Do you have a family of goodie lovers?  If you say no, I probably won’t believe you.  This has to be the best cookbook for goodie lovers, even the title is perfect.  What lover of sweets doesn’t want to own a cookbook that says Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey Treats for Kids on it?  Actually, it should say kids of all ages, but that’s probably because my sweet tooth refuses to grow up too.

In this spiral bound book, sweet lovers will find three sections of sticky, chewy, messy and gooey treats to make with their kids.  I’m wondering if O’Connor and I were separated at birth because her Introduction to this book says, “I have a secret. Baking with children isn’t always easy…My older daughter, Olivia, in all her teenage wisdom, likes to call me, ‘mean chef’.”  And here I thought my kids were the only ones that called their mommy “big, fat meanie”. 

Also in her Introduction is her objective to make baking with kids stress-free for parents by having recipes that are simple and made with common pantry staples–Thank You!–and some that kids can make with little adult help.  I’m in heaven already and I haven’t gotten past Page 7.

When this book came in, my two girls who love to “help” me cook/bake fought over who would get to see it first.  I won, so I got to see it first.  Na, na!  Kudos go out to the book designer and also photographer Leigh Beisch for putting together such an attractive cookbook, with tons of appealing pictures and lovely details such as the scalloped edges on the pages. 

O’Connor put together a great deal of fabulous content and managed to create a cookbook you will find yourself turning to time and again.   From Pepperminty Wintery White Hot Chocolate–what we hope to try soon–to Jumbled Berry Jam, and from A Is for Apple Pie-Stuffed French Toast to Chock-a-Block Chocolate Chip Gingerbread Muffins, you and your kids will be able to make treats for any event or just to have at home for no reason at all.

Also included is a list of equipment, some tips on ingredients, and a section titled “Success Made Simple” which shows you the importance of getting organized, reading the recipe completely, measuring correctly and taking your time.  The author has also included little tid-bits of commentary throughout the cookbook that you’ll find helpful.  The last page of the book is a Table of Equivalents.

Now is the perfect time to pick up a copy of Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey Treats for Kids by Jill O’Connor and to get your kids baking for the holidays.  There are so many great recipes in here that I don’t even know what to try first!

Rating: 

• Publisher:  Chronicle Books
• ISBN 9780811867825
• ISBN10 081186782X
• SRP:  $19.95



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I admit. When I first learnt I was pregnant earlier this year, I sent a few upward missives that went: “Lord, please give me a son this time round.” My firstborn E is a girl, so out of the purely selfish reason of wanting one of each, I wanted my second to be a boy.

Just think of it. I will have a daughter to dress up and bake pretty cakes with, and husband Z will have a son to skateboard with and do all those smelly things that boys do. And at first, all signs suggested that we would enjoy this idyllic, life-insurance ad configuration.

My aunt, who has a track record of accurately predicting the sex of a foetus by using some mystical formula involving the mother’s age, month of conception, etc, swore it was a boy. We have friends who “just have a feeling” that it was a boy. Even the wonton noodles auntie in my office canteen, with just one glance at my front-tilting bump, was sure of it too.

Then we found out the baby is actually a girl. And, wow, nothing prepared me for the tide of disappointment verging on disapproval that followed when we broke the news. My aunt, looking like she had just bitten into something rotten, told me I should “bok” (gamble) again and hopefully hit jackpot the third time round. When I told the wonton noodles auntie that I actually quite like having another girl, she said, with her back turned towards me: “As long as you’re happy lorhh. It’s okay lorhhhh.”

Everywhere I turned, people above the age of 45 would console me, saying “It’s okay lah. These days, boys and girls are all the same”. But, funny huh? If boys and girls are really the same, you never hear anyone saying this when you’re expecting a boy.

I, for one, have totally embraced and am loving the fact that I’ll be having two girls. First, you save lots of money by recycling the clothes. Second, if our new baby is anything like her older sister, we will have a pair of mild-mannered, well-behaved, neat and tidy kids who will not turn our home into a crime scene on a daily basis.

