dessert Archives - Busy Moms Helper

Gluten-Free 4th of July Sugar Cookie Pizza

June 28, 2019 by Stephanie Kirkos Leave a Comment

Hello, and Happy Summer! This is Stephanie from Steph in Thyme, and today I’m sharing a festive 4th of July recipe that you can bake and assemble with your kids, or bring along to a BBQ. This Gluten-Free 4th of July Sugar Cookie Pizza slices and serves like a savory pizza for a creative twist on a picnic dessert. (originally shared June 2015)

Over the past few years, there has been an explosion of gluten-free products in grocery stores. Every time I go to the store, I encounter a new product. My newest gluten-free find is a Gluten-Free Funfetti Sugar Cookie Mix by Pillsbury. I stumbled upon it in the baking aisle, intermingled with non-gluten-free baking mixes. Gluten-free funfetti?? What a pleasant surprise!

With 4th of July around the corner, I picked up a few boxes to create a treat fitting for the day (2 boxes for $4, I couldn’t resist). But the patriotic treat couldn’t be just simple sugar cookies – it had to be a fun, crowd-pleasing dessert people would reach across the picnic table for.

This sugar cookie pizza is really just one giant sugar cookie, but it’s fun to think of it as a large pizza, a simple crust ready for you to decorate with toppings. And what toppings are more festive for the 4th of July than bright red strawberries, deep blue blueberries, and a creamy white whipped cream?

To save time slicing the strawberries, I recommend using an egg slicer. It slices the strawberries evenly at one time to make pizza prep faster and efficient.

Keeping with the theme “fun and different,” I whipped up a dairy-free whipped cream made from chilled coconut milk instead of traditional whipped cream. This coconut whipped cream is silky smooth and simply divine, subtly flavored with coconut and a dash of almond extract.

In addition to serving as the “sauce” on this pizza, it’s also delicious dolloped over a bowl of fresh fruit or ice cream.

I arranged the blueberries and strawberries in a flower-like pattern, placing a large handful of fresh, ripe blueberries in the center then arranging the strawberries in a double-layer until I reached the edge of the sugar cookie crust, outlining the fringe of the whipped cream with more fresh blueberries.

You can serve the sugar cookie pizza immediately after you decorate it, but I found it easier to slice after it chilled in the fridge for an hour. The whipped cream sets and the fruit doesn’t move around as much when you’re slicing it like a pizza – because it’s just way more fun to eat it that way.

Gluten-Free Sugar Cookie 4th of July Pizza l Steph in Thyme for Busy Mom's Helper

Print Recipe

Gluten-Free 4th of July Sugar Cookie Pizza

Prep Time20 mins

Cook Time17 mins

Servings: 8 -10 slices

Ingredients

17.5 oz box Pillsbury's Gluten-Free Funfetti Sugar Cookie Mix
1/2 cup 1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 egg
2 tbsp water
13.5 oz can full fat coconut milk (from the can, not the carton), chilled in the fridge for 24 hours
3 tbsp confectioners sugar
1 tsp gluten-free almond extract
2 cups thinly sliced strawberries
2 cups ripe blueberries

Instructions

To prepare the cookie:

Pre-heat oven to 375 F. Spray a 12 " pizza stone, pizza pan, or baking sheet with cooking spray.
In a large bowl, combine the butter, egg, and baking mix. Beat on medium for 1-2 minutes until combined. Add the water, scrape the sides of the bowl, and mix for another minute until a soft dough forms.
Roughly shape the dough into a large ball with your hands and place on the center of your pizza stone, pan, or baking sheet. With wet hands or a damp rolling pin, gently roll out the dough into a circle about 10" in diameter. Bake for 15-17 minutes until golden brown.
Remove cookie from the oven and let cool completely. (I left the cookie on the pizza stone and served it right on the stone). With a sharp knife, gently glide it between the cookie and pan, separating any areas that may have stuck.

To prepare the coconut whipped cream:

Chill a large bowl or bowl of a stand mixer in the freezer for 10 minutes. Take the chilled canned of coconut milk and flip it upside down, opening it from the bottom. Pour off the liquid, either setting aside for smoothies or discarding.
Remove the cold bowl from the freezer and scoop the solidified coconut milk into the bowl. Beat with a stand mixer or hand mixer for 2-3 minutes until fluffy and peaks form. Add the confectioners sugar and almond extract, beat for additional minute until well combined.

