Tag Archives: dessert

Coconut Milk and Vanilla Bean Rice Pudding

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I’m trying something a little crazy…my go to arroz con leche recipe has plain ‘ol milk in it. This is my first time using coconut milk and it’s my first time knowingly trying any food with this in it. Hopefully it’s not a complete waste of ingredients and time…I love rice pudding and it’s something that reminds me of my childhood. My Gram made her version (my fave no matter what) often and my siblings and I ate it hot as a breakfast treat. I’m sure I’ll never be able to recreate hers, but in the meantime, I’m having fun tasting other versions. This need for rice pudding came when I realized that I have several Madagascar vanilla beans patiently waiting to be used in my pantry. I bought them over the summer and haven’t used a single bean! How dare I! 😉 It has been at least a full year since the last time I made this decadent treat, so why not put the two together? While searching through Tastespotting, I found several versions of the classic – some with coconut milk and some with vanilla bean seeds. This recipe is a mishmash of a few recipes and techniques that will hopefully come together beautifully!

Verdict: So good, I love this stuff! Creamy, slightly sweet and perfectly comforting in my book.  I didn’t notice the coconut flavor, but it wasn’t as thick or “butter fatty” as the other recipe. I only used one cup because coconut milk has such a  high fat content, so I’ll be on the look out for lighter coconut milk. Also, I was also able to make a bigger batch of vanilla sugar the day I made this, so hopefully I can find the perfect use for some of it. Thanks for reading, enjoy!

Coconut and Vanilla Bean Rice Pudding – 

  • 4 cups water
  • 1 cup arborio rice
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 1 vanilla bean, split
  • lemon zest (strips, not grated)
  • 1 cup coconut milk
  • 2 cups milk
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • pinch of kosher salt

Directions –

Pour rice and water into a 4 quart dutch oven or larger. Add the lemon peel, cinnamon stick and vanilla seeds to the pot. Let sit for an hour.

After soaking, bring the rice mixture to a boil on high heat, uncovered. When it starts to boil (about 5 minutes), lower the heat to medium and cook for 10 to 12 more minutes or until water is almost evaporated.

Add the milk and stir well to mix, add the sugar  and cook over medium-low heat, stirring carefully, until it thickens slightly or until desired consistency, about 25 to 35 minutes. Remove the lemon zest and cinnamon sticks.

Serve hot, cold or room temperature.

Chocolate Peanut Butter and White Chocolate Cookies

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Quick Post: It’s that time of year when if my husband asks for cookies, he’ll get them. I’m much less enthusiastic about making sweets during any other time of year. These are really good, and how can you go wrong with chocolate and peanut butter – a match made in heaven, right? 😉 Well, the hubbs wanted some white chocolate, so he got that too. Thanks for reading, enjoy!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies – adapted from King Arthur Flour
  • 1 1/2 cups AP flour
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened baking cocoa or Dutch process cocoa
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
  • 1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 tablespoons water
  • 1 1/2 cups mini peanut butter cups (*I used half Reese’s chips and half white chocolate chips*)

Directions –

1) Preheat the oven to 375°F. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) two baking sheets.

2) In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.

3) In another bowl, beat together the sugars, butter, and peanut butter until light and fluffy.

4) Beat in the vanilla, egg, and water, then stir in the dry ingredients, blending well.

5) Stir in the chips.

6) Scoop rounded tablespoonfuls of dough onto the prepared baking sheets. Flatten each cookie to about 1/2″ thick.

7) Bake the cookies for 7 to 9 minutes, or until they’re set and you can smell chocolate. Remove them from the oven, and cool on a rack.

