Category Archives: Desserts

December 1, 2013 · 9:28 am

Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies: Scottish Shortbread

Welcome to the Fifth Annual Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies. Twelve days of cookies and treats perfect to share with friends and family or for a delicious holiday table of your own.

DAY 1: Sometimes simplicity makes for the best cookies. There is nothing fancy about this shortbread. Just good, quality ingredients that combine to make a cookie that melts in your mouth. A perfect companion to a cup of homemade hot cocoa.

For a fancier treat, dip half of each cookie in melted dark chocolate.

RECIPE:

Scottish Shortbread

Servings: 4 dozen
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2 cups butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1 Tbs vanilla extract
½ tsp salt
4 ½ cups flour
OPTIONAL: 6 oz dark chocolate (about 1 cup chocolate chips)

Preheat oven to 325°F.

Make sure that butter is very soft, but not melted. Cream butter and brown sugar with a mixer for 2 minutes. Beat in vanilla and salt. Gradually add flour, mixing well.

Lightly sprinkle flour on a pastry board or mat. Gently press dough into a rectangle ½” thick (about 10”x 12”). Cut dough into 1” strips lengthwise and then into 2-3” wide rectangles. Prick each cookie with a fork about 4 times.

Use a thin metal spatula to transfer unbaked cookies to an ungreased baking sheet, leaving a small space between cookies. Bake at 325°F for 20-25 minutes. Do not brown. Cool on a wire rack.

OPTIONAL: Melt chocolate and pour into a narrow bowl or cup. Dip half of each cooled cookie in the melted chocolate. Place on parchment paper or wax paper to harden.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

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More cookies to tempt your taste buds:

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)

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Filed under Cookies, Desserts

Tagged as baking, bar cookies, Christmas cookies, Cookies, dessert, recipes, Scottish, shortbread

November 25, 2013 · 8:07 am

How to . . . Blind Bake a Piecrust

“Blind Baking” is a term for baking a pie crust with no filling. This pre-baked crust is used for any pie that is not cooked in the oven with its filling: pies with cream or custard fillings, ice-cream pies, lemon meringue pie, strawberry pie.

When you bake a pie crust without a filling, it tends to have bubbles form in the bottom part of the crust, or the sides sink and fall into the center of the crust. To keep this from happening, you need to bake the crust in two steps: first with something weighing down the bottom of the crust, and then without the weights to finish cooking the crust. Here is a quick How To… on blind baking a perfect crust.

Start with any crust recipe. Here is one that I like for an All Butter Pie Crust. Place in your pie plate and flute the edges. When you flute your edges, press down slightly on the indentations where the crust touches the top edge of the pan to keep it from sliding down the sides as it bakes.

Place a square of foil in the bottom of your crust. I like to use non-stick foil (non-stick side touching the crust) to keep it from sticking to the bottom of the crust. Extend the foil slightly up the sides of the crust, but do not cover the fluting on the edges. Add about 1-2 cups of DRIED beans to your foil bowl. You can also buy pie weights (either loose or on a chain), but beans are a great cheap alternative.

Bake the weighted crust at 400°F for 10 minutes.

Remove the beans and foil and prick the bottom of the crust with a fork.

Place a pie crust shield on the edges of your crust to keep them from overcooking while you bake the crust again. You can buy a pie crust shield or make your own. Here is an easy HOW TO on making one that is just the right size for your pie plate: Make Your Own Pie Crust Shield.

Bake empty crust for an additional 10 minutes, or until golden brown. Be sure to cool crust completely before filling.

Instructions:

How to Blind Bake a Piecrust

Prepare pie crust and place in pie plate. Flute edges, if desired.
Line bottom of pie crust with foil (I like non-stick foil), extending foil slightly up the sides of the crust. Add 1-2 cups dried beans, or use pie weights.
Bake at 400°F for 10 minutes.
Remove beans or weights and foil. Prick bottom of crust with a fork. Place a pie crust shield over the edges of the crust and bake for an additional 10 minutes, or until golden brown.
Cool completely before filling.

