Coconut Pecan Frosting

I'm feeling lazy today so I'll share the recipe for Bourban Dinner Rolls tomorrow (it's not a complicated recipe but I have to type in the whole thing). Instead I'll share a quick frosting recipe to go with the chocolate cake from yesterday. This is a really easy recipe and will taste like it took forever to make.

Coconut Pecan Frosting
1 cup sugar
1 cup evaporated milk, half-and-half, or heavy cream
3 large egg yolks
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 1/3 cups flaked sweetened dried coconut
1 1/3 cups chopped pecans
Combine sugar, milk, egg yolks, and butter in a medium saucepan. Cook, stirring constantly, over medium heat until the mixture is thickened and bubbling gently around the edges. Reduce the heat to low and cook, stirring for 1 to 2 minutes more. Remove from heat and stir in the coconut and pecans. Let cool until spreadable. This keeps, refrigerated, for about 1 week. Soften before using.
Alt ingredients - 1 can sweetened condensed milk, 3 egg yolks, ½ cup butter, 1 t vanilla, 1 1/3 cup coconut, 1 cup chopped pecans.

Devil's Food Cake

After reading Joanne Fluke's Devil's Food Cake Murder, I had my husband copy some recipes before sending it back to the library. Not knowing that there were several pages to each recipe, he copied the pages and away the book went. This weekend when I decided to make her Devil's Food Cake recipe I discovered I had the list of ingredients and the first little bit of instructions. I believe this cake had multiple layers to it but what I got was still a decent chocolate cake. It was denser than I expected and think I will use AP flour instead of cake flour next time.
I had to guess on the cooking time but it came out nicely, I also used a 9x13 pan and I believe the recipe is for round pans so that you can make layers.

Devil's Food Cake
1 cup water
3/4 cups butter (or Nucoa)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 oz unsweetened chocolate (I used 3 TB cocoa powder and 1 TB oil)
1 teas instant coffee or espresso
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 teas baking soda
1/4 teas baking powder
1/2 cup unsweeted cocoa powder
2 eggs at room temp (set in hot water while preparing ingredients if cold)
2 teas vanilla
3 cups cake flour or 2 1/2 cups AP flour
Combine water, butter, 1/2 cup white sugar and brown sugar in saucepan. Break up chocolate into pan. Heat on Med High heat until chocolate and butter melt. Remove from heat and add instant coffee. Let cool.
Prepare 2 9"round pans or 1 9x13 pan by oiling and flouring the pan.
In a large bowl or mixer, mix 1 1/2 cups white sugar, baking soda, baking powder and cocoa. Mix in eggs and vanilla. Alternate liquid from saucepan with flour. Mix until combined. Pour into pan and bake at 350.
For 9x13 pan bake 35 - 45 minutes, 2 9" rounds should be checked at 25 minutes and baked until center is firm (test with toothpick - if it comes out clean, cake is done).
We frosted with peanut butter frosting. When I get the book back I will double check her instructions against the ones I made up and see if there's anything I should change and I will share her frosting recipe for the cake.

Egg Fu Yung

For me, Egg Fu Yung is not really a recipe but more a concoction. It's an asian inspired omelet that is served with a sauce. I use almond sauce and add a little more soy sauce to taste. The sauce is salty which goes well with the eggs and veggies. You can make the omelets in pancake form or like scrambled eggs depending on your mood.

Egg Fu Yung

2 eggs per person
vegetables - bean sprouts, onions, peas, corn, carrots - whatever (canned, fresh or frozen).

Scramble eggs in a bowl. Pour a pancake sized amount into hot oiled skillet. Top with veggies and let cook until partially set. Flip and cook until completely set and browned.
Serve with sauce.

I like sauted onions so I sauted the onions. Mixed six eggs with 1/3 of a can of peas and 1/3 can of corn (drained). When the onions were how I liked them then I poured over the eggs and scrambled the whole thing. The flavor is nearly the same but it's not firm while the pancake method actually makes something that can be eaten by hand.

Almond Sauce
2 tbs. butter
1 cup milk
1 tbs. cornstarch
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1 tbs. soy sauce
1 tsp. onion powder
Almonds, chopped
Melt butter in sauce pan. Add cornstarch to cold milk. Add to butter with other ingredients except almonds. Heat until thick over medium heat. Top with almonds.

(Omit the almonds if desired for the eggs)

Homemade Chocolate Syrup

Making your own chocolate syrup is almost easier than buying chocolate syrup. One thing I have learned, however, is that this is not a recipe that does well when doubled or tripled. I think the sugar doesn't dissolve enough or something because when I attempted to triple the recipe it turned out gritty and not very good. I love this recipe because it is simple. It comes out just like Hershey's syrup so it's great on ice cream but makes great chocolate milk. You end up with about 1 cup of syrup with this recipe and it stores easily in a glass jar in the fridge.

Chocolate Syrup
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
Boil water. Add cocoa and sugar. Heat until dissolved, stirring constantly.

Easy Drop Cookies

Rarely do I come across a recipe that I have to rush home and make. There are some out there that I dream about or crave but usually they are complicated beautiful recipes that I will probably never make. This one was an exception. After reading about this recipe on Mystery Lover's Kitchen Blog, I started planning it out. I knew I had the ingredients but I was sure I would only have 1/2 cup of chocolate chips. This recipe halved so easily that I think it will be our new favorite cookie.
It's so easy and takes a minute to throw together. The only disadvantage to this recipe is it requires sitting in the oven overnight. It was worth it. I wasn't sure how it was going to work but it did. This morning we had crisp chocolatey cookies sitting in our oven when last night there was chocolate chips and nuts covered with raw egg white. (I ended up skipping the salt because I forgot to add it)
Most people who bake should easily have these ingredients in their pantry. I think this will be fun to try with different chips and a variety of nuts.
Half this recipe made 8 cookies but I think I could have gotten 9 nice cookies since the dough does spread a little.

Easy Drop Cookies
2 egg whites, beaten
2/3 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup chopped nuts
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients and drop by teaspoons on foil-covered baking sheet. Put cookies in the oven and turn the oven off. Let the cookies stay in overnight or for five hours.

Caramel-Pecan Sauce

This is a great easy sauce for desserts. I still haven't had time to do much baking this week but I just found an easy cookie recipe that I might be trying tonight to share with you tomorrow. We're changing routines from summer to school and that always requires adjustment.
This sauce is great on ice cream or on warm chocolate cake.

Caramel-Pecan Sauce
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/2 tsp. vanilla
In medium saucepan, combine all the ingredients except vanilla, mix well. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Boil 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla. Cool about 15 minutes or until thickened.

Hot Buttered Rum Sauce

Things are crazy here in Pullman. WSU started a new year monday which means the tide has turned and we have to adjust. I'm sharing this sauce recipe - it's quick and easy and tastes great on ice cream (try it over chocolate - so good).
I just got a couple of recipes for homemade sweetened condensed milk - one with dairy and the other dairy free. I think I'll try this recipe with them and get back to you.


Hot Buttered Rum Sauce
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup dark rum
2 tsp. vanilla
In medium saucepan, combine the sugar, butter and milk. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly to prevent scorching. Cook until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat. Stir in rum and vanilla.