Mickey Mouse Cookies!

To make up for the last silly experiment post, here is an actual recipe that I baked yesterday for a rescheduled wedding shower dessert potluck at work today. I was excited for the opportunity to use a new cookie cutter I had just bought last week at Disneyland! Naturally, my dessert for the shower had to be: Mickey Mouse Cookies (Not to mention the fact that the bride is a HUGE Disney fan!).

To start, I wanted a basic, simple sugar cookie recipe that's result would hold up well in the face of decorations. So I decided to try a recipe appropriately titled, "Simple Sugar Cookies" by famed Italian chef Lidia Bastianich in the back of her children's picture book, "Nonna Tell Me a Story: Lidia's Christmas Kitchen". The book is darling, and great to read around the holidays, and I was equally excited to be able to taste test one of her many recipes--adapted slightly to my needs:

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour (I used whole wheat pastry flour, of course)
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract


Directions:


1.) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Sift the flour, baking powder and the salt into a bowl. Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together in another bowl, then add the egg and vanilla to the butter mixture and continue to beat. Add the flour mix to the butter mix little by little until they are thoroughly combined.

2.) Shape the dough into four equal disc shapes (I made three), wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for an hour or more. Lidia notes that the dough will be "a bit crumbly, but will come together when chilled." However, even though I left my dough in the fridge for an hour and a half, it remained crumbly and fell apart upon unwrapping. Thus I also added about 1/2 teaspoon vegetable shortening to each disc of dough and kneaded it back and forth until the dry dough because moist enough to roll flat.

3.) Roll each disc of dough to about 1/8 of an inch thick and cut out shapes with your favorite cookie cutter. Lift them carefully to place on a baking sheet lined with parchment (not wax) paper. I got about 26 cookies out of the three discs, working the cut dough scraps back into a ball and rolling them flat again.

4.) Bake about 8-9 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies become golden brown. Remove them from the oven and cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.

5.) Decorate with the icing of your choice! I melted a package of dark chocolate pieces in the microwave for about a minute to use on the Mickey Mouse ears, then, in a separate bowl, melted a package of white chocolate chips with half a tablespoon of vegetable shortening in the microwave to use on the mouse faces. (Stir the chocolate well and dip fast before it hardens!). Leftover white chocolate mixed with a couple drops of red food coloring helped me create pink bows for Minnie Mouse as well. I used a toothpick dipped in dark chocolate to create facial features, and an almond sliver with a drop of green icing completed the eyes.

It was a lot of work to do the decorating part, but definitely worth the cuteness factor that resulted! I hope my coworkers enjoyed!

Silly Egg-speriment....

There's an old Sesame Street song about the weather that I used to sing as a kid called "¡Hace Calor!" (translation: "It Sure is Hot!"--and it's an adorable video, by the way). I loved it primarily because of the fun Spanish words, but also because it was particularly apt for a kid growing up in Vegas:

Hace calor, mucho calor. Could fry an egg on the cement, it's so caliente!

Naturally, what's the one thing I've always wanted to do through my whole childhood but was never allowed to try? You guessed it, probably because you've always wanted to try it too: fry an egg on the cement.

Now, this is a baking blog. And obviously I'm not going to eat an egg that's been baked on the ground. But I owe this blog entry to one of my coworkers, who suggested the intriguing experiment of frying an egg outside in Vegas' record-breaking 110 degree weather...on a baking sheet.

Why not?

Friday's high was about the same as any other day this week, so on Friday morning I set out with a mission: wait for the sun to be dead center in the sky at 12:00 noon, warm my baking pan outside, and crack an egg right on top of it. If I was lucky, I might just have fried eggs for lunch.

Well, business of the day distracted me at noon, and so I didn’t get a chance to "egg-speriment" until after 3:00, which actually turned out to be a hotter temperature than the temperature at noon (106 instead of 99). I grabbed my equipment—one baking pan, one spatula, one egg—and set out into the backyard.

Step 1: I sprayed the pan with nonstick cooking spray and let it sit out in the heat for about 15 minutes to warm up. Not wanting to rest it directly on the ground (you know, to avoid bugs and such), I set it on a lawn chair by our pool.

Step 2: I cracked my egg into the pan. And waited. After five minutes it looked...about the same.

No sizzling. No turning white. No bubbling up eventually to be flipped over. Maybe I didn't leave it outside long enough. Maybe the experiment would be better for 120 degree weather rather than 106. Still, the results were enough to lead me to the less interesting but probably most accurate conclusion: Vegas weather is not hot enough to fry an egg outside. We have no reason to complain. ;)

Not to waste an egg, however, I brought the baking pan inside, slid it into a buttered frying pan, and cooked it on the stove, where it quickly molded itself into an unexpected heart shape, reminding us all that you can love where you live and look on the bright side even in 106 degree weather. At least we're not (literally) baking outside.

