Recipe #10 Citrus Bars

These wonderfully sweet, tart bars were inspired by traditional lemon bars.  All I did was change the lemon juice to a mixture of citrus juices and, voila!

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened to room temperature
1/2 cup white sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 lemon, juiced
1 lime, juiced
1 small orange, juiced
1 tablespoon grated citrus zest

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  In a medium bowl, with a fork, blend together softened butter, 2 cups flour and 1/2 cup sugar.  Press into the bottom of an ungreased 9 x 13 inch pan.  Bake for 15-20 minutes or until firm and golden.  In a bowl or measuring cup, juice lemon, lime and orange.  (Note:  to keep seeds out of your juice, squeeze the fruit over your fingers so you can catch the seeds before they go into the bowl) Your fruit should yield between 5-6 tablespoons of juice. If it yields more, only add 6 tablespoons to the recipe. In another bowl, whisk together the remaining 1 1/2 cups sugar, 1/4 cup flour, eggs, 6 tablespoons citrus juice and the mixed citrus zest.  Pour over the baked crust.  Bake for an additional 20 minutes.  The bars will firm up as they cool.  Allow to cool completely and cut into squares or bars.

Recipe #9 Fall Fruit Napoleon

This recipe was inspired by my local grocery store.  Every time I have walked into a store over the last month or so, the first thing I am hit with is huge displays of apples and pears.  Fall fruit is becoming plentiful now, so I decided to do something about it.  I've always loved the elegant and tall Napoleon desserts with their many different layers, so that's what I have created here.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups apple juice, divided
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and diced into 1/2 inch cubes
1 Red Delicious apple, peeled and diced into 1/2 inch cubes
1 Bosc pear, peeled and diced into 1/2 inch cubes
1 Bartlett pear, peeled and diced into 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 tsp. apple pie spice or cinnamon
1 cup sugar
1 (14 oz) can whole berry cranberry sauce
4 teaspoons corn starch
whipped topping
1 box (2 sheets) puff pastry

Lay out puff pastry on a cutting board to thaw (takes about 30-40 minutes).  In a 2 quart sauce pan, bring 1 cup apple juice to a boil.  Add apples, apple pie spice (or cinnamon) and sugar.  Boil for about 5 minutes or until apples are tender. Lower heat to medium and add pears and cranberry sauce and simmer until cranberry sauce is completely melted.  In a small bowl combine 1/2 cup apple juice and corn starch and stir until well blended.  Pour cornstarch into simmering apple mixture.  Stir until mixture thickens, about 1-2 minutes.  Allow fruit mixture to cool while preparing other ingredients.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly spray 2 cookie sheets with vegetable spray.  Open puff pastry sheets and roll out slightly to seal any creases.  Cut into 4 inch squares and place about 1 inch apart on cookie sheets.  Bake pastry for 10 minutes.  Pastry will puff up during baking.  With a spatula, press pastry down slightly to flatten.  Turn pastry over at this time.  Bake for 10-15 more minutes or until both sides of pastry are golden brown.  Allow pastry to cool to room temperature.

To assemble Napoleon dessert, lay one square of pastry onto serving plate.  Place a dollop of whipped topping on pastry.  Next, place one spoonful of fruit mixture.  Repeat process.  Place the last piece of pastry on top with a smaller dollop of cream and a smaller amount of fruit sauce. Try to get a piece of apple directly on top of the cream.  The layers should go as follows:  pastry, cream, fruit, pastry, cream, fruit, pastry, small amount of cream, small amount of fruit. Use the picture above as a guide.  This one is a little difficult to put together, but really easy to cook.

What I learned from this recipe:
-When using apples or pears in your desserts, the variety of the fruit is very important.  If you want a firmer apple with a little more tart flavor (like in apple pies), Granny Smith is the apple for you.  If you want something a little sweeter and you don't mind a softer texture, use Red Delicious.  Pears are pretty similar between varieties, but can be firm or very soft at different parts of it's life cycle.  The pears you get at the grocery store are very likely to be firm or even hard.  If you leave them on your cabinet for a few days or even up to a week, you can have a very soft, juicy pear.  For this recipe, you want a softer, riper pear.  However, if you can only find firm pears and don't have time to let them ripen, you can add them into the apple juice at the same time as the apples to let them cook a little longer.

