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Zucchini Cream Cheese & Chocolate Pound Cake

August 12, 2012 · by · 4 Comments
Zucchini Cream Cheese & Chocolate Pound Cake from ItsYummi.com

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I've had such an awesome weekend!  I really hope that yours was as enjoyable as mine's been.   Here's what made me happy...

 

DATE NIGHT - Since day one of our relationship, Fridays have been date night for Brian and I.  He usually takes me out somewhere special so that we can unwind from the week and have some quality conversation time (that means, no phones or computers in our faces).  Unfortunately though, out-of-the-house dates have been few and far between this year.  Anything that involves spending money has taken a back seat because of the mountain of medical bills that I've accumulated over the past year.  Having no medical insurance and 4 hospitalizations within 10 months = a lifetime of date money.  This week, Brian decided that we both deserved a treat, though.  His birthday is at the end of the month and he had a free birthday burger offer from Red Robin, so that's where we went for dinner.  Look what I ordered... TOTAL YUM factor!

 

Photo credit:: RedRobin.com

 

Yesterday morning, Brian skipped his weekly men's Bible study so that he could take me to the farmers market.  Again, because of no extra cash and his typically being busy on Saturday mornings, we hadn't been able to go to the market at all this year.  It was SUCH a joy to be out spending time with the man I love.  The weather was perfect, we got some exercise in, and we came home with a bag full of wonderful treats!  I'll be filling you in with recipes as I use up my bounty, but the first thing I bought was some gorgeous zucchini so that I could bake up this week's recipe for zucchini cream cheese pound cake from  the Joy the Baker Cookbook.

 

I can't fully describe in words how moist and tender this cake is.  You'll just have to make some and find out for yourself.  I think the moisture in the grated zucchini definitely played a factor.  It prevented the cake from drying out too much during the baking process.  There's a touch of cinnamon and vanilla that give it a great depth of flavor, too.  In my opinion, many pound cake recipes, especially the really old ones, are overloaded with eggs and butter.  After all, the cake got it's name because the original recipe called for a pound each of eggs and butter.  YIKES!  While Joy's recipe is hardly heart healthy, it is MUCH lower in fat, sugar, and cholesterol than many others.

 

If you bake a lot of pound cake, one of the first things you might notice is that the texture (or "crumb") of the cake isn't as dense as a traditional pound cake.  That's because of the reduced amount of fat in this recipe.  Let me assure you, however, that this cake is definitely rich enough to be worthy of the pound cake crown.  Grab a tall glass of milk, some coffee or tea and sit down with this plate full of love!

Incidentally, if you have picky eaters in your house, I PROMISE you that the zucchini is a visual ingredient only.  I couldn't taste it at all.  I suppose the fact that I tweaked Joy's recipe by adding some bittersweet chocolate to it MAY have helped that cause a bit!  :)  Either way, this is a recipe that is going to make many repeat appearances in my house.  I hope that you'll try it, too!

 

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Zucchini Cream Cheese & Chocolate Pound Cake

Rating: 51

1 Bundt cake (12-cup size)

Zucchini Cream Cheese & Chocolate Pound Cake

WHAT YOU\'LL NEED

  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
  • 12 ounces (1.5 cups) granulated sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
  • 2 cups shredded zucchini
  • 4 ounces (1/2 cup) bittersweet or semi sweet chocolate, melted
  • Powdered (confectioner's) sugar (optional), for dusting

HOW TO MAKE IT

Heat oven to 350 degrees F

Grease and flour a 12-cup bundt pan and set aside

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer (or with an electric hand mixer), beat cream cheese and sugar on medium speed until well incorporated. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating for 1 minute between each addition, then add the vanilla extract. With the mixer on low speed, pour in the melted butter and increase the speed to medium-high. Continue mixing about 3 more minutes, until the batter is shiny and smooth.

Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture all at once. It's important not to over-mix the batter, so beat just until incorporated (there will still be some flour present in the batter). Add the zucchini and use a spatula to fold it in and finish incorporating the flour into the batter. The batter will be thick.

Using a small pastry brush or spatula, "paint" the melted chocolate on the inside of the bundt pan.

Spoon the batter into the pan and bake for 45-50 minutes, until a skewer inserted near the center comes out with just a few crumbs. Remove cake from the oven and allow it to cool in the pan for 20 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely.

If desired, dust with powdered sugar.

Notes

Recipe adapted from Zucchini Cream Cheese Pound Cake, by Joy Wilson (Joy the Baker). Source: Joy the Baker's Cookbook - 100 Simple & Comforting Recipes.

This recipe will fill a 12-cup bundt cake or two 9-inch x 2-inch round cake pans

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Disclaimer: If you decide to purchase the book via this link, I will receive a small commission from Amazon, which will be used to help pay for the maintenance of this site. Thank you for your support!