Deep Dish Apple Crumble Pie

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I usually crave pumpkin pie this time of year, but sadly my husband doesn’t care for pumpkin flavored anything…but, luckily he does like apple pie with crumb topping. I haven’t made apple pie in years, and I’m not sure why. Hopefully this is worth the effort and mixing of two different recipes. I wanted the deep dish directions with a crumb topping and I had to improvise the baking time and technique.
Verdict: Pretty good, but I will continue to search for the perfect pie! I think I added too much lemon zest, but this definitely needed it. All that sweet needs the balance of citrus. I also am not a fan of making pie dough, but I used this recipe and it worked out well. It was buttery and flaky and easy to make. I need to practice rolling out pie dough – it’s such a pain! I have only done it one other time, so I guess I should give myself a break. Whenever the dough becomes too warm and starts to fall apart, put it in the fridge so the butter can firm up. Thanks for reading, enjoy!
Deep Dish Apple Crumble Pie – adapted from The Galley Gourmet 
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
  • 1 Tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 4 1/2 to 5 pounds Granny Smith apples (about 8 – 10 medium), peeled, cored, and cut into 1/4-inch thick slices
Topping

  • 3/4 cup all purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
  • 3/4 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
  • 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

In a medium bowl, combine sugars, salt, zest, juice and cinnamon.  In a large dutch oven over high heat, melt the butter.  Add the apples and toss until the apple slices are coated with butter.  Reduce the heat to medium, cover tightly, and cook, stirring frequently until the apples are slightly softened, about 7-10 minutes.  Add the sugar mixture and increase the heat to high.  Cook the apples at a rapid boil, stirring frequently and gently until the juices become very thick and syrupy, about 7-10 minutes more.  Immediately spread the apples in a thin layer on a large baking sheet and allow to cool to room temperature.  Position a rack on the lower third of the oven and preheat to 350 F.

Meanwhile, remove one disk of pastry to a lightly floured work sheet of parchment paper.  For the bottom crust, roll out pastry to a 13-inch circle  adding flour as needed.  Transfer pastry to a baking sheet and refrigerate until the dough is firm, about 30 minutes.  Once firm, invert 13-inch bottom pastry into a deep 9-inch pie plate; peel off parchment paper.  Ease pastry into plate by gently lifting edge of dough with one hand and pressing into bottom edges of the pie plate with the other hand.  Allow overhang to remain in place.  Refrigerate until firm, about 20 minutes.
Make crumb topping and set aside in the fridge. Place the pie on a baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes, carefully take the pie out of the oven and pour on the crumb topping then bake for another 40 to 45 minutes.  If the top appears to be browning too quickly the last 15 minutes, place a sheet of aluminum foil on top (do not wrap) to prevent over browning.  Transfer pie to a wire rack to cool completely, about 3 to 4 hours.  To serve pie warm, reheat at 350º F for 15 minutes.  Pie can be kept at room temperature for 2-3 days.

Chocolate Pudding

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My husband let me know on more than one occasion, that he wanted chocolate pudding. I was over the “man nagging” so I made it. Now I understand why there is a market for “instant pudding”, because this took at least 40 minutes to make! Here’s hoping that it was worth the work 🙂

Verdict: This was ssuuupppppeeerrrr sweet – way too sweet for me. I used semi sweet chocolate chips and all the required sugar, so next time I will use bittersweet or dark chocolate. The chunks you see in the spoon are the leftover pieces of chocolate chips that didn’t melt completely. Next time I would melt the chocolate before adding to the pudding, but other than those problems, it was tasty. If you have a craving for pudding, you’ll have to wait a while before you can eat this! It needed at least four hours in the fridge to firm up properly. My first time making pudding wasn’t a complete disaster and now I know what to expect for the next time 🙂 The kids loved it and my son asked when I’m making it again cause it was the “best dessert ever”. My son is notorious for “laying it on thick”, so I don’t know how good it is to him. He would have said that about anything 😉 Thanks for reading, enjoy!

Double Chocolate Pudding – adapted from Sophistimom

  • 2 cups milk
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 5 egg yolks
  • 4 tablespoons cocoa powder
  • 3 tablespoons corn starch
  • 1/4 cup heavy cream
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • pinch ground cinnamon
  • 1 cup good quality chocolate chips, like Guittard brand, plus a small handful for garnish
  • whipped cream (recipe follows)

1. In a medium saucepan set over medium heat, bring the milk almost to a boil. Meanwhile, whisk sugar and egg yolks until pale yellow, smooth, and it falls in ribbons. Whisk in cocoa powder and corn starch.

2. Whisk in hot milk, a half a cup at a time until mixture is warm to the touch. Pour entire mixture back into the saucepan and whisk constantly until pudding starts to thicken and it coats the back of a wooden spoon.

