The New Year Beckons

What a fun holiday season! As you can see, I’m a bit behind on my holiday baking post. But better late than never yes?! I can’t believe I’m sitting on the doorstep of 2014. Part of me is really ready for the new year with new goals and new projects, but part of me is like WAIT! SLOW DOWN!! If the new year is here that means I actually have to start DOING those goals and projects. And I don’t quite feel ready. But I’ll get there.

Now, without further ado, here are the recipes (and photos) of my holiday baking gifts.

First up, Peanut Butter Blossoms. I whipped up a (huge) batch of these for friends and a couple events we went to in the weeks leading up to Christmas. I only ever have these at Christmas time, so even though they could be an any-time cookie, I always think of them as a holiday cookie!

Get the recipe here!

This peanut butter cookie recipe spreads out quite a bit, so don’t smush your rolled dough balls too much with a fork. I love this recipe however as it makes wonderfully soft chewy cookies (my favorite!).

Next I made two batches of Peanut Butter Buckeyes. Apparently I was in a chocolate peanut butter mood for my treats this year!

Get the recipe here!

These are a little messy when it comes to the chocolate dipping part (either that or it’s just ME who is a little lot messy) but they are so tasty. I have a lot of little candy boxes left over from doing the farmers market years ago and these tucked perfectly in there to give as gifts.

Every year I make a Chocolate Mousse Pie for my best friends mother. She adores it. I also made one for Thanksgiving this year and it was a hit.

Get the recipe here!

I love this pie. It is the most decadent, rich, smooth, chocolatey thing I eat all year. Just heavenly.

I tried out a new bread recipe and whipped up some Honey Spice Bread to go with the Apple Butter I canned earlier this year. This was the only recipe I tried this year that wasn’t my own!

Get the recipe here.

If I’m being 100% honest, I wasn’t over the moon for this bread recipe. I found it REALLY dry. It had great flavor, but the texture was too dry and crumbly for my taste. But with some apple butter and a cup of tea it was just perfect!

And lastly, I whipped up two batches of the Lemon Bar Brownies (from my previous baking post). One batch for my mum, and one for my mother in law.

Get the recipe here.

Compared to last year, this was a relatively small holiday baking session for me. But I loved it. It was so nice not to feel swamped with baking and be able to enjoy each treat I made for people. See you in 2014!

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December Baking: Week 1

The first week of December’s baking was for my husband’s birthday. We didn’t have a huge party, just some friends over to play games. My husband is a big Magic the Gathering enthusiast – he goes every Friday for Friday Night Magic at our local comic shop, competes in some tournaments throughout the year, and is currently studying to become an official judge!

This year he requested a carrot cake – my first time ever making one! I consider myself a good baker; I can make a mean cupcake, and frost it prettily, but I haven’t actually made a layer cake since I was in high school. Which is almost 10 years ago. . .so I was a bit intimidated.

But overall, I’m really happy with how it turned out! The cakes themselves seemed a little flatter than I was expecting, but once they were frosted it made for quite a decent sized cake. As for the decorating job. . .well, let’s just say it was made with more love than skill! The writing is legible (first time piping lettering!) so that’s a bonus!

Best of all, this cake was DELICIOUS. I got some recipe advice from friends, and had a couple people tell me that the Betty Crocker cake and frosting recipes were excellent. They were right! I’m not even a huge cream cheese frosting fan but this one was fantastic! I highly recommend it.

Click here for the recipe!

I also made a batch of Lemon Bar Brownies. Back when I was doing the farmer’s market, these were a best seller. I sold out of them every week. I think it’s the combo of fresh squeezed lemon juice and fresh lemon zest that knocks these out of the park. It gives them such a great balance of sweet and tang. And their consistency is really good – so dense and moist.

Click here for the recipe!

And finally, I baked my hubs a birthday surprise – Magic the Gathering cookies!! For those who don’t know much about MTG, these are the symbols of different types of cards in the game. My hubby loves iced sugar cookies so when I was browsing Pinterest ages ago and saw these, I immediately pinned them to make for his birthday! Go check out the original cookie post via Not Your Momma’s Cookie, which most certainly puts my cookies to shame. She has so many awesome cookies ideas; I’m sure I’ll use more in the future.

The cookies weren’t actually that hard to make, just time consuming. And let me tell you, piping on designs with icing is NOT the same as drawing with a pencil! But they came out decently (other than two bloopers that I very unfortunately forgot to take pictures of before eating) so I will definitely make these again in the future!

Click here for the sugar cookie recipe, and here for the icing recipe!

Our gaming get together was good fun as always. I sat out on the Magic playing and got some drawing done, but definitely joined in for some Acension and Lords of Waterdeep (my current favorite board game).

Phew! Week 1 of baking accomplished. . .just in time to start Week 2 of baking! Stay tuned for Vanilla Cupcakes, Chocolate Cupcakes, Vanilla Buttercream Frosting, and Dinosaur Cookies.

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December Will Be Spent Covered in Flour

I do a lot of baking come December. Baking is one of my absolute favorite things to do (okay, EATING said baked goods ranks pretty high as well), and this month brings many occasions to bake for!

