Sweet Melissa Sundays Top 10 Favorite Recipes!

In April 2010 I started participating in the weekly online baking group, Sweet Melissa Sundays.  The group had already been baking their way through the Sweet Melissa Baking Book by Melissa Murphy for about a year when I joined.  And the group posted the final recipe (of just over 100 recipes) on August 21, 2011.  In the past year and a half I've met some amazingly talented bakers and learned tons.  Before joining this group my baking repertoire consisted of mostly cookies, a few cakes or cupcakes and a pie here and there.   What I liked most about the group was being pushed outside my comfort zone.  Without the group I doubt I would have tried more than half the recipes that turned out to be some of my favorites. 

When I tasted each of the recipes below for the first time, I said, "wow".  For each and every one.  Literally, I said, "wow".  Out loud.  I love when you bite into something and you're not sure what to expect or think you know exactly what to expect, and you are pleasantly surprised and all you can say is "wow!" 

To wrap a year and a half of baking I wanted to put together a list of my favorites.  They are listed in order the group made them.  So without further adieu...

Chocolate Cake

This chocolate cake is the base for several recipes in the Sweet Melissa book.  It's incredibly moist and deep dark chocolaty.  I have an affinity for cakes made with sour cream and this one really knocks it out of the park if you are a chocolate lover.  I have made it several times and will continue to go to this as one of my top chocolate cake recipes. 

Gingersnaps

When I got my first turn to host a recipe for the group I had to go with Gingersnaps.  It only seemed right!  I was surprised at how much I liked these cookies, since I already have my own go to ginger snap recipe.  Melissa Murphy's version contains typical spices you might expect, like cinnamon, ginger and allspice, but what was really unique was the inclusion of white pepper.  Everything in my gut was telling me to omit the pepper, but I felt like I really had to do the recipe proper justice and follow it word for word.  And you know what?  The white pepper works!  It blends with other spices to make a perfectly sweet and mildly spicy cookie.  And it pairs beautifully with a lemon cream filling.

Blueberry and Almond Biscotti

What is a biscotti anyway?  It's essentially a twice baked cookie.  Round 1 is baked in a loaf form and then the loaf is sliced into the biscotti spears you are probably familiar with and those are baked again to get a nice crunchy texture.  I have never been a biscotti person.  Probably because I'm not a coffee drinker or a fan of crunchy cookies in general.  I had never made biscotti before and  I really didn't expect to like this.  I hate being wrong. But love it all at the same time because these biscotti are delicious and you don't need a hot beverage to enjoy them.  They also make great gifts since they keep well for several days. 

Melissa's recipe called for dried sour cherries, but I switched it up with dried blueberries instead.  What made this recipe for me was the lemon zest.  The lemon flavor is incredibly bright in this crunchy cookie, but not overly lemony.  This recipe opened my eyes to the possibility of making various flavors of biscotti (which I have on my to do list).

Sweet Almond Cake with Lemon Curd

Before joining SMS, I will be honest, most cakes I made were out of a box.  With the exception of carrot cake.  My family has a great carrot cake recipe that doesn't involve a box.  One day I'll get around to posting it on the blog.  What I didn't know was the various techniques used in making cakes from scratch.  This one calls for ground almonds and whipped egg whites in the batter.  You whip up the egg whites until they form stiff peaks (similar to making a meringue) and then gently fold the airy mixture into your cake.  I really don't know much about the science of baking, but I do know this cake is delicious with a lightly sweet almond flavor.  It has a lovely toothsome crumb from the ground almonds and a light moistness.  This cake would be a wonderful base for many fillings and frostings.  Speaking of fillings and frostings, the lemon curd and lemon mascarpone frosting that accompany this cake were not the stars for me.  I had to switch to lemon cream cheese frosting because I had trouble with the mascarpone.  This cake recipe, however, is on my list of keepers!

Mom's French Pancakes (aka Crepes)

Can you say yummy?  Can you say easy to make?  Can  you say "Oooh la la"! This recipe was another surprise winner!  I mean I knew I already loved crepes, I just doubted my ability to make these thin delicate little pancakes.  The ingredients are simple and the batter can (and is recommended) to be made the night before you make these little jewels.  I used a large non stick skillet and after making one or two crepes, really got the hang of it.  If you have not made crepes before, you must try them!  The options for filling them are endless....but my favorite combination is seen above.  Nutella and sliced bananas.  Simple.  Delicious!

