4th of July American Flag Brownies

 My country's birthday is coming up shortly, and I was fortunate to celebrate over the weekend with other expats here in the Netherlands. Instead of a recipe, this is more of a method to achieve a gorgeous American Flag that you can serve at a 4th of July Barbecue. These brownies start from my modification of a brownie product found here, but you can begin with anything baked (brownies, cake, bar cookies, etc.) in a 9"x13" pan. First, place the already baked brownies in the freezer while preparing the fruit and the whipped cream. Pick through about 500 grams of strawberries (1 or 2 quarts), until you have berries about the same size, that are the prettiest of the bunch, stems removed. Pick through a small carton of blueberries until you have about 50. Rinse and pat the fruit dry and set it aside.

Place 250 ml of heavy cream (at least 30% fat content, so to my friends here in the Netherlands, that is slagroom, not lite, not kookcreme). Whip the cream on high with a wire-whisk until soft peaks form. Add about 2 Tablespoons of powdered sugar and continue to whip until stiff peaks form(the sugar gives the whipped cream some stability).

 Remove the brownies from the freezer and spread the whipped cream evenly over the entire pan. Place blueberries in upper left corner, side by side, approximately 6 rows and 8 columns(if your pan curves at the corners, it wont be perfect, but it doesn't matter.) Next, at the top, place a row of strawberries. Make sure you can put another row of strawberries level with the bottom of the blueberries, and also at the bottom of the pan. Fill-in the remaining rows (I was a bit disappointed that I couldn't get two rows in between where the blueberries end and the bottom. I think it would have looked nicer, but my berries were too big for that.) to create an American flag.

 

Bring your work of art to a BBQ and watch it disappear. Don't wait too long to serve it because the whipped cream will melt in the summer sunshine.

God Bless America!

 Happy 4th of July to everyone in the USA and to Americans all over the world.

American Brownies in the Netherlands

For those of you reading back home in the USA, I'm sure you are all set with your Ghiradelli boxed brownie mix at your local grocery store. But for those of us craving a quick and easy dessert here in Eindhoven, we're in luck! The Genneper Park Molen (Watermill) has brownie mix! And chocolate chips! And mini chocolate chips!

Above, on the top shelf, you can see the chocolate chips. They have semi-sweet (puur), milk, and white chocolate and it is Callebaut chocolate. You can't get any better than that.

 Here on the top shelf is the "American Brownies" mix. It is a 1kg bag, containing sugar, flour, oil, cocoa, milk, starch, glucose syrup, potato starch, salt, rice flour and flavoring. You get two batches of brownies from one bag and it costs 4.50 euros.

Wait! Don't make the recipe listed on the bag! For crying out loud, it calls for raisins!! In brownies? Ick! After some experimenting, here is the way to make brownies as good as Duncan Hines or Betty Crocker boxed mixes. Can't say that they are as good as a Ghiradelli boxed mix, but I'm still working on it. The total time to make these is about 30 minutes start to finish. A mere 7 minutes to mix the ingredients and 23 minutes to cook the brownies. Totally my go-to dessert when I forgot someone was coming over... oh! hi! I was just about to put some brownies in the oven! Give me 5 minutes and I'll bring you a cup of tea while they bake!

American Brownies in the Netherlands
500g "American Brownies" mix from Genneper Park Molen (remember, HALF the bag!)
1 egg
1/2 cup vegetable oil - 125ml (you can even use olive oil but NOT extra virgin olive oil)
1/2 cup water - 125ml
130g mini chocolate chips - a couple of handfuls if you're in a hurry

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (UPDATE: sorry I didn't mention it before for my friends here that is 176 degrees C). Mix egg, oil, and water in a bowl. Add the brownie mix and mix for less than 30 strokes. Add the chips and mix until just combined. Pour into a greased 9x13" baking dish. Bake for 23 minutes (more or less depending on how accurate your oven is). Toothpick test should show a crumb or two, or almost clean.

If you are feeling Dutch, you can add Speculous Pasta(paste). If you've never heard of it, I have to tell you: it is one of the best products ever made. Tastes like liquid cookie and my friends in Rochester can now get it at Wegmans! You guys, check it out!! The best way to add it is to drop teaspoon-fulls onto the unbaked brownies, and swirl it in before baking.  Rochesterians, you can try this with your boxed brownie mixes! My dear sweet husband only lets me do half because he is a purest when it comes to brownies.