Filed Under: BAKING, Cakes, recipes · Tagged: , ,

Coffee Rubbed Burgers

August 6, 2012 · by · 1 Comment
coffee rubbed turkey burger from ItsYummi.com

The relaxing weekend flew by and manic Monday has arrived once again.  I don't know about you, but I had a horrendous argument with my wake-up alarm this morning.  It kept ragging on me to get out of bed and I kept throwing insults back at it in an effort to get it to shut up.  Typical Monday routine...even if I AM a little bit excited about being able to FINALLY go back to work today.  2 weeks of R&R after my surgery is plenty, thank you very much.

 

Another activity that's par for the course on Mondays is the consumption of copious cups of coffee (try saying THAT 5 times fast!)  I always need an extra jolt or twenty of caffeine to help me get my Monday motor running.  If I'm still standing at lunch time, I might stand a fighting chance of making it through the rest of the day.  I think I'll make it a sure thing by grilling up one of these bad boys today...

 

If you're shaking your head in disgust at the thought of mixing coffee with a turkey burger, let me assure you that it's anything but disgusting.  Giving your burger a massage of spices that are a little bit smoky, a little bit spicy, and a whole lot of rock 'n roll is nothing short of yummilicious!

 

To find out how you can fix up one of these healthy and oh-so-delicious burgers for yourself, head on over to Food Thoughts of a Chef Wannabe, where I've written a guest post for my friend and amazing food blogger, Chris, that includes this very recipe!  SEE THE RECIPE HERE

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S’mores Brownies and Homemade Graham Crackers

August 5, 2012 · by · 1 Comment
S'mores Brownies from ItsYummi.com

Making (and shortly thereafter, devouring) s'mores next to a roaring fire is practically a rite of passage for many people.  It's almost like summer just can't end until a bag of mallows has been toasted to a golden hue and chocolate is oozing through the crevices of your fingers.  When I was growing up, my dad always made sure that the coals on the grill stayed nice and hot until after dinner so that we could head out to the back yard and get our sugar high on!

 

These days, Daddy has moved on to Heaven, my kids are grown and they both live out of state, and I don't grill out too often, so I've had to tweak the s'mores ritual a bit.  No, I'm not talking about nuking them in the microwave. Although, watching a marshmallow blow up like a Puffer Fish and then stopping the microwave nanoseconds before a mallow meltdown occurs IS kinda fun.  Or so I've been told.  No personal experience here... nuh uh.  Where was I?  Oh yes... oven baked s'mores!  It's really simple to toast 'em up under a broiler, but it's SUPER easy to catch them on fire that way, too.  Again... no personal experience attached to this example.  None whatsoever.

 

So how's a girl supposed to get a SAFE indoor s'mores fix?  Easily peasily, thanks to Joy the Baker's Cookbook!  Just use her recipe to sink the ingredients into a thick, delicious brownie batter and then bake them up to yummilicious levels!

 

The recipe was everything I had hoped it would be, and more, but if you've been hanging with me for a while, you know how trouble in the kitchen always seems to find me.  In this particular case, my obsession with carbohydrates came back to haunt me.  I was completely out of graham crackers on the day I decided to bake up this recipe.  Aaack!  What's a S'more without graham crackers?  Against the junk food law, that's what it is!  I wasn't about to let something so simple stop me from sinking my teeth into the fudgy brownie goodness, so I inventoried my pantry and found a bag of graham flour that I had purchased from Bob's Red Mill a while back.  My solution was a simple one...I would make HOMEMADE graham crackers!  I LOVE new kitchen challenges and I figured that this would be one with a really happy ending.  Crispy, crunchy graham crackers with a minimal amount of sugar and no preservatives.  That could only enhance the flavor of the s'mores right?!  Well, sort of...

See how dark in color they are?  That's because Alton Brown's recipe calls for just over 2 ounces of molasses.  I didn't realize just how much that was until I measured it out.  It seemed like a lot, but I trusted that Alton knew what he was doing when he wrote the recipe, so I followed it to the letter.  Let me say this.  They were VERY tasty...just NOT a graham cracker.  They ended up the color of gingerbread and the tasted very similar to a molasses cookie.  I baked two pans full of them.  I rolled the first batch out to 1/8-inch in thickness, just like Alton told me to do.  Those turned out wonderfully crispy and were very easy to make crumbs with.  The second pan full I rolled out a little bit thicker...to about 1/4-inch.  BIG mistake.  They never got hard and crispy.  That batch REALLY tasted like soft molasses cookies.  The takeaway is, use half the amount of molasses called for in the recipe and make sure that you're rolling them thin enough.  Oh, and they definitely need space between them on the pan.  The photo above was taken after baking.  Prior to baking, there was about 1/4-inch of space between the cookies.

 

So if you're excited to try Joy's brownie recipe (and let's be honest, why WOULDN'T you be excited?), be sure to get yourself a copy of her book.  Or just throw caution to the wind and toss some graham crackers and chocolate chips into your favorite brownie mix.  Top 'em with some marshmallows and take a ride to yummilicious town!