3. Pull off the heat and add in cream, vanilla, and cinnamon. Pour in chocolate chips and allow to rest for a minute. Stir the mixture to incorporate the melted chocolate. Pour into a bowl or into individual cups. Serve warm or cold and with a dollop of whipped cream. Chop a handful of chocolate chips and sprinkle on for a garnish

There-Is-Entirely-Too-Much-Halloween-Candy-In-This-House-Cookies!

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The kids hit the mother load in our neighborhood! I knew I was going to have to find a use or I would eat too many myself. I started my search for uses a few days before Halloween and I came across this recipe. I like the fact that only one stick of butter is needed and this isn’t going to be a huge batch of cookies. The occasional batch of cookies isn’t a bad thing, but when the batch made over 50 cookies – well, that’s just way too many for me to avoid! 😉 I’ll make sure we will pass some of these out to our lucky neighbors – that is if M decides to be generous and share. He loves Reese’s cups! The kids are still counting their booty as I type this! And before they knew why I asked for their M&Ms and Reese’s cups they whined (thinking I was going to eat them), but once I revealed the true reason they were more than willing to give them up! 😉 We discovered that they have 15 KitKat’s so I may have to find another recipe for those – unless of course I take some for myself 😉
Candy Cookies – adapted from For the Love of Cooking
  • 1/2 cup of butter, softened
  • 3/4 cup of white sugar
  • 1/2 cup of brown sugar
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 1/4 cups flour
  • 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 7 “Fun Size” packages of M & M’s (about a cup)
  • 7 full size Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, cut into bite size pieces
Directions: 
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Spray cookie sheet with cooking spray or line the cookie sheet with a silpat baking mat.
In a large bowl, mix the butter, white sugar, brown sugar and vanilla until creamy and smooth. Slowly beat in the eggs. In another bowl, mix the flour, baking soda and salt together thoroughly. Slowly add the flour mixture to the egg mixtures until well blended. Add most of the M&M’s and most of the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and mix carefully.
Drop by rounded spoonfuls on cookie sheets. Add the remaining M&M’s and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup pieces to the top of the cookies.
Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool before moving them to a wire rack. Enjoy

Banana and Peanut Butter Soft Serve

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I am so surprised at how good this is and my kids loved it – even my husband thought it tasted good. It’s not too banana-y or peanut buttery. The texture is smooth and creamy, like a nice custard style ice cream. This was a good fake out dessert because ice cream is my absolute favorite  – I miss it! It’s been about four weeks since I have had any “real” dessert, but I was pleasantly satisfied with this treat. I added the chocolate chips mostly for visual interest, I gave the chocolate chips to my kids because the soft serve didn’t need anything. My son wants me to make this again soon – score 2 for mom! Thanks for reading, enjoy!

Banana Soft Serve – adapted from The Novice Chef

  • 2 to 3 frozen bananas, (*cut up before freezing for easier processing)
  • 1 heaping spoonful of natural peanut butter
  • optional: top with granola, slivered almonds or any of your favorite toppings
Directions:
1. I used my food processor for this, but you could use a blender to make it too. Place all the banana in the work bowl and pulse until nice and smooth. It took a little while at first, but once the peanut butter was added it

Deep Dish Chocolate Chip Cookie (awesomeness!!!)

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I almost couldn’t believe my eyes when I clicked this link from TasteSpotting….I love TasteSpotting! While searching for chocolate chip cookie recipes this one’s picture appeared on the first page. Immediately I knew this would be tonight’s treat, and after showing M; he mentioned the hot fudge sauce…could this possibly get any better??

Verdict: This couldn’t be easier of faster to put together. It only makes four 6 ounce ramekins worth which was just right for us. When you break it down, there is only two tablespoons of butter per serving!;) All around this makes for a special, only once-in-a-while dessert that your family will remember for its deep dish cookie goodness! Thanks for reading, enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bowls – adapted from How Sweet It Is

  • 1 stick butter, softened
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar, loosely packed
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1/3 cups AP flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup chocolate chips

Directions –

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Sift whole wheat flour, baking soda and salt together and set aside in a bowl.

Cream butter and sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer until it’s light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and beat until combined. Add in dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips.

