Peanut Butter Cups Recipe and HomemadeSoapnSuch Giveaway Winner

I was looking for a quick, sweet dessert treat to make for the grandkids and remembered that my mom had given me this one years ago. So I dragged out my 'Bars' folder and found the recipe card, in my mom's handwriting. (CORRECTION: When I was talking to my cousin on the phone the other night, she let me know that this recipe card was from her and in her handwriting. Now that was interesting, because I had been wondering who on earth Sue Riba was and why I hadn't met one of Mom's friends. ANYway, this recipe came from my cousin Bobby, not from my mom - which shows you how well I knew my mom's handwriting. And now that I look closer, I realize that my mom's handwriting was flatter, closer to the line - but both are lovely examples of handwriting, something I cannot match.)

When the recipe was given to me, it didn't look exactly like this. It was missing the brown sugar, chocolate, and coffee spills.

I did add more powdered sugar, in order to make the bars less sticky. And by the way, I don't ever use milk chocolate, so I substituted semi-sweet chocolate chips. (That should have been the first clue that this recipe came from Bobby! She loves milk chocolate; I think Mom would have used dark chocolate.)

Warning: These will taste good going down and then will put you either in a frenzy or a coma.

***

And now...

Winner of the HomemadeSoapnSuch Giveaway is...

Tammy Monahan

Congratulations, Tammy!

And thanks to all who entered.

Check out all my handcrafted soaps at

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and at

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Have a great weekend, everyone! 

 

This post may be linked to one or more of the following: Mop it Up Monday  and Get in My Tummy and  Cure for the Common Monday and  Clever Chicks Blog Hop and  Barn Charm and  The Marketplace  and  Mix it up Monday and Make it Pretty Monday and    Making the World Cuter Mondays and Make the Scene Monday and  Something I Whipped Up Monday and  Motivate Me Monday and  Making Monday Marvelous and Get Your Craft On and Efforts and Assets and   You're Gonna Love it Tuesday and Creative Showcase and Memories by the Mile and Crafty Texas Girls and  Tweak it Tuesday and  Coastal Charm Tuesday and  Take a Look Tuesday and  Tasty Tuesday  and Love Bakes Good Cakes and Mom on TimeOut  and Adorned from Above and Wildcrafting Wednesday and   Cast Party Wednesday and  We Did it Wednesday  and All Things With Purpose and Home & Garden Thursday and It's a Party at Creative Princess and Artsy Corner Thursday  and The Girl Creative, Thursday and  Creative Things Thursday and Be Inspired and Time Travel Thursday and Thrifty Things Friday  and  Friday Fences and  Thursday's Inspiration and  The Self-sufficient Home Acre and  I'm Lovin' it Thursday and Creative Things Thursday and   Mandatory Mooch   and Foodie Friends Friday and Freedom Fridays and From the Farm and   Anything Blue Friday and Junkin' Joe and  Serenity Saturday and Get Schooled Saturday  and Inspiration Friday(ThursNite) and Vintage Inspiration Friday and Photo Friday and Share Your Creativity and   A Favorite Thing Saturday and Sunny Simple Sunday and Sunlit Sunday and  Market Yourself Monday and  Saturday Nite Special

Danish Puff - Dessert Recipe, Easy, Light, and Delicious Pastry

This is not a gluten-free dessert. This is not sweet. The only sugar in it is the drizzle of powdered sugar frosting which is optional. But this is so delicious that it's a danger to have in my house - for me. It doesn't last long around here.

I usually eat gluten free. Unlike my daughter who is a stickler for remaining absolutely gluten-free, I tend to eat gluten free for 90% of the time, then crave wheat flour products, indulge, then regret it for a couple days, and so the cycle goes.

If ever I am tempted to break my gluten-free diet, I can tell you right now that THIS is one of the two things that would be worth it. The other is homemade bread fresh out of the oven with butter on the thick crust - oh yeah, especially in October or November, when we first get into the chilly months.

Here's the recipe for Danish Puff. Again, this is NOT gluten free.