Whole Grain Waffle Goodness

Breakfast is, personally, my favorite meal of the day. Pancakes, waffles, French toast, oatmeal, granola, cereal, yogurt parfaits, and eggs in so many different styles! Notice how the first six things on that list are all grains? Yes, as much as I try to curb it, I can't give up my love affair with carbs. To try to eat healthy, however, I generally have the same thing for breakfast every day: 1/2 cup flaxseed cereal mixed with 1/4 cup of another whole grain cereal for some variety, 1/2 cup almond milk, a Tablespoon of nut butter, and coffee--black. I like it. I've gotten used to it. But...it's not pancakes, waffles, French toast, oatmeal or granola. So for a treat, this home cook might occasionally forego her regular bowl of cereal to make something just a little more, well, cooked.

Today I'd been in a great mood all morning, looking forward to a fun weekend ahead. When my mom mentioned she was craving waffles but we were out of her regular frozen fare, it sounded like the perfect opportunity to continue the good mood, treat ourselves, and experiment with a new recipe! Both of us are healthy eaters, so she immediately started searching Allrecipes.com for a whole grain waffle recipe while I prepped the waffle iron we'd bought months ago, but never took out of the box....

Whole grain waffles?? some people might be thinking. Those same people are probably picturing cardboard brown slabs of flavorless carbs and wondering why I'd "waste" my "treat" on that. Um, did they see my tempting photos above and below? Yes, those are all whole grain waffles. Yes, whole grains can be delicious! While many lucky people already know this fact, others do often need a little convincing. Delivering on a whole grain breakfast is one perfect way of showing them the truth, and this newly-tested Whole Grain Waffle recipe may be just the recipe to do it with!

Adapted from this recipe by Allrecipes cook named "What a Dish!" (which received glowing 5-star reviews already), I made a few substitutions of my own to suit my mom's and my own stomach: almond milk in place of skim, all whole wheat pastry flour, and a secret ingredient of malted milk powder in place of sugar. The resulting recipe yielded about six and a half waffles in our waffle iron, perfect for topping with your favorite fruit, maple syrup, or (my choice) a little soy whipped cream!

Ingredients:


2 eggs
1 and 3/4 cups unsweetened almond milk
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 and 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour, sifted
1/2 cup flaxseed meal
1/4 cup wheat germ
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 Tablespoon malted milk powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:


1.) Crack the eggs into a large bowl and beat with a fork. Add almond milk, oil, applesauce, and vanilla, and mix thoroughly.


2.) Add in the whole wheat pastry flour, flaxseed meal, wheat germ, baking powder, malted milk powder, and salt, stirring after each addition.


3.) Preheat your waffle iron and brush lightly with canola oil (Using non-stick cooking spray instead is a little healthier and a little easier to coat with, but I found the waffles still kept sticking that way).


4.) Pour about 1/2 cup of batter into the center of the waffle iron and spread around until it fills in all the cracks. Cook approximately 2-5 minutes depending on your setting and desired level of "doneness." Remove with plastic or silicone tongs when the waffle appears crispy and golden brown.

The resulting waffles are crisp on the outside (as long as you don't take too long to eat them), fluffy on the inside, and have such an amazing flavor, you'd never believe they're actually good for you! If you can't find flaxseed meal or malted milk, you can substitute with oats and sugar. But for me, this recipe really took the cake! Er, rather, inspired me to treat myself more often with one simple thought: "in the morning...I'm making WAFFLES."

Kind of an odd one, but still tasty....

What's baking without a little experimentation? Actually, this latest recipe I didn't bake at all, but rather stuck in the freezer as an attempt to make Frozen Banana Squares. The idea came from a recipe I stumbled upon on a very cute blog called An Activity a Day for Parents and Kids. The "kid-friendliness" of the treat appealed to me since I thought I might be able to use it in a future library program. I knew we had a ton of bananas in our house because my mom kept buying them for my dad and brothers and my dad and brothers kept forgetting to eat them. I personally love the taste of bananas but have been cutting back on them because of their high sugar and carb content. After going for so long without, yesterday seemed like the perfect time to treat myself. I did just finish up my last semester of library school!

The recipe also appealed to me because the blogger, Christine Malone Kline, recommended Trader Joe's brand ingredients, which I knew were generally healthier than a lot of ingredients found at other grocery stores. Okay, I thought. Let me grab some bananas and get started.

