Tag: st patrick’s day

cereal, cinnamon, Desserts, Holidays, Nuts, Pistachios, Pudding, st patrick's day

Lucky Charms Churros & Real Pistachio Pudding

by thebusyspatula35 Comments on Lucky Charms Churros & Real Pistachio Pudding

It’s almost St. Patrick’s Day and I’m part of a virtual St. Patrick’s Day Party! If there was one word to describe the holiday for me, it would be: green. When it comes to desserts there aren’t many green colored options, and I decided to do something with pistachios. I’ve made pistachio flavored cupcakes before but I used jello pudding mix which gave it an artificial taste. I’m not knocking on pistachio pudding mix; I’ve actually grown to like that artificial pistachio flavor. Much like how I’ve grown to love maraschino cherries.
The pistachio flavor of the pudding isn’t assertive. If I had to describe the flavor, I would say it’s very similar to the Häagen-Dazs pistachio ice cream only in pudding form, especially once it’s topped with a dollop of whipped cream. It’s dreamy and luscious, and pale green in color.
And because I wanted to add lucky charms into the whole thing, I made some lucky charms churros. Funny thing is they look entirely different from now I imagined them. I wanted them to have lots of marshmallows and cereal pieces stuck on them. Unfortunately, when I did put whole pieces of the cereal onto the churros, they looked chunky and unappealing. So I crushed them and stuck them on there, similar to sprinkles. A little more whimsical, but it doesn’t really scream “lucky charms”. Oh well.
The churros btw, are delicious. They’re crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside. Don’t get scared and take them out of the oil too early or you’ll end up with doughy insides. Now excuse me while I oogle at these awesome dishes that everyone else contributed to our party… You’re of course, welcome and encouraged to check them out too. 😉

Baileys Chocolate Caramel Tarts – Sugarhero
Bangers and Mash with Guiness Onion Gravy – The Beach House Kitchen
Black Lentil Roasted Broccoli Shepard’s Pie – Calizona
Boozy Irish Coffee Milkshake with Baileys Caramel Drizzle – Meg is Well
Chocolate Stout No-Churn Ice Cream with Homemade Toffee Crumble – Ciao Chow Bambina
Colcannon Irish Mashed Potatoes – Keviniscooking
Get Charmed By Double Spice Chocolate Cookies – The Sweet Nerd
Guinness Irish Stew Mini Pot Pies – The Road to Honey
Irish Spice Bag – Seasons & Suppers
Pork Chops with an Irish Whiskey Sauce – Salt & Lavender
Raspberry Chocolate Milk Porter Pudding Shooters – Beer Girl Cooks
Shepherd’s Pie {with Guinness Lamb & Horseradish Mash} – Girl Heart Food
Sour Apple Tequila Cocktail – The Lucky Shamrock – No Spoon Necessary
St. Patrick’s Lemon Cucumber Martini With Fresh Basil – Beyond Mere Sustenance
Traditional Irish Soda Bread with Orange Butter – What Should I Make For…
Vegan Mint Chocolate Bark – Salted Plains

Lucky Charms Churros & Real Pistachio Pudding

For the Pistachio Paste

Ingredients:
½ c salted pistachios, shelled
⅓ c. sugar
2 tbsp. water

Instructions:

  1. In the bowl of a food processor, pulse pistachios until finely ground.
  2. Add sugar and water and continue to blend until smooth.

For the Pistachio Pudding
Makes about 4 ramekins

Ingredients:
1 batch pistachio paste (recipe above)
2 c. whole milk
2 egg yolks
⅓ c. sugar
2 tbsp. corn starch
pinch of salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tbsp. unsalted butter
½ c. heavy whipping cream
1 tbsp. powdered sugar
a handful pistachios, chopped

Instructions:

  1. In a small pot, whisk pistachio paste and milk together and heat until simmering.
  2. While the pistachio milk comes to a simmer, whisk egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch and salt in a small bowl to form a smooth paste.
  3. Slowly whisk in the hot pistachio milk by the ladleful into the egg mixture until you use up half of the pistachio milk.
  4. Add the rest of the egg mixture back into the pot and whisk on medium heat until pudding is thickened.
  5. Remove pot from heat and whisk in butter and vanilla extract until smooth.
  6. Spoon pudding into ramekins, and wrap with plastic wrap and push the plastic onto the surface so it doesn’t form a skin.
  7. Refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.
  8. Before serving, whip heavy cream and powdered sugar together until stiff peaks form, place a dollop of whipped cream on top and garnish with chopped pistachios.

