Our Holiday Table

27 Monday Dec 2010

Posted by laurelg1 in Cakes & Pies, Cookies, Dessert, Entree', Muffins & Quick Breads, Recipes, Sides, Sweet Breads

Tags

Baked, Baking, Cakes & Pies, cinnamon, Dessert, Easy, Muffins & Quick Breads, Oatmeal, pumpkin, Recipes

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!

Mini Doughnut Muffins

06 Saturday Nov 2010

Posted by laurelg1 in Baking, Breakfast, Muffins & Quick Breads, Recipes, Sweet Breads

≈ 8 Comments

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Baking, Breakfast, brunch, cinnamon, Dessert, King Arthur Flour, Mini-Muffins, Muffins & Quick Breads, Recipes

It’s a good thing the recipe turned out, because the event for which the muffins were made was a flop…today at least. This week some good friends of ours had a dream come to life. Unable (to this point) to have children, they were blessed to adopt a newborn. The entire thing was a miracle.

Her baby shower was brunch style and I was asked to bring muffins. I narrowed my choices down and settled on a recipe from King Arthur Flour. With over 125 rave reviews, I was sure it would please. The shower began at 10 a.m. and the muffins came out of the oven at 9:45. I rushed to get my teenage daughter (think Saturday morning sleep in) out of bed and ready, then we headed out. When we arrived at the shower location no one was there. We searched around… nothing. I started calling friends and of course no one answered. Finally, on about the 5th call I reached someone. I was in the right spot for the shower and at the correct time… just a week early. Fail. LOL So my grouchy teenager and I headed home, warm muffins in hand. I still can’t believe I went through the whole morning, baking and all, and had the wrong day. I’m still laughing over this one.

So to the recipe. It was quite easy to prepare and the ingredients are a regular staple in most pantries. They live up to thier name too – very doughnut like. Without even knowing the name of the recipe, my husband said “these are almost like doughnuts”. The KA recipe is for 12 regular size muffins, but on thier blog, “Baker’s Banter“, they prepare the mini’s. They are the perfect two bite size, quite reminiscent of the classic “munchkin” or donut hole.

Mini Doughnut Muffins (from King Arthur Flour)

Batter

¼ cup butter, softened
¼ cup vegetable oil
½ cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1½ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1¼ teaspoons ground nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 2/3 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
1 cup milk

Topping

3 tablespoons melted butter
3 tablespoons cinnamon sugar

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Lightly grease a standard muffin tin. Or line with 12 paper or silicone muffin cups, and grease the cups with non-stick vegetable oil spray; this will ensure that they peel off the muffins nicely.

In a medium-sized mixing bowl, cream together the butter, vegetable oil, and sugars till smooth. Add the eggs, beating to combine. Stir in the baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, salt, and vanilla. Stir the flour into the butter mixture alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour and making sure everything is thoroughly combined. Spoon the batter evenly into the prepared pan, filling the cups nearly full.

Bake the muffins for 15 to 17 minutes, or until they’re a pale golden brown and a cake tester inserted into the middle of one of the center muffins comes out clean. Remove them from the oven, and let them cool for a couple of minutes, or until you can handle them. While they’re cooling, melt the butter for the topping.

Use a pastry brush to paint the top of each muffin with the butter, then sprinkle with the cinnamon-sugar. Or simply dip the tops of muffins into the melted butter, then roll in the cinnamon-sugar.

Serve warm, or cool on a rack and wrap airtight at room temperature.

Yield: 12 muffins. (* I prepared mini muffins and got about 32. I didn’t use muffin liners, just well greased the pan.)

Scrumptious Snickerdoodles!

25 Wednesday Nov 2009

Posted by laurelg1 in Cookies, Recipes

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

cinnamon, Cookies, Mrs. Siggs, Recipes, snickerdoodles

A favorite holiday cookie at our house is the classic snickerdoodle. Not much explanation needed on this one, as few people are unfamiliar with this delicate delight. Many versions use all butter, but I like the shortening/butter mix as in the Betty Crocker Recipe. I think splitting the butter makes for a crispy on the outside, tender on the inside cookie. Either way, snickerdoodles are an easy favorite.

Snickerdoodles (Betty Crocker)

1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup shortening
2 eggs
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar (4 tablespoons)
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Heat oven to 400ºF.

Mix 1 1/2 cups sugar, the butter, shortening and eggs in large bowl. Stir in flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt.
Shape dough into 1 1/4-inch balls. Mix 1/4 cup sugar and the cinnamon. Roll balls in cinnamon sugar mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cooking pan. Cook 8 – 10 minutes or until set. My first batches are usually ready in 8 minutes, then cooking times reduce to about 7 minutes.

Remove and cool on the cookie sheet about 2 minutes then remove to rack to cool completely.

Makes about 4 dozen

Tracing the History of the Snickerdoodle

29 Monday Dec 2008

Posted by laurelg1 in Cookies, Recipes

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

cinnamon, Cookies, Mrs. Siggs, Recipes, snickerdoodles

Snickerdoodles

I love everything about snickerdoodles. They are easy to make using common pantry staples. They are a light cookie and with some minor changes you can create a soft or a crisp cookie. Oh, and of course who can ignore the name? “Snickerdoodles” are drop cookies topped with cinnamon sugar that are cited in print from at least 1889. They were very popular in New England and Pennsylvania during this time. There are a few different beliefs about where the name came from. According to Wikipedia, some believe the cookies have a Dutch or German origin with their name being interpreted from the German word Schneckennudeln, or cinnamon-dusted sweet rolls. Some even believe the name originates from a series of tall tales around a hero named Snickerdoodle from the early 1900s.

In my research, I compiled some of the early recipes (the oldest from 1889) to show in comparison for the common recipes used today. This is what I found:

(Click on picture for larger view)

There are also many recipes that use only butter (1 cup) and eliminate the shortening all together. My favorite always goes back to the Betty Crocker (recipe below) method. They are so easy to put together and always bake up golden and crackly – and store quite wonderfully for several days. I often double the recipe, preparing all of the cookies, and then freezing half. The frozen cookie dough is easy to pull out and bake as many or as few cookies as needed.

Soooo… My conclusion? There a many recipes for this “strangely” named tasty cookie, and many preferences for their texture. Whether you like your snickerdoodles soft, crisp or a combination of both, this petite cinnamon dusted delight is treasured by all ages.

Snickerdoodles

Betty Crocker

1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup shortening
2 eggs
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar (4 tablespoons)
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Heat oven to 400ºF.

Mix 1 1/2 cups sugar, the butter, shortening and eggs in large bowl. Stir in flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt.
Shape dough into 1 1/4-inch balls. Mix 1/4 cup sugar and the cinnamon. Roll balls in cinnamon sugar mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cooking pan. Cook 8 – 10 minutes or until set. **I set the time for seven minutes, then watch them very closely. When the cookies just begin to form cracks and thier color is a light brown, I remove them. Cool them on the cookie sheet about 2 minutes then remove to rack to cool completely.

Makes about 4 dozen

Links to this info:

Food Network Gale Gand’s Snickerdoodles

Wikipedia

Wikipedia Cookbook

Big Apple Corner

Update: After viewing this recipe at Dine & Dish, I remembered doing this post and wanted to go back and check the difference between my favorite recipe and the Mrs. Siggs recipe – I realized the only difference was the sugar at the end – Mrs. Siggs calls for 3 tablespoons, while the Betty Crocker calls for 1/4 cup, i.e. 4 Tablespoons… I actually prefer more cinnamon taste, so I will be going with Mrs. Siggs from now on!