Marian's English Toffee

My kids and Bryan love this recipe that I originally got from Bryan's mother. Warning: it is addictive.


1/2 lb. (1-1/2 C) almonds
2 large (8 oz. each) Hershey milk chocolate bars

Chop the almonds in a blender. Grate the chocolate (I use a Cuisinart). Prepare a jelly roll pan by lightly greasing then spreading with half of the almonds followed by a layer of half of the chocolate.
Reserve the other half of each for spreading on the top.

2-1/2 C sugar
2 C (1 lb.) butter
1 cup water
4 Tbsp light corn syrup
1/3 lb. (1 C) slivered almonds

In heavy pan melt butter. Mix in all the other ingredients. Cook over high heat until 290* or hard crack, stirring constantly. Immediately pour into pan and spread. Sprinkle chocolate in a layer and let melt so you can spread. Follow with the rest of the almonds. Let cool. Break into pieces.

Best Cornbread Recipe from www.blessthismessplease.com

Author: Melissa Griffiths - Bless this Mess 

Prep Time: 5 min 
Cook Time: 20 min 
Total Time: 25 minutes 
Yield: Serves 8-10

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Ingredients

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/3 cup neutral oil or melted butter
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup milk

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Instructions

1. Grease a 9-inch round cake pan or cast iron skillet well and set aside. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, add the flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Whisk to combine well.
3. Make a well in the center of your dry ingredients and add your oil or butter, milk, and egg. Stir just until the mixture comes together and there are only a few lumps remaining.
4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 20-25 minutes until the top is a deep golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
5. Serve hot.

Notes

• You can make it it in a 9-inch round cake pan, square baking dish, or 9-inch cast iron skillet. Bonus! You can also make these into muffins or double the recipe and toss it in a 9×13-inch baking pan. You’ll just need to adjust the baking time if you are making muffins or doubling the batch. Muffins take around 15 minutes to bake and a doubled recipe takes 35-40 minutes to bake.
• Use yellow cornmeal in this recipe. White works fine, but it just doesn’t look the same. Golden yellow cornbread is a must. Also, don’t try to sub any of the cornmeals used for making tamales – they are a different grind and the texture doesn’t come out the same.

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 1 Slice

Serves 10

Amount Per Serving
Calories		173
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 1.1g		2%
Cholesterol 19.1mg		6%
Sodium 516.8mg		22%
Total Carbohydrate 37g		12%
	Sugars 15.1g
Protein 4g		8%

Ann's Banana Cream Pie

This pie has a custard base that makes it extra good-no comparison to the jello pudding variety. Ann says to make sure you give it several hours to chill and set. Thanks for sharing.

Ingredients 

Baked Pie Shell
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp sugar
3 cups whole milk
5 large egg yolks
2 Tbsp butter - cut up
2 tsp vanilla
4 ripe medium bananas
3/4 cup whipping cream

     In 3-quart saucepan, stir cornstarch, salt, and 1/2 cup sugar.  With wire whisk, beat in milk.  Cook over medium heat until mixture thickens and boils - stirring constantly.  Boil 1 minute. Remove saucepan from heat.
     In small bowl, with wire whisk, lightly beat eff yolks. In thin steady stream, whisk about 1/2 cup hot milk mixture into yolks.  Gradually whisk yolk mixture back into milk mixture - stirring rapidly to prevent curdling.  Cook over low heat until mixture is very thick and coats the back of a spoon well or temperature reaches 160*, stirring constantly. Remove saucepan from heat.
     Stir in butter and vanilla until butter melts. Transfer custard to medium bowl. Press plastic wrap onto surface. Refrigerate until cool - about 30 minutes.
     Slice 3 bananas and arrange half of bananas in bottom of baked crust. Spread with half of custard. Repeat with remaining bananas and custard.  Press plastic wrap onto surface; refrigerate until filling is set - at least 4 hours or overnight.
 
     To serve - in a small bowl with mixer at medium speed, beat whipping cream with remaining 2 Tbsp of sugar until stiff peaks form. Spread over filling. Slice remaining banana and arrange on top of pie. 

Thanksgiving Sweet Potatoes

Shortcut Sweet Potato Bake

I got this recipe from Karen Hurley at a cooking class. She makes it quickly with the canned yams. It was good but I still prefer to boil my cut up sweet potatoes until cooked but still firm; layer them in a baking dish with some pats of butter and salt (Bryan likes it with brown sugar added here but I find it a little too sweet) and then just use her topping recipe. I will post her original.

12 Servings

Yams
2 -28 oz. cans Yams in syrup, drained
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup butter
4 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla

Topping
3 Tbsp melted butter
1/2 cup flaked coconut
1/2 cup shopped pecans (or nuts of your choice-I like chopped almonds)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup self-rising flour
         (I often don't have the self-rising. You can make it yourself with 1/4 cup regular flour minus 1/2 teaspoon. Add a shy half teaspoon of baking powder and a pinch salt and you make the full 1/4 cup)


     Mash sweet potatoes in mixing bow: add sugar, salt, milk, butter,eggs and vanilla, mixing until smooth. Pour into a 9X13 baking dish. Cover and refrigerate until 1 hour before serving.
     Mix the topping ingredients just until crumbly; set aside until ready to bake. (Can be made up to one week ahead and stored in an airtight container at room temperature.) Sprinkle evenly over the sweet potato mixture before baking
     Bake at 350* for 20-30 minutes or until browned and bubbly.

