Other Baked Goodies

Gingerbread Eggnog Trifle

December 28, 2010 by Jenn

Santa's Underwear

Gingerbread Eggnog Trifle

This one is not on my Holiday Baking To Do List, but it should have been! I have a love for my trifle bowl . . . and it is a love that was put on hold for the last year as my trifle bowl went missing last Christmas! Thank goodness my parents found it at their house, put away with the Christmas decorations in the basement. It was just in time too . . . I was about to go in search of a replacement bowl.

I made this recipe up myself . . . I am sure there are 1000 recipes out there on the internet! I’m refusing to look as I don’t want to ruin future attempts of creativity and trying something new! If I don’t know that someone else has thought of it before, I am the genius!

For this recipe, I combined three of my favourite holiday tastes . . . gingerbread, shortbread, and eggnog! Mmmmm . . . I’m salivating at the thought . . . and I already ate (more than) my fair share!

Gingerbread Eggnog Trifle

Ingredients

1 package of Gingerbread Cookies

1 package of Shortbread Cookies

4 cups of Eggnog

2 packages of Vanilla Pudding

250 ml Whipped Cream

1. Make eggnog pudding by using eggnog instead of milk by following the vanilla pudding directions on the box.

2. Whip cream.

3. Crush shortbread cookies into crumbs.

Arrange trifle in these orders: gingerbread, pudding, shortbread, whipping cream . . . repeat until you get to the top. Decorate as you feel inspired to do so!

Gingerbread Layer

Pudding Layer

Shortbread Layer

Whipping Cream Layer

We enjoyed this trifle after Christmas dinner. It was so good, but our poor stomach’s barely had enough room to fit it in. Thank goodness for my 19 year old cousin Jeff, who came back for seconds. Boxing Day . . . we’ll be eating the leftovers!

Happy Holidays from my family to yours.

Filed Under: Holiday Baking, Other Baked Goodies Tagged With: eggnog, gingerbread, shortbread, trifle

Holiday Baking- Baked French Toast Casserole

December 27, 2010 by Jenn

Christmas Morning!

Every Christmas morning my Mom makes Christmas Wife Saver.

Christmas Morning Wife Saver

You can find it in the Best of Bridge Series (if you can’t, let me know and I’ll get you the recipe). Nothing is tastier than Wife Saver after you have been working up a sweat unwrapping your Christmas presents and arguing over whose turn it is to open first this round (yes my family must open presents in order!).

This year, I set out to find something that complimented my Mom’s signature dish. She did the savoury, so of course I went for the sweet . . . Baked French Toast Casserole. I have to thank my friend Janine (new name- London’s mom!) for inspiring me to search for a recipe of this sort. Every time Janine joins her American relatives across the border, she is in charge of baking French Toast Casserole. Since she just had a beautiful baby (London Ashley) I didn’t feel it was the time to ask her to dig into her recipe vault to find her tried and true tasty concoction! After searching through my many favourite food sites, I settle on Baked French Toast Casserole with a praline topping.

Baked French Toast Casserole

Inspired from http://alyssastwobites.blogspot.com

Ingredients:
1 loaf of French bread (13 to 16 ounces)

8 large eggs

2 cups half-and-half

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Praline Topping:

1/2 cup butter

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1 cup chopped pecans

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions:

Slice French bread into 20 slices, 1-inch each. Arrange slices in a generously buttered 9×13 inch flat baking dish in 2 rows, overlapping the slices. In a large bowl, combine the eggs, half-and-half, milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt and beat with a rotary beater until blended but not too bubbly. Pour mixture over the bread slices, making sure all is covered evenly with the milk-egg mixture. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Spread Praline Topping evenly over the bread and bake for 40 minutes, until puffed and lightly golden.

The original recipe says to serve with maple syrup, but I found that it was definitely sweet enough without it . . . honestly, it was almost too sweet (seriously . . . I know that it doesn’t sound believable!)

