Strawberry Bread
Serves 8 People. Prep time: 10 minutes. Total time: 1 hour, 10 minutes
This recipe calls for fresh strawberries, but you can substitute thawed frozen berries.
Softened cream cheese is a delicious spread.
- Five tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon unsalted butter. room temperature, plus more for pan.
- One pint strawberries, rinsed, hulled, quartered, and mashed with a fork.
- One and 1/3 cups all-purpose flour.
- One teaspoon baking soda.
- One-half teaspoon ground cinnamon.
- One-fourth teaspoon baking powder.
- One-fourth teaspoon salt.
- One cup sugar.
- Two large eggs.
1. Preheat oven to 350°.Butter an 8-by-4-inch loaf pan. In a small saucepan, bring strawberries to a boil over medium heat. Cook, stirring, 1 minute. Set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt; set aside. With an electric mixer, cream butter, sugar, and eggs in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add flour mixture alternately with 1/3 cup water, beginning and ending with flour. Fold in reserved strawberries.
3. Scrape batter into prepared pan, smoothing top. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 1 hour (tent with foil after 45 minutes if top is getting too dark). Cool in pan 10 minutes. Run a knife around edges; invert onto a rack. Reinvert; cool completely.
Pumpkin Cheesecake
Serves 12 People. Prep time: 30 minutes. Total time: 8 hours.
To prevent the top from cracking, be careful not to overmix the batter, and do
not opend the oven door while the cake is baking or cooling inside the oven.
For the crust...
1 1/4 cups graham-cracker crumbs (from 10 whole crackers)
1/4 cup sugar
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
for the filling"
4 packages ( 8 onces each) bar cream cheese,very soft
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
2 Tablespoons pumpkin-pie spice
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs, room temperature
To make the crumbs for the crust, pulse graham crackers in a food processor
until finely ground. Or, if you prefer, substitute the same amount of packaged
graham-cracker crumbs.
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350, with rack in center. Assembel a 9-inch nonstick
springform pan, with the raised side of the bottom part facing up.
2. Make the crust: In a medium bowl, mix cracker crumbs, sugar, and butter until
moistened; press firmly into bottom of pan. Bake until golden around edges,
10-12 minutes.
3. Make the filling: With an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar on low
speed until smooth; mix in flour (do not overmix). Add pumpkin puree, pie
spice, vanilla, and salt; mix just until smooth. Add eggs one at a time, mixing
until each is incorporated before adding the next.
4. Place springform pan on a rimmed baking sheet. Pour filling into springform
and gently smooth top. Transfer to oven; reduce oven heat to 300. Bake 45
minutes. Turn off oven; let cheesecake stay in oven 2 hours more (without
opening).
5. Remove from oven: cool completely. Cover with plastic wrap; refrigerate
until firm, at least 4 hours. Unmold before serving.
1 block cream cheese
1 bag Mexican shredded cheese
6 garlic cloves crushed (fresh is best)
Dash of worcestershire sauce
1. Place softened cream cheese, Mexican cheese, garlic and worcestershire into a
bowl and mix well.
2. Form into a ball and transfer to waxed paper.
3. Refrigerate for 2-24 hours and serve with crackers.
4. Garnish with parsley if desired and serves about 20.
Peach Crisp
Makes 6 yummy servings!
3 cups drained canned peaches
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg, slightly beaten
6 Tbs. butter, melted
Dash of cinnamon and nutmeg
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Arrange peach slices in a 7x11 baking dish. Sift
together flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
3. Add egg; toss with fork until
crumbly. Sprinkle mixture over peaches. Drizzle melted butter over top.
4. Bake
for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown.
Blueberry Sorbet
Makes 3 cups
To make frozen sorbet pops, spoon the mixture into prepared molds, and freeze overnight.
1/3 cup sugar
4 heaping cups wild or cultivated blueberries
1/2 lime, juiced
1. Place sugar and 1/3 cup water in a small saucepan over medium heat, and simmer. When sugar is completely dissolved, remove from heat, and let cool.
2. Puree the berries in the bowl of a food processor, and strain through a fine-mesh sieve. Stir together strained berry juice, sugar syrup, and lime juice. Transfer to an ice-cream maker, and follow manufacturer's directions. Transfer to an airtight plastic container, and freeze overnight.
Blueberry Buckle
Makes 1 ten-inch round cake or 2 six-inch round cakes. This dessert is made in a spring form pan.
1/2 cup butter (1 stick), plus more for pan
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pan
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
5 cups wild or cultivated blueberries (I use 3 cups)
1 recipe Streusel Topping (recipe is below)
1. Heat oven to 350. Butter and flour springform baking pan, and set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce mixer speed to low, and add egg and vanilla.
4. When combined, alternate adding reserved flour mixture and milk to mixer, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Remove from mixer; gently fold in berries.
5. Pour batter into prepared pan; sprinkle topping generously over cake. Bake 60-70 minutes or until cake tester comes out batter-free. Remove cake from oven; leave in pan 10 minutes on a cooling rack. Remove from pan; let cool 15 minutes before serving.
Streusal Topping
Makes enough for 1 ten-inch cake or 2 six-inch cakes (I double this topping recipe)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
6 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1. In a medium bowl, mix dry ingredients together; cut in the butter using a pastry blender of fork until fine crumbs form.
2. Using hands, squeeze together most of the mixture to form clumps. Store, refrigerated, in an airtight container, or sprinkle directly onto cake.
This is fabulous to serve at a bridal or baby shower. One of our blueberry favorites!
I'd love to hear about your favorite family recipe! Email me those timesaving classics, from appetizers to desserts and include why your family loves this recipe. We will be standing by with our oven mitts ready!
