Nanaimo Truffles

The Nanaimo bar, a decadent Canadian treat, has a fascinating history. It is named after Nanaimo, a delightful city in British Columbia. When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle visited British Columbia in 2020, their interest in these treats caused a media frenzy in the U.K. and the U.S., prompting questions about what the square was and where it came from. It is a dessert bar that requires no baking and generally consists of three layers: a graham wafer crumb and shredded coconut base, custard-flavored butter icing in the middle, and a layer of chocolate ganache on top.

The dessert was popularized in the years following WWII and subsequently rose to wider prominence after Expo ’86. Susan Mendelson is perhaps most responsible for commercializing the Nanaimo bar. She sold the bar during the 1970s to help pay her tuition, and in 1979 founded The Lazy Gourmet, a café and catering company in Vancouver, which claims to be the first business to sell the dessert. Mendelson wrote the official cookbook for Expo ’86, held in Vancouver, and included the Nanaimo bar.

After that, the Nanaimo bar began to be sold on BC Ferries and spread in popularity across Canada. It can now be found in Costco, Starbucks and countless cafes in Canada and the United States. There can be some variations with each of these layers — e.g., adding mint, mocha or other flavoring, as well as food coloring, to the icing center, or various nuts to the base — but a classic Nanaimo follows the traditional trio.

In a bid to take advantage of the bar’s popularity, the city of Nanaimo launched a tasting trail much like Ontario has done for the butter tart. The Nanaimo Bar Trail features an array of establishments that proudly showcase their unique interpretations of the classic Nanaimo Bar. As of now, there are more than 39 businesses participating in this sweet adventure. These establishments offer a variety of Nanaimo Bar-inspired treats, from traditional bars to ice creams, macarons, cheesecakes, lattes, and even spring rolls.

All that being said, instead of the traditional rum balls at Christmas, here’s my version of Nanaimo truffles!

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Nanaimo Truffles
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Course dessert
Cuisine Canadian
Servings
TRUFFLES
Course dessert
Cuisine Canadian
Servings
TRUFFLES
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Instructions
Filling/Centers
  1. Cream butter, custard powder & powdered sugar together well. Divide mixture into 22 pieces & roll each into a ball. Freeze for at least 30 minutes.
Base
  1. Melt the first 3 ingredients in the top of a double boiler. Add beaten egg & stir to cook & thicken. Remove from heat. Stir in graham crumbs, cheerios, cocoanut & corn syrup. Set aside to cool.
  2. When base mixture has cooled, divide mixture into 22 portions. Place 1 portion in the palm of your hand & press to flatten into a large circle. Put one custard ball into the center & wrap the circle around the custard so it totally covers it. Squeeze gently to form a ball. Repeat until you have made all the truffles. Freeze for 30-60 minutes.
Coating
  1. Melt chocolate slowly in a double boiler until smooth. Without allowing the chocolate to cool down, take a frozen ball & carefully stick a toothpick or skewer into it & dip into the melted chocolate to cover. Remove the stick & allow the truffles to set on parchment paper.
  2. Store in refrigerator. Allow the truffles to come back up to room temperature to serve if you wish.
Recipe Notes
  • I have a nut allergy, so I replaced the nuts that are usually used in the base with crushed cheerios. I found it did not alter the flavor at all. Their still just as irresistible as ever!
  • The size & amount depends on your preference. Just divide the filling & base components into whatever you wish.

Eggnog Chai Cookies w/ Spiced Rum Glaze

Eggnog, which is actually a drinkable form of custard, began in England, where eggnog was the trademark drink of the upper class. There was no refrigeration, and the farms belonged to the big estates.  Those who could get milk and eggs to make eggnog mixed it with brandy or Madeira or even sherry.  But it became most popular in North America, where farms and dairy products were plentiful, as was rum.  The name, ‘eggnog,’ is a combination of ‘noggin,’ a wooden cup, and ‘grog,’ a strong beer.

Throughout Canada, the United States and some European countries, eggnog is traditionally consumed over the Christmas season, from late October until the end of the holiday season. 

