Cranberry Crumb Bars

Katie at goodLife {eats} (a fabulous blog with gorgeous pictures) posted this recipe for Cranberry Crumb bars last week declaring them practically perfect in every way. And I knew they would be perfect for week 5 of my 12 weeks of Christmas cookies. What could be more perfect than a cranberry bar cookie at Christmas time!

I bought all the ingredients I needed earlier in the week but ran out of time to make them until this morning. But I thought no problem. It’s an easy recipe I can just throw it together and I hurried to get them in the oven before I had to leave. When I looked in the fridge to grab an orange it was gone! No problem I thought I’ll just use frozen. But nope the frozen OJ was gone too.

Okay, I’ll just sub apple juice. Gone! So I was out of juice options and I substituted 1/4 cup water and some lemon zest. Let’s not even talk about the fact that I forgot to add the corn starch to the cranberries and had to stir it in after I put it on the bottom crust.

Put despite my misadventures in the kitchen, these bar are delicious and will make a nice addition to my Christmas cookie platter. A bit tart without the orange juice  but I may decided to drizzle a bit of icing on top before serving them. Thanks Katie for a wonderful holiday recipe!



Cranberry Crumb Bars
1 cup white sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup almond meal*
1 cup cold butter (2 sticks)
1 egg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
juice of 1/2 of an orange
4 cups fresh cranberries
2/3 cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbs cornstarch
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Butter a 9×13 inch pan.

In a medium bowl, mix together 1 cup sugar, flour, almond flour, salt and baking powder. Use a fork or pastry cutter to blend in the butter and egg. The dough will be crumbly. Alternatively, you can pulse the dry ingredients in a food processor with the butter until pebbly, and then mix in the egg until it all comes together. Pat half of the dough into the buttered pan.

In another bowl, stir together the sugar, cornstarch, vanilla, and orange juice. Mix in the cranberries. Sprinkle the cranberry mixture evenly over the dough in the pan.

Add 1/4 tsp cinnamon to the remaining dough, then crumble dough over the berries. Bake for 45-55 minutes, or until top is a light golden brown. Cool completely and chill in the refrigerator before cutting into squares. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.


*Just toss almonds (blanched or whole) in a food processor until finely ground to make almond meal.

If freezing: chill according to recipe, cut into serving size pieces. Place them on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet to flash freeze, and then transfer to a labeled zip top freezer bag.


For more delicious 12 weeks of Christmas cookies visit:
Megan's Cookin
April from Abbys Sweets - Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies,
Denise from Keeper Worthy Recipes -  Cinnamon and Orange Cookies
Megan's from My Baking Adventures – Vanilla & Chocolate Sugar Cookies
Kim from Stirring the Pot – Chambord Crisps

Daring Bakers Macarons

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

This was not my first attempt at making macarons. In September Twitter was all abuzz about the finicky like pastry and I joined with others around the globe in a Mac Attack. Who knew that one little cookie could be so temperamental and difficult to master. My first attempts at macarons yielded a delicious but less than perfect macaron with tutus instead of feet.

In hopes of finally conquering the challenge of creating a perfect macaron, I read and reread all the tips and suggests for this month’s challenge. I aged my egg whites on the counter.  I weighed my ingredients. I sifted my almond meal. I whipped my whites until stiff peaks formed and the peak did not fall over. I used stacked cookie sheets. Although short of the perfection I was hoping for, my macarons have definitely come a long way baby.

For my first batch I used vanilla sugar and made Audax's two egg version of the Daring Bakers recipe, but I doubled the granulated sugar. They were a bit undercooked and sticky, even after trying to dry them in a warm oven, but still delicious! Both macarons are filled with dulce de leche.

The second batch was David Lebovitz chocolate macarons. The chocolate macarons were a bit too ruffly, but tasted divine! Sort of like a chocolate caramel brownie.

Visit the Daring Bakers’ Blogroll to see macarons in lots of wonderful flavors and all the colors of the rainbow.

