Snow Covered Chocolate Fritters

Snow covered chocolate fritters have a sweet and crisp exterior and a rich gooey chocolate center.  These fritters make a great breakfast treat with coffee or a satisfying ending to a wonderful spring dinner.  The fritter batter is thick so it will adhere to the chocolate chunks.  Make sure you completely cover the chocolate with the fritter batter before they go into the hot oil.  The original recipe for Chocolate Fritters comes from The Gift Of Southern Cooking by Scott Peacock.  My kids renamed this recipe Snow Covered Chocolate Fritters because they added powder sugar to the fritters right before you serve them.  I hope you like the new name and the addition of powdered snow.  I also exchanged the all-purpose flour with King Arthur's White Whole Wheat Flour to add more fiber and Vitamin B1 to the dish.

Snow Covered Chocolate Fritters
Pre-Heat Oil:  340 degrees
Makes:16 fritters

1 1/4 cups King Arthur's White Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons homemade baking powder*
1 tablespoon granulated sugar or cane sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon melted butter
2/3 cup none-fat milk
Canola oil for frying
4 ounces semisweet chocolate, cut into 1/2-inch chunks and refrigerated
3/4 cup Confectionary sugar

1.  Cut the chocolate into 1/2" chunks then refrigerate them for 10 minutes
2.  In a large bowl, mix the salt, flour, sugar, egg, melted butter and milk together.

Fritter Batter

3.  In a large iron skillet, heat 1 inch of canola oil to 340 degrees.
4.  Dip the chocolate chunks into the fritter batter making sure you completely covering the chocolate with the batter.  Slide the fritter into the hot oil and cook until golden brown on one side.  Flip the fritter to the other side and continue cooking until golden brown on both sides about 1-2 minutes a side.

Frying The Chocolate Fritters In Canola Oil

5.  Remove the fritter with a slotted spoon removing any excess oil.  Place the fritters on a paper towel.
6.  Allow the fritters to rest for 2 minutes then sprinkle with powder sugar and serve.

Snow Covered Chocolate Fritters

*Homemade Baking Power:  1/4 cup cream of tarter and 2 tablespoon baking soda.  Mix together and store in a air tight jar or container.

St. Louis Pork Spare Ribs with Famous Dave's BQ Sauce

St. Louis Pork Spare Ribs are delicious and tender.  No need for the grill because these ribs are made in your oven.  I love going to Famous Dave's BQ restaurant in Colorado and having ribs.  During the winter months when you need a rib fixing and there is no time to go out for dinner this recipe hits the spot.  You can find famous Dave's BQ Sauce at  King Sooper's (Kroger's) or Costco.

St. Louis Pork Spare Ribs
Pre-Heat Oven:  350 degrees
Serves:  4

3-4 pound slab of St. Louis Pork Spare Ribs
4 tablespoons rib seasoning blend like Grill Shakers from Spice Shakers or your favorite rub
Kosher salt
Black pepper
1 cup of Famous Dave's BQ Sauce, divided

1.  Rinse the ribs off under cold water and pat dry with a paper towel.
2.  Place the Ribs on a cookie sheet lined with two pieces of foil.
3.  Sprinkle the ribs, front and back with the rib seasoning, kosher salt and fresh black pepper.
4.  Seal the ribs in the foil and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.  Remove the top foil and continue cooking the ribs for 1 more hour (total cooking time 2 hours).  The last 15 minutes brush Famous Dave's BQ sauce over the ribs and return to the oven.
5.  Allow the ribs to cool for 15 minutes.

St. Louis Pork Ribs With Famous Dave's BQ Sauce

Roast Chicken With Spring and Sweet Onions

Roast chicken with spring and sweet onions is a great way to treat you family to a nice sit down dinner.  The onions are sweet and smell like spring.  This chicken will roast up crispy and delicious.  Roasting the chicken with the spring and sweet onions makes a fragrant juice at the bottom of the pan that can be drizzled over the chicken when it is served.

Roast Chicken With Spring and Sweet Onions:
Pre-Heat Oven:  400 degrees
Serves:  6

1 3-4 pound roasting chicken
2 cups water
Kosher salt
fresh pepper
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons Herbes De Provence from Mc Cormick's (Rosemary,marjoram, thyme and savory)
1 sweet onions, cleaned and sliced
6 spring onions, cleaned and sliced

1.  Clean and slice the sweet onions.  Clean and slice the spring onions.

Cleaning The Spring Onions

2.  Rinse the chicken under cold water and remove any internal parts.
3.  Season the entire chicken with herbes de provence, kosher salt and fresh pepper.
4.  In a roasting pan fitted with a wire rack, place the chicken on the wire rack.
5.  Place the onions and water at the bottom of the roasting pan.
6.  Sprinkle the soy sauce over the chicken.

