Pistachio Cake

Yesterday was Mother's Day and while the plan was to take my mom, grandmother, and mother in law all out to eat, my grandmother wasn't really wanting to go out. Instead she invited us over for cake and coffee so I insisted that we bring the cake.

And because it was Mother's Day, I wanted something a little different and hopefully something new for my grandmother. I asked around and a friend suggested Pistachio Cake so I went for it.

Pistachio Cake

1 box of white cake mix

3 boxes of pistachio pudding
5 eggs
½ cup water
1 & ½ cup milk
½ cup oil
1 container cool whip

• Preheat oven to 350.
• Mix white cake mix, 2 pkgs of pudding, eggs, water, 1/2 cup milk and oil together.
• Pour into a greased & lightly floured bundt pan.
• Bake for 1 hour at 350.
• Let cool.
• Mix together 1 pkg pistachio pudding, 1 cup milk, 1 container of cool whip and frost cake when cool.

This really was all kinds of yummy. I was hesitant at first because I'm not the hugest Pistachio fan but this was really good. And sooooooo easy. Personally, I think the frosting was a bit much and this could've been served with some powdered sugar, but everyone really enjoyed it all as is.

S'mores Cookie Bars

Um, these things are - as a friend likes to say - S'MOREGASMIC!


I had seen the recipe for these a while back and while they looked incredible and the reviews were incredible I did a, well, incredible job staying away. Willpower at its finest. Until now, that is.

Not sure what it was, but it was like they've been calling out to me so I finally had to succumb and WOW am I glad I did.

S'mores Cookie Bars
(I believe taken from here)

• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 king-sized milk chocolate bars (e.g. Hershey’s)
• 1 1/2 cups marshmallow creme/fluff (not melted marshmallows)

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan.
3. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light.
4. Beat in egg and vanilla.
5. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt.
6. Add to butter mixture and mix at a low speed until combined.
7. Divide dough in half and press half of dough into an even layer on the bottom of the prepared pan.
8. Place chocolate bars over dough. 2 king-sized Hershey’s bars should fit perfectly side by side, but break the chocolate (if necessary) to get it to fit in a single layer no more than 1/4 inch thick.
9. Spread chocolate with marshmallow creme or fluff.
10. Place remaining dough in a single layer on top of the fluff (most easily achieved by flattening the dough into small shingles and laying them together).
11. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until lightly browned.
12. Cool completely before cutting into bars.

Makes 16 cookie bars.

Bread Pudding

Last week when I made Schnitzeletta, I bought some French bread and never used it all. So this morning, I decided to put it to use and made some Bread Pudding. What a perfect morning to make Bread Pudding... we went from sunny and warm yesterday to rainy and dreary today. So what better way to bring a little warmth back into the place by baking some Bread Pudding!

I looked at a couple simple recipes (here and here) and kinda went from there.

• 2-3 cups stale French bread, torn into cubes
• 3-4 Tbs butter, melted
• 2 cups milk
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup sugar*
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• cooking spray
• 8x8 pan

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Spray 8x8 pan and toss cubed stale bread in pan, covering entire pan.
3. Drizzle melted butter atop bread.
4. Mix remaining ingredients together well in separate bowl and pour atop bread, pressing down bread to ensure it all gets wet.
5. Place in preheated oven and bake for 45 minutes until bread bounces back up.
6. Serve warm with coffee or milk.

Notes:
I'm horrible at measuring stuff... especially stuff like teaspoons and tablespoons. Plus I like cinnamon and vanilla. So while I thought it had great flavor, my husband says it had an aftertaste he wasn't too fond of and blamed it on my lack of measuring and says I probably put in too much vanilla (personally I think it was too much nutmeg). It was still good though and we both enjoyed it.

*Next time, however, I will be cutting back on the sugar to 1/2 a cup because it was far too sweet for our tastes.

Lemon Bars, the review

One word: YUM.

So I made these lemon bars today (for dessert tomorrow). While I think they turned out really good, I'm now realizing I didn't follow the recipe as posted! I had every intention of following it - along with some of the reviewer comments, but apparently I don't know how to read well and altered the recipe even further. (Have I mentioned I'm not a kitchen person?) Fortunately, I didn't have to throw them away the way I did my sad Nutella Muffins.

So here's the way I made them:

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• *3/4 of a 1/2 cup all-purpose flour (which I guess if you're a mathematician, which I'm NOT, is about *3/8 cup)
  
• 3 lemons, juiced
• zest from 2 lemons
  

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a medium bowl, blend together softened butter, 2 cups flour and 1/2 cup sugar. This will not be smooth like a batter, but rather a bit choppy which is what you need.
   
3. Press into the bottom of an ungreased 9x13 inch pan.
4. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until firm and golden.
   
5. In another bowl, whisk together the remaining 1/2 cups sugar, *3/8 cup flour and lemon zest. Whisk in the eggs and lemon juice. Pour over the baked crust.
6. Bake for an additional 20 minutes in the preheated oven.
   
7. Let cool for at least 20 minutes and sprinkle on powdered sugar.
   

So yeah, I guess I added more flour to the custard part and a lot less sugar. But I promise they still turned out really good and lemony. In fact, we think there could be more lemon!

When I make these again, I'll still use the amount of sugar I used as described above but will probably cut back on the flour in the custard and just stick to the 1/4 cup that's in the original recipe.

(picture posted is from the recipe here)

4/13/09 update: These are ten times better the next day. The lemon seems to get more tart and... WOW! Definitely making these again and might not change anything after all!

Lemon Bars

I made a decision about dessert on Sunday: LEMON BARS.

Yum.

They're yellow which is a Spring-y and Easter-y color, so why not? Plus who doesn't like a Lemon Bar?!

Mmmm, can't wait (especially since there will only be 3 of us which means leftovers!).