To assemble the cookie pizza:

Spoon the coconut whipped cream over the cooled sugar cookie crust, spreading in an even layer over the cookie.
Trace the outline of the outer edge of the coconut whipped cream with a single line of blueberries. Add a handful of blueberries to the center of the pizza. Arrange the strawberries around the blueberries in a circle, adding another layer of strawberries on top, if desired. Continue adding an alternating ring of strawberries and blueberries until you reach the outer ring of blueberries.
Serve immediately, or chill in the fridge for an hour (ideal). Slice the pizza into 8 to 10 slices with a sharp knife or pizza slicer.

Notes

You can use your favorite gluten-free sugar cookie baking mix in place of Pillsbury, adjusting the butter/water content if the mix isn't a comparable size.
If making the coconut whipped cream ahead, refrigerate in an airtight container. Remove from fridge and allow to warm up to a chill temperature - not cold or room temperature. Beat for 1-2 minutes until fluffy again.
Depending on how you decorate the pizza, you can use more or less fresh fruit.

Pumpkin Bars

December 22, 2016 by Nikki Cole

November is the month for everything pumpkin and I tried some fun recipes one of which is Pumpkin Bars that turned out to be a super moist, melt in your mouth dessert that everyone in my family asked for seconds and thirds on. Pumpkin Bars are a sweet blend of pumpkin, cinnamon, and a cake like texture, topped with rich cream cheese frosting and is simple to add impressive but quick decorations to.

I know I said that my Cream Cheese Pumpkin Bread was amazing but these Pumpkin Bars are a whole new kind of amazing. The bread was great and worked perfectly for a quick breakfast and such but the Pumpkin Bars are an amazing dessert to impress even the pickiest eaters.

Ingredients

4 eggs
1 cup oil
2 cups sugar
15 – oz. can of pumpkin
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground cloves

Cream cheese frosting

8 – oz. cream cheese, softened
6 tablespoons butter, softened
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups powdered sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix together the eggs, oil, sugar, and pumpkin in a mixer.
Add in remaining ingredients and mix well.
Pour batter into a greased and floured 18” x 12” jelly roll pan.
Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean and the bars start to pull away from the edges of the pan.
When the Pumpkin Bars are cooled make the cream cheese frosting.
Mix all cream cheese frosting ingredients except the powdered sugar well.
Slowly add in powdered sugar and mix until fluffy.
Spread onto cooled pumpkin bars.
To make a cool design dump some cinnamon onto a plate.
Get any cookie cutter, preferably small, and dip into the cinnamon.
Gently press cookie cutter into the pumpkin bars to make a design.

These Pumpkin Bars were amazing but did take a little work but don’t let that scare you away trust me, I’m working on a post with pies and wow, those are hard. This recipe is a little long but completely worth it and the steps are pretty easy just mainly mixing. I hope this recipe helps out with all your holiday plans and adventures.

Cream Cheese Pumpkin Bread

November 21, 2016 by Nikki Cole

It’s fall and you know what that means? Yes pumpkin everything! I love pumpkin but not till recently had I ever tried making bread and especially never thought to make pumpkin bread with cream cheese. I now have a new favorite pumpkin recipe of Cream Cheese Pumpkin Bread that is a complete melt in your mouth fall favorite recipe that makes a perfect dessert or even a nice breakfast.

Cream Cheese Pumpkin Bread is incredible bread that will be perfect for any dinner, dessert, or even a quick grab and go breakfast, and it is pretty simple to make. With the recipe it only makes one loaf but I hate putting a partial can of pumpkin in the fridge, well I bought the big can that was 29 ounces, anyways so I ended up tripling the recipe, made three loafs but kept the bread mix in three separate bowls so it was easy to split into the bread pans. If you are good at measuring things out you can triple it in one bowl, make just a single loaf, whatever fits your needs.

Bread – Ingredients

1 egg
1 cup pumpkin puree
½ cup packed brown sugar
¼ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup coconut oil, melted
¼ cup sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda

Cream Cheese Filling – Ingredients

1 egg
4 ounces softened cream cheese
¼ cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons flour

Directions

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a bread loaf pan with non-stick spray and then dust it with flour, the flour makes it a lot easier to get the bread out of the pan.
For the bread, mix the first 10 ingredients well in a large bowl.
Add in the flour, baking powder, and baking soda, gently stir in just until combined; don’t overmix.
Pour about 2/3 of the batter into the prepared pan spreading it smooth and pushing it into the corners. Set aside.
For the cream cheese filling put all ingredients into a mixer and cream until nice and fluffy, usually about five minutes.
Evenly pour the cream cheese filling mixture over the bread, be careful not to push the filling into the pumpkin mixture but getting it to all the edges.
Top the cream cheese layer with the remaining pumpkin batter, smoothing the top without pushing it into the cream cheese layer and again still covering the cream cheese getting the pumpkin mix to all edges.
Bake for about 50 minutes or until the bread slightly starts to pull away from the edges.
Allow the bread to slightly cool in the pan, then gently run a spatula along the edges and turn over onto a wire rack to finish cooling. Enjoy!