Third, and on to the real point of this post, I will have twice the opportunity to make the cutest, prettiest cakes all year round.

I mean, check out these adorable cheesecake pops I made as goodie bag takeaways for E’s birthday party two weeks ago. Would a birthday boy have appreciated the heart-shaped sprinkles or the pastel-coloured non-pareils? I don’t think so. When he becomes a teenager, he will look back on the birthday photos and accuse me of instilling in him an unmanly penchant for pink and polka dots.

If I had a son, every special occasion cake I make will have to factor in boy colours and emblems. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think a cake shaped like a blue tractor looks all that appetising. A dinosaur cake? Sure, I can make one. Just don’t make me eat it.

But with two girls, I will have at least two birthday cakes to make a year, festooned with flowers, flounces, ruffles in all manner of lemon-yellows and rosebud pinks. Already, I am having soul-lifting visions of my two girls in cute little aprons, helping me in the kitchen with the whipping, kneading and washing. What absolute bliss.

Having said all this, I’ll wait till I pop in January before I celebrate. Imagine the back-paddling I’ll have to do if the ultrasound scans turn out all wrong.

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CHEESECAKE POPS adapted from Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Connor

(makes 50 golf ball-sized pops)

40 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

2 cups sugar

1/4 cup plain flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

5 eggs (about 250g without shells)

2 egg yolks

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup heavy cream (at least 35% butterfat)

50 lollipop sticks (Wilton brand, available at Phoon Huat)

1 pound eating chocolate (dark, milk or white)

2 tablespoons shortening

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1. Preheat oven to 160 deg C.

2. Using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese, sugar, flour and salt together until smooth. Add whole eggs and egg yolks one at a time, beating on low speed. Beat in vanilla and cream.

3. Lightly grease a 10-inch or 9-inch cake pan (not springform as the batter will leak) and pour batter into it. Place pan inside a larger roasting pan and fill up the latter with water until it reaches halfway up the sides of the inner cake pan. Bake until cheesecake is firm and golden-brown on top, about 45-50 minutes.

4. Remove cake pan from the water bath and leave to cool to room temperature. Then, refrigerate cheesecake until cold and very firm, about 3 hours.

5. Scrape off the golden-brown crust on top (because it will keep the cheesecake from sticking together in a ball). Then, using a small ice-cream scoop, make golf ball-sized balls and insert a lollipop stick. Freeze the pops until very hard, at least 1 hour.

6. While cheesecake balls are being frozen, prepare the chocolate dip. Place half the amount of chocolate in a bowl (use only half because the chocolate will harden very quickly during dipping, so might as well do in two batches) and microwave on high, taking it out every 15 seconds to stir. If you don’t, chocolate will seize and become grainy. When chocolate is melted and warm, add in shortening (to lower chocolate’s melting point so it won’t melt into a mess when you’re eating it) and mix till smooth.

7. Dip cheesecake balls into the chocolate until evenly covered. You will have to work quickly because the cheesecake’s cold temperature will harden the chocolate very quickly.

8. Then, immediately sprinkle over decorations before chocolate hardens. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

9. Once first batch of chocolate is used up, heat up second batch of chocolate and shortening. Repeat with remaining cheesecake balls.

10. Or, for more adult-looking pops, leave cheesecake unadorned and swirl patterns on the chocolate before they set. Gorgeous! 

I’ve been in a cookie-making mood the last two weeks – probably because they’re easy to make and I love using my Huckle Cat cookie jar.
Inspired by the Everything But The Kitchen Sink Cookies from Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey: Desserts for the Serious Sweet Tooth, I decided to make my own variation of these fabulous cookies:

Makes about 30 cookies
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 tsp baking soda
Dash of salt
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup walnut pieces
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325F. Beat together the sugar and butter until creamy. Add the egg and vanilla and mix well. Add the flour, rolled oats, baking soda, and salt until combined. Add the raisins, walnut pieces, and chocolate chips. Use a tablespoon to scoop out the dough, roll slightly with your hands and place on a lined cookie sheet, spaced well apart. Press each mound down slightly with your fingers but don’t flatten too much. Bake for about 12-15 minutes. Let them cool completely. The cookies turned out sweet and chewy.

