Tag Archives: sugar cookies

Saturday Recipe Round-up, Week 6 (evening edition)

Posted on by

1

Today was too lovely to stay at home watching TV and pretending to work like I usually do, so I went to my dad’s house (I call him Popsicle because I’m cool like that. You know, Pop-sicle? Cause he’s my pop? Yeah, moving on…) and went shopping for hours with my sister Brittany! She’s nineteen and we’re finally back to being the same size as the other. It was a lot of fun to be in the dressing room with her and pass dresses back and forth. If one dress didn’t look good on her, it did on me. It all works out in the end.

Except for jeans. Le sigh.

Anyway, hence the lateness of today’s recipe round-up. Usually I’m better about scheduling and writing, but this week was horrrrrrrriffic (thank you, after-commencement madness), so I took the evenings off to sit on the couch, cheer on the Phillies (love me some Hunter Pence, mmm mmm) and eat a lot of Dove chocolate.

It was so worth it.

We have a variety of delicious goodies for you today, starting with my personal favorite, a Coconut Cream Poke Cake from The Country Cook. Is there anything more perfect than a fluffy white cake filled with sweet coconut cream?

Even though I’m not a huge peanut butter fan, I think I could learn to love it with this Peanut Butter Fudge Cake from Confessions of a Cookbook Queen. Aren’t Reese’s peanut butter cups magical? They can solve the world’s problems. Maybe all chocolate can. . . .

Speaking of solving problems, ever have a debate about what kind of toppings/fillings you should use in your baked treats? Never have an argument again with these Monster Cookie Bars from Bakers Royale. Very similar to those seven-layer bars of which everyone has her own version, these monster bars feature M&M’s, almonds and peanut butter cups.

If you’re craving something simple (and need about three dozen cookies), try these Brown Butter Brown Sugar Cookies from Krissy’s Creations. I’ve been meaning to try out browned butter in a recipe for some time now, and these cookies look like perfect medium!

I know I said the first one was my favorite, but this also counts! These Mini-Grasshopper Pies from Bakingdom look so adorable and are my long-awaited reason to purchase other liqueurs besides amaretto (I’m only slighted addicted to Disaronno). Also, I need to buy some tart pans. Or maybe I can use my lined cupcake pans? Hmm.

But that’s a thought for next week. Enjoy your Sunday, folks. It’s going to be another day of perfect weather in New Jersey.

- Niki

Cinco de Mayo Taco Cookies: some history and maybe a blister

Posted on by

0

So, apparently Cinco de Mayo is a relevant holiday and has nothing to do with Mexican Independence day. Personally, I just thought it was another day for Americans to get shwasted. And did you know that U.S. didn’t start observing this day until 2005? That was like, seven years ago. WHAT?

Anyway, this weekend is Cinco de Mayo and the dogs are off to a flyball tournament aptly named, “Cinco de Flyo.” At these tournaments, my friend and her lovely flyball dog racing friends have a ton of fun and enjoy getting away from the rigors of everyday life with a specialty cocktail in one hand and a treat in the other.

This week’s treats are based on this “recipe” I found while searching for alternatives to the pinata cookies. At the end of the day, I feel like I would have done less work if I’d gone ahead and made the stinkin’ pinata cookies after all. Geesh. This was a trial.

I want to put this out there – if you have a sturdy sugar cookie recipe, one that you know can stand up to being baked into odd shapes (say, a folded taco shape?), then, by all means, use it! These sugar cookies are delicious on their own, BUT MAN, were they a pan in tuchus to fold.

Continue reading →

Minty Sugar Cookies

Posted on by

0

Bakers Anonymous community, my life has been insane these past couple of months. I applied for graduate school (University of Baltimore, here I come!), started working on the outline for my second resident assistant musical and finally finished that portfolio website that’s been driving me crazy. On top of all of that, I work five days a week at two different offices and do freelance jobs here and there. Oh. And did I mention that I’m trying to better my food photography?

Don’t worry. My brain only explodes every other day.

I’ve been baking more often, though, as an outlet for all that stress, and it’s been a good thing (I even found some new banana recipes. More on that another day). Tomorrow, I’m taking the day off to have a fun trip with my little sister and brothers and I wanted to bake a treat that we could snack on. It’s St. Patrick’s day this Saturday, so I intended to make sugar cookies with an Andes Mint frosting, but would you believe that Target had absolutely no Andes Mints?

I know. Devastation.

So I substituted with these delicious mint MnM’s, which, believe it or not, aren’t even listed on the MnM’s product website. Not only are these MnM’s a delectable  combination of dark chocolate and mint essence, but also each MnM is the same size as the peanut version.

The original sugar cookie recipe was pulled from allrecipes.com. Next time, I’ll probably lessen the amount of flour in the dough from three and a half cups to just three. They baked up nice and fluffy, but I would prefer to taste the butter and sugar just a little bit more. I also ditched the shortening in the recipe and used butter. I have an aversion to shortening, remember?

Minty Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:
1 1/3 C butter
1 1/2 C white sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 1/2 C all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 bag of mint MnM’s
Extra white sugar for rolling
Green sugar

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, foil or silicone mat. These cookies will slide easily off the tray right out of the oven.

2. Cream together the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy. It is important to make sure that you do not melt the butter beforehand. This mixture is the base of your cookie!

3. Stir in the eggs and vanilla extract, thoroughly incorporating them.

4. Next, add the baking powder and the salt. Usually I would mix in these two in with the flour, but it being a lazy afternoon, I mixed them in first. This also made sure that the baking powder and salt would reach all the corners of the batter.

