Ridiculously Good Recipes

This is my last and best recipe for our little holiday edition of RGR.  These are kind of time consuming , but they are JUST. SO. GOOD.  I look forward to Christmas baking every year JUST for these little babies.

I will warn you, if you think Sugar Cookies are too picky to make, then you’ll hate making these and should probably instead just come over for coffee and eat mine.  HOWEVER, should you try these, you will NOT regret the time you put into them.  Not only are they beautiful to look at but they are DIVINE to eat.

So without further ado, I present to you:

Pastel Cream Wafers (sound trumpets *here*)

you will need:

- 1/2 C Cold Butter (no substitutes)

- 1 C All Purpose Flour

- 3-4 Tbsp half-&-half cream

- Sanding Sugar or Granulated Sugar (sanding sugar is apparently a little coarser than regular granulated sugar and should be available where cake decorating supplies are sold.  I have always used plain granulated sugar – this year I actually looked for some sanding sugar at Michaels but couldn’t find any.  So just use normal sugar)

Preheat your oven to 375.

Cut the butter into the flour until the butter is the size of small peas.  Sprinkle 1 Tbsp of cream into the mixture and toss with a fork.  Repeat until all is moistened, then form into a ball.  Don’t use more than 4 Tbsp of cream.  If it seems like it’s not moistened enough, form the ball with your hands and it will all come together.

Roll out on a lightly floured surface to slightly less than 1/8” thick.  You don’t want these too thick as they will puff up to about double after they bake.

Cut into rounds with a 1 3/4” scalloped cookie cutter (I bought a set of cutters specifically for this recipe – although I’ve found them useful for other things as well).  Dip one side of each round in the sugar.  Place sugar side up on parchment lined cookie sheet.  With a fork, prick 3-4 parallel rows in each cutout.

Bake for 8-10 min or till edges just begin to brown.  **In my oven I don’t bake them for longer than 7 min, so keep an eye on the first batch or two and don’t over-brown them.  Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

 

Now, you will look at all the lovely cutouts on your cooling racks, pat yourself on the back and think “man, I’ve made a ton of cookies”.  Actually, you have only made half that many, because you will be making them into sandwiches.  Feel discouraged *here*.  Take heart – it will all be worth it shortly.

You will now need to make Powdered Sugar Frosting:

Stir together 1 Cup sifted powdered sugar, 1 Tbsp softened butter (no substitutes), 1/2 tsp vanilla, 1 drop of food coloring, and enough half-&-half (about 1 Tbsp) to make a spreadable frosting.  I mash the butter into the powdered sugar first using a fork, and then add the rest, mashing as I go.  It works beautifully.  Trust me.

Spread a scant 1 tsp of frosting on the flat (non-sugared) side of a cookie.  Top with another cookie, flat sides together.  I doubled this recipe and made 54 sandwiches (108 single cookies) – so a single recipe will probably make about 27. 

This may seem like a lot, until you eat one, and then you will realize that 54 won’t be nearly enough.  Especially if you have to share.

Now, this all probably sounds time consuming and like too much work.  However, start to photo finish (icing and all), I made a double recipe of these babies in an hour and a half.  So that’s not too bad is it?

Ridiculously Good Recipes

Has it become obvious yet that I really really really love Christmas baking?

I’m going to throw out an easy cookie recipe now as a reprieve from the Cutout Cookie recipe I posted last time.  And because the next recipe that I post will be the major time consumer (but OH, so so so worth the effort).

So here you go:

Chocolate Candy-Cane Cookies

1 pkg. (250 g) Brick Cream Cheese, softened

3/4 cup  butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 tsp.  vanilla

2-1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp.  baking soda

4 squares Semi-Sweet Chocolate, melted

1 pkg.  (6 squares) White Chocolate

12 hard peppermint candies, crushed

Beat cream cheese, butter, sugar and vanilla in large bowl with mixer until well blended. Add flour and baking soda; mix well. Blend in semi-sweet chocolate.

