CARAMEL PEAR UPSIDE DOWN CAKE FOR VALENTINES DAY

I hope you will consider making this Caramel Pear Upside-Down Cake for your Valentine Sweetheart. Served warm with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream, it will knock his/her socks off.

There are a lot of different steps to this recipe, but none of them are hard to do. 

Preheat your oven to 350F and spray a 9" x 2" cake pan with vegetable spray. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper and then spray it again.

FRUIT LAYER
2 large firm-ripe Bosc pears (about 1 pound)
1 cup white sugar
1/4 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 cup cold water
4 tablespoons warm butter (cut up)

Peel, core and slice the pears in 1/4" slices. Arrange them in the bottom of the prepared pan and set aside. 

In a heavy bottomed 2-quart saucepan, mix the sugar, lemon juice and cold water together. Gently boil and stir until it starts to turn amber (watch carefully because once it starts to turn color, it will darken fast). 

When it turns a nice caramel color, remove from heat and stir in the butter (it will really foam and sputter, so be careful). Mix well then pour over the pear slices and set aside while you make the cake batter.

CAKE BATTER

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup whole milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup butter (room temperature)

1 cup packed light brown sugar

2 large eggs

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In a small bowl, mix flour, baking powder, ginger and cinnamon together, set aside. In a different small bowl, mix milk and vanilla extract, set aside for now.

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With electric mixer, beat the room temperature butter for one minute, or until it is light and fluffy; add brown sugar and beat on high for 3 minutes. Reduce speed and add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each egg. Make sure you scrape down the sides of the bowl once in a while.

Next you need to add the small bowl (of flour mixture) to the butter mixture, ALTERNATELY, with the small bowl (of milk mixture) dry, then milk, then dry, then milk, does that make sense? Spoon the finished cake batter over the caramel-pears.

Bake at 350F for 35 to 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Remove from oven and let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes before you invert it onto a serving plate and peel off the parchment paper. 

Happy Valentines Day!!

NOTE: Do not use a springform pan because the caramel sauce might leak out.

NOTE: Bosc pears are a "baking pear".

PEANUT BUTTER PUDDING

I set out to "invent" a great and unique "kid pudding". I collected all of the pudding recipes from my recipe box and started combining and tweaking them .... I wanted the richness from this one ...the consistency from that one ...the sweetness from yet another one... and went to work with my picky-picky husband as my Guinea pig taste tester. After several tries, old picky-picky gave me that "pudding face smile" and two thumbs up.  He said, "THIS one is a keeper!!"

Whether you want plain peanut butter pudding, or peanut butter pudding with bananas, or even peanut butter pudding with chocolate, it's all good.  

This pudding is rich, creamy, 

peanut butter-y 
and oh so easy to make!!

2/3 cup dark brown sugar

2 level tablespoons of corn starch

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 3/4 cups whole milk (I've used 2% in a pinch)

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a saucepan that has a heavy bottom, whisk together the brown sugar, corn starch and salt. This step helps the cornstarch from clumping-lumping when you add the liquid.

After the sugar, cornstarch and salt are whisked together, slowly add the milk and cream. Stir to make sure everything is mixed well.

Bring to a boil, over medium high heat, stirring constantly. When this mixture gets nice and thick, add the peanut butter and whisk until it is totally melted and pudding just starts to boil again, (takes about 30 more seconds). Remove from heat and add vanilla extract, mix well.

Note: If you want a SILKY SMOOTH "mouth feel", put this pudding through a strainer after it's done and still hot.  This isn't necessary, but it REALLY makes a wonderful difference.

Pour into a pretty serving dish (or individual dishes) and lay plastic wrap directly on top of the hot pudding (make sure the plastic is actually touching the pudding) so a "skin" doesn't form on the pudding as it cools.  Chill for 

2-3 hours or overnight.

What a great recipe for ANY
kids birthday party!!

ENJOY !!!

CLASSIC CHERRY PIE - THE BEST!!!!

If you follow my blog regularly, you know that I enjoy combining recipes to get an end result that suits my family. That's what I did with this cherry pie recipe.

The first cherry pie recipe I tried tasted OK, but there was a watery liquid in the bottom of the pie that separated from the filling...not a good thing.

Next, I tried a recipe that used flour as a thickener, but it left a cloudy filling ... not what I wanted.

Next, I tried tapioca to thicken the filling and it eliminated the cloudy fruit filling problem, but it was hard to gauge just how much tapioca was enough and how much was too much; it also produced inconsistent results...not good.

So, as usual, I took a little bit of this recipe and added it to that recipe and then threw in a couple of my own ideas and came up with today's recipe. I served it on Father's Day and picky-picky husband actually said  "This is THE best cherry pie I've ever eaten!!"  After I picked myself up off of the floor (not literally, lol) , I knew I had a winner!!!

 

 

The filling is sweet and the crust is unbelievably flaky and delicious.  Some people freak out with a pie crust that uses shortening, however, not only does shortening produce a flakier crust, but it has HALF of the saturated fat of butter!! NOTE: I always use butter flavored Crisco in my crusts.

CHERRY PIE FILLING

(2) 14-ounce cans unsweetened tart pie cherries
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar DIVIDED
4 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons corn starch
pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon almond extract (do not leave out)
2 teaspoons butter, room temperature

Drain the cherries but SAVE THE LIQUID. Put one cup of the liquid into a heavy saucepan with the corn starch, salt and HALF OF THE SUGAR, mix well.

Bring this mixture to a boil, while stirring, and cook until it gets VERY THICK (only takes a minute or so once it starts to boil...(keep stirring fast).

Remove from heat and stir in the butter, almond extract and the OTHER HALF OF THE SUGAR, mix well.  Gently fold in the drained cherries.  Let cool while you make the pie crust.

 

This is the all time best pie crust I have EVER made, and I've made tons of them.  This dough handles beautifully (no need to chill the dough!!!) and makes either 3 single crusts or a large 2 crust pie with some left over. Everyone I've served this crust to is wild about it.

PIE CRUST

4 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups butter flavored Crisco shortening
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup ice cold water

Cut the shortening into the flour with a pastry cutter (or a couple of forks) until the shortening is about half the size of a green pea.

Mix the sugar, salt, egg, vanilla and ice water together, until well mixed, then add it all to the flour-shortening mixture. Work it with your hands until everything comes together in a big ball. Try to do this fairly quickly so that the heat of your hands doesn't melt the shortening. No need to chill this dough.

Roll out a bottom crust, on a floured counter, to fit a 9" pie pan.  Put the cherry filling into the bottom crust and then brush the edges of the crust with a little egg white that has a few drops of water whisked into it (this will help "glue" the bottom crust to the top crust).

Roll out a top crust, on a floured counter, and lay it over the filled bottom crust.  Cut off the extra dough that hangs over the rim of the pie plate (see note). Pinch the top and bottom crust edges together (or use a fork). 

After you have pinched the two crusts together, brush the top pie crust with more of the egg white wash (the same that you used to "glue" the edges ) and then sprinkle the whole surface, lightly, with granulated sugar.

Cut several small vent holes in the top crust.  Bake in 375 preheated oven for 35 to 45 minutes or until the crust is golden brown (I usually leave it in for 45 minutes). COOL PIE COMPLETELY BEFORE CUTTING.

 

NOTE: When you are trimming the excess unbaked crust from around the rim of the pie pan, leave it just a little long so that you can tuck under the edge before you pinch the pie edge closed.

NOTE: I put my pies on a cookie sheet before they go into the oven. It catches anything that might spill over.