Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble

 

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Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble 

(Slightly adapted from Kevin is Cooking)

For the filling:

2 cups rhubarb, chopped

2 cups strawberries rough chop

1/2 cup sugar

zest from 1 lemon

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 to 2 tsp fresh cracked black pepper

For the crumb mixture: 

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 cup butter

2 tbsp finishing sugar

Place the rhubarb, strawberries, sugar, lemon zest, balsamic vinegar and black pepper in a sauté pan. Cook over medium heat until mixture comes to a simmer and begins to breakdown and thicken, 5-6 minutes. The rhubarb will start to break down, try to keep it a little chunky for a more rustic filling. Set aside and allow to cool to room temperature.

Preheat oven to 400˚F. Lightly coat a baking stone or 9 inch deep baking pan with cooking spray.

In a mixing bowl beat the flour, graham cracker crumbs, sugar, egg and baking powder until it becomes a crumbled mixture.

Sprinkle three quarters of this mixture on bottom of the pan. Spoon the strawberry rhubarb mixture on top and sprinkle remaining crumb mixture on top. Melt the butter, drizzle over the top and sprinkle with finishing sugar. Bake for 30-35 minutes until golden brown.

southern fusion.

I'm still trying to get a hang of making pralines ever since the last time I made them successfully. Turns out, the sugar to milk ratios are pretty important to these little suckers. Too much milk and I get myself a caramel. And if they're not finicky enough, I can't just throw in anything or else they won't set properly. Right now, I'm still trying to figure out how to make almond butter pralines from the original recipe that I'm using.

However, I did successfully make some Mexican chocolate pralines! In an effort to make the praline a little more gourmet, I got the wacky idea to play around with flavor combinations. I've always loved chocolate and cinnamon together. Add a little bit of chile to it, and this flavor was exactly what I was looking for! I dusted these with a little sprinkle of cinnamon to make it extra fancy, but feel free to leave that out. I, on the other hand, like the extra boost of cinnamon!

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Mexican Chocolate Pralines
(adapted from Snapguide: Jada's DIY's & Recipes)

3/4 cup granulated white sugar
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup fat-free half and half or evaporated milk
4 tbsp light butter (cubed)
2 tsp pure vanilla paste or extract
1 1/2 cups roasted pecan pieces
1 tbsp dark cocoa powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ancho chile powder
1/4 tsp kosher salt

 
Prepare a piece of non-stick parchment paper (about 12-15 in. long) and place on counter next to cooking station. In a small bowl, stir together cocoa powder, cinnamon, ancho chile powder, and salt. Set aside.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, add both sugars and the milk into the pot and mix well with a wooden spoon until sugars dissolve. Dip a pastry or any kind of small cooking brush in cold icy water then brush the sides of the pot to melt away any sugar crystals that may have formed.

Put in your candy thermometer. Make sure the tip is not touching the bottom but is in the actual candy liquid. The mixture should begin to froth at this point. Cook the candy, stirring occasionally, until it reaches it's proper temperature of 240F degrees.

Turn the heat completely off and take it off the burner. Add in the butter, vanilla, cinnamon mixture, and chopped pecans.

Stir mixture until it becomes thick and start to turn opaque. When the candy starts to hold together, quickly spoon it onto the parchment paper. Make sure to not over crowd and make them touch, otherwise the pralines will dry stuck together. Sprinkle with additional cinnamon to garnish, if desired.

Let the pralines set at room temperature for 30 min. Afterwards, if not serving right away, store in a air-tight container for up to 2 to 3 days. Makes about 9 to 12 pralines.

triumph: creamy pecan pralines.

Last night, I had a hankering for pralines. I don't know what triggered it, but I went online and tried to see if I can get some shipped to my house. Holy crap, were they expensive! Just a small tin from my favorite praline store, Savannah Sweets, ran about $30! Granted, I could just drive down to St. Augustine in Florida to go to onne of their stores, but I didn't really feel like driving an hour and some minutes just to get candy. And anyway, it was also the middle of the night.

My only other option? Well, I guess I can make them myself.

