Date Squares

I'm back! I know you have all missed me. (haha!) I have a handful of tasty recipes that are husband approved to share. I must apologize for by absence as the last few weeks have just flown by!

Today I bring you a recipe for Date Squares. After leaving Costco with a tub of dates, I knew immediately that I wanted to bake something with them. I scoured a bunch of recipes but never really found one that would be AWESOME. Then I turned to my faithful King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion. Goodness, I adore that book. Well, they had a recipe for date squares, but alas it also wasn't quite what I wanted. What is a girl to do? Make up her own recipe! And here we are. :)

These bars are sweet, crumbly and everything that is good in the world. With my constant need to snack (34 weeks tomorrow) I wanted something that was at least somewhat good for me. These don't have a whole lot of sugar, so I do let myself feel good about eating them. :) Plus! The crumbly yumminess consists largely of flour and oats. Good things, indeed.

Date Squares
recipe by me!

Filling:
4 c. (loosely filled- no cramming!) chopped dates
1 c. water
1/2 c. brown sugar
pinch of salt
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1 tbl. lemon juice

Crumbly Crust:
2 c. oats
2 c. flour (all purpose or whole wheat or combo)
1 c. packed brown sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cinnamon (optional)
pinch of salt
2 sticks of butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease your baking dish. (I used a 7.5" x 11.75" pan- but a 9x13 will work in a pinch- may need a little less time baking)
To make our filling, combine all filling ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring to distribute everything evenly. Once it reaches a boil, turn down the heat so that it is just simmering. Stir occasionally until all of the liquid seems to be sucked up and you have a lovely glob of sticky dates. Set aside to cool while making the crust.
In a large mixing bowl, stir together the first six ingredients until thoroughly combined. Pour the butter over the dry ingredients and gently stir with a fork. Think about how you toss a salad, coming from the bottom of the bowl and moving up, gently. We don't want one huge chunk, but rather streusel consistency where all of the dry ingredients seem to be moistened.
Dump half of the crust into your greased pan and press into an even layer across the bottom. Spread the date filling over the bottom crust, evenly. Now sprinkle the remaining crust over top the dates. Do not press this layer down. It ensures a tasty crumbly top!
Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the top is turning golden (a little less for those 9x13 pans!). Once done baking, let cool for a little while before cutting into it so that it doesn't all fall apart completely. I was able to wait an hour. That gave it time to firm up a little, but still was warm and gooey. Enjoy!

Linked up at:

• Tuesdays at the Table at All the Small Stuff
• Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam
• Monday Blog Hop at Santa's Gift Shoppe
• Hearth & Soul Hop at The 21st Century Housewife

Snicker Cookies

As anyone who knows me can probably say, I love dessert.It is no wonder why most of my posts are about the sweeter things in the culinary world.
So this recipe comes from my mom's kitchen. She makes these cookies at Christmas time for her friends and our family. From my experience, everyone that has ever tried them, loves them. And you will soon see why.
I decided to make them this time of year because I needed a special dessert for an event. Cookies this good shouldn't just come once a year.

Snicker Cookies
(honestly don't remember where my mom found the recipe- from an ad?)

2 sticks butter (softened)
1 c. creamy peanut butter
1 c. light brown sugar
1 c. granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
3 1/2 c. all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 package (about 13 or so ounces) Snickers Brand Miniatures, unwrapped
1c. chocolate chips

Combine the first four ingredients until light and fluffy. Add in the eggs one at a time until fully incorporated. Then mix in the vanilla.
In another bowl combine the flour with the salt and baking soda. Mix this into the butter mixture just until combined. Cover the dough and chill for at least a couple hours.
Remove the dough from the fridge and scoop out about a tablespoon at a time. Take a piece of dough and form a ball around a Snickers with it. I ended up using more like a tablespoon and a half for each cookie, my personal preference. Repeat until all of the dough or all of the candy is gone.
Place the balls on a greased cookie sheet a good inch and a half to two inches apart because they will spread. Bake in a 325 degree oven for about 10 to 12 minutes or until they have begun to look dry and firm. Let them cool for 3 to 5 minutes on the baking rack before moving to a cooling rack to completely cool off. If they don't get to sit on the rack, they will just crumble. (Not always bad since you can just eat the pieces as you go)
Melt your chocolate chips, if desired and drizzle over the cookies.