Shape scant tablespoonfuls of dough into balls; roll each into 3-inch-long rope. Place, 2 inches apart, on baking sheets, bending top of each slightly to resemble a candy cane.

Bake @350 10 to 12 min. or until lightly browned; cool 5 min. on baking sheets. Transfer to wire racks; cool completely.

Microwave white chocolate until melted and smooth – I go 1min on high, stir, then another 30seconds until it’s all melted.  I then spoon the melted chocolate into a ziploc freezer bag and seal it.  Then I cut a small (really small) corner off the bottom of the bag, and drizzle the chocolate over cookies. Sprinkle with crushed candies. Let stand until chocolate is firm.

Now.  I never have hard peppermint candies on hand.  I do, however, have candy canes that Berry Boy made me buy back when he was 3, because he thought he really really liked them (he didn’t).  So what I do with these is crush up 2 candy canes in a ziploc bag (I give it a few good whacks with my rolling pin) and I garnish the cookies with that.

And you will have these:

They look great, and they’re easy.  Plus, if you’re less of a kitchen nazi than me, your kids will love helping with these – they can roll out the candy canes in their hands and you can shape them on the cookie sheet.

If these don’t sound easy, then consider this: I started these cookies at 5pm, and it is now 6:30.  They are the easiest thing to decorate as all you have to do is squeeze melted chocolate all over them, and not with any great precision.

Plus, they have cream cheese.

Need I say more.

Ridiculously Good Recipes

Of all the Christmas cookies, sugar cookies have got to be the classic.  They also have to be the most picky and time consuming.  All that rolling, and cutting out, and rolling again, and cutting out, and then when you think you’re done, you have to decorate them.  Every year I tell myself that I WILL NOT BE MAKING THESE EVER AGAIN, and every year I make them anyway.  Because they’re yummy.  And pretty.  And fun.

This has become my favorite recipe for sugar cookies, mostly because it involves Cream Cheese (I love Cream Cheese).

So roll up your sleeves and grit your teeth, because this will be fun.  Or else.

 

Heavenly Cutout Cookies

1/2 C Butter

1/3 of a brick of Cream Cheese

1 3/4 C Flour

1 1/2 C Powdered Sugar

1 Egg

1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Vanilla

 

Beat the butter and cream cheese on medium speed until blended.

Add half the flour, the powdered sugar, the egg, baking powder and vanilla.  Beat on low until combined, then beat 1min on medium.

Beat in the remaining flour on low.

You will now have quite a soft dough.  Refrigerate it for at least an hour.

Roll out half the dough at a time.  You will need to flour your counter and your rolling pin liberally as the dough is still going to be quite soft.  Don’t worry though – it’s not that hard to work with.  Roll it out to 1/8” thickness (whatever that looks like) and cut out into your Christmasy shapes (I always do angels, trees, stars, and sometimes gingerbread men, but they’re really big).

Bake on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper @375 for 8-9 min.

Later, when you’ve had a cup of coffee and a break, you can start to decorate.  I’ve tried lots of kinds of icing, from plain old icing sugar and milk to Royal icing…I have no idea what’s best.  I find that the Royal icing is too stiff and hard, so I am back to using just plain old icing:

icing sugar

bit of vanilla

bit of milk or cream

You can make it whatever consistency you like, color it any different way, and you’re good to go.  If you want to outline the cookies before “flooding” them with icing, then make the icing fairly thick and either use a piping bag, or take a Ziploc bag, fill it with the icing, seal it, and cut a very small corner off of one bottom corner, and voila, you have a piping bag.  This works for decorating after smearing the icing all over the cookies too.

I’m no Martha Stewart when it comes to cookie decorating.  I have the idea in my head but it never quite turns out the way I think it will…and I’m cursed with two males in the house who eat the iced cookies as quickly as I can ice them….*sigh*

Ridiculously Good Recipes

I would like to present to you, the best (in my humble opinion) shortbread cookies ever (besides the Toblerone ones, obviously).

