JBug's Kitchen Antics

Raspberry Lemon Thumbprint Cookies

Every once in a while don't you crave a crisp satisfying crunchie cookie? These little lemon flavored shortbread cookies are just the ticket.

Buttery, lemony and crisp with an added punch from raspberry jam, they are simplicity at its best, without the usual adornment of coconut or nuts often found in a thumbprint cookie.The other great thing about them is there's no need to refrigerate the dough before forming them so if you're into instant gratification like I am, they're the perfect choice.

Just so you know, I made my cookies a little more "man sized" so I used a melon baller to make the indentation with the added bonus that it holds a lot more jam than my thumbprint would have. Oh and while I said there was no need to refrigerate the dough, I must admit that after I formed the cookies and made the impressions, I did put the baking sheets into the freezer while the oven preheats. That little exercise kept the cookies from spreading out - not that they would have but just in case. With all that butter, you never know do ya'?

Raspberry Lemon Thumbprint Cookies (Adapted from Emeril Lagasse)

2-1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter (room temperature)

2/3 cup sugar

2 large egg yolks

1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup raspberry preserves

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment or silpat and set aside. Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt and set aside. In large bowl of stand mixer, cream butter and sugar until light. Beat in egg yolks, lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla. Add flour mixture in 2 additions and mix just until the dough holds together. Do not over mix!

Form dough into 1-1/2 inch balls and place on prepared baking sheet leaving at least an inch between each cookie. Using a melon baller or your finger, slowly press an indentation into each cookie. At this point, place cookie sheets into freezer and chill for minimum 10 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350. Pull chilled cookies from freezer and fill indentations with raspberry preserves. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until cookies are firm and lightly browned on the bottom. Remove to wire racks to cool.  Makes 2 dozen larger cookies. If making smaller cookies, adjust baking time accordingly. Download Raspberry Lemon Thumbprint Cookies

 A year ago - An Assortment of Appetizers made with Won Ton Wrappers

Crocker and Hines

I'd like to correct a myth that's been circulating about what goes on here in JBug's Kitchen. It's time to fess up. Prepare yourselves people - this is a big one.

Not everything that comes out of this kitchen is home made. Betty and Duncan come to our house for a visit every once in a while and I'm not afraid to admit it. As a blogger I've been known to excuse myself and beg forgiveness from the blogging gods, whoever they may be, for using pre-packaged mixes and other convenience foods but darn it all JBug's Kitchen is all about every day cookin'. I happen to have it on good authority that 99.9 percent of my readers have a bottle of Heinz somewhere on their property - so there!

I had a chocolate cake mix in my baking cupboard that's been calling my name ever since the last time I made a lovely little concoction we call Sex in a Pan. Now, that one's gonna' get me some weird traffic isn't it? Craving a treat and lacking time to fuss, I whipped up a batch of Fudge Crinkles from bettycrocker.com website that took less than 20 minutes from start to finish. I even changed up the recipe a tad and added some chocolate chips to the mix for a double burst of antioxidants.

The resulting cookies are delicious - crunchy on the outside and chewy inside...kinda' like brownies dressed up in cookie drag with a powdered sugar hat. We enjoyed them very much, particularly the leftovers direct from the freezer - yes, I said we, not just me.

Fudge Crinkles (adapted from bettycrocker.com)

1 box chocolate cake mix (I used Betty Crocker Supermoist Triple Chocolate Fudge)

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

Powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper and set aside. Combine cake mix, chocolate chips, oil, eggs and vanilla and mix with a spoon until it all comes together. Using a 2 ounce cookie scoop, form dough into balls and drop into powdered sugar. Place onto cookie sheets, about 2 inches apart and bake for 12 to 14 minutes until just set. Be careful not to overbake. Cool on cookie sheets for a few minutes before transferring to a rack to cool. Sprinkle with additional powdered sugar if desired and store in an air tight container. Makes 2 dozen cookies. Note – freeze any leftovers almost immediately as they tend to go stale very quickly.

