Rum Cake Cookies

Time for some more cookies. Since I made the Kahlua Cake cookies a while back, I’d been wanting to make Rum Cake cookies. Next time I‘ll try Piña Colada cookies.

It’s been difficult to post lately. Bob’s waiting to hear about a job in Houston. Not knowing if we’re moving in the next couple of weeks has me a little antsy. But I figured I’ve wasted enough time worrying about something that hasn’t happened yet. It’s time to bake before the weather gets too hot to turn on the oven after 10 am.


These recipe instructions are the same ones I used for the Kahlua cake cookies shown in the chocolate blog. It is sooo easy to turn a cake mix into cookies. Think of the possibilities; all the different flavors and add-ins to experiment with.

Rum Cake Cookies

1 yellow cake mix
2 eggs
½ cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon Bacardi Rum
1 cup finely chopped pecans
1 recipe Spicy Glazed half pecans

Mix eggs, oil and rum together. Add the cake mix. Blend all ingredients well. Fold in chopped pecans.

Using a cookie scoop (to make all the cookies uniform in size), scoop out dough and place on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet.

Top each scoop with one glazed half pecan. Bake for 10 minutes and cool completely on a cooling rack. That’s it. Enjoy with a delicious cup of coffee and your afternoon break is a success.

Spicy Glazed Pecans

1/4 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon water
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 1/2 cups pecan halves

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the sugar, water, and cayenne pepper. Stir and bring to a boil; let boil 2 minutes. Remove pan from heat; gently stir in nuts until evenly coated and the sugar mixture begins to thicken. Spread nuts over the prepared baking pan. Bake until browned, about 10 to 12 minutes. Remove pan from oven and let nuts cool. Place in a plastic bag, and gently tumble together to remove any excess glaze. Serve warm or store in an airtight container.

You all know that I wrote a cookbook, Aprovecho, A Mexican American Border Cookbook. Well, it’s now available in Kindle. My publisher had told me of the possibility, but not until I was browsing through Amazon did I discover that indeed it was now available in Kindle format. The feeling was pretty much the same as when we first published and I never saw the book until it was out on the shelves at Barnes and Noble. (Have I ever mentioned that the whole publishing experience is rather un-nerving?)


Anyway, thought I’d let you guys know. Enjoy the cookies.

In case you missed my post on Rum Cake, here is the recipe once more. :)

BACARDI RUM CAKE


1 c. chopped walnuts or pecans
1 pkg. yellow cake mix
1 (3 3/4 oz.) pkg. instant vanilla pudding
4 eggs
1/2 c. cold water
1/2 c. Wesson oil
1/2 c. Bacardi dark rum

GLAZE:
1/4 lb. butter
1/4 c. water
1 c. granulated sugar
1/2 c. dark rum

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour 10" tube or 12 cup bundt pan. Sprinkle nuts over bottom of pan. Mix the cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, 1/2 cup cold water, oil and 1/2 cup Bacardi dark rum together. Pour batter over nuts and bake the cake for 1 hour. Cool. Invert on serving plate. Prick top and drizzle with glaze. Allow cake to absorb glaze. Repeat until the glaze is used up. To make the glaze, melt butter in saucepan, stir in water and sugar. Boil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Stir in rum.

Easy Strawberry Cream Tart

As easy as pie, so the saying goes. Thought I’d share a quick and simple Spring time dessert just in time for the Easter weekend. Life has been a little stressful lately, my Aunt Enriqueta, 98 years old, just passed away. Thankfully she was not ill, just tired. She slipped away quietly in her sleep. We have wonderful memories of her and will always keep her in our hearts.


My children know that when I’m stressed or the old Fibro kicks in, I can’t focus, so I either clean house or cook. You know what I mean, something that doesn’t take a great deal of intelligence or concentration. Here’s where this pie comes in.

I’d never made a tart shell before and had purchased a pan to give me the incentive to make one. Well, I kept putting it off and putting it off until two days ago. I figured if I could finally learn to make homemade bread, I could tackle making a tart.

The filling is “as easy as pie”. Cream cheese filling topped with strawberries and a glaze. Doesn’t get much simpler than that. I hope your Easter or Passover weekend is blessed with love and family.


Strawberry Cream Pie (I mean Tart)

1 (8 ounce) bar of cream cheese, softened
¼ cup sugar
1 cup whipped cream (you can use Cool Whip if you like)
1 pint of fresh strawberries, washed, hulled and sliced in half
1 tub of Strawberry Glaze (I used Maries)
Additional whipped cream as a topping, optional
1 tart shell

Blend cream cheese and sugar together until well combined. Fold in whipped cream.

