Morning Coffee & Afternoon Tea

Pumpkin Custard

Whatsa custard, you say?   We 'mericans usually think of a custard as anything resembling a pudding.  Our traditional pumpkin pie filling is usually something in a custard. 

Custards done the traditional euro-francais-way can get quite tricksy with the double boiler and the eggs going in one at a time, sometimes involving additional thickening agents, etc etc.  But for one-dot cooks like me, there are easier ways. 

This recipe is sooper easy, and the result is a nice change from the traditional pumpkin pie.  I started with the Pumpkin Custard recipe found here, and changed it to suit my taste (can't stand ginger snaps!  and don't get me started on pine nuts!!).  It's been thoroughly tested and sampled and ... sampled some more.  I'm happy to say it passed the custard  mustard  muster.  Pfff.  It's reel gud.

Vanilla Pumpkin Custard

1 (29-ounce) can pumpkin
2 cups hot milk
2/3 - 3/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
4 eggs
1 cup crushed vanilla wafers
4 tbsp melted butter
2 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup finely chopped pecans

Beat together in a large bowl: pumpkin, heated milk (1+ minutes in the microwave does the trick), sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon and eggs.  Stir in cookie crumbs, butter and vanilla.

Butter 8 10-ounce custard (baking) cups.  Spoon pumpkin mixture into the cups.

Combine chopped pecans with 1/2 tsp cinammon and 1 tsp sugar.  Sprinkle nut mixture on top. 

Place cups in a large shallow baking pan filled with hot water deep enough to half immerse cups.  I didn't have custard cups, so I used large muffin tins. placed in a cake pan.

Bake at 350° F for 45 minutes or until custard is set. 

If you used cupcake tins like I did, spoon, allow to chill overnight, then remove carefully with a spatula into small bowls.  Serve at room temperature or chilled.

Makes about 8 servings.

Enjoy!

Getting Ready for Thanksgiving

I'm exhausted.  And Thanksgiving is still 3 days away.

Well, I can't really blame Marie Callendar, it's not their fault I walked the length of the grocery store 5 times looking for the stupid corn bread mix.  Only 2 of those trips were by myself.  The next was taken in the company of a store employee who swore to me they had some.  1 1/2 circuits later, she finally stopped to ask somebody else, and the 3 of us took another turn and a half around the store, enlisting the help of yet another store employee on the way.  We finally found it.  Not exactly hidden, just packaged differently (no more big round container!), and on a different shelf.  Boy I hate it when they change things.  Oy, my aching feet.

Recipes coming tomorrow.  I'm trying out this really interesting recipe for pumpkin custard.  They're baking at this very mo.  I just need to stay awake long enough to take them out of the oven.

The really big conundrum of the evening ... where am I going to put these custards?  Assuming they're fit to eat, of course, I'll post the recipe and pics tomorrow.  But they need to be chilled, and there's not one spare inch of space in my fridge.  Hmm, might have to co-opt the hubs' beer fridge.  Would he complain about having warm beer when game time comes?  Is that grounds for divorce?

Oh, before I forget, the theme for this week's Carnival of the Recipes is "What to Do With Thanksgiving Leftovers".  Perfect!

Chocolate Covered Espresso Beans

I've missed HOW MANY Chocolate Fridays? 

Well I'm jumping back into the blogosphere with something really easy that combines two of my favorite things: chocolate and coffee.  I've always wanted to try chocolate covered coffee beans.  I wasn't sure I would like them, to be perfectly honest.  I'm really addicted to my liquid coffee, but chawing on a crunchy bean... I wasn't too sure about.

I'm here to tell ya, they're great.  This is the perfect antidote for a long drive, or a hiking trip, when coffee of the liquid variety is hard to come by.  Pop a few of these for some tasty instant rocket fuel.  I'm serious, those with heart conditions beware.  I popped half a dozen and a few minutes later, the top of my head came off. 

And the recipe is so easy!  I tried using flavorings in the chocolate, and different types of coffee beans, some more exotic than others.  And the conclusion I've come to is they're best with a good hearty basic espresso bean, and just plain semi sweet chocolate.  Exotic coffee beans detract from the chocolate.  And added flavorings seem to detract from the coffee.  Basic and not too sweet is best, IMHO.

Easy Chocolate Covered Espresso Beans

1/2 cup espresso beans
1/4 - 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

In a bowl, melt chocolate chips in microwave for 1-2 minutes, stirring every 20 seconds or so, until creamy.  Stir in coffee beans till completely covered.  Spread on a sheet of wax paper.  Allow to cool on counter for 10-15 minutes, then place in freezer.  Once completely hardened, break apart. 

The result looks like peanut brittle... so maybe this should be called coffee brittle.  :)

Enjoy!

Cranberry Orange Granola

My mom wasn't the best example of healthy eating.  She was a superlative Tea Party Lady (and a Chocoholic Extraordinaire), but a paragon of health she was not.  She did occasionally leave the Highway of Food Indulgences to take short jaunts down side roads littered with healthy foods, sometimes intending to lose weight, sometimes just trying to curtail her natural urges.  These side trips into healthy cooking left me with a few (a very few) good recipes that I continue to enjoy today.  However, I do need to mention here that I don't suffer from that nasty habit known as self-control.  I embrace my love of food.  Therefore, although this recipe was healthy when my mom made it, it was a little flat for me.  I have since managed to inflate it to fit my own tastes. :)

Cranberry Orange Granola
1 cup sesame oil
1/4 cup honey
1/4 - 1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp almond extract
1 tsp orange extract
8 ounces dried cranberries - orange flavored
5 cups rolled oats
3 cups bran cereal
2 cups chopped nuts ( walnuts, peanuts, pecans)
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
3/4 cup sesame seeds
5 1/2 tsp powdered milk
3 tbsp orange peel (dried)

Combine dry ingredients (except for cranberries) in a large bowl and mix well.  Combine wet ingredients (oil, honey, vanilla, etc) in a small bowl.  Pour wet stuff slowly over the dry stuff and mix well.

Spoon ingredients into a large cake pan and bake for approximately 60 minutes at 300° F, stirring every 15 minutes.  Remove from pan, return to bowl, and mix in the dried cranberries.  Allow to cool.  Keep in an airtight container.  Refrigerated will last for a good long while.