I have been thinking a lot about the Carrot Juice Chicken I made last week. It truly was spectacular and since then I’ve been wondering about using other types of juices to cook meat in. I was inspired and on Saturday, I decided to experiment with tomato juice. I used V8 juice with high fibre and low sodium and I followed the same steps as the carrot juice recipe. The result was a fine tasting chicken…but not as spectacular as the carrot juice version. I think the V8 lacked the amount of sugar the carrot juice had that gave it that  sweet and sticky  (like BBQ sauce) taste. I’m thinking that maybe next time I’ll let the chicken cook in a pool of freshly crushed tomatoes with brown sugar. We’ll see how that goes.

Along with the tomato juice chicken, I served carrot juice carrots which were, for some odd reason, not as fabulous as the first time I made them. Overall, it was a very good meal, one I would make again and again…but it was not as thrilling as the Carrot Juice Chicken and Carrot Juice Carrots.

The next morning, before I’d had my usual cup of coffee and breakfast, bleary eyed and drowsy, I pulled out my favourite dessert book; Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey. I needed to bake something and I already knew what it was because I had bought buttermilk specifically for that recipe. I had meant to make Quicky Sticky Buns (recipe here) two weeks ago but I never got around to it until yesterday morning.

I’m not sure if it was because I was still half asleep as I went about making the biscuits, but, they are not quick to make. Alright, maybe it was because I was moving slowly and having breakfast at the same time. It took me longer to make these because I did not have the right size baking pan. The recipe calls for a 9 x 13 pan. I have a 9 x 11. Yes, that makes a huge difference. My biscuit dough had to be squished in the pan since I didn’t think to use two separate baking dishes. This meant that after the required 15-17 minutes baking time, my biscuits were slightly crispy on top but the insides were still a bit sticky and undercooked so more baking time was required.

It was worth it though. As I type this entry I am enjoying a sticky biscuit and a cup of coffee. Divine!

About ten minutes ago, I pulled a pan out of the oven and the most aromatic scent filled the space of my small apartment. I’ve just made these amazingly delicious nut bars. If you love nuts, chocolate, coconut and caramel all meshed into one chewy square then this is your dream dessert. They are called Big Blondes and they can be found inside Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Connor. I mentioned her book before when I made Gooey Caramel Butter Bars. Today I am making these nut bars as a gift for my aunt and her family who, as I mentioned before, are in Toronto this week.

My youngest sister was over earlier and she did a great job helping me prep some ingredients. The book says to use semi-sweet chocolate chips and Heath bars but I used unsweetened chocolate chunks and chopped up Skor bars (chopped by Little Sue, my sis):

I decided to use unsweetened chocolate because the nut bars are already sweet enough and the bitterness of the dark chocolate are a nice contrast to the overall taste.

Here are the toasted nuts: walnuts, pecans and almonds.

I guess you don’t really need to toast them beforehand but they smell incredible when they’re toasted. Toasting them also brings out their natural flavour. Trust me, it’s worth it.
The first time I made these nut bars (about three months ago) I was impatient and I mixed the chocolate chips while the toasted nuts were still hot. The chocolate melted of course and I learned my lesson. It’s not a big deal but it does make a difference in the end. Definitely let the bars cool after taking them out of the oven, even if you’re just as impatient as I am and definitely wait until the next day to eat them because they taste even better then.

Sometimes I want to make a recipe more because I’m as curious about the production process as I am about eating the final result. In the case of this marshmallow, that was a process that saw a lot of gooey mixture being splattered all over me and the kitchen. I’m still picking bits off the wall.

Folks – if you’re going to make this, use the biggest bowl you’ve got because otherwise it is going to go everywhere. I was just too lazy to drag the mother of all mixing bowls out of the cupboard. But nothing else will do when you’re whipping up hot syrupy liquid into puffy clouds of sweet nothing.

