Almond Shortbread Swirls

When I get home from work I often relax by pulling a couple cookbooks off of the shelf and browsing through them. This cookbook, which is from an Australian Women’s Magazine was given to me by my husband’s aunt who lives in England. I really love this book and I’ve made a couple of different cookies from it. It uses some different flavors and the ideas are just a little bit different than what you come across in most American cookbooks.

I had spied these cookies and thought that they just looked great and they used such simple ingredients that I had on hand. I had made another batch of cookies to take to work, but that batch turned out so small and I wanted to bring something else, too. I figured I would just whip these up and see how they turned out. The original recipe called for vanilla extract but I love almond extract and decided to substitute that here. It was a good choice!

These take no time, bringing the butter to room temperature would take the most time. (But I cheat and soften butter in the microwave.) The dough is tough to pipe, and you will discover muscles in your arm that you didn’t know that you had. I first started with a smaller fluted tip and it was just impossible to work with. I changed to the biggest one I had, which you’d typically use for cream puffs and it worked out. If the dough is just impossible, try to warm it buy keeping it in a warmer room or by microwaving for a couple seconds. Despite the work it takes to pipe these, they look so perfect and they were so well received.

1 cup + 1 tablespoon butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon almond extract
½ cup packed brown sugar
2 cups flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, cream the butter, almond extract and the brown sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in the flour until you have a soft dough.

Scoop the mixture into a piping bag fitted with the largest fluted tip that you have. Pipe swirls onto the prepared baking sheets. If it is difficult to pipe the swirls, either look for a larger fluted tip or allow the dough to warm a bit for easier piping.

Bake for about 12 minutes, until lightly browned. Allow to cool on the baking sheets.

Recipe from Australian Women’s Weekly Biscuits and Slices

Apricot/Apple/Pineapple Bars

My friends at work know I love baking and one of my coworkers brought me a cookbook that she owned that she thought I would like. It was a cookbook by a British author so the cookies were just a little bit different than the ones you might normally see. It also had some unusual ingredients and I explained what those things were. (What is treacle? It’s like molasses, although I buy treacle at the local British shop.)

I was looking through the cookbook and it seemed so familiar. I know that authors and publishers will sometimes use the same recipes and photos in different books. I found a couple of things that I wanted to try and picked these, which started out as apricot bars. I wanted to not make a mess of my friend’s cookbook so I kept it on the dining room table instead of the kitchen counter where it would be subject to splatters. At one point I decided to look at our cookbooks and I found the one that was similar and found the same recipe so I could have it closer by.

Well, the books aren’t just similar; they are the same book with the same page numbers and everything, just different titles. My book is titled The Cook’s Encyclopedia of Cookies and my friend’s book is titled Best Ever Cookie Book. Things like this drive librarians and catalogers mad because what is the true title of the book? Anyway, these bar cookies called for 1 cup of dried apricots, which I didn’t have. But I had tiny amounts of dried apricot, apple and pineapple that together made a cup. I used that and it was a great way to use of the odd bits of fruit. The crust is very soft after prebaking, but it firms up nicely when fully baked. They have great fruity flavor!

½ cup packed brown sugar
¾ cup flour
1/3 cup butter, cut in pieces

1 cup dried apricots, or combination of fruits
1 cup water
Zest of 1 lemon or orange
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
½ cup sliced almonds

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan.

In a food processor, combine the brown sugar and flour. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles crumbs. Press into the prepared baking pan and bake for 15 minutes. Leave the oven on.

While the crust is baking, prepare the topping: combine the dried fruit and water in a saucepan and simmer for about 10 minutes, until soft. Strain the liquid and reserve. Chop the fruits.

Return the fruit to the saucepan and add the zest, sugar, cornstarch and 4 tablespoons of the soaking liquid. Cook for 1 minute. Allow to cool slightly.

Top the partially baked crust with the fruit mixture and sprinkle with the almonds. Continue baking for 20 minutes. Allow to cool in the pan before cutting into bars.

