Bonkers for Cookies

Here is the annual post on what I baked for Christmas.
I went a little nuts this year.  For some reason, I had it in my head that I had to make a whole bunch of cookies.  I wanted to make a few deliveries.  This year, I attempted toffee and it was fabulous.  I also made three different batches of peanut butter fudge.  I am totally hooked on candy-making.
Here is the list:
1. Chocolate Crinkles - my childhood favorite Christmas cookie.  This recipe comes from the original Betty Crocker Cooky Book from the 1960s.  They were indeed as good as I remembered.  The cookie batter is even better.
2. Almond Meltaways - this was a pinterest find.  I give them a meh.  They were kind of boring.
3. Oatmeal Carmelitas - I got this recipe from a college acquaintance.  They are another favorite of mine. (I use walnuts and instead of caramel candies, I use a jar of caramel topping mixed with a couple tablespoons of flour.)
4. Russian Teacakes - Also an old favorite.
5. Gingerbread Cookies - Every Christmas, I like exactly one gingerbread cookie.  So I made a batch that required a ton of flour.  This pretty much describes my unexplained insanity this year.  Be warned that this recipe makes A LOT of dough - it is easily halfed.
6. Peppermint cookies - I modified a recipe I found on pinterest and I LOVED them.  I am posting it here so that I can make it again next year.
7. Peanutbutter Fudge - As mentioned above, I made quite a few batches of this in an attempt to try to perfect the recipe.  I figured it out and it is FABULOUS.  Love it.
8. Toffee - It does require a candy thermometer, but aside from that, it is SO easy.  The one problem I had was that I couldn't get the chocolate to stay on top of the toffee.  I must research this.

And here are the recipes:

Peanut Butter Fudge
(This makes a 9x13 pan of fudge.  This is A LOT of fudge.)
Chocolate Layer:
1/2 cup butter
4 cups sugar
1 can evaporated milk
1 tsp vanilla
18 large marshmallows
16 oz. chocolate (I used a big ol' block of Trader Joe's dark chocolate)

Peanut Butter Layer:
1/2 cup butter
4 cups sugar
1 can evaporated milk
1 tsp vanilla
18 large marshmallows
12 oz. bag of peanut butter chips
4 oz. chocolate chips
A big scoop of your favorite peanut butter
1/2 cup finely crushed salted peanuts

For both layers, follow these directions.
1. In a saucepan, heat butter, sugar and milk to a boil, stirring constantly.  Boil on medium for 8 minutes.  (If it starts to brown before 8 minutes, get it off the heat FAST.) Remove from heat, add vanilla, marshmallows, stir fast to melt.  Add chocolate (or chips and peanut butter) and again stir to melt.   
2. Make chocolate layer first, after combined, pour quickly into a greased 9x13 pan.  Touch it as little as possible.
3. Make peanut butter layer second, and pour on top of chocolate layer.  Again, touch as little as possible, but smooth it out.  Press peanuts into the top. 
4. Let cool completely and cut into approximate 1" squares.

Peppermint Cookies
(HERE is the original recipe)

1 cup butter

1 cup powdered sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp salt

red food coloring (optional)

1 bag of Andes' candy cane chips
Crushed candy canes (optional)

 

Preheat to 350.

Combine butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add egg and vanilla and again stir until fluffy.  Add food coloring if you feel like it.  Add flour and salt and stir until combined.  Chill dough for 15-30 minutes.  Remove dough from fridge, and roll into a big log with about a 2" diameter.  Slice into about 1/4" thick discs.  Bake for about 10 minutes.  Cool on wire rack.

In a double boiler, melt entire bag of candy cane chips until smooth and fairly runny.  Gently frost cookies with melted chips.  Sprinkle with crushed candy canes.  Let frosting cool and harden.

 

Baking for One

A terrible thing happened to me.  Yes, ME!  My son's pediatrician asked me to lay off the dairy for a week or two to see if that might improve the tiny (well, he's not tiny) one's disposition and penchant for barfing.  Ever since he was born I have been keeping my low blood sugar regulated with copious amounts of cheese and I have the most amazing sweet tooth while breastfeeding.  Did you know that practically all chocolate sold in stores contains some sort of dairy?  Milk fat, milk protein, lactose, butter, etc. It is making my life difficult.  And yes, this is all about me.  On top of this, my husband is attempting to diet, so when I have a sugar craving, I need to keep it to a single portion.
Awhile ago, I found this very handy idea on pinterest: a single-serving chocolate chip cookie recipe.  It can be found HERE.  I have now tested it with both coconut oil and canola oil instead of butter.  I recommend using less coconut oil if you need dairy free - perhaps by as much as half.  It makes for incredibly rich, slightly crunchy cookies.  I actually preferred the canola oil substitute and the ratio remains the same.
I love to experiment with recipes.  I tweak everything to test the limits of a recipe and see if I can make something I like even more.  This time I chanced upon something truly wonderful AND dairy free.  Here is some incredibly rich, fudgy goodness:
Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
2 Tbls canola oil
2 Tbls white sugar
1 egg yolk
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp milk (I used almond)
pinch of salt (kosher)
1 Tbls cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup flour
2 Tbls chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350.
In a small bowl, mix oil, sugar, egg, milk and vanilla thoroughly.  Add all dry ingredients and mix until combined.  Add chocolate chips and mix again.
Bake for about 9 minutes.

Note 1: I bake these on a small pampered chef stone - which happens to be the perfect size for exactly three cookies, which is what this makes.
Note 2: These would be great with coconut oil, but cut it by half.
Note 3:  I discovered a brand of chocolate chips that does not have any milk in them: Guillard. 

Enjoy!