The banana grabbing was the easy part. The other ingredients...not so much. Vanilla wafer cookie crumbs (or any type of cookie crumbs) were required to make the crust of this treat. Graham crackers are my absolute favorite, so I decided that's what I would use...except we were out of graham crackers. I must have used up all the crumbs I'd crushed for a s'mores recipe a few weeks ago and there weren't any boxes left in the pantry. Okay, I thought, what about those ginger thins I bought at Trader Joe's that nobody's been eating? Apparently someone had been eating them. The ginger cookies were nowhere to be found. It was already 9:45 p.m. (Trader Joe's closed at 9) and I wasn't about to go out late-night cookie hunting when I knew we had so much food in our house already. I'd just have to improvise. I finally settled on sugar ice cream cones that I crushed into pieces with a metal ice cream scoop. Resourceful, and delicious. Okay, I thought again. On to the next ingredient! Instant vanilla pudding.

Crud.

Yes, we were all out of pudding mix. I think we had ended up donating some boxes of Butterscotch pudding mix to our church food drive. There was nothing left. Well, what was pudding usually made out of? Mostly sugar and milk, right? I had sugar and milk at least.

Forget this recipe, I thought. I'm just going to wing it now. I tossed a tablespoon of brown sugar and a fourth cup of almond milk in with my bananas, mushed them up, and spread them on top of my ice cream cone crust. Both the crust and the banana mixture weren't quite enough to fill the 9x13 pan that Christine recommends, so my version of the recipe ended up looking just a little strange. Not very "square-ish" for a dessert called banana squares. After freezing over night, however, I taste-tested the concoction this morning. Actually, not bad. Actually quite tasty with a banana topping that's not too sweet and a crust that is sweetly delicious. If you want to try out my odd version of Frozen Banana Squares, it's fairly easy too:

Ingredients:

Just under 1 cup sugar cones, crushed into crumbs (I didn't have quite enough to fill a cup, but used about eight cones, I think. Keep in mind you can still use any kind of cookie crumbs)
Just under 1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup melted butter
4 medium bananas, mashed
1 Tablespoon brown sugar
1/4 cup almond milk (or milk of your choice)


Directions:


1.) Cut a piece of parchment paper to fill the size pan you're using, and spray the paper with nonstick cooking spray. In a bowl, combine the crushed cone crumbs with the sugar and butter, whisking until everything is thoroughly mixed.

2.) Press the cone mixture flat onto your parchment paper in the shape of a square or rectangle to form a crust (I recommend using a plastic baggie on your hand when pressing the crust down to avoid it sticking to your fingers).

3.) In the same bowl (it should be empty now), add your bananas, brown sugar, and milk of choice. Mash and mix until combined. The batter should be about cookie-dough consistency, not too runny or too thick (A few unbroken banana chunks are fine).

4.) Scoop the banana batter on top of your crust and press flat to form a square or rectangle on the parchment paper in your pan.

5.) Place the pan in the freezer and freeze at least four hours or overnight. Remove from freezer, and let thaw just enough to be able to cut into squares.

One day I'd still like to try Christine's original recipe. I'll try to remember to go grocery shopping first.

Beacon Hill Brownies

Sometimes you just need to bake. Well, I do anyway. Waking up early in the morning to jog, I return home to my kitchen with still so many hours left in the day. My hands itch to do something. My mind itches to create something. Look, there's still so much baking sugar in the cabinet, and the beauty of the orange-sherbet sunrise that peeks through the glass doors from my backyard would pair so perfectly with the aroma of warm pastries...I just need to decide what to make.

Another upcoming work event served as the perfect excuse to test out a recipe at 6:30 in the morning. I could have turned to my iPhone and started looking up random delicious things until one caught my eye (my usual plan of attack when I don't have a baked good already in mind), but yesterday I had another intriguing source to turn to.

On a weekend trip to Grand Junction, Colorado this summer, my mom, her friend, and I stopped in a little antique store on Main Street to do some shopping. One of my favorite finds there was an actual copy of Betty Crocker's Cooky Book from 1963! I'd seen the reprinted (2002) edition of the book countless times at Borders and Barnes & Noble bookstores, but I thought it was awesomely awesome to own the original, even if the edges were fraying and the first page had completely detached from the rest of the spiral binding. I purchased the book for $10, carefully wrapped it up (along with a 1938 edition of The House at Pooh Corner I had bought), and placed it on my bookshelf when I got home, afraid that handling it too much might tear its already worn pages.

I probably should have opened it first.

