Cookies on Friday

Espresso Delights

2012-01-27T06:00:00.000-08:00

I’ve discovered that at times I am a bit too reliant on technology. I’m a librarian and while I rely on electronic resources so much, I can always work without the technology. (I just might be less efficient.) I should be as wise in regards to my baking. I wasn’t able to post cookies last Friday as I had no power. This week, the recipe that I was planning to make was safely stored on Pinterest. Which is great until your Internet is out. Oh well, time to figure out Plan B.

When I get home from work in the afternoon, I often browse through the cooking magazines that I have on the bookshelf. These are usually fairly old, as I tend to purchase magazines around the holidays when there are lots of baking recipes! I had recently looked at Ultimate Cookies and Bars, which was a special holiday publication from 2010. It has great recipes and I had noted a couple of recipes that I wanted to try. I grabbed it and looked for something great to make, and I stumbled on this recipe for Espresso Delights.

These cookies would be perfect to serve with afternoon tea or coffee: petite butter cookies flavored with espresso powder and chocolate. The ingredients are simple but the flavors are perfect together. My house smelled wonderful when these were baking. This doesn’t make a big batch of hearty cookies, but that’s ok. I really like simple cookies sometimes!

1 cup butter, room temperature
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups flour
1 ounce semisweet chocolate, ground
Powdered sugar and cocoa powder, for dusting

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

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter for 30 seconds until light. Add the powdered sugar, espresso powder, vanilla and cinnamon and mix on medium until incorporated. Add the flour and stir on low until combined. You may need to mix the last bit of flour in by hand. Stir in the ground semisweet chocolate.

Shape dough into 1 inch balls and place on the prepared baking sheets; press down to flatten the dough slightly. Bake for 12 minutes, until the cookies are set and bottoms are lightly browned. Remove to a wire rack to cool.

Combine a small amount of powdered sugar and cocoa powder and dust over the cooled cookies.

Recipe from Ultimate Cookies and Bars

Cinn-ful Sweet Potato Cookies

2012-01-26T06:00:00.000-08:00

I was challenged to try and make cookies with a typically savory ingredient: potatoes. There are some cookies out there that call for potato starch, but that didn’t quite fit the bill for what I wanted. I used Google Image Search to see what sort of potato cookies I could find and I found a number of recipes with sweet potatoes. I knew I had some canned sweet potatoes in the cupboard, so I figured I would give them a try. (You could always use pumpkin if you don’t want to use sweet potatoes.)

The original recipe for these was vegan, using coconut oil, but I just decided to use butter. I used the butter at room temperature and it didn’t fully incorporate, but in the end that didn’t seem to matter. The dough is very soft and sticky so chill these before you bake them or you will end up with a sticky mess. Topping the cookies with a pecan half is optional, but I think that adds a lot. You could also add other bits to the dough if you wanted: chocolate chips, nuts or dried fruits.

These cookies are very soft and cakey. They bake up into these perfect looking cookies, which was a nice surprise. The cinnamon and the sweet potato is a great combination and the pecan adds crunch. I made mine quite large, as my recipe only made 2-1/2 dozen rather than the 3-4 dozen that the original recipe made. I suppose these cookies would be perfect for fall baking, but they are wonderful any time of the year.

2 cups flour or whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup butter, room temperature
1 cup cooked, mashed sweet potatoes
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
Pecan halves, for topping

In a small bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter until creamy. Add the sweet potato, brown sugar, maple syrup, and vanilla and mix on medium until combined. Reduce the mixer speed to low and stir in the flour mixture, stirring just until combined. Refrigerate the dough for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.
Drop the dough by the heaping tablespoonful onto the prepared baking sheets. Top each cookie with a pecan half.

Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, until they are just beginning to brown around the edges. Allow to cool on a wire rack.

Recipe from Alisa Cooks

Candied Pecan Cake with Bourbon Whipped Cream

2012-01-25T06:00:00.000-08:00

I made this cake for a colleague’s birthday. I love making cakes for people and I try to pick something that I think they will enjoy. Most of my colleagues are female but this cake was for one of my male colleagues, so I didn’t want anything too fluffy. I figured pecans are always a good choice, and the same can be said for alcohol-spiked whipped cream.

This cake is a simplification of a Martha Stewart recipe: her cake was 3 layers and had a browned butter pear filling. I knew that would be good, but make the cake a bit on the fragile side. I know 3 layer cakes are hard to transport so I found this cake recipe from Dorie Greenspan’s book and used it instead. I just added the candied pecans. It turned out great!

Making candied pecans has to be about the best smelling thing ever. My house smelled so good! I actually made this cake twice; I made it for his actual birthday but work was cancelled due to the snow and ice we had. It wasn’t fresh by the time we went back to work so I made a new cake to take. So my husband and I got to try to the cake by itself and it was so tasty without the bourbon whipped cream. Together with the whipped cream, it was fantastic. The recipe may look longer, but it was very easy to put together. The next time you need a celebration cake, give this one a shot!

2 cups chopped pecans
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla
¾ cup buttermilk

1 cup chilled heavy cream
2 tablespoons bourbon
2 tablespoons powdered sugar

Candy the pecans: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Toss together the pecans, butter, brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg; spread on a rimmed baking sheet. Roast, stirring once, until toasted, about 10 minutes. Let cool.

Make the Cake: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter two 9-inch round cake pans and dust with flour. Line the bottom of the pans with waxed paper.

In a small bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside. In a large mixer bowl, cream the butter until light. Add the sugar and beat on medium for 3 minutes. Add the eggs and egg yolk, one at a time, beating for one minute after each addition. Stir in the vanilla.

Reduce the mixer to low and add the flour mixture alternatively with the buttermilk, adding the flour mixture in 3 additions and the buttermilk in 2 (begin and end with the flour mixture). Reserve ½ cup pecans for assembling the cake; stir in the candied pecans. Divide the batter between the prepared pans.

Bake the cake for 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool for 10 minutes in the pans before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Make the whipped cream: Whisk cream, bourbon, and powdered sugar with a mixer on medium-high speed until soft peaks form.

Place one cake layer on a serving plate. Spread half of the whipped cream on the top of the layer. Sprinkle with half of the reserved candied pecans. Top with the second cake layer and mound the remaining whipped cream on top of the second layer. Garnish with the remaining candied pecans. Store in the refrigerator.

Recipe inspired by Martha Stewart. Cake recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.

To Die For Blueberry Muffins

2012-01-23T06:00:00.000-08:00

I’m sorry that I was away for most of last week. The Seattle area had the forecast of the worst snow storm in ages and we really got hit fairly hard. We had a lot of snow for Seattle (we don’t usually get much) and then we had an ice storm. I lost power for 2 days so I was unable to post anything. Here’s a picture of the tree outside my dining room window, covered with ice.

Hard to beat blueberry muffins, isn’t it? They are so classic and it’s hard to make them different. I can’t say that these are that different, but I was really please how they turned out so I wanted to share them with you. These are mini muffins, which are just as cute as can be when they are baked. You also use a different baking method, hot at the beginning, which makes for nice peaked muffins.

The batter for these muffins is standard, but the topping is a little different. I really liked the topping with the large amount of cinnamon. I think it really added a lot. I had most of the streusel topping left over so feel free to cut the recipe in half or use the remaining topping for another use. I had planned to make some streusel topped bar cookies but I never got around to it. That happens when your life is messed up by the weather.

1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen

1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
4 tablespoons butter, cubed
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Grease 24 mini muffin cups.

In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. In a separate bowl, whisk the oil, egg, and milk. Add to the flour mixture and stir to combine. Fold in the blueberries. Fill each muffin cup with about 1 teaspoon of batter.

To make the streusel, combine the sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles sand. (I use the food processor for this.) Sprinkle the muffins with the streusel.

Bake at 500 degrees for 5 minutes. Immediately lower the temperature to 350 degrees and continue baking for about 7 minutes more, or until muffins test done.

Recipe from Sweet as Sugar Cookies

Bread Pudding Muffins

2012-01-18T06:00:00.000-08:00

The Grand Central Bakery is a local institution with locations in Seattle and Portland. I’ve had their cookbook for over a year, purchasing it on the recommendation of a friend. I’ve only made a couple of things from it because, while the recipes sounded good, I hadn’t really been to a Grand Central location to see the baked treats in action. My sister in law just moved to a new place in Portland and they live one block from Grand Central Bakery and we stopped in to take a look. Wow! I will be making many things from this book. Everything looked so good!

I actually made these muffins right after Christmas, and I dressed them up for the holidays. I’ve just given you the original recipe here, but I made mine with cinnamon chip bread, nutmeg, and eggnog in place of the heavy cream. In all honesty, you couldn’t taste the eggnog all that much, but they were still very good. I wasn’t sure how bread pudding, which is traditionally quite soft, would work as a muffin, but it did. If you like really custardy bread pudding, this isn’t it. I’m ok with that as I like bread pudding a little on the drier side.

This was supposed to make 12 regular sized muffins, but I made 18 regular muffins. Maybe mine are small; the ones at the bakery did look a little bigger. Fill them really full and they will look great. The ones that we’re as full looked a little scrawny. They kept fresh for a couple of days, but they were best when warm and fresh. So if you find yourself with some extra bread at home, these muffins are a really tasty way to use it up!

1 pound crusty bread
½ teaspoon cinnamon
6 eggs
¾ cup sugar
1-1/2 cups heavy cream
1-1/2 cups milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
Powdered sugar

Cut the bread into 1-inch cubes. Put the cubes in a large bowl and toss with the cinnamon.

In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, sugar, heavy cream, milk and vanilla. Pour the egg mixture over the bread cubes. Stir to combine. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours (or overnight).

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line 18 muffin tins with paper liners.

Scoop about ½ cup of the bread pudding mixture into the paper-lined muffin tins. Each cup should be fairly full.

Bake for 45 minutes, rotating the muffins half way through the baking time. The muffins will be light golden brown when they are done. Dust with powdered sugar while warm.

Recipe from The Grand Central Baking Book by Piper Davis and Ellen Jackson

Pancetta and Parmesan Tassies

2012-01-16T06:00:00.000-08:00

I don’t do a lot of savory baking, but I’m trying to expand my horizons. I like this type of savory snack, but I’ve never really made them myself. I saw this recipe and we were having company over so I thought that I would give it a try. They were a big success so I think I will try more recipes like this.

I’ve made a lot of sweet tassies and they always look impressive. They do take a little bit of extra care and patience. Squishing the dough up the sides of the mini muffin cups is fairly tedious and since this makes 24 tassies, it takes some time. Other than that these aren’t too hard. Trader Joe’s carried 4 ounce packages of diced pancetta, so that was ready to go. I even bought chives, which I of course completely forgot to use. Of well, they were good without the chives, too.

The beauty of these tassies is that you can make them in advance, which is what I did. They were just great fresh out of the oven, but they were good at room temperature as well. These are little savory bites of perfection and are a great choice for entertaining.

Pancetta and Parmesan Tassies

½ cup butter, room temperature
4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup half-and-half
1 egg
1/8 teaspoon salt
4 ounces pancetta, cut into 1/4-inch dice, cooked and drained
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh chives

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter and cream cheese until creamy. Gradually add the flour; beating on low speed until blended. Shape into 24 balls and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease 24 mini-muffin pans.

Place the dough balls into the cups, pressing on the bottom and up the sides to form a cup; set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together the half-and-half, egg, and salt. Evenly sprinkle the cooked pancetta into the pastry cups; top with 1 teaspoon of parmesan. Evenly drizzle half-and-half mixture over cheese and sprinkle with chives.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until puffed and golden brown. Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the pan and then carefully remove the tassies from the muffin pan.

Serve warm; if made in advance the tassies can be reheated in a 350 degree oven for 5-10 minutes.

Recipe from The Galley Gourmet

Granola Bars with Jammy Bits

2012-01-13T06:00:00.000-08:00

I’ve always wanted to make granola or granola bars, and now I can say that I have! I eat a lot of granola on a daily basis and I just don’t know why I haven’t made it before. I guess I’m pretty picky about granola and when you make it yourself it makes a pretty big batch. I’d hate to be stuck with a big batch of granola that I didn’t want to eat.

I had bought these Jammy Bits from King Arthur Flour a while back and I still had half a package sitting in the cupboard. I’m trying to clean things out after the marathon of Christmas baking so I wandered over to the King Arthur Flour site to see what ideas I could find. They linked to this recipe for granola bars and they seemed like a winner. I could use up the jammy bits and I’d get a chance to try making granola.

This recipe calls for sticky bun sugar, which I didn’t have, but the King Arthur website gave a substitution, which is what I have written into the recipe. For the nuts/coconut, you can use any combination. I used the combination they suggested, but I might try this with hazelnuts and even chocolate chips. I lined my pan with foil and I would suggest not doing that as it was hard to remove from the sticky bars. Cut them while they are warm or you won’t have a chance! I used honey in mine, but you could use something else. I might try using golden syrup next time. I think the flavor of the honey is very strong in these, which I like a lot. Not a bad first try at making granola.

Granola Bars with Jammy Bits

3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 2/3 cups rolled oats
1/3 cup finely ground rolled oats
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, optional
½ cup sliced almonds
½ cup chopped pecans
½ cup shredded coconut
1 cup Raspberry Jammy Bits
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 tablespoons butter, melted
1/4 cup honey, maple syrup, or golden syrup
1 tablespoon water

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Lightly grease a 9" x 13" pan.

In a small bowl, stir together the sugar, 2 tablespoons honey and 2 tablespoons melted butter. In a large bowl combine the sugar mixture, oats, ground oats, salt, cinnamon, nuts, coconut and Jammy Bits.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the vanilla, 4 tablespoons melted butter, ¼ cup honey, and water. Toss the wet ingredients with the oat mixture until the mixture is evenly crumbly. Press evenly into the prepared pan.

Bake the bars for 25 to 30 minutes, until just starting to brown and are bubbly around the edges. Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes.

After the bars have cooled 10 minutes, use a knife (or bench knife) to cut the bars while they're still warm. Let cool completely before removing from the pan.

Recipe from King Arthur Flour

Roasted Squash Soup with Sweet Potato and Parsnip

2012-01-12T06:00:00.000-08:00

For this round of the recipe swap, we changed things up a bit. Instead of submitting a recipe, the participants submitted their entire blog and then the recipient got to choose the recipe. I’m quite curious what will be selected from my blog! I have my favorites but it’s interesting to see what others like. I received the blog Cheese Curd in Paradise in the swap and there were many good looking recipes to choose from.

I looked through the blog and got some ideas and then I had my husband look and we both had spotted this recipe for squash soup. It contained flavors that we both like. Plus, my husband had received an immersion blender for Christmas and this recipe provided the opportunity to use it. It’s such a fun tool and I recommend picking one up if you are at all interested. They’re a lot cheaper than they used to be.

I tweaked this recipe a bit, and didn’t measure the ingredients very closely. With cooking, you can get away with that! Not measuring while baking is bad news. I substituted butternut squash for the acorn squash as I had one on hand. The originally recipe called for cream, but I just used milk and I don’t think it made any difference. The soup is so thick from all the vegetables; you could also make this vegan if you wanted. I really enjoyed this and it I can wait to make it again. Thanks for the great recipe Ashley!

Roasted Squash Soup with Sweet Potato and Parsnip

1 butternut squash, split and seeded
20 ounces parsnips, peeled and chopped
2 large sweet potatoes
14 ounces chicken broth
1 cup milk
1 cup water
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
Sour cream to serve

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place the butternut squash on a foil-lined baking sheet and roast for 40 minutes. After 40 minutes, add the parsnips and continue roasting until both are soft. This could take between one hour and one hour, twenty minutes. Allow the squash and parsnips to cool slightly.

While the squash and parsnips cool, prepare the sweet potatoes. Scrub the potatoes clean and then microwave for 12-14 minutes, until soft.

Remove the squash from its shell and place in a large soup pot. Scoop the sweet potatoes from their skins and add to the pot. Add the parsnips, chicken broth, water, and spices. Heat the soup through and then use an immersion blender to puree soup until smooth. Add the milk and puree again. (You could also puree the soup in a food processor.) Season with salt and pepper.
Serve hot and garnish with sour cream.

Recipe from Cheese Curd in Paradise

Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookie Cups

2012-01-09T06:00:00.000-08:00

Chocolate chip cookie cups filled with Nutella, how could you go wrong? I saw these and knew I had to make them right away. Sure it was a busy time and I had made all sorts of other things, but when you need to bake, you need to bake! This cookie fulfills my husband’s love of chocolate chip cookies and my love of Nutella. A winner all around!

These are really quite simple: make your favorite chocolate chip cookie dough and fill with Nutella or peanut butter. I thought about making it with Biscoff spread, but I love Nutella so much that I didn’t want to miss an opportunity to have that.

My only criticism of these is that by making them in regular sized muffin cups, they are quite large. Now, that’s not really a bad thing with a cookie but you could certainly make these in mini muffin pans. They are an impressive cookie and the people I served them to thought they were very fancy.

Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookie Cups

½ butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1-1/2 cups flour
¾ teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup chocolate chips
Nutella, for filling

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line about 18 muffin tins with liners.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter and sugars together until just combined. Add the vanilla and the egg, stir until combined. On a low speed, mix in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the chocolate chips and mix until well distributed.

Scoop a tablespoon of dough into each muffin liner. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the edges are just golden. While the cookie cups are still hot, make a deep indent into the center of each cup. (I used the handle of my whisk.) Fill each cookie cup with Nutella (or peanut butter). Allow to cool before serving.

Recipe from Butter

Biscoff and White Chocolate Chip Cookies

2012-01-06T06:00:00.000-08:00

After so much baking during the holidays, I’ve now had a bit of a break and I’m starting to get back in the swing of things. I can now explore all of the other recipes that I’ve bookmarked and pinned that aren’t Christmas cookies. I thought I would start with something that’s a twist on a classic, but very popular right now.

Biscoff Cookies are spice cookies from Belgium, and they became popular as they were served on airlines. They’ve been around a long time, but last year the company must have done a huge media blitz as they are so popular now. (Trader Joe’s makes their own version of these, too.)They’ve also come out with Biscoff spread, which is a peanut butter-like spread made with the cookies. I saw the spread being used by all these bloggers and I, of course, needed to get some. After much searching, I found it and I still haven’t used it. But I saw these cookies, which use the Biscoff cookies themselves. Yum, use cookies to make cookies!

This recipe is really a chocolate chip cookie recipe, except you add ground and chopped Biscoff cookies. Which just smell amazing when you are chopping them up. They have a lovely spicy aroma and when they were baking my house smelled so good! The recipe makes a lot of cookies, and I didn’t even make the cookies super small like I typically do. The cookie bits in the dough maintain their crunchiness, which balances nicely with the chewy, buttery cookies.

Biscoff and White Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups flour
16 finely ground Biscoff Cookies
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
16 coarsely chopped Biscoff Cookies
2 cups white chocolate chips

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

In a large mixer bowl, cream the butter, sugar and brown sugar until light and creamy. Add the eggs and then vanilla, mix until well combined.

In a separate bowl combine the flour, ground Biscoff Cookies, baking soda and salt. Stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture, stirring on low just until combined. By hand stir in the coarsely chopped Biscoff cookies and white chocolate chips.

Shape the dough into 1-1/2-inch balls and place on the prepared cookie sheet and press to flatten slightly. Bake for 12-15 minutes until edges start to turn golden brown. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from The Capitol Baker

Baked Eggnog Donuts

2012-01-02T06:00:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! So many people swear off sweets and goodies at the New Year. You won’t find this blog changing to healthy things any time soon. I love baking and that’s not going to change. Try to eat the good things in life in moderation.

This recipe is sort of healthier, since the donuts are baked, but they are donuts and the contain eggnog so I don’t think they are really healthy at all. But I love eggnog and I had bought a donut pan this fall that I hadn’t used yet so I decided to give these a try. Right out of college I worked at a bakery where I fried donuts every morning at 3 am. I really hated that job and it was a long time before I could look at a donut again. I also lost weight because nothing kills an appetite like hanging over a vat of grease at 3 am.

Baked donuts are a lot friendlier to make. Just mix up the batter and go. I piped the batter into the donut pans and that was a lot easier than trying to spoon the batter into the pans. I found the pans that were the most filled yielded the best looking donuts, so feel free to fill the donut rings fairly full. These were such a good success for my first round of donuts. They also keep fresh for a lot longer than fried donuts, which was a nice surprise. I’ll certainly be making more donuts in the future.

Baked Eggnog Donuts

2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 large egg, at room temperature
3/4 cup eggnog, at room temperature
1/4 cup applesauce

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons eggnog

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray 2 donut pans (6 wells each) with nonstick cooking spray. (I only have 1 pan so I just baked 6 at a time.)

In a large mixing bowl whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg. In a separate bowl combine the egg, eggnog and applesauce and beat until well combined. Stir the wet ingredients into the flour mixture and stir to combine. The batter will be fairly thick.

Transfer the batter to a piping bag. Pipe the batter into the wells of the donut pans, filling each about 3/4 full. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the donuts spring back when lightly pressed.

Transfer the pans to a wire rack and let the donuts cool for a few minutes before turning them out to cool completely.

Make the glaze: Whisk the powdered sugar and eggnog in a wide, shallow bowl until smooth. Dip the donuts into the glaze and garnish with sprinkles if you’d like. Allow the glaze to set before serving.

Recipe from Tracey’s Culinary Adventures

Ginger Macadamia Biscuits

2011-12-30T06:00:00.000-08:00

Moving away from Christmas cookies, but I think this cookie with the combination of ginger and macadamia nuts would certainly fit as a holiday cookie. It’s not super sweet, but I think that’s ok after all of the sweets that you’ve probably eaten recently.

This recipe comes from a British cookbook, via the Guardian newspaper. I probably saw them somewhere else on a blog I follow, but I can’t remember! As this is a British recipe, the measurements are in grams so I have converted the weights here. The original recipe called for 3 knobs of candied ginger and I’m not exactly sure how big a knob is! I think I used about ¼ cup and it worked out. I used a Jamie Oliver recipe for Christmas dinner and it had similar measurements. I’m a bit of a control freak but I just have to trust that I know enough about being in the kitchen to make it work.

These cookies are quick to put together, but they taste better a day or so after you bake them. The ginger becomes more pronounced once the cookies have time to sit. They have a nice crunch and the buttery flavor of the macadamias adds a lot. These are really amazing, so hopefully you aren’t cookied-out and will give them a try!

Ginger Macadamia Biscuits

9 tablespoons butter, softened
7 ounces brown sugar
1 large egg
¼ cup finely diced candied ginger
2 ounces coconut
7 ounces flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon baking of soda
5 ounces salted macadamia nuts, chopped

Preheat the oven to 335 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter and brown sugar until smooth and light, and then stir in the egg. Add the candied ginger and coconut and stir until combined. In a small bowl combine the flour, ginger, allspice and baking soda. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir on low just until incorporated. Stir in the macadamia nuts.

Shape the dough into 1 inch balls and place on the prepared baking sheets. Bake for 15 minutes, until golden brown. Cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Dan Lepard, via The Guardian

Kids' Thumbprints

2011-12-27T00:01:00.000-08:00

This is the final week for Tuesdays with Dorie baking through Baking from My Home to Yours. Every recipe in the book has been selected and we are finished with the book. Dorie Greenspan herself chose this last recipe: Kids’ Thumbprints . Dorie is the host this week so you can get the recipe on her blog. Of course, make sure that you visit the Tuesdays with Dorie site and see how all of the bakers did this week with the last recipe.

