Week 16 of 52: Lemon Pie Bars

This weekend was VEISHEA in Ames. For those of you unfamiliar with this, it is the largest student-run event in the nation celebrating the original 5 divisions of Iowa State College - Vet Med, Engineering, Industrial Science, Home Economics, and Agriculture - and started in 1922.  As a tradition, the students in what is now the College of Human Sciences make and sell mini cherry pies as a fundraiser for scholarships. This year they made over 9000 pies. Find out more here: http://www.aeshm.hs.iastate.edu/tearoom/cherrypies.php

To say I am a fan of tradition would be kind of an understatement. My father was the first in his family to go to college (ISU DVM '57).  My mother did not go to college. My older brother went to several colleges before he finished his BA. I went to U of Iowa for my undergrad...quite a disappointment to my father (haha). But I redeemed myself by coming to ISU for my MBA ('98). I could tell you where every building on campus is (and was), that Old Botany held the classes on poisonous plants, that George Washington Carver got his PhD at ISU, and that Christian Petersen was hired by ISU to teach sculpture and produced 12 major works of art on campus. I could tell you that I go to the VEISHEA parade even when it snows, and that every year, I buy at least 10 cherry pies. At a buck a piece, they are so worth it.

So I decided that I could not try to compete with the tradition of cherry pies, but I wanted to make something just as portable and fruity. So, I went on a hunt through my recipes and ran across a lemon one. I have had plenty of lemon bars in my time, so I thought about how I could change them up a bit. I mean after all, this will be my tradition! So,why not make them darker by adding some brown sugar to the mix. Here is my version, I hope you enjoy!

Lemon Pie Bars
Adapted from allrecipes.com/lemon-pie-bars

Crust
2 c flour
1/2 c confectioner's sugar
1 c butter, salted, room temp

Preheat oven to 350F.
Mix flour and sugar, cut in flour, and mix well until the dough resembles pie dough crust consistency.
Press dough into a 9x13 pan.
Bake 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

Filling
6 eggs, large
1 1/2 c white sugar
3/4 c brown sugar
1/4 c + 2 T flour
3/4 c lemon juice
zest from one lemon

Mix all ingredients using a hand mixer for about 1 minute.
Pour into the baked crust.
Bake for 25-35 minutes, or until the lemon filling has set.
Cool and sprinkle with more confectioner's sugar.

Week 15: Peanut-Butter-Filled Snickerdoodles

Two of my favorite cookies are Snickerdoodles and Peanut Butter Cookies. My mama would make Snickerdoodles only on occasion when I was growing up and even today, they are a very special treat.

Peanut Butter Cookies were more often found in the cookie jar. I learned how to bake them when I was young and they are my papa’s favorites, too.

So, when I thought about a great recipe for today, I thought – combine them!

In doing my research for recipes, I found that the recipe for both were quite identical, save for adding peanut butter. So basically, this recipe is a peanut butter cookie that is filled with peanut butter and then rolled in cinnamon/sugar.

Peanut-Butter-Filled Snickerdoodles

Adapted from www.joyofbaking.com/printpages/Snickerdoodlesprint.html

Ingredients:

2 ½ c all-purpose flour
1 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
½ t salt
1 c butter, unsalted, room temp (2 sticks)
2/3 c peanut butter, creamy
¾ c brown sugar
½ c white sugar
½ c powdered sugar
2 large eggs
1 t pure vanilla extract

Filing:

½ c peanut butter, creamy
¼ c powdered sugar
generous pinch of sea salt

Coating:

1/3 c granulated white sugar
2 t ground cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Mix first four dry ingredients in a bowl, set aside.
3. In another bowl, using a hand or stand mixer, mix up the filling. Roll pea-sized pieces with your hands and set aside on a plate.
4. In stand mixer, cream butter, peanut butter, and sugars together until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, until fully incorporated. Mix in extract.
5. Add dry ingredients slowly just until incorporated.
6. Roll dough into 1 T balls using hands.
7. Flatten slightly and envelope one pea-sized filling piece and reform into a ball.
8. Roll in coating and place on parchment paper-lined cookie sheets. Using a fork, put cross hairs on each cookie to flatten. Dip fork in extra coating if needed to prevent sticking.
9. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until golden brown. Cool on racks and store in sealed container.

