Chocolate-filled Rolls


Sadly, I'm going to have to give these chocolate-filled rolls a fail.  Not only were they too much dough and not enough chocolate, but they also took a lot of effort

as well as three expensive bittersweet chocolate bars.  Wasted.  Grrrrr.

If you want chocolate bread, try this chocolate chip bread recipe instead.

Meanwhile, I'll be trying to figure out how to get rid of 18 of these.

Lemon Cheesecake

I'd like to welcome a guest poster today, a new friend from No Reason Needed blog.  We decided it would be fun to do a blog post swap (you know, kind of like a cookie swap only via the magic of the internet).  Here, then, is Carol's post, a yummy looking cheesecake made with lemon curd -- doesn't that sound heavenly?  Take it away, Carol:

Hello, Queen of the Castle readers. Carol from NO REASON NEEDED here, popping over from my blog to share a Lemon Cheesecake recipe.

Originally obtained from Veronica’s blog, La Recette du Jour it was previously unknown to me that cooks in Europe measure dry ingredients by weight, not volume (i.e. cups). Many of her recipes use European standards for measurement; weights are in grams or kilos, volumes are in litres, centilitres, or millilitres, and oven temperatures are in Celsius.

Fortunate for me, Ivy from Little Ivy Cakes had used the same recipe previously and had converted the measurements to American standards...THANK YOU!!!

I L♥VE all things LEMON and wasn't in the least bit apprehensive to try her Lemon Cheesecake.

LEMON CHEESECAKE

the bottom crust:
1 1/4 cup shortbread biscuits (I used Arrowroot's)
1/2 cup butter


the filling:
1 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1 1/2 cup cream cheese
3/4 cup sugar (I used 1/2 cup caster sugar & 1/4 cup granulated sugar)
3 eggs
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon, plus the juice of half of it
3/4 cup lemon curd

-Preheat the oven to 350F. Have a large spring-form pan ready
-Put the biscuits in a plastic bag and crush with a meat tenderizer or roll with a rolling pin. Don't reduce them to powder leave some biggish lumps, otherwise the base will be too stodgy. Melt the butter, mix with the biscuits, then spread the mixture over the base of the tin, patting it down firmly,
-bake for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 280 F.
-Meanwhile, put all the cheese in a bowl and beat with an electric whisk for 30 seconds to make it smooth and light. Beat in the sugar, then the eggs, one by one, followed by the lemon zest and juice.
-Swirl in half the lemon curd
-Pour into the tin and bake for about an hour (I baked for 1 hour at 280F and an additional 15 minutes at 300F). The filling should be only just set and still a little bit wobbly in the middle. Turn off the oven and leave the cheesecake in it to cool.

- When it's completely cold, unmould it and put it on a plate.

- Spread the rest of the lemon curd over it and decorate.

LEMON CURD
Juice of 2 lemons
1 large strip lemon peel
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
5 Tbs. butter cut into little pieces
Mix all ingredients in a saucepan and cook on medium-low heat until mixture thickens and starts to bubble a little(5 mins), mixing occasionally. Remove saucepan from heat immediately and press through a sieve. Stir and then store in a container. Chill at least 1-2 hours before serving. I stored mine in the fridge until I was ready to use.

Aside from Dalton (my picky eater)... Dakota, John and I LOVED it. Dakota even went on to declare it being "a little taste of heaven", and somewhat "similar to Lemon Meringue Pie, 're-arranged'"

That said, I was impressed with how EASY this cheesecake was to make and how well it held up, without crumbling upon being sliced.

This recipe is a DEFINITE keeper!!!

Orange Snowball Cookies

Today I'm guest posting over at No Reason Needed blog.
The topic? you ask.

Christmas cookies.  These orange snowballs, in fact.

Recipe snagged from this delightful book, for which Frosty and I have made further plans.  Many further plans.
How about you?  Any Christmas baking going on at your house?
Fill me in.  I am dying to know.

Fabulous Dinner Rolls

Are you looking for an out-of-this-world roll recipe to add to your Thanksgiving menu?  Look no further.

This yeast roll recipe comes courtesy of Meg from Little Bit of Life blog.  She got it from her great-grandmother Lola. 

And I ask you, does anyone make rolls better than a great grandma?

I think not.