Recipe from The Cook’s Encyclopedia of Cookies by Hilaire Walden

S'mores Cake

It’s taken me forever to get this recipe posted and I don’t know why because it was such an awesome cake! I made this back in October for someone at work. She had mentioned that she liked to make s’mores at home as a nice little dessert. When her birthday came up, I figured I could find a s’mores cake to make for her. Little did I know that there are tons of s’mores cakes out there! I finally settled on this on, with a graham cracker crust lined chocolate cake, chocolate ganache and marshmallow topping.

This cake is supposed to make a three tiered cake, but I have found those to be so difficult to take to work. I made it just 2 layers and make a smaller cake with the extra batter. The original recipe had you add the graham cracker crumbs to the base of two layers and have one pure cake layer. I had enough crumbs that I put a crumb layer on the smaller cake I made, too. The cakes baked up so nicely and they just looked so great when I took them out of the pan.

This cake looks quite involved when you read the recipe, but it wasn’t too bad. The cake is pretty easy, ganache always comes together as long as you don’t rush it, and the marshmallow topping was not too bad. I’ve wanted to make marshmallows from scratch but I never get around it to, but if they are similar to making this topping then I’m not so scared. Torching the top of the marshmallows was fun too; never need an excuse to bring out the blow torch! This was a big it at work and my husband also enjoyed the smaller cake that I made for him.

12 tablespoons butter
18 large graham crackers
½ cup sugar
½ teaspoon salt

2 cups boiling water
1 cup cocoa powder
1 cup butter, room temperature
2-1/4 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 tablespoons vanilla
2-3/4 cups flour
2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup heavy cream
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

3 egg whites, room temperature
¼ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
2 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste (or vanilla)

Make the graham base for the cake: Melt the 12 tablespoons butter and cook on low until the butter is a golden brown. In a food processor, pulse the graham crackers with the sugar and the salt until the crumbs are really fine. Pour the crumbs into a medium bowl and pour the butter over the graham crackers and gently mix together until it is a uniform damp crumb.

Line two 9″ round pans with parchment paper and then spray with non-stick cooking spray. (Plus I also prepped a smaller 6” pan for the extra batter.) Divide the graham cracker crumbs between prepared pans, pressing them down firmly with a spatula. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Put the cocoa powder in a small bowl, and pour the boiling water on top of it. Whisk the water and cocoa together until smooth, and then set aside until cooled. In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Add the vanilla and the eggs one at a time until they are completely combined.

In a small bowl, sift all of the dry ingredients together. Gently add half of the dry ingredients to the batter and half of the chocolate. Mix to combine. Repeat with the remaining ingredients and mix into a smooth batter. Divide the batter evenly between the pans.

Bake the cake layers about 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then remove from the pans and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

Make the ganache: In a small pot, bring the cream to a simmer. Pour the cream over the chocolate pieces and let sit about 5 minutes. Whisk the ganache until smooth and shiny.

Place a cake layer on a cake plate, graham side up. Put a large dollop of ganache on top of the grahams. Spread evenly. Top with the second cake later, graham side up. Cover the sides of the cake with ganache. Refrigerate at least 15-20 minutes.

Make the meringue topping: In a large mixer bowl, whisk the eggs and salt until pale and frothy. Meanwhile, heat the sugar, corn syrup, water and vanilla paste over medium until the sugar is dissolved and just simmering, about 5 minutes. With the mixer on medium speed, add a tiny bit of the hot sugar mixture to the egg whites at a time. Eventually all of the sugar will be added and then turn the mixer up to high. Beat the mixture on high for about 5 minutes or until very stiff and shiny.

Top the cake with the meringue topping. Use a small spatula to create an interesting design with peaks. Using a kitchen torch, brown the meringue, for a nice toasted marshmallow look.

Recipe from Heather Christo

Favorite Oatmeal (Raisinet) Cookies

The other day, after I had posted the Biscoff White Chocolate Chip Bread, I got a comment from someone who said that the recipe would be helpful in using up the multiple jars of the spread that she had. I had to respond, asking if she was my twin because sometimes when I spot a new product I will buy it and think “I will make something with this!” I end up with a full cupboard with all sorts of random ingredients.

I have had a bag of Raisinets in the cupboard from a while, and I can’t exactly remember why I had bought them, or if I even had a plan when I bought them. I knew I needed to use them and this week I needed to find a recipe that was quick to put together. This fit the bill. I try to make things that are a little more unusual that the typical oatmeal raisin cookie and this has a nice twist or two. One you use Raisinets instead of raisins, and you grind some of the oats to make oat flour.

