I've got another contributing post for the new site Culinary Covers. What's on the menu today? How about Cherries Jubilee Ice Cream Pie!

A delicious brandy infused cherry topping on top of a creamy, swirly, frozen pie. Don't forget the graham cracker crust. Yum!

For the recipe head on over to Culinary Covers and grab it. Stop and say hi while you're at it too!

What do you like to do when you’re trapped in the house on a snow day? I’d like to say I spent countless hours cleaning and scrubbing my house, all while performing amazing super-mommy tasks.
I would be fibbing just the teensiest bit though.

Snow days are for searching the internet for new and delicious recipes to try, and for whipping up a recipe that uses scandalous amounts of butter and sugar…and if there’s even more butter and sugar dumped on top?
I’m talking about Vanilla Crumb Pie people. If you’ve never tried this pie, you’re missing out. The warm vanilla filling is similar to pecan pie (sans nuts) and then it’s covered in a sweet, buttery crumb topping.
This is another wonderful Tasty Kitchen recipe, submitted by Tonya of 4 Little Fergusons. Head on over to Tasty Kitchen to find this great recipe. Thanks Tonya for sharing this deliciousness!

I’m sorry it’s been so long since my last post! I’ve been putting a lot of time into developing my photography skills, and as a results I’ve been focusing more on portrait photography lately. But never fear, I won’t be leaving my foodie friends in the dust. Here is a peace offering to get those saliva glands working, this is a truly delicious dessert that is currently sitting in my fridge, making it impossibly hard for me to stick to my diet.

I love Banoffee pie (banana + toffee for those wondering at the strange word), and when I had some bananas reaching the point of no return, I decided to make this dessert that I haven’t had since I left Wales. I wanted to switch it up a bit, so I added a layer of peanut butter chocolate over a toasted walnut-graham crust. Layered with the typical sliced bananas, gooey toffee flavor filling and fresh whipped cream, this really made my day!

Banoffee Surprise Pie
Printable Recipe

Filling:

• 2 (14oz) cans sweetened condensed milk
• 4 ripe bananas
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup heavy cream, whipped
• 6oz semi sweet chocolate chips
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1/4 cup peanut butter

Crust:

• 4-5 tablespoons butter, melted
• 6oz graham crackers, crushed into crumbs
• 2/3 cup toasted walnuts, ground

Place the unopened cans of milk in a large pan and add enough water to cover them. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and let simmer for 2 hours, topping the water level to keep the cans covered. Carefully lift the hot cans from the pan and let cool.

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 9-inch tart pan or spring-form pan with butter. Place the remaining butter in a bowl and add the crushed graham crackers and ground nuts. Mix together well, then press the mixture evenly into the base and up the sides of the pan. Bake for 10-12 minutes, then remove from oven and let cool.

Peel and slice the bananas and place in a bowl. Squeeze the lemon juice over the bananas, add the vanilla extract and mix together. Place the chocolate chips, 2 tablespoons butter, and the peanut butter in a microwaveable bowl. Microwave on low until the mixture is melted, stirring frequently.
Gently spread the chocolate mixture over the base of the cooled crust (you won’t need all of it), and place in the freezer for a few minutes until the chocolate has hardened. Now spread the banana mixture over the chocolate layer in the pan, then spoon the contents of the cooled cans of condensed milk over the bananas. You may not need to use all of the condensed milk. Top with a layer of whipped cream. You can garnish the top with grated chocolate, chopped nuts, or whatever your heart desires! Eat and enjoy.

I’m super excited about my post today. I was so honored to be asked to contribute a guest post on Pioneer Woman’s Tasty Kitchen. I have to say, this really made my day, and I’ve been so excited to share with you all the wonderful recipe I chose to make for the post.

If you are not familiar with Tasty Kitchen (but I’m sure you are), you really need to head over and browse the collection of delicious recipes and wonderful posts. I stumbled across this delicious looking recipe for Sugar Cream Pie, and since it is the Indiana State Pie – and my family is from Indiana – it seemed like the perfect match.  So head on over to the Tasty Kitchen Blog today, and check out this great recipe and my guest post.

