14 Tuesday Feb 2017
I originally saw these cookies in a Christmas issue of Southern Living but instantly wanted to make them with heart cutouts for Valentine’s Day. Our homemade strawberry jam is the perfect shade of red for a Vday Heart. And of course, nothing says “I Love You” like PB&J (unless you are allergic to peanut butter. Then don’t make these). Continue reading
17 Wednesday Aug 2016
18 Wednesday May 2016
Last year was the year of the sugar cookie for me. I managed to make a new sugar cookie recipe every month, and man, it was fun. One of the best experiments was making a giant fruit pizza. It received a lot of rave reviews. When it was requested again, I thought maybe I could improve on it by making individual cookies. Any fruit can be used, but Strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries make for a great Memorial Day or 4th of July treat. The updated ginger-mascarpone frosting doesn’t hurt either.
Recipe
Mini Fruit Pizza’s
By Baked Northwest
Makes about 4 dozen round 3-inch cookies
Ingredients
For the Cookies:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 ½ cups sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
½ cup sour cream
4 cups flour, plus more for rolling out the dough
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp nutmeg
For the Mascarpone Cream Cheese Frosting:
12 ounces mascarpone cheese, at room temperature
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tbsp heavy cream (can use milk in a pinch)
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup minced crystallized ginger (optional)
For the Fruit Topping:
6 ounces fresh strawberries, cut into fourths (or bite sized pieces)
6 ounces fresh blueberries, rinsed and drained
6 ounces fresh blackberries, rinsed and drained
other fruits that are fun to use: kiwi, canned and drained mandarin oranges, raspberries, etc.
Directions
For the Cookies:
In a large stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar. Add the egg and vanilla, mix thoroughly. Add sour cream, mix thoroughly.
Sift together flour, salt, soda, baking powder and nutmeg. Add to butter mixture in
two parts and mix thoroughly.
Divide the dough into two parts and wrap each in wax paper. Refrigerate at least 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
On a clean, floured surface, roll out the dough with a rolling pin. Roll the dough so it’s about 1/4 – 1/2 inch thick, and use your favorite cookie cutters to cut out shapes of the dough. For these cookies, I used the top of a stemless wine glass to cut out perfect circles. Use a cookie spatula (better known as a pancake flipper) to move your cookies from the floured surface to a well greased baking sheet. Ungreased silicone baking sheet liners work great here too.
Bake the cookies at 400 degrees F for 8 minutes. You never want them to get too browned around the edges, or they’ll be super crunchy. We like ours on the softer side. Baking time depends on what shapes you cut your cookies into – we have adjusted baking times from 8-12 minutes depending on the size of our cookies. Let cool completely before frosting.
For the Frosting:
In an electric mixer, beat the mascarpone, cream cheese, powdered sugar, cream, vanilla, and salt together until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the crystallized ginger, if using, and beat for another 30 seconds until fully combined.
Frost the cooled cookies and add the washed and sliced fruit in whatever kind of design you choose. Have fun with it and enjoy!
17 Thursday Mar 2016
For St. Patrick’s Day, I took our favorite (and super easy) Rum Cake recipe and adapted it with Irish Whiskey and green pistachio pudding to give it a green hue. Say what you will about boxed cake mixes, but the addition of booze sure makes for a moist, rich, and tasty cake! I thought about trying one of those car bomb recipes with whiskey, beer, and irish cream, but the choice was easy when this cake was in the oven in about 10 minutes. When you have a cute baby two feet away it’s hard to concentrate on complicated recipes!
16 Tuesday Feb 2016
I’ve never been a huge cheesecake person. I’ve never been a huge red velvet person either. Then why on earth would I ever want to make this dessert? They both just sounded so much better together instead of on their own…Plus it was Valentine’s Day! I couldn’t resist this show-stopper. As it turned out, it was perfect for a romantic night in – no dinner reservation required.
It’s super easy to make, as long as you make sure to do everything at least a day in advance! This was great since I didn’t have to do any work on Valentine’s Day. The original recipe calls for a cream cheese frosting, but I think that’s way too rich. The cheesecake itself already has a lot going on, and finishing it with light and fluffy whipped cream is a lot better than a heavy cream cheese frosting.
Recipe
Red Velvet Cheesecake
Adapted from Southern Living
Makes 1 (9 inch) Cheesecake, serves 8 – 10
Ingredients
For the Crust:
For the Filling:
Directions
Stir together graham cracker crumbs, melted butter, and 1 tablespoon granulated sugar; press mixture into bottom of a 9-inch springform pan.
Beat 3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese and 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar at medium-low speed with an electric mixer 1 minute. Add eggs, cocoa, sour cream, buttermilk, vanilla, vinegar, and food coloring; mixing on low speed just until fully combined. Pour batter into prepared crust.
Bake at 325° for 10 minutes; reduce heat to 300°, and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until center is firm. Run knife along outer edge of cheesecake. Turn oven off. Let cheesecake stand in oven 30 minutes. Remove cheesecake from oven; cool in pan on a wire rack 30 minutes. Cover and chill 8 hours.
Serve with fresh whipped cream if desired.