Recipe #8 Doughnut Bread Pudding

Of course this recipe is inspired by traditional bread pudding.  I made one of these in the past with cake doughnuts and was wondering how it would turn out with yeast doughnuts.  It came out so good, my husband almost didn't let me give any of it out to my other taste testers (my in-laws).  I used fresh doughnuts because my local grocery store didn't have any day-old stock.

Ingredients:
18 yeast doughnuts 
4 cups (2 pints or 1 quart) Half & Half cream
6 eggs
2 Tablespoons vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly spray a 9x13 inch baking pan with vegetable spray.  Tear doughnuts into 4-6 pieces and place pieces into baking pan.  In a large bowl, beat eggs well.  Add cream, vanilla and cinnamon to eggs.  Pour cream mixture over doughnuts.  using a fork, spoon or even your fingers, press doughnuts down into cream.  Allow to soak for about one hour, pressing down a few times during the soaking time so that the cream has time to moisten all of the doughnuts.  Cover pan with aluminum foil and bake for 1 hour.  Remove foil and allow to brown for about 20 minutes or until center is set and the top is golden brown.  The center is set when it no longer jiggles when moved or when a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.  Serve warm with ice cream or with rum sauce.

Rum Sauce:  Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a small bowl.  Add 1 tablespoon of rum (Captain Morgan spiced rum is my favorite).  Add in 2 cups of powdered sugar and stir.  Add 1 tablespoon of milk at a time until sauce is at desired consistancy.  I like my sauce pretty thin, so I usually have to add about 4 tablespoons of milk to mine. If you don't mind the taste of raw rum, you can always spike it a little more by adding another tablespoon if you dare.

What I learned from this recipe:
- this recipe was sweet enough with all the glaze from the doughnuts, that I didn't have to add any sugar to the custard.  It's so much easier to find glazed doughnuts than it is to find them unglazed.
-Pretty much any yeast doughnut could be used for this recipe, so if you like apples, you might want to try this recipe with apple fritters.  You may only need 5 or 6 fritters depending on their size.  You could always get 10 and then eat whatever doesn't fit in the pan ;-)   (or freeze the leftovers for the next bread pudding).

Recipe #7 Sweet Potato Rice Pudding

This recipe is inspired by plain 'ole Rice Pudding.  But plain rice pudding can be a bit boring.  And with all of the fall decorations going up in stores, I was thinking about fall desserts like pumpkin and sweet potato pie.  So, why not combine them?  This rice pudding is not too difficult to make and has the same flavor profile as sweet potato pie.  Thanksgiving will be here before you know it, and this may be one dessert that goes on my Thanksgiving table.

Difficulty Level: Medium

Ingredients:
3/4 cup uncooked white, long-grain rice
2 1/2 cups milk, divided
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sweet potato puree (see note at end of recipe)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
2 eggs, beaten

Directions:
In a small saucepan, bring 1 1/2 cups of water to a boil.  Add rice and stir.  Reduce heat to low, cover and allow to cook for 20 minutes.  In another saucepan, combine 2 cups milk, sugar, salt, sweet potato, vanilla and pumpkin pie spice.  Add cooked rice to milk mixture and cook over medium heat until thick and creamy (about 15-20 minutes).  Do not allow milk to boil.  Add the remaining 1/2 cup milk to the beaten egg and stir into hot rice mixture.  Cook for 2 more minutes, stirring constantly.  Serve warm or cold.

Note:  To make sweet potato puree, I used a 15 oz. can of cut sweet potatoes (yams) in syrup.  I drained about half of the liquid out of the can, then used a stick blender to puree the potatoes.  If you don't have a stick blender you can use a food processor or regular blender.  You can also use canned pumpkin that is already pureed for you.

Things I learned from this recipe:
-Pumpkin and sweet potatoes can almost be used interchangeably.  I originally wanted to use pumpkin in this recipe, but none of my local grocery stores would be carrying it until late October or early November.  Apparently there was a pumpkin shortage last year and they are not putting canned pumpkin out until late in the year to have enough stock for the Thanksgiving season.
-I originally wanted to make this a one-step cook, but the first time I tried it, it got really thick and the rice wasn't cooked all the way through.  So, I went with the pre-cooked rice method, and it worked beautifully.
-Also, just a reminder:  Do not allow the milk to boil.  It will make your pudding have a grainy texture.

