- Sift sugar, flour, cornstarch and salt into a small bowl and whisk to combine.
- Pour milk into a small pot. Gradually whisk in the dry ingredients, ensuring there are no lumps.
- Place over medium-low heat and cook, stirring often, until thickened. Pass mixture through a fine mesh strainer and into a heat-safe container.
- Refrigerate for 2 hours.
- Place the cooled mixture in a large mixing bowl, along with the lemon juice and vanilla, and whip on medium-high speed.
- Whip in cream cheese, a tablespoon at a time, allowing each addition to fully incorporate before adding the next.
- Whip in butter, a tablespoon at a time, allowing each addition to fully incorporate before adding the next.
- Turn the mixer up to high speed, and continue to whip until very fluffy.
I love cream cheese frosting but hate the amount of sugar that's needed to stiffen it up if you're planning on doing anything more than slapping fat dollops onto a cupcake with a butter knife. So on one of my quests to find a less-sugared pipe-able cream cheese frosting, I stumbled across this - which I was skeptical of at first! But wonder of wonders, it actually held up beautifully as promised; even the tiny ridges in the examples below held up for hours at a time at room temperature! AND it preserved the tangy taste of the cream cheese. This was definitely worth the extra effort!
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For once, I was actively hunting for something new to make when I stumbled across this recipe. The inspiration was the very first Thanksgiving feast I would be making on my lonesome, and I wanted to top it off with a dessert that was traditionally-themed without being completely traditional. This was, arguably, the biggest hit not only of the night's feasting (and not just because it was sweet) but nearly out of all the things I have ever baked for my family. Even my father, the most famous scrooge of the family, prompted me no less than three times as to when I was going to make it again! Filling:
Note: Remember to leave a little space at the top of the custard for the gelee. While you can get away with not doing so because the gelee should be a super-thin layer anyway, it was also very easy for the gelee to spill over the edges when I didn't account for it. While the custard will initially come out of the oven all puffed-up, it will settle in once it cools down, and should still have enough space for the gelee after being baked.
I discovered that I had an excess of filling and gelee after filling the tart to the brim. So have some ramekins ready and you can toss the extra in to be baked at the same time. Then you can "taste-test" guilt-free before the tart ever gets served! I had pinned this article from Epicurious from back in forever, and had honestly forgotten about it altogether. It wasn't until I offered to make a cake for my mother for the holiday potluck and trawled through my Pinterest board (and quietly panicking when I realized I almost never pay any attention to cakes) when I stumbled across this recipe again. Since it was for the holidays, I added some green to help complement the red, and had a grand old time carving and essentially playing with the fruit. With a ready-made crust and store-bought whipped topping, this is a quick and easy recipe, though I usually opt to make my own graham cracker crust and whipped cream.
If you're going to use kiwis, find some that are firmer/not-quite-ripe. They will be easier to slice using a mandolin, and they'll be so thin that their not-so-perfect state of ripeness won't be as much of an issue. Also, turn the fruit 180 degrees after each slice; otherwise, the trailing end will start to get ragged after a while depending on the sharpness of your mandolin, particularly if the fruit is already softer than ideal. I love the extra tang the sour cream gives this version of the common cream cheese frosting. While the sour cream may not be evident if you sample the frosting by itself, when garnishing something else - such as the pumpkin bread/cupcake - the sour tang becomes much more evident.
Due to all the sugar that's needed to provide support, this isn't at the very top of my list of favorite frostings, but the cream cheese really makes a delicious complement to such cupcakes as the Red Velvet. One could try to play with using some gelatin to help provide support instead of the sugar.
Ice Cream:
This came with the recipe to the 14 Karat Cake, so I highly suggest pairing this with it! That being said, obviously, you can always make this for other things where cream cheese frosting is appropriate - which should be plenty!
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Sweet EnoughPart of the reason I started baking was because I like my goodies to be less obviously sweet - I want to taste the flavor, not just the sugar. So most of these recipes will have the sugar dialed down. Categories
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