Buttermilk Pie and The Best Pie Crust

As you may know, Joe is not a fan of pie.  However, the following crust and pie have received Joe's stamp of approval.

Buttermilk Pie
http://www.food.com/recipe/buttermilk-pie-56

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 deep dish pie shell ( either your own recipe or storebought)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
2. Beat the butter and sugar together until light.
3. Add the eggs and beat; then beat in vanilla.
4. Sift the dry ingredients together and add to the batter alternatively with the buttermilk; beat until smooth.
5. Pour into a deep dish pie shell and bake at 400F for 10 minutes, reduce heat to 350F and bake for 50-60 additional minutes.
6. Pie should turn a nice golden brown and a knife inserted should come out clean.
7. I think it is absolutely best when it is just still warm. (Not too hot, or it will be like napalm.

Watch the pie so it doesn't get too brown.  I would cover with foil during part of the baking time.

Joe's Favorite Pie Crust

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups white flour
• 2 tbsp. sugar
• 1/4 tsp. salt (Use more salt if the dough is for pot pies)
• 1/2 cup cold butter, broken into small pieces
• 5 tbsp. cold vegetable shortening
• 8 tbsp. ice water

Directions

1. Measure the flour, sugar and salt together. Stir to combine.
2. Add the chilled butter pieces and shortening to the bowl. Cut them in with a pastry cutter or knife. Don't over mix.
3. Add the ice water. Mix until the dough holds together (add a bit more water, if necessary).
4. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface, knead it together, then divide in half.
5. Flatten each half into a disk, Chill in saran wrap - ½ hour.
6. Roll out one of the disks on a lightly floured surface until you have a circle that's about 12 inches in diameter.
7. Put the circle in a 9" pie plate, trimming any extra dough from the edges with a sharp knife. Refrigerate until you are ready to make the pie. Add filling (see below)
8. Roll out the second ball of dough and cover top. Use a fork or your fingers to pinch the edges together. cut a couple slits in the top

Healthy Chocolate Pudding

This is too easy.  And very yummy.

2 avocados
2 heaping Tablespoons of cocoa powder
Honey for sweetening, as desired

Mix in a blender or a Ninja (yay for Ninjas!)  Chill in fridge if you can wait that long.  Use crackers or fruit for dipping.

Note on the avocados... if they are really avocado-ey then you might detect a small taste, but catch them  before they are overripe, and you've got a delicious "healthy fat" treat!  With chocolate!  Can't go wrong with that!

Lemonade Biscuits/Cookies

This is easy and yummy.

4 cups Bisquik (I used my homemade version)

1/2 cup powdered lemonade

1 cup milk (or so, moistened to your liking)

Mix. Dump by spoonfuls on baking sheet, or you could make muffins out of them too.

Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

Cake mix made yummy!

For Micah's birthday, he wanted a vanilla white chocolate cake. So I had to get creative with some add-ins and this turned out super yummy.

1 cake mix (vanilla)

1 box vanilla pudding

1/2 cup applesauce

1 cup sour cream

4 eggs

1 cup melted white chocolate chips

Mix this all together and bake at 350 for about 50-60 minutes, depending on your pan shape and size. I used a deeper casserole dish, per Micah's request, and it took 55 minutes to cook all the way through. I let it cool, then turned it over and frosted it with the below frosting recipe...

1/2 stick butter or margarine

8 ounces cream cheese (I used low fat and it worked fine for frosting)

2 T brown sugar

1 T vanilla

1 cup white chocolate chips (I do wish I had grated the white chocolate instead, but it still was super good!)

YUM! My husband, who rarely even partakes of cake, had seconds! Seconds! This is a big deal.

Lemon White Chocolate Cake

We have a lot of cake leftover, but that is only because people stuffed themselves with donuts, crackers, and pizza all day. This cake is really good. I would suggest not layering it, but using a 9X13 pan, spreading the lemon curd (found in the jam section of your grocery store), and then spreading the frosting on top. It just seems like it would be easier than layering, which is not my speciality...

This recipe is from the cake doctor (check out the website since there are lots of yummy ideas!)

Preparation time: 10 Minutes
Baking time: 28 to 32 Minutes
Assembly time: 12 Minutes

When I offered my husband, John, a piece of this lemon cake after dinner one night, he said with a grin, This is incredible, but too bad you can’t use it in the chocolate book. Well, of course I can. Here it is-lemon, white chocolate (the unexpected secret ingredient), and all. This is just the delicious sort of cake to serve on birthdays and special occasions like christenings and showers. Lemon curd is sandwiched between white chocolate layers and all is covered with a lemon—flavored white chocolate frosting.

Cake

• Solid vegetable shortening for greasing the pans
• Flour for dusting the pans
• 6 ounces white chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 1 package (18.25 ounces) plain white cake mix
• 2/3 cup water
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 3 large eggs
• 2 large egg whites
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• Lemony White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting (see below)
• 1/2 cup store-bought lemon curd (half of a 10-ounce jar)

Lemony White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

• 6 ounces white chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 1 package (8 ounces)cream cheese, at room temperature
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, at room temperature
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• 3 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted

1. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Generously grease two 9-inch round cake pans with solid vegetable shortening, then dust with flour. Shake out the excess flour. Set the pans aside.
2. Melt the white chocolate in a small glass bowl in the microwave oven on high power for 1 minute. Remove the bowl from the oven and stir with a small rubber spatula until it is smooth.
3. Place the cake mix, water, oil, whole eggs, egg whites, lemon juice, and lemon zest in a large mixing bowl. Pour in the slightly cooled white chocolate. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more, scraping down the sides again if needed. The batter should look well combined. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans, smoothing it out with the rubber spatula. Place the pans in the oven side by side.
4. Bake the cakes until they are golden brown and spring back when lightly pressed with your finger, 28 to 32 minutes. Remove the pans from the oven and place them on wire racks to cool for 10 minutes. Run a dinner knife around the edge of each layer and invert each onto a rack, then invert again onto another rack so that the cakes are right side up. Allow to cool completely, 30 minutes more.
5. Meanwhile, prepare the Lemony White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe follows).
6. Place one cake layer, right side up, on a serving platter. Spread the top with the lemon curd. Place the second layer, right side up, on top of the first layer and frost the top and sides of the cake with frosting.
7. *** OR NOT LAYER...

