Strawberry Cheesecake Hamantaschen

Yep, you heard me. Strawberry, cheesecake, hamantaschen. Head in to the kitchen right now and make them. You won't regret it. A buttery crisp shell with a rich filling of strawberry jam, cheesecake and a sprinkle of graham cracker (or Lotus cookie) crumbs - these are just one perfect bite. So what are you waiting for?

Trio Cookies

Yes, I have about 50 cookbooks lining my living room wall. No, I don't cook from them all. At least a dozen of them I've never made one recipe from. But I love flipping through them, taking one idea from here, another from there, taking inspiration from a chicken dish and turning it into one with turkey or tofu. But there are some cookbooks that inspire devotion - some that when I turn the page, and see a photo, and say "I must make that" - I mean it. Which is what happened when I got the Gourmet Cookie Book - and found the recipe for these adorable jam trio cookies.

 

"Jammers" - Giant Streusel Jam Cookies

Sometimes I'll see a recipe in a magazine and it will inspire me to create a certain dish. Sometimes I'll flip through a cookbook looking for inspiration. Often I come across recipes on other food blogs that I either follow or modify for my needs. But for this recipe, all I needed was one photo to convince me to make them. I spotted one image of these cookies, and I was sold.

Lime Macarons with Strawberry Curd Filling

French macarons are a terrifying dessert. You didn't think dessert could be terrifying, did you? Well they are. I just spent a week on them in pastry school, and I'm still not sure I mastered them. I mean, I'm quite sure I didn't. Have I scared you yet? OK well relax, you really can make them, if you follow the instructions to a T and don't mind the occasional imperfection. Better yet - if you eat the occasional imperfection. So you too can tackle lime macarons with strawberry curd filling! (P.S. read to the end of the post for a cute bonus!)

Peach Strawberry Pie and Missing Things

Forgive me for I have sinned. It has been 10 days since I last baked. Outside of school, that is. But moving halfway around the world, starting school and a job and everything else that comes along with that is a touch time consuming. Luckily I made bread this week in class, which was great! I'm adjusting well, but often tiny little things that I never expected missing pop up. But more on that later, because lucky for you I still have pre-move baked goods to share, like peach-strawberry pie! Yes, you heard right.

Lemon Strawberry Chiffon Layer Cake

It's over. Passover has come and gone, and I am more than happy to return to cakes, cakes and more cakes. So while I haven't managed to whip up any confections since the holiday ended...yesterday, I do have several things I've been counting down the days until I could share with you. Like this towering layer cake...a delicate chiffon cake filled with lemon curd and covered in a lemon-strawberry buttercream.

Mini Fruit Tarts

The last time I made a dessert at my brother's request, it was to replace something he'd eaten. (Guard your food!) Well this time, it was another story entirely. See, I have one major fear. Bugs. Flies, ants, spiders, cockroaches, beetles - I am terrified. It has long been established practice in my house that upon sight of an offending creature, I scream for help. In high school, I would offer my brother $1 to kill anything that I spied late at night. These days though, I'll call his name for exterminator duty and he'll ask "What will you make me?"

After a particular insect removal incident, (one lady bug and one spider) the bill was settled with these mini fruit tarts. They're filled with pastry cream and topped with slices of fresh fruit.

Quadruple Berry Pie

Quick! Make this now! Before berries disappear from the shelves, the weather turns cool, everybody starts wearing boots and you have to work out how to use your iphone/blackberry wearing gloves. Now that you've been sufficiently warned...you might have seen some triple berry pies out there. But triple is nothing to me. I see your triple berry pie, and I raise you one quadruple berry pie. Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries.

Strawberry Sorbet

I may never turn the oven on again. Ok, I might turn it on later today, but I'm really going to regret it. Because with cool desserts like this, why would you bake?

Easy Jam Tart?

I really don't like to follow instructions. I always read them, and then choose to follow or ignore them at will. When it comes to recipes, it generally concerns what ingredients/tools/pans I have on hand. Which, depending on where I'm baking, can be quite limited. That's how I've ended up using a Pam lid for a cookie cutter, dropping my cake, and having not-really-lime-tasting lime cookies.