Do you have a favorite snack or dessert that could be changed to a Fall inspired dish?

Recipe #6 Cheesecake Whip Parfait

This recipe is one I've been doing for a while and I just kind of spruced it up into this parfait.  The Cheesecake Whip is basically a whipped cream with cream cheese in it.  I find it tastes a lot like cheese cake because of the sugar and the vanilla that is added to the cream.  There is no actual baking done in this recipe unless you want to make homemade granola instead of buying it at the store.  That's what I did and it was wonderful. I guess you could say this dish was slightly inspired by a very large fast food chain's yogurt parfait with fruit.  But it's very different in taste.

Difficulty Level:  Easy

Ingredients for Cheesecake Whip:
1 Quart of Heavy Whipping Cream (or Heavy Cream)
8 oz. Cream Cheese at room temperature
1 1/2 cups of sugar
2 Tbsps vanilla

Ingredients for Parfait:
Cheesecake Whip
Pie Filling - any variety (tart fruits work best - cherry, strawberry, blueberry, blackberry)
Granola - store bought or homemade (about 4 cups)

Directions for Cheesecake Whip:
In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large mixing bowl with a hand held mixer at medium to medium-high speed, beat cream cheese at room temperature until no lumps are visible.  Add in cream and whip until cream is thickened.  While continuing to beat cream, add in sugar slowly.  When all sugar is added in, pour in vanilla.  Continue to beat until stiff peaks are formed ( until the points stay up when you remove your beater from the whipped cream).

Directions for assembling parfait:
In a trifle dish or tall glass, layer granola, then whip, then pie filling.  Repeat until glass is full or trifle dish is full or until all of your ingredients are used up.  I used individual trifle bowls for the picture above, I only did one layer of each and used about 3 tablespoons of granola, 1/2 cup of whip and 2-3 tablespoons of pie filling.


What I learned from this recipe:
-You don't have to make everything from scratch.  Use the convenience ingredients at your grocery store to create really good and really simple dishes.  I made the granola, just to be able to say that I made homemade granola, but you can buy granola in the health food department or in the cereal aisle in your grocery store.  And you can also use fresh fruit to decorate the parfait, but the pie filling is an easy substitute if fresh fruits are out of season or out of your price range.
-Also, you don't have to have special dishes for these types of desserts.  You can make them in any drinking glass or just layer it in cereal or soup bowls you have around the house.  However, if you would like to invest in a trifle bowl, you can usually find them for a decent price at superstores like Wal-Mart and Target.

What is your favorite convenience food to use?  Do you use pie filling in other dishes that call for fresh fruit?  Or do you make savory dishes using pre-made ingredients, like biscuits in your chicken and dumpling soup?

Recipe #5 Black Forest Dump Cake

As the name implies, this recipe is very easy because all you do is dump in the ingredients.  This recipe was inspired by a recipe my mother used to make all of the time.  My mother's favorite room in the house is NOT the kitchen, so this recipe was perfect for her to make and take to parties or pot lucks.  I'm not sure where she got the recipe, but I know it's not one that she made up.  So, for this inspired by recipe, I changed the yellow cake mix in the original recipe to a chocolate cake mix, removed the crushed pineapple and changed it to sweet cherries in syrup, as well as taking off the coconut and pecans that topped the original dish. All of the removed or changed ingredients are what makes me able to call this a Black Forest Cake.  The picture below doesn't do the dish justice because this is a spoon served dessert and does not cut perfectly.  But when it's this good, who cares about a perfectly square piece of cake?  All I worry about is a second serving!

Difficulty Level:  Easy

Ingredients:
2 (21 oz) cans cherry pie filling
1 (15 oz) can pitted, dark, sweet cherries in heavy syrup (do not drain)
1 box German chocolate cake mix
2 sticks butter, sliced (about 1/4 inch thick)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a 9 x 13 inch cake pan, empty entire contents of both cans of cherry pie filling.  Spread evenly over bottom of pan.  Pour entire contents of can of cherries in syrup over pie filling.  Spread as evenly as possible over pie filling. Do not mix into pie filling!  Layer dry cake mix evenly over cherries and juice.  Do not mix into cherries!  Lay out all butter slices on top of dry cake mix.  The slices will be about 1/4 to 1/2 inch apart.  Place pan in preheated oven and bake for 1 hour.  Serve warm with whipped cream or with ice cream.

