Our Bella Cucina » Desserts

Honey Joys

sarah — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 08:00:44 +0000

These little gems are a traditional Australian party food. Simple, delicious, and kids love them!

INGREDIENTS
2.5 oz butter
1/3 cup honey
1 tablespoon powdered sugar
5 cups Corn Flakes

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Put the Corn Flakes in a large bowl and set it aside.

Over medium-low heat, melt the butter then add the honey and sugar. Stir until heated and well combined, but do not boil.

Pour the mixture into the Corn Flakes and mix thoroughly.

Line 2 muffin trays with cupcake papers – 18-24 will be enough. Add a heaping 1/4 cup of the Corn Flake mixture to each paper. Slightly less if you’re trying to get 24 filled.

Bake for 8 minutes then let them stand for 15 minutes to cool and harden. You can then remove them from the pans to cool completely.

I made this batch for my sons who both had a party for their last day of their preschool class one day after the other. They were well received and what was left kept well in an airtight container for the second class on the next day. We took them to the class in this handy dandy cupcake carrier that I found at Costco for $15. My husband didn’t want me to buy it because it is huge, but I knew it would come in handy now that my boys are reaching school age!

After I made these I was feeling homesick so I called my mother in Australia to let her know the next generation of honey joy lovers had arrived!

♥

Granny’s Chocolate Cobbler

sarah — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 08:00:58 +0000

What can I say? What is there to say about heaven in a bowl? If you never make another thing from my blog, make this.

Seriously.

Go, now. Get up out of your chair and head for the kitchen. Ok, maybe not right this second because you need to read the recipe first, but do it.

INGREDIENTS
1 cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons cocoa powder, divided
1 1/4 cups sugar, divided
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup melted butter
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 1/2 cup hot tap water

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
First stir together the flour, baking powder, salt, 3 tablespoons of the cocoa, and 3/4 cup of the white sugar. Reserve the remaining cocoa and sugar.

Add the milk, melted butter, and vanilla to the flour mixture and mix until smooth.

Pour the mixture into an ungreased 8-inch baking dish.

In a separate small bowl, mix the remaining white sugar (it should be 1/2 cup), the brown sugar, and remaining 4 tablespoons of cocoa. Sprinkle this mixture evenly over the batter.

Gently pour the hot tap water over it all. DO NOT STIR!

Bake for about 40 minutes or until the center is set.

Let it stand for a few minutes and serve with vanilla ice cream using the gooey sauce to spoon over it all.

You’re lucky I got through this post without drooling over my keyboard. It was definitely a close call!

Time to get your butt to the kitchen.

Ready?

Set.

GO!

♥

Chilled Cheesecake

sarah — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 08:00:02 +0000

My mother used to make this cheesecake for me as a child and it was always a favourite. In fact, from the time I was a teenager onwards, it was always my birthday cake of choice! I now make it for my husband and children and it shows no signs of being any less popular with this next generation. I would take this cheesecake over the baked variety any day of the week and twice on Sundays!

INGREDIENTS
2 blocks cream cheese
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 cups cookies, crushed
1/2 cup butter, melted

I do have to interject here and say something about the cookies pictured above. They are not my first choice. No offense to them, they’re perfectly delicious, but they’re not my first choice. The problem is I can’t find my favourite cheesecake base cookies anymore. They became a victim of the bad economy and their distributor went out of business. Rumour has it that they were picked up by a new distributor but I have still not seen them anywhere.

Wherefore art thou Marie Lu?

I don’t know what it is about them, they’re just plain cookies, but their flavour and texture combine so well with the butter in the base to form a nice solid cheesecake foundation that I have been unable to replicate with any other cookie. If you see my beloved Marie Lu cookies anywhere near you, please let me know and I will love you forever if we can make arrangements to get some mailed to me.

Cookie mourning aside, let’s move along…

DIRECTIONS
Emtpy the packet of cookies into your food processor and pulse until it becomes fine crumbs.

Can you believe I used to do this by hand with a potato masher?

Add the melted butter and combine until it becomes a soft moist consistency.

Line your pie dish with foil. It is important to do this because as the base sets it tends to adhere to the dish, so you need the foil if you don’t want to have scrambled cheesecake when you go to serve it. Unless of course scrambled cheesecake is your thing – I bet it tastes just as good!

Empty the cookie mixture from the food processor into the foil lined pan and press it down firmly to mold it to the shape of the dish. I find using the back of a spoon to do this works well.

Put the base in the refrigerator for 30 minutes and in the meantime prepare the filling.

Wash out your food processor bowl and blade, then add the cheese and pulse it a few times to loosen it.

Add the sweetened condensed milk and lemon juice and process until evenly combined and smooth.

Pour the mixture into the base and refrigerate it for at least 4 hours. Longer is better and overnight is best.

