Strawberry and Cheese Coffee Cake

Posted on Apr 29, 2012 | 0 comments

When my new CSA emailed and said they wanted to give us a share of their early strawberry crop, I was thrilled. I’ve had such bad luck picking strawberries at the grocery store, that I was really excited about getting what I hoped would be juicy, delicious, organically grown berries. I’ve been sucked in too many times by the big red glossy berries at Publix. When I get them home, they’re hard and tasteless and I feel stupid because I fell for it again. I wasn’t disappointed in the berries from Delvin Farms. They weren’t huge like the commercially grown ones but there were tasty and sweet. YAY! Finally.

I ran across this recipe in my new Southern Living cookbook but it was using blueberries. When I found out we were getting strawberries, I knew they would be perfect for this. I swapped some of the butter for applesauce and switched whole wheat pastry flour for half of the all purpose flour. This cake was moist and not too sweet. It’s good with or without the crumb topping.

Strawberry and Cheese Coffee Cake

Ingredients

1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 unsweetened applesauce
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup milk
1/4 water
2 cup fresh diced strawberries
1 8oz block of reduced fat cream cheese, cut into 1/4 cubes
1/2 cup flour
2 tbsp butter, softened
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Beat 1/4 butter until creamy. Beat in applesauce until well blended. Add 1 1/4 cup sugar and beat well. Add eggs one at a time and mix well after each addition.
Combine both cups of flour, baking powder, and salt. Combine milk and water. Add flour mixture and milk mixture to butter. Alternate adding flour and milk and blend well after each addition.
Gently stir in cream cheese cubes and strawberries. Pour into prepared 9 x9 baking dish. Bake 50 to 60 minutes.
Combine 1/2 cup flour, 2 tbsp butter, and cinnamon in small bowl. Sprinkle over batter.

Cooking time:

Number of servings (yield): 16

Lemon Chess Cake Bars

Posted on Apr 15, 2012 | 7 comments

If you aren’t from the south you may not get chess squares or chess pie. I had never heard of them until I moved here and for years and I didn’t understand everyone’s fascination with them. Every potluck or bakesale I’ve attended here has had some version of them and I’ve always avoided them like the plague. One day I was at a hot chicken shack in my neighborhood and they had these luscious bars in lemon and strawberry. Oh my goodness – they were good. Really good. They were still really sweet but adding tart lemon juice helped even out the sweetness so you can enjoy them. I’m not a complete convert but I’m definitely climbing on the bandwagon.

I got this recipe from one of my church members. It came from one of those little community cookbooks that’s probably older than I am. She’s been making this for 30 years and I can see why. It’s easy and comes together quickly. If lemon isn’t your thing, substitute a few tablespoons of almond extract for the lemon flavorings.

Lemon Chess Cake Squares

Ingredients

4 eggs
1 lb powdered sugar
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 stick butter, melted
1 box yellow cake mix
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tsp lemon zest

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Mix 1 egg, cake mix, and butter together. Press mixture into bottom of a greased 13 x 9 baking pan.
In medium bowl, mix 3 eggs, cream cheese, sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Pour mixture over crust.
Bake 30 to 40 minutes.

Number of servings (yield): 12

Basic Butter Cookies

Posted on Dec 16, 2011 | 0 comments

A few years ago I went through a cookie and cake decorating phase. I took all of the Wilton classes at Michael’s and bought tons of decorating supplies – bags, tips, food coloring, etc. I had a vision of starting a side business selling decorated cookies and cakes to friends and family. One day I was working on a project and knocked a batch of cookie icing onto my grey tile floors. While I was down on my hands and knees scrubbing red icing out of the grout, I started having some serious doubts about my future as a cake and cookie decorator. Scraping royal icing off of my counter tops and cleaning up splatters of food coloring weren’t fun to me and worse, holding piping bags made my hands hurt. I said goodbye to my dreams of being the next Toba Garrett.

The best thing that came out of that phase was this recipe. While I was practicing my piping skills, I made this cookie recipe by the dozen. Everyone should have a really good basic butter cookie in their recipe arsenal. They’re a versital blank canvas for whatever you want to do with them. This is Toba Garrett’s recipe and it will always be my “go-to” butter cookie recipe. If you leave out the baking powder, you will get a denser flatter cookie which makes them easier to decorate. Try substituting your favorite extract or liqueur for the vanilla. I’m partial to adding lemon extract and some lemon zest to give them a completely different taste. This dough will last for 2 weeks in the refrigerator or 2 months in the freezer. This yields about 3 dozen 2 inch cookies.

p.s. These are snowflakes not flowers.