Boring Chicken No More

We have noticed in our household, lately, that our kids appear to be passing the picky-phase.  Or maybe they are growing and just really hungry.  We delight in watching them eat everything from asparagus to brussel sprouts to kale chips.  Our youngest has even become pretty adventurous at the Indian restaurant.  The two things that I can think of that our kids absolutely refuse to eat, strangely, are mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese. 
This chicken dish is a current family favorite.  I grew up with a variation of this that came from some sort of magazine about time-saving skillet meals.  It is actually one of the few things from my childhood that I make somewhat frequently.  I don't use a recipe anymore, but I thought it was worth writing down and passing on because it is such a family favorite.  No need for chicken nuggets in our house.  One time I made this, my 5-year-old probably ate half of the chicken all by himself.  That evening my husband was late getting home and he didn't get any chicken.  We were hungry.  Oops.
Lemon Caper Chicken
1-1/2 lb boneless chicken breasts cut into 1" pieces
1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp poultry seasoning
4 tbls butter
1 cup chicken broth
1-2 tsp minced garlic (depending on preference)
Juice of one lemon
3 Tbls capers
In a paper bag, place the flour, salt and poultry seasoning, shake to combine.  Add chicken pieces, close bag and shake to coat evenly.
In a large skillet, melt half of the butter on medium heat.  When butter is melted and slightly bubbling, add chicken.  Cook about 5 minutes per side until chicken is cooked through and browned.  Add the second half of the flour when chicken is flipped over so that both sides get a little bit crispy.  It's okay to supplement with a little olive oil if you need more liquid in the pan.
When the chicken is cooked through, pour broth over, maintaining medium heat.  While broth thickens and bubbles, add garlic and lemon juice, simmering for a couple of minutes until sauce is a bit translucent.  Add capers and voila! it's ready to go.

It's a pretty versatile chicken dish with a bit of a mediteranean taste to it - it would be great paired with anything Greek.  I usually serve this over plain rice with some kind of roasted vegetable.  We are quite the rice-lovers in our house and when I recently reorganized my pantry with a couple new shipments of tupperware, I discovered we keep about seven kinds of rice on hand at any time.  Tonight we used short-grain-brown, one of my favorites.  I also made roasted asparagus to go with it.  It was a dinner that made my pregnant-tummy happy.

Baked Apples

One of my most recent pregnancy cravings has been apple crisp. Warm apples, cinnamon, brown sugar, how can you go wrong? It reminds me a little bit of when I was a kid and my mom would make homemade cinnamon applesauce.  The ultimate comfort food.
I have been making them big - 9x13 pan size. Today, I do believe I stumbled upon the perfect "crisp" combination. I am going to share the joy, because everyone should get to smell that fresh-baked apple smell wafting out of their oven. And I highly recommend topping with a little whipped cream.
Vanilla Apple Crisp 
9-10 large apples of your choice (I used Fujis because we had them)
1-2 tbls lemon juice
Cinnamon to preference
1-1/2 sticks of butter, melted (extra points if you brown the butter)
2 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup white flour
1-1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch of kosher salt
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
1. Peel, core and slice all apples. Combine in a bowl with cinnamon and lemon juice. If you use tart apples like Granny Smiths, mix in some white sugar depending on how sweet you prefer. Pour apple mixture into 9x13 baking dish.
2. Combine all crisp ingredients (butter through vanilla) until a loose but thoroughly moistened crumbly mixture appears.
3. Pour evenly on top of apples and loosely pat it down.
4. Bake for about 35 minutes until crust is firm and a little brown and apples are tender. Note that some apples bake more quickly than others. Fujis, for example, tend to need more time while Granny Smiths turn into applesauce before you know it.
Note: This makes for a pretty crisp-heavy dessert.  If you like more than a 50/50 balance of apples and crust, you might want to use more like 12-14 apples.

Baked Cauliflower

I seem to be making up for taking the summer off of blogging here...
Tonight was an experimental-dinner night and for once, I rocked it.
The soup didn't last as long as I thought it would and so I found myself unexpectedly having to make dinner tonight with no time to grab anything new or useful at the store.  I decided to challenge myself by creating something wonderful out of whatever I could find in the fridge.  I was faced with no onions, sausage or mushrooms (important go-to ingredients when I improvise).  What I had was a head of cauliflower, a bunch of frozen chicken, an orange pepper and some pumpkin puree (pumpkin puree is likely to be a common theme in my cooking for at least the next month or so).  So, I went to pinterest and searched "cauliflower chicken" to see what would come up.  Most of what came up involved chicken sausage or cream.  As I've mentioned before, creamy/cheesy casseroles don't work so well for my digestive system.  Then I came across an interesting casserole with a canned diced tomato base.  It also required sausage, so I sort of used it as inspiration.  When I popped my creation into the oven, I thought, "well, I hope it's edible."  It ended up being SO good I stuffed myself.  The pumpkin puree made it pretty creamy - also made it extra healthy.  This is such a great cauliflower-casserole alternative to the standard fare that involves lots of cheese and cream.  Even though it was just a random creation, I am writing down the recipe so that I can make it again.
I served it with purple jasmine rice.  If you've never branched out with rice at your local fancy grocery store's bulk food aisle, I highly recommend doing so.  Purple rice, and pink rice, are favorites of ours.  And festive!
Chicken Cauliflower Bake
2 boneless chicken breasts cut into 1" pieces
1 orange or yellow pepper diced
3 cloves garlic minced or 1 Tbls of a good quality jarred minced garlic (I buy mine at the local Asian grocery store)
Olive oil
1 head cauliflower, trimmed, cored, and cut into bite sized pieces
1 14 oz. can of diced tomatoes with juice
1 cup pumpkin puree
salt to taste (I used about 1-1/2 tsp)
ground pepper to taste
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2-1 cup panko crumbs or similar
1/2 cup fresh shredded parmesan cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Par-boil cauliflower for about 2 minutes, drain, set aside.
3. In a skillet, pour one turn of the pan of olive oil, heat garlic until fragrant.  Add chicken and seasonings.  Add orange/yellow pepper and saute somewhere between medium and medium-high heat until chicken is cooked through.
4. Remove from heat, stir in tomatoes, pumpkin puree and taste to see if more salt is needed.  Add cauliflower and combine thoroughly.
5. Pour into a 9x13 pan.  Top with mixture of panko and parmesan cheese.  Drizzle lightly with olive oil.
6. Bake for about 30 minutes or until sauce is bubbly and bread crumbs are toasted.