Preparing The Chicken For Roasting

7.  Bake the chicken at 400 degrees for 2 hours or until chicken temperature has reached 165  degrees and the skin is golden brown.
8.  Allow the chicken to rest for 15 minutes before you carve the meat.  Serve the onions and juice at the bottom of the pan with the chicken.

Roast Chicken With Spring And Sweet Onions

Devilishly Delicious Chocolate Cupcakes

Devilishly delicious chocolate cupcakes are a real treat for kids, grandparents, moms and dads. These chocolate cupcakes are easy to make and satisfy your chocolate craving.  This is a good recipe to get the kids involved with specially for the next school or church bake sale.  The original recipe comes verybestbaking.com and Nestle Chocolatier.   I did change the original recipe to include whole wheat pastry flour instead of all-purpose flour.

Devilishly Delicious Chocolate Cupcakes:
Pre-Heat Oven:  350 degrees
Makes:  14 cupcakes

4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, cut into small pieces such as Nestle toll house chocolatier
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour *
1/4 cup baking cocoa, such as nestle toll house baking cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup buttermilk, 1% butterfat
1/4 cup water
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1.  In a small microwaveable bowl, melt the chocolate pieces in the microwave for 45 seconds.  Take out and stir the chocolate pieces.  Return the bowl to the microwave and cook for an additional 45 seconds.  Stir the chocolate until it has totally melted.  You can microwave the chocolate in 15 second intervals until it is totally melted.
2.  In a small bowl mix the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt.  In a large bowl or mixer, cream together the oil and brown sugar for about 2 minutes.  Add the eggs one at a time mixing after each addition.  Add the vanilla and melted chocolate and mix.  Add the buttermilk and water alternating with the flour mixture.  Fill the greased muffin cups 3/4 of the way and bake at 350 degrees for 18-23 minutes.  Allow the cupcakes to cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes.
 *If you are cooking at high altitude you will want to add 1/4 cup more flour to the batter.

Frosting:
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate pieces, such as Nestle Toll House Chocolatier 62% Bittersweet
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups powder sugar

1.  In a microwaveable bowl, melt the small chocolate pieces on high for 45 seconds then stir.  Place the chocolate back into the microwave and cook for another 15 seconds or until melted.  Cool to room temperature around 10 minutes.

2.  In a mixer with the whip attachment on high, add the butter and vanilla extract until light and fluffy about 2 minutes.  Beat in the melted chocolate scrapping down the sides of the bowl.  Slowly add the powder sugar into the frosting.  If the frosting is too thick add 1 tablespoon of milk until you reach the right consistency.  Makes 1 1/2 cups.

Devilishly Delicious Chocolate Cupcakes

Risotto With Asparagus

Risotto with asparagus is a wonderful spring time dish garnished with fresh lettuce and creamy cheese.  This dish can be used as a vegetarian entree or a side dish.  My husband and I made this dish together for mother's day and it was delicious.  Be prepared to have some patience while stirring the risotto but this enables the risotto to become rich and creamy . This recipe comes from the food network magazine web sight at FoodNetwork.com.

Risotto With Asparagus:
Serves:  6

2 bunches of thin asparagus
1 sprig thyme
4 tablespoons butter
1 large shallot, diced
2 cups arborio rice
Kosher salt
1/3 cup white wine
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
fresh black pepper
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 head Bibb lettuce, cut into strips
8 oz. Robiola or Taleggio cheese, thinly sliced
extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling

1.  Cut the bottom 1/3 of the asparagus off.  In a medium saucepan place 6 asparagus bottoms and 8 cups of water, a pinch of salt and a thyme sprig.  Bring the liquid to a simmer.  The other asparagus bottoms should be sliced thinly and reserved for the risotto.

Bibb Lettuce And Tops To The Asparagus

2.  In a saucepan, heat 2 tablespoons butter until foamy. Saute the diced shallots in the butter for 2 minutes or until translucent.  Add the rice and cook for 1 minute then add the wine and 1 1/4 teaspoons salt.  Cook until all the liquid has been absorbed.  Stir in 1/2 cup of the asparagus liquid and cook and stir until it is absorbed.  Continue adding a 1/2 cup of the asparagus liquid to the pan and stirring continually until half the liquid is gone about 10 minutes.  Stir in the sliced asparagus bottoms and lemon zest.  Add the remaining broth at 1/2 cup intervals and continue stirring after each addition until all the liquid is gone about another 8 minutes.  The rice should be tender and all the liquid should be absorbed.

