Improv: Dark Chocolate Raspberry Mini Hand Pies

It's time for this month's Improv Challenge.  The premise of the Improv Challenge is easy: each month there are two assigned ingredients.  The participants must make a recipe using both ingredients and blog about it.  

This month's ingredients were chocolate and pastry or bread dough.  I had a refrigerated pie crust leftover from Thanksgiving that had one more week left before its expiration date.  Perfect!  And with Valentine's Day quickly approaching, my mind immediately went to one of my favorite flavor combos: chocolate and raspberry.  Mmm.  I kept things super simple.  In fact, I made these while talking on the phone with my mom, and I am NOT a good multi-tasker!  So that tells you just how easy these are.

Dark Chocolate Raspberry Mini Hand Pies

Ingredients:

9" refrigerated pie crust (or homemade rolled out thinly)

Dark chocolate chips

Seedless raspberry jam

1 egg, beaten

Sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350.  Remove the pie crust from the fridge and let it sit at room temperature for 15 minutes.  Carefully unroll.  Using a cookie cutter or a glass tumbler, cut uniform shapes out of the dough.  Place a few chocolate chips and about a 1/2 tsp of raspberry jam in the center of half of the dough pieces.  Brush a bit of beaten egg around the edges.  Place another dough piece on top, lining up the edges.  Press down all along the edges to seal.  Cut a small slit in the center of the top piece.  Brush the tops with a little more egg and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake for about 24 minutes, or until dough is golden brown.  Remove and cool slightly before serving.

Makes about 6 mini pies.

 Here are the ingredients I used (minus the egg and sugar).  The chocolate chips were bigger than the usual. I used three in each pie, but if you are using regular chocolate chips, you might fit more in there.  

Look at that chocolate raspberry gooey goodness!  I only tried one bite, as I eat low carb and it was not my cheat day (I timed that horribly!), but it was heavenly.  My little sweethearts (my daughters) enjoyed the rest.

Please check out the other yummy chocolate and pastry creations below and come back next month to see what I make with tea and honey.

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Cherry Almond Coffeecake

I've made this coffeecake twice now. The first time I followed the directions and it came out way overdone.  Totally dry and too brown around the edges.  This time I cut way back on the baking time and it came out perfectly.  I got it from Renee's Kitchen Adventures.

Cherry Almond Coffeecake

Ingredients:
6 tbsp butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
¾ cup buttermilk
1 tsp almond extract
1½ cups flour
1½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
12 oz. package frozen cherries, thawed and drained
½ cup sliced almonds
2 tbsp Sugar in the Raw

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°.  Coat a 9” cake pan with baking spray.  Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add in the egg, buttermilk, and almond extract.  Mix well.  Slowly fold in the flour, baking powder, and salt, mixing until just incorporated.  Pour batter into the prepared cake pan.  Place cherries on top, pressing down lightly into the batter.  Sprinkle the top with the almonds and raw sugar.

Bake for 40-45 minutes or the edges begin to brown.  Remove from oven and let cool before cutting and serving.

Makes 8 servings.

You can see that I *almost* over baked it again, as the edges were getting pretty brown.  I accidentally reset my timer when my daughter was brushing her teeth at bedtime.  Oops!  But I pulled it out just in time because it was still moist inside.

This is such a great coffeecake.  I love the almond flavor.  And it's not too sweet.  Just perfect.  And it's pretty too!  It's pretty easy to throw together as it doesn't require a crumb topping or anything like that.  If you wanted to serve it for dessert, a nice almond glaze would be lovely on top.

What I'm Reading Right Now

Mary Poppins

by P.L. Travers

Doctor Sleep

by Stephen King

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Blueberry Crumble Bars

It's been about a month since I made these and I have been super excited to share them.  I don't even like blueberries (not at all), but I loved these bars!  They have a yummy shortbread crust that doubles as a crumbly topping.  Then in the middle is a sour cream custard filling and tons of fresh ripe blueberries.  So so good.  And being in bar form makes it so easy to cut up and serve.  I got the recipe from Hot Eats and Cool Reads.

