Frozen Peanut Butter Pie

I have had many requests for this recipe.  Here it is:

 Crust:

•  12 Oreo cookies
• 2 Tbsp butter, melted

Crush Oreos, then mix with the butter, and press into your pie dish.  Refrigerate for about an hour before you add the filling.

 Filling:

• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1 8-ounce package cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup Cool Whip
• 1 cup chilled whipping cream

 

Blend powdered sugar, peanut butter, cream cheese and vanilla in processor until smooth, occasionally scraping down sides of work bowl. Transfer mixture to large bowl. Beat cream in medium bowl to soft peaks. Fold cream into peanut butter mixture in 2 additions. Mix in the Cool Whip. Spoon peanut butter filling into crust and smooth top. 

Decorate any way you wish - pipe on extra Cool Whip, sprinkle with chopped, toasted peanuts and pistachios.  Add Toffifay chocolates or peanut butter cups.  Freeze pie until filling is firm, at least 3 hours. (Can be prepared 1 week ahead. Cover and keep frozen. Let stand room temperature 60 minutes before serving.)

Lemon Curd Marbled Cheesecake

Gourmet  | July 2006

Ingredients

For lemon curd:

• 1 teaspoon finely grated fresh lemon zest
• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

For crust:

• 1 1/3 cups finely ground graham cracker crumbs (5 oz)
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

For filling:

• 3 (8-oz) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 3/4 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• Special equipment: a 9- to 91/2-inch (24-cm) springform pan
• Accompaniment: blueberries

Make lemon curd:

Whisk together zest, juice, sugar, and eggs in a 2-quart heavy saucepan. Add butter and cook over moderately low heat, whisking frequently, until curd is thick enough to hold marks of whisk and first bubbles appear on surface, about 6 minutes.

Force lemon curd through a fine-mesh sieve into a wide shallow dish, scraping bottom of sieve, then cover surface with wax paper. Cool completely, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes. 

Make and bake crust:

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Invert bottom of springform pan (to make it easier to slide cake off bottom), then lock on side. 3Stir together crust ingredients in a bowl, then press onto bottom and 1 inch up side of springform pan. Place springform pan in a shallow baking pan and bake 10 minutes, then cool crust completely in springform pan on a rack. 

 

Make filling and bake cheesecake:

Reduce oven temperature to 300°F.

Beat together cream cheese and sugar in a bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes. Reduce speed to low and add eggs 1 at a time, beating until incorporated. Beat in sour cream and vanilla until combined.

Pour two thirds of cream cheese filling into crust, then spoon half of lemon curd over filling and swirl curd into filling with a small knife. (Avoid touching crust with knife to prevent crumbs getting into filling.) Repeat with remaining filling and curd.

Bake cheesecake until set 1 1/2 inches from edge but center trembles when pan is gently shaken, about 45 minutes. (Center of cake will appear very loose but will continue to set as it cools.) Transfer springform pan to a rack and immediately run a knife around top edge of cake to loosen. Cool completely, about 2 hours, then chill, uncovered, at least 4 hours. Remove side of springform pan before serving.

Cooks' Notes: ·Lemon curd can be made 1 week ahead and chilled, covered.
·Crust (without filling) can be made 1 day ahead and kept, covered, at room temperature.
·Cheesecake can be chilled, loosely covered, up to 2 days. Cheesecake must be completely chilled before covering to prevent condensation on its surface.

This is truly a wonderful cheesecake.

No Knead Rosemary Bread
3 cups bread flour
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp active yeast, dissolved in 2 tsp water
1 1/2 cups water
2 Tbsp fresh rosemary

Mix flour and salt thoroughly, then add the yeast, the water, and the rosemary.  Mix with a spoon until combined.  Cover bowl with Saran Wrap and let rest 12 to 18 hours.

Turn dough over by hand, then let rest another 2 hours.
Take a Pyrex bowl with a lid and put in oven.  Turn oven temperature to 450 degrees F.

When the oven has reached 450 degrees, carefully remove the bowl.  Put dough into the (very hot) bowl and cover with the lid.  Bake for 30 minutes. Remove lid, and bake another 10 to 15 minutes until the bread is a nice golden brown.  Remove from oven and let cool.  It's delicious.

Middle Eastern Lentil and Swiss Chard Soup

6 cups chicken stock, PREFERABLY home made
1 1/2 cups brown lentils, washed
2 lbs Swiss Chard
1/4 cup olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
4 - 8 large cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 cup lemon juice
salt and pepper, to taste

Place lentils in large saucepan, add the stock, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, then simmer, covered, for about 40 minutes.

Remove the stems from the Swiss Chard and shred or chop the leaves.  Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat and cook the onion a couple of minutes, until transparent.  Add the garlic and cook for a minute.  Add the chard and toss until just wilted.  Stir this mixture into the lentils, add the cilantro and lemon juice, and season with salt and pepper to taste.  Simmer until hot and serve.

