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My Knees are Weak: Hazelnut Crunch Cake

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Giada De Laurentiis Hazelnut Crunch Cake

If I have trouble concentrating the rest of the day, it’s all thanks to the picture above and the recipe below – both used courtesy of A Bull’s Eye View.  Sigh, I love Target. Maybe that’s why I’m there everyday, huh?  This beautiful cake would make a deliciously unexpected dessert for Thanksgiving or Christmas.  Or, better yet, both!  I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t have any complaints.

Hazelnut Crunch Cake with Mascarpone and Chocolate
Makes eight servings
1 box chocolate cake mix
1 cup hazelnuts, toasted and skinned
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
2 (8-oz.) containers mascarpone cheese
1 cup cream
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon orange zest

Step 1 – Prepare cake mix according to package directions for two 9-inch spring foam cake pans. Let cool on a wire rack.

Step 2 – Toast hazelnuts: Place hazelnuts in a small skillet over medium-low heat. Heat until fragrant and golden brown, stirring constantly, about 5 minutes. Let cool. Tip: Place hazelnuts in a towel and rub together – this will make the skins come off easier.

Step 3 – Place toasted nuts close together in a single layer on parchment-lined baking sheet.

For the crunch:

Step 4 – Combine sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir until dissolved. Bring to a boil and let cook until sugar is light brown, about 8 minutes. Let bubbles subside then pour the caramelized sugar over nuts.

Step 5– Place baking sheet in refrigerator and let cool until hard, about 30 minutes. When cooled, top with another piece of parchment paper and pound into small pieces, or place on a cutting board and cut into small pieces. Set aside.

For the filling / icing:  

Step 6 – Using an electric mixture (on a low setting), beat mascarpone cheese, cream, powdered sugar and vanilla until soft peaks form. Fold the crunch mixture into the whipped cream.

For the topping:

Step 7 – Finely grind chocolate chips, sugar and zest in a food processor.

To assemble:

Step 8 – Put 1 cake on a serving plate. Top with 1-inch of the whipped cream crunch mixture. Top with the second layer of cake and continue frosting with the remaining whipped cream crunch mixture. Sprinkle top and sides of cake with ground chocolate and zest.

I looked around their website and bookmarked quite a few recipes – great stuff! One I loved uses a great Monster Trail Mix from Target. The recipe is for Monster Trail Mix Bars and I’m having even more trouble concentrating on my work! Click the link and check them out.  You’ll also want to see the Parmesan Egg & Garlic Crostini with Baby Romaine Salad and Bacon Vinaigrette. I’m grabbing the ingredients for this beauty TODAY…. you know, when I also get the ones I’ll need for the Hazelnut Crunch Cake and Monster Trail Mix Bars.

It’s a good thing I have a treadmill.

 

Blueberry Delight Recipe

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A Close View of Fresh-Picked Blueberries
A Close View of Fresh-Picked Blueberries
Buy This Allposters.com

Blueberries. I’ve got it BAD for these tart, delicious, crazy healthy little blue guys. That’s why they’re almost always in my grocery cart and figure so prominently in the header above, with other obsessions including chocolate, coffee, avocados, and asparagus… if my picture of cream cheese had cooperated better, it would have been there. Poor baby. Camera shy.

The recipe below calls for Blueberry Pie Filling, which is something else I love to keep on hand. It’s outstanding as a topping for cheesecake, ice cream, chess pie, my fingers…

PIE CRUST
1 stick butter – softened, then creamed
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup flour
1-1/2 cups chopped walnuts

FILLING
1 8 oz block Philadelphia Cream Cheese
1-1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 large container whipped topping
1 small container whipped topping
1 can blueberry pie filling

Mix crust ingredients and press into pan. Bake at 300 degrees for 10 minutes. Cool crust completely.

For the filling:
1st layer – Mix cream cheese, powdered sugar, and 3/4 of the large container of whipped topping. Spread over the crust.
2nd layer – Pour the blueberry pie filling over the cream cheese mixture.
3rd layer – Add the remaining whipped topping – the small container and what’s left of the large one.

Heavenly!

