Apple Blueberry Crisp

Michael Metzler Jr.8 Comments

Blueberries added with apples make a great twist on the classic apple crisp.

If you want the recipe to make more, then increase the amount of apples and blueberries, and put it in a 9×13 dish instead of the smaller pan.

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Ingredients:

Topping

⅔ cups flour

½ cup oats

⅔ cup brown sugar

¾ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup cold unsalted butter

Filling

4 apples

3 cups blueberries

1 teaspoon cinnamon

⅛ teaspoon nutmeg

¼ cup flour

¼ cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

3 tablespoons melted butter

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons milk

DIRECTIONS:

Mix together flour, oats, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a food processor, or bowl. Add in chunks of cold butter and process or manually cut in the butter until it is small crumbs. Set in fridge until needed.

For filling, core, cut, and peel apples, and put them a large bowl. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Stir flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, melted butter, lemon juice, sugars, milk, salt, and vanilla in a small bowl until combined. Pour mixture over apples, and toss to coat completely.

Place apple mixture in an 8×12 pan, and sprinkle all of the crumb topping over it, evenly, until completely covered.

Bake in preheated oven for 35 – 40 minutes until mixture is bubbling, and topping is brown.

If you are serving this recipe to more than 6 people, then add 3 more apples to the mixture, and increase the amount of blueberries, and then put the mixture into a 9×13 pan. Bake longer than usual.

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Olive Garden Copycat Breadsticks

Michael Metzler Jr.Leave a comment

These flavorful breadsticks were made to copy the ones made at Olive Garden, and can be made in just over 90 minutes.

Spread the hot breadsticks with melted butter, and season with a bit of garlic powder to finish it off.

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Ingredients:

1 ¼ cups warm water

2 ½ teaspoons active dry yeast

2 Tablespoons sugar

3 ¼ cups flour, divided

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 ½ teaspoons salt

 

2 tablespoons melted butter

Sprinkling of garlic powder

 

DIRECTIONS:

In a small bowl, put in the warm water, yeast, and sugar, to proof the yeast. Let sit for 5 minutes, or until foamy.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix 2 cups of the flour and salt briefly to combine. Add in the yeast mixture, and stir till all combined. Begin to gradually pour in the remaining 1 ¼ cups of flour until stretchy and smooth looking. Add in the 2 tablespoons of oil and continue to knead with the knead attachment in the bowl mixer. If the mixture is too wet and sticky, add in more flour.

Once dough is the right consistency, take dough out of bowl, spray bowl with nonstick spray, and put the dough back into the bowl. Cover the bowl and let the dough rise for an hour, until doubled in size.

When done rising, cut dough into 12 equal sized pieces, and roll each piece into long breadstick-shaped logs. Place on a greased baking sheet, and let rise for another 20 minutes in a warm place. While rising, preheat oven to 425.

When rise time is done, place the breadsticks in the oven, and bake for 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown.

Once out of the oven, brush the breadsticks with the melted butter, and lightly sprinkle with garlic powder.

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Chow Mein

Michael Metzler Jr.3 Comments

Chow Mein is a great make-ahead-of-time lunch. This recipe uses normal spaghetti noodles, which are easy to find and cook.

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INGREDIENTS:

1/2 a head of cabbage, shredded

2/3 cup of soy sauce

1 (16 oz) pkg. of spaghetti noodles

1 Tbs. Brown Sugar

1 medium sweet onion

3 cloves of garlic

4 carrots, peeled and grate

2 tsp. chopped fresh ginger root

 

DIRECTIONS:

First, peel the ginger root to get skin off. Then chop into small chunks.

Then peel garlic cloves (in picture, note I used a silicone sleeve thingy to peel the garlic cloves, it works really well), and chop into medium chunks, too.

Place Ginger, Garlic, Soy Sauce, and brown sugar into wet-ingredient blender. (you can use a blender, or whatever else works, too.) Blend for 20 seconds, or until everything is finely chopped up.