Lime Meltaways

There is a little shop in Key West, Florida, Kermits’s Key West Lime Shoppe, that sells Frozen Key Lime Pie on a stick dipped in Belgian Chocolate. It may sound like an over the top combination, but it’s fabulous and I fell in love with it one hot day in June while visiting Key West on a cruise stop. I’ve been back to Key West several times since then and always head straight to Kermit’s for this tart but refreshing treat.

Another fun thing about visiting Kermit’s is they always have out samples of their delicious key lime treats. My favorite is a cookie called Key Lime Coolers with “refreshing tropical tartness sprinkled on every cookie.” They are little bite size cookies covered with powdered sugar. A wonderful combination of sweet, tart, buttery and crunchy.

I’d been wanting to try a similar cookie recipe Martha Stewart’s Lime Meltaways since I bought Martha Stewart Cookies earlier this year and when I saw a beautiful bag of key limes at the store, I knew which cookie I wanted to make for week 4 of 12 weeks of Christmas cookies.

These Lime Meltaways aren’t quite as tart as Kermit’s, but they have the same crunchy/sandy texture and sweet/tart taste that I love. I’ll definitely be making these again!



Lime Meltaways
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup confectioners' sugar (divided)
Grated zest of 2 limes
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, cream butter and 1/3 cup sugar until fluffy. Add lime zest, juice, and vanilla; beat until fluffy.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, and salt. Add to butter mixture, and beat on low speed until combined.
3. Between two 8-by-12-inch pieces of parchment paper, roll dough into two 1 1/4-inch-diameter logs. Chill at least 1 hour.
4. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment. Place remaining 2/3 cup sugar in a resealable plastic bag. Remove parchment from logs; slice dough into 1/8-inch-thick rounds. Place rounds on baking sheets, spaced 1 inch apart.
5. Bake cookies until barely golden, about 15 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool slightly, 8 to 10 minutes. While still warm, place cookies in the sugar-filled bag; toss to coat. Bake or freeze remaining dough. Store baked cookies in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

I didn’t read the recipe correctly when making these cookies and added all the powdered sugar with the butter instead of 1/3 cup and I didn’t think they were too sweet and would probably do it again next time I make them.

I also made my cookies a bit bigger and thicker than the recipe suggests as suggested by reviews.

More delicious 12 weeks of Christmas cookies Megan's Buttermilk Cookies With Nutmeg, April's Chewy Chocolate Cookies, Denise's Lemon Luscious Snowcap Cookies, Megan's, and Kim's.

Crockpot Applesauce

Dara at Cookin’ Canuck recently posted her secret Family Crockpot Applesauce recipe. I’m not really an applesauce lover. Well, I didn’t use to be an applesauce lover until I tried this homemade applesauce!

This applesauce is so appley sweet with chunks of apples, just a bit of tartness and a touch of cinnamon. Nothing like the watery applesauce you buy at the store.

I had been given some apples from a neighbor and needed to use them up, so I decided to try this easy recipe and made half a batch. It didn’t even have time to cool before it was gone. (Yes, I did eat more than my fair share!)

I loved it so much that a few days later I went to my local farmer’s market and bought apples, came home and made a double batch of it. Sadly, it’s gone again. But I did manage to put a little bit in a jar and take some to my mom, who is my biggest fan.

If you haven’t tried homemade applesauce, you don’t know what you’re missing. Thanks Dara for sharing your secret family recipe. Hopefully, millions of people across the country will be enjoying it soon.


Crockpot Applesauce
5 medium-sized Gala apples, peeled, cored, quartered, and sliced
5 medium-sized Golden Yellow Delicious apples, peeled, cored, quartered, and sliced
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup water or apple juice
Place all of the apple pieces in a large bowl and stir in sugar and ground cinnamon. Pour water or apple juice into the bottom of a large crockpot (slow cooker) and add the apple mixture. Cover, turn the crockpot setting to Low, and cook for about 8 hours (or on High for 5 hours), stirring occasionally.
Serve warm or room temperature.

