Crepes

3 C whole wheat flour (or white)
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 C milk
2 C water
4 lg eggs
1 tsp vanilla
6 Tb melted butter

-Mix flour and salt.
-Wisk in milk and water till smooth
-Wisk in eggs til smooth
-Mix in vanilla and butter

-Lightly grease and heat non-stick pan (only needs greasing for the first crepe if non-stick pan).
-Pour 1/4 to 1/3 C batter onto pan and immediately maneuver pan so batter coats entire bottom surface. (For those in need of mass production, a griddle works too if you can pick it up and tip)
-Cook 1-2 minutes as you would a pancake, but this will be ready to flip a little sooner.
-Flip and cook for approx 1 min.

-Serve hot (can keep hot in a 150 degree warm oven on a cookie sheet)
-Fill with: peanut butter and jam, honey, cream cheese and strawberry jam (oh yum), fruit, veggies/cheese/pepperoni - dip in spaghetti sauce, whatever you like!
-Dust with powdered sugar, spread with a touch of maple syrup, or eat plain with filling.

Yum!!

Y: Forgot to count. Enough to feed 4 very hungry farmers and a couple mini-farmers, or probably 8 normal folk:). 

Black Tie Mousse Cake Close to Home

I love Olive Garden's Black Tie Mousse Cake. Oh yum! I tried making a Copycat recipe from Food.com and was happy to eat the results - ha! Just don't look at the nutritional info and enjoy!

I included their recipe and what I modified in purple below. Wonderful recipe. Thanks, Food.com! I would have just linked to them, but I couldn't figure out a simple way to include the changes or notes I had. This was the fanciest dessert I've ever made. Very fun and time consuming!!

BOTTOM LAYER

• 1 (18 ounce) box of ordinary cake mix (devil's food) Dark Chocolate Fudge 

SECOND LAYER

• 1 teaspoon knox unflavored gelatin
• 1 tablespoon cold water
• 2 tablespoons boiling water
• 4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 4 ounces cream cheese, cubed
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar

THIRD LAYER

• 3 egg yolks
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 teaspoon knox unflavored gelatin
• 1 3/4 cups heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract  
   
• FOURTH LAYER

• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 18 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup white chocolate chips (optional) Almond Bark
• 1 C mini semi-sweet chocolate chips for edges/"crust" 

1 There are FOUR layers to make:

2 BOTTOM LAYER (cake):

3 Bake according to directions on box using 2 round (9-in springform) pans, then cool. Once cooled, use the cake from one pan as one layer (you do not need the second cake from the second pan. In other words, you only need half the box cake. I doubled the whole recipe, except for part 4.) Place this round cake at the bottom of a CHEESECAKE PAN. Press it with your fingers and flatten the cake a little. This is the bottom layer out of four layers.

4 SECOND LAYER (the chocolate mousse):

5 Melt chocolate and cream cheese together. Let cool. Soften gelatin with cold water for 1 minute (sprinkle over water in bowl), then add boiling water, stir until dissolved and clear. Let this cool while you start whipping the heavy cream and sugar. As cream starts to thicken, add gelatin. Continue to whip until stiff peaks form. Add 1/4 of the cream to the chocolate mixture and mix thoroughly. Then fold this into the remaining cream. Once you have it completed, spread this chocolate mousse onto the cake and refrigerate (freeze).

6 THIRD LAYER (the custard):

7 Beat egg yolks until pale. Add sugar, flour, and gelatin (sprinkled over eggs), then beat until mixed. Bring cream and vanilla extract to a boil. Add a small amount of cream to egg mixture while stirring. Gradually add until all of the cream has been added and then pour entire mixture through a strainer into the pan. Continue to cook until custard begins to thicken. Cool slightly, then pour on top of the chocolate mousse layer and freeze while getting the fourth layer ready. (This step is very time consuming but oh so yummy).

8 FOURTH LAYER (the icing):.

9 Please note: this makes a lot of icing so feel free to half this part of the recipe (I just happen to like a lot of icing on top). (I would cut this in half if only making one cake. I like icing and it makes a ton). Bring butter and cream to a boil, pour over chocolate and let sit for 5 minutes. Stir until smooth. Let cool until it starts to thicken. Remove cake from freezer, remove the cheesecake pan collar, then pour some of the icing and use a spatula to spread it evenly across the top and sides of the cake. While this is still wet, put chocolate chips onto the side of the cake. Optional: Melt half a cup of white chocolate chips (in the microwave) and swirl into the icing if you want yours to look like the picture. (I used almond bark, which tasted great but hardened really fast.)

10 Refrigerate FREEZE the cake. Be sure to see the picture. Serve cold. Delicious! I wish I would have cut this while mostly frozen. It is very hard to cut out of the fridge without making it look messy.

Squash or Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

2 C pureed banana, squash or pumpkin (thawed frozen squash worked great)
3/4 C sugar
3/4 C oil
3 eggs
3 C flour (can use half whole wheat)
2 tsp bk soda
2 tsp bk powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1/4 C flax
1 1/2 C semi-sweet mini choc chips

-Mix squash, sugar and oil til well blended.
-Mix in eggs until smooth
-Mix dry ingredients in separate bowl.
-Add to wet ingredients and mix until just combined.
-Bake at 400 degrees in greased muffin cups for 16-20 minutes (until lightly browned).
Y: 24 nice sized muffins and 12 mini muffins

These were very yummy and adapted from a recipe found on MoneySavingMom. I really enjoy trying to cut down the sugar content in baked recipes and am constantly surprised how huge the sugar content is in everyday recipes. One of my favorite cookbooks, More With Less is linked on the side of this blog. That book really keyed me in to nutrition in recipes and making more with less. Hope you enjoy!