Best Lemon Blueberry Bundt Cake

Lemon-Blueberry Bundt Cake from Genius Kitchen

Wonderful cake that is not too sweet and nice and dense.  I think next time I will try a little more lemon in the cake.

READY IN: 1hr 5mins	SERVES: 16

Ingredients 

• 2 ³⁄₄ cups flour
• 1 ¹⁄₂ teaspoons baking powder
• ¹⁄₄ teaspoon baking soda
• ¹⁄₄ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter or 1 cup margarine
• 1 ³⁄₄ cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest (1 lemon)
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 ¹⁄₄ cups blueberries, tossed with
• 1 tablespoon flour

• Glaze

• 1 ¹⁄₂ cups confectioners' sugar
• 8 -10 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon corn syrup
• lemon zest (to garnish)
• Directions

• Heat oven to 350°F Butter a 12-cup bundt pan.
• In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
• In another large bowl, beat butter (or margarine) until smooth. Add sugar and beat for 2 to 3 minutes until fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla and beat until combined. Beat in flour in three additions, alternating with buttermilk. Beat for 2 minutes. Fold in blueberries. Spoon into prepared pan.
• Bake at 350F for 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes. Run a sharp knife around edges of the pan. Turn out and cool completely.
• Glaze: in a small bowl, mix together confectioners' sugar, lemon juice and corn syrup until smooth. Drizzle over top of cake and let it roll down the sides.

Tomato-Basil Parmesan Soup

This was a recipe in the BYU alumni magazine.  It is made in a crockpot and so easy and good.
It makes 2 quarts.

2 (14 oz) cans diced tomatoes, with juice
1 cup finely diced celery
1 cup finely diced carrots
4 cups chicken broth
1 cup finely diced onions
1/2 bay leaf
1 tsp. dried oregano or 1 Tbsp fresh
1 Tbsp dried basil or 1/4 cup fresh
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup flour
1 cup Parmesan cheese
2 cups half and half, warmed
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper

In a large slow cooker, combine tomatoes, celery carrots, chicken broth, onions, bay leaf, oregano, and basil (if using fresh, if using dried add those 2 ingredients in the last hour of cooking.) Cover and cook on low for 5-7 hours, until flavors are blended and vegetables are soft.

About and hour before serving prepare a roux: Melt butter over low heat in a skillet and add flour; stir constantly with a whisk for 5-7 minutes. Slowly stir in 1 cup hot soup from the slow cooker. Add another 3 cups soup and stir until smooth. Add all back into the slow cooker. Stir and add Parmesan, warmed half and half, salt and pepper. Cover and cook on low for another hour until ready to serve.

225 calories per 1 cup

Mazurka Bars

Mazurka Bars

This is similar to the wonderful bars at Great Harvest.  You can really use any fruit you have around for the filling. Last time I put in a bag of pie cherries that I had bought from the organic farmer. I often see them with blueberry and raspberry mixed in together. Just put enough on the bottom crust to give good coverage. I don't add any sweetening or liquid. I just pour them on. I also used some crushed up graham cracker in place of some of the flour because we were up at a cabin and I ran out of the regular stuff. It tasted just great. I think I will try some whole wheat flour next time although probably only substituting half so you still have the rich pastry.

This was fun to make with my young grand-daughters. Not many ingredients and they loved patting the dough down into the cake pan.

Apricot Filling

·         8 ounces (about 48 halves) dried apricots

·         1 cup water

·         4 tablespoons sugar

1.      Bring the apricots and the water to a boil, uncovered, in a small, heavy saucepan with a tight cover over high heat. Reduce the heat to low, cover the pan, and simmer until the apricots are very tender, about half an hour, depending on the apricots. The fruit should be very soft and the water should be partially but not completely absorbed.

2.      Press the apricots with a potato masher or stir and mash vigorously with a fork. I used the food processor which worked beautifully. The mixture should be very thick. Add the sugar and stir until it dissolves. Cool to room temperature. If you wish, this filling may be made ahead of time and refrigerated.

Polish Pastry

Different from American pastry. This has a crumbly texture.

·         1 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour

·         1/4 teaspoon salt

·         1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed

·         6 ounces (1 1/2 sticks) cold butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

·         1 3/4 ounces (1/2 cup, firmly packed) shredded coconut (the unsweetened flakes are really good, too)

·         3/4 old fashioned or quick cooking (not "instant") oatmeal

·         2 ounces (generous 1/2 cup) walnuts, cut medium fine

1.      Adjust an oven rack one-third up from the bottom and preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2.      Place the Flour, salt, and sugar in a mixing bowl. With a pastry blender cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Stir in the coconut, oatmeal, and walnuts.

3.      Place half (3 cups) of the mixture in an 7x11-inch pan. Press it evenly with your fingertips. Cover with a piece of wax paper and with the palm of your hand press against the paper to make a smooth, compact layer. Remove the wax paper.

4.      Spread the apricot filling smoothly over the pastry, staying 1/4 to 1/2 inch away from the edges. Sprinkle the remaining pastry evenly over the filling and repeat the directions for covering with wax paper and pressing smooth. Remove the wax paper.

5.      Bake for 60 to 70 minutes until the top is barely semifirm to the touch.

6.      Cool in the pan for 15 minutes or so; be sure to cut around the sides to loosen from the pan before cutting and serving.