In the Morning, I’m Making Waffles

March 30, 2019March 30, 2019 / theblindpig11 / Leave a comment

Weekends are great for many things, sleeping in, spending time with friends and family, catching up on household tasks, but the best thing about weekends is you have time to indulge in breakfast foods. At The Blind Pig household, breakfast dishes are some of our favorite foods, but we seldom have the luxury of time to make them and enjoy them. This week we are sharing a yummy waffle recipe that will be sure to become one of your family favs.

Blind Piglets #2 and #3 enjoying a waffle in the Netherlands with our friend, Jens.

Did you know that in Belgium, waffles are not served for breakfast, but are served as a dessert or as a sweet treat? We discovered this fact a few years back when The Blind Pig family visited Europe. It was on Blind Piglet #3’s bucket list to eat a Belgian Waffle in Belgium. Much to our surprise we learned that it is served with fruit or ice cream and enjoyed as a sweet treat. We rode through Belgium via train, so Piglet #3 had to enjoy his waffle in the Netherlands instead.

Our family loves pancakes and waffles, so typically we make them with Bisquick, but this recipe makes the waffles so flavorful, light and fluffy. We may never use Bisquick again. To make our WOW Waffles you will need cake flour (We like Swan’s.), baking powder, baking soda, salt, eggs, buttermilk, cream of tartar, melted butter, vanilla and Kerrygold Irish Cream for a zip of flavor.

To start whisk together the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Next separate the egg yolks and whites. To the yolks add the buttermilk and whisk. Add cream of tartar to the egg whites and mix on high with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form. (This is what helps to make the waffles so light and fluffy.)

Stirring gently with a fork, combine the egg yolk mixture with the dry ingredients. Then stir in vanilla, melted butter, and Kerrygold. The batter will be lumpy at this point.

Fold in the airy egg white mixture gently. Make sure you don’t over mix.

Spray your waffle maker with cooking spray and preheat. Add about 1/2 cup of batter to the waffle maker and bake until waffles are golden and crisp.

If you are viewing this post via email, visit us at www.theblingpig.blog for a complete downloadable recipe for WOW Waffles!

If you are making your waffles for a brunch or special breakfast, keep the waffles warm on a cookie tray in the oven on low heat.

These delicious waffles are light, airy and have just a hint of a chocolate Kerrygold flavor. Top the waffles with butter and your favorite syrup. You can also add fresh fruit. For an extra special treat, top the waffles with Kerrygold Syrup that we shared with you in our Kerrygold French Toast post or with some yummy Kerrygold Chocolate Sauce. So many options!

This recipe can also be used for pancakes, which we are going to try next time, because our waffle maker is not the best at making our waffles crispy. We will keep you posted on how that works! Try out these yummy waffles for your Sunday morning breakfast or your next holiday brunch. We would love to hear what you think!

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Double the Thyme Double the Fun

March 24, 2019 / theblindpig11 / Leave a comment

March is a month that always makes us conscious of changes. There are the obvious changes like buds on trees and flowers blooming. There are obnoxious changes like Daylight Savings Time and Springing your clock forward. There are astronomical changes like the Equinox – March 20 when the duration of daytime and night time are equally the same over the planet. (By the way did you see the beautiful full moon this week?) As a toast to life, spring and change, we share another big hit we discovered — Double Thyme.

We thought that our post about 24 Kt. Cheesecake was going to be the hit of the month, but then we discovered the delicious combination of Double Thyme. This easy, tasty, fresh cocktail will have you longing for a little bit more thyme. Just as its name states, it consists of two thyme ingredients — fresh thyme and thyme infused simple syrup. You also need gin, lime juice, a slice of cucumber and a little club soda to make this invigorating cocktail.

Usually we have fresh thyme in our garden, but its thyme has not yet come, so we had to purchase some fresh thyme at the grocery store. To make the thyme infused simple syrup, make simple syrup as usual. Place a few sprigs of thyme in the simple syrup and let set for an hour or more.

The gin we used was Malfy Gin: Originale for our cocktail. We first shared this gin with you in our Gin and Tonic post.

We had fun sharing this refreshing drink with our dear friends, Troy and Heather, who were in town visiting. Heather helped name this delicious drink. She and Troy gave it a double thumbs up! Nothing makes a good cocktail better than when enjoying the company of good friends.

If you are viewing this post via email, make sure to visit us at http://www.theblindpig.blog to view a complete printable recipe for Double Thyme.

