ohmygoodknits! » baking

Bake it: thumbprint cookies

Lisa — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 18:03:18 +0000

I’m here with my favorite, tried and true, thumbprint cookie recipe. Above is a dark chocolate ganache thumbprint cookie that totally hit the spot when I was craving some chocolatey cookie goodness. For Christmas, however, I usually make them with raspberry jam. There’s something especially delicious about raspberry and almond together.

Ingredients:
1 cup of butter (2 sticks, softened)
2/3 cup of sugar
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 cups of flour

filling of your choice (raspberry jam is good, as is chocolate ganache)

Pre-heat your oven to 350F and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

one: cream the butter & sugar together.
two: add in the almond extract.
three: add in the flour.
four: mix until it comes together into a dough.

Use a cookie scoop for consistent cookie sizes. Drop a scoopful on your lined cookie sheet. Using your thumb, make a small indentation in the center for your filling. Fill with a small amount of jam or chocolate.

Bake for 15 minutes or until the edges turn a light golden brown. Let them cool on the cookie sheet for a minute, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!

Bake it: Pan de Polvo (Mexican cookies!)

Lisa — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 03:16:07 +0000

Good evening, lovelies! How are your Christmas preparations coming along? TEN DAYS LEFT! Ah! I can hardly believe it. We actually JUST got our tree up the other day and I’ve only wrapped one gift. We’ve been buying a lot online and so it comes to us in a box and…well, there hasn’t been a reason for us to wrap those, you know? I’ll eventually make them pretty, but right now my boys can’t see what they’re getting so it’s ok.

ANYWAY, I am here with a recipe! I’ll share a few with you over the next week or so. My aunt is hosting a cookie exchange this weekend, so I’m trying some recipes out. Three or so. I hope you enjoy this first one, as it took a while to get down.

Let me start at the beginning? Another aunt of mine always makes the best pan de polvo cookies. They’re a Mexican tradition around Christmas time and at weddings. I asked for the recipe and she struck me DOWN, guys. Apparently her’s is a secret. I don’t mess with that, so I moved on. I checked online and there are so many variations, I didn’t know how to narrow it down.

Fast forward to this past weekend and my GRANDPA shares this one he uses. He knew it by memory! I changed it only slightly to add in some extra spice, but yah…here it is! They pretty scrumptious.

NOTE: This recipe yield A LOT. Like, over 10 dozen in the size I made, more if you roll out your dough and make smaller cookies. You could halve it or even third it and still get a substantial amount. I made the whole thing, split my dough in thirds and refrigerated it for another day. We have a lot of Christmas parties to go to, so I’m SURE it will be used up. Sharing is caring.

Ingredients
1 teaspoon anise seed
3 cinnamon sticks

3 cups of sugar, separated (2c + 1c)
3 lbs vegetable shortening
5 lbs all purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon plus 1 tablespoon, separated
1 teaspoon salt

Pre-heat your oven to 375F.

Place the cinnamon sticks and anise into 1.5 cups of water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and strain. Set aside to cool.

Combine 2 cups of sugar and the shortening. Mix well.

In a separate bowl, mix flour, salt and cinnamon. Add the flour mixture to your sugar mixture 1-2 cups at a time. This makes A LOT of dough and you may need to put it into a bigger bowl. It will slightly resemble pie crust dough.

Slowly add in the cinnamon anise tea (up to 1 cup). Mix it very well, getting the tea to permeate the entire dough.

Divide the dough into 3 equal parts. You can wrap two and put them in the fridge for later, or the next day. I’m also told you can freeze it, but I haven’t tried.

Form into balls, using a cookie scoop to measure the size.

I like to roll it and press it into a disk about 1.5″ wide and half an inch thick.

Evenly space them on a cookie sheet (I could fit 15 on mine) and bake them for about 20 minutes or until they turn light brown on the edges. WATCH THEM!

While the cookies are baking, make a cinnamon-sugar mixture. My ratio is 1.5 tablespoon of cinnamon for every cup. You can add more/less cinnamon if you like. It’s up to you!

While the cookies are still warm, gently toss them in the sugar mixture.

Place them on a rack to finish cooling. They taste best the next morning. It’s a crumbly delightful cookie. Great with a hot cup of coffee or perhaps some Mexican hot chocolate?

Enjoy!

