I have a sweet tooth. If dessert could be considered a meal, it
would be my favorite. I also love making
sweets, some completely from scratch and some with a little help from a box,
but all yummy, none the less. If you
come to my house for a gathering odds are the dessert bar will be more full
than the *real* food bar.
When I was in the restaurant
business a few favorites were my chocolate caramel cheesecake brownies, coconut
cream pie, and turtle cheesecake. I
would try to make at least one, if not three, pans of brownies a week and ten
to twenty pies of various flavor.
Cheesecake is a little more time consuming and didn’t get made quite as
often. I have great respect for the dining
establishments along The Corridor that make desserts from scratch to sell to
their customers. My very favorite, hands
down is C’Anne’s Bread Pudding from Territory Cellars in Stroud: sweet and cinnamon with a buttery sauce and a
big dollop of homemade whipped cream. Perfect
textures and great with a steamy cup of coffee.
The Prague Bakery has amazingly soft chewy sugar cookies. I’ve had really good lemon pie from The
Downtown Café in Prague, and I had a great piece of chocolate cake from The
Hungry Toad in Chandler. Small locally
owned restaurants will almost always have amazing desserts that are made in the
kitchen by people who are passionate about their food!
C'Anne's Bread Pudding from Territory Cellars in Stroud
I’ve had a few requests for recipes
from some great readers so I’m going to keep this short and sweet, pun intended,
and share those recipes. Enjoy the
beautiful Oklahoma fall weather and get out along The Corridor and find those
small hole-in-the-wall restaurants and save room for dessert!
Chocolate Caramel Cheesecake Brownies
Brownie Mix (I like Duncan
Hines)
Eggs
Oil
Water
8 oz Cream Cheese,
softened
½ cup caramel ice cream
topping
1 cup chocolate chips
Preheat oven 350
Mix brownie mix per
package directions, do not over mix eggs.
Pour into greased 9x13 pan and set aside.
Cream together cream
cheese and caramel, drop dollops of mixture into pan of brownies and use a
knife and swirl around. Sprinkle
chocolate chips on top and bake about 25 minutes or until brownies are done.
*Use peanut butter instead
of caramel
*Use heath or toffee candy
pieces instead of chocolate chips
*Add pecan pieces for the
“turtle” flair
Basic
Cheesecake
Heat
oven 300 degrees, prepare a pan lined with parchment paper, prepare a hot water
bath pan
Cheesecake
Crust
1-2
cups crumbs gram crackers
¼
cup sugar
1
stick butter, melted
Mix
crumbs and sugar then add the butter and press into the bottom of a lined 9”
pan.
Filling
3
packages (8 oz) cream cheese, softened
¾
to 1 ½ cup sugar
1
teaspoon vanilla
3
tablespoons all purpose flour
3
tablespoons sour cream
Pinch
salt
3
eggs
Heat
oven 300 degrees, prepare a pan lined with parchment paper, and prepare a hot
water bath pan
Cream
together cream cheese and sugar until the sugar is mostly dissolved
Add
vanilla, flour, sour cream, and salt
Add
eggs one at a time and only mix until mostly combined
Mix
eggs the rest of the way in by hand, do not over mix the eggs
Pour
cheesecake mixture over crust
Place
the pan with the cheesecake into a pan with hot water about ½ way up the pan
Bake
about 1 hour or until set. Turn off oven
and let set 30 more minutes. Remove from
oven and hotwater bath and let set until cool.
Refrigerate at least 4 hours.
For
the turtle cheesecake pictured, drizzle caramel and chocolate ice cream topping
on the cold cheesecake and sprinkle with pecans.
Apple Pie
2 pounds (4-6) McIntosh or other sweet apple, peeled,
cored, and sliced ¼ thick
1 ½ pounds (3-4) granny smith apples, peeled, cored and
sliced ¼ inch thick
¾ cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon zest
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg
¼ to 2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 egg white
2 pie crust uncooked
Preheat oven to 500 degrees and place a cookie sheet with
edges on the bottom rack
Roll out one pie crust and place in your baking dish, it’s
best to use a 9” or deep dish pan. Roll
the other crust and set aside.
Toss the apples with the ¾ cup sugar, flour, lemon juice,
zest, salt, and spices and let set about 3-5 minutes.
Pour apples and any accumulated
juice into your pie pan.
Top with 2nd rolled crust and roll edges under
and crimp and cut a vent in the top of the pie
Place the pie on the heated cookie sheet and drop the
temperature to 425, bake 25 minutes.
Rotate the cookie sheet and reduce the oven temperature
to 375 and bake 30-35 minutes or until the juices are bubbling and the crust is
deep golden brown.
Cream Pie Filling
1 ¼ cup sugar
¼ cup cornstarch
½ teaspoon salt
2 ¼ cup milk
4 eggs, separated
1 tablespoon butter
Vanilla
In heavy bottom sauce pan
mix sugar, cornstarch and milk
Cook over medium to high
heat, stirring constantly, until it starts to thicken
Temper egg yolks into the
hot filling and continue to cook until it is a thick consistency, like set
pudding
Turn heat off and add
butter, vanilla, and other flavoring of choice
Pour into cooked pie crust
and top with meringue and bake until golden brown or cool and top with whipped
cream
For Coconut Cream
Add 1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ½ teaspoon coconut
flavoring
1 cup coconut flakes
For Chocolate Cream
Add 2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips
For Banana Cream
Add 2 teaspoons vanilla
1-2 bananas, diced
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