Salzburg, Austria

For Easter weekend, we spent a wet and rainy few days in Salzburg, Austria. Despite not being properly attired for such dreary weather, we enjoyed strolling around town and experiencing as much as we could stand in the picturesque town. Austria continues to be one of my favorite European countries for its beauty, food and history.

Our very first stop in Salzburg was to the Salzburger Freilichtmuseum. The museum has amassed a wonderful selection of old homes and buildings to create a mini town complete with its own train. We came late in the day so entry was half-price (bonus!) and enjoyed walking around the grounds. 

Our weekend accommodations were at the JUFA Salzburg City hotel. They had a friendly staff, breakfast was included and it was dog-friendly. Our room looked out to the Hohensalzburg Fortress. 

The Easter bunny managed to find us in Salzburg and delivered a chocolate bunny to our room!

One of the top attractions in Salzburg is Schloss Hellbrunn. Our entry ticket included a tour of the trick fountains, palace and folk art museum. The trick fountains were really neat to experience, even on a dreary, rainy day. 

We also took in a marionette show while in Salzburg. The show was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Despite not understanding all the dialogue, it was cute to see the show. Before the show started, Charles enjoyed a coffee and we shared some Mozartkugel. 

We had about two hours of sunshine after the marionette show! 

The other exciting experience during our visit to Salzburg was at Edelweiss Cooking School where we learned how to make apple strudel and Salzburger Nockerl. Both desserts were easier than I was expecting, so maybe I'll try to make them at home soon!

Salzburger Nockerl is a soufflé dessert that is supposed to represent the mountain peaks surrounding Salzburg. 

Guava Cream Cheese Pound Cake

One of my very favorite things on the planet is my cream cheese pound cake. I don't even remember where the original recipe came from, but I make it as often as I can justify. It is creamy and just has the best flavor. 

Recently I had ordered some guava paste online to make guava and cream cheese pastries. With the remaining guava paste packages, I was thinking about making a guava cake. I saw a recipe for guava pound cake where the author said she substituted one cup of sugar for guava paste in her original pound cake recipe. So I chose to do that with my cream cheese pound cake. It turned out so good! 

To top my guava pound cake, I attempted to make lime Swiss meringue buttercream. That was a fail. On my first attempt, it was both soupy and curdled. After fighting with it, I gave up and scooped it into a bowl to mess with the next day. The next day I played around with it again by heating it up and re-whipping. That fixed the curdled part, but it was still too loose. I tried cooling it in the fridge and then whipped it later after bringing to room temperature. It is thicker than it was, but more like a whipped cream thickness. That's ok! I have just been topping my pound cake slice with a dollop of my lime Swiss meringue cream and have been perfectly happy! 

 

Peanut Butter Pretzel Magic Cookie Bars

We are dessert people, if you did not know that already. Like one of the contestants on the most recent Great British Bake-Off said, I don't just have a sweet tooth. I have sweet TEETH. 

I had a can of sweetened condensed milk and a couple sleeves of graham crackers in the pantry and thought "let's make magic cookie bars!" But I did not have any coconut. I scoured Pinterest for a variation that included items I actually had on hand and then checked my Beale Officers' Spouses' Club cookbook. It's one I hardly ever use and so sometimes I open it up and look through to justify keeping it. I found a recipe for PMS Bars which had pretzels and peanut butter chips instead of coconut. I used that recipe as inspiration and went off-book a bit for this my creation. 

Introducing my Peanut Butter Pretzel Magic Cookie Bars! They are sweet, crunchy and delicious. If you love the sweet-salty combo, then these will be right up your alley. I have NO idea how many pretzels or how much peanut butter I used, so if you make these use your best judgement. In my opinion, you cannot really have too much of either ingredient. 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Baklava

We had a very non-traditional Thanksgiving this year. We ate zero turkey, no normal Thanksgiving sides and no pie. I actually did not mind it. I had some traditional Thanksgiving meals twice prior to Thanksgiving, so that was checked off for me and Charles did not seem to really care. Instead, we made reservations at a local "American" restaurant where I had a steak and Charles had salmon. It was very delicious and relaxing. No stress about cooking and no dishes to clean up afterward. Of course, it is a lot easier to eat out when not in the United States where everyone celebrates Thanksgiving. For Germans, it was just a normal Thursday. 