I’m not sure how the ground oats change the flavor, but it does add another layer of texture, which for me is an important part of an oatmeal cookie. When you bake these, don’t bake them too long or they will be dry. I took mine out of the oven after 10 minutes, and they looked a little doughy in the center but browned around the edges. They firmed up nicely while cooling on the baking sheet. My husband got home right after I took a batch out of the oven and he declared them very good with great flavors!

2 cups rolled oats
1/3 cup butter, room temperature
1/3 cup shortening
¾ cup sugar
¾ cup brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup Raisinets

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Place 1 cup of the oats in a food processor and process until finely ground. Set aside.

In a large mixer bowl beat butter and shortening for 30 seconds until light. Add sugar, brown sugar, and baking soda and beat until combined. Add eggs and vanilla, stir until combined. Beat in processed oats and flour. Stir in remaining 1 cup of oats, walnuts, and Raisinets.

Drop by teaspoonfuls on prepared baking sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes until edges are light brown. Allow to cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Better Homes and Gardens Ultimate Cookies and Bars

Eggs Baked in a Bread Bowl

For this round of the recipe swap, we are doing a secret recipe style swap, which means that I get to pick any recipe from the blog I receive in the swap. I got to pick something from the blog: Cooking with Crouton by Kelsey. I knew right away from the kitty pictures that I saw on the blog that this would be a good blog for me! I love kitties. My kitties don’t pay too much attention to me while I am in the kitchen, but here’s a picture of our kitty Jazzy anyway.

I didn’t want to pick a cookie recipe or some other sort of dessert. I looked through all the recipes as soon as I saw this one I was very interested in trying it: Eggs Baked in a Bread Bowl. So I ended up picking a baking recipe, but very different in style than what I typically bake. The recipe looked fairly easy and the picture looked so good, so I knew I had made a good choice.

Initially I thought about making my own rolls, but I didn’t do that. I bought small ciabatta rolls which were great for this recipe. I think it would work with any roll that had a good outer structure. Since the hollowed out roll is the baking vessel, you want it to have some fortitude. I used Cheddar cheese and parsley as that is what I had. You could mix this up with different cheeses, seasonings, and I would like to try this with some diced ham. I made these on a weeknight after a long day at work and they were just perfect. I baked mine for just under 20 minutes and the yolks were a tiny bit runny, which I like. I loved this recipe and I can’t wait to make it again. Thanks for the recipe Kelsey!

6 small rolls
6 eggs
6 teaspoons cream
Salt and pepper
6 teaspoons finely shredded Cheddar cheese
Chopped fresh parsley

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Have a baking sheet on hand.

Cut off the tops of the dinner rolls and scoop out the bread in the center. Crack an egg into each hollowed-out bowl, and drizzle a teaspoon of cream on top. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, cheese and parsley.

Arrange the rolls on a baking sheet (leave the tops off for now). Cook for about 20 minutes, more or less depending on how runny you like your yolks. Add the tops to toast in the last 2 minutes.

Recipe from Cooking with Crouton

Nutty Graham Picnic Cake

Another birthday at work! It may seem like I am always baking for my colleagues at work, but we’re really a fairly small group. We just happen to have two birthdays that we are celebrating this week. I asked what type of cake my colleague wanted for his birthday and it was an interesting challenge to find something that worked. He said that he liked banana break, cobbler, graham cracker and cookie crusts and fruit-based desserts, and not a lot of frosting. I did quite a bit of looking and decided on this one.

This is a Pillsbury BakeOff recipe, one that I hadn’t made in years. It has graham cracker crumbs and orange juice in the batter. It has a simple brown sugar/powdered sugar glaze, and it’s kind of similar to the texture of banana bread. So I think that so it met quite a few of the criteria he had mentioned. I really love this cake and was excited to make it again.

This cake is as easy as a cake mix. Just add everything to the mixer bowl and then blend for 3 minutes. Grinding the graham crackers to make crumbs and chopping the nuts are the hardest parts of this recipe. I doubled the glaze recipe because I wanted a nice coating, but I didn’t end up using quite the entire glaze. This cake smells like the orange rolls that I used to have on Saturday mornings when I was a kid, so there are some good memories there!

