Recipes

Ingredients
2 ³⁄₄ cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¹⁄₂ teaspoon baking powder
¹⁄₂ teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
1 ¹⁄₂ cups sugar
1 egg
¹⁄₂ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ¹⁄₂ teaspoons lemon extract
Zest of 1 lemon
¹⁄₂ cup granulated or raw sugar for rolling cookies (I used raw sugar.)

Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 350*F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

3. In your mixer’s bowl, rub together the zest and granulated sugar with your fingers until the sugar is a pale yellow color. Add the butter and beat until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. 

4. Beat in egg and extracts.  Gradually blend in the dry ingredients and mix until just moistened.

5. Roll rounded tablespoons of dough into balls, and roll in sugar. Place on baking sheets about 1 ¹⁄₂ inches apart.  Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until lightly golden and set.  Allow to cool for 10 minutes on baking sheets before removing to wire racks. 

Comments
This recipe makes about 30 cookies and is from the fantastically named food blog: Crepes of Wrath.  I’m not a huge fan of sugar cookies but this recipe looked appealing due to the lemon so I decided to try it out.  Thanks to a mistake with the first batch, I can tell you that they taste great with half the butter that the recipe calls for but they taste fantastic with the correct amount of butter too!  I love the pronounced lemon flavor.  These are definitely a leap ahead of regular sugar cookies.

Internet - Crepes of Wrath

Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 ¹⁄₂ teaspoons almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 ¹⁄₂ cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
Red food coloring (Liquid dye and food paste both work well.) 

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 375*F.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper. 

2. In a mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar together on medium speed until light and fluffy.  Add the egg and extracts, beating until combined.  Mix in the flour and salt until incorporated. 

3. Divide the dough into two parts and add red food coloring to one half until the desired color has been reached.  Roll the dough into 3-4 inch long ropes.  Twist together one rope of white dough with a rope of red dough and bend at the top to form candy canes.  (This is best done if you have a small child to help.  Otherwise, roll into 1 inch balls and skip the candy cane part.) 

4. Place cookies on baking sheets and bake for 9-11 minutes or until the edges are starting to brown.  Allow to cool for 10 minutes on baking sheets before removing to wire racks. 

Comments
These cookies have been in my life for as long as I can remember.  I have many fond memories of making them with my mom at Christmas.  Apparently I was more patient as a child because I did not have the tolerance to make the cookies into actual canes.  Instead, I ended up with lovely roundish cookies that were just as delicious.  I’ve heard stories of people making these with peppermint extract instead of almond, but I would be a sad bear with that substitution.

Person - Mom

Ingredients
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup brown sugar
¹⁄₂ cup unsalted butter
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons boiling water

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 350*F.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper. 

2. Mix together flour, oats, coconut and sugar on low speed. 

3. In a small saucepan, over low heat, combine the butter and honey.  Stir until melted.  Mix the baking soda and the boiling water and add to the butter mixture.  Pour the butter mixture into the dry ingredients and mix well. 

4. Spoon tablespoon-sized dollops of the dough onto parchment paper, allowing plenty of space for the cookies to spread.  Bake for 9 minutes, switching the sheets halfway through baking. 

5. Cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheets before removing to wire rack.  Cool completely before storing. 

Comments
I’ve heard nothing but praise for Anzac Biscuits from my Australia-dwelling friends, so I decided to try them out during my 2010 holiday baking.  A friend sent me a few recipes to consider and I ended up picking this one since I recognized all of the ingredients. 

And that was the easiest part of the process. 

My first mistake was to try to bake 16 cookies on the first two sheets to go in the oven.  They flattened and expanded significantly during baking and ended up covering the entire sheet.  Oops.  This problem was rectified by only baking 6 cookies per sheet for future sheets. 