It's also how I ended up with this slightly deformed David Lebovitz Jam Tart.
The original recipe calls for a tart pan or springform pan, neither of which I had on hand. The closest thing I had was a 9-inch foil pie pan. So of course I went on with the recipe.
I think the pan substitute doomed me in ways I hadn't forseen. The slant of the sides of the pan produced a much too thick crust - as did the too-small pan. That wouldn't be so bad with a standard pie crust, but this cornmeal version was a little heavy with the added bulk.
Then there was the topping - I love the idea of topping a tart with discs of crust, but for a recipe labeled "easy jam tart," this was a little labor intensive. I found cutting the discs quite difficult even when frozen - though again, this was likely due to my lack of even a remotely decent knife.

Anyway, while I didn't love this dessert my friends certainly seemed to, most even going for seconds, so there was obviously some redeeming factors. I'd be happy to experiment with the formula again with some tweaks and changes - plus a real pan!

Tip of the Day: A sharp, thin-bladed serrated knife like this one works best for cutting slices off a log, like in this recipe or most standard icebox-cookie recipes.

Recipe: (from David Lebovitz)

9 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup stone-ground cornmeal
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 3/4 cups apricot, raspberry or other jam

Beat together butter and sugar until well-combined. Mix in the egg, egg yolk and almond extract.
Gradually add in the flour, cornmeal, salt and baking powder, just until combined.
Divide the dough into 2/3 and 1/3. Press the 2/3 into a disc and refrigerate, and roll the remaining dough into a 2-inch log and freeze it.
After a 1/2 hour press the refrigerated dough into a 9 or 10-inch tart pan.
Spread the jam evenly on top.
Slice discs from the frozen log and lay on top of the jam. Sprinkle with sugar - coarse is best.
Bake at 375 F for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Coconut Strawberry Bars

As I've mentioned before, I love coconut. But I'm just about the only one I know. Well, not only, but most of my friends are family are not fans. So I don't make it all that often, but sometimes, I just have to break it out.
Yes.
I cut these in to little squares, but that just resulted in me eating about 15 of them.
I actually screwed this recipe up, because I was supposed to bake the base of the cookie first, before adding the topping, but I totally forgot, and then it was too late. I adjusted the time and temperature for baking, and I honestly can't see how it would have made much difference. These were delicious.

Tip of the Day: In most supermarkets, you can purchase both sweetened and unsweetened coconut. In general, stick with what a recipe says, but they can be quite easily interchanged with each other, without adjusting anything else in the recipe.

Recipe: (from Bars & Squares)
Crust:
1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup cold butter or margarine, cubed
3 tbsp cold water

Topping:
1/3 cup jam
2 eggs
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 cups sweetened flaked coconut

Combine the flour and sugar.
With a pastry blender or the tips of your fingers, cut in the butter until coarse crumbs are formed.
Add in water and mix until moistened.
Press dough in to a greased, 9 inch square pan.
Bake base, 10 to 12 minutes at 425 F.
Spread jam evenly over crust.
Beat the eggs until frothy. Add in sugar, and continue to beat until mixture is thick.
Stir in coconut.
Drop by teaspoonfuls over the jam and carefully spread to cover.
Bake 25 to 30 minutes on 350 F (notice the temperature change).

Strawberry Thumbprint Cookie Squares

Making thumbprint cookies has always been on my to do list. Along with cleaning my apartment, learning another language and finding that jacket I lost four months ago. It's no big shock that I got to the cookies first.But - aha! - I cheated. My old standby, bar cookies, came through here. Instead of forming and shaping the cookies individually I pressed the dough in to a pan, scored the squares and placed a thumbprint in each one. Brilliant, right?!

Really time saving. After they're baked, you recut the lines, and have yourself 28 cookies!
And of course, they don't need the additional drizzle of chocolate, but it really can't hurt.
I really loved the idea of these cookies, and the flavor of all the ingredients combined, but I think the cookie itself was too crumbly. In fact, I took these to the office, and was able to deduce who had eaten them by the crumb trail from the cookies to their desks.

Tip of the Day: Once your recipe is in the oven, you still want to double check to see if there are any instructions on cooling - when to remove from the pan and how long to wait.

Recipe: (adapted from Bars and Squares)
2 1/4 cups flour
1 cup icing sugar
1 cups (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
2/3 cup raspberry or strawberry jam
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted

Combine the flour, sugar, butter, vanilla and egg until well mixed.
Knead the dough until smooth.
Press the dough evenly in to a greased 9x13" pan. Score the dough in to 28 squares.
Make a well in the center of each square with your thumb or the handle of a wooden spoon.
Fill each indentation with jam.
Bake on 400 F for 15 to 20 minutes until lightly browned on the edges.
Let cool, then drizzle melted chocolate on top.