Week 14 of 52: Pina Colada Icebox Pie

What a great week we are having in the midwest! It nice enough today to be out in a sweatshirt and have the front door open for at least part of the day. I must say that despite being an "Iowa girl," I wonder how I survive when the temps fall below 50F in October and don't return until late April!

Well it has been a long time, since I blogged out Week 13 on the Wednesday before Easter, because we had travel plans to my brother's in St. Jo, Missouri. Good thing...it inspired this week's dessert: Pina Colada Pies.

Whenever we go to my brother's, it is usually a holiday. He and his lovely wife always invite their close friends and "singles" who might not have another place to go for a holiday. So there always lots of faces and good conversations. This past weekend was no different. We met a new face, B, who happened to bring a dessert that I had never heard of nor tried before...an icebox pie.

As the name suggests, you keep this in the fridge to keep it set. She used a recipe from the cookbook inspired by the movie, "Fried Green Tomatoes" that was called, Miss Sipsey's Icebox Pie.  She told me that it was sweetened condensed milk, lemonade, whipped topping, and cream cheese and that was it. Wow...simple, but it tasted delish!

So off I went to research this pie and how I could make it my own. I found several recipes, all of which used cream cheese, whipped topping, and sweetened condensed milk. Some used real lemon juice, others lemonade. But as you might have figured out, I love coconut. In order to bring in that twist, I had to figure out what to replace the lemonade with given that coconut milk is not that sweet. So I wandered through the frozen juice aisle and stumbled upon my find: Bacardi mixers. Now we don't drink, but these mixers are non-alcoholic and they had a pina colada one. Perfect! With more research, I found one person that had tried coconut milk in place of sweetened condensed milk, only because they were vegan (they also used tofu cream cheese...sorry, but that just didn't sound good to me).

After finding some different recipes for the crumb crust, I was ready to get to work. I ended up making a chocolate graham cracker crust for one dozen desserts, a coconut crust for another dozen, and then used my remaining chocolate crust for the coconut milk variety.

Chocolate crust - this is really tasty, but please make sure your graham crackers are finely ground. I had a few chunks and wished I had rolled them out more.

Coconut crust - this was my favorite, as it was more moist.

For both crusts in the tins, I would use half as much in the future. I got 12 tins from the coconut recipe, and I should have thinned the crust and spread it over 24 tins.  The chocolate crust made 12 tins plus an 8x6 pan. I probably could have gotten another 12 tins from the chocolate crust too.

Personally, I like the filling with the sweetened condensed milk better because it is sweeter. But the other filling is good when you don't want a really sweet dessert, and the crust does add a nice lift.

So for week 14, I have decided to post the Pina Colada Icebox Pie. Enjoy!

Pina Colada Icebox Pie


Crust
1/2 c brown sugar
1 c flour
1/2 c quick cooking oats
1/2 c sweetened shredded coconut
1/2 t ground cinnamon
1/4 t sea salt
1/2 c butter, unsalted, melted

Mix all ingredients together, except the butter. Then add the melted butter, and mix with your hands until the butter is fully incorporated and crumbly. Spoon a heaping tablespoon into 24 baking-cup-lined muffin tins. Using a small glass, press down crust into the liner.  Bake at 350F for 7 minutes. Let cool.

Filling
8 oz cream cheese, full fat, at room temperature
14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk
3/4 c Pina Colada mixer concentrate, thawed
8 oz whipped topping, thawed

In a stand mixer, whip softened cream cheese. Add in juice and milk and mix on medium until fully incorporated. Remove bowl and fold in whipped topping. Spoon into baked tins to the top. Refrigerate to set (about 1 hour). Keep in fridge until ready to serve.

Week 13 of 52: Crunchy Coffee Cookies

This week, I had to come up with a dessert a bit early because I had an event that I needed to bring dessert. It had been a while since I made cookies, but since I have my "famous brownies" I wanted something that would rival them and yet be different enough to add to the list of "famous" recipes. So I turned to my favorite baker, Rosie. She has a recipe for a very chocolately cookie and a vairiation that adds white chocolate. So, I blended the two, and they are choc full of yummie chrunchies and enriched with espresso. Strangelyenogh, I had everything in my pantry! I suggest you keep a stock of baking chocolates (all varieties), espresso coffee, and lots of nuts. To do it again...I will add some coconut too!

This recipe makes the batter very thick and dense. I used a cookie scooper and it worked out great. I ended up getting 32 cookies out of the mix.

