Ingredient: sugar OR to taste

Cinnamon Roll Variety Pack

Baking a variety pack of four different cinnamon roll flavors transforms a single-flavor tray into a versatile, gourmet experience. A visually appealing experience that blends the comfort of a homemade dessert with the excitement of modern flavor experimentation. It caters to different tastes within a single batch, making it an ideal choice for brunch, gifts, or, as some suggest, sharing. 

Moving beyond the classic brown sugar and cinnamon, you can incorporate modern, diverse fillings and toppings. Examples include raspberry-lemon, apple pie, salted caramel, chocolate-hazelnut, orange zest, carrot cake, cardamom, pumpkin or even cream cheese icing variations.

Use one consistent, high-quality yeasted dough for all four variations to ensure even baking times. By packing them together in a small pan, they stay soft and pillowy, a common goal in high-quality homemade baking.

Who doesn’t love a tray of warm, gooey rolls? If you’re a fan of the variety pack, you’re likely drawn to the balance of textures and the social, flexible nature of the format.

 It caters to different palates. While some people crave the classic ‘ooey-gooey’ cinnamon, others might prefer more adventurous toppings.

Including plain rolls in a variety pack ensures that even if you don’t love the experimental flavors, you still have the ‘good ole plain’ ones to fall back on.

Recently, Brion & I had to make a trip out to BC. While waiting in the airport I picked up a magazine to look at and came across a great looking cinnamon roll recipe I thought I should try. For something different I thought it would be nice to do a variety pack instead of just one filling. This is what developed from that idea.

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 Cinnamon Roll Variety Pack
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
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Course dessert
Cuisine German
Keyword cinnamon roll variety pack
Servings
Ingredients
Dough
Raspberry Filling
Blueberry Filling
Cinnamon Filling
Lemon Curd Filling
Cream Cheese Drizzle
Course dessert
Cuisine German
Keyword cinnamon roll variety pack
Servings
Ingredients
Dough
Raspberry Filling
Blueberry Filling
Cinnamon Filling
Lemon Curd Filling
Cream Cheese Drizzle
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
You:
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
  1. In a small bowl, combine lukewarm milk, & 2 Tbsp of the sugar; stir until sugar is dissolved. Add in the yeast & allow to sit until frothy.
  2. In a large bowl, combine mashed potatoes, eggs, salt & butter. When yeast mixture is proofed, add to potato mixture, combining well.
  3. In another bowl, whisk together flour & remaining sugar. Combine with wet mixture until dough forms a ball. Knead on a work surface for about 10 minutes then place in a greased bowl.
  4. Cover with plastic wrap & a towel. Allow to rise in a draft-free place for about 1 1/2 hours or until doubled in size.
  5. While the dough rises, make fillings so they have time to chill before using them. IF YOU FEEL THEY WILL NOT BE CHILLED ENOUGH, PREPARE THEM A DAY AHEAD & KEEP IN THE REFRIGERATOR. TAKE FILLINGS OUT WHILE THE DOUGH IS RISING.
  6. RASPBERRY & BLUEBERRY FILLING: Add the raspberries (or blueberries), sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, lemon zest & salt to a saucepan over low heat. Keep stirring until they begin to break down. Once the berries have broken down & released their juices, turn the heat to medium & allow the mixture to boil, stirring for around 4-5 minutes. As the mixture boils, it will thicken & become jelly-like. Make sure to keep stirring so it doesn't burn. Once thick, remove it from the heat, scrape it into a bowl & allow to cool.
  7. CINNAMON FILLING: In a small bowl stir together brown sugar & cinnamon. Measure out 1/4 cup softened butter for spreading.
  8. LEMON CURD FILLING: In a medium saucepan, whisk together the eggs, sugar, cornstarch, if using, lemon juice, zest, & salt until smooth. Place the pan over medium-low heat. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula, making sure to scrape the corners of the pan to prevent scrambling. Cook for 5–8 minutes until the mixture thickens & coats the back of the spoon. It should just begin to bubble. Remove from heat immediately. Stir in the cold, cubed butter one piece at a time until completely melted and smooth. Pour the curd through a fine-mesh strainer into a jar or bowl to remove any bits of zest or egg. Press plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the curd to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or until completely cold and firm.
  9. Lightly grease a 9 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan; set aside. Punch down the dough. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough into an 18 x 12-inch rectangle & cut into four sections. Apply the 4 different fillings, tightly roll up filled rectangles into spirals. Pinch dough to seal seams.
  10. Cut each roll into 3 slices; arrange in prepared baking pan. Cover; let rise in a warm place until nearly double in size (30 minutes).
  11. Preheat oven to 350 F.
  12. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown & done in center. While rolls are baking prepare cream cheese drizzle.
  13. CREAM CHEESE DRIZZLE: In a bowl, beat softened cream cheese, softened butter & vanilla with a mixer on medium until combined. Gradually beat in powdered sugar until smooth. Beat in enough milk, 1 tsp at a time, to reach drizzle consistency.
  14. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Using a small spatula, loosen rolls from pan. Place a wire rack on top of pan; place one hand on top of rack & other hand under pan & carefully invert pan with rack (use pot holders to protect your hands). Lift pan off rolls.
  15. Drizzle as many of the rolls as you wish. Serve warm.
Recipe Notes

For the mashed potato, prick a 10-ounce unpeeled potato all over with a fork. Microwave on 100% power (high) for 5 to 7 minutes or until tender. Halve potato and scoop pulp out of skin into a small bowl; discard skin. Mash the potato pulp with a potato masher or an electric mixer on low speed.

