Beach Ball Cheese Ball

Sunday afternoon, I went to a baby shower for one of the girls I work with. The shower was a mermaid/sea theme shower. I volunteered to bring a cheese ball and crackers. I found a cheese ball on line decorated like a beach ball and that got me thinking I could do something similar. I was going to use Kellie's cheese ball recipe, and this is close to it but not quite the same. Either that or there is an error in the email she sent me with the recipe - so Kellie, if you are reading this, does your cheese ball recipe have 1/2 cup shredded cheddar or 2 and 1/2 cups? I used 2 and 1/2 cups, but the recipe you sent me only said 1/2 cup.  Here's what I did:

2 (8 oz) blocks of cream cheese at room temp.
2 and 1/2 cups SHARP cheddar cheese
3 Tbsp hidden valley ranch dressing and dip mix (or 1 packet)

Mix everything together and form into a ball.

I had Pierce help me with the next part- he divided the ball into 7 sections and even left a little circle at the top - like a beach ball has- the little circle we left plain. I thought about putting slivered almonds there, so it'd still look white- but too many nut allergies in the group I was with. Then in each of the seven sections we did a different color of topping: 2 of them in chopped parsley (green) 2 in finely chopped yellow bell pepper, 2 in pimento (red) and 1 in bacon bits. Some of the other ideas on the internet were green and black olives- but I didn't use those. The best flavor was probably the parsley and bacon sections. This picture is just of the back half, because I didn't think to take one until after the party when the front half was gone. The girl who the shower was for LOVED it and asked for the recipe. The rest of the cheese ball we had at FHE on Sunday night with the entire extended family and they all liked it too - although a couple people said it was a little on the salty side- maybe I'll cut back the dip mix to 2 and 1/2 Tbsp next time.

Bran Muffins

Saturday morning I decided to make bran muffins - another healthy recipe idea. I have recipes from both Uncle Mike and Aunt Joy - slightly different from each other. I made a combination of them both. This is what I came up with.

2 cup wheat flour
2 cups wheat bran
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Mix together:

1 Tbsp lemon juice
and enough milk to make 1 cup.

Allow to sit a few minutes to curdle (or use 1 cup buttermilk)

then in a blender mix:
The milk
2 oranges, peeled and cut into quarters
3/4 c brown sugar
1/2 c oil
1/3 c egg whites (equivalent of 2 eggs)
1 tsp baking soda

Pour into the flour mixture and stir just until moistened. Pour into greased muffin tins. Bake at 400 for 10-12 mins.

This makes 24 muffins at 112 calories each.

Cinnamon Pecan Sock-It-To-Me Pudding Cake

We had a memorial day BBQ tonight. Ryan and I went grocery shopping this afternoon and Ryan found a cake he wanted to buy for dessert. We looked at it and then I decided we should make our own! So I compared a few recipes and came up with this one:

1 (18.25 ounce) package butter cake mix
1 small instant vanilla pudding mix
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1 c water
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/4 cup chopped pecans

Combine 2 Tbsp of the cake mix with the brown sugar, cinnamon and nuts to make the streusel filling and set aside. Mix the remaining cake mix with the pudding, eggs, oil and water until well blended and smooth.  Preheat the oven to 350. Grease and flour a Bundt pan (lots of shortening!). Pour 2/3 of the cake mix into the pan. Sprinkle the streusel filling onto the cake batter and then top with the remaining cake batter. Bake for 50 min or until a toothpick comes out clean.

After it has cooled, frost it with a powdered sugar glaze - I found one recipe that said to use 1 cup powdered sugar and 2 tablespoons milk. I didn't measure I eyeballed it all and added some vanilla too.

 It was really good. I think next time I will swirl the filling into the cake more. Everyone loved it. And there are only 5 pieces left- just enough for lunches tomorrow.

Waffle Love Waffles - Our version of Liege Waffles

Who doesn't love Waffle Love?? They are so yummy. Not very good for you, but very tasty!  Last Friday, Ryan decided to make his own version. We've had them THREE times since then! He found a recipe on line for challah waffles and then made his version. This only makes 6 to 8 waffles, so he ALWAYS doubles it.  We eat them so fast, I don't have a picture. Maybe next time.  They have to rise overnight - so start the night before. We had to stay up late waiting for Myles to come home from his job at Bahama Bucks last Friday, so it worked out for us.

