Easiest Ever Non- Dairy Fudge

So this fudge is pretty much a non-recipe.

You need:
1 can sweetened condensed coconut milk (I used Nature's Charm)
1 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used Guittard Extra Dark Chocolate Chips*)
pinch of sea salt
1tsp vanilla extract
1 8x8 pan, "buttered" with coconut oil
1 jar of maraschino cherries (I used Tillen brand Merry Cherries)

Heat the milk in a heavy sauce pan on medium heat, stir in the chocolate chips and pinch of sea salt. Stir until the chips are melted and everything is well mixed. Take off the heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Spoon into 8x8 pan. Dot the top with the cherries and cover and chill until set.

*Guittard Extra Dark Chocolate Chips are prepared on the same equipment they make their milk chocolate on so there may be a trace of milk in them. There are good completely vegan chips available. I used the Guittard because I love the flavor of them.

So I whipped this up, and handed the pan off to my children because apparently you never get too old to "slick the pot" and TG said "This is really good chocolate!" Since she's the chocolate fiend in the family, that is a great endorsement. She wound up sitting there with a bag of open potato chips scraping out the last of the fudge from the pan.

Last night, my husband tried a piece and declared it was delicious.
I said "TG saw me make it."
"Well, that might be dangerous." he responded.
From the back corner of the living room we hear her say happily "Yup."

I suspect she's going to make a batch with potato chips on top.

Disclaimer- I got the Nature's Charm Sweetened Condensed Coconut Milk for free to review. I was not compensated or asked to provide a recipe or review on Don't Eat the Paste. I'm sharing the recipe because it's really, really good and I wanted to.

Mint Matcha Ice Tea Pops- Recipe

The green ice pops in my review of Stars Wars Ice Sabers Cookbook? Those were a wild idea I had recently. I was thinking of making a mint tea ice pop for the super refreshing and cool taste of mint. But I wanted them to be green, but naturally green. Which made me think of matcha green tea.

Matcha is a finely ground green tea that has a few varieties available. For things like this, you are looking for culinary grade. It adds nice flavor, and a great green color. The much more expensive ceremony grade matcha should be appreciated properly on it's own, and not as an ingredient. Check your local Asian grocery or if your supermarket is very well stocked, it might be available there. 

The ice pop mold I used has cavities that take about 2 tablespoons of liquid. Check the volume of your mold, and adjust recipe to fit.

You will need:

1/4 cup fresh mint OR a mint tea bag- I used fresh mint from my garden

1 Tbs honey! That's why they have kind of a murky- Yoda like color. The honey I used is a local produced darker honey that I love.

1 cup boiling water

1 or 2 pinches of matcha tea

In a medium sized bowl-

Bruise the mint with a spoon, or put in the tea bag. Then add 1 cup of boiling water and the tablespoon of honey. Mix the honey in well until it dissolves completely. Cover the bowl with a plate and let the tea steep for 5-10 minutes. (I like it strong so I went 10 minutes)

Strain out the mint, or take out the tea bag. Apply pressure to the leaves or tea bag to get out as much liquid as possible.

Add a pinch of matcha powder, and using a small whisk, whisk it well. If you want it a little greener, add another pinch of matcha. 

Use a funnel to pour the liquid into your molds, and freeze until solid.

It's an unusual flavor, but it's really good and just as refreshing as F5!

I do recommend planting mint. Even if you have the blackest thumb in creation, it's hard to kill mint. I have a little corner of my yard that's dedicated to mint. Mint likes to take over so it's best to plant it in containers, or have it walled in someway. 

Vegan, natural Roy Rogers and Shirley Temple jellies

Did you know CherryMan has a new natural maraschino cherry? They don't use high fructose corn syrup in any of their cherries, what makes the natural cherries different is they use natural coloring and all natural ingredients, you can find out more about them here. The flavor is very close to a standard maraschino cherry, a little less sweet, and they taste very fresh and good.

So it made sense to make Roy Rogers and Shirley Temple* jellies out of them. Shirley Temples are lemon-lime soda and grenadine with a maraschino cherry, and Roy Rogers are cola and grenadine with a cherry. Grenadine, the brands you see most in the supermarkets or liquor stores use a lot of high fructose corn syrup. In fact, it's the first ingredient mentioned. So.. to start my jellies, I needed to settle on ingredients.

