Tag Archives: Baked

Two Cookies!

27 Monday Dec 2010

Posted by in Baking, Cookies, Dessert, Recipes

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An annual Christmas tradition that my kids count on every year is baking and decorating cookies for Christmas with thier cousins. This year was no exception. Except for the fact that the kids decorated all but two cookies before I could get to them, I would say that decorating was a success. Our “artists” ranged in age from 9 to 17 years old. While they decorated, my sister in law and I prepared our Angel Wings (see this post, they are awesome!).

I tried another new sugar cookie recipe this holiday. They were excellent for keeping their shape when baking and the taste was mild enough that being loaded with frosting didn’t give you an overwelming sugar rush. I’m not sure I will ever settle on a rolled sugar cookie recipe, but this one has made it’s way to the top of my list. It is very easy to prepare and rolled well. It was rather sticky when first being rolled, but what sugar cookie is not? With the right amount of flour added it rolled easily. I found the recipe from a third party link here, at Tidy Mom (and I believe she got it from Bake at 350).

Here is the recipe:

Vanilla Almond Butter Cookies

yields approx 30-35 large cookies or 60 smaller cookies 

  • 6 Cups Flour
  • 4 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 Cup butter
  • 1½ Cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 4 Tbsp milk
  • 3 tsp vanilla
  • ½ tsp pure almond extract

 Directions:

Combine flour, baking powder and salt and set aside. Cream sugar and butter, then add eggs and extracts. Slowly add the flour mixture and beat until combined. Refrigerate for at least an hour to ease rolling and cutting. Bake in preheated oven at 350° for 10-12 mins. Remove and once completely cooled, decorate with royal icing or fondant.

Now, the title of this post is “Two Cookies”, so here is the second one. It is a very, very common recipe found at probably most blogs and recipe sites. My oldest daughter really wanted to make these and we literally started them about an hour before we were scheduled to meet for Christmas dinner. They are really easy and the ingredients are common pantry staples.

No-Bake PB Choc-Oat Cookies

  • ½ cup peanut butter
  • 3 cup oatmeal
  • 2 cups sugar
  • ½ cup milk
  • ½ cup butter
  • 4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

 Directions:

 Measure peanut butter and oats, set aside.

Combine all other ingredients in medium saucepan over med-high heat and bring to a boil. Boil for one minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add peanut butter and oats. Quickly drop cookies onto wax paper and let cool. (I use a tablespoon size cookie scoop).

Our Holiday Table

27 Monday Dec 2010

Posted by in Cakes & Pies, Cookies, Dessert, Entree', Muffins & Quick Breads, Recipes, Sides, Sweet Breads

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Christmas in our family is quite traditional, as far as dinner is concerned. Only one of the recipes in this post are new to us and our table. Even though any of our kids could recite what will be on the table, and who will be preparing it, it just wouldn’t be the same if we switched things up. We talk about it every year, but never do.

For the main courses are ham and turkey. My sister-in-law cooks the ham, and we grill the turkey at our house. I began grilling the turkey several years ago when I ran out of oven room. Grilling the turkey, I have found, yields the most moist white meat of any cooking method. It is very simple, a little butter, salt and pepper on and under the skin along with about 3/4 of an inch of stock in the pan. Covered then slow cooked with only the outside two burners on and in about 3 hours, a beautiful golden brown bird emerges!

Cinnamon Kissed Cranberry Sauce

For the Cranberry Sauce, I prepared a recipe first used at Thanksgiving. I found the recipe over at Recipe Girl and it is not only easy but blows the canned stuff out of the water. It is also great with a little butter on a biscuit or toast in the morning. I highly encourage trying this recipe.

Now, for the best part. Dessert. I made the Browned Butter Pecan Pie (that I made last month) from Cookie Madness, No Bake PB Oatmeal Cookies from well, anywhere, but I have my own recipe, a great sugar cookie (that I will post later), and our family tradition of “Angel Wings“. The Sour Cream Pound Cake, Spicy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, Pumpkin Bread, Pumpkin Pie and Apple Pie played an essential part of this holiday meal too. Needless to say, I have a TON of dessert leftover in the freezer.

It was a wonderful holiday but I must say that I am relieved that it is over. The pressure involved in food preparation and making three growing kids happy have worn me out. I am looking forward to having the rest of the week off and doing, well, nothing.

