Author: Lindsey Young

You (pe)can’t miss out on German chocolate icing

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date March 1, 2018

German chocolate cake is really all about that gooey, coconut-and-pecan-filled frosting.

Up until I married Joey, German chocolate cake was a dessert I was vaguely aware of but not one I’d eaten very often.

But it’s Joey’s absolute favorite—the flavor he chose for his groom’s cake at our wedding, in fact—so it’s become something I’ve had more often over the years.

Since Joey recently celebrated a birthday, I decided to bake him one.

In doing some research, I discovered that it gets its name not from its country of origin but from the guy who created the baking chocolate first used in it: Sam German.

According to a 2007 article from NPR, the German chocolate cake was first popularized in 1957 when the recipe was sent in to a Dallas newspaper, and it’s been going strong ever since.

The website “What’s Cooking, America?” gives the original credit to Mrs. George Calay, but if you search online for a German chocolate cake recipe, you’ll find dozens of versions now.

That being said, the recipe I’m sharing with you is just for the from-scratch frosting for a German chocolate cake. I just like using my favorite chocolate cake recipe with the frosting. It would easily jazz up a boxed cake mix, too.

I found this recipe on the blog “Wives with Knives.” It also includes a from-scratch chocolate cake recipe that I didn’t try. You can find it at http://www.wiveswithknives.net/2011/08/19/made-from-scratch-german-chocolate-cake/. I doubled the vanilla in my version.

German Chocolate Icing

German chocolate cake is really all about that gooey, coconut-and-pecan-filled frosting.

Course Dessert

Cuisine German

Keyword coconut, frosting, German chocolate, icing

Ingredients

4 egg yolks
12 ounces evaporated milk
3 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup butter
7 ounces coconut
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans

Instructions

Whisk together the egg yolks, milk and vanilla in a large saucepan. Add the sugar and butter and cook over medium heat until the mixture thickens and becomes golden brown (this will take a little while), stirring regularly.
Remove the mixture from the heat and stir in the coconut and nuts. Let the mixture cool until it’s thick enough to spread on a cake or cupcakes.

One thing to note about making this frosting is that (for me, at least) it takes a decent amount of time for the mixture to thicken in the pot. It feels like you’ll be stirring forever, and then it’s just suddenly done.

We enjoyed this recipe and brought the leftovers to share with the staff during production night for the newspaper, which went over really well.

Happy birthday, Joey!

This piece first appeared in print on March 1, 2018.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Tags coconut, frosting, German chocolate, icing, pecans

Main Dish

Chicken recipe will get you a ‘lada’ accolades

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date February 22, 2018

Sour cream chicken enchiladas are an extremely quick dinner, especially if you use pre-cooked chicken to make them.

I hate cooking chicken.

I think it’s all the scare tactics people use when talking about salmonella and separate cutting boards. It’s also the slimy factor when I remove the skin or trim off extra fat.

I would use ground meat for every recipe if I could.

Despite my hatred for cooking it, I do enjoy eating chicken, so I will often work past my bias in the search for something good for dinner.

I was checking out the clearance meat at our local grocery store recently and found a great deal on chicken legs, so I bought them and ended up de-boning so, so many of them for this week’s recipe and for use in quesadillas and lunch wraps the rest of the week.

So know that when I say this recipe was worth working with chicken, that’s saying something.

I found this recipe on the site “Centsless Meals.” You can find it at https://centslessdeals.com/sour-cream-chicken-enchiladas-recipe/. I added some seasoning and didn’t include onions in my version.

Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas

Sour cream chicken enchiladas are an extremely quick dinner, especially if you use pre-cooked chicken to make them.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Mexican

Keyword chicken, enchiladas, green chiles, Monterrey jack cheese, sour cream

Ingredients

3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup sour cream
4 ounces diced green chiles
1 rotisserie chicken or 3 cups cooked chicken shredded
16 ounces Monterrey jack cheese shredded
1 teaspoon cumin
salt and pepper to taste
10 taco-sized flour tortillas

Instructions

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the flour and cook for a couple minutes until it starts to brown.
Whisk in the chicken broth until the lumps are worked out of the mixture.
Cook over medium heat until the mixture thickens, stirring regularly.
Mix in the sour cream and green chiles (I lightly drained mine). Stir until it’s smooth.
In another bowl, combine the chicken, about one cup of cheese, cumin, salt and pepper.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Pour about 1 cup of the sauce (or just enough to cover the bottom) into a 9-by-13-inch baking dish.
Put about one-third cup of the chicken mixture into each tortilla and roll them up tightly (leaving the ends open). Place each one into the bottom of the pan. They’ll be pretty tightly packed in there.
Evenly distribute the rest of the sauce over top of the tortillas and top with the rest of the cheese.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the cheese is starting to brown on top.