NOTE: To make things much easier, you could possibly buy cabbage already shredded, and carrots, already shredded, but I just did it manually:

Peel all the carrots with a vegetable peeler, and cut the ends off. Shred with a food processor shredder attachment.

Next, peel outer leaves off cabbage for sanitary reasons, and cut half (the half you’ll be using) into small chunks, small enough to fit in the processor’s chute. If you prefer to chop the cabbage, then do it.

If not, use the easier way: the food processor. With the blade attachment, shred cabbage, and place into a bowl for keeps until you need it.

For onions: Cut onions into inch long thin segments.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Break your raw noodles in half before placing them in the boiling water. Cook for the time indicated on the back of your package. (9 min, average).

WHILE your noodles are boiling, pour two tablespoons of olive oil into a large skillet over medium heat.

When heated up, Put carrots and onions in, stirring, until cooked mostly, about 3 minutes. Then place cabbage in, and stir for one or so minutes. Remove from heat–but be sure it’s warm for when you want to use it.

When noodles are done cooking (you’ll know if they are tender when bitten) then take them out, and pour into a colander in an empty sink to drain. Pour into large serving bowl.

Finally, pour soy sauce mixture into Vegetables, and stir until combined. Then pour the whole vegetable thing into the prepared noodles, mixing until combined. If you wish, you may pour more soy sauce in for more flavor.

See my original post of this recipe on instructables

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Layered Lemon Cake

Michael Metzler Jr.Leave a comment

This layered lemon cake is comprised of three layers: Icing, Lemon Curd, then Icing, on three slices of cake.

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INGREDIENTS:

(Makes one medium size cake, 16 medium slices)

CAKE:

  • 3/4 cup of sugar
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 2 tsp. lemon zest
  • 3 eggs
  • 2 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 2 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice

ICING:

  • 1 tablespoon of butter, melted
  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 tablespoon milk
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice

FILLING:

  • Lemon curd

You can make your own lemon curd, or buy it from the store.

DIRECTIONS:

Grease two cake pans, and preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cut the zest off a 1 lemon. Put it, and the sugar into a food processor, and blend for one minute, until all the zest is finely blended up. Transfer mixture to kitchen aid, or a plain ole stand mixer, and cream in butter. Add eggs one at a time, and then add vanilla.

In a separate medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix into wet ingredients until combined.

Pour batter into the two prepared cake pans, making sure one is thicker (the one you’ll cut lengthwise in half) than the other. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until cake springs back up to touch.

To make icing, whip melted butter, powdered sugar, milk and 1 Tbs. of lemon juice in a smallish bowl. Set to the side.

When they are done baking a cooled off, place the thinner cake section upside down on serving platter. Take the thicker one, and cut lengthwise in half. You’ll have two perfect thin section of cake for an extra layer.

On top of the first section that you placed on the serving platter, spread on half of the icing evenly.

Place one section of the thicker halves on top of this iced layer. Then spread on the lemon curd thickly. Place on the last layer of cake. On this one, spread the final layer of icing. Now you’re ready to serve it. If you prefer, you can always refrigerate a few hours before serving, and it might hold up a little better…

See my original post of this recipe on instructables

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Chocolate Raspberry Valentine Truffles

Michael Metzler Jr.2 Comments

These raspberry heart chocolate truffles are the perfect candy/treat for Valentine’s Day. The outside is hard chocolate coating, and the inside is chewy soft raspberry chocolate. To complete that, they are shaped as hearts; but you can shape it any way you want.

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INGREDIENTS:

Middle:

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup raspberry jam

1 1/2 cup chocolate chips

 

Coating; (if you don’t want to buy it)

Coating recipe

 

DIRECTIONS:

In a small saucepan, heat the heavy cream and the butter until butter is melted and cream is at a slight simmer. Go directly to next step:

Pour the hot cream over the chocolate in a small bowl. (feel free to do variations on different kinds of chocolate; like milk chocolate, or whatever, as long as it is slightly sweetened). Let sit for a second, and then stir until completely smooth and melted.

