Strawberry Tarts

Bite-size strawberry tarts served with chocolate dipped strawberries

I found the easiest fruit tart recipe ever from Paula Deen! I tested it on my cousins, and even though they weren't pretty the first time, they loved them. Instead using an assortment of fruit, I opted for strawberries with a strawberry glaze. I also made them bite-size by baking them in mini-cupcake lined (to give that tart pan crease effect) mini muffin pans. This recipe will make about 24 bite-size tarts or one regular tart.

Crust ingredients:
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened and sliced

Filling ingredients:
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Fresh strawberry slices

Strawberry glaze ingredients:
2 tbs and 2 tsp white sugar
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon strawberry flavored gelatin
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- For crust: Combine crust ingredients in a food processor (I used my mixer) until it forms a dough. Press the dough into a tart pan or into lined mini-muffin pans. Bake until light golden brown (For mini, I baked for about 8-10 minutes). Set aside to cool.
- For filling: Beat cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla until smooth. Spread over cooled crust (I piped it in). Top with strawberry slices.

- For glaze: Combine ingredients and boil for one minute then remove from heat. I painted the glaze onto my strawberry slices. If you make a large tart, you can also toss the strawberries in the glaze then place on the tart.

All packed up for Sheila's baby shower!
Tip: Save your plastic containers for transporting goodies. This one was from Costco's bbq ribs



Enjoy!

Apple Turnovers

I made Apple Turnovers with crescent roll dough which turned out yummy, warm and comforting. It also made the house smell so good =)
BUT, here is an early disclaimer: I threw this all together so there aren't any real measurements. BUT, I honestly don't think you can mess this up. Cinnamon and sugar complement the apple so well that you just can't go wrong!


Crescent roll dough is awesome and versatile. I'm sure many of you have used it to make pigs-in-a-blanket, wrapping little smokies or vienna sausages with crescent roll dough for appetizers. Some of you probably even add cheese to make it fancy, haha! But have you ever tried to use it for dessert? I did that this evening, and it turned out sooooo good! It's already got me thinking about what else I can make with this amazing stuff.

Ingredients:
(I'm giving you the ingredients I used this evening, but you can change it up depending on the size of your apple(s) and taste)

• 8 oz. can refrigerated crescent rolls (I used reduced fat. You gotta reduce it where you can!)
  
• 1 medium fuji apple diced
  
• little less than a 1/4C sugar
  
• ground cinnamon (start with a little and work more in to taste. Sorry, I wasn't measuring)
  
• 1 tbsp flour
  
• 1 tbsp butter

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
  
• Mix diced apple, sugar, cinnamon and flour in a bowl
  
• In a small pan, melt butter under low to medium heat; Add apple mixture and saute until apples are tender (You can skip this and add the mixture directly to your dough, but I like my apples a bit more tender. The dough bakes pretty quickly, and I didn't want to burn the dough waiting for my apples to have the right consistency. Again, it all depends on your taste); Remove from heat
  
• Separate the crescent roll dough into 8 triangles; Fill each triangle with about a tablespoon of the apple mixture and fold the dough over to create a smaller triangle; Keep at least an inch of space between each turnover
  
• Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown

While they were baking, I made a quick glaze with powdered sugar, milk and vanilla extract which you can find in the Raspberry Thumbprints. I did scale it down since this would need much glaze.

Enjoy!

Pretzel Turtles

OH EM GEE! Ben's cousin Margie introduced me to this delectable sweet treat on Christmas. I can't believe how easy they are to make. I just love the sweet/salty combination. I brought some to the Yamat Christmas celebration, and some family members couldn't place the chewiness of the caramel - but what a winner!

Ingredients:
- package of rolos
- package of small pretzels
- package of pecan halves

Directions:
- preheat oven to 350 degrees
- unwrap rolos
- place pretzels on parchment or foil lined cookie sheet
- place a rolo on top of each pretzel
- bake for 2-3 minutes or until rolo is soft (but not totally melted)
- remove from oven and gently press a pecan half on top of each rolo
- allow to cool and set

It's crazy how divine these are! Another easy crowd pleaser!

