Year End 2022 Cookies & Bakes

 

Quilted Throw for Living Room

I wanted to sew a living room size quilted throw, but it took me a few days to decide on what design to use.  I already had many triangle shaped cutouts left over from one of my previous projects. So, I used those as a starting point for the design. I took those pieces and thought to myself what colors and shapes would look together? 

Although I had a deadline for this project, since it was a gift for a friend, I still had plenty of fun and lots of enjoyment in putting this quilt together. One good thing is that it saved me time because I already had many of the pieces that I used ready to go. 

If I had any regrets or second thoughts, I would have chosen to use more whites or cream colors instead of the gray I had available. The pattern would have shown better with slightly lighter colors, but I am still satisfied with how it all turned out. I will use this same pattern again with a different color scheme next time. I will also be updating this blog with pictures when I complete the next one with this pattern.

Ricottta Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies

 

4 cups flour

15 oz ricotta cheese

2 sticks butter (1 cup)

1 cup sugar (additional for coating)

1 1/2 cup chocolate chips

1 egg

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

Direction:

1. Mix butter and sugar, add egg and vanilla extract

2. Mix in ricotta cheese

3.Measure flour and baking powder together (dry ingredients)

4.Add dry ingredients to butter mixture.

5. Stir in chocolate chips (or just stick chocolate chips to each cookie dough during shaping)

6. Place dough in fridge for 30mins to an hour.

7. Set a bowl of sugar, Set another bowl of chocolate sprinkles.

8. Shape individual cookie ball, press top of cookie with sprinkles and roll all sides without the sprinkles with sugar in the sugar bowl.

9. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 mins with cookies edges are slightly brown.

10. Cool and serve.

Japanese Cheesecake

 

200g / 8 oz cream cheese 5 eggs - separated 100g/ 1/2 cup cream 130g / 1/2 cup plain yoghurt 50g / 3/8 cup cake flour 80g 3/8 cup sugar 20g / 1 1/2 Tbs lemon juice

1. soften cream cheese, add heavy cream, mix and stir well

2. add and mix to mixture, one egg yolk at a time

3. sift flour into mixture and stir well

4. add lemon juice and stir well

5. preheat oven 340 F

6. beat egg white separately and slowly add

Preheat the oven to 170C/338F Water bath method Bake at 160C/320F for 20 minutes then reduce the temperature to 120C/248F, bake for 60 minutes

--- Japanese Souffle Cheesecake, no butter recipe - YouTube

Strawberry Filled Sour Cream Cake

Today I decided to make a big birthday cake for my best friend. The weather is hot and humid, so I want to make a very summery cake. I ran early to the store early this morning to grab a tub of some sour cream thinking I will make a doctored sour cream birthday cake using some vanilla cake mix. But I didn't realize I didn't have the right cake mix at home. Darn !!! So I instead decided to make a summery strawberry themed birthday cake from scratch. I wanted this cake to be a white cake because I plan on filling the cake with strawberry filling, so I looked around for a good recipe, and this is the best one I found. here

I am making 1 1/2 the recipe because it will be a big 3 layer cake.

To bake this cake you'll these ingredients:

2 cup flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 stick butter

1 1/2 cup sugar

3 eggs

1/2 cup milk

3/4 cup sour cream

Preheat the ovens
Begin by preheating the oven to 350º Fahrenheit.

Prepare cake pans
Prepare 2 10-inch round cake pans, lined the bottom of each pan with parchment paper.

Instruction:
In a bowl, measure flour and baking powder together, set aside.

In a bowl of your stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Next add eggs one at a time, making sure to fully incorporate each egg before adding another. Add sour cream to mixture and mix well. Next, mix in milk slowly while continuously mixing.

Next, mix in flour mixture to the mixer running mixer in low to medium speed until incorporated, do not over mix on this step. Then, stop the mixer and scrape down sides and bottom of bowl, to make sure all ingredients are mixed.

Batter into Pans:
Now its time to pour batter between the cake pans, using 1-cup measuring cup to even scoop to each pan. Place pans into oven. Bake for 35 minutes, test cake by poking a toothpick and should comes out clean.

Decorate the Cake
Once is cool, evenly cut the cake into 2 layers. Ice between each layer, secure the parameter by piping 1/2 inch icing border, fill strawberry preserve and place pieces of cut strawberries all over the cake on each of the layer. (see picture) I saw this decorating idea from Pinterest, will add the link here. (shortly).

Here are pictures of the cake.

Green Bean Casserole

I believe this is my first time making the traditional Green Bean casserole. Again, I was tasked with bringing a vegetable dish, preferably the infamous Green Bean casserole and honestly, I am not a fan of this particular vegetable dish. Based on my experience, there are many veggie dishes that are much better. But tradition is tradition, so I will participate will a smiley face and love in my heart. 

