Seriously Delicious Raspberry Ricotta Cake (or rhubarb)

Seriously Delicious Raspberry Ricotta Cake 

Bon Appetit's cake is rated over 1000 times with a 4 1/2 stars and a whopping 97% said "I'd make it again" so I had to try it.  Kendall had brought me some homemade ricotta and I didn't want it to go to waste and I had some rhubarb that I wanted to use so I put the two together and I am obsessed with making it again!  Add me to the list.  It's more of an European coffee cake texture and not overly sweet, just perfectly sweet.  I hope this encourages you to try making this cake and use any kind of fruit you like.
I also added a crunchy nut topping for good measure.

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups ricotta
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries, blackberries or 2 cups sliced fresh or frozen rhubarb

Preheat oven to 350. Line a 9 inch cake pan with parchment paper or spray it with nonstick spray.

Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in large bowl.

Whisk eggs, ricotta, and vanilla in a medium bowl until smooth then fold in the butter. Fold into the dry ingredients just until blended followed by the raspberries or other fruit, taking care not to crush the berries. Scrape batter into prepared pan and put additional berries on top if you would like or add;

Crunchy Topping.  Melt 2 tablespoons butter add 1/3 cup rolled oats, 1/3 cup chopped pecans and 2 tablespoons flour together and sprinkle on top of cake before baking.

Bake for 50 minutes, check to see if its done and probably bake 10-15 minutes more.  This cake looks brown at 50 minutes but it needs to be a little dryer, because the fruit is moist, before you take it out of the oven so it doesn't fall. 

Serve warm or cold, it doesn't matter because it still tastes delicious!

Cherry Nut Coffee Cake

1 cup sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 eggs room temperture
1 cup sour cream

Topping:
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 16 ounce jar Maraschino cherries,
         drained and cut into small pieces
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Grease and flour a flat bottomed tube pan or bundt pan.  In a large bowl, mix together sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, butter and eggs.  Fold in sour cream.  Pour or spoon 1/2 batter into pan and smooth with a spatula. Mix topping ingredients of sugar, pecans, cherries and cinnamon: sprinkle 1/2 topping mixture over batter in pan.  Pour remaining batter into pan.  Sprinkle with remaining topping.  Bake at 375 degrees for 30-45 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
10-12 servings

This luscious coffee cake from the Creme de Colorado cookbook, will typically have a cracked top and a delicate pink color.  You can glaze cooled cake with a thin frosting made with powdered sugar, butter and a little milk thin enough to be able to pour it in thin lines over top of cake.

Breakfast Cassarole

9x13 sprayed pan
1-2 lbs sausage cooked and crumbled, 1 lb shredded cheese, cheddar or what ever you have
3/4 of a loaf of cheap white bread cubed
Mix the above ingredients together in pan.

Then mix the bellow ingredients and pour over bread mixture.

12 eggs 

3 cups milk
1tsp dry mustard
Pepper

Cover and refridgerate over night.
Bake uncovered at 350 for 1 hour.

Mushroom sauce
2 cups sliced mushrooms sauteed in a pan.
Then add 1 tablespoon butter and melt and 1 tablespoon flour and mix.

Then whisk in 2 cups half and half and cook on med-low until thickened.
Serve sauce in gravy bout and pour on individual piece of cassarole as desired.

Homemade Yogurt

2 quarts whole milk
half cup of plain yogurt with live active cultures

Put the milk in an enameled cast iron pot with a lid, and over medium low heat bring it to 160 degrees.Turn off the heat and wait for the milk to cool to 110 degrees.

In a separate bowl mix the plain yogurt with a cup full of the warm milk, stir until liquefied then add the mixture back into warm milk. Put the lid on the pan and place in oven with the light on. Leave in oven for 6-8 hours or overnight.

If you want thicker yogurt, Greek yogurt, you can strain the yogurt through a thin dish cloth. The left over liquid is great to use for making homemade bread, it makes it super moist!

Las Vegas Temple Rolls

1 1/2 quarts hot water (180 degrees)

1 1/2 cups sugar

4 T fast-rising yeast

1/2 cup potato flakes (not potato pearls)

1 cup powdered milk

4 eggs

2 T salt

5 lbs or 16 cups flour divided

1 cup oil

Mix together the hot water, sugar, and yeast, let stand until bubbly.

Add the potatoes, powdered milk, eggs, salt, and five cups flour. When all of these ingredients are mixed together then add the oil and five more cups of flour and mix until combined.

Then add the remaining 5 to six cups of flour one cup at a time until the dough cleans the side of the bowl. Beat just until the dough is smooth.

You want the dough to be as moist as possible. It is better to error or the side of too wet and then add more flour when you pour the dough out on the counter.

Let the dough rise until double in size and then punch it down.