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Zucchini Bacon and Potato Pancakes

July 15, 2012 · by · 20 Comments
Zucchini Bacon and Potato Pancakes from ItsYummi.com

It's Sunday!  In my yummilicious world, there are three givens that I adore about Sundays:

 

~~ SLEEPING IN!  Rolling over in the morning and finding the love of my life lying next to me in bed.  Not having his alarm clock making annoying buzzy noises at 5:15 a.m. once a week is beyond blissful!

 

Incidentally, I have no idea whose baby that is, but I secretly hope that the next time I open my front door, I find that sweet angel swaddled in a basket with a note that says, "take me in and love me forever".  I think I'm addicted to those chubby arms and that sweet pouty lip... or maybe I'm just overly hormonal and waxing poetic because I'm going in for a hysterectomy on Tuesday.  Bye-bye uterus.  You've served me well.  Now get lost.

~~ BRUNCH!   Since we usually attend church services on Saturday night, Brian and I are able to stay lazy in bed for a while on Sunday and then treat ourselves with a wonderful late morning brunch.  Nothing says HELLO SUNDAY like comfort food in my face.  It's the WOO to the HOO and the piggy to my pork fat.

 

~~ SUNDAYS WITH JOY!  Every Sunday for the past couple of months, a group of wonderful food bloggers and I have been creating delicious meals using recipes from Joy the Baker's latest cookbook, "100 Simple and Comforting Recipes".  I adore everything about the book, right down to Joy's loverly face on the cover.  She's just so sweet!

 

Please click here to buy yourself a copy of this wonderful book. In full disclosure, if you do, I'll receive a teeny tiny bit of compensation for it.

 

I think t's a wonderful coincidence that today's recipe for zucchini bacon and potato pancakes, which I adapted a bit from Joy's recipe, fits perfectly into the Sunday brunch category.  Serve these beauties up with some over easy eggs and you've got yourself a double score bonus!!  CHA-CHING!

 

So please do me a favor, won't you?  Leave a comment below and tell me...what's YOUR favorite thing about Sundays?

 

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Zucchini Bacon and Potato Pancakes

Rating: 51

15 minutes

15 minutes

4-6 pancakes

Serving Size: 2 pancakes

Zucchini Bacon and Potato Pancakes

These pancakes are crispy on the outside, moist on the inside, and packed with comforting flavors that will compliment almost any dish!

WHAT YOU\'LL NEED

  • 2-3 slices bacon, diced and crisply cooked
  • 1 Tablespoon salted or unsalted butter, if needed
  • 1 small yellow or white onion, finely diced
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 2 medium zucchini, grated (I used a box grater)
  • 2 medium potatoes (approx. 5 ounces each), peeled and grated
  • 1/2 teaspoon Kosher or sea salt
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 cup panko bread crumbs
  • 1/8 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon paprika
  • Sour cream or crème fraiche for serving (optional)

HOW TO MAKE IT

Place zucchini and potato into a colander over a medium-sized bowl. Sprinkle with salt and toss to coat. Let the mixture sit in the colander for about 10 minutes, then press down with a clean towel to squeeze out the excess water.

While you’re waiting for the mixture to drain, place a medium-sized sauté or fry pan over medium heat. Place diced bacon into the pan and cook for 2-3 minutes, until some of the bacon has rendered and there are approximately 1-2 Tablespoons of grease in the pan. Add onion and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until the onion is translucent and the bacon is almost crispy. Add garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Remove bacon, onion, and garlic from the pan with a slotted spoon and place on a paper towel to drain. Remove the pan from the heat, but do not remove grease from the pan.

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the egg, flour, baking powder, pepper, and paprika. Add the bread crumbs, cooked bacon mixture, and the zucchini and potato mixture and stir to combine. Fold in the Parmesan cheese until everything is well combined.

Place the sauté pan you used to cook the bacon back over medium heat. If the pan seems dry, add 1 Tablespoon of butter. Once the pan has reheated, drop in the batter 1/8 cup (2 Tablespoons) at a time. Flatten each pancake gently with a fork. Cook for about 2 minutes, until the edges are golden brown. Flip the pancakes over and cook for an additional 2 minutes. Place on an oven-safe plate and keep the cooked pancakes warm at 200 degrees until you’re ready to serve them. If desired, top with sour cream or crème fraiche before serving.

Notes

Recipe adapted from "Joy the Baker Cookbook - 100 Simple and Comforting Recipes" by Joy Wilson

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Just an FYI - I won't have access to my computer while I'm in the hospital this week, but if all goes well, I should be home sometime on Thursday.  I'll have another yummilicious recipe posted for you as soon as this old body allows me to get back into the kitchen.  In the meantime, I'll make sure that someone is posting updates on my condition over on my Facebook fan page.  I adore you for being a part of my world.  Please come back and visit me again soon, ok?