The eggnog tradition kind of reminds me of the fall ‘pumpkin spice’ craze. What started out as a drink is now added to ice cream, cookies, cake, coffee, protein powder, latte, etc. etc.…

These cookies are soft and pillow-y, filled with chai spices and topped with a spiced rum glaze. The warmth of the cinnamon and nutmeg brings out the eggnog flavor in the cookies, making the traditional holiday drink the main flavor.

The holidays are a time for tradition. For a lot of people, that tradition consists of baking …. baking cookies…. lots and lots of cookies!!

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Eggnog Chai Cookies w/ Spiced Rum Glaze
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Cookies
Glaze
Servings
Ingredients
Cookies
Glaze
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Instructions
Cookies
  1. Preheat oven to 325 F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, cardamom & black pepper. Set aside.
  3. In another bowl, using a mixer, cream together butter & sugars. Add egg yolks & vanilla. Beat until creamy. Carefully beat in eggnog.
  4. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients & beat until just combined.
  5. Fit a piping bag with a large star tip nozzle & fill with cookie dough. Make 30 cookie swirls on parchment paper. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the bottoms just start to turn golden brown.
  6. Immediately transfer cookies to a paper towel covered flat surface. Allow to cool.
Glaze
  1. Whisk together powdered sugar & cinnamon. Add vanilla, eggnog & spiced rum. Whisk until smooth.
  2. Drizzle over cooled cookies & serve.

Cinnamon Bun Rice Krispie Treats

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Whether you’re hosting a Halloween party, attending a potluck, or simply craving something sweet, Halloween rice krispie treats are a classic choice. Loved for their crispy texture, chewy marshmallow consistency, and endless decorating possibilities.

Rice Krispie treats have been around for about 85 years. Snap, crackle, pop! These three words have become synonymous with Rice Krispies, the breakfast cereal made from pieces of crisped rice that, when combined with milk, emit a noise that you can probably imagine while reading this. Regardless of the last time you enjoyed a bowl of Rice Krispies in the morning, it’s clear that the beloved brand exudes childhood nostalgia. The iconic mascot trio, memory-stimulating sound, shape, and aroma are embedded into many memories. 

Rice Krispies Treats are a legendary confection with an undemanding recipe that has graced several generations. Not only are the possibilities endless with these delicious treats that kids and grown-ups can enjoy but they can bring a challenging cake shape to life while making the process so much more manageable. Intricately sculpted cakes often have a surprise inside: rice cereal treats. Swapping traditional batter for these crispy treats provides structure and strength to modeled cakes that you just can’t get with fondant and modeling chocolate alone. And the best part is, the method you use to sculpt the cake afterward isn’t that different than when you sculpt a traditional batter-filled cake.

For some tasty little Halloween treats this year, I’m making some cinnamon bun rice krispie rolls with a cream cheese frosting. I can think of a few kids & adults who will enjoy these!

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Cinnamon Bun Rice Krispie Rolls w/ Cream Cheese Frosting
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Ingredients
Rice Krispies
Filling
Servings
Ingredients
Rice Krispies
Filling
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Instructions
Rice Krispies
  1. Line a 10 x 15-inch jelly roll pan with parchment paper. Spray well with cooking spray. Set aside
  2. In a large pot, melt marshmallows, butter, vanilla & cinnamon over low heat. Stir until melted & smooth. Remove from heat & stir in rice krispies. Scrape rice krispie mixture onto prepared pan. Using well buttered hands, press out evenly into pan. Let cool to room temperature.
Filling
  1. In a small bowl, stir together brown sugar, butter, cinnamon & flour until creamy.
Assembly
  1. Carefully spread filling onto the rice krispies. Sprinkle with pepita seeds. Roll up from the long side like a jelly roll while rice krispies are still flexible. Press firmly as you roll.
  2. Place in fridge for 15-20 minutes. When it feels FIRM, cut into 1/2-inch slices using a serrated blade & sawing motion. You should get approximately 24 slices.
Frosting
  1. Beat together cream cheese, vanilla & powdered sugar until smooth. Place in a piping bag & pipe a swirl onto each slice. Sprinkle with extra cinnamon if you wish. Keep in refrigerator.

