Blue cornmeal cornbread

Earlier this fall my sister had an interest in obtaining some blue cornmeal.  I don't recall what she was going to use it for but we ordered some online after not being able to find any locally or close by.  We split the cornmeal, each taking half.  I set about finding a recipe for cornbread and after trying a couple with less than exciting results I settled on this one which is parts of a couple other recipes.  It turned out pretty well.  It is not dry.  It is kind of fluffy.  It is kind of sweet, which is what I like.  I imagine for someone from the camp that does not like sweet cornbread could leave out the sugar.

Blue Cornbread

1 cup blue cornmeal

1 cup all purpose flour 

5 Tbsp sugar

1 Tbsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 cup buttermilk

2 eggs 

1/4 cup oil  

Combine the dry ingredients.  Mix in the wet ingredients and  pour into a buttered cast iron skillet or a similarly sized baking pan.  Bake in preheated 400 degree oven for 25 minutes.  Cool slightly and enjoy warm or cool completely and enjoy at room temperature.

The farmers market bread basket

 

Picture of my breads for sale at the farmers market. 

double chocolate almond biscotti

Biscotti with coffee or cappuccino is one of my favorite combinations.  The crisp biscotti dipped into the coffee to soften it slightly is just great.  This recipe is called double chocolate as it contains cocoa and chocolate chips but to be honest I don't always have chocolate chips on hand and when I don't I still make them but omit the chips.  Sometimes I have the chips but no nuts and I have omitted them as well and they still are terrific. 

Biscotti is a type of Italian cookie that is baked twice.  The dough is formed into a low, long loaf and baked until set.  Then, after cooling for a few minutes the baked loaves are sliced diagonally into one-half inch wide slices and them the slices are baked again to dry them out and crisp them.  Dry and crunchy.  Perfect for dunking.

There are tons of recipes with seemingly unlimited number of flavors and add ins, dried fruit, nuts, chips.  This recipe is chocolate, with chocolate chips and toasted almonds.

 

double chocolate almond biscotti

2 cups flour

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 large eggs

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1 cup almonds, toasted and coarsely chopped

3/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350°.  Sift together the flour, cocoa, soda and salt into a small bowl.  Then mix together the eggs, sugar and extracts.  Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.  If too sticky water can be added a tablespoon at a time.  Add the nuts and chocolate chips.  Divide the dough in half and roll each portion into a long log on a lightly floured board.  Place the two rolls on a parchment lined baking sheet and flatten slightly making a longish oblong loaf.  Bake 25 minutes.  Remove from oven and cool 15 minutes.  Lift each loaf onto a cutting board and using a serrated knife cut each loaf diagonally in 1/2 inch wide slices.  Place the slices cut side down back on the parchment lined pan and return to the oven to bake an additional 20-30 minutes turning the pan midway thru the baking time.  Mine are usually done in 20 minutes.  Once cooled completely they can be stored in an airtight container.  They can be drizzled with melted chocolate or dipped either one end or one edge in chocolate and chilled until the chocolate is firm.        

Frozen Zabaglione

Zabaglione is an Italian dessert custard made with egg yolks, sugar and sweet wine.  It is also known as Sabayon, Zabayon, Zabajone or Zabaione.    The recipe that I found is frozen.  Often it is served topped with berries or stone fruits. 

                                                                                                                                                                        

The process is pretty easy.  The egg yolks, sugar and wine is combined in a double boiler or Bain-marie.  It is cooked and stirred until thickened and then placed in a ice water bath to cool.  When cooked to room temperature heavy cream which has been whipped is mixed in and then the the custard is placed in a shallow dish and placed in the freezer for at least 8 hours. 

Frozen Zabaglione

6 large egg yolks

3/4 cup dessert wine

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup heavy cream, softly whipped

few drops fresh lemon juice

Prepare an ice bath, a large bowl with ice and water.  Place the yolks, sugar and wine in the double boiler and whisk together.  Place the double boiler over water at a low boil, whisking continuously until it thickens and holds its shape for a few seconds when you drop it off the whisk onto the surface of the mixture.  Do not overcook.  It may take 8 minutes to reach the desired thickness.  Remove the bowl from the boiling water and place the bowl in the ice water bath.  Stir occasionally while it cools to room temperature.  When cool fold in the whipped cream and the lemon juice and then place the mixture in a shallow dish and cover and freeze for 8 hours.

