dessert | Adventures in Thyme

Peach Buckle

April 2, 2015 by Dan Leave a Comment

Peach Buckle

The weather pulled a fast one on us this week. We started out at a balmy 80 degrees on Monday, and now we’re down in a the 50s with a dusting of snow on the Sierras. So we’ve decided to dig our heels in and bake a delicious warm weather dessert. One you could happily eat at a picnic, family bbq, or perhaps, curled up by the fireplace. Enjoy!

Batter

3/4 cup packed Brown Sugar
1/4 cup Butter, softened
1/2 cup Milk
2 teaspoons Vanilla
1 large Egg
2 cups all purpose Flour
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
2 cups Peaches (We used canned peaches, drained)

Topping

1/2 cup all purpose Flour
1/2 cup packed Brown Sugar
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon Salt
6 tablespoons cold Butter, cut into small pieces

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

For the batter, cream together the brown sugar, and butter. Then add the milk and egg and beat until blended. Add the vanilla and stir. In a bowl, combine the dry ingredients and stir together. With your mixer on low, slowly add the dry ingredients a little at a time until all the ingredients are combined. Cut your fruit into bite sized pieces and gently stir into the batter.

Flour an 8×8 inch baking dish (ie: rub butter around in the dish covering all the areas batter will touch, then roll a tablespoon or two of flour around inside the dish covering up all the butter, then dump out the remaining flour.) Pour the batter into the baking dish and spread out in an even layer with a spatula.

To make the topping, combine all of the ingredients for the topping in a food processor and pulse until you have pea sized pieces. Sprinkle the topping evenly over the top of the batter.

Place your baking dish on the center rack of your oven and bake about 45 minutes or until a toothpick stuck into the center comes out clean.

Serve with ice cream.

Chai Pumpkin Cookies with Kahlua Frosting

March 19, 2015 by Ginger Leave a Comment

Chai Pumpkin Cookies

I’d like to be able to say that these cookies are healthy – think of all that pumpkin! It’s a fruit for cryin’ out loud! But alas, these cookies are only delicious, I can’t claim they are healthy. No matter though, grab a cup of coffee, or a steaming cup of Earl Grey and enjoy!

For the cookies:

1. Begin by setting your oven to 350 degrees F.

2. In an electric mixer whip the following until it’s “light and airy”:
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup softened unsalted butter

3. To the mixture combine well:
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 beaten egg
1 tsp vanilla

4. The dry ingredients are next, combine these together and then add the dry mixture to your bowl and mix well:
2 Tablespoons Chai Powder (I use David Rio’s Tiger Spice Chai purchased at World Market)
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt

Spoon generous tablespoons onto a baking sheet (I use nonstick baking mats in mine) and bake for 10 mins. These cookies don’t really spread out, but remain pretty much in the “footprint” you put them in. You’ll know they are done when the cookie gets a golden brown appearance on it’s edges.

As they are cooling it’s time to make the Kahlua frosting:

In a saucepan over medium heat, bring 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar and 3 Tablespoons of butter to boil. I recommend bringing it up to boil slowly, but stir constantly, you don’t want the sugar to burn in your pan. Once it’s bubbling begin to take note of the hot mixture, it will begin to get very thick, remove from heat. This should only take about 30 seconds or so after the boil (at least on my stove). Set the saucepan aside and let the mixture cool (about 10 mins).

Now add 2 Tablespoons of Kahlua and 1/4 cup of milk. Stir well, eventually the sugar will incorporate evenly into the mixture. At this point you’ll need to add powdered sugar until the frosting gets thick enough to almost spread. Using your 1/2 cup measure add 1/2 cup of powdered sugar, mix and then add more as needed. I use about 2 cups worth of powdered sugar to get the right consistency.

To frost the cookies place a small dollop on top of the cookie and it should still have enough viscosity to gently spread out over the top of the cookie with the help of gravity.

This recipe is modified from a wonderful recipe found on the Pillsbury website.

White Chocolate Snickerdoodles

March 11, 2015 by Ginger Leave a Comment

White Chocolate Snickerdoodles

This recipe begins 40 years ago. I know because in 2nd grade I signed the inside cover of the book. In the 70’s my elementary school participated in the Scholastic Book Club and I was always excited to choose and receive my new books. This particular book had a recipe a month and May (Peanut Butter) and October (Snickerdoodles) were my favorite. Jump forward in time where a chance encounter brought me face to face with a person who not only bought the same book while in elementary school but whose favorite recipe was in October. Of course we married and are cooking happily ever after – what cookies have joined together let no man put asunder!

