dessert

How I turned Peach Coffee Cake with Browned Butter Peach Glaze into the HEALTHIEST Fruit Dessert EVER!

/ Jodi / 47 Comments

peach coffee cake with brown butter glaze

First, I spent about an hour or so early in the morning blanching, dicing, mixing, melting, streuseling,  spreading, baking, glazing, and plating.

peach coffee cake with brown butter glaze 2

I then cut a slice,
took a photo of the whole cake,
plated a slice for a photo,
placed it on the edge of the deck railing with the cake where I was photographing for good lighting so I could share here,
considered how I should be careful balancing so much on the railing….

peach coffee cake disaster

Shrieked!
Cursed……
cleaned up the broken plate, ENTIRE cake AND plated slice out of the mulch 10 feet below the deck…

and cut up a ripe, juicy cantaloupe for dessert.

cantelope

I’ll have to try that one again another time…

or not….

The upside:

We saved hundreds of calories,
The cantaloupe was SUPER sweet,
and I allowed myself an extra glass of wine that evening.  🙂

Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

PS  If you would like the recipe for the Peach Coffee Cake (which I cannot tell you how it tasted), here is a link to The SeaSideBaker where I found the recipe.  If you would like the recipe for my Cantaloupe dessert: cut up one fresh, ripe, juicy delicious cantaloupe into bite-sized pieces, and enjoy.  🙂

Fresh Apricot Almond Creme Tart

/ Jodi / 29 Comments

Fresh Apricot Almond Creme Tart 6

I had a wonderful vacation!

But I have to admit…. Once home, I couldn’t wait to get in the kitchen and bake.

Fresh Apricot Almond Creme Tart

So Sunday morning, after a quick trip to the grocery store, I took some time to leisurely make this beautiful, amazingly delicious Fresh Apricot Almond Creme Tart.

Fresh Apricot Almond Creme Tart 4

Oh the wonderful smell while it baked…

Fresh Apricot Almond Creme Tart Apricots and Honey

The juicy, ripe apricots drizzled with honey made my heart happy.

Fresh Apricot Almond Creme Tart 3

And watching Hubby enjoy it….

Fresh Apricot Almond Creme Tart Apricots and Creme

even better.

Fresh Apricot Almond Creme Tart 5

I found a recipe for an Apricot Pistachio Tart that I used as a baseline to create this recipe I think is well worth saving!

I summoned enough willpower to enjoy only a bite, but oh that bite…

This is such a special treat.  I hope you will try it and enjoy it or share with someone you know that loves fresh apricots.

Apricots are one of Hubby’s faves, so I enjoyed making it for him after enjoying a week away at GFC. A little “thank you” of sorts.

After baking this, I whipped up some cookie dough and made a fresh caprese pasta salad.

Kitchen fix complete.
Life is good.
Home sweet home.

Fresh Apricot Almond Creme Tart

  • Servings: approximately 8
  • Print
Crust:Fresh Apricot Almond Creme Tart
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup raw, unsalted, sliced almonds, crushed
1 stick butter, cut into small chunks
1 tsp almond extract Apricot Creme Filling: 
10-12 small ripe fresh apricots
3/4 cup sour cream
1 large egg yolk 
3 Tbsp honey

Directions:
Preheat to 350º.
In a medium bowl, mix powdered sugar, salt and flour to combine. Add the crushed almonds (I simply placed in a ziploc bag and rolled over them with a marble rolling pin), the chunks of butter, and the almond extract.  Blend with a pastry blender until the mixture just begins to clump together. Dump the crumbs into an 8 or 9-inch tart pan and press evenly.  Freeze the crust until firm for about 15 minutes.
Prick the crust about 10 – 12 times with a fork, and then place the tart pan on a rimmed baking sheet for easy maneuvering.  Bake for approximately 15 minutes until lightly browned.Halve the apricots and remove the pits. Arrange them, cut side up, in the warm tart shell in circles starting with the outer layer and moving inward.In a small bowl, whisk together the sour cream, egg yolk, and 3 tablespoons of honey. Pour the custard evenly over the apricots. 
Sprinkle with some additional sliced almonds.Bake the tart until the custard is set when you shake the pan, approximately 45 minutes.   Let the tart cool completely, and then refrigerate to fully set.Just before serving, drizzle some additional honey over the top.
ENJOY!
Cheers & Hugs,
Jodi

Fresh Old-Fashioned Blackberry Pie

/ Jodi / 42 Comments

Fresh Blackberry Pie Slice

Last night, I made my favorite old-fashioned homemade pie.