1 packet or 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon white sugar
3/4 cup warm water
1 1/2 cups wheat flour *
1/2 cup steel cut oats *
1 cup all-purpose flour *
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 cup oil
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup pearl sugar (Ryan didn't measure - he just eyeballed it)**

* Note on the flour - you need 3 cups total, The first time Ryan made them, he added some buckwheat too and he has varied the portions of white and wheat flour as well.

** See notes on pearl sugar below

1) Proof the yeast with 1 teaspoon of white sugar in 1/2 cup of the water.
2) While it’s proofing, combine the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar, the flour, and the salt in a large bowl.
3) In a separate bowl, mix together the remaining 1/4 cup of water, the honey, 1/2 cup of oil, eggs, and vanilla. Once the yeast has proofed, make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the egg mixture and the yeast mixture. Stir with a wooden spoon to combine. It will be a very sticky dough. Resist the urge to add more flour. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in the refrigerator over night.

The next morning:
4) Gently stir in the pearl sugar.
5) Heat your waffle iron, and spray with cooking spray. Make a ball of dough about a rounded 1/3 of cup (It will NOT pour) and put it in the center of the waffle iron. Close iron and cook until browned.

Keep warm in a 200 degree oven until you have enough to feed the family. Serve with fresh fruit and fruit syrup. If you aren't counting calories (and you shouldn't be it you are eating these - they are over 200 calories for each small waffle.) serve with Nutella or cookie spread.

NOTE ON PEARL SUGAR-

They don't sell it at Smiths and its super expensive on Amazon so make your own. We found 2 different ways to make your own. We tried them both. BUT the easier way of doing sugar chunks we thought up is to use sugar cubes! Wrap several sugar cubes in a kitchen towel. Use a hammer or rolling pin the break the sugar cubes into chunks. Remove the correct size chunks and shake the loose sugar out of the towel. Repeat until you have enough "pearl sugar."

Stove top Pearl Sugar from The Pancake Princess
1 1/2 c sugar
2 Tbsp water (maybe more)

Put sugar and water in a pot on the stove turned to the lowest heat setting for 15 to 30 minutes stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon. This dries the clumps out. Don't stir too often or it breaks the clumps apart, but if you don't stir enough it could make clumps that are too big - although we didn't run into that. If there is loose sugar, add a tiny bit more water. If it doesn't seem to be clumping, you can turn it up to medium for no more than 30 seconds at a time. You don't want the sugar to melt or caramelize! After the clumps have formed, allow to cool completely before using.

Overnight Pearl Sugar from The Sugar Hit

1 c sugar
4 tsp maple syrup (I think Ryan eyeballed this one too.)

Mix together the maple syrup and the sugar. Spread in a think layer in a pan or dish. Leave it uncovered and put it in a cool dry place to dry out overnight. (the fridge -- unless you live in Dry Utah - and we do- so we put ours in the basement pantry). Ours actually took longer than just overnight, but it was a great reason to make waffles again the next day.  When the sugar is hard, break it into small pieces to use in your recipe.

Quinoa, Zucchini, Ham and Cheese cups

Lately, I have been looking for good breakfast ideas - especially ones that are lower calorie. I found a recipe for some egg muffins on beachbody.com and made a couple of changes. It used quinoa and I had some leftover from a salad I made a few days ago. I'm reposting the it here with the changes I made - they are minor ones.

2 cups cooked quinoa
2 large eggs
1/3 c egg whites
1 cup shredded zucchini
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
2 Tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese
½ cup diced ham
¼ cup finely chopped parsley
1/4 cup chopped chives
Sea salt and ground black pepper


1. Heat oven to 375° F.
2. Lightly coat 16 muffin tins with spray. Set aside.
3. Combine quinoa, eggs, egg whites, zucchini, cheddar cheese, Parmesan cheese, ham, parsley, and chives in a large bowl; mix well. Season with salt and pepper, if desired.
4. Evenly pour quinoa mixture into muffin cups.
5. Bake for 15 minutes.

They were DELICIOUS!! Even Adria liked them - and that's saying a lot. She won't eat anything. She ate leftovers for dinner tonight too.

Orange Citrus Vinaigrette

I tried a new salad dressing today- It turned out great! So I had to write it down before I forgot it. I adjusted a recipe I found on allrecipes.com and this is what I came up with. PLUS its low calorie too! I figured if this makes 10 servings - its only 60 calories per serving. And it probably does more than 10 servings.

