Raspberry Oatmeal Muffins

These are delicious muffins, the glaze takes them from pretty good to awesome. Without the glaze, they taste like a kind of healthy fruity muffin. With the glaze, you can serve them at a party or make them as a treat. These muffins make me want to have my own raspberry plants. I originally found this recipe here.

Raspberry Oatmeal Muffins

1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup butter or oil
3 large eggs
2 cups plain yogurt
3 cups flour (whole wheat is my preference)
2.5 cups quick oats
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup smashed raspberries

Glaze
1 Tablespoon cream cheese
1 Tablespoon butter
2 Tablespoons raspberry juice (from smashed berries)
Confectioners sugar

Mix butter, sugar and eggs. Add yogurt, mix well. In separate bowl, mix flour, oats, soda and salt. Combine with wet mixture. Fold in smashed berries.

Put mixture into greased muffin cups, Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 10-12 minutes for mini muffins, 15-18 minutes for full size. Muffins should spring back when gently touched. Let cool before glazing.

For glaze, mix cream cheese, butter and raspberry juice then start adding confectioners sugar, 1/4 cup at a time until it is desired thickness. Drizzle over muffins.

Blueberry coconut pound cake muffins

I love muffins.

Blueberry coconut pound cake muffins
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp freshly grated lime zest
2 eggs
5 Tbsp heavy cream
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup + 3 Tbsp coconut
1/2 cup blueberries

Preheat oven to 350 and butter/flour 7 muffin cups. Beat butter, sugar and zest until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. beat in cream, then flour and salt, on low speed, just until combined. Stir in 1/2 cup coconut and fold in blueberries. Spoon batter into muffin cups, totally filling cups and smooth tops. Sprinkle with remaining 3 Tbsp coconut. Bake in middle of oven until tester comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Invert onto rack and let cool.

Red, White & Blue Popsicles

Strawberry puree made from white grape juice and a couple strawberries on the bottom layer, topped with vanilla yogurt and then some blueberry puree made from blueberries and white grape juice. Freeze in a fun popsicle mold and you have your own healthy rocket pops!

Another popsicle option - make smoothies and freeze into popsicles. These are a mixture of orange juice, spinach, banana, blueberry, strawberry and yogurt. The spinach does not give any flavor and a good blender mixes it up so small the kids never see it. A fun way to get in a "green smoothie"!

Strawberry Lemon Puddings

I love strawberries. The delicious little bursts of summer are wonderful. We only eat them fresh when they are in season, as the usually tasteless versions that they sell at the store the rest of the year are disappointing. Luckily, I keep the freezer full of frozen berries, so when the desire to have a reminder of summer comes, we are able. When you encounter a recipe like this one - a twist on a strawberry shortcake from Tyler Florence. I would have bought berries to make this recipe, I wanted to try it so badly.

Reading the recipe was all it took to want to make these little beauties. Layers of a lemon curd cream, strawberries, pound cake... yum! The tart lemon curd cream with the sweet strawberries and velvety pound cake mix together wonderfully.

I had to make some adjustments for what I had on hand. No Meyer lemons here, just lemon juice. My ramekins aren't straight sided and my pound cake was too rectangular to cut into rounds, but the layers worked out just fine. I didn't have any leftover crumbs as a result, so those weren't on top either. I think they turned out pretty to look at anyway and they were certainly tasty. They were large generous portions too. Almost too big for me. This is a great recipe for a make ahead dessert you can keep in the fridge and pull out to serve when ready.

STRAWBERRY LEMON PUDDINGS

Yield: 4 servings

Time: 35 minutes

Pudding:

1 pound cake, store bought

1/2 cup lemon curd, store bought (or homemade)

1 pint heavy whipping cream

1 cup powdered sugar

Strawberries:

2 cups of strawberries, hulled and sliced

2 tablespoons powdered sugar

1 Meyer lemon, juice only

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Set a small saucepan over medium heat and add strawberries, lemon juice and 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar.

3. Set over medium heat to macerate for 4-5 minutes then remove form heat to cool.

4. In a large mixing bowl, whip heavy cream until you reach soft peaks. Fold in powdered sugar and lemon curd - a little at a time until they come together.

5. Set aside in the refrigerator while you prepare the cake.

6. Using an inverted ramekin, carefully slice the pound cake into 1/4-inch thick, round slices. They should fit snugly inside of the ramekin itself. With the remaining scraps of pound cake, break up into coarse crumbs and toast on a sheet tray in the oven for 5 minutes until golden brown and fragrant.

7. Now layer the puddings. Start with a layer of the lemon cream on the bottom, followed by cake, strawberries, lemon cream and cake again. Drizzle this layer of cake with syrup from the strawberries then top with a nice swirl of lemon cream and some toasted pound cake crumbs. Enjoy!

Blueberry soda

Here is a fun way to use blueberries - make your own soda! This recipe makes a cold refreshing drink that is delicious and simple to make.

How simple? You make the juice from the berries, cook in the sugar and your syrup is done. To serve, you put carbonated water over ice, add some syrup and enjoy.

