Fig and Almond Crostata

My mouth is watering just typing this.

So this year we had an abundance of figs. A few years ago my dad planted a fig tree and we've gotten some every summer. But this was the first year we had figs in such abundance that we didn't even know what to do with them all. Last summer I had found the recipe for Crostata and made it. It was heavenly. I spent a bit this year trying to find a new recipe. Not because I didn't like the crostata but just because I don't like making the same recipe twice and I know there are so many amazing recipes out there. But I really didn't find anything better. In fact nothing came close to the crostata recipe. And so with mixed feelings I decided to stick with a tried but true recipe. And so ladies and gentleman I present to you Fig and Almond Crostata! 

The figs get soaked in lemon juice (I'm assuming it's to keep them fresh but I really don't know) I just did it cause the recipe said to and I didn't want to ignore it without a reason (with a reason I would have been glad too, of course) 

The wonderful amazing almond paste. It's so good I could have just stopped right there sat down and eaten it all by itself. This was definitely a very important "taste test" moment. Didn't want to poison anyone you know... But ya, seriously amazing tasting.

The dough was just normal pie crust type stuff... (wow, I am so descriptive and specific...) I decided to use white flour and broke my rule (It's more what you'd call "a guideline" than an actual rule) of using only pastry flour when I bake. I did not regret it. Pastry flour just doesn't work for pie crusts.  

All put together. The figs I ended up with were rather ripe so I didn't get perfect round slices. But that's okay! I've been told taste is more important than looks. I still don't quite believe that but for this time I'll just go with it. 

Mmmmmmmmm! Finally finished. Beautiful, mouthwatering pastry. Baked to perfection. The whiffs of sweet almond and fig floating from it were almost too much to bear. Would I be able to restrain myself? Or would I consume the whole thing immediately?!

It was hard to resist it's voice calling to me "Alyssa, I'm all yours. Yours alone. I'm not to be shared. We should be exclusive. Just you and me in this relationship. No one else to bother us. Just us, us alone." But I had to resist the temptation! I had to be strong! I mean isn't that what every girl wants to hear? 

But I can proudly say I resisted the temptation. I resisted it's little voice in my ear trying to drag me down the path of evil and vice. Thank you. thank you. Yes, t must have been God's intervention because I know something outside of myself saved this pastry from it's immediate demise.

Haha, but to be serious. It really is an amazing recipe. My mum even broke from her gluten-free diet to have some. For days afterwords she would tell me just how amazing it was and how perfect. My daddy was immensely pleased with the use of his figs. And I was pleased with how it turned out as well. And oh but that almond paste...

~Alyssa <3

Blackberry Scones

Yes, it is that time of year. That time when there is an abundance of fresh, ripe, succulent blackberries. Mmmm, the juicy dark flesh that stains your fingers when you pick them and your mouth when you eat them. Yum!
This morning was quite wonderful and relaxing. I got up late, went running, made a yummy breakfast, showered and than went outside to pick berries. Mmm, lovely morning.
This afternoon I had to find some use for all the berries I picked. Humm, muffins? cake? pie? Been there, done that. I needed something yummy, food-ish and at least slightly new. Scones. Mhmmmm. I love scones. Scones are amazing. Scones are heavenly. Scones are perfect.

Mixed the dough, plopped it out, smoothed it around and chopped it into pieces. Not very elegant I know. But seriously that's basically all I did.

Put them into the oven to cook while I whipped up the icing.

Blackberry icing. Yum. ^_^

 All cooked and ready to ice. 

Blackberry icing. New, different and very purple. Love it. 

All done. Perfection. They tasted so amazing. Perfectly delicious. Definitely a keeper of a recipe. Someday ya'll will have to come over and have tea and scones with me. 

~Alyssa <3

Coffee? Coffee.