1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
4 Tablespoons olive oil
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
4 teaspoons honey ( I eye-balled it)
salt to taste - I probably did 1/2 tsp.- I just ground some into the mix.

Whisk everything together and put it in the fridge to chill until ready to serve over a garden salad with romaine hearts, avocado, tomatoes, cucumbers, cilantro, and crumbled feta cheese. I added some strawberries on top and some chicken strips grilled with fresh sage from my garden.

Prom 2016 Dessert Buffet

So I volunteered to make desserts for the after prom party at my house Saturday night. The guys wanted cheesecakes. I thought it'd be fun to do a variety of desserts. I spent way too long going through recipes and picking out stuff I wanted to try. Here's what we ended up with and some of the things I learned along the way. The final dessert menu:

-Mini Cheesecakes in 5 flavors: cherry almond, strawberry, cookies and cream, Butterfinger, and chocolate chip.
-Bon-bons (a.k.a) Oreo cookie balls
-Mini White Chocolate Raspberry Bundt Cake
-Mini Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes
-Lime Bars
-Mint Chocolate Brownies
-Milk Chocolate Hazelnut Ganache Tart

 Here's what I learned:
-I really need another fridge/freezer. We had to take tons of food out of our fridge and freezer - I still have a cooler in the basement full of food that doesn't fit back in the fridge because of all the left over desserts I didn't feel like rearranging at 12 A.M. last night.  (Today we are baking the ham we had to take out of the fridge yesterday - ham dinner anyone?)

-You can't do everything! - Much to my disappointment. I wanted to make lemon bars and mini lime buttermilk souffles- but ran out of time - so we got lime bars instead - they were great!

-Costco doesn't always have strawberries! - Can you believe it? I went to buy some on Friday morning and they didnt have any. -I even stopped some stranger there who had some in their cart and asked where they found them - they got the last ones. They had asked an employee to check for more for them too - Alas - none to be found.

-Write a list or you'll forget it at the store. I really wanted to get some snack mix when we took our trip to Costco, but it wasn't on my list. I didn't remember it until we were home. Needless to say, I never got back to the store to get it. I thought a bowl of salty something would go great with all the sugary desserts. But they had to go without. After the kids left, Ryan and I raided the pantry for popcorn and peanuts for ourselves and ate them in bed while watching something on his laptop. We haven't stayed up that late in a long time.

-You  MUST MUST MUST use shortening to grease mini Bundt pans. It doesn't matter how much cooking spray you use - they will not come out. I learned the hard way. - Use lots of shortening and flour them well. The first batch tasted great - but was a mess. - See the recipe for other tips.

-You MUST use pie weights in mini tart pans to keep the crust from falling when prebaking - also learned the hard way. - And it doesn't make any difference if you grease the pans or not - I greased the first set without thinking, they fell, And I didn't grease the second set - they fell too. Anyone want weird pie crust cookies?  Line those pans with tinfoil and fill them with old dry beans!

So..... Now for the recipes.

Chocolate Mint Brownies

I made these first on Tuesday night and them froze them until Saturday when I added the mint layer and chocolate frosting. I worked all day Tuesday - So here's the working mom shortcut for brownies: Use a Fudge Brownie Mix. They're great - no one can tell. Remeber to line the pan with tinfoil before you bake them so they are easy to get out of the pan later. The rest of the recipe is from Sally's Baking Addiction classic mint chocolate brownies. She has GREAT recipes. Including the brownies from scratch if you have time. Here's the part I used with my modifications:

MINT FROSTING LAYER
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
2 cups confectioners' sugar
2 Tablespoons milk
1 and 1/4 teaspoons peppermint extract
1 drop green food coloring

Put everything in a bowl and beat until smooth and cream. Frost brownies and allow to set - I stuck them back in the freezer for a few hours. Then later added the chocolate layer:

CHOCOLATE LAYER
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 heaping cup  semi-sweet chocolate chips

Melt in the microwave, stirring every 20 to 30 seconds (Mine took 60 sec). Stir until creamy. Pour over the mint layer and smooth it out with a spatula. Put them back in the freezer until set and you are ready to cut them.

Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes

Tuesday night I also made the Orange Creamsicle Cupcakes. This recipe is from the Deals to Meals blog. Ryan used to subscribe to their service, But not anymore - Smith's on sale with my 10% discount on Kroger brand stuff was just as good and he didn't have to run around to different stores or go to Walmart - whom he hates. Here's what I did:


1 lemon cake mix
3 eggs
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
1/3 cup oil
Zest of 1 orange
1/4 cup sour cream

Put cupcake liners in pan. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Fill the cupcakes 3/4 full. Bake for 12-15 min. I did the toothpick test. Regular sized cupcakes were supposed to back 15-18. I assumed small ones would be done faster.

Then I stuck those in the freezer too. I frosted them Saturday:

Orange Buttercream Frosting:
1 1/2 sticks butter at room temp.  (Lot of butter - though about cutting it down but didn't)
2 ounces cream cheese  at room temp.
2 Tbsp fresh orange juice
1 tsp orange extract
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Put everything in a bowl and mix well. The original recipe said to beat the butter until it turned white, and the add the other stuff and beat more - I didn't have time for that. It turned out fine.


Mini Cheesecakes 

I got off early Wednesday night (at 5 instead of 7). So I started the cheesecakes.I considered several recipes, but wanted something I could bake multiple flavors at once. So I looked at a bunch and came up with this one of my own. It makes about 48 + mini cheesecakes.When I did the cherry ones I halved the recipe and still came up with 36. It depends how full you make them and how thick the crust is.

Crust
Each part makes enough for 24+ mini cupcakes. The fist time I made them it was exactly 24. When I did half the recipe for the cherry ones with just the graham cracker crust, I had enough for 36.

Graham Crust
2/3 cup graham cracker crumbs
2 -3 T butter
2 T sugar

Oreo Cookie Crust
10 Oreo cookies smashed into crumbs
1-2 T butter

Mix the crumbs, butter and sugar (for the graham crust) together. Press a small amount into lined cupcake tins. I used a water bottle lid. It worked perfectly! The first time I didn't prebake the crusts. The second time I did - I don't know if it make a difference. The baked ones may have held together better. If you do remember to bake them its at 325 degrees for about 8 min. Keep an eye on them.

Filling
2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese at room temp.
1/2 c sugar
2 eggs

You really need room temp cheese for this so you don't get lumps in you cheesecake. I don't usually worry about having ingredients at room temp, but I did for these and it makes difference.  Then divide into 4 separate bowls. Lots of the recipes said to add lemon juice or vanilla - I didn't. The first time I forgot, the second time I decided not to. But if you do, I added suggestions for how much I was thinking of doing below.

Add flavors to the 4 separate cheesecake bowls:

Strawberry

2 T strawberry jam
2 T flour (the first time I didn't add flour and they sunk in the middle - great little wells for holding topping)
(1/4 -1/2 tsp lemon juice -optional)

Oreo

5 Oreo cookies with frosting removed broken into pieces- not too crummy.
(1/4 -1/2 tsp vanilla-optional)

Butterfinger

2T peanut butter
2 fun size Butterfinger bars

Chocolate Chip
1/3 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips -Super rich - could be ok with just 1/4 cup
(1/4 -1/2 tsp vanilla-optional)

Cherry Almond
1/8 tsp Almond extract ( I used a little over 1/4 tsp when I did a double batch.)
**For Cherry only: Bake 15 min. Then add sour cream topping and bake an additional 10 mins:
1/2 C sour cream
2 T sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

Put filling over crust. I filled the first 4 flavors to the top, The cherry flavor I only did 3/4. Bake at 325 for 15 min. Turn off the oven and leave them there for 20+min. It's supposed to help keep the tops from cracking. They were mini ones so it didn't matter too much. After they cooled, I froze them too until Saturday morning when I added the toppings:

Topping

Strawberry
melt strawberry jam (about 3-4 Tbsp) in microwave. Spoon over tops of cheesecakes. Top with a 1/4 slice of strawberry. Drizzle with white chocolate

Chocolate Chip
I did nothing - the recipe suggested covering with chocolate ganache or melted chocolate chips, but I thought they were chocolaty enough. No time either.

Oreo
Top with stabilized whipped cream and 1/4 piece of Oreo cookie.  I have a recipe for stabilized whipped cream below. It makes WAY TOO MUCH! I used it on the lime bars too and still had left overs to use on pancakes the next morning.

Butterfinger
Top with melted chocolate chips and sprinkle with 1 fun size butter finger candy bar crushed.

