Thursday, December 16, 2010
Homemade Almond Roca
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
German Chocolate Sauerkraut Cake
¾ cup butter
Directions for the frosting:
And now a quiz: Name the country of origin. ??? Au contraire: German chocolate cake did not begin in Germany. The name comes from the chocolate, not the country. When Englishman Sam German created dark baking chocolate for his American employer, the Baker's Chocolate Company in 1852, the product was named after him. According to several sources, the first recipe for German Chocolate Cake was submitted by a Texas housewife to a local Dallas newspaper in 1957. It became an instant hit, driving up the sales of the chocolate. I don't know who, later, added the sauerkraut, perhaps a crafty sauerkraut company.
🤔💡
You may also enjoy:
Let's Eat Hummingbird Cake
Sacher-Torte, The Perfect Birthday Cake
Homemade Almond Roca
Chocolate Biscuit Cake (Prince William's Favorite)
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Five "Better For You" Candies
Yet if we try to eliminate all candy from our diets, most of us will fail. Extreme diets that make us feel deprived rarely succeed. The trick is to eat sugar in moderation. Sweets should be a special treat. So figure out what candies satisfy your hankering for sugar and eat them mindfully ... as a planned treat, limiting yourself to one serving.
Here are 5 candies that are better for you (or less bad, however you want to look at it) to consider:
1. Cry Baby Tears - This is the mother of extra sour candy, thus, the name. There are 5 intense flavors in a box. Cry Babies are one of my favorites, but they are not for everyone. 12 tears have 50 calories.
2. Sweetarts - If you love sour candy, but Cry Babies make you pucker up, try Sweetarts. They are tangy-tarty good. 10 pieces are 60 calories.
2. Premium Dark Chocolate - Eat chocolate with at least 70% cocoa. One ounce is heart-healthy because it contains antioxidants.
3. Atomic FireBalls - Have a hot cinnamon flavor. They are hard as a rock, so you can only eat one ball over a length of time by sucking on it as it dissolves slowly in your mouth. That one 20 calorie ball is packed with flavor.
4. Crystallized Ginger - Ginger has anti-inflammatory properties. Just a few pieces, at 18 calories each, satisfy a yen with heat and intense flavor.
5. Candy Corn (and pumpkins) - are made from sugar, corn syrup, carnauba wax, fondant and marshmallows. Candy corn has zero fat and 8 calories a piece. It is a good choice because of how sweet it is. A little goes a long way. Candy pumpkins are double in size and calories.
Except for the chocolate, which has roughly 210 calories, the other candy listed is 60 calories or less per serving. Each is low in fat (except the chocolate), but high in flavor to satisfy your sweet tooth. Savor your treat!
Here is a fun website where you can find nostalgic candy by the decade. Do you have a favorite candy to recommend?
Monday, April 19, 2010
Homemade Monster Cookies
-Ingrediants:
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Let's Eat Hummingbird Cake
Chill the cake in the refrigerator for about one hour. Garish with chopped pecans and/or shredded coconut, if you wish.
Monday, August 1, 2022
Eat Chocolate Chips To Beat Inflation
Rarely will I buy a chocolate bar, instead I stock a bag of dark chocolate chips, that I open and try to pour out a one-ounce serving as a treat. I don't always succeed, but I have a better chance of stopping with one or two pours of chocolate chips that I pop into my mouth than stopping after eating a strip of chocolate. I mean, once you unwrap a candy bar, you eat nearly the entire bar, right? We rarely stop at a square or strip of chocolate.
The brands of chocolate chips that taste as good as chocolate bars come from Aldi (dark) or Target (semi-sweet). Walmart's semi-sweet chips are good too, but just a tad below in flavor compared to Target's and Aldi's house brands.
What started off as annoyance directed at the forever shrinking chocolate bar (too costly for the puny size), as well as, portion control is also a money saver that adds up over time. And it's easy to toss a few chocolate chips (rich in flavanols like epicatechin and catechin) into plain Greek yogurt or a bowl of oatmeal for healthy eats that are low in sugar.Monday, December 30, 2013
Chocolate Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies
Photo: Debra Turner via iphone |
This year I was a slacker when it came to baking cookies. I reasoned ... with the eggnog, chocolate candy and mulled apple cider (not to mention nuts and a few bakery cookies), did I really need to bake cookies too? Well, apparently, the answer is ''yes'' because I baked a batch.
Friends who live in the neighborhood went out of town for the holidays, leaving me the keys to their apartment. When I went over to check on things the first day, on their counter they left me a festive basket of fresh fruit and dark chocolate. Very thoughtful (and delectable) right?
