Sweetsome Sundays...Argentinean Ricotta Cake

Happy Palm Sunday everyone!

(This piece looks more flat because it broke in half while my brother was taking a picture and he just kind of squished it back together: the actual cake had a more rounded top)

The recipe for this cake came from a good friend of ours in California (Hi Faby😜!), and I would have made it a while ago if my new spring form pan had not taken over *three* weeks to get here...I'd never even heard of a normal ricotta cake, let alone the Argentinean version, so I was pretty curious to see how it would turn out, and, people, this cake was deeelicious! Imagine blending a cheesecake with doughnuts and then dusting it all with powdered sugar...and it happens to be really simple to make, so double win! We ate half this cake for my brother's feast day on Saturday and then the rest of it on Sunday (I actually ate my piece for breakfast😊); it just keeps getting better the longer you refrigerate it.

Ingredients:

Dough:

• 2 cups Self Rising Flour (for grain-free version, use 11/4th cup Almond Flour, 1/2 cup Arrowroot Flour, 1/4th cup Coconut Flour, and three tsp Baking Power)
• 1/2 cup Sugar
• 10 Tbs Butter
• 1 Egg plus 1 Egg Yolk
• 2 Tbs Milk/Cream

Filling:

• 35 ounces Ricotta Cheese
• 2 Egg Yolks
• 3/4 cup Sugar
• 2 Tbs Milk/Cream
• Zest from one lemon
• 1 tsp. Vanilla Extract 

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Butter a spring-form pan.  Combine the dough ingredients in a food processor and mix till combined.   If it is too dry, you can add a little more cream/milk.  Take half the dough mixture and spread it out over the bottom and up the sides of the spring-form pan to form a sort of bowl, then set aside.  Mix all the filling ingredients together in a glass bowl with a hand mixer (or a fork; it works just as well) until combined.  Pour filling into dough.  Roll out the remaining dough into a circle and use it to cover the rest of the cake, sealing the edges as best you can.  Bake in the oven for 45-60 minutes, until top is golden brown.  Once done, dust the top with powdered sugar and refrigerate before serving.

Have a lovely week!

Sweetsome Sundays...Paleo Donuts

So who else forgot about the time change? We baaarrreeelllyyy made it to Mass in time, but some of our neighbors didn't get there until after the Gospel...oh, Daylight Savings Time, how we hate thee...=)

We were finally able to have a Sunday all to ourselves, so I didn't work too hard on making a fancy dessert, but I was hungry for donuts and decided to try out a new recipe I had found.  Being myself, I didn't have half of the ingredients, so I improvised...and I'm just going to suggest that if you try out this recipe, you might want to just FOLLOW THE RECIPE and not try to change it like I did...
This recipe came from one of my absolute *favorite* Paleo blogs: primalpalate.com.  If I need a recipe, I always check this blog first.  They used Chocolate Ganache on their donuts, but I'm a Lemon person, so I made a lemon glaze=)...I also cut all the donuts into little bite-sized pieces so there'd be enough for all of us.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup Blanched Almond Flour
• 1/2 cup Arrowroot Flour
• 3 tsp Baking Powder
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 2 Pastured Eggs
• 1/2 cup Pure Maple Syrup
• 1 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
• 3/4 cup Coconut Milk
• 3 Tbsp Organic Coconut Oil, melted
• 2/3 cup Lemon Glaze

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the almond flour, arrowroot flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir with a wooden spoon until combined.
3. In a smaller mixing bowl, add the eggs, pure maple syrup, vanilla extract, and coconut milk. Using a hand mixer, blend ingredients until smooth.
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry, and blend all ingredients with your hand mixer until smooth.
5. Add your softened coconut oil to the batter, and blend again until all ingredients are combined evenly.
6. Liberally grease your donut pan with coconut oil, and spoon about a cup of batter into a ziplock bag.
7. Snip one of the corners off of the ziplock bag, and pipe the batter into the donut mold. More batter makes a fluffy donut, but you will have less total donuts. Filling the molds 3/4 full will yield about 12 donuts.
8. Smooth the tops of the batter by carefully banging the donut pan on the counter, and smoothing any uneven spots with a spoon or your finger.
9. Bake the donuts for 12 minutes, making sure to check then after 10 minutes. Remove donuts from oven, and allow to cool on a wire rack.
10. Grease donut pan again, and repeat for another batch of donuts.
11. Once donuts are completely cool, dip them into your choice of frosting. It helps to have the frosting in a shallow bowl to dip to donut. Place donuts in the fridge for a few minutes to help the frostings set before serving.
12. If using the lemon glaze, refrigerate donuts after dipping, then dip a second time, and refrigerate once more to allow the glaze to set.