Pie! Pumpkin Pie!

Lisa — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 22:42:56 +0000

Before cursing my needle for poking me while sewing patches on my son’s very first Cub Scout uniform, I had a very delicious slice of pie. A slice of the very first pumpkin pie of the season. It’s a day for firsts, I guess. I had a slice because I KNEW I needed some sweet fuel for this sewing task. It isn’t so much difficult as it is TEDIOUS! Holy tiny stitches. Plus, I’m sorta-kinda a perfectionist, so I may have ripped it out a time or two.

This isn’t my first time baking a pumpkin pie, but it IS my first time making a crust from scratch. SO EASY. Cut half a cup of butter into 1 1/4 cup of flour mixed with 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Add in 1/4 cup ice-cold water a tsp at a time until a ball forms. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight. Roll it out to a 12″ diameter circle and then press it into your pie dish. I don’t have a rolling pin, so I used a glass. It’s perrrrfect! I think I’m going to skip dinner and just have a slice of pie again. My boys are with my mom at a party, so I don’t have to worry about what a HORRIBLE EXAMPLE I am. I might even have a can of Pepsi on the side.

Pumpkin time!

Lisa — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 17:47:31 +0000

As soon as Christmas is over, pumpkin leaves my life until Autumn. On this first weekend of said season, you can bet I’ll be roasting a pumpkin or two. I LOVE baking with pumpkin, so I am way familiar with roasting my own to get that amazing puree.

If you’ve never done it, you’re missing out! It’s so easy and so delicious. This is my method–

1. Chop off the top, then cut pumpkin in half from top to bottom & scoop out innards (save the seeds!)
2. Put face down in a baking dish with a bit of water to steam up & place in 350F oven for 45 minutes to an hour OR until you can pierce the skin easily with a fork.
3. Let it cool a bit, then peel off the outside skin and place in food processor or blender to puree.
4. Place in a strainer lined with cheesecloth over a bowl. This dries it up a bit–it can be super watery!
5. Use immediately, or place in storage bags to put in your freezer for later use. I suggest storing in 1 cup increments, as that’s usually how much you need in recipes.

Here are a few of my favorite pumpkin recipes and some that I plan on trying this Fall.

–The BEST Pumpkin Cupcake, posted here last year.
–Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
–Gluten Free Pumpkin Whoppie Pies
–Pumpkin Pie

Do you have any favorite pumpkin recipes? Sweet or savory, I’m interested!

Ganache love

Lisa — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 20:00:56 +0000

There’s a family cookie exchange on Saturday, so I’m doing some testing. I have made thumbprint cookies almost every year since 2003. That’s 2 years before my motherhood. I’ve always been more of a baker than a cook. If I could provide cupcakes for breakfast and cookies for dinner, I would.

I also made some with raspberry jam, per my mother’s request.

Anyway, this year, I wanted something a little different. I decided to try my hand at ganache. Delicous, velvety, ganache heaven. I went with a bittersweet chocolate, so the flavor is very dark. I think it complements the cookie very well! I’ve always loved the flavor of dark chocolate, however, I am wondering if I could make the ganache with white chocolate, so that I could tint it red and make these more festive. Any thoughts on that?

Yum.

Are you baking any cookies for the holidays? I would love to browse recipes and/or baking blog posts!

coconut + pecans = bliss

Lisa — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 20:46:16 +0000

This is probably the least-Halloweenish cupcake ever (minus the awesome Martha Stewart cupcake liners I got on sale the day before)! However, it’s the only part of the day my husband requested. And not even directly. That guy can’t make a food decision to save his life! But he did say it was one of his favorites and I really wanted to try it, so I made them.

I originally planned to turn them into cute owls or scary werewolves, with candy and piped frosting and blah blah blah. I’m pretty gnarly at planning and ended up making the frosting while cooking dinner, so needless to say, I ran out of time. They still looked pretty sweet–

I got this recipe from my aunt. It’s the one she uses when she makes this enormous german chocolate bunny cake every Easter. It.is.scruuuuumptious!

Ingredients:
1 egg
5 1/3 oz can of evaporated milk
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter
dash of salt
1 1/3 cup flaked coconut
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Directions
In a saucepan, beat egg lightly. Stir in milk, sugar, butter, and salt. Cook and stir over medium heat for 12 minutes, or until thick and bubbly. Stir in coconut and pecans. Cool thoroughly, then spread on cake (or cupcakes!)

