My friend Sue served this delicious Limoncello Cake at the last gathering for Farkle. It was almost, (I repeat) almost too pretty to cut. She even served it from her Grandmother's cake stand. Sue was all ready for me (she knows me too well) with the recipe. The recipe is one from Chef Jasper from Hen House Supermarket. (Actually a friend and customer of his, Bonni Knocke created the recipe and shared it with Chef Jasper.)
LIMONCELLO CAKE
1 yellow cake mix (without the pudding in the mix)
1 box instant vanilla pudding mix
1/2 cup corn oil
1/4 cup water
3/4 cup limoncello
4 eggs + 1 egg yolk
1/4 cup lemon zest
TOPPING
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup butter
1/2 cup limoncello
3 tablespoons lemon juice
3 tablespoons lemon zest
Mix all of the ingredients for the cake, pour into a well-greased Bundt pan, and bake at 325 degrees F for one hour.
Prepare the topping while the cake is baking by placing all topping ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.
Poke holes in the cake when you remove it from the oven and then pour the topping over the cake. (Do this as soon as you remove it from the oven.)
The cake on Sue's grandmother's cake stand...
With homemade whipped cream...
without....
This Oreo Ice Cream Dessert that my friend Janice made for a gathering was so good. Words escape me. It's hard to go wrong with desserts made with ice cream, but then add Oreo cookies....Yummy! (and so easy!)
OREO ICE CREAM DESSERT
1 (10 oz.) package Oreo cookies (crushed)
1/3 cup margarine (melted)
1/2 gallon butter brickle ice cream
1 jar (13 - oz.) Smucker's Hot Fudge Sauce (heated in the microwave)
1 (8 oz.) container of Cool Whip
Butterfinger candy bar (crushed)
Combine the crushed cookies and the melted margarine.
Spread in bottom of 9 x 13 - inch pan.
Spread the butter brickle ice cream over the cookie mixture. (You may need to let it soften slightly so that it will spread better)
Then, pour the hot fudge sauce over the top of the Ice cream.
Top with Cool Whip topping.
Sprinkle topping with a crushed Butterfinger candy bar.
Freeze until ready to serve.
Seems like lately I have been taking desserts that you make in the slow cooker to the volunteers at Hillcrest Thrift Shop on Tuesdays when I go in to "work". Partly because of the hot days we have been having (although the fourth of July weekend, everyone was getting out their jackets and sweat shirts to enjoy the fireworks) but also because it seems like I have been busy the Monday afternoon before and can't anything made.
The slow cooker is so easy and the dessert smells so good cooking in the cooker behind the check out counter.
This Sour Cream Chocolate Cake is my latest venture. While the cake was very good, I think everyone would agree a scoop of ice cream would have made it even better. I don't know it if were because I was using my larger slow cooker (cookers do cook differently, you know) and I usually use my 3 quart one, but I almost cooked the cake too long. (It would be a thinner cake in a large cooker.) So just watch your cooking time.
SOUR CREAM CHOCOLATE CAKE
1 devil's food cake mix, dry ( I used a chocolate fudge cake mix with the pudding in the mix)
3 eggs, or 6 egg whites if you want to reduce fat
1/2 cup fat-free sour cream
3/4 cup cold water
Preheat slow cooker on High for 10 minutes then spray the cooker with a nonfat cooking spray.
In a large bowl, stir together the dry cake mix, eggs, sour cream, and water.
Stir until well mixed.
Pour the mixture into the prepared slow cooker.
Place a paper towel over the top of the cooker and cover with the cooker lid. (I took this picture when the hour and a half were up. You can see how the paper towel absorbs the moisture so it doesn't drop back down into the cooker.)
Cook on High for 1-1/2 hours or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Remove the lid and paper towel. Remove the crock from the slow cooker, and let it cool for 15 minutes.
Place a large serving plate with an edge upside down on top of the slow cooker. Holding the slow cooker and plate firmly together, carefully flip the cake upside down. It will be steamy hot so be very careful.
Serve with a dab of fat-free whipped topping (OR ice cream.
You may want to serve this dessert with a spoon from the slow cooker if you are concerned about inverting the cake.
(Because I was still working my shift, I had Dana serve it with a spoon. When I went into the community room after my shift, I removed the rest of the cake and placed it on a plate. This is the first time I have done this and I couldn't believe what a nice cake it made. If you weren't counting calories as Dawn Hall in her Busy People's Slow Cooker Cookbook is, you could frost the cake with a nice creamy frosting and it would look and taste great with half the trouble.)
