Cherry Blossom Ice Cream Sandwiches

These little hand-held rounds of deliciousness were inspired by the same “made in Canada” candy bar that gave rise to my Cherry Blossom Cheesecake.  I wanted something a little summery for a pot-luck this week, despite our rainy and cool weather.  Voila !

The cookies themselves are a basic chocolate cookie with coconut, peanut and milk chocolate mix-ins (adapted from).  And they are great on their own ( I tasted one, just to be sure ! ).  I sandwiched them with a black cherry ice cream, but I bet they would be equally tasty with strawberry or even more chocolate.  A maraschino cherry ice cream would be spot on, but I couldn’t find any (and wanted to keep things simple, so no home-made).

• 2 cups flour
• 3/4 cups cocoa
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 cups shredded coconut
• 1 1/4 cups butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup golden cane sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup chopped peanuts
• 1 cup milk chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line cookie sheets with parchment.  Sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt and coconut in a separate bowl.  To a stand mixer, cream together butter and both sugars, add eggs one at a time, then vanilla.  To this, add dry ingredients in two additions and mix until incorporated.  Mix in peanuts and chocolate chips.

Drop cookie dough by spoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheet and bake for 8 minutes or until nearly set (you want them a little soft).  This will depend on how large you make the cookies – I deliberately kept them on the small side, using my smallest ice cream scoop (about 1 1/2 tbsp) as there would be many other treats at the potluck.  You can make these as small or as large as you like !

To make the ice cream sandwiches, simply place a scoop of softened ice cream in between two cookies and squish to evenly distribute.  Ta-da !!

Rhubarb Crisp Cheesecake

As we’re heading into rhubarb season within the next couple of months, I thought I’d share a cheesecake recipe that I submitted into a contest last fall.  Alas, I did not win, but I had a lot of fun making a lot of cheesecakes.  This, and the Barm Brack cheesecake I featured in March, were one of several I entered, and you can check them out on my profile on the Kraft site.

Here is the Rhubarb Crisp Cheesecake recipe.  I made this based on an old recipe given to me by my mother, and she loved the finished cake.  I hope you enjoy it too

Poppyseed Bundt Cake with White Chocolate Lemon Cheesecake Filling

Not the prettiest of photos, as I had a heckuva time getting this out of the pan, but this was a tasty twist on a lemon poppyseed cake.  As you can probably tell, I also need to tweak my baking time, it’s taking me a bit of getting used to this heavy stoneware pan I have for some reason and I wonder if a non-stick would be better for this particular cake.  This cuts to a nice slice though and should please cake and cheesecake lovers alike.  And now, on to the recipe !

Start by preheating your oven to 325.  Grease/flour your bundt pan.

• 1/3 cup plus 2.5 tbsp poppseeds
• 1 cup plus 2 tbsp milk
• 6 tbsp milk
• 1.5 tsp vanilla

Combine the first two ingredients and set aside for an hour or two, then add an additional 6 tbsp milk and 1.5 tsp of vanilla.

• 1 cup butter
• 2 1/4 cups white sugar
• 3 cups cake flour
• 3 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 3 eggs

To your stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar.  Sift together dry ingredients. To butter mixture, add dry ingredients in 3 additions, alternating with two additions of poppyseed/milk mixture.  Once combined, add eggs, one at a time.  Scrape bowl.

For the cheesecake centre:

• 2 8 ounce packages of cream cheese
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 tbsp flour
• 2 ounces white chocolate, melted
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 egg

Cream sugar and cream cheese together, add flour, melted chocolate, zest and juice.  Last, add egg and blend.

To your prepared bundt pan, add half the poppyseed batter.  Pour cheesecake centre on top, away from pan edges if possible.  Top with remaining poppyseed batter.  Bake in preheated oven for about an hour, or under tester comes out clean.  I initially started baking this at 350 and it proved too high, and I ended up having to use foil around the edges to save it.

Remove from oven, and once cooled and removed from pan, make glaze with:

• 1 cup icing sugar
• 1.5 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp milk

And drizzle over top.

 

Jellybean Squares aka “when good squares go bad”

EXHIBIT A: Failsquares

What a mess.  I guess every so often the universe needs to remind you that you’re really NOT all that and a bag of chips in the kitchen.

Jelly beans and stuff like Mike and Ike candies are my favorite.  As in I can’t bring them home often favorite, because I would eat a whole bag.  But seeing as how it is Easter weekend, I decided to whip these up.

These TASTED really good , but the way I made them, they did not execute well at all.  As you can see from the photo, they separated when I tried to cut them due to a barrier of too hard jellybeans.   Next time I will use fewer, smaller jellybeans and mix them IN with the chocolate on top, instead of as a middle.  I don’t know what I was thinking. Live and learn !

