Natilla - Colombian Custard

While I was browsing Goya's website for recipes, I found this one for Natilla, a Colombian Custard perfect for the Holidays. I went to the grocery store with all intentions of buying the ingredients needed but I couldn't find a bag of Panela (chopped dried sugar cane). I browsed the web to see if I could find a swap for the Panela (in one recipe it said 1 cup of dark brown sugar) but instead I discovered this wonderful version on My Colombian Recipes that required no Panela or Dark Brown Sugar at all! Instead, it had coconut milk, sweetened condensed milk and plain sugar, all of which I had on hand. I also liked that the shredded coconut was inside the custard and that it was dusted with cinnamon on top. It also looked a lot more visually appealing than the Goya recipe or the other ones I found online. I'm trying to reduce my lactose intake so I swapped out regular milk for Almond Milk and besides the butter and the sweetened condensed milk, this was pretty light on the lactose. If you don't like egg-based custards, give this one a try!

Adapted from My Colombian Recipes

Ingredients:

3 cups of milk (or Almond Milk), divided

1 cup of cornstarch

2 cinnamon sticks

1 cup of coconut milk

1/2 cup of shredded coconut

1 can of sweetened condensed milk 

1/4 cup of white sugar

dash of salt

1/2 tsp of vanilla

1 tbsps of butter

ground cinnamon to taste

In a small bowl, add 1 cup of the milk and 1 cup of starch. Mix thoroughly until all the cornstarch is dissolved and there are no lumps. Set aside.

In a pot over medium heat, add the rest of the milk (2 cups) and the cinnamon sticks. Warm up the milk without bringing to a boil. Make sure you cover the pot! While that's heating up, add the coconut milk and coconut to a blender and blend until it's as smooth as you can. Roughly 1 minute.

When the milk is warm, add the coconut-coconut milk mixture. Stir and bring to a boil. Add the sweetened condensed milk ,sugar, salt and vanilla.

Now the original recipe says to heat at low for 2-4 minutes until it thickens. I tried this and it was still watery. So I turned it to medium heat (on the lower side) and stirred constantly for about 10 minutes or so until it noticeably thickened and clumps began to form. Drop in the tablespoon of butter at this point.

I took the pot off the heat, grabbed a whisk and whisked until all the lumps were gone. Then I took a 9 X 13 baking dish and poured the custard in. Let cool for an hour. Sprinkle some cinnamon on top then let cool for a couple more hours (or up to 2 days) in the fridge. Cut slices cold and serve. Enjoy!

Christmas Bark - Two Kinds

These recipes were originally posted on my Thoughtful Eats column at the Woburn Patch.

 Candy Cane Bark 

Ingredients:

2 11-oz bags of White Chocolate Chips
10 candy canes

Remove the wrappers off your candy canes and break into pieces. Place the pieces in your food processor and pulse until you only have small chunks of candy cane. You’ll have a lot of candy cane powder so don’t be discouraged if you see this. Set aside.

 Set up a baking sheet and cover with one piece of wax paper so that it covers the entire sheet. Add an inch or so of water to your pot and bring to a boil. Place your heat-resistant bowl into the pot and add your white chocolate chips to the bowl. Stir and fold the chocolate continuously until it’s all melted and there are no chunks of chips left. White chocolate melts differently than milk or dark chocolate. You’ll have a lump that looks and feels sort of like very soft clay. Immediately transfer the chocolate to the wax papered baking sheet.

With spatulas, spread the chocolate evenly over the entire baking sheet. You may need to hold the wax paper taut as the chocolate can be tricky to deal with. Sprinkle the crushed candy cane over the top of the chocolate.

Refrigerate for 45 minutes.

With a sharp knife, cut the sheet of chocolate into uneven sections.Don’t worry if some of the candy cane will fall off, only some will stick. Pack and keep in the refrigerator.

M&M Peanut Butter Cup Bark 

Ingredients:

2 11-oz bags of Milk Chocolate Chips
mini peanut butter cups, chopped into quarters
red and green M&Ms

 Follow the same instructions as above with the following changes. Omit the candy cane. Cut the mini peanut butter cups into quarters. I recommend a generic brand of peanut butter cups instead of Reese’s as they’ll be sturdier and will lend themselves to chopping.

You’ll also need about half a small bag of red and green M&Ms. This time you’ll be melting milk chocolate, which is easier to melt and handle than white chocolate. Once melted, add to a wax papered baking sheet and smooth out evenly with a spatula. Sprinkle the peanut butter cups on top then fill in the spaces with red and green M&Ms.

 Refrigerate for 45 minutes and cut into uneven pieces.

