Strawberry Cream Cheese Cookie Tarts

These are so good.  And pretty.  But mostly let's focus on how good they are.  I took these for dessert when Dave and I went to dinner at his parent's house and they were a big hit.  My father-in-law actually couldn't eat the second one for a few minutes because he "just needed to savor that for a little while."  Yup, they're good.  The cookie dough is sweet and the strawberry cream cheese has a sweet but light flavor.  Top it all with a fresh strawberry and it's the perfect spring treat.  These would be great for a bake sale, Easter dessert, or a baby shower. (Do they make blueberry cream cheese?  Because that would be cute with blueberry's for garnish and then you can cover both sexes.)

I found this recipe on the Better Crocker website.  I thought I was going to make cheesecake but then realized I didn't have enough time.  So I had to think fast and find something using ingredients I already had in the house.  It almost worked.  I thought I could do this with regular cream cheese and flavor it (either vanilla or orange).  Turns out you really do need the whipped flavored cream cheese to get the consistency you want.  I suppose if I had whipped the regular brick of cream cheese first it might have worked out.  But alas, I ended up sending Dave to the grocery store (again).  The price he has to pay to get yummy treats.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Cookie Tarts

Ingredients

1 pouch Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix
1 stick of butter, softened (as called for on cookie mix)
1 egg (as called for on cookie mix)
1 8-ounce container strawberry cream cheese spread (pretend the brick in the picture is a tub of strawberry cream cheese)
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1 Tablespoon milk
1/2 cup fresh strawberries, washed and sliced

Make cookie dough as directed on package (mix together cookie mix, butter and egg until a soft dough forms.)

Roll dough into 1 inch balls and place in a greased mini muffin tin. 

Press each ball into the bottom and up the sides of the muffin cup.  I used my handy tool (the mini tart shaper from Pampered Chef), but a slim shot glass may also work.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 12-15 minutes or until edges are brown.  Remove from oven. 

My cups started to puff up, so I pressed them down again (while still warm in the pan), indenting the "cup" shape with my tart shaper.

Cool slightly and then remove from pan and cool completely on wire racks.  Repeat with remaining dough (the original recipe says this makes 32 cups, but I got 40; my mini muffin tin only has 24 cups).

While cups are cooling, mix cream cheese, powdered sugar, and milk in a medium bowl.

Mix with a mixer on medium speed until smooth. 

Transfer to a pastry bag fitted with a star tip.  Pipe cream cheese mixture into each cup.

Garnish with fresh sliced strawberries.  Store in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

Makes 32-40 cookie tarts.

Happy Baking,
The Cookie Princess

Bananas Foster Bread

A grown-up twist on banana bread!  When my husband and I got engaged, we stayed at this awesome bed and breakfast in Maine and were served Bananas Foster French Toast which was delicious.  We had told my mother-in-law about it and recently she came across this recipe (I think it might be from Cooking Light magazine, but I'm not certain) and had to share it with me.  It sounded pretty good, so I figured I give it a try.

The recipe is pretty easy and I was impressed by the subtle flavor from the rum and a slight nuttiness provided by the flax seed.  I've never baked with flax before, so I wasn't sure what to expect.  I would not be tempted to skip the glaze on this one--it provides a nice level of sweetness coupled with bit of rum flavor.  It's a pretty thin glaze, so you don't end up with an overpowering sugar shock, just a subtle enhancement.

Bananas Foster Bread

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 4 small to medium bananas)

1 cup packed brown sugar, divided
6 Tablespoons butter, melted and divided
1/4 cup cognac or dark rum, divided
1/3 cup plain or vanilla fat free yogurt
2 large eggs
6.75 ounces flour (about 1 1/2 cups--but I used the weight measurement)
1/4 cup ground flax seed
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1/3 cup powdered sugar, sifted

Combine banana, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 5 Tablespoons butter and 3 Tablespoons rum in a nonstick skillet or pot.

Cook over medium heat until mixture begins to bubble.  Remove from heat and cool.

Place banana mixture in a large bowl.  Add yogurt, remaining 1/2 cup brown sugar, and eggs. Beat with a mixer at medium speed.

Weigh flour or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups and level with a knife.

I had to grind my flax seed, which took a while in the mini processor because it's so fine to begin with.

Combine flour, flax seed, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and allspice in a small bowl.

Add flour mixture to banana mixture and stir to combine (the recipe suggests using the mixer, but I did this by hand).  Pour batter into greased 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.  Bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour.

Remove from oven and cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes.

Remove loaf from pan to complete cooling wire rack.  Hint: put a flexible cutting mat under the wire rack.

