Berry Shortcakes Franco American Style—Tuesdays With Dorie—Baking Chez Moi

Today’s post for Tuesdays With Dorie--Baking Chez Moi are Strawberry Shortcakes Franco-Amercian Style (pages 338-340 and 424-425).  They are basically a ladyfinger dough, piped onto a baking sheet.  Two cookies/cakes are sandwiched with fresh whipped cream and berries.  Dorie’s recipes has a great filling with a strawberry compote as well as another option for roasted strawberries.  My family likes fresh berries, so I made the cakes, whipped some fresh cream and washed some berries—raspberries, blackberries and strawberries and let everyone choose what they wanted.

It was fun to make the ladyfinger batter, which I hadn’t done before.  The simple dough is made with whipped egg whites added to minimal ingredients of the yolks, a little flour and sugar and some cornstarch.  So easy and I liked doing something new.  The dough is put in a piping bag and piped into three inch circles and baked for a short time.  The cookies are tender and cake-like.  I tasted a little piece of one.  They could easily be made with a gluten free flour and organic sugar.  I will try that next time. 

If I have learned anything from all my years baking from Dorie’s cookbooks with TWD, it is mise en place—everything in its place.  I love getting everything ready to go before I begin assembling a recipe.  The parchment is ready to go and the piping bag.

Quite the simple batter and piping is easy—don’t be afraid of it.  Yes, filling the bag gets just a little messy, but that’s what baking is all about, right?

Baked to a perfect golden color, the shortcakes are ready to go with whipped creamy goodness and fresh berries!

 

I set up a quick dessert station and let my family have at it.

Glad I participated in this one.  Check out the other bloggers’ posts for their shortcakes here.  Who knew that ladyfingers dough/cookies were so easy?  

Peanut Butter Overload Chocolate Chip Cookies

You ready for these?  I mentioned in my last post about the Almond Joy Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies that I also made some with lots of peanut buttery goodness.  Well, here they are.  I know, took me long enough.  Trying to get my blogging mo-jo back. 

The reason for these cookies was because I’d bought a couple bags of the mini Nutter Butter cookies and after eating so many of them, the boys decided they were tired of them.  So I watched another bag of them just sit in my baking cupboard.  I decided to chop them up and put them in My Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe, yes—these:

But that wasn’t enough.  I put an entire bag of peanut butter chips and Reese’s Pieces in them, too, along with chocolate chips.  Overload, I’m telling you.  If you are a peanut butter and chocolate fan, you’ll love these!  These were well liked at Kevin’s surprise 40th birthday party I had for him a couple weeks ago. 

Peanut Butter Overload Chocolate Chip Cookies, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

8 ½ ounces cake flour (2 cups minus 2 tablespoons) (lightly spooned into the measuring cup and swept level with a knife)

8 ½ ounces bread flour (1 and 2/3 cups) (lightly spooned and swept)

1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

1 ½ teaspoons coarse salt

2 ½ sticks (1 ¼ cups) unsalted butter, room temperature

10 ounces (1 ¼ cups) light brown sugar

8 ounces (1 cup plus 2 tablespoons) granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup Nutter Butter cookies, roughly chopped

10 ounce package peanut butter chips

10 ounce package mini Reese’s Pieces candies

8 ounces milk chocolate chips

3 ounces dark chocolate chips (you can use any combination and/or amount of chocolate you’d like)

Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl with a wire whisk. Set aside.

In bowl of electric mixer, cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes.  Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.  Then add the vanilla and combine.  Scrape the sides of the bowl. With mixer on low, add dry ingredients and mix just until combined. Put the mix-ins in the bowl and carefully fold together with rubber spatula just until combined.  Scoop with a 2 ounce (1/4 cup scoop).  You should get 24 scoops.  Put them on a wax paper lined baking sheet.  Cover with foil and freeze (or refrigerate).

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and put the cookies on an air bake sheet, only 5 cookies per sheet.  Bake from frozen for about 12 minutes.  Check the cookies, remove from the oven and with the sides of a metal spatula, if any of the cookies are misshapen and not nicely rounded, push the spatula lightly on to the cookies where they need rounded around the edges.  Decide if they need another minute or two in the oven.  Sometimes I think they do, sometimes they are perfect.  Let them cool on the baking sheet for 5-10 minutes.  Remove to a wire rack to cool until you can’t stand it anymore and have to taste one.  (If you have a convection oven, you can bake 2 or 3 cookie sheets at a time.  Every oven is different, but even though baking on convection you should lower the temperature 25 degrees, I still leave mine at 350 for these.)  Test yours for best results.