Original recipe from here.

French Macarons

I have been practicing making macarons and trying different recipes and techniques with the hope of mastering this cookie.  I have a pinterest board devoted to strictly macarons and there are 56 pins including some videos.  I figured if a preteen girl can make these on video I should be able to learn it as well. In one of the videos the many places where failure could happen were elaborated.  Wrong proportion of ingredients, meringue too stiff or not stiff enough, over mixing or under mixing the almond flour/powdered sugar mixture into the meringue, improper baking--any of these could cause no feet, spreading feet, hollow centers, cracked tops, or not level tops.  To be truthful, I have experienced all of those failures and each time I tried something new.  Here is what worked for me.

1.  I have a stand mixer with a large bowl and I had trouble getting my meringue to work with three egg whites.  I eventually tried doubling the recipe and with the larger quantity of egg whites my meringue turned out great, lots of volume and nice moderately stiff peaks.

2.  My oven has a convection fan that can be used and I found that I had better results with the fan off and just the bake setting. 

3.  When baking the macarons I preheated the oven to 375 and when it was at temperature I lowered the temperature to 350 as I put the pan in.   When I took the pan out I reheated the oven back to 375 and when it was again hot I put the next pan in and lowered the temp again.

4.  I have good quality, heavy baking sheets and even with those I found that I had better success when I stacked two pans together in the oven.  I also used the rack in the lower part of the oven and baked them one set of stacked pans at a time.

5..  Once the macaron batter is ready a piping bag is used to pipe the macarons onto a parchment lined baking sheet.  The baking sheet is then rapped firmly on a flat surface, first one end and then the other.  The macarons rest for at least fifteen minutes until the tops are slightly dry to the touch before baking.  The dried tops allows the top to raise as one piece forming the feet during the baking.

6.  After baking I allowed the macarons to partially cool on the baking sheet and then slid the parchment off of the pan and left the macarons to cool completely on the parchment.  Once they are fully cooled they can be gently peeled off the parchment.

7.  The last step is to match up similar sized macarons and make sandwich cookies with piped buttercream or ganache between.  They filled cookies should be refrigerated for 12-24 hours after assembling before eating for the best taste and texture.  The aged cookies should have a crisp outer shell and a moist chewy center.

French Macarons

170 grams almond flour or finely ground almonds

300 grams confectioners sugar

egg whites from 6 large eggs

110 grams granulated sugar

Place the egg whites in mixer and begin beating.  Mix on medium speed until frothy then slowly add the granulated sugar.  Increase the mixer speed to medium high and whip until moderately stiff peaks.  Meanwhile place the confectioners sugar and ground almonds in a food processor and process.  Sift the mixture and discard any larger particles.  Add one half of the dry mixture to the eggs and fold together.  Add the remaining dry mixture and fold 15 or 20 times until incorporated and the mixture flows off the spatula in a thick ribbon and slowly levels itself in the bowl.  Do not over mix.  If the mixture remains mounded fold one or two more times.  If coloring is to be added to the batter it should be added at the start of the folding so that no additional folding or stirring is required to incorporate the color.  The color will fade slightly during the baking so add a little more coloring than you think that you will need.

Fill  a piping bag with a large round tip and pipe small mounds on the parchment lined sheet.  The mounds should spread slightly and flatten.  Grasp the cookie sheet with both hands on one end and rap the other end firmly on a table or countertop.  Swap ends and rap the other end too. Allow the filled sheet to rest for at least 15 minutes, preferably 30-60 minutes.  . 

Preheat the oven to 375.  When preheated place the cookie sheet on another cookie sheet and place the stacked sheets in the oven on a low rack.  Reduce the temperature to 350 and bake for 15-18 minutes removing them from the oven before they brown. 

Buttercream filling

1 stick butter

Confectioners sugar

1/4 teaspoon almond or vanilla extract

Place the softened butter in the bowl of a food processor. Add confectioners sugar and pulse.  Check the consistency and add more sugar until a soft consistency that will pipe easily but still hold its shape.  Too stiff and the filling may damage the fragile cookies.  Pipe filling onto the underside of one macaron and top with a similarly sized macaron.  Allow the filled cookies to age in the refrigerator 12-24 hours and up to 3 days.  Can be frozen.   

