I’m a huge fan of Fall. I love the changing colors of the leaves. I love the musky smell of piles of leaves wet on the ground. I love the cooler nights and shorter days. I love using it as an excuse to bake lots of things with pumpkin in them. So today I present to you a Pumpkin Cheesecake with Pecan Graham crust finished off with pecan nougatine (fancy word for caramelized sugar with nuts thrown in, usually almonds, but pumpkin and pecan are just so nummy together). I’m not the biggest cheesecake fan, but I do love this one. As I’m feeling a bit short of words today, I’ll just give you the recipe!  

Pecan Graham Crust:
1 cup graham cracker crumbs (I just whirred a bunch up in my food processor)
1 cup ground pecans (ditto on the above technique)
2 Tbsp granulated sugar
2 Tbsp melted butter
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-Prepare a 10″ springform pan by buttering it and placing a parchment paper circle in the bottom.
-Place all ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and whirrrrrrrr it until it resembles moist sand.
-Press into the bottom of the spring form pan and set aside.

Pumpkin Cheesecake (filling adapted from Marcel Desaulnier’s Death by Chocolate: The Last Word on a Consuming Passion)

2 pounds room temperature cream cheese
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 Tbsp flour
1 tsp salt
6 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 pound (2 cups) pumpkin puree
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (or 1/2 tsp ground ginger and 1/2 tsp ground cloves)
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-Preheat oven to 300 °F.
-In the bowl of a food processor combine the cream cheese, sugar, flour and salt and process, scraping down the sides every once in awhile, until smooth.
-Add the eggs one at a time, processing well after each addition.
-Add the vanilla, pumpkin puree and spices and process until well blended and smooth.
-Pour the mixture over the crust in the spring form pan, wrap the bottom of the spring form pan in aluminum foil.
-Place the spring form pan into a baking dish deep enough to hold a water bath that will go about 2 inches up the sides of the spring form pan. Place this into the oven and fill the baking dish with water 2 inches up the sides of the spring form.

Before Baking:
-Bake for about 1 hour 25 minutes, or until the cheesecake is slightly pulling away at the sides and jiggles like jello (it will continue to set up as it cools and it will pull away from the sides once it is completely cooled). Turn off the oven and allow the cheesecake to cool inside with the door propped open for about one hour, remove from oven, let cool at room temp another hour, then refrigerate overnight.

After Baking and chilling overnight:

Unmolded:

Pecan Nougatine:

1 cup sugar
1 Tbsp water
1/4 tsp cream of tartar or lemon juice
1/2 cup pecan pieces
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-Place sugar, water and cream of tartar in a small heavy bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Heat to boiling and allow to boil, swirling the pan a bit, until the sugar has turned a nice golden brown (also wash down the sides of the pan a bit as the sugar is cooking with a pastry brush and some water, or for the first three minutes of the boil, cover the pan and let the condensation wash down the sides for you).
-Once the sugar is a nice golden brown, stir in the pecan pieces. Pour mixture immediately onto a buttered sheet of aluminum foil or a sheet of parchment paper. Do not touch, it is hot! Allow to cool and then break into desired pieces, and place on pumpkin cheesecake as you like!

Slice, dollup with whipped cream if you want and enjoy with a nice hot cup of tea, or cider, or coffee or……..

Happy baking!

I’ve been waiting for an excuse to make this wonderful cake. I’ve had some pistachios left over from a previous baking adventure and had decided that they would be perfect in a pound cake. I’ve made this particular cake before plain and have used pecans in it as well (I love it with pecans, yum) and decided that it was time to try it out with pistachios. I was hoping they would lend great taste as well as a nifty color to the pound cake. Traditionally pound cake recipes are just that, a pound of butter, a pound of eggs, a pound of flour and a pound of sugar. I’ve never tried that particular recipe, I think I shall someday soon. Anyway, my excuse to make this comes in the form of getting to meet some of my husband’s friends this weekend. They will be joining us for some tea and conversation this Saturday and I will be making a few nice things for us to nosh on. This is one of them.