Happy New Year to all!

Bakerella Pays a Visit!

13 Monday Dec 2010

Posted by in Baking, Cakes & Pies, Candy, Dessert, Recipes

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Ok, maybe not in person, but Bakerella’s Cake Pops book made its first, and definitely not last, appearance in the kitchen. I actually received my book the day it was released but had not had a chance to create anything from it. I’ve made cake pops before, but some of her creations are just amazing.

Well, this past Saturday my daughter and I went looking for Christmas gifts for her friends. You know, even dollar stores will set you back when it comes to presents… then we had this wise idea to prepare sweets for them… namely, cake pops! We were just going to do a “plain old” pop, then I saw how easy the trees would be. Now granted, our last-minute decision didn’t allow me to find all the necessary decor, so we improvised. I still thing they turned out great. My daughter did the majority of the work, I just dipped the pops in the candy coating. We tweaked the shaping slightly too, but without Cake Pops, there wouldn’t have been anything.

They are just slightly tedious, but we completed 48 of them in about 90 minutes. Hope you enjoy the pictures as much as we did seeing the real thing. Check out the link to her site or pick up one of her books, you won’t be bored, I promise!

Flat Broke Chocolate Cake

12 Sunday Dec 2010

Posted by in Baking, Cakes & Pies, Dessert, Recipes

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Back in September, King Arthur Flour’s baking blog “Baking Banter“, posted this long time favorite recipe… They refer to it as a Cake Pan Cake, but I’ve heard it call Krazy Cake, Emergency Cake, Funny Cake etc… I allude to this being a “Flat Broke” cake because of its origins to the Great Depression, when the price of butter and eggs gave this recipe a boost of popularity.

Call it what you’d like, it’s really good, and really easy… it’s even allergy friendly because it doesn’t contain eggs. I made the recipe “last-minute” in place of a sour cream pound cake that my husband had requested… seeing as I had no sour cream, eggs or softened butter.

If you want a moist, chocolate cake that yields “frosting optional” results, this one’s a keeper…

One Pan Cake ~ A King Arthur Flour Original

  • 1 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup cocoa
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon espresso powder, optional
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 tablespoon vinegar
  • 1/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 cup cold milk (other suggestions on their site)

Pre-heat your oven to 350°F.

Measure all the dry ingredients into an 8″ or 9″ round or square cake pan; if you use an 8″ pan, make sure it’s at least 2″ deep. Blend the ingredients together thoroughly with a fork or whisk and scoop out three holes, or indentations.

Pour the vanilla into the first hole, the vinegar into the second, and the vegetable oil into the third.

Take the cup of cold liquid (water, coffee, milk, etc.) and pour it directly over everything in the pan. Note: If you’ve used espresso powder, adding coffee will make this a mocha cake. Stir all the ingredients together with your fork until they are well blended.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes. Serve right from the pan; warm from the oven. Yield: 12 to 16 servings.

I doubled the recipe, making two 8″ rounds, and layering and frosting with a cream cheese frosting. And in preparation, as suggested for “clean release”, I used a mixing bowl and poured the batter into prepared pans.

Two Bite Pumpkin Pies

09 Thursday Dec 2010

Posted by in Baking, Breakfast, Cakes & Pies, Cookies, Dessert, Recipes

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I’m not sure whether to call these  cookies, pastry, pies, tarts or just plain dessert. Since preparing these for my daughters 4th grade class they have been given all of those titles, and with flying colors. I did give out a few copies of the recipe too.

Note, I had prepared this post Thanksgiving week and just realized that it was still in my unpublished file! I must have been half asleep when I started it. Anyway, here is the original post link and this is how easy it is to prepare these… Original source: Three Baking Sheets to the Wind

Pumpkin Pie Pockets, How I prepared them:

Ingredients:

  •  –       ½ baked Pumpkin Pie (can be crust-less, you only use the filling)
  • –       2 – 3 Pie Crusts (I used Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts)*
  • –       1 egg white, lightly beaten

Directions:

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees. Roll out the crust and cut 2 – 4” circles with a glass or cookie cutter. Place 1 rounded tablespoon (see note) of pie in the center of the circle and fold over. Use a fork to close edges and a small sharp knife to cut a couple of decorative vent holes. Place them on a coated baking sheet then brush the tops with egg white and sprinkle with sugar (if desired).

