Fresh Raspberry Buttercream

We've had a lot of raspberries lately (as you can tell from my recipes) and I've been able to experiment with them much more than usual, since they're so expensive normally. (We got close to 30 cartons for $1 each!) Mmm mmm yeah.

I just used a box cake mix for this recipe, since the buttercream was the for suuuure best part of the cupcake. 

Blend up some raspberries (we seem to be doing a lot of that lately...) and press through a fine mesh sieve. I used a cheesecloth, because we don't have a sieve.

Blend 2 sticks of softened butter (just soft enough that you can smoosh it easily, but it's not melted, don't set the microwave for a long time just because you want it done fast, you'll regret it later. Plus patience is a virtue...) until light and fluffy and add the vanilla and raspberry juice. 

It will look all gross and separated but keep blending. Trust me, it will look better later. Patience is a... ok I'll stop now.

Add your powdered sugar (either put the lid on or blend very slowly bc this stuff is messsssy-- personal experience) and blend until fluffy.

And you've got beautiful, velvety, perfectly pink raspberry buttercream. It almost looks like there's food coloring in there. But nooo, it's all natural, folks! (at least I think so... don't quote me on that)

Spread/pipe it on some vanilla cupcakes (use your favorite recipe!) and take a big ol' bite. Make sure you put a raspberry on, too!

(snarfs the whole thing .00426785 seconds after taking the picture)

And yes, that is my foot. Don't judge.

Go eat your delicious cupcake (or whatever else your heart desires that you slather this frosting on, graham crackers are never a bad idea for leftover frosting) and go outside (even if it's raining. Rain is good for the soul.) A fun experiment would be to practice piping cupcakes, but I still haven't bought a 1M tip, so that's an adventure for another day.

(I'm trying out new fonts and editing websites, thoughts? I'm deciding if it's easy enough to do for every recipe.) 

Raspberry Buttercream

(adapted from sweetpeasandsaffron.com)

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted butter (226g; at room temperature)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup raspberries (at room temperature)
• 3 cups powdered sugar (360g)

Directions

1. Using a mesh strainer and a spoon, mash raspberries against strainer until only seeds remain, collecting raspberry juice below in a bowl. Discard solids and set raspberry juice aside.
2. Using a stand mixer fitted with a whisk, beat the butter on medium high until light and fluffy. 
3. Beat in vanilla and raspberry juice. *your buttercream may look broken but it needs to be beaten for several minutes to completely incorporate the raspberries*
4. Beat in the powdered sugar, starting on low and increasing speed to medium once sugar begins to become incorporated. Beat for 2 or so minutes until the sugar and butter mixture is well combined.
5. Beat on medium-high for one minute; scrape sides of bowl with spatula and repeat until the color of buttercream is uniformly pink and smooth.
6. Frost your cupcakes! (Use a knife or a piping bag.)

Orange Peel Flaky Biscuits

These are such a great breakfast. They are quick, easy, and delicious. The taste is just that much better than a store-bought breakfast option like refrigerated cinnamon rolls. And there's only 4 ingredients!

Look at all of that buttery, flaky, sugary goodness.

I made these for Mother's day, but they are great for any occasion (especially if there's no occasion to make them-- you get happiness for no reason at all!)

What're ya waiting for? Go make some!

Orange Peel Biscuits

Ingredients:

2 packages flaky biscuits

6 Tbs butter, melted

3/4 cup sugar

Zest of large orange

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Stand biscuits on end in buttered bundt pan. Mix remaining ingredients and pour, then spread over biscuits. Bake for 20-30 minutes.

Homemade Freezer Jam (raspberry)

Jam! Sweet, fresh, homemade jam. There's nothing like a piece of homemade bread with a thick layer of jam on it. Whether it be apricot, strawberry, or raspberry (we have made all of those) there's nothing from the store that can even compare to homemade. If you make sure you buy your fruit on season, it's a great way to stock up on lots of jam that will last you through the year.

Make sure you wash out all of the jars you need. Even if they look clean, who knows what's been in that dusty old closet or the corner in your basement.

Measure your fruit into a blender (I've found that one small clamshell has 1 and 1/2 cups, and you need 6 cups for a recipe, therefore use 4 cartons per batch), food processor, or mash it by hand, and blend,

blend, 

blend!

Stop mashing/blending when the texture (feel free to try it!) is just how you want it.

Make sure to measure it into the bowl where the fruit will be, just to be sure that the quantity is right. (you will need 3 cups of crushed fruit)

Mix with more sugar than you'll even want to look at (don't worry-- all jam has a looot of sugar) and let sit for 10 minutes. Taste a bit, to see how grainy it is, so you can tell if the sugar granules have dissolved once you pour the pectin in.

You'll want to start your pectin mixture about 3-4 minutes before the fruit is done sitting, so you can pour it in right when it's done.

(bad picture, but you get the idea) Make sure you mix the pectin in thoroughly, so the sugar is all the way dissolved. (3 minutes.)

I actually had a little routine. I would blend up the berries, add the sugar, and while it was sitting I would pour the jam in the other bowl into the jars. So I actually had two bowls of jam going, one that was done and needed to be poured, one that was sitting, waiting for the pectin mixture. After I finished pouring the finished one, I would start the pectin for the other mixture, which ended up being really close to the exact amount of time it needed for each step!

