Simple Dessert: Honey Figs

I was perusing the farmers market during my lunch break the other day, as I often do, and spotted these gorgeous juice-filled figs. They are wonderful sweet or savory. A great savory party appetizer could be a grilled fig topped with goat cheese. However, for a simple dessert you don't have to think about, halve the figs and drizzle with honey. It's is a refreshing, sweet summer dessert without the oven heat.

What is your favorite oven-less dessert?

Apple Crisp

I don't normally bake, but today I looked over at my fruit basket and saw a high pile of apples that I left for Adam when I was out of town this week (he did not eat any of them!) So, I instantly thought to make apple crisp because it's gooey and delicious and I love that crunchy topping. Plus, my favorite part — no pie crust to worry about! This is a spectacular dessert and very easy, even for an amateur baker like me.

You start with some cinnamon sugar mixture tossed with about 7 peeled sliced apples.

Then the streusel topping. Flour, brown sugar, butter and oats!

And into the oven it goes at 350 for about an hour. And it comes out like this: Hot and bubbly and crisp on top.

And of course, a la mode is highly recommended.

Yummmmmm.

Note: I did sort of step-by-step photos for this recipe because it was easy to transport the baking dish to my large window in my living room. I usually don't show step-by-step photos when I cook because it is too difficult to take the pan, skillet, saucepan to the living room every step for a photo. I hope I have a window in my next kitchen! Let me know if you like the step-by-step or not. I will try to do more if you do. Enjoy!

Apple crisp

via joy the baker

about 7 apples, any type will do, peeled, cored and sliced

3 tbs sugar plus 1.5 tsp cinnamon mixture

Topping:

1 1/3 cup flour

1 1/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup quick cooking oats

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 stick butter, slightly softened

1 Preheat oven to 350. In an 8x8 baking dish, arrange a layer of apples and top with some cinnamon/sugar mixture. Repeat, alternating apples with cinnamon/sugar until all apples and remaining mixture are in the baking dish. Toss all together.

2 In a separate bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, oats, cinnamon and butter. Using your hands, mix well together until butter is evenly mixed throughout. Take a handful and mix the topping in with the apples. Sprinkle the rest on top, covering all the apples.

3 Bake for about an hour until bubbly and hot. You might want to bake it on top of a baking dish in case the liquid bubbles over while baking. Serve warm with ice cream.

Sugar-Broiled Grapefruit

My mom used to make this when we were younger as a quick weeknight dessert. We loved it. It was juicy, sweet, tart and also fun to eat. It was like a scavenger hunt, scraping all the last bits of sweet nectar from the bottom of the grapefruit. My mom crumbled some brown sugar on top and microwaved it. It was still delicious, but I wanted to give it a deeper, smokier flavor. I broiled it in the toaster oven instead and it was great! I think any citrus would work, orange would be especially lovely too. I also sprinkled some sea salt before serving because I was craving a sweet salty flavor. Give this a try as an easy dessert, snack or even breakfast.

Just slice the grapefruit in half, crumble brown sugar over the entire exposed grapefruit and put under the broiler for 10-15 minutes or until caramelized.

Delicious Carrot Cake

I had such a craving for carrot cake the other day. Maybe it was the spring-ish weather we've been having. Or maybe it was just that amazingly rich frosting that I needed. Either way, I was going to make it. And I was going to eat it. And that was that.

This cake is a great way to use up a few carrots left in the crisper. The rest of the ingredients were pretty standard but I did add 2 tablespoons of plain yogurt to the batter because I really love a super moist cake. I also cut the sugar in half because I wanted it to be more of a cake you could eat with tea or coffee, rather than a overly sweet dessert. The frosting balanced that out though because it was just the right amount of sweetness. Next time I think I would add 1 or 2 more grated carrots, however this was absolutely delicious, and perfect for the beginning of spring.

Carrot Cake

adapted by The Pioneer Woman

For the Cake:

1 cup sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs

2 tablespoons plain yogurt

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 cups grated carrots, finely

For the icing:

1 stick unsalted softened butter

16 oz cream cheese

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup pecans, chopped finely

1 In a large bowl, beat the eggs, oil and sugar together.

2 In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.

3 Add the dry ingredients to the wet and beat little by little. Add grated carrots to the batter and stir.

4 Pour into a greased 9x13 pyrex and bake 25 minutes.

5 While the cake is in the oven, prepare the icing by creaming the softened butter and cream cheese together. Add sugar and vanilla and blend well. Then, add the pecans and stir throughout. Spread on cooled cake.

Apple-Cinnamon Coffee Cake

I still have apples left, can you believe it? After using some to sauté with cinnamon and butter, I decided to make an apple cinnamon cake with crunchy pecan topping for my mom. Just 'cause. I found a great recipe and I loooove the crunchy topping. It's the best part. I ate the topping and just picked at the cake part, even though it was tasty.

Next time I have apples laying around, I think I will try an apple crisp — more crunch. What's your favorite way to use up apples?

