Cookies..Cookies..and French Dips!

Hello Friends!  As always, I'd like to welcome new followers to our readership.  Hearty welcomes to Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland, Czech Republic, Lithuania and Romania!  Through the miracle that is the Internet we are able to connect with so many people in so many different countries.  As a newbie to the blogger world it never ceases to amaze me that our blog reaches so far and wide.  It's a joy to know that the love of food and family transcends so many different cultures.

Well, we are still working on finishing up our holiday cookie extravaganza of 2012.  This post will cover some of favorite "older" cookie recipes.  By "older" I really mean traditional.  One of the cookies is called an "Empire Biscuit".  It is actually a take on a linzer cookie, but the Scots have their version of it.  Some of my best memories of Christmastime as child involve my Scottish grandmother.  She would make batches and batches of empire biscuits, shortbread and cherry bread.  All of it was always wrapped so beautifully in red and green cellophane and foil,tied with gold ribbon and delivered to all of her loved ones.  While I have always LOVED her shortbread (it was featured in a previous post), my absolute favorite cookies were her empire biscuits.  Two buttery shortbread rounds filled with seedless raspberry jam, and topped with a smear of almond flavored icing and a piece of maraschino cherry.  A bite of one of those cookies was sheer Heaven.  There are multiple steps to this cookie, especially with the assembly.  It's also important to note that the cookie rounds should be fully cooled prior to assembling with the jam and icing.  You want the jam filling and the icing to stay in and on the cookie, not to ooze out.  Also, using the maraschino cherries can be quite messy (red liquid).  A tidier option is to use red and/or green candied cherries.  Just chop into tiny pieces before using.

Here is my recipe as well as the photos as always taken by my husband.

Empire Cookies

Ingredients:

¾ c shortening
1 c granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 ¼ c all purpose flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
½ c seedless raspberry jam
½ tsp almond extract
1 ½ - 2 tsp hot water
Candied cherries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cream shortening, sugar, eggs and vanilla in a large bowl on medium speed of an electric mixer, until creamy.

Combine flour, baking powder and salt; add to creamed mixture, beating at low speed until well blended.

Chill 1 hour for easy rolling.

Roll out dough, a portion at a time on a lightly floured surface to 1/8” thickness; cut into 2” rounds.

Reroll leftovers and cut more rounds.  Place on parchment lined cookie sheet.  Bake for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned around edges.  Cool completely.

Spread jam on half the cookies, top with remaining cookies.

Combine icing sugar, extract and enough hot water to make a thin icing.  Frost top of cookies.

Decorate with small piece of candied cherry.  Store in airtight container.

A few years back I came acrossed a Betty Crocker's Cooky Book from 1963.  I LOVE this cook book!!  It's an old school cookbook with some of the most fabulous cookie recipes.  I've pulled several recipes from the book and they have now become "keepers".  This next recipe is one such find.  The cookies are called "Cooky Candies" and my only guess as to why is because they are dipped in chocolate and topped with whatever sprinkle, jimmie or nut that you so choose.  The cookie is more of a crumbly texture (from the butter and oats).  It also isn't too sweet which is the perfect balance to the chocolate topping.  Since you are forming the dough into different shapes, and using whatever toppings you choose, it appears that there is a lot of "variety" within a batch.  This makes them a great addition to any cookie tray.  The recipe and photos are below:

Cooky Candies

 Ingredients:

1 c butter, softened

¾ c sifted confectioners’ sugar

1 Tbsp vanilla

2 c all purpose flour

¾ tsp salt

½ c rolled oats

½ c semi sweet chocolate chips

¼ c milk

Finely chopped nuts; jimmies; sprinkles; shredded coconut

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.  Cream butter, sugar and vanilla.  Combine sifted flour, salt and rolled oats into the butter mixture.

With fingers, shape teaspoonfuls of dough into rounds, balls, crescents, triangles and bars.  Bake on ungreased cookie sheets for 20-24 minutes, or until golden around the edges.  Allow to cool on sheets for 10 minutes and then remove to cooling racks to cool completely.

In a microwave safe, melt chocolate.  Add milk and blend until smooth.  Dip cookies into the chocolate, top side down.  Place on wax paper and sprinkle with variety of toppings; allow chocolate to set. 

Makes apprx. 4 dozen.

