Desserts – Eat On Edgecliff

Pan-Banging Sugar Cookies

Sarah Kieffer; thevanillabeanblog.com

MMMmmm these are the perfect sugar cookies – crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside and a little bit salty. Sarah Kieffer’s cookie recipes are so good.

Ingredients

2 cups (284 g) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup (2 sticks or 227 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 3/4 cup (350 g) granulated sugar, divided
1 large egg
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

Instructions

Adjust an oven rack to the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350F [180C]. Line three sheet pans with aluminum foil, dull-side up.
In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and cream of tartar.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy, about 1 minute. Add 1 1/2 cups [300 g] of the sugar and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and mix on low speed to combine. Add the flour and mix on low speed until combined.
Form the dough into 3 oz [85 g] balls [1/4 cup] (PJH: 60 g BALLS – 4 COOKIES ON TRAY). Roll each ball in the remaining 1/4 cup [50 g] of sugar. Place 3 or 4 cookies an equal distance apart on the sheet pan. Bake the cookies one pan at a time. Bake until the dough balls have flattened but are puffed slightly in the center, 8 minutes. Lift one side of the sheet pan up about 4 in [10 cm] and gently let it drop down against the oven rack, so the edges of the cookies are set and the center falls back down. After the cookies puff up again in 2 minutes, repeat lifting and dropping the pan. Repeat a few more times to create ridges around the edges of the cookie. Bake for 14 to 15 minutes total, (PJH: 15 MINUTES )until the cookies have spread out and the edges are golden brown but the centers are much lighter and not fully cooked.
Transfer the pan to a wire rack. Let the cookies cool for 10 minutes, then move them to a wire rack to finish cooling. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 days (or refrigerate for up to 3 days).

Key Lemon Pie

Cream, Desserts, Lemon

This was very good and super easy. I made the crust GF with GF graham crackers, GF ginger snaps and a handful of almonds.

Sallysbakingaddiction.com

Graham Cracker Almond Crust

11 (about 160g) full-sheet graham crackers
1/2 cup (62g) salted almonds (I used roasted)
2 Tablespoons (25g) granulated sugar
5 Tablespoons (71g) unsalted butter, melted

Filling + Topping

2 (14-ounce) cans full-fat sweetened condensed milk
3/4 cup (180ml) fresh lemon juice (about 4 lemons)
4 large egg yolks*
garnish: lemon zest, lemon slices, almonds, whipped cream, or meringue topping

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C).
Make the crust: Using a food processor, pulse the graham crackers and almonds together into crumbs. A few larger pieces of nuts is OK. Pour into a medium bowl and stir in the sugar. Add the melted butter and stir until combined. The mixture will be thick, coarse, and sandy. Try to smash/break up any large chunks. Pour the mixture into an ungreased 9-inch pie dish. With medium pressure using your hand, pat the crumbs down into the bottom and up the sides to make a compact crust. Do not pack down with heavy force because that makes the crust too hard. Simply pat down until the mixture is no longer crumby/crumbly. Tips: You can use a small flat-bottomed measuring cup to help press down the bottom crust and smooth out the surface, but do not pack down too hard. And run a spoon around the bottom “corner” where the edge and bottom meet to help make a rounded crust⁠—this helps prevent the crust from falling apart. For more shaping technique tips, see the graham cracker crust recipe page.
Pre-bake crust for 8 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave the oven on.
Make the filling: Whisk the sweetened condensed milk, lemon juice, and egg yolks together. Pour into warm crust.
Bake the pie for 19–21 minutes or until only *slightly* jiggly in the center. You want it mostly set. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely on a wire rack. Once cool, cover and chill for at least 1 hour (and up to 3 days) before serving.
Garnish as desired. Store leftovers in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Notes

Make Ahead Instructions: You can prepare and pre-bake the crust up to 2–3 days in advance. Cover and store at room temperature. Likewise, you can mix up the filling up to 2–3 days in advance. Cover and refrigerate, then assemble and bake. Freezes well up to 3 months; thaw overnight in the refrigerator.
Special Tools (affiliate links): Food Processor | Glass Mixing Bowls | Pie Dish | Whisk | Cooling Rack
Graham Cracker Crust: If you purchase graham cracker crumbs, you need 1 and 1/3 cups (160g) for this recipe. Even though they are already crumbs, you can still pulse with the almonds. If you want to skip the almonds, use this graham cracker crust recipe instead and pre-bake for 8 minutes.
Leftover Egg Whites: Here are my recipes with egg whites, or you can make a meringue topping for the pie.
Non-US Readers: Don’t have graham crackers where you live? Use 180g ground digestive biscuits instead (about 12 biscuits), with the same amount of almonds and butter, and add an extra Tablespoon (12g) of sugar. Pre-bake for 10 minutes.