Danish Puff - Recipe

In a bowl, place 1 c. flour and 1/2 c. soft butter. Cut butter in like you would for a pie crust. (Actually, the last two times I've made this, I used my food processor for that and it worked great!) You may want to add up to a tablespoon of water to get it to stick together, but it may not need any water. Form into a ball with your hands, then cut the ball in half.

Spray a large jelly roll pan with Pam, then shape each dough ball into a long 'snake,' (it will help to put a bit of flour on the counter and form your 'snake' by rolling it on the counter - remember, like you used to do with modeling clay when you were a kid!) set it on the pan, and press each 'snake' until it's about 3-4"wide and 15" long. They will lie parallel to each other on the pan.

Bring 1 c. water and 1/2 c. butter to a boil. Remove from heat. Quickly and thoroughly whisk in 1 c. flour, then whisk in 3 eggs, one at a time. Add 1/4 t. almond extract, 1/4 t. vanilla, 1/4 t. salt. This mix will resemble a very thick pudding.

Place spoonfuls of above mixture on the pastry strips in the jelly roll pan. Use a spoon to spread the mixture out so that the pastry is covered almost edge to edge with the pudding-like topping. You may want to dip the spoon into water now and then to keep it from sticking as you're trying to smooth out the topping.

Bake in a 375 degree oven for 40 - 45 minutes. Check after 40 minutes. When crust is golden and makes a hollow sound when tapped, the Danish Puff is ready to take from the oven.

When it has cooled, place about 3/4 c. powdered sugar in a bowl. Stir in 2 T. soft butter and a little cream or milk, and a bit of almond extract or vanilla, maybe 1/4 t.

Beat by hand until frosting is a smooth consistency that can be drizzled over the Danish Puff. You're almost done. Now, sprinkle some sliced or chopped almonds over the top.

Slice on the diagonal and serve. Don't turn your back on this stuff or it will be gone when you go back for a second piece. Just a warning.

P.S. (It's even better with a freshly-brewed cup of coffee!)

***

'Morning Brew'

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Large 4.5+ oz. bars

For every aspiring chef!

Keep it at the kitchen sink. 
Helps remove food odors from your hands.

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This post may be linked to some of the following: Mop it Up Monday   Cure for the Common Monday and Mealtime Monday and   Amaze Me Monday and Clever Chicks Blog Hop and Mosaic Monday  and Barn Charm and  The Marketplace  and On the Menu Monday and  Mix it up Monday and Make it Pretty Monday and   What's in the Gunny Sack and  Making the World Cuter Mondays and Make the Scene Monday and  Something I Whipped Up Monday and  Motivate Me Monday and  Making Monday Marvelous and Get Your Craft On and   You're Gonna Love it Tuesday and Take a Look Tuesday and  Tasty Tuesday and Tasty Tuesday and Love Bakes Good Cakes and  Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays  and Overflowing With Creativity and Mom on TimeOut  and Adorned from Above and Cast Party Wednesday and  We Did it Wednesday  and The Self-Sufficient Home Acre and It's a Party at Creative Princess and Artsy Corner Thursday  and I'm Lovin' it Thursday and  Mandatory Mooch   and Foodie Friends Friday and Maiden D'Shade and  Serenity Saturday and Get Schooled Saturday  and Inspiration Friday(ThursNite) and Vintage Inspiration Friday and Photo Friday and  A Favorite Thing Saturday and Sunny Simple Sunday and  Saturday Nite Special

 

Pumpkin Cheesecake Recipe - Gluten Free

Happy Pumpkins

Some of my Cranberry Morning readers may remember this post, but I thought it was time to share it again. If you like pumpkin, I'm pretty sure you'll love this cheesecake! What's really fun is to serve both the Caramel Apple Cheesecake and the Pumpkin Cheesecake - both great autumn desserts.

 Pumpkin Cheesecake, just out of the oven

Caramel Apple Cheesecake and Pumpkin Cheesecake,
Chilled and ready to serve

For this photo, I snitched just a wee slice before guests arrived.

It's amazing what lengths one will go to for a blog post!

Pumpkin Cheesecake - Gluten Free, Recipe:

Ingredients:

1 pkg. Gluten-free ginger snaps, crushed (about 1.5 cups crumbs). I bought Mi-Del from Walmart

3/4 c. ground hazelnuts

3 T. brown sugar

6 T. unsalted butter, melted

Preheat Oven to 325 degrees F. Grease (cooking spray) a 9-inch springform pan.

