National Chocolate Ice Cream Day

June 7, 2016June 7, 2016 lizellyn more sweets Ice Cream

Happy National Chocolate Ice Cream Day

Hope you take advantage of the “holiday” and indulge. Today, I served a light chocolate ice cream with chocolate chips and a bit of chocolate ganache.

As seen in a previous post:

CHOCOLATE GANACHE is the BEST add-in ingredient for ice cream!

Here’s a bowl of peppermint ice cream with swirls of chocolate ganache. Peppermint is a great flavor for the winter time holidays, but the chocolate ganache could just as easily and tastily be added to vanilla, coffee, mint, cherry, peanut butter, or any other flavor ice cream.

Chocolate ganache is better than chocolate chips, chocolate sauce, and hot fudge!

The taste is rich, creamy, and delicious
The texture is smooth, not hard chocolate chips or magic shell
It stabilizes in the ice cream and doesn’t inhibit the flavor of the ice cream – like adding chocolate sauce that is runny and eventually overtakes the flavor
Doesn’t ruin the texture of the ice cream by melting it

How to add chocolate ganache to the ice cream

make the ganache, see directions below (allow to cool while making ice cream)
make the ice cream, any flavor you choose, see video below
Add 1/3 of freshly made ice to a serving bowl that can be placed in the freezer, drizzle about 1/3 of the ganache over the ice cream, add another layer of 1/3 of ice cream and 1/3 of the ganache over the ice, repeat again with final 1/3 of ice cream and 1/3 ganache
Take a knife and cut through the drizzled ganache (do not blend entirely, you want to leave ribbons of chocolate – see photo)

How to make chocolate ganache:

Place 1 cup of chocolate chips in a large size bowl. Heat 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream in pot on stove on high temperature. When the cream is boiling, pour the cream over chips and stir with a whisk until all the chips have melted and smooth texture has been attained. (allow to cool while making the ice cream)

Here’s a video on how to make 2 ingredient ice cream.

See Related:

Brownie A La Mode

ENJOY!

Lemon Gooey Butter Cookie on a Vanilla Cupcake stuffed with Blueberry Frosting

May 3, 2016May 3, 2016 lizellyn Sweets Blueberry, Cupcake, Lemon

It’s been a while since I have baked any desserts. I have been on a protein enhanced, sugar-free muffin (aka Buffins) kick lately. I have been feeding these to my athletic kids in lieu of store bought protein bars.

The muffins may be healthy to eat, but easing stress is healthy, too. For me, baking is a stress relief. I was in need of a little baking stress relief this week. I’m gluten free, so I rarely make anything that I can actually eat. I don’t have to face the temptation of eating too much of what I bake. I also gift most of the baked goods that I make so that there aren’t too many sweets in the house for my kids.

Once I decided to bake a real dessert, I was determined to find something worthy of a Guilty Pleasure title. Now that spring has sprung, I wanted to find a delicious fruity find. Lemon and Blueberry go together extraordinarily well. That’s where my inspiration began. I found this lemon gooey butter cookie recipe and I was well on my way to creating a new dessert.

First, let’s talk the cookie on the top. Why? The dough needs to chill for at least 2 hours or overnight. Keep this in mind if you plan on making these cupcakes.

Lemon Gooey Butter Cake

found this receip at http://wickedgoodkitchen.com/lemon-gooey-butter-cookies-best-ever-from-scratch/

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes

Yield: Makes about 2½ dozen cookies

Ingredients:

2¼ cups (270 grams) organic all-purpose flour, such as King Arthur Flour®

2 teaspoons (about 8 grams) baking powder

1 (8-ounce/226-gram) package cream cheese, such as Philadelphia®, softened

½ cup (1 stick/113 grams) unsalted butter, softened

1½ cups (300 grams) granulated sugar

2 tablespoons (12 grams) freshly grated lemon zest, from 2 large lemons

1½ tablespoons (22.5 ml) freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 teaspoon (5 ml) pure vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon (a few drops) lemon oil, such as Boyajian® -Omit for gluten-free variation.

