Nutty Graham Picnic Cake

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Recipe from Esther Tomich, The 1978 Pillsbury BakeOff

Orangeburst Cookie Bars

When I first started baking many years ago, I made a lot of Pillsbury Bake-Off recipes. I like that they usually have an unusual twist or just have something unique about them. I guess if they weren’t a little bit special then they would never make it to the competition. One thing I don’t like is that so many recipes depend on premade cookie dough, cake or bread mixes, or other packaged things. I understand that they are trying to sell their product, but I prefer to make things from scratch. (I do use packaged pie crust from time to time, so it’s not all bad.)

I saw this recipe in an old Bake-Off cookbook that I had sitting on the bookshelf, and I thought that the orange and hazelnut combination would be good. The base of this cookie was originally refrigerated sugar cookie dough. I decided to make my own sugar cookie dough, and they worked just fine. I don’t know if the amount of dough I used was equal to the 18 ounce package of sugar cookie dough or no, but it seemed to be about the same amount. I did bake them at the longer end of the time ranges, but other than that I didn’t notice any difference.

These come together very quickly, even though I made my own cookie dough. These are more cakelike than you might expect from a bar cookie. They are also not very sweet, the perfect sort of cookie to serve with coffee or tea. The orange flavor isn’t very strong, more of a subtle sweetness. After weeks of rich, sweet treats from the holidays, these are a nice change of pace.

1-1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 egg 2-1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1 cup chopped hazelnuts, divided
½ cup sugar
5 teaspoons flour
1/3 cup light corn syrup
1 tablespoon orange zest
¼ cup orange juice
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1 egg

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large mixer bowl, cream powdered sugar, butter, vanilla and egg. Stir in the flour, baking soda and cream of tartar. Mix until combined. Press the dough into the bottom of an ungreased 9” x 13” pan. Sprinkle the dough with ½ cup chopped hazelnuts; press the nuts into the dough. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until dough is puffed. Remove the pan from the oven and reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees.

While the cookies are baking, in a small bowl combine the sugar, flour, corn syrup, orange zest, orange juice, butter, egg, and remaining ½ cup of hazelnuts. Carefully pour the corn syrup mixture over the partially baked cookies. Bake for 18-23 minutes or until edges are golden brown and filling is set. Cool ten minutes and then sprinkle with powdered sugar. Cool completely before cutting into bars.

Recipe adapted from the 38th Pillsbury Bake-Off Cookbook. Cookie recipe from the Betty Crocker Cookbook

Almond Mocha Cake

One of my friends at work was having a birthday and I decided to make this for her birthday. I wanted a cake that didn’t have a ton of frosting or was too sweet, so I thought the almond coffee flavors in this chocolate Bundt cake would fit the bill nicely.

I think I have made this cake before, but it had been years so I don’t remember much about making it the first time. The recipe calls for you to press almonds into the bottom of the greased pan. Well, the bottom of the pan isn’t flat and it kind of defies physics to have almonds stick to a vertical surface! I just sprinkled the almonds in the bottom of the pan and then took care to not disturb them too much when I poured in the cake batter.

This cake was fabulous, made with pretty common ingredients that you may already have in your pantry. I just had to run out and get some coffee. Being in the Seattle area, I usually go to the coffee shop to get coffee; I don’t have any at home. The coffee isn’t really a strong flavor, but blends well with the chocolate and enhances the flavor of the chocolate.

½ cup sliced almonds

1-1/4 cups strong coffee

½ cup butter

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup sugar

¼ cup amaretto

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

Powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 12 cup Bundt pan. Sprinkle the almonds into the pan and gently press to the bottom of the pan.

In a medium saucepan over low heat, warm the coffee. Add the butter and chocolate chips and stir, over low heat, until mixture is smooth. Remove from the heat. Transfer the chocolate mixture to a large mixer bowl. Add the sugar and amaretto, stir to combine. Allow mixture to cool 5 minutes.

With the mixer at low speed, gradually blend in the flour and baking soda into the chocolate mixture. Add vanilla and eggs and mix on medium speed about 30 minutes, or until well blended. Carefully pour into greased and nut-lined pan. Be careful not to disturb the nuts too much by pouring quickly.

Bake at 325 for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool in the pan about 25 minutes and then invert onto a wire rack to cool completely. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.

