Posted on

Nut Butter Ball Crescent Cookies

  • One cup butter
  • 1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp almond extract or 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1-2 cups pecans, chopped
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Mix butter with sugar until very light and fluffy.
  3. Add salt, extract, flour, nuts and mix well.
  4. Chill until dough is easy to handle.
  5. Shape into crescents.
  6. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet.
  7. Bake until light brown, 12-15 minutes.
  8. While the cookies are warm, dust with confectioner’s sugar.

“I thought you said you didn’t like these cookies>”

“No, I never said I don’t like these cookies. They’re just my least favorite cookie you bake.”

Least favorite means I like the other cookies you bake better than this one. But the damage to our relationship was already done. My penance was being limited to one cookie. One. Cookie. Ouch!

Note the last two lines on the recipe card. Yes, these cookies are much better with chocolate. (and the picture of the cookie is for the reader who complained once about not enough food pictures).

Posted on

Flourless Chocolate Cake

Sugar & Butter (to coat spring form pan)

1 1/4 sticks butter

½ Cup Sugar (divided ¼ cups)

8 oz. Semisweet Chocolate

4 oz. Milk Chocolate

1 Tsp. Vanilla

4 Large Eggs Separated

¼ Tsp. Salt

Powdered Sugar

  1. Preheat oven to 425. Butter spring form pan with 2 ½” sides and coat with sugar and tap out.
  2. Melt 10 Tbs. of butter with ¼ cup of sugar in saucepan over low heat until sugar dissolves. Then add both chocolates and stir until melted. Remove from heat and add vanilla.
  3. Divide eggs whites into a bowl and yolks into another. Using electric mixer beat egg whites with salt until foamy. Gradually add ¼ cup of sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time until soft peaks form.
  4. Next whisk yolks until thick and pale yellow about 4 minutes. Whisk in warm chocolate mixture with egg yolks.
  5. Whisk 1/3 of whites into chocolate mixture. Fold in remaining whites.
  6. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake until top forms crust but center of cake remains moist & moves when pan is shaken about 15 minutes. Cake will appear under-cooked. Let stand in pan overnight. Cake will fall as it cooks.
  7. Run small knife around cake pan side to loosen. Release pan sides from cake. Sift powdered sugar over to top, cut into wedges and serve with whipped cream or ice cream.

This recipe came from the old Gourmet magazine.  According to The NY Times the magazine ceased publication in 2009.  So this recipe is old and The Boss has been making this chocolate wonder for years.  Expect compliments because it’s that good.

 

Posted on

Strawberry Mousse

  • One package unflavored gelatin
  • 1/2 cup cold water
  • 1 cup strawberries, crushed
  • 2 egg whites
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 cup heavy cream whipped
  • 1 drop red food coloring
  1. In a sauce pan soften the gelatin in water.
  2. Stir over low heat until the gelatin dissolves.
  3. Crush strawberries, stir into the gelatin mixture.
  4. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
  5. Beat egg whites until stiff.  Gradually add sugar.  Fold in strawberry mixture.
  6. Whip cream.  Fold into the strawberry mixture.  Add one drop of red food coloring.
  7. Pour into individual molds or bowls.
  8. Garnish with fresh strawberries and chill for four hours.
  9. Serves 6-8.

“I’m going to make something light for dessert.”

“Like what?”

“Strawberry Mousse and Forgotten Cookies.”

“You forgot what?”

“No, I’m also making cookies to go with the mousse.”

“Why?”

“You’ll see.”

Tips

I crushed the strawberries with a potato masher.  You don’t want puree.  Leave some chunks.  Serve with Forgotten Cookies.  You’ll see.

Another recipe saved from its original pen and paper format.  One down and several thousand more to go.

 

Posted on

Forgotten Cookies

“Why do I always make the dessert?”

“Because you make wonderful desserts and our dinner parties would not be the same without one of your desserts.”

This cookie recipe is a recipe Grandma Beverly used to make.  I don’t remember The Boss ever making this cookie.  When the offspring were young there were always homemade cookies in the house.  Still I’m pretty sure I never had this cookie.  Until yesterday.  I was forced to sample one before dinner.  All I said was

“These things are dangerous!”

  • 2 egg whites
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 cup chopped pecans
  • 6 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • vanilla extract
  • dash of salt
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Add dash of salt to the egg whites.
  3. Beat egg whites until fluffy.
  4. Gradually add sugar and beat until stiff.  Add a few drops of vanilla.
  5. Fold in pecans and chocolate chips.
  6. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
  7. Drop by the spoonful onto the cookie sheet.
  8. Turn oven off and leave the cookies in the oven for a minimum of three hours or overnight.
  9. Makes about 30 cookies.