Lemon Blueberry Buttermilk Pie

Though I am posting these in the order I made them and not in any preferential taste order, I will say this is a fantastic recipe and is among my top 3 favorites from the book (along with the chocolate cake and honey cream caramels).  I was completely blown away by the perfect marriage of lemon and blueberries amidst a creamy custardy filling.  And this pie is one of the easiest in the book to make.  Especially if you use a pre-made graham cracker crust from the grocery store (a slight diversion from the original recipe).  Melissa's recipe calls for traditional pie dough, but as I was making this pie for the second time for Mother's Day earlier this year, I had a crust mishap.  I used Melissa's all butter pie crust recipe and had major shrinkage occur.  Irreparable shrinkage.  At 11 pm on the eve of Mother's Day I went to the grocery store to buy a roll of Pillsbury pie dough, but at the last minute decided to go with a graham cracker crust.  You know the kind that you find in the baking aisle and comes in a foil pie tin with that cool plastic covering that doubles as a lid when you flip it over?  I have to say, I loved it!  I think this pie is even better than fantastic when made with a graham cracker crust.  Definitely a winner!

Pecan Frosting

I almost didn't make this recipe.  Melissa's original recipe is called Coconut Pecan Frosting, otherwise known as German chocolate cake frosting.  I really don't care for the texture of coconut and I'm generally not a fan of nuts in my dessert.  But the point of this group is going outside your comfort zone.  So I failed in that I didn't go completely outside my comfort zone.  I just took a small step.  I decided to simply omit the coconut from the recipe since that was the greater of two evils.  Imagine my surprise when I tasted the final product and loved it!  It really is less like a frosting and more like a candy topping.  My family loved it spread on graham crackers best.  But it would also make a delicious ice cream topping and it's not too bad with pumpkin cake either! 

Honey Cream Caramels

This was yet another goodie I had never made before.  I don't have anything against caramel candies.  I like them just fine, but there are a lot of other treats I would reach for first.  Luckily I didn't write this recipe off!  These caramels are soft and sweet and delicious.  I really didn't think I would like these as much as I did.  I kept going back to the kitchen and sneaking one more (I'm not sure who I was sneaking them from, but I felt a little guilty eating so many of these honey infused treasures).  This recipe is easy to make and caramels are another great giveaway treat because they store for up to two weeks in an airtight container.  They would also be delicious with a little sprinkling of sea salt before they completely set.  Honey Cream Caramels will be making it into my holiday baking rotation this Christmas!

Strawberry Rhubarb Preserves

Melissa shares a master preserves recipe that shares general ratios of fruit to sugar, acid, etc. and then has recipes for 5 different flavor variations.  This is one of those recipes that was widely praised by many members of the group.  I was able to make three variations, plum preserves, white nectarine cinnamon preserves and of course strawberry rhubarb. 

I feel like a broken record here, but preserves or jam was something I had not made before joining this group.  And I was surprised at how easy they are to make and delicious.  There's something special and very satisfying about making toast in the morning and slathering it with your own fresh made preserves.  I also took the leap into the canning world with these preserves.  Yet another great goodie to give away as a gift.  Of three preserve variations I made, the strawberry rhubarb was my hands down favorite!  The tartness from the rhubarb is a perfect match to the sweet strawberry.  And it makes a great filling for a crumble bar! 

Brown Sugar Vanilla Ice Cream

I didn't actually make this recipe along with the group.  They made it long before I even knew Sweet Melissa Sundays existed.  And to be honest, vanilla ice cream is not something that really excites me.  There are so many delectable ice cream flavors in the world to choose from.  But I found I was in need of an ice cream to pair with this Plum and Raspberry Pie with a Sweet Almond Lattice.  This pie was incredibly tart and needed a nice sweet ice cream to balance it out.  I decided to give Melissa's recipe for Brown Sugar Vanilla Ice Cream a shot since I would be serving to others who don't share my lack of excitement over vanilla.  Also, I had recalled reading in various posts from my fellow SMS bloggers, how delicious this ice cream was.  And they were right!  It's got a depth of caramel like flavor from the brown sugar and is the perfect accompaniment to a fruit pie or tart.  Yet another pleasant surprise!

I made 40 recipes with the group and a few more on my own outside the group. There are many more the group made before I joined that I would still like to try...like Butter Toffee Crunch, Lemon Icebox Cake with Strawberry Sauce, Sweet Almond Bread Pudding with Raspberry Sauce, Caramel Apple Turnovers with Sweet Ricotta Filling, and Fallen Chocolate Souffle Cake to name a few. 

It's been a great ride and I've learned a very important lesson...don't judge a dessert by it's ingredient list!  Even if you are unsure if it would be your thing or if you think it sounds too hard or complicated, give it a go.  You might just be surprised yourself!

