Crepes with Strawberry Jam

Now that we have fresh jam in house we need something to eat with.

Time for some Crepes!

Crepes

2 Beaten Eggs

1 1/2 C. Milk

1 C. Flour

1 T. Oil

Dash of Salt

Combine all ingredients, stirring just until combined.

In a warmed, greased, round-skillet pour about 1/4 C. batter, then lift skillet and tilt it around in a circle to spread the batter thinly, thus forming a crepe.

Crepe making takes some time, so I will warm the oven to about 200 deg., turn it off and then place finished crepes on a cookie sheet in the oven to stay warm until I have finished cooking all of the batter.

To eat: place a small amount of jam down the center of a crepe.  Roll crepe up and watch them all disappear.

Trifle

 

I am a few days behind...but here is the yummy dessert my hubby made me for Mother's Day (at my request).  It is a trifle!  I just think they are fun maybe because there are lots of different layers and you can see them!  Here is what we used:

milk chocolate cake, cooked per box directions
one batch vanilla pudding (I wanted to use a box but uncle insisted on the from scratch variety)

whipping cream (or cool whip)

strawberries, bananas
mini chocolate chips

Put a layer of each of your ingredients in and then repeat!

Some trifle bowls will let you put an 8" round cake in whole, ours doesn't so we just broke the cake up into big pieces.  If you don't have a trifle bowl, use a glass bowl, or any other bowl (you just won't be able to see the layers).

You can do whatever flavors you want.  Have fun making a yummy trifle!

 

"healthy" chocolate chip cookies

I had a hankering for cookies today (surprise, surprise).  I have made these cookies once before and decided to make them again today.  They use about half the fat and less sugar than regular chocolate chip cookies, plus no eggs.  They still taste like cookies.  Not too shabby!

I found the recipe here and followed it almost exactly except that I did 1 cup whole wheat flour and 2 cups all purpose flour.  I also like them better with some oatmeal in them rather than without oatmeal.  I threw in about 1 tablespoon of ground flax seeds for good measure too.

The dough doesn't stick together as well as regular cookie dough, but I kind of press it together with my cookie scoop as I form the cookies and it works out great.

A note on bean puree:  Bean Puree is just cooked beans (either dry beans that you cooked or beans from a can that have already been cooked) that you puree with a little water if needed.  I used great northern beans because that is what I had on hand and pureed it in my little tiny food processor.  You can freeze any extra puree for later.

Chewy "Healthy" Chocolate Chip Cookies
You and your kids can eat all the dough they would like since there are no eggs! These cookies are lower in sugar, lower in fat, and lower in cholesterol. You can't get much healthier than that and still enjoy a cookie! This is the result of a year's worth of experiments. I'm so glad I didn't give up!
½ cup butter	2 tsp baking soda
½ cup white bean puree	1 Tbsp vanilla
⅔ cup sugar	¼ cup vegetable oil
1 cup brown sugar, packed	1 cup chocolate chips
3 cups all-purpose flour	Oatmeal, coconut, chopped nuts (optional)
Cream together butter, bean puree and sugars. Add flour, baking soda, and vanilla. It will look pretty dry at this point. Slowly add in the oil and mix until it has pulled together into cookie dough consistency. Stir in chocolate chips and any other optional ingredients you'd like. Roll into balls and place on greased baking sheets. Bake at 350° F for 8–10 minutes. Pull them out of the oven just as they are beginning to turn light brown in a couple of spots. They still look pretty doughy overall. Allow to rest on baking sheet for about 5 minutes to set and them move to a wire rack to cool. Makes 3 dozen.

Homemade Oreos

Homemade Oreos are one of my favorites, plus they are super simple to make!

Homemade Oreos

1 box devil's food cake mix

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, melted

2 eggs

frosting

Mix cake mix (unprepared), butter and eggs together.  Drop by tablespoonful onto a cookie sheet. (Or use a cookie scoop.)  Bake at 325 for 7-9 minutes.

When the cookies are cool, spread frosting (store bought or homemade) between two cookies to make a sandwich.

Edible Cookie Dough

Okay, so in my opinion, all cookie dough is edible, but...eating something with raw eggs in it does mean there is a risk of salmonila.

With that in mind, when I really want cookie dough, and not cookies, I make egg free dough.

