Tag: brown sugar

‘Lei’ the foundation for a delicious grilled chicken

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date April 18, 2024

Spatchcock Polynesian chicken can be made on the grill, in the smoker or in the oven and features a slightly sweet sauce that turns into a fabulous glaze.

As soon as the weather starts to warm up, it’s time for Joey and me to start going through all the grilling recipes he sent me over the winter.

The first one up is this week’s recipe, which features a Polynesian-inspired sauce over a spatchcock chicken.

If you’re not familiar with spatchcocking, it’s a technique for cooking whole chicken that lets you flatten the bird out, and it cooks more evenly and quicker. It feels a little weird to do the first time—like you’re performing some sort of surgery—but after you cook a chicken that way the first time, you’ll be sold.

The recipe we tried comes from the Sanderson Farms company page and was created as a collaboration with a couple influencers, “The Grill Dads.” You can find the original recipe and their video at https://sandersonfarms.com/recipes/spatchcock-polynesian-chicken/. I added extra garlic in my version.

Spatchcock Polynesian Chicken

Spatchcock Polynesian chicken can be made on the grill, in the smoker or in the oven and features a slightly sweet sauce that turns into a fabulous glaze.

Course Main Course

Keyword barrel smoker, brown sugar, ceramic grill, chicken, fresh garlic, fresh ginger, garlic powder, grill, ground ginger, honey, lemon juice, lime juice, pellet smoker, Polynesian, smoked meat, smoker, soy sauce, spatchcock, whole chicken

Ingredients

Chicken Ingredients

1 whole frying chicken
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 tablespoons olive oil

Sauce Ingredients

1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon fresh ginger grated (or ginger paste)
8 cloves garlic minced
2 green onions thinly sliced
2 teaspoons red pepper flakes

Instructions

To prepare the chicken, pat it dry with paper towels and then flip it to breast side down on a large cutting board. Using a sharp knife or kitchen scissors, starting from the tail side of the chicken, carefully cut out the backbone by cutting closely on both sides of it. Set the backbone aside for another use or discard it.
Flip the chicken back over, and using the heels of your hands, press down in the middle of the chicken, right on the breast bone, to make it flatten out. (You should hear a little pop.)
Place the chicken onto a large, rimmed baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. In a small bowl, mix the salt, sugar, garlic powder and ground ginger.
Rub the spice mixture over the whole bird, making sure to get in crevices and even getting some under the skin, if you can. Place the chicken, uncovered, in the refrigerator over night or for at least eight hours. (We want the skin to dry out a bit so it will crisp up.)
The sauce can be made now or while you wait for the chicken to cook the next day.
Combine all the sauce ingredients in a small saucepan over medium-high heat, and bring the mixture to a low boil. Let it continue to boil for about 15 minutes, stirring regularly. Once the sauce is reduced, remove it from the heat and set it aside.
To cook the chicken, preheat your grill, smoker or oven to about 350 degrees. Rub the chicken all over with the olive oil, and then place it, breast side up, directly on the grate of your grill or smoker or on the rimmed baking sheet in the oven and bake for 25 minutes or until a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the breast registers 140 degrees.
Using a basting brush, coat the exterior of the chicken in the sauce, and continue to cook the chicken for about 15 more minutes, basting every 5 minutes, until the meat thermometer reaches 165 degrees.
Pull the chicken from the oven, and let it rest for at least 10 minutes before slicing. If you have leftover sauce, use that for serving, and serve the chicken along with the sides of your choice.

This was slightly sweet and had a nice, crispy skin on it from our smoker. Joey and I agreed that it would have been delicious out of the oven, too, though, so if you’re not much for outdoor cooking, definitely try it inside.

We ate our chicken with some brown rice, and it was really good. We also had plenty of leftovers, which was nice.

And now that it’s officially grilling season, I’ll have to go digging back through my summer recipes to see what other experiments I can sweet talk Joey into.

This piece first appeared in print on April 18, 2024.