Keep refrigerated. Enjoy!

Hello Dolly Bars

This recipe was originally posted on my Thoughtful Eats column at the Woburn Patch.

Ingredients

1 sleeve of Honey Graham Crackers (about 8 or 9)

4 tbsps of melted butter

¾ cup of chopped hazelnuts

1 cup of butterscotch chips

1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup of shredded coconut

1 small can of sweetened condensed milk

cooking spray or parchment paper

This makes enough for a 9 X 13 or 9 X 9 baking pan, depending on how thick you want the bars. 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Add the graham crackers to your food processor. Pulse until there are no chunks left and you have perfectly ground graham cracker crumbs. In a separate bowl, add the crumbs and the melted butter. Mix thoroughly.

Take your baking pan and spray with cooking spray. If you prefer, you can use parchment paper for easy lifting and clean up. Add the graham cracker-butter mixture to the bottom of the pan and press and spread until it covers the bottom of the pan. Don’t worry if it’s a little loose.

Now it’s time for the layers! Sprinkle the hazelnuts, butterscotch chips, semi-sweet chocolate chips and shredded coconut one at a time creating layers. Take the can of sweetened condensed milk and drizzle all over the top evenly.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until it’s lightly golden brown on top. Remove from oven and let cool for 15-20 minutes. Loosen the edges with a knife and cut into squares. Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

This recipe was originally posted on my Thoughtful Eats column on the Woburn Patch.

Ingredients:

2 overripe bananas, chopped

½ cup of sour cream

2 eggs

1-2 tsps of vanilla

1-1/4 sticks of butter (10 tbsps) melted and cooled

2 cups of flour

½ cup of sugar

1 tsp of baking soda

1 tsp of baking powder

a dash of salt

1 heaping cup of milk chocolate chips*

Cooking Spray

*I recommend Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate Chips

This makes 12 medium-sized muffins.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl, add your chopped bananas. With a handheld mixer, blend the bananas until it looks like the consistency of baby food. Add the sour cream, eggs, vanilla and cooled melted butter and mix again with your mixer.

In a larger bowl, add your flour, sugar, baking soda & powder and salt. Mix then toss the chocolate chips in the flour mixture. Add the banana mixture and fold it into the dry ingredients until thoroughly incorporated. Don’t over mix. Mix only enough so that you no longer see flour.

Take a medium-sized muffin tin and spray with cooking spray. Spoon in the mixture into each well evenly. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes or until they are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of one comes out clean. Let cool for a few minutes but enjoy warm. You can always zap these in the microwave for a few seconds if you refrigerated them. Enjoy!

Boozy Pumpkin Pie

This recipe originally appeared on my Thoughtful Eating column on the Woburn Patch.

Boozy Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients:

15 oz of canned pumpkin

½ cup of sugar

1 tsp of cinnamon

¼ tsp of ground cloves

¼ tsp of ground nutmeg

2 eggs

1 jigger of brandy (1.5 oz)

1-1/4 cup of milk

A thawed but uncooked pie shell

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, add your pumpkin, sugar and spices and mix. If you’d like, add a pinch of salt at this stage too. Then add your eggs, brandy and milk and mix thoroughly with a handheld mixer or a spatula and some elbow grease.

Add the pumpkin pie mixture to your uncooked pie shell. Transfer the pie to the oven and bake for an hour or until the center of the pie no longer jiggles and the filling is relatively firm. You can give the pie a slight shake to test it out.

Let the pie cool on your counter for about 30-40 minutes then cover in plastic wrap and transfer to the refrigerator. Cool overnight and serve within 1-2 days. If you prefer warm pumpkin pie to cold, heat your pie up in a 325 oven.

It’s important to note that this pumpkin pie cannot be served hot. The brandy separates from the pumpkin mixture and leaks out the bottom. When it’s cold or slightly warm, the brandy stays with the filling. Enjoy responsibly!

Severed Finger Cookies

This recipe was originally posted on my Thoughtful Eating column on the Woburn Patch.

Severed Finger Cookies

Ingredients:

2-2/3 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup confectioner’s sugar

1 egg

1 tsp almond extract (optional if you want almond flavored fingers)

red writing gel or red frosting in a tube

sliced almonds

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.

Mix the flour and baking powder in a bowl. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and confectioner’s sugar with a handheld mixer or a spoon and some elbow grease. Add the sugar and butter mixture to the flour mixture and add the egg and almond extract. Mix thoroughly until you get one big lump of dough.

Take sections of the dough, about 1 inch round clumps. Roll in our hand to form a ball then roll again between the palms of both your hands to make a 3 inch long finger. Add each finger to a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Flattened each finger ever so gently. If you want to be even more creative, you can score the cookies with a knife to make the lines for the skin wrinkles or the cuticles.

