Category Archives: Desserts

Raisin Bran Muffins

  By Kristen | September 17, 2012 - 12:31 pm | ,
Comments Off

Yup, I whipped up some muffins made from raisin bran cereal, of which we had much, and of the mostly stale variety!  I love finding a new use for things I’d otherwise have to throw away, and as often as we found ourselves with a partial box of stale raisin bran sitting around (shall have to investigate that), I just never got around to making these before.

Raisin Bran Muffins - ©Kristen N. Fox, www.foodfollies.com

I took the basic recipe from the web and then tweaked it a little to add a bit more flavor and pizzazz – raisin bran muffins just SCREAM pizzazz, don’t they. ;)   Here’s the recipe below (or you can see it on our recipes page, including an easily printable copy – click here.)

Raisin Bran Muffins

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/4-1/2 tsp. cinnamon
3 cups raisin bran cereal
1 1/4 cups milk
1 egg
1/3 cup vegetable oil

(also need some crumbled bran flakes and sugar for topping)

Mix the first five (dry) ingredients together in a medium sized bowl and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, mix cereal with milk, and let set for a few minutes to soften the cereal. Add the egg and vegetable oil and stir until blended.

Add the flour mixture to the cereal mixture, stirring only until ingredients are blended well.

Either use cooking spray in a muffin tin or line the muffin tin with paper muffin liners. Then divide the batter between all twelve muffin spots – they will be pretty full.

Before putting the muffins in the oven, sprinkle a little bit of crumbled bran flakes and then sprinkle a little sugar over each muffin, for a crunchy topping.

Bake at 400F for 25 minutes. Cool on wire rack.  (recipe from foodfollies.com)

Bookmark and Share

Chocolate Ice Cream with Mint Chocolate Cookies

  By Kristen | June 8, 2012 - 4:43 pm |
Comments Off

Our first homemade ice cream of the season – seriously chocolate ice cream with crumbled up chocolate-covered mint cookies! (You know, the kind sold by that national group of girls every spring? Yeah, them.) This is just our usual chocolate ice cream recipe with the cookies added, so I’m not including a how-to – just a how-delicious!

Bookmark and Share

Kiwi Sorbet

  By Kristen | May 29, 2012 - 7:58 am |
Comments Off

It’s 85 degrees with 100 percent humidity. You happen to have a nice bunch of fresh kiwi fruits in the refrigerator. Do you just cut them up and eat them?

Well, you could. And it would be delicious. But even better because of the high temperature, make kiwi sorbet! Here’s the recipe we used, pieced together from various versions found online to make our own:

Kiwi Sorbet Recipe

4 or 5 kiwis
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons corn syrup
2 cups ice cold water
ice cream maker of some sort

Cut your kiwi up into small pieces into a medium sized bowl. Sprinkle the lemon juice over it. Then sprinkle the sugar over it and mix it up a bit. Cover it and put it in the refrigerator for an hour.

Take the kiwi out of the fridge, and put it in a blender or food processor and blend/mix until it’s puree. Some chunks are okay. Add the corn syrup and the cold water and mix until blended – won’t take long – a few bursts is all. Final concoction may seem a little liquidy, but that’s just right.  (If you don’t want the little seeds in your sorbet, this would be the best point to put the liquid through a strainer – if you still had chunks in your puree though you’ll have to manually make sure those get into the final mix of course.)

Pour it into your ice cream maker and follow manufacturer directions. Put in freezer!

And *poof* – hot day deliciousness…

Bookmark and Share

Crumb Top Apple Pie

  By Kristen | May 8, 2012 - 9:25 am | , ,
Comments Off

This Crumb Top Apple Pie recipe is just the thing if you don’t have enough apples to make a regular apple pie; the recipe originally called for three cups of sliced apples instead of the usual six cups. Of course, this recipe requires a lot more butter for the topping than the basic apple pie recipe too, but we actually HAD butter we needed to use up (long story involving a malfunctioning refrigerator) so it worked out for us.

I started with the recipe from the The Complete Magnolia Bakery Cookbook and made a few changes – you can get our modified version here: Crumb Top Apple Pie Recipe (also includes a link for a printable version.)

And here’s the glorious outcome!

Crumb Top Apple Pie by FoodFollies.com

The topping was nicely crisp, and since the apple filling layer is thinner, it’s not QUITE as much sticky-sweetness as a normal apple pie. I’d recommend eating it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream to round out all the flavors nicely.