If you use a precooked rotisserie chicken for this recipe, it should make for a very quick dinner, but even with me boiling a mess of chicken legs on the stove, it came together pretty quickly.

Unfortunately, while Joey did get a great dinner (and subsequent leftovers) out of this meal, he did have to listen to me complain as I dealt with chicken skin and tendons in the kitchen. I was hoping maybe he’d come volunteer to help, but I suspect he may share my feelings on dealing with the slimy stuff.

This piece first appeared in print on Feb. 22, 2018.

Tags chicken, enchiladas, green chile, Monterrey jack cheese, sour cream

Side Dish

Get in the ‘spear’it with fresh asparagus

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date February 15, 2018

Balsamic potatoes and asparagus highlights fresh vegetables and simple flavors.

The other day, I was standing in the produce section of the grocery store, staring at a big bag of beautiful, fresh asparagus.

I had no idea what I wanted to make with the stuff, but I knew immediately that I wanted to make something.

So I stood to the side with my phone and scrolled through Pinterest and found one that looked delicious. I was especially excited about it, because it used balsamic vinegar. I have a huge bottle of it sitting in my pantry from a recipe I made long ago, and I haven’t had much use for it since.

The recipe I found is from the blog “Wallflower Kitchen.” You can find it at http://wallflowerkitchen.com/balsamic-roasted-new-potatoes-asparagus/. I simplified the amounts and swapped out an ingredient to make this easier and cheaper.

Balsamic Potatoes and Asparagus

Balsamic potatoes and asparagus highlights fresh vegetables and simple flavors.

Course Side Dish

Keyword asparagus, balsamic vinegar, potatoes

Ingredients

2 pounds small potatoes I used yellow
1/2 pound fresh asparagus
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 390 degrees.
Cut the potatoes into quarters and cut the asparagus into two-inch pieces.
In a 9-by-13-inch pan, combine the potatoes, olive oil, vinegar, garlic powder, salt and pepper and toss to coat the potatoes.
Roast for 20 minutes and check the potatoes by piercing them with a fork. You’ll want them fork tender before you add in the asparagus, so keep checking on them every 10 minutes until they’re pretty well cooked through and then mix in the asparagus.
Roast for another 15 minutes or until the asparagus is done to your liking.
Season with more salt and pepper if necessary.

This was a great side dish for dinner, and since I actually ended up purchasing about three pounds of potatoes and a pound of asparagus to make this, I had lots of leftovers to heat up over the next week for lunch, too.

If you do decide to up the amounts a bit, I’d recommend spreading it out on a big, rimmed baking sheet instead of in a 9-by-13-inch dish so that it cooks faster.

I was super excited with how this recipe turned out, and it was an excellent way to enjoy some fresh asparagus. It would be a great one to store away in the recipe box for when gardens are in full swing.

And I was once again reminded what a sucker I am for fresh produce when I’m out grocery shopping while hungry. I supposed that’s why it’s a good idea for me to avoid the candy aisle.

This piece first appeared in print on Feb. 15, 2018.

Tags asparagus, balsamic vinegar, potatoes

Dessert

Vintage recipe will be ‘raisin’ spirits in no time

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date February 8, 2018

War cake comes from the era of wartime rationing, when eggs, butter and milk were scarce, but it doesn’t skimp on flavor.

Recently, I scrolled through Pinterest—as I often do—looking for recipes that I could try. A picture of a well-worn, yellowed piece of paper caught my eye. It was a handwritten recipe with the words “War Cake” written in a beautiful script across the top of the page.

I was intrigued by it and clicked on the link.