In case you missed my last post, the end of this month marks my 30th birthday, and my 1 year Bloggiversary which is on the 30th. To celebrate, I am featuring 30 of my most popular/favorite recipes from the last year, along with a few new ones. To save time, I’ll be grouping a few together in one post, with a Top 10 featured on my actual Bloggiversary.

These next three recipes are dear to my heart and are a few of my earliest posts. The Cinnamon Chai Cream Pie was a Looks Delicious featured recipe on the Tasty Kitchen Blog.  Malted Milk Ball Chewies was my first recipe that was featured in the Foodbuzz Top 9, at number 1 too! And Turtle Cookie Bars was my first photo accepted by Foodgawker.  Stay tuned for the next installment for this month-long celebration!

There are certain things in life that evoke memories from your childhood.  The smell of your mother's perfume as she tends to your scraped knee, the taste of holiday treats that were baked, unfailingly, each year until it turned into a tradition, and watching those old movies that you can remember from when they first came out.  For me, Christmas memories are filled with the smell of cinnamon and spice drifting through the house, and the sounds of "Oh Holy Night" and other Christmas hymns as the music softly strains through a winter evening.  I almost forgot.  It also, absolutely, without fail, includes the rich taste of Mince Pies.

These little pies are a Christmas & New Years staple in Wales, where I grew up amid rolling, patchwork hills dotted with woolly sheep, and winding roads lined with brick row houses and the occasional thatched roof cottage.  While my mother continued to cook mainly American cuisine at home, she threw in the occasional British treat that we had grown to love.  Every Christmas she would go to a little bakery that sold the best mince pies, and the box she brought home would be received by us all in a hushed silence.  As the lid to this box full of treasure was lifted, you could almost see the lights from heaven shining down on this glorious concoction:) And if you listened really close, you might even hear the "Hallelujah Chorus" being sung.  O.K...I may be exaggerating just a little, but they were really that good.   
 
These pies are a traditional British sweet pastry, that is usually eaten during Christmas and New Years. They can have a pastry top, or my favorite is a mince tart. The mincemeat filling is made from apple, raisins, sultanas, candied peel, spices and either suet or vegetable shortening. Mincemeat originally did contain meat in addition to the fruit, as the fruit, spices, and alcohol provided a means to preserve the meat. But nowadays the meat is usually left out. There are some that still make it with meat, but I prefer not to include it.

This year, I had a craving for these little pies that I couldn't get rid of.  So I determined I would make my own - because really, where was I going to find Mince Pies in my little Missouri town?  Well, my hopes of making some from scratch were dashed, since I couldn't find half of the ingredients I needed, so I settled for a jar of mincemeat filling that I found.  After tasting the filling from the jar, I realized it needed some doctoring.  So I added a little orange zest, orange juice, cinnamon and rum flavoring, and pronounced it decent enough.  The Brandy Glaze was an experiment of random ingredients, but the end result was very tasty.  The ingredients for the glaze are a rough estimate, but it should be fairly close.


Mince Pies with Brandy Glaze
Filling:
1 jar mincemeat filling (or whatever homemade mincemeat filling you like)
1 orange, zested and juiced
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp rum flavoring

Shortcrust:
1 1/2 cups + scant 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
pinch of salt
7 Tbsp unsalted butter
3-4 Tbsp ice water

Brandy Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
1-2 Tbsp Brandy
1 Tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
milk

For the shortcrust pastry:
Combine the flour and salt in a large bowl.  Cut the butter into small cubes and add to the flour. Using your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour, lifting the mixture up and dropping it back into the bowl – you want to keep the mixture light and airy. Keep mixing until the texture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Sprinkle the ice water into the bowl, a little at a time, and mix through with a fork. Use your fingers to bring the pastry together; it’s ready when and the sides of the bowl are clean and it’s formed a solid ball. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow the pastry to rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

For the mince pies
Heat oven to 400F. In a small saucepan over medium heat, mix your jar of mincemeat together with the orange zest, orange juice, cinnamon and rum flavoring. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 5 minutes. Lightly grease your tart pans

Flour your work surface and roll out the pastry as thinly as possible (about 1/8 inch). Cut out approximately 12 rounds with a pastry cutter, and place them in the base of your mini tart pans. Prick all the pie bases with a fork to stop them rising. Fill each case with about 3 tablespoons of the mincemeat mix – don’t overfill your cases or the mixture will leak through the pastry when cooking.  Place the tart pans on a baking sheet, and bake for approx 20 minutes.  Remove from oven and allow to cool on a wire rack.