This is such good granola, it's almost the kind of snack you could eat all by itself.  Just grab a handful and munch.  But I like it best with strawberries and cherries, and a dollop of vanilla yogurt.  YUM!

Enjoy!

Chocolate Friday: When the Cupboard is Bare

I found this nifty little site some while ago and bookmarked it for a morning just like this one.  My cupboard is indeed bare.  I need to go the grocery store, but who has time?  Where are the errand-elves when you need them?  Heh.  Not to worry!  Cookingbynumbers.com offers recipe ideas for the items you have on hand. 

This morning, I checked these items:  coffee, eggs, and chocolate.  Guess what?  That's 100% of the ingredients needed to make chocolate mousse:

Chocolate Mousse
(a la cookingbynumbers)

4 eggs
200 g/7 oz chocolate, grated
5 tbsp hot strong coffee

Separate the eggs, whisk whites until stiff.  Grate chocolate and add in hot coffee to melt the chocolate (heat gently if it needs more melting).  Whisk in the egg yolks. 

Fold egg whites into the chocolate mix. 

Decant into a bowl or individual bowls and refrigerate to chill.

Can it really be that easy?  I've avoided chocolate mousse all this time because I thought it was too hard... too much of a 3-dot recipe for this one-dot cook to even try.   But this... well, howleelooya, I'm gonna give this a try. 

cookingbynumbers.com even has a "how-to" skills list, for things like brule, folding, piping and separating an egg.  Unfortunately, there's no description there for decanting, so I'll have to figure that one out elsewhere.  Hey, maybe someday I'll graduate and become a two-dot cook!  Pics to follow.

UPDATE: I can't imagine why anybody in their right mind would actually try to hand whisk egg whites to stiffness.  Your arm could fall off.  You could grow old!  Or both!!  Go electric, that's my advice.  This recipe wasn't bad, I was pretty pleased with it.  A dollop of unsweetened whipped cream was just the thing.  Next time, I would probably use a tad bit of flavoring, maybe almond or orange extract.

I need to pause and say thanks to those folx who emailed and wondered about my blog-absence .  You know who you are, and you're much appreciated! :)

The BEST Taco Salad

Two posts in one day!!  After the famine, feast?  Don't anybody croak on me.  Heh.

It's been so long since I posted a recipe, or even did any serious cooking, I actually had to go hunting for my recipe box.  Next week's Carnival of the Recipes is an International Foods theme, and since Cinco de Mayo is coming up, I thought a pseudo Mexican dish would be the closest thing I could do.  Sorry, no pictures yet.  But if I get ambitious, I may make this for Saturday, to go with my Mexican Mocha, and pics will follow.  (And if they're blurry, it's because I'll be having ta-kill-ya in my cup.)

C. Torres' Taco Salad

1 head lettuce, shredded
4 tomatoes, chopped
1 medium onion, diced
8 oz cheddar cheese
1 lb hamburger
1 can kidney beans
1 can corn
1 large bag of Doritos (or other taco type chips)
1/3-1/2 bottle Italian dressing
1 package taco seasoning (Lawry's or other)

Brown hamburger with onions, adding taco seasoning when almost fully browned.  Drain and add beans (include the juice), and corn (don't include the juice), and let the mixture cool in a bowl in the refrigerator.

Add lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, hamburger mixture, and italian dressing to a large bowl.  Mix well.  Mix Doritos into the salad just before serving, so they're slightly crisp.  Serve with sour cream, salsa, chips.  If you like "hot and spicy", add some chopped jalapeno peppers to the hamburger mixture.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Coffee Bread Pudding

I don't think I've ever made anything that was so satisfying for me -- on SO many levels - as this dish. 

There is something really comforting about bread.  Psychologically speaking, it ranks right up there with chocolate for sheer comfort factor.  And coffee, of course, one of my favorite things, ranks high on the pleasure list.  Put all of these together and whaddya got?  Something I'm going to have a hard time sharing, that's what.

I used foodnetwork.com's recipe as my starter and guide, but I did modify it quite a bit.  Some of the mods were because I didn't have the right ingredients, and some were ... just because.  I needed substitutes for some of the milk and cream, but it didn't seem to affect the outcome very much.  It's still a serious to-die-for gimme-comfort delish dessert.  But next time I'll make sure I have enough milk and cream on hand to try the original recipe and see how it does.

Chocolate Coffee Bread Pudding

8-10 slices of bread, cubed
2 cups milk
1/2 cup half and half
1/2 cup non-dairy creamer (I used a combination of Vanilla and Amaretto)
1/2 cup strong coffee or espresso
1/2 cup Kahlua (or other coffee liqueur)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
1 cup sugar
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup cocoa powder
8 oz semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped or grated
6 eggs, lightly beaten

Lightly grease a 9x13 baking dish and place bread cubes in it.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  In a large bowl, whisk together milk, cream, non-dairy creamer, and Kahlua.  In a separate bowl, combine sugar, brown sugar and cocoa powder.  Add sugar mixture to milk mixture and stir well.  Beat eggs lightly in a separate bowl and add in vanilla and almond extracts.  Combine egg mixture with milk mixture and mix well.  Stir in the grated / chopped chocolate. 

Note: for chocolate, I used 4 oz semi-sweet, and for a little extra coffee kick, 4 oz Ghirardelli Intense Dark Espresso Escape.  I also didn't bother trying to grate the chocolate, as finely chopped was good for me.

Gently pour over the bread cubes in the pan.  Leave to set for about 20 minutes, or until the bread is saturated, stirring occasionally.

Bake for 1 hour or until set.  A knife inserted into the center should come out clean.  Serve warm or chilled, with whipped cream, ice cream, or other topping of your choice.

Enjoy!

Valentine's Day Carnival of the Recipes

Welcome, welcome, welcome, to the Hearts-Full-of-Love Pre-Valentine's Day Carnival of the Recipes

This week for your gustatory pleasure we have a bevy of treats guaranteed to make your heart go pitter pat, whether you to cook, or to eat, or both!

Sweets for Your Sweetie (or your own Sweet Tooth)

Starting with chocolate, which is the staple of love ...

Shawn of Everything and Nothing ensures we won't go into chocolate withdrawal with her recipe for Chocolate Syrup Cake.  This sounds absolutely decadent.