I joined Tuesdays with Dorie in 2008 and my first recipe was posted on September 9, 2008: Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops. I’ve had the opportunity to select two recipes: Chewy Chunky Blondies and Far Breton. I’ve made 167 recipes for Tuesdays with Dorie and I’ve learned a lot. I’ve made things that I never would have tried before. I’m very good at making custard now. And I’m willing to try baking new things because I feel much more confident in my baking skills. This group has been wonderful, and I’m looking forward to next year when we start baking through another Dorie book.

These thumbprints are peanut butter cookies, rolled in chopped peanuts and filled with jam or jelly. I used concord grape jelly because I couldn’t think of a more kid friendly combo than PB and grape jelly. I never used to be a fan of thumbprints, but I’ve tried a number of versions now that I like. I like these: the peanut butter cookie is crunchy and the grape jelly has a distinct flavor that can’t be beat. Another great recipe from Dorie and I can’t wait for more to come.

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 163

Maple Butter Tarts

2011-12-26T06:00:00.000-08:00

Happy Boxing Day! We don’t celebrate Boxing Day here in the states but it’s a big holiday in England and in Canada (and other places I'm sure). I originally had planned to post these as part of the 12 Days of Cookies, but then I figured that they weren’t technically cookies; they were tarts. They certainly wouldn’t be out of place on a cookie tray during the holidays, but I wanted to present them for Boxing Day. These are very Canadian, and the recipe comes from a Canadian blog, so I thought they would be perfect.

I was in England for Boxing Day a number of years ago and we went to a fox hunt. I think it is really just ceremonial; no foxes were harmed on the occasion. You wait for the hunters to take off and there were some folk dances and it was pretty fun, but really cold outside! I think the whole point of the festivities was to go to the pub after the hunters left. That was fun too!

These are small pastry cups filled with a maple, nut and raisin mixture. You could make your own pastry or use store bought. I happened to have some store bought pastry on hand and it worked just fine. The recipe has you make these in standard-sized muffin cups, but I think you could cut the pastry rounds smaller and use a mini muffin cup. I love the maple in these! These are fairly quick to put together and look impressive when served. Enjoy and Happy Boxing Day.

Maple Butter Tarts

Pastry for a one crust pie
1 egg
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup raisins

Roll the pastry out to 1/8” thickness and cut out twelve 4” circles. Press the circles of dough into standard-sized muffin cups. Chill the muffin pan for 45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the egg, brown sugar, maple syrup, butter, vanilla, and salt in a large bowl. Stir in the walnuts and raisins. Pour the mixture into the pastry-lined muffin cups.

Bake until set, about 15-25 minutes. Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Closet Cooking

Mince Pie Cupcakes

2011-12-25T06:00:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas! I’m always looking for new ways to use mincemeat, since I’m such a fan of the flavors of mincemeat. I came across these cupcakes and thought that they would be great. I ended up sharing them with people at work. It’s a good way to introduce people to mincemeat. I have to saw that these generated a lot of conversation, because many people think that they contain meat, but of course now it is made with apples, dried fruits and spices.

These are great cupcakes, very moist. You can use any liquor in the frosting, and I used Grand Marnier since I thought that would go nicely with the spices in the mincemeat. One of my friends at work doesn’t like orange and she thought that the Grand Marnier was good. These are festive and a great way to share the flavors of the season with friends and family.

½ cup butter, softened
½ cup + 1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
5 ounces mincemeat
¾ cup flour
1 tablespoons corn starch
1 ¾ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt

1/3 cup butter, softened
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ¾ cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon brandy

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin pan with paper liners.

In the large mixer bowl, cream butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy, then beat in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the fruit mincemeat and stir until well incorporated. In a small bowl combine the flour, corn starch, baking powder and salt; carefully fold the mixture into the butter mixture – do not overmix.

Spoon the batter into the muffin cups, filling each two-thirds full. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until risen and golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes then carefully transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Make the icing: in the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter until creamy, add the milk and vanilla and beat until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the powdered sugar, and then beat until you have a smooth, light and creamy buttercream. Stir in the brandy. Pipe the buttercream onto the cooled cupcakes.

Recipe from Technicolor Kitchen

Christmas Pudding Cookies- 12 Days of Cookies Day 12

2011-12-23T06:00:00.000-08:00

12 Days of Cookies Day 12: Christmas pudding cookies. I have been waiting to make these and I’m so excited to share them. I’ve had these pinned on Pinterest and I’ve had about 200 people re-pin the recipe. They are so fun and they are just very fancily decorated chocolate cookies. They don’t taste like Christmas pudding but they sure look like them.

If you’re not familiar with Christmas pudding, it’s a steamed pudding made with dried fruits and spices. The first time I went to England it was during the Christmas season and you’d find wrapping paper and greeting cards with puddings on them and I thought it was so cute. So I’m always looking for puddings. I have a couple of Christmas tree ornaments that are puddings and one year I even found some wrapping paper that had puddings on it. When I saw these I knew I had to make it.

This isn’t a cookie that you make on a whim. I ordered a special leaf fondant cutter so that I could make nice looking leaves. With my artistic ability, I knew it would be a mess otherwise. I was able to find mini M&Ms to use as decoration, which would be really hard to find in England. This recipe, like many other recipes from the UK, uses self-rising flour, so I’ve given a recipe on how to make that. I used a squeeze bottle to help pipe the white chocolate so that it looked like dripping frosting. I really love how these turned out! I hope you also enjoy them!

Christmas Pudding Cookies

3 ounces dark chocolate
5 ounces self-rising flour*
1 ounce cocoa powder
4 ounces butter, cut into small cubes
3 ounces brown sugar
¼ teaspoon vanilla
1 egg, beaten
Dark brown mini M&Ms or mini chocolate chips

6 ounces white chocolate
Green ready-to-roll fondant
Red mini M&Ms

Using a food processor, chop the dark chocolate into small pieces, remove from processor and put to one side. Into the same processor, add the flour, cocoa powder, butter, sugar and vanilla. Pulse until you have a fine mixture. Add the chopped dark chocolate and the egg; pulse until the dough comes together. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.

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

Roll out the dough to a ¼” thickness on a lightly floured surface. Cut out rounds with your cookie cutter and place on the prepared baking sheet. Randomly push the mini M&Ms or chocolate chips into the bottom half of the cookies, to resemble currants.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until they are just starting to brown. Cool for about 5 minutes on the baking sheet before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

To decorate: melt the white chocolate in the top of a double boiler or in the microwave. Spoon or pipe the white chocolate onto the top of the cookies, to resemble icing. Roll out the fondant and cut out small leaves. Before the white chocolate has set, press two fondant leaves and one red M&M to the top of the cookies to resemble holly leaves and berries.

*You can make your own self-rising flour by combining 2 cups all-purpose flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, ½ teaspoon baking soda and a pinch of salt. This will be more than you need for this recipe.

Recipe from Cherrapeno

Melomakarona- 12 Days of Cookies Day 11

2011-12-22T06:00:00.000-08:00

12 Days of Cookies Day 11: Melomakarona. These are a Greek cookie dipped in honey syrup and topped with walnuts. I like to make cookies that are common in some parts of the world, but are not so common here in the United States. I saw these cookies on Elly Says Opa! and they just sounded so good that I added them to my list of Christmas baking. I had noticed that she had made them around the holidays, but I wasn’t sure if they were Christmas-y. I was really happy to see that she recently posted about these again, saying that these were the cookies she made at Christmas, without fail.

I don’t typically like to use walnuts in baking, but I figured that was crucial to this recipe so I didn’t change that. I made half of the recipe but it still made a lot of cookies, so perhaps I made mine on the small side. The dough for these cookies was quite different and I wasn’t sure if I had added enough flour. They baked up fine so I guess I was ok. The dough smelled like yeast dough, which was unusual they contained no yeast. I baked them up and then let them sit overnight. My husband tried one before I had dunked it in honey syrup and he declared them unfinished.

I made a full batch of the honey syrup despite baking a half batch of cookies because I figured these cookies were all about the honey syrup and I didn’t want to be skimpy. I dunked the cookies in the syrup and let them sit and then sprinkled with the walnuts. My kitchen smelled divine when I was making the honey syrup! Yum, what a great cookie. I love the honey in these, which pairs so well with the orange juice in the cookie dough and the walnuts on top. I really loved these and I’m really inspired to try some more international flavors in my baking.

Melomakarona

3 cups flour (plus additional if required)
¾ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
3/4 cup vegetable oil

4 ounces walnuts, finely chopped
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon cloves
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup honey

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

In a medium-sized bowl, stir together the flour, cinnamon, cloves, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In a large mixer bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the egg and beat until just incorporated. Add the oil and orange juice, mixing until smooth and combined.

Slowly add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients. If necessary, add more flour to make a workable dough. Knead the dough for a few minutes.

Roll cookies into oval shapes with the palm of your hand and place on an ungreased baking sheet. Press the cookies down slightly with your fingertips, and then prick them with a fork several times. Bake the cookies for about 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Allow to sit out overnight before dunking in the honey syrup.

Mix the walnuts, cinnamon and cloves together in a bowl and set aside.

Make the syrup: bring the water, honey and sugar to a boil in a saucepan. Boil for a minute or two; the mixture will thicken slightly. Skim the foam off the top. Turn burner to low, just to keep the syrup warm.

In batches, dunk the cookies in the honey syrup. Leave them in the syrup for about a minute and then remove them with a slotted spoon. Place the cookies on waxed paper and top with the walnut mixture.

Recipe from Elly Says Opa!

Honeycomb Bars- 12 Days of Cookies Day 10

2011-12-21T06:00:00.000-08:00

12 Days of Cookies Day 10: Honeycomb Bars. These bars aren’t technically Christmas cookies, but I figured a bar with orange juice, candied orange peel, sliced almonds and dried cherries were inherently Christmas-y. I love bar cookies and hadn’t made but one other bar cookie this Christmas. This starts with sweet pastry dough and is topped with a candy-like combo. Yum!

I’ve been looking forward to making these and have been picking up the ingredients as I’ve been able to. Candied orange peel is not likely something that you have on hand. We sometimes have it in the cupboard, but even the Christmas (fruitcake) we make doesn’t used candied fruits. You can find it at the store this time of year, but the candied fruits are often horribly artificially colored. I picked up this candied orange peel at an Italian grocery store in Pike’s Place Market. It’s really good quality and I think that makes a big difference. Yes, candied fruit should be sweet, but not sickeningly sugary.

I changed this recipe ever so slightly in that I didn’t roll out the dough. I just pressed it in the pan. I also made the dough in a food processor, since that makes the work so easy. Since I wasn’t rolling it out, I didn’t refrigerate the dough. I thought that would save time, but then I was reading the recipe and realized I needed a candy thermometer. Hmm, I used to have one somewhere, but I had no idea where it was so off to the store I went to buy a candy thermometer! These are very sweet, so cut them in small bars. I love the orange flavor combined with the cherries and almonds. These are very candy-like, but so, so good.

½ cup butter, softened
½ cup sugar
2 teaspoons heavy cream
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1½ cups flour
Pinch of salt

¾ cup dried cherries, chopped
1/3 cup diced candied orange peel
2 tablespoons flour
Pinch of salt
1 1/3 cups sugar
1¼ cups heavy cream
1/3 cup honey
½ cup butter
Shot of bourbon
2½ cups sliced almonds, toasted

In a large mixer bowl, cream the butter and sugar. In a small bowl whisk together the heavy cream, egg yolk, and vanilla. Add this to the butter and sugar mixture and beat until incorporated. Scrape down the bowl and add the flour and salt until just combined. (Or to make in a food processor, combine the flour, sugar and salt and pulse to combine. Add the butter and pulse until the butter it cut in. Add the egg yolk and process until the dough comes together.)

Turn out the mixture onto a lightly floured surface and form into an oblong disk. Wrap the disk tightly in plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the sides and bottom of a 9-by-13-inch glass baking pan.

Roll out the dough into a large rectangle roughly the shape of the pan. Transfer the dough to the pan, and press into the bottom of the pan (do not press up the sides).

Cover the dough with foil. Place dried beans or pie weights over the dough and bake for 10 minutes. Remove the beans and parchment paper and bake for another 5 minutes. Keep the oven on while you make the filling.

In a medium bowl, toss together the dried cherries, orange peel, cake flour, and salt. Set aside.

In a large saucepan over medium heat, stir together the sugar, heavy cream, honey, and butter. Clip a candy thermometer to the side of the pan and bring the mixture to 240 degrees F. Do not stir the mixture while it is coming to this stage. Once the mixture reaches 240 degrees, add the bourbon and remove from the heat.

Fold the dry ingredients and the almonds into the hot sugar mixture and pour the mixture into the crust. Spread the filling evenly, and smooth the top.

Bake for about 15 minutes or until the bar is golden and bubbly. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before cutting.

Recipe from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito

Brown-Sugar Apple Butter Cheesecake

2011-12-20T06:00:00.000-08:00

For Tuesdays with Dorie this week, we got to do a rewind, which means we can remake a favorite or make one of the recipes that you hadn’t made when it was picked. I let my husband pick the recipe this week. My cookbook is marked with the recipes that I’ve made and which ones I haven’t. He picked the Brown Sugar Apple Cheesecake.

This recipe was chosen was back in February 2008, when Tuesdays with Dorie was still in its infancy. I think it was the seventh recipe picked. It was originally picked by Jaime at Good Eats ‘n Sweet Treats and she has the recipe posted on her blog. I’ve followed Jaime’s blog for a few years and I’m not surprised that she picked such a great recipe! Cheesecake with a gingersnap crust and a cooked apple filling. Yum!

I decided to make the variation using spiced apple butter. Instead of cooking apples with brown sugar and adding that to the cheesecake filling, you make the filling and then swirl in spiced apple butter. I had that on hand and for once it was nice to use up the entire jar of apple butter before it spoiled.

Mine came together just fine but I really had a lot of problems cutting it. I’m not exactly sure what went wrong, but the crust hadn’t really set up and the cheesecake seemed too soft in the center, despite being refrigerated overnight. I managed to get one ok-looking piece, but I know it isn’t the best picture. It tastes really good and I love the spiced apple butter with the tang of the cream cheese. Not the best success in the serving department, but really tasty.

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

Red Velvet Shortbread Cookies- 12 Days of Cookies Day 9

2011-12-19T06:00:00.000-08:00

12 Days of Cookies Day 9: Red Velvet Shortbread Cookies. Sometimes, cookies aren’t really Christmas-y at all with the exception of the color. Red Velvet cookies aren’t spicy or gingery or have cranberries or any of those other traditional flavors of the holidays. But man, they are so red and look so festive! I thought that these would be a fun addition to the selection of cookies this year and I was right. They are so fun and they just look great.

You make the dough in the food processor, which I’m becoming a big fan of doing. It just seems like it streamlines the making of the dough so much. Plus, with all of the food coloring you’re at risk of getting it all over your kitchen. I used gel food color, which provides very intense color. Mine was a little dried and I think I may have used more than 1 tablespoon; it was really hard to measure. My dough was pretty crumbly, which is not atypical of shortbread dough, but I was a little worried. The color looks browner than red before they are baked, but they became a beautiful red color once baked.

The cookies by themselves, without the white chocolate, are simple. They have a slight cocoa flavor but that’s about all. The white chocolate really adds a lot, so don’t skip that step. I again tried using a couple of different types of sprinkles, but these Christmas sprinkles looked the best. I really liked these cookies, but I’m not going to kid you, my kitchen was quite a mess after making them. Red food coloring gets everywhere! When I was doing the dishes after making these I thought my hands were bleeding because of the food coloring. Good to know that red gel food coloring could be used as fake blood in a theatrical production!

1 1/4 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, cut in small pieces
1 tablespoon red food coloring
3 ounces white chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 teaspoon shortening
Sprinkles

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

In a food processor, combine flour, sugar, cocoa powder, and salt. Cover and pulse until combined. Add butter and red food coloring. Process with on/off turns until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Then continue to process until mixture begins to clump together.

Place the dough in a lightly floured surface and knead lightly until nearly smooth. Roll the dough to a 1/4-inch thickness. Using a floured 1-1/2-inch round cutter, cut out dough. Place cutouts 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheets. Press scraps together and reroll.

Bake for about 15 minutes or until centers are set. Transfer cookies to a wire rack; let cool.

In the top of a double boiler or in the microwave, melt white chocolate and shortening. Dip half of each cookie into melted chocolate. Sprinkle with sprinkles, nonpareils or colored sugar. Let stand on waxed paper until set.

Recipe from Recipe Girl

Shrewsbury Biscuits- 12 Days of Cookies Day 8

2011-12-16T06:00:00.000-08:00

12 Days of Cookies Day 8: Shrewsbury Biscuits. When I plan my Christmas baking, I create categories so that I will have a nice variety of cookies. Chocolate cookies, mint, nutty, fruity, etc. I also have a category for British cookies, since there are flavors and many different cookies that my husband is familiar with. I’ve already done a cookie with mincemeat, and I have one very special British cookie planned for Day 12 of the 12 Days of Cookies.

This recipe comes from my husband’s British Good Housekeeping cookbook. Shrewsbury Biscuits are kind of like shortbread/sugar cookie with added currants. The dough is very simple: butter, sugar, flour, and egg yolks. My husband says that he’s always had them with currants, so I’ve added them here. In the cookbook’s recipe the currants are optional. You could also use candied orange or lemon peel if you have that around for the holidays.

The dough takes no time to put together and you don’t have to chill the dough before rolling, so these come together in no time. I suppose that you could cut them in different shapes, but I’ve always seen them as rounds so I stayed with the traditional route. Cutting them out with the currants in the dough is a little tricky, so make sure your cookie cutter is nice and sharp. I love the combination of lemon zest and currants in these. They are a simple cookie, perfect for tea, but very special in their own way.

½ cup butter, room temperature
5 ounces sugar
2 egg yolks
zest of 1 lemon
8 ounces flour
2 ounces currants

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

In a large mixer bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in the egg yolks and the lemon zest. Slowly add the flour and the currants. Stir until the dough comes together.

Roll half of the dough on a lightly floured surface until ¼” thick. Cut the dough into rounds and place on the prepared baking sheets. Repeat with the other half of the dough. Reroll the dough scraps and cut as many cookies as possible. Do not reroll the dough too many times.

Bake the cookie for about 15 minutes until very lightly browned on the edges. Cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from The Good Housekeeping New Step-By-Step Cookbook (British Edition)

Chocolate Dipped Pretzels

2011-12-16T05:00:00.000-08:00

For this round of the recipe swap, we had to submit Holiday Treats. I received this recipe from Nichole over at The Cookaholic Wife. After making so many cookies this holiday season, it was nice to make something different. You’ve probably seen these before, big pretzels dipped in chocolate and decorated. What’s not to like?

I find that big pretzels can be too dry, so I got some medium-sized ones. These were easier to work with and easier to eat. I melted the chocolate in the microwave, since that can be easier. Just microwave for 30 second intervals until the chocolate is melted. I also only dirty one dish doing it that way, and these days, with all the baking I am doing that makes a difference.

I tried these with a couple of different sprinkles for topping. I liked the ones with crushed candy canes the best, but they didn’t photograph very well. I had large candy cane and snowflake shaped sprinkles, but they didn’t really work. The Christmas sprinkles are great. They do have one hazard in that they bounce all over the kitchen and when they get damp they turn in to little paint balls. So a bit messy when cleaning up the kitchen. I enjoyed making these. Thanks for the recipe Nichole!

Chocolate Dipped Pretzels

10 ounce package pretzel rods
8 ounces milk chocolate
sprinkles for decorating

In a double boiler or the microwave, melt the chocolate stirring frequently.

Once the chocolate has melted, dip one end of the pretzel in the chocolate. Place on waxed paper. Top with different sprinkles.

Refrigerate for 20-30 minutes until the chocolate has hardened.

Recipe from The Cookaholic Wife

Chocolate Peppermint Patties- 12 Days of Cookies Day 7

2011-12-15T06:00:00.000-08:00

12 Days of Cookies Day 7: Chocolate Peppermint Patties. I know that people either like or don’t like the chocolate/mint combination, but I really like it, especially this time of year. This cookie takes this year’s trend of cookies stuffed with other things. That’s certainly not a new trend, as I remember my grandma always made Surprise Cookies at Christmas, which was a sugar cookie with a chocolate mint inside. These are a little different because they use peppermint patties with a creamy filling and chocolate dough.

I made the dough for these a couple of days in advance and then let it come to room temperature before forming the cookies. Be careful not to let the dough get too soft, as then it is really hard to mold around the peppermint patties. I think mine was too soft, and thus quite sticky, which made for really messy hands when making these. They are substantial cookies because the mint patties are sizeable and then mold cookie dough around it. This is no petite tea cookie!

These baked up ok, but a couple of cookies had blow-outs where the peppermint cream filling escaped. They still tasted good. Drizzled with the white chocolate they are a spectacular looking cookie. I was worried that the peppermint patties would get hard after baking, but they remained nice and soft. If you like the chocolate/mint combination, these are a great cookie to try.

1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 sticks butter, slightly softened
1 egg
24 mini peppermint patties (refrigerated)
4 ounces white chocolate

In a large mixer bowl, stir to combine the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, brown sugar, salt and baking soda. Add the softened butter and the egg and stir until the dough comes together. Turn out the dough onto a large piece of plastic wrap and flatten into a disk; seal. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.

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

Working with approximately 1 tablespoon of dough at a time, use your fingers to evenly encase each of 24 miniature peppermint patties with the dough.

Bake until just firm to the touch, about 15 minutes. Remove the pans from the oven and let cool slightly. Transfer the cookies to a rack to cool completely.

Melt the white chocolate in the microwave or on top of a double boiler. Drizzle the melted chocolate on the cooled cookies.

Recipe from Pip & Ebby

French Christmas Cookies- 12 Days of Cookies Day 6

2011-12-14T06:00:00.000-08:00

Day 6 of 12 Days of Cookies: French Christmas Cookies. Ok, these aren’t French at all and I have no idea where the name came from. I really doubt that the French would use graham cracker crumbs and use milk chocolate. It’s just not their thing. Maybe they would use dark chocolate, but certainly in a different combination. None the less, these sounded good and I like things that bake in little cups. Plus they seemed easy to put together. It’s good to have a mix of cookies that require more effort and those that require less.

The recipe that you see here is a half batch, as the original said that it made over 9 dozen cookies. With all of the baking that I am doing this Christmas, I didn’t need anything that made 9 dozen! Mine must have been a little bigger, and this half batch made just over 3-1/2 dozen. They are super-fast to put together; the most time was spent processing the graham crackers to make crumbs. Just mix everything together in the mixer and they are ready to bake. They seem a little bit like a no bake cookie, as you could eat all the ingredients in their raw state. But these bake for a bit and they become great little cookies.

Maybe they are called French Christmas Cookies because they are small and similar to French truffles? They do have a candy-like quality to them and are surprisingly rich. I love the graham flavor coupled with the milk chocolate chips. You could add some marshmallows and make s’mores cups, which would also be very tasty. So I will never know the reason for the name behind these cookies, but they would make a great addition to any Christmas cookie tray.

