Since the other cake was, well, not good, here's another:
3 eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 1/4 cup frozen apple juice concentrate, thawed
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
dash of nutmeg
2 Macintosh apples - peeled, cored and finely chopped
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour one 9 inch square baking pan.
Beat the eggs until they drop like ribbons from the beaters. Continue beating and add the oil in a thin stream. Beat in the 1 cup applesauce and the 1 cup unsweetened apple juice concentrate then mix in the flour gradually until well blended. Add the baking soda, ground ginger, ground almonds and apples. Fold together until well mixed.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake at 350 degrees F about 40 minutes or until the cake tests clean with a knife or toothpick. Cool completely before frosting.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Sugar Cookies!
Sugar Cookie Snob's recipe
1 C real butter (no substitutions!)
1 C sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 t almond extract (you could use vanilla instead)
3 C flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy- about 2 minutes.
Add in eggs and extract and mix to incorporate.
In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt and whisk to combine.
Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until completely combined.
Shape the dough into 2 flat disks and wrap in waxed paper and place in the fridge to chill for 1-2 hours.
If you want your cookies to hold their shape well, the dough needs to be chilled properly.
A great tip to speed things up is to immediately roll dough between 2 sheets of waxed paper and place on a flat surface in the fridge.
It will chill super fast and be ready to go in no time.
When you're ready to roll out dough lightly sprinkle flour onto your work surface and roll out dough with a rolling pin.
Bake at 350 for 8-12 minutes.
The baking time really depends on how you like them.
If you like them really soft under-bake them.
In my oven, about 8 minutes does it.
However if you're making large cookies, or ones with small parts or heavy frosting, you might want to be careful because they might break when they're super soft.
About 8 minutes will get you a really soft cookie, a few minutes longer (when they start to just brown around the edges) and you'll get just a little crispiness around the edges and then a soft center, bake even longer (and roll thinner) and you'll get a buttery, crispy cookie that will just melt in your mouth.
Any way you do it, they'll taste good.
Remove onto cooling racks when you're done and let cool completely.
I honestly think these even taste better the second day.
Glacé Icing
1lb powdered sugar (about 3 3/4 C)
1/4 C + 2T C whole milk (low-fat actually works, but use whole if you can)
1/4 C + 2T light Corn Syrup
1 t extract (I use almond because I use almond in my sugar cookies)
With a whisk, combine sugar and milk until smooth (no lumps!) Then stir in corn syrup and extract.
You will use this same recipe for both glazing and piping. The way it is right now is the consistency you want for glazing. It's smooth and thin, like in the picture below. It easily runs off the whisk in a pretty thin drizzle.To prepare the icing for piping, you just add more powdered sugar. Just eyeball it. You can't really mess it up because if it's too thick you just add more milk and if it's to thin, you add more powdered sugar. I add it in small amounts until it's a good consistency. For me, it's when it gets to a point where it's relatively hard to whisk it by hand. When I pick up the whisk, it still runs off, but in a very slow, thick stream now, like this:
Take your glazing icing and separate it into bowls if you want to color it. I decided to do red (more pink, but I love it!), green, and blue. And I left my piping icing white. Use gel food coloring (you can find it at craft or cooking stores) for more intense colors.
There are a few ways to use icing like this. One way is to just glaze the cookie and leave it like that. I'm going to glaze it and then pipe a decoration on top. So the first step is to glaze. Take a small spoon and drop a spoonful of glaze onto a cookie. (Do one at a time, I'm just doing 3 for picture-taking-fun)
Then take a small spoon (baby spoons work great) and gently spread it out to the edges of the cookie. If you want the cookie completely covered, you could just hold it by the bottom and dip it in, then place it over a rack to let the excess drip off.
You need to wait for the icing to set before you pipe on top of it. It doesn't have to be completely dry, but just set on top. An hour or two will probably be enough, but it depends on humidity and everything, so just barely touch the top and don't smash the glaze because it will probably still be soft underneath. If it's dry to the touch you can go ahead and decorate.
With your piping icing (the thicker stuff) in a pastry bag (I just used a plain, round tip), just draw on your design. I started doing little snowflakes and pretty much fell in love with them. These little cuties are about an inch and a half in diameter. How adorable are they?? I just get happy every time I look at this picture.
The next method is to do do the piping first, and then fill in with the glaze. So for these shapes below, I just took my pastry bag and piped the white icing around the edges.
