Molasses Spice Cookies

I found this recipe for Molasses Spice Cookies in Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours. I don't have the patience for cookie recipes which require you to chill the dough, blah, blah. So I just made it a drop cookies recipe instead. The ingredients remain the same, except I used salted butter and dark brown sugar.

MOLASSES SPICE COOKIES

350 degree oven

Makes about 3 dozen cookies

Whisk together

2 1/3 cups all purpose flour

2 TSP baking soda

1/2 TSP salt

2 TSP ground ginger

1/2 TSP ground cinnamon

1/4 TSP ground allspice

double pinch of black pepper

In a separate bowl mix well

12 TBSP salted butter, room temp

1 CUP packed dark brown sugar

1/2 CUP regular molasses

1 large egg

Stir dry mix into wet & mix well.

Finish off with a blender.

Place 1/2 CUP granulated white sugar in a shallow bowl,

then drop spoonfuls of dough into bowl.

Coat each dough ball (1 1/2 inch) with sugar.

Place cookies about 2 inches apart on greased cookie sheet.

Bake 12 minutes at 350 degrees.

Lemon Cookies

Eat these lemon cookies right out of the oven for their softness. Allowed to cool, they become crisp, but remain just as delicious.

LEMON COOKIES

Prep time 15 minutes

Oven 350 degrees

Mix together

1 stick of salted butter, softened**

**30 seconds in the microwave will do the trick

and 1 cup of white sugar

Add in

1 egg

1/8 cup whole milk

1 TSP lemon extract

rind of half a lemon, finely grated

Beat 3 minutes until light and fluffy

In a separate bowl whisk together

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/4 TSP salt

1 TSP baking powder

1/8 TSP baking soda

Stir dry mix into the wet,

then finish off with a mixer for 2-3 minutes

Add 4-6 drops of yellow food coloring.

Mix until color is spread evenly throughout.

Place 1/3 cup of white sugar in a shallow bowl.

Drop teaspoons of dough into bowl one at a time rolling into a ball about 1-11/2" in size. Coat all sides with sugar.

Colored sugar is great. Try pink sugar with the yellow of the cookies for a beautiful treat.

Place sugar coated balls onto greased cookie sheet about 2-3 inches apart.

Press down with thumb in the middle of each dough ball just enough that the ball doesn't roll, but not too deeply.

Bake 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees.

Served warm, the lemon cookies are warm, soft and fragrant. Once they cool they will become crisp, not hard, still delicious, and perfect for lunch boxes.

3 lb of Red Delicious Apples: Apple Pie and Apple Brown Betty

Red delicious apples can only be appreciated in a tasty dessert. Red delicious apples may be red but they are not delicious. The only time I buy them is when they are on sale and I want a baked apple dessert. With a 3 lb bag, I can make a pie and a brown betty.

The first recipe, apple crumble pie, comes from the BH&G New cookbook. The lemon gives the apple the perfect tartness and the apples remain solid, not turning to mush when sliced into half moons.
APPLE CRUMBLE PIE

Oven 375 degrees

Thinly slice 6 cups of peeled apples.

Sprinkle apple slices with 3TBSP of lemon juice.

Combine

1/2 cup of sugar

2 TBSP all purpose flour

1/2 TSP grated lemon peel

dry peel is what I usually use, but fresh will add to the tartness even more.

Toss the apples with the sugar mixture.

Stir well.

Immediately add sugar coated apples to a frozen pie crust. Regular depth is fine if you gently press the mixture into the pan.

For the topping combine

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/2 TSP cinnamon

1/4 TSP ginger

1/8 TSP mace, a must for the best flavor.

Wisk well mixing all the spices into the flour.

Add 1/4 cup cold butter, divided well into 1/2 TBSP size.

Add butter to the topping mix.

Stir to coat the butter

Then using a pastry blender, incorporate the butter. You will be left with a grainy crumble when complete.

Top the pie with the crumble topping.

Line the edges of the pan with AL foil to keep the crust from burning. Done properly, the crust will end up glazed and beautiful.

Bake for 30 minutes at 375 with the foil in place. Then bake another 30 minutes with the foil removed.

Allow to cool before serving.
The Apple Brown Betty was found at cooks.com with a the ingredients listed and not much in the way of either instruction or spice. With a few changes, I've made it my own.

