“You put the lime in the coconut…”  If you’re as old as I am, you’ll now have that song stuck in your head all day.  You’re welcome.  But it’s totally worth it when you taste these tropical, summery cakes of deliciousness.

Not only do they have a fluffy meringue topping, but hiding underneath is a sweet lime goo that takes them over the edge.

Coconut Lime Meringue Cupcakes

FOR THE CUPCAKES
1 large lime (for 1 teaspoon zest and 2 tablespoons juice)
4 large eggs
1 18 OZ. package yellow cake mix
1 3.5 OZ. package vanilla instant pudding mix
1 1/4 cups water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon coconut flavoring or coconut extract

FOR THE FILLING
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1/3 cup real key lime juice

FOR THE COCONUT MERINGUE
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
3 large reserved egg whites
1/2 teaspoon coconut flavoring
1/3 cup granulated sugar

1. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F.  Put your cupcake liners in your pan.

2. Prepare the cupcake batter…With a citrus zester or fine grater, zest the lime and reserve one teaspoon for garnish. Squeeze the lime juice over a strainer into a small bowl; you should have about two tablespoons. Set it aside.

3. Separate three of the eggs, place the whites in a large clean mixing bowl and the yolks in another mixing bowl.  No waste here, chickens!

4. Add the remaining egg, cake mix, pudding mix, water, oil, coconut flavoring and lime zest (except the little bit for garnish) and lime juice to the yolks. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for about 30 seconds.  Scrape the bowl down with a spatula and mix again on medium about 2 minutes more, scraping down the sides again if needed.

5. Spoon or scoop 1/4 cup batter into each lined cupcake cup, filling it two thirds of the way full.

6. Bake ‘em until they are lightly golden and spring back when lightly pressed with your finger about 18 minutes.  They can be just slightly underdone cause you’re gonna toast ‘em in a few minutes.  Let them cool while you make the topping.  Increase the oven heat to 450°F.

7. Prepare the lime stuff:  Place the sweetened condensed milk and Key lime juice in a small bowl and stir to combine. It’ll get thicker.  Poke some holes into the tops of your cupcakes and spread the lime stuff over.  Ideally, you would use a pastry tip to inject the cupcakes, but then I’m lazy.

8. Make the meringue… Add the cream of tartar to the reserved egg whites and beat with an electric mixer on high speed until frothy, 45 seconds.

9. Add the coconut flavoring and one tablespoon of the sugar. Continue beating on high, adding one tablespoon sugar at a time, until the whites form stiff peaks (if you pull the beaters from the meringue, the meringue should extend from the beaters in straight stiff peaks).

10.  Spoon two tablespoons meringue onto the top of each cupcake and swirl to spread it just to the edges with a short metal spatula or a spoon or be fancy and pipe on in a circular motion.

11.  Bake until the meringue is light nutty brown in color, five to six minutes.  Sprinkle with the remaining lime zest and coconut if you like.

You’re singing that song again, aren’t you?

        

It’s that time of year again…when children cry and parents cheer. Summer memories of swimming, biking and camping are long gone. But they don’t have to be. You can pack a bit of summer memories in their lunch with these super easy, super chocolatey and super marshmallowey (If that’s not a word, it should be!) S’mores Bars.

And I found this cool new marshmallow creme that tastes like the perfect toasted marshmallow.  You know, the one you set on fire so it gets just a little black but then you eat it and burn your tongue and can’t wait to get another and burn your tongue again?  Well, this stuff tastes like that only without the black burnt pieces. I thought it worked perfectly for these, but regular marshmallow creme is just as delicious.

S’Mores Bars

1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/3 cups flour
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch salt
5 chocolate bars (I used about 12 mini Hershey bars)
1 cup marshmallow creme

Preheat your oven to 350 F.

Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy with a mixer set on high.  Add the egg and vanilla and beat some more.