Apple Crisp Snack Cake

In Canada, apples are available throughout the year. About 100 species of apples are grown in the country. With their bright colors, crisp texture and clean, slightly spicy flavor, apples are the perfect fall icon.

Today’s blog recipe is a bit of a different take on a beloved old classic. Apple crisp is a North American dessert which combines tender apples covered with a delectable crunchy topping. It is one of the common desserts that does not have the regular bottom crust and uses sliced or diced apples, generously doused in cinnamon and sugar, as the bottom layer.

The streusel which covers the apples can employ a wide variety of different flour types, nuts, and oats, commonly combined with butter and sugar. It results in a crumbly topping, which usually completely coats the apples, allowing them to release and cook inside the flavorful juices.

Apple crisp is believed to have stemmed from the British crumble, and today these two classics merely differ in their names. Even though the North American crisp was particularly made with oats, which resulted in a crunchier coating, nowadays both varieties can employ various ingredients.

This warm and spicy ‘apple crisp snack cake’ is a comforting twist on the favorite fall dessert. Filled with apples and topped with more apples, cream cheese drizzle the perfect crispy streusel. Orange pumpkins might be more popular this month, but there’s no better time than now to take advantage of apple fresh season.

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Apple Crisp Snack Cake
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Course dessert
Cuisine American
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SERVINGS
Ingredients
Apple Topping
Baked Crisp Topping
Course dessert
Cuisine American
Servings
SERVINGS
Ingredients
Apple Topping
Baked Crisp Topping
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Instructions
Cake
  1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line an 8 x 8inch baking pan with parchment paper. Set aside.
  2. Peel, core & grate apples. Sift flour, cornstarch, baking powder, cinnamon, allspice, cardamom & salt together in a medium bowl & set aside.
  3. Using a mixer, cream butter & sugar until light. Scrape the bowl & add the whole egg, mixing on medium-high for about a minute. Scrape the bowl again & add the egg white & vanilla; mix for another 2 minutes.
  4. Alternately fold in flour mixture & buttermilk, then gently fold in grated apples.
  5. Pour/spread batter into prepared baking pan. Bake for about 30-40 minutes or until a cake tester comes out with just a few moist crumbs. Allow to cool in pan on a wire rack.
Baked Crisp Topping
  1. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Place all ingredients except butter in a bowl. Combine well then add softened butter. Mix until the mixture begins to form pea-sized clusters. Spread mixture evenly on the parchment lined cookie sheet, then bake at 350 F. for 5 minutes. Stir the topping around a bit, then bake for another 5 minutes until it begins to turn golden brown. Let crisp topping cool completely to room temperature. If crisp mixture is too chunky break it up with your fingers slightly.
Apple Topping
  1. Place apples , lemon juice & water in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat until softened, but not falling apart. Add brown sugar, cinnamon & salt. Cook for a minute to dissolve sugar. Remove & cool until cake is baked & ready to top.
Drizzle
  1. Sift powdered sugar with salt. Set aside. Cream softened cream cheese & butter with a mixer for about 2 minutes. Add vanilla & mix to combine. Add powdered sugar & slowly incorporate into wet mixture. Add milk & beat to create a drizzle consistency.
Assembly
  1. When cake is cool, carefully & evenly spread apple topping over top of cake. Using a small piping bag, drizzle icing over apples (using a spatula, lightly spread a bit of drizzle on sides). Next, top cake with baked crisp topping. Slice & serve.
Recipe Notes
  • To make your own buttermilk, place 2 tsp of white vinegar or lemon juice in your measuring cup & add milk to equal 2/3 cup, stir & let stand until room temperature.
  • If you prefer cupcakes over the snack cake, no problem. Same idea just a different shape. Your choice!