Grenadine is a pomegranate flavored syrup. To highlight the cherries, I used a Pomegranate/cherry juice. I picked natural sodas for the jellies which can be found in the health food section of any good supermarket. To gel, I used vegan friendly agar.

Agar is a lot of fun, it gels a bit differently than gelatin. That little packet holds enough to gel several cups of liquid and generally it's cheaper at an Asian grocery than it is at a health food store. Generally a packet that size is under 1.50. In fact, I got that packet for 25¢ and use agar a lot as a stabilizer.

Shirley Temple or Roy Rogers Jellies:


You will need:
small saucepan
glass measuring cup with a pouring lip
measuring spoons
stirring spoon
a mold or 8x8 pan- I used the Wilton Brownie Squares Silicone Pan


Ingredients:
1/2 cup 100% cherry/pomegranate juice
1 cup soda- lemon lime for Shirley Temples, cola for Roy Rogers
1.5 tsp. agar powder
CherryMan Farm to Market Maraschinos

Mix the soda and juice in a pan and bring to a simmer, sprinkle in the agar powder, and bring to a boil. Turn it down and let it simmer for 5 minutes. After it's simmered, pour it into the measuring up and pour it into your UNGREASED pan or silicone mold. Place in the cherries, then cover and put it in the fridge for an hour until cool. Unmolding. For a firmer set, more like Jell-o jiggles, use 2 tsps of agar powder. For an 8x8 pan, cut into squares using a ruler to make them very even.

Usually 1 tsp of agar will set 2 cups of liquid, but the reason you use more than that with this recipe is because of how acidic the soda and juice are. Agar needs boiling to activate it then sets firmer and is stable in greater range of temperatures than gelatin. It's also vegan friendly which gelatin is not. Originally I tried to make this a sparkling jelly, but it didn't work out quite the way I envisioned.

They taste really good! The flavors are more complex, fresher and more interesting than just a regular Shirley Temple or Roy Rogers.

Check out CherryMan on Facebook for more recipes and ideas.

*Quick personal story- when I was a kid, I LOVED Shirley Temples, and ordered them every chance I got. One day my Uncle took the family out to dinner, and the restaurant didn't have Shirley Temples! Oh the tragedy of it all. Then my mom told my Uncle "She really just likes the cherries." So he tipped the waitress 10 dollars and she brought me a bowl full of maraschino cherries. I didn't eat them all. Mom made me share with her.


CherryMan provided the Farm to Market Marascinos to me in exchange for a review. The opinions expressed are my own. The jellies are my own too, but I've decided to be nice and share them with my family.

Book Review- Mini Treats & Hand-Held Sweets

Abby Dodge's cookbook Mini Treats and Hand-Held Sweets: 100 Delicious Desserts to Pick Up and Eat is a collection of small desserts that can be eaten without using silverware. Perfect party desserts with more sophisticated palettes in mind.

An amazing collection of recipes with lots of flavors and textures, this book has desserts for every season. There is a lot of emphasis on fresh flavors with recipes that use fruits, berries and good dairy products for creamy flavor. Unlike a lot of collections, this one doesn't have photos of every single recipe because there are a lot of recipes! The photographs that are shown are gorgeously displayed, or they are photographs that help you learn how to do something specific for the recipe.

Some of the recipes use prepared ingredients like ice cream or everybody's favorite, Nutella. There are tarts, cheesecakes, cookies, ice pops and it's probably easier just listing the chapter titles than to try and list all the types of desserts.

Chapter 1 is Cookies- My chocolate loving daughter loves the Chunky, Chewy Brownie Drops. My personal favorite is the Lemon Meringue Pie Poppers which combine lemon curd, meringue cookies and a crunchy topping of ginger snaps. Combining 3 of my favorite things into one delicious, bright tasting sandwich cookie.