In another bowl, mix the flour, graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt then slowly pour this into the butter/sugar mixture.  Take out about 3/4 cup of this stuff and set it aside.

Take the rest and pat it into a greased 8″x8″ square baking pan.   Set your candy bars on top of this base.  Spread the marshmallow creme over the candy bars. Finally, drop spoonfuls of the graham cracker mixture you set aside on top.

Bake for about 25-30 minutes.  Cool and cut into squares.  Campfire taste without Smoky the Bear showing up.

        

You know, being a food blogger can be stressful, chickens.  I have to cook up incredible recipes, write something instructional and funny about it and do it by deadline.   A good glass of wine (or six) helps but sometimes, the chocolate siren whispers in your ear and nothing else will do.  And while I’m not advocating stress eating, because that’s something you all know I would NEVER do,  just one of these sends me into a chocolate coma away from the stresses of the day.

INCREDIBLE DEEP CHOCOLATE COOKIES
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts or pecans

Melt the butter in a saucepan.  Remove from heat and stir in the chocolate chips.  Let ‘em rest for a minute to melt and then stir again.  If they’re stubborn and not quite melted, you can put them on the burner again for just a minute on low.  (You can do this in the microwave if you want…just be careful not to burn your precious chocolate!) Let them cool off to the side. (Quit licking that spoon!)

In a bowl, beat the eggs, sugar, salt and vanilla together for about 3 minutes.  It’ll turn a lovely creamy yellow.   Add in the melted chocolate mixture and mix til combined.

Sift together the flour and baking powder and then add that in too.  Make sure to scrape the bowl so you get all that goodness combined.  Add in your nuts and stir.  Now resist all temptation to eat the entire bowl, cover it with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for about 1/2 hour to set that chocolate back up.

Drop by teaspoonfuls onto a greased cooking sheet and bake at 350 for about 10 minutes.   Cool them as long as humanly possible before eating (about 4.28 minutes).   Bite.  Sigh.  Enjoy chocolate coma.

        

What age do you have to be before birthdays aren’t a big deal? Sure, you don’t have the year long countdown you had when you were 7, but everyone hopes for a little pampering or kind well wishes. The part I think we struggle with is getting a year older. I am now 46, which is one year more than 45 which is now closer to 50 than 40. But a wise friend of mine said that every year older sure beats the alternative. So I’m celebrating 46 years of surviving all the stupid stunts of my youth and all the moments I said, “These kids are going to be the death of me!”

I usually bake myself my favorite German Chocolate Cake but this year, I’m being lazy and baking these very easy gooey Birthday Blondies.

Birthday Blondies

2 cups  flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 sticks of  butter, melted and slightly cooled
2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 -1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup toffee bits (I like Heath Toffee bits or you could use crumbled candy)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease bottom and sides of an 9×13-inch pan or Pyrex dish.  In a mixing bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and salt, and set aside.

With an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together, then beat in the eggs and vanilla and blend well. With mixer running at low speed, gradually add the dry ingredients. Stir in the chocolate chips and pecans.

Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan or baking dish, and bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Cool completely before cutting if you can.

        

This is a pie recipe.  Well, not your usual pie, but it has fruit, it fits in a pie plate and has whipped cream so it’s kind of a pie…it’s also kind of a cookie.  It’s more like a pookie. Instead of a pie crust, there’s this meringue-like cookie with chocolate chips, nuts and crackers that rock a sweet-salty zen.

Strawberry Chocolate Nut Pie

• 3 large egg whites at room temp
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips (or regular chips, chopped)
• 1/2 cup pecans, chopped
• 1 cup crumbled Ritz crackers (about 1 sleeve)
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2 tablespoon powdered sugar
• 1 pint strawberries, washed, cored and sliced

Preheat oven to 350. Grease 9″ pie plate.

Beat egg whites at medium speed until soft peaks.

Combine sugar and baking powder and gradually add mixture to egg whites, til stiff peaks.