Pistachio Pound Cake
Makes one 9″ cake round or two 7×3″ bread pans or one bundt pan (method is important in the making of this pound cake, as there is no chemical leavener used. The creaming of the butter, and beating in of the eggs will help to give the cake rise)

8 ounces (one cup or two sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
12 ounces sugar
optional: one drop of green food coloring (usually I hate to add food coloring to baked things, but I admit that I cheated and added a drop to this)
5 eggs at room temperature
6 ounces all-purpose flour, sifted with a pinch of salt
1 cup finely ground pistachios (I toast the pistachios at 350f for about 10 minutes and then let them cool before grinding them)
1 Tbsp vanilla bean paste (or you can use the same amount of vanilla extract)
1 cup whole pistachios
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-Preheat the oven to 325° F. Prepare your baking pan of choice with butter and flour.
-Cream together the butter and sugar (and the drop of food coloring if you are using it) until light and fluffy, about 10 minutes.
-Add the first four eggs, one at a time, mixing well between each addition, reserve the fifth egg. Add the vanilla and blend in.
- Add the flour and salt mixture and the ground pistachios and mix on low speed until the flour has just started to disappear.
-Add the fifth egg and mix to incorporate.
-Fold in the whole pistachios.
-Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 1 hour, or until the cake is golden brown and springs back when pressed with a finger.
-Cool in pan for about 10 minutes, then invert and finish cooling on a rack. Serve alone or with whipped cream or a big scoop of vanilla ice cream. Enjoy!

This cake does freeze fairly well. Just wrap it up snug in some plastic wrap and freeze it for no more than 2 weeks (you could freeze it longer,but the quality will diminish as it does for most baked goods that are frozen).

Summer finds me wanting to buy every sort of seasonal fruit I can get my hands on. I’m always overwhelmed (and really overjoyed) by the gorgeous mounds of ripe fruits at the local farmer’s market. I’ve had a pile of plums sitting in my kitchen for the past few days, because there are not enough to make jam out of (I really must make some jam soon) I’ve been juggling around a few other things that I could do with them. A few have been eaten as is and the rest I’ve decided to turn into one of my favorite cakes (I have a lot of favorite cakes, if you haven’t noticed already). Now, I’ve always had pineapple upside down cake but have never tried any other fruit in it myself. I suppose I’ve always been worried that the pineapple would be the only fruit to work in this cake because it’s very acidic and tart, any other fruit would be too sweet to work in the wonderful brown sugary bottom…er..top. But I decided to give it a try anyway. I found a recipe at Epicurious and didn’t change much (I omitted the almond extract, as I’m not a big fan of it) and I’m adding a few little bits of crystallized ginger, cause I figure plums and ginger can’t be too bad of a combo.

Plum Ginger Upside Down Cake (adapted from Epicurious recipe)
Makes one 9″ cake round.

The Top (or…uh…I mean bottom for now…top later):

6 Tbsp (3 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup packed golden brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey
6 large plums, halved, pitted, each half cut into 6 wedges

The Cake Bit:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup finely diced crystallized ginger (I actually found some candied non-crystallized ginger at Trader Joe’s and used that..it’s great for snacking too, much less sugar than the crystallized)
6 Tbsp (3 ounces) unsalted room temperature butter
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk

whipping cream to dollop on top if you so desire

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-Preheat oven to 350°F.
-In a heavy bottomed sauce pan over medium-low heat stir together the 6 ounces butter, the brown sugar and honey until everything is melted together into a nice goopy sauce.
-Pour this mixture into a buttered 9″ circular cake pan. Arrange the plum slices on top of this in whatever pattern you desire (as you can see from my photo, my plums were just a wee bit too juicy, I think I would have been better off with a bit less of the goo with such juicy fruit).