APPLE BROWN BETTY

350 degrees

Peel and slice 4-7 apples into half moon shapes.

Combine 1/2 cup sugar

and 1 TSP cinnamon

Sprinkle apples with the sugar mix and stir well.

Pour apples into an greased 8x11 pan.

Topping

Next combine

3/4 CUP all purpose flour

3/4 CUP brown sugar

1/8 TSP mace

1 TSP cinnamon

Dash of Nutmeg

Cut 1/2 CUP cold butter into the topping mixture.

Then stir in 3/4 CUP regular dry oats.

Add the topping to the apples.

** This makes a lot of topping. The first time I tried this I had so few apples I used an 8x8 pan and only half the topping. I saved the other half and used it to make an 8x8 blueberry brown betty later on. The kids preferred the apple version; my husband, the blueberry.

Bake 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

Stir in options & substitutions

Apple Brown Betty

Add 1/2 CUP walnuts and 1/4 CUP raisins

Blueberry Brown Betty

Substitute 2-3 cups of fresh blueberries for the apples.

Add 1/2 cup of pecans to the blueberry version if desired.

Substitution

Consider substituting 1 cup granola cereal for the oats.

This makes a great lunch addition for brown baggers.

The Pound Cake - a southern tradition

My grandmother's pound cake set the standard for Southern pound cake perfection; unfortunately, I never got her recipe. It wasn't until years later that my husband's cousin Debby brought a sour cream pound cake to a family party that I found the right base recipe.

It took a little trial and error and later, some bold experimentation to create a lemon cake and eventually an orange pound cake that had the right flavor, fragrant scent, and most importantly, the right texture.

The store offerings are rectangular cakes that are never dense enough, too wet and lack a proper crust. The southern pound cake is baked in a round tube pan or bundt shape. The heavy weight of a pound cake speaks to its dense texture. The top crust of the cake it just this side of crisp, not quite crunchy and should never have a glaze added until after a slice is offered. Cooked too long in an attempt to crisp the crust, the moistness of the cake can be compromised. The best cake can be eaten alone, toasted, glazed or covered in fruit.

SOUR CREAM POUND CAKE

350 degrees

Grease and flour TUBE PAN- a bundt pan is too small.

Mix together
3 sticks salted butter - room temperature
3 cups of sugar
6 large eggs - room temperature

In a separate bowl, combine
3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda

Add half of flour mixture to butter mixture.
Mix thoroughly.
Then add
1 cup full fat sour cream
Mix thoroughly.
Add the remaining flour and mix well.

Add 4 tsp vanilla extract

Mix well.

Add cake mix to prepared pan.
Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour 10 minutes.

Allow the cake to cool completely on a wire rack. Wrap the cake completely in AL foil overnight and serve the next day.

The crust
Any pound cake lover knows the top must have a firm, almost crisp "top crust". Don't leave a cake in the oven thinking that you'll pull it out when the crust is perfect. If you wait that long, you'll lose moistness and with the thickness of a pound cake, that's a bad thing. It'll leave you reaching for the water to choke it down. The crust will crisp as it cools. Only when it is completely cool, should it be wrapped in AL foil. Wrapped warm, any heat will be trapped otherwise and you end up peeling the cake off the paper and losing the crispness of the top crust.

STRAWBERRY TOPPING

Strawberries are a great compliment to the sour cream pound cake.

Slice strawberries and sprinkle with sugar. Stir well and set aside in the frig for an hour to allow the sugar to draw the juices out. Allow each person to ladle on the strawberries.

The lemon pound is moist and perfectly lemony. Click on the picture to see an up close view of the moist inside.

LEMON POUND CAKE

350 degrees

Grease and flour TUBE PAN- a bundt pan is too small.

Mix together
Rind of one lemon
Meat of one lemon- remove seeds and skin.
3 sticks salted butter - room temperature
3 cups of sugar
6 large eggs - room temperature

In a separate bowl, combine
3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda

Add half of flour mixture to butter mixture.
Mix thoroughly.
Then add
1 cup full fat sour cream
Mix thoroughly.
Add the remaining flour and mix well.

Add 4 tsp lemon extract
AND 1 1/2 TBSP lemon juice.

Mix well.

Add cake mix to prepared pan.
Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour 10 minutes.

