Strawberry Pretzel Dessert

376.  With Independence Day fast approaching, I have a perfect recipe for you.  It is clever in that you can color coordinate with red, white and blue.  It is a dessert with pretzels in the crust, cream cheese in the filling and strawberries and blueberries in the top jello layer.  As a child I recall this dessert at picnics and gatherings with family friends.

We have a local Strawberry patch down the road with the most sweetest strawberries I've ever tasted. I used all three pints for this recipe and placed it in a 9 X 13" baking dish.

My addition to the traditional recipe is to add pecans to the pretzel crust which gives a richer, nuttier depth of flavor.  The salt from the pretzels also adds additional nuance.

 
I chose to use sugar free jello and sugar free cool whip to slash calories and eliminate extra guilt *wink*.  You could go further and use fat free cream cheese as well...but the flavor profile changes drastically when all sources of fat and sugar are removed.  If you want to create a more pronounced color profile you could use an additional 3 oz. box of blueberry gelatin with 1 cup of water and mix separately with blueberries and pour this over the red layer after it has hardened.

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"I love berries.  Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, anything with an 'eerie' in it!"

~  Jordin Sparks

"We do not rejoice in victories.  We rejoice when a new kind of cotton is grown and when strawberries bloom in Israel."

~  Golda Meir

"Strawberries are what make life taste wonderful!"  ~ Anthony T. Hincks

Chocolate Coconut Pecan Pie

328.  There is no better way to start off your week than with a slice of warm Chocolate Coconut Pecan Pie.  And don't forget the whipped cream on top.
I adapted my recipe to satisfy the chocolate lovers, coconut lovers and pecan pie lovers in my household.  Needless to say, all the lovers were satisfied.

Chocolate Coconut Pecan Pie

1 pie crust (or two if you double the recipe)

1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup soft butter
1 cup light corn syrup
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon coconut extract
pinch of salt
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
8 oz dark chocolate chips or chopped Ghirardelli baking bar
2 cups pecan halves

Directions:

Prepare your crust, roll out and place in a 9" pie plate.  Crimp edges to your desired look.

First, spread flaked coconut in a non-stick pan and toast on the stove.  Allow the coconut to heat up watching carefully and stir occasionally making sure edges do not burn.  Remove from stove and allow to cool completely.
In a mixing bowl place brown sugar, butter, corn syrup, eggs, salt and extracts.  Blend till incorporated.  With a spatula, stir in the toasted coconut, chocolate and pecans.  Transfer the mixture to your prepared pie crust.  Turn over the pecans with your fingers for desired look and even texture on top. The filling will rise in baking so make sure you do not overfill your crust.
Bake at 350∘ for approximately 50 to 55 minutes or till no longer wet in center. Check by running a cool knife into the center. The filling is set when the knife comes out clean.

Serve warm or cooled with a dollop of whipped cream

You may choose to toast coconut in the oven but for myself, it is easier to eliminate burned batches.

I used dark chocolate chips but would have preferred the chopped chocolate bar.  The chocolate just seems to be softer and doesn't harden up once the pie cools.  

 This was a delicious pie!  The chocolate hides beneath the surface and is a sweet surprise.  If you are a hardcore pecan pie lover...you may want to stick to the original.  But if you are a chocolate lover...this is the pie for you!

"I just clipped two articles from a current magazine. 

 One is a diet guaranteed to drop 5 pounds off my body in a weekend.  

The other is a recipe for a 6 minute pecan pie."

- Erma Bombeck

Pumpkin Pie Biscotti

318.  Thanksgiving is near and I'm trying a new recipe for Pumpkin Pie Biscotti.

I experimented with a few recipes and found that if you add to a plain recipe; 1/2 cup purée pumpkin, canned or fresh along with pumpkin pie spices: 1/2 tsp clove, tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp ginger and 1/4 cup flour with the dry ingredients,  1/2 cup chopped Ghirardelli white chocolate and 1/2 cup chopped pecans...you will have a great variation to your biscotti recipe.

 The texture of your batter should be moist but not dry or sticky and should be able to hold the shape of a log once formed.  Bake as your recipe states but make sure you do not over bake.  It should be browned and firm.

 I use Ghirardelli white chocolate baking bars because they melt smoother and will not become hard inside your biscotti. The white chocolate chips always seem to burn or become very hard when baked.
Once the biscotti are finished I make a drizzle of white chocolate and a teaspoon or more of crisco to bring the chocolate to a runny consistency for drizzling.

Experiment with your recipe and see how easy it is to change and adapt a recipe to new flavors.

Here is a great link to a variety of biscotti recipes:  http://italianchef.com/biscotti/

and http://allrecipes.com/recipe/17241/biscotti/

"Like most things in life, rushing the process only leads to disappointment."

