Day 98 -Cinnamon Applesauce Cookies

Here I sit, typing my post, enjoying my Mike's Classic Margarita.  It is Cinco De Mayo after all even though I didn't bake anything Mexican.  Just pretend the Chicken Enchiladas were baked today and today's applesauce cookies were done the other day.  And I'll have another Margarita!

I adapted this recipe from The Fannie Farmer Cookbook Thirteenth Edition, p.616; author, Marion Cunningham; publisher, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., a division of Random House, Inc.; ISBN 0-394-56788-9.

Cinnamon Applesauce Cookies

¼ pound butter
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 cup cinnamon applesauce
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
½ teaspoon cloves
1 cup raisins

Preheat the oven to 375ºF.
Grease the cookie sheets or cover with parchment paper.
Cream the butter and add the two sugars, beating until light.
Stir in the egg and the applesauce.

Mix together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves and add to the first mixture, beating until smooth.
Add the raisins.

Arrange by spoonfuls on the cookie sheets.

Bake for 5-7 minutes or until lightly browned.

Ok, don't do what I did and not grease or put parchment on the cookie sheets or the cookies will stick.  Trust me.



These cookies were good!  On a scale of 1-4 with 4 being the best, these applesauce cookies earn 3 rolling pins.  They were nicely spiced and soft and chewy.  I like chewy.

I used a large soup spoon to put them onto the cookie sheets - my recommendation would be to use a tablespoon as they will spread, but big cookies are good, too.  Just make sure you leave enough space in between them.

The 100th post is just a few days away!!  This is very exciting.  There will be a giveaway on that day, so read, read, READ!!

Happy baking!

Day 62 - Carrot and Raisin Bread

     I saw this recipe and kind of said, "eew" when I saw it.  Then looking at the 2 cups of shredded carrots and ½ cup of raisins it called for I thought, "hm, this might be pretty healthy" (well, as far as the baked goods thing goes anyway).  It is from The New Doubleday Cookbook, p. 667; authors, Jean Anderson and Elaine Hanna; publisher Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc.; ISBN 0-385-19577-X.
     As a side note, until I started this baking project, I didn't realize that there was a difference between 1 cup sifted flour, 1 cup flour, and 1 cup flour, sifted.  Am I alone or are there other people that need to know this?  (Here's where I need that book, "Baking for Dummies".)  I guess I was always in too much of a hurry to pay atttention, mom and grandma never showed me, and I don't remember Mrs. Rathbun ever teaching us that in 8th grade Home Ec. (I can't believe I actually remembered her name - that was ages, well, nevermind).  1 cup sifted flour is sifting the flour and then putting it into a measuring cup and leveling it with a knife.  For 1 cup of flour, I just scoop the measuring cup into the flour canister and then level it with a knife.  For the 1 cup of flour, sifted, I scoop the measuring cup into the canister, level it, then sift it into the bowl.  So, to make it easy:  Sift before measure; just plain old measure; sift after measuring.  Have I confused you?  Because I think in trying to simplify it, I've taken it too far and overexplained it.  I kind of confused myself.  And I'm fading here.  Just post if you have a comment or question!
     I actually learned this from the Martha Stewart Baking Book the other day.  I had never done it before and I admit, I was very surprised the difference it makes when you sift the flour before you measure it.  I wonder how many things I 've made over the years that may have tasted differently had I really paid attention.

     Carrot and Raisin Bread

     2½ cups sifted unbleached flour
     1 tablespoon baking powder
     ½ teaspoon salt
     1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
     2 eggs, lightly beaten
     ½ cup melted butter or margarine or cooking oil (I used butter)
     ½ cup milk
     1 tablespoon finely grated orange rind (optional) (I didn't use)
     ½ cup seedless raisins  (I used golden raisins)
     2 cups finely grated peeled carrots

     Preheat oven to 350ºF.
     Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into a mixing bowl.  Add sugar and rub well between your fingers, breaking up any lumps of sugar.  Add all remaining ingredients and mix well. 

Spoon into a well-greased 9" X 5" X 3" loaf pan and bake about 50 minutes until loaf shrinks slightly from sides of pan and is springy to the touch.

(Note: Do not underbake; test by inserting a toothpick or cake tester in center of loaf; it should come out clean.) Cool bread upright in pan on wire rack for 20 minutes, then turn out.  Cool completely before cutting.

This loaf will cut more easily if you wrap it airtight and store it overnight.

     I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised at the outcome of this bread.  It tasted a lot better than I thought it would.  It was perfectly sweetened, extremely moist, and delicious.  I thought it was going to taste very similar to carrot cake, but it didn't.  My husband and my son both really liked it.  My husband thought it was one of the best recipes I've made so far.  Wow.  I liked it, but didn't like it enough to give it a 4, so I'll give it 3½ rolling pins.  My rating system is based on a scale of 1-4 with 1 being a "save yourself the time, money and effort" and 4 "this really takes the cake" (sorry, no pun intended.  Ok, I lie.  I did it on purpose.  After all, it IS a baking blog).      

     If you learn one thing from this post, please, please wrap it up airtight and let it sit overnight before you slice it.  I had the perfect slice cut for the purpose of taking a picture and it was sitting alone on the cutting board when my husband says, "Oh, is this my piece?"

