Noah's Honey Quesadillas

first attempt

second attempt

final product :)

Well, we tried to make this three different times, and the third time was successful :).  Noah wanted honey quesadillas, and so we played around with the recipe until everyone thought it was delicious.  We tried to first make our own corn tortillas, but they were a little thick, so we used flour instead.  Our caramel sauce was too hard at first, and by the third try we got sauce rather than caramel candy :).  Notice how the caramel gets lighter every time.  And our filling became progressively sweeter with each attempt, but by the third try it was honey-ey and delicious.  Aaron and I gave them a 9, Noah gave them a perfect 10, and Owen gave them an 8.  Here's what Noah and I came up with:

4 T cream cheese, softened
4 T honey (more or less depending on desired sweetness)
4 tortillas

3/4 c sugar
1/4 c water
2 T butter
1/2 c cream
2 T honey

Beat together the cream cheese and honey, tasting as you go.  Spread the cream cheese mixture on the tortillas, and toast them on both sides.

Caramelize the sugar and water together, then when the sugar is a light amber, add in the butter and cream and honey, stirring until the sauce comes together.

Bobby Flay's Banana Foster's Crepes

So this is such a great dish, we love bananas foster, and this is a great way to have it.  Sorry about the upside down picture, I don't know what happened, but oh well :).  This is a basic crepe recipe with sliced bananas inside, and then topped with whipped cream.  The real star for this for me was the caramel sauce, I think it was the best one I have ever made.  The whole brunch meal was out of this world, but here is the recipe for the caramel sauce I found in Bobby Flay's Bar Americain cookbook.  The alcohol isn't necessary, you can use flavorings if you want, extracts, or just leave them out, but it will taste different.  We all gave this a perfect 10, and the calories for 12 crepes are per crepe 315 calories, and that includes one crepe, some slices of banana, some whipped cream and the caramel sauce.  The caramel sauce by itself, for 1/12, is 142 calories.  Here's what to do:

1 c sugar
1 c cream
1/4 t cinnamon
1 T orange liqueur
1 T dark rum

Combine the sugar and 1/2 c water and bring to a boil.  Cook until the caramel is amber in color, about 8 minutes.  While doing this, warm the cream to a simmer.  When the caramel has finished cooking, add the cream carefully, whisking the entire time.  Stir in the cinnamon and flavorings.  Serve warm.

Culinary Concoctions By Peabody's Samoas Mascarpone Filled Layer Cake

Here is where I found this recipe, I love her site.

I followed the recipe above exactly, except I used Keebler cookies (Samoa knock-offs) instead of Samoas, and although this was a lot of work, it was so delicious.  Eat this in small doses though, it is very rich.  Each serving, for 1/16 of the cake, was 861 calories, ouch!  Still, like I said, a little goes a long way.  Owen and Noah and I gave this a perfect 10, and Aaron gave it a 9.  It's so delicious, try it out!

Flour's Milky Way Tart

This, people, was an amazing tart.  Flour comes through again!  With oozy, gooey caramel, delicious chocolate mousse, and a crispy sweet tart crust, this one was a winner for everyone.  It received a perfect 10 from the whole family, including my parents.  I made this for my mom's birthday, and we loved it.  The way I made this each slice, 1/16 of the total, was 335 calories.  I did make a few changes to the recipe, and I am glad I did.  I used bittersweet chocolate rather than milk chocolate, and we all felt like the less sweet mousse was awesome.

See that caramel seeping out on the side there?  Yeah, it's delicious :).  Anyway, here is the recipe for this tart, which is really nice because you make everything the day before, then just spend a few minutes assembling it.

1 recipe Pate Sucree, baked in a tart shell

5 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped

2 c heavy cream

1 t cocoa powder

1 dash of salt

3/4 c sugar

1/3 c water

3/4 c heavy cream

2 T unsalted butter

1/8 t salt

2 t vanilla

1 oz bittersweet chocolate, shaved into curls (mine didn't work great :))

Melt the chocolate with the cream in the microwave, stirring very frequently to prevent burning.  Strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve, stir in the salt, and cover and refrigerate at least 8 hours, preferably overnight.