Rice Kiss-Me Treats

My daughter, Dina (2.5 years old) calls these Rice Kiss-Me treats.

Super easy to make, they only require Rice Krispies cereal, marshmallows, and butter.  You can find the standard recipe on the Rice Krispies website but I prefer to use a bit more marshmallows and butter. The standard bag of white marshmallows is about 300g, 10oz or about 40 marshmallows. Don't use the 'giant' ones. The fact that these exist at all is disturbing to me. For my friends in the Netherlands, do not use pink, green, or other colored marshmallows. Two problems exist with the non-white marshmallows: they will result in very unappetizingly-colored treats, and they have a strange artificial flavoring that reminds me of perfume. Just buy a bag of the plain white ones, not intermingled with other colors. Thanks. The 375g box of Rice Krispies will yield 2 batches of treats. Or one batch and a bunch of bowls of cereal.

Rice Kiss-Me Treats
1 bag of marshmallows (300g or 10oz)
5 cups of Rice Krispies (188 g)
6 Tbsp butter (86 g)
Grease your 9x13" (23x33cm) pan. Melt the butter in a large pot. Add the marshmallows and melt them, on low heat, stirring often. Once the marshmallows are melted, take the pan off the heat and add the Rice Krispies.  Stir to combine and pour into the prepared dish. Pat with a spatula to make a compact structure. Allow to harden for a couple of hours and cut with a knife into squares. Keep covered because humidity will affect the texture.

If you are having a hard time finding marshmallows and Rice Krispies: "American Marshmellows" are found at Jumbo in Veldhoven and also often found at Xenos in Eindhoven. The Rice Krispies are at the AH XL and also at Jumbo. Don't use the jar of marshmallow fluff to substitute. Ugh. And if you are lactose intolerant you can substitute margarine for the butter with good results.

Mmmm... lekker!

Berry Dream Parfait

When Dina was a couple of months old I took her to the 'Consultatiebureau' which is Dutch for 'place to take your kid for wellness-visits and immunizations'. On this particular visit I met Viktorija and her baby, Leticia.  I feel lucky to call Viktorija my friend. She and her family are from Croatia and so have very interesting recipes to share with me! One of her most favorite desserts is something like a 'berrymisu' which reminds me of tiramisu but with berries instead of coffee. It is best made the day before you want to serve it, as the flavors blend together beautifully in the fridge overnight. If you don't have the exact measurements for this recipe, or you have something similar, do not worry. Viktorija would say, "Make it how you want! Use what you have!" and my favorite, "Relax!"

Berry Dream Parfait
2 packages Marscapone cheese (about a cup or 500g total)
2 cups (500 ml) heavy cream (slagroom)
1/2 cup sugar (fijn krystal suiker) (about 100 g)
1/2 cup water (125 ml)
juice of half a lemon - about 2 Tbsp
1 tsp vanilla
2 packages of lady fingers or 1 package of Dutch egg-cookies (eieren koekje)
500 grams (about 2 pints) strawberries (aardbeien), hulled and sliced

Beat cream on high speed until stiff peaks form. If desired add a bit of powdered sugar (I prefer it without sugar). In another bowl, beat marscapone cheese until smooth. Fold in the whipped cream, but don't stress if it is lumpy.

Next, bring water and sugar to a boil in a saucepan. Once it is boiling, take it off the heat, transfer to a dish to cool and add lemon juice and vanilla. If you don't have vanilla you can add some other liquor or orange flower water.

Using a large glass bowl or other container, dip each egg-cookie or ladyfinger into the sugar/water/lemon mixture and line the bottom. Spoon the cream/marscapone mixture in a layer and then add sliced berries. Repeat this with more dipped cookies, cream and berries until you have filled your container or run out of ingredients, whichever happens first. The best way to end this layering is with a layer of cream on the top and maybe a few strategically placed berries for garnish. You can also garnish with a sprig of mint.

Chill for at least an hour and preferably overnight. Serve in glasses for an elegant effect!

If you don't have Marscapone cheese, Philadelphia cream cheese is a good substitution.

This photo is of the first time I had this dessert, at Viktorija's house. Notice the beautiful arrangement of raspberries she added to the top. Most of the time I'm in a rush and forget to garnish this fabulous dessert. But this photo reminded me of how pretty it can look!