Blended Root Beer Float

This post will be short and sweet (no pun intended)! I love root beer floats and if you ask Holli she will tell you that in the summer I get these crazy root beer float cravings. There is something wonderful about the root beer crystals that form in the cracks of the ice cream and then drinking that creamy root beer goodness afterwards! It doesn't get much better on a hot summer day! That being said, you would think a blended root beer float would be inferior because you just don't get that same experience you do with the traditional float. I would beg to differ. I almost prefer the blended float. I can't exactly explain why, but it is just better. Don't get me wrong I still love the float, but you will just have to try it for yourself and decide.

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White Chocolate Walnut Blondies with Maple Butter Sauce

This has been a busy week as we try to get ready for the baby. I haven’t ventured out and tried too many new recipes. I will make a few new ones this week as this may be my last chance to cook without too many distractions. Also I see a lot of chicken nuggets and Macaroni and Cheese in my future. If I can help it my kids will love good food.

Holli for some reason has been wanting to make Blondies. There were a couple of recipes we found and decided to try both. The first turned out a little too gooey and then after they cooled down they were rock solid. Maybe because they were mostly butter and brown sugar…not like that’s a bad thing, but there was no leavening agent. The next recipe we tried was a homerun!

In brownies the main ingredient is coco powder. In Blondie’s it’s brown sugar. The nice thing is you can add whatever you want in them. For ours we added butterscotch chips and pieces of heath. You could also add nuts, chocolate chips, coconut, or whatever you want really. There was also a caramel sauce that I wanted to make to put on top too, but never got around to it. These are awesome with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. Ok, enough reading you should really just make this.

White Chocolate Walnut Blondies with Maple Butter Sauce

FOR THE BLONDIES:

• 3 cups All-purpose Flour

• ¼ teaspoons Salt

• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder

• 10 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter, melted

• 2 cups Brown Sugar

• 3 whole Eggs, Lightly Beaten

• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

• ½ cups Chopped Walnuts (optional)

• 1 cup White Chocolate Chips (optional)

FOR THE SAUCE:

• 2 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter

• 1-½ cup Heavy Cream

• 6 Tablespoons Maple Syrup

• 3 Tablespoons Light Corn Syrup

• Optional Garnish: Vanilla Ice Cream, Chopped Walnuts

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, salt & baking powder. Set aside.

In another large mixing bowl, mix melted butter with brown sugar until well-blended. Add in beaten eggs and vanilla. Stir well.

Slowly add flour mixture to butter/sugar/egg mixture. Stir thoroughly but take care not to overmix your batter. Fold in nuts and chocolate. Batter will be thick.

Spray pan with nonstick cooking spray, then pour batter into 9 x 13 baking pan. Bake for about 25-30 minutes (until a toothpick inserted comes out clean).

For the sauce:

Melt butter in a medium sauce pan over medium heat (do not allow butter to burn). Then add heavy cream, maple syrup and corn syrup. Allow this mixture to simmer over medium heat for about 20-30 minutes. This is the hard part: waiting for the mixture to reduce and thicken. You don’t want to bring this to a boil, just a nice, slightly bubbly simmer. Stir it occasionally. Once it has reduced by about a 1/3, it’s ready.

Sugar Cookies

It has been too long since my last post. Things have been so crazy the last few weeks and I have not had a lot of time to cook new recipes or blog. It is about that time of year to do fun Christmas-y things. In the coats household we have our tree up and the house decorated. This last week we had a sunbeam class party. As the kids have been keeping our class rules they earned stickers on a sticker chart. We told them when they go to 100 stickers they could have a class party. This weekend they all came over and we did Christmas crafts and decorated sugar cookies. It was kind of crazy, but we had fun. We made elf hats, Santa beards, and ornaments. They were most excited for the cookies though. So in honor of the Buena Vista Ward Sunbeams I am going to post a sugar cookie recipe.

