Jam Streusel Bars

What you will need:

Shortbread Crust
½ cup oil

1 cup all-purpose flour

⅓ cup confectioners’ sugar

pinch of salt

Jam Layer
Fruit flavored preserves of choice

Streusel Topping
½ cup oil

1 cup brown sugar

pinch of salt

1 cup rolled oats

⅔ cup all-purpose flour

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350°F, with the rack in the middle. Grease a 9 by 9” square pan and line it with greased parchment.

Crust
In a medium bowl, mix the oil, flour, confectioners’ sugar and salt, until it comes together in a uniform dough. Press the dough evenly into the prepared pan. Press it down with your hands to pack it tightly into the pan. Place in the oven to par bake for 15 minutes.

Gooey Filling

Spread a layer of your fruit preserves over your warm crust. Spread as much or as little as you want. I like a thin layer. 

Topping
Mix together the oil, brown sugar, salt, oats and flour with your fingers, so the mixture forms small clumps. Scatter evenly over the jam. Bake for about 45 minutes or until the top is caramel-brown and the fruit is bubbling.

Cool completely before removing from the pan and cutting. It’s easier to cut when chilled. 

Enjoy! 

Cheesecake Swirl Brownies

What you will need:

For the brownies:

Double my Brownie recipe

For cheesecake filling:

2 8oz packages (brick style) cream cheese, room temperature

½ cup sugar

1 egg

½ tbsp vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)

2 tbsp flour

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a 9x13 pan with parchment.

Cheesecake filling- Beat cream cheese with sugar until smooth. Add vanilla and scrape down the sides. Add in flour and egg and beat until smooth.

For brownies- follow directions in brownie recipe for combining ingredients.

Spread ⅔ of the brownie batter into your parchment lined 9x13 pan.

Dollop the cheesecake filling over the brownie and then dollop the remaining brownie batter.

With a knife, swirl the two batters together.

Bake for 25 min or until center is set and doesn't jiggle.

Cool on the counter, and then refrigerate for at least a few hours before slicing.

Enjoy!

No-Churn Ice Cream

I LOVE ice cream! Especially as the weather is warming up, it’s a nice cold treat to cool down with.

Ice cream seems intimidating to make, especially the ones with eggs in it. However, I have found an easy 2 ingredient ice cream based that you can add flavors and mix-ins to and create any ice cream concoction you wish! I may have as much fun with creating new ice cream combinations this summer as I do with my challahs!

What you will need:

Ice cream base

2 cups heavy whipping cream, chilled

1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk

Optional: 1 tbsp vanilla bean paste

Chocolate S’mores Ice cream

½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Pinch of salt

¼ cup caramel or chocolate chips

½ cup mini marshmallows

Lime Ice Cream with Mixed Berry Swirl

Zest and juice from 1 lime

½ cup homemade {or store bought} mixed berry preserves

Directions:

Whip the cream {and vanilla bean paste} with a mixer on medium-high speed until firm peaks form, about 2 minutes.

Fold about 1 cup of the whipped cream into the sweetened condensed milk with a rubber spatula until combined, then fold the lightened mixture into the whipped cream until well blended.

For chocolate ice cream- Whisk together the condensed milk, cocoa powder, and salt in a large bowl. The mixture will become very thick. Then fold in the whipped cream mixture.

For lime ice cream- whisk together the condensed milk, lime zest, and juice. Then fold in the whipped cream mixture. 

For add ins-

Chocolate s’mores- pour half of the ice cream mixture into your container, and sprinkle with about half of the mix-ins on top and swirl with a knife. Repeat with the remaining half of the ice cream and mix-ins.

Mixed berry swirl- pour half of the ice cream mixture into your container, dollop about half of the preserves on top and swirl with a knife. Repeat with the remaining half of the ice cream and mix-ins.

Pour into a container, or a 9x5x3 loaf pan and freeze until set, about 4-5 hours.

Enjoy!

Coffee Cake Challah

Happy almost weekend!

One of my favorite cakes is coffee cake, and strangely I really like the Pesach Manischewitz coffee cake mix {I can eat almost an entire cake in a sitting.} 

So, while being challah deprived on Pesach, eating straight out of the coffee cake tin I had this idea! It’s sort of a mashup between a cinnamon bun {since I fill the strands with the streusel} and coffee cake! Yumm!!

What you will need: 

Challah Dough recipe

Swap sugar for-

1 tbsp sugar

⅓ cup honey or maple syrup

Use 2 eggs instead of 1

Add in-

1 tbsp vanilla

2 tsp salt 1 tbsp cinnamon

½ tsp nutmeg

Additionally, can sub water for milk or almond milk for a richer dough

Streusel Filling:

5 tbsp oil

1 tbsp cinnamon

¼ tsp nutmeg

¼ cup brown sugar

⅓ cup flour

Streusel Topping:

Separate half off the filling from above and add ⅓-½ cup flour for a drier streusel crumb

Directions:

Make challah dough according to directions here, add in vanilla with the eggs, then add in the cinnamon and nutmeg along with the flour. 