Autumn Splendor Centerpiece plus Cookie Recipe

November 20, 2016 by Nikki Cole

Want a fun and exciting centerpiece for your thanksgiving dinner? One that not only looks great but doubles as a dessert too? Well this Autumn Splendor Centerpiece is sure to impress your guests and it doesn’t cost you an arm and leg to make it.

Autumn Splendor Centerpiece is easy to make and can be changed easily if you need or want. All you need is a simple sugar cookie recipe with frosting, a stick wreath easily found at a craft store, fake pumpkin, candle (whatever color), and some little decorations to go around the top which can be left out if you want.

First get your fake pumpkin and cut a hole in the top large enough to fit your candle. I just used a steak knife which seemed to work great but it did make a little bit of a mess with Styrofoam all over. Place your candle in the whole.

Next if you want you can get little decorations to go around the ring of the pumpkin and candle or you can leave it blank. I found some cool little beads I guess you could call them and pinned them to the pumpkin. Just walk around a craft store and you can find some fun things like maybe leafs, jewels, feathers, anything you would like to dress up your centerpiece.

On your stick wreath (horrible name I know but I don’t really know the technical name for it), place a sheet of cellophane to help support the cookies a little better and so people don’t get any weird sticks in their cookies. Make it a little bigger than the wreath because when you place the pumpkin on it it will come in a little bit. Place decorated pumpkin in the center of the wreath on top of the cellophane.

Make sugar cookies and decorate them. My sugar cookie recipe and frosting is just basic – nothing too fancy, recipes below, and I also didn’t spend hours decorating mine because the only people that saw it was my little nephews and nieces. Feel free to get creative and design however you want. Plain leaves look great on this wreath and doesn’t take forever to decorate. You can get as creative as you want or as simple as you want with the Autumn Splendor Centerpiece.

I cut my cookies into different leafs, acorns, squirrels, turkeys, apples, and a few flowers. Then I just put simple frosting on them in colors of red, yellow, orange, brown. I then froze them and an hour before we sat down pulled them out, placed them around the wreath, not too far out on the wreath so they didn’t fall off but did a few layers and placed in the center of the table. It looked great without all the hard work and I had a great centerpiece and dessert tray.

Sugar cookie and frosting recipes

Cookies – Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon almond extract
1 egg
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 cups flour

Cookies – Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream butter and sugar together until smooth. Beat in the extracts and egg.
Mix in baking powder and flour until combined.
Roll out onto a floured surface until about ¼ inch thick and cut into shapes with cookie cutters.
Place on greased cookie sheet and bake for 6-8 minutes. Let completely cool before frosting.

Frosting – Ingredients

2 cups shortening
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 teaspoon almond extract
8 cups powdered sugar
1/8 cup milk
Food coloring

Frosting – Directions

Cream all ingredients except powdered sugar.
Slowly add in powdered sugar.
Can add more or less milk for different consistencies if needed.
Separate into bowls and add food coloring.

Disneyland Foods that are Worth Trying

November 2, 2016 by Nikki Cole

Disneyland is one of my favorite places, if you haven’t noticed by all the posts I do about it. This time I wanted to know if the Disneyland foods were worth the price, and yes I was very surprised by most of them. So here is a list of Disneyland Foods that are Worth Trying.

Contains affiliate links that help support this blog. See our Disclosure.

Disneyland Foods that are Worth Trying will show you some places to get meals or just simple snacks like the Matterhorn Macaroon, which was amazing! Now some of these are a little pricey but worth getting instead of just bringing your own sandwich or McDonalds outside the park.

Book your Disney vacation with Get Away Today for the best deals – and use Promo Code: BusyMomsHelper for extra savings!

First stop was the Plaza Inn on Main Street USA in Disneyland. This was an all you can eat breakfast with Mickey Mouse Waffles, sausage, cinnamon rolls, drinks, cereal, and a melt in your mouth French toast. We definitely ate way more than our stomachs could hold so we had to stay off some big rides for a while but completely worth it, and it filled us up for hours. With the amazing all you can eat food you also have characters walking around saying hi and taking pictures with you. This is obviously a full meal and it was a little pricey but worth every bite.

