Tag: bake sale

Categories
Dessert

You’ll have strong ‘peelings’ for lemon blueberry bars

Lemon blueberry crumb bars are made with fresh fruit and use a cake mix as a base, making them flavorful and sweet while coming together quickly and easily.
Lemon blueberry crumb bars are made with fresh fruit and use a cake mix as a base, making them flavorful and sweet while coming together quickly and easily.

Upon being invited to a barbecue recently, I announced that it would be a good time to try out a recipe for some cheesecake-y blueberry lemon bars.

“No. No lemon,” one of our friends declared. “Lemon is gross.”

(I think he was at least halfway joking.)

The rest of the group immediately objected.

“Yes! Make lemon bars. Don’t listen to him!”

So lemon bars, it was, and while our one friend didn’t dig into the Tupperware, the entire batch disappeared quickly, and I had absolutely zero leftovers.

And that’s with a recipe that features a cake mix as a base, which made it super easy to put together.

This comes from the blog “Lemon Blossoms,” by Kathy McDaniel. You can find the original post at https://www.lemonblossoms.com/blog/lemon-blueberry-crumb-bars/. I added vanilla in my version.

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Lemon Blueberry Crumb Bars

Lemon blueberry crumb bars are made with fresh fruit and use a cake mix as a base, making them flavorful and sweet while coming together quickly and easily.
Course Dessert
Keyword bake sale, cake mix, cream cheese, easy bars, fresh blueberries, fresh lemon, lemon glaze, lemon juice, lemon zest, powdered sugar, vanilla, yellow cake mix

Ingredients

Bars Ingredients

  • 8 tablespoons butter melted
  • 1 yellow cake mix
  • 2 eggs divided
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice divided
  • 2 teaspoons lemon zest
  • 16 ounces cream cheese softened
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 2 pints fresh blueberries

Glaze Ingredients

  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare a nine-by-13-inch baking dish by lining it with parchment paper, leaving some hanging over the edges so it’s easier to remove the bars from the pan later. Set it aside.
  • In a large mixing bowl, combine the butter, cake mix, one egg and two tablespoons lemon juice. Beat the ingredients together until they’re smooth
  • Dump about two-thirds of the mixture into the prepared baking dish and press it down evenly on the bottom of the pan with your hands.
  • In another mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese and sugar until it is well combine. Beat in one egg, lemon zest, vanilla and two tablespoons lemon juice until the mixture is smooth.
  • Spread the cream cheese mixture evenly over the batter layer in the baking dish. Evenly distribute the blueberries on the top of the cream cheese.
  • Crumbling it with your fingers, evenly sprinkle the rest of the batter over the top of the blueberries. You will have gaps, and that’s OK.
  • Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until the center is set.
  • While the bars bake, whisk the ingredients for the glaze together. It should be just thin enough to be pourable. If your mixture is too thin, add more powdered sugar. If it’s too thick, add more lemon juice.
  • When the bars are finished, drizzle the glaze over the hot bars, and then let the bars cool completely before placing them in the refrigerator for about one-half hour.
  • Carefully lift the bars out of the dish with the parchment paper and slice.
  • Serve. Store any leftovers in an airtight container.

These were lightly sweet with a nice combination of fruit flavors and just a bit of tartness from the lemon juice and zest. They were a huge hit at the barbecue.

And, being the peacemaker I am, I may have made a second, lemon-free dessert to go on the table, too. You have to give the people what they want, I suppose—even if they’re wrong about lemons.

This piece first appeared in print on Aug. 17, 2023.

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.

Categories
Cookies Dessert

Preserve your time with a quick strawberry bar

Strawberry oatmeal bars are a snap to put together and bake in 30 minutes or less. They feature a light sweetness from coconut, nuttiness from quick oats, and of course, delicious strawberry flavor from preserves.
Strawberry oatmeal bars are a snap to put together and bake in 30 minutes or less. They feature a light sweetness from coconut, nuttiness from quick oats, and of course, delicious strawberry flavor from preserves.

I am often lost when it comes to buying preserves, jams, jellies, etc.

I know there are differences, but for some reason, my brain can’t seem to keep it all straight. If you ever see me at a store, staring at my phone in front of a shelf of spreads, you’ll know exactly what I’m Googling at that moment.

A farm out of Pennsylvania, Masonic Village Farm, has a blog post on its website, explaining all the ins and outs of the fruity offerings.

