Eat The Love

Made-From-Scratch Cloverleaf Rolls

Sat, 18 Nov 2023 01:00:53 +0200

These made-from-scratch, cloverleaf rolls have a soft crumb and are easier to make than they look. They are a great addition to any meal!

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Sadly, I did NOT grow up with dinner rolls. In fact, I didn’t discover dinner rolls until I had dinner at my elementary school friend’s Jamie Gentry’s house. His mom made cloverleaf rolls like these and they possibly were life change. And though I have plenty of recipes for dinner rolls here on the blog, like Parker House rolls, Ukrainian Pampushky, potato rolls, garlic knots, and herb Parmesan wool roll bread, I decided I need to add these clover rolls to the blog because of the nostalgia and soft spot I have for them. They’re tender, rich, soft, and a delightful addition to any meal!

How to make these

A lot of cloverleaf rolls use store-bought bread dough, which is a super easy shortcut. I explain how to do that in a section below. But this recipe uses an enriched dough made from scratch. Enriched just means there is the addition of butter and egg in the dough, which yields a richer and more tender roll. But don’t worry, it’s still an easy bread dough to make!

Start by warming up a small amount of milk in a small saucepan. You want to bring the milk to about 100°F, which is warm to the touch. It should only take 15 to 30 seconds to do this, so don’t overheat the milk. Once it’s warmed, add in a little sugar (which helps the yeast rise) and the active dry yeast. Stir and let sit to proof.

Once proofed, beat in melted butter and an egg to the warm milk liquid. Then place the flour and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add all the liquid to the bowl and knead with a dough hook for 7 to 12 minutes, until the dough is shiny, smooth and elastic.

Let the dough rise until double (about 1 to 2 hours depending on where you place it). While it rises, brush the inside of each cup in a standard muffin pan with butter. Then divide the dough into 12 pieces. Take a piece, divide it into 3 parts, roll each part into a small ball, and place all the balls inside a muffin cup. Repeat with the remaining dough.

Cover and let rise again, then brush with butter and bake until golden brown. Brush with more butter and sprinkle with salt and serve.

How to use store-bought bread dough

If you want to skip the making of the dough, just buy 1 pound of bread dough or pizza dough, then divide the dough into 12 pieces. Take a single piece and divide it into 3 parts, rolling each small piece into a small ball, Place the 3 small balls inside a buttered muffin cup, and then repeat with the remaining dough. Cover and let rise until double, gently brush with 2 tablespoons of butter, and bake for 12 to 14 minutes or until golden brown.

What sort of yeast to use

If you’ve never used yeast before, it can be a little confusing when you’re at the store as there are so many options. I use active dry yeast in this recipe, which is a common style of yeast that you can find pretty much anywhere.

You can also use instant dry yeast or rapid rise yeast in place of the active dry yeast. With instant dry yeast, just add the yeast into the flour and salt, there’s no need to dissolve in the milk first. If you’re using rapid rise yeast, add it to the milk but keep in mind that it works more rapidly (thus the name) so check the dough earlier as it rises. Once it’s doubled, which can be as short as 30 minutes with rapid rise yeast, start dividing and forming the bread roll. Continue the recipe as directed.

Make them overnight rolls

If you want to simplify your life, you can turn these into overnight rolls! Just make the dough, let it rise, then divide and form the cloverleaf rolls in the muffin pan. Once the rolls are formed, cover the dough with plastic wrap and place the dough in the fridge overnight. The next day, take the dough out of the fridge, let it come to room temperature (which could be up to 2 hours, depending on how warm your kitchen is) and let the dough rise until it’s double. Bake as directed.

Variations

Herb Butter Rolls: Make these herb butter rolls by chopping 2 teaspoons of fresh herbs, like parsley, oregano, sage, thyme, or rosemary leaves (always use fresh herbs, not dried ones for this recipe) along with 1 teaspoon of kosher salt. Then mix them into the melted butter and brush them on top after the rolls are baked.
Parmesan Garlic Rolls: Make these Parmesan garlic rolls by mincing 2 medium-sized cloves and placing them in a small saucepan. Add 3 tablespoons of butter and heat the saucepan until the butter is melted and you can smell the garlic. Remove from heat, add 1 tablespoons of grated parmesan and 1 tablespoon of chopped parsley. Brush over just baked rolls.
Salted Honey Rolls: Make these salted honey rolls by mixing in 1 tablespoon of honey into the melted butter. Brush over the top of the rolls and then sprinkle with flaky salt.

How to store

These rolls are best eaten the day they are baked. But you can store leftovers in an airtight container or in a Ziploc bag at room temperature. They will keep for 2 days. Refresh them in a 300°F oven or toaster oven for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.

More yeasted bread recipes

Made-from-Scratch Cloverleaf Rolls

These fun clover shaped dinner rolls are made from scratch but are easier than they look! Once you’ve pulled them out of the oven, be sure to brush them with extra melted butter and salt. It makes all the difference!

Course bread, Side Dish

Cuisine American

Keyword bread, side dish

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 15

Rise time 2

Servings

Calories 168kcal

Author Irvin

Ingredients

Dough

1/2 cup milk 115 g
1 teaspoon white sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast 7 g or 1 package
4 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
1 large egg
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 cups all-purpose flour 280 g

For pan

1 tablespoon melted butter

Before baking

2 tablespoon unsalted butter melted

After baking

2 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
1 teaspoon flaky or kosher salt like Maldon or Diamond Crystal

Instructions

Warm the milk to about 105°F in a small saucepan on the stove (warm to the touch). Stir in the sugar, then the active dry yeast, making sure the yeast has dissolved. Set aside for 5 minutes to proof. The yeast won’t foam and bubble like it would with water after the 5 minutes, but the surface of the liquid should be slightly textured.
Whisk in the melted butter and egg into the yeasty milk.
Place the flour in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Pour the liquid into the bowl and turn the mixer on low speed. Continue to mix until the liquid is absorbed, and a rough dough has formed. Increase the speed to medium low speed and knead the dough until it is shiny, smooth, and elastic which should take about 7 to 10 minutes.
Grease a bowl with cooking oil. Then take the dough and pull the dough until there is a smooth ball that formed, then place it in the bowl, with the rough side of the ball facing down. Cover with plastic wrap and put in a warm place (like the oven with the light turned on) and let rise until double in size, about 1 to 2 hours.
Once doubled, brush butter inside the cups of a standard muffin pan.
Divide the dough into 12 equal parts. Take one lump of dough and divide each it into 3 parts, rolling each part into a ball. Place the balls into one muffin pan. Repeat with the remaining dough.
Lightly spray some plastic wrap with cooking oil, then cover the muffin pan with it, letting the dough rise for another 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until it has doubled.
Preheat the oven to 375°F. If you are using the oven as a place to proof your dough, make sure to remove the pan from the oven before you preheat! Gently brush the top of the risen dough with melted butter. Then bake in the oven for 12 to 14 minutes, or until the rolls are golden brown on top.
Finish the rolls by brushing them with more butter, then sprinkling salt on them before serving.

Nutrition

The post Made-From-Scratch Cloverleaf Rolls appeared first on Eat The Love.

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies

Fri, 03 Nov 2023 21:29:01 +0200

These chewy pumpkin oatmeal cranberry cookies have browned butter in them and are packed full of autumnal flavor!

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Pumpkin tends to be relegated to just the fall and winter but honestly, I could eat pumpkin spiced items all year round. Still, when the weather cools a bit, it’s great excuse for me to bust out the pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spice from my pantry. This is clearly evident with the number of pumpkin recipes on this blog, including my pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin muffins with cream cheese filling, pumpkin bread pudding, pumpkin star bread, and all the pumpkin quick breads like pumpkin bread, pumpkin spice latte bread, and pumpkin banana bread. But there’s always room for ONE. MORE. PUMPKIN. RECIPE. So, grab some pumpkin puree and make these pumpkin oatmeal cranberry cookies! They’re the epitome of autumn, all wrapped up in a handheld snack!

How do you make these cookies?

Like my brown butter oatmeal raisin cookies, this cookie starts with browning butter. Browning the butter does two things, it caramelizes the milk fat in butter, leading to a more complex, nutty-flavored butter, with notes of toffee and caramel. And it removes some of the water in the butter, which helps to reduce the “cakey” quality of the cookies.

Brown the butter by first placing it in a large skillet. Melt the butter on medium high heat, then reduce the heat to medium low after the butter melts. Continue to cook the butter until the solid milk fats have started to brown and the browned butter smells fragrant. Keep in mind the butter will bubble a lot, so stir frequently (the bubbling is a result of the water in the butter boiling off).

Once the butter is browned, pour it (making sure to scrape out and brown bits) into the bowl of a stand mixer and place the pumpkin puree in the same skillet (no need to clean it). Cook the puree until it has reduced and darkened in color and texture. Cooking the puree removes the metallic “tinny” quality that canned pumpkin sometimes has, concentrates the pumpkin flavor, and also removes some of the water which prevents the cookies from becoming cakey. Scrape the puree into the bowl with the browned butter.

Add the brown sugar, white sugar, pumpkin pie spice blend, vanilla, baking soda, and salt, then mix with a paddle attachment. Scrape down the sides and then mix in an egg yolk. Gently mix in rolled oats and flour, then stir in the dried cranberries.

Chill the dough to help it firm up, and then scoop out balls of dough and bake.

What sort of pumpkin puree should you use?

This recipe has been tested with Libby’s pumpkin puree, the most common brand of pumpkin puree that you can find at grocery stores. A vast majority of people use Libby’s but if you use a different pumpkin puree brand or you roast your own sugar/pie pumpkin to make pumpkin puree, you might find that it’s thinner and more watery than the dominant canned brand.

If you are using a non-Libby’s pumpkin puree or a homemade puree, compensate for that extra water, by starting with 1 1/2 cups of puree and cooking it until it reduces down to 3/4 cup of puree. This might longer than the suggested 5 to 6 minutes in the recipe but it shouldn’t take more than an extra minute or two.

What is pumpkin spice?

Pumpkin pie spice blend is a spice blend used in pumpkin pie, as well as pumpkin flavored recipes and drinks like pumpkin spice lattes. You can buy pre-mixed pumpkin pie spiced blend at the store or make your own pumpkin pie spice blend using my recipe. I have a recipe for pumpkin pie spice blend here on my blog, but if you don’t feel like making a large batch of it, and you don’t want to buy it, just substitute 2 1/4 teaspoons cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ginger, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg in place of the pumpkin pie spice blend in the recipe.

How do you store these cookies?

These cookies keep for about 3 to 5 days at room temperature, in an airtight container, under a cake dome or in a resealable Ziploc bag. You can also freeze these cookies. Place them in a single layer on a cookie sheet in your freezer for 2 hours, or until they are frozen solid. Then store them in a resealable freezer Ziploc bag. Thaw them on your counter for an hour before serving.

If you like these cookies, check out these other cookie recipes:

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies

These pumpkin oatmeal cranberry cookies are a fun autumnal riff on the classic oatmeal raisin cookie. They use browned butter, which lends a nutty toffee complexity to the cookie, as well helps reduce the cakey texture of the cookie. I also cook down the pumpkin puree to help concentrate the flavor and reduce the cakey cookie. Both steps are essential to creating that ideal chewy oatmeal cookie texture that isn’t cakey or spongy. The cookie dough does require you chill it in the fridge for an hour or overnight so plan accordingly. If you don’t chill the dough, the cookie will spread a lot when baked.

Course coffee time, Dessert, Snack

Cuisine American

Keyword autumn, cookies, cranberry, dried cranberries, fall, oatmeal, pumpkin

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 15

Dough Chilling Time 1

Servings

Calories 95kcal

Author Irvin

Ingredients

3/4 cup unsalted butter 170 g or 1 1/2 sticks
1 1/4 cup pumpkin puree not pumpkin pie filling, 300 g
1 cup packed light brown sugar 220 g
3/4 cup white sugar 150 g
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice blend store-bought or homemade. See the section above for more information.
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 large egg yolk
2 1/4 cups rolled oats thick preferred, 225 g
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 210 g
1 1/2 cups dried cranberries 190 g

Instructions

Brown the butter by placing it in a large skillet. Cook the butter on high heat, stirring constantly, until it melts, then reduce the heat to medium. Continue to cook and stir the butter until the milk solids have turned golden brown and smell fragrant and nutty.
Remove from heat and immediately pour into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, making sure to scrape out any brown bits with a heatproof silicone spatula.
Place the pumpkin puree in the same skillet (no need to clean it). Cook on medium heat, stirring constantly, until the puree has reduced down to 3/4 cup, about 5 to 6 minutes depending on your stovetop. Scrape the reduced pumpkin puree into the bowl with the browned butter.
Add the brown sugar, white sugar, pumpkin pie spice, vanilla, baking soda, and salt to the bowl. Mix until all the ingredients are evenly distributed and uniform in color. Add the egg yolk and mix in. Scrape down the sides and bottom with a silicone spatula.
Add the rolled oats and flour and slowly mix, turning the mixer on and off if necessary, to keep the dry ingredients from flying up, until all the dry ingredients are absorbed. The cookie dough will look very loose and wet. Scrape down the sides and bottom again.
Add the dried cranberries and slow mix them in. I like to do this by hand, with a wooden spoon, but the mixer on slow speed works too.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator for 1 hour to chill and firm up. You can leave the dough to chill for up to 2 days if you wish.
Once the dough is chilling, preheat the oven to 350°F. Once the dough has firmed up and chilled, line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicon baking mat. Scoop out enough dough to make a 1-inch round ball and place it on the baking sheet. Continue to do this, spacing the cookie dough out about 2 inches apart.
Bake in the oven for 14 to 16 minutes, or until the top and edges of the cookie look golden brown and slightly darker than the top center. Let the cookies cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet, and then move them to a wire cooling rack. Repeat with the remaining dough.

Nutrition

The post Pumpkin Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies appeared first on Eat The Love.

Pumpkin Layer Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Mon, 25 Sep 2023 21:13:27 +0200

This beautiful autumnal pumpkin layer cake is ideal for a special meal or just a weekend treat to celebrate making it through the work week.

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If you’ve followed my blog for awhile, you probably know I have an absolutely love of all things pumpkin. I’ve made everything from pumpkin coffee cake, pumpkin cream cheese muffins, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cheesecake, and even pumpkin star bread. But one thing I haven’t had a chance to share is this pumpkin layer cake with cream cheese frosting. It’s a beautiful cake, one you can make for an autumnal dinner party, ideal for those who are team cake over team pie, or just a celebratory cake to serve for getting through the tough work week!

How to make this cake

Layer cakes inherently are a little more work than a basic sheet cake, as you have to stack and frost layers of cake. But they’re worth the minimal extra effort because you have a beautiful presentation when you slice into the cake!

The cake batter is fairly easy to make. Just mix and cream together butter, white sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice blend, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, salt and vanilla extract in a bowl. Add 3 eggs, one at a time, then mix in the pumpkin puree. The batter will look “broken” but once you add in the all-purpose flour, the whole thing will come together.

Divide between 3 8-inch round cake pans and bake. Once done, invert onto wire cooling racks and let cool completely to room temperature.

Once cooled completely, make the frosting by combining cream cheese, butter, vanilla extract, salt and sifted powdered sugar. Mix until you have a spreadable frosting. Frost the first layer, stack another cake layer on it, and repeat until all the cake layers are stacked. Frost the top and sides and you’re done!

What is pumpkin pie spice blend

This cake uses pumpkin pie spice, as well as a number of other spices. Pumpkin pie spice is a blend of various warm wintery spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves and other spices. You can make your own custom homemade pumpkin spice blend or use a store-bought one. I like to make my own, because I can customize what goes into it, but I tested this recipe using a store bought brand and felt like I needed to add more cinnamon, ginger and cardamom to give the cake more spice dimension.

If you don’t have pumpkin pie spice, and you don’t feel like making a batch like in my homemade recipe, just use 1 tablespoon of cinnamon, 1 teaspoon of ground ginger, 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg, and 1/2 teaspoon of allspice or cloves in place of all the spices. You can also add in the ground cardamom if you have it.

What sort of pumpkin puree should be used

This recipe was developed using Libby’s pumpkin puree which is the most commonly available brand of pumpkin puree at the grocery store, and the most popular. Libby’s has less liquid than other pumpkin purees and will give you a deeper orange color and more flavor than other pumpkin purees. Libby’s also offers an organic version of their pumpkin puree, and it also has less liquid than other organic brand canned pumpkin.

If you use a different brand of pumpkin puree, or homemade pumpkin puree, you might want to try and concentrate the flavor of the pumpkin by cooking the puree down. Add an extra 1/2 cup of pumpkin that the recipe calls for (2 1/4 cups of pumpkin puree) and then cook it on a large, nonstick skillet, stirring constantly, until the pumpkin puree has reduced down to 1 3/4 cups of pumpkin puree. Or use the pumpkin puree as is, knowing that the cake will taste a little bit less pumpkin-y and the cake will be a little more dense, because of the liquid in the puree.

How to bring cream cheese to room temperature quickly

This recipe calls for room temperature cream cheese to make the frosting. This is because if you use refrigerator cold cream cheese, it will stay lumpy when you try to mix it, resulting in a lumpy frosting.

The easiest way to bring cream cheese to room temperature is to leave it on the countertop or table for 2 hours. If you take the cream cheese out of the fridge when you take the cake out of the oven, by the time the cake has cooled to room temperature, the cream cheese should also be at room temperature.

But if you forget to put out the cream cheese earlier, my favorite kitchen tip is to place the cream cheese (still in the foil wrapper) in a bowl of hot water from the tap. Typically, the water is 120°F to 140°F. Letting the cream cheese sit in a hot water bath for about 10 minutes will bring the cream cheese quickly to room temperature.

Tips on making a layer cake

Making a layer cake seems daunting but it’s not difficult! Here are some tips on making a great layer cake.

Level the cake: I like to use 3-inch tall cake pans, which help prevent the cake from rising in the middle, creating a dome. But even with a 3-inch tall pan, sometimes you get a domed cake. If that happens, I level the layers of the cake by taking a long serrated knife (the kind you use to cut crusty bread) and remove the top domed area on one layer. Do this with all three layers, for a cake that is easy to stack and frost.
Use a rotating cake stand: Though it’s not necessary, a rotating cake stand is super handy, and allows you to spin the cake as you frost it, making it easier to manipulate the frosting, giving you a smooth, even layer. My favorite rotating cake stand is by Ateco and is heavy duty and will last a lifetime. But there are other rotating cake stands that are cheap or look great. I even ended up writing a story about the best cake stands for The Spruce Eats.
Place some parchment under the first layer: Because I bake so much, I buy packages of round parchment paper to put in my cake pans. But if you don’t do that, you can cut the parchment rounds out of regular parchment paper. But don’t throw away the scraps! Save the extra parchment paper and place it under the first layer of cake. Then, once the cake is frosted, just gently pull the parchment paper out from under the cake. The scraps keep you from getting the frosting on the cake stand/plate, making it even easier to clean up and present a beautiful cake.
Use an offset spatula: Though you can use a butter knife to spread your frosting, I like to use a small offset spatula to spread the frosting. The thin flexible metal easily moves the frosting around, and it allows you to create smooth surfaces as well as beautiful swoops. I wrote about my love of the small offset spatula Simply Recipes.
Add a little frosting under the first layer: I always smear a little bit of frosting on the bottom of the cake stand or plate. This smear of frosting anchors the bottom layer, acting like glue, preventing the cake from sliding around, and making the cake more stable to frost.
Use an undercoat: For a picture perfect cake, I recommend after you stack all the layers of cake together, to do a very thin layer of frosting all over the top and sides of the cake. Then place the cake in the refrigerator for 30 minutes, uncovered. This will help cool and seal the cake from crumbs. Then you can frost the cake with the remaining frosting without worrying about crumbs from the cake rising up and disturbing your beautiful frosting. It’s a trick that professionals never skip.