 

Until we meet again, may your heart and stomach both be well fed, and may you be blessed with all things yummilicious!  ~~ Becca

 

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Boeuf Bourguignon

July 14, 2012 · by · 2 Comments
Boeuf Bourguignon from ItsYummi.com

It's time to celebrate La Fête Nationale!  Or for my English speaking lovelies, Bastille Day.

 

Not too long ago, I had a discussion with a foodie friend of mine about which chefs inspired us when we were growing up, and I suddenly realized just how many of the chefs that inspired me were French and/or lived in France.  Jacques Pepin, Jacques Torres, and Julia Child were all instrumental in giving me the desire to cook and serve wonderful food to the people in my life.  I remember being glued to the television as Julia showed me step-by-step how to get drunk on cooking wine de-bone a chicken.  Many years later, I used those skills to help me make yummilicious dishes of my own.  Like this one.

 

That being said, I'm not much of a French food connoisseur.  I'm not fond of pate or escargot, and I am most DEFINITELY not into fois gras.  Who in their sane frame of mind would want to eat engorged duck livers?  Eww to the goo. and yuck to the duck.  Heck, I'm not even much into the stinky cheeses that are all the rage in French cuisine.  I AM, however, a lover of French comfort foods like puff pastry, pate-a-choux, casseoulets and today's dish... Boeuf Bourguignon.

 

The dish is basically a very rich, excessively drunk-on-red-wine beef stew, but I could eat a pot full of it even in the heat of summer.  It's just that good.  Oh, and I have Julia Child to thank for the recipe.  She really knew how to make a dish special.  *SIGH*  I miss you, dear lady.  BON APPETIT!

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Boeuf Bourguignon

Rating: 51

30 minutes

3 hours

6 servings

Boeuf Bourguignon

This recipe is adapted from "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck (Alfred A. Knopf, 1961)

WHAT YOU\'LL NEED

  • One 6-ounce piece of chunk bacon
  • 3 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 3 pounds lean stewing beef, cut into 2-inch cubes
  • 1 large carrot, bias (diagonally) cut
  • 1 medium yellow onion, sliced
  • Salt and pepper
  • 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 3 cups red wine, young and full-bodied (like Beaujolais, Cotes du Rhone or Burgundy)
  • 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 cups brown beef stock
  • 1 tablespoon tomato paste
  • 2 cloves mashed garlic
  • 1/2 teaspoon thyme
  • One dried bay leaf, crumbled
  • 18 to 24 white pearl onions
  • 3 1/2 tablespoons butter
  • Herb bouquet (4 parsley sprigs, one-half bay leaf, one-quarter teaspoon thyme, tied in cheesecloth)
  • 1 pound mushrooms, fresh and quartered

HOW TO MAKE IT

Remove bacon rind and cut into lardons (sticks 1/4-inch thick and 1 1/2 inches long). Simmer rind and lardons for 10 minutes in 1 1/2 quarts water. Drain and dry.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Sauté lardons in 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a flameproof casserole over moderate heat for 2 to 3 minutes to brown lightly. Remove to a side dish with a slotted spoon.

Dry beef in paper towels; it will not brown if it is damp. Heat fat in casserole until almost smoking. Add beef, a few pieces at a time, and sauté until nicely browned on all sides. Add it to the lardons.

In the same fat, brown the sliced vegetables. Pour out the excess fat.

Return the beef and bacon to the casserole and toss with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.

Then sprinkle on the flour and toss again to coat the beef lightly. Set casserole uncovered in middle position of preheated oven for 4 minutes.

Toss the meat again and return to oven for 4 minutes (this browns the flour and coves the meat with a light crust).

Remove casserole and turn oven down to 325 degrees.

Stir in wine and 2 to 3 cups stock, just enough so that the meat is barely covered.

Add the tomato paste, garlic, herbs and bacon rind. Bring to a simmer on top of the stove.

Cover casserole and set in lower third of oven. Regulate heat so that liquid simmers very slowly for 3 to 4 hours. The meat is done when a fork pierces it easily.

While the beef is cooking, prepare the onions and mushrooms.

Heat 1 1/2 tablespoons butter with one and one-half tablespoons of the oil until bubbling in a skillet.

Add onions and sauté over moderate heat for about 10 minutes, rolling them so they will brown as evenly as possible. Be careful not to break their skins. You cannot expect them to brown uniformly.

Add 1/2 cup of the stock, salt and pepper to taste and the herb bouquet.

Cover and simmer slowly for 40 to 50 minutes until the onions are perfectly tender but hold their shape, and the liquid has evaporated. Remove herb bouquet and set onions aside.

Wipe out skillet and heat remaining oil and butter over high heat. As soon as you see butter has begun to subside, indicating it is hot enough, add mushrooms.

Toss and shake pan for 4 to 5 minutes. As soon as they have begun to brown lightly, remove from heat.

When the meat is tender, pour the contents of the casserole into a sieve set over a saucepan.

