cranberry orange pecan coffee cake

to go with the hot cocoa on a stick i also made coffee cake from this recipe.  the cake was flavorful, moist, and delicious! i was able to make 6 mini loaves

Cranberry Orange & Pecan Coffee Cake
makes two 9×5-inch loaves
Print this Recipe!

For the Cake:
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 cup granulated sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature and cut into medium chunks
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups fresh squeezed orange juice
2 tablespoon orange zest
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups coarsely chopped fresh cranberries
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans
For the Topping:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans
Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9×5-inch loaf pan. Line loaf pan with parchment paper, leaving a few inches of overhang on each side. Grease the parchment paper and dust with flour on all sides. Set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add chunks of butter and work the butter into the flour with your fingers. Try to blend the butter into each bit of the dry ingredients. The mixture will resemble a coarse meal.
In a medium bowl whisk together eggs, orange juice, orange zest, and vanilla extract.
Add the wet ingredients all at once to the dry ingredients. Stir together to incorporate. Add the cranberries and pecans and fold into the batter.
To make the topping combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and rub together with your fingertips until crumbly.
Divide the batter between the two loaf pans. Sprinkle each loaf with topping. Place in the oven and allow to bake until the cake is golden brown and the center is cooked through. Insert a skewer into the center of the cake to ensure that it’s cooked through, about 50 to 60 minutes.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pans for 15 minutes. Use the parchment paper to life the loaves from the pan and allow to cool further on a wire rack.
For the glaze I whisked together 1 cup of powdered sugar and just over a tablespoon of milk. I drizzled it over the cooled coffee cake.
Cake can be stored, well wrapped at room temperature, for up to 5 days.

bloody mary

i cant remember how i came across this blogs recipe for bloody mary but it turned out delicious!  i did use fresh horseradish.  and instead of tobasco i used this yuzu hot paste that i had at a yakitori restaurant.  sooo good.  i garnished with celery and also castleveltrano olives

Homemade Bloody Mary Mix
3 Tbsp dijon mustard
3 Tbsp worchestershire sauce
2 Tbsp prepared horseradish
2 Tbsp hot sauce (like Tabasco)
2.5 oz lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
1.5 oz lime juice (about 2 limes)
2 Tbsp olive brine
1 tsp celery seed
2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
2 tsp kosher or sea salt
64 oz tomato vegetable juice

Mix all of the ingredients together except the tomato juice. It should yield about 1.25 cups of mix. Add as much or as little to the tomato juice as you prefer. I usually start with about 1/2 cup of mix for every quart of juice. Add your preferred alcohol, or drink it as a Virgin Mary.
At the bottom of the post is a picture of my “Bloody Margarita” with tequila instead of vodka.
Notes about ingredients
Tomato Vegetable Juice; most Bloody Mary mixes use canned tomato juice, and that’s fine, but I prefer a tomato vegetable juice like V-8 or the one from Trader Joe’s which is what I usually use now. It has more flavor. If I had canned some of my fresh tomato juice this summer, I would certainly consider using that instead. But given that fresh tomatoes are not in season right now, I’ll stick with the tomato vegetable juice.
Horseradish; The recipe calls for prepared horseradish (yes, the stuff in the jar), but if you can find fresh horseradish root, you could use that, just make sure it’s grated very fine, and adjust the amount to your personal taste.

Olive brine; this is the stuff out of a jar of good green olives. I have a bottle of “dirty martini” olive brine so I used that rather than leave my olives dry in the jar.

coconut flan

i made this from the family meal book we have and it was delicious!  i prefer the caramel more burnt and the flan slightly undercooked. i also skip the grated coconut because i dont like it

Ingredients
For the caramel:

• 2 tsp water
• 2 ½ tbsp sugar

For the coconut flan:

• 2 eggs
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 2 ¾ grated coconut
• 2 tbsp sugar

Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Put the water and sugar into a saucepan over low heat. Stir until the sugar has dissolved. Turn up the heat and boil to make a dark caramel. Divide the caramel among individual or large molds and set aside to cool.
Break the eggs into a large bowl, then whisk until frothy.
Put the coconut milk, grated coconut, and sugar into another large bowl and whisk until the sugar dissolves. Save any leftover coconut milk for serving later. Add the eggs and whisk until even.
Pour the mixture into the caramel-filled molds. Cover the tops of the molds with foil, then transfer to a roasting pan. Pour enough cold water into the roasting pan to come halfway up the side of the molds.
Bake for 30 minutes, making sure the water does not boil.
When ready to serve, loosen the flan with a round-bladed knife. Carefully turn over the crème caramel out of the molds. Slice into ¾-inch slices. Serve the slices surrounded with a few spoons of coconut milk.

peppermint hot cocoa on a stick

i wanted to make some homemade treats for some friends and thought of hot cocoa on a stick.  i added a marshmallow and some chocolate disks for color/presentation.  they were cute and delicious stirred in a hot cup of milk.

 

i used this recipe

 

Ingredients

• ½ cup heavy cream
• 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk (1 1/4 cups)
• 3 cups semisweet or bittersweet chocolate (chopped chocolate bars or chips)
• 3/4 cup unsweetened baking chocolate
• wooden sticks

• 4 ounces heavy cream
• 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk (1 1/4 cups)
• 18 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate (chopped chocolate bars or chips)
• 4 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate
• wooden sticks

• 113g heavy cream
• 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk (1 1/4 cups)
• 510g semisweet or bittersweet chocolate (chopped chocolate bars or chips)
• 113g unsweetened baking chocolate
• wooden sticks

Directions

1) Line an 8" x 8" pan with parchment paper or aluminum foil.

2) Heat the cream and condensed milk over low heat until steaming. Remove from the heat and add the chocolate; allow it to gently melt.

3) After about 10 minutes, return the chocolate mixture to low heat to completely melt the chocolate. Whisk vigorously until the mixture is thick and shiny. Add a few drops of flavoring oil if you like; hazelnut, coffee, or vanilla are popular flavors.

4) Pour the chocolate mixture into the pan; shake the pan gently to level. Sprinkle with cocoa, if desired. Set aside overnight to slowly set up.

5) Run a knife around the edge of the pan and turn out onto a clean cutting surface.

6) Slice into 1 ¼" cubes. Heat a knife in hot water and wipe dry before each cut, for smoothest cuts.

7) Stick a wooden stick into the center of each block.

8) Roll in cocoa or crushed peppermint candy, if desired.

9) Wrap in waxed paper, parchment, or plastic wrap to store.

Yield: about 3 dozen blocks.

 

 

 

pumpkin cheesecake

this recipe has a yummy crust.  i thought it was weird it asked for a food processor.  mine couldnt fit all the ingredients in and i had to do it in batches.  not sure if anyone has a food processor bigger ...

INGRE­DI­ENTS

13 oz. gin­ger­snap cook­ies

½ cup chopped wal­nuts

½ cup con­fec­tion­ers' sugar

8 tbsp. unsalt­ed but­ter, melt­ed

1¾ lb. cream cheese, soft­ened

1 cup sugar

¾ cup canned pump­kin

3 tbsp. dark rum

1½ tsp. ground cin­na­mon

1 tsp. vanil­la extract

½ tsp. kosher salt

¼ tsp. ground cloves

¼ tsp. ground gin­ger

¼ tsp. ground mace

2 eggs

INSTRUC­TIONS

1. Heat oven to 350°. Process gin­ger­snaps, wal­nuts, and con­fec­tion­ers' sugar in a food proces­sor until fine­ly ground. Add but­ter; pulse until even­ly com­bined. Trans­fer to a 9" spring­form pan set on a rimmed bak­ing sheet, and press crumbs into the bot­tom and halfway up the sides of the pan; set aside.

2. Clean food proces­sor, and then add cream cheese, sugar, pump­kin, rum, cin­na­mon, vanil­la, salt, cloves, gin­ger, mace, and eggs; puree, stop­ping to scrape down bowl with a rub­ber spat­u­la at least once, until smooth. Pour into crust; bake until browned on top and the mid­dle jig­gles slight­ly when the pan is tapped, about 1½ hours. Let cool to room tem­per­a­ture; chill until set, at least 4 hours or overnight.