Snickerdoodle Biscotti

I had never made biscotti before tonight. I was watching an episode of Giada De Laurentiis the other day and she made a biscotti for Christmas. It looked fairly easy so I though it was no big deal... I was right! I saw this recipe on Fountain Avenue Kitchen (written by Ann Fulton) today and since I had everything it called for in the kitchen I decided to try it tonight. Super easy and yummy!!!! I don't drink tea or coffee, but I'm pretty sure this would go great with it :) 

 

 

 

 

Snickerdoodle Biscotti

 

Ingredients

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 large eggs

 

 

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 large egg white

 

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

 

2. Measure flour into a large bowl being careful not to pack the flour into the measuring cups. (Scoop into cups and then level with a knife to prevent getting too much flour.)

 

3. Add the 1 cup sugar, baking powder and salt.

 

4. Mix the oil, vanilla and 3 whole eggs in a small bowl. Add to the large bowl. Your dough will be dry and quite crumbly.

 

5. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Knead and sort of mush together. At first it will seem too dry–I was skeptical the first time!–but it will come together.

 

6. Divide in half. Shape each portion into a roll about 8 inches long, and place them several inches apart on a cookie sheet lined with parchment.

 

7. Flatten each roll so they are about 1 inch thick.

 

8. Combine the 2 tablespoons sugar and cinnamon. Brush the tops of the rolls with the egg white and then sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. It may seem like too much, but sprinkle it all on, tilting the baking sheet a bit so you can get the sides, too.

 

9. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

 

10. Remove loaves from the baking sheet and cool for 15 minutes.

 

11. Cut diagonally into 1/2 inch slices and lay them cut sides down on the cookie sheet again.

 

12. Reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees. Bake 10 more minutes, turn over and bake 10 minutes more. They will be soft in the middle but will harden as they cool.

 

13. Cool completely on a wire rack and store in an airtight container.

King Arthur's Fudge Brownies

I never, ever thought I would be the kind of person who LOVES a certain kind of flour. Ever. But guess what, I am!!! King Arthur Flour is my favorite flour to use. If you have never looked at their website and love to bake, or knows someone who loves to bake, then I suggest checking out their site immediately. I subscribe to their catalog and they have the coolest, high-quality ingredients. This is an amazing company and I can't say enough about it. http://www.kingarthurflour.com/

Now, these brownies... holy moly. They are deep, rich and intensely chocolate-y. I found this recipe on Barbara Bakes, a really fun food blog, and I had to try it. The only cocoa I had readily available was Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa, so that's what I used. I don't know if they could be any better using King Arthur's Double-Dutch Dark Cocoa, but if so then please don't ever tell me! These are great. I broke my diet and ate 2 last night. And I had one for dinner. Calories are free on the weekends, right? I had to send the rest of them home with my friends Jenn and Ryan today on their trip back to Oklahoma. I hope they enjoyed them as much as I did!

This is Barbara's picture. For some reason I cannot remember my camera lately!

King Arthur Fudge Brownies

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

2 1/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 1/4 cups Double-Dutch Dark Cocoa or Dutch-process cocoa
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour
2 cups (12 oz. bag) chocolate chips

Directions

1) Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9″ x 13″ pan

2) In a medium-sized microwave-safe bowl, or in a saucepan set over low heat, melt the butter, then add the sugar and stir to combine. Return the mixture to the heat (or microwave) briefly, just until it’s hot (about 110°F to 120°F), but not bubbling; it’ll become shiny looking as you stir it. Heating this mixture a second time will dissolve more of the sugar, which will yield a shiny top crust on your brownies.

3) While the sugar heats a second time, crack the 4 eggs into a bowl, and beat them with the cocoa, salt, baking powder and vanilla until smooth.

4) Add the hot butter/sugar mixture, stirring until smooth.

5) Add the flour and chips, again stirring until smooth. Note: If you want the chips to remain intact in the baked brownies, rather than melting in, let the batter cool in the bowl for about 20 minutes before stirring in the chips.

6) Spoon the batter into a lightly greased 9″ x 13″ pan.