Great Tip: when you do dots, or when you start or finish a line, you may get a little peak of icing. If you try to smash it down, it will stick to your fingers and then you'll make a big mess and maybe say a naughty word. Just get your finger wet and gently press down. It won't stick and all of your problems will be solved.
You can fill them soon after outlining. The piping will act as a dam and hold the glaze in. So just drop a spoonful of glaze in the middle of the cookie and with a small spoon, or clean paint brush, or toothpick for small spaces, gently spread the icing out until it fills the cookie in.
While the glaze is wet, it's kind of like paint. You can have fun combining different colors and swirling around for cool patterns. In these ones I just used a toothpick to make designs.
The last method is to outline the cookies with piping, then fill them with glaze, and then pipe again on top. You could then color different piping bags and decorate cookies like snowmen, santas etc. I think monograms are really cute too, especially for things like baby and wedding showers. Here's some letters I did. Oooh, or how about an ABC theme for a toddler's birthday party? That would be cute too.
If you're going to do this method, it may seem like a lot of steps. To break it up, you could bake your cookies one night and put them in an air-tight container. Then the next day glaze them and the next day give them away. Or if you ice them in the morning, they might be dry enough to stack and pack that night. I tested my cookies, and on the third day they were still soft and super yummy.
*I'm editing this post after making my Valentines Cookies. I discovered that it worked great to bake the cookies ahead of time and as soon as they're cooled, put them in the freezer. They can stay frozen for several weeks (maybe even months? I don't know, they don't last that long at my house!) Then when ready to decorate, take them out of the freezer and you don't even need to let them thaw, just start decorating. I think the cold helps the icing dry faster. Do it in the morning and they may be dry enough for you to package later the same day- this way the cookies are super fresh.
(Pics can be seen at : http://www.ourbestbites.com/2008/12/tutorial-glace-icing-and-cookie.html)
Other recipes available at http://community.babycenter.com/post/a14493145?scid=ddigest_body_20090903 if these don't turn out.
1 C real butter (no substitutions!)
1 C sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 t almond extract (you could use vanilla instead)
3 C flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy- about 2 minutes.
Add in eggs and extract and mix to incorporate.
In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt and whisk to combine.
Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until completely combined.
Shape the dough into 2 flat disks and wrap in waxed paper and place in the fridge to chill for 1-2 hours.
If you want your cookies to hold their shape well, the dough needs to be chilled properly.
A great tip to speed things up is to immediately roll dough between 2 sheets of waxed paper and place on a flat surface in the fridge.
It will chill super fast and be ready to go in no time.
When you're ready to roll out dough lightly sprinkle flour onto your work surface and roll out dough with a rolling pin.
Bake at 350 for 8-12 minutes.
The baking time really depends on how you like them.
If you like them really soft under-bake them.
In my oven, about 8 minutes does it.
However if you're making large cookies, or ones with small parts or heavy frosting, you might want to be careful because they might break when they're super soft.
About 8 minutes will get you a really soft cookie, a few minutes longer (when they start to just brown around the edges) and you'll get just a little crispiness around the edges and then a soft center, bake even longer (and roll thinner) and you'll get a buttery, crispy cookie that will just melt in your mouth.
Any way you do it, they'll taste good.
Remove onto cooling racks when you're done and let cool completely.
I honestly think these even taste better the second day.
Glacé Icing
1lb powdered sugar (about 3 3/4 C)
1/4 C + 2T C whole milk (low-fat actually works, but use whole if you can)
1/4 C + 2T light Corn Syrup
1 t extract (I use almond because I use almond in my sugar cookies)
With a whisk, combine sugar and milk until smooth (no lumps!) Then stir in corn syrup and extract.
You will use this same recipe for both glazing and piping. The way it is right now is the consistency you want for glazing. It's smooth and thin, like in the picture below. It easily runs off the whisk in a pretty thin drizzle.To prepare the icing for piping, you just add more powdered sugar. Just eyeball it. You can't really mess it up because if it's too thick you just add more milk and if it's to thin, you add more powdered sugar. I add it in small amounts until it's a good consistency. For me, it's when it gets to a point where it's relatively hard to whisk it by hand. When I pick up the whisk, it still runs off, but in a very slow, thick stream now, like this:
Take your glazing icing and separate it into bowls if you want to color it. I decided to do red (more pink, but I love it!), green, and blue. And I left my piping icing white. Use gel food coloring (you can find it at craft or cooking stores) for more intense colors.
