Pecan Clusters

These Pecan Clusters are so easy to make. With only 3 ingredients, they are truly more than the sum of their parts. Everyone in my family enjoys these, even my two year old. They're a delightful addition to any gathering, or as a treat for a super sweet Hubbie. Don't skip the toasting step, it's mostly hands off and it really brings out the flavor of the pecans.

Ingredients:

3 cups of Pecan Halves
3 TBS of Butter, I use salted
12 oz Chocolate Chips

Preheat the oven to 300 °. Scatter the pecans on a baking sheet. Dot with the butter. Place in the oven for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. Line a baking sheet or large cutting board with waxed paper. Place the chocolate in a large microwave safe glass bowl, microwave on high for 1 minute, stir. Continue microwaving at 30 second intervals, stirring between each interval until melted. Stir in the pecans. Drop by the spoonfuls onto the waxed paper. Allow them to set and enjoy.

How gorgeous are toasted pecans?

Christmas Movie Theme Nights: Frosty The Snowman

Sorry for the terrible pictures, all of them were taken with my iPhone. I just LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE this time of year. Christmas is such a special time of year for me. I have wonderful memories of family get-togethers, baking cookies and making fudge with my Mom, seeing Santa Claus on the Fire Truck every Christmas Eve, dancing the 12 Days of Christmas. My family had a lot of traditions growing up, these are just a few. I'm continuing several of them with my son, and adding some of our own.

One thing we started this year and we plan to continue is a Christmas movie theme night. Last Saturday was our first time, and we did Frosty the Snowman. My Hubbie got me a box set of animated Christmas classics last year, so that is what I will be using while my son is young. He LOVED Frosty. We started the day with Snowman shaped pancakes, which I didn't get pictures of, basically 3 different sized pancakes, cooked close together so they combined. Then we decorated them with chocolate chips. It was fun. That evening we had snowman-shaped white pizza for dinner and we enjoyed white hot chocolate during the movie. It was a lovely time, and all of us enjoyed it. It wasn't anything fancy, since I pulled most of it together last-minute with things I already had on hand. My snowman pizza is rather plain compared to those on Pinterest, but it was delicious.

I did get this picture on my cellphone of my son decorating a pancake for Daddy.

For the Snowman Pancakes I used my fabulous Cake Flour Pancakes recipe.
















For the Snowman Pizza:
I used half of the dough my recipe makes to make this snowman. It was barely enough for 3 people. I'd suggest making two or more if you have a larger family, or serve a soup or salad with it.

Per Snowman:
1/2 recipe of my Pizza Dough
1 cup of ricotta cheese
2 cloves of garlic, minced, or grated
2 cups of shredded mozzarella
Parmesan (optional)
black olives

Preheat the oven to 400.
Roll about 2/3 of the dough out into a 10 inch round
Roll the remaining dough into a 6 inch round.
Place them on a baking sheet so the bottom of the smaller round is touching the top of the larger round.
Mix the ricotta and garlic together, spread onto both rounds, leaving about 1/2 an inch of border. Top with mozzarella, I didn't measure, but I used quite a bit. Sprinkle with Parmesan, if you like. Slice olives in half and use them to create eyes, mouth and buttons. Bake 15-20 minutes, until crust is golden and cheese is bubbly. Check at 12 minutes, and then every couple minutes after that.

Mom's Recipes: Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is my Mom's recipe for chocolate chip cookies. It makes the most perfect chocolate chip cookies in the world. I do not like crispy or crunchy chocolate chip cookies. These are moist and soft and just delicious. It is based off of a recipe that used to be on the back of Jello Instant Vanilla Pudding, but she has changed ingredient quantities and perfected it. I tried the original recipe once, the cookies didn't hold a candle to these ones. I've never met anyone who didn't love these cookies. She makes them for church functions almost every month, they are always gone, and people are constantly asking for the recipe. I love them so much, I had her make them as the favors for my wedding and I put them down in little gift boxes and tied them with ribbon. I prefer them without walnuts, but most people love the addition of walnuts, so I included them in the recipe. My Mom only makes one pan without walnuts, for my sister and I to share, the rest get the nuts. Excuse the terrible iPhone pictures. I didn't have my camera with me and I knew there wouldn't be any leftover for me to take home and photograph.

Ingredients

3-½ cups Flour

1-½ teaspoon Baking Soda

1-½ cup Butter

1 cup Light Brown Sugar

1 box Instant Vanilla Pudding Mix, 3.5 Oz

½ cups Sugar

1-½ teaspoon Vanilla

3 whole Eggs

3 cups Chocolate Chips

2 cups Chopped Walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350.
Mix flour and baking soda together set aside.
Mix butter, brown sugar, pudding, sugar, vanilla and eggs until smooth.
Slowly add flour mixture until well blended.
Add chocolate chips and walnuts.
Spoon dough into cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes (cookies will be soft). Cool on wire rack.

