  • 1 cup key lime juice (you can sub regular lime juice)
  • 2 to 3 tablespoons lime zest
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 2 eggs
  • a few drops of green food coloring (optional)
  • Meringue-
  • 4 egg white, room temp
  • 1/2 teaspoon cream of tarter
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • one vanilla bean, seeds scraped out (or sub 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract)
  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line a 9 inch square pan with non stick foil. Combine the crust ingredients in a bowl and mix well, until you have a crumbly mass. Press down into the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake at 350 until browned, about 15 minutes. Let it cool down completely before adding the filling. Turn the oven down to 325 degrees.
  2. In a large bowl, combine the sweetened condensed milk, lime juice and zest and sour cream. Whisk until thoroughly blended, then add the eggs and food coloring (if using); whisk until mixed.
  3. Pour the filling into the cooled crust. Bake at 325 degrees for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and chill for two hours at least, or until needed.
  4. About 30 minutes before serving, make your meringue- start a pot of water simmering.  In another, slightly smaller pot, whisk to combine the egg whites, cream of tarter and sugar. Place over the pot of simmering water, making sure it doesn’t actually touch the water, but is just above it. Whisk the egg white mixture continuously until it reaches a temp of about 120 to 125 degrees; enough to feel somewhat uncomfortable on your fingertip, but not burning hot. It will take just a few minutes at most. Remove from the heat and add in the scraped vanilla bean or vanilla extract. Whisk just to combine.
  5. Pour the still warm mixture into either the bowl of a stand mixer or a large bowl. Beat at medium high speed until the meringue is fluffy and holds a firm peak. Spread over the top of the chilled pan of bars. Use a kitchen torch to lightly brown the top of the meringue. You can also place it under the broiler with the oven door open for a minute or two, but watch it carefully if you do this as it doesn’t take long to burn.
  6. You can serve now or re-chill the bars. Use the foil to pull the bars out of the pan and place on a large cutting board. Peel off the foil from the sides and cut into desired serving sized pieces. I wouldn’t cut them as large as the ones I have here. That was just for photo purposes :-p
Tangy Key Lime Bars With A Vanilla Bean Marshmallow Meringue

Tangy Key Lime Bars With A Vanilla Bean Marshmallow Meringue

 

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White Chocolate And Lime Mousse Tart

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Yum

White Chocolate And Lime Mousse Tart 4



Most of my strongest memories of my father center around food. Dad was an….interesting cook, to say the least. I mentioned once (maybe twice or more… I’m getting old and forgetful) before that dad used to make things like chili or spaghetti sauce and besides adding jalapenos to both (yes, even the spaghetti sauce) and when I say adding jalapenos, I mean making it so hot, your tongue fell out of your mouth in protest, he also never ever drained the grease from his ground meat. So there you’d have some otherwise lovely (and mouth burning) dish, swimming in a pool of grease. But no one wanted to hurt his feelings or incur his wrath, so no one ever said anything. I got my opening one day however a couple of years after I moved him next door to me. He asked me why my spaghetti sauce was so much better than his and also, did I drain the grease off for some reason? I did a cheer inwardly and said that yes, I drained the grease off my ground beef and that that may be why mine was better, because too much grease makes it (I said politely) a bit heavy on the stomach. I didn’t mention that burning the stomach lining of people may not be smart. I knew when to shut up. 😀

Dad also loved jello. My kids though, as much as they loved Gramps giving them unlimited amounts of sweets when I wasn’t looking, weren’t jello fans. So he would make it for himself and me, just the same way he did when my brother, sister and I were kids. No plain jello for dad. Nope, nope, nope. He would drain some sort of canned fruit or a jar of maraschino cherries, use the juice from it as the liquid and then add the fruit when it was almost set. Then he would top it with about 4 pounds of Cool Whip and we were good to go on calories and sugar for about a year. It was utterly delicious and still how I like my jello. I think of him every…single…time I eat jello.

But sometimes I like to get a little fancier and not use the sugar laden flavored kind of gelatin and go back to the plain old fashioned gelatin that you flavor yourself. I have been, like most people, waiting not so patiently for Spring. Speaking of which, we are supposed to be getting an ample amount of snow here in Kentucky again tomorrow. But I’ll save that whining for later.