If you haven’t before, try kicking things up with chocolate chip cookies, be creative, add things to change them.  Mmmm!

Here’s some others I’ve done before with the same recipe.  (It’s the best chocolate chip cookie recipe, I’m telling you!!)  These are a favorite by many when I have freeze dried raspberries available to put in the cookies.

Raspberry Chocolate Chip Cookies

Raspberry Hot Cereal with Driscoll Raspberries

So the wonderful folks at Driscoll's sent me some more coupons for berries.  Happy Dance!  Thanks, Driscoll’s.  They didn’t ask me to do a post or anything, I’m just doing it because I wanted to tell you about my favorite breakfast as of late.  I was having smoothies everyday, but it’s just been too cold and I don’t want smoothies right now.  Since deciding to eat gluten free, I found some Gluten Free Hot Cereal that I’ve been using for my morning breakfasts. 
I don’t really have an exact recipe, but this is so delicious, you could try it with oats, too.  In fact, I usually do a couple tablespoons of the dry hot cereal and a couple tablespoons of gluten free quick oats.  I put them in a small saucepan with some almond milk.  Of course, you could use any milk or even water, but I definitely prefer my hot cereal made with milk.  I add a pinch of salt and then I add some washed raspberries, probably about half a cup.  Let it all start cooking away over medium-low heat.

Stir it a bit.  The raspberries will start to break down (ha, I almost typed break dance!).  Stir occasionally and if it starts to bubble and boil too much, turn the heat down.

It needs to cook for a good 5-10 minutes.  When the milk is all absorbed into the cereal, it will be ready.

Doesn’t that look good?  That would be fine as is, but I can’t ever seem to leave certain things out of my food—like chocolate and peanut butter.  After putting the hot cereal into a bowl, I always sprinkle it with some Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips and add a spoonful of natural peanut butter.  While eating this wonderful warm breakfast, I swirl the peanut butter and chocolate around so there is some of the melty deliciousness in each bite.  Looks so decadent—but it’s actually pretty darn healthy!  Try it.  And as your momma always told you not to, go ahead—play with your food!   What’s your favorite thing to add to hot cereal/oatmeal? 

I had been also drizzling the cereal with a little agave nectar, sometimes honey or you could even do some maple syrup, but lately I’ve not been adding any of those and I still think the cereal is sweet enough without any of those.  Speaking of this delicious raspberry hot cereal breakfast, it’s that time right now.  And I know just what I’m going to make!

Orange Agave Chocolate Chip Cookies, Plus Two More(All Gluten Free and Vegan)—Secret Recipe Club

I get to share three different cookies with you today for Secret Recipe Club.  I only picked one recipe from my assigned blog, Love & Flour, but I liked this Orange Agave Chocolate Chip Cookie so much that I played around with it and made three different versions using the basics of this recipe.  Of course, I love that they are made with agave for the sweetener.   Then I just made them gluten free with an all purpose gluten free pastry flour.

I love the texture of these cookies, they are almost a little sandy shortbread-like.  Oh, they are also vegan, I like that, too.  People who eat vegan are on to something—you can safely eat all cookie dough!  Instead of using canola oil, which was called for in the recipe, I used coconut oil.  And I used Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips.  These are so easy to whip up in one bowl (without a mixer), especially since I halved Leandra’s recipe, that I decided to try a couple other versions of the cookie.  All three are really good to me!

Orange Agave Chocolate Chip Cookies (Gluten Free and Vegan), by Katrina, Baking and Boys!, adapted from Love & Flour

1/3 cup agave nectar

5 tablespoons (70 grams) coconut oil

1/2 tablespoon ground flax

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon orange extract

zest of 1 mandarin orange (or 1-2 teaspoons orange zest)

1  1/2 cups gluten free pastry flour

1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper.  Cream together in a bowl the agave and coconut oil until well combined.  Add the flax, extracts, and zest and stir together.  Then add the flour (you can use regular all purpose flour and not make these gluten free), xanthan gum, baking soda and salt.  Stir together until well mixed into a cookie dough.  Stir in the chocolate chips.  Roll dough into 1-inch sized balls and place on baking sheet.  Bake for 12 minutes.  Let cool on baking sheet for a few minutes before moving to a wire rack to finish cooling.  Makes 12-15 cookies.