Recipe from Debbie Russell, 33^rd Pillsbury BakeOff, Pillsbury Best of the BakeOff Cookbook

Almond Crunch Cookies

This is a recipe that I wanted to try for a long time. I’ve always looked at the recipe but never had all of the ingredients to make them. These are another Pillsbury BakeOff recipe. The original recipe is for “Texas-Sized” cookies, but for taking these to work it is just easier to make them regular sized. As a result, this recipe makes a ton of cookies, about 7 dozen or so!

These cookies are quite unusual in that they contain both butter and oil. It’s fairly odd to have oil in a cookie recipe. Other than the sugar cookie recipe that my dad always uses, I don’t think I’ve really ever used oil in cookies. The dough is fairly oily, even with refrigeration, but in the end you get a light, flaky cookie. They have a wonderful almond aroma, with the almond extract and the almonds. I don’t think that you can taste the toffee bits really. It would be interesting to try them without the toffee bits.

The recipe calls for flattening the balls of dough with a fork, just like you would for a peanut butter cookie, but I don’t think it’s really necessary. The dough is really so soft that it puffs up and the indentations get lost. They are really good, with a good flavor and an even better texture. I’m glad I tried them. Now I just need to find something to make with the other half of that bag of toffee bits!

1 cup sugar

1 cup powdered sugar

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup oil

1 teaspoon almond extract

2 eggs

4-1/2 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups sliced almonds

1 cup toffee bits

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

In a large mixer bowl, combine the sugars, butter and oil. Mix until thoroughly combined. Add the almond extract and the eggs, mix well.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt. With the mixer running on low, add the flour mixture. Mix until combined. Stir in the almonds and toffee bits. Refrigerate for 30 minutes for easier handling.

Shape dough into balls. Flatten with a fork and bake for about 12 minutes until very lightly browned. Cool on the baking sheet for 2 minutes and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Barbara Hodgson, 30^th Pillsbury BakeOff, Pillsbury Best of the BakeOff Cookbook.

Rolo Cookies

So every year my husband and I buy Halloween candy in the hopes that we will have trick-or-treaters come to the door. We live in a townhouse complex and you would think that we would be an easy target: lots of homes in close proximity. When I was a kid, I went trick or treating around the neighborhood, and the houses were not close together at all!

We didn’t have any trick-or-treaters, so we had quite a bit of candy left over. We had some Rolos in our Halloween stash, so I decided to make these cookies. Chocolate cookie dough wrapped around the Rolos; the Rolos melt down and make a great caramel filling. (They are especially good when they are warm.)

I didn’t end up having enough Rolos for all of the dough, so some of the cookies had other fillings: Milk Duds, Nutrageous and Take 5. The ones with the Take 5 were really good. The salty crunch was really nice. The Nutrageous ones were good, too. The Milk Duds didn’t have enough flavor to work, but they were still ok. They just tasted like a nice chewy chocolate cookie.

2-1/2 cups flour

¾ cup cocoa

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup butter, softened

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 eggs

½ cup chopped pecans

48 Rolos

1 tablespoon sugar

Mix the flour, cocoa and baking soda in a bowl. Set aside.

Cream the sugar, brown sugar and butter in a large bowl with a stand mixer. Mix until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla, stir until completely combined. Stir in the flour mixture and mix until completely combined. Stir in the pecans. Refrigerate the dough for about 30 minutes for easier handling. (Don’t skip this step, trust me.)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Shape 1 tablespoon dough around each Rolo. Mold the dough around the Rolo and make sure that it is completely sealed in with the dough. Dip the tops of the cookies in sugar and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes until set. Don’t worry if there are some cracks, they are normal. Let cool on the cookie sheet for a few minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Jean Olson, 1990 Pillsbury BakeOff, Pillsbury Best of the Bakeoff

Cookies on Friday: Rocky Road Fudge Bars

This is another one of my favorite Pillsbury BakeOff recipes. It also uses up the extra miniature marshmallows that I have left over from last week’s Salted Peanut Chews. I guess we just don’t drink enough hot chocolate in my household to use them up before they get stale! The Pacific Northwest is finally getting some summer-like weather; too bad we had to wait until September for the sun to come out. It’s not exactly been hot chocolate weather.