Adapted from The Essential Mediterranean Cookbook

Peach, plum, and berries crisp

Does anyone not like fruit crisp with ice cream?

Fruit mixture

• About 7 cups of fruit in all ~ chopped peaches, plums, all sorts of berries
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 TBS flour

 Crisp mixture

• 1/2 cup (packed) light brown sugar
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1 cup granola
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter

• vanilla ice cream

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Butter square baking dish. 

Toss fruit, sugar and 2 tablespoons flour in large bowl and pour into baking dish. Bake fruit until juices bubble, stirring occasionally, about 40 minutes.  Remove from oven. Increase oven temperature to 400°F. 

Mix  3/4 cup flour, granola, and sugar in medium bowl to blend. Add butter and mix with your hands until  moist clumps form. Sprinkle topping evenly over hot fruit in dish. Place onto a heavy duty baking sheet. Should  the juices bubble over as they sometimes do, they will not end up in your oven.

Bake crisp until topping is golden brown, about 20 minutes.

Cool slightly. Serve warm with ice cream.

Rum Cake

This is a slightly altered version of the original Bacardi rum cake.  The glaze has twice the amount of rum originally called for.  

Although I don't like to use cake mixes (or anything prepared), I cave in every once in a while.  This cake is delicious and moist, full of rum flavor, and will actually get better as the days go by. 

Ingredients:

Batter:

1 package yellow cake mix 

1 package Instant Vanilla Pudding (4 servings size)

½ cup cold milk

½ cup vegetable oil

½ cup dark rum
4 eggs

Glaze:

1 stick unsalted butter

¼ cup water

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup dark rum

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Generously grease a 10 cup Bundt pan with butter or shortening, and dust with flour.
   
   Batter:
2. Sprinkle the nuts over the bottom of the prepared pan.
   
   
3. In a large bowl of an electric mixer, combine cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, water, milk, vegetable oil, and rum; beat until thoroughly mixed. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula so the mixture blends evenly. Spoon the batter over the nuts and smooth the surface with the back of a large spoon.
   
   Bake:
4. Bake 1 hour or until a long toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place pan on a wire rack to cool. Do not remove from pan.
   
   Glaze:
5. In a small heavy saucepan over low heat, melt the butter. Stir in water and sugar; bring to a boil and boil for 5 minutes stirring constantly so mixture does not burn. Remove from heat. Stir in the rum.
   
   
6. Use a long toothpick or skewer (I use a knitting needle)  to poke several holes in the cake. Slowly pour the warm glaze over the cake in the pan, and allow to soak in. Invert onto a  plate.  I like to serve it with rum raisin ice cream and a dollop of whipped cream.  Decadent!

Summery Blueberry Cake

from the Smitten Kitchen blog,
http://smittenkitchen.com

Cake
2 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon fine sea salt or table salt
1 cup (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup buttermilk
4 cups blueberries


Glaze
2 cups powdered or confections’ sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, very, very soft
Preheat your oven to 350°F. Generously grease a 10-cup Bundt pan, either with butter or a nonstick spray. Sprinkle with a little flour.  Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk or sift 2 1/2 cups flour (leaving 2 tablespoons back), baking powder and salt together and set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer or large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, sugar and lemon zest until light and impossibly fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Then, with the mixer on a low speed, add your eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl between each addition. Beat in vanilla, briefly. Add 1/3 flour mixture to batter, beating until just combined, followed by half the buttermilk, another 1/3 of the flour mixture, the remaining buttermilk and remaining flour mixture. Scrape down from time to time and don’t mix any more than you need to. In the bowl where you’d mixed your dry ingredients, toss the berries with the remaining 2 tablespoons of flour. With a silicon spatula, gently fold the berries into the cake batter. The batter will be very thick and this will seem impossible without squishing the berries a little, but just do your best and remember that squished berries do indeed make for a pretty batter.
Spread cake batter — you might find it easier to plop it in the pan in large spoonfuls, because it’s so thick — in the prepared baking pan and spread the top smooth. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, rotating the cake 180 degrees after 30 (to make sure it browns evenly). The cake is done as soon as a tester comes out clean of batter. At 10 minutes before my baking time was up, a tester was totally wet with batter and I was certain it would never be done in the estimated time. 7 minutes later, the same tester was clean as a whistle, so fret not.
Set cake pan on a wire rack to cool for 30 minutes, before inverting the cake onto a serving platter to cool the rest of the way. Cool completely. Once cool, whisk together the powdered sugar, lemon juice and butter until smooth and very, very thick. (If you’d like it thinner, add more juice, but I like the thick drippiness of it, seen above.) Spread carefully over top of cake, letting it trickle down the sides when and where it wishes. Serve at once or keep it covered at room temperature for 3 to 4 days.