Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Dorie Greenspan's Sables

Before I left for home for winter break (I'm home now) I made 4 batches of cookies. One was the chocolate chip recipe I tried before and loved, and then I made Dorie Greenspan's Sables. The recipe can be found here or in her book, Baking: From My Home to Yours. I made them festive only by using red sprinkles on the edges, because red was the only kind I had at college. I really liked the texture of these and they were pretty straight-forward to make.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Cinnamon Swirls

Yum. These were so good. The other people who tried them said they were a little different from what they were used to, probably because these cookies had no eggs and lots of cream cheese. They were flaky and perfect! Mine, of course, didn't turn out as perfectly shaped as I would have liked, but most of them still turned out great.I made these for a friend last week as a sort of goodbye/goodluck gift. I don't know if he really liked them, and maybe I should have stuck with making something more traditional and more cookie-like, but I had cream cheese and wanted to use it before leaving for winter break...and these were good. Try them out! I'd probably chill them in the fridge for more than just 1 hour, or chill them in the freezer.

Cinnamon Swirls
Recipe adapted from Taste of Home by Linda

1 cup butter, softened
One 8-ounce pkg cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon

In a large bowl beat the butter, cream cheese, and vanilla until fluffy. Combine the flour and salt and gradually beat it into the butter mixture.

Divide dough in two and wrap each tightly in plastic wrap. Chill for 1 hour. Combine cinnamon and sugar and set aside.

On a lightly floured surface, roll each portion into a rectangle - about 1/4 inch thick. Spread the sugar mixture to within 1/2 inch of the edge. Roll up tightly - starting at either the short or long edge. (Starting at the short edge will give you a fatter log, and bigger cookies.) Wrap log tightly and chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Slice logs into 3/8 inch slices and place two inches apart on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake for 14-16 minutes, or until lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack.



Saturday, December 4, 2010

Dorie Greenspan's Corniest Corn Muffins

Another Dorie Greenspan recipe...anyway, I also made this on Thanksgiving. I made 1.5 batches of this recipe by doubling the whole egg but not the yolk and it turned out fine, and I got like...about 20 good-sized (not large) muffins. You can find the recipe here, or find it in Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours. People really liked these. Real cornbread, real corn...I could have done without the actual corn myself, but everyone else loved it!