Anne-Marie gives us the ultimate in chocolate desserts: Valentine's Day - Julia Child's chocolate mousse. Anne-Marie suggests adding some coffee or vanilla-flavored liquor. Sounds like a MUST to me!

Kathy of startcooking.com offers up a recipe (with plenty of pictures and destructions) for Home-Made Chocolate Fudge.  Heh, is there any other kind?

And be sure to check out my offering, a story of what went wrong, or the heart tart that never was: Ganache with Panache.

Marsha of A Weight Lifted presents 10 Minute Fresh Berry Dessert with Yogurt & Chocolate, shown in the picture here, giving us all a way to indulge without compromising our healthy living lifestyle. 

Next is a special dessert recipe from KeeWee's Corner for Pavlova.  I've never tried meringue and this recipe makes me wanna try.  The photo sure looks delish.

Poor Stephanie of Stop the Ride! nearly lost her friend's recipe for Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake.  Thank goodness she found it, and shared the recipe with us! Now if she loses it again, we can all send her a copy.  :)

Here are some fun sweets, for when your sweeties are kids, or just the kid in your sweetie.  More4kids presents Valentine Recipe Ideas - Heart Cookies, Valentine Pancakes and more.  I love the pancakes!

Ideas for Romantic Meals and Such

For Valentine's Day breakfast, this recipe from Maureen at Trinity Prep School for Raspberry-Cinnamon French Toast Bake sounds LOVERLY! It's not your average french toast nor is it your plain egg bake.

Riannan from In the Headlights offers us a tasty dish: Grouper, Shrimp and Artichokes in Tarragon Cream.  This recipe could serve 6, she says, but I bet you and your sweetie could feast, and then have leftovers at 1am.

Broke and busted?  Make your Valentine's evening special, no matter your budget, by making spaghetti with love, and Cheap Homemadish Spaghetti Sauce from triticale, the wheat/rye guy. 

Something to replenish body and soul, and that of your loved one, is Seriously Good Kevin's recipe for Pastitsio, a Greek meat and pasta pie Kevin refers to as "peasant food".  Whatever it is, it sure sounds good.

DeputyHeadmistress at The Common Room has posted a great recipe for "tangy-sweet salad":  Honey-Orange Bean Vegetable Slaw with good explanations and commentary. I love it when folx explain how they used or modified a recipe and why. For one-dot cooks like me, this is so helpful!

Erika over at Tradition offers three recipes in Cold Weather Recipes: Mulligatawny Soup, The World's Best Ever Biscuits, and last but not least, Fudgy Brownie Pudding. Sounds like a warm meal from the heart!

You could really WOW your sweetheart with this recipe for Succulent Lamb Kebabs from Daryl at Authentic Malaysian Cuisine & Food Recipes.  Wonderfully exotic, and yet, so easy!

Party Fare!

Jennifer Miner of Travel Articles says this is The World's Best Artichoke Dip: A great recipe for artichoke dip that'll be the hit of the party. This is a hot dip that Jennifer spruces up by sometimes adding crab, red peppers, and eggplant.

Now here's an idea from Andrea of Wisebread Frugal: Tortillas and Chilaquiles: Romance him with sports bar food?. If you met your hunny in a sports bar, what better way to celebrate the occasion!

The Hermit of The Ziggurat of Doom is whipping up some very special iced coffee.  This is a MUST for after dinner, with a warm desert.  I'm so THERE.

That's all for me on this one folx!  I hope you all have a delicious and love-ly Valentine's Day!  Next week's Carnival will be hosted at Techno Gypsy.  Submit your recipes via email to recipedotcarnivalatgmail.com, or use the Blog Carnival submit form.

Chocolate Friday: Ganache with Panache

I have to be perfectly honest, my first attempt at ganache didn't really have much panache.  It was mouse-waddling, if you're not fussy about blobs.  But it's not particularly pretty or artsy.  In fact, heh, this is more of a "what went wrong" story.  What I had planned as a large heart-shaped tart, covered with a lovely, swirling sheen of ganache ... turned out to be a bigfat cookie with blobby chocolate icing. 

Ok, ok, it wasn't that bad, but... well, you'll see.

Ganache, as I now know, is a French term (pronunced gah NAHSH) referring to a combination of heavy cream and chocolate. From joyofbaking.com:

The origins of ganache are debatable but it is believed to have been invented around 1850.  Some say it originated in Switzerland where it was used as a base for truffles.  Others say it was invented in Paris at the Patisserie Siravdin.

Recipes vary, depending on what you're going to do with it. It can be used as a glaze or icing, or it can be used as a filling for cakes and pastries. Some recipes call for a little bit of butter or oil to be added, which will give the chocolate a shiny quality. Flavorings can be added, such as liqueurs, extracts, etc.  But for my first attempt, I opted for this basic recipe from FoodNetwork:

  Ganache With a Sheen
3 tablespoons corn syrup
6 ounces heavy cream
12 ounces dark chocolate, chopped into small pieces
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a small saucepan combine the corn syrup and heavy cream.  Bring to a simmer and add the chocolate.  Stir until smooth. Remove from the heat and add the vanilla extract.

I used a combination of milk and dark chocolate, so maybe I can blame my blobs on that.  I tried to drizzle it in some artistic way.  Then I tried just spreading it all over and swirling it with a spatula.  I finally just gave up and left the streaks and blobs.

Ok, now for the "what happened to the tart?" part of my story.  I had originally planned to make a big heart tart with a cookie crust.  I decided to make some chocolate chip cookie dough, thinking it would cook up as a nice tart crust, with some kind of pudding filling, topped with ganache.  Silly wabbit.  I forgot how much this recipe expands.  It kept growing and growing, and pretty soon it bubbled up over the edges of the pan.  So much for crust, and so much for my heart tart!  What I ended up with was this bigfat heart-shaped chocolate chip cookie, with really delicious blobby ganache icing.

Here's the slightly modified Toll House cookie recipe, in case you ever want to follow my errant path and make a non-tart/bigfat cookie:

Mocha Chocolate Chip Cookie
2 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup (packed) brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 shot espresso, or very strong coffee (or 2 tbsp instant coffee)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips

Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl.  In a larger bowl, cream butter, sugars, vanilla extract and eggs.  Beat until creamy.  Slowly add flour mixture and continue beating.  Add chocolate chips and stir with a spoon.

