Chocolate Eclair Torte

Everybody loves Chocolate Eclairs, right?  However, making the vanilla custard filling and chocolate ganache from scratch and messily filling pastries can be time consuming and delicate work.  Well, here's a recipe that has all the eclair flavor (with a few handy shortcuts) in an easy to make cake!  We hope you love it as much as we do!

1 cup water
1/2 cup butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 eggs
1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
3 cups cold milk
2 packages (3.4 oz. each) instant vanilla pudding mix
1 carton (12 oz.) Cool Whip, thawed
2 to 4 Tablespoons chocolate syrup

In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring the water, butter and salt to a boil.  Add flour all at once and stir until a smooth ball forms.  Remove from heat; let stand for 5 minutes.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Continue beating until mixture is smooth and shiny.

Spread mixture into a greased 9x13 baking pan.  Bake at 400 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until puffed and golden brown.  Cool completely on a wire rack.  If desired, remove puff from pan and place on a serving platter. 

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese until light and fluffy.  Add the milk and pudding mix; beat until smooth.  Spread over puff; refrigerate for 20 minutes.  Spread with the Cool Whip; refrigerate.  Drizzle with chocolate syrup just before serving.  Refrigerate leftovers.  Serves 12. 

Source:  Taste of Home Most Requested Recipes

Homemade Wendy's Frosties

Discovered from a fellow food blogger, we have made this recipe twice in the past week.  For us, that is really saying something!  With several 100 degree days already this summer, we now find ourselves stockpiling our freezer with cool whip and our pantry with sweetened condensed milk to make this over and over again.  No need to get the kids in the blistering car and waste the gas to head to Wendy's. . . whip this three-ingredient version up at home for mere pennies compared to what the drive-thru would cost!  Enjoy!  

NOTE:  We don't have a giant sized ice cream freezer.  We have a small countertop Cuisinart one.  This recipe was most likely designed for a larger ice cream maker.  If you have one, great.  If not, we just cut this recipe in half, and it fits our ice cream maker perfectly.

1 14-oz can Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 12-oz tub Cool Whip
1 Gallon Chocolate Milk

Combine sweetened Condensed milk and Cool Whip in large bowl.  Pour into Ice Cream Maker and add Chocolate Milk until it reaches the fill line.  Turn on Ice Cream Maker and let freeze.  AMAZING. 

Summer Cool-Down Treat: Homemade Fudgesicles

Looking for an easy, two ingredient way to beat the heat?  Look no further!  This is one of our favorite discoveries from good ol' Pinterest!

1/3 cup Nutella
1 Cup Milk

Place Nutella and milk in a blender, and blend until smooth.  Pour into popsicle molds and freeze.  That's it!  Depending upon the size of your molds, this makes anywhere from 4-6 fudgesicles.

Traditional Haws Family "Sugar n' Cinnamon Cereal"

In my (Aaron's) family, there has always been a tradition:  "Sugar n' Cinnamon cereal."  It is a simple concoction consisting of Cream of Wheat, sugar, and cinnamon, spread on a plate.  My mom loved Cream of Wheat when she was little, and so my Grandma would make it often.  However, my mom didn't like that it took forever to cool.  So, my genius Grandma spread it on a plate so it would cool faster.  Thus the tradition was born!  My mom made it for me, and I loved sprinkling cinnamon and sugar over the whole thing.  The sugar melts into this yummy liquid "goo" over the surface, and it is sooooo good!  You just simply eat the cereal in a "spiral" starting from the outside because it cools faster on the edges.  I love the fact that I have now passed this tradition on to our kids!  So, the next time you make plain Cream of Wheat, try it this way!  It just may become your new favorite!  :-)

Lemon Blueberry Bread

Krista Lyons, a colleague of mine in the MBA program at Boise State University, shared her AMAZING bread recipe with me.  This moist, decadent lemon bread studded with blueberries is drizzled with a quick homemade syrup at the end which gives it a little extra lemony "punch."  She would often make this batter into muffins and bring them to our late-night accounting study groups.  You may need to double this recipe because I guarantee you'll devour the first loaf in no time.  This recipe is DELICIOUS!  Thanks, Krista, for sharing!!!

BREAD:
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 Tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
Grated Zest of 1 medium lemon
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup fresh blueberries* (I would actually increase this to about 1/3 cup - delicious!)


LEMON SYRUP:
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
Grated Zest of 1 medium Lemon

Preheat oven to 350, and spray a loaf pan (could use mini loaf pans or muffin tins also - adjust bake time accordingly) with nonstick cooking spray.

In a medium bown, combine flour, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.  In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar for 3 minutes until light and fluffy.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until fluffy.  Add the lemon zest and buttermilk, beating until smooth.  On low speed, blend in the dry ingredients until just combined, careful not to overmix.  Gently fold in the blueberries with a spoon until just mixed.

Spoon batter into prepared pan(s), smoothing the top.  Bake for about 1 hour, or until tester comes out clean.

While bread is baking, stir sugar and lemon juice together in small bowl until sugar is dissolved, then set aside.  When the bread is done, immediately turn out onto a large piece of foil, or onto a cooling rack with wax paper or foil underneath.  With a toothpick, pierce the top of the bread in several places.  Re-stir the lemon syrup mixture and then slowly drizzle over warm bread.  Sprinkle the top with the grated zest, and let cool completely before slicing.


*To help prevent the blueberries from sinking to the bottom of the loaf, dust them with a bit of flour before adding to batter.


Yield:  1 loaf