Blueberry Crumble Bars

Ingredients:
1½ cups + ⅓ cup flour, divided
1¾ cups sugar, divided
Pinch of salt
1½ sticks cold butter, cubed
2 eggs
½ cup sour cream
3 cups fresh blueberries (1½ pints)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°.  Coat an 11x7” baking dish with baking spray.

In a medium bowl, combine the 1½ cups flour, ¾ cup sugar, and pinch of salt.  Cut in cold butter using a pastry blender until butter is evenly distributed.  Remove 1 cup of this mixture and set it aside.  Press the rest into the bottom of the prepared baking dish and bake for 15 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool.

In another bowl, combine the eggs, remaining ⅓ cup flour, remaining 1 cup sugar, and sour cream.  Fold in blueberries.  Pour this mixture over the cooled crust.  Sprinkle the remaining crust mixture over the top.  Bake for an additional 50-55 minutes, or until top is lightly browned.  Remove from oven and let cool completely before cutting into bars and serving.  Refrigerate any leftovers.

Makes 12 bars.

This is a real crowd-pleaser.  It would be perfect for any of those summertime gatherings you are invited to: backyard cookouts, church picnics, etc.  And because it's packed with fresh fruit, I think you could get by serving this in slightly breakfast-y situations like brunch or anytime you would serve coffeecake.  It's a really great recipe to have in your collection.

What I'm Reading Right Now

Mary Poppins

by P.L. Travers

Doctor Sleep

by Stephen King

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Strawberries and Cream Cookies

I made cookies last week!  I don't make cookies very often because I am lazy and it's so much easier to make bars.  But I love these cookies and they are so perfect for this time of year.  They have the perfect consistency, in my opinion.  They don't spread out and get all thin and crispy.  They keep their shape pretty well and come out chewy.  Just the way I like my cookies!  And they are studded with even chewier bits of real dried strawberries and creamy vanilla chips.  Awesome.  They are very slightly adapted from Cookies and Cups.

Strawberries and Cream Cookies

Ingredients:

½ cup butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar

1 egg + 1 yolk

2 tsp vanilla

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

2 ¼ cups flour

1 cup dried strawberries, chopped

¾ cup white chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°.

In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar.  Add the egg and yolk and vanilla and mix well.  In a separate bowl, combine the baking soda, baking powder, salt, and flour.  Add the flour mixture to the brown sugar mixture and stir until just combined.  Add the strawberries and white chocolate chips and stir.

Roll dough into 2 tbsp sized balls and place on a baking sheet.  (I got 12 to a sheet.)  Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until edges are just barely golden.  Remove from oven and let cool on baking sheet for 4 minutes.  Remove to parchment paper and let cool completely.

Makes 2 dozen 2” cookies.

 I buy the dried strawberries at Target.  They have a nice selection of dried fruit.  Don't get the "freeze-dried" strawberries. Those are like thin and brittle.  You want the chewy ones.

 I chop them up.  You don't want too much chew in one bite.

The original recipe called for dropping them with a teaspoon, and I tried it that way the first time, but I found that rolling them into balls makes them come out a little prettier and more uniform.  Two tablespoons of dough will get you a 2-inch cookie.  They don't spread out much, so you can easily fit 12 on a cookie sheet.

The original recipe also called for more white chocolate chips, but I thought it was too much because it made the dough so dry and crumbly I could barely keep it together.  And as you can see in the top picture, some cookies were a bit overloaded with the chips.  So next time I will cut it back to 3/4 cup.

These cookies are perfect for all of those springtime get-togethers.  I made them for my daughters' school lunch and they were a big hit.