For regular cookies, drop by spoonful onto a cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes at 375°

For a non-tart/bigfat cookie, or for bars, spread dough into pan and bake for 20-30 minutes at 375°.

The good news is, this is a very tasty bigfat cookie!  Enjoy!!

Cream Cheese Fruit Tarts

Get ready for some serious to-die-for cream cheese fruit tart. 

This is a recipe my SIL made for one of our tea parties.  For these tarts, B used a basic pastry recipe for the crust, pressed into cupcake tins.  The shape of the crust is irregular when you do it this way, but unless you're fussy about scalloped edges, a rough edge has its own appeal. 

This cream cheese filling could also go well with a cookie type tart crust (go here for more crust ideas).

Cream Cheese Fruit Tarts

Crust:
1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
Cream butter and sugar together until fluffy.  Add flour, salt and vanilla and beat together.  Separate into 2-3 inch balls and press into cupcake tins. 

Filling:
8 ounces cream cheese
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp almond extract (optional)
Beat all ingredients together.  Spoon into cupcake tins, but don't fill all the way to the top.

Bake at 375° for 10-15 minutes, until crust is golden brown.  Allow to cool. 

Top with thinly sliced pieces of fruit: bananas, strawberries, mandarin oranges, kiwi, cherries, blueberries, rasberries, etc.

Enjoy!

Tarts in Parts: Down to the Crust

My grandmother was the queen of crust.  Her pie innards weren't always stellar, but she had superlative skill with a crust; everybody said so. 

When I was younger I tried to get her to teach me, but the first thing she said was, you have to do this a lot to get good at it.  Which was not exactly what I wanted to hear at the time.  At nineteen, I wasn't THAT interested, and how many nineteen-year-olds do you know that like to hear "Practice Makes Perfect"?  Vomititious.

Now, of course, I am.  Interested, that is.  I wish now I had taken advantage of her tutelage, and it's too late.  What a dim-bunny.  The written instructions she gave me, and my sketchy memory of the time we spent together baking pies just aren't enough.  My pie crusts are dense, tooth-breakers.  Or they fall apart, the ingredients apparently having declared war and refusing to bond.  So when I started on tarts, I wasn't sure I was ready to tackle that behemoth "The Hand-Made Crust" again. I did a lot of searching the net for recipes and advice, and wow, I had no idea there were so many options for tart crusts.  The alternative crust list is below.  But to begin, here are two basic recipes for "from scratch" tart crust:

From Fabulous Foods 1 1/2 C flour 1/4 C sugar 1/4 tsp. salt 1/2 C butter 1 egg yolk 1/4 C cold water

From Epicurious.com 2 cups all purpose flour 1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt 3/4 cup (1.5 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes 3 tablespoons (or more) ice water 2 tablespoons chilled whipping cream

Differences: egg yolk in one and whipping cream in the other.  The destructions are pretty similar too, although Epicurious assumes you have a food processor, which I don't, and puts emphasis on not over-mixing.  This is the primary thing my gramma said too, cutting in the butter only until clumps form, not mixing it too thoroughly, was very important.  That, and working quickly, which I never could do.  But yeah, I know, practice makes perfect.  Basically:

Combine flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. Cut in shortening thoroughly with a {pastry blender or food processor, or two knives or big fork, as my gramma did it} until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. In a small bowl, stir {egg yolk or cream} together with cold water. Pour this mixture into the flour/butter mixture and mix until a ball of dough forms. Shape the dough into a disc and refrigerate at least an hour before rolling out.

Fabulous Foods also has a page of destructions for rolling out and baking the crust here, complete with pictures (one of which I stole here).  I just love a site with pictures.  Generally speaking, no matter what kind of pan or tin you use, just roll out the dough, cut into rounds that are a bit bigger than your pan/tin, press the dough down into the pan, and trim the edges if desired.

Now if you want to try some other (or some easier) alternatives:

• Crust made with a tube of refrigerated crescent rolls, like this recipe.  You just roll crescent dough out on a lightly floured surface; seal seams and perforations. Cut into 2-inch circles. Place in prepared muffin cups.
• Crust made with phyllo dough, a thin Greek pastry, like this recipe.  You can find more tips on working with phyllo at Ellen's Kitchen, but the basic idea is to layer, oil, sugar, and then cut the stacked dough and press into muffin cups.
• Crust made of shortbread, like this recipe.  Now this sounds delish, must try.  Perhaps a bit more forgiving than the traditional pie/tart crust recipes.
• Crust made from cookie dough - like this recipe.  Hmm, I wonder if you could use refrigerated cookie dough...
• Crust made of graham crackers, like this recipe.  The graham cracker crust is pretty easy, it's just sugar, graham crackers and butter.  But you can also buy these ready-made.

The dough you use really should depend on what your filling will be, as I discovered with my chocolate marshmallow tarts.  I used a pre-made graham cracker crust that worked very well with chocolate filling, but tasted awful when I used lemon curd as a filling. 

Most grocery stores and specialty food shops carry pre-made pie shells in various sizes, if you don't have time to make your own crust, or if you're a chicken-poop like me.  Now, don't get me wrong, I AM going to do some from scratch.  But pre-made shells are a wonderful thing.  I found these wonderful little sweet tart shells (appetizer size) from Clearbrook Farms that tasted a lot like little shortbread cookies.  I filled them with a variety of stuff, some of which worked, some of which didn't.  But more on fillings in my next tart post!

Tarts in Parts: What IS a Tart?

I'm kind of doing this backwards.  I should have started my tart series with this bit of research, instead of doing recipes first.  Oh well.  Sometimes I'm not very linear.  The first thing I needed when I decided I wanted to be a Tart Queen, was to get clear on my definition of TART. 

According to the Joy of Cooking:

Tart is defined as a single-layered base of pastry (plain or puff) with a sweet or savory filling baked in either a shallow tart pan that has straight, fluted sides and a removable bottom or a metal tart ring placed on a baking sheet.   The tart is removed from the tart pan or ring before serving. Broadly, the term 'tart' encompasses flans, quiches, and pies.   Depending on the type of tart made they can be served as appetizers, entrees or desserts.  Their size ranges from bite-size (hors d'oeuvre), individual-size (tartlet) to full-size (tart).