This recipe comes from my Mother-in-law. What I love most about these cookies is they are nice and soft. I hate hard sugar cookies! I also love to eat the dough. I am eating some left over dough as we speak. So stop being lazy this Christmas, forget the premade stuff and try this recipe out. You won’t regret it! Here are some of the lovely cookies decorated by some of our primary kids!

Sugar Cookies

1 C. Butter

1 Egg

1 TBSP. Milk

1 Tsp. Vanilla

2 ¾ C. Flour (sifted)

1 Tsp. Baking Soda

¼ Tsp. Salt

Mix Butter, Egg, Milk, and Vanilla. Then add the Flour, Baking Powder and Salt. Once dough is mixed refrigerate for 1 hour. Roll out dough on a floured surface. Cut out into desired shapes and spray a cookie sheet. Cook at 350 for 8-10 minutes. Let cool and then frost.

The Great Pumpkin Blog

We love pumpkin flavored things in the Coats household. The hard part about pumpkin things is it’s a seasonal product. It is a true find if you can find pumpkin puree at the grocery store in July. I think we are going to have to add that to our food storage. I would like to let you in on a couple of our favorite pumpkin recipes so everyone can make them before the pumpkin runs out.

The first recipe is from our friend Kathryn. These cookies are what she is famous for. They are so lovingly called Pumpkin Crap Cookies. You can call them Pumpkin Butterscotch Cookies if that brings up unwanted imagery. This is hands down my favorite cookie recipe. They are soft and really addictive when they first come out of the oven. I never would have put pumpkin and butterscotch together, but they were made for each other. They are culinary soul mates!

The second recipe is from a favorite blog of mine called noblepig. Holli and I had some really good pumpkin cheesecake from our friend Nate’s ice cream shop in town. When I asked him if he could give me the recipe he said he doesn’t have one and makes it up as he goes. Then I stumbled across this bad boy! We will be making this for a Thanksgiving pie contest at Holli’s family’s house. I have a feeling we will take home the 1st place prize, or at least an honorable mention. We did a test run on Sunday and it was amazing. It uses a gingersnap chopped pecan crust that is to die for! I also have a secret recipe that I made up! It’s a homemade vanilla bean whipped cream! I guess it’s not so secret now. If you have a chance to make any of these for your thanksgiving they will be the talk of the night for sure. You will be a hero!

Pumpkin Crap Cookies

1 15 oz can Pumpkin puree (Not pumpkin pie mix)

½ C. soft butter (Not Melted)

1 C. Sugar

2 C. Flour

1 Egg

1 tsp. Cinnamon

1 tsp. Baking Soda

1 tsp. Baking Powder

1 tsp. Vanilla

½ tsp. Salt

1 Bag Butterscotch Chips

Preheat the oven to 375° F. Spray cookie sheets with PAM. In a bowl combine all ingredients by hand (no electric mixers) and then gently fold in the butterscotch chips with a spatula.

Drop mounds of dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them a few inches apart. Bake for about 12-14 minutes. Insert a toothpick and make sure it comes out dry. Allow to cool if you have the patience.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Crust:

1-1/2 cups gingersnap cookie crumbs

1/2 cup finely chopped pecans

6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1/4 cup sugar

Filling:

Three 8 ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar

2 large eggs plus 2 large egg yolks, room temperature

1 cup canned pumpkin puree

1/2 cup sour cream, room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1-1/2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

To make the crust, preheat oven to 350° F. Butter an 8" springform pan (make sure it's the right size). Cover the outside of pan with 2 layers of foil. Stir together all crust ingredients. Press into bottom and up sides of pan. Bake for 10 minutes. Let cool on a rack.

To make the filling, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat cream cheese and both sugars until light. Beat in eggs and yolks, 1 at a time. Beat in pumpkin, sour cream and vanilla. Reduce speed to low; beat in flour and spice. Pour into crust.