Since I've confessed to using ...gasp...cake mixes, you may want to check out a few other good things that have resulted, like a magical Rhubarb Cake made from a yellow cake mix that's like a rhubarb custard pie but in cake form (below left). How about a quick and easy Pumpkin Pie Cake that's guaranteed to please (photo below right).

Cranapple Oatmeal Cookies

Picture this if you will. It's midnight. The big guy's in New Orleans walking Bourbon Street and I'm home running around in the back yard trying to save a baby rabbit from the likes of Georgie the huntress and her sidekick Max. It's dark, very very dark and this so called "hero" is night blind as a bat. Shoulda' been a video...talk about a race to the finish!

Fortunately Max responds (eventually) to the word cookie when all else fails and it's a good thing too that I had these Cranapple Oatmeal Cookies on hand...for me. He had his favorite soft concoction courtesy of Blue Dog Bakery. Heaven forbid either of us should eat alone after expending so much energy.

One could say these are "healthy" cookies loaded with fresh apples, dried cranberries, walnuts and oatmeal but alas one would be wrong, particularly when one eats a bunch of 'em; however, they are definitely worth making for their soft chewy interior and crunchy exterior. Just be sure to eat them immediately or store leftovers in an airtight container in the freezer because they get really really soft when they sit overnight. Just sayin'.

If you're wondering what happened to the rabbit, Georgie pounced, I caught her, grabbed the rabbit, checked for injuries, cuddled it, gave it some water and walked the neighborhood trying to find the perfect place to set him free. There's just one thing I couldn't quite come to grips with - his life spared, what was gonna' happen to the little gaffer now? Hardly slept a wink worrying about it.

Cranapple Oatmeal Cookies (adapted from allrecipes.com)

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup shortening

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup chopped apple without peel

1 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt and set aside. Beat together shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla, beating until smooth and creamy. Stir in flour mixture until just combined. Fold in apple, cranberries and walnuts. Using a 2 ounce cookie scoop, arrange dough 3 inches apart on parchment covered cookie sheets. Bake 15 to 18 minutes, or until browned around the edges and solid in the middle. Cool on wire racks. Best eaten immediately. Store leftovers in an airtight container in the freezer. Makes 2-1/2 dozen medium sized cookies. Download Cranapple Oatmeal Cookies

 

Snickerdoodles

I'm home alone for dinner the next two nights and we've enough leftovers in the refrigerator to feed a whole flock so I'm not going to be doing a lot of "dinner" cooking for a couple of days. Rest assured, it doesn't mean I'm taking time off. Heaven forbid!

Over the holidays we had the pleasure of the company of one of our regular visitors who comes to see us all the way from Oregon. The big guy's hunting partner, John, pops in a couple of times every year and consequently I tend to go a little overboard as far as kitchen duty goes. He doesn't mind a bit. He happens to be a huge Snickerdoodle fan so while he was here last time I whipped up a batch to make him happy happy.

Now I hate qualifying things as the "BEST"...I mean, who says my particular best is better than your best, but I really have to say this Sunset Magazine snickerdoodle recipe is better than any I've ever made before. There, I avoided saying best..aren't I somethin'? Tender and crisp with just the right amount of cinnamon, these sublime sugar cookies literally melt in your mouth. They're ready in a flash and don't require chilling first in order to hold their shape before they hit the oven either which is a real bonus as far as I'm concerned because I'm kinda' into instant gratification. John went nutso over them. I'll be making him another batch in the very near future because he'll be back for the "guy's only" annual Javalina hunt the first part of February.

There is some method in my madness you know! I figure if I make the guys a bunch of yummy treats, they'll be too busy eating to bother shooting those ugly little wild fur ball pigs that stink to high heaven and have a mean looking face but are otherwise cute and adorable. Do you like my logic? Between you and me, it's worked pretty well for the past 8 years! LOL

Snickerdoodles (adapted from Sunset Magazine) Download Snickerdoodles

4-1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 Tablespoon cinnamon

 

1 cup butter, at room temperature

1 cup vegetable oil

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup powdered sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 375. Combine flour, baking soda, cream of tartar in a small bowl. Whisk to lighten and set aside. In another small bowl combine granulated sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.