Banana Pudding Parfaits

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The recipe below is in the June issue of Cosmopolitan.  It sounds so simple and delicious that I knew you’d be as interested in taking it for a test drive as I am.

Banana Pudding Parfaits Dessert Recipe

1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
2-1/2 cups reduced fat milk
4 large egg yolks, lightly beaten
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 bananas, sliced
20 vanilla wafer cookies
Whipped Cream, for garnish

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the sugar, flour, and salt.  Whisk in the milk and stir constantly with a wooden spoon until the mixture comes to a low boil and becomes thick – about 7 minutes.

Reduce the heat to low.

Stir a couple tablespoons of the hot milk mixture into the egg yolks, then stir egg yolks back into the hot milk mixture.  Stir constantly until thickened to the consistency of pudding, about 3 to 4 minutes.

Remove from heat, and stir in the vanilla.  Let cool.

Layer the pudding, cookies, and bananas in 4 to 6 glasses, depending on size.  Chill in the refrigerator until serving time – then garnish with whipped cream.

Sounds outstanding!

Carrot Cupcakes with Sour Cream Frosting

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Cupcakes recipe: Carrot Cupcakes

Carrot Cupcakes with Sour Cream Frosting

This recipe makes 24 cupcakes

2 -1/4 cups all purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup HP Hood Sour Cream
1-1/2 cups grated carrots
1 8 oz can crushed pineapple, undrained
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375˚F. Line 24 muffin cups with cupcake liners and set aside. In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients, spices and sugar, mixing well. In a medium bowl, combine eggs, oil, sour cream, carrots, pineapple and vanilla extract, mixing well. Add wet mixture to dry mixture, stir just enough to combine ingredients. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full of batter. Bake in the center of the oven until light and golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 20-25 minutes. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Remove from muffin cups to wire rack to cool completely.

Sour Cream Frosting

4 Tbsp butter, softened
1/2 cup HP Hood Sour Cream
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt
2-3/4 cups confectioners’ sugar

In a medium bowl, mix together all ingredients, except powered sugar, until well combined. With an electric mixer on slow, add confectioners’ sugar, beating until smooth. Decorate as desired.

I get unbelievably excited this time of year.  Even recipes seem to get excited.  We’re all thawing out and ready for bright colors, flowers, birds, and fun, lighthearted recipes.  This amazing Carrot Cupcakes with Sour Cream Frosting features Hood Sour Cream, pineapple, butter, and confectioner’s sugar – when that team takes the field, you know a HUGE victory is about to happen.

And we all know how sweet victory tastes…

Hood Sour Cream

Philadelphia 3-Step Cappuiccino Cheesecake

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This delicious, yet simple, recipe is from a little recipe booklet that I got YEARS ago in a Dollar General Store for, like, $3.  It’s a “PHILADELPHIA” Cream Cheese Cookbook called, “A Little Taste of Heaven:  Appetizers, Cheesecakes, and More.”  It was put out in 2003, so it might be a little tricky to find (try eBay or click the image to the right for Amazon), but if you can get your hands on it, it’s pure gold.  Cream cheese is one of my favorite things to bake with; like buttermilk, it just makes everything better.

You’ll love this recipe.  Coffee combined with chocolate AND cream cheese?!?!  I could eat this every day for the rest of my life.

 

PHILADELPHIA 3 STEP Cappuiccino Cheesecake
Recipe Type: Dessert, Quick and Easy
Cook time: 35 mins
Total time: 35 mins
Ingredients
  • 2 pkg (8 oz each) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 TBS milk
  • 2 TBS MAXWELL HOUSE Instant Coffee
  • 1 ready-to-use chocolate crumb crust
Instructions
  1. Mix the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer on medium speed until creamy and well blended. Add the 2 eggs and mix well.
  2. Microwave milk on high for 15 seconds.
  3. If you don’t have a microwave, of course, you can simply heat it on the stovetop in the tiniest pan imaginable!
  4. Stir instant coffee into milk until dissolved.
  5. Stir into batter and pour into crust.
  6. Bake at 350 degrees fro 35 to 40 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool.
  7. Refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight. (You’ll barely make the 3 hours before diving in, so you’d better go with that one.)