I want to extend my thanks to all the fabulous SMS bakers.  You girls rock, sharing great ideas, encouragement and support!  I loved checking out everyone's creations on Sunday mornings.  Special thanks to Karen of Karen's Cookies Cakes & More for maintaining the site and keeping everyone on schedule.  She has spearheaded a new baking group called Club: Baked to keep us busy and learning new things.  This group started on July 1, 2011 and we are baking our way through Baked Explorations by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito.  This group bakes twice a month and so far there have been some pretty stinkin delicious recipes.  We really just got started so please feel free to join our baking adventure!

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble Bars

Simple and sweet crumble bars.  Short and sweet post.

I have a few crumble bar recipes in my repertoire, but I seem to keep coming back to this one.  It's all about the oats.  These crumble bars are a lot like an oatmeal cookie with fruit filling.  I always think I'm going to use a different recipe, but in the end the oats lure me in with their chewy, warm goodness. Paired with sweet and tangy homemade strawberry rhubarb preserves....it had to be done.  This bar isn't fancy, but more importantly, it is tasty.  And like most desserts, it is perfect for breakfast (especially warmed for a few seconds in the microwave).

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble Bars
Adapted from Martha Stewart's Apple-Cherry Crumble Bars

1 cup (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces, plus more for the pan
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup strawberry rhubarb preserves (or your favorite preserves)

In a large bowl whisk together oats, flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and brown sugar. Cut in cold butter with a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal with a few larger clumps remaining. Press 4 cups of oat mixture into the bottom of a buttered 9 x 13 baking dish. Whisk preserves in a small bowl until they are easily spreadable. Top oat mixture with the preserves. Sprinkle remaining oat mixture evenly on top. Bake until golden brown, about 35 minutes. Let cool completely in dish on a wire rack. Cut into bars store at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Sweet Melissa Sundays: Strawberry Rhubarb Preserves and How to Can

Last year I made my first homemade jam (preserves) with the Sweet Melissa Sundays baking group.  I was very impressed at how easy it was to make and how awesome the end product turned out.  Who needs store bought jam when you can make your own?  Some of the girls in the group had canned their jam and I was determined to can my own next time the group made preserves. 

I couldn't be happier with this month's pick by Tracey of Tracey's Culinary Adventures to make Strawberry Rhubarb Preserves.  Both strawberries and rhubarb are in season and I love how these two flavors compliment each other.  Rhubarb is actually quite tart on its own...but pair it with strawberries and bit of sugar and it adds a wonderful zing to the preserves.  This recipe also has orange juice, orange zest and granny smith apples in it.  The juice and zest (I also added lemon zest) add another depth of flavor and the apples serve as a natural pectin, or thickener, and the taste of apple is really undetectable in the end product.

The jam is amazingly delicious and very easy to make.  It just takes a little peeling, chopping, slicing and zesting. 

All the ingredients go into a large pot and come to a boil.  Once the mixtures comes up to 212 degrees on a candy thermometer (mine only took 5-7 minutes to reach temperature) you continue cooking at that temperature for 25-30 minutes, or until the jam is thickened.  To test the thickness of the jam, Melissa Murphy offers an easy tip.  Spoon a small dollop of jam on a small plate and place it in the freezer for about a minute.  Once the jam is just cooled, if it runs down the plate, it's not ready yet.  If it holds it's shape it is good to go.  It's important not to overcook the jam because you can end up with an overly thick texture once the jam chills in the refrigerator.  Since I planned to can the jam I made the full recipe and it took about 25 minutes to get to the right thickness.  Check out that gorgeous ruby red color.  It has a bright lovely flavor and if you are hesitant about trying rhubarb this is a great way to do it.
 

So that's the easy part. If you want to stop there you can store your jam in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Or you can preserve your preserves and take on canning.  Have you ever canned anything before?  It is a little more involved than I realized.  Probably didn't help that I don't have any canning tools and I just made do with what I had in the kitchen.  If I had to do it again I would at least invest $6 in jar tongs.  There are many other tools to simplify canning, but if you are only going to do it on rare occasion, you may able to get by without most of them depending on what you have in your kitchen.  Check out  http://www.canningsupply.com/  for every canning accessory you could ever want. 

The key to successful canning is good preparation.  The preserves need to be canned while they are still hot so this means there is some serious coordination involved.  Don't get me wrong, it's not difficult.  But if you are a procrastinator like me, planning ahead might not be your forte.  The whole process took me about 2 hours and 45 minutes from start to final clean up (including time for dishes).  Some of that time was devoted to reading and re-reading the instructions about 42 times because I didn't really know what I was doing.

