Sweets

Pecan Pie

~ lk529 ~ 1 Comment

I had planned on providing you with a healthy shrimp and avocado pesto recipe to start your new year off right. But unfortunately the avocados at the grocery store weren’t anywhere near ripe and they were completely out of basil. So that recipe will have to wait for another day.

Instead I’m going to switch gears entirely and give you a sweet, rich dessert. Stuart’s holiday favorite. Pecan pie. My mom makes this pie just for him – and it amuses me greatly that the woman married to a man with nut allergies provides the only nutty dish of the holidays.

Pecan Pie Steps

Pecan Pie

Ingredients:

  • 1 C light corn syrup
  • 3 tbsp butter
  • 1/2 C brown sugar
  • 2 tbsp flour
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 1 1/2 C chopped pecans
  • 1 pie crust

Steps:

  1. Over medium heat combine corn syrup, butter, brown sugar, flour, and salt. Stir until the butter melts. DO NOT BRING TO A BOIL. Remove from heat.
  2. In a small bowl beat the eggs. While constantly stirring the syrup mixture, slowly add in the eggs. Stir until smooth. Add in the vanilla and chopped pecans.
  3. Pour pecan pie filling into a ready-to-bake, thawed pie crust. If desired, place 5 halved pecans in a small circle/star in the center of the pie.
  4. Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees until the filling no longer jiggles.

*This recipe is adapted from http://www.mrfood.com/Pie/Perfect-Pecan-Pie-685/*

Pecan Pie

Update December 2016: I’ve been dying to re-photograph this pecan pie and every Christmas I say I’m going to. It’s taken three years for that to happen, but hey! My parents remodeled their home in 2016 and all of the yellow tones of the kitchen were replaced by modern and timeless whites, greys, and deep cherry. Even with the new open concept I was surprised at how little natural light penetrated the bright space. I had to take mom’s pie out to the lanai to snap the new photo. It’s amazing what natural lighting can do to the beauty of a pie!

Classic Pecan Pie | Sew You Think You Can Cook | http://sewyouthinkyoucancook.com

Bake Sale Brownie Bites

~ lk529 ~ Leave a comment

Recently I donated brownies to a fundraiser bake sale at work. I don’t have a spectacular recipe for you today, but I do have a fun bake sale trick to share.

I didn’t want to simply present boring (yet delicious) brownies, I wanted something special. I recruited my best baking bud, Kate, and we came up with a fun idea.

We baked the brownies in a 9×13” pan for 16-18 minutes, allowed them to cool and used little cookie cutters to create Fall Brownie Bites. I put four shapes to each Ziploc snack bag.

Lesson learned: line the baking pan with parchment paper! Because I opted for the fudgy brownie version, and the layer of brownie batter was super thin, spraying the pan with non-stick spray wasn’t good enough. Good thing I wasn’t looking for perfect brownie squares!

Tip discovered: Because our brownies didn’t fall out of the pan nicely there were many more scraps of brownie that didn’t fit into a cookie cutter shape. Thankfully my preference of fudgy brownies over cakey brownies allowed us to squish the left over pieces together, salvaging 5 extra bags of brownie bites!

Bake Sale Brownie Bites

Sugar and Spiced Nuts

~ lk529 ~ 3 Comments

Have you ever been to a carnival or amusement park and had the purple paper cone filled with candied nuts? For my husband, it’s a not-to-be-missed treat.

We spent our first anniversary at Universal Studios, where I conquered my fear of rollercoasters. I have a slight obsession with Harry Potter and was so excited to step into Hogwarts and shop the streets of Hogsmeade. I highly recommend a trip… or two! (We went again the following year for my birthday http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Omfiz0c1I0) I could go fly with Harry on The Forbidden Journey all day. Stuart’s favorite ride is still The Incredible Hulk.

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Sorry, I got a little carried away there. Before we left the park on our last day, Stuart was determined to find these magical candied almonds. We finally found them in Seuss Landing.

This recipe for sugar and spiced nuts isn’t an exact replica, but they are delicious. Like Stuart said, “It’s like Christmas in my mouth!”