1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup milk
1-1/3 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 cups milk chocolate chips
1 cups finely chopped pecans

3/4 cup milk chocolate chips, melted
1 teaspoon shortening

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Have mini muffin cup liners ready. You will need about 4 dozen liners.

In a large mixer bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in milk. Gradually add the crumbs and mix well. Stir in chips and pecans.

Fill the baking cups three-fourths full. Place 1 inch apart on baking sheets. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until set. Cool on wire racks.

Melt the ¾ cup chocolate chips and the shortening in the top of a double boiler or in the microwave. Drizzle the cooled cookies with chocolate.

Recipe from Taste of Home

Puffed Pear and Plum Tart

2011-12-13T06:00:00.000-08:00

The first of this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipes was selected by Julie of Someone’s in the Kitchen. She chose Puffed Double Plum Tart. The tart uses fresh plums and prunes, but of course fresh plums are nowhere to be found this time of year so my tart is a pear and prune tart. The other Tuesdays with Dorie recipe for this week, which I didn’t have time to make, was picked by Laurie of Slush. She chose the Unbelievably Good Chocolate Blueberry Ice Cream, which sounds interesting, doesn’t it? You can get the ice cream recipe on Laurie’s blog and the tart recipe on Julie’s blog.

This tart uses a puff pastry base and then is topped by prunes that have been steeped in red wine and orange zest and the fresh fruit. I love prunes and soaking them in wine makes them even better! I used port for the red wine as that is the standard red wine we use in our household (powerful stuff!). The house smelled so good when the red wine mixture was boiling away. I was supposed to reduce the wine mixture and make syrup, but I boiled mine too long and it became molasses. So I didn’t brush the fruit with the extra syrup, but it worked out ok anyway.

This came out of the oven puffed and beautiful. I don’t always have the best luck with puff pastry, but I had no problems at all. It was beautiful with the dark rows of prunes and the light row of pears. This is fairly simple, but it’s really a lovely little tart. I like the combination with the pears, but I like plums a lot so I would be up for trying this again once plums are in season. This was a great choice, and we’ve only got one new recipe left for Tuesdays with Dorie. I’m so sad that we’re done with the book, but it’s such an accomplishment, too.

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 378

Peppermint Kisses- 12 Days of Cookies Day 5

2011-12-12T06:00:00.000-08:00

Day 5 of 12 Days of Cookies: Peppermint Kisses. These are a twist in the peanut blossoms that are so common on cookie trays this time of year. This summer, when my husband and I traveled to Michigan for a family reunion, we stopped in the town of Frankenmuth. In addition to housing the world’s largest Christmas store (it was HUGE!) it is known for Zehnder’s Restaurant. I picked up the dessert cookbook when I was there. It includes lots of cookie recipes, including 6 recipes for Lebkuchen. I’m not sure I’ll have time this Christmas to try all of those, but this recipe for peppermint kisses was immediately placed on my Christmas baking list.

The recipe in the cookbook calls for regular milk chocolate Kisses, but I knew they made peppermint ones so why not use those? I’d been looking for them in the store, and sure enough, I found them in stock the day after Halloween. I grabbed a bag and set them aside for these cookies. I’m also lazy and bought pre-crushed candy canes. You can find those at coffee shops and kitchen stores this time of year.

I didn’t follow the recipe exactly, since I had made peanut blossoms before and had an idea about what would and wouldn’t work. The recipe has you dip the cookies in egg white and then roll them in sugar. I did this with about 6 cookies and they were pretty messy when they came out of the oven. So I just left out the egg white and the sugar adhered with no problem. It also had you press the Kisses into the cookies before baking, and I did this with one cookie just to see what would happen. Out came a browned Hershey’s Kiss, which didn’t look that appetizing. With the changes, these look great and are perfect little bites of holiday cheer.

¾ cup butter, softened
¼ cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
2 cups flour
½ cup crushed candy canes
½ cup sugar
Candy Cane Hershey’s Kisses

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

In a large mixer bowl, cream the butter and ¼ cup sugar until light. Stir in the vanilla and the egg. With the mixer on low, slowly stir in the flour. Stir in the crushed peppermint candy.

Shape the dough into 1-inch balls and roll in the ½ cup sugar. Place on the prepared baking sheets. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until barely browned and set.

Once the cookies are removed from the oven, immediately press a Candy Cane Kiss into each cookie. Allow to cool completely.

Adapted from From Grandma with Love by John Zahnder

Cranberry Macadamia Butter Cookies- 12 Days of Cookies Day 4

2011-12-09T06:00:00.000-08:00

Day 4 of 12 Days of Cookies: Cranberry Macadamia Butter Cookies. Usually when I think about cookies, I don’t think about being healthy. This recipe comes from Cooking Light, which I typically just use for dinner recipes. These cookies were just inside the back page of the magazine and they’re from the recipe hall of fame. These looked so good and I’d made another cookie with macadamia butter so I thought that I would give them a try.

It’s not hard to make macadamia butter. I haven’t tried it on toast but it sure is great in cookies. The flavor isn’t quite as pronounced as peanut butter would be, which I think pairs nicely with the cranberries. The richness of the macadamias coupled with the tartness of the cranberries is a winning combination. They’re easy to make too, very similar to a peanut butter cookie!

These cookies contain 78 calories each, according to the nutritional information I even took care to make exactly 30 cookies as it was supposed to. These don’t taste at all like they are healthy or like they are anything but a decadent treat. They keep fresh for quite a while, so you can make them in advance of the holiday season. These are a wonderful cookie and perfect if you want to treat yourself without going too far overboard this holiday season.

2/3 cup macadamia nuts
½ cup sugar
½ cup brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1-1/4 cups flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
½ cup dried cranberries, chopped
1 tablespoon sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Place nuts in a small food processor and process until smooth. In a large mixer bowl, combine the macadamia butter, sugar, and brown sugar. Beat on medium until combined. Add the egg and vanilla and beat well.

In a small bowl combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg. Add to the butter mixture and mix on low until combined. Stir in the chopped cranberries. Chill 10 minutes.

Divide the dough into 30 portions and roll each portion into a ball. Roll the balls in sugar and place on the prepared baking sheets. Flatten the cookies with a fork.

Bake for 9 minutes, until golden. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

Recipe from Cooking Light, December 2009

White Chocolate Cherry Shortbread- 12 Days of Cookies Day 3

2011-12-08T06:00:00.000-08:00

Day 3 of 12 Days of Cookies: White Chocolate Cherry Shortbread. Don’t these look so festive? I know that Christmas cookies don’t have to be green or red, but it sure is fun to make such brightly colored cookies! I love cherries so I was really looking forward to making these. They take a little bit of extra effort, with the white chocolate dip and the sprinkles, but I love spending time to make things extra special this time of year.

I always use the mixer to cut in the butter, which I suppose is cheating but I just find that I get better results that way. Sometimes I use the food processor. My hands get so tired when I do it by hand and the butter gets too soft. So far I have lucked out doing it this way. My dad uses a pastry blender to mix dough whenever he makes some, but I guess his hands are bigger and stronger than mine.

I’m really pleased with how these came out. My cookies aren’t perfectly round, but that’s ok. I baked them for the longer end of the time and they still seemed fairly soft. They did set up more as they cooled so resist the urge to over bake these. I used white chocolate candy melts and they worked great. I have a bad track record with white chocolate seizing on me when I try to melt it, but this was foolproof. I made some with Christmas sprinkles and some with red decorating sugar. The ones with red decorating sugar almost looked like Santa hats, so it you are really creative you could give that a try.

½ cup maraschino cherries, drained and chopped
2-1/2 cups flour
½ cup sugar
1 cup cold butter
12 ounces white chocolate melts, finely chopped and divided
½ teaspoon almond extract
Red food coloring (optional)
2 teaspoons shortening
Sprinkles or coarse sugar, for decoration

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

Drain the cherries on paper towels and set aside. In a large mixer bowl, combine the flour and sugar. Add the cold butter and cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the cherries and 4 ounces of the chopped white chocolate. Stir in the almond extract and, if using, the red food coloring. Knead until the dough comes together.

Shape the dough into 1-inch balls. Dip a drinking glass in sugar and flatten the balls to 1-1/2” rounds.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the cookies are set. Allow to cool on the baking sheet for a couple of minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

In a microwave or to top of a double boiler, melt the shortening and the remaining white chocolate. Dip each cookie half way in the white chocolate. If desired, roll the edges of the cookies in sprinkles or coarse sugar. Place the dipped cookies on waxed paper and allow to harden.

Recipe from Better Homes and Gardens

Gingerbread Cheesecake Bites- 12 Days of Cookies Day 2

2011-12-07T06:00:00.000-08:00

For Day 2 of 12 Days of Cookies, I give you these gingerbread cheesecake bites. I have to admit that I have been planning my Christmas baking for several months now. But I saw these over at Culinary Concoctions by Peabody and I knew I needed to make them right away. I love ginger and my baking list was a little short on ginger/spice recipes so I thought this would be a good addition. Peabody’s recipe had an orange cheesecake filling, but I opted to flavor it simply with a little lemon zest.

Whenever I made a recipe that I’ve seen on another blog or on Pinterest, I pretty sure that mine won’t look as perfect as the inspiration. These cookies are fairly foolproof and the really looked great. The trick was figuring out how to make the indentations in the gingerbread dough balls. I tried a couple of different tools and finally ended up using the end of my large whisk, which made the perfect indentation. I hadn’t planned to pipe in the filling, but that ended up being easier. The indentations were pretty small so trying to fill them with a spoon or a cookie scoop was too clumsy. It seemed like it would be too much trouble, but in the end it saved time.

With the exception of the chilling time, these cookies are impressive without too much fuss. Of course, you could use store bought gingerbread cookie dough as the original recipe suggests, but the dough wasn’t too hard to make. They bake so quickly, in fact, I thought that there was no way that they could be done after 9 minutes! I had a little bit of dough and quite a lot of cream cheese filling left so I made 3 4-inch cookie tarts. These are so good and the tang of the cream cheese is perfect with the spicy gingerbread. These are certainly a winner!

3 cups flour
2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

8 ounces cream cheese
4 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
zest of 1 lemon

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, nutmeg and salt.

In a large mixer bowl beat the butter and brown sugar in large bowl until light and fluffy. Stir in the molasses, egg and vanilla; beat well. Gradually stir in the flour mixture on low until well mixed. Press dough into a thick flat disk. Wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 48 mini muffin pan with paper baking cups.

Roll two teaspoons of cookie dough into a ball for each cookie and place in the muffin pan. Make an indentation into each ball of dough.

Beat the cream cheese and powdered sugar until smooth. Stir in the vanilla and lemon zest. Place filling into a piping bag and pipe about one teaspoon of filling into the indentation in the cookies.

Bake for 9-10 minutes or until cookie tested with tooth pick comes out almost clean. Allow to cool before removing from the pan.

Recipe from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody

Tea Infused Madeleines

2011-12-06T06:05:00.000-08:00

The second Tuesdays with Dorie recipe for this week was picked by Nicole of Bakeologie. She chose Earl Grey Madeleines. We’ve made a couple of madeleines for Tuesdays with Dorie, but these caught my attention. You take tea leaves and infuse the butter for a short while and then strain the butter and use that for the cookies. What an interesting idea! You can get the complete recipe for these madeleines on Nicole’s blog and take a look at all the links for this week’s recipe on the Tuesdays with Dorie site.

I don’t really like floral teas like Earl Grey, so I decided to use a different type of tea. We’re recently visited a neat tea shop near the Pike Place Market and I had purchased some Cranberry Orange Rooibos tea. I drink a lot of Rooibos tea since it is caffeine free and has a good flavor. I thought cranberry orange would be good for the holiday season. When I infused the butter with the tea leaves, the butter turned a light shade of pink. I had hoped that the madeleines would have a slight pink tinge, but they didn’t.

I used my new hand mixer to make these and it worked great! I used to think that madeleines were difficult, but I don’t think that at all now. These came out of the pan very cleanly and they just looked beautiful. I don’t think that the tea flavor is very strong, but they have a slight aroma and flavor of the tea. I imagine that the Earl Grey might be more pronounced, but I liked these quite a bit. Madeleines are my boss’s favorite cookies, so I took some to her and she (and her husband) liked them a lot.

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 169

Honey Almond Pear Tart

2011-12-06T06:00:00.000-08:00

The first Tuesdays with Dorie recipe for this week was picked by Kayte of Grandma’s Kitchen Table. She chose Honey Almond Fig Tart. Since figs are not in season, I think you will see many variations of this recipe! You can get the complete recipe on Kayte’s blog. Dorie suggests substituting grapefruit for the figs, but grapefruit is good only in moderation in my book. I used pears and made mini tarts and I was so pleased with the results.

The key to this tart is the honey almond cream, which is outstanding. You could pair this stuff with anything and it would be good. Ground almonds, honey, butter, sugar, and eggs sure come together in a very good way. I thought that the tart kind of tasted like baklava. I love honey and I was so happy that that flavor came through so much. I topped each tart with a few thin slices of pears, which I think went so nicely with the almond honey cream. I’m sure this would be good with figs but I’m not sure it would be better than the pear.

I think that this is one of my favorite recipes that I have made as part of Tuesdays with Dorie. I’m surprised that we saved it until the very end, but it was so good. I’ll certainly be making this again!

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 373

Mincemeat Bars- 12 Days of Cookies Day 1

2011-12-05T06:00:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the 12 Days of Christmas Cookies! Over the next two weeks or so I will post 12 different Christmas cookies recipes. Hopefully you will be inspired to try something new. I had a lot of fun picking all of the recipes to try this year. I’m mainly trying new recipes, but a couple of favorites are in there as well. I tried to mix it up and pick a variety of types of cookies, with different flavors, shapes, etc. I hope you like what I have picked.

The first recipe I am including is a recipe for Mincemeat Bars. When I went to England the first time to meet my husband’s family, it was Christmas and I got to experience the traditional English Christmas treats. I had never had mincemeat before and I discovered that I really liked it. I now make mincemeat pies each Christmas, but I’m always looking for other ways to include mincemeat in recipes. The site where I found this recipe had a couple of good ideas, and even included a recipe for homemade mincemeat. I haven’t ever made my own mincemeat, but I’m sure that someday I will give that a try. (And if you are worried, take a look at the recipe and be reassured that that mincemeat contains no meat!)

Since this recipe came from a British site, the measurements are in weight and I have converted the quantities to what is common here in the US. Sorry that they may seem unusual! This recipe doesn’t make very many, since you make it in a large loaf pan. The cookies are very substantial, but they’re a little crumbly. They’re just pastry topped with mincemeat and a nut/oat topping. Simple, but very good. I thought that using the mincemeat in this recipe really highlighted the flavors. If you’ve never tried mincemeat, I encourage you to give it a try!

3 ounces flour
0.3 ounces powdered sugar
1.75 ounces butter, cut in pieces
1-2 teaspoon ice water

7 ounces mincemeat

1 ounce flour
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 ounce rolled oats
1 ounce sugar
1 ounce cold butter
1 ounce pecans, chopped
1 ounce sliced almonds

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 8-1/2” x 4-1/2” loaf pan with parchment paper.

In a food process, combine the flour and powdered sugar. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Add some ice water and pulse until the dough comes together. Press the dough into the prepared pan.

Spread the mincemeat evenly over the pastry base.

Combine the flour, cornstarch, cinnamon, oats and sugar into a mixing bowl. Cut in the cold butter until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Add the nuts and run your fingers through to mix. Scatter the crumble over the mincemeat. Press the crumble topping down firmly with your hands.

Bake in for 35-40 minutes until golden brown. Let the bars cool completely before cutting into bars or slices.

Recipe from The British Larder

Pumpkin S'mores Bars

2011-12-02T06:00:00.000-08:00

For this recipe swap, people submitted different Thanksgiving desserts. I lucked out and got this pumpkin s’mores bar cookie recipe from DeLish. I love making bar cookies and I had originally planned to make these closer to Thanksgiving, but having my oven die changed those plans. The oven has been replaced and now I can bake again to my heart’s content. These certainly work for an occasion beyond Thanksgiving. They’re great no matter when you make them.

S’mores are all the rage these days, especially this past summer. I have a bunch of s’mores recipes bookmarked, but so far the only thing that I have made is a s’mores cake for a friend at work (and I haven’t gotten around to posting that yet). I was happy to give another s’mores recipe a try, and I was curious about the addition of the pumpkin. I’ve grown to like pumpkin a lot more than I used to, and I like all of the other flavors in these bars so I figured they would be really good.

These are kind of Christmas-y since I used Christmas marshmallows. My husband had picked those up at the store and they make the bars festive. It’s a little hard to tell when these are fully baked through as you can’t test them very easily with all the chocolate chips and marshmallows on the top. I baked mine a little over 30 minutes to make sure they were done. These bars are very tricky to cut, as the marshmallows are very sticky. My marshmallows were bigger, too, which may have made them even more challenging to cut. So they don’t cut the cleanest, but they taste very good! Thanks for the recipe DeLish!

1-1/2 sticks butter, room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
1 egg
2/3 cup canned pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups chocolate chips
3 cups mini marshmallows or 1/2 bag of large marshmallows

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9” x 13” baking pan.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light & fluffy. Beat in egg until combined. Add in the pumpkin, then vanilla. Stir to combine.

In a separate bowl, mix together graham cracker crumbs, flour, cinnamon and salt. Stir the graham cracker mixture into the butter mixture. Press the graham cracker mix over the bottom of the prepared pan. Sprinkle the chocolate chips and marshmallows on top.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until brown. Allow to cool before cutting into squares.

Recipe from DeLish

Normandy Apple Tart

2011-11-29T06:00:00.000-08:00

One of this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was picked by Tracey of Tracey’s Culinary Adventures. She chose the Normandy Apple Tart. This week’s other recipe was the Sour Cream Pumpkin Pie/Tart, selected by Judy of Judy’s Gross Eats. I didn’t have a chance to make that due to my oven dying last week. You can check out the two sites to find the full recipes for both of this week’s selections. And don’t forget to check out the Tuesdays with Dorie page to see the links from all of the bloggers.

The Normandy Apple Tart is a very simple tart, just the tart shell filled with chunky applesauce and topped with sliced apples. I actually made and served this on Thanksgiving, and was able to make it with no added sugar so my diabetic father could enjoy it too. I used regular pie dough as it contains less sugar. I cheated a little and used store bought applesauce. My husband had picked up some chunky honey crisp applesauce that was spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg and I figured it would be perfect for this tart. And it was unsweetened so it was even more perfect. It seemed like making your own applesauce was a lot of work, so I’m glad I went the easier route.

I had to assemble and bake this at my parent’s house since I’m still without oven. (The new one is supposed to be installed today!!) This was so easy to put together and looked quite impressive once baked. It wasn’t overly sweet, but you certainly wouldn’t think that it was lacking any flavor. I don’t think I have baked anything that my dad has been able to eat in a very long time. I love baked apples and this tart was really great.

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 304-305

Cranberry Almond Jumbles

2011-11-25T06:00:00.000-08:00

I hope that you all had a great Thanksgiving. If you hit the sales already today, did you find good deals? I love shopping but I don’t like crowds so Black Friday is not for me. My mom and I went a time or two a number of years ago, but we just went to get the freebie ornaments and things that they were giving out. I don’t think there is much of that any more. It’s now about getting the super deal. I’ve already done a lot of my Christmas shopping so now I can just get small things, stocking stuffers and things like that.

I have a lot of Christmas cookies that I can’t wait to share with you, and while this cookie wasn’t on my master sheet of Christmas cookies to make, it is certainly Christmas-y. This recipe uses a sugar cookie dough base with added mix-ins. I had made sugar cookie dough for another use and then I didn’t use it all up. Not wanting to be wasteful (and needing to make some treat to take to my dance teacher) I searched for recipes that used sugar cookie dough. I came across this recipe that took one entire recipe of sugar cookie dough and added two cups of mix-ins. I simply scaled it down for the amount of dough I had and ended up making some great cookies.

I substituted dried cranberries for the dried cherries that the original recipe called for, which was a good substitution. The almonds were lovely, and the dough already contained almond extract so that flavor came through very well. These are chewy but crunchy, and had that familiar sugar cookie flavor. I hadn’t really expected these to be so good, but I was very pleasantly surprised. Give these a try if you have some extra sugar cookie dough around this holiday season.

1-1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon almond extract
1 egg
2-1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup sliced almonds

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

In a large mixer bowl, cream the powdered sugar, butter, extracts and egg. Add the flour, baking powder, and cream of tartar. Stir on low until combined. Stir in the dried cranberries and the sliced almonds.

Drop by teaspoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets. Bake for about 15 minutes, until the cookies just begin to brown. Cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe adapted from Real Simple

Hidden Berry Cream Cheese Torte

2011-11-22T06:00:00.000-08:00

So as I wrote yesterday, my oven died in the middle of making the apple fritter muffins. Luckily, I had already made this cheese torte so I would have something to post today! I’ve tried to be so consistent with my Tuesdays with Dorie postings, and I didn’t want to miss a week. The new oven is coming, but I won’t be baking for at least the next week. Thankfully I can bake the pie for Thanksgiving at my parent’s house.

This week for Tuesdays with Dorie, we got a rewind. That means I could pick any recipe. I was pretty excited to consider all of my choices and I decided on picking the Hidden Berry Cream Cheese Torte. I hadn’t realized it until now, but this was the second recipe ever chosen for Tuesdays with Dorie. It looked so good and I wanted to seasonalize it and use cranberry chutney for the jam. It was a really good choice!

This torte contains cottage cheese, which I hate so much that I can’t even look at it, but you process it so much that it was ok. Once baked, it seems just like cheesecake, so unless you tell someone about the cottage cheese they’ll never know. The cranberry chutney is slightly tart, which I thought paired will with the innate tanginess of the cream cheese filling. This was a really great recipe! As it was a rewind week, all the bakers are posting different things this week. Make sure you check out the Tuesdays with Dorie site and check out all of the recipes from this week.

Hidden Berry Cream Cheese Torte

1-3/4 cup flour
½ cup sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons butter, cut in small pieces and chilled
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla

1/3 cup thick berry or cherry jam
9 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup cottage cheese, room temperature
¾ cup sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
Pinch of cinnamon
Pinch of nutmeg
2 eggs
Powdered sugar

Butter a 9” springform pan, dust the inside with flour and tap out the excess. Place on a baking sheet lined with a silicone baking mat.

Make the crust: put the flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor and pulse just to blend. Toss in the pieces of butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Stir the egg yolks and vanilla together with a fork, and, still pulsing the machine, add them and continue to pulse until the dough comes together in clumps Don’t allow the dough to form a ball. Press the dough into the prepared pan. The dough should come about 1-1/2 inches up the sides of the springform. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Fit a piece of buttered foil against the crust, covering it completely. Fill the crust lightly with rice, dried beans, or pie weights. Bake for 20 minutes, then carefully remove the foil and bake for another 5 minutes or so—you don’t want the crust to get too brown. Transfer to a rack to cool while you make the filling. Lower the temperature to 350 degrees.

Stir the jam and spread it over the bottom of the crust. It’s ok to do this while the crust is still warm.

