Baked Oatmeal

Folks-

I first made baked oatmeal over ten years ago, using a standard recipe from Allrecipes. It's a great morning breakfast cake or cereal if you're gluten free. I have found the recipe adapts very well to being lactose free as well. Both came in handy when I brought it to work for everyone to enjoy, as I have coworkers who are allergic to both lactose and gluten (no, really allergic, as in tested and everything, not "gluten adverse".)

Some people take a hunk of this, crumble it in a bowl, add milk and eat it like a cereal. I don't. I eat it like a crumbly cake because if I want a cereal made of oats I just skip a few steps and make oatmeal.

But you still have the option there if you want it.

The Allrecipes version of the recipe calls for dried cranberries, but I usually make it with blueberries, and peaches and strawberries have also come out quite good. I suspect I may make it with strawberries and banana chunks eventually just to try it.

Here's the Allrecipes Baked Oatmeal recipe with my notes.

Ingredients:

3 cups rolled oats (or old fashion oatmeal, or quick oats)

1 cup brown sugar or to taste

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (can add 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, cardamom, and/or allspice)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt, or to taste

2 large eggs (I have not tested a vegan substitute at this time)

1 cup milk (oat, almond, or soy milk also work, but I prefer oat milk for this)

1/2 cup melted butter (vegan butter or margarine both work)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract (optional)

3/4 cup dried cranberries (or raisins, or currants, or 1 cup whole fresh or frozen blueberries, or raspberries, or sliced strawberries, or diced peaches, or diced mango, just try something. But if using fresh fruit, reduce milk to 3/4 cup.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Gather all ingredients. Mix together dry ingredients (except fruit). Beat in eggs and stir in wet ingredients and fruit. Spread evenly in a 9x13" baking pan and bake until golden brown, about 40 minutes. Serve warm.

Pie Crust Cinnamon Rolls

Folks-

I was just going through my old recipes, and noticed in my recipe for Bread Machine Cinnamon Rolls, I mentioned that I also make Pie Crust Cinnamon Rolls, and that I would post the recipe later.

Well, more than 10 years later, here it is.

A pie crust cinnamon roll is more like a coffee cake. I often make one along with a fruit pie out of the leftover pie crust dough for breakfast the next day. Unlike bread-dough cinnamon rolls, you don't slice this until after you've baked it. You also don't frost these. That would be gilding a lilly. They're pretty rich and filling on their own, so you don't want to add anything on them. Just slice the finished cinnamon roll into little cookies and serve with coffee!

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3 Tbsp ground Cinnamon 

1/4 to 1/2 cup softened butter

1/2 of a pie crust recipe like my mom's Foolproof Pie Crust

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Wisk together the sugar and cinnamon. Roll out the pie crust to about 4-6mm thickness (a bit less than 1/4"). Spread the softened butter evenly over the surface of the pie crust all the way to the edge. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar evenly over the butter, trying to get it no more than 1mm thick. You don't want dry piles of cinnamon sugar. It should all be in contact with the butter all the way to the edge. Roll the pie crust up into a roll and lightly pinch the ends closed. Place in a baking dish/pie tin/casserole dish/jellyroll pan (something with sides) and bake at 350 F for about 20-40 minutes just until it's starting to turn a bit golden, or until the pie you're baking it with is done. This should be finished roughly at the same time as any pie you're making it with, and they make great "oven buddies."

Allow to cool until it's just warm to the touch or even room temperature before slicing. Slice into 1-2 cm disks, like cookies, and serve with coffee or tea.

Note: Do not slice before baking. The cinnamon sugar and butter will run out while it's baking and burn on the pan.

Apple Dumplings

Folks-

This year when we made our annual pilgrimage to Gizdich Ranch for the apple harvest, we discovered they now have apple dumplings in the pie shop. We got one for Aaron, and after trying a bite, we decided to try making them.

I found a recipe over at Allrecipes, and adapted it for our use.

This recipe requires a pie crust, and I recommend my mom's Fool Proof Pie Crust for it.

Here's my version of Apple Dumplings!

Ingredients:

1 14oz pie crust recipe or store bought, rolled out and cut into 6-8 equal squares

3-4 baking apples, Granny Smith or similar, peeled, cored, and cut in half

8 tablespoons (1/2 cup, or 1 stick) softened butter, divided

3/4 cup brown sugar (any darkness, your choice, or mix together 2/3 cup sugar and 1-2 tablespoons honey or maple sugar)

1 teaspoon cinnamon 

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg 

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice 

3 cups water (2 cups unfiltered apple juice and 1 cup water tested well)

2 cups white sugar (reduce to 1 to 1 1/4 cup if using apple juice)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat an oven to 375 degrees and butter a large baking pan or casserole dish.