My stove was was at maximum capacity.  In the photo below the lids were heating in the small pot on the back left burner, the jars were heating in the skillet on the back right burner, the water was simmering in the canning pot on the front right burner and lastly, my preserves were cooking on the front left burner.

If you are thinking of taking canning on, below I've detailed what you need to can, what you need to make the preserves and how to bring it all together.  I didn't fully grasp all that needed to be prepped ahead of time, so I thought it would be helpful for those new to canning to see it all laid out from beginning to end.  For the preserve recipe head over to Tracey's site.  Check out the SMS blogroll to see how everyone else did with their preserves.

Here's what you need for the canning process:

UPDATED 4/19/2011 with some tips I learned from my fellow bloggers and some additional thoughts I had after the original post.

• Jars, lids and rings washed (only the rings need to be dried)...these can be bought in a flat of 12 at your local grocery store for $8.50 - $12.00 depending on what size jars you get.  I used 1/2 pint, or 8 ounce jars.
• Small sauce pan to heat the lids
• Pot or deep skillet to heat jars in (jars don't need to be steralized if the processing time in the water bath is at least 10 minutes according to this site) OR you can wash and heat your jars in your dishwasher, however, this process must be timed with when your preserves will be finished cooking)
• Large (canning) pot with a lid to fully submerse jars in
• Jar rack (I didn't have one so I used my multi pot with a pasta drainer insert which worked just fine...see photo above)
• Tongs (preferably jar tongs...which I didn't have and used standard kitchen tongs that proved difficult to handle and not disturb the seal on the jars)
• Magnetic lid lifter (I didn't have one so I used kitchen tongs to handle the hot lids which worked well)
• Ladle to spoon the preserves into the jars (I used a 1/4 cup ladle)
• Spatula to stir and remove air pockets in the jam
• Wide mouth funnel if you have it (I didn't have one and didn't have much trouble getting my jam into the jars since my ladle was relatively small)
• Several kitchen towels (to place hot jars on and use to hold hot jars while you fill them)

Here's what you need to make the preserves:

• Preserve ingredients
• Cutting board and knife
• Measuring cup
• Zester
• Candy thermometer
• 8 quart pot
• Wooden spoon
• Potato masher

Here's an overview of what I did:

• Washed the jars, lids and rings and dried the rings (the jars and lids go into pots to get heated prior to filling so no need to dry them)
• Washed my strawberries, rhubarb, orange and lemon and set aside on a cutting board
• Filled a small saucepan with water and put in the lids and placed it on the stove on low heat
• Filled a large pot with water and placed it on the stove on medium high heat....I used my "multi-pot" which has an insert for pasta.  This served in place of a canning rack.
• Filled a deep skillet with enough water to go halfway up the sides of the jars and placed it on the stove on medium/low heat.
• Filled 7 jars (only ended up using 5 for this recipe) with an inch or two of water to keep them from falling over and placed them in the skillet of water to heat.  The jars need to be hot so they can accept the hot preserves without cracking
• While all my pots and pans were heating I turned to preparing the preserves and...
• Hulled and sliced strawberries and sliced the rhubarb
• Peeled and sliced granny smith apples
• Zested and orange and lemon and juiced the orange
• Measured out sugar
• Placed my fourth and final (8 quart) pot on the stove using the last available burner on my stove and turned it on high.
• Secured the candy thermometer to the 8 quart pot and added all the ingredients
• Stirred occasionally and let the ingredients reach 212 degrees then cooked for an additional 25 minutes
• Halfway through the cooking time I used a potato masher to mash and break down the fruit to make for a smoother jam.  Note...this is where I tasted the jam.  I decided to add an additional 1/4 cup sugar because it was more tart than I like.
• Tested the thickness by placing a dollop on a plate and putting it in the freezer for about a minute...the jam was not runny and had a nice thickness, meaning it was done!

So here's where the coordination comes in....at this point your lids should be submersed in hot water and ready, your jars should be partially submersed in hot water and ready and your large canning pot should be simmering and ready for the jars of jam.  You should have your spatula and tongs ready and your kitchen towels laid out.  Your ladle should be ready and all the pots and tools should be placed on your stove and workspace where you can easily access everything.  Back to the steps...

