Christmas Cookies, better late than never!

Man oh man - talk about tardiness! I meant to post these recipes before Christmas, and here it is the 6th of January! In my defense, December was chock full of wonderful family visiting, an ice storm, Jason's seminary graduation, home insurance adjusters and estimators (did I mention our kitchen ceiling fell in on Thanksgiving?), and general Christmas/New Year merriment... so I'm going to cut myself a little slack and pointedly ignore the calendar for the next hour.

Speaking of merriment, we traditionally like to make goodies for our next door neighbors at Christmas. Gracie was extremely helpful this year:

Ain't she cute?

Last year I made seven pans of homemade cinnamon rolls. This year, we did an assorted cookie plate:

Won't you be my neighbor?

So, in case anyone is wanting a few good cookie recipes to extend the Christmas cheer and shake off the winter blahs... or if you have already given up on your New Years resolutions, here are a few examples of ways to indulge:

1) Baklava - fool proof recipe, and very simple (not quick, but simple!)

2) Thumbprint Cookies, aka "Austrian Jam Cookies" - I guess Austrians like their thumbprints rolled in chopped nuts, yum

3) White chocolate covered pretzel sticks (bag of pretzel sticks + melted almond bark = you're in business)

4) Oreos coated in white chocolate and dark chocolate (again, almond bark is easy - use a little leftover bark to mix with melted semi-sweet chocolate chips to help the dark chocolate coating set)

5) Chocolate Chip Cranberry Pecan Cookies

Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup butter (or equivalent)
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chunks (or chips)
- 1/3 cup dried cranberries
- 1/2 cup finely chopped pecans

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease or line cookie sheet(s) with parchment paper.
2) Cream butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla until fluffy. In separate bowl, sift together dry ingredients; stir into creamed mixture and mix well. Fold in chocolate, cranberries, and nuts.
3) Drop cookie dough in teaspoon sized amounts 2 inches apart on cookie sheet(s). Bake for 11-12 minutes until lightly golden brown around edges. Remove from sheet immediately and cool on wire racks. Makes 3 dozen.

Hope you had a very merry Christmas and have a blessed new year!

Thanksgiving Pies

What would Thanksgiving be without them? A pie-less Thanksgiving? Perish the thought!

So, here are two that you may want to try... one is a recipe that I have used countless times from allrecipes.com and is often requested, and the other is a recipe I've posted previously but stands to be re-shared. I hope you enjoy them both!

Apple Cream Pie

Dark Chocolate Chunk Pecan Pie

The pecan pie is a great one to let little ones help with. My 3-yr old daughter made it almost entirely by herself, her first made-it-all-by-myself-well-maybe-Mommy-helped-a-little pie.

I am so proud!

In all seriousness, I love Thanksgiving and what it stands for: a day to remember to be thankful for all that we have and for the people in our lives. So, thanks be to God for His great love and mercy and how he has cared and provided for us over the years, for my beautiful family, for creativity, and for chocolate. Amen. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Homemade Granola Bars

So, I used to spend a small fortune in commercial granola bars. No longer! A couple of years ago I found an incredibly easy recipe on allrecipes.com, and I will never go back. It's easy, economical, and endless in possibilities!

Granola bar day at the Shaw house is always a happy day. It begins with a quick rummage of the pantry for any nuts and dried fruits that will inevitably go into the bars. I've used peanuts, almonds, pecans, walnuts, sunflower seeds, dried fruit bites from the baby snack aisle (prechopped, can it GET any better??), you name it.

Today was a very good rummage day... because Gracie and I made these:

Cranberry chocolate hazelnut granola bars.

I know. Shut. UP.

This is too good of a recipe NOT to be shared, so here it is. Just a note for today's featured bars: I omitted the cinnamon and vanilla, and for the "mixin's" I just used 1 cup chopped hazelnuts, 1/2 cup finely chopped pecans, 1 cup dried cranberries, and 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Just a note: in case there are those who aren't thrilled with the idea of using sweetened condensed milk (FYI: it literally only has two ingredients - milk and sugar, who knew??), I've heard that honey works well - haven't tried it yet, will probably alter the flavor a bit. Just be sure to substitute something sticky (and sweet!) to help give the granola bars form and flavor.

Basic Granola Bar Recipe
Ingredients:
3 cups quick cook oats
1/2 cup butter (one stick), melted
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup chopped nuts (peanuts, almonds, etc)
1 cup sunflower seeds (sometimes substitute pecan bits)
1 cup dried fruit (raisins, cranberries, chopped apricots or apples, etc)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1) Preheat oven at 325 degrees. Line large cookie sheet with foil and lightly grease foil with cooking spray. Set aside.
2) Combine all ingredients until well mixed. Pour oat mixture onto greased cookie sheet and press flat into pan.
3) Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, depending on how crunchy you want them. Lightly browned just around the edges will give you moist, chewy bars. Let cool for 5 minutes, cut into squares then let cool completely before serving.

Happy granola making, and remember: silence can be bought.

Pancakes = Happiness

For almost as long as we've been a family, we've had a tradition of making Saturday a special morning where Jason or I prepare a hot breakfast for the family.

