As I have mentioned, I try to maintain as healthy a diet as I can during the week. However, the weekends are when we reward ourselves with sweets. This usually means I am experimenting with new recipes to bake up something delicious like the recipe that I have for you today.
Those fans of pineapple will go wild over this simple to create bar cookie. This has a pie like bottom crust with a gooey middle layer of pineapple topped with a fluffy meringue.
So when you need to indulge your sweet tooth, I do hope you'll give my recipe a shot because I think you'll love it!
My Fluffy Pineapple Bars
Cookie Dough:
2 sticks (1 cup) of margarine (not spread)
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons of vegetable shortening
3 egg yolks
2 teaspoons of baking powder
2 cups of flour
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/2 cup of milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla
Cookie Topping:
1 large can crushed pineapple (1 lb. 4 oz.)
3 tablespoons of cornstarch
5 tablespoons of sugar
Meringue Layer:
4 egg whites (3 egg whites work, but one more puffs it to new height like a cloud)
1/4 teaspoon of cornstarch
4 tablespoons of sugar
To prepare cookie dough:
Cream together margarine, sugar and shortening. Add egg yolks and continue beating until light and fluffy textured.
Sift together: flour, baking powder, and salt. Add milk and vanilla. Add this to the creamed mixture and beat until well combined. (This mixture will be very sticky!)
Lightly greased your baking pan (approximately 15 x 11 x 2") and bake this dough for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
To prepare the topping:
Cook topping ingredients until thickened and clear colored. Spread over your baked cookie-cake.
To prepare the meringue layer:
Beat the egg whites with cornstarch, add the sugar, a very little at a time. Adding too much at once can cause the meringue to fail.
Once the meringue is fluffy spread on top of the topping layer. Bake again for about 3 minutes or until the meringue is lightly browned.
Easter was always the time when my great-grandmother used to spend lots of time making her famous Easter bread. She had a giant mixing bowl in the largest size made and would crack lots of eggs, kneading that yellow sweet dough relentlessly getting it smooth and elastic until it suited her.
Those round holiday breads never lasted long despite how many extra she made. The only problem is if they did manage to survive without being eaten, then they got stale quickly since they contained no preservatives.
Although I loved the taste of my grandmother's Easter bread, I am not fond of extra work if it can be avoided. Now that the dear woman has passed, I still wanted to preserve this holiday tradition. Therefore, I began an extensive experimentation on similar sweet bread dough recipes that could compare to her own except with less effort.
To those doubters, I am happy to say that this recipe for raised sweet bread does remind me of those incredible rounds we enjoyed for Easter. Honestly, if you want a simple one that is delicious and stays fresher than my great-grandmother's recipe then I do hope you will try this for your own celebration.
I like to finish growing this in a 10-inch (12 cup tube) pan. By doing so, this makes a beautiful presentation on your holiday table.
My Favorite Easter Bread
4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/3 cup of sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons of salt
2 tablespoons of active dry yeast (2 packets)
1 cup of milk
1/4 cup of water
1/2 cup of canola oil
3 eggs, beaten
Combine 1-1/3 cups of flour, sugar, salt, and yeast in a large mixing bowl.
Heat your milk, water, and oil until very warm.
Slowly add this heated liquid to your mixing bowl with those measured dry ingredients while beating with your electric mixer. Scrape the sides and beat for about two minutes until well blended.
Beat in the eggs, one at a time and the rest of the flour. This will be stickier dough than a typical yeast dough on the order of a batter bread. Cover and let this rise in a warm spot until doubled about one hour or one hour and a half.
Take out your 10-inch (12-cup) tube pan, grease it well, and then transfer your dough with your wooden spoon into it. Cover and let this rise for about 30 minutes more so it can grow a bit longer.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes so it gets a golden brown. You can stab it with a long thin knife to make sure nothing sticks to it. However, this can cause it to break so be careful. Another hint is if you tap bread the sound that you hear should be hollow.
Let it cool in the pan for about five minutes and then remove and cool it on your wire rack.
Happy New Year! I am sending each and every one of you my sincere wish for only excellent health, happiness, success, love, and all the best that life has to offer for this upcoming year.
Today, I am making the traditional good luck foods of pork and sauerkraut. This year, I am adding some black-eyed peas since it is also rumored to help usher in good luck.
Though food will hardly change your fate, I think good luck traditions are important this one day of the year. Regardless of how our current lives are going, they allow us to keep that candle of hope burning through that childlike bit of magic within us instead of letting the problems of our current life extinguish it.
Therefore, I will serve those particular foods and with every bite, I will also be expecting a happier and more prosperous year than the last. So for this one day, I will be a child again and believe in magic and the power of my good luck pork, sauerkraut, and black-eyed peas to unleash only the best the universe has to offer.
If you hate pork, sauerkraut or black-eyed peas or think I am silly for doing so, I understand and do not take offense. In that case, I will share some of my good luck with YOU while I eat mine. After all, it is the least I can do to thank you for reading and letting me into your lives.
So keep smiling and do remember that you always have a friend here at Nuts 4 Stuff! I mean what I say and those words come from my heart because we all are searching for the same things from life.
Every year I resolve to exercise more especially adding leg lifts to my routine. I start out well and stick to the plan, but then I always seem to get sidetracked. This year, however, I am ready to give it another shot since I moved my full length mirror. Glancing at my whole less than perfect body should provide better motivation.
Strange how when I lose weight that I find it vanishes only from the top and not the legs. Why I am so lucky in that respect baffles me to no end. However, this year I am prepared to tune those puppies up once and for all.
I don't know how well this full mirror trick will work to keep me practicing those leg lifts. Nonetheless, it is what I'm going to try this year to help me shape up and tone my legs.
Do you have resolutions set for this new year? If so, tell me what they are and how you plan to go about it?
The holidays are the perfect time to try out new cookie recipes to share with family and friends. Over the years, I have discovered some incredible ones like the one I have for you today with my Chocolate Sea Foam Bars.
This is a rich chocolate bar that is not quite a brownie, but hardly just a meager cookie that is topped with a fluffy meringue and finely chopped pecans or walnuts.
I warn you that chocoholics will flock to the tray and have those bars gone before you finish serving the coffee so it's a good idea to bake a double batch of this recipe. After all, you don't want to disappoint the chocoholics and yourself from sampling these scrumptious delights!
My Chocolate Sea Foam Bars
1/2 cup of margarine (not spread)
1/2 cup of sugar
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1/3 cup of unsweetened cocoa
1 cup of sifted flour
2 egg whites
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup of finely chopped pecans or walnuts
1/8 teaspoon of salt
Cream the margarine with the sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks and vanilla and beat until well blended. Add cocoa sifted together with the flour and mix thoroughly. Spread mixture in the bottom of an ungreased 8 x 12-inch shallow pan.
Beat the egg whites with the salt until they hold soft peaks, adding brown sugar gradually until it forms a stiff meringue. Spread over the cookie dough and sprinkle with the finely chopped nuts.
Bake at 325 degrees for about 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cut into bars while still warm. Makes about two dozen depending on the size cut.
