Sweet Potato Bread

I love dessert breads. They are a little less sugary tasting than cookies but just as satisfying to me. If you’ve tried my Honey Banana Bread, you may recognize this recipe – it is an adaptation.

For a different texture, try frying a slice of this in butter – it gets crispy and warm and delicious. It makes a great breakfast snack

Ingredients

• 6 Tbsp (3/4 stick) salted butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups grated raw sweet potato (one medium-large potato will do)
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease loaf pan well, especially the bottom. Set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar.
4. Add eggs, vanilla, and sweet potato. Mix until incorporated.
5. In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon.
6. While stirring sweet potato mixture, slowly add flour mixture until all is incorporated.
7. Pour batter into loan pan.
8. Bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes.
9. Remove immediately from pan and let cool completely before cutting.

Chocolate Pots de Creme

As soon as I saw these on the Pioneer Woman's blog, I knew I had to try them. Besides being adorable, they are an easy dessert with no cooking involved. I adapted her recipe to make a few things easier, including the types of ingredients you might need.

I made this dish at our Valentine's Day dinner, and it was a hit but please be warned that this is very rich (as you might guess when you read the ingredients)! A little goes a long way, so you won't need much to feel satisfied.



Ingredients

• 12 oz bag semi-sweet chocolate chips 
• 4 eggs, at room temperature 
• dash of salt 
• splash of vanilla extract OR flavored liquer (such as Grand Marnier) 
• 1 cup (8 oz) brewed coffee OR hot cocoa (the liquid must be HOT) 
• powdered sugar or whipped cream (optional, for decoration)

Directions

1. Place chocolate chips and 2 of the eggs in a blender. Pulse until chips are broken up.
2. Add the other 2 eggs, salt, and vanilla / liquer. Blend until smooth.
3. While blender is on, slowly pour a steady stream of hot cocoa / coffee into the chocolate mixture.
4. Pour into ramekins or small Mason jars. Place in fridge and let set, about 2 hours.
5. Before serving, decorate with a sprinkle of powdered sugar or whipped cream.

Stephanie's Fruit Pizza (Dessert)

This recipe comes from one of my students who is an awesome cook. Ever since watching Jamie Oliver's video on superb salads, she has made her own salad dressings for lunch. She has tried out her own oreo truffles. Most recently, she brought this wonderful dessert to a shared meal. It was wonderful because it had a little bit of sugary sweet (from the 'crust') with the rest of the flavor from the fruit.

This dessert would work well with many kinds of fruit, as long as they are firm, like kiwi, apples, or bananas. Watery fruit such as peaches or oranges would not be good.

Ingredients

• 1 package premade cookie dough (usually in the refrigerated section)
• vegetable oil spray
• one 13.5 oz tub of cream cheese fruit dip, such as T. Marzetti brand
• 1 quart fresh strawberries, sliced
• 1 pint fresh blueberries
• 1 pint fresh blackberries
• 1 pint fresh red raspberries

Directions

1. Preheat oven according to temperature on cookie dough package.
2. Very lightly, spray your pizza stone or cookie sheet.
3. Roll out sugar cookie dough into one large pizza size circle.
4. Bake according to package directions.
5. Once cookie 'crust' is completely cool, spread most / all of the fruit dip onto your cookie.
6. Evenly spread your fruit topping over the entire cookie.
7. This pizza can be covered with aluminum foil and placed in the fridge to be served later in the day if needed.

Rhubarb Crisp

Crisp, crumble, cobbler: what's in a name?

For this dessert, I didn't want to fuss with a pie crust, but did want some oats involved. My trouble revolved around what to search for: which name included oats? Luckily, I found a helpful article on Gourmet.com that articulates the differences. The answer: crisp is the American name for a fruit dessert with a crumbly topping that often includes oats. (Crumble is its British equivalent.) Upon finding this information, I was able to get to work.


I hope you enjoy what I consider to be a perfect spring dessert: the tartness of rhubarb is scaled down during the baking process (and the addition of sugar, of course). The result is a somewhat messy but sweet crisp with only a bit of bite.

Recipe adapted from Simply Recipes.

