Easy & Delicious Summer Desserts With Beach House Baking Recipes!

This is the time of year when I am on the hunt for simple, yet delicious desserts. Summertime draws family and friends together for cookouts, parties, and beach trips. What's a gathering without sharing tasty treats with our loved ones? I don't like to show up to an event empty handed, but I don't want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen during the summer, especially when I can be enjoying the outdoors! I like recipes that can be made with minimal effort, but taste great. Beach House Baking, An Endless Summer of Delicious Desserts has everything that I am looking for, all wrapped up in one gorgeous cookbook!

Offering up over 100 easy to prepare, made from scratch dessert recipes, you'll have enough time to enjoy the outdoors and indulge in sweet treats all summer long. Chef Lei Shishak shares her most popular recipes from her celebrated Sugar Blossom Bake Shop, located in San Clement, California. You'll find recipes to tickle your taste buds, including cupcakes, cookies, pies, ice cream sandwiches, frozen pops, beverages, and more.

Flipping through the book, I was mesmerized by the full page, color photographs. The dessert pictures had my mouth watering, and the beach scenes had me dreaming of lazy days, soaking in the sun.

 Some of you know, I can not stand the taste of a roasted marshmallow, but I LOVE the chocolate/marshmallow/graham combination of s'mores. When I came across these S'mores Cupcakes, I was excited to give it a try!

 Ingredients:

Graham Crust

1 1/8 cups graham crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

S'more Batter

1 cup cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 ounces semi sweet chocolate, melted
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup boiling water
207 mini marshmallows

Granache

3/4 cup dark chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup heavy cream
powdered sugar for garnish

Directions:

1- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a cupcake pan with 23 paper liners.

2- Combine the graham crumbs and sugar in a medium bowl. Mix in the melted butter with your hands. Place 1 tablespoon of the mixture into each cupcake liner. Pat down with the back of an ice cream scoop handle.

3- Sift the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

4- In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla, and mix until combined. Scrape bowl well. Mix in the melted chocolate on low speed. Add the dry ingredients and yogurt. Mix for 1 minute on low speed. Pour in the boiling water all at once and mix just until combined. Scrape the bowl well to make sure all the ingredients are incorporated. Batter will be runny.

5- Immediately pour the batter into the prepared cupcake liners, filling them halfway. Batter will rise up considerably when baked. Top each cupcake with nine mini marshmallow in rows of 3 by 3. Bake in the center of the oven for 17 to 18 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes, remove from the pan, and place on wire rack to cool completely while you make the ganache. 

6- To make the ganache: Place the chopped chocolate in a medium heat-proof bowl. Bring the heavy cream to a boil in a saucepan over medium high heat. Remove from heat and pour over the chocolate. Let sit for 1 minute. Whisk the cream into the schocolate until smooth and silky.

7- Drizzle each cupcake with warm ganache and top with powdered sugar before serving.


This is just one of many yummy desserts you will find in the book. Also available, you'll get recipes for Chocolate Pillow Pie, Pecan Tartlets, Bourbon Fudge Brownies, Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies, and more!

More about Beach House Baking, An Endless Summer of Delicious Desserts:

Hardcover
By Chef Lei Shishak
Photography by Chau Vuong

ISBN Number 978-1-62873-768-4

Pages- 216 printed on smooth glossy paper

MSRP $24.95 US

Distributed by Skyhorse Publishing, Inc

Beach House Baking was released May, 2014. If you would like to purchase a copy, you can find the hardcover on Skyhorse Publishing's Website for $24.95. The Kindle copy is available at Amazon for $11.99.

*Disclosure- I received the above mentioned product courtesy of the sponsor for the purpose of this review. No monetary compensation was provided. All opinions are genuine, based on my experience with the product, and have not been influenced by promotional items.