Grandma's Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies

Finally! A new recipe! The delay in posting was caused by a few things. First, the power cord for my laptop decided to break in half. My laptop sadly does not operate on magic and needs electrons to function. Second, I picked up the textbooks that I will be using for teaching, so I've been busy over-preparing for the fall semester. The one book is just weird which makes the scheduling of what to teach when complicated.

Anyway...

These cookies aren't my grandma's sugar cookies, that is just the title of the recipe in the one cookbook. These cookies are very soft and they retain their softness. The sugary-ness isn't overwhelming, which is nice. You can frost these or just sprinkle them with sugar. I would try using a large crystal sugar and not a fine sugar like I used.

The recipe suggested rolling the dough out and cutting out cookies, but I just rolled the dough into balls and smushed them with a sugared glass. This recipe made around 5 dozen cookies. It will make more or less depending on what shape and size you want your cookies to be. The recipe was also lacking directions, so I'm not sure if I was supposed to let the milk mixture get sour before using it or not.

Grandma's Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies
2 C sugar
1 C shortening
2 eggs
1 t baking soda
1 t vinegar
Milk (almost 1 cup)
2 t baking powder
4-5 C flour

Cream together the shortening and sugar. I did this with a wooden spoon. Wooden spoons are the best kitchen utensil.

Add the eggs and mix until blended.

In a measuring cup, combine the baking soda and vinegar. Add enough milk to make 1 cup. Stir together. Slowly stir this into the sugar mixture. This will make it very thin.

Add 1 cup of flour to the mixture and stir. Add the baking powder and slowly add more flour, mixing between each addition. Add enough flour to make a soft dough. Near the end, you may need to mix by hand.

Roll the cookie dough into balls and press with a sugared glass. Or roll out the dough on a floured surface, sprinkle generously with sugar, lightly press in the sugar, and cut into shapes. Or anything else you can think of doing to make a cookie shape.

Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 6-10 minutes, depending on the size of the cookies. The bottoms will start to brown, but the tops will not.

Cool for a minute and then remove to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Brownies

This is possibly the best tasting peanut butter dessert I've ever had. These brownies have the flavor of a salty peanut butter cookie while being chewy and moist like a brownie. The only change I will suggest is to make this in a smaller pan so the brownies are thicker.

In addition to the amazing taste, these are very simple to make. I mixed everything in a medium sauce pan with a wooden spoon. Just be sure to have a sink full of hot soapy water to toss measuring cups and such in as you are finished. This will speed up the cleaning time!

Peanut Butter Brownies (Printer-friendly PDF Version)

1/2 C unsalted butter

2 C brown sugar, packed

2 eggs

1 C flour

2 t baking powder

1 t salt

1 t vanilla

3/4 C peanut butter (smooth or crunchy)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Melt the butter over low heat in a medium sauce pan.

Remove the melted butter from the heat and stir in the brown sugar. Mix well.

Make sure the mixture is cool and then stir in the eggs. Just stir this until it seems combined.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir this into the sugary mixture.

Mix in the peanut butter and vanilla.

Spread the batter into a well greased 11x15 inch jelly roll pan.

Bake for 20 minutes or until done. If you are using a smaller pan, increase the bake time accordingly. Let cool for a few minutes before cutting.

Enjoy!

Peach Cobbler

Baking bread isn't an option right now because it is incredibly hot outside. When the weather stops being nearly 100 degrees and incredibly humid, I will return to the bread baking. Until then, I will bake random things. Or I will be smart and make something that requires no baking. Maybe next time.

Today you get a recipe for peach cobbler. We had 6 pounds of peaches for some reason, so I used nearly 3 pounds to make this. If you aren't sure how to properly peel peaches, feel free to look at the previous post. I altered this recipe a bit from the original. I cut down the amount of sugar and added cinnamon and nutmeg. The outcome is amazing. If you like peaches, you should absolutely give this a try.