Cherry Almond
Top with 2-3 cherries from cherry pie filling (recipe suggested mixing pie filling with 1/2 tsp almond extract first, but I didn't) and sprinkle with sliced almonds.


Stabilized Whipped Cream

Lot of recipes out there, but I used one from Chew Out Loud.

2 cups heavy whipping cream, very cold
4 T powdered sugar
2 T vanilla extract
2 tsp unflavored gelatin powder
2 T water

Pour cold heavy whipping cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract in a large metal bowl. Place bowl and whisks of electric mixer in fridge for 5-10 minutes to make everything cold.
Meanwhile, combine gelatin powder and 2 TB water in a small glass bowl. Once water has been fully soaked up by the gelatin, microwave the mixture for 15-20 seconds. It should become a thick, hot liquid. Stir well and let sit at room temp.
Remove the bowl from fridge. Beat on medium-high until soft peaks just start to form. Check the gelatin mixture. (If it has re-coagulated, microwave a few seconds at a time until it turns liquid again.) If it's hot, stir until it cools down to lukewarm. It should be a slightly warm liquid, but not hot. Resume beating whipped cream, while steadily pouring liquid gelatin right where the whisks are beating, to ensure it is being fully incorporated.
Beat whipped cream to stiff peaks. This happens really fast! Try to stop beating right at stiff peaks, but if you accidentally over-beat it a little bit, don't worry. It will still frost and pipe fine. I think I over beat mine - but it was ok.


Milk Chocolate Hazelnut Ganache Tart and Mini White Chocolate Raspberry Bundt Cake

I needed mini Bundt pans and mini tart pans- so I ordered them from Amazon, but they didn't come until Thursday. So I had to make both of these on Friday. I have made both of these recipes before, but making them into mini ones is easier said than done.  First of all the tart pans were really disappointing. Several of the bottoms were bent as were some of the rims and the coating was coming off of them too! I used them anyway, and sent a message to Amazon that they weren't very good. This morning, I sent them back to Amazon.  I mentioned you must use pie weights at the beginning of this post - its true! Especially for the mini pans. My fist try, I made 5 crusts (I greased the pans). Most of them shrunk a little bit- this was in the Amazon set of tart pans (around 5 inches). I used them anyway. Later in the afternoon, I went to Joann's and bought new tart pans (4.5 inches). I didn't know they sold them there originally, or I would have just got them there! They were made by Wilton and MUCH better quality! Unfortunately I didn't use pie weights, but I didn't grease them either and the sides still fell - worse that the first ones! I did some research online and found some suggestions:

-Don't stretch the dough 

-Don't overwork the dough. That was my problem with the second set.
- Allow the dough to rest after rolling it out and after putting it in the pans.
-Line the inside of the crust with foil and put in pie weights of dried beans. THIS IS A MUST!

Saturday morning I made another trip to the grocery store for more pie crust (yes I used a pre made crust) and tried again. This worked much better. Even so the one that I made with the leftover pieces still shrank a little. So don't overwork the dough either. When the sides of the tart pan are one a half inch and shrinking is noticeable!

Milk Chocolate Hazelnut Ganache Tart

Pie crust for 5 (4.5 inch) tart pans, cooked and cooled. ( or a 10 in tart crust)
2 (4.4 oz) Lindt Milk Chocolate Hazelnut bars, broken into pieces
1/2 c milk chocolate chips
3/4 c heavy cream
1 1/2 c chopped and toasted hazelnuts (I only used half the amount of hazelnuts- I use them all when I do a 10 inch tart.)

To toast hazelnuts, lay in a single layer on a baking sheet and toast for 5-7 mins at 350 degrees.
Place broken chocolate hazelnut pieces and chips in a bowl. Put cream in microwave for 1-2 min until it boils. Pour over chocolate  and stir until creamy. Pour into tart crusts, top with tosted hazelnuts and let stand until set, about 2 hours or chilled for 1 hour. Mine took forever. I finally put them in the freezer - but make sure they are level! some of mine weren't and so the filling was lopsided.  Cut into 6 wedges, top each with a quarter strawberry.


