Bubble Bread

What a yummy treat. It's sweet. It's gooey. It's covered in pecans. It's total "lick-your-fingers-because-it's-good" food! While also known as Monkey Bread, I grew up calling it Bubble Bread. It's so easy to make and it's always a hit. There are never any leftovers!

Bubble Bread

Ingredients:

½ cup chopped pecans (I usually add more)
18 frozen dinner rolls cut in half if you can. ( Small ) In bags in frozen foods.
1 (3.5 ounce) package cook and serve butterscotch pudding mix
½ cup butter
½ cup brown sugar

Directions:

1. Generously butter( or spray well) a Bundt pan.
2. Sprinkle pecans in bottom of pan.
3. Place frozen dinner rolls on top of pecans.
4. Sprinkle dry pudding mix in between and over the top of rolls.
5. Combine butter and brown sugar in a small saucepan. Heat until melted and sugar is disolved well, then pour over rolls.
6. Cover with plastic wrap or wax paper and allow to stand overnight.
7. In the morning, preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
8. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes, until golden brown.

Turn over on a serving dish and enjoy!

*I'd actually like to try making a non sweet version. Maybe a cheesy garlic version. Hmm...

Hazelnut Cake

Hazelnut Cake

When I started my new job back in December of 2009, one of my new co-workers, Karen, gave me a calendar. It's the Pillsbury® Dessert Recipes 16 month 2010 Calendar. I thought she was being nice. Little did I know, the "catch" was that I was supposed to make the special dessert that was pictured each month. Okay, fine. I guess I can do that :) Although, I haven't really stuck to the month to month thing. I just kind of make whatever looks and sounds good at the time. So, this is actually the recipe for the month of June.

The picture I posted includes the original picture from the calendar (top cake) and how mine turned out (bottom cake). Looking at the two, I think I did a pretty darn good job! Now how about the taste? Honestly, I think it was good. It wasn't real sweet, which I liked. It might have been a little dry, but I think that might have been because I used too much ground up hazelnuts in the batter. It was still very good though. All my co-workers seemed to like it. I did double the chocolate glaze part. I work with all women, we love chocolate :)

Here's the recipe, courtesy of my Pillsbury® 2010 Dessert Recipe Calendar.

Hazelnut Cake

16 Servings

Prep Time: 30 mins

Start to Finish: 2 hrs

½ cup butter or margarine

2 packages (2½ oz. each) hazelnuts (filberts) or pecans

3 eggs

1½ cups sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups all-purpose flour

2¼ teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

Glaze:

½ cup whipping (heavy) cream

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (6 oz.)

½ teaspoon vanilla

1. Heat oven to 350ºF. Lightly grease bottom only of 10-inch spring form pan with shortening or cooking spray. In 1-quart saucepan, melt butter over low heat; set aside to cool.

2. Reserve 8 whole nuts for garnish. In food processor or blender, process remaining nuts until ground, making about 1 1/3 cups. Reserve 1 tablespoon for garnish.

3. In large bowl, beat eggs, sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla with electric mixer on medium speed 2 to 3 minutes or until thick and lemon colored, scraping bowl occasionally. On low speed, beat in flour, baking powder, salt and ground nuts, scraping bowl occasionally. Continue beating, gradually adding cooled, melted butter until well blended, scraping bowl occasionally (mixture will be thick). Spread batter evenly in pan.

4. Bake 35 to 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 15 minutes. Remove side of pan; run long knife under cake to loosen from pan bottom. Place heatproof serving plate upside down over cake; turn plate and cake over. Remove pan bottom. Cover cake with cloth towel; cool completely, about 30 minutes.

5. In 2-quart saucepan, heat whipping cream just to boiling; remove from heat. Stir in chocolate chips until melted and smooth. Stir in ½ teaspoon vanilla. Spread glaze over top of cake, allowing some to run down side of cake. Sprinkle reserved ground nuts around top edge of cake; arrange reserved whole nuts over ground nuts.

High Altitude (3500-6500 ft): Heat oven to 375ºF. Increase flour to 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons. Bake 30-40 minutes.

Baking Tip: No spring form pan? Just use a 9-inch round cake pan. Line the pan with foil and generously grease the foil with shortening or cooking spray. Bake the cake for 45 to 55 minutes. After cooling for 15 minutes, use the foil to lift the cake out of the pan.

Enjoy!

Frozen Mini Cinnamon Coffee Cheesecakes

Frozen Mini Cinnamon Coffee Cheesecakes

While on a quest to eating better, I've had fun trying new recipes. The challenge is satisfying Anthony's sweet tooth. The man has to have a dessert every night...and during the day...haha!

I found this recipe on the Weight Watchers website. They're made with Splenda and surprisingly, they're pretty good! So good, Anthony ate two of them the first time I made them. I've made them twice and they've been a hit both times. The second time I made them, I didn't quite put the full amount of Splenda it calls for. Also, in half the mix I added cocoa powder to make them chocolaty. The chocolate ones were topped with half of a maraschino cherry and the regular ones were topped with pineapple tidbits. I'm not a fan of raspberries so I picked something else. Yum!

Frozen Mini Cinnamon Coffee Cheesecakes

Weight Watcher Points Value: 2

Servings: 12

Level of Difficulty: Easy

Preparation Time: 15 Minutes

Total Time: 3 Hours 15 Minutes

Ingredients:

12 Ginger Snaps

2 Tablespoons Decaffeinated Instant Coffee granules

1 Tablespoon Water

½ Cup Splenda No Calorie Sweetener, Granulated

1 (8 ounce) package Light Cream Cheese Spread

1 teaspoon vanilla

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 ½ cups Lite Cool Whip Whipped Topping

1 cup fresh raspberries

Instructions:

1. Line 12 muffin cups with paper muffin liners. Place one cookie in bottom of each muffin cup. Set aside.

2. Mix coffee granules and water in large bowl until coffee is dissolved. Add Splenda, cream cheese, vanilla and cinnamon. Beat with wire whisk until well blended. Gently stir in whipped topping.

3. Spoon evenly over cookies in muffin pan. Top each cheesecake evenly with raspberries. Cover and freeze for 3 hours or overnight.

4. Remove from freezer about 10 minutes before serving to soften slightly. Yields one mini cheesecake per serving.

**I can't wait to try making them with pumpkin puree and adding pumpkin pie spice and nutmeg with the cinnamon instead of the coffee!