Once you have formed all your fingers, bake for 20-25 minutes or until the edges just start to become golden. Don’t over cook!

Let cool for about 10 minutes before frosting. Take your frosting or gel tube and squeeze a half moon at the top of the finger. Place an almond nail on top. Then add three lines across in the middle to represent wrinkles. Squeeze more frosting on the bottom to represent the bloody stump. Enjoy!

Mud and Worm Cupcakes for Halloween

This recipe originally appeared on my Thoughtful Eats column on the Woburn Patch.

Mud and Worm Cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 cup of flour

½ cup of cocoa powder (Recommended: Hershey’s)

1 heaping tsp of baking soda

1 stick of butter

½ cup of brown sugar

½ cup of regular sugar

2 eggs

¾ cup of milk

1 tsp of vanilla

chocolate frosting

gummy worms

This makes 10 cupcakes

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Sift the flour, cocoa and baking soda together and add to a large bowl. Then add the butter, 2 sugars, eggs, milk and vanilla. Mix with a handheld mixer just until smooth.

Line a 12-cupcake tin with liners. Fill each liner ¾ of the way up with the batter. Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Set aside to cool.

Once your cupcakes are cooled, take two of them, remove the top and crumble the rest in a small bowl.

Frost the remaining 10 cupcakes with the chocolate frosting. Sprinkle the cupcake crumbles over the top of each and pat gently so they stick to the frosting. In order to not make a mess, add the crumbles over the bowl of crumbles so the excess has somewhere to fall.

You can place one worm on the top of each cupcake. Or take a knife, poke a hole in the top and stick in a worm so it’s hanging out. Make sure that the head of the worm is out and you are sticking the worm backside-in. Enjoy!

Simple Strawberry Sauce

After several attempts at making a decent strawberry sauce, I finally nailed it! It came out smooth and thick with no big lumps. In previous attempts, I tried using cornstarch but that never worked. The cornstarch would never work it's way into the sauce the way I wanted and I would be left with all these white clumps that would never break up. I eventually realized that I needed to give the sauce time to thicken and cool on it's own. Once I allowed it to do that, I got a nice bowl of delicious strawberry sauce. It's easy to make as long as you have patience.

Ingredients:

One bag of frozen strawberries

1/4 cup of water

1 heaping tablespoon of sugar

1-1/2 teaspoons of vanilla

To a pot add the frozen strawberries and water. Heat over medium heat until the strawberries have completely thawed and are warming up. Add the sugar and vanilla and stir. 

Continue to cook over medium heat stirring ever so often to help break up the strawberries. Once it starts to boil, turn the heat down to low-medium and allow the sauce to thicken to your desired consistency. Make sure to keep stirring regularly. You don't have to be with it the whole time just go back to it a lot. 

Transfer the sauce to a bowl and let cool in the fridge. Stir every few minutes to release the heat. If you are impatient like I am, let it cool in the freezer! You still want this to be warm just not piping hot.

I served the sauce over Challah French Toast along with some ground flax seed and pure maple syrup. Made for a great Sunday brunch!

Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

I recently purchased the Betty Crocker's Picture Cookbook facsimile edition. It's basically a reprint of the 1950 edition of the book. No updates, no changes, no contemporary recipes. The cookbook as it was back in 1950. I love reading all of the recipes and the section openers. Oh how cooking and eating has changed over the years. One of the sections features Breads and has various sweet breads including Cinnamon Rolls. I decided to make homemade cinnamon rolls with yeast and everything because I've never made them from scratch before. I was inspired by the picture cook book but ended up using the more contemporary version I found on the Betty Crocker website instead.

They came out pretty well. I love to improvise with recipes and for this one I really tried to stick to the recipe. The Betty Crocker recipe included tips for making this a day in advanced. I followed those instructions to a T. The one part I kind of skipped was the kneading. It said to knead the dough in flour for 5 minutes. I ended up kneading it for less than 30 seconds. Oops! They came out a bit flat and I'm sure it was because I didn't knead it enough. Oh well. I did everything else correctly and they tasted just fine. I included raisins and the original picture cook book suggested chopped nuts which I might do next time. Carlos and I had hot cinnamon rolls for Sunday Brunch with some scrambled eggs and iced tea. It was glorious. It's worth taking the time to make these from scratch. All the hard work is very rewarding when you get to eat the result.