On a side note, don't you love this baking dish? It's so bright and festive. Love it. Always puts me in a good mood when I use it.

Apple-Cinnamon coffee Cake

adapted by my recipes

1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup milk, I used skim

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 large egg

1 cup sliced apples

Streusel

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 cup chopped pecans

1 tablespoon butter, cut into small pieces

1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl. Stir. In a separate bowl, combine milk, melted butter, vanilla, and egg.

2 Add wet ingredients slowly to the dry and stir until just moist.

3 Pour batter into an 8 or 10 inch baking dish.

4 Arrange sliced apples in a circular pattern on top of the batter.

5 Prepare the streudel by mixing the brown sugar, cinnamon, pecans and cut butter until it resembles clumpy sand.

6 Sprinkle the streusel evenly over the batter and apples. Bake for 45 minutes until an inserted toothpick comes out clean from the center.

Sautéed Apples with Butter and Cinnamon

I bought a big bag of red delicious apples and besides eating them whole as a snack I wanted to make something with the remaining 3 I had left. Then cracker barrel popped in my head, as it often does, and I thought "sautéed apples!" I peeled and sliced up the 3 apples I had, sauteed them with butter until soft, then seasoned with cinnamon. You see that brown sugary syrup in the pan? That's the good stuff you want. MMM-mmm. It was a nice little side dish or can even be served as dessert with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Delicious, fast and versatile!

Soft sliced apples with butter and cinnamon

3 apples, any type, peeled and sliced

1-2 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 Heat a skillet over medium high heat and throw in the sliced apples and butter. Sauté until soft, about 3 minutes.

2 Season with cinnamon, stir and serve!

Dulce De Leche Chocolate Pudding

Let me warn you now, if you have an aversion to chocolate or sweets please continue to scroll down to another recipe because were entering a rich thick dark chocolate zone. Seriously, this thick pudding is really rich so I served it with some berries to tone it down. Ice cream could be nice as well. A spoonful of pudding and berry – I was in heaven. The sliced almonds were also a nice crunchy texture against the smooth and creamy pudding. I had recently found some dulce de leche (in bar form) at the hispanic section of my farmer's market so I wanted to incorporate it into this pudding. Hey, some dulce de leche couldn't hurt anyone, right? So I finally found a recipe that combined both sweets and it was deeeelicious. I served them in individual ramekins and even had some left over for a quick snack. I urge you to spoil yourself and make this chocolate pudding asap. You don't even have to share it with anyone. I won't tell.

Dulce De Leche Chocolate Pudding

adapted by Cafe fernando

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/4 cup sugar

2 cups half 'n half

6 oz dark chocolate, I used 70% cacao, coarsely chopped

1 cup store bought dulce de leche, in bar form not liquid

sliced almonds, for garnish

1 Combine cornstarch and sugar in a large heatproof bowl.

2 Slowly whisk in milk and place the bowl over a pot of gently simmering water and stir, scraping the sides and bottom.

3 After the mixture thickens, about 20 minutes, add 6 oz of chocolate into bowl and continue stirring until smooth and thick.

4 Add dulce de leche and stir until melted.

5 Strain through a mesh strainer into individual ramekins (this took a while) and let cool until room temperature.

6 Top with sliced almonds and refrigerate until ready to serve. Serve with fresh berries or ice cream.

Banana Bread with Chocolate

I recently bought "The Homemade Life" by Molly Wizenberg, the author of the blog Orangette. I was a big fan of her blog – simple photos, interesting compositions and witty writing. The book was no disappointment. Her recipes are woven throughout memories of her father and family. 've had banana bread before, but never like this. It is so moist, delicate and it doesn't scream banana, it is mild and delicious. This particular recipe originally included ginger, but I'm not a huge fan so I left it out. This was really easy, even for me, and lasts up to 5 days, covered in aluminum foil on the counter. It is especially yummy heated up in the toaster for breakfast. If you try it with ginger, let me know how it goes! Enjoy!

Banana Bread with Chocolate

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 cups unbleached flour

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips, or chocolate bar broken up into shards

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups mashed bananas, about 3 bananas

1/4 cup well-stirred whole milk plain yogurt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a standard loaf pan (9x5 in) with cooking spray.

2 Melt butter in the microwave. Set aside.

3 In a large bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Add the chocolate and whisk well to combine.

4 In a separate bowl, lightly beat the the eggs. Add the mashed banana, yogurt, melted butter, and vanilla. Stir to mix well.

5 Pour the banana mixture into the dry ingredients and stir gently. Do not overmix, but there should be no unincorporated flour.

6 Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.

7 Bake 50 minutes to an hour until the loaf is a deep shade of golden brown. Cool the loaf for 5 minutes. Let it cool completely before slicing.

Note: Molly says this bread freezes very well, wrap it in plastic wrap and then again in aluminum foil.

OMG! Cinnabon Cake!