2 cups flour
1 cup graham crumbs
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon grated orange peel
3 eggs
1 cup chopped nuts

2 tablespoons brown sugar
5 teaspoons milk
1 tablespoon butter
¾ cup powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously grease and flour 12-cup Bundt pan.

In large mixer bowl, combine all cake ingredients except nuts; beat 3 minutes at medium speed. Stir in 1 cup nuts. Pour batter into greased and floured pan.

Bake for 40 to 60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool upright in pan 15 minutes; invert onto serving plate. Cool 1 hour or until completely cooled.

In small saucepan, combine 2 tablespoons brown sugar, milk and 1 tablespoon butter; cook over low heat just until sugar is dissolved, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Stir in powdered sugar; blend until smooth. Drizzle over cake.

Recipe from Esther Tomich, The 1978 Pillsbury BakeOff

Irish Soda Bread

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe is Irish Soda Bread, which was just perfect as we just celebrated St. Patrick’s Day! The hosts for this recipe are Carla at Chocolate Moosey and Cathleen at My Culinary Mission. You can check out their blogs to get the complete recipe, but I can tell you the recipe is pretty simple! This bread contains just flour, salt, baking soda and buttermilk. You’ll also want to check out the Tuesdays with Dorie site to see posts from all of the TWD bloggers participating this week.

I always thought that Irish Soda Bread should have raisins or currants, but this recipe said that was not traditional. I did some research (by looking at UK food websites) and that seems to be the case. I’d made Irish Soda Bread before but I guess mine wasn’t authentic. I made this bread to serve with Guinness beef roast that we were having for dinner and it was the perfect accompaniment. Since my oven was busy making the roast, I baked this in my microwave/convection oven. I know it’s a convection oven but I get a bit nervous using it for some reason.

This is probably the quickest Tuesdays with Dorie recipe I have ever put together. My dough was super sticky so I ended up adding a bit more flour to make it workable. I baked it up and it was a bit crooked, I’m not sure if that was due to my shaping of the loaf or how it baked. It doesn’t really matter. I think I could have baked it just a touch longer, as it seemed a little doughy at the bottom part of the bread. It was great served with the dinner we had, so the timing for this was great. I may try this again and bake it in my regular oven to see if it turns out differently.

Recipe from Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan

Biscoff White Chocolate Chip Bread

A while back, Biscoff spread was taking over the blogosphere and I had to find some! I looked at seemingly every grocery store and I couldn’t find it. I had my mom look as she sometimes shops at Wal-Mart and I know that some people had found it there. No luck. I was in Seattle for an event and I looked at the local Metropolitan Market. It’s a great grocery store and I figured they would have it, and they did. (They also had Jelly Babies, a British candy that we love that is hard to find.)

I’ve had this spread in the cupboard since then and I haven’t used it until now. There were lots of recipes that I came across that sounded good, but I just couldn’t make up my mind. I wanted to make a quick bread and this sounded very interesting. Spice-cookie spread combined with white chocolate? I love a sweet and spicy combination so I figured this would be great.

Boy, the Biscoff spread sure smells great! Just like the cookies! I didn’t have 2 pans of the same size so I made one in a 9” x 5” pan and one in an 8” x 4” pan. I figured they were close enough. I did watch the baking time closely so that there weren’t problems. No problems, though, this bread turned out just fine. This was just great and really in interesting mix of flavors. The Biscoff spread is just fantastic and it was so good in this bread.

3 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup Biscoff Spread
3 eggs
2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°. Spray two 9” x 5” loaf pans with nonstick cooking spray

In a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In a large mixer bowl beat the butter and the sugars until light and fluffy, about two minutes. Stir in the Biscoff spread. Add eggs one at a time mixing well after each addition. Add vanilla and sour cream and mix to combine. Add flour mixture, mixing on low just until combined. Stir in white chocolate chips.

Divide the batter between the prepared pans, filling no more than 2/3 full. Bake for 50 minutes or until the center springs back when lightly pressed and toothpick comes out clean.