Now I realize that I have been bombarding all of you with a plethora (one of my all time fave words by the way) of cookie recipes (and there are still more to come), I thought I'd offer up something to balance all of these sweet treats.  As a working mom and wife I LOVE my slow cooker.  There's nothing better than throwing a few ingredients together in a "pot" and allowing them to cook slowly all day while I'm at work.  In fact..the only thing better is walking in at the end of the work day and smelling what has been cooking all day.  Am I right...or am I right?  This was a recipe that I came acrossed years ago.  It may have been from allrecipes.com, but I honestly do not remember.   Another fanastic thing about the following recipe is that it can be relatively inexpensive to make.  The recipe calls for a 4 pound rump roast.  I usually wait until they go on sale (sometimes you can get them on BOGO).  I typically have the other items on hand (with the exception of the rolls).  This one is a must.  If you are an eater of red meat than you will treasure this recipe.  Remember to hold onto the juice that is in the slow cooker when you remove the roast.  This is the PERFECT au jus!

French Dip

 Ingredients:

4 lb rump roast
1 (10.5 oz) can beef broth
1 (10.5 oz) condensed French onion soup
1 (12 oz) can of beer
6 slices of your favorite cheese (I typically use Swiss)
6 French rolls
2 tbsp butter

Directions:

Trim excess fat from rump roast, and place in a slow cooker.  Add the beef broth, onion soup and beer.  Cook on low setting for 7 hours. 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Split French rolls, and spread with butter.  Bake 10 minutes, or until heated through.

Slice the meat on a diagonal, and place on the rolls. Serve the sauce for dipping.

Well my friends, that's it for today.  I'm hoping to have another blog post to you soon.  Some of the upcoming posts will cover colorful spritz cookies, venison chili served with jalapeno cheddar skillet cornbread and homemade baked macaroni and cheese (with ham or with lobster).  As always, I hope you all find these recipes and photographs to be inspiring.  I get complete joy from making my favorite recipes and sharing them with all of you.  My mom has often told me that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach.  I've come to realize that food can warm ANY person's heart and soul.  Especially when it's made with love.  May all of you have wonderful Adventures in the Kitchen!

Today's Star....GINGER!

Hello Friends!

Well, first off, I'd like to welcome a few more countries to our viewership. Very big and warm welcomes to Isle of Man, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Croatia and Mexico.  We hope that you enjoy the blogs, recipes and photographs!

This blog entry will be a continuation of holiday recipes that I made, mainly cookies, during the 2012 Christmas season.  Today's feature cookies are gingerbread kids and gingersnaps.  I love spice.  Not necessarily "hot" spice...more like aromatic spice.  In previous posts I've mentioned my love of cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, etc.  Ginger is such an amazing example of this type of spice.  It is known for it's healing powers as well as its flavor in cooking and baking.  Personally, I'll take it just about anyway I can get it.

This first recipe is one that I have tinkered with over the years.  I love gingersnaps..but I don't always love the super hard cookies you may buy from your local grocery stores.  I like a cookie that has a slight crispness to the exterior while being soft and chewy in the center.  That's what you'll get with this cookie.  Some people believe that the "snap" in gingersnap comes from the hardness of the cookie.  I like to believe that in my recipe the "snap" comes from the snap of ginger flavor.  That snap is brought on by both the ground ginger and the chopped crystallized ginger that are included in these cookies.  I have to say (and I say it often) this is one of my favorite cookies that I will make any time of the year.  The recipe is very simple to throw together.  If when trying the recipe you decide that you do not like the crystallized sugar (it can also be very expensive to purchase) the recipe is just as wonderful and flavorful without it. Here is a pic of the batch made this past December as well as the recipe.

Gingersnaps

Ingredients:

2 ¼ c all purpose flour

1 c packed brown sugar

¾ c shortening

¼ c molasses

1 egg

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground cloves

¼ sugar

¼ c crystallized ginger, finely chopped

Directions:

In a mixing bowl, combine about half of the flour, the brown sugar, shortening, molasses, egg, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and chopped ginger.  Beat with an electric mixer on medium to high speed until thoroughly combined.  Beat in remaining flour.

Shape dough into 1-inch balls.  Roll in sugar.  Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake in a 375 degree oven for 8-10 minutes or until set and tops are crackled.  Cool cookies on a wire rack.

(Yields 48 cookies)

Now the gingerbread kid cookies..there is a story behind this recipe.  Back in 2007 I entered a holiday cookie recipe for an area newspaper.  I made the top ten for Special Occasion cookies, but did not place (I know...how is that possible - I'm just kidding!!). Anyway, a woman from Michigan finished in 2nd place in my category with her Gingerbread Stars.  This is a labor intensive cookie, but so beautiful and yummy.  Well, I thought that her gingerbread cookie recipe was probably the best gingerbread cookie I had ever tasted.  Once again, gingerbread cookies can be very hard and difficult to eat.  This recipe is soft and chewy.  We have borrowed her recipe and we make gingerbread boys and girls.  I have included the recipe for the gingerbread stars and would say to those that would just prefer to make cutouts without filling, just omit that portion of the recipe.  Same ingredients for the dough, same process, just use whatever cookie cutters you have and bake.  Here is the recipe and some of the end results.