My second mistake was the timing.  The recipe said to bake the cookies for 15-20 minutes.  My oven tends to run cool, so I opted for the higher number since that has served me well with all the other cookies I have baked.  It didn’t work so well for these cookies.  The sugars caramelized and burned, but the failed cookies made great dog treats…  I experimented with times for subsequent sheets and decided that 9 minutes was pretty much perfect. 

I’m glad that I made these cookies on the third day of baking; since I probably would have given up on cookie baking all together if I had tried them earlier. 

As for taste, they’re delicious, buttery, and sweet.  The individual flavors of the oatmeal and coconut aren’t very discernable, and I’m not sure I’ll be making these again in the future, but they’re different and tasty nonetheless.

Internet - Aussie Slang

Ingredients
1 ³⁄₄ cups sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, divided
2 ¹⁄₂ cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
¹⁄₂ teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
¹⁄₂ cup vegetable shortening
2 large eggs

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 375*F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Combine ¹⁄₄ cup of the sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon in a shallow dish for rolling. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, salt, and remaining teaspoon cinnamon together.

2. In a mixing bowl, beat the butter, shortening, and remaining 1 ¹⁄₂ cups sugar together on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 6 minutes. Beat in the eggs, 1 at a time, until incorporated, scraping down the bowl and paddle as needed.

3. Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly add the flour mixture, mixing until combined, about 30 seconds. Give the dough a few final stirs with a rubber spatula to make sure it is combined.

4. Working with 2 tablespoons of dough at a time, roll the dough into balls, and then roll in the cinnamon sugar to coat.  Place the balls on the prepared baking sheets, spaced about 2 inches apart.

5. Bake the cookies until the edges are set and just beginning to brown but the centers are still soft and puffy, 10 to 12 minutes, rotating the baking sheets halfway through baking. (The cookies will look raw between the cracks and seem underdone.)

6. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes, then serve warm or transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

Comments
This recipe makes about 24 cookies, is from The Cook’s Country Cookbook and finally ends my search for the Snickerdoodles of my youth.  These are just about perfect.  The cream of tartar and shortening help to make the cookie live up to my childhood memories.  I did add extra cinnamon as the original recipe only had cinnamon in the coating and not in the batter.  That, of course, would not do so I upped the cinnamon content and was very pleased with the results!

The Cook’s Country Cookbook

Ingredients
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups sugar
¹⁄₂ cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon mint extract
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¹⁄₂ teaspoon salt
3 ounces Guittard mint chips
¹⁄₂ cup powdered sugar

Instructions
1. In a medium bowl, mix together cocoa, sugar, and vegetable oil. Beat in eggs one at a time, and then stir in the vanilla and mint. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt; stir into the cocoa mixture.  Gently stir in mint chips.  Cover dough, and chill for at least 2 hours.

2. Preheat oven to 350*F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll dough into one inch balls. Coat each ball in powdered sugar before placing onto prepared baking sheets.  Place cookies about 2 inches apart. 

3. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes and allow to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack. 

Comments
This recipe makes about 30 cookies and I found it at Bonnie’s Bakery.  These cookies are very minty and super chocolaty. 

The dough is a pain to deal with; it’s very moist and sticky.  I started off trying to deal with the dough by hand but quickly switched to spoons.  I recommend using a spoon to scoop the dough from the bowl and then a second spoon to scrap the dough from the first spoon into the container with powdered sugar.  (I used a large, shallow Tupperware for the powdered sugar.)  The dough is much easier to deal with and roll once it is coated in powdered sugar.  If you have a small ice cream scoop, that would also work well.  Sadly, I’ve only got one and it’s twice as large as needed for these cookies!

Internet - Bonnie’s Bakery

Ingredients
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large shallot, minced (3-4 tablespoons)
1 cup Arborio rice
¹⁄₂ cup white wine
4 cups chicken broth, heated (I nuked it.)
4-6 ounces baby spinach
5-6 ounces brie cheese, rind removed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions
1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.  Add shallots and cook, stirring, until they start to turn translucent.  Add the rice and stir until all the grains are coated with oil.  Add the wine and simmer, stirring, until all of the liquid has been absorbed. 