I learned the “forgotten” part of the cookie description is when you put the cookie sheet into the oven then turn the oven off.  Set it and forget it.

 

 

Posted on

Buttermilk Pound Cake ala Rhonda

 

Here’s what the pound cake looks like right side up out of the pan.

Here’s the recipe.

Here’s the reviews:

Tastes like a big soft sugar cookie.

I’ll have another piece please.

I found the spaghetti !!!

It needs another stick of butter.

You can butter the sides, brown in a pan, and viola…breakfast!

Tips:

Trust your instincts and don’t use a dried spaghetti noodle to see if the cake is done.  I used a strand of fettuccine only to break off a sizeable piece.  The crowd was warned.  If you find the spaghetti don’t eat it. 

Thanks Rhonda wherever you are.  We won’t wait another 25 years before we make this cake again.

 

Posted on

Buttermilk Pound Cake

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 sticks butter

4 large eggs

3 cups sugar

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preparation

  1. Grease and flour a bundt pan.  Preheat oven to 325°.
  2. Mix buttermilk and baking soda.  Set aside.
  3. In a large mixing bowl cream butter, sugar, and salt.
  4. Add eggs one at a time and beat well after each egg.
  5. Add half the buttermilk mixture and mix well.
  6. Add half of the flour and mix well.
  7. Add remaining buttermilk mixture and mix well.
  8. Add remaining flour and mix well.
  9. Add vanilla.
  10. Pour batter into your greased and floured bundt pan.
  11. Bake at 325° for one hour and 20 minutes.  Due to oven and atmospheric variations, check the cake after one hour and 10 minutes.

“Why do I always have to make dessert?”

“Because you are an excellent baker and all of your desserts taste wonderful.”

“Why don’t the neighbors ask you to make appetizers instead?”

“Because your desserts are better than my appetizers.”

Sometimes it takes time to decide what to make for a  neighborly get together.  Pound cake sounded good so we dug out this old recipe from the box.  Our first house was located on a cul-de-sac.  It was and still is a great spot to raise a young family.  A young family of four lived across the street and Rhonda was the source of this recipe.  I’ve not changed the ingredients but the instructions have been somewhat modified.

Don’t forget the strawberries and whipped cream.

pound cake

Posted on

Caramel Pumpkin Mousse Tart with Pecan Crumble – Chew Nibble NoshChew Nibble Nosh

via Caramel Pumpkin Mousse Tart with Pecan Crumble – Chew Nibble NoshChew Nibble Nosh.

“How come when everyone gets together I have to make dessert?”

“Because you make good desserts.”

“I don’t want to make the same thing. Find a recipe that has pumpkin in it but is lighter than pumpkin pie.”

“OK.”

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time you cook.  A quick internet search usually produces a number of recipes worth trying.  Reader comments of course can be priceless.  I picked this recipe because I thought to myself, how bad can pumpkin, cream cheese, vanilla pudding, pecans, caramel, vanilla wafers and fresh whipped cream be?

 

 

Posted on

Good Pie

Good Pie
3 egg whites beaten
1 cup sugar
1tsp Vanilla
Pinch of salt
1 cup graham crackers crumbs
1 cup pecans chopped
½ tsp baking powder

Beat egg whites until stiff then add salt, sugar (slowly), and vanilla. Fold in or beat at low speed graham cracker crumbs, pecans and baking soda.  Bake for 25 minutes @ 350 degrees.

Last weekend the Normal Hill Gang gathered at Barking Dog Ranch.  Another Saturday, another opportunity to share good food and wine with good friends.  I’m reasonably positive my lovely wife has made this pie for the gang not just once but several times.  But everyone raved about the pie as if they never had it before.  As promised I put this recipe on my blog.

While researching a cooking method for sirloin tip roast I opened a 1947 copyright version of Irma Bombeck’s Joy of Cooking.  There are several copies in the house and this copy belonged to my mother-in-law Beverly.  On the inside front cover I found this pie recipe handwritten neatly.  It was the kind of place you put a recipe you don’t want to lose.  We figured the recipe was probably written in the book sometime in the fifties.

So here you go.  My modern day version of the inside cover of a treasured cookbook.  Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.  But as I write this I realize why everyone loved the pie.

It was the pumpkin ice cream.  Not vanilla, nor whipped cream.  Pumpkin ice cream and Good Pie.  YUM.

Posted on

Happy Birthday Arlo

Happy Birthday Arlo

Ole!  Today is Arlo’s first birthday.  Arlo is the son of my sons’ childhood babysitter.  This is but one cookie from an entire plate full of the most incredible cookies I’ve ever seen.  Many pictures were snapped to preserve the memory.

SAMSUNG