Inside the old cookbook was more than just Betty Crocker's "cooky" instructions. The cover turned out to be hiding a small collection of other recipes behind it--handwritten, copied, typed, torn from magazines, and cut from the backs of packages--all that the previous owner of the cookbook had left inside! What a treasure trove! A total time capsule surprise! So I knew whatever next recipe I tried ought to come from this little collection. It would make such a good story.

One of the recipes was for no-bake Peanut Butter Balls and came with no directions--only ingredients. There was a recipe from Amish Friendship Bread and two more recipes for alcoholic beverages (Amaretta and Irish Cream). No, none of those would quite do. The next recipe, however, was from the back of a dated-looking box of Baker's unsweetened chocolate (circa 1960s/70s-ish). "Beacon Hill Brownies" it read. I hadn't made brownies in forever. Perfect.

Luckily I had my own, much more modern box of Baker's unsweetened chocolate (circa 2010-ish) in the cupboard ready for business.

The official recipe for Beacon Hill Brownies can be seen below, though I halved it for my taste test using only 2 eggs instead of 2 1/2 (half of 5), whole wheat pastry flour as always, no walnuts (I prefer my brownies plain and traditional--fudgy in the middle and crispy on the edge) and an 8x8-inch pan. Baking time also had to be cut down to about 15-20 minutes instead of the full recipe's recommended 35-40. The result, however, was a beautiful plate of perfectly-textured brownies that my whole family enjoyed. If you work where I work on Wednesday afternoon, you might just get to try one as I will definitely be baking these again for a larger crowd....

My Go-To Blueberry Muffins

Another coworker's going-away party this summer meant more bittersweet goodbyes as one more friend left my library district to start a new and exciting adventure in another state. It also meant another opportunity for baking. Well, I just couldn't show up to the party empty handed.

I brought baklava to the last party, but this latest event was specifically a breakfast affair. "What to bring, what to bring?" I wondered. Pancakes and French toast are my favorite breakfast foods to make, but don't exactly transport well. I didn't have time to bake the night before, so it had to be something I could bring together quickly the morning of--before the 8 a.m. party and after my 5 a.m. jog. That usually meant some sort of pastry. And my list of perfect breakfast pastries begins and ends with "muffins."

Now there are so many different types of muffins out there, it's almost ridiculous. You can make them sweet, savory, with any kind of fruit, nuts, chocolate chips, peanut butter, corn, carrots, spices, buttermilk, yogurt, sour cream--oh, the list goes on and on. You just can't whip them up with an electric mixer and frost them because then they become cupcakes. And while you might love yourself a nice cupcake, I personally prefer the more rustic texture of a good muffin over a fluffy, airy, saccharinly sweet, too-much-gobs-of-frosting...but that's another rant. The point is that the decision of "what muffin to make" can be a little overwhelming sometimes. So for this breakfast I decided to go traditional, and traditional for me meant "blueberry."

I first made these muffins for an old boyfriend of mine, and it has remained my Go-To Blueberry Muffin recipe ever since. It's easily adaptable to both my "jumbo" muffin pan and my "mini" muffin pan, and makes at least two batches of regular muffins if you just have the standard-sized tin. The secret ingredient is the almond extract, which pairs especially well with blueberries and buttermilk. I just love the smell!

Ingredients:

8 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar, plus more for the topping
2 eggs
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 and 1/4 cups buttermilk
4 cups whole wheat pastry flour, sifted (any flour will work, but I always go with wwpf)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 and 1/2 cups blueberries + 1/2 cup blueberries for the topping
1/2 cup sliced almonds (optional)

Directions:

1.) Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a medium-sized bowl, combine the butter and sugar with a fork, mixing thoroughly. Add the eggs one at a time, then add the almond extract and buttermilk. Stir just to combine.

2.) In a separate and larger bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt (I like to sift all three ingredients in). Gently fold in the 1 and 1/2 cups of blueberries.

3.) Carefully add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture, stirring just to combine (Over stirring could result in denser muffins, and stirring too quickly or harshly could cause the blueberries to break and turn the mix purple...). Use an ice cream disher or large spoon to drop the batter into a muffin pan sprayed with nonstick cooking spray or lined with paper muffin cup wrappers.

4.) Add a couple of blueberries to the top of the batter in each filled muffin cup so they will be visible after baking. Sprinkle with extra sugar (I like to use white sugar crystals to stand out more) and almond slices if you desire.

5.) Bake for about 15-20 minutes (17 worked best for me). These muffins tend to come out "blonder" than most of my "golden brown" baked goods, so use a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the muffins to test for done-ness. If it comes out with batter still stuck to it, leave the muffins in a little longer. If the toothpick comes out clean, you're good to go!