• Used tongs to empty the water from the first jar and moved it over to my kitchen towel
• Held onto the hot jar using another kitchen towel and ladled jam into the jar until about 1/4 inch from the top
• Removed air bubbles with a few turns of the spatula in the filled jar
• Cleaned any excess jam from the jar rim and groves with a damp paper towel
• Removed a hot lid from the lid pan using tongs and placed it over the jar allowing the sealing element on the lid to come in contact with the rim of the jar
• Twisted on a ring to close the jar and placed it to the side while I repeated the process with the remaining jars
• Transferred filled and sealed jars to the canning pot for submersion, making sure there was 1 inch of water covering the jars....what I actually did was use my tongs for this....what I should have done was to remove the pasta insert and place the filled sealed jars in the bottom and returned it to the simmering water
• Turned heat up on the canning pot to bring water to a full boil and let the jars "process" for at a full boil for the time specified on the instructions that come with your jars or listed in the recipe you use.  I only processed for 5 minutes, but think it should have been 10.  Once processing time is finished, turn off the heat and let jars stand in the hot water for 5 minutes before removing.
• Lastly, I removed the jars from the pot by pulling out the pasta insert and used a kitchen towel to grab each jar at the base and moved to a kitchen towel to set.  I attempted to use tongs at first, but I realized this may disturb the seal on the jar.
• The jars need to rest undisturbed for 12-24 hours.  I let mine rest for 12 hours and tested the lids to ensure a proper seal.    
• If the lids don't flex when pressed in the center, the seal is good.  You should also try to remove the lid with your fingertips.  If the lid stays in place the seal is good.  If the lid flexes up or down when pressed in the center the seal is not good.  If the lid is not sealed within 24 hours you can reprocess the jar using the instructions in the step by step guide link just below or you can refrigerate it.
• Sealed jars can be stored for up to one year in cool, dark place.

For a step by step guide on how to can preserves click here.  The site also has a link for you to download a PDF to print off, which I highly recommend. 

With a little planning and preparation canning can be easy and very rewarding.  I understand why people can mass quantities...next time I would double the recipe.  Happy canning!

Sweet Melissa Sundays: Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler Pie

Several years ago I had my first encounter with rhubarb at a neighborhood Chicago restaurant. It was a delicious strawberry rhubarb crumble baked to perfection in a ramekin. It was so good I regretted my choice to share! From that point on I had a whole new outlook on rhubarb. I was very excited to see Tracey's Sweet Melissa Sundays pick this week for Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler Pie. I'm a strawberry lover and thought this would be a great opportunity to tackle this crazy vegetable that looks like red celery.

I was a slightly intimidated by the recipe. It requires 3 major components, the crust, the filling and the cobbler topping. I'm pretty much intimidated by anything that resembles dough of any kind and especially if it requires a rolling pin. I have not had much luck with making my own pie dough in the past and have been reverting to my good friend, The Pillsbury Dough Boy, to help me out on all my crust related needs. But this is the first pie I've done for SMS so I sucked it up and went ahead and made the pie dough. I used the all butter recipe and prepared it in my food processor. I diligently followed all of Melissa Murphy's dough making steps, including keeping the dough cold and letting it rest prior to filling it. And you know what? It turned out great. The dough came together nicely and it was easy to roll out. A much more pleasant experience than my previous attempts at pie dough.


The filling was the easiest part of the recipe. So that came together quickly with only 5 ingredients.


I did opt for a different topping than the biscuit recipe. Generally speaking I am not a fan of biscuits. I find them to be too doughy. So I used a crumble topping from another recipe instead. It's almost like an oatmeal cookie topping and it paired nicely with the strawberry and rhubarb filling. This topping recipe came from a co-worker for a dish called "English Apple Pie", however I modified it slightly. The recipe calls for 1/2 cup of pecans, which I substituted 1/2 cup oats.

Here's the topping recipe:
1/2 cups oats
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 stick of butter
1 cup of flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons of water

Check out the topping below....it is the consistency of cookie dough.


Based on Tracey's experience in the P&Q I cooked my pie for about 1 hour and 25 minutes. The filling set up nicely, however I felt the crust was a little overcooked. I placed tin foil over the pie to keep it from browning too much, but still ended up with a darker crust than I wanted.


I had a family event on Saturday evening so they got to be my official tasters this week. The pie was a success! Except with my niece and nephew (ages 6 and 8)...they informed me they like apple pie better! Lucky for them I also made an apple pie. The filling for the strawberry rhubarb was very sweet but the topping and dough balanced it out. I might scale back the sugar a bit the next go round.

Thanks to Tracey for the recipe pick this week. Check out Tracey's blog for the recipe and also see what other SMS bakers did here.