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 barrel smoker, brown sugar, ceramic grill, chicken, fresh garlic, fresh ginger, garlic powder, grill, ground ginger, honey, lemon juice, lime juice, pellet smoker, Polynesian, smoked meat, smoker, soy sauce, spatchcock, whole chicken

Breakfast Dessert

Roll through your cinnamon cravings with a simple cake

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date January 11, 2024

A cinnamon roll cake is an easy way to accomplish the great flavor of homemade cinnamon rolls without all the work.

Do you have those friends in your life where you have to try several times to plan a get-together before you can actually find a date on the calendar that works?

This past weekend, the stars aligned for us to finally spend an evening with just such a pair. They were gracious enough to invite us to their home, where they had a delicious bowl of chili and fresh cornbread waiting for us.

Knowing that chili was on the menu, I started to wrack my brain earlier in the day about what kind of dessert goes with it, and my mind just kept going back to cinnamon rolls.

I mean, yeah, cinnamon rolls are a perfect compliment to a big bowl of chili, but they’re also generally pretty time consuming, and time was not on my side that afternoon.

Thank goodness I found a recipe for a cinnamon roll cake that came to my rescue instead, and I was pretty happy with how it turned out.

This comes from the blog “The Country Cook” by Brandie Skibinski. You can find the original post at https://www.thecountrycook.net/cinnamon-roll-cake/. I doubled the vanilla and quadrupled the cinnamon in my version.

Cinnamon Roll Cake

A cinnamon roll cake is an easy way to accomplish the great flavor of homemade cinnamon rolls without all the work.

Course Breakfast, Dessert

Keyword brown sugar, cake, cinnamon, cinnamon roll, coffeecake, easy cinnamon roll, vanilla

Ingredients

Cake Ingredients

3 cups flour
1 cup sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 eggs
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups milk I used skim
1/2 cup butter melted

Filling Ingredients

3/4 cup butter softened
1 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons cinnamon

Glaze Ingredients

2 cups powdered sugar
5 tablespoons milk I used skim
2 teaspoons vanilla

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a nine-by-13-inch baking pan by spraying it with cooking spray. Set it aside.
For the cake, in a mixing bowl, beat the flour, sugar, baking powder, eggs, vanilla and milk until everything is smooth and well combined.
Hand stir in the butter, and then spread the batter evenly into your prepared pan.
For the filling, in another mixing bowl, beat together all of the filling ingredients until it forms a smooth paste.
Drop the cinnamon mixture by the tablespoonful onto the cake batter, and then swirl it into the batter using a knife.
Bake the cake for 35 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
When the cake comes out of the oven, whisk the glaze ingredients until it is smooth. If you want a thicker glaze, add a little more powdered sugar. If you want it thinner, add a little more milk.
Pour the glaze over the cake and serve warm. Store any leftovers in an airtight container.

This was very much like if a coffee cake married a cinnamon roll. The main difference is because you put the glaze on the cake while it’s still warm, it melts into the cake instead of staying visibly on top like a normal cinnamon roll. If you’d rather have that look and texture, I’d recommend letting the cake cool completely before glazing and making a bit of a thicker glaze.

I ended up making an eight-by-eight pan of this by halving the recipe. There was only going to be four of us, and I really didn’t need the leftovers in my kitchen all week, so that made it perfect.

Even better, we had an excellent meal with excellent people. Being able to spend time with friends, cinnamon rolls or not, is so, so sweet.

This piece first appeared in print on Jan. 11, 2024.

Tags brown sugar, cake, cinnamon, cinnamon roll, coffeecake, easy cinnamon roll, vanilla

Dessert

We now know for whom the pie shell tolls

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date December 7, 2023

Toll House chocolate chip cookie pie is a rich dessert based on the classic cookie, with a chewy filling, crunchy walnuts and pops of sweet chocolate.

It turns out, chocolate chip cookies are a much newer invention than I would have thought.