-Whisk together flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in medium bowl, set aside.
-Cream together butter and sugar.
-Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla and crystallized ginger.
-Add dry ingredients alternately with milk, mixing just until blended. Spoon batter evenly over plums (I did have to spoon this, then gently spread it out a bit, the batter is fairly thick and I did not want to disturb my plum pattern).
-Bake cake until golden and tester inserted into center of cake comes out clean (you may want to place some aluminum foil under the pan to catch any dribbles), about 1 hour 5 minutes. Transfer to rack; cool in pan 30 minutes.
-Using a knife, cut around pan sides to loosen cake. Place platter atop cake pan. Invert cake; place platter on work surface. Let stand 5 minutes. Gently lift off pan.
-Serve warm with a dollop of whipped cream, or with some ice cream or just plain.

Wonderful dessert for a light summer meal. I did have one small problem with this, but it was due to the fact that my plums were overripe. Because they were so soft and juicy, they kind of dissolved into the topping. I also strongly recommend a 9″ spring form pan or something similar, my cake pan was not tall and the cake rose and spread out giving me a mushroom top! Appearance not as nice as I would like (still quite pretty), but the flavor was still outstanding.

Happy Baking!

Banana cake, is it just another way to use up old bananas or is it an excuse to buy a few extra bananas? I like to think it’s a fabulous excuse to buy that bigger bunch of bananas. A good banana cake with some cream cheese icing hits the spot when a sweet snack attack occurs. This is great for a casual dessert when company drops by or just as a lovely addition to any picnic. It’s a no frills dessert that banana lovers will gobble up. Sure you could dress it up with caramelized bananas or a Foster’s sauce, but sometimes it’s nice to have a simple cake with straightforward flavors. This is another one of my Gram’s recipes that I’ve tweaked just a little bit and the recipe for the cream cheese icing can be found here (minus the coconut and nuts mentioned…well, I am not using them for this, but they certainly wouldn’t be bad with this cake).

Gram’s Banana Cake:

2/3 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
3 bananas, mashed
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
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-Preheat oven to 350° F. Prepare two 9″ cake round with a parchment circle on the bottom and pan spray on the sides and bottom.
-Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt, set aside.
-Stir the vanilla into the buttermilk, set aside.
-Cream together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing to blend after each addition. Add the mashed bananas and mix to combine.
-Add the flour and buttermilk mixtures alternating between the two, starting with 1/3 flour, mix, add 1/2 of the buttermilk, mix, add another third of the flour, mix, add the remaining buttermilk, and follow with the last of the flour. Mix until the flour has just become blended in.
-Evenly distribute the batter into your prepared baking pans (I used a regular sized ice cream scoop to do this and got about 5 scoops per pan) and bake for 12 minutes, rotate the pans front to back and bake for another 10 to 12 minutes, or until the cakes are a nice golden brown and spring back when the top is touched lightly.
-Cool in the pans for about 5 minutes, then invert out of pans and allow to cool thoroughly on a rack.
-Prepare the cream cheese icing (you could use the recipe from the post listed above, or you could make your own, or even a simple icing of butter, confectioner’s sugar and vanilla would work).
-Slice the layers lengthwise giving you four layers. Spread the frosting thinly between each layer, ending with a nice coating on top. You can also do the sides if you wish, I just really like the casual look without the sides coated in icing.
-Cut a big slice and enjoy with coffee, tea, milk, or whatever you like!

Happy Baking!

Perfect for a picnic or potluck. This is a cake my mom always made for us during blueberry season. Coming home from school to find this cake cooling on the counter was always a grand event. Mom still makes it often for church picnics and other events. Blueberry Buckle is a terrific way to finish off a long day of cooking out and relaxing. This is very simple to make, very moist, chock full of blueberries and it travels well. It also makes for a wonderful breakfast cake, or could be served warm for dessert with a lovely scoop of vanilla ice cream. Serve it along with some fresh strawberries and whipped cream on the Fourth of July for a red, white and blue look.