Wash out the casserole and return the beef and lardons to it. Distribute the cooked onions and mushrooms on top.

Skim fat off sauce in saucepan. Simmer sauce for a minute or 2, skimming off additional fat as it rises. You should have about 2 1/2 cups of sauce thick enough to coat a spoon lightly.

If too thin, boil it down rapidly. If too thick, mix in a few tablespoons stock. Taste carefully for seasoning.

Pour sauce over meat and vegetables. Cover and simmer 2 to 3 minutes, basting the meat and vegetables with the sauce several times.

Serve in casserole, or arrange stew on a platter surrounded with potatoes, noodles or rice, and decorated with parsley.

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Fun with Food – Hot Dog Splits

July 8, 2012 · by · 4 Comments
Hot Dog Splits from ItsYummi.com

I love playing with my food.  Maybe it's because I'm secretly a Piccaso at heart, but I suspect it's more from my necessity to comply with the "no whining zone" rule.

Did you grow up in a house like mine?

When I was a kid, my mom, like most others I knew, always discouraged dinnertime dramatics.  There was a "no whining zone" rule applied the moment my 5 siblings and I sat down with my parents at the table.  So when there was something being served for dinner that I didn't like (insert lima beans, Brussels sprouts, and liver here), I would be the "good girl" and keep my trap shut, but my fork would become a makeshift front end loader to the mashed potatoes.  I would do things like shovel the potatoes from one side of the plate to the other, secretly covering up that pile of green mush along the way.  What I couldn't see couldn't hurt me.  That was the plan anyway.

When I got older and began to enjoy cooking, I appreciated the creativity involved in plating a dish.  After all, we eat with our eyes first.  The way I see it, meal time should be a fun and enjoyable experience.  In my opinion, making food fun gives kids another great reason to eat it!  There's no better way to assure a happy meal time than giving kids free reign over their plate.   Here's an idea that will allow your child's inner Picasso to shine.

 

HOT DOG SPLITS!

 

The beauty of this dish is that you can create it with just about any fixings you and your family enjoy.  I cut hot dogs lengthwise and laid them down the sides of my dish.  In the center, I placed one scoop each of potato salad, coleslaw, and macaroni salad.  I used steak sauce  on the potato salad and the hot dogs to create the "chocolate syrup", yellow mustard on the macaroni salad, and a little dollop of mayonnaise on the coleslaw made a perfect bed for my "cherry"... a grape tomato!

 

I hope you have as much fun creating these as I did.  Have a FABULOUS week, and don't forget to feed your stomach AND your spirit!  Until next time, be blessed and well fed.

~ BECCA

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Firecracker Fudge Pops

July 1, 2012 · by · 8 Comments
Firecracker Fudge Pops from ItsYummi

I've never been easily persuaded to believe in things like black helicopters, UFOs,  Bigfoot, and all that jazz, but I'm beginning to believe that just MAYBE Mr. Gore was correct about global warming.  TYPICALLY, the average summer temps in this part of Wisconsin are 82 degrees.  Hot, but not crazy hot. LATELY, however, the surface temperature of the sidewalk outside of my apartment feels like it could probably give the surface temperature of the sun a run for its money.

 

I bet I could make scads of money selling ice cubes and teaching people how to make things like sun tea and dashboard cookies.  It seems that no matter how much water I drink, it's not enough to quench my thirst because the instant it touches my lips, my body sucks every ounce of it into the pores of my shriveling, dehydrated skin.

 Rather than risk death by dehydration, I've stocked our freezer with lots of frozen fun-on-a-stick.  Like these fudge pops!

 

The idea for these pops was inspired by this week's Sundays with Joy recipe for raspberry fudge pops.  I love Joy's idea of adding raspberries to the chocolate.  It makes for a fun, healthy fruit surprise as you indulge in the creamy chocolate goodness.  As I looked at the photo included in the cookbook, I couldn't help but assimilate the bursts of raspberry within the chocolate to fireworks blooming in the night sky.

 

I wanted my version of these fudge pops to have a burst of fun, too, but in another form.  Just as fireworks are hot, I thought my frozen treats should be, too!  But how do you make a cool frozen treat hot, you ask?  By adding cayenne pepper, of course!  Think frozen Mexican hot chocolate and BOOM... there's a fireworks display in your mouth!

 

Print
Firecracker Fudge Pops

8-10 pops, depending on size of mold used

Firecracker Fudge Pops

These frozen chocolate fudge pops have a firecracker bang of cayenne added. Refreshingly cool, but equally hot!

WHAT YOU\'LL NEED

  • 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped fine
  • 12 ounces (1 1/2 cups) heavy cream
  • 8 ounces (1 cup) whole milk
  • 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

HOW TO MAKE IT

Place chopped chocolate into a medium glass mixing bowl. Set aside.

