Moraga Pear Pie

When Eric and I were visiting my family the weekend after Thanksgiving, my dad realized that he had forgotten to make one of the desserts he’d been most looking forward to (I know where my absent mindedness comes from…hi Dad!). We ended up whipping this together in no time flat and it came out of the oven just as we were getting ready to leave. It was torture having this in the car with us on the way home and not being able to eat it! Pears aren’t in season right now but this came out delicious anyways. I wouldn’t recommend making it with canned pears as they are too mushy.

According to the original cookbook, this recipe was created by an 82-year old woman who won Moraga, California’s pear recipe contest. The town of Moraga was developed on Bartlett orchards, and they celebrate their heritage by hosting an annual pear festival.

Moraga Pear Pie from The Great Book of Pears by Barbara Jeanne Flores

What You’ll Need:

• 1 unbaked, premade pie shell (or 2 shells for a covered pie)
• 5 to 6 Bartlett pears, peeled, cored and sliced
• 1 cup sugar
• ¼ cup butter, melted and cooled
• 4 tbsp flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

What To Do:

Preheat your oven to 375°F.

After preparing the pears (pre-pear-ing?), lay them in a regular pattern in the pie shell. I started out by fanning them in a tight spiral, but eventually you will have to just fit them in wherever you can. Also, be aware that the pears will decrease in size while baking, so you want the pie to be liberally mounded over the edge of the pie shell.

[I would insert a picture of this step here, except I forgot to take one. Use your imagination.]

In a mixing bowl, beat together the sugar, flour, eggs, and vanilla. Pour this mixture over the pears. I recommend doing this with the pie on a foil-lined baking sheet as it will likely splatter all over the place.

Bake the pie for 15 minutes. After that, reduce the oven temp to 350°F and continue baking for 30 minutes. After the 30 minutes, cover the pie loosely with foil to prevent overbrowning. Bake for an additional 30 minutes (i.e. your total bake time is 75 minutes.)

I guarantee that this is unlike any pie you’ve ever had. The consistency is completely different due to the liquid mixture that is poured over the fruits – it is almost like a pear custard. Normally I am not a huge fan of pears (gotta be honest – the gritty texture kinda freaks me out) but I will gladly eat them this way any time! You can easily switch the pears for any other fruit you’d prefer, including apples, peaches, or plums (I plan on trying this in the spring.)  Have fun experimenting, and enjoy!

Pumpkin Crunch Bars

You totally doubted me, didn’t you? You all thought I’d renege on my promise to post again so quickly!

As an inspiration for my recent pumpkin fixation, I have to show you this video. Although it’s intended for Halloween, it’s still fitting for Thanksgiving, and holy hell it is HILARIOUS. We get to slicey dice, to makea da poompkin gooch!

Bork bork bork! Can you tell how excited I am to go see the Muppets movie? SO. FREAKING. EXCITED.

This is going to be a quick post because I’ve got lots to do to get ready for the holiday, as I’m sure everyone reading this does. This is a super quick, super easy, and super delicious last-minute addition to any meal, Thanksgiving or not.

Pumpkin Pie Crunch Bars (adapted from Duncan Hines)

What You’ll Need

• 1 pkg yellow cake mix
• 1 16 oz can solid pack pumpkin
• 1 12 oz can fat free evaporated milk
• 2 large eggs
• 1 ½ cups Splenda (or sugar)
• ½ cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, melted
• 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
• 4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• ½ tsp salt

Preheat your oven to 350°F, and grease a 9x12 pan with cooking spray. In a large mixing bowl, combine the pumpkin, milk, eggs, Splenda, pumpkin pie spice, and salt.

Blend well with a fork or whisk until the mixture is smooth, then transfer into the baking pan.

Cover the surface of the pumpkin mixture with the yellow cake mix so that no pumpkin is visible and the cake mix is in an even layer. Next, scatter the chopped nuts over the cake mix.

Drizzle the melted butter over the surface of the cake mix.

Bake for 50-55 minutes, or until the surface is golden brown and the cake mix has slightly puffed.

Let this cool until it is just warm, and serve plain or with whipped cream.

This is, essentially, a delicious, non-fruity version of a dump cake. This is almost an upside-down pumpkin pie, and I love the way the nuts add a nice bit of crunch to the overall soft texture. As much as I love pumpkin pie, I love that this takes only 10 minutes to put together but ends up tasting just as great!

And with that, I’m signing off until after the holiday. On Thursday, while in the midst of your food comas, please remember that Thanksgiving is truly about how lucky we all are to have friends, family and loved ones by our side, and a bounty of food to share and enjoy. Now go eat your hearts out!