Snickerdoodle Blondies

Desserts

Washington Post

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar, plus 2 tablespoons for the topping
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, plus more for the topping
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Pre heat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-inch-square baking pan with cooking oil spray, then line the bottom with parchment paper.

Combine the butter, the cup of granulated sugar and the brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer or handheld electric mixer; beat on medium speed for a few minutes, until lightened and a little fluffy. Stop to scrape down the bowl.

Add the eggs and vanilla extract; beat on medium speed until well incorporated.

Whisk together the flour, teaspoon of cinnamon, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl, then add to the mixer bowl; beat on medium-low speed until well incorporated. The dough will be quite soft.

Transfer to the baking pan, then spread the dough evenly all the way into the corners. Whisk together the remaining 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar with the amount of cinnamon you prefer; we recommend 1/2 to 1 teaspoon. Sprinkle that mixture evenly over the surface. Bake (middle rack) for about 25 minutes, until golden and still slightly soft at the center.

Cool completely (in the pan) before serving or storing. It’s best to lift out the slab and slice on a cutting board; discard the parchment before cutting.

Esther Thorpe

Chocolate, Cookies, Desserts

I’m not sure why these are called Esther Thorpe – it’s what the woman I used to work with who gave me the recipe called them and what we have always called them. I’ve heard people call them “Christmas Crack” also. It is such an odd recipe but they are so good.

the salty saltines are what make this so good I think

you want it nice and bubbly when you take it out of the oven

Esther Thorpe Saltines

Helen Gutin

1 cup packed brown sugar -light or dark works fine
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
saltine crackers
1 bag of chocolate chips – milk or semi-sweet work fine
1 bag of toffee bits – or crushed up heath bars

preheat oven to 375 degrees
Line a baking sheet with foil and lightly grease it. Lay out the saltines so they cover the sheet in a single layer.
In a medium sauce pan over medium-high heat, melt the butter and brown sugar. Let cook until bubbling and then cook at the bubbling stage for a few more minutes. Make sure you are constantly stirring this for the entire time.
Pour the bubbling brown sugar mixture onto the crackers and spread it evenly as best as you can.
Bake for 5-10 minutes. Time may vary – keep a close eye on it. You want the mixture to be bubbling over the entire sheet and once at this point let it cook for another 2-3 minutes. If you smell the sugar mixture burning take it out of the oven for goodness sake.
Once out of the oven immediately cover the saltines with chocolate chips evenly. Let this sit for about 5 minutes.
Spread the melted/melting chocolate evenly over the saltines until you have coated the crackers in a layer of chocolate.
Sprinkle the toffee bits on top. (I put some crushed up candy canes on the ones I just made too for holiday spirit.)
Let sit until firm and cut and serve.

Peach Custard Pie

Cream, Desserts, Peaches

This is the famous Nora Ephron peach pie recipe. I have a phobia about pie crust and this pie crust is so easy and so tasty… so is the pie.

1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
2 tblsp sour cream
3 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
2 tblsp flour
1/3 cup sour cream
3-4 peeled sliced peaches

Put first 4 ingredients into a food processor and blend until a ball is formed. Pat out into a buttered pie plate. Bake 10 min. @ 425 degrees. Remove from oven. Beat 3 egg yolks slightly. Combine with 1 cup sugar, flour and sour cream. Arrange peaches in crust and pour egg mixture over peaches. Cover with foil. Reduce oven to 350 and bak 45 minutes. Remove the foil and bake 15 minutes or more until filling is done.

Key Lime Pie

Cream, Desserts, Lime, Sour Crea

http://www.MomOnTimeout.com

Graham cracker crust

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup granulated sugar
6 tbsp butter melted

Key Lime Filling

28 oz sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup light sour cream
3/4 cup key lime juice – I used regular limes – 4 big ones
zest from 2 regular limes or 4 key limes

Whipped Cream Topping

1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

Graham cracker crust

Preheat oven to 375F.
Mix graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and butter in a small bowl. Press the crumb mixture into an 8″ – 9.5″ pie pan. Bake for 7 minutes. Cool for at least 30 minutes.

Key Lime Filling

Preheat oven to 350F
Whisk together sweetened condensed milk, sour cream, lime juice, and lime zest in a medium bowl. Pour into prepared graham cracker crust and bake for 10 minutes.
Let pie cool slightly before chilling. Chill for at least 3 hours.

Whipped Cream Topping

Beat heavy cream and sugar together in a mixer until stiff peaks form. Beat in vanilla. Spread or pipe the whipped cream on top of the cooled pie. Top with additional lime zest if desired.