Anyway, I will share the recipe even though it’s none too pretty, because as I said, these actually tasted really good, and are worth tweaking later.

Start by preheating the oven to 325 degrees.  Prepare a 9×9 inch square pan by greasing bottom and sides with butter (you can also line the pan with foil first, but today I used a non-stick).

For the bottom layer:

• 1 cup butter
• 1/2 cup cane sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups flour

Cream butter and sugar today, then add salt and vanilla.  Lastly, mix in flour.  Press this mixture into your prepared pan and bake for 25-30 minutes.  Remove from oven.

While bottom layer is baking, in either a double boiler or the microwave, combine:

• 2 1/2 cups chocolate chips
• 3 tbsps butter

Melt until creamy and incorporated.  And while this is not what I did (I poured the chocolate over a layer of jellybeans), mix about 3/4 cup of small jellybeans in with the chocolate and smooth on top (I had also originally used about 1 1/4 cups of jellybeans).

Happy Easter everyone

Maple Walnut Cookies

The sugar woods around here are in full swing now, and there is an abundance of maple products available right now in all the stores, and of course if you visit the sugar camps themselves and see how all these delicious maple products are made (which I highly recommend, as its a lot of fun).  Check out the Maple Producers Association of NS for info and events !

Yesterday I picked up a block of maple cream and about 8 of those maple candy (also made from the cream), seen above.  The cream is a lot softer than the candy often found, although this depends on how new it is.  I wanted a drier candy, to chop into chunks.  Because cookies, of course !

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup maple cream chunks (8 maple leaf candy yielded approx 1 cup which I then put in the freezer for a while to hold their shape)
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• maple sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix together first three dry ingredients.  Cream together butter and sugars, then add vanilla and eggs, one at a time.  Add dry ingredients and mix to blend.  Stir in walnuts and then maple cream chunks.

Drop spoonfuls of the cookie dough onto a parchment lined cookie sheet, press slightly and if using, sprinkle with a little maple sugar.  Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden.  Yields about 33 large cookies.

Stout and Cheddar Soup

Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone !  Here is a sample of the big pot of soup I cooked up today that is destined for a themed potluck tomorrow.  I took my inspiration from some similar recipes out there, and wanted both a large batch (around 10 servings) , this is the result.  I was originally going to use Guinness, but decided to go with a local stout from Garrison Brewery.  I plan to serve this along with an Irish potato bread that I also made today.

• 5 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp butter
• 5 cups chopped yellow onion
• 6 medium carrots, chopped
• 6 ribs of celery, chopped
• 10 cloves of garlic, halved
• 2/3 cup white flour
• 3 bay leaves
• 2 tbsp plus 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tbsp plus 1 tsp dry mustard
• 1/4 tsp cayenne
• 2 1/2 cups stout – I used Garisson’s Martello Stout
• 5 cups chicken or vegetable stock
• 2 medium potatoes, chopped
• 4 cups milk
• 1 cup whipping cream
• 5 cups shredded cheddar
• salt and pepper to taste

In a large boiler, add oil, butter, onion, carrot, celery and garlic and cook until vegetables are softened.  Add flour and cook 1-2 minutes more.  Add in stout, stock, Worcestershire, mustard, bay leaves and cayenne.  Add chopped potatoes and bring this mixture to a boil until potatoes are cooked.  Remove from heat, remove bay leaves and stir in milk and cream.  Use a stick blender or traditional blender to puree.

Return pureed mixture to heat.  Over low heat, add cheese by handfuls, using a whisk throughout until everything is creamy and incorporated.  Adjust seasonings and serve !

Irish Soda “Bread”

The quotes are for the fact that I’d probably be laughed out of Ireland for calling this a soda bread – this is more of a cake.  If you want to debate or read a bit more about traditional soda breads (which are also great), you can do that here .

Me? I love this recipe, and have been making it for a long time, having gotten it from my oldest sister years ago.  I think the first time I ever had it, it was served with lemon curd alongside, and I was hooked.  I am a big fan of caraway seeds in baking (Purity Caraway Biscuits anyone? ), so this one had me.  For the less caraway enamored, you can leave them out. 

• 6 tbsp butter
• 3 cups flour
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cup currants
• 1 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 2 eggs well beaten
• 1 tbsp caraway seeds

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 9 x 9 square pan or a large loaf pan with butter.

Melt 2 tbsp butter and set aside. 

Sift together dry ingredients, then add currants

Whisk together milk, eggs and the 2 tbsp melted butter.  Add this mixture to dry ingredients along with caraway.  Barely stir and pour into prepared pan.

Cut remaining butter in small pieces and drop over top of batter.  Bake for about 45 minutes or until tester comes clean. 

Eat plain, or as I love it, with a little homemade lemon curd