The Cookie and the Dog

Today we celebrate Mabel’s fifth birthday.  I don’t know whether the miracle is that we’ve survived or that she has.

Over the last month our furry youngster has consumed – among other things – two sticks of butter, three innocent frogs, a Silence-of-the-Lambs-size moth-bug-thing (creepy little dude, he was), a bag of deer jerky and an eighth of a 12” cookie cake (which thankfully didn’t have enough chocolate in it to do her harm).  The final two items earned her a public shaming on Facebook and Instagram.  She didn’t even have the decency to look remorseful.

Mabel gives us plenty of reasons to smile, though.  Every morning she insists on pushing the top of her head into me as I give her kisses on each ear.  If she doesn’t feel she has received enough affection, she firmly nudges my elbow until I acquiesce and pet her for another ten minutes.  It is especially annoying when she nudges the elbow connected to the hand holding a full cup of coffee.  And speaking of coffee, she still likes to sneak drinks from my cup.  In her quieter moments, Mabel suns herself in the backyard or snoozes on the puppy bed we have in the living room.  Her “comfy” positions crack us up.

In honor of the Teeny-Weeny Mabellini, (although after eating cookie cake, she’s not so teeny-weeny anymore)  here is the recipe for the homemade cookie cake I found in August (and which I have subsequently made five times.  Kinda takes away my right to scoff at Mabel’s weight, doesn’t it?)

Triple-Awesome Cookie Cake

I found the original recipe online, but for the life of me cannot get back to it.  You would think I could have bookmarked it, but alas…  If I come across it again I’ll be sure to link back.  At any rate, the original recipe is sufficient for a one-inch thick 12” round cake.  I needed more cookie for Aaron’s birthday party, so I increased the batter by half.  It’s just as easily reduced by half, so I’m listing all the appropriate measurements and sizes for your convenience.   It’s important to note at the beginning that I have changed the amount of chocolate chips in the cake because I thought the original recipe called for too much.  (Too much chocolate? I must be ill.) I have made it with full-on chocolate chips some times and half the allotment at others.  If you want more chocolate, feel free to double the portion of chips listed.

	8-9” pan	12” pan	11×15″ pan
Butter, room temp	1 stick	2 sticks	3 sticks
Sugar	¼ c	½ c	¾ c.
Brown Sugar	1/3 c.	2/3 c.	1 c.
Eggs	1	2	3
Vanilla	½ t.	1 t.	1 ½ t.
Flour, all purpose	1c + 2T	2c + 4T	3c + 6T
Kosher Salt	½ t	1 t	1 ½ t
Cream of Tartar	½ t	1 t	1 ½ t
Baking Soda	½ t	1 t	1 ½ t
Chocolate Chips, semi sweet (I use Ghirardelli baking chips)	½ c	1 c	1 ½ c

1. Cream the butter with both sugars in a mixing bowl (medium speed) until fluffy.  Add the eggs and vanilla and mix well.
2. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt, cream of tartar and baking soda.
3. Gently blend the flour mixture into the egg and sugar mixture.  Once combined, fold in the chocolate chips.
4. Spread the batter into a lightly greased pan. (I used to swear by Baker’s Joy, until I nixed the preservatives BHA and BHT from my life.  Now I use Spectrum Naturals brand Canola Spray with Flour for a quick and easy dusting.)  The batter is very thick, so I have to push it to the sides of the pan and smooth it out the best I can.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 25, 30 or 35 minutes (depending on the size), or until the top is golden and you’re drooling at the lighted oven window.

So, yeah, this picture is totally of Aaron’s sheet-cookie-cake in August, and certainly not intended for Mabel on any day.  I used my regular buttercream icing recipe for the white icing, and whipped powdered sugar into homemade chocolate syrup for the accent icing.  To. Die. For!

Happy 5^th Birthday, Mabel.  Leave the cookie cake alone next time, please.

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THE BEST Vanilla Ice Cream

Are y’all ready for this?…

June’s issue of Southern Living magazine had a remarkable page dedicated to guilt-free but seriously delish ice cream.  I couldn’t wait to try it.  I have made the batter three times, and finished the ice cream twice.  Mechanical malfunctions (and my resulting hissy-fit) caused the first batch to go unmade.  But when I did finally borrow an ice-cream maker from Jill in order to make some birthday celebrations at work just a little bit sweeter, I was so incredibly glad that I had this recipe.  It. Is. Tha. Bomb. 

