Hot Fudge Peanut Butter sauce for ice cream or just for eating if it's been a really bad day...

   

I have a recipe in my back pocket for 30 years, easily.  I can make this in my sleep, sometimes with peanut butter, sometimes without.  Nothing else changes, either add it or don't.

It's quick, delicious, rich, thick and you will absolutely love it, I promise.  It tastes like real hot fudge, yeah, it's my party trick piece.  I wasn't going to share it but I have to, you're welcome :D

TRACY'S HOT FUDGE PEANUT BUTTER SAUCE

Ingredients and method, video link below

Use it over ice cream or cake or just eat it


IN a saucepan, combine:

1/2  cup sugar
3 TB cocoa
1.5 TB cornstarch
pinch salt
MIX
1/2 cup water
MIX and BOIL till thick
ADD
1+ TB peanut butter

ADD 2 tsp corn syrup OR golden syrup (optional)

when thick
ADD OFF HEAT
drizzle of vanilla
1 TB butter

MIX and EAT!!!

**add water if it gets too thick after it's cooled a bit**

MICROWAVE instructions:

this is CAN absolutely be made in  a microwave! Just combine the sugar, corn starch, cocoa and water and salt, in a 4 cup measure (this does bubble up)  Nuke till thick, stirring frequently, about 2 mins.  add the peanut butter and optional syrup, nuke 20 seconds.  Add vanilla and butter and stir till melted...  add water if desired to thickness that makes you happy

Here's the video...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLZfi0veRwY

go make it...:D

/enjoy!

My Mincemeat Ring (also the link to the mince tarts video) ... easy to make, delicious, lovely at Christmas or anytime

This is the recipe and video for my Mince Ring, basically, like the mince tarts video, it's just me talking incessantly because I don't have the ability to edit hahahahaha

My Mince Ring 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plTi9T-_B54&t=25s

DRY

2 cups a/p
2 T sugar
3 tsp baking powder
salt
SIFT into a bowl then dump (don't Mix the liquids together)

WET
2/3c milk
1/3c plain oil

Mix with a fork till it's a shaggy dough, then knead, roll out between sheets of parchment paper, spread with mince, roll like a log, transfer to parchment lined pan form into a ring. Cut slits. 

BAKE at preheated 425 for 20 ish?

Ice while HOT with 1/2 cup icing sugar plus enough lemon or orange juice to make a thick but runny icing.

Leave as long as you possibly can before you devour it. OR slather each piece in brandy butter, that's what I'm going to do on the video, which is being done now...

MINCE TARTS

Method video, no recipe here: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_KPDS_RZYc&t=75s

YOU must make Brandy Butter to go with: 

BRANDY BUTTER

100 gm softened butter, whipped like crazy

250 gm icing sugar, whipped like crazy into the butter

up to 3 TB Brandy, any more and the mix will curdle then where will you be???  

Keep it at room temperature to serve, covered, chill to hold but bring it back to room temp to eat on anything, everything. 

I want to take this opportunity to thank you all for the support during 2017, it's been a rough year and I haven't done as much as I'd like.. keep watching this space, I'm going to own 2018 

xoxoxo 

Tracy

Individual trifles in jars, make ahead, take to a party, make last minute and eat them

  

I like to make food in jars.  It's simple, portioned, you can eat 6 because they're little jars and you can make things for a crowd easily.

I love trifle and this is my take on a smaller version of the original, here goes:

TRACY'S TRIFLE IN A JAR

There are no amounts because it depends on how many jars you're doing, this is your guide

INGREDIENTS

pound cake, home made or bought
strawberries or whatever fruit you love, cut small
jello, whatever flavor fruit you're using
custard, make your own or mix some Birds

                                  (OK, in a pinch you CAN use vanilla pudding, I'd prefer you don't but if you have to, I will avert my eyes) 

brandy or rum

whipped cream because you deserve it

Assembly:

1.  Cut cake with some brandy or rum drizzled on with some chopped fruit
2.  Make jello according to direction and pour over cake and fruit, not completely covering.
4.  CHILL

   

5.  Make or buy custard, and cover fruit and jello.  In full disclosure, I use Birds custard and make it in the microwave.  You can get it most places,  Here's the info:

https://www.amazon.com/Birds-Custard-Powder-300g/dp/B000JMBE7C

I buy it at HEB in Texas as well as World Market and FiestaMart

6.  Top with cake, drizzle with brandy or rum if desired.

  

7.  Pop lids on and chill.

8.  When you're ready... pop on some chopped fruit and whipped cream and EAT

   

They last a while in the fridge and are handy to take to parties, I made a dozen the other to take to a Father's Day do and they travel beautifully, much easier than one large trifle.  

Try this, you'll love this! 

/enjoy

MY version of the Brazilian Flan, yeah, you're going to want to make this

I grew up enjoying a custard dessert with caramel on the bottom, it's called creme caramel.
I love creme caramel.

I moved to Texas and voila, my beloved creme caramel is called Flan.
Ok, I'm easy, I still love creme caramel Flan.  Ok, Flan.

