Strawberry Shortcake

I made that strawberry syrup on Friday. Saturday the girls wanted pancakes for breakfast... and lunch... and dinner. I guess they liked it! Of course, with all these strawberries around here, I had to make some strawberry shortcake for dessert too!

Strawberry Shortcake

• 2 quarts (I always double up on the berries, but 1 qt will work too) strawberries, sliced
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 dash ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 eggs, separated
• 2 cups sweetened whipped cream
• fresh mint

Directions 

In a bowl, gently stir strawberries and 1/4 cup sugar; chill. Meanwhile, in another bowl, combine flour, 1/4 cup sugar, baking powder, salt and nutmeg; cut in butter until crumbly. Combine milk and egg yolks; mix well. Add to crumb mixture, stirring just until moistened. Divide and pat into two greased 9-in. round cake pans. In a small mixing bowl (or large measuring cup) beat egg whites until stiff peaks form; spread over dough.  

 Sprinkle with remaining sugar. Bake at 325 degrees F for 25 minutes or until golden. Cool 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack. (Layer will be thin.) Cool completely. 

Place one cake layer on a large serving plate; spread with half of the whipped cream. Spoon half of the strawberries over cream. Repeat layers. Garnish with mint if desired. 

 

Strawberry Jam & Strawberry Syrup

Strawberries!

Despairing over my strawberry patch full of still-green strawberries I finally bit the bullet last week and ordered a flat of strawberries from Bountiful Basket. Of course by the time Saturday rolled around, my stubborn berries began to turn red. (I guess all they needed was some competition!) No worries, of course. Between my girls and I, we can easily eat a pound of strawberries every day.. which is what we did. By the following Friday, between the purchased flat and my garden, I still had about a half a flat of berries left. Cue the telephone.. My sweet husband calls and tells me while going to a job site, he found some boy scouts selling strawberries for $5 a flat, should he get some? ... YES of course! 5 flats please! I was so excited! It's been a very long time since I've had enough berries to actually do anything with except eat. I love strawberry jam and sauces, but I'm normally never willing to sacrifice my fresh gems to the stove. Much as I like jam, I'd much rather eat a strawberry fresh and whole. MMmmmm But with my husband's purchase I needed to process at least some of the berries so they didn't go bad. 

We washed, hulled and froze about 2 1/2 flats for smoothies. The rest I turned into strawberry jam (and lots of it!) and strawberry syrup. Both are super easy and keep for about 2 years on the shelf when processed. (As if they'd last that long around here anyway!)

For Jam:

1. First, wash and hull 2lbs of strawberries 

 

 2. Now crush, mash or finely chop the berries. Of course I just pulsed them in my Vita-mix, making sure to still leave some chunks. 

3. Pour the berries into a large pot (5 qt. should do it)

 4. Stir in 1 box of regular pectin.

 5. Also add about 1/2 tsp butter to help reduce the foaming. Seriously, you'll be much happier if you don't skip this!

 6. Bring mixture to a boil. Have your 7 cups of pre-measured sugar ready to dump into the pot.

 7. Dump sugar in all at once and stir well. Bring mixture to a full boil once more and boil for one minute. Remove from heat.

 8. In the meantime, I've been keeping my clean jars in the oven at 200 degrees F so they'd be hot and ready when I need them.

 9. Pour hot jam directly into jars (use a funnel if necessary) and wipe the rims of the jars clean.

 10. Attach two-piece lids to each jar. Tighten gently; I usually tighten as much as I can then turn the ring back about a quarter turn. Also, before I started the jam, I poured boiling water over the lids in a bowl to help soften the rubber seal. Then I kept them in the bowl to keep them hot.

 11. Load the canning rack into a pot of hot, simmering water. It's best to start this pot at the same time you start the jam so you don't have to wait for it to heat up. 

For small batches of jam (or the last few jars of a big batch) I love using this small rack from Ball in one of my large stock-pots. It's so much nicer than my huge canner when I don't have a lot to do!