Put the cream cheese and cottage cheese into the good processor and process, scraping down the sides of the bowl a few times, for 2 minutes, until you’ve got a smooth, satiny mix. Add the sugar, salt, and spices and process for another 30 seconds. With the machine running, add the eggs and process, scraping the bowl as needed, for a final minute. Pour the filling over the jam.

Bake the cake for 60 to 70 minutes, or until the filling is uniformly puffed and no longer jiggly. Gently transfer the springform pan to a cooling rack and allow the torte to cool to room temperature, during which time the filling will collapse into a thin, elegant layer.

Run a blunt knife between the crust and the sides of the pan, then open and remove the sides of the springform. If the sides of the crust extend above the filling and you don’t like this look, very gently saw off the excess crust using a serrated knife. Chill the torte before serving and, if you’d like, dust the top with powdered sugar.

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, pages 240-241

Apple Fritter Muffins

2011-11-21T06:00:00.000-08:00

I’ve been on a bit of a glazed muffin kick lately, but these looked so good that I just couldn’t resist. Apple fritters are my favorite donuts (although I really like Old Fashioned and Bismarcks, too) and a muffin based on that sounded so good. Now I know in a bakery that the apple fritters are made with all the scraps of the other donuts once they have been formed, but I don’t like to think of that. An apple fritter is a yummy, wonderful thing.

You cook the apples with butter, sugar, and cinnamon. If you want your house to smell great, just make the first part of this recipe. Wow, my house smelled so good! You then fold the cooked apples into a basic spiced muffin recipe. Very simple but the results are so special. I didn’t have enough glaze for my muffins, so I doubled the recipe for you here.

You may notice that my muffins are a little on the flat side, not domed like you would hope your muffin would be. My ovens been a little bit temperamental for a while now and when I was making these, I think it finally died and just couldn’t get to temperature. So these baked low and slow for a long time, which is why they don’t look quite right. They are cooked all the way through and still taste fine. So the bad news is that my oven is dead. The good news is that 1) I’m not hosting Thanksgiving and 2) a new oven is on the way. New adventures await with the new oven!

Apple Fritter Muffins

2 large apples, cut into 1/4 inch dice
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 tablespoons water
1/3 cup flour

2 1/3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature

4 tablespoons butter, melted
2 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoon hot water

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line two muffin pans with paper liners. You’ll need about 20-22 liners total.

Add the diced apples, butter, sugar, cinnamon and water to a skillet and set over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the apples are tender, about 8-10 minutes. Let the apples cool slightly then toss them with the flour to coat.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a medium bowl. In a large mixer bowl, mix the applesauce, oil and both sugars until smooth and well combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Alternately add the dry ingredients with the buttermilk, starting and finishing with the dry ingredients, and stirring gently just until the ingredients are combined. Fold in the apples.

Divide the batter among the prepared liners, filling each almost to the top. Bake for 14-16 minutes, or until the muffins are golden and spring back when gently pressed on the top. Let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes before removing them to a wire rack. Let cool slightly while you make the glaze.

To make the glaze: Whisk the melted butter, confectioners' sugar, vanilla and water in a small bowl until smooth. Dip the muffins in the glaze. Allow to set, then dip a second time and let harden again before serving.

Recipe from Tracey’s Culinary Adventures

Almond Oat Chocolate Chunk Cookies

2011-11-18T06:00:00.000-08:00

I’ve been waiting to make these cookies for a while. I read the recipe online and was so excited for the description of “These are the best cookies ever. Make them now!” It seems like every time I was going to make them, I was missing an ingredient. First I had to buy almond butter since I don’t typically have that at home. I usually have almonds around that I can grind up. Then last week I was going to make them and I was out of oats. Man, I’m never out of oats! So I restocked my oats container and vowed to get these made.

These are a variation of a chocolate chip cookie, which my husband was happy about as he loves chocolate chip cookies and rarely make them. These also have oats and ground almonds, and the addition of almond butter. I’ve never had almond butter but I knew it couldn’t be bad. Now I have a half jar of almond butter to use up and I’m sure it will make some tasty sandwiches.

My cookies don’t look much like the ones that I saw online, but that’s ok. The oats and the almond butter give the cookies a rich brown color. Don’t make these too big as I found that a little bit of dough makes a good-sized cookie. This recipe makes over 4 dozen, which was more than I expected with only ¾ cup flour, but with the oats and ground almonds, it goes a lot further than you think! These are really great and given the number of cookies eaten by my husband as soon as he got home from work, quite addictive!

Almond Oat Chocolate Chunk Cookies

3/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup ground almonds
3/4 cup old-fashioned oats
8 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup almond butter
8 ounces dark chocolate, roughly chopped

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

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, combine the ground almonds and oats. Set both aside.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter, sugar and brown sugar for about 3 minutes. Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating between. Beat in the vanilla extract and almond butter. Stir in the flour mixture and the almond/oat mixture. Fold in the chopped chocolate.

Using a small cookie scoop, scoop the dough onto the prepared baking sheets. Bake for 10 minutes, until slightly browned on the edges. Allow them to cool for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Chocolate and Carrots

Alsatian Apple Tart

2011-11-15T06:05:00.000-08:00

The second Tuesdays with Dorie recipe of the week was selected by Jessica of Cookbook Habit. She chose the Alsatian Apple Tart, which is an apple custard tart. I love baked apples so I was really looking forward to this recipe. You can get the complete recipe for the tart on Jessica’s blog. Don’t forget to visit the Tuesdays with Dorie site to see how the other baker’s interpreted this week’s recipes.

It seems like I go through phases with pies and tarts. I don’t make them for the longest time and then I make a bunch all together. After last week’s butternut squash pie, now we have an apple tart, plus there is another apple tart coming up the last week of November! I’m not always thrilled to make pie crust, as it can be very finicky. I was thrilled to see that this and the next apple tart use the press-in-the-pan sweet tart dough. I love this dough and I think it’s just about the best thing in the entire cookbook. I love that I don’t have to roll out pastry! I made the regular pastry instead of the nut version, but I’m sure that would be good, too.

I used Fuji apples in this tart, and they worked well. They had a bit of tartness and not too hard of texture. My apples seemed small (compared to giant ones I typically get in Washington State) but I ended up using less than a pound of them. I went all the way with the custard: full heavy cream and egg yolks, because it just didn’t seem right to skimp on dessert. Mine baked up beautifully and it smelled divine while in the oven. We’re big fans of custard in our house and this is certainly a custardy tart. I love the egginess of the custard with the baked apples. I didn’t glaze my tart; instead I just went with a simple dusting of powdered sugar. I really enjoyed this tart and I can’t wait to make the next one in a week or so!

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 314

Bittersweet Brownies

2011-11-15T06:00:00.000-08:00

The first of this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipes was selected by Leslie of Lethally Delicious. She chose Bittersweet Brownies, which are fudgy, dark chocolate brownies. These are very simple: just butter, chocolate, eggs, sugar, flour and some flavorings. I was very tempted to add something else to these brownies, but that would have missed the point. These brownies are all about chocolate in its simple goodness, and they certainly deliver. You can get the complete recipe for these cookies on Leslie’s blog.

As I said, I didn’t change this recipe at all. I did cut the recipe in half and baked it in an 8” square pan. I had read that some of the other Tuesdays with Dorie bakers had trouble with the brownies being done, as Dorie expressly states to bake them no longer than 22 minutes. I did bake mine for about 35 minutes because otherwise they would have been brownie soup! They just looked done at that point and still tested as being very fudgy, so I knew they would still be nice gooey, fudgy brownies. I then refrigerated the brownies overnight before cutting them.

When I cut the brownies, they were super cold and it seemed like I was cutting fudge rather than brownies. They got gooier* as they came to room temperature, but they still came across as fudge-like rather than brownie-like. But that’s ok, they are tremendously good. The chocolate flavor is intense and I could really taste the espresso powder that I added. I can’t usually pick that out when I add it to chocolate desserts, but this time I could. These are decadent, rich brownies, and if you’re looking for a chocolate fix they won’t disappoint.

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 90

*Microsoft Word says that “gooier” is a word. I’m not sure…

Glazed Donut Muffins

2011-11-14T06:00:00.000-08:00

I had to travel to Baltimore last week for a conference so I had been out of the kitchen for too long! My whirlwind trip was tiring but it was a good conference so it was worth it. I unfortunately didn’t have much time at all to explore Baltimore and I came home without any new recipe ideas. Oh well, I guess I will have to go back because the little bit of the city I did see, it seemed like a nice place.

I didn’t bring any treats to work last week since I was only there one day. Thankfully one of my great coworkers brought in something one day so the library staff did get a little sugar boost for the week. The weekend was very busy, seeing old friends and other errands, so I got to the end of the weekend knowing that I wanted to make something, but I sure didn’t feel like making the multi-stage coffee cake that I had planned. Muffins sounded much easier and more appealing. And glazed donut muffins sounded even better.

I’ve made a cinnamon sugar mini donut muffin before but these were different. I love old fashioned donuts and I think these have a lot in common with those. The muffins are flavored with cinnamon and nutmeg, and I also used buttermilk to add an extra tang. They are then double glazed while warm with a buttery vanilla glaze. I doubled this recipe which ended up making about 3 dozen, so unless you want a bunch of these sitting on your kitchen counter, I’d just stick with the single recipe. Do fill the muffin cups fairly full so that you’ll get a nice domed muffin. These are quick, easy, and very tasty!

Glazed Donut Muffins

1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 2/3 cups flour
1 cup milk

3 tablespoons butter; melted
1 cup powdered sugar
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon hot water

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line 12-18 muffin cups with muffin liners.

In a large mixer bowl, beat together butter, vegetable oil, sugar and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Stir in vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine the baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt and flour. Stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour and making sure everything is thoroughly combined.

Spoon batter into cups, filling until the cups are just about full. Bake until muffin tops are a pale golden and springy to the touch, 15 to 17 minutes. Cool muffins in muffin tin for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack and cool 10 minutes before glazing.

To make the glaze, combine the melted butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and hot water; whisk until smooth. When muffins have cooled slightly, dip the muffin crown into the glaze and allow the glaze to harden. Once hardened, dip in the glaze a second time and allow to fully harden before serving.

Recipe from Sweet Pea’s Kitchen

Oatmeal Snickers Brownie Bars

2011-11-11T06:00:00.000-08:00

With so many full size candy bars left after Halloween, I was challenged to try and find recipes to use up some of the extras. The box of candy we bought had a lot of Snickers in it, and my husband doesn’t like those (because of the nuts) and I certainly didn’t need to eat them so the hunt was on. I have found two recipes that can use Snickers, so I should be able to use them all up.

This recipe originally called for Milky Way bars, but the only difference with the Snickers is that they have nuts. Oats, chocolate, and caramel would certainly work with the nuts in a Snickers bar, so I just substituted. This is a substantial bar, with a hearty oat/brownie mixture and a caramel filling. They take a little time to put together, but they are worth it. These use Kraft caramel bits as a shortcut. I have found that caramel bits can be hard to find (luckily I can find them at my local Target) so if you can’t located them you can just use 11 ounces of unwrapped caramels.

Getting the top on these bars was the most challenging part of making these cookies. You can’t really spread the topping over the caramel. What I ended up doing was taking a piece of the topping and flattening it and placed it on top of the caramel. Do that enough times and you can piece together a top crust. Don’t worry about getting it perfect; these would be just as good with streaks of caramel showing through. At first I thought these would be really chocolaty, but they weren’t. Still the combination of flavors was great and really enjoyed these bars.

Oatmeal Snickers Brownie Bars

2 full size Snickers, chopped
11 ounces Kraft Caramel Bits
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 cups oats
2 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2-1/2 sticks butter, room temperature
2 cups boxed brownie mix
1 egg
1/3 cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9” x 13” baking pan with foil and butter the foil.

In a medium sauce pan, place the Snickers, caramels, and heavy cream. Let simmer over medium low heat until fully melted. Remove from heat and let cool approximately ten minutes.

In a large mixer bowl combine oats, flour, baking soda, salt, brown sugar, and butter. Mix on low to incorporate. The mixture will be crumbly, with chunks no bigger than the size of peas. Stir in the two cups of brownie mix, egg, and oil. Stir until just combined.

Spread half of the oat mixture into the prepared baking pan and press firmly to flatten. Pour the melted caramel mixture over the oats. Make sure to get all the way to the corners. Top with remaining oat mixture.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the bars begin to pull away from the sides of the pan. Allow to cool completely before cutting into squares.

Recipe from I am Baker

Depths of Fall Butternut Squash Tartlets

2011-11-08T00:02:00.000-08:00

The other Tuesdays with Dorie recipe for this week was picked by Valerie of Une Gamine dans la Cuisine. She chose the Depths of Fall Butternut Squash Pie. This double crust pie contains butternut squash, pears and dried cranberries. Absolutely perfect for fall. You can get the complete recipe on Valerie’s blog and check out how the other Tuesdays with Dorie bloggers fared with this recipe.

As you can see, I didn’t make a big double crust pie. I really wanted to make this since I like butternut squash so much, but I just couldn’t envision a whole pie. I asked the other TWD bloggers about cutting this recipe down and I got a couple of suggestions. I think it being a double crust pie was what was throwing me. It was actually my husband suggested that I make them similar to how I make mincemeat pies. I ended up using the same pan that I made the mini madeleines in, which was not planned at all. I tried it and it seemed to work out just great.

I cut the recipe in half and I made 12 tartlets. I could have made one more, but there are 12 spots on the pan so that’s what I made. Instead of doing a top crust, I cut out leaf shapes and just used those to top the tarts. I’ve had those mini cookie cutters forever and I’ve used them so much over the years. I baked the tartlets for about 45 minutes and they were nicely browned. I used microwave steam-in-the-bag butternut squash which made this recipe super easy. I loved these tarts: not too sweet, great flavors of fall with the squash and the pears. I wasn’t 100% sure how all of these flavors would come together, but this tart was a hit! I especially like them in miniature form!

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, pages 328-329

Mini Madeleines

2011-11-08T00:01:00.000-08:00

One of this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Di of Di’s Kitchen Notebook. She chose Mini Madeleines, which are the traditional shell-shaped cookies made tiny, flavored with honey, brown sugar, and lemon. I didn’t exactly make mine mini, but I did make them in a different pan so they would be different than the other madeleines that I have made. If you want to recipe for these madeleines, you can visit Di’s blog, and also don’t forget to check out the Tuesdays with Dorie site to see how others did with this recipe.

I made half a batch of the batter and baked my cookies in this small tart-like pan. It’s a British pan that my husband had when we got married. It has round indentations with a bit of a start pattern. I typically use in to make mince pies at Christmas. (And as you’ll see, I ended up using it to make mini Depths of Fall pies, too.) It’s not as small as the mini madeleine pan, but it was different so I figured that was good. I ended up really liking the shape of these once they were baked. They had a bit of a star shape and were kind of three-dimensional. How fun!

My madeleines stuck to the pan, but it seems like I wasn’t the only person who had this problem. I find that perfectly buttering and flouring this type of pan to be particularly challenging. I did get them out of the pan without damaging them, but it took a bit effort. I was hopeful that you would be able to taste the honey and brown sugar, but I could only pick up the lemon. Still, it was nice to try something different and I think this pan can work when I need it as a back-up for my madeleine pan.

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 172

Carrot Cake with Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting

2011-11-07T00:01:00.000-08:00

This cake is from Baking from My Home to Yours, but the recipe was selected before I joined the Tuesdays with Dorie group. I like carrot cake, but there’s a bit of a dilemma. I take most of my baking to work and one of my colleagues is known for her carrot cake. It’s really great and this is one recipe that I won’t take to work. Carrot cake is her territory (and I always have a dozen other types of cakes that I want to make, waiting in the wings.)

I take dance class a couple of times a week and I often bring my teacher a sampling of the things I have made. She lives alone so we’re kind of like her family and I can tell that she’s really excited when I bring her treats. She had her birthday recently and we decided to throw an impromptu party for her after ballet. I said I would bring a cake and decided that it was time to make carrot cake. I like carrot cake; she likes carrot cake so I figured it would be a good choice. (Plus, it has carrots so it’s healthy, right?)

Carrot cake is pretty east to put together, and since I have a food processor to grate the carrots, the only difficult task is taken care of. I made the cake in just two layers (plus a small layer for my husband to try), as I’ve discovered that three layer cakes are a bit of a challenge to take places. For the frosting I used a slightly different recipe and added coconut extract to boost the flavor. This cake was a great success. Everyone at dance loved the cake and my teacher was happy with her little party.

Carrot Cake with Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting

2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
¾ teaspoon salt
3 cups grated carrots
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans
1 cup shredded coconut
½ cup raisins
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs

12 ounces cream cheese, softened
12 ounces butter, softened
1½ teaspoons vanilla
½ teaspoon coconut extract
3 cups powdered sugar
Toasted coconut

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Butter and flour three 9-inch round cake pans.

In a small bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. In another bowl, stir together the carrots, chopped nuts, coconut, and raisins. In a large mixer bowl, beat the sugar and oil together on a medium speed until smooth. Add the eggs one by one and continue to beat until the batter is even smoother. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture, mixing only until the dry ingredients disappear. Gently mix the chunky ingredients. Divide the batter among the baking pans.
Bake for 40-50 minutes, until a thin knife inserted into the centers comes out clean Cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes and unmold them. Invert and cool to room temperature right side up.

For the frosting: Beat cream cheese, butter, and vanilla together in a large bowl with an electric mixer until combined. Add sugar and beat until frosting is light and fluffy, 5-7 minutes.

Place one layer on a serving plate and smooth the frosting all the way to the edges of the layer. Top with the second layer, and repeat, frosting to the edge of the cake. (Do this with the third layer also.) Finish the top with swirls of frosting and toasted coconut, if desired.

Cake recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan
Frosting recipe from Apple A Day

Black and White Cookies

2011-11-04T06:00:00.000-07:00

So this year at work, I’ve been trying to actually leave on time. I get there pretty early in the morning and therefore should leave a little earlier in the afternoon. That doesn’t always work out, but I’m really trying to keep to my schedule. One of the benefits of leaving on time is that I can catch some of the Food Network and Cooking Channel shows when I get home. One afternoon when I had gotten home, an episode Giada De Laurentiis’ show was on and she made these cookies. I thought they looked interesting.

This cookie is different from the black and white cookies that you typically buy at a coffee shop, which are covered with white and dark chocolate. This cookie starts with a chocolate ganache filling. It’s exactly what you would do to make truffles, so that can’t be too bad. You then wrap the chocolate filling with sugar cookie dough. The original recipe called for store bought cookie dough, but I just made my own. This recipe here that I have included makes more dough than you really need, but you can always just bake up some extra sugar cookies.

These take a little bit of time but not too much extra effort for a cookie that looks fun. The center remains a soft chocolate and the sugar cookie bakes up a bit crispy. It’s a cookie of contrasts! This recipe made about 28 cookies, which is a small batch for me! Next time I think I might increase the chocolate to 10 ounces so I could make more cookies. These would be excellent if you added some flavoring to the chocolate, an extract or a liqueur would work; I think hazelnut would be especially good.

Black and White Cookies

1/3 cup cream
7 ounces dark chocolate, chopped into small pieces

1-1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon almond extract
1 egg
2-1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
Sugar

In a small pan or in the microwave, heat the cream until almost boiling. Add the chocolate to a medium sized bowl and pour the cream over the chocolate. Allow to sit or a couple of minutes and then stir to combine. Cool the chocolate (in the refrigerator if you want to speed the process along) until firm enough to roll into balls.

Make the sugar cookie dough: in a large mixer bowl, cream the powdered sugar, butter, extracts and egg. Add the flour, baking powder, and cream of tartar. Stir on low until combined. Wrap the dough in waxed paper and chill for about an hour.

Once the chocolate is firm, preheat the oven to 350 degrees . Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Roll the chocolate into ½ teaspoon-sized balls and set aside. Roll a tablespoon ball of cookie dough into a thin log about 4 inches long. Place a chocolate ball on a work surface and wrap a cookie dough log around the chocolate ball and press to adhere. It should look like a cookie version of the planet Saturn. Roll the cookie in the sugar to coat. Use the bottom of a drinking glass to flatten the cookies to about 1/4 inch thick.

Bake the cookies for 15 minutes. Until lightly golden around the edges. Allow to cool a few minutes on the baking sheet before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Giada De Laurentiis. Sugar cookie recipe from the Betty Crocker Cookbook

Baked Garlic Cheddar Grits

2011-11-03T06:00:00.000-07:00

I received this recipe in this round of the recipe swap, which this time had the theme of Thanksgiving sides. One of the reasons that I participate in the recipe swaps are to try new things. I just never know what I’m going to end up with, but I’m ok with that! It expands my horizons and that can’t be a bad thing. If I don’t like something, I just move on. Luckily so far I’ve had pretty good luck with the recipes I’ve gotten in the recipe swap. This time, I got a recipe from Heather Lynne at Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks.

When I got my recipe for baked garlic cheddar grits, I didn’t quite know what to say. Grits? I’m from Seattle; do they even sell grits at the store here? I’ve only had grits once, at a local restaurant that is run by a southern chef. I liked the shrimp and grits I got there, so I figured this would be interesting. One morning after breakfast my husband and I stopped at this different grocery store and they did have grits there. They were quick grits, which I hoped would be ok for this recipe. I really know nothing about grits, but I figured it couldn’t turn out that bad.

This was really easy to make. I tried to make it a little healthier, but by no stretch of the imagination is this healthy. It’s a Paula Deen recipe, for goodness sakes! I used a little less cheese, probably 6 ounces rather than 8 ounces and I only used 1 tablespoon of butter rather than 2. I think you could leave out the butter and could likely use reduced-fat cheese. This is gooey and decadent and very, very tasty. This recipe really put me outside of my comfort zone, but I really liked it. I’m glad I gave it a try!

Baked Garlic Cheddar Grits

2 cups chicken broth
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
¾ cup grits
4 ounces cheddar cheese, cubed
¼ cup milk
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon butter
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 ounces grated cheddar cheese

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9” square baking dish.

Bring the broth, salt, pepper, and garlic powder to a boil. Stir in the grits and whisk until completely combined. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 5 minutes or until the grits are thick.

Add in the cubed cheese and milk. Stir until totally melted. Gradually add in the eggs, butter, and garlic, mixing until everything is well combined.

Pour the grits into the prepared pan and top with the grated cheddar cheese. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the cheese is golden brown and the grits are set.

Recipe from Heather Lynne at Hezzi-D’sBooks and Cooks, who adapted the recipe from Paula Deen

Cherry Chip Cupcakes

2011-11-02T06:00:00.000-07:00

It’s my birthday today! These cupcakes were made by my husband as a surprise for me. Growing up, I remember having cherry chip cake for my birthday. My cake was from a cake mix and I honestly thought that they don’t make cherry chip cake mix anymore, as it has been surpassed by Funfetti everything. But they do still make it. My husband knew that I liked that type of cake so he surprised me.

He made two variations of cherry chip cupcakes: one with the boxed cake mix and store bought frosting and this homemade version. They taste quite different and while I don’t usually go for boxed cake, it certainly brought back some memories. The homemade version was certainly more adult, with the cherries soaked in cherry liqueur. I loved the lovely pink color of the cupcakes though. Something about pink food really can make you happy! My husband is the best, isn’t he?