Bring on the Soup

My husband loves a good tortilla soup.  Our kids are very anti-soup.  This leads to much negotiation when soup-season rolls around.  I am fairly ambivalent about soup, but I enjoy the fact that it means I don't have to cook for two or three days - a definite plus with my currently busy schedule. 
I am currently very nostalgic for Fall.  We are having a bit of an endless summer here in Seattle and so although it is still close to 70 every day (unheard of for October), I have decided to dig into Fall food.  I talked my grandparents into growing sugar pie pumpkins this year, and they got a bumper crop, so now I find myself with many, many pumpkins that need to be eaten.  I'm not really a pumpkin-spice-dessert kind of gal, so I am having to use pumpkin more in "hidden" ways.  Yesterday I made really great pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.  Today I tossed some pumpkin puree into our soup.  In case you didn't know, pumpkin is highly nutritious.  It is full of potassium and Vitamin A in particular.  So it certainly doesn't help to throw a cup of it into food here and there.  I tweaked my usual tortilla soup recipe a bit today and it turned out great - even in vibrant, Fall colors.  Here is the recipe, in case you too have a bunch of pumpkin puree to use creatively:

Slow-Cooker Tortilla Soup
28 oz can of diced tomatoes, drained
10 oz can of mild green enchilada sauce
1 orange pepper, seeded and chopped
1 medium/large yellow onion chopped
3 cloves garlic minced
1 4-oz can of green chiles
1 can of broth (use vegetable for vegetarian option)
1 cup water
1 cup pumpkin puree
3 Tbls fresh cilantro chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground white pepper
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp chile powder (more for spicier soup, substitute with paprika for milder soup)
1 can white or black beans (use one can each of both kinds of beans for vegetarian option)
1 can corn (or one small bag of frozen corn)
2 chicken breasts cooked and shredded (omit for vegetarian option)

In a medium slow cooker, combine all but beans, corn and chicken.  Cook on low for 5-6 hours or high for 2.5 hours.
Add beans, corn, chicken and cook for one more hour on low.
Tortillas:
About 30 minutes before soup is done...
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Cut about 15 corn tortillas into 1/2" strips, brush lightly with olive oil.  Lay on foil-lined cookie sheet.  Bake until crunchy, moving them around periodically so all sides are cooked evenly.

Serve soup by ladeling into bowls and topping with tortilla strips, fresh chopped avocados, shredded jack cheese and/or sour cream. 

Banishing Dairy

A couple years ago, I went through this horrible phase of stomach problems.  In the process, I learned that red meat and dairy are my triggers.  Red meat was fairly easy to eliminate from my life - we didn't eat much of it anyway - but dairy is a lot harder.  I have never tried to completely eliminate dairy, but I have drastically cut back on how much I consume.  Ever since doing both of these things, my body is much happier with me.
I am currently experimenting with almond milk.  In fact, we ran out of regular milk and all we had in the fridge tonight was vanilla sweetened almond milk.  My son really wanted crepes for dinner (sort of an off-and-on Sunday night tradition in our house).  I decided to try dairy-free crepes and I am pleased to report that they were a huge hit.  The texture was even more delicate than with regular milk and they had a subtle nutty flavor that we all enjoyed - particularly my husband.  He was the one who told me this *had* to go on the blog.  So, with the disclaimer that I have never been to France, here you go:

Dairy-Free Crepes (based on the Betty Crocker crepe recipe)
1-1/2 cups flour (throw in half wheat flour if you want to add a healthier twist, but not more than half)
1 Tbls sugar (omit if you are using sweetened almond milk)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups almond milk
2 Tbls canola or vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
2 large eggs (add a third if you like a slightly chewier crepe)

Mix all dry ingredients, then add in wet ingredients.  Stir until very smooth with a whisk (or you can throw everything into a blender).  Let the batter rest for about half an hour.  You can even leave it in the fridge overnight. 
I use this wonderful Italian crepe pan my husband got for me.  You heat it right on a burner then dip the hot pan into the batter, flip it back over and set it back on the stove to set.  You can also make them in a pan, but I confess, I am not great at getting them thin and uniform.
Top/fill with your favorite ingredients.  I like strawberries and bananas with chocolate or raspberries and whip cream.

Brownies with Agave Nectar

Keeping with my love of experimentation, I was curious about agave nectar.  I know it's not exactly new at this point, but I have never used it.  I was reading about how it has a lower glycemic index, even though it's sweeter than sugar AND it's all natural - not some sort of freakish ultra-sweet chemical - so I began wondering if it was just the thing for me.
After yet another rough day of potty training (with this kid, it seems like it might go on forever), I decided I needed some brownies.  I didn't have any unsweetened chocolate bars, so I did some searching for recipes with cocoa powder.  I found a pretty decent one and then decided to tweak it with agave and a couple other twists.  The results were pretty darn good.  Here's the recipe (because I'm sure you need another brownie recipe about as bad as I need another chocolate cookie recipe):

Agave Nectar Brownies
1/2 cup cooled browned butter (I am all about the browned butter these days, makes every baked goody taste better)
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
3/4 cup agave nectar
1 Tbls vanilla
2 large eggs
a pinch of salt unless you used salted butter
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cup bread flour
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 
2. In a mixing bowl, combine butter, sugar, agave, vanilla and eggs.
3. Add in dry ingredients until just combined.
4. Blend in mini chocolate chips.
5. Pour into greased 8x8 pan.
6. Bake for 20-25 minutes.  Closer to 20 if you like it gooey, closer to or slightly more than 25 if you prefer them more like cake.

