Deliciousness: Peach Cream Cheese Pie

When I was a kid in Texas, my family went to the State Fair every year. It was held in Dallas, so it wasn't that far away from where we lived in Colleyville; sometimes, we'd even go twice. My favorite stop, which will come as no surprise to any of you, was the creative arts building. Jam-packed with more than 100 categories of arts and crafts, this place was a mecca for a girl whose crafting experiences were mostly solitary. Each year, I would stare enviously at the blue, red and yellow ribbons gracing the entries, believing a blue ribbon to be the highest achievement possible in crafting. I fantasized about entering some of my projects into the fray, but somehow, never did.

Fast-forward 15 years, and I now find myself disqualified to enter most of these events, due to my status as a professional knitwear designer. (Although, oddly enough, I think the Texas State Fair may  have a category for professionals, and you do not have to be currently living in Texas to enter. Hmmm....) Anyway, this year I was asked to judge the Missouri State Fair, and I cannot even tell you how excited I was to accept! For me, this honor was something I would not have even been able to imagine as a child in that creative arts building. ME? Judging other folks' entries? Wow.

A pile of lovelies, waiting to be judged

I teamed up with one of my local yarn store owners and made the trip out to Sedalia yesterday to judge the entries. We had 11 categories of knitting to review, and I was surprised to see that more than a few of them had less than 4 entries. Get submitting to your state fairs, people! :)

Does anyone recognize this crescent shawl pattern? I would love to know what this is.
Edit: This is none other than my friend, Corrina Ferguson's, pattern, Daphne Ann!

Overall, I had an amazing time. Everything in the Home Economics Building was being judged on the same day, which meant we shared the space with the judges for quilting, baking, canning, sewing, weaving, and the like. Since we were there all day (it took us about 8 hours to judge all the entries), each judge was asked to bring a dish for a giant potluck lunch. My contribution? This peach & cream cheese pie:

I'm gonna go ahead and say it: this pie is ridiculous. No-bake cheesecake on the bottom, and sweet, juicy peaches on top. I made one of these using fresh peaches from my farmer's market for a small dinner party the Dr. and I hosted a couple of weeks ago, but yesterday's pie was made of store-bought peaches and was every bit as tasty. I like this recipe because it comes together quickly and doesn't require any fancy ingredients or, really, kitchen skills.

I may have eaten the last slice for breakfast...what? It's fruit, that makes it healthy, right?

Here's my recipe, modified from Cooks.com:

• 9" pie shell, baked
• 2 T cornstarch 
• 3/4 cup sugar 
• 1/2 cup water 
• 1/2 cup peach puree (I peeled and pitted one large peach and popped it in the Magic Bullet until smooth)
• 2 T fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 4 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1/4 t vanilla extract
• 4 cups peaches, peeled and diced to bite-size pieces

Combine cornstarch, sugar, water, peach puree, and lemon juice in medium pan. Bring to boil, stirring; boil until thickened (3-4 minutes). Remove from heat; cool (I put mine in the refrigerator while I'm preparing the rest of the pie). Beat together cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla until smooth. Spread evenly in pie shell. Combine peaches and cooled puree mixture; pour over cream cheese. Chill 2-3 hours or overnight before serving.

I think this method could be used for a wide variation of fruits; try it with raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, kiwis, or a mixture of your favorite fruits! As the fruit itself doesn't get cooked, I don't think this would be great for apples, but otherwise, the sky's the limit! If you decide to mix it up, do let me know how it goes, won't you?

Ooh, I almost forgot! I'm a bit late for announcing the winner of Susan Crawford's Coronation Knits giveaway, but it's Zabbers! Congrats, Zabbers! You have 3 days to claim your prize by emailing me at sarahATsexyknitter.com with your mailing address, or dropping me a line on Ravelry.

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Deliciousness: Peanut Butter Chocolate Pretzel Sandwiches

Saw these on Pinterest the other day and was practically forced to buy pretzels the very next time I went to the grocery store. They're basically teeny tiny pretzel sandwiches, stuffed with super sweetened peanut butter and dipped in chocolate. You can find the original recipe over at Elissa's blog, 17 and Baking. Apparently these were born out of an epic fail to make something else, and the sheer desperation to make something sweet, dammit, drove her to make something quick and easy. (Note to Elissa: I'm kinda glad that pear clafoutis didn't turn out, because these sounded way better, anyway!)