(To make a lemon glaze, whisk the juice of one lemon with 1/4 cup of powdered sugar until you have a pour-able icing)

Sweetsome Sundays...Paleo Blueberry Pound Cake

Happy Laetare Sunday, everyone!

This Sunday we (once again) had some friends over for dinner and dessert.  Somehow there was some miscommunication about who was providing dinner, because we both did...and we both made roast chicken! It was a good thing, though, because we were all pretty hungry and did the meal full justice =)

For dessert, I made a Paleo Blueberry Pound Cake from AskGeorgie.com...the original recipe had lemon extract in it as well, but I didn't have any so I just skipped it =).  I also found the batter to be too dry, so I added about 1/4 cup of water to it, and baked it for an extra fifteen minutes to make sure it cooked all the way.  This cake disappeared so fast off the platter that I only got one small bite, and that was only because I stole it off my brother's plate.  It was one the most delicious Paleo desserts I have ever made and I will definitely be making more! I think it would be delicious in muffin form as well, so I may try that next time...

Ingredients:

1 cup + 2 tablespoons almond flour

1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons coconut flour

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 eggs

1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons water

1-1/2 cups blueberries

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter or oil the inside of a loaf pan.

2. In a large bowl, combine almond and coconut flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder.  Whisk to mix well and break up any lumps.

3. In a second bowl, combine lemon extract, vanilla extract, eggs, and water.  Stir to blend.

4. Add wet ingredients to dry and mix until uniformly moist. Spoon 1/3 of batter into the bottom of the loaf pan. Sprinkle 1/3 of the berries on top. Repeat layers two more times.

5. Bake for 35 minutes. Cool before slicing into 8 slices.

I managed to keep everyone away from the cake long enough to take this one photo...half of it was already eaten by the time I got my phone out =).

If you try this recipe, let me know in the comments how it turns out!

Have a lovely week =)!

Sweetsome Sundays...Magic Lemon Custard Cake

Happy Sunday, ya'll! =)

Can you believe we're already halfway through Lent?! It seems to go by faster every year...

This week we had some neighbors over for Sunday dinner, so for our dessert I made a Magic Lemon Custard Cake.  I've made plain Magic Custard Cakes before (they're so easy to whip up and taste amazing!), but when I saw a recipe on jocooks.com for a lemon version I had to try it.  I love pretty much anything lemon, and when you mix it into a custard cake it's twice as good =).  For those of you who don't know what a Magic Custard Cake is, it's a cake made from one batter that "magically" separates into three layers while it's baking; a meringue top, a custard middle, and a crust.  I tweaked the original recipe a bit to make it grain-free, but if you don't have a problem with grains, you can just replace the almond and arrowroot flour with all purpose flour.

Grain-Free Magic Lemon Custard Cake

Ingredients

• 4 eggs (separate yolks from whites) at room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 stick or ½ cup butter, melted
• 1/2 cup Almond flour
• 1/4 cup Arrowroot flour
• 1¾ cup cream
• ¼ cup fresh lemon juice
• zest from one lemon
• powdered sugar for dusting cake

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 F degrees. Grease a 8 inch x 8 inch baking dish or line it with parchment paper.
2. Separate eggs and add the egg whites to a mixer and mix until egg whites in a glass bowel until they are stiff, then set aside.
3. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar until light. Add butter and vanilla extract and continue beating for another minute or two after which you can add the flour and mix it in until fully incorporated.
4. Add lemon juice and lemon zest then slowly start adding the cream and beat until everything is well mixed together. Add the egg whites, a third at a time and gently fold them in using a spatula or a whisk, repeat until all egg whites are folded in, but there should still be white bits of egg whites floating in the batter.
5. Pour batter into baking dish and bake for 40 to 70 minutes or until the top is lightly golden and the cake is firm to the touch. The baking time could vary greatly depending on the oven, so take a peek at around 40 minutes and see how it looks.
6. Sprinkle some powdered sugar on top after cake has cooled.