Adapted from here utilizing tips from here and here.

homemade payday bars

Payday candy bars are a favorite.  I like the combination of sweet and salty.  These couldn't be easier to make. 

the finished candy bars

bottom layer--dry roasted peanuts in a buttered pan

pb chips and butter melting

in goes the sweetened condensed milk

marshmallows

marshmallows and chip mixture

middle layer--marshmallow peanut butter chip mix tops the nuts

top layer--peanuts pressed onto the middle layer

Homemade payday bars

16 ounces dry roasted peanuts

2 cups peanut butter chips

3 Tbsp butter

14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk

10.5 ounce bag mini marshmallows

1-2 Tbsp flaked sea salt

Butter a 9x13 cake pan.  Place 1/2 of the dry roasted peanuts in the bottom of the pan.  Melt the peanut butter chips and the butter in a microwave or double boiler.  If using the microwave heat in 30 second intervals at 50% power, stirring after each until melted.  Add the sweetened condensed milk.  Microwave on high for one more minute and stir until smooth.  Fold in the marshmallows until the marshmallows are coated with the peanut butter mixture.  Pour over the nuts and spread out pressing the remaining nuts over the top surface.  Top with flakes sea salt and chill for one hour.  Cut into squares.

Source: here

homemade butterfinger bars

I am serving supper for a meeting and wanted to have a trio of bite size desserts to serve to our meeting members.  I decided on homemade candy bars.  This is a recipe that I had pinned quite a while ago but have not tried yet.  I am a Butterfinger fan.  This recipe uses only three ingredients.  Two are melted together and patted into a glass baking pan.  Once they have cooled they are coated in the third ingredient and allowed to set.  The three ingredients?  Candy corn, peanut butter and milk chocolate chips.  The original recipe called for melting the candy corn in a microwave.  My microwave is not working right now and I am trying to decide before I repair it if I really need one as I rarely use it.  So I used a double boiler.  It seemed to take forever for the candy to melt but once it does, the peanut butter is added.  I left my pan on the stove while the peanut butter melted and was incorporated into the candy corn as it seemed that the melted candy needed a little more heat to melt the peanut butter. 

candy corn and peanut butter

 Once it was incorporated I placed it in a parchment lined glass 8 inch square pan and pressed it into an even layer.   When I got to actually dipping the centers I was thinking that my pieces were thicker than a true butterfinger and I cut some of them in half.  Next time I will try a 9 inch square pan to see if that is a nicer thickness for the center.  `

the cooling center mixture

The original recipe called for allowing it to cool and then using a pizza cutter to cut into bars.  I let it cool for a while but while it was still warm I lifted the parchment out of the pan and used my bench scraper to cut it into pieces and then let it finish cooling. 

I used my chocolate melter to melt the chocolate chips and then I dipped the cool centers into the chocolate, coating all sides and allowing most of the excess to drip back into the pan.  I them placed the coated centers on parchment to allow the coating to set. 

finished candy bars

Homemade butterfinger candy bars

Centers

3 cups candy corn candies

1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter

Coating

2 cups milk chocolate chips or candy melts

Melt the candy corn.  This took a long time in the double boiler.  Add the peanut butter to the warm melted candy and the heat of the candy corn should melt the peanut butter but if it does not put it back on the heat or in the microwave for a little longer.  Stir to thoroughly combine.  Press the center mixture into a parchment lined square pan and allow to cool.  While still warm cut into bars.  Once the centers are cool dip them into the melted Chocolate. 


source: here

homemade twix cookies

I found these candy bar cookies on facebook and they couldn't be easier.  The base is a shortbread cookie cut with a cookie cutter.  I used a circle but they could just as easily be cut with a pizza cutter into strips and then the strips cut into shorter lengths to make a shape more resembling the candy bar.  Once baked and cooked, caramel candies are melted with a little bit of evaporated milk and applied to the cookies.  There was a little bit of a learning curve.  I was thinking that I could apply  the correct amount to the center of a few cookies and come back later to spread it into a nice circle but it started setting up immediately.  I will next time do one cookie at a time.  Once the caramel is set chocolate chips are melted with a small amount of shortening.  The melted chocolate is placed on top of the caramel and allowed to set up.  If you are in a hurry you can place the cookies in the refrigerator to set the chocolate but mine set up just fine at room temperature.  I am thinking that a squeeze bottle for might work for both the caramel and the chocolate to apply neatly on the cookie as long as you could keep it warm and free flowing.  Might be worth a try. 