Ignore the small lumps, I was in a hurry and didn’t notice them till I poured it into the base!

You can top it with whatever takes your fancy, but a favourite around here is fresh sliced strawberries with chocolate grated over top.

Though there is something to be said for eating it as nature intended – naked.

♥

Monkey Bread

sarah — Thu, 20 May 2010 08:00:26 +0000

This creation comes from Pastor Ryan and is is yummy. So yummy. So very very yummy. You may have a butter induced heart blockage from eating this, but what a way to die!

INGREDIENTS
3 cans buttermilk biscuits (the non-flaky ones)
1 cup sugar
2-3 teaspoons cinnamon
2 sticks butter
1/2 cup brown sugar

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Open up all three cans of biscuits and cut each biscuit into quarters.

Next, combine the white sugar with 2-3 teaspoons of cinnamon (depending on how much you like connamon) in a 1 gallon Ziploc bag and shake to mix evenly.

Drop all of the biscuit quarters into the cinnamon-sugar mix. Once they’re all in the bag, seal it and give it a vigorous shake. This will get all those pieces unstuck from one another and nicely coated with cinnamon-sugar.

Spread the nuggets evenly in a bundt pan.

In a saucepan over medium-high heat, melt the two sticks of butter together with ½ cup of brown sugar. Cook the butter/sugar mixture, stirring for a few minutes until the brown sugar has melted and is mixed thoroughly with the butter.

Pour the butter/sugar mixture over the nuggets in the bundt pan.

Bake for about 30-40 minutes until the crust is a deep dark brown on top.

When it’s finished cooking, remove it from the oven and allow it to cool for about 15-30 minutes before turning it over onto a plate.

I found that the inner section of mine was still doughy when I went to taste it and could have used longer in the oven. My bundt pan is different from Ryan’s though, so that may have something to do with it. Even so, the outer bits that cooked properly were so delicious. Eat it while it is fresh though, because it doesn’t taste as good the next day, reheated.

♥

Ice Cream Pizzas

sarah — Thu, 13 May 2010 08:00:28 +0000

Remember the vanilla sugar cookies we made last week?

No? Well stop reading this post now and go make them.

Seriously.

So, remember the vanilla sugar cookies we made last week?

Yes! That’s what I wanted to hear.

Well this is the quick and easy kids dessert (ahem, some adults might like it too, not naming any names…) I mentioned at the end of the cookie post. My boys requested it one day after watching the tv show Team Umizoomi.

I can show you anything, on my belly belly belly screen…

Sorry about that, just had to get it out. Anyway, it is so simple and if you make this for your kids, they’ll be happy campers.

INGREDIENTS
Giant vanilla sugar cookies
Ice cream (flavour of your choice but we use vanilla)
Candy of your choice (gummy bears and M&M’s are a favourite around here)

DIRECTIONS
Get out your cookie.

Spread some ice cream over it.

Top with candies of your choice.

Yes, it really is that easy.

♥

P-Dub Wednesday – Cinnamon Rolls

sarah — Wed, 12 May 2010 08:00:39 +0000

There are a few things that instantly come to mind when you think of Ree’s recipes – one of them is butter and another is her cinnamon rolls. I had always put off making them because there was coffee in the frosting and I’m not a fan of coffee, but recently someone who had made them assured me that the end result tastes like maple more than anything so I decided to give it a go!

INGREDIENTS

Rolls:
1 quart whole milk
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
2 packages active dry yeast
8 cups (plus 1 cup extra, separated) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon (heaping) baking powder
1 teaspoon (scant) baking soda
1 tablespoon (heaping) salt
Plenty of melted butter
2 cups sugar
Generous sprinkling Of cinnamon

Maple Frosting:
1 lb powdered sugar
2 teaspoons maple flavoring
½ cups milk
¼ cups melted Butter
¼ cups brewed coffee
⅛ teaspoons salt

DIRECTIONS
Mix the milk, vegetable oil and sugar in a pan.

“Scald” the mixture (heat until just before the boiling point), then turn off the heat and leave the mixture to cool for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

When the mixture is lukewarm to warm, but NOT hot, sprinkle in both packages of Active Dry Yeast. Let this sit for a minute.

Add 8 cups of all-purpose flour and stir the mixture together.

Cover and let it rise for at least an hour.

Add 1 more cup of flour, the baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir the mixture together.

At this point, you could cover the dough and put it in the fridge until you need it – overnight or even a day or two, if necessary. Just keep your eye on it and if it starts to overflow out of the pan, just punch it down.

When ready to prepare the rolls, sprinkle the rolling surface generously with flour. Take half the dough and form a rough rectangle. Then roll the dough thin, maintaining a general rectangular shape.