My changes: (I mixed the sugar, cinnamon and apple juice in the bottom of the crockpot and added the apples as I was cutting them, so I didn’t have to dirty an extra bowl. I used an immersion blender in the crockpot to blend half of it and left half of it chunky.)
Makes approximately 4 cups of applesauce.

The Vegetarian Family Cookbook and Awards!

 

The past month has been a really exciting one for me and I owe some  terrific food bloggers lots of sincere thank yous!

First I need to thank Jamie of Mom’s Cooking Club. I was the winner of her first cookbook giveaway, The Vegetarian Family Cookbook! Jamie has a great blog and she usually ends her posts with a fun Mom's Cooking Club Lesson tip. Thanks Jamie!

I was really excited to receive this cookbook because I am really lousy at serving my family delicious vegetable dishes. I’d much rather be baking a cake or whipping up a nice meaty lasagna. The veggies and side dishes are usually an after thought for me. One nice thing about this cookbook is it incorporates lots of healthy veggies into hearty on dish meals so I don’t even need to worry about what veggies to serve.

The first meal I made from the cookbook was Cincinnati Chili Mac. This may be familiar to many of you, but it’s a great idea that I hadn’t heard of before. Basically you serve homemade chili over spaghetti and spice it up with a little cinnamon. I took it one step further and served it over spaghetti squash from my garden. 

Also, I feel so honored to have received three blogging awards recently. It’s always so much fun to be recognized by other wonderful food bloggers.

First, my favorite French blogger and my Twitter buddy, Jamie of Life’s a Feast presented me with a Meme Award. Jamie has a terrific sense of humor and is a wonderful writer. Her  recipes are always fabulous and she is the Mac Queen!.

The requirement for this award is to list 7 things about your personality and then pass the award on to 7 other bloggers. It was fun to learn more about Jamie, so here’s a little bit about me:

1. I’m a bit of a perfectionist.
2. Unlike Jamie, I’m not a procrastinator. I usually arrive early and well prepared. I’m a list maker like my mom.
3. I’m an optimist and not too much of a worrier. I always assume things will work out for the best.
4. I like to shop. Groceries, clothes, Christmas, most any type of shopping. I once thought that I should do it for a career.
5. Breakfast is my favorite meal. I love breakfast foods! It’s a great reason to get up in the morning and start baking!
6. I’m a morning person.
7. I love to travel even more than baking. I’m always planning at least one trip.

Thanks Jamie for passing the Meme on to me. I am passing the Meme on to the following terrific bloggers:

1. Edna of LaDue & Crew
2. April of Abby Sweets
3. Megan of Megan’s Cookin’
4. Cathy of The Tortefeasor
5. Maria of Two Peas and Their Pod
6. Gaby of What’s Gaby Cooking
7. Dara of Cookin’ Canuck

The Inspiration Award was given to me by Petite Nyonya who blogs from Singapore. I’m always amazed at how small the internet has made the world and I’m always inspired when I visit her blog. Her blog is filled with delicious, exotic dishes and I always learn something new. Thanks Petite Nyonya – I’m so honored that you find my blog inspirational too!

I am passing this award on to the following inspirational bloggers:

1. Deeba of Passionate about Baking
2. Jamie of Life’s a Feast
3. Sara and Kate of Our Best Bites 

The Neno Award was given to me by the wonderfully sweet Sweet and Savory. Her post about the reasons she loves blogging is wonderful. In addition to eating a healthier diet she says, “Thanks to the kindness and caring of bloggers, I have had a world open to me.”

I couldn’t agree more. I have made so many wonderful friends through blogging. Tweeting in the morning helps me start the day with a smile. I love all the comments, suggestions and advice fellow bloggers leave on my blog. I am a better, more adventurous cook because of blogging.
  