5. Add the flour, one cup at a time. By the third cup, the batter will be stiff.

6. Roll into walnut-sized balls, and then roll in the extra white sugar for rolling.

7. While these cookies will spread and out and puff up during baking, flatten the balls out slightly. Press two to three MnM’s (on some I put four) in the top of the cookie. You may have to angle them in to get them to stay. Don’t worry! They’ll settle in during baking. I also sprinkled some green sugar on a few cookies for color.

8. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the bottom is lightly browned. My cookies only took 10 minutes.

9. Immediately remove the cookies to wire cooling racks.

Makes four dozen cookies.

Niki’s Note: Thanks for sticking with me during this whole transition time. I’m looking forward to when my schedule is less crazy and I can spend some more time with you!

Cream cheese sugar cookies

Posted on by

1

Sugar cookies

My cookie jar is empty.

I cleaned out of the stale cookies that have been sitting in there for probably over a month now, waiting to be eaten by my boyfriend and me. Shortbread, German chocolate, and two peppermint chocolate chip cookies rested in a small, sad heap, making teary eyes at me as I picked them up to throw them in the trash.

“Please don’t get rid of us, Niki, we love you,” they said.

“I’m sorry, guys, but you are just …” I sniffed, “not good anymore.”

And then I placed them into the trashcan, closing the cabinet door on them. I turned to the oven where a batch of sugar cookies were gently baking, ready to be eaten by my Publication Layout class this morning.

The recipe is, yet again, from my Philadelphia Cream Cheese Classic Recipes cookbook. The 10 remaining cookies sit patiently in my cookie jar, waiting to be eaten by my boyfriend who will be home next week. :)

leftover

Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

1 package (8 oz) Philadelphia cream cheese

1 C (2 sticks) butter, softened

2/3 C sugar (I think I accidentally put 1/3 C sugar … but it still tasted good!)

1/4 tsp vanilla

2 C flour

colored sugar for decorating

DoughDirections:

1. Beat cream cheese, butter, sugar, and vanilla until well-blended. Mix in flour. Refrigerate several hours or overnight.

Niki’s Note: Dough must be refrigerated or it will be difficult to work with.

2. When you’re ready to bake them, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

3. I made my cookies into regular balls and flatten them out, but the you can also roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thickness on lightly floured surface. Cut into desired shapes; sprinkle with colored sugar.

4. Place on ungreased cookie sheets and bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned. Cool on wire racks.

5. Have fun with them!

four-cookies

Inside Rowan’s kitchen

Posted on by

1

Pearce measures out flour for a recipe.

Pearce measures out flour for a recipe.

Students at Rowan University are treated to fresh baked goods in the cafteria, more formally known as the Marketplace, every day. There are three people that pump out 600-800 cookies a day, and lead baker Kathleen Pearce heads them all.

Originally a nurse for 20 years, she switched careers at age 36 after learning a valuable lesson from her patients. She has spent the last four years working in the kitchens of Rowan, loving every minute of it. She holds two associate degrees from the Academy of Culinary Arts .

Here’s an interview I had with her:

So, what made you career switch?

“You know, in working with hospice patients for 10 years, what I kept hearing from them was, ‘Don’t wait to do what you want to do with your life. What’s your passion? Find your passion.’ They would tell me in there they were going to travel, but by the time they retired they had a terminal diagnosis. I had several patients in their thirties and forties, and they would say, ‘My life hasn’t even begun, and now it’s ending.’ So it’s a lot about learning from patients, and over time, just processing ‘What is my passion? What do I want to do with my life?’”

Where did you grow up?

“In Michigan, I grew up on a dairy farm. … We had chickens, and we had pigs, and horses, so I grew up riding horses. … I tell people I never had bought bread until I was probably 15; I never had process milk until I left home and went to college, ’cause we got milk straight out of the cow. … I think you learned how to entertain yourself. I grew up on a 200-acre farm, so we had a neghbor that was a quarter of a mile down the road. … We had an orchard, we had a garden, so in the summertime I had a lot of gardening chores, a lot of stuff associated with food.“

Do you think that really influenced you and the way you cook?

“Yes, absolutely. I was used to fresh, so like I said, no processed milk, freshly baked bread, had dessert every night for dinner. I guess just kind of a very earthy philosophy.”

Do you only do baking now?

“Well, when I finished with my culinary degree, I decided I wanted to do baking, so I took classes at the American Institute of Baking; it’s in Manhattan, Kansas, and I’m one practical exam away from having my master’s certification. I just have to take the two day test.”

Now, once you graduated, did you come here directly?

“No, I worked in a farm market in Medford, Johnson’s farm, and then I went to Classic Cake in Cherry Hill. Worked there for almost four years, worked on the decorating side and then went to the baking side. It was interesting being the only female baker.”

What do you think has been your greatest influence on your baking, on your cooking? Would you say it was your life on the dairy farm?

“My mom. I guess as I’ve gotten older, and I’ve looked back and a lot of the things that she taught me when I was  say 10, 11, 12, when I went to culinary school, I found out the science behind what she was teaching me. So in essence I already knew what she was teaching me, I just didn’t know why. My mom was a cake decorator, so when we got to pastry classes and we had to decorate a birthday cake, I was done in like 20 minutes and my fellow students were done in like two hours.”

What would be one of your most favorite recipes to make?

“Probably a cheesecake. Just a plain, New York-style cheesecake. It’s just a very classic dessert. It can be as upscale as you want it to be. But if you do it well, it doesn’t matter if it’s plain or if you have cherries on top, it just doesn’t matter. It’s just good by itself.”

Do you have any advice for aspiring pastry chefs?

“Practice, practice, practice! I think the most important thing is to follow your own talent, and your own gifts. And just, where’s your passion? You’re not going to get rich.”

A tray of sugar cookies waits to be taken out of the kitchen.

A tray of sugar cookies waits to be taken out of the kitchen.