Stirring The Risotto

Thyme and Asparagus Broth

3.  Place the top part of the asparagus into a pot of boiling salted water.  Cook covered on high for 3-5 minutes or until the asparagus are tender.  Remove asparagus from the boiling water.  Place the asparagus in a bowl and drizzle olive oil and salt and pepper over them.

4.  Add the 2 tablespoons of butter, parmesan cheese and lemon juice to the risotto.  Season the risotto with salt and pepper.  Place the Robiola slices in a small bowl.  Serve the risotto in a large bowl and garnish it with the lettuce, cheese and asparagus.

Risotto With Asparagus

Cinnamon-Streusel Coffeecake

Cinnamon-Streusel Coffeecake has a rich cinnamon taste and a crumbly streusel topping.  If you are looking for Sunday morning comfort food you have found the right coffeecake.  I went to camp for 10 years in North Carolina.  Every Sunday morning Camp Greystone would make a coffeecake just like this one.  The smell and taste of this streusel coffee cake takes me right back to those wonderful summer memories.  The original recipe comes from King Arthur flours web sight.  To include additional whole grains to this recipe, I exchanged half the all purpose flour with King Arthur Whole Wheat White Flour and added wheat germ and flax seed.  I also exchanged most of the butter in the cake for canola oil and used none-fat yogurt for the sour cream.  These simple steps reduced the amount of saturated fat in this recipe.


Cinnamon-Streusel Coffeecake
Pre-heat oven:  350 degrees
Serves:  24 servings

Streusel Topping:
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoons salt
3/4 cup King Arthur All Purpose Flour
3/4 cup King Arthur Whole Wheat White Flour
1 tablespoon cinnamon
6 tablespoons butter, melted

Mix all the ingredients together in a medium bowl.

Streusel Topping

Filling:
1 cup brown sugar, dark
1 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder

Mix together in a small bowl.

Cinnamon Filling

Cake:
3/4 cup canola oil
2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups organic cane sugar or white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons, baking powder
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 large eggs
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/4 cup flaxseed meal
3/4 cup none-fat yogurt
1 1/4 cups none-fat milk
1 3/4 cups King Arthur All Purpose Flour
2 cups King Arthur Whole Wheat White Flour

In a large bowl or mixer, cream the canola oil, butter, white sugar, brown sugar together.  Add the eggs one at a time and mix well between each addition.  Add the baking powder, vanilla, wheat germ, flaxseed meal to the batter.  Alternate the milk, yogurt and flour into the batter.  Mix until just incorporated.  Grease a 9" X13" cake pan.  Pour 1/2 the cake batter into the pan.  Evenly sprinkle the filling on top of the batter.  Pour the other half of the cake batter on top of the filling.  Sprinkle the streusel on top of the cake evenly.  Bake at 350 degrees for 60 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.  Allow the cake to cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes before cutting.

Cinnamon-Streusel Coffeecake

If you want to make the cake up the night before you can just make the cake and refrigerate it overnight.  Bake the cake at 350 degrees for 65 minutes or until the cake comes out clean with a knife.

Brownie Tort

A brownie tort is just what the kids ordered!  This tort has 3 layers of rich chocolate covered in fluffy whip cream.  I made this cake for a thank you dinner for my daughters Girl Scout leaders and their families.  The 7 kids could not get enough of this delicious cake.  This recipe comes from The Pastry Queen book by Rebecca Rather.   I changed the original recipe since the kids voted against a coffee filling or a toffee topping.  I also reduced the amount of saturated fat in the recipe and lowered the amount of sugar in the brownie recipe.  This brownie tort feeds a large group so why not include this recipe at your next dinner or pastry party.

Brownie Tort:
Pre-Heat Oven:  350 degrees
Serves:  16

1/2 cup canola oil
1 1/2 cup butter (3 sticks)
10 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped into small pieces
2 1/2 cups sugar
8 large eggs
2 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour or all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons vanilla extract

1.  In a medium microwaveable bowl, place the chocolate pieces and butter.  Melt the chocolate and butter on medium high for 1 minute.  Stir chocolate and return to the microwave for 1 more minute.  Stir the chocolate mixture.  Continue microwaving the chocolate for 30 seconds until it is fully melted.