Mix together 6 tbsp of the butter, brown sugar, and spices. Divide the mixture into 6-8 equal amounts and stuff it into the apple halves where the core was. Place a stuffed apple half into a square of pie crust core down, dust the apple with cinnamon, gather the corners of the pie crust and stretch over the apple and pinch them together to seal. Place the encrusted apples into the buttered baking dish. 

Combine the water and apple juice (if using), sugar, and last two tablespoons of butter in a saucepan and heat while stirring until the mixture begins to boil, then reduce the temperature to low and continue to stir until the sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract.

Carefully pour the syrup over the dumplings. Place the baking dish into the oven and bake until the dumplings are golden brown on top, about 45-65 minutes.

Easy Peach and Mango Cobbler

 Folks-

I wanted to try to sneak in at least one more recipe before the end of the year, and after my Peach and Mango Cobbler got the most comments at our Christmas dinner (how do you top grilled Emu steaks and grilled whole Lobster? Cobbler, I guess) the recipe to post was obvious.

Here's the recipe! 

Ingredients:

3/4 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon 

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup sugar

3/4 cup milk

1 15 oz can sliced or diced peaches in syrup 

1 15 oz can diced mangoes in syrup

1/3 cup butter

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit and place the butter in a deep 2 quart baking dish in the oven to melt. Mix together the dry ingredients. Add the milk to the dry ingredients and mix until a batter forms. Once the butter is melted, remove the baking dish from the oven and pour the batter evenly over the butter. Spoon the mangoes, peaches, and most of the syrup evenly over the batter, then bake for 35-45 minutes.

Ed's Overnight Sourdough Waffles or Pancakes

Folks-

Waffle is kind of a fun word, isn't it? Waffle. 

In any case, I've been looking for a good, crisp, tasty waffle recipe for years without success. They always come out limp from my highly-rated Belgian waffle iron. So I finally started to look up what made a waffle crisp, which appears to be vegetable oil in the batter, eggs, and baking soda. Then, after working with the Sourdough Crumpet recipe, I decided it was time to make my own waffle recipe from the beginning. Waffle,

This is not a waffle recipe I waffled together from someone else's waffle recipe; I waffled this one together on my own. Waffle!

The cool thing is this recipe was rather easily adapted to pancakes. I'll include the modifications in the notes.

Waffle.

Ingredients: 

100g Sourdough Starter Discard

310g All-purpose flour

250g water

3 eggs, beaten

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

3 tbsp sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup vegetable oil

The night before mix together sourdough starter discard, flour, and water and set on the counter loosely covered to ferment 8-12 hours until active and bubbly. Do not over mix. Batter should be lumpy. The next morning start heating the waffle iron, then mix together the remaining dry ingredients, and beat the eggs. Add the oil to the eggs and give a quick whisk. Fold the egg mixture and dry ingredients into the sourdough leavening and allow to sit for a couple of minutes for the baking powder and baking soda to activate. Bake in your waffle iron per manufacturer directions.

Notes: You can serve these immediately from the waffle iron, or if you want to have a sit-down breakfast with everyone at once, heat the oven to about 200-300 degrees, turn it off, and then place the finished waffles directly on the oven rack or a cooling rack placed in the oven. Do not stack them on top of each other or they become soggy.

To convert this to a pancake recipe, use 2 eggs instead of 3, 2 tbsp of sugar instead of 3, and 3 tbsp of melted butter (cooled to just liquid) instead of 1/3 cup vegetable oil. Everything else is the same.

Waffle.

Sourdough Crumpets

 Folks- 

I got on the sourdough train later than a lot of other people, but I'm starting to catch up!

Today I decided to make sourdough crumpets because the recipes I found online were ridiculously easy compared to, say, a sourdough boule or something similar.

Personally, I decided to split my starter this morning to make sure I had enough to make crumpets for everyone, since the original recipe made something like 4. This recipe makes about 12 of you're using 3 inch rings, 10 if you're using 4 inch rings.

It goes without saying that you need a sourdough starter to make this. If you don't already have one, and don't have access to someone else's, it takes about 2-3 weeks to get one going.

Here's my variation on the King Arthur Flour Sourdough Crumpets!

Ingredients:

100g sourdough starter discard

175g all purpose flour 

165g water

2 teaspoons granulated sugar

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon salt

A scant teaspoon baking soda (between 3/4 and 1 teaspoon)

Melted butter (2-4 tablespoon)

The night before mix the sourdough starter with the flour and water and leave in a warm place to ferment loosely covered for 8-12 hours. The next day heat a griddle to about 300 degrees F. Mix all ingredients to a smooth dough. It should start to bubble and become billowy. Lightly oil the surface of the griddle, lightly butter the inside of the crumpet rings, and arrange them on the griddle. Divide the batter evenly among the crumpet rings (a scant 1/4 cup or a scant ice cream scoop for 3" rings, a heaping 1/4 cup or heaping ice cream scoop for 4" rings.) Allow crumpets to bake on the top of the griddle until the bubbles are set and the tops are no longer glossy (about 5 minutes), then carefully flip them and remove the crumpet rings and continue to cook for another 3 minutes until golden. Serve immediately, or store in the fridge for about a week, toasting as wanted. Makes 12-15 3" crumpets.

