Rum Pecan Cookie Bars with Sea Salt

This past weekend I went camping with a great group of 15 people (and one cat!) So of course I made a dessert to share.

 

Something about pecans, spiced rum, and butter seemed to remind me of fall, thus why I thought these would be perfect for a camping trip in September.

These bars were super buttery and went very well with coffee and tea.

 

Let's just say that this dessert made everyone a happy camper.

 Find the recipe at Baking the Goods.

Bake well and prosper!

Pineapple Coconut Bread Pudding with Buttered Rum Sauce

It's almost the start of the New Year so I've been thinking about what my 2014 New Year's resolutions will be. This got me to thinking about what they were for this year and then I remembered that my resolution involved baking. And I quote (from my blog entry on Jan 16, 2013), "I have decided that 2013 is the year I take on more challenging recipes. Recipes that push me out of my comfort zone and hopefully make me realize that yes, I CAN do it. It will also help me understand different techniques of baking that I haven't dabbled in yet. (Or I'll learn from my failure with the new techniques.)"

 

I've done pretty well this year with trying new recipes that weren't my usual go tos (cookies & brownies.) In fact, I've never made a bread pudding before and lookie here! While it's not complicated, I did get to try something new!

 

I brought this to a holiday party and people raved about it. I used a basic recipe and added a couple ingredients to the bread pudding and then added a buttered rum sauce. I think THAT'S what made people rave. :)

 

Have you thought about your 2014 resolutions? Do they involve baking?

Pineapple Coconut Bread Pudding with Buttered Rum Sauce (adapted from allrecipes.com)

Ingredients for Pudding:

3 eggs

1 cup white sugar

1 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple in juice, undrained

1/2 cup shredded coconut

1/2 cup butter, melted

1/2 cup raisins (optional)

12 slices bread, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (I used country-style white bread)

1 tablespoon brown sugar

 

Ingredients for Sauce:

6 tablespoons butter

4 tablespoons white sugar

4+ teaspoons of rum

Directions for pudding:Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 baking dish. (Or use ramekins.) Beat eggs and sugar in a large bowl until sugar is dissolved. Stir in pineapple, butter, coconut, and raisins. Stir in bread until well coated. Pour mixture into prepared baking dish and sprinkle with brown sugar. Bake in preheated oven until bread is fluffy, about 40 minutes.

Directions for sauce:

When pudding is ready to be served, melt butter in a pan on the stove and stir in the sugar and rum. Once completely melted, drizzle over the bread pudding while warm and enjoy. 

Bake well and prosper!

Pineapple Pumpkin Punch

I love the name of this drink since it's an alliteration. It's rather fun to say especially when you add the fact that it's with pecans. Just say it out loud and enjoy the consonants spitting from your mouth.

 

Or not...

 

Here's something you can enjoy: Photos of fall.

I had wanted to go up a little north of NYC to be a leaf peeper for the past two weekends and finally, yesterday, I got to go on a lovely day trip to Cold Spring, NY.

Cold Spring is a quaint town with a lovely view located on the Hudson River.

I'm so glad I got to catch the last bit of fall foliage before winter really settles in.

 

If it's still fall in your neck of the woods, here's a good punch to make for fall parties. If made a day or two ahead, the spice from the cinnamon really develops which nicely compliments the rum and pumpkin.

Pineapple Pumpkin Punch (adapted from foodnetwork)

Ingredients

2 cups packed dark brown sugar

cinnamon sticks

1 29-ounce can pure pumpkin (about 3 1/2 cups)

2 limes

Splash of rum, for serving

Pineapple chunks and/or pecans, for serving

Directions

Combine 12 cups water, the brown sugar and cinnamon sticks in a large pot and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Stir in the pumpkin and return to a simmer. Meanwhile, remove the zest from the limes in wide strips using a vegetable peeler; add the zest to the pot and simmer 15 minutes. Let cool, then refrigerate until the liquid is cold and the pumpkin pulp settles to the bottom, 2 to 3 hours.
Working in batches, slowly pour the liquid into a fine-mesh strainer set over a pitcher (repeat if necessary to strain out all the pumpkin pulp). Discard the pulp and lime zest. Return the cinnamon sticks to the punch and refrigerate until ready to serve. (Erika's Extras: you can actually serve this warm if your prefer. I also found that the punch has a better cinnamon flavor after a day or more in the fridge.)
Pour the punch into ice-filled glasses. Add rum, pineapple, and pecans. Serve with the cinnamon sticks. 