Neno’s Award—-Rules and Regulations
1. As a dedication for those who love blogging and love to encourage friendships through blogging.
2. To seek the reasons why we all love blogging.
3. Put the award in one post as soon as you receive it.
4. Don’t forget to mention the person who gives you the award.
5. Answer the award’s question by writing the reason why you love blogging.
6. Tag and distribute the award to as many people as you like.
7. Don’t forget to notify the award receivers and put their links in your post.

I’m passing the Neno award on to a just few of my wonderful blogging friends who are kind enough to stop by often and leave sweet comments on my blog.

1. Katy of Food for a Hungry Soul
2. Coleen of Coleen's Recipes
3. Teresa of A Blog About Food
4. Shelby of Grumpy’s Honeybunch

Orange Nutella Pinwheel Cookies

Today is week three in our 12 weeks of Christmas Cookies countdown. Both April and I knew we had to make The Doubled Dipped Life's Nutella Pinwheel Cookies the moment we saw them. How could we resist a cookie with a delicious Nutella swirl?

April made the cookies before I did and warned me that the dough was a little soft and needed to chill a little more before rolling. I was also a bit worried about spreading the Nutella, so I zapped it in the microwave for 20 second on defrost and it softened just enough so it spread easily.

I decided to add some orange zest and orange oil to the cookie dough to give it an unexpected flavor boost. I really love the orange addition! It tasted like a crunchy, sandy Terry’s orange chocolate that you get at Christmastime.

I doubled the recipe so that I would have cookies to eat and a dozen to freeze for my cookie platters. So far only one of the cookies in the freezer has been eaten! My husband, who doesn’t read my blog, said, "Well, you weren’t saving them for anything were you?” Now I’ve written do not eat on the freezer bags! My doubled version is below. If you're a Nutella addict like me, you'll love these cookies!



Orange Nutella Pinwheel Cookies
(Adapted from a recipe from The Purple Foodie)

2 stick butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp orange oil
1 tsp. fine orange zest
2 cups flour
1/2 cup Nutella

Preheat oven to 350. Mix the butter and sugar together until creamy. Mix in the egg yolks, vanilla, and orange oil (or orange extract). The mixture should be light and well combined. Stir in the flour and orange zest. Refrigerate the dough for 30 min. for easy rolling. Next, roll out the dough into two rectangles of 1/4 inch thickness. Spread the Nutella, leaving a 1/4 inch space on all four sides. No oozing out please!  Roll up the dough. Refrigerate another 30 minutes before slicing. Slice the roll into 1/2 inch slices. (I cut my with dental floss.) Lay the slices on a baking sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes until slightly golden at the edges. Baking time depends on how thick they are cut.

Visit Megan, April, Megan, Kim and Denise to see the fabulous cookies they’ve baked this week!

Daring Cooks Vietnamese Chicken Pho

This month's Daring Cooks challenge was Vietnamese Chicken Pho and Sweet Wontons chosen by Jaden from Steamy Kitchen.

Vietnamese Pho is a noodle soup popular in Vietnam. The broth is simmered for hours with either beef knuckle/leg bone or with a whole chicken and accompanied by rice noodles, fresh herbs like cilantro or basil, a wedge of lime or lemon, fresh bean sprouts and fresh sliced chilies if desired.

Pho is different than other noodle soups because of the spices used in making the broth - coriander, star anise, cloves, cinnamon, and fresh ginger. I bought my spices at World Market  – they are so much cheaper than at the supermarket.



This was my first time tasting Pho (pronounced “fuh?”) and my first time cooking Vietnamese food. I decided to make the Pho Ga (chicken) version. Click here to visit the Steamy Kitchen for the recipe.

Although my family and I didn’t love this soup (mostly because of the spices we weren't use to) it was fun to try something new. We did however love the second part of this challenge the fried Chocolate Wontons. I used round potsticker wrappers and filled them with Nutella. They were crispy, sweet and delicious. The perfect ending to a light meal.