Strawberry Pie Bars

Strawberry Pie Bars - strawberries, pie, cookies - without the hassle of a pie crust.
This recipe has three parts: the crust, the filling and the streusel topping. I lined the pan with foil before pressing the crust in, for easy lifting out and clean up.
This is the kind of recipe where you could use any filling - in fact the original called for an apple pie filling, but you could use jam, berries, even chocolate if you're so inclined.
Then sprinkle the streusel evenly on top before sticking it in the oven. This smells gooood when its baking. It's difficult for me to wait for it to come out. But I managed.
Leave it to cool entirely before cutting into bars. You can make these any size you want - from strawberry pie bites or big slabs.
Dig in!
Tip of the Day: Leave butter out for an hour when recipes call for softened butter, or hasten the process in the microwave - but be careful, it's a fine line between softened and melted. For cold butter, use it straight out of the fridge.

Recipe: (adapted from the Field Guide to Cookies by Anita Chu)

Crust:
6 tbsps butter, softened
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Filling: 2 cups strawberry jam

Streusel:
1/2 cup sugar
2/3 cup plus 2 tbsp flour
1/8 tsp salt
6 tbsps cold butter

Crust: cream butter and sugar together until well mixed. Add egg and mix to combine.
Gradually mix in flour, baking powder and salt.
Press into the bottom of a greased 9x13" pan, and 1/4 inch up the side.

Spread the jam filling evenly over the crust, stopping 1/2 inch from the edge.

Streusel: Combine sugar, flour and salt in a bowl. Cut in the butter until mix is crumbly.
Sprinkle evenly over the filling.

Bake at 350F for 35 minutes until golden brown.

Strawberry surprise!

I love the idea of a filled cupcake or muffin...its a surprise inside a cake! These strawberry filled white chocolate muffins were easier than you think.

This recipe comes from The Giant Book of Chocolate, and I was drawn to it because it was a filled cupcake recipe, but it only had two step.
See, most filled cupcake recipes make you bake the cake, and then either inject the filling inside with a special tool (which I clearly don't have) or cut out a piece of the top, place the filling inside, and then replace part of the lid. This method also requires frosting them to cover up the marks.
So when I found this recipe, which baked the cupcakes with the filling already inside, I thought I'd give it a shot. I was a little bit skeptical at first, since if this really worked, why would anyone bother with those recipes? But they really did turn out well and I'd definitely experiment with this recipe in the future.
The only slight problem with the recipe was the white chocolate chips - I used a poor quality product, and it didn't integrate with the batter the way it should have. They weren't bad, just not perfect. That said, these are a great little recipe, not too difficult and they look really professional, especially when you tell people there is strawberry inside!

Tip of the Day: Use multicolored cupcake liners to add a fun little decoration to your already beautiful cupcakes.

Recipe:
White Chocolate Strawberry Muffins:
1.5 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1.5 cups white chocolate chips
1/2 cup strawberry jam

Beat the butter, milk, egg and vanilla until well mixed.
In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.
Stir the milk mixture into the dry ingredients.
Stir in the chocolate chips.
Spoon 3/4 of the batter into a 12 cup muffin pan prepared with paper liners.
Spoon 1 tsp of jam into each muffin, making a hole in the batter (not all the way down).
Top with remaining batter, covering jam completely.
Bake on 350 for 25 to 30 minutes.

Update!

Hey guys - remember those Raspberry Oatmeal Bars I made last week, and encouraged you to try different fillings? Well I did! Last night saw the birth of strawberry oatmeal bars, and they were goooooood.This picture was taken shortly before I started eating them. Very shortly.
See, I can take my own advice! Which, clearly is not always the case. Remember that whole, wash the dishes while the food is in the oven thing? Yeah.....that always happens.
So this is my call to you to experiment! Have fun! Get messy! Yeah, that became a little Ms. Frizzle at the end there. Well, I've always thought she had alot to say.
Good luck fellow bakers!

Tip of the Day: Using the back of a spoon is sometimes easier to spread preserves and fillings, and won't cut into your base like a knife.