1/8 teaspoon natural yellow gel based food coloring, such as CHEFMASTER®

1 teaspoon (5 grams) kosher salt, or ¾ teaspoon regular table salt

1 large egg plus 1 large egg yolk (mine weighed 71 grams w/o shells)

1 cup (120 grams) confectioners’ sugar, sifted, for rolling & dusting cookies

Preparation:

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour and baking powder until well blended. Set aside.

Using an electric stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, or handheld electric mixer, cream together cream cheese and butter until well blended, creamy and smooth. Beat in sugar, lemon zest and juice, vanilla, lemon oil, food coloring and salt; mix until well combined, light and fluffy, scraping the bowl with a rubber spatula when necessary. Add egg and egg yolk and beat in well until creamy and light, about 1 to 2 minutes on medium speed.

On low speed, gradually add flour mixture and mix until just fully incorporated. Dough will be very sticky. Cover work bowl and refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight.

Meanwhile, arrange oven rack in lower third of oven and preheat oven to 325ºF. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside. Place confectioners’ sugar in a small bowl; set aside.

Measure enough dough to roll into generous 1-inch balls, using a 1 1/3-inch spring-loaded cookie scoop (or by measuring a generous tablespoon of dough with a measuring spoon) making sure each scoopful is in equal amounts. This is important for evenly baked cookies.

Roll dough between palms of hands to achieve a small rounded ball and then roll in confectioners’ sugar to lightly coat. Place dough balls on prepared baking sheets at least 2 inches apart.

Bake in preheated oven until cookies have spread into round cookie shapes and are puffed and crackly, about 14 minutes. Do not overbake. The cookies will still be soft in the centers. If they start to brown around the edges, they have baked too long. The underside of the cookies should be only very lightly browned.

Transfer to wire rack and allow cookies to cool completely on baking sheet. Once completely cooled, carefully remove cookies from baking sheet using a thin metal cookie spatula and transfer to an airtight container. Repeat with remaining dough on prepared cookie sheets.

Tips:

Only use completely cooled cookie sheets lined with a fresh sheet of parchment paper before baking each batch.Avoid crowding the cookies on baking sheets by spacing apart at least by 2 inches.

Blueberry Frosting

I used a cream cheese based frosting because I thought it would hold up better against the acid in the blueberries. Also, the cheese flavor would go nicely with the lemon in the cookie.

Ingredients:

8 oz. cream cheese (room temperature)

1 stick butter

4 1/2 cups of powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup pureed blueberries (cleaned fresh or defrosted)

Directions:

Whip the cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Slowly add powdered sugar. Add vanilla. Beat until smooth. Add pureed blueberry. Beat until fully incorporated.

Cupcake

Any vanilla cupcake recipe will do, even a mix. It is not a predominant flavor in this combined dessert. Make sure that cupcakes are cool before assembly.

Assembly

Core out the cupcakes (I have a device that makes this super easy)

Buytra Cupcake Plunger Cutter Pastry Corer Decorating Divider Cake Filler

$4.16 on Amazon.

Pipe frosting into the hole and keep filling until there is a good size dollup on top (to hold the cookie)

Place a cookie on an angle.

Store in the refrigerator and add a sprinkle of powered sugar on top before serving.

See Related Recipes

Gooey Butter Cake

Blueberry Lemon Pie Bars

Happy National Truffle Day

May 2, 2016May 2, 2016 lizellyn more sweets Candy

National Truffle Day is definitely a day to indulge. Here’re a couple of easy to make truffles to enjoy this special day.

Butter Cream Truffles

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles

Jello Eggs for Easter

March 27, 2016 lizellyn more sweets Dessert, Jello

Happy Easter to all that celebrate. And, to those that don’t but like jello, here’s a fun dessert idea.

This is my daughter’s absolute favorite dessert. I only make it on Easter; not only because of the shape but because it takes 6 hours to make. It’s easy, but timely. Setting aside 6 consecutive hours at home isn’t easy.