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Lemon Meringue Pie Bites

All the goodness of a lemon meringue pie in a hand-held bite-sized dessert.

These bite-sized pies use packaged pre-baked fillo (phyllo) dough shells as a crust. For a gluten-free dessert, skip the crust all together, and bake pies in small ramekins.

Lemon pie filling is a pudding made with egg yolks, sugar, lemon juice and zest. It is thickened by the eggs and cornstarch. Meringue is made from the remaining egg whites, stabilized with sugar and cream of tartar.

For the mini-pies, I piped the meringue using a large star pastry tip. Because of their small size, it is not as important to seal the meringue completely to the sides of the crust.

The pies are baked just long enough to cook and brown the meringue.

You can, of course, make a regular lemon meringue pie by pouring the hot filling into a regular baked pie crust and spreading the meringue over the hot filling. Bake until meringue is golden brown.

Tips for keeping meringue from shrinking and weeping: Start with room-temperature egg whites for best results. Be sure to seal the meringue to the edge of the piecrust. It should touch everywhere along the edge of the crust. Also be sure that the lemon filling is hot when you spread the meringue over the filling. The hot filling will help cook the bottom of the meringue and keep it from weeping as it cools. The pie should also be completely cool before cutting.

RECIPE:

Lemon Meringue Pie Bites (or Regular Pie)

Servings: 45 mini bites or 1 regular pie
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Lemon Meringue Pie Bites 4

1 ¼ cups sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch
¼ tsp salt
1 ½ cups cold water
½ cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
5 eggs, separated (at room temperature)
2-3 tsp grated lemon zest (from one lemon)
2 Tbs butter

3 packages Mini Fillo Shells or 1 Baked Pie Crust

½ tsp cream of tartar
½ cup + 2 Tbs sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Combine 1 ¼ cups sugar, cornstarch and salt in a saucepan. Mix with a whisk. Stir in water and lemon juice until smooth. Separate eggs. Set egg whites aside to use in the meringue. In a separate bowl, beat egg yolks with the whisk until well mixed. Stir into cold liquid in the saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thickened and bubbly. Stir in lemon zest and butter. Continue to cook until butter melts. Turn off burner, but keep pan warm.

While lemon filling is cooking, prepare meringue: Combine egg whites and cream of tartar in large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until foamy. Gradually beat in ½ cup + 2 Tbs sugar. Beat until stiff peaks form. Beat in vanilla. Spoon meringue into a pastry bag fit with a large tip.

Place fillo shells onto a baking sheet. Spoon hot lemon filling into fillo shells. Pipe meringue onto filling. Bake at 350°F for 13-15 minutes.

Makes about 45 mini lemon meringue pie bites.

For regular Lemon Meringue Pie: Prepare filling and meringue as directed, but do not spoon meringue into a pastry bag. Pour hot lemon filling into a baked pie crust. Spoon meringue over hot filling, spreading to seal to edge of pastry crust. Use the back of a spoon to make peaks. Bake at 350°F for 15-18 minutes, or until meringue is golden brown. Cool completely to room temperature before slicing.

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Pumpkin Zucchini Bread

Pumpkin Zucchini Bread: where summer and autumn collide in a great tasting snack. This is a great way to use an over-abundance of zucchini from your garden (or local farmers’ market) and incorporate the great fall flavors of pumpkin and spices like cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom.

You can also make these in muffin form for a delicious on-the-go breakfast or lunch box treat. There is no easier way to get your kids to eat their veges. Chocolate chips are optional, but always appreciated (unless you are a certain son of mine).

RECIPE:

Pumpkin Zucchini Bread

Servings: Makes 2 loaves
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3 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups sugar
1 ½ cups canned pumpkin
2 cups shredded zucchini
½ cup butter, melted
1 Tbs vanilla
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground cardamom
¼ tsp ground nutmeg (or cloves)
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips, optional
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour 2 medium loaf pans.