But Baking 911, in their intro to pies and tarts, says the definition/distinction goes thusly:

PIES: A pie is American in design and can be both sweet or savory and is served directly from its pan. Most pies are usually baked with a layer of pastry dough or other crust doughs and mixtures, lining a regular 9-inch or a deep-dish 8-inch round pie pan, both with sloping sides.

TARTS: A tart, on the other hand, is a European open-faced cousin of the pie. Tarts seem to be more refined than pies, which are homier in nature. The Strawberry Tart with Pastry Cream is one of my favorites.  Tarts are usually baked in a 9- or 10-inch straight, short-sided pan with a removable bottom and fluted edges, the pan being half the depth of a pie pan. They are also baked in a pastry ring placed on a parchment lined baking sheet. 

Is anybody besides me confused?  Pies are just taller than tarts, then, right?  And pies are sometimes covered with a layer of crust/dough, but not always.  The other thing I don't get is the removeable bottom.  I actually bought some tart pans with fluted sides and removeable bottoms.  I can't figure out why the bottoms are separate.  I gather it has solely to do with being able to remove the entire thing to serve it. Pie pans don't have removeable bottoms because pies are served directly from the pan.

All tarts end up being free-standing because after baking, they are taken out of the pan and put on a platter for serving, as the pan's removable bottom helps to facilitate this.

I always thought tarts were just smaller versions of pies.  I had never seen a 9 inch crust-and-filling confection that was called a tart.  But since many of the recipes I found on the net talk about just such an animal, I gather it's not that unusual.  The kind of tart I usually think of - anywhere from 2 inches to 5 inches in diameter - is more traditionally called an Individual Tart, or even "Tartlet", which calls to mind a certain Friends episode in which the food critic gets stoned.  Hilarious.  The word Tartlet can send me into peals of hysterical laughter, so don't get me started.  We'll just call these little-uns TARTS, and leave PIE for the big-uns, ok?  Ok.

So, anyway.  I've got these removeable-bottom tart pans, but I don't much like the shape.  So I went shopping this morning for a product that I saw on this post at Mekuno Cooking. 

I stole Faith's picture of the pan, to show you what I was looking for, because although my grocery store had a huge display of these silicone type pans, guess which one they did NOT have?  You got it, Murphy's Law loves me.  The only thing I wanted, they didn't have.  No tart pans.  I really want to try these, so I may have to order some online somewhere.

The tart recipe sounds delish too.  I think Faith must be a 3-dot cook.  I'm still working at becoming a two-dot cook.

The resulting tart crust would look something like this:

Pretty, huh?  I love the shape.  As opposed to the fluted-but-flat pans I have that turn out something that looks more like this:

My SIL just uses muffin tins.  She makes a pretty good crust from scratch, so that just shows-ta-go-ya, you don't HAVE to have fancy-schmancy pans to make cool tarts.

Now the subject of crust is another whole thing, and a major source of frustration for me, so I'll leave that for another post.

Chocolate Marshmallow Tarts

By way of warning, I'm on a tart kick.  My ambition is to become the Queen of Tarts.  Ok, maybe just the tart queen of Arizona.  At the very least the tart queen of my block. 

So, for Chocolate Friday, I'm doing Chocolate Marshmallow Tarts, a recipe that began life on the Hershey's Kitchens website, modified to suit my taste, of course.  It is now dangerously decadent.  No really, I mean it.  If your eyeballs aren't jiggling after you eat one of these tarts, I'll eat my ... hmm ... crown.

UPDATE: I had to modify the recipe.  It was too rich and sweet, even for me, and that's saying something.  Taking into account how sweet the marshmallow creme is, I reduced it, added whipped cream.

Chocolate Marshmallow Tarts

2/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup milk
1/4 tsp almond extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup Marshmallow creme
1/4 cup whipped cream
6 (4 oz. pkg.) mini graham cracker crumb tart crusts

Optional Topping:
Whipped cream, fresh fruit, or maraschino cherries or chilled cherry pie filling or slivered almonds

Directions:
1. Place chocolate chips, milk and sugar in small microwave-safe bowl. Microwave at HIGH (100%) 1 minute or until milk is hot and chips melt when stirred. With wire whisk or rotary beater, beat until mixture is smooth; stir in vanilla and almond extract. Cool to room temperature.

2. Whip cream.  Stir whipped cream and marshmallow cream together.  Fold chocolate mixture into the cream/creme mixture and stir briefly, but leave some separation and "striping".  Spoon or pipe into crusts. If you're a good piper, you could really do something beautimous with the striping effect of the brown and white.  I just poured it in, impatient girl that I am.

3. Cover; refrigerate until set. Top and garnish as desired.  Makes approximately 6 servings.

Note:  You can make the graham cracker crust yourself, but I found these Keebler mini-tart shells already pre-made at the grocery store.  They're about 3 inches in diameter.  I tried them with the lemon curd because it sounded good but ... not so much.  Chocolate filling with graham cracker crust is MUCH better.  It's a lot like a s'more!

Pictures coming soon!  Enjoy!

Lemon Cream Scones

There is a lemon scone recipe in this post, I promise, and an answer to the question, what can you do with lemon curd?.  But first...

A Tea Party Lady Moment

I had the most wonderful cream tea yesterday.  All by myself, sitting in a corner with my pretty tea tray, laid with the good china, sipping a cup of my favorite tea - Yunnan Gold - and nibbling on a freshly baked lemon scone, smothered in real Devonshire clotted cream and lemon curd.  With the  dogs sleeping at my feet, and the wild lovebirds filling the tree outside my window with color, everything was toasty warm and for a moment, perfectly perfect.  It was truly one of those magical moments that seem to hang suspended in time. 

I had been planning this special afternoon tea for a while, and I was afraid that, like most overly planned moments, it wouldn't be as enjoyable as anticipated.  But this one blossomed full, in so many ways, taste, smell, sound, sight... and heart.  The only thing that could have made it any better was having my mom here to enjoy it with me.