Right now, this is up there with homemade lemonade on my list of refreshing delicious drinks of summer. The recipe comes from Alton Brown, and his blueberry episode of Good Eats.

The fact that you make the soda yourself old school style and know exactly what is in the syrup makes it more appealing to me, as I have a son who LOVES carbonation. Being able to give him a cheaper but healthier option is nice. If you aren't a soda fan, I suggest a blueberry smoothie ala pioneer woman. (Also delicious! Try both!)

Club soda & tonic water will not work or taste right in this recipe. You need regular carbonated water/sparkling water because the additives in the others will mess with the flavor.

Blueberry Soda

20 ounces blueberries, about 4 cups, rinsed and drained
2 cups water
1 cup sugar
1 lime, juiced
Carbonated water for serving
Ice for serving

Place the blueberries and the water into a saucepan, set over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Put on lid, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes.

Remove the saucepan from the heat and pour the mixture into a colander lined with cheesecloth that is set in a large bowl. Allow to cool for 15 minutes.

Gather up the edges of the cheesecloth and squeeze out as much of the liquid as possible. (Wear plastic gloves so you don't stain your hands!) Discard the skin and pulp.

Return the blueberry juice to the saucepan along with the sugar and lime juice. Place over medium high heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to a boil and cook for 2 minutes, stirring regularly.

Remove from the heat and carefully transfer to a heatproof glass container and place in the refrigerator, uncovered, until completely cooled.

To Serve: Combine 1/4 cup of the liquid with 8-ounces of carbonated water and serve over ice.

Chocolate Berry Tart

Just under the radar, thanks to the extra day this month, I give you this month's Chocolate Therapy challenge: Chocolate Berry Tart

I have never made a dessert tart, so this was a new experience for me. It was surprisingly easy, and beautiful, even easily fixed after my son's hand fell into it! :D

I think there are many possibilities for variations on this tart, and that it makes a great company piece - but also is wonderful for just for fun with the family, since it has lots of fruit, it's got the health factor going sort of.

It is so simple, my son could have done most of it. Bake a shortbread crust, make a chocolate pudding like center, cover with whipped cream and then berries. Why haven't I made this before?

I'm not entirely sure if I made the chocolate pudding part right - it was a very soft set; it didn't hold its shape when cut. And the shortbread crust - well, I've never made shortbread, so I wasn't really sure how to shape it. It all worked out fine in the end though!

(Updated to say that the leftover's held their shape very well the next day before being consumed, so maybe it just needs more than 4 hours!)

What a great recipe for expanding my dessert and chocolate horizons!

Chocolate berry tart

Shortbread crust
makes a single crust
9 1/2 Tbs unsalted butter, room temp
5 Tbs powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 C plus 3 Tbs flour
Cream butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy about 1.5 mins. Add flour and mix until light and fluffy about 2 mins. Gather dough in ball and press into bottom and sides of a 9 or 10 inch tart pan. cook at 300 F for 40-45 mins, let cool before filling.

filling
1 oz unsweetned chocolate
1/2 C plus 2 Tbs semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 C plus 2 Tbs milk
1/2 C plus 2 Tbs heaving cream
1 1/2 Large egg yolks (hold yolk in hand and cut in half with butter knife) at room temp
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp expresso powder (which I leave out, or sub with dutch cocoa)

topping
1/3 C whipping cream (with 1 T sugar and 1/4 tsp vanilla to flavor)
1 pint ripe berries

Chop chocolates fine (food processor 20 seconds). Heat milk and cream in small sauce pan over low heat until JUST boiling, about 5 mins, remove from heat. Add egg yolks, vanilla and powder to chocolate and process. While processor is running pour hot cream and milk and process until chocoalte is melted. Scrape bowl and process a few more seconds. Let cool to lukewarm, about 10 mins, and spread in shell. Chill at lest 4 hours in refrigerator. Before serving whip up cream (and sugar and vanilla) and spread over the tart, distribute berries.

Grapefruit Marmalade & Spiced Blueberry Jam

I have tried several new recipes in the past few weeks, some have been successes, some not so much...but my favorite thing has been making marmalade & jam! I spent part of last fall lamenting that I hadn't canned any jam that summer due to moving, and trying to make orange marmalade that never totally jelled. I knew I should try again, but I had no desire until I actually felt I had to buy some jam since we ran out of apple butter, and I had nothing besides the "marmalade" and my boys don't love it like I do.

Then comes the discovery that Alton Brown has 2 winter jam recipe possibilities! Spiced blueberry jam from frozen berries & cranberry jam from cranberries! How exciting. :) Unfortunately, we'd already eaten all the cranberries I bought and there aren't any more at the store, but frozen blueberries were quickly obtained at the bulk store for a decent price.

His blueberry jam is flavored with freshly ground star anise & nutmeg. The anise smells like licorice, and adds a fun twist to the jam recipe. It is delicious jam and he wrote the recipe fairly thoroughly. The recipe can be found at this link.