So when they return tomorrow, they will find a batch of these cookies sitting in their kitchen (along with bags of white tea and chai tea, a surprise!). So you see, it is really is their fault that I baked them. The oatmeal gives the cookies a nice texture, and there are chocolate chips in every bite. Here is the recipe:
Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1/2 cup peanut butter (if you leave pb out sometimes, add a tablespoon of liquid)
Photo: Dr. Oz Show |
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon real vanilla extract
1 large egg
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 cup oatmeal
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
a pinch of salt
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/4 cup coconut (optional: I threw it in)
6-7 ounces chocolate chips (that's a package)
Directions:
1. Start by throwing the butter into a mixing bowl and microwave for 20 seconds to soften.
2. Add the peanut butter. Mix together.
2. Add the remaining ingredients, one at a time, using an electric mixer to combine.
3. A full cup of oatmeal produces a drier (but still moist dough). Form into 1-inch balls and place on an oiled cookie sheet (or on parchment paper). I flatten them slightly.
4. Bake for 10-12 minutes in a preheated 350-degree F oven. When done, cool for 2 minutes before removing the cookies from the pans. Let cool completely before storing in a container.
I have a feeling my friends will enjoy these cookies as much as I do. Naturally, I had to taste their deliciousness before offering them as a gift.
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Tuesday, December 19, 2023
Rita Fox’s Bourbon Fruitcake
With permission, I published this recipe 4 years ago. It's the best fruitcake you will ever eat. Rita also sells them (including by mail order) as they are a lot of work to make. Gladly will I put readers in touch with the baker upon request for next year. This year, her fruitcakes are all sold. Moreover, Rita has published an awesome family cookbook. She is also an author of romance books that you can check out under her pen name Kallypso Masters.
Modified 12/12/23
Yield: three bread-loaf pans-sized cakes or 7 mini loaves.
NOTE: Allow at least 4 weeks for mini cakes and 6 weeks for bread-loaf-sized cakes to be ready, so don't wait too long to start each year! I start as soon as candied fruit is available in my store, usually in late October.
You can substitute spiced rum anywhere it mentions bourbon below.
Ingredients
4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon ground nutmeg
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
6 large whole eggs
1/2 cup bourbon (this is just for the cake recipe, not the soaking)
4 cups pecan pieces, soaked in bourbon
8 oz. Craisins (OR yellow or dark raisins), soaked overnight in bourbon
1 lb. candied cherries (I use 8 oz each of red and green cherries)
8 oz. candied pineapple
1/2 cup orange marmalade (I don’t like citron and this is not bitter)
pecan halves and red/green whole cherries to decorate the top of cakes, optional
cheesecloth (each piece needs to be at least 27 inches long for a mini cake or up to 2 yards for bread-loaf-sized cakes)
1.75 liter bottle of fine Kentucky bourbon
Method
At least the night before mixing and baking the cakes (can also be a week before), soak Craisins/raisins and pecans in bourbon in separate containers. (I put the pecans into a quart Mason/Ball jar and the Craisins/raisins into a pint jar.) Cover and then some with bourbon, cover with foil or plastic, and put them in the fridge until ready to mix and bake. They will plump up with the liquor, so don’t overfill the jars, but try to keep the fruit and nuts covered in bourbon.
Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and another rack below it on the lowest spot. Put a pan full of water on the lowest rack. This will add moisture to the oven when baking. Heavily butter pans. Set aside. (I don’t use spray because the butter adds richness to the cakes.)
Sift the flour, baking powder, and nutmeg into a medium bowl. (Even if the flour says it’s presifted, I would sift.)
In a separate, large bowl, cream the butter and sugar, beating with a mixer until the mixture is light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. (If you have a stand mixer, use it here because it will help later in the process.) Add the eggs, one at a time, blending completely after each addition.
Add the flour mixture to the eggs in two additions, alternating with the 1/2 cup bourbon. Stir in the pecans, marmalade, Craisins/raisins, pineapple, and cherries. The batter will be very stiff, so this is why you’ll want a stand mixer at this point. But I remember my mom mixing it by hand when I was young.
Transfer the batter to the prepared pans. OPTIONAL: Decorate the top with bourbon-soaked pecan halves and red/green whole cherries.
Bake until a cake tester or toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. APPROXIMATE baking times (ovens vary; also consider altitude adjustments--be sure the tester or toothpick comes out clean in several spots not just the center):
* bread loaf pan: 75-90 minutes
* mini pans: 60-75 minutes
If the top of the cake begins to brown substantially before the cake is set, cover it loosely with a piece of aluminum foil. When done, remove the cakes from the oven and let cool for 15-30 minutes on a wire rack. Run a knife down the sides to help loosen the cakes from the pans. If the bottoms of the cakes are still pale, you might want to return them to the oven for a little longer.
When completely cool (can sit overnight), wrap each cake in a strip of bourbon-soaked cheesecloth until completely covered.
Place the cakes in airtight, leak-free containers. I use a large Rubbermaid or Tupperware containers big enough to fit multiple cakes.
Liberally, but slowly over the first two or three days (unless they’re already sitting in a lot of liquid), pour additional bourbon over the cheesecloth-wrapped cakes. Store the containers in a cool, dark place throughout the process and after they’re done. I don’t have a pantry big enough for all the cakes I bake anymore, so I cover them with beach towels and just leave them on the table or shelf space I have available.
When no liquid bourbon is visible any longer, you will begin to mellow the cakes. Usually at least one day during this stage, I will remove the lids to evaporate excess liquor, flipping the cakes again after 12 hours