the finished product

baking the cookes

melting the caramels

applying the caramel layer

Homemade Twix candy bar cookies

Shortbread cookie layer

1 1/2 cups butter (3 sticks)

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

3 cups flour

1/4 tsp salt.

Caramel layer

15 ounce bag of caramels, unwrapped

2 Tbsp evaporated milk

Chocolate layer

2 cups milk chocolate chips

2 tsp shortening

Preheat oven to 350 .  Cream together the butter and powdered sugar.  Add the vanilla.  Add the flour and salt and mix until thoroughly combined.  I used my stand mixer but a hand mixer, food processor and a bowl and spoon would all work.  Roll out the dough rather thickly, 1/4 to 3/8 inch thick and cut into desired shapes.  Place on parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 14-16 minutes.  Once cool, melt the caramels with the evaporated milk in a double boiler or microwave.  Next time I will try my chocolate melter for the caramels and see if that will work.  When the caramel is set melt the chocolate chips and shortening and apply to the top of the caramel and allow to harden.    

Source: here

waffles for the freezer

We like waffles. Lots of kinds of waffles.  My favorite traditional waffle recipe is the rich buttermilk waffle recipe from Smitten Kitchen's website.  But waffles are not very practical when you are cooking for one.  So I have been making a batch of waffles and then freezing the extras and warming them up in my toaster, just like the frozen waffles that you buy at the store.  But homemade.  With no added preservatives.  I have been sharing my homemade frozen waffles with my parents and they are liking them too.  So today I made a big batch (quadruple batch) and spent a couple hours making waffles and now I have a bunch of waffles cooling which will soon be ready to freeze.

They are so easy to mix up.  Here is my great big stoneware bowl with the dry ingredients.

Add in the wet ingredients, which are the buttermilk, yolks, melted butter and vanilla.

And then add in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

I use a waffle ladle to portion out my waffle batter.  Here is a waffle hot off the waffle iron, ready for a little butter and syrup or strawberries and whipped cream or even just a sprinkle of powdered sugar. 

And the best part is next week or next month I can have one just like it out of my toaster without the mess in less than a minute. 

An added benefit is that this makes it a bit easier for portion control.  There isn't a plate of extra waffles tempting you to have just one more.  Since this is that time of year when lots of people are re-energized about eating better I ran this thru a recipe calculator and discovered that this particular recipe made in my round waffle maker makes 32 waffles and each waffle is 220 calories, 28 carbs, 8 fat, 7 protein, 505 sodium and 4 sugar. 


 I usually freeze mine with a sheet of parchment paper between the layers.  One time I had a little bit of trouble with them sticking together even with the parchment and I attributed that to packing while they were still warm so I am letting them cool completely before boxing them up.

This box is the one that will be going to my folks for their freezer. 

Or possibly this one since it is a little bit bigger.

 I will check and see which fits better in their freezer. 

Waffles for the freezer

8 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp salt

8 Tbsp sugar

2 Tbsp baking soda

1/2 gallon lowfat buttermilk

8 eggs, separated

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, melted and cooled

2 tsp vanilla

Combine the first four ingredients in a large bowl.  Combine the buttermilk, egg yolks, butter and vanilla and add to the dry ingredients.  Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form and then fold into the batter.  Oil the waffle iron if needed, and then preheat and bake the waffles following the instructions of your waffle maker. 

Adapted from this recipe.

pb dog cookies

I found this recipe on the internet for a peanut butter dog cookie and decided to give it a try.  Turns out our dogs love them.  I made them right before Christmas and we had lots of taste testers give them a thumbs up.  I sent some home with Honey and Indiana when they went home and then made some more so that I could send some home with Reese and Greta when they went home.  I also bagged up a few to send home with my daughter Caitlin to take to work.  She doesn't have any dogs that live with her but she has dogs that visit regularly at her work.  It is an architecture firm.  How cool is it that they have dogs that come to work. 