 

Pumpkin Streuseltaler

Nothing tastes more like fall than fresh baked pumpkin goods. I love just about anything with pumpkin in it. It definitely wasn’t always that way but it’s amazing how your taste buds change as time passes.

My original thoughts were to make some German pumpkin plachinda. It was one of those wonderful things my mother used to make that got pushed into the back of my memory.

It seems most recipes you find on the internet make plachinda as individual pastry turnovers with a pumpkin filling. I think I recall my mother making it in a rectangle casserole dish with the pastry on the bottom and up the sides and the filling showing.

I decided to do some ‘recipe development’ and try making some German streuseltaler and top it with a sweet pumpkin (plachinda) filling.

Streuseltaler was inspired by the round shape of the taler, a silver coin used throughout Europe for almost four hundred years. Its name lives on in the currency called dollar.

Taler is a German word for coin, so the name of the dessert literally translates to streusel coin. Basically, a free form tart made with a yeast dough topped with a huge amount of streusel, sometimes filled with custard and often with a sugar glaze.

A traditional German streusel (streusel meaning something ‘strewn or scattered’ in German) bakes up into shortbread balls. It makes a crunchy, cookie-like top but is soft on the bottom where it meets the bread or fruit compote.

Streusel was first popularized in Germany. In its simplest form, it consists of flour, sugar and butter but gets even better with the addition of oatmeal, cinnamon and nuts …. just my opinion of course!

In the history of cooking, one could find recipes that have constantly changed and could be seen as a connecting link between modern times and our past. I guess this is my contribution to the evolution of plachinda.

For all of you who love pumpkin, here’s a treat you don’t want to miss!

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Pumpkin Streuseltaler
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Course dessert
Cuisine German
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SERVINGS
Ingredients
Pumpkin Dough
Pumpkin Filling
Glaze
Course dessert
Cuisine German
Servings
SERVINGS
Ingredients
Pumpkin Dough
Pumpkin Filling
Glaze
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Instructions
Dough
  1. In a small bowl, add yeast, lukewarm water & 1 tsp sugar. Allow to sit about 10 minutes until frothy.
  2. In a large bowl, combine yeast mixture, butter, salt, cinnamon, eggs & pumpkin puree. Mix well. Add flour, one cup at a time, until well combined. Knead dough for about 8-10 minutes or until smooth & soft. Place dough in a greased bowl, cover with a tea towel & allow to rise for about 1 hour or until double in size.
Filling
  1. In a small dish, combine the filling ingredients, set aside.
Streusel Topping
  1. In a small bowl, combine flour, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon & salt. With a pastry blender, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Set aside.
Assembly & Baking
  1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place dough on a lightly floured work surface & divide into 12 pieces. Form each piece into a ball & allow it to rest for about 5 minutes.
  2. Space out the balls on parchment lined baking sheet. With fingertips or the back of a Tbsp., press out center of each ball to about 4-inch diameter. Add about a Tbsp of pumpkin filling to each dough piece & spread leaving a border around the outside.
  3. Divide streusel topping evenly between the pastries. Allow to rise for about 15-20 minutes.
  4. Preheat oven to 350 F.
  5. Bake for about 10-12 minutes. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack. In the meantime, you can prepare the glaze.
Glaze
  1. In a small dish, whisk powdered sugar & lemon juice to a thick glaze. When streuseltaler are cooled, drizzle with glaze.
Recipe Notes
  • The picture at the bottom of the recipe is MY version of my mother's plachinda. I had posted it on a blog in October 2016. She used to serve this wonderful pastry when she made a white bean soup. At the time I thought it was an odd combination but it works! Another one of those 'taste of a memory' kind of comfort foods.

Chocolate Sour Cherry Donuts w/ Amaretto Glaze

Fall is that time of year that we can enjoy some more of those wonderful cherries from our own little tree. The fact that we live in the northern part of Alberta, Canada and can eat cherries fresh from our tree is such a bonus.