Chocolate Wontons
1 large egg
1 tbsp. water
12 wonton wrappers, defrosted (keep wrappers covered with damp towel)
12 pieces or nuggets of chocolate (use any type of chocolate you like)
High-heat oil for frying (i.e., vegetable oil, corn oil)
Confectioners’ sugar (icing sugar) for sprinkling
Directions:

1. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and water to make an egg wash.
2. On a clean, dry surface lay 1 wonton wrapper down with a point toward you, like a diamond.
3. Place 1 piece of chocolate near the top end of the wrapper.
4. Brush a very thin layer of the egg wash on the edges of the wrapper.
5. Fold the bottom corner of the wrapper up to create a triangle and gently press to remove all air from the middle. Press the edges to adhere the sides. Make sure the wrapper is sealed completely.
6. Repeat with the remaining wrappers and chocolate pieces.
7. Keep the folded chocolate wontons covered under plastic wrap or a damp paper towel to prevent them from drying.
8. In a wok or medium pot, pour in 2 inches (5 cm.) of high-heat oil.
9. Heat the oil to 350º F (180º C) and gently slide a few of the chocolate wontons into the hot oil. Make sure you don’t crowd the chocolate wontons.
10. Fry the wontons for 1 ½ minutes, then flip over and fry another minute until both sides are golden brown and crisp.

Alice’s Best EVER Chocolate Chip Cookie

I think every good cookie platter should include a delicious Chocolate Chip Cookie. So when I saw Alice’s Best EVER chocolate chip cookie recipe, I decided to make it my week #2 cookie for my 12 weeks of Christmas Cookies. 

Alice bragged on her blog, Savory Sweet Life, that her cookies were “all that and a bag of pretzels.” Declaring them the best chocolate chip cookie EVER. Her secret is to use more brown sugar giving it more “caramel type chewiness and more depth than the traditional Toll House type of recipe.” 

So is it the best chocolate chip cookie EVER? I put the question to my family and they all said it’s good, but it’s not as good as your chocolate chip cookie recipe. By that they mean Martha Stewart's Oatmeal Toffee Cookies, which are loaded with chocolate chips, toffee, oatmeal and dried cherries and not really a fair comparison. But it definitely is a delicious chocolate chip cookie and will make a great addition to my cookie platter! Thanks Alice!

Be sure and stop by Megan's from Megan's Cooking, April's from Abbys Sweets, and Megan's from My Baking Adventures to see their week #2 cookies. Only 11 weeks until Christmas!



Alice’s Chocolate Chip Cookies
2 sticks of salted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 cups (12 oz) all-purpose flour *If at all possible, please weigh the flour
(I used 1 oz more flour for high altitude baking)
1 tsp. smallish-medium coarse sea salt *please do not use table salt, the sea salt gives the cookies a nice flavor and hints of texture.
(I thought it was a little salty and would use less salt or table salt next time)
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 cups/16 oz of semi-sweet chocolate chips *I use Nestle Toll-House
Preheat oven to 360 degrees. Cream butter, sugar, and brown sugar until it is nice and fluffy (approx. 5 minutes on medium speed on a K-5). Add both eggs and vanilla and beat for an additional 2 minutes.  Add baking soda, baking powder, salt, and flour until cookie batter is fully incorporated.  Finally add chocolate chips until well distributed.  The cookie batter should be somewhat thick.  Drop about 2 tablespoons of dough or use a medium cookie scoop and plop the batter onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Bake for 12-14 minutes until the edges are nice and golden brown. Remove from heat and allow the cookies to stay on the cookie sheet for an additional 2 minutes.  Pick up the parchment paper with the cookies still on top and transfer to a cool non-porous surface.  Allow the cookies to cool on the paper for at least 3 minutes before serving.