It was at this point that I realized 2 things:

1. I had forgotten to add the salt to the dough and started praying that the recipe would still work out.

and

2. The jug that I was about to pour the melted butter from was not in fact removed from a clean dishwasher. It seemed to have a sprinkling of red powder through it and it was then that it dawned on me I was about to pour taco seasoning flavoured butter onto my cinnamon rolls.

I’ll just let you ponder for a moment what that would have tasted like.

Ready to move on? Great.

Drizzle 1/2 to 1 cup melted butter over the dough (I used 1/3 cup and it was plenty – if I had added any more it would have been flowing off the dough onto the counter top).

Now sprinkle 1 cup of sugar over the butter followed by a generous sprinkling of cinnamon. Or in reverse if you’re like me and don’t read the directions closely enough. Either way is fine.

Now, starting at the opposite end, begin rolling the dough in a neat line toward you. Keep the roll relatively tight as you go. Next, pinch the seam of the roll to seal it.

Spread 1 tablespoon of melted butter into 6-7 seven inch round foil cake or pie pans (I used the remainder of the half cup I melted previously for the dough but had only used 1/3 cup).

Then begin cutting the rolls approximately ¾ to 1 inch thick and laying them in the buttered pans.

You can then repeat this process with the other half of the dough, but I only made a half batch so I didn’t do this step

Let the rolls rise for 20 to 30 minutes and during that time preheat your oven to 375 degrees,

Bake until light golden brown, about 15 to 18 minutes.

While the rolls are baking, prepare the frosting – mix together all ingredients listed and stir well until smooth. It should be thick but pourable. Taste and adjust as needed.

Generously drizzle over the warm rolls.

Now, Ree says that she used to bake her cinnamon rolls at 400 degrees but now cooks them at 375, as specified in the recipe above. I actually found that mine were still doughy towards the center of the pan, even after cooking for the full 18 minutes at 375. I think next time I will use the old temperature of 400 degrees and see if that works any better. This might vary for your oven since everyone’s oven is different and some run hot or cold.

As for the frosting, both my husband and I agree that my initial preference was right – we would prefer to leave the coffee out and just substitute in an extra 1/4 cup of milk to make up for the lost liquid.

All in all, the parts that were cooked thoroughly were definitely delicious. If you’re a fan of cinnamon rolls, these are worth the effort!

♥

Giant Vanilla Sugar Cookies

sarah — Thu, 06 May 2010 08:00:49 +0000

These cookies will definitely going in my permanent recipe box. They taste slightly like shortbread but still maintain their sugar cookie goodness. I got the recipe from one of my favourite baking sites, Joy The Baker, whose site you should check out if you’re at all into baking. My 4 year old even asked me to make them for him to take to preschool!

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature (microwave it for 10 seconds if you’re like me and forget to get the butter out of the fridge!)
1/2 cup vegetable oil, canola oil, or sunflower oil. (I used vegetable oil.)
1/2 cup granulated sugar, plus additional for sugaring tops
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract, or the seeds of 1 vanilla bean
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, foil, or grease generously with butter or cooking spray.

Using a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter in a large bowl on medium speed for about 1 minute.

Add the vegetable oil. It may not fully incorporate with the butter, but that’s ok.

Beating on medium speed until each ingredient is completely incorporated, add:

Granulated sugar.

Powdered sugar.

An egg .

Vanilla.

Stir in the flour, baking soda and salt all at once using a wooden spoon or the mixer set on low.

The dough will be quite soft, so refrigerate it for 1 hour or pop it in the freezer for 15 minutes, to make it easier to handle.

Yes I’m aware of the irony of the bowl of cookie dough sitting next to my Weight Waters fudgsicles.

For large cookies, dollop 2 tablespoons of cookie dough onto the cookie sheet about 2 inches apart or for smaller cookies use 1 tablespoon. Press the dough evenly with your fingers or palm to 1/4-inch thickness.

Generously sprinkle sugar on top of the cookie dough.

Bake for 12 to 14 minutes for larger cookies or 8 to 10 minutes for smaller cookies.

Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for at least 10 minutes before transferring a rack to cool completely. They will keep for up to 3 days if stored in an airtight container and this recipe yields 1 dozen 4-inch cookies or 2 dozen 2-inch cookies.

Go ahead, make these for yourself, your kids, or your partner – you’ll be glad you did!

Tune in next week for a quick and easy kids dessert using these cookies.

Ok, it might be for adults too but we’ll just keep that between the two of us.

♥

PW Wednesday – Perfect Pancakes

sarah — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:00:57 +0000

Sometimes you just want breakfast at dinner. Then again, sometimes you also forget to defrost the meat until it’s time to cook.

I’ll let you decide which situation I was in!

If you’re a crepe and thin pancake type of person, then these are not for you. If you like thick fluffy pancakes that actually taste like cake, then walk (read? cook?) this way.

