Impossible Coconut Custard Squares

½c all purpose flour

¾t baking powder

¼t salt

1t pumpkin pie spice

2T butter

¾c light brown sugar

4 lg. eggs

1t pure vanilla

1c flaked coconut

1 13.5oz. can coconut milk

Preheat your oven to 400°.  Stir the dry ingredients together in a large bowl making sure to break up and incorporate any lumps.  Sift this if necessary.  In a medium size glass bowl, microwave the butter for about 30 seconds.  When it's melted, whisk in the sugar.  Once that's all smooth, add the eggs one at a time and whisk well.  Add the remaining three ingredients.  Butter an 8' or 9" glass pie pan or square pan.  Once the oven's ready, pour the egg and coconut mixture into the dry ingredients, stirring well, quickly, with a wooden spoon.  Pour into the pan, bake for 25-30 minutes.

Check it at 25 minutes.  If the top is browned and a tooth pick comes out clean when inserted toward the middle, or the top springs back when touched in the middle it's done.  Turn off the oven and leave it for another 5 or 10 minutes.

Cool half an hour before cutting and serving.  Mine was a little underbaked  but it's hard to mess this up.  And, it tastes wonderful! . .Lin

Lemon-Ginger Rhubarb Dessert

1c crushed gingersnaps

1¼c lemon shortbread cookies

⅔ stick melted butter

½c sugar

5c rhubarb

2c sugar

1t lemon extract

2T flour

a pinch of salt

½t pumpkin pie spice

3 eggs

½c half and half

Crush the cookies and combine with butter and sugar.  Keep aside a couple tablespoons of this to sprinkle on top before baking.  Press into a 9x9" baking dish.

Combine the rhubarb, and that group of ingredients, in a heavy pot.  Heat until the rhubarb starts juicing and the sugar melts.  As this happens, the flour will begin to thicken it.  When it does, remove from the heat and allow to cool.  Once you're sure the mixture isn't too hot (so as not to curdle it) temper the egg mixture with a little of the warm rhubarb, then stir the beaten eggs and half and half into the rhubarb mixture. 

Once combined, pour this filling into the pan with the crust.  Bake at 350° for 30-40 minutes.  Serve with a scoop of really good vanilla ice cream, berry ice cream, lemon sorbet, or fresh vanilla whipped cream 😋 This is not a bar dessert, but one that you scoop out into a bowl.  I wasn't sure how the texture would turn out, but the flavor is oh, so good!!

Normally I don't bake.  For a couple reasons.  It doesn't come naturally to me.  Since I don't understand leavening agents very well, I'm never quite sure which to use to create the desired effect.    So baking, for me is far less certain than cooking.  More science involved.  Cooking is blissful, freeform art!!  It the kitchen I'm far more an Artist than a Scientist.  Many months ago, I bought a container of amazing lemon shortbread cookies.  Immediately my mind began concocting a crust recipe, using them to go with the 5c of rhubarb I got from my little plant last year, that was now in my freezer.  Those cookies never appeared again, but I did find these and decided that since they didn't have quite the flavor I wanted, I'd combine them with Gingersnaps!  It worked!!  The other reason I don't bake a lot.  I have zero willpower!  If I bake something that turns out well, the whole pan could be gone in 24 hours!  And I live alone!!   If I make this again - (which I probably will 😉) - I'll add 1c crushed soda crackers, increase the butter to 1 stick and the sugar to ¾c.  It turned out so well the way it is, but this would have added a bit more crust and made it a little less caramel-y.  I once ran out of graham crackers while making a graham cracker crust.  I ended up using ⅔ the amount of graham crackers needed and filled in the rest with ⅓ of the amount being soda crackers.  I've never gone back to the original way of making graham cracker crusts since then!  It's a great balance with the little bit of neutrality the soda crackers provide, as well as the addition of that little bit of salt.  Try it!  You too may never make graham cracker crusts the same way again!

As always:  Be Bold - Be Creative - And I Wish You Much Time Spent Happily Cooking. . . Lin

Buttery Brown Sugar Egg Custard - or - Bread Pudding

Buttery Brown Sugar Egg Custard -or- Bread Pudding**

This is a big departure from a basic recipe I found to use as a guide. I wanted to make egg custard, but I also wanted butter in the recipe, so I made modifications and took all sorts of liberties to create this.  It would also be easy to turn into bread pudding.**

In a small bowl, stir together:

1c brown sugar

*2T flour – for custard

1t ground nutmeg (or pumpkin pie spice)

¼t salt

**3-4 slices of good crusty bread cut in cubes – for bread pudding (walnuts or pecans, and raisins can also be added)

Next, whisk:

3 eggs well then add

1-2T pure vanilla

Cook:

1½c milk to the scalding point, not boiling.

Basically what I do is, heat this until it starts steaming and sort of wiggling in the pan :o) but NOT bubbling. At this point, remove from heat and stir in:

2T soft butter

Combine the stirred dry ingredients with the beaten eggs. Add a little of the hot milk mixture whisking the whole time to 'temper' it – slowly raising the temperature of the eggs so as not to cook them. Continue adding the hot milk mixture a little at a time until well blended. Pour mixture into a buttered 8” baking pan. Bake as is, or put the custard pan into a larger pan then fill with water. This creates a more even temperature in which to bake the custard. I omitted this step.

Bake custard* at 400° for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 325° and continue to bake another 35 minutes, until a kitchen knife inserted half way to the center comes out clean. I turned my oven off after a total of 45 minutes then let it rest, in the oven, another 5 minutes or so before taking it out to cool. You may need to play around with the temperature. For instance turn it down to 300° but leave it in 40-50 minutes at that point, for a total baking time of 50-60 minutes.

Bake bread pudding** at 350° for 35-50 minutes, until a kitchen knife inserted halfway to the center comes out clean. . .Lin