Bake well and prosper!

Vanilla Bean Yogurt Loaf

This past Saturday I had tons of friends come out for a picnic in Central Park. It was so much fun and we all brought way too much food (a mark of truly good friends.) I took out my camera and started snapping away at the food that I had made. And then I realized that I forgot to put my memory chip back into my camera.

FAIL.

Oh well. The food, friends, and weather made the day so wonderful that I didn't care about my lack of memory chip. I took some photos with my iPhone camera, but thankfully there were 3 slices left of this bread at the end of the day. So I brought them home and took some photos (this time WITH the camera chip in the camera).

Vanilla Bean Yogurt Loaf (adapted from Cupake Muffin)

1 cup vanilla bean yogurt (I used Cabot's but you can use plain yogurt and add in 1 tsp vanilla extract or 1 tsp of group vanilla.)

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

1 T light rum

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

generous pinch of salt

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a loaf pan.
2. Whisk together the yogurt, sugar, oil, eggs, and rum in a medium bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the flour mixture to the yogurt mixture and fold together with a rubber spatula until just combined. It will be slightly lumpy.
4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake 50-60 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.

Bake well and prosper!

Delightful Drunken Cranberry Lemon Cornmeal Cookies

I swear I don't live on a movie set. At least, I'm pretty sure I don't. However, as I walked home last night from the subway, I noticed that my whole street was blocked off with movie trailers.

I could tell it was a big budget film compared to the last movie filmed on my street: Rolo Pretzel & Pecan Bites (and a Bollywood Movie!) I found out that it was the "next Megan Fox film" which I have deduced from imdb.com to be Friends with Kids. I didn't see Megan Fox, but I did walk by Maya Rudolph. At least I'm pretty sure it was her.

As exciting as all of this is (read: not very), I was glad to wake up this morning and find the trailers gone. Their generators were very noisy!

Good thing I had these delightful cookies to keep me company along with the noise of the generators. The idea of these cookies might seem strange, but don't be scared. The combination of rum soaked cranberries, lemon zest, and cornmeal makes for one yummy cookie. Seriously, everyone agreed that these cookies were very good and very delightful. Bake them and see for yourself. :)

Drunken Cranberry Lemon Cornmeal Cookies (adapted from 6 Bittersweets)

Makes about 32 cookies

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp grated lemon zest
1/3 tsp salt
2 large egg yolks
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup dried cranberries soaked in rum and hot water. (About 4:1)
Powdered sugar, to garnish (optional)

Soak the dried cranberries in rum and hot water for at least 2 hours. They should be completely covered in liquid (about 4 parts rum, 1 part hot water.) Feel free to soak for longer if desired. Strain the cranberries before using.

Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl until fluffy. Beat in lemon zest and salt, then egg yolks. Beat in cornmeal, then flour. Stir in cranberries. Knead dough just to combine; divide in half transfer each to a sheet of plastic wrap or parchment paper. Form dough into two 1 1/2 x 6-inch logs. Refrigerate until firm, 2 hours or up to 1 day.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line large baking sheet with parchment paper. Slice dough log into 1/4-inch-thick rounds. Arrange rounds on prepared baking sheet, spacing 1 inch apart and reshaping into rounds if uneven.

Bake cookies until golden at edges, about 15 to 18 minutes. Transfer to rack. Cool completely, and dust with powdered sugar if desired. Store airtight at room temperature for up to 4 days.

Erika's Extras: This recipe can be made without rum. Just use the dried cranberries as is. If they are a little too dry, soak in hot water until plump.

Bake well and prosper!

UPDATE! I've just done something new for me in the world of blogging. I was invited by Lisa to be apart of her Sweets for a Saturday via Linky. It's the first time I heard of Linky. Check out what else is going on over on her blog for Sweets for a Saturday: Sweet As Sugar Cookie