Cherries are not native to North America, in fact both the sweet and sour varieties were brought to Canada and the U.S. in the 1600s by French and English settlers. The plants, especially the sour varieties, adapted well to our climate.
Sour cherries are a hardier plant than the sweet variety and are well-suited to growing in slightly cooler climates.
Even though these cherries are classed as a semi-sweet variety, there are still endless ways to enjoy them.

Unlike many fruits, which are at their best uncooked, sour cherries need a bit of sweetness and heat to reach their peak. Tart as vinegar, with a faint perfume of fresh fruit when raw, they need just a touch of sugar, then start them cooking and watch the tartness blossom. The aroma doesn’t fade, as one would expect; rather, the longer they cook the more it gains body and roundness, until the cherry fragrance becomes overwhelming, the fruit flavor more pronounced and the overall results unforgettable.

Most commercially produced cherry varieties, such as Bing do not cook well. These ‘sweet cherries’ may be wonderful eaten out of hand or tossed in a fruit salad, but they make bland preserves and flat, watery pies.

The tart bite of a sour cherry is glorified when transformed into any type of sweet preserve and can be used to good advantage in savory sauces where tartness is desirable. Chocolate and cherries are a classic marriage, so don’t hesitate to toss sour cherries into your favorite chocolate cake or brownie recipe as I did here.

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Chocolate Sour Cherry Donuts w/ Amaretto Glaze
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Amaretto Glaze
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Amaretto Glaze
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Instructions
Donuts
  1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray a 6 cup donut pan with baking spray. Set aside
  2. In a large bowl, whisk the egg & sugars until well incorporated. Add in the milk, sour cream, melted butter & vanilla extract. Whisk until well combined.
  3. Using a sieve, sift in the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda & salt. Gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet mixture. The donut batter will be pretty thick at this point.
  4. Transfer the donut batter into a piping bag. Fill the donut cavities with chocolate cake batter about 1/4 full then top each with some cherries. Continue to pipe remaining cake batter on top of cherries on each donut. When baked, the donuts will have a cherry center.
  5. Bake the donuts for 17-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let the baked donuts cool in the baking pan for 10 minutes then transfer them to a cooling rack. Let them cool completely before glazing.
Amaretto Glaze
  1. Whisk together glaze ingredients until smooth & pourable. Drizzle over cooled donuts & top with a few more cherry pieces if you wish.
Recipe Notes
  • Lor Ann  AMARETTO FLAVOR is sweet, with a slight cherry taste and a hint of almond that adds an extra layer of flavor to the donuts.

 

Chai Cinnamon Crescents

It’s the fall season, so bring on the chai flavored recipes! Fall can encompass many different flavors including apple, pumpkin, maple, cranberry and ginger just to name a few. To me, baked goods and chai spices are a no-brainer. Traditionally, chai is made into a tea which consists of milk, spices, sweetener, and black tea. Chai spices can be used for so much more than just tea. Once you make your basic chai spice recipe, there are so many ways to utilize it.

Chai can include several different spices. Cardamom is the most common ingredient, followed by a mixture of cinnamon, ginger, star anise and cloves. Pepper and coriander, nutmeg and fennel are also used but they are slightly less common.

In the winter of 2011, Brion and I traveled Turkey for a month. We were meeting with the Trafalgar tour group in Istanbul. Arriving a day early gave us time to ‘snoop’ around a bit. Next to our hotel was a ‘Starbucks’, so we went in. When Brion ordered my coffee, they gave me a ‘Pumpkin Spice Chai Latte’ by mistake. That (pumpkin) chai flavor was just incredible. I have been addicted to it ever since.

A stay in Istanbul would not be complete without a traditional and unforgettable boat excursion up the Bosphorus, that winding strait that separates Europe and Asia. Its shores are a mixture of past and present, grand splendor and simple beauty. Modern hotels stand next to shore-front wooden villas, marble palaces in contrast to rustic stone fortresses and elegant compounds neighboring small fishing villages. Since Turkey actually straddles two separate continents, its culture features strong elements and traditions from both east and west. At that point in time, we found Turkey a relaxed country to travel in which made our time there very enjoyable.