*Raspberry Version.  Leave out the orange extract and add 1/2 cup freeze dried raspberries.

See, you know you want to just eat the dough.  The second time I made them, I left out the orange extract and zest and just added some freeze dried raspberries to the dough.  Delicious!  I love the combination of raspberry and chocolate.

Then I had the thought yesterday to try the cookies with honey instead of agave and replacing some of the flour with cocoa powder—double chocolate.  I really couldn’t tell you which of these I like the most. Here’s the quick recipe for the double chocolate cookies, since I changed the recipe a bit.

Double Chocolate Chip Gluten Free Vegan Cookies, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!

1/3 cup raw honey

5 tablespoons (70 grams) coconut oil

1/2 tablespoon ground flax

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup gluten free pastry flour

1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum

5 tablespoons cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup organic semi sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper.  Cream together in a bowl the honey and coconut oil until well combined.  Add the flax and vanilla and stir together.  Then add the flour (you can use regular all purpose flour and not make these gluten free, if you do, you don’t need the xanthan gum), xanthan gum, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.  Stir together until well mixed into a cookie dough.  Stir in the chocolate chips.  Roll dough into 1-inch sized balls and place on baking sheet.  Bake for 12 minutes.  Let cool on baking sheet for a few minutes before moving to a wire rack to finish cooling.  Makes 12-15 cookies.

I think I liked the dough for these double chocolate cookies the best, at least I think I tasted it the most. ; )  I forgot to take a picture of the dough for these.

I sure enjoyed “snooping around” Leandra’s blog, Love & Flour for Secret Recipe Club this month.  So many great recipes on all these wonderful blogs.  Really enjoying being a part of Secret Recipe Club.  Check out all the other good stuff people have made this month.

 

 

Layers of Lemony Love Dessert and Crustless Cheesecake with Raspberry Pie Filling from Lucky Leaf

Lucky Leaf is at it again.  They sent me more of their pie fillings to try.  Lucky leaf, lucky me! Check it out on Twitter, too at #LuckyLeafLuckyMe.   I have enjoyed using their pie fillings.  Because of health reasons, I am no longer eating any processed food, also gluten free and no refined sugars.  My question is, CAN I DO THIS?  Yes, I can.  But that doesn’t mean I can’t make things my family and friends will enjoy and that’s just what I did with the yummy things Lucky Leaf sent me.

I feel a little bad, they sent me some fun jars to make individual desserts in jars.  But we were heading out of town the next morning that I used the fillings and it was easier to make regular sized treats for the company we had over.  I will for sure use the jars once we get home.  There is still some peach pie filling to use!

I often have a giveaway for my readers from Lucky Leaf and wasn’t able to do that this time since we are out of town, but I’m sure I’ll hear from them again! ;)

My family and our company (which we also family) that had these two desserts I made using the pie filling said they were great.   If you’re looking for super simple desserts, head over to the Lucky Leaf website and check out all their recipes.  I got the recipe for the Layers of Lemony Love Dessert on their site.  It was probably a favorite of the family we had over and since we were going out of town,  I sent them home with the leftovers.  They were happy.

Layers of Lemony Love Dessert, from Lucky Leaf

1  1/2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened (1  1/2 sticks)

1   8 oz. package cream cheese (I used the 1/3 less fat kind), softened

1 cup powdered sugar

1  21 oz. can Lucky Leaf Premium Lemon Pie Filling

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1  8 oz. container frozen whipped dessert topping (like Cool Whip), thawed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease bottom of 9x13 inch baking pan.  Mix flour and butter (I used a food processor until it was all combined, like coarse meal.)  Spread evenly in pan and press it down slightly.  Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden.  Let crust cool.

Beat cream cheese in mixer until smooth, add powdered sugar, Lucky Leaf lemon pie filling, vanilla and half the whipped topping.  Pour and spread over the cooled crust.  Spread the remaining whipped topping over pie filling mixture.  Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. 