There, on a quilting website, I found a post from Marge Campbell of Littlefield, Texas, who recently used this recipe from her Aunt Almo Duncan Buren.

I’ve always loved history and especially the parts of historical events that don’t end up in textbooks.

War cake is one of those things. Recipes for cake during the World War I and II varied across different communities, but they had the same thing in common: they all use limited fats, limited milk and limited eggs, due to wartime shortages.

Much like depression-era cakes or desserts that people would make when times were rough, war cakes were something people could bake to help make life happier, despite having limited resources.

I read several articles on war cake. Many of the authors mentioned that not only was war cake something to be eaten at home in the States but something that was eaten on the front as well, when families would send care packages to their soldiers overseas.

Considering how dense and moist this cake was when I made it, I could see how it would easily survive the journey to Europe.

That being said, even with no tie to history, this cake is pretty darn good.

I did find it takes a deceivingly long time to make this than other types of cake you may have made before. That is because you make a raisin mixture to start off with that will need to be cooled before you can continue with the rest of the steps. For that reason, some people may have this recipe in their cookbooks as a boiled raisin cake, too.

If you want to see Campbell’s original post and the copy of her aunt’s recipe, you can go to https://www.quiltingboard.com/recipes-f8/war-cake-wwii-recipe-t169745.html. I doubled the spices when I made it and added a lot more raisins.

War Cake

War cake comes from the era of wartime rationing, when eggs, butter and milk were scarce, but it doesn’t skimp on flavor.

Course Dessert

Keyword brown sugar, cake, cinnamon, raisins, ration recipe

Ingredients

2 cups packed brown sugar
2 cups hot water
2 tablespoons shortening or lard
1 teaspoon salt
2 heaping teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons cloves
10 ounces seedless raisins
1 teaspoon baking soda dissolved in 1 teaspoon hot water
3 cups flour

Instructions

Begin by bringing the brown sugar, water, shortening, salt, cinnamon, cloves and raisins to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, let it continue to boil for about five minutes, stirring to make sure everything is well combined.
Remove the mixture from heat and let it cool completely before continuing to the next step.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Add the dissolved baking soda and flour to the raisin mixture and stir until completely combined.
Divide the mixture evenly between two loaf pans, and bake for about 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Once the cakes are cooled enough to handle, remove them from the pans and cool completely. Cut into squares and store in an airtight container.

I gave quite a bit of this cake away, and it got rave reviews. It’s a simple flavor profile, but I think that’s what makes it so good. It’s one of those desserts that just makes you feel satisfied.

It’s a good reminder that, even in hard times, people find ways to make life happy.

As I enjoyed my first piece of war cake, I imagined all of the different families around the United States who enjoyed the same recipe or ones like it while dealing with so much stress and worry in their lives.

It just goes to show that sometimes a good recipe can make us forget about our troubles for a while.

This piece first appeared in print on Feb. 8, 2018.

Tags brown sugar, cake, cinnamon, raisins, ration recipe

Main Dish Soup

Vegetarian soup will give you inner ‘peas’

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date February 1, 2018

A pastor friend of mine noted on social media the other day that 2018 is a weird year, with Lent beginning on Valentine’s Day and Easter falling on April Fool’s Day. He was excited at the sermon possibilities that may come from it.

I started thinking about folks who will avoid taking their dates out for expensive steak or lobster dinners on Feb. 14.

If that happens to be you, or you’re looking for a good, filling meatless meal for Lent, you like to get some vegetables in your diet, or you just really like good soup, do I have a deal for you.

I was very curious about this week’s recipe when I first spotted it on Pinterest, because it features chickpeas, which I’ve only ever eaten when made into hummus.

This recipe comes from the blog “Feel Good Foodie.” You can find it at http://feelgoodfoodie.net/recipe/vegetarian-chickpea-pasta-soup/. I added a lot of spices and increased the amounts of some ingredients in my version.

Vegetarian chickpea pasta soup

Vegetarian chickpea pasta soup is a hearty soup despite being a meatless option.