(Confession: I don’t typically go around calling things “tha bomb.”  It’s really not my style.  But the context totally fits here.  I just have to say that typing that phrase makes me think I will somehow end up on the FBI’s watchlist or something.  So, if that ever comes to fruition: Hi, Fellas.  Please enjoy some ice cream. 😉 )

Southern Living calls this “Lightened Vanilla Bean Ice Cream.”  I call it frozen heaven.

1/2 c.  granular sweetener for ice cream*
2 T cornstarch
1/8 t salt
2 c reduced-fat 2% milk
1 c half-and-half
1 egg yolk**
1 1/2 t vanilla bean paste or extract***

Whisk together first 3 ingredients in a large heavy saucepan.  Gradually whisk in milk and half-and-half.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly about 8-10 minutes or until slightly thickened.  Remove from heat.

Whisk egg yolk separately until slightly thickened.  Gradually whisk about 1 cup of the hot cream mixture into the yolk.  This will keep the egg from cooking too fast and creating large lumps.  Add the yolk mixture to remaining cream mixture, whisking constantly.  Whisk in vanilla.

Pour mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl, discarding any solids.  Cool one hour, stirring occasionally.  Place plastic wrap directly on cream mixture and chill 8-24 hours.

Pour mixture into freezer container of 1 1/2 quart electric ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer’s instructions.  Let stand at room temperature 5-10 minutes before serving.****

Calories per 1/2 cup: 92; Fat 5g (Sat 3g); Protein 3g; Carb 18g; Fiber 0g; Cholesterol 42mg; Iron 0mg; Sodium 76mg; Calcium 106mg

*I totaly use my table sugar in this recipe, which happens to be Florida Crystals Organic Cane Sugar.  It works beautifully.

**Two ice-cream batches later I finally realized this said 1 egg yolk.  I had used the whole egg both times.  Sure, “oops!” but it turned out fine.

***Vanilla Bean Paste.  I had no clue what this was, but I found it in the gourmet section of Amazon.com.  I think this adds better flavor than extract would, but I could be wrong.  It does add that nice vanilla bean speckled look.

****I dunno.  I don’t think I would let it sit out for 10 minutes.  Just sayin’.

 

Completely Incredible Fruit-of-Your-Choice Muffins

These are from the March issue of Southern Living magazine.  I tried some variations and have determined that you can use just about any fruit that suits you, and these muffins will still rock!  We like the original peach best, but I made them with blueberries the second time and was just as happy.

Streusel:
½ c chopped pecans or walnuts
1/3 c firmly packed brown sugar
¼ c all-purpose flour
2 T melted butter
1 t ground cinnamon

 Muffins:
1 ½ c allpurpose flour
½ c granulated sugar
2 t baking powder
1 t ground cinnamon
¼ t salt
½ c butter, melted (1 stick)
¼ milk
1 large egg
1 cup frozen sliced peaches, thawed and diced OR blueberries/strawberries/pear/whatever you want!
12 paper baking cups
Vegetable cooking spray

Prepare Streusel by stirring pecans and next 4 ingredients until crumbly; set aside.

Preheat oven to 400.  Combine flour and next 4 ingredients (all dry) in a large bowl.  Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients.  Stir together the butter, milk and egg; add to dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened.  Gently stir in fruit.

Place paper baking cups in a muffin tin and lightly spray them with the cooking spray.  Spoon batter into the cups, filling about 2/3 full.  Sprinkle the streusel over the tops.

Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick stuck in the middle comes out clean.  Cool (or not) and enjoy!!

Absolutely Ah. Maze. Ing. Peanut Butter Cookies

I made peanut butter cookies last week to satisfy Dom’s sweet tooth.  They were okay, but quite honestly, they weren’t what we were looking for in a peanut butter cookie.  So I went googling and I found what was titled The Last Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe You’ll Ever Try.  So I tried it. 

Ohhh.  Emmm.  Geeeee.

Now, I’ll go ahead and tell you that despite how dreamy these cookies taste, I have not eaten another one since figuring the nutritional content of them.  Yeah.  It’s a tad shocking.  BUT, there is a fix, so if you will bear with me on the numbers I can offer a solution.   And yes, I am here to tell you – despite the calories and even using the full-blown original recipe, these cookies are that darn good. 