Celebrating 10 Years of Blogging!

Today, February 14th 2026, is the tenth anniversary of the blog ‘Good Food & Treasured Memories’. Ten years ago, I decided to start writing a food blog. Brion and I had just spent three months in Ecuador. Prior to going, I needed to have a shoulder replacement operation. After we returned, I had the operation and with Brion’s help recovered successfully. The only thing was, even though my shoulder was much improved, it pretty much took me out of the workforce as I had known it before. After having been so busy in the previous years, it took a lot of ‘regrouping’ to settle it with myself that I had reached a different phase of my life. Prior to our time spent in Ecuador I had written and with Brion’s technical savvy, published two books.

In 2014, Good Food & Treasured Memories, my first ‘print’ copy memorabilia/cookbook was published with good success in Northern Alberta. It was followed by a second book in 2015 titled ‘The Taste of a Memory’. This book was written in memory of my parents, which took its readers back to a gentler time with some personal childhood memories. The book also contains a sweet and savory collection of at least 160 recipes about the ultimate ‘comfort food’ – bread pudding!

With the turndown in our economy, I wrote my first eBook, Living Large on a Lean Food Budget’, which outlines smart strategies for navigating a realistic food budget to keep ‘life in balance’. It was published on Amazon.com in March 2016 and is still available today.

With these projects finished, it seemed only natural to continue this passion for food and writing in the form of a food blog. Once again, Brion’s technical abilities came into play as I needed a very specific site to work with. I wasn’t interested in working with lots of sponsors that required me to advertise their products, etc. The whole purpose of the site was to post interesting articles along with some great food. Having spent 35 years in the food industry, food and food history is something I always gravitate to.

With much time and effort, Brion built a website with a clean, precise format I could work with. We decided to use the ‘Good Food & Treasured Memories’ name again as it was so fitting of its content.

With blogs, it’s not only the award winning sites that have something to offer; its the blogs written by people in their pajama’s at late hours of the night, created because those writers are dying to make something, to publish something, to give a voice to all the thoughts in their head, its the blogs written by people who don’t want to forget their recipes, who want them recorded somewhere for their friends and their nieces and nephews and their kids, its the blogs pursed for no other reason than because they’re fun.

Over the course of ten years I have enjoyed the many aspects of writing a food blog. In order to write about food and its history, I have done many hours of research to keep my articles accurate and interesting. Recipe development is and has always been something I love doing, so creating relevant recipes for each blog article put the icing on the cake so to speak.

Each year, at least 120 blogs with new articles and recipes have been added. When I first started writing the blog I had no idea how time consuming it would be. When I would look at other personal blogs and see they had only kept them up for a few years I wondered why. After ten years of blogging I now understand why. It definitely takes commitment to keep it current but I have also learned that good organization still allows you lots of time to do the other things that make life enjoyable such as spending time with my husband Brion.

With the website being available online at Google, Pinterest, Instagram as well as Facebook it is being read around the world. It has been so unique and rewarding receiving feed back from readers worldwide.

Thanks to everyone who has read and enjoyed the blog for the last ten years. It has been an incredible journey for me and I hope to continue blogging for many more.

Alice & Brion

Since it’s Valentines Day, I thought this strawberry rhubarb cake would be a fitting dessert for the occasion as well.

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 Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble Cake
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
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Course dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword strawberry rhubarb crumble cake
Servings
Ingredients
Cake
Compote
Crumble
Buttercream
Fruit + For Garnish
Course dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword strawberry rhubarb crumble cake
Servings
Ingredients
Cake
Compote
Crumble
Buttercream
Fruit + For Garnish
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
You:
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
Cake
  1. Preheat your oven to 325 F. Spray two 9 x 13 baking pans with nonstick spray, line the bottom of each pan with parchment paper and spray again. Set aside.
  2. In a medium bowl or measuring cup, whisk together the egg whites, whole egg, and vanilla. Set aside.
  3. In a bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the dry ingredients together on low speed for 30 seconds.
  4. Add the butter one piece at a time, about every 10 seconds. Once all the butter is added, pour in the buttermilk and mix on low for about 1 minute, until the ingredients are incorporated.
  5. Scrape down the sides of bowl and begin to add the egg mixture in 3 separate batches, mixing on medium-low until light and fluffy, about two minutes. Fold once or twice to ensure the batter at the bottom of the bowl is incorporated and mix for another 20 to 30 seconds.
  6. Scrape down the sides of bowl and begin to add the egg mixture in 3 separate batches, mixing on medium-low until light and fluffy, about two minutes. Fold once or twice to ensure the batter at the bottom of the bowl is incorporated and mix for another 20 to 30 seconds.
  7. Divide batter evenly between the 2 pans (about ------- ounces of batter in each of the two 9 x 13 pans), spreading evenly with a small offset palette knife.
  8. Bake for about 25 to 30 minutes. Check cake around 23 to 25 minutes and then set the timer for 2-to-3-minute intervals if the cake needs to bake longer. You're looking for a few moist crumbs to come out on the toothpick when inserted into the center of the cake.
  9. Let the cake layers cool on racks for 10 minutes before inverting onto greased wire racks. Gently turn the cakes back up so the tops are up and cool completely. Once the cakes are cooled completely, level the tops if needed.
  10. Wrap each cake layer with plastic wrap and chill in freezer for at least an hour before using. The cake layers can be stored for up to a few days wrapped once in plastic wrap and frozen. To store longer than a few days, wrap twice in plastic wrap, then in foil, and seal in a zip-lock bag.
Compote
  1. In a medium size saucepan, combine the strawberries, rhubarb, sugar & vanilla over medium heat. Bring to a boil. Once the mixture is boiling, reduce the heat to low & let simmer, stirring occasionally, until the fruit is tender. Let cool completely before using in the cake. Can be made ahead of time and stored in an airtight container for up to a week.
Crumble
  1. Preheat your oven to 375 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
  2. In a medium size bowl, combine the flour, sugar, salt & cinnamon. Whisk to blend. Add the cubes of butter & rub in with your fingertips. The mixture will stick together like clumps. Mix in the oats & nuts.
  3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring the crumble halfway through. Let cool completely before using in the cake.
Buttercream
  1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment beat the butter on medium speed for about 2 to 3 minutes, until the mixture is light and fluffy. Adjust the mixer to low speed, slowly add the powdered sugar, followed by the heavy cream, clear vanilla extract & a dash of salt. Continue to beat the buttercream on medium-high speed for an additional 3 to 5 minutes. Before frosting your cake, mix the frosting by hand with a wooden spoon to push out the air pockets.
Assembly
  1. Place the first cake layer, top side up, on a cake board. Using an offset icing spatula, spread a thin layer of frosting over the cake layer. This creates a barrier between the cake and fruit filling, so the cake doesn't become soggy.
  2. Pipe a rim of frosting around the edge of the cake layer. This will help support the cake layers and prevent the fruit filling from spilling out. 2. Spread about 1/2 cup of the fruit filling on the cake layer. 3. Sprinkle about half of the crumble over the fruit filling. 4. Gently place the second cake layer top side down on the filling and crumble.
  3. Spread about 1/2 cup of the fruit filling on the cake layer. Sprinkle crumble over the fruit filling. Gently place the second cake layer top side down on the filling and crumble.
  4. Freeze the cake for about 10 minutes to help set the frosting and filling, making it a bit more stable for when you frost.
  5. After the filling is set, use a small amount of frosting to apply a crumb coat around the entire cake. Freeze the cake again for another 10 minutes to set the crumb coat.
  6. After the crumbs are locked in, continue to frost and decorate the cake.