My favorite on this list of Disneyland Foods that are worth trying is the Matterhorn Macaroon. This is a coconut, melt in your mouth snack that you will absolutely not want to miss. It is located just inside Jolly Holiday Bakery Café which also provides a great view of the Matterhorn.

Dole Whip from the Tiki Room is also a must have and a perfect treat to enjoy while watching the Enchanted Tiki Room. Dole Whip pineapple ice cream in the style of soft served or a float is sure to quench your thirst for something sweet.

Princess and the Frog is one of my favorite Disney shows so when I heard Tianna’s Beignets were served in New Orleans Square I was there. These beignets are delicious, better than doughnuts, and during Halloween time you can stop by for pumpkin flavored beignets.

Cinnamon rolls at Fiddler Fifer and Practical are warm and very filling. These cinnamon rolls we get every time we go to Disneyland because they are a perfect and quick breakfast. They also serve as a Starbucks so all you coffee lovers will also love to stop in.

Disneyland too hot for some of you? Well cool off with one of Disneyland’s Minute Maid Frozen Strawberry Lemonade. These are cold and perfect for those hot days in the park, and conveniently located at the ice cream carts throughout the parks.

Also located at the ice cream carts you can grab a Mickey Mouse ice cream sandwich, sure to add excitement to your little kids.

Pizza is always a great dinner right? Well it smells amazing and at the Pizza Port by Space Mountain they have pasta, pizza, salad, drinks, and several items at a reasonable price are sure to fill up your whole family for more fun memories at Disneyland.

Flo’s Café in Cars Land is one restaurant that I never even really knew about, well I missed out. Flo’s is a little pricey but you do get a lot of food and the food is delicious. I got the Brioche French Toast and my husband got the American Breakfast. Both were amazing, now the Brioche French Toast not only sounds a little different than what I am use to but it looked a lot different too but don’t be fooled, it was melt in your mouth, more of a dessert than breakfast French toast, so go ahead and be adventurous.

Need a late night snack? Well it was big enough to be a meal so be prepared to share. Ghiradelli Soda Fountain and Chocolate Shop in California Adventures has and wonderful Crissy Field Cookie Bits Sundae, hot fudge, cookies and cream ice cream, whipped cream, and lots of chocolate chip cookie bits on top what’s not to love? This dessert was huge which didn’t stop my husband and me from eating all of it but if you can’t eat very much ice cream or sweets find some people to share with, I’m sure it won’t be hard to convince people.

Churros are also one of those things you always get at Disneyland and they make it easy by having a million stands selling them. I think I smelt churros all the way through the park which made it horrible not eating one every five minutes.

Last but not least, our family tradition of going to Goofy’s Kitchen for dinner. Goofy’s Kitchen isn’t in Disneyland itself but in Disneyland Hotel so it kind of works. This is an all you can eat buffet with ribs, pizza, pasta, chicken, salad, fruit, huge dessert bar, and drinks. They also have characters walking around taking pictures and signing autographs and randomly dancing through the restaurant. One of my favorite things there is their Crème Brulee , it is amazing and I think I ate six of them, oops, probably not great on my weight but totally worth it.

There you have it, Disneyland Foods that are Worth Trying, plus there’s millions of other foods in the park that are just as amazing so if you go to Disneyland try to set a little money aside to indulge in some of their mouthwatering foods.

Don’t forget to check out Get Away Today for the best vacation deals, plus use Promo Code: BusyMomsHelper for even more special savings!

Homemade Snickers

September 12, 2016 by Nikki Cole

Peanut butter and chocolate? Best combination ever! I love peanut butter and who doesn’t love chocolate. Well if you are like me then these Homemade Snickers are for you. These are simple to make and taste even better than the store bought.

This recipe isn’t very hard just mainly waiting for layers to chill in the refrigerator. The recipe makes a whole 9 x 13” pan of delicious, wonderful, and completely your own Homemade Snickers bars. Try freezing them to make a nice frozen treat, and it makes it last longer because you can’t devour it down in one bite. Like white chocolate instead of milk? Just substitute white almond bark and white chocolate chips instead of milk and you can have your own unique Homemade Snickers bar.