Baking without Gluten

I don't have gluten intolerance - I know for sure, I've been tested.  Nobody else in my family has a gluten intolerance either.  Gluten free baking is a bit of a mystery to me, but I've had to experiment with it a little bit recently since there is a new little girl in my Sunday School class at church who is gluten intolerant.  I can't imagine what a huge bummer it is to her to usually have to pass on treats at places like church and school so I always make sure that if we bring a snack, she can eat it.  It's not that big of a deal and usually we just bring vegetables or cheese.  The work comes when there are birthdays to celebrate.  When the first birthday rolled around (it was hers, actually), I tried out GF cupcakes.  I looked at a whole bunch of recipes, collected the ingredients (xanthan gum? I learned it's a binder) and the cupcakes turned out great!  Well, they were a little dense, I will admit. 
Another birthday has rolled around and the request was snickerdoodles.  I looked at a few recipes this time and then made some alterations and changed the quantity (we don't really want dozens of cookies laying around when swimsuit season is upon us).  They are a success!  I highly recommend these if you need a go-to GF cookie.  If someone just handed me one, I'm not sure I'd know that it was GF.  They are quick and easy and don't require a lot of different flours like many recipes I came across.  These are chewy snickerdoodles.  If you prefer them to be more crunchy, omit the yogurt and use all butter.

Gluten-Free Snickerdoodles (makes a dainty 15)
3 Tbls shortening
3 Tbls unsalted butter (soft)
1 Tbls greek yogurt
1 egg
1-1/2 Tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup Sorghum flour
1/4 cup corn starch
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
3/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

Cinnamon/sugar in a 3:1 ratio for rolling (so, about 3 Tbls sugar and 1Tbls cinnamon should give you more than enough to work with).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a bowl, mix all dry ingredients.  Set aside.
In another bowl, cream shortening, butter, and sugar together.  Add yogurt, egg and vanilla and mix until well-blended.
Add dry ingredients to shortening-mix and stir until just combined.
Roll a heaping tablespoon of dough into the cinnamon/sugar mixture and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. 
Bake for about 10-11 minutes until cookies are set and cracked, but not browned.


A couple tips regarding GF baking that I've come across:
1) Xanthan gum can be spendy.  I discovered you can buy it bulk at PCC, which means if you don't often use it, you can buy it in very small quantities much more cheaply.
2) I've read that if you sift sorghum flour it helps to lighten the finished product.  I don't have a sifter, so I have not tried this.

Being Green is Easy

Around Valentine's Day, I was trying to come up with a decent recipe for red velvet sugar cookies but due to a couple of *interesting* experiments, I never really came up with anything share-worthy.  I decided to try my luck just once more with green instead for St. Patrick's Day.  I was sure I had a shamrock cookie cutter but when I went to cut out the cookies, I discovered I was wrong.  So, I made a bunch of green frogs instead.  A perfect way to cater to the 4-and-under crowd.  The bonus was that I had purchased some edible sugar eyes (by Wilton) awhile ago and decided to use them.  I think these are perhaps the cutest sugar cookies I have ever made and so simple since I did not frost them.  I can't wait to try these eyes again around Halloween with bats and ghosts.  Here's the recipe (based on Mary's Sugar Cookies in the Betty Crocker Cooky Book):

Festive Frog Sugar Cookies
1-1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 cube of butter (8 Tbls) softened
4 oz. cream cheese softened
1 Tbls cocoa powder
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp almond flavoring (or mint flavoring might be nice instead)
2-1/2 cups flour (I used bread flour for about half of it)
1 tsp soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
A liberal squirt of green gel food coloring

Cream butter, cream cheese and sugar.  Add egg, flavorings, food coloring and mix well.  In a separate bowl, mix all dry ingredients together.  Add to sugar mixture and mix until combined.  Refrigerate for at least one hour.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Roll out on a lightly floured surface to about 1/4" thick (thinner if you like crispy cookies).  Cut with cookie cutter, place about 1" apart on an ungreased baking sheet.  Sprinkle with baking sugar and bake about 6-7 minutes until set but not browned.  Right when the cookies come out of the oven, press two edible eyes firmly into cookies.  This batch made exactly 44 frogs...and my sons ate the remaining dough bits.

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

Being Experimental

Last night, I decided to make some cookies with my boys.  I just wanted to make a quick half-batch of chocolate chip cookies - no refrigerating of the dough (the kids are all about instant gratification), not many cookies to have to eat later.  Now, all you chocolate chip cookie lovers out there probably know all of the important factors in baking a really good chocolate chip cookie and I didn't really have time for any of them, but don't shrug off my accidental discovery.  It made for some excellent cookies.  Back to my story.  I threw in my 1/4 cup of soft, but not melted, butter and my quarter cup of each kind of sugar and then realized that it isn't possible to split an egg in a very effective way.  Shoot.  I didn't have anymore soft butter and I was trying to keep the dough a little cooler so I wouldn't have to refrigerate it, so thawing frozen butter was not really an option.  Hmm...I've got some greek yogurt that needs to get used up?  Yep.  Let's do it.  So I substituted half of the required butter for 0% fat greek yogurt.  I had to compensate by adding a bit of extra flour.  In the end, the dough is not quite as delightful to eat on its own - probably mainly because I'm not a yogurt fan - and the cookies don't spread quite as much as traditional chocolate chip cookies. However, these are absolutely soft and wonderful.  I would definitely throw a dollup of Greek yogurt into my cookies in the future. It was a welcome discovery. 

