Blueberry Lemon Cookies

My kids and I LOVE blueberry picking. We went to a nearby patch last weekend and had eight pounds to eat and cook and bake with!

I went hunting for some new blueberry recipes and found this recipe for blueberry lemon cookies on a website I will have to give credit to later because I am not finding it easily when googling the recipe tonight and it is written down upstairs. Anyway,

The recipe:

3/4 c. butter, softened
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 1/2 t. lemon zest
2 eggs
2 c. flour
2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1/2 c. milk
1 1/2 c. fresh blueberries

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, cream together butter and both sugars; and lemon zest and eggs. Beat well. Add the baking powder and salt. Then add the flour and milk alternating between the two until total amounts are added. Beat well. Gently fold in berries. Drop by heaping tablespoons full unto a lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake for about 12 minutes.

These are super yummy and would be just perfect for a brunch. They reminded me of blueberry pancakes and I loved the hint of lemon in them.

So, find a nearby blueberry patch if you live in a place where blueberries grow and get picking!



***Side note: Don't you just love the new cutting board that the cookies are sitting on in the picture? My mom gave it to me - a man sells these beautiful wooden cutting boards at a craft show every year in beautiful Manistee, Michigan.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

My wonderful man's birthday was last week. His mother had already made him his very favorite - carrot cake. So I decided to make a strawberry/rhubarb crisp to eat on his birthday. He's a fan of most things sweet, so he was good with that plan. :)

The Recipe:

Fill a large pie plate with rhubarb cut into 1" pieces and strawberries sliced (about 3 c. of each) that have been mixed with 2 cups of sugar. (you can see from the picture, I used a 9 x 13 dish, if you decide to use that large of a baking dish, consider doubling the following topping recipe, if you really like the crisp part.)

The all important crisp topping -
3/4 c. flour
1/2 c. sugar
5 1/3 T cold butter

Cut with a pastry blender or crumble with fingers until butter is in pea size pieces. Add a handful or two of old fashioned oats. Distribute evenly over rhubarb and strawberries. Bake at 375 for 40 to 50 minutes - until topping is golden brown and filling is bubbly.

Without further adieu, Molasses Krinkles!

The long awaited Molasses Krinkles post. These are a holiday favorite in our family. To give them a more summer twist, sandwich them with a bit of vanilla ice cream.

The Recipe:

Mix thoroughly -
3/4 c. soft shortening - NOT BUTTER
1 c. brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 c. molasses

Sift together and stir in -
2 1/4 c. flour
2 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
1/2 t. cloves
1 t. cinnamon
1 t. ginger

Chill dough. Roll into balls (about 1" in size); dip into a bit more sugar. Place sugar side up, 3 " apart on greased baking sheet. Sprinkle each cookie with 2 or 3 drops of water to produce cracks. Bake just until set but not hard at 375 for 8 to 10 minutes.

Now for some reason, the picture above shows that mine turned out a bit more puffy then normal. They should be a bit flatter cookie. I guess I'll make another batch soon to see if I can get that right. :)

Coming soon...

Happy holiday weekend!

Just wanted you to know - I am baking strawberry/rhubarb crisp and molasses kringles today. I promise to post about them both soon. :)

I started a post on peanut butter sheet cake - if I have a chance today, I will finish it up and get it posted.

Thought you'd like to know, I am still baking - just baking and busy!!!!

This picture is of one of the cookie cakes I made recently to celebrate a new baby boy! Fun, fun. Read more cookie cakes here.

Swedish Pastry and What I've been up to lately...

So sorry for my absence on the blog. I had a couple of busy weeks and I wasn't even baking to be able to blog about it, if I had had the time to blog, which I didn't. :)

I attended the Orange conference in Georgia with a team from our church. It was a wonderful conference. So many new things to mull over, and real encouragement that our church really does a great job of loving kids and loving families. I am glad I am in a place that really great doesn't mean you don't keep working on making it even better. Anyway, all that to say that I was busy preparing to be away and then I was away and now I am home and trying to recover.

I baked Kristina Kregler or Swedish Pastry Tuesday for a brunch at our mom's group. It is one of my very favorite things and I love that, while it is pretty simple, it does take a little bit of technique to make it. I would love to learn how to really make pastry someday - you know from someone who was a professional. For now, I will continue to make Swedish pastry...

The Recipe:

1 c. flour
1/2 c. butter
Use pastry cutter to cut together into pea-sized pieces.