In lieu of pie, Charles requested one of his favorite desserts--chocolate peanut butter baklava. I found the recipe a few years ago on Pinterest. I do not make it very often. It's an easy recipe, but because of the phyllo dough it is a bit of a process to put together. But if you love baklava and the chocolate-peanut butter combination, then you will very much enjoy this one! 

As the recipe states, it is extremely helpful to have everything ready at your workstation before starting the phyllo dough process. I have made this recipe by myself, but it is 100% better if you have a buddy that helps out. The way we do it is I butter and layer the phyllo and Charles adds the peanut butter and chocolate chips. Plus it is just more fun to do it together. 

One piece of advice, do not make this while hungry. Because we had an old person dinner scheduled (our reservation was for 4:30pm) and I made this prior to that, I was pretty hungry while preparing this. I have a tendency to get a little grumpy when I am hungry and I snapped at Charles over who knows what when we were starting to make this. For the health of your relationship, avoid baking while hangry. 

Sorry no pictures. But trust me, it is yummy!

 

Chocolate Peppermint Sugar Cookie Bars

During the holidays, I love chocolate and peppermint anything! Peppermint mocha...yes please! Peppermint hot chocolate...mmmm! Peppermint sprinkled on homemade brownies...double yes! So when I saw this recipe for chocolate peppermint sugar cookie bars I knew I had to give them a try! They turned out really delicious, but you have to eat them pretty quickly because the cookie base hardens quicker than other cookies. 

Strawberry Lemon Bars

Strawberry and lemon is a great combination for sweet and sour! It also makes a great dessert. Bring these to your next summer potluck and everyone will leave happy.

Blueberry Danish

I had purchased a box of puff pastry with no real plans on how to use it. With an HOA board meeting coming up (yes, I'm one of those crazy people who served on an HOA board), I wanted to bring something to share with my fellow board members. I found this recipe on Pinterest and thought I would give it a try because I love cheese Danish and adding blueberry and almond could only make it better! They turned out really great. I really should make these again soon...

Lemon Cream Cheese Cake

One of the neighbors on my street planned a potluck for everyone and I used it as a chance to try out a new recipe. Originally I planned to try a recipe for lemon poppy seed bars, but the grocery store on base was out of poppy seeds so I decided to try for something else instead of stressing out trying to find them at another store. I ended up grabbing some cream cheese while at the store...just in case. When I returned home and searched Pinterest for recipes for lemon desserts, I found this one for lemon cream cheese cake and thought it sounded good for a summer evening get-together. 

It is always a risk trying a new recipe for an event. I worry a bit about if it does not taste good. That was especially on my mind for this occasion because we are new to the street and I had never shared baked goods with my neighbors, so they would have no idea that I am generally a good baker. Luckily they told me the cake was really delicious and I confirmed when I tasted it! It did not have as big of a lemon punch that I thought, but that may be because instead of lemon zest I used a couple drops of lemon essential oil. I also had to bake it quite a bit longer than the recipe stated, but I am not sure if that is an issue with the recipe or with my oven. If you try this one out, just keep an eye on it and take it out when it is no longer very jiggly in the middle. 

Soft Gingerbread Cookies (Vegan-style)

I love reading, but mainly Kindle books which makes me unusual among other readers (at least the impression I get from my book club is that they prefer real books). For this past month's book, we read Washington's Spies. I thought it sounded interesting since I enjoy history, but for some reason this book fell flat with me. But, as usual, I gave it a try and finished it in time for our book club meeting.