How do you store this cake

Because this cake has cream cheese frosting, I usually recommend that you refrigerate the cake. Cover the cake with a cake dome or let the cake sit out until the frosting has set a bit and outer frosting has “crusted” a bit, then loosely wrap with plastic wrap. Then refrigerate the cake.

If the cake has not been cut into, it will last up to 5 days in the fridge. But if it’s been cut into, the cake will be best eaten within 3 days. Place a piece of parchment paper or wax paper over the area where the cake has been sliced. This will help prevent the cake from drying out there.

You can also freeze the cake if you want (and have room in your freezer). Freeze the entire cake solid (about 3 to 4 hours), then wrap in plastic wrap tightly. Or freeze leftover slices of the cake on a sheet pan then layer in a container, with parchment paper or wax paper in between each slice. Frozen cake can keep for up to 2 months. Thaw in the fridge overnight, or on the counter for a couple of hours before serving.

If you like this pumpkin layer cake, check out these other pumpkin recipes.

And check out these other autumnal recipes:

Pumpkin Layer Cake

This autumnal layer cake is a beautiful dessert for a special occasion or just a nice weekend treat for making it through the work week. You can serve it at Thanksgiving or a holiday meal if you are team cake over team pie. And it always impresses a crowd, even though it’s not as hard as it looks. If you don't have pumpkin pie spice blend, I have a section above on substitutions.

And be sure to use room temperature cream cheese for the frosting and sift the powdered sugar, both of which will help yield a smooth frosting that is free from lumps. I have a section above on how to bring the cream cheese to room temperature if you forget to take it out!

Course coffee time, Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword cake, cream cheese, cream cheese frosting, layer cake, pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 25

Assembling Time 30

Servings

Calories 938kcal

Author Irvin

Ingredients

Cake Batter

1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature 225 g or 2 sticks
1 cup white sugar 200 g
3/4 cup brown sugar 165 g
2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice blend store-bought or homemade
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger optional, but recommended
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom optional, but recommended
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs
1 3/4 cups pumpkin puree 425 g or 1 15-oz can
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 350 g

Cream Cheese Frosting

16 ounces cream cheese at room temperature 2 bricks
1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature 225 g or 2 sticks
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
8 cups powdered sugar, sifted 920 grams

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly spray 3 8-inch pans with cooking spray, then line the bottom of each pan with a parchment paper round.
Make the cake batter by first placing the butter, white sugar, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice blend, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, salt, and vanilla extract in the bowl of stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on low speed, increasing to medium speed until the ingredients are well blended together and cling to the side of the bowl.
Add the eggs, one at a time, making sure each egg is mixed and incorporated into the batter before adding the next egg. Scrape down the sides between additions. Add the pumpkin puree and mix until incorporated. Don’t stress if the batter looks “broken” once you’ve mixed in the pumpkin puree. That’s normal and the batter will come together when the flour is added.
Add the flour, pulsing and mixing on low speed until the flour is mostly absorbed. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, then mix the batter for another 30 seconds to make sure all the ingredients are well mixed.
Divide the batter into the 3 pans. If you have a scale, it should be about 500 grams of batter per pan. Spread the batter evenly in the pans, then bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Rotate the pans after about 15 minutes for even baking. A toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake should come out clean, with the cake should spring back when you touch the center of the cake, and the sides of the cake should be pulling away slightly from the sides.
Let the cake layers cool for 15 minutes in the pan, then invert them onto a wire cooling. Carefully peel off the parchment paper and let cool completely.
Once the cake has cooled completely to room temperature (at least 2 to 3 hours), make the frosting. Place the cream cheese, butter, vanilla extract, and salt in a clean bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on low speed, increasing to medium speed, until all the ingredients are mixed thoroughly, and the consistency is smooth. If the cream cheese is still lumpy, your frosting will be lumpy, so make sure to take the time to mix it completely.
Add two cups of powdered sugar, making sure to sift it so it doesn’t clump. Mix on low speed until incorporated, and repeat with the remaining powdered sugar, adding one to two cup at a time. The frosting should be firm but if it is too loose, place the bowl in the refrigerator for 15 to 30 minutes and mix again. Repeat the chilling in 15 to 30 minute increments until the frosting is the proper consistency.
Assemble the cake by placing a dab of frosting on a cake stand or cake plate, and placing a layer of cake on the plate, using the frosting as an anchor. Spread a layer of frosting on top of the layer, then add another layer of cake, repeating the process until you’ve have added all three layers. Then frost the sides and top of the cake.

Nutrition

The post Pumpkin Layer Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting appeared first on Eat The Love.

One Bowl Cakey Brownies

Mon, 18 Sep 2023 21:20:15 +0200

These easy-to-make, one-bowl cakey brownies have a fluffier texture than fudge brownies and have a fantastic chocolate flavor and richness.

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Let’s talk cakey brownies! Even if you’re more of a fudge brownie sort of person, there’s something to be said about the old-fashioned homemade nostalgia of a cakey brownie that is lighter and less dense than their chewy fudgy counterpart. But the ideal cakey brownie can be hard to achieve. It has to hit that right balance between being more brownie than cake, otherwise why not just have a piece of dark chocolate Texas sheet cake? But it ALSO has to be less dense and chewy than a fudgy brownie, with a pleasant chocolate flavor that doesn’t feel like you’ve eaten a chocolate bar. It’s a hard balance to hit but after much experiment, I think I developed the best, easy-to-make cakey brownie, one that has the right bit of cakey texture but still fits into the brownie category. This, for me, is what a cakey brownie should be!

How do you make a cakey brownie?

This cakey does not use any melted chocolate in it but instead relies on the richness of melted butter, the moisture of five eggs, and cocoa powder with a touch of instant coffee to give chocolate. The additional use a large number of eggs also gives the brownie more lift and moisture, making it more cakey, less fudgy.

First melt the butter and add the white sugar and vanilla. Cream it all together as much as possible to try and dissolve the sugar. Then add the cocoa powder, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Add the eggs, one at a time to the thick batter, then stir in a touch of instant coffee into the milk and add it to the batter to loosen it up. Fold in the flour then chocolate chips.

Bake the brownie batter in a prepared pan and then let them cool completely before diving in!

What sort of cocoa powder to use?

I use natural cocoa powder in this recipe because I wanted to give an old-fashioned nostalgic taste and feel to the cake brownie. Dutch processed cocoa is both darker in color and more mellow in flavor, while the natural cocoa powder is sharper and more acidic.

If you only have Dutch-processed cocoa powder, or you prefer the rich flavor of Dutch-processed cocoa, you can use out the same amount of Dutch-processed and omit the baking soda in the recipe. Realize your brownies will be a darker in color and have a slightly denser texture than how this recipe was original designed. But they’ll still be great!

You can read more about the difference between Dutch-processed and natural cocoa in an article I wrote for Simply Recipes.

Can I use a glass pan or should I use a metal pan?

This recipe is developed for a metal pan, which conducts heat faster and more evenly than glass. Glass heats up slower and retains heat, which can yield to overdone edges and underdone centers. If you only have a glass baking pan, try reducing the oven temperature to 325°F and baking the brownies an extra 5 to 10 minutes. You can read more about the difference in baking in metal and glass pans in an article I wrote for Serious Eats about the differences.

Customize the brownie

You can easily customize this recipe in different manners! Here’s a few ideas:

Swap or omit chips: If you don’t like chips in your brownies, just omit them! Or swap out the semisweet chocolate chips for milk chocolate chips, white chips or dark chocolate chips. You can even swap out the chocolate chips for peanut butter, butterscotch chips, or use chopped chocolate in their place.
Add nuts: Swap out the chips for 4 ounces (1 cup) of chopped nuts. Chopped walnuts, pecans, pistachios, and peanuts would all be great in these brownies.
Use a frosting: Make a simple chocolate frosting for these brownies to really give them a nostalgic sweet flavor! Cream 1/2 cup (1 stick) of room temperature butter until fluffy, then add 2 1/2 cups of powdered sugar and mix thoroughly. Mix in 1/2 cup of unsweetened cocoa and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Drizzle in 2 tablespoons of milk and continue to add milk, 1 tablespoon at a time, up to 5 tablespoons, until the frosting is a nice spreadable consistency. Spread over the brownies when they are cool and then cut and serve.

How do you store this brownie?

These brownies keep at room temperature for up to 3 days. Store them in an airtight container or under a cake dome. You can also freeze them, placing them in a resealable Ziploc freezer bag or airtight container. They keep frozen for up to 2 months. Thaw to room temperature before serving.

If you like these cakey brownies, check out these other brownie recipes:

One Bowl Cakey Brownies

These cakey brownies are made with just one bowl and are the perfect texture of being more fluffy and lighter than a chewy fudge brownie, but still more intensely and brownie-like than chocolate cake. The secret is the large number of eggs, and the touch of instant coffee. The eggs give moisture and richness to the brownies as well as gives the brownie more fluffy loft, while the coffee helps boost the chocolate flavor of the brownie.

Course coffee time, Dessert, Snack

Cuisine American

Keyword brownie, chocolate

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 30

Servings

Calories 228kcal

Author Irvin

Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter melted, 225 g or 2 sticks
2 1/4 cups white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon instant coffee or espresso optional but recommended
1 1/4 cups natural cocoa 115 g not Dutch-processed (see note above)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
5 large eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 175 g
1 cup chocolate chips 165 g

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly spray a 9 x 13 x 2-inch metal baking pan with cooking spray. Optionally you can line it with parchment paper, but I find it unnecessary with this recipe.
Place the melted butter, sugar, vanilla extract and instant coffee or instant espresso powder (if using) in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on slow speed, increasing to medium until the mixture is well blended. Scrape down the sides once or twice to ensure everything is thoroughly mixed.
Add the cocoa, salt, baking powder and baking soda to the bowl. Again, mix on slow speed increasing to medium until well blended. Add the eggs one at a time, beating and scraping down the sides between additions. Then add the milk and repeat.
Add the flour and slowly mix it in until absorbed. Repeat with the chocolate chips, gently mixing until they are distributed throughout the batter. I often will do this by hand with a wooden spoon, to ensure the chocolate chips don’t break.
Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and spread it evenly to the sides. Bake in the oven 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the pan comes out of clean or with a few crumbs. Pick a few spots, as you may hit a chocolate chip, which will give you a misleading toothpick test.

Nutrition

The post One Bowl Cakey Brownies appeared first on Eat The Love.

One Bowl Pumpkin Banana Bread

Mon, 11 Sep 2023 19:21:45 +0200

This easy-to-make pumpkin banana bread uses ripe bananas and leftover pumpkin puree and can be made in a single bowl for an autumnal treat!

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Growing up, I was engrained to use up EVERY. SINGLE. ITEM. in my kitchen and not to waste a single ingredient. And that includes those over browning bananas on top of my microwave. It’s why I have so many banana bread recipes on my blog like my walnut banana bread, chocolate banana bread, sourdough banana bread, and my Kahlua mocha marble banana bread. But every Fall I also find myself with small leftover amounts of pumpkin puree after making my pumpkin bread, pumpkin cream cheese muffins, pumpkin coffee cake, pumpkin bread pudding, and pumpkin cheesecake. That’s when I realize that I could combine the banana and pumpkin and make the brilliant combo banana pumpkin bread!

How do you make this Banana Pumpkin Bread

Making banana pumpkin bread is as easy as making banana bread or pumpkin bread. Just combine the mashed ripe bananas with the pumpkin puree in a bowl. Then mix in pumpkin spice, vanilla, baking powder, baking soda, salt.

Beat in an egg, then melted butter, then brown sugar in succession. Fold in the flour and scrape it all into a prepared loaf pan. Sprinkle the top with Turbinado sugar and pumpkin seeds and bake!

How ripe should the bananas be?

Like the typical banana bread, you want your bananas to be spotted brown but not completely brown. Some folks will tell you the browner the bananas the better, but there’s a point where the banana starches turn to sugar, then start to rot. If the bananas are completely brown all over, they’re time for the compost/trash. You want your bananas to be ripe and soft but with some yellow still visible on the skin.

Customize

Pumpkin pie spice blend: I use my homemade pumpkin pie spice blend, which is a blend of cinnamon and other warm wintery spices like nutmeg, ginger, and allspice. The great thing about making your own homemade spice blend is you can customize it. But you can use a store-bought pumpkin spice blend. Or you can substitute out various spices that you like. Spices that would work well with pumpkin and banana include cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, mace, black pepper, cardamom, and coriander. You can even add in orange zest or lemon zest. Just use a combined amount of 3 teaspoons of the spices, divided however you like.
Pumpkin seeds: I use pumpkin seeds on top of this quick bread because I love how the pumpkin seed crunch tastes with the pumpkin flavor. But you can skip the pumpkin seeds, or add the same amount of a different seed like sunflower seeds or chopped nuts like pecans, walnuts or pistachios.
Turbinado sugar: I use turbinado sugar, which is a coarse blonde colored sugar that has crunch and slight molasses flavor that works well with the banana and pumpkin. It’s often sold under the brand name “Sugar in the Raw”. If you can’t find turbinado sugar, or don’t want to buy it, you can use regular white granulated sugar, coarse sparkling sugar or just skip the sugar topping all together.
Add ins: Though this recipe is super tasty all by itself, it’s hard to avoid the temptation of adding in things like nuts and chocolate chips. Feel free to add 1/2 cup up to 1 cup of your favorite chopped nuts, like walnuts, pecans, or pistachios into this recipe. Just fold it in at the very end. If you are avoiding nuts, but want to add in some crunch, you can easily mix in chopped pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds or even roasted cacao nibs. Or add in 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips or chopped chunks.

How to store this bread

Store this bread up to 3 days at room temperature, in an airtight container, resealable Ziploc bag, or under a cake dome. If you notice any mold at all on the bread, compost or throw the bread out.

You can also freeze the bread, up to 3 months, tightly sealed in a resealable freezer Ziploc bag. I like to slice the bread first, so that I can take an individual slice out to warm up or thaw and eat. Just make sure to place parchment paper or wax paper between each slice before freezing. Otherwise, the loaf will freeze as one solid mass.

If you like this Pumpkin Banana Bread recipe, check out these other autumnal recipes

One Bowl Pumpkin Banana Bread

A rich combo of sweet tropical banana and deeply earthy pumpkin blend together into this moist quick bread. Easy to make and completely satisfying. I have notes above on customizing the recipe, as well as what to do if you don’t have a jar of pumpkin pie spice blend in your pantry.

Course bread, Breakfast, coffee time, Dessert, Snack

Cuisine American

Keyword autumn, banana, easy, fall, pumpkin, quick bread

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 1

Servings

Calories 328kcal

Author Irvin

Ingredients

Batter

3/4 cup mashed ripe bananas 2 medium to large bananas, about 160 g peeled
3/4 cup pumpkin puree 160 g
1 large egg
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice blend store-bought or homemade
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter melted
3/4 cup packed brown sugar 165 g
2 cups all-purpose flour

For topping

2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds optional but recommended
1 tablespoon turbinado sugar optional but recommended

Instructions

Preheat an oven to 350°F. Lightly spray a large loaf pan with cooking oil, then line it with parchment paper, making sure about 1 inch of paper overhangs the edges.
Place the mashed banana in a bowl and add the pumpkin puree. Mix together with a whisk. Add the egg, pumpkin pie spice blend, vanilla, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix with a fork or whisk until the ingredients are combined and uniform in color.
Stir in the melted butter and then the brown sugar.
Add the flour and mix in gently with a large silicon spatula. Don’t overmix. It’s ok if there are a few dry spots here and there.
Scrape the batter into the prepare loaf pan, spreading it out so it’s evenly distributed in the pan. Then sprinkle the turbinado sugar and pumpkin seeds over the top of the batter.
Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean. If you have a quick read thermometer, the internal temperature should be 200 to 205°F.
Let cool in the pan, on a wire rack, for 15 minutes. Then lift the loaf directly out of the pan using the parchment paper and move it to a wire rack to cool completely. Peel off the paper before slicing.

Nutrition

The post One Bowl Pumpkin Banana Bread appeared first on Eat The Love.

Chicken Caesar Sandwich [Sponsored Post]

Tue, 05 Sep 2023 00:03:54 +0200

This Chicken Caesar Sandwich takes all the flavors of a classic Caesar salad and turns it into a satisfying sandwich.

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This post was sponsored by Safeway. I was compensated for this post and for developing the recipe. However, all opinions below are completely my own.

I’m not going to lie. When I go to a restaurant and there’s a Caesar salad on the menu, 9 times out of 10, I’m going to order it. It’s one of my all-time favorite salads to eat. So when Safeway and Boar’s Head approached me to partner for the new Boar’s Head FireSmith Flame Grilled Chicken Breast, I knew that it would work beautifully in a chicken Caesar salad inspired sandwich. The Boar’s Head FireSmith chicken is seasoned and then cooked over an open flame, giving it a grilled flavor that works perfectly with a quick homemade Caesar dressing and griddle toasted garlic bread.

How to make this sandwich

This sandwich takes a little more time to prepare than a typical sandwich, because you need make the Caesar dressing and griddle toast the garlic bread. But it’s totally worth the effort! I also have some shortcut tips in the section below in case you want to spend less time making the food and more time eating it!

First make the dressing by mincing a clove of garlic or running it through a garlic press. Add it to Greek-style yogurt, olive oil, lemon juice, mustard (I like to use Boar’s Head Deli-style mustard), grated Parmesan cheese, an anchovy fillet, and some salt and pepper. Mix all the ingredients together, smashing the anchovy fillet with a fork to incorporate it into the dressing.

Next take a garlic clove and slice it thinly. Place it in a skillet with extra virgin olive oil and gently cook it on medium low heat until the garlic is brown. Remove and discard the garlic (or mash it into the Caesar dressing if you’d like). Dip each piece of bread into the garlic olive oil, brushing and coating each of them. Then sprinkle the bread with chopped parsley, salt and pepper. Toast on the skillet over low heat until golden brown on both sides. This bread will simulate the crunch croutons you find in Caesar salad!

Once you’ve created the dressing and toasted the bread, assemble the sandwich by first laying a piece of the grilled toast on a plate, add lettuce, shaved parmesan cheese, Caesar dressing spread, Boar’s Head FireSmith Flame Grilled Chicken Breast, and then more Caesar dressing, lettuce and the remaining toasted bread. All ingredients can be found in most Safeway stores.