 12. Bring canner (or stock-pot) to a gentle boil and then process jars for 20 minutes. (Or 10 minutes at sea-level.) Remove from heat and then, using a jar lifter, move the jars to a draft-free area. Do not disturb for at least 12 hours.

 For Syrup:

Syrup is very similar in process with just a few changes to the ingredients.

Strawberry Syrup

4 lbs strawberries
1 cup Lemonade (not from concentrate)
you could also use 4 Tbsp lemon juice and 3/4 c. water

6 cups sugar

1 Tbsp butter

1 tsp. almond extract

Wash and hull strawberries. Mash (or puree if you choose) berries into a large pot. A 5 qt. pot will work, but it will be close. If you have a bigger one, use it. Add lemonade. Bring to a boil. Add butter and sugar. Return to a full boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and add almond extract. Pour into hot, clean jars and attach two-piece lids to each jar. Process 20 minutes in a water bath canner.

Frosted Sugar Cookies

A good friend of mine recently shared her favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe with me. She told me they were the BEST chocolate chip cookies ever so of course I had to give it a shot. I loved them but they weren't chewy enough for my picky boys. (I love soft, fluffy cookies so they were perfect for me. Naturally I ate the entire batch by myself....) But sorry folks, it's a top-secret recipe- I'm not at liberty to even post a picture!... either that or I ate them all before I could snap one... Just know that they were good!
Maybe it was the almond extract (can I say that?), but the dough reminded me a lot of my sugar cookie recipe so I of course then had a craving for frosted sugar cookies... MMMmmmmmmm! They were delicious but this batch had to be promptly given away or I'm sure I would have eaten all of these too. I'm such a cookie addict, it's sad...

Frosted Sugar Cookies
1 cup butter
1 cup plain yogurt

1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup dry milk
4 eggs
2 tsp pure almond extract

4 tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
1 tsp soda
7 cups sifted flour

 Cream butter, yogurt and sugars very well. Add flavorings and eggs, beating well. Add dry milk, baking powder, salt and soda and mix well. Add flour 1 cup at a time until dough is stiff. (By the time all the flour is added you'll probably have to mix by hand). Shape into 1 or 2 inch balls and smash them down onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees F for about 8 minutes or until very lightly golden. Remove to a cooling rack and cool completely before frosting.


Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
4 oz. cream cheese
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon butter
4-6 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
yellow food coloring (optional)
Cream together cream cheese, sour cream and butter until light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time until mixture begins to look dry. Beat in lemon juice and food coloring. Whip until fluffy then pipe over cookies or cupcakes.

Lemon Poppy Seed Bread

I love baking this bread and then GIVING IT AWAY! It's just too good to be left around this house- I would eat it ALL. (It's been known to happen...) 

Lemon Poppy Seed Bread

3 c flour

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

2 1/2 c. sugar

3 eggs

1 1/2 c. milk

1 c. oil

1 1/2- 2 tsp poppy seeds

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 tsp almond extract

Zest of 1 lemon, finely grated

Glaze:

Juice of 1 lemon

3-4 Tbsp confectioners' sugar

Mix wet ingredients, then add dry. Pour into 3 greased loaf pans (or 2 large) and bake at 350 degrees F. for 45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Mix all glaze ingredients together and put on top of bread while still hot.

White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

I recently attempted a wedding cake for my brother's wedding- (Recently as in YESTERDAY) but for the past month and a half I've been experimenting with different frosting to see what would hold up the best and taste the best. The following is my favorite of all the different combinations that I tried so I used it tonight to make the family some "St. Patrick's Day Treats". 

I really hadn't planned on making any treats today (it was an extremely busy day) but I couldn't resist those great big brown disappointed eyes on my six-year-old when I said we weren't going to have anything. Sooo... we sent them outside to play while a sneaky leprechan came into our kitchen and brought us some cupcakes with green frosting and some green milk to wash it down. (Sounds amazing, right? I mean especially the green milk...)

