Raspberry Mousse

Wow where to begin! From college graduation, to the holidays and job hunting ( Looking for a PR entry level job if you know of one)! I have to say that my baking has been in short supply due to all hecticness. I do have a raspberry mousse recipe for you today and I hope you enjoy! I’ll write again soon. Promise.

Raspberry Mousse

First you will make a raspberry sauce by boiling down two pints of raspberries and 1/4 cup of sugar. Once it becomes a liquid add a teaspoon of lemon juice. Now you will need to use a very small holed thin strainer to strain out the raspberry juice from the seeds. You can discard the seeds and keep the raspberry sauce and set aside. Now you can make the mousse.

Ingredients:

1 cup of raspberry sauce – you may want to add up to a 1/4 cup more for more flavor.

2 ounces of sweetened condensed milk

2 cup heavy cream plus 2 Tbsp. Granulated sugar ( whipped to stiff peak)

1 six ounce container of raspberries and one tablespoon of mint chopped finely for garnish

Mix raspberry and condensed milk together. Fold in whipped cream gently. Serve immediately or fill cups and cool for later use. Enjoy!

Autumn Fashion

Autumn Fashion by allie-vaughan featuring j crew

J Crew graphic top
jcrew.com

J Crew tweed skirt
jcrew.com

J Crew j crew
jcrew.com

Ballerina shoes
factory.jcrew.com

J Crew rhinestone necklace
jcrew.com

Sephora collection
sephora.com

Photo of the Day
photography.nationalgeographic.com

Trying out Polyvore today and I like it! Expect more of these posts in the future. Below is my own take on autumn fashion, sorry the backdrop isn’t more appealing. I’ll have to recruit Daniel for some autumn park shots this weekend. Happy Thursday!

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles and Blackberry Summer Salad

It’s my last semester of college and I thought that meant an easy and relaxing end to college. Boy I was wrong! Between school, work and interning it has been a whirlwind semester and my poor blog is being neglected. I have two recipes for you! I should have some more recipes soon. In my limited downtime I have been addicted to watching Chopped on the Food Network, Daniel and I are planning to remake our own Chopped episode at home!

I found this recipe via Pinterest!

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

Ingredients:

3 3/4 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon of baking spices

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

1 cup pumpkin puree

1 large egg

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the coating:
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
Dash of allspice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Whisk together to blend. In a large bowl, beat together butter and sugars on medium speed until well combined. Next, still on medium speed, beat in pumpkin. Then, add the egg and vanilla extract. Lastly, add in the dry ingredients. Beat until combined, but do not over mix. Cover the dough, and refrigerate for one hour, until firm.

Line baking sheets with parchment paper. In a small bowl, mix together the sugar and spices for the sugar coating. Scoop dough (approximately 2 1/2 tablespoons) and roll into a ball. Roll the dough ball in the sugar mixture, and place on the lined baking sheet, leaving about 2 inches between each cookie. Take a drinking glass with a flat bottom and moisten with water. Dip the glass in the sugar mixture, and use it to flatten the dough balls. Re-sugar the glass as needed.

Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes. Remove when the centers of the cookies have set. Let cool on the baking pan for approximately 5 minutes, and then transfer to wire cooling racks to cool completely.

In addition, I wanted to share with you my favorite end of summer salad!

All you need is:

Spring Salad Mix

Blackberries – 6 oz package sliced

Red Onion – 1 medium size onion chopped

Bacon – six to eight slices baked in the oven for 20 min at 375 degrees. Use parchment paper to line the baking sheet.

For the dressing I used champagne dressing because it’s tangy and sweet, which works great with the ingredients.

Chocolate Covered Orange Cheesecake

Wow this post is long overdue, sorry about that! Below is the recipe for chocolate covered orange cheesecake. I found a fondness for the taste of chocolate covered orange in Spain when I had the most amazing dark chocolate and orange gelato in Salamanca. I decided to try this flavor in a cheesecake and the results were quite delicious!