Place the sugar and water in a deep saucepan, and let cook over high heat without touching it for about 3-4 minutes, while the sugar caramelizes.  As it thickens and begins to darken, swirl the pan very gently to allow the darker color to mix with the lighter syrup on top.  Continue to cook until a deep amber, but don't overcook!  Burnt sugar is gross :).

Reduce the heat to low, slowly add the cream, and stir constantly but carefully while you pour it in, then continue to whisk and turn the heat to medium.  Whisk in the butter, salt and vanilla when the cream and sugar come together and soften again.  Remove from the heat, pour it into a container and refrigerate at least four hours, or more.

Spread about 3/4 of the caramel filling in the bottom of the tart shell.  Using a stand mixer, whip the chocolate cream mixture until it holds soft peaks.  Mound the mousse in the shell, and spread it evenly over the caramel.  Drizzle the remaining caramel over the top of the mousse, then top with the curls.  Chill before serving.

AB Caramel Brownies

My mother asked me to post this recipe as soon as I could, so these are coming faster than I had planned, but it's worth it :)  These brownies were incredibly delicious, and high in calories, and fun to make :).  The boys made these with me, and it was easy and enjoyable.  These received a perfect 10 in our house, and each brownie was 381 calories, so super high since we cut the pan into sixteen brownies.  You can find the caramel brownie recipe at Kristen Ashley's website,   Try these at your own risk, they are incredibly rich, and so worth the calories :)  Just imagine super chocolate squares with a creamy caramel layer in there.

Picky Palate's Apple-Spice Puff Pancake with Caramel Syrup

This is a delicious breakfast treat!  We loved this.  The boys and I all gave it a 9, and the real high point was the caramel sauce.  Picky Palate's puff pancake with syrup is easy and delicious, but the calories are crazy!!!  For 1/4 of the pancake and syrup, the calories are 835, gulp.  We had this with bacon and fresh fruit for dinner, and I had to watch my calories all day to be able to eat it.  I like that I don't have to stand and watch and flip a bunch of pancakes, it is all just one big pancake that we slice at the end.  Anyway, this was delicious, and here's what to do:

9 T butter, divided
1 c plus 1 T packed brown sugar
2 granny smith apples peeled, cored and chopped
1/2 t cinnamon
1 c flour
1/3 c sugar
1/4 t plus 1/8 t kosher salt
5 large eggs
1/3 c milk
1 t vanilla
1/4 c heavy cream
1/4 c sour cream

Preheat the oven to 425.  Melt 1 T of the butter and 1 T of the brown sugar over medium heat.  Add the apple and cinnamon and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes.  Remove from the heat.
Add the flour, sugar, and 1/8 t salt into a medium bowl.  Add the eggs, milk and vanilla into a separate medium bowl, whisking to combine.  Stir into the dry ingredients until well combined.  Add the apples, stirring to combine.
Melt 4 T of the butter in a large skillet over medium heat.  Pour the pancake batter into the skillet.  Bake for 18-22 minutes until puffed and golden.
While the pancake is baking, melt the remaining brown sugar and salt, and 2 T of water in a saucepan over medium heat.  Cook, stirring, until bubbly and smooth, about 5 minutes.  Add the remaining butter and stir until melted.  Add the heavy cream and sour cream, stirring until well combined.  Reduce the heat to low until ready to serve.  Cut the pancake into four wedges and drizzle each wedge with the caramel syrup.