Rice Pudding Tarts w/ Port Pears

A sure sign of summer leaving us is the arrival of the pear season, stretching from now until the end of December.

These rice pudding tarts with port pears are a combination of textures and flavors. Bosc pears are beautiful; they have a crisp, dense, slightly grainy texture with a sweet flavor and subtle hints of fall spices. Port wine is a sweet, red, fortified wine that pairs wonderfully with pears. What’s not to like??

Budino di riso: a kind of soft rice cupcake or vanilla-scented rice pudding baked in short pastry and sprinkled with icing sugar. Named after the principal ingredient used in the filling, budini di riso is a typical pastry coming from Siena, a medieval city in the region of Tuscany, located in the north of Italy.

Every summer, from May to July, until the 1960’s (and even 1970’s in some places), thousands of female seasonal workers would make their way to the Po Valley in northern Italy. Here, in the rice fields, they went to work as ‘mondine’. Their task was to remove weeds that could stunt the growth of the rice plants.

The compensation of these women consisted not only in money but also 1 kg of rice for each day of work. Hence the widespread use of rice throughout the region in both savory and sweet preparations.

This rice custard tart is a combination of a creamy, vanilla scented rice pudding with a caramelized top, all baked in a crisp shortbread pastry crust. There are many variations for this Italian classic. Some like to make it with a crust, others prefer it without. Other recipes may also add fresh squeezed lemon juice for a citrus flavor.

Today, rice is the world’s most widely consumed cereal grain, which means that virtually every culture has a rice pudding they call their own.

Part pie … part rice pudding, these little tarts can be eaten for (an elegant) breakfast, as an afternoon snack or for dessert, they are just plain good anytime.

Print Recipe
 Rice Pudding Tarts w/ Port Pears
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
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Keyword rice pudding tarts w/ port pears
Servings
Ingredients
Pastry
Rice Pudding Filling
Poached Pears
Port Wine Sauce
Keyword rice pudding tarts w/ port pears
Servings
Ingredients
Pastry
Rice Pudding Filling
Poached Pears
Port Wine Sauce
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
You:
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
Pastry
  1. In a bowl, sift together flour, rice flour, powdered sugar, salt & baking powder. Add butter & rub together with fingertips to make soft crumbles.
  2. In a small bowl, beat egg; add to flour mixture & work into a smooth ball of dough. DO NOT OVERMIX. Flatten dough ball & wrap in plastic wrap; chill in refrigerator.
Rice Pudding Filling
  1. Place rice in a saucepot. Cover with water & bring to a boil. Rinse rice; return blanched rice back in saucepot & cover with milk. Add cinnamon stick & lemon zest. Cook over low heat, stirring often until rice has absorbed most of the milk & rice mixture becomes soupy.
  2. Remove rice/milk mixture from heat & add butter; stir well. Place rice mixture in a bowl to cool. Stir & cool for about 20 minutes. In a bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar & vanilla; add to cooled rice mixture.
Assembly
  1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
  2. Remove pastry from refrigerator & divide evenly into 8 pieces. Form into balls & roll each one lightly in flour then using a rolling pin flatten into a small circles. Line 8 paper cups with pastry & place them in a muffin pan.
  3. Spoon the rice pudding into the pastry shells & bake about 30 minutes or until golden brown on the edges & they test done with the tip of a knife. Do NOT OVERBAKE as they will become quite dry. Prepare poached pears.
Poached Pears
  1. Peel, halve & core pears.
  2. Place wine & cinnamon in a skillet. Bring to a boil over high heat; add pears. Reduce heat to low; cover & poach for 10 minutes. Turn pears; poach 5 more minutes or until tender. Remove pears from wine & set aside. When cooled, place cut side down on a cutting board & slice lengthwise into 1/4-inch slices Then into pieces to fit tart tops. RESERVE POACHING WINE for sauce.
Port Wine Sauce
  1. In a small saucepan, place reserved cooled poaching wine PLUS enough extra port wine to make 2 cups. Whisk in sugar to taste & cornstarch. Heat to a gentle boil, whisking constantly until mixture forms a nice gel consistency. Remove from heat. Cool slightly.
Serving
  1. Top each rice tart with a small fan of poached pears then spoon wine sauce over each. Nothing says you can't add a dollop of whipped topping as well!
Recipe Notes