Besides finding the time, you need to have the appropriate molds. I bought mine years ago. Here’s what one looks like (I have 4):

If you can’t find a place to purchase these molds, you can make your own. All you need is an a left over egg carton and basic plastic egg containers. The full directions for making the molds can be found at this website

http://robbygurlscreations.blogspot.com/2012/04/diy-easter-egg-jello-molds.html

When I make these I like to go for the full rainbow effect. I start buy purchasing small boxes of instant jello: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Depending on store availability, I vary the actual flavors.

Step 1 – prepare molds by coating with cooking spray or vegetable oil

Step 2 – close molds completely

Step 3 – Prepare Jello Flavor: boil 2/3 cup of water and mix with one flavor of jello, whisk for 2 full minutes. Carefully pour liquid jello into the molds. One small box is sufficient for 24 egg molds. (If doing the full rainbow)

Step 4 – Chill for exactly 1 hour

Step 5 – Remove molds from fridge and repeat Step 3 and Step 4 again for each flavor of jello

Step 6 – Chill the full molds for 3 hours. Remove from refrigerator, and carefully separate the mold halves. ENJOY

*Keep any leftovers in the refrigerator

It’s just about time to add my next layer of jello. Gotta Run.

HAPPY BAKING!

What’s your opinion: Warm Chocolate Chip Cookies or Cookie Dough? (gluten free recipe included)

March 7, 2016March 6, 2016 lizellyn Sweets Cookies, gluten free

cookie dough

warm cookies

VOTE HERE…

This debate in my house started on my birthday. I made cookie dough for my birthday. On that same day, my son baked standard chocolate chip cookies for his Latin class. This resulted in a household debate:

I. Which is better gluten free cookie dough or standard chocolate chip cookie dough?

The house was split, but this was more of a factor of what types of chips were used and the fact that I added pecans to gluten free dough.

II. Which is better cookie dough or warm chocolate chip cookies?

Again, the house was split.

It’s my birthday – I’ll eat what I want to.

A birthday is definitely a day to indulge in life’s guilty pleasures!

Who says you have to have a cake for a birthday. This year, I abandoned tradition and made myself something that I was simply craving. It’s not that I don’t like cake. In years past, I’ve made my flour-less chocolate cake with cinnamon whipped cream. About six months ago, I even found a fantastic gluten free carrot cake recipe, but I wasn’t in the mood. This year, I wanted COOKIE DOUGH!

I love cookie dough! It’s not pretty looking, but it is pretty delicious. I had absolutely no intentions of baking any of this dough. Thus, I was able to leave out the eggs and baking soda. Also, I used almond flour that has a great taste but doesn’t bake very well.

GLUTEN FREE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE DOUGH

Here’s my recipe (not meant to be baked in oven):

Ingredients:

1/2 c butter

1/2 c light brown sugar

2 tsp vanilla

2 Tbsp milk

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 c almond flour

1/2 c rice flour

1 c chocolate chips (I used a mix of milk chocolate and peanut butter chips)

1/2 c chopped pecans.

Directions:

Beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Blend in vanilla, milk, and salt. Slowly add and mix-in both flours. Mix until fully incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts..

Enjoy immediately or chill in the fridge. The chilled dough can be rolled into balls for snacking purposes and kept in refrigerator or freezer. Cookie dough doesn’t last long in my house – there’s no need to freeze it.

Chocolate Ganache – BEST Add-In Ingredient for Ice Cream

January 16, 2016January 16, 2016 lizellyn more sweets Ice Cream

There are a lot of different flavor ice creams; BY FAR, CHOCOLATE GANACHE is the BEST.

Chocolate ganache is better than chocolate chips, chocolate sauce, and hot fudge!

The taste is rich, creamy, and delicious
The texture is smooth, not hard chocolate chips or magic shell
It stabilizes in the ice cream and doesn’t inhibit the flavor of the ice cream – like adding chocolate sauce that is runny and eventually overtakes the flavor
Doesn’t ruin the texture of the ice cream by melting it

How to add chocolate ganache to the ice cream

make the ganache, see directions below (allow to cool while making ice cream)
make the ice cream, any flavor you choose, see video below
Add 1/3 of freshly made ice to a serving bowl that can be placed in the freezer, drizzle about 1/3 of the ganache over the ice cream, add another layer of 1/3 of ice cream and 1/3 of the ganache over the ice, repeat again with final 1/3 of ice cream and 1/3 ganache
Take a knife and cut through the drizzled ganache (do not blend entirely, you want to leave ribbons of chocolate – see photo)

How to make chocolate ganache:

Here’s a video on how to make 2 ingredient ice cream.