From the Complaint Department

Before I move on to the scone recipe (I'm getting there!), I want to mention the clotted cream.  I ordered several small jars from British Delights at the beginning of October.  By mid-October, having received no email confirmation or notification of shipping, I got worried and tried to check my order.  This website has the most awful, out-dated, hard to use shopping system I've ever used.  I could find no way to check the status of my order, so I finally emailed them directly.  The terse reply I received said my order had been flagged "Christmas" and would ship in "early November".  I was a little miffed, to say the least, and emailed again to say if they couldn't get my order shipped sooner than that I wanted to cancel it.  I waited, but got no reply.  No word at all, not a sausage.  After fuming for a while on incompetence, I forgot about it.  And then, in the middle of December, the package arrived.  What kind of stupid system are they running there???

In spite of all that, the clotted cream was delicious.  I got a 6 oz jar of English Double Devon cream made by The Devon Cream Company.  I would buy this again, if I could find a better place to order from.

Ok, on to the recipe!  This recipe originally came from OChef.com, who got it from The Best Quick Breads, by Beth Hensperger.  I modified it some, so it's not really "Old-Fashioned Lemon Cream Scones" anymore.  It's ...

Christine's Yogurt Lemon Scones
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
Grated zest of 3 lemons
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 tbsp (1/2 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2 large eggs
1/2 cup heavy cream
3 tbsp lemon yogurt

Preheat the oven to 400°F (205°C).  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, lemon zest, and salt. Cut in the butter with a fork or a heavy-duty electric mixer until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. (At this point I usually have to get my fingers into the mix to help break up the butter.  Or is that just the child in me...)

In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs, yogurt and cream. Add to the dry mixture and stir until a sticky dough is formed.

Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and knead gently just until the dough holds together, about 6 times.  There are many different ways to cut the scones.  Some folx use the "round" method - patting the dough into a 1-inch thick round, and cutting like a pie.  I prefer the "log" method.  Roll out the dough into a long log and pat down to about 1 inch thick.  Cut as shown in the picture here.

Place the scones about 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle the tops with sugar, if desired. Bake in the center of the oven until crusty and golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes. Serve immediately with butter, clotted cream and lemon curd or your favorite jam.  Or you can let them cool on a rack and freeze in heavy-duty freezer bags for up to a month.

Yield: Makes about 8 scones

Coming up next, the Queen of Tarts, in parts. 

Enjoy!

Microwave Lemon Curd

Since the theme of this week's Carnival of the Recipes is easy/hate-to-cook recipes, I thought I'd post my SIL's Microwaveable Lemon Curd recipe.  Lemon curd is pretty easy to make anyway, but this is the sooper-dooper easy version, for the very laziest of cooks.

Microwave Lemon Curd 
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
Finely grated zest of 3 lemons
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

Melt butter in the microwave on high for 1-2 minutes.  Grate the lemon peel to get lemon zest.  In a separate bowl, combine sugar, eggs, lemon zest and lemon juice.  Blend with a wire whisk.  Slowly whisk in the hot melted butter.

Microwave mixture on high 3-4 minutes until thickened, whisking well after each minute.

Pour into a clean glass jar and allow to cool in refrigerator.  Will keep a week or more if kept refrigerated, and more if sealed in canning jars.

Now, for the really REALLY lazy cooks who don't want to mess about with fresh lemons to get the "zest", a splash of lemon extract will add some extra-lemony flavor.  Or you can just leave that step out altogether.  It's extremely yummy even without the zest.

Now, what does the lazy cook DO with this easy lemon curd, you may ask... THAT is another post for another day.

Menu for New Year's Eve

This New Year's Eve is also serving as our family Christmas gathering, since my brother and his little brood went up north and have only just returned.  I realized yesterday, rather late, that I haven't planned a thing.  So I started making lists, gathering recipes, trying to figure out what's good (and easy).  Our traditional Christmas dinner would have been ham, potatoes, greenie-beanie casserole, and various pies.  But this will have to be more of an or-dee-vor kind of thing.  So here's my plan:

• Veggie platter with dip (sour cream and ranch dressing mix, waaay easy)
• Apple and pear slices with caramel dip
• My Crab stuffed mushrooms (always a big hit)
• Weenies in BBQ sauce in the crockpot
• Beef and chicken taquitos (I cheated and bought frozen)
• Garlic Shrimp dip (easy recipe below)
• Coffee Cream cheese brownies (recipe below)
• Assorted mini-tarts

And of course, there will be plenty of liquid cheer, and freshly roasted coffee to serve guests who begin to nod off.  I've got just enough green beans left.  I hope. 

Photos will be taken and added later, I promise!

Garlic Shrimp Dip
2 pounds tiny frozen shrimp
16 oz cocktail sauce
1 tsp wooster sauce
16 oz cream cheese, softened to room temp
1 tsp garlic powder
Plenty of triscuits, wheat thins or other crackers

Mix softened cream cheese and garlic powder together.  Place cream cheese in the center of a large platter and mold into a dome about 2 inches tall at the most, leaving room on the sides of the platter.  Mix together cocktail sauce and worcestershire sauce.  Thaw shrimp by running under warm water for a few minutes.  Mix shrimp into the coctail sauce and spread evenly over the cream cheese dome.  Serve with crackers around the edge of the platter if there's room.  NOTE: Be sure to have knifes or small forks handy to help guests dig in to this.  Cracker dipping directly in is ok, but little shrimps tend to fall off, all over your nice holiday tablecloth.

Coffee Cream Cheese Brownies
Boxed brownie mix
6 oz. coffee flavored yogurt
8 oz cream cheese

This is a really easy way to snazz up brownies.  If you can't find coffee flavored yogurt, you can use vanilla flavored, or cherrry (yum!), or just use plain yogurt and add your favorite flavoring extract to it.  Mix together the cream cheese and yogurt until creamy.  Mix brownies according to destructions on the box.  I like to get the kind with extra chocolate syrup.  Pour half the brownie mix into a greased 9x13 pan.  Pour cream cheese mixture in and spread carefully.  Add remaining brownie mix to the top.  NOTE: When you bake these, you will probably have to add 5-10 minutes to the box instructions, because the cream cheese and yogurt makes the mixture so much more moist.

Chocolate Friday: From Grog to Nog

I bought some white chocolate creme liqueur to try.  Is it too early for a toddy?  Can I sip my lunch? 

Did you know our traditional holiday egg nog began as "Egg and Grog in a Noggin"?  According to Saint Margaret Mary:

... It became customary for a community’s young men to go “wassailing” on New Years Day. They visited the houses of their family, friends and the town’s elite, receiving at each abode a bit of meat and an alcoholic drink. The wealthy benefactors were obliged to share their bounty in order to win the loyalty of the lower class and preserve the social structure, so the young men sang and made merry, becoming more and more inebriated after each visit. The man who completed his holiday rounds was revered by his intoxicated peers.

