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. :)

Cream Cheese Frosting

Mmmmm. Cream cheese frosting is the best. And so yummy on so many things.

These cupcakes I made last weekend for Linc's FINAL birthday celebration were diet and rather blah. Maybe not that bad but not great by any means. But they had GREAT frosting.

I even lightened it up a bit. :) I used 1/3 less fat cream cheese and half the butter of my regular recipe. It was still delicious.

The recipe:

8 oz. package, 1/3 less fat cream cheese. Softened.
4 T. butter. Also softened.
2 1/2 to 3 cups of powdered sugar

Cream cream cheese and butter. Begin adding sugar a cup at a time. Adding the last cup just a half cup at a time. Deciding if it needs the full three cups or not quite. You'll know when it's right.

Cream cheese frosting is kind of weird :) - it seems really thick at first but the more you mix and the more powdered sugar you add, the creamier and more frosting like it gets. This reduced butter recipe made a little less than a normal recipe but it was plenty (actually more than enough) to frost the 23 small diet cupcakes I made.

Give it a try - on your favorite cupcakes, on sour cream cookies. Really on anything. It is one of the things my dad has always said you could eat on sawdust. :)

Birthday Treats: Jello Cake and Milkshakes

My second son turned two this week. He has a St. Patrick's Day birthday. I made a jello cake to celebrate with my family last weekend. I thought about using lime jello, so it would be green, but I just hate lime flavoring. :)

I didn't get a good picture of just a slice of the cake so this one with sweet Lincoln will have to do.

I wanted this to be a cake I could eat while still attempting weight watchers so I tried to lighten it up. It's about 4 points a piece if it serves 16. And because I was sort of playing with the proportions of things - I'll give you the recipe the way I would do it next time.

The recipe:

yellow cake mix
10 oz. diet uncola (like Sprite Zero or diet 7UP)

Mix the cake mix and soda together. Pour into a lightly greased and floured bundt pan.
Bake as directed for a bundt shaped cake on the cake mix box. Allow cake to cool. Use a toothpick to poke holes all over the cake.

1 small package of sugar free strawberry gelatin
1 c. boiling water
1/2 c. cold water

Dissolve gelatin in the hot water and then add the cold. Pour over the baked and cooled and poked cake. Refrigerate overnight or at least 4 hours.

Frost with:

1 large package of sugar free vanilla pudding
1/4 c. confectioner sugar
1 c. cold milk
8 oz. lite cool whip

I can never remember - check the pudding box, but if you add the milk/pudding mix in the wrong order it will get lumpy. I think you need to add the milk than the pudding. Beat on low speed until combined. Add the confectioner sugar until combined. Then fold the pudding mixture into the cool whip. This actually was a little bit too much frosting for my diet soda cake. It is just the right amount for the cake mix prepared in the usual way. Have fun eating the extra. It's yummy. :)

Refrigerate until serving. Serves 16.

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And on Linc's birthday we had homemade mint shakes - instead of more cake. I just thought this was a fun picture, so I had to share. They were really yummy too!

Jazzing Up a Boxed Brownie Mix: Mint Brownies

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This is such a simple thing - it really isn't a recipe but it is one of my favorite things to make.

Bake a box of brownies that have the chocolate chunks in them as directed on the box. Cool.

Whip up a batch of frosting (kind of like you can read about here) but instead of almond and vanilla flavorings at 1 t. of mint extract. And a couple drops of green food coloring.

Frost the brownies. And for a final, wonderful touch - melt one square of unsweetened or semi-sweet baking chocolate with 1 T. butter. Drizzle on top of the frosting and smooth into an even coat.

Refrigerate until serving. These are so yummy cold. Love them!!!!