What I'm Reading Right Now

Mary Poppins

by P.L. Travers

Doctor Sleep

by Stephen King

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Caramel Apple Crumb Pie

Happy Pi(e) Day!  Did you make pie today?  I forgot to plan, but I couldn't pass up making a pie on Pi Day.  So I searched my Pinterest boards for a pie that I could make without going to the store.  (It's Saturday; I avoid the grocery store on Saturdays!)  I found this one that I had pinned from Frieda Loves Bread.  I had a basket full of apples and I had just gotten two small jars of Penzeys Apple Pie Spice for free on Thursday, so it was perfect.  The only thing that wasn't perfect was that I had no pie crust.  I don't make my own pie crust and I didn't have any Pillsbury.  But I did have a box of graham crackers, and thankfully my kids didn't eat ALL of them for breakfast, so we made a graham cracker crust instead.  It's not ideal for apple pie, but it certainly worked in a pinch.  Since it's not ideal for this pie, I won't include the directions for making the graham cracker crust.  Just use your favorite pie crust, store-bought or homemade.

Caramel Apple Crumb Pie

Ingredients:

Pie crust for 9” pie

½ cup sugar

3 tbsp + ½ cup flour, divided

1 tsp + ½ tsp apple pie spice, divided

⅛ tsp salt

6 cups thinly sliced peeled apples (about 4 large apples)

¼ cup caramel bits

¾ cup packed brown sugar

½ cup rolled oats

½ cup cold butter

Caramel ice cream topping, optional

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375°.

If using a regular pie crust, pre-bake for 8-10 minutes. If using a graham cracker crust, don’t pre-bake.

In a large bowl, stir the sugar, 3 tbsp flour, apple pie spice, and salt. Add apple slices and gently toss until they are coated well. Pile mixture into pie crust.  Sprinkle caramel bits on top.

For the crumb topping, stir together brown sugar, remaining ½ cup flour, remaining ½ tsp apple pie spice, and oats. Using a pastry blender, cut in the butter until topping resembles coarse crumbs.

Sprinkle over apple mixture in pie and press down. To prevent over-browning, cover edge of pie with foil. Put pie on baking sheet.  Bake for 45 minutes, or until top is golden brown.  Remove from oven and let cool completely before cutting and serving.  To serve, drizzle each piece with caramel ice cream topping.  Top with whipped cream or serve with vanilla ice cream.

Makes 8 servings.

The caramel bits were my addition.  I bought them for something and didn't end up making it, so I thought I would throw some in there to see how it worked.  Worked perfectly!  Added awesome caramel goodness.

My daughters helped me make this pie.  Eva (4) put the graham crackers into the food processor and they took turns pushing the button.  They both also helped toss the apples in the sugar/flour/seasoning mixture.  They got pretty bored while I was peeling and chopping the apples, though.  Lena (7) kept eating the peels and then took some seeds and went outside to plant them.  I had to call them in to watch me make the crumble topping.  

Of course, they were at the ready when it was time to try it after dinner.  We had it ala mode, and they both loved it.  I forgot to drizzle it with the caramel syrup, but it was awesome anyway.

What's your favorite pie to eat on Pi(e) Day?

What I'm Reading Right Now

Mary Poppins

by P.L. Travers

Doctor Sleep

by Stephen King

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Improv: Caramel Coffee Toddy

It's Improv time again!

The premise of the Improv Challenge is easy: each month there are two assigned ingredients.  The participants must make a recipe using both ingredients and blog about it.  

This month's ingredients are coffee and cream.  Two ingredients that I enjoy every day!  I thought it would be fun to be super creative and use coffee and cream in some kind of savory dish.  And I'm sure it would have been, but February got too busy and I went with something more obvious. And simple.  But you know, it's just so perfect for this time of year.  I don't know what the weather is like where you are, but here in Wisconsin, it is frigid!  It is -1 right now as I type this (Wednesday night) and today have a high of 1.  1 degree for a high!  And living on Lake Michigan, the windchills are brutal. Supposed to be between -20 and -30 tomorrow.  So you can understand why a hot coffee drink was appealing to me!