I have been heavy into anything citrus lately. It’s both my favorite sort of fruit, plus it makes me think of Spring. Spring…warmth…my garden.. warmth… fresh produce… did I mention warmth? Sorry. I’ll stop now. So, when I saw some pretty limes at the store, I got to thinking about what to do with the ones that jumped into my shopping cart. I got home and saw some white chocolate sitting out. I had bought it for something else, but who cares? When an idea hits, you run with it. 😀 I had seen a recipe for white chocolate mousse elsewhere that I couldn’t find now, so I improvised and completely messed around with using a mousse recipe I found elsewhere. What I ended up with was a delicious tart with both lime and white chocolate sharing the limelight (hehe… LIMElight) equally. This is rich and creamy and a small slice will do you just fine. Unless you’re a teenage boy. Then… make two. I originally planned on using graham cracker crumbs as the crust, but all I had were Oreos. And I love the way it turned out with them.

You know the drill….

Mrs. Cupcake, who is sobbing over the thought of more snow

White Chocolate And Lime Mousse Tart

  • Crust-
  • 14 oreos (NOT Double Stuffs)
  • 2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
  • Filling-
  • 8 ounces good quality white chocolate, chopped
  • 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
  • 2 to 3 tablespoons lime zest (from about 3 limes)
  • 1 packet unflavored gelatin (sold with the other types of flavored gelatin in packs of 4, usually on the bottom shelf)
  • 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  1. Make your crust- put your Oreos in the bowl of a food processor and process them down to crumbs. Add in the melted butter and pulse until it is combined. Pour the mixture into a buttered 9 inch tart pan (the kind with the removable bottom) and press it down onto the bottom of the pan.
  2. Bring 1/2 of the cream to a simmer. You can use a small pot or just do it as I do in the microwave.. When it comes to a simmer, remove from the heat and dump in the chopped white chocolate. Let sit for about five minutes, then stir until it is smooth. Let the mixture sit until it’s just barely warm.
  3. Meanwhile, sprinkle the gelatin over the lime juice in a small pot. Let it sit for about ten minutes to soften up, then stir it over low heat just until the gelatin dissolves. Let cool, then fold the gelatin mixture into the white chocolate/cream.
  4. Whip the remaining one cup of cream with the vanilla extract until it has soft peaks. Fold the white chocolate mixture into the cream, then pour this all into the prepared crust. Smooth the top and refrigerate for at LEAST 6 to 8 hours, but preferably overnight. Gelatin takes a few hours to set firmly anyway and the addition of a citrus juice in this one makes it set slower.
  5. When done, gently push it out from the bottom (it always helps to have someone else there to grab the pan bottom. Otherwise, you have this tart in one hand with no way to remove what looks like a huge cream covered bracelet dangling from your other arm. Don’t ask… just don’t ask.
  6. Garnish with more whipped cream and some lime slices.

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White Chocolate And Lime Mousse tart 3

Coconut Lime Pound Cake

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Coconut Lime Pound Cake

Coconut Lime Pound Cake

I was thisclose to getting my Autumn on and deluging you with Pumpkin, Apple and Maple recipes because…well, pumpkin. Pumpkin, apple and maple…oh my, pumpkin and apple and maple, oh my. You know you just said that sing song “Wizard Of Oz” style. Admit it.

But then, one night, while I was NOT sitting and watching Rocky II for the third time in as many weeks (I’m not a Stallone fan normally, but dayum, he was hot in that movie 😀 ) and looking through one of the 9000 cooking magazines I have, I saw this recipe. There was no way I could pass it up and definitely no way I could wait until the politically correct blogger time of early Summer or Spring to make this. I absolutely love the combo of coconut and lime and tend to use it often. I also love pound cake with a passion usually saved for Cheetos and Ho-Hos before they changed the recipe.

This is totally worth putting off Fall baking for a few days. Worth it enough that I wish I had gotten it out of the house and sent it to work with my husband because it’s evil as it stares it me and taunts me to eat just one more slice. The lime and coconut flavors blend so beautifully with neither overpowering the other. This has the quintessential pound cake crumb; moist, dense and tender with the bottom (what was the top in the pan) being crispy and crunchy like a good pound cake should be. I didn’t make any drastic changes from the cookbook/magazine recipe. I used lime juice in the glaze instead of just milk and I added zest in the cake batter because all it used originally was the juice and that was NOT acceptable. Must…have…zest. Also, I used a fair amount more vanilla extract. It also called for coconut in the cake and I don’t care for that, so buh-bye it went. Otherwise, still pretty much like the book.