See Related:

Brownie A La Mode

ENJOY!

International Buttercream Bake-off

December 22, 2015December 22, 2015 lizellyn Sweets Chocolate, Cupcake

Which is better:

Swiss Meringue Buttercream or

French Buttercream?

While looking for some recipes for my daughter’s holiday party in her French class, I kept coming across French buttercream. It piqued my interest. It made me wonder how is this different than the typical buttercream that I generally use? Further hunting on Pinterest lead me to find Swiss Buttercream and Italian Buttercream recipes.

Thus, I decided I needed to do a little bake-off.

The Italian type is most closely related to the Swiss type and my time is limited, therefore I limited my bake-off to just Swiss and French Buttercream.

There are a few major differences between standard buttercream and the French and Swiss variety.

American buttercream includes lots of powdered sugar and a small amount of shortening.
French and Swiss contain a LOT more butter in the recipes and also contain egg
French uses egg yolks
Swiss uses egg whites
French and Swiss include a heating process to kill the bacteria in the egg

In order to compare the buttercream recipes, I choose the purest flavor, Vanilla. Considering the international flair to this little comparison, I thought I should splurge on some higher grade vanilla flavoring. Luckily, I found vanilla beans on sale at Costco (the store typically sells them during the holiday season).

I choose a buttermilk devils food chocolate cupcake because I thought that it would showcase the buttercream well. Note: I used no-fade cupcake papers that have an aluminum lining. The baking time had to be reduced drastically to accommodate this type of wrapper.

What were the results of the bake-off? The jury was split. I found both the Swiss and French to be way too rich, creamy, and buttery. Perhaps it is an acquired taste, but I’ll stick to my standard buttercream.

Standard (American) Buttercream Recipe

Ingredients: 1/2 c shortening, 1/2 c butter, 1 tsp vanilla, 4 c powdered sugar 3/8 c milk

Directions: Cream shortening and butter. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk. Add vanilla. Beat until light and fluffy.

Swiss Meringue Buttercream – recipe from Cake Boss

http://www.cakebossbaking.com/recipes/swiss-meringue-buttercream/

French Buttercream – recipe from Cake Boss

http://www.cakebossbaking.com/recipes/french-buttercream/

HAPPY BAKING!

Gluten Free Christmas Treats

December 21, 2015December 21, 2015 lizellyn more sweets, Sweets Chocolate, Cookies, gluten free

Gluten Free Christmas Treats.jpg

Light Meringue Cookies

These are a truly light meringue cookie as compared to almost every other meringue recipe that I’ve ever tried. Most meringue cookies are very solid throughout and have a powdery taste. These, on the other hand have a lot of air throughout the cookie and the chocolate chips and nuts add a lot of flavor. This is a recipe that has been in my family for a long time, but I’ve decided that it must be shared. Too many people are seeking gluten free desserts and this is one of the best.

Ingredients: 3 egg whites , 1 1/8 cups sugar, 1 1/2 tsp vanilla, 12 oz chocolate chips (I used colored chips for the holidays), 1 1/2 cups chopped pecans

Directions: Preheat oven to 350. Cover two cookie sheets with aluminum foil. Whip egg whites until fluffy, keep whipping and SLOWLY add sugar (I pour it so that it appears to be a slow constant rain of sugar – should take a couple of minutes to add sugar), add vanilla and whip until incorporated. Stir in pecans and chocolate chips by hand. Drop by spoonfuls onto prepared cookies sheets. TURN OFF OVEN! Place cookie sheets in the oven for at least 10 hours (I usually keep it in overnight) DO NOT OPEN OVEN! Gently remove from cookie sheets.

Note: I only make these cookies during the winter when the humidity is low.

Chocolate Peppermint Bark

This isn’t a fancy dessert, but it tastes delicious and is festive looking for the holidays. Whether or not someone is gluten free, they are sure to enjoy the flavor.