Then one of my favorite food bloggers, Mercedes, wrote about a Grapefruit marmalade with vanilla and I had to try it. I have never had grapefruit marmalade and she raved about the flavor that the vanilla added. It was a long, slow cooked marmalade, and came out wonderfully. But the vanilla flavor was a bit odd to DH & I, so I made another batch without the vanilla, and the differences are fascinating. While the vanilla flavored marmalade is almost too sweet, but delicious in a unique way, the one without is delicious and full bodied from the long slow simmer. I really like it and think I will adapt the idea of it to orange marmalade. It is an excellent way to use all the awesome local grapefruit and oranges we have here in TX.

The result has been some satisfying restocking of the jam supply in our home, and my boys are delighted with the blueberry jam. I will have to make more soon I'm sure!

Ultimate Flourless Chocolate Cake

Continuing our challenge of new recipes we want to try, my friend and I tried recipe #2 of the flourless chocolate cake.

So I seem to benefit from doing the recipes after my friend at Create Cakes. I finally made this recipe and it was AMAZING. I loved it so much.

I made it with a blueberry coulis that was also amazing and made this dessert awesome.

The flavor was wonderful, not too rich and sweet, as the Chocolate Nemesis was sometimes for me, but a smooth, creamy, clean chocolate flavor. The coulis added a tangy complementary flavor when consuming the dessert that was simple and wonderful.

I had my doubts, since my dear friend didn't love it, but I love chocolate truffles much more than puddings, and the flavor of the chocolate really comes through in this recipe.

I did use the Hersheys Special Dark, just like I did in the Chocolate Nemesis recipe, and I think that was key. The flavor of the chocolate used is what you will get. Cooks Illustrated rated the Hersheys Special Dark highly in use for cakes, plus there is the cheap cost, so that's why I used it. :)

I was obedient and followed the recipe, checking the temperature with my little thermometer and even waiting until the next day to eat it. It was hard to not taste it right after it came out, especially since it was so soupy, but worth the wait. The blueberry coulis was tangy and fruity and complemented the chocolate really well.

The other thing I liked about this recipe is the quantity made. It makes one cake. It doesn't make so much that I'm trying to figure out what to do with the leftovers. Gone in a day, like a good dessert.

Without further commentary, here are the recipes:

The Ultimate Flourless Chocolate Cake
Serves 12 to 16

8 large eggs, cold
1 pound bittersweet chocolate or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/2 pound unsalted butter (2 sticks), cut into 1/2-inch chunks

1. Adjust oven rack to lower middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Line bottom of 8-inch springform pan with parchment and grease pan sides. Cover pan underneath and along sides with sheet of heavy-duty foil and set in large roasting pan. Bring kettle of water to boil.

2. Beat eggs with hand-held mixer at high speed until volume doubles to approximately 1 quart, about 5 minutes. Alternately, beat in bowl of electric mixer fitted with wire whip attachment at medium speed (speed 6 on a KitchenAid) to achieve same result, about 5 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, melt chocolate and butter (adding coffee or liqueur, if using) in large heat-proof bowl set over pan of almost simmering water, until smooth and very warm (about 115 degrees on an instant-read thermometer), stirring once or twice. (For the microwave, melt chocolate and butter together at 50 percent power until smooth and warm, 4 to 6 minutes, stirring once or twice.) Fold 1/3 of egg foam into chocolate mixture using large rubber spatula until only a few streaks of egg are visible; fold in half of remaining foam, then last of remaining foam, until mixture is totally homogenous.

4. Scrape batter into prepared springform pan and smooth surface with rubber spatula. Set roasting pan on oven rack and pour enough boiling water to come about halfway up side of springform pan. Bake until cake has risen slightly, edges are just beginning to set, a thin glazed crust (like a brownie) has formed on surface, and an instant read thermometer inserted halfway through center of cake registers 140 degrees, 22 to 25 minutes. Remove cake pan from water bath and set on wire rack; cool to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate overnight to mellow (can be covered and refrigerated for up to 4 days).

5. About 30 minutes before serving, remove springform pan sides, invert cake on sheet of waxed paper, peel off parchment pan liner, and turn cake right side up on serving platter. Sieve light sprinkling of Confectioners’ sugar or unsweetened cocoa powder over cake to decorate, if desired.


Berry Coulis
Makes 1 1/2 cups

12	ounces fresh raspberries (or thawed if frozen), or blueberries, blackberries, or strawberries (fresh strawberries hulled and sliced, if using)
5	tablespoons granulated sugar
1/8	teaspoon table salt
2	teaspoons lemon juice

1. In medium saucepan, bring berries, 1/4 cup water, 5 tablespoons sugar, and salt to bare simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally; cook until sugar is dissolved and berries are heated through, about 1 minute longer.

2. Transfer mixture to blender or food processor; puree until smooth, about 20 seconds. Strain through fine-mesh strainer into small bowl, pressing and stirring puree with rubber spatula to extract as much seedless puree as possible. Stir in lemon juice and additional sugar, if desired. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until cold, at least 1 hour. Stir to recombine before serving. (If too thick after chilling, add 1 to 2 teaspoons water.) Can be refrigerated in airtight container for up to 4 days.