THEN while researching something completely different I stumbled upon Brazilian Flan.  Seriously?  it appears the only difference is the blending and the addition of sweetened condensed milk.  Wow, there's nothing wrong with that at all.

After some more research and testing, I came up with this, my version of the Brazilian Flan.  It's thicker and creamier than it's French and Mexican relations and that's ok in my book.  It's a snap to throw together, makes a ton (10 ramekins!) and did I mention delicious??  It's also in a jar, Flan in a Jar, baby.

It occupies that spot in time and space between a flan and a creme brulee.  It's custardy and creamy and light and sweet and rich all at the same time.  You're going to have to make this.

BRAZILIAN STYLE CREME CARAMEL FLAN in a Jar - MY VERSION

1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk (or make your own)
1 (scant) can (use empty ^^ can) milk
4 eggs, Large or better
pinch salt
dribble of vanilla
nutmeg if you're in the mood

Combine in a blender and blend till well combined, leave to settle and the bubbles to subside, or skim them off.

Combine 1 1/2 cups sugar in  a 4 cup pyrex measuring cup, add a little water to moisten.  Microwave on high about 6 minutes, until it's the color you like.

Divide hot sugar mixture between 10 ramekins or the 4 oz glass jars I use for everything.  Put them in a dish with a towel on the bottom then divide the caramel.

Fill with the milk egg mixture

Pour hot water to 1/2 up the sides of the containers and pop ainto a 350 preheated oven for 40 minutes.  The top browns, don't freak out, it's supposed to.  The condensed milk is the culprit, don't fret.

When they're set but a little jiggly, transfer them to a rack and leave to cool.  Pop the lids on the jars and throw them in the fridge till tomorrow or until they're really cold.

Invert onto a plate or just dig in.

Rich, cold, caramelly, sumptuous, delicious, tasty, yummy, moorish, the reason to get out of bed in the morning, the middle of the day or the middle of the night.

You're welcome :)

ENJOY!

Put the ramekins or jars in a pan om a towel.  Mix the egg and milks in a blender and set aside

  

 Make the caramel in the microwave, this took about 6 minutes on high.  I'd say be careful, it's hot, but then  we all know boiling sugar is hot so I'm not going to say it, we're not idiots.

 

Divide the caramel between the jars then fill with the milk and egg mixture.  Bake for 40 then remove to a rack to cool completely.  

Put them in the fridge, covered and leave them to get icy cold.  

(confession:  I love them warm)

 

 

That's it, make them, enjoy them then make some more :) 

Tracy

QUICK Pressure cooker toffee, caramel, golden love, dulce de leche, make your own

A QUICKIE for you; 

I've been cooking sweetened condensed milk in a can, on the stove top, for 3 hours, for years and years.  It's the base of Banoffee pie.  Cook a pie shell, slice bananas in the cooled shell and pour THIS all over it, chill.   

I wanted to know if my pressure cooker would do it easier and without blowing up. 
It did and it didn't.

Don't fret or freak out, all the online "recipes" are rather horror mongering about the whole thing. This is easy and you're going to go and do it now.  It keeps, unopened, in the cupboard forever and it keeps, in the fridge for a while.  Make something with it, it's SO SO SO much more than the sum of it's cooked in the can parts. 

Don't worry, just do it. 

Tracy's Pressure cooker toffee sauce, caramel, dulce de leche, whatever you call your version. 

What you'll need

1.  Can of sweetened condensed milk
2.  water
3.  pressure cooker

What you'll need to do

Remove the label from your can of sweetened condensed milk.  Put it on a rack in your pressure cooker, turn the can on it's side so it will fit without passing the FULL mark. 

Cover the can with water. Lock and load, 16 minutes
   

DING DING DING

When the cooker dings, unplug it, do not release the pressure, just leave it.  Unplug it do that it doesn't stay on WARM. 

When the pressure is gone, about 15 minutes or so, remove the can, with tongs and put it on a towel to cool

   

When the can is cool enough to hold but still warm, open it.  Stir it with a knife, don't ask, it's just how I do it, and either use it or transfer it to a sealed container (don't leave it in the can once it's opened) and pop it in the fridge.  Nuke, gently, as you need it just to loosen it up.  *I* leave the sealed can in the cupboard without incident and have left it for months!!  

  

Spread it on toast, on fruit, use it as a dip, in a pie, in a flan, in custard, on a spoon, dip bananas in it, use it on ice cream, as ice cream or did I mention, just on a spoon? 

Put it in a pie!  Make my easy press in pie crust, bake it, when it's cool, fill it with this warm caramel and shove it in the fridge. DONE!  EASY! and you'll be a ROCK star

Oh and you're welcome :D  you're going to love this. 

/Tracy

Biscuits baked in sweet milk . Completely old fashioned comfort food and the best, sweetest, breakfast treat or dessert EVER.