Mix in the 1/4 cup of raspberry jam. You can also blend it with an immersion blender to make it smooth. Cool in fridge for half an hour or so.

This process will determine the shape of your truffles. And you can be creative here. I used a cookie press (i won from instructables) to press out the refrigerated chocolate cream on parchment paper.

This is purely optional; you can also roll the mixture out and cut out little hearts (no more than 1 inch wide) with little tiny heart cookie cutters when it is hardened. Or, you choose a different way. Ideally, you’ll have uniform little hearts (maybe even smaller than mine) that are easy to dip in the melted candy coating.

after shaping, place in freezer for half an hour before coating in next step:

Once perfectly hardened (in freezer is the fastest way), dip your chocolate centers into your melted chocolate candy coating.

1. First melt the chocolate candy coating in microwave, in a deep bowl. For easy dipping you should have about two cups worth of the candy coating.

2. I used two little toothpicks, and put them underneath the chocolate centers to hold them as they are dipped in chocolate. All you want to do is dip it straight in so that it gets completely covered in chocolate, and then take it straight out. Carefully place on parchment paper.

3. Store in an airtight container once hardened, preferably at room temperature.

See my original post of this recipe on instructables.

chocolate-truffles-prep

Sweet Teriyaki Sauce

Michael Metzler Jr.Leave a comment

This Sweet & Thick Teriyaki Sauce is a great Asian sauce that works with almost any Asian food.

It works well as a baste for grilling things, and even a marinade.

It also works good on fish, making a plain fish (like mahi-mahi or salmon) more flavorful.

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INGREDIENTS:

⅓ cup soy sauce

⅓ cup water

⅓ cup brown sugar

¼ cup avocado oil

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

 

DIRECTIONS:

In a small bowl, thoroughly mix all ingredients (except for cornstarch) together.

Pour mixture into a medium/small skillet over medium heat, and bring to a boil.

Put cornstarch into a small bowl. Pour a bit of the boiling mixture into the cornstarch bowl, and mix until homogeneous.

Pour the resulting substance back into the skillet, and stir until all combined. Boil a bit more, and then turn to low, and continue to cook, while stirring until the mixture becomes thick like syrup.

Remove from heat and use as a baste, and/or a sauce for your fish (salmon, mahi-mahi, etc.)

Store in the fridge, and heat before using.

See my original post of this recipe on instructables.

teriyaki-sauce-prep

French Toast

Michael Metzler Jr.1 Comment

French Toast a great way to change the weekly ‘pancake’ routine; and it serves as a simpler substitute. Whisk up the wet ingredients; dip the bread in; fry the bread; that’s pretty much what French Toast is–simple and good–depending on what bread you use.

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INGREDIENTS: (SERVES 6)

4 eggs

3/4 cups milk

12 pieces of thick bread

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon pumpkin spice

2 teaspoons vanilla

 

DIRECTIONS:

Heat your griddle to 400 degrees. Spray with non-stick spray. Put all the ingredients (not including bread) into a wide bowl, and whisk until thoroughly combined.

Place pieces of bread one at a time into the bowl, and coat with the mixture on both sides. Then place bread onto heated and oiled griddle.

Let the bread sizzle until it is almost completely brown on the other side (see pic), then flip and fry on the other side. Serve hot; with syrup, and other optional toppings.

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Chocolate Raspberry Cake

Michael Metzler Jr.5 Comments

This rich chocolate raspberry cake is a great delicious cake for special occasions. The raspberry mixes perfectly with the chocolate. Raspberry jam mixture fills the middle of this cake, with not-too-rich, but delicious chocolate cake layering it, with chocolate raspberry frosting on the top.

