The easiest and best Valentine’s Day dessert!
Ingredients
Strawberries
Milk chocolate bar
White chocolate bar
Directions
In a double boiler (or metal bowl sitting over a smaller pot with boiling water) melt chocolate, dip strawberries, and let cool. Repeat with other chocolate to use as a drizzle in a piping bag.
❤
Extra moist carrot cake topped with homemade icing glaze and crushed walnuts.
Ingredients
Cake
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3 eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup white sugar + 1 tbsp molasses (or 3/4 cup brown sugar)
1/2 cup applesauce (or 1 apple grated finely)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 grated carrots
Icing
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp water
1/2 cup walnuts
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 13×9-inch baking pan.
2. Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a medium mixing bowl with a fork. Stir well and set aside. With an electric mixer, beat together eggs, oil, sugars (see note below), applesauce, and vanilla. Stir in carrots until well blended. Add carrot mixture to flour mixture and stir with a spatula until combined.
*Home made apple sauce is easily made by finely grating 1 apple.
*I prefer to make my own brown sugar by combining half a cup of white sugar with 1 tbsp of molasses. Mix both ingredients with fork until resembles wet sand. The molasses adds great flavor.
3. Pour batter into prepared baking pan. Bake 30 to 35 minutes, or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
4. To make icing combine powdered sugar, water, and vanilla. Pour frosting onto cooled cake. Crush walnuts and sprinkle on top.
*Recipe adapted from allrecipes.com
Individual tarts filled half with poppyseed filling and half with a smooth and creamy no-bake cheesecake filling.
Ingredients
Package of frozen sweetened mini pie shells
Poppyseed filling
1 cup poppy seeds
1/2 cup water
2 egg whites
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 tsp rum flavored extract
Cheesecake filling
1 cup creamcheese
1 cup whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup confectioners sugar
Directions
1. Pre-heat oven to temperature according to pie shell instructions.
2. Soak poppyseeds with water and grind in food processor.
3. In a medium bowl, combine ground poppyseeds, sugar, and bread crumbs.
4. Whip egg whites into stiff peaks, add rum extract. Fold gently into the poppyseeds.
5. Fill the baked pie shells half full with poppyseed mixture, about 1-2 tbsp.
6. Bake tarts until edges are golden brown.
7. Whip whipping cream. Add vanilla and sugar. Combine the sweetened whip into creamcheese.
8. Top poppyseeds with 1-2 tbsp of cheesecake filling.
9. Refrigerate for a minimum of 1-2 hours.
Homemade, soft & chewy gingersnap cookies- holiday classic.
*I cut the original recipe from in half (from allrecipes.com), which made a plate of 17 cookies. Feel free the double the recipe. Also I substituted the shortening for butter, which made for chewy rather than crispy cookies.
Ingredients
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons shortening (or butter)
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 egg
2 tablespoons dark molasses
2 tablespoons sugar for rolling cookies
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Sift the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt into a mixing bowl. Stir the mixture to blend evenly.
3. Place the butter into a mixing bowl and beat until creamy. Gradually beat in the white sugar. Beat in the egg, and dark molasses. Sift 1/3 of the flour mixture into the shortening mixture; stir to thoroughly blend. Sift in the remaining flour mixture, and mix together until a soft dough forms. Pinch off small amounts of dough and roll into 1 inch diameter balls between your hands. Roll each ball in sugar, and place 2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet.
4. Bake in preheated oven until the tops are rounded and slightly cracked, about 10 minutes.
With the scents of vanilla, cinnamon and caramel it’s no wonder why these candied, sugary nuts will smell up your house. Better than a glade candle!
Use your favorite mix of nuts! I also love cashews and pecans. Mmm!
Recipe:
I stole the recipe from the pioneer woman which was actually passed
down from Nicole who first sent it to me.
http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen-blog/2010/11/a-tasty-recipe-burnt-sugar-almonds/
Sernik (Polish Cheesecake)
Recipe:
(This cheesecake is actually made with my moms secret recipe, memorized and without perfect measurements)
Crust:
1 Package honey graham crumbs
1/2 cup Butter
1. Melt the butter and mix with the honey graham crumbs, press down into a baking dish.
2. Pour the cheesecake filling on top of the crust and bake.
Here’s a recipe I found that’s identical. Minus the chocolate ganache.
http://polishfoodrecipes.blogspot.com/2007/07/sernik-polish-cheesecake-recipe.html
Made this a few weeks back. It’s a Polish custard dessert. The crust is light and flaky, filled with a creamy custard, and served refrigerated. The name comes from the way the crust bakes, peaking like mountains, therefore named after Polish mountains.
