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Desserts
Blueberry Buckle
(*Spring Brunch Favorite*)
From Liz Leith
¾ cup sugar
¼ cup soft shortening
1 egg
½ cup milk
1 ½ cups sifted flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup well drained blueberries
Spread batter in greased and floured 9-inch square pan. Sprinkle with topping (below), bake until toothpick in center comes out clean.
Topping:
½ cup sugar
1/3 cup sifted flour
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ cup soft butter
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Chocolate Covered Strawberries
(*Spring Brunch Favorite*)
From Tim Dufel & Barbara Nelson
Candy making supply stores stock a variety of confectionery coatings in different qualities and colors. We use a dark milk chocolate by MARKENS. White chocolate is also tasty and looks nice together with dark chocolate on a platter. Don’t be cheap in choosing your chocolate. Less expensive brands can taste waxy. A five-pound bag will suffice for five pounds of strawberries.
If you must wash the berries, do so the day before you dip them. They must be absolutely dry. The smallest drop of water will ruin the consistency of the chocolate. It is not advisable to dip berries on a very humid day. Do not refrigerate the berries before and especially after dipping. Condensation will ruin the chocolate and make the berries soggy.
Warm the chocolate slowly in a double boiler at the lowest setting. 90 degree water will suffice. That’s just a little hotter than most tap water. This may take 30 to 50 minutes. Stir occasionally. Or microwave in a ceramic bowl (2 pounds for 1½ minutes) on high power then let it set for five minutes, stirring it occasionally. Then give it additional minutes, stirring between. Heat only one to two pounds at a time.
When the chocolate is a smooth creamy consistency, dip each strawberry. Clean fingers work best. Forks and tongs damage the berries. Set the dipped berries down on wax paper and allow them to harden. Once hardened, the berries can be stacked no more than three layers high with wax paper between each layer. Store them in a dry place at room temperature. They will still look fresh 12 hours later, but after that they will "sweat", so each them fast!
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Chocolate Raspberry Tort
(*Spring Brunch Favorite*)
From Specialty Cakes by Grace
1 Box Dark Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix
Two 8-oz bags of semi sweet chocolate
1 pint of heavy cream
1 can Raspberry pie filling
4-oz solid vegetable shortening
2-oz white chocolate, melted
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour the bottom of only of one 10" round cake pan. Prepare cake mix according to directions on package. Pour into prepared cake pan. Bake as directed on package. Cool slightly in pan, then remove from pan & cool completely on wire rack. Wrap with plastic wrap & refrigerate.
Chocolate ganache filling:
Heat 6 oz of heavy cream in saucepan until it almost comes to a boil. Remove from heat & add 8 oz of semi sweet chocolate. Stir with wire whip until smooth. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Place ganache in mixer bowl and whip on low speed until stiff.
Chocolate coating:
Place 8-oz of semi sweet chocolate & 4-oz of shortening in top of double boiler and heat until melted completely and smooth.
Cut cake into 3 layers. With metal cake spatula spread ½ cup of ganache onto first layer of cake. Top with 1/8 cup of raspberry filling. Place second layer of cake on top & spread another ½ cup of ganache & 1/8 cup of raspberry filling on cake. Top with third layer of cake. Frost the top & sides of the cake with the remaining ganache. Smooth with cake spatula. Freeze until firm. Place cake on a wire rack on a cookie sheet & pour chocolate coating over the top. Decorate with white chocolate dots & swirls.
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Eloise’s Pound Cake
3 cups sugar
½ cup Crisco
½ cup softened butter
5 eggs
1 cup milk
3 cups flour
½ teaspoon powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon lemon extract
Beat together sugar, Crisco and butter. Add eggs, one at a time, beating between. Add milk and beat. In a separate bowl, sift together flour and baking powder. Add to the wet mixture slowly, while stirring. Add vanilla and lemon extract. Put in a large tube pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 20 minutes. Top will rise and crack. The cake is done when the crust is crisp where it has not cracked and a toothpick inserted through the crack comes out with a few crumbs on it. Don’t keep it in the oven, waiting for the toothpick to come out clean, or you’ll burn the cake for sure.
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Finnish Whipped Fruit Pudding
(*Spring Brunch Favorite*)
From Sylvie Browne
6 cups cranberry juice
1 cup raw farina
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup molasses
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
2 dashes of nutmeg
2 dashes of cinnamon
½ pint heavy cream, whipped and
1 cup yogurt (you can eliminate the heavy cream but the cream makes it richer)
2 cups raspberries (fresh or frozen)
2 sliced bananas
Note: You can use many different kinds of juice. You can also vary the kinds of fruit.
