During the holiday season I try to find all of my easy, party friendly recipes.  If you thought the Mini Cherry Tarts were simple, these coconut kisses are even easier.  Why?  No cooking involved.  I made this batch from start to finish in less than an hour, refrigeration time included.

If you’re looking for a dessert that’s easy and tasty, try these  mini cherry tarts.  Most of my desserts are baked from scratch, but every now and then I’m willing to compromise if it tastes good.  A big plus to this recipe is that it only calls for four ingredients.  How simple is that?

These mini cherry tarts were part of our Thanksgiving dessert choices and they were a big hit.  Because they are small, some of us ate the mini tart and another dessert as well.  We had banana pudding trifle, red velvet cake and mini cherry tarts.  Some of us didn’t like banana pudding, some didn’t like cake, some didn’t like cherries – so we had something for everyone.

So, break out your muffin tin, cookie cutter and get to baking.

Note – Filling can be made ahead and refrigerated.

Recipe adapted from Pillsbury.

Are you gearing up to bake for the holidays?  I am and I like to gift baked goods to family and friends.  This year banana bread is on my gift list. This banana bread is moist and tasty.  I gave it a trial run last month, shared it with family and coworkers and just watched it disappear.

If you’re looking for a yummy bread to gift, this is a real treat.  Gift this bread with Cinnamon Honey Butter and you will have a friend for life.  Put the banana bread in a cello bag and tie with a festive ribbon.  The honey butter pictured here is in a cute Ball wide mouth, half pint jar.  I bought mine at Walmart.  The honey butter recipe can be found here.

Come join the fun at the My Baking Addiction and GoodLife Eats Holiday Recipe Swap, this week sponsored by Chicago Metallic .”  This recipe, adapted from Joy of Baking.

I’m a late bloomer when it comes to pumpkin desserts.  Lately I’ve tried several recipes that include pumpkin puree and I like it!  I made these whoopie pies and shared them with friends who at first said, “No thank you, I don’t like pumpkin.”  “Try it,” I said, “I think you’ll like it.”  And they did.  The pumpkin whoopie pie coupled with the maple fluff filling makes this a delightful treat.

Gather your ingredients.

Sift dry ingredients together

Beat butter and sugar, then add eggs

Add pumpkin and vanilla

Add flour/spice mixture

Drop heaping tablespoons on prepared baking sheet

Match pies and drop heaping tablespoons of filling on bottom, cover with top

Whoopie pies tend to be slightly sticky, so you may not want to stack them. I usually wrap mine in plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator until we are ready to eat them. They are best served at room temperature.

This recipe, adapted from Joy of Baking, is one of my fall favorites.  Come join the fun at the My Baking Addiction and GoodLife Eats Holiday Recipe Swap, this week sponsored by Spice Islands.”

Related Post:  Chocolate Whoopie Pies

Have you every had attention deficit disorder while baking?  Did you start doing one thing in the kitchen and then found yourself distracted by a random thought?  Well last week I did just that and almost made a very expensive mistake while making brownies.

A few months ago, upon recommendation from a chef at the Viking Cooking School, I purchased a book by Shirley Corriher – BakeWise: The Hows and Whys of Successful Baking with Over 200 Magnificent Recipes.  I decided to try her recipe for fudgy brownies.  I also decided to use the Scharffen Berger chocolate that I had in the pantry.  If you’ve ever used that stuff you know it’s not cheap and you don’t want to make a mess of your recipe.

Anyhow, like a good little baker, I read the recipe ahead of time and collected all of the ingredients before I went to work.  When I got back home I started on the recipe but all of a sudden I wanted to understand the difference between the ingredients in fudgy brownies and cakey brownies.  I turned the page to compare ingredients, then I started to measure out the sugars. I quickly read through the rest of the dry ingredients and saw baking powder.  Wait a minute, I didn’t remember baking powder and there wasn’t any on my counter.  You guessed it, I was on the wrong page.

I guess you’re thinking, “Just put the sugars back in their containers,” but I couldn’t.  Since I read the recipe in advance (like the anal Miss Follow Directions that I am) I knew the sugars were supposed to be combined.  So to save on dishes, I measured them into the same mixing bowl.  Oops!

I quickly read through the recipe for cakey brownies and saw that I was missing a few of the ingredients.  Plus, Mr. J and I really like fudgy brownies.  So it was time to regroup.  I had enough sugar to start over, so that’s what I did.  I ziplocked the first mixture of sugars to use later this week to make the cakey brownies.  They will go into my military care packages.

I started over without any distractions.  The brownies were delicious, Mr. J said they were addictive and that the chocolate was worth every penny.  If you knew how cheap frugal Mr. J is you could really appreciate that last statement!