2.  In a mixer with the paddle attachment, mix the sugar, oil and butter/chocolate mixture.  Add the eggs one at a time and beat well with each addition.  Add the flour, salt and vanilla extract to the batter. Mix only until all the ingredients are incorporated.  Grease three 9" cake pans butter and flour or use a spray like Pam with flour.  Pour the batter evenly between the 3 cake pans.  Bake the cakes at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.  Allow the cakes to cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes.  Remove the brownies from the pans and allow them to continue cooling for an additional 30 minutes.

Cutting The Chocolate Into Small Pieces

Brownie Batter

9" Brownie Tort

Frosting:
3 cups chilled heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
25 chocolate drops (optional for decorating the top of the cake)

In a large mixing bowl with the whip attachment, whip the heavy whipping cream on high until medium soft peaks appear.  Add the powder sugar and vanilla and beat on low until incorporated.  Then continue beating on high until stiff peaks appear.  Refrigerate the whip cream frosting until ready to use.

Assembling The Brownie Tort:
On a large plate or cake platter place the first brownie cake layer.  Add a layer of whip cream frosting and then add the 2nd brownie layer.  Frost the 2nd brownie layer and add the 3rd brownie layer and frost the top and sides of cake.    Decorate the cake with chocolate drops around the top of the cake.  Make sure you refrigerate the cake until you are ready to serve it.  Cut the torte in thin slices because it is very rich.

Frosting the Brownie Tort

Brownie Tort

Corn, Tomato and Bacon Quiche

This rich corn, tomato and bacon quiche makes a delicious lunch or brunch treat.  This quiche is not complicated to make but takes some time to put together.  If you are in a time pinch you can buy a pre-made crust or make the tart dough the night before.  This will save you valuable time before a brunch when you are running behind schedule. The original recipe comes from Martha Stewart's web sight.  This recipe, I added bacon and exchanged whole milk for none-fat milk.  In the tart dough, I substituted whole wheat pastry flour for the all-purpose flour. These simple steps increase the amount of whole grains in the recipe and lowered the saturated fat.

Corn, Tomato and Bacon Quiche:
Pre-Heat Oven:  375 degrees
Makes:  One 9" quiche

Flaky Tart Dough:
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup ice water
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
10 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces

Place the flour, salt, and cold butter pieces into the food processor.  Pulse until the mixture forms large crumbs.  Add the cold water and pulse just until the dough forms.  Form the dough into a disc and wrap it in plastic wrap.  Refrigerate the dough for 2 hours or overnight.

Quiche Filling:
3 tablespoons whole wheat pastry flour
5 large eggs
4 pieces of bacon, 1/2 inch pieces cooked
1 cup sour cream
3/4 cup none fat milk
1/4 cup cream
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh thyme
1 cup fresh corn kernels
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes halved or hot house tomatoes diced
1/4 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 flaky tart dough

1.  Unwrap the tart dough and place the dough between two pieces of parchment paper.  Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough between the pieces of parchment until you have reached a 14" round.  Remove the parchment paper and place the dough into a greased 9" tart pan.  Trim any excess dough from the top of the pan.  Cover and chill the dough for 20 minutes more in the tart pan.

Rolling Out The Tart Dough Between Parchment Paper

2.  Line the tart dough with parchment paper and fill with dry beans or pastry weights.  Bake the tart dough for 25 minutes in a 375 degree oven.  Remove the parchment paper and weights and return the tart dough to the oven and cook an additional 10 minutes or until the tart is golden brown.  Allow dough to cool on a wire rack.

Tart Dough In the 9" Tart Pan

3.  Cut the bacon into small 1/2 inch pieces.  Cook the bacon pieces in a skillet on medium high until crispy.  Place the cooked bacon on a piece of paper towel to cool.  On a cutting board, slice the tomatoes in half and then cut the corn kernels off the cob.

4.  In a large bowl or mixer, whisk the salt, pepper, sour cream, eggs, thyme, non-fat milk and cream together.

Egg Filling

5.  Place the tomato, bacon, cheese and corn kernels into the tart pan.  Then pour the egg mixture on top until the tart is full. (You may have extra egg mixture).  Bake at 375 for 20 minutes.  Reduce the temperature to 325 degrees and continue to cook the tart for 40-50 minutes more.  Allow the quiche to cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes.  To reheat the quiche, bake at 325 for 15 minutes.

Tomatoes, Corn Kernels, Bacon And Cheese Filling

Corn, Tomato And Bacon Quiche