Spooooky Bloody Ghost Cookies

BOO!

Oh man...scary, right? You know what's not scary about these cookies? The taste. Just the perfect little recipe for cookie cutter sugar cookies. I hate sugar cookie recipes that have so much butter in them that they never keep their shapes. You basically end up with big flat no-shape cookies. Not fun. These taste rich and buttery and are easy to make! The strawberry blood filling makes it fun for Halloween, but they would be great on their own.

Bloody Ghost Cookies Recipe:

• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 5-6 very ripe strawberries, sliced (if not ripe, you might need to add a bit of sugar)
• 2 tbsp water

Cream the butter and sugar together until smooth. Add the egg and vanilla and combine. In a small bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda and salt. Gradually add to wet mixture until combined - don't overwork too much or the dough will get tough. Wrap in plastic and keep in fridge for at least 30 minutes. 

Meanwhile, heat sliced strawberries and water in a small saucepan over medium low heat until the strawberries have broken down and the mixture is thick and bubbly - like jam or jelly. Remove and keep in fridge. 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly flour a surface and your rolling pin, roll out dough and cut out desired shapes (spooky ghosts!) Place on greased baking sheet. Add a small dollop of strawberry filling onto a ghost and top with another cookie. Using a fork or knife, prick all around the edges to seal the ghosts shut. Bake in oven for about 8 minutes or until the sides begin to get golden. Enjoy!

Chocolate Pudding Sundaes

So this one's a no-brainer...

Step 1: make chocolate pudding
Step 2: add stuff
Step 3: eat chocolate pudding sundae

Easy and delicious.

 This particular sundae is chocolate pudding, whipped cream, sliced strawberries and crushed graham crackers. If you wanted to be fancy, you could make a graham cracker crust, press into pie pan, fill with chocolate pudding, top with whipped cream and strawberries and freeze. But that requires a lot more time and sometimes, one cannot wait to eat chocolate pudding.

Mini Berry Pies

Happy Birthday, Steven!

Every year, my fiancee asks for a German Chocolate Cake for his birthday. This year, however, the first thing out of his mouth when posed with the "which dessert" question was a berry pie. Eager to bake something new, I jumped on it. We were having a party to celebrate so instead of making one big pie that would be a mess to cut, I made mini individual pies in a muffin tin. Super cute, easy and well-received by everyone! 

Mini Berry Pie Recipe:

• 1 pint blueberries
• 1 lb carton strawberries, sliced
• 1/2 lemon, juiced and zested
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tbsp corn starch
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• Pie crust (cheated and used pre-made)
• milk to brush and sugar to sprinkle on top

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Combine everything but the crust, milk and extra sugar in a large bowl and set aside to allow maceration (a.k.a juices to seep out of fruit).

Roll out your pie crust and cut out circles about the size of a standard glass (or use a biscuit cutter). Ideally you want to be able to press the bottom crust down in the muffin tin cup and have extra crust up over the edges to seal tops. To make 12 mini pies with tops, you'll need about 3 9-inch pie crusts. The recipe will actually make a lot more than 12 mini pies so I just used the rest to make one big pie and stored in the freezer.

Grease the muffin tin, place the dough circles down in the cups and fill with berry mixture. Cover the pies with a crust top (be sure to cut slits) or make lattices. Place in freezer until ready to bake - this will ensure that the fruit doesn't boil too quickly before the crust is finished baking.

When ready to bake, brush the tops with milk or cream, sprinkle with sugar and bake in oven for about 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Bread Pudding

Yet another strawberry-rhubarb creation this week...



I don't know what's with me and making things that I don't actually like that much. I've never been a big fan of bread pudding, and I don't love rhubarb. I guess I just like experimenting. This is not your traditional bread pudding, but the taste and texture is too close to call it anything else. Basically, it's a way easier bread pudding with fewer ingredients. This recipe only makes about 2-3 servings though.