Set aside 2 tablespoons chocolate chips and coarsely chop the rest. Set aside 1 tablespoon pecan pieces and grind rest in food processor.

Combine cracker crumbs, chopped chocolate and ground pecans. Fold into egg whites along with almond extract. Spread into greased pie plate.

Bake 25 minutes. Cool completely.

Beat cream, powdered sugar and vanilla on high until stiff peaks form.

Set aside 3/4 c strawberry slices for garnish. Fold remaining berries into whipped cream. Spread over baked layer.

Garnish with reserved strawberries, pecans and chocolate chips.

        

Oatmeal Cookies are the Rodney Dangerfield of the cookie community.  They just don’t get no respect, ya know?   They have a reputation as being bland, slightly boring attempts to pass off a healthy breakfast grain as a dessert.    Even my youngest thumbed her nose up…like so:

“I don’t like oatmeal cookies.”
“You’ve never had oatmeal cookies.”
“I know.  Because I don’t like them.”

Ok, there is a certain “8 year old kid” logic to that.

Maybe what we need is a marketing campaign for oatmeal cookies.  Like..

• “Hey, it’s a cookie.”
• “Oatmeal: It’s not boring, just laid back.”
• “They were good enough for Grandma.”

Grandmas know that oatmeal cookies are economical, delicious and easy.   And I think this recipe might change your mind about oatmeal cookies.

First, we’re going to soak the raisins.  And feel free to swap out the raisins for dried cherries or cranberries.  Those are great too!

Put your raisiny mess in the fridge for about 1 hour.

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Grandma’s Oatmeal Cookies

3 eggs, well beaten
1 cup raisins
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups oatmeal
3/4 cup chopped pecans

Pour the beaten eggs over the raisins and add the vanilla.  Put in the fridge for 1 hour.

Cream together butter and sugars together.  Combine the flour, salt, cinnamon and baking soda and add to the creamed mixture.  It’ll be crumbly.

Blend in egg-raisin mixture and add the oatmeal.  The dough will be stiff.

Drop by tablespoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet (a silicone sheet works great), or roll into balls and flatten slightly.

Bake ‘em at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned.

Then visit your Grandma and share ‘em.

You might also like:

Peanut Butter Filled Chocolate Cookies
Amish Snickerdoodles
Lemon Cookies are Like Spring Without Sneezing

        

I don’t know why the French think Americans are clueless when it comes to cooking.  I mean, America has made its own incredible contributions to the world of fine food such as Spam, beef jerky, and our best export, McDonald’s McRib sandwich.

I will admit that the French do know how do soup.   This recipe for Best Onion Soup Ever gets its “Best” and “Ever” from fond.  Fond, as many of you know, is French for “that really tasty stuff that’s stuck to the bottom of your pan, you uncivilized American!” This is a Sunday kind of recipe in that it takes a few hours but you’re not really hands on for most of it.

* That lid is now serving time as a the cymbal in my daughter’s stuffed animal band.

You’ve all heard that you should only cook with wine or spirits that you would drink.   That’s why I advocate tasting the wine before you pour it into your recipe.  Sometimes I test 4 or 5 glassfuls just to be sure.

Now, you may be asking, why are we reducing this over and over and over?  Good question.  (Let’s just pretend you asked, ok?)  Every time you add more liquid and evaporate down (that’s called reduction which is something else the French perfected, you clumsy, cooking-challenged American!), you’re making more sticky brown fond stuff that equals flavor to the nth power. So be sure and scrape down the sides and bottom each time!

Let it simmer for about 20-30 minutes.

If you want extra crispy crouton-like bread, toast your slices in the oven first.

Best Onion Soup Ever

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter cut into 3 pieces
• 6 large yellow onions sliced
• Kosher salt
• 2 cups water
• 1/2 cup dry sherry
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 2 cups beef broth
• 2 tablespoons dried thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• Fresh black pepper
• 1 small baguette cut into 1/2-inch slices
• 8 ounces shredded Gruyère or Swiss cheese

Adjust the oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 325 degrees.