This one is awesome because it not only contains hot coffee, but also alcohol!  I often get so cold in the evenings that I just can't warm up no matter how many layers I wear or how many blankets I pile on.  Whenever that happens I have to get warm from the inside out.  A glass of wine does the trick every time.  So combining coffee and alcohol in one drink is doubly effective!  Are you familiar with a hot toddy?  A traditional hot toddy is hot water or tea mixed with rum, brandy, or whiskey and sweetened with honey or sugar.  This variation uses coffee, a caramel creme liqueur, butterscotch liqueur, and is topped with whipped cream and caramel sauce.  Mmm.  I got the recipe from Delightful E Made.

Caramel Creme Coffee Toddy

Ingredients:
1 shot caramel creme liqeuer
1 shot Buttershots 
8 oz. hot brewed coffee
Whipped cream
Caramel ice cream topping

Directions:
Pour caramel creme and Buttershots in a mug.  Pour in hot coffee.  Top with whipped cream and drizzle with caramel sauce.

Makes 1 drink.

It's so easy, it's almost not even a recipe, but it's too good not to share.  Bailey's has a salted caramel variety, but I found a Bailey's knock-off brand at Aldi that came in caramel cream variety.  It was really good and less than half the price of Bailey's.  Love Aldi!

Since my husband and I enjoy this drink in the evening, we use decaf coffee.  But of course it works with any kind of coffee.

I don't actually recommend serving this in the kind of glass I used in the pic above.  It's best served in your favorite coffee mug.  But I chose a clear glass for the pic so you could see what it looked like.  Otherwise it would have just been a mug with some whipped cream on top.

So if you are experiencing the same cold snap I am, go make yourself one of these!  If not, and you are someplace warm, I don't want to hear about it! ;)

Check out all the other great coffee and cream recipes below and come back next month to see what I make with chicken and noodles.

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Raspberry Cheesecake Brownies and Two Cute Valentines

Happy Valentine's Day!  I made a yummy Valentine's Day treat that I had to share with you.  I am also sharing the Valentines I made for my girls' school exchange, so don't forget to scroll down and take a look at those.

These brownies are amazing.  Brownie base topped with raspberry cheesecake and swirled with more chocolate and topped with fresh raspberries.  Yum!  Chocolate and raspberry is my favorite food combo at Valentine's Day.  It's just perfect.  I saw these brownies at Sally's Baking Addiction and had to try them.

Raspberry Cheesecake Brownies

Ingredients:
1 box brownie mix
Eggs, oil, and water
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
¼ cup sugar
⅓ cup seedless raspberry jam
1 egg yolk
Red food coloring, optional
12 fresh raspberries

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°.  Coat an 11x7” baking dish with baking spray.

Prepare brownie mix as directed on box, adding eggs, oil, and water.  Pour brownie batter into the prepared baking dish, leaving 2 tbsp or so of brownie mix in the bowl.  Set aside.

In another bowl, combine the cream cheese, sugar, raspberry jam, and egg yolk.  Mix until there are no cream cheese lumps (it helps to have the jam and egg at room temperature before mixing).  If desired, add a couple of drops of red food coloring.

Pour cream cheese mixture over the brownie batter in the baking dish.  Add a tiny bit of water to the remaining brownie batter in the bowl to make it a drizzling consistency.  Drizzle the batter on top of the cheesecake mixture in horizontal stripes.  Run a knife through it vertically one way, then the other way in between to create the swirl pattern.  Place raspberries so that one will be in the center of each piece when cut into 12 pieces.

Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes.  Cover pan with foil and bake an additional 25 minutes, or until middle is slightly loose but not jiggly.  Remove from oven, uncover, and let cool completely.  Cut into squares, then refrigerate until ready to serve.

Refrigerate any leftovers.

Makes 12 brownies.

