Friday, May 3, 2013
20 minutes is all it takes and these cookie sticks are baked and out of the oven making these a fast dessert when you are short on time. I made these last night instead of making dinner. Yep, that’s right. You can do those kind things when you are single. Not the healthiest dinner in the world but it is Aunt Shirley approved who lives by the motto “eat dessert first”. This recipe goes together quickly and the hardest part is waiting for them to cool. You might be able to tell by the pic below I didn’t wait that long before I cut them. These cookies spread a lot more than I thought they would so I would add a couple more tablespoons of flour when I make them again.
Chocolate Chip Cookie Sticks
Yield: 36 sticks
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 8 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour + 2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup oil
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375F.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
In a large bowl, combine oil, butter, both sugars, egg, and vanilla; add the dry ingredients and stir until well blended.
Divide dough in half. On a silicone or parchment lined sheet pan, shape each half into a 3x15-inch rectangle, leaving 3 inches of space between the two rectangles. Sprinkle each rectangle with 1/2 cup chocolate chips; gently pressing the chocolate chips into the dough.
Bake in the center of the oven for 6-7 minutes for chewy cookies (8-9 minutes for crisper cookies).
Allow to cool before cutting into 36 cookie sticks. Use a serrated knife for best results.
Adapted from Taste of Home
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
I have been seeing this recipe around for a few weeks now and when I got to looking at it I realized that the cake didn’t have any butter or shortening in it so I had to fix that. I didn’t even want to try it without, I hate wasting ingredients as much as you do. Recipes don’t make it onto this site if they don’t work or taste good.
There is a chicken teriyaki recipe floating around right now that I decided to try yesterday for the crockpot, you won’t be seeing that recipe here or on my Facebook page until it works. I modified it to start and that wasn’t enough. The chicken breast pieces overcooked and I only had it on for 3 hours on low once it got hot. The flavor was very good as I had made a homemade teriyaki sauce to go with it in place of the bottled kind. I don’t know about you but I hate that there are so many things in our foods that I can’t even pronounce. So now I am rambling, let’s get back to our little pineapple gems.
I used fresh pineapple because I happened to get a couple last week for 99 cents. You can use canned if you like. I cut the fresh pineapple into thin slices and cooked it for a couple of minutes in the brown sugar glaze.
Individual Pineapple Upside Down Cakes
Ingredients:
1/4 cup butter
2/3 C white sugar
2 eggs
4 tablespoons milk
2/3 cup all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
Topping:
1/4 cup butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 fresh pineapple (2 cups) or 1-can pineapple rings
Whipped Cream
8-maraschino cherries
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray your muffin tins with non-stick cooking spray.
In a mixing bowl combine butter with white sugar. Beat for 2 minutes. Add eggs and milk and blend well. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix for 2 minutes.
Slice the pineapple into thin slices, after you have cut 1/2 pineapple into quarters.
In a small sauce pan, melt the butter and add the pineapple. Cook for 2 minutes. Add the brown sugar. Stir on low heat for one minute.
Spoon a layer of the warm brown sugar mixture into the bottom of each muffin tin dividing among the 8 cups. There will be extra brown sugar glaze but use all of the pineapple. (Save for serving)
Pour cake mixture over to fill muffin tin 3/4 of the way full. Bake for 12 - 15 minutes. Let set for 10 minutes before turning out of pan.
To serve warm up extra glaze, pour a little over each little cake. Top with whipped cream and a cherry.
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Bread is one of my favorite things to make. This recipe uses up your extra mashed potatoes and make a tender, fine crumbed bread with a nice crust. If you don’t have leftover mashed potatoes you can use instant potatoes to equal the one cup needed for this recipe.
My grandmother made bread almost every Saturday morning of her life. You could smell the bread baking before you ever walked in the door. She did it without a kitchen aid mixer which I faithfully use and never used a recipe. I can still see her kneading that dough on the porcelain top of her counter, flour flying and bracelets clinking together. She always used at least 5 pounds of flour so you can imagine how much dough that was. She would make loaves of bread and wonderful tiny cinnamon rolls that all of us loved. How I loved being in the kitchen with her and I learned so much from her.
Potato Bread
Yield: 2 loaves
Prep Time: 2 hours, 45 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Total Time: 3 hours, 25 minutes
Ingredients:
1 cup mashed potatoes
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup butter - soft
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 package yeast
1/2 cup warm milk
5 cups flour, about
Directions:
In large bowl, mix together the mashed potatoes, eggs, and butter. Stir in sugar, salt, yeast, and warm milk.
Mix in enough flour to make a dough that can be kneaded by hand. Turn dough out onto floured board and knead it until smooth and elastic or use a dough hook with your mixer.
Put dough in a greased bowl. Cover and let rise for 1 to 2 hours, until double in bulk.
Punch down dough. Turn out onto lightly floured board and briefly knead out bubbles.
Divide dough in half and shape one into a loaf. With the other half roll out dough to about an inch thick. Using a 2 1/2 inch cutter cut out circles of dough. Fold in half and place on greased cookie sheet. Place loaf into greased 8 x 4 x 2-inch bread pan. Cover and let rise a second time for 40 minutes or until doubled.
Bake loaf at 350 degrees F for 40 minutes or until bread sounds hollow when the top is tapped on. Bake rolls for 18 - 20 minutes.
Remove loaf from pan when done baking and let cool.
Note: this recipe makes 2 loaves or 1 loaf and 18 rolls
Share