Note: [7/4/26] If you want extra sour crumpets, I recommend starting two days before using this method: On the first day (about 30-40 hrs before cooking), add 125g of the flour and 125g of the water to the discard. On the night before (8-12 hours before cooking) add the last 50g of flour and 40g of water to the starter. This makes for a much stronger flavored ferment. Also, I bolded the temperature above because I tend to forget to adjust the temperature down after cooking other foods on my griddle.

Updated 7/4/26 (coincidentally. I just happened to make them today with a longer ferment and adjusted amounts.)

Overnight Sourdough Waffles

Folks-

I'm a couple of years late to the sourdough scene, but I've been experimenting with it the last couple of months. I started with the King Arthur Sourdough Starter recipe, which took a couple of weeks to really get going, but now that it is, I'm having fun with it.

I found a recipe on The Pantry Mama that I was able to modify to my needs, and they came out better than a couple of other recipes. These have an actual sour flavor, so that's a good thing.

Without further ado, here's my version:

Ingredients:

Night before:

100g sourdough starter, fed & bubbly (fed that morning)

360g whole milk

400g all purpose flour

100g sugar

Day of:

30g sugar

100g (about 1 stick) melted butter (cooled until it's just melted)

4 large eggs, beaten

24g baking powder (about 4 tsp)

10g salt (about 1 tsp)

20g sugar

The night before: mix together sourdough starter, whole milk, flour, and sugar. Cover with plastic wrap and leave on the counter overnight, or 12-15 hours.

The next morning, mix together the sugar, baking powder, and salt, and beat together the eggs and melted butter. Whisk ingredients into the batter from the night before, and allow to sit while heating the waffle iron. Use nonstick spray or a high smoke-point oil on the waffle iron, not butter, if you want crispy waffles. Makes about 8-10 waffles in a Belgian waffle iron.

Note: You can use discard if you haven't thought ahead, but fed starter works just a smidge better.

This recipe is easily halved.

Baklava

 Folks-

This is really a work in progress, so I don't yet consider it complete. I created this by cobbling it together from several other recipes.

Ingredients:

Honey Syrup:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp rose water (or orange extract, or 1 tsp vanilla extract)
• 10 black peppercorns (or 5 whole cloves)

Nut Filling:

• 8 oz shelled raw pistachios
• 8 oz raw walnuts (or almonds, or pecans)
• 2 tsp ground cardamom
• 3 Tbsp granulated sugar
• 1/4 Tsp salt

Pastry and Butter:

• 2-3 sticks unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1 lb frozen phyllo dough, thawed

To make the honey syrup:

Combine all ingredients except rose water in a saucepan, bring to a boil over medium heat, reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes. Allow to cool to room temperature before discarding peppercorns and stirring in the rosewater or other flavoring.

To make the nut filling:

Pulse the nuts together in a food processor until very finely chopped. Set aside about 1 tbsp before you add in sugar, salt, and ground cardamom and pulse together to combine.

To assemble and bake:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Brush a 9x13 inch pan with butter then layer a half-sheet of Phyllo in the bottom and brush with butter, layering 6- 10 more half sheets on top, brushing each with butter. Layer 1/3 of the nut filling on top, and place a half-sheet of Phyllo on the filling, and dab with butter (brushing will slide it off.) Layer 6-10 more half sheets, another 1/3 of the filling, another 7-10 sheets of dough & butter, the rest of the filling, the rest of the dough and butter. Use a sharp knife to cut the dough and filling into squares or diamonds. Place in the oven for 45 minutes, turn it 180 degrees, and bake another 45 minutes or until golden in color. Remove from the oven to a cooling rack then immediately pour the honey syrup through the cuts, leaving the last couple of tablespoons to cover the top of the baklava. Decorate the tops with the saved nut mixture.

Allow to cool for at least three hours, than wrap in aluminum foil and allow to sit for 12 hours before serving.

Notes: Aaron strongly recommends sitting down while assembling the baklava in the baking dish. It takes quite a while with all of the layering, dabbing, and covering with nut filling, and, yeah, I wish I had done it sitting at the table that first time.

Also, this is much better the day after it's baked. Like, a lot. I strongly recommend fixing it a day ahead if you have a party or gathering planned.

And this recipe is great for sharing. One full recipe is too much for my family of six to finish in a reasonable amount of time.

Aaron's Banana Cream Pie

My youngest, Aaron, cobbled this recipe together from 3 other recipes that he found on the interwebs one day while he was hungry in class. He came home and made it for us. Cynthia, his older sister, cried when she took her first bite because it tasted so good. I made it for my coworkers and got a very consistent response, which was (paraphrased) "This is great! When can I have the recipe?"