Course Main Course

Keyword chickpeas, pasta, soup, vegetarian

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion diced (I used a yellow onion)
3-4 large carrots diced
4-5 stalks celery diced
4-5 cloves garlic minced
1 heaping teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon basil
salt and pepper to taste
8 cups vegetable broth
15 ounces chickpeas rinsed and drained
8 ounces small pasta I used macaroni
grated parmesan and dried parsley for garnish

Instructions

In a Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Saute the onion, carrots and celery until they’re soft (about five to 10 minutes). Add in the garlic and sauté until it’s aromatic and just beginning to brown.
Add the spices and vegetable broth, and stir to loosen any bits from the bottom of the pot.
Bring the soup to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for about 15 minutes.
Add the chickpeas and pasta and cook for another 10 minutes or until the pasta reaches your desired level of doneness. (If you need to add any liquid, pour in some hot water.)
Remove from heat and serve with parmesan and dried parsley sprinkled on top of each bowl.

We enjoyed this soup a lot, and between the chickpeas and pasta, it fills you up nicely. It also has a lot of great flavors going on.

If you’re wondering, the chickpeas had the same basic texture as beans, so if you like beans, you’ll probably like this, too. And if you’re really not sure about them, throw in a can of great northern beans instead.

And if you want to make a good, vegetarian dinner for Valentine’s Day this year, I give this one my stamp of approval. Pair it with some crusty bread and a great chocolate dessert, and you’ll sweep your sweetie right off his or her feet.

This piece first appeared in print on Feb. 1, 2018.

Tags carrots, celery, chickpeas, onion, pasta, vegetarian

Appetizer Snack

Garlic cheese bombs explode with flavor

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date January 25, 2018

An easy snack for the Super Bowl or any get together is garlic cheese bombs.

With the Super Bowl right around the corner, I decided I better try out a new snack recipe. That’s especially since I’m likely to be craving something to eat while I grumpily watch the Patriots try to win yet another trophy.

I was really hoping to see two teams who’d never won the big game make it into the Super Bowl this year, but it just wasn’t meant to be.

I don’t like it, but I guess I’m an Eagles fan for the end of this year’s NFL season. The Chiefs have to not disappoint me one of these years, right? Right?

Well, the good news is I found a super easy recipe to try out on Super Bowl Sunday, so at least the food will be worth cheering for.

I found this recipe on the blog “Crunchy Creamy Sweet.” You can see the original at http://www.crunchycreamysweet.com/2015/12/11/easy-garlic-cheese-bombs-recipe/2/. I decreased the amount of butter a decent amount in my version and adjusted the amounts of some of the other ingredients, too.

Garlic Cheese Bombs

An easy snack for the Super Bowl or any get together is garlic cheese bombs.

Course Appetizer, Snacks

Keyword canned biscuits, cheese, football snack, garlic, snack table

Ingredients

1 tube eight biscuits
8 ounce block mozzarella cheese
5 tablespoons butter melted
2 teaspoons dry ranch seasoning mix
3 teaspoons minced garlic or 2 teaspoons garlic powder

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and prep a baking sheet with parchment paper or foil for easier cleanup.
Cut each of the biscuits in half, and cut the block of cheese into 16 equal pieces.
Stir the ranch mix and garlic into the melted butter.
Flatten each biscuit half out with your palm and wrap each around a block of cheese, being careful to really seal off the seams as much as possible.
Place the dough onto the prepared baking sheet a couple inches apart.
Brush the butter mixture onto each (use a spoon to get some minced garlic on top of each, if your brush isn’t picking it up), and bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until the dough is browned on top.
Let cool for a few minutes before serving.

These were good on their own but would also be great with marinara sauce on the side. Mine did explode quite a bit in the oven, but I’m also a big fan of toasty cheese, so I was not disappointed.

I suspect they didn’t hold together either because I didn’t seal my seams as well as I should have or I left them in a bit long (I used the whole 15 minutes), so if you really don’t want them to make a mess, I’d recommend really watching them around the 12-minute mark, and you might just decrease the amount of cheese you put in each one so you can seal them even more securely.

Hopefully this year’s Super Bowl will still be an entertaining game, but even if it isn’t, we’ll have plenty of snacks to drown our sorrows before we work on getting our hopes up for next year.

This piece first appeared in print on Jan. 25, 2018.

Tags canned biscuits, cheese, football snack, garlic, snack table

Breakfast Side Dish

Here’s an easy potato recipe you’ll really dig

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date January 18, 2018

Home fries use leftover baked potatoes and are a good side dish for any meal of the day.

