Category Archives: Desserts

December 4, 2015 · 2:17 pm

Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies: Easy One-Bowl Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

DAY 4: Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

These should be called “Super-Easy-One-Bowl-No-Mixer-I-Forgot-To-Make-Cookies-For-The-Bake-Sale-Tomorrow-Don’t-Even-Have-To-Soften-The-Butter-Chocolate-Chip-Cookie-Bars”

They are that easy.

These cookies will stay nice and chewy (without burnt edges and soggy middle) if you bake them in two 8×8” pans instead of one 9×13” pan.

Since we have one non-chocolate eater, I usually prepare the batter without the chocolate chips, put half of the batter in one pan and sprinkle the top with cinnamon/sugar. Then stir some chocolate chips into the remaining batter and put the chocolate chip version in the other pan.

RECIPE:

Easy One-Bowl Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

1 cup butter
¾ cup white sugar
¾ cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 ½ cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 ½ cups chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease two 8” square baking pans (or spray with Baking Pam).

Melt butter in a large bowl in the microwave. Stir sugar and brown sugar into melted butter until incorporated. Mix in the eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder and salt. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts. Spread the batter into the prepared baking pans.

Bake at 350°F for 28-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely and then cut into squares.

Makes 32 bars

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Tagged as bar cookies, chocolate, chocolate chips, christmas, dessert, easy, no mixer, one bowl, recipe

December 3, 2015 · 2:56 pm

Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies: Homemade Thin Mint Cookies

DAY 3: Homemade Thin Mint Cookies

Sometimes you just can’t wait a whole year for those cute little Girl Scouts to knock on your door selling contentment in a box. If you absolutely must have Thin Mints before cookie selling season comes around again, this recipe is for you.

You could also dress them up for Christmas by adding some crushed candy canes.

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RECIPE:

Homemade Thin Mint Cookies

2 cups flour
1 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
10 Tbs butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
1 1/2 tsp pure peppermint extract
about 2 pounds dark chocolate, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 325°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat.

Whisk flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. In another bowl, beat butter and sugar with a mixer on medium-high speed for 1 minute. Reduce speed to medium-low, and add eggs and peppermint extract. Slowly add flour mixture, and beat until just incorporated.

Divide dough in half and place on two large pieces of plastic wrap. Using plastic wrap, shape dough into 2 logs about 2″ in diameter. Wrap logs securely in the plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, at least 1-2 hours, or several days.

When ready to bake, unroll plastic wrap from dough logs. Use a sharp knife to cut dough into 1/4” disks. Gently reshape edges into circles, if necessary. Place cookies on lined baking sheet, keeping unused dough in the refrigerator until ready to slice. Bake cookies for 10 minutes, or until dry to the touch. Cool 2 minutes on baking sheet before transferring cookies to wire racks to cool.

Melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl in the microwave or in a double boiler (melt chocolate slowly). Dunk cookies into melted chocolate. Use a fork to turn the cookie over in the chocolate. Pick up the cookie with the fork, let excess chocolate drip off, and gently scrape bottom against edge of bowl. Place on parchment (or waxed paper)-lined baking sheets. Let chocolate harden before storing.

TIME SAVING NOTE: You can also just use your fingers to hold the cookie and only dunk the top and sides of the cookie, gently scraping the excess chocolate off of the top of the cookie before placing it on the parchment paper

Makes 4-6 dozen, depending on the size of your cookies

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Tagged as chocolate, chocolate covered, christmas, Cookies, copy cat, girl scout cookies, mint, recipe, Thin Mints

December 2, 2015 · 5:04 pm

Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies: Oatmeal Pumpkin Spice Chip Cookies

DAY 2: Oatmeal Pumpkin Spice Chip Cookies

Nestle introduced these Pumpkin Spice chips earlier this fall. Paired with a chewy oatmeal cookies, they are delicious.

Brian objects to these cookies on principle, however. He believes that pumpkin (as a vegetable) hijacks recipes for way too many months of the year. Why don’t Brussels sprouts or asparagus get equal time? For these pumpkin-nay-sayers, you can make these cookies any time of year with regular chocolate chips (or raisins, but why?).

RECIPE:

Oatmeal Pumpkin Spice Chip Cookies

1 ¼ cups (2 ½ sticks) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 Tbs milk or cream
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
3 cups flour
1 Tbs baking soda
2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
4 cups rolled oats
1 -2 bags (10 oz each) Nestle Pumpkin Spice Chips**
1 ½ cups chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mat.

Beat butter and sugars with a mixer until light and fluffy. Add milk, vanilla and eggs; mix well. Add flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Mix. Mix in oats, pumpkin chips and pecans.

Drop by tablespoonsful onto baking sheets. Bake for 9-10 minutes, or until barely brown around edges. Cookies will still look slightly undercooked in the middle. Cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes, then cool completely on a wire rack.

**I use one bag of pumpkin spice chips, but if you like lots of chips, use up to two bags.

Makes 5-6 dozen cookies

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7th Annual Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies: Pecan Sandies

DAY 1: December is here, so it’s time for another Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies! Twelve days of ideas for your Christmas Cookie Plates.

Pecan Sandies are a traditional crispy/crumbly shortbread type cookie. I am usually a soft cookie kind of girl, but I really like these not-too-sweet, melt in your mouth cookies.

RECIPE:

Pecan Sandies

½ cup butter
½ cup vegetable oil
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup powdered sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 ¼ cups flour
½ tsp salt
½tsp cream of tartar
½ tsp baking soda
scant 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1 cup chopped pecans
Whole pecans (about 72)

Preheat oven to 375°F.

In a large mixing bowl, combine butter, oil, and sugars. Beat with a mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Add flour, salt, cream of tartar, baking soda and nutmeg and mix just until combined. Stir in chopped pecans. Chill dough for 1 hour.