In this precursor to Christmas caroling, the drink most often served was the Tom and Jerry — a frothy potion made from egg, milk, brandy and spices.

...
Except for holiday wassailing, the drink was confined to the upper class in England; poor London-folk could rarely afford milk. In America, however, farms and dairies were plentiful, and the drink gained popularity and a new name — eggnog.

The word “noggin” was used in 1500s Europe to denote a small, carved wooden drinking vessel, and the word “grog,” often used in Australia, typically denoted a rum-and-water drink. “Egg and grog in a noggin” was a mouthful, and the name was shortened.

Be that as it may, I wanted to share a couple of interesting recipes I found, variations on tradition, to be sure, but interesting none-the-less.  First is a modified recipe, originally posted on about.com's coffee/tea section, for coffee grog.  I added chocolate, a splash of orange flavored vodka, and voila.  Not for the faint of heart.

Chocolate Orange Coffee Grog
3 cups coffee
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup brown sugar
4 ounces melted dark chocolate
2 tbs butter, softened
1/4 tsp cloves, ground
1/4 tsp nutmeg, ground
1/4 tsp cinnamon, ground
Peel of 1 orange
Peel of 1 lemon
1-2 jiggers orange vodka

Melt chocolate.  Break fruit peels into 6 pieces, each. Place one piece of each into cups. Blend butter, sugar, cloves, nutmeg, chocolate and cinnamon in a small bowl. Mix coffee and cream together with the spice mixture.
Serve into 6 cups with whipped topping if desired.

Second, a recipe I haven't tried yet, but it's up next.  Can't remember where the recipe came from.  I'll let you know how it turns out.

Chocolate Egg Nog
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups chocolate milk
5 eggs
1/4 cup brown sugar (packed)
1/2 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup Kahlua (or strong coffee)
1/2 cup dark rum
1/2 tsp ground cinammon

Combine milk and chocolate milk in a saucepan and scald (do not boil). In another bowl, beat eggs and sugar together until thick. Add about 1/2 cup of the hot milk to the egg mixture and mix through. Then stir the egg mixture back into the hot milk, and place over low heat.

Add whipping cream and Kahlua. Cook and stir until mixture thickens. Do not boil. Remove from heat and add rum and cinnamon. Let cool and refrigerate until chilled. Serve with a sprinkling of grated chocolate and nutmeg.

There, now you're all ready for Christmas wassailing with grog and nog.  Merry merry!
Don't forget to get your last minute Christmas recipes in to the Carnival!!

German Chocolate Caramel Bars

I was going to try to wait and post this recipe for Chocolate Friday, but ... I couldn't wait. *sigh*  So much chocolate, so little time.

I really shouldn't try to bake at this time of the month, no matter how much I'm craving chocolate goodies.  This was almost a disaster, a real "abandon ship!" kind of disaster, but I clung to the mast and road the sucker out.  The resulting bars were delish, if I do say so myself.  In case you're interested in the story (if not, just scroll down...), the situation was this:

Picture one fiercely PMSing woman, sitting in the kitchen peeling cellophane off 50 little caramel candy pieces - 50 FRIKKEN CARAMEL CANDIES!!! -- and she gets involved in a movie which was originally only intended to help the unwrapping all those suckers less tedious.  Having gotten thusly involved in said movie, and being short of attention and patience anyway, PMSing woman puts caramels in the pan directly on the burner, adds milk, and then forgets about them.  Some time later, the smell of scalding milk and burning caramel having failed to penetrate her haze, her hubs wanders in and interrupts her movie with, "Whatcha burnin'?"

I'm here to tell you, caramel mixed with burnt milk is disgusting.  And it takes a while to get rid of the smell.  Fortunately I  had bought two bags of caramels, not being sure how many there were to a bag (50).  So I dumped the ruined batch and started over -- UNWRAPPING FIFTY MORE CARAMELS.  This time I put them in a pan on a pan in a makeshift double boiler setup. 

I guess it's time to buy an actual double boiler, huh? 

Anyway, you'll be happy to know that I was able to finish watching my movie without burning the 2nd batch of caramels and from that point forward, all was as well as it can be when you're PMSing.

German Chocolate Caramel Bars

1 box German Chocolate cake mix
3/4 cup butter (stick and a half)
1 cup evaporated milk
6 ounces chocolate chips
1 cup chopped nuts (I used some of the candied walnuts from the other day)
50-60 caramels

Melt caramels over a low heat together with 1/3 cup of the evaporated milk.  While caramels are melting, stir cake mix with softened butter and 1/2 cup to 2/3 cup evaporated milk.  Just add milk a little at a time till it reaches the consistency of frosting.  Divide batter in half and spread half on the bottom of a 9x13 inch cake pan.  Bake for 6 minutes at 350°.  Remove from oven and sprinkle with nuts and chocolate chips.  Pour melted caramel on top and lastly, dot with remaining cake batter.  Continue baking for 15-25 minutes. 

You can insert a toothpick into the cake batter portions to test for done-ness (should come out dry), but be careful because if you hit a chocolate chip or the caramel, it'll come out wet.

I took a platter down to my brother's last night and they were a hit!  Of course I saved some back for myself the hubs.  Heh.

Merry Merry!

Candied Walnuts

This is a super easy recipe that turns yer average wally-nut into a wonderfully tasty little munchable. 

And you can do so much with them.  I've used candied walnuts as filler on many a party tray.  I've added them to Christmas gift baskets, wrapped in cellophane and tied with a ribbon.  I put them out on tables in small bowls surrounded with holiday chocolate kisses and other brightly colored candies.  You could use them as topping on a cake, or atop brownies or muffins or pancakes.  I have a chocolate bar recipe that I'm planning to make for this weekend that calls for a layer of nuts.  Guess what I'll be using!

Warning:  They are highly addictive.  Betcha can't eat just one!!

Candied Walnuts

1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 - 1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
6 tbsp milk
5-6 cups walnuts, halves

Put sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, salt and milk in a sauce pan and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat slightly and continue to stir at a low boil for 1 minute. 