White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

12 oz. white chocolate chips, melted
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 Tbsp lemon juice

In a medium bowl, whip the cream cheese with an electric mixer until it is smooth. Add the melted white chocolate and beat until soft and creamy. Add lemon juice and mix again to fully incorporate. Pipe over cooled cookies or cupcakes.

Mellissa's Birthday Cake

I am an amateur cake artist. I like to bake. I like to draw.. so cake decorating should come naturally, right? *snort* Not so much... Here is an evolution of cakes:

Mellissa's 1st birthday

Savanna's 4th Birthday

Savanna's 6th birthday

Marsa's 2nd birthday

Yes I know there's a lot of gaps.. The missing cakes were SO terrible I didn't even take pictures! My favorite mishap was Savanna's 5th birthday cake. She wanted a Dora and Diego cake that was blue with purple frosting and chocolate... Sounds gorgeous right? Ugh!
And here is Mellissa's cake. My crown jewel to this point! It was a lot of fun to make and best of all people never guessed that I actually made it! lol Maybe some day I will look back on this cake and be embarrassed but for now I think it turned out great. :)

My favorite part of this cake was the teapot.. the one in the pictures is a plastic teapot.. but I actually made one out of white chocolate as well that I ended up not using. Last minute I decided that it looked a bit weird, plus I couldn't figure out how to let 14 4-year-olds divide it up... The plastic teapot is a bit big, I think, for the size of the cake but oh well, right?

To make the chocolate teapot, I melted 1 bag (12 oz.) of white chocolate chips that I got on sale over Christmas time. (They were $.89/bag.)
I then lightly sprayed two "balls" in a Wilton mini-ball pan and poured half the melted chocolate into each one.

I let it cool for about 5 minutes in the refrigerator. Then scooped the soft middle out of each half of the ball to make a hollow chocolate shell.

I then used the semi-soft chocolate that I'd scooped out to "glue" the two halves of the ball together. Then I formed a handle, spout, and lid with it and attached that as well. By this point the chocolate was getting pretty hard again, but I just let it warm up a bit in my hands so I could shape it and attach. The rest of the decorations on the teapot were made with tinted Royal icing.

If you're not impressed yet, then I'll tell you that I also made 14 tutus and wings for all the cute little guests as well. Did that do it? I sure hope so since that's why I do these sort of things anyway. To impress all of you folks out there! Seriously, all the hard work was so worth it just to see such a cute group of kids having so much fun!

Cookie Dough Truffles

Honestly, I'm always trying to find new ways to eat cookies! I LOVE them- but I've never been one to eat raw cookie dough. It's the eggs... just thinking of putting raw eggs in my mouth makes me want to throw up! This little quirk has saved me thousands of calories over the years from not sampling the dough as I bake... but this makes up for it right here. Watch out- these are DANGEROUS!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles

8 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup NF dry milk powder
2 ¼ cup all-purpose flour (I used whole wheat for mine and they tasted fine)
1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
½ cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
12 oz semisweet or milk chocolate chips
Mini chocolate chips (for garnish)

Directions:

Combine the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and cream on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the flour, dry milk, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla until incorporated and smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until the mixture has firmed up enough to form balls. (My house is cool enough in the winter that I totally didn't have to refrigerate my dough at all. It was already the perfect consistency!)

Shape the chilled cookie dough mixture into 1-1½ inch balls. Place on a baking sheet lined with wax or parchment paper. Cover loosely, transfer the pan to the freezer and chill for about an hour.

