Snicker Doodles

Have you ever heard of Snicker Doodles? They are an old fashioned cookie that I first baked when I was in my teens. They are buttery, flavorful, covered with cinnamon, and very chewy.

I found this particular recipe on the back of a sack of King Arthur’s flour. Wondering if they were as good as the ones I remembered from my childhood, I made a batch. They taste just as good now as they did years ago. The preparation for these cookies doesn’t take long and they bake in about eight minutes. Try them out on your munchkins. They'll love them and want to help you bake them too.

                                                  

Ingredients:

½ cup soft butter

¾ cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg

1 1/3 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

2 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Process:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and lightly grease two cookie sheets.

Mix butter, sugar and vanilla in large mixing bowl. Blend in egg.

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl, and then add to butter mixture.

Mix two tablespoons of sugar and cinnamon on a small plate.

Drop dough by small teaspoons on to cinnamon sugar and gently coat. Lay one dozen coated balls on each pan. Use a flat bottom glass to flatten each cookie slightly.

Bake in preheated oven for about eight minutes until slightly browned. Remove from oven and cool on rack for a few minutes. Remove to wax paper and cool. This recipe makes about 2 ½ dozen. Enjoy.

 

Chicken Enchilada Caserole

This recipe has to be credited to my friends and teachers from North lake Elementary School. I spent most of my teaching career there in Garland, Texas.

The North lake staff had a lovely tradition of celebrating birthdays monthly in the teachers’ lounge. During lunch time, we brought in homemade treasures from salads and casseroles to cakes covered with candles. Many of the cooks shared their recipes many of them are among our family favorites.

Try this sumptuous Chicken Enchilada Casserole with your family and friends. If you are lucky enough to have a group like the teachers at North lake, you might share your recipes with them too.

Ingredients:

12 corn tortillas

½ cup cooking oil

2 cups shredded Monterrey Jack cheese

¾ cup chopped onion

¼ cup butter

3 tablespoon flour

2 cups chicken broth

1 cup sour cream

2 cups diced chicken

1 cup (4 oz.) chopped green chilies

Directions:

Cook tortillas in oil—5 seconds per side to soften.

Place 2 tablespoons of cheese and 1 tablespoon of onion on each tortilla and role up. Place seam side down in 9x13 baking dish.

In a large skillet, melt butter and blend with flour. Add broth and cook until thick. Stir in sour cream, chicken, and green chilies.  Cook until heated—(do not boil!). Pour sauce over tortillas and sprinkle with remaining cup of cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes until bubbly and light brown. This makes 6 servings with two enchiladas each. You’re going to love this! 

Chocolate Berry Crumb Bars

This busy grandma finally made these cookies along with my daughter-in-law, Yulia, who shared them with her office staff at a pitch-in luncheon. She won first place with kudos for the cookies. Try this recipe yourself. There are lots of parties and holidays in your future.

Scroll through the blog and you will find several of our favorite family recipes. Try the pumpkin cookies with cream cheese icing.  Check back later for more October recipes.

                                          Chocolate Berry Crumb Bars

Ingredients:

1 cup butter softened

2 cups all-purpose flour

½ cups packed brown sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (divided)

1 ¼ cups sweetened condensed milk

½ cup of your favorite berry jam- I prefer seedless raspberry.

½ cup chopped pecans

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 360 degrees. Spray 13x9 inch glass baking pan with baking spray.
2. In large mixing bowl beat softened butter until creamy. Add flour, sugar and salt and mix until crumbly. Spread all but about ¾ cup of crumbs into pan, sprinkle with flour, and press lightly with finger tips. Set rest of crumbs aside.
3. Bake about 10 minutes or until crumbs start to brown around edges. Remove from oven, but leave oven on.
4. In a small saucepan put the condensed milk and 1 cup chocolate chips. Warm at low temperature and stir until creamy. Spread it over the baked crust.
5. Chop the nuts and add to the remaining crumbs. Sprinkle over chocolate sauce.
6. Drop dollops of jam on top of crumbs until ½ cup of jam is used. Sprinkle remaining chocolate chips on top and return to oven. Bake 25-30 minutes until center is set and crumbs are slightly brown. Remove pan to wire rack to cool. Cut into squares. Serve and delight your guests.

