The Basics

This month has been a whirlwind between school starting and dance/clubs/after school activities beginning. Below are three recipes for a simple fruit coulis, whipped cream, and glaze that you can use to customize future recipes on this blog or recipes from other sites.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fruit Coulis: A coulis is a pureed fruit sauce that is delicious on ice cream and waffles.

*A coulis can be made with any fruit you'd like, such as peaches or raspberries.

1. Put your chosen fruit into a pot with a splash of juice/water and turn the heat up to medium low. Once the fruit looks soft and mushy add a tablespoon of white sugar into the pot and stir it in. 

2. Once the sugar is stirred in and the fruit is mushy and soft pour the fruit into a blender and puree the compote until the compote forms a thick silky sauce. If you don't want seeds in your sauce strain the puree until all seeds have fled the sauce.
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Whipped Cream: You can jazz up your whipped cream by adding an exciting extract or a citrus zest. You also can add a couple of drops of your fruit coulis to make a fruity whipped cream.

1. Put 1 cup of heavy cream, 1 tablespoon of white sugar, and 1 tablespoon of extract into a bowl and begin to mix it using a electric hand mixer/stand mixer. Once the cream forms peaks stop mixing and place in the fridge until ready to use.
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Glaze: You can jazz up your glaze by substituting water with juice.

1. Mix juice/water and powdered sugar until you start to form a semi-thick silky sauce.

Mini S'mores

My dad is currently building a tiny house and I love seeing my bedroom (the size of my bed), our kitchen where I hope to eventually cook and bake, and the overall progress of the house itself. The tiny house inspired me to make these mini s'mores! Instead of going all the way up to the tiny house to make s'mores on the campfire here's a recipe you can make right in your own kitchen... 

Ingredients

1 cup of milk chocolate chips

1/4 cup of heavy cream

1 package of graham crackers

1/2 cup of marshmallow fluff

And that's it! :)

Directions

1. Put your chocolate chips in a bowl. Heat your cream until just boiling and pour the hot cream over your chocolate chips. Mix the cream and chocolate together until combined and let sit until it is a spreadable consistency.*Ganache.

2. While your chocolate is sitting, break your graham crackers into fourths. *You may need more than one package of graham crackers if all of the crackers in your pack are broken.

3. Start to build your mini s'mores... 4. Spread your chocolate ganache on one of your two graham crackers. 5. On the other graham cracker spread the marshmallow fluff. 6. Place the two graham crackers together and set the finished s'mores on a baking sheet to cool for 5 minutes. 7. When the 5 minutes are up, dip the bottoms of your s'mores into your chocolate spread you made earlier. 6. Let the chocolate spread cool before serving.

"Mini Desserts from your Mini Blogger..."

Blueberry Cobbler Tartlets

Blueberries are New Jersey's State Fruit, my home. Sweet, tart, and juicy, they are perfect for desserts. Ironically I wasn't in New Jersey when I first picked them. I wasn't even in the country! I was in Germany visiting my grandparents. I remember the blueberries being enormous and my grandmother making a delicious cake from them.

I tried to recreate the feeling of blueberry picking with my grandparents in one bite. Graham cracker crust, blueberry raspberry compote filling, and sweet crumble on top, these Blueberry Cobbler inspired tartlets remind me of the beautiful scenery of Germany.

Ingredients

1/2 pound of blueberries

1/2 pound of raspberries

3 teaspoons of white sugar (compote)

1 tablespoon of fruit juice

3 cups of crushed graham crackers

1/2 cup white sugar (crust)

12 tablespoons of butter, melted (crust)

1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup white sugar (crumble)

4 tablespoons of butter, diced (crumble)

Directions

To make filling: 1. Put berries in a pot on the stove with your fruit juice (I use orange) on medium low heat.

2. Stir until berries become soft and then take the pot off the heat to cool.

3. Puree the filling and cool in fridge.

To make the crust: 1.Crush graham crackers in a plastic bag until there are no big pieces and put into a bowl.

2. Add in the melted butter, sugar, and cinnamon. Stir until all combined.

To make the crumble: 1. Mix flour and sugar.2. Fork in your cold diced butter.
Assembling: Press graham cracker crumbs firmly into muffin tins to form a crust. Bake for 5 minutes at a 350 degree oven. Once cooled, fill your baked crusts with your compote filling and top with crumble. Bake for 10 minutes and let cool before taking the pies out of the muffin tin.

You can serve this pie hot or cold. Delicious with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top!

"Mini Desserts from your Mini Blogger..."