Ingredients:

8 squares almond bark (about 2 cups if you’re using candy wafers) divided
½ cup milk chocolate chips, divided
¾ cup creamy peanut butter, divided
¼ cup butter
1 cup sugar
½ cup evaporated milk, divided
1 ½ cup marshmallow crème
1 ½ cup salted dry roasted peanuts, coarsely chopped
1 tsp. vanilla extract
16 oz caramels

Directions

Line a 9 x 13” pan with aluminum foil so you can easily lift the bars out of the pan when finished. Spray foil with nonstick cooking spray, set aside.
In a small microwave-safe bowl, melt together 4 squares of almond bark (1 cup wafers), ¼ cup chocolate chips, and ¼ cup peanut butter in the microwave, stirring until smooth. Spread evenly over the bottom of prepared pan. Refrigerate until chocolate is hard.
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in sugar and ¼ cup evaporated milk until dissolved. Bring to a boil and boil for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add in marshmallow crème and ¼ cup peanut butter, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in chopped peanuts and vanilla until well mixed. Spread evenly over chilled chocolate. Refrigerate until chilled.
In a medium saucepan over low heat, heat caramels and remaining ¼ cup evaporated milk until caramels are melted and mixture is smooth, stirring occasionally. Spread evenly over chilled nougat. Refrigerate until chilled.
In a small microwave-safe bowl, melt together remaining 4 squares almond bar (1 cup wafers), ¼ cup chocolate chips and ¼ cup peanut butter in the microwave, stirring until smooth. Cool for 5 minutes. Spread evenly over chilled caramel. Refrigerate for an hour. Remove candy from pan by lifting foil then cut into bars. If you want you can melt some additional chocolate and dip sides of the bars in so it’s completely covered with chocolate.

Easy S’mores

June 3, 2016 by Nikki Cole

First attempt fails! I hate when you think you have an amazing idea and then WHAM! It fails and ends up awful. I attempted these Easy Smore’s with little tiny 2 inch pots and they did not light and ended up not being a fun experience for my awesome family which made me feel terrible. But after a sleepless night over it I tried it again with a 6 inch pot and it was amazing! Perfect Easy Smore’s that I can whip up for my family every night if I wanted without breaking the bank or having a big fire pit in my yard with all the kids being able to make their own personal Smore! So next family get together I’ll be the awesome Aunt/sister who does exciting desserts!

Yes this is nothing new, everybody knows how to make smores, over the camp fire, in the microwave, or even on the grill but those are either dangerous for kids, not as good, or not all of us are lucky enough to have a fire pit in our back yard. I love smore’s but in a microwave it is just not the same and kind of boring especially for kids or love seeing the marshmallow burn or melt or just see the fire. These Easy Smore’s are perfect because they don’t cost a lot, you don’t need a lot of space, and they’re a lot easier to keep your kids from falling into or burning themselves. Make sure you use at least a 6 inch terracotta pot because smaller ones I guess don’t have enough oxygen or what not so they won’t burn.

Our failed attempt but they were awesome sports about it!

What you will need

6 inch terracotta pot
Tin foil
Charcoal
Lighter fluid
Skewers

Have fun with s’more toppings – there’s so many more options than just regular chocolate.

Grahm crackers
Marshmallows
Chocolate bars, kit kats, reeses, symphony’s, cookies n crème, rolos, kisses, etc.
Also you can roast strawberries and air heads, it makes them soft!

Start by lining the pot with the tin foil and folding over the sides.
Next put about 7 – 8 pieces of charcoal in the pot and pouring lighter fluid over them just so they get wet, now light them.
Usually wait about five minutes for the lighter fluid to burn off, sometimes it can cause weird tasting food if you start cooking on it too soon.
Put a marshmallow on a skewer and roast it! I love mine totally burnt but golden brown is pretty good too.

Have fun with these! There are so many different variations of smores that are so good and keeps them exciting for everyone. Also roasting starbursts or air heads are pretty good as well, it gets them soft and gooey or you can burn them a little if you like. These Easy Smore’s are a fun, quick, and easy summertime activity for any age.

Frosted Keylime Cupcakes

May 25, 2016 by Angela Paris

Keylime Cupcakes with keylime cream cheese frosting will bring just the right amount of tropical summer flavor to dessert!

Keylime Cupcakes are a delicious way to celebrate spring and summer get togethers. I just love the flavor of keylimes… compared to regular limes, keylimes are sweeter. Its a nice balance of sweet and tart. Of course, keylimes are best known for being used in Keylime Pie, especially down south. I went to college in Florida, and before that hadn’t ever heard of a keylime before! Now, I love using them to flavor all kinds of desserts, like they Keylime Cupcakes. Then, I took my go-to cream cheese frosting recipe and altered a little to compliment the cupcakes. The result is perfectly scrumptious.