Notes:

The batter for this cake is very liquid-y, so don't give into the temptation to bake it in a spring-form pan...you'll regret it =).

When you fold in the egg whites, be very careful not to over-mix them; fold until just combined.

I hope you all have a very blessed week! If you try out this recipe be sure to let me know how it turns out in the comments!

Sweetsome Sundays...Chocolate Mocha Frozen Torte

Happy St. Valentine's Day, everyone!!!
I can't believe it's been a year since I last wrote one of these posts...it feels like just yesterday! To be honest, Lent is my favorite time of the year; I love the liturgy, praying the Stations, special Sunday treats, and of course our St. Patrick's Day party! This year it will be a sort of house-warming party for us because it will be the first time we've had friends over in our new house.

This past Sunday we were invited to a friend of mine's home to have dinner with her family...it was a sort of group effort between all of us; I made the main course (lasagna), my friend made a salad, her sister made cookies, my brother Avery provided moral support and comedy to entertain us, and my brother Blaise made a Chocolate Mocha Ice Cream Torte for dessert.  I had asked him to make some simple chocolate chip cookies, but Mr. Gourmet couldn't just make something quick and simple, he had to make something that took two days to put together and looked like something from a William's Sonoma magazine =).  And let me tell you; IT WAS GOOOODDDD...

This is the recipe he used...he made his own macaroons, and some snicker bars instead of the toffee.

Chocolate Mocha Frozen Torte

Ingredients:

• 1½ cups crisp coconut macaroon cookie crumbs
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted
• 4 cups chocolate ice cream, softened
• 4 cups coffee ice cream, softened
• 4 ounces chocolate-coated toffee candy bars, coarsely crushed
• ½ cup hot fudge sauce, cooled*

HOT FUDGE SAUCE

• 6 ounces unsweetened chocolate
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup half and half
• 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 350° F. Stir together butter and cookie crumbs. Lightly press into bottom of a 9- to 10-inch springform pan. Bake for 8 minutes or until lightly brown. Cool completely.

Spread chocolate ice cream in an even layer over cooled crust. Drizzle ¼ cup fudge sauce evenly over ice cream. Freeze until firm. Spread coffee ice cream evenly in pan. Sprinkle evenly with crushed toffee and drizzle remaining fudge sauce on top. Cover with plastic film and freeze until firm.

* Use fudge sauce recipe or your favorite brand or recipe

Fudge Sauce

In a saucepan, melt chocolate and butter over low heat, stirring constantly. Add sugar, and half and half. Continue cooking until thickened. Gradually add condensed milk. Cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Keeps well refrigerated for several months. Reheat before serving. 

 

Have a lovely week!

Overnight Trip and Sweetsome Sundays...

For most people, an overnight trip to a town four hours away for a garden convention isn't much to get excited about.  For me, it's a sign of how far I've come since I was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, mercury poisoning, Hashimotos, and adrenal fatigue.  Three years ago, even last year, a trip like this would have been a MAJOR stress starting  three weeks in advance, with much misery and doubt about whether or not I could handle everything.  Now, even without getting a good night's rest at all last week, having to run and hide from a tornado in a freezing, moldy, and spooky basement, and having to watch The Ten Commandments (have I ever expressed my loathing of anything connected with Charlton Heston? Let's just say this was a perfect lenten penance...), I am tolerably confident I will survive this trip.  Especially since Mom brought bubble gum.

The convention was actually kind of fun; I ran the checkout station (I always feel like Fitz from Agents of Shield when I use our tablet) and got to meet a lot of people, many of whom have been customers of ours for years.  It was lovely hearing about their gardens and answering their questions...actually my brother answered most of the questions, he's much more informed about these things than I am =).