Place cheesecake into large roasting pan, as you see here. Fill pan with 2" of hot water. Bake until cake is set around the edges but still slightly jiggly when lightly shaken (cake will firm as it cools), 55 to 65 minutes. Once you check the cake for doneness, turn off the oven and leave the door closed for several hours. It is the sudden changes in temperature that cause cracks in the tops of a cheesecake so let it slowly cool down in the oven.

After several hours it will still be warm, go ahead and pull it out of the oven, still in the roasting pan of water and let it cool more on the counter. Once cooled, remove it from the water, cover it and refrigerate it overnight or up to 2 days.

WHITE CHOCOLATE-FUDGE TORTE

If someone were to ask you what your favorite desert was what would you say? I would probably say this one. This wonderful recipe came from Holli’s Uncle Taylor. Why would this desert be my favorite you ask? First it is fancy. I love fancy food and I could totally see this in a high class restaurant. Second it is balanced. The cake is flourless and dense and a little bitter. The top layer is very sweet and creamy. Then the raspberry gives it a kind of tangy tarty kick, if that makes sense. To get the full effect you have to get everything in one bite. It is magical…like getting sneezed on by a unicorn. Ok maybe that wasn’t the best description, but that was the most magical and whimsical thing I could think of. This desert is not the easiest thing to make, but it’s not the hardest. It takes a lot of time to make, so it’s not one of those things you whip up in 30 min after you realize you need to bring a desert to a party sort of thing. I hope at least some of you are making these recipes, which is the point of this blog. If not I will keep all these wonderful recipes to myself. I don’t mean to fish for comments, but throw a guy a bone here.

WHITE CHOCOLATE-FUDGE TORTE





Cake
16 oz. Semisweet Chocolate
1 Cup Unsalted Butter
6 Eggs


Topping
1 cup White Chocolate chips (melted)
8 oz. container whipping cream
8 oz. pkg cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup powered sugar
2 tablespoons white crème de cacao, if desired


Raspberry Sauce
10 oz. bag frozen raspberries in light syrup
6 oz. fresh raspberries





Heat oven to 400. Spray 9 inch spring form pan with nonstick cooking spray. In large saucepan, melt semisweet chocolate and butter over medium-low heat, stirring constantly until smooth. Cool 35 minutes or until completely cooled.


Meanwhile, beat eggs in small bowl at high speed for 5 minutes or until triple in volume. Fold eggs into cooled chocolate until well blended. Pour into sprayed pan.


Bake at 400 for 15 to 20 minutes. Cake edges will be set but center will jiggle when moved. Cool in pan on wire rack for 1 ½ hours or until completely cooled. Refrigerate 1 ½ hours of until firm.


Heat white chocolate and 3 tablespoons whipping cream in heavy small saucepan over low heat, stirring frequently, until chocolate is melted. In large bowl, beat cream cheese, powdered sugar and crème de cacao until smooth. While beating, slowly add white chocolate mixture until smooth. In chilled small bowl, beat remaining whipping cream until stiff speaks form. Fold into white chocolate mixture. Spread over cake. Refrigerate until firm, 1 hour or overnight.


Before serving sprinkle on fresh raspberries then add frozen.

Marbled Lemon Curd Cheesecake

I normally like to post about a recipe a week, but this weekend was packed so fully with food I thought it would be too much for one post. So I am breaking it up a little bit. My good friend Liz sent me her copy of Gourmet Today and I promised her I would post some blogs from it. It didn’t take a lot of time for me to bust that bad boy open and get started.

Our friends Stephanie and Michael stayed at our house this weekend and they love to cook and eat as much as we do. We used to do gourmet nights with them every Wednesday and watch Lost. Now that they live in Tennessee I don’t know what we are going to do. The premise of Gourmet Night was that we would trade off who did dinner and who did desert. This weekend Steph did desert out of Gourmet Today. So Liz without further ado... Marbled Lemon Curd Cheesecake! I’m not usually one for Lemon deserts, but this one rocked my world!