I’m going to introduce the recipe now, in the event that you are a person who does not want the gooey goodness spoiled by numbers.  Enjoy!

1 ½ cups butter (that’s 3 sticks!)
1 ½ cups creamy peanut butter (or crunchy, if you prefer)
1 ½ cups sugar
1 ½ cups brown sugar
3 eggs
¾ teaspoon salt
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
2 ¼  teaspoons baking soda
3 ¾ cups flour
12 ounces peanut butter chips (These are Reese’s brand, found next to the chocolate chips at the store.)

Cream peanut butter and margarine, add sugars and mix well.

Add eggs and mix until creamy.

Add remaining ingredients.

You might find that the dough is easier to work with if you chill it for about 20-30 minutes or so. I use a melon baller to scoop my dough into correct proportions, so I preferred it soft.

Drop by teaspoonful onto cookie sheets – do not flatten.  They look like meringue puffs when they’re done.  Crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside – a claim I didn’t believe possible until I tasted it myself. 

Bake at 325°F for 15 minutes.

Cool on cookie rack, then transfer to airtight container for storage.

It’s also important to note that this makes a TON of cookie dough.  I mean, I got 78 cookies out of this batch!  Of course, I didn’t bake them up all at once.  I balled up 78 cookie dough scoops and put them in a freezer container.  So, whenever we want cookies, we can just pop out a few and toss them in the oven.  Genius, I know, and it wasn’t even my own idea! 

Now, here’s the skinny on the numbers.  (Skinny!  HA!!)  With the recipe as described above yielding 78 cookies (and my use of JIF Natural creamy peanut butter) the nutritional content per cookie is:
Calories: 129
Fat: 15 grams (Unfortunately, that is not a typo.  FIFTEEN.  This was the part that later kept me away from them, and the part that can be drastically altered!)
Sodium: 21.7 g
Protein: 1.7 g (All that peanut butter and less than 2 grams of protein?  Incredible!)
Fiber: 0.3 g (Hey, it was part of the calculation.  Might as well report it!)

If the fat content of the cookies scares you like it did me, take heart.  By omitting the peanut butter chips from the recipe (and believe me, they are a fantastic-tasting addition!)  we can drop the fat content down to 4 grams per cookie.  That is certainly more manageable in my opinion, and I will be trying this edit with the next round of cookies. Other stats per cookie, minus the PB chips:
Calories: 110
Sodium:14.4 g
Protein: 1 g (And we didn’t think it could get any smaller…)
Fiber: 0.3 g (there is apparently no fiber in the partially-hydrogenated-various-oils chips! Go figure.)

Chocolate Ganache

Tags

cake topping, chocolate, dipped strawberries

My. All. Time. Favorite. Thing. Ever. 
I use this to top chocolate cakes and cheesecakes, drizzle down the sides of cakes, dip strawberries, and lick the pan!  This is what heaven is like, I’m sure.  Feel free to double the recipe.  You won’t be sorry!

1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
1 cup (6 oz.) semi-sweet chocolate chips (I use only Ghirardelli)
1 teaspoon vanilla

Place whipping cream in sturdy sauce pan and heat until you see the first hint of a boil bubble.  DO NOT actually let it boil.  Remove from heat and add chocolate chips all at once.  Stir to melt the chips and get them smooth.  Sometimes, I had to briefly place the pan back on the burner for a second or two just to get a little more heat into the chocolate.  When they are smooth, stir in the vanilla.

Seven Minute Icing

Tags

BHG cookbooks, icing

I remember my grandmother talking about Seven Minute Icing when I was knee-high to a grasshopper.  Imagine my delight when one of my customers specifically requested it!  (Note:  7 minutes is a really long time when you’re standing over a stovetop holding a mixer in your hand!)  This one, too, is from the Better Homes and Gardens New Baking Cookbook.

1 ½ cups sugar
2 egg whites
¼ tsp cream of tartar OR 2 tsp light-colored corn syrup (Karo)
1 tsp. vanilla

In the top of a double boiler combine the sugar, 1/3 cup cold water, egg whites and cream of tartar (or syrup).  Beat with a portable electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds.  Place over boiling water (upper pan should not touch water).  Cook, beating constantly with mixer on high speed, about 7 minutes or until stiff peaks form.  Remove from heat; add vanilla; beat 2-3 minutes more until easy to spread.