You will probably have some of the pears left over. I just diced them up & added them to the sauce.

Wool Roll Bread w/ Apricot Filling

Today, March 28th, is my mother’s birth date. As we honor her beautiful memory, I’m sure each of my siblings will reflect on special times we shared with her. Forty-seven years after her passing, I find myself still doing many things in her likeness. Baking was a shared passion for my mother and I. We liked nothing better than to bake something together. After I moved from ‘home’ and would return for a visit, instead of having a coffee and visit we would get busy and bake something while we talked. Such great memories!

When I was thinking about what I wanted to post today, my mind drifted to the recipe archive that lives in my head, eventually making its way to the yeast breads. This is an area my mother had mastered down to a science.

Bread is so simple but a staple in almost every culture. Just flour, water and yeast, yet despite those few ingredients, there are hundreds of different types of bread across the world. And every culture has some sort of bread product.

It seems that the Wool Roll Bread become trendy in 2021 because of a Malaysian YouTuber. It also resembles some Middle Eastern breads such as shoreek and other European creations, such as Polish babka and Slovenian Belokranjska povitica. The pillowy yeast dough can be stuffed (or not) with a sweet or savory filling, then sliced, rolled and stacked in a round pan, so as the dough rises and bakes, the final result resembles rolls of wool or thick yarn.

The most popular fillings for wool roll bread are dried fruit, nuts, cinnamon, custard, hazelnut, chocolate, and cheese as well as some Asian favorites such as red mung bean paste, ube or purple yam, coconut or coconut jam, and meat. Sometimes the dough is made in different flavors and colors like chocolate, strawberry, and pandan.

There is some kind of magic in seeing the result of these baked bread rolls that come together to form a Bundt-like cake shape, puffed up in a ring of pull-apart bread.

I’ve chosen to fill our wool roll bread with an apricot cream cheese filling which should be a nice compliment to the soft dough.

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 Wool Roll Bread w/ Apricot Filling
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
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Course dessert
Cuisine European
Keyword wool roll bread w/ custard filling
Servings
Ingredients
Apricot Filling
Cream Cheese Filling
Bread Dough
Course dessert
Cuisine European
Keyword wool roll bread w/ custard filling
Servings
Ingredients
Apricot Filling
Cream Cheese Filling
Bread Dough
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
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Rate this recipe!
Instructions
Apricot Filling
  1. In a small saucepan, combine dried apricots, orange juice, lemon juice & sugar. Bring to a simmer over medium low heat. Simmer uncovered for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the apricots soften & the liquid is reduced by half. Once cool, transfer the mixture to a food processor & process until a puree forms. Set aside until room temperature.
Cream Cheese Filling
  1. In a small bowl, beat the cream cheese & sugar until smooth. Add egg yolk & vanilla, beat to combine. Set aside in refrigerator until ready to use.
Bread
  1. In a small bowl, combine warm milk, sugar & yeast. Let the mixture sit for about 10 minutes until it becomes frothy.
  2. In a large bowl, Combine flour & salt. Cut in the soft butter. Combine lukewarm water with the beaten egg & add to flour/butter mixture. Add the yeast mixture & mix until a dough forms.
  3. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes or until it becomes smooth & elastic. Once the dough is kneaded, place it in a greased bowl, cover with a damp cloth & allow to rise in a draft-free place for about 1 hour or until doubled in size.
  4. Lightly oil a work surface with olive oil. Gently deflate the dough, divide it into four equal pieces & shape each piece into a ball. Cover the dough & let rest for 10 minutes.
  5. Line a 9" springform pan (at least 2" deep) with parchment paper.
  6. Roll out each piece of dough (on the lightly oil surface) into a 6" x 12" rectangle. On the top HALF of each rectangle, spread the cream cheese filling across the entire width of the rectangle (leaving about 1/4" bare on each side) & down about 6" leaving the bottom 6" bare. Next, spread a good sized dollop of apricot filling over the cream cheese filling. Use a fork so you can do this gently.
  7. Using a sharp knife, cut the uncovered dough at the bottom into very thin strips about 1/8" wide. Starting from the filling covered top & rolling toward the uncovered strips, roll the dough into a log about 6" long.
  8. Place each log, seam-side down, into the bottom of the pan so they are snuggled up against the pans outside edge to form a complete circle.
  9. Preheat to the to 350 F.
  10. Brush the rolls lightly with milk, being careful not to deflate the delicate dough. Cover the 'wool rolls' & let them rise for about 60-75 minutes, until puffy.
  11. Bake for 28-32 minutes, until golden brown on top. Remove the roll from the oven & cool it in the pan until you can transfer it safely to a rack to cool completely. Slice & serve.

