Chocolate Crinkle Cookies (with a twist!)

One more recipe before Christmas. These Chocolate Crinkle Cookies are like a brownie, with just the right amount of sweetness (and a little surprise kick!)

Ingredients

1 cup flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
pinch of cayenne powder (optional)
1 cup icing sugar, for coating the cookies


In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. For a Mexican twist, add the cinnamon and cayenne powder. Set mixture aside.

In a large bowl beat the sugar and oil until light and fluffy. Add in the eggs and vanilla. Gradually add in the flour mixture and mix until just combined.

Form the dough into a large ball and wrap it in plastic wrap so that it is sealed tightly.  Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.  Fill a small bowl with the powdered sugar.

Form 1-inch round dough balls by hand or with a cookie scoop.  Dip each dough ball in the powdered sugar until it is completely covered on all sides, and then place them on a parchment-lined cookie sheet.

Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes until nicely puffed up and crinkled. Remove from the oven, and let cool completely on the cookie sheet or a wire rack.

Caramel Heavenlies

I discovered a new recipe this week - Caramel Heavenlies. I can't take credit for inventing them, but I think they might become my go-to for parties and potlucks from now on. They have lots of good stuff  in them - marshmallows, almonds, coconut, and brown sugar.

Ingredients

1 pkg graham crackers
2 cups mini marshmallows
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup sliced almonds
1 cup shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 350°.

Line a rectangular baking pan with foil, letting foil extend over sides by an inch. Lightly coat foil with cooking spray. Arrange graham crackers in rows, completely covering the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle graham crackers with marshmallows.

In a small saucepan, combine butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Stir over medium heat until butter is melted and sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat; add in vanilla.

Spoon the sugar/butter mixture over the marshmallows. Sprinkle with the almonds and coconut. Bake for 14-16 minutes or until the topping has browned.

Cool completely in the pan. Using the foil, lift cookies out of pan. Cut into triangles and discard foil.

Christmas Snowball Cookies (Egg Free)

I'm determined to make a wide variety of cookies this year, even if it means cutting back on sleep. Raise your hand if you've made shortbread dough at 5 in the morning! Sometimes you do what you have to do.

First up: Christmas Snowball Cookies. These have a texture like shortbread and melt in your mouth. And they don't need eggs or baking soda/baking powder, so if you find yourself running short, they're the perfect solution.

Ingredients

1 cup of butter, softened slightly
1/3 cup of sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon salt
2 cups of flour
2 cups of finely chopped walnuts or pecans
1½ cups of icing sugar (i.e. powdered sugar or confectioner's sugar) for dusting cookies

Cream together butter and sugar. Add in the vanilla and salt. Gradually add flour, mixing well. Stir in the nuts until evenly distributed. Wrap the dough in plastic food wrap and refrigerate for at least 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350ºF.  Scoop out dough balls using a small cookie scoop or teaspoon. Roll the dough between your palms to make a round ball.

Place the cookies on parchment lined baking sheets. Bake until they are just beginning to brown, approximately 12 to 14 minutes.  The underside of the cookies should be only lightly browned.

Cool cookies on baking sheets for about 2 minutes - they should still be warm to the touch. Gently roll the cookies in a bowl of icing sugar.

Place the sugar-coated cookies on wire racks or back on the pans to cool completely. Once cool, roll the cookies in icing sugar one more time.

Makes about 6 dozen cookies.

Squash and Carrot Soup

I didn't get any projects done this weekend as I had some vegetables to get used up, so cooking was on the agenda. (I also went to a Christmas open house at a local greenhouse, but I know no one is ready to talk about the dreaded "C" word yet.)

Our neighbour had given us some acorn squash and butternut squash from his garden, while another neighbour had given us a huge box of carrots as a thank you for pulling his truck out of the ditch last winter. Day after day these vegetables were mocking me every time I walked into the kitchen, so I thought it was time to put them to good use.

