Malted Milk Ball Blondies

Blondies made with malted milk powder and whopper candies.CourseDessertCuisineAmericanPrep Time15 minutesCook Time30 minutes0 minutesTotal Time45 minutesServings12 servingsCalories295kcalAuthorLeigh Anne Wilkes

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup butter softened
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 C malted milk powder
• 1 1/2 C crushed malted milk balls

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Grease 13 x 9 pan
• Beat butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar in large bowl until creamy
• Add eggs; beat well
• Stir together flour, malted milk powder, baking soda and salt; gradually add to butter mixture, blending well
• Spread into prepared pan
• Sprinkle with crushed malted milk balls.
• Bake 30-35 minutes or until top is golden brown and center is set
• Do not over-bake
• Cool completely in pan on wire rack
• Cut into bars

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Strawberry Fool

So who names a dessert Strawberry Fool?  The British do – that’s who.  I think it is because you’d be a fool not to eat it!

A fruit fool has been around for a good long time.  Wikipedia says since the mid-16th century!  It is traditionally a combination of pureed fruit and custard or cream.

I decided to use some those amazing strawberries that keep coming from my garden to try this dessert out.

I used 3 cups of strawberries.  I diced them up and then sprinkled them with sugar and let them sit for a bit.

I then pureed up one cup of the strawberries and left the other two cups diced.   Whip up some cream and mix together some plain Greek yogurt and brown sugar.

 All of this gets added in together and you’ve got magic!
Then grab a spoon and dig in or if you really must you can put it in some pretty dishes and share it with someone else.

I topped mine with a little bit more whipped cream and a Lorna Doone cookie.

Then after it is in a pretty bowl and you have shared with someone else, grab a spoon and dig it!
For other yummy strawberry desserts try these:

Servings4 -6 servingsAuthorLeigh Anne Wilkes

Ingredients

• 3 C strawberries diced
• 1/8 – 1/4 C sugar depending on how sweet your berries are
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/4 C brown sugar
• 1 1/4 C whipping cream whipped
• 8 oz. container of plain Greek yogurt

Instructions

• Combine strawberries with sugar in a bowl and allow to sit for 20-30 minutes
• Remove one cup of strawberries and blend in a blender or food processor.
• Add back in with the diced berries.
• Mix together brown sugar and yogurt and vanilla.
• Fold strawberry mixture into yogurt
• Whip cream and then fold into yogurt mixture.
• Refrigerate until ready to serve.
• Serve in a pretty dish.

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Popcorn Cake

My mother has fond memories of when she was a child and receiving popcorn cakes in the mail from her grandmother.  I grew up hearing about these popcorn cakes and have always been intrigued by the idea.  A cake made out of popcorn?  How could that be anything but delicious!  I have always wanted to make one.

When the theme for the month was polka dots I decided I wanted to do a recipe incorporating polka dots.  One of my favorite candy since I was a kid has been Sixlets.  They are the little round balls of chocolate that usually came in a plastic tube and you just popped them into your mouth right out of the tube.  Now Sixlets are available in lots of fun colors and I thought they were the perfect polka dots for my popcorn cake.  My great grandmother’s version used gum drops but I loved the idea of adding in a bit of chocolate!

So with the upcoming 4th of July holiday I decided to combine my desire to make a popcorn cake, my favorite polka dot shaped candy and the 4th of July in a patriotic polka dot popcorn cake!

The popcorn cake is basically one great big popcorn ball!

You cook up a mixture of marshmallows, sugar, butter and corn syrup.  It is cooked until it comes to a boil and then poured over the popped popcorn.

Stir to coat the popcorn and then press the popcorn into a buttered bundt pan.  I sprinkle the  polka dot candy into the popcorn as I go.  If you stir it into the popcorn the chocolate will begin to melt and the colors bleed into the popcorn so I prefer to just place them into the pan as I add the popcorn.

Since the popcorn is warm, use a piece of waxpaper and your hand to press the popcorn down into the pan so you have a nice compact layer.

Place the pan into the refrigerator or freezer for awhile to allow it to cool and set up.  It will be easier to remove from the pan this way.  After removing from the pan I push more of the candy into the top and sides of the cake.

To make the cake a little more patriotic and festive I added some little washi tape flags using straws.  I glued some more of the round polka dot candy to the top of the straws using my glue gun.