What’s Black and White and Yummy All Over?

This is one of those recipes that I originally made a reallly long time ago, but was definitely worth the wait before it made its starring appearance here on the blog. I brought these to a birthday party at work and they were a big hit.

Black Bottom Cupcakes (adapted from here)

What You’ll Need

White Filling

• 1 (8 oz.) package fat free cream cheese
• 1 egg (or ¼ cup egg substitute)
• ⅓ cup sugar
• ⅛ tsp salt
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Black Filling

• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• ¼ cup cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 cup water
• ⅓ cup vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp distilled white vinegar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

What To Do

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease a muffin tin with Pam or butter, or, alternately, line with paper cups.

In a large mixing bowl, beat together the ingredients for the white filling (cream cheese, egg, sugar, and salt.) Fold in the chocolate chips afterwards.

In a separate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients for the black filling (flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.)

Gradually add the wet ingredients (water, vinegar, oil, vanilla) to the dry mix. Mix well; the batter will be thin.

Fill the muffin cups ⅓ full with the chocolate batter. Top with one large spoonful of the white filling.

Bake for 30-35 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

You’ll know these are done when the white portion of the cupcakes starts to turn a slight golden brown.

Although it may be sacrilege to say this, I’m not a huge cheesecake fan. I find its richness to be overwhelming, and I can usually only get through a bite or two of the pure, unadulterated versions. I do, however, love the flavor when there’s something else to cut through the creaminess of cheesecake, and these were a perfect example. The strong but not overpowering chocolate portion is a great counterpart to the cheesecake portion, and the chocolate chips provide enough texture to keep these from getting too mushy of a texture.

On top of the great taste, they look pretty darned impressive when you’re eating them. Everyone you share them with will be sure to think you spent much longer slaving away in the kitchen than you actually did – don’t spill the beans that these are a cinch to cook!

Go Bananas!

I’ve always loved bananas, even though for years all those crazy nutrition people gave them a bad rap for being starchy.  News flash: ALL FRUITS CONTAIN CARBS. Obviously, if you eat 7 bananas a day, you might get a wee bit pudgy.  But let’s be honest – eating bananas is way better than eating, say, a bacon egg and cheese sandwich. I prefer my bananas on the less ripe side, with the peels still a light yellow and no black spots.  Sometimes I get a little overenthusiastic in my banana buying and I can’t eat them quickly enough, so the dreaded black spots appear.  I now have the perfect solution – a quick, easy, and delicious banana bread that specifically calls for the mushy, overripe bananas you never want to eat plain.  This recipe was given to Eric by a customer who used to own a bakery.  When she sold it, she also sold the rights to all of her recipes except for this one. After she heard about this blog, she graciously offered to share this recipe, and I’m very glad she did – let’s all give a big shout-out of thanks to Mary!

Banana Bread

What You’ll Need

• 3 overripe bananas, well mashed (*If using frozen bananas, use 4 [see note])
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 cups flour
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda

*Note: If you often have extra ripe/overripe bananas laying around, stick them in the freezer until you’re ready to use them. The skins will get very dark brown, but they’re perfect for smoothies or banana bread.  When you take them out of the freezer, let them thaw on the counter for an hour. After you peel them, the banana will slide out of the skin and straight into the bowl!

These offenders were purposely left to reach a mushy state for about 4 or 5 days past their prime. It got to a point where I was a)terrified of getting fruit flies (when you’ve worked in academic science labs your whole life and have experienced Drosophila fruit fly clouds migrating through the vents into your lab from another lab, you’ll understand my hatred. THEY NEVER DIE.) and b) impatient to eat some damn banana bread.

I popped them out of the peels, removed all the stringy bits, and mashed them into a thick but uniform pulp with a fork.

Preheat your oven to 350°F.  While it’s getting toasty, beat the eggs in a small bowl, then add them to the bananas and mix well. Add all of the dry ingredients and mix until you have a smooth batter.  Even though I have a Kitchenaid mixer, I for some reason have made this by hand both times I’ve made it.  It’s a good workout for your upper arms, and the final product doesn’t seem to be affected by my wimpy biceps.

Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan and bake for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  For some reason, even though we have established that my oven resides on the island of Sucktastica, the edges of my bread were almost overdone after 1 hour.  I tried 57 minutes the second time I made this and it was perfect.