It's Simple!

Just substitute each egg in the recipe with 1/4 C of milk.

Happy doughing!

Buttermilk Oatmeal Bread

I tried a new bread recipe yesterday.  It turned out really good.  We already ate a whole loaf (which is a lot for two adults, a toddler and a baby)!

Buttermilk Oatmeal Bread

2 tsp. yeast
1/3 c. warm water

1 1/2 c. rolled oats
1 c. boiling water
1 1/2 c. buttermilk (or 1 1/2 c. milk plus 1 1/2 T. vinegar)
1/2 c. canola oil
1/2 c. brown sugar
2 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
2 1/2 c. bread flour
1 Tbs. salt

1. Combine water and yeast. In a separate bowl, combine the oats and boiling water. Let both mixtures stand 8-10 minutes. The yeast should look creamy and foamy.

2. Place all ingredients except salt into a mixer. Knead with dough hook for 2-3 minutes, then let rest for 20 minutes. Add salt and knead with dough hook in mixer on medium for an additional 15 minutes.

3. Turn the dough out into a well oiled bowl. Turn the dough to coat it, then cover and let rise for approximately 1 hour or until it has doubled.

4. Punch down the dough and cut in half. Talk one half and place on a lightly oiled (sprayed) surface and press into a rectangle shape.  Fold into thirds, letter-style, smashing it with the side of your hand after each fold to distribute the dough evenly.  Fold the bread in thirds again, this time going the other way (90 degrees from before) then roll up. Pinch the seams closed and place seam side down into your prepared loaf pan.  with the other half of the dough.

5. Lightly brush with water and sprinkle a few additional oats onto the top of the loaf. Very gently press into place (this makes it look pretty, but I would be fine without it). Let rise in a warm place for an additional 30-60 minutes.

6. Bake in a pre-heated 375 degree oven for 30-40 minutes, or until crust is golden brown and the internal temp reaches 190-200 degrees.

Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberries were on sale and that means time to make some Strawberry Shortcake!  We use a recipe that Uncle's mom created.  It includes strawberry sauce which I personally am ok without, but you can decide how you like it.

Sauce

1/2 c. sugar

2 1/2 T. cornstarch

1/2 small package strawberry jello

1/2 package strawberry kool-aid

Mix sugar, cornstarch, jello and kool-aid in a medium saucepan.  Add 1 cup boiling water, cook until bubbly stirring constantly.  Add 1 cup cold water, refrigerate until set.

Shortbread

1/2 c. butter

1 c. sugar

2 eggs

1 c. milk

1 t. vanilla

2 c. Bisquick

2 1/2 T cornmeal

Cream butter and sugar.  Add eggs; mix.  Mix in milk and vanilla.  Add Bisquick and Cornmeal; mix until incorporated.  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes in a greased 9x13 pan.

Serve your shortcake with the strawberry sauce (if desired), sliced strawberries and whipped cream (or cool whip).

Hard "Baked" Eggs

Ditch the pot of boiling water and try baking your eggs.

 We baked 2 dozen eggs for Easter Egg Dying and I will say, I didn't miss the pot, the boiling water, the straining.....

Place eggs in mini-muffin tin.  Bake, without pre-heating, at 325 deg. for 30 min. Let cool for a few minutes, place in large bowl, then add cold water and ice.

How easy is that?

The eggs come out just liked boiled eggs--same texture, peel the same.  

As the eggs bake, moisture from inside seaps out on to the shell.  I dabbed the eggs a few times during baking to limit the number of dropplets.  These wet spots turn brown as the egg cooks, but dissolve off the shells while they sit in the bowl of water.

Sugar Cookie Sandwiches

A fun twist on a classic cookie.

Sugar Cookie Sandwiches

Cream:

 3/4 Margarine

1 C Sugar

Add and stir:

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

Add and stir:

2 C flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp nutmeg

Chill 1 hour.  Roll out to 1/4 thickness.  Use a small--1 inch diameter-ish--cookie cutter.

Bake at 400 deg. for 6-8 min. until light brown around bottom edges.

To make sandwiches frost 1 cookie and place a 2nd one on top.

Homemade French Bread

Our family loves eating French Bread, especially with dinner.  Sometimes it is part of the main dish, like Meatball Sandwiches or Philly Cheese Steak Sandwhiches (recipe here).