For some reason I've been gravitating toward baking recipes more and more. Ever since I made churros last week, I was like "Hm. I could do this!"  I realize the churros recipe last week was a simple recipe but it was huge for me. I think it's because I am buying new cookbooks and I always ignore the last third of the book – the dessert/baking chapter. It would be a waste of money not to use the whole book, right? Right. Well, I am definitely taking baby steps into the baking world and this cinnabon bread is the perfect recipe for an amateur baker like me. It was featured on kitchn.com, blogged by Framed. Since I looooove cinnabons, it instantly caught my eye. I'm so glad it ended up being a relatively simple and easy recipe (and I had most of the ingredients on hand, too!) This tastes exactly like a cinnabon you would have at the mall, icing and all! ooey gooey cinnamon-y delicious! Instead of individual cinnabons, it is one big cinnabon cake you can cut into and serve warm, drizzled with icing. Perfect for guests, if you don't eat it all first!

Cinnabon Bread

1 1/2 cups flour

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 tsp salt

4 tsp active dry yeast

2/3 cup warm milk

3 tbsp vegetable oil

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 large egg

Cinnamon topping

3 tbsp butter, room temperature

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

Icing

1 cup powdered sugar

1-2 tbsp milk

1. Lightly butter a 8x8 round or square baking dish.

2. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar and salt,

3. In a measuring cup, warm the milk and dissolve the yeast in the warmed milk. Stir in the vegetable oil, vanilla extract and egg into the same measuring cup and into the flour mixture.

4. Mix until smooth and pour into prepared dish. Let rest for 15 minutes.

5.  While the dough rests, mix together the butter, brown sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl until crumbly (I used my hand to mix together).

6. Sprinkle the brown sugar mixture over the dough and press lightly down into the dough.

7. Place pan into a cold oven and heat it to 350F. Bake for 30 minutes until set.

8. Cool for at least 30 minutes before whisking the icing.

9. Serve warm with lost of icing!

Churros

I recently found this recipe on a new blog, the sophisticated gourmet. The photos brought me back to disney world where I last had churros, about 15 years ago. I loved the crunchy cinnamon/sugar crust on the hot tender doughnut. Did you know churros are spanish doughnuts? I didn't. Anyways,  I know I hate to bake but this was the type of baking I could actually pull off. It has minimal ingredients and I happened to have all the ingredients in my pantry – except ground cinnamon, which was strange, so I grated some whole cinnamon sticks instead and it turned out absolutely delectable. The only difference between disney churros and mine were the insides. Mine turned out more custardy than airy, but it was still very good. This recipe only made 6 or 7 churros, depending on how short you cut them, so they were gone pretty quickly. These were pretty simple to make, even for an amateur baker like me, so give it a try!

Churros

1/2 cup water

1 oz salted butter

1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon lemon zest

1/2 cup flour

1 large egg at room temperature

vegetable oil for frying

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 Bring water, butter, 1 tablespoon sugar and lemon zest to a boil in a medium saucepan.

2 Remove from heat and stir in the flour, return to heat, and continue to stir until a smooth ball forms. Transfer to a large bowl and let cool for a few minutes.

3 With a mixer, I used a handheld, on medium speed add the egg and continue to beat until a smooth, about 2 minutes.

4 Heat 2 inches of oil in a pan until hot but not smoking. You can flick some flour in the oil to see if it sizzles, if it does than the oil is hot enough.

5 While the oil is heating, mix together the sugar and cinnamon in a shallow bowl.

6 Spoon the dough into a pastry bag, I used a gallon ziploc bag and snipped the tip. Hold the bag a few inches above the hot oil and pipe a few lines, as short or as long as you'd like. I didn't try and make them look perfect. You can always cut them later if they are too long.

7 Fry the churros until golden brown, turning only once. Drain oil off on a paper towel and roll in the prepared cinnamon sugar mixture.

Sweet Mascarpone Polenta

One of my favorite memories as a child is my grandmother making me mamaliga, a romanian dish. It is very similar to polenta but since I can't find the real mamaliga in the states, polenta will just have to suffice. I will definitely post a mamaliga dish just like my grandmother made it. She would pour the "polenta" on to a big plate and make a big pile. Then comes the butter. Then comes the cottage cheese. And, if I was lucky I would get a fried egg on top! It was hot and creamy but mixed with the cool cottage cheese, amazing. I would normally eat it for lunch or dinner... ah the joys of breakfast at any time of day...

With this polenta, I decided to make it a little different. I like polenta served as a bed for fish, meat or greens but then I thought, why can't it be for dessert? (I also really wanted to use these new blue dessert cups I bought at the thrift store! Aren't they pretty?) So, to sweeten up the deal I mixed in some creamy mascarpone cheese and topped it with a dollop of strawberry preserves. It came out so creamy and delicious. This is yet another way to pretend to bake for an easy dessert, just like my roasted plum dessert!! Sweet!

Sweet Mascarpone Polenta

2 cups polenta

1 tablespoon mascarpone

splash of milk

1 Cook polenta according to directions in a medium saucepan and stir in milk, then mascarpone until creamy.

2 Serve with jam or preserves for dessert.