Blueberry Squares

Oh yeah. These are good. Not just good. Really good.

I saw these Saturday over at All That Splatters. They were Lori's contribution to the Saturday Blog Showcase. I knew I needed to make these and that I needed to make them right away!

So I did. :-)

Just in time for our friends Cathy and Dave to come by. They were still warm and sooo delicious. And more important, they were super easy to make. Even me who usually hates baking didn't mind making them and in fact, can't wait to make them again.

The only downside was that they didn't last nearly long enough.

Blueberry Squares (Fruit Squares)
Recipe from Fork-Knife-Spoon

1-1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon almond extract
1-1/2 cup flour
2 cup fresh blueberries or cranberries or other berries
1/2 cup chopped, toasted cashew nuts (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter the 9x13 pan you are using.

In a large bowl, beat the sugar and eggs until creamy and smooth. Whisk in the melted butter and almond extract. Add flour and fold until incorporated. Fold in blueberries and nuts (if using) carefully so as not to break the fruit and color the whole batter purple.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for about 40-50 minutes or until tester inserted into center comes out clean. Transfer to a rack to cool completely (takes about an hour really!). Cut squares and serve.

 

Head on over to Thibeault's Table to see what everyone else made this week!

Apple Pizza

The theme for our monthly dinner party was "Comfort Foods." There were plenty of comforting dishes: Chicken and Noodles, Shepard's Pie, Mac and Cheese. What else do you need? Why delicious deserts, of course! There were chocolate chip cookies and chocolate cakes. My contribution was an Apple Pizza. Sort of like an Apple Pie turned into a pizza. Sweet pizza/pastry crust and cream cheesy topping sprinkled with cinnamony caramelized apples and a streusel topping. Delicious!


Apple Pizza
Original recipe can be found here.

Apple topping:

2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Peel and slice the apples. Melt butter in a skillet, add apples, sugar, flour and cinnamon. Simmer 15 minutes, then cool.

Cheese topping:

4 ounces cream cheese
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Mix in a bowl and set aside.

Streusel Topping

1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup soft butter

Mix in a bowl and set aside.

Crust:

2 3/4 to 3 cups flour
1 package dry yeast
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup butter or margarine


Blend 1 1/2 cup flour, yeast, sugar, and salt in a large mixer bowl. Heat water, milk, and butter until very warm; add to flour mixture and beat three minutes. By hand, stir in enough flour to make a soft dough. Cover and let rise 15 minutes. Pat dough onto a large oiled pizza pan, forming a rim around the edge. Spread on cheese topping, then apple topping over cheese; sprinkle with streusel topping. Cover and let rise for 15 minutes. Bake at 375 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes. Serve warm or cold. Serves 16.

Pancakes with Blueberry-studded Honey Peach Sauce

I just wasn't very hungry tonight and the thought of whipping up a semi-labor intensive batch of gumbo just wasn't cutting it. Instead I checked the fridge to see what we had and decided to use up some of the fruit I picked up at the farmer's market last week. I whipped up a batch of pancakes, fried up some bacon (in the oven, of course!), and prepared the Blueberry-Studded Honey Peach Sauce that I'd bookmarked over at Inn Cuisine. Unfortunately my peaches were a little too far gone so I substituted some jarred peaches that I'd picked up at Aldi's awhile back. ::Patting myself on the back for using up stuff from the pantry:: They worked perfectly. In fact, they made the sauce really quick to put together since I didn't have to do any chopping or slicing. The sauce was delicious. The tart blueberries save the sauce from being too sweet. Definitely a keeper!

Since I've had this one bookmarked for awhile, it will be my submission to next week's Bookmarked Recipes event over at Ruth's Kitchen Experiments. Check out last week's yummy recipes here.




Blueberry-studded Honey Peach Sauce
Recipe courtesy of Inn Cuisine

1 cup honey
1/4 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
1 teaspoon ground Cinnamon
1 quart fresh or frozen (and thawed) sliced Peaches

Combine honey, blueberries and cinnamon in a large saucepan, mixing well. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring often. Reduce heat to low, simmering for 10 minutes or until the flavors are well blended. Remove from heat, add peaches and mix well.

Serve over waffles, pancakes, French toast, pound cake, cream stuffed crepes… and anything else you dare to try!

Makes approximately 8 servings.

Barefoot Bloggers Bonus Recipe: Apple Turnovers

Otherwise known as BETTER LATE THAN NEVER!

Okay. So I'm late again. But this recipe is definitely worth the wait. Quick. Easy. And pretty tasty too. I think my orange must have been juicier than most as the juice ran all over the pan creating quite a sticky mess but all in all, the flavor was terrific. The orange flavor added an interesting note to the apple and cinnamon flavor. Using the puff pastry really made this dish go together quickly.

The only thing I would do differently is to fill the turnovers a bit more next time. I didn't use all the filling mixture. The turnovers seemed plump before baking but but flattened out a lot during the cooking process. Next time I'd probably slice the apples instead of dice them and really load the filling in there. I didn't this time because if I added more, my dough tore. Next time I will do a more vigilant job of keeping my dough chilled and see if that helps.

Thanks to Anne at Anne Strawberry for the great Barefoot Bloggers Bonus Recipe pick. Check out all the other Barefoot Blogger results here.