I'll be attending a baby shower at one of my LYSs on Saturday. Whenever there's an event like this going on over there, it's always sort of heavily hinted that perhaps I might like to bring something? (Let me tell you, it's not like they have to twist my arm!) I knew there would already be cake, so I decided to make my treat a salty-sweet-crunchy snack instead of opting for one of the so-much-sugar-you'll-keel-over confections I usually arrive with.

These aren't going to make it over there.

Fair warning, here. These are stupid easy to make and dangerously delicious. I told the Dr. we'd try one each, just to see how they were, but that I was going to take the rest of them to the shower. Half an hour later, they were almost all gone. I'd decided to dip half of my batch in semi-sweet chocolate, and the other half in white chocolate, and while I fully expected to like the semi-sweet the best (one of my LYS owners is allergic to chocolate so the white ones were meant for her), the white chocolate was both my and the Dr.'s favorite. I have no idea why; I don't usually like white chocolate but something about it just goes really well with the peanut butter mixture.

Other than the white chocolate switch, I did a couple of other things different, too. First, I froze the sandwiches solid before dipping them in chocolate. Since the recipe makes a huge batch, the last few sandwiches were starting to thaw out and get rather sticky by the time I got to them, so I might suggest pulling them out just a few at a time for the chocolate section. Oh, and I used my handy cookie scoop in the peanut butter mixture, instead of trying to form peanut butter balls by hand. My cookie scoop fits about a tablespoon and a half, but I only scooped up about a teaspoon worth of filling for each sandwich, just eyeballing it. With the opening of the scoop facing upwards, click the handle a few times, causing the peanut butter to roll back and forth and form a tiny little ball. Once this is done, you can just tip the ball onto the pretzel, then squash it down with another pretzel. No sticky fingers! 

I give this recipe two thumbs up (okay, with the Dr.'s vote that's actually four thumbs up) and will definitely be making some of these again. Since the pretzel sandwiches didn't make it to Saturday, I'm going to try coating some pretzel sticks with the peanut butter and chocolate, and see how that goes! Will report back. In the meantime, seriously. You need some pretzel sandwiches. Now.

Deliciousness: Weight Watchers Cupcakes! (sorta)

This weekend, the Dr. and I had guests over for dinner and board games.We wanted to keep it low-key, so we just heated up the big pot of chili I'd made on Monday, and I whipped up a fresh batch of cupcakes. I didn't feel like making cupcakes from scratch, though, so I bought a box of Pillsbury Moist Supreme in Classic Vanilla. Boxed cake mix is awesome if you're feeling lazy, but sometimes I feel like preparing it according to the box instructions makes for greasy, heavy cake, and I wanted something a little lighter.

The ones the guests got were tied with fancy ribbons too, but I totally forgot to do that to these!

A few years ago, a friend of mine told me a little Weight Watchers trick. If you buy a cake mix that says it has pudding in the mix (all of the Pillsbury Moist Supreme flavors say this), you can make light, fluffy cupcakes with barely more calories than the cake mix itself by adding a few simple ingredients. And I'm gonna tell you how to do it! Here's what you need:

• 1 box Pillsbury Moist Supreme cake mix, any flavor
• 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 2 egg whites + enough water to make 1 cup

Toss these ingredients into a bowl, mix them up with a whisk for a couple of minutes, then bake as directed on the box. The only extra calories you're getting is from the applesauce, and hey - that's a serving of fruit, right? So really, you could even say these cupcakes are good for you, amiright? This recipe will make 1 dozen Texas-sized cupcakes or 2 dozen regular cupcakes. I promise the final cupcakes don't taste like apples or applesauce at all. Just yummy cake that will leave you feeling satisfied, not guilty! You can also use 1 cup of canned pumpkin instead of the applesauce, which I hear goes really well with the spice cake. :)

Adorable, edible extras from Sugar Robot

I topped my cupcakes off with cream cheese buttercream frosting (okay, so they're not THAT great for you, but you gotta save calories where you can, right?) and edible Christmas ornaments from Sugar Robot.

Cream Cheese Buttercream:

• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 4 Tbsp butter, softened
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup powdered sugar
  

Beat these together until smooth. This is tasty and delicious, but be warned: it's thick, so it won't pipe through a frosting bag well (ask me how I know). This frosted all 12 of my Texas-sized cupcakes, but I think you might want to double the recipe if you're making regular sized cupcakes.

Deliciousness: Raspberry Crescent Squares!

About a week ago, my oldest brother became a father, and I became an aunt for the third time. Since the baby was a girl, I decided to make some yummy pink snacks to celebrate!

Can't get much girlier than this, right here.