After that kind of warning, I suppose that it’s going to come as no suprise that I had to carefully prise the pages of, wait for it, Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey open to type up this recipe because, oh yes - I also managed to splash that with molten marshmallow as well.

Homemade marshmallows from Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Connor

Makes 20 large marshmallows

You’ll need:

1 cup cold water
3 tablespoons unflavoured gelatin
2 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons pure vanilla
Cornstarch and icing sugar for dusting

1. Pour 1/2 cup of the cold water into a large ixing bowl or the bowl of a mixer. Sprinle the gelatin evenly over the water, 45 to 60 minutes.

2. In a large saucepan, combine the remaining 1/2 cup of cold water, the granulated sugar, the corn syrup and the salt. Heat the mixture over medium heat, stirring occasionally until the sugar dissolves.

3. Increase the heat to high and let the mixture come to a boil. Cook the syrup, without stirring, until it reaches 240F on a candy thermometer. Do not allow the syrup to go past 244F or the marshmallows will be rubbery rather than tender.

4. Remove the syrup from the heat and slowly beat it into the dissolved gelatin with an electric mixer set at low speed. Increase the mixer speed to high and continue beating until the mixture is very thick and white but still warm – about 15 minutes. Beat in the vanilla.

5. Generously dust a 9/13 inch baking pan with cornstarch. Pour the marshmallow mixture into the pan, smooth the top with a spatula and dust the top liberally with icing sugar.

6. Let the marshmallow stand, uncovered, for 8 to 12 hours to firm up. Turn the marshmallow from the pan on to a sheet of greaseproof paper liberally dusted with icing sugar. Cut into 20 large squares. Dust each square with more icing sugar. Store in a tightly covered container until ready to serve.

Cook’s notes

Next time, I’d ease off on the vanilla essence a little bit. It was just a touch too strong for my tastes.

And, next time, I’ll play with some food colouring for variety.

One of my absolute favorite food bloggers, Susan of Food Blogga, is hosting Beautiful Bones: An Osteoporosis Food Event for the month of May. This is to bring awareness to the risks of Osteoporosis and to encourage us to to protect our beautiful bones. One of the best ways to keep our bones healthy is by having a calcium-rich diet. There are plenty more calcium-rich foods other than MILK, but I decided to go with the obvious for Susan’s Food Event…. It’s pudding after all! Please go to her Beautiful Bones post for a full list of calcium-rich foods, meal ideas & more information on Osteoporosis.

Rich Risotto Rice Pudding

From the book Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Connor

Introduction

This rice pudding is voluptuously creamy, with firm but tender grains of Arborio rice suspended in a creamy yolk-tinged, vanilla-scented, milky pudding. It’s always amazing to me how little rice you really need to make a good rice pudding; remember, it’s the milk that makes the dish, reducing as the rice cooks.

Ingredients

Steps

1. Combine the rice, milk, sugar, vanilla bean, cinnamon, and salt in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium-high heat and stir to combine. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring every 5 minutes as the mixture starts to thicken, for about 30 minutes.
2. Continue cooking until the rice is tender but not too mushy, about 15 minutes longer. The milk will be thick and the rice tender, but the mixture will still be very soupy, which is what you want. (As the pudding cools, it thickens, and if it is too thick while still hot, it will firm up into a thick, stodgy lump without the unctuous creaminess of a great rice pudding.)
3. In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks and cream together and stir into the rice pudding. Continue cooking the pudding over medium-low heat for about 2 to 3 minutes, until the eggs are cooked through and pudding is creamy and glossy, but still fairly soupy. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla. Grate a little nutmeg, if you like, into the pudding. Remove the vanilla pod.
4. Pour the pudding into a serving bowl or individual serving dishes and press plastic wrap over the surface to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate until cold, about 2 to 3 hours. Serve cold.

Notes

This pudding is delicious as is, but you can also fold a dollop of whipped cream into each serving, or layer the pudding in a parfait glass with dulce de leche or caramel sauce, or just drizzle some sauce on top before serving.