In bowl of electric mixer, combine butter, vegetable oil, and powdered sugar and beat until very smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla until well blended, scraping down sides of bowl from time to time as required. Carefully add dry ingredients to butter/egg mixture and mix only until well combined.

Using a 2 ounce cookie scoop, form into balls and roll each in cinnamon sugar mixture. Place 3 inches apart on parchment lined cookie sheets and bake for 12 to 15 minutes. Transfer carefully to racks to cool. Store up to 5 days in a airtight container. Makes approximately 5 dozen.  

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

The big guy took me out for a date last night to Rosati's for pizza with just the right amount of cheese, fabulous sauce, incredible Italian sausage and a crust -oh the crust -paper thin flakey and it stays crisp up till the very last bite. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on your point of view, there wasn't any dinner cooking in J'Bugs Kitchen; however, I did make a batch of cookies yesterday afternoon that managed to stay intact except for one iddy biddy little tester.

School's out on the best oatmeal raisin cookie. I mean how do you qualify what is "best" anyway?  Some people like them crisp and other's like them chewy. Personally, my fave's are soft on the inside and crispy on the outside - kinda' like these little goodies from Smitten Kitchen. I just happened upon these because I love trying new recipes - in case you didn't notice. My usual oatmeal cookie recipe is from Purity Cookbook, the old original Purity from way back when and it's got a lot more sugar in it than this one (which means a crisper cookie), so I figured what's the harm in trying a new version in my search for the holy cookie grail.
 
I'm pretty darn happy that I did. Perfectly soft, yummy and chewy inside with a crisp outer edge with lots of oats and raisins, these little orbs have just a hint of cinnamon shining through. They dispute the old saying "if it's too good to be true, it is", because these are...too good! Best of all, I learned something new. They need to be chilled before baking so you can drop the dough onto cookie sheets, freeze 'em then tranfer the little dough balls into a zip bag and cook up what you need when you need it. Brilliant idea.

You know what this means don't you? Chewy oatmeal cookies for breakfast aren't beyond the realm of possibility and for sure I'm going to tuck the hint away for when we're trying to sell this house. I mean, what smells better than fresh cookies from the oven? I know for a fact it's worked before. 

By the way, I changed not one thing so off you go to Smitten Kitchen for the recipe - oh and tell 'em I sent ya, OK?

 

Blackberry Pie Bars

Last night's dinner was another form of leftovers - hey remember the day when there didn't used to be any?  We had quite a bit of hanger steak leftover from Sunday which is not a bad thing, so I whipped up a couple of beef, caramelized onion, mushroom, Swiss and barbecue sauce panini sandwiches to fill the void.

Believe you me they were some delicious, but since there's no recipe to report, I figured I'd best tell you about the other little temptations that rounded out the meal.

Thanks to joythebaker.com, I came across these little beauties last week and absolutely had to give 'em a try. Of course there's no way in good conscience I could make the whole recipe for just two of us, never mind that 6 cups of blackberries at the price they're going for here in hell would take this bar cookie into the "liquid gold" price range - so I changed up the recipe a bit, cut it in half and added vanilla instead of lemon.

The result - a tender, crispy buttery crust with a creamy cheesecake custard like topping studded with maroon colored gems. Now that's what perception can do for you - my Eastern Oregon cowboy calls blackberries "weeds" and I call 'em gems. Anyway, this bar cookie or "square" as we Canucks call them, is very much like the Kuchen I've bragged about in the past and since imitation is the most sincere form of flattery - I can't think of a single thing wrong with that. Give one or both of them a try and you'll see what I mean. Download Blackberry Pie Bars

Blackberry Pie Bars

1-1/2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup chilled unsalted butter, cut into cubes

1 teaspoon vanilla

Filling:

2 eggs, beaten

2/3 cup sugar

1/2 cup sour cream

2 tablespoons heavy cream

Pinch of salt

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 – 16 ounce package frozen blackberries

Remove blackberries from freezer and place on a sheet pan that has been lined with paper towels to thaw.  Spray a 9 x 12 pan with cooking spray. Line bottom with parchment paper. Set aside. Preheat oven to 350.

