Brownie Cookies

This is one of my favorite cookies - very soft, full of chocolate. I love them.

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 cup milk
12-15 large marshmallows

Cream butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla and mix well. Sift together dry ingredients and add to butter mixture. Stir in milk. Drop by tablespoons onto greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 9 minutes - do not overbake. While they are baking, slice marshmallows in half. When the 9 minutes is up, quickly pull the cookies out and place one half of the marshmallow on top of each cookie, placing the uncut side face up. Put in the oven for 2-3 more minutes to melt the marshmallow. Remove and quickly smash the marshmallow slightly with the back of a spoon. When cooled, frost with chocolate frosting. I don't have a recipe, but I usually use about 3/4 a cube of butter, slightly melted. Then I add about 1/4 cup of cocoa, 2 cups powdered sugar, and 1 Tablespoon of milk. Stir together good and then add more powdered sugar and milk until you reach the consistency you want. You want a very spreadable frosting - not too stiff or the marshmallow will smear everywhere.

Beef Stroganoff

I got this recipe from my trusty Better Homes and Gardens cookbook years ago. I've tweaked it some over the years, and it is one of my family's favorites. It really comes together fast--probably less than 30 minutes, start to finish. Plus, except for the fresh mushrooms, it uses basic ingredients that I always have on hand. (I stock up on petite sirloin steaks when they go on sale and keep a stash in my freezer.)

1 pound beef tenderloin steak or sirloin steak (I always use petite sirloin--they're cheap, and they work great)
2 heaping Tablespoons flour
12 ounces sour cream (I usually use fat free with great results)
2 heaping teaspoons instant beef bouillon granules
1-2 Tablespoons butter
1 1/2 cups sliced mushrooms
1 medium onion, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
Hot cooked egg noodles

Thinly slice steak across the grain into bite-size strips. (I usually rub the steak with seasoned meat tenderizer, salt and pepper.) Combine flour and sour cream. Stir in bouillon granules, 1/2 cup water, and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper. Set aside. In a large skillet saute onions for 2-3 minutes. Add garlic and steak. Cook until steak is done. It is best to cook to medium or medium well--the steak will cook more later. Add sour cream mixture. Cook and stir over medium heat till bubbly. Cook and stir 1 minute more. Serve over hot egg noodles.

Sour Cream Banana Bars

I made these last night and they are almost gone. We did take a couple to the neighbor's house...but, it was mostly us. Well, me. If you like banana bread, you'll probably like these too.


Sour Cream Banana Bars:

1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas
2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add sour cream and eggs and blend. Add vanilla to mashed bananas. Sift together dry ingredients and add to egg mixture, alternating with mashed bananas. Spread onto a greased jelly roll pan. Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Cool, then frost.

Browned Butter Frosting:

1/2 cup butter, browned
2 cups powdered sugar
3 Tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla

Brown butter in sauce pan until light golden color. Stir in remaining ingredients. Stir and heat. Spread onto banana bars.

Gingerbread White Chocolate Blondies

I found this recipe last year before Savannah's baptism. I made lots of treats that day, but these were my favorite!

Recipe from http://www.melskitchencafe.com

2 ¾ cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda
1 ¼ teaspoons salt
1 ¼ teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
1 ¼ cups (2 ½ sticks) butter, room temperature
1 ¼ cups packed light brown sugar
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk
1 ¼ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup unsulfured molasses
1 ¾ cups white chocolate chips
Nonstick cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Whisk together flour, soda, salt, and spices.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or with a hand mixer), beat butter and sugars on medium-high speed until creamy and pale, about 3 minutes. Add eggs and yolk one at a time, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add vanilla and molasses and mix on medium speed until combined.

Add flour mixture on low speed until combined. Stir in white chocolate.

Spread batter evenly into prepared 13x9 pan and bake until golden around edges and toothpick comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Let cool completely in pan; cut into 24 squares. Blondies can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature up to 1 week.