For Dinner Rolls, divide dough into 3 equal portions. Roll dough into a large rectangle about a 1/2 inch thick. Using a pizza slicer cut the dough in half long ways and then slice the dough the opposite way into 14 strips. Then take each strip and tie it into a not.

For sweet rolls, divide dough into 3 portions, and roll into rectangles, like dinner rolls and then mix below ingredients into a paste and spread over, roll and cute!

Paste for cinnamon rolls-

1 lb butter

2 cups brown sugar

2 Tbsp cinnamon

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 - 18 minutes.

Rhubarb Brunch Cake

This is another great "Ivy" recipe from our time in Nauvoo.  It's by far the best place to eat in the area, it's in Fort Madison, and we go there as often as possible.  Fort Madison is so popular that Natalie bought a dog in Fort Madison and named it Madison and gave it to Lisa.  This was my favorite this year, and yes it includes rhubarb.

Cake
1 stick butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups flour
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups sliced rhubarb
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup chopped pecans

Sauce
1 stick butter
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream butter and sugar in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy.  Add next six ingredients and then stir in rhubarb.  Pour into a greased 9 x 13-inch glass pan.  Sprinkle with brown sugar and pecans.  Bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Combine all the sauce ingredients together in a saucepan and cook over low heat until sugar dissolves.  Let cake cool for about 10 minutes and then pour sauce over top of cake.  Serve warm.
Makes 12 to 15 servings.

I would make this for a dessert but would be good for brunch also.  We also had it the second time we went with rhubarb and blackberries.

Almond Puffs

1/2 cup butter
1 cup flour
2 Tbsp water
2 Tbsp sugar
Cut butter into flour and sugar, sprinkle water over mixture, stir with a fork and round into a ball. Divide in half and pat into 2 strips about 1/4 inch thick and 4 inches by 8 inches on ungreased cookie sheet.

1/2 cup butter
dash of salt
1 cup water
1 cup flour
1Tbsp almond extract
3 eggs
In a saucepan heat to boiling: 1/2 cup butter, a dash of salt, and 1 cup water. Remove from heat and stir in 1 cup flour and 1 Tbsp almond extract. Stir over low heat until ball forms. Remove from heat and beat in 3 eggs, one at a time, until smooth.

Divide in half and spread over both strips and bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Cool and spread with powdered sugar icing and sprinkle with sliced almonds.

Icing
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 Tbsp butter
1 1/2 tsp almond extract
2 Tbsp milk, half and half, or cream


Variations
I like make to make the batter into 4 strips instead of 2, otherwise they are quite large.

I also have substitiued some of the regular flour for almond flour for the crust. I would do 1/3 almond flour to 2/3 regular flour.

Fruit Soup (Shirley Hale)

10 oranges
5 grapefruits
1 medium jar Marciano cherries
4 kiwis (optional)
1 can pineapple tidbits(optional)
2 bananas (optional)

Orange Juice to taste

Cut tops and bottoms off of oranges and grapefruit. Remove remaining peel with a knife and segment fruit into a large bowl. Discard pith (membrane). Add can of pineapple including juice, and drained cherries into bowel. If you want more sauce with your fruit add orange juic, about 1 to 2 cups. Chill in refrigerator until ready to eat. Right before serving add sliced bananas and kiwi.

Shirley Hale's Variation

2 cups simple syrup instead of sugar (recipe to follow)

omit pineapple, kiwi, bananas, and orange juice

Simple Syrup

1 ½ cups sugar
1cup water

Combine water and sugar in a saucepan. Cook over med-low heat until dissolved, stirring occasionally. Set aside to cool.

JoAnn Hickman's Variation

Sugar to taste

Orange juice to taste

juice from Marciano cherries

Lucy Hickman's Variation

1 tsp grenadine syrup

2 or 3 TBS of sugar

juice of 1 lime

*This recipe origanated with Shirley Hale and has been adopted by JoAnn, Lucy, and other Hickman family members as a favorite Christmas time treat!

Bread Pudding French Toast (A La Stoneridge)

1 loaf French, Italian, or Challah bread, cubed

cinnamon

12 eggs

1 1/2 cups milk (whole is best)

1 1/2 t vanilla

1 heaping t butterscotch instant pudding mix

1 cup light brown sugar

1 stick butter melted

2 T maple or corn syrup

dash of nutmeg

1/2 t cinnamon

Place bread cubes in a sprayed 9x13 baking dish. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Combine eggs, milk, vanilla and pour over top of bread cubes. Combine remaining ingredients and sprinkle on top of soaked bread. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Bake uncovered at 350 for 40-45min.

Serves 8. If you need to hold for any length of time, be sure to cover with foil so the top doesn't get too dry. Serve with a sprinke of confectioners' sugar and warm maple syrup.