Filed Under: Holiday Baking, Other Baked Goodies Tagged With: baked french toast, praline topping

Holiday Baking- Maple Cream Cookies

December 27, 2010 by Jenn

My Grandma is celebrating her 96th Christmas this year. What do you get for a woman who has celebrated her 96th Christmas? I think by the time I reach that age (if the genes carry on) I will be satisfied with enough christmas “stuff.” I have done the books on tape (she has Macular Degeneration so is no longer able to read), Christmas CD’s (she loved that Charlotte Church girl in the 90’s), Christmas scenes for her mantle, World’s Best Grandma signs . . . blah, blah, blah. This year, I decided that I would shove my new love of blogging/baking in her direction and make her favourite cookie! Now, this is always a gamble, because if you have ever conversed with someone in their 90’s, they tend to be fairly set in their ways. My Grandma likes her Maple Cream cookies . . . from the store! I decided that the risk would be worth it . . . and at the very least, I would get a blog post, and another check off on my Holiday Baking List from it. Merry Christmas Grandma! I hope you liked the cookies. Here’s to many more Christmas’ together.

Looking pretty fabulous for her 96th Christmas!

Maple Cream Cookies

adapted from http://sweetpeaskitchen.com

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

Add the egg and maple extract; beat at medium speed until combined, about 30 seconds.

Add the dry ingredients and beat at low speed until just combined, about 30 seconds, scraping down the bowl as needed.

Divide dough into two balls and flatten each ball into a disk. Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoon maple extract
4 tablespoon butter, room temperature
1 cup confectioners sugar
2 tablespoon maple syrup

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Remove dough from refrigerator onto a lightly floured surface.
With a rolling pin, roll the dough out to 1/4-inch thickness. Use a maple leaf cookie cutter to cut out cookies, placing on prepared baking sheet.
Bake cookies in preheated oven 8-10 minutes, or until edges just start to brown.
Cool the cookies on the baking sheets about 3 minutes; using a wide metal spatula, transfer the cookies to a wire rack and cool to room temperature.
While cookies are cooling, make the filling by creaming butter in a stand mixer. Add confectioners sugar and maple syrup and beat until combined and smooth.
Using a knife or spoon, spread the filling onto the backside side of the cookie. Top with another cookie, backside down. Repeat with the remaining cookies.

Filed Under: Cookies, Holiday Baking Tagged With: cookies, maple cream cookies, sandwich cookies

Holiday Baking- Chocolate Covered Potato Chips

December 24, 2010 by Jenn

Only six more recipes to go on my Holiday Baking To Do List! Uh, why didn’t someone try to stop me when I started that list? It was a tad bit adventurous when you think this is my first couple months doing this blogging thing. I’m so in love with baking now (and blogging!) . . . thank god I love it as I have a lot more baking to complete . . . and tonight is Christmas Eve Eve! Happy penultimate to the penultimate! I think I’m going to have to save the rest of the recipes for after Christmas, or I won’t get to have any family time.

This one is a gooder 🙂 Sweet. Salty. Sweet and Salty. Sweet and salty goodness.

Apparently this type of treat is big in Eastern Canada. I had never heard of them before, and stumbled upon the delightfulness on ManifestVegan.com. I love chocolate covered pretzels. Strike that, I love chocolate covered anything! I figured chocolate covered chips would be an amped up version of the pretzel treat. And boy was I right! So delicious. If you are a sweet and salty combo fan, you MUST make this.

Here you go:

Chocolate Covered Potato Chips

makes 30 individual chips

Ingredients:

30 uniform and unbroken salted potato chips (use your favorite here- I used Lay’s Wavy Original)
1 bag chocolate candy melts (or chocolate chips . . . I had a new bag of melts I wanted to try out)

Directions:

Sort through your potato chips and make sure they are all in pristine condition. No cracks, brakes, bumps, folds, etc. Set aside so that you can easily get to them once your chocolate has melted . . . you can eat the broken and small ones 🙂

Melt chocolate chips until smooth. I used the microwave on 50% power, one minute at a time. Stir after each minute, even if it looks like nothing is happening, something is!

Dip one potato chip at a time into the meted chocolate, using a small spoon to help glide the chocolate over the entire chip. You can’t dip the chip straight in and then pull it out perfectly covered in chocolate (as great as that would be). I ended up having to smear it on the chips.