Keylime Cupcakes with Keylime Cream Cheese Frosting

Here’s how to make Keylime Cupcakes with Keylime Cream Cheese Frosting. Be sure to pin this post so you can find this recipe again and again! This recipe makes 12 standard cupcakes.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup whole milk, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoon keylime juice
1 tablespoon keylime zest
4 oz unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
2 large egg whites, room temperature
OPTIONAL: I used a bit of green food coloring to achieve the green hue. This step is optional.

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350-degrees F. Line your muffin tins, or grease well.

Whisk together the dry ingredients in a medium bowl; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter until creamy. Add in the sugar, keylime zest and juice and beat again until fluffy. Add in the milk, egg, and egg whites and beat to combine. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Reduce the mixer speed to low and gently add the dry ingredients a little at a time until combined.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared muffin tin cups. Bake for 20-22 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Transfer the cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

Keylime Cream Cheese Frosting:

6oz cream cheese, room temperature

6oz butter, room temperature

Zest and juice of 2 keylimes

3-1/2 cups powdered sugar

Directions:

In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, add the butter and cream cheese. Beat until smooth. Add the zest and juice from the keylimes and beat to combine. Finally, add the powdered sugar into the bowl and mix gently on low until combined. Beat on high for 2 minutes.

Frost cooled keylime cupcakes by hand, or transfer the frosting to a piping bag. Store any leftover frosting in an airtight container the refrigerator for up to 10 days.

I hope you will enjoy these delicious cupcakes as much as my friends and family do when I make them! Check out these other great summer recipes:

Copy-Cat Disneyland Churros

May 18, 2016 by Nikki Cole

Disneyland has some of the best Churros ever, wait, no they DO have the best Churros ever! At least my favorite, I’ve tried different Churros at stores, frozen ones, or other amusement parks but they didn’t taste the same. My husband decided one day he wanted to make Copy-cat Disneyland Churros and they are just as good, maybe even better, than the Disneyland treat.

The recipe is pretty simple but squeezing the dough out into the fryer is a little tricky but not to horribly bad. These Churros are perfect for dessert, a light snack, or an impressive dessert to bring to all those parties coming up in the summer. The chocolate sauce is nice and chocolaty, but personally I almost would rather just plain churros – but it does add a nice twist to a favorite treat.

Ingredients

1 cup water
2 Tbls brown sugar
½ tsp. salt
1/3 cup butter
2 cups white flour
2 eggs
½ tsp. vanilla extract
¼ cup sugar
½ to 1 tsp ground cinnamon, depending on your taste

Chocolate sauce

1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 cups milk
4 ounces dark chocolate
¼ cup sugar

Directions

Preheat 1 ½ to 2 inches of vegetable oil in a 10 to 12 inch frying pan to 375 degrees. (we just used our deep fryer) In a separate dish mix the ¼ cup sugar and cinnamon and set aside. I just guessed on this to what I liked and I usually had extra but it sure made it easier trying to cover the churros.
In a 3 quart sauce pan add the water, brown sugar, salt, and butter and heat to a good boil. Remove from the heat and add the flour. Mix until well blended. We do this in our kitchen aid because it does get pretty tough.
In a separate bowl, mix the eggs and vanilla together and then add this mixture to the flour mixture. Stir until well blended and all the egg is completely mixed in.
Fill your decorating bag with the churro dough and attach the largest star tip.
Test your oil by placing a small amount of dough in it. the dough should bubble up right away or that means the oil is not hot enough and a soggy churro is on the way.
Once the oil is hot enough, squeeze some dough (with the decorator) into the oil about 4 inches long. I used a fork to release the dough from the decorator.
Cook them about 1 minute and turn them over with a slotted spoon. Cook an additional minute or two. You’re looking for that nice golden brown color.
Remove the churros with the slotted spoon and place them on a paper towel-covered plate to absorb excess grease. While still warm, roll each churro into the dish with the sugar and cinnamon until coated.

Chocolate sauce

In a small bowl, dissolve the cornstarch in 1 cup of milk and reserve. Combine the chocolate with the remaining cup of milk in a saucepan. Stirring constantly, melt the chocolate over medium-low heat.
Whisk the sugar and the dissolved cornstarch into the melted chocolate mixture. Reduce the heat to low and cook, whisking constantly, until the chocolate is thickened, about 5 minutes. (add extra cornstarch if it doesn’t start to thicken after 5 minutes.) remove the pan from the heat and whisk until smooth then reserve in a warm place

Gluten-Free Cherry Cobbler

May 12, 2016 by Lynn Driver

Hello, Mamas! How would you like to treat your families and yourselves to a dish of ooey-gooey goodness? It only takes a few minutes to whip up this GLUTEN-FREE CHERRY COBBLER!