I'm not a fan of squash soup, but Tom loves it so this one is for him.

Ingredients
1 medium acorn squash
1 small butternut squash
2 cups carrots
1 cup fresh or frozen kale
1 cup mixed vegetables (carrots, beans, peas, corn), optional
1 medium onion
2 tbs diced garlic
4 cups broth
2 cups milk or cream
2 tbs maple syrup
spices to taste
sour cream and kale for garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cut each squash in half lengthwise and discard the seeds and pulp. Brush the insides of each half with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Place on a baking sheet and bake until the flesh is soft enough to pierce easy with a fork (about 60-75 minutes, depending on your oven).

Once your squash has cooled enough to touch, scoop out the flesh and place it in your blender. Cook your carrots, mixed vegetables, and kale, then add them to the blender as well. Pour in a cup of broth or water and puree the mixture. Add more liquid as needed.

In a pot, sauté the onion and garlic until soft. Add the vegetable puree to the onion and garlic. Add the milk and remaining broth and stir. You may need to add more broth, milk, or water to reach the desired consistency. Simmer on medium for 15 minutes.

Add maple syrup and other spices to taste. I used a few dashes of hot sauce and Trader Joe's Everyday Seasoning.

Serve with some crusty bread for dipping, or these amazing cheese biscuits.

Homemade Vanilla Glazed Doughnuts

You might think that National Doughnut Day is in June but did you know there is also a second, less celebrated National Doughnut Day on November 5th? And I'm happy to celebrate with doughnuts pretty much any day of the year.

I've provided the recipe I use for plain cake doughnuts with a vanilla glaze, but see below the directions for some autumnal variations - pumpkin with a maple glaze or apple cider with a vanilla glaze. Dunked in hot chocolate - my preference - they make a terrific treat when snuggling up under a blanket, or when getting together with friends and family.

Ingredients

For Dough:
1-1/4 cup of milk, warmed
1/4 cup of sugar
2-1/4 teaspoons dry yeast
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 cup of butter, melted
4 cups of flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
Oil for frying


For Glaze:
1/4 cup of butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups icing sugar
milk to thin glaze


To Make the Dough

Warm the milk, not to boiling, but so that you can still dip your finger in it. Put in a bowl and add the sugar. Once dissolved, sprinkle the dry yeast on top, stir gently, then leave it for 5 minutes. The yeast should begin to ferment. If it doesn't, it means that either your milk was too hot or the yeast is too old. Either way, you'll have to start again unfortunately.

Add the eggs and melted butter to the bowl and stir to combine. Slowly add the flour and salt and mix until it forms a dough. Continue to stir for 5 more minutes.

Lightly oil the dough to keep it from sticking to the sides, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours if not overnight. During this time the butter will firm up and will spread evenly throughout the dough while cooking.

Take your chilled dough and roll it out on a lightly floured surface to about a 1/2 inch thickness. Use two different sized glasses, or a doughnut cutter if you have one, to cut out the shapes. (I used a travel mug and a plastic bottle lid!)

Cover the doughnuts with a tea towel or paper towels and let them rise until they double in size - about an hour.

Frying

Pour several inches of oil into a cast iron skillet and heat at a medium temperature to about 370 degrees or until a drop of water sizzles when added to the pan (be careful, don't splash yourself!)

Carefully add the doughnuts and doughnut holes to the oil and fry to a golden brown, turning them over after about a minute or so. They will cook much faster than you expect!

Remove the doughnuts from the oil with tongs or a slotted spoon and place on a paper towel to remove excess oil. Let them cool for a few minutes.

Glazing

Melt the butter in a small bowl, add the rest of the ingredients, and mix until smooth. Thin the glaze with milk as needed. Dip each doughnut halfway into the glaze, then set it face-up on a rack or paper towel to allow the excess to drip off.

