Brown Sugar Cookies

Today's "adventure" comes from Joy the Baker's blog. I just thought these sounded interesting.  I am a sugar cookie addict.  Brown Sugar cookies really are a whole new adventure for me!!  These are so simple to make!

The recipe:

Brown Sugar Cookies

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter (softened)
1 1/4 cups packed dark brown sugar (I didn't have dark brown, so I used light brown)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg

Preheat oven to 350 F degrees.

In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and ginger.  Set aside

Mix butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy.  Stop the mixer occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Add the egg and vanilla and mix well.  Add the dry ingredients all at once to the butter/sugar mixture.  Beat on low speed until the dough just starts to come together.  Stop the mixer and finish mixing the ingredients with a spadula.

Cover the bowl with Saran Wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Line a baking sheet with parchment papper.  Drop tablespoon size balls of dough onto the baking sheet.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until lightly browned around the edges.  Cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Enjoy!!  These really are very good!!  Don't think they will last long in this house.

VERDICT

These are definitely winners!  My husband loved them.  A keeper recipe for sure!

Blueberry Pie

Today's adventure comes to us from the Tidy Mom's blog.  It is called Rustic Blueberry pie and I couldn't resist!!  Besides I have an extra pint of blueberries that I didn't know what to do with so I considered this a sign from the Baking Gods!!  First of all, it is super easy to make!! Takes less than 5 minutes to make (that is if you cheat like me and use store bought crusts).  True confession time - I guess it is time you all knew that I don't know how to make a good pie crust.  I know GASP!!!  How can this be???  Well, I never learned!!  That is next on my list, OK!!

Anyway, back to the recipe . . .

Ingredients for the pie (assuming you are using store bought crusts)

2 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen) - I am using fresh blueberries - 1 pint will do)
1/2 cup sugar
1-2 Tablespoons flour (depending how juicy they are)
1 Tablespoon lemon juice

Instructions for the Pie Filling

Combine berries, sugar, flour and lemon juice in large bowl.  Mix until the berries are evenly coated.

To make the pie:

Place the pie crust in a pie pan.
Add berries to pie crust.
Fold edges of crust over filling, creasing as needed.

Wet finger with a little water to seal creases in crust (this helps to keep them folded when baking).  I thought about maybe sprinkling the crust with cinnamon sugar, I might do that the next time - sounds good, doesn't it!!

Bake at 400° for 30 minutes or until filling is bubbling.

I bet this would be good served with homemade vanilla ice cream - YUM!!  Now where did I put THAT ice cream maker???

VERDICT:

This is definitely a keeper recipe!  Both my husband and I loved the pie (it is really good with vanilla ice cream!!).  I will be making this again!!

No-Knead 4 Ingredient Bread

I found this recipe on Chef Tess's blog.  I am not a huge fan of no-knead bread at all.  Never had much success with it, even with the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes Series.  You see I'm a kneader - I have the need to knead.  The bread looked good, so I decided to throw caution to the wind and give it a try (by the way, how to you REALLY throw caution to the wind???).

Anyway, here is the recipe and I will put my changes to it in parenthesis:

No Knead 4 Ingredient Overnight Bread


3 1/2 cups bread flour (measure exactly with a knife)
2 tsp salt (I omit the salt - salt will slow down the rising of the bread)
1/4 tsp instant yeast (or 1/2 tsp active dry yeast) - (I used instant yeast)
1 1/4 cup water (under 110 degrees)

Directions:

I started this at 11:00 p.m. the night before.  I know that is AWFUL late to be starting bread, but I decided at the last minute to make this bread.

Combine the ingredients in a 1 gallon food-grade bucket or a large 1 gallon bowl with a lid (I really don't think you need a gallon bucket - the bread didn't raise THAT much - just a large bowl or bucket would suffice), just until everything is mixed and smooth. You can do this with either a large spoon or use your hands to mix the dough (sort of like making mud pies when you were a kid).  Cover with a lid and keep covered 10-12 hours at room temperature until you're ready to bake bread.

Form into a loaf and place in an 8 inch loaf pan that has been greased.

Allow to raise in a warm room until doubled, about 2 hours. I covered the pan with a plastic bag and let it rise in my oven with the oven light on.

Bake at 375 degrees 35-40 minutes (a thermometer will register 165 degrees or more). Enjoy!

