Sweet Potato Stuffed Dates Wrapped in Prosciutto
During the holidays a couple of years ago, my brother-in-law, Marty, who is a trained and super talented chef, was making these yummy hors d’oeuvres for us. I instantly loved them and stood watch beside him to learn how to make them! On Monday, I had some friends over to watch The Bachelor Finale and thought these would be a great little bite for everyone to enjoy! Here’s what happened:
This is all you need. 3 ingredients! I love that! Earlier in the day, I roasted off those two lovely sweet potatoes you see in this picture. With a preheated oven, set to 350 F, you can put those little lovelies in there and pretty much forget about ’em for the next 30 minutes or so. It is a good idea to pierce the skin of the sweet potatoes with a fork, so that they won’t burst in the oven. Also, and even more importantly, put a tray on the bottom rack of your oven to catch any juices that may leak from your sweet potatoes or you will have one big mess to clean up!!
I forgot to take a picture for this next part, but once those sweet potatoes have cooled, cut through the skin and scoop out the flesh. It should be naturally mashed or mushy as you scoop it out, but just make sure there are no obvious lumps.
Next, you want to slice each date vertically, to create a little pocket and remove the seed that is inside.
This is what you should have after you’re done. Next, you will add your sweet potato into each date.
This looks really messy, but don’t worry! You don’t have to be fancy with this part because it will all get covered with the prosciutto. You want to put enough sweet potato that it comes up to the level of the date, but isn’t overflowing. I just used a spoon to do this.
Next is the prosciutto.
You’ll want to slice the prosciutto into strips to wrap around each date. The strips won’t, and don’t have to, look as good as the one I show in the picture. If you mess up a strip, just eat it! Win-win!
Your dates should look similar to this once you’re done wrapping them all. At this point, you can put some saran wrap over top of them and put them into the fridge until you’re ready to bake them off. A great make-ahead!
The finished product! You can’t really tell from this picture, but the prosciutto is nicely caramelized on the bottom and everything is heated through. These were in the oven, at 350 F for about 15 minutes.
Here’s what you need to do:
1 medium sweet potato
12 dates (I used organic medjool dates)
1/2 pound of prosciutto, sliced for wrapping dates
Preheat oven to 350 F. Roast your sweet potato until tender to the touch, about 30 minutes. When cool enough to handle, slice it down the center and scoop out the flesh and place into a bowl. Set aside. Cut into each date to remove the seed and create a pocket. Place a heaping teaspoon, give or take, into each date. Wrap with a piece of prosciutto and bake in an oven proof pan or baking sheet for 15 minutes.
Enjoy!!
Spicy Apricot and Coconut Chicken Skewers
My sister made this recipe years ago. It’s a surprisingly yummy and really easy bite to pull together. I decided it should be part of our Bachelor Finale Extravaganza! Here’s what happened:
First things first, you need to soak your skewers.
This is an important step or your skewers will burn in the oven while your chicken is cooking. You want to let these soak for at least 20 minutes.
In the meantime, cut up your chicken.
I didn’t do a very good job keeping my pieces uniform, but it’s no big deal.
Thread each piece of chicken onto the skewer like an accordion, so that they don’t fall off. Season both sides of chicken with salt and pepper.
Place on a cookie sheet and bake in the oven at 350 F, until chicken is cooked through. The timing will depend largely on how big or small your chicken has been cut. Some of my pieces were in for longer than others, but anywhere from 15-25 minutes.
The original recipe called for Sambal Oelek to be added into the apricot jam, but I didn’t have any, so I used this. It worked just as well.
For the next several parts, I didn’t take any pictures because I’m a space case and forgot. But, don’t worry, it’s super easy!! Let’s get straight to the recipe!
Final product.
Here’s what you need to do:
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts cut up into skewer-sized pieces
skewers
salt & pepper
1 cup apricot jam
1 tsp chili garlic sauce (or Sambal Oelek) – more if you like it really spicy
1/2 cup of unsweetened coconut, toasted
Preheat oven to 350 F. Thread each piece of chicken onto a skewer and season with salt and pepper. Bake in oven for about 20 minutes. In the meantime, you will want to toast about 1/2 cup of unsweetened coconut over medium heat until the ends have turned light brown. Set aside. In a pot, stirring frequently, melt down about 1 cup of apricot jam over medium to medium low heat until its consistency is like syrup. Add your chili garlic sauce and stir until combined. Remove from heat.
Once your chicken is out of the oven, spoon or brush the syrup mixture onto each skewer and sprinkle with coconut.
Enjoy!
Banana Crumb Muffins
I have been searching for a really good banana bread recipe for years. I thought I had found one, but it still wasn’t great, and was a lot of work with disappointing results. Greasing the pan alone was a pain. I came across this banana muffin recipe from a blog I follow named, The Girl Who Ate Everything, and I don’t think I will make banana bread ever again! These muffins are quick and yummy and so much more rewarding than a big loaf of bread! I have made several recipes from this blogger’s site. She knows what she’s doing! Check her out! www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com
I didn’t deviate at all from this recipe, except for one minor change, and only because of personal preference. Here’s what happened…
We needed to eat this morning and had no food. I had one egg left, which inspired the making of these muffins!
