Dan & I have been doing some holiday baking and candy making (and I guess, non-baking, in the case of rum balls). The first three started with recipes found online or in cookbooks, but we adapted them a bit (adding the passionfruit topping, candied ginger frosting, and turning homemade marshmallows into s'mores candies, respectively). The rum balls recipe is something Dan found after we wondered out loud whether you could use gingersnaps to make rum balls (you can!), the pineapple bars were something Dan made while I was at work, to surprise me, and the last recipe was given to me by my mother, passed down from my grandfather (her father), who made his special peanut brittle every year for the holidays.
And to Anna & Jason - what a crazy coincidence that we both made homemade marshmallows this holiday season! S'mores were clearly on the collective conscious' brain. We're saving the beautiful ones you gave us (along with the homemade graham crackers you made - WOW!) to make proper s'mores with our newly working fireplace. Thank you so much for the wonderful surprise!
Passionfruit Cheesecake Bar Cookies
9 squares of graham crackers
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup walnuts
1/4 sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
1 Tbspn lemon juice
1 cup passionfruit juice
1 Tbspn cornstarch
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place crackers, flour, walnuts and 1/4 cup sugar in food processor and pulse until crackers and nuts are finely ground. Move to a bowl and add melted butter, mixing until crumbly and well combined. Press mixture evenly into the bottom of an ungreased 9x9x2 baking dish. Bake for 10 minutes. Blend cream cheese and sugar. Add egg and lemon juice. Mix well. Pour over baked layer. Bake for 20-25 minutes more. Cool completely. Combine passionfruit juice and cornstarch in a saucepan and whisk well to combine. Place over high heat and bring to a boil, whisking often. When the mixture thickens and becomes transluscent, remove from heat and allow to cool partially. Pour over the top of the cooled cheesecake and place in refridgerator. Cut into squares. Store in fridge.
Homemade S'mores Candies
1 cup cold water
3 Tbspn unflavored gelatin
2 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 tspn salt
2 Tbspn vanilla
Cornstarch
Confectioner's sugar
12 oz chocolate chips (semi- or bittersweet)
1 Tbspn butter
1 cup finely crushed graham cracker crumbs
Pour 1/2 cup cold water into the bowl of your mixer. Sprinkle gelatin evenly over the water and allow to sit for 45-60 minutes. In a large saucepan, combine remaining 1/2 up cold water, sugar, syrup and salt. Heat over high heat and allow mixture to come to a boil. Cook, without stirring, until it reaches 240 degrees F. Do not allow to go past 244. Remove from heat and slowly beat into the dissolved gelatin at low speed. Once the hot mixture is incorporated, increase the mixer speed to high and continue beating until the mixture is very thick and white but still warm - about 15 minutes. Beat in the vanilla. Generously dust a 9x13 inch baking pan with cornstarch. Pour the marshmallow mixture into the pan, smoothing the top with a spatula. Dust with confectioner's sugar liberally. Let the marshmallow's stand, uncovered at room temperature, for 8-12 hours to firm up. Turn the marshmallows from the pan onto a piece of parchment paper dusted iwth confectioner's sugar. Cut into squares. In a double boiler, heat butter and chocolate and stir until smooth. Dip marshmallows to coat half-way with chocolate, allowing excess to drip off, then roll in graham cracker crumbs. Return to parchment paper to cool.
Ginger-Molasses Cupcakes w/ Candied Ginger Frosting
2/3 cup molasses
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup shortening
2 tspn ground ginger
1 tspn cinnamon
1 tspn baking soda
2 cups flour
1 cup milk
1 Tbspn lemon juice
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
2 cups or so of confectioner's sugar
1/2 cup candied ginger, divided
One thumb sized piece of fresh ginger root, grated
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Heat molasses, sugar, shortening, ginger, and cinnamon to boiling, stirring constantly. Cool to lukewarm. Sift soda and flour together in large bowl. Combine milk and lemon juice, then eggs, in a small bowl. Add flour and egg mixtures, alternately, to molasses mixture. Bake in 16 paper cupcake liners in cupcake tins for 15-20 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Place 1/4 cup candied ginger and confectioners sugar in food processor and pulse until ginger is broken down and incorporated into sugar. Beat butter in a mixer on high speed until it lightens in color, then reduce speed to low and begin adding sugar/ginger until consistency is just a bit thicker than frosting. Squeeze juice from grated ginger into frosting as you continue beating, increasing the speed. Frost cupcakes.