An article on the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library website notes that the famous cookies were first invented in 1938 by Ruth Wakefield.

Wakefield and her husband, Kenneth, ran the Toll House Restaurant in Massachusetts, hence the enduring “Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie” name.

There’s apparently plenty of debate surrounding the true lore of how Wakefield managed to create them, but that’s kind of how all of the stories of famous recipes seem to play out.

Regardless, her invention has become such a part of culture that most of us probably don’t even think about them having an origin. The only reason I looked into it was because I wondered where this week’s recipe for a Toll House chocolate chip cookie pie originally came from and stumbled on the history of the cookie. It makes for good reading along with a slice of pie.

The version of this recipe I tried comes from the blog, “A Family Feast” by Jack and Martha Pesa. You can find the original post at https://www.afamilyfeast.com/toll-house-chocolate-chip-pie/. I added vanilla and whipped cream to my version.

Toll House Chocolate Chip Pie

Toll House chocolate chip cookie pie is a rich dessert based on the classic cookie, with a chewy filling, crunchy walnuts and pops of sweet chocolate.

Course Dessert

Keyword brown sugar, chocolate chip cookie pie, chocolate chips, cookie pie, semisweet chocolate chips, Toll House cookies, vanilla, walnuts, whipped cream

Ingredients

1 pie crust
2 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup butter room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips plus a few for decorating
1 cup walnuts chopped
about 2 cups whipped cream

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
Roll out your pie crust and place it in a deep, nine-inch pie plate. Crimp the edges to your liking and set it aside.
In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs for about two minutes or until they are light yellow.
Beat in the flour, sugar and brown sugar, and then beat in the butter and vanilla until the batter is smooth.
Fold in the chocolate chips and walnuts, and spread the batter into your pie crust.
Bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean.
Let the pie cool completely and top with whipped cream and some extra chocolate chips.

When my pie came out of the oven, I didn’t think the top was very pretty, which is why I decided to slather it in whipped cream and chocolate chips. It gave it a real visual wow factor, and the flavors were great together.

This is also a great recipe for a beginning pie baker to try. It’s really easy to put together, and it’s easy to tell when it’s done.

It’s also a great way to enjoy a classic, 85-year-old recipe in a slightly different way. The only drawback is that you probably can’t dip this into a glass of milk, but I won’t fault you for trying.

This piece first appeared in print on Dec. 7, 2023.

Tags brown sugar, chocolate chip cookie pie, chocolate chips, cookie pie, semisweet chocolate chips, Toll House cookies, vanilla, walnuts, whipped cream

Cookies Dessert

Chewy cookies can be a real ‘raspberry’ in blue

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date October 12, 2023

Raspberry white chocolate cookies feature fresh raspberries in a soft, chewy cookie, with plenty of white chocolate chips to take these to a whole new level of delicious.

“They have some gross cookies over here,” a gentleman said into his cell phone at a Hesston event we held this weekend, making sure to say it just loud enough for me to hear.

Luckily, he was joking. Or at least I think he was.

The cookies, made with lots of fresh raspberries ended up with a little bit of a strange, green-blue hue from the fruit juice spreading throughout the dough, and he teased that I was trying to give away moldy cookies. I guess that’s what I get for using fresh fruit instead of buying something fake or freeze-dried.

But, darn it, they were far from gross. Instead, they were downright delicious, and I ended up being very happy I doubled the recipe, since my first Tupperware container emptied out extremely quickly. Plus, doubling let me use a full bag of white chocolate chips and a full 12-ounce container of raspberries. I always appreciate not having random bits and pieces of ingredients sitting around after trying a new recipe.

If you want to give these “gross” cookies a try, the recipe comes from the blog “Erhardt Seat” by Caitlyn Erhardt. You can find the original at https://erhardtseat.com/raspberry-white-chocolate-cookies/. I doubled the vanilla, added a few extra chocolate chips and added some salt in my version.