Chocolate Covered Orange Cheesecake

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups finely crushed graham crackers (about 22 crackers)
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 6 tablespoons butter, melted
• 3 8 ounce packages cream cheese, softened
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 3 tablespoons frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
• 1/2 – 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3 eggs, slightly beaten
• 1 1/2 teaspoons finely shredded orange peel
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 cup whipping cream
• 2 squares (1 oz. each) semi-sweet chocolate, chopped

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. For the crust, in a medium bowl, combine graham crackers and the 3 tablespoons sugar. Stir in melted butter. Press crumb mixture onto the bottom and 1 to 2 inches up the side of a 9-inch springform pan. Bake for 5 minutes. Cool on a wire rack while preparing filling.

*Pressed for Time? – Use a ready made graham cracker crust like I did!*

2. For the filing, in a large bowl, combine cream cheese, the 1-1/3 cups sugar, the orange juice concentrate, and the 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Stir in eggs and orange peel just until combined.

3. Pour filling into crust-lined pan. Place springform pan in a shallow baking pan. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until a 2-1/2-inch-wide area around the outside edge appears set when gently shaken. Remove springform pan from oven and set on a wire rack.

4. In small saucepan combine cream and chocolate. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until chocolate melts and mixture thickens slightly. Remove from heat. Pour over cheesecake.

5. Cool in springform pan on wire rack for 15 minutes. Using a small thin knife, loosen crust from side of pan. Cool for 30 minutes more. Remove side of the pan. Cool for 2 hours. Cover and chill for at least 4 hours or up to 24 hours.

6. If desired, garnish cheesecake with orange peel strips and kumquats. Makes 12 to 16 servings.

International Foodie

I am back from my world travels and I have resumed baking! I will be posting a recipe tomorrow but in the mean time here are some foodie pictures from Spain.

Last Few Days

The last few days have been chaotic with packing and getting my good byes in before my European adventures. I don’t have a recipe today but I wanted to share some pictures, some of which are food related. Daniel took me out to a wonderful and delicious dinner at Richwood Grill in Morgantown. The drink menu is equally as impressive as the food. I drank Hibiscus Cava and Daniel drank a Prairie Fire, which is a martini mixed of jalapeno, ginger and lime.

Next, we moved on to appetizers. I ordered the scallops escabeche, which was very good. The scallops are cooked in lime juice and had a very acidic taste but not too overpowering.

For my entrée, I chose the Coriander-marinated flank steak grilled mid-rare with sage chimichurri. The steak was delicious and perfectly marinated. It came with curry rice and grilled zucchini both of which tasted amazing. I ate every bite of my dinner.

Finally my favorite part of dinner…Dessert! I had a coffee cheesecake and Daniel ate homemade ginger ice cream. They were both so delicious we forget to get pictures.

Everything from the food to the atmosphere makes Richwood Grill a memorable and delicious treat!

Today I woke up early and met my wonderful friend Danielle for a morning of antiquing at the Washington Antique Fair. Although it was a scorching morning, Danielle and I were both able to find some precious treasures.

These two lockets were great finds and only $10 for the set. I plan to put Daniel’s picture in the larger one.

The tiles below are beautiful. I bought three 12 x 24 square to put above the couch. I will post the finish product. I also purchased three sea horse iron hooks for my future beach house!

The rest of the pictures are just a few extra moments from the fair.

Perfect Packaging

It is extremely hot outside today so I’ve decided to stay in and work on my blogging. I’ll try to blog recipes everyday now until I leave for España next week. I have to say planning and packing for a five week trip has left me completely scatterbrained!

You’ve probably noticed from other posts that I am majorly obsessed with Meri Meri! So today I want to show you another adorable product they carry. Usually, when I have some sweet treats to give away I have to resort to an old plastic container for the packaging but after discovering these perfect cupcake and cake boxes, I can now gift my sweets in style! I recently made my boyfriend’s dad some Jack and Coke Cupcakes for Father’s Day and used my Meri Meri cupcake box to package them. I must say I felt like a true baker!