Tips and Tricks

Though this sandwich easy to make, I have a few tips that will help bring it to the next level and/or customize it to your own tastes

Dressing: The beauty of making your Caesar dressing is you have control over the ingredients and how it tastes. I like a classic Caesar dressing with anchovy in it, but if you don’t like anchovy, skip that ingredient. Or using anchovy paste, replacing 1/2 teaspoon of anchovy paste for the fillet to simplify. Reduce the lemon juice or substitute red wine vinegar in its place if you don’t like lemon. Or if you love lemon, instead of adding more lemon juice try adding lemon zest along with the juice which adds lemon flavor without more liquid. Finally taste the dressing and adjust the salt and pepper, giving it enough seasoning for your own palate. But if you don’t want to make the dressing, substitute your favorite store-bought Caesar dressing in place of it.
Lettuce: You want a crunchy lettuce for this sandwich, similar to what you find in in a Caesar salad. And the classic lettuce for Caesar salad is Romaine! But I skipped the Romaine because Romaine leaves tend to be really large. Instead, I opted for Little Gem lettuce, sometimes called Sweet Gem which is a cross between Butter lettuce and Romaine and looks like baby versions of Romaine. It’s perfect in sandwiches because of the small size. However, you can use Romaine, Green leaf or Red leaf lettuce if you can’t find Little Gem. Just use tear the larger lettuce leaves into smaller sandwich-size pieces.
Bread: I chose a nice sourdough bread for the base of the sandwich but if you don’t like sourdough, feel free to pick a bread that you love. I prefer a thicker-cut bread which helps to soak up the olive oil and toast up golden brown to simulate the croutons you’d find in a Caesar salad. French bread, cut sideways is great, as are brioche buns or Texas toast. If you wish to skip making the sourdough garlic toast, make a quick substitute by toasting some thick cut bread (like Texas toast or a French bread cut lengthwise) and then buttering it and sprinkling garlic salt, grated parmesan cheese and a pinch of dried oregano.

How to store the sandwich

This sandwich, like all sandwiches, is best eaten the day you make it. But because the Caesar dressing is spread on the lettuce and the Chicken Breast and not directly on the toasted bread, the sandwich does keep fairly well. The lettuce on both sides of the bread protect it from getting soggy from the dressing. Store the sandwich in a resealable Ziploc bag at room temperature for up to 2 hours, or in the refrigerator overnight to be eaten the next day.

If you like this Chicken Caesar Salad Sandwich, check out these other easy to make recipes:

Chicken Caesar Sandwich

This Chicken Caesar Salad sandwich is inspired by the classic Caesar salad. It’s made with Boar’s Head FireSmith Flame Grilled Chicken Breast which is cooked over an open flame which gives the meat actual grilled flavor. Creating the sandwich does take a few more steps, as you have to make the Caesar dressing and toast the bread, but it’s worth the effort! That said, I have a tips and tricks section above, which gives easy shortcuts and substitutions, simplifying the sandwich-making process.

Calories 537kcal

Author Irvin

Ingredients

Caesar Dressing

3 tablespoons Greek-style yogurt
3 tablespoons grated Parmesan Cheese
2 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon mustard
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 garlic clove minced or put through a garlic press
1 anchovy fillet or 1/2 teaspoon anchovy paste

Garlic Toast

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove sliced
4 slices thick cut bread like sourdough, French or Texas toast
2 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

To Assemble

8 leaves Little Gem or Sweet Gem lettuce or 4 pieces Romaine lettuce
Parmesan cheese
1/2 pound Boar’s Head FireSmith Flame Grilled Chicken Breast

Instructions

Make the Caesar dressing by placing the yogurt, parmesan cheese, lemon juice, olive oil, black pepper, salt, garlic and anchovy fillet (or anchovy paste) in a medium sized bowl. Mix together thoroughly. If using the anchovy fillet, smashing the anchovy with a fork until it’s a paste and is incorporated into the dressing.
Make the garlic toast by placing the extra virgin olive oil in a large 12-inch skillet and adding the garlic slices. Cook on medium low heat, until the garlic slices are brown (but not burnt). Remove the garlic slices from the oil, and discard or mash the garlic into the dressing.
Dip both sides of all the bread slices into the oil, brushing any oil that isn’t soaked up onto the bread. Sprinkle the toast on both sides with the parsley, salt and pepper. Then cook in the same skillet on medium low heat, until golden brown on both sides. Remove from heat.
Assemble the sandwich by placing 1 piece of toast on a plate. Add 2 pieces of Little Gem lettuce or 1 piece of Romaine on the bread. Shave some Parmesan cheese onto the lettuce, then drizzle from Caesar dressing onto it. Add the chicken breast, then drizzle more Caesar dressing on. Add another layer of lettuce and a piece of toast.
Repeat the process again to make the second sandwich.

Nutrition

The post Chicken Caesar Sandwich [Sponsored Post] appeared first on Eat The Love.

Cinnamon Sugar Topped Southern Peach Cobbler

Wed, 30 Aug 2023 20:46:38 +0200

This is cinnamon-sugar topped southern peach cobbler is the ultimate comfort food, with easy-to-make soft fluffy drop biscuits on top.

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Let’s talk a moment about one of my all-time favorite stone-fruits, peaches. There have been books written about love of honey-sweet juicy peaches. And there’s nothing that makes me happier than taking the first bite out of a perfectly ripe peach. I often buy huge amounts of peaches when I see them arrive at the store since peach season can be fleeting. So not only am I eating them out of hand, but I’m making desserts like peach slab pie, caramel peach upside down cake, my bellini peach cobbler with strawberry biscuits, and my peach and blueberry coffee cake. But this cinnamon sugar topped southern peach cobbler is a streamlined classic recipe that hits all the right notes, with an easy-to-make soft fluffy drop biscuit topping and a sprinkling of cinnamon sugar topping that brings out the peach flavor.

What is a cobbler?

A cobbler is one of those comfort desserts, easy to make and easy to eat! It’s typically made with fruit, like peaches, as the bottom filling, and then topped with either biscuits (more common) or pie crust (less common). The biscuits are often drop biscuits, which are quickly prepared and dropped on top of the filling. Once baked, the biscuits rise and grow together, taking on a “cobbled” look, thus the name.

What’s the difference between cobblers, crisps, and other rustic desserts?

Cobblers are often grouped together with other comforting rustic desserts, like crisps, crumbles, buckles, as well as lesser-known desserts like pandowdies, brown bettys, and slumps. All of these desserts commonly feature fruit or fruit filling. Here’s a breakdown of what each is.

Cobblers have a fruit filling on the bottom and a typically a sweet biscuit on top. They occasionally have pie crust or dumplings on top, but these versions are less common. When baked, the biscuit version forms into a “cobbled” looking topping, which is where they get their name.
Crisps have a fruit filling on the bottom and use an oat topping like on my plum crisp recipe, instead of the biscuits.
Fruit crumbles are similar to crisps but typically don’t have the oats added in, instead use a streusel topping, like the kind you get on my cinnamon streusel coffee cake.
Buckles are just another name for are a fruit-filled coffee cake, where the cake batter is often poured over the fruit and then baked, causing the cake batter to “buckle” when it rises, as in my strawberry rhubarb cheesecake buckle or my easy strawberry cake.
Pandowdies are similar to cobblers, but use a pie crust, which is then pushed into the filling halfway through the bake time, so the crust gets some of the filling juice on top, resulting in a slightly caramelized crust. I adore my apple blackberry pandowdy, as it’s easier to make than a regular pie.
Brown Bettys have a fruit filling on the bottom and bread cubes used as a top. The buttered bread cubes crisp up and add texture and crunch after baking. My apple brown betty with IPA beer filling is a great fall dessert.
Slumps are very similar to cobblers but instead of baking, they are cooked on the stovetop. The topping is more like a dumpling than a biscuit, and it’s a great dessert if you don’t have access to an oven, don’t feel like turning it on, or your oven is already occupied with another item.

How do you make a cobbler?

Making a cobbler is one of the easier desserts that you can make. First make the filling by combining peeled peach slices, white and brown sugar, tapioca starch or cornstarch, a touch of acid like raspberry vinegar or lemon juice, vanilla and almond extract, salt, and some spices like cinnamon, paprika and nutmeg. I also add in a grated apple, which helps thicken and sweeten the filling. Don’t worry though! You won’t taste the apple at all.

Bake the filling in a baking dish for about 20 minutes, and while it’s baking, make the biscuit topping by combining flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add in cubes of butter and smash them flat with your finger. Then drizzle in cold buttermilk until a dough forms. Once the filling has baked for the 20 minutes, scoop out biscuit dough and place over the filling, scattering the dough in balls irregularly over the top, leaving space for the biscuits to expand.

Brush the top with an egg yolk wash and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Bake until the biscuits are golden brown and the filling is bubbling thick in the center. Serve warm with ice cream!

How to peel the peaches

Peach cobbler does require the extra step of peeling the peaches. You can use a serrated fruit peeler if you’d like. But I find blanching the peaches faster and easier. Cut an “x” on the bottom of the peach with a sharp paring knife. Then place the peaches in a large pot of boiling water for 1 minutes. Remove the peaches from the boiling water and “shock” them by placing them in a large bowl of ice water. Let them cool until you can handle them and peel the skin off with your fingers.

You can find a more detailed tutorial on my blog post on how to peel a peach. If you don’t want to go through the trouble of peeling peaches, try swapping out the same amount of nectarines (which are botanically the same fruit, but have a thinner more tender smooth skin) or apricots for this cobbler.

How to use frozen or canned peaches

If you don’t have access to fresh ripe peaches, you can still make this recipe by using frozen or canned peaches all year round! If you are using frozen peaches, use them directly from the freezer without thawing, tossing them with the filling ingredients. Increase the tapioca starch or cornstarch to 6 tablespoons, as frozen peaches will release more liquid when cooked. Increase the initial filling bake time (before adding the biscuit topping) from 20 minutes to 25 minutes to accommodate for the colder filling.

If using canned peaches, just drain the peaches and bake as directed.

Storage

Store any leftover cobbler by covering it with plastic wrap or moving it to an airtight container and refrigerating it. Warm it up in the microwave (less ideal, as the biscuit topping will become rubbery) or in a 300°F for 10 to 15 minutes (the better option but takes longer). Leftover cobbler will keep in the fridge for up to 3 to 4 days, though the quicker you eat it, the better it will taste.

If you like this southern peach cobbler, check out these other fruit dessert recipes:

Cinnamon Sugar Topped Southern Peach Cobbler

This is one of those classic, rustic, comfort food recipes that everyone loves. I like to make it during prime peach season during the summertime, though I have notes above on how to make it with frozen or canned peaches, making it a year-round dessert. The paprika in the peach cobbler not only gives the filling an extra depth of flavor but also accentuates the lovely orange peach color. The cinnamon sugar topping of the biscuit gives the cobbler a sweet crunch and helps bring out the peach flavor even more! Don't be intimidated by the long ingredients list. The recipe is pretty easy once you've peeled the peaches.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword cobbler, comfort food, fruit, peaches, rustic dessert, southern food

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 1

Servings

Calories 359kcal

Author Irvin

Ingredients

Filling

3 to 3 1/2 pounds ripe peaches about 8 medium-sized peaches
1/3 cup white sugar 67 g
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar 75 g
1/4 cup tapioca starch or cornstarch, 35 g
1 tablespoon raspberry vinegar can substitute lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract optional but recommended
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 medium apple peeled, cored and grated

Cobbler biscuit

2 cups all-purpose flour 280 g
1/4 white sugar 50 g
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
6 tablespoons cold butter 85 g
3/4 cup cold buttermilk with additional 1 to 2 tablespoons if necessary, see note below for substitutions

Topping

1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon cold water
3 tablespoons white sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions

Preheat an oven to 375°F.
Peel and slice the peaches into 1/2-inch wedges. Place in a large bowl. Add the sugar, brown sugar, tapioca starch or cornstarch, raspberry vinegar, vanilla extract, almond extract if using, salt, cinnamon, paprika and nutmeg to the bowl. Peel, cut and then grate the apple into the bowl. Toss ingredients together until well blended.
Spray a 3-quart (9 x 13 x 2 inch) baking dish with cooking oil. Place the baking dish on a rimmed baking sheet to catch any filling drips and to help you move the pan in and out of the oven. Pour filling into the prepared baking dish, making sure to scrape any juice from the bottom of the bowl into the baking dish. Move to the oven to bake uncovered for 20 minutes.
While the peaches are baking, make the cobbler biscuits by placing the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in the same bowl you used to make the filling. There’s no reason to wash the bowl. Cut the butter into cubes and sprinkle over the dry ingredients. Using your fingers, smash the butter into small flat pieces.
Drizzle the buttermilk over the dough ingredients, tossing with a fork until a dough forms. If you need to, add an additional 1 to 2 tablespoons of buttermilk. If the peaches aren’t finished baking yet, place the bowl in the fridge to chill.
Make the topping by beating together the egg and water in a small bowl. Place the sugar and cinnamon together in a different small bowl and mix together with a fork.
When the peaches have baked for 20 minutes, remove them from the oven and spoon the biscuit topping over the warm peaches, leaving a little bit of room between each biscuit for the dough to expand.
Brush the top of the biscuits with the egg wash, then sprinkle the cinnamon sugar all over the top of the biscuits and the cobbler. Place back in the oven and bake for an additional 40 to 45 minutes, or until the cobbler filling is bubbly in the middle and the biscuits are golden brown on top.
Let cool for 30 minutes to let the filling thicken up a bit before serving. Serve with vanilla ice cream if desired.

Notes

If you don’t have buttermilk, you can just add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, raspberry vinegar or apple cider vinegar to 3/4 cup of milk and let it sit for 10 minutes to thicken. Use in place of the buttermilk.
The apple in the filling is there to help thicken the cobbler as well as provide sweetness. Don’t worry, you won’t taste the apple in the cobbler, though! The natural pectin in the apple means you can use less starch in the filling, allowing for the peach flavor to shine.

Nutrition

The post Cinnamon Sugar Topped Southern Peach Cobbler appeared first on Eat The Love.

Easy Blueberry Galette

Mon, 21 Aug 2023 23:05:16 +0200

This easy blueberry galette is a crowd pleasing dessert that comes together quickly, and is sure to impress friends and family.

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Fruit galettes are one of the easiest desserts you can make. They are minimal effort with maximum reward; a pretty and rustic dessert that almost always impresses folks. I’ve made and shared fruit galette and tart recipes on this blog, like my strawberry rhubarb galette, my plum galette , my mead poached pear galette, my mixed berry galette with chocolate crust, my mixed berry tart with corn crust. But there’s always room for one more galette, like this luscious easy blueberry galette!

What is a galette

A galette a rustic baked dish that is a free-form tart made with a single crust of pie or tart dough. Galettes comes in all shapes, from individual small size ones to large ones that you cut and share with folks. Typically, the edges of the galette are folded over on top of the filling, leaving the center open so you can see what fills the galette. You can fold over the crust a minimal amount, allowing you to see most of the filling, or you can fold over a lot of the crust, only showing a bare amount of the filling, giving a bigger crust to filling ratio. Galettes can be sweet or savory.

How do you make a blueberry galette?

Making a galette is super easy. But it starts with making the crust, which is similar to a pie crust. Place flour, sugar, salt, and cubed cold butter in a bowl. Smash the butter with your fingers until the butter is broken down into small bits. Then beat an egg yolk with some water and sprinkle it over dry ingredients, tossing with a fork until a dough forms. Press the dough together to form a 1-inch thick disk, then refrigerate for an hour or overnight.

Once the dough is chilled, combine blueberries, sugar, tapioca starch (or cornstarch) salt and a splash of balsamic vinegar together in a bowl. Mash the mixture lightly with a fork or potato masher, then add more whole blueberries into it.

Roll the dough into a large disk on a piece of parchment paper. Pile the blueberry filling into the center, and then fold over the edges of the dough over the filling, trapping the filling and juices in the center and forming the galette.

Move the galette to a baking sheet and then brush the top of the galette with an egg white beaten with a little water. Sprinkle the top with sugar and bake until golden brown and the center of the filling is bubbling and thick.

Can you use store-bought pie crust?

Yes! You can definitely use store-bough pie crust, though I think making this galette crust is easy. But if you are short on time, or just don’t like making crust, just use one thawed store-bought pie crust instead of making the galette dough. Form and bake as directed.

Can you use frozen blueberries?

Yes. Frozen blueberries are a great option when blueberries aren’t in season. Don’t bother defrosting the blueberries. Just use them directly from the freezer to make the filling, skipping the mashing part. Increase the tapioca or cornstarch to 3 tablespoons because frozen blueberries shed so much liquid though and bake the galette an additional 5 to 10 minutes to accommodate for the cold berries.

How to store this galette

Store this galette at room temperature for up to 2 days in an airtight container or under a cake dome. You can also store the galette in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Just bring the galette up to the room temperature by letting it sit on the counter for 2 hours before serving, or refreshing it in a 300°F oven or toaster oven for 10 minutes.

If you like this blueberry galette, check out these other blueberry recipes:

Easy Blueberry Galette

This easy and elegant dessert comes together quickly. You can make the dough ahead of time if you wish, letting it chill in the fridge overnight. The splash of balsamic vinegar brings out the earthy juiciness of the blueberries but if you want something brighter, use lemon juice instead.

Course coffee time, Dessert

Cuisine American, French

Keyword blueberries, cottage pie, fruit, galette, summer, tart

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 35

Rest time for crust 1

Total Time 1 55

Servings

Calories 271kcal

Author Irvin

Ingredients

Crust

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 175 g
2 tablespoons white sugar
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter 115 g or 1 stick
1 large egg yolk
1 /4 cup cold water

Filling

4 cups fresh blueberries divided, 560 g (see note above for using frozen blueberries)
1/4 cup white sugar 50 g
2 tablespoons tapioca starch or cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar or lemon juice

To finish

1 large egg white
1 tablespoon cold water
1 tablespoon turbinado sugar or white sugar

Instructions

Make the crust by first combining the flour, sugar and salt in a medium-sized bowl. Cut the butter into 1/2-inch cubes and sprinkle it over the dry ingredients. Using your fingers, smash the butter into small flat pieces, breaking them up so they are roughly the diameter of peas.
Once the butter is broken down, beat the egg yolk into the cold water. Reserve the egg white for later. Drizzle the liquid over the dry ingredients, tossing with a fork. Continuing until all the liquid is absorbed and a loose shaggy dough forms.
Dump the dough onto a clean surface. Fold and knead the ingredients until a cohesive dough forms. Form a 1-inch thick disk, wrap with plastic wrap, and then refrigerate for a minimum of one hour, or overnight.
Once the dough has chilled thoroughly, preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper of silicone baking mat.
Dust a clean surface with flour. Roll the dough out into a rough 11-inch wide circle. Move the disk to the prepared rimmed baking. The disk might overhang the edges of the pan, don’t worry about that if it does.
Make the filling by placing roughly half the blueberries, sugar, tapioca starch (or cornstarch), salt and balsamic vinegar (or lemon juice) in a bowl. Gently mash the berries with a fork or a potato masher to release some of the juice. Then add the remaining blueberries and toss to combine.
Heap the filling in the middle of the crust, then spread it out into an even layer, leaving about 2 inches around the edges of the crust.
Fold part of the edge of the crust over the filling, then fold another part of the edge adjacent to it, repeating this process, until all the crust is folded in, enclosing the filling but leaving the center of the galette open.
Beat the egg white with water and brush the top of the crust with the egg wash, trying not to get any egg wash on the parchment paper (it will make the galette stick).
Sprinkle the turbinado sugar (or white sugar) all over the top of the crust and the filling.
Bake in the oven 30 to 40 minutes, or until the center filling is bubbling, thick and jammy. Let cool 15 minutes before carefully moving the galette to a wire rack to cool completely (you can move it on the parchment paper if that is easier to do).
Serve warm or at room temperature with vanilla ice cream if you wish.