Alternate Flavours

Pumpkin Doughnuts with Maple Glaze

Add the following to your dough before chilling:

1/2 cup pumpkin puree
2-1/2 tsps ground cinnamon
1.2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp all spice
1/8 tsp ground cloves

For glaze: add 1/2 cup of maple syrup, reduce sugar by 1 cup

Apple Cider Doughnuts

Add the following to your dough before chilling:

1/2 cup of apple cider
2 tsps ground cinnamon

Cheese and Chile Pepper Biscuits

I was noodling around in the kitchen this weekend, making batches of soup and chili. Don't ask me why chili in this sweltering heat - I'd just had a mad craving for it all week. And what goes better with chili (or soup for that matter) than soft, flaky biscuits? I started out following a recipe online, but found I didn't have some of the ingredients so I had to keep making substitutions. The results were so good that I had to share the recipe.

Cheese & Chile Pepper Biscuits

3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
4 tsps baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup cold butter, cubed
3 cups grated cheese
1 cup yogurt (I used Greek yogurt)
1/4 cup chopped pickled peperoncini peppers (aka friggitelli)
1/2 cup milk (optional)

Preheat oven to 425 F.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Cut the butter into the flour until well-combined, so that it's like coarse meal. Add in the cheese, yogurt, and peppers, stirring until you have a sticky dough. If your mixture is still too dry, add milk a little at a time until you get the desired consistency.

Roll out your dough onto a floured surface and cut into circles with a cookie cutter or drinking glass. Place biscuits on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake until the tops are a nice golden brown.

The sweet peppers add just enough heat without being overpowering, and the yogurt makes the biscuits so perfectly moist. I stored them in a plastic container on the counter, and after 4 days they're still as soft and flaky as on the first day.

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

We just experienced a warm spell this past week, but starting tonight we're in for another round of winter with up to 10 cm of snow falling in a 12 hour period. Seems like the perfect time to hunker down under a cozy blanket with cookies and milk and your favourite book. And I have just the recipe for you.

I've never been a great cookie baker.  They're usually "okay", but they always seem to be too bread-y and don't always stay soft and chewy after they've cooled. I think I've finally got the sugar/butter/flour ratios correct now though. I've made two batches of these new cookies on different days and they both turned out amazing.

Ingredients

2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tbs vanilla extract
1 egg
1/2 to 1 cup chocolate chips
Optional - butterscotch chips, trail mix, sea salt


Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In a small bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt. I use a whisk to remove lumps as I don't have a sifter. Sifted or whisked flour combines more evenly into your mixture.

In a medium bowl, stir together the melted butter, brown sugar, white sugar until smooth and creamy. Mix in the vanilla and egg. Slowly add in the dry ingredients, taking care not to over-mix.

Stir in the chocolate chips. I don't like too much chocolate in my cookies (is there such a thing?) so I went light on the chocolate chips - maybe 1/4 cup - added 1/8 cup of butterscotch chips, and a handful or two of trail mix (fruit & nuts). This recipe has a lot of sugar in it and I think cutting back on the chips helps to balance it.

Using a teaspoon, drop balls of cookie dough onto a greased or parchment-lined cookie sheet. Right before baking I sprinkled each cookie with a few flakes of sea salt. I also looked up why salt tastes so good on cookies. Apparently salt increases the body's ability to taste sweetness. Who knew?

Bake for 8 minutes or until just slightly underdone. Cookies will puff up a bit in the oven but will flatten out once they cool.

This recipe makes 5 dozen 2-1/2 inch diameter cookies.

Valentine's Day Popcorn Cake

Have your thoughts turned to Valentine's Day yet? I have a really fun recipe for you today to get you into the spirit.

My family has been making popcorn cake at Christmastime for as long as I can remember. A mixture of popcorn, marshmallows, jujubes, and peanuts is always a crowd-pleaser. For Valentine's Day, I left out the rainbow colours and brought in reds, pinks, and whites. In a sea of chocolate, this lighter snack is a welcome change.