Raspberry White Chocolate Cookies

Raspberry white chocolate cookies feature fresh raspberries in a soft, chewy cookie, with plenty of white chocolate chips to take these to a whole new level of delicious.

Course Dessert

Keyword brown sugar, fresh raspberries, raspberry, soft cookies, vanilla, white chocolate chips

Ingredients

8 tablespoons butter room temperature
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 egg
1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup raspberries chopped

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a couple baking sheets by spraying them with cooking spray or lining them with parchment paper.
In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugars until the mixture is light and fluffy.
Beat in the vanilla and egg until they are well combined.
Beat in the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Once the dough is smooth, carefully fold in the white chocolate chips and raspberries, trying not to squish them too much.
Using a one- to one-and-one-half-inch cookie scoop, scoop the dough into about ping-pong-ball-sized mounds onto the prepared cookie sheets, placing them about two inches apart.
Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until the tops of the cookies are starting to turn golden brown. Let the cookies cool almost completely before storing them in an airtight container.

Like I said, these were fantastic. Joey hates raspberries as a general rule, and even he really enjoyed these. The fruit and the white chocolate paired great together, and the cookies were soft and chewy, just how I like them.

I suppose another benefit, if you want to keep these all to yourself, is if yours turn a little bluish, too, you can just sadly tell your family how disappointed you are that the cookies went bad, and you’ll have to dispose of them before anyone accidentally eats one.

I won’t spoil your secret, but there is a guy in Hesston who might.

This piece first appeared in print on Oct. 12, 2023.

Tags brown sugar, fresh raspberries, raspberry, soft cookies, vanilla, white chocolate chips

Dessert Snack

It’s good to have a fallback recipe for whatever pops up

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date September 21, 2023

Popcorn balls are simple to make and easy to customize with tons of sweet or salty mix ins.

On a recent free evening, Joey and I decided to watch a movie together, and I wanted popcorn.

Of course, I couldn’t just toss a bag of microwave popcorn in to cook; I needed to make the real stuff on my stovetop.

I melted a spoonful of coconut oil in a pot and waited for it to be nice and hot, testing it with a couple kernels, just like you’re supposed to.

But then it came time to add the rest of the kernels, and honestly, I couldn’t remember how many to dump in. After a bit of time thumbing through my mental Rolodex, I somehow determined that popcorn kernels were measured out like rice, and I dumped a full cup of kernels into the pot, figuring I would make about two cups of finished popcorn.

I added the lid and waited. Soon, my popcorn was popping.

And then it kept popping.

And popping.

It wasn’t long before the lid started lifting off my pot, and I realized the error of my ways.

Joey walked into the kitchen just in time to see me frantically scooping popcorn into several bowls on the counter while more popcorn flew out onto the floor and our schnauzer, K.C., excitedly performed clean up duties. It was a bit crazy, and the aftermath left me with a ton of popped kernels.

So, with that in mind, I decided to opt for a great recipe for leftover popcorn: popcorn balls.

The recipe I used is from Martha Stewart’s website. You can find the original post at https://www.marthastewart.com/339167/popcorn-balls. I simplified the mix-ins a bit.

Popcorn Balls

Popcorn balls are simple to make and easy to customize with tons of sweet or salty mix ins.

Course Dessert, Snack

Keyword brown sugar, Halloween treat, honey roasted peanuts, mini marshmallows, popcorn, popcorn ball

Ingredients

1/4 cup stick butter plus more for your hands
10 ounces mini marshmallows
1/4 cup brown sugar
10 to 12 cups popped popcorn
1 cup nuts dried fruit and/or baking chips

Instructions

Spread a large piece of waxed paper or parchment paper on your workspace.
In a large stockpot or Dutch oven, melt the butter over low heat. Once the butter is melted, stir in the marshmallows and brown sugar, and continue stirring until it’s all melted.
Remove the pot from the heat.
Add the popcorn and whatever mix ins you want to add, and stir well.
Butter your hands, and then shape the mixture into about two- or three-inch balls. Lightly press them together so they stick, but be careful not to crush the popcorn.
Place the balls on the waxed paper to cool. Either individually wrap the popcorn balls or store in an airtight container.