Apple Turnovers
Recipe courtesy of Ina Garten

1 teaspoon grated orange zest
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
1 1/4 pounds tart apples, such as Empire or Granny Smith (3 apples)
3 tablespoons dried cherries
3 tablespoons sugar, plus extra to sprinkle on top
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Pinch kosher salt
1 package (17.3 ounces, 2 sheets) frozen puff pastry, defrosted
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water, for egg wash

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Combine the orange zest and orange juice in a bowl. Peel, quarter, and core the apples and then cut them in 3/4-inch dice. Immediately toss the apples with the zest and juice to prevent them from turning brown. Add the cherries, sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.

Flour a board and lightly roll each sheet of puff pastry to a 12 by 12-inch square. Cut each sheet into 4 smaller squares and keep chilled until ready to use.

Brush the edges of each square with the egg wash and neatly place about 1/3 cup of the apple mixture on half of the square. Fold the pastry diagonally over the apple mixture and seal by pressing the edges with a fork. Transfer to a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Brush the top with egg wash, sprinkle with sugar, make 2 small slits, and bake for 20 minutes, until browned and puffed. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Apple Bundles from Dine and Dish

While I was checking out one of my favorite food blogs, I found a quick and easy finish for dh's birthday dinner: Apple Bundles. Dine and Dish featured this fall inspired recipe recently and I knew dh would enjoy it. This one is easy to make. You simply roll up apple slices in pre-made bread stick dough and top with cinnamon and sugar. Pop them in the oven and dessert is ready. Next time I think I'd toss the apple slices with the cinnamon-sugar mixture to add a little delicious gooey-ness that's missing here.

Apple Bundles
Recipe from Pampered Chef Delightful Desserts

2 lg apples
1 pkg refrigerated bread stick dough — 11 oz
1 med orange
2 tbsp butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375F. Peal, core, and slice apples. Cut slices in half. Unroll dough; separate into 8 breadsticks. Cut each in half crosswise to make 16 strips. Place 3-4 apple slices at the end of each piece of dough; roll up. Arrange bundles in greased 7×11″ pan. Zest 1 t. orange rind, set aside. Juice orange. Pour orange juice into bottom of pan (but not over bundles). Brush bundles with butter. Mix zest, sugar and cinnamon; spoon over bundles. Bake 25-30 min. or until golden brown.

World Breastfeeding Week: Got Milk?

Linda from Make Life Sweeter! is hosting an awesome blogging event. Since the first week of August is World Breastfeeding Week, she is asking fellow bloggers to prepare and blog about a sweet recipe that includes milk as an ingredient. Breastfeeding my four children was an awesome experience for me. And I've met some really wonderful friends through my local La Leche League Chapter. Be sure to check out Linda's post outlining some of the benefits of breastfeeding over here.

Since I've spent more than 8 years breastfeeding out of the past 18, I was very excited to participate in this event.My submission for the first Got Milk? event is a Blueberry-Pineapple Clafoutis. Clafoutis is a dessert that originated in France. It is basically fruit (the riper the better!) baked in a pancake-like batter. I decided to try one to take to a party we recently attended. It was quick and easy to make. (A plus because I overslept!) It looked beautiful and tasted great. This clafoutis is definitely going to be my go-to dessert recipe from now on. I was originally inspired to try clafoutis after reading Tartelette's post about this dessert I'd never heard of. Her pictures are amazing and had me drooling just thinking about it! However, I ended up using a clafoutis recipe I found over at The Budding Cook instead. But since I couldn't stop thinking about Tartelette's recipe, I added some pineapple at the last minute. I pretty much stuck with The Budding Cook's recipe but instead of using an 8x8 baking dish, I used a casserole which made the clafoutis a bit thicker and a tad more custard-y. Delicious!


Blueberry-Pineapple Clafoutis
Recipe from The Budding Cook

2 cups fresh blueberries, rinsed and drained
1 can pineapple chunks, drained
3 eggs
1/2-3/4 cup sugar
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon zest
cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
Confectioners’ sugar for dusting
Butter for greasing the baking dish

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease baking dish.
Arrange the blueberries and pineapple in a single layer in prepared dish.

Place the eggs in a mixing bowl and whisk until they begin to turn light and fluffy, and foam. Stir in the sugar and continue whisking. Add the milk, vanilla extract, lemon zest, salt, and flour, one at a time, until the mixture is light and airy. Beat until well combined.

Pour the batter over the fruit to cover evenly.

Bake in the oven until the top is golden and set, and springs back when touched, approximately 45 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool slightly. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, cut into wedges and serve warm.

Sometimes you've just gotta celebrate!

Ds raced in his first motocross race this weekend. The weather was bad. The track was a mud pit. And he thought he came in dead last. But he had a blast and since he'd worked so hard to get there, I decided to make a little something special to celebrate the occasion. Since I had several apples in the pantry that were starting to get a little old as well as a batch of strawberries I needed to use up, I decided that an Apple-Berry Crisp would be perfect. This recipe went together quickly and baked while I put the finishing touches on dinner, filling the kitchen with a great cinnamon-y aroma. A great way to get one of your daily servings of fruit. Mmmmm!

And as a bonus, when the race results were posted on the internet, ds didn't come in last. He was 6th out of 9. Something else to celebrate!


Apple-Berry Crisp

Ingredients for topping:
1 cup quick or old-fashioned oatmeal, uncooked
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup margarine or butter, melted
2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour

Ingredients For Filling:
4 cups thinly sliced and peeled apples, about 4 medium
2 cups sliced strawberries
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine topping ingredients and set aside. Combine filling ingredients and stir until fruit is evenly coated. Spoon filling into an 8-inch square glass baking dish. Sprinkle topping evenly over fruit. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to- 35 minutes or until apples are tender. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream, if desired.