You'll need:
10 cups of plain popped popcorn
1 pkg (250g) of marshmallows
1/2 cup of butter or margarine
3/4 cup of shelled peanuts
1 cup of red jujubes, cut into smaller pieces
white and pink candy melts (or white melts/chocolate and pink food colouring)

Pop your popcorn and remove any unpopped kernels. Melt the butter and marshmallows in a small pan over low heat. Pour the mixture over the popcorn and stir until all of the popcorn is coated. Add in the peanuts and the jujubes and stir again.

Press the mixture firmly into a greased or parchment lined pan - this recipe fits a 9x12 pan, but you could also use a bundt pan. Let cool.

Melt your candy melts or chocolate over low heat. If you would like it a little thinner you can add a bit of vegetable oil to the mixture. If using food colouring, split your melted chocolate into two bowls and stir a drop of pink food colouring into one bowl.

Invert the cake pan onto a platter or board. Cover the area around the cake with parchment or paper towels to protect it from splatters. Using a teaspoon, flick pink and white chocolate over the cake to get a splatter pattern. Use as much or as little as you'd like. Refrigerate to let the chocolate set.

One last tip: When cutting the cake, butter your knife to keep it from sticking.

Shortbread - 3 Ways

One of my goals this Christmas was to do more baking. Along with sugar cookies and dog cookies, I tried my hand at shortbread for the first time. They turned out so well that I wanted to share the recipe with you.

I tried two different methods, rolled cookies and piped cookies. I'm partial to the piped ones, but only because of the chocolate chips.

Rolled Shortbread Cookies (2 flavours)

2 cups of butter, softened
1 cup of icing sugar (i.e. powdered sugar)
1 cup of cornstarch
1/4 tsp of salt
4 cups of flour
Zest of one lemon
Juice of half a lemon
Gummies or other candy to decorate
Granulated sugar for sprinkling on top

Beat the butter until smooth and creamy. In a separate bowl mix the icing sugar, corn starch, salt, and flour. Stir the mixture briskly with an egg whisk (or sift it if you have a sifter) to get it light and airy. Add the dry mixture to the butter, a little at a time, until all is combined. Split your dough into two parts and add the lemon zest and lemon juice to one portion, mixing it in evenly.
Cover each dough portion with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour.

Preheat oven to 325F.

Roll your dough out on a lightly floured surface and cut your cookies into shapes. Place on a greased or parchment-covered cookie sheet.
-For the lemon cookies, sprinkle the tops with a bit of granulated sugar (coloured sugar would be fun!)
-For the plain cookies, slice your gummies in half lengthwise if they are thick and place a half in the center of each cookie, pressing down slightly.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until they are slightly golden brown. Let cool completely.

Whipped Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies

2 cups of butter
1 cup of icing sugar (i.e. powdered sugar)
1/2 cup of cornstarch
1 tsp of vanilla
3 cups of flour
1/2 tsp of salt
1 cup of chocolate chips
Piping bag

Beat the butter and sugar together until smooth and creamy. Mix in the cornstarch, vanilla, flour and salt. Beat until fluffy. Stir in the chocolate chips. Cover your dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour.

Preheat oven to 325F.

Let your dough warm back up and transfer to a piping bag. (You could also drop the cookie batter onto the cookie sheet by spoonful if you don't have a piping bag.) Pipe your cookie dough onto a greased or parchment-covered cookie sheet in swirls, flattening them slightly with a fork or spoon. I'm not afraid to admit that mine look a bit like poops. I know you were thinking it.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until they are slightly golden brown. Let cool completely.

Thoughts: I found that piping the cookies was really difficult as the batter didn't want to stick to the sheet and  kept lifting up when I pulled the piping bag away. I would probably drop them by spoonful next time, but it was something I wanted to try.

Just look at Little Miss Cookie Monster wanting to know which ones are hers. :-)