There are a few ways to use icing like this. One way is to just glaze the cookie and leave it like that. I'm going to glaze it and then pipe a decoration on top. So the first step is to glaze. Take a small spoon and drop a spoonful of glaze onto a cookie. (Do one at a time, I'm just doing 3 for picture-taking-fun)
Then take a small spoon (baby spoons work great) and gently spread it out to the edges of the cookie. If you want the cookie completely covered, you could just hold it by the bottom and dip it in, then place it over a rack to let the excess drip off.
You need to wait for the icing to set before you pipe on top of it. It doesn't have to be completely dry, but just set on top. An hour or two will probably be enough, but it depends on humidity and everything, so just barely touch the top and don't smash the glaze because it will probably still be soft underneath. If it's dry to the touch you can go ahead and decorate.
With your piping icing (the thicker stuff) in a pastry bag (I just used a plain, round tip), just draw on your design. I started doing little snowflakes and pretty much fell in love with them. These little cuties are about an inch and a half in diameter. How adorable are they?? I just get happy every time I look at this picture.
The next method is to do do the piping first, and then fill in with the glaze. So for these shapes below, I just took my pastry bag and piped the white icing around the edges.
Great Tip: when you do dots, or when you start or finish a line, you may get a little peak of icing. If you try to smash it down, it will stick to your fingers and then you'll make a big mess and maybe say a naughty word. Just get your finger wet and gently press down. It won't stick and all of your problems will be solved.
You can fill them soon after outlining. The piping will act as a dam and hold the glaze in. So just drop a spoonful of glaze in the middle of the cookie and with a small spoon, or clean paint brush, or toothpick for small spaces, gently spread the icing out until it fills the cookie in.
While the glaze is wet, it's kind of like paint. You can have fun combining different colors and swirling around for cool patterns. In these ones I just used a toothpick to make designs.
The last method is to outline the cookies with piping, then fill them with glaze, and then pipe again on top. You could then color different piping bags and decorate cookies like snowmen, santas etc. I think monograms are really cute too, especially for things like baby and wedding showers. Here's some letters I did. Oooh, or how about an ABC theme for a toddler's birthday party? That would be cute too.
If you're going to do this method, it may seem like a lot of steps. To break it up, you could bake your cookies one night and put them in an air-tight container. Then the next day glaze them and the next day give them away. Or if you ice them in the morning, they might be dry enough to stack and pack that night. I tested my cookies, and on the third day they were still soft and super yummy.
*I'm editing this post after making my Valentines Cookies. I discovered that it worked great to bake the cookies ahead of time and as soon as they're cooled, put them in the freezer. They can stay frozen for several weeks (maybe even months? I don't know, they don't last that long at my house!) Then when ready to decorate, take them out of the freezer and you don't even need to let them thaw, just start decorating. I think the cold helps the icing dry faster. Do it in the morning and they may be dry enough for you to package later the same day- this way the cookies are super fresh.
(Pics can be seen at : http://www.ourbestbites.com/2008/12/tutorial-glace-icing-and-cookie.html)
Other recipes available at http://community.babycenter.com/post/a14493145?scid=ddigest_body_20090903 if these don't turn out.
Friday, August 28, 2009
BBQ Lentils
1 cup lentils
2.5 cup water
1 t salt
1/4 cup BBQ sauce
1 t brown sugar/honey
1 cup rice
1. Bring lentils, water and salt to a boil. Then simmer 20 minutes. Once cooked, drain off excess water. Mix in 1/4 cup barbeque sauce, 1 t brown sugar/honey, and 1 clove garlic.
2. Cook 1 cup rice with 2 1/2 cups water. Bring water to boil, add rice and bring back to boil. Let simmer 20 minutes.
2.5 cup water
1 t salt
1/4 cup BBQ sauce
1 t brown sugar/honey
1 cup rice
1. Bring lentils, water and salt to a boil. Then simmer 20 minutes. Once cooked, drain off excess water. Mix in 1/4 cup barbeque sauce, 1 t brown sugar/honey, and 1 clove garlic.
2. Cook 1 cup rice with 2 1/2 cups water. Bring water to boil, add rice and bring back to boil. Let simmer 20 minutes.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Homemade HH
1 lb. ground beef
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
Pepper
3 Tbsp margarine or butter
3 Tbsp flour
3 cups milk
1 cup water
2 cups elbow or shell pasta noodles
Salt and pepper, to taste
1. In large skillet, brown ground beef with chopped onion and crushed garlic cloves. Season with pepper. Once fully cooked, drain and rinse ground beef. Do not return beef to the skillet. Yet.