This time I made a triple batch and took a couple of pictures of the process.  Although the ingredients are the same I did alter the process a bit.  I used a mixer instead of a spoon to mix and I did not use a floured surface to roll out the dough but rolled it out on a sheet of parchment paper. 

Peanut butter dog cookies

(single recipe)

3/4 cup milk

1 egg

1 cup creamy peanut butter

2 1/4 cup flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 325°.  In the bowl of a stand mixer combine the milk, egg and peanut butter and mix until well combined.  Combine the baking powder and flour and add in several additions.  It should make a stiff dough. Gather up a portion of dough, knead it into a ball and then roll it out so it is 1/4 inch thick   I used a round cookie cutter but any shape could be used or it could be cut into pieces with a pizza cutter.  Place the cut cookies onto a parchment lined baking sheet and place in the oven.  Bake for 20 minutes, turn the cookies over and bake an additional 15 minutes.  Repeat the process with remaining dough in batches.  The original recipe suggested that they could be baked longer for a harder cookie or rolled a little thicker for a softer cookie but my 3 dogs and 4 visiting dogs seemed to like them just fine. 

Note:  Because I had tripled the recipe and had many cookies to bake I tried placing three pans in the oven at the same time.  I have a convection feature on my oven and three racks and I should be able to cook three racks at once but I found that the center pan did not bake as quickly as the others and were significantly softer when it was time to turn them over.  I rearranged the baking sheets so that the center one was placed on the bottom rack when they went back in and still ended up leaving the one pan in the oven a few extra minutes.  When I baked the next batch of pans I only used two sheets at a time.

I used a round cutter 1 1/2 inches in diameter

place close together as they don't spread

ready to turn over and bake longer

Adapted from this recipe.

French baguettes

This year one of my Christmas gifts was a baguette pan from my daughter Nikole.  Today I made a couple of loaves with the directions and recipe that came with the pan.  It was a little time consuming as the dough raises twice, rests once and then raises again after shaping.  It was a pretty easy recipe, kneaded in the stand mixer with the dough hook. The pan has small, closely spaced holes and a pan of water is placed in the oven to create steam during cooking. 

Williams Sonoma's Crusty French Bread

2 cups warm water (100°)

1 tsp sugar

3 1/4 tsp dry yeast (I used quick rise)

5-5 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 1/2 tsp salt

1 egg white slightly beaten with a pinch of salt

Combine the warm water and sugar in a small bowl and stir until sugar is dissolved.  Add the yeast and stir gently to mix then wait 5 minutes for it to get foamy.  Place 4 cups of flour and the salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and run the mixer on low to combine.  Slowly add the yeast mixture and combine on low for one minute.  Raise the mixer to low-medium and mix with the dough hook for 10 minutes adding the remaining flour 1/4 cup at a time.  (I used an additional one cup for 5 cups total.).  The dough should be elastic and pull away from the side of the bowl. 

Remove the dough from the mixer, knead for one minute and form into a ball.  The directions say to knead on a lightly floured surface but I did not flour my counter top and  my dough did not stick  Place the dough into a bowl in which a dusting of flour has been added.  Cover bowl with plastic wrap.  I covered the plastic wrap with a kitchen towel and placed it in a warm spot in the kitchen to raise until double (45-60 minutes)  When done with the first raise the dough is removed from the bowl, punched down and kneaded a couple of times, reshaped into a single ball and placed back in the bowl for the second raise.  The bowl is again covered with plastic wrap and a kitchen towel.  Allow to raise until double, about 20-30 minutes.

When the second raising is complete, turn the dough out and punch down again.  Divide the dough into two equal portions and form into two balls.  Allow to rest for five minutes.  I covered my dough with a kitchen towel.  Line the baguette pan with a kitchen towel that has been dusted with a small amount of flour.  Shape each dough ball into a long loaf with tapered ends.  The loaf should be about as long as the pan.  Repeat with the second dough ball.  Fold the extra toweling back over the dough and let it raise 20 minutes in a warm place. 