Very important: the cookies will not look browned, you don't want them to. We found that baking for 10 minutes, checking, and then baking for 1 more minute makes them turn out perfectly. When I set a timer for 11 minutes, they were too done. Weird, I know.

 Make these for your family today. They would also be perfect for a Christmas party (or ANY party). My Mom has actually made the dough, put it in a container, and taken it to people around Christmas time, so they can bake cookies at their leisure.

Apple Butter Pumpkin Pie

I love Pumpkin Pie! I made one a few years ago following the recipe on the Libby's can, and it was good, but it wasn't as good as Costco's, so I never made one again. I've seen a couple of recipes floating around for Apple Butter Pumpkin Pie, but all of them called for evaporated milk, and I wanted to try something completely from scratch. I kept the recipes in mind, and last Friday when I decided to make homemade apple butter for the first time, I decided I would make an Apple Butter Pumpkin Pie for a church potluck on Sunday. I thought about making the pumpkin puree myself, since it is so easy, but I couldn't find any decent pie pumpkins. So, I used a can. It's even easier, and their is less water content than if you make it yourself, so it takes some of the guesswork out of the process. No worrying about a pie that won't set, or soggy crust. I got a lot of compliments on this pie. We did have 2 pieces left over, and they were even better the next day. I think this pie would make an excellent addition to your Thanksgiving table. It's also easy enough to be a special treat weeknight Fall dessert for your family.

Ingredients:
1 - 9 inch pie crust
1/4 cup white sugar
1 TBS cornstarch
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp cloves
1 cup of canned pumpkin
1 cup of apple butter
1/4 cup of brown sugar
3/4 cup of milk
2 whole eggs
1 egg yolk

Preheat the oven to 425 F. Place the pie crust dough into your pie dish and prick several holes with a fork. Bake for 10 minutes. This is called blind baking and it helps to keep the crust from getting soggy. Remove the crust from the oven.

To make the filling, place the white sugar, cornstarch, and spices in a large bowl, stir to combine. When making liquid fillings like this, combining the spices with the sugar before adding the wet ingredients helps ensure that the pieces get dispersed throughout and that they don't clump together.

Add the the pumpkin and apple butter to the sugar and spice mixture, stir to combine. In a large measuring cup or small bowl, whisk the eggs and egg yolk into the milk. Add this to the rest of the filling and stir until smooth. The extra egg yolk helps keep the filling from cracking.

Pour the filling into the pie crust. Place the pie onto a baking sheet and put it in the oven. Though I've never had it happen with a pumpkin pie, pie fillings can sometimes bubble up and over, and I hate cleaning my oven, it's much easier to clean a baking sheet.

Bake at 425 for 15 minutes, and then reduce the heat to 350 and bake for an additional 45 minutes. The filling should be set and no longer jiggly in the middle. Let it cool on the counter for an hour or so, and then place it in the fridge to cool completely. No pumpkin pie is complete without some whipped cream!

Cinnamon Rolls

Cinnamon Rolls are a favorite in our house. It is our tradition to eat them early on Christmas morning with Cocoa while we open our gifts before we head to my parents' house. I also like to bring them as a snack for thekids in our Sunday School class. Since I've been married, I have tried several different recipes. For this recipe, I have combined things I like from several different recipes to develop my own. Typically, I like a thick cream cheese frosting on my cinnamon rolls, but lately I've been making a glaze. To my surprise, I like it just as well as with the frosting. I will include recipes for both, since I would never dream of serving a cinnamon roll to my Daddy without a thick layer of cream cheese frosting on top.

Dough
2 1/4 tsp Active Dry Yeast (1 envelope)
¾ cup of Whole Milk
¼ cup of Granulated Sugar
¼ cup of War Water
1 tsp of Vanilla Extract
1 Egg
1 tsp of Salt
¼ cup of Unsalted Butter, melted
3 3/4 cups of All Purpose Flour
1/4 cup Cornstarch
¼ cup of Melted Butter

***If you don't have cornstarch, omit it and bump the flour up to an even 4 cups. The cornstarch helps produce a sofer dough***

Filling
1/3 cup of Butter, softened
¾ cup of Brown Sugar
¼ cup of White Sugar
1 TBS of Flour
2 Tbsp of Ground Cinnamon
Glaze
1 cup of Powdered Sugar
1/4 of Heavy Cream
1 tsp of Vanilla Extract
1-2 TBS of Milk to thin to runny consistency

Frosting
1/4 cup of Butter, softened
4oz of Cream Cheese, softened
1 tsp of Vanilla Extract
1 1/4 cups of Powdered Sugar
2 TBS of Milk, warmed

In a small bowl, combine the warm water and 1 tsp of the granulated sugar, sprinkle the yeast over the top and let it sit for about 5 minutes.

2) In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a dough hook, mix the egg, milk, salt, sugar and melted butter. Sift the flour and cornstarch together. Add 2 cups of the flour mixture, water and yeast mixture, and vanilla, mix until its all incorporated and slowly add the remaining flour. Turn the speed up to medium and let it knead for about 7 minutes or until you have a smooth dough.