Italian Creme Cake

Tags

BHG cookbooks, cake, coconut, frosting, icing

When I first tasted Italian Creme Cake in a restaurant, I was sorely disappointed! Everything I had heard about it being sooo deliciously wonderful was proven wrong with that first piece, and subsequent pieces at other locations. Honestly, I just didn’t see what all the fuss was about. Then a co-worker asked if I could make one for her, and I promised to find a recipe and charge her half-price if she was willing to be my guinea pig. I took the recipe from a trusted old friend, the Better Homes and Gardens baking cookbook. I made enough batter to reserve some for a smaller cake so I could taste it too. One bite, and I was hooked! Italian Creme reigned supreme after that.  And Bella Dolci had at last found its pièce de résistance.

You should see how messy this page is in my cookbook…that’s the sign of a great recipe!

1 ¾  c. all-purpose flour
1 ½  tsp Baking powder
¼  tsp Baking soda
½  c. Butter
1/3     c. Shortening
1 ¾  c sugar
4 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla
¾  c buttermilk or sour milk
1 (3½ oz.) can flakes coconut
1 cup chopped pecans
4 egg whites

Grease and flour three 8’ round pans, set aside.

Combine flour, baking powder and baking soda; set aside.

Beat butter and shortening on medium-high speed for 30 seconds.  Add sugar and beat until fluffy.  Add egg yolks and vanilla; beat on medium speed until combined.  Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to egg yolk mixture, beating on low speed after each addition just until combined.  Fold in coconut and chopped pecans.

In small mixing bowl with VERY CLEAN BEATERS, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form (tips stand straight).  Fold one-third of egg whites into cake batter to lighten; fold in remaining whites.  Pour batter evenly into prepared pans. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.  Cool cakes in pans 10 minutes; remove from pans onto cake racks and cool completely.

Frost with Pecan Cream Cheese icing:

12 oz cream cheese
6 T butter
1 ½ tsp vanilla
6 cups sifted powdered sugar
½ cup chopped pecans

Beat together until smooth.  Gradually add 6 cups sifted powdered sugar, beating on low until smooth; stir in pecans.

*Pecans are optional.  If you plan to decorate the cake, as in with a decorator bag and piping utensils, do not add the pecans.  Make sure your icing is piping consistency.  If it’s too thick, you will have to work too hard.  😉

Pineapple Breakfast Cookies

Tags

breakfast cookies, oatmeal cookies

This is another of my Mom’s recipes, and a really good breakfast, if you ask me! 😉

Filling:
1 (8½ oz.) can crushed pineapple
2 T granulated sugar
2 t. corn starch
dash salt

Dough:
¾ c. shortening
¾ c. brown sugar
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla
¾ c. flour
1 t. salt
½ t. baking powder
¼ t. cinnamon     
2½ c. oatmeal
½ c. nonfat dry milk 

On greased cookie sheet put 1/3 c. dough 4½”diameter. Leave room for 1” spread.  Make an 1/8″ indention in the center of each dough round, leaving a ridge of about an inch to the edge.  Fill indention with pineapple filling.  Bake 15 minutes at 350°.

Pineapple Cake Filling

I love to layer this filling in between vanilla cake, then frost with seven-minute icing.  Yum!!

1 can (20 ounces) unsweetened crushed pineapple with juice
3/4 cup sugar
5 tablespoons flour
1/3 cup unsalted butter

To make the filling, in a medium saucepan, combine the pineapple, sugar, flour, and butter. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thickened. Remove from the heat and cool completely.

Boots’ Banana Pudding

My mother-in-law’s cousin makes this banana pudding for our family gatherings every single holiday, whether she herself will be there or not.  Dom and our sister-in-law, Melissa, have a Banana Pudding Race every holiday to see who can get to it first and leave the biggest hole.  I honestly forget who’s ahead…

1 large box vanilla pudding*
1 8-oz pkg. cream cheese
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 8-oz container Cool Whip
Box of vanilla wafers
3 medium bananas

Mix first three ingredients; Fold in Cool Whip.  Layer w/ bananas and vanilla wafers; Chill 30 min.  

*I have begun to lay off of banana pudding due to the artificial colors in the vanilla pudding, and my new-found allergy to the “cream” in cool whip.