Never Too Many Strawberries

June for me always meant strawberry time. When I was young strawberries were sweeter, smaller, and juicier than today.  I made jam in a large gray kettle, inhaled the aroma, scraped the foam from the luscious concoction, and shared it with the children. The finished product was canned in half pint jars and kept in the cellar for winter.

Recently my daughter Becky came to visit and made strawberry jam. It was delicious, took much less time to make and is now stored in the freezer. We don’t have wild berries, but it certainly brings back memories when poured over ice cream, or spread on toast.

A couple of weeks ago we went shopping at Costco and got a huge crate of strawberries. We got creative and made strawberry bread from Heaven’s recipes. (Recipe found on this blog). There were so many berries we didn’t have room to store them in the refrigerator. So I rinsed and froze most of them in two cup portions and thought of ways to use them: smoothies, muffins, jam, and a recipe for a strawberry fruit cake that I invented.

This is a variation of a Mexican fruit cake that I have been making for years. The recipe originally came from my daughter-in-law Stacey. The difference being I substituted a package of frozen strawberries for crushed pineapple. Try this extremely moist cake while strawberries are still available at a reasonable price.

                                                     Strawberry Fruit Cake

 

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 cups fresh or frozen (thawed) strawberries

1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

4. Combine eggs, sugar, and chopped strawberries in medium mixing bowl.
5. In large mixing bowl combine flour, sugar, and baking soda.
6. Add contents of medium bowl to flour, sugar mixture and combine thoroughly. Then add nuts.
7. Grease bottom of oblong cake pan and pour batter into pan.
8. Place into preheated oven at 350 degrees and bake until golden brown about 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
9. Ice with this cream cheese frosting recipe while still hot.
10. Cool on wire rack and refrigerate until ready to serve.

                                              

                                              Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

8 ounces Neufchatel cheese, softened

1 stick softened butter (no substitute)

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups powdered sugar

While the cake is baking, cream the softened cheese and butter (no substitute). Add powdered sugar and vanilla. Beat with mixer until ingredients are well combined. As soon as the cake is removed from the oven pour the icing over the cake. Cool on rack and then refrigerate until ready to serve. This iced cake with the frosting is very rich. Cut it into small pieces and it will serve a large crowd. Let the children help with this project. They love to mix and of course lick the bowl. Have fun cooking with the kids.

Cream Puffs

                                                               

Have you ever eaten homemade cream puffs? I was about 11 years old when I first tasted these delectable tender treats. My older brother and I were taking a walk past the farm where Rachel lived. She was in my brother’s class at school and he was sweet on her. She was cavorting on the lawn and invited us to join her. We wasted no time taking her up on the proposition.  

It was a hot summer day and we soon rested in the shade on the porch to drink a glass of cold lemonade. A wonderful aroma was escaping from the screen door and I could no longer contain my curiosity.

“Rachel, is your mom baking cookies?” I asked.

“No, that’s cream puffs.”

“What’s a cream puff?”

My brother looked at me and frowned. I could read his mind—Mom said it was impolite to ask people for food, but I wasn’t asking.

“It is a pastry made with lots of eggs, butter, and sugar, with pudding inside,” she said.

“Would you like to try one?”

I looked at Buddy then back at Rachel. “Oh, we don’t want to bother y’all.”

“Oh it’s no bother. Mom is a great cook. When she makes cream puffs she makes a lot.”

Buddy interrupted, “We’d love to.”

Before you know it we were in the kitchen, our mouths watering, looking at all the cream puffs sprinkled in powdered sugar—vanilla, chocolate, and butterscotch. I chose the butterscotch and wanted seconds, but my mother taught us manners. I knew that someday I would make cream puffs and I did.

At the age of 19 my first cookbook, by Meta Given, had a recipe for cream puffs.  No time was wasted in gathering the ingredients needed, and, all my guests raved at the production. Try this recipe yourself and see if you get the same reception.