Bookmark and Share

Chocolate Cream Pie

  By Kristen | March 9, 2012 - 11:12 am | ,
Comments Off

The other day I had just the right amount of the right ingredients to toss together a homemade chocolate cream pie – graham crackers and butter for the crust, instant pudding and milk for the filling, a cup of heavy cream for the whipped cream (with a bit of sugar), and a nice chunk of organic chocolate to shave on top. I love impulsive cookery when it works out!

I had a photo of the entire pie, but the up-close shot of the shaved chocolate was much more interesting that the ragged edges of the homemade graham cracker crust. :)

Bookmark and Share

Organic Marshmallow Farmer

  By Kristen | July 29, 2011 - 5:49 am | ,
Comments Off

This design began with a really weird conversational tangent, became an Out of Context Quote, and then ended up on a t-shirt!

I think most kids would choose “Organic Marshmallow Farmer” as their desired career path if they were aware of their existence – they are a small, but growing community! *grin* Besides, marshmallows grown and harvested the all-natural way simply taste better. (Click the t-shirt to see all the apparel and other items available to advertise this environmentally humorous choice of vocation.)

[Tags: , , , , ]

Bookmark and Share

Banana… Er… Blueberry Bread

  By Kristen | June 3, 2011 - 7:16 am | , ,
Comments Off

Four+ days of hot, humid weather did not shine kindly upon the three bananas we had in the kitchen, but I didn’t realize that until I was half done making the batter for banana bread. The peels had only the usual amount of black and spots for ‘just’ overripe bananas, but the insides were unusable – bleh. After a quickly passing state of panic where I considered hightailing it to Canada and leaving the recipe remnants for the next person passing through the kitchen (probably the dog), I, instead, thought of what else I could make this bread into. I almost decided on applesauce bread since I spotted two apples in the fridge, but then, glowing like a beacon, with heavenly trumpets sounding, I saw them…. blueberries! Yes!

Instead of the bananas, I added a little milk for the necessary moisture, then mixed in a cup and a half of blueberries, spread it in a pan with a sprinkling of sugar on top for crust, put it in the oven, and crossed my fingers. (Yes, I know it wasn’t THAT much of a stretch to switch the recipe from banana to blueberry, but allow me my drama, dangit!)

Here’s what it looked like when it came out of the oven, just a little while ago:

Looks like it has a light crusty top, so that’s a good thing. And as soon as it’s cooled and I can take it out of the pan, the taste testing will begin! And continue on until it’s been tested into oblivion.

[Tags: , , , , ]

Bookmark and Share

Malted Milk Ball Ice Cream

  By Kristen | February 17, 2011 - 8:51 am |
Comments Off

Contrary to some beliefs, ice cream DOES taste just as good in winter as it does in summer – you just have to put on a sweater when you’re eating it. ;) That’s the justification for the impulse I had to make some malted milk ball ice cream – it’s thin, but whatever works.

I made a custard base with cocoa and chocolate malt powder – the malt gives it a smooth consistency and the unique malt flavor, and the cocoa gives it a little more chocolatey solidity. After churning, I tossed in the cut up malt balls (whoppers) and froze it.

It was really smooth and delicious. The malt powder prevented it from getting as hard/solid as regular chocolate can, which worked out nicely.
[Tags: , , , , ]

Bookmark and Share

Cranberry Apple Torte

  By Kristen | January 28, 2011 - 6:14 am |
Comments Off

I had a bunch of cranberries sitting in the fridge, and didn’t want to make just another cranberry-orange bread, as delicious as those are.  Luckily, we got the  baking book from the Magnolia Bakery as a thoughtful holiday gift, so I looked up ‘cranberries’ in the index and found this torte recipe!

The recipe called for pear slices and cranberries, but we had apples so I substituted apple for the pear. It came out terrific – unsurprisingly, just like a coffee cake with fruit, topped with a crunchy but subtle sugar topping that gave it that little extra oomph.

Cranberry Apple Torte

I know, in this picture it looks like a  pizza, since I baked it in a round springform pan and not one of those ‘torte’ pans with the fancy wavy edge, but trust me, it’s definitely NOT a pizza – LOL!

Looking forward to trying more recipes from this book.

[Tags: , , , , ]

Bookmark and Share