 

Linked up with:

• Tuesdays at the Table at All the Small Stuff
• Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam
• Hearth & Soul Hop  at A Moderate Life

Fortune Cookies

Happy Mardi Gras to everyone!! I don't have a recipe for King Cake, but I have another quick and fun recipe for everyone to try.

I love fortune cookies. It's always so fun after going out for Chinese to sit around the table with friends and hear the fortunes that each other received. I had no idea how easy they were to make until my high school foods class when we got to make them one day. Years later I can still remember how much fun I had making them and so I wanted to share the recipe with you. I don't know where this specific recipe came from- it was probably one of those just passed out in class and somehow all these years later I managed to keep it.

You could easily write up fortunes of your own- or even some announcement you would like to make on small stripes of paper and stick them in the cookies when you fold them up.

Since we are now in the year of the rabbit, I thought it would be nice to show pictures of my babies.



Sammy



Daisy



Yes, I have been looking for a reason since I started the blog to stick pictures of my rabbits in here. Since we are making fortune cookies and it's the year of the rabbit- what a better opportunity? :)

Fortune Cookies

1 egg white
1/8 tsp. vanilla
pinch of salt

1/4 c. all purpose flour

2 tbl. granulated sugar

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and grease a cookie sheet- or put down one of those handy silicone mats. Also have out a muffin tin as this will be what we set the cookies in to cool off and harden up.

Mix together the egg white and the vanilla until foamy. Sift in the remaining ingredients and blend together thoroughly.

Place a heaping teaspoon of the batter on the cookie sheet in three or four places- about four inches apart. Thin out the batter into a bigger circle with the measuring spoon. You want to be able to just barely see through the batter.
Bake for 5 minutes until the edges just start to turn golden and the top looks dry.
Take them out and fold in half so you have a half circle, then take the two points and pull them together. (This would be the perfect time to slip in your paper fortune.)
Set the cookies in the muffin tin to finish cooling- they won't harden up as much as the cookies you get at the restaurant, but they will be very tasty.

Once you have made a round of the cookies, you can adjust the amount of batter on the cookie sheet as well as the thickness you spread the circles into to your liking. More batter = bigger cookies. :)

 

I have linked up at the following places:

• Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum

Dark Chocolate Fudge Cookies

Happy New Year to everyone out there! I hope everyone had a fun and safe new years eve and day. I went to a party on New Years Eve. Not just a normal, wait for the ball to drop, kind of party. This one had a dessert competition. My kind of party, right? I made a delicious chocolate cake- more on that later (insert shameless plug here)
I know lots of people talk about making resolutions this time of year. From the ones I have heard, they seem to be based around eating better and exercising. Well, one of my resolutions is to work out more consistantly, but also to get a recipe posted up here at least every week. With that, I would also like to make more bloggy friends.
My first recipe of the year isn't a "healthy dish", exactly. Just remember portion control. A sweet treat every now and then, in moderation, isn't a bad thing. I would be a very unhappy camper if it was a bad thing. This cookie recipe comes out of the cookie saga I have mentioned before. My husband likes to have a few cookies packed in his lunches for work, and he usually prefers chocolate chip. Chocolate chip is good, but it just bores me after a while, so every now and then I like to change it up. I found this delicious recipe in a cookbook that my mom-in-law gave me called Death By Chocolate. (Part of that cake I mentioned earlier is from this cookbook also!)
We found these cookies to be absolutely delicious! They are moist and oh so chocolately. The drizzle on top is completely optional, but makes for a nice presentation. Give these a try and they might just become your go to cookie recipe!

Dark Chocolate Fudge Cookies makes about 3 dozen
(recipe from the book, Death By Chocolate)

1 1/2 c. all purpose flour
1/2 c. unsweetened cocoa (yes, I wrote that right, unsweetened)
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
8 ounces semisweet chocolate, broken into 1/2ounce pieces (I like Baker's chocolate)
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, broken into 1/2ounce pieces (I like Baker's chocolate)
1 1/2 c. packed brown sugar
12 tbl. unsalted butter, softened
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3 c. semisweet chocolate chips (optional, but highly recommended)