Ingredients:

2 cups of all-purpose flour plus more for kneading and dusting

1/3 cup of sugar

2 packets of active dry yeast

a sprinkle of salt

1 cup of milk (I used almond milk)

1/2 stick of butter, partially melted

1 egg

baking spray

1/2 stick of butter, melted

1/2 cup of sugar

2 tsps of cinnamon

1/2 cup of raisins

1 cup of powdered sugar

2 tbsps of milk (I used almond milk)

1 tsp vanilla

1 tbsps of partially melted butter

Mix the flour, sugar, yeast and salt in a bowl. Heat the milk until just before it becomes scalding. It should be very warm to the touch. Add the milk, butter and egg and mix in the dry ingredients. Beat with a handheld mixer for a minute, scrape the sides and beat for another minute. 

Place the dough on a floured surface and knead by hand for 5 minutes. Grease a large bowl with baking spray, add the dough, spray a bit more on the dough and cover the bowl loosely with plastic wrap. Let rise for 1-1/2 hours.

In a small bowl, mix the 1/2 cup sugar and the cinnamon. Melt the butter separately.

Take the dough and add it to a floured surface. I use sheets of waxpaper to protect my countertop.  Roll out the dough into a 15" x 10" rectangle. Measure it and make sure the dough is evenly distributed. Take the melted butter and brush it all over the surface. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar over the top evenly. Then sprinkle the raisins over the top. Roll tightly and carefully from the long side up. Cut into 12 slices about 1-inch each. Use a serrated knife. 

Take a large baking dish and add the 12 cinnamon rolls making sure there is space in between each.

If you make this ahead, put the baking dish in the fridge overnight. Just make sure it's covered with plastic wrap. Let sit out for a couple hours before baking in the morning.

If you make this right away, let it rise for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350. Bake cinnamon rolls for 30-35 minutes. While the rolls are baking, add the powdered sugar, butter, milk and vanilla to a small bowl and mix. Remove the baked cinnamon rolls from the pan and let cool for a few minutes. Drizzle the glaze over the top. Eat while warm and enjoy!

Fresh Peach Pie

This recipe was originally posted on my Thoughtful Eats column on the Woburn Patch.

Fresh Peach Pie

Ingredients:
10-12 ripe fresh peaches, peeled and sliced
3 tbsps of sugar
1 tsp of cinnamon
1 tbsp of cornstarch
2 frozen pie shells, thawed
1 egg white with a splash of water, beaten

Peel and slice 10 ripe freestone peaches. Freestone and clingstone peaches look identical so you are more likely to come across freestone ones at your farmer's market or grocery store in August. Clingstone peaches will work they are just harder to slice.

Add the slices to a bowl and sprinkle over the 3 tablespoons of sugar of the top and stir carefully. Let sit for 15 minutes. The sugar will draw out some of the liquid of the peaches. Drain the peaches from their extra juice. This will ensure a less watery pie.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Sprinkle cinnamon and the cornstarch over the peaches. Stir carefully until fully incorporated. Add the peaches to one of the pie shells. Carefully cover the pie with the second pie shell. Cut a few slits on the top so that hot air can escape. Unless you are an expert pie crust maker, I highly recommend using Mrs. Smith frozen pie shells.

Take the egg wash and brush all over the top. Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown and let cool for at least an hour before cutting in. Enjoy!

Cherry Jam Tart

I recently picked up a copy of the latest Food Network magazine. They had a delicious looking photo of a Cherry Jam Tart along with a recipe. I'm trying to challenge myself more in the kitchen as I've become a bit lazy lately so I decided to try making this from scratch (except for the Cherry Preserves which I bought). It was very sweet but the lemon juice definitely cuts it. I modified the recipe so feel free to check out the original and compare.

Filling:
2 small 8 oz jars of cherry preserves
juice of one lemon

Tart:
1 stick of unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup of sugar
cooking spray
3 cups of white whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
zest of one lemon (use same lemon as above)
1 egg
3 tablespoons of water
1 egg yolk plus 1 teaspoon of water

Equipment:
wax paper or parchment paper
a rolling pin
pastry brush
9 inch round tart pan
handheld mixer

In a small bowl, empty out the small jars of cherry preserves  and mix in the juice of the lemon. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, add the room temperature butter and sugar and mix thoroughly with a handheld mixer. Add in the flour, vanilla, cinnamon, lemon zest and 1 egg and mix with a large sturdy spatula. Add the tablespoons of water one at a time.

Separate the dough into two sections. Take 2/3s of it and roll into a ball and cover in plastic wrap. Do the same for the 1/3 remaining dough. Set in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 395 degrees.  Take a nine inch round tart pan and spray generously with cooking spray. Set aside.

