Peach Cobbler Delight

Ok. I made this ONCE. But it was SOOO good, I'm keeping track of the recipe in case I ever decide to make it again. It's kind of intense - lots of steps and sort of time consuming but perhaps someday, when I have all the time in the world and I've run out of laundry and dishes and books to read... A girl can dream, right?

Original recipe is from a Martha Stewart show, watched many years ago and the recipe scribbled down on a scrap of paper.

Peach Cobbler Delight

Ingredients

Filling:
   10 ripe peaches, pitted and sliced
   1/3 cup sugar
   1 Tbsp lemon juice
   3 Tbsp cornstarch
   2 Tbsp brown sugar
   Pinch Salt
   1 tsp fresh ginger (optional)

Biscuits:
   2 cups flour, plus more for topping
   1/3 cup sugar
   1/2 tsp salt
   2 tsp baking powder
   1/2 cup butter, chilled and sliced
   1 cup + 2 Tbsp heavy cream, plus more for topping
   scrapings from 1 vanilla bean

Instructions

1. Filling - Mix peaches, sugar, lemon juice. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Add cornstarch, brown sugar, salt, ginger, mix together. Put peach mixture into glass pie pan.
3. Biscuits - Mix flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, butter until all combined and mushed together.
4. Add heavy cream and vanilla to biscuit mixture, mix together, work fast, should be crumbly
5. Flour your counter, roll out dough into 1/2" thickness. Cut with cookie cutter to make rounds, lay onto peach mixture in pie pan.
6. Spread biscuits with heavy cream, sprinkle with sugar.
7. Bake on the middle rack until top is golden brown and juices are bubbling (55-70 minutes).

Why we love it

Warm and sweet. I don't actually remember who liked it and who didn't, but when I make this someday, I'll update the post with some stars.

The Best Pretzels You've Ever Had - Savory & Sweet

A savory treat from my mom, original recipe from Bampa's brother Kim. These never sit around for long when they arrive from Grandma's treats stash.

No Bake Savory Pretzels

Ingredients

30 oz pretzels
12 oz butter flavored oil
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp Cajun seasoning
1 oz packet powdered Ranch salad dressing mix

Instructions

1. Spread the pretzels evenly on a cookie sheet
2. Whisk together the oil, ranch dressing, garlic powder & cajun seasoning
3. Pour the mixture over the pretzels in the pan and stir to coat
4. Sprinkle w/ grated parmesan cheese and stir
5. Bake for approximately 3 hours, stirring every 15 minutes

Why we love it

I can't EXACTLY explain it, other than to say - once you start, you just can't stop. These leave us grabbing for just one more, and licking our fingers and sad when they're suddenly gone. How did they all disappear QUITE that fast???

   

Next Up...

I've only made this a couple of times but we all loved it. I've vowed to only make this for group events because I don't want us to eat the whole delicious batch ourselves, it's just so rich!

Original recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe

Irresistible Chocolate Toffee Pretzels

Ingredients

Half a 1 lb bag of mini pretzels, broken into pieces
2 Sticks butter
1 cup packed light brown sugar
18 oz semisweet chocolate chips (1 and a half 12 oz bags)
Sea salt

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, cover with a layer of the broken pretzel pieces.
2. In a medium saucepan on medium heat, add the butter and brown sugar. Once the mixture starts to bubble, set a timer for 3 minutes and allow to simmer without stirring. After 3 minutes, pour the hot caramel mixture over the pretzels in back and forth motion to cover the pretzels. A few bare spots are ok, it'll all bake together in the end.
3. Bake for 5 minutes, then spread the chocolate chips evenly over the pretzels. Put the pan back in the oven to help the chocolate melt. Once it's all melted, remove from oven, sprinkle with sea salt.
4. Refrigerate until set. Once it's all cooled, break into bite size pieces. (After it's set, you don't have to refrigerate any further.)

Why we love it

Buttery, crunchy, salty, sweet. Of COURSE we love it!

   

Midnight Brownies

Chocolate craving in the middle of the night, and no candy bars in sight?
Here's the fix...

Midnight Brownies

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs (very gently beaten together)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour an 8 inch square pan.
2. In a large saucepan, melt 1/2 cup butter (not too hot!! don't burn it!!).
3. While the butter is melting, mix cocoa powder, flour, salt and baking powder.
4. Once butter is melted, remove from heat, stir in 1 cup sugar, 2 eggs and 1 teaspoon vanilla.
5. Mix dry ingredients into saucepan, but don't overmix! Mix gently just until its all  combined.
6. Bake in the preheated oven 25 minutes, just until edges are baked, not longer.

Why we love it

This takes 10 minutes to prep, the hardest part is waiting for the brownies to cool before we cut into them!

Four Stars because strangely, there is one among us who refuses to eat brownies. Is this child even mine? How is it possible to not LOVE brownies???

 

original recipe from AllRecipes.com

Milestones

As our kids are growing up, we're always looking for those big moments... first steps, first words, first day of school. They become harder to define or see as they get older, but there was a major milestone reached today.

I've had Nana's famous Salad Dressing Cake for a little while now, I've wanted to try my hand at the delicious creation. I tried a couple of weeks ago, and no good. It was a complete flop, didn't turn out and the whole thing had to be tossed out. So disappointing. "This is why I don't bake," I told myself. Archer asked me today if I would bake the cake. I told him I had to be in the right kind of mood for it, and I wasn't in that mood today. He said, "I can make it." I couldn't really think of a reason why not, what's the worst that could happen? No worse than anything I'd done. So I said fine, and went to take a shower. He was on his own. At one point he called Grandma Shell for advice on whether he should grease the pan (he promptly forgot her advice and didn't do what she told him anyway).

I came back to the kitchen just in time to see him struggling with trying to hold the bowl while he poured the batter into the pan. I helped finish that up, then put it in the oven for him. Half an hour later...

Can you guess? Guess what happens when a nine year old boy with no baking experience simply follows the directions to make a chocolate cake? It turns out PERFECTLY. So good. So so good, I am SO proud!!!

Most of the cake is already gone, and I'm sure they'll finish it up for breakfast tomorrow morning. Perhaps I should be asking Archer for advice in the kitchen from now on?

Nana's Salad Dressing Cake

Ingredients

1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
3 tablespoons cocoa
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 cup cold water
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup salad dressing (mayonnaise)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350
Mix all ingredients and pour into 9"x13" cake pan. Bake 25-30 minutes.

(Grandma Shell's advice was to spray the pan with cooking spray before pouring in the batter. Grandpa Craig's advice was to butter and flour the pan. Archer did neither, and used a non-stick baking pan.)

Why we love it

Easy, we always have the ingredients on hand, we love that we get to carry on Nana's tradition and share this one with everyone we love

 

Four Stars - what's with that last holdout? Doesn't he love cake? No? Strange...