You know the drill… 🙂

Coconut Lime Pound Cake

  • 1 cup unsalted butter, room temp
  • 1/2 cup solid shortening, room temp
  • 2 1/2 cups sugar
  • 5 eggs, room temp
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon coconut flavoring
  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup cream of coconut (not coconut milk; cream of coconut can be found with the cocktail mixers)
  • 1/3 cup lime juice
  • 2 tablespoons water
  • zest from one lime (about 2 tablespoons)
  • Lime Glaze-
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 2 teaspoons milk
  • 1 teaspoon lime juice
  • 1 teaspoon lime zest
  • 1/4 teaspoon coconut flavoring
  • toasted coconut for garnish
  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray a 10 cup Bundt pan with cooking spray made for baking (Bakers Joy or Wiltons) or grease and lightly flour the pan.
  2. In a large bowl, beat together the butter, sugar and extracts until light and fluffy. Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
  3. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and lime zest. In a measuring cup, combine the cream of coconut, lime juice and water.
  4. Alternately add the flour mixture, then the coconut mixture to the butter mixture, starting and ending with the flour (flour, coconut, flour, coconut, flour), beating just until combined after each addition.
  5. Pour into the prepared pan; smooth the top.
  6. Bake at 325 for 65 to 75 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool in pan on a rack for ten minutes, then slide a knife around the edge of the cake and carefully turn out onto the rack to cool completely.
  7. When cool,  glaze the cake. To make the cake, simply combine all the ingredients in a small bowl and drizzle over the cake. Garnish with toasted coconut.

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Glazed Key Lime Shortbread

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Glazed Key Lime Shortbread

Glazed Key Lime Shortbread

 

You ever have one of those days when you feel like you’ve run around like a crazy woman (or man as the case may be) all day, but haven’t accomplished anything of importance? That was my day today. I made homemade bread, made dinner, made cookies, did housework, etc etc, but somehow, I just don’t feel like I got anything done. All the floors still need waxed, I need to go weed outside, I need to vacuum, there’s more laundry, I did NOT write a New York Times bestselling novel nor did I manage to effect world peace by my mere presence or find a cure for paper cuts. So, see? Wasted day.

I may have no choice but to console myself about my laziness by being lazy and sitting down with 14 of these cookies and a cup of tea and watching all five of the Rocky Movies on Netflix. Want to come join me? If you get here in sayyyyyy, the next ten minutes, there may even be a cookie left.

I had seen this cookie (more or less) on the Land O Lakes web site. The idea intrigued me because I love shortbread. I mean, what’s not to love about shortbread? It uses lots of butter. What else did I need to know? I mean…butter! But so many of the reviews talked about it being dry and crumbly. Now, by its very nature, shortbread tends to be crumbly. It has very few ingredients and doesn’t really include anything that could be considered a binder or “cookie glue” as I think I’ll call it 😀

So I changed the recipe. I know, right! Whoda thunk it of me!? In all honesty, one reason I change recipes is because in the blogging world, it’s considered uncool to use anothers recipe without substantial changes. But mostly, I change things, as I’ve said many times, because I am genetically incapable of leaving a recipe alone. It’s a sickness! A sickness, I tell you!

What I did was to add an egg yolk to make a more manageable cookie that didn’t crumble if you looked at it funny and I also added a packet of Duncan Hines Key Lime Frosting Creations to up the zing factor of the lime flavor. It worked! These are yummy cookies, if I do say so myself. They are still very delicate, so you can’t like throw one at someone you’re wanting to give one to, or all they will receive is a handful of tasty crumbs, but handle them with common sense care and you’ll be fine. These are great for after school snacking (which is coming up far quicker than most of us parents want to admit!), great with some tea or coffee, late night noshing. Ok, fine, it’s good no matter what. It has a nice bright lime flavor with a melt in your mouth texture. I can see myself in the future using this same recipe with other packet flavors, so be on the lookout for some, especially near Christmas!