Once raised, remove the towel with the formed baguettes from the pan.  The directions said to spray the pan with cooking spray.  I brushed on a thin layer of  my homemade pan coat.  Then use the towel to roll the dough back into the pan.  Use a knife to make 3-5 shallow (1/4 inch deep) slashes on the tops of the loaves at a diagonal.  brush the surface of the loaves with the egg white/salt mixture. 

Place the pan in a oven that has been preheated to 425°.  The rack should be at the bottom 1/3 of the oven and a pan of boiling water should be placed on the oven floor or the lowest rack.  I used a cookie sheet on the bottom rack and the bread one level higher.  I placed the empty cookie sheet  in the oven, added the hot water and then place the baguettes in the oven.  The recipe calls for them to bake for 30-35 minutes or until they sound hollow when tapped.  I baked mine for 30 minutes. 

foamy water, sugar and yeast

dough ball ready for first raise

covered with plastic wrap and my new kitchen towels from Caitlin

shaped baguette on towel on pan

towel edges folded over

ready for the oven

all finished

the inside of the loaf

       
I thought the bread turned out great.  The outside was chewy, the inside was softer with great flavor.

baguette pan

What a great gift.  Thanks Nikole!

denny's and jan's donuts

This was originally my Grandma Alma's recipe but my parents have made it their own.  Several times a year they do 5, 6 or even 8 batches of these donuts.  Dad has a restaurant fryer with a donut dispenser mounted on it and the batter goes into the dispenser and then the donuts drop out of the dispenser into the hot fat.  Dad is the fryer and mom mixes up the batter.  No matter how many batches they do each one is mixed up individually as they are ready for it.  Grandma's recipe is one that she perfected years ago and mom never wavers from it.  All of the ingredients are added in the order listed and mixed with a mixer until the final 2 cups of flour which are stirred in by hand.  The fat is always lard.  The cream is always whipping cream but not heavy cream.  Mom has a stand mixer but she always uses her small electric hand mixer with the two beaters.   

Denny's and Jan's Donuts

4 eggs

1 3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp nutmeg

scant 1/2 cup whipping cream

1 cup buttermilk

3/4 cup buttermilk with 1 tsp soda

2 cups flour

1/2 cup flour with 2 tsp baking powder and 1 tsp salt

2 cups flour

In a large mixing bowl start by beating the eggs until they are slightly beaten.  Add the sugar and then the nutmeg.  When those are combined add the scant 1/2 cup whipping cream.  Add the 1 cup buttermilk and mix.  Combine the 3/4 cup buttermilk with the 1 tsp soda and then add to the mixing bowl and mix.  Using the mixer add the first 2 cups of flour.  Mix the baking powder and the salt with the 1/2 cup flour and add to the mix, mixing well.  Remove the mixer and mix in the final 2 cups of flour with a spoon.  My mom uses a large slotted spoon.  Use the dispenser to drop the donuts into the lard which has heated to 375-400° .  Turn the donuts to cook both sides and then drain on paper towels.  We dip the warm donuts in sugar. After they cool mom and dad bag them up in zipper bags and freeze them. 

Mom does not double the recipe or mix it up ahead of time.  She waits to make each succeeding batch until dad is just about ready for it.  I don't know if it is the leavening working for too long or some other issue but the donuts are just not as successful when mixed up differently.  She also is usually on a hunt for whipping cream when she knows they will be making donuts.  For some reason the heavy cream has resulted in less successful donuts when used. Our local grocery stores do not always offer plain whipping cream.  It is worth it though, even if she has to go out of town to get it because the donuts are that good. 

stan's and caroline's lefse

When our family started making lefse this was the first recipe that we used.  It was shared with my mom and dad by friends of theirs.  It was an easy recipe as it used instant potatoes so there was no peeling and cooking of the potatoes.  It made a dough that was easy to work with and had good flavor. 

stan's and caroline's lefse

1 pound package of Hungry Jack instant potatoes (8 cups)

6 1/2 cups boiling water

1 stick blue bonnet margarine

1 stick butter

1/2 cup cream

1 Tbsp sugar

1 Tbsp salt

Mix together and then chill overnight. 