Video

The Best Creme Brulee

Desserts, Raspberry, Strawberries

I’ve made this recipe several times now and it truly is the best recipe.

http://www.chelseasmessyapron.com

six 4-ounce servings

1 full vanilla bean (I like Madagascar bourbon vanilla beans) (Alternatively use 1/2 tablespoon pure vanilla extract)
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
2 cups heavy cream
5 large egg yolks, must be at room temperature*
3/4 cup superfine white sugar, separated (regular white sugar will work too)
6 cups water
Optional: fresh berries to serve with

Start by splitting the vanilla bean down the center. Scrape out all the seeds and place into a large bowl. Take the vanilla bean pod and place in a small pot with the sea salt and heavy cream. If using vanilla extract, don’t add quite yet to the sea salt and heavy cream.

Heat the heavy cream mixture over the stove until the cream is simmering. Do not boil! Remove from the stove and set aside to slightly cool. Remove the vanilla bean pod. If using vanilla extract, stir it in to this mixture now.

In the bowl with the vanilla bean seeds (or an empty bowl if using vanilla extract), add the egg yolks and 1/2 cup superfine sugar. Beat until the mixture is light, about 2-3 minutes. Meanwhile, place 6 cups of water in a large pot and heat to boiling.

Add about 1/4th of the cream mixture into the egg + sugar mixture. Stir until combined, then pour the remaining heavy cream mixture into the egg + sugar mixture. Stir until combined.

Pour the prepared mixture evenly into the ramekins – use either (6) 4-ounce ramekins, (5) 5-ounce ramekins, or (4) 6-ounce ramekins. Place the ramekins in a metal 9 x 13 baking pan and add boiling water to the pan until the water reaches halfway up the sides of the ramekins.

Bake for 30-35 minutes at 325 F until the centers are barely set (very slight jiggle)(5/17/25 PJH: check at 25 min; then 4 more min). Cool completely at room temperature and then refrigerate for 3-4 hours before serving. (These can be refrigerated for 4-5 days before using)

When ready to serve, add the remaining 1/4 cup superfine sugar on top of the custards in equal portions. I find it helpful to use a little more sugar than needed to swirl around on top of the custard to make sure the top is evenly coated with sugar – then just pour the extra sugar onto the next ramekin. Use a kitchen torch to torch the tops until the sugar melts and browns (or even slightly blackens). Top with fresh berries and enjoy immediately 🙂

Triple Summer Berry Buttermilk Bundt Cake

Blueberries, Desserts, Lemon, Raspberry

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This was very tasty and definitely a keeper.

Triple Berry Summer Buttermilk Bundt

www. smitten kitchen.com

Cake
2 1/2 cups (355 grams) plus 2 tablespoons (20 grams) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons (10 grams) baking powder
1 teaspoon fine sea salt or table salt
1 cup (8 ounces or 225 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 3/4 cups (340 grams) granulated sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup (175 ml) buttermilk
3 cups (350 to 450 grams) mixed berries

Glaze
2 cups (240 grams) powdered or confections’ sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon (15 grams) unsalted butter, very, very soft

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Generously grease a 10-cup Bundt pan, either with butter or a nonstick spray.* Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk or sift 2 1/2 cups flour (leaving 2 tablespoons back), baking powder and salt together and set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer or large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, sugar and lemon zest until light and impossibly fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Then, with the mixer on a low speed, add your eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl between each addition. Beat in vanilla, briefly. Add 1/3 flour mixture to batter, beating until just combined, followed by half the buttermilk, another 1/3 of the flour mixture, the remaining buttermilk and remaining flour mixture. Scrape down from time to time and don’t mix any more than you need to. In the bowl where you’d mixed your dry ingredients, toss the berries with the remaining 2 tablespoons of flour. With a silicon spatula, gently fold the berries into the cake batter. The batter will be very thick and this will seem impossible without squishing the berries a little, but just do your best and remember that squished berries do indeed make for a pretty batter.

Spread cake batter — you might find it easier to plop it in the pan in large spoonfuls, because it’s so thick — in the prepared baking pan and spread the top smooth. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, rotating the cake 180 degrees after 30 (to make sure it browns evenly). The cake is done as soon as a tester comes out clean of batter. At 10 minutes before my baking time was up, a tester was totally wet with batter and I was certain it would never be done in the estimated time. 7 minutes later, the same tester was clean as a whistle, so fret not.

Set cake pan on a wire rack to cool for 30 minutes, before inverting the cake onto a serving platter to cool the rest of the way. Cool completely. Once cool, whisk together the powdered sugar, lemon juice and butter until smooth and very, very thick. (If you’d like it thinner, add more juice, but I like the thick drippiness of it, seen above.) Spread carefully over top of cake, letting it trickle down the sides when and where it wishes. Serve at once or keep it covered at room temperature for 3 to 4 days.* Updated note, due to comments about cake sticking: If you have a nonstick Bundt, just a coat of butter or nonstick spray should do. However, if you have a regular Bundt, not nonstick coated, you’re really going to want to make sure every nook and cranny is well-coated with butter or even shortening (the solidity of both helps them stick to the cake walls), and then dust the inside with flour. Setting your cake pan in the fridge or freezer (to set the coating even further) while you make the cake batter will provide even more insurance. I hope this improves the release rate of the cake!