This month I hosted book club at my house. When I host, I like to cook and bake. It's just part of hosting, in my opinion. One of our regulars follows a vegan diet which proves to be slightly challenging when I menu plan. But luckily I was able to come up with a couple options that were pretty tasty.

For a sweet treat, I baked soft gingerbread cookies. I have made them before, but not a vegan version, so I was a little nervous about how they would turn out. They came out great! Maybe a little too good because I can't stop eating them!

To make them vegan, I substitute coconut oil for the butter and a flax seed mixture for the egg. Easy as pie...well, cookies. Here's the original recipe if you want it: One Little Project.

Design: Pumpkin Spice Bunco

I will be hosting Bunco again this month. I immediately thought of Pumpkin Spice as a theme. If you happen to be a fan of Brant Hansen, you may agree that pumpkin spice is all hype and that no one actually likes it--Contrived scarcity and fear of missing out. I will admit that it's not something that I would want to consume all year round, but a little bit around this time of year is enough for me. I've enjoyed a few pumpkin spice lattes and such.

Hosting will also give me a reason to make Upside Down Pumpkin Cake! I was introduced to this dish back when we lived in Ohio. I attended a work party and my boss' boss brought it. It is incredibility delicious and moist. Plus it's super easy to make. If does use a boxed cake mix. If you've been following me so a while you'll know I'm not a huge fan of boxed cake mixes. The last couple of times I've made this dish I was able to find mixes that don't have a lot of junk in them. Hopefully I'll have that same luck again.

 

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

I love chocolate. I love oatmeal cookies. Combine the two and it is pretty awesome. I found this recipe on Pinterest a while back and finally decided to make them. It makes a whole bunch, so I sent a tray to work with Charles. He came home with an empty tray and tons of compliments. I altered the recipe just slightly, but you can see the original recipe by visiting Something Swanky.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
2 eggs
1/2 t baking soda
1 t salt
1 t vanilla
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup old fashioned oats
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Beat together the butter, brown sugar and applesauce until creamy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix in-between each addition. Add the salt and vanilla. Mix well. Mix in cocoa powder, flour, oats and baking soda until dough forms, but don't over mix. Add the chocolate chips and mix.

Scoop onto cookie sheets by rounded tablespoons. Bake for 10 to 14 minutes, until edges are set.

You HAVE to make these

I found my new favorite food item the other day! I was trying to decide what to make for dinner. All our meat was in the freezer, so that was not an option. I thought it was going to be an oatmeal kind of night, but I thought scrambled eggs and grits would be good. Who doesn't love breakfast for dinner? And then I had the genius idea to make sweet potato biscuits. I have never in my life made biscuits, but I had just seen it done on Cutthroat Kitchen and it actually looked pretty easy. I am sooooo glad that I did because they turned out so amazing! The recipe was found on Pinterest, of course. See the original recipe here: Call Me PMC.

Sweet Potato Biscuits

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 t salt
1 T baking powder
2 T sugar
3/4 cup cooked, mashed sweet potatoes
1/4 cup very cold butter, cut into cubes
5 to 7 T milk

Directions
Cook your sweet potato(es). I cooked mine in the microwave for about 8 minutes.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Grease a skillet (or in my case, a cake pan) with butter to prevent sticking.

In a small bowl, whisk together sweet potatoes and 5 tablespoons of milk.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Cut in butter with a pastry blender or fork until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add sweet potato mixture and stir gently to combine. Add more milk, if needed. Your dough needs to be moist enough to stay together and firm.

Sprinkle flour on your work surface (I have this awesome silicone mat that I used for the first time and I loved it). Turn the dough onto the surface. Knead two to three times until the mixture comes together. Pat dough so it is one inch thick. Cut into round biscuits and place in prepared skillet/pan. Bake until lightly browned, about 14 minutes.