Fresh Blackberry Pie.

Baking this pie brings me joy for so many reasons…

fresh blackberries

It reminds me of hot summer days spent at Grandma’s house where she did her best to tame the wild blackberry bushes that framed the edge of the woods that surrounded her house.

I remember picking them with her (begrudgingly at the time) and eating more than I put in the bucket or bowl I was assigned to filling.

Fresh Blackberry Pie Slice 2

I remember the way the house…

and the porch…

and even the yard smelled when the pies were baking as fans were blowing and windows were wide open in Grandma’s non air-conditioned home.

I can picture her wiping her brow with the tea towel that was on her shoulder…

I can hear the joy in Grandpap’s voice when he came home from work and smelled it too.

Fresh Blackberry Pie 2

Any time I bake a pie, it also brings back warm memories of my mother-in-law and time spent with her and my sister-in-law and the entire family as we made dozens of pies in assembly-line fashion.

I recall the guys sitting on the porch pitting cherries or peeling apples or blanching peaches or cleaning berries while us girls were in the basement mixing filling and rolling out crusts.

My mother-in-law is the one that taught me the secret and magic to the perfect pie crust, and it is one of the things that hubby brags on me about.  It always makes me smile when I think of this simple pleasure.

Fresh Blackberry Pie Slice 3

And then there is the joy my family expresses when eating a perfect pie that makes my heart soar.

I have to admit, I had two bites before asking who would finish my piece (still trying to lose 20 more pounds!), and it was GLORIOUS!  Might have even been worth skipping dinner for!

blackberries

It took me about a week to pick enough berries to make this pie.

You see, you have to try to beat the birds and the deer and the rabbits and all the other critters that also love these sweet and tart bursts of summer sunshine when they ripen.

And then you have to battle the thorns and the poison ivy that seems to love to grow in the same area as the berry bushes.

Fresh Blackberry Pie

I collected them by the handful on walks to the mailbox or around the yard.

I would then lay them on a cookie sheet and flash freeze them, toss in a Ziploc bag after frozen, and wait until I had enough to make this glorious pie.

And it is SO WORTH IT!

Have you ever made a fresh homemade old-fashioned wild blackberry pie?  If not, I so urge you to give it a try.

I’m guessing your family will thank you, and I’m also guessing you may just begin creating some pretty amazing memories for them like I have when I recall some very special family times from my past.

Fresh Old-Fashioned Blackberry Pie

Ingredients:Fresh Blackberry Pie Slice

  • 4 cups fresh wild blackberries (or frozen if not available)
  • 1 1/4 cups sugar
  • 3 1/2 Tbsp Minute Tapioca
  • Dash of salt
  • 1/2 Fresh Lemon (juiced)
  • 1 Tbsp butter
  • 1 Double Crust Recipe (See our “Secret Family Pie Crust Recipe” here)
  • 2 Tbsp milk
  • 1 Tbsp sugar

Directions:

  • Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
  • Prepare Pie Crust. 
  • Line 9 inch pie pan with bottom crust.
  • In large bowl, mix blackberries, sugar, tapioca, salt and lemon juice.
  • Pour berry mixture into pie pan.
  • Dot with butter.
  • Cover with top lattice crust.
  • Brush with milk, and sprinkle sugar over top crust.
  • Cover edge of pie with strips of foil to prevent crust from burning.
  • Bake for 45-50 minutes or until berry mixture begins to bubble up in between top lattice crust.  (Remove foil for last 10 minutes of baking to brown edges.

Enjoy!

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

 

 

Old Fashioned Peach Dumplings

/ Jodi / 30 Comments

peach dumpling

What is better than a warm apple dumpling with a scoop of vanilla ice cream?

How about an old-fashioned peach dumpling with ice cream and peach brandy in the caramel sauce?!?!

peach dumpling 4

O M G are these amazing!

Hubby loves peach pie, and I had some peaches getting very ripe on the kitchen counter Father’s Day morning.

peach dumpling 1

So I decided to make him this special treat of flaky pie crust wrapped around sweet juicy fresh peaches stuffed with brown sugar, cinnamon, butter and vanilla and drizzled with a creamy, caramely, brandy infused sauce.

Is that Merv a lucky guy or what??!!

peach dumpling 2

It was a great weekend, beginning with my boss winning Entrepreneur of the Year Friday evening at a gala I was so fortunate to attend with him and some of our colleagues and friends, and ending with having the kids over for Father’s Day.