Strawberry-Rhubarb Bread Pudding Recipe: 

• 1-2 cups chopped frozen rhubarb
• 1/2 cup fresh sliced strawberries
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1/4 lemon or lime, juiced
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• 1 tbsp cold water
• 6 slices bread (I used two whole BIG hamburger buns that were in the freezer so I figure that would equal about 6 regular slices of bread)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 cup milk

Combine the rhubarb, strawberries, sugar and citrus juice in a small saucepan and heat on medium low. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 5 minutes. Whisk the cornstarch in the tbsp of water and add to the fruit. Stir constantly until clear, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat, put in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and keep in fridge until cool. 

Tear the bread into chunks and lay on a baking sheet. Put in oven to broil for just a couple minutes to get toasty. Combine in a bowl with cinnamon and milk and let sit for about 10 minutes. Add the fruit mixture and combine. Pour into a baking pan and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. 

Strawberry-Rhubarb Crumble

Oh so good.

I originally intended on making a strawberry-rhubarb pie, but a long Monday at work left me feeling tired and lazy so I went with the next best thing: a crumble! Basically it's the same idea as a pie except easier. Pie dough requires careful mixing (not too much, not too little), ample resting time and then rolling out. All you need to do for a crumble topping is throw some flour, oats and butter in a bowl and mix with your hands. I like that better. Plus, the star of the show here is really the perfect combination between the tangy rhubarb and sweet strawberry. Who cares what kind of doughy blanket you put on top any way :)



Strawberry-Rhubarb Crumble Recipe:

• 2 cups frozen rhubarb
• 1 cup fresh strawberries
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• squeeze of lemon juice
• dash of cinnamon
• 1 tbsp flour

• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tbsp applesauce
• 2 tbsp butter
• dash cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375-degrees.

Combine the first set of ingredients in a bowl, set aside and let the juices being to seep out. 

Combine the second set of ingredients in a bowl and mix together with your hands until crumbly (hey look at that...a crumbly crumble). 

Pour the fruit filling into the bottom of a pie pan. Sprinkle the crumble mixture over the top and bake in the oven for about 40 minutes or until bubbly. Then set the oven to broil and brown that topping nice and crispy for about 2 minutes (watch carefully!).

Consume with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Raw Cheesecake

This is kind of a weird one.

But magically tasty.

Whilst Foodgawker-ing the other day, I stumbled across a beautiful picture of what appeared to be a regular cheesecake. After clicking the link and re-directing to the owner's site, I saw that it was actually a vegan/raw cheesecake. This of course means there is no cheese, no other part of an animal and it was never baked.

Oh I had to try this.

I did have to change the recipe a bit to suite the ingredients I had on hand:

• Soaked cashews: Substituted soaked almonds
• Nut/Date Crust: Substituted crushed graham cracker and honey (yes I know, no longer raw but go with the original)
• Coconut oil: Substituted applesauce
• Raspberries: Substituted strawberries
• I also pretty much halved the recipe, so my final product didn't have those nice thick layers. If you have a mini springform pan, my version would be perfect for 2 people.

All in all, twas delicious!

Raw Cheesecake Recipe:

• 3 whole graham crackers, crushed
• 1/3 cup honey
  
• 1 cup raw almonds, soaked overnight
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 tbsp applesauce
• 3 tbsp honey
• pinch of salt
• pinch of cinnamon
  
• 1/2-1 cup strawberries, sliced

In a bowl, mix the crushed graham crackers and honey. With greased hands, pour into the pan and spread evenly on the bottom. In a blender (I highly recommend a Vitamix for this because my mixture never got quite smooth enough), combine all the ingredients except strawberries. You want an almost peanut butter texture: thick and creamy. Pour 1/2 the mixture on top of the crust and smooth. Then add the strawberries to the remaining 1/2 mixture, blend and pour on top. Cover and freeze for at least a few hours and then thaw 30 minutes prior to serving.

Definitely doesn't taste like "cheesecake," but it was unlike anything I'd ever had...and I loved it.