Bake for 8 – 10 minutes. Tops of pies will brown slightly. Remove and let cool completely, store in refrigerator.

*Each crust will make about 17 – 2 inch pies.

Note: originally I posted to use 1 – 2 teaspoons of filling. A more accurate amount would be a rounded tablespoon. You want to have enough filling to enjoy, but not so much it oozes out when you seal the edges!

 

Browned Butter Pecan Pie

29 Monday Nov 2010

Posted by in Baking, Cakes & Pies, Dessert, Recipes

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Just before baking – isn’t it a beaut?!

I have made several variations of Pecan Pie and decided I would try another. This recipe comes from a well known blogger, Anna at Cookie Madness, who has some great recipes and photos. The pie turned out exactly as expected thus surpassing all other recipes I have used. Here is a link to her recipe. It helped also that I was able to use freshly picked Georgia Pecans that were graciously given to me by a friend.

Note that the top picture is before baking, the below picture is when it was done.

Browned Butter Pecan Pie

Pumpkin “Bundt” Bread

28 Sunday Nov 2010

Posted by in Baking, Breakfast, Cakes & Pies, Dessert, Muffins & Quick Breads, Recipes, Sweet Breads

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This is our favorite pumpkin bread recipe. Normally it bakes very well as a quick bread in a loaf pan, but I needed a large brunch size quantity. If you need a large volume of this quick bread, a Bundt pan is a great option for baking. The baking time was of course longer than a regular loaf pan, but it turned out wonderfully.

Here is the recipe and a link to my previous Pumpkin Bread recipe posts.

Pumpkin Bread (doubled for three 8″ pans)

  • 3 cups + 4 Tbsp All Purpose Flour
  • 3 cups sugar 
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp nutmeg
  • 1 cup oil
  • 4 eggs slightly beaten
  • 2 Cups Canned Pumpkin
  • 2/3 Cup Water

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare three 8″ loaf pans with baking spray.

Sift together dry ingredients, set aside.

Beat together eggs, oil, water and pumpkin. Make a well in dry ingredients and add wet mixture. Stir with spoon just until all ingredients are wet. Pour into greased pan(s), fill pan 2/3 full.

Bake for 1 hour or until toothpick comes out clean. (mine took exactly one hour)

Makes three 8″ loafs.

Cinnamon Brunch Cake

20 Sunday Jun 2010

Posted by in Breakfast, Cakes & Pies, Dessert, From a Mix, Muffins & Quick Breads, Recipes

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Cinnamon Brunch cake

 

This cake originates from a cake mix that is doctored to produce a wonderful breakfast dessert. The recipe comes from Duncan Hines Cake Mix Magic Cookbook that a friend loaned me. I prepared the cake this morning because I was bored… actually I woke early and decided to bake. Plus I thought it would be a nice Father’s day treat. The cake is dense, yet moist. I didn’t have almonds so I used recently picked Georgia Pecans.

Incidentally, I am excited to use my new cupcake plate. I actually painted it myself during a recent visit to a local pottery store with my youngest. I love the way it turned out!

Cinnamon Brunch Cake

Duncan Hines Cake Mix Magic, page 82

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
  • 2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 3/4 cup fine chopped almonds (pecans)
  • 1 box white cake mix
  • 1 box instant vanilla pudding (4 serving size)
  • 4 eggs
  • 3/4 cup vegetable oil (see note)
  • 3/4 cup water
  • 1 tsp almond extract (I used vanilla)

Directions:

Pre heat the oven to 350. Spray a 10 inch Bundt pan with baking spray.

Combine the brown sugar and cinnamon, set aside. Sprinkle nuts evenly in the bottom of the Bundt pan. Combine the remaining ingredients and beat for two minutes.

Spread half of the batter in the pan and sprinkle the cinnamon sugar evenly over batter. Pour remaining batter into pan.

Bake for 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool about 15 minutes and remove from pan.

Glaze cake if desired. To prepare glaze, combine 1 cup of confectioner sugar with 1 – 2 tablespoons of milk. Stir until desired pouring consistency.