These crescent rolls are a shortcut to making the classic cinnamon rolls using cream cheese pastry and that incredible flavor of the chai spice. Yum!

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Chai Cinnamon Crescents
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Course dessert
Cuisine Middle Eastern
Servings
Course dessert
Cuisine Middle Eastern
Servings
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Instructions
Chai Spice Filling
  1. Whisk together all chai spices with brown sugar. Set aside.
Crescents
  1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
  2. In a bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder & salt. With a pastry blender, cut in cream cheese & shortening until mixture resembles coarse peas. Stir in milk. On a lightly floured work surface, knead dough gently about 20 times.
  3. Form dough in a ball then roll out into a 14-inch circumference. Spread butter over the surface of dough then spread spice/sugar combo (all but 1 tsp needed for drizzle) evenly over the butter.
  4. Cut circle into 12-14 equal wedges. Roll each wedge from the outside edge to form a crescent shape. Slightly curve each one & place on baking sheet.
  5. Bake for about 20 minutes or until pastry is baked. Remove from oven & place on wire cooling rack.
Drizzle
  1. In a small bowl, beat together cream cheese & butter until smooth. Add 1/2 tsp chai spice mix, powdered sugar, salt & vanilla. Beat until well combined then add enough milk to make a drizzle consistency. When crescents are cool, drizzle & serve.

Breakfast Cereal Mini Cakes

Since they were introduced in 1941, Cheerios have been a staple in households across North America. They remain one of the most popular breakfast cereals on the market and are now available worldwide.

Cheerios are primarily made from whole grain oats and come in an assortment of flavors. In fact, there are at least 15 varieties — with seasonal ones appearing on occasion.

A bowl of cereal is perfect for a quick breakfast. Or lunch. Or, let’s be honest, dinner. And while these are perfectly acceptable uses of cereal, there is so much more you can do with them from snacks and desserts to buttery casserole coatings that take the morning mainstay to new heights.

To enhance these cupcakes, the regular milk is switched out for ‘cereal milk’ (milk that’s been soaked in sweet cereal).

Cereal milk tastes like that dense, slightly sweet, starchy, oaty milk from the bottom of the cereal bowl, that everybody loves to enjoy at the end.

The nostalgic and comforting combination of milk and cereal combined in this cupcake recipe is really quite special. These seem like kind of a ‘kid’ thing but I’m sure it won’t take long for them to disappear.

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Breakfast Cereal Cupcakes
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MINI CUPCAKES
Ingredients
Mini Cakes
Servings
MINI CUPCAKES
Ingredients
Mini Cakes
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Instructions
Mini Cakes
  1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a 24 cup mini muffin pan with cupcake liners. Set aside.
  2. In a liquid measuring cup, stir together the milk & 1/4 cup Very Berry Cheerios. Microwave for 30 seconds, stir, & set aside while you prepare the batter.
  3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter & sugar on medium speed until light & fluffy. Add in the eggs on at the time, scraping the bowl as necessary.
  4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, & salt. Using a fork, remove the cereal from the milk. Discard the cereal. Make sure you still have 1/2 cup milk, add more if necessary. Add the honey & vanilla extract to the milk. Whisk together.
  5. Gradually add 1/3 of the dry ingredients, mix to combine. Add 1/2 of the wet ingredients, mix. Repeat, ending with dry ingredients.
  6. Divide the batter between 24 muffin cups. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
Frosting
  1. In a bowl, whip cream cheese & butter. Beat on medium-low speed until smooth & combined, 1-2 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed.
  2. Sift powdered sugar into the cream cheese mixture & add the vanilla, lemon juice & salt. Beat the frosting on a low speed to combine, then increase the speed to medium-high & beat until light & fluffy, 1-2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice.
  3. Add slightly crushed cheerios & FOLD into mixture gently. Top each COOLED mini cake with a dollop of frosting then sprinkle with extra cheerios.
Recipe Notes
  • If you prefer, bake in 12 regular size muffin cups.