By changing out the color of your candy and your flags you could make this popcorn cake for any holiday or celebration.

AuthorLeigh Anne Wilkes

Ingredients

• 3/4 C light corn syrup
• 1/4 C butter
• 2 tsp cold water
• 2 3/4 C powdered sugar
• 1 C mini Marshmallows
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 20 C plain popped popcorn
• 1 – 1 1/2 C candy

Instructions

• In a pan, over medmium heat, combine corn syrup, butter, water, sugar and marshmallows. Heat and stir until it comes to a boil.
• Add in vanilla.
• Pour over popped popcorn and stir until thoroughly coated
• Grease a bundt pan
• Pour popcorn into pan and layer with candy (push down the sides of pan too) until pan is full.
• With a piece of wax paper press down on the top of the popcorn to push it down into pan for a compact layer of popcorn
• Place pan in refrigerator to cool and make it easier to remove from pan
• After removing from pan push more candy into the sides and top of the cake for desired effect.

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Strawberry Sorbet

It’s been a sweet treat week here on the blog. Strawberry season is still going strong around here so I’m taking advantage.  Usually one of the first things I make with the fresh Oregon strawberries is strawberry ice cream.  It is so yummy.  But this year my husband is on a diary free diet and ice cream is not dairy free.  But sorbet is!  So instead of fresh strawberry ice cream I made strawberry sorbet.

I can’t tell you how delicious this is.  My husband thought he had died and gone to heaven.  He has been so good on his gluten free/dairy free diet and done a great job of cutting out sugar too so this Strawberry Sorbet was a real treat for him! My husband is always very complimentary about everything I make but he couldn’t stop telling me how good this was!

The sorbet is a combination of fresh lemon and orange juice and fresh picked strawberries.  Of course there is some sugar in there too!

I pureed the strawberries in my blender and then added in the sugar/water and other juices.  Refrigerated it until it was nice and cold and then put it into my Cuisinart ice cream maker. If you don’t have an ice cream maker just place in a shallow container and freeze.

 The fresh strawberry taste is amazing.  My husband is in love!  With me and this strawberry sorbet and I bet you’ll love it too!

I know I’ll be making this Strawberry Sorbet a lot this summer if my husband has anything to do with it.

AuthorLeigh Anne Wilkes

Ingredients

• 2 C water
• 1 C sugar
• 4 C strawberries hulled
• 1/3 C fresh orange juice
• 1/3 C fresh lemon juice

Instructions

• Stir together water and sugar in saucepan and place over medium high heat until sugar dissolves.
• Boil for 5 minutes.
• Puree strawberries in blender or food processor until smooth
• Add strawberry puree, lemon juice and orange juice together into sugar syrup.
• Stir to combine.
• Cover and refrigerate until cold, approximate 2 hours
• Process mixture in ice cream maker or place in a shallow container and freeze until set.

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Fresh Strawberry Milkshake

We’ve got a bumper crop of strawberries this year in our garden.  More than we’ve ever had before and we’re loving it.  Just about every other day we’ve got a bowl full like this!
So the other day I asked on Facebook for some suggestions on what to make with all my strawberries and you had some great ideas.  I decided to go with a fresh strawberry milkshake.

Here in the NW we have a local burger franchise called Burgerville and every May/June they have fresh strawberry shakes that are amazing.  I wait all year for those delicious shakes like a lot of other Northwesterners.   Well I no longer have to make a trip to Burgerville.  I can make a fresh strawberry shake at home that is just as good (if not better!)  And it doesn’t get much fresher than a milkshake made with strawberries from my own back yard!

The strawberry shake is ice cream, milk, strawberries and I also throw in a couple of Tablespoons of sugar for good measure.

Then just mix it up in the blender and add some whipped cream on top, a strawberry for garnish and a straw.

Then all that is left to do is enjoy!

Creamy strawberry milkshake made with vanilla ice cream and fresh strawberries.

CourseDessert

CuisineAmerican

Prep Time10minutes minutes

Cook Time0minutes minutes

0minutes minutes

Total Time10minutes minutes

Servings2 servings

Calories376kcal

AuthorLeigh Anne Wilkes

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 C fresh strawberries
• 2 C vanilla ice cream
• 1/4 C milk add more to thin out the milkshake if desired.
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

Instructions

• Put all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth.
• Enjoy!

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