Less-Guilty Chocolate Chip Cookies
1/4 cup butter softened
1/4 cup 0% fat Greek yogurt
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar packed
2 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 Tbls cornstarch
2/3 cup wheat flour
1 cup white flour
12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Cream butter, yogurt and sugars until well-blended.  Add vanilla and egg, mix thoroughly.  In a separate bowl, combine all dry ingredients.  Add dry ingredients to egg mixture.  Blend until just combined.
One other trick I highly recommend: chill the cookie sheets.  Add chocolate chips and mix by hand.
Drop cookie dough on ungreased, chilled cookie sheets (helps reduce spreading).  Bake 9-10 minutes until set but not crisp.  Makes about 20 cookies.

If you're more a fan of raisins than chocolate chips, I'm thinking this recipe could be pretty good with cinnamon, a little bit of oatmeal and some raisins instead.

Better Mini Donuts

Alright.  Raise your hand if you splurged on the mini donut maker thinking you could make delightful mini donuts to thrill your children (occasionally, of course).  You then brought it home, made the recipe that came with the directions and were subsequently not thrilled.  The donuts tasted like waffles and you thought: bummer.  Anyone?  Anyone?  I know there's at least one hand up out there.
After that first try, I put the donut maker away - far back in the cupboard and forgot about it.  Then last night my son was talking on and on about how much he loves donuts and how we should really have some for breakfast in the morning.  This woke up my curious brain and I while I was reconsidering the donut maker, I wondered if using something similar to cake batter would get better results.  So, this morning I dug out the donut maker and looked at my various cake recipes and decided to do a little experiment.  I liked the results a lot better than that first disappointing try.  In fact, I would venture to say that if you use enough PAM in the pan, you get pretty close to cake-donut-flavor/texture.  So here's the recipe, for all of you that hung your head in shame for falling for a very unnecessary kitchen appliance (I still can't help you with that sandwich maker from 1998 collecting dust back there too - I got rid of mine ages ago).

Buttermilk Mini Donuts
1-1/4 cup flour
1 Tbls cornstarch (because I add it to all cake and baked goods for smoothness)
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
6 Tbls butter (melted)
1 egg + 1 egg white
2 tsp vanilla
2/3 cup buttermilk
(food coloring is optional but festive)

Since we're not making a fancy cake, just beat all the ingredients together at once until just smooth.
Pour a heaping tablespoon of batter into each donut compartment of hot donut maker.  Cook as directed.  For donuts with a little bit of crispy texture on the outside, spray lots of PAM on the top and bottom of the pan between each batch.  Makes about 4 batches of 7 donuts - maybe 5 if you don't over-pour.

Chocolate Glaze
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1-1/2 cup powdered sugar

Whisk all ingredients together until smooth.  Dip slightly cooled donuts into glaze before serving.

(And yes.  I too am laughing that my previous post was for a very healthy breakfast and this, as my 4-yr-old said after proclaiming it the most delicious breakfast he had ever had, is very unhealthy.  I would argue that it is at least slightly healthier than ordering donuts from your local donut shop.  I am a great believer in moderation in all things.  Variety is the spice of life, as they say.)

Big-Protein Breakfast

I love breakfast, but I have to be really careful what I eat in the morning.  If I eat lots of carbs, I end up having a major sugar crash about an hour later that leaves me shaky.  So for me, cereal is pretty much off the table unless I'm in a hurry and I pack a snack.  I love pancakes but they cause me similar issues or just leave me with that "ugg" feeling.  Awhile ago I saw a recipe on pinterest for almond meal pancakes.  I love almond meal and add it to all sorts of things like muffins and banana bread.  So, I pinned it mostly to remind myself to try out something similar - not necessarily the exact recipe (it didn't quite look like my thing but I liked the idea).  Using almond meal instead of flour means these are heavy on the protein and light on the carbs - a perfect way to start the day.  These are even gluten-free.

This morning I finally had a chance to experiment with a couple of different batches and we all liked the results - particularly the 2-yr-old.  He ate more breakfast than I've seen him eat in ages. 
These are a pretty flat pancake, and they have a nice somewhat crumbly texture and a light, nutty flavor.  I'm not a syrup fan (we don't even have any in our house) so I just dusted a little powdered sugar on top.  Honey would be another great alternative topping.  Jam or applesauce would work too.

Almond Meal Pancakes
1-1/2 cups almond meal
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
2 tbls oil
2 tsp vanilla

Mix all dry ingredients together in a bowl.  Add milk, eggs, oil and vanilla and whisk until all ingredients are combined.  Fry on medium-low to medium heat in a well-oiled pan.  Watch closely for bubbles, when the bottom side is lightly browned and the pancake is firm, flip and cook the other side for about a minute.  Re-oil pan between batches (even if it's non-stick).  Makes about 6-8 6" pancakes.

Baked Beans

I'm mostly posting this for myself, since we had this tonight and it was outstanding.  However, if anyone else out there is like me and does not like split pea soup and/or navy bean soup, baked beans are an excellent alternative use for a ham bone.  The downside is that it takes about 9 hours of intermittent care.  I didn't so much mind that today, though, since my kids haven't wanted to leave the house since Christmas (that Santa and his awesome taste in toys).  In the end, with the amazing flavor of the beans, I'd say it might have been worthwhile.  This isn't something I would make frequently, but this is definitely something I would make yearly with my ham bone.
A side-note about bone-in ham.  I discovered last Christmas season, upon buying a ham on the 26th, that having a 10 lb. ham hanging around once a year was a pretty cost-effective kind of meat.  This year, for example, we will have gotten 8 dinners out of it and it flavored a couple of breakfasts too.  About half of this is ham that goes into the freezer for the future.  Ham freezes great and thaws great - so does bacon if you've never tried it.  So, even though that big hunk-o-ham cost me $30, when you break it down over so many meals, you will see what I mean.
Alright, back to the beans.  I found THIS recipe and then I accidentally bought only half the amount of beans I needed.  I wasn't too terribly worried about this, since the recipe would supposedly feed 16 (!!!), but I did have to do some modification (both out of necessity and by choice as you will see) and in the end it was probably far more meaty than it would have been with twice the beans.  I mention this so that if you aren't going to use this as a main dish like we did, you might want to up the ratio of bean to bone.  Also note that we ate this with giant sides of steamed cauliflower as an attempt to offset such a rich dish.  Have I mentioned these beans were SO good?  So good.  Baking the beans instead of crock-potting the beans makes a big difference.  The ham bone ends up roasted instead of being boiled giving it a much more full, rich flavor.