I thought this recipe for Apple Oatmeal sounded like a fun change to our regular oatmeal for breakfast when I saw it in Dawn J. Ranck and Phyllis Pellman Good's Fix - It and Forget - It Cookbook , Feasting with your Slow Cooker. The recipe was credited to Frances B. Musser of Newmanstown, PA.
The only problem, if you want to call it a problem, was it cooked for 5 to 6 hours on Low in a slow cooker. The problem is I normally sleep longer than that....closer to 7 or 8 hours depending on how active I was the day before.
Well, last Tuesday night when we stayed up late after visiting with our sons and their families, I decided it would be the perfect time to at least try it. If we liked it, the next time I would use a timer to start the cooker in the night.
Well, I think it was a success. My husband made a point of telling me it was good. Sometimes I have to ask what he thought of whatever I had made, but this time, he volunteered and told me he liked it and that it tasted good with his plain Greek yogurt.
I turned it on before we went to bed around midnight and set my alarm for 6 o'clock. I planned to get up and turn it down to the Keep Warm setting on my slow cooker. The alarm went off but I had been awake for an hour. My husband also had been awake and so we got up early and he was ready to try it.
APPLE OATMEAL
2 cups milk
2 tablespoons honey (I omitted because I didn't have any.)
1 tablespoon butter (no substitute!) (Message from Frances) (I melted it in the microwave before adding to slow cooker.)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup dry old-fashioned oats
1 cup chopped apples (1 apple)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
2 tablespoons brown sugar (I used 2 tablespoons of truvia brown sugar blend since I didn't have the honey.)
Mix together all the ingredients in greased slow cooker. (I sprayed my 3 - quart slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray.)
Cover and cook on Low 5 - 6 hours. (I did have mine on Keep Warm for about 30 minutes before we ate it.)
Serve warm with milk or ice cream. Yogurt is great also. I ate mine plain.
This week's chicken dish Orange Chicken with Sweet Potatoes comes from Jyl Steinback's The Busy Mom's Slow Cooker Cookbook. We love sweet potatoes and since we have all this chicken I have to cook up within the year, it sounded like the perfect recipe to try.
It went together easily and by cooking it in a slow cooker my kitchen didn't heat up in the process.
ORANGE CHICKEN WITH SWEET POTATOES
3 large sweet potatoes, cut into 1/4 - inch slices
2/3 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 10-3/4 ounce can low-fat cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup orange juice
Spray inside of slow cooker with cooking spray.
Arrange potato slices in bottom of slow cooker.
Combine flour, cinnamon, brown sugar, pepper, and garlic powder in zip-top bag and shake until mixed. (I just used a pan and
dredged the chicken pieces in the mixture until the chicken was coated.)
Arrange chicken on top of potato slices. (I cut one large breast into 4 strips.)
Combine the soup and orange juice in a bowl and mix well.
Pour mixture over the chicken and potatoes.
Cover slow cooker and cook on Low heat for 8 - 10 hours or on High for 4 - 5 hours. (4 hours were plenty in my cooker.)
I really loved this Coconut Custard Pie. I have to be honest with you that my husband didn't. When I saw the recipe in Phyllis Pellman Good and Rachel Thomas Pellman's From Amish and Mennonite Kitchens cookbook, it sounded so good that I simply forgot that my husband doesn't like custard pies. He did cut himself one piece, but the rest was left for me. (It really didn't register with me that it was called "custard" and not "cream". He would have loved the latter.)
I don't have a pretty picture of the whole pie because my crust messed up. It had a "tear" in it that I thought I had patched, but my "patch" didn't hold. That meant as the pie baked, the crust broke open and the filling seeped under the crust. In that area, I had filling on the bottom, crust in the middle, and then the coconut on top. It made for a "not-so-pretty spot".
COCONUT CUSTARD PIE
2-2/3 cups milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 eggs
1/2 cup grated coconut
1 9 - inch unbaked pie shell (If it isn't a deep dish pie shell, you need to use a 10 - inch unbaked pie shell as I couldn't get all of the filling mixture in the pie.)
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
Combine the milk, sugar, salt, and vanilla in a saucepan.
Heat to scalding. (Bubbles will just start to form.)
Beat eggs lightly in a mixing bowl.