At the end of each week in December I want to do a ‘This Week’s Baked Goods’ post, and share my recipes. However, these will not be all out tutorial posts like my previous baking posts simply because I won’t have the time to take, edit, and put together photos and posts for each of the many baked goods I make in December. But there will be recipes and some photos of course. Here’s an idea of what’s to come:

December Week 1 (The Hubs Birthday):

• Carrot Cake (The first I’ve ever attempted.)
• Lemon Bar Brownies
• Secret Cookie Surprise! (I’m pretty sure my hubs doesn’t read my blog, but just in case I don’t want to spoil the surprise cookies I’m making.)

December Week 2 (My Daughter’s Third Birthday):

• Chocolate & Vanilla Cupcakes
• Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
• Iced Sugar Cookies

December Weeks 3 & 4 (Christmas Baking!!):

• Chocolate Mousse Pie
• Peanut Butter Buckeyes
• Gingerbread Spice Bread
• More to be announced! (I haven’t quite nailed down what I’m giving as baked treat gifts this year.)

Keep an eye out for yummy things coming your way soon!

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Iced Pumpkin Spice Cookies

Happy Halloween everyone! I’m sure I’ll have some photos of my little miss trick-or-treating tomorrow, but for today, enjoy a yummy cookie recipe instead.

Pumpkin Spice Cookies are yet another fabulous part of fall. Granted, I could bake them anytime I wanted, but they just seem to taste better in their appropriate season! I think this is one of my most highly loved recipes by my friends and family (They did quite well at the farmer’s market last year as well). This year my best friend asked for them for her birthday, and my hubs asked me to bake them for the blood drive at his work. So I’ve had a pumpkin-y household for the past two weeks. It’s okay, I needed a break from all the apple goodies I had been baking anyway.

Ingredients:

Cookies:
2 1/2 cups flour (I use half white flour, half wheat flour)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened (I use Country Crock Spread and it works perfectly fine)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup pumpkin puree (canned or fresh, whatever you have)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

Icing:
2 cups confectioner sugar
3 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat your oven to 350F.

She decided she had to bake in her jammies!

First, mix your dry ingredients, stir and set them aside.

In a larger bowl, cream butter and sugar together.

Add eggs and vanilla and blend thoroughly.

Then add in your pumpkin and mix well.

Pour in the dry ingredients and mix until thoroughly combined.

And the most important part, the assistant taste test.

I use my dough scoop to drop the dough onto cookie sheets – if you don’t have one just drop tablespoon size balls. Bake for 15 minutes, and let thoroughly cool before icing them.(To make the icing, combine all icing ingredients and stir with a fork.)

To ice mine, I use a fine icing tip and bag, but a baggie with the tip snipped would work as well. Or, if you don’t mind a messier way, you can just drizzle it on with a spoon! (I say that’s messier because when I’ve done it that way I get it all over my cooling racks and table.) Let them sit out until the icing hardens, then store in an air tight container.

These are just so delicious – chewy and soft, just the way I like a cookie. Enjoy!

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Molasses Cookies

I’m about 95% sure that molasses cookies are my all time favorite cookie. They are such a perfect combo of soft and chewy, not too sweet with that lovely spice taste. . .I’m drooling thinking about them. However, I make them sparingly, and really only in the fall. I think the fact that I only have them twice a year or so definitely adds to my love for them!

Molasses cookies are definitely a bit more involved compared to my chocolate chip cookie recipe, but they are so worth it. So if you’re up for a bit of extra time and effort, here’s the recipe.

Ingredients:

3/4 Cups Margarine, melted. (I use Country Crock Spread which isn’t true margarine, but works perfectly.)
1 Cup White Sugar
1 Egg
1/4 Cup Molasses
2 Cups All Purpose Flour
2 Tsp Baking Soda
1/2 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/2 Tsp Ground Cloves
1/2 Tsp Ground Ginger
1/2 Cup White Sugar (for rolling)

First combine flour, baking soda, salt and spices in a small bowl.

Mix thoroughly, and set aside.

In a larger bowl beat sugar, melted butter, and egg together until smooth.

Pour in molasses and mix well.

Pour dry ingredients into the wet, and combine thoroughly.

At this point, cover your bowl with tinfoil and chill in the fridge for an hour, minimum. (Mine chilled for about two hours since I let it sit in for all of my little missy’s nap time!)

Once chilled, preheat oven to 375. Measure out your half cup of sugar into a bowl, and some flour into another bowl. Flour your hands regularly as you roll the dough into walnut size balls (mine were slightly larger) to prevent it from sticking.

My assistant really enjoyed the ‘flour your hands’ part!

Roll each ball in the sugar, then place on a cookie sheet.

Bake for 8 – 10 minutes, until tops are cracked. Cool on wire racks, and enjoy!

These didn’t last long in our house. This batch made roughly 34 cookies. . .they were gone in about five days! However we did share with our neighbor, and with my brother. That’s the excuse I’m sticking with at least.

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