Chocolate Marmalade Cookies

The day before I left to come back to college from home for spring semester, I went to a new cookbook my mom bought me for Christmas. During the break I had brought down my new cookbooks and my mom had pointed these out because she thought they looked really good. So, while my mom was at work, I worked to finish these for her! They were very good--very rich and soft and perfect. You can find the recipe in Sarabeth Levine's book, Sarabeth's Bakery: From My Hands to Yours.

Rum Cream Pie

This recipe for Rum Cream Pie is from Molly Wizenberg's A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from MY Kitchen Table. I didn't actually read this book yet, just looked at the recipes, because for my mom's bookgroup mid-January, they were going to get together with things made from this book and I decided to chip in. This recipe was extremely easy and I can't wait to try it again!

Coconut Snowballs

I love coconut, so I also made these in December. My favorite cookies of all time are my mom's Christmas Nut Cookies (also snowballs, mexican wedding cakes, etc), and these were pretty close in texture since they melt in your mouth. The recipe is a Martha Stewart recipe, found here.

I'm Back! (Kind of)

I think it's been easier to post on my blog since I'm back at college. I don't know why, maybe because even though the internet is pretty bad, it's better than in my room at home? So uploading pictures takes a shorter time? Not sure, but I think my posts will be a little more simpler from now on--definitely using a lot of recipes from cookbooks that I would rather you buy than me post online, but I can show you the results!

Anyway, I'll probably be posting about once a week, but look forward to some new stuff!

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

I made these back in December. The recipe can be found here. My mom once told me that we should make these, and we never did, so I brought them home with me from college for her birthday (I got home right on her birthday!).

Hiatus

I suppose it's about time I actually declare that I'm taking a break from blogging. I did have a few more things I could share on here, but I've just been tired of taking the time to upload pictures, write about them, and share the recipes. Hopefully I'll bake more and be more excited to post here again soon!

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.

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.

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!

Dorie Greenspan's Sour Cream Pumpkin Pie

No post in a while because I've been busy, but luckily for Thanksgiving I had time to bake more! First thing I made was my first pumpkin pie, which I was really nervous about...it turned out okay but I did way too many substitutions and I think they made it lose a bit of flavor. I used pumpkin pie spice instead of most of the spices, and then didn't have cloves so had to leave that out. And I didn't have rum (because I'm not 21) so I left that out, too. But I did make my own whipped cream, which people liked.

I made Dorie Greenspan's Sour Cream Pumpkin Pie (recipe found HERE, and originally made Dorie Greenspan's Good for Almost Everything Pie Dough (also on that same link), also available in Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours. But this pie crust kinda freaked me out--I didn't know I wasn't supposed to add ALL the ice water, just enough to make the dough pliable, so my dough ended up looking like this:

So, unsure about whether it would work out, I whipped together a different pie crust that turned out a bit small but was looked a little better. I'll post that recipe below. Anyway, when I prebaked Dorie's pie crust as she instructed, the edges turned a little dark...but I still poured the batter into this one because the pie crust worked out anyway. It turned out, Dorie's recipe had enough for both of my pie crusts to be filled!! I don't know if that was because she intended it for deeper pie dishes or what, but it worked out and I used both my pie crusts.

My friend hosted Thanksgiving to 20 people, and about one and a half to three fourths of my pies were eaten. I didn't think it was GREAT, but it was good.

Basic Flaky Pie Crust
From Allrecipes

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shortening, chilled
3 tablespoons ice water


Whisk the flour and salt together in a medium size bowl. With a pastry blender, cut in the cold shortening until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Drizzle 2 to 3 tablespoons ice water over flour. Toss mixture with a fork to moisten, adding more water a few drops at a time until the dough comes together.

Gently gather dough particles together into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for at least 30 minutes before rolling.

Roll out dough, and put in a pie plate. Fill with desired filling and bake.

(Above) The first pie crust
(Above) Second pie, unbaked