Filling Ingredients

• 5 1/2 cups rhubarb, cut into 1/4" slices
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground cardamom
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger

Topping Ingredients

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup oats
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) salted butter, cut into small pieces
• more cinnamon for dusting

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Mix filling ingredients together (rhubarb, sugar, flour, vanilla, and spices). Pour filling into 13x9 dish.
3. In another bowl, mix topping ingredients (flour, oats, and butter). Using your fingers, squish the butter into the flour/oats until it is spread throughout.
4. Pour oat mixture on top of rhubarb filling. Sprinkle a little cinnamon on top.
5. Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes.

Guest Post: Baked Craisin Scones

Today's recipe comes to us from my father-in-law, The Greg. His comments (in italics):

Scones are old Scottish biscuits. The reason I make them is they're so easy and the more impatient you are with them, the better they turn out. [The idea here is that scone dough, when overworked, becomes very dense and hard to chew once cooked.] I can get up in the morning, make them, and they come out of the oven in time for me to have while I enjoy my morning coffee.

I like this recipe because you can use any flavor of dried fruit, as long as it's in small pieces. Greg has made these with regular and blueberry-flavored Craisins with great success. You could use actual dried blueberries, or even try cutting up dried apple pieces into small chunks.


Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2/3 cup dried cranberries (Craisins), any flavor
• 8 Tbsp (1 stick) cold butter, diced
• 1 large egg
• 2/3 cup milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. In a large mixing bowl, mix together flour,  sugar, baking powder, and dried cranberries.
3. Stir butter into dry ingredients and mash with potato masher (or squish with your clean fingers!).
4. With a fork, beat eggs into milk until well stirred. Pour this into dry ingredients and mix to incorporate. Dough should be very rough (almost shredded looking), with chunks of butter still visible.
5. Cut dough in half. Roll each half on a floured surface to about 1/2-inch thickness. Pinch edges around your circle to avoid cracks along the edges while baking.
6. Cut each large chunk into six triangular pieces (like a pie), or use circle-shaped cookie cutter and cut out several rounds. Prick each scone with a fork.
7. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet at 425 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

Boots and Beards: the Woodshed Prophets' Marble Swirl Cupcakes

C and C Cakery's 1st Annual Manly Cupcake Challenge

This week I've been reading about C and C Cakery's Manly Cupcake Challenge, which supports the Movember Foundation, a charity raising awareness for men's health issues.

I couldn't resist creating a cupcake especially for my favorite group of boys. The Woodshed Prophets. They're an awesome country/rock band in which my husband (Dan the Man) plays guitar, and are often the professional taste testers to many of the recipes you enjoy here on Artistic Eatables. They're some of the best guys I know, so I wanted to create a dessert that would make them proud.

They've been developing merchandise to coordinate with the release of their debut album, so I looked to the buttons, posters, and t-shirts to inspire me regarding my manly cupcakes. I also wanted something the boys would enjoy eating. Although hot dogs, beer, and pizza are all manly foods, I didn't think they'd translate well to cupcakes.

I decided to stick with black and white for the color scheme (which all began with their bootleg CD's) and chose to highlight the boot logo, which appears on their business cards and buttons. To give some variation and to honor Movember, I included some designs of beards, which is another accessory the boys seem to love. (Three of the four guys have 'em.)

As for the kitchen talk, I altered this recipe to create the cupcake batter, and the frosting recipe is direct from the Tasty Kitchen archives.

cupcakes, pre-frosting

Cupcake Ingredients (makes about 15 cupcakes)

• 2 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
• 1 1/3 c. sugar
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1 c. milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter, at room temperature
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
• splash of milk