Combine heavy cream, milk, and cocoa powder in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Whisk constantly until cocoa is dissolved and mixture comes to a simmer. Remove from the heat and pour over the chocolate. Let stand for 2 to 3 minutes and then whisk gently until all chocolate is melted. Whisk in the vanilla extract.

Divide the mixture evenly among the molds and place in the freezer. Freeze for at least 4 hours or until solid.

Notes

Inspired and adapted from recipes by Joy Wilson and Alton Brown

Fudge pops can be held in the freezer for up to 1 week in an airtight container.

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Have a safe and fun 4th of July celebration!

~ Becca

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Pecan Coffee Ice Cream Pie

June 24, 2012 · by · 3 Comments
Pecan Coffee Ice Cream Pie from ItsYummi.com

HAPPY SUNDAY...or in the case of today's dessert, maybe it's a happy SUNDAE!

 

I am such a sucker for ice cream desserts.  Nevermind that I'm a little bit lactose intolerant and I have icky stomach cramps when I eat it.  A rich, smooth, creamy dreamy ice cream is worth the price of admission in my eyes.

 

When Joy the Baker created this recipe for her new cookbook, she made things as simple as... well, pie!  The crust is a mixture of crushed Nilla Wafers and crushed pecans that have been folded into whipped egg whites (meringue) and baked.  The result is a light and delightful meringue crust.  There was just one little issue where I was concerned.  Those danged Nilla Wafers.

 

I have a love-hate relationship with them because they contain high fructose corn syrup, loads of sugar, and hydrogenated fats.  In good conscience, I can't eat them.  So I did a little investigative research with Swagbucks and found this recipe over at Serious Eats for making knock-off Nilla Wafers.  TA-DA!  Problem solved.  The cookies are DELIGHTFUL and I'm lucky I baked a double batch, because if I hadn't, I would have been hard pressed to have enough left to grind up for my crust.  They are just so stinkin' good!

 

After the pie crust has been made and baked, the rest of Joy's recipe really just involves assembly.  I layered a pint of coffee ice cream, a pint of vanilla bean ice cream, and topped it all off with some more crushed pecans.  I let it chill for about 10 hours before I cut into it, just to make sure that it was nice and set.  I added a little bit of freshly whipped cream and some hot fudge sauce on top because, well, a day without chocolate is like a day without sunshine!

 

Lucky for me, that timing landed me smack dab in the middle of my breakfast hour.  It was the PERFECT time to take photos, and I was CERTAINLY not going to let perfectly yummilicious food go to waste with all of the starving children in the world, so I ate it.  For breakfast.  Hey...judge not, lest ye be judged!  Go ahead...do it.  I won't tell!  :)

Until next time...be blessed and well fed!

~Becca

$1.00 off any TWO (2) Packages of Dixie Napkins

$1.00 off Any 1 Nature Made Adult Gummie
$0.75 off purch. of $5 Weight Watchers products
$1.00 off JENNIE-O Fully Cooked Sausage

Filed Under: Frozen Desserts, recipes · Tagged: , , , , ,

Chunky Monkey Bars

May 27, 2012 · by · 7 Comments
Chunky Monkey Bars

Earlier this morning, I posted my weekly Sundays with Joy recipe for Vegan Chocolate Banana Cupcakes.  If you haven't taken a peek yet, please do so.

I'm sorry. I caved under peer pressure and published TWO blog posts on the same day.

No....I take that back. I'm NOT sorry. This is a recipe that I created off the top of my head yesterday, and a group of my fans over on the It's Yummilicious Facebook page asked me to get the recipe posted today. So here it is. I'm really rather proud of it, and I think that if you make it, you'll agree that it's worth buying a pair of stretchy pants for.

I was in the mood to make something peanut buttery, but beyond the basic peanut butter cookie.  I thought about making some buckeye cookies, but I was too hot and lazy to be bothered with rolling a bunch of cutsie peanut butter dough balls and then dunking them into melted chocolate.  Then I realized that I had a couple of bananas that were aching to be eaten, and I'm a big fan of combining those two flavors  PB&B sammies were one of favorites as a kid.  But the fact remained that I still wanted to incorporate chocolate into my dessert too.  After all, if I was going to gorge myself and gain weight, chocolate needed to be involved. It's one of the Yummilicious food commandments.

Thou shalt consume chocolate and bacon as often as humanly possible.

For those of you who aren't yet versed in the Yummilicious commandments, the next one is quite similar:

Thou shalt encourage chocolate consumption among thy brothers and sisters. 