Notes

For an easy shortcut, use one store-bought pie crust to replace the galette crust. Prepare as directed, skipping instructions for the crust.
You can use frozen blueberries if you don’t have fresh blueberries. Skip the crushing of the blueberries, and toss the frozen blueberries, without thawing, with the filling ingredients. Increased the tapioca starch or cornstarch to 3 tablespoons, as frozen blueberries shed more liquid. Increase the bake time by 3 to 5 minutes to accommodate for the cold berries.
Balsamic vinegar compliments the earthy sweet blueberries, but you can use lemon juice if you want a brighter tasting galette. Red wine vinegar or sherry vinegar can also be substitute, but don’t use plain white vinegar, as it’s too harsh. Just omit the Balsamic vinegar or lemon juice if you don’t have any.

Nutrition

The post Easy Blueberry Galette appeared first on Eat The Love.

Red, White and Blue Cookies with White Chocolate Chips

Wed, 14 Jun 2023 21:05:18 +0200

These stunning red, white, and blue cookies with white chocolate chips are a patriotic American flag-inspired cookie that is a fun project!

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A few years ago, I made rainbow chocolate chip cookies and they were a huge hit with friends and on social media. But the technique for coloring the dough is pretty versatile and can be adapted for so many other cookies and designs! In fact, I took the same principle and made peppermint red-striped white chocolate cookies. And this time I decided to take the same cookie base and a similar technique and made these patriotic red, white, and blue cookies. They’re pretty stunning to serve up and absolutely fun to make as well as fun to eat! And though they look complicated to make, I give step-by-step instructions, as well as a video in this post, so watch carefully and you’ll see it’s not as difficult at is looks.

How do you make these red, white, and blue American Flag cookies?

Making the cookies starts with making the dough. First cream the butter, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla extract, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in the bowl of a stand mixer. Then add the eggs, one at a time. Add the flour, gently stirring until absorbed and fold in the white chocolate chips. Divide the dough into three portions and add red food coloring to one portion and blue food coloring to another portion, leaving one plain.

Chill the dough thoroughly to make it easy to handle. Then form the cookies!

First divide each portion of dough into 8 pieces. Then form 2-inch wide disks with each dough piece. Slice one of plain non-colored cookie dough disks and one of the red cookie dough disks into 6 horizontal slices. Cut the blue cookies into quarters.

Place a red, white, and red slice together to make a half disk. Repeat this process, placing a white, red, and white slice together to make the other half of the disk. Cut one of the half disks in two, forming a quarter slice, the same shape as the blue quarters.

Then assemble the cookie by placing a blue quarter, a red and white stripe quarter, and the bottom half disk of red and white stripes together. Squish them and then repeat the process with the remaining dough. Keep in mind, you might need to flip upside down or rotate the quarter pieces to make them alternate in colors properly.

One thing to note. Because of the uneven amount of cookie dough necessary to make these cookies, once you’ve assembled them all, you’ll end up with two all-blue cookies, as well as a blue cookie that has a quarter red and white stripes dough in it, with a total of three cookies that don’t look quite as patriotic. Bake them off and nibble on them yourself, considering them private chef treats!

Here’s a video if you’d like to watch how to assemble and form these cookies.

Tips on making this cookie

Chill the dough: Because this dough gets manipulated a lot by your hand, it tends to warm up a lot. If you bake the cookies immediately after forming them, they’ll spread a lot. I like to chill the dough before forming the cookies, which both improves the flavor and consistency as well as makes it easy to form the cookies. But I also like to chill the cookies after I form them as well. This prevents the cookies from spreading so much when they bake and keeping their shape and form. You can skip these steps if you are in a hurry but definitely space the cookies out much farther on the baking sheet. Keep in mind the cookies will be more difficult to make and they will when baked, they’ll form larger and thinner cookies.
Add flaky sea salt or sparkling sugar: Because I use white chocolate chips in this cookie, I like sprinkling a little bit of sea salt on top of the cookie to temper the sweetness. But his completely optional. Feel free to skip it if the idea of salty sweet cookies seems odd to you, or sprinkle the top with sparkling sugar if you want the cookies to have an additional crunchy sweetness.
Reshape while hot: If the cookies end up baking misshapen, just gently tap the sides of the cookie with a spatula or wooden spoon to form them back into a round cookie shape. While the cookie is hot, it will still be malleable. But work quickly, as you only have about 30 to 60 seconds to work before the cookies cool and start to firm up.
Flip the quarter pieces: Keep in mind that sometimes you might need to rotate or flip the small quarter pieces to make them fit into the top red & white right corner, or the blue quarter. So don’t stress if it seems like the cookie parts don’t fit. Just flip them over so the red and white stripes still alternate.
Use a different chocolate chip: You can omit the white chocolate chip, or use semi-sweet chocolate chips if you want. Keep in mind the chocolate chips might poke through and be visible, which I found a bit distracting, which is why I opted for white chocolate chips, which is a little more neutral in color. But they are your cookies, so use what you love!

What sort of food coloring should be used?

I formulated this recipe to use traditional liquid food coloring, the kind that you buy at the grocery store that come in the teardrop shaped tubes. It’s the most common form of food coloring and the easiest to get.

But if you want to use professional gel food coloring, you’ll get a much more intense color. Use less of the gel food color when coloring the dough. Starting with a few 1/4 teaspoon of each and then increase the amount if necessary. You can find professional gel food coloring at craft stores like Michaels, JoAnn’s, and Hobby Lobby or online (<- affiliate link). I like the Americolor gel food colorings.

That said, I don’t recommend using natural food coloring. Natural food color is great for royal icing or buttercream, but tends to fade quickly when heated or baked and isn’t vibrant enough for these cookies. However if you find a natural based food coloring that works for you, please leave a comment and let me know!

Can I make the dough ahead of time?

Yes! In fact, making the dough ahead of time is recommended, as the chilled dough makes forming the cookies much easier. Make the dough up to 3 days in advance.

Or make the dough and then freeze it. Just wrap the colored dough in plastic wrap, then place in a heavy-duty freezer Ziploc bag. The frozen dough will keep for up to 3 months. Just thaw it in the fridge overnight before assembling the cookies. You can also assemble the cookies if you want and freeze them. Just place them on a baking sheet until frozen through, then store them in a heavy-duty freezer Ziploc bag. Pull them out and bake them directly from the freezer, increasing the bake time by 2 or 3 minutes to accommodate for the cold dough.

How to store this cookie

Store these cookies in an airtight container, Ziploc bag, or under a cake dome for up to 3 days at room temperature. Or freeze them by placing them on a baking sheet in the freezer for 2 hours, or until they are frozen through, then store them in a heavy-duty Ziploc bag. Thaw them on the counter for 2 hours to bring them back to room temperature before serving. Frozen baked cookies last about 2 months in the freezer.

If you like these cookies, check out these other chocolate chip cookies:

Red, White, and Blue Cookies with White Chocolate Chips

These fun cookies use red, blue and plain “white” chocolate chip cookie dough to form a patriotic cookie that is reminiscent of the American flag. They look complicated to make but I’ve included step-by-step instructions and they’re easier than they look. They do require you chill the dough both before you assemble the cookies, as well as after you assemble them so plan accordingly. You can also prepare the cookie dough the day before, and let them sit in the fridge overnight, then assemble the next day and chill again overnight, baking them the third day if you like.

Course Dessert, Snack

Cuisine American

Keyword chocolate chip, cookies, white chocolate

Prep Time 1

Cook Time 15

Refrigerator chill time 3

Servings cookies

Calories 301kcal

Author Irvin

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups unsalted butter 255 g or 2 1/2 sticks
1 3/4 cups white sugar 350 g
1/2 cup light brown sugar 110 g
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 large eggs
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 490 g
2 cup white chocolate chips 370 g
Red and blue liquid food coloring roughly a teaspoon each

To finish

Flaky sea salt or sparkling sugar optional

Instructions

Place the butter, both sugars, vanilla extract, baking powder, baking soda and salt in the bowl of stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix the ingredients together on medium speed until they are creamy and cling to the side of the bowl.
Add the eggs, one at a time, waiting until the first egg is incorporated before adding the second one. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl before adding each egg. The batter will look “broken” but don’t worry. This is normal.
Add the flour and slowly mix it. I like to “pulse” the mixer on and off quickly, until the bulk of the flour has been absorbed in the dough. If you turn the mixer just to on, flour will go everywhere. Just slowly mix it in. Once most of it is absorbed, you can turn the mixer on to slow to incorporate it fully.
Now add the white chocolate chips and mix in slowly. You can do this by hand if you want.
Now divide the dough into 3 even parts. If you have a scale, this is roughly 550 grams of dough. Pat one dough into 1-inch thick disk and wrap with plastic wrap. Place the second part of the dough in the mixer and add 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon of the red liquid food coloring. Mix until evenly colored. Remove the dough, pat it into a disk that is 1-inch thick, and wrap in plastic wrap. Wipe out the bowl and paddle attachment with a paper towel (no need to clean it thoroughly, a little red dough won’t hurt the blue dough). Place the third piece of dough and add 3/4 to 1 teaspoon of blue liquid food coloring and mix until evenly colored then pat into a disk and wrap with plastic wrap.
Place all the wrapped cookie dough in the refrigerator and let it chill for 2 hours or overnight, up to 3 days if you want. You can also freeze the dough at this point, keeping them wrapped in the plastic wrap and placing them in a large freezer bag. Thaw them in the fridge before assembling.
Once the cookie dough is chilled, line 4 rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper or silicon baking pads.
Divide each dough into 8 equal pieces. If you have a scale, that about 65 to 70 grams each. Then take each piece and form a disk in your hands, about 2-inch wide by 1-inch thick.
Take a plain white disk of dough cut the disk into 6 strips. Repeat this with the red disk, cutting it into 6 strips. Take the one blue disk and cut it into 4 quarter pieces.
Then take two red layers and one white layer and alternate them, then press them together to form half a disk. Set them aside and repeat with the two white layers and one red layer. You should have two half disks. Cut one of these half disks in half, down the middle. It should be the same shape as the blue quarter.
Then assemble a cookie. Take one of the half red and white strip and place it on the bottom. Add a blue quarter on the top left and the matching shape red and white striped piece on the top right. Squish together and set aside.
Repeat this process with the remainder of the dough, keeping mind that the dough quarters that you cut might need to be flipped over or rotated to match the right side. Always pair up the half and quarter red and white striped pieces so the stripes continue to alternate.
Place 6 cookies on the prepared baking sheet spacing them out about 2 inches apart. Sprinkle the top of the cookies with some sea salt and place them in the refrigerate for 1 hour. This will help keep the cookie shape and prevent them from spreading. If you skip this step, place only 4 cookies per sheet and expect the cookies to spread a lot more and be flatter.
While the dough chills again, preheat the oven to 350°F. Once chilled, sprinkle the top of the cookies with sea salt or sparkling sugar (if using) and then bake in the oven for 14 to 16 minutes or until the edges of the cookie start to turn light brown. If the cookies are slightly misshapen, just gently tap the sides of the cookie with a spatula or wooden spoon immediately after they come out of the oven. You have about 30 seconds to do this, while the cookies are still warm. Once they cool, the firm up and you can’t manipulate them in the same way.
Let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before moving them to a wire cooling rack. Cool completely.

Video

Notes

This recipe will yield 21 red, white, and blue large cookies. You will also end up with 2 all blue cookies, and one blue cookie with a red and white striped corner. This is because of the nature of dividing the dough into the multiple colors and assembling them all together. Reserve the extra cookies of yourself as a special treat!

Nutrition

The post Red, White and Blue Cookies with White Chocolate Chips appeared first on Eat The Love.

Psychedelic Rainbow Cheesecake Brownies

Fri, 09 Jun 2023 17:44:00 +0200

These psychedelic rainbow cheesecake brownies are a vibrant version of regular cheesecake brownies but only take a little more time to make!

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Though I was late to the rainbow bandwagon (which is surprising as a gay man), in the past few years I’ve fully embraced baking rainbow goods, especially when it comes to June which is Pride month. I’ve made rainbow chocolate chip cookies and rainbow layer cake with chocolate frosting. And I’ve even made rainbow rice krispie treats for my friends over at Simply Recipes.

But rainbows are an all-year and anytime sort of thing! Especially when it comes to these super fun, psychedelic-inspired rainbow cheesecake brownies. They’re based on my favorite easy fudge brownie recipe, and similar to my Neapolitan cheesecake brownies, but with the added bonus of a brightly colored fun cheesecake swirled on top. Once you set them out, expect your friends and family to swoon over them.

How do you make these rainbow cheesecake brownies?

Making these rainbow cheesecake brownies takes slightly more work than more traditional cheesecake brownies but don’t stress. It’s basically the same recipe and idea as a more tradition cheesecake brownie, you just need to divide the cheesecake batter and add food coloring to it.

First make the brownie batter by combining melted butter, sugar and Dutch-processed cocoa. Then add vanilla, salt, instant coffee and baking powder. Beat in eggs and then fold in flour. Scrape into a prepared pan and smooth out to an even layer.

Make the cheesecake batter by beating together softened room temperature cream cheese, egg, sugar, vanilla and flour. Then divide the batter into 6 different bowls. Add food coloring to each bowl to create a range of colors. Drizzle the different colors all over the top of the brownie, then take a knife or chopstick and swirl and marble the colored batter. Now bake and let cool completely before cutting and serving.

What sort of food coloring should you use?

This recipe works with the typical grocery store liquid food coloring, the kind that comes in the teardrop bottles. But you can use professional gel food coloring if you wish. You will need more liquid food coloring and less gel food coloring.

I don’t recommend natural dye food coloring. The natural dyes tend to fade when heated and baked, and they rarely give as intense a color. They are better for non-baking applications like royal icing or buttercream frosting.

If you use professional gel coloring, add the coloring with a toothpick dab, or use a single drop of the gel, as the color is significantly more intense. Add more if desired.

This is amount I used for grocery store liquid food coloring, though your food coloring might vary in intensity depending on the brand. Start with a little bit less coloring and adjust by adding more.

Yellow: 4 drops liquid food coloring (the batter is already a yellowish tinge to it, so less coloring needed)
Green: 8 drops liquid food coloring
Blue: 8 drops liquid food coloring
Purple: 4 drops red, 3 drops blue liquid food coloring
Red: 6 drops liquid food coloring
Orange: 6 drops yellow, 2 drops red liquid food coloring

Keep in mind that food coloring often intensifies slightly once you bake it and let it cool and set.

What sort of cocoa should be used?

I use Dutch-processed cocoa in these brownies, as it gives a darker color that contrasts well with colored cream cheese. It also has a nice mellow richness as opposed to natural cocoa which tends to be more acidic and sharper. Dutch-processed cocoa is cocoa that has the natural acidity in cocoa powder neutralized and taken out. Popular brands include Hershey’s Special Dark (the red label), Droste, Ghiradelli’s Dutch-processed (the purple bag), and Guittard’s Cocoa Rouge cocoa (the red canister) [<- all affiliate links].

If you wish to use natural cocoa, or that’s all you have in your pantry, swap 1 cup of natural cocoa for the Dutch-processed cocoa and remove the baking powder from the recipe. Add in 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda instead. Using natural cocoa powder will change the color of the brownie base and shift the flavor and texture a bit, making it more cakey. But it’ll still be delightful!

Tips, tricks & customization

Room temperature cream cheese and egg: To ensure a smooth cheesecake batter, make sure both the cream cheese and the egg are at room temperature. Cold cream cheese will lead to lumpy batter which is super annoying to work with. When I start making these brownies, the first thing I do before anything else is to place the cream cheese brick, still in the metal foil, and the egg in a warm water bath. The hot water from your faucet is typically warm enough. Leave the cream cheese brick and egg in the water for 10 minutes, which is roughly the time it takes to make the brownie batter. That’s usually enough time to bring both the egg and cream cheese to room temperature!
Don’t over mix: When swirling the colored cream cheese batter, it can be tempting to continue to swirl and swirl together. But the more you swirl, the more the colors can blend together. Just a few swirls here and there are enough to create the psychedelic color blending! I like to use a chopstick, but a skewer, butter knife or a toothpick will work fine.
Add ins: I kept this brownie pretty straightforward, with just the cream cheese and the brownie. But you can add in extras if you’d like! Some mix-in suggestions include: mini chocolate chips, finely chopped chocolate, mini m&ms, and chopped nuts. Just add in about 1 to 1 1/2 cups of the mix-ins to the brownie batter.
Customize color: I made these with a full rainbow of 6 different colors but you can make them with less colors or make them more monochromatic. Having a baby shower? Make them with various shades of blue or pink. Throwing a Christmas party? Use red, green and white batter. Celebrating a trans friend’s milestone? Use pink, light blue and white batter. The options are limitless.
Save some brownie batter (pro tip): I like to save just a little bit of brownie batter to place over the cream cheese batter. This ensure that you see some of the brownie on top as well. Otherwise, the cream cheese batter just covers up the brownie completely. This is completely optional, but if you do save the brownie batter, just thin it slightly with milk or water until it’s the same consistency of the cream cheese batter. Drizzle it on top of the colored cream cheese once you added all the colors. Then swirl away. No need to save a lot of brownie batter, a couple of tablespoons is plenty.

How do you store these brownies?

Store these brownies in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 5 days. If you stack them, place a piece of wax paper or parchment paper between each layer, as the brownies will stick to one another. Eat them cold or place them on the counter for an hour to bring them to room temperature.

You can also freeze these brownies. Store them in an airtight container, with wax or parchment paper between them, and freeze for up to 2 months. Thaw to room temperature before serving.

If you like these brownies, check out these other chocolate recipes:

And check out these other cheesecake recipes:

Psychedelic Rainbow Cheesecake Brownies

These vibrant, super fun cheesecake brownies require slightly more work than more traditional cheesecake brownies but that’s part of the fun! Be sure to bring the cream cheese and egg in the cheesecake batter to room temperature, as cold cream cheese will lead to a lumpy batter that doesn’t swirl as nicely. I have a tip on how to do that quickly in my section on tips, tricks and customizations. Either way you make them, these cheesecake brownies will impress folks when you serve them.

Course coffee time, Dessert, Side Dish

Cuisine American

Keyword brownies, cheesecake, chocolate, cream cheese, rainbow

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 30

Servings

Calories 225kcal

Author Irvin

Ingredients

Brownie batter

1 cup unsalted butter 2 sticks or 225 g
2 cups white sugar 400 g
1 cup Dutch-processed cocoa 110 g
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon instant coffee or espresso powder optional but recommended
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
4 large eggs
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 175 g

Cheesecake batter

8 ounces cream cheese room temperature (1 brick or 225 g)
1 large egg room temperature
1/3 cup white sugar 67 g
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons flour
Food coloring see note above

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly spray 9 x 13 x 2-inch metal pan with cooking oil. Then line it with parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang on the sides.
Make the brownie batter by first melting the butter in large microwave safe glass or ceramic bowl. Cook in 30 second bursts, stirring the butter between each interval. Once the butter is melted, stir in the sugar and the cocoa until they are dissolved. Don’t worry if the mixture feels a little grainy, that’s fine for this recipe.
Stir in the vanilla, salt, instant coffee or espresso powder (if using), and baking powder. Then add the eggs, one at a time, beating with a fork or a whisk, until they are incorporated. Fold in the flour until it is just absorbed and there are no traces of dry flour left. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth out to an even layer with a small offset spatula or butter knife.
Make the cheesecake batter by placing the room temperature cream cheese, egg, sugar, vanilla and flour in a bowl. Mix with a whisk until smooth and all the ingredients are blended.
Divide the cheesecake batter into 6 different bowls. This doesn’t have to be completely even but it’s roughly 60 grams of batter each or about 1/4 cup. Add food coloring to each cream cheese bowl. I have suggestions on the amount of liquid food coloring in a section above (typically it’s somewhere between 6 to 8 drops), but you can just free form and add drops to the cream cheese until it reaches the color you want. Completely stir each color with a clean spoon to makes sure the dye is uniformly distributed. Keep in mind that the colors do intensify a bit once you’ve baked and let the brownie cool.
Once all the batter is dyed, now comes the fun part! Drizzle the batter over the brownie batter randomly, making sure to use alternate different colors as you go. Don’t just drizzle all the blue batter, then move on to the green batter. Instead, drizzle some of the green, then some of the blue, some of the red, and then go back to green, then add yellow. You get the idea. If you constantly alternate, you’ll get more fun mixes of colors adjacent to each other. After you’ve used up all the colored cheesecake batter, the top of your brownie should look like a Jackson Pollack painting!
Once the batter is added, take a chopstick, butter knife, skewer, or toothpick and swirl and marble the batter together. Don’t go overboard. You only need to do it a few times to swirl all the batter into a lovely pattern. More swirling potentially means you mix the batters together, and the fun psychedelic look of the batter is a result of keeping the colored batters separated.
Once the batter is marbled on top, bake the brownies for 27 to 32 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let the brownies rest and cool on a wire rack until they are room temperature.
When cool, remove the brownies from the pan by lifting the parchment paper up and over to a cutting board. Cut the brownies and serve.

