Tasty Recipes from Recipe Wizards

Place the watermelon slice on a serving platter and cut into 6 wedges, leaving them in the shape of a pizza.

Kids will love this watermelon pizza supreme, which is topped with jam, raisins, white chocolate chips, walnuts and coconut.

Dear SOS: The coffee cake at South Pasadena’s Heirloom Bakery and Cafe, near the train station, is fabulous. Each day it’s flavored differently for variety … chocolate chips, raspberry, etc.

Nancy Hawkins from Oliver Springs, Tenn., was looking for the recipe for a cake that a woman she worked with brought into her office for a birthday celebration. It was chocolate cake that was just dumped out of the pan and had “oodles and oodles of scrumptious melted chocolate inside.”

Hawkins said the woman who made the cake called it an “Aussie dump cake,” but she would never share her recipe. While I did not receive any responses from readers about this cake, I knew that a “dump cake” was not that uncommon. A search of the Internet turned up dozens of recipes for dump cakes, cakes commonly made with a cake-mix base, usually in one bowl or pan, that after baking are simply dumped out for serving.

A recipe on allrecipes.com for a chocolate dump cake sounded very close to what Hawkins had described. It is so easy to make, a child could do it, and the result is one super-rich and decadent chocolate mess.

CHOCOLATE DUMP CAKE

Makes: 24 servings

1 5-ounce package non-instant chocolate pudding mix

2 1/3 cups milk

1 18.25-ounce package chocolate cake mix

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease one 9×13-inch baking pan

Combine chocolate pudding and milk in a saucepan and cook over medium heat until thick, stirring frequently.

Remove pan from heat and add in dry cake mix. Mix together and pour into a prepared baking pan. Evenly spread the chocolate chips over the top of the cake.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes. Let cake cool and serve.

Nutrition information:

Per serving: 193 calories, 8 grams fat, 4 grams saturated fat, 31 grams carbohydrates, 3 grams protein, 2 grams fiber, 2 milligrams cholesterol, 210 milligrams sodium

With summer coming, Anne Loy of Knoxville, Tenn., would like to find a recipe for a sweet baked tomato dish made using brown sugar.

If you are looking for a recipe or can answer a request, write Julie Rothman, Recipe Finder, The Sun, 501 N. Calvert St., Baltimore 21278. Names must accompany recipes in order for them to be published. Please list the ingredients in order of use, and note the number of servings each recipe makes.

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 4 minutes

Serves 5 (3 pancakes each)

This recipe from Joni Hilton of Rocklin won first place in the Better With Bisquick recipe contest.

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cups Original Bisquick mix

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

One 8-ounce container sour cream

1/2 cup milk

2 teaspoons strawberry extract or vanilla

2 eggs

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (6 ounces)

Whipped cream or frozen whipped topping, thawed

2 cups sliced fresh strawberries

Strawberry syrup

INSTRUCTIONS

In a large bowl, lightly stir Bisquick mix, cocoa, sour cream, milk, extract and eggs (do not overbeat; mixture should be lumpy). Fold in chocolate chips.

Heat griddle to 375 degrees or a 12-inch skillet over medium-low heat. (To test griddle, sprinkle with a few drops of water. If bubbles jump around, heat is just right.) Grease griddle with vegetable oil if necessary (or spray with cooking spray before heating).

For each pancake, use a scant 1/4 cup batter; spread batter with rubber spatula to 4 inches in diameter. Cook pancakes until bubbly on top, puffed and dry around edges, about 2 minutes. Turn and cook other sides until golden brown, about 1 to 2 minutes longer.

Top with whipped cream, strawberries and syrup.

Per serving: 510 cal.; 9 g pro.; 55 g carb.; 27 g fat (14 sat.); 110 mg chol.; 520 mg sod.; 5 g fiber; 25 g sugar; 47 percent calories from fat.

Nikki’s healthy chocolate chip cookies

Prep time: 25 minutes

Cook time: 14 minutes per batch

Makes about 36 bite-sized cookies

Donna Pecotich of Folsom strives to live a healthy lifestyle and was looking for a healthy chocolate chip cookie recipe that includes oats.

This recipe comes from award-winning food blogger Heidi Swanson, who credits it to one of her best friends, Nikki (www. 101cookbooks.com). This cookie contains no flour or eggs and is cholesterol-free. Most people with celiac disease tolerate oats, but gluten-free oats are available, making this recipe a good choice for them.

If you’d like to make your own almond meal, Nikki says you can process almonds in a food processor until the mixture resembles sand (be careful not to overprocess to the point that you end up with almond butter).

Note: Look in the natural food section of your grocery store for finely shredded, unsweetened coconut and Natural Sun Spire brand vegan carob chips, semisweet organic chocolate chips and grain-sweetened chocolate chips.

INGREDIENTS

3 large ripe bananas, well-mashed (about 1½ cups) or applesauce

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup olive oil

2 cups rolled oats

2/3 cup almond meal

1/3 cup coconut, finely shredded and unsweetened (see note above)

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

6 to 7 ounces chocolate chips (see note above) or raisins

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, racks in the top third.

In a large bowl, combine the bananas (or applesauce), vanilla extract and olive oil. Set aside. In another bowl, whisk together the oats, almond meal, shredded coconut, cinnamon, salt and baking powder. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until combined. Fold in the chocolate chips. The dough is a bit looser than a standard cookie dough.

Drop dollops of the dough, each about 2 teaspoons in size, an inch apart onto a parchment- (or Silpat)-lined baking sheet. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes. Check at 10 to 11 minutes to make sure the bottoms aren’t burning.

Per cookie using grain-sweetened chocolate chips: 79 cal.; 1 g pro.; 9 g carb.; 5 g fat (2 sat., 2 monounsat., 1 polyunsat.); 0 mg chol.; 40 mg sod.; 1 g fiber; 2 g sugar; 51 percent calories from fat.

Prep time: 25 minutes

Bake time: 20 minutes

Makes 12 muffins

Gail Kelly Robards, owner of the now-closed Muffins Etc., shared the lemon poppy seed muffin recipe (at left) requested by a reader. She also sent this recipe, a favorite of mine, which has been one of the most requested recipes since she and her brother sold their business.

INGREDIENTS

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

2½ teaspoons baking powder

1 tablespoon instant espresso coffee powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 12-cup muffin pan.

In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, espresso powder, salt and cinnamon. In another bowl, stir together milk, oil, egg and vanilla until blended. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Add milk mixture and stir just to combine. Stir in chocolate chips.

Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups. Bake 15 to 20 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into a muffin comes out clean. Remove muffin tin to wire rack and cool 5 minutes before removing muffins from cups.

Per muffin: 277 cal.; 4 g pro.; 35 g carb.; 14 g fat (4 sat., 4 monounsat., 6 polyunsat.); 20 mg chol.; 162 mg sod.; 1 g fiber; 17 g sugar; 46 percent calories from fat.