So now that you understand why I HAD to share this recipe today, please do me the honor of making a pan full for someone you love this week.  Even (and especially!) if that person you love is you.  :)

Chunky Monkey Bars
 
Created By:

Recipe Category: Dessert
Cuisine: Bars / Cookies
Serves: 24
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WHAT'S NEEDED
  • 8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
  • 11.5 ounces (1 box) Whole Grain Peanut Butter Cheerios
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 large bananas, sliced into 1/4 inch thick slices
  • 2 cups (12-ounce package) semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate chips (I used Nestle semi-sweet)
  • 1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup cashew pieces, finely chopped (I pulsed mine in a food processor)

HOW TO MAKE IT
  1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. (325 if using a convection oven)
  2. Place the cereal into the bowl of a food processor and pulse until it turns to crumbs. Pour melted butter over the crumbs and pulse to combine.
  3. Reserve approximately 1/2 cup of crumbs and press the remaining crumbs into the bottom of a 13 x 9 inch baking pan. Bake the crust for 8 minutes and remove from oven. Let cool slightly (about 5 minutes).
  4. Meanwhile, melt all but 1/2 cup of the chocolate chips and the sweetened condensed milk together in a heavy saucepan over low heat. Stir occasionally until the mixture is smooth and glossy. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract.
  5. Arrange the sliced bananas across the bottom of the crust. Pour the chocolate mixture over the top of the bananas and spread to cover as much surface area as possible. Combine the remaining 1/2 cup of crumbs, 1/2 cup of chips, and the chopped nuts together and sprinkle over the chocolate filling.
  6. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the center is set. Cool in pan before slicing and serving.

IMPORTANT STUFF
Yield: 24 bars

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Filed Under: BAKING, chocolate, recipes · Tagged: , , , , ,

Vegan Chocolate Banana Cupcakes

May 27, 2012 · by · 6 Comments
vegan chocolate banana cupcakes2

Even for the carnivores in the bunch, vegan cooking and baking has taken on a stronger presence in the food blogging community recently. I suspect it's because the FDA has been doing a less than stellar job of keeping foods safe for human consumption. They don't seem to give a hoot about the excessive hormones being pumped into Tom the turkey or Christa the chicken, nor do they have concerns about the "pink slime" burgers moving their way onto store shelves and into fast food restaurants, and they definitely don't give a care as to the fact that some of the larger food manufacturing companies out there (read KASHI), continue to include GMO's (Genetically Modified Organisms) into so-called healthy foods.
Truth be told, if it weren't for my ever-present adoration with bacon and eggs, I might seriously consider jumping onto the vegan train for the long haul. There are some incredibly healthy protein options available for vegans, and it seems that every day, another vegan option appears onto store shelves.
Before I tell you more about this week's recipe, I want to encourage you to purchase a copy of the book that I'm cooking my way through so that you can make some of these yummilicious recipes for yourself.  It's a fabulous cookbook written by the extremely talented and sweet as pie Joy Wilson, also known as Joy the Baker. I searched for the best price on the Internet for the book and found it HERE

Joy's vegan chocolate cupcake recipe actually calls for the use of avocados, but since I just baked with those last week, when I made her avocado fries, I thought I would substitute the avocado for an equally awesome fruit that pairs well with chocolate and can be used as a fat replacement.  Enter BANANAS!
I'm not too experienced baking vegan treats, but Joy did a great job in her book of explaining what to expect in the way of texture, taste, and overall appearance.  That really helped after I mixed up the batter and saw how loose it was.  Turns out, the lack of eggs and real butter in the recipe prevents the batter from getting exceptionally thick and/or fluffy.  Let me tell you, the batter might be thin and lifeless, but the cupcakes were DEFINITELY fluffy and fabulous!  The end result was a moist cupcake with a consistency very similar to sponge cake.  Lots of chocolate flavor with just a slight hint of banana.  The vegan buttercream frosting fluffed up nicely too, lending itself to perfect piping consistency.

For decorating, I placed the frosting into a pastry bag that I fitted with a large coupler and a Wilton 1M pastry tip.
To make the rose effect with the frosting, I started in the middle of the cupcake and piped my way around and out to the edge of the cupcake.  For a better visual on the procedure, check out this great how-to video that Amandamade.  It really helped see just how easy the technique is!

Now that I know how to make them, this is your advance warning that you're going to see a LOT of roses on my future projects.  I can hardly wait to experiment with different colors and create myself a world full of buttercream roses!
As always, I would love to hear your thoughts on this recipe if you make it, or any of my others for that matter.
Here's wishing you and yours a safe, fun-filled Memorial Day.  For those of you who are members of our armed forces, thank you from the bottom of my heart for your service to this country!  God bless and protect you all!

Becca

Filed Under: BAKING, chocolate, cupcakes, Food Facts, recipes · Tagged: , , , , ,

Homemade Puff Pastry Creations

May 11, 2012 · by · 8 Comments
Puff Pastry Creations

Houston, we have a problem.

I stepped outside of my baking comfort zone yesterday, and what I wandered into was a wonderful world filled with puff pastry treats.  My life has been forever changed by HOMEMADE buttery, flaky deliciousness.  I'm afraid there's no saving me... I'm done for.

To be honest, I'd never really had a desire to make my own puff pastry before.  After all, Pepperidge Farm makes a perfectly acceptable product that's convenient and one that, until yesterday, I thought was  suitable for use whenever I had a craving for a pot pie or fruit filled treats.  All of that has changed now.  THIS is what happens when you can create anything you want with fresh ingredients and no preservatives...