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Sugar and Spiced Nuts

Ingredients:

  • 1 C almonds
  • 1 C walnuts
  • 1/2 C sugar
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp ground cloves
  • 1/8 tsp nutmeg
  • 1 egg white
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Steps:

  1. In a bowl, combine sugar, salt, and spices.
  2. In a separate bowl whisk together egg white, 1 tbsp water, and vanilla until it foams.
  3. Toss nuts in the egg white mixture. Strain nuts and toss in the sugar mixture. (I forgot to strain the nuts, they still turned out great, but instead of individual nuts they turned out more like balls of candied nuts.)
  4. Spread nuts on a foil lined cookie sheet. Bake at 300 degrees for 15 minutes. Toss and roast another 15 minutes.

*This recipe is modified from Kristi at http://www.30poundsofapples.com/2012/09/sugar-n-spiced-pecans/*

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And here’s a bonus recipe idea – I reserved 1/8 C of the sugar and we sprinkled it over buttered bagels before putting them in the toaster oven.

Coffee Ice Cream

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I’m not really much of a coffee drinker. I do not rely on it to get me moving in the morning, and I’ve done my best to not become addicted. So far, so good.

Coffee ice cream is one of my favorite flavors and I’ve been wanting to try making my own for quite some time now. And then we went to Hawaii, and we came back with a lot of Kona Coffee. I just knew I had to make my ice cream with the world’s best coffee.

But I had to wait. I had to wait until Stuart finished “this crap coffee so I can open the good stuff.” But it finally happened, that “crap coffee” was gone and a perfect bag of Onouli coffee grounds was opened.

This recipe does require the use of an ice cream maker. I borrowed my friend’s KitchenAid attachment. So… if you want to see more ice cream recipes on Sew You Think You Can Cook feel free to send one my way! 😉

When it came time to strain the custard I ran into a slight problem. Without a cheese cloth I thought I’d use a coffee filter, but the custard was just too thick. So I just went with a mesh strainer. It was able to catch most of the coffee grounds, but not all of them so there are flecks of coffee deliciousness throughout the ice cream. As coffee grounds are edible, I left them in my frozen treat; they provide a little texture to each bite. Stuart really enjoyed the addition of the coffee grounds. If you don’t want the texture, I might suggest straining the custard before letting to cool completely in the fridge. I don’t know if that would help, but my engineering brain thinks it would.

Coffee Ice Cream

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 C whole milk
  • 1 1/2 C heavy cream
  • 3/4 C sugar, divided
  • 1/2 C coffee grounds
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
  • 4 large egg yolks

Steps:

  1. In a saucepan over medium heat combine the milk, cream, coffee, 1/2 C sugar, salt, and vanilla. Heat, stirring occasionally, to 175 degrees.
  2. Meanwhile, whisk together the egg yolks and remaining 1/4 C sugar.
  3. Temper the egg yolks by whisking in 1/4 C of the hot milk mixture. Add 1/4 C at a time until you’ve added 1 C of cream. Continuously whisking. You can now pour the yolks into the milk mixture. Whisk until the custard reaches 185 degrees, without bubbling.
  4. Set a bowl over top a larger bowl of ice water. Pour the custard into the iced bowl. Allow to cool for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  5. Cover custard and put in the refrigerator for 4-24 hours.
  6. Strain the cooled custard through a cheesecloth to remove the coffee grounds.
  7. Follow your ice cream maker’s instructions to churn the custard into a beautiful homemade ice cream.

*This recipe was adapted from Christina at http://sweetpeaskitchen.com/2013/05/mocha-chip-ice-cream/*

Coffee Ice Cream 2Coffee Ice Cream 1Coffee Ice Cream 3 Coffee Ice Cream 4

Busy Day Chocolate Cake

~ lk529 ~ 4 Comments

Today would have been my grandmother’s 81st birthday. In honor of her I made a cake from her recipe box – Busy Day Chocolate Cake. My brother always requested this cake for his birthday.

Busy Day Chocolate Cake, as the name suggests, is a chocolate cake that can be made on a busy day. It only takes 5 minutes to make the batter and 30 minutes in the oven. The longest process is letting the cake cool before frosting it.

Busia must’ve been helping me recreate her recipe because for the first time ever my cake came out of the pan cleanly and easily.

