Strawberry Cream Tarts

This recipe I found in the Taste of Home's Holiday & Celebrations Cookbook 2002. My Mom got this book free from a friend and work, and gave it to me because she knows how much I love trying new recipes. If you have never seen a Taste of Home magazine or tried any of their recipes before, I highly recommend it.
This recipe was good, but I was expecting great because of my past Taste of Home recipe experiences. They were less custardy than what I thought they would be. Who knows it could have been the cook who erred though and I will try it again sometime :)

2 pkgs (6 count each) individual graham cracker tart shells
2 eggs whites, beaten
1 c sugar
1/2c plus 2 T all-purpose flour
3 c milk
2 whole eggs beaten
6 T butter cubed
2 T lemon juice
12 strawberries, hulled and sliced
12 blueberries
6 T strawberry jelly, melted

Preheat oven to 350. Brush the insides of the tart shells with eggs whites. Place on two cookie sheets and bake for 5 min, cool completely on wire racks.
In saucepan combine the sugar and flour, gradually stir in milk until smooth. Bring to boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Once boiling cook and keep stirring for one min. Remove from heat. Stir a small amount of the hot milk mixture into the eggs; return all to the pan, stirring constantly. Bring mixture back to a gentle boil then cook for one min more. Remove from the heat, stir in lemon juice and butter and refrigerate until chilled.
Just before serving spoon custard into shells, then top with strawberries and blueberries. Spoon melted jelly over the fruit.

Molten Chocolate Mini Cakes

Some of you know this already, but I once donned the apron of a Pampered Chef consultant. It was a great job for the 1.5 years that I did it. I got to stay at home with my kids during the day, hang out with fun ladies in the evening, and earn many fabulous items for my kitchen in addition to bringing in the extra money we needed each month. One of the items that I earned was the Silicone Floral Cupcake pan. I was very excited to get it, but for some crazy reason, I never actually used it!
I had promised Phil for years that I would make him these cakes, but thought that they would be too complicated and not turn out right, so I kept putting it off. I was SO wrong. These little cakes were very easy and turned out wonderful. I am sure that they would turn out in normal sized cupcake pans too. I just really enjoyed the flower shapes. Here is how I did it.

Ingredients:
6 ounces fine-quality bittersweet chocolate - 60% cocoa (mine was actually 75%)
1/2 c butter (do not use margarine!)
3 whole eggs
3 egg yolks (don't forget to save those whites to be used at a later time)
1 1/2 c powdered sugar
3/4 c all-purpose flour
Vanilla Ice cream (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Generously spray your muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray. I used oil on my silicone pan. Break apart or coarsely chop up chocolate and combine with butter. Microwave butter and chocolate in the for 1-2 min, stirring every 30 seconds until melted. Let cool 5 minutes.
2. Whisk eggs and egg yolks into the chocolate mixture; add sugar and flour mixing until just incorporated.
3. Divide the batter evenly into 12 muffin cups. Bake 13-14 minutes or until outside edges are set and center is still liquid.
4. Remove from pan by placing some platter or cookie sheet over the pan and inverting them carefully. Slowly lift pan to be sure that all cakes are released before lifting it off completely. As you can see below. I sprinkled mine with more powdered sugar, but had to leave some without so that you could see the cute flowers.



Serve with ice cream and enjoy!

Outrageous Cookie Bars

I make this for my MOPS group. They are super yummy, but I would have done two things differently and I have added those changes to the dessert directions below. I have put them in parenthesis.





Ingredients
1/2 c butter or margarine (I used butter)
1 1/2 c graham cracker crumbs
14 oz sweeten condensed milk
12 oz semi-sweet chocolate morsels
1 c flakes coconut
1 c chopped walnuts

Directions
1. Oven at 350 F; melt the butter in 9x13 pan in the oven (I made the mistake of using my Pyrex portable pan which is slightly bigger than 9x13 and had to add extra butter and graham cracker crumbs)

2. Remove from oven and stir graham cracker crumbs into melted butter; press into bottom of the pan (here is where I would have put the pan back into the oven and baked the crumbs until they were lightly browned); pour sweeten condensed milk over crumbs; sprinkle morsels, coconut and walnuts over milk (I mixed these 3 together first) press down firmly

3. Bake 25-30 min or until light brown. Cool completely on wire rack. Makes 2-3 dozen bars.

Striped Angel Cake

January's Dessert
I have also heard of this cake being called Jello cake, and I remember eating something like it in our Dining Commons at Spring Arbor University. However, the cake they gave us was made with white cake mix. I believe that this version is much yummier due to the fact that I have used angel food cake.
I chose to make this dessert for our pitch-in at church and received a huge compliment from my sister-in-law about it. She told me that it was the "fanciest" dessert on the table. I was not able to get a picture of it, but as you will be able to tell from the ingredients and directions it is not hard to make, but it does look beautiful.

Ingredients
1 pkg (16oz) angel food cake mix
1 pkg (0.3 oz) sugar free jello - any flavor that you like. I chose raspberry.
3/4 c boiling water
1/2 c cold water
2 c thawed whip topping - you can use light if you want to

1. oven to 350 F. Mix up cake mix according to pkg directions. Pour into 9x13 pan and spread out evenly. Bake in center of oven for 35-40 min or until top is golden brown and doesn't feel sticky when you touch it. Remove from oven and invert onto a wire rack to cool for 45 min.

2.Once cake is cool poke small holes about 1 1/2 inches deep and 1/2 apart all over the cake.

3. Combine jello and boiling water. Stir for 2 min or until the jello is completely dissolved. Add the cold water and mix. Slowly pour the jello over the cake and refrigerate for at least 3 hrs. Top with cool whip, cut into squares and you are ready to go!

I love baking!

I truly love to bake and make desserts! I am excited about having this blog so that I can share with all of you my fun and delicious creations. This blog will also give me the excuse for making desserts that I may not normally take the time to make. I hope that you all will enjoy reading about my adventures and maybe take the chance and try one yourself.

When I was creating this site I surprised myself in how techy I was. I searched forever to find what I thought to be the best template and background, and hit snags along the way it setting it up. Now it looks great, and I am very proud to say that I didn't ask for any help with it.