Peanut Butter Cookies (chilled dough)

Joe's favorite type of cookie is peanut butter. Whenever I ask him what I should bake, he tells me to bake peanut butter cookies. I have made two types of peanut butter cookies for this blog already, so I haven't baked peanut butter cookies in a while. I recently found a new peanut butter cookie recipe in my mess of recipes. So he is lucky. Even though he has delicious peanut butter cookies to eat now, he is upset that these don't have the criss-cross pattern on them.

If you like brown sugar and you like peanut butter cookies, you will like these peanut butter cookies. It uses only brown sugar and no granulated sugar. I can taste the difference and it is a good difference! These cookies have a nice crunch to them and a crumbly texture. They also don't seem to get terribly hard or stale mushy if left uncovered.

Peanut Butter Cookies (Printer-friendly PDF Version)

1 1/4 C flour

1 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

1/3 C shortening

1 C brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 C peanut butter

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

Place the brown sugar and shortening in the mixer. Cream them together. The mixture won't be creamy, but it will be well mixed and soft.

Add the egg and mix well.

Slowly add the flour mixture. Mix until well combined.

Add the glob of peanut butter and blend. The dough will look kind of crumbly and dry, but it is supposed to.

Form the dough into a log shape and wrap with cling wrap. Chill in the refrigerator for an hour or so.

Remove the chilled dough from the refrigerator, unwrap it, and slice into cookies. My slices were approximately 1/4 of an inch. Bake at 375 for 10 minutes. The cookies will start to brown.

This makes almost 3 dozen cookies. Feel free to double or triple the recipe to make more!

Enjoy!

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Quick One Egg Cake

This cake is kind of a mixture between a yellow cake and a pound cake. It is a bit dense, a bit dry (perhaps slightly over baked?), but has a strong flavor. You could add frosting if you want, but I wouldn't go with a very sweet kind. I won't be adding frosting to most of the "from scratch" cakes that I make. You can do whatever you want.

The title of this recipe is partially a lie. It does indeed only take one egg. The assembling/mixing part of the cake making is quick. The baking part, however, is not. Since the baking part doesn't require much attention, I won't complain too much.

Quick One Egg Cake (Printer-friendly PDF Version)
1 1/2 C cake flour
1/4 t salt
2 t baking powder
2/3 C sugar
1/4 C vegetable oil
1 egg, beaten
1/2 C milk
1/2 t vanilla

Sift together the dry ingredients three times. Pour into the mixing bowl.

Add the oil, egg, milk, and vanilla to the mixing bowl. Mix on high for one minute. I mixed on low for a few seconds, scraped the sides of the bowl, and then beat on high for one minute.

Pour the batter into an 8x8 inch greased pan. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes.

Enjoy!

Apple Krunch

Warm apples go best with crunchiness. If you agree, then this recipe is a good thing for you to make for dessert. It is a bit sweet, but you can adjust the sweetness levels by the type of apples and the amount of brown sugar you use. The assembling is easy and it smells great while baking.

This recipe seems easy enough, but the list of ingredients and directions that I used were not very complete. I did a bit of guessing, but it turned out pretty well! I think I may use a quarter cup less sugar and flour next time, since I didn't use all the "krunch" mixture. This recipe is more of a guideline that is easily adjusted to suit your tastes.

Apple Krunch (Printer-friendly PDF Version)
Apples, the amount depends on the type used
1 C sugar
1 C flour
2 t baking powder
1 egg
1/4 C brown sugar
2 T butter
ground cinnamon to taste

In a bowl, stir together the sugar, flour, and baking powder with a fork.

Add the egg and mix well. This will result in a crumbly and dry mixture. Set this aside.

Peel and slice your apples. Or, if you already did this and froze the apples like I did, remove them from the freezer. Line the bottom of a 8 x 8 inch casserole dish with apples. Make this layer thick. I would guess I used the equivalent of 3 apples.

Sprinkle the brown sugar over the layer of apples.

Cut the butter into small chunks and evenly distribute them over the brown sugar to the best of your ability.

Evenly layer the sugary mixture over everything. (Everything in the dish, not the kitchen...)

Sprinkle the top with cinnamon. Use as much or as little as you want.

Bake for 35-40 minutes at 350 degrees. Let cool 5-10 minutes before cutting and serving.

This is probably great with ice cream or milk, unless you are lactose intolerant. Enjoy!