I've gotta tell you, I am a staunch believer in my own garlic cheese rolls, a family favorite for a number of years.  Every roll I bake is measured against the venerable GCR.  Very few make the cut.

These?  Well just look at them.  I think, rather than Yeast Rolls, they should be renamed Mile High Rolls.  One roll stretches from chin to eyebrow.  Eating one is like eating buttery air.

This year, for Thanksgiving?  I will make two kinds of rolls.  My garlic cheese rolls (because we want no serious pouty-faces around here).  And these.

They are that good.

Five-Minute Christmas Food Gift

Got my scented candle burning,

my Big Band Christmas CD blasting (this one is outstanding, btw),

the dough for my rolls percolating in the trusty bread machine -- it's a great homemaking day here at the castle.

It seemed like the perfect day to power up my brand new super-duper whizmo blender that Kahuna got me for my birthday.

I think he may have gotten a tad tired of the BANG BANG THWAP of me pulverizing coffee ice cubes with a meat tenderizer for my mocha frappuccinos. 

Which leads me to:  strawberry butter.  Yes indeedy, a five-minute food gift idea that is truly stellar.  So what if you didn't make any homemade jams and jellies this summer?  All you need for this is frozen strawberries, butter, and powdered sugar.  Get a cute little ramekin and add a wooden spreader, and you've got a wonderful, quick Christmas or hostess gift.

STRAWBERRY BUTTER

10-oz. package frozen strawberries

1 c. butter, softened

1 c. powdered sugar

Let strawberries thaw and take butter out of fridge to soften.  Put all ingredients in blender and blend away until mixture is smooth.  Pack in cute little containers.  Makes 2 1/2 c.

Note:  I cut this recipe in half and it blended perfectly.  I also cut the butter into about 10 or 15 pieces before plopping it in the blender.  Recipe came from Better Homes and Gardens Gifts from Your Kitchen.

Have you ever made any special flavored butters?  I would love to hear about it.

Winter's coming

We are in winter preparation mode around here.  Step one:  Get these very green Roma tomatoes picked before they freeze on the vine; wrap them in newspaper, as shown here, so they'll ripen up.

Step two: Start pulling out tired gift bags emblazoned with random store logos and see if you can spruce them up with scrapbook supplies languishing under the bed because you last worked on your scrapbook in 2002.

Step three:  Get so inspired by your own creativity that you start splattering paint on brown paper lunch  bags.

Follow that with a raid on your grandma's button box.

Proceed with an episode of glitter.

Or two.

At which point you realize you have perhaps gone a little too far in winter preparation mode while completely neglecting to make any actual food for dinner.

Green tomatoes, anyone?

NOTE:  For more great ideas, go check out Works for Me Wednesdays at We Are THAT Family blog.

Whole Wheat-Molasses Bread

In my quest to find a recipe delicious enough to give away for Christmas food gifts, I came across this:  a dark, slightly sweet, very tasty yeast bread that's studded with caraway seeds.

Yum.  I do believe we have a winner.

The original recipe gave directions by hand, and yielded two loaves.  I cut it in half so I could use my handy dandy little bread machine.

Aren't bread machines wonderful?

WHOLE WHEAT-MOLASSES BREAD
7/8 c. water
1/4 c. molasses
1 T. shortening
1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1 c. white flour (and maybe a little more)
1/8 c. packed brown sugar
1 T. caraway seed
1 1/2 t. salt
2 1/4 t. yeast (or one package)

Pop all the ingredients into machine in order listed, press the "dough" setting, and start.
Check on the dough as it starts to knead; you want to make sure it is stiff.  If it looks too wet, add more flour until it's the right consistency.
When the machine beeps, shape dough into a slightly flattened 6-inch ball and place on a greased baking sheet.  Cover and let rise until doubled (maybe an hour?).  Bake at 375 for 30 - 35 minutes, until browned and sounding kind of hollow when you tap  it.  (I took mine out at 28 minutes).  Yields one loaf.

The recipe came from this book, which used to belong to my husband's grandma.  My own grandma is the one who gave me my first bread machine.  So it seems to me this loaf is truly a family effort. 

Happy holiday baking.  Any ideas for great Christmas food gifts coming out of your kitchen?

P.S.  The lovely blogger, Bitterroot Mama, posted this review yesterday of Queen of the Castle.  Thank you, Bitterroot Mama!