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Smoothies are one of those treats that my boys devour. And even better, I can feel really good about it, knowing that they are filled with lots of fruit and good nutrients for them. Head on over to Pom Wonderful to learn all the details about pomegranates and their juice and how good it is for you. They even have some really yummy recipes!
I recently received some bottles of Pomegranate Juice from Pom Wonderful. When I told my husband that I had been contacted by them and would be receiving it, he kind of wrinkled his nose, and said…”Eww, pomegranate juice?” We had never really had pomegranate juice before, so I guess he just thought it sounded bad. Well, let me tell you, those little bottles of juice went so fast in our house, that I had to hide a couple just to be able to cook with it and share the recipe with you!
I served them with Breakfast Tacos and sausage links. I often serve these as Breakfast for Dinner, making it a frugal, under $5 dinner. The nice thing about smoothies is, you can add any fruit that you have on hand and make a special treat. For this smoothie, I added…
Frozen Cherries (a couple big handfuls)
Frozen Blueberries (a couple big handfuls, we picked and froze last season)
2 Bananas, fresh, cut up
1 container of yogurt (single serving size, I used Aldi’s Cherry Jubilee)
St. Patrick’s Day is next Wednesday and I’m getting ready. I baked some Irish Soda Bread, did you know that it wasn’t originated by the Irish, and these yummy little Shamrock Almond Cookies just melt in your mouth.
A couple months ago, when I received my wall calendar from Pillsbury, and was flipping through the months, I spotted a recipe for Almond Sandwich Cookies with pink filling. Well, I got busy sharing other treats and food for Valentine’s Day and didn’t get them baked, so I knew exactly what I wanted to bake for St. Patrick’s Day, but with green filling, of course.
The recipe called for refrigerated sugar cookie dough, which I didn’t want to use, so I set out to find an Almond Cookie dough recipe. The very first place I headed was my friend, Bridget over at Bake at 350 (if you haven’t visited Bridget, run fast…she is amazing!), and I was excited to find that she uses a Vanilla Almond Sugar Cookie for many of her cut out cookies. I followed her recipe exactly…
Ingredients:
3 cups Flour, all-purpose
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1 cup Sugar
2 sticks Butter
1 Egg
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1/2 teaspoon Almond Extract
Directions:
Combine the flour and baking powder, set aside. Cream the sugar and butter. Add egg and extracts, mix well. Gradually add the flour mixture and beat until well combined.
Roll out dough and cut out shapes.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes, if you like a soft sugar cookie, bake a little shorter, if you like a crisp cookie, bake a little longer.
For the filling, I followed the Pillsbury recipe that was on the calendar, except I doubled it.
Ingredients:
4 cups Powdered Sugar (I ended up using about 3 cups and the filling was pretty stiff)
1/2 cup (1 stick) Butter, softened
4 teaspoons Milk
1/2 teaspoon Almond Extract
1 drop Green Food Color
Directions:
Beat butter until fluffy, gradually add a small amount of powdered sugar at a time, alternating with milk and almond extract. I mixed it like I do my Buttercream Frosting.
I wanted to add a little something to the top and had seen the amazing dessert that Amanda at I Am Baker made, but wanted to stay with the green theme. So, I used some of the filling, added a bit more green food color and a dab more of milk, heated it in the microwave. After mixing well, I filled my Wilton Plastic bottle to be able to drizzle with ease. I also sprinkled on some green sugar on the edge.
I couldn’t stop with just the little sandwich cookies, I cut out some larger ones too. I was excited when my son found 7 different shamrock cookie cutters in my basket. I also used them for my St. Patrick’s Garland.
I frosted some with the filling and some with the darker green filling, using the same method I use on Sugar Cookies with Almond Bark.
Are you baking for St. Patrick’s Day? Or have a special meal planned? I’d love to hear about it.
Baking special treats and making Holidays fun, has always been important to me. Irish Soda Bread is a St. Patrick’s Day tradition, (Corned Beef is too, but, sorry I won’t be making it) that I have never made…until now.
“Just like the bagpipes weren’t invented by the Scots, Soda Bread wasn’t invented by the Irish. The earliest reference to using soda ash in baking bread seems to be credited to American Indians using it to leaven their bread. Pearl Ash was used prior to 1800 to make cakes by combining it with an acidic ingredient in the dough. However, as the Scots have made the bagpipe their instrument, the Irish have made Soda Bread theirs. Not by choice, but by a state of poverty that made it the easiest bread to put on the table.”
While most breads have yeast to make them light, Irish Soda Bread does not contain yeast, so it is a heavy, dense bread.
Ingredients:
4 cups flour, all-purpose, plus a little extra for currants
4 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 3/4 cups cold buttermilk, shaken
1 Egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon grated orange zest
1 cup dried currants (I used dried cranberries, the Walmart brand)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees, spray a large cookie sheet with cooking spray or line it with parchment paper
Combine flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in a large bowl, whisk lightly.
Add cold butter and combine with mixer
In a small bowl, combine buttermilk, egg and orange zest, beat lightly with a fork. *If you don’t have buttermilk, I add 1 tablespoon vinegar to a measuring cup and then add enough milk to measure what the recipe calls for*
Slowly add milk mixture to flour mixture, mix on low speed. I ended up having to finish the mixing by hand because my small mixer couldn’t handle it.
Add about 1 tablespoon of flour to currants (or dried cranberries, like I did) so they don’t clump together
The recipe says the batter is very wet, I’ll have to say that’s an understatement Dump dough onto well floured surface, and knead into a round loaf (it took me quite a few times to get it workable)
I divided the dough in half to make 2 smaller loaves. Place them on the cookie sheet and with a serrated knife, make an “X” on top.
If you make one loaf, Bake for about 45-55 minutes, I baked my loaves for about 30 minutes. The bread is done when a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean. When you tap the loaf, it will have a hollow sound.
Cool on a baking rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Isn’t this the prettiest bread ever? I’m not sure I will bake it again anytime soon. We did like the taste, although the boys didn’t really care for the texture. We really like the dried cranberries in it. I used them because I couldn’t find currants, and they worked out really well.
Have you ever baked Irish Soda Bread? Did you like it?
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