Gingerbread Stars

Ingredients:

Dough:

1 c packed brown sugar

½ c shortening

1 c dark molasses

2/3 c cold water

7 c flour

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp allspice

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground cloves

½ tsp salt

Filling:

¾ c chopped raisins

¾ c chopped dried cranberries

2 c chopped walnuts

½ c orange juice concentrate, thawed

Glaze:

1 to 1 ½ c vanilla candy melts

You will need two star shaped cookie cutters; a 3-4 inch and a 1-2 inch.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl mix brown sugar, shortening and molasses.  Add cold water; mix well.  In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, ginger, allspice, cinnamon, cloves and salt; add to the sugar mixture and mix until dough starts to form, scraping sides of bowl a few times.  Remove from bowl, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

While dough is chilling, prepare the filling.  Mix together all of the filling ingredients; cover and refrigerate until you are ready to assemble the cookies.

To make the cookies:  Roll half of the dough about 1/8 inch thick.  Keep the remaining dough covered.  Using the larger cookie cutter, cut out 6-8 stars.  Place on lightly sprayed cookie sheet.

Wet your finger with water and moisten the edge of each cookie.  Place about 1 tablespoon of the filling in the center of each cookie.  Cut out 6-8 more stores (these will be the tops of the cookies).  Using the smaller cookie cutter, cut out 3 or 4 small stars out of the centers of the top cookies.  Be careful not to touch edges or points of stars.  Place the cookie tops over the filling and press the edges of the cookies together to seal.  Bake for 10-12 minutes.  Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.

Melt the candy melts in the microwave in a microwaveable glass bowl at 20 second intervals (handle carefully as bowl will get hot).   Stir between each interval until smooth.  Drizzle over tops of cookies. 

Well...that's about it this time around.  I still have a ton of catching up to do and many blog entries coming.  I hope that you are enjoying the posts.  As always, please feel free to comment or ask questions.  I would like to thank my wonderful husband for acting as the world's best photographer as well as cookie decorator.  He decorated all of the gingerbread kid cookies :)  Have a great day and may you have Happy Adventures in the Kitchen!!

Newbie Cookie Recipes..I Had to Try a Few.

I know..I know...TWO blog entries within the same week...is it possible??  YES!  It is when you did a lot of baking and are completely behind on your blog posts.  I would like to welcome Ireland, Nigeria, Ukraine and Greece to our viewership.  I couldn't be more thrilled to have you on board.  We now have followers in 23 countries.  It's quite overwhelming to think that my thoughts and recipes are being seen from so far.  Thank you!

Well, for the most part this holiday season, I stuck with my old tried and true.  However, I, like so many others, am totally obsessed with Pinterest.  I'm constantly "pinning" new hair styles and colors, fashion styles/outfits..and FOOD.  Two pins in particular caught my eye..and yes, they were recipes.  The first is a white chocolate cherry shortbread cookie.  Not only are they yummy but they are SO cute.  Pink cookies with the slight flavor of almond filled with flecks for red maraschino cherries and white chocolate.  These cookies are RICH...but so good.  The second cookie is simple..a mint chocolate cookie.  If you love mint chocolate chip ice cream...the flavor is spot on comparable.  The dough actually looks like mint chocolate chip ice cream.  I made these cookies a bit later in the season, so they didn't make it onto EVERY cookie tray that went out, however, they made it on a few.  These cookies were WINNERS.  They have been moved from the "Newbie" file to the "Tried and True" file and will be made every year from this season forward and included on ALL trays.  So if you didn't get to try them in 2012 you most definitely will in 2013.

Below are the recipes for both as well as photos.  As you can see they are incredibly festive in appearance and add a nice pop of color to your holiday trays. 

White Chocolate Cherry Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients:

½ c maraschino cherries, drained and chopped

2 ½ c flour

½ c sugar

1 c cold butter

12 oz white chocolate baking squares, finely chopped

½ tsp almond extract

2 drops red food coloring/gel

2 tsp shortening

¼ c sugar

Red sugar crystals

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Combine the flour and sugar and mix well.  Cut in cold butter until the mixture is fine crumbs.  Stir in cherries and four ounces of the white chocolate.  Stir in extract and food coloring.  Knead dough into a smooth ball.  Shap dough into ¾ inch balls and place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet.  Using the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar to flatten balls to 1 ½ inch discs. 

