Strawberry Rhubarb Danish ~ By Victoria

 

 

 

 These are SOOOO good!!  I've made them a couple times this summer and had to guard them in order to get just one picture for the blog!  The directions are pretty sketchy when it comes to how you shape them, so I took some pictures to show what I do. The directions say to let the dough chill overnight, but I was in a hurry one day so decided the night would last about 4 hours. :) It worked fine.

 

 

 

 

 

Danish Pastry Dough:

 

1/4 cup warm water, 105*F. to 115*F.
1 package active dry yeast
1/2 cup milk, at room temperature
1 egg, at room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 sticks cold unsalted butter

 

 

 

Pour water into bowl; add yeast and let stand for 2-3 minutes until yeast foams. Add milk, egg, sugar and salt and whisk to mix; set aside.

Measure flour into food processor with metal blade in place. Cut butter into 1/4 inch thick slices and drop into flour. Pulse 8 to 10 times, until butter is cut into 1/2 inch pieces.

Empty flour mixture into bowl with yeast and with rubber spatula, gently fold the two mixtures together just until the dry ingredients are moistened. Don’t be too energetic! The butter must remain in pieces so that you will produce a flaky pastry, not a bread dough or cookie. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight (or up to 4 days to suit your schedule).

Lightly flour a work surface; turn dough out onto it, and dust dough with flour. Using the palms of your hands, pat dough into a rough square. Roll out to 16 inches on a side. Fold dough into thirds, like a business letter and turn it so that the closed fold is to your left, like the spine of a book. Roll out again, into a long narrow rectangle, about 10 inches wide by 24 inches long. Fold into thirds again. Roll out to make a 20-inch square. Fold square into thirds again to make a long, narrow rectangle. Then again, fold into thirds to make a square. (If at any point in this procedure the dough gets very soft, cover and chill it for 30 minutes or so.) Cover and chill the dough before final shaping. You can store the dough in the refrigerator for 4 days or wrap it air tight and keep it frozen for 1 month; thaw overnight, still wrapped, in the refrigerator.

Cream Cheese Filling:
8oz cream cheese (softened)
1 egg yolk
1/4 cup of sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbs flour

 Mix the ingredients together and chill for at least 30 minutes.

 Preheat oven to 400f.
 Roll out the dough,  cut into desired shapes, top with cheese and then fruit. Brush edges with egg. sprinkle with sugar. and bake for 20-30 minutes or until golden.
Source: Good Morning Grace

 

Strawberry Cream Crepes

This very rich and sweet breakfast recipe has been a long-time family favorite.  A big giant batch is normally cooked in the Bowes house on special occasions such as birthdays, holidays, and sometimes even for visiting friends and family.  It could easily double as dessert, too!

Batter:

1 1/2 C milk

3 eggs

2TB melted butter

1/2 tsp. lemon extract

1 1/4 C flour

2 TB sugar

1/8 tsp. salt 

Combine dry and wet ingredients separately and then mix them together.  Pour about a 2/3 c of batter onto a heated, greased, frying pan and cook until the top is "dry."  (Set your burner on a medium-high setting.)  Layer crepes between wax paper or fill and serve immediately because they will all stick together!

 

Filling:

1 C. whipping cream, whipped (fold into the following ingredients)

 8oz softened cream cheese

2 C. powdered sugar

1 tps. vanilla

Topping:

Berry sauce of any sort!  I like to mix about 3c fresh raspberries and blueberries with 1/4 c sugar, bring to a boil for 5 minutes.  Ready to serve!

You can also add a dollop of whipped cream to the top, if you feel like over-indulging :-)

Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes ~ by Caroline

First off, we give all the credit for these amazing cupcakes/muffins to their creator at http://granolagirlbakes.com/   She came up with the recipe, and she also has some awesome pictures to go along with it!   We just recently stumbled across her site, and at the time, these were what were posted on her home page.  The only thing we didn't do was frost them as they are wonderful and just to our liking, even without the extra sweetness.