Toss gingersnaps, hazelnuts, brown sugar, and melted butter until mixed. Press this mixture onto the bottom and a little up the sides of the springform pan.

Filling:

3   8-oz. packages of cream cheese, softened

1 c. brown sugar

1 1/2 c. canned solid pack pumpkin

1/2 c. heavy whipping cream

1/3 c. maple syrup

1 T. vanilla extract

3/4 t. ground cinnamon

1/2 t. ground allspice

4 eggs

With an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and brown sugar until fluffy. Stir in pumpkin. Mix in the cream, maple syrup, cinnamon, allspice, and vanilla. Beat eggs in, one at a time. Mix all until smooth.

Pour batter into prepared crust (above). I also set it on a cookie sheet because my springform pan was filled right to the top. I was supposed to bake it in the preheated oven for 90 minutes, but it took a good 120 minutes before it was done enough.

Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan for an hour, then refrigerate several hours before serving. I made mine in the afternoon of one day and served it the evening of the next day, so it was well chilled.

I'm kinda on a cheesecake kick. I hope it doesn't last long. I don't want to have to purchase an entire new wardrobe!

This is a great recipe to serve guests. 
See how small those pieces are cut?
That way, they can have one of each!



***

'English Rose'

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Raspberry Coconut Rhubarb Bars with Gluten-Free Version

Raspberry Coconut Rhubarb Bars

Just out of the oven!

The first thing that comes up in my garden in the spring is asparagus. The next is the rhubarb. I love those first pickings and those fresh springtime tastes!

I posted this recipe in the spring of 2010 I think. But just in case you missed it, here it is again. Everyone needs a good rhubarb recipe in their file, and this is my favorite! 

I'm giving you two of these recipes for the price of one: the regular version and the gluten-free version. Trust me, neither version lasts long around here!

Raspberry Coconut Rhubarb Bars Recipe:

4 c. chopt rhubarb
1/3 c. sugar  (The original recipe called for 1 c. of sugar, but I think that's way too sweet)
2 c. flour
½ t. soda
¾ c. butter
1 ½ c. coconut
1 t. vanilla
1 c. chopt walnuts
6 oz. regular Raspberry Jell-O.


Combine rhubarb and Jello, mixing to coat rhubarb thoroughly with Jello. Put in greased 9 x 13 pan. I like to use a glass baking dish for this recipe.

 
Mix sugar, flour, soda. Cut in butter. Stir in coconut, vanilla, and nuts. 

Spread over top of rhubarb. Bake at 350 degrees F.  for 30-45 minutes or until rhubarb is bubbling and top is lightly browned. 


Like this:

Warning: These are addictive (no matter which version you make).

Gluten-free Raspberry Rhubarb Bars Recipe:

4 c. chopt rhubarb
1/3 c. sugar
1 1/2 c. brown rice flour (or white rice flour)
1/2 c. tapioca flour
1/2 t. xanthan gum
1/2 t. baking soda
3/4 c. butter
1 1/2 c. coconut
1 t. vanilla
1 c. chopt walnuts (I'll have to admit that, in my opinion, walnuts make everything taste better! But these have really gone up in price in the past year. YIKES! So maybe this time mine will be walnut free.)

2 - 3 oz. pkgs. sugar-free Raspberry Jell-O or 6 oz. regular Raspberry Jell-O (contains sugar)


Combine rhubarb and Jello, to coat rhubarb thoroughly with Jello. Put in greased 9 x 13 pan. I like to use a glass baking dish for this recipe.

Mix sugar, flour, soda. Cut in butter. Stir in coconut, vanilla, and nuts. Spread over top of rhubarb. Bake at 350  for 30-45 minutes or until rhubarb is bubbling and top is lightly browned. 


If you have another rhubarb dessert recipe that you LOVE, feel free to leave it as a comment! :-)  Thanks.


P.S. And guess what!  Someone, who will remain nameless for this post, didn't even realize that the recipe I made was the gluten-free version. :-) He just gobbled it down and said it was good!  Oh, and when I make gluten-free chocolate chip cookies, he's doesn't know that either. (Let's keep it our secret.)