What I learned from this recipe:
-The original recipe had an entire 8 oz can of crushed pineapple in it.  The juice from the pineapple is what made the dry cake mix moist, along with the butter.  To take out the pineapple, I had to replace that liquid.  I wasn't sure how much liquid was in a can of sweet cherries in syrup, so I drained out the liquid and measured it.  It turned out to be about 6 oz.  I'm sure a can of crushed pineapple only has about 3-4 oz. of liquid, but I used the entire can of cherries with syrup and the cake came out fine.

Recipe #4 Rocky Road Fluff

Rocky Road Fluff is basically pudding with whipped topping folded in.  The recipe was inspired by a recipe for Watergate Salad which is made of pistachio pudding, whipped topping, pineapple, marshmallows and nuts.  I wanted to make a more decadent version of this salad, and with marshmallows and nuts already in the original recipe, it wasn't a huge leap to change it to chocolate.  I just took out the pineapple and what was left were the makings of a Rocky Road flavored treat.  This is a perfect after school treat for kids or an indulgent treat for adults.  To kick it up another level you can drizzle it with chocolate syrup.

Difficulty Level:  Easy

Ingredients:
2 (3.8 oz) boxes Instant Devil's Food flavored pudding (or chocolate)
3 cups milk
1 cup chopped walnuts
2 cups mini marshmallows
8 oz. whipped topping

Directions:
In a large mixing bowl, combing pudding, milk and walnuts.  Stir until well mixed and thickened.  Fold in marshmallows and whipped topping.  Serve cold.

What I learned from this recipe:
-A recipe that starts out fruity doesn't always have to be fruity.  You can change it to creamy and chocolaty just by changing one ingredient.
-Some recipes can be transformed into a lower fat and lower sugar version by getting light or sugar free varieties of the same ingredient.  In this recipe you can get sugar free pudding, fat free or low fat milk as well as light or fat free whipped topping.

Recipe #3 Chiparoos

This recipe was inspired by a cookie bar recipe from a company that sells condensed milk.  It's a very easy recipe.  It only takes about 10 minutes to prep and about 30-35 minutes to bake.  The original recipe had only one kind of chocolate chip and coconut and nuts.  I'm not a fan of coconut, so I changed it to include 3 different varieties of chips and moved the nuts to the crust.  Have fun with this one, it's a very quick, very sweet treat for bake sales or sweet tooth cravings.

Difficulty Level:  Easy

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter (1 stick) or margarine, melted
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cups finely chopped pecans
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter chips
1/2 cup butterscotch chips

Directions:
Heat oven to 350 degrresF.  Coat 13 x 9 inch cake pan with vegetable cooking spray.  In a medium mixing bowl, combine butter, graham cracker crumbs, and pecans.  Mix until all crumbs are moistened.  Pour into pan and press down firmly with the back of a spoon or measuring cup to create a firm crust.  Pour the entire can of condensed milk evenly over the crust mixture.  Layer evenly with all of the chips.  Press chips into milk with a fork.  Bake for 30-35 minutes or until lightly browned.  Cool completely and cut into bars to serve.

What I learned from this recipe:
- Chocolate chips are an easy thing to change.  There are so many varieties of chips available, that it is easy to give your favorite chip recipe an overhaul even using the same amount of chips called for in the recipe.
- You can always take out ingredients that you don't like and add others.  Since I don't like coconut, there are many other things I could have used in this recipe.  Also if you prefer a different kind of nut, you could use that instead of the nut in a recipe.  Most nuts cook the same way, so that is an easy change that can be made.

It really felt good to have a recipe work the first time.  Have you had any recipe failures?  Did you do anything to fix it, or did you just throw it out?

Recipe #2 Easy Chocolate Raspberry Overload Cake

This recipe was inspired by a Chocolate Cake found on a recipe website.  I love the combination of raspberry and chocolate, so I changed the recipe to incorporate raspberry flavor.  This recipe was a little difficult for me to adapt as it was pretty much a chemistry lesson.  I had to make it twice to get it exactly like I wanted it.  It is a really easy recipe that is pretty much dump, mix and bake.  Getting the combination of liquids right was tough.