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. If you don't have a sifter, just mix them together with a whisk to keep it all nice and light.
Melt the semisweet and unsweetened chocolate together over a double boiler or in the microwave. Stir until smooth and let sit at room temperature until ready.
Mix together the brown sugar and butter with an electric mixer until nice and fluffy. Scrape down the bowl and mix some more to ensure everything is incorporated. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing at medium speed. Scrape down the bowl after each egg is mixed in. Mix in the vanilla extract.
Add the melted chocolate to the mixer and beat just until it is all mixed in. Scrape down the bowl. Add in the flour mixture as well as the chocolate chips and mix just until incorporated.
Portion out the cookies into rounded tablespoons on a cookie sheet about two inches apart. Bake for 7 to 10 minutes. If the cookies are bigger, they will need more time. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
Optional: Melt about 1/2 c. of chocolate and drizzle over the cookies.

Linked up with:

• Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam
• All Things Domestic at Crazy Domestic
• Tuesdays at the Table at All the Small Stuff
• Hearth & Soul Hop vol. 29 at A Moderate Life
• Delicious Dishes at itsablogparty.com
• Tuesday Night Supper Club at Fudge Ripple
• Tasty Tuesday at A Beautiful Mess
• Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum
• Fat Camp Friday at Mangoes and Chutney

Lime Meltaways

You know the hard thing about not writing my blog posts soon after making a recipe? The problem is that I look on my camera and occasionally see something tasty I made and can't remember for the life of me where I put the dang recipe.

I have a nice collection of recipe books (most of them being dessert or chocolate oriented because, let's get straight to the point, dessert is almost always my favorite part of a meal.) I also have a box of recipe cards and small clippings. Then, there is my recipe binder. This is something I started waaaayyyy back in my sophmore year of high school. I took a foods class and the teacher had us keep a folder with the recipes we made in the class. I thought this was a wonderful way to keep track of all the recipes I print out. Let's face it, I print out lots of recipes. So my recipe folder eventually turned into a recipe binder, which has just somewhat recently been upgraded to a larger binder.

I do keep my recipe binder organized. I used every page divider I could find in the house. I think the largest section is devoted to recipes I would like to try. After that, desserts and other treats definitely takes the cake.

Anyways, let's get focused now. I got up early this morning while my husband got ready for work. I am a morning person, although you could probably never tell by how hard it is for me to wake up sometimes. I decided long ago that getting up early helps me make sure I get things around the house taken care of because *this* is when I am the most productive, by far. So I ate some breakfast, checked my email and here we are. Found my camera and went back into the memory looking for a recipe to write about, today, it's going to be Lime Meltaways.

Mine were actually more like Key Lime Meltaways, but regular, plain 'ol limes will work just fine for this application. Hubby and I stumbled upon a key lime tree and gathered about half a dozen to a dozen or so. I juiced lots of them for the recipe, and let me tell you what a pain it was! I didn't even get half of the juice I needed, but luckily, I have key lime juice in the fridge. I have been able to find it in stores with the regular lime and lemon juice.

These cookies were worth the work. As the name states, they seem to just melt away in your mouth. I think I might try the recipe with lemon juice sometime. Yummy!

Lime Meltaways

(Recipe slightly adapted from marthastewart.com)

12 tbl. unsalted butter, room temperature

1 c. powdered sugar, divided

finely grated zest of 2 or 3 limes

2 tbl. lime juice

1 tbl. vanilla

1 3/4 c. plus 2 tbl. all purpose flour (this is 2 c. minus 2 tbl. if you want to look at it differently)

2 tbl. cornstarch

In a mixer bowl, whisk together the butter and 1/3 c. sugar until nice and fluffy. Add in the zest, lime juice and vanilla, beat again until nice and fluffy.

In another bowl, mix together the flour and cornstarch (or just add it to the butter mixture like I did) and add to the butter mixture. Beat on a lower speed until everything is nice and combined.

Divide the dough into two equal portions. Roll each portion into a 1 1/4inch log in a piece of parchment paper. Stick the logs in the fridge for at least an hour, up to overnight to chill and firm up.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a couple cookie sheets with parchment, or lightly grease with nonstick spray, or even use a silpat baking mat (so many options!!). Take one of the logs from the fridge, remove the parchment and cut into 1/8 inch thick pieces. Place the pieces on the baking sheet about an inch apart- these shouldn't spread too much while baking. Then do the same with the other log of cookie dough.