For the best cake texture, the true southern method requires that the cake cool completely on a wire rack. Then it is wrapped completely in AL foil overnight and served the next day.

LEMON GLAZE (optional)

The glaze is served on the side.

2/3 cup confectioner's sugar

2 TBSP lemon juice

1 TSP grated lemon rind

The smell was intoxicating. We couldn't wait for this orange pound cake to cool, so we cut off a couple of hot slices. When right out of the oven, the cake isn't as dense as a normal pound cake. It was very good, with a distinct orange flavor, but a proper pound cake needs time to set up.

ORANGE POUND CAKE
350 degrees

Grease and flour TUBE PAN- a bundt pan is too small.

Mix together
Rind of one orange
Pulp of one orange- remove seeds and skin
Include any juice gleaned from the orange.
3 sticks salted butter - room temperature
3 cups of sugar
6 large eggs - room temperature

In a separate bowl, combine
3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda

Add half of flour mixture to butter mixture.
Mix thoroughly.
Then add
1 cup full fat sour cream
Mix thoroughly.
Add the remaining flour and mix well.

Add 4 tsp orange extract
plus 4 drops red food coloring
and 4 drops yellow food coloring
This will give it a hint of color. It will reinforce the orange flavoring. Added color really does influence people's perceptions of flavor. This is not a creamsicle orange flavored cake. It is a fragrant, delicately flavored cake and the color serves to enhance the orange taste.

Mix well.

Add cake mix to prepared pan.
Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour 10 minutes.

For the best cake texture, the true southern method requires that the cake cool completely on a wire rack. Then it is wrapped completely in AL foil overnight and served the next day. Rewrap with foil to keep the moisture in.

ORANGE GLAZE (optional)

The glaze should be a side, offered to each person separately with their cake slice.

You don't want to ruin the crust and each person has a difference tolerance for added sweetness. A creamer makes a great server for the glaze.

1 tsp fresh orange rind
3 tbsp orange juice The pulp added variety adds a nice texture.
Just enough confectioners sugar to make a thin glaze. Add a 1/4 cup at a time paring down to a tbsp at a time to reach your perfect consistency. A drop of orange juice if you need to thin it.

Banana Bread

Note the corners are a little too brown to be picture perfect but the inside was just right.

Found a banana bread recipe online that I used as a base. The bread had a wet gummy bottom layer when I tried it several times so I've reduced the bananas and opted for butter over shortening.
The cooking time is always over or short 10 minutes based on how old the bananas are so watch the last 10-15 minutes carefully.

BANANA BREAD
Oven 350 degrees

Grease a 9x5 bread pan

Beat together
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 brown sugar
2 eggs
2 cups of over ripe bananas, packed

Wisk together
2 cups all purpose flour
1 TSP baking soda
1/4 TSP salt

Add dry mix to wet and mix well.

Fold in 1/2 cup chopped walnuts.
(Pecans are an acceptable substitute.)

Bake 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes.
At 55 minutes, begin to keep an eye on it. The last 10-15 minutes are iffy and can result in either an undercooked inside or a too brown top.
Done when a knife comes out clean.

Carrot Cake with cream cheese icing

I can't claim credit for the cake recipe but the cream cheese frosting is one I've tweaked by DOUBLING the cream cheese from the original recipe. I can't stand grainy, over sugary icing. It is a very moist cake because the carrot is grated very small and packed when measuring. Because it's an oil cake the edges have an "crisp edge", unlike butter cakes with seem to have "softer" edges. This recipe came from the BH&G New Cook book. Careful not to undercook even by a few minutes as the cake top will be sticky when you ice it.

CARROT CAKE

325 degrees

Grease and flour 2# 9" cake pans.

Mix together
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 TSP baking powder
1 TSP baking soda
1 TSP salt
1 TSP cinnamon

Finely grate (very small)
3 CUPS carrots (peeled first please)
**packed not loose

Add carrots and
1 CUP vegetable oil
4 Eggs
to the dry mix and mix well.

Pour mix into 2# 9"round cake pans

Bake 40 minutes at 325 degrees.

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
6 oz cream cheese - room temp.
1/4 cup salted butter - room temp
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar

Mix well, the longer the better.

The frosting will barely cover the cake, so take it easy topping the bottom layer.