2. Start adding the broth ¹⁄₂-1 cup at a time, stirring after each addition and waiting until the broth has been absorbed before adding more.  Repeat until all of the broth has been added and rice is tender. 

3. Add spinach and brie.  Continue stirring until spinach is wilted and brie is fully incorporated and melted.  Add salt and pepper, to taste. 

Comments
When I was trying to figure out what to serve alongside a salmon dish this week, a friend suggested that I make brie and spinach risotto.  The friend didn’t have a recipe, just thought the flavors would work well together, so I decided to give it a go.  Risottos are one of those foods that are infinitely flexible so it was pretty easy to modify another risotto recipe and come up with this.  Lance and I both enjoyed the flavors and it did, indeed, go well with salmon. 

Shown here with Poached Salmon with Dill Yogurt Sauce.

Person - Gwen

Ingredients
2 carrots, chopped (Or two small handfuls of baby carrots.)
1 small onion, chopped
1 ¹⁄₂ cups white wine
4 sprigs fresh dill, plus 1 tablespoon fresh dill, chopped
1 lemon, sliced
Salt
6 cups water
¹⁄₂ cup plain yogurt
1 tablespoon capers, drained and chopped
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Pepper
4 skin-on salmon fillets, about 1 ¹⁄₂ pounds

Instructions
1. Bring carrots, onion, wine, dill sprigs, lemon slices, 2 teaspoons salt, and water to boil in Dutch oven over high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, combine yogurt, capers, lemon juice, chopped dill, and salt and pepper to taste in bowl.

3. Add salmon to pot, cover, and simmer gently until fish is opaque and flakes easily at thickest point, 8 to 10 minutes. Using slotted spatula or tongs, carefully transfer salmon to serving platter. Serve with dill-yogurt sauce. 

Comments
I love fish and for years never made it at home since Art wouldn’t eat it.  However, now that Art travels for work from time to time and I have Lance who will eat fish with me, I try to serve it at least once a week when Art is traveling.  I found this recipe in the 2007 Cook’s Country Annual and picked it since it looked good, tasty, and simple.  And because it uses capers.  I love capers. 

I wasn’t let down and both of us found the dish to be delicious.  I did have a hard time finding plain frozen salmon, so I used some lemon garlic pepper marinated salmon instead.  The flavors of the marinade were in line with the flavors in the poaching liquid, so everything worked out well. 

Shown here with Brie Spinach Risotto.

Cook’s Country 2007

Ingredients
¹⁄₂ cup butter, at room temperature
¹⁄₂ cup brown sugar
¹⁄₄ cup molasses, preferably unsulfured
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 ¹⁄₂ teaspoons ground cloves
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups all purpose flour

Instructions
1. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, brown sugar, molasses, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and baking soda together until the mixture is smooth. Blend in the flour and mix to make stiff dough. Roll out into logs roughly 1-1 ¹⁄₂ inches in diameter.  Wrap with plastic wrap or foil and chill 30 minutes or until firm in the refrigerator. 

2. Preheat oven to 375*F.

3. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.  (You can skip this and just use greased baking sheets, but I love parchment paper for baking.)  Slice logs into disks ¹⁄₄-¹⁄₂ inch thick and place on baking sheets about 1 inch apart.  (The cookies don’t spread out much.  The thinner you slice them, the crispier they will be.)  Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. 

4. Slide cookies and parchment off the baking sheet onto the counter to cool.

Note: With the substitution of Earth Balance (or other vegan “butter”) for the butter in this recipe, they become delicious and simple vegan cookies. 

Comments
This recipe makes about 4 dozen cookies and I have no idea where it is from.  I found this recipe during last year’s cookie baking when Art requested a “hard gingerbread cookie.”  Not only do these fit that bill, but they remind Lance of cookies of his childhood so they’re a double win.  If you were feeling very creative, you could always roll the dough out and use cookie cutters to make gingerbread men or other shapes.  I, however, don’t own cookie cutters and prefer the sliced log method.  They’d look even prettier if I managed to make a round log instead of a lopsided square shaped one!