While spending summer days alone at home, between bouts of trying to kill each other, my sister and I would often spend time creating stupid videos that our parents tactfully refused to watch when they came home (good move), playing with the farm cats outdoors and pretending to be world famous chefs as we prepared the few lunches we knew how to make.

Generally, lunch consisted of a sandwich, a bowl of canned soup, boxed macaroni and cheese or baked potatoes from the microwave, but that didn’t stop us from boldly describing our flavor choices as we mixed orange powder into our freshly boiled noodles.

I’ve always loved a good baked potato, and especially on cold days like we’ve been having, cutting into a hot potato and watching the steam escape makes for a comforting meal.

This past week, I had several leftover baked potatoes in our fridge, and I decided to do something more interesting with them than just warming them back up in the oven.

Apparently, a lot of diners use their leftover baked potatoes to make home fries, which explains why diner home fries are so delicious.

To get those same awesome flavors at home, I tried a recipe from “The Creekside Cook.” You can find it at http://thecreeksidecook.com/twice-baked-oven-home-fries/#_a5y_p=1845571. I didn’t change much, but I did decide to take out the amounts for the spices. I’d recommend just giving a good sprinkling of each. If you’re nervous and want to measure, I’d say you should start with about 1/4 teaspoon of each and then bump it up from there if you want more flavor.

Home Fries

Home fries use leftover baked potatoes and are a good side dish for any meal of the day.

Course Side Dish

Keyword baked potatoes, fries, potatoes

Ingredients

Two to four leftover baked potatoes
1 tablespoon butter or oil
salt to taste
pepper to taste
onion powder to taste
garlic powder to taste
paprika to taste

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees with an oven-safe skillet already in the oven (I used my 12-inch cast iron pan).
Cut your baked potatoes into about one-inch cubes. Remove the skins if you like (I left them on, because I love a crispy potato skin).
Once the oven is done preheating, carefully remove your pan and melt/heat up your butter or oil and swirl it to coat the pan.
Add the potatoes, stir them around a bit to distribute the butter/oil, and get them in as much of a single layer as possible.
Pop them in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove and turn the potatoes so that they evenly brown and pop them back in the oven for another 10 minutes. (Keep an eye on them so they don’t over-brown.)
After the second time in the oven, if they still need some browning time, give them another stir and let them go another five minutes or so at a time until you’re happy with the color on them.
Once they’re browned to your liking, pull them from the oven and stir in the spices to your taste (throw in some cayenne, too, if you like things spicy). Let the potatoes hang out in the pan for just a moment to let the heat release some of the spices’ aroma and then serve.

We ate these for brunch over the weekend with over-easy eggs and hot coffee. It was a good way to warm up.

So if you decide to bake up some potatoes one of these cold evenings for dinner, I’d recommend tossing in a couple extra for home fries later in the week.

Just be sure to really sell your chef skills while you’re making them. I’d recommend a poorly done French accent. It seems to help.

This piece first appeared in print on Jan. 18, 2018.

Tags baked potatoes, fries, potatoes

Dessert

You won’t be‘weave’ this easy as pie recipe

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date January 11, 2018

Blueberry peach pie can be made with fresh or frozen fruit and looks a lot more complicated than it really is.

Years ago, when I was on summer staff at Camp Mennoscah, several staff members spent a bit of an afternoon harvesting tons of mulberries off of a couple trees.

This resulted in some time spent that afternoon in serious pie-baking mode, and it was the first time I ever saw a latticed pie top made from start to finish.

To be honest, it ruined the magic a little for me, because it wasn’t nearly as difficult as I thought it would be, but the pie was yummy enough to bring some of the enchantment right back again.

I don’t make fruit pies all that often, so I haven’t tried my hand at too many lattice tops since, but I got the chance again recently for the recipe I’m sharing with you this week for a blueberry peach pie.

Obviously, fresh peaches and blueberries are tough to come by this time of year, so although the recipe calls for fresh ones, I’ll tell you that I made my pie with frozen fruit.