Spray the inside of a Dutch oven with a nonstick cooking spray. Place the butter in the pot and add the onions and a pinch of salt. (It will help draw liquid out of the onions.) Bake in the oven, covered, for about 1 hour. Remove the pot from the oven and stir the onions, scraping the bottom and sides of the pot. Return the pot to the oven with the lid slightly ajar and continue to cook until the onions are very soft and golden brown, 1 1/2 hours longer, stirring the onions and scraping bottom and sides of pot after 1 hour.

Remove pot and place over medium-high heat. (Careful!  The handles are still hot!)  Cook the onions, stirring frequently and scraping bottom and sides of pot, until the liquid evaporates and the onions brown, 15 to 20 minutes, reducing the heat to medium if the onions are browning too quickly. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until the pot bottom is coated with a dark crust, roughly 6 to 8 minutes, adjusting the heat as necessary.

Stir in the sherry and cook, stirring frequently, until the sherry evaporates, about 5 minutes.   Stir in 1/4 cup water, scraping the pot bottom to loosen that yummy fond and cook until water evaporates and pot bottom has formed another dark crust, 6 to 8 minutes. Repeat process of deglazing 2 or 3 more times, until onions are very dark brown.

Stir in the broths, 2 cups of water, thyme, bay leaf, and 1/2 teaspoon salt, scraping up any final bits of browned crust on bottom and sides of pot.
6. Increase heat to high and bring to simmer. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove and discard the bay leaf, then season with salt and pepper.

While the soup simmers, toast the sliced baguette if you like.  Set individual broiler-safe bowls on a baking sheet and fill each with soup. Top each bowl with 1 or 2 baguette slices (do not overlap slices) and sprinkle evenly with  a good melty cheese like Gruyère or Swiss.  Broil carefully until the cheese is melted and bubbly around edges, 3 to 5 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes before serving or you will burn yourself,  you senseless American!

What else is cookin’

• Piña Colada Doughnuts
• Simple Vinaigrette – A Visual Recipe
• Roasted Vegetable Sandwich

        

One of my absolute favorite cookbook authors and bloggers is David Lebovitz who blogs and wittily Twitters (”Wittily Twitters” sounds like the perfect Dickens character, doesn’t it?) about his musings from his Paris apartment. His recipes are insanely good so his recipe for Chocolate Idiot Cake literally had my name on it seeing as how I am often an idiot.

He describes this cake as “the most delicious, silkiest, most supremely-chocolate ganache you’ve ever had.” He wasn’t kidding.  This stuff is Grade A dangerous!  He’s also right that it was pretty darn easy.  So if you don’t know the difference between a water bath and a bubble bath, here’s your recipe for impressing your Valentine.

David Lebovitz’s Chocolate Idiot Cake

10 ounces good bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
15 tablespoons (7 oz) butter, salted or unsalted, cut into pieces
5 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup sugar

Preheat the oven to 350F (175 C).

1. Butter a 9-inch (23 cm) springform pan and dust it with cocoa powder, tapping out any excess. If you suspect your springform pan isn’t 100% water-tight, wrap the outside with aluminum foil, making sure it goes all the way up to the outer rim.

2. Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler (or microwave), stirring occasionally, until smooth. Remove from heat.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar, then whisk in the melted chocolate mixture until smooth.

4. Pour the batter into the prepared springform pan and cover the top of the pan snugly with a sheet of foil. Put the springform pan into a larger baking pan, such as a roasting pan, and add enough hot water to the baking pan to come about halfway up to the outside of the cake pan. (Francie: That’s all a water bath is…told you it was easy!)

Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

You’ll know the cake is done when it feels just set, like quivering chocolate pudding. If you gently touch the center, your finger should come away clean.