Bake until they are just turning golden around the edges, between 5 to 10 minutes. Keep an eye on them, because it can happen fast. Move the cooked cookies to a baking rack to cool slightly. Once they are all on the rack, it's time to dust them.

Put the remaining 2/3 c. powdered sugar into a resealable sandwich bag and place a few cookies at a time into the bag and toss gently to coat. Put the coated cookies back on the rack and repeat until all of the cookies have a nice dusting of sugar. Enjoy!!

Linked up with:

• Tuesday Night Supper Club at Fudge Ripple
• Tuesday at the Table at All The Small Stuff
• Foodie Friday at Designs By Gollum
• Countdown to 2011 at Finding Joy in my Kitchen

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

There is just about always fresh cookies in the house. Hubby likes them for his work lunches, and I like making them for him. He is a simple guy, and usually likes just plain old chocolate chip cookies. However, with all of my cookbooks, and blog following, I want to change it up from time to time. Hubby is fine with that, and we do usually end up going back to the old standby of chocolate chip.
This week at my internship worksite, someone brought in the staff pizza and cookies. I chose a huge chocolate crinkle cookie, and at that moment knew I had to make some of my own at home.
I searched and searched my cookbooks for a recipe to no avail. My mom makes something similar around Christmas time, but the recipe must be over at her house. Off to the internet I went. I searched "krinkle" and "crinkle" and came up with loads of recipes. Some included melted chocolate, some required refrigeration time, some had good reviews and some had mixed reviews. After looking at a few I knew that I wanted one that used cocoa powder instead of melted chocolate and preferred to find one that didn't require any refrigeration time because I prefer to start and finish a recipe in one standing.
Enter here the Williams-Sonoma website. I have a few of their cookbooks, of which I am very very pleased with. This recipe had great reviews (I love the recipe websites that let people review them. SOOOOO helpful!). And the weird thing is - I followed the recipe EXACTLY this time. Crazy, huh? They are delicious. Hubby even enjoys them in his lunch. Win-win! They are definitely going on my Christmas cookie list.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies makes 24-30 cookies
(recipe from Williams-Sonoma)

1/2 c. powdered sugar (you may need just a bit more)
1 2/3 c. all purpose flour
1/2 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 c. granulated sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease two cookie sheets.
Put the powdered sugar into a bowl and set aside- a cereal bowl works great for this.
In another bowl, mix together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.
Now, in a large bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the butter and granulated sugar until it's nice and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in the vanilla.
Gently mix in the flour mixture until it's all combined.
Using a tablespoon, or a melon baller, scoop out the cookie dough and roll it into balls. Put the balls in the bowl of powdered sugar, a few at a time, and roll them around until completely coated. The powdered sugar does seem to stick better when the dough is cool. Place the powdered sugar covered cookie dough balls (they look like donut holes) on the cookie sheet, a couple inches apart and bake for 10 to 12 minutes until they have puffed and cracked.
Let them sit on the cookie sheet for just a moment, then move to a cooling rack to finish cooling. Enjoy!

I have linked up at:

• Mouthwatering Monday at A Southern Fairytale
• Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam
• Tuesdays at the Table at All The Small Stuff
• Tuesday Night Supper Club at Fudge Ripple
• Hearth and Soul Hop vol. 18 at A Moderate Life

Cocoa Meringues

Hello, hello! I must apologize for the lack of posts recently- I haven't been making many perfected recipes worth posting about. This one, however, is a winner.
Remember that creme brulee I made? Remember how it doesn't use egg whites?
The more I get into "fancy" type desserts- custards and such, the more egg whites I end up with on hand. What does a girl do with extra egg whites? Try another meringue cookie recipe, of course!!
These cookies are chocolately, light, and not that bad for you either! Everybody that tried them liked them. And in a sealed container- they were still good a couple days later.

Cocoa Meringues

3 egg whites

3/8 tsp. cream of tartar

dash of salt

1/4 c. + 2 tbl. granulated sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/4 c. + 2 tbl. powdered sugar

3 tbl. unsweetened cocoa

Preheat oven to 200 degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, beat together the egg whites, cream of tartar and salt with a whisk or balloon whisk attatchment of a stand mixer. Beat until soft peaks have formed, then slowly add in the granlulated sugar while still beating. Continue beating the egg whites until stiff and glossy peaks have formed. Keep an eye on this to make sure they aren't overbeaten!

