Category Archives: dessert

Summer Crumble aka Berry Crumble

Posted on June 15, 2011 | 3 comments

Berry Crumble Filling

Here we are in Summer thankfully! and you’re looking for a dessert in which you can use what’s fresh and available. Check out those beautiful blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries out there! they can be bought in large quantities and they are delish right out of the box, but even more so when cooked up this way. I’ve played with this recipe forever, and have been asked for it numerous times. So here it is in all it’s worked over glory for you to enjoy! what’s even better is that you can prepare this when you have the berries and the time, freeze it and you have this wonderful crumble to serve when you need a dessert!  it is awesome served with vanilla ice cream or yogurt!  serve hot or warm .

Ingredients:

filling:

8 cups mixed fresh berries (if you prefer blueberries alone, that’s fine. I use blue, black, straw, and raspberries , whatever looks good to me that day)

3 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest

1 tablespoon quick-cooking tapioca (this is optional but I must tell you that it is sort of the secret ingredient. It prevents the filling from getting runny)

crumble topping:

 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup dark brown sugar

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 cup melted unsalted butter

1/2 cup finely chopped almonds or walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Toss berries with tapioca (if you ar using it,) sugar and lemon zest. Set aside.

Topping:

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugars, spices and salt. Stir in butter and nuts. Course crumbles will  begin to form. Pour berries into a 9-inch square or round pan. Using your fingers, form topping mixture into crumbs and spread over the filling. Bake until filling starts to bubble and topping is a light golden brown, approx. 55 minutes. Let cool slightly before serving.

I usually put this in when we sit down for dinner. It smells divine, and it is ready to eat when we are ready for dessert. Something else I do is cook it for about 30 minutes before freezing, this will set it. I take it out of the freezer the morning of the night we’ll be eating it. I then cook it for another 25 minutes or so right before I’m serving it.

Enjoy!

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Cherry Chocolate Cookies

Posted on June 9, 2011 | 1 comment

Cherry Chocolate Cookies

Cherry Chocolate Cookies

These cookies are a-mazing! They never fail me. They always crowd please. And i don’t remember where this recipe hails from, so please forgive me for not giving credit 🙂 These are really from my vault and they’re really delish, especially dipped in milk. I must freeze them after my guests leave or else I find myself in the kitchen dunking which I haven’t done since I’m a kid. So enjoy!!!

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter (softened…yikes!)

3/4 cups sugar

3/4 cups light brown sugar, lightly packed

1 tsp vanilla extract (use a good one)

2 large eggs (at room temperature, don’t ever use cold eggs right out of fridge for baking unless otherwise stated)

4 cups unsweetened chocolate morsels

1 1/2 cups walnuts, chopped (I love nuts, but obv. optional)

1 cup dried cherries

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

In a medium to large bowl mix together flour , baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl (I use my Kitchen Aid mixer for this but you can use electric hand beater), beat the butter, sugars and vanilla extract. Mix on medium speed until it is well blended, and then add eggs (one at a time). When this is well incorporated, add the flour mixture a little at a time until well blended. By hand, stir in the chocolate morsels and cherries and nuts.

Using a spoon or small ice cream scooper (try to make sure you make uniform mounds, this will help in the cooking process) place mounds about 3″ apart from each other. You will probably need at least 2 cookie sheets. You can do it one cookie sheet at a time, it will just be a slower process. Now place cookie sheet in the fridge for about an hour. (This is why you need 2 large cookie sheets. Sometimes I even use 3 or 4. ) After dough has been in fridge for the hour, bake the cookies in preheated oven for 35 – 40* minutes ’til golden brown . Keep an eye on the cookies to make sure  they don’t burn.  Remember baking requires patience. Cool cookies on baking sheet, then transfer to racks. If you don’t have racks just let them cool, then place on a plate.

* sometimes they only cook for 25 – 30 minutes depending on the size of mounds. So please start watching them after 25 minutes. Recipe says 35 – 40 minutes. However I know that they bake quicker, at least in my oven they did. So I’m just saying…watch carefully , set your timer for 25 minutes and start watching.

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