I really liked these, and the nice thing about making your own popcorn balls is you can make them whatever size you want for snacking.

I ended up using some honey roasted peanuts I already had in the pantry, and it was delicious.

Plus, I managed to get rid of all of the extra popcorn on my counter. Despite eating a nice, large bowl during our movie night and receiving lots of gracious help from K.C., there was no way I was going to get through all of it on my own.

The next time I decide to make popcorn, I’ll actually look up the measurements so I don’t end up in a cartoon-like situation again. But at least now I know what to do with the extra.

This piece first appeared in print on Sept. 21, 2023.

Tags brown sugar, Halloween treat, honey roasted peanuts, mini marshmallows, popcorn, popcorn ball

Breakfast Dessert

Say ‘oui’ to this yummy overnight breakfast casserole

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date July 27, 2023

Overnight French toast casserole is a much easier way to feature French toast for breakfast. Add in a little fresh fruit, and you have quite the wow factor for your morning meal or even a dessert table.

When I began writing this column over 10 years ago, I had grand illusions of people sending me their favorite recipes and me trying them.

What I found was that people are normally pretty guarded with their best dishes, and even more so, everyone wanted me to tell them something new to try instead of the other way around.

Since then, I have amassed quite the Pinterest page of recipes, a notebook of magazine cutouts and a large collection of saved tutorial videos that I source each week for my inspiration.

But for this week’s recipe, I didn’t have to go out looking. It found me.

Every summer, I get the opportunity to direct a short kids camp at Camp Mennoscah, and for the past I-don’t-know-how-many years, a wonderful group of ladies has volunteered to man the kitchen during our little camp.

This summer, on the last morning, they served us a fabulous blueberry French toast casserole for breakfast, and as I came through the chow line, they teased me a bit.

“Are we going to see this one in the paper?”

“If you send it to me, you will,” I told them.

So Marla emailed it to me right after camp, letting me know that her way of spicing up the recipe was to add the blueberries.

Well, over a month later, I finally had time to give this a try, only I used fresh cherries, since that’s what I had on hand. It was still delicious.

This original recipe comes from the blog “Fresh April Flours,” was tweaked by Marla Gillmore and the rest of the amazing kitchen crew, and received some more cinnamon in my version below.

Overnight Baked French Toast Casserole

Overnight French toast casserole is a much easier way to feature French toast for breakfast. Add in a little fresh fruit, and you have quite the wow factor for your morning meal or even a dessert table.

Course Breakfast, Dessert

Keyword breakfast casserole, breakfast for a crowd, brown sugar, canned cinnamon rolls, easy breakfast, French toast, fresh fruit, vanilla

Ingredients

8 to 9 cups stale bread cut into one-inch cubes
2 cups fresh fruit cut in bite-sized pieces (I used cherries)
1/4 cup butter melted
2/3 cup brown sugar
8 eggs
2 cups milk I used 2 percent
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
3 rounded teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Prepare a nine-by-13-inch casserole dish by spraying it with cooking spray.
Spread all the bread cubes and fresh fruit evenly into the dish and set it aside.
In a mixing bowl, combine the butter, brown sugar, eggs, milk, vanilla, cinnamon and salt and whisk well until everything is well incorporated. (My brown sugar got a bit lumpy. If that happens even after lots of mixing, don’t sweat it. Just evenly distribute the lumps on the next step, and it’ll be fine.)
Evenly pour the egg mixture over the bread cubes in the dish and cover it with aluminum foil, plastic wrap or a lid. Refrigerate overnight or for at least three hours.
To bake the casserole, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and bake, uncovered, for one hour or until the top is nicely browned and the custard is set.
Serve warm by itself, with some syrup, or even with a little powdered sugar sprinkled on top.