In the flour, I’ve already incorporated the baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Also not seen in this picture is vanilla, because I’m an airhead and forgot. I have a lot to learn!
This is where I deviated from the original recipe. I prefer to add my dry ingredients into my wet ingredients to avoid lumps. But, I am sure there were no lumps in the original recipe, this is just my personal preference! You can do either method.
Use an ice cream scoop that has a release on it to help make your life so much easier. Or, using a spoon will work as well.
You can fill your muffin cups fairly generously. The original recipe called for 10 muffins. I find I can make 12 with no problem. Just depends how big you want ’em!
Now for the ‘crumb’ part of the recipe!
In this, you want to add 1/3 cup brown sugar, 2 tablespoons of flour, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon and 1 tablespoon of butter. I tend to be a bit more generous with the butter here. Can’t hurt, right? It’s important your butter be COLD for this.
If you have a tool like this, now would be a good time to use it! Otherwise, a fork will work just fine, or even your hands! You want to achieve a coarse meal, in texture.
Like this.
Now is your chance to get your kids involved…. If I allowed it, my daughter would just take this bowl and eat it as a snack! She’s wild that way.
And this will happen. Guess where that hand ended up? Yup! She was hungry. Can’t blame her. I promise, if I make this for anyone outside of my immediate family…okay, my extended family…I won’t let her eat out of the bowl. Please don’t judge me!
All is done, but you can’t put it in the oven right now, unless you want a horrible, sticky mess to clean up after these babies are out of the oven! If you didn’t have a child helping you with this part, omit this next step.
Brush all that sugar goodness back onto the muffins so it doesn’t stick to your pan!!
Now they’re ready for the oven!! 19 minutes at 375 and you are good to go!!
Mmmmmmm… These are so good. You’ll be happy you made these. I promise.
Here is what you need to do:
Banana Crumb Muffins
1/3 cup melted and cooled butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
3 ripened bananas, mashed
1 1/2 cups flour
I teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
For the crumble:
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon cold butter
Preheat oven to 375 F. Mix together the melted butter, sugar, egg, bananas, and vanilla in one bowl. Blend flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg in another bowl. Add flour mixture to banana mixture and mix until all flour is combined. Fill muffin tins with batter. Next, make your crumble and sprinkle over top of your batter. Bake for 19 minutes. Remove from muffin tin as soon as you can and let cool on wired rack.
Enjoy!!
Milk Choco Chunk Cookies
Seemed appropriate that my first post on my blog be cookies, since I bake so many of them! This recipe is your basic cookie dough recipe, and you can substitute any chocolate or add other yummy additions! Unless you’re adding oatmeal, as you would then need to adjust your flour. In this recipe, I used 2 Dairy Milk chocolate bars because that’s what I had at home. I was going to just eat some of the chocolate with my tea, but with a sick 3 year old napping upstairs, I decided to bake her some cookies to wake up to instead. Here is what happened….
Cut up chocolate last to ensure you still have some left by the time you need to add it into the batter! 🙂 Of course, I added this picture first as a reminder to do it last. Make sense? I thought so.
Mmmmmm…that is all.
If you don’t have this tool, get it. It comes in several different sizes. This one here is the 1 1/2 tablespoon size. The best tool I’ve ever had for drop cookies!
See how perfectly uniform each cookie is? Makes me happy. Note to self: Get silpat in prettier colour.
Unless you need to bake up the whole batch, freeze some for later! Place a tray with parchment or waxed paper, scoop as many on the tray as you’d like to freeze. Place in the freezer to firm up, about 20 minutes. Note to self: Rotate camera.
Ta-da! I only made a dozen and froze the rest. There are only 4 left since I made them yesterday. I know my husband has had none, my daughter has had two, that means…. This is why it’s a good idea to freeze some for later!
Once the risk of each cookie touching the other and sticking together and destroying any chance of future cookies has passed (aka they’re frozen enough), place them in a freezer bag and put them in your freezer for the next time you have a cookie craving!
Here’s what you need to do:
Do your ‘mise en place’ and get all of your ingredients ready before you start. You will thank yourself later. Or, thank me now. You’re welcome!
Milk Choco Chunk Cookies
1 cup softened butter*
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs**
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 milk chocolate bars of your choice cut up into chunks (I used Dairy Milk)
Preheat oven to 375 F. Cream your butter and add both sugars until combined. Add eggs and vanilla and beat about one minute. Next, add your salt and baking soda, which you can combine with your flour and add slowly all together. I’ve added the salt and baking soda separately from the flour, as well. Both work. Make sure all dry ingredients have been added and well mixed before you add your chocolate, which is your last ingredient.
Scoop your cookies onto a lined baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes. If making smaller cookies, adjust your time by one or two minutes. Transfer to a wired rack and let cool.
Enjoy!
*I used salted butter in this recipe because that is what I had on hand. This is really a personal preference, in my opinion. If you feel more comfortable using unsalted butter, go for it! I haven’t felt the need to adjust the salt in this recipe.
**Don’t crack your eggs directly into your batter. You don’t want to risk getting egg shell into your batter or possibly a bad egg.
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