Well...my version of coffee at least. My daddy won't admit that it's actually coffee. He says it's milk and sugar... I can't really deny that but there is coffee in it too!!! So what is my version of coffee? Iced Lattes. Sooo good! You all probably know I don't really like coffee. Well okay I take that back. I don't like straight up coffee. I love the coffee flavor I just don't like the bitterness. I'm a sweet kind of person. Now I honestly don't know how real iced lattes are made. I could care less. My version of an iced latte is to take the leftover coffee that was made a couple hours before. So it's fairly chilled. Fill a glass 1/4 full of ice and 1/2 full of milk. If you do the math that leaves 1/4 to be filled with coffee. So ya, not much coffee. But enough to get the taste and get me some caffeine. Oh and I almost forgot. You can't forget to add the sugar. Without a bit of sugar it's just not quite right. So if you ever see me going slightly insane, it's probably because I've been drinking an iced latte. ;)

 Oh and in case you're wondering. No I am not in my own kitchen. I discovered my love of iced latte's while on my family reunion in Michigan.

 I'm insane, Coffee makes me insane. I love coffee. My version of coffee. ;)

~Alyssa <3

My specialty

Over the years I've been asked what my "specialty" is. And until recently I always answered "I don't know". But it all changed one day a while back. A friend and I decided we wanted to make eclairs. Those scrumptious, delicious, heavenly pastries that make your mouth water and your eyes pop and your brain say "who cares about that diet?". Yes, they are that good. They are quite possible my favorite desert. My favorite food to bake. My favorite thing to eat. My favorite thing to look at. My favorite treat. My favorite... okay I think you get my point. I like them quite a lot. In fact I like them so much I have a hard time sharing them. When people ask to have one it generally goes something like this:

Them: "Ohhhh, Alyssa can I have one of those eclairs?"
Me: "Ummm, well....ya about that....there aren't really any left..."
Them: "What? You just made them yesterday and I didn't have any."
Me: "Ya...I don't know where they went so quickly. Somebody must have been eating them."

Yes, I know that someone is me. No I do not tell everyone that. You know "What the eye doesn't see the heart doesn't grieve over" and "What you don't know can't hurt you". Right? Right.

Anyway, I'm sure you're all dying to see pictures of these oh so amazing pastries. And so without further delay The Eclair:

You start with the filling. Now most eclair recipes would just use a lame whipped cream filling. NO! DO NOT FALL FOR THAT TRAP! That is not the way to make an eclair. You must use a custard filling. Let me reiterate. YOU MUST USE A CUSTARD FILLING OR YOU ARE BEING LAME AND I DON"T WANT TO SPEAK TO YOU EVER AGAIN! Haha, okay, okay I'm joking. No actually I'm not. USE CUSTARD! You want my reasons? Okay here you go:
Number 1: It's what they actually use in real eclairs so if you don't use custard you aren't making real eclairs. Number 2: It tastes heavenly and it's slightly less sweet removing the overly sweet after taste of most whipped cream fillings.
Number 3: I told you to! So you have to! Hah!

Step number two. The pastry. Little puffs of delicious airy goodness. Not overly sweet and light as light can be. Mmmmmmmm!

Now to combine the two! Surgery time! Slice the patients stomach open. Scoop out all vital organs and replace with a nice space filler. Or in other words slice the pastries in half remove some of the  inner pastry and fill with custard.  

 Mhhhhhhhmmmmmmm, look at that amazing custard oozing out of the delicate pastries. Is your mouth watering yet? No well just wait a moment and if you aren't drooling then maybe you should go get your salivary glands checked. They may have dried up.

Chocolate. The finishing touch. The perfect finish to the perfect pastry. I'm crying. Just give me a minute. 

Okay, I'm back. Sorry about that. Beautiful pastries make me very emotional. But moving on before I start crying again. ;)

This. This is what you should be drooling over. Don't lie and say you didn't drool. Cause you know you did. 

I'm gonna steal one! Or two...or three...or all of them.

Yes, this is what your face should look like when eating one of my eclairs. If it's not than you are no longer invited to eat them. Haha, just kidding. You were never invited in the first place cause I'm gonna eat them all!  