For those who didn’t want the lemon dessert, I made a cheesecake to go with the raspberry pie filling.  After deciding to make the cheesecake, I realized I didn’t have anything to make a crust, so I made a crustless cheesecake.  Some family members were happy to have a lighter, healthier option.  One of the things I love about Lucky Leaf Premium Pie Fillings is that they have no high fructose corn syrup.

I got the recipe for the crustless cheesecake from Rachael’s blog, Simply Fresh Cooking.  The only thing I did different from her recipe is that I didn’t use organic ingredients and I didn’t put the sour cream topping on the cheesecake.  There was vanilla in the sour cream topping, but I added it to the cheesecake instead. Check it out.  Everyone said it was a great cheesecake!  I served it with the Lucky Leaf Red Raspberry Premium Pie Filling and some fresh raspberries.

The raspberry pie filling is full of raspberries!  When I have been in a pinch to quickly find a last minute dessert, these pie fillings are great.  Thank you again to Lucky Leaf for the fun package!

Check out all the other goodness from Lucky Leaf on Twitter and Pinterest.  #LuckyLeafLuckyMe

Blue Razzleberry Pie for National Blueberry Pie Day

Today is National Blueberry Pie Day!  The wonderful folks at Driscoll's recently sent me $15 worth of coupons for their delicious berries to celebrate the day.  Thanks, Driscoll’s!

A couple issues came up.  I couldn’t find Driscoll’s blueberries around here.  I tried a few places.  I was really bummed.  But I do have blueberries from last year in my freezer so I used those and in honor of Driscoll’s berries, I did (much more easily) find their raspberries and blackberries at my local grocery store.  SO, I decided to make a mostly blueberry pie and threw in some raspberries and blackberries.  Thus the reason I’m calling my pie a Blue Razzleberry Pie.  Clever, I know.  I can’t help it. ;)

Look at all the berry-goodness!  I set out to find just the pie recipe I wanted to make and settled on this one I found at Bon Appetit Magazine website.  I wanted to have a streusel topped pie and this fit the bill.  But friends, can I just tell you how frustrating it is when I make a pie crust and follow directions exactly and STILL have crust that shrinks while it’s baking.  Sigh.  I’m going to figure this out.  Maybe it’s a Utah/higher altitude issue.   Irks me to no end though when I prebake a crust and it’s shrinks.  I think I’m going to not prebake a crust and see if it helps.  I know, some think I’ll then have a soggy crust, but I’ve never had that happen.  If you see all that juice in the bowl of macerating berries, I didn’t put it all in the pie.  I knew since the blueberries had been frozen that it was too much. 

Isn’t that purty?  Not.

But I carried on and put the berries in the pie and the streusel on top and baked it.  The Bon Appetit recipe said to bake it for one hour and 15 minutes, checking it after 30 minutes to see if the crust is getting too brown and if so to cover it with foil.  I thought the crust looked just right, so I did cover it loosely with foil.  Set the timer for another 30 minutes.  I peeked in on it after about 15 and it looked great.  By the time the second 30 minutes were up, the entire bottom of the crust was swimming in a blue-purple blueberry goo.  SIGH!  I can’t tell you how upset that makes me. 

I found solace in knowing that the pie would still taste great.  It just wasn’t going to win any pie contests for beauty.  ;)  I knew to be careful with how much I filled the crust since it shrunk in a few places in the prebake.  Didn’t help.  What really tanned my hide is that it still had 15 more minutes bake time according to the recipe.  I took it out at one hour and didn’t let it bubble away all over for another fifteen.

I was right.  The pie is very good.  Love the extra hit of raspberry and blackberry, but it’s definitely a blueberry pie.  Thanks again for the berries, Driscoll's (Facebook page).  Check it out and like them on Facebook and find the link to their website above.  They have lots of great recipes posted.  Should have looked there first, duh! Since I wanted a streusel topped pie, I just Googled it and got Bon Appetit.  Sometimes, my brain is not firing on all cylinders.  In my own defense, I did follow the Bon Appetit recipe directions exactly and still had a shrunken prebaked crust.

Bake on!