Cool in pan 15 minutes. Remove from pan and cool wire rack. Cool completely before serving.

Recipe from Barbara Bakes

Macadamia Irish Cream Cookies

I wanted to do something in the Irish spirit for St. Patrick’s Day, but I didn’t want to go over the top with green food coloring and the like. I had already baked with Guinness, so I didn’t want to go that direction. I thought something with Irish Cream liqueur would be good, and I found this recipe on the Land O Lakes website. It also used macadamia nuts, which I’ve been trying to use up before they get stale. Perfect!

This recipe said it makes 4 dozen cookies, but I thought that might not be accurate so I did one and a half times the recipe and ended up with 4 dozen cookies. These cookies are unusual in that they contain a lot of liquid, in the form of half and half and Irish Cream liqueur. This makes for very fluffy, sticky dough. They bake up fairly flat, with bumps for the macadamia nuts. I think these would also be good with white chocolate chips.

The Irish Cream flavor is fairly strong in these cookies, and if you don’t know what they contain, it’s an unexpected flavor. If you wanted to leave out the liquor but still get the Irish Cream flavor, you could use Irish Cream coffee syrup (or so the original recipe says).These wouldn’t be a good cookie for kids, but they are a fine way to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.

1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup half and half
1/4 cup Irish Cream liqueur
1/4 teaspoon rum extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 ounces macadamia nuts, coarsely chopped

1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons Irish Cream liqueur

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, combine brown sugar and butter. Beat at medium speed until creamy. Add half & half, 1/4 cup Irish Cream liqueur and rum extract; beat until well mixed. The mixture may look curdled, don’t worry, it will come together. Reduce speed to low; add flour, baking soda and salt. Continue beating until well mixed. Stir in nuts.

Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls, 2 inches apart, onto prepared baking sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until lightly browned. Cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheet before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the glaze, combine the powdered sugar and 2 tablespoons Irish Cream liqueur in small bowl until smooth. Drizzle over cooled cookies.

Recipe from Land O Lakes

Self-Frosting Nutella Cupcakes

I wanted to come home and make something fairly quickly, and I couldn’t quite figure out what to make. I had seen these cupcakes come up on Pinterest and they looked interesting, plus they were quick and easy. I had all of the ingredients on hand so I figured these were the perfect thing to make.

These are a simple cake recipe, which you top with a swirl of Nutella. The Nutella works its magic and becomes a frosting of sorts. I’m a big fan of frosting, so this isn’t a lot of frosting but it does add just a perfect bit of sweetness. It was tricky to swirl the Nutella on top of the cupcakes. I think next time I would stir the Nutella to soften it before using it to top the cupcakes. I think that would make it easier to work with.

These turned out really well, and it makes a small batch. Sometimes you just don’t want a huge number of cupcakes. One thing I discovered about these cupcakes is that they are best eaten the day you bake them. They got really hard, really quickly! So these are a great thing to make for a spur of the moment occasion.

1/4 cup butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 3/4 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4-1/2 cup Nutella

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners or spray with cooking spray.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter, oil, and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until smooth. In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt; add to the butter mixture and beat on low speed just until combined. The batter will be thick.

Divide the batter between the muffin cups. Drop a spoonful of Nutella on top of each, and swirl through the batter with the tip of a knife or other pointy object.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until springy to the touch. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from The Family Kitchen

Chocolate Turtle Cookies

Do you ever have plans, where you think “I’m going to go home and make those cookies!” You’re sure you have all the ingredients, you’re sure you read through the recipe and there are no twists and turns. Well, this recipe is one that has foiled me a couple of times. I had planned to make this many times for the Friday cookies, but it’s not worked out until now. The first time, I didn’t have caramel bits, so I picked those up. Then I was starting to make the recipe and had missed the “refrigerate overnight” part. This time I was dedicated to making this a success.

These are somewhat like chocolate chip cookies (my husband’s favorite) with the addition of mix-ins to make them chocolate turtle cookies. Ok, I’ll be honest: I didn’t have 3 ounces of unsweetened chocolate. I used bittersweet and it was ok. How could I be out of unsweetened chocolate? Aargh! I wasn’t about to bail on these cookies again and I wasn’t going to go to the store at 8:30 pm, so I just made it work. The dough is somewhat greasy, so I can see why the dough needs lots of time to chill. I was worried that I had added to much butter, but I was ok.