Thanksgiving dessert: Chocolate Pecan Pie Bars

For my second homemade dessert for Thanksgiving I wanted something with chocolate. Traditional Thanksgiving desserts do not normally contain chocolate (at least not the ones I always had growing up), but I love chocolate. I came across a recipe for Chocolate Pecan Pie Bars (Pinterest, of course). Tada!

Chocolate Pecan Pie Bars

Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter, cold and cubed
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 1/4 cups flour
1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk
3 T unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 8oz bag pecan halves
1/3 cup mini chocolate chips (I think I just used more regular sized chocolate chips)

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 pan or line with foil and then grease.
In a large bowl, use a pastry cutter or fork to cut the butter, sugar and flour together until crumbly. Press the crust into the pan and bake for 12 minutes.
Meanwhile, combine sweetened condensed milk and cocoa powder in a small bowl and set aside.
Once the crust has finished baking, remove from the oven and sprinkle with 2 cups chocolate chips and the pecans.
Pour the chocolate condensed milk mixture evenly over the top. Return the pan to the oven and bake for another 15 to 18 minutes.
Immediately sprinkle with chocolate chips (mini or regular).
Cool bars on a wire rack before cutting into bars. Store in an airtight container.  

Thanksgiving dessert: German Apple Cake

As I mentioned in my Thanksgiving entry, I made a couple desserts to accompany the sweet potato pie that came with our meal. Usually I make Caramel Apple Pecan Pie for this holiday, but I wanted to make something different. For our Oktoberfest party I made an apple cake that was AMAZING! I knew it would be a hit at Thanksgiving, too. Of course, I found the recipe on Pinterest. To see the original recipe, click here.

German Apple Cake

Ingredients
2 large eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1 3/4 cup white sugar
1 t vanilla
2 cups flour
2 t cinnamon
1 t salt
1 t baking soda
4 cups thinly peeled and sliced apples (Granny Smith are my favorite)

Frosting
1 8oz pkg cream cheese
3 T melted butter
1 t vanilla
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

*Since my husband does not like cream cheese, I just made regular vanilla frosting from the Betty Crocker Big Red cookbook

Directions
Preheat over to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x13 baking dish.
Add oil to eggs in mixer and beat until foamy. Add the sugar and vanilla; mix. Add the flour, cinnamon, salt and baking soda. Mix together. Add apples by folding in with a spoon. The batter will be very thick. It seems like there are more apples than batter. This is normal.
Bake for 50 to 60 minutes.

Make frosting. If following recipe for cream cheese frosting, she said add a little milk if it's too thick.

Almond Poppy Seed Bread

When I was growing up, I don't remember my parents hosting a lot of parties or attending a lot of things. Occasionally my mom would host or attend an event and would make Almond Poppy Seed Bread. I am sure she made it other times, but I always associate this recipe with parties. It is the most delicious bread on the face of the planet. If you do not agree, then you are just wrong. ;)

I have made it a few times thanks to the family cookbook my mom put together and gifted to me. Each time everyone says how amazing it is. Of course!

Today I hosted a spouse get-together. It wasn't well attended which was a bummer. But I made my bread and the three people that came all said it was delicious. The spouse event was a Potluck and Recipe Swap so I made a cute recipe card for everyone to take home. I figured it would be nice to share with all of you, too!

Cookie time!

Tomorrow I am hosting a Christmas themed book club meeting at my house. We read Santaland Diaries which is a great choice for a December book club meeting. The book (the version I read was actually a play) is very short and easy to read. Hosting gives me an excuse to do some major Christmas baking. I am very excited. Here is what I have planned:

Gooey Brownies
I'm going to add crushed candy canes on top. Yummy!

Soft Gingerbread Cookies
Don't these look soft and yummy?

Oreo Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookies
Long name...and I'm making mine with Newman O's instead of Oreos.I love chocolate and peppermint together.

Peanut Butter Fudge

Peanut Butter Cookies with Hershey Kisses
These are a classic. I don't know why I don't make them more often.

