Showing posts with label dessert. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dessert. Show all posts

Sunday, December 27, 2009

White Chocolate Cherry Granola


(Inspired by this Barefoot Contessa recipe)

 Ingredients:

4 cups old fashioned rolled oats
2 cups sweetened, shredded coconut
2 cups sliced almonds
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup good honey
1 t vanilla
2 t ground cinnamon
a dash nutmeg
1&1/2 cups dried cherries, chopped
1/2 cup cherry flavored craisins
11 oz white chocolate chips



Directions:

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

Toss the oats, coconut and almonds together in a large bowl.

Add in cinnamon and a dash nutmeg. Stir to combine.

Combine the vegetable oil , honey and vanilla in a separate bowl. Pour over oat mixture. Stir until the oats and nuts are coated with the honey mixture.

Pour onto a large sheetpan (*or 2 smaller sheet pans) and bake in a 300 degree oven for 25 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. Coconut should be toasted and almonds lightly caramelized on the outside.

Remove from oven and allow granola to cool. When cool, add in chopped cherries, craisins and white chips. Mix to combine.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Dark Chocolate Cake with Cherry Cream Cheese Frosting



I discovered this cake in Paula Deen's magazine either the day we started Lent or the day after. Her recipe makes the cake from scratch, but I wanted to try it with a chocolate cake, so I just bought my favorite mix to make it easier. I did not skimp on the icing, though! I made two cakes, one for our church group and another for my co-workers. Both were received well!

Cherry Cream Cheese Frosting

1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup cherry juice
6 cups powdered sugar (or confectioner's sugar)

Beat butter and cream cheese until creamy. Slowly beat in juice until smooth and then gradually add sugar until smooth. I would add sugar to taste. There is a difference between powdered sugar (or confectioner's sugar) sifted and unsifted, so it just depends. I used less than five cups when I DOUBLED the other ingredients. Plus, I like the taste of cream cheese, so I used less.

I also used I Can't Believe It's Not Butter sticks and reduced fat cream cheese and it was still divine! No one could tell!