Strawberry Cheesecake w/ Danish Rum Balls

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

In keeping with Valentines Day, I’m pairing the classic duo of strawberry & chocolate today. At some point, in the many years I spent in the commercial food service industry, I learned the history of the iconic Danish Rum Balls or ‘Romkugler’. These legendary little sweets came about due to leftovers and day old cake that Danish bakers couldn’t sell. Even though they did their best to make the right amount of baked goods so that it would all be sold during the day, they always had leftovers which would not be fresh enough to be sold the day after. They came up with an idea to add jam & rum extract to the day old chocolate cake and the classic rum ball was created.

Today, the rum ball is not considered an unwanted leftover or solely made to avoid food waste. Instead, these little ‘cakes’ continue to appear on the present day bakery shelves.

I think these mini rum balls are the perfect compliment to the strawberry cheesecakes. Sweet, but heh …. its Valentines!!

Print Recipe
 Strawberry Cheesecake w/ Danish Rum Balls
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
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Course dessert
Cuisine American, Dutch, European
Keyword strawberry cheesecake + Danish rum balls
Servings
MINI CHEESECAKES
Ingredients
Crumb Base
Cheesecake
Garnishes
Danish Rum Balls - Makes about 39 mini size
Course dessert
Cuisine American, Dutch, European
Keyword strawberry cheesecake + Danish rum balls
Servings
MINI CHEESECAKES
Ingredients
Crumb Base
Cheesecake
Garnishes
Danish Rum Balls - Makes about 39 mini size
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
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Instructions
Crumb Base
  1. In a small bowl, combine Oreo crumbs, sugar & melted butter (mixture should have the consistency of wet sand). Place 1 1/2 tablespoons in the bottom of each 'cup' of an individual cheesecake pan. Press the mixture down firmly to form the crust.
Cheesecake Batter
  1. Dice 150 gm strawberries. Reserve several strawberries for garnish.
  2. Process strawberries in a food processor slightly; add softened cream cheese, sugar, orange & lemon juices. Continue to process until very smooth.
  3. Soften gelatin in cold water; stir over low heat until dissolved. Beat into cheese mixture.
  4. Divide cheesecake batter between 14 individual 'cups' in cheesecake pan. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight. Carefully remove cheesecakes from molds.
Mini Rum Balls
  1. In a food processor, process cake until crumbly. Add jam & rum then process until the dough has a uniform consistency.
  2. Roll dough into 1/2 oz. size balls. Refrigerate until chilled for about an hour..
  3. In a double boiler, melt chocolate with shortening, stirring until smooth. Roll balls in chocolate, allowing excess to drip off. Place on a piece of dry wax paper until set.
  4. When ready to serve, top each cheesecake with a rosette of whipped cream & a slice of strawberry garnished with a mint leaf. Serve with a Danish rum ball on the side.
Recipe Notes
  • If you're cheesecake pan only has 12 cups, use a mini muffin pan for the extra two cheesecakes.
  • If you want to increase the strawberry flavor in the cheesecakes add 1/2 tsp Lor Ann strawberry flavor to the batter and for some extra color, a bit of red GEL food coloring.
  • If you wish, don't hesitate to add finely chopped nuts to the rum balls or roll them in chocolate sprinkles.

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!

Print Recipe
 Pumpkin Streuseltaler
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
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Course dessert
Cuisine German
Keyword pumpkin streuseltaler
Servings
SERVINGS
Ingredients
Pumpkin Dough
Pumpkin Filling
Streusel Topping
Glaze
Course dessert
Cuisine German
Keyword pumpkin streuseltaler
Servings
SERVINGS
Ingredients
Pumpkin Dough
Pumpkin Filling
Streusel Topping
Glaze
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
You:
Rate this recipe!
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.

Summer Corn Salad

One of the highlights of summer is the fresh sweet corn from local roadside farm stands. Fresh corn is soooo tasty!! Corn salads are a summer classic.

How do you cook corn on the cob? There seems to be as many methods as cooks. Do you steam, boil, microwave? Do you grill and if so, in the husks or out? Or do you get fancy and pull back the husks, put butter or an ice cube inside, rewrap and proceed?

This Summer Corn Salad is the ultimate summer salad to make for a BBQ during the warmer months. The lime-y dressing and sweet grilled corn are a winning combo alongside the fresh cherry tomatoes and avocado. It would pair perfectly alongside ribs, grilled chicken, or even seafood. 

Corn on the cob is one of those foods that just gives off summer vibes and when it arrives each year, Brion & I enjoy it to the fullest.

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 Summer Corn Salad
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
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Course side dish
Cuisine American
Keyword summer corn salad
Servings
Ingredients
Salad
Dressing
Course side dish
Cuisine American
Keyword summer corn salad
Servings
Ingredients
Salad
Dressing
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
You:
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
Dressing
  1. Whisk all dressing ingredients together & set aside.
Salad
  1. In a microwave steam dish, cook shucked corn ears for 6 minutes. Heat grill to medium-high. Brush corn lightly with olive oil & grill for a few minutes, rotating it as it cooks, until golden on all sides.
  2. Allow corn to cool & then cut corn off of the cobs; place in a bowl. Add remaining salad ingredients & drizzle with desired amount of dressing. Gently toss to combine. Sprinkle with shredded cheese. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Bedfordshire Clangers w/ Variations

July is such a wonderful month. The weather’s warm, there’s still plenty of summer left, and the produce is literally amazing.

