Fresh Fruit Tart

I apologize for not blogging in what feels like forever. Between birthdays, family get togethers and just day-to-day work, I put Dallas Duo on the back burner, and I’m sorry! 😦

My birthday was last Saturday and mom made this gorgeous and delicious tasting fruit tart. I normally request Mrs. Kelm’s chocolate cake (it’s a classic), carrot cake or Oreo cheesecake, but I was in the mood for fresh fruit since the weather in Dallas has been so warm….it feels like Spring already!

This was a new recipe for us to make from The Barefoot Contessa, one of my favorite Food Network Chefs. The tart was light, creamy, sweet, and semi-healthy with all the fruit. My mother-in-law said the filling tasted like cheesecake.

In less than 2 weeks, we’ll officially be introduced to Spring, so bookmark this recipe so you can try it! Enjoy!

Combine sugar, graham cracker crumbs and butter and bake for 10 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

Prepare filling and refrigerate until cold.

Pour filling into baked and cooled tart shell.

Layer with fresh fruit.

Drizzle raspberry jelly (thinned with hot water) as a glaze and dig in!

Fresh Fruit Tart
Ingredients
For the Crust:
2 cups graham cracker crumbs (approx. 14 whole crackers crushed)
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 lb (1 stick) butter

For the filling:
6 extra large egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
3 Tbsp. cornstarch
2 cups whole milk
2 Tbsp.unsalted butter
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 Tbsp. heavy cream
1 tsp. Cognac or Brandy (we omitted)
Fresh strawberries, blueberries and raspberries
Apricot or raspberry jelly, for the glaze

Directions
1. For the Crust: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the graham crackers, sugar, and butter in a small bowl and mix well a wood spoon. Lightly press the mixture into an 11-inch tart pan with removable sides. Bake for 10 minutes and set aside to cool.
2. For the Filling: In the bowl of an electric mixture using a paddle attachment on medium-high speed, beat egg yolks and sugar until mixture is pale yellow and falls back into the bowl in a ribbon (about 3 minutes).
3. On low speed, beat in cornstarch.
4. Bring mik to a boil in a large saucepan and, with the mixer on low, slowly pour it into the egg mixture. Then pour mixture back into the saucepan.
5. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a whisk or wooden spoon, until mixture is thick, bringing mixture slowly to a boil.
6. Once mixture is to a boil, cook for 2-3 minutes longer. Remove from heat and mix in butter, vanilla, cream and Cognac (optional).
7. Strain into storage container. Place plastic wrap on top of the pastry cream and refrigerate until cold.

Assembly
1. Fill tart shell with pastry cream.
2. Add seasonal fruit.
3. Optional: Brush with glaze (melted apricot or raspberry jelly thinned out with hot tap water) to make it look shiny and pretty!

Recipe adapted from The Barefoot Contessa

Baked Oatmeal with Strawberries, Banana and White Chocolate

I am a huge fan of oatmeal! I eat oats for breakfast every morning, and depending on my mood, I’ll eat it cold or warm. My favorite cold version of oatmeal, perfect for a warm summer morning in Texas, includes swiss oatmeal or overnight chocolatey oats. When I want pipping hot oatmeal, I opt for original baked oatmeal or a sweeter version: baked blueberry oatmeal.

I found this baked oatmeal with strawberries, bananas, and chocolate on one of the newest and most addicting websites, Pinterest. The picture of the breakfast casserole was so divine-looking, and I couldn’t wait until the weekend so I could make this recipe for brunch! There are a few changes I made to the recipe as seen below:

I substituted white chocolate chips for semi-sweet because I am not much of a chocolate fan for breakfast, thus I thought white chocolate would be less intense.
Please use ground cinnamon for your spice. I used Chinese five spice, as the original recipe called for, but would recommend you use ground cinnamon instead. The Chinese five-spice blend was a little over-powering and too “spicy” for me.
I substituted chopped pecans for walnuts. Either is fine…use whatever you have in your pantry.

Overall, I thought this baked oatmeal was very good. I recommend sprinkling brown sugar on top, and returning the casserole to the oven to broil it and create that extra crunch! You can also drizzle maple syrup over the top for an added sweetness, but I didn’t feel it was necessary.

My husband also really liked this. It’s always nice when he enjoys new recipes, especially “girly” and fruit-centered recipes that don’t involve red meat! Haha.

Enjoy!

Combine oats, sugar, baking powder, orange zest, cinnamon, half the strawberries, half the nuts, and half the chocolate chips.

Whisk together the milk, egg, butter, and vanilla extract.

Add the oat mixture to the prepared pan.

Top with remaining strawberries, bananas, and nuts.

Pour the milk mixture over fruit and oat mixture.

Bake for 35-40 minutes in a 375 degree oven.

Sprinkle with brown sugar. Return to oven and broil for 20-30 seconds.