But I remember all too well what happened the last time I tried to make pralines . . . they were a disaster. Okay, well "disaster" might not be an accurate term. But I still messed them up, no matter how tasty they were anyway. So this time around, I opted to try a different recipe that I found before that had lots of good visuals in the tutorial. Boy, did they help! Not only was I able to see how to mix the ingredients, but the author also had video on the consistency of the candy! There was no way I would be able to mess this up!

And guess what? I made an almost perfect batch of pralines! Huzzah!

How could I have made this better? Surprisingly, just a couple of things. For one thing, I found them to be a tad sweet. The original recipe called for 1 cups each of white and brown sugar. I could tell already that that was going to be too sweet for me. So I reduced the amount to 3/4 cup each, but I still found them too sweet. Next time I make these, I'm going to further reduce the brown sugar to maybe 1/2 a cup and see where that is.

The other thing I was slightly unhappy about was with the fact that the pralines slightly bloomed. The trick for avoiding bloom (in other words, the sugar from crystallizing), is to make sure that all the sugar crystals melt in the cooking process. So, since I didn't really follow the directions and use a brush to get the crystals on the side, that affected my candy's appearance. Thankfully, they stayed creamy and didn't get crumbly and hard.

Other than that, I'm super happy with the way I made these. And a bonus? I used light butter and fat-free half and half and it still worked! Not only that, I used roasted and salted pecan pieces from Kahler Pecan House down the road. The pecans really made a difference! It was just enough salt to balance out all that sugar. The pralines themselves were melt-in-your-mouth and creamy despite the lighter butter and dairy used. As for me, all I can say is, yay, I found my prefect praline recipe! :D

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Creamy Pecan Pralines
(adapted from Snapguide: Jada's DIY's & Recipes)

3/4 cup granulated white sugar
1/2 to 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup fat-free half and half or evaporated milk
4 tbsp light butter (cubed)
2 tsp pure vanilla paste or extract
1 1/2 cups roasted and salted pecan pieces*
      (*or substitute with: 1 1/2 cups roasted pecan pieces and 1/4 tsp kosher salt)

 
Prepare a piece of non-stick parchment paper (about 12-15 in. long) and place on counter next to cooking station.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, add both sugars and the milk into the pot and mix well with a wooden spoon until sugars dissolve. Dip a pastry or any kind of small cooking brush in cold icy water then brush the sides of the pot to melt away any sugar crystals that may have formed.

Put in your candy thermometer. Make sure the tip is not touching the bottom but is in the actual candy liquid. The mixture should begin to froth at this point. Cook the candy, stirring occasionally, until it reaches it's proper temperature of 240F degrees.

Turn the heat completely off and take it off the burner. Add in the butter, vanilla, and chopped pecans.

Stir mixture until it becomes thick and start to turn opaque. When the candy starts to hold together, quickly spoon it onto the parchment paper. Make sure to not over crowd and make them touch, otherwise the pralines will dry stuck together.

Let the pralines set at room temperature for 30 min. Afterwards, if not serving right away, store in a air-tight container for up to 2 to 3 days. Makes about 9 to 12 pralines.

pear-fectly nuts.

Expectation: Making a breathtakingly beautiful but simple cake that looks exactly like the picture.
Reality: Not following directions and adding this and that and getting a cake that looks "okay"

I guess that's an insane thing to think, especially since I din't even follow the directions. I'm just one of those people that looks at a perfectly good recipe and says, "that's good, but what if I . . .". And that, as they say, is that.

But despite the substitutions and everything, the directions were surprisingly a little hard to follow. While it's stated in very simple terms, I'm more of a detailed baker. How much am I supposed to stir it? Do I whisk the dry ingredients together first then add it to the batter? How am I supposed to put the pear on it? Directions like that would've definitely helped.

While the directions did say to peel the pears first, I figured that leaving the skin on would be okay. I should've listened to the directions. Cutting into the cake was a little hard and the skins pulled slices of pears from the top of the cake. Also, I found that one thinly sliced pear was enough for the topping. Where she put the other pear is beyond me.

Regarding sweetness, this was a lightly sweetened cake. I knew that this wasn't going to be sweet enough for me, so I decided to pour some honey on top to not only add sweetness, but also to caramelize the nuts and pears since they didn't seem to be sinking into the batter like it showed in the picture. But again, this was probably the substitutions at work.