Jelly is made with juice. Jam has fruit mashed up in it. Preserves uses big pieces or whole fruit. Spreads are fruit without any added sugar, and butters have pureed fruit.

It’s amazing to me that there’s a term for every subtle difference.

I found myself researching this mystery yet again this past week, as I needed to buy some strawberry preserves for some delicious bars, which did not disappoint at all.

This recipe comes from “Taste of Home” magazine. You can find the original post at https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/strawberry-oatmeal-bars. I added just a touch extra of vanilla in my version.

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Strawberry Oatmeal Bars

Strawberry oatmeal bars are a snap to put together and bake in 30 minutes or less. They feature a light sweetness from coconut, nuttiness from quick oats, and of course, delicious strawberry flavor from preserves.
Course Dessert
Keyword bar cookies, coconut, easy dessert, quick bar cookie, quick dessert, quick oats, strawberry, strawberry preserves, vanilla

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup butter melted
  • 3 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1 1/4 cups flour
  • 1 1/4 cups quick oats
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup strawberry preserves or flavor of your choice
  • 1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  • In a microwave-safe mixing bowl, melt the butter. Dump in the vanilla, flour, oats, sugar, baking powder and salt and mix well until everything is completely combined.
  • Add all but one cup of the mixture to a nine-by-13-inch baking pan (you don’t need to grease it). Press it down evenly over the bottom of the pan.
  • Spoon the preserves over the top, spreading it out evenly.
  • Stir the shredded coconut into the remaining cup of crumbs, and loosely sprinkle the crumb/coconut mixture evenly over top of the preserves layer.
  • Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until the top is nicely browned. Let the bars cool completely before cutting, and store them in an airtight container.

These were a big hit at the barbecue I took them to, and they were so, so easy to make, too. This would be a great recipe to make for a young or beginning baker. The tinge of coconut was the perfect amount, and the preserves did all the work outside of that.

The nice thing is, you can easily use the preserves of your choice if strawberry isn’t really your thing or if you want to have several options for a bake sale or snack table.

And honestly, if you wanted to use a jam instead, you’d probably be just fine. Although, as we have established, I am definitely no expert.

This piece first appeared in print on July 13, 2023.

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.

Categories
Cookies Dessert

Turn cookies on their heads with these pineapple treats

Pineapple upside-down cookies taste just like mini cakes. They are perfect to eat without a fork and would look beautiful on a snack table or for a bake sale.
Pineapple upside-down cookies taste just like mini cakes. They are perfect to eat without a fork and would look beautiful on a snack table or for a bake sale.

If anyone tries to tell you that I don’t suffer for my art, please correct them.

After all, I spent a lovely afternoon recently, shoulders deep in my oven with some Easy Off and a scrubber, all thanks to this week’s recipe.

Did my oven probably need a good scrub down anyway? Yeah. Probably.

But it was especially dire when I tried to modify a recipe that called for using a six-well mini cake pan to my normal-sized cupcake tin but didn’t actually change how much batter I put in each well.

Let’s just say that my cups runneth over.

But the cookies were fabulous. They were actually more like mini cakes than cookies in a lot of ways, but I was definitely not complaining.

The recipe I tried comes from the blog “Cookie Dough and Oven Mitt” by Miranda Couse. You can find the original post at https://www.cookiedoughandovenmitt.com/pineapple-upside-down-sugar-cookies. I added extra vanilla in my version and updated the recipe to include using a cupcake tin, for those of us who don’t have fancy mini cake tins.

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Pineapple Upside-down Cookies

Pineapple upside-down cookies taste just like mini cakes. They are perfect to eat without a fork and would look beautiful on a snack table or for a bake sale.
Course Dessert
Keyword bake sale, brown sugar, cake cookies, maraschino cherries, pineapple slices, pineapple upside-down cake

Ingredients

  • 1 cup butter room temperature
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon cornstarch
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2, 20- ounce cans sliced pineapples in pineapple juice
  • 6 ounces maraschino cherries
  • 1/2 cup butter melted
  • 1 cup packed brown sugar

