dessert

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A buttery biscuit crust, atop a sweet, bubbling base of fresh summer strawberries marked my Sunday morning this weekend. The smell was absolutely amazing, and this recipe, while not at all fancy, could not have been easier.

I set out to make a strawberry pandowdy, based off of a recipe from Where Women Cook, the same magazine I used to make the saltine caramels. I may have said the words pandowdy about 100 times before realizing I did not have a cast iron skillet or enough strawberries to make the actual recipe. So I scaled it down into a pie. Since it’s not made in a pan, I guess I can’t call it a pandowdy, so I am calling it a pie. Whatever you call it, make it soon.

strawberries

I started with some beautiful strawberries, once chopped about three cups.

strawberries

I mixed the strawberries right in my pie plate with about 1/4 cup of sugar and a few teaspoons of flour.

strawberries Then I got started on my dough, which was a simple mix of 1 and 1/4 cups all purpose flour, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, and a stick of cold butter, cubed.

I chopped it all up in my trusty Cuisinart, and it became a perfect ball of buttery dough. The recipe actually called for ice water as needed, but  I didn’t even need it. biscuit dough

I let the dough chill for about 20 minutes and then tried to roll it out. The dough was really hard to roll, so after awhile, I just started stretching pieces out and placing them over the strawberries. This is where my pie became rustic.

About a half an hour in  400 degree oven, and the pie was done, ready to be cooled and brought along for my husband’s boat birthday outing.

strawberry pie

 

strawberry pie

Not too bad for an early Sunday morning project!

Did you do any fun cooking or baking this weekend?

Tags: baking, dessert, pie, recipe, strawberries, strawberry pie

One of the huge perks of attending Eat, Write, Retreat was the well-stocked swag bag that attendees received. The samples and gifts seemed never ending, and one that I enjoyed weeks later was a copy of the beautiful magazine Where Women Cook.

I took it to the Cape, and in the cold, rainy days there, thumbed through each of its recipes, stopping dead in my tracks when I saw this:

Where Women Cook

Caramels made with saltine crackers

I thought these looked so easy, so beautiful, and so delicious that I couldn’t stop thinking about them until I made them. For the post that follows, forget the above photo. It didn’t go down that way.

First off, I didn’t have the cute tin with little squares to neatly fit the saltines in each little square for a perfect caramel. Second I didn’t have parchment paper, and my husband picked up dark brown sugar instead of light. This is why I don’t do desserts. Meals can be made from almost nothing.

But I digress.

My caramels turned out just fine and not at all fancy or presentable.

I used a pie plate with no parchment, fitting in as many saltines as possible

saltines

Then I made my caramel, as simple as boiling up a cup of brown sugar and a cup of butter. I used dark brown sugar, and I actually think I liked it better than the light brown sugar the recipe called for.

butter and brown sugar

I cooked the caramel until bubbling and thick and the butter and sugar were completely blended, stirring constantly, according to the recipe directions. Then I poured it over my saltines and baked the whole thing at 350 for five minutes.

Once the pan was out of the oven, I sprinkled it with chocolate chips and sea salt.

chocolate chips

caramel

The caramel cooled in the fridge for a few hours before I decided to dive in with a sharp knife. It had hardened to a perfect candy consistency, the chips slightly melted in, the salt hanging out just at the surface, and the saltines providing a crunch at the bottom. And getting it out of the pie plate was so difficult, I believe I burned all of the calories from eating the caramel before I even started. Luckily the caramel was just for home consumption, so it didn’t have to be beautiful. I can’t wait to try again; this recipe would make for great little holiday gifts!

What toppings would you put on your caramels?

Tags: candy, caramel, dessert, recipe

A no-cook dessert with two ingredients? Deep, dark chocolate turned into a fluffy mousse? All in a day’s work.

Tuesday was another not-so-great day. I had a few work-related disappointments, the weather was gloomy, and I was really just having a hard time dealing with the feast or famine nature of consulting work. It’s really hard at times to NOT take things personally when people just don’t respond. I know I will get better at it one day, but Tuesday was not that day.

I rarely turn to chocolate for comfort, but sitting on the couch, moping, I decided I needed to make a dessert. You know, there’s just something about puttering around in the kitchen that is soothing to a heavy heart.

After just a little bit of Googling, trying to find a chocolate mousse that didn’t require cream (because I was too lazy to walk a block to the store to buy it), I found that traditional chocolate mousse doesn’t even require cream!

eggs

I eventually decided on the simplest recipe ever, then change it up ever so slightly. Four eggs, separated, and a heaping cup of dark chocolate chips. The original recipe called for a few teaspoons of sugar, but I knew I wouldn’t need it.

chocolate chips

I started by creating a makeshift double boiler, a metal bowl in a pot of water, and melting the chips until glossy.

melted chocolate

Once the melted chocolate had cooled a bit, I stirred in the egg yolks quickly, making sure they didn’t scramble.

chocolate and egg yolks

Next up, I whipped up the egg whites, waiting until they made stiff peaks.

 

egg whites

I folded the whites into the chocolate and yolk mixture until everything was incorporated and looked chocolatey again. Then I popped the bowl of mousse into the fridge for two hours, and it was ready to go.

chocolate mousse

I served the mousse in my nana’s dessert dishes. I was disappointed at first in the yield of the recipe which was about four servings. That was until I realized how incredibly rich it is! I ate about half of this bowl and was full and had my chocolate craving satisfied. This is a keeper! Being in the kitchen and moving around also lifted my spirits a little and made me feel hopeful for a new day.

What do you go for when you are craving sweet? What about salty?

Tags: chocolate, dessert, recipe

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