Warm Raspberry Chocolate Pudding Cake and Sweet Potato Falafel—Secret Recipe Club

This cake is delicious!  I chose to make this cake I found on my Secret Recipe Club blog for today.  I had Isabelle’s blog, Crumb, which is such a wonderful blog.  SO many great recipes to try and delicious looking pictures!  I love Isabelle’s quick run down about herself—“I'm a 30-something coffee-chugging, booty-shaking, bargain-shopping, cookbook-collecting, photo-snapping, trucker-swearing, farmers-market-loving self-taught cook with a Boy and two cats to feed.”  She lives in Toronto, Canada and works in the telecom industry.  She could totally pull it off as a real chef!  I was lucky enough to fill-in last minute and do a post for Isabelle’s blog back in 2011 when she would have been an orphan.  I made some delicious Granola and Marbled Chocolate Banana Muffins then.  I’ve since found a recipe for granola that I usually turn to and make, but after looking back that I wrote Isabelle’s was one of the best granolas I’ve ever made/tasted, I will be making it again.  I love granola!

Looking through all her recipes and once again, I had a hard time deciding what to make.  And as usual, I couldn’t decide on just one.  So I made two.  It’s only fitting for me to start out with dessert first though.  I made her Warm Raspberry Chocolate Pudding Cake.  Just as I started out this post, let me say it again—this was delicious!  I don’t know if you’ve had chocolate pudding cake before, but it’s super easy to make.  You think it’s strange as you follow the recipe with a thick, brownie-like batter put in the bottom of the pan, then a boiling hot liquid with cocoa and sugar in it poured over the top.  You wonder if it will really bake into a cake—but darn it all, it does, and ends up with a warm, gooey pudding on the bottom. 

I LOVE the combination of chocolate and raspberries, it’s one of my favorite combinations.  When I saw Isabelle had a version of this cake that included raspberries, I knew I needed to make it.  Luckily I had some frozen raspberries in the freezer.  I WISH raspberries were in season right now because some fresh ones on the plate with this dessert would have been perfect.  It was still worth it without the little fresh berries on the side.  I made the cake and was really happy with how it looked as it came out of the oven.

Almost couldn’t wait to dig in to it until after dinner!  To make this a chocolate-raspberry dessert, a simple raspberry coulis is made and poured over the thick brownie-cake layer, before the hot liquid is added.  So you can’t see it, but there is great raspberry flavor hiding in there!  Since I didn’t have any fresh raspberries, this definitely needed something on top and I’m not sure I’ve ever had chocolate pudding cake without ice cream, so naturally this got some vanilla ice cream on top.

I was still sad about  not having any fresh raspberries and then I thought some more raspberry coulis drizzled over the ice cream would be really good.  But I didn’t have any more coulis already made—so I got some raspberry jam out of the fridge and heated it up a bit, then drizzled that over the top.  Delicious!  (Go drool over the first photo in this post again!)

Here’s the link for Isabelle’s recipe again—I didn’t change a thing!  Warm Raspberry Chocolate Pudding Cake

While fishing through all her recipes, I ran across her Homemade Sweet Potato Falafel and realized I had everything to make them for dinner.  We love falafel.  Kevin has even been to Israel where he still says they make the “real” thing and he’s never had any quite like the authentic ones in Israel.  I keep trying different recipes.  I’m not really trying to make some JUST like he remembers.  I just like trying different kinds.  I LOVE sweet potatoes, so when I saw Isabelle’s recipe for falafel with sweet potato added, I was set on trying it.  Go check out her recipe.  She filled her falafel wraps with a tahini sauce, hummus, a tabbouleh salad AND the falafel.  I really want to make all those components sometime.  For this meal, I went simple and just made the tahini sauce and falafel patties.  Easy and delicious!  Kevin knew when he saw the falafel there was something different about them, they looked more orange.  But he didn’t say anything and I didn’t tell him until after dinner that they had sweet potato in them.  He liked them okay.  I loved them.  The boys ate them, too.  Okay, Sam wouldn’t even try them.  I knew he wouldn’t.  He’s still my picky youngest.  ;)

I changed a few simple things in Isabelle’s recipe, but go check out hers with the tabbouleh salad recipes and hummus!  (Link above.)

Sweet Potato Falafel with Yogurt Sauce, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!, adapted from Crumb (www.crumbblog.com)

Yogurt Sauce--

1/4 cup nonfat Greek yogurt

1 tablespoon tahini oil

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Whisk together all four ingredients in a small bowl.  Refrigerate until ready to use.