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Caramel Frosting

I am eating one of these as I type this. This recipe came from a long ago roommate, Aubrey, and started as pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting, which is a delightful dessert. I have a little daughter, however, who is totally into the cupcake craze. She requested cupcakes, so cupcakes it was. And I like cream cheese frosting, but I sometimes don't want it so a while ago I tried these with caramel frosting and I really like that combination.

Pumpkin Cupcakes (or bars)

4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup oil
2 cups pumpkin puree
2 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. soda
2 tsp. cinnamon

Blend eggs, sugar, and oil. Stir in pumpkin. Sift together flour, salt, soda, and cinnamon. Add to egg mixture. Pour into greased or lined cupcake pan or greased jelly roll pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Caramel Frosting

1/2 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
6 Tbsp. milk
3 cups powdered sugar, sifted

Melt butter. Stir in brown sugar and boil while stirring for 2 minutes. Remove and add milk. Return to heat and bring to full boil. Set aside to cool for 20 minutes.

Spudnuts

The other night, I made 112 donuts. No, that's not a typo. Every now and again I actually do have a productive day. But don't worry, I did not eat all 112 donuts myself. We had a little party with our neighbors. It was quite fun and the donuts were delicious. I've been making this recipe for a few years and it does cut down okay (I've quartered it). But, if you're going to all the effort of making donuts, why not have a party?


Spudnuts
(makes 100-120 donuts)

1 cup shortening
2 cups mashed potatoes (I use instant because sometimes mine are lumpy - shh!)
4 cups lukewarm milk
5 eggs, beaten
1 cup sugar
2 Tbsp yeast dissolved in 1/2 cup warm water
1 1/2 tsp. salt
12 to 15 cups flour
1/2 tsp. lemon extract

Scald the milk with the shortening (at first it will seem like they aren't going to come together, but they will - just keep stirring). Let this cool for a bit (15-20 minutes). While it is cooling, dissolve yeast in water. To the milk mixture, add sugar, salt, and enough flour to make a thin batter, about the consistency of cake batter. Add the mashed potatoes, beaten eggs, dissolved yeast, and lemon extract. Add enough more flour to make a soft but workable dough (I usually use about 13 cups total). At this point, I divide the dough into two large bowls to let it rise - you would need a giant bowl to leave it in one. Let rise until doubled then punch down. Then let rise until doubled again. After the second rise, roll dough out to about 1/4" thick and cut out in donut shapes (either with a donut cutter or with two circle cutters - the smaller one should be quite small). You will probably want to roll the dough out in several batches - the entire thing is a little unwieldy. Place the cut donuts on cookie sheets or any large platter to allow to rise another time. After an hour (or so), drop donuts in hot oil (375 degrees), raised-side down. Turn once. Remove from heat and drain briefly on a cookie rack then dip in glaze (I do a ratio of about 1 cup powdered sugar to 2 Tbsp water - you can also add a little cocoa or maple flavoring) or just powdered sugar. I served these with cider and for one night, I was the most popular girl in the neighborhood!

Grandma Donna's Cheesecake

When I was a girl, my mom and grandma frequently made this dessert. I am pretty sure I haven't had it since I moved away from home. It had been a while. We usually ate this with store-bought cherry pie filling as the topping. Since my garden is bursting with strawberries, I made a simple strawberry syrup/glaze instead. I like baked cheesecake, but they are a little too rich for me. This dessert is lighter (relatively speaking) and I like that the crust is not the traditional graham cracker crust. It uses nuts and usually I am not a nut person (at all), but I really like this crust.



Crust:

1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup butter

Mix together and pat into a 9x15" pan. Bake at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes. Remove from oven and crumble crust and then pat into pan again. Let cool.

Filling:

8 oz. pkg cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
2 pkg. Dream Whip, prepared according to directions on package

Beat cream cheese until smooth. Add prepared Dream Whip and powdered sugar and blend together well. Spread over crust.

Topping:

Use canned fruit toppings, pie fillings, or make your own. I made mine using approximately 2 cups strawberries, 1/4 cup sugar, and 1 tsp. cornstarch blended with 1 tsp. water. I brought the mixture to a boil and then reduced the heat and let it simmer until it became a little bit thicker.