For the glaze:
In a small microwavable bowl, combine the powdered sugar, brandy, butter, vanilla, and enough milk to reach your desired consistency.  Microwave in 10 second intervals until the alcohol has cooked off, but the brandy flavor remains.  Drizzle the brandy glaze over the tart filling.  Store in the refrigerator and serve cold, with a dollop of whipped cream if desired.

If you want to make mini pies instead of tarts. Brush the edges of the bottom pastry with a little milk. Cut out another 12 rounds for the tops, and place over the filling. Pinch the pie edges together to seal. Brush over with egg wash and pierce the tops with a fork. Bake in the oven for approx 20 minutes until golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 1 minute before placing on a wire rack to cool.  Sprinkle the pastry tops with powdered sugar and serve warm or cold.

My post today has a decidedly red theme, beginning with a trip to historic downtown Branson, MO, where I bought a checkered red apron, a speckled red ladle, and fresh red raspberries.

My parents visited us last week, they live out of the country and only get to visit every few years.  Consequently, I'm always trying to think of fun things we can do when they visit, but it always ends up with each of us staring at the other saying, "What do you want to do?" Then the other replies, "I don't know, what do YOU want to do?" Then we sit around trying to decide what to do until we've wasted half our day.  I come from a long line of Indecisionators.  Indecisionator: A person who, lacking the ability to make a decision in a reasonable amount of time, brings about the destruction of order in the day, thus creating chaos.

Imagine my pleasant surprise when my dad has a clear plan of wanting to go Branson, eat at "that little place that has the good pies", and "go to that shoe store".  Obviously we have done this enough that I am able to decipher his vague references, and we hop in the car for the trip.  Note: I only live 30 minutes from Branson, MO.

Upon finding a parking space in the historic downtown area of Branson, we head to "the place with the good pies", also known as the Farmhouse Restaurant.  Here, you can order good, homestyle southern food; chicken fried steak, fried chicken, sandwiches, blackberry cobbler, pies, fresh lemonade and sweet tea, etc.  After lunch we head over to Dick's Five & Dime, an old fashioned five and dime store with an eclectic mix of odds and ends.




I ended the day buying some fresh raspberries since they were on sale really cheap.  I've had an idea floating around in my head for a raspberry dessert for a while, and decided this was a good time to play around with it.  So these little berries were turned into Spiced Raspberry Curd, which I then turned into Spiced Raspberry & White Chocolate Truffle Tarts. I added a little cinnamon and allspice to the curd, which gave just a tiny bit of spice, but you can always add more if you want more of a spiced flavor. The first tart I ate was chilled in the refrigerator, and I froze the second one.  They both turned out delicious and will be on my make again list :)

Spiced Raspberry & White Chocolate Truffle Tarts

Raspberry Curd
10 oz raspberries
3 Tbsp fresh lemon or lime juice
1/2 cup butter, cut into pieces
3 Tbsp sugar
4 Eggs
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground allspice

White Chocolate Truffle Filling
(adapted from Epicurious)
1 cup heavy cream
4 Tbsp butter
16 oz good quality white chocolate chips
1/8 tsp pure vanilla extract

Tartlette Shells
(from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home To Yours)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp salt
9 Tbsp unsalted butter, very cold
1 large egg yolk

White Chocolate Whipped Cream
1 cup heavy cream, chilled
remaining white chocolate truffle filling

For the Curd:  Set aside six raspberries. Combine the rest of the raspberries and lemon/lime juice in a blender, cover and process until smooth.  Press the mixture through a strainer to remove seeds.  In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.  Reduce to low; add the raspberry puree, sugar, eggs and spices.  Cook for 10-15 minutes, or until mixture is smooth and thickened, and reads 160F.  Remove from heat.  Press plastic wrap over the surface of the curd.  Refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

For the Truffle: Bring one cup of cream and butter to a simmer over medium heat, stirring until butter melts.  Remove from heat.  Add white chocolate and stir until smooth.  This may take a few minutes.  Whisk in the vanilla.  Pour 1 1/2 cups of the white chocolate filling into a small bowl; cover and refrigerate until chilled.  Let the remaining white chocolate mixture cool to room temperature for about 15 minutes.