Marbled Lemon Curd Cheesecake
Ingredients
For lemon curd:
• 1 teaspoon finely grated fresh lemon zest
• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

For crust:
• 1 1/3 cups finely ground graham cracker crumbs (5 oz)
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

For filling:
• 3 (8-oz) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• Special equipment: a 9- to 91/2-inch (24-cm) springform pan

Process
Make lemon curd:
Whisk together zest, juice, sugar, and eggs in a 2-quart heavy saucepan. Add butter and cook over moderately low heat, whisking frequently, until curd is thick enough to hold marks of whisk and first bubbles appear on surface, about 6 minutes.

Force lemon curd through a fine-mesh sieve into a wide shallow dish, scraping bottom of sieve, then cover surface with wax paper. Cool completely, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes.
Make and bake crust:

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Invert bottom of springform pan (to make it easier to slide cake off bottom), then lock on side. 3Stir together crust ingredients in a bowl, then press onto bottom and 1 inch up side of springform pan. Place springform pan in a shallow baking pan and bake 10 minutes, then cool crust completely in springform pan on a rack.

Make filling and bake cheesecake:
Reduce oven temperature to 300°F.
Beat together cream cheese and sugar in a bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes. Reduce speed to low and add eggs 1 at a time, beating until incorporated. Beat in sour cream and vanilla until combined.

Pour two thirds of cream cheese filling into crust, then spoon half of lemon curd over filling and swirl curd into filling with a small knife. (Avoid touching crust with knife to prevent crumbs getting into filling.) Repeat with remaining filling and curd.

Bake cheesecake until set 1 1/2 inches from edge but center trembles when pan is gently shaken, about 45 minutes. (Center of cake will appear very loose but will continue to set as it cools.) Transfer springform pan to a rack and immediately run a knife around top edge of cake to loosen. Cool completely, about 2 hours, then chill, uncovered, at least 4 hours. Remove side of springform pan before serving.

Notes:
•Lemon curd can be made 1 week ahead and chilled, covered.
•Crust (without filling) can be made 1 day ahead and kept, covered, at room temperature.
•Cheesecake can be chilled, loosely covered, up to 2 days. Cheesecake must be completely chilled before covering to prevent condensation on its surface.

Peach Cobbler

Dear faithful blog followers:

I'm sorry I have not posted enough sweet recipes. I love to eat sweet things...a lot, but do not enjoy cooking them as much as savory things. Along with my apologies I will share a recipe that is a Barneck family secret. It is the best cobbler recipe in the world. I will try to balance out the sweet and the savory a little better.

Most Affectionately,

Matt

Ok now that’s out of the way let’s get right to the peaches. A few weeks ago we went with the sibs to an orchard called Dicky Brother's Orchard. It is a Coats family favorite after we went apple picking last fall. There is just something fun about picking your own fruit. Every time we go we get a little out of control and pick way too much fruit. Holli gets especially over excited as seen below.

So after filling two boxes of peaches and two cartons of blackberries we decided to stop there. The peaches were like candy. So we made cobbler, peaches and cream, put peaches in our cereal, made peach chutney, and gave a lot away. I think we did a good job at using the peaches seeing as we only threw four away out of two boxes.

This cobbler is one of my favorite deserts. I like to double the batter because it's my favorite part. If you want extra batter I wouldn't recommend doubling the peaches or butter. Also putting the peaches on top of the batter in not a typo, that is just how it works. You can also substitute other fruit or add different fruit to the peaches. We added the blackberries we picked to one batch and it gave it some nice tart. Ice Cream is another must. Enjoy!

Peach Cobbler

1 qt (5-6 fresh peaches) peaches

½ cup sugar for fresh peaches

1 stick butter

¾ cup flour

2 tsp baking powder

½ cup sugar

¾ cup milk

Mix dry ingredients and add milk. Melt butter in 9x13 pan while preheating the oven. Pour batter in pan and pour peaches over the top. Bake at 350 for 60 min.