I would double for layer cakes. I was only able to frost about 12-13 cupcakes.

If you try the recipe, I hope you like it! October had 2 cupcakes because I accidentally skipped a month somewhere! I’m all caught up and brainstorming ideas for November’s cupcake recipe. Any suggestions??

p.s.! don’t forget to enter my giveaway, lovelies!

the BEST pumpkin cupcake

Lisa — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 15:13:53 +0000

or muffin.
or bake it in a loaf pan and make bread.
No matter your preferred method of baking, this is by far the BEST pumpkin recipe I’ve come across. The cake is just so moist and spicy and delicious! I took these photos, this morning. Then, I ate two. I still suck at frosting, but WHO THE HECK CARES when the pumpkin is that good? Not I!

I strongly suggest making your own pumpkin puree for this. To be honest, I had never made it before I came across this recipe, a whole 5 years ago. My oldest was just 5 months old, so I couldn’t share them with him, but I totally did a little dance, with a muffin in hand, that made him smile. This morning, I’m happy to report, he approved of these muffins and even took one to school for his teacher! Amazing.

I’m posting this recipe with permission from the author. This is the original link.

Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients
1 cup fresh pumpkin puree
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup water
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 7×3 inch loaf pan.

In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans. (I almost forgot, I had about half a cup of raisins leftover from something else, so I tossed them in as well, along with the wet ingredients.)

Bake for about an hour in the preheated oven. Bread is done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. //I baked the cupcakes for about 23-24 minutes.

If you click on the original link, there are some simple directions for roasting a pie pumpkin and making your own puree. It’s so easy!

How about a closer photo?

from the top?

You’re welcome.

Now, go make some cupcakes!

muffins of the month

Lisa — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 01:43:05 +0000

I know, I know! I’m late with the cupcake of the month. I’m sure you were all sitting there, holding your breath, so….here it is! You can breathe, now!

Technically, it isn’t a cupcake. It’s a muffin. And not just a muffin, a mini-muffin! These little guys are perfect in a household with kids. I can toss them to my kiddos after breakfast and it makes them happy. “Cake for breakfast?? K!” I can hand one or two to my kindergartener to snack on during his walk to school with daddy. I can hide one in my mouth, in its entirety when someone catches me in the kitchen at midnight. *ahem*

So, yeah. They’re pretty darn nifty.

Have you done any baking lately? What recipes are you MOST excited about, now that the weather may finally be cooling down?! I know I can’t wait to roast my first pumpkin of the season. Oh goooooodness, I’m just waiting for the scent of nutmeg and cloves to fill my house! I LOVE fall-baking!

July Cupcake

Lisa — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 20:02:10 +0000

Here’s my cupcake of the month, just in the nick of time! I was really craving chocolate, last weekend, but never got around to making the cupcakes. I had some extra time, yesterday evening, and whipped these up. I used the chocolate cupcake recipe on joyofbaking.com and a peanut butter frosting recipe from allrecipes.com.

They came out pretty delicious. The cupcakes were moist and not overly sweet, which is a plus for me. The frosting tasted like the center of a Reese’s peanut butter cup, so that was pretty rad. My kids absolutely LOVED them. Especially Nathan, who usually isn’t into baked goods if they don’t involve a certain song and presents afterward. I’d call these a success.

!!PLUS!! Anytime I get to use all of my mixing bowls at once makes me smile inside. There’s something about these vintage Butterprint Pyrex bowls that gets my blood a-flowin’.

Taste the rainbow [cupcake]

Lisa — Fri, 21 May 2010 00:44:06 +0000

Today has been all sorts of awesome. Andrew actually slept in and so I got to putter around in the morning. After breakfast, he noticed my [naked] cupcakes on the table and promptly requested one. I couldn’t deny the birthday boy a cupcake, so I split it with him. He loved it. A little bit later, I frosted them and sent two on their way with my mom, who was picking up Nate at school, to give to his teachers.

While we were waiting for Nate & Grandma to return, my sister and I took Andrew outside for some birthday photos with the cupcakes.

I told you they were pretty! I didn’t get a chance to get a photo of the insides, but believe me when I say they are awesome! It was a beautiful little surprise when you split it. Everyone who had one loved it. Especially this little guy.

