Lilikoi Bar Dessert Recipe: the sweet & tart taste of Hawaii

This is possibly my very most favorite dessert recipe EVER! The sweet citrus tartness of the Lilikoi paired with a hint of lemon and the perfect shortbread crust. So delicious! It is indeed like having a bite of Hawaii at home. In order to get fresh lilikoi you will either need to grow your own or... order them online.

This recipe is a combination of two different recipes - but the main part was followed from the recipe listed over at  Little Ferraro Kitchen.

Ingredients

Crust
• 1/2 lb butter, room temperature
• 1/2 c sugar
• 2 c flour, sifted (don't skip this)
• 1/8 tsp kosher salt
Filling
• 6 large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 c sugar
• 1 c fresh lilikoi juice (about 10-12 lilikoi)
• 1 cup flour
• 1 lemon, juice and zest
Glaze
• 1/4 c water
• 1/2 c granulated sugar
• 1/4 c fresh lilikoi fruit juice  or use the Maguary Passion Fruit Concentrate
• Juice of 1/4 lemon

Instructions

1. First, make the lilikoi juice. Cut each fruit in half and scoop out the pulp and seeds..
2.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. 
3. For the crust, cream the butter and sugar in mixer untily light with paddle attachment
4. Combine the flour and salt and sift into the mixer on low, add to the butter mixture until just mixed.
5. Form dough into ball with well floured hands. Flatten the dough and press it into a 9 by 13 by 2-inch baking sheet, building up a 1/2-inch edge on all sides.
6. Chill in refrigerator for 30 minutes (or speed it up in the freezer for 15 minutes).
7. For the filling, Whisk together the eggs, sugar, lilikoi juice (I like to keep the seeds in it), lemon zest, lemon juice, and flour.
8. Pour over the crust and bake for 30-35 minutes, until the filling is set. Let cool.
9. For the Lilikoi Glaze, boil water and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat for 5 minutes.
10. Add passion fruit and lemon juice and boil for a further 3 minutes. It will boil rapidly and looks like it expanded.
11. Remove from heat and allow to cool. It will turn into a thick and sugary passion fruit syrup.
12. Allow to cool and drizzle over lilikoi bars
13. Time to gobble them up!

-Simply Sublime

Kid Friendly DIY Valentine's Day Treat Idea: Strawberry Hand Pie Recipe

My friend and I are teaching an Intro to 4-H at the Fair Class at our Homeschool Co-op. This week we were focusing on making posters. Whoopieeeee.... "NOT" said the children. In planning our day I knew I would need to add a splash of spectacular with a sprinkle of yummmacious to add to our "please lift your head up from the table and wake up" poster lesson.  A quick search to a few of my favorite inspirational blogs and I found the PERFECT finger licking, lip smacking project. 

It didn't take me long once I hopped on over to one of my very favorite blogs, Handmade Charlotte. This is a delightful blog packed full of heartwarming and creative projects & ideas. They had a post on these ooooh-la-la delish Strawberries & Cream Hand Pies by their new foodie contributor Sarah Kieffer from The Vanilla Bean Blog . I LOVE the photos they posted and the ease of the recipe is a double bonus.

To make an even easier version { Hey, before you judge, I was on the tail end of helping my husband plan an EVERYDAY HERO Awana Boys Overnighter the same day I was teaching this class} I used a refrigerated pie crust {gasp}. Yes, I did just type that and I did use it. This is NOT something I would usually promote as I find refrigerated pie crust to have less flavor, less flake and more preservatives...BUT the prep for this particular day needed to be minimal, like almost non-existent. 

All you need on your grocery list for these pockets of goodness are 7 simple items:

Pie Crust

Strawberry Jam

Cream Cheese

Eggs

Vanilla Extract

Sugar

Salt

For the complete recipe head on over to Handmade Charlotte.

The hand pies were a HIT! We had 11 kiddos eagerly assembling their precious, edible creations and we got them all made and baked in 40 minutes. Whew! They were YUMMY! So yummy that I used the leftovers when I got home to make my friends a little bagged treat for our weekend getaway that evening. 

These are the larger ones I made for my girlfriends with a little heart cut out. In addition to the hand pies I needed to whip up some quick packaging for some extra eye candy. By the time I pulled them out of the oven I had about 5 minutes left to whip up packing. Little brown lunch bags, red & white bakers twine, a hole punch and VOILA... simple packaging. Good things come in small paper bags, right?

I think they turned out pretty cute - and - the girls loved them!

-Simply Sublime

KOMBUCHA 101 Best cup ever: DIY Blueberry and Peach YUM

So following our previous  posts on Kombucha 101 we have now created the world's best cup of....

WAIT FOR IT...

YUM!!!

Kombucha with muddled blueberries and peaches. Are you kidding me? This is the BEST Kombucha I have ever had and I have tried me some serious varieties of Kombucha. 

We used the black tea and followed the regular process we posted. After one week of fermenting with a nice healthy scoby we removed the scoby and started a new batch. Then took the current batch of Kombucha and added blueberries and chunks o' fresh peach. Just a few days later and DELISH! 

 I thought the black tea may possibly be too strong with the fruit but it was what we had going so we tried it. Now I can't imagine trying anything else. Although we may get a few batches going at a time - one white tea and maybe even a green tea.  SO EXCITED! Can't believe how easy this is and boy does it save a ton of money. Kombucha is expensive at anywhere from $3-6 a bottle. 

I am telling you, this is worth a try. It is...

-SIMPLY SUBLIME!