I’m Lynn, and I share my favorite tips for moms here and over at Riggstown Road. This cobbler recipe is definitely a favorite, especially now that it’s gluten free.

Gluten-Free Cherry Cobbler

Three people in my family have had to eliminate gluten from their diets. If you have dealt with this issue, then you know how frustrating it can be. You or your loved ones often miss out on the goodies that those around you are enjoying. Of course, you can find gluten-free versions of most things, but they are often expensive and ~~gross~~ less tasty. So, you end up making a lot of things from scratch, but that can be complicated and time-consuming. But not this recipe. This recipe is easy.

Cherry cobbler has always been a favorite in my family. It’s been my mother’s go-to dessert for as long as I can remember. It is delicious, and like I said–easy! I’ve adapted and tweaked it to make it gluten-free while keeping the taste and simplicity. This way, my WHOLE family can still enjoy it. Trust me, yours will, too.

Print Recipe

Gluten-Free Cherry Cobbler

Ingredients

1 stick butter 8 Tbsp.
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup one-to-one gluten-free baking flour *See note.
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. salt
1 can cherry pie filling at least 21 oz.

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. While oven is preheating, put stick of butter in a 9 x 11 inch glass baking dish and place in oven for butter to melt. Meanwhile, thoroughly combine dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Add milk and mix well to make a batter. Remove dish from oven when butter has melted. Pour batter into baking dish. Pour cherry pie filling over batter, distributing evenly. Be sure to scrape every bit out of can. 😉 Bake for about 40 minutes, til golden brown. Cool for at least 15 minutes. Serve warm or room temperature.

*Note: I have found that the BEST flour to use for this recipe is Bob’s Red Mill one-to-one Baking Flour (in the blue and white package.) It is easy to find in the gluten-free section of Wal-Mart, Food Lion, and other large grocery stores. If you use, for example, all-purpose gluten-free flour, you will not get the same results.

This recipe is perfect for serving warm, right after dinner, but it’s also excellent for taking to covered dish gatherings. Pretty enough for the dining room table, but travels well enough for the picnic table. It’s also the perfect treat to go with your afternoon coffee. Or morning. Or whenever. 😉

I’m sure you’ll love it as much as I do!

Also try these GLUTEN FREE RECIPES:

Big Breakfast for Busy Families

Sugar Cookie Pizza – Gluten Free!

Easter Cupcakes

March 18, 2016 by Nikki Cole

Easter is here! And what makes Easter so fun? Decorations! Easter decorations are so pretty and get me so excited for spring with all the fun colors especially after gloomy winters. So here are some really fun and impressive Easter Cupcakes to wow guests or just to enjoy yourself!

So I live where from about November to almost the end of March we have snow, freezing weather, and gloomy outdoors, so when Easter hits I get super excited to bake anything because of the bright, fun, spring colors I get to use for the Holiday. These Easter Cupcakes turned out so cute and everyone was impressed. The marshmallow flower was actually pretty simple which I was a little surprised about and it looks amazing! I also did a few mini cupcakes as well just to have some bite size snacks. And yes I did a homemade cupcake mix but any box cupcake mix works just as well.

Ingredients

Cupcakes

1 ½ cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 stick butter, melted
1 ¼ cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 TBLS vanilla extract
¾ cup buttermilk (or combine ¾ cup milk and 1 teaspoon white vinegar and let sit for 5 minutes)
½ cup sprinkles

Frosting

1 cup butter, softened (not melted but not rock hard)
¼ teaspoon salt
5 cups powdered sugar
1 TBLS vanilla
1-2 TBLS heavy whipping cream (can use milk)

Decorations

Mini marshmallows, plain
Mini marshmallows, fruit flavored
Sprinkles
Peeps
Chicks
M&m’s

Directions

Cupcakes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line cupcake tins with liners.
In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder, and salt.
Cream together melted butter and sugar in a mixer.
Add eggs and vanilla and mix until nice and creamy.
Slowly add flour mixture and buttermilk alternating between the two.
Stir in sprinkles.
Pour batter into prepared liners about 2/3 the way full.
Bake for 15 – 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Let cool completely before frosting.

Frosting

Cream butter and powdered sugar together.
Add in vanilla and salt
Slowly add in the whipping cream (or milk) until consistency is creamy and easy to spread but not runny.