Blueberry Buckle (makes one 9×9″ cake pan)

- Cream together butter and sugar. Add the egg and milk and mix until blended. Add the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt, mix until just blended and then gently fold in the blueberries. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Make the topping:

No, I haven’t been watching reruns of “The Newlywed Game” (hopefully I haven’t given any of you strange flashbacks to the show…we used to watch it when I was a young baker…and don’t worry, I won’t try to use any “Gong Show” references), I’m talking about Whoopie Pies. I have seen Whoopie Pies before and I always wanted to try them out. So, imagine how happy I was to find a recipe for them in Chocolate American Style by Lora Brody (a book I am just now beginning to appreciate). These little cakes look very promising with their deep dark chocolate rounds filled with billowy marshmallowy filling. These are just wonderful when you are having an attack of the sweet tooth. Easy to make and very very satisfying. The name is fun to say to boot, so really, you can’t go wrong! These could also be perfect for a picnic as they last a while, are individually wrapped and are crowd pleasers. On to the recipe!

Whoopie Pies (adapted from Chocolate American Style by Lora Brody) Makes 9 large pies, 18 smaller ones:

For the cakes:
2 cups all-purpose flour (5 ounces..I used the weight measurement instead of volume for this one)
3/4 cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup whole milk (I used buttermilk instead of the whole milk and lemon juice cause I love the moisture buttermilk brings to the party)
1 Tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp vanilla extract (or a little more if you like, I used 3 tsp or 1Tbsp of it)
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 large egg
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-Heat oven to 350° F. Prepare two sheet pans by lining them with parchment paper.
-Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder and baking soda into a medium bowl, set aside.
-Mix the milk, lemon juice and vanilla together and set aside (the mixture will thicken and curdle while it sits).
-Cream together the brown sugar, butter and egg until light and fluffy. Turn the mixer down to low and begin to add the flour and milk mixtures alternately. Starting with 1/3 of the flour adding 1/2 of the milk, 1/3 of the flour, the rest of the milk and then the rest of the flour mixture. Mix until just blended.
-Measure the batter out with a 1/4 cup (if you want 9 large pies) or about 2 tbsp each for smaller pies. Drop this batter onto the prepared sheet pans leaving about 2 inches between the cakes. Tap the sheets gently on a counter before baking to remove a bit of the air.
-Bake the cakes for 12-15 minutes (shorter time is needed for the smaller cakes, I’d say 8 to 12 minutes) until they are firm to the touch. Remove from the oven and cool on the sheet pans.

Filling:
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 cups marshmallow cream or fluff ( I tried this with marshmallow cream, but it did not work out for me. I ordered the fluff and it really did make a difference….maybe it was just to warm here that one day for cream..)
2 tsp vanilla extract (or vanilla bean paste if you have it on hand to add little beautiful vanilla specs to the filling)
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-Place everything but the vanilla in a mixing bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat everything until it is blended, then stir in the vanilla.
-Spread half the little cakes with this mixture, then top with the other half of the cakes.

The Whoopie Pies may be wrapped individually in plastic wrap and stored at room temperature for up to a week. I love to make these for road trips or picnics, they would be perfect for the Fourth of July. Next time anyone asks you where the best place to make whoopie is, you can smile and reply “in the kitchen, of course!”.

Whooooooopie!
Happy Baking.

Most of the time when we think of baking, we are thinking of cookies and cakes and breads. Usually forgotten are things like quiche, savory bread puddings and the like. One savory baked dish that I have loved since Mom first made it for us in our late teen years is Cauliflower Cheese Pie with Potato Crust. There are no doughs to mix up in this recipe, and it’s really quite simple to make once you have everything chopped up and ready to go. Now that I’m married to an ovo-lacto vegetarian (I still like a little meat once in awhile but it is slowly being phased out) I find this dish to be a great dinner that we can sit down and enjoy together. It also makes for wonderful leftovers and even tastes great cold! It could be loosely termed a quiche except that the crust is made of grated potatoes and the filling is much more vegetable than eggs. The eggs are just there to hold things together. This recipe has been adapted from The New Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen. The eggs in the recipe can be replaced with egg substitute, the cheese can be substituted with lowfat cheese or cheese substitute, basically this can be changed around to suit your needs.

