Lemon Tea Cookies

Have I mentioned how much I love lemons?  Yes, I believe I have.  I also love tea, and nothing accompanies a good cup of tea as well as a good tea cookie.  These cookies are a delightful companion to your favorite tea, light and cakey, with a tangy lemon glaze.  You can make your glaze as thick or as thin as you like; mine is about the consistency of corn syrup.

Ingredients

  • ½ cup butter, slightly softened
  • ¾ cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon lemon zest
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 egg
  • 2 teaspoons lemon juice
  • 1/3 cup milk
  • 1 ¾ cups flour

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a mixing bowl, beat butter on low speed for 30 seconds.

Add sugar, lemon zest, baking powder, and baking soda and beat until well-combined, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary.

Add egg, lemon juice, and milk; beat until combined.

Beat in flour until well-combined.

Drop by rounded teaspoons onto foil-lined baking sheets.

Bake for 12-16 minutes, until tops are firm and cookies are just golden.

Cool completely on a wire rack.

Drizzle with lemon glaze.

Lemon Glaze

Ingredients

  • 2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
  • Juice of 1 1/2 lemons

Combine powdered sugar and 2 tablespoons lemon juice.  Continue adding lemon juice, 1 tablespoon at a time, until you reach your desired consistency.  For thinner glaze, you can add water in addition to the juice.

Spoon over cookies, allowing the excess to drip down the sides.

Peanut Butter Cupcakes with Fudge Frosting

My mom gave me the Better Homes & Gardens New Cook Book in 1999, just a few months before Mike and I got married.  It’s the most useful cookbook I own, complete with fun tips about ingredient substitutions, how to enhance cake batter, and the benefits of baking with butter versus margarine.

This peanut butter cupcake recipe came from the “All Time Favorites” section of the BHG New Cook Book and was originally published in 1953.  It pairs very well with my favorite fudge frosting, which has been featured previously on this blog, but these could easily be frosted with peanut butter or dusted with powdered sugar.

Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup peanut butter
  • 1/3 cup shortening
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup milk

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat peanut butter, shortening, and vanilla on medium speed until combined.

Add brown sugar and beat until fluffy, scraping the sides of the bowl several times.

Add eggs, one at a time, and beat until combined.

Add flour mixture and milk alternatively, beating until combined.  The batter will be thick and fluffy.

Spoon batter into muffin cups, filling halfway full.

Bake for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool completely before frosting.

 

 

 

 

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Yesterday was Mike’s birthday, and he requested a carrot cake (with raisins and walnuts) for his birthday cake.  I don’t really believe in mixing vegetables with dessert, but who am I to refuse my husband’s cake wishes on his birthday?

Cream cheese frosting is incredibly rich and sweet, so I chose to frost only the top of this cake.  Carrot cake isn’t complete without something indicating that it is, in fact, carrot cake, so I’ve chosen simplicity and gone with one single frosting-piped carrot in the center.

Carrot Cake

Ingredients

  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups canola oil
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 cups peeled raw carrots, shredded
  • 1/2 cup raisins
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preparation

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Grease and flour a 9 x 13 pan.

Peel and grate carrots; set aside.

Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a medium bowl; set aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat sugar and eggs together until light and fluffy.

Add canola oil and vanilla, beating well.

Add flour mixture and beat until combined.

Stir in grated carrot, raisins, and walnuts.

Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean and the top of the cake is firm.

Cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

  • 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
  • 1/2 cup butter, softened
  • 4 cups powdered sugar
  • 2 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • Orange and green food coloring, if carrot decorations will be included

In a mixing bowl, cream together cream cheese and butter.

Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time, beating after each addition.

Add vanilla and beat well.

Frost top of cake, adding carrot decorations if desired.

Store cake in refrigerator to be on the safe side.  We are talking about cream cheese, after all.

 

Bundt Cake with Lemon Vanilla Glaze

I wanted to bake a King Cake yesterday in preparation for Mardi Gras, but I didn’t have the patience to make brioche.  Since bundt cakes are similar in shape to King Cakes, I decided to bake this one and decorate it with a lemon vanilla glaze and some fun green, yellow, and purple colored sugar.

This was a very quick and easy recipe, yielding a rich, dense, almost pound cake-like texture that goes well with coffee or tea.  Though the recipe calls for lemon juice, the lemon flavor bakes out; for a true lemon bundt, I’d look for a recipe with lemon extract or lemon pudding mix in the batter.

Bundt Cake

Ingredients

  • 1 cup butter, slightly softened
  • ½ cup sugar
  • 1/3 cup lemon juice
  • 5 eggs
  • 3 cups flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 2/3 cup milk

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Generously grease and flour your bundt pan.  I use Wondra flour, which is a superfine flour used for gravies and sauces; it coats grooved pans much better than all-purpose flour.