Spread evenly over tart shell. Arrange you sliced strawberries over the cream cheese filling. Cover completely with glaze. Refrigerate for at least an hour. Top with additional whipped cream (if desired) before serving.

Tart Shell

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup white sugar or brown sugar, packed
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup butter
1 large egg, beaten

Preheat the oven to 400°F (205°C).

In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar and salt. Using a pastry blender or the tips of your fingers, cut the butter into the flour mixture until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Using a fork, stir in the beaten egg, until dough comes together nicely. Form pastry into a ball and chill for 1 hour.

Roll pastry out on a lightly floured work surface into a circle slightly larger than the tart pan, place in pan and press onto bottom and edge of pan and then firmly roll the rolling pin across the top of the tart pan to trim away the excess pastry. (Or a quick and easy method is to simply omit chilling the dough first and firmly press dough evenly against the bottom and side of an ungreased tart pan with your fingertips).

Bake pastry for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. (You can help prevent the pastry from becoming too puffy and bubbling by cutting out a circle of parchment or waxed paper and placing it on the tart pastry, then filling it with pastry weights, beans or rice. Remove the paper and weights a few minutes before the end of baking time to allow the pastry to brown. This procedure is called blind-baking).

Makes enough pastry for one (11-inch) round tart or 8 individual tart shells.

Chicken and Waffles My way

I never truly understood the concept of Chicken and Waffles until this week. It's quite the popular dish in the Northeast part of the country and in the South, but until I couldn't decide on whether to have a late breakfast or an early lunch the idea of having both completely eluded me.


The original dish of Chicken and Waffles is made with fried chicken and delicious buttermilk waffles. I gave mine a spin and made a spicy chicken salad with cornmeal waffles. Being a chocoholic, I suppose I could have cooked up some spicy chocolate waffles and served it with chicken mole, but I was hungry and wanted a quick meal. I think the addition of mangos and pepper jelly is what really made this dish so tasty.

I heard a story told by a lady up in New York how the custom of chicken and waffles came about. Apparently it started back in the late 40's or early 50's when diners would remain open late at night to serve musicians a meal after their late night gigs. The dilemma with them was the same one I ran into in deciding whether to have breakfast or lunch. So a menu item of chicken and waffles soon became popular to satisfy these late night customers.

It was a perfect "brunch" for me with some left-over’s for Bob when he got home for work. Hope it gives you some ideas of your own in recreating this fabulous dish. Enjoy.

Spicy Sweet Mango Chicken Salad

¼ cup mango-lime-pepper jelly syrup reduction sauce
½ cup mayonnaise
1 tbsp. honey
2-2 ½ cups diced chicken, cooked
1 cup thinly sliced celery
1 cup diced mangos
1/3 cup toasted macadamia nuts
Salt to taste
¼ cup sliced green onions with tops

Reduction Sauce:

1 can mango nectar (I used Kern’s)
¼ cup jalapeño pepper jelly (I used Reese’s Hot Pepper Jelly)
1 tablespoon lime juice

In a small saucepan, combine mango nectar and pepper jelly. Whisk to combine and heat over medium-high heat to boiling. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes until reduced by half and syrupy. Stir periodically during this process.

Remove from heat and add lime juice. Allow to cool for about 10 minutes while combining the chicken salad ingredients. When cool, combine ¼ cup sauce with ½ cup mayonnaise and 1 tablespoon honey.

Combine chicken, celery, diced mango pieces, macadamia nuts and sliced green onions. Add salt to taste. Mix mayonnaise mixture into chicken ingredients.

Cover and chill. Serves 4.

Cornmeal Waffles

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups yellow cornmeal
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 large eggs

Directions
Preheat waffle iron according to manufacturer's instructions.

In a large bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Add milk, oil, and eggs; stirring until smooth. Pour batter onto hot waffle iron and bake in batches. Set aside and keep warm.

Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

Look at my first attempt at making homemade cinnamon rolls.  I think they're gorgeous.  My daughter-in-law Jennifer has been making these for sometime now so I thought I'd give them a try.  Now that I've gotten over the fear of yeast, my bread baking days are taking off.

I was a little leary of making these because the recipe called for combining and kneading the dough in a bread machine.  Well, a couple of months ago, I broke the one I had.  I was trying to be so smart in taking it apart to clean it properly, then I couldn't put it back together again.  Oh well. Don't know till you try. 