Cherry Chip Cupcakes

1/4 cup dried cherries, chopped
Cherry liqueur or hot water
3/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup buttermilk
Pink food coloring
2 large egg whites

3 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
2 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line about 8 muffin tins with paper cupcake liners.

Place chopped cherries in a bowl and cover with cherry liqueur or hot water. Let sit for 10 - 15 minutes to soften. Drain and set aside. In a small bowl mix together the flour, baking powder and salt.

In a large mixer bowl cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and stir to combine. On low speed, add half the flour mixture until just blended. Add milk until blended. Add remaining flour and mix until just blended. Blend in the food coloring.

In another bowl beat the egg whites until stiff and glossy, about 2 minutes. Gently fold 1/3 of the egg whites into the batter. Add remaining egg whites and fold until combined. Fold in the chopped cherries.
Divided equally among the muffin tins. Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow to cool before frosting.

Make the frosting: In a large mixer bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter together until light & fluffy. Stir in the powdered sugar and vanilla. Frost the cooled cupcakes.

Recipe from A Good Appetite

Far Breton

2011-11-01T00:02:00.000-07:00

The other Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by me! I’m really happy that I had another opportunity to choose a recipe. The first time I picked, I knew I wanted to pick some sort of cookie, but this time I wanted to try something different. I had read through this recipe and I was intrigued: I’d never heard of Far Breton and it was a different type of cake that you make the batter in a food processor. I picked and I hope that others like it.

I had a feeling that this wouldn’t be a super-popular choice, as it is custardy and I’m not sure that people are that big of custard fans. My husband is British so custard is very popular in our household. It also contains prunes steeped in Earl Grey Tea. I love prunes but they have a bad reputation. I eat them all the time and again it was one of the elements that piqued my interest in this recipe. I don’t like floral teas like Earl Grey, but in a cake I figured it would be fine.

I made the batter in my food processor, which doesn’t do well with as much liquid as they cake had. So other than a bit of a mess on the counter, it was simple to put together. This cake is very delicate, and I could have taken even more care when I took it out of the pan. It cracked a tiny bit but I just covered it with powdered sugar. I left the prunes whole, but I think I would cut them in quarters next time as they seemed too large when I cut the cake. I liked the flavor of this cake and it’s similar in texture to bread pudding. This recipe was new and different, and I’m glad that I gave it a try.

Far Breton

3 eggs
2 cups whole milk
½ cup sugar
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
¾ cup all-purpose flour
1 cup pitted prunes
1/3 cup dark raisins
1 cup hot tea, such as Earl Grey, or ¼ cup Armagnac plus ¼ cup water
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

Up to 1 day ahead: Put the eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla, salt, and melted butter in a blender or food processor and whir for 1 minute to blend. Add the flour and pulse the batter several times. Pour the batter into a pitcher, cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, or, preferably, overnight.

Meanwhile, for tea-soaked fruit, pit the fruit in a heatproof bowl and pour over the hot tea. When the tea cools to room temperature, cover. For Armagnac-soaked fruit, put the fruit and water in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook until the water almost evaporates, then turn off the heat and pour the Armagnac evenly over the fruit. Stand back, ignite the alcohol with a long match and wait until the flames die out before pouring the fruit and syrup into a heatproof bowl. When the fruit is cool, cover it and set aside.

Getting ready to bake: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Butter an 8-x-2 inch round cake pan, line the bottom with parchment or wax paper, butter the paper and dust the pan with flour, tapping out the excess. Put the pan on a baking sheet.

Remove the batter from the refrigerator and whisk to reblend it, then rap the pitcher against the counter to break the top bubbles. Pour the batter into the pan and drop in the fruit, trying to distribute it fairly evenly; discard whatever soaking syrup remains.

Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until the top of the cake is puffed and brown and a thin knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a cooling rack and cool to room temperature.

The far is fragile (its fragility is part of what makes it so delicious) and it takes a little extra TLC to unmold it. So that the custard is not cut by the wires of the cooling rack, cover the rack with a piece of parchment or wax paper, and dust the paper with confectioners’ sugar. Have a serving plate at hand. Run a blunt knife gently between the cake and the sides of the pan and turn the cake out into the prepared rack. Don’t leave it on the tack any longer than necessary—quickly and gently invert it onto the serving plate.

Just before serving, dust the cake with confectioners’ sugar.

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, pages 202-203

Honey Nut Scones

2011-11-01T00:01:00.000-07:00

One of this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Jeannette of The Whimsical Cupcake. She chose Honey Nut Scones. We’re so close to finishing the book that we’re doing two recipes a week until the end of the year and then we’ll be done. How sad! But don’t worry, there are always new things on the horizon. You can get the full recipe for these scones on Jeannette’s blog. Don’t forget to check out the Tuesdays with Dorie site and see how the other bakers fared with this recipe.

We’ve made a number of different scones for Tuesdays with Dorie, and on the weekly Q&A post for this one, several people mentioned their tricks that they use to make sure that their scones turn out well. One of the suggestions was to pat the dough into a round pan, score the scones, bake them in the pan and then fully cut them once they are baked. I tried this method and I think it worked quite well. The scones don’t get the crusty edges, but overall the scones are less dry.

These scones combine whole wheat flour, a touch of honey, and pecans, which give them a great flavor. I used the lightest touch possible when making these, and I think they rose a little more than previous attempts at scones. I didn’t cut the butter in all that much, but it worked out ok. I’m glad that I tried the new method of baking these in the pan, I think that really helped!

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 31.

Caramel Crumb Bars

2011-10-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

Halloween is just around the corner and soon I am sure that I will need to figure out how to use up all that Halloween candy. We don’t typically get trick or treaters at the door, but we always buy candy just in case. I’ve noticed that there are lots of recipes floating around the web that use candy, so I’ll have to keep my eyes open.

These caramel bars seem like they might use premade caramels, but this is a different type of caramel. I’ve melted whole caramels and I’ve made caramel with sugar, butter, and cream, but this is another method. Strange, when I was browsing around the web recently I stumbled across this type of caramel, which uses sweetened condensed milk, butter, and brown sugar. Then I looked at this recipe I had planned to make and realized that it used the same method. I love caramel so I was happy to try a new recipe.

The base and topping of this bar is buttery shortbread, which paired with buttery caramel can’t be beat. Making the caramel with the sweetened condensed milk on the top of the stove worked really well. I got some overcooked caramel around the edges of my saucepan, but just avoid adding that bit to the bar cookies. These cookies are really thin, but they’re rich so that’s ok. These turned out so well and I can’t wait to try this caramel in another recipe.

Caramel Crumb Bars

2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour, divided
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x13-inch pan with cooking spray, then line the pan with aluminum foil, leaving an overhang, and spray again with cooking spray.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter, sugar, and salt on medium speed until soft and light, about 2-3 minutes. Stir in the vanilla. With the mixer on low, add 2 1/4 cups of the flour, beating just until the dough is smooth and the flour has been absorbed. Scrape the sides of the bowl as necessary.

Transfer 3/4 of the dough into the prepared pan. Press the dough evenly into the pan to form a bottom layer. Refrigerate while you make the filling and the top layer.

Add the remaining 1/4 cup of flour to the remaining dough. Work it in with your fingers until large crumbs form. Set aside.

Make the filling: in a medium saucepan, combine the butter, corn syrup, brown sugar and condensed milk. Bring to a simmer, whisking occasionally. When the mixture begins to boil, whisk frequently until it begins to thicken and darkens in color slightly, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool for about 10 minutes.

Remove the pan from the fridge and spread the filling evenly over the bottom crust. Crumble the topping evenly over the caramel.

Bake for about 30 minutes or until the filling is gently bubbling and has turned a dark caramel color. Cool the bars in the pan on a wire rack until lukewarm, about 15-20 minutes. Use the foil to lift bars out of the pan. Cool completely before cutting into squares.

Recipe from Eats Well with Others

A Fig Cake for Fall

2011-10-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was picked by Ursula of Cookie Rookie. She chose A Fig Cake for Fall. This cake is a cornmeal/honey cake topped with honey and port poached figs. You can get the complete recipe on Ursula’s blog and you can also check out how all of the other bloggers handled this week’s recipe by visiting the Tuesdays with Dorie site. I don’t think that everyone could find figs this week, so there will probably be a lot of variations.

Ok, I have to admit, I was apprehensive about this one because I’ve never worked with fresh figs. Could I even find them at the store? I did find them at the store, in fact, I found two types: some green ones and some black ones. I’m sure they have specific names but I don’t know what they are! So this cake used two types of fresh figs. I had bought mine when I first saw them and didn’t make the cake for a bit and mine were VERY ripe when I finally made the cake.

You poach the figs in honey and port, which just smelled amazing. We love port in our household, so I knew that would be good. I love that the cake has the cornmeal balanced with the sweetness of honey. I thought this would take a long time, but it didn’t. Any when it came out of the oven it looked exactly like the photo in the book. How exciting! So while I was initially a bit afraid of this recipe, it turned out really well and I have to say that I have conquered my fear of figs!

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 198

Pumpkin Cake with Browned Butter Icing and Candied Pecans

2011-10-24T06:00:00.000-07:00

When I found this cake, I was on a mission: I had about 1 cup of pumpkin puree left in the fridge and I needed to use it up. Most recipes call for a can of pumpkin, which is about 2 cups, and I didn’t really want to go to the store and buy some more. I went looking through my Pinterest links and on Tastespotting and Food Gawker and I came across this recipe. It was perfect. It called for 1 cup of pumpkin and I had all of the other ingredients on hand.

I think I have said this before that I am not the biggest fan of pumpkin, but I do like the spices that are usually paired with pumpkin. I not such a big fan of the soft texture either, but in a cake you don’t have that quite as much. I was interested in the browned butter icing and it had been a little while since I’d melted sugar to caramelize something. Ok, I probably shouldn’t have started this cake at 8:45 pm, but when you want to bake, you want to bake!

While this cake looks fancy in its final presentation, none of the steps are very hard. The cake mixes in one bowl and I got it ready and then had to wait for the oven to reach full temperature. Making the candied pecans was a bit tricky, or maybe I was tired. You do get little sugar strings on everything in your kitchen within a three-foot radius, so that’s a bit annoying. Once the pecans cool a bit you can break off all of the extra stringy bits. The browned butter is interesting; it’s a fine line between browned and burnt butter, but I think I was ok. The frosting had an interesting, nutty flavor. Altogether, this cake mixes many interesting flavors and looks impressive for a modest amount of work.

Pumpkin Cake with Browned Butter Icing and Candied Pecans

1 2/3 cups flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
8 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup warm milk

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup sifted confectioner’s sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 to 2 tablespoons milk

1/2 cup sugar
10 well-shaped, large pecan halves

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch round cake pan and coat pan with flour.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, salt, baking powder, and baking soda; set aside.

In a large mixer bowl, beat sugar and butter together until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs, and beat until combined. Add pumpkin puree and milk; beat until combined. Add reserved flour mixture; beat on low speed until just combined. The mixture may look a bit curdled, it’s ok.

Pour batter into prepared pan, and bake until a cake tester inserted into the middle comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Transfer the cake to a wire rack to cool. Let cake rest 20 minutes.

In a small skillet, melt sugar over medium-high heat until medium golden, about 3 minutes. Remove skillet from heat. Working quickly, drop the pecan halves, a few at a time, into the melted sugar. Using a fork, turn nuts until they are evenly coated. Transfer the candied nuts to a wire rack to cool completely. (If the sugar hardens, return skillet to low heat, and stir several minutes)

In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium-high heat until nut-brown in color. Remove pan from heat, and pour butter into a bowl, leaving any burned sediment behind.

Add sugar, vanilla, and 1 tablespoon milk; stir until smooth. If the icing is too thick, add the remaining tablespoon milk, a little at a time, until consistency is spreadable. Let cool 5 minutes.

Unmold and cake and place on a serving dish. Spread icing over top of cake and decorate with candied pecan halves.

Recipe from Bread and Roses

Pecan Caramel Crispies

2011-10-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

So what do you do with that last bit of cereal left in the cupboard? I occasionally by Rice Krispies for use in some sort of recipe, but I never end up using the entire box. I don’t really like to eat them just as normal cereal, so usually they sit in the cupboard and I eventually throw them away because they are stale.(I know, I could make Rice Krispie Treats, but I never do!) I was cleaning the other day and noticed I had about ¼ a box left. They weren’t stale, so I vowed to use them up.

I realized that I have had this recipe bookmarked since June, and I figured it would all but use up the remaining cereal I had on hand. Since I also had some other baking to do that day, I was thankful that they were a quick, stir together and bake cookie. They are quite interesting, with caramel, toasted pecans, and the crispy rice cereal. I usually expect brown sugar in a cookie that has those flavors, but this uses powdered sugar instead. Boy, even the dough smelled great!

I baked these for the longer time and I have to warn you, they still look under baked when you take them out of the oven. The cereal will be beginning to brown on the cookies and they firm up as they cool, so don’t worry. Since you get the crispy rice cereal both in the dough and on the outside of the cookie, you notice them more than you do in other cookies that have crispy rice cereal in the dough. These are really great, and now I just need to figure out recipes to use up all the other odds and ends in the cupboard.

Pecan Caramel Crispies

1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup chopped pecans, toasted
1 cup crispy rice cereal, plus more for rolling cookies
1/2 cup caramel sauce, warm (optional)

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

In a large mixer bowl, cream butter and powdered sugar. Add egg yolk, vanilla, and salt; mix well. Gradually add flour; mix just until combined.

Add the pecans and stir with a spatula until combined. Carefully stir in 1 cup of crispy rice cereal.

Shape the dough into 1-inch balls and roll them in additional crispy rice cereal. Place on prepared cookie sheet spacing them 1-2 inches apart.

Bake for 10-13 minutes, or until light and golden brown. Do not over bake. Allow cookies to cool 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

If desired, drizzle the cooled cookies with caramel sauce. Allow the caramel to cool before serving.

Recipe from Daydreamer Desserts

Creamy Cabbage Soup with Gruyere

2011-10-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

So this is a first for Cookies on Friday. I normally only post baked things but I’ve been participating in my online chat list’s recipe swap and the theme for this swap was soup. I love soup so I wanted to participate. So here it is: the first non-baked thing on this blog. I submitted a sausage tortellini soup and the recipe I got for the swap was this cabbage and Gruyere soup from Mary Ellen over at Mary Ellen’s Cooking Creations.

At first glance, you’d think that this was a horribly fattening soup, but when you look at the recipe (as written) it isn’t too bad. I like cabbage and potatoes in soup. I also have leftover cabbage so I can use it in another soup that I like to make, borscht. This was fairly quick to put together. The only unusual ingredient is the use of a Parmesan rind. You use it like you would a bay leaf: add it in while the soup is simmering and take it out before serving. I was going to leave it out but I was at Whole Foods and they had small containers of Parmesan rinds for sale so I picked one up.

I made the recipe as written with low-fat milk, and I think this made for a too-thin soup. Mary Ellen had used cream and I think that would have been a lot better. Mine soup was quite thin. I thought the Gruyere would thicken it up some but it didn’t really. I think I might also add less broth, so that overall it was thicker. The flavors of the soup were good, so I think this could be excellent with just a few small changes.

Creamy Cabbage Soup with Gruyere

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 potato, peeled and grated
1/2 medium head of cabbage, cored and grated
Salt
Pepper
5 cups chicken stock
1 Parmesan rind
2 cups milk (or half and half, cream)
1 cup grated Gruyere cheese

In a large soup pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the potato, cabbage, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Stir together for a minute, taking care that the potatoes don't stick to the pot.

Add the stock, Parmesan rind, and salt/pepper to taste. Bring to a simmer, then cover and simmer over low heat for 30 minutes, until the vegetables are tender.

Add the milk to the soup. Stir to combine well and heat through without boiling. Add the Gruyere, a handful at a time, to the soup and continue to stir until the cheese has melted. Taste, adjust seasonings. Remove the Parmesan rind.

Recipe from Mary Ellen’s Cooking Creations

Ginger Jazzed Brownies

2011-10-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Hindy of Bubie’s Little Baker. She chose Ginger Jazzed Brownies. These are simple looking brownies that have an intense ginger flavor due to ground ginger and ginger root. I love ginger and I was really excited when I read that these had been picked. You can get the complete recipe on Hindy’s blog and don’t forget to check out the Tuesdays with Dorie site to see how the bakers fared with this week’s recipe.

I followed this recipe with just one change. I used Golden Syrup rather than corn syrup because I was out. I find it strange that I have British ingredients such as Golden Syrup and Bird’s Custard Powder on hand but I run out of such a classic American ingredient. Golden Syrup worked wonderfully and I think I like it more than corn syrup anyway. (I should research how they are different; I am a librarian after all!)

When these come out of the oven, they look like classic, deep, dark brownie. They are as easy to put together as a one bowl brownie, but somehow you mess up lots of dishes: a mixer bowl, a bowl for the flour, a bowl to melt the chocolate in, and a bowl for the sugar/ginger root mixture. Despite all the dishes, they are really easy to make. I baked mine for the longer range of time and they are still quite fudgy. The ginger flavor is very intense, which is just fine by me!

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 101

Pumpkin Coffee Cake

2011-10-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

Pumpkin is not my favorite fall flavor; give me spice or ginger or apple any day! Many people like pumpkin so much that the web in inundated with pumpkin recipes this time of the year. I guess I am highly suggestive as I mark those and think, “Wow, I can’t wait to make this pumpkin thing.” I find that to be a bit strange, but I have to say that I’m learning to enjoy pumpkin a lot more than I used to. I love the spices used with pumpkin so it’s not all bad.

I had pumpkin left over from the pumpkin bread pudding that I made because I had bought the only can I could find at the store, and it was pretty big. I see canned pumpkin everywhere I go now so I must have been looking too early! I found this coffee cake and the picture looked divine and planned to make it ASAP. The original recipe was to be baked in a tube pan (which I can’t find mine! Did I give it away in a moment of clutter-cleaning haste?) but I liked the look of the round cake. I didn’t want two cakes so I baked it in a 10” springform pan. I figured it would work ok.

Well, not so much! This cake is quite soft, probably because it contains so much pumpkin, and it needs the structure of a tube pan or a smaller round pan for it to bake properly. My cake looked beautiful coming out of the oven, tested done, but when I took it out of the pan it sank terribly. It’s lovely around the edges and the streusel is delicious. Luckily, the cake is big enough that you can get salvageable pieces cut from around the edge. So not all experiments work out and look great, but this tastes really good and I’m sure it would be successful if made in the correct pan.

Pumpkin Coffee Cake

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
15 ounce can pumpkin puree
3 large eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon cinnamon
4 tablespoons butter, melted
2/3 cup pecans, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray the inside of a tube pan with nonstick spray; set aside. Or grease two 8” round pans.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until well blended. Add the pumpkin and eggs and mix thoroughly. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves and salt. Add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture. Mix on medium speed until combined. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Prepare the streusel topping: In a small bowl combine the flour, sugars, cinnamon, melted butter and pecans. Sprinkle the streusel over the cake batter. Bake the tube pan for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Bake the 8” pans for about 35 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for about 15 minutes. Slide a knife around the pan so the cake doesn't stick when removing it. Invert the cake onto a plate. Then invert the cake onto another plate, so that the streusel is on the top. Cool completely.

Recipe from Not So Humble Pie

Oatmeal Butterscotch Bars

2011-10-14T06:00:00.000-07:00

This past summer, my husband and I traveled to Michigan for a family reunion. I hadn’t been to Michigan before (nor had I met that side of my husband’s family) so I didn’t quite know what to expect. The reunion was in a small town, so we were challenged to find a nice place to stay. My husband found a great bed and breakfast that was close by and was on a working cattle ranch. How interesting! We ended up having a great time there and enjoyed our visit very much.

One of the surprises of where we stayed was that it was in the middle of an Amish community. I knew that there were Amish who lived outside of Pennsylvania, but I hadn’t really thought about it too much. The B&B hosts said that there were some Amish stores that were interesting to visit, so we did that one morning. It’s a little strange pulling into a parking lot where there are as many horse-drawn buggies in the lot as cars! We looked at two stores: a hardware store and a grocery store. My husband bought the nicest leather belt at the hardware store and I bought mini butterscotch chips at the grocery store.

Well, I bought the chips in the summer and they were in the car most of the day, so the chips kind of all melted together. No worries; I figured I would be able to find recipes where you melt the butterscotch chips. This recipe fits the bill: a simple oat/butterscotch base topped with butterscotch glaze. The original recipe said to bake the bake 16-18 minutes but I baked mine closer to 30 minutes so make sure it was done. The glaze is tasty but there’s not enough of it so I would double the glaze next time. These bars don’t look fancy, but they taste SO good. If you like butterscotch, these are for you.

Oatmeal Butterscotch Bars

1 1/4 cups flour
2 cups oatmeal
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butterscotch chips
16 tablespoons butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla

1/4 cup butterscotch chips
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon water
1/8 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9” x 13” baking pan with aluminum foil, letting the foil hang over the sides of the pan, and spray the foil with cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, oats, baking soda, and salt. Place the 3/4 cup butterscotch chips in a large bowl. In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat and let the butter cook until golden brown in color, about 10 minutes, taking care not to burn. Pour the hot butter over the butterscotch chips and whisk together until melted and smooth. Whisk in the brown sugar until combined. Whisk in the egg and vanilla. Switch to a spatula and stir in the flour mixture, just until incorporated.

Spread in the prepared pan and smooth the top, spreading the batter evenly to the edges. Bake the bars until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs, 20-30 minutes.

As soon as the pars come out of the oven, make the glaze. Place the 1/4 cup butterscotch chips, brown sugar, water and salt in a small microwave-safe bowl. Microwave the mixture until melted and smooth, about 2 minutes on 50% power. Whisk to combine well.

Drizzle the butterscotch glaze over the bars. Cool completely before cutting into bars.

Recipe from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe

Basic Biscuits

2011-10-11T06:00:00.000-07:00

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was picked by Jennifer of Cooking for Comfort. She chose Basic Biscuits, which are a classic flour, butter, milk (or buttermilk) biscuit. You can get the recipe on Jennifer’s blog and don’t forget to check out the Tuesdays with Dorie site to check out all the variations of this week’s recipe. I can imagine that you could change this one up in a quite a few ways!

I could have sworn that we already made basic biscuits for Tuesdays with Dorie, but we’d made cream biscuits which are just a bit different. These are very simple and Dorie says the trick to light flaky biscuits is to not handle the dough very much. It’s hard to know what is too much and what is too little. I used the lightest touch possible with these and I think they turned out fairly well. You’d never call them mile-high biscuits, but that’s ok.

These are super simple to make. I was making chili for dinner one night and was able to make chili and put it on to simmer, and made the biscuits while it was simmering. I cut the recipe in half and made 5 biscuits, which was more than enough for the two of us. My biscuits were flaky and had a good buttery flavor and paired well with the chili. You do need to eat them right away, but if you made a lot you could freeze the dough before baking. Unless you are like me, and forget anything that is in the freezer! These were nice rolls for a rainy fall day.

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 21

Hazelnut Dunking Biscuits

2011-10-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

So if you’re anything like me, you’re constantly picking up items at the store “because I can use them in a recipe.” I’m really good at finding interesting ingredients, but not so good at using them up. Some things I do use up: different types of preserves, dried fruits, etc. But I admit that I do have quite a few varieties of jams that I have picked up at different places, trail mix to use up and some other ingredients that are overflowing my baking cupboards. These cookies use up one of those such finds: sweet and salty hazelnuts, which are candied hazelnuts that I bought at Whole Foods. (Whole Foods is a particularly good place to find unusual items.)