Andalusia

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Raspberry Freezer Dessert - Gluten Free

I'm re-posting this dessert recipe because it's another of my favorite gluten-free desserts and is perfect for this time of year, whether you use raspberries or strawberries.

I really like my deep red KitchenAid mixer. :-)

This dessert is light and delicious and gluten-free. Of course you can substitute regular flour for the tapioca and white rice flours I use in the recipe.

Crumble Ingredients:

1/2 c. white rice flour

1/2 c. tapioca flour

1/2 c. soft butter

1/4 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. chopt walnuts

Cut butter into flours and sugar. Stir in walnuts. Spread the crumbles on a cookie sheet that has been sprayed with a GF cooking spray and bake at 350 degrees for 10-18 minutes. Stir a couple times while baking, and bake until the crumbles are golden brown. (Mostly golden. Less brown.) When done, cool crumbles and set aside 1/2 c. to use later as a sprinkling for the top of the dessert. Spread the remaining crumbles evenly in the bottom of a 13 x 9 x 2 cake pan.

Meanwhile, beat 2 egg whites until stiff. As you can see, the two egg whites get kinda lost in the bottom of the KitchenAid bowl, but they do eventually fluff up and stiffen.

To the stiff egg whites in the mixer bowl add:

1 c. sugar

2. t. fresh lemon juice

16 oz. FROZEN raspberries

Beat 20 minutes. This grows a lot during beating. It may completely fill your mixer bowl.

Now, fold in an 8 oz. tub of Cool Whip. You can see I switched to a large, stainless steel pan. There's too much volume to fit into the mixer bowl.

When the Cool Whip is completely folded in, spread it on the layer of crumbles in the cake pan. Use the reserved 1/2 c. of crumbles to sprinkle over the top. Cover with a lid and freeze overnight. Remove from the freezer a few minutes before serving.

So far, I've not met anyone who doesn't like this! :-) So grab a fork!

P.S. You can use the same recipe with strawberries, but the strawberries should be partially frozen, not completely frozen, when used for the recipe.

This post is linked to: Making the World Cuter Mondays and Something I Whipped Up Monday and  Motivate Me Monday and Making Monday Marvelous and Made from Scratch Tuesday and Delectable Tuesday and Anything Related Tuesday and Take a Look Tuesday and Tasty Tuesday  and Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays  and Wandering Wednesday and What's Cookin' Wednesday and We Did it Wednesday and Thrilling Thursday and Lisa's Gluten-Free Blog and Favorite Things Friday and I'm Lovin' it Friday and It's a Hodgepodge Friday  and Fat Camp Friday and Fun With Food Friday

Easy Peasy Dessert

Okay, I know some of you will think this is cheating, but I'm telling you right now: If you're looking for a dessert for anyone who likes dark chocolate (and that would be almost everyone on the planet, right??) Then this is the dessert of choice. What's not to like about delicious AND easy!

Ingredients:

AMAZING dark chocolate

Crunchy hazelnuts

Comes in individual wrappers, and can be purchased from Walmart or Target.  I first tasted Ritter seven years ago in a little shop in London. At that time, they weren't in Walmart or Target, at least not in my area. In spite of the fact that I usually eat a Cadbury bar a day when in London (because they're actually available at Underground stations in vending machines devoted solely to Cadbury products!), I tried Ritter and it is the...

...BEST dark chocolate I have EVER eaten. And don't forget: unlike other desserts, dark chocolate actually has health benefits! :-)

I test Ritter bars frequently to make sure, but I think I've got enough evidence in now to conclude that it's also the best dessert money can buy.

So, unless you're really intent upon standing in the kitchen working on a fussy dessert, just pick up several bars of Ritter Sport Dark Chocolate With Hazelnuts!

P.S. Wouldn't you think they could compensate me for my enthusiasm? I'd be willing to take payment in Ritter bars.
P.P.S. Please don't waste your Ritter Sport Dark Chocolate with Hazelnuts on a milk-chocolate lover. They just don't get it!


This post is linked to Sew Much Ado