Bake for 10-15 minutes.  Cool for 1 minute on cookie sheet then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

In a saucepan combine 8 ounces of white chocolate and the shortening.  Stir on low heat until melted.  Dip half of the cookie in the chocolate mixture and roll the edge in red sugar crystals.  Place on wax paper until cookie is set.

Yields approximately 5 dozen.

Mint Chocolate Cookies

Ingredients:

2 ¾ c flour

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 c unsalted butter, softened

1 ½ c sugar

1 egg

1 tsp mint extract

15-20 drops green food coloring

1 bag Andes mints, chopped

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Sift the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt) together and set aside.  Unwrap and chop the Andes mints, set aside.

Cream together the butter and sugar until smooth.  Beat in the egg and mint extract.  Gradually blend in the dry ingredients.  Add green food coloring and mix until color is even.  Fold in the chopped mints.

Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls (you may need to shape with your hands) and flatten.  Place onto ungreased cookie sheets.  Bake for 8-10 minutes.  Let stand on cookie sheet for two minutes then move to cooling racks.

I'm considering changing up and playing with the white chocolate cherry shortbread cookie recipe.  My thought is that if I swap out the white chocolate for dark chocolate, it would be a wonderful "chocolate cherry cordial" cookie.  I definitely think it's worth trying.  There's also the thought to swap out the cherries for dried cranberries.  I think it will be a fun recipe to play around with in the future.

Well, there may be another post coming in the very near future (maybe even this week!).  We still have peanut butter blossoms, spritz, gingerbread kids and others to cover.  Please feel free to post comments and/or ask questions regarding any of the recipes posted.  Happy Baking (and cooking)!

 



My Apologies...but I"ll Make it Up with Cookies!

Happy New Year!  I trust the holidays treated you well.  I'll admit, my intention was to post pics and recipes of all of the cookies that I baked over the holiday season, but the season got the best of me.  I did a TON of baking, and visiting, and shopping and wrapping.  I hosted my sister's family from 12/26-1/1.  So..unfortunately I did not get to post my hardwork for you to use during the 2012 season.  However...I'M BACK!  The hubby, as always, took photographs of EVERYTHING and I intend to still do a series of blog posts that involve holiday cookies and recipes that can be used for 2013.  I will also make sure to repost said recipes in December :)

Today's post will be about sugar cookies.  You know..the kind you cut, bake and decorate.  At one point, a few years ago, I had a little side business called "Katie's Konfections".  Catchy, right?  Well, that little business helped pay for Christmas one year, but it was OVERWHELMING!  One of the most ordered items were my decorated sugar cookies.  We did them for all occasions.  Baby showers, bridal shower, birthdays and holidays.  I like to think that this particular cookie is one that I perfected over the years.  The cookies are slightly crisp on the outside but soft and moist on the inside.  We've tried different frosting/icing recipes over the years as well. 

This year, we made a batch of cookies and frosting just for our boys to decorate.  I may have mentioned my boys once or twice in previous posts, but if not, they are 4 and 11.  They love to mess around in the kitchen as well, especially the little guy.   Here are pics of the boys and their decorating extravaganza as well as the cookies that my husband and I decorated. 

Katie’s Super Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

2 sticks butter, softened

1 c sugar

1 large egg

2 tsp vanilla

3 c all purpose flour

1 ¼ tsp baking powder

Directions:

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add egg and vanilla, mix until just combined.  Sift flour and baking powder, and slowly add to wet mixture.  Dough will seem as if it doesn’t have enough moisture, but continue to mix with mixer until combined.  Shape into disk and wrap with saran wrap; refrigerate until firm.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Roll out dough between two sheets of waxed paper.  Cut out with cookie cutters and place on cookie sheets (line with parchment paper).  Bake 7-8 minutes.  Remove from oven, let cool for one minute, then transfer to cooling racks.

1 disk = 49ish medium cookies; 30 large; 20 extra large

  

Decorate.

Icing:

Confectioners’ sugar

Almond extract

Milk

Mix until desired consistency….apply to 


As I stated before this is a great standard cookie to add to your recipe collection.  It can be adapted to any occasion as long as you have the cookie cutters and the coloring.  One tip - when it comes to coloring your icing or cookies..or even cake, I prefer gels over your standard food coloring.  The colors will be bolder and more intense and you will need to use less of the actual gel.  With that..start with very little gel and add more until reached the desired color.  Wilton has a great line of gels in all colors.  The icing recipe above is for a simple and thin royal icing for piping and flooding.  The royal icing used in the pics above is different.  I'll try to type that recipe up and post at a later time.

Here are some photos of the cookies decorated by myself and the husband.  As always..enjoy!