Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
yield 2 dozen cookies

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
  
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 cups flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar

• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
  

1. Cream the butter, sugar, and pumpkin puree
2. Add the egg to the creamed mixture and beat it all together
3. Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl
4. Dump half of the sifted ingredients into the egg mixture. Stir with a mixing spoon. Then add the rest of the sifted ingredients and stir some more
5. Cover the mixing bowl and put it in the refrigerator for one hour
6. preheat oven to 400*
7. mix one tablespoon of sugar and one tablespoon of cinnamon on a small plate
8. Break off a bit of cold dough, about the size of a walnut, and roll it into a ball
9. Roll the ball around in the dish of cinnamon-sugar.
10. Put it in the cookie sheet and make more balls the same way.
11. Leave a lot of room around each one on the cookie sheet.
12. bake for 10 minutes. These cookies are really soft when you take them off the cookie sheet. lift them up carefully with a spatula and set them on a wire rack to cool.

Homemade Flour Tortilla Recipe

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• 2 cups of white flour
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup warm water

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Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. In another bowl combine the warm water and oil.

Add the water/oil mixture to the flour mixture, one tablespoon at a time and mix the dough with a fork. Once the water is mixed in, add another tablespoon of water and repeat the process until all the water is mixed into the dough.

The dough will be sticky.

Kneading The Dough

Lightly flour a wooden cutting board and knead the dough.

Kneading is done by pushing the dough with the heals and palms of both hands down onto the board. Fold the dough back onto itself, give a quarter turn and push again with the palms and heels of your hands. Just repeat the process of pressing, folding and turning for about 4 or 5 minutes. Add a dusting of flour when the dough gets sticky.

If the dough sticks to the cutting board while kneading, scrape up the dough and dust the board with a little flour and continue kneading.

Eventually the stickiness will go away and you will have a nice smooth dough.

Place the dough back into the bowl and cover it with a damp towel or damp paper towel. Let the dough rest for 20 minutes.

Divide the dough into golf-ball-size balls by pinching off the dough with your thumb and fore finger. Form each ball into a nice ball shape.

Place the balls on a flat dish making sure they don't touch each other and cover with the damp cloth.

Let the dough rest again for 10 minutes.

Rolling The Tortillas

Preheat a skillet or cast iron pan on medium high heat. You really can't beat cast iron pans for even heat distribution and their ability to withstand high heat without warping.

Lightly dust your wooden cutting board with flour. Take one of the balls of dough and flatten it out on the cutting board to a 4 inch circle. Rub flour on your rolling pin and begin to roll out the dough starting from the center out. Roll the tortilla until it is 6 or 7 inches in diameter and about 1/8 inch thick.

It's difficult to roll out a perfectly round tortilla so if that is important to you, you can always trim the tortilla with a knife.

I like their irregular homemade looking shape. No one can mistake these for store bought, especially when you taste them.

Don't be surprised if your kids take this flour tortilla recipe to new heights by making shapes out of the dough. Their creative little minds will be making homemade star shaped quesadillas!

Cooking The Tortillas

Back to the flour tortilla recipe...

Once you have rolled out the tortilla, place it on a preheated skillet. You don't need to add any oil or butter. Cook the tortilla for about 30 seconds. You will notice brown spots all over your tortilla. Flip it over and cook an additional 30 seconds.

Don't over cook it as you want the tortilla to be nice and soft.

Keep your tortillas warm by covering them in a towel on a plate or in a tortilla warmer.

Storing Tortillas

Tortillas are best eaten hot right off the griddle, but you can refrigerate and freeze them too.

If you freeze the tortillas, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and put them in a ziplock bag. When you are ready to use them, first thaw at room temperature and then wrap them in foil and place them in a 250 degree oven for a 10 to 15 minutes.

I don't recommend microwaving them as this tends to toughen them.

Carrot Cake

CARROT CAKE
by Made (blog)

2 - 4 carrots

1/2 cup oil

2 cups sugar

3 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

1 cup buttermilk (or 1 cup lowfat milk mixed with 2 tsp vinegar)

Heat the oven to 350º (turn it to 325º if using a non-stick pan or a glass pan).
Grease a 13x9 pan (or 2 to 3 round pans)

Grate 2 - 4 carrots. Measure 2 cups of loosely-packed carrots (don't cram the carrots into the measuring cup) and set them aside.

Prep your "buttermilk". If you ever have a recipe that calls for buttermilk, you can create an easy substitute by mixing 1 cup of milk with 2 tsp vinegar. Mix and let it sit while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

In a large bowl beat the oil, sugar, eggs and vanilla together until light, about two minutes.

