Chocolate Cranberry Quick Bread

Hey friends!  If you hadn't noticed I've been on a bit of a hiatus.  We had a baby!

Miss Sydney was born September 25th.  Words cannot express our love for this sweet little one.  I can't wait to share all of the details about her birth and our last few months together at home, but first I'm going to tell you about Chocolate Cranberry Quick Bread!

This is a super easy sweet breakfast addition or dessert for the Holidays.  The rich chocolate paired with tart cranberry is super delish!

If you are looking for something quick to make this is your dish.  Hope you enjoy it!
I'll be back soon to tell you all about that babe!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips or chunks
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups applesauce (sweetened or unsweetened)
2 teaspoons quality vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups AP flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup fresh cranberries

How to:

Preheat oven to 350
Melt 1 cup chocolate chips/chunks in microwave safe bowl or on your stovetop if you don't have a microwave (like us!).  Set aside.
Using your stand mixer or in a large bowl, cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. 
Once chocolate is cool, add chocolate and eggs, mix well. 
Then add applesauce and vanilla, mix well.
In a separate bowl mix your dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt).
Add dry mixture to wet mixture and mix well.
Stir in remaining chocolate chips/chunks and fresh cranberries.
Pour batter into 2  (9x5) greased loaf pans (I use coconut oil spray to grease my pans).
Bake in 350 degree oven for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick or knife inserted in center comes out clean.
Eat and enjoy!

♥TCW

 

Tropical Popsicles

That's right.
Leaves are falling.
Football is on TV.
The weather is cooling.
And Levi has pumpkins on his shirt.

All of this and today I'm sharing a popsicle recipe.
Just because I'm crazy like that!

I think we should ignore the changing leaves, football on TV, cool weather and pumpkin shirts.
I think we should take our taste-buds on vacation.

Gather up your helper, your blender and your imagination and lets make some Tropical Popsicles!

Pumpkin who?  Let's enjoy coconut with some Greek yogurt, lime zest and agave!

Fall whuut?  These creamy-pops are delicious any time of year!

Shoot.  They're even good in the car when you're tired of having your picture taken.



Tropical is for every season, don't you think?

Ingredients:
1 Cup coconut milk
1/2 Cup Greek yogurt
1/4 Cup agave nectar
zest of whole lime

How to:
Put everything in your blender and mix.
Pour into popsicle molds until frozen.  I have the cheap-o mold from IKEA, it works good though!
Remove molds gently and enjoy.
(This makes about 10oz)

Enjoy!
TCW

Meyer Lemon Pound Cake

Oh Meyer Lemon, how I love you.

Living in Sacramento gives us great access to all kinds of fresh fruits and veggies, especially citrus.
I have a friend who says she can't understand why anyone living here would ever buy citrus.....there are so many trees to borrow from.

This is true.  It is in fact her tree, from which I borrowed the Meyer lemons to make this pound cake.
Thanks Coco!

This could easily be served as a brunch item or dessert.
We ate it for dessert after scrumptious carne asada made by my Ironmommy.  Yum.

I'm sure plain lemon pound cake is good, but I really believe the Meyer lemons make a difference.  They have such a sweetness and even more so when baked.

This recipe was inspired by this one.

Ingredients:

Meyer Lemon Pound Cake
Unsalted butter to grease your baking dish
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, separated
1/2 cup sugar
Zest of two Meyer lemons
1/3 cup olive oil (that's right, olive oil)
1 1/2 tablespoons milk (I used 2%)
3/4 cup Greek yogurt (I used the Trader Joe's low-fat version)
1/4 cup Meyer lemon juice
3 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Note - you'll need a few clean bowls for this recipe.  Lot's of bowls happening.

Limoncello Glaze
1 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons Limoncello* (feel free to substitute with fresh squeezed Meyer lemon juice)
1 1/2 tablespoons Meyer lemon juice

How to:

Meyer Lemon Pound Cake
Pre-heat your oven to 325
Line the bottom of a 9x5 loaf pan with parchment paper
Grease the pan and paper with unsalted butter
Melt your unsalted butter and set it aside
Sift flour, baking powder and salt to a large bowl and mix well
Whisk 2 egg whites until stiff peaks form, transfer to a separate bowl**
Add 2 egg yolks, sugar and lemon zest to your clean mixer bowl.  Beat on medium until the mixture turns light yellow and forms ribbons when beater is lifted, transfer to mixture to another bowl
Add olive oil, milk, Greek yogurt and lemon juice to your clean mixer bowl, whisk at low speed until combined
If using a stand mixer, switch to your paddle attachment
Add flour to the olive oil, milk, Greek yogurt, lemon juice mixture
Drizzle in melted butter and mix until combined
Add in the egg yolk, sugar and lemon zest mixture and mix until combined
At this time you should have combined all of your bowls except the egg whites
Fold in the egg whites to the mixture by hand
Now all your pound cake ingredients should be in one bowl, mixed
Pour the batter into the prepared pan
Bake for 25 minutes, then rotate the pan
(while the cake is baking you can get started on the glaze)
Bake for an additional 20-25 minutes
When done the cake should be golden and a toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean
Transfer the pound cake to a wire rack to cool
While the pound cake is still warm, pour over the lemon glaze and let it sit for about a half hour to dry

Limoncello Glaze
Using your mixer (again) with a clean bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, limoncello (if you're using it) and Meyer lemon juice***
While the pound cake is still warm, pour over the lemon glaze and let it sit for about a half hour to dry

*You can buy Limoncello at most well stocked groceries.  We have an Italian grocery nearby that stocks several varieties.  I happened to have Meyer Limoncello that my mom made from the same Meyer lemon tree where I got the lemons from.
**I used my Kitchen Aid mixer to make this, so I whisked the egg whites first, transferred them to a different bowl, rinsed out my mixer bowl and then did the next step.
***You can increase or decrease either ingredient to get the consistency to your liking.  I like the glaze on the thinner side.