Place chocolate covered potato chip onto wax paper. Repeat with all chips until thoroughly covered. Add some colorful sprinkles, if desired.

Let chocolate harden and then serve. I put them in the refrigerator to cool for about 20 mins, then I set them free on my guinea pig friends that were over at my place.

Sooooo delish.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Filed Under: Holiday Baking, Other Baked Goodies Tagged With: chocolate, chocolate covered potato chips, potato chips

A Tale of Two Truffles

December 23, 2010 by Jenn

A Guest Blog Post! The first of many . . . hopefully. Thanks for joining me Gretchen!

My (Jenn’s) Side of the Adventure:

Yesterday Gretchen and I spent the day baking! A dual baking attempt that could have gone really wrong . . . as we are both a tiny bit obsessive-often about the same things, but on rare occasions, we obsess about opposite minute details. I’m pleased to say that we are still talking to each other, and doing this blog post together! FAB!

See, I AM learning how to share! For those of you that don’t know me very well, I am NOT good at sharing. Yes, I teach Kindergarten and spend all day talking about how “In Kindergarten, we share everything!” (good ole Robert Munsch), but lets face it, Kindergarten is not the real world, and I clearly missed that lesson when I went through school. I blame my parents. Full stop. Just kidding Mom and Dad! I blame my brother. Seriously. If I had had a sister, I would have had to share clothes, toys, etc, but having a brother meant he had HeMan, and I had SheRa. We could play together when we wanted, but when SheRa was mad at HeMan, they could play in their own castles. I was always a bit obsessive about my possessions, and anytime Steve touched anything of mine (I could sense when he put one toe in my room) I would freak out. Clarifying Statement -Steve, I do not wish I had a sister . . . you are the best sibling anyone could ask for!

I have matured (aka-learned how to hide this) and don’t freak out anymore (lie), and in fact, have relinquished control to let Gretchen write whatever she wants. On my blog. I trust her completely. Gretchen, don’t mess up. xo

Gretchen’s Side of the Adventure:
After having coveted my “besties” awesome blog for some time here I am a) guest posting and b) very excited! We have been talking about the idea of baking together and finally found the time. Yah!

Over the course of our friendship Jenn and I discovered that we have many things in common, in addition to baking we are both can be a tad obsessive and enjoy being in complete control of most situations (hey why do you think we are both teachers?). I start my baking projects with a “vision” and sometimes struggle to alter my plan. Well this could be a recipe for, no not truffles, but disaster.

However success was ours. We baked the afternoon away, shared great conversation, laughed and cooperated! We are still friends and now have a delicious selection of truffles.

THANK YOU Jenn for inviting me to bake with you and to go so far as to let me post on your fabulous blog! I hope I didn’t mess up! xo g

Recipes are SUPER easy.

Maple Cream Truffles, Oreo Truffles

You take one package of your favourite cookies . . .

. . . grind them up in your food processor or blender . . .

. . . add one block of cream cheese (at room temperature), mix and roll into balls about 1″ in size! Freeze for about 20 minutes, or cool for a couple of hours in the fridge. This step is important as the cooler the truffle, the easier it is to roll in the chocolate coating.

Last step is to melt one bag of chocolate chips, or 10 oz of melting wafers, drop the truffle into the chocolate, roll around to coat it, then drop it back onto the cookie tray. If you use a fork to lift the truffle out of the chocolate, the excess chocolate will drip off, which is what you want.

We tried toothpicks, skewers, big spoons, little spoons, forks…there doesn’t seem to be an “easy” way to dip them.

Make sure to add your toppings/finishing touches before the chocolate hardens again. Work fast!

Left to right . . . Maple Cream, Oreo rolled in cookie crumbs, Oreo with white chocolate drizzled onto of dark chocolate coating, Maple Cream, Oreo with an Oreo piece on top, Oreo with mint chocolate chips. The possibilities are endless!

Filed Under: Holiday Baking, Other Baked Goodies Tagged With: guest blog, maple cream truffles, oreo truffles, truffles

Holiday Baking-Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies

December 21, 2010 by Jenn

Seriously, this cookie has the BEST filling in the middle of it. I, literally, had to refrain from sticking my tongue into the bowl . . . while the beater was beating. It’s just that good. I took the beater off the second it was finished . . . and this is what happened.