This content is from the book Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Connor.

This is the perfect treat to prepare in the morning & have it waiting for you when you come home, especially if you’ve spent the day outside in the heat. Also, we have a great excuse for seconds – “my bones need their calcium!”

Advance planning – clearly not my strong point!

Here are my ever-so-slightly-late results for April’s Daring Bakers challenge - cheesecake pops no less (or popsicles, as I keep calling them). Set by Deborah of Taste and Tell and Elle of Feeding My Enthusiasms, this task saw DBers around the world roll up their sleeves to get busy with gallons of cream cheese and melted chocolate to whip up this recipe from Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey. Check out the Daring Bakers blogroll for many rather more elegant versions than mine. There are some very talented people out there   

So yes, advance planning and/or a practice run would definitely have come in handy. Not because the recipe was tricky but because the whole shaping side of things went a little wonky and the results lack a little finesse on my part.

Partly that’s because I have the artistic abilities of a two-year old. But I think I also tripped up by not chilling the cheesecake for long enough before scooping it into the rather lumpy shapes you see above. Less haste and more speed… Nevermind – it was still a lot of fun rolling the pops into shape and dunking them into the melted chocolate, before making judicious use of my sprinkles (that’s the second time in one week those babies have come out of the cupboard).

I halved the recipe as we’ve got limited room in the freezer just now and that went just fine, which I was pleased with. Sometimes it’s not just a matter of chopping the ingredients in half to achieve the same result for a smaller batch. But after cooking it in the bain marie for about 45 minutes, the cheesecake had gone a beautiful golden-brown on top and had set quite nicely too. Seemed a bit of a shame to break it all up with the icecream scoop!

The slightly lumpy results didn’t affect the taste at all – they’re scrumptious! Many thanks to Deborah and Elle for setting this challenge not just for the kitchen fun but also because they solved my dilemma about what to make first from this book. I picked up a copy when I was in London a few weeks ago and have been drooling over the contents so much ever since I’ve been unable to decide where to start! Perhaps this recipe has set the sticky, chewy, messy gooey ball rolling. If a ball like that could roll, that is.

Cheesecake pops from Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey by Jill O’Connor

Makes 30 to 40 pops

You’ll need:

Five 8-ounce packages cream cheese, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup plain flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 large eggs (When I halved the recipe, I just used two eggs rather than messily trying to get a ‘half’ too)
2 egg yolks
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup cream
boiling water as needed
Thirty to forty 8-inch lollipop sticks
1 pound semisweet flavoured, milk chocolate flavoured, or brightly-coloured confectionery coating

1. Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 170C/325F

2. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer set on a low speed, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, flour and salt until smooth. Add the whole eggs and the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well (still on a low speed) after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and cream.

3. Lightly grease a 10-inch cake tin (not a springform pan). Pour the cheesecake batter into the cake pan and place in a larger roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with boiling water until it reaches halfway up the sides of the cake pan. Bake until the cheesecake is firm and slightly golden on top – 35 to 45 minutes.

4. Remove the cheesecake from the waterbath and cool to room temperature. Cover the cheesecake with plastic wrap and refridgerate until very cold, at least 3 hours or up to overnight.

5. When cold and very firm, scoop the cheesecake into 2-ounce balls and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Carefully insert a lollipop stick into each cheesecake ball. Freeze the pops, uncovered, until very hard – at least 1 to 2 hours.

6. When the cheesecake pops are frozen and ready for dipping, prepare the chocolate coating. Place the chocolate wafers in a microwave-proof bowl. Microwave on high for 30 seconds. Remove and stir. If the chocolate is not completely melted, microwave for 30-second intervals, stirring until smooth. (Or just melt some chocolate in a bowl over some boiling water.) 

7. Quickly dip a frozen cheesecake pop into the melted chocolate, swirling quickly to coat it completly. Hold the pop over the melted chocolate and shake off any excess. Place the pop on a clean parchment paper-lined tray to set. Repeat with the remaining pops, melting more chocolate if needed.