Roll out the 2/3rd portion in between two sheets of wax paper. No extra flour is needed. Roll it out until it's big enough to cover the entire tart pan plus extra. Flip over and carefully place in pan working the edges up the sides. Roll out the 1/3rd portion so you have one long section (long enough to stretch across the tart pan) about 1/4 inch thick. Cut 9 or 10 strips with a sharp knife. Place the strips in a criss-cross pattern to your choosing.

Take the egg yolk and water mixture and brush all over the top.

Bake in the oven for 30 minutes and let cool. The cherry preserves can burn your mouth so please don't eat immediately. Enjoy!

Chai Cream Pie

 

I'm going to a Father's Day dinner tonight (Father's Day for my actual father will be celebrated next week) and I'm bringing a dessert. Not only will my dessert have to compete with all the delicious food that will be served that evening it will also compete with a Ricotta Tart. So when I came across a recipe for Chai Cream Pie on MyRecipes.com (via Cooking Light Magazine), I knew I had to make it. Cream Pie? WITH CHAI? I love Chai. In fact, when I gave up drinking coffee, chai lattes became my go-to drink. It was the closest I could get to to the warm fuzzy feeling I got when I drank a hot cup of coffee with cream every morning. I get a small Soy Chai Latte at Mr. Crepe in Davis Square. It's my favorite especially since it's not sweet. That way I can drink it with a bit of Agave Nectar (which I add myself from my own bottle at work). I digress. What I'm trying to get at is that I love Chai. So it just seemed right for me to make a Chai Cream Pie.

I seem to make pies in twos these days so I modified the original recipe to make two and made some other changes as well. If you have the time to make your own whipped topping, I highly encourage you to do it.  Cool Whip only goes so far. Next time, I might try this with Almond Milk instead of regular milk.

Ingredients:

2 Mrs. Smith Frozen Pie Shells, thawed for 15 minutes

4 cups of 2% milk

8 cardamom pods

8 whole cloves

1 cinnamon stick

1 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled

2 black tea bags

3/4 cup of sugar (I used 1 cup and it was a bit too sweet)

4 eggs

1-1/2 tablespoons of butter, softened

2 small containers of Non-Fat Cool Whip or generic brand, thawed

If you compare my recipe to the MyRecipes.com one, you'll noticed I doubled on somethings but not others. You don't really need 16 cardamom pods. 8 will do. But you do need to double up on things like milk, tea bags, eggs, sugar. I skipped doubling on butter and the seasonings. You may want to add some vanilla too if you like your Chai Lattes with a shot of vanilla syrup.

Bake the Pie Shells according to package instructions. Let cool and set aside.

In a large pot, add your 4 cups of milk, cardamom pods, cloves, cinnamon stick and ginger. Cook at medium heat until the edges of the mixture shows little bubbles. Take the pot off the heat and add the two black tea bags. Let sit for 15 minutes.

Remove the tea bags, cardamom pods, cloves, cinnamon stick and ginger from the pot. Cook until it starts to bubble around the edges again. While it's cooking, add the sugar and eggs to a large heat-proof bowl. Add the milk-tea mixture to the bowl little by little whisking it in. If you add the hot milk to the bowl all at once you'll end up with scrambled eggs.

Add the milk-tea-egg mixture back to the pot and cook just until it forms a thick consistency. Stay with it the entire time constantly whisking and pull the pot off the heat just as it thickens. If you wait to long, the bottom will burn. Stir in the butter until it melts.

Add the mixture to the bowl and cover with cling wrap. Make sure the cling wrap is touching the mixture so it doesn't form a skin. Let cool for a few hours.

Add even amounts of the mixture to each of the two baked pie shells. Top each pie with one container of Cool Whip and dust with cinnamon if so desired. Eat cold and enjoy

Challah French Toast with Strawberries and Peaches

Not sure why but before today I hadn't made French Toast for Carlos. This is very strange because I cook Sunday Brunch every week. French Toast is one of my specialties. In fact, it's one of the first recipes I ever learned to make. I have a distinct memory of my first French Toast making adventure. I was in love with Friendly's French Toast and wanted to make a similar version at home. I read in one of my mother's cookbooks that you needed thick Texas Style cut bread to make proper French Toast. Texas Style? But I lived in Massachusetts! (I was a little kid here remember!).

So I went with my Dad to my local Stop n Shop to buy thick cut bread. I couldn't find any in the bread aisle. Every single bagged loaf of bread had thin slices. No Texas style bread anywhere to be found. I went to the bakery and asked the lady behind the counter if they had Texas style bread. She had no clue what I was talk about. I explained to her what it was I needed (my parents never helped me with this sort of thing, I was always on my own) and she took an unsliced loaf of bread, sliced it thickly and gave it to me. Success! Thick cut bread just begging to be made into French Toast.