Nutrition

The post Psychedelic Rainbow Cheesecake Brownies appeared first on Eat The Love.

Blueberry Rhubarb Pie aka Bluebarb Pie [Sponsored Post]

Fri, 02 Jun 2023 23:27:10 +0200

This blueberry rhubarb pie (aka Bluebarb Pie) combines tart red rhubarb with earthy sweet blueberries to create a vibrant luscious dessert.

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This post was sponsored by California Grown. I was compensated for this post and for developing the recipe. However, all opinions below are completely my own.

Though my strawberry rhubarb pie is a classic in my household when Spring comes around and rhubarb appears in the store, I’m going to tell you that blueberry rhubarb pie might possibly edge out other rhubarb-based pies in my playbook. It’s not a combo that a lot of folks know but I’ve been matching the two for years, as I love how the tart sour rhubarb works so well with the earthy sweet blueberries. Years ago I made a sour cream blueberry and rhubarb pie inspired by a wedding of a college friend, I’ve adapted a recipe from a friend of mine’s cookbook to make blueberry rhubarb oatmeal bars, and I’ve shared an excellent berry rhubarb slab pie on this blog a few years ago for a gathering I attended up in Sonoma.

It was at a recent agricultural farm tour in the Temecula valley for California Grown, that I was inspired to make this pie. There, I got a chance to learn all about the region, which is about an hour north of San Diego. There they produce over 50 varietals grapes for over 40 different wineries. Beyond the wine tasting we visited hillsides of gorgeous protea flowering plants grown by the Rese ndiz Brothers, and had a chance to pick blueberries right off the bush at Fairfield farms, an organic farm that grows blueberries and avocados. It was these blueberries, which ripen earlier than other summertime blueberries in the California due to the unique climate of Pauma Valley where their farm is, reminded me that I could pair them with springtime rhubarb to make this luscious blueberry rhubarb pie, otherwise known as the bluebarb pie.

What is Rhubarb?

Rhubarb is technically a vegetable, but most folks use it like a fruit, pairing it with sweet strawberry. It’s a long stalk that look a bit like red celery (though there are a varieties of rhubarb that are green and never turn red). Like celery, it can be a bit stringy which is why it’s often cut into chunks. Once cooked, the rhubarb softens a lot, and the astringent sour flavor of raw rhubarb mellows. Still, because it is more tart and sour, rhubarb is often paired with sweet fruit like strawberries or blueberries, to balance out the flavor.

You’ve probably heard that you shouldn’t eat the rhubarb leaves, as they are poisonous. Most rhubarb that you buy have the leaves trimmed but if you grow your rhubarb or you find rhubarb at a farmers market that still has the leaves, trim it off. But even if you do eat a little rhubarb leaves, don’t stress about it too much. You need to eat 11 pounds of rhubarb to kill you so a few leaves here and there, at most will just give you a stomach ache.

Rhubarb season usually starts in April and can go through June, though late season, second harvest, and hothouse rhubarb tends to extend the season from early Spring to late summer. Frozen rhubarb is also available all year.

How do you make this pie?

Like all pies, you start with pie dough! My all-butter pie dough is my go-to, and it requires very few ingredients. Combine flour and little kosher salt in a bowl, then sprinkle some refrigerate cold butter cubes over the dry ingredients. Smash the butter with your fingers into small flat pieces. Then drizzle the mixture with ice cold water. Toss with a fork until most of the water has absorbed and a dough forms. Divide the dough in half, wrap with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.

Once the dough is chilled, make the filling by combining chopped rhubarb, blueberries, sugar, a grated apple, vanilla extract, lemon juice, salt, tapioca starch (or cornstarch), cinnamon and nutmeg. Roll out the dough and fit it into a deep-dish pan. Scrape the dough into pie crust, and then roll out the second disk of dough. Cut strips and weave a top crust, sealing and crimping it around the edges of the pan. Brush the top with an egg wash and sugar, then bake!

Shortcuts and substitutions

Pie dough: You can easily skip the homemade pie dough and use store-bought pie crust. Or use store bought puff pastry, but expect the crust to be puffier.
Spices: This pie doesn’t use a lot of spices but I do add a bit of cinnamon for dimension and nutmeg to help bring out the buttery richness. You can omit, add or swap out spices if you’d like. I’d recommend ginger, cardamom, allspice, black pepper, or even coriander as options.
Skip the top weave: If the top crust weave seems fussy, just cover the entire top of the pie with a full sheet of pie dough, and seal and crimp the edges. Just makes sure to cut some steam vents into the top of the crust.
Lemon Juice: I use lemon juice for acidity, which gives the pie filling some juiciness, as well as helps to activate the pectin in the apple, which helps thicken the pie. If you don’t have lemon around, swap it out for a different citrus like lime, Meyer lemon, or orange. Or use the same amount of vinegar instead. Balsamic vinegar which will give it a dark richness, apple cider vinegar which will give is a sweetness, or raspberry vinegar which will boost the berry flavor.
Tapioca starch/flour: I like using tapioca starch for pie fillings. It sets at a lower temperature and doesn’t taste quite as “starchy” as cornstarch. It also tends to work better in acidic environments. But if you don’t have any tapioca starch, an equal amount of cornstarch will work just as well!
Frozen fruit: If you want to use frozen rhubarb or frozen blueberries for this recipe, substitute the same amount as you would fresh fruit. Don’t worry about thawing the fruit, just increase the bake time by 10 minutes or so to accommodate the cold filling. But I would recommend increasing the tapioca starch by 1 tablespoon if you are using frozen rhubarb or frozen blueberries, and 2 tablespoons if you are using both frozen rhubarb and blueberries. The frozen fruit tends to shed more water, so you’ll need more starch to absorb that liquid.

How to store the pie

This pie keeps at room temperature for about 2 days. You can also store it in the fridge for up to 5 days. Just store the pie under a cake dome or wrapped in plastic wrap. If you’re storing the pie in the fridge, bring it to room temperature before serving.

If you like this blueberry rhubarb pie, check out these other rhubarb recipes

And check out these other blueberry recipes

Blueberry Rhubarb Pie (aka Bluebarb Pie)

This blueberry rhubarb combines the earthy sweet blueberry with the mellow sour tartness of rhubarb and is awesome as a late Spring or early Summer pie. Don’t skip the grated apple. It is full of pectin, which helps naturally thicken the pie, as well as sweeten it. But don’t worry, you won’t notice the apple flavor in the pie itself. The bold flavor of the blueberry and rhubarb come through. I have tips and trips above on shortcuts or substitutions. Keep in mind this recipe requires a 9-inch deep-dish pan, one that has a more vertical high side. If you only have a more traditional pie pan with slanted sides, you should half the filling recipe to accommodate for that and reduce all the filling ingredients by half. Reduce the bake time as well, as the filling won’t need as long to bake.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword blueberries, pie, rhubarb

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 1 20

Chill Time 8

Servings

Calories 607kcal

Author Irvin

Ingredients

Crust

3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 455 g
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/4 cups cold unsalted butter 2 1/2 sticks or 285 g
3/4 cup ice cold water plus more if needed

Filling

1 1/4 pounds rhubarb cut into 1-inch chunks, about 2 1/2 cups
1 pound blueberries about 3 1/2 cups
1 medium-sized apple peeled, cored and grated through the big hole of a box grater
3/4 cup white sugar 150 g
3 tablespoons tapioca starch or cornstarch
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

To finish

1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon water
2 tablespoon turbinado sugar or white sugar

Instructions

Make the pie crust by placing the flour and salt in a large bowl. Cut the butter into 1/2-inch cubes, and add them to the dry ingredients. Toss with your hands to coat the butter, then smash the butter cubes into small flat pieces, that are roughly the size of peas. If the butter starts to stick to your fingers, dip them back into the flour to coat them and the butter. Continue doing this until all the butter is broken down.
Drizzle the water over the pie dough ingredients, tossing with a fork, until the water is absorbed a dough starts to form. At this point you can start to massage the dough with your hands in the bowl, pressing and folding the dough to incorporate all the dry ingredients. If the dough doesn't seem to be forming, add a tablespoon of water at a time, tossing with a fork until it comes together.
Cut the dough in half and shape two disks, about 1-inch thick. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.
Once the dough is chilled, preheat an oven to 375°F. Make the filling by placing the rhubarb, blueberries, grated apple, sugar, tapioca starch, lemon juice, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a large bowl. Mix until the fruit is evenly coated with the sugar and starch.
Roll out one disk of dough to a 11 to 12-inch wide circle. Fit it into a deep dish pie pan. Add the filling, scraping and adding any liquid on the bottom of the bowl, into the pie crust.
Roll out the second dough into a 12-inch wide circle, and then cut the dough into strips. Weave the dough over the top of the pie, creating a lattice top. Trim any excess dough, then seal the dough around the edges, decoratively crimping the edges of the bottom crust to the top crust.
Beat the egg yolk with the water, the brush the egg wash over the top of the crust. Sprinkle the top with sugar, then place the pie on a rimmed baking sheet to catch any filling that might bubble over.
Bake in the oven for 50 to 60 minutes or until the top of the crust is starting to turn golden brown. Cover with aluminum foil to prevent burning, and bake an additional 30 to 35 minutes or until the center of the pie is bubbling.
Cool on a wire rack for at least 2 hours to let the filling set or let it cool completely to room temperature. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Nutrition

The post Blueberry Rhubarb Pie aka Bluebarb Pie [Sponsored Post] appeared first on Eat The Love.

Dark Chocolate Texas Sheet Cake

Tue, 16 May 2023 17:00:00 +0200

This dark chocolate Texas sheet cake is rich and moist and is big enough to feed a crowd, making it ideal for large gatherings.

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Right out of college I worked at a small non-profit art museum that ran on a shoe-string budget. We were all overworked and underpaid, but we were a tight-knit group of folks as we had to do the equivalent of three jobs, constantly helping each other out. Deb, the woman in charge of development and fundraising, was a huge foodie, a phrase I had never heard before (this was the early 90s). For the first company potluck picnic I was invited to, she dictated the menu to everyone. I was assigned Texas Sheet Cake, which I also had never heard of. But once I got a recipe from her, I was sold! I’ve made and shared variations of the popular dessert, in the form of Texas Mexican chocolate (Tex-Mex) sheet cake and Texas peppermint sheet cake. But after sharing my original recipe in the book Feed Your People (<- affiliate link), edited by Leslie Jonath a few years ago, I thought I’d finally get around to sharing it here!

What is Texas sheet cake?

Texas sheet cake is a large chocolate cake that is baked in a large-rimmed baking sheet. It’s thin, dense and a little bit fudgy, as if a regular chocolate sheet cake and brownies had a love child. It is topped with a layer of fudgy chocolate icing that is spread while the cake is still warm. This allows it to melt into the cake, giving it more fudgy texture. Finally, traditional Texas sheet cake has pecans sprinkled on top, though walnuts are sometimes used instead.

Because it’s baked on a large half-sheet pan, it’s a popular dessert to bring to potlucks, pitch-ins and large parties because it can serve a crowd. Folks can cut small or large pieces from the sheet cake, stretching it out for more people.

How do you make Texas sheet cake

Making Texas sheet cake is easy, which is why it’s such a popular dessert. Combine the dry ingredients of flour, brown sugar, white sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Combine eggs, egg yolk, sour cream, and vanilla in a different bowl. Finally place chopped dark chocolate, in a large saucepan with oil, hot coffee, cocoa powder and butter. Heat until the chocolate and butter has melted, stirring constantly to make a smooth chocolate sauce.

Mix the chocolate sauce into the dry ingredients, mix in the egg and sour cream mixture into the batter. Pour and spread the batter int a prepared 12 x 17-inch half sheet pan and bake in a preheated oven for 17 to 19 minutes.

While the cake is baking, toast some pecan halves in a dry skillet until fragrant and set aside. Then make the icing by combining butter, cream, cocoa, salt, and corn syrup in a saucepan, stirring until the butter has melted. Add powdered sugar and vanilla to the frosting, stirring until smooth.

Once the cake is baked, while it is still hot, pour the icing over the cake and spread it evenly all over. Sprinkle the toasted pecans over the warm icing, gently pressing them into the icing. Let the cake cool to room temperature before serving from the pan.

What makes this recipe different from other Texas sheet cake?

This is a classic sheet cake but there are a few differences compared to other recipes you’ll find out there. I use extra egg yolks in the batter, which gives a rich moisture to the cake crumb, brewed coffee, which boosts the chocolate flavor, and Dutch-processed cocoa which gives the cake a darker deeper color and mellower nostalgic chocolate flavor. I also use a generous amount of melted dark chocolate in this cake, making this dark chocolate Texas sheet cake ideal for a true chocolate lover.

What sort of pan do you use?

A Texas sheet cake is thinner than a regular typical chocolate sheet cake which is often baked in a 9 x 13 x 2-inch pan (the sort that you bake brownies in). Texas sheet cake requires a 12 x 17 pan, which is often called a “half sheet” pan. Half sheet pans are one of my favorite and most versatile baking pan, one that easily fits in most ovens and allows me to bake everything from my favorite baker-style chocolate chip cookies to soft rye pretzels on them. I actually reviewed half sheet pans for Serious Eats (both regular sheet pans and non-stick sheet pans). My favorite regular sheet pan was by Chicago Metallic and Nordic Ware (<- affiliate links) and my favorite nonstick is by Chicago Metallic (<- also affiliate link). But any half sheet pan will work for this recipe.

What sort of cocoa do you use?

This recipe uses Dutch-processed cocoa, which is a darker colored cocoa that has been alkalized. This means the natural acidity of the cocoa has been altered, creating a smoother, mellow and deeper flavor. Dutch-processed cocoa is also what Oreo cookies are made from. Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa, Droste, Guittard’s Rouge (in the red canister) and Ghiradelli’s are popular brands of Dutch-processed cocoa and can be found in well stocked grocery stores or online.

If you can’t find Dutch-processed cocoa, or don’t feel like buying it, you can swap out an equal amount of natural cocoa powder. Just add an additional 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder to the batter. Realize that substituting natural cocoa powder will alter the flavor and look of the Texas sheet cake and may result in a lighter colored cake that is slightly drier, as natural cocoa powder typically has less cacao butter in it. Higher quality natural cocoa powder retains a higher percentage of cacao butter and will help keep the cake moist.

How do you store it?

This cake stores well. Once completely cooled, cover it with aluminum foil or plastic wrap and store it in the fridge for up to 3 or 4 days. Bring the cake to room temperature before serving. You can also freeze the cake. Just store slices in an airtight container for up to 2 months. Thaw on the countertop before serving. Keep in mind freezing and thawing will create condensation and the icing might be affected.

Can you swap out nuts?

Yes! Pecans are the traditional topping for Texas sheet cake but some folks prefer to use walnuts on top. Just toast the same amount of chopped walnuts like you would pecans and use that on top of the cake. Or swap out a different nut like pistachios, cashews, chopped brazil nuts, or macadamia nuts if you’d like.

Feel free to omit the chopped nut topping if you are allergic to nuts or don’t like them. Or try using the same amount of roasted cacao nibs, which can be found online or at well stocked grocery and health food stores for a nutty texture that is nut free and adds a bonus chocolate intensity.

If you like this Texas Sheet Cake, here are some other chocolate dessert recipes you might like:

Dark Chocolate Texas Sheet Cake

This classic chocolate dessert is something that is often brought to picnics and potlucks in Texas, as well as the south and Midwest. It’s neatly fits in the middle of the venn diagram of a chocolate sheet cake and a cakey brownie. Because it’s baked in a large 12 x 17 half sheet rimmed baking pan, you can serve large crowds, with folks cutting out smaller servings if they wish. Make sure to prepare the fudgy frosting while the cake bakes. You want to be able to pour and spread the frosting on the cake right when it comes out of the oven, when it’s warm. This allows the frosting to seep into the cake a bit, making it super moist and fudgy.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American, midwest, southern

Keyword bundt cake, chocolate, donuts, pecans, sheet cake

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 30

Servings

Calories 377kcal

Author Irvin

Ingredients

Cake batter

2 cups all-purpose flour 280 g
1 1/2 cups white granulated sugar 300 g
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar 55 g
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
1/4 cup sour cream
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 oz dark bittersweet chocolate chopped into 1/4 inch chunks, 225 g
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup freshly brewed hot coffee
1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa, sifted 65 g
4 tablespoons unsalted butter 57 g or 1/2 stick

To assemble

1 cup 115 g pecan halves

Icing

1/2 cup unsalted butter 115 g or 1 stick
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup Dutch-process cocoa, sifted 65 g
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
3 cups powdered sugar sifted, 345 g
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Make the cake by preheating the oven to 350°F. Spray a 12 x 17-inch rimmed baking sheet with cooking oil.
Place the flour, white sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Using a balloon whisk, vigorously stir the dry ingredients together until they are blended together.
Place eggs, egg yolks, sour cream and vanilla extract in a small bowl and beat together with a fork until smooth and well blended.
Place the chopped chocolate, oil, coffee, cocoa powder, and butter together in a medium saucepan. Cook on medium low heat for about 3 to 5 minutes, stirring constantly, until the chocolate melts and the mixture is smooth.
Pour the chocolate into the dry ingredients bowl and mix with a large silicon spatula to incorporate. Add the sour cream mixture to the bowl and mix to incorporate.
Pour the batter into the prepared rimmed baking sheet and spread the batter to the edges of the pan, smoothing it out. Bake for 17 to 19 minutes or until a toothpick in the middle of the pan comes out clean. Don’t overbake.
While the cake is baking, toast the pecans by placing them in a dry skillet and heating the skillet on the stove to medium heat. Cook and toast the pecans, stirring constantly, until they are fragrant and slightly darker in color, about 2 minutes. Set aside.
Then make the icing by placing the butter, cream, cocoa, sea salt and corn syrup in a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the butter has melted and the mixture is smooth. Turn the heat off and stir in the sifted confectioners’ sugar and vanilla extract.
Once the cake has come out of the oven, while it is still hot, immediately pour the icing over the cake and spread it evenly with a small offset spatula (or butter knife) to the edges of the cake, evenly frosting the cake. Sprinkle the pecans over the still warm icing, and gently press down on them to set them in the icing. Let the cake cool to room temperature, about an hour, on a wire rack. Once the icing has set, you can cover it with aluminum foil or plastic wrap and keep it in the fridge for up to three or four days, but it’s best served in the first couple of days.