Super simple, very easy to make, and melt-in-your-mouth goodness that is best savoured with a hot cup of fresh brewed coffee or latte (but aren't most dessert-type things best savoured with coffee?)

You will need:

1/2 C Cornstarch

1/2 C Icing Sugar

1 C Flour

1 C Butter (no substitutes here - go for the good stuff)

Sift together the cornstarch, icing sugar, and flour. Have butter at room temperature.

Cream the butter slightly before adding the rest of the ingredients - the butter should be quite soft.

Mix all together in a mixmaster.

Make the dough into small balls, about 1" - the recipe says to flatten slightly with a fork, but I find this impossible to do so I just leave them as balls - you could flatten them slightly in your hand as you're rolling them.

Place on parchment paper (or, if your cookie sheets are in better shape than mine, on ungreased cookie sheets).

Bake @300 for 20-25 minutes

If the dough is hard to work with because it's too soft, put it in the fridge for half an hour to firm it up. In fact, having just made these, you will pretty much have to chill the dough a bit as it is quite soft - it will be very light and fluffy in texture, so a bit of time in the fridge is best for handling it.

And then you will have these...

What they lack in appearance, they more than make up for in texture and taste. Absolutely melt-in-your-mouth. mmmmmmm.

Ridiculously Good Recipes

Yeah baby - first snow has come and gone, so it's officially the season of Toblerone - I mean chocolate - I mean Christmas. What I mean to say is, IT'S CHRISTMAS BAKING TIME!!!!

Oh yeah...time to gain some weight *snicker* (it's times like this that I'm soooo glad I own a treadmill)
I love Christmas baking. The cookies are all so delectable and pretty, and even though last year I swore I was NOT going to make certain cookies EVER again because they're so picky to make and I spend 3hours rolling and cutting out and pricking and decorating...I still do it again the next year.

So we'll start off easy with these little gems...

I don't recommend making these if you like shortbread. Or Toblerone. Or if you care about your weight.
I haven't quite perfected the texture for these - they're not quite as melt-in-your-mouth as my regular shortbread (which I will post later...) but with the Toblerone, well, need I say more...

Chunky Toblerone Shortbread

2C Butter, softened
1C fruit sugar or super-fine sugar (this is probably important - I used regular sugar last time and the taste is fine but the texture isn't quite there, so it is probably worth purchasing a bag of this stuff)
3 1/2C Flour
1/2C Cornstarch
2 bars (100g each) Toblerone Swiss Milk Chocolate, chopped
3Tbsp sifted icing sugar

Preheat the oven to 350
Beat butter and fruit sugar on high speed until light and fluffy
Combine flour and cornstarch, and gradually add to butter mixture, beating until well blended.
Stir in chocolate

Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets, about 1inch apart (I use parchment paper on my cooking sheets)
Bake 20-25min or until just barely lightly browned
Cool on rack, then sprinkle with icing sugar

As with all shortbread, this tastes perfect with a hot cup of fresh Starbucks Christmas Blend coffee (or a nice latte...really and form of coffee)

(from Kraft What's Cooking, Festive 2006)

(more) Ridiculously Good Recipes

ok ok, I'll stop soon (I'm just avoiding the mess on my table and countertop)

This one is a gem...

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

Cream together:

1C Butter

1 1/2C White Sugar

Add:

2 Eggs

2tsp Vanilla

mix well

Combine and add:

2C Flour

2/3C Cocoa

3/4tsp Baking Soda

1/2tsp Salt

Dump in and stir:

1 Bag of Peanut Butter Chips

Drop by the spoonful onto cookie sheets.