These are really pretty easy to make. The original recipe called for making the brownie part from scratch.  I'm sure it's really good, probably better than the mix, but I am too lazy for that.  They are awesome with the mix.  I used a Ghiradelli mix that has chocolate chunks in it.  Yum.  If you are inspired to make the brownie part from scratch, click over to get Sally's recipe.  

I could not achieve the beautiful light pink color that Sally got.  The first time I made them I forgot the part about covering them with foil.  They came out tasting good, but they were hardly pink at all.  The egg yolk in the cheesecake part will make them brown if you leave them uncovered.  They are a bit prettier if you cover them.

Here are a few pics of the assembly process:

 I assume you have all seen brownie batter in a pan, so I skipped that pic. :) Here is the cheesecake layer spread out over the brownie batter.  I was too lazy to get out my hand mixer, so I mixed it up by hand.  I had the cream cheese nice and soft and creamy, but when I added the cold raspberry jam and egg yolk, it created lumps.  If you think about it, get the jam and egg out early so they are room temp before mixing with the cream cheese.  If you don't think about (like I didn't), don't worry about it. The white lumps will not be noticeable in the finished product.

 Thin out a little bit of brownie batter and drizzle it horizontally only on the cheesecake layer.

 Drag a knife through the other way, three times in the same direction.

 Then drag the knife the opposite direction in between to make the pretty swirls.

 Place the raspberries on.  You can do more raspberries if you like.  I think they look pretty with one in the center of each piece.

Out of the oven.  These are not the kind of brownies you eat warm from the oven.  They are best served chilled, because of the cheesecake layer.  I do recommend cutting them before refrigerating though, because it's difficult to cut through cold brownies, especially if they have chocolate chunks in them like mine did.  I powered through, though!

Now I have to show you the Valentines I made for my daughters' to exchange at school.  I am not very crafty at all, so every year I scour Pinterest for something cute, but not too difficult or involved.  

The Fishbowl for Eva.  All you need to make this is on Backless Shirt.  It was super duper easy.  One disclaimer though, that wasn't mentioned on Backless Shirt: The goldfish will leave greasy marks on the cardstock.  I didn't realize this until I had them all done and ready to go the next morning. It was too late to do anything about it, so I gave them out that way. I would suggest either laminating the cardstock, or using Swedish fish instead.

For Lena I did the Love Bug.  The instructions are found at The NY Melrose Family.  These were a little bit more involved, but still pretty easy.  One thing I will warn you about: Do not think you are smarter than the instructions and try to use any other glue besides hot glue for this.  First I got some glue at the dollar store.  Bad idea.  Then I thought super glue would do the trick. I tried two different kinds, spent an hour trying to get the googly eyes and noses to stick, glued my fingers together several times, and could not even get one good one.  I gave up on the super glue and broke out the glue gun.  Instant success.  Don't worry; the hot glue will not melt the fruit cup.

They were a big hit at school.  

I'm planning a fun Valentine's Day breakfast and lunch for my little sweeties.  Red velvet pancake muffins, and heart-shaped sunny-side-up eggs for breakfast, and heart-shaped lunchables and fruit kabobs for lunch.  Dinner will be with my in-laws because my sweetie is taking me to see Alton Brown Live! tomorrow night!  Can't wait!

What I'm Reading Right Now

Mary Poppins

by P.L. Travers

Doctor Sleep

by Stephen King

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SRC: Strawberry Red Velvet Cheesecake Parfait

It's time for this month's Secret Recipe Club! The Secret Recipe Club is a group of food bloggers who secretly make one of someone else's dishes and post them all on the same day at the same time.  It's really fun, choosing a recipe to make, making the recipe, then reading about everyone else's recipes.  It's a great way to "meet" other bloggers and check out some great blogs that you never knew about before.     