Gingerbread Walnut Rum Balls
30 gingersnaps, ground in a food processor (about 2 1/2 cups)
2 Tbspn unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup confectioner's sugar, plus more for rolling
1 cup walnuts, finely chopped
4-6 Tbspn honey
4-6 Tbspn rum
Combine gingersnaps, cocoa, sugar and walnuts in a large bowl. Add all but 1 Tbspn each of honey and rum, stirring until the mixture is evenly moistened and still slightly sticky, but holds together when you squeeze a bit in your hand. (If mixture is too dry, add remaining honey and/or rum). With slightly damp hands, shape mixture into walnut sized balls, then roll in confectioner's sugar. Store in an airtight container between layers of parchment paper for up to 3 weeks. The longer they store, the better the flavor.
Pineapple Squares
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/3 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 1/2 cup flour
1 tspn baking powder
1/2 tspn baking soda
1/3 tspn salt
1 20-oz can crushed pineapple, drained
Confectioner's sugar
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream together butter and sugar in an electric mixter for two minutes on high speed. Mix in eggs. Add dry ingredients, except confectioner's sugar, and mix. Drain pineapple by pressing the top of the open can agains the pineapple while draining the juice. Add pineapple to the batter and stire with a spoon until blended. Pour batter into a greasd, 9x13 inch baking dish, and bake for 30-35 minutes. Cool. Cut into 24 bars. Sprinkle with confectioner's sugar.
Grandpa John's Peanut Brittle
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 cup peanuts
1 Tbpsn butter
1/2 tspn baking soda
Pinch of salt
Boil the sugar, water and corn syrup in a saucepan until they reach 245-250 degrees F (hard ball). Add peanuts and continue heating to 300 degrees F, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Add butter, baking soda and salt and stir well. Pour onto a well greased or silicon-mat lined baking sheet, spreading as thin as possible. When cooled, cut or break into pieces.
My first post on this blog was five years ago, talking about our Oscar menu*. Each year, Dan & I host his parents and sister Lisa (and sometimes more) for an Oscars viewing party, and each year we pick a theme for the menu. We've done Italian, Hawaiian, Indian... and this year we did Southern.
Dan created his own signature cocktail for the night (yet to be named) combining bourbon, Campari, peach nectar and ginger ale. He also put together two dips with crackers and veggies. We ordered Ezell's fried chicken and sides for the main course, then I made dessert.
A couple years back (after I stopped blogging every day), I made a rum bread pudding a couple times and fell in love... but lost the recipe. Last year, our Memento Brunch featured another bread pudding. For our Southern dessert, I found this recipe online and it worked great. The great thing about bread pudding is it's difficult to screw up and it's infinitely flexible. At it's core is a loaf of bread, a quart of milk, 4 eggs, a cup of sugar and stick of butter. It's like a french toast casserole - perfect for brunch with a little fruit or maple syrup, or as a dessert with a sweet, liquor infused sauce. Okay, who am I fooling - I eat it with the sauce for breakfast.
Sweet Potato Bread Pudding with Pecan Bourbon Sauce
FOR THE PUDDING:
8 tbsp. butter
1 loaf soft French or Italian bread, torn into large pieces
2 medium sweet potatoes
4 cups milk
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
FOR THE PRALINE SAUCE:
16 tbsp. (2 sticks) butter
3⁄4 cup light brown sugar
1 cup chopped shelled pecans
1⁄4 cup bourbon
For the pudding: Preheat oven to 400°. Butter a medium baking dish with 1 tbsp. of the butter.
Arrange bread in a single layer in the prepared dish and set aside at room temperature to dry out slightly, about 2 hours.
Meanwhile, prick sweet potatoes in 4 or 5 places with the tines of a fork and bake on a baking sheet until soft, about 1 hour. Set aside until cool enough to handle, then halve lengthwise and scoop meat out of skins.
If meat holds together, break it into large pieces. Tuck sweet potato pieces between the pieces of bread, mashing them down slightly with a fork.
Beat together milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon in a large bowl. Pour over bread and sweet potatoes and set aside until bread soaks up milk mixture, 2–3 hours. Cut the remaining 7 tbsp. butter into small pieces and scatter over bread pudding.
Preheat oven to 375°, then bake until custard is set, 35–40 minutes. Set aside to cool for at least 30 minutes before serving warm or at room temperature.
For the sauce: Melt butter in a medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Add sugar and stir with a wooden spoon until sugar melts and mixture begins to boil, about 5 minutes.
Stir in pecans and bourbon.
Spoon warm sauce over bread pudding.
. It's loaded with amazing recipes for all sorts of frozen treats, with focus on techniques and the science behind them, to help ensure great results. The only challenge is that the recipes are aimed at professionals, so have to be scaled down. I took this recipe for 11 lbs of lemon curd ice cream, and scaled it back by 1/10th to produce the perfect amount for the 5 of us (plus a little left over for later). The recipes also use weights, rather than volumes, for measuring - making for more precision, but a little extra work.
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