You know the drill… 🙂

Glazed Key Lime Shortbread

  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1/2 cup cornstarch
  • 1/2 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 packet Duncan Hines Key Lime Frosting Creations (can be done without this, but it makes the flavor pop)
  • 1 cup unsalted butter, room temp
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons Key Lime juice
  • 1 tablespoon Key Lime zest (I have a confession; I used regular limes)
  • GLAZE-
  • 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
  • 2 teaspoons lime zest
  • 2 to 3 tablespoons lime juice (amount varies by how thin you want the glaze)
  1. In a medium bowl, whisk to combine the flour, cornstarch, powdered sugar and the frosting packet.
  2. In another bowl, beat together the butter, egg yolk, lime juice and lime zest. Add in the flour mixture and beat on low speed to combine. This is a fairly soft dough, so don’t add more flour when you see that.
  3. Divide the dough in half, shape each half into a log (carefully or it will start to melt all over your hands) and wrap in plastic wrap or foil. Refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours.
  4. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line your cookie sheet with either parchment paper or a silicone mat.
  5. Slice each log into 10 to 12 slices. Lay about an inch apart on the cookie sheets. Bake at 350 for about 12 to 14 minutes or until the cookies look set and are a nice light brown around the edges. You don’t want to overcook shortbread. That’s one of the things that will make it too crumbly.
  6. Let them cool for about 2 minutes on the sheet, then CAREFULLY transfer them to a rack to finish cooling.
  7. When they are cool, whisk together the glaze ingredients. You can then either carefully spoon it and spread it on top of each cookie or dip the tops of them in the glaze. Spooning tends to work better because if you dip, the lime zest gets left in the bowl for the most part and doesn’t adhere to the cookies.

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Lemon/Lime Pudding Cake

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Lemon/Lime Pudding Cake

Lemon/Lime Pudding Cake



Honey, I’m home! I haven’t made a post in two whole weeks! I’d love to say that the reason was because I was in the Bahamas, sunning on a beach as a 25 year old buff pool boy named Julio brought me Pina Coladas and rubbed sun tan lotion on my suddenly skinny back, but alas, that was not the case. I’ve just been dealing with one of the perks of aging… aka “I’m not capable of just getting a cold. I have to get a cold that then leaves me whimpering and gasping for air at deaths door as Satan giggles and kicks me in the rib cage for jollies.” Getting older… it’s a blast. 😛

But while I was sick, I got lots done!!! Ok, while I was sick, the only thing I got done was reading various magazines, playing Farmville on my Kindle 38 hours a day, riding my exercise bike and watching my lungs fall out on the floor and fun stuff like that. Don’t be hatin’. We can’t all have my life…..and my respiratory system. I’m just that special.

BUT!!!! I am now cooking again. And it’s yummy. I haven’t lost my touch. I’ve lost my sense of smell recently, but my touch is still there 😀

Back a few weeks ago, before I began practicing death, I had let my facebook followers decide what dessert got made first; a chocolate one or a lemon one. Chocolate won by one vote. ONE…VOTE. Not that I minded. I got chocolate. So now I’m posting the lemon one. Everyone has heard of lemon pudding cake, right? Ok, you in the back… go away. You shouldn’t be on a food blog if you have never heard of pudding cake. What is pudding cake, you ask? It’s heaven on a spoon. Lemon Heaven in this case. Pudding cake is one of the easiest desserts ever. It is a layer of creamy pudding covered by a layer of moist cake. It can be a family treat or is even interesting enough to be served to company. Cover it in berries and slather it in whipped cream and your guests will love you. Did I mention how easy it is?

I, of course, couldn’t make this normally. I can see the surprise on your face. I added some freshly grated ginger to it to give it some zing. I love the combo of lemon and ginger. They complement each other so well. The original recipe from Food & Wine had no vanilla extract in it and found that sinful, so I added some 😀 along with some lemon oil and lime zest and juice. Made it better and made it mine. 🙂

You know the drill…. 🙂

Lemon/Lime Pudding Cake

  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1/3 cup flour
  • 3 eggs, seperated
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temp
  • 1 cup milk
  • 3 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 3 tablespoons lime juice
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons lemon zest
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons lime zest
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon lemon oil

 