4-6 cups flour

The next day, when cold knead in the flour.  Make into balls using approximately 1/4 cup of the dough for each ball and return balls to the refrigerator.  Remove the balls from the refrigerator a couple at a time so that the remainder stay cold.  Roll the ball into a thin round and then cook on a lefse grill.  When cooked fold in quarters and stack in a dish towel to keep them from drying out.  After they have cooled we place ours in a zipper top bag.   

Lisa's favorite kringla

Our Grandma Alma made kringla every year at Christmastime.  It is part of our Norwegian heritage.  We have been unable to locate the recipe used by her and so we have searched out and tried several different variations.  This recipe is one that my sister, Lisa, discovered and uses. 

Lisa's favorite kringla

1 cup sugar

2 tbsp butter

1/2 cup buttermilk

16 ounces cultured sour cream

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

3-4 cups flour

Combine sugar and butter.  Mix in the buttermilk.  Mix the baking soda in the sour cream and then add to the sugar/buttermilk mixture.  Combine the salt and the baking powder with part of the flour and stir into the mixture.  Add the remaining flour.  The dough will be sticky.  Refrigerate at least one hour.  Roll one ounce portions of dough into an 8 inch rope.  A dough scoop works great for portioning the dough into equal size kringlas.  Form the rope into a figure eight.  Bake 350 for 16 minutes (Lisa's original recipe called for baking at 350-400 for 12 minutes) they should be just turning very light brown on the bottoms when done.

Store in a covered container with waxed paper between layers. Lisa places a dish towel over the top layer as well.  This recipe can be doubled. 

grandma alma's peppernuts

I don't remember Grandma making these every year but they I do recall her making them.  Lisa says that this is Grandma's recipe, I think she said it was the first recipe that Grandma gave her.  It makes quite a large batch and is quite labor intensive.  Maybe that is why I don't remember it being there every year.  These are tiny molasses cookies with all the spices that predominate in the fall/harvest/Thanksgiving/Christmas sweets: ginger, allspice, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. 

 

Grandma Alma's Peppernuts

2 cup sugar

1 cup shortening

3/4 cup molasses

1/4 cup dark karo syrup

1 egg

1/2 cup coffee

1 Tbsp vinegar

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp ginger

1 tsp allspice

1 tsp cloves

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon

6 cups flour

Mix together, chill at least 8 hours or overnight. Shape by rolling into a rope the size of a pencil and then cutting crosswise into small coins. Works well to cut directly onto the cookie sheet.  Bake 350 for 10-12 minutes. 

soft gingerbread cookie bars

This was a recipe that I found online.  It makes a bar cookie with the same flavor as a soft gingersnap.  It is frosted with a yummy cream cheese frosting.  I made mine in the food processor, but it would work equally well to mix it in the stand mixer or the portable mixer or it could be mixed by hand like our grandmothers did.

sugar, brown sugar and butter in the food processor

add an egg

molasses and vanilla

I used the homemade vanilla from my sister

ready for the dry ingredients

I use whole nutmeg freshly shaved with a microplane

The rest of the spices join the nutmeg on the sheet of parchment

flour and spices in the food processor

The finished dough divided to make two smaller pans

parchment folded to fit the pan and brushed with pan coat

The soft dough is pressed into the pans

when baked and cooled the frosting is applied with an off set spatula

use the parchment to lift the bars out and then peel off the parchment

Yep.  They're good.

Dusted with a little more nutmeg, this pan went into town for Dad's Day.

soft gingerbread cookie bars

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

3/4 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup molasses

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp cloves

1/8 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups all purpose flour 

1 tsp baking soda

cream cheese frosting 

4 ounces cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup butter, softened

1 cup confectioners sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 325°.  Prepare two 8 inch square pans or one small jelly roll pan (9x12x1) by lining them with parchment paper that ha been greased or sprayed.  I left parchment sticking up on two sides to use for handles to lift out the baked bars.

Cream together the butter and sugars.  Add add and mix.  Add vanilla and molasses and mix well.  Combine spices and dry ingredients and combine until thoroughly incorporated.  Divide the dough into two parts and press one part into each of the pans if using two pans or press all of the dough into the single pan if using one.  Bake 20-22 minutes or until edges just start to brown.  Cool completely.  While bars are cooling combine the frosting ingredients and whip until smooth.  Spread frosting over bars and cut into squares.

recipe adapted slightly from here