When ready to dip the truffles, *melt the remaining chocolate chips in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water. Dip each chilled truffle, one at a time using a fork, coating in chocolate and shaking gently or tapping against the bowl to remove the excess. (If at any point during dipping, the cookie dough balls become too soft, return to the freezer to chill for 30 minutes.) Transfer to a wax-paper lined surface. If using mini chocolate chips for garnish, sprinkle on top quickly after dipping each truffle before the chocolate sets. Once all the truffles have been dipped, store them in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
*you can also melt the chocolate in the microwave. I microwave mine for 1 minute then stir. Then microwave an additional 30 seconds, stir- 15 seconds, stir until chocolate is smooth and melted. Don't do this if you're not familiar with your microwave though- they're all different and if you burn the chocolate it's useless!*

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Truffles

8 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup white sugar
2 Tbsp water
1/2 cup NF dry milk powder
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 cups all-purpose flour (Again used whole wheat for mine with good results but if you're a texture snob use white flour)
1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 cup peanut butter chips
12-24 oz peanut butter chips
Directions:

Combine the butter, water and sugar in a mixing bowl and cream on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the sweetened condensed milk and vanilla until incorporated and smooth. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, dry milk, cocoa powder and salt. Mix well then add to sugar/butter mixture. Dough will be stiff so use your hands or a dough hook to fully mix.  Stir in the 3/4 cup peanut-butter chips. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until the mixture has firmed up enough to form balls.
Shape the chilled cookie dough mixture into 1-1½ inch balls. Place on a baking sheet lined with wax or parchment paper. Cover loosely, transfer the pan to the freezer and chill for about an hour.

When ready to dip the truffles, melt the remaining peanut butter chips in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water. Dip each chilled truffle, one at a time using a fork, fully coating and shaking gently or tapping against the bowl to remove the excess. (If at any point during dipping, the cookie dough balls become too soft, return to the freezer to chill for 30 minutes.) Transfer to a wax-paper lined surface. Once all the truffles have been dipped, store them in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

Holiday Cookie Exchange

As a last minute idea, I decided this year I'd host a Cookie Exchange. I read about the idea on Msn.com and thought how lovely it would be to have my usual variety of cookies on hand for my family and friends without having to actually bake several different batches of the goodies! Because it was so last minute, I hosted it open-house style and very basic. No activities, no other goodies, not even really any socializing. For the busy holiday prepper it was perfect! We baked our cookies, we met together, we exchanged cookies, we waved goodbye. I had originally thought that if I did this again, I'd make it more of an event rather than just a simple exchanging of cookies... but I gotta say, I loved the simplicity of it all. It may just be the same next year after all!

Here are the stars of the show:

Sugar Cookies with Orange Buttercream Frosting

1 recipe Sugar Cookie dough

Orange Buttercream Frosting

(Submitted by Sheryl Rose)

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup white sugar

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

Zest of 1/2 an orange

In a small saucepan cook flour, orange zest and milk until it forms a ball, stirring constantly. Cool to room temperature. With an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until fluffly. Beat both mixtures together on high speed until fluffy and smooth. Add vanilla and beat until combined. Refrigerate for about 1/2 hour, until it is of spreading consistency.

Bake cookies as directed. Allow to cool completely then frost with Orange Buttercream Frosting. Refrigerate any un-eaten cookies.

Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies **wheat free**
(sub butterscotch chips for raisins to make these dairy free- submitted by Andrea Daley)

3/4 cup Soy butter
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/8 cup real Maple syrup
2 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 3/4 cup oat or spelt flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
4 cups rolled oats (not quick oats)
1 12-oz package butterscotch chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Beat the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Next, add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition so that they are completely incorporated. Beat in vanilla.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and rolled oats. Gradually add the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture. Fold the butterscotch chips into the cookie dough.

Drop by heaping tablespoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet, 2 inches spaced to allow for spread. Bake for 9 minutes or until edges are lightly golden brown. Cool on the sheet for 5 minutes before removing to cooling racks.