Pour into your prepared jars, and close the lids.

And, there you go! Look at all that (as my friend would say) 'glorious' red jam.

Aww, what a cute family of jars! (I ran out of small jars, hence the 'mom' and 'dad' jars).

• • Ingredients

    • 3 cups prepared fruit
    • 5-1/4 cups sugar
    • 3/4 cup water
    • 1 box SURE-JELL Fruit Pectin

    Recipe Directions:

    Rinse clean plastic containers and lids with boiling water. Dry thoroughly.Crush raspberries thoroughly, one layer at a time. (Press half of pulp through a sieve to remove seeds, if desired.) Measure exactly 3 cups crushed raspberries into large bowl. Stir in sugar. Let stand 10 min., stirring occasionally.Mix water and pectin in small saucepan. Bring to boil on high heat, stirring constantly. Continue boiling and stirring 1 min. Add to fruit mixture; stir 3 min.or until sugar is almost dissolved and no longer grainy. (A few sugar crystals may remain.)Fill containers immediately to within 1/2 inch of tops. Wipe off top edges of containers; immediately cover with lids. Let stand at room temperature 24 hours. Jam is now ready to use. Store in refrigerator up to 3 weeks or freeze extra containers up to 1 year. Thaw in refrigerator before using.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

I like these because sometimes you want a big gooey chocolate chip cookie, but after the 2nd batch of cookies you're done and don't want to bake any more? Because same...

So this recipe gives you your chocolate chip cookie fix without all of the rolling and baking over and over. Yes, please.

(If you do want to make actual chocolate chip cookies, here's a video that my friend and I made: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oUWkpYj_QU.)

I doubled this recipe, because with 5 siblings and 2 parents, things like cookies go quick. (Doubling it makes enough for a 9x13 pan.)

Mix the dry ingredients together. Then combine the butter mixture and add the flour blend to it. My mixture happened to be pretty wet for this batch, but I've had times where it was almost crumbly. It turns out delicious every time, though!

Plop it all in a pan and spread.

Add your chocolate chips,

(mmm...)

and pop it in the oven for 20 minutes.

It will flatten out after cooling, which I didn't get a picture of.

And now you've got a warm gooey hunk of cookie.
(Man, I wish I still had those...)

Ingredients

1 cup sifted all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 TBS vanilla extract
2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix dry ingredients together.
Melt butter.  Mix butter and brown sugar.  Add beaten egg, and vanilla and blend well.
Add flour mixture, a little at a time, mixing well.
Spread in a square (9x9x2) pan.  Sprinkle chocolate chips on top.
Bake for 20 minutes.

(recipe from http://cookingoncloverlane.blogspot.com/)

Blueberry Croissant French Toast

This has been a family favorite for a while. We found it while going through the Food Nanny  cookbook, and it looked so good we wanted to try it! Needless to say, we've made it multiple times since and loved it so much each time.

The croissants are crispy on the outside, fruity on the inside, and drizzled with a buttery blueberry sauce.

Need I say more?

They are also pretty quick. I just made the egg mixture to dip them in an hour ahead of time, did some homework, and started dipping them a bit later. The recipe calls for soaking the croissants for one whole minute, but we've found that one quick dip on the inside and a few extra seconds on the outside does the trick, since the inside won't be cooked as much and will get soggy easily.

You also may need to replace the oil/butter in the pan a few times, because the croissants that are cooking will soak up some of it. The mixture helps create a lot of the crispiness on the outside.

I've also noticed that occasionally a blueberry will fall out of the croissant while cooking. When it does, just put it in a small bowl, along with any other escaped blueberries, and dump them in while you make the blueberry syrup.
If you only have fresh blueberries, even though the recipe calls for frozen, that's for convenience. Whatever blueberries you have will work. If you end up not having enough blueberries for the sauce at the end (really, it's how many you want in there) you can defrost a few frozen ones and they will work just the same in the sauce, just add them in with the fresh blueberries.

Enjoy!

BLUEBERRY CROISSANT FRENCH TOAST

4-8 servings

• 2 cups frozen/fresh blueberries
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 4 medium or 8 small croissants, sliced lengthwise
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 3 heaping tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/3 cup maple syrup (or whatever syrup you have on hand)

Directions:   Remove blueberries from freezer and allow to thaw on paper towels. (They don't need to be completely thawed)

Meanwhile, in a shallow bowl beat the eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla and salt with a whisk until well blended. Place both halves of one croissant into the egg mixture and soak them without over-saturating. Allow excess batter to drip back into the bowl and then transfer the halves to a platter. Spread 1/4 cup of blueberries (or 2 Tbs for small) onto one half of the croissant. Top with other half and press down firmly. Repeat with the remaining croissants.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

Heat 1 tablespoon of butter, and the canola oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When the butter starts to bubble, add the filled croissants. Cook until browned, about 4-6 minutes. Turn them over and cook on other side until browned, or 4-6 minutes.

Transfer the cooked croissants onto a baking sheet. Place in 200 degree oven, and turn the oven off to keep them warm while you make the blueberry sauce.

In the same skillet, melt the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter over medium heat. Add the brown sugar and let the mixture foam. Then add in remaining blueberries and syrup. Stir well and let simmer 4 minutes. Place the croissants on individual plates and quickly ladle the sauce over each croissant. Serve immediately.