Notes

Note 1: Slightly adapted from my recipe featured in the cookbook Feed Your People (<- affiliate link).

Note 2: When you use the two egg yolks for the recipe, you can reserve and use the egg whites for another use like my Eton Mess. Or just freeze them by placing the egg whites individually in ice cube trays. Once frozen, just pop out of the tray and place in a heavy duty freezer bag for storage. Thaw in the fridge overnight before using as normal.

Nutrition

The post Dark Chocolate Texas Sheet Cake appeared first on Eat The Love.

10-Ingredients Caramel Peach Upside Down Cake

Tue, 09 May 2023 17:30:00 +0200

This luscious caramel peach upside-down cake take only 10 basic ingredients and yields a delightfully buttery and moist coffee cake.

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True story: when I see peaches appear in the store, I tend to grab bags of them. HUGE bags. However, peaches typically sold in the store are underripe, as they are less fragile to pick and ship (if you can find tree-ripened peaches at a farmers’ market, GRAB THEM). But this means I impatiently wait around as they ripen up. And when they do, I end up with a lot of peaches that need to be used fast. Beyond eating them right out of hand, I start whipping up sweet treats like my peach slab pie; peach and prosecco bellini cobbler with strawberry biscuits; sugar roasted peach and blueberry bacon buckle; and vanilla peach graham cracker ice cream. One recipe I haven’t shared yet is this 10-ingredient caramel peach upside down cake, which is an ideal pairing of complex caramel, honey sweet peach, and buttery moist cake, all made with pantry staple ingredients!

How to make caramel peach upside-down cake

Making caramel peach upside down cake isn’t as difficult as it seems. But you do need to peel the peaches and make the caramel!

I have a section on peeling peaches, as well as a more extensive blog post on how to peel a peach. Once they’re peeled, slice and arrange them in a cake pan. Then cook some sugar until it turns to caramel. Pour the caramel over the peaches. The caramel will harden but don’t worry, it will dissolve again when the cake is baked.

Make the cake batter by creaming butter, white and brown sugar, vanilla extract, almond extract, baking powder, nutmeg, and salt. Add eggs, and then flour. Pour the batter over the peaches and caramel, spreading it out to cover, then bake! Once done, let it rest for 5 minutes, then invert on a cake stand or serving plate.

How do you peel the peaches?

Peeling peaches isn’t difficult, but it is an extra step that is required for this recipe, as the fuzzy peach skin is a little tough to eat in the cake. There are two ways to do it. You can either peel them using a serrated peeling knife, which helps cut through the tough skin. Or you can poach them briefly in hot water and then peel them. This is my preferred method.

First boil a large pot of water. Fill a large bowl with ice water. While the water comes to a boil, cut an “x” on the bottom of the peach with a sharp knife. When the water comes to a boil, place the peaches in the water for 60 seconds. Then remove them and “shock” them by placing them in the ice water. Once they are cooled enough to handle, you should be able to peel the peaches with your fingers, with the skins sliding off. You can see more detailed instructions on peeling the peaches on my blog post How to Peel a Peach.

Tips on making caramel

If you’ve never made caramel before, here are a few tips on making it!

Use a light-colored pan: if you never made caramel, I totally recommend using a light colored pan. That way you can tell how dark the caramel gets. Nonstick dark colored pans are great for cleanup, but it’s much harder to tell how dark the caramel is with them. Use a light colored or stainless steel pan to watch the color. Clean up isn’t difficult with a regular stainless steel pan. Just soak the pan in water, or boil some water in the pan afterwards, to dissolve any stuck on caramel.
Use low heat: Though it’s easy to get impatient and crank up the heat, if you are unfamiliar with making caramel, use a lower heat and just wait a bit. Caramel can go from golden brown to acrid black pretty fast. Using a lower heat allows you to adjust, stir and remove the caramel from the heat before it reaches the point of no return. The caramel will definitely get there eventually. Just have some patience. If you are short on time, you can speed it up a bit by turn the heat on high, and once the sugar starts to melt and turn color, lower the heat immediately.
Remove from off heat early: Like the trick of using low heat, if you notice the sugar turning golden brown, you can remove the pan from the burner or turn off the heat. Allow the residual heat of the pan to continue to cook the sugar, darkening it a bit. If the caramel isn’t turning the right color, or isn’t as dark as you like, you can always return it to the heat to nudge it a little bit darker. But letting the residual heat of the pan cook the sugar darker is a good habit to have.
Ice Water Bowl: This is being extra cautious, but I do like to have a bowl of ice water next to the stove in case any of the caramel splashes of gets on me. You can immediately dunk your hand in the ice water to stop the burn. Honestly I’ve never had to use that bowl of ice water before, but better safe than sorry!

Can I use frozen or canned peaches?

If peaches aren’t in season, you can easily use frozen or canned peaches. There’s no need to defrost the peaches if you use it, but you might need to increase the bake time by 5 minutes to compensate for the cold peaches. Keep in mind the frozen peaches shed more moisture, so your cake might be a little more moist. Be sure to drain the peaches if you do use canned peaches.

How do I store the cake?

Store this cake at room temperature under a cake dome for up to 2 days. Or you can freeze the cake. Just freeze the entire cake, or cake slices, on a baking sheet for 2 hours, or until frozen solid. Then wrapped the cake or cake slices in plastic wrap and place it in a resealable Ziploc bag for storage. Thaw the cake to room temperature (about 2 to 3 hours on the counter) before serving. Frozen cake can keep in the freezer for up to 3 months.

If you like this caramel peach upside down cake, check out these other peach recipes:

And check out these other casual coffee cakes

10-Ingredients Caramel Peach Upside Down Cake

This 10-ingredient caramel peach upside down cake (not counting salt) uses typical pantry staples. It produces a delightfully homey comforting cake that works well for coffee or for dessert. And because it’s served upside down, you don’t have to worry about frosting it or any sort of special decoration. I have tips above in my section on how to peel the peach, as well as tips on how to make caramel if you have never made it before.

Course coffee time, Dessert, Snack

Cuisine American

Keyword bundt cake, caramel, peaches

Prep Time 25 minutes

Cook Time 35 minutes

Servings

Calories 344kcal

Author Irvin

Ingredients

Topping

3 ripe peaches about 1 to 1/4 pounds
3/4 cup white sugar 150 g
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Cake

1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature 1 stick or 115 g
1/2 cup white sugar 100 g
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar 55 g
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract optional
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3 large eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour 140 g

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray a 9-inch round cake pan with cooking oil.
Peel the peaches and cut them into 1/2-inch to 3/4-inch slices. Arrange the peaches on the bottom of the pan, in a circular pattern. Place the pan on a heatproof surface.
Place the sugar in a medium-sized skillet, one with a silver bottom if you have ever made caramel before. Heat the skillet on the stove on high, until the edge of the sugar starts to melt. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Continue to cook the sugar, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, until all the sugar has melted and the has turned golden brown. Sprinkle and stir in the salt.
Immediately drizzle the caramel over the peaches. The caramel will harden, but don’t worry, it will dissolve when the cake is baked.
Place the butter, white sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, almond extract (if using), baking powder, nutmeg and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Cream the mixture together, until fluffy, light in color, and clings to the side of the bowl.
Add the eggs, one at a time, beating each in and scraping down the sides of the bowl between additions. Don’t worry if the batter looks “broken” or grainy. It will come together with the flour.
Add the flour and mix slowly until the flour is absorbed.
Carefully pour the cake batter over the peaches, making sure not to disturb their pattern. Use a butter knife or small offset spatula and spread the batter out to the edge of the pan.
Bake the cake for 35 to 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean, the edges of the cake start to pull away from the pan.
Let the cake rest and cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Gently run a thin butter knife around the edge of the cake. Then invert a serving plate or cake stand upside down on to the pan. Then flip over the plate or cake stand over, with the pan on it, inverting the cake. The cake should release onto the plate or cake stand upside down.
Let cool for 30 to 45 minutes and serve warm or at room temperature.

Nutrition

The post 10-Ingredients Caramel Peach Upside Down Cake appeared first on Eat The Love.

Black Bottom Caramel Pots de Crème

Tue, 02 May 2023 17:40:00 +0200

These black bottom caramel pots de crème is a fancy looking layered chocolate and caramel custard dessert that is surprisingly easy to make.

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Pots de crème is a surprisingly easy dessert to make for a dinner party or just as simple treat. I’ve share recipes for mocha pots de creme, salted caramel pots de crème ,and chocolate pots de crème with olive oil and candied kumquat. But I’ve never shared this layered black bottom caramel pots de crème, which always impresses people. They’re easier to make than it looks, with just one or two extra more steps, but they look like you bought them at a fancy pastry shop or ordered them from a fine dining restaurant. Make them for your next dinner party, special occasion, or just for a fun dessert anytime.

What is a pot de crème?

A pot de crème is basically a loose baked custard, similar to a pudding. However, most puddings are made with a starch to help thicken it, while the pot de crème is made just with egg yolks, resulting in a more rich dessert. Often pots de crème are smaller servings, because they are so rich, with just a few spoonfuls the ideal amount of dessert.

How do you make these?

Making these black bottom pot de crème starts with making a caramel. First heat cream and milk together in a small saucepan. Then melt and caramelize the white sugar until it’s a brownish red. Drizzle and pour the heated dairy into the caramel, stirring with a whisk to incorporate.

Drizzle the hot caramel into a bowl with egg yolks, whisking the entire time with a balloon whisk. You want to incorporate the hot caramel slowly into the egg yolks to prevent the egg yolks from cooking and scrambling. Whisk in the vanilla and salt.

Pour part of the custard into a glass measuring cup, and then add chopped chocolate to the remaining warm caramel, stirring until the chocolate has melted. Divide the chocolate custard into six different glass or jars, then carefully spoon the reserve caramel custard over the chocolate.

Bake in a water bath and then chill in the oven overnight to set and serve with some flaky sea salt on top.

Tips on making caramel

Making caramel can be a daunting task. But here are a few tips and tricks to help you.

Use a silver/light colored pan: If you have never made caramel before, using a silver bottomed or light-colored pan will help you judge the color of the caramel. Watch the sugar change color and remove it off the heat once the color starts to darken
Use a large pan: Once you add the warmed dairy, the caramel will sizzle, sputter, and bubble up. Make sure to use a large enough pan so the caramel won’t sputter jump up and spill on to the stove or onto your hand
Take off heat early: If you are concerned about burning the caramel, remove the caramel while it is fairly light in color, and let the residual heat continue to cook the caramel. Make sure to watch the caramel once it starts changing color, as it can go from golden brown to burnt black quickly.
Use a low heat: If you are nervous about burning the caramel, or have never made caramel before, just use a low heat. It will take longer to make the caramel, but the caramel will eventually brown, it just takes longer. A low heat gives you more control over the caramel. You can always use a medium or high heat in the beginning and then reduce the heat to low as the sugar starts to brown. But also feel free to use patience and use a low heat for the entire time.
Ice Water Bowl: Finally, just in case, have a bowl of ice water next to the stove. If any caramel sputters up or gets on you, you can use the bowl of ice water to stick your hand into it, helping to mitigate any burns. Remember, caramel is hot and will stick to you. So just use common sense and be cautious around the molten sugar.

Make ahead and storage

You can make these pot de crème up to 2 days ahead of time. Just store covered, in the refrigerator. Remove from the fridge about an hour before serving to let the custard warm up slightly for optimum flavor.

If you like these Black Bottom Pots de Créme, check out these other caramel and chocolate recipes:

Black Bottom Caramel Pot de Crème

This rich layered chocolate and caramel custard cup dessert is easier to make than they look. Just make sure to use a light or silver colored pan to make the caramel if you are unfamiliar with making caramel. I have more tips and tricks on making caramel in the section above. I also recommend using flaky finishing salt like Maldon for a finishing touch. If you don’t have that, you can use kosher salt or sea salt works fine as well. If all you have is iodized table salt, just skip the salt, as iodized salt has slight metallic flavor that will clash with the flavor of this pots de crème.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American, European, French

Keyword caramel, chocolate, custard, pots de creme

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 35 minutes

Chill time 4 hours

Servings

Calories 429kcal

Author Irvin

Ingredients

Custard

1 1/2 cups heavy cream 370 g
1/2 cup whole milk 113 g
1 1/4 cups white sugar 250 g
6 large egg yolks 105 g
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
4 oz dark chocolate chopped

To finish

Maldon sea salt or another flaky sea salt (optional, but recommended)

Instructions

Preheat an oven to 325°F. Boil some water on the stove or in a kettle, then cover and set aside.
Combine the cream and milk in a small saucepan and heat until bubbles form on the side of the pan, but don’t let it come to a boil. Cover and remove pan from heat.
Place sugar in a large pan, skillet or Dutch oven. Cook on medium low heat, until the sugar melts and starts to darken. Stir with a wooden spoon or spatula, until the sugar has turned a deep golden brown color, about the color of an old copper penny.
Remove pan from heat and slowly drizzle a little bit of the still warm dairy into the caramelized sugar. The caramel will steam and bubble vigorously. Continue to drizzle and stir the dairy into the caramel, drizzling and whisking a little bit at a time until all the cream has been added. Resist the temptation to pour all the dairy into the pan at once, as the caramel will seize up and form into a huge solid chunk.
Once all the cream has been added, if there are solid clumps of sugar in the sauce, gently warm the caramel on the stove over medium heat, stirring until the solid caramel pieces have dissolved.
Place the egg yolks in a large heatproof bowl. Using a balloon whisk, drizzle the still warm caramel sauce into the egg yolks, whisking the yolks as you pour the caramel. A second set of hands might be useful to whisk or pour the caramel if you aren’t super coordinated. Drizzle and whisk the caramel into the yolks, until all the caramel is incorporated. Do this slowly helps prevent the egg yolks from curdling or cooking.
Once all the caramel is added, stir in the vanilla and salt. Pour about 2/3 of the caramel custard (about 2 cups or 500 grams worth) into a glass measuring cup with a spout. Then add the chopped chocolate to the remaining 1/3 custard, stirring until the chocolate has melted.
Spoon or pour the chocolate custard evenly into 6 small heat proof jars or ramekins. Then carefully spoon or pour the reserve plain caramel custard over the chocolate custard evenly.
Place the jars in a baking pan (the kind you bake brownies in) and place in the hot oven. Then carefully pour the boiling water into the pan until it goes about halfway up the side of the ramekins or jars, making sure not to get any water into the custard jars.
Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the center of each ramekin or jar just barely jiggles. Remove from oven, let cool to room temperature, cover with plastic wrap, then refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.
To serve, remove the pot de crème from the fridge and let sit at room temperature to take some of the chill off. This will improve the flavor of the pots de crème. Sprinkle with a pinch of Maldon sea salt or other sea salt over it or use a dollop of whipped cream on top before serving.

Nutrition

The post Black Bottom Caramel Pots de Crème appeared first on Eat The Love.

British Eton Mess

Thu, 13 Apr 2023 17:27:00 +0200

This classic British Eton Mess is a simple-to-make, delightful dessert that is great to serve when strawberries are in season.

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My obsession with strawberries is well documented here on the blog. I use them in my strawberry rhubarb pie, chocolate strawberry scones, easy strawberry cake, sparkling strawberry lemonade, and of course, just eating them straight from the carton in abundance. But one of my favorite super easy strawberry recipes is for British Eton Mess. It’s basically whipped cream, meringue cookies, and strawberries layered together like a parfait. It’s not only easy to make but so very pretty as well! I use a touch of balsamic in the strawberries to bring out the juiciness, and you can either use homemade meringue drops, or just buy a package of meringue from the store to make it!

What is Eton Mess

Eton mess is a classic British dessert, where whipped cream, meringue and strawberries are layered and served together in a glorious beautifully delicious mess. It has long been associated with Eton College, a public school in Berkshire England, where it is served in the annual cricket match against their rivals Harrow School, who serve their own version of the dessert called Harrow Mess. Other schools have their own version, including the Banana Mess, served at Lancing College, built with whipped cream, meringue, and of course bananas.

How do you make Eton Mess

If you have store bought meringue cookies, the British Eton Mess can be made incredibly fast. But even if you don’t have meringue cookies, you can make them one day and use them the next to make the Eton Mess.

To make plain meringue cookies, just whip a couple of egg whites until soft peaks form. Then sprinkle in sugar until it is dissolved and stiff peaks form. Using a spoon or a piping bag, make dollops of the meringue on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and then bake in the oven at 200°F until the meringues are crispy, about 60 to 90 minutes depending on how large you make the dollops.

(Note: the meringues in the picture are strawberry malted meringue cookies from a recipe I developed for All Recipes magazine.)

Once the meringues are baked and crisp, crush some strawberries with sugar and balsamic vinegar and let them sit to macerate. Whip some heavy cream with powdered sugar and vanilla until soft peaks form. Then fold in crushed meringues into the whipped cream.

Layer the whipped cream with the strawberry sauce, adding in a few sliced fresh strawberries for texture. Garnish with a whole meringue cookies and serve.

Customize it

Though the classic Eton Mess is made with strawberries here are a few ideas on customizing the Eton Mess to make it your own

Berry swap: Strawberries are great but you can easily substitute some or all of the strawberries with another berry like raspberries, blackberries, or blueberries.
Fruit swap: Try swapping the strawberries for a summer stone fruit like pitted cherries; chopped peaches or nectarines; or chopped plums or pluots. You can even roast a pound of chopped rhubarb with 3 tablespoons of sugar for 10 to 15 minutes in a 350°F oven on a rimmed baking sheet until tender, and use that for a rhubarb mess.
Tropical fruit swap: Substitute some or all of the strawberries for tropical fruit like chopped pineapple, passionfruit, sliced bananas, or sliced kiwis.
Spices and herbs: When making the whipped cream, add in a little ground cinnamon, ground ginger, ground allspice, or fresh ground pepper. For a little more punch, add in a tablespoon of chopped crystallized ginger. Or add a few leaves of fresh mint, some fresh tarragon or fresh lemon thyme to give an herbal touch to the Eton Mess.
Nutty texture: Though it’s totally non-traditionally, but you can add some texture to the Eton mess by sprinkling a little bit of chopped nuts like pistachios, macadamia nuts, walnuts, pecans or almonds over the top to give a little nutty texture. Or, if you want to go with a deeper flavor or are allergic to nuts, try roasted cacao nibs which add a nutty chocolate note to the Eton Mess.

Can you make Eton Mess ahead of time?

Eton Mess should be served right away. But since assembly is relatively fast, you can make all the components ahead of time. Make the meringues up to two weeks in advance, just keep them in an airtight container or heavy-duty Ziploc freezer bag. Make the strawberry sauce up to a day ahead of time, but whip the cream and use it right away, otherwise it might deflate.

If you like this British Eton Mess recipe, check out these other berry recipes:

British Eton Mess

This easy traditional British dessert has three main components, a macerated strawberries sauce, whipped cream, and meringue cookies. I also add in some fresh cut strawberries to give the Eton Mess a little more texture, along with the macerated strawberry sauce. This recipe gives instructions on making the meringue cookies but feel free to just use store bought meringue cookies as an easy shortcut.