Our oldest son, Jake, grilled an amazing pork tenderloin he marinated in fresh herbs and lemon, and he also brought over his homemade macaroni salad (one of hubby’s faves).  Our  daughter-in-law, Colleen, brought hubby more goodies – homemade apricot turnovers and homemade cinnamon swirl bread.  He’ll be set for a while!  And this is all after being treated out to breakfast at one of his favorite spots with our youngest son, Nick.

Unfortunately, I ended up getting some kind of nasty “crud.”  It started Friday evening at the gala when my voice started going and my throat got scratchy and sore.  I woke up Saturday morning with my right eye sealed shut, coughing up a storm, and absolutely no voice.  I tried to take it easy, and we had to cancel Saturday evening dinner plans with friends.

I’m still feeling pretty punk, but oh well – still bucked up and prepared this yummy treat and enjoyed visiting with the family and playing Cranium and laughing way too much!  Did you ever try to do a humdinger challenge with no voice?!  Thank goodness whistling worked!

peach dumpling 3

But back to these amazing peach dumplings…

I am the queen of improvising in recipes and had not had a chance to go to the grocery store this weekend feeling like I did, so when the recipe I found (at A Flock in the City) called for heavy cream in the sauce and I had none in the refrigerator, I decided to try substituting vanilla ice cream.  Where there is a will there is a way!  And I’m not sure I’d do it any other way after this!!  I made a few other tweaks – using my own standby pie crust recipe, blanching and peeling the skin from the peaches, leaving out the nutmeg, and adjusting a few quantities of sugar and butter, but I really liked this recipe I found.

peach dumpling

Hubby loved them, so I’m glad I made this treat for him.  I also got him a new bird feeder – a Squirrel Buster (thanks for the recommendation Jo) and an Oriole feeder, so the birds are sure having a good time.

The squirrel however…..  well – just watch this video (thanks Nick for allowing me to share!)

Old Fashioned Peach Dumplings

Sauce

  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 3 Tbsp butter
  • 1/2 cup vanilla ice cream
  • 1/2 cup peach brandy
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • pinch of salt

Directions

  • Bring a large pot of water to a boil, and blanch peaches for 2 minutes.  Immediately remove to ice water.  The skin will slip right off to peel the peaches.
  • Cut peaches in half and remove pit.
  • Roll out pie crust and cut into 6 squares (approx 4″ x 4″) or large enough to wrap peaches
  • Place one peach half in center of each square, and fill with brown sugar and cinnamon, a dollop of butter, and a drizzle of vanilla.
  • Place second half of peach on top, and wrap entire stuffed peach with dough – sealing to keep juices in.
  • Place in 9 x 13 rectangular baking stone or dish.
  • Prepare sauce by melting brown sugar and butter.  Bring to a boil.
  • Add vanilla ice cream and stir until melted and boiling again.
  • Add peach brandy, and continue boiling for 2-3 minutes.
  • Add vanilla and salt.
  • Pour sauce into bottom of baking dish around dumplings.
  • Bake at 450 degrees F for 35-40 minutes.
  • Serve warm with a dollop of ice cream or whipped cream.

Hope you all had a nice weekend celebrating Fathers and families.

Cheers & Hugs,

Jodi

Chewy Butterscotch Toffee Cookies

/ Jodi / 26 Comments

butterscotch toffee cookie

BIG butterscotch flavor ROCKS this new cookie recipe I tried that is based on a suggestion a friend recently shared from Taste of Home.

butterscotch toffee cookies

These SUPER EASY chewy, buttery cookies are LOADED with butterscotch chips that just burst with flavor in every bite!

butterscotch toffee cookies 2

If you are looking for something new and different to take to a picnic, share with friends, dunk in milk, nosh on with a cup of coffee or satisfy your sweet tooth for a late night snack, whip these up in minutes and toss in a Ziploc bag in your freezer to have on hand.  You will NOT regret.

Butterscotch Toffee Cookies

  • Servings: Approx. 3 dozen
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Ingredients:butterscotch toffee cookie

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°. In a large bowl, beat eggs and oil until blended.  Add cake mix and flour and mix well. Fold in chips and toffee bits.  Refrigerate dough for a couple hours or overnight.  Roll into 1 inch balls and place 2 inches apart on a baking stone. Bake 10 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 1 minute before removing to wire racks.