Tag Archives: baking

Lemon Gooey Bars

06 Sunday Jul 2014

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Super delicious, super addictive and super sweet!  These bars are absolutely amazing and are perfect for the sweet tooth in your family and doubly perfect if that person likes lemon.

Lemons

I wish I could say that I used the lemons from our lemon tree to make this (and so does Mr. E in order to justify the trees existence), but our citrus trees (we have four of them – all different) can’t decide from year to year if they want to produce fruit and how much.  So, I usually end up waiting till lemons are a good price and then make a couple of batches to share with friends and co-workers.  You’d think living in AZ that lemons would always be a good price and they’d be giving them away, but not so much…

IMG_2534

Technically you should let it cool a bit before cutting into bars and eating because it’s so hot – think molten lava hot, however, Mr.  E is not one to follow the rules and so he dug in with a spoon as soon as they were out of the oven…  I knew it must be pretty good because after he hopped a bit from one foot to the other with his mouth open trying to fan (cool off) the lemon lava in his mouth.  He looked at me and said “totally worth it” and took another spoonful.  I don’t know when I’m going to start taking his advice on matters like this because the only thing better than lemon gooey bars is a spoonful of hot lemon gooey pudding mess.

Lemon Bar Slice

Gooey Lemon Bars

Crust:
1 yellow cake mix – pudding in the mix
½ cup butter, melted
1 egg
 
Filling:
¼ cup lemon juice
2 eggs
8 oz. of cream cheese, at room temperature
3 tablespoon butter, melted
3 ½ cup powdered sugar
1 to 1 ½ teaspoon lemon zest
 
Preheat oven to 350.
 
Crust:  In a medium bowl mix dry cake, melted butter and egg.  Mix well; the mixture will be thick.  Grease the bottom and sides of a 9×13 pan and press the mixture into the pan.  Set aside.
 
Filling: In a separate bowl, I used my electric mixer, beat cream cheese well until smooth.  Add eggs and melted butter and mix well until the eggs and butter are fully incorporated.  Add lemon juice and mix well.  At this point there may be some lumps; mix at a high speed to try and get most of the lumps out but it’s okay if you don’t get all of them.
 
Add the powder sugar 1 cup at a time and mix well after each addition.  Once all the powder sugar has been added, add the lemon zest and mix.
 
Pour the filling over the crust and bake for approximately 45 minutes or until the center just barely jiggles when shaken.  The edges, and even the center, will be a medium golden brown.
 
Remove from oven, let cool and cut into bars.  Cover and store in fridge.
 
Enjoy!

Banana Bread & Dirty Monkey Drinks

04 Thursday Oct 2012

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Mmmm Banana Bread.  Who doesn’t love Banana Bread? I posed this question to Mr. E the other day and he answered “crazy people – that’s who!!” I agree 🙂

Mr. E and I have a habit of buying bananas (more than we would ever eat in a week) and, of course, never eating them all.  Mr. E, in his effort to not waste food, throws them in the freezer. We currently have about 10 bananas (with the peels on), all black and not pretty looking in our freezer and… I need the freezer space.  So when I suggested Banana Bread Mr. E did a happy dance and when I said Dirty Monkeys he straight up squealed!!  Okay, so maybe he didn’t squeal but I sure did. Yes I squealed at my own suggestion! LOL They are that GOOD!

What was that? Did I hear you ask “what’s a Dirty Monkey?”  Only my favorite drink from St. Lucia!!   Imagine a glass of blended deliciousness.  For 2 drinks the recipe is (approximately): 1 large banana, 2 shots of Kahlua, 1½ shots of white rum, ice and a bit of milk or if you are feeling indulgent 1 scoop of ice cream. (I’m usually feeling indulgent). 🙂  Then blend!

The Banana Bread recipe is an easy – no yeast, one bowl recipe. You can make it more complex if you want and get all fancy with a bunch of different bowls, but it’s really not necessary.

I pulled the bananas out of the freezer, let them sit on the counter for about 10 minutes, peeled them and dropped them whole into my Kitchen Aid mixer.  I mixed for a few minutes until they were slightly mashed looking.

To the bowl I added the sugar, egg and melted butter.  Mixed until blended and then added the flour and baking powder (I used a colander to sift the baking soda to catch lumps). Mix well.

I decided to make small loaves so they would bake quicker.  My favorite is to eat a slice warm with a bit of butter spread on top.  Hope you enjoy!

Banana Bread Recipe

3 large ripe bananas mashed – about 1cup
1 cup sugar (I use a little less if using really ripe bananas)
1 egg
4 tablespoon melted butter – cooled
1½ cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
 
Grease loaf pan.  Preheat oven to 325°.
 
To a mixing bowl add bananas (either mashed or if using a stand mixer, like a Kitchen Aid, whole and use the paddle attachment on low to mash them up) and sugar and mix well.  Add egg and melted butter, mixing well after each addition.  Then add flour, salt and baking soda (make sure there aren’t any lumps in your baking soda) and mix until combined. 
 
Pour into greased loaf pan and bake for 55 – 60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when testing for doneness.
 
**The bake time for the mini loaves in the picture above was about 25 – 30 minutes.**  

Zucchini Bread

23 Sunday Sep 2012

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Zucchini bread is one of those things that I grew up having and is total “memory food”. You know, that food that you love because it takes you right back to a good memory or reminds you of a good time in your life.  I remember as a child mosey-ing to the kitchen in the morning, after deciding I was ready to face the world (even as a child I loathed mornings), and there it would be!  A thick slice, lightly toasted with just a thin layer of butter melted into the top…mmmmm.  I think the secret is adding pineapple!  I’ve tried other zucchini bread recipes and they’re nice but not, yes I’d like another slice and in fact just give me the whole damn loaf good. 🙂 

This is a really easy recipe! There are a few tricks my mom and I have learned over the years; 1. sifting the baking soda into the flour mixture is a must (nothing is grosser then getting a bite with overwhelming baking soda flavor); and 2. using pineapple rings and then cutting them up instead of just buying crushed.  The reason the extra work is worth it, is that I have found that the rings are better quality pineapple whereas the crushed sometimes you get bits of core. It’s not my favorite to bite into a bread or any dessert that has pineapple in it and you hit that hard, stringy core that you just can’t chew through and end up spitting out.  (I suppose if you’re a lady, you swallow it, but when it comes to “yucky” I’m a spitter. lol 

Zucchini Bread

Yields 2 loaves
3 eggs
2 cups sugar*
1 cup oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
¾ cup diced pineapple, well drained
2 cups grated zucchini, I use the large hole side of my grater
1 cup raisins
 
*If I’m feeling really healthy I reduce the sugar to 1⅔ cups, but most of the time I leave it at the 2 cups and just enjoy it as sweet bread.
 
Preheat oven to 350°.  Mix the dry ingredients together, sifting in the baking soda. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until fluffy.  Add oil and vanilla and continue beating until thick and foamy.
 
Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and mix well.  Gently fold in the pineapple and zucchini.  Lastly fold in the raisins.
 
Pour mixture into 2 well-greased loaf pans and bake for 50 – 60 minutes.  I rotate halfway through the baking because I don’t have a convection oven and my oven does not heat evenly.  Test for doneness using a toothpick; you’ll want the toothpick to come out pretty clean, a few crumbs is okay too. 🙂