Tag Archives: recipe

Peanut Butter Cooksees

Can you make a good peanut butter cookie without breaking an egg?

hash marks and everything

Yup. I personally ate half a dozen to be sure.

The Best Peanut Butter Cookies
(real recipe can be found here)

1 1/4 c. firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 c. peanut butter (we used regular old PB, not ‘natural’)
1/2 c. Earth Balance (butter is probably fine)
2 T. of vanilla (yes, that’s TABLESPOONS – but it works)

Put all that in a bowl and mix it up well. Add

1 heaping T. unsweetened applesauce

and mix again. In goes

1 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
3/4 t. baking soda
3/4 t. salt

Stir until it’s all incorporated. Drop in big spoonfuls (I used my 2 T. scoop) onto a cookie sheet (I use parchment paper on mine) and do the traditional criss-cross thing with a fork.

Bake at 375F about 10 minutes until the edges are turning golden brown. Watch that you don’t over bake – they’ll still be tasty, but will require milk for dunking.

I would have gotten 32 cookies with my medium scoop, but we sampled a lot of dough.

Our Best Play Dough

I’ve made a lot of play dough in my time. Enough to have memorized my favorite recipe. It makes a good size ball and stores neatly in anything with a tight lid that can hold two cups.

boil boil

If you do this with little people, make sure you trust them with the stove. The stove is not on in this picture.

Our Best Play Dough
Dump the following into a sauce pan and mix well:

1 c. all purpose flour
1 c. water
1/4 c. salt (table, no need to be fancy)
1 T. oil
2 T. cream of tartar
food coloring to suit taste

Put your pan over medium heat. The goop will look nice and smooth like this…

smooth goop

…if you’ve used neon green food coloring.

Start stirring. Right about the time you think your arm will fall off (5-10 minutes), this will happen:

lumped up

It will start to pull away from the sides of the pan and clump together.

Keep cooking and stirring until the mess has barely stopped being shiny and then pull it off of the heat. I also dump it out of the pot so it will stop cooking and not get too hard. Give it a few minutes to rest. When it’s cool enough to touch, knead the play dough until it’s smooth. I find that kneading is easier while it is still warm.

Wash your pot and repeat until you’ve run out of colors or storage boxes. Or in our case, both.

pisa

All this took us less than an hour to mix up.

In an airtight container, it keeps far longer than you’d think. We’ll be playing with this batch well into March. Unless it all gets mixed into a muddy rainbow. Then we’ll have to make more.

squidgy

Oh My Yes

genius I tell you

Candy Cane Ice Cream in my coffee.

I’m a coffee genius. That must be why I am beating the pants off of Christmas this year.

Me – 12 Christmas – 5

I’m going to drink this while I work on my last Custom Order for the holidays.

Then I’m going to knit my kid a big bear and a pair of mittens.

Mighty Fine Cookie

cookie stack

Three out of three Iveys agree: Faux Thin Mints are a mighty fine cookie.

The recipe (which I saw on Craft) was posted at A Billion Tastes and Tunes. Our only change was to add a little powdered sugar to the glaze and make sandwich cookies instead. In theory, sandwich cookies will store better (they are stackable) and not as messy to eat. In theory. The cookies have a great tender crispy texture that is hard to beat.

Faux Thin Mints

Cookie Ingredients:
1 cup Earth Balance or butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 T. cornstarch mixed with 2 T. cold water
1 t. vanilla extract
1 1/2 t. peppermint extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt

Frosting Ingredients:
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (there’s no dairy in Ghirardelli‘s)
1 t. vegetable oil
2 t. peppermint extract
powdered sugar to thicken (we used about 1/4 cup)

Directions:
Mix the cornstarch and water and set aside.

Mix margarine and sugar together until well-mixed and fluffy (I used a fork).

Add cornstarch mess and extracts and mix until smooth and consistent.

Add flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Mix until just combined (try not to over-mix, it breaks the baking powder). It’s stiff, but it’s worth it. So persevere.

Divide the dough in half. Put one half on a sheet of wax paper or plastic wrap. Roll it into about a 10 inch log, wrap it up in the wax paper and put it in the ‘fridge for about two hours until firm. If you are in a hurry, the freezer for an hour will work too. Do the same for the second half of the dough.

Preheat your oven to 350. Pull out out the dough, unwrap it and slice it into rounds a little thicker than 1/4″. Spread them out on a cookie sheet – they don’t need a lot of room since they don’t spread much.

Bake about 12 minutes. The cookies should look a little dry on top but still be soft enough to get a dent when you poke them accidentally. Let them cool a few minutes on the cookie sheet before moving them to a wire rack to cool all the way.

While they are cooling, make your filling. Put the chocolate chips and oil in a microwave safe bowl and heat in 30 second increments until the chocolate chips are melty and the mess can be stirred until smooth. Mix in the peppermint extract (if your bowl is still warm, it shouldn’t seize). Stir enough powdered sugar to make the mixture spreadable and a little fluffy.

Using a dinner knife, spread the frosting over the bottom of one cookie. Stick another cookie (bottoms in for prettiness) on top. Repeat until all the cookies are sandwiches or eaten.

Speaking of Cookies. My sister is hosting a Virtual Cookie Swap! With PRIZES! Take a look and share a recipe. I need more cookie recipes.

Go-To Muffins

Applesauce Oatmeal Muffins

morning noms

My new favorites.

You’ve probably got everything you need in your pantry and ‘fridge. That’s my favorite thing about this recipe – besides the deliciousness. The recipe makes 12. Ellie and I usually half it. She’s going to be good at fractions.