I ended up making a half batch of this in an eight-inch casserole dish, and it turned out great. It was more sugar than I’d want to have all the time for breakfast, but the warm, fresh cherries combined with the cinnamon and custard-y bread was excellent.

I don’t think mine turned out quite as well as the one I had at camp, but I think it’s because I made mine on my own. I suspect when you add the love of half a dozen wonderful volunteers, everything is bound to taste better.

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

Tags breakfast casserole, breakfast for a crowd, brown sugar, canned cinnamon rolls, easy breakfast, French toast, fresh fruit, vanilla

Main Dish

Make a great Asian dish like you’ve never had ‘beef’ore

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date July 6, 2023

Mongolian beef features delicious seared steak with a sticky, yummy Asian-inspired sauce that goes great over a bed of rice.

I was so glad this week that the smoke detector in my kitchen isn’t particularly sensitive.

As I sauteed thin slices of steak on my stovetop, the room filled with a fine smoke that my exhaust fan just couldn’t keep up with.

I am normally really nervous about cooking anything on high heat. I think it goes back to the first place I moved into when I left home. The cooktop in my rental got extra, extra hot and led to my first experience with a grease fire, despite having the temperature set to what should have been a normal one for frying. (Always remember to smother a grease fire with a lid, and do not to try to put it out with water!)

My current oven is newer and behaves itself, though, so despite putting off a little smoke, my dish turned out absolutely delicious.

The recipe I tried comes from the blog “Dinner at the Zoo” by Sara Welch. You can find it at https://www.dinneratthezoo.com/mongolian-beef/. I added veggies and extra seasoning in my version.

Mongolian Beef

Mongolian beef features delicious seared steak with a sticky, yummy Asian-inspired sauce that goes great over a bed of rice.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Asian

Keyword bell pepper, brown sugar, flank steak, fresh ginger, green onion, minced garlic, sesame oil, soy sauce, top round steak

Ingredients

1 1/4 pounds flank or top round steak sliced thinly
1/4 cup plus 2 teaspoons cornstarch, divided
3 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil I ended up needing more than this
2 bell peppers any color, cut into strips
1/2 cup green onions cut into 1/4-inch pieces
6 to 8 cloves garlic minced
2 teaspoons fresh ginger minced (I used ginger paste)
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup water
1/2 cup brown sugar
salt and pepper to taste
rice or rice noodles and sesame seeds for serving

Instructions

Cut the steak into one-inch-wide strips and add it to a plastic bag with 1/4 cup of cornstarch. Seal the bag and shake to evenly coat the strips.
Prepare a plate by lining it with a paper towel and set it aside.
In a large skillet, heat the vegetable oil on high heat.
Once the oil is hot, add the strips of steak in a single layer. Saute for a few minutes on each side until the meat is browned. Remove the strips from the skillet and place them on the paper-towel-lined plate.
Continue in batches (adding more oil if it’s sticking) until all the meat is browned.
Turn the heat down to medium-high heat, add a bit more oil if necessary and add in the bell peppers and green onions. Saute until they reach your desired level of doneness. Toss in the garlic and ginger and saute for about 30 seconds to a minute.
Add the sesame oil, soy sauce, water and brown sugar to the pan, making sure to scrape the bottom for any good, browned bits from the steak and the veggies. Let the mixture come to a simmer, stirring regularly.
In a small bowl, combine the other two teaspoons of cornstarch with one tablespoon of cold water. Stir the cornstarch slurry into the skillet and bring the mixture to a boil. Once the mixture is starting to thicken, reduce the heat to low, and stir in the steak. Make sure to mix well to evenly coat everything.
Add salt and pepper as desired (I didn’t have to add any salt at all, thanks to the other seasonings. It’s better to taste the sauce first.)
Serve over prepared rice or rice noodles and top with sesame seeds.

This was amazing. In fact, I have already made a second batch of this one in the time since I first tried it. The sauce is sticky and has tons of great flavor without being cloyingly sweet. This also reheats super well as leftovers, so be sure to make some extra rice or noodles so you have pre-made meals for later in the week.