Cauliflower Cheese Pie with Potato Crust

Crust:

1 medium head of cauliflower chopped small

Doughnuts or donuts. However you spell it they are tasty. They are not something one should make a regular diet out of, but in moderation they won’t kill you. I don’t believe I’ve had a doughnut in a few years so it seemed like now was as good a time as any to make some. I prefer the yeasted glazed doughnuts to the cake ones (although the cake ones are quite nice also). I have found that Alton Brown, of The Food Network, has a wonderfully delicious chocolate glaze that works beautifully on these. I also did a few jelly filled donuts just to round out the batch because if they have fruit in them, they must be healthy, right?

Yeasted Donuts
(this made 18 doughnuts and a bunch of doughnut holes)

2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (1/4 ounce, one packet)
1 1/4 cups milk, warmed to about 100°F
1 cup (8 ounces, 2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp salt
5 cups flour (I used 5 1/2 this time, you want a soft dough, but not so soft that you cannot knead it…so you might need a bit more or a bit less flour)
Oil for frying (I used a vegetable oil)
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-Mix yeast and milk together and let it sit about 5 to 10 minutes until the yeast begins to bubble.
-Cream the butter and sugar together. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the salt.
-Mix in the flour alternating with the yeast mixture, so you are beginning and ending with the flour (1/3 flour, 1/2 yeast mixture, 1/3 flour, 1/2 yeast mixture, remaining 1/3 flour). You may need a little more flour if the dough seems too soft for you to knead.
-Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic (you may use your mixer with a dough hook attachment if you prefer, but I figure hand kneading is relaxing, and you’ll burn calories while doing it thus justifying the need for a doughnut).
-Let rise, covered, in a bowl lightly sprayed with pan spray until doubled in bulk.
-On a floured surface, roll out about 1/2″ thick, cut into rounds or squares, or whatever shape you like, I did the traditional round with the hole in the center for the glazed doughnuts, and just a plain round for the jelly filled (I didn’t have a cutter specifically for doughnuts, so I used a drinking glass and a cannolli mold to cut out the centers).  The dough that was left over after cutting out the big doughnuts was used to make more of the doughnut holes.
-Cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel and let double in bulk again.
-Heat your oil to 375°F in a heavy bottomed saucepan deep enough for the doughnuts to be able to rise to the top and float (you also don’t want the oil up to the rim of the pan, you only want your pan filled halfway at most for safety).
-Carefully add the doughnuts to the oil. Brown on one side and turn the doughnuts over to brown the other side (the best way to turn these is with two chopsticks, but tongs will work. Make sure when you turn your doughnuts over that you turn away from you so any oil that might be cheeky and splash, splashes away from you). Depending on the size of your pan you can do up to 3 doughnuts at a time. Drain the doughnuts on some paper towel. Glaze while still warm. If you fry up the holes (and why wouldn’t you fry up the holes?), put some sugar (powdered sugar, cinnamon sugar, coconut, etc…) into a brown paper bag and when the holes come out of the oil, put them in the bag with the sugar and shake it up to coat them. You can also fill your doughnuts with a pastry bag fitted with a small plain tip and filled with jelly or your favorite custard filling (lemon curd is quite good in these, yum).

Alton Brown’s Chocolate Doughnut Glaze
(can also be found by doing a recipe search on the Food Network)

1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup whole milk, warmed (I did not have whole milk so I used half heavy cream half 1% milk)
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
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-Place the butter, milk, corn syrup and vanilla extract in a saucepan and heat over medium until the butter melts.
-Turn the heat to low, add the chocolate and whisk until smooth.
-With the pan off the heat, whisk in the powdered sugar until smooth. Set glaze over a bowl of warm water to keep it fluid and dip doughnuts immediately.
-Allow the glaze to set up for about half hour (yeah, right….just try to resist the goodness) and eat!

Happy Baking…er…frying!

Butter Sugar Flour Eggs

Sugar Crusted Breton Butter Cake (from the aforementioned Butter Sugar Flour Eggs):
1/2 ounce fresh yeast or 1/4 ounce active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
10 Tbsp lukewarm water
8 Tbsp (4 ounces, one stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces and slightly softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 Tbsp confectioner’s sugar for dusting
- Dissolve the yeast and 1/4 cup warm water in a medium bowl. Once the yeast is dissolved, work in 1/2 cup of the flour until the mixture is well blended and forms a little ball. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and allow to rise in a warm spot for about half hour.