"NO!" I yelled.

"Oops, too late."

Son of a ...

What the heck do I have to do, put yellow tape around it, a big orange cone that's labeled "DON'T TOUCH"??!!  Do I have to start hiding the stuff now, too?  Oy vey! 

I then went through half the loaf, hacking off various pieces (and not intentionally) in order to obtain another perfect slice.  Again.  The one pictured above is the best I could do before I went throught the whole loaf.  There had to be a point where I stopped before it was completely massacred.  I'm really interested to see how it cuts tomorrow.

     Remember:  To sift, or not to sift?  And when?

     Happy baking!

Day 28 - Flu-Fighter Cookies

  Yes, a recipe that took me by surprise.  I was searching for a cookie recipe on the http://www.foodnetwork.com/ website and saw a delicious looking recipe that I'll definitely be trying, but when I was scrolling down the page this one caught my eye.  I had never heard of a cookie named the Flu-Fighter Cookie.  The thought of it just really doesn't sound too appetizing; which is why my teenage daughter probably turned her nose up at them and wouldn't give them a try besides the fact that they contain nuts (not that she's allergic, she just doesn't like to eat them).  The name sounded so unappetizing to me and yet at the same time, was so very much intriguing!  And it is completely filled with ingredients.  It's like someone took a pantry and spice cupboard and dumped it all in a bowl - really bizarre.  There are 18 different things in this one cookie!  And soooo many different flavors! I can't post the recipe, but I can give you the link: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/flu-fighter-cookies-recipe/index.html (I still haven't figured out how to link words to websites yet.  It's on my list of things to do, so please bear with me.)  I am going to list the ingredients for you though, you ready?
flour
baking powder
baking soda
salt
ground cinnamon
freshly grated nutmeg
pinch of ground cloves
unsalted butter
dark brown sugar (I went to two different grocery stores for different things today and forgot it each time.  I had some light brown sugar at home, so I just used that.)
eggs
molasses
Greek yogurt (I always have that in my fridge)
freshly grated ginger
grated lemon zest
old-fashioned oats
golden raisins
dried cranberries
chopped toasted walnuts
See?  That's quite a list, isn't it?  They're so much in them that I was concerned about how they would taste, but then I'm thinking the Food Network isn't going to put crappy recipes up on their site and it's so different that I'm just going to have to try it.  Besides, people around these here parts have been quite sick with the flu and whatever else is going around, so maybe these will help to boost people's immune systems.  I know I'm going to be eating them for a while.  Heck, they're healthy, too (ok, at least they appear to be - it says each cookie has a calorie count of 174).  Any excuse I have to eat a cookie, I'm all over it and again, if you read my weigh-in post today, I didn't gain any weight this week.  I'm ok.
     The ingredients:  oats, flour, brown sugar, butter, baking powder, baking soda, cloves, salt, cinnamon, and, eggs.

Golden raisins, toasted walnuts, dried cranberries. molasses, and Greek yogurt.

 Lemon zest, grated ginger (behind it is ginger juice), and grated nutmeg.

After grating the nutmeg, (grating those lil' buggers is hard!  It was rolling around in my fingers and wouldn't stay still.  I need to get me one of those microplane graters) something which I had never done before, I sliced it to make sure I was grating the proper part.  I had no idea.  It smelled good as I was grating, so I figured I was doing something right.  I couldn't buy just one piece, had to buy a jar of nine for $7.9something, and four of which are stuck in the bottom of the bottle.  How the heck am I going to get those out of there and when am I going to use the rest of it?  Guess we'll be making more things with nutmeg in them.  It doesn't expire until sometime in 2014, so we're good.  The smell reminded me of some rice pudding I used to eat, so there's one idea.
I thought the inside of the nutmeg was cool:

My sous chef, Charlie.  He kept watching the mixer, but really he's waiting for me to feed him because, you know, the world revolves around the cat.

The flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves combined.

 The butter and brown sugar creamed.

The second egg added to the butter and brown sugar.

The molasses, lemon zest and ginger added to mixture.

The flour mixture added to previous ingredients.  Hanging off the blender are the fibers from the ginger.  I was really thinking this wasn't going to be a good part of the cookie and would be stringy.

Oats,  ½ of each of the cranberries, walnuts and raisins added.

Ready for the oven.

Baked and ready to be eaten.

     The aroma that filled the house while these were in the oven was wonderful!  It smelled like gingerbread.  I have to say I wasn't looking forward to trying these and was thinking that they were not going to be eaten.  But, wow!  For a cookie with so much in it, it's like a taste party in your mouth!  Unbelievable.  It's gingery, with a taste of cinnamon; a touch of lemon and I'm not tasting that ginger stringy-stuff I thought I would; crunchy from the nuts and chewy because of the raisins and cranberries; and it has just the right amount of sweetness!  These probably are the healthiest tasting cookies I have ever had.  It's a good cookie to send in a care package to your college student who is stressed, doesn't eat well or get enough sleep and is around a lot of sick people, especially this time of year.  You can bet I'll be sending some of these out to my daughter.
     The rating for Flu-Fighter Cookies: 3½ rolling pins.
     So, here's to your immune systems, happy baking!