Busy Day Chocolate Cake

Busy Day Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

  • 2 oz semi-sweet chocolate
  • 1 1/3 C flour
  • 1 C sugar
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/4 C vegetable shortening
  • 1 C buttermilk
  • 1 egg

Steps:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Melt chocolate: microwave 30 seconds, stir, microwave another 30 seconds or until melted.
  3. Sift together flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt.
  4. Cut in vegetable shortening, and mix in buttermilk and egg. (I literally used a knife to mix in the shortening.) Add melted chocolate until combined.
  5. Pour batter into a greased and floured 9″ round cake pan.
  6. Bake for 30 minutes, until a knife/toothpick slides through cleanly.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

  • 4 tbsp salted butter
  • 4 tbsp cream cheese
  • 3 C powdered sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • milk, if needed

Steps:

  1. In a stand mixer, cream together butter and cream cheese.
  2. Add 1 C powdered sugar. Mix until combined. Add in 1/2 tsp vanilla. Mix until combined. Repeat until all ingredients are used.
  3. If needed, add a little bit of milk and/or more sugar.
  4. Frost cake and enjoy!

Busy Day Chocolate Cake

Copy Cat: Almond Joy

~ lk529 ~ Leave a comment

After this month’s Crazy Ingredient Challenge, I had a lot of coconut in my house that needed to go! I decided to make Stuart’s favorite candy – Almond Joys. I thought it could be fun for him to take to the office, but this recipe didn’t make as many candy bars as I thought it would! I didn’t have enough coconut to make two batches either.

I ran into another small problem – apparently I’m a little challenged when it comes to dipping the bars into melted chocolate. They were not pretty. And definitely not food photography worthy. I am very pleased with the beautiful bars I did create by simply drizzling the chocolate over top the candy.

Copy Cat: Almond Joy

Ingredients:

  • half of 14oz can sweetened condensed milk (7oz)
  • 2 C powdered sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • pinch of kosher salt
  • 2 1/2 C sweetened shredded coconut
  • whole salted almonds
  • 1 lb chocolate, melted

Steps:

  1. Stir together condensed milk and sugar until smooth – I found this to be best done by adding in the sugar in installments.
  2. Mix in vanilla and salt.
  3. Add in coconut – do this in one batch.
  4. Spread coconut onto a greased foil lined tray. Press into desired candy bar thickness. Gently score the coconut, outlining rectangles, with a knife and place two almonds onto each bar, if desired. Place in refrigerator for at least an hour.
  5. Cut candy bars along your previously suggested lines. Coat candy bars in melted chocolate. (Or give up on that and drizzle them like I did!)

*This recipe is adapted from Elizabeth at http://www.ohnuts.com/blog/almond-coconut-candy-bars-recipe/*

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Spiced Apple Popsicles

~ lk529 ~ 1 Comment

I found these popsicle molds at Walmart at the beginning of summer for $1. I’d been wanting to use them, but I never got around to it. Before I knew it summer was over! But hey, I live in Florida, it’s still hot out, so therefore I can still enjoy homemade popsicles!

Evan couldn't get enough!
Evan couldn’t get enough!

This recipe is actually a perfect way to end the summer and start the fall – they taste like the Motts cinnamon applesauce from when I was a kid. Stuart said they reminded him of an apple cobbler.  These fall flavors are wrapped in a summer treat! I’ve made them twice already and earned the seal of approval from a 17-month-old. Evan actually ran around the table after finishing his popsicle to try and steal the one Stuart hadn’t yet finished!

Spiced Apple Popsicles

Ingredients:

  • 2 C Simply Apple Juice
  • 1/4 C brown sugar
  • juice of 1 lime
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 3 whole allspice berries
  • 1/2″ piece of ginger root, peeled
  • pinch of kosher salt

Steps:

  1. Combine ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a gentle boil. Turn off the heat and bring down to room temperature.
  2. Strain popsicle mixture into a measuring cup and pour into popsicle molds. Freeze.
  3. Run the popsicle mold under cold water to make popsicle removal easier.

*This recipe is adapted from Giada DeLaurentiis at http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/sweet-apple-pops-recipe/index.html*

Spiced Apple Popsicles 1 Spiced Apple Popsicles 2

Key Lime Pie

~ lk529 ~ 6 Comments

As I’ve gotten “older” my sweet tooth has gotten smaller. When a craving hits, it’s usually for something salty – like popcorn. But there is one dessert that I can never say no to. And because today is my 25th birthday, I am going to indulge.

Key Lime Pie is my absolute favorite dessert, and Publix (sorry to anyone not in the South!) makes the best one! …. Or so I thought. I am very proud to declare that I now make the best Key Lime Pie. I’m particularly excited for this because I now know that I can have perfect key lime pie even when we leave the land of Publix.