The second big disappointment of Friday was the bundt cakes. The pan was great. But I didn't grease it correctly. And the recipe has white chocolate chips and pie filling in it.  Not a big deal in the full size cake but in the small cakes the chips didn't melt and the pie filling didn't really swirl in. So when I tried to get them out,  they stuck in the top and came apart at the layer of un-melted chips and pie filling.  So tips for mini bundt cakes:
-Use shortening to grease the pans. Lots of it! Then flour with lots of flour and tap out the extra.
-Melt the white chocolate chips before stirring then in the batter.
-Put the correct amount of batter in a measuring cup, about 3/4 cup, add a spoonful of pie filling to the measuring cup and swirl around before pouring it into the cake pan.
-Don't overfill the cake pans. Only about 3/4 full.
-Just before cake is done cooking, put a towel in the bottom of the sink and pour boiling water over it. When the cake comes out. Put it on top of the towel for 10 minutes. (Its supposed to help the cake come out somehow - I tried all the tricks this time!) Then put a cooling rack over the cake and invert onto the counter. My cakes slid right out. YEAH!

White Chocolate Raspberry Bundt Cake

I found this recipe on the internet a few year ago when I wanted to duplicate the "Nothing Bundt Cake" bakery's version of this cake. There are several websites that have this recipe. They all seem about the same.

1 pkg. white cake mix
1 (5 oz-ish) pkg. instant white chocolate pudding (or vanilla pudding if you can't find white chocolate)
1 c. sour cream
4 large eggs
1/2 c. water
1/2 c. oil
1 1/2 c. white chocolate chips, melted (I used part white chocolate candy coating left over from the bonbons.)
1 c. raspberry pastry filling, approx.

Grease and flour a bundt pan and preheat your oven to 350-degrees. Mix first six ingredients together with a beater. Fold in melted white chocolate chips. *** See notes above about using mini bundt pans!!*** fill a 1 cup measuring cup with batter about 3/4 full. Add a spoonful of pie filling and swirl into the batter. Don't leave any clumps of pie filling. Then pour into the mini bundt pans.

Cook in oven at 350 degrees for 32 mins. Check with a toothpick.  If it does not come out clean, keep placing back in the oven for 1-2 min. After its cooled, frost with Cream cheese frosting:

1 (8 ounce) pkg. cream cheese, room temp

1/4 cup butter, room temp

1 1/2-2 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

I think I halved the frosting recipe. It makes a lot!

Bonbons

These are super easy. They are really Oreo cookie balls. But one of the girls at work makes them and calls them bonbons. And that sounds so much more elegant.

36 Oreo cookies
8 oz cream cheese at room temp.

Crush the cookies into fine crumbs. Add the cream cheese. Beat with a blender until well blended.  Form into 48 1-inch balls and freeze for 10 mins. Meanwhile melt white cholocate cany coating. Dip balls into melted white chocolate. Lift out with a fork so extra chocolate drains between fork tines. Place on waxed paper until chocolate hardens.  Drizzle with milk chocolate. Once again, I used the freezer to hurry the process along!

Key Lime Bars

Because I was running out of time Saturday I didn't dare attempt a recipe I had never tried before. So the key lime buttermilk souffle will have to wait for another time. I decided to do lime bars instead. Late Friday night I found a recipe for lime bars that looked pretty good and I have a delicious lemon bar recipe that everyone loves from my manager at work. I combined the two and then used the leftover whipped cream and came up with this. One of the moms that came to the dessert tasting said to call them key lime bars because that sounds better than just plain old lime.

Crust:
2 cubes butter
2 c flour
½ c powdered sugar

Filling:
4 eggs
4 Tbsp flour
2 c sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/3 c FRESH squeezed lime juice
1 tsp grated lime peel zest

Mix butter, sugar and flour and cut like pie crust. Put in 15x10 jelly roll pan. Brown in a 350 degree oven for 20 min. While in oven, beat eggs with sugar and lime juice. Fold in flour, baking powder and lime zest. Spoon lime mixture over crust and bake for 20-25 min. Dust with powdered sugar while hot. Cut into bars when cool. Top with whipped cream and sprinkle with addition lime zest.

Saturday was a rushed day. I had hoped to have the cakes and tarts done Friday, but had to redo them Saturday.  That made the rest of the day crazy and I barely got everything done in time for the pre dessert party with the parents. They even came late and it's a good thing because I wasn't quite ready by 7 p.m. when they were supposed to come. But by 8 I had it ready.
 I didn't ever get a white apron.  I looked at my work on Thursday.  But they didn't have one. I wanted to dress the part but no luck. I settled for a white cheesecloth towel tired around my waist.