INGREDIENTS
3 cups cake flour (PW had an extra 2 tablespoons of cake flour added but I removed them with no problems)
½ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons baking powder
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 cups milk
1 tub vanilla yoghurt (6oz)
2 whole large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla (reduced from 3 in the original recipe to compensate for the vanilla yoghurt)
4 tablespoons butter

Note: The original recipe had 2 cups of milk and no yoghurt. I made that substitution because I thought it might be interesting!

DIRECTIONS
In a large bowl, add your flour. Sifting it is not necessary, but I like to do it because I find it results in a smoother texture when mixing.

Add the salt.

Add the sugar.

Followed by the baking powder.

Give it a quick stir to combine.

In a separate medium size bowl, add the eggs.

Add the vanilla.

Add the yoghurt.

Followed by the milk.

Give things a stir until combined.

Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, stirring very gently until just combined. Don’t worry if there are some small lumps, it doesn’t matter.

The batter is quite thick, but that is ok. Trust me. If you don’t want to trust me and want the batter thinner then go ahead and add some milk. I take no responsibility for the end results though!

Melt the butter and add it to the batter, stirring gently to combine.

The actual cooking of the pancakes is where Pioneer Woman and I part company. Her directions say to cook on a greased skillet, but pancakes are one of the few culinary times when I prefer a non-stick pan. A dry non-stick pan. That’s right, no butter, no cooking spray, dry. I find that it allows you to cook longer at a lower temperature, giving the pancakes time to rise properly without getting burned from any kind of grease.

So put your teflon coated pan over a medium-low temperature and ladle in a 1/4 cup of the batter at a time.

Allow them to cook slowly. They will puff up a fair bit and start to bubble.

Sorry you can’t see the bubbles well here – I don’t have a macro lens for my camera.

Flip them over to cook the other side, periodically pressing on the top to feel for firmness.

When both sides are golden brown, get them out of the pan and serve with your favourite pancake toppings!

What you do after that is your own business. Putting some on a fork and pretending it’s a Lego laser shooter is completely optional.

♥

Apple Dumplings

sarah — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 09:00:41 +0000

I had planned on posting a soup recipe today but earlier in the week, when trying to tweak the recipe, it met with disaster and just isn’t fit for Cucinian consumption just yet. To make up for it, I’m going to torture you with another dessert so you’re getting a double dose of P-Dub goodness this week, and you know what that means…time to put your cardiologist on speed dial and stock up on butter!

I made this dessert a few weeks ago and it was beyond delicious. It was quite a large portion though and we felt it was too sweet (yes, there is such a thing!) so I have tweaked it to suit our needs. It doesn’t do well as leftovers, so eat it hot and fresh!

INGREDIENTS
1 Granny Smith apple
1 can (8 Oz.) of crescent rolls
1 stick of butter
1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
6 fl oz (1/2 can) Mountain Dew
Cinnamon to taste

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Peel and core the apple then cut it into eighths.

Roll out the crescent roll dough.

Separate each perforated triangle in the dough and roll an apple slice in each one.

Place each dumpling roll, seam side down, in a medium size baking dish.

Melt the butter in a saucepan over a medium heat.

Add the sugar.

Followed by the vanilla.

Stir gently to combine then turn off the heat. You don’t need to melt the sugar, just make sure everything is mixed.

Pour the mixture over the dumplings.

Pour the Mountain Dew in the corners of the dish and in the spaces between the dumplings.

Sprinkle with cinnamon to taste.

Bake for 35-40 minutes.

Serve immediately making sure to spoon some of the sauce over top and add a dollop or two of ice cream.

On second thoughts, skip the cardiologist. Have insulin on standby instead.

♥

Key Lime Cheesecake

Steph — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 08:00:30 +0000

I absolutely adore tart desserts. Given a choice between chocolate and tart I will almost always choose the latter. However if you add tart to cheesecake you may have my absolute dream food! One part key lime pie, one part cheesecake and two parts om nom nom it’s the perfect ending to a spicy meal. Don’t forget to top with a little whipped cream and a slice of lime. Absolute perfection!!

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

6 tablespoons butter, melted

24 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 cup white sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

3 eggs

Zest of one lime

3/4 cup key lime juice

Combine graham cracker crumbs with butter. Press into bottom of a 9 inch springform pan. Refrigerate.

In a large bowl, beat with an electric mixer the cream cheese, sugar, lime peel, and cornstarch until smooth and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, blending just until smooth. Add key lime juice with mixer on low. Finish mixing by hand. Do not overbeat, or cake will crack during baking. Pour batter into prepared crust.

Bake at 300 degrees F for 55 to 65 minutes, or until set. To minimize cracking, place a shallow pan half full of hot water on lower rack during baking.

Turn oven off, and let cheesecake stand in oven 30 minutes with the door open at least 4 inches. Remove from oven. Refrigerate cake overnight, and up to three days.

xoxo, Steph