Baked Goods – Papas Cutting Board

Peach Cake

This book has delicious recipes based on orchard goodies. I have made a variety of recipes from this book, and each one has been delicious and prepared many times over the years. Today, my husband brought home peaches from a local produce stand that smelled amazing as soon as he brought them in to the house.

This recipe called for adding the peaches to the top of the cake, but I mixed them into the recipe and baked them inside the cake. I made up the glaze by adding a couple of Tbsp of melted butter to confectioners’ sugar, 1/4 tsp of maple extract, 1/4 tsp of caramel extract, and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract. I toasted 1/4 cup of pecans, chopped them, and added them to the top of the cake after glazing it, along with chopped peaches.

This cake is delicious without a glaze. My husband was curious what it would taste like with glaze. He loves it. I prefer the cake in the morning with my coffee without glaze, as I try to stay away from sugar as much as possible.

Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

I don’t make pies. Jim mentioned craving rhubarb-strawberry pie after seeing rhubarb at the farmers market. I decided to surprise him. I’m curious how it tastes. It has to sit for 3 hours before we try it.

He has inspectors coming to look at the roof due to tree damage. They’ll be here a while.

I timed this perfectly for when they’re all finished

Banana Bread

Jim purchased ripe bananas that were falling out of their peels and emitting a delightful fragrance. Wanting to preserve them, I promptly whipped up a batch of banana bread and another one with bananas and blueberries (from our own garden). After removing the loaves from their baking pans, I placed them on a cutting board to cool before packaging them as breakfast treats for Jim. I went upstairs to put away laundry, I returned to find this. Jim’s response to fresh baked breads.

He humorously remarked, “You can’t possibly expect me to resist the smell and not be drawn in that direction, can you?” 🙂

Banana Rum Caramel Coconut Pie and Salted Rum Caramel Sauce equals Yummy!

Salted Rum Caramel Sauce is in the jar at top right of photo

This is a beautiful book with tempting photos. The recipes tempt you. My husband was craving banana pie, so I checked this book out of the library. After making and tasting the Salted Rum Caramel Sauce, and the Rum Pastry Cream, I had a feeling it was a keeper. My husband drooled over this, and couldn’t stop eating it. Normally, he does not care for coconut, but he did not mention it while he inhaled this pie. I ordered the book online to have on my shelf as there are a few apple and berry pie recipes I want to try, along with the crust. I give this book 4 stars for now, because the pastry cream was more of pudding rather than pie. That could be my fault, so I’m going to make it again, if I get a better pie filling result, I will change this rating to 5 stars. Of course, if the apple recipes turn out well, then that will change the stars to 5 as well. My husband said he did not mind the pudding part as it was delicious. The Salted Rum Caramel sauce will be used on apple slices today because it is delicious.

from the book: Art of the Pie: A Practical Guide to Homemade Crusts, Fillings, and Life

Lemony Snowball Cookies

Now and then, I will browse a vintage cookbook, find a treat to bake to ‘test’ for the holiday trays. This recipe mentioned a variety of different flavors to try with the main recipe. I decided the lemon sounded like a fun add on to the trays of cookies. I like to add a variety of flavors, and using lemon drops caught my eye. These are yummy, and now have a couple notes next to the recipe for my holiday baking.

If you decide to make these, the dough is deceiving. You will think there is no way you can make cookie balls out of these grains of dough. You can. The heat of your hands causes these cookies to shape the way you need them to. I froze a batch of these, because I like to pull them out of the freezer during Easter and see how they taste. That gives me an idea of when to start baking, and freezing these before Christmas.

This recipe is from the Betty Crocker’s best Christmas Cookbook, published in 1999.

I have added a note page to the front inside of this book listing all the recipes I want to create. There are many.

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

Delicious! Just the right amount of spices. We definitely taste the pumpkin. We live in Indiana, and I had to bake for 15 minutes for the perfect chewy on the inside, crunchy on the outside, and nice light brown color.

This is a keeper and I’ll be making again. It’s very easy to create.

The second photo shows the crispy outer layer

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles link

Stuffed Eggplant & Ham Steak Cucumber Sauce

I enjoy taking old recipe books and recreating the recipes to work for a Keto and Low Carb Low Sugar Lifestyle. We enjoyed the Ham steak cucumber sauce; it was easy to throw together and I also used it as a dipping sauce for veggies.

I had never had eggplant, and after cutting it open, I was prepared to not like it, because it reminded me of Tofu. The texture, the smell, the feel of it; I thought, “I’m probably not going to care for this” We didn’t eat this the day I made it, because while preparing it, we filled up on other foods. So, I wrapped these and put them in the refrigerator overnight. The next day, I heated them in the microwave for 60 seconds. We were blown away by the flavor. We are seriously impressed, and this recipe is now added to my ‘make again file’. It is hard to take an appealing photo of eggplant dishes, but here ya go. I’m enjoying the recipes I’m finding in this book. The recipes are easy to convert to Keto Low Carb Low Sugar recipes.

1985 cookbook

1985

Pumpkin Pecan Pancakes

Pumpkin Pecan pancakes for lunch today – it was like having dessert, while having lunch (of course, with a side of bacon)

This made 7 (about 3″ wide) pancakes for me. I used a sugar free maple syrup and added a side of bacon. You can also try these with sugar free jam, or just butter, or maybe some cinnamon sugar (keto style), etc. I froze the remainder of these, and love knowing they are in the freezer when I want a quick breakfast.

From the book Beyond Simply Keto, by Suzanne Ryan

Here is Suzanne’s website, with more recipes: Keto Karma

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Sriracha Aioli

Delicious!

The lime juice and lemon juice were spot on for this dish. For the dip, I used 2 tsps. of the Sriracha chili sauce, because my husband does not like things too hot, and since the sriracha was on the brussels sprouts, I decided to keep it tame. I could have eaten it with more chili sauce in the mayo, but husband says the spice was perfect.

I also added broccoli and garlic cloves to the other side of the baking sheet, and a couple of chicken thighs.

My husband said the dip was excellent with those as well. This is a dish I will make again.

here is the recipe

in the new TOH Annual Recipes issue on page 7, by Molly Winsten.

I was on a workout machine this morning, and I started to scan this, but couldn’t get past the first couple pages, because I kept saying, “That looks good! I have all of this! and Oh my”

Apricot Financiers

Apricot Financiers – these cute little bite size cakes are yummy! – I browsed my cookbooks and found something I had all the ingredients for (only 4 ingredients!) These are perfect because they are not too sweet – the sweetness is the apricot – these are made with almond paste –

Tips: The recipe says 30-40 minutes – 30 burned them – the second batch I did for 18 and it still would have been best at about 15 but the good thing is I only did a few on second batch to figure out the time so only do a few to figure out your time Second: I used cup cake liners for first batch – hard to get out – stuck to liners – second batch I just sprayed the mini muffin tin – perfect – came out easily I halved the recipe as I only had 8 oz. almond paste and half made a lot

also the next time I make these (and I will) I will add a small piece of apricot to the bottom of each cup before pouring batter over – I used a pastry bag as it is just easier for me to control portions. Also I let this sit in fridge over night before baking – the recipe recommends a few hours or overnight