Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Simply Recipes Food and Cooking

Warning to Fellow Bloggers

 
A sweet blogging friend recently emailed me and said that she saw one of my recipe photos posted on another persons recipe blog. It was disturbing, but it wasn't the first (and probably not the last) time this has happened to me, so I tried not to over react. 

But today, totally by accident, I ran across another web page (from Indonesia, no less!!) that had a TON of my recipes and photos posted as if they were this persons own work; not a single mention or link back to my recipe page at all!! So I started looking around the Internet, and I was shocked to see how "common" this practice is. 

So far, it seems that all of my photos that were swiped, were one's I posted before 2011. I'm guessing that must be, because in 2011, I started putting my name on my recipe photos; evidently, people don't like to steal photos that are labeled (I wish I had known that!!)

The funny thing is, is that I'm a terrible photographer!! Why are they stealing MY photos when there are so many great ones out there? Maybe mine are the ONLY ONES not labeled(?)


Does your family enjoy pumpkin pie as much as my family? If so, I hope you will try these little gems, they are totally addicting.

This recipe is super-easy because there is no crust to bother with. The mini pies are perfect to take to a potluck dinner; they make a great holiday gift for the neighbor; a batch of these will drive everyone crazy in the office fridge AND they are PERFECT for Sunday dinner. The hardest part about making these is waiting for them to chill.


15 ounce can of pumpkin puree (unseasoned)
3/4 cup brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350° and put (12) FOIL (not paper) cupcake liners in a cupcake pan. Lightly mist them with cooking spray. Make sure you use the foil liners, I'm told that these stick to paper.

In a bowl, whisk the pumpkin, sugar and eggs together. After its well mixed, whisk in the milk until smooth and set aside.

In 2nd bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and salt.

Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix until smooth.

Fill FOIL cupcake liners about 2/3 full and bake for 20 minutes. Cool to room temperature without taking them out of pans. Then chill for a couple of hours (still in the pans). Remove foil liners and serve with sweetened whipped cream.

NOTE: As these bake, they will puff up, but as they chill, they will settle back down.
OK, I admit I have posted a lot of pudding recipes, but then again, I have tried many, many more pudding recipes than I have posted, so I've tried to hold back and post only the best ones...........Oh who am I kidding, WE LOVE PUDDING!!

With that said, today's chocolate pudding is BY FAR THE BEST ONE YET. It has a silky smooth mouth feel (important in pudding), a wonderfully deep milk chocolate flavor and it has a wonderful consistency.........it is REALLY good.

 

3 (slightly heaping) tablespoons bakers cocoa powder
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 1/4 cups whole milk
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 egg YOLKS
2 level tablespoons corn starch
2/3 cup milk chocolate chips
5 tablespoons butter (cut into pieces)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Whisk the cocoa, brown sugar and corn starch together and set aside. 

Whisk the cream, milk and yolks together in a saucepan that has a nice heavy bottom (it prevents scorching). Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and whisk until smooth. Make sure you scrape the corners of the pan because the corn starch likes to "hide" there.

Cook on medium heat (stirring) until it gets thick and starts to bubble all over the entire surface of the pudding. TURN THE HEAT DOWN to a level where it still bubbles (but isn't going crazy) and cook/stir for another 30 seconds.

Remove from heat and add the butter, milk chocolate chips and vanilla; whisk until melted and smooth. Now, if you REALLY want that super smooth and silky mouth feel, pour the cooked pudding through a mesh strainer, it really makes a difference but isn't absolutely necessary.

Pour into dessert dishes and lay a piece of waxed paper or plastic wrapright on the surface of the hot pudding (this will stop any "pudding skin" from forming). Chill for at least 4 hours.

NOTE: The quality of your milk chocolate chips makes a difference; make sure they are real chocolate, not imitation.

NOTE: Make sure you use unsweetened baking cocoa.