Thick, Soft Christmas Cookies

These cookies are so delicious!  My mom made these almost every Christmas for our family.  I still have fond memories of helping her roll out the dough, cut out shapes and sneaking pieces of excess dough (it's so yummy!).  I decided to make these for my first time for a Christmas party we went to at our friends'.  The original recipe makes about 9 dozen, so I thought maybe to do 3/4 of the recipe.  And then I ended up with like, 100 cookies.  It probably was because my cookie cutters weren't very big.  But, no matter!  Our friends will just enjoy a bunch of cookies for Christmas.

The frosting was always my favorite part, because my mom did several different flavors and colors.  Usually green peppermint trees, red cherry or strawberry bells, yellow lemon stars, etc.  For the party, I did: green peppermint trees, red cherry candy canes, yellow lemon stars, blue/purple/white almond snowflakes!

Cookies
4 eggs
2 c. sugar
1 c. Crisco
1 c. sour cream
1 tsp. baking soda
4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla
6 c. flour

1. Mix ingredients in order.  Make sure the batter is light and fluffy before adding the flour.  Also, use the whisk attachment for the ingredients before the flour, then switch to the paddle attachment.  It makes it much easier.
2.  Let dough chill in the fridge for awhile, up to an hour.
3.  On a floured surface, roll out the dough.  Cut with cookie cookies.  Place on cookie sheets (air-cushioned ones are amazing) lined with parchment paper (the best baking tool ever).
4.  Bake at 325-degrees for 8 minutes.  Let cool on pan a few minutes before using a spatula to move to cooling racks.

Frosting
2 c. powdered sugar
1/4 c. butter, melted
2 Tbl. milk
1/2 tsp. peppermint extract (or other flavors)
4 - 5 drops green food coloring (or other colors)

[to do 4 different colors, do about 1/2 c. sugar, 2 Tbl. melted butter, 1/2 Tbl. milk, 1/8 tsp. extract, and 2 drops food coloring]

1.  Blend powdered sugar and butter.
2.  Add other ingredients to taste and color preference.  Also, you will probably need to add a bit of milk every now and then to keep the frosting spreadable.

ready to start frosting!

yum!

double yum!

Apple Pie

Since we had a ton of apples, I figured we needed to have an apple pie!  I used the recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens book and it turned out pretty much perfect!

Pastry for Double-Crust Pie
2 c. flour
3/4 tsp. salt
2/3 c. shortening
8 - 10 Tbl. cold water


1.  In a medium bowl, stir together flour and salt.  Using a pastry blender, cut in shortening until pieces are pea size.
2.  Sprinkle 1 Tbl. of water over part of the flour mixture; toss with a fork.  Push moistened pastry to side of bowl.  Repeat moistening flour mixture, using 1 Tbl. of the water at a time, until flour mixture is moistened.  Divide pastry in half, form into balls.
3.  On lightly floured surface, use hands to slightly flatten one pastry ball.  Roll it from center to edges into a 12 inch circle.
4.  Wrap pastry circle around rolling pin; unroll it into a 9 inch pie plate.  Ease pastry into pie plate without stretching it.  Trim pastry even with rim; transfer filling to pie plate.
5.  Roll remaining ball into another 12 inch circle, place on top of filling.  Cut slits in pastry and trim to 1/2 inch beyond edge of plate.  Fold top pastry under bottom pastry and crimp edges as desired.

Apple Pie
1 recipe Pastry for Double-Crust pie
6 c. thinly sliced, peeled cooking apples (about 2 1/4 pounds)
1 Tbl. lemon juice
3/4 c. sugar
2 Tbl. flour
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
1/3 c. dried cranberries (optional)

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Prepare and roll out Pastry for Double-Crust Pie.  Line a 9 inch pie plate with a pastry circle.
2.  If desired, sprinkle apples with lemon juice.  In a large bowl, stir together: flour, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg (I added a little vanilla as well).  Add apples slices and, if desired, cranberries.  Gently toss until coated.
3.  Transfer mixture to pastry-lined pie plate.  Trim bottom pastry to edge of pie plate.  Place remaining pastry on top, cut slits in the top.  Crimp edges as desired.
4.  If desired, brush top pastry with milk and sprinkle with additional sugar.  To prevent over-browning, cover edge of pie with foil.
5.  Bake for 40 minutes; remove foil.  Bake 20 minutes more or until fruit is tender and filling is bubbly.  Cool on a wire rack.  To serve warm, let pie cool at least 2 hours.

delicious apples!

this is the best I could do, haha

so yummy with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!

Old Fashioned Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I love oatmeal raisin cookies. They are my absolute favorites, which is weird, since I'm such a chocolate fiend. But I could sit down and eat a whole batch of oatmeal raisin cookies if I didn't care about my body. Enjoy these delicious cookies. :)

1 c. shortening

1 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. white sugar

2 eggs

1/4 c. milk

2 c. flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. cinnamon

2 c. raisins

4 c. Quaker oats

1. Combine shortening, sugars, eggs and beat until creamy.

2. Add flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon; beat well.

3. Add milk, then oats and raisins, beat well.

4. Bake at 250 degrees for 25 - 30 minutes OR at 350 degrees for 12- 16 minutes.

*Alternate version that is just as tasty, but not my number 1 favorite: Oatmeal Craisin: Instead of raisins, add 1 c. craisins and 1 c. coconut.

sorry for the blurriness

mmmmm

Snickerdoodles

It seems that I'm always posting dessert recipes. It's not that I'm constantly making desserts, it's just that I'm more prone to take pictures of my 'fancy' desserts and share them. Let me assure you, I do make plenty of dinners in addition to the yummy desserts I've documented.