Divide dough into 8 equal parts and then roll each part into a log, long enough to fit a loaf pan. {makes 2 loaf challah}

Make the streusel filling in a bowl by adding all ingredients and stirring until combined.

Separate half of the streusel filling into a separate bowl, and add flour gradually until it turns into a drier streusel crumb.

Gently flatten each log so that it is about 2 inches wide. Add a shmear of the streusel filling to each flattened log. Pinch the edges to seal, and then braid the logs. Place the challah in a greased loaf pan and let the challah rise 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. 

Brush with an egg wash and top with the streusel topping.

Bake for 40 minutes, turning the tray halfway through so it bakes evenly.

Enjoy!

Cranberry Pumpkin Loaf

I love everything pumpkin and any excuse to use pumpkin! And my new favorite combination is pumpkin and cranberry. The earthy, deep flavor of pumpkin combined with the fresh, tart pop of the cranberries in this pumpkin loaf is so unexpected. Festive enough for New Years dessert! 

What you will need:

½ cup canola oil (or 1 stick unsalted butter)

1 cup pumpkin puree (recipe for homemade here)

1 cup loosely packed light brown sugar

¼ cup maple syrup

1 tsp vanilla bean paste (or extract)

2 large eggs

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 ½ tsp pumpkin pie spice

¾ tsp kosher salt

½ tsp baking soda

½ cup frozen cranberries

2 tbsp turbinado sugar

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a loaf pan with parchment paper and grease, or grease a loaf pan and dust with flour.

Combine the oil, pumpkin, brown sugar, maple syrup, vanilla and eggs in a large bowl. Whisk until smooth.

Whisk together the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, salt and baking soda in a separate bowl. When I don’t have whole wheat flour on hand, I use all-purpose flour and it works well too.

Add the dry to the wet ingredients and whisk until smooth (but don't overmix).

Scrape into the loaf pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula. Press cranberries into the top and sprinkle with turbinado sugar.

Bake for 50-55 minutes, until the top is browned and crusty, and a toothpick inserted in comes out clean. Let cool.

Enjoy!

Gelt Together Cookies

Chanukah is one of my favorite holidays! I usually make some ugly Chanukah sweater iced sugar cookies, but this year I’m all about easy recipes! 

I purchased a bunch of bags of gelt from Trader Joe’s, and figured I can ‘decorate’ thick sugar cookies rolled in blue sugar with a gelt. I’ve seen similar ideas with Hershey kisses or nuts, so why not gelt? The combo works perfectly together. Make them for your Chanukah gelt together and they will be a showstopper! {see what I did there with geLt?!}

What you will need:

Sugar cookie dough (my easy recipe here)

I swapped butter for oil 1:1 here and worked perfectly

Sanding sugar or sprinkles

Gelt

Directions:

Follow directions here through chilling the dough. 

Once the dough has chilled, preheat the oven to 350°. 

Form 1” balls of dough using a small cookie scoop or eyeballing. The dough should yield approximately 24 cookies. 

Flatten the balls slightly to form a disc.

Roll the edges in blue sanding sugar, or sprinkles, or whatever your heart desires!

Bake for 10 minutes. While the cookies are baking, unwrap your gelt. 

When the 10 minutes are up, quickly press a gelt in the center of each cookie before it sets. Then return to the oven for another 2 minutes. 

My son helped me with this stage, just had to remind him the tray was hot and left the oven mitt on it so he didn’t get burned. 

Allow the cookies and chocolate to cool completely before handling. 

Enjoy!

Creme Brûlée

My husband’s favorite dessert (and one of mine) is creme brûlée. We had a really good creme brûlée a few weeks ago while away in Antigua, and I wanted to recreate it. While I had always been intimidated to try to make it, I took the plunge the other week! And it passed his taste test! Success!

What you will need: 

1 pint heavy cream 

1 tbsp vanilla bean paste 

3 large egg yolks 

¼ cup granulated sugar 

⅛ cup turbinado sugar

Directions
Preheat the oven to 325°F.

In a saucepan, add the heavy cream and vanilla bean paste. Bring to a light simmer for 5 minutes. Take off the heat and cool to room temperature for 30 minutes.

In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and granulated sugar until combined and lighter in color. 

Slowly add the cooled cream mixture, whisking constantly. 

Place 6 glass jars or ramekins in a large pan. Pour the mixture into the jars. Place the pan in the oven, then pour hot water into the bottom of the pan, enough so the water comes about halfway up the sides of the jars. 

Bake until set and just a little bit jiggly, 35 to 40 minutes. Remove the jars from the oven and let cool on the counter until they reach room temperature, then place the jars in the fridge for 2 hours to chill.

Evenly sprinkle the top of each jar with the turbinado sugar. Using a kitchen torch, or under the broiler, melt the sugar until it bubbles and turns dark golden brown. This will form a crunchy top. Let sit for a few minutes.

Enjoy!