This morning, I decided to put a pitiful, lonely, almost too-ripe banana out of his misery by making him a part of the breakfast festivities. Here is what I came up with:

Banana Nut Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Ingredients

• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 ripe banana, mashed
• 1/2 cup pecans, finely chopped
• 2/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. In a medium/large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Set aside.
2. In second smaller bowl, combine milk, egg, vanilla, oil, and banana. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and combine until just moistened. Fold in pecan bits and chocolate chips.
3. Heat a large skillet over medium heat, and lightly coat with cooking spray. Pour 1/4 cupfuls of batter onto the skillet, and cook until bubbles appear on the surface. Flip with a spatula, and cook until browned on the other side. Enjoy!

Homemade Pecan Pie + Dark Chocolate = YUM.

My mom, a very health conscious woman, mailed us a bag of pecans this week. Now, I don't know about you, but when I think of pecans my mind usually drifts into one particular direction:

**Photo courtesy of webmd.com - under an article titled "holiday food horrors"

I'm sure my mother did NOT have this purpose in mind for her lovely pecans, but sometimes ignorance is bliss. And my friends, it WAS bliss.

This time I decided to spice things up by chopping up some semi-sweet dark baking chocolate and mixing it into the filling before baking it. Actually, my husband suggested the addition. The result: Amazing. Something very similar to derby pie but with a little more bittersweet bite to it. Yum.

Here is the recipe - if you want an easy pie to make for Christmas, look no further.

Note: I started with a basic pecan pie recipe from the Millard Cook Book, a collaboration made several years ago by the men and women on my dad's side of the family. Thanks again for the copy, Aunt Sis!

Dark Chocolate Chunk Pecan Pie
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup butter/margarine, melted
- 1 cup corn syrup
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup pecans
- 3-1 oz blocks of semi-sweet dark chocolate
- 1 unbaked pie crust

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine eggs, sugar, butter, corn syrup, vanilla, and salt until well blended. Set aside.

2) Using a serrated bread knife (I'm told this kind of knife is best!), carefully chop dark chocolate blocks - make small cuts on the corners of the brick and work your way inward. The pieces don't have to be very large or uniform, though you will probably want a few nice sized chunks to bite into. Fold chocolate and pecans into egg mixture.

3) Pour filling into pie pan and place pie on cookie sheet. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until done.

4) Enjoy a warm piece of pie with a cold glass of milk.

**I made this pie dairy-free by substituting reduced fat margarine for the butter and using Baker's chocolate. You will have to make your own crust if you need it to be dairy-free also, simply make it by substituting the butter with same margarine.

Chocolate Truffle Cheesecake

Yes, you heard me. TRUFFLE CHEESECAKE. Anytime those two words are in the same sentence you know that happiness and world peace will soon follow.

I saw this recipe on Allrecipes and just HAD to try it. I'm going to be bringing it to the Tuckers' Christmas party tonight, so some of you can help taste test this recipe and let me know what you really think.

















Now, the original recipe calls for a vanilla wafer crust but I thought I would follow others' suggestions and make a chocolate cookie crust instead.

So, start with about 3 cups of crushed Oreos in a gallon freezer bag and a rolling pin to crush and follow up with some smashing by hand. Then add 3 tablespoons of melted butter directly into the bag (less cleanup) and smash again.

When sufficient smashing has commenced, simply pour contents into springform pan and press down to cover the entire bottom of the pan. I think I should have probably smashed a little more... the crust is still pretty chunky. Oh well.



Now it's time to melt the chocolate - 2 cups (one bag) of semi-sweet chocolate chips on a double boiler. A metal (or glass) mixing bowl over a saucepan of simmering water works great. Melt and mix until smooth.

And now it's time for the star of the show: the cream cheese.

A moment of silence. (Cue angelic choir.)

Cream 3 (8 oz) packages of said dreamy goodness with tender affection, words of love, and biceps of steel (I'm still in the dark ages so it's just me and the spoon).





Now gradually add a 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk... it's used in place of sugar, nice huh?






















And now add the melted chocolate... ohhh, yesss... (sorry, blurry picture - the chocolate was wooing me)

And now 2 teaspoons of vanilla and 4 eggs... and BLEND!

Now we pour that chocolately cream cheesy goodness into the pan.











Bake at 300 degrees F for 55 minutes.
When it's done baking for the allotted time, turn off the oven but DO NOT remove the cheesecake from the oven!

Two reasons:
1) it allows the cake to cool gradually in the oven to prevent cracking
2) it will allow the cake to continue to cook a little longer since the middle is still a little underdone.
I let mine sit in the oven for about 2-3 hours, but even 1 hour would be sufficient.

In the meantime, find something interesting to do
like listen to your husband practice his mandolin.

After the cake has cooled, feel free to decorate
with fruit, whipped cream, drizzled white chocolate, or...
Red ribbon, white chocolate leaves (ask me how), and "holly berries" (atomic fire balls)

And that was it! Pretty easy, huh? I thought so - only seven ingredients to make a delightfully creamy, super rich, but not overly sweet chocolate cheesecake.

Click here for the original recipe

Hope you enjoy it, and let me know how yours turns out!

Bakefully yours,
Donna