Cooking Class Recipes

For Foodie Friday I am posting recipes from a recent Cooking Class held at my home last week. The theme was Patriotic Desserts so it was very colorful with mostly red, white and blue foods.
These tarts were so easy and good!

(Five small thinly sliced strawberries form the stars on these tarts)

Red, White and Blue Star Tarts

Makes 4 tarts

½ (15 ounce) package refrigerated pie crust

2 (3 ounce) package cream cheese, softened

1 (8 ounce) package frozen non-dairy whipped topping, thawed

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 cup confectioners sugar

4 to 6 fresh strawberries, slices

12 fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 450. On a lightly floured surface, unroll crust. Using a 4 ½ inch round cutter, cut 4 circles from pie crust. Line 4 (4 inch) tart pans with prepared crusts; prick bottom of crusts with a fork. Place on a baking sheet.

Bake for 7 to 8 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool on wire racks for 5 minutes; remove from pans and cool completely.

In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese, whipped topping and vanilla extract. Beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Add confectioners sugar, beating until combined. Spoon cream cheese mixture into prepared crusts. Top with strawberries and blueberries in a decorative star pattern.

Watermelon Slush

Makes 4 servings

4 cups (1 inch cubes) seedless watermelon, frozen

1 ½ cups hulled and quartered strawberries, frozen

3 tbsp fresh lime juice

2 tbsp simple syrup (recipe follows)

1/8 tsp salt

In the container of an electric blender, combine watermelon, strawberries, lime juice, syrup and salt. Process for 30 seconds or until mixture is smooth. Serve immediately. (Note: I found that thawing the watermelon for a few minutes first helped it "blend" in the blender instead of getting stuck on top with the blades whirring nothing around below)

Simple Syrup

Makes about 1 ½ cups

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

In a small saucepan, bring water and sugar to a boil, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; cool. Chill at least 4 hours.

Blackberry Cobbler

Makes 12 servings

3 (16 ounce) packages frozen blackberries, thawed

1 cup sugar

¼ cup all-purpose flour

1 (24 count) package Mary B’s frozen bite-sized butter milk tea biscuits

1 tbsp butter, melted

1 tbsp sugar

¼ tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, combine blackberries, 1 cup sugar and flour. Spoon into a 13 x 9 baking dish.

Arrange biscuits on top of fruit layer, pressing down gently. Brush biscuits with melted butter. In a small bowl, combine 1 tbsp sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle evenly over biscuits.

Bake for 40 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Note: Since I could not find Mary B's biscuits I used Pillsbury cinnamon twists instead and cut them into small sections. Because the twists come with cinnamon on them I put the sugar/cinnamon mixture directly onto the blackberries instead.)

Cookies on a Stick

Makes 15 cookies

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 cup confectioners sugar

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

15 craft sticks

1 (16 ounce) container vanilla icing

garnish: assorted liquid food coloring, gel icing and assorted cookie sprinkles

Spray a baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray; set aside.

In a large bowl, beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy Add sugar and confectioners sugar, beating until smooth. Add egg and vanilla, beating to combine.

In a small bowl, sift together flour, salt and baking powder. Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture, beating at low speed until smooth.

Divide dough into 2 balls, wrap each one in plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350.

On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to ¼ inch thickness. Using assorted 3” cutters, (We used a star cutter) cut out cookies and place 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough. Gently press a craft stick into the bottom third of each cooked. Chill cookies for 15 minutes before baking.

Bake cookies for 10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool on pan for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks and cool completely.

Dye vanilla icing with desired liquid food colors. Spread icing to ¼ inch from edges of cookies. Decorate cookies with gel icing and sprinkles if desired.

It was a fun and tasty morning! To be tempted by more food and recipes click here.

Happy 4th of July!!