Chocolate Krinkle Puffs

After many months of neglect, I'm back to the cooking blog for the Christmas season. Last Christmas, my husband's aunt gave me several family cookie recipes, including this one from her grandmother, Grama Graves.



Ingredients

2 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 c. butter
3/4 c. brown sugar
2 squares unsweetened chocolate, melted
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 c. milk
granulated sugar for coating

Preheat oven to 375. Grease cookie sheets.

1. Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda together in a bowl.

2. Cream the butter and brown sugar.

3. Beat in melted chocolate, egg, vanilla, and milk.

4. Blend in dry ingredients.

[At this point it is very helpful to chill the dough for a little while to make it easier to work with.]

5. Roll dough into balls in palm of hand, 1 tsp at a time. Roll balls in granulated sugar. Place on prepared cookie sheet. (They can be pretty close together because they don't spread during baking.)

Bake at 375 for seven minutes.

Makes about six dozen (!)

Neufchatel Cheesecake

Boy, we're lazy! Haven't posted anything on here in a good long while! I recently pulled out a recipe that I discovered on the inside of a Philadelphia Cream Cheese box - the lowfat, neufchatel variety - to make for a family party. Here's a cheesecake recipe that is slightly lower fat and sacrifices absolutely no taste. I've also added in an all-purpose graham cracker crust recipe that will work with any cheesecake. And, if you want to make a chocolate crust for your cheesecake, substitute in chocolate graham crackers.

Neufchatel Cheesecake

2 packages (8 ounces each) neufchatel cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs

Mix cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla extract with an electric mixer until well blended. Add the eggs; mix until blended. Pour into a ready-to-use graham cracker pie crust (6 oz. or 9") or graham cracker crust in a 9" springform pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool. Refrigerate 3 hours or overnight. Serve with any desired topping (canned or fresh fruit is especially good).

All-Purpose Graham Cracker Crust

1-1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted

Combine all ingredients in a bowl with a fork. Press onto the bottom and sides of a greased 9" springform pan (can go up to at least 1" on the sides). No baking required - set aside for the cheesecake batter.

Parmesan Chicken

My sincere apologies for not posting a real recipe for a while. I've been neglecting this blog (poor blog) in favor of my other one, but I promise to improve. Hey Juliet, now that your kitchen is clean, how about a post or two? :)

Anyway, I was reading on fellow blogger Domestic Chicky's site and she was asking about how other moms cook. Plus she has been cooking a lot of chicken recently, so I figured that I would post my tried-and-true chicken recipe, Parmesan Chicken. It is from a Taste of Home from several years ago, and everyone who has ever tasted it has wanted more.

1/2 cup melted butter or margarine
2 tsp. Dijon mustard
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup dry bread crumbs
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
6 to 8 boneless skinless chicken breast halves

In a bowl, combine melted butter, Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce and salt. In a plastic bag, combine bread crumbs and parmesan cheese. Dip chicken breasts one at a time in butter mixture, then place in bag and shake in crumb mixture to coat evenly. Place in an ungreased 9x13 baking pan. Drizzle with any remaining butter mixture and sprinkle leftover crumbs and cheese on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear.

Not a recipe, but a reminder

I can't quite figure out how to make Blogger link to my "real" blog. Of course, my "real" blog is not a Blogger account. Aha! Herein lies the problem! However, all the people who have Blogger blogs that I comment on only see this blog, and are now blogrolling it. They must be surprised when they check it out and see only recipes!

So, for the record, you can find my daily posts at:
http://www.deannascorner.com/

In the meantime, I need to find a recipe to post. I'll try and find something yummy. :)

Muffins!

Courtesy of the most recent Taste of Home magazine, these two recipes are very tasty and kid-approved!

Gingerbread Muffins

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup molasses

In a bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, salt and cloves. In another bowl, whisk the egg, milk, oil and molasses until smooth; stir into dry ingredients until just moistened.

Fill paper-lined muffin cups half full. Bake at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack. Makes approximately 1 dozen muffins. Serve warm with lemon curd.

Lemon Curd:
2/3 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon cornstarch
1/3 cup lemon juice
5 egg yolks, lightly beaten
1/4 cup butter, cubed
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel

In a heavy saucepan, combine the sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice until smooth. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until slightly thickened. Stir a small amount into the egg yolks to raise the yolks' temperature. Return all into the pan; bring to a gentle boil, stirring constantly. Cook and stir 1-2 minutes longer or until mixture reaches 160 degrees and coats the back of a metal spoon.

Remove from heat; gently stir in butter and lemon peel until blended. Pour into a bowl; cover surface with plastic wrap (press down onto the curd). Cover and refrigerate until serving. Makes approxminately 1 cup.