Midsummer means the farmer’s markets are brimming with great fruit & veggies. With such a colorful bounty of goods, we can settle into our summer cooking routines with tasty meals hot or cold.

But, even in summer, we sometimes crave ‘comfort food’ such as a ‘hand pie’. The humble hand pie goes by many different names: call it a pasty, a turnover, an empanada, or a ‘Bedfordshire clanger’….

A Bedfordshire Clanger dates back to at least the 19th century. It was typically made for agricultural workers to take with them to work as their lunch. The original pastry was made from suet and cooked by a boiling method. There is a theory that the pastry crust was not originally intended for consumption but as a vessel in which to protect the filling from the soiled hands of the workers.

The clanger originated from the county of Bedfordshire, a small, low-lying and predominantly agricultural county nestled in the east of England and adjacent counties, including Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire. 

The name is as intriguing as the food itself. The word clanger, it had been suggested, referred to the mistake of mixing sweet and savory fillings. But a more likely explanation was that in nearby Northamptonshire dialect, ‘clang’ means to eat voraciously.

Knowing their husbands would need lots of protein and carbohydrate sustenance, homemakers came up with the brilliant idea of a doubled, loaf-shaped pie. One end contained a savory filling that used the famed pork of the area while the other end was filled with stewed apples (made from local apples) as dessert. So, the two fillings didn’t combine, there was a ‘pastry wall’ in between blocking any flavors from mixing. A ‘secret code’ denoted which end was meat, and which was dessert: two knife slits on one end of the pastry top means meat, three small holes on the other shows the sweet. This was brilliant, an entire meal for the field workers – handheld, portable and delicious.

The version we have today is not its beginnings but its evolution. Once you’ve nailed this basic Bedfordshire clanger recipe you can experiment with all sorts of flavor combos, there’s really no limit to what you can combine in this savory/sweet pastry.

Since Brion takes lunch to work, I became intrigued with the idea and decided to get creative with the fillings. That way I could make a variety and freeze them and use as needed. These tasty little ‘clangers’ can be served as the main course for a warm-weather picnic or for a hand-held, backyard meal with the addition of a nice fresh salad at home.