Sweet Potato Falafel--

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

1/4 cup chopped parsley

2 cloves garlic

15.5 ounce can of chickpeas (garbanzo bean), drained and rinsed

1 cup sweet potato, cooked and mashed (about 1 large sweet potato)

3-4 tablespoons all purpose flour

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1/4 teaspoon salt

Canola oil, for frying falafel

Put the cilantro, parsley and garlic in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until nicely chopped.  Add the chickpeas and pulse until coarsely ground.  Add the already cooked, mashed sweet potato and pulse to combine, just don’t pulse it too much in the food processor.  You can also remove the mixture from the food processor to a bowl and stir in the sweet potato.  Then add the flour, cumin, red pepper flakes, and salt.  Once it is all combined, heat some oil in a large skillet (enough to cover the bottom of the whole pan).  Form patties using about 2 tablespoons of the mixture for each.  You should get 12-14 patties.  Fry the patties over medium-high heat for about 3 minutes on each side, until they are golden and crisp.  Transfer them to a baking sheet lined with paper towel.

For finished falafel pitas--

Whole wheat pitas

Shredded lettuce

Thinly sliced tomatoes

Thinly sliced cucumber

Sliced dill pickles

When all the patties are finished and the lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber and pickles are prepared, assemble the pitas starting with some of the yogurt sauce.  Let each person decide what vegetables to put in theirs.  Put two falafel in each half-pita.

The falafel are a little fragile as the sweet potato makes them softer.  You can add a little more flour to make them really hold together.  I loved the tender crunch on the outside and the soft inside!

Sweet potato falafel frying action shot. ;)

 

Raspberry Streusel Dessert Bars

These Raspberry Streusel Dessert Bars were fantastically delicious!  They are perfectly buttery with just the right sweetness and a bit of tartness from the raspberry jam.  I made them last week for book group after seeing them on my friend, Amanda blog, Amanda's Cookin'.  She made them with a combination of raspberry jam and cherry jam.  The only reason I only used raspberry was because I didn’t have any cherry jam. 

I have since bought some and am ready to make these bars again.  They were so good.  A couple of the ladies at book group were eating them and ooh-ing and ahh-ing over how good they were.  These bars could be called “Better Than……Dessert Bars” because the “Oh my goodness” eyes-rolled-to-back-of-head looks I was getting while we tried discussing our book for the month, Memoirs of a Geisha and watching the movie were just that---“better than…..” you know.  One of the ladies eating a bar started with the “Oh my’s” and told another, “You just wait until you try them, you’ll see.”  When the other finally had one, she reacted the same way.  It was pretty funny.

I will say, they are definitely SO good.  Make them.  You’ll see.  You’ll want to take them somewhere where others will help you eat them or give them away, because if you don’t, you’ll end up eating far more of them than you intended!

I made them pretty close to Amanda’s recipe, but did make a few little changes, besides the jam. 

Raspberry Streusel Dessert Bars, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!, adapted from Amanda’s Cookin’ Cherry Berry Streusel Dessert Bars

2  1/2 cups (300 grams) unbleached all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup (133 grams) granulated sugar

1 cup cold unsalted butter, cubed

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 

1 cup (320 grams) raspberry jam*

Icing--

1 cup (110 grams) powdered sugar, sifted

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted

1-2 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a 9x9 inch baking pan with non-stick foil (or spray pan with cooking spray).  In bowl of food processor, add the flour, salt, and sugar.  Pulse to combine.  Add the almond extract, vanilla, and cubed, cold butter.  Pulse until coarse crumbs are formed.  It will seem “dry”, but put 2/3 of the mixture into the prepared baking pan and press it down evenly.  Reserve the rest of the crumb mixture.  Spread the jam over the bottom crust in the pan.  Sprinkle evenly with the remaining crumbs and press down slightly (all of the jam will not be covered completely).  Bake in oven for 40-45 minutes, until edges are lightly browned.  Remove from oven and cool completely on wire rack.

For the icing, combine the powdered sugar, almond extract, and melted butter.  Begin stirring and add one tablespoon of milk at a time until desired consistency to drizzle over the bars.  Cut the bars in to individual squares, then drizzle icing over each.  Let set for a while until it hardens slightly.