Are you going to double thyme it to the store to pick up some fresh ingredients this weekend? Are you tired of the double dose of puns you’ve endured during this post? Either way, we’d love to hear about it!

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24 Kt. Cheesecake

March 16, 2019March 16, 2019 / theblindpig11 / 2 Comments

Through the course of the past three years,(yes it has almost been three years since we started our blog) we have tried and concocted many recipes for cocktails, desserts and various food items. Many of them have been very tasty, and some of them have been better than delicious, but every once in a while we feel like we have struck gold. The recipe that we are going to share with you this week definitely feels like we have found a major vein of gold running through the hills. Thus, we aptly named this wonderful find: 24 Kt. Cheesecake. Once you get a taste of this rich, decadent dessert, it will have you feeling like you are eating like the rich and famous. Move over Kardashians, we don’t need gold plated toilets. We’ve got cheesecake!

We shared with you in our March Bonus Post this week, that Grandma Ruth was in town. You know that great things happen when Grandma Ruth joins Rhonda in the kitchen. We attribute the great find of this cheesecake to Grandma Ruth’s divine kitchen intervention! Twenty-Four Karat Cheesecake is a mouthwatering combination of two layers of chocolate cheesecake with a layer of peanut butter cheesecake in the middle surrounded by a chocolate graham cracker crust.

To make this decadent dessert, you will need some basic ingredients: chocolate graham crackers, melted butter, sugar, 2 packages of cream cheese, creamy peanut butter, eggs, semisweet chocolate chips, Kerrygold Irish Cream, vanilla, and a few peanuts for garnish.

For the crust , you will need to finely chop the graham crackers in a food processor or blender. Mix together with melted butter and 2 tablespoons of sugar. Press into the bottom and 1 inch up the sides of a spring form pan.

For the peanut butter cheesecake layer, beat together 1 package of softened cream cheese, peanut butter and 1/4 cup of sugar in a bowl. Lightly beat one egg and fold into the mixture. Set aside.

For the chocolate cheesecake layers, stir chocolate chips in a saucepan over low heat until melted. Remove from heat. Cut remaining package of cream cheese into cubes and stir in to melted chocolate until well combined. Next add Kerrygold Irish Cream, vanilla and two lightly beaten eggs.

Spread half of the chocolate cheesecake mixture over the graham crust.

Spread the peanut butter cheesecake mixture over the chocolate.

Then follow with a final layer of chocolate cheesecake mixture.

Bake the cheesecake 45 minutes or until top is set. The outer inches of the top will be slightly puffed and dry. The center should appear darker and wet.

Remove from oven and cool in the pan on a rack for 15 minutes. The secret to a great cheesecake is to make sure that it cools very slowly. You do not want to speed up the cooling process by adding it to the refrigerator. Some cheesecake recipes suggest you bake your cheesecake in a water bath. We did not do the water bath for this recipe and we did not have any cracking or over cooling.

After 15 minutes, loosen the pan from the cake by using a small knife around the inside edge of the pan. Continue to cool for 30 minutes. Remove the sides of the pan and continue to let cake cool completely.

Cover and chill for 4 hours. Sprinkle with peanuts.

If you are viewing this post via email, visit us at http://www.theblindpig.blog for a complete downloadable recipe of 24 Kt. Cheesecake.

Here is another helpful tip for serving cheesecake. You know how you try to cut cheesecake and your knife gets all gunked up and then it destroys the look of your beautiful cheese cake? So frustrating… right? We have two words for you… dental floss! To create smooth professional cuts on your cheesecake use unflavored dental floss. Pull out a piece of floss long enough to stretch the diameter of your cheesecake with a little extra to comfortably hold on to with each hand. Press down on the cake and with a gentle sawing motion move the floss back and forth until you feel you have cut through the crust. Pull the floss out of the bottom of the cake, and repeat making even diameter cuts through the center of the cake. You will have flawless pieces of cheesecake ready to serve.

If you like peanut butter and chocolate and you like cheesecake, this dessert will not disappoint. This dessert will definitely make its way to the top of “Desserts to Impress Guests” list at The Blind Pig household. We would love to have you stop by and have a piece ;).

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all of you. We will leave you with an Irish toast:

May you always have a clean shirt, a clear conscience, and enough coins in your pocket to buy a pint!

