Recipes Reviews and Gadgets

I still has some leftover ricotta cheese, and I found this recipe. It is now chilling in the fridge. I have to admit for a small pie, it was quite time consuming. It looks good!

Crust:
1 prepared 8″ graham cracker crust
6 oz. milk chocolate chips, melted
Filling:
3 tbsp. butter, room temperature
1½ cups smooth peanut butter
¼ cup plus 2 tbsp. sugar
¾ cup Sorrento® Whole Milk or Part Skim Ricotta Cheese
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tbsp. sugar
½ tsp. vanilla extract

Preparation

Crust:

With rubber spatula, smooth 2/3 of melted chocolate mixture over bottom of crust and up the sides about ½”. Save rest for top. Put crust in freezer while making the filling.

Filling:

With electric mixer, mix butter, peanut butter and sugar for 2 minutes at medium speed until smooth. Add ricotta and mix for 1 minute on medium. In separate bowl, whip cream with sugar and vanilla until it holds a soft peak. Gently fold cream into peanut butter mixture making sure to incorporate all of the cream. Spoon filling into prepared shell and refrigerate for 1-2 hours. With fork drizzle remaining melted chocolate chips over top and serve.

 I always seem to have ricotta cheese in the house, and wanted to try something new. I stumbled across this recipe, that looks yummy. I have not made them yet, but we have a deep fryer and I am going to use that instead of a frying pan.

Ingredients

• 1 egg (beaten)
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 cup ricotta cheese
• vegetable oil or shortening (for deep frying, since this is a dessert dish avoid using a strong flavored oil like olive oil)

Directions

1. Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl

2. Drop by teaspoonfuls into hot oil and deep fry

3. Balls will turn themselves over when one side is done

4. Fry until golden brown and cooked through adjust heat as needed if they brown too quickly without cooking through.

5. Drain on paper towels to cool and absorb oil.

6. When cool, sprinkle with powered sugar

All I have to say is WOW, that was a lot of work! I had to send my husband to the store for the instant pudding, and he came home with cook and serve! Called him told him it was wrong, need INSTANT! He brings home the right thing, I start mixing the last day and trying to divide it into four bags for my “friends” so I can pass this along and it is going everywhere in the kitchen. I get to the final step, and I have no oil. I hardly ever bake with oil. Back to the store I go! It did make two huge tasty loaves of very very sweet cake like bread (so my husband said). He loved it, and my dogs happily cleaned the pans.

Not so sure I want to be the recipient of this again though - it was quite the project. I had my husband pawn off the remaining bags at work today!

Here is the starter recipe in case anyone wants to pass it along!

Amish Friendship Bread Starter

This is the Amish Friendship Bread Starter Recipe that you’ll need to make the Amish Friendship Bread (above). It is very important to use plastic or wooden utensils and plastic or glass containers when making this. Do not use metal at all!

Ingredients:

1 pkg. active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (110°F)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
1 cup warm milk (110°F)

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in warm water for about 10 minutes. Stir well.

2. In a 2 quart glass or plastic container, combine 1 cup sifted flour and 1 cup sugar. Mix thoroughly or the flour will get lumpy when you add the milk.

3. Slowly stir in warm milk and dissolved yeast mixture. Loosely cover the mixture with a lid or plastic wrap. The mixture will get bubbly. Consider this Day 1 of the cycle, or the day you receive the starter.

Day 2 - stir

Day 3 - stir

Day 4 - stir

Day 5 - Add 1 cup each flour, sugar and milk.

Day 6 - stir

Day 7 - stir

Day 8 - stir

Day 9 - stir

Day 10 - Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk. Divide into 4 containers, with 1 cup each for three of your friends and 1 cup for your own loaves. Give friends the instructions for Day 1 through Day 10 and the following recipe for baking the bread.

After removing the 3 cups of batter, combine the remaining cup of Amish Friendship Bread starter with the following ingredients in a large bowl:

2/3 cup oil
3 eggs
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1 to 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour

1 package vanilla INSTANT Pudding
1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda

Using a fork beat by hand until well blended. You can add 1 cup raisins and 1 cup nuts (optional).

Grease two loaf pans with butter, sprinkle with sugar instead of flour.

Bake at 325 degrees F for 45 minutes to 1 hour (individual oven temperatures vary). Cool 10 minutes, remove from pans. Makes two loaves of Amish Friendship Bread.

In the past three weeks, I have picked over 30 pounds of blueberries! I have some different kinds of pies, put them in yogurt, even made a cookie recipe that did not come out to well. I found this healthy blueberry muffin recipe that was really good!

Whole-wheat flour and flaxseeds give these maple syrup-sweetened blueberry muffins a delicious, nutty flavor. Compared to a traditional version of the recipe, they have four times the dietary fiber and substitute healthful monounsaturated fat (canola oil) for saturated fat (butter).

Makes 12 muffins

ACTIVE TIME: 30 minutes

TOTAL TIME: 1 hour

EASE OF PREPARATION: Moderate

1/3 cup whole flaxseeds
1 cup whole-wheat flour
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1 cup nonfat buttermilk (see Tip)
1/4 cup canola oil
2 teaspoons freshly grated orange zest
1 tablespoon orange juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
1 tablespoon sugar

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Coat 12 muffin cups with cooking spray.
2. Grind flaxseeds in a spice mill (such as a clean coffee grinder) or dry blender. Transfer to a large bowl. Add whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda and salt; whisk to blend. Whisk eggs and maple syrup in a medium bowl until smooth. Add buttermilk, oil, orange zest, orange juice and vanilla; whisk until blended.
3. Make a well in the dry ingredients and stir in the wet ingredients with a rubber spatula just until moistened. Fold in blueberries. Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin cups. Sprinkle the tops with sugar.
4. Bake the muffins until the tops are golden brown and spring back when touched lightly, 15 to 25 minutes. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Loosen edges and turn muffins out onto a wire rack to cool slightly.