Really, if you need more of an intro to this recipe than that photo, you've got issues. Seriously though, these things are AMAZING. You're going to want to double the recipe (which is really easy, by the way), because you'll have eaten half of them before anyone else can reach the pan. They're also stupid easy. Here's what you need:

For the Squares:

• 1 can seamless crescent dough
• 12 frozen raspberries
• 4 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup raspberry jam
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup powdered sugar

For the Topping:

• 1 egg, slightly beaten (toss a splash of water in there, too)
• 1 Tablespooon Sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Note about doubling: If you're going to double the filling, buy 2 extra cans of crescent dough. I always have about half the filling left over!

Preheat your oven to 375°. Open your can of seamless crescent dough and cut it into 12 squares. I kind of biffed it on mine and cut rectangles. Next time, I'll cut 3 long strips and then cut each strip into 4 pieces.

Der, Sarah. These are not squares.

Toss everything else except the raspberries into a bowl and cream it all together. If you have a Magic Bullet, like I do, you can use that. Otherwise, just use a mixer. Flatten out each of your little pieces of dough so they're about 3-4 inches square. Plop about a tablespoon or so of filling in the middle, and top it with a raspberry.

Almost done already! See how cute and pink?

Fold each corner towards the middle of the square, and pinch the edges together, like so:

The mathematician inside me would like to point out that technically, this is a parallelogram, not a square.

Repeat for the remaining bits of crescent dough. Line them all up on a greased cookie sheet, and baste with the egg wash. Mix the cinnamon and sugar together, and sprinkle over the top.

Now we're cookin' with gas! Or...something.

Put them in the oven for 10-12 minutes or until the crescent rolls are cooked through. Remove from oven. Hoard from others. These are really, really good warm.

I think I ate about 4 of these right away. Best not to think about the calories, really.

I feel like there are probably endless variations of these. Cream cheese + apple butter + apples? Cream cheese + peach preserves + peaches? I bet almost any fruit would be equally tasty. My original inspiration for this recipe used strawberries; you can find over at Rumbly in My Tummy. You could even top them off with nuts, or powdered sugar, or candied sprinkles, if you wanted a little bit of crunch. However you decide to go, you're going to be really happy. Don't say I didn't warn you!

Oh hey, it's about time I announced the winner of my Infinity Scarf giveaway, yes? It's Pamela McGary! Congrats, Pam! I'll PM you over on Ravelry to get your mailing address. :) Thanks to everybody who stopped by! I've got a little hint for you: You're going to want to come back, because my next giveaway is going to involve about 1600 yards of alpaca yarn, a magazine subscription, another project bag, and, if I can swing it, a pair of Signature Needles!

Deliciousness: Caramel-Filled Brownies

That's right, caramel-filled brownies. Doesn't get much better than this, let me tell you.

See the caramel oozing out of the middle there?

If that picture doesn't speak for itself, this one should. These brownies are unlike any other brownie I've ever had in my life. Not only do you get two layers of fudgy, chewy, chocolatey brownies, you also get a thick, gooey layer of caramel in the middle! They're finished off with a healthy sprinkling of chocolate chips. Prepare to be wowed! On the surface, it seems like filled brownies would be kind of a hassle to make, but I found this recipe surprisingly easy. You might be making a trip to the grocery store, because you're going to need a TON of bittersweet chocolate (12 ounces! That's like...6 squares!) and a couple of bags of caramel candies, as well as a bit of heavy cream. On the upside, you don't have to make the caramel from scratch, and everything besides the filling can get mixed up in one bowl. You do have to bake them twice, since the first layer gets baked on its own before the filling and top layer are added, but I promise you it's totally worth the extra step.

I followed Annie's recipe exactly, except that I used a 7" x 11" baking dish instead of the recommended 9" x 13" size (I didn't change the baking time), and I didn't line the dish with foil. My dish was so full I thought it was going to start slopping over the side, but there was just enough room, and my brownies turned out delightfully thick and fudgy. One thing you should be aware of about these brownies, though, is that they're practically un-sliceable while warm. If you want them in tidy squares (or squares at all, for that matter), you'll have to wait until they come to room temperature. That said, they're absolutely unbeatable warm, so go right ahead and dig yourself out a big spoonful - we did! Plop a big scoop of ice cream on top, and I guarantee you'll be thanking me later.

Get the recipe from Annie's Eats, right here. Look, there's even a printer-friendly version!

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Deliciousness: Carrot Raisin Macadamia Whoopie Pies!