Basic Butter Cookies

Ingredients

1 cup (8 oz) unsalted butter
1 cup (8oz) granulated white sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
3 cups (12 oz) all purpose flour (plus a little extra for rolling surface)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together for about two minutes. Scrape the bowl down and mix for another minute.
Beat in eggs and vanilla extract until well combined. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, sift together flour and baking powder.
Add flour mixture to butter mixture 1 cup at a time and mix thorougly after each cupful. Mix in last cup by hand.
Divide dough into 2 disks and wrap with plastic wrap until you’re ready to use them.
Roll out each disk on a lightly flour surface. Cutout cookies and place on ungreased nonstick cookie sheet or on parchment paper.
Bake for 6 to 8 minutes or until edges start to get brown slightly.

This dough will last for 2 weeks in the refrigerator or 2 months in the freezer.

Cranberry Hootycreeks

Posted on Dec 8, 2011 | 1 comment

I love a good food gift. Several years ago I worked with a very nice man whose family would make big Christmas goody bags that he would pass out to his coworkers. They were wonderful - cookies, candies, cakes, all sorts of homemade treats. Something about getting those bags always made me feel special.

Homemade gifts have a way of doing that. These cookies are a perfect gift for cookie lover on your list. They can either be given as gift already made or in cute jar with the instructions attached. The jars are colorful and beautiful and will keep for months.

Cranberry Hootycreeks

Ingredients

5/8 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar

Instructions

Layer the ingredients in a 1 quart jar in the order listed. I put the sugar in a coffee filter and placed it on top of the other ingredients
Attach a tag with the following instructions: Cranberry Hootycreeks : “Preheat oven to 350 degrees F . Grease a cookie sheet or line with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, beat together 1/2 cup softened butter and sugars. Add 1 egg and 1 teaspoon of vanilla until fluffy. Add the entire jar of ingredients, and mix together by hand until well blended. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets. Bake until edges start to brown around 8 to 10 minutes. Remove to cool on wire racks.”

Chocolate Espresso Cookies

Posted on Dec 7, 2011 | 0 comments

This is a cookie that I made in a baking cooking class at Viking Cooking School. It has a delicious deep dark chocolate flavor with a hint of coffee. Use the best quality chocolate you can find for these since it’s the dominant flavor. Espresso powder can be a little hard to find in some stores. If it’s not with the coffee, check the ethic/italian aisle.

Chocolate Espresso Cookies

Serving Size : 24

Ingredients

6 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick butter
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate squares — chopped
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons espresso powder
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup hazelnut

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place rack in center of oven.
Sift together cocoa powder, flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
In a double boiler, melt together butter and 2/3 cup chocolate.
In bowl of electric mixer, combine eggs, sugar, and espresso powder. Beat on high with paddle attachment until mixture becomes pale and thick – about 3 minutes.
Reduce speed to medium and mix in the melted chocolate mixture and vanilla extract. Add the flour-cocoa mixture, and beat just until combined. Stir in remaining chocolate and hazelnuts.
Drop batter by heaping tablespoons on parchment lined baking sheet about 2 inches apart.
Bake until the tops have crusted over and are slightly cracked – about 10 to 12 minutes. Rotate pan halfway through baking time. Transfer to cooling racks and let cool for at least 10 minutes.

The Week of Cookies – Peanut Butter Temptations

Posted on Dec 6, 2011 | 0 comments

There’s been alot of cookie baking around my house lately and I wanted share a few of my favorites. This has been officially deemed the week of cookies. What are your favorite holiday cookies?

I first tasted these years ago at an office potluck. I remember begging our receptionist for the recipe and I still have the handwritten recipe she gave me. I’ve never been a huge fan of peanut butter cookies but something about these lightly flavored cookies wrapped around miniature Reeses is addictive to me. I make these in a miniature muffin pan but if you wanted to be really want to be decadent, make them in a regular size muffin pan and use a full size peanut butter cup. I like to put my peanut butter cups in the freezer for about an hour before I’m ready to use them.

Peanut Butter Temptations

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
36 miniature chocolate covered peanut butter cups, unwrapped

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
In a medium bowl, cream together the brown sugar, white sugar and butter. Stir in the peanut butter, then the egg and vanilla. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt, stir into the peanut butter mixture until the dough comes together. Shape into 1 inch balls and press them into the cups of an unprepared mini muffin pan.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. As soon as the cookies come out of the oven, press a mini chocolate covered peanut butter cup down into the center of each cookie until only the top is showing. Allow the cookies to cool completely before removing from their pans.

Number of servings (yield): 12