Course Dessert

Cuisine British

Keyword meringue, strawberries, whipped cream

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour

Servings

Calories 256kcal

Author Irvin

Ingredients

Meringue cookies

2 large egg whites
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 cup white sugar 100 g

Strawberry Sauce

1/2 pound strawberries 227 g
2 tablespoons white sugar or more if the strawberries aren’t very sweet
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

Whipped cream

2 cup cold heavy cream 1 pint
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

To assemble

1/2 pound strawberries hulled and sliced, 227 g

Instructions

Make the meringue cookies by first preheating the oven to 200°F and lining a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the egg whites and cream of tartar in a stand mixer fitted with a wire whisk attachment and whip the whites on medium fast speed until soft peaks form. Reduce the mixer to medium speed and slowly sprinkle in the sugar until it is incorporated, and the meringue is shiny and reaches stiff peaks.
Spoon the meringue into 1-inch wide dollops on the parchment paper, or place the meringue in a piping bag fitted with a plain tip and pipe the meringue into 1-inch dollops. Bake in the oven for 60 to 75 minutes, or until the meringue cookies are dry and crispy. Set aside to cool.
Alternatively use 5-ounces of store-bought meringue cookies instead of making your own.
Make the strawberry sauce by first cutting the greens off the strawberries and discarding them. Then quarter or dice the strawberries. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of the sugar over the mashed strawberries and add the balsamic vinegar. Taste and if the strawberries aren’t sweet enough for your preference, add a tablespoon more of sugar. Keep in mind that meringue will add sweetness to the final dessert.
Make the whipped cream by placing the cream, powdered sugar and vanilla in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the wire whisk. Whisk on medium fast speed until soft peaks form.
Set aside 6 nice looking meringue cookies to use as garnish. Then lightly crush the other meringue cookies and fold in about 2/3 of the crushed meringue into the whipped cream.
(Note: I used strawberry flavored meringues in the photo, which is why they look pink. But plain meringues are just as good.)
Assemble the Eton Mess by layering the whipped cream, strawberry sauce, sliced strawberries and the rest of the crushed meringues bits together, repeating as necessary in a glass bowl or a double old-fashioned glass, creating layers of the whipped cream and the strawberries. Garnish each Eton Mess with the reserved meringue cookies and serve immediately.

Nutrition

The post British Eton Mess appeared first on Eat The Love.

Sheet Pan Miso-Glazed Salmon with Spring Vegetables [Sponsored Post]

Tue, 21 Mar 2023 21:29:15 +0200

This easy sheet pan miso-glazed salmon meal with asparagus, radishes, and carrots can be prepared, cooked and on the table in under an hour.

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This post was sponsored by California Wines a part of their “California Wines Down to Earth Month” campaign. I was compensated for this post and for developing the recipe. However, all opinions below are completely my own.

What’s for dinner is probably one of those dreaded questions that every head of the household has to deal with. And though I don’t have a family, I do have partner with a more traditional day job, which often leaves me as the one to figure out what to make. And though I have plenty of options for carryout here in San Francisco, making an easy sheet pan miso salmon dinner is ideal because it means I can have a homemade meal prepped and ready to eat in under an hour. The salmon is paired with seasonal vegetables like asparagus, radishes and rainbow carrots and the miso sauce is not only made with California chardonnay, but also pairs well with the same glass of chardonnay, making it a great way to relax at home, with minimal making dinner stress.

How to Make Sheet Pan Salmon

Start by preheating the oven to 425°F. Then make the miso sauce by combining chardonnay, red miso, honey, sesame oil, minced garlic and some salt and pepper.

Peel and chop some carrots. I like to use rainbow carrots but regular orange carrots work just as well. You can even do a quick cheat and just use baby carrots if you like! Toss the carrots with oil and a tablespoon of the miso sauce and then roast in the oven for 10 minutes.

While the carrots are roasting (they need a little head start with cooking, because they are a denser vegetable that takes longer to cook), prep the asparagus and radishes by trimming the ends off the asparagus and cutting the radishes in half. I used Easter Egg radishes, which are simply a variety of colorful different radishes bundled together but you can use English Breakfast, Watermelon, or regular red radishes if you’d like. Toss the vegetables with more oil and more miso sauce.

Then, once the carrots have cooked partially, remove the pan from the oven and switch the oven to high broil. Place the rest of the vegetables on the pan, then make a space in the center for the salmon. Don’t worry if they vegetables overlap. Place the salmon, skin side down, on the pan, then generously brush it with the miso sauce. Drizzle the remaining sauce over the vegetables if you have any left.

Then return the pan to the oven to broil for 6 to 8 minutes, or until the salmon is cooked and flakey. Serve with glasses of chardonnay, or a light pinot noir if you prefer red.

What wine to pick and pair for this dish

Salmon is a fish, which traditionally pairs well with white wine. Salmon is a firm fleshed fish with a rich and slightly oily texture that holds up well to the deep salty umami rich miso sauce. I like to pair it with a slightly oaky or neutral California certified sustainable Chardonnay (which is what I also use in the sauce). The Chardonnay has a bit of acidity that can cut through the richness of the fish and sauce. If you aren’t a big white wine drinker, you can also reach for a light Pinot Noir, perhaps something from the California Russian River region.

California is the 4^th largest wine producer in the world, and, like the entire state of California, the California wine industry leads the charge in sustainability. Over 80% of California wines are made in a certified sustainable winery. Sustainable wine making includes water and energy efficiency, which help maintain health soil and protect air and water quality, which in turns creates better grapes and wine, as well as making sure all their employees are healthy, safe and satisfied.

Sustainable California wineries also contribute to local economic, culture and small businesses throughout California. You can find California wines grown in 49 of the 58 counties of California. And the California’s 4200 wineries produce over 80% of all U.S. wines. You can learn more about sustainable certification as well as find a list of wineries that are certified on the California Sustainable Wine website.

Variations and substitutions

Fish: You can easily swap out the fish for a different sustainably caught fish fillet like Pacific cod, Mahi Mahi or Artic char. Be sure to adjust the cook time for each type of fish you use.
Longer cooking vegetables: If you don’t like carrots you can easily omit them or swap them for a different longer cooking vegetables. Parsnips, Brussels sprouts, and broccoli all take a little longer to cook in the oven but are excellent vegetables that pair well with this dish.
Short cooking vegetables: If you’re not a fan of asparagus or radishes, feel free to omit them or use a different quicker cooking vegetable. Bok choy (cut lengthwise), broccolini/baby broccoli, green beans, and bell peppers would all be great quick cooking vegetables to swap in for the asparagus or radishes.
Miso: I use red miso because I like the robust flavor that it imparts. But you can easily substitute it for yellow or white miso as well. Just keep in mind that the deep salty umami flavor you get from the red miso will be milder with yellow or white miso.

Make ahead

This dish takes very little time to cook and doesn’t really heat up well because the salmon dries up and can overcook. So, it’s not recommended that you make it ahead of time. However, you can easily prep the ingredients the night before you with, peeling and chopping the vegetables, and making the miso wine sauce for the next day.

On the day you wish to serve it, all you need to do is roast the carrots for the time recommended, then broil the salmon with the other vegetables, making cooking even easier and quick.

If you like this recipe, check out these other recipes that feature vegetables:

Sheet Pan Miso-Glazed Salmon with Spring Vegetables

This easy-to-make sheet pan meal will have you prepping and cooking start to finish in under an hour. I use wild-caught salmon fillets, and brush on a miso chardonnay glaze sauce over the fish, as well as toss the asparagus, carrots and radishes with the same glaze, making it a simple prep. I serve the dish with the remaining chardonnay, but you can also serve it with a light pinot noir if you prefer red. Feel free to prep the ingredients the night before, which will cut the meal prep time significantly, getting the hot food onto the table in under 20 minutes.

Course dinner, lunch, Main Course

Cuisine American, asian, California-cuisine, Japanese-American

Keyword asparagus, broiling, carrots, radishes, roasted, root vegetables, salmon, sheet pan

Prep Time 5 hours 20 minutes

Cook Time 16 minutes

Calories 513kcal

Author Irvin

Ingredients

Miso sauce

1/2 cup Chardonnay or other white wine
3 tablespoons red miso paste
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 medium-sized garlic cloves minced
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

Salmon and Vegetables

1 pound carrots
3 tablespoon olive oil divided
1 pound asparagus
1 pound radishes about 2 bunches
4 6- ounce salmon fillet

Garnish

1 tablespoon sesame seeds
2 green onions sliced diagonally

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Line a large, rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil.
Make the miso sauce by combining the wine, miso, honey, sesame oil, minced garlic, salt and pepper in a small bowl or glass measuring cup.
Prep the carrots by peeling them and chopping them into 2-inch pieces. Drizzle 1 tablespoon over the carrots, along with 1 tablespoon of the miso sauce and toss to coat. Place the carrots on the baking sheet and roast for 10 minutes in the oven.
While the carrots are cooking, prep the asparagus by trimming the woody ends off, and cutting the radishes in half, reserving the greens for another use if you wish. If the radishes are very large, quarter them. Toss the asparagus and radish halves with the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 2 tablespoons of the miso sauce.
Once the carrots are done cooking, remove the pan from the oven and switch it to high broil, making sure the rack is 6 inches from the broiler. Add the vegetables to the pan, tossing them together to flip the carrots.
Push the vegetables to the sides, making a space in the center for the fish. Don’t worry if the vegetables are overlapping.
Add the fish, skin side down, to the center of the pan, and then generously brush each fish two or three times with the miso sauce. Drizzle any remaining sauce onto the vegetables.
Place the pan under the broiler, and broil for an additional 6 to 8 minutes, or until the fish is fully cooked and flaky. Garnish the dish with sesame seeds and sliced green onions. Serve with the remaining Chardonnay or a glass of light Pinot Noir if you prefer.

Nutrition

The post Sheet Pan Miso-Glazed Salmon with Spring Vegetables [Sponsored Post] appeared first on Eat The Love.

Guinness Chocolate Bundt Cake with Irish Whiskey Ganache Glaze

Tue, 14 Mar 2023 17:54:00 +0200

This deep, dark, rich, and moist Guinness chocolate bundt cake has an Irish whiskey chocolate ganache glaze and is surprisingly easy to make!

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When Patrick’s Day comes around, I’m always thrilled to make some Irish-inspired food, like my Irish meatballs with whiskey BBQ sauce, my Guinness beef stew, and my lamb shepherd’s pie. And this year, as March came around, I found myself spontaneously buying a six pack of Guinness Stout beer. I use it a lot to make desserts like my Irish Drunken Cake or my holiday Gingerbread Stout Cake. But this Spring I decided I wanted to make a more easy streamlined Guinness Chocolate Bundt Cake with an Irish Whiskey Ganache Glaze. I’d say this is the perfect dessert for St. Patrick’s day, but why limited yourself to once a year? This is a year-round dessert!

How do you make this cake

This is a fairly easy cake to make but it does require you to let it cool completely before you glaze it so plan accordingly.

First whisk together brown sugar, white sugar, melted butter, cooking oil, sour cream, vanilla, eggs, salt, baking powder, baking soda, espresso powder, and a bottle of Guinness in a bowl.

Fold in flour and cocoa powder then fold in chopped chocolate.

Butter and flour a bundt pan, then pour the batter into the pan. Bake in the oven, let it cool slightly when done, and then unmold on a wire rack to cool to room temperature.

Once the cake is completely cool, make the ganache by heating up chopped chocolate in a microwave until melted. Add heavy cream and Irish whiskey. Stir until a fluid ganache forms. Drizzle over the cooled cake and serve.

Substitutions and Variations

Guinness Beer: Guinness is an Irish dry stout beer that has a dark malty flavor. You don’t really taste the beer in the resulting cake but it lends a malty flavor that really accentuates the chocolate, creating a deeper and richer flavor and texture. You can easily swap another stout beer if you’d like but I wouldn’t recommend any type of beer for this recipe. If you’re looking to make this nonalcoholic, you can use non-alcoholic Guinness or try nitro coffee, which has the same texture as Guinness. Just omit the espresso powder, as the nitro coffee supplies plenty of coffee flavor.

Irish Whiskey: I use Irish whiskey in the glaze but you can swap that out for an American whiskey, a rye whiskey or bourbon if you’d like. You can even swap out a dark rum for the whiskey. You can also use Irish cream, like Bailey’s if you’d like. Just increase the Irish cream to 4 tablespoons instead of 3. If you want something nonalcoholic, just omit the whiskey and add in an additional 2 tablespoons of heavy cream.

Chocolate: I use chopped dark chocolate to help bring the chocolate flavor more forward, but if you don’t like chocolate chunks in a cake, feel free to omit it. You can also swap out various types of chocolate, from white, milk or super dark chocolate if you wish. Feel free to use chocolate chips instead of chopped chocolate if that is what you have on hand.

Nuts: If you like nuts in your cake, feel free add in up to 1 cup of chopped walnuts, pecans, pistachios, hazelnuts or almonds into this cake. If you want a nutty texture, but are allergic to nuts, try roasted cacao nibs! They have a crunchy texture like nuts, but are made from cacao beans, which makes chocolate. The resulting cake will even more chocolate flavor.

Tips and tricks for bundt pans

A bundt pan is a large pan with a hole in the middle, shaped similar to a giant donut. The traditional bundt pan has decorative indentions, but there are a myriad of variations of bundt pans, some that have more intricate designed than others. They are also notorious for being difficult for the cake to release, with the cake sometimes sticking to the pan. Here are a few tips to help you release the cake.

Choose the best pan: I prefer a thick heavy metal pan, one with a nonstick coating, to help with release. The thicker metal helps retain heat, which means the outside of the cake browns a little more, making it easier to release. I don’t really like silicone pans, as they never seem to brown evenly. And I also tend to replace my bundt pans once they start sticking or have seen some use. Battle scarred bundt pans that have been around the block tend to stick more than newer ones, with their pristine nonstick coating. My favorite pans are made by Nordicware (<- affiliate link).
Grease thoroughly: I melt shortening, coconut oil or ghee, then brush it on to the pan to make sure every single crevice and corner gets covered. I’ve used regular butter before as well but I’ve had better luck with shortening, coconut oil or ghee. But if butter is all you have, no worries! Just make sure to use plenty of it.
Choose the right coating: I have had good luck using regular plain flour to coat my bundt pans, but a lot of folks swear by bread crumbs, nut flour (like almond flour) or granulated sugar. If you use granulated sugar however, you should release the pan fairly soon after you take it out of the oven, which doesn’t work for delicate cakes. So keep that in mind.
Release at the right time: I like to let the cake cool a bit in my pan. This allows it to set and firm up. But I never let the cake completely cool, as it tends to solidify and stick more often. I wait anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes to release the cake, about the amount of time that it takes for you to be able to pick up the pan with your hands. It should still be warm, but not so hot that it will burn your hands. Invert onto a rack, remove pan. However, if you use granulated sugar as your coating, let the cake cool for 5 minutes, then invert it onto a wire rack and let cool for an additional 5 minutes. Then release. The granulated sugar should still be semi-fluid and should release nicely. If you let the cake cool too long, it will stick.
Use a thin knife: If the cake is sticking, gently slide a thin knife around the sides, trying to help nudge the cake out.
Last resort tricks: Finally, if your cake sticks and has some small blemishes, don’t stress. Just use a thick glaze to help cover up anything not ideal. However, if your cake has large chunks missing, you might need to start over. But save the broken cake for another purpose, like a trifle or an ice cream sundae base. Or slice the cake and serve the slices individually!

How do I store it?

This moist and dense cake stores well. Just keep it at room temperature, under a cake dome or in an airtight container for 3 to 5 days. You can also freeze the cake, either whole or individual slices. Freeze individual slices on a sheet pan, then once frozen solid, store in an airtight container or in a heavy-duty resealable Ziploc bag. I do recommend freezing the cake without the ganache if possible, as the ganache tends to freeze and shrink, breaking off the cake.

If you like this Guinness Chocolate Bundt Cake, check out these other chocolate recipes:

Guinness Chocolate Bundt Cake with Irish Whiskey Ganache Glaze

Don’t be scared off by the longer list of ingredients in this recipe as it’s super easy to make, all in one bowl. The deep, rich, and super moist chocolate bundt cake gets an underlying earthy malty flavor from Guinness stout beer. It’s also a great sophisticated cake to serve for St. Patrick’s Day but it’s also amazing all year round. I use a touch of Irish Whiskey in the ganache glaze as well, as it goes so well with chocolate and Guinness. Keep in mind that the bundt cake does need to cool completely before glazing, so plan accordingly.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American, Irish-American

Keyword beer, bundt cake, cake, chocolate, ganache, guinness beer, whiskey

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour 5 minutes

Servings

Calories 500kcal

Author Irvin

Ingredients

Cake batter

1 1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar 330 g
1/2 cup white sugar 100 g
1 cup melted unsalted butter 2 sticks or 227 g
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup sour cream 200 g
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon espresso powder or instant coffee optional but recommended
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
12 ounces Guinness Stout Beer 1 bottle
1 3/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups all-purpose flour 280 g
3/4 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder 85 g
1 cup chopped chocolate chunks 210 g

For pan

2 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

Glaze

1 cup chopped chocolate chunks 210 g
1/2 cup heavy cream 105 g
3 tablespoons Irish whiskey

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Whisk together the brown sugar, white sugar, melted butter, oil, sour cream, eggs, vanilla, instant espresso (if using), and salt in a large bowl using a balloon whisk. Stir in Guinness beer, then stir in the baking soda and baking powder.
Add the flour and cocoa and fold together with a large spatula. Fold in the chopped chocolate.
Take the melted butter and brush it all over the inside of a 10 or 12-cup bundt pan, making sure to get all the crevices. Dust with flour. Pour the cake batter into the pan
Bake cake for 65 to 75 minutes, or until the middle of the cake is firm and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. The sides of the cake should have pulled away slightly from the cake pan. If you have an instant read thermometer, the cake should read 200°F to 205°F.
Let the cake cool for 30 minutes, then invert the still warm cake onto a wire rack and release it. Let the cake cool completely to room temperature, about 2 to 3 hours.
Once cooled, make the ganache by placing the chocolate into a microwave safe bowl and cooking it in the microwave in 30 second bursts, stirring in-between each cook cycle, until melted. Add the heavy cream and Irish whiskey, stirring until a smooth melted ganache forms. If the ganache seems too thick, microwave in 15 second increments, stirring until fluid and pourable. If the ganache seems too thin, let it sit on the counter for 5 minutes and stir again, checking consistency. You want it the thickness of honey.
Place the cake (on the wire rack) over a rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle and pour the ganache over cake, letting any excess ganache fall under the cake into the baking sheet. Let the ganache cool and harden, then move the cake to a serving plate or cake stand.

Nutrition

The post Guinness Chocolate Bundt Cake with Irish Whiskey Ganache Glaze appeared first on Eat The Love.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies [Sponsored Post]

Thu, 02 Mar 2023 18:00:00 +0200

These easy-to-make extra virgin olive oil chocolate chip cookies are a sophisticated upgrade made with vibrant extra virgin olive oil!

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This post was sponsored by California Olive Oil Council. I was compensated for this post and for developing the recipe. However, all opinions below are completely my own.

Though this blog has no shortage of chocolate chip cookies. I’ve made bakery-style chocolate chip cookies,chunky shortbread chocolate chip cookies, sourdough chocolate chip cookie, and crispy chocolate chip cookies, not to mention a variety of different flavored chocolate chips cookies. But one chocolate chip cookie missing is the extra virgin olive oil chocolate chip cookies!