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease 6 6 ounce ramekins. You could also do this in one souffle dish, but make sure to adjust cooking time.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar and flour. In another bowl (don’t forget to clean as you go… it makes me happy :-p ), whisk the egg yolks with the softened butter. Whisk in the milk, lemon and lime juices, zest, vanilla extract and lemon oil.
  3. Pour the egg yolk mixture into the flour/sugar mix and whisk to combine until smooth.
  4. In a scrupulously clean bowl, beat the egg whites at high speed with a hand mixer until stiff peaks form. Fold the egg whites into the other mixture until no white streaks remain.
  5. Pour the batter into the prepared ramekins, then transfer the ramekins into a large baking dish.  Slide the dish into the oven and carefully pour hot water into the pan (not the ramekins) until it reaches about halfway up the sides of the ramekins.
  6. Bake at 350 until they are puffy and golden, about 35 minutes. Carefully transfer the ramekins to a rack to cool for about 20 minutes. Serve warm with berries and whipped cream. 🙂

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White Chocolate Coconut/Lime Bars

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White Chocolate Coconut/Lime Bars

White Chocolate Coconut/Lime Bars




For a few years now, there has been a recipe floating around the ‘net for lemon brownies. They have, in their various incarnations, been pinned about 4 bazillion times and remade probably as much. There is, at this point, no way to dig and find out who did it first. So, now you’re thinking, “so you made those lemon brownies even though they are all over the internet?! I’m disappointed in you, Janet!”

Surely, you jest? ( “I don’t jest and don’t call me Shirley!” Sorry… I was channeling one of my fathers old jokes.) Me? Me?! Repeat what has been repeated  ad nauseam? Not happ’nin. So what did I do, you ask? Please tell me you were asking or about to. Otherwise, kittens will cry.

I…wait for it…changed it up. A lot. You’d NEVER expect that out of me, now would you?! I took the original recipe and kind of turned it on it’s head. It’s no longer lemon. It’s Lime. With coconut flavor… and chunks of Lindt White Coconut Bar. This is…so…good. The bar is slightly chewy and then you get a somewhat melted in bite of White Chocolate Coconut bar along with the tang of lime in the bar and in the glaze. Did I mention that these are fantastic?

You know the drill… 🙂

White Chocolate Coconut/Lime Bars

  • 3/4 cup flour
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temp
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tablespoons lime zest
  • 3 tablespoons lime juice
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon lime oil
  • 1 teaspoon coconut flavoring (in the same area in the store as the vanilla extract)
  • 2 3.5 ounce Lindt Excellence White Coconut bars, coarsely chopped
  • 2 tablespoons flour to toss the chocolate in
  • Glaze-
  • 2/3 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 tablespoon lime juice
  • 1 tablespoon lime zest
  • milk if needed to thin glaze
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8 inch square pan with non stick foil.
  2. In a medium bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, flour and salt until well combined.
  3. In a small bowl, whisk together the lime juice, lime zest and the flavorings. Pour into the flour mixture and beat well for about two minutes on medium speed. The mixture will look really thin and even might look somewhat curdled. You didn’t mess up; it’s fine.
  4. Gently, fold in the chopped chocolate. Pour into the prepared pan
  5. Bake at 350 for between 30 to 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out barely clean.
  6. Cool completely in the pan on a rack.
  7. When cool, combine all the glaze ingredients and spoon over the bars. When the glaze has had a while to firm up (refrigerate if you want o hasten this) lift the bars by the foil and lay out on a cutting board.  Cut into desired size squares…or rectangles or if you cut as badly as I do, something resembling a hexagon on steroids.
  8. So far as I can tell thus far, these are good at room temp or straight from the fridge. Haven’t tried frozen.

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Key Lime Pie Dip

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Key Lime Pie Dip

Key Lime Pie Dip



I say yet again…. weird, weird weather. May in Kentucky and it’s in the mid 50’s and we had to turn the heat on last night! Some of our area got frost and it attacked my Basil the other night and killed off the tips of all the leaves. I am pretty sure we can give up on the idea of fruit from our trees AGAIN this year due to the weather. Le Sigh.

But I will (she says yet again) NOT give up on warm weather cooking and eating. I have always said that I was a person who didn’t cook according to the season, that if I wanted pumpkin in July, I was having pumpkin in July and enjoying it. And while this is true, I am coming to realize that even I, much as I hate to be normal :-p, do tend to cook according to the seasons. Maybe it’s genetically hardwired in us to do that, since we were all hunter-gatherers at one time. We have the luxury of doing what we want cooking wise, because we were blessed to be born into bodies living in developed countries, but there is still something that makes us want to use that fresh stuff while it’s there.