At home, I remember being at the counter, cracking eggs into a bowl, stirring in the milk, sugar, cinnamon and vanilla to make the egg mixture. I think I let the thick cut slices of bread sit in the egg mixture for about an hour. By the time I came back to them, they had absorbed almost everything. I cooked the slices of French toast in a pan. They came out delicious!

Now, as a child I never had an interest in cooking. In fact, my mother had tried desperately to teach me how to cook basic things but I always ran away from the kitchen seeking refuge outdoors or in my room with my dolls and TV. But I did have an interest in making sweet things like French Toast, cookies and cake. Eventually, I got it and then I wanted to cook everything. But French Toast, that was my first ever cooking success.

Years later when I was in my late teens, I discovered Challah Bread at my local Whole Foods Market. Challah Bread was perfect for French Toast. The sweet honey egg bread was the perfect texture to hold up the egg mixture and not fall apart and I didn't have to add sugar to the mixture because the bread was sweet enough. And I could slice the bread myself into the perfect slices. Ever since then, I've only made my French Toast with Challah Bread.

It's strange, after having been making French Toast for a couple of decades to not have made my specialty for Carlos! I fixed that today and we had a delightful brunch filled with delicious slices of Challah French Toast.

Ingredients:

1 loaf of Challah Bread, thickly sliced

4 whole eggs

4 egg whites

1 cup of skim milk (or vanilla Almond Milk)

1/2 tsp of cinammon

1 tsp of vanilla

butter for greasing the griddle

hulled and chopped fresh strawberries

sliced fresh peaches

100% maple syrup

Cut the Challah bread into thick slices. Now, Challah loaves come in all sorts of sizes. The medium sized loaf I got from Wilson Farm in Lexington made about 10 French Toasts when I cut off the ends. But I've seen Challah loaves sold at other places that could easily make a good 20 slices! The egg mixture is a lot so it's good for either 10 slices or 20!

Add a griddle to your stovetop and turn heat up to medium. Grease with some butter and cook a couple of slices at a time. Flip them over every couple of minutes to make sure they get nice and brown on both sides but not burnt. Keep adding butter as you cook. And while you have a couple of slices on the griddle, add a couple more to your egg mixture for soaking time.

I ended up with 10 Challah French Toast slices. I topped them off with strawberries, peaches, some ground flax seed and a drizzling of 100% pure maple syrup. My taste buds thanked me for this wonderful breakfast and Carlos gave me a high five for work well done.

New York Style Cheesecake with Cherries

This recipe was originally posted on my Thoughtful Eats column on the Woburn Patch.

*note - I know New York style cheesecake is served plain but I don't care. I like cherries.

New York Style Cheesecake with Cherries

Ingredients:

5 8-oz packs of cream cheese, softened

1-1/2 cups of granulated sugar

5 whole eggs

2 egg yolks

1 tsp (or 1 tbsp depending on taste) of good vanilla extract

½ cup of sour cream

3 tbsps of flour

1 cup of graham cracker crumbs

3 tbsps of extra light olive oil or canola oil (butter isn’t necessary but you can use it if you want)

Any topping you desire, we recommend using canned cherry filling or topping with fresh strawberry slices

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

In a small bowl, add the cracker crumbs and oil. Mix with a spoon. Transfer mixture into the springform pan and press into the bottom. This is the crust. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, add the cream cheese and sugar. Mix with a handheld or standing mixer until incorporated. Add eggs, vanilla, sour cream and flour and mix again until very very smooth. Make sure all the lumps have been worked out. Pour the mixture carefully into the springform pan and over the crust. Tap the pan a few times on a flat surface to get out any air bubbles.

Add the pan to your large casserole dish. Fill the dish with water until it comes half way up the side of the pan. Cover the top very lightly with tin foil. Place in the oven and cook for 1-1/2 hours.

After it’s cooked, remove the tin foil, shut off the oven and let sit in the closed oven for 20 minutes. Then remove from the oven and let sit on a counter top for 20 more minutes. Then place in the oven. This slow cooling process will help prevent cracks. If cracks do occur, don’t worry! You can smother the cheesecake with cherry sauce and no one will know the difference!

Cool in the fridge for a couple more hours or overnight. Remove from the fridge, take off the springform and top with your topping. Serve cold and enjoy!