And pay attention to your own stovetop’s “high” setting when you try this. Some are more sensitive than others—as are some smoke detectors. But as long as you get a good sear on your meat, I promise you won’t be disappointed.

This piece first appeared in print on July 6, 2023.

Tags bell pepper, brown sugar, flank steak, fresh ginger, green onion, minced garlic, sesame oil, soy sauce, top round steak

Dessert

Don’t crumble under hosting pressure; make a quick and easy dessert

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date June 29, 2023

Quick cherry crumble lives up to its name. With super easy assembly, the dessert can be baked an on the table in just over 30 minutes.

I was remarking to some friends the other day about how Joey and I are complete opposites when it comes to socializing.

As an extroverted social butterfly, Joey draws his energy from being around people and generally loves a crowd.

For me, while I love to socialize, I tend to be reenergized by some alone time, and after a long day of hanging out with people or going to an event, I need a break to recharge.

Despite that difference, what Joey and I do have in common is that we love to host.

Planning a meal or a snack table and having people over to spend time chatting or playing games or watching sports with us is one of our favorite activities.

This past week, Joey casually mentioned, “Oh, I probably should have told you but I invited a bunch of people over to hang out this weekend.”

I was totally on board.

We discussed menu a bit, and that was that.

But then, the night before our get-together, I remembered I totally forgot to plan a dessert, which is a necessity for any big meal, in my humble opinion.

Luckily, the Internet and my pantry saved the day on this one, and I managed a delicious, quick dessert for our guests.

This recipe comes from the blog “Julie’s Eats & Treats” by Julie Evink. You can find the original at https://www.julieseatsandtreats.com/cherry-crunch-pie/. I added cinnamon and almond extract in my version.

Quick Cherry Crumble

Quick cherry crumble lives up to its name. With super easy assembly, the dessert can be baked an on the table in just over 30 minutes.

Course Dessert

Keyword almond extract, brown sugar, canned cinnamon rolls, cherry crisp, cherry crumble, cherry pie filling, easy dessert, quick dessert, quick oats

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter softened
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup flour
1 cup quick oats
1 heaping teaspoon cinnamon
21 ounces cherry pie filling
1 teaspoon almond extract

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
In a mixing bowl, combine the butter, brown sugar, flour, oats and cinnamon until everything is well incorporated and the mixture looks like pea-sized crumbs.
Dump half of the mixture into an eight- or nine-inch glass pie plate and press it firmly to an even layer on the bottom and up the sides.
Pour the can of cherry pie filling into the plate, and sprinkle on the almond extract. Give the filling a gentle stir to distribute the extract, and then crumble the rest of the crust mixture evenly over the top of the filling.
Bake for 30 minutes or until the top of the crumble is browned.
Serve warm or room temperature for the best flavor, but out of the fridge is a winner, too.

As you can see, this really was a quick recipe, and I was glad I added the extra oomph with the cinnamon and almond extract. You could leave those out, but I thought it made the dessert taste a bit more homemade.

This would also be absolutely amazing with some ice cream, if you wanted to pull out all the stops.

I know some people hate hosting, but despite my tendencies to be a bit of an introvert, I love opening our home to our friends and family and watching them have a good time.

Plus, it generally means just a little leftover dessert in the fridge when they all leave.

This piece first appeared in print on June 29, 2023.

Tags almond extract, brown sugar, canned cinnamon rolls, cherry crisp, cherry crumble, cherry pie filling, easy dessert, quick dessert, quick oats

Cookies Dessert

Turn cookies on their heads with these pineapple treats

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date April 27, 2023

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.

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.

Tags bake sale, brown sugar, cake cookies, maraschino cherries, pineapple slices, pineapple upside-down cake

Breakfast Dessert

Overcome your baking fears and give these rolls a ‘swirl’

Post author By Lindsey Young
Post date March 2, 2023

These homemade cinnamon rolls are soft, with lots of cinnamon, and topped off with a fabulous cream cheese icing. They’re the perfect side for a bowl of chili.