Chick cupcakes

The cupcakes with the chick peeps just frost the cupcake either by doing a flower tip design with a piping tip or just frosting it normal. Place the chick in the middles and place miniature fruit flavored marshmallows around.

Bunny cupcakes

Bunny cupcakes leave a little space in the middle of the cupcake without frosting, place the bunny there and then I piped flowers around the base of the bunny just to stabilize it more so it wasn’t falling over. Place fruit flavored marshmallows around.

Marshmallow cupcakes

Fruit marshmallow cupcakes, frost and scatter marshmallows around.

Flower cupcakes

Colored flowered cupcakes. Take your plain mini marshmallows, about 10-14, and cut them diagonally and then place in a plastic bag. Take whatever color of sanding sugar and pour some into the bag, (you don’t need a lot so start with a little and you can always add more), shake! The sugar should stick to the sticky side and give you a pedal looking marshmallow. Starting with a frosted cupcake on the outer edge put a ring or marshmallows sprinkle side up. Then working from the outer edge in keep making circles until you reach the middle.

Other ideas

M&M’s, sprinkles, cadberry eggs, jelly beans, or even plain frosting can look really fun, with Easter Cupcakes it’s hard to not have fun colorful treats so use your imagination or wonder up and down the candy aisle at any store and I’m sure you’ll see something fun.

Presidents Day Dessert

February 15, 2016 by Chellie Schmitz

This Presidents Day Dessert is easy, healthy, and scrumptious!

Presidents Day Dessert

Celebrate Presidents day with an easy and healthy dessert! What?! Celebrate Presidents day? Who does that? Well, the government does for one. Often, government employees are off, and if you’re kids are as excited about getting the mail as mine, they’ll tell you there’s no mail that day. Technically, it is a National holiday. Many schools are closed that day.

3 Reasons to celebrate

But why celebrate? Whether your kids are home with you, or in school during the day, life is filled with teachable moments. As far as schooling goes, we homeschool, AND we public school. I never thought I’d be doing both, but that’s another topic. When we wrestled with what was best for each child, my heart didn’t want to send them away all day. But, what I realized is just because they’re not with me all day doesn’t mean I’m not involved in their lives. So we make the most of each moment we have. And we love learning! So why not learn about Presidents day?

When my kids were younger, and I was trying to make it through Michigan winters (cold, gray, dreary, mundane, did I mention cold?), I would look for opportunities to celebrate, which would make those dreary days more exciting. For example, we celebrated ground hogs day for a couple of years. My now older children, still ask me “what are we doing for groundhogs day?”

Lastly, it’s an excuse to eat dessert!! Haha! But you can feel good about this presidents day dessert, because it’s good for you. Greek yogurt, anti-oxidant berries, and no sugar added makes this the perfect treat. So let’s recap:

Celebrate Presidents Day because~

It’s a teachable moment
It makes an ordinary day extraordinary
It’s a good excuse for dessert

Not sure what to say about Presidents Day? Here’s some resources made for kids:

A brief overview on how it started
A little more in depth history
Activity pages
Crafts
Coloring pages and crafts

Parfaits are super easy to make! All you do is choose your ingredients and layer them in a jar or dish of your choice. In the recipe I’ve put approximate measurements to make 1 parfait. You really just want to layer the yogurt and the fruit, so when you’re making this, just do what looks best to you. It could vary depending on the size jar or dish you are using. In our family, the kids love getting their own jar to eat out of. I don’t know why, but they think that is awesome. You can make these up ahead of time and store them in the fridge. This would also make a great breakfast or snack!

Happy Presidents Day! Go make today extraordinary!

Print Recipe

Presidents Day Dessert

Ingredients

1 6 oz container coconut yogurt
2 Tbs fresh blueberries plus more for garnish
1 Tbs fresh raspberries plus more for garnish
1 tsp unsweetened shredded coconut

Instructions

Start with a layer (about a tablespoon or 2) of yogurt on the bottom of a mason jar or other serving container.
Place 1 Tbs blueberries on top.
Layer more yogurt.
Place 1 Tbs raspberries.
Layer more yogurt.
Place 1 tbs blueberries on top.
Finish with a dollop of yogurt, fresh berries and a sprinkle of coconut.
Serve immediately, or store in the refrigerator until ready to eat.

Looking for more easy recipes? Try these:

Mango Parfaits
mango_yogurt_parfait-7

Breakfast Banana Split
healthy_banana_split-3breakfastpin

Triple Berry Smoothie
triple_berry_spinach_smoothiepin-2