Oh my word, you guys, these have so many yummy things in them! Not only do they have all the traditional goodness that you expect a carrot cake to have, but they also have macadamia nuts, raisins, oats, and the most creamy, delicious cream cheese frosting you've ever had on a cookie.

These are all mine, baby. Where's yours?

Granted, there are  kind of a lot of steps here because of the massive number of ingredients. You'll be chopping nuts, grating carrots, creaming sugar, and digging through your spice cabinet (or in my case, making a special trip to the market) for things like ground cloves, nutmeg and ginger. If your go-to cookie recipes usually just have butter, sugar, flour, vanilla, and a couple of eggs, this will be a change for you, but take it from me: these gems are worth the effort. For your trouble, you'll be rewarded with moist, chewy cookies slathered in tangy frosting that you'll have a hard time not eating by the spoonful right out of the bowl. 

Lookit all the goodies!

I made these cookies by following this recipe, and I followed it to a T, down to the size of the cookie scoop, reduced oven temperature, and cooking time. The only thing I'd say needs to be changed is the amount of cream cheese frosting, because only one batch isn't nearly enough to cover all these cookies! If you like frosting as much as I do, you'll want to double up.

This recipe makes a ton of cookies, so they're great for taking to a party, or, you know, just eating all by yourself. Either way! No judgments here - promise.

Deliciousness: Banana Coconut Pecan Bread

I'm a huge bread fan. And when I say huge, I really mean huge. Give me bread in almost any form and I am a very, very happy girl. In fact, carbs in general are one of the main staples of my diet and half the time, I have to remind myself I need to eat other things, too.

Enter this loaf of banana bread. Not only is it the best banana bread I've ever had in my life, it's also one of my favorite bread recipes ever at this point; and that's saying something, since sweet breads aren't at the top of my crazy-bread-eating list of favorites.

Yum, even if it is a bit dark!

It's overcooked in these photos, unfortunately. I was housesitting for some friends of ours and you know how it is when you're working in an oven that's not your own, right? Well, let's just say I was happy this loaf didn't set the house on fire. Side note: I'd already managed to wreck these people's car avoiding what definitely would have been a fatal collision, so, you know - not burning down their house was basically priority #1 at that point. Long story short, use the biggest loaf pan you have and don't fill it too full, or you'll wind up scraping burnt gobs of bread batter off the bottom of your (or, *ahem*, someone else's) oven. But enough about my misadventures in Florida! On to the good stuff.

Plenty of good stuff to be had! Toasted coconut & pecans, anyone?

This recipe originally appeared over on the ModCloth blog, and it called for bacon. I love bacon, too, but I find it gets soggy if you cook it inside of something else, and as far as I'm concerned soggy bacon is almost as bad as burnt popcorn. I did cook a small loaf of this with bacon in it once, and it was well received, but I was too chicken to try it so now I just omit the bacon and use a cup of toasted pecans, instead. I also toast the coconut (which, by the way, can be sweetened OR unsweetened), but those are the only two things I've changed from the original recipe.

You can have this recipe in the oven in under 10 minutes, and that includes hauling out all your baking goods and mixing up the recipe. The result should be moist, nutty, just-sweet-enough bread that you'll have a hard time not gobbling up the moment you take it out of the oven. It'll stay moist and delicious for almost a week before it starts to go stale, but really - it's not going to last that long.

Find the original recipe (with non-burnt photos!) here.

When I make this, I use a 9-inch metal loaf pan and have enough batter left over to make a mini-loaf, too. Perfect for sharing with the neighbors or stashing in your office drawer for snack time!

Deliciousness: Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

First I just have to say that you really must try these cookies. The first time I had one of these was at my friend Lisbeth's house, and when she told me she was going to make "Banana Cookies", I was a little reticent. Then she told me they also had oatmeal and chocolate chips, and I felt a little better about it. The defining moment, though, was when she gave me a little round of frozen cookie dough to eat. Let me tell you - not only did I take back my snarky comment about banana cookies being "gross" (or something similarly gracious), I also wound up groveling for the recipe. Lisbeth, being the amazing friend she is, generously complied. You can find the original recipe here.

Raw, frozen cookie dough & warm, gooey cookies

The Dr. practically expects me to have a stock of these in the freezer at all times. In fact, we both like the frozen, raw dough so much I almost never even get around to baking any, but they are quite delicious both ways.