SO GOOD!!

I spent a lot of time working with my new camera this morning, and I think I have a couple of things figured out. Well, I do one minute, then can’t remember what I did to get the affect when I try to do it again! It’s coming though . . . and it hasn’t been in my possession 24 hours.

Poinsettia in focus

Tree in focus

Uhhhh...not too sure

Linzer Cookies-Revamped

Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies

Mmmmmmm . . . it was love at first taste.

Best new kitchen tool ever! It’s called the Measure All Cup by Pampered Chef! So easy and so handy. You can use solid, dry, or liquid ingredients. You just set it at your required amount, load it up, and then push the bottom out and every smidgen of the ingredient comes out! My hate on for molasses may be coming to an end.

Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookie Recipe

(recipe adapted from www.othersideoffifty.com)

1/2 cup chunky peanut butter
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (I used white as it was all that I had)

Cream together the peanut butters, shortening, butter and brown sugar in a large mixing bowl. Beat in the eggs and vanilla, scraping down the bowl and beaters after mixing. In a smaller bowl whisk together the baking soda, salt, and flours. Add flour mixture to the creamed mixture and mix well to combine.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls two inches apart on ungreased baking sheet. Flatten slightly with a fork. (I used the plunger from my food processor.) Bake for 8-9 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for a minute or two on baking sheet before moving to cooling rack to cool completely.

Peanut Butter Cream Filling
1 cup smooth peanut butter
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups marshmallow Fluff
1/3 cup milk
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
2/3 cup powdered sugar in a mixing bowl beat together all ingredients except for the powdered sugar until smooth. Gradually add the powdered sugar and beat well to combine.

To assemble the sandwiches:

Take a tablespoonful of the peanut butter cream and place on bottom of one cookie. Take another cookie and place it, bottom side down, on top of the cream-topped cookie. Flatten slightly to spread the cream evenly.

In my happy place.

Watch out for your tongue in the beaters when you make this!

Enjoy.

Filed Under: Cookies, Holiday Baking Tagged With: cookies, marshmallow fluff, peanut butter, peanut butter cookies

Holiday Baking-Cookie Press Almond Spritz

December 21, 2010 by Jenn

These cookies turned out so bad that I almost wasn’t even going to bother with posting them, but I figured, hey, I’m learning, this is a learning opportunity. Besides, maybe someone will have the same problems that I encountered.

Paul, *sigh*, was attempting to help, but such comments as “You need more water in your dough” were not helping at the time of my frustrational peak. It’s a good thing he surprised me with a NEW CAMERA! He got me a Sony 10.2 Megapixel DSLR. I’m still in shock. Such an amazing, practical present for his blogging girlfriend! Don’t you just love getting presents that you would never buy for yourself? So, in the midst of my cookie breakdown, I was at least able to play with my new toy . . . even though it is so beautiful that I don’t want to touch it . . . I might wreck it!

I have already learned the importance of clean hands + camera= necessity.

Be patient as I learn how to work the camera . . . slightly different than my old point and shoot!

Anyway, back to the Almond Spritz Cookie Press Cookies. As I was saying, these were a bit of a disaster. You might not think so from the picture, but there were 25 others hiding behind the camera that I did not take a picture of. I found it difficult to maintain the proper tension on the trigger while pressing down, and while trying to get the cookie dough to stay stuck to the counter top surface. In reading tips prior to starting, it was mentioned a number of times not use a non-stick surface as the dough needs something to “pull” it out of the tube. I ended up with a couple of trees, candy canes, snowmen/angel looking things . . . and some other undistinguishable shapes.

Another annoyance . . . the sprinkles didn’t stick to the cookies!!!!!!! Grrrrr.