This bread is absolutely delicious – it’s moist, chewy, and has that fabulous banana flavor that simply cannot be replicated by the fake flavoring crap used in most “banana” foods.  The original recipe suggests adding ½ cup of dark chocolate chips or chopped nuts, both of which would be great additions.  I actually like the plain version of this so much I’m hesitant to mess with it. Plus, I’ve been taking a piece to eat in the car on the way to work as my breakfast in the morning, so it feels a lot less decadent when it doesn’t contain chocolate.  I’m going to try it with the chocolate chips as a healthy alternative to dessert.  What can I say…I’m bananas for this bread!

Winter Wonderland

I made this as a special dessert on Christmas Day since the picture I saw online was so pretty and festive.  Even though this has a decidedly wintry theme, you could easily adapt it for any season by making different shapes for the topping.

Snowflake Cake
What You’ll Need

• 1 package Devil’s Food chocolate cake mix
  
• 1 package fat-free/sugar-free vanilla pudding
  
• 6 squares (1 bar) Baker’s white chocolate
  
• 1 small tub fat free Cool Whip
  
• ¼ cup powdered sugar
  
• 1 cup cold milk
  
• 1 small can raspberry pie filling, warmed and strained
  
• Wax paper

Start out by baking the cake in two 9-inch round pans according to package’s instructions.  I’m not going to go through that or show pictures because really, we all know how to make a boxed cake.
While the cakes are cooling, cut two pieces of wax paper large enough to cover cookie sheets. Also get some scrap paper, and using a Sharpie draw snowflake and/or star shapes ranging from between 1-3 inches.



Slip these sheets underneath the wax paper so you can trace over them.



In a small mixing bowl, break the white chocolate squares into small pieces.




Melt the chocolate in the microwave or in a double boiler according to the instructions on the package.  I went with the microwave route and nuked the chocolate on medium heat for short bursts, with lots of mixing to make sure it blended evenly. After there are no chunks remaining and the chocolate is smooth, let it cool for 5 minutes.  Do NOT skip this step!



After the chocolate has cooled, use a spatula and scrape it into a Ziploc bag (sandwich size works best).  If you’re uber fancy, you could use a pastry bag, but who really has those laying around?  Snip the very edge of one of the bottom corners off of the bag to create a small opening. Using both hands, gently squeeze the chocolate onto the wax paper, tracing over the shapes on the paper.  After you’ve finished, freeze (or refrigerate if you don’t have room) the snowflakes for 10-15 minutes, or until they have hardened.



Be generous with your shapes – the thicker the lines, the easier they will be to remove and the more sturdy they will be on the cake! This definitely takes practice, as you can see by some of my skinny and sloppy snowflakes.  I filled two large cookie sheets with large and small snowflakes, which left me with plenty of extras once I started to decorate the cake.  My suggestion is to err on the smaller side as they are easier to pull off the paper and less likely to snap in half.  On the other hand, when that happens, you get to eat your mistakes!

To make the frosting for the cake, mix the pudding, confectioner’s sugar, and milk with a whisk for 2 minutes, or until the pudding is completely dissolved and the mixture is smooth.



Using a spatula, gently fold in the entire container of Cool Whip.



Mix the frosting until there are no white streaks remaining, but not to the point of breaking down the consistency.  The texture should be light, fluffy, and creamy.



Transfer the contents of the raspberry pie filling can to a small bowl.  Microwave for 30 seconds to 1 minute, until warm but not hot.  Using a spatula, scrape the pie filling into a small sieve or strainer.  Use the spatula to push the pie filling through, scrape the seedless extract from the bottom, and place it into a new bowl.



Place one of the cake rounds on a cake plate. Using a bread knife, I cut the top off of mine to get an even surface.



Spread the raspberry filling onto the cake, leaving about ¼ of an inch of the edges free.



Spread about ⅓ of the frosting on top of the raspberry jam, being careful not to mix the two.



Frost the cake with the rest of the frosting.  Carefully peel the snowflakes off of the wax paper and press them lightly into the surface of the frosting.  They will stick, even if it doesn’t seem like it.  Alternate the large and small snowflakes to completely fill the surface of the cake.




This cake was as pretty to look at as it was tasty to eat.  Even though it uses a box cake mix, the use of the fruit filling as well as the light frosting make it taste much more decadent.  The best part is that, besides the eggs/oil used in the cake, there’s no extra fat in the frosting! I will definitely be using this as an alternate to the regular buttercream frosting I whip up for all of my other cakes.  This cake is also very adaptable – the original recipe called for a yellow cake mix, but I felt more like chocolate.  You could easily use any other flavor of cake, or fruit filling, or even frosting. Feel free to tweak this according to your liking, and don’t feel guilty for eating something that looks so pretty!