If you’d like to give this a shot before fresh fruit is back in season, make sure you fully thaw your frozen fruit and then leave it in a colander for quite awhile until you’re sure it’s done giving off all of its extra moisture. (This will take awhile—maybe a couple hours. Be patient.)

I also added about a tablespoon or so of cornstarch to my fruit to really make sure that any juices were congealed and wouldn’t end up making a soggy pie, and I spooned it into my crust so that I didn’t accidentally pour in any more juice that gathered at the bottom of the bowl I had it in.

This recipe came from the blog “Sally’s Baking Addiction.” You can find the original at https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2014/06/14/blueberry-peach-pie/. I played with the spices in mine, and as I already noted, I used frozen fruits instead of fresh.

Blueberry Peach Pie

Blueberry peach pie can be made with fresh or frozen fruit and looks a lot more complicated than it really is.

Course Dessert

Keyword blueberry, peach, pie

Ingredients

2 pie crusts homemade or store-bought, chilled
3/4 cup sugar
6 tablespoons flour
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
3 cups fresh peaches sliced and peeled
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
1 tablespoon butter
1 egg beaten
sugar and cinnamon for sprinkling

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Fold the fruit in with the sugar, flour, cinnamon and all-spice.
Roll out one of the pie crusts and line an eight- or nine-inch pie pan with it.
Spoon in the fruit mixture. Cut the butter into small pieces and dot it along the top of the filling.
Roll out the second crust and either place it on the top and cut several steam vents in it after crimping it together with the bottom crust or cut the dough into long strips and weave a lattice top on the pie, crimping the edges with the bottom crust when you’re finished.
Brush the top with a thin layer of the beaten egg and sprinkle on some additional sugar and cinnamon to your taste.
Bake on a baking sheet lined with foil (you don’t want to clean this out of the bottom of the oven—or off the baking sheet, for that matter) for 20 minutes.
Reduce the temperature to 375 degrees and bake for another 30 to 35 minutes.
Let the pie cool before serving (or serve it while warm, but be ready for runny filling).

If you’re feeling a bit intimidated by making a lattice crust, don’t be, and if you need some guidance, I’d recommend searching for a tutorial video on YouTube. You’re bound to find dozens.

And for those who don’t know quite how easy a lattice top is, be ready to hear how impressed they are with your pie handiwork, and even if you don’t give it a shot, the pie is good enough to get you accolades either way.

This piece first appeared in print on Jan. 11, 2018.

Tags blueberry, cinnamon, peaches, pie

Breakfast Dessert Snack

You ‘donut’ want to miss out on this recipe

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date January 4, 2018

Baked sugar donuts are a simple recipe with uncomplicated flavors. They pair well with a good cup of coffee or tea for breakfast.

I’m forever looking online for new recipes to try, and it seems like there aren’t a lot of foods I haven’t given a go over the years of writing this column.

I keep a spreadsheet of the recipes that have appeared in this space to keep track of what I’ve done and also when they came out, since I sometimes receive e-mails asking me for recipes that appeared pretty far back.

I started my 2018 spreadsheet and decided to do some counting. This column is my 288th recipe. I don’t even want to consider how many tablespoons of butter that probably represents.

That being said, I’m constantly amazed by the types of foods I haven’t tried making yet, and this week is another one to mark in the books as a new experience: donuts.

Years ago, I wrote about making fried donuts from biscuits—a childhood favorite—but until this week, I haven’t tried baking them.

I received a donut pan for Christmas, so I decided on New Year’s Eve that it was time to try out a baked donut recipe.

I started very simply with just a sugar donut recipe, and they were a great treat to accompany our game night with friends.

The recipe I used came from the blog “Brooklyn Farm Girl.” You can read it at http://brooklynfarmgirl.com/2017/02/06/homemade-baked-sugar-donuts/. I doubled the vanilla in my version.

If you don’t own a donut pan, by the way, you can make these as muffins or create your own donut pan out of a muffin tin with aluminum foil. I found a good tutorial to do that at http://tiphero.com/diy-doughnut-pan-and-recipe/.

Baked Sugar Donuts

Baked sugar donuts are a simple recipe with uncomplicated flavors. They pair well with a good cup of coffee or tea for breakfast.