Well, this is it. The crust is from The Spruce Eats, the filling is from Allrecipes, and the whipped topping is from my French Silk Pie recipe.

Here are the crust and filling recipes. I don't recommend making the topping until the crust has been filled and it has cooled, so once you're at that point, head over to that recipe.

Vanilla Wafer Cookie Crust Ingredients

1 1/2 cups fine vanilla wafer cookie crumbs (about 30-35 cookies worth)

2 tbsp granulated sugar (vanilla sugar is good here, but regular is just fine)

5 tbsp softened unsalted butter

Instructions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Add vanilla wafer cookies and sugar to a food processor an pulse until crumbs are fine (about the same as commercial bread crumbs.) Add the butter and pulse until combined. Turn out crumb mixture into a 9" pie tin and press into the bottom and sides of the dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes and cool completely before filling (it should be cool by the time the filling is done).

Banana Cream Pie Filling Ingredients

3/4 cup white sugar

1/3 cup all purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

2 cups milk

3 egg yolks, beaten

2 tbsp unsalted butter

1 1/4 tsp vanilla extract (don't substitute vanilla sugar-it doesn't work)

Up to 4 bananas, sliced (enough to cover the bottom of the pie crust)

Instructions: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees (if not already hot.) Cover the bottom of the pie crust with banana slices. Place egg yolks in a small heat resistant bowl and beat them thoroughly.

Combine the dry ingredients in a medium saucepan. Gradually stir in milk. Stirring constantly with a rubber spatula, cook over medium-low heat until it boils and begins to thicken, then let it simmer for two more minutes while stirring constantly. I mean stirring constantly! This stuff desperately wants to burn to the pan and ruin itself. Do not stop stirring thoroughly while it's on the heat!

Remove the milk mixture from the heat and whisk about 3 tablespoons into the beaten egg yolks, then whisk the egg mixture into the milk mixture. Return to heat for two more minutes, stirring constantly.

Remove from heat and mix in vanilla and butter.

Pour over banana slices and level the pudding in the pie pan. Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes. Allow to cool for at least 1 hour before topping with a whipped topping.

It's quite good if you sprinkle toasted almond slices or some toasted reserved cookie crumbs over the whipped topping.

I intend to try making the filling in the top of a double-boiler just to see if it's easier. I'll update this recipe later with the results.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Folks-
This is a standard chocolate chip cookie recipe with just a couple of subtle changes. Melting the butter, instead of using softened butter, is my dad's contribution. I also often use vanilla sugar thrown into the measuring cup before measuring out the white sugar. Tip: I use a 2-cup measuring cup most of the time. First I pack-in the brown sugar, then I finish by adding white sugar until it reaches the 1-1/2 Cup level. That gives you the most accurate measure of sugar for your cookies!

Ingredients
1 Cup (2 sticks) melted butter
3/4 Cup packed brown sugar
3/4 Cup granulated white sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract or 2 tsp vanilla sugar
2 large eggs
2-1/4 Cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cocoa powder
2 Cups chocolate chips
Optional: 1 Cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Beat together butter, sugars, and vanilla extract until creamy. Add eggs and beat well. Add all other ingredients except chocolate chips and nuts and mix well. Mix in chocolate chips
From into 1-2 inch balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 9-12 minutes. Allow to cool for 2 minutes before moving to a cooling rack.
Note: It's easy to use a mellon-baller to form these. They can be frozen for up to six months, and baked straight from the freezer.

Eleanor's Peanut Butter Cookies

If you ever wondered how I started cooking, or where I got my tendency to change the recipes of others, this is where both started. You see, this is my mom's Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe. She took the recipe from a '60's-era Betty Crocker Cookbook, and changed it by a single ingredient. The original recipe calls for a combination of butter and shortening, but she found that if you used more butter instead of the shortening (a 1 for 1 substitution) then the cookies came out softer, and more flavorful.
Here's my mom's variation of the Betty Crocker Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe:

1/2 Cup granulated sugar
1/2 Cup dark brown sugar, packed
1/2 Cup peanut butter
1/2 Cup softened butter
1 egg
1-1/4 Cup flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Mix together sugars, peanut butter, butter, and egg until smooth. Add all other ingredients and thoroughly mix them in. Cover and refrigerate for about 2 hours.
Set oven temperature for 350 degrees. Shape the dough into 1 to 1-1/4 inch balls by hand or using a melon-baller, placing them 3 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Press a checkerboard pattern into the top of each cookie with a fork. Bake 9-11 minutes until golden brown around the edges.
Remove from the cookie sheet and allow cookies to cool on a platter (they tend to fall apart if cooled on wire racks, unless supported by parchment paper.)
Optional: dip the fork into granulated (white or party-colored) sugar between pressing the checkerboard pattern into each cookie for an added decoration.
Tip: This recipe makes a lot of cookies, but you don't have to bake them all at once. The dough will keep in the refrigerator for a couple of days, or four to six months in the freezer. I like to make them into balls using a melon-baller, and then freeze them in a zip-seal freezer bag labeled with the expiration date. When I want fresh cookies, I put the frozen balls on a cookie sheet, press in the pattern, and bake them as directed.