Bake @350 for 9min or so (again, underbaking slightly is always best)

Ridiculously Good Recipes

ok, this one is for Chris by special request :)

Skor Cookies

Cream together:

1/2C butter

3/4C Brown Sugar

3/4C White Sugar

2 eggs

1tsp Vanilla

Combine and add to creamed mixture:

2 1/4C Flour

1tsp Baking Soda

Dump in a bag (yes, the whole bag - don't skimp here) of Skor Bits and stir to combine

now, you can do these as drop cookies, dropping the dough by spoonfuls onto the cookie sheet, and they will taste just fine.

OR, if you have the time, roll them into 1" balls, roll the balls in some white sugar and THEN bake them.

OR, if you want to be fancy, roll them into balls and then into a mixture of white sugar and cinnamon. Also yummy.

bake them at 350. Bake them for 7-8min, depending on your oven. DON'T overbake them. Slightly underbaked is best.

(more) Ridiculously Good Recipes

Beautiful Banana Cake

(with the best Cream Cheese Icing I have ever made)

Right around the time my bananas begin to collect fruit flies, I whip up this delectable cake (from Today's Parent magazine). I like to make it in 2 9" square pans so that I can eat one right away and freeze the other for another time.


2 3/4C Flour
1 Tbsp Baking Powder
3/4 tsp Baking Soda
1/4tsp Salt
2C Brown Sugar
3/4C Vegetable Oil
3 Eggs
3 Medium, fully ripe bananas, mashed
3/4C Milk
1 1/2tsp Vanilla


Preheat oven to 350
Grease and line with parchment paper 2 9" cake pans or one 9x13" (or 24 muffin cups with liners)
Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl (flour, b.powder, b.soda, salt)
In a large mixing bowl, cream together the brown sugar, oil, and eggs on high speed for 2min.
Add the mashed bananas, beat for one minute to combine
Beat in the milk and vanilla, just to mix
Add the dry ingredients all at once and beat on medium speed until batter is smooth, scraping down the sides.
Pour into prepared pans and bake 40-45min for 2 9" pans, 45-50min for one large pan, 25-30min for cupcakes.
let cool for 10 min before removing from pan.

Fabulous Cream Cheese Icing

(will liberally frost one 9x13" cake or two 9" cakes)

1 Brick Cream Cheese
1 Cup Butter (oh yeah - a whole cup. Trust me. It's worth it. and no substituting margarine)
4 Cups Icing Sugar
1tsp Vanilla


Cream the butter and cream cheese together, then add the icing sugar and vanilla. When it has mostly combined, whip it on really high speed until it looks nice and light and fluffy. Whip it for at least a minute or two.

Spread on your cake generously

This is easy to halve if you only want to ice one 9" cake at a time, but it also stores ok in the freezer until you're ready to use it. Just whip it up a bit with a knife after it's thawed.

Berry Delicious Muffins

I suppose you could substitute blueberries in this recipe, but "blueberry" is a word that doesn't often pass our lips here :) So if you do it, I don't want to hear about it (lol) I'd rather you called and asked for a few berries...(to be honest, the recipe is actually called "blueberry oat muffins")...

Combine in small bowl:

1Cup oats

1Cup sour milk or buttermilk (I just put a bit of lemon juice into the milk to "sour" it)

Let stand.

Meanwhile, combine in a mixing bowl:

1Cup flour

1tsp baking powder

1/2tsp baking soda

1/2tsp salt

3/4Cup brown sugar

Add to oat mixture, blending well:

1 egg, beaten

1/4Cup oil

Add oat mixture to dry ingredients. Stir just until moistened

Gently fold in:

1Cup saskatoon berries (fresh or frozen - if frozen I dump them in and sprinkle a bit of flour on them before mixing them in)

Spoon into greased or lined muffin tins.

Bake at 400F, 15-20min

I also like to add a bit of sugar topping - I've used white and brown sugar and both are nice:

1/3C flour

1/4 brown sugar

2Tbsp butter

OR

1/3 Cup flour

1/3 Cup white sugar

2Tbsp butter

Combine flour and sugar, cut in butter until nice and crumbly. Spoon/sprinkle over muffins before baking.