Recipes - Cookies, Pies, Cakes, and Other Sweets

[CellarDweller]

Oh, time for Halloween treats soon!

[CellarDweller]

cookies I made for work this week.





Peanut Butter cookies and chocolate chip cookies.


Peanut Butter Cookies
INGREDIENTS
1 1/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
1 cup JIF® Peanut Butter
1/2 cup Butter Flavor CRISCO® Stick
3 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 egg
1 3/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Place sheets of foil on countertop for cooling cookies.
Combine brown sugar, JIF(R) peanut butter, shortening, milk and vanilla in large bowl. Beat at medium speed of electric mixer until well blended. Add egg. Beat just until blended.
Combine flour, baking soda and salt. Add to creamed mixture at low speed. Mix just until blended.
Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten slightly in crisscross pattern with tines of fork.
Bake one baking sheet at a time for 7-8 minutes or until set and just beginning to brown. Do not over-bake. Cool 2 minutes on baking sheet. Remove cookies to foil to cool completely.

Makes 2 dozen cookies




Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
INGREDIENTS
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
3 cups (about 12 ounces) of chips,  1 cup milk chocolate, 1 cup dark chocolate, and one cup white chocolate.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and baking soda; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter with both sugars; beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low; add the salt, vanilla, and eggs. Beat until well mixed, about 1 minute. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
Drop heaping tablespoon-size balls of dough about 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
Bake until cookies are golden around the edges, but still soft in the center, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven, and let cool on baking sheet 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, and let cool completely. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week.

3 dozen cookies

[CellarDweller]

Candy Cane Cookies and Holly Leaf Clusters



Candy Cane Cookies
INGREDIENTS

1 cup sugar
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
1 egg
3 1/2 cups Gold Medal™ all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon red food color
2 tablespoons finely crushed peppermint candies
2 tablespoons sugar

Stir together 1 cup sugar, the butter, milk, vanilla, peppermint extract and egg in large bowl. Stir in flour, baking powder and salt. Divide dough in half. Stir food color into 1 half. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours.
Heat oven to 375ºF.
Stir together peppermint candy and 2 tablespoon sugar; set aside.
For each candy cane, shape 1 rounded teaspoon dough from each half into 4-inch rope by rolling back and forth on floured surface. Place 1 red and white rope side by side; press together lightly and twist. Place on ungreased cookie sheet; curve top of cookie down to form handle of cane.
Bake 9 to 12 minutes or until set and very light brown. Immediately sprinkle candy mixture over cookies. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.

Note - with my first batch, the peppermint sugar didn't stick to the cookies after baking, so I did it before baking with the remaining batches, this worked better.


Corn Flake Wreath Cookies/Holly Leaf Clusters
INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup butter
30 large marshmallows
1 1/2 teaspoons green food coloring
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups cornflakes cereal
sprinkles

Melt butter in a large saucepan over low heat. Add marshmallows, and cook until melted, stirring constantly. Remove from heat, and stir in the food coloring, vanilla, and cornflakes.
Quickly drop heaping tablespoonfuls of the mixture onto waxed paper, and form into a wreath shape with lightly greased fingers. Immediately decorate with red hot candies. Allow to cool to room temperature before removing from waxed paper, and storing in an airtight container.   If the wreathes don't take shape, just leave them in clusters on the sheet, they will still look like holly leaves.

18 wreaths

[CellarDweller]

Sugar Cookies
INGREDIENTS

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), cream the butter and sugar, on medium speed until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes). Add the eggs, vanilla and almond.  Beat until combined. Add the salt and flour; beat until you have a smooth dough. Divide the dough in half and wrap each half in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for about one hour or until firm enough to roll.
Preheat oven to 375°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paperor silpat mats.
Remove half of the chilled dough from the refrigerator and, on a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to a thickness of 1/4 inch. (Keep turning the dough as you roll, making sure the dough does not stick to the counter.)  Cut out desired shapes using a lightly floured cookie cutter and transfer cookies to baking sheet.
Place the baking sheets with the unbaked cookies in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes to chill the dough which prevents the cookies from spreading and losing their shape while baking. Note: If you are not going to frost the baked cookies, you can sprinkle the unbaked cookies with sparkling sugar at this point.
Bake the cookies for about 9-11 minutes (depending on size) or until the edges are just starting to brown. Remove from oven and let cookies cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling. Decorate the cookies with Best Ever Sugar Cookie Icing if desired. Be sure to let the icing dry completely before storing. (This may take several hours or overnight.)


Frosting
6 cups powdered sugar
¼-½ cup whole milk
¼ cup light corn syrup
2 teaspoons almond extract
gel food coloring (in desired colors)

In the bowl of a stand mixer (or using an electric mixer) combine sugar and ¼ cup milk.  Mix until smooth.  Add milk as need to create a smooth mixture, one tablespoon at a time.  Add corn syrup and almond extract.
To decorate cookies, your outline icing should be the consistency of toothpaste, your flood icing should be the consistency of corn syrup.
Add food coloring one drop at a time until desired color is reached.  Pour into bottles, decorator bags or a cup.  Keep unused icing sealed until ready to use.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Candy Cane Cookies and Holly Leaf Clusters

I hope they look more appetizing in person than in this picture. 

[Front-Ranger]

I think they look very appetizing! My, Chuck, you have been busy! Hope those cookies last more than an hour!

[Front-Ranger]

For my son's birthday on the 11th, I baked a clementine cake!! This cake figures in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, where Walter's mom Shirley MacLaine bakes one for him to give to the Afghani warlords so they will let him pass into the Himalayas. I bet you've never seen somebody so smitten by a movie that they baked a cake that was in it, have you? 

[southendmd]

Looks scrummy!  And looks like a lot of work.

[Sason]

Chuck, I'm very impressed!

Back in the day when I used to bake cookies now and then, I could only manage one batch at a time.

5 batches is very impressive!

And the clementine cake looks delicious!

[Front-Ranger]

Looks scrummy!  And looks like a lot of work.

hmmm, "scrummy"? I'll take that as a compliment! Actually, it was one of the easiest cakes I've ever made. I was planning to make a chai cake, but then I saw a box of Vietnamese coffee cake at Cost Plus and decided to try it. You just add milk, oil and an egg to make a batter, and you cut 2 Tbs. of butter into a topping mix and alternate them into a cake pan. After baking, I made a vanilla glaze, using the recipe printed on a bag of glazing sugar. After adding the clementines, I finished off by cutting some lime and lemon flowers and leaves off of the trees in my kitchen and placing them all around the edges. It makes a very flavorful cake but one which is light on sugar and carbs.