Enjoy!

Crunchy Coffee Cookies

Ingredients

3.2 oz unsweetened baking chocolate, chopped
5 oz semisweet baking chocolate, chopped
6 T butter, unsalted

1/3 c flour
1 t baking powder
1/4 t sea salt

2 large eggs
2 t pure vanilla extract
1 T ground espresso coffee
3/4 c sugar

1/2 c semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 c white chocolate chips
1/3 c chopped pecans
1/3 c chopped walnuts

Directions

Preheat oven to 325F and prep baking sheets with a light spray of cooking oil for the first round of cookies.

In a small bowl, sift together flour, soda, and salt. Set aside.

Put baking chocolates and butter in a microwave safe bowl and heat for 20 seconds. Stir. Heat for 20 seconds. Stir. Heat for 20 seconds. Stir until all the chocolate chunks have melted and the mix is smooth and creamy. Set aside to cool slightly.

In the stand mixer, beat eggs, vanilla, and coffee on medium. Add sugar and incorporate until thick. Add the melted chocolate and blend for 1 minute. Add flour mixture on low just until incorporated. Remove bowl from the mixer and fold in the crunchies.

Using a cookie scoop, scoop dough onto prepped baking sheets. I got 8 on a standard sized sheet.

Bake for 15 minutes, the edges will be crisp and the cookies will have risen slightly.

Remove from baking sheets and cool on racks. Store in an air tight container.

Adapted from Soho Globs recipe from The Rosie's Bakery All-Butter, Cream-Filles, Sugar-Packed Baking Book by Judy Rosenberg, page 136.

Week 12 of 52: Banana Walnut Chocolate Bread Pudding

Last week I bought bananas. They were on sale for a great price (29 cents per pound) and of course I bought too many. So this weekend I had to use them, but I didn't want to make a plain old banana bread. So I went in search of banana dessert. Let me just say that there are far too many banana bread recipes and far too many recipes for bananas foster! Fortunately, I ran across a bread pudding recipe.

There are a number of things I remember from childhood. I can count them on my fingers! Everything else, I tend to be a bit uncertain. So let me say, I remember eating bread budding as a child, but, I can't remember where or when. One thing I do remember is liking it a lot.

So this weekend, I have adapted a recipe from Emeril Lagasse.* I added chocolate chips, because everything is better with chocolate. I omitted the liqueur because we don't cook with it in our house. And I decided to not add a sauce, because I thought it was rich enough.

Enjoy!

Banana Walnut Chocolate Bread Pudding


Ingredients

4 T melted butter

2 demi loaves of french bread, cut into 1-inch pieces (toast if fresh) - I sliced bread thick about 12 slices each loaf, then cut each slice into 6 pieces each

2 c heavy whipping cream (1 pint)
2 c milk (2%)
4 large eggs
1 c light brown sugar (packed)
1/2 c granulated sugar
2 t vanilla extract
1 1/2 t ground cinnamon
1/8 t ground nutmeg
Pinch salt, sea

5 small/medium mashed ripe bananas
3/4 cup chopped walnuts
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Put bread cubes in a large bowl. Pour melted butter over them and stir to coat.
2. In another bowl, whisk together the milks, eggs, sugars, and spices. Pour over bread cubes and stir. Let sit for 30-45 minutes until bread is soggy and most liquid is absorbed.
3. Preheat oven to 350F.
4. Mix bananas, nuts, and chips. Fold into soggy bread mixture.
5. Pour into prepared pan.**

6. Bake for 30-45 minutes, until top is crisp and center is firm.

Serve warm.

*Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/banana-walnut-bread-pudding-with-buttery-rum-sauce-recipe/index.html?oc=linkback

**I used two lightly greased loaf pans. But you also can use one lightly greased 9x12" baking dish.

Week 11 of 52: Chocolate Peanut Butter Patties

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

To honor this great holiday, and my love for McDonald's Shamrock Shakes, I decided to mix things up with my favorite brownie recipe. For this one, it had to be a white brownie, and for the mint...I added a cheesecake topping.

I did a bit of research on this one, as changing from a cocoa-based brownie to a white chocolate brownie means you have to reduce the butter and sugar. And the ratio for cocoa to chips is 1T cocoa = 1oz chips.