Since we drove, I was able to get caught up on lots of reading and research I've been meaning to do, switching back in forth from book to phone as I gained and lost Internet connection.  I've been interested in making my own makeup for awhile and needed to plan out our Easter dinner (especially since our parish priest may be coming), so all the time stuck in the back of the suburban (I''m now officially the shortest person in the family, so I get the seat with the least amount of leg-room; in other words I had to sit on my feet the whole way =)) was put to good use.  Conveniently enough, there was a Whole Foods and a Natural Grocers right down the road from our hotel and we were able to have a nice salmon and shrimp dinner in our room Friday night.

We were all pretty exhausted when we got home but everyone had a great time and the high speed internet at the convention definitely came in handy.  Mom has had some health summit talks that we've needed to download for a few weeks and my brothers downloaded all the Agents of Shield episodes we have missed during Lent so we can watch them after Easter.  My little brother was in near ecstasy when we got home and found his drone had come in the mail while we were gone...he's been waiting for it to come in for over a month now.  Our doberman is about to have a nervous breakdown from being chased around the house, and the chickens think it's a chicken hawk, but it's already provided a lot of entertainment and fun.   Now that we're back home we're busy preparing our garden for planting and working on finishing up our Lent well.  Last year I did NOT prepare for our Easter dinner, and it wasn't a very festive meal, but this year things are going to be different.  We shall feast on artichoke stuffed lamb, marmalade glazed ham, mashed potatoes, asparagus, and Creme Brulee...so let it be written, so let it be done! (Booonnnnngggg...I love saying that quote; all I need is someone to hit a gong when I say it).

We found all of our flowers have started blooming in our yard...somehow they always seem to bloom right before Easter...

Lately we have been just picking up ice cream for our "Sunday Treat", so I'm going to share the recipe for the cake my brother made for the feast of St. Benedict.  There was some mis-communication about the sweetener, so ours ended up tasting like incredibly buttery cornbread with cream cheese icing...but oh my goodness, it was soooooo delicious.  I just might have him always make it without the sugar...
I got this recipe from Satisfying Eats.

Italian Cream Cake

Cake

3 cups blanched almond flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. Organic Trader Joe's Stevia or sweetener of choice, to taste
1-1/2 cups of unsweetened shredded coconut**
2 tbsp. pure vanilla extract (or homemade)
8 large eggs
3/4 cup unsalted butter or ghee, melted
1 cup sour cream, heavy cream or pure coconut milk
2 cups chopped pecans

**I used shredded coconut which is very fine for one cake. I also used coconut flakes or coconut chips that I had slightly processed in a food processor to make them smaller, more like shredded coconut, for the second test batch. Both worked well. 

Cream Cheese Frosting
(2) 8-oz. packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 tbsp. pure vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/2 tsp. Organic Trader Joe's Stevia or sweetener of choice, to taste
1 tbsp. raw honey (optional)

instructions

Cake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line the bottom of (2) 8-inch round cake pans with parchment paper to prevent cake from sticking.

In a large bowl, add the dry ingredients. Blend well with a whisk to break up any lumps. To the same bowl, add the remaining ingredients and stir. Taste for sweetness and adjust if needed.

Divide batter between the two lined pans, being sure to spread the batter evenly. Bake for about 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Once cakes are done, let cool in pans 5 minutes and then run a butter knife along the edge of the cake and invert onto a cooling rack. Allow cake to completely cool. While cake is cooling, prepare frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

In a large bowl, blend cream cheese until smooth using a hand mixer. Add the remaining ingredients and blend until frosting is thick and smooth. Taste for sweetness and adjust if needed.
Frost cooled cake with frosting.

notes
Nutrition: 333 Calories, 31 grams Fat, 7.1 Total Carbs, 2.7 grams Fiber, 4.4 Net Carbs, 7 grams Protein 