2. In same skillet, add margarine or butter. Once melted, whisk in flour to form a paste. Quickly whisk in milk until no clumps remain. Cook for 3-4 minutes over medium heat, until sauce starts to bubble and thicken.
3. Once sauce starts to thicken, add 1 cup of water and 2 cups of pasta shells. Stir through. Add 1 lb. of meat and mix together. Cover and cook over medium heat for 12-15 minutes, or until pasta shells have cooked through. Stir often. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
4. Remove from heat. Sauce will thicken slightly after removing from heat.
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
Pepper
3 Tbsp margarine or butter
3 Tbsp flour
3 cups milk
1 cup water
2 cups elbow or shell pasta noodles
Salt and pepper, to taste
1. In large skillet, brown ground beef with chopped onion and crushed garlic cloves. Season with pepper. Once fully cooked, drain and rinse ground beef. Do not return beef to the skillet. Yet.
2. In same skillet, add margarine or butter. Once melted, whisk in flour to form a paste. Quickly whisk in milk until no clumps remain. Cook for 3-4 minutes over medium heat, until sauce starts to bubble and thicken.
3. Once sauce starts to thicken, add 1 cup of water and 2 cups of pasta shells. Stir through. Add 1 lb. of meat and mix together. Cover and cook over medium heat for 12-15 minutes, or until pasta shells have cooked through. Stir often. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
4. Remove from heat. Sauce will thicken slightly after removing from heat.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Cheesy Cauliflower
For family reunion:
1 cauliflower head, broken into small pieces (I'm going to try frozen cauliflower)
2 cups cottage cheese
3 T flour
1/2 t salt and pepper
1 cup shredded cheese
1. Cook cauliflower in steamer or microwave.
2. In bowl, mix flour, cottage cheese, S/P. Add cooked cauliflower and mix together.
3. Place mixture in 8×8 baking dish. Sprinkle cheese over top.
4. Bake 20 minutes at 350, until cheese turns golden brown.
1 cauliflower head, broken into small pieces (I'm going to try frozen cauliflower)
2 cups cottage cheese
3 T flour
1/2 t salt and pepper
1 cup shredded cheese
1. Cook cauliflower in steamer or microwave.
2. In bowl, mix flour, cottage cheese, S/P. Add cooked cauliflower and mix together.
3. Place mixture in 8×8 baking dish. Sprinkle cheese over top.
4. Bake 20 minutes at 350, until cheese turns golden brown.
Fruit and Veggie Muffins
1 cup flour
3 T canola oil **
1/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup mashed or grated fruit or veggie ***See ideas below!
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)
1. Preheat oven to 350*.
2. In bowl, combine eggs, oil, sugar and mashed fruit or veggie. Whisk. Mix well.
3. Add flour, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon. Mix until it forms into batter. I use my hand mixer beaters. Add nuts if you like.
4. Pour into muffin cups like this.
5. Mini muffins: Bake 8-10 minutes. Regular muffins: Bake 15-2o minutes. Tops will turn golden. 6. Cool on cooling rack and then serve to hungry little people!
**Oil: If I double the recipe, then I will use 3 Tbsp applesauce and 3 Tbsp canola oil instead of 6 Tbsp canola oil.
***Fruits and Veggies: 1 cup mashed banana, 1 cup grated apple, 1 cup squash and 1 cup grated apple (double the recipe), 1 cup grated carrots (add 1/2 cup raisins if you like), 1 cup peeled and grated zucchini, 1 cup blueberries, 1 cup bananas and 1 cup strawberries (double the recipe)…or 1 cup of any other veggie you like…just mash or grate them up!
Note: These freeze beautifully! Thaw in just 10 seconds in the microwave, or in a few minutes on the counter.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Pudding Frosting!!!
1 pkg. (3.9 oz.) JELL-O Chocolate Instant Pudding, any flavor
1 cup cold milk
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tub (8 oz.) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed
Beat pudding mix, milk and sugar in large bowl with whisk 2 min. Stir in COOL WHIP.
SPREAD onto cupcakes immediately or store frosting covered in refrigerator up to 24 hours.
1 cup cold milk
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tub (8 oz.) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed
Beat pudding mix, milk and sugar in large bowl with whisk 2 min. Stir in COOL WHIP.
SPREAD onto cupcakes immediately or store frosting covered in refrigerator up to 24 hours.
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