Stir together the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Add the flour mixture and the buttermilk to the creamed mixture. Beat for another two minutes. Stir in the carrots.

Pour into a 9x13 pan and Bake for 33 - 40 minutes or just until the center springs back when lightly touched. Cool on a wire rack before frosting.

For a layered cake:
Grease three 9-inch round cake pans. Cut three 9-inch circles of waxed paper and place in bottom of each pan. Pour evenly into the three pans. Bake at 350º for 18 - 25 minutes or just until done. Place pans on wire racks and cool for 20 minutes.

For mini Cupcakes:
Prepare recipe above, use candy-cup wrappers for cupcake holders (found in the candy making aisle at Michaels and other craft stores), and pour appx 1 Tbls of batter into each cup. Bake 7-9 minutes.

Since my little helpers are usually too antsy to wait for the cake to get out of the oven, I usually bake a few mini-cupcakes first. Immediate returns. All you need is one tablespoon of batter (and a steadier hand than me, spilling everywhere while trying to take a picture)
Bake them for 7-10 minutes, cool, and snack away.

LITE CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
(for a Layered Cake, double the recipe)

4 ounces Cream Cheese (Lite Cream Cheese or Neufchatel Cheese...at room temperature)

1/4 cup butter (at room temperature)

1 tsp vanilla

2 - 3 cups powdered sugar

milk

Cream together the cream cheese, butter and vanilla. Add the powdered sugar and enough milk to make a creamy, spreadable frosting.

And, you're done!

Make sure it tastes okay.

And once your cake has cooled, we're ready to frost. I'll be making a layered cake but I didn't have 3 round pans, so I chose to bake the cake in a jelly roll pan (fancy word for a really nice cookie sheet). I usually place my cake in the freezer for 10 minutes or so, so that it's nice and firm for frosting.

I cut out a circle on paper and used it to cut three circles from the cake. This method leaves a lot of excess cake. But it's perfect for snacking on later.
Find a pretty serving platter. Place the first layer of the cake down and start spreading the frosting. Be liberal with your frosting. There's no point in having cake if there isn't a lot of frosting.
Put the second layer on top of that, more frosting on top, and repeat.

Then take your knife and frost all the way around the outside of the cake. There are tons of methods out there for making your cake pretty on the outside. If I'm really feeling ambitious, I frost the outside of the cake (which usually gets bits of cake stuck in the frosting. Not too pretty), then I place it in the fridge for an hour, then I frost another layer around the outside to disguise the first layer.

Banana/Zucchini Bread

(from Kathrine Paget)

2/3 c. Shortening
2 2/3 c. sugar
4 eggs
3 c. mashed banana/shredded zucchini
2/3 c. water
3 1/3 c. flour
2 t. baking soda
1 1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. baking powder
1 t. ground cloves
2 t. vanilla
2/3 c. nuts and raisins (each) (optional)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottoms only of 2 loaf pans 9x5x3 inches or 3 loaf pans 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches. Sprinkle a cinnamon sugar mixture in bottom and sides of pan. Mix shortening and sugar in large bowl. Add eggs, banana/zucchini, and water. Blend in flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves and vanilla (mix cloves with vanilla before mixing with others). Stir in nuts and raisins. Pour into pans. Bake until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean - about 1 hr. 10 minutes. Cool slightly. Loosen sides of loaves from pans and remove from pans. Cool completely before slicing. To store, wrap adn refrigerate no longer than 10 days.

Chewy Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

Adapted from Allrecipes

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Method

Preheat the oven to 325° F (165° C).
In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Beat in egg then stir in vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; stir into the creamed mixture until just blended. Mix in the quick oats and chocolate chips. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake for 15 minutes then remove sheets from oven and cool cookies on sheets for 5 minutes then remove to rack and cool completely.

Almond Poppy Seed Bread

Almond Poppy Seed Bread
This is an old recipe of my mother's, and it is fool proof. And. Everyone I take it to begs for the recipe. Good sign, no?

1 1/8 C oil
3 eggs
1 1/2 C milk
1 1/2 T poppy seeds
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 tsp. almond extract
3 C flour
2 1/2 C sugar
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

Mix wet ingredients. Add dry ingredients gradually. Pour into 2 greased bread pans and bake at 350 degrees for one hour.

Mix the following and pour over partially cooled bread:
1/4 C orange juice
3/4 C sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. almond extract
chopped almonds (optional)

A note on size: Instead of doing the 2 large loafs, I often bake 4 smaller loaves. They take about half the time to bake and are perfect little gifts.

Pepparkakor Cookies