Yields 24 cupcakes
Cake Ingredients

• 1 1/2 sticks butter{softened}
• 4 oz cream cheese{softened}
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp almond extract{optional}
• 1 1/2 cups white flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 pint fresh strawberries diced

Icing

• 1 stick butter{softened}
• 6 oz cream cheese{softened}
• 3 cups powder sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp almond extract{optional}
• 1/2 tsp salt

Topping

• 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350° Fahrenheit. Line muffin tins with paper!
2. Cream butter, 4 oz cream cheese, and sugar in an electric mixer on high-speed for 3 minutes.
3. Add eggs one at a time mixing well after each egg. Stir in Vanilla & almond extract and scrape sides.
4. Turn mixer on low and slowly add flour 1/2 cup at a time and salt until completely combined!
5. With a rubber spatula, gentle fold in strawberries. Place 1/4 cup batter in each muffin cup. Bake for 14-17 minutes or until golden and an inserted toothpick comes out clean!
6. Allow to completely cool while you make the icing!

For the icing:

1. Place all ingredients in a large mixing bowl and beat on high for 3 minutes. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl and mix for another minute!
2. Pipe onto cooled cupcakes and top with graham cracker crumbs!
3. Enjoy!!

Stuffed French Toast ~ by Victoria

Our family has enjoyed a similar recipe (Overnight Stuffed French Toast) for years. We recently found this new recipe on a sweet family's blog that made it for the mom for Mother's Day! This recipe suggests adding fresh fruit to the filling, and they are grilled in the morning instead of soaked overnight and then baked in the morning. Everything else is just about the same. So, we tried making the new version today.  Though we enjoyed the addition of the fresh fruit in the filling, we couldn't decide if there was much of a difference in the way it tasted otherwise. Except that Daddy did say he LOVED the strong cinnamon taste in this new recipe! The overnight version is definitely a lot easier to just stick in the oven in the morning! Although, we weren't sure if we added fresh fruit in the overnight recipe if it would get soggy with soaking overnight and then getting baked? And most often, we enjoy making a fresh fruit topping to use instead of maple syrup.

 

In any case, either version is absolutely delicious! We decided to add both recipes since we couldn't decide which one we liked better. (Maybe the Overnight Stuffed French Toast does has an extra advantage with being more convenient in the morning.  ;-) 

 

(For our large family, we used three French loaves, and quadrupled the filling! ;-)

Ingredients

• 1 loaf French Bread
• 3 Tablespoons Any Flavor Fruit Spread (you can also use jelly, jam, and/or fresh fruit)
• ½ packages Cream Cheese (4 oz), at room temperature
• 2 whole Eggs
• 1 Tablespoon Cinnamon
• ½ cups Skim Milk
• 2 Tablespoons Butter

Preparation Instructions

Heat skillet or electric griddle to 325 to 350 degrees.

Cut french bread into 2-3 inch wide slices. Then, with a paring knife, go back and cut halfway into each slice, in the center, creating a ‘pocket’ that your fruit mixture can be stuffed into.

In a bowl, place the room temperature cream cheese and three tablespoons of fruit spread of your choice. Combine well. (Once these two things were combined, we also added our fruit here.) 

In a separate bowl, break 2 eggs; add cinnamon and milk and combine well.
Now, take fruit mixture and stuff into the ‘pockets’ of your french bread slices. Place on a baking sheet.

When done stuffing each piece of bread, completely coat each piece in egg mixture. Make sure all sides are covered. Do all pieces before starting to fry.

Put 2 tbsp of butter into a hot skillet and melt completely. Add all of the bread to the skillet and cook roughly about 3-6 minutes on each side, until it reaches a nice golden brown. You want to make sure the cream cheese mixture heats through.

When done cooking, serve immediately with butter and syrup.

Source:  http://tastykitchen.com/blog/2010/05/a-tasty-recipe-stuffed-french-toast/


OVERNIGHT STUFFED FRENCH TOAST

2 3-ounce packages cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons orange marmalade or apricot preserves (we use whatever jam we have on hand ;-)
1 teaspoon finely chopped crystallized ginger (hmmm . . . sounds nice, but we don't have this on hand, therefore don't use ;-)
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg (We would now add lots of cinnamon too, to satisfy Daddy's liking!)
1/4 cup chopped almonds (we omit these, too, as we aren't big nut fans ;-)
6 1 1/2 inch slices French bread
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Generously grease a 3-quart rectangular baking dish; set aside.  In a small bowl beat together cream cheese, marmalade, ginger, and nutmeg.  Stir in the almonds.   Cut a pocket in the top crust of each bread slice.  Divide cream cheese mixture evenly among pockets.  Place bread slices in prepared baking dish.