When all was said and done, this didn't turn out too bad. I served this with some additional honey, a dusting of powdered sugar, and some sweetened whipped coconut cream. Below is the "next-time-I-make-this" recipe adaptation:

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Pear Walnut Cake
(slightly adapted from Tartelette)

2 large eggs
1/2 to 3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup good quality olive oil
1 cup plain, low-fat or whole milk yogurt
zest and juice of a lemon
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 large pear, peeled and thinly sliced
1/3 cup walnuts, chopped
1/4 cup honey, warmed
powdered sugar, for garnish

 
Preheat oven to 350F degrees and line a 9-inch baking pan with parchment paper sprayed with a little cooking spray.

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar for about 2 minutes until light and lemon-colored. Add the olive oil, yogurt, lemon juice and zest and whisk again so that everything is well mixed. Add flour, baking powder and salt and mix just until the batter is smooth. Do not over mix.

Pour the mixture in the prepared baking pan. Place the pear slices on top, slightly diagonal and pressing gently into the cake, then sprinkle with the walnuts. Bake for about 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out free of crumbs. In the last 20 minutes of baking, drizzle the honey on top of the cake and return to the oven to finish baking.

Let cool completely before slicing and dusting with powdered sugar. Serves 8.

please, with a cherry inside?

I love sweet things. I've got a pretty hardcore sweet tooth. In fact, I'm one of those people who gets the frosting from other people's cake. :) And since Valentine's Day is just around the corner, that means a plethora of chocolates, cookies, and candies available in the stores. And did I mention cakes and brownies? Yumm!

Speaking of brownies, I tried making some a few months ago. When I was going through my pantry, however, I found that I was unfortunately out of cocoa powder. So what's the alternative? Blondies, of course! I found a great decadent recipe for white chocolate cherry almond blodies and, boy, were they rich! I guess 1 1/2 stick of butter will do that. I think the main issue I had was all that butter. While they tastes sinfully good, I just couldn't get the butter factor out of my mind each time I took a bite. I've been on a hunt for a better recipe ever since.

This recipe piqued my interest. With a title of No Butter Baking. on the blog, I thought that I finally hit jackpot! No butter in sight and the blodies themselves looked decent. There is, however, a half cup of oil. Hmm...

Since I wasn't sure how these were going to turn out, I decided to improvise a little and play with the recipe. Semi-solid coconut oil replaced the vegetable oil in order to mimic fluffiness of the butter. There isn't really any liquor in my house so the brandy was switched with pure vanilla extract. I added some whole wheat flour to help soak up the inevitable liquid that this was going to produce and added some walnuts, just because. Also, I wanted to see if I could lift the batter a little, so I added some leavening agents to the dry mixture.

So what did I end up with? Not a bad blondie. It was kind of greasy though, which I expected. But since I used coconut oil, I just popped them in the freezer for a bit which helped with the texture and cutting. I think if I added another 1/4 cup of whole wheat flour or reduced the oil just a bit, these might've turned out a little bit better. Although, I'd probably end up with a stiffer dough. I still have to play around with the recipe, but all in all, this didn't turn out too bad. :)

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White Chocolate Cherry Walnut Blondies
(adapted from No Butter Baking.)

1/2 cup semi-soft coconut oil
1 cup loosely packed dark brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup white chocolate chips
1/4 cup dried cherries
1/4 cup toasted chopped walnuts

 
Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Line

In a large bowl, cream together coconut oil and brown sugar. Add egg, vanilla, and salt, and whip until fluffy.

In a separate bowl, whisk together flours, baking soda, and baking powder until well combined. Add to wet ingredients along with white chocolate chips, cherries, and walnuts.

Pour batter into a parchment lined pan and level. Sprinkle top with additional cherries, chips, and walnuts and gently press into the batter.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until tester inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool completely in pan then chill in the freezer for 5 to 10 minutes for easier cutting. Remove from freezer then cut into 16 squares.

chocolate covered failures.

Yesterday was a very trying day. From the moment I woke up to the time I went to bed, nothing I did seemed to go right. Ever have one of those days?