Ok, enough waxing philosophical. Let’s get to the food.

I have a thing for limes. I absolutely HATE fake lime flavor, such as that found in candy, but I love the flavor and scent of real lime. When I use it, I’m convinced it’s my favorite citrus. But then again, I do the same when I use lemons or oranges hehe.

This dip is awesome. My husband, who has some sort of sensory issue with creamy foods, couldn’t stop eating it. He totally loved it. I did also of course…. it’s lime, it’s rich, it’s creamy and I’m me; need I say more? 😀 The kids loved it too, so this was a hit all around. This is simple to make. Just beat, beat more, spoon into a serving bowl and there ya go. You can serve this with whatever dippers you want; I used vanilla wafers, graham crackers and sliced up marshmallows. Let it sit out at room temp for a bit to soften. It’s fine cold but harder to scoop up.

You know the drill…. 🙂

 

Side Note! Don’t forget to go to the post preceding this one (GIVEAWAY) and enter my giveaway! You could win a 6 Speed Hamilton Beach Stand Mixer AND a 6 Speed Hamilton Beach Hand Mixer! Just for entering. I don’t have a bazillion entries so your chances are actually pretty good of winning!

Key Lime Pie Dip

  • 8 ounces cream cheese, room temp
  • 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temp
  • zest of 5 key limes (or 2 regular; about 2 tablespoons zest)
  • 2 tablespoons key lime juice (or 3 tablespoons regular lime juice)
  • 1/2 teaspoon lime oil (optional, but adds a nice zing)
  • 1/2 teaspoon lemon lime kool-aid (again; optional, but it adds the cute green color and a good amount of tang and c’mon, it costs 20 cents at wal mart :-p )
  • 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
  • 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs

 

  1. In a medium bowl, combine the cream cheese and butter. Beat at medium speed until it is smooth and creamy.
  2. Add in the zest, juice, lime oil and kool aid. Beat well.
  3. Add the powdered sugar and beat at low speed until mixture is fluffy.
  4. Spoon into a serving bowl. Top with the graham cracker crumbs. Chill for about 45 minutes minimum. It can be chilled longer, but make sure you let it sit out for 30 minutes or so just to soften a little bit.
  5. Serve with dippers of choice.

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Fresh Fruit Salad With Honey/Lime Syrup & A Creamy Mascarpone Topping

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Fresh Fruit Salad With Honey/lime Syrup & A Creamy Mascarpone Topping

Fresh Fruit Salad With Honey/lime Syrup & A Creamy Mascarpone Topping



It’s funny the things that you associate with certain words. Forevermore, the words fruit salad will make me think of a toy guitar my four year old had when he was a toddler. He could press certain buttons on it and it would play snippets of songs, one of them being “Fruit Salad” by The Wiggles (I STILL have no darn idea who The Wiggles are!) Warning… watch this at your own risk. Brain cells WILL melt and leak out of your ears.

 

That guitar disappeared one day (my theory is that I was sleep walking one night and gleefully broke it into a bazillion pieces and hid the body… I mean, pieces. and I thank God quite often for that unsolved kidnapping, murder, run away… whatever.

But fruit salad like this will only disappear one place… into mah bellah. It is yummy to the max and if you don’t use the mascarpone cream (though why you wouldn’t is beyond me 😛 ) it’s even more or less good for you. I mean… it’s fruit… and limes (which are also a fruit 😛 ) and nice natural honey. Ok, ok, so there’s sugar in there too! Sue me! But seriously, this is a great alternative to a fattening dessert. And it can be made fairly quickly so it’s great for an impromptu bring to work or a bbq dish. If you make it ahead of time, the fruits pick up a lot of flavor from the syrup, but the oranges will also take on a purplish tinge from the berries so if you don’t want that, add the oranges about 30 minutes or so before serving.

