Lemon Sour Cream Tart

This is really good - BUT you need to know that this is a 24 hour dessert - it MUST SIT OVERNIGHT.

I got this recipe from @Cakebycourtney on Instagram - she has a couple of books that are AMAZING too. We just made this Samoa Cake last week - and it was ALSO A WINNER!!!

Lemon Sour Cream Tart

INGREDIENTS

For the Pretzel Crust

• 2 cups (150 g) finely ground pretzels
• ½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter, melted
• ¼ cup (50 g) granulated sugar

For the Lemon Sour Cream Filling

• 1 ¼ cups (250 g) granulated sugar
• 1 cup (240 g) whole milk
• 3 tablespoons (22.5g) cornstarch, measured then sifted
• ½ cup (110 g) lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons (4 g) lemon zest
• 4 egg yolks
• 1 cup (240 g) sour cream

Whipped Cream

• 1 cup (240 g) heavy whipping cream
• ½ cup (62.5 g) powdered sugar, measured then sifted
• ½ teaspoon (2.1 g) lemon extract

METHOD

For the Pretzel Crust

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Spray a 13×5-inch tart pan with nonstick spray. Set aside.
2. In a medium size mixing bowl, combine the finely ground pretzels, melted butter, and sugar. Stir until the pretzels are “wet.”
3. Pour the pretzel mixture into the tart pan and press firmly down to create the crust.
4. Bake the crust for 6 to 8 minutes.
5. Remove from oven and allow to cool at room temperature.

For the Lemon Sour Cream Filling

1. In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar, milk, corn starch, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until mixture thickens – about 6 to 8 minutes. The mixture should be able to coat a spoon. Reduce heat to low.
2. In a small mixing bowl, stir the egg yolks. While stirring the egg yolks, slowly add two tablespoons of the lemon mixture to the egg yolks. Once the lemon mixture is added, slowly add two more tablespoons of the lemon mixture to the egg mixture. This will temper the egg yolks so they don’t cook when you add them to the lemon mixture.
3. Once the egg yolks are tempered, slowly add the yolk mixture into the lemon mixture, stirring constantly.
4. Continue to cook on medium heat for about 3 minutes.
5. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely.
6. Stir in the sour cream.
7. Pour the lemon filling onto the pretzel crust. Refrigerate overnight.
8. Top with whipped cream when ready to serve.

For the Whipped Cream

1. In a stainless steel bowl, combine the whipped cream, powdered sugar, and lemon extract. Beat on high speed until stiff peaks form.

Courtney’s Note: This one is best served chilled and could also be made with limes instead of lemons.

Cold Spinach Dip

Cold Spinach Dip
10 oz. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
16 oz sour cream
1 cup mayonnaise
1 packet Knorr Vegetable Mix
8 oz water chestnuts, drained and chopped

Grilled Donuts

You just need 1 dozen (or more!) of glazed donuts. 

Set your Traeger to 400 degrees and preheat with the lid closed for 15 minutes.

Place the donuts on the grill and cook for 2 to 3 minutes on each side, until glaze is bubbly and there are grill marks on the donuts. Serve right off the grill while the donuts are hot. Top with whipped cream and strawberries if you like!

Homemade Caramel

Homemade Caramel

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup water
2 teaspoons corn syrup
2/3 cup heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 teaspoons salt

Mix sugar, water and corn syrup in a small saucepan.
Bring the water and sugar mixture to boil over medium heat, but DO NOT STIR. (Stirring encourages crystallization). Let the mixture cook until it caramelizes into a golden brown color. It happens quickly, so keep an eye on it.
Remove the caramelized sugar syrup from the heat and slowly mix in the cream. Pour in just a tiny bit at a time, especially at the beginning, and mix to combine. You can start adding more and more as you go along.
Mix in salt and vanilla. Stir to combine.

Samoa Cake

I saw a recipe on Cakebycourtney on Instagram and I decided to re-create it but with CHEATS!!

I actually did all the research/brainstorming but my 17 year old daughter followed all my instructions and made the cake herself!!

The original recipe is HERE - I'm just going to post my cheats.

This cake was SO DELICIOUS! 

INGREDIENTS NEEDED:

2 boxes Betty Crocker Devil's Food Cake

1 cup Vegetable oil

6 eggs

1 cup greek yogurt

1 package guittard chocolate chips

1 1/6 cups heavy cream (divided)

Shortbread cookies (Walker's)

Buttercream frosting

14 oz bag shredded sweetened coconut shreds

2 Tablespoons corn syrup

1 cup sugar

Water

Salt

Vanilla extract

EQUIPMENT

Sheet pan

6" cake ring

FOR THE CAKE
2 boxes of Betty Crocker Devil's Food Cake
1 cup greek yogurt
Follow the directions on the box (1 c veg oil + 6 eggs) and add 1 cup of greek yogurt
Next time I think I'll just do 1 box and 1/2 cup greek yogurt

Grease a sheet pan, cover with parchment paper and grease parchment paper, put batter on cookie sheet and bake at 325 degrees for 25 minutes

FOR THE GANACHE

1 cup milk chocolate guittard chocolate chips

1/2 cup heavy cream

Warm heavy cream in the microwave for 1 minute. Pour warm cream over chips and let sit for a few minutes - then stir to incorporate.

FOR THE ICING
Medium tub Buttercream frosting from my local grocery store (Harmon's)
Shortbread cookies crumbled up

Incorporate the crumbles into the frosting. It's best to leave the frosting out to get to room temp so that it's easier to work with.