Baking Mix Blueberry Muffins

I tried to make blueberry muffins the way I remembered them from my childhood, but even using those recipes, they seemed dry, and not the way I expected. Modern recipes were too much like a yellow cupcake with blueberries in them. I eventually tried a recipe off of a box of biscuit and baking mix, and it was pretty much exactly what I wanted.
Of course I lost that recipe.
I later found one on Food.com that is probably identical. Being who I am, I've modified it a bit. Here's my version:

Baking Mix Blueberry Muffins
2 Cups Bisquick, Jiffy, or other biscuit and baking mix
1/3 Cup Sugar
2/3 Cup milk
1/4 Tsp vanilla (or 1 Tsp vanilla sugar added to sugar before measuring)
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 Egg
3/4 to 1-1/2 Cup fresh or frozen blueberries
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 12 muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray, or line with paper baking cups, or line with parchment paper. Mix together all ingredients except blueberries until moistened. Batter will be lumpy. Fold in blueberries. Divide blueberries evenly into the muffin cups and bake 15-20 minutes until lightly browned around edges. Cool briefly and remove from muffin tins. Serve while warm.

Notes 2/2/2025: Today I tried a baking mix alternative with mixed success. I suspect you can replace the Bisquick with 2 cups flour, 1 tbsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp baking soda, and 1/3 cup shortening cut in, as long as you increase the sugar in this recipe to 1/2 cup and milk to 3/4 cup.

Quick Aebleskiver (work in progress)

So, here we are again, waiting a year or a bit more to update. Are you surprised? No? Good.
My family has been making Aebleskiver since I was little. My kids love them, and ask me to fix them for breakfast much more often than I actually do.
What are Aebleskiver? They're also known as Danish Pancake Balls.
They're a bit of work to make in the traditional fashion, which is why I don't make them frequently. This has been driving me to find a faster way to make them. One thing that slows down the traditional method is the pan. It looks a bit like an egg poaching pan with deeper depressions. A good one is made of tempered cast iron and is heavy. They have to be in order to cook them evenly. That means it takes some time to heat them up properly. Then to cook them properly, you have to constantly turn them in the pan as one side is done. That's a bit of work.
Also, here in the U.S., you can't get a mix to make them. I've worked out mixes in the past, but that still means I have to set aside time and pantry space for them when they're fixed.
The first break in making them faster was when my mom got us a babycakes cake-pop maker. You've seen them. They're a bit like a waffle iron with little spheres in them. Cake-pop balls are about half the size of Aebleskiver, but that's not a significant issue. It's much easier to use the cake-pop maker than an Aebleskiver pan.
Today I decided to try to fix the mix issue. It's a work in progress, but I figured I would post what I've managed to work out, just so you know what to do with that old cake-pop maker that was collecting dust in your cabinets.
Edited 3/27/2016 (Easter Sunday): I changed the milk in the recipe to water. It has too much of a dairy flavor if you use milk. Also I recommend the use of unsalted butter. The pancake mix already has enough salt in it.
7/4/2017: Note: Experiments show this works well with the non-stick surface of a Babycakes Cake Pop Maker, but not as well with a traditional cast-iron pan. It sticks hard unless you heavily butter the cups, and even then it sticks moderately. I may add two tablespoons vegetable oil the next time I use cast-iron.
Here it is:

Quick Aebleskiver

1-1/2 Cups Pancake Mix (I used Krusteaz Buttermilk Complete Pancake Mix)
3 Tablespoons sugar
1/4 Teaspoon Cardamom or Cinnamon
1 Cup water
1 Large egg
4 Tablespoons melted unsalted butter, divided

Heat up the cake-pop maker. Mix together the water, egg, and 2 tablespoons of the melted butter. Add the pancake mix, sugar, and spices at once and mix until they are moistened and form a lumpy batter. Brush the cups of the cake-pop maker top and bottom with melted butter, and fill the bottom cups with batter nearly to the top (mine takes about a tablespoon of batter.) Close the cake-pop maker and allow to cook for about 4 minutes. They should have brown spots when properly cooked. Remove from pan with a wood skewer so as not to scratch the finish of the cake-pop maker. While still hot, split and serve with jam and whipped cream. Makes about 4 dozen.