After refrigerating overnight, these cookies bake up perfectly. I made sure not to bake them too long so that they are a bit soft/gooey. These are very decadent. They are perhaps a bit sweeter due to using bittersweet rather than unsweetened chocolate, but I don’t think it’s too sweet. They are rich and I’m glad I didn’t make them too big, because there are a lot of flavors in each bite.

14.5 ounces flour
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
7.5 ounces brown sugar
6 ounces sugar
1 cup butter, melted & cooled
1 egg
2 egg yolks
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted & cooled
1 cup chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups pecans, chopped & toasted
11 ounce bag caramel bits

In large bowl, combine the flour, cornstarch, salt, baking powder, and baking soda; set aside.

In a large mixer bowl, beat together the brown sugar, sugar, and butter until well combined. Add egg, egg yolks, and vanilla, stirring until well combined. Add the flour mixture and stir until combined.

Stir in melted chocolate, then the chocolate chips, pecans, and caramel bits. Shape dough into 1-1/2 inch balls and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Cover the cookie sheet with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. (Or you can freeze the dough balls and then store them in the freezer in a resealable bag.)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Bake cookies for about 15-18 minutes or until golden brown and look slightly undercooked, turning pans halfway through baking. (Bake frozen cookies 17-22 minutes.) Allow the cookies to cool a few minutes on the baking sheets before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Snappy Gourmet

Basil Shrimp with Feta and Orzo

For this round of the recipe swap, the theme is pasta recipes. I love pasta recipes so I really wanted to participate in this round. I waited until the last minute to throw my hat into the ring, but I am so glad I did because I ended up loving the recipe that I got. My recipe was submitted by The Dilettante Gourmand. She’s new to blogging but the recipes she has posted look great, so check out her site!

This recipe was perfect for me: it uses shrimp, which I love, and the recipe makes just 2 servings, which is perfect for me and my husband. It goes together very quickly and looks very impressive when it’s done. I swore that I had orzo in the cupboard, but I didn’t so I subbed some other small pasta, which worked just fine. I’m not always the biggest fan of fresh basil, as I feel it can be too strong sometimes, but I really liked it in this dish. All the flavors came together for a winning meal.

I didn’t have any premade foil bags so my husband made one for me. He’s my sous chef and does a good job! I think the foil pouch was a little too small, and the shrimp in the center didn’t get cooked at first. So if you make your own foil bag, make it big enough so that the ingredients have room. Really, this was so easy and just turned out wonderfully. My husband asked that we put it in the rotation of regular dinners, which is high praise indeed.

1/2 cup uncooked orzo or other small pasta
2 teaspoons olive oil, divided
1 cup diced tomato
3/4 cup sliced scallions or onions
1/2 cup (2 ounces) crumbled feta cheese
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 pound large raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Spray the inside of a foil cooking bag with cooking spray or create a large foil pouch with aluminum foil and coat with cooking spray. Place the bad in a baking pan.

Cook the pasta in boiling water for 5 minutes and drain. Place the pasta in a large bowl and stir in 1 teaspoon oil, tomato, scallions, feta, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Place the orzo mixture in the prepared oven bag.

Combine shrimp and basil. Arrange shrimp mixture on orzo mixture. Fold edge of bag over to seal. Bake for 25 minutes or until the shrimp are done. Cut open bag with a sharp knife, and peel back the foil. Drizzle with 1 teaspoon oil and serve.

Recipe adapted from Cooking Light via The Dilettante Gourmand

Rugelach

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe is Rugelach. The hosts this week are Margaret of The Urban Hiker and Jessica of My Baking Heart. Make sure you visit their blogs for this week’s complete recipe. Rugelach lends itself to many variations, so check out the links on the Tuesdays with Dorie site to see all of the different variations from the TWD bakers.