Chocolate Toffee Crunch Trifle

For the past five and a half years, I’ve been lucky enough to work in a lab that feels more like a collection of friends and family than random coworkers.  We have a nice tradition of going out to lunch for someone’s birthday, followed by a cake/pie/dessert of the birthday person’s choice.  About a year ago, I made this trifle for my university’s church fellowship summer picnic, and it was a huge hit.  Before I brought it to that event, it sat in my workplace’s refrigerator for the day, where it served as an endless source of temptation to my labmate, Jason.  He practically begged me to let him have some, which, of course, I did not. Recently, Jason was preparing to defend his Ph.D. thesis, and I told him that for his celebration afterwards, he could pick any kind of cake or dessert he wanted and I would make it for him.  Not surprisingly, this was his top choice!

What You’ll Need

• 1 box of chocolate chunk brownie mix
• 1 3.9 oz. box of sugar-free, fat-free instant chocolate pudding
• 1 14 oz. can fat-free sweetened condensed milk
• 1 12 oz. container fat-free whipped topping (Cool Whip)
• 2 2.8 oz. Heath brand toffee bars
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 3 tbsp. granulated sugar
• ½ cup water

What To Do:

Prepare the brownies according to the box’s instructions, then let them completely cool.  I recommend letting them cool for at least 2 hours, since the firmer the brownies are, the better. Once they are cooled, cut the brownies into 1” squares.

In a large bowl, mix together the condensed milk, water, and pudding mix until it is fully blended (it will be fairly runny).

In a separate bowl, combine the whipping cream and the sugar.  Beat vigorously with a whisk for 2-3 minutes until the cream has reached a stiff consistency to the point that it forms peaks and does not fall off of the whisk when lifted.

Gently fold the whipped cream into the pudding mixture using a spatula.  You have to be careful not to overwork this mixture, as the whipped cream can lose its thickness, and you want this to stay light and fluffy. 

Continue folding until it is evenly mixed throughout and there are no remaining visible streaks of color.

Finally, break the Heath bar into a rough crumble (small chunks). Those of you in well-equipped kitchens can do this in about 3.2 seconds using your handy dandy food processors.  I, however, lack such a fun kitchen utensil (but it’s on my Christmas list, hint hint). Since I couldn’t use a magical machine to do it for me, I went the old-fashioned route and pounded the holy hell out of the candy bars with a can of beans while they were inside a Ziploc bag, reducing them to a fairly even consistency.  This extremely loud pounding may or may not have a) freaked the hell out of my cats, b) caused me to worry that I might dent my new counters, and c) ripped open the Ziploc bag, leaking toffee crumbs all over the counter whenever I moved the bag.  That’s just how I roll.

Now that all the fun stuff is done, it’s time to assemble the trifle!  It should go without saying that it helps if you have an honest-to-goodness trifle bowl, since they are deep enough for all of the layers in this dish.  If not, any deep bowl will work (glass is preferable since it’s so pretty when it’s done!).

Start out by covering the bottom of the bowl as completely as possible with your brownie squares.

Next, sprinkle a generous handful of the toffee bits over the brownies.

Then, spoon the chocolate whipped cream on top. Make sure you add enough to fully cover the brownies with room to spare (you will have plenty left over for the other layers!). Cover this layer with the fat-free Cool Whip, taking care not to mix the two cream layers.

Repeat this once more with the remainder of the ingredients.  The Cool Whip should nearly reach the lip of the trifle bowl once you’re done. 

I had some teeny-tiny toffee crumbs left over in my mangled Ziploc bag, which I then sprinkled on top for garnish.

This makes at least 8 healthy servings, and my coworkers managed to polish nearly the entire thing off minus the one scoop I managed to sneak away for my hubby.  My boss, who tends to have a bit of a sweet tooth, declared this “one of the best desserts he’s ever had”.  While I don’t like to use such lofty praise for my own dishes, this is pretty frickin’ awesome.  It’s seriously loaded with chocolate, which is not what I usually prefer, so I can only manage a small serving, but it’s delicious enough that even I am tempted to go back for seconds.  The use of the whipping cream helps balance out the chocolate pudding, and believe it or not, this isn’t overly sweet. You can leave the toffee bar out if you don’t like the texture, but I think the crunch brings this to a whole new level (I’ve tried it both ways).  All in all, this is a relatively easy dessert that will impress your guests and is sure to disappear quickly!