The box fits four cupcakes!

Also for an extra touch I used edible gold spray paint on the cupcakes, which you can find here! Happy Baking

Blondie Bars

These bars will make the perfect cook out or picnic treat! They go great with vanilla ice cream and are so simple to make.

This recipe should make a dozen or more depending on how big or small you slice the bars. I usually go for more smaller ones.

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, plus more for pan
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pan
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 cups packed light-brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 2 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 – 1 1/2  cups of shredded sweetened coconut
• 1 cup toffee bits
• Confectioners sugar, for dusting

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-by-13-inch baking pan. Line bottom of pan with parchment paper; butter and flour parchment paper.
2. In a saucepan over medium heat, cook the butter until it turns golden brown; remove from heat, and let cool. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine browned butter and both sugars; stir with a wooden spoon until combined. Attach bowl to mixer; add eggs. Using the paddle attachment, beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add vanilla, and beat to combine. Add flour mixture, walnuts, and toffee bits. Mix until thoroughly combined, and pour into prepared pan.
4. Bake until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes (do not overbake). Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before turning out of pan onto a cutting board. Peel off parchment paper; cut blondies into 3-inch squares or into suit shapes with 1 1/2- to 2-inch cookie cutters. Just before serving, dust half with confectioners’ sugar, if desired.

Apron Obsession

I have been eyeing up this apron for some time now and I think it is time for a purchase! I love the cupcake pattern and adorable 50′s vibe. Plus, I’m always in need for a new apron. Purchase justified!

Lavender Biscotti

I’m on a serious lavender kick right now so I decided to try making some biscotti with lavender. The recipe is pretty easy but you have to make sure to keep on eye on the biscotti while it’s cooking because you do not want to over cook it. This is an American style biscotti which basically means it is softer than Italian biscotti.

I’ve been baking more than I have been blogging so I will try to add a few more recipes this week!

• 6 tablespoons butter
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1-2 tablespoons of dried edible lavender

Preheat the oven to 350°F Lightly grease (or line with parchment) one large (about 18″ x 13″) baking sheet. I used a Silpat and it worked out wonderfully.

In a medium-sized bowl, beat the butter, sugar, salt, vanilla, and baking powder until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Beat in the eggs; the batter may look slightly curdled. At low speed of your mixer, add the flour, stirring until smooth; the dough will be sticky. Try not to over handle the dough because it can get messy.

Place the dough onto the prepared baking sheet. Shape it into a log that’s about 14″ long x 2 ½” wide x ¾” thick. Straighten the log, and smooth its top and sides.

Bake the dough for 25 minutes. Remove it from the oven, and allow it to cool on the pan anywhere from 10 to 25 minutes. Using a spray bottle filled with room-temperature water, lightly but thoroughly spritz the log, making sure to cover the sides as well as the top. Softening the crust just this little bit will make slicing the biscotti much easier. I did not have a spray bottle on hand so I just used my finger and wet the dough this way and it worked out perfectly fine.

Reduce the oven temperature to 325°F Wait another 5 minutes, then use a serrated knife to cut the log crosswise into 2″ to 4″ slices. Or cut the biscotti on the diagonal for fewer, longer biscotti. As you’re slicing, be sure to cut straight up and down, perpendicular to the pan; if you cut unevenly, biscotti may be thicker at the top than the bottom, and they’ll topple over during their second bake. I cut mine diagonally for the more traditional biscotti look and it was very easy to cut them evenly.

Set the biscotti on edge on the prepared baking sheet. Return the biscotti to the oven, and bake them for 25 to 30 minutes, until they feel very dry and are beginning to turn golden. Remove the biscotti from the oven, and transfer them to a rack to cool.