The Good Plate

Archive for the ‘Gifts’ Category

Cream Cheese Stuffed Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

Recipes in This Post

• How to Temper Chocolate
• Cheesecake Stuffed Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

The other day, when I was perusing Pinterest, I came across something that looked fabulous. It was strawberries stuffed with cream cheese, and it was called Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries. I pinned it, and decided it would make a nice treat for the kids in Spane’s class going to the Planetarium field trip. Last year, I made White Chocolate Rum Raisin Cookies for Mrs. Mary’s class when we went to The Natural Science Museum.

I lucked out, and strawberries were Buy One box, Get One Free. There are 24 kids in Spane’s class, plus the teacher, and possibly one or two more parents who, like me, volunteered to go on the trip to help with the children. There were enough strawberries, with a few extra for the house.

I decided to change the original recipe a little and dip the strawberries in chocolate. All the recipes on the Internet tell you to add shortening to the chocolate to temper it. I don’t like shortening, and I knew that I had dipped strawberries before without it. Of course, looking in The Joy of Cooking, I found that I didn’t need shortening at all, just a candy thermometer, that I have a nice glass one with a clip. There are instructions later in this post about how to do this.

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Rose Fudge Truffles and Black Forest Fudge

Recipes in this Post

• Rose Fudge
• Black Forest Fudge

It’s my birthday, and I can make anything I want to! It’s also Founder’s Night at my son Spane’s school, so I thought I should bring something to liven up the festivities. I got up early this morning and make two kinds of fudge, Rose Fudge and Black Forest Fudge. As of this writing, there are no pictures, but there will be as soon as it sets.

I love the flavor of roses, there is nothing like it. I have some rose syrup that I often put in lemonade, and love roses with peaches. What could be better in fudge?

One of my favorite cakes is a Sour Cherry Fudge cake, and I’m making that for my birthday cake (more later), so I decided to take that to the candy level as well.

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I really like giving stuff I made in my kitchen to my friends, neighbors, and Spane’s school. So, this year I decided that I was going to give out some of the fudge and cookies that the kids made at the Kid’s Christmas Party on Saturday.

Life has been hectic since then, and Spane really wanted to help me to decorate the Roll Out Cookies. Today was also the last day of school before the winter break, a perfect opportunity to give his teacher and the front office some nice treats.

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Today is the 17th of December, in the year of our Lord, 2011. My friend Valencia had emailed me about having her child come for a sleep over a few weeks ago. Spane then came to me and asked if his other friend could sleep over. Then Spane and Noelle started practicing Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer at the park, and the idea sparked in my head to have a kid’s Christmas party.

So, today we’re baking and making candy. I’m writing down the recipes on cards that I’ll give to the children so we won’t have to do anything with the computer except take pictures.

Here’s what we’re going to make:

• Fudge -
  • Peppermint Fudge
  • Cappuccino Fudge
  • Fruity Fudge
• Cookies -
  • White Chocolate Cherry Almond Cookies
  • Roll Out Cookies

Before we get cooking, here’s a little entertainment for you. Presenting Mr. Leo, Mr. Spane, and Miss Noelle doing their rendition of Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer. Amber and I are backup singers (seriously, we’re off camera).

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On September 24, 2011, I gave you the recipe for the Shabby Chic Apple Raisin Crostata, but it did not have any pictures. That crostata was so good I decided to make another one, but this time, I got a combination of raisins and dried cranberries, and instead of pie dough, I bought ready made frozen puff pasty.

This was my first time working with puff pastry, other than making Chicken Cordon Bleu a la Wellington, so this was more of an experiment that anything else. I had enough dough and filling to make a turnovers, too, but, I wasn’t paying attention, and they got a little over cooked. No problem, the others turned out fine, and the over done ones will still get eaten.

Let’s start cooking:

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I am sorry we have no pictures of the Rum Balls. It was really hot in Glendale on Wednesday, September 7, 2011, that as I formed the balls, they immediately started to flatten, so I had Rum Pancakes instead. I’ll make them again when it’s cooler and take pictures.

On Tuesday, my local Ralph’s had Oreos on sale, 2 packages for $5.00, so I bought one to eat with milk, and one to make rum balls. I also got a package of Duncan Hines Fudge Frosting.

Oh, the humanity! Some of you are saying this I am sure, but that’s okay. Rum Balls are made at bakeries from cake remnants, so using packaged cookies and packaged frosting I think is still okay. Even though my Rum Balls got flat, after they were refrigerated, they were still very rich and good.

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