Baked Oatmeal with Strawberries, Banana and White Chocolate
Ingredients
2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1 Tbsp. grated orange zest
1 tsp. ground cinnamon (I used Chinese five-spice…as the original recipe called for, but I don’t recommend it)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup pecan or walnut pieces, chopped
1 cup sliced strawberries
1/3 cup white chocolate chips
2 cups milk (I used skim)
1 large egg
3 Tbsp. butter, melted
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 ripe banana, peeled, 1/2-inch slices

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and generously spray the inside of a 10-1/2 by 7-inch baking dish with cooking spray and place on a baking sheet.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the oats, baking powder, orange zest, cinnamon, salt, half the strawberries, half the pecans and half the chocolate. (Save the other half of strawberries, walnuts and chocolate for the top of oatmeal).
3. In another large bowl, whisk together the milk, egg, butter and vanilla extract.
4. Add the oat mixture to prepared baking dish. Arrange the remaining strawberries, nuts and chocolate on top. Add the banana slices to the top then pour the milk mixture over everything. Gently shimmy/shake the baking dish to help the milk mixture go throughout the oats.
5. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until top is nicely golden brown and the milk mixture has set. For an extra tasty top, sprinkle a tablespoon or so of extra brown sugar on top then place back in the oven under the broiler and broil for 20-30 seconds. Serve warm with an extra sprinkle of sugar or drizzle in maple syrup.

Yield: 6 servings
Recipe adapted from: Inspired Taste

Sprinkles’ Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Frosting

Okay, you would think I’m sick of strawberries after my weekend experience with them! Let me tell you what happened….

I had full intentions of baking a strawberry cake made with strawberry Jell-O and strawberry frosting for the 4th of July. My plans changed with a good friend of ours brought us an Apple and Pecan Pie instead. This past weekend, my husband’s grandparents celebrated their 60th Anniversary, so I thought I would attempt the strawberry cake again and bring it to the family celebration. Everything started out like it should… the batter tasted awesome, which was a great sign, so I put it in the oven and eagerly anticipated the baked cake. After about 30 minutes, things started to take a turn for the worse. The cake seemed a little too jiggly, so I returned it to the oven for another few minutes. Five minutes later, I pulled the cake from the oven, and it seemed perfect. Looks can be deceiving….

Since I was looking forward to this cake, my eagerness got the best of me, and I flipped the cake out of it’s pan before it was completely cooled… BIG MISTAKE! As soon as I flipped the pan over, the cake seemed to burst in half, and tumbled out of the pan like lava flowing out of a volcano. I was so upset! I then ruined it even more by attempting to make the cake into cake balls. To my unfortunate luck, the balls did not set up… they seemed to turn into even more liquid. With that said, I don’t know if I will make that strawberry cake ever again….my mom will have to make it for me instead! haha.

This afternoon, my husband I started craving something sweet and he suggested I attempt the strawberry cake again…”NO WAY” I thought. Instead, I had the “brilliant” idea of making strawberry cupcakes. There is no way on earth I could mess those up, especially when they are in the paper liners! I was right, the cupcakes were great and redeemed my self-esteem after the cake fiasco.

Has anyone heard of Sprinkles Cupcakes, the world’s first cupcake bakery in Beverly Hills? Most of you would agree with me when I saw they are delicious. They are also one of the largest cupcakes I’ve ever seen. It would be really hard for little ole me to eat a whole Sprinkles Cupcake! We have a Sprinkles here in Dallas, and I know Houston recently opened one too.

Well, these strawberry cupcakes are “supposedly” the Sprinkles Cupcakes’ Strawberry Cupcake recipe. I thought they were wonderful, moist, and the icing was delectably sweet. No cake mix in these…just pure, fresh, and from-scratch ingredients. No food coloring either….the light pink color comes from the pureed strawberries in both the batter and frosting.

Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Sprinkles’ Strawberry Cupcakes
Ingredients
2/3 cup fresh or frozen whole strawberries (thawed if frozen)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp coarse salt
1/4 cup whole milk, room temperature
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
2 large egg whites, room temperature
*Sprinkles’ Strawberry Frosting

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with cupcakes liners; set aside.
2. Place strawberries in a small food processor; process until pureed. You should have about 1/3 cup of puree. Add a few more strawberries if necessary, or save any extra puree for frosting; set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside. In a small bowl, mix together milk, vanilla and strawberry puree; set aside.
4. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter on medium-high speed, until light and fluffy. Gradually add sugar and continue to beat until well combined and fluffy. Reduce the mixer speed to medium and slowly add egg and egg whites until just blended.
5. With the mixer on low, slowly add half the flour mixture; mix until just blended. Add the milk mixture; mix until just blended. Slowly add the remaining flour mixture, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, as necessary, until just blended.
6. Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups. Transfer muffin tin to oven and bake until tops are just dry to the touch, 22 to 25 minutes. Transfer muffin tin to a wire rack and let cupcakes cool completely in tin before icing.

Sprinkles’ Strawberry Frosting
Ingredients
1/2 cup frozen whole strawberries, thawed
1 cups (2 sticks) unsalted butter, firm and slightly cold
Pinch coarse salt
3 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Directions
1. Place strawberries in the bowl of a small processor; process until pureed.
2. In a bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat together butter and salt on medium speed until light and fluffy. Reduce mixer speed and slowly add confectioners’ sugar; beat until well combined. Add vanilla and 3 tablespoons strawberry puree (save any remaining strawberry puree for another use); mix until just blended.
3. Do not overmix, or frosting will incorporate too much air. Frosting consistency should be dense and creamy, like ice cream.

Yield: 12 cupcakes
Sprinkles Cupcakes