Baked Beans with a Bone (as modified by me, Danielle)
16 oz. dried navy beans
3 cups water
2-14 oz. cans of diced tomatoes with juice
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup molasses
1/3 cup brown sugar packed
1 tsp dried ground mustard
a few grinds of black pepper
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 large red onion left unchopped
1 ham bone with some meat left on it

Before we begin, let's again understand this whole process will take you 9 hours, not the 7 hours the original recipe claims.  Don't say I didn't warn you.
1. Quick soak beans.  Do this by bringing the water and the tomatoes to a boil in a dutch oven.  Add the beans and boil for about three minutes.  Take off burner and let them sit for about an hour.
2. After the hour, bring the mixture back to a boil, add salt and then reduce to simmer covered for another hour.
3. Heat oven to 250 degrees. 
4. Add molasses, sugar, mustard, pepper and cloves, stir.  Toss in the onion and the ham bone.  Cover and place in oven for about 7 hours.
5. Check on the beans and give them a stir about once an hour.  Around hour 5, add another 1/4 to 1/2 cup of water.  The ham bone should be getting nice and soft.  Use the stirring spoon to break it off the bone if it wants to come off.  Around hour 6, take the lid off so that the liquid can thicken and evaporate a bit.
6. When the beans are finished (as in, soft enough that they taste good), remove dutch oven from oven.  Remove bones (which should be clean at this point) and discard (unless you like to bone-pick, which I do not).  Also if there are any large chunks of skin, I'd remove those too.  Take out onion and large ham chunks and cut them into bite-sized pieces, add back to pot.
Enjoy!

I added the tomatoes instead of straight water because I like baked beans with a bit of a tomato base.  It works fine and adds nutrients that water by itself would not.  I cut the salt in half since ham by itself is pretty salty, the amount of salt the original recipe requires is not needed (we learned this the hard way: ours was a bit salty).  This actually makes a great meal.  Think of it as ham chili...mmm...ham.  It makes about 6 adult servings if you eat it as a main course, probably 10-12 side-sized servings.

Baked 'Shrooms

Last night we had a lovely New Year's Eve dinner by candlelight (the kids think eating in the dark is truly exciting).  In the spirit of how we used to do New Year's Eve when I was a kid, we had a dinner of finger-food appetizers.  Stuffed mushrooms sounded like a more grown-up option to go with our little smokies wrapped in crescent rolls for the kids.  I ended up creating a great recipe for stuffed mushrooms so I thought I'd pass it along.
Cream Cheese Crab Stuffed Mushrooms
12 Large White Mushrooms
6 oz. Whipped Cream Cheese (because it's softer and lighter)
1 Tbls Cream or Milk
1/4 cup Crab meat
1/4 cup green onions chopped small, use some of the greens - it's about 5 green onions
2 garlic cloves minced
1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese + some for the tops

1. De-stem the mushrooms and set them in an oven-safe dish.  They are going to release some juice, so if it's a cookie sheet, make sure it has sides.  I used a small stone.

2. In a bowl, combine all the rest of the ingredients until well-mixed.

3. Using a small spoon (like a baby spoon if you have one hanging around), fill each mushroom evenly, be generous so that all the filling is used between the 12 mushrooms.

4. Top with parmesan cheese.

5. Bake at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes until the cheese starts to brown.

6. I would recommend serving these in a dish lined with a towel since they tend to let off more liquid after they get out of the oven.  Not the end of the world, just a little messy.

These were SO good, but also quite rich.  Unless you are a person who can handle lots of really rich food, I doubt anyone would eat more than about two of these, so plan accordingly.

Big Christmas Cookie Round-up

Finally getting around to posting about cookies...
Due to unforseen chaos in our household the week before Christmas, I didn't end up with lots of time to do my annual Christmas cookie baking.  I had bought all kinds of fun supplies and didn't end up using any of them.  I had also intended to make a really super-awesome gingerbread house from scratch and had lots of stuff for that too and it never happened either.  Alas...some years are just like that.
This year I made seven fairly simple treats - a few were old favorites, a couple were new.  Here's what I made:

1. Homemade marshmallows with toasted coconut.  This is the one treat my husband actually begs me to make every year.  If you've never made marshmallows, it's a fun science experiment and they are also incredibly easy and they taste so good.

2. Double-chocolate Sable Cookies.  They are chocolate-sandies, basically.  They were really easy to make, sadly only made barely two dozen.  They tasted great fresh out of the oven, but lost their sandy texture almost instantly.  Good flavor but I'd give them a "meh."

3. Russian Tea Cakes.  An old stand-by.  It sounded good.  I was sad it only made about 30 cookies.  I must remember to double the recipe next time.

4. Spritz.  I always seem to make pink flowers when I make spritz.  I love how festive they make a plate of cookies look.  This year I meant to make a green-Christmas-tree batch too, but time ran out (or rather, my will ran out).  Another classic.  I make them every year.  I love my battery-powered cookie gun that a friend gave me a few years ago.  (psst. I just noticed while searching for the link for the recipe that there is such a thing as eggnog spritz.  Intriguing???)

5. Ginger Chewies.  I always make at least one ginger-cookie and it is usually a variation of this one.  It turned out great.  The only change I made was adding lots more ginger (2 heaping teaspoons) and rolling them in turbinado sugar instead of regular white sugar.  My only complaint was again: it only made two dozen.  I tend to give out lots of holiday cookie plates (this was a weak year for us) so when I bake, I need the recipe to make more like 4 dozen cookies.  Remember to double...