It all started when I woke up later than I wanted to. 10 am, not too bad. just enough time to make some shrimp and grits for breakfast. That idea turned out to be a disaster. Ingredients were flying everywhere, things weren't tasting like they should, and the whole thing wasn't worth the effort it took to make . . . and I usually make a decent shrimp and grits. So after taking longer that I wanted in the kitchen, I was running behind for my shower. And since I was behind on taking a shower, The hubby came home right when I got out and we had an errand to run that day during his lunch break. So, that snowballed for a while until we got home.

When we finally got home later that we should've, I decided to go back into the kitchen and de-stress. I figured that the best way to do that was to finally make some Southern pralines. This recipe seemed easy enough and, since I wanted my pralines to be chewy, perfectly fit what I was looking for.

Problems started arising when I realized that I didn't have the right ingredients. Well, that was no biggie since I always sub a lot of my cooking with this or that. Heavy cream was a major ingredient in the recipe and I didn't have any. What I did have, however, was a big ole box of store brand, powdered skim milk from a recipe I tried a while back. So, not only was I subbing CREAM with NON-FAT dairy, I was using a CHEAP substitute POWDER to boot. Needless to say, I was wondering if this was a bad Idea after all.

I pushed on, though, despite my reservations. Despite adding too much vanilla, adding salt, and misreading the recipe. By the time I realized that I had missed the final step of stirring the pot to crystallize the boiling sugar, my concoction was beyond making pralines . . . it had cooked into caramel.

At this point, I reached the "I-don't-give-a-fuck-anymore" mode. My pralines were ruined, I wasted my precious Georgia-grown pecans my sister gave me, and I hadn't even gotten dinner ready. All the failures seemed to accumulate to this point and I was just not having it. However, I wan't so far gone that I still didn't want to salvage what was left on my counter.

Off I went to Walmart and purchased a couple bars of Cadbury's Dairy Milk and a single Lindt's White Choclate bar. I proceeded to melt the chocolate down and mix it with some coconut oil to help temper the chocolate. Then one by one, I covered the pralines-turned-caramels first in the milk chocolate, then drizzled it with white. When I ran out of the milk for dipping, I used the white instead.

In the end, my hopes for pralines were just a distant memory. I've since found a good tutorial for my next attempt on making these confections. While these milk chocolate pecan turtles turned out to be an adequate consolation, it still is a far cry to what they were supposed to be. Failure is failure, no matter how you look at it. *sigh*

But, what better way to fix failure than to cover it with lots of chocolate?

crustless wonder.

I was in the mood for some pie. I don't remember exactly what triggered the craving, but it was growing exponentially with each passing day. But just because I'm in the mood for pie doesn't mean I wanted to make it myself. Lazy much? Lol.

I think it's all the steps that goes into making a pie: Making the crust, doing the filling, then putting it all together. That's waaay too many steps to go through especially when I want it RIGHT NOW. So when I came across this Amish pie recipe, I was stoked! The pie looked interesting and easy enough to do. I had all the ingredients on hand, so what more could I ask for?

After blitzing this in the blender and pouring it in the pie dish, I was as curious to how this was going to turn out. Waiting patiently for 45 minutes and letting it cool until it was warm-ish, I cut into the pie and tasted it.

I had mixed feelings about the pie.

On one hand, I liked that it had an egg-custard-like texture to it but I was expecting something more like a velvety smooth Bavarian custard. And I don't know if I didn't blend it enough, but my pie turned out wet, like it wasn't blended properly or something and the eggs, milk, and butter didn't incorporate together fully. So, more blending maybe? The flavor was nice, although I wished it was a tad more sweeter.

So, would I make this again? Maybe. I'd probably tweak it a little so that I'd get a more smoother, velvety filling like that in the picture. And amp up the sugar a little. And add more coconut flakes. Hmmm . . . Looks like I might try another recipe for this pie. Damn, it had so many goo reviews too. :/

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Amish Crustless Coconut Custard Pie
(from Cookin' at Home)

2 cups milk, may use lower fat
4 large eggs
1⁄2 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
1 cup granulated sugar
1⁄2 cup butter, room temperature
1⁄2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

 
Place all ingredients into a blender and mix well until smooth. Pour into a 9" deep dish pie pan-- during the baking process, the flour drops to form the crust and the remaining ingredients will form the filling.

Bake at 350F degrees for 45 to 50 minutes. Cool on wire rack for 1 hour. Serve warm or at room temperature.