Frosting Ingredients

• 5 Tbsp flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter
• 1 cup sugar (not powdered sugar)
• your desired color food dye (I used black)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Line cupcake tin with cupcake papers.
3. Combine flour, sugar, and baking powder in large bowl. 
4. Add butter, vanilla, and 1 cup milk. Beat at medium speed for about a minute. 
5. Add eggs.   Beat at medium speed for about a minute, then at high speed for another minute.
6. Separate batter into two batches - one larger batch for your vanilla, and a smaller batch to be turned into chocolate.
7. In small saucepan over low heat, heat chocolate chips. When chocolate chips are hot but not burnt, turn off heat and add a splash or two of milk. Stir or whisk together well until chocolate is slightly creamy.
8. Add chocolate to smaller batch of cake batter and stir well.
9. Fill cupcake papers about half full with vanilla batter. To each, add a spoonful of chocolate batter and swirl together using a knife. Clean the knife before swirling the next cupcake.
10. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.
11. Let cool for 10-15 minutes on cooling rack.
12. While cupcakes are cooling, combine flour and 1 cup milk in saucepan over medium heat. Whisk or stir constantly until very thick. (The recipe's author compares the desired thickness of this frosting to brownie batter.) Remove from heat and cool completely. Place pan in bowl of ice if you need it to cool more quickly.
13. In a mixing bowl, combine sugar and butter. Beat until graininess of sugar is gone. 
14. Add vanilla to flour/milk mixture, then pour into butter/sugar mixture. Beat on medium-high speed until texture resembles whipped cream.
15. Frost cupcakes using white frosting. Add food dye to remainder of frosting in bowl until desired color is achieved. Scoop into icing bag with a small writing tip inside and decorate with boot design and your favorite facial hair configurations.

 

More about the Contest

• This is all about raising awareness and supporting the awesome mustache men of the Movember Foundation. Please visit their charity page and considering making a donation.
• There are a bunch of great prize sponsors of this contest, including:
• Blush Printables- a $15 electronic gift card
• Hello Hanna - A pack of Sweet Stands (for every finalist)
•  Elise Steven’s Illustration and Design - a hand-painted ornament featuring our mascot, Colonel Cupcake.
• Taraduff - a handmade bearded beanie
• Miss Kitty Creations - a special edition Tuxedo Cupcake Charm
• Bella Cupcake Couture - one pack of Cupcake Wrappers for each finalist and one extra for our grand prize winner
• Drama Llama - a handmade secret stuffie
• My Creative Side - Two dozen Mustaches on stick 

Cinnamon Chip Cookies

First things first - the winner of my first blogiversary giveaway (a jar of homemade blackberry jam), who was chosen randomly, is Kate, who said about her favorite homemade item: "I love love love anything with peanut butter. I have kind of a problem with it. Hi, my name is Kate and I'm a peanut butterholic." Kate, I will be contacting you via e-mail for your info!

On to the deliciousness...

Cinnamon chips, unlike chocolate chips, don't really taste great on their own. But after baking in a hot oven and melting a little, they become one of my favorite additions to a cookie. They're more like cinnamon sugar really, and since they're so tiny they help create a cookie that much resembles snickerdoodles in flavor. I was able to find my bag of cinnamon chips at a local independent grocery store that sells bulk products. You may be able to find some at a food co-op or specialty baking store if they're not at your regular grocery store.

The trick with these, and any cookie, is when you remove them from the oven. To get a crunchier cookie, wait until the edges of each cookie have just browned. For a chewier cookie, check on them as the minimum time gets close. Remove them as soon as they look firm, regardless of their color. They will continue to cook for another minute or two out of the oven until they cool completely.

Recipe adapted from The Cookie Book by Nancy Baggett.

Ingredients (makes 25-30 cookies)

• 1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, at room temperature (not melted)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 2 1/2 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 lb cinnamon chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine butter, sugar, and brown sugar.
3. Add vanilla and eggs.
4. In a separate bowl, combine flour and baking soda.
5. While stirring / mixing sugar mixture, slowly add flour mixture until completely incorporated.
6. Add cinnamon chips and stir well.
7. Grease two cookie sheets.
8. Place dough balls the size of golf balls onto cookie sheet, spacing them about 2" apart.
9. Bake, one tray at a time, at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes.
10. Remove from oven and place cookies on a cooling rack for at least five minutes.

Gavin's Chocolate Cake

All the boys in Dan the Man's family love chocolate cake, but there's one catch - no frosting can be involved. They'll eat it plain, or even with chocolate pudding on the side but don't want anything to do with overly sugary stuff. I originally developed this recipe for Dan's brother Gavin because, if you're going to eat plain cake, why not eat the best? 

The recipe involves making your own cake flour (you'll see that in the strange measurement for flour, and the addition of cornstarch). If you have cake flour handy, just ignore the flour / cornstarch in the recipe, and use 3 cups of cake flour. You'll also want to have toothpicks on hand to check for doneness so you don't burn this delicious treat.