FOR THE SHORTBREAD

Walker's shortbread cookies!!

FOR THE COCONUT FILLING

1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup water
2 teaspoons corn syrup
2/3 cup heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 teaspoons salt
14 oz. bag of sweetened shredded coconut


Mix sugar, water and corn syrup in a small saucepan.
Bring the water and sugar mixture to boil over medium heat, but DO NOT STIR. (Stirring encourages crystallization). Let the mixture cook until it caramelizes into a golden brown color. It happens quickly, so keep an eye on it.
Remove the caramelized sugar syrup from the heat and slowly mix in the cream. Pour in just a tiny bit at a time, especially at the beginning, and mix to combine. You can start adding more and more as you go along.
Mix in salt and vanilla. Stir to combine.

Set the caramel sauce to the side and let cool while you toast the coconut.
Set your oven to 425 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment and pour all of the coconut evenly onto the baking sheet. Bake the coconut for about 4 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oven and toss, and then toast for another 4-5 minutes, or until golden brown all over. Let cool completely.
Combine the caramel and the coconut. You’ll use about 1/3 of the mixture for each layer of the cake.

Use the 6" cake ring to cut out 3 circles of cake.

LAYERING:

Cake

Ganache

Cookie crumbs

Piped frosting

Coconut & Caramel filling

REPEAT

As you can see, our first attempt was a little wonky. We still need to figure out how to help it keep it's shape!! I'll update this post when we do!!

Indiana Jones Dinner

Indiana Jones Themed Dinner & Movie Night

Why does it have to be snakes? Breadsticks

Mozzarella balls, kalamata olives green olives EYEBALLS

"BAD DATES"
12 pitted Medjool dates
4 oz goat cheese, at room temperature
3 Tbsp lightly roasted, salted pistachios
1/4 cup honey
1/8 tsp cayenne powder

Open up the dates and stuff with softened goat cheese. Top each date with three 

pistachios and fresh thyme leaves.
When you have all of your dates stuffed, warm honey with 1/8-1/4 tsp ground cayenne pepper (depending on how spicy you want it), then drizzle the spiced honey over the dates.

Snake "eggs" english peas in butter sprinkled with parmesan

Temple of Doom salad

Watermelon, feta and mint

Steak in the heart (beef tenderloin)

Make you sweat Targets (grilled donuts)

So fun to have a themed dinner & movie night!! Hoping to do this again very soon!!

Farmer's Market Flatbread

I saw this idea on Our Best Bites. 

We go to Farmer's Market's on Saturday's and today we found delicious looking berries and brie!

FARMER'S MARKET FLATBREAD

I grabbed the flatbreads (pizza) from Trader Joes - and had everything else on hand. 

Flatbread – Trader Joe's - but any precooked flat bread will do (or naan for personal bites!)

Olive Oil

Apricot jam– you could definitely swap out the flavor of jam if you like. I like the very thin layer of sweetness under the cheese and apricot has a bit of a tartness to it, which I like. Other jams like strawberry, will be significantly sweeter, so just use a light hand if you go that direction.

Brie

Berries – I love a combo of blackberries, raspberries and strawberries but any one of these is great by itself.

Honey or hot honey– optional but delicious

Balsamic Glaze – find this ready made at the store in a squeeze bottle. If you can’t find any, you can boil down balsamic vinegar on the stove top until it’s reduced and thick and syrupy.

Fresh basil

Flakey Salt

Preheat a grill to medium low and set up for indirect heating.

Drizzle a little olive oil over the surface of your flatbread. You can place it directly on the grill grates, but you’ll want it on indirect heat, meaning it’s not sitting directly over flames (so we don’t burn the bottom - we used a cookie sheet to heat it up the first 2 minutes and then used parchment paper on the grates for the remainder of the cook.

Cook for about 2 minutes for the flatbread to get warm and start to crisp up.

Remove from grill and spread a light layer of apricot jam on the flatbread. Top with slices of brie and sprinkle on berries. You can really do this part to taste- a little or a lot! Pop it back on the grill to melt.

Take it off the grill and then drizzle with balsamic glaze, hot honey, fresh basil and a little sprinkle of flaky salt. Delicious and easy!!

Watermelon & Rosemary Agua Fresca

My daughters and I LOVE farmer's markets. We love to go see what people have grown, made, etc. We usually hit a fruit stand first things, each of us get a clam dish of berries and eat them while we peruse the market.

Last year, we decided it was going to be the "Year of the Beverage" at the farmer's markets we visited. If we saw something we haven't tried - we would buy one and try it! Fun to get our picky eater to try new combinations.

We tried a watermelon & rosemary Agua Fresca and we were instantly in love. 

One of my daughters had an End of the School Year party/sleepover at our house. We planned ahead for brunch the following morning, I asked what she wanted to drink and she gasped and said "do you remember the watermelon Agua Fresca?" Both our mouths started watering.

Watermelon & Rosemary Agua Fresca
2 cups water
¾ cup white sugar
1 sprig rosemary
12 cups cubed seeded watermelon, divided
2 cups lemon juice, divided


Bring water and sugar to a boil in a small saucepan over high heat. Stir in rosemary; set aside to steep for 1 hour.

Place 6 cups watermelon, and 1 cup lemon juice in a blender. Strain rosemary syrup through a mesh strainer into the blender. Purée until smooth. Transfer to a large pitcher.

Purée remaining 6 cups watermelon, and remaining 1 cup lemon juice. Stir into the pitcher. Serve over ice.