Dunk a couple of these babies into a little powdered sugar glaze, some melted chocolate, or even a cold glass of milk or hot cup of coffee.  They're just beyond extraordinary!

Preparing multiple layers of pastry dough and butter is time consuming (about 5 hours total), but the results are SO worth it.  If you've never bitten into flaky puffed pastry straight out of the oven, I need you to trust me when I tell you to give it a try and see if you don't become a little bit obsessed with it.

This whole shebang of a project started thanks to my participation in the Sundays with Joy baking group.  This week's recipe, which you'll have to come back on Sunday to read about, calls for a puff pastry crust.  80% of the group is using the traditional boxed puff pastry, but a few of us were encouraged by the wonderful and uber-talented pastry chef, Jenni Field, to make our own.  She offered to help walk us through the process, assuring us that it's really not a difficult technique, it's just time consuming.  Then Jenni threw in the deal maker for me... she told me that she made a tutorial video to help teach us the tricks to the trade.  I was SOLD!  I figured that even if it turned out to be a complete disaster, I would have had fun learning, and I'd only be out a few bucks in ingredients.  But it WORKED...OH how it worked!  In case you're interested in learning the technique for yourself, here are the videos

I made my project for Sunday's post and then I just got crazy creative thinking of the filling possibilities.  I made sweet treats and savory treats with that flaky puff pastry. Some of my favorites were the chocolate filled, and these savory garlic puffs.

I made them by placing a little bit of Lia Marie's 5-Cheese Garlic Spread into the center of the dough before folding them up and crimping the edges. Oh, by the way, there's a great $1.00 off coupon out right now for Lia Marie's.  You can get it by clicking HERE

 I really hope you'll consider making your own puff pastry so that you can experience the yummiliciousness for yourself!

Filed Under: BAKING, pastries · Tagged: , , ,

Toffee Caramel Brownies

May 7, 2012 · by · 9 Comments
Toffee Caramel Brownies-main

In the world of chocolate desserts, brownies are one of those treats that appeal to the masses.  Whether you're a fan of the chewy gooey or the bakey cakey variety, a well made brownie is sure to bring a smile to even the grumpiest of grumps

That being said, it goes beyond the consistency with me.  If I were to start thumbing through the awesome brownie recipes I've come across, the endless variations on the basic brownie theme would have my heart going pitter pat long into the evening.  If you don't believe me, just hook up with me on Pinterest and do a search for brownies.  It's a surefire way to make you drool all over yourself.

To add fuel to the brownie blaze we've got going, here are a few great deals to help spread the brownie love:

PREPARED PANTRY - This site is a brownie lover's dream come true!  For those moments when you need a dessert and you need it FAST, this place should be your go-to source.  I LOVE their baking mixes and kitchen tools, but even more awesome than the products are the great prices and awesome deals they have to offer.  I think that their shipping charges are really reasonable, too.  Get this...  They offer 7 different flavors of brownies mixes.  SEVEN!  Check out the varieties HERE

Ooo, I almost forgot.  They have two nifty brownie cutters, too.  One has a wavy design, so you can use it to make a decorative edge on any bar treats.

 CLICK HERE for more information

The other tool will slice your brownies cleanly and evenly.

CLICK HERE for more information

Both of those nifty gadgets are must-haves in my opinion, and they'd even make a great little gift for a lucky mom or grandma on Mothers Day.

Ready to bake?  Give these toffee caramel brownies a try and see if you don't die and go to brownie Heaven.  YUM!

I created these on a whim one afternoon.  I had some caramel buttercream frosting left over from when I had made  Snickers cupcakes and I sure wasn't going to let it go to waste.  I also had a bag of toffee chips and a package of Rolos in my baking cabinet that had been calling my name.  I knew that Brian would want to share these with his coworkers, so I decided to bake them in cupcake liners to make them easier for him to serve.  Fudgey brownies stuffed with chocolate and caramel, topped with that sinful frosting and a smattering of toffee chips.  OH. EM. GEE.

As I had hoped, they were a grand slam home run.  Winner winner brownies for dinner!

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Toffee Caramel Brownies

Rating: 51

12 standard sized or 24 miniature sized

Toffee Caramel Brownies

Chewy, fudgey brownies filled with creamy caramel and topped with decadent caramel buttercream and rich toffee pieces.

WHAT YOU\'LL NEED

HOW TO MAKE IT

Line a standard cupcake tin with 12 paper liners. Spray each lightly with non-stick spray.

Fill each liner 1/3 full with the brownie batter and place a Rolo into each liner.

Place more batter into each liner, filling each one approximately 3/4 full. Sprinkle toffee pieces on the top of each brownie before baking.

Bake brownies according to directions on the package, then allow them to cool completely before frosting them with the caramel buttercream and sprinkle with more toffee pieces if desired..

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