Extra virgin olive oil is a pretty robust flavored fat that is more often used in cooking than baking, but it also works really well in desserts and baked goods. It adds its own amazing flavor profile, one that really complements chocolate with its peppery, nutty and fruity undertones and lends a richness and moist texture that you can’t get from butter. If you’re looking for a sophisticated twist on the classic chocolate chip cookie, these cookies are for you!

How do you make this cookie?

This extra virgin olive oil chocolate chip cookie is easy to make, easier than a more traditional chocolate chip cookie, as you don’t have to wait for the butter to soften or need to cream it into the sugar.

Place brown sugar, white sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix together. Then whisk together the extra virgin olive oil with vanilla, fresh ground pepper, an egg and an egg yolk. Add the liquid and flour in batches, alternating, until a dough forms.

Stir in chopped chocolate, make balls of dough, sprinkle some flaky sea salt on top of each ball of dough and bake!

What sort of extra virgin olive oil should you use?

Taking a look at a typical grocery store, and you’ll see an overwhelming number of olive oil choices. Though most folks are familiar with the grading of “extra virgin olive oil” which is an important denotation that the oil has met the highest international standards, I highly recommend looking for extra virgin olive oil with the California Olive Oil Council (COOC) label.

The COOC seal of certification means the oil is not only truly extra virgin olive oil (counterfeit extra virgin olive oil is totally a thing!) but that the extra virgin olive oil meets a mandatory stringent chemical and sensory analysis of the oil that is HIGHER than the international standard. In fact, it’s the highest standard in the world. And all extra virgin olive oil that has the COOC seal must pass this testing for each individual annual harvest to be allowed to use the seal. You can find a list of companies that have this label on the COOC website.

Beyond looking for the COOC seal, pick an olive oil that has a great flavor, one that you love. Extra virgin olive oils can vary in flavor depending on the olive used, the terrain it was grown on, and the date it was harvested. Flavors can range from mellow buttery to robust peppery, with notes of grassy, fruity, or citrusy. I like to use an extra virgin olive oil with a medium level of flavor, nothing too sharp, nor too mild, but with notes of pepper in it. I accentuate this pepperiness by adding a touch of fresh ground pepper into the dough but that’s completely optional. Be sure to use extra virgin olive oil within 3 to 6 months of opening the bottle or tin, as the oil will start to oxidize the minute you open the bottle. Store the bottle or tin in a cool dry place, away from light, as light can shorten the shelf life of the oil.

Customize

These cookies are a super versatile cookie that can be adapted in a multitude of ways. Here are some ideas on how to put your own spin on them:

Coffee: Add in a teaspoon of instant coffee or espresso powder to the olive oil and egg mixture, to give an underlying coffee flavor and boost the chocolate flavor more in the cookies
Nuts: Swap 1 cup of the chocolate with chopped nuts of your choice. Pecans, walnuts, pistachios and almonds would all be awesome additions to this cookie.
Spices: Try 1/2 teaspoon (or more) of a warm wintry spice like cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cardamom or allspice to the olive oil and egg mixture along with or in place of the ground pepper.
Chocolate: use a variety of chocolate, from dark, milk to white chocolate. Or stick with dark chocolate, but use different types, from a super bitter 85% chocolate to a more mild, sweeter 54% dark chocolate. Mixing a couple of chocolates will give a little more complexity to the cookie. Or, if you’re feeling like taking a shortcut, just use chocolate chips instead of the chopped chocolate.
Citrus: If you want to give these cookies a citrus twist, accentuating the citrus notes of extra virgin olive oil, omit the black pepper and add the zest of an orange, Meyer lemon or regular lemon in the extra virgin olive oil instead.

Storage

These cookies store well. Keep them in an airtight container or under a cake dome on a plate for up to 5 days at room temperature. You can also freeze them, though keep in mind the salt flakes on top will dissolve when you freeze and thaw them out. To freeze them, place them in a resealable freezer Ziploc bag and then freeze for up to 3 months.

If you like these chocolate chip cookies, check out these other chocolate chip cookies recipes

Extra Virgin Olive Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies

These chocolate chip cookies are super easy to make and don’t require any chilling beforehand. Use a high-quality extra virgin olive oil with some nice peppery notes will accentuate the chocolate in the cookies. I use chopped chocolate in the cookie, making sure to add in the chocolate “dust” that comes from chopping the chocolate, as that distributes throughout the cookie giving it “freckles” of chocolate confetti throughout. But feel free to use chocolate chips if you don’t feel like chopping chocolate.

Course Dessert, Snack

Cuisine American

Keyword chocolate, chocolate chip, chocolate chip cookie, cookies, olive oil

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Servings

Calories 318kcal

Author Irvin

Ingredients

1 cup packed dark brown sugar 220 g
1/2 cup white sugar 100 g
1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil 150 g
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper optional but recommended
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 cups all-purpose flour 280 g
2 cups chopped chocolate chunks 340 g or 12 ounces (or substitute same amount of chocolate chips)

To finish

Flaky sea salt like Maldon optional but recommended

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Place the brown sugar, white sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda in the bowl of stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on low speed to break up the brown sugar and blend the dry ingredients together.
Place the extra virgin olive oil, vanilla, and black pepper (if using), egg and egg yolk in a glass measuring cup and whisk together.
Drizzle half the egg oil liquid into the sugar mixture and mix until absorbed. Add 1 cup of the flour and mix. Repeat with the remaining egg oil liquid and the remaining flour. Mix until a dough forms.
Add the chopped chocolate, reserving and setting aside about 1/2 cup of the chocolate for later. Stir the dough until the chocolate is thoroughly distributed.
Make generous golf ball-sized dough balls, squeezing with your hand to make sure the dough sticks together. It will seem greasy but that’s normal. If you have a scale, the dough should be roughly 70 grams. Place them on the baking sheet, keeping them about 2 inches apart.
Once the baking sheet is filled, take a few pieces of the reserve chocolate and place them on top of each ball of dough. Sprinkle the dough with the flaky salt (if using) and bake in the oven 10 to 13 minutes, or until the edges of the cookie start turning golden brown. Let cool on the baking pan for 4 to 5 minutes before moving to a wire cooling rack.

Notes

Note 1: Pick a high-quality extra virgin olive oil with pepper notes. I always look for the COOC label on the extra virgin olive oil bottle, as I know I’m getting quality extra virgin olive oil that has been grown in California and has the passed the highest standards in the world.

Note 2: You’ll notice I save some chocolate and tell you to stick it on top of the cookie dough before baking. But you can save some of the extra chocolate until AFTER the cookies have baked and stick a couple of chunks into the cookie where it’s missing chocolate on top once the cookies are pulled out of the oven. The chocolate will melt from the heat of the cookie and meld into the cookie as if it was baked into it.

Nutrition

The post Extra Virgin Olive Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies [Sponsored Post] appeared first on Eat The Love.

Walnut Banana Bread

Mon, 13 Feb 2023 18:00:00 +0200

This easy-to-make one bowl banana bread uses walnut oil and almond extract to make it the best walnut banana bread recipe!

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Banana bread often seems like a last resort recipe, the one that you make when you don’t want those freckled brown bananas to go to waste. But lately in our household, banana bread hasn’t been an afterthought. I’ve been doing batch after batch of banana bread, including my chocolate banana bread, sourdough banana bread, and my Kahlua mocha marble banana bread because they’re all so tasty. But when I found some walnuts in the back of my pantry, I knew I had to make some walnut banana bread, upgraded just slightly because that’s what I do!

How do you make this banana bread

This banana bread is super easy to make and can be made in one bowl! Mash 2 to 3 bananas in a mixing bowl until you have a puree. Then mix in 1 egg, some vanilla, almond extract, and spices like cinnamon and nutmeg. Add melted butter, a little bit of walnut oil, packed brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and all-purpose flour.

Fold in toasted walnut pieces and bake! One bowl, one pan, super easy.

How ripe should the banana be?

Common wisdom says bananas should be super overripe to the point of being black. I disagree. I find ripened black bananas to taste…well overripe to the point of tasting rotten. Instead, I go for bananas that are mostly dark, with freckling, but still a little bit of yellow showing through. If the bananas are too dark, I compost them.

But if the bananas aren’t quite ripe enough for me, I sometimes try to ripen them faster. Bananas produce ethylene gas as they ripen. I place them in a paper bag, to help trap this gas, which encourages the bananas to ripen faster. Or if you really are in a hurry, use the tip I learned from Stella Parks, and mash and mix the banana with the egg and let it sit for 30 to 60 minutes before proceeding with the recipe. The enzymes in the egg yolk will help ripen the banana quickly.

What makes this walnut banana bread different

Though this recipe is super easy, I do have a few tips on how give this banana bread an extra robust walnut flavor. I first toast the walnuts in a skillet, to bring out the nuttiness. Toasting nuts takes an extra two or three minutes, but the results amp up the flavor remarkably. But if you don’t feel like toasting the walnuts, just skip that step. It’s totally optional.

I also use walnut oil in the loaf to give it an extra boost of nutty flavor. Walnut oil is exactly what it sounds like, oil pressed from a walnut. You can find walnut oil at well-stocked grocery stores. It’s a lovely oil that is excellent in salad dressing as well as in baked goods.

And if you don’t have walnut oil or don’t feel like buying for this recipe, just swap out the same amount of melted butter (1/4 cup) or vegetable oil in its place. Your bread will still taste fantastic.

Finally, I add just a touch of almond extract to the bread. Not enough to notice, just a smidge 1/4 teaspoon. But the almond extract brings out more of the nutty flavor, making this an even better walnut banana bread than most recipes.

Customize this banana bread

This walnut banana bread is a great jumping off point to customize. Here are a few suggestions:

Swap nuts: If walnuts aren’t your thing, just swap out the same amount of walnuts for another nut like pecans, pistachios, hazelnuts, brazil nuts or macadamia nuts. Or do a mix of nuts if you’d like. You can even swap out the nuts for cacao nibs, which is ideal for those folks who still want a nutty crunch but are allergic to nuts. Of course, if you are allergic to nuts, remember to swap out the walnut oil for regular vegetable oil or melted butter!
Swap flours: Swap out 1/2 cup of the all-purpose flour for almond flour if you want to amp up the nutty flavor even more. Swap out 1 cup of all-purpose flour for whole wheat flour which will give a slightly more dense loaf. Or use all bread flour instead of all-purpose for a chewier “bread-like” loaf.
Swap spices: I use cinnamon and nutmeg in this bread. But feel free to play around with other warm spices like cardamom, cloves, ground ginger, or mace.
Add chocolate or dried fruit: Though I have a chocolate banana bread, feel free to swap half the walnuts for chocolate chips in this recipe. Or swap out half the walnuts for dried fruit like dried cranberries, dried blueberries, or dried cherries.

How to store this banana bread

You can store this banana bread on the counter, under a cake dome or in an airtight container for up to 3 days. If you notice any mold, throw the banana bread away immediately.

You can also freeze this banana bread for up to a three or four months. Just freeze it in an airtight container or Ziploc bag. I like to slice my banana bread before freezing, so I can take out individual slices to thaw and eat. Just make sure to place parchment paper or wax paper between slices, otherwise the moist bread will thaw into one large frozen chunk.

If you like this Walnut Banana Bread, check out these out these other quick breads:

Walnut Banana Bread

This walnut banana bread is a nutty banana bread muffin in loaf form. Easy to make, it’s packed with banana flavor, with just a smidge of cinnamon and nutmeg spice, enough to bring out the banana flavor without being overpowering. Feel free to swap out the walnuts with another chopped nut like pecans, pistachios, or hazelnuts. I have a section above on other substitutions and customizations.

Course bread, Breakfast, brunch, Dessert, Snack

Cuisine American

Keyword banana, nuts, quick bread, walnuts

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 55 minutes

Servings

Calories 424kcal

Author Irvin

Ingredients

1 cup chopped walnut pieces 100 g
3 medium ripe bananas about 350 to 400 g after peeling
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract optional but recommended
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 cup unsalted butter melted
1/4 cup walnut oil or vegetable oil
3/4 cup packed brown sugar 165 g
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2 cups all-purpose flour 280 g

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly spray a large 9 x 5-in loaf pan with cooking oil. Line the pan with parchment paper, making sure there is 1-inch of paper overhanging the edges.
Place the walnut pieces in a dry skillet and toast them on the stovetop, on medium heat. Stir them frequently while they toast, until they have darkened slightly and smell nutty and fragrant. Remove from heat and set aside to cool. Once cool enough to handle, chop them into 1/2-inch chunks.
Place the bananas in a large bowl and mash them with a fork until smooth. Add the egg and mix in with the fork. Stir in the vanilla, almond extract (if using), cinnamon, and nutmeg.
Whisk in the melted butter and oil to the bowl, then mix in the brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the flour and gently mix it in, until most of it has been absorbed, but there are a few dry spots in the batter.
Add the walnut pieces to the batter and mix until they are evenly distributed.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and then smooth out the top so it’s even. Bake in the oven for 55 to 65 minutes, or until a toothpick or skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. If you have an instant read thermometer, the center should read 200°F to 205°F.
Let cool for 10 minutes in the pan set on a wire cooling rack. Then lift the bread up using the overhanging parchment paper and move it directly to the wire cooling rack. Cool completely before cutting into it.

Nutrition

The post Walnut Banana Bread appeared first on Eat The Love.

Chocolate and Strawberry Scones

Mon, 06 Feb 2023 17:00:00 +0200

These chocolate and strawberry scones are an easy-to-make, tender, and sweet addition to your breakfast, brunch or coffee/tea time break.

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One of total misconceptions of scones is their dry crumb and tough texture. But I’m a huge fan of homemade scones, especially this particular strawberry and chocolate scones, which are tender and flaky. The secret, much like making homemade southern-style biscuits, is to use a light hand, not overwork the ingredients, and let the dough chill in the fridge. The technique is similar to my fig and hazelnut scones, or my eggnog scones, but these cream scones are packed with fresh strawberries and dark chocolate chips, making them a delightful treat for a special occasion breakfast, a weekend brunch, or really anytime of the year.

How do make these scones

Making scones isn’t difficult. First prep the strawberries by slicing them and then tossing with a little bit of balsamic vinegar. Set aside for the vinegar to absorb.

Combine flour, a little bit of sugar, baking powder, and salt together in a medium-sized bowl. Then grate some cold butter into the dry ingredients. Toss to coat the butter. Drizzle some heavy cream over the ingredients, tossing with a fork until a dough starts to form. Add the strawberries and the chocolate chips, fold the dough gently, add a little more cream, then fold more until fruit and chocolate is incorporated.

Divide the dough in half and form round disks. Wrap in plastic and chill in the fridge. Preheat the oven, divide the dough into scone triangles, brush the top of the scones with a little bit extra cream, and sprinkle with sparkling sugar. Bake until done.

Tips on making the best strawberry chocolate scones

Toss strawberries in balsamic vinegar: Cut the strawberries in half or quarters (if they are large, then toss the fruit with balsamic vinegar. The sweet syrup acidic vinegar will bring out the sweetness and juiciness of the fruit itself. If you don’t have balsamic vinegar, substitute with fresh lemon juice. Do not substitute with another vinegar, as other vinegars are too harsh.
Use cold butter and cream: Cold ingredients help relax the gluten in the flour. Gluten is a protein that forms when flour reacts with water and is knead or manipulated. It gives baked goods stretchy chew. For some baked goods, like bread, you want to develop gluten. But for scones, you want to prevent too much gluten from form, as it will lead to a tough scone. Cold ingredients like cold butter and cream will help prevent the gluten from forming, as will chilling the dough.
Chill the dough: Gluten creation is inevitable when making the dough. But you can also help relax the gluten by chilling the dough after you make. Just let the dough chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes or longer, up to overnight, to help make the scones tender. Chilling also helps solidify the butter, which will lead to flakiness in the scones
Grate the butter: You can incorporate the butter by using your fingers or using a pastry blender, which is how I make my Earl Grey and dried cherry scones and my British-style honey and thyme scones. But for these scones, I like to grate the butter into the dough. This gives small shards of butter in the dough, which will lead to a flaky scone. Be sure to dip the butter stick into the flour to coat it. This will help prevent the butter from melting from your hands. Keep dipping the butter stick back in the flour as you grate the butter, whenever the butter starts to melt.
Use quality ingredients: Most recipes benefit from quality ingredients. But because there are so few ingredients in this recipe, quality butter, strawberries, and chocolate make a difference. If you have it, European-style butter, which has a higher percentage of butterfat, gives a richer and flakier scone. Ripe in-season strawberries are best in the scone but even out of season strawberries are pretty decent in this scone because of the balsamic vinegar added. However, I don’t recommend frozen strawberries for this recipe, as they shed too much liquid, making a soggy scone, fresh are the best. Finally, pick a chocolate that you like to eat out of hand. Quality chocolate chips or your favorite chopped chocolate are awesome for these scones.

Make the dough ahead

You can make the dough for these scones a day ahead of time, letting it rest in the fridge overnight. This will lead to a flakier and more tender scone, as the butter will have solidified, and the gluten in the flour will have relaxed. Just take the dough out and bake as directed.

How to store scones

Store scones at room temperature for up to 2 days in an airtight container or resealable Ziploc bag. You can also freeze scones in a heavy-duty freezer resealable bag for up to 2 months. Keep in mind that sugar on top of the scones will most likely dissolve when you store the scones. Thaw the scones on the countertop or table to room temperature, then refresh them in a toaster oven or regular oven at 300°F, for 10 minutes or until warm.

If you like these Chocolate and Strawberry Scones, check out these other baked breakfast treats:

Chocolate and Strawberry Scones

These chocolate and strawberry scones are a special treat for breakfast, brunch or just as a side item for coffee or tea time. Use the best quality ingredients and make sure to chill the dough before baking them. The chill time ensure that butter has solidified and the gluten in the flour has relaxed, leading to a tender and flaky scone.

Calories 229kcal

Author Irvin

Ingredients

1 1/2 to 2 cups strawberries 8 ounces
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar or lemon juice
2 cups all-purpose flour 280 g
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter 85 g
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup chocolate chips 85 g

To finish

2 tablespoons cream
1 tablespoon sparkling sugar or white sugar

Instructions

Cut the strawberries in half, or quarters (if the strawberries are large) and place them in a medium sized bowl. Drizzle the balsamic vinegar (or lemon juice) over the strawberries, toss to coat, and set aside.
Place the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Using a balloon whisk, vigorously stir the dry ingredients together so they are well blended.
Dip the butter into the dry ingredients to coat, then use a box grater and grate the butter through the big holes. If the butter starts to melt or stick to your fingers, just dip and roll the butter back in the dry ingredients to coat.
Once the butter is grated, toss the ingredients together so the butter shards are coated. Then drizzle half the cream over the dry ingredients, tossing/mixing with a fork, until the cream has been absorbed.
Add the strawberries, along with any juices that have accumulated on the bottom of the bowl, and the chocolate chips. Toss to evenly distribute. Then add the remaining cream and continue to mix until the dough forms.
Divide the dough in half, roughly 475 g each (if you have a scale), and pat the dough into 2 disks, about 6-inches wide and 1-inch thick. Wrap each dough disk in plastic wrap, and then refrigerate for at least 30 minutes up to overnight.
Once the dough has chilled, preheat the oven 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicon baking mat. Take the chilled dough disks out and cut each disk into 6 even wedges. Place the wedges on the baking sheet, about 1 inch apart.
Brush the top of each scone with cream, then sprinkle a little sparkling sugar over the top of each scone.
Bake the scones for 16 to 18 minutes, until the scones are golden brown around the edges of the scone. Let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before moving them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Nutrition

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