Difficulty Level:  Easy

Ingredients:

1 (18.25 oz) package devil's food cake mix
1 (5.9 oz) package instant chocolate pudding mix
3/4 cup raspberry preserves (either seedless or seeded will work)
1/2 cup sour cream
3/4 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1/2 cup warm water
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray a 9 x 13 inch pan with vegetable spray.  In a large bowl, mix together all ingredients except chocolate chips.  Mix with an electric mixer until well mixed.  Batter will be thick.  Stir in chocolate chips and pour batter into prepared pan.  Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes or until top is springy to the touch and a wooden toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Cool cake thoroughly in pan before inverting onto a plate if desired.  Dust the cake with powdered sugar and cut into squares.


What I learned from this recipe:

I learned that when adding an ingredient to an existing recipe, you should evaluate the other ingredients in the recipe.  For instance, when I added the raspberry preserves to this recipe the first time, I kept all of the other ingredients at the same amounts and it didn't bake fully.  I used a bundt pan for my first attempt at this recipe and put a tunnel of raspberry preserves in the center of the batter.  When the cake baked all of the preserves melted and sunk to the bottom of the cake making a gooey top to the cake.  When my first attempt failed, I needed to change the entire presentation of the cake.  I lowered the amount of oil and sour cream from the original recipe to accommodate the addition of the preserves.  The result was a subtle raspberry flavor and a very moist, chocolaty cake.

What are your favorite flavor combinations?

Recipe #1 Cherry Almond Coffee Cake

This is the first of 150 recipes in the Sweet Tooth Project.  The inspiration for this recipe was a Cranberry Upside-Down Coffee Cake found on a recipe website.  I love Cranberries and Pecans, but thought cherries and almonds would be an interesting twist.  I kept the same upside-down presentation and just changed a few of the ingredients.  Here is Recipe #1

Difficulty Level:  Medium - High

Ingredients:

2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup butter
1 (5 oz.) bag dried cherries
2 cups orange juice
1/2 cup sliced almonds

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons almond extract
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a small, microwave safe bowl combine cherries and orange juice and microwave on high power for 3 1/2 minutes. Generously spray a 9 inch round cake pan with cooking spray.  In a mixing bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.  Wisk until well incorporated and there are no lumps in the flour. Set aside.  Melt 1/3 cup butter in the microwave and pour into the cake pan.  Sprinkle brown sugar over the melted butter and mix until sugar is moistened. Spread sugar/butter mixture evenly over the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle almonds over the sugar/butter mixture.  Drain the cherries and sprinkle evenly over the almonds.  In a large bowl, cream together the butter and 3/4 cup sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the almond extract.  Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the sour cream.  Pour batter into prepared pan. Place the pan on a cookie sheet while baking to catch any bubbling sugar mixture that may escape out the top of the pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.  Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then invert onto serving platter and carefully remove pan.  Serve warm.

Note:  if your cake pan is dark metal, decrease the temperature of the oven to 325 degrees.  Bake time may increase by 5-10 minutes.  Use the toothpick test to check doneness.



What I learned from this recipe
-Anytime you make changes to a recipe it is a shot in the dark as to whether it will come out or not.  Especially if it is a baking recipe.  I made 2 batches of the recipe both with my changes and baked them at the same time.  I have learned that for my next recipe, I will make one recipe with my changes and evaluate it, then make another recipe with any further changes needed.
For example, I originally made this recipe without soaking the cherries in OJ and they were a little overcooked with a sort of burnt sugar flavor.  I have since changed that hoping that the moisture from the OJ will eliminate the overcooking of the cherries.  The cake was incredibly moist so I changed nothing but to increase the almond extract.  I originally had 1 teaspoon, but increased it to 2 to give the batter a little more almond flavor.  If you like cinnamon flavor more than almond, you can use 1 teaspoon almond and increase the cinnamon by 1/4 teaspoon.

Looks like I will have to try this one again to see if my changes are workable.  Does it sound like something you would like to try?  Do you like to experiment with recipes too?

Update:  Tried this recipe again with my changes.  It came out perfectly.  Had to scoop out the almond and cherry topping and put it back on, but I think it makes it prettier that way.