Currant Pecan Muffins

1 ½ cups flour
¼ cup sugar
½ cup brown sugar, packed
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 egg
1/3 cup vegetable oil
½ cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup currants
½ cup boiling water
½ cup pecans, finely chopped

1. Preheat oven to 375º
2. In small bowl, combine boiling water and currants. Let sit for 5 minutes, then drain.
3. Combine flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. In a separate bowl, mix egg, oil, milk, and vanilla. Stir into dry ingredients. Fold in pecans and currants. (Be gentle with the currants.)
4. Fill paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake for 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool and enjoy.

We buttered the tops and sprinkled on brown sugar mixed with some flour and a bit of cinnamon as an afterthought.

Makes 1 dozen.

Recipe by me and my friend Erin! Inspiration from the usual sources.

 

Christmas Cookies

I took charge of the cookie-baking this year, because my mom, for reasons unbeknownst to me, finds hours of baking tedious and soul-destroying. I was more than happy to spare her the agony. Since we didn’t have any of our traditional cookie recipes anymore, I was free to try out whatever I wanted. So I opened up The Taste of Home Baking Book (ie, my bible) and chose a couple.

First was this chocolate-walnuty variation on the traditional Hershey’s Kiss cookies. They’re delicious and pretty, and they don’t dry out and get rock solid like their more common counterparts.

Then there were these pretzel-shaped ones– chocolate cookie with mocha-chocolate glaze and white chocolate drizzle. I had fun rolling them out and considered it good practice pre-returning-to-work-at-the-pottery-studio.

I really needed a more effective way for dipping them, though. Oh, my poor scorched fingers.

But my favorites are the least aesthetically compelling ones: the ginger snaps! I nabbed the recipe from my Uncle John, who’d made them at Thanksgiving. I added fresh ginger…because fresh = good and if I were going to have babies, I would totally have them with ginger. Just think, they’d be all weird-looking and gnarled…just like any other babies! Only spicier.

Mmm, tasty ginger babies.

But anyway. Here’s the recipe.

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 large egg
1/4 cup molasses
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, thinnly chopped
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Mix butter and 1 cup of the sugar. Add the egg and molasses and beat together.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda and salt.
4. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat until the dough is smooth.
5. Roll the dough into 1-inch balls, and then roll in the remaining sugar. Put on cookie sheets, 2 inches apart.
6. Bake until fragrant and cracks appear on the top, about 8-12 minutes.
7. Let cool for 5 minutes, then remove the cookies with a spatula and finish cooling the cookies on a wire rack.

Promise me if you make them you’ll have at least three while they’re warm. Oh my god. They get soft and chewy once they’ve cooled, but while they’re still hot, they are the perfect blend of crispy on the bottom and melty on top. Guh guh guh.

 

Chocolate Chip Pecan Pie

Today was another Pushing Daisies day and my friend Nadia’s birthday, so celebratory pie was in order!

4 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup butter, melted
1 cup chopped pecans
½ cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 unbaked pastry shell

In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs sugar, corn syrup and vanilla. Add butter and mix well. Stir in pecans and chocolate chips. Pour into pie shell.

Bake at 350º for 50-55 minutes or until set. Cool on a wire rack.

 

Pear and Gruyère Pie

Pear pie with Gruyère cheese baked into the crust.

Inspired by Pushing Daisies!

 

For the filling I used:

About 5 cups pear, peeled, thinly sliced (1 bosc, 3 comice, 5 seckel)
1/3 cup sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch
1/8 tsp salt

Once I tossed that together, filled the pie crust, added the top crust, and grated generous amounts of gruyere over it all, I baked it at 425 for 10 minutes and then reduced the heat to 375 for 35 minutes.

Easy as!

 

Basic Pie Crust

Based on recipe from The Good Housekeeping Book of Illustrated Desserts.

For 1-Crust Pie

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup shortening
3-4 tbsp cold water

In medium bowl, with fork, stir flour and salt. With pastry blender, cut shortening into flour mixture until mixture resembles coarse crumbles. Sprinkle cold water, a tbsp at a time, into mixture. Mix lightly with fork after each addition, until dough is just moist enough to hold together. Shape into smooth ball. On lightly floured surface, with floured rolling pin, roll out dough into round about 1/8 inch thick. Cut dough about 1 1/2 inches larger around than upside-down 9-inch pie plate. Roll dough around rolling pin; transfer to pie plate and unroll. Ease into bottom and up side. Make decorative edge.

To bake without filling, preheat oven to 425°. With fork, prick bottom and side of crust in many places. Bake 15 min. Cool.

For 2-Crust Pie

2 cups all-purpose floud
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup shortening
5-6 tbsp cold water

Follow steps for making 1-Crust Pie dough. Shape into two balls, one slightly larger. Roll out larger ball and place in pie plate. Trim egdes. Fill. Roll out smaller ball, cut a few slashes or design in center, center over filling. Make decorative ede.

 

White Chocolate Berry Pie

1 pie crust, bought or homemade
5 oz white chocolate
2 tbsp milk
4 oz cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp grated orange peel
1 cup whipping cream, whipped
2 cups sliced strawberries

Prepare and bake pie crust. Cool completely. Microwave 4 squares white chocolate and milk about 2 min or until almost melted. Stir until melted. Cool to room temp. Beat cream cheese, powdered sugar, and orange peel in small bowlwith mixer on low speed until smooth. Beat in white chocolate mixture. Fold whipped cream into white chocolate muxture. Spread in bottom of pie crust. Arrange strawberries on filling. Drizzle with remaining melted white chocolate. Refrigerate 1 hour or until serving. Store in refrigerator.

Serves 8.

Variations I haven’t tried: raspberries instead of strawberries; german sweet chocolate (with 1/4 cup milk) instead of white; graham cracker crust instead of plain.

 

Muffin Cup Brownies

At UCSCA, I also made individual-serving brownies in paper muffin cups with strawberry halves on top. I wasn’t all that impressed with the recipe I chose and they definitely needed more batter per cup, but I liked the idea! It’s an easy way to make simple brownies look like a legitimate fancy dessert.

 

Fairy Drop Cookies

This recipe is adapted from the Better Homes and Gardens New Baking Book I found on the kitchen counter of the literary house at Washington College while I was there working as a camp counselor with the Upper Chesapeake Summer Center for the Arts. Yes, I baked cookies instead of doing my TA job. But no one complained after they’d tried them! They’re cute and dainty and deliciously almond-y. I dyed the frosting yellow and added blue colored sugar to some and green to others, going for a summery (and vaguely Pushing Daisies-inspired) color palette. Instead of sugar, some of them got cherry halves. I liked this addition because it made them look distinctly boob-like. :]

Cookies
1 cup butter
1 cup sifted powdered sugar
1 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp salt
1 cup oil
2 eggs
2 tsp almond extract
4 1/2 cups flour

Beat butter. Add sugar, powdered sugar, baking soda, and salt; beat until fluffy. Gradually add flour. Chill dough, covered, 30 min. Shape dough into 1 1/4-inch balls. Flatten on cookie sheet. Bake 350° for 10 min. Cool.

Almond Frosting
1/2 cup butter
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 1/2- 3 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar
3 tbsp milk/light cream
food coloring (optional)

Beat butter till fluffy. Add almond and vanilla extracts. Alternate gradually adding sugar and milk. Add food coloring as desired.

Frost cookies. Add sugar/sprinkles/cherry halves/crushed candies/whatever. Enjoy!