Print Recipe
 Bedfordshire Clangers w/ Variations
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
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Course Lunch
Cuisine British
Keyword Bedfordshire clangers w/ variations
Servings
Ingredients
Pastry
Pork Filling
Spiced Meat Combo
Turkey Filling
Boursin Sauce for Turkey Filling
Chicken w/ Caramelized Onions
Raspberry / Nectarine Filling
Blueberry Filling
Apple / Apricot Filling
Plum / Rhubarb Filling
Sour Cherry Filling
Rhubarb / Apple Filling
Apple / Pear Filling
Course Lunch
Cuisine British
Keyword Bedfordshire clangers w/ variations
Servings
Ingredients
Pastry
Pork Filling
Spiced Meat Combo
Turkey Filling
Boursin Sauce for Turkey Filling
Chicken w/ Caramelized Onions
Raspberry / Nectarine Filling
Blueberry Filling
Apple / Apricot Filling
Plum / Rhubarb Filling
Sour Cherry Filling
Rhubarb / Apple Filling
Apple / Pear Filling
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
You:
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
Pastry
  1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sage & salt. Sprinkle the butter cubes over the flour mixture & use your fingers to work them in. Alternately you could use a pastry cutter to do this.
  2. When the mixture resembles cornmeal with pea-sized bits of butter remaining, stir in cheese with a fork until evenly distributed. Sprinkle 6 Tbsp ice water over mixture & stir with a fork until dough begins to come together. If needed, add an additional Tbsp or two of ice water.
  3. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface & knead for about three times. Gather the dough into a disk & wrap in plastic wrap. refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or overnight.
Pork Filling
  1. Bake potato in microwave, peel & cut into small cubes. Set aside.
  2. Heat oil in a skillet & sauté celery, onion, garlic & bacon together on medium heat until veggies are soft & bacon is cooked. Add ground pork, breaking it up well. Stir in dried herbs & spices. Cover & simmer for about 10 minutes. Remove from heat & stir in cooked potato & cheese. Set aside to cool.
Spiced Meat Combo
  1. In a saucepan, sauté onion & garlic. Add ground meat, basil, thyme, cardamom & salt & pepper. Scramble fry until cooked, remove from heat & add parmesan & potato. Place in a dish.
  2. In the saucepan, melt butter; add flour to make a roux. Cook, stirring constantly for 2-3 minutes. Slowly add beef broth, stirring until sauce thickens. Season to taste. Add to ground meat mixture & combine to form filling. Set aside until ready to use.
Turkey Filling
  1. In a skillet, cook bacon until just crisp, then remove to a paper towel lined plate to drain; chop when cooled. Remove all but 1 Tbsp of the bacon drippings from skillet.
  2. Add butter to the skillet, sauté onions, garlic & mushrooms with herbs & spices, scraping up any brown bits, until the onions have softened & mushrooms have lost most of their size & moisture. Stir in the bacon & shredded cooked turkey, taste for seasoning. Cook for another minute or two, then remove from heat & set aside.
  3. In a saucepan, combine Boursin, milk & spices (if using). Stir until Boursin has melted. Remove from heat. Add to turkey/veg mixture.
Chicken w/ Caramelized Onions
  1. Heat butter over medium low heat in a heavy ovenproof skillet. Add the onions cook for 20 minutes or so, stirring occasionally. When the onions are a deep golden color, remove them from the pan and set aside.
  2. Preheat oven to 350 F.
  3. Combine the flour, salt, chili powder, thyme, allspice, & black pepper. Dredge each piece of chicken in the flour mixture, shaking off the excess. In the same pan as the onions, heat the oil over medium high heat. Add each piece of chicken & fry for a few minutes until golden brown; flip & cook for a few more minutes. Transfer to a plate (it will not be fully cooked at this point, just browned – it will finish cooking in the oven).
  4. Turn the heat down & let the oil cool off a little bit. Make a roux with excess oil in skillet & dredging flour. Add chicken broth & cook until a sauce forms. Add the onions & chicken to the pan. Bake for about 20 minutes longer. When chicken/onion mixture is cooked, remove from oven. Allow to cool until ready to use.
Raspberry/Rhubarb Filling
  1. In a small saucepan, whisk together sugar, cornstarch, cardamom & salt. Add water & stir then add chopped nectarines. Simmer until nectarine is slightly soft & liquid is thickened. Remove from heat & carefully fold in raspberries. Set aside to cool.
Blueberry Filling
  1. In a small saucepan, combine all ingredients except blueberries. Cook until sauce starts to thicken then gently fold in blueberries & cook a couple of minutes more. Remove from heat & set aside to cool.
Apple/Apricot Filling
  1. Peel & dice apples. Drain canned apricot juice into a small saucepan. Add sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon & salt & combine. Add apples & cook until apples are tender. Cut canned apricot halves into quarters. When apples are cooked & sauce has thickened, remove from heat & add apricots. Gently combine & set aside to cool.
Plum/Rhubarb Filling
  1. In a small saucepan, combine sugar, cornstarch, salt & lemon zest. Add rhubarb & plums. Gently stir over a low heat. When enough juice has formed, allow to simmer until rhubarb is soft & juice has thickened. Remove from heat. Set aside to cool.
Sour Cherry Filling
  1. In a small saucepan, place sugar, cornstarch & salt. Add juice/water mixture & stir to thoroughly combine. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring frequently. Simmer until thickened, about 2 minutes. Immediately remove from heat. Gradually fold in cherries. Set aside to cool.
Rhubarb/Apple Filling
  1. In a small saucepan, add the rhubarb, apples, salt & sugar. Add a drizzle of water if necessary & heat on medium. The rhubarb will begin to release liquid & break down as the apples soften. Heat the mixture until the moisture has evaporated & begins to thicken. Once the mixture is thickened, add the lemon juice, lemon zest and cinnamon. Place it in a bowl & allow to cool.
Apple/Pear Filling
  1. Heat butter in a small skillet until melted, add apples & pears & cook until fruit begins to soften, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle sugar over mixture & continue to cook stirring often until fruit begins to lose its juices. Mix together cornstarch & lemon juice & add to pan. Simmer until mixture has thickened, about 4 minutes. Remove from heat & allow to cool.
Assembly/Baking
  1. Divide pastry into 5 equal pieces. On a lightly floured surface (or dry wax paper) roll out each piece of pastry into 14 x 7 1/2-inches. The excess trimmed from the sides will be used for little pastry ‘walls’ dividing the sweet & savory fillings. Roll excess pastry into a 3-inch length.
  2. Cut each piece of pastry in half horizontally so you have (2) 7-inch long pieces from each piece of pastry. From the top of each piece, LIGHTLY make a line across your pastry 4-inches from the outside edge. This will help to place your fillings properly.
  3. On the 3-inch wide section, place savory filling to cover 2/3 of the area. Place one of the rolled strips after that then place sweet filling on the remaining 1/3 to complete the 'clanger'. The little rolled piece of pastry divides the savory & sweet filling.
  4. On the sweet side make 3 holes for vents & on the savory side make 2 slashes. This is the 'code' to let the person eating the clanger which was savory or sweet.
  5. Preheat oven to 350 F.
  6. Brush the edges of each pastry with egg wash. Lift the pastry from the opposite side over the fillings & seal the edges with a fork.
  7. Brush clangers with remaining egg wash & bake for about 30-35 minutes or until golden.
Recipe Notes
  • Due to the length of this recipe, I found making the savory & fruit fillings on one day & the pastry, assembling & baking the next, worked out well for me. Although these pastries are VERY time consuming, believe me, the are well worth it in the end, especially if your freezing some to use later. I baked them all & then wrapped them well before freezing.
  • You will probably find there will be enough savory & sweet fillings left over to make about 10 more clangers.
  • All of them will freeze well which will be a time saver for your next batch. Just make a recipe of pastry & your ready to assemble & bake.
  • If your not interested in freezing the 'leftovers', the fruit combined will make a wonderful crisp & the savory fillings can be used in quiche or casseroles.

Cinnamon Roll Rhubarb Bread

Rhubarb is the rebel of the vegetable world. It looks like celery, tastes like sour candy, its leaves are poisonous and unlike most spring and summer produce, its barely edible raw. With such a feisty personality, its no wonder some are intimidated to cook it.

More than any other fruit or vegetable, rhubarb to me is the sign of the changing season. It is the signal that summer is arriving in those ruby red or speckled green & pink stalks. I snap up what I can in the garden and when I see it at the supermarket. I take all I can and more, slicing and freezing the excess for rhubarb cravings that come in winter.

Year-round, I save rhubarb recipe ideas I hope to make once I get my hands on the first stalks of the season. No summer would be complete without cinnamon rhubarb bread …. still warm from the oven and the heavenly smell of cinnamon in the air!