In food processor combine flour, sugar, salt, butter and vanilla. Pulse until mixture forms fine crumbs. Remove half of the crumbs and set aside. Pour remaining half onto bottom of prepared pan and spread evenly. Press crumbs firmly into place. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on a rack for 10 minutes. Maintain oven temperature.

Beat together eggs, sugar, sour cream, cream, salt and vanilla. Spread on top of cooled crust. Sprinkle evenly with defrosted blackberries, then sprinkle reserved crumb mixture over top. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until firm to the touch. Cool to room temperature before cutting.

I need a vacation

There was this great television ad playing when I left Calgary 10 years ago. It's likely buried in the old advertising graveyard now, but I still "sing" it at the top of my lungs from time to time - if you can call my caterwalling "singing" that is. It goes "I need a vacation...gotta' get away" and that's how I'm feeling. Our regular routine's been a touch "irregular" for the last several weeks, so last night my lovely man picked up sushi on the way home from work and we had a date...with each other...over sushi...no reservations...no interruptions...no cooking...no dishes. Just a vast sea of sushi, a boat sized martini and us. It was lovely.

You know the only thing is - fish breath from sushi can be a killer, so these little beauties are a great solution to have hiding in the freezer for just such an occasion.

Loaded with cranberries, dark chocolate chips, walnuts and orange flavor, they go great with a cuppa' tea before bedtime or in school lunches or packs for the great white hunter and his sidekick, John. Made with a combination of butter and shortening (butter for flavor and shortening for a chewier cookie), they're also quite adaptable in the flavor department.

Make 'em with white chocolate chips too or a mixture of the two if you'd like a little more somethin' somethin.You can even replace the cranberries with dried blueberries - you'll just have to call 'em something else, and if you use 'em exchange the orange zest for lemon, OK? Mark my words though - the orange flavor with chocolate and cranberry's a match made in heaven. Download Chocolate Chip Cranberry Nut Cookies

Oh, and please no comments about "moderation". We're on vacation after all!

Old Fashioned Date Filled Oatmeal Cookies

These rainy Tucson days are great for a lot of things, other than cleaning the spines on the cactus. Maybe I should have washed all the windows earlier than last week and we'd have had this rain arrive sooner! One thing's for certain - that new range is certainly getting a work out because the cool weather makes for perfect baking days.

These old fashioned cookies really bring back a lot of memories. Growing up, they were one of my favorites and Mother used to make them all the time to hide in our school lunches. They start out crisp, but as they age, they get soft and gooey and just darn wonderful. I love the things. This particular recipe's adapted from my old Purity Cookbook - you can tell its popularity by the stains on the pages. Have you got one or two of those kinds of cookbooks too? Download Old Fashioned Date Filled Oatmeal Cookies

I cooked the dates along with some water, a touch of sugar (they don't need much), and some orange zest, then set it aside to make the cookies. A comparatively small amount of flour is combined with a lot of brown sugar and a massive amount of oatmeal to make these wonderful things, with oil and water added as the liquid ingredients. The cookies are then rolled out very thinly, cut into circles and baked until golden brown and crisp - about 5 to 7 minutes. Oh just a note - unlike pastry, this cookie dough does not suffer from being overworked, so don't be afraid to roll and re-roll your scraps. Once cooled they're sandwiched together with the date filling and dusted with a little powdered sugar. When you're making them quite honestly you think you'll never get to the end of the bowl, but the recipe only makes 3 dozen of the filled sweeties, so don't worry that you're going to have too many.

I know for a fact the great white hunter and his side kick won't be complaining one bit when they take these on the road at the end of the month. We have just one small, teeny weeny problem though. The blasted things are languishing in the freezer right above that deep dark chocolate cake that's still calling my name. Trouble - just plain trouble!