Use a SMALL cookie scoop to make rounded balls (about 2 tsp dough). Place on ungreased cookie sheets. Press 1 whole pecan into the top of each dough ball. Bake for 8-9 minutes.

Makes about 5 dozen small cookies

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For lots more cookie and candy ideas, there are links below for the six previous years’ Christmas Cookies:

First Annual Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies (2009)

Second Annual Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies (2010)

Third Annual Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies (2011)

Fourth Annual Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies (2012)

Fifth Annual Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies (2013)

Sixth Annual Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies (2014)

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Tagged as christmas, Christmas cookies, Cookies, dessert, pecan sandies, pecans, recipe, shortbread

November 17, 2015 · 6:22 am

How To . . . Make Your Own Pie Crust Shield

Getting ready to bake a ton of pies for Thanksgiving? Tired of burnt edges to your pie crusts, but don’t want to spend major $$ to buy commercial pie crust shields? Frustrated with trying to arrange foil strips and then nursing burnt fingers when the strips fall off in the oven?

Making your own pie crust shield is super easy, cheap, and will keep your fingers blister-free. And you won’t be tempted to curse in frustration at foil strips that just don’t stay put. Oh- and you will end up with perfectly browned pie crusts.

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To make you own pie crust shield you need the following: aluminum foil, scissors, pencil and the pie plate you will be baking in.

Set your pie plate, right side up, on a square of foil that is 2-3” larger than your pie plate.

Trace the bottom of your pie plate (the smaller side).

Set pie plate aside and cut out the inner circle.

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You can trim the corners on the outside edge, but I usually just leave them. Fill your pie crust, then set foil ring over the edge of the unbaked pie. Gently fold down outer edges, being careful not to squish all of that edge-crimping you worked so hard on!

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Bake pie, or quiche, with the pie shield on. Five minutes before the end of the cooking time, carefully remove shield. If the edges are not brown enough, leave shield off and bake until edges are golden brown. If the edges are browned, replace shield and continue cooking until quiche/pie is cooked through.

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Uses for Pie Crust Shield:

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Tagged as aluminum foil, diy, foil, foil pie crust shield, how to, how to make a pie crust shield, make your own, pie crust shield, pies, quiche, tutorial

October 10, 2015 · 9:18 pm

Banana Cream Pie with Salted Caramel Sauce

We went to a church fall festival activity tonight, and I brought this banana cream pie as well as this Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie: RECIPE HERE.

I was not planning on posting the banana cream pie recipe yet, since I only got a couple of not-so-great photos of the whole pie before we left. And there were no left-overs to take a picture of after getting home. But I have had a few requests for the recipe, so I am going to go ahead and post the recipe without the “inside” pictures. So you will just have to imagine layers of flaky crust, salted caramel, bananas, homemade custard filling and whipped cream.

And once you have gone to the trouble of making salted caramel, it goes well with just about everything else you might want to drizzle it on.

This recipe was inspired by the many Salted Caramel Banana Cream Pies eaten on “Pi Day” at the Kings’ house in Pittsburgh. Not having Tony’s pies to look forward to every year now, I had to buckle down and make one for myself.

RECIPE:

Banana Cream Pie with Salted Caramel Sauce

Servings: 8
Print

1 Baked Pie Crust
Vanilla Custard (recipe below)
Salted Caramel (recipe below)
3 Bananas
1 cup heavy cream
2 Tbs powdered sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbs cream cheese, softened

Bake and cool pie crust. Spread 3-4 tablespoons of salted caramel sauce over the bottom of the cooled pie crust. Slice 1 ½ bananas and place in single layer over the caramel sauce. Spoon half of the slightly cooled vanilla custard over the bananas. Slice remaining bananas (slice them thinly) and place over custard. Top with remaining custard filling. Refrigerate until well chilled, at least 1-2 hours.

Combine cream, powdered sugar and vanilla in a mixing bowl. Mix using an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Add cream cheese and beat until stiff peaks form. Spread over chilled pie. Drizzle with additional salted caramel sauce and chill until serving time.

Serve pie with additional Salted Caramel Sauce.

Vanilla Custard
1 cup sugar
4 Tbs cornstarch
2 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
4 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract
8 oz cream cheese, softened

Combine sugar, cornstarch, milk, cream and egg yolks in a medium saucepan. Whisk until well mixed. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until thickened and bubbly. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Add cream cheese to hot custard about 1 tablespoon at a time. Stir with a whisk until cream cheese is completely melted and custard is smooth. Cool for 15-20 minutes before pouring into pie crust (stir occasionally so that it doesn’t form a skin).

Salted Caramel Sauce
1 cup sugar
6 Tbs butter, softened and cut into tablespoon-sized chunks
½ cup heavy cream
½ – 1 tsp tsp flaky or coarse sea salt
1 tsp vanilla

Place sugar in a medium to large saucepan (mixture will bubble up and expand as cool ingredients are added to the hot pan). Cook over medium heat until sugar just begins to melt. Stir gently, trying to keep sugar crystals off of the sides of the pan. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until sugar melts completely and is a medium amber color (about 350°F if you use an instant-read thermometer). Reduce heat to low and quickly whisk in butter chunks, stirring constantly.

Remove from heat and stir in cream, whisking constantly. Stir in salt and vanilla. Pour immediately into a glass jar or heat-safe bowl to cool. Do NOT scrape sides or bottom of the pan with a spatula. If you do, you are likely to get sugar crystals into your nice smooth caramel. If the caramel has formed crystals while cooking, you can pour it from the pan through a fine sieve into the jar to remove any crystals before cooling.

Caramel can be kept in a covered jar at room temperature for several weeks.

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