Category: Desserts

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz. cold cream cheese
5 Tbsp. softened butter
2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar (sifted after measuring)

Beat 8 oz. of cold cream cheese (not rock solid, but you can use it straight from the refrigerator) with butter and vanilla until combined. Gradually add the powdered sugar until you reach a consistency and sweetness that fits your taste. Easy!

This recipe is really smooth, like a frozen fudgicle.

Chocolate Sorbet

2 1/4 cups water
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
pinch of salt
6 ounces bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a large saucepan, whisk together 1 1/2 cups of the water with the sugar, cocoa powder, and salt. Bring to a boil, whisking frequently. Let it boil, continuing to whisk, for 45 seconds.

Remove from the heat and stir in the chocolate until it’s melted, then stir in the vanilla extract and the remaining 3/4 cup water. Transfer the mixture to a blender and blend for 15 seconds. Chill the mixture thoroughly, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. (If the mixture has become too thick to pour into your machine, whisk it vigorously to think it out.)

(I believe this recipe is by David Lebovitz, although I found it in various places on the internet.)

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

6 tablespoons butter, softened
Cocoa powder, see below
2 2/3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For light chocolate frosting use 1/3 cup cocoa powder. For medium chocolate frosting use 1/2 cup cocoa powder. For dark chocolate frosting use 3/4 cup cocoa powder.

In mixer bowl cream the butter. Add the cocoa and powdered sugar alternately with milk. Beat to spreading consistency, adding more milk if needed. Blend in vanilla.

Buttercream Frosting

1 lb. confectioner’s sugar
1/4 lb. butter (marg)
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
3-4 tablespoons milk

Cream 1/3 sugar with butter and salt in large bowl. Blend extract, 2 tablespoons milk and rest of sugar. Gradually stir in rest of milk until it looks spreadable.

If you don’t want it to be quite as sweet, replace butter with cream cheese. (4 oz. cream cheese – 1/8 lb. butter)

Aunt Hester’s Dessert

1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) butter or margarine
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup chopped nuts
8 oz. cream cheese
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
1 cup Cool Whip
2 packages INSTANT pudding
3 cups milk
1 tsp. sugar

Melt margarine and combine with flour and nuts, then pat into a 9×13 in pan. Bake for 25 minutes at 350 degrees and then cool. Cream together the cream cheese and the confectioner’s sugar and add the Cool Whip. Spread this concoction over the cooled crust. Mix the pkgs. of pudding with milk and tsp. of sugar, and spread this over the cream cheese layer and chill. Top with remainder of Cool Whip and more chopped nuts.

Note: You can use any kind of pudding, even two different kinds, spreading one kind on one half of the pan and the other kind on the other half – good for satisfying everyone. One popular combination is half chocolate, half lemon.

Apple Crisp

4 cups sliced pared tart apples (medium size)
2/3 to 3/4 cup brown sugar (packed)
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup oats
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup butter or margarine (softened)

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Grease square pan, 8X8X2 inches. Place apple slices in pan. Mix remaining ingredients thoroughly. Sprinkle over apples. Bake 30 minutes or until apples are tender and topping is golden brown. Serve warm, and if desired, with light cream, dream whip, or ice cream.

I decided to make some Blueberry Crepes for our 16th anniversary breakfast. Looking around the web I found a lot of variations but I decided to go with the way I remembered having them as a kid. (Does anyone remember a restaurant called the Crepe and the Pancake?) These were not the rolled kind that caused so many injuries in an episode of Seinfeld, but more gently folded like an omelet.

First step was the whipped cream. I don’t mean the store bought stuff; it only takes a few minutes to throw together the real thing and it’s so worth it! Once made, I put the whipped cream in the fridge and began working on the crepes.

For the filling, I combined blueberries, orange juice, cinnamon, vanilla and salt in a sauce pan and put them on a low heat. I heated them until the blueberries started to soften and release their juices. I set the mixture aside and made the batter next.

The batter is very similar to pancake batter but a lot thinner. I thought it was too thin at first, but decided to trust the recipe and go for it. Flipping them was tricky, I used two spatulas to get the majority of the crepe off of the pan before flipping.

Once they were done I moved the crepes to a plate one by one, spooned in the filling to one side and folded them over. The filling was still warm enough to serve, so there was no need to heat anything. Top them with a dollop of whipped cream, then eat!

The result was delicious! The blueberries were a little tangy which worked really well with the sweetness of the mixture and the whipped cream. The crepes had a soft, almost elastic texture to them which held the filling together but broke easily with a fork. I’ll definitely be making these again in the future.

Blueberry Crepes

Whipped Cream

1 cup of heavy cream
1 tbsp. confectioners sugar
1/4 tsp. vanilla

Put ingredients in a medium to large bowl and mix with an electric mixer or a food processor. It will take a couple of minutes but watch it carefully. Stop mixing once peaks start to form or you may end up with butter. Store whipped cream in refrigerator until ready to garnish crepes.

Blueberry Filling

1 pint blueberries
1/2 orange juice
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 cup sugar
1 pinch of salt
1 pinch of corn starch
1/8 tsp. of vanilla

Mix blueberries, orange juice, sugar, salt, and vanilla together in a medium saucepan. Heat over low heat until the blueberries start to soften, stirring occasionally. Sprinkle a small amount of corn starch into the mixture and stir. Remove from heat but continue to stir occasionally. If the sauce looks too thin you can add more corn starch and reheat for a few minutes. Be careful not to over starch it though. It’s better for the mixture to be a little runny than it is to taste corn starchy.

Once done, it will probably stay warm enough to spoon right into the crepes, but if not, just reheat over low heat for a few minutes.

Crepes

1/2 cup flour
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup milk
1 tbsp. Sugar
1 pinch salt

Preheat griddle or pan and add butter or nonstick cooking spray. Once warm, keep it on a low to medium heat.

In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients first, whisk together thoroughly. Break the eggs in a separate bowl and beat just enough to break the yolks. Add the eggs and milk to the dry mixture and whisk until batter is smooth. It will look very thin, but that’s normal. Use a ladle or pitcher to pour the batter onto the griddle in approximately 9-inch circles, although you can make them bigger or smaller as you wish. Watch for the sides of the crepe to look firm and then gently flip with a spatula. Once both sides are done, place on a plate, scoop the prepared blueberry filling to one side of the crepe circle, then fold the crepe over and garnish with whipped cream.