 I hope you all have a very Blessed Holy Week and Easter! On Good Friday I'm going to try a new Hot Cross Buns recipe I made up, and if I have time I'll post the recipe and some pictures for your benefit.  If it turns out edible, of course. =)

From the Kitchen..."Sweetsome Sundays"

Okay, so today I don't have a recipe for what I made for our Sunday treat this week.  Lets just say that I have learned you can't make fried donuts when you don't have any yeast or sugar, and you certainly can't make lemon curd without eggs...annnnnddd don't ever try replacing the eggs in lemon curd with arrowroot powder.  It produces a sticky, gooey, whitish mess that no one wants eat except your little brother...and then only if it's covered with maple syrup.
Luckily, Mom had bought some candies at Natural Grocers a few weeks ago and we picked up some ice cream on the way home from Mass, so we were still able to enjoy something sweet for Sunday after all.
Note to self: make sure you have all the ingredients BEFORE you start mixing everything together.  =)

Please excuse lighting in these photos...=)

From The Kitchen..."Sweetsome Sundays"

Chocolate Chip Brownies

3/4 cup cocoa

1/2 tsp baking soda

2/3 cup butter, melted and divided

1/2 cup boiling water

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 1/3 cup almond flower

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp salt

1 3/4 cups chocolate chips/chunks

1. Heat oven to 350 Degrees F.  Grease a 13x9x2 baking pan

2. Mix cocoa, baking soda, and 1/3 cup of butter together in a mixing bowl.  Add water and stir till thickened.  Add sugar, eggs, and remaining butter and mix thoroughly.  Add remaining ingredients and fold in chips/chunks.  Pour into prepared pan.

3. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until brownies pull away from sides of pan.  Let cool before enjoying.

 

My brother made these for our Sunday treat because I wasn't feeling well.  He also drizzled caramel on the top...mmmm... And, no, poor Skye didn't get any, though she asked very nicely.

How Was Your Sunday?

From The Kitchen..."Sweetsome Sundays"...

During Lent my family has always had a few standard sacrifices we offer up together every year (such as movies, sweets, up-beat music, etc.) in addition to what we offer up on our own. But we try to take a break to sort of give everyone the chance to catch their breath and start out strong again for another week by having a dessert on Sundays and first class feast days.  On Fat Tuesday I had attempted to make an apple pie with only about four of the correct ingredients (one of which was "apples") and ended up with a concoction that had a very strong "plantain" flavor.  It still tasted pretty good, but I wanted to make a more "perfected" version, so I finally got all the correct ingredients for us to have another pie on Sunday.

Perfect Paleo Pie Crust:

11/2 Cups Almond Flour

1/2 Cup Arrowroot Flour

2 Tbsp. Brown Sugar (or Coconut sugar)

1/2 Tsp. Baking Powder

1/2 Cup Butter

6 Tbsp. Cold Water

1 Tsp. Vanilla

Combine dry ingredients in your food processor.  Cut butter into chunks and pulse with dry mixture until it resembles course breadcrumbs.  Add wet ingredients and blend until well mixed.  Shape mixture into a ball, wrap with plastic wrap, and keep in the refrigerator until ready to use.  When ready, divide into two parts and roll out into desired shape.  Place one part in pie dish and save the other for the top.

Amazing Apple Pie 

3 Large Apples, peeled, cored, and sliced very thin

Juice of 1 Lemon

3/4 Cup Brown Sugar

11/2 Tbsp. Arrowroot Flour

1 Tsp. Each of Cinnamon, Cloves, Nutmeg (optional...we like it better without)

4 Tbsp. Butter

Preheat oven to 475 Degrees.  Gently fold apple slices into lemon juice until well coated.  Mix dry ingredients in a separate bowl.  Cover the bottom of your prepared pie dish with a layer of apple slices, overlapping them over each other.  Sprinkle one tablespoon of the dry mixture over the apples.  Repeat until apples and dry mixture is used up.  Cut butter into chunks and place all over the top of the pie.  Cover with reserved pie crust and bake for ten minutes.  Lower temperature to 350 Degrees and bake for another thirty minutes, or until golden brown.  Let cool for a few minutes, then serve with ice cream for absolute decadence.