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-Flan

Flan is a very popular caramel custard dessert that is eaten throughout Latin America. Each country has their little variation of the dessert but usually contains some type of sweetened or condensed milk, sugar and sometimes eggs. I cheated a little with my flan and just used the Goya instant mix, but I do have a yummy Cuban recipe that I want to share with you. I got this recipe from 3 Guys from Miami; their version has a secret ingredient, lemon rind!

 Photo via 3 Guys From Miami

Before you begin you should know for this dessert we use a technique called a “baño de Maria” or "bain marie" as it’s known in French cuisine.  It’s basically a water bath or a double broiler technique which allows the food to heat slower and not cook too fast and prevents air bubbles. I say this at the beginning because it could determine what type of mold you use for your flan. The technique basically involves placing your flan mold inside another larger container filled with hot water. So make sure you have a container large enough to fit your flan mold. I use a large aluminum pan (like the ones you use for turkey), fill it with water about 2 inches deep.  The 3 Guys recipe uses individual ovenproof custard cups for their flan mold, although you can use any heat resistant mold (preferably aluminum—the sturdy kind not the disposable kind). I pour my flan mixture into a round aluminum cake mold, and set it inside the larger turkey pan with the water (you can use a heat proof plate or a small cooling rack help stabilize the mold in the water). Once you get this down the rest is easy.

Photo via Foodielady

 

INGREDIENTS:

 

1 lemon rind, carefully pared
1 cup milk
1 cinnamon stick
3/4 cup sugar (for the caramel)
8 whole eggs
1 cup sugar (for the custard)
2 cups heavy cream

INSTRUCTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Carefully remove the outer rind from a lemon. Don't cut too deep or you'll cut into the pulp! You just want the outer, mostly yellow layer!

Scald the milk by bringing it quickly to a boil with the lemon rind and cinnamon stick, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and let stand for 15 minutes. Remove lemon rind and cinnamon stick after the milk cools.

Now for the caramel (which is the trickiest party I think). Heat 3/4 cup sugar in the bottom of a metallic pan at medium-low heat until it begins to melt. The sugar will turn into a thick syrup with a dark brown color. The key is to let it melt it gradually and stir it constantly to prevent burning!

Quickly remove from heat and pour into each one of your individual custard cups (or whatever mold you’re using). Tilt back and forth to cover the bottom and sides of the dish. The syrup will harden as it cools to form a thick shell. During the baking process, this shell magically transforms itself into a delicious dark caramel syrup.

 

For the custard, beat the eggs and 1 cup sugar on medium speed with an electric mixer until thoroughly mixed and frothy; stir in the warm milk and the cream. Pour into the caramel-lined mold(s) and set it into a baño de Maria (a.k.a. water bath, a.k.a. double broiler).

Bake for 1 ½ hrs or until a knife comes out of center clean. Remove the flan mold from the baño de Maria and let it cool in the dish. It can be eaten warm but I like mine cold so I let refrigerate after it cools.

 

Before serving, loosen sides with a knife and flip onto your serving dish. Dust with a little cinnamon or nutmeg (optional). 

 



Treat of the Week-Layered Strawberry Trifle

Happy New Year!

Here is my treat for the week. I had some leftover strawberries and whipped topping from a Christmas dessert I made last week and decided to hurry up and use them before they spoiled. This is a super simple dessert that my mom taught me to make years ago and it seemed like a perfectly lazy way to use these leftover ingredients.

 

Here is what you will need:
fresh strawberries (or any fruit)
1 tub of whipped topping
1 can of whipped topping
a small yellow cake, vanilla cake or sponge cake (prepared)
vanilla pudding (prepared)
chocolate pudding (prepared)

Instructions:
Prepare vanilla pudding and chocolate pudding according to package instructions. Let cool (I let mine refrigerate overnight). Prepare cake mix according to package instructions. I didn't have a box of cake mix laying around so I made a batch of vanilla cake from a simple recipe I have. Let cake cool. In a trifle bowl (or any other large glass bowl), use your hands to crumble the cake until you have a 1/2 inch thick layer of cake crumbs at the bottom. Choose either one of the puddings and pour on top of the cake. Using a spoon or spatula, spread it out evenly towards the edges being careful not to smear the sides of the bowl so that your layers look defined. Add whipped topping from the tub using the same technique. Add another layer of crumbled cake. If you have enough strawberries (I didn't so I skipped this step) add a layer of sliced strawberries now. Now add the second pudding. Finally, use the whipped topping from the can to make a pretty layer of whipped cream at the very top. Start on the outside work your way towards the middle using a circular pattern. Place sliced strawberries on top in any kind of pattern you like.

This is a very simple dessert to make and you can get very creative with it. Feeling lazy? Cut out half of the work by just buying pre-made pound cake or sponge cake and jello pudding cups. This trifle is also very diet-friendly since you can choose to make it with sugar-free jello pudding and light whipped cream. Buen Provecho!

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!

Easy Chicken Pot Pie

Just wanted to share a recipe I recently prepared inspired by Taste of Home. It’s a slightly different adaptation of chicken pot pie or chicken & biscuits. This is a simple dish that is easy to prepare in a flash, but has a real down home comfort-food feel to it. It’s one of the few dishes that adults and kids seem to equally enjoy. My daughter loves it and she can be a picky eater.  She even eats the vegetables (I think it’s because they’re nice and saucy). Speaking of the veggies, they seem to come out just right every time—soft yet still have a little crunch to them. It’s the kind of dish you could take to a grieving family or to a sick friend because it reheats really easily and seems to be a crowd pleaser. Can’t say enough good things about it so here it is:
 

Ingredients:

4 cups chopped fresh broccoli
3 cups of sliced fresh carrots
1 medium onion-chopped
2 tbsp of vegetable oil
2 lbs boneless-skinless chicken breasts
2- 15 oz jars of Alfredo sauce
1 can of Pillsbury Grands! Biscuits

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 400°F. Cut chicken to 1 inch cubes. In a large skillet heat 1tbsp oil on med/high heat. Add chicken and brown until no longer pink 6-8 minutes. In another large skillet, sauté the broccoli, carrots and onion in 1 tbsp oil until crisp tender 5-6 minutes. Combine chicken, vegetables and Alfredo sauce in a large bowl and stir until well blended. Transfer the mix into a 9 x 13 baking dish. Bake uncovered for 20-25 minutes or until bubbly.

Bake biscuits according to instructions on can and place atop casserole. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving.

 Makes 8 servings.

Notes:

Try to chop vegetables as evenly as possible to ensure even cooking.

I use the Pillsbury Grand Flaky Layers Biscuits because they’re my favorites, but really you can use any kind of biscuit dough you prefer.

 

Buen provecho!