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Ingredients: (makes two nine-inch cakes for stacking)

BATTER:

1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

½ cup chocolate chips

¼ cup cocoa powder

½ cup coffee, hot

1 ¾ cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 ¾ teaspoons baking soda

4 large eggs + 2 egg yolks

½ cup oil

1 cup buttermilk

¼ cup butter, softened

 

FILLING: (Not shown in pictures)

1/2 cup frozen raspberries

1/4 cup raspberry jam

 

FROSTING:

1 cup chocolate chips (8 oz)

⅔ cup heavy cream

4 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ cup sugar

1 teaspoon corn syrup

1 cup frozen raspberries

 

DIRECTIONS:

Grease and flour two 9 inch cake pans, and line with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a saucepan full of water over medium heat, in an empty medium heat-proof bowl, pour hot coffee. Pour in the baking chocolate and cocoa powder and stir until chocolate is melted. Pour in sugar, and stir until it is dissolved. Mix oil in well. Remove from heat and set aside.

NOTE: this contraption (the saucepan with water in it, on medium heat, with a medium bowl on-top of the water) is essentially almost like a double boiler in the way that it works.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside for later.

Prepare buttermilk for pouring. If you don’t have buttermilk, just use an easy substitute: In a measuring glass as shown, pour in one tablespoon of vinegar, and then fill the rest up with milk until it reads as 1 cups worth. Set aside.

This process is called ‘ribboning’ and is a way to make cakes light and fluffy in texture. Put in eggs and egg yolks into stand mixer, if you have one, and beat for a few seconds, until mixed up. Add sugar, and whip on high for a couple minutes, until the mixture is doubled in size, and light and fluffy.

Go straight on to the next step from here.

Now is the time to add everything you’ve prepared: Add the chocolate mixture and softened butter to the sugar egg mixture, and mix until combined. Do not whip. just stir slowly into it.

Then add flour and butter mixture alternately, first flour, then buttermilk, then flour, etc., ultimately starting and ending with the flour. Scrape the sides and keep mixing for a few more seconds, until just combined. Do not overmix.

Pour in equal amounts into the prepared cake pans. Bake in preheated oven (350 degrees) for at least 25 minutes, continually checking at and after the time said.

The cakes are done when a toothpick inserted directly in the middle comes out with only a few moist crumbs.

When cakes are done, turn them upside down on a cooling rack, taking off pan, and then flipping the cakes right-side up again. Let them sit this way to cool for around two hours before attempting to put the frosting on.

Place frozen raspberries in a microwave safe bowl, and heat in ten second intervals, mashing well in between until raspberries are just like puree (as shown in pic).

Mix these crushed raspberries with the raspberry jam, and set aside.

To make the raspberry juice, which will go in frosting:

using the same process described in the last step, mash frozen raspberries in between ten second intervals in microwave, until it is just juicy mash. Strain using cheesecloth or a sieve (cheesecloth is better) into a bowl to obtain the raspberry juice (bottom pic).

This process is very similar to making ganache, just a bit different, with a bit different ingredients.

Melt heavy cream and butter in saucepan, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, and stir in sugar and corn syrup until sugar is dissolved.

Chocolate chips should be in a medium, deep heatproof bowl. Pour this hot heavy cream mixture over the chocolate chips, and stir until chocolate chips are melted.

Stir in the raspberry juice, and then place bowl into an ice bath, as shown above. Stir constantly until frosting is cold, and starts hardening to the sides.

Take out of ice bath, and whip with a beater until frosting is light and fluffy.

Go onto the next instructions immediately before it melts:

Start with the first layer of cake. Spread all of the raspberry jam mixture onto this layer. Then carefully put some of the frosting on top of this. Place the second layer on top of it. Then ice the rest of the cake, sides, and top completely with all the remaining chocolate-raspberry frosting.

A cake frosting knife as shown in pic is very helpful in this situation.

Refridgerate 20 minutes before serving

Store in fridge, completely plastic wrapped to keep it from drying out.

Here’s the link to my original post of this recipe on instructables.

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Chocolate Waffle Cake

Michael Metzler Jr.2 Comments

For those of you who like making chocolate cake, and making waffles, why not do something new and put them together?

