Sweet Cream Rice Pudding

So my husband is Mexican and I am from Costa Rica, "Arroz con Leche" AKA rice pudding is a dessert that has been in our lives forever. We eat it  hot or cold, I personally like mine warm, my husband likes his frizzing cold. I do not make it as often as I would like because is so good and rich that I end up eating the whole thing myself, then stretchy pants are a must the rest of the week.
Any way, we have been craving "Arroz con Leche", so I decided to made it adding Cold Stone Sweet Cream International Delight Creamer. Did you know that they also have 3 new ice cream creamer flavors in the market?  Churro Caramel, Hot for Cookies and Founder's Favorite, just imagine the taste of ice cream in your hot or ice coffee. I am sure it never tasted so good using these new creamers. I absolutely love Cold Stone Churro Caramel Creamer, the caramel addict in me wanted me to used this flavor for my rice pudding, unfortunately it was out at my local grocery store, so I went for the Cold Stone Sweet Cream!  Rich, creamy and smooth!


This rice pudding is delicious as it is,adding the Cold Store Sweet Cream make it so creamy, I also added raisins to bust the flavor, but this is something that you can totally skip.



The start of the party!


Sweet Cream Rice Pudding
Serves 8-10

Ingredients:

1 cup of long grain white rice
1/2 cup of water
1/3 cup of International Delight Cold Stone Sweet Cream Flavor Creamer
1 cup of condense milk
1 cup of evaporated milk
3 cups of milk
5 whole cloves
1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon powder
1/4 cup of raisins

-Combine the rice, water, 1 cup of milk, cloves, cinnamon and 1/2 cup of the condensed milk in a large heavy bottomed saucepan over medium heat, stir to combine.
-Bring the mixture to a boil stirring constantly.
-Reduce the heat to low and simmer stirring every 3 minutes or so. The milk will start to thicken.
 -Add the evaporated milk,sweet cream, the rest of the condensed milk and 1 cup of milk. Let the mixture simmer and keep stirring until the rice is tender and a little mushy.
-Add the other cup of milk and the raisins.Continue cooking over medium heat until the mixture comes to a boil.
-At this point the rice will be very tender and the milk will be very thick and soupy, which is perfect.
-Remove the saucepan from the heat and let it cool.
-Transfer pudding to a serving bowl and press plastic wrap over the surface to prevent a skin from forming, refrigerate until cold or eat warm.
Enjoy!!





International Delight's Pin to win Sweep
To enter, you must visit the International Delight Ice Cream Social Pin Board any time between July 15th and August 15th and use the #IScream4ID hashtag before pinning any image of your choice.

5 Grand Prize Winners could win $400 towards throwing the Ultimate Ice Cream Social !



Love ice cream + coffee? This summer, International Delight is bringing your favorite Cold Stone Creamery ice cream flavors to coffee and they're celebrating by giving away five $400 grand prizes to throw this summer’s ultimate Ice Cream Social!  To enter, visit the ID + Ice Cream Pinterest board and pin your favorite image using the #IScream4ID hashtag. Good luck!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of International Delight. The opinions and text are all mine.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of International Delight. The opinions and text are all mine.

Chocolate Chunk Shortbread Cookies-Cookie Swap 2012

I hope you all are having a great week so far.

Well, it is that time of the year and once again I was able to participate in The Great Cookie Swap Food Blogger organized by Julie from The Little Kitchen and Lindsay from Love and Olive Oil.

I do not consider myself much of a food blogger because you know, I am all about cake, but I love baking for others and I also love to eat cookies, so that is always the perfect excuse for me to participate. It is always a great surprise to get a little packet in the mail with some yummy fresh cookies baked by someone else. I have to say, that all of the cookies I received were delicious, very well packaged and with a great presentation.Not to mention that sweet little notes that came with them.

I tried to keep it very simple with my cookie making this year as I was swamp with lots of orders for my own little business. I came across the Chocolate Shortbread cookie from this month's Martha Stewart magazine and I love it. I did a few changes in the baking time of the cookies as my first batch was a little over baked, I also changed the chocolate radio and brand.

I absolutely love shortbread cookies, they just melt in your mouth and not having to scoop one by one in a cookie sheet makes then so easy to make.  

I cut mine in small squares to ship. But I also cut some in long bars and they were a hit at work!

