Tag Archives: sweets

Inside-out Caramel Apples!

Posted on October 6, 2011 by Ruthanne

Celebrate fall with a unique twist on the caramel apple: soft creamy caramel and chocolate on the INSIDE of the apple! Happy October to YOU!

INGREDIENTS:

12-16 medium apples
1 to 2 cups of 7-up
32 Kraft caramels (unwrapped)
1 can (14oz.) of sweetened condensed milk
1/2 c. margarine
6 oz. Wilton Dark Candy Cocoa Melts

(note: these amounts will make more caramel sauce than you need – you can cut the ingredients in half, but then you will have 1/2 of a can of condensed milk left-??!! I say put the extra caramel sauce over ice cream 🙂 your call….)

DIRECTIONS:

Cut top off of apple, scoop out core and seeds with a melon baller
Fill apple “cup” with 7-up and use a kitchen brush to coat edges and top with 7-up (this will prevent browning).

Repeat process with all apples (re-use the 7-up if you want- just pour it from one cup to the next!)
Make caramel sauce by adding caramels, condensed milk and margarine to a saucepan and stirring over medium heat until completely melted and smooth.
Melt chocolate in microwave in 30 second increments until smooth.
Spoon or pipe chocolate into apple cups, saving a little to drizzle on top.
Spoon or pipe caramel (cool a little 1st if you decide to pipe this!) into apple cups over chocolate.
Drizzle chocolate over top of caramel and serve warm and gooey- or chill and serve cold-mmmm!

My thoughts: No worries– I’m sure a “normal” caramel apple post is in my future– I just wanted something different from the expected. These really are a beautiful dessert- serve them with a knife and a fork though- they are a wonderful gooey mess if you serve them warm! Hope you enjoy these! -r

30 Comments

Posted in Candy and tagged apples, caramel, caramel apples, chocolate, dessert, fall dessert, Halloween, inside-out, sweets, unique dessert. Bookmark the permalink.

Coconut Macadamia Nut Cookies!

Posted on September 27, 2011 by Ruthanne

This is a twist on my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe (also my very 1st blog!). My friend Jesse asked if they could be made with white chocolate, semisweet chocolate, macadamia nuts and coconut– and I thought– why not? They turned out great and taste amazing! Thanks for the idea Jess!

INGREDIENTS:

2c. margarine (use tubs of Fleishmans or Country Crock for best results)
2c. brown sugar
1 1/2 c. sugar
6 c. flour
1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 1/2 t. baking soda
2 tbsp vanilla
2c. (one bag) mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
2c. (one bag) white chocolate chips
1 1/2 c. chopped Macadamia nuts (to taste)
1c. shredded coconut (to taste)

DIRECTIONS:

Cream together butter and sugars. Add the rest of the ingredients except for the flour, chocolate chips, nuts and coconut.
Add flour (batter should be fairly dry). Fold in remaining ingredients. Add more flour if needed to make cookie dough very thick.
Drop using a Large Cookie Scoop onto cookie sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 14-16 minutes.
Remove from cookie sheet and cool on parchment paper.
Enjoy!!!

My thoughts: I love this cookie recipe made with the two types of chips in the original recipe. These cookies are great– but I still prefer the original! This cookie dough is PERFECT for making absolutely huge cookies that are cooked all the way through but not crunchy 🙂 Love ’em!!! Hope you do too!!!

3 Comments

Posted in Cookies and tagged best cookie recipe ever, chocolate, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies, coconut, cookies, dessert, macadamia and coconut cookies, macadamia nut cookies, macamadmia nuts, sweets. Bookmark the permalink.

Toffee Pecan Crunch Bars

Posted on September 25, 2011 by Ruthanne

Crunchy toffee, pecans and chocolate make these bars irresistible! This is a wonderfully quick and easy recipe for a last minute treat.

INGREDIENTS:

10-15 sheets of graham crackers
1c. finely chopped pecan pieces
1 stick of butter
1 stick of margarine
1/2 c. sugar
1c. mini chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS:

Line an 11×17 jelly roll pan with a sheet of parchment paper (cut to size)
Break graham crackers into quarters and lay out on parchment paper.
Sprinkle pecan pieces over grahams.

Make sauce by melting butter, margarine and sugar together in a saucepan.
Bring sauce to a boil and boil for 3 minutes. (sauce should be yellow and syrupy)
Pour sauce over grahams and pecans.
Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.
Top with chocolate chips and allow to sit until hard (you can chill to speed this process)

Peel up using parchment paper and break into pieces.
YUM!!!!!

My thoughts: Easy, tasty and fun….I got this recipe from a coworker many many years ago and it is a great last-minute recipe. If you like heath bars this is the perfect recipe for you! Enjoy! r-

2 Comments

Posted in Bar cookies, Candy, Easy recipes and tagged bar cookies, chocolate, crunchy heath bar cookies, crunchy toffee cookies, dessert, heath bar, sweets, toffee, toffee and chocolate. Bookmark the permalink.