  • 3/4 c. some kind of milk (I used almond this time. I like almond milk.)
  • 1/2 t. apple cider vinegar

Stir the vinegar into the milk and give it a few minutes to curdle up like buttermilk. Then add:

  • 1 c. applesauce (we used unsweetened)
  • 3 T. canola oil
  • 1/2 c. brown sugar

And stir everything well to combine. Dump in the dry stuff:

  • 1 1/2 c. AP flour (we used whole wheat pastry flour this time)
  • 2 t. baking powder
  • 1/2 t. baking soda
  • 1 t. ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 t. ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 t. salt
  • 1 scant cup of oatmeal

Note: the original recipe wants 3/4 c. of oat bran. But I don’t know what oat bran is and you can’t get it at Winn Dixie so we went with oatmeal.

Mix everything up until it is just combined. Ellie was helping, so the pictured batch is over-mixed and didn’t rise as well as it could have. Looks aren’t everything.

Scoop the batter into a greased muffin pan (or cupcake liners if the condition of your muffin pan is starting to Concern you) and pop it in a 350F oven for 30 minutes. Don’t be afraid to let them get a little dark – it makes the tops crunchy yummy omnomnom.

The original muffin recipe is found in Veganomicon. If I could only have one animal-free cookbook, Veganomicon would be it. The majority of the recipes are for things Ellie actually eats and use ingredients that can be found in a grocery store. My kid is a less picky eater than some, but what two year old eats Kumquat and Chipotle Relish on a Bed of Kale?

I totally made that last one up.

Secret Nap Snack

I’ve got a great ice cube tray with a cover that I use to freeze all kinds of things: leftover tomato paste, the other half of a can of broth. This morning, I froze the extra coffee from breakfast.

coffee slush

I’m a Culinary Genius.

The coffee cubes went in the blender with almond milk (it’s what we had – way more drinkable than soy if you haven’t tried it) and a big shot of agave (no reason not to use honey or vanilla syrup).

Almost as good as candy. And a whole lot colder.

Rainy Day

On rainy days, Ellie and I like to make delicious things to eat. We like to make delicious things to eat on sunny days, windy days, Thursdays and any other day ending in “y.” But that’s beside the point.

yum

This is a delicious thing to eat.

Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Treats

1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. corn syrup (I heard that brown rice syrup works too.)

Put these in a sauce pan over medium heat and stir it every now and then. When it boils and is bubbly all over the surface, take it off the heat and stir in

1/2 c. peanut butter

It will now look delicious. Put

3 c. of Rice Krispies (or puffy rice cereal of your choice)
1 c. of chocolate chips (optional)

in a big enough bowl to stir. If you would like the chocolate chips to maintain their integrity as chocolate chips, don’t do what I did.

oh my

This will melt the chocolate chips. Not a bad thing, just not as attractive.

Leave the chocolate chips until later if you don’t want them melted. Stir it all up. Once it’s cooled off a little bit, throw in the chips (if you haven’t already) and stir gently. Then dump the sticky mess into a greased 8×8 pan and mash it all down firmly.

Wait an hour or two for it to set up.

Slice and eat.

snack time

And eat and eat.

Bar None

A Taste of Georgia calls them “Mock Baby Ruth Bars.” So does my Mom. I prefer “Chocolate-Topped Granola Bars.” It makes me feel less guilty about eating bar cookies for breakfast.

cookie

The whole “Baby Ruth” appellation makes no sense anyway.

Mom doubles this to make a 9×13″ pan. I have no self control, so I stick with half a recipe and a 9×9″ pan.

Chocolate-Topped Granola Bars

1/2 c. brown sugar
2 T. corn syrup
2 T. peanut butter (I like creamy, Mom likes chunky.)
1/2 t. vanilla
6 T. vegetable oil, butter or margerine*
2 c. oatmeal (I use old-fashioned, rolled oats but quick oats work too.)

Combine everything but the oats and stir until it’s all mixed up. Stir in the oats being careful get them coated. Spread this into a greased 9×9″ pan and smooth out the top. Bake in a 400° oven for 12 minutes (edges should be browning) while you mix up the topping.

1/2 c. chocolate chips
1/4 c. butterscotch chips
1/3 c. peanut butter

The minute the cookie comes out of the oven, spread this mixture on top. Keep spreading, the heat from the cookie will melt the topping into a gooey, delicious, swirly mess. Put the pan in the refrigerator until the chocolate sets before slicing into squares. If you can stand the wait. I store them in the ‘fridge during the summer.

cookie with bite missing

I want one right now!

*Mom and the recipe use butter. Many many years ago, I used canola in desperation and have never looked back. The oil gives the cookies a crispy, tender, flakey omnomnom and is a lot less greasy. Easier to mix up too.

Hold the Eggs

empty plate

Can’t take a pretty picture of pancakes when you’ve eaten all the pancakes.

Pancakes Sans Eggs
1 c. flour
1 T. sugar
1 T. baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 c. soy/organic/almond/whatever milk
2 T. vegetable oil
Sprinkle of chocolate chips* (not at all optional)

Whisk up all the dry.
Whisk in the wet.
Into the hot (lightly greased) frying pan! You all know how to cook a pancake. Sprinkle a few chocolate chips on top of the wet batter when you first pour it in if desired. And who wouldn’t desire?
1/4 cup scoops of batter will yield 6 pancakes. I make four smaller pancakes out of a halved recipe when it’s just Ellie and me.
Slather with fat** and maple syrup.

I found this recipe at Happy Little Vegans. I like them better without the 1/2 t. of cinnamon.

Chickens have it rough. Give them a break on Pancake morning.

*Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips are produced with no help from cows and (in my opinion) are the best chips in the grocery store.
**If you’re already using margarine, give