When I make this cake again, I will pour the glaze over on a different dish than I'm using to serve.  You can see in the pictures that there was a pool of glaze around this cake.  My step-dad enjoyed sopping up the glaze with his cake, so I suppose it all worked out, but, that said, I think it would be more eye appealing if it wasn't drowning in glaze.

The cake itself is super moist and refreshing tasting.  This would make a great Easter dish.

Thanks for stopping by!

P.S. If you could give me a Facebook like over here that would be awesome!

Have a great day,
♥TCW

Orange Snickerdoodles.....50/50 Cookies

Hello everyone.  Orange you glad you stopped by today?

Oh my.  That was terrible.  Let's start over.

Hello everyone.  Do you remember those 50/50 bars the ice cream trucks sold when we were kids?  You know, orange Popsicle on the outside, cream in the middle.....or was that a Creamsicle?  I don't remember.  I do remember eating like 4 of them at one sitting and completely denying to my mom that I did it.  Sorry mom. They were just so good.

They were also like that orange/vanilla ice cream you used to be able to get.  The kind that came in a block carton and looked like a checkerboard on the side.

Did you know they don't manufacture the block cardboard ice cream cartons anymore?  At least we can't get them here.  I went looking and the grocery guy told me they are all round now.

Weirdly, all this talk of 50/50 madness is reminding me of a Garfield beach towel I used to have.  It had Garfield all decked out with top hat and taps.  I thought it was extremely cool and my brother thought I was a big nerd.  I just couldn't understand why he didn't think that towel was *SO*COOL* like I did.

In weirder news, apparently my brain associates all things orange into one category.  Garfield, 50/50 bars....you know, all that stuff.  This is totally normal right?

Anyway, these cookies are like all that 50/50 stuff.  There is something so right about orange and vanilla. Wrapped up in a snickerdoodle package these sure taste good.

This recipe is adapted from BHG's snickerdoodles.

Ingredients
1/2 cup salted butter*
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
Zest of 1 orange (zest two if you want some extra zest to top your cookie)
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

How to:
Preheat oven to 375.
Beat the butter and sugar until creamy.
Add baking soda, cream of tartar and zest of 1 orange and mix well.
Beat in egg and vanilla until combined.
Add flour in parts until it is all combined.
Cover dough and chill in refrigerator for 1 hour (or freezer for 20 minutes).
Combine 2 tablespoons of sugar and cinnamon in a flat bottom bowl (or a pie pan).
Roll dough into 1 inch balls, then roll in cinnamon sugar mixture to coat.
Place on ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 10-11 minutes.
Cool on a wire rack.
Eat!!

*I know I know.  You're supposed to use unsalted butter in baking.  For the most part I agree.  But, in my humble opinion snickerdoodles need salted butter otherwise they turn out a bit bland.  So there.

Happy Day to you!
TCW

Philly Cream Peach Tart with a Shortbread Crust: The tale of a contest entry

Well I entered this little contest yesterday....

The Real Women of Philadelphia Kitchen of Your Dreams Contest

This was my entry...

Philly Cream Peach Tart with a Shortbread Crust

{You can get the full recipe by clicking that ↑ link}

I have never entered a contest like this before and I thought it was fun.  The blog allows me to be creative without any parameters.  The contest, on the other hand, had some specific rules that forced me to be creative in order to follow them.  This was challenging, but I think the end result is a better product for it.

I took two shots at making this.  The first one was good, but didn't look nearly as pretty.  I also made it in a pie pan the first time, which didn't work out nearly as well as the tart pan.  I must say, the addition of the tart pan at our house is quickly making me become the Queen of Tarts - I already have a new tart recipe that I'll share soon.

Due to time constraints (read: I have a real job too), I typically don't make and re-make recipes I post here.  If they're good and they look good, I share them.  This is something I would probably change if I ever get to make blogging and recipe creation my full time job, but for now, what I'm doing works.  Giving myself that time with this recipe though, I was really able to perfect it, which was nice.

Additionally, I spent a lot more time with the photos than I normally would (again, real job = limited time).  I took about 40 photos of this dang tart and spent hours editing the photo I finally chose.

The lesson learned here is, the photo editing and time spent is really worth it.  It does leave me with a bit of dilemma though, because spending more time on photos means less posts per week, but also makes me a better photographer.

And, of course I hope/wish/pray I win this contest (how freaking awesome would that be??), the experience of participating (and eating that tart) was worth it.

And that ends the tale of my contest entry.  Have a nice day!

P.S.  I also shared this on Tasty Kitchen.