For the Whipped Cream: In the bowl of an electric mixture, pour the remaining 1 cup of cream and beat until soft peaks form.  Pour in about half of the lukewarm white chocolate mixture; continue whipping until stiff peaks form.  Cover and refrigerate.  Pour the remaining white chocolate mixture into a resealable bag; cut the tip off the corner of the bag, and use the filled bag to pipe filling into the raspberries.  Take the 6 berries you set aside earlier, and pipe the white chocolate filling into the center of the berries.  Place the berries in the freezer until set up.

For the Tart Shells:  Put the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl or a food processor.  Stir or pulse to mix.  Scatter the butter pieces over the flour and cut in with a fork, or use your fingers until you have coarse crumbs; if using a food processor then pulse until coarse crumbs form.  You should have some pieces the size of oatmeal flakes, and some the size of peas.  Stir the egg yolk to break it up, then add it to the flour mixture and pulse in 10 second intervals until clumps form.

Turn the dough onto a work surface, and very lightly knead just until any dry pieces are incorporated.  Butter 6 small tart pans, and using your fingers press the dough into the bottom and up the sides of the pans.  Freeze the crusts for at least 30 minutes before baking.  Center a rack in a 375F oven.  Butter the shiny side of 6 pieces of foil, big enough to cover each tart shell.  Fit the foil, buttered side down, tightly over each tart crust.  Put the tarts on a baking sheet, and bake for 30 minutes.  Remove from oven and gently remove the pieces of foil.  If necessary, use the back of a spoon to push down any areas that have puffed up.  Let cool completely on a wire rack.

Once the crusts have cooled, remove from the pans, and pour some of the chilled white chocolate filling into the bottom of each tart crust.  Enough to fill the crust about 1/3 full.  Place the tarts in the freezer to let the filling harden.  Once the filling is firm to the touch, spoon enough of the chilled raspberry curd into the shells to fill them up.  Top with a little of the white chocolate whipped cream, and garnish with a white chocolate filled raspberry.  Serve and enjoy!  These are also delicious served frozen.

The creation of this pie is due to my sister-in-law introducing me to Tazo Chai concentrate.  Mix a little concentrate with some milk and you have your own Chai drink.  Put it in the freezer for a little bit, and you have a frozen Chai drink. The possibilities are endless.  I decided that the Chai would work great in a cream pie, and immediately thought to make a pie with my cinnamon vanilla pudding, and Chai whipped cream.  To put it over the edge, I put it all in a hazelnut-almond crust.

Most cooks have their share of recipes not turning out like planned, and accidents turning into pleasant surprises.  This pie turned out to be my disaster-turned-delicious.  What was the problem?  My pudding would not set up.  I have made it numerous times before, and never had any trouble, but of course the one day it would go wrong would be when trying a new recipe.  After being in the fridge for a couple of hours and still looking pathetically like a cinnamon soup, I decided to throw it in the freezer to see what happened.  As it turns out, frozen pudding is quite good.  So I went with it - topped it with the Chai whipped cream - and sprinkled with chopped hazelnuts and shaved chocolate.  It was good!


In a heavy bottom medium saucepan, mix the cornstarch and brown sugar.  Gradually add the milk and cook over medium heat until bubbly, stirring constantly.  Cook and stir for 2 more minutes and remove from heat.  Add the cinnamon and stir.  Gradually add one cup of the milk mixture to the beaten eggs.  Pour the egg mixture into the milk mixture in the saucepan.  Cook the pudding until almost bubbly, but don't allow to boil.  Reduce heat and cook for 2 more minutes, then remove from heat.  Add the butter and vanilla, and stir.  Pour the pudding into the pie crust, and place in the freezer for a couple of hours, until frozen through.