Banana Waffles with Blueberry Sauce

I'm starting to develop some serious waffle making skills. I've got the basic recipe down to a science, thanks to Alton Brown of Food Network, and they've been coming out moist in the center and crispy on the outside just how I like them. I thought I'd alter the basic recipe by replacing one egg with banana. I take a ripe banana, cut it into chunks then blend it to baby food consistency with a hand held blender. The delicious goop gives cupcakes and in this case waffles a delicious mild banana flavor. But in this recipe, the blueberry sauce is the star of the show. And I don't drown blueberries in tons of sugar. It's just not necessary. One tablespoon is all you need. Let the fruit's natural flavor shine through! 

Carlos and I recently had these for Easter Sunday Brunch and they were divine. Add some fresh nonfat yogurt on top or perhaps a drizzle of 100% maple syrup and you've got the makings of a delicious breakfast. You don't even need bacon on the side.

Ingredients:

1 ripe banana
2 cups of whole wheat flour
1 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp of baking soda
3 tbsps of sugar
2 eggs
2 cups of buttermilk
1/2 stick of butter, partially melted

cooking spray for greasing the waffle press

1 bag of frozen blueberries
1/4 cup of water
1 tbsp of sugar
1 tsp of cornstarch

Heat up your waffle press.

Cut up your banana into chunks and add to small bowl. With a handheld mixer, blend the banana chunks until they are baby food consistency. Set aside.

In a larger bowl, add the flour, baking powder, baking soda and sugar. Note how I don't use salt? You don't need it. Just extra sodium you can take out of your diet.  Add the eggs, buttermilk, partially melted butter and banana goop. Stir until mixed well. Scoop portions of the batter into your waffle press (don't add too much so you don't have overflow). Remove the waffles once they are dark golden brown and crispy.

While you are cooking your waffles, add the water, frozen blueberries and sugar to a small pot and stir. Cook over medium heat with the lid on until it comes to a bubble. Remove the lid and cook on low for a few minutes. Turn off the hit and stir in the cornstarch. Set aside to cool.

Serve the waffles while hot and drizzle some of the blueberry sauce over the top. Add a spoonful or two of yogurt if desired. Enjoy!

Last-Minute Easter Cupcakes

Aren't they darling? My Last-Minute Easter Cupcake recipe that I came up with at the last minute! Banana-Strawberry cupcakes with chocolate frosting (mud), green coconut (grass) and Easter Peanut M&Ms (eggs). Lovely! And they taste delicious too. My recipe was originally posted on my Thoughtful Eats column at the Woburn Patch. But I thought I'd share the recipe here too.

Ingredients

1-1/4 cup of flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/3 cup of sugar
1 ripe banana, chopped
1 egg
1/4 cup of milk
1/4 cup of light oil (canola or extra light olive oil)
seedless strawberry jelly
chocolate frosting
shredded coconut
green food coloring
candy coated chocolates that look like Easter eggs (such as Easter peanut M&Ms)
pastel colored cupcake liners


This recipe makes 9 cupcakes.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, add the flour, baking powder and sugar. Stir to mix. In a small bowl, add your chopped banana and take a handheld mixer and blend the banana chunks until smooth. Don't worry if there are a few little chunks in there.

To the banana mixture, add your egg, milk and oil. Stir until combined. Add the wet ingredients and stir into the dry until well incorporated.

In a muffin tin, add 9 cupcake liners. Spoon some batter into the bottom of each cupcake liners. You'll want the bottom to be covered. Make sure you use equal amounts in each cupcake liner. Take another spoon and scoop a small amount of strawberry jelly and add to the center of each cupcake liner on top of the batter. Take the rest of the batter and spoon equal amounts of it over the top of the jelly making sure it's covered.

Put the muffin tin in the preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into one cupcake comes out clean. Let cool. (Do not attempt to frost these cupcakes while they are hot).

While the cupcakes are cooling, scoop about a cup of shredded coconut and dump into a bowl. Add 3 drops of green food coloring and stir very well with a spoon until all the coconut is green. Don't use more than 3 drops!

Now it's time for the fun part! It's time to decorate. Take a butter knife and spread some mud (chocolate frosting) over the top of each cupcake. Then take 2 or 3 eggs (candy-coated chocolate) and place them on top of the frosting. Then sprinkle some grass (green colored coconut flakes) over the top. It's important to put the candy on before the coconut so it can stick to the frosting and hold. Otherwise they will fall off.

Have a Happy Easter!

Grapefruit Yogurt Bread with Grapefruit Yogurt Sauce

I'm not kidding when I say those Wilson Farm guys sure know how to sell me produce. I'm still over-doing it on the citrus purchasing (remember this post?). And I'm also not kidding you when I say I eat 5 grapefruits a week. I bring one to work with me every single week day and I have it with my lunch. After having grapefruit juice every morning with breakfast, I decided to switch it up and eat a whole grapefruit. Less sugar, more fiber and more nutrients for sure than just juice. I love cutting the grapefruit in half and running my knife along the sections. I sprinkle some sugar over the top, scoop out the sections and the juice with a spoon and I'm in heaven.