I got home one night and just was feeling kind of grumpy and I felt like baking would help. I had planned to make a coffee cake but I just wasn’t feeling it and wanted something more streamlined. My husband and I had spent the day running errands and had visited the local British store so we had England on the mind. My husband found these hazelnut dunking biscuits online and I figured they’d be great for the candied hazelnuts.

The measures for this recipe have been converted, so I’m sorry if they seem a little strange. (My best investment ever was a scale that does metric measurements!) The original recipe called for one egg, but my dough was too sandy with one egg so I added a second to bring it together. I thought the nuts were just a bit bitter on their own, but my husband couldn’t taste that so maybe my taste buds are off. In the cookie, the brown sugar pairs nicely with the sweet/saltiness of the nuts. These are really just a variation of a chocolate chip cookie, but they are really quite good!

9 tablespoons butter, room temperature
10-1/2 ounces brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
12-1/3 ounces flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
7 ounces hazelnuts, lightly crushed

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

In a large mixer bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and stir until creamy.

In a small bowl, combine the flour and baking soda. Add to the butter mixture and stir on low until combined. Stir in the hazelnuts, making sure that you don’t over mix the dough.

Shape into 1 inch balls and place on the prepared baking sheets. Bake for 11-13 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheets before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from The British Larder

Caramel Stuffed Apple Cider Cookies

2011-10-07T06:00:00.000-07:00

Using spiced apple cider mix as part of cookie dough? How interesting! I also love things stuffed inside cookies, so these were winners on several fronts. I saw this recipe and I was instantly interested. I think I came across this recipe on my new addiction Pinterest. I love that I can bookmark things (with photos) and access it from any computer I am using. It’s really great. Have you discovered Pinterest?

I don’t always like to use the more processed ingredients, and this uses the instant spiced cider mix as the main flavoring. I didn’t let too many of those thoughts get in the way since the cookies are so interesting. I hadn’t had instant spiced cider in ages, but I remember having it when I was a kid. Maybe I had it at camp? I can’t really remember but it has a very distinct smell and the instant you open the spiced cider packets that aroma really hits you. These smelled great when mixing them, great when baking them and they are absolutely divine.

The caramel can be a bit tricky, so make sure you let the cookies cool quite a bit before attempting to remove them from the baking sheet. Rush it a bit and you’ll have a caramel mess. This makes a lot of cookies, in fact I ran out of caramels before I ran out of dough. I rolled some of the cookies in cinnamon sugar and accidentally rolled some in maple sugar/sugar mixture. The maple actually worked really well. The apple flavor is most pronounced with the sweetness of the caramel coming in also. They have a nice spice to them, which is really interesting. These cookies are so different but so very good.

Caramel Stuffed Apple Cider Cookies

3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 Box (10 packets) Instant Spiced Apple Cider Mix
2 eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
14 ounce bag Kraft Caramels
Cinnamon sugar

In a small bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon.

In a large mixer bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, salt and apple cider powder. Add the eggs, one at a time followed by the vanilla and mix well. Add the flour mixture gradually to the butter mixture and stir just until combined. Refrigerate for one hour.

Preheat oven to 350. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats. Unwrap the caramels.

Shape 1 tablespoon of dough into a ball, flatten it a bit and place one caramel in the middle. Work the dough around the caramel so that it is encapsulated. Re-roll into a ball and roll in the cinnamon sugar.

Bake for 12-14 minutes until lightly browned. Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes. As the caramel may be stuck to the silicone baking mate, twist the cookies as you remove them from the baking sheets, Allow to cool. Best served just a little bit warm.

Recipe from The Jey of Cooking

Recipe Swap: Pumpkin Bread Pudding

2011-10-06T06:00:00.000-07:00

I follow a cooking chat list and one of the ladies on the board organizes recipe swaps. Now, I’m kind of shy so I haven’t signed up to participate. The theme of this swap was apples/pumpkin, and I knew that it was the perfect time to start. I submit a recipe that someone else makes and I get a recipe to try. My recipe was pumpkin bread pudding, submitted by Melissa of Delicious Meliscious. She’s got some great looking things on her blog so make sure you pay her a visit! Make sure you check out A Taste of Home Cooking, the recipe swap organizer, who will post a summary of all the swap recipes.

I’m not the biggest fan of bread pudding, although I like it a lot more than I used to. My husband loves bread pudding so I think he was happy with the recipe I got. I didn’t change the recipe at all. I used milk since I had that on hand, but you could use something richer if you wanted. I had left over egg yolks so I used 4 egg yolks instead of 2 eggs plus a yolk. It turned out just fine. It’s very simple to put together, as you don’t have to cook the custard in advance. (According to my husband, this is the way he knows to make bread pudding. Good to know!) This is really great served with the toffee sauce and ice cream. Both are optional but why would you opt out of toffee and ice cream?

I really enjoyed trying something new and I’m going to participate in future recipe swaps. So for the first time I’ll be making non-baked things. I’m excited to try something different and I hope you enjoy it as I expand my horizons.

Pumpkin Bread Pudding

2 eggs, plus 1 egg yolk
3/4 cup canned pumpkin
1 1/2 cups milk (light cream, half and half)
3 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/8 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 cups cubed day-old bread
1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
4 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Have an 8” square pan ready; do not grease the pan.

In a large bowl whisk together the eggs, pumpkin, milk, melted butter, brown sugar, vanilla, spices, and salt. Add the bread cubes and raisins and toss to coat, making sure all the bread cubes are coated with the custard.

Transfer the bread pudding mixture to the 8” pan and bake for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove the bread pudding from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool slightly.

Make the toffee sauce: place the brown sugar, butter, and cream in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil for about 3 minutes then remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract. The sauce can be made in advance.

Bread pudding can be served warm or cold. Serve with the toffee sauce and vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Recipe from Joy of Baking

Apple Caramel Muffin Cake

2011-10-04T06:00:00.000-07:00

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was picked by Katrina of Baking and Boys. She chose Apple Nut Muffin Cake, which Dorie says were supposed to be muffins, but instead the batter was put in a pan and baked as a whole. I resisted the temptation to cut the recipe in half and make smaller cakes, since that would be contrary to the intent of the recipe! You can get the recipe for this cake on Katrina’s blog and don’t forget to check out the Tuesdays with Dorie site to see all the posts about this week’s recipe.

I’ve been waiting for this recipe to be selected because I love apples and I love muffins and I figured everything rolled together would be great. The original recipe called for nuts and raisins in addition to the apples, but I decided to substitute caramel bits to make this a caramel apple creation. I’m not sure that worked as well as I’d envisioned, as the caramel bits don’t stay soft after the cake bakes and cools. Still not bad, so I was glad I tried it.

I baked my cake in an oval baking dish, which I thought was about the same size as the 8” square pan that the recipe specifies, but I think maybe my pan was too small. The cake didn’t quite bake all the way through, so it sank in the middle once it cooled. This seems to happen sometimes when you bake with apples. I also think that I had too much apple and not enough batter. Apples in Washington State are huge and I’m sure bigger than Dorie’s medium apple. While this wasn’t a complete success, the flavors were great and I’m glad I made it.

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 37

Hazelnut Chewies

2011-10-03T06:00:00.000-07:00

I haven’t posted a hazelnut/chocolate combination in a while so I figured it was high time! This cookie is reminiscent of a number of other cookies: pecan snowballs, peanut butter cookies, etc. but they really are their own cookie. This recipe uses Nutella and chopped hazelnuts in the dough, and then you roll them in additional hazelnuts and powdered sugar. Hard to go wrong with all of those flavors!

These cookies take a little more time, as the Nutella in the dough makes for a very sticky dough. You want to have plenty of time to let the dough chill to help it be a little less sticky, but any way you slice it these are a tad messy to make. They are worth the extra effort and a few extra paper towels. This also makes a lot of cookies, so feel free to cut the recipe in half if you want fewer cookies. I don’t ever really post yields on my recipes as I always feel inadequate if I don’t hit the right number. Just take my word that this makes a lot.

These cookies have a wonderful hazelnut flavor and they live up to their name of being chewy. I made these for an event where I took several types of cookies. Without fail, this is the one that people ate and then came to me and said “Those are great!” and “I can’t wait until you post the recipes for these.” That’s high praise indeed!

Hazelnut Chewies

3 cups flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups Nutella spread
½ stick butter, softened
1 1/3 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
1/3 cup milk
1-1/2 cups hazelnuts, toasted, skins removed, and chopped fine, divided
About ¼ cup powdered sugar

Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in bowl. Set aside.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter, Nutella, and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, vanilla, espresso and mix until well incorporated. Reduce speed to low and alternate additions of flour mixture and milk. Mix until just combined, not over beat the dough. The dough will be thick. Fold in 1/2 cup of chopped hazelnuts. Cover and refrigerate dough for about 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Place remaining chopped nuts and the powdered sugar in a bowl. Shape the dough into 1 inch balls and roll them in the hazelnut mixture. Place on the prepared baking sheets. Bake until just set, 8-12 minutes. Do not over bake. Cool 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Recipe from The Church Cook

Vermont Maple Cookies

2011-09-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I don’t know if I can officially call these “Vermont” cookies as the key ingredient, maple sugar, is from Pennsylvania. I purchased the maple sugar back in the spring when I visited Philadelphia, and I’ve not used it up all that much. I was glad that I hadn’t used my stash as this recipe calls for an entire cup of maple sugar. The recipe in the cookbook gives a long explanation how they tried combination of brown and maple sugars to get the right flavor, and that it’s really best with the full amount of maple sugar. You may be able to find maple sugar at health food stores if it’s something you can’t find otherwise.

This cookie has layer upon layer of maple: maple sugar in the dough, a maple/sugar coating, and maple glaze. You get the robust maple flavor with maple sugar, maple flavor, and maple syrup. For me, finding the maple flavor was the hardest part, as I try my best to avoid artificial flavors. I’d go to the store and there’d be a spot for the maple flavor, but no actual product. And this wasn’t recent when everyone is doing their fall baking!

Well, with all the ingredients in hand, these were not difficult to put together. The dough is pretty sticky so I would refrigerate them for longer to make the dough easier to work with. The glaze took the longest, since I brushed mine on the cookies with a brush that was simply too large. Oh well! These are reminiscent of snickerdoodles, but the maple flavor puts them over the top. These are a great cookie for fall, very homey.

1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup maple sugar
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
½ teaspoon salt
2 eggs
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon maple flavor
2-3/4 cups flour

2 tablespoons maple sugar
2 tablespoons sugar

1-1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1-2 tablespoons milk
A few drops maple flavor

In a large mixer bowl, combine the butter, sugars, cream of tartar, salt, eggs, baking soda and maple flavor. Mix on medium until light and fluffy. Add the flour and stir just until combined. Wrap the dough in waxed paper and refrigerate at least 30 minutes until it is easier to handle.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a small bowl, combine the maple sugar and sugar. Shape the dough into 1-inch balls and roll them in the sugar mixture. Place them on the prepared baking sheets and bake for 10-12 minutes, until light brown. Allow to cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Make the glaze: in a medium bowl combine the powdered sugar, maple sugar, 1 tablespoon milk and maple flavor. Stir to combine. If the mixture is too thick to glaze the cookies, add additional milk. Brush the glaze on the cooled cookies and allow the glaze to harden.

Recipe from King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion

Flip-Over Plum Cake

2011-09-27T06:00:00.000-07:00

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was picked by Becky of Project Domestication. She chose the Flip-Over Plum Cake. This is a really simple to put together cake that is very interesting. You start with the cake batter on the bottom and the plums on the top, but when it’s done baking, the plums become the base and the cake is on the top. You can get the complete recipe on Becky’s blog and also check out the links on the Tuesdays with Dorie page. Since plums weren’t available for everyone, there are lots of variations this week.

This calls for Italian (prune) plums, which are not always easy to find. I like plums and eat them a lot when they are in season. I hadn’t bought any in a while and I was worried that I’d have trouble finding them. After a fun filled weekend, I stopped at the regular grocery store and much to my surprise, they had Italian plums (and they were inexpensive, too!). I bought a bunch and happily went home to make the cake.

I hadn’t read the recipe before I started, but it was very easy to make. No mixer required, just a bit of hand mixing. I thought it might be like an upside down cake, but instead the flipping happens while baking. I let this cool and then hopefully cutting a clean piece to photograph. These sorts of things are so hard to photograph, but what they may lack in beauty they make up in taste. My husband thought that I had used rhubarb, but I didn’t get that at all. I guess the plums are a bit tart, but I knew what was in it so to me it tasted like plums! This was a fun cake to make and gave me a chance to try Italian plums for the first time.

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, on page 42

Macadamia Blossoms

2011-09-26T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is macadamia recipe #1, inspired by our recent trip to Hawaii. I bought a lot of macadamia nuts when I was there, but I already had macadamia recipes in mind before we left. While we were there, we saw Hershey’s Kisses with macadamia nuts, which I think must only be available in Hawaii (or by special order). We bought them, not knowing exactly what to do with them. After all, you could just eat them!

I thought about the Christmas cookie classic: peanut blossoms. Instead of a peanut butter cookie topped with a Kiss, why not a macadamia butter cookie topped with macadamia chocolate Kisses? I knew you could make your own macadamia butter by setting it in a food processor and letting it work until it did its magic. So I decided to try that. I used unsalted macadamias, so my butter was a little bland. I added more salt to the recipe to compensate. So if you try to make your own macadamia butter, vary the salt based on the saltiness of the nuts.

The macadamia butter takes a little bit of time. My husband couldn’t figure out what I was making in the food processor that took so long! The butter isn’t quite as smooth as peanut butter, but it’s really very close. The cookie dough was a bit soft because the macadamia butter wasn’t quite as solid, so I refrigerated it a bit to help it set. These cookies are so good! They have the great flavor of macadamias which pairs perfectly with the macadamia Kisses. The flavor improves as they age (not that they lasted very long!) and go from soft to slightly crisp. These were a huge success!

Macadamia Blossoms

About 1 cup macadamia nuts
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup sugar
48 macadamia chocolate candy kisses, unwrapped

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a food processor, add the macadamia nuts. Process until smooth and the consistency of peanut butter. You will have to stop the processor and stir the mixture occasionally. Keep processing and stirring until you reach the right consistency. Measure ½ cup of macadamia butter and set aside.

Combine 1/2 cup sugar, brown sugar, butter and macadamia butter in large mixer bowl. Beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add egg, vanilla and salt; continue beating until well mixed. Add flour and baking soda. Continue beating, scraping bowl often, until well mixed.

Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll balls in 1/4 cup sugar. Place 2 inches apart onto prepared cookie sheets.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until very lightly golden brown. Immediately press 1 chocolate kiss in center of each cookie. Remove from cookie sheets; cool completely on wire racks.

Adapted from Land O’ Lakes

Frosted Apple Cinnamon Bars

2011-09-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

I’ve been waiting to make these bars for a while! Fall has arrived these are the perfect bars for fall. Apple, cinnamon, and oats are a great combination. I love cinnamon baking chips and I stock up at the one grocery store in my area that stocks them. This recipe calls for the chips and as soon as I saw that in the recipe I set it aside and said: “I’ll make these in the fall.”

If you can’t find cinnamon chips, the original recipe suggests using the same amount of white chocolate chips and a teaspoon of cinnamon. I don’t think that would be quite the same, but I’m sure that combination would be good, too.

I messed up when making these and only put in ½ cup of butter in the cookies. I hoped with the cinnamon chips and the apple they would be ok, and they seemed to be fine. The frosting was too thick to spread so I added about a teaspoon of milk to make it easier to work with. They were a little tricky to cut, so you won’t get perfect looking squares, but that’s ok! (I admit, yes, I freak out about them not looking perfect, but it’s ok.) The flavors in these are superb!

Frosted Apple Cinnamon Bars

1-1/3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
¾ teaspoon baking soda
1-1/2 cups oats
¾ cup butter, at room temperature
¾ cup firmly packed brown sugar
½ cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
10 oz. cinnamon baking chips
1 cup chopped apple

3 cups powdered sugar
¼ cup butter, at room temperature
3 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
Milk, if required

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9” x 13” pan.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking soda, and oats. In a large mixer bowl, add the butter, brown sugar, and sugar. Beat on medium until creamy. Stir in the eggs and vanilla, until combined. Reduce mixer speed to low and stir in the flour mixture. By hand, stir in the cinnamon baking chips and chopped apple.

Spread the dough into the prepared pan. Bake for 33-38 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.

Make the frosting: in a large mixer bowl, combine the powdered sugar, butter, cream cheese, and vanilla. Beat until smooth. If the frosting is too thick, add milk until the frosting is the desired consistency. Frost the cooled cookies and then cut into bars.

Recipe from Land O’ Lakes

Salt and Pepper Cocoa Shortbread

2011-09-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Tia of Buttercream Barbie. She chose Salt and Pepper Cocoa Shortbread. This is an unusual shortbread in that you roll the dough into a log and make them into slice-and-bake cookies. The shortbread also contains salt and pepper, which may seem strange. I have made a couple of cookies that contain pepper and I like the flavor in cookies. You can get the complete recipe for these cookies on Tia’s blog, and don’t forget to check out all of the other Tuesdays with Dorie bloggers and their interpretation of this week’s recipe.

I was happy that this was a slice-and-bake cookie, as those don’t seem to take too much time. I didn’t change the recipe much at all. I did use dark cocoa powder, which gave the cookies a deep, rich color. For the salt, I used Hawaiian Pink Diamond Sea Salt. My husband and I just returned from Hawaii and we picked up a couple of different types of salt. (We also bought lots of macadamia nuts: those recipes are on their way!) This particular salt contains Hawaiian Alaea volcanic clay, which gives it a beautiful pink color. It doesn’t taste that different, at least to me, but it sure looks great!

These cookies came together so quickly, but they were a little hard to shape into logs. The dough is sticky and gets all over your hands, the kitchen counter, etc. I rolled mine on a Silpat and that worked ok. I topped some of the cookie with extra salt and I wish I would have done that will all of them as that added a lot. The texture of these cookies is excellent; they just melt in your mouth. I liked the salt and pepper in these, and I think they would be good with cinnamon and some other spices. These were unusual and very good!

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, on page 128

Tropical Muffins

2011-09-19T06:00:00.000-07:00

For a couple of years now, every Friday at work I have brought cookies to share with my colleagues. One of my coworkers told me that she so looked forward to the treats on Friday that she wanted to bring some of that energy to work on other days. She started bringing breakfast treats on Mondays as a positive “Thank goodness it’s Monday” way to start the week. This friend at work retired at the end of last year, so I thought it would be nice to continue the tradition.

Tomorrow is the first day of fall quarter at the library, and fall quarter is always really hectic. Lots of new students who don’t know where anything is or what they are supposed to do! I enjoy helping out new students, helping them find their way, but it’s hard to be super cheerful when you are answering the same question for the 20th time. But my job is to help them out, in whatever way they need. Here’s to a good first day!

I recently returned from a fabulous trip to Hawaii, and these muffins reminded me of some of the great fruits that I had while I was there. This is a fairly simple muffin recipe that allows you to use any sort of jam or preserves that you have on hand. I used apricot pineapple preserves and also added a little coconut to the batter. To add a little extra sweetness for Monday, I decided to glaze the muffins with pineapple glaze: just powdered sugar and pineapple juice. You could make the glaze with milk or omit it all together, but I figured I’d need an extra boost helping out all the new students.

Tropical Muffins

2 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup any apricot pineapple preserves
½ cup shredded coconut
1-1/2 cups powdered sugar
About 4 tablespoons pineapple juice

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray 18 muffin tins with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Make a well in the center. In a small bowl beat egg, milk and oil together. Pour all at once into the well in the flour mixture. Mix quickly and lightly until moistened. The batter will be lumpy. Gently stir in the preserves and the coconut.

Fill the muffin pans ¾ full. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden. Allow to cool 5 minutes in the muffin tins and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely. Glaze once cooled.

Make the glaze: in a small bowl combine the powdered sugar and pineapple juice until of a drizzling consistency. Drizzle over cooled muffins.

Recipe adapted from All Recipes

Peanut Butter and Jammy Bit Cookies

2011-09-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

I often fall in love with ingredients sold through the King Arthur Flour catalog and I recently was so enamored with one of their recipes that I placed an order right away. (That post will come later.) Plus I was out of vanilla so it was time to restock! I’d had my eye on these jammy bits for a while and I was glad I remembered to order them when I got the other items.

These bits are exactly as described: they taste like little bits of jam. They taste pretty good just on their own! I figured that they would be perfect in peanut butter cookies, because who doesn’t like peanut butter and jam? I wanted to find a puffy cookie, but these didn’t turn out to be puffy in the end. I adapted a recipe that called for 1-1/2 cups of chocolate chips and I only used about ½ cup of the jammy bits, so that may be part of the difference. They turned out to be these perfectly round, flat cookies with bursts of fruit flavor, so while different than expected they are really great. I’m not a cookie dough eater, but my husband said that the jammy bits have an even more robust flavor after baking. These were really fun to use in cookies.

Peanut Butter and Jammy Bit Cookies

½ cup butter
6 tablespoons peanut butter
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg + 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla
½ cup jammy bits (or chocolate chips)

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

In a microwaveable bowl, combine butter and peanut butter. Heat in 30 second increments until melted. Let cool completely. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In a large mixer bowl, mix the cooled butter/peanut butter and sugars until combined. Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla and stir until mixed. Gradually add flour and mix until combined. If the dough is crumbly, add 1-2 teaspoons of milk. Fold in jammy bits.

Shape the dough into 1-inch balls. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until slightly brown. They will still look soft in the middle. Allow to cool slightly before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Adapted from How Sweet It Is

Classic Brownies

2011-09-13T06:00:00.000-07:00

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was picked by Anne of Anne Strawberry. She chose Classic Brownies, and how can you go wrong with brownies? There are many brownie recipes in Baking from My Home to Yours, and Dorie describes this one as “not gooey, intensely chocolaty, dry on top and melty in the middle…” You can get the recipe for these brownies on Anne’s blog and also make sure you check out the links for the posts by the Tuesdays with Dorie bakers. While this is a classic, I’m sure that there will be some really interesting variations for this one!

This brownie is heavy on the chocolate (unsweetened and bittersweet chocolate) and light on the butter. On an unrelated note, in making this recipe I discovered that I can no longer get my favorite baking chocolate at Trader Joe’s. I used to buy these wonderful easy-to-melt chocolate callets (disks) there but they no longer carry them. I found an ok substitute at Whole Foods, but they cost more. Baking can be expensive and I’m always happy to find good ingredients at a good price. I still love Trader Joe’s though!

These saucepan (or top of the double boiler) brownie were fun to make. I thought about mixing it up a bit with the nuts I included. Maybe hazelnuts? I also had candied hazelnuts on hand, but I went with toasted pecans. Since these are supposed to be classic I didn’t want to change it too much. I baked mine for the longer range of time, and I could tell that the edges were done and the center was still soft. This was even more obvious as they cooled and the center remained dark brown and the edges were lighter. Mine are quite fudgy, almost gooey, but they are very chocolaty. I wanted them to be a tiny bit sweeter, but I can live with the super chocolate. Pair these with ice cream for a brownie sundae and you’d be in heaven.