Combine remaining Tablespoon of melted butter, remaining Tablespoon of rum and powdered sugar.

Stir well until blended and smooth.

Drizzle over warm bread (the flexible cutting mat will catch any over flow to aid in clean up).

Makes 1 loaf.

Happy Baking,
The Cookie Princess

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Almond Toffee Bars

Apparently, these are good.  I'm not being passive aggressive, but I didn't realize until I tried these that I'm not particularly fond of toffee.  And apparently neither is Dave.  They aren't bad and I did eat a whole bar, but I just wouldn't reach for this flavor necessarily.  But, they got rave reviews when I took them into work, so I'm listening to my audience.

I randomly picked this recipe from the Betty Crocker website when searching for a bar recipe to bring into work for a morning meeting.  I wanted something with enough "breakfast" overtones that it wouldn't turn everyone off at 9:30 in the morning, but also something that would transcend the rest of the day as leftover snacks.  This worked.  I did use a different size pan. (Who has this elusive 15 x 10 x 1 inch pan?)

Almond Toffee Bars

Ingredients

3/4 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 cups flour
1 cup butter
2/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1 1/2 cups almonds, coarsely chopped
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

In a large bowl, beat 3/4 cup butter and granulated sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy, scraping sides of bowl as necessary.  Beat in egg.

Beat in flour on low speed (especially if you didn't change out the beater attachment like I did).  The dough will be relatively crumbly, (like the Cinnamon Bars) but I should have switched to the paddle attachment because I find the beater breaks up the dough into finer crumbs and it doesn't the consistency I want.  I ended up adding a splash (less than a Tablespoon) of milk just to get it to come together.
 

Grease bottom and sides of a 9 x 13 inch pan.  Press dough evenly into pan.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 13-18 minutes (I did 15 minutes) or until edges are light golden brown.

Yes, I realize there is little difference in the before and after baking pictures. These are slightly browned, though.

At this point, if you're like me, you'll realize that you only have a 1/2 cup of butter left and will bat your eyelashes at your husband until he goes and gets more butter.  If you're not like me, you would have read the recipe correctly and have enough ingredients.  (Thank goodness we live less than a mile from the grocery store.)

While you're waiting for the butter to arrive, coarsely chop almonds.

When butter magically appears (thank you, honey!), in a heavy sauce pan, heat 1 cup of butter, brown sugar and corn syrup to boiling over medium hear, stirring frequently.

Boil 2 minutes without stirring.

Quickly stir in almonds.

Spread over baked layer. (Would you believe I was able to time all this so the baked layer came out of the oven just as I was done stirring in the almonds?) 

Bake 15-20 minutes or until dark golden brown and bubbling (16 minutes worked for me).

Immediately sprinkle chocolate chips evenly over the hot bars.

Let stand for 5 minutes and when the chips are slightly melty, gently swirl the chocolate over the bars with a spatula.

Let cool completely, about 30 minutes.  Cut into squares (5 x 6 rows).  The chocolate will still be soft, so you may want to let them set up longer.

Makes 30 bars.

Happy Baking,
The Cookie Princess

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Donut Muffins

I love these muffins.  They are amazing and they really do taste like cake donuts.  These are a go-to breakfast staple, great for bake sales and taking to parties or the office and are a yummy dessert or snack, too.  They are super easy to make--I whisk together the wet ingredients and then do the rest with a wooden spoon or spatula.

Another recipe from Jean Childress' Country Kitchen Muffin Cookbook, they are traditionally made with a cinnamon sugar topping.  I opted to change it up one time when visiting my sister. I told her I would make these for breakfast, but since she doesn't like cinnamon (she's aware that she is weird),  she asked if I could put chocolate frosting on them.  Since that's my favorite cake donut, I thought it was an excellent idea.  Ever since, I usually make about half with cinnamon sugar and half with frosting and sprinkles.

Donut Muffins

Wow, that's a pretty terrible shot.  Sorry!

Ingredients

1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar plus 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

Cream oil, sugar and egg. 

Sift flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. 

Add flour mixture to creamed mixture alternately with milk and combine.

Pour batter into a greased muffin pan. 

Bake at 400 degrees F for 20-25 minutes.  Immediately remove from pan and place on wire racks. 

Combine sugar and cinnamon in a shallow bowl. 

Roll the tops in melted butter, then in cinnamon sugar.

Optional: Spread prepared frosting on muffin tops and garnish with sprinkles.

Makes 12 muffins.


Happy Baking,
The Cookie Princess