2 T cold water. Add these one T. at a time. You will probably need to add more than just 2. I added 5 1/2 T. on Tuesday. You add one T. and toss it in with a fork. You want the dough to come together and away from the sides. Like this:

This was even a bit on the dry side but once I picked it up and put it into two equal sized balls, it worked fine. (Just an fyi, the above amounts and directions are how you mix a pie crust.)

Take each half of the dough and on an ungreased cookie sheet, using the heel of your hand, push the dough into 2, 3 inch strips, that are just about the length of the cookie sheet. (Keep dipping your heel of your hand into flour as you press the dough out.)

Set aside.

Next, in a saucepan, bring to a boil:
1 c. of water
1/2 c. of butter

Take off the fire immediately and add:
1 c. sifted flour

Stir until smooth and add
3 eggs, one at a time, whisking after each addition. (You may want to get your eggs ready by cracking all three into a juice glass - it makes adding them one at a time that much faster; and get your muscles ready - this is hard work mixing the eggs in)

Lastly, stir in:
1/4 t. salt
1/2 t. almond flavoring

Spread this mixture on top of the first (see the previous picture). Bake at 375 for 45 minutes.

When cool, frost with:
1 T. butter to 1 c. powdered sugar.
Add 1/2 t. almond flavoring and enough cream (or I used milk) to make the right consistency to drizzle over the top of the pastry. You can make the pastry ahead but do not frost until just before serving because it will get soggy.

Doesn't that look yummy????? Enjoy!!!!!

Making Baking Healthier: Chocolate Chip Cookies

I cleaned my cookbook cupboard last week. That is not the cookbook cupboard of a skinny person. It is the cookbook cupboard of a person who REALLY likes all things sweet. :)

I am not sure these cookies can really count under my making baking healthier title but I am going to put them there anyway. I cut the fat in half for these, plus, cut the chocolate chips by half and made them very small. This way they counted as 2 weight watchers points each.

They were still very tasty - friends even had some and agreed. The only problem is you still want to eat 6 or 8 at a time... Ah, well.

The recipe:

1/4 c. salted stick butter softened
1/4 c. shortening
2/3 c. granulated sugar
2/3 c. packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla
1 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
2 c. flour
1/3 c. old fashioned oats
1 c. mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cream butter and shortening. Add granulated sugar and brown sugar. Cream in eggs and vanilla.

Add baking soda, salt and first cup of flour. Add second cup of flour and mix until well combined. Then add handful of oats and the mini chips. Mix until just combined.

Dough will be a bit dry - loosely form 1 inch balls, just getting dough to stick together and place about 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Makes about 48 small cookies. Bake at 365 for 8 to 10 minutes.

Enjoy!!!!!

Failing at Macaroons...

So I have attempted to make macaroons two weekends in a row - once for a gathering with friends and once for Easter with the family. The recipe I was using was a weight watchers one but it's directions were horrible!!!

My first attempt didn't even deserve to be photographed - they turned out like mounds of coconut on top of a fried egg. Really gross looking - they tasted fine and I was able to salvage the second pan by adding some more coconut. And I dipped the bottoms in chocolate since I had to slice the first pan off the wax paper because of the fried egg situation - the chocolate held them together.

Anyway, all that to say that my second attempt was not a complete failure but they still weren't quite right but I thought I'd share them anyway. They were still very tasty and maybe I will make some that turn out to look like the picture on the recipe some day. And if not, oh well. Not everything I make is picture perfect. :) I think this second batch may have been over beaten - they were much more like meringues then macaroons.

The recipe:

3 egg whites
2/3 c. sugar
1 t. vanilla
2 1/2 c. coconut (unsweetened if you can find it), packed into the measuring cup
1/3 c. semi sweet chocolate chips

Beat the egg whites until they are holding soft peaks. Begin adding the sugar a little at a time while still mixing the egg whites. I mixed my second batch until the egg whites held stiff peaks. You can test the meringue to know it hold a stiff peak by dipping a spoon in - if it leaves a little mountain peak behind that holds it shape - the meringue holds stiff peaks.

Mix in by hand the vanilla and the coconut. Drop by level tablespoons full unto a cookie sheet covered in wax paper. Bake for about 15 minutes - until lightly browned. Move to a cooling rack - cool completely.

Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave for about 1 minutes stopping to mix them every 15 seconds. Put a small dollop of chocolate on the top of each cooled macaroon using a teaspoon. Cool in the refrigerator until the chocolate has set. About 30 minutes.

Makes about 36 macaroons.

Enjoy - even if they are more like meringues. :)