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 Cinnamon Roll Rhubarb Bread
Votes: 2
Rating: 4.5
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Course Brunch, dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword cinnamon roll rhubarb bread
Servings
Ingredients
Rhubarb/Cinnamon Filling
Dough
Egg Wash
Glaze - Optional
Course Brunch, dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword cinnamon roll rhubarb bread
Servings
Ingredients
Rhubarb/Cinnamon Filling
Dough
Egg Wash
Glaze - Optional
Votes: 2
Rating: 4.5
You:
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
Rhubarb Filling
  1. In a saucepan, combine all ingredients except vanilla & food color. Heat to medium high & stir occasionally until rhubarb begins to break down completely. Remove from heat, stir in vanilla & food coloring; allow to cool to room temperature.
Dough
  1. In a small dish, combine yeast with lukewarm water & 1 teaspoon of the sugar. Allow to sit for a few minutes until frothy.
  2. In a large bowl, slightly melt butter; cool a couple of minutes then whisk in egg. In another bowl, whisk together flour, salt & remaining sugar. Add yeast mixture to butter mixture, whisking together. Add flour mixture, combine then turn on a floured work surface & knead for about 5 minutes. Dough will be very soft but not sticky.
  3. Lightly grease bowl, place dough ball in it & cover with a towel. Place in a draft-free place & allow to rise for about 20 minutes. Butter a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan; set aside
  4. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured work surface & press down to deflate it. Fold in the two opposite sides to meet in the middle, then fold in the remaining two sides to meet, so that you've formed the dough into a square. Press down to flatten it slightly, then cover loosely and let stand for 10 minutes
  5. With a floured rolling pin, rolling the dough to form a rectangle that's 12 by 22 inches. Make the corners as square as possible. If you're having trouble with the dough shrinking back, pause briefly before trying again.
  6. Spread rhubarb/cinnamon filling over the dough, leaving a 1-inch border around the edges. Now fold the two long sides of the dough in one at a time, so that the meet each other in the middle. Pinch them together gently to seal the seam. Gently roll over the surface with a rolling pin to flatten the folded dough to about 7 by 25 inches.
  7. Starting at the narrow end, roll up the dough, making a thick spiral. When you get to the end, brush a little egg wash on the loaf at the spot where the end will hit. Pinch the end a bit to seal it.
  8. Carefully & gently place the roll, seam side-down in the buttered pan. The roll of dough should nearly fill it. Cover it loosely with plastic wrap & place in a warm, draft-free place to rise for about 25-30 minutes, until almost doubled & about 2 inches above the top of the pan. Meanwhile, adjust the oven racks so that you have one rack one-third up from the bottom of the oven.
  9. Preheat to 350 F.
  10. Lightly brush remaining egg wash over loaf & bake for about 20 minutes. You may need to cover the top loosely with aluminum foil towards the end of baking to prevent over-browning. Bake until the loaf, when removed from the pan, sounds hollow when tapped with your fingertips. Cool on a rack.
Glaze
  1. Make glaze by whisking together 2 Tbsp rhubarb filling, 1 cup powdered sugar, and enough lemon juice to make the glaze pourable (1-2 tbsp should do it). When bread has slightly cooled, drizzle with glaze if desired.

Glazed Tropical Fruit Tart

When it comes to pie/tart making, you have two basic types of crust to choose from: pastry or crumb. The decision will ultimately come down to what you’re planning to fill your crust with.

Classic pastry crust consists of a combination of flour, shortening and liquid whereas a crumb crust is comprised of pre-existing food items such as cookies, crackers or nuts, made into crumbs, tossed/coated with melted butter and pressed into a baking dish to form a shell. Both crusts offer unique strengths, which make them especially suited for certain types of pie fillings and utterly incompatible with others.

Pastry pie crust is your best choice for pies or tarts, sweet or savory, that require a relatively long baking time. Pastry of this nature is a labor of love but none the less it gives you the opportunity to create a ‘work of art’.

The major appeal of a crumb crust is, ‘its easy’. There’s no real pastry technique required to make a crumb crust. Its simply a matter of selecting what you want to make your crust from, pulverizing it and combining the crumbs with enough melted butter to make it stick together when you press it into your baking pan.

For this glazed tropical fruit tart, I chose to use some gingersnap cookies for my crust. The colorful fruit makes such a nice presentation as well as a refreshing taste.

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 Glazed Tropical Fruit Tart
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
You:
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Course dessert
Cuisine American, Ecuador, French
Keyword glazed tropical fruit tart
Servings
Ingredients
Crust
Filling
Course dessert
Cuisine American, Ecuador, French
Keyword glazed tropical fruit tart
Servings
Ingredients
Crust
Filling
Votes: 1
Rating: 5
You:
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
Crust
  1. Preheat oven to 375 F.
  2. In a small saucepan, melt butter & stir in sugar. Add crushed gingersnap crumbs; mix well. Spread evenly into a tart pan. Press onto bottom & up the sides to form an even crust. Bake 4-5 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack before filling.
Filling
  1. In a small saucepan, combine juice & cornstarch; cook & stir until thick & bubbly. Cook & stir for 2 minutes more. Transfer to three bowls. Cover each with plastic wrap & cool for 30 minutes.
  2. Fold each type of fruit (mango, papaya & kiwi) into one of the bowls of fruit juice mixture. Spoon the fruit into the tart shell, arranging it as desired; press the fruit down lightly with a rubber spatula.
  3. Cover with plastic wrap & chill for 3-4 hours. Serve with whipped topping if desired.
Recipe Notes
  • I found it necessary to drain off any excess fruit juice that came from the cut fruit before putting it in the juice/cornstarch mixture.