Tonight, Snickerdoodles are hooking up with some colorful white chocolate Easter candy for a match made in heaven…or your kitchen.

For the dough:
1/2 cup softened butter (room temperature is fine)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1-1/4 flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup white chocolate Easter candy (such as M&M’s)

Cream the first two ingredients together then add the egg and mix well. Into another bowl combine sift together the dry ingredients (except the candy). Now add half the dry mixture to the wet and mix well, then add the remaining mixture, and mix well. Carefully fold in the candy and gently incorporate into the dough. Pour out the dough onto a sheet of parchment paper and carefully fold it closed (basically wrap it up). Set in the refrigerator to chill for an hour.

After tidying the kitchen, heat your oven to 400 degrees F and prepare a cookie sheet with either a baking mat or a sheet of parchment paper. When the oven is ready mix the coating in a bowl:

1 Tablespoon granulated sugar
1 Tablespoon cinnamon

Roll balls of cookie dough (about an inch in diameter or so) and then coat in the sugar/cinnamon mixture. Place on cookie sheet careful to leave space for the cookies to spread out.

They took about 10 minutes in my oven. Keep a watch around the edges, even with the cinnamon you will see a distinct light crust forming on the bottom – they’re done! Let cool and serve with milk.

Christmas Oatmeal Cookies

January 1, 2015 by Dan Leave a Comment

oatmeal cookies

If you’re reading this post you’ve survived the holidays, congratulations! We have emerged from our food comas too to share with you one of our Christmas family traditions – baking a “goodie”. We bake lots of goodies going into the Christmas season, and this one is a favorite that combines healthy oats with dried fruits and nuts. Oh there’s chocolate of course, what would it be without that?!

Our recipe started as Quaker Oats “Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies” recipe at http://www.quakeroats.com/cooking-and-recipe/vanishing-oatmeal-raisin-cookies.aspx , we tweaked it a bit to put a little tingle in your kingle. Enjoy!

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) Butter, softened
1 1/2 cups packed Dark Brown Sugar
1 cup Granulated Sugar
4 Eggs
2 teaspoons Real Vanilla Extract
3 cups All-purpose Flour
2 teaspoons Baking Soda
2 teaspoons Cinnamon
1 teaspoon Salt
6 cups Quick Quaker® Oats
2 cups Dried Cranberries
1 10 oz package Dark Chocolate Chips
1 12 oz package Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
2 cups chopped Pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Use your mixer to cream together the butter and sugars. Add the eggs (1 at a time) and then the vanilla. Beat until well combined.

In a separate bowl, mix well the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. (You can also sift this together if you like.)

Slowly, a little at a time, add the dry ingredients to your wet ingredients. (At this point, the batch was too big for our mixer, so we had to move to a large metal mixing bowl and finish mixing by hand).

Now add the oats, cranberries, chocolate chips and pecans. Mix until evenly combined. (This part took both of us, one to hold the bowl and one to mix.)

Drop by round teaspoonsful onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Use your fingers or a spoon to press them into flat disks. These will not flatten out on their own. Bake until golden, about 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool on the cookie sheet for a minute or two. Move to a cooling rack and let cool.

We made just over 10 dozen small cookies with this recipe – enough to hand out for unexpected guests and of course a few to leave for Santa Claus.

Mincemeat Pie

December 25, 2014 by Dan Leave a Comment

mincemeat pie

It’s Christmas! Along with lots of wonderful presents under the tree, we’d like to give you a treat for your tummy too! This is one of our Christmas desserts this year, a very easy mincemeat pie. The preparation time is relatively short and you can actually even bake it after your turkey comes out of the oven.

1 27-oz jar Mincemeat
1 to 2 red Apples, cored and chopped (1/4″ pieces are perfect)
1 cup Raisins, plumped in hot water and then squeezed of water
3/4 cup dried Cherries, chopped
1/2 cup chopped Pecans
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
1 teaspoon Nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon Ginger
1/4 teaspoon Allspice
1/4 teaspoon Clove
2 tablespoons dark Rum

1 egg beaten

Crust for a 9 inch double crust pie or two 8 inch double crust pies

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the jar of mincemeat, the fruit nuts and spices and stir well. Add the rum and stir that in.

Line a 9-inch pie pan with pie dough or 2 8-inch pie pans. Fill with the filling and cover with a top crust. Crimp the edges and slit to allow steam to escape.

Beat an egg and then brush the crust with the egg. Sprinkle with sugar.

Place a cookie sheet on the lower rack to catch any juice that boils out of the pie. Bake on the middle rack of your oven about 40 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.

Serve warm or cold.