Love ya'll and I just might make you eclairs if you beg hard enough. Oh and you might get to eat one if you tie me down and eat it before I can steal it back. ;)

~Alyssa <3

Ice cream sandwiches

Yes, I know, another post about ice cream. But it's summer! What else am I supposed to be eating? Anyway, years ago when we were in Hawaii we stopped at an ice cream sandwich shop. They had practically every flavor of cookies and ice cream. I fell in love. Like seriously, I was in love. Fast forward a few years, I've had making ice cream sandwiches in the back of my mind but never had the time to make them. Finally I realized I had put it off for too long. It was time. After taking a vote from my family I decided to go with the classic, chocolate chip cookie with vanilla ice cream. Simple but delicious.

So good! I love ice cream but there's always something missing. And that something is cookies. Cookies make everything better. So in other words go beat the summer heat with ice cream sandwiches! 

~Alyssa <3

Ice cream cake

I've always wanted to make an ice cream cake. When I was little we would drive past Dairy Queen and they would always have signs up for their ice cream cakes. I would just drool and beg to get one. Every time the answer was "no". The very idea of a cake made of ice cream fascinated me. So when Javier's birthday came around I jumped on the idea of an ice cream cake. He was all for it. So now I had an excuse! I thought it would be quite simple and quick so me being the procrastinator that I am didn't get started until much too late. I spent hours searching the internet for the "perfect recipe". Ya, perfection doesn't exist. So after exhausting my resources I finally decided to just make up a recipe for myself. Typical me, right?

So I made a chocolate cake, I actually really liked the recipe I used. It was really moist and rich. I was going to say I would have to keep that recipe around but than I realized that I had already forgotten which recipe it was... Maybe I should pay more attention... next time.

After baking the perfect chocolate cake I put the strawberry ice cream into the same cake pans I used to bake the cake (after cleaning them, duh). Plopped them out on a plate and stuck them back in the freezer. As this was all last minute they didn't get to freeze for long, it would have been better to let them freeze for a couple hours not a couple minutes. But again I was procrastinating so that't all the time I had.

After opening the freezer and staring at the ice cream every 20 seconds or so I decided they were frozen enough. I took them out and one at a time stuck them between layers of cake.

And freeze!

Perfect, right?

Ya...not so perfect anymore. This is why freezing the ice cream for a longer duration would be helpful. But hey, it all worked out in the end so it's cool, right?

I made a plain vanilla whipped cream frosting and just simply quick frosted it. I was running out of time at this point. 

Done. Simple and YUMMY. Yes, it almost lived up to my expectations. I say almost because, well I had very high expectations. Would I make it again? YES! Would I change anything? YES! Sorta, I'm thinking a mint chocolate chip one with chocolate whipped cream frosting would be scrumptious. ;)

~Alyssa <3

Granola bars

Well, I like snacks. It's actually healthier to eat more smaller meals instead of fewer larger meals. So I always end up needing a snack mid-afternoon. But do you know how hard it is to find good, healthy snacks? Really hard. Every snack we have in the house seems to have something in it that I either don't like or try to minimize in my diet. And I don't like buying processed foods for many reasons, including health freak reasons and price reasons. So I got to thinking about what I could make that would be quick, simple and yummy. And well the obvious answer was granola bars. I spent a while online trying to find a good recipe and I couldn't find any that I particularly likes. So what do I do? Well the typical Alyssa thing, make my own recipe up. Sometimes it works really wonderfully and well, other times... it's... it's interesting.
So I basically threw together a bunch of ingredients I had in the house that I thought would taste good.

Here's the ingredient that I put in but I think you can basically put in whatever you want.
Toasted chopped almonds
Toasted oats
Toasted sunflower seeds
Raisins
Shredded coconut
Peanut butter
Honey
Coconut oil
Vanilla

I just tossed all the dry ingredients together, mixed the wet ingredients together in a saucepan, tossed the two mixtures together, pressed it all into a pan and cooked it for 15 minutes.

After taking them out and letting them cool I cut them into granola bar sized rectangles and of course since it was an experiment I had to eat one. They tasted really, really good. They we're a bit crumbly so next time I make them I'm going to maybe add a bit more peanut butter and honey to make them stick together better. But overall for one of my experiments they turned out really well. 

~Alyssa <3