Raspberry Thumbprints

I decided to try this recipe to bring to the Mendaros Christmas Celebration. My sister-in-law ended up eating a bunch of them after they cooled! It's such a simple butter cookie recipe but super fabulous!

It was titled "Raspberry Ribbons" since they are made to be long finger shaped cookies, but I found that it was easier to make them into individual cookies versus shaping and cutting the dough.

Ingredients:
- 1 cup butter softened
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup raspberry jam

Glaze Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup confectioners'sugar
- 1 tablespoon evaporated milk
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
- In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in egg and vanilla.
- Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well.
- Roll dough into 1" balls and line on baking sheet about 1 to 1.5 inches apart. Press your thumb in the center of each cookie creating a well. Bake at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes.
- Remove from oven and fill depressions with jam. Bake an additional 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool for 2 minutes. Place on colling racks.
- In a small bowl, combine glaze ingredients until smooth. Add additional evaporated milk to thin glaze as needed. Drizzle over warm cookies. (I actually divided the glaze ingredients in half).

I guarantee that they will disappear!

Cake Bites

Photo by Ben's cousin Jasmine G.

Merry Christmas! My gift to you is my favoritest "almost home-made" super easy decadent and fabulous looking cake bites!

It's exactly just that, a cake bite. A pefectly sized tasty morsel of cake, frosting, and candy coating. It's the lazy version of Bakerella's cake pops.

Ingredients:
- Box cake mix (and ingredients as directed)
- Cannister of vanilla frosting
- Packages of chocolate and vanilla Wilton candy melts (can be found at Michael's Craft store and Joanne Fabrics) or Almond Bark (can be found in baking aisle)
- Sprinkles

Directions:
- Bake cake as directed. Once cake is cool, crumble cake until fine.
- Mix about 1/3 to 1/2 of the frosting until the cake has a doughlike consistence (start with less rather than more since some cakes are more moist than others)
- Form "cake dough" into 1" balls and place on wax paper lined tray. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
- Melt candy melts as directed (I usually do it by microwavie - ultimate laziness)
- Dip balls into melted candy and make sure that it is thoroughly covered. Tap off excess and place on wax paper to set.
- If using sprinkles, add them right after dipping so that they stick on.
- Drizzle vanilla candy melts on the plain ones (I place a few vanilla candy melt pellets in a plastic ziplock, melt in the microwave, cut a tiny hole in the corner of the bag, and drizzle over the cake bite in a zig-zag pattern).




Cakepop variation:
- Dip lollipop stick tip in melted chocolate then insert into cakeball
- Gently dip and roll cakepop in melted chocolate, tap off excess
- If adding sprinkles, add immediately
- Place cakepop on plastic wrapped styrofoam to set

My favorite cake/candy melt combinations are chocolate devils food cake with milk chocolate candy melts and lemon cake with vanilla candy melts.

This is such an easy and fun process, and the results are pretty. I'm so craving a chocolate one with a cup of coffee now... ;)

Baking Party!

What a wonderful way to spend the day with girlfriends catching up!

I spent the afternoon with my high school girlfriends Gail and Michelle baking holiday treats. We had a bunch of recipes, but it took us some time to decide which to do first. Next time, we need a timeline! Here are a few of the treats we created while spending quality time.

Chocolate Fudge, Whoopie Pies, Magic Cookie Bars, Peanutbutter Cup Cookies, Peppermint Bark Snowflakes (not pictured)

Lollipop Stick Treats

Lollipop sticks make so many treats even yummier! Here are a few things that I've "lollied."

Cakepops
Bakerella has an excellent website of ideas, and her book is awesome. My next adventure is to try cakepopping cheesecake... mmmm


Cookiepops
Already made dough with holiday kisses make an easy fun treat for the kids


Krispiespops
Another easy treat on a stick - rice krispies treats dipped in milk chocolate. Add sprinkle to make festive!