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.

Cream together butter and sugar until fluffy.

Add lemon juice and beat until combined.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each.

Add flour mixture and milk alternatively, beating until combined.

Pour into a greased and floured bundt pan.

Bake for 50 minutes.

Lemon Vanilla Glaze

Ingredients

  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2-4 tablespoons water

Preparation

Combine powdered sugar, lemon juice, vanilla, and 2 tablespoons water in a large, 4-cup glass measuring cup.  Continue adding water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until you reach the desired consistency; glaze should be drizzly, but not too thin.  If you make the glaze too thin, just add a few tablespoons of powdered sugar to thicken it.  Pour over cake, allowing glaze to drip down the sides.

Sprinkle with green yellow, and purple sugars if desired.

Rolo Brownie Bites

Rolos, according to Mike, are like crack.  And I have to agree; there’s something about that smooth chocolate/caramel combination that is highly addictive. Because I’m a big fan of the Reese’s peanut butter cup cookie, which involves peanut butter cookie dough baked in a mini muffin tin and a miniature peanut butter cup pressed into its center, I was excited to try this recipe.

While they turned out to be tasty, several of these bites fell apart when I removed them from the pan, as their tops separated from their bottoms.  I suspect that uneven distribution of dough among the cups is responsible, so next time I’ll make sure to fill each cup only halfway with batter for more even baking.

The broken bites will go very well with some vanilla ice cream for dessert tonight, though, proving that most baking mistakes are easily remedied.

Ingredients

  • 5 tablespoons butter
  • 2 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate, coarsely chopped
  • 1 ounce semisweet baking chocolate, coarsely chopped
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 2/3 cup flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 24 Rolo candies, unwrapped and chilled

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spray a 24-cup mini muffin tin with cooking spray.

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In a medium microwave-safe bowl, microwave chocolate and butter for 1 minute, then stir.  Continue microwaving in 30-second intervals, stirring each time, until chocolate is nearly melted; remove from microwave and let the residual heat finish the melting process.

Combine sugar with melted butter and chocolate and let cool until warm.

Stir in egg and vanilla until well blended.

Stir in flour mixture until well blended.

Drop batter into muffin cups, filling halfway.

Bake for 14 minutes or until the tops are almost firm when pressed in the center.

Remove from oven and immediately press one Rolo into each brownie.

Cool on a wire rack.

 

Classic Brownies

Nothing says Valentine’s Day like chocolate, at least not to me.  And while I’m not a huge fan of Valentine’s Day, I’ll definitely take celebrating this holiday as an excuse to bake brownies.

Brownies are one of my favorite desserts, especially when served warm with vanilla ice cream.  They’re a versatile treat, easy to adapt in texture and flavor; you can bake them with nuts, marshmallows, chocolate chips, or other candies, flavor them with amaretto, raspberry, or mint, sprinkle them with powdered sugar, frost them with your favorite icing, spread peanut butter on them, or just eat them plain, right out of the pan, standing up in the kitchen in the middle of the night.  Or is that just me?

Ingredients

  • 2 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate
  • ½ cup butter
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ¾ cup flour

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease an 8×8 baking dish and coat the bottom of the dish with sugar; this will give the brownie bottoms a nice crunch and make it easier to pop them out of the pan.

Melt butter and unsweetened chocolate in a medium saucepan on low heat.

Using a wooden spoon, stir together sugar, eggs, and vanilla in a mixing bowl until combined.

Add melted butter and chocolate and stir until combined.

Add flour and stir until combined.

Pour into baking dish and bake for 30 minutes.

Blueberry Muffins

Last week, my mom brought me a pint of fresh blueberries.  I haven’t baked with fruit very much, but I love blueberry muffins, especially ones with a hint of lemon and a crunchy sugar topping.

Ingredients

Muffins

  • 1 ¾ cups flour
  • ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
  • ¾ teaspoon salt
  • ¾ cup milk
  • 1 egg, well-beaten
  • 1/3 cup vegetable oil
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 cup fresh blueberries
  • Zest of 1 small lemon

Sugar Topping

  • 3 tablespoons melted butter
  • About ¼ cup sugar

Preparation

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Line one muffin tin with paper liners.

Wash blueberries and dry on paper towels to remove excess moisture.  Toss berries with 2 tablespoons sugar and set aside.

Sift together flour, ¼ cup sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl and make a well in the center.

In a medium mixing bowl combine milk, egg, oil, and vanilla.