Apple Pie Squares

Apple, Desserts

My Grandma Holzheimer always made these. The recipe was originally from the first Utopia Beach Club cookbook in the late 1970s.

Filling

10-12 medium apples – Grandma Holz always used Granny Smith
1 1/4 cup sugar
1/4 t. salt
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. cloves
1/2 mace
3 T. flour
2 t. lemon juice
3/4 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (we usually don’t add these)
1/4 cup butter

Pastry

1 cup shortening
3 cups flour
1 t. salt
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup milk

Topping

1 egg white, stiffly beaten
1 T. sugar
1/8 t. cinnamon

Glaze

1/2 cup sifted confectioners sugar
2 t. milk – approximately

For filling: prepare apples, toss with remaining ingredients, except butter. Set aside.

For pastry: In bowl, cut shortening into flour and salt. Beat egg yolk with milk and stir into flour mixture until ball forms. Divide dough in half. Roll one part out on a floured cloth to a slightly larger than 15 1/2 x 10 x 1/2 jelly roll pan. Fit into bottom and up sides of pan. Top with apple mixture. Dot with the 1/4 cup of butter. Roll out the remaining dough and fit over the top. Seal edges. Cut vent into top crust.

For topping: combine stiffly beaten egg white with sugar that has been mixed with cinnamon. Brush over top of pie.

Bake in preheated 375 degree oven for 50 to 60 minutes.

For glaze: Combine confectioners sugar with enough milk to make a thin glaze. Drizzle over pie while still hot.

Notes: 1/2/2016: I made these for the first time yesterday and they worked out well – but I just realized I forgot to do the egg white topping before baking. Ooops. They were still good. I would also probably make 1 1/2 time the amount of dough and decrease the amount of spices just a bit.

Macarons

Desserts

Grace and Sophia have become obsessed with macarons. I first had some in Quebec City and then I started bringing them home from Coquette Patisserie, the great new patisserie in University Circle. The girls can think of little else. They are expensive little suckers – usually $2 a piece, so we thought we can make them ourselves surement. I am very proud that we conquered them with surprisingly little trouble. We have made two batches over the past two weekends and they both turned out great. Sophie had done a lot of research looking at recipes, reading tips and watching videos which helped a lot.

We bought some almond flour at Whole Foods. While expensive, I don’t think grinding your own almonds would yield the same results. We’re on the lookout for a cheaper source.

The egg whites and sugar need to be beaten until very stiff peaks are formed and you can turn the bowl upside down with everything staying put.

Mixing the dry into the wet is where most of the judgement call is made. You need to mix it more than I thought you would. Pastry chefs call it the ribbon stage… where the mixture flows off the spatula like a ribbon. It was pretty satisfying when we knew we hit that exact point.

post oven. they have their signature “feet” but are still shiny on the top.

Macarons

makes about 12 -18 completed macarons depending on how big you make them

3 egg whites
1/4 cup white sugar
2 cups confectioners sugar
1 cup almond flour
pinch of salt
1/2 t. cream of tartar

Sift together the almond flour and confectioners sugar into a bowl. In a separate bowl mix the egg whites, salt and cream of tartar to mix. Add the 1/4 cup of white sugar. Then mix on high until hard peaks are formed. About 5 minutes or so. Add whatever food coloring you’re using now and mix well. Also any other flavors that you want with your cookies. With a spatula, mix the dry mixture into the meringue a little bit at a time. Take your time. Once all is mixed together continue to mix until the batter is smooth and the ribbon stage. this took us about 5-8 minutes. You want it to be incorporated and smooth. Put your batter in a piping bag and pipe onto a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper into 1 inch rounds. They will spread a bit as they sit. Let the cookie sheets sit for 1/2 hour to get slightly hard on the top. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Our oven took about 15-18 minutes. Don’t brown them at all. Let cool and ours popped right off the parchment paper. Make your favorite filling, pipe some onto flat side of one cookie and then very gently press another cookie onto the filling. Keep refrigerated and let sit at room temperature for a bit before eating – doesn’t usually happen.

Our raspberry macarons had no flavoring in the cookies – just red food coloring – which is typical of most recipes. We then made a buttercream filling with fresh raspberry puree. The lemons ones we added a 1/2 t of lemon juice and 1 t of zest in the cookies and made another buttercream with lemon juice and zest.