In a small bowl beat together the eggs, milk, and vanilla;  slowly pour the egg mixture over bread slices, covering all the tops.  Cover and chill overnight.

Bake, uncovered, in a 350 degree oven 30 to 35 minutes or until golden. 

Source:  12th Edition New Better Homes and Garden Cookbook, 2002.

Rhubarb Sour Cream Pie (With Added Strawberries ;-) ~ by Valerie

Another great springtime dessert!!!

 

Lydia's dear mom-in-love and our precious friend, Janet,

first introduced our family to the wonders of home-grown rhubarb! 

She served us a rhubarb coffee cake one day that was oh-so-delicious!!!!

And she made scrumptious rhubarb muffins for Richie and Lydia's reception treats.

So we are very excited about finding this amazing recipe recently

to use our little harvest of rhubarb on!

We just discovered too, that if we add some strawberries to it,

it is a great way to stretch the rhubarb when we don't have quite enough,

and it becomes even more flavorful and beautiful! 

And the sour cream makes it especially different from most fruit pies, and well . . . .

wonderfully creamy! ;-)

 

 

Ingredients:

 

1 (9 inch) unbaked pie crust 4 cups chopped fresh rhubarb 1 egg 1 1/2 cups white sugar 1 cup sour cream   (The last couple times we made this pie, we used 2 cups of rhubarb and 2 or more cups of strawberries.  We also added a little extra flour to help with the extra moisture from the strawberries.)

1/3 cup all-purpose flour   1/2 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 cup brown sugar 1/4 cup butter, melted

Directions:

1.	Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F (220 degrees C).
2.	Press the pie crust into a 9 inch pie pan. Spread rhubarb in an even layer in the bottom of the crust. In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg, white sugar, sour cream and 1/3 cup of flour until smooth. Pour over the rhubarb.
3.	In a small bowl, mix together 1/2 cup of flour and brown sugar. Stir in melted butter until the mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle over the top of the pie.
4.	Bake for 15 minutes in the preheated oven, then reduce the heat to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Continue to bake for 40 minutes, or until the edges have puffed, and the topping is golden. The center may still be slightly jiggly. Cool completely before slicing and serving. Source:  http://allrecipes.com/recipe/rhubarb-sour-cream-pie/

Strawberry Yogurt Bundt Cake ~ by Valerie

 

This is a perfect dessert for strawberry season!

Although, frozen strawberries work well, too!

It is very moist and delicious!  

 

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

1 TB. fresh lemon juice

zest of 1 lemon

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup vanilla yogurt (you can use greek yogurt if desired)

2 cups fresh strawberries, diced

 

For glaze:

 

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1  cup powdered sugar

 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Grease and flour 10 inch bundt pan.

Mix together 2 1/4 cups of the flour with baking soda, salt and lemon zest.  Set aside.

In your mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

Beat in the eggs one at a time until incorporated.  Stir in the lemon juice.  Alternate beating the flour mixture and the yogurt into butter mixture.  Beat just until combined. Toss the strawberries with the remaining 1/4 cup of flour.  (This helps prevent the strawberries from all sinking to the bottom of the pan while baking.)  Gently fold the strawberries into the batter.  Pour batter into your greased bundt pan.  Place the bundt pan into the preheated oven.  As soon as it's in the oven, turn the temperature of the oven down to 325 degrees.  Bake for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Remove from the oven and let sit in pan for 25 minutes to cool.  Turn cake out onto wire rack to cool completely. 

 

Once cake is completely cooled, transfer to your serving plate.  Make your glaze by mixing the lemon juice and powdered sugar until smooth.  Use your spoon to drizzle the glaze over the cake.   Just keep drizzling and drizzling until all your glaze is used up. 

 

Source:  DoubletheDeliciousness.blogspot.com