Chapter 2 is Mini Pies and Slab Pies- We are fans of a popular speculative fiction television show about 2 brothers who fight demons. One of them loves pie, so my daughter decided this was her favorite chapter, and that we should make pie for Wednesday nights as a new tradition. She wants to bake her way through this entire chapter. The Nutella Chocolate Hand Tarts are like toaster pastries for adults. So very good. This chapter has a lot of fruit, and includes turnovers and instructions for an easy puff pastry dough.

Chapter 3 is Whoopie Pies, Cake Bites and Mini Cakes- I haven't tried much from this chapter, but do recommend the Carrot Cake Cones with Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting. Or even just the frosting, it's too good.

Chapter 4 is Bite Sized Treats - tiny 1 and 2 bite desserts like cheesecakes, tarts, mini scones and sliced roll cakes for pretty little pinwheels. My favorite in this chapter are the strawberries filled with a cheesecake filling. Like a mini-cheesecake with a strawberry crust!

Chapter 5 is Frozen Treats and includes frozen fruits, sorbets and pops, including a few just for the adults like the Tequila Sunrise colored Blood Orange and Creamy Tangerine pops which can also be made without tequila for younger people and people who don't drink. Easiest recipe that's a big hit with my family? Frozen Nutella Yogurt Bites which are dipped in chocolate.

Chapter 6 is Candies- this is a chapter I haven't gotten into at all. The recipes look fantastic, and I plan to make the homemade White Chocolate Peppermint Bark using my favorite white chocolate for the holidays.

There is a measurements equivalents table in the back for people using metric, the book is written using U.S. measurements. It also has a good index so you can find recipes based on ingredients fairly quickly.

I do recommend reading through each recipe before gathering supplies. Some of the recipes call for ingredients or suggest variations which are not covered in the basic ingredient list.

It's a great dessert cookbook.

Published by The Taunton Press


I received a complimentary copy of this book to review, I received no other compensation, and my review is my honest opinion of the book. You can read more about my review policy here.

Book Review- Norwegian Cakes and Cookies

My great-grandmother came to America from Denmark, and growing up, some of my very favorite treats were her recipes. I still have a weakness for Scandinavian desserts.

This collection of modern takes on traditional desserts is definitely for people who are more than casual cooks. It's well written with US style volume measurements with metric measurements offered in parenthesis, however there is a basic assumption you'll have a strong grounding in basic cooking skills. They are recipes, not step by step instructions.

That said, if you do have the grounding to follow the recipes, these recipes will impress. They are different, with amazing textures, appearance and flavors. The carrot cake for example is two moist layers with big, cloud like layers of a cream cheese and fruit whipped cream.

The title is deceptive in the best way possible. This is not just cakes and cookies, there are puddings, jellies, and candies as well. It's Norwegian desserts.

My favorite recipes are

• Marzipan recipe, with instructions for crystallizing marzipan pieces
• Vanilla Butter Cream is hands down my new favorite, go to butter cream recipe. It starts with a cooked pudding like cream then adds butter to make a frosting that's just amazing. Not too sweet and so good. 
• Ginger cookies- easy and wonderful. I love molasses and ginger cookies.
• Caramel pudding with cloud berries- this is a little fussy, but if you're a fan of custards and caramel, this pudding with any kind of berries is one of the best ever.
• Poor Knights with Dense Milk and Strawberries- this variation on sweet egg battered stale bread and cream is made with a sour cream- the author suggests kefir which is how I made it. It was a hit with everyone in my family and it's super easy.
• Sweet Rusks- a biscotti like twice baked cookie, this variation has both almonds and hazelnuts

There are some regionally specific ingredients like butters made with sour cream. A good substitute if you make your own butter is to use creme fraiche (cultured cream) to make butter, then use that in the recipes. Mix 2 Tablespoons of cultured buttermilk with two cups of heavy cream. Put in a jar with a lid and let it set for 4-8 hours. Then make butter using your favorite technique. For berries and fruit, use what is in season in your area. Cloudberries are from the same family as raspberries. They are tart, but in a lot of these recipes, raspberries could be used as a substitute. If you live in a colder region like I do, you maybe able to find cloudberries in the summer.

It's gorgeously photographed by Christian Brun and written by Chef Sverre Sætre. Hardcover with full color photographs, published by Skyhorse Publishing.


I received a complimentary copy of this book to review, my reviews are always my personal and honest opinion. You can read more about my review policy here.