Gingerbread Cut-out Cookies

Posted on September 11, 2011 by Ruthanne

These gingerbread cookies are my favorite gingerbread cookies ever. They are a recipe that I got from my grandma (a WONDERFUL cook and baker) many many years ago. I never tried making them because, well, grandma always made them! I have wonderful memories of arriving late at their house after a long drive through Christmas traffic and having a plate of these with milk before bed. My dad and I pretty much ate these by the handful every Christmas season.

My grandma passed away suddenly last week. When I got back home after the funeral I remembered this recipe and knew I finally needed to try my hand at it- even if it isn’t Christmas yet. They turned out beautifully and taste just like grandma’s – tasting them reminded me of all the wonderful things I will miss about her.

So, in honor of grandma Ruth- the best gingerbread cookie recipe ever:

INGREDIENTS:

DIRECTIONS:

Cream together butter and sugar.
Beat in egg, molasses and vinegar.
Blend in sifted dry ingredients.
Chill 2-3 hours (this is important– the dough is very easy to roll after chilling)
Roll 1/8 inch to 1/4 inch thick on a floured counter or board and cut into shapes.
Place on greased cookie sheets.
Bake at 375 degrees for about 10 minutes. Check often- take out when cookies have risen and are easily removed from sheet.
Frost as desired (I used royal icing from sugar cookies recipe)

My thoughts: Thanks grandma- for all the fun and memories and yummy home cooked meals– and most of all for all the love though all of my years. Someday we will all meet together again in heaven. Love you…

29 Comments

Posted in Cookies and tagged Christmas cookies, cookies, cut-out cookies, dessert, gingerbread, gingerbread cookies, old-fashioned gingerbread cookies, sweets. Bookmark the permalink.

Medovnik Honey Cake

Posted on August 17, 2011 by Ruthanne

Finally- I took the time to try making this wonderful layered dessert from the Czech Republic. I had the most amazing piece of this dessert with my friend Angie on a terrace overlooking the city of Prague and decided then and there that I had to try making it. There are many recipes online for this cake and I think I read through them all- trying to pick one that I thought might duplicate the wonderful dessert I tried in Prague. The one I chose was from en.ptitchef.com and since I made quite a few changes to it, this recipe is mostly original.

INGREDIENTS:

For cake layers:

1cup of butter or margarine
3 eggs
1 1/2c. sugar
3 T. (dark!) honey
1 T. baking soda
3 c. flour

For fillings:

1 can sweetened condensed milk
1c. finely chopped walnuts (I used pecans- I like them better!)
2T. flour
1/2c. milk
1/4c. Crisco
1/4 c. butter or margarine
3/4c. sugar
1/2t. vanilla
pinch of salt

DIRECTIONS:

Cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Melt butter completely in microwave or over stove.
Whisk in eggs
Gradually add sugar, honey, baking soda and flour, mix until smooth.
Place sheets of parchment paper on baking sheets and trace circle around a cake pan (I used 8 inch and fit two per baking sheet)
Spoon batter into each circle and spread out thin until circle is filled- like a giant pancake- PAST the lines you traced.
Bake for 7-10 minutes until golden brown. Watch it closely as it goes from uncooked to golden very quickly.
Slide layers off sheet by pulling parchment paper onto a cool counter and allow layers to cool.
Repeat this until you have 6 layers.
Using a cake pan, cut each layer into a circle and pull away excess cake from edges (save this in a separate bowl). Gently peel away parchment paper from bottom of each layer as you assemble the cake.
Put excess cake edges into a food processor and chop into fine crumbs.

Fillings:

Combine sweetened condensed milk with finely chopped nuts (this is your 1st filling)
Cook 2T. flour and 1/2 c. milk together over stovetop until thick and smooth. Cool completely. Add Crisco, butter, sugar, vanilla and salt and whip this together until light and fluffy. (this is your second filling)

Assembling Cake:

Place one layer of cake on a serving plate.
Top with cream filling and spread to edges.
Place another layer of cake on top of cream filling.
Top with sweetened condensed milk/nut layer and spread to edges.
Repeat this until all cake layers are used. You should use all of cream filling and about 1/2 of condensed milk filling.
Spread remaining condensed milk/nut filling over top and sides of cake.
Press chopped cake crumbs into top and sides of cake.
Refrigerate and serve!

My thoughts: I wish I’d used dark honey – Prague Medovnik had a wonderful molasses flavor and it was a dark cake. I think a darker honey would help match this look and flavor. I like the cream filling (borrowed it from a cake recipe my grandma makes) but it doesn’t match the cream in the Prague cake well….further experimentation is needed 🙂 I will edit this post if I come up with a better filling. The filling in Prague was almost like the filling inside a Hostess Cupcake– if any of you have a recipe that comes close to this kind of cream filling let me know!! This is an incredibly UNIQUE cake. It got rave reviews among my friends and I loved it– I will definitely be making this again!