You know the drill…

            Fresh Fruit Salad With Honey/Lime Syrup & A Creamy Mascarpone Topping

  • 6 cups fresh mixed berries
  • 1 cup seedless green grapes (obviously, you can use another color but you’ll already have dark berries, thus why I did green grapes for contrast)
  • 2 oranges, sectioned, white pith removed
  • 2/3 cup lime juice
  • zest from 2 limes
  • 2/3 cup honey
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1 8 ounce container mascarpone cheese, room temp
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  1. In a medium pot, combine the lime juice, lime zest, honey, 1 cup sugar and 1/4 cup water. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, then lower heat and simmer for one minute. Cool completely.
  2. In a large bowl, combine all the fruits. When syrup is cool, pour over the fruits and toss GENTLY. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to one day.
  3. For mascarpone cream, combine the mascarpone, sour cream, vanilla and 1/2 cup sugar in a medium bowl. Beat at medium speed until smooth and creamy. Keep stored in fridge until ready to use. Using a slotted spoon, spoon the fruit into a serving bowl. Discard (or drink lol) the remaining syrup.
  4. Top each serving with a dollop of the mascarpone cream.

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

 

 

Key Lime Chess Pie

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Key Lime Chess Pie 1

I’ve always had a thing for food culture and food history. One of my prize possessions is the full set of Time Life Foods Of The World cookbooks. The firs time I read one of them was when I lived in Germany and I became immediately hooked. The books are a bit dated now (they were printed in the late 60’s through early 70’s but that is actually part of their charm. But they are a wonderful combination of a cookbook, a travelogue and personal anecdotes from each author. When the internet became a larger part of everyday life, I looked for the books on Ebay and found them. By the time I managed to piece together one set, I had extras and now have almost 2 full sets of the books. I have yet to decide which one of my kids get the books when I die hehe.

One of the things I love about food history is how the things we eat has changed so much and it’s fun to compare. back in the day, people routinely ate things like offal and marrow. I remember my mother, a depression baby, sucking the marrow out of bones and how it grossed me out because I was form a different time period than she. And how many of you have ever had a tomato aspic or jellied beef? Or a Marlborough Pie or Shoofly Pie? Heck, I know many people from the generations younger than myself who have never even had jello or a jello salad. That was such a common place dessert or side dish years back but my theory is that the younger crowd today has far more choices when it comes to sweets so things like jello have fallen out of favor.

One of the things that always sounded interesting to me was Chess Pie. The addition of cornmeal to what would otherwise be a typical custard pie seemed unusual enough to be yummy. But the “normal” chess pie sounded overly sweet, even to me lol. So when I saw a recipe for Key Lime Chess Pie in The Southern Foodie, I knew I wanted to try it. I mean, y’all know me. Turn down something made with lime? Not to mention custardy, aka creamy? yeah right… and I hated Twinkies too.

This turned out pretty good. I was leery at first about the amount of butter used in the crust. I worried it would be greasy. But it seems to have worked, making the crust almost cookie like though a bit less butter would be ideal in my opinion. The filling is nice and tart from the lime but not too tart. The only issue I have is that the directions weren’t very clear on pie pan size. I used a regular 9 inch pan and ended with 1) a very thick crust and 2) too much filling for the pan. So I will say here and repeat in the recipe. Either use a 10 inch deep dish pie pan (hard to find I know), make this in say, a 13×9 inch glass pan or plan on putting some of it into ramekins as I did today.

Key Lime Chess Pie

  • Crust-
  • 1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
  • 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon flour
  • 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
  • 11 teaspoons unsalted butter, melted (the recipe called for 12.5 tablespoons but I think a tad less would be ideal with no chance of excessive greasiness. Make your own call there.)
  • Filling-
  • 8 eggs (yes, 8)
  • 4 cups sugar
  • 1/2 cup milk or cream
  • 1/2 cup Key Lime juice (you can find it bottled with the regular lemon and lime juices at the store)
  • 2 tablespoons flour
  • 2 tablespoons cornmeal
  • juice (and zest; my addition there) of one lime
  • 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
  1. To make the crust, preheat oven to 350 degrees then combine all the crust ingredients and pat into the bottom of a deep dish large pie pan or a 9 inch pan and a couple of ramekins.
  2. Place the pan in the 350 degree oven and bake for 7 minutes, then set aside to cool.
  3. For the filling, In a large bowl, combine the eggs, sugar, milk (or cream) and key lime juice. Whisk until well combined.
  4. Add the flour, cornmeal, lime juice and zest and butter. Stir to combine.
  5. Pour into the pie shell and bake at 350 until the top is golden brown and the only the very center of the pie is jiggly. The edges and halfway through should look and feel set not liquidy.

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