A couple years ago I made a key lime pie for my brother’s fiancé’s birthday as it’s also one of her favorites. (Her favorite is actually pumpkin pie but my brother hates it, and her birthday is in July anyway.) I had actually squeezed the juice out of actual key limes! That pie was unbelievably tart. I don’t even recall which recipe I used.

This time I found Nellie & Joe Key West Lime Juice and happily used that (no funky ingredients involved). I would love to say that this was only my second attempt at key lime pie. But that’d be a lie. I made two pies for my birthday. The first was a complete disaster. My can of sweetened condensed milk had expired. And I didn’t notice it until I was emptying the contents into the egg yolk mixture. I immediately went to the internet and established that I should still be okay to use it. 

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So I carried on. Key lime pie is not naturally green (but if you want it to be by all means add a drop or two of food

coloring), but it’s definitely not supposed to be marigold. 

It’s not supposed to smell overpoweringly like sweetened condensed milk either. I did still taste it – the texture was a little off and it was still just a little too sour. So I went back to the store and back to square one. 

That failed attempt was actually a blessing in disguise because I found the perfect, better-than-Publix recipe! Third time’s the charm. 😉

Key Lime Pie

Ingredients:

  • 3 egg yolks
  • 1 egg white, beaten until frothy
  • 1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk
  • zest 1 lime
  • 1/2 C key lime juice
  • 9 in graham cracker pie crust
  • 1/2 C heavy whipping cream
  • 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp powdered sugar

Steps

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Using a hand mixer, beat egg yolks with lime zest and sweetened condensed milk. Add in lime juice. Add the egg white.
  3. Pour pie filling into pie crust. Bake 15 minutes. Allow pie to cool to room temperature for at least an hour before covering and putting in the fridge.
  4. Using a hand mixer, make the whipped cream. Beat the heavy cream until it starts to get thick, then add in the vanilla and sugar. Beat until stiff peaks form. Top pie with whipped cream right before serving. Note: I don’t like my whipped cream to be too sweet, so feel free to add more sugar/vanilla to taste.

*This recipe is adapted from The Big Cheese at http://www.food.com/recipe/traditional-key-lime-pie-109918*
Key Lime Pie 1

Key Lime Pie 2

CIC: Avocado & Caramel

~ lk529 ~ 15 Comments

Last weekend we had a wonderful Korean-style supper at our good friends’ house. Tara is the host of Tara’s Multicultural Table and my blogging mentor. She told me about this new blogging-world challenge. It’s a challenge where you mix two ingredients that wouldn’t normally be paired together and create a recipe that encompasses both of them.  Almost like Chopped! This month’s challenge is Avocado and Caramel.

I was surprised at how quickly an idea came to me! I had just watched a Giada at Home episode where she stuffed peanut butter cupcakes with caramel. That fulfills requirement number 2. But what about requirement number 1? I’ve seen many vegan/vegetarian recipes that substitute avocado for eggs in baking, so here we have it! We stopped at Publix on the way home and the next morning I was making these!

I know my blog isn’t exactly vegan friendly, but here’s a recipe you could (dissect and) serve to your meat-free guests! I substituted cow’s milk, but you could switch it back to soy milk! However, Stuffing these chocolate beauties with caramel and topping them with frosting voids the vegan requirements…

Stuart was not excited about this avocado cupcake idea. But I had him taste the batter (that’s the best part about vegetarian/vegan cupcakes! No eggs means you can lick that spoon clean without any guilt), and he conceded to the avocado cupcake. He was even disappointed that this recipe only made 12 cupcakes!

Avocado is changing the baking world one cupcake at a time. A coworker even told me that this was the best cupcake he’s ever had, and I had a request from another for the recipe because his daughter is allergic to eggs.