3) Oil a large bowl and set aside. Take the dough out of the mixer and form a ball. Place it in the oiled bowl and oil the top of the dough with a little more oil. Cover with plastic wrap and place it in a warm spot to rise for 1-2 hours until doubled in size. ***I like to preheat my oven to the lowest setting when I first sart the dough, then I turn it off as soon as it is heated. Then I let the dough rise in the oven. It usually takes about an hour with this method.***

4) In a small bowl, mix together the sugars, flour and cinnamon for the filling, set aside.

5) When doubled in size, punch the dough down and roll it out onto a floured surface into a 15x9” rectangle. Spread the soft butter over the top and sprinkle evenly over the sugar and cinnamon mixture.Staring from one of the long ends, tightly roll the dough jelly roll style. Cut into 16 even slices and place them cut side down in a well buttered 9x13 baking pan. Cover with plastic wrap and let put them back into a warm spot to rise for another hour. ***Since it is important that the rolls be of even size, so they all bake evenly, I cut the rolled dough in half, then those sections in half, and so on until I have 16 pieces.

6) Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

7) Brush the rolls with melted butter, and bake for 25-30 minutes.

8) Allow the rolls to cool while you mix up the glaze (or frosting). For the glaze, just whisk everything together and pour it over the rolls. When I make the frosting, I use a handmixer to cream the buttr and cream cheese, then slowly add the powdered sugar.
 

1 Hour Dinner Rolls

Even though it is way too hot to be baking much here in The South; I just love homemade bread. I've made a couple of recipes for 1 hour rolls or 1 hour sandwich buns before and I didn't care for them. They were too crumbly, bland, etc. Anyway, I decided to try one more recipe since I wanted to serve fresh rolls with dinner. I searched the internet, many of the recipes were the same ones I had used before or required ingredients that I didn't have on hand. Then I came accross 1 Hour Dinner Rolls from the Inquiring Chef which she had adapted from I Bowl 1 Hour Perfect Dinner Rolls from Phmomenon which had been adapted from Mel's Kitchen Cafe. I hadn't made recipes from either of the first two blogs before; but I've made a couple from Mel's over the years, and she hasn't steered me wrong yet.

These rolls did not disappoint. They were delicious, light and fluffy. I follwed Inquiring Chef's version exactly. Here it is. They don't have quite the exact flavor of a roll that has had a longer rising time will, but they are so close. I ate four with my meal. Seriously. Four. Then I had another 30 minutes later.

Ingredients:

1½ cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
1 Tbsp. instant yeast

2 Tbsp. granulated sugar

2 Tbsp. (28g) unsalted butter, softened 

1 tsp. table salt

4 cups (500g) all-purpose flour, lightly spooned into measuring cup and leveled off

 

For topping:

• 3 Tbsp. (40g) unsalted butter, melted
• 1 tsp. sea salt

Instructions

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, stir together warm water, yeast, and sugar. Let stand until creamy, about 5 minutes.
2. To the yeast mixture, add the butter, salt, and 2 cups of the flour. Mix on low-speed until the ingredients begin to come together. Still on low-speed, add 1 cup of the remaining flour and mix for 1 minute. Add the remaining 1 cup flour. Mix on low-speed until the final addition of flour is fully incorporated into the dough. Increase the speed to medium and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. (You will know it is ready when the dough starts to make a slapping sound as it hits the sides of the bowl.) Remove the bowl from the mixer and cover it with a dish towel. Let the dough rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 20 minutes.
3. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and form it into an even ball. Using a serrated knife, cut the dough in half vertically, then each half vertically again into thirds so you have 6 equal strips of dough. Cut each strip of dough into fourths by cutting horizontally to make 24 little squares of dough. With lightly floured hands, roll each piece of dough into a ball.
4. Place each rolled piece of dough into a lightly greased 9×13 baking pan in rows of 4. Cover the rolls with a dish towel and let them rise while your oven is preheating to 400 degrees F  – about 20 minutes.
5. Lightly brush the rolls with about half of the melted butter before baking. Bake until golden brown, 13-15 minutes. Immediately after removing the rolls from the oven, brush them with the remaining melted butter and sprinkle with salt. Flip the pan over to remove the rolls.

Biscuits

 

This is a basic baking powder biscuit recipe that I adjusted to better suit my tastes. I've tried several recipes, this works the best for me. They are light and fluffy. Just remember not to overwork the dough, that's what makes them like little rocks.

 Ingredients
2 cups of flour
1 TBS baking powder
1 stick of butter
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

In a bowl mix the flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in butter until mixture resemles coarse cornmeal. Add milk a little at a time and mix until it forms a ball. Roll out on floured board to 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch thick. Cut out in desired size and place biscuits on an ungreased baking sheet.Brush with melted butter Bake at 450 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes. I start checking at 10 minutes.

I love these fresh from the oven with a smear of butter and raspberry jam.