Ingredients: 2 lbs of chopped chocolate, 1 tsp of peppermint (not mint) extract, 1 1/2 cups of chopped peppermint candy canes,

Directions: Place wax paper over a jelly roll size cookie sheet. Melt chocolate in the microwave, stir in peppermint extract, mix in 1 cup of chopped candy canes, spread onto prepared cookie sheet, sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup of chopped candy canes. Chill at least 1 hour in the refrigerator. Break into serving pieces and enjoy. As long as you live in a cool area, the bark can be kept at room temperature.

See Related Post:

Gluten Free Halloween Treats

HAPPY BAKING!

Frozen Hot Chocolate Meringue Cake (gluten free)

December 16, 2015December 16, 2015 lizellyn Sweets Cake, Chocolate, gluten free

Fabulously light, gluten free cake that can be flavored any way you like.

This is a very different kind of cake. Instead of actual or traditional cake, there are two layers of baked meringue. There is a layer of whipped cream between the rings of meringue and frosted on the top and outside with more whipped cream. The entire cake is then placed in the freezer. After one day, the meringue softens a bit and has an amazing texture.

This is the second time I made a version of this cake. For the chocolate whipped cream I used: 2 cups of heavy cream, 6 Tbls. of Ghirardelli hot chocolate mix, and 6 Tbls. of powered sugar. I had to go to a few stores to find this kind of hot chocolate mix, but as I have mentioned before using top notch chocolate ingredients is essential to obtaining the best flavors.

Essentially, this cake could be done using an flavor whipped creme that one desires. The options are endless.

Note: The top Happy Birthday decorating was done in dark chocolate. I allowed the whipped cream to harden first before placing the lettering on top.

Original Recipe: (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/frozen-meringue-cake-recipe.html)

Frozen Meringue Cake
Recipe by Giada De Laurentiis

Ingredients
Meringue:
4 large egg whites, at room temperature
3/4 cup superfine baker’s sugar
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
Pinch fine sea salt
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Cream:
2 cups heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups fresh raspberries (6 ounces)
Syrup:
1 1/2 cups fresh raspberries (6 ounces)
1 cup balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1/2 cup fresh raspberries, for garnish, optional
Special equipment: One piping bag fitted with a plain 1/2-inch tip

Directions

For the meringue: Place an oven rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 200 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using a pencil, trace two 8-inch-diameter circles, side-by-side, on the parchment paper.

Beat the egg whites until fluffy in a stand mixer with a whisk attachment. Gradually add the superfine sugar, about 1 tablespoon at a time, with the machine running on medium-low speed, until the mixture holds soft peaks. Beat in the cream of tartar and salt. Increase the speed to high and beat until the mixture is thick and holds stiff peaks, 3 to 5 minutes. Beat in the vanilla extract. Place the meringue in the piping bag. Pipe the meringue into two 8-inch circles on the prepared baking sheet using the traced circles as a guide. Bake until crisp, 2 hours. Turn off the oven and allow the meringues to cool completely while still in the oven, about 2 hours.

For the cream: Beat the cream on high speed until thick using an electric hand mixer. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla extract. Continue to beat on high speed until the cream holds stiff peaks. Add the raspberries and beat until incorporated into the cream.

Spread one-third of the cream over each meringue circle. Place 1 circle on top of the other to create 2 layers. Spread the remaining cream on the sides of the cake. Garnish with fresh raspberries if using, and freeze the cake until firm, 3 hours.

For the syrup: Mix the raspberries, vinegar and maple syrup in a small saucepan. Lightly mash the raspberries using a fork. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook until thick, 25 to 30 minutes. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve and allow to cool.

To serve: Allow the cake to sit at room temperature for 15 minutes. Cut the cake into wedges and place on serving plates. Drizzle with the syrup and serve.

See Related Post:

Frozen meringue cake with Bailey’s Vanilla Cinnamon Whipped Cream

For this version of the whipped cream I used: 2 cups of whipped cream, 1/4 cup of powered sugar, and 1/4 cup of Bailey’s Vanilla Cinnamon Irish Creme.