Caramel Filling 1 Caramel Filling 2 Caramel Filling 3 Wet Ingredients: Chocolate Avocado Cupcakes Dry Ingredients: Chocolate Avocado Cupcakes Chocolate Avocado Cupcake Batter Peanut Butter Caramel Frosting 1 Peanut Butter Caramel Frosting 2 Peanut Butter Caramel Frosting 3

Caramel Filled Chocolate Avocado Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Caramel Frosting

Ingredients for Cupcakes:

  • 25 caramel squares
  • 1/2 C heavy cream
  • 1 avocado
  • 1 C pure maple syrup
  • 3/4 C milk
  • 1/3 C canola oil
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 C flour
  • 3/4 C unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 3/4 tsp baking soda
  • 3/4 tsp salt

Ingredients for Frosting:

  • 1/2 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 2 C powdered sugar
  • 1/8 C + 1 tsp milk
  • 1/4 C peanut butter
  • 1-2 tbsp caramel

Steps

  1. In a saucepan over low heat melt caramel into the heavy cream. Stir occasionally.
  2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  3. In a food processor, puree avocado, syrup, milk, oil, and vanilla until smooth.
  4. Whisk together the remaining dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients to the dry.
  5. Assemble cupcakes: put a spoonful of batter, a spoonful of caramel, and another spoonful of batter into paper lined cupcake tins. Bake for 25 minutes.
  6. Make the frosting: In a stand mixer beat together sugar, butter, and milk. When combined fully add in the peanut butter. Using a spoon, swirl in the caramel. Pipe frosting on top of cupcakes and drizzle with extra caramel sauce if desired.

*The cupcake recipe was adapted from http://www.vegetariantimes.com/recipe/glazed-chocolate-avocado-cupcakes/. The frosting and filling were adapted from Giada deLaurentiis at http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/stuffed-peanut-butter-cupcakes-with-swirled-peanut-butter-frosting-recipe/index.html*

Caramel Filled Chocolate Avocado CupcakeI have to admit, I was disappointed when I cut into a cupcake and wasn’t met with lava flowing caramel. The photo of Food Network’s page is very misleading; however, my results mimicked those aired on the “Stuff It” episode. (The last photo is a “cheat” 😉 )Stuart’s advice: If you think you put enough caramel in the cupcake, add a little bit more.

Caramel Filled Chocolate Avocado Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Caramel Frosting 3

Caramel Filled Chocolate Avocado Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Caramel Frosting 1 Caramel Filled Chocolate Avocado Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Caramel Frosting 4 Caramel Filled Chocolate Avocado Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Caramel Frosting 2

Caramel Filled Chocolate Avocado Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Caramel Frosting 5Here are the other blogs that participated in this month’s Crazy Ingredient Challenge.

Lemon Meringue Pie

~ lk529 ~ Leave a comment

When life gives you lemons….. make a pie! August 15th is National Lemon Meringue Pie day. I don’t know who makes this stuff up, but it’s an excuse to try something new. I’ve never made a lemon meringue pie before, and actually I’ve never eaten a lemon meringue pie before!

My blog post about Blueberry Bars received the most likes. And I realized that the correlation between like and sugar was probably pretty accurate.  And when my Goat Cheese Cheesecake became my top post, I knew I’d have to venture into the baking world some more.

Stuart was my sous chef in this endeavor. And we had a great time together in the kitchen. Our song (Then, by Brad Paisley) even came on Pandora! Stuart started the lemon filling on the stove while I separated the eggs and made the meringue.

Lemon Meringue Pie Filling Lemon Meringue Pie Filling

Meringue Meringue Meringue

Lemon Meringue Pie

Ingredients:

  • 9 in pie crust, baked and cooled
  • 1 1/4 C sugar
  • 1/2 C flour
  • 1 1/2 C water
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 3 eggs, separated
  • zest of 1 lemon
  • juice of 1 1/2 lemons
  • 1 tbsp butter
  • 6 tbsp sugar
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Steps

  1. In a saucepan whisk together flour, water, salt, and 1 1/4 C sugar. Bring mixture to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Once at a boil, cook for one more minute – still stirring constantly – or until the mixture becomes gelatinous. Remove from heat.
  2. Temper the egg yolks by whisking in 3-4 tbsp of the mixture. Pour egg yolks into the saucepan, return to the heat, and cook one more minute – stirring constantly.
  3. Stir in butter, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Pour mixture into the baked pie crust.
  4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  5. Use an electric hand mixer to make the meringue by beating the egg whites with vanilla, cream of tartar, and 6 tbsp sugar. Continue to beat until stiff peaks are formed.
  6. Top pie with meringue. Make sure to “seal” the meringue to the crust.
  7. Bake for 12-15 minutes until the meringue is golden.

*This recipe is adapted from http://www.texascooking.com/recipes/lemon-meringue-pie.htm*

Lemon Meringue Pie 1

Lemon Meringue Pie 2