But, I used my Kitchen Aid Mixer with the dough hook and they came out great. 

Spreading the brown sugar-cinnamon mixture and rolling it up.

Cut and allowed to rise a second time.

Out of the oven and ready to frost with Cream Cheese Frosting.

Cinnabon...eat your heart out!

The part that gave me some bit of a problem was rolling the dough out into a rectangle.  It took a while, but I got it done.  Next I made some coffee and scarfed down one.  I thought I'd be able to eat two, but they come out so big that I only managed to eat one.

While I was waiting for the rolls to come out of the oven, I went out back to sky watch, a habit I enjoy.  An eagle flew over head.  I ran back in to get my camera and when I returned, I found it gone.  BUT, the MetLife Blimp was going by so I took a picture of that.  Happy weekend everyone. 
My Cinnamon Rolls


1 cup warm milk (110 degrees)
2 eggs, room temp
1/3 cup butter, melted
4 ½ cups bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup white sugar
2 ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla

Filling:
1 cup brown sugar
2 ½ tablespoons cinnamon
1/3 cup softened butter

Frosting:
1 (3 ounce) cream cheese, softened
¼ cup butter, softened
1 ½ cups powdered sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla
pinch of salt


Dough:

Warm milk in saucepan until it reaches 110. Remove from heat ad sprinkle in yeast and ¼ teaspoon sugar, do not stir. Set aside for 5 minutes until foamy. Whisk in eggs, melted butter and vanilla. Whisk the flour, sugar and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. Make a well in the center and pour in the yeast mixture. Mix on low with dough hook until thick and slightly sticky. Knead on medium until dough gathers around the hook, about 6 minutes. Add a couple of tablespoons of flour if necessary. Remove the dough and shape into a ball. Place in a buttered bowl. Turn dough to butter underside. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rise until double, 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Roll out dough into a 16 x 21 inch rectangle. Spread dough with 1/3 cup butter and sprinkle evenly with sugar/cinnamon mixture. . Roll up dough and cut into 12 rolls. Place rolls in a lightly greased 9x13 inch baking pan. Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

Bake rolls in preheated oven until golden brown, about 15 minutes. While rolls are baking, beat together cream cheese, 1/4 cup butter, powdered sugar, vanilla extract and salt. Spread frosting on warm rolls before serving.

Mango Upside-Down Cake

I was served this delicious cake at a business dinner a long time ago. I never forgot the enticing flavor of mangos and lime. I’ve yet to come across a recipe for it in any cookbook that I have (and believe me, I have a lot of cookbooks!).


My time has been spent working on a writing project that will incorporate recipes dispersed through the fictional work. I’ve been creating, testing and wracking my head with new delectable delights that could be well incorporated into this work.

I thought about that delicious cake I once had and set about trying to re-create it. I’m rather pleased with the results. When I was served a slice of this cake, it was accompanied with a smooth and creamy vanilla bean ice cream that had the lime syrup drizzled over it. Sadly I didn’t have any ice cream at home and was so anxious to get a bite into the cake that I pictured it by itself.

It really is mouthwatering when you taste the sweetness of the mangos, crunch of the macadamia nuts and the tartness of the lime syrup. I felt like one slice wouldn’t satisfy my appetite, but then I remembered…moderation in all things.

Mango Upside Down Cake

4 tablespoons butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 yellow cake mix
½ cup water
½ cup mango nectar (or juice)
1/3 cup oil
3 eggs
¼ cup rum
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 large mango, peeled, seeded and sliced
½ cup macadamia nuts, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Melt butter in a large round cake pan, or if you prefer, a 13 x 9 inch cake pan in the oven for 3 to 5 minutes.
Sprinkle brown sugar over the melted butter. Lay down the mango slices in whatever fashion you like over the brown sugar. Add the macadamia nuts in between the mango slices.

Prepare cake batter. In a large mixing bowl, combine cake mix, water, mango nectar, oil, eggs, rum and lime juice. Whisk for 2 minutes until all the lumps disappear.
Carefully pour the batter over the mango prepared cake pan.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Run a knife around the cake edges and invert cake over plate.

Option: Make simple syrup with ¼ cup lime juice and ¼ cup sugar to drizzle over the cake before serving. Mix lime juice and sugar in a small saucepan over low heat and stir until sugar dissolves. Allow to boil gently for 2 minutes to allow syrup to thicken slightly. Remove syrup from heat and add 1 tablespoon rum to the mixture. Drizzle over warm Mango cake for an added level of flavor. Sprinkle with a little lime zest.