As an option, you can flatten the bread out a bit and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.  Then roll it up jelly roll style - eureka!  you have cinnamon bread!!

OK . . . here is the final product . . .

I am not that impressed with the "oven spring" or how high the bread rose.  It does have a nice texture and tastes pretty good.  If I do make this again, I might try it with the cinnamon sugar.  It is certainly an easy bread to make.

The Perfect Oatmeal Raisin Cookie?

The woman said these are the "perfect oatmeal raisin cookies."  OK, I took this as a challenge!  And you know I love a challenge!  This recipe is from The Farmer's Wife blog which I happened to stumble upon today.  I made a few changes to her recipe which I will note below:

Ingredients: makes roughly 16 cookies

1/2 Cup Margarine, softened** (I used 1/2 cup unsalted butter)
2/3 Cup Brown Sugar, packed
1 Egg
1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
3/4 Cup All Purpose Flour
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
3/4 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon Nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon Salt** (I omitted the salt)
1 1/2 Cups Old Fashioned Oats
3/4 Cup Raisins

Directions:

In your mixer blend the butter, sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth.

Then in a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, spices and salt ** (see note above - I omitted the salt).

Add flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix on low-medium speed until combined. Then add the oats and raisins and mix well.

At this point chill the dough in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, up to 1 hour.

Once mixture is chilled, spray your cookie sheets with non stick cooking spray, and using a 1 1/2 tablespoon scoop  and drop scoops of cookie dough about 2 inches apart on your sheets (I rolled my dough into balls - guess I thought it would look neater!)

Bake at 350F degrees for 10-12 minutes, until golden around the edges and slightly golden on top. Let cookies cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack

NOTES:

The first round of cookies that I baked, I made smaller "balls."  Those cookies seemed to look better. Where the second round were bigger "balls", the cookies seemed to "run" a bit and looked "crispy" on the edges. A few of the bigger "ball" cookies fell apart. So smaller is better!

Taste - good.  I do think she needs to adjust the cinnamon and nutmeg a bit more - at least, for my taste.  They are still very good.

Perfect?? Maybe not, but pretty close.  They are very chewy and moist - the way an oatmeal raisin cookie should be.   I will have to wait to see what the "resident expert" (my husband - the oatmeal raisin cookie lover) thinks. 

Resident Expert's Opinion:  Pretty darn good!!  He ate about 4 cookies in the first minute or two!  So this is definitely a keeper recipe.  He said he didn't care about the difference in the shapes - they all tasted the same :-) 

Enjoy!!

Soft White Bread

I haven't baked bread in such a long time!!  Way overdue!!  So I took the day off from my busy schedule (everyone needs to do that every now and then) and do something enjoyable and relaxing.  Now that doesn't mean that you walk off your job right now!!!  Or if you have hungry children to feed, please take care of your kids!!

Anyway, my husband mentioned that I hadn't made bread in awhile.  So I took that as a "subtle hint" that he wanted some homemade bread.  So I searched through my recipes and found this recipe for Soft White Bread.  It makes the best french toast and grilled cheese sandwiches!!

Unfortunately, this is another recipe that uses weights as opposed to measures.  You can find a nice scale at Walmart, Target or order one from Amazon (they have many to choose from  - in all shapes and price ranges).

Soft White Bread

AP flour: 1117g

Milk (110 deg F): 647g
Butter: 118g  (I used unsalted butter)
Eggs: 110g  (about 2 large)
Sugar: 96g
Yeast: 9g

1. Using a dough hook, mix all of the ingredients on low speed for 3 minutes.

2. Scrape the bowl, mix on medium speed for 3 more minutes. The dough will not 'clean the bowl.

3. Place the dough in an oiled, covered bowl to rise for 45-60 minutes.

4. Stretch and fold, place back in the covered bowl to rise for 45-60 minutes.

5. Place dough on floured counter top.  Divide into 3 balls.  Shape and put into 3 greased loaf pans.  .

6. Allow to rise covered for about 120 minutes.  I put the loaf pans in a plastic bag and put them in my oven with the oven light on.

7. Bake at 350 in a standard oven for 35 minutes (loaves) or 15 minutes (rolls) or until the internal temperature is between 195-200 degrees F.

8. After bread has cooled to room temperature, store in a plastic bag.

This bread is so good with butter - YUM!!!