TWD has made Rugelach before, using the recipe in Baking from My Home to Yours. I loved that recipe and I was really excited to make this cookie/pastry again. Last time I made my Rugelach with raspberry jam, cinnamon sugar and nuts. I wanted to do something different so I went for a bit of tropical inspiration: I used apricot pineapple preserves and used macadamia nuts. I decided to leave out the dried fruits, but I had thought about using dried pineapple. It can be pretty tough so I decided to omit it. It seemed like the Rugelach had enough filling anyway.

Well, I didn’t have the best of luck with this Rugelach recipe. I even made it twice, trying to learn from the first round of mistakes but still no luck. I didn’t get the first round of cookies sealed properly, so they fell apart and leaked everywhere when I baked them. I made them again, making sure to seal the dough completely, but still no luck. I baked half of the cookies seam side down and half standing up on their side, but all sort of fell apart. I did get a couple that looked ok enough to photograph. They taste really good, so I think I just have better luck in making Rugelach shaped like little crescent rolls.

Recipe from Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan

Pineapple Coffee Cake

I sometimes take treats to work on Mondays as well as Fridays, but I have been a bit out of practice doing that since the New Year. This time of year had a lot of Monday holidays plus the weekends have been busy but the other day I really wanted to bake a treat for Monday. For the start of the week I like to make breakfast treats: coffee cake, muffins, that sort of thing. This was a tradition that my now-retired colleague started.

I was looking for something refreshing, and this pineapple coffeecake looked perfect. I love pineapple and can’t really get enough of it. This has you cook the crushed pineapple to thicken it, and then use it as a filling layer for the cake. The original recipe called for crushed pineapple in heavy syrup, which I couldn’t find at my grocery store. Just use crushed pineapple in juice; pineapple is plenty sweet by itself.

This is a great little coffee cake. I added a simple glaze to add a little something extra. I liked this coffee cake a lot; it wasn’t too sweet and had the great flavor of the pineapple. You could certainly try this with different fruits or even with fruit preserves or butters.

20 ounce can crushed pineapple
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch

1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup powdered sugar
1-2 tablespoons milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9” x 13” baking pan with cooking spray.

Make the filling: Combine the crushed pineapple, sugar and cornstarch in a medium saucepan. Heat on medium until bubbly. Set aside.

In a large mixer bowl, beat together the oil and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, and then the vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Spread 3/4 of batter into the prepared pan. Top with the pineapple mixture and then carefully spread the remaining batter on top. The pineapple does not to be completely covered. Bake for 30-32 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

Make the glaze: in a small bowl, combine the powdered sugar and enough milk to make the glaze thin enough to drizzle. Drizzle on top of cooled cake.

Recipe from Coffee Fun

Gooey Butter Cookies

If you watch the Food Network like I do, you’ll find that you are introduced to local favorites that you’ve never heard of. I don’t think I’d ever heard of gooey butter cake until I watched a show comparing the best gooey butter cakes. They looked pretty good and somewhere in the back of my mind I filed it away as an idea to try someday. I came across this recipe and it looked really good, and then read how it tasted like the top of a gooey butter cake and I knew it was the one to make.

This is a deceptively simple recipe, with mainly butter and cream cheese. I didn’t have a vanilla bean to use, but I still think they turned out ok. It’s not like I am connoisseur so I think it was just fine. I let my dough chill for a couple of hours and I think this made it a lot easier to work with. Even with the chilling it is quite sticky.

The quantities I’ve given you here is a half recipe, which still makes more than 3 dozen cookies. I was so glad I followed my gut and didn’t make a full batch; that would have been way too many. I think that the cream cheese flavor shines through in these cookies, but I tasted mine just after they came out of the oven. It will be interesting to see how the flavors change after they have cooled and are chilled. These are really tasty and I’m glad I gave them a try.

2-1/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon salt
8 ounces cream cheese
½ cup butter
1-1/2 cups sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Powdered sugar

In a small bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In a large mixer bowl, cream the cream cheese, butter, and sugar together until fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla extract, stirring until combined. On low, stir in the flour mixture. Chill for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Shape the dough into 1-inch balls and roll in powdered sugar. Place on the prepared baking sheets, a couple of inches apart. Bake until they spread and puff slightly, about 12-16 minutes. They will be soft in the center; do not allow to brown. Cool on a wire rack. Store in the refrigerator.

Recipe from Lottie and Doof