6. Toffee Fudge.  This year I made two batches of fudge.  One batch a little earlier in the month of my Billion Dollar Fudge that I posted on the blog last year.  It is so good with the andes mint chips mixed in.  I was going to make the same thing the second time around, but my dear four-year-old hates mint (it's "spicy") and begged me to do something different.  So, nice mom that I am, I decided to experiment with Heath Toffee chips.  I also threw in a bunch of chopped pecans.  My review: the texture was great - nice and crunchy.  I'd say if you like your fudge more milk-chocolatey-sweet, you'd like this fudge.  If you (like me) like it more dark and rich and deep, you'd probably find this one too sweet.  Here's the recipe for those who are curious:

Crunchy Toffee Fudge

1/2 cup butter

4 cups sugar
1 can evaporated milk
1 tsp vanilla
18 large marshmallows
16 oz. chocolate (your choice: bars, chocolate chips, a combination)
1 package of toffee chips
3/4 cup well-chopped nuts (pecans or almonds preferably)
Butter a 9x13 pan, set aside.
In a large saucepan, bring butter, sugar and milk to a boil, stirring constantly.
Boil for 8 minutes - a good, strong, rolling boil - again, stirring constantly.
Remove from heat and add vanilla and marshmallows. Stir until melted.
Add in chocolate and stir until melted. Add half the bag of toffee chips and the nuts and stir just until combined.
Immediately, pour fudge into 9x13 pan, smoothing out evenly and quickly.  Pour the rest of the toffee chips evenly over the top, gently press in.
Let cool and set for a few hours, slice into 1" squares. Store in an airtight container.


7. And the baking-experience wouldn't be complete without a small disaster.  I also made a batch of those amazing chocolate thumbprints by Martha Stewart (which I made last year) except I decided to fill them with caramel (since I had a lot hanging around) instead of the chocolate ganache.  This turned out to be a huge disaster.  The caramel was stiff and not soft and chewy making the cookie difficult to actually eat AND when I packed them up into an air-tight container, I stacked them with waxed paper in between thinking the caramel was set (it was set when I touched it).  The caramel ended up sticking fiercely to the waxed paper and so I lost all but the top row of cookies.  You live and learn.

Big Surprise Inside

My husband and I are repeatedly beating our heads against walls trying to get our older son to eat right now.  He just had his tonsils out and consequently his appetite has taken a nose-dive.  He was already pretty skinny so he doesn't have any weight to lose.  Because of this, we were told to feed him ANYTHING he would eat.  As of day #5, we had not found anything that worked very well.  I decided to pull out the big guns: chocolate cupcakes.  I also remembered how much he loves cake batter, so I chose a recipe without eggs.  To add to all of this, I thought I'd throw in some incentive to eat the entire cupcake.  I put a peanut butter cup in the middle.  I found a post-Halloween sweet deal on peanut butter cups so I had some hanging around that needed to be used up.
This turned out to be one delightful cupcake and my son actually ate most of one.  Whew.  I think I can use these for motivation for a couple more days. 
I highly recommend making these if you are ever in need of a serious peanut butter/chocolate fix.

Peanut Butter Cup Cakes (makes about 12)
1-1/2 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup water
1/3 cup canola oil
1 Tbls white vinegar
1 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix together dry ingredients, make a well.
3. Pour wet ingredients into well.  Stir until just combined.
4. Fill 12 muffin-pan cups about 1/3 full with batter.
5. Place peanut butter cup into each cup on top of batter.
6. Pour batter over each peanut butter cup so that the cups are about 2/3 -3/4 full.
7. Bake about 20 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.

Peanut Butter Cup Frosting
5 Peanut butter cups
1/4 cup butter softened (salted butter is okay)
1-1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup milk

1. Crush peanut butter cups and cream with butter until mostly smooth and fluffy using an electric mixer.
2. Add cocoa powder, mix.
3. Add milk and powdered sugar in a couple of additions each and continue to mix until smooth.
4. Frost cupcakes and enjoy!

Blown Away!

I know there are many out there who love Fall because they love to eat pumpkin-flavored baked goods.  I am not one of these people.  I do not like pumpkin.  I mean, why would you put a squash in a perfectly good chocolate chip cookie???  No thanks.  However, my son acquired a sugar pie pumpkin at a preschool activity and was anxious for me to "cook it."  I don't like wasting produce, so I thought, "why not?"  I looked at that little pumpkin and was pretty sure it wasn't big enough to create a whole pumpkin pie.  I've never made pumpkin pie before but it seemed like a lot of pumpkin would be necessary.  So at the store last night, they were on sale and I bought a second one.  Today was a stay-at-home-day so I decided to embark upon making pumpkin pie completely from scratch (except the crust, I wasn't feeling *that* ambitious).
I started by roasting the pumpkins.  To do this, cut the stem off the pumpkin, then cut it in half.  Scoop out the seeds and strands until it's relatively clean.  On a foil lined sheet, place the pumpkin halves face down.  Then cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for about 1.5 hours.  After the pumpkin comes out of the oven, let it cool then scoop it out into a bowl (minus skin).  Puree until smooth.
After I did this, I realized I had way more pumpkin than I needed for one pie.  There's your second lesson: one pumpkin = one pie.  So I decided I would test out a couple of recipes and began googling.  I came across a chocolate pumpkin pie recipe from the Washington Post which I knew I immediately had to try.  Perhaps I would like pumpkin pie if it was masked in dark chocolate?  (The answer is YES!)  Then I looked for the most distinctive-flavored traditional pumpkin pie recipe I could find.  In the end, and remember I don't like pumpkin, they were both fantastic.  The chocolate one almost has the texture of cheesecake.  It is SO amazing and very rich.  The traditional one has a lemon zest flavor that runs through it that is delicious.  I would definitely make either of these recipes again and I didn't think using fresh pumpkins was that big of a deal, although it definitely does require more up-front time.  I don't have a frame of reference to know whether or not they taste lots better, but I would guess they do.
I made the traditional pumpkin pie recipe exactly as I found it.  I wouldn't change anything so HERE it is.
The chocolate pumpkin pie recipe I did tweak, so HERE is the original if you'd like to see it.  I changed it because it called for canned pumpkin and I was using fresh, I was unsure of the flavor combo of chocolate with some of the spices and I didn't have heavy cream so I used half-n-half.  Here is my rendition, and seriously, MAKE THIS:
Dark Chocolate Pumpkin Pie (adapted from the Midnight Pumpkin Pie recipe in the Washington Post)
1 cup half-n-half
6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate bits (I used 3 rows of a Trader Joe's dark chocolate brick)
2 cups of fresh pumpkin puree
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground dry ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 prepared (raw) 9" pie crust
 1. Heat the oven to 350 F.
2. In a small saucepan over medium-high, heat the half-n-half until just bubbling. Remove from the heat and add the chocolate. Stir until completely melted and smooth.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, salt and the chocolate-mixture. Add the eggs, whisking until everything is thoroughly combined.
4. Pour the pumpkin mixture into the prepared crust. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until the center is set.
Note about baking these pies: When you get to the last 5-10 minutes or so, baby the pie.  Check it often and get it out of the oven as soon as it is remotely close to being set.  Otherwise you get a dry pie.