Heat juice, molasses & honey to boiling. Add lemon juice and spices. When this is all boiling, sprinkle in the farina & cook over low heat, constantly stirring, until thick and smooth (about 8-10 minutes). Pour into a large bowl and whip with wire whisk or electric beaters until light and fluffy (about 15 minutes). Fold in yogurt, whipped cream and fruit. Chill for at least 2 hours.
Serves 10-12.
Recipe can be halved, but this stuff is so good why bother. It is handy to pour it into small yogurt containers (8 oz) and eat for breakfasts, or lunches as well as evening dessert.
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Fresh Fruit Pizza
1 (18 oz.) package refrigerated sugar cookie dough
2 cups blackberries
1 cup sliced strawberries
2 Tablespoons seedless raspberry jam, melted
1 plum, sliced
¾ cup Lemon Curd
2 teaspoons sugar
2 cups fresh raspberries
Cooking spray
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Press dough into a 12-inch pizza pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely on a wire rack. Preheat broiler. Spread jam over crust. Spread Lemon Curd over jam; arrange all the fruit on top. Sprinkle sugar over fruit. Broil 3 minutes.
Serves 6 - 8.
Note: Try using kiwi, blueberries, grapes, peaches, and mangoes for variety. You can also replace the Lemon Curd with an 8 oz. block of cream cheese combined with a ¼ cup powdered sugar, 1 tsp vanilla, and 1 tsp milk for a change of pace.
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Lemon Crunch Cake
3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons double acting baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ lb (1 cup) butter
4 eggs
1 cup milk
finely grated rind of 2 lemons
1 1/2 cup of sugar
Adjust rack one third up from bottom of over. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9 x 3 ½ inch tube pan and dust it lightly with fine dry breadcrumbs (or line pan with waxed paper). Sift together flour, baking powder and salt and set aside. In a large bowl cream the butter. Add sugar and beat for 2-3 minutes. Beat in the eggs individually, scraping the bowl as necessary with a rubber spatula to keep mixture smooth. On lowest speed alternately add the dry ingredients in 3 additions and the milk in 2 additions, scraping the bowl with the rubber spatula as necessary and beating only until smooth after each addition. Stir in the lemon rind. Turn the batter into prepared pan. Level top by rotating pan briskly back and forth.
Bake for 1 hour and 10-15 minutes until a cake tester comes out dry. Let cake stand in the pan for about 3 minutes and then cover with a rack and invert. Remove pan, leaving the cake upside down. Place over a large piece of aluminum foil on wax paper and prepare glaze.
Glaze:
1/3 cup lemon juice
¾ cup sugar
The glaze must be used after it is mixed. Stir lemon juice and sugar all brush all over the hot cake until absorbed. Let cake cool completely. Use two wide metal pancake turners or a cookie sheet to transfer it to a cake place. Do not cut for at least several hours.
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Rhubarb Coffee Cake
As soon as the ruby colored rhubarb shoots of the rhubarb are out of the ground, be sure to try this wonderful recipe from our friend, Linda at the Harvest Moon Cafe in Troy.
2 cups coarsely chopped rhubarb
½ cup butter or margarine
1½ cups firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
¼ tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 Tbs. lemon juice
1 cup milk
½ cup walnuts or pecans, chopped
½ cup granulated sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
Cream the butter. Add brown sugar and continue to beat until mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. In another bowl, sift together flour, salt and baking soda. Combine lemon juice and milk and add it alternatively with the flour mixture to the creamed mixture, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Beat after each addition just enough to blend.
Gently fold chopped rhubarb into batter, stirring just enough to distribute evenly. Pour batter into greased and floured 9 x 13 inch pan, spreading evenly. In a small bowl, blend together the nuts, granulated sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle evenly over top of the batter.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 45 - 50 minutes or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean. Cool cake at least 30 minutes in the pan before cutting.
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Walnut Toffee Squares
(*Spring Brunch Favorite*)
From Debbie’s Kitchen in Albany
¾ lb butter (softened)
2 ¼ cups light brown sugar
1 cup ground walnuts
3 ¼ -4 cups flour
vanilla
Set oven to 350 degrees. In a mixer cream the butter and sugar, add the ground walnuts, scrape the bowl, blend, add flour a little at a time, then add vanilla. Mixture should be somewhat firm. Spread evenly on cookie sheet. Bake until golden brown, 20-25 minutes.
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