This is a great fudgy bar cookie; very substantial. You’ll use up many mixing bowls and saucepans in the preparation for this recipe, but I think it is worth it. Be careful when melting the chocolate (in the base and for the frosting) that you don’t leave it on the heat too long and scorch the chocolate. I’m a little more carefully usually but I guess I was trying to do too make things at once when I was making these! Oh well, there’s always another saucepan and some more chocolate that I can use.

Since these cookies contain cream cheese, they do best stored in the refrigerator. They’re a little too soft otherwise. When I’ve taken these to work and other places, they never really last long enough for them to get soft, so maybe you won’t need to worry about that!

Base
½ cup butter
1 oz. unsweetened chocolate
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
¾ cup chopped nuts (I used pecans)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs

Filling
8 oz. cream cheese, reserve 2 oz. for frosting
¼ cup butter, softened
½ cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
½ teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
¼ cup chopped nuts (pecans)
1 cup chocolate chips

Frosting
2 cups miniature marshmallows
Reserved 2 oz. cream cheese
¼ cup butter
¼ cup milk
1 oz. unsweetened chocolate
3 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9” x 13” pan.
In a small saucepan, combine ½ cup butter and 1 oz. unsweetened chocolate, stir until melted. Transfer this mixture to a large mixing bowl and add the remaining base ingredients. Spread into prepared pan.

In another mixing bowl, combine 6 oz. cream cheese, ¼ cup butter sugar, vanilla and egg. Mix until smooth. Stir in the nuts and spread this mixture over the base. Sprinkle with chocolate chips and bake for 30 minutes until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Immediately sprinkle the marshmallows on top of the base and filling; bake an additional 2 minutes.

To make the frosting, combine the reserved cream cheese, butter, milk and unsweetened chocolate in a large saucepan. Stir over medium low heat until melted together and smooth. Remove from the heat and wisk in the powdered sugar and vanilla until you have a smooth frosting. Spoon the warm frosting over the marshmallows.

Cool completely in the refrigerator before cutting. Store in the refrigerator.

Recipe originally from Mary Wilson, 1972 Pillsbury BakeOff. The Pillsbury BakeOff Cookbook.

Cookies on Friday: Salted Peanut Chews

When I started baking, it was about the same time as one of the Pillsbury Bake-Off Contests. I started making a couple of those recipes because they were just a little different and the recipes usually turned out well. One thing I don’t like is that many of the recipes use premade products, which I usually like to make my own from scratch. (I have been known to use a cake mix from time to time; they can be a great time saver and can be a great base for bar cookies.) I know Pillsbury is just trying to sell their product, and I’m ok with that.

The “older” recipes don’t use as many premade products, so I stick with those. These are one of my favorites (and my husband’s favorite, too). They are a substantial cookie, almost like a candy bar. They are a mix of peanuts, peanut butter chips and crispy rice cereal. Of course, you’ll be left with extra ingredients that you have to use up in other recipes, but that’s part of the fun, right? You’ll be seeing those recipes in the upcoming days…

1-1/2 cups flour

2/ cup brown sugar

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon baking soda

½ cup butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 egg yolks

3 cups mini marshmallows

Topping

2/3 cup corn syrup

¼ cup butter

2 teaspoons vanilla

10 oz. package peanut butter chips

2 cup crisp rice cereal

2 cups salted dry roasted peanuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all crust ingredients except marshmallows in a large bowl. Mixture will be crumbly. Press into the bottom of an ungreased 9” x 13” pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes. Remove pan from the oven and sprinkle with mini marshmallows. Bake for an additional 2 minutes, until the marshmallows are slightly puffy.

While the crust is baking, make the topping. Mix the corn syrup, butter, vanilla, and peanut butter chips in a saucepan. Heat this mixture until the peanut butter chips melt, stirring constantly. Stir in the crisp rice cereal and peanuts. Spoon the warm topping over the marshmallows. Spread carefully. This is quite tricky, as it’s difficult to spread over puffy marshmallows! It’s easiest if you drop small amounts of the topping over the marshmallows and then you won’t have to spread as much.

Cool the bars in the refrigerator and then cut into squares.

Recipe from Gertrude Schweitzerhof, 1980 Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest. The Best of the Pillsbury Bake-Off Cookbook