*If you don’t like the seeds in the jam, and don’t have seedless jam, you can heat the jam slightly, then push it through a fine mesh strainer to remove the seeds.

These are perfect for taking to any kind of function as they travel well, the icing dries nicely so they could even be stacked, and they will be loved by everyone!

My Five Year Blogaversary and a Giveaway to Celebrate!

Tile Painting done by the talented Renee at Kudos Kitchen by Renee

I say it with every year that goes by, but can’t believe today has been five years since I started my blog.  My baby, Sam, who was just turning one right after I started blogging is almost six!  My oldest, Scott, is now edging up on 15 and in high school.  Parker, age 11, and Taylor, age 9, certainly keep me hopping as much as ever.  Top all that with still loving my wonderful husband as much as ever and things couldn’t be better for me.  I’m just so very thankful everyday for my family and for all my blessings.

 Smith Family Reunion, July 2012 with Kevin’s parents

(Whose idea was it to put my 14 year old right next to me to show that he is definitely taller than me now?) ;)

I’ve mentioned before that I started my blog like you hear of many others as a way to start keeping better track of things going on with my family and as a way for family and friends near and far to keep up with us, but not long after that, it started becoming a way for me to also keep track of another one of the things I love—baking and sharing yummy treats and recipes as I make them or try things for the first time.  This has become one of the things that really has made me who I am and I love being able to share that in writing.  I love knowing people all over the world read about the things I share here.  I really enjoy baking and sharing with those around me (so I don’t eat it all!). ;)

Along with that, I have made some wonderful friends with other bloggers and have cherished actually being able to meet some of them.  I know I won’t be able to mention them all but I do want to talk about a few of them who have really touched my life and become lifelong friends.  In no particular order--

Anna at Cookie Madness has probably one of the first blogs I discovered.  I don’t even remember how I came upon her blog.  She has had her blog just about as long as any that are out there, since I believe about 2006.  Anna and I share a love for, of course, cookies and brownies and all kinds of treats.  We have spent a lot of time through emailing and blogging over the years in cahoots over certain recipes, in trial and error and in finding out things that work great and that are delicious.  Can’t forget our Amazing Hard Boiled Egg Cookies that Anna and I worked on perfecting with Rita from Clumbsy Cookie.  Those were the good old days.  Rita doesn’t blog much anymore, but that doesn’t stop her from being a friend I haven’t met from Portugal (at least we still keep in touch on Facebook).  I got to meet and hang out with Anna at the BlogHer Conference in 2009 in San Francisco.   Can’t say enough about Anna and her wonderful, vast knowledge about baked goods and I think she’s just all around a great person!  She just had a cookbook come out this year and I love it.  You will, too, and if you don’t have it yet, you need it.  The Daily Cookie, 365 Tempting Treats for the Sweetest Year of Your Life is available now.  I had fun testing some of the recipes in the book before she got it published and thank her for mentioning me a few times in the book.  Fun! 

I got the pleasure of meeting Amanda from Amanda's Cookin' last summer when she came to Utah for a conference in Park City.  Had a fun, enjoyable time meeting her and some other bloggers for dinner one night and then got to have Amanda spend a night at our house so I could give her a ride to the airport the next morning.   It was wonderful to meet Amanda!  I feel like we are sistas-from-another-mista. ;) I’ve been in love with her blog for at least four years.  We got to know each other through Tuesdays With Dorie.  That girl can cook some delicious looking food and I’ve made a number of her recipes, from stir-fry to ice cream and cookies to my latest post for tuxedo cake in which I used a cake recipe she’d posted.  Check out her blog!

In November of 2011 I was able to meet a wonderful, young gal, Lisa, who blogs at Sweet As Sugar Cookies.  I’m not sure how Lisa and I found each others’ blogs, but it was goodies-love at first sight.  She makes some delicious treats.  I know, because I’ve made many of her recipes.  In June of last year, I was assigned her blog with The Secret Recipe Club.  It was so fun picking out what to make from her blog and I was NOT disappointed by the chocolate chip mint and raspberry cookie cups I made.  For a time, Lisa went cookie cup crazy and made all kinds.  The ones I tried were delicious.  They make for a perfect party treat and since they are made in a mini muffin tin they are small—which means diet food, right?  Hello?  It would be so fun to be able to get together with Lisa and bake to our hearts content sometime.  She works for a law firm in L.A. and is super busy, but I love hearing and seeing everything she manages to bake during the weekend.