Coconut Chocolate Zucchini Bread

My husband loves to eat little zucchini and won't touch the big ones that I wait a bit too long to pick, so I've been baking zucchini bread for the last few months. There have been lots of great zucchini recipes posted this summer and I tried many of them. I was especially attracted to the recipes that didn't use as much oil. Maria from Two Peas and Their Pod posted a delicious, healthy version with cranberries, whole wheat flour and applesauce to replace some of the oil.

Sara from Our Best Bites posted a chocolate zucchini bread that she described as "so light and moist and chocolaty that it's pretty much cake in a loaf pan." Declaring it "the one."  How could I not try "the one."

I love her version too. I loved it so much in fact that I made five different versions of it. Her original Chocolate Chocolate Chip with cinnamon topping, Chocolate Chocolate Chip without cinnamon (my kids favorite), her Spiced Zucchini Bread with a hint of orange, Orange Cherry Zucchini Bread with orange oil and cardamom, and my favorite version, inspired by Hilda's guest post on Jamie's blog Life's a Feast, Coconut Chocolate Zucchini Bread.

Fortunately, I have lots of nice neighbors who were happy to have a loaf of homemade zucchini bread no matter what the flavor. If you still have zucchini in your garden, gives this one a try!

Coconut Chocolate Zucchini Bread
Recipe adapted from Our Best Bites

2 cups flour (I used whole wheat pastry flour)
1/2 t. salt
1 1/2 t. baking soda
6 T. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup canola oil
1 C. sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
2 t. vanilla
1/2 cup sour cream
3 c. grated zucchini
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips
1/2 cup shredded coconut

Topping:
1/3 cup shredded coconut
1/3 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 2 loaf pans and set aside.

Combine flour, salt, baking soda, and cocoa powder in a bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside.

Beat eggs, oil, sugars, and vanilla for about 30 seconds. Add sour cream and beat to combine. Mix in zucchini and coconut.

Add dry ingredients and mix just until combined. Divide batter between 2 pans. Sprinkle coconut and chocolate chips on top of batter in pans. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. (I used 4 mini loaf pans and baked them for about 35 minutes.)

Rest on a cooling rack for at least 10 minutes before you remove it from the pan. Be careful not to burn yourself on the hot chocolate chips when removing it from the pan!

Molasses Cinnamon Crisps with Cinnamon Chips

Christmas is only 12 weeks away! Have you started your shopping yet? I have picked up a few gifts and hidden them away for Christmas. I like to shop early and hopefully find the perfect gift.

April of Abby's Sweets decided to get a head start on Christmas baking and she asked Megan of Megan's Cookin’ and me to join her in a 12 weeks of Christmas Cookie challenge. The goal is to bake one batch of cookies each week until Christmas. April and Megan are hoping to find some new favorites to include in their Christmas Cookie Platters. My plan is to make cookies that freeze well. Freeze one dozen from each batch and at the end of 12 weeks I’ll have cookies all ready to wrap up and give away.

April posted Cinnamon Crisps for her week #1 cookie. She found the recipe in the new Better Homes and Garden Christmas Cookies magazine and I decided to make it my week #1 cookie too!

I changed it up a little bit to use what I had in my pantry. I used regular molasses instead of light molasses, added HERSHEY'S cinnamon chips, and rolled it in Turbinado sugar. These cookies are spicy and chewy on this inside and sweet and crunchy on the outside. A perfect Christmas time cookie.

Stop by Megan's and check out her delicious week #1 cookie Chocolate Almond Coconut Bars.



Molasses Cinnamon Crisps with Cinnamon Chips
Adapted from Better Homes and Garden Christmas Cookies

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 tsp each baking powder and baking soda
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 large egg
1/4 cup molasses
2 2/3 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup HERSHEY'S cinnamon chips
Turbinado sugar

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Beat butter and sugar on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy.
Add baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; beat until well combined. Add egg; beat until blended, then beat in molasses. On low speed, beat in flour until just blended, add cinnamon chps.

Shape dough into 1 inch balls; roll in sugar. Place 2 inches apart on baking sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes until cookies are light brown around edges and tops crackle. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.