Best Dessert Buffet Ever-Strawberry Shortcake Bar

I’ve been a big fan of dessert/candy buffets for a while now. I’ve combed through hundreds of amazing and meticulously color-coordinated creations; and I even bought dessert buffet guru Amy Atlas’ book. I’ve done several variations of dessert bars for clients and at home—like the ice cream sundae bar I created for my daughter’s last birthday. But this has to be the awesome-est idea I’ve come across so far! The simplicity of it is what really makes this a home run for me. Darn, why didn’t I think of this?!

A huge decorative bowl of strawberries will be the star of the show.

Use traditional toppings and some creative toppings too.

 

 

 

And a sample strawberry shortcake menu is such a nice touch.

 

 

I'm totally doing this at my next event!

You can find the tutorial and a list of ingredients on celebrations.com.

Treat of The Week-Cowgirl Cookies

I got this amazing recipe from Bakerella. I actually made the "in a jar" version of theses cookies give away as Christmas presents last year. But the recipe is sooo good I decided to make some to put in a care package for my boyfriend's son who is going back to college this week (and for myself). They make amazing gifts in a jar or just as homemade cookies.

I keep a few a of these treat boxes around cause you never know when you might need to put together a quick gift. Line the inside with tissue paper and secure with a pretty ribbon.

Treat of The Week-Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

Okay, I’m trying to make a different treat or dessert every week. Sort of like a Julie and Julia thing but with different recipes from different sources...and I’m not trying to prove anything. I’m loving it, my family and co-workers that get to sample a new treat every week are loving it…but my hips and thighs are suffering! Oh well, que sera sera.

I adapted this recipe from Cookie Swap by Lauren Chattman: 

Ingredients

4 oz unsweetened chocolate finely chopped

8 oz semisweet or bittersweet chocolate finely chopped

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter cut into pieces

½ cup unbleached all-purpose flour

½ tsp baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

4 large eggs

1 ½ cups of sugar

1 ½ tsp pure vanilla extract

1 ½ cups chopped peppermint bark 

Directions

1.       Preheat oven to 350⁰F. Line several baking sheets with parchment paper.

2.       Put water to a depth of 1 inch in the bottom of a double boiler or medium saucepan set over low heat and bring to a bare simmer. Combine the unsweetened chocolate, semisweet chocolate, and the butter in the top of the double boiler or in a stainless steel bowl set on top of the simmering water, making sure that the water doesn’t touch the bottom of the bowl. Heat whisking occasionally, until the chocolate and butter are completely melted. Set aside to cool slightly.

3.       Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl.

4.       Place eggs and sugar in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer on high until they are thick and pale (about 5 minutes). Add the chocolate mixture and vanilla and beat on low until smooth. Add the flour mixture and beat until just combined. Stir in the peppermint bark. Place the bowl, uncovered, in the refrigerator to let the dough firm up, for 15 minutes (or up to 6 hours).

5.       Drop the dough by the heaping tablespoon onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving about 3 inches between each cookie.

6.       Bake the cookies until the tops are cracked and shiny, 10-12 minutes. Carefully slide the parchment paper with the cookies to a wire rack and let the cookies cool completely.

O.k. so that was the “right” way to do it. Lemme tell you how it went down in my kitchen…

First of all ,they grocery store didn’t have any solid unsweetened chocolate so I ended up having to buy powdered chocolate instead. No problem...I thought; I’ll just weigh it out on the scale so that I have 4 oz. like the recipe calls for. BUT, I didn’t read the instructions on the container. There were special instructions for using the chocolate powder as baking chocolate. Duh!

So when I heated everything together I ended up with a hard, dry, hot mess! It didn’t look right so eventually I figured out what I did wrong and added the oil to the mixture. Voila! Now it looked like melty, gooey, yummy chocolate that dripped off the spoon. Ummm, it took everything in me not to start dipping strawberries in it and just forgo the cookies all together for chocolate fondue!

Next challenge...this double broiler thing is a b*tch! Especially since I didn’t have a double broiler and I opted to go with the stainless steel bowl in some water method. I ended up just plopping the bowl into a pot of boiling water because it was impossible to find a bowl and a pot the correct size so that the bowl could magically hover above the boiling water without touching it! Note to self: buy a double broiler thingamajigy.

The rest of the recipe went pretty smoothly. I should mention that I ghetto-rigged (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ghetto%20rigged) the peppermint bark pieces by putting a bunch of Peppermint Hershey’s Kisses in my Ninja blender and pulsing it until I had chopped pieces. Don’t laugh! Again, I’ll blame this one on the grocery store for not having enough peppermint bark. After searching high and low, the only kind I could find were Ghirardelli Squares for like $6 a pack—uh yeah right! So Peppermint Hershey’s Kisses in the blender is what I ended up with.

They came out awesome; I'm obviously not a food photographer because the pics don’t do them justice!

Very chocolaty...the cookie recipe itself is a keeper and sans the peppermint would yield cookies to satisfy any chocolate addict. And I’ve already gotten requests to make them again substituting the peppermint with white chocolate chips or chocolate chunks next time. Wooo Whooo!

Treat Of The Week-Blueberry and Apple Pies

Well, in this case it’s more like treats of the week. I had some leftover pie crust from Thanksgiving. I cheated a little and used Pillsbury Refridgerated Pie Crust, but the pies came out amazing nonetheless. I used this recipe from food.com for the blueberry pie filling. What I liked the most was that it wasn’t overly sweet and you could really taste the blueberries. I actually used frozen blueberries since fresh ones are a little hard to find this time of year. Could NOT taste the difference! I didn’t tell anybody about the frozen berries and everyone commented on how “fresh” the pie tasted.

 

I made apple pie tarts for Thanksgiving and used that same recipe for my apple pie filling below. The only thing I changed from the dessarts.com recipe was that I used a regular pie mold instead of a muffin pan. I also let the filling and spices macerate in the fridge overnight which really helped all the flavors blend together. A star-shaped cookie cutter helped make the top crust.

 

Tip: Place foil around the edges of the pie to keep the edges from burning if the middle needs to cook a little longer.

Both recipes were really pretty simple and muy delicioso!