About the Cookbook

If you are a home baker and wonder what causes some problems that you encounter, you may consider Shirley Corrihers’ book,  BakeWise: The Hows and Whys of Successful Baking with Over 200 Magnificent Recipes.  It does an excellent job of explaining how things work.  A word of caution though, there are some mistakes in the recipes.  I think her editors did a little too much cut and paste.  For instance, in both brownie recipes mentioned above, the recipe has you measure, roast and chop nuts; but it never says to put the nuts in the brownies.

Krissy & Friends

Our friends and relatives in the military love to receive care packages from home; especially when they are deployed overseas.  A friend of mine has a daughter, Krissy, stationed in the Middle East and I try to send her what I call a Goodie Box several times a year.  Why do I call it a Goodie Box?  Because it’s full of goodies.  Krissy’s parents can send her a care package with practical, useful items.  I like to send her goodies that she can share with her fellow military friends.

  Brownies and Mini Pound Cakes

Today I sent Krissy a goodie box with brownies and mini pound cakes.  The brownies were wrapped  individually in plastic wrap and then wrapped together in foil.  They were placed in the food storage box on the left.  The pound cakes were wrapped individually in plastic wrap then foil; each one placed in a food storage box that’s a perfect fit for the little cakes.  All of this wrapping was to protect the goodies from being crushed or mashed up.

The brownies and cakes were placed in a 12” x 12” x 5-1/2” USPS Priority Mail APO/FPO Flat Rate Box, with packing paper placed in the empty spaces to keep items secure.  Next, packing paper was placed on top of the items to make sure nothing moves around.  This size flat rate APO/FPO box ships for $12.95 regardless of weight.  Rates subject to change in the future.

Seal with good quality packing tape, I use Scotch brand.  Tape all seams and corners.  I like to put a piece of tape over the return address and the mailing address.  After this photo was taken, another piece of tape was taped down the center, covering the return address.  The words CARE PACKAGE was typed above Krissy’s name and highlighted in yellow.  PERISHABLE labels were put on each side of the box. For overseas packages, U. S. Customs Form 2976-A has to be completed and affixed to the box.  A former marine told me, when mailing food, the CARE PACKAGE and PERISHABLE labels helps keep delivery from being delayed.

What To Ship

Shipping food can be a little tricky because you want to ship items that won’t spoil, leak, melt or break up during transit.  A few items that travel well are microwave popcorn, Pringles and hard candy.  For detailed information on sending foods safely, click here, to get specific information from the USDA.

Goodies I Ship:  Since I’m a baker, I like to send mini pound cakes and brownies.  I also try to add some dry drink mix such as Crystal Light, Gatorade or Wyler’s.

How to Ship

When practical, I use the large USPS APO/FPO Flat Rate Shipping Box. They can be picked up at the Post Office or ordered online and mailed to your home at no cost to you.  I like them because they are:

1. free
2. sturdy
3. shipped priority mail
4. discounted $2 from the regular flat rate boxes

Of course, you don’t have to use the USPS Flat Rate Shipping Boxes but it’s probably good practice to use a new box.  Walmart carries a good selection of sturdy boxes at reasonable prices.  You will also need:

• correctly addressed label (very important)
• good quality packing tape (brown or clear)
• packing materials to cushion items and keep them from moving around in the box

Do not:

• wrap your box in paper
• secure your packaging with string

For materials to cushion, save the packing materials from Amazon.com and other online stores.  For more information see the related article below.

NOTE:   Christmas Care Packages via USPS Priority Mail should be shipped by December 3, 2011.

Related Article:  Supporting Our Troops Overseas

I have a secret fear –  YEAST.  I know there are all kinds of fears but to my knowledge, mine don’t have a category.  Most of my family, friends and acquaintances know me to be kind of fearless.  But the things I tend to fear are kind of silly:  yeast, hugs, children grabbing me around the leg . . .

OK, back to the yeast.  From time to time I mention my godmother, affectionately called Big Momma.  She was an exceptional baker.  My baking goal is not to emulate any of the world’s top pastry chefs, my goal is to be as good a baker as my Big Mom.

When I was about 9 years old, I had a dream.  I was helping Big Momma bake some bread.  After making the dough, she put it on the kitchen table to rise and we went to bed.  Several hours later I woke up and the dough had filled the kitchen and was on its way through the house.  The yeast was trying to kill us!

To be perfectly honest, this fear may have something to do with a movie made in the 1950’s, The Blob.  If you’ve ever seen that movie you’ll know what I mean.

To this day, almost 50 years later, I am still afraid of yeast.  I’ll try to bake anything as long as the recipe doesn’t call for yeast.  When I decided to change this site to a food blog, one of my young friends asked me to post a recipe for bread.  She thought I was kidding when I said, “I don’t do bread – I’m afraid of yeast.”

Several weeks ago, I began participating in a Recipe Exchange that changes categories every week. Next week’s category is Baking With Yeast.  Guess who won’t be participating.