In the blogosphere, there have been a lot of dessert recipes involving grapefruits. Grapefruit cakes and breads especially. I decided to take a traditional lemon yogurt loaf and use grapefruit zest and juice instead. It's especially wonderful with the yogurt sauce on top which is simply and delicious. If you don't like grapefruit, I pity you. Because you are truly missing out.

Ingredients

Loaf:

1-1/2 cups of flour

1 tablespoon of baking powder

3/4 cup of sugar

3 eggs beaten

1 cup of nonfat plain yogurt

1 teaspoon or so of grapefruit zest

1/4 cup of grapefruit juice

1/2 cup of extra light olive oil (or canola oil)

Yogurt Sauce:

1/4 cup of light agave nectar (or honey)

2 tablespoons of grapefruit juice

1 cup of nonfat plain yogurt

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees

In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and sugar until well combined. I think we have way too much sodium in our diets as it is so I've stopped putting salt in my desserts altogether. If you want to put 1/4 teaspoon of unnecessary salt into this dish, by all means go ahead. It's your health that is at risk.

In a separate bowl, mix the eggs, yogurt, zest, juice and oil until somewhat smooth. What you'll get is a big bowl of ugly looking gloop. But don't worry it will look glorious in a bit. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until smooth.

See? What did I tell you. Glorious huh?

Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray and add the batter. Tap on a table to get settle any air bubbles. Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out smooth AND it looks nice and golden brown on top.

While the loaf is baking, make the yogurt sauce. In a small bowl, add the grapefruit juice and agave nectar. The acid from the juice should break down the nectar a bit. Stir then add the yogurt. Mix until smooth. Dip your finger in and taste. Repeat several times but make sure you don't eat the whole thing. This really is the best part of the whole process.

Once your loaf is done, let cool. Then drizzle the yogurt sauce over the top. Slice and enjoy! You may want to have some extra sauce on the side for more drizzling purposes.

Cinnamon Raisin Pancakes

I never thought I'd be able to top my Lemon Ricotta Pancakes or my Chocolate Chip (Banana) ones. But these might just take the cake... pan-cake that is. I had a whole bunch of whole-wheat flour and extra raisins at home. So I decided instead of buying extra chocolate chips for another batch of chocolate chip banana pancakes that I would instead try making Cinnamon Raisin Pancakes. It's one of those pantry scrounge type creations that I'm never really excited for but I'm glad that my extra stuff is being put to good use. The result? Flipping amazing. These pancakes are moist and fragrant. They are a little dense with the whole-wheat flour but are still soft and airy because the ratio of the wet ingredients is higher than that of the dry. Even if you don't like raisins in things, you'll love them in these. They complement the cinnamon batter so beautifully. And when you pour 100% all natural maple syrup over these and take one big bite, you'll be in heaven.

Ingredients:

1-1/2 cups of whole wheat flour

2 heaping tablespoons of sugar

1 tablespoon of baking powder

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

2 cups of buttermilk

2 eggs

1 teaspoon of vanilla

handfull of moist raisins (from the bag not the box)

butter for greasing the griddle

Heat your griddle and grease with some butter. Pour some batter (about half of a cup or so) onto the hot skillet. Sprinkle some raisins over the top. When the batter starts to bubble and those bubbles start to pop, flip it over and cook for a couple of more minutes. Repeat until you run out of batter. This makes about 6 good size pancakes. Enjoy with some strips of bacon on the side, some sliced banana and a hot cup of tea. Enjoy!

Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies

This recipe was originally posted on my Thoughtful Eats column on the Woburn Patch.

Ingredients:

1 heaping cup of flour
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1 egg
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup of creamy or chunky peanut butter
1 stick of butter, at room temperature grape jelly

Makes around 2 dozen cookies.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Then add the peanut butter, eggs and butter. Mix until the batter is smooth. Scoop out batter with spoons and roll into 1 inch balls with your hands. If you keep a small bowl of water next to you and dip your hands in occasionally, this will make the process go much easier. Add the balls to a baking sheet that's been lined with aluminum foil. Make sure they are about 1-1/2 to 2 inches apart. With your index finger, poke the center of each ball, creating a well for the grape jelly. Add a tiny scoop of jelly to the well, only enough to fill it. Bake in the oven for 12-14 minutes and let cool before eating. Enjoy with a glass of milk or a hot cup of tea.