Bake it: thumbprint cookies

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.

tpc-steps

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.

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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!)

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.

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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.

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



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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.

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

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

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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!

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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!

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

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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!

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.

Directions
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.

Make it: Mexican Hot Chocolate with Anhelo

November sponsor, Anhelo of Gatuxedo is here with a traditional Mexican treat! It is downright warm here in south Texas, so I’m going to have to crank up my air conditioning and make my boys and I a cup. It sounds too delicious to wait for Mother Nature to cooperate with the seasons. Enjoy!
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My Grandma Evelia, who still lives in my hometown in Central Mexico, used to make this Hot Chocolate for us – her eighteen grandchildren -every time we’d gather together before Christmas. If I didn’t get the sugar overdose so often, I would drink it every day during the fall and winter. The entire world deserves to try this. I’m sure you have most of the ingredients already.

Mexican Hawt Chocolate
(Makes two cups)

In a sauce pan:
Pour 2 cups of dairy (or soy) milk accompanied by a cinnamon stick.
Keep the fire medium-low.

In a bowl:
Mix 1/2 cup of unsweetened cocoa +
3/4 cup of sugar (if you suffer from sugar overdose, try half a cup) +
1/2 teaspoon of chili powder.

When milk starts to boil add the mix of your bowl.
Stir for a minute with a spoon or spatula.
Whisk manually for a couple more minutes until there are no lumps.
Turn off the burner and serve with whipped cream on the top.

Play your favorite record, lean back on your couch and enjoy the weather.

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Thank you so much for sharing! It sounds so easy and delicious. Visit Anhelo’s blog, Gatuxedo! She recently shared her Willow doily blanket. It is beeeeautiful! I am always so happy to see people stitching up my patterns. I’ll be back in a few days with a recipe for cooookies! They will be perfect with this hot chocolate and right on time for Thanksgiving!

Pie! Pumpkin Pie!

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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.

281.365: the first pumpkin piep1

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.

the BEST pumpkin cupcake

cupcake of the month.6: pumpkin!

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?


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from the top?

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You’re welcome.

Now, go make some cupcakes!