Course Breakfast, Dessert

Keyword baked, donuts, sugar

Ingredients

2 eggs
1/4 cup oil I used canola
1/2 cup buttermilk I used skim milk with a touch of vinegar
3/4 cup sugar plus more for coating the donuts
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and spray your donut pan with non-stick spray and set aside.
With a fork, beat the eggs, oil, buttermilk, sugar, salt, baking powder and vanilla together.
Mix in the flour.
Pour the batter into the donut pan, filling each well about 3/4 of the way up.
Bake for about 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the donuts comes out clean.
Remove and let cool for a few minutes before removing the donuts from the pan.
Put a scoop of sugar into a Ziploc bag or a bowl and coat your warm donuts in sugar on all sides one at a time.
Store in an airtight container.

I actually halved this recipe, since my donut pan only makes six donuts at a time, and there were only four of us playing games, and it was super easy to do.

These aren’t fancy by any means, but I really liked how simple the flavors were. You could also coat these in a cinnamon-sugar mixture if you wanted to add a little more zip to them.

It was also such a quick recipe that I already had my pan filled with batter before my oven was finished preheating.

And now I can cross baked donuts off the list of foods I haven’t tried making yet. Who knows what culinary roads 2018 will lead me down? I’m excited to see (and so are my taste buds). I’m glad you’ll be joining me for the journey.

This piece first appeared in print on Jan. 4, 2018.

Tags baked, donuts, sugar, vanilla

Dessert

You’ll pine for this no bake cheesecake

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date July 7, 2016

No bake pineapple cheesecake comes together quickly for that last-minute summer get-together.

It seems like barbecues and gatherings happen at a moment’s notice during the summer. As a lover of dessert, I often find that these gatherings are full of all kinds of delicious salads and entrees but are often lacking on the sweet side of the palate.

Obviously, I’ve taken it upon myself to fix this issue.

Unfortunately, making dessert quickly can sometimes be tough, so this week’s recipe is a great one to file away for a time when you need something sweet and don’t have a lot of time to make it.

And I even bought a pre-made graham cracker crust rather than making my own. I decided to

make this a true no-bake experience.

(Although you can easily make a graham cracker crust in the microwave with a glass pie plate if you want to. Just melt one-quarter cup of butter in a nine-inch glass pie plate in the

microwave. Stir in one-quarter cup of sugar and a cup of finely crushed graham crackers into the butter and then press the mixture into the pan. Microwave for about three minutes and cool before filling.)

This recipe for a no bake pineapple cheesecake came from the blog “The Shabby Creek Cottage.” You can find it at http://www.theshabbycreekcottage.com/pineapplecheesecake-in-a-jar.html.

No Bake Pineapple Cheesecake

No bake pineapple cheesecake comes together quickly for that last-minute summer get-together.

Course Dessert

Keyword cheesecake pudding, crushed pineapple, easy dessert, graham cracker crust, no bake, summer dessert, whipped topping

Ingredients

1 graham cracker pie crust
2 3.4- ounce boxes cheesecake instant pudding
20 ounces crushed pineapple in pineapple juice
8 ounces whipped topping

Instructions

In a bowl, combine the instant pudding and pineapple (juice included). Mix well.
Fold in the whipped topping and then pour the mixture into the pie crust.
Smooth until it looks nice and refrigerate at least two hours or until completely set up.

If you want the pieces to come out of the pie perfectly, I’d suggest freezing the pie rather than just refrigerating it. We ended up with big, delicious globs of cheesecake on our plates rather than perfectly formed pie slices (but no one complained about that one).

This was a very refreshing dessert, and if you like pineapple, you’ll like this. I also wondered if placing just a few maraschino cherries on top wouldn’t be good, too, with its nod to pineapple upside down cake, but it doesn’t really need anything more to be absolutely perfect.

Also, if you can’t do the graham crackers, just make the filling and refrigerate it. It’s good all on its own, or you could put the filling out as a dip with graham crackers on the side if you wanted a smaller dessert option.

No matter what, you can’t go wrong with a yummy homemade dessert that you can make with almost no effort so you can go out and enjoy time with family and friends.

This piece first appeared in print on July 7, 2016.

Tags cheesecake pudding, crushed pineapple, easy dessert, graham cracker crust, instant pudding, no bake, quick dessert, summer dessert, whipped topping