I did some online research for a variety of ideas and recipes that might be more appealing to me. Not a huge difference in ingredients, but maybe an improvement over what I have eaten, This was a good idea and I was really pleased with how the new recipe twists I learned about made a real difference,

For the most part, I decided to stick with the same main ingredients, but with a few minor changes. I am still using the store bought French Fried Onion as well as using a can of cream of celery (that is what I have in my pantry, I would use cream of mushroom if I have that but either is fine).

So, here it is.

             Green Bean Casserole dish ready, enjoy!

                           

                     Cooked green bean, mushroom and onions and 2 tablespoonful of fried bacon bits.     

                           Dish topped with cream of celery and ready to go into the oven at 350 degree

                               for 30 mins.

               Once the dish is taken out of the oven, I sprinkle generous portions of French Fried Onions and

                serve immediately, I have added more French Fried onions later on the leftovers! Great as

                leftovers. I will make these again.

Recipe:

1 pound green bean (snipped both ends of green beans)

1 8oz white mushroom

1 medium size onion, finely sliced

2 Tbsp oil

2 tsp ground basil

1 10oz can of cream of mushroom/celery

3/4 cup of milk

salt, pepper, 2 Tbsp soya sauce, 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar, 2 Tbsp bacon bits

1 can French Fried Onions

Instructions:

In a 4 quart pot, bring water to a boil. Add green bean and let boil for 6-7 mins.

Remove green beans and run tap water over green beans, set aside.

In another sauce pan, heat oil on pan. Add onions, saute for 2 minutes.

Add mushrooms, basil and soya sauce and saute for another 2 minutes.

Add green beans, bacon bits and balsamic vinegar, saute another 3 minutes.

Scoop to a casserole dish.

In a bowl, stir together cream of mushroom/celery and milk.

Pour cream of mushroom mixture over the casserole dish and spread evenly to cover dish.

Bake at 350 degree for 30 minutes.

Sprinkle with French Fried Onions over dish and serve immediately.

Enjoy!

Apple Cream Cheese Bar

We have been invited to our brother and sister-in-laws home for Thanksgiving dinner and we are tasked with bringing a second dessert, since pumpkin pie will be the star of the show, I decided to make this Apple Cream Cheese Bar. The idea is that this dessert will compliment the pumpkin pie.

This recipe requires multiple steps to prepare it as there are 4 layers in total to makeup this dish. 

                        1. The first layer is a crust at the bottom made of graham crackers and butter 

                               ... bake at 350 degree for 6-7 mins

                                2. The second layer, is a cream cheese mixture. You have to pay attention so it is layered smoothly and evenly. I used the back of a spoon or you could use a plastic knife for this purpose

                                    

                             

                             3. The third  layer is an apple pie filling, Just drop this filling over the cream cheese                                       layer.....

                      

                        ...here is the evenly smoothed 3rd apple filling layer

                  

                         4. The fourth layer is an oatmeal topping, Again tamp it down lightly using the                                              back of a spoon .

                              Bake in the oven for 50 minutes at 350 degrees, 

                              Let it cool completely and then place it in the freezer for 1-2 hours. 

                              Then you can evenly and easily cut your Apple Cream Cheese Bar. 

           

Recipe:

Crust - bottom layer (1st layer )

1 1/2 cup of crushed graham crackers (from a pack of graham crackers )

3 Tbs soften melted butter or oil

2 Tsp sugar

Lined parchment paper on bottom of 8 x 8 pyrex pan dish.

Mix all ingredients and spread evenly on dish, bake for 7 mins at 350 degree.

Cream Cheese Layer

8 oz soften (room temp) cream cheese

1 egg

1/4 cup sugar

Mix all ingredients, with patience, slowly and evenly spread cream cheese mixture using plastic spatula or knife on top of crust layer.

Apple Pie Filling

3 apples peeled and diced into small cubes

2 Tbsp lemon juice (optional)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon

1 Tbs cornstarch

In a sauce pan, over medium heat, cook all ingredients except cornstarch until bubbly.

Add cornstarch as soon as apples are soften/bubbly, stir quickly, turn off stove.

Scoop apple pie filling onto the cream cheese layer.

Again, evenly smoothen apple pie filling topping.

Oatmeal Crumbles layer:

1 cup oatmeal

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

6 Tbsp melted butter

Mix well all ingredients, spread over top of Apple pie filling layer.

Lightly tamp down layer.

Bake at 350 degree for 50 mins.

Cool dish completely.

Place dish in freezer for an hour or 2.

Cut Apple Cream Cheese Bar to desired bite size pieces/bars.

Enjoy!!