This month I was assigned to Wendy's Weekend Gourmet.  I was quite familiar with Wendy's blog, not only from SRC, but also because I participated in her monthly Salad Bar challenge for a while.  I love Wendy's Texan enthusiasm about cooking and during this cold dreary Wisconsin winter, perusing her blog was a joy because all the bright summery ingredients made me think of warmer weather.  

Because I was familiar with Wendy's blog, I had some of her recipes already pinned.  I knew I had pinned her recipes before, but as I went to look for them, I suddenly became aware that Pinterest has no function for searching your pins by a specific source. Might have to submit that one to the suggestion box!  I did remember that I made one of her recipes before.  I made a slight variation of her Turkey Mornay Open-Faced Sandwiches.  It was a couple of years ago, and I didn't write anything down about it, and I remember that I didn't have broccoli, but we totally loved it.

  I found several things to tempt me this time around.  I thought that my daughters would love her Creamy Veggie-Ranch Chicken Wraps.  I love the bright colors from the all the veggies Wendy uses!  I also considered making her Goat Cheese-Stuffed Pork Chops with Maple-Balsamic Parsnips, Apples, and Potatoes.  Yum!  That one is still definitely on my to-make list.  In the end, I decided to do something seasonal.  February provides two options: Valentine's Day and Mardi Gras.  I loved the looks of her Mardi Gras Crispy Fish Sandwiches.  But since Valentine's Day is closer, I went with that.  She has a couple of fun Valentine's Day goodies.  I decided to make her Red Velvet Strawberry Cheesecake Trifles.  Red velvet pound cake, strawberries, and cheesecake filling layered together into one yummy dessert. Mmm!

Strawberry Red Velvet Cheesecake Parfaits

Ingredients:
1½ cups chopped strawberries
1 tbsp sugar
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 cup vanilla Greek yogurt
1 cup powdered sugar
Red velvet cake, pound cake, brownies, or cookies (I used 3 Marie Callender’s mini red velvet cakes, thawed)
White chocolate, for garnish

Directions:
Combine the strawberries and sugar in a small bowl and mix well. Set aside while you prepare the other ingredients.

Combine the cream cheese and the Greek yogurt in a medium bowl.  Slowly add the powdered sugar, mixing well to remove any lumps.  (You can use a hand mixer for this, but I just did it by hand.)

Cut the red velvet cake (or brownies) into cubes.

Get out four parfait glasses and place some of the cheesecake mixture into the bottom of each, being careful not to touch the side of the glass with the spoon.  (I used a parfait spoon and just dropped a couple of dollops into the bottom.)  Place a few red velvet cubes on top, then a couple spoonfuls of the macerated strawberries.  Repeat layers until all ingredients are used.  Shave or grate some white chocolate over the top of each as a garnish.

Makes 4 parfaits.

Wendy used wine glasses, but since I happened to have parfait glasses, I used those.  I actually used two parfait glasses for my husband and myself, but I thought that might be too much for my 4 and 6 year old daughters, so I used these little juice glasses for them.  If you don't care about presentation, you can also just layer this in a regular bowl.  Tastes just as good!

They loved them.  My husband and I did too.  They are amazing!  The cheesecake filling made with cream cheese and Greek yogurt is so good!  I seriously had to stop myself from eating it out of the bowl.  It would make a really awesome fruit dip too.  

 I couldn't find any red velvet pound cake, and thought I was going to be out of luck finding anything red velvet, but then I spotted these in the freezer section.  They worked really well.  I thawed them according to the package directions, then scraped the frosting off.  

Aren't they cute!  If you can't find these, or anything else red velvet, these parfait would be just as good with regular brownies or pound cake.  Use whatever you can find.

The combination of the chewy cake cubes, the creamy cheesecake filling, and the bright tart strawberries is just amazing.  This is one of those recipes where the pictures just do not do it justice.  You've got to make these for your favorite Valentines this year!

Thanks for a great recipe that I already can't wait to make again, Wendy!

Be sure to check out all the other great SRC picks below.

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