04

Jul

Lemon Chess Bars

So I’ve had this crazy idea that I would publish 100 recipes in this blog before Matt & my third anniversary trip. Well, it’s crunch time because July 12th is right around the corner!

In a crunch, my grandmother would make this dessert. She took it to church group functions (Chicken Foot games, ESL classes), luncheons with her fellow retired teachers, and–if we were lucky–would whip it up because one of her grandkids begged her. I thank God for her daily, and this was one of those recipes she taught me to make in her kitchen, me standing on a stepstool to see over the counter. When my dearest girlfriends hosted a bridal shower before Matt & my nuptuals, they has the sweetest idea of enclosing recipe cards in the invitations, to be filled out by all of the guests and given to me at the shower. Guess which one my grandmother wrote out? This one! And now I’ll share the love with you.

It’s actually a combination of two of her recipes, chess cake and lemon bars, creamy tart lemon encased in a buttery yellow cake. I’ve modified this to cut out a bit of the fat, but the flavors are still there. If you like lemon, sweet and perfect Southern picnic food, this one’s for you.

Lemon Chess Bars
*makes 18 medium bars*
Ingredients:
Yellow cake mix
5 TB margarine, softened
1 egg + 2 eggs
1/2 cup shredded coconut (optional)
Zest and juice of 2 lemons
3 cups powdered sugar + more for dusting
8 oz low fat cream cheese, softened


step one: Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, combine cake mix, margarine and one egg. Using hands, form into a soft dough. Spray a 9X13 inch pan with nonstick spray. Pat the dough flatly into the bottom of the pan, covering pan evenly. Sprinkle coconut evenly on top of dough, for added flavor.


step two: Rinse out and dry the bowl for reuse. Combine 2 eggs, lemon juice and zest, powdered sugar, and cream cheese. Using a large spoon or whisk, stir until mixture is smooth with very few bumps (a few are okay). Pour mixture on top of the dough in the pan.


step three: Bake for 30 minutes, or until center of lemon bars are firm (not jiggly). Edges will be slightly brown. Let cool for at least 30 minutes. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Eat and treat!


These bars can be left out overnight, but they’re best when put in the fridge. The lemon taste intensifies as they get colder!


So there you have it, a fun summer treat. And I think I have 15 more recipes to show this week, before we leave on Sunday. Wish me luck!

~Laurel~

15 years ago Short URL

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26

Jun

Whoopie Pies

As promised, the recipes for the whoopie pies.

As you probably know, whoopie pies have been trendy lately. Their history is vague, but most likely were treats Pennsylvania Dutch farmers found in their lunchboxes. Discovering their wives had included the giant cookie sandwich, they’d yell “Whoopie!” Other names are gobs, hucklebucks and BFOs (big fat oreos). Bakeries in Lewiston and Roxbury, Massachusetts claim to have sold the first pies commercially in the early 30s. So there’s a bit of the history. It is not a reference to the warnings of marriage in the Jazz classic “Makin’ Whoopie” or from the silly musical “Whoopie,” but its roots center around two moist cookie cakes with fluffy, creamy filling holding them together. (Most of this info from here.)

I followed Martha Stewart’s recipes pretty closely, and this worked out pretty well for my first time making them. It served as Matt’s birthday cake, and he helped me make it the night before, which was a lot of fun.

Banana Whoopie Pies with Peanut Butter Buttercream
*makes 18 whoopie pies of varying sizes* 

Ingredients

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup mashed banana (from 1 large ripe banana)
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a bowl. Combine banana and sour cream in another bowl.
  2. Beat butter and granulated and brown sugars with a mixer on medium-high speed, until pale and creamy, about 3 minutes. Add egg and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, beating until incorporated. Add banana mixture in 2 additions, alternating with flour mixture.
  3. Transfer batter to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/4-inch plain tip. Pipe batter into 1 1/4-inch rounds on baking sheets, spacing rounds 1 1/2 inches apart. OR Spoon tablespoon-sized (smallest) batter onto parchment paper up to 3 tablespoon-sized (largest) onto paper.
  4. Bake until edges are golden, about 12 minutes. Slide parchment, with cookies, onto wire racks. Let cool.