Microwave Peanut Butter Cookies

Folks-
Every now and then I'll see a recipe in my feed that I have to try. About a month ago I saw one for "Deep Dish Single Serve Microwave Chocolate Chip Cookie." While my daughter and I agreed it was ok, it didn't hit a home run in my family. I decided to try modifying it into something we all liked, and after a week of tinkering, I finally had a Microwave Peanut Butter Cookie that is just as good as regular baked cookies, except you make them in small batches, and they take much less time, preparation, and no chilling the dough for several hours! Best of all, as long as you use mayo instead of egg or egg substitute, you can eat the dough raw (but I wouldn't store it for that.)

Microwave Peanut Butter Cookies

2 tsp butter melted

1-1/2 tbsp mayonnaise (or 1 egg yolk or 1/2 of an eggs worth of egg substitute)

1 tbsp peanut butter

2-1/2 tsp white sugar

1 tsp vanilla sugar (or 1 tsp sugar and 3 drops vanilla extract)

1 tbsp brown sugar

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/3 cup flour

Mix together butter, mayonnaise, and sugars. Mix in flour and baking powder. Form into 3-5 small balls, 1-2 tbsp in size. Place on a microwave safe plate. Use a fork to make a checkerboard pattern on the cookies, if desired. Microwave for 45-60 seconds. Allow to cool for at least a minute before eating.

Bread-Dough Cinnamon Rolls

Folks-

I make two different kinds of cinnamon rolls on a regular basis, bread-dough and pie crust. Both are good, but rather different. I'll post instructions for the pie crust cinnamon rolls later. Now, one of my family's favorite breakfast treats!

Bread-Machine Cinnamon Rolls

1lb batch:

2/3 Cup Water

1/2 Egg

2 Cups Flour

3 Tbsp Sugar

2 Tbsp Dry Skim Milk

1 Tsp Salt

4 Tbsp Butter

1-1/2 Tsp Dry Yeast

1-1/2lb Batch:

1 Cup Water

1 Egg

3 Cups Flour

1/4 Cup Sugar

3 Tbsp Dry Skim Milk

1-1/2 Tsp Salt

5 Tbsp Butter

2 Tsp Dry Yeast

Filling:

1/2 Cup Butter, melted

1 Cup Cinnamon Sugar

Put ingredients into a bread machine in the order the manual instructs (usually the order above) and set the machine to Dough Mode. When complete, roll out dough on a floured surface to about 1/4 inch thickness. Mix melted butter and cinnamon sugar together and spread on dough. Roll dough into a  cylinder and using a sharp knife, cut into 1 inch segments. Place segments into a greased pan giving them 1/2 to 3/4 inch space on all sides and bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and immediately frost or glaze. Allow to cool for 3-5 minutes and serve hot.

Tips: These can be frozen prior to cooking. I find a full batch is too much for my family to eat before they start to go stale. I divide a 1-1/2 lb batch into thirds, put the cinnamon rolls into a pie tin sprayed with non-stick cooking spray, and freeze them. To bake them, put the pie-tin into a cold oven and immediately set the temperature to 350 degrees and bake for 20-30 minutes--until they just start to turn golden brown.

You can absolutely make 2 or 3 lb batches of these by doubling either of the recipes above, if your bread machine is big enough. Combined with the freezing tip outlined above, this has allowed me to bake 5-8 large trays of these in a single day before taking them to my co-workers as Christmas gifts.

If you don't have a bread machine, you can make it using a stand mixer with a dough hook, or by hand. Heat the water to 90-100 degrees fahrenheit, mix in one teaspoon of the sugar, then sprinkle the yeast over it and allow to bloom for 2-5 minutes. After mixing it together, place in an oiled bowl, cover with oiled plastic wrap, and allow to raise in a warm place until doubled, 1-2 hours. Punch down and make the cinnamon rolls.

If you don't have powdered milk, each tablespoon of milk powder is about 1/3 cup of reconstituted milk. So in both of these recipes use milk instead of water if you don't have powdered milk.

This dough makes more than cinnamon rolls. Use orange marmalade, strawberry jam, or blueberry pie filling instead of cinnamon sugar for those kinds of rolls, and use a vanilla frosting on them. Or after rolling it out, you can cut the dough into doughnuts and deep fry them for raised doughnuts (roll them in cinnamon sugar or pour a powdered sugar and water glaze over them), or cut them onto 1 1/2 x 3" rectangles and bake at 350 for about 15-20 minutes until golden brown and top with a thin chocolate or maple frosting for chocolate or maple bars.

Ongoing experiments: So I decided to try making a 1 lb batch today in the stand mixer and adding 1 cup of potatoes reconstituted from flakes (hot water only.) Result: The stand mixer worked just fine, but I think it was too much potato, and I should try 1/2 cup for a 1 lb batch, or 3/4 cup for a 1.5 lb batch. I ended up adding about 1/4 to 1/2 cup additional flour to make the dough hold together, and it was still a bit too moist when making it, to the point that I didn't roll out the dough, I just flattened it with my hands. The resultant rolls were almost too delicate, moist, and rose too much. So, I'm on to something, but not there yet. Though I'm curious how this would have come out as doughnuts. I may try refrigerating the dough after letting it raise.