Pioneer Woman's Caramel Apple Sweet Rolls

Although I was going to post this a little later, I told my parents about it on Sunday and they requested pictures and a recipe.  These are such good sweet rolls.  I have tried the Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls and her chocolate chip cookie sweet rolls, but these are featured in her newest cookbook, so I decided to make them, and they are a hit.  These caramel apple rolls taste like apple pie, and have such a great flavor, and also aren't too difficult.  You can find the recipe for these on the Pioneer Woman's website, here is the link, and I followed it pretty closely, I just found the amount of powdered sugar called for in the frosting to be too much, so I would cut that back based on your needs.  I also needed to cook them longer, big surprise, my oven is off, but otherwise I followed the recipe.  The calories for 26, which is how many rolls I made, were 352, and the rolls got a 9 from me and the boys, and a 7 from Aaron.  Try these, they are delicious!

Don't you love Jonah's Thomas the Train plate ;)?

Salted Caramel Apple Crumble

So I normally love the food I've tried from Lauren's Latest blog, but this salted caramel apple crumble, unfortunately, was a flop for me.  I gave it as high as I did because it wasn't terrible, but we were all severely disappointed.  This smelled and looked wonderful, and the caramel tasted great, but the salty apples just ruined this for us.  Also, the crumble topping was too salty too :(.  This was easy to put together, and I followed the recipe exactly except for putting less salt than it called for on the apples, but it just didn't work for our family.  1/8 of the total was 477 calories, and Oma and Opa gave it a 7, Aaron and Noah gave it a 6, I gave it a 5, and Owen gave it a 4.  Oh well, we won't make this again.

for the caramel sauce-
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon sea salt
3/4 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
for the crumble-
1 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
6 tablespoons softened butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
for the apples-
4 granny smith apples, peeled, cored and sliced
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 teaspoon salt

For the caramel sauce- heat sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium heat to melt sugar. Continue cooking and swirling sugar until it turns amber in color. Whisk in sea salt and heavy cream. Mixture will bubble up violently briefly. Continue whisking until sauce is smooth in consistency. Stir in butter and vanilla. Set aside.
For the crumble- combine all ingredients together using a stand mixer. Mixture will be crumbly, but stay together when squeezed. Set aside.
Prepare apples and toss in lemon juice. Cook apples in a large cast iron skillet over medium low heat in butter to draw out moisture. Sprinkle with salt to draw out all the moisture possible. Drain apples and place back into skillet. This process should take about 5-7 minutes of cooking.
Pour 3/4 of prepared caramel sauce into the apples and stir gently. Top with the crumble topping. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes and serve with remaining caramel sauce.

Dorie Greenspan's Caramel-Peanut Topped Brownie Cake

We had Dorie Greenspan's Caramel-Peanut-Topped Brownie Cake, and man was this good.  Aaron and I gave it a 9, and Owen and Noah gave it an 8.  We had 12 servings, and each serving was 508 calories.  This is definitely not a low calorie food, but it is worth the calories to eat this.  Yum.  We made some extra caramel sauce to go with this, as found in the Playing Around section of this recipe in Dorie's Baking cookbook, and added more caramel to the cake, and yum is all there is to say.  I'm just going to link to the recipe, which you can find at this website, and encourage you to make this soon :)

Samoa Bars

We tried these samoa bars the other day, and although the taste was amazing, the caramel was too hard, the recipe said to cook it to 260 degrees, which makes hard ball caramel, and that is just too hard for these bars.  I may make these again with the caramel being a lot less firm, and then I think they will be delicious.  We couldn't actually eat these, because of the texture of the caramel.  They are like those caramel chews you get at the store that are quite difficult to eat, and having that as a layer in a bar makes it impossible to eat.   Since we had to throw the whole pan out, I'm giving this a 0, even though like I said the flavor is good.  I'm also not posting the recipe, just follow the link to find the recipe.  I followed the recipe exactly, using a candy thermometer and everything.  I was frustrated at this recipe, obviously, because throwing out that much food really sucks.  The calories per bar for 24 bars was 640, another reason not to make these :).  Anyway, great idea, poor execution.