Manchester Tarts

The Manchester tart is an English baked treat with its roots tracing back to none other than the vibrant city of Manchester, England. This retro tart has a shortcrust pastry base that’s layered with raspberry preserves, custard, desiccated coconut and sometimes glace cherries. The combination of sweet preserves, creamy custard, and coconut creates a wonderful balance of flavors and textures.

The Manchester tart was a staple on school dinner menus until the mid-1980s and is now a staple in bakeries and home kitchens, cherished for its simplicity and delicious taste.

Over the years, the Manchester Tart has undergone numerous adaptations and variations, with some recipes incorporating different fruits, toppings, or pastry bases. However, its essence remains rooted in the tradition of British baking, symbolizing comfort and nostalgia for many who have enjoyed it throughout generations.

For my adaptation of these tarts I made a pastry cream to give a lightness and added some fresh raspberries to give some tang to balance the sweetness of the preserves. Instead of using the traditional glace cherry on top, I went with a few more fresh raspberries.


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Manchester Tarts
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Course dessert
Servings
TARTLETS
Ingredients
Tart Base
Pastry Cream
Raspberry Preserves/Fruit
Topping
Course dessert
Servings
TARTLETS
Ingredients
Tart Base
Pastry Cream
Raspberry Preserves/Fruit
Topping
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Instructions
Tart Base
  1. Combine the flour, powdered sugar, cornstarch, salt, & vanilla in a large bowl. Add the butter and mix with your hands until the butter is broken down into pieces the size of peas and the ingredients are well combined. Add the egg and mix with a spatula until the dough is smooth and the egg is fully incorporated. Don’t overmix.
  2. Turn the dough out onto a large piece of plastic wrap and gently shape it into a ball. Wrap the dough in the plastic wrap and flatten it into a disc. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or overnight, until cold but still pliable. It should have the texture of clay.
  3. When the dough has chilled, unwrap the dough and place it on a silicone baking mat on your work surface. Roll it out into a rectangle about 1⁄8 inch thick, using a second silicone sheet on top. The silicone mat makes it easier to lift the rolled-out dough onto the sheet pan later. Make sure to work quickly so the dough doesn’t get too warm.
  4. Place the silicone mat with the dough on a baking sheet.
  5. Using the tart rings, cut out 18 circles of dough. Remove the rest of the dough from around the rings.
  6. Reroll remaining dough between 2 sheets of parchment. Using a sharp knife, slice strips about 10 inches long & 1- inch thick. These strips will make the sides of each tartlet.
  7. Working with one at a time, transfer a strip of dough to one of the tart rings and press it to the sides. Use your fingers to slightly push the bottom of the sides to the dough circle (to seal it). Repeat with the remaining strips of dough. Use a small knife to cut the edge to the rim of the rings.
  8. Transfer the baking sheet containing the tartlet shells to the freezer & freeze for at least 20 minutes.
  9. Preheat oven to 350 F.
  10. Bake tart rings for about 15 minutes or until golden. Remove from oven & take off rings to allow them to cool.
Pastry Cream
  1. Heat the milk over medium high heat & bring it to a simmer, almost to a boil.
  2. While heating the milk, place the sugar, egg yolks, cornstarch, vanilla & salt in a bowl. Whisk until you have a thick, smooth mix then set aside until the milk comes almost to a boil.
  3. As soon as the milk starts to steam or simmer, remove it from the heat. Slowly pour about a half of the hot milk in a thin stream into the egg mix, WHILE WHISKING CONSTANTLY to temper the egg mix. When the eggs have been tempered, add the egg mix back into the hot milk in the saucepan.
  4. Heat the custard base, over medium heat, while whisking vigorously until it starts to thicken – this should take about 1 – 2 minutes. Make sure to reach the corners of the saucepan so that the custard does not stick to the bottom of the pan.
  5. While whisking, let the custard come to a boil (the custard will release bubbles). You may need to stop whisking from time to time for a few seconds to see if the custard is ‘bubbling’. Look for big bubbles breaking the surface of the custard.
  6. Lower the heat and cook for a further 1 – 2 minutes after you see the first bubbles break the surface, and make sure to whisk constantly.
  7. Remove from the heat & add the butter. Whisk in the butter, until it’s completely mixed in.
  8. Pour the custard into a bowl & immediately cover the surface with plastic wrap, making sure the plastic wrap is touching the whole surface. This is to prevent a custard ‘skin’ from forming on top. You can also choose to pass the custard through a sieve to remove any lumps.
  9. Let the custard cool down to room temperature & then let it chill in the fridge for a few hours, until it’s completely chilled.
  10. The custard will have ‘set’ after chilling. So, it is important to whisk the pastry cream to make it smooth before using.
Assembly
  1. Once the base & custard have cooled, spread raspberry preserve over the bottom of pastry cases. Spoon in the custard, then sprinkle with the coconut & chill. Decorate with raspberries and a final sprinkle of powdered sugar on the berries. Serve.
Recipe Notes
  • I used two sizes of tart rings - 2 1/4 + 2 1/2" for these.