Fool Proof Pie Crust

Folks-
It's been a while since I've updated the site with a new recipe, and that's because I use the site as my own personal recipe card file. If I haven't needed an old recipe, have been experimenting much in the kitchen, and haven't found a new recipe that I need to add to the old card file, then I don't update.
Well, one of Zhenie's old high-school friends (she went to school in The Philippines, so how did one of her old friends end up living only a mile away?) dropped off a whole bunch of pairs at our house. I was thinking pie, but didn't find my mom's old pie crust recipe online. Time to fix that.
Here's a recipe that my mom got from one of the cooks at the school she retired from:

Fool Proof Pie Crust

Ingredients:
4 Cups Flour
1 Tablespoon Sugar
2 Teaspoons Salt
1 ¾ Cups or 335g *Shortening
½ Cup Cold Water
1 Tablespoon Vinegar
1 Large Egg

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, and salt. Cut in the shortening using a pastry blender just until mixed in and crumbly. Do not overdo it or the liquids won't mix in! In a separate bowl, mix together the water, vinegar, and egg. Add liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients just until a kneadable dough forms. Roll out on a floured surface to about 1/8 inch thick. If making an uncooked pie, be sure to poke the bottom of the pie crust multiple times with a fork before cooking to prevent bubbles.

Notes:
1. Shortening is getting harder to find these days. I intend to experiment with a coconut oil soon as a replacement. If I do, I'll let you know the results. Update: It works, but gives it a strong coconut flavor. This might work for some pies. I recommend sticking with shortening or maybe ghee.

2. It is best to get the liquids ready first then leave them in the refrigerator until ready. In fact, it's best to make this recipe when it's cold, and store it in the fridge until ready to roll out.

3. I made this for hand-pies recently using lard instead of vegetable shortening and it came out stronger than using the regular shortening. It still refused to seal (especially around the blueberry filled ones.) I may try a completely different recipe for hand-pies. (7/5/25)

Easy Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

Folks-
By now you've realized that I use this site to keep the recipes I've tried and liked more than those that I've created myself. The reason I'm reposting all of these recipes is that I like them, and don't want to lose them either by an Internet company going under or abandonment, or simply by me forgetting that the recipe exists, or where it was located. This is one of those recipes I tried recently, and my wife loved it so much that I was afraid of losing it! I found it at food.com, a site I go to fairly frequently.
Soon I may post the fried chicken recipe I cobbled together that Zhenie loves. I hope to at least!
For today: Upside-Down Cake!

Ingredients:
1 (18 ounce) box yellow cake mix
3 eggs (or as called for by your cake mix)
1/3 cup oil (or as called for by your cake mix)
1 1/3 cups water (or as called for by your cake mix)
1 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 (20 ounce) can sliced pineapple
1 (8 ounce) jar maraschino cherries (optional)
halved walnuts (optional)

Follow the instructions on the cake box for making an oblong single layer cake. Prepare the cake batter and set aside. Cut up the butter in small pieces and place all over the bottom of the oblong pan specified on the cake box. Sprinkle the brown sugar generously over the butter. Place pan on the stove (or in the oven) and heat slowly until butter and sugar melt to a liquid then remove from heat. Evenly space the pineapple slices around the bottom of the pan in the heated sugar and butter. Place the cherries and nuts between the pineapple slices (Though the cherries and nuts look nice and taste great, they are optional). Pour the cake batter on top of the pineapple/cherry/nut mixture. Place in the oven and bake as directed on the cake box. As soon as the cake is done place a plate over the cake and turn it upside down and carefully remove the pan. If you wait too long the sugar will harden and be difficult to remove. Note: Peaches may be used in place of pineapple.

"Just Like Starbucks" Vanilla Scones

Folks-
I've been experimenting with this recipe for a couple of weeks now since I first found it online until my kids firmly approve of the results. I now think that I can publish it without embarrassment. I found it online at 5forks.com, and one other place, but I like the 5forks version more. When I've made them, they come out a bit moister than the Vanilla Bean Mini Scones they sell at Starbucks. As you know by now, I like modifying the recipes I post here. I have made this one using both the Vanilla Extract called for in the recipe, as well as the Vanilla Sugar I taught you how to make in an earlier post. I prefer using the Vanilla Sugar in this recipe. Also, I have found that there is very little difference in flavor using salted butter instead of unsalted butter.
So, tested in Edly's kitchen, here is the 5forks version of the "Just Like Starbucks" Vanilla Scones (with my slight modifications, as usual):

Ingredients:
Scones:
2 Cups all purpose flour
2 Teaspoons baking powder
1/2 Teaspoon baking soda
1/2 Teaspoon salt
1/2 Cup sugar
5 Tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cut into small pieces
1 Cup of full-fat sour cream
1 Large egg yolk
2 Teaspoons vanilla extract (or 2 Teaspoons vanilla sugar replacing 2 teaspoons regular sugar.)