Slow Cooker Chocolate and Caramel Cake

I tried baking for the first time in the crockpot!  That is always an adventure, one I'm glad I tried.  I followed the recipe for Moist Chocolate and Caramel Cake exactly, and the only criticism I have of this recipe is that mine was a tiny bit overcooked, and I cooked it for the least amount of time listed.  Oh well, it was a big hit with the boys and myself, and I like the cream cheese flavor it had.  Aaron gave it a 7, Owen gave it an 8, I gave it a 9, and Noah gave it a perfect 10, big surprise there :)  That kid loves his desserts.  This was fun to make with the kids, and again, I like that I could make it in the crockpot.  We got at least 16 servings out of the cake, and the calories/serving were 388.  Here's the recipe:

4 oz cream cheese

1/2 cup milk or cream

1 cup plain yogurt (or sour cream--I used sour cream)

1 egg

1 (16.5 oz) yellow cake mix, unprepared

1/4 cup cocoa powder (I used 1/2 c)

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 T butter

1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk

1/2 cup evaporated milk 

 

In small microwave safe bowl, combine cream cheese and milk. Microwave on 50% power for 1 minute; remove and stir. Continue microwaving for 30 second intervals until cream cheese melts; stir with wire whisk to blend.

Place in large bowl; stir in yogurt, cocoa powder, chocolate chips and egg. Mix well. Add cake mix and stir just until combined.

Spray a 6 quart slow cooker with nonstick baking spray. Spread batter evenly in slow cooker.

In small saucepan, combine butter, sweetened condensed milk and evaporated milk; heat to boiling, stirring until blended. Carefully pour over batter in slow cooker.

Cook on high for 2 1/2 to 3 hours or until cake springs back when lightly touched. Uncover, turn off slow cooker, top loosely with foil, and let stand for 30 minutes.

Gently run a sharp knife around the edges of the cake and invert over serving plate until cake drops out. If any sauce remains in slow cooker, spoon over cake. Cool for 30-45 minutes before serving.  

Oatmeal Butterscotch Caramel Cookies

Our cookie of the week is Oatmeal Butterscotch Caramel Cookies.  These were really good!  I used homemade caramel sauce which I had leftover, and these turned out great!  We all liked them, Owen gave them an 8, Noah and I gave them a 9, and Aaron gave them a 7, but again, they aren't chocolate chip so that's a good score for him.  I made 48 cookies, which is one dozen more than the recipe said, so the calories were 128/cookie.  I like that these have oatmeal in them, I love any kind of oatmeal cookie, and these didn't disappoint.
Tomorrow we're having some muffins.

Banofee Pie

I made my version of Banofee Pie today.  I used a recipe from Curtis Stone and altered it and made it my own.  I had opened a can of sweetened condensed milk to make a lime drink over Father's Day, and no where could I find a recipe using only a partial can of sweetened condensed milk.  I also had leftover bananas from the pancakes earlier this week.  I needed to use them ASAP, so I decided to guesstimate the amounts and make a banofee pie.  I know banofee pie is usually made with graham crackers, but I liked the idea of chocolate crust I saw somewhere else.  Here's my recipe:

Banofee Pie

15 Oreos
5 T butter, melted
1/4 c brown sugar, packed
4 T butter
3/4 c sweetened condensed milk (approximately half the can)
3/4 c whipping cream
3/4 c bananas (mine were cooked with butter, brown sugar, and maple syrup)

Crush the oreos to little crumbs and add melted butter.  Press into bottom of pie pan or little ramekins.  Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.  Make a caramel by cooking the brown sugar in a pan over medium heat. Watch it, it will burn quickly!  Add in the butter and sweetened condensed milk and cook until caramel in color.  Spread over cookie crust.  Cool at least 1 hour in the fridge.  When ready to serve, beat the whipping cream to soft peaks, then fold in the banana mixture.  Serve with any leftover caramel (we didn't have any) or any other garnishes.  367/pie for 10 pies.

I love the layers of chocolate, caramel and bananas.  We gave this between an 8 and a 9, very easy and yummy.