- Mary Berry, Britains Great Bake Off

Orange Pecan Pie

245. Pecan pie is an absolute favorite at this time of year for me. Toasted pecans smothered in sweet yumminess! I have a hard time resisting!

I have tried many recipes in the past but have never been completely happy with the outcome. The filling was either too runny or too sweet. They always lacked a good balance of pecans to sweet filling. This year I found a new recipe and I am keeping it! I found it on the Taste of Home website (here) and is so easy but produces a perfect pecan pie. I changed mine up a bit by adding orange zest. It gave a beautiful light hint of orange flavor but not enough to change the wonderfulness of the pecan pie. Now, I warn you, don't look at the calorie count per slices...you might be shocked...but it's the holidays, so splurge a bit.

Orange Pecan Pie

1 recipe pie crust, rolled and placed in 9" pie plate

1 stick butter (1/2 cup), softened

1 cup sugar

3 eggs, room temperature

3/4 cup light corn syrup

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon orange zest

1 cup pecan halves

Cream together butter and sugar till light and fluffy about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add corn syrup and vanilla. Pour into pastry crust. Sprinkle orange zest over top of liquid filling. Run a knife gently through the top of the filling to distribute the orange zest over filling.

Arrange the pecan halves over the top in a pattern of your choice.

Bake pie at 350° for 50 minutes or till center is set. (The Taste Of Home recipe calls for at 375 oven for up to 55 minutes. This causes the pie to burn.) You can cover the edges with foil during the last 15 minutes to prevent over browning. Cool. Serve with whipped cream. You can add orange zest to the whipped cream for added flavor.

The pie comes out very toasty. The pecans sink into the filling a bit but the flavor excuses this small problem. Oh...I wish I had a piece right now...but the pie disappeared!

"When someone asks if you'd like cake or pie, why not say you want cake and pie?

~Lisa Loeb

Hummingbird Cake

132. What do you do with overripe bananas? Make banana bread? Here is a beautiful alternative, a Hummingbird Cake. My daughter gifted me with a Southern Cakes cookbook by Nancie McDermott. It is an enticing book with luscious photos of cakes. I found a fantastic cake that uses overripe bananas and pineapple...and who can resist cream cheese frosting?

Last summer we had a large amount of ripe pineapples so I canned most of it in heavy syrup. The pineapple sure comes in handy for a variety of uses. Rather than using canned pineapple, I used the preserved pineapple.

Hummingbird Cake

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 3/4 cups vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 can (8oz) crushed pineapple (do not drain)
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 2 cups mashed ripe banana

• Pecan-Cream Cheese Frosting:
• 1 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 3 2/3 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and flour three 8-inch or two 9-inch round cake pans and set aside. Combine the flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl, and use a fork to mix well. With a large wooden spoon, mix in the beaten eggs, oil, vanilla, pineapple, bananas and pecans. Mix well, stirring gently just enough to blend everything into a good thick, nubby batter. (love this description!)

Divide the batter evenly among the cake pans and bake at 350〫 for 20 to 25 minutes, until the cakes are nicely browned and pulling away from the sides of the pans. Cool the cakes in the pans on wire racks or folded kitchen towels for about 15 minutes. then gently turn out the cakes onto wire racks or plates. Turn the layers top side up, and let them cool completely.

Pecan-Cream Cheese Frosting:
To make the frosting, in a medium bowl, combine the cream cheese and butter and beat with a mixer at low speed to mix well. Add the confectioners' sugar and vanilla and beat until the frosting is fluffy and smooth, stopping once or twice to scrape down the bowl and blend everything thoroughly.

Add the pecans, and stir well. (I did not add the pecans to the frosting but left them whole to decorate with. )

To complete the cake, place one layer, top side down, on a cake stand or a serving plate, and spread frosting on the top.

A trick I have learned is to place a dolope of frosting onto the cake platter. This helps to hold the cake in place so it does not shift. Place the second layer, top side up, on the first.

Frost the sides and then the top

.

Refrigerate the cake for 30 minutes or so, to help the icing set.

What a beautiful cake this is. The top layer of cake was baked in a decorative round pan to add whimsy.

Sliced, the cake is tall and you can spot chunks of pineapple and bits of pecans.

Hummingbird cake history

Southern Living magazine generally is credited with the first reference to Hummingbird Cake. It published the recipe in its February 1978 issue, submitted by a Mrs. L.H. Wiggins of Greensboro, N.C. But Mrs. Wiggins did not include an explanation of the cake's unusual name, which remains a mystery however folklore has it that the hummingbird is a symbol of sweetness.