Glaze:
1 1/2 Cups powdered sugar
1/4 Teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 Teaspoon salt
Milk as needed

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Whisk together dry ingredients. Using any method you prefer, cut the cold butter into the dry ingredients until the flour resembles coarse meal (I would recommend using a food processor if you have one, otherwise make sure the butter is cut into very small pieces.) In a separate bowl, whisk together the sour cream, egg yolk, and, if you are using it, the vanilla extract, until blended. Add just enough of the wet mixture to the flour-butter mixture for it to hold together and stir with a fork until the dough forms a cohesive ball. Use a spatula to get the dry bits fully integrated. (It may not seem like there is enough liquid at first, but the dough will eventually come together.) Split the dough into two equally sized balls and pat them into disks about 1 inch in height, and cut each disk into 8 equal triangular pieces. Place the pieces onto ungreased baking sheets about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown on top. While the scones are baking, prepare the glaze by putting the sugar into a separate bowl, then adding the vanilla extract and milk one teaspoon at a time while stirring with a fork. Once the glaze has become slightly runny, it is ready. When the scones are done, take them out of the oven and immediately spread the glaze over them using a pastry brush. This will give the glaze a more even and shinier coating than just drizzling.

Jam "Tarts"

Folks-
This good recipe is from an old friend of mine, Siobhan Spencer. These "Tarts" are much more like a shortbread muffin with a jam center, but I'll use her term for them.

Here's the recipe!

[UPDATED 7/14/2023: Added nutrition facts, reduced jam to 1/2 teaspoon jam each tart.

7/27/25 Changed jam again to 1/2 to 1 teaspoon per tart.]

Jam Tarts

Ingredients:
1/2 C Shortening
3/4 C Sugar
2 Eggs
2 C Flour
1/4 t Salt
2 t Baking Powder
Jam

Cream shortening and sugar. Mix in eggs. Mix in dry ingredients. Divide the dough into about 12 equal parts, form into balls and place into muffin tins. So not flatten the tops or the top edge will tend to burn. Press a thumbprint halfway or deeper into each ball and fill with about 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of jam, depending on depth of depression, fill it no more than halfway to the top or it might overflow while baking. Bake for 10-15 minutes in a preheated oven at 350 degrees.

Nutrition Facts: Servings: 12. Serving size: 1 tart. Calories: 222 Total fat: 9.5g (12% DV) Saturated fat: 2.9g (14% DV) Cholesterol: 27mg (9% DV) Sodium: 62mg (3% DV) Total carbohydrates: 32g (12% DV) Dietary fiber: 0.6g (2% DV) Total sugars: 12.6g Protein: 3.1g Vitamin D: 3mcg (13% DV) Calcium: 43mg (3% DV) Iron 1mg (7% DV) Potassium: 116mg (2% DV)

Classic Cheesecake

Folks-
Here is my variation of the Classic New York Cheesecake recipe I found at Food Network's website. This is just a little bit easier than the method Food Network suggests but comes out just as good. (Baking in a water bath? Really?) Also, this version of the recipe makes use of the Vanilla Sugar I taught you how to make a few months ago (glad you were paying attention now, aren't you?)

Ingredients:

Crust:
6 Tablespoons Butter (Unsalted Optional)
1 1/2 Cups Graham Cracker crumbs
2 Tablespoons Sugar
Pinch of salt (no, really, a pinch)

Filling:
2 Pounds Cream Cheese at room temperature (about 4 packages)
1 1/4 Cups Sugar
3/4 Cups Sour Cream
6 large eggs
1 Tablespoon Vanilla Sugar
About 1 Teaspoon Lemon Zest, finely ground (about 1 lemon)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Melt the butter. Brush a 9 inch springform pan with some of the butter. Stir the remaining butter into the Graham Cracker Crumbs, Sugar, and Salt and press into the bottom of the pan. Bake for 10-15 minutes and cool.

While the crust is cooling, beat the cream cheese on medium speed in a good stand mixer until smooth. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy, scraping the sides of the bowl and the beaters as necessary. Slowly beat in the sour cream and eggs one at a time, the vanilla sugar and the lemon zest. Do not whip the mixture. Pour into the cooled crust. Bake the cheesecake for 1 hour, 10 minutes, then turn off the oven and allow the cheesecake to continue to cook in the cooling oven for another hour. Remove the cheesecake from the oven and run a knife around the edge and allow to cool to room temperature. Cover the cheesecake and refrigerate for at least 6 hours.