Switching gears…. Easter is really early this year. Or at least it feels earlier than normal. I don’t recall it usually being this close to St. Patrick’s Day. At any rate, as with so many holidays, I feel the need to make something. As if I ever need an excuse, right? So this year’s Easter season is starting off with these Cardamom Carrot Cake Oatmeal Nut Cookies. They might be healthy, if it weren’t for the 3 sticks of butter and the almond candies. They are delicious and the nests actually turned out quite cute.
Desserts
Despite the fact that I am in snowy New England it’s February, here is a little bit of tropical sunshine to warm you up, still on the topic of “Citrus” : Coconut Key Lime Pie Cheesecake, that I made as a birthday present for a friend whilst I am visiting up in the Bangor/Orono, Maine area. I have to say that the result came out phenomenal. It’s light, it’s fluffy, it’s sweet and tart, and has a lovely, clean finish. Almost all cheesecakes are quite a bit of work but the result here was great. I am very pleased.
Well, a couple of days late and likely a few dollars short for Valentines Day, but here is the next thing for “Citrus week” — Lemon Mini-Heart Cakelettes. I had actually planned to make them with a raspberry swirl in the frosting, but that didn’t work out as planned. The whole reason for these was actually trying out my new “heartlet” plan. I found it at the local ACE hardware, but they are available off Amazon too. I was actually afraid that the little tarts wouldn’t release well from the cast iron, but turned out well. I’ll have to try mini-mini pies next.
We’re on to week 4 of the Ingredient Game Challenge. Up this week, filled pastas/noodles and dumplings. I guess that isn’t really an ingredient per se, but a theme or topic, but nevertheless, lots of ideas to choose from — Italian (ravioli, manacotti), central and eastern European (maultaschen, pierogi) and Asian (dumplings, wonton, gyoza, shumai, har gow), Just to name a few! And I purposefully picked this as the week where dumplings could play a roll, given Lunar New Year. I can’t wait to see what you all come up with.
First up for me: Hazelnut-Nutella Ravioli, Chocolate Sauce! Surpised? Yes, I thought that I would throw in an odd-ball right at the beginning. Dessert Ravioli! Totally decadent lunch actually. I might need a sugar-coma nap later, or at least some energy to go for a decent walk!
Banoffee Waffles: Banana Cream, Salted Caramel + Toffee Crunch
One more stop on the Banana ingredient in this little ingredient game that we are up to this winter: Banoffee Waffles, with Banana Cream, Salted Caramel + Toffee Crunch. I hadn’t actually intended to make these — I thought maybe Banoffee Doughnuts, but then I didn’t want to wait for yeast to do it’s thing so I went with these instead. They are sweet — between the pudding cream layer, the salted caramel and the toffee bits, this will definitely send you to sugar overload. I even intentionally made the waffles and whipped cream fairly neutral to cut the sweetness. Maybe better as a dessert than a breakfast thing. They are delicious, just very sweet, so if that is your thing…