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 88

Inside-Out Black Forest Cake

2011-09-12T06:00:00.000-07:00

I made this cake for a party at work and it is made for a special occasion. If you like Black Forest Cake, this is just slightly different. I changed it from the original recipe, partially because I didn’t have the correct pans, and partially because it felt “done” at the point I was! The original recipe calls for three 8-inch pans, but I simplified and just used two 9-inch pans. It made assembling the cake easier. You are also supposed to spread the top with chocolate ganache. It seemed decadent enough without the ganache. People enjoyed it whole-heartedly without the extra chocolate.

I soaked the cherries in the kirsch mixture, so they were particularly tipsy. Tipsy cherries are great for adults, but I served this at a party with students and some of the students didn’t care for them. This is a very rich cake and you’ll want to cut the pieces small. A little kirsch goes a long way, and if you want to avoid the alcohol all together, you could simply use more of the cherry liquid and omit the kirsch. This is a fun cake and worthy of a great celebration!

Inside-Out Black Forest Cake

2 eggs plus 2 yolks
¾ cup sugar
6 tablespoons cornstarch
2 cups milk
3 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla

2-1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar, packed
3 eggs, room temperature
¾ cup sour cream
1-1/2 cups buttermilk
30-40 canned or jarred cherries (reserve ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons liquid)
¼ cup kirsch

Make the pastry cream: In a large mixer bowl, whisk eggs, yolks, and ½ cup sugar on medium high. Stir in cornstarch; whisk on medium low until combined.

Bring milk and remaining ¼ cup sugar to a boil in a medium saucepan. Whisking constantly, slowly pour half of the milk mixture into the egg mixture; whisk until smooth. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan with the remaining milk; whisk over medium heat until the mixture is thick, 2-3 minutes.

Pass the mixture through a sieve into a large bowl. Add the butter, a few pieces at a time, stirring until melted after each addition. Set the bowl in an ice-water bath until chilled. Stir in vanilla. Cover with plastic wrap, pressing it directly on the surface of the pastry cream and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter two 9-inch round cake pans and line the bottom with parchment. Butter the parchment and dust with flour.

In a small bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. In a large mixer bowl, cream the butter and granulated sugar until fluffy. Add brown sugar, beat until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in sour cream. Turn the mixer to low and add the flour in three batches, alternating with the buttermilk in two batches.

Divide batter between the pans and bake for 25-30 minutes. Cool the cake in the pans and remove once completely cooled.

Combine the reserved cherry juice and the kirsch. Brush the top of the cakes with the kirsch mixture. Spread half of the pastry cream on top of one layer and arrange 15 cherries on top. Top with the other cake layer and spread with the remaining pastry cream. Arrange remaining cherries on top.

Recipe from Martha Stewart Holiday Sweets

Lemon Tassies

2011-09-09T06:00:00.000-07:00

I typically take most of my baked treats to share at work; I’ve got an eager audience there! Since I work at a college, life and work are controlled by when classes are in session and when they are not. When classes are in session, I’m a librarian. When classes are not in session, I often work as a faculty advisor to new students. I really enjoy my work as an advisor; I get to help out new students and make sure that they have a good start at the college.

We work with a number of students in advising, and I had brought cupcakes to share with the students and the other faculty advisors. One of the students lamented that she wasn’t there that day and was so sad she missed my baking. I told her I took requests and that I would make something for her. What flavors did she like? She said that she liked lemon so I started looking through my cookbooks for something lemon. Well, there are lots of lemon desserts out there, but I settled on lemon tassies, which are little lemon cream cheese pies.

I like to make different kinds of tassies, which typically have a cream cheese pastry shell and then the different filling. There are different in that the crust is sweet pastry dough and the cream cheese is in the filling. These have lots of lemon flavor and the petite little cups look so fancy. It’s very tedious to press the dough into 48 cups, but it’s worth the extra effort. I ran out of the cream cheese filling so I decided to make lemonade out of lemons and filled the extra shells with lemon curd. The lemon curd tassies and the lemon cream cheese tassies were both excellent!

Lemon Tassies

2 cups flour
10 tablespoons cold butter, cut into pieces
6 tablespoons sugar
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons lemon zest
¼ teaspoon salt

8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
3 tablespoons lemon zest
1 tablespoon lemon juice
½ teaspoon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray 48 mini muffin cups with cooking spray.

Make the crust: in a food processor, process flour and butter until the consistency of crumbs. Add the sugar, egg yolks, vanilla, lemon zest and salt and process until combined. Mixture will be crumbly; do not over process.

Divide dough into 4 pieces and then divide each part into 12 pieces. Place one piece of dough in each muffin cup. Press the dough into the bottom and up the sides of the cups. Set the muffin pans on a baking sheet.
Bake for 18-20 minutes until lightly browned, rotating the pans around half way through the baking time. If the dough has puffed, press down with a spoon. Allow to cool for about 15 minutes before filling. (Keep the oven on.)

Make the filling: in a large mixer bowl, beat the cream cheese, sugar, egg, lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla until smooth. Using a small cookie scoop, fill each cup with the cream cheese mixture. Bake for 10-12 minutes until the filling is set. Cool completely on wire racks. Refrigerate once completely cool.

Recipe from Martha Stewart Cookies

Chocolate Spice Quickies

2011-09-06T06:00:00.000-07:00

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was picked by Jessica of My Baking Heart. She chose Chocolate Spice Quickies, which were very different than I envisioned after reading the recipe title. I figured that they would be a cookie that you mix and bake in a matter of minutes. Not so! They are a refrigerator cookie where you make the dough in the food processor and then shape into logs. Once they’ve been in the refrigerator for a couple hours, you can slice and bake them up in no time. So they are quick if you plan ahead. You can get the recipe for these quick-in-some-ways cookies on Jessica’s blog.

I like refrigerator cookies, since you can make the dough ahead and bake them up when you have time. In my case, I baked a lot of things at once before heading on vacation. It was warm in the house at the time so I was thankful that I could make these one evening and then bake them in the morning before the house got too warm. My logs weren’t perfect circles, but I was ok with that. I had thought about rolling the logs in chocolate sprinkles or something like that to jazz them up, but I ended up following the original recipe exactly: no adornments.

These little cookies are speckled with the ground almonds, which makes them look interesting. I didn’t taste the spice all that much, but my husband picked up on that flavor right away. I think I would call these cocoa almond quickies. While they contain melted chocolate, I thought the flavor was more reminiscent of cocoa. I like these cookies, but they aren’t showstoppers. The chocolate and almond flavors are nice and the spice is a very slight accent. Perfect for afternoon tea.

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 140

Cherry Butter Pound Cake

2011-09-05T06:00:00.000-07:00

I’ve had this recipe bookmarked for a while, in fact, longer than I have had the cherry butter on hand! This recipe showcases fruit butter, which is kind of like a spiced preserves. Fruit butter is made by cooking down fruit and then adding sugar (and usually spices). Apple butter is most common, and is what the original recipe specified. When I was in Philadelphia this spring, I noticed that the Amish vendors were selling a variety of fruit butters. I bought apple, cherry, pear, and plum butter.

I’ve not used cherry butter before, but I figured it would be great in pound cake. Apple butter is a beautiful golden brown, but the cherry butter is a lot darker. When I added the butter to the batter, it looked really dark, almost like there was chopped chocolate in the batter. Interesting! I didn’t have mini loaf pans, so I baked this in a pan with small squares. Each opening about half the size of a muffin, and I made a total of 12 squares. I wasn’t sure how long to bake them, so I started and 20 minutes and went from there. I ended up baking them for 25 minutes; your baking time will vary a lot based on the pan you use.

These didn’t rise very much, and after I checked them at 20 minutes, I wondered if I had messed up and not included any leavening. I double-checked the recipe and it doesn’t call for a leavening agent other than eggs and highly whipped butter. The cherry flavor of these is incredible, and they are quite good on their own. If you want to jazz it up a bit, top with caramel or chocolate sauce.

Cherry Butter Pound Cake

7 ounces flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/c cup butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup cherry butter (or other flavor)
3 eggs, room temperature

Preheat oven to 330 degrees. Grease two mini loaf pans, a dozen muffin cups or a pan with small squares.

In a small bowl, sift together the flour and salt. Set aside. In a large mixer bowl, cream butter and sugar for a full 8 minutes. It should be very light in color and fluffy. Beat in vanilla and cherry butter until thoroughly combined. Add eggs one at a time, beating for a full minutes after each addition. Add flour mixture to butter mixture in 4 increments, beating only until just combined after each addition.

Spoon batter into prepared pans, smoothing the top with a spatula. Baking time varies a lot depending on the pan you use. Baked mini loaves for 40-50 minutes, muffin cups for about 30 minutes and small squares for 25 minutes. To be sure, cake is done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool for about 10 minutes before removing from the pan to cool completely.

Recipe from Our Share of the Harvest

Oreo Pudding Cookies

2011-09-02T06:00:00.000-07:00

One of the blogs I follow recently had a guest post from her husband. In that post, the husband wrote about a normal conversation that they have in planning dinner. She asks what he wants, and he complains that she always wants to try something new since that is more interesting for the blog. I read that blog entry to my husband and he was laughing so hard. I will often ask my husband what cookies I should bake. He always wants chocolate chip cookies and I always want something more unusual.

I came across this recipe and I felt like I had found the best of both worlds: very similar to chocolate chip cookies (much to my husband’s liking) yet something more unusual. Cookies and cream sounding like a great combination to stick in a chocolate chip cookie. I’ve seen a number of different cookies and cream combinations floating around the blog world, but this is the first one that really hit the mark for me. They use Oreo instant pudding mix, which I didn’t even know existed. I’ve seen pudding mixes used in cakes and cookies before and I know that it makes for a nice, soft cookie. It also uses white chocolate bars with chocolate cookie bits. (Hopefully those won’t disappear from the stores. I used to make a cookie with white chocolate bars with almonds, but they don’t make them anymore!)

I really liked these, as the flavors were really interesting. I used a mix of milk and semi-sweet chocolate chips. Sometimes you’d get the sweet bite of the milk chocolate and other times the slightly bitter semi-sweet chocolate. The pudding mix adds a bit of creaminess to the dough. These cookies are soft but the firm up after sitting overnight. They don’t brown while baking so don’t expect that to happen. If you brown these, they will be horribly dry and over baked. My husband gave these a thumbs up, so if you are looking for an interesting variation of a chocolate chip cookie, give these a try.

Oreo Pudding Cookies

2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 4.2 ounce package instant Oreo Pudding mix
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 2.6 ounce Hershey's Cookies N Cream Candy Bars, chopped
2 cups milk or semi-sweet chocolate chips

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

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. In a larger mixer bowl, cream together the butter and sugars. Beat in pudding mix until blended. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix well. Add the flour mixture and mix to combine. Stir in cookies n' cream pieces and chocolate chips. Batter will be thick.

Roll dough into 1-1/2” balls and place on prepared baking sheets. Bake for 8-11 minutes, until set. You do not want to over bake these; they will not be golden brown. Let cookies cool for 5 minutes on baking sheet before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from The Girl who Ate Everything

Cornmeal and Fruit Loaf

2011-08-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Caitlin of Engineer Baker. She chose the Cornmeal and Fruit Loaf. I really like Caitlin’s blog; she lives a very busy life and has had a number of challenges lately, but she still sticks with the group. I love that dedication! You can get the complete recipe for this fruit studded quick loaf on Caitlin’s blog. Make sure you also make a visit to the Tuesdays with Dorie site to see how all the bakers interpreted this week’s recipe.

I think I have liked the latter picks in Tuesdays with Dorie; the recipes are a bit more unassuming but have been diamonds in the rough. This recipe is a quick bread with cornmeal and fruit of your choice. I opted for apples and dried apple since I love baking with apples. I had dried apples already, so this was a great opportunity to use them. I’d also like to give this a try with pears, but the selection wasn’t quite as good at the store. I also opted for finely ground cornmeal; we’re not big fans of the coarse ground in our household.

This took less time to assemble than the oven took to preheat and it only messes up one bowl and a liquid measuring cup. I love that! My loaf didn’t rise very much and it seemed to be quite dark on the outside, but the loaf was still moist and not at all overbaked. The bread has the most subtle crunch from the cornmeal. I love the fruit in these, adding a little bit of sweetness without being overpowering. I think this bread would be great with honey butter, but it’s pretty great just on its own.

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 43

Snickerdoodle Streusel Blondies

2011-08-29T06:00:00.000-07:00

The third snickerdoodle recipe I made to celebrate my blog’s third anniversary is snickerdoodle streusel blondies. This recipe comes from the Flour Dusted blog. Briarrose always posts such good looking things and posts nice comments, so it was really a treat to make this recipe. When I first saw her recipe for these blondies, I was inspired to make different snickerdoodle treats to celebrate my blog. Thanks for the inspiration!

This recipe only makes an 8-inch pan worth of cookies, but they are very substantial. You could cut them in smaller bars, but why would you want to do that? The layer of cinnamon sugar sets them off nicely, but these bars are all about the streusel. When I was making these, I thought that there was an awful lot of streusel for such a small pan, but when they were finished, I realized that was the best part.

The butter and brown sugar flavors are very pronounced in these blondies. You do pick up the cinnamon flavor, but I loved the brown sugar. They are a bit crumbly when cutting, just the nature of the streusel. You probably won’t have to worry about the bars lasting too long, but if you happen to bake these as part of a snickerdoodle baking extravaganza and don’t eat them right away, they will keep for quite a while.

Snickerdoodle Streusel Blondies

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 1/4 cups flour

1 1/3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup butter
1 egg
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8-inch square pan.

To make the streusel: stir together both sugars, salt, cinnamon, and butter in a medium bowl. Stir in the flour until well combined. Set aside.

In a large mixer bowl, beat together the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla. Mix in the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg until just combined. Spread half the batter in the bottom of the prepared pan. Combine sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle mixture over batter. Drop small spoonfuls of remaining batter on top of sugar mixture. Spread dollops of batter gently to form an even top layer.

Crumble the streusel topping and sprinkle it over the top of the blondies. The streusel layer will be substantial. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the blondies are golden brown. Allow to cool completely before cutting into bars.

Recipe from Flour Dusted

Maple Snickerdoodles

2011-08-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

The second snickerdoodle recipe that I made to celebrate the third anniversary of my blog is maple snickerdoodles. I like maple a lot, and it makes me think of fall. As I’ve stated before, I’m so ready for fall and glorious fall baking! These are very similar to traditional snickerdoodles, but add maple syrup to the dough and maple sugar to the cookie coating.

I bought maple sugar this spring when I visited Philadelphia. It looks a lot like brown sugar, just a little lighter in color. My husband had purchased a different type of maple sugar at Whole Foods, but it is much coarser, and I didn’t think that it would work as well, since the maple sugar/sugar mixture needs to be fairly fine. If you can’t find maple sugar, you can order it from King Arthur Flour.

These are simple to put together, which is one of my favorite parts of making snickerdoodles. I like the combination of the cinnamon sugar and maple. The maple addition is subtle, but noticeable. They are lighter in color than traditional snickerdoodles, so it’s a bit of a challenge to know when they are baked through. This recipe makes two dozen cookies; I baked one dozen for about 12 minutes and the second dozen for about 15 minutes. Both are good! Like a chewy cookie? Bake it for the shorter time. Baking longer and the cookie will be crispier. You can’t really go too wrong either way!

Maple Snickerdoodles

2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup maple sugar

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

In a small bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon. In a large mixer bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Beat the egg and maple syrup. Stir in the flour mixture.

In a separate small bowl, mix the sugar and maple sugar. Shape the dough into 1-inch balls and roll them in the maple sugar mixture. Place the balls on the prepared baking sheets. Bake until golden brown and cracked on top, 12-16 minutes.

Recipe from Closet Cooking

Happy 3rd Blogiversary!

2011-08-27T06:00:00.000-07:00

It’s by Third Blogiversary! I’m so happy that so many people drop by and are able to share the different treats that I make. To celebrate, I’ve made three variations of snickerdoodles: my favorite cookie! I’ll post the three over the next three days. First up: snickerdoodle cupcakes!

I’ve long had a handful of snickerdoodle cupcake and muffin recipes bookmarked, and it was really tough to figure out which one to try. I opted for Martha Stewart’s recipe because I’ve had good luck with her recipes and the recipe was quite simple. I didn’t make the seven minute frosting that her recipe called for, I instead opted for a version of the traditional buttercream frosting that I use all the time. This version has cinnamon and also meringue powder, which gives it a little something extra.

These cupcakes have a great cinnamon sugar flavor! They don’t quite have the same tang that snickerdoodles do, but I can’t really complain. I took these to work and shared them with my colleagues and some of our student workers and they were gone in a very short time. How can you go wrong with something so delicious?

Snickerdoodle Cupcakes

3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup cake flour, sifted
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
5 ounces milk
Cinnamon sugar, for finishing

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins with paper liners. This makes about 14 cupcakes.

In a small bowl, combine flours, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. In a large mixer bowl on medium-high speed, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated. Beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of milk, and beating until combined after each.

Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool in the tins for about 5 minutes and then remove the cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely. When cooled, frost with snickerdoodle frosting and, if desired, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

Snickerdoodle Frosting

½ cup butter, at room temperature
3 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar
3 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2 teaspoons meringue powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon

In a large mixer bowl, beat butter until creamy - about 2-3 minutes. Add sifted powdered sugar, milk, vanilla, meringue powder and cinnamon and beat until combined. Add more powdered sugar or milk to get the desired consistency. Spread or pipe frosting onto cooled cupcakes.

Cupcake recipe from Martha Stewart
Frosting recipe from Mermaid Sweets

Coconut Apricot Icebox Cookies

2011-08-26T06:00:00.000-07:00

This recipe features apricots and coconut. I use coconut quite a bit in my baking, but I don’t have too many recipes featuring apricots. I really like apricots, so I’m not sure why I don’t use them more frequently. For this last Friday in August featuring fruity cookies, I was tossing between this recipe and a Pillsbury Bake-Off bar cookie that uses apricot preserves. I have made a couple of bar cookies already this month, so I opted for these. Besides, refrigerator cookies are perfect for the summer as you can make the dough in advance and just bake them up when the moment’s right (and the house isn’t too warm).

I’ve rediscovered the cookbook Great Cookies by Carole Walter, which I had forgotten was on my bookshelf. It has some great recipes! It even has an international cookie chapter and many cookies that are just different. I love that, as I’m always trying to find something a little different. The cookbook also rates cookies by difficulty and other features such as shelf life, whether they travel well and other factors.

This cookie is rated as an easy cookie, and while nothing is too hard, there are a lot of steps (and many dishes to wash) for these cookies. I didn’t quite have enough coconut left when coating the exterior of the logs, so you may want to ration the coconut so you have an equal amount for all three logs. I love the combination of coconut and apricots in these. They smelled so heavenly when baking. The original recipe said to bake these for 12-15 minutes and don’t over bake. I had to bake them for closer to 20 minutes for them not to be doughy. Perhaps I cut them a little thicker, I don’t know. They taste like a coconut macroon, with fruity bursts of flavor from the apricots. I found that these cookies were really different and I liked them so much.

Coconut Apricot Icebox Cookies

10 ounces sweetened, flaked coconut
2-1/4 cups flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
6 ounces dried apricots, chopped in 1/8” pieces
1 cup butter, slightly softened
¾ cup sugar
1 egg
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
½ teaspoon coconut extract
1 egg white, beaten with 2 teaspoons water
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon milk

Place the coconut in a food processor. Pulse five or six times and then process until finely chopped. Set aside. In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Remove 2 tablespoons of the mixture and combine it with the chopped apricots. Set aside.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter until creamy. While the mixer is running, pour the sugar into the bowl in a steady stream; mix for about 2 minutes. Add the egg and mix one minute. Add the extracts and mix until combined. Reduce the mixer speed to low and stir in 1-3/4 cups of the coconut. Add the flour in two in two additions, mixing just until the flour disappears. By hand, stir in the apricots.

Divide the dough into thirds; shape each piece into a log 8” long and 1-1/2” in diameter. Place the remaining coconut on a piece of waxed paper. Brush each log with the egg wash and roll in the coconut. Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour, up to three days.

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

Slice the dough into 3/8” thick slices and place on the prepared baking sheets. In a small bowl whisk together the egg yolk and milk and then brush the tops of the cookies with the mixture. Bake for 12-20 minutes, until very light brown around the edges. Do not over bake. Allow to cool slightly on the baking sheet before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Great Cookies by Carole Walter

Golden Brioche Loaves (Sort of)

2011-08-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Margie of Tea and Scones and you can get the complete recipe on her blog. She chose Golden Brioche Loaves. I didn’t make the brioche this week because I had made the dough before and made Brioche Raisin Snails and Pecan Honey Sticky Buns. It was finally hot in Seattle these past few days and we had company, all things that didn’t bode well for making these loaves, which require many hours of rising time and overnight refrigeration. I’ll just remember what I had made previously!

Brioche Raisin Snails were picked long before I joined Tuesdays with Dorie, but I really wanted to give them a try. They are a refined version of American cinnamon rolls, with pastry cream and boozy raisins. I brought these to work to share with my colleagues and they were a big hit! The pastry cream disappears into the dough and makes for a beautiful, decadent treat.

I made the Pecan Honey Sticky Buns and served it to guest that we had staying with us. These are so gooey and rich, but worth all the work in every bite. It worked really well to prep the dough in advance and then bake them up in the morning. Nothing beats waking up to the scent of freshly baked sticky buns! Both of these recipes took a little more time, but certainly worth it in the end.

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, pages 48-50

Cherry Pie Muffins

2011-08-22T06:00:00.000-07:00

Cherry pie in a muffin? How tasty! I stumbled on this recipe and wanted to make it as soon as I saw it. With a stash of fresh cherries at home, I got ready to make these. This recipe is a little bit different for me: it more closely follows the clean eating way of life, using more whole ingredients. Some of the ingredients are no issue such as oats, honey, and whole wheat flour. The new ingredient for me was coconut oil as a replacement for butter. This was a good opportunity to try something new!

These muffins are quick to put together, with the original recipe just adding everything together and stirring. I followed a more traditional muffin method: I mixed all the dry ingredients, then separately combined all the liquids and then stirred the two together. The cherries and fairly wet and delicate, so I folded them in last. You don’t want to be too tough with the cherries. (These use fresh cherries, which were pretty late to be in season in Seattle this summer. You could also use frozen cherries if you have them.)

This recipe only made 9 muffins, so if you are serving lots of people, you would need to double the recipe. Baked up, these were fairly soft and might do best to eat them with a fork off of a plate. I like the subtle coconut flavor that the coconut oil imparts, but I found that the coconut oil left a little puddle of oil in the bottom of the muffin tin. At any rate, these muffins are chock full of cherries and have great flavors. Very nice for a healthier-minded treat.

Cherry Pie Muffins

1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup milk
2 cup fresh cherries, pitted & halved

1/4 cup ground almond
2 tablespoons oats
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1/2 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon coconut oil

1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1-3 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tins with paper baking liners.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, 1/2cup coconut oil, ¼ cup honey and ¼ cup milk. Add the liquid ingredients to the flour mixture and stir to combine. Fold in the cherries. Spoon mixed batter into a muffin tin prepared with cupcake wrappers.