Combine eggs and sugar in a mixing bowl. Add pumpkin, zucchini, melted butter and vanilla and mix well. In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients. Gradually add to pumpkin mixture and stir until just incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts. Pour into 2 loaf pans.

Bake at 350°F for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pans for 10 minutes. Remove and cool on a wire rack.

FOR MUFFINS: Line muffin pans with paper liners (or grease pan). Bake at 375°F for 15-18 minutes.

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Softball (or Baseball) Cookies

We made it to the end of another girls’ softball season! Last week was our end-of-season party and awards night. Since I had a couple-dozen plain round cookies left from the graduation party Fruit Pizza Cookies (stored in the freezer), I made these softball cookies in our team color (Go Purple Bandits!) for the girls to eat after their pizza.

I used a simple Glacé Icing to frost these (just powdered sugar, milk, corn syrup, vanilla or almond extract and gel food coloring) that you mix with a whisk. You could also use a Royal Icing. Click HERE to see soccer ball cookies made with Royal Icing. There are also some more detailed pictures there of piping and flooding sugar cookies.

To make the baseball/softball cookies:

Using thick white piping-thickness icing, pipe a circle around the edge of each cookie. Using thinner flooding-thickness white icing, fill the center of each cookie with white icing. Use a toothpick to move icing around to completely fill center. Use toothpick to pop any bubbles. Let cookies set for about 30 minutes before piping on colored lines (ball seams).

Using thick colored piping-thickness icing (I used purple, but you could use red for a traditional baseball), pipe two arcs at the edges of the cookies. Pipe “v’s” to complete seams. Let icing harden at least 24 hours before stacking cookies.

In humid weather it will take even longer for the icing to harden. After 36 hours, mine were still slightly soft. Royal icing dries harder and faster than glacé icing, but I didn’t have any meringue powder and I like the taste of the glacé icing better, especially with almond extract.

Little J in her Bandits uniform. She was voted Best Hitter by her teammates.

Little J had a great coach this year that really focused on fundamentals, and her game improved a lot. Her favorite thing to do was to slide. Whether the ball was anywhere near her or not. Here she is sliding into third:

She tried this in a game once wearing shorts (“It’s too hot to wear pants, Mom!”). After coming home with a softball-sized scrape on the edge of her bum, I haven’t had to nag anymore about the wisdom of pants.

RECIPE:

Sugar Cookies with Glacé Icing

Servings: About 5 dozen using a 3-inch round cookie cutter
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Sugar Cookies

3 cups sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sour cream
2 tsp vanilla
3 eggs
About 7 – 7 ½ cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

Beat sugar, butter, sour cream and vanilla until fluffy. Beat in eggs. Add soda, salt and enough flour to make a moderately stiff dough (start with 7 cups and add additional flour if needed). Chill dough for 20 minutes to 1 hour for easier handling. Roll out dough to desired thickness (I like these fairly thick) and cut with cookie cutter.

Bake at 375°F for 9-11 minutes; if they brown, it’s been too long. They should still look white when done.

Glacé Icing
——–(from Our Best Bites)
1lb powdered sugar (about 4 cups) + additional for thickening piping icing
¼ cup+ 2 Tbs whole milk or cream
¼ cup + 2 Tbs light corn syrup
1 tsp almond or vanilla extract
Gel food coloring

With a whisk, combine sugar, milk or cream, corn syrup and almond or vanilla extract until smooth. NOTE: If you are using cream, you will need 1-2 Tbs more. Using cream does help the icing look whiter. Add food coloring for desired colors.

You will use this same recipe for both glazing and piping. The way it is right now is the consistency you want for glazing. It’s smooth and thin. It easily runs off of a whisk in a thin drizzle.