Let's move on. Last night I had a dream about my grandma's snickerdoodle cookies and couldn't get them out of my head. So I convinced Zak to make some with me on our day off together. He didn't mind at all, and did an excellent job measuring everything. I got to roll out the cookie dough; he's not very fond of getting his hands dirty if he doesn't have to. But it was still fun to bake together. Currently we are waiting for the second batch to come out of the oven and boy, do they smell just like Grandma's! Here is the recipe I used, which is halved from her original recipe.

1/2 c. shortening
3/4 c. sugar
1 egg
1 1/3 c. flour
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt

2 T. sugar2 T. cinnamon

1. Mix together shortening, sugar and egg.
2. Add in flour, cream of tartar, baking soda & salt.
3. Chill dough (optional); roll into balls the size of wlanuts.
4. Roll in cinnamon and sugar mixture.

Bake at 400 degrees for 8 - 10 minutes OR at 250 degrees for 25 - 30 minutes. (Tip: make sure to under-cook them by a minute, otherwise there will be a slight burnt flavor to them.)

Makes at least 2 dozen cookies, plus some extras!

so beautiful and round

mmmmmm

Homemade Oreo Cookies

I found this recipe on some blog that looked intriguing. I had never thought about making oreo cookies from scratch before, but after this recipe, I think I will from now on. They taste a little different than the store ones, but in a way that I can't describe. I don't know. They were pretty good and are great with milk. I will say one thing though: make tiny, like dime-sized cookies on the baking sheet, because these things expand like you wouldn't believe. It took a few pans to get them down to the average oreo size. Oh, and this recipe will make something like 50 or so small cookies. We have a ton of them leftover.

Cookie:
1 1/4 c. flour
1/2 c. unsweetend cocoa
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. + 2 Tbl. butter, room temperature
1 egg

1. In a medium-sized bowl, mix flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt and sugar.
2. Beat in the bugger and egg, continue mixing until dough comes together in a mass.
3. Make little balls (dime-sized, seriously) of dough and flatten slightly on hand (they also turn out very thin and crispy), place about 1 inch apart on greased pan.
4. Bake for 8 - 9 minutes at 375 degrees, set on a rack to cool.

Filling:
1/4 c. unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 c. vegetable shortening
2 c. powdered sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract (or vanilla bean paste, which is what the blog author used)

1. Place butter and shortening in a mixing bowl, and mix at low speed.
2. Gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla.
3. Turn mixer on high and beat for 2 - 3 minutes until filling is light and fluffy.
4. The blog author talked about using a piping bag or something to place the filling on a cookie; I just took a small spatula and spread it on the bottom cookie and made sure the top cookie was about the same size, and gently pressed them together.

yum! (see the different sizes? yeah, these things get big quick)

Cherry Pie

This week I made cherry pie, for the first time ever.  I actually don't even remember having cherry pie that often, but I know Zak loves it, and we had a huge bag of pie cherries from his grandparents, so I decided to give it a shot.  I've only made  pie crust a handful of times (Zak has always been around to help out with that; we made apple pie a few Thanksgivings ago together), so I was a bit nervous.  I used a recipe from my Better Homes & Gardens cookbook, since it seemed pretty simple.  The result was very delicious, however, next time I will perhaps make it thicker, because we had a fair amount of cherry syrup hanging around in the bottom of the pan.  Oh well, not bad for my first time!

Pastry for Double-Crust Pie:

2 1/4 c. flour
3/4 tsp. salt
2/3 c. shortening
8 - 10 Tbl. cold water

1. In a medium bowl, stir together flour and salt.  Using a pastry blender, cut in shortening until pieces are pea size.
2. Sprinkle 1 Tbl. of water over part of the flour mixture; toss with  fork.  Push moistened pastry to side of bowl; repeat until all of the flour mixture is moistened.  Divide pastry in half; form halves into balls.
3. On lightly floured surface, slightly flatten one pastry ball.  Roll it from the center to the edges into a circle 12 inches in diameter.
4. Wrap pastry circle around the rolling pin; unroll into a 9-inch pie plate.
5. Roll remaining ball into circle; cut slits in it.  Place onto filling; trim the two crust edges and then fold top under the bottom and crimp edges as desired.

Pie Filling:


1 1/4 c. sugar
3 Tbl. cornstarch
5 1/2 fresh (or frozen) unsweetened pitted tart red cherries
1 recipe Pastry for Double-Crust Pie

1. In large bowl, stir together sugar and cornstarch.  Add cherries; toss gently until coated.  Let mixture stand about 15 minutes or until a syrup forms, stirring occasionally (if using frozen cherries, let it stand about 45 minutes or until fruit is partially thawed but still icy).
2. Preheat oven to 375-degrees.  Prepare and roll out the pastry dough.
3. Stir cherry mixture, transfer to pastry-lined pie plate.  Trim bottom pastry to edge of pie plate.  Cut slits in remaining pastry; place on filling and seal; crimp edges as desired.
4. If desired, brush top pastry with milk and sprinkle with additional sugar.  Place pie on a baking sheet.  To prevent overbrowning, cover edge of pie with foil.
5. Bake for 30 minutes (or 50 for partially thawed frozen fruit).  Remove foil.  Baking an additional 25-30 minutes or until filling is bubbly and pastry is golden.  Cool on a wire rack.

ready for the top crust

ready to go in the oven!

mmmmmmm!

not as pretty, but still delicious!