Unknown

Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
¹⁄₂ cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder (I can’t seem to find Dutch-processed cocoa at my stores, so I used Hershey’s Special Dark instead.)
2 teaspoons baking powder
¹⁄₂ teaspoon salt
16 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons instant coffee or espresso powder
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 ¹⁄₂ cups brown sugar, packed
¹⁄₂ cup granulated sugar

Instructions
1. Whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl; set aside.

2. Place the chocolate in a small microwave-safe bowl and microwave, stirring every 30 seconds, until melted; set aside to cool slightly. Whisk the eggs and vanilla together in a medium bowl, sprinkle the coffee or espresso powder over the top to dissolve, and set aside.

3. In a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugars at medium speed until combined; the mixture will look granular. Decrease the speed to low; gradually add the egg mixture, and mix until incorporated. Add the melted chocolate in a steady stream and mix until combined, scraping down the bowl and beater as needed with a rubber spatula. With the mixer still running on low, add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Do not overbeat. Cover the bowl of dough with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature until the consistency is scoopable and fudge-like, about 30 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, adjust the oven racks to the upper-middle and lower-middle positions and heat the oven to 350*F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Divide the dough into portions, each about 2 tablespoons, and roll them between your hands into balls about 1 ³⁄₄ inches in diameter. Set the dough balls on the prepared baking sheets, spacing them about 1 ¹⁄₂ inches apart.

5. Bake two sheets at a time, switching and rotating the baking sheets halfway through the baking time, until the edges have just begun to set but the centers are still very soft, about 10 minutes. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets for about 10 minutes; using a wide spatula, transfer the cookies to a wire rack and cool to room temperature.

Comments
This recipe makes around 3 dozen and is from The Complete America’s Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook.  I chose it for my holiday baking project because I wanted to have a rich, chocolaty cookie.  This certainly fits the bill.  These cookies are a bit crisp around the edges, but ooey, gooey and fudgy in the middle.  Very delicious!  These would make perfect ice cream sandwiches.

I also learned, the hard way, that while a triple batch of some cookies will fit in my mixer all at once, a triple batch of these cookies will not.  Oops.

The Complete America’s Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook

Ingredients
¹⁄₄ cup orange juice
2 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 ¹⁄₂ teaspoons brown sugar
¹⁄₄ teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 ¹⁄₂ teaspoons cornstarch
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons fresh ginger, minced
2 teaspoons olive or vegetable oil
2 ¹⁄₂ pounds broccoli, cut into florets and stems cut into ¹⁄₄-inch thick pieces
2 teaspoons sesame seeds

Instructions
1. Whisk orange juice, soy sauce, 2 teaspoons sesame oil, brown sugar, pepper flakes, and cornstarch in medium bowl. Combine garlic, ginger, and remaining 1 teaspoon sesame oil in small bowl.

2. Heat vegetable oil in now-empty skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking, Add broccoli and stir-fry for 30 seconds. Add ¹⁄₂ cup water, cover, and cook over medium heat until broccoli is tender-crisp, 2 to 4 minutes. Drain broccoli and transfer to serving bowl tented with foil. Add garlic mixture to empty skillet and cook over medium-high heat until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add orange juice mixture and cook until sauce thickens and coats back of spoon, about 2 minutes. Pour sauce over broccoli and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Serve. 

Comments
I found this recipe in the 2007 Cook’s Country Annual and, since I’m always looking for new ways to prepare broccoli, decided to try it out.  The broccoli was sweet, spicy, and very flavorful.  It was also perfectly done, just at the border between tender and crisp.  Very delicious and extremely easy!

Shown here with Balsamic Glazed Chicken.

Cook’s Country 2007