You are here: Home / 2012 / Archives for August 2012

Black & White Sesame Seed Bread

August 26, 2012 By + 68 Comments

“IF YOU HAVE EXTRAORDINARY BREAD AND EXTRAORDINARY BUTTER, IT’S HARD TO BEAT BREAD AND BUTTER.”  Jacques Pepin

Black and White Sesame Seed Bread | From My Sweet Heart

I always find bread baking to be an amazing experience.  Even Wonder Bread could fill me with wonder!  I mean, just look at what you need to make bread.  Flour. Yeast. Water. Salt.  Can you think of any ingredients more bland than these?  Yet with a little time, and a little (ok…sometimes a lot!) of patience, you have a product which is so beautiful and delicious in its simplicity!  Add a few extra ingredients and you have something quite extraordinary!  This bread took me two attempts today.  But I learned a very basic lesson. . . . . [Read more...]

Filed Under: Bread Tagged With: , ,

Stone Fruit Sangria

August 21, 2012 By + 44 Comments

Stone Fruit Sangria | From My Sweet Heart

Serves 8

  • 1 peach, halved, pitted and sliced
  • 1 plum, halved, pitted and sliced
  • 1 nectarine, halved pitted and sliced
  • 1 apricot, halved pitted and sliced
  • 20 cherries, pitted
  • 1/4 cup of peach schnapps
  • 1 bottle (750 ml) chilled white wine
  • 4 cups of chilled 7-up ( or you may also use ginger ale or club soda)

Place sliced fruit in a large pitcher.  Add peach schnapps, wine and let it stand in refrigerator for an hour.  Then add  7-up.  Serve over ice.

This cocktail is my homage to some of the best of summer’s fruit. It’s my swansong to summer, if you will.  Because I decided to enjoy a variety of stone fruit all at once while I contemplate what I’m going to be baking for fall!  It’s light and refreshing and sweetly peachy!  And when your cocktail is gone, the wine soaked fruit is the perfect snack to munch on while you are waiting for your refill!  As always, I pair my cocktails with a piece of music that I love.  Today, that is Caroline Herring, singing Stone Cold World.



Filed Under: Sweet Happy Hour, Wine Tagged With: , , ,

Red Velvet Crepes with Sweet Mascarpone Cream

August 18, 2012 By + 70 Comments

“DIVERSITY:  THE ART OF THINKING INDEPENDENTLY TOGETHER.”  Malcolm Forbes

Red Velvet Crepes with Sweet Mascarpone Cream | From My Sweet Heart

Well today is the culmination of a week long festival of crêpes!  I really enjoyed being a part of a group of 12 fabulous ladies who have teamed up with America’s Test Kitchen to show you just how diverse, creative, fun and easy making crêpes can be!  It was such a blast working together with these women and I hope that you all  got a chance to visit them and to register for the cookbooks and crêpe pan giveaways! 

I was really impressed by what everyone had to offer.  I enjoy crêpes and have made them before.  But this time I used America’s Test Kitchen Crêpe Recipe.  They have even offered a video tutorial with great tips and tricks on making the perfect crêpe!  It is absolutely foolproof, as is every recipe they offer.  It’s really awesome to have such a source that has tested, tweaked and perfected the many recipes we all love to make!  And you can register for free to have access to all of the current season of recipes, videos and product reviews!

As you might have guessed, I decided to make dessert crêpes!  The vibrant color of my crêpes may give you a hint to the subtle, sweet, cocoa flavor you can expect!  And the light, creamy filling is flecked with bits of orange zest to add the right amount of tang to the overall taste!  Add a drizzle of ganache and the flavors are no less than harmonious!  [Read more...]

Filed Under: Crepe Week, Special Desserts, Theme Weavers Tagged With: , , , , ,

Crepe Week

August 13, 2012 By + 30 Comments

BONJOUR MES AMIS AND OOOH LA LA!!!  IT’S CRÊPE WEEK!

Well maybe it’s not officially crêpe week.  But it is for a group of 12 amazing, talented and creative women who will be featuring their best sweet and savory crêpe recipes all week long!!!  What’s very exciting is that America’s Test Kitchen is promoting this Crêpe Week;  allowing us the use of their basic crêpe recipe and providing 4 cookbooks as give-a-ways on four of the blogs!  So please visit each blog to see who is giving away a cookbook. Register to win!  And in addition, Carrie from Bakeaholic Mama will be giving away a crêpe pan, courtesy of King Arthur’s Flour!  There will be great tips and tricks for making the perfect crêpe; as well as links to the America’s Test Kitchen’s recipe and to a great video tutorial.  What an exciting week!  I can’t wait to visit my fellow crêpe makers and I hope to see you there!   Here is the line up:

Monday:

Tuesday:     

Wednesday:

Thursday:      

Friday:

 Saturday:

So are you ready to get your crêpe on?   Do you prefer sweet or savory?  And what’s the best crêpe that you’ve ever had?

Filed Under: Crepe Week, Theme Weavers

Espresso Cupcakes with Sweet Mascarpone Frosting

August 10, 2012 By + 37 Comments

“I HAVE MEASURED OUT MY LIFE WITH COFFEE SPOONS.”  T. S. Eliot

Espresso Cupcakes with Sweet Mascarpone Frosting | From My Sweet Heart

There was a time when I believed that I enjoyed the aroma of coffee more than the taste.  But over time,  I have really come to enjoy the flavor.  I don’t drink it daily, but I love coffee, both hot and cold.  And I love how coffee brings a savoriness to sweets like ice cream and cupcakes!  When I first came upon the recipe for these cupcakes, I was really intrigued by the combination of ingredients.  I would never have thought to put lemon zest and marsala wine in coffee cupcakes!  But I thought about running a wedge of lemon along the rim of my espresso cup and it made sense!  There was something else that I really enjoyed about these cupcakes . . . . . [Read more...]

Filed Under: Cupcake Heaven, Simple Tagged With: , , , , ,

Pluot & Bacon Crumble

August 5, 2012 By + 46 Comments

“A PERFECT SUMMER DAY IS WHEN THE SUN IS SHINING, THE BREEZE IS BLOWING, THE BIRDS ARE SINGING, AND THE LAWNMOWER IS BROKEN.”  James Dent

Pluot & Bacon Crumble | From My Sweet Heart

Ok now.  Please don’t start throwing tomatoes at the screen but. . . . .I’m ready for fall!  Maybe if I could catch a breeze in this heat or my lawn mower WERE broken, I would feel otherwise.  And I am just craving something sweet and chocolately, but I feel guilty if I don’t continue to work with summer fruits!  Fortunately, I found a new summer obsession.  PLUOTS!  As if crumbles, crisps, and cobblers were not confusing enough, right?  Now we’ve got plums, pluots and plumcots!  Well don’t despair.  If you like plums but sometimes find them hard and lacking in sweetness; then you will LOVE . . . . . [Read more...]

Filed Under: Crisps & Crumbles Tagged With: , , , , , ,