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March Bonus Post: Golden Mint Crinkles Part 2

March 13, 2019 / theblindpig11 / 2 Comments

It’s time for our March Bonus Post! The sun finally came out in Texas today, so we feel like our spring break is just getting started. We spent a little bit of time in downtown Dallas enjoying some sunshine in Klyde Warren Park.

Grandma Ruth is in town visiting and you know when Ruth is around great things happen for The Blind Pig Blog. Need we remind you about last year when we made these delicious Kerrygold Cinnamon Rolls?

This week we have been up to lots of fun mixing and baking, you’ll see some of our great treasures in future posts. However, for our bonus post we are going to remind you about our Golden Mint Crinkles which were such a huge hit during the holiday baking season. These delicious treasures are also a big hit for celebrating your Irish heritage — or someone else’s. Kiss us both. We’re Irish and needed another excuse to share these delicious cookies with you.

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Saturday in the Park

March 10, 2019 / theblindpig11 / Leave a comment

It’s Spring Break here at The Blind Pig household. We definitely have Spring Fever, and we are looking forward to a much needed break. To kick back and relax this week we have an easy, tasty, fresh cocktail to share with you that is as effortless as a Saturday in the Park. It is light, refreshing, and the perfect cocktail for a little day drinking on the porch or patio.

To make this refreshing cocktail you will need a few fresh ingredients: fresh squeezed lemon juice, cucumber, strawberries, and basil. You will also need some rye whiskey, simple syrup, and some diet ginger ale.

To start, muddle a slice of cucumber, a strawberry, and a basil leaf in the bottom of a shaker.

Pour in simple syrup, rye whiskey and fresh squeezed lemon juice. Add ice and shake for 15 seconds.

Prep a tall thin glass with ice and lemon peel. Double strain cocktail into serving glass. Top off with diet ginger ale. (We like to use diet ginger ale to cut down on the calories, and to prevent the drink from tasting too sweet.) Garnish with strawberry and cucumber and pretty paper straw.

Upon taking your first sip, you will notice the initial sweetness of the rye whiskey with the basil and strawberry. The drink finishes off with a delicious refreshing surprise of the cucumber. It is like drinking spring from a glass.

If you are viewing this post via email, visit us at http://www.theblindpig.blog for a full printable recipe of Saturday in the Park.

Sip this drink on a Saturday or on a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, we don’t care. However, do tell us if you tried it and liked it! Special thanks to our friend Dawnette for the beautiful flowers we used as the backdrop and for tasting with us. Special thanks to Blind Piglet #2 who helped with some of the photography for this post.

Diclaimer: Beverages on this site are meant for adults 21 years of age and older. We do not condone underage drinking, and never drink and drive.

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Bourbon Toffee Cups

March 3, 2019 / theblindpig11 / Leave a comment

We are optimistically looking toward warming weather and Spring. To get you in the mood for warmer weather, we are featuring a delicious season transitional treat: Bourbon Toffee Cups. We first found this easy recipe years ago on Southern Living Magazine. We twisted it up and bit to make it our own. We hope it satisfies your taste buds as much as it did ours.

To make this yummy dessert you start with a basic brownie mix. Mix the brownie mix as usual, and then add in two mashed bananas. Bake according to package directions.

While the brownies are baking, stir together sugar, corn syrup, butter, salt, and heavy cream in a small saucepan. Cook over low heat stirring often. We cooked ours for about 45 minutes. You can see how the color began to change the longer we cooked the mixture. As the color starts to turn, add bourbon to pudding mixture.

As the color changes to amber, stir in 1 cup of heavy cream and increase the heat to medium. Cook stirring constantly for about 5 minutes. The mixture will begin to thicken. Remove from heat and cool.

Cut the cooled brownies in small cubes. Layer brownies, toffee pudding in small jars or dessert bowls.

Beat remaining heavy cream with 1/4 cup of powdered sugar and 2 tablespoons of bourbon in a bowl that has been chilled in a freezer for 30 minutes. Beat with an electric mixer on high speed until soft peaks form.

Spoon over cups of brownies and pudding. Sprinkle with Heath or toffee bits.

If you are viewing this post via email, visit us at http://www.theblindpig.blog for a complete downloadable recipe.

Bourbon Toffee Cups are so sweet and savory. It is best to serve them in small portions. We used small preserve jars and small dessert cups for ours. It was just the right amount!

The extra cooled sauce can be saved as a topping for ice cream later. (You know we love an excuse to eat ice cream!)

Try this easy, delicious dessert this week. You won’t be disappointed that you did!