Chocolate Whoopie Pies with Peanut Butter Buttercream
*makes 18 whoopie pies of varying sizes*

Ingredients

  • 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch process)
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
  • 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup packed dark-brown sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 cup whole milk (yes, whole milk)
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • Peanut Butter Buttercream
  • 2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (optional)

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside. Sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt into a small bowl; set aside.
  2. Add butter, shortening, and sugars to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; cream on high speed until smooth, about 3 minutes. Add egg; beat until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add half the flour mixture, then the milk and vanilla; beat until combined. Add the remaining flour mixture. Beat together, scraping down sides of bowl with a rubber spatula as needed.
  3. Drop 12 slightly rounded tablespoons (or more) of batter 2 inches apart on each baking sheet. Bake the cookies in the upper and lower thirds of oven, 10 minutes; switch the positions of the baking sheets, and rotate each one. Continue baking until the cookies spring back to the touch, 2 to 3 minutes more.
  4. Remove from oven; let cookies cool on baking sheets, 10 minutes.Transfer with a metal spatula to a wire rack; let cool completely. Meanwhile, line a cooled baking sheet with a new piece of parchment; repeat process with remaining batter.
  5. Spread 1 scant tablespoon buttercream on flat sides of half the cookies.Top each with one of the remaining cookies, flat side down, and gently press together. Transfer pies to a tray.
  6. (Optional) Melt half the chocolate in a saucepan over low heat, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat; add remaining chocolate, and stir until melted and smooth. Transfer to a pastry bag fitted with a plain round tip or a small parchment cone. Pipe chocolate in a spiral pattern on top of each pie. Let chocolate set before serving, about 1 hour. *I did not do this.*

    Peanut Butter Buttercream (the glue!)
    *Very simple, makes 1 1/2 cups*

    Ingredients

    • 1 1/2 cup natural, creamy peanut butter
    • 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
    • 1 cup confectioners’ sugar

    Directions

    1. Cream peanut butter and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on high speed. On low speed, mix in sugar until combined, then beat mixture on high speed until fluffy and smooth, about 2 minutes. Spread onto cookie cake parts of whoopie pies right away.

     
    This recipe turned out quite well! It’s a little fussier than most baking I do everyday, but the second batch literally took 1/3 of the time of the first batch, so practice helps! Also, since I varied the sizes of the whoopie cookies, make sure you have pairs that are the same size, whatever their size (or else they won’t fit together with the buttercream). I learned that the hard way, haha. And for some variety, I added just a jar of vanilla frosting (with red food coloring b/c Matt loves red) to some of the cookies. There you have it, whoopie pies!

    ~Laurel~

    15 years ago Short URL

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    08

    Feb

    Cake Pops!

    Okay, I officially have a new love…

    CAKE POPS!
    I got this cookbook last week,in hopes of making some for my mom’s birthday (Feb. 5th). Angie Dudley is a self-proclaimed “non-baker,” and–thinking of all of my kitchen disaster incidents–her book intrigued me. The ideas were so cute and basic enough to try it myself, so I did.
    Here’s how they turned out….
    Cupcake Pops, purple and pink dipped in mint chocolate

    Mom’s nickname at work, “The Payroll Queen,” made its royal debut in dessert form. Aren’t they cute?
     They are such a blast to make! It’s pretty simple…

    1) Bake a cake (from a mix is fine, just follow the directions), any flavor, in a 8X12 (or so) baking pan.

    2) After cake is cooled, cut into 8 squares. Over a large mixing bowl, pick up 2 squares and rub them together. You are “crumbling” the entire cake into the smallest pieces possible.

    3) Once the crumbling is complete for the entire cake, add 12 oz. of frosting to the cake. Mix it in using the back of a metal or wooden spoon. (The book is right…do NOT use the entire 16 oz can of frosting…the mixture will be TOO moist!) Mix together until it all becomes a moist bowl of cake happiness. Taste this, but don’t eat it all!

    4) Now put the cake in the fridge for 2 hours or freezer for 20 minutes.
    5) Roll chilled cake into balls, about 1–1 1/2 inches in size. If they are not sticking together, put the cake back into the fridge to cool some more. Place the balls onto a cookie sheet lines with wax paper.
    6) You can make the oh-so-tasty cake balls at this step, heating candy melts (like Wilton) in a deep microwavable bowl. Stir in between 30 second increments. A 1/2 pound batch (1/2 bag) should take about 3 minutes in the microwave to completely melt. 

    7) Using 2 small spoons, dip/immerse the cake ball into the melted candy (I used dark chocolate mint) and juggle the ball between the spoons to drip off the excess candy.

    8) Cool on wax paper for a few minutes. Eat! There are a million ways to decorate them, and it gets a bit complicated from there. However, this is TOTALLY worth 2 hours of your life!! I loved it, and I think my mom enjoyed the package she received for her b-day. 



    I have so many ideas for using these cake balls for Cake Pops!…but some of you might be receiving those as gifts, so I shan’t post it here. 


    Happy Baking!
    ~Laurel~

    15 years ago Short URL 43 Comments

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