Peach Cobbler

7 or 8 peaches, peeled and sliced

cinnamon and nutmeg, to taste

1 T butter, softened

1/2 C sugar

1/4 t salt

2 t baking powder

1 C sifted flour

1/2 C milk

1/2 C sugar

1/2 C cold water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Line the bottom of a greased 9x9 inch baking dish with the peach slices. Sprinkle nutmeg and cinnamon on top. I didn’t measure, but I probably used around 1/2 t cinnamon and 1/4 t nutmeg.

In a small bowl, mix together the softened butter and 1/2 cup of sugar with a fork.

Add the salt, baking powder, and sifted flour to this sugary mixture.

Add the milk and stir until combined. I forgot to take a picture of this step, but the result is nothing unexpected.

Pour the batter over the peaches and gently spread it all around. Evenly pour the 1/2 cup of sugar on top of the batter.

Drench all of this with the 1/2 cup of cold water.

Bake for an hour.

Let cool for 15 minutes before slicing and serving. This goes great with whipped cream. It probably also goes great with ice cream, but I didn't have any ice cream.

Enjoy!

How to peel a peach

Peeling peaches is a messy and not very fun process. The easiest way to peel a peach is to blanch it first. To blanch something you stick it into very hot water and then cool it in very cold water. This loosens up the skin of the peach and makes it come off easily. The next recipe that I'm posting is for peach cobbler made with fresh peaches, so I thought I would share the peach peeling process with you now.

You will need:
Fresh peaches
2 plates
A knife
Some sort of spatula
A bowl
Medium pot
Water
Ice

Fill the pot with enough water so that the peaches will be fully submerged when placed in the pot. Heat this water to a light boil.

Fill a bowl with water and some ice. You want this water to be nice and cold.

Take your peaches and place them on a plate. Gently cut an X into the bottom of each peach. You only need to cut through the skin of the peach.

Once the water is at a boil, place a few peaches into the water for 30 to 60 seconds. The water in the picture doesn't look like it is at a simmer, but it is.

After the peaches heat for the allotted amount of time, scoop the peaches out of the hot water with the spatula and place them into the icy water to cool. Leave them in the cold water for at least a minute. This prevents the peaches from cooking anymore.

Repeat this process with all of the peaches you need to peel. Place the blanched peaches on another plate so you don't blanch the same peach twice.

Peel the skin off of each peach, starting at the X on the bottom. The skins should peel off easily. Place the peeled peaches on the original plate. Throw away the skins unless you want to keep them for some reason.

Cut the peaches into quarters down to the pit, but not through the pit. The fruit should fall away from the pit.

Dispose of the pit and scrape off the prickly red part. Repeat with all of the peaches.

And now you have peaches that are ready for baking!

Enjoy!

Apple Cake II

Yes, another apple cake. These old cookbooks have a lot of apple cake recipes, plus I still have a few bags of frozen apple slices in the freezer! Those need to be used up so we can restock the freezer with even more frozen apple slices. I'm also not brave enough to attempt strudel yet. I have a lot of strudel recipes, but they are all intimidating...

This apple cake is good. I can't really give a comparison to the other recipes since I make them so far apart. The best part of this cake is the crumbly goodness on top. The directions to assemble the ingredients were kind of weird at one point, but it turned out nicely. I also like that no mixer is required!

Apple Cake

1 C sugar

1/2 C shortening

1 egg

1 1/2 C flour

1 t baking soda

1/4 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

1/2 C milk

1 t vanilla

4 apples, peeled and diced

1 T butter, melted

1/2 C brown sugar, packed

2 t cinnamon

2 T flour

1/2 C chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a bowl, stir together the sugar and shortening with a fork until well blended and kind of fluffy.

Add the egg and mix until combined.

In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

Add the milk and vanilla. Stir until combined. This will be a thick and kind of dry mixture. That is how it is supposed to be, so continue on unfazed.

Place the flour mixture into the bowl with the sugar mixture and combine. Make sure it is decently combined!

Add the diced apples and mix.

In yet another bowl, combine the melted butter, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and nuts. Stir until blended.

Pour the batter into a greased 9x9 inch pan. Sprinkle the brown sugar mixture on top.

Bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. If you are using frozen apples, the baking time will increase a bit. Let cool for at least 15 minutes before serving.

Enjoy!