 

In September of 2010 I was delighted to go to lunch in Salt Lake with Suzanne from Thru the Bugs on my Windshield and meet her for the first time.  What a fun and wonderful lady.  Suzanne hasn’t been blogging as long and I actually didn’t even know her well at all before she announced on a food forum that she’d be in SLC and who would like to meet her for lunch one day.  I love meeting fellow bloggers and jumped at the chance.  Suzanne is the kind of person anyone would like to hang out with.  She is funny and full of great conversation.  I got to blog for The Secret Recipe Club from Suzanne’s blog in August of 2011.  I have also made a number of Suzanne’s recipe, from a delicious pear salad to stuffed poblanos—though I was ultimately enticed by the apricot empanadas she posted and they did not disappoint! 

The world of food blogging is so fun and I find it amazing that you get to know all kinds of people from literally all over the world.  Some I might not ever get to meet, but one that I would love to meet sometime as another kindred sista-from-another-mista is Shelby from The Life and Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch.  Shelby lives in upstate New York, but we’ve known of each other since we started blogging with Tuesdays With Dorie.  Over the last year or two we’ve become good friends through food forums and The Secret Recipe Club.  We are “regulars” on each others’ Facebook pages, we text from time to time, and Shelby (and Suzanne) even surprised me for my last birthday and mailed me some goodies they’d each made!  So sweet!

I seriously could go on and on about bloggers that I have been blessed to meet whether in person or just through the world wide web, but I want to make sure and offer my giveaway before you all run away from my long post! ;)  Just know there are many who I haven’t mentioned who have been a great influence to me.  Now I know what it’s like when celebrities try to give acceptance speeches and forget to say some things or leave out someone important.

What am I giving away?  A couple of my favorite things!  Many people know of my love for chocolate chip cookies and as well, many people have gotten to eat them.  I want to share some more with you—so first up I’m giving away a dozen of my chocolate chip cookies.  You have two options—the regular ol’ delicious, dark chocolate chip cookies that I made with my “famously” adapted NYT/Jacques Torres recipe--

OR---my creation of Raspberry Chocolate Chip Cookies in which I take the same chocolate chip cookie dough and add freeze dried raspberries to it.  These are SO good!

The winner can choose a dozen, mix-and-match or the regular cookies and these or just a dozen of one or the other.  But that is not all--

You’ll also get something else I love.  Another fellow food blogger who I’ve been acquainted with for years is Nick at Peanut Butter Boy.  He loves peanut butter.  Over the years, he has tried I think every kind available on the planet.  I have enjoyed participating in some of his Peanut Butter Exhibition contests and even been lucky enough to taste some of his trial versions of his very own creations—leading up to his newly created and manufactured, now-available Peanut Butter Boy Peanut Butter!  How exciting is this?  Nick now has his own line of peanut butter.  I can’t wait to try it.  SO, because I will be ordering some soon, I want to send the winner of my giveaway some, too.  He has Super Smooth and Crunch Power available. 

  

The winner of my giveaway will receive one dozen cookies and a jar of each of the peanut butters from Peanut Butter Boy.  I’m so jealous.  Oh wait, I’ll be getting some, too.  ;)  So, entries for the giveaway will be accepted until Thursday, February 21 at noon MST and a winner will be selected randomly and notified by email (so make sure I have a way to email you).  Yay!  On your mark, get set, GO! To enter, just leave me a comment!

Thank you all so much for reading and baking a drooling along with me over these last five years.  I’ve had so much fun and plan to continue sharing what I love over the world wide web!

***Update---A winner was selected at random---the winner of the peanut butter and a dozen of my chocolate chip cookies (let me know which kind or how many of each you’d like).  The winner is Elissa!

Elissa said...

I don't believe it has been 5 years, wow. I love following you on your blog, helps me feel like you are still close by.

February 17, 2013 4:59 PM

Congratulations, Elissa!  Please send me an email with your shipping address to kevnkoi at hotmail dot com