Milk Chocolate Cake

This cake is absolutely delicious. It is moist and fluffy. The chocolate flavor is light and not overwhelming. No frosting is needed at all. Not even the drizzling of glaze and melted chocolate was needed. The only thing that I would suggest is a nice glass of cold milk. This is how cake should be.

I don't often make cake from scratch. I think I have done so 5 times at the most. If non-boxed cake turns out like this every  time, I may have to replace the time spent decorating a cake with the time spent making it from scratch. This cake, however, would not be good for decorating with a heavy decorator's frosting. It is too light and delicate.

Using cake flour for this recipe is a must. As is the sifting the flour three times. As a reminder, to make sour milk you place 1 T white vinegar or fresh lemon juice in a measuring cup and then fill it to 1 C with milk. Let set 15 minutes or until milk starts to slightly curdle.

Milk Chocolate Cake (Printer-friendly PDF Version)
2 C cake flour
1/2 t salt
1 1/2 C sugar
1/2 C butter (softened)
2 eggs
1 C sour milk
1 t vanilla
2 squares bitter chocolate (melted)
1 T vinegar
1 t baking soda

Measure 2 cups of cake flour and sift with the salt three times. Set aside.

Cream together the sugar and the butter thoroughly.

Add the eggs one at a time. Beat well after adding the first egg. Beat for two minutes after adding the second egg.

Add the vanilla to the batter. Alternate adding the flour mixture and the sour milk, starting with the flour and ending with the flour, mixing well between each addition. The additions should be: flour, milk, flour, milk, flour, milk, flour. That gives four additions of flour and three of milk.

Be sure to mix well.

Add the melted chocolate and mix it all up. The batter will look light and fluffy and delicious now.

In a cup, add the baking soda to the vinegar and give it a quick stir. It should bubble up nicely.

Add the dissolved baking soda to the batter and beat for 2 minutes. The batter now should look even more fluffy and delicious.

Pour the batter into two 8 inch round pans that are prepped with shortening and flour. Bake at 375 for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let cool completely (in or out of the pan, I always remove cake). You can optionally drizzle glaze on top. To make glaze, mix 1 C powdered sugar with 2 T milk.

Enjoy!

Cinnamon Coffee Puffs (success!)

With all the failures of baking that have occurred in the process of making posts for this blog, I feel it is only right to redo most of them. The first redo is of the Cinnamon Coffee Puffs. The problem with the first attempt had to do with me using too much flour and not making sure the yeast was properly proofed. If you saw the original post for this recipe, you can tell the outcome was no where near what was intended. This attempt turned out amazing and is definitely what was intended!

I've learned a lot by working with old recipes (most dating to the 1950s or so). One thing I've learned (the hard and failure paved way) is to almost always sift the flour. A long time ago in every kitchen where delicious goodies were being baked, people sifted flour religiously. This was to break up clumps and remove any "impurities". Sifting the flour makes it lighter and the measurements will be more uniform since flour settles over time. So, I suppose, the lesson is to sift flour or you will use too much. Although, some recipes specify to sift the flour before or after measuring, so take care to read closely! Most of these old and cryptic recipes, however, do not. But fear not, you have me to fail multiple times before deciphering the recipe for you.

Cinnamon Coffee Puffs (Printer-friendly PDF Version)
3 C sifted flour
1 packet active dry yeast
1/4 C warm water
1/4 t sugar
1 C milk
2 T sugar
1/2 C margarine
1 t salt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 t vanilla
1/4 C sugar mixed with 1/4 t  cinnamon

Sift some flour and measure out 3 cups. Set aside.

Place the active dry yeast and 1/4 t sugar into the warm water. Set aside for 15 minutes or so. If the yeast results in a lovely foam, then the yeast is good to use. Otherwise, toss it out and try again.

Scald the milk and pour it over the 2T sugar, margarine, and salt. Let set 10 minutes or until lukewarm.

Add the yeast mixture, eggs, and flour. Mix well.

Add the vanilla and mix well once more.

Cover with a clean, dry dish towel and leave it alone for an hour. It will poof up!

Stir the dough down and drop by spoonfuls into greased muffin tins. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture on top. Cover once more and let set for another hour.

Bake at 375 for 25 minutes. Cool and enjoy. The recipe suggests serving with applesauce, but I was lacking applesauce and could not try this suggestion. Let me know if you do!