Note: To reduce some of the oil, I suggest using 1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce, 1/2 cup of oil, and 1/2 cup of water. Or any combination of this reaching 1 1/2 cups of liquid. The applesauce renders a moister crumb.

Chocolate Chip Marble Bundt Cake

31 Monday May 2010

Posted by in Cakes & Pies, Dessert, Recipes

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I was drawn to the original post of this recipe by the its title “Stupid Delicious“. Obviously it must be pretty good to earn that title. I prepared this for a Memorial Day Cookout we attended today – which by the way was a pool party and the beautiful weather of this three-day holiday weekend ended at 3:00… the time the party began. Being a native Floridian however, I know that in 30 minutes, the sun will probably be shining, so we waited… and waited… The sun never came out, but the lightning stopped, so the kids got their swim in.

Anyway, I digress. I hesitate to take new recipes to parties, but after reading this post, I felt strongly it would be good. It was. The oohs and aahs were strikingly exclaimed. Try it, you will not be disappointed.

Don’t be afraid of the larger amount of ingredients, it is actually very easy to prepare, and once it’s in the oven, your work is done. No layers, no frosting, nothing but a beautiful, rich chocolaty cake ready to be devoured.

Chocolate Chip Marble Bundt Cake

From Shauna at Piece of Cake 

  • –       2½ cups sugar, divided
  • –       ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder 
  • –       ¼ cup light corn syrup
  • –       2½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract, divided
  • –       2 2/3 cups flour
  • –       2 teaspoons baking powder
  • –       ½ teaspoon salt
  • –       1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • –       4 large eggs, at room temperature
  • –       1 cup milk, at room temperature
  • –       1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (I like Ghiradelli)

1.) In a small saucepan, whisk together 1/2 cup of the sugar, the cocoa powder and corn syrup with ½ cup hot water. Bring just to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in ½ teaspoon of vanilla. Set aside.

2.) Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat it to 350 degrees. Butter and lightly flour a 12-cup bundt pan.

 3.) In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.

4.) In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter with the remaining 2 cups sugar until light in color and fluffy, about two minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time until thoroughly incorporated. Scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl. Beat in the remaining 2 tsp vanilla.

 5.) Reduce the mixer speed to low, and beat in a third of the flour mixture just until the flour begins to disappear into the batter. Beat in half the milk. Beat in another third of the flour, then the rest of the milk, and finish with the remaining flour until the batter is smooth. Stop the mixer and gently fold in the chocolate chips.

 6.) Scoop out a third of the batter into a medium bowl, whisk in the chocolate syrup and set aside.

7.)  Pour another third of the batter into the prepared bundt pan and smooth it with a spatula. Evenly top this layer with the chocolate batter. Finish by pouring the last third of the vanilla batter over the top.

8.) Lightly swirl the batters with a wooden skewer or knife to give a “marble” effect–a continuous figure-8 motion while going around the pan works well.

9.) Bake until a toothpick inserted comes out clean and the cake springs back lightly when touched, about 60-70 minutes.

10.) Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack. Invert the cooled cake onto a serving platter and dust lightly with powdered sugar before serving if desired. Store any leftovers in a cake dome at room temperature for 4-5 days, maybe more.

*I didn’t have time to wait till the cake was completely cooled and turned it onto a plate while still slightly warm. There was a very minor amount of thin cake layer remaining “here and there” in the pan, so if you can’t wait, it should be ok.

 

Almond Lovers Chocolate Chip Cookies

05 Monday Apr 2010

Posted by in Cookies, Recipes

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This recipe originates from PickyPalate.com. The minute I saw the recipe I knew it was a must try. I am always looking for that “perfect” cookie. For me, texture is second only to taste, followed closely by how well they hold up in the next couple of days (if they last that long).

I baked part of the batch on Saturday and I am happy to say that 48 hours later, the cookies are as fresh as the day I baked them. Additionally, I baked some more tonight and after being refrigerated they baked up perfectly.

These chocolate chip cookies are certainly gaining a top ten ranking on my long list of cookies. Try it, you won’t be disappointed.

Just as a note, for the chocolate chips I use a combination of Ghirardelli semi-sweet chips and their 60% baking disks (which I love…)

For the recipe, please click on the link over to Picky Palate’s site. Make sure to make time to check out her other recipes and links. It’s a great blog.