Spray 4 oven-safe ramekins with non-stick spray and divide the dough into 4 equal parts. Press the dough into the ramekin – each one should have about 1/3-1/2 cup dough.

Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and the middle is still slightly gooey. Set aside and let cool for 5 minutes until they can be handled then serve with vanilla ice cream.

Strawberry Pineapple Crumble

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Joy the Baker is a huge inspiration to the baker in me! She has so many recipes to choose from, but this is one of her more recent posts. I love pineapple and strawberries together, so this is right up my alley. I have never seen anything like this – usually crumbles are made with apples, pears, peaches or mixed berries. I was intrigued by this combo and knew that I needed to try it out.

Verdict: This was ah-mazing! Even my husband who wont eat dessert unless is chocolate covered agreed that it was tasty. That’s a winner in my book! Enjoy:)

Strawberry Pineapple Crumble – adapted from Joy the Baker

    • 1 pound strawberries, hulled and cut in half
    • 1 pound peeled and diced fresh pineapple
    • 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
    • 3 teaspoons cornstarch
    • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
    • pinch of salt
    • 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
    • 1 teaspoon baking powder
    • 1/4 teaspoon salt
    • 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes
    • 1 1/3 cup old-fashioned oats
    • 1/4 cup brown sugar
Directions –
1. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Toss diced fruit together in an 8-inch square baking dish. In a small dish, whisk together 3 tablespoons sugar, cornstarch, 1/4 cup of flour and pinch of salt. Toss the mixture with the diced fruit. Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together remaining flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Add the cold butter cubes. Use your fingers to break up the cold butter cubes into the flour mixture. Add the oats and toss together until the butter bits are about the size of the oat flakes.
4. Pour the oat mixture over the prepared fruit. Place in the oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until juices from the fruit bubble up around the sides of the pan.
5. Remove the crumble from the oven and allow to cool for at least 15 minutes before serving. Crumble is delicious served warm with vanilla ice cream.
6. Crumble can we wrapped and refrigerated for up to 4 days. Reheat in the microwave or wrapped in foil in a low oven.

Chocolate Fondue

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Quick Post: This was the dessert that my SIL requested for her birthday. It’s super simple – only two ingredients for this fondue. Serve this with strawberries, bananas, pineapple, pound cake, pretzels, marshmallows – anything that goes well with chocolate but wont easily fall apart. Next time I will use a combination of bitter and semi-sweet chocolate, because the bittersweet was just too bitter!;)

Chocolate Fondue – 

  • 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate (or which ever chocolate you prefer)
  • 3/4 cups of heavy cream, warm (plus more to thin the fondue as needed)
Directions –
1. Chop the chocolate and set aside in a bowl. Pour the warm cream over top and let it slowly melt the chocolate. Whisk until the cream and chocolate are incorporated. If you have a fondue pot – use it! Thin out the chocolate with more heavy cream as needed. Enjoy!

M&M Cookies

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These taste better than they look. If you love thin, crispy cookies like I do then you’ll enjoy these. I was looking for a sugar cookie recipe that I could add M&Ms too for my daughter’s birthday snack for her preschool class. I was disappointed by how these turned out because I envisioned a puffier cookie. These cookies spread a lot and I just used my small 1 tablespoon cookie scoop to dish these out. Don’t skip the chill in the fridge for these or they’ll spread even more, but the longer the dough sat in the fridge the less they spread. Next time I will find a basic chocolate chip cookie recipe and add the M&Ms in place of the chips. In the end, the kids didn’t mind, and neither did my chewy-cookie-loving-husband;) Thanks for reading, enjoy!

M&M Cookies – adapted from What’s Gaby Cooking?

  • 1 cup unsalted butter (at room temp)
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 1/2 cup AP flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • M&Ms

Directions –

1. Cream together the butter and sugars in a mixer. Add the eggs and vanilla, making sure to scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl. Add the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder and mix on low until everything is incorporated. Chill the dough for two hours.

2. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Scoop the cookie dough onto a Silpat or parchment-lined baking sheet. Be sure to leave plenty of room around each ball, about 8 cookies per pan. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until desired doneness. Remove from oven and let rest on the baking sheet. Once they’re firm enough, move them to a cooling rack. Makes about 48 cookies.