Strawberry Cookies w/ Strawberry Chocolate Topping

If there’s one berry most people have a fondness for, it’s strawberries. Even though available year-round, strawberries’ full flavor shines best beginning in May through late summer, the prime seasons for strawberries. Advances in transportation and refrigeration have allowed for strawberries to become a seasonless fruit.

Winter is done and we’re ready to embrace all things springtime! Spring is about rebirth, sunshine, new life, things in bloom, etc. With bright colors, fresh flavors, and interesting designs, spring cookies are the perfect way to welcome in the warmer weather and say goodbye to the winter blues. 

Today I thought I would start with a crisp shortbread type cookie and add some ‘pizzazz‘ with some strawberries, white chocolate and a few pistachios. I think you will like these!

Print Recipe
Strawberry Cookies w/ Strawberry Chocolate Topping
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
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Servings
COOKIES
Ingredients
Garnish
Servings
COOKIES
Ingredients
Garnish
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
You:
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
Cookies
  1. In a large bowl, cream together butter & icing sugar. Add egg & strawberry extract & mix well.
  2. In a separate bowl, sift together flour & baking powder. Add to the wet mixture a little at a time until well incorporated. Wait approximately 30 minutes before working with the dough as it will firm up slightly.
  3. Roll the dough between baking paper & put it into the fridge for a few hours to help it from spreading. When dough is a bit firmer, take it out of the fridge & cut into butterfly shapes.
  4. Place the cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet & return to fridge again for another 1-2 hours, this will also help prevent spreading.
  5. Preheat oven to 350 F.
  6. Bake cookies for approximately 10 - 12 minutes or until lightly browned on bottoms.
  7. Allow cookies to cool completely on a wire rack while you prepare the 'toppings'.
Strawberry Topping
  1. Slice dried strawberries thinly. Place white chocolate chips in a small bowl. Heat heavy cream until simmering, then pour over chocolate chips. Let stand for 1-2 minutes, then add 1/4 tsp strawberry flavor & tiny bit of gel food color. Stir swiftly until all the chocolate chips are melted & smooth.
  2. Using a piping bag, place about a teaspoon of strawberry flavored chocolate. Gently press a slice of strawberry on top.
Lemon Drizzle
  1. In a small dish, stir together powdered sugar & fresh lemon juice until it reaches a drizzle consistency. Drizzle lines over half of the cookie then sprinkle with pistachio nuts or pepita seeds.
Recipe Notes
  • LorAnn's Strawberry baking & flavoring emulsion tastes like fresh ripe berries. Great for cakes, cookies, frostings, fillings, and desserts. Add it instead of using strawberries or in addition to the fruit to add a punch of strawberry flavor. Use in any recipe you would a strawberry extract and get more robust strawberry flavor!
  • 1 teaspoon baking extract = 1 teaspoon emulsion