Peanut Butter Blossoms
(submitted by Meg McInnes)

36 Hershey Kisses
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/3 cup white sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
2 Tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
*enough sugar to roll the cookies into

Unwrap chocolates. Beat shortening and peanut butter together until blended. Add sugars, beat until fluffy. Add egg, milk and vanilla. Mix well. Stir in the rest of the ingredients except extra sugar and unwrapped chocolate kisses. Roll dough into 1 inch balls. Roll balls in sugar and place on a slightly greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees F for 9-11 minutes. After removing cookies from oven, immediately place a kiss in the middle of each cookie (It will crack the cookie.) Remove cookie to cooling rack and allow to cool.

Texas Governor's Mansion Cowboy Cookies
(submitted by Tamara Pilcher)

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 T. baking powder
1 T. baking soda
1 T. ground cinnamon
1 t. salt
1 1/2 c. butter, at room temp.
1 1/2 c. granulated sugar
1 1/2 c. packed light-brown sugar
3 eggs
1 T. vanilla
3 c. semisweet chocolate chips
3 c. old-fashioned oates
2 c. sweetened flaked coconut
2 c. chopped pecans (8 ounces), optional

Heat oven to 350. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in bowl. In 8 -quart bowl, beat butter on medium speed until smooth and creamy. Gradually beat in sugars; beat to combine, 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each. Beat in vanilla. Stir in flour mixture until just combined. Add chocolate chips,oats, coconut and pecans. Drop dough by 1/4 c. onto ungreased baking sheet, spacing 3 inches apart. Bake in 350 degree oven 17-20 minutes, until edges are lightly browned; rotate sheets halfway through. Makes about 3 dozen large cookies. Could make 90 medium cookies, bake about 10 minutes. Use your own judgment.

Candy Cane Chocolate Chip Cookies
(submitted by Stephanie Schiess)

 
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup butter
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
12 oz (2 cups) milk chocolate chips
1 package peppermint candy canes, unwrapped and crushed
 
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Combine butter and sugars, mix until creamy. Add eggs and mix well. Add soda, salt, vanilla and flour. Mix until well combined. Fold in chocolate chips and candy cane pieces. Drop by teaspoonful onto ungreased cookie sheets spacing at least 1-2 inches apart. Bake 8-10 minutes until edges are golden brown. Allow to cool on cookie sheets about 5 minutes before removing to cooling racks.
 


Krispie Cookies

(submitted by Julie Edwards)
 
1 cup butter
1 tsp. Baking powder
1 cup white sugar
1 tsp. Vanilla
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups rice krispies
2 eggs
2 cups oats (regular, not quick)
2 cups flour
1 cup coconut
1 tsp. Baking soda
1 cup chopped pecans
1 to 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Cream butter and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat well. Mix flour, soda and baking soda together, then blend into first mixture. Stir in rice krispies, oats, coconut, and pecans. Drop by teaspoon full on cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.


 
For the following two cookies, I used my chocolate cookie mix for the cookie itself with the following additions:

Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

(submitted by yours truly)

1 recipe chocolate cookie mix, prepared

36 mini Reese's Peanut Butter cups, unwrapped

(For these I found a new thing this year- a package of mini peanut butter cups all unwrapped and ready to eat!... Heaven help us all...)

Prepare cookies as directed on mix except when time to bake, roll dough into 1-inch ball and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Press a peanut butter cup into the center of each unbaked cookie. Bake 6-8 minutes in 350 degree oven until edges dry and crack slightly. These cookies are small, they don't need to bake long.

Chocolate Caramel Cookies

For these cookies, I used the same chocolate cookie mix as I used above but in the center, I added some home-made vanilla caramel. Instead of just pressing the caramel into the center of the cookie, I wrapped the dough around the caramel and then baked as directed above. I think they turned out yummy and a little different, but I have to be honest... my neighbor totally upstaged me by adding chocolate covered caramels into the center of each cookie and then rolling the cookies into sugar. Dah! Why didn't I think of that? They were DELICIOUS! (More delicious than mine..)

 
 

These weren't exactly cookies- I'm not sure what to call them except yummy! They had a mixture of nuts, cereal and marshmallows. My kids devoured them! Thanks to Michele K.!!