Chocolate Chunk Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

2 sticks room temperature unsalted butter

3/4 cup confectioners' sugar

10 ounces  Hershey's chocolate ( I used the regular Hershey's bars that I had at home)

-Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Sift together flour and salt into a medium bowl, set aside.

-Chop chocolate,put into a bowl and set aside.

-Line a 9" by 13" cookie sheet with parchment paper, set aside.

-Beat butter on medium speed until fluffy, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add sugar gradually, beating between additions and continue to beat until mixture is very pale.

-Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture; beat until just combined.

-Add the chocolate and mix with a rubber spatula.

-Press cookie dough evenly into already prepared baking sheet; refrigerate until firm, about 20 minutes.

-Cut dough lengthwise and then quarters crosswise, making rectangles. I made around 30 rectangles.

-Bake until shortbread is firm in center and golden brown, around 35 minutes.

-Transfer cookie sheet to a wire rack and immediately recut rectangles with a paring knife.

 Let the cookies cool completely in pan.

Happy cookie making!

Blueberry Muffins

I am still recovering from BlogHer2012 in New York last weekend, also recovering from an almost sugar coma from having Smores for breakfast,lunch and dinner.

It turns out that Hershey had a suite at the Hilton Hotel, we could go there as we pleased and make our own smores, what? yes please!!

I don't know you, but I can't have graham crackers,marshmallows and chocolate around the house all at once, is dangerous for me and Camilla.

BlogHer recap coming soon, now into these muffins.

Blueberry muffins as perfect as you can imagine, light,not too sugary, full of blueberries and super moist with the addition of bananas.

Ingredients

1 1/3 cups of all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter
1 ripe banana
1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 milk
1 cup blueberries

-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
-Line a standard size muffin tin with paper liners.

-In a bowl, sift flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt, set aside.
-Cream butter and sugar on medium speed for about 4 minutes until pale and fluffy, add the eggs one by one ( wait until the first egg is absorbed before adding the second)
-Add the dry ingredients to the creamed butter mixture, add milk,mash banana and sour cream and stir the mixture with a rubber spatula until all the liquid is absorbed and there is no loose flour in the bowl.

-Toss blueberries and fold them into the batter. Do not overwork the batter!
Tip:
Toss the blueberries first in a little bit of flour, if you do it the blueberries will not sink to the bottom of your muffins.

 

-Divide the batter evenly among muffin cups ( I filled them about three-quaters full with batter)

-Bake for about 25 minutes or until golden brown.

I ate mine warm from the oven with homemade lemon curd. If you have more patience than me, let them cool completely.

Happy muffin making!

Lemon and Cococut Squares

I am a citrus girl!

I have a deep love for lemons.Growing up in Costa Rica we had a few lemon trees in out backyard. Every day we would make fresh lemonade and use the fresh lemon juice as dressing in our salads.

My mom even used to make Lemon Curd, we call it "Jalea de Limon" and it was a staple in our house to eat it at breakfast with a toast or even with coffee in the afternoon.

Of course, back then I had no idea that I could use Lemon Curd to fill cakes,cupcakes or cookies!

These lemon squares are full of flavour, the filling is not too thick and are so easy to make.

 They have just the right amount of yumminess ( is that a word?)to satisfy your sweet tooth.

Lemon and Coconut Squares

recipe adapted from Two Peas and their Pod

Ingredients:

1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/4 cup old fashioned oats

1/3 cup shredded sweetened coconut

1 can condensed milk
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
3 teaspoons lemon zest


- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

-Line a 9 x 13' inch baking pan with parchment paper leaving 2 inches hanging over the sides.

-In a bowl,mix flour,baking powder and salt and set aside.

-Make the filling whisking together sweetened condensed milk, vanilla, lemon juice and the lemon zest in a bowl, set aside.


To make the crust:
Using an electric mixer,beat together butter and brown sugar. Add the dry ingredients ( flour mixture) and mix until everything comes together. Add oats and coconut.
-Take 1 cup of the crust mixture out of the bowl and set aside.

-Put the remaining of the crust mixture into the bottom of the prepared baking dish and press firmly into an even layer.
-Add the filling and spread evenly with a spatula.

Now take the 1 cup of crust mixture that you previously sat aside and crumble it over the top of the lemon mixture.

Put baking pan in the oven and bake for 30 minutes or until you see a golden brown color around the edge of the pan.
Cool completely on a wire rack before cutting into squares.
Enjoy!