Book Review- Marshmallow Madness!

If you've ever had a fresh, made from scratch marshmallow, you know the flavor and texture is so different from the store-bought bags that it's like a different food entirely. The fresh one, that's what a marshmallow should be.

Shauna Sever starts her book with an introduction to the key ingredients, sugar, gelatin, water, salt, vanilla extract , coating and corn syrup. The corn syrup is used for consistent results in small amounts, substitutes can be tries and she suggests a few. I used an organic non-HFCS type that has worked well for me in the past, golden syrup would probably work as well. The coatings are the powders you cover the finished marshmallows in to keep them from sticking.

Then the tools, including tips on how to calibrate your candy thermometer and why you need a stand mixer.

She also explains how the recipes are broken down, starting with the "bloom" which is the process of blooming the gelatin, the syrup, which is what the candy is made from, and the mallowing, which is where you start mixing your bloom and syrup into a gorgeous mass of marshmallows, and the ingredients you might mix in at this point.

Then you get to the good stuff. The recipes. Almost all the recipes have variations listed as well.

She starts with nice, basic marshmallows. Vanilla, chocolate and filled marshmallows. She also includes a vegan recipe and one that uses egg white meringue. The meringue is my favorite for it's light, fluffy incredible texture. Also a recipe for the best marshmallow creme ever. It's the recipe I'll use most since it's very simple to make, and tastes amazing. She suggests it for frostings and fillings. I recommend it with peanut butter on crackers. She also has 2 recipes for graham crackers, one of them is gluten free and vegan.

The next chapter is fruity marshmallows which use purees, juices and essential oils for true to the original flavors. These can get some coloring from the juices used and would be perfect for parties.

Tips for shapes explains how to make very attractive marshmallows like the twisted ropes on the cover.

Happy Hour as alcohol infused treats for your next adult get together. Inspired by classic drinks with tips for mallowing with alcohol in the mix.

Then my favorite chapter. Gourmet treats. These are the marshmallow recipes that made me think of friends who would appreciate them, and this is the chapter that inspired my daughter.  I like the salted ones, caramel and peanut too much. She likes the maple-bacon and the spicy Aztec chocolate. She gives tips for gift giving in this chapter.

Kids in a Candy Store are the brightly colored, candy flavored puffs that will thrill children with fun ideas for presentation.

The last chapter is full of recipes that use marshmallows, rice crispy treats, hot chocolate, a spicy hot vanilla, and a wonderful s'more cupcake that's toasted with a kitchen torch.

If you've had an interest in making your own marshmallows, I really recommend this book. It's gorgeous, with a softly padded cover, bright pastel illustrations and lots of full color photos. It also contains a lot of great ideas that can be a starter point to your own creations.

Check out Quirk Books on Facebook for free downloadable recipe cards from this book.



I received a copy of Marshmallow Madness free from the publisher for review purposes.
My reviews are always my personal and honest opinion. You can read more about my review policy here.

Pudding! Recipe and printable recipe sheets

I love making pudding as a treat for my family. It's a major sense of accomplishment for me. When was learning to cook, pudding always failed for me. Too impatient, cooked it at too high a heat and wound up filling the house with the delicious smell of burnt milk and chocolate or vanilla. 

Now it's a fairly regular treat because we almost always have the basic ingredients for pudding, and it's an easy dessert to make for weekends. 

This week I made a chocolate butterscotch pudding because butterscotch chips were on sale at the local grocery store. 

Here are some printable recipe sheets, including the recipe for the chocolate butterscotch pudding. Click on the images for the full sized 100 ppi versions.

To make the pudding:

In a mixing bowl- 

1 egg lightly beaten

1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

1/4 cup butterscotch chips

In a sauce pan:

2 Tablespoons corn starch

2 cups milk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

pinch of salt

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

Whisk the ingredients in the pan well to dissolve the corn starch. Cook over medium heat stirring constantly until thickened. Pour the hot pudding slowly over the egg and chips whisking until the chips are melted and it's all smooth. Put into individual dishes or just cover the bowl and chill for 2 hours. 

Makes 6 half cup servings and is wonderful with fresh whipped cream!