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Have a couple six-well mini round cake pans or a couple 12-well cupcake tins at the ready. (There’s no need to grease them.)
  • In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar until it is light and fluffy.
  • Beat in the eggs, vanilla and sour cream, and then beat in the flour, baking powder, cornstarch and salt. Set the mixture aside.
  • In another bowl, combine the melted butter with the brown sugar, and stir until it is well combined.
  • If you are using a cake pan, add one tablespoon of the brown sugar mixture to each well. You will likely end up making about 12 to 13 cookies. If you are using a cupcake tin, add about three-fourths of a tablespoon of the brown sugar mixture to the wells until you run out. You may end up making somewhere between 15 and 20 cookies. Spread the brown sugar mixture around to cover the bottom of each well.
  • Add a pineapple slice to each well. (If you are using a cupcake tin, you’ll want to take a small chunk out of each slice so that it fits flat in the bottom of the well. You can either eat the extra chunks and tell no one or use them to create a ring in one of the wells, too.)
  • Place a cherry at the center of each pineapple slice.
  • For the cake pan, use a one-inch cookie scoop to add about three tablespoons of the cookie dough to each well. For the cupcake tin, add around two tablespoons. You only want the mixture to come up about three-fourths of the way in the well.
  • Bake for 25 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are golden brown.
  • Let the cookies cool for 10 minutes, and then invert the pan onto waxed paper (be ready for a little bit of a mess, and you may have to rescue some stuck-on pineapples from the pan and place them back on top of the cookies).
  • Let the cookies cool completely before serving. Store any leftovers in an airtight container.

These really did just taste like mini pineapple upside-down cakes, but they were easy to eat with just your hands, which was awesome.

If you’re nervous at all about your own cookies overflowing a bit, I’d recommend putting the cupcake tin on a rimmed baking sheet, just in case.

Or, you can always take it as a challenge from the universe that your oven needs a good, springtime scrub down. I’m not sure the universe actually cares about such things, but now that the grime is finally out of my stove and out from under my fingernails, that’s what I keep telling myself.

This piece first appeared in print on April 27, 2023.

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.

Categories
Breakfast Dessert

New baking technique delivers ‘dome sweet dome’ for muffins

Sour cream double chocolate muffins are moist with the perfect amount of chocolate flavor to pair with a cup of coffee for breakfast.
Sour cream double chocolate muffins are moist with the perfect amount of chocolate flavor to pair with a cup of coffee for breakfast.

I learned something new this week that totally blew my mind: how to create muffins with perfectly domed tops.

It’s been a mystery for me for a long time how bakeries and other super bakers manage to get their muffins to rise so tall, puffing perfectly over the edges of their cupcake liners.

This week’s recipe finally gave me the secret. I was reading the post on the recipe for sour cream double chocolate muffins I wanted to try this week, and the author started talking about how the secret is starting your muffins at a higher temperature and then lowering it during the baking process.

I decided to trust her wisdom and give it a try, and it was awesome. I managed to create huge, beautiful muffins. Oh, and they tasted really good, too. If you’re like me and want to finally conquer domed muffins, this is the recipe for you.

This recipe comes from the blog “JaJa Bakes.” You can find the original post at https://jajabakes.com/sour-cream-double-chocolate-muffins/. I doubled the vanilla in my version below.

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Sour Cream Double Chocolate Muffins

Sour cream double chocolate muffins are moist with the perfect amount of chocolate flavor to pair with a cup of coffee for breakfast.
Course Breakfast, Dessert
Keyword chocolate chips, cocoa powder, muffins, sour cream, vanilla

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 2/3 cup sour cream
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/2 cup cocoa powder
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups chocolate chips divided (I used semi-sweet)

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Prepare a 12-well muffin tin by placing cupcake liners in it.
  • In a large mixing bowl, beat the oil, sugar, eggs, milk, vanilla and sour cream until well combined.
  • Add in the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt and beat until the mixture is smooth.
  • Fold in about two-thirds of the chocolate chips and spoon the batter into the prepared cupcake liners, filling each all the way to the top of the well.
  • Sprinkle the leftover chocolate chips on the tops of the muffins, and bake for five minutes. Then, without opening the oven door, lower the temperature to 350 degrees and bake about 15 more minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centers of the muffins comes out clean.
  • Let the muffins sit in the tin on the counter for about five minutes before removing them and placing them on a baking rack. Once the muffins are cool, serve them or store in an airtight container.

These were moist and chocolatey and perfect with a hot cup of coffee for breakfast. These would be a showstopper for a bake sale, too, and they were super easy to make.

We ended up sharing them with friends for dessert during Sunday afternoon football, and they went over really well.

Nobody else commented on how beautiful my muffins were, but I was still really excited to finally cross making gorgeous little cakes off my baking bucket list.

Hopefully I can use that same technique the next time I pull out my muffin tins, but in the meantime, I’ll just revel in my own awesomeness.

This piece first appeared in print on Oct. 27, 2022.

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.

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