Dessert

Homemade Brown Sugar and Cinnamon Pop-Tarts

October 14, 2013 by The Partial Ingredients

Happy Fall everyone! It’s been a while since I’ve posted so I wanted to kick off October with this great recipe for homemade pop-tarts! This recipe turned out to be surprisingly easy and not as labor intensive as I thought it would be. Although it obviously is more labor intensive than just popping a pop-tart in the toaster, the rewards for home made can’t be beat! The pastry is flaky and buttery, just like a pie crust, which really kicked these up a notch in deliciousness. The inside is a simple mixture of cinnamon and sugar but once baked in the oven it transforms into a warm, soft filling. Once you have this recipe there’s no need to ever get store bought again! Fruit fillings, nutella/chocolate, and even savory cheese fillings can be substituted for the cinnamon sugar.* The possibilities for these tarts are pretty much endless!

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Moroccan Rice Pudding

August 14, 2013 by The Partial Ingredients

My mom always loved rice pudding, especially if it was from this one grocery store, Jewel, which according to her, “did rice pudding right.” This recipe is made for her because not only is she far away from any Jewel grocery store, she can make a batch of this at home in no time at all. This recipe has way more flavor than any pre-made rice pudding. Adding cinnamon and orange flower water gives the pudding a more traditional Moroccan flavor. The pudding was creamy with just the right type of consistency. You can also garnish the pudding with nutmeg, cinnamon and toasted almond slivers.

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Chocolate Espresso Cookies

March 10, 2013 by The Partial Ingredients

Chocolate and espresso is a subtle combination. In many recipes a little espresso or coffee is added to enhance the chocolate flavor. The espresso compliments the chocolate and these cookies play on that idea very nicely. The batter is made with cocoa and espresso powders along with melted chocolate. Solid chocolate chips are mixed into the batter so any cravings you might have had for chocolate will probably be satisfied. After the cookies are baked the outside forms a glossy layer that cracks apart. The inside isn’t really like a normal cookie’s but rather like the inside of a brownie. I was really happy with how these turned out and next time I have a chocolate craving I know which recipe to turn to!

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Cherry Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

March 3, 2013 by The Partial Ingredients

Oatmeal raisin cookies got a bad rep when I was a kid. They weren’t very sweet, had a dry crumbly texture and just couldn’t stand up to classic chocolate chip cookies. These cookies give chocolate chip a run for it’s money. The cherries and chocolate go so well together and the texture was soft and not too crumbly. The cherries really take this cookie to the next level because they added a little bit of tartness to balance the sweet. I will definitely be making these again! The recipe makes 5 1/2 dozen so I cut the recipe in half. If you wanted to make the larger amount, just double the measurements below.

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Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

February 24, 2013 by The Partial Ingredients

Peanut butter and chocolate is just a perfect combination. It brings together sweet, salty and chocolatey so what’s not to like? My boyfriend recently made homemade peanut butter so he wanted to try making a dessert out of it. He made these fantastic peanut butter cups based on Reese’s candy only with dark chocolate. The only complication was melting the chocolate chips smoothly, but he was able to figure out a way to mimic a double boiler by using a flat bowl and a sauce pot. It melted the chocolate smoothly without risking burning the chocolate or creating a lumpy consistency. The peanut butter cups were ridiculously good. The chocolate was just a basic semi-sweet chocolate chip and the hero was the homemade peanut butter. If you have a food processor, it’s one of the best things to try making at home. You can use store bought peanut butter for this recipe, but if you have time to make your own for it I would highly recommend it!

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Red Velvet Cupcakes with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting

February 13, 2013 by The Partial Ingredients

It seems like in general the people who spend time in the kitchen are either cooks or bakers. I tend to fall into the first category but my boyfriend is slowly turning into the latter. Lately he’s been experimenting with different desserts so he decided to try making red velvet cupcakes for Valentine’s Day! The cupcakes turned out so well! The cream cheese frosting went perfectly with the chocolatey cupcake. The inside was a rich, red color that was fluffy and light. The original recipe yielded 30 cupcakes but we decided to make 1 dozen instead. Surprisingly, the odd measurements didn’t cause any problems in the baking process. It was a wonderful treat for Valentine’s Day!

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Salted Caramel Stuffed Chocolate Cookies

December 19, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

As far as decadent Holiday cookies go this recipe ranks pretty far up there in the decadence and the deliciousness! I am a big fan of salted caramel and combining it inside of a cookie sounded too good to be true. The cookie’s name makes it sound more complicated than it is and the recipe is really simple and doesn’t take long to throw together. These cookies remind me a little of chocolate lava cake especially when eaten soon after they’re taken out of the oven. The gooey caramel oozes out of the center and mixes with the outer chocolate cookie layer. The cookie just looks festive and almost snow covered from the powdered sugar on top.

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Lemon Meringue Pie with A Graham Cracker Crust

December 15, 2012 by The Partial Ingredients

Lemon Meringue Pie is a great option for a lighter dessert for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. Lemon Meringue Pie is a two layer pie of lemony filling and light whipped meringue. It is a perfect balance of tart and sweet. The flavors definitely awaken the taste buds after a heavy holiday meal. I had never made Lemon Meringue pie but I had made meringue cookies before so I was familiar with half of the equation of this pie. The process of making the filling was also very similar to making vanilla custard for Vanilla Custard Pie. I had never tried this pie before so I did not know what to expect. I loved the tartness of the pie along with the fluffy, almost caramelized texture of the meringue.

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