7) Bake the brownies for about 30 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, or with just a few moist crumbs clinging to it. The brownies should feel set on the edges, and the center should look very moist, but not uncooked. Remove them from the oven and cool on a rack before cutting and serving.

 

Note: Because there are chocolate chips in the batter, you may get melted chocolate onto the cake tester and think they are still raw in the center, so look closely to see if it is melted chocolate or brownie batter on the tester.

Quiche Lorraine Scones

Whenever I'm in Oklahoma City I try to make a trip to visit my friends Jenn and Ryan and see their daughter. We usually do brunch somewhere or I bring some sort of dessert. This time I decided to bring a savory item! I saw this recipe for Quiche Lorraine Scones on Brown-Eyed Baker's blog recently. I'm not a huge quiche fan, but I am a big cheese fan and quiche lorraine just sounded like something Jenn would like. She's fancy. So this is what I took and they were good! I didn't follow the recipe exactly and I wish I had. I put way too much cheese in them. I would recommend following the recipe exactly first and then change it if you wish :) Happy holidays!!!





Bryn means business!!





She's a sweetheart really :)







Quiche Lorraine Scones

Ingredients:

2 cups + 1 teaspoon all-purpose flour, divided
1 tablespoon baking powder
Pinch cayenne pepper
Dash nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons cold butter, diced
½ cup half-and-half
2 eggs
4 ounces Swiss cheese, diced
3 green onions, thinly sliced
7 strips bacon, cooked and crumbled
Egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 teaspoon water)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

2. Prepare the bacon, onion and cheese. Toss these ingredients together with 1 teaspoon flour; set aside.

3. In a medium sized bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, cayenne, nutmeg and salt. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender or two knives until the butter is pea-size. With a fork, lightly beat the eggs and half-and-half and add to the flour mixture. Add the bacon, onion and cheese mixture. Using a wooden spoon, fold mixture until it begins to come together.

4. Turn out the dough onto a well-floured surface and knead gently for less than one minute. Pat dough to ¾ to 1-inch thick and cut using 3-inch biscuit cutter (for large scones) or cut into squares or triangles. Place the scones on the prepared baking sheet. Brush the tops of the scones with the egg wash.

5. Bake for approximately 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Mile-High Pumpkin-Pecan Pie

It's nearing Thanksgiving and last week I started going through recipes trying to decide what to make for our family dinner. My first instinct is to bake at least 6 desserts... but since I have to travel the day before Thanksgiving this year I needed to find some recipes that I could make at least 2 days in advance and would travel well AND I wanted to make sure everyone has something they like.

 

My youngest sister loves pumpkin pie. My second youngest sister (I have 3) loves pecan pie. And they are both teeny tiny skinny little things... not fair!! ;) I don't want to make 5 pies, so I saw this recipe on Martha Stewart's webste and decided that if I could combine the best of both worlds then I'd pretty much hit the jackpot.

 

The crust on this was super simple to make (one of the few times I've actually make a dough pie crust and not fudged it up)! Do watch it closely in the oven though because those edges brown up pretty dang quick.

 

I wasn't satisfied with just cinnamon and nutmeg in the filling so I added a few more! Also, the recipe calls for 1-2 cups of pecan halves... now, I bought a 10 ounce package (2 1/2 cups) and I only used about a 1/4 of it. The remainder went into another cake ;)

 

All in all, huge success. I'm definitely adding this one to the holiday repertoire!! Oh, side note and lesson learned the hard way: this pie is rich, so start with a very small piece! My piece was maybe 1/12 of the pie and I ate every bit of it.... way too much for this lady (and that's saying a lot)

 

picture from marthastewart.com, but this is almost exactly what mine looked like, true to form ;)
 
 

Mile-High Pumpkin-Pecan Pie
Prep time: 30 min                     
Total time: 2 1/2 - 3 hours

For the Crust

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon fine salt
2 sticks cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 to 1/2 cup ice water

For the Filling

1 1/4  cups light-brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon fine salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 can (29 ounces) pure pumpkin puree
1 can (12 ounces) evaporated milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1-2 cups pecan halves

 

Directions

1.   Make the crust: In a food processor, pulse flour, granulated sugar, and salt until combined. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal, with a few pea-size pieces of butter remaining. Add 1/4 cup ice water in a steady stream, pulsing until dough is crumbly but holds together when squeezed (if necessary, add up to 1/4 cup more ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time). Form dough into a disk, wrap tightly in plastic, and refrigerate until firm, 1 hour (or up to 2 days).