Magic Cookie Bars
My mom, sisters and I always made these during the Christmas season when I was growing up. It's not Christmas without them. Plus they are super simple to make.

I'm gaining 10 pounds just by thinking about all these recipes!

Bread Machine: Peanut Butter Bread

I recently tried another new bread recipe from the good ol' Betty Crocker Bread Machine Cookbook. This time I made Peanut Butter Bread.

My loaf turned out kind of misshapen, but still tasted good. I  used it to make Chocolate French Toast. It was a good combination. But the bread is just as tasty toasted with a bit of Nutella on top. Mmmm!

This recipe is for either a 1 lb loaf or 1.5 lb loaf. I didn't realize that when I put the ingredients in and only put ingredients in for a 1 lb loaf at first. My bread machine does not have a 1 lb option. So I had to put more of each ingredient in to make a 1.5 lb loaf. This is probably why (or part of the reason why) my loaf turned out looking funny.

Ingredients
1 lb loaf
2/3 cup water
1/4 cup peanut butter
2 cups bread flour
1 T packed brown sugar
3/4 t salt
1 1/4 t yeast

1.5 lb loaf
1 cup plus 1 T water
1/2 cup peanut butter
3 cups bread flour
3 T packed brown sugar
1 t salt
2 t yeast

Measure carefully, placing all ingredients in bread machine pan in the order recommended by the manufacturer.

Select Sweet or Basic/White cycle. Use Light or Medium crust color.

Bread Machine: Vanilla Sour Cream Bread

I have not posted a bread recipe in a while. With the move, homemade bread was on the back burner (not literally, of course). :)

My most recent loaf was a Vanilla Sour Cream Bread from the Betty Crocker bread cookbook. I chose this specifically to make French Toast with it. It was very yummy as French Toast and plain.

Ingredients
1 1/2 lb loaf
1/2 cup water
1 T vanilla (seems like a lot to me, but it gave a good vanilla flavor)
1/3 cup sour cream
1 egg
1 T butter, softened
3 cups bread flour
2 T sugar
1 1/4 t salt
2 t yeast

2 lb loaf
2/3 cup water
1 1/2 T vanilla
1/3 cup sour cream
1 egg
1 T butter, softened
4 cups bread flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 t salt
2 t yeast

Measure carefully, placing all ingredients in bread machine plan in the order recommended by the manufacturer.

Select Sweet or Basic/White cycle. Use Light crust color. Do not use delay cycles.

Bake Off!

This afternoon I participated in a Bake-Off. It was hosted by the base community center. It ended up just being me against one other lady, but it was a lot of fun. It took me a few days to decide what to make. I decided on my Banana Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting.

I ended up winning Best Tasting! My competitor's cupcakes were salted caramel mocha and tasted very good, too. I am glad I was not a judge having to choose between the two.

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Can I just say yum, yum, yum! For our Valentine's Day dessert we planned to have fondue. One of my favorite fondue dippers is pound cake. Yes, it is a LOT easier just to buy a loaf of pound cake at the store. But if you've been following my blog you probably understand why I would have an issue with that. Who knows what is in store bought pound cake? I would rather make it myself. I am SO glad that I did. This recipe makes a delicious pound cake. Beside eating it with fondue, we have enjoyed it with ice cream and with homemade caramel sauce. It has been delicious every way.

The recipe was found on Pinterest and is featured on the blog This IS How I Cook.

Ingredients
3 sticks butter, room temp
1 8oz package of cream cheese, at room temp
3 cups sugar
pinch of salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
6 large eggs, at room temp
3 cups flour, at room temp ;)

Grease and flour (or just grease if you're lazy like me) 2 8x4 loaf pans or one 10" tube pan. I used a bundt pan. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Cream butter, cheese and sugar until light and fluffy. Add salt and vanilla, beating well. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Gradually beat in flour on low speed. Spoon mixture into pan(s). Make sure not to overfill your pan(s).

Bake about 1 1/2 hours or until a skewer comes out clean.