Strawberry Shortcake

If you could make a strawberry shortcake the size of a regular cake that was only 175 calories and contained no fat, this is the one for you.  Assembly is quick and this tastes terrific.  Once assembled, simply refrigerate until serving time.  Feeds six to eight people.

Ingredients:

1 store bought sponge cake (no calories or fat)
1 32 oz. container of Cool Whip
2 pkgs. of frozen strawberries, thawed

Assembly:

With a good serated knife, slice the cake into two portions, putting the bottom portion on your serving dish.

Cover the top of the bottom portion with strawberries.  Add four spoonsful of Cool Whip and spread with knife.  Cover with top part of sponge cake.

Using a spatula, frost entire cake with Cool Whip.  Top with strawberries.  Refrigerate until serving time.  Serve with remaining strawberries and Cool Whip.

Posting

This has been a busy month.  We've been traveling and had our family for the holidays.  I promise to start posting more regularly in 2012.  I also encourage you to comment or join my guest list.  

For those of you who regularly view this blog, I'm posting a special menu this week to celebrate my wedding anniversary.  I really enjoy making Bob (my husband) a very special dinner for the occasion and this will be a lovely meal.  Probably including a chocolate dessert since that's his fave...

Easy Apple Cornbread

Preheat oven to 350F

1 Granny Smith Apple (chopped finely and coated with sugar

1 box of cornbread mix (that makes six muffins)
1 egg
½ cup of heavy cream
¼ cup of sugar
¼ cup of melted butter Crisco®

In a small mixing bowl, put cornmeal mix.    Add chopped apples.  Coat the apple pieces with the cornmeal mix.  Add remaining ingredients and stir until well mixed.  Fill six muffin tins.  Bake for 20 minutes.

This recipe serves two to four people.  Double everything to make this for six to eight people.  Doubles and triples perfectly!

Spinach Souffle

10 oz. of frozen spinach, thawed
1 egg
1 stick of butter, melted
1 cup of shredded parmesan cheese
1/2 cup of heavy cream

Butter and breadcrumb a two quart souffle baking dish for the oven.  Preheat the oven to 350F.

Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl.  Add a pinch of salt and pepper.  If you have freshly grated nutmeg, add some of that to the mixture.  Pour into the casserole dish.

Alternatively, cover the casserole with a light mixture of additional shredded parmesan cheese.  Bake for 30 minutes or until casserole has risen and cheese is golden brown.

Apple Pie

APPLE PIE

8 Granny Smith Apples, peeled

½ cup of sugar

2 tsp. cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger (each)

2 cinnamon sticks

¼ cup of orange juice/cider vinegar

In a large bowl, place peeled apples, spices, juice, vinegar sugar and cinnamon sticks.  Mix thoroughly and allow the fruit to macerate for two to three hours.

Preheat oven to 350F

Prepare the pie:

2 pre-made pie crusts

Flour (if necessary)

1 rolling pin

Butter

Heavy cream

Seasonal Sprinkles

Roll out the first piece of dough roughly ½ inch wider than the pie plate you are using.  Fold in half and place in pie plate.  Mold the crust into the sides of the pan…you want the pie crust to be flush against the edges of the pie plate. 

Cover the first piece of dough with the apple mixture and pour the juice in the bowl over everything.  Dot liberally with butter. 

Roll out the second piece of dough to match the first piece.  Seal the edges and roll over to create a nice edge.  Pour heavy cream into your hand and rub your hands together, lathering the cream over the top crust.  Add sprinkles.

Bake for one hour.

Versatile Chocolate Ganache

Chocolate Ganache

Chocolate ganache sounds fancy but is ridiculously easy to make and is the most versatile chocolate ingredient you can produce in your home kitchen.  It is like the glue that binds chocolate desserts together, making any chocolate dessert that much better.  My way of doing it is foolproof and requires no double boiler.  The key here is equal amounts of ingredients.  Since this is a base sauce, I do not add sugar.  Only add sugar if you are using it as a cake topping.  Otherwise, make this ahead of time and store in fridge (good shelf life) for making chocolate truffles, chocolate fondue, etc.  I use European chocolate.

Chocolate Ganache

4 oz. of bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate

4 oz. of Nutella (Italian hazelnut spread, imported from Italy)
4 oz. of heavy cream, cold from fridge

Place the chocolate and Nutella in a deep glass bowl.  Nuke in increments of 30 seconds until chocolate is melted.  Add heavy cream and stir until you have a creamy chocolate sauce.  Use immediately to coat a cake or allow to cool and put it in a fridge container for future use.  Please note that occasionally I add two pats of butter depending upon what I’m using my ganache for and/or super fine sugar (no more than a tablespoon) or alternatively, corn syrup.

Triple Frosted Brownies

Triple Frosted Brownies

When these are served, folks who love chocolate basically swoon.  Using the brownie recipe that’s already blogged, you need Hershey’s chocolate syrup; any good canned frosting (I use Betty Crocker’s whipped milk chocolate) and the following chocolate glaze. 

Triple Frosted Brownies

Hershey’s chocolate sauce

1 can of Betty Crocker whipped milk chocolate frosting

1 cup of chocolate glaze

  

Make brownies.  When taken out of the oven, put on a rack to cool.  Brush the warm brownies liberally with chocolate syrup.  Allow to cool. 

When brownies are cool, spread the Betty Crocker frosting.  Let that set for a bit.

Glaze

 8 oz. of Ghiradelli semi-sweet chocolate

1/3 cup of butter flavored Crisco

1 tbl. of Amaretto

1 tbl. of Nutella hazelnut spread

Heavy cream

Put all these ingredients in a glass measuring cup and nuke for 1 minute or until Crisco melts.  Take out of microwave and stir in heavy cream until a deep chocolate glaze develops with no lumps.  Instantly pour over the frosted brownies and just pick up the pan and tilt until all the surface is covered with the glaze.  Serve with Cool Whip or freshly whipped cream.