My first post ever about a year ago was about Buckeyes, a cookie my family makes every Christmas season. They are a pain to make but everyone always loves them. I just made them this week, I split them into two days, the dough the first day, and the chocolate dipping the next. Try them for yourself!
Here are some pictures to help you!
It is officially fall! I have made one of my favorite fall desserts… Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies. Everyone is always asking me for my recipe, so here it is! I have changed it over the years to make the best pumpkin cookies ever!
Pumpkin Chocolate-Chip Cookies
Makes about 3 dozen.
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 package (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips or chunks
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a medium bowl combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Set aside.
3. In an electric mixer cream the butter and sugar on medium speed until fluffy. Add the pumpkin, egg, and vanilla and beat just until blended.
4. Mix in the dry ingredients.
5. Stir in the chocolate chips.
6. Drop the batter by heaping tablespoons 1 inch apart on the baking sheets.
7. Bake the cookies for 15 to 18 minutes or until lightly browned. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
Enjoy!!!! Happy Fall!
Sister K
I made these cupcakes this weekend for the birthday of the guy I am dating ;). The recipe is from the famous Magnolia Bakery in NYC, and it is one of my favorite recipes for cupcakes. It is a little more labor intensive than the other recipe, but you won’t be disappointed. Also just in case you think this recipe is healthy because I try to cook healthy, this recipe is the complete opposite, but a great splurge.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Line 2 (1/2 cup-12 capacity) muffin tins with cupcake papers.
In a small bowl, combine the flours. Set aside.
In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not over beat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about 3/4 full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean.
Cool the cupcakes in tins for 15 minutes. Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack before icing.
The vanilla buttercream we use at the bakery is technically not a buttercream but actually an old-fashioned confectioners’ sugar and butter frosting. Be sure to beat the icing for the amount of time called for in the recipe to achieve the desired creamy texture.
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
6 to 8 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Place the butter in a large mixing bowl. Add 4 cups of the sugar and then the milk and vanilla. On the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat until smooth and creamy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Gradually add the remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition (about 2 minutes), until the icing is thick enough to be of good spreading consistency. You may not need to add all of the sugar. If desired, add a few drops of food coloring and mix thoroughly. (Use and store the icing at room temperature because icing will set if chilled.) Icing can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
Enjoy!
-K
I was a busy girl tonight and also made cupcakes for one of my friend’s birthday tomorrow. I don’t like to make boxed cupcakes because I don’t think they taste as good. Depending on how much time I have I either make them from scratch and or make what I like to called the “souped-up version of boxed batter” My mom found this cookbook a couple of a years ago called The Cupcake Doctor by Anne Byrn. The recipe I use repetitively from this cookbook is call “Birthday Cupcakes” and it makes the best yellow cupcakes. I frost them with either a butter cream frosting or chocolate. The frosting recipe I like to use is the butter cream frosting recipe from the side of Domino Confectionary Sugar package (yeah I know how obvious is that.)
Birthday Cupcakes
Ingredients:
1 box of golden or yellow cake mix
½ cup of sugar
4 eggs
1 8oz package of low fat cream cheese
½ cup of water
½ cup of vegetable oil
1 tbsp vanilla extract
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
Combine and stir all ingredients together until well mixed. (This is easiest to do when cream cheese is room temperature)
Line 24 cupcake pan (or two 12 cup) with baking paper and pour in about ¼ cup of batter into each cup.
Cook in the oven for 24-27 minutes. To check if done, stick a toothpick in one and if it comes out clean, plus the center bounces back when you touch it, they are done. Let cool on wire rack before frosting.
Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients:
1 – (1 lb.) pkg. Domino® Confectioners Sugar (approx. 3 3/4 cups)
1/2 cup – butter or margarine, softened
3 to 4 tablespoons – milk
1 teaspoon – vanilla
Instructions
Combine in large bowl, with mixer at low speed, confectioners’ sugar, butter, milk and vanilla.
Beat at medium speed 1-2 minutes until creamy. If desired, add more milk until frosting is spreading consistency.
Makes enough to fill and frost 2-layer cake, 13x9x2-inch sheet cake, or 24 cupcakes.
*Note- If you are an awful froster like me I highly recommend the Wilton’s 12-Piece Cupcake Decorating Set (from Bed Bath and Beyond or Michaels). I used the Star Tip 1M, and it doesn’t say this on the package but you need to put the larger coupler to use the larger tips.
Enjoy! ( I sure did)
-K
Since I am still on vacation at my parents home for the holidays I haven’t been cooking. However I did enough baking this holiday season to post about that. For the last two holiday seasons I have baked myself sick making cookies for all my friends, family, and co-workers. Last year I ended up making 12 different types, which was exhausting and too much. This year I settled on making 7 types. I planned a last minute Christmas party at my apartment and had a week to make all 7 kinds (plus a hand-made gingerbread house). My favorite cookie, out of the seven I made, was the Scandinavian Almond Bars which I took from my family’s cookbook. I will eventually get all my cookies I made on the site but for now here are the Almond Bars (and you already have the buckeyes from my last post.)
Scandinavian Almond Bars
Ingredients for cookies:
1 3/4 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp almond extract
milk
1/2 cup sliced almonds coarsely chopped
Ingredients for glaze:
1 cup sifted powdered sugar
1/4 tsp almond extract
3 to 4 tsp milk
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Stir together flour, baking powder, and salt. In a large mixing bowl beat butter until softened. Add sugar and beat until fluffy. Add egg and almond extract and beat well. Add flour mixture in gradually and stir until well mixed.
Divide the dough into fourths. Form each portion into a 12 inch roll. Place 2 rolls 4-5 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten each roll until it is 3 inches wide. Repeat with remaining rolls. Brush each flattened roll with a little milk and sprinkle with about 2 tablespoons of chopped almonds. Bake in oven for 12-14 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned.
While still warm cut crosswise at a diagonal into 1 inch strips. Cool completely on a wire rack.
To make glaze: Stir together powdered sugar, 1/4 teaspoon almond extract and enough milk to make a drizzling consistency. Drizzle over the cooled bars. Easy Clean-up Tip- Place bars on already used baking sheets when drizzling the glaze over them.
Also when serving cookie platters with other types on cookies, cut bars in half since they are larger then most cookies.
Enjoy
-K
M, my mom, and I are constantly being asked for this recipe. No matter what cookies we make in addition to these, the buckeyes are always the most popular. We all find them a pain to make, but keep making them for all our fans. Please share this recipe with all your friends and stop asking us to make them for you (kidding, sort of!)
Ingredients:
1 lb box confectionary sugar, sifted
1 1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup butter softened
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
12 oz package of semisweet chocolate chips
1 ounce of paraffin wax
Directions:
Combine first five ingredients in a large bowl with hands. It may be a little dry but make it into small balls (aim for 3/4 inch ball or a little larger then an acorn, don’t make them too big!) Place the formed balls on a wax paper covered baking sheet and stick in the freezer or fridge.
While the peanut butter balls are chilling, melt 12 oz. of chocolate chips and paraffin in a double boiler. Take peanut butter balls out of freezer once chilled. Using toothpicks dip each ball 3/4 way into chocolate. Bring out and place back on wax paper on baking sheet. They should resemble horse-chestnuts. Slightly tap on hole left by toothpick with your fingers to close hole. Place buckeyes back in freezer/fridge to harden.
-K
2 sisters 2 cities 