For the Lucky Charms Churros

For the churros

Ingredients:
½ c. sugar
1 ½ tsp. cinnamon
1 c. water
1 ½ tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
½ tsp. salt
1 c. all-purpose flour
2 qt. vegetable oil (for frying)
vanilla glaze (recipe below)
about 1 cup of crushed lucky charms cereal (with mostly marshmallows; less cereal)

Instructions:

  1. In a shallow bowl, combine ½ c. sugar and cinnamon and set aside.
  2. In a small saucepan over medium heat, whisk water, sugar, 2 tbsp. vegetable oil, and salt together and bring to a boil.
  3. Once the mixture is boiling, turn off the heat, add in the flour and stir with a wooden spoon until a ball of dough forms.
  4. In a large heavy pot clipped with a candy thermometer, heat the vegetable oil until 375 degrees.
  5. While the oil heats, transfer the dough into a piping bag fitted with a large star tip. The dough is dense and tough to push through the piping bag so use a heavy-duty bag.
  6. On a sheet pan lined with parchment paper, pipe the length of the churros you would like and cut it off with either a sharp knife or scissors until you use up the dough.
  7. Once the oil is heated, slowly place the churro dough into the hot oil. Do not drop the dough into the oil for it will splatter. Place about 3-4 pieces and fry until golden brown, about 2-4 minutes.
  8. Lightly shake off the excess oil, and place the cooked churros onto a plate lined with paper towels.
  9. Drain churros for two minutes and then toss in the cinnamon sugar.
  10. Repeat with the remaining churro dough.
  11. Once the churros are cool, drizzle the top half of the churros with the vanilla glaze and dip into the crushed marshmallows.

Vanilla Glaze

Ingredients:
1 c. powdered sugar
1 ½ tbsp. milk
¼ tsp. vanilla extract

Instructions:

  1. Whisk all three ingredients until smooth.
  2. Let stand for a few minutes to thicken.

Recipe for the pudding adapted from Joy the Baker.
Recipe for churros adapted from Just a Taste.
Recipe for glaze adapted from Taste of Home.

Cakes, Desserts, Holidays, Macarons, Vanilla

Lucky Charms Cake

by thebusyspatula21 Comments on Lucky Charms Cake

lucky charms cakeI’m pretty sure everyone is already saying this, but how is it already March? I’m definitely not complaining since I absolutely adore warm weather and I’m dying to be able to wear dresses without tights. As spring quickly approaches, the next holiday around the corner would be St. Patrick’s Day. Even closer is National Cereal Day, which is on March 7th. So I figured that I might as well tie up both and make this cake.
DSC_0584I’ve been thinking of something similar to this when I bought a bag full of “Lucky Charms” marshmallows. I say it in quotes because while it tastes very similar to the marshmallows in the cereal, the shapes of these marshmallows are less detailed and smaller. (I’m thinking it’s a copyright issue.) Either way, I wasn’t about to pick out each marshmallow from a box of Lucky Charms cereal, so I used this to decorate the outside of the cake. What is really funny is, that over time, the marshmallows will rehydrate from the frosting giving it a similar flavor and texture to a dehydrated marshmallow that was sitting in a pool of milk. They become darker in color and squishy and so this cake is best eaten the day it is baked.
DSC_0504The inside of the cake is frosted with cereal milk frosting, (like the one I posted in my cereal macaron post) but instead of Frosted Flakes, I used Lucky Charms cereal. The cereal milk turns a pale green and I think it’s perfect for the theme. The cake itself is funfetti since I was going along with the rainbow color scheme.
DSC_0526My absolute favorite part of the cake is the Lucky Charms bark I made from the marshmallows, different colors of candy melts and chock full of every kind of decorative sprinkle. You start off with a melted slab of white candy melt and swirl different colors of melted candy melts using a toothpick and then swipe along the top with an offset spatula. It blends beautifully and makes a watercolored candy bark. Then you pretty much go ham with however you want to top it. I think it’s important to restrain yourself when you do this so that you can still see the colors of the bark.
DSC_0578I had some confetti macaron shells leftover from a baking order, so I stuck some marshmallow pieces on top of it and decorated the cake, but really, I don’t think it’s worth baking a whole batch of macarons for this. If you have it, great and if it not, it still looks beautiful without it. I should warn you that this is a very sweet cake. I suppose it shouldn’t come as a surprise given the funfetti inside and the marshmallows and candy outside. But it’s so stunning, I think it’s worth the sugar overload.