-Combine the remaining 1 3/4 cups flour and salt in a large bowl. Add the yeast mixture and blend together with your fingers, sprinkling the lukewarm water in gradually to make a pliable dough. If the dough seems dry, you may need to add another Tablespoon or so of water. Knead until smooth, about 4 minutes, and return to the large bowl, cover with a damp cloth and let rise until doubled for about one hour.

Folding in the butter:

-Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and dust the top with flour. Roll into a rectangle about 8 1/2 by 11″ . Turn the dough so that the 8 1/2 wide section is towards you. Dot the lower 2/3rds with the butter pieces and sprinkle on the granulated sugar. Fold the dough as if you are folding a letter in thirds. Folding the top section (the unbuttered section) down first then bringing the lower section up over the top to form a rectangle. Roll the folded dough into another rectangle 8 1/2 x 11 inches again. Turn the dough so the narrow end faces you, and fold the dough again into thirds the same way you did the first time. Cover the rectangle with a damp towel and let rest about 15 minutes. Roll the dough again into a rectangle and fold as you did before, rest under a damp towel for 15 minutes. And one last time, roll the dough out to 8 1/2 x11″ and fold into thirds as before. Cover with a damp towel and let rest 15 minutes.

-Heat the oven to 400 f. Butter and flour a 9″ round cake pan.

-Roll the dough into a circle (as best as you can) about 10 inches in diameter (it’s ok if it isn’t a perfect circle, mine was more of a square). Transfer the dough to the pan and fold up the corners to fit into the round pan. Using a sharp knife or a razor blade, score a crosshatch pattern on the top of the cake (like tic-tac-toe)

-Bake for 20 minutes, brushing the top of the cake every 5 minutes with the butter that oozes out of the cake. After 20 minutes, sprinkle the top of the cake with the confectioner’s sugar and continue baking, without brushing, until golden brown on the top, about 10 minutes more.

-Let cool on a rack until the crust is just slightly hardened. Serve warm cut into wedges.

The sugar hardened crunchy crust contrasts beautifully with the moist chewy buttery insides. This is not a very sweet cake and I actually think next time I make it I may sprinkle sugar on the dough with each fold I make.
Thank me later for the way your home smells while this is baking.

“Just like Grandma used to make” and I can say that because my Grandmother did indeed used to make these. There were few things better than Sundays at Gram’s when I was a kid. The best part about these days was spending time in the kitchen with my Gram. She always cooked up a storm for our once weekly dinner with her. The minute you walked in the door you knew what would be for dinner just from the smells that permeated the house and sometimes found their way outside. On certain days Gram would let me assist with little bits of preparation. I was mostly interested in helping her with desserts and she would humor me by allowing me to slowly add sugar to whipping egg whites or assist her with blending of some batters. I do not recall helping her bake the ginger creams, but I do recall snitching pieces from the pan that was left out on the counter top. Ginger creams ranked up at the top of her desserts, along with schaum torte and bread pudding with hard sauce. Of the few things that my grandmother was able to label for me before her passing was her recipe box. Just a few wonderful old note cards with her south paw writing on each one. This is the treasure that she passed on to me and I want to share a few of her beautiful delicious desserts with you. Ginger creams will always bring me back to my childhood. I hope you will enjoy them and create memories of your own with their spicy smell and taste.

Gram Danning’s Ginger Cream Slices
(I have made a few changes and have noted them in the recipe. These bars are excellent with or without the extra ginger)

1C shortening (I use butter, but that’s just my preference)

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-Cook sugar, milk and butter to soft ball stage (232-235 degrees f). Cool

-Add vanilla and salt. Beat until creamy and of spreading consistency.

These are great with a nice dark roast coffee or herbal teas and even better when shared with loved ones. The bars do dry out fairly quickly, so it’s best to cut and keep them sealed with some plastic wrap (or individually wrappedm if they last that long).

Thank you to Just Baking for asking me to join the team! This article has also been posted at my blog The Barmy Baker.