Lemon Pound Cake Muffins

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup sour cream

Glaze:
2 cups confectioners' (powdered) sugar
3 tablespoons lemon juice

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs and the extracts; beat well. Combine the flour, salt and baking soda; add to creamed mixture alternately with sour cream.

Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups three-fourths full. Bake at 400 degrees for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack. Combine the glaze ingredients; drizzle over muffins. Serve warm. Makes approximately 1 dozen.

Personal note: I have transcribed the ingredients for this recipe as it was published, but I made only half the glaze and that was more than plenty to drizzle on a dozen muffins. Use 1 cup confectioners' sugar, and 1-1/2 tablespoons (4-1/2 teaspoons) of lemon juice.

Split Pea with Ham Soup

It's chilly out there! Here's another crock pot recipe that will warm you up on cold winter evenings. This particular recipe was created by my mother, and is a fantastic way to use up a ham bone and get all the meat off it. But the best part is that you can do it with a turkey ham as well. I have a 4-quart crock pot, so the recipe can be scaled back if you have a smaller one.

1 lb. dried split peas – rinsed and drained
1 to 2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 ham bone, or cubed ham (1 to 2 cups, depending on size of crock pot)
1 small onion, diced
4 to 5 carrots, diced
5 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
6 to 8 cups water

Combine all ingredients in crock pot. Cook approximately 8 hours on low or until peas “break down” in soup. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Christmas and Gingerbread

My favorite cookies during Christmas involve gingerbread. The smell, the taste - it just screams "holiday" to me. The Boys are a recipe that came with a cookie cutter (great because they are eggless and we happen to know some people with egg allergies) given to me by my mother after a trip to the scenic resort town of Ocean Shores, Washington. The Bears are from a recipe my mother has made for years, discovered in the December 1990 issue of Better Homes and Gardens, and they are the biggest hit with kids. The Spritz are a family classic - I don't remember a Christmas without them - but you will need a cookie press to make them. I use a Wilton Cookie Pro, and find that it is easy to clean and use. Happy Baking!

Gingerbread Boys

1 cup soft butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup light molasses
5 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
3 tsp. ground ginger
pinch of cloves
½ cup cold tea
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Frosting:
¾ cup powdered sugar
1 Tbsp. butter
1 Tbsp. milk
½ tsp. vanilla extract
¼ tsp. lemon juice

Cream butter and sugar. Beat in molasses. Mix dry ingredients separately; add to molasses mixture alternately with the tea. Mix well, add the vanilla. Chill for 4 hours. Roll out to 1/8 of an inch and cut out with cookie cutters. Bake at 375 degrees on ungreased cookie sheet for 8 to 10 minutes. Once cool, spread with frosting and decorate. To make frosting: melt the butter and combine all the ingredients together – makes about 1/3 cup.


Gingerbread Bears

1 cup margarine or butter
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
2/3 cup molasses
- Stir these ingredients over medium heat until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves. Pour into large mixing bowl, cool for 5 minutes.

4 cups flour
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
¾ tsp. baking soda
¾ tsp. ground cloves
- Combine all these ingredients in a mixing bowl; set aside

1 beaten egg
1 ½ tsp. vanilla extract
- Add to the butter mixture; mix well

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat until combined well. Cover and chill dough for at least 2 hours or overnight.

To shape bears: make ball about ¾” to 1” for the body and a slightly smaller ball for the head. Make small balls for ears and nose. Roll logs for legs and arms – cut to size with knife. Assemble on ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten head and body balls slightly and attach ears, nose, arms and legs. Press miniature chocolate chips point side up for eyes. For paws, press mini chocolate chips point side in, into ends of arms and legs. Bake at 325 degrees for about 12-15 minutes or until edges are light brown. Makes about 36 small bears.



Gingerbread Spritz

1 cup butter or margarine, softened
½ cup molasses
¼ cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 ¾ cups flour
½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. ground nutmeg
½ tsp. cinnamon
¼ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. ground ginger
¼ tsp. ground cloves

In a mixing bowl, beat together butter, molasses and brown sugar; add egg and vanilla extract – beat well. In another bowl stir together the flour and other dry ingredients. Add to the creamed mixture and stir until thoroughly mixed. Cover and chill dough for 1 to 2 hours.

Fill cookie press with part of the dough and press on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 6 to 7 minutes or until set. Remove and cool. If desired, drizzle with glaze: 1 cup powdered sugar, ¼ tsp. vanilla extract, 1 Tbsp. milk or enough to make glaze of drizzling consistency. Makes 4 dozen.