Nathan requested a giant rainbow cake for his birthday (2 weeks away)! I can’t wait! I used this recipe as a general guideline to making them. My only tip would be to put only 1t of each color batter in the [baking] cups, instead of 2. You wouldn’t have enough batter to do 2 and they’d be huge with 10t of batter. One was sufficient!

–
#4 on my 25 before 26 list is to try a new cupcake recipe each month.

Chocolate attack!

Lisa — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 19:36:19 +0000

I made cookies, today. I used this recipe. I only had about 6oz of chocolate chips, so I ended up melting 3 and then folding 3 into the batter. I also added about half a teaspoon of cinnamon and half a teaspoon of chipotle chili powder into the cocoa-flour mixture. The spice is like a little echo in your mouth. You don’t really feel/taste it until you’ve swallowed. It’s YUM.

Now, go make some cookies!

p.s. Until Mother’s Day, EVERY order from the goodknits shop will receive a free mini-brooch! I ran out of pins, so I haven’t been able to update with the sweet little brooches I’ve made, but I hope to do so this weekend. Hope everyone has a lovely day!

p.p.s. goodknits is now on Twitter! Specific blog/shop/crafty updates: http://twitter.com/goodknits Add me, pretty please! I’ll reciprocate.:D

Red Hot April cupcake!

Lisa — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 22:02:59 +0000

The cupcake of the month (and maybe the year..) is Chocolate and Chilli! Again, I got the recipe from 500 Cupcakes. The batter was pretty hot and I was a little worried. Then, I ate a warm cupcake and it was kind of amazing. THEN, I made the frosting (!!) and oh my God! It was DELICIOUS! Like, all the flavors melted together and kindly left me ugghhhmmming in the kitchen for a few minutes. Yeah, I ate two cupcakes today. SUE ME!

The frosting calls for Tia Maria, a coffee liqueur. I’m sure you can find it in any liquor store, but we used it as a reason to go to our favorite liquor/specialty foods & cheeses store, Spec’s. We visit the downtown Houston location, which is a pretty big warehouse with endless amounts of beer, wine, liquor, gourmet foods, cheeses, and an awesome deli ($2.50 po-boys! get ‘em! they’re amazinggg). It was pricey, but I think it’s worth it. Same goes for the dutch-process cocoa and chipotle chilli powder. These are probably the priciest homemade cupcakes I’ve ever made! But. Seriously, guys. I wish I could email them to everyone I know because I think I’m going to marry it. They were that good.

I want to share the recipe, but that might be illegal, since it’s from a book. You should probably buy it, anyway. It’s cheap and there are 500 variations of cupcakes in it. A cupcake book! Everyone loves cupcakes.

I Heart Desserts!

Lisa — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 04:44:33 +0000

I always want seconds. That’s how I remember how to spell the word. It’s true, though. Ask my gut.

If you’re friends with me on Flickr, you probably saw this photo, last week.
#4 on my 25 before 26 list was to try a new cupcake recipe each month. I JUST made the deadline, as it was already the last day of March. I made banana cupcakes. This isn’t the first time I’ve made these, but it is the first time I’ve shared a photo of them, so I’ll count it off my list.

I’m not too big on frosting, so these were naked. The recipe (in 500 cupcakes, which was gifted to me by my awesome mother-in-law on Christmas) called for a cream cheese frosting. I think the reason I don’t usually frost my cupcakes (MUFFINS?!) is that I suck at making frosting. Maybe I should practice, this year. Perhaps by my next birthday, I’ll be able to successfully ice an entirely from-scratch cake.

Check out all the desserts entries at I ♥ Faces, this week. They will make you crave something sweet, even though it’s almost midnight, you’ve just brushed your teeth, and are all ready for bed. Perhaps that cheesecake in my fridge really did call my name, as I was walking down the hall. Perhaps…

365.163: cupcake bites

Lisa — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 03:55:51 +0000

these came out so cute I could punch somebody. I made ~3 dozen. They’re packaged and ready for my boys’ birthday party tomorrow!

they were made following the tutorial on bakerella’s blog. I didn’t dip the tops, though. instead, I just swirled the candy with a bottle. makes it look like they’re really frosted!

(devil’s food cake mixed with cream cheese frosting for the insides)