In a medium bowl, use a fork to combine the ground almonds, oats, powdered sugar, ½ tablespoon honey and 1 tablespoon coconut oil until a coarse crumb forms. Sprinkle the streusel over the batter in each muffin tin, then bake for 18-22 minutes, or until the center of the muffins bounce back to the touch. Cool for a few minutes in the pan and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the glaze: combine the powdered sugar, almond extract and enough milk to make the glaze the proper consistency. Glaze the muffins when they are cool.

Recipe from Cheeky Kitchen

Little Apple Pie Cookies

2011-08-19T06:00:00.000-07:00

I’m really ready for fall to begin, and I’ve already started to plan my fall baking (and Christmas baking too, but you have to start early for that!). I’ve been trying to make fruit-based cookies this month and it just seemed a shame to not include an apple recipe just because it’s more suited for fall. So here they are: little apple pie cookies. Apples, cinnamon and caramel: great flavors that are good all year. I call them a cookie; you could call them a mini tart. Whatever.

One thing I’ve noticed in planning recipes using fruit is that most of the cookies are bar cookies. I didn’t want to do all bar cookies so I decided to make these mini cups. I’ve made a couple of other cookies in mini muffin pans and I really like them. Perfectly sized, easily transported, and they look fancy all on their own. I took some of these to a friend and her young sons, and I knew they would be perfect for kids.

The dough for these is as simple as you can get: just butter, cream cheese, and flour. My dough was quite sticky, even after refrigeration, so you may want to flour your fingertips when shaping the dough in the pan. I made my own caramel sauce, and only topped half of the cookies with the extra caramel. Both are good: the ones with more caramel are a little sweeter, but not over the top. I worried that these would be so sticky that I wouldn’t be able to get them out of the pan, but I had no problems. I had extra caramel sauce and some of the apple/caramel filling left over, which you could use in any number of applications. Enjoy!

Little Apple Pie Cookies

1 cup sugar
6 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup heavy cream

½ cup butter, room temperature
4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup flour
pinch of salt

2 apples, peeled and finely diced
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Make the caramel: first, make sure that you have all the ingredients immediately on hand. In a large (2-3 quart) heavy saucepan, add the sugar. Heat the sugar on moderately high heat, stirring until melted. The melted sugar will be dark amber in color. Once the sugar is melted, add the butter and whisk until the butter melts. Remove the pan from the heat and add the heavy cream. The mixture will bubble, keep stirring until incorporated. Let cool in the pan for a couple of minutes before pouring into a heat-proof bowl. Allow to cool to room temperature before using. If you’ve made the caramel in advance, refrigerate and then bring it to room temperature before using. (This recipe makes more caramel than is needed for the cookies.)

Make the dough: in a large mixer bowl, cream the butter and cream cheese. Add ½ cup of flour and the salt, stirring to incorporate. Using the mixer or by hand, stir in the remaining ½ cup flour. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Make the cookies: combine the chopped apples, cinnamon, and ½ cup caramel sauce. Stir to combine. Divide the dough into 4 pieces, and then each piece into 6 small pieces of dough. Put one piece of dough in each mini muffin cup and press the dough into the bottom and up the sides of the cup. Fill the cups about ¾ full with the apple mixture. Add an addition ½ teaspoon of caramel to the top of each cup.

Bake for 30 minutes, until the cups are golden brown. Allow to cool in the pan for about 15 minutes before removing from the pan to cool completely. Makes 24.

Recipe from Simply Sifted
Caramel Recipe from Simply Recipes

Tropical Crumble

2011-08-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Gaye of Laws of the Kitchen. She chose the Tropical Crumble, which is banana/mango/ginger crisp. The thought behind this recipe is that foods that grow together should taste good together. Seems pretty logical to me! You can get the recipe for this crumble on Gaye’s blog and check out the Tuesdays with Dorie site to see all the twists and turns of this recipe created by other bakers.

I was excited when I read that this recipe was selected, because I love apple crisp and I figured it would be excellent with tropical flavors. I read the recipe and realized that it contained bananas, which I don’t like. Following the “things that grow together” idea, I decided to substitute pineapple for the bananas. Pineapple and mango grow together and pineapple seems very tropical to me. I knew that the texture would be different and it would be a bit sweeter, but this is dessert, so that’s ok!

This smelled divine when the mango and pineapple were caramelizing with the brown sugar and butter! The pineapple maintained its firm texture but the mango softens and sort of becomes the “sauce” of the crisp. (This was probably helped by the fact that I don’t know how to cut a mango and they got a little man-handled in my attempt to cut them.) The crumble topping baked up nicely, but the pineapple had more liquid so the crumble didn’t get as crispy as it could have. It was really tasty, with the ginger flavor coming through very cleanly. I really enjoyed this crumble, and I loved what the pineapple added to this recipe.

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, pages 418-419.

Strawberry Fig Spiced Bundt Cake

2011-08-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

If you’re looking towards fall and want a tasty Bundt to serve to your family, this cake is it! My husband found this recipe for me, when he was looking for something to use up strawberry fig preserves. We had picked up the preserves at a local farm and produce store: Remlinger Farms. The farm offers u-pick berries and other activities. Our summer has been so cool that when we went, they weren’t picking and the farm was quite quiet. That was ok, we had a fun time exploring the store and picked the strawberry fig preserves from their vast collection of jams and jellies.

If I were to offer this cake to a person in a blind taste test, I’m not sure that they would pick out that it contains strawberry fig preserves. It tastes like a very moist spice cake, which in my book is great! I imagine the fig flavor would be more pronounced if you used pure fig preserves, but I liked the sweetness of the strawberry.

I did have a couple of problems with the cake, which I think are more my issue than an issue with the cake. My cake stuck a little bit when coming out of the pan, which I think was partially because the cake was so moist and delicate. Make sure you grease the pan really well! The original cake recipe called for making a caramel glaze, which would be extraordinary. I didn’t have heavy cream which was required to make the caramel, so I ended up making a brown sugar glaze. I even microwaved the glaze a bit to try to melt the brown sugar and get rid of the graininess of the brown sugar. But that didn’t really work. The glaze was never smooth, so next time I will go ahead and make the caramel glaze.

Strawberry Fig Spiced Bundt Cake

2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups brown sugar, packed
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
4 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup strawberry fig preserves
1 cup chopped pecans

½ cup brown sugar, packed
½ teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons water

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a 12-cup Bundt pan.

In a large mixer bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and spices; stir to combine. Add the butter and oil and beat well. Add eggs and beat until well blended. Stir in the buttermilk and vanilla. Stir in preserves and chopped pecans.

Pour into the prepared baking pan; bake for 55 to 60 minutes, until a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool 10 minutes in the pan and then remove from the pan and cool completely on a wire rack before glazing.

Glaze the cake: in a small bowl combine the brown sugar, vanilla, and water. Stir until smooth. Drizzle over the cake. Allow to harden before cutting cake.

Cake recipe from http://southernfood.about.com/od/datesandfigs/r/r70225a.htm
Glaze recipe from The Food Network

Cherry & Crystallized Ginger Crumb Bars

2011-08-12T06:00:00.000-07:00

In addition to blueberries, I had purchased fresh cherries recently at the farmer’s market. Cherries pose a little more of a challenge in that you have to pit them for use in baking. Just eating them fresh I can get away with no pitter, but I figured that I was finally going to have to invest in a cherry pitter. We’ve recently cleaned out the kitchen utensil drawers at home so I do have a little bit more room. I had wanted to buy a cherry pitter a number of years ago, but it being cherry season at the time, there were none to be found in the store. Luckily, I was able to find one this time, and was also able to use up the $1.47 that I had left on a Williams Sonoma gift card.

I wanted to make some sort of bar cookie with fresh cherries, but I noticed that most recipes used dried cherries or cherry preserves. I kept looking and found this recipe with also included crystallized ginger, which is a favorite in our household. This recipe calls for 5 cups of fresh cherries and I had about 4 cups, so I threw in a handful of dried cherries to make sure that I had enough filling. It also seemed like my cherries were on the big side, so I quartered them instead of cutting them in half. Ok, my husband cut them in quarters after I pitted them. We are a good pair in the kitchen. Oh, don’t wear nice clothes when you are pitting cherries because it is a tad messy!

When I was chopping the crystallized ginger, I measured out about 2.5 ounces and it seemed like quite a bit, so I didn’t add the entire 4 ounces. I’m glad I didn’t put in any more as the ginger flavor is quite strong in these. I still wanted to taste the cherries. I like the combination of cherry and ginger; it’s quite interesting. These took a while to cool and were fragile when I cut them. I refrigerated them overnight after cutting and they firmed up, so you may want to store these in the refrigerator. I really liked these bars and they were a big hit at work.

Cherry & Crystallized Ginger Crumb Bars

5 cups pitted cherries, cut in half
3 tablespoons lemon juice
4 ounces crystallized ginger, chopped
1/2 cup sugar
4 teaspoons cornstarch

1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup cold butter, cut into small pieces
1 egg, lightly beaten

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a 9” × 13” baking pan with foil and spray the foil with cooking spray.

In a large bowl combine cherries, lemon juice, crystallized ginger, 1/2 cup sugar and cornstarch. Set aside.

In a large food processor, combine sugar, brown sugar, flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Add the butter pieces and process, in short bursts, until the mixture is crumbly. Add the egg and process until combined.

Press half of the flour mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan. Spread the cherry mixture over the crust. Sprinkle the rest of the flour mixture over the cherries.

Bake for 35-45 minutes, or until the top is light brown. Allow the bars to cool about 30 minutes on a wire rack and then refrigerate until completely cold. Lift the bars from the pan, peel away the foil, and cut into bars.

Recipe from Cookin’ Canuck

Carrot Spice Muffins

2011-08-09T06:00:00.000-07:00

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Nancy of The Dogs Eat the Crumbs. She chose Carrot Spice Muffins, which are also called Morning Glory Muffins. These muffins contain shredded carrots, coconut, and raisins. I’ve made morning glory muffins before, in fact they were one of the first recipes I posted on my blog. That recipe was a little different, with applesauce, apple, and pineapple. You can get Dorie’s recipe on Nancy’s blog and don’t forget to check out the links from the other bakers on the Tuesdays with Dorie site.

These muffins are so easy to put together. Grating the carrot is the hardest part, and you can always do that in a food processor if you want. I halved the recipe and still got 8 beautiful muffins. I checked the muffins at 18 minutes and they seemed to be done. I hate dry muffins so I wanted to make sure I didn’t over bake these. These are pretty tasty, but I think next time I would add more raisins, since those seem to add a nice touch of sweetness. I’d maybe up the cinnamon too, because I particularly like cinnamon. The bits of carrot and coconut add a slight crunch. I really liked these and these would be a hit with anyone you shared them with!

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 14

Free Form Blueberry Tart

2011-08-08T06:00:00.000-07:00

Using up fresh blueberries is not much of a hardship! I wanted to make something that was a showcase for the blueberry and I came across this tart on the Food and Wine website. I have a couple of cookbooks that give recipes by what is in season. But none of the recipes were simple enough. I just wanted blueberries. I found it in this recipe: blueberries, pastry, and that’s about it.

This recipe was so simple that I had all the ingredients on hand. I do wonder why I had a lemon on hand, as I usually just get those when I’m going to use it in something. Sometimes I made plans for dinner recipes that never happen, and I imagine that was the case with this lemon. At any rate, you do want to use fresh lemon with blueberries; it’s the perfect addition.

You can make your own pastry here or use store bought. I had a store bought crust in the refrigerator so I used that. (No shame in using a short cut!) This tart is wonderful and it was a great way to enjoy fresh blueberries. If you have some vanilla ice cream, that would be a nice addition. I froze the rest of the blueberries I bought at the farmer’s market, so I am looking forward to other blueberry recipes I can make once the summer is over.

Free Form Blueberry Tart

Pastry for a one crust pie
1/4 cup sugar, plus more for sprinkling
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
4 cups blueberries
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 egg white, beaten

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with a silicone baking mat.

On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the pastry to a 14-inch round about 1/8 inch thick. Transfer the pastry to the prepared baking sheet and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

In a large bowl, mix the sugar with the lemon zest and flour. Fold in the blueberries and lemon juice and let stand for 15 minutes.

Spoon the blueberries in the center of the pastry, leaving a 1 1/2-inch border all around. Fold the pastry border up and over the blueberries, pleating it as necessary. Brush the egg white on the pastry and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for about 55 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown and the filling starts to bubble.

Transfer the baking sheet to a rack and let the tart cool to warm. Cut into wedges and serve warm or at room temperature.

Recipe from Food and Wine

Brown Sugar Blueberry Cookies

2011-08-05T06:00:00.000-07:00

I’m not sure if I’m going to have a theme this month for Friday’s cookies, but I may go with fruity cookies. That seems appropriate for this time of the year. While we’ve had a dreary summer in Seattle, the weather has finally settled into weeks with sunny days in the mid-70s. Just beautiful! Luckily it’s still been cool enough in my house to turn the oven on and bake, so hopefully I won’t need to bust out the no-bake recipes.

One of my favorite things to do is to go to the farmer’s market and explore what the vendors have to offer. Produce is finally available, after some pretty limited options in previous weeks. I found cherries and blueberries to use in baking. I had spied this recipe a short while ago and once I bought the blueberries, I knew I would be making these cookies this week. How could I resist a cookie that is basically a blueberry muffin in disguise?

Oh my, these cookies smell so good! The dough smells great, and the house smelled divine while they were baking. They do remind you a lot of blueberry muffins, in smell, taste, and texture. I wasn’t sure about adding the cinnamon, but it added a lot. I thought that they would be kind of cakey, but they are chewy with a tiny bit of cakey texture. When you take a bite and bite into a blueberry, you get this burst of sweet flavor. These cookies are incredible and a great way to use the bountiful fruit of summer.

Brown Sugar Blueberry Cookies

½ cup butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 3/4 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1-2 tablespoons milk
3/4 cup fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 375. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, beat butter and brown sugar until smooth. Add egg and vanilla, stir to combine and then beat until fluffy, about 2 minutes. With the mixer on low, stir in the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Mix until dough comes together. If the dough is crumbly, add milk 1 tablespoon at a time until it comes together. Fold in blueberries gently with a spatula and refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes.

Roll the dough into 1 1/2 inch balls. Bake for 10-12 minutes until lightly browned and set. Allow to cool slightly on the baking sheet before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from How Sweet It Is

Cocoa Almond Meringues

2011-08-02T06:00:00.000-07:00

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Mike of Ugly Food for an Ugly Dude. He chose Cocoa Almond Meringues. These meringues contain ground almonds, cocoa, and chopped chocolate (or mini chips). I had bought meringues at the store before and had liked them, but I had never made them at home. I don’t know why because they are really good! You can get the complete recipe on Mike’s blog and you can also check out the Tuesdays with Dorie site to see the links from all the bakers.

Meringues aren’t really the best cookie to make in the summer, since you have to leave the oven on for a fairly long time. Our summer in Seattle has been fairly bad, and while the last week has been nice, it’s still only the mid-70s here. This summer, having the oven on has been no problem at all, so I’ve been happy. I’m not really much for warm weather anyway. Anyway, these bake for a couple of minutes at a “normal” temperature and then bake for an hour in a 200 degree oven.

I made a half batch, but still got about 20 cookies, so I think my meringues were on the small side. It’s hard to tell when these are done, and I didn’t want to open the oven too much to check since I figured that may adversely change the oven’s temperature. I baked mine exactly as the recipe specified and my meringues were perfect. The day they were baked they were crispy on the outside and just a tiny bit chewy in the middle. They got chewier the next day. These have a nice chocolate flavor, sweet but still light. I really enjoyed these and I think I will try making some other meringues soon!

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 155

Chocolate Pecan Cluster Cookies

2011-08-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

You know, when you start bringing treats to an occasion, they’ll start to get used to that! I had taken cookies to a meeting at work and the people were thrilled. Late afternoon meetings are a little tough, so a little sugar can’t hurt. We were having another meeting so I figured I should bring cookies again. I take cookies to the library all the time, and I have a good sense of what they like and don’t like. I didn’t know this group as well so I didn’t want to make anything exotic. Chocolate is a safe choice, so I went with that.

If you’re looking for a chocolate cookie, this is the one for you! These call for a whopping 14 ounces of chocolate and a mere ¼ cup of flour. The method to make these is a bit unusual, with melting some ingredients in the double boiler and heating the eggs over water. Honestly, I don’t know that I really needed to go through all of the trouble. The cookies seemed very forgiving and baked up without any trouble. Who knows, maybe next time I will just mix it all together and see how it goes.

These cookies look about the same going in to the oven as they do coming out, so it’s a bit hard to test for doneness. Just go with the time given and they’ll be fine. If they are a bit gooey in the center, that’s no problem! These have such a rich chocolate flavor and are quite addicting, so make them small and you won’t feel as guilty when you eat too many of them.

Chocolate Pecan Cluster Cookies

1/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
2 tablespoon butter
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips
2-1/2 cups pecan halves, broken in large pieces and toasted

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

In small bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

In a double boiler, combine the chocolate and butter. Stir frequently until chocolate is almost melted. Remove from heat and stir until completely melted.

In medium heatproof bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar, and vanilla. Place over a pot of barely simmering water. Gently whisk 2 minutes or just until warm (about 100 degrees). Gradually whisk in the melted chocolate in a couple of additions. Stir in flour mixture. Use a spatula to stir in the chocolate chips and pecans.

Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls on the prepared baking sheets. Bake 8 minutes or until cookie surface appears dry and set. Transfer cookies onto wire racks to cool completely.

Recipe from Our Share of the Harvest

Irish Cream Brownies

2011-07-29T06:00:00.000-07:00

For the final boozy cookie of July, I made Irish Cream Brownies. Now Irish Cream smells so irresistible that it seems a shame to do anything but drink it straight, but I promise you that these are worth it. These start with an Irish Cream-infused saucepan brownie and end with a creamy Irish Cream frosting. What could be better? Not much I think.

This brownie recipe is from a cookbook of recipes from food manufacturers. Given the number of recipes in this book that contain Kahlua, Irish Cream, and vodka, I imagine that the distillers submitted them to be included. This book also contains Black Russian Brownies, which I didn’t have time to make this month, but I’ve made them before and they are quite unique as they contain a sizable amount of ground black pepper. There are a handful of cookie recipes that contain pepper, but it’s still an unusual baking ingredient.

The recipe here is the original recipe doubled. These are rich so you don’t want to cut them too big. If you don’t have somewhere to take them, you may want to cut this recipe in half and bake them in an 8” square pan. I’ve really enjoyed baking with a theme this month, and I’m thinking about doing it again. What do you think? Did you like the theme? What other themes of cookies would you like me to try? Let me know in your comments!

Irish Cream Brownies

8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
½ cup Irish Cream liqueur
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt

4 ounces cream cheese, softened
4 tablespoons butter, softened
¼ cup Irish Cream liqueur
3 cups powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9” x 13” baking pan with foil and grease the foil.

In a large saucepan over low heat melt the chocolate and butter, stirring constantly. Stir in the sugar. Whisk in the eggs, one at a time, until completely incorporated. Whisk in the Irish Cream. In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt and then add this to the chocolate mixture, whisking until completely combined. Spread in the prepared baking pan.

Bake for 22-25 minutes or until the center is set. Cool before frosting.

Make the frosting: in a large mixer bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter until smooth. Stir in the Irish Cream. Gradually beat in the powdered sugar, one cup at a time. Beat until smooth. If required, add more powdered sugar to get frosting to the desired consistency. Spread the frosting on the cooled bars. Refrigerate for one hour before cutting into bars.

Recipe from Favorite Brand Name Cookie Collection

Creamy Dark Chocolate Sorbet

2011-07-26T06:00:00.000-07:00

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was selected by Steph of A Whisk and A Spoon. She chose Creamy Dark Chocolate Sorbet. Now, I’m not that big of fan of making ice cream, mainly because I don’t have an ice cream maker. Plus, I knew I was going to be out of town for the weekend and I wasn’t sure that I’d really have the time to make this. But I looked at the recipe and it looked so simple and I did have the ingredients on hand, so I decided to give it a shot. You can get the complete recipe for this sorbet on Steph’s blog.

The dictionary defines sorbet as a “usually a fruit-flavored ice.” This isn’t fruit-flavor, but flavored instead with bittersweet chocolate. Instead of making an egg custard, you just combine water, sugar, milk and chocolate. I wanted to spice it up a bit so I also added hazelnut extract to the mixture. Other flavors would be good, too, but I am partial to the chocolate hazelnut combination (so much so that it has its own tag in my blog!)

This was super simple to make, but as I have to use David Lebovitz’s freeze and stir method, this takes hours to get to ice cream-like consistency. After 4 hours of freezing and stirring, I decided to call it “good enough” and let it freeze before serving it the next day. It still was somewhat soft and very scoop-able after freezing overnight. The flavor of this is unexpectedly good. My husband said “fudgesicle” which is fairly close. The texture is really nice and the chocolate shines through. You can just pick up the faintest hint of hazelnut. For something that I wasn’t going to make, this recipe turned out to be a delightful surprise.

Recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, page 431

Ginger Blackberry Buckle

2011-07-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

Growing up, the house I lived in had lots of blueberry bushes in the backyard. We had lots of blueberries around and I can recall having all sorts of crisps, slumps, buckles, etc. growing up. I was sure that I had had blueberry buckle before, but I don’t recall that it was quite like this recipe. I saw this recipe on The Novice Chef and it looked so good that I wanted to try it as soon as possible.

After making the Chocolate Cake with Blackberry Jam Buttercream, I had blackberries left over. I figured that this buckle would work with any sort of berries, so I thought I would give this a shot. My berries were so enormous that I had to cut them in half. In the spirit of trying to use up what I had on hand, I thought about what I could substitute for ginger. I had ground ginger and candied ginger around so I thought that it would work. The sweetness of the berries paired with the spiciness of ginger sounded really good to me.

This is a fairly simple cake and a crumb topping, which allow the berries to shine through. The blackberries in this were great, but I think that the ginger was the star here. It was especially good when you got a bite with the candied ginger. This cake also kept fairly well, which is a nice change from most fruit desserts that you have to serve right away. This cake would be perfect for breakfast, or serve it with ice cream for a fancier dessert. Any way you slice it, this is a great way to use up summer berries.

Ginger Blackberry Buckle

1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 cup butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
6 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
¼ cup finely chopped candied ginger
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 1/2 cups blackberries, divided

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt and ginger. Cut the butter into small pieces and add it to the mixture. Using your fingers, cut in the butter until it is reduced to the size of peas. Loosely cover the bowl, and place it in the freezer while you mix the cake.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9-inch square baking pan.

In small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg and ground ginger. In a large mixer bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Stir the flour mixture into the bowl, a third at a time, alternating with the oil, until both the flour mixture and oil are evenly incorporated into the batter. Stir in the candied ginger. Gently fold 1 cup of the blackberries into the batter.

Spread the batter into the prepared pan and distribute the remaining blackberries evenly over the top of the batter. Remove the crumb topping from the freezer and sprinkle it over the berries.

Bake the cake until it is lightly golden and firm on top, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Remove the cake from the oven and cool to room temperature.

Recipe adapted from The Novice Chef