5. Lift the cake pan from the water bath and remove the foil. Let cake cool completely on a cooling rack.

Serve thin wedges of this very rich cake at room temperature, with creme anglaise, ice cream, or whipped cream.

Storage: This Chocolate Idiot Cake can be wrapped and chilled in the refrigerator for 3-5 days.

So…I made the recipe so I can vouch that this stuff really is idiot proof.  How you manage the rest of your Valentine’s date is is up to you.

        

If you, dear reader, have ever been a Girl Scout, you will understand when I say that selling cookies is serious. How well I remember racing down the street against fellow Brownie Brenda Walesky as we both fought to get to Mrs. Johnson’s house first because she always bought 30 boxes of cookies and froze them but then I tripped on my shoelace and fell ripping my Brownie sash which had like three badges already and getting my new Brownie beret covered in dirty slush and crying because Brenda Walesky always sold the most anyway because her dad was like the foreman at the factory and it was really unfair that she had to take Mrs. Johnson who was on my side of the street anyway. Not that I’m bitter.

Thirty years later nothing has changed and so when we got our cookie sale packs late and had one week to sell which, of course, was the week when no sane person went outside because we got 9″ of snow and the thermometer hit 14 below, we still managed to sell $73 dollars worth of cookies to a kind hearted soul who took pity on my daughter (yes, that would be me).  Not that we wouldn’t have bought them anyway.  My husband and daughter wait all year for those Girl Scout Samoa cookies.   And since I got tired of my daughter asking when they’ll be in, I thought I’d give a try at making them myself to tide us over until they arrive.   If you’re jonesing for a bite of coconutty goodness, today is your lucky day.

I cheated and started with chocolate covered shortbread cookies.  I used Keebler Fudge Stripe cookies.

Here’s the official version:

Almost Girl Scout Samoa Cookies

• 1 box chocolate covered shortbread cookies (like Keebler Chocolate Stripes)
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1/2 c. light corn syrup
• 1/2 c. sweetened condensed milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups toasted coconut (I toasted mine in the oven for about 10 minutes at 400 stirring occasionally)
• 1 cup chocolate chips for drizzling

Put a cookie into each tin of a muffin pan.

In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, combine the butter, sugar and corn syrup and heat to a full boil while constantly stirring.

Boil for three minutes, stirring constantly.

Slowly pour in the sweetened condensed milk and continue cooking until the mixture reaches about 200-210º Farenheit on a candy thermometer.

Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla. Immediately stir in toasted coconut and mix well. Spoon teaspoonfuls over shortbread cookies. Let the cookies chill a while (you know, give ‘em some space).

Melt chocolate chips and drizzle stripes over cookies. Try to control yourself.

My daughter’s verdict?  Better than the real ones!

Take that, Brenda Walesky!

        

Once again, I’m divulging another of my famously fabulous Christmas recipes to you, dear readers, because I lost that bet love you all so much. These aren’t exactly fancy, schmancy but they are sooo much better than those famous peppermint patties that are supposed to make you feel like you’re on a snow covered ski slope, you know, the ones that rhyme with dork.

Sooo easy!  Here’s how.

PEPPERMINT PATTIES

1 can sweetened condensed milk
6 c. powdered sugar plus about about 1/2 cup for dipping
1 tsp. peppermint extract
24 oz. good dark chocolate
1 tsp. shortening

Pour the condensed milk into your mixer and gradually add the powdered sugar slooooowly (unless you like the pale look). Add the extract and taste.  If you like it “peppermintier,” add more extract.

Drop the dough by rounded spoonfuls into a small bowl of extra powdered sugar and roll into balls (about 1″-1.5″).

Putting these in the freezer lets you dip them without them melting and drooping and no one wants a sad peppermint patty, right?

When they’ve been in the freezer long enough so they can hold their shape, melt the chocolate with the tsp of shortening and dip them then cool.  The payoff?  Ooey, gooey, pepperminty goodness!