We all know I love a good 'old lady' recipe.  I read antique cook books all the time.  I have a stack of old cookbooks ranging from 1890 and onward on my kitchen table at all times.  Whenever I can steal away a moment, I will sit and browse through them with a quiet glass of wine, enjoying the simple pleasure of them OR I will read them voraciously if I am in search of something new and fabulous.

A few years ago, I came across a recipe for biscuits baked in sweet milk and it tweaked my curiosity.  It is a breakfast item?  Biscuits?  Is it dessert?  It's sweet?  Is sweet milk regular milk?  I make a rather killer biscuit, can I use MY biscuits for this?  Cinnamon?  Oh wait, I LOVE cinnamon rolls... is this a cinnamon roll in milk?  OH OH this is EXACTLY the sort of recipe I needed in my repertoire. 

I started playing with the recipe and tweaking and pulling and pushing and came up with my own version that I present to you here.  It's lusciously old fashioned feeling.  It's rich and creamy and light and airy and tender and there's little crisp bits and the milk becomes thick and unctuous like a custard and you pour it over the biscuit.  There are few things I make regularly that I like better than this.  Seriously, I thought about holding this one close to the chest as my own but then I realized that you need to be as happy as I and my local tester.  It's full of nursery memories.  It's as good on a cold winters day to warm up as in the middle of Texas heat in July.  It's happiness making food 

I made it today and took it, straight from the oven to her house and had coffee and a visit and the children all had heaping helpings of it.  It confirmed to me that you need to be able to produce this at your whim.

The recipe is painfully simple but so complex and divine in it's simplicity.  It's almost the perfect example of why I read the old old old cookbooks.  They absolutely, completely, totally knew what they were doing.  

Make this, you'll feel the happy.  I promise. 

TRACY'S BISCUITS BAKED IN SWEET MILK

Biscuits: 
2 cups self raising flour
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup milk (plus a teaspoon or two if you need it to make a lovely dough)
Middle bit:
1/2 cup butter/margarine combo
handful of sugar for coating (1/4 to 1/3 cup?)
cinnamon, the amount you want to shake on
Sauce:
2 cups milk
2/3 cup sugar
pinch of salt
healthy dribble of vanilla

QUICKIE instructions: 

Make biscuit dough.  Roll it out and cover with butter/margarine.  Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon and roll up.  Cut into 1 inch pieces and arrange in a lightly greased dish.  Heat the milk/sugar/vanilla to boiling point (small bubbles around the edge) and pour over the biscuits.

Bake 350 for 30-40 minutes.  Allow to sit about 10 minutes before diving in and completely devouring. 

LONG winded, play by play, with commentary pictures and method:

Preheat the oven to 350 and lightly grease a 8x8 (I use round) baking dish.

Combine the flour and shortening.  Mix with your fingertips until it looks like wet sand.  
   
Add 1/2 cup milk, all at once, and mix with a fork until it's a lovely, soft, dough.  It should clear the side of the bowl and come together without being sticky.  You can add a little dribble of milk more if you need.
   
Put dough on lightly floured surface and roll to about 10x10?  Don't measure, here's my hand as a indication of the size.  Mix butter and margarine on a board with a fork.
   
Spread the butter/margarine on the dough, all the way to the ends!  Sprinkle with sugar, relatively generously.  I think it's about 1/4-1/3 cup's worth.
   
Ahhh, sprinkle action shot.  Then shake on cinnamon.  Not too much, not too little, just a nice light coating unless you're a cinnamon freak then have at it!!  Start at one end and start to roll, relatively tightly but don't fret about it,
   
Roll it and seal the edge if you feel the need.  I don't usually bother.  With the seam side down, cut the roll into 9-10 1 inch pieces, look at those lovely biscuit sugar cinnamon butter beauties!
   
Arrange them in the dish, in a single layer, feel free to squash them in to fit.  Heat the milk/sugar/vanilla in the microwave until little bubbles appear on the sides, I do 3 minutes.
   
Stir the hot milk and pour it over the biscuits, yeah, really!  It should perfectly cover them.  I had 2 that were a bit small so they floated, don't worry about it.
   
Bake it in the middle of  the oven (with a pan underneath because sometimes it boils over) and set timer for 30 minutes.  Check it, mine needed another 10 to brown up and be worthy of being taken for a coffee meeting with a girlfriend.
   
Let it rest about 5 minutes. Then DIVE IN!  The biscuit is light and tender and crisp on top.  The milk is sweet and thickened from the flour in the biscuit and is almost custardy.  

It's my most most favorite thing as a sweet treat.  Seriously, really and truly.  It's my dessert island treat.

I didn't get great pictures because, well, we were all trying desperately to get our own pieces and slather it with the thickened, sweet, milk to pour over top and I also wanted to eat mine as quickly as possible :)
  

I took it to my friend's house today and she and I devoured our hunks of it.  

The 2 teenagers loved it, the 10 year old loved it, and the 5 year old had seconds and thirds.  The 2 men working upstairs also cleaned their bowls.  I love a houseful of willing testers!

It's a solid hit and my gift to you :)  Go make it, you're going to love it! 

/enjoy