Lastly, if you've never baked with baking chocolate, be sure to get the right kind. You'll be sorry if you accidentally use unsweetened instead of the semisweet baking chocolate called for by the recipe...not that I've ever done that before. Additionally, you can substitute semisweet chocolate chips if you've got those on hand - according to the substitutions on this website, sub in a little over 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips for the 3 1/2 oz. semisweet baking chocolate required in my recipe.

five 1/2 oz squares of semisweet Baker's baking chocolate

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 oz. semi-sweet baking chocolate
• 3/4 cup salted butter (equal to 1 1/2 sticks, or 12 Tbsp)
• 2 1/2 cups + 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour (unbleached is best)
• 6 Tbsp cornstarch
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups cold water

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease 9 x 13 cake pan. Set aside.
3. In small saucepan, melt butter and chocolate together over medium-low heat. Let cool.
4. In medium bowl, mix together flour, cornstarch, and baking soda. Set aside.
5. Pour sugar into large mixing bowl. With electric or stand mixer with whisk attachment at medium speed, pour in chocolate/butter mixture and mix for about 1 minute.
6. With mixer still on medium, add vanilla, then both eggs (one at a time). 
7. Then add flour mixture gradually, alternating with cold water. Scrape down sides of bowl and continue to beat for another minute or two, until batter is fluffy.
8. Pour batter into greased 9 x 13 pan. 
9. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. Check for doneness using toothpick.
10. Let cake cool at least 15-20 minutes. Serve alongside chocolate pudding, whipped cream, or any other sidekicks you might enjoy.

Honey Banana Bread

One of my friends has an allergy to cane sugar, prompting me to develop a dessert recipe that didn't heavily rely on sweetness for its flavor. No cane sugar means no granulated sugar, no brown sugar, and no molasses. Sure, there are artificial sweeteners like Splenda, which contains xylitol, or natural ones like agave nectar. I wanted a sweetener that was natural but also probably already in people's pantries. 

Honey has a lower glycemic index than sugar, which is good for those concerned with high blood sugar. If you buy local honey, you are also ingesting nectar from the plants and flowers in your region, thus helping your body to be less sensitive to allergens. (Just be careful to buy real, unprocessed honey and not a product diluted with other ingredients. Check out this article for more information.)

Ingredients

• 6 Tbsp butter (3/4 stick), softened but not melted
• 3 bananas, very ripe, mashed
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In large mixing bowl, mix together butter and bananas with electric or stand mixer (medium or speed #4 using whisk attachment). 
3. With mixer on, pour in honey, vanilla, and egg. Mix for about 1 minute.
4. Add flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Mix for another 1-2 minutes, until batter looks smooth and creamy.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 55-60 minutes.
6. Let cool on cooling rack for 10 minutes, then remove bread from pan and let cool for another 30 minutes before cutting.

Comments

Baking with honey was pretty easy. It required reducing the amount of liquid in the other ingredients (i.e. using fewer eggs and less vanilla) and using significantly less honey than was required for the amount of sugar in my original recipe. 

The color of the bread was what most impressed me at first. It came out of the oven a beautiful golden brown color, with a smooth crust.

As for the flavor, I really couldn't tell that there was anything different about it - the banana flavor was pronounced but not overbearing, just the way I like banana bread. Tasted great without butter but would be great with it. Even with the reduction in liquid, the amount in the honey made up the difference so the bread was the perfect texture.

Strawberry Crisp

After days of frozen pizza, ramen noodles, and boxed macaroni and cheese (which is something I may or may not have experienced recently), there comes a time when one needs to create something beautiful. Something from real ingredients. Something involving strawberries. So I tried out this recipe from Razzle Dazzle Recipes.

This strawberry crisp is incredibly easy, as the bottom crust and top crust are from the same mixture. 

P.S. I bought two pounds of strawberries but after, ahem, "testing" a few, might have ended up with only a pound and a half to actually bake with. Purchase at your own risk.

Ingredients

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup brown sugar 
• 1/2 cup butter (equal to 1 stick), room temperature
• 1/3 cup diced nuts (optional) (I used walnuts; almonds or pecans might be good too)
• 1 1/2 to 2 lbs fresh strawberries, sliced
• 1/2 cup sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease an 8x8 pan.
3. In a medium sized bowl, mix together strawberries and (regular) sugar.
4. In a larger bowl, mix together oats, flour and brown sugar. Using a fork, cut butter into flour mixture until it is even throughout. 
5. Add nuts if desired.
6. Pour about half the flour mixture into 8x8 pan and press evenly to bottom. Add entire strawberry mixture, then spread rest of flour mixture on top and spread around.
7. Bake for about 50 minutes, until mixture has turned golden brown on top.