You can make up a batch of these in practically no time at all, with stuff you probably already have lying around your pantry. I almost always make a double batch, and am able to use my hand mixer to mix up all of the ingredients except for the chocolate chips. Once your dough is mixed, use a small cookie scoop (like this) to portion the cookies out into a large, airtight plastic container. You can get about 3-4 dozen cookies into one of Ziploc's large rectangular containers; be sure to put a piece of wax paper between the layers, so the dough doesn't all stick together.

If you're baking the frozen dough, heat your oven to 375 degrees and bake for 8-10 minutes. Basically, you want to leave them in just long enough for the cookies to set, or you'll wind up with crunchy cookies. Still tasty, particularly if you happen to like crunchy cookies, but I prefer these with a nice, chewy texture and just-barely-crispy edges.

Deliciousness: Pretzel Bites

Cooking always gives me a little pick-me-up when I'm feeling sad or bored, or need to feel like I've accomplished something. With the Dr. at Vascular Fellows Bootcamp in Houston all weekend, I needed something to do. So, I whipped up a batch of pretzel bites and invited the neighbors over for some board games!

Cinnamon Sugar Pretzel Bites & Vanilla Glaze

I followed Jonna's recipe from Get Off Your Butt and Bake! You can find it here. The genius of this recipe lies in the fact that you get to use purchased, frozen dinner rolls as the base for your pretzels! Jonna recommends Rhodes Texas-sized rolls, so that's what I bought. The recipe says you have to thaw them out, so genius me, I decided to toss the whole bag of rolls in the refrigerator to thaw out overnight. I, um, exploded the bag (these are yeast rolls). Oops. Actually it wasn't too bad, the bag had popped a seam and a big chunk of dough had oozed out. I just cut that part off and continued with the recipe as written, except that I had one ginormous piece of dough to work from instead of individual rolls. Ah, well.

Garlic Parmesan Pretzel Bites

I followed the recipe for the cinnamon sugar bites exactly as outlined in the original recipe, except that I didn't need to let the balls of dough rise before boiling, and I forgot to grease the baking sheet. Don't forget to do this. For the parmesan version, I added a generous shaking of garlic salt to the parmesan before I rolled the bites, and they were DELICIOUS.

I'll definitely be making these again! They're quick, easy and inexpensive, plus you can make a huge platter full of pretzel bites out of just one bag of rolls, so they'd be great for parties.

Oh, and the board game we played?

 

Mid-Life Crisis, ca 1982. What can I say? I go for the obscure.

Deliciousness: Andes Mint Cupcakes

Are you guys on Pinterest? I am, and I find it extremely inspiring; having all those photos of fashion, stylish hairdos, DIY tutorials, enchanting destinations and especially food scroll through my screen is fascinating to me. I've been trying loads of new recipes (you can follow that board of mine here) and thought I might start sharing a few of them with you. Up first is something I just whipped up for the first time today, Andes Mint Cupcakes, from Your Cup of Cake. Lizzy's recipe just sounded so good I had to try it! I'm a sucker for Andes Mints. Anyway, here's my version:

I actually broke out the piping bags!

One thing you can't see from my photo is that these cupcakes are filled with Chocolate Mint goodness. Lizzy suggests using a squeezy bottle to pipe the chocolate inside, but I didn't have one on hand so I just used a small, round pastry tip and a piping bag. I must say, I think a squeezy bottle would be easier, but I got the job done! 

Putting one of these in your mouth is simply magical; you get tangy, fluffy, chocolatey cake, oozing with peppermint chocolate sauce, and creamy, perfect peppermint buttercream. Need I say more? I had to force myself to stop at just one; I'm taking the rest of these around to my local yarn shops this weekend! (Don't you wish you lived near me?)

I made these cupcakes exactly by the recipe; the ONLY thing I changed was that I only put half an Andes on top of my cupcakes, instead of a whole one. From one recipe I was able to make two dozen regular sized cupcakes, and 3 Texas-sized cupcakes. I filled the cupcake liners with two scoops from my small cookie scoop (similar) and they turned out perfectly fluffy! At first I wasn't sure the chocolate filling would get me through all 2 dozen cupcakes, but it did and I was even able to drizzle some over the tops of the cupcakes as in the original blog post. It took me just over an hour from the time I started mixing up the cupcake batter to the time I was finished decorating.

I'll definitely be making these again; in fact, I'll probably be using the cupcake part of the recipe any time I need to make chocolate cupcakes, because the addition of sour cream and buttermilk to the boxed Devil's Food cake mix is a stroke of genius. This was my first time ever filling a cupcake, and now I want to fill all the cupcakes!


Next time: Cream Cheese Filled Snickerdoodles! That's right, I said it. Stay tuned!