                                           

Pastry ingredients:

1 cup water

1 stick butter

1 cup flour

4 large eggs

Directions:

In a medium sized pot bring water and butter to a boil. Add flour all at once and stir vigorously until smooth and clumped together. Remove from heat and allow dough to cool for 10 minutes. Add eggs one at a time and beat with a wooden spoon until well blended.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and grease two large cookie sheets. Drop dough by heaping tablespoons full—12 on each pan and bake for 15 minutes. Switch shelves and lower temperature to 300 degrees. Continue baking until 30 to 40 total minutes are reached or until light brown. Cool on wire rack. Slice top from each puff and remove any dough inside that is not baked. Fill with whipping cream, or thick pudding and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Pudding filling for Vanilla Cream Puffs:

1 cup white sugar

½ cup flour

1 teaspoon salt

3 cups scalded milk

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

Substitutes for white sugar

Use 1 cup brown sugar and 2 tablespoons butter for butterscotch pudding, or ¼ cup cocoa powder to basic vanilla pudding recipe for chocolate.

Combine all ingredients sugar through milk. Cook and stir at a simmer.

Whip eggs in small bowl and beat until smooth, add to pudding and return to a simmer until thickened. Add vanilla. Cool completely and use to fill each puff. Don’t forget to sprinkle with powdered sugar. The kids will love making these.

Molasses Sugar Cookies

Recently we went to visit two of our grandchildren, ages four and six. Even before we left for our seven hour trip I got a text message from my granddaughter:

Grandma, how about baking cookies?

Cutie Pie

To which I replied:

How about making Molasses Sugar Cookies?

Grandma

Her answer was a happy face!

I smiled as I put my suitcase in the car. While Grandpa drove, I looked at pictures of our grandchildren on my old cell phone— trips we had taken, playing in the park, visiting their favorite museum, playing with friends at birthday parties, and my favorite pictures—food and cooking with my grand kids.

I could hardly wait to get to their house. When we arrived we got hugs and kisses, then Mom had dinner ready and I got to read books and tell stories until bedtime.

At last it was time to make the Molasses cookies. We searched for ingredients and found most of them, but the main ingredient, molasses, was no where to be found. I did however find a box of gingerbread mix and everybody knows it contains molasses. On the side of the box was a cookie recipe that we made into sugar coated molasses cookies.

In no time at all the kids and I had the cookies in the oven. Before we left that afternoon most of the cookies were devoured. We did manage to sneak a few to bring back home.

Our son and his wife ate the cookies and kept asking for more. So a few days ago I found my original Molasses Sugar Cookie recipe that I found on a bottle of molasses, when I was a teenager. I made a big batch—chewy and delicious and already gone. I did make a few changes. The original recipe called for ¾ cup of shortening. I haven’t used that stuff in years. I substituted ½ cup butter and ¼ cup organic coconut oil—much healthier but just as tasty. Try this updated recipe and tell me what you think.

                                             Molasses Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

½ cup butter (1 stick)

¼ cup coconut oil

¼ cup molasses

1 cup sugar, ½ cup extra sugar for coating cookies

1 egg

2 cups flour 

2 teaspoon baking powder

½ tsp. ground cloves

½ tsp. ginger

1 tsp. cinnamon

½ tsp. salt

Directions:

1. Melt butter and coconut oil in medium sized saucepan. Remove from heat and add molasses.

2. In medium size mixing bowl put flour, baking powder, cloves, ginger, cinnamon, and salt then combine.

3. To contents of pot add 1 cup sugar and egg, stir.

4. Then add flour mixture to pot one cup at a time. When thoroughly combined, set in the refrigerator to cool until the consistency of clay (about 20 minutes). Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

5. Role walnut sized balls of dough in sugar and coat evenly. Place about twelve cookies on an  ungreased cookie sheet and bake about 8-9 minutes. When done remove and cool on dish towel covered with wax paper. Repeat process until all cookies are baked. This recipe makes about 2 ½ dozen.

These cookies smell fabulous while they bake. If you want to sell your home, have an open house while you are baking these. Home, sweet home! Sold!