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INGREDIENTS:

waffle cake ingredients.jpg

INGREDIENTS:

For the waffles: (makes 4-5 large Belgian waffles)

3 eggs

1 cup coconut milk

¾ cup warm coffee

½ cup chocolate chips, melted

½ cup vegetable oil

4 tablespoons sugar

1 ½ cups white whole wheat flour

1 cup all-purpose flour

½ cup cocoa powder

4 teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon vanilla

 

For Frosting:

1 cup chocolate chips (= 8oz baking chocolate)

⅔ cup heavy cream

4 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ cup sugar

1 teaspoon corn syrup

 

DIRECTIONS:

Prepare a large Belgian waffle iron according to manufacturer’s instructions.

This is the one I used: Cuisinart Belgian Waffle Maker

In a separate medium bowl, combine flours, 4 tablespoons sugar, cocoa, baking powder, and salt.

Dump eggs, coconut milk, oil, and vanilla, into a large bowl.

Dump the dry ingredients into the large bowl with wet ingredients, and mix until smooth and incorporated.

Heat the coffee up in a microwave-proof dish.

Dump in 1/2 cup chocolate chips.

Stir until melted and combined with coffee.

Pour chocolate/coffee mixture into batter.

Mix until combined.

Cook batter in waffle iron, according to instructions. (With my waffle iron I used the no. 3 setting)

You should turn out with 4-5 large waffles. Optionally, you can use a small portion of left over batter: pour the small portion of leftover batter into one corner of the waffle maker. You can use this for decoration on the top of the cake later.

Heat heavy cream and butter in saucepan on medium heat until it just begins to boil. Make sure butter is melted. Return heat to low, and stir in corn syrup, and sugar, until sugar is dissolved. Add vanilla.

Pour hot mixture over chocolate chips in a medium metal bowl, and stir until chocolate is melted.

Place chocolate mixture in bowl in a ice bath, and stir until frosting hardens a bit. Take out of ice bath and whip with a beater until it is light and fluffy.

Don’t ice the waffles until they are completely cooled.

Place one waffle on a serving dish. Spread frosting thinly over it.

Place the second waffle down over, and spread frosting over that.

Do this with the rest of the waffles, spreading over the final part in a thin layer, not the sides.

Here’s where that extra optional waffle corner comes in: You can place it how you want to on the top of the cake on the icing. See picture.

Place in fridge for 15 minutes before serving.

NOTE:

There is not much icing for the waffles, which is why you should only do thin layers, and not over the sides. But if you want to, you can double the icing, and make it look more like a standard cake.

However, this look still looks good as you can see the sides of the waffles, and reduces sugar.

And that’s it! Thanks for reading, and be sure to also check out my original post of this recipe on instructables.

 

 

Traditional Hot Salsa

Michael Metzler Jr.Leave a comment

Salsa makes a good snack served chips for any occasion with lots of people. This particular salsa instructable makes alot of salsa, so be sure that you plenty of people to eat it!

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While this salsa is rather hot and spicy, it is easy to change the ingredients to make it mild or medium.

 

Ingredients:

1 (14.5 oz) can of tomatoes, with juice

3 whole tomatoes

4 large clumps cilantro

4 large cloves garlic

2 jalapeno peppers (for milder salsa, use 1 jalapeno)

1 medium onion (use less for milder salsa)

½ teaspoon sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 lime, juiced

 

DIRECTIONS:

Cut your fresh tomatoes into large chunks.

Pour HALF of the tomatoes from the can with their juice into the blender. Leave the OTHER HALF in the can.

Coarsely chop the garlic, as shown.

Remove the leaves of the cilantro from its stems, and throw the stems away. Its the leaves you want.

Cut open the pepper(s), and dump the seeds out. Then cut into smaller pieces.

Also prepare the onion, so that it looks like it does in the picture.

Throw all this prepared produce into the blender.

  • Lime juice into blender, and the sugar and salt.
  • Then Blend all the ingredients on medium speed until thoroughly combined.