The Chocolate.

The Traditional.

And now, go forth and stun your friends and family at Thanksgiving.  I promise you will be blown away.

Big Flavor

Now that we are deep into Fall, I found myself at the store today with a hankering for a roast.  I do not often cook roasts, but today it sounded good.  Recently, I was looking at a promising recipe for pot roast and although we are not huge pot roast fans, I thought I would try it out.  Unfortunately, there was not a pot roast to be had at the grocery store.  Strange?  So after wandering around, I landed on a pork roast: specifically something called an End Rib Roast.  I had never heard of it before, but it looked like a good piece of meat.  I decided to cook it pot roast style and WOW.  Let me say, this was one of the best roasts I have tasted.  Very moist, lots of flavor.  The kids even loved it.  The little one ate his weight in carrots.  The older one loved the potatoes.  The cool thing is: they both got a hearty dose of veggies (because I never make mashed potatoes with *just* potatoes)!  We're not usually slab-o-meat kind of eaters, but every once in awhile, it's a nice change.  Here's the whole meal:

Danielle's Pork Roast
2-1/2 lb roast
1 medium onion roughly chopped
4 cloves garlic roughly chopped
salt/pepper/italian seasoning/red pepper flakes
olive oil
1 cup chicken broth
2 celery stalks
2(ish) cups of carrots
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Place pork in deep oven-safe dish with lid, drizzle with olive oil, rub with a heavy dose of salt, pepper, Italian seasoning and a few red pepper flakes.
3. Pour chicken broth in with pork (around edges, not over the top).
4. Sprinkle onion and garlic over pork and around side.
5. Cover and bake for one hour.
6. Remove lid, add carrots and celery, replace lid, bake for another 40 minutes or until pork reaches temperature (mine had one of those nifty pop-up things).
7. Move dish up one level in oven and broil for about 3-4 minutes until the top is browned.
8. Let roast rest covered for a few minutes.

Suped-Up Mashed Potatoes
4 medium/large yukon gold potatoes
1 large parsnip
1 sweeet potato
1 cup sour cream
2 Tbls butter
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1. Peel and boil potatoes, parsnip together (I threw in the extra cup of chicken broth left over from the can used above).
2. Drain, put back in pot.
3. Add butter, sour cream and cheese.  Mash to desired consistency.

Gravy
2 Tbls butter
2 Tbls flour
1-1/2 cups liquid from roast/veggie dish
1. Melt butter in small saucepan.
2. Add flour, bring to a boil while whisking.
3. Slowly whisk in liquid.  Bring to a boil, boil gently until gravy thickens.

Basic Peach Pie

Today seems like a day to do something really American, you know?  So I decided to make a peach pie, since we had been blessed with a bounteous amount and they all ripened at the same time.  I love peach pie.  It is probably my favorite kind of pie, next to pear pie (or chocolate pie) which is the most delicate and delicious pie around (aside from chocolate pie).  I have not had a lot of sucess with peach pie in the past, however.  Usually it ends up too tart and too runny.  I decided this time I was not going to mess it up, I would look for a recipe!  Sadly, most that I looked at required tapioca to thicken the filling and frankly, the very thought of tapioca makes me want to NOT eat pie.  So, once again, I decided to improvise.  I used a combination of cornstarch and flour to thicken the filling and cut the sugar way down from most recipes I saw.  While I don't like a super-tart pie, I really really hate overly-sweet pie.  It turned out fabulously delicious and I think it was also the prettiest pie I've made too.  Here is the recipe for the filling:

Peach Pie Filling
6-7 large peaches, peeled and sliced
The juice of half of a lemon
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
1 Tbls cornstarch
Cinnamon to taste (I used about a teaspoon)
Half-n-half

Gently combine peaches, lemon and sugar in a large bowl.
In a small bowl, combine flour, cornstarch and cinnamon.
Add flour mixture to peaches and combine until peaches are evenly coated.
Place into pie crust and top with another pie crust.  Pinch edges together so they are sealed well.
Cut a couple of vent-holes in the top of the pie.
Brush top with half-n-half.
Bake for about an hour at 375. 

A couple of tips about baking pies that I have learned through the years:
~~Drop the oven shelf one-step down from the middle.  This helps the bottom crust to bake more thoroughly.
~~If you find that after about 30 minutes into the baking process, the pie crust is still pretty white, turn the heat up the heat by about 25 degrees.
~~Bake that pie for about 5-10 minutes longer than you think you want to if you are like me and feel the need to rush to get it out as soon as it starts to turn golden-colored on the top.