Sift together the powdered sugar and cocoa powder, then fold into the egg whites along with the vanilla extract. Drop the meringue on the cookie sheet by large teaspoonfuls. (Alternatively, you can load up the meringue into a piping bag with a larger tip and pipe the meringue onto the cookie sheet.) Bake for 1 1/2 hours (90 minutes) and then turn off the oven, leaving the cookies inside to cool for at least 3 hours or up to overnight if you baked them in the evening. After cooling, store the cookies in an airtight container to keep them as fresh as possible and enjoy!


I have linked up at the following parties:

• Tuesdays at the Table at All The Small Stuff
• Tuesday Night Supper Club at Fudge Ripple
• Tempt My Tummy Tuesday at Blessed with Grace
• Tuesday Tastes at Crazy Daisy
• Two for Tuesday #11 at Frugality and Crunchiness with Christy
• Topsy Turvy Tuesday at I'm Topsy Turvy
• Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam
• Delicious Dishes at It's a Blog Party

Meringue Cookies

My mom gave me this amazing cookbook last Christmas. It has become one of my favorites, my all around go to book. It is the Taste of Home Cookbook. I love how organized it is with all of the different tabs, I like the sheet protectors (they must have known how messy I can get while cooking), I likehow they have multiple variations for some pretty classic recipes- but for some reason, I really like that they have seperate sections for "quick breads" and "yeast breads". But not only that, desserts are broken up into "desserts", "cakes", "cookies and bars", "pies and tarts", and "candies". Ask my hubby, I really like organization.
As Alton Brown says, "Organization will set you free".
Anyways, After making creme brulee (more on that later), I had some extra egg whites, and my hubby suggested I should make meringue cookies with them. What a good idea! First, to find a recipe. And who was there for me? The Taste of Home Cooking Cookbook. Sigh. It's really awesome, isn't it.
The recipe looks pretty much exactly like meringue for a lemon meringue pie- one of my favorite pies to make, so I figured that it should be a pretty easy task.
Let egg whites sit out for 30 minutes to come more to room temperature.
Beat the egg whites, vanilla and cream of tartar until soft peaks form in a metal or glass bowl. It is important you don't use plastic because plastic easily scratches and these scratches hold things like fat which don't allow egg whites to stiffen up when beaten.
Then, slowly add in sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form. (check this page out on beating egg whites)
Here is where I started to stray from the recipe before me. My book had 2 cookie recipes, both with 1/4 cup of sugar per egg white- the meringues at this point were pretty much the same in both recipes. However, one recipe says to bake teaspoon sized cookies at 250 degrees for 40-45 minutes, then let sit in the oven for 1 and 1/2 hours after you turn it off. The other recipe says to bake at 250 degrees for 30-35 minutes, then remove to a cooling rack.
You can guess which route I took. I baked them for 35 minutes and put them on cooling racks. They were super tasty. Very light, with a hint of vanilla. Later that evening, I put them in a zip top bag, and the next morning they were a bit more soft than before. I think the combination of being piled together, and any moisture in the air didn't work out for them. I put them all back on a cooling rack, and soon they were just fine again.
I think next time I'll follow the other recipe. Bake for 40-45 minutes, turn of fthe oven and let them sit in it for another hour and a half. It really ensures that they dry out and don't end up sticky or mushy.

Meringue Cookies

3 egg whites
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/8 tsp. cream of tartar
1/8 tsp. salt
3/4 c. sugar

Preheat oven to 250 degrees
Set out egg whites in a bowl for about 30 minutes before using so they can come to room temperature.
Beat the egg whites, vanilla, cream of tartar and salt on medium speed until soft peaks form.
Turn the speed up to high and gradually add the sugar, about a tablespoon at a time. Beat until all of the sugar is dissolved and you have lovely stiff peaks.
Drop the meringue by rounded teaspoons about an inch apart on a parchment lined baking sheet.
Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until firm to the touch. Turn off the oven and leave those meringues in there with the door closed for another hour and a half.
Take out your meringues and let them cool on wire cooling racks.

This recipe is linked to Mouthwatering Monday!