Slowly add the scalded ingredients to the beaten eggs. (I added a tablespoon at a time initially and kept whisking the mixture as I added the scalded ingredients.)
Pour into unbaked pie shell.(As I said earlier, I had a 9 - inch pie crust, but too much filling. I poured too much in the crust and it spilled over in my oven and made a mess.)
Sprinkle coconut over the top of the filling.
Bake at 450 degrees F. for 10 minutes and then reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F. and bake for 15 - 20 minutes or until set. (You can see where my crust messed up. Terrible looking but there was plenty for me to eat.)
The good news for you is....the pie was a delicious coconut custard pie and since I made all the mistakes that could be made, you should be able to make it with excellent results.
I don't remember the last time I made so many different brownie recipes in such a short period of time. I still have one more good one (it's more of a cake-like brownie) recipe to share with you that I made when my family all got together a week or so ago.
If you remember I was requested to bring dessert ... specifically an apple pie and brownies. First, I found an apple pie recipe that sounded good that had butterscotch in the crumb topping. (Butterscotch Crumb Apple Pie) (I asked to make sure this was okay before I made it.) Then I started looking for brownie recipes. I found this one called Twice-Topped Brownies in Mrs. Fields I love Chocolate! Cookbook. They sounded and looked delicious! Like I did with the apple pie I checked with the family first and was told they wanted plain brownies. (Maybe that choice came more from the kiddos than the parents? Not sure.) But aiming to please, I put it aside and looked for recipes for plain brownies.
Fourth of July weekend we were invited to several celebration gatherings that required my bringing a dish to share with the others. The first one my husband wanted me to make potato salad. I don't make potato salad much anymore since we try to only eat sweet potatoes, but I had made some a week earlier for a Sunday school picnic and it tasted so good. You can check out my post for Southern Potato Salad that I shared years ago with my friend Sandy's recipe. I don't really use a recipe (one of the few dishes I make without one) but we basically make it the same.
Guess what I decided to make for the other gathering. If you said, "Mrs. Fields Twice-Topped Brownies", you are right. I had to hurry up the process because I didn't make them until after we got home from church and lunch, but they turned out even better than I could ever have imagined. They are definitely my all-time favorite brownie recipe now.
TWICE-TOPPED BROWNIES
BROWNIE LAYER
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1 stick (1/2 cup) salted butter (I did use unsalted)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 cup (packed) light brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
VANILLA CREAM
1 stick (1/2 cup) salted butter (once again I used unsalted butter)
4 ounces cream cheese, softened (I used 1/3 less fat)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/4 cups confectioners' sugar (I sifted the sugar before measuring.)
CHOCOLATE DRIZZLE
2 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
2 tablespoons heavy cream (I only had skim milk which made my drizzle a little thinner.)
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a 7 x 11 - inch baking pan.
Prepare the brownie layer:
In a double boiler, melt the unsweetened chocolate and butter together,
stirring until smooth. Set aside to cool slightly.
In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and salt.
In a medium bowl, beat the eggs and brown sugar together.
Beat in the chocolate mixture and the vanilla.
Stir in the flour mixture.
Then stir in the pecans and mini chocolate chips.
Spread the batter in the prepared pan and bake for 22 to 25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. (I cooked mine the full 25 minutes.) Cool in the pan on a rack.
Make the vanilla cream:
In a medium bowl, cream the butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy.
Gradually beat in the vanilla and confectioners' sugar.
Spread the vanilla cream over the cooled brownies. Refrigerate until set.
(As I mentioned above I hurried the process along. I made the vanilla cream while the brownies were baking. I then put the mixture in the refrigerator to get cold until the brownies cooled enough to frost them.)
Prepare the drizzle:
In a double boiler, melt the chocolate chips and cream over hot, not simmering water. (I just melted mine in the microwave). Stir until smooth, then set aside to cool slightly. Dip a fork into the melted chocolate mixture and drizzle in a random pattern over the vanilla cream layer.
(I wasn't quite so successful with my drizzle - partly because I don't do it enough to have perfected the process and secondly I used milk instead of cream so my mixture was thinner. I have a small bottle I used and it was working fine until a blob came out. But you know what? I doubt anyone noticed it at the party.)
Chill until ready to serve. (I couldn't do this so my vanilla cream was softer, but still tasted great.) Love the combination of the flavors.
With homemade whipped cream...