Comments

I enjoyed the dessert best warmed. If it hadn't disappeared so quickly I would have also liked to try it as a breakfast with a little bit of milk poured over top. If you wanted to make a strawberry rhubarb crisp you could alter this recipe by using only 1 lb. of fresh strawberries and adding 2 stalks of rhubarb, sliced up, and keep the amount of sugar the same.

Cardamon Spice Cookies with Chocolate Glaze

Cardamom is a lesser known member of the ginger family, and is fantastic in cooking as well as baking. These cookies are in the style of icebox cookies, which are rolled up into a log, refrigerated, and sliced into thin discs. I suggest preparing the dough the night before you wish to bake.

The recipe is great plain, but also consider them paired with the chocolate glaze recipe that follows. Chocolate must be melted slowly to prevent the fat from separating itself (hence the low heat).

This recipe was adapted from Mary Engelbreit's Cookies Cookbook.


Cookie Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
• 1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tsp vanilla

Cookie Directions

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and cardamom.
2. In a larger bowl, beat the butter and sugar together with an electric mixer or stand mixer (on medium speed) until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolk and vanilla. Turn the mixer to low speed and gradually beat in the flour mixture.
3. On a floured surface, form the dough into a 14-inch log and wrap in waxed or parchment paper. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, then unwrap and reroll to refine shape. Return to fridge for at least 3 hours, or overnight.
4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
5. Using a sharp knife, cut the dough into 1/4=inch slice and place about 1 inch apart onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake for about 10 minutes, or until golden. Transfer the cookies to wire racks to cool completely.

Glaze Ingredients

• 6 oz chocolate (I used 3 oz. bittersweet chocolate and 3 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips)
• 1 Tbsp vegetable oil (or another flavorless oil)

Glaze Directions

1. In a small saucepan, melt half the chocolate over low heat. Remove from the heat and add the remaining chocolate and the oil, stirring occasionally, until smooth.
   
2. Scrape into a small bowl and dip each cookie halfway into the chocolate and place on a wire rack until chocolate sets.

Comments
These baked up crunchy, and paired well with a cup of tea. Cardamom cookies are great for someone who wants a twist on a traditional gingerbread cookie, or perhaps doesn't want as intense a spice flavor as gingerbread provides.

Carrot Cake Cookies with Lemon Glaze

This recipe was my birthday cake this year! Rather than making myself a cake, I opted for these cookies. My friends were gracious enough to grate the carrots by hand, but injuries occurred, so if you are intimidated by sharp objects, I suggest buying pre-grated carrots.

The lemon glaze really makes these cookies, so don't skimp! Also, don't be worried if these seem too "healthy" - if it's a testament to how tasty these cookies were, they disappeared within 30 minutes at the party.

The only photo I have of these cookies is this one of me blowing out the candle on it, so I apologize for not having a close up of the beauty of these tasty little desserts.

Cookie Ingredients

• 2 cups flour (if you've got it, make this using 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour and 1/2 cup whole wheat flour)
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 cup grated carrot
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 5 Tbsp milk
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup maple syrup

Glaze Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp butter, melted
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• juice from 1 lemon
• zest from 1 lemon
  

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease a cookie sheet.
   
3. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, carrot, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.
4. With a mixer, or by hand using a spatula, beat in egg, milk, oil, and syrup until just blended.
5. Drop small blobs of dough (about 1/8 cupfuls), about 2 inches apart, onto a greased cookie sheet.
6. Bake 10 minutes or until just starting to brown. Remove from oven and let cool completely.
7. While cookies are baking, whisk together glaze ingredients in small bowl. Add a Tbsp or two more powdered sugar if you desire a thicker, more frosting-like glaze.
8. Once cookies have cooled, spread glaze on top of each cookie and let set.

Comments
These were light and a little chewy, so it wasn't hard to eat more than one. The lemon glaze really brightens up the flavor - I wouldn't recommend them without it.