All this said...the dessert FLOPPED! I was so incredibly dissapointed, and I will have to go back to this recipe and figure it out, but for now I have decided to make a chocolate-dipped peanut butter patty.

This recipe came to me when I made the Peppermint Patty Brownies. I thought, these are great mints on their own, but what if I made them with peanut butter. And topped them with chocolate...well, because evertything is better with chocolate. So here goes!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Patties

Patty Ingredients

•

     14 ounces sweetened condensed milk

•

     1 teaspoon vanilla extract

•

     6 cups powdered sugar
     1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

Filling Ingredients
     1 cup creamy peanut butter
     1/2 cup powdered sugar
      generous pinch of sea salt

Chocolate Coating Ingredients
               8 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
               1 cube chocolate almond bark, chopped
               3 T margerine

Patty Directions – do this part first, then put discs in the freezer while you mix up the chocolate coating:

1.

     Combine the sweetened condensed milk, peanut butter, and vanilla extract.

2.

     Slowly add the powdered sugar and beat.

3.

     Knead on a surface sprinkled with more sugar until dough is stiff.

a.

     (The stiffer the better when it come to the topping part!) Add more sugar while kneading if the dough is sticky.

4.

     Roll 1/2 inch thick.

5.

     Cut into approximately 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 inch circles and make a small indentation in the center of each disc.

Note – The dough is very stiff if you add all 6 cups of powdered sugar.  It rolls out with a rolling pin very nicely.  I used one of the small condiment containers from Tupperware to cut my circles.

    Filling Directions
       1. Mix ingredients in a stand mixer. Place a small dollop in the indent of each disc.

    Chocolate Coating Directions
         1.  Slowly melt chips, bark, and margarine in the microwave, 10 seconds at a time.
         2.  Lay out patties on a cookie sheet.
         3.  Spoon chocolate over cold patties

Week 10 of 52: Cheesecake bars with mission figs and white chocolate

Okay, so I have to admit...Sunday went by too fast and though I made dessert, I just could not find the time to get this posted! But tonight is the night.

So last weekend was the celebration of National White Chocolate Cheesecake Day. And though My mama found my individual springform pans, I really wasn't in the mood for a whole cheesecake. So I went on the hunt for something that would inspire me and I went back to Rosie's cookbook. She did not let me down. Her recipe used golden raisins, but 1) I didn't have any, and 2) I did have some dried mission figs which I absolutely love, and I had to find a way to incorporate white chocolate.

I must say that the crust/topping kinda threw me for a loop on this one. It did not come together as much as I expected it too, but afterwards it was fantastic, so it works. But when you make it, you might think that it is too dry,but it isn't.

These went fast at the office on Monday, so plan to make these on more than one occasion. They are fantastic!

Week 10: Cheesecake Bars with Mission Figs and White Chocolate

Crust and Topping
1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
6 T confectioner's sugar
12 T butter, unsalted, room temperature, cut into about 50-60 pieces
2 T light brown sugar, lightly packed
3 chunks of vanilla bark, coarsely chopped

Filing
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature (I used full fat)
3 T sour cream (I used full fat)
2 T fresh lemon juice (a small to medium sized lemon)
1 1/2 t lemon zest (I used the zest from the whole lemon)
1/4 c sugar
1 egg, large, room temperature
1 t pure vanilla extract
1/4 c dried mission figs, coarsely chopped

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease an 8x8" pan.

Make the crust...
1. Combine flour and confectioner's sugar in a food processor and pulse a few times to combine.
2. Add butter and pulse until the mix crumbles together.
FOR THE TOPPING...Remove 1 cup of the mix to a separate bowl and toss in brown sugar to mix. Set aside for topping.
3. Pour out remaining contents of food processor into prepare pad and press down to form crust.
4. Bake for 20 minutes until golden brown.
5. Let cool partially and then top with the white chocolate.

Make the filling...
1. Put all filling ingredients, except the figs into the food processor and pulse until very creamy.
2. Remove bowl and fold in figs.
3. Pour filling over white chocolate topped crust.
4. Bake for 45-50 minutes until top is golden and filling is set.
5. Let cool completely.

Remove from pan and cut into bars. Can keep in the fridge on Day 1 uncovered, and then for two more days covered.

Adapted from The Rosie's Bakery All-Butter, Cream-Filled, Sugar-Packed Baking Book by Judy Rosenberg