Place this cake, uncovered or in a cake saver, in the refrigerator until the frosting sets, 20 minutes. Then store it, in a cake saver or under a glass dome, at room temperature for up to 3 days, or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Or freeze it, wrapped in aluminum foil or in a cake saver, for up to 6 months. Thaw the cake overnight in the refrigerator before serving.

Lemony White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

1. Place the white chocolate in a small glass bowl in the microwave oven on high power for 1 minute. Remove the bowl from the oven and stir with a wooden spoon or a rubber spatula until it is smooth. Set the chocolate aside to cool.
2. Place the cream cheese and butter in a large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed until well combined, 30 seconds. Stop the machine. Add the lemon juice, lemon zest, and melted white chocolate, and blend on low speed until just combined, 30 seconds. Add the confectioners' sugar and blend on low speed until the sugar is incorporated, 30 seconds. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat until the frosting is fluffy, 1 minute or more.
3. Use to frost the top and sides of the cake of your choice.

Chocolate cookie deluxe!

Make the recipe from the back of your chocolate chip bag.

Add a mini marshmallow to each cookie in the middle before baking.

Melt chocolate in a double boiler (or a metal bowl on top of small pot of water).

Dip cookies in chocolate half way.

Cool in fridge.

Eat!

Danish Oatmeal Cookies

Last night for our cooking club our assignment was to make something European. I decided to try and find something Danish to make (and something that I already had all the ingredients for). I was so wishing that I had an aebleskiver pan! Anyway, I came across this recipe and gave it a try. They turned out yummy and the ladies at cooking club enjoyed them and so did my family.

Danish Oatmeal Cookies

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

1 cup oatmeal (I didn't want the texture of oatmeal so I put mine in my little blender/chopper thing and it came out like oatmeal flour)

1 cup chopped pecans (I chopped half of the nuts very finely in my blender too)

powdered sugar for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a bowl, mix the flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl mix the butter, powdered sugar and vanilla until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Stir in the flour mixture. Gently stir in the oatmeal and pecans and lightly mix until combined. 

Roll into small teaspoon sized balls and place on cookie sheet or baking stone. Bake for 10-15 minutes until lightly browned. Let cool completely before sprinkling with powdered sugar. 

Makes 90 little cookies at about 40 calories per cookie, but be careful they are bitesize and melt in your mouth...easy to eat 5 without even thinking about it :)

Hello Dollies

This is probably Mike's favorite treat that I make, 

I can't believe it has taken me so long to put it up here.

Ingredients:

1 stick of butter
1 pack of graham crackers (about 9 full crackers)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch chips
1 cup chopped pecans
1 can sweetened condensed milk

Directions:

Put butter in 9x13 inch baking dish and melt in the oven while it preheats to 325 degrees.
While the butter is melting crush the crackers into crumbs.
When butter is melted take pan out of oven and pour graham cracker crumbs over the butter, making sure to get the crumbs all over the bottom of the pan. This will be your crust.
Sprinkle chocolate chips, butterscotch chips and pecans over the crust. Drizzle milk over all and bake for 25-30 minutes. Makes 24 dollies.

Nutrition info...
Seriously, do you really want to know? Ok. If you cut it 6x4 to make 24 servings, then 1 serving has about 240 calories. Now, yes we could probably substitute light butter and fat free sweetened condensed milk and maybe cut the chips and nuts to 3/4 cup instead of 1 cup...but I don't know if it would taste as good :) It might be worth a try though.

Simple Truffles

My first try at making truffles, so I found an easy recipe. They turned out good. Next time I might try some white chocolate or some other variations.

What you need:
20 squares of Baker's semi-sweet chocolate squares
1 8 oz package of cream cheese
sprinkles or other decorations of your choice

What you do:
Melt 8 chocolate squares. Beat cream cheese with mixer until creamy. Blend in melted chocolate. Refrigerate until firm.
Shape into 36 balls (I must have made mine a little smaller because I got 50) Place on waxed paper covered baking sheet.
Melt remaining chocolate squares (12). Use fork to dip truffles; return to baking sheet. Decorate with sprinkles or other toppings, then refrigerate 1 hour.

Oatmeal Cake

Yummy Oatmeal Cake

Pour 1 1/4 cup boiling water over 1 cup quick oatmeal. Let stand for 20 minutes.
Cream 1/2 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
Add oats
1 1/3 cup flour
1 tsp. soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
Bake in a greased 9X13 pan at 350 for 35 minutes
While cake is warm, spread and broil:
6 T melted butter or margarine
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup coconut (can be skipped or sub cookie crumbs)
1 cup nuts

Today, my kids didn't eat all the oatmeal, and so I subbed the leftovers in the pot for the beginning step. Way better than storing it in the fridge to be dumped out later. Who eats leftover oatmeal?
Dresden