Posts Tagged ‘cookies’

I recently had a birthday and I received two of these non-stick Madeleine pans from DH. I tried them out for the first time this week and made these lemony Madeleines. I have eaten Madeleines before, but I had never attempted to make them. I discovered that most of the recipes are basically sponge cake recipes that you bake in these special shell-shaped pans to produce tender, cake like cookies. I think they would be nice as refreshments for a shower or tea.

I work in an office with two other ladies. We often discuss books that we are reading or authors that we have enjoyed. This summer all three of us have been enjoying books by Alexander McCall Smith, a Scottish author who has written a delightful series of books about The Number One Ladies Detective Agency. The stories take place in Botswana, South Africa. They do not contain a lot of violence or bad language — the stories are primarily about relationships between people and you can learn a lot about the customs and life in Botswana. I have found the stories to be quite charming.

One thing that the ladies in the Number One Ladies Detective Agency do quite often is to drink Bush Tea.They also treat themselves to donuts on Fridays. I found some Kalahari Bush Tea at a local grocery store (Ingles) and on Friday we had a little tea party at work with the Bush Tea and Madeleines. The tea is a herbal tea and we tried a variety that was lemony. It went quite well with the lemon-flavored Madeleines. It was a fun way to end the week.

Becka

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Have you ever heard of saucepan brownies? I had never heard the term before I read it in a little booklet many years ago, although I had made brownies using this method before I knew of the term. They are sometimes also called one bowl brownies. The idea is that you melt the butter or margarine in a saucepan (or in the microwave) and then combine with the other ingredients. I have found that brownies or bars prepared by this method are usually very moist, dense, and chewy rather than cake-like.

These Congo Bars are an example of saucepan brownies. I was given this recipe by a student many years ago and we have enjoyed Congo Bars ever since. They are very rich and delicious, so cut them small and plan on sharing a plate of them with friends.

Congo Bars

2 1/4 cups brown sugar
2/3 cup butter or margarine (approximately 10 Tbsps.)
3 eggs
2 3/4 cups flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1 cup chocolate chips

Melt butter or margarine. Add brown sugar and slightly beaten eggs. In a mixing bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to first mixture and stir to blend and then stir in the chocolate chips. Spread in a 9" x 13" pan that has been greased and floured. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 mins. or until the bars test clean. Cool and cut into bars.

Here are the ingredients:

Here's everything mixed together:

Here they are ready to pop into the oven:

Since I was planning to give most of these bars away I lined the pan with non-stick foil instead of greasing and flouring it so I could remove the bars from the pan to make them easier to cut.

Give these a try if you need a quick, delicious bar recipe.

Becka

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I was trying to think of an idea for a blog post and realized that I had never posted the recipe for these Big Cookies.

I got this recipe many, many years ago from my friend Sue. Over the years my daughters and I have made hundreds of these big cookies. One year DD, Nora, made these cookies in heart shaped pans for every room on her hall in the dormitory!

You can put all the dough in a 9" x 13" pan and cut them into bars or you can bake the dough in two 8 or 9 inch round cake pans. The round "big cookies" can then be turned out onto a paper plate or cake board and these make really nice treats, especially for hungry college students. They are also a nice dessert to include when you are taking supper to someone.

Here are the ingredients:

Here's the recipe:

Big Cookies

1 box yellow cake mix
1/2 cup oil
1 egg
1/4 cup water
1tsp. vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Mix cake mix, oil, water, egg, and vanilla until well blended. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts. Spread in two 8 or 9 inch round cake pans that have been greased and floured and lined with parchment or waxed paper. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 mins. Cool in pans for 10 mins. and then turn out onto a cooling rack covered with a towel. Immediately turn right side up onto a plate or cake board. Cut into wedges to serve.

If you are baking in a 9" x 13" pan you don't need to line the pan with waxed paper. Bake the same way and cut into bars. You can decorate these with the person's name and a border of icing for a birthday or other event. You can also use a chocolate cake mix for a brownie like version. You can also drop the dough onto cookie sheets and bake as you would bake regular chocolate chip cookies.

Here I'm tracing the pan onto waxed paper:

Here is the pan greased, floured, and lined:

Here's the cookie dough ready to go into the oven:

This picture shows how to flip the cookie out onto a towel lined cooling rack:

Here's the important step of peeling off the waxed paper before flipping the cookie right side up onto a plate:

One of DD Megan's friends made a batch with a lemon cake mix one time -- I don't recommend the lemon.

Becka

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In my last post I mentioned some new things I had been baking in recent days. I also hope to make a couple of old recipes too. One of my very favorite cookies are these snowballs. My mom didn't bake much during the year, but she always made some of these for Christmas. They are very simple to make but they are so good. You may already have a recipe similar to this one in your file.

Snowballs
1 cup (or 2 sticks) butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/4 cups flour
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
Additional powdered sugar for rolling

Cream butter and then add powdered sugar and vanilla. Mix in flour and chopped nuts. Form into small balls a little smaller than a walnut. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 mins. Cookies should be brown on the bottom only. Let cool slightly and then roll in additional powdered sugar. After they cool a bit more roll in the sugar a second time to give them a more "snowy" appearance. Makes about three dozen.

Another family favorite is this peanut butter fudge. This is another recipe I got years ago from that recipe program on the radio. It, too, is very simple, but very good. Mrs. Pra---, who used to teach in the RTV department at school gave this recipe and said that her boys called pieces of this fudge erasers because it looks like those brown art gum erasers. It is good plain, but over the top with the chocolate layer added. Sorry there's no picture--haven't made this one yet.

Peanut Butter Erasers
2/3 cup evaporated milk
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 cup chocolate chips

Combine evaporated milk and sugar in a saucepan and cook to softball stage (a drop of the mixture with form a ball when dropped in a cup of cold water. The ball will be soft and will flatten when you try to pick it up on your finger.) Stir constantly while this mixture is cooking and be sure to use a big enough pan as the sugar mixture will froth up.
Remove the pan from the heat and then add the peanut butter. Stir the fudge until it is about the consistency of runny mashed potatoes and then quickly pour it into a buttered 7" x 11" pan. Immediately sprinkle the chocolate chips on top and let sit for about 5 mins. until the chips soften and you can spread them on top of the fudge. Let cool completely and cut into pieces. Enjoy your delicious fudge!

Becka

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I've tried a couple of new Christmas cookie recipes this year from the King Arthur Flour recipe website. I love their Baker's Banter Blog. They post recipes a couple of times a week with step-by-step pictorial directions. It is interesting to read about the new products and new recipes. The cookie recipes I have tried have been very good and all of these cookie recipes feature dough that can be made ahead.

Last weekend I made these butter pecan cookies. I didn't have any of the unusual flavorings so I just used 1 Tbsp. vanilla. The combination of the butterscotch chips, toasted pecans, and the sugar/salt coating is very good.

I also made this Mandelbrot, which my husband, the former German teacher,told me means Almond Bread. These cookies are like biscotti. The recipe on the blog uses walnuts, but since I had a large bag of almonds I used those along with the chocolate chips. These are delicious!

I also recently tried these Cranberry Pistachio cookies from a blog called Joy of Baking.

My friend, Cheri, shared some fresh pistachios received as a gift from a relative in California. The green pistachios and red cranberries made a very pretty and tasty cookie. These are a refrigerator cookie and the dough can be made well advance of when you bake the cookies and refrigerated or frozen. I can remember my Aunt Hazel making refrigerator cookies when I was a little girl -- long before you could buy refrigerated cookie dough in the grocery store.

How about you out there in blog-land -- have you tried any new cookie recipes this year that you are willing to share?

Becka

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