Add to dry ingredients at once, stirring quickly with a fork until just moistened.

Add blueberries and lemon zest, folding in gently, taking care not to break blueberries.

Spoon batter into muffin cups and bake for 23 minutes.

While muffins are still warm, brush tops with melted butter and dip in sugar.

Caramel Oatmeal Bars (version one)

I can think of few better things to do on a snowy afternoon when Mike is working an event at the Aviary than try a new recipe.  This one, though, will need some improvements; baked according to the recipe, it’s not quite what I had hoped it would be.

In order to find caramel oatmeal bar nirvana, I can certainly try different recipes; were I to improve upon this one, I’d make the bottom crust slightly thicker, increase the volume of the chocolate chips to one cup and perhaps switch to milk chocolate, and try pecans instead of walnuts.  I might also decrease baking time by five minutes or so to see how everything holds up.  Stay tuned for Caramel Oatmeal Bars, version two, in the coming weeks!

Ingredients

  • 1-14 oz. bag Kraft caramels
  • 7 tablespoons heavy cream
  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 cups rolled oats
  • 1 ½ cups packed brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup butter, melted
  • ½ cup semisweet chocolate chips
  • ½ cup chopped walnuts

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line a 9×13 glass baking dish with foil.

Melt butter in the microwave; this can be done while you’re preparing the crust.

Combine flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt in a very large bowl.

Add melted butter and stir together until well-moistened, using your hands if necessary.

Press half of the mixture into the bottom of the baking dish and bake for 8 minutes.

Meanwhile, melt caramels and heavy cream in a medium saucepan on low to medium heat, stirring very frequently until smooth.

Remove crust from oven; sprinkle with chocolate chips and walnuts, then pour in the caramel, using a spatula to spread it out and into the corners.

Press the remaining crust mixture on top.

Bake for 25 minutes; cool in baking dish on a wire rack.

Wait until bars are completely cool before cutting.

Coconut Macaroons (Gluten-Free!)

Mike and I are an interfaith Jewish-Catholic couple.  Passover and Easter sometimes coincide, which presents a variety of culinary challenges; Mike can’t have anything made with flour for eight days, and throughout Lent I give up sweets and avoid meat on Fridays.  I first made these macaroons a few years ago while Mike was in the midst of his nothing-leaven-for-Passover endeavors.

This recipe is entirely gluten-free and fairly easy to make, so it’s a good option for family and friends with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity.  Check out more gluten-free recipes!

Ingredients

  • 3 egg whites, room temperature
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla (McCormick pure vanilla extract is gluten-free)
  • 3 cups shredded coconut

Preparation

Preheat oven to 325.

Line three baking sheets with waxed paper.

Beat egg whites on medium-high speed until frothy.

With the mixer on low, add vanilla and continue to beat.

With the mixer on medium, add sugar gradually, then increase speed to high and continue to beat until stiff peaks form; this can take 10 minutes or more, depending on your mixer.

Gently fold in coconut one cup at a time.

Drop by rounded tablespoons, spacing about two inches apart on the baking sheet; you should be able to fit 9 macaroons on one sheet, and the entire recipe makes 21 cookies.

Bake 18-20 minutes, until very, very light brown.

Cool completely on baking sheets.  When cookies are cool, carefully peel the waxed paper away from the baking sheets, then carefully peel the cookies from the waxed paper.

Fudge Frosting

Every time I visit Annapolis, Maryland, I have to stop at Uncle Bob’s Fudge Kitchen.  Uncle Bob’s is a classic tourist shop, crammed to the rafters with magnets, key chains, mugs, Naval Academy t-shirts, Chesapeake Bay cookbooks, and “don’t bother me, I’m crabby” paraphernalia.  In the front are large windows, where trays of fudge, candy, and caramel apples the size of softballs issue their siren’s call to all who pass.

Uncle Bob’s peanut butter fudge is my true favorite, but their chocolate fudge is excellent as well – not too sweet, with a creamy texture.  This frosting reminds me a bit of that fudge; I first used it on a devil’s food cake about eleven years ago.  Mike took the cake to his office, and his colleagues proclaimed it worthy of the blue ribbon at the county fair.  To this day, that statement is among the highest praise I’ve ever received.

The recipe below yields enough to frost two 8-inch layers or one 9×13 sheet cake.

Ingredients

  • 4 ¾ cups powdered sugar
  • ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • ½ cup butter, softened
  • 1/3 cup boiling water
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preparation

Combine powdered sugar and cocoa powder.

Add butter, boiling water, and vanilla.

Beat on low speed until ingredients are just combined, then increase speed to medium and beat for 1 minute.