I have had cinnamon rolls on the brain lately.

Making them from scratch has always intimidated me a bit, and after making a particularly dry batch a couple years ago, I just haven’t had the bravery to try them again.

I have two distinctly different recipes—one from my grandma and one from my great aunt—that I couldn’t get enough of as a kid, and I’ve really been thinking about how I want to give them a go.

But I didn’t want to try those nostalgic recipes first and fail at them, so I decided instead to give a stranger’s recipe a try. And they turned out so well.

This comes from the blog “Butternut Bakery Blog.” You can find their original post at https://butternutbakeryblog.com/easy-homemade-cinnamon-rolls/. My only change was adjusting the amount of cinnamon.

Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

These homemade cinnamon rolls are soft, with lots of cinnamon, and topped off with a fabulous cream cheese icing. They’re the perfect side for a bowl of chili.

Course Breakfast, Dessert

Keyword brown sugar, cinnamon, cinnamon roll, cream cheese, cream cheese icing, vanilla, yeast

Ingredients

Dough Ingredients

4 1/2 to 5 cups flour divided
1/3 cup sugar
2 packets yeast 4 1/2 teaspoons
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups water
6 tablespoons butter
1 egg

Filling Ingredients

1/4 cup butter room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar
cinnamon to fully coat dough about 2 tablespoons

Icing Ingredients

4 ounces cream cheese room temperature
1/4 cup butter room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla

Instructions

In a large bowl, whisk together two cups of the flour, the sugar, yeast and salt for the dough.
In a small, microwave-safe bowl, combine the water and butter. Heat for about 30 seconds. You want it just warm.
Add the butter mixture along with the egg to the flour mixture, and mix well. (I used the dough hook on my stand mixture. You can also do this by hand with a big spoon.)
Stir in two more cups of flour to create a thick, sticky dough. Finally, add in the last one-half cup of flour. Once it’s well-combined, either knead by hand or using your dough hook. If the dough is still sticky, add one-quarter cup of flour and continue to knead. If it becomes smooth and not sticky, you’re ready to go. If not, add another quarter cup of flour.
Once you can press a finger to the dough and it doesn’t stick, you’re ready to let the dough rise. Shape the dough into a ball and let it rest for 10 minutes, uncovered.
Flour your counter, and roll the dough out into a large rectangle—about 10 by 15 inches.
Spread the butter for the filling in a thin layer, leaving one-half inch around the outside uncovered (I found this easier to do with my hands than with a utensil).
Sprinkle the brown sugar all over the buttered area, and press it down lightly into the dough. Liberally sprinkle the entire area with cinnamon.
Tightly roll the dough, starting from the long, 15-inch side. Be sure to press it together a bit as you go so you don’t leave open spaces in the roll.
Once the dough is rolled, place it seam-side down and cut it into 12 even pieces.
Lightly grease a nine-by-13-inch pan and place the rolls, cut-side down, into the prepared pan. Cover the pan with a clean towel and place it in a warm spot for one hour. They should double in size during this time.
To bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until the top of the rolls are a light brown.
For the icing, whisk the cream cheese and butter together with a fork. Stir in the powdered sugar and vanilla. Spread the icing on the warm rolls and eat right away. Store any leftovers in an airtight container.

These were soft and full of great cinnamon flavor, and the cream cheese frosting was amazing. We ate them along with some smoked chili Joey made, and they were a perfect combination.

Thanks to this recipe, I think I have finally conquered my fear of trying to bake cinnamon rolls, although I’m still a little nervous my favorite family recipes won’t turn out. But I also know that if either of those amazing women were still here with me, they’d go out of their way to encourage me to give it a try anyway. Maybe even an imperfect recreation can still be pretty great.

This piece first appeared in print on March 2, 2023.

Tags breakfast pastry, brown sugar, cinnamon, cinnamon rolls, cream cheese icing