To prepare the icing for piping, add more powdered sugar until icing is thick enough to hold its shape.

To make the baseball/softball cookies:
Using thick white piping-thickness icing, pipe a circle around the edge of each cookie. Using thinner flooding-thickness white icing, fill the center of each cookie with white icing. Use a toothpick to move icing around to completely fill center. Use toothpick to pop any bubbles. Let cookies set for about 30 minutes before piping colored lines (ball seams).

Using thick colored piping-thickness icing (I used purple because our team was the Purple Bandits, but you could use red for a traditional baseball), pipe two arcs at the edges of the cookies. Pipe “v’s” to complete seams. Let icing harden at least 24 hours before stacking cookies. In humid weather it will take even longer for the icing to harden. After 36 hours, mine were still slightly soft.

NoEmptyChairs.me

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Tagged as baseball cookies, Cookies, dessert, glace icing, recipe, softball, softball cookies, sugar cookies

June 17, 2013 · 8:08 am

Graduation Party: Individual Fruit Pizza Cookies

At a graduation party for Big A and her best friend M we had a dessert bar where guests could make their own mini fruit pizzas using sugar cookies, fruit dips and chopped fruit.

I made plain round sugar cookies (about 4” in diameter) to use as a base for the fruit pizzas.

There were two fruit dips that we used as frosting for the cookies, a Berry Fluff Dip (which I didn’t get a good picture of) and a Creamy Nutella Dip. Using a fruit dip instead of a regular frosting makes for a less-sweet base for the fruit, which I prefer.

The Nutella fruit dip needs to be stored in the refrigerator, but should be served at room temperature. The dip will get very thick in the fridge, almost fudge consistency. Fudge. Nutella fudge. That is something to ponder for next Christmas.

This “fruit dip” also makes a great frosting for sugar cookies or brownies:

To top frosted cookies, there was an array of chopped fruit. We used fresh pineapple, blueberries, strawberries, mango and kiwi.

The graduates and their friends loved it!

Congratulations Class of 2013. We are so proud of you Big A!

RECIPES:

Individual Fruit Pizza Cookies

Servings: About 5 dozen using a 3-inch round cookie cutter
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Sugar Cookies
3 cups sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sour cream
2 tsp vanilla
3 eggs
About 7 – 7 ½ cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

Bake at 375°F for 9-11 minutes; if they brown, it’s been too long. They should still look white when done.

Creamy Nutella Fruit Dip
8 oz. cream cheese
1 cup Nutella
½ cup heavy cream

Warm cream cheese and Nutella slightly (about 30 seconds in the microwave) and then stir together with the cream until well mixed. Serve at room temperature. Store in the refrigerator.

Berry Fluff Fruit Dip
1 container marshmallow fluff
1 container Cool Whip
1 container strawberry flavored cream cheese, softened
½ cup sweetened raspberry (or strawberry) puree or seedless jam

Mix all ingredients until well blended.

To make individual fruit pizzas:
Cut out sugar cookie dough with a 3-4” round cookie cutter and bake. Prepare dessert bar with sugar cookies, fruit dips and chopped fruit (choose from strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, pineapple, kiwi, mango, nectarines, peaches, grapes). Guests can assemble their own cookie fruit pizza.

Creamy Nutella Fruit Dip

Servings: Makes 2 ½ cups
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8 oz. cream cheese
1 cup Nutella
½ cup heavy cream

Warm cream cheese and Nutella slightly (about 30 seconds in the microwave) and then stir together with the cream until well mixed. Serve at room temperature. Store in the refrigerator.

Serve as a fruit dip or as a frosting for cookies or brownies.

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Berry Fluff Fruit Dip

Servings: Makes about 4 cups
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Berry Fluff Fruit Dip
1 container marshmallow fluff
1 container Cool Whip
1 container strawberry flavored cream cheese, softened
½ cup sweetened raspberry (or strawberry) puree or seedless jam