Now that you’ve combined all the other ingredients, and pulsed them on medium speed:

Dump in all the fresh tomatoes and THE OTHER HALF of the canned tomatoes.

Pulse on LOW speed for a bit until the texture is coarse and chunky. I learned to do this the hard way, and pulverized most of the salsa….

You can store your salsa in the fridge in an airtight container.

Take out to serve at parties, lunches, dinners, breakfasts, and whatnot.

See step-by-step picture instructions on my original post of this recipe on instructables.

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Rich Chocolate Fudge

Michael Metzler Jr.Leave a comment

This chocolate fudge is a perfect homemade dessert to serve at parties or other large gatherings. Half the recipe and have enough for the whole family!

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INGREDIENTS:

chocolate-fudge-ingredients

INGREDIENTS:

1 7oz jar marshmallow creme

1 cup butter

3 (12oz) packages chocolate chips

2 teaspoons vanilla

4 1/2 cups sugar

1 (12 fl oz) can evaporated milk

1 cup walnuts (optional)

 

DIRECTIONS:

Finely chop walnuts.

Throw chopped walnuts, chocolate chips, butter, marshmallow creme, and vanilla in bowl. If butter is unsalted, sprinkle in some salt.

Combine evaporated milk and sugar in a large saucepan, and bring to a boil, constantly stirring.

Once it has reached boiling, continue in the boiling stage for 15 minutes, constantly stirring.

Pour boiling sugar mixture into all the other ingredients in the large bowl.

Stir it all with a spatula until completely homogeneous.

Spread evenly onto a 9×13 glass baking dish.

Place in the fridge and cool for at least 4 hours before serving.

Consume moderately. Recipe not meant for small family. Share with friends and family as homemade gifts, or serve at parties or other gatherings.

For step-by-step instructions with pictures, visit my original post of this recipe on instructables

RECIPE REVIEW: Apple Crisp from “Tastes Better From Scratch”

Michael Metzler Jr.Leave a comment

Apple Crisp is a great dessert for any time. It can be made for pretty much any holiday, substituting apple pie on some occasions, and works great as well for birthdays–just be sure to serve with ice cream on the side!

This post will be my “RECIPE REVIEW” of the Apple Crisp recipe from ‘Tastes Better from Scratch.com’

Apple Crisp main.jpg

SUMMARY:

I’d give this a 5 star as far a apple crisps go. It’s classically construed; so if you don’t mind cutting a bunch of apples into thin skinless slices, this recipe is easy to accomplish, just as most apple crisps are–and I’d highly recommend it, having made it twice, and it having turned out simply awesome both times. I don’t know about you, but when it comes to thickening mixtures of fruit in the oven, I don’t take the outcome for granted. But this recipe seems to be simple, sweet, and foolproof. Foolproof is an important part.

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METHOD:

This recipe calls for only 3-4 apples, and requires an 8×8 baking dish. I think that is a good size for 4 or less people, so the first time I made this I doubled the recipe and simply put it in a 9×13, in order to feed more people. That works just as fine. However, if you double it, make sure to leave it in the oven for about ten minutes longer, until apples are soft.

As with most crisps, you’ll be cutting some cold butter into a mixture of oats, sugar, and salt, and the like. This is your crumb topping. Make sure to follow the directions and be chilling it as you work with other steps. The same goes for all recipes; be sure to be keeping that cut-in butter cold!

The next thing is you’ll be cutting all your granny smith apples. This can be tedious unless you have a special piece of equipment: an Apple Corer Peeler Slicer. See link to get an idea of what this tool looks like. I recommend you get something like it if you don’t like cutting apples, coring them, and peeling them by hand.

CHANGES:

As I said before, if you want to double the recipe, use a bigger pan and up the time it spends in the oven.

Also, I like doing the cold butter step first, to get that out of the way and in the fridge, to say cold while I do the rest of the steps.

 

So go make your Apple Crisp at TastesBetterFromScratch.com! I highly recommend you try this recipe next time you want a fruity dessert. Go to the recipe here.