Lucky Charms Cake

Funfetti Buttermilk Cake (recipe below)
Lucky Charms Cereal Milk Frosting (recipe below)
Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream (recipe below)
Lucky Charms Marshmallows
Lucky Charms Bark (recipe below)
Funfetti Macarons (optional, recipe in this post)

Instructions:

  1. Evenly fill and stack each layer of funfetti cake with cereal milk frosting.
  2. Crumb coat the cake with a thin layer of the remaining cereal milk frosting
  3. Place cake in freezer for 5 minutes until the frosting on the outside sets firmly.
  4. Once crumb coat is set, frost the entire cake with swiss meringue buttercream.
  5. Take a handful of marshmallows and slowly cup the outside of the cake, patting it to ensure full coverage.
  6. Let the outside set in freezer for 5 minutes.
  7. Take cake out and top the cake with shards of Lucky Charms bark and macarons if desired.

Funfetti Buttermilk Cake

Ingredients:

2 c. cake flour
1⅓ c. sugar
¾ tbsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
¾ c. buttermilk, divided
6 oz. unsalted butter, room temperature
3 eggs, room temperature
1 ½ egg yolks
1 ½ tsp. vanilla extract
¾ c. rainbow sprinkles

Instructions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350˚F and line four 6-inch cake pans with parchment paper.
  2. In a bowl of a standing mixer with the paddle attachment, add flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Mix until combined.
  3. On low speed, add ½ c. buttermilk and butter and mix until combined.
  4. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs, egg yolks, ¼ c. buttermilk, and vanilla extract until homogeneous.
  5. On low speed, slowly add the egg mixture to the flour mixture.
  6. Increase speed to medium, and mix until combined.
  7. Fold in sprinkles into the batter.
  8. Evenly divide cake batter into the four cake pans.
  9. Bake about 20-25 minutes until cake is done or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
  10. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, and then move onto a cooling rack until completely cool.

Lucky Charms Cereal Milk Frosting (for the filling)

Ingredients:

1½ c. cereal milk (recipe below)
1/4 c. flour
½ tsp. kosher salt
8 oz. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
¾ c. sugar
½ tsp. vanilla extract

Instructions:

  1. In a small pot over medium heat, whisk milk, salt and flour until combined.
  2. Continuously whisk mixture until thickened to a pudding like consistency.
  3. Once thickened, strain through a mesh strainer into a bowl with a spatula to remove lumps.
  4. Place a piece of plastic wrap on top of the flour mixture (to prevent skin from forming) and put bowl into the fridge until fully cool.
  5. In a mixer bowl fitted with the whisk attachment, mix the sugar and butter on high speed until fluffy and pale about, 5-10 minutes.
  6. Add the chilled flour mixture and continue to whip on high speed until the sugar is completely dissolved and the mixture is no longer gritty, about 5-10 minutes.
  7. Add the vanilla extract and mix until combined.

Cereal Milk

Ingredients:

3 ½ c. Lucky Charms cereal
4 c. whole milk, cold

Instructions:

  1. In a large bowl, mix cereal and milk and steep for 30 minutes, until cereal is soggy.
  2. Strain mixture through a fine mesh strainer. (Do not force mixture through mesh strainer. The resulting milk will be starchy and thicker than what you started with.)

Vanilla Meringue Buttercream (for the outside)

Ingredients:

1 c. sugar
4 large egg whites
3 sticks unsalted butter
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Instructions:

  1. Simmer an inch of water in a medium pot.
  2. In the bowl of a standing mixer, whisk egg whites and sugar together.
  3. Place the bowl over the pot of simmering water and whisk the egg white and sugar mixture continuously until the mixture becomes lighter and no longer grainy.
  4. Remove the bowl from the pot and transfer the bowl into the mixer fitted with a whisk attachment.
  5. Mix on high until mixture becomes white and fluffy, and cool (check for this by seeing if the outside of the bowl is cool to the touch).
  6. Add in vanilla extract and butter one stick at a time until a silky smooth frosting forms.

Lucky Charms Bark

Ingredients:

white candy melts
yellow candy melts
orange candy melts
sky blue candy melts
pink candy melts
purple candy melts
Lucky Charms cereal marshmallows
any type of sprinkles you would like to use

Instructions:

*Note: You want to move fast before the candy melts set. Try to have all of the sprinkles, marshmallows, and candy melts out and on hand before you start this recipe.

  1. Line a sheet pan with wax paper.
  2. Melt white candy melts in a bowl and spread thinly in a rectangular shape onto the wax paper.
  3. On a separate plate, melt about 3-4 disks of each color of the candy melt separately,
  4. Using a toothpick, make swirls of different colors all over the slab of white candy melt.
  5. Using an offset spatula, smooth the top of the bark in one fluid horizontal stroke.
  6. Place the marshmallows and sprinkles before the candy bark sets.
  7. Before the candy bark sets completely, (when it is similar to very soft chocolate) take a sharp knife and score shards of candy bark by making triangular shapes into the candy melt.
  8. When the candy bark sets, break along the lines you made with your knife.