 Here's a question: what's the difference between bread and French Bread?

 Bread is made with milk, French Bread uses water.

I found this recipe from Land O Lakes a few years ago.  It is easy and yummy.

French Bread

Prep time: 45 min  Raise time: 2 hrs

Bake time: 25 min

1 pg active dry yeast

2 1/4 C warm water (~110 deg.)

1 T sugar

5-5 1/2 C flour

1 T salt

To brush on tops: 1 egg slightly beaten, 1 T milk

In large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water; stir in sugar.  Let stand 45 min (Top pic).  Stir in 3 cups of flour and salt, beat until smooth (middle pic).  Stir in enough remaining flour to make dough easy to handle.

Turn dough onto lightly floured surfce; knead until smooth and elastic--about 5 min. Place dough in lightly greased bowl and turn over once to coat dough with grease (left pic). Cover and let rise in warm place until double in size--about 1.5 hours--dough is ready when indentation remains when touched (right pic).

Punch dough down.  Dived into thirds to make 15" long baguettes or 5" rounds.  Or divide into 7-8 small loafs for sandwhiches. Hint: when forming loaves, create smooth tops by placing seems and overlaps on the underside (top pic). Place on greased cookie sheet. Cover and let rise until double in size--about 30 min.

Heat oven to 400 deg. Brush tops with egg and milk mixture. Make diagonal slashes across baguette or rounds.  Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove from baking sheets and cool on wire rack.

Disneyland Chocolate Chip Cookies

One of my favorite, must get treats at Disney Parks are what I fondly refer to as Disneyland cookies. Needless to say I got a sweet tooth last night and Disneyland cookies are what I wanted. Bring on the Google Search, the discovery of thedisneydiner.com and a copy of Minnie's Bake Shop Chocolate Chip Cookies Supreme. 

(Little known fact: Disney willing gives a copy of their recipes to anyone who asks.) 

Let the baking begin!

Chocolate Chip Cookies Supreme

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup light brown sugar

3/4 cup POWDER sugar (NOT granulated sugar)

1 egg

2 tablespoons water

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2  2/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Add-ins:3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate morsels

3/4 cup dark chocolate chunks

3/4 cup Wilton Candy Melts (light cocoa wafers), roughly chopped

3/4 cup toffee bits (optional)

1 cup chopped pecans or almonds (optional)

Anything else you may want like: M&M's, Reese's Pieces, butterscotch chips, etc.

Directions:   Cream softened butter and sugars in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer. Add egg, water and vanilla. Mix well. Add flour, salt and baking soda. Mix well, scraping side of bowl of needed. Stir in chocolate and nuts with a spoon.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Now Disney's cookies are huge, as big as your fist huge...but I like small cookies so I made them small and it seems either size will workout great, just watch bake times. The real secret seems to be chilling the dough after it is on the baking sheet.

Small cookies: Using a small cookie scoop (or by rounding a heaping teaspoon of dough) place mounds of dough, 2" apart, on cookie sheet and then place cookie sheet into freezer to chill the dough, for 15 minutes.

This firms up the butter and prevents excessive spreading during baking, resulting in moist mounded cookies (a.k.a. Disneyland Cookies!) instead of flat cookies.   

Pull out of freezer and bake for 2 minutes at 400 degrees (creating a crisp outer shell and moist center).  Then turn oven down to 350 degrees and bake for 8-10 minutes, until golden.  Let cool on rack.

Huge cookies: Using an ice cream scoop, place heaping mounds of cookie dough, 3" apart, on cookie sheet and then place cookie sheet into freezer to chill the dough, for 20 minutes.

This firms up the butter and prevents excessive spreading during baking, resulting in moist mounded cookies (a.k.a. Disneyland Cookies!) instead of flat cookies.   

Pull out of freezer and bake for 2 minutes at 400 degrees (creating a crisp outer shell and moist center).  Then turn oven down to 350 degrees and bake for 12-15 minutes, until golden.  Let cool on rack.

 Happy Baking!

A little extra DIY: I think this recipe might need a few Tablespoons less butter.  And I kept some of the dough overnight in the fridge to make later, which worked as a substitute for the 15 minutes in the freezer.