Place walnuts in a large bowl.  Slowly pour sugar mixture over the nuts.  Stir until the walnuts are completely covered and mixture begins to "sugar". 

Place on a sheet of wax paper and allow to dry and harden fully.  If stored in an air-tight container, the walnuts should last a good long while. 

Enjoy!

Chocolate Almond Candies for Christmas

If you're looking for a truly decadent chocolate candy to add to your Christmas party tray, try these.  They're pretty easy, albeit time consuming, and they're guaranteed to be a hit. 

This concoction began life as a coconut candy recipe.  But since I'd rather eat live grubs than coconut, I modified the recipe to suit my own taste, which is excellent, if I do say so myself.  But I have to admit I got a little help online - brain fart, can't remember where, one of those "ask Eloise" websites - where the question is, if you'd rather eat live grubs than coconut, what can you substitute for it in your candy recipes?

And the answer was: nuts.  Now THAT was good news.  So, drumroll, please:

Almond Chocolate Christmas Candies

1/4 cup margarine
2 cups powdered sugar
2 cups finely chopped almonds
1/4 cup half and half (cream)
6-8 oz semisweet chocolate chips
2 tsp shortening
Candy paper cups

Melt margarine and stir in the powdered sugar, almonds and cream.  Chill, so it's easy to handle.  I let mine chill overnight, but it should just be chilled enough to easily roll into balls.

Melt chocolate chips and shortening.  If you don't have a double boiler, you can use a makeshift one like I do.  Set one pan on top of another.  Put the chocolate and shortening in the top pan, and water to boil in the bottom pan.  Just be careful that no water or steam get into your chocolate pan.

When the chocolate is melted, spoon into cups, filling each about halfway.  Scoop a small amount of the nut/sugar mixture into your hand and roll into a ball.  Think -- melon ball.  In fact, if I had had a melon ball scoop, that's what I would have used.  Press the ball down into the chocolate, so that the chocolate rises up on the sides. 

I drizzled melted chocolated on top of each candy for decoration.  Other ideas: press a chocolate chip into the center of each ball, or a sliver of almond.  Sprinkle with chocolate or colored cookie sprinkles.   

This recipe makes between 48-60 candies, depending on how large you make them.  The chocolate does set and harden some, but I recommend chilling them before serving.  In fact, I'm going to freeze some and see how they do.  I'll let you know. 

Good complimentary Christmas candy: Cream Cheese candies.

Merry Merry!

Honey Lemon Chicken

I don't usually do main dish recipes.  But since the theme for this week's Carnival of the Recipes is chicken, I thought I'd pull out one of my mom's favorite recipes. 

Honey Lemon Chicken

1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup strong lemon tea
1 tbsp soy sauce
flour
8-10 chicken pieces

Coat chicken with flour and lay skin-down in a baking dish.  Bake in the oven at 400° F for 30 minutes.  Steep lemon tea.  In a small bowl, stir together tea, honey, lemon juice and soy sauce.  Set aside.

Reduce oven temperature to 325° and turn chicken over.  Baste skin with the honey-lemon mixture.  Bake for another 30 minutes, periodically basting with mixture scooped up from pan (or just make a double batch of the honey-lemon mixture and only use half to baste the first time.

This recipe is gooey and sweet and entirely delicious.  But it's not what you'd call low-fat or healthy.  You can eat the chicken without the skin to make it slightly healthier, but frankly, IMO that's the best part.  Heh.  I just realize the only other main dish recipe I've blogged here is also a chicken recipe.

Christmas Coffee: Mint Mocha

I'm treating myself to a sweet cup this Sunday morning.  The air is crisp here, although we never get the kind of winter cold that other parts of the country get.  Still, it's cold enough to warrant a big fuzzy blanket, socks on my feet (for a change), and a cuppa hot minty mocha coffee.

There are many ways to make your own Mint Mocha.  If you're a creamer kind of person, you can find Coffee-Mate's Peppermint Mocha in stores now.  I bought some to serve my Thanksgiving guests and it's pretty darn good.  A little more mint than mocha, but that's ok.

If you're not interested in a creamer-tainted cuppa, you could just add a drop or two of peppermint extract to your coffee, and maybe a squirt or two of chocolate syrup. 

But I happened to have on hand (left over from Chocolate Friday's brownie adventure) some Hershey's chocolate mint candy canes.  I gotta say, these are some of the best candy canes EVER, but somebody was over-vigilant in the wrapping process.  It's tough to get the cellophane off!  I only managed to peel three before I got frustrated and stopped.  But three was enough for my morning cuppa here.

Break the candy canes into small pieces, put them in a sandwich bag, take a hammer and start smashing. 

I took it outside and hammered on the patio, as the hubs was still snoring, and I double bagged the candy canes, since I was going to really pulverize these.  The dogs watched me closely through this whole process with quizzical expressions.  I wish I'd had the camera handy; it was really funny to see them looking at me, at the baggie, at the hammer, back to me, cocking their heads.  What were they thinking, I wonder?  Heh.  "Mom has finally lost it, but something in that baggie sure smells good!"

Once I had candy cane powder, I added it to a bowl with a few spoonfuls (spoonsful?) of cocoa.  Stir into hot coffee and enjoy!  This is definitely something I'll be serving for our Christmas brunch. 

I'm going for a second cuppa!! 

Christmas Candy Cane Brownies

My offering for Chocolate Friday this week is a fun recipe for Christmassy brownies.  This recipe can be as easy or as hard as you want to make it.  If you're a "from scratch" kind of person, or if you have a ton of time on your hands and nothing to do, you could make all the ingredients from the ground up.  Or the bowl up, as it were. 

I'm not fussy about brownies, and as I've said many times, I'm a lazy git.  So I started with a brownie mix.  I did make the frosting though, because you just can't get the same flavor from the premixed frostings.  If you need recipes for "scratch" brownies, try the BCCY version or the healthy brownies from Recipezaar.

Christmas Brownies w/ Candy Cane Cream Cheese Frosting

Bake brownies using your favorite mix or recipe.  Since these are VERY rich, bake medium to thin.  Either split into two and spread over bottom of two 8x8 pans, or spread thin over a 9x12 pan.  Allow to cool.

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz softened cream cheese (room temp.)
1 stick butter or margarine
4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp peppermint extract
Red food coloring
4-6 candy canes