 

2.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough just over 1/8 inch thick. Transfer to a 9-inch springform pan, adjusting dough as needed to fit flat against bottom and sides. Trim dough, leaving a 1 1/2-inch overhang (reserve scraps); freeze 15 minutes. Line dough with a double layer of parchment and fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake on a rimmed baking sheet 30 minutes. Carefully remove parchment and weights; use reserved scraps to patch any holes in crust. Bake until deep golden, 30 minutes; cover edge with foil if overbrowning.

3.  Meanwhile, make filling: In a large bowl, whisk together brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, allspice, ginger, and nutmeg. Whisk in eggs, then pumpkin, until smooth. Slowly whisk in milk, cream, and vanilla. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees. With edge covered with foil, pour all but 1 cup filling into crust, return to oven, and carefully add remaining cup filling; bake 1 hour. Remove pie from oven and top with pecans. Bake until filling is just set but slightly wobbly in center, 20 to 25 minutes more. Let cool completely on a wire rack, about 3 hours. With a serrated knife, cut off overhang and unmold.

 

(recipe adapted from: Martha Stewart)

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Growing up my grandma ("Meme") always made a few different pies for holiday dinners. Chocolate, lemon meringue and pumpkin. Pumpkin was the only one I liked and the only time I ever had it was during the holidays with my dad's side of the family.

I'm now closer to 30 than 20 years old and I haven't had pumpkin pie in maybe 8 years. So, I tried it last year and I discovered I'm not a huge pumpkin pie fan. I am, however, a cheesecake fan! I have a really amazing cheesecake recipe that my grandma ("Oma") says is better than hers (I'll share that with you another time). I wanted to make a pumpkin pie because I love the flavor and spices but since I can't get past the texture of it, I decided that combining it with a cheesecake was probably a genius idea. I was right! In conclusion, I'm a genius ;)

The recipe I had planned on using got lost and all I had was the list of ingredients I needed so I made the pumpkin cheesecake like I do my regular cheesecake and prayed it worked. It did. You're welcome. Haha. This is a pretty easy recipe, even though the list of ingredients is longer than I like. You won't regret this one and I guarantee that your family and friends won't complain if you bring this to dinner this holiday season! Enjoy!!

(picture borrowed from Brown Eyed Baker's website)

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Bake Time: 55 to 65 minutes | Yield: 12 to 16 servings

For the Crust:
2 cups gingersnap cookie crumbs (about a 14-oz package of cookies)
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
Pinch of salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

For the Cheesecake:
32 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
¾ cup granulated sugar
½ cup light brown sugar
2 cups (about a 15-oz can) canned pumpkin
4 eggs, at room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon ground allspice

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Double-wrap the bottom and outside of a 9-inch springform pan with heavy duty foil. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into the bottom and up the sides (about halfway) of the springform pan. Bake for 6 to 8 minutes, or until lightly browned. Remove from oven and cool completely. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees F.

2. Beat together the cream cheese and the sugars on medium speed until smooth and creamy, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed to make sure everything is incorporated. Add the pumpkin and mix on low until completely incorporated. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until fully incorporated and scraping down the sides of the bowl between each addition. Add the vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, salt, nutmeg, cloves and allspice and mix on low to incorporate.

3. Pour the batter into the prepared crust. Tap the pan on the counter to release any air bubbles.

4. Bake for 55 to 65 minutes, or until the edges are set, but the middle still jiggles a little. Keeping the oven door closed, turn off the oven and let the cheesecake rest in the oven for 1 hour. After 1 hour, remove the cheesecake from the oven, remove the foil and place the cheesecake on a wire rack to cool completely, about an additional 2 hours. Once completely cool, refrigerate for at least 6 hours (strongly recommend at least overnight!!).

5. Cover any leftover cheesecake with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator.

(Recipe adapted from Brown Eyed Baker)