Tag Archives: baking

Crispy Peanut Butter Balls

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I know I’ve posted this recipe before, but it’s just so stinkin good. And easy. And gluten free! I’m always looking for things I can feed to my Celiac sister and her kiddos. Three ingredients? Can’t beat that!

I melt a tablespoon of peanut butter in a baggie for about 10 seconds and snip the end to decorate. Also – don’t use generic, fat-free or low-fat peanut butter for this recipe. Since the peanut butter is pretty much the biggest ingredient – you want it to be high quality stuff. Continue reading →

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Nuts n’ Bolts (aka: Chex Mix)

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This is an absolutely classic Christmas recipe. My mom’s giant tupperware bowls only came out once a year – to make Chex mix at Christmas time. We called it Nuts n’ Bolts – and as soon as it was placed on paper towels to cool, we were sneaking bites. I don’t care for the recipe that’s on the boxes of Chex these days. I got this from my mom forever ago – the main difference between this and the one currently gracing the back of cereal boxes is the butter – Chex ratio. Newer recipes have 6 tablespoons of butter to 9 cups of cereal. This one has the same amount of butter, but 3 cups less chex. Oh yeah. Delicious.
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Mini Cheesecakes

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Cheesecake is one of those desserts that I generally feel pretty guilty eating. It’s so amazing and delicious, but also really bad for you. It stinks, but it’s true. However, I have found the solution to my desire for cheesecake and my equally strong need to NOT pack on 50 pounds from eating it. Mini cheesecakes. Tiny, bite sized. Perfect.

Feel free to play with this recipe, it’s easy to do. Add some melted white chocolate to your batter and top with raspberries. Or blueberries, or strawberries. Crush up Oreo cookies for your crust for a cookies n’ creme cheesecake. The possibilities are endless. And fabulous! Continue reading →

Oh Fudge

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I love fudge. I absolutely love it. This recipe is straight off the back of the marshmallow fluff can. I’ve been making it for years. I do one small thing differently. In addition to the normal semi-sweet chocolate in the recipe, I add about 2 ounces of milk chocolate chips. Perfect chocolatey goodness. I am anti-nut in my baked goods, but if you like chunky nutty fudge, just add 1 cup of your favorite nut, chopped.

Now to share a few lessons learned through the years making fudge. Yes, I have done all these things. Baking sometimes requires trial and error. Learn from mine instead of doing any of these things yourself. Continue reading →

Twice Baked Walnut Cookies

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If you didn’t get your workout in today, try making these cookies. The dough has to be mixed by hand and one batch has 5 cups of flour in it. The first year I made these, I ignored the “with a heavy spoon” part of the directions and just put the batter into my mixer – which then broke as the motor struggled to stir the incredibly thick dough. Today I snapped a spatula in half stirring the dough because I didn’t look carefully when I picked it up off the counter, thought it was my wooden spoon and only realized it wasn’t when the handle cracked in half. Whoops. At least my arm muscles got some exercise today. Continue reading →

Chocolate Rum Balls

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As a child I would always help my mom with rolling her chocolate nut balls in powdered sugar. We’d use a paper bag and shake a few balls at a time until the dark brown chocolate just peeked thru the sweet white sugar. Once I lived on my own, I made them just like mom did…until I discovered the magic of substituting spiced rum where my mother had used half -n-half. Holy cow. Good good good. Just enough kick to let you know these are RUM balls. If you are not an alcohol in your baked goods fan (I feel so sorry for you), just switch it back. An even swap – 1/2 cup of half-n-half for the spiced rum listed. They are delicious like mom used to make them too. But my way will make your Christmas gathering a little more jolly. Continue reading →

Vanilla Bean Cookies

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My mom makes these buttery rich cookies every Christmas. For years I would watch her roll out the dough and cut it into angel and tree shapes. It is not an easy dough to work with because essentially, it is butter and ground almonds. It can get a little crumbly – especially the second and third time you roll it out. This year I decided to try a little twist on mom’s classic recipe. I rolled the dough into balls, and flattened them slightly. Same great taste – much less hassle. I kind of miss the snowy angels though. Continue reading →

Chocolate Drizzled PayDay® Cookies

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Finally! My husband (notorious for his ability to not eat sweets) was salivating over these as they cooled on the counter. He was practically begging me for a taste. And when at last I gave him a cookie to try, he stood silently as he ate. When he was finished, he said these magical words. “That might just be the perfect cookie.” Are you kidding me?! Woo-hoo!

I call these PayDay® Cookies because they combine all the great flavors of that candy bar. These are slightly less sweet, and less salty than the inspiration though. A perfect blend of sweet and salty, gooey-ness and crunch. Oh they are awesome! And gorgeous. And dee-licious. Continue reading →

Spritz

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This is my mom’s grandmother’s recipe for Spritz. I have fantastic memories of my mom whipping out her electric cookie press and having dozens of little tree cookies all over the kitchen. They are buttery goodness at it’s finest. Make sure you beat the egg yolks well…they should be frothy and light-colored. I also sometimes have trouble with these flattening out a little (keepin it real). But I love the flavor so much that I deal with it…and, I’m the fourth generation to make these cookies. I can’t really mess with the recipe. Can I? My general solution is to press the cookies out and then refrigerate them for about a half hour before baking. Continue reading →

Russian Tea Cakes

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These cookies have many names. People call them Mexican Wedding Cakes, Italian Butter Nut, Southern Pecan Butterballs, Snowdrops, Viennese Sugar Balls and Snowballs. They are pretty much the same thing. Nuts and butter…with a little sugar and flour to hold them together. You can make these delights with any nut you like, I prefer the slightly bitter walnuts as an offset to the richness of the butter and sweetness of the sugar. Whatever nut you use,  the key is to grind up the nuts as finely as possible. The bigger your nut chunks, the harder it will be to get the dough to hold together. Pulse them in the food processor until they are about the size of couscous. Maybe just a wee-bit smaller. Like this: Continue reading →