Recipe:
http://www.smaczny.pl/przepis,karpatka
(You’ll need to click the translate button on your computer.)
I’ve neglected blogging/posting photos of my food creations for a little while now! I need to get back into the habit because i have lots and lots of photos built up that need to be posted.
Appetizers
Gaucamolie
Recipe:
2 ripe avocados
2 large tomatos
1 small white onion
2 large cloves of garlic
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tbs lime juice
1. Cut in half and remove the seeds and skin from the avocados, place in a bowl.
2. Using a fork mush up the avocado, the more ripe the easier! Add lime juice, salt, pepper, and minced garlic.
3. Cut up tomatoes into cubes, and onions finely minced/cubed. Add to the rest of the mix.
Popcorn Shrimp with a Lime & Garlic Aoli
A perfect “grab with your hands” and “go for more” appetizer especially with the aoli to dip!
I went to the food network website for this one.
Dinner
Heres the almost identical recipe, all written out for you. Although my moms recipe is slightly different with a “family secret” involved. Enjoy this just-as-good recipe!
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/mario-batali/gnocchi-recipe2/index.html
My mom served the dumplings with a roast beef, and made a gravy alongside. They taste amazing with just about any sauce you can possibly think of.
Dessert
Spiced Plum Cake with Cinnamon Streusal
drizzled with a Rum & Spiced Orange Glaze
http://sundayhotpants.nocturne.net.nz/post/981132464/pflaumenkuchen
Glaze:
1/2 tsp Orange zest
1/2 tsp Orange juice
2 drops Pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp Rum extract
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1. Mix all ingredients together until it becomes a thick glaze.
Add water if it’s to thick to drizzle, be careful not to add too much, 2 drops of water will do.
This is a Polish version of apple pie, though it does have a very similar resemblance, szarlotka is made with a crumbly “sugar cookie” crust, on top and bottom that might fall apart once you cut into it, and it’s absolutely delicious.
For the apples:
3 medium apples, peeled, cored and cut into a 1/2″ dice
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
For the crumb:
1 cup butter, soften
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
For the icing:
2 tbsp cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted
2 tbsp milk
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease an 8×11.5″ glass or ceramic baking dish.
Place all ingredients for the apples into a mixing bowl. Toss to coat and evenly distribute all ingredients.
Place first 5 ingredients for the crumb into a mixing bowl. Blend the ingredients together using a pastry blender or a fork until the butter has been incorporated and there are crumbs the size of peas. Add the egg to the crumb mixture and lightly stir just until the egg has been incorporated. Try not to over work the mixture. You want for there to still be pea-sized crumbs after incorporating the egg.
Reserve 1 heaping cup of the crumb mixture. Pour the rest of the crumb into the prepared baking dish. Using your hands or the back of a spoon, gently press the crumb mixture into the dish to form a level crust.
Next evenly distribute the apple mixture over the crust.
Finally, sprinkle the reserved crumb mixture evenly over the apples.
Place into a preheated 350 degree oven. Bake for about 50 minutes or until crumb is golden and apples are soft.
Remove from oven and cool for 1 hour.
While the bars are cooling, make the icing. Add all ingredients into a mixing bowl. Whisk or beat until smooth.
Once the bars are cooled drizzle with the cream cheese icing. Cut into bars and enjoy! Bars can be made 2 days in advance. Simply cover the bars once they’ve cooled to room temperature.
*Recipe via http://www.whatwereeating.com/recipes/cinnamon-apple-pecan-crumb-bars/
We will be adding recipe’s along with each photo/post. Each recipe is either something amazing we come across online, from a book or magazine, our mom’s recipe, something altered, but most of all we love creating our own recipe’s, we just have a million idea’s and we usually eyeball everything, so we will try our best to record everything so we can blog it!
Butter & Sugar 