24 Thursday Dec 2015
Posted in Boozy, Breakfast, Entertaining, Holidays
When I was pregnant, I fantasized about having a fizzy Bellini around Christmas. Since my original due date was December 22nd, I was really hoping for a Christmas Bellini, it was all I wanted! Things have a funny way of working out, don’t they? Turns out I could have started drinking Bellini’s in mid-November, but of course, I didn’t get around to making one until Christmas anyways.
Recipe
Extra Boozy Bellini’s
By Baked Northwest
Makes 6-8 Drinks
Ingredients
Directions
Add the peaches, triple sec, vodka, peach jam, and lemon juice to a blender. Blend on high until smooth. You can add extra booze (or water) to the mixture if it’s too thick, the mixture should be a smooth, but slightly thick consistency. The goal is to have a nice boozy smoothie!
Add the mixture to a pitcher and chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour. When ready, pour mixture into champagne flutes to fill about halfway. Top with Prosecco to serve.
21 Monday Dec 2015
I can’t believe we are here! The last installment of 2015’s “Sugar Cookie of the Month.” I kind of went the easy way out here since I just had a baby and all (I’ll probably be using this excuse for awhile) but these cookies are still festive and delicious!
Once again we are using the chocolate sugar cookie base I used for my Halloween cookies and for May’s cream cheese frosted cookies. Then we are adding some crushed candy canes and calling it good! Continue reading
25 Sunday Oct 2015
At this point in the game, I’m convinced sugar cookie decorating will never be my forte. Back in January, when I first dreamed up the idea of one sugar cookie per month during 2015, I had the fantasy that with practice, I would become an expert cookie decorator. We are ten months in, and all I can manage is little orange dots on these Halloween cookies. They are still pretty cute, but you should see the test cookies…the final ones only amounted to little frosting dots for a reason. I think I’ve finally learned that I may never grow to love cookie decorating. It always feels like so much pressure and I get so frustrated when the picture I have in my head does not translate from the frosting tip. Ultimately, I just want the cookies to taste good. So, round cookies with buttercream frosting may be my go-to from this day forward. And I’m okay with that. Continue reading
30 Wednesday Sep 2015
Posted in Baking, Cookies, Desserts, Holidays, LuLu's Classics
While my cookie decorating skills aren’t really getting any better with the sugar cookie of the month, I at least got to try out a fun experiment in altering the recipe: swapping out the sour cream for canned pumpkin. I’m happy to say…success!
These cookies have a very subtle hint of pumpkin and fall flavors along with maple icing. You can save these for Halloween, or skip the pumpkin shape and decorations altogether. As you know by now, I’d rather have a tasty cookie than a pretty one.
Recipe
Pumpkin Sugar Cookies
By Baked Northwest
Makes about 32 pumpkin-shaped sugar cookies (you will only use half of the cookie dough)
Ingredients
For the Cookies:
For the Maple Frosting:
Directions
For the Cookies:
In a large stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar. Add the egg and vanilla, mix thoroughly. Add pumpkin, mix thoroughly.
Sift together flour, salt, soda, baking powder, nutmeg, and pumpkin pie spice. Add to butter mixture in two parts and mix thoroughly.
Divide the dough into two parts and wrap each in wax paper. Refrigerate at least 1 hour. For the amount of frosting we are making, you will only use half of the dough. You can freeze the 2nd batch of dough for another use, or just double the frosting recipe!
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
On a clean, floured surface, roll out the dough with a rolling pin. Roll the dough so it’s about 1/4 – 1/2 inch thick, and use your favorite cookie cutters to cut out shapes of the dough. For these cookies, I used a pumpkin cookie cutter. Use a cookie spatula (better known as a pancake flipper) to move your cookies from the floured surface to a well greased baking sheet. Ungreased silicone baking sheet liners work great here too.
Bake the cookies at 400 degrees F for 8 minutes. You never want them to get too browned around the edges, or they’ll be super crunchy. We like ours on the softer side. Baking time depends on what shapes you cut your cookies into – we have adjusted baking times from 8-12 minutes depending on the size of our cookies. Let cool completely before frosting.
For the Frosting:
Combine butter, salt, maple syrup, vanilla, and 1 cup of the powdered sugar. Add milk and remaining sugar, alternately. Mix until smooth & creamy. Add the food coloring to make the frosting orange, if using.
Frost the cooled cookies. If desired, decorate the pumpkins with fun jack-o-lantern designs. We used store bought black frosting for this, and it’s totally optional. Cookies keep well in the fridge for a up to a week, a few days at room temperature. Enjoy!
NOTE: I made a full recipe of the dough and only used half. This cookie dough freezes really well and can be saved for another use, or you can double the frosting recipe and go crazy and bake all of the cookies!
29 Tuesday Sep 2015
Tags
butter, buttermilk, cast iron, cornbread, cornmeal, fall, pumpkin, skillet cornbread
My obsession with cornbread runs deep. I’ll try just about any variation, but as long as there’s cornmeal in something, it’s pretty much guaranteed I’m gonna love it. This pumpkin cornbread was super easy and totally festive for this time of year. Continue reading