Almond Spritz Cookies

1 cup butter at room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 egg

2 1/2 tsp almond extract

1/4 tsp salt

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

Preheat oven to 375 F

Combine the butter and sugar in a large bowl. Using an electric mixer set on medium speed, beat until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, almond and salt. Using a spoon, stir in the flour until well mixed. Pack the dough into the cookie press. Fit with the desired disk design. Press the dough out onto ungreased baking sheet spacing the cookies 1″ apart. Bake until lightly golden, about 10-12 minutes. Gently transfer the cookies to wire rack to cool. Decorate as desired.

Filed Under: Cookies, Holiday Baking Tagged With: cookie, cookie press

Holiday Baking- Linzer Cookies

December 19, 2010 by Jenn

Two Down, many, many to go . . .

I have never made Linzer Cookies before, and after changing my mind and NOT making them for our cookie exchange I had to conquer them! And conquer I did. They are delicate, multistep, time consuming cookies, but they are beautiful! I just made them sound really hard . . . they’re not at all. Sorry cookies 🙁

First step . . . roast almonds and make the almond paste-like mixture . . . 1 cup of roasted almonds, 1/4 cup of sugar.

Using a mixer, cream butter and sugar.

Add zest from one lemon. I used my new Pampered Chef lemon zester, and wholly crow, it’s the best tool ever! FULL length zests.

Add in almond mixture and flour, cinnamon and salt. Beat until just mixed.

Form into two rectangle 1/2 pieces and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Next steps are to roll out the dough . . . which was slightly crumbly, so next time I might add a 1/4 cup more butter . . . and cut out bottoms and tops.

Bottoms

Bake at 350 for 12-14 minutes.

Tops

Sprinkle with icing sugar to coat tops.

Use about 1/2 tsp of seedless raspberry jam and or lemon spread to make the inner filling for the cookies. I used a small spoon to spread the jam on and filled in extra after I had the top on. Be careful not to touch the icing sugar on the tops!

Recipe:

Linzer Cookies

1 c roasted almonds
2 c all purpose flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
1 c butter, softened
2/3 c sugar, divided
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 egg yolks
Zest of 1 lemon
Icing sugar for dusting
1/2 cup (118 ml) seedless Raspberry Jam (I also used Lemon Spread)

Preheat the oven to 350F (175C). Toast the almonds on a baking sheet for about 8-10 minutes (or until lightly browned and fragrant). Once the nuts have cooled, place in a food processor and process with 1/4 cup of the sugar from the recipe until finely ground. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, whisk or sift together the flour, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), cream the butter and remaining sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla extract, egg yolks, and lemon zest. Beat in the ground nuts. Add the flour mixture beating just until incorporated. Divide the dough in half and shape into two rectangles about 1/2 inch thick. Wrap the two rectangles of dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm (at least one hour and up to several days).

Preheat oven to 350F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

Remove one rectangle of dough from the refrigerator. On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough until it is about 1/4 inch thick. Using a 2 to 3 inch cookie cutter cut out the dough. Place the cookies about 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheet. Use a smaller cookie cutter to cut out the centers of half of the cookies on the baking sheet. (You will be sandwiching two cookies together and there will be a small ‘window or cut out’ in the top cookie so you can see the jam underneath.)

Reroll any scraps and cut out the cookies. Remove the other half of the dough from the refrigerator and roll and cut out the rest of the cookies. Bake the cookies for 12-14 minutes or until they are very lightly browned. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

Assembly:
Place the cookies with the cut-outs on a wire rack and lightly dust the tops with the confectioners’ sugar.

On the bottom surface of the full cookie (top of cookie will face out) spread with about a 1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon of jam. Place the cut-out cookie on top and gently sandwich them together, making sure not to smug the confectioners’ sugar. Using a small spoon, fill the cut-out with a little more jam.

Filed Under: Cookies, Holiday Baking Tagged With: almonds, filled cookies, Linzer Cookies, sandwich cookies

Gingerbread Eggnog Trifle

Holiday Baking- Baked French Toast Casserole

Holiday Baking- Maple Cream Cookies

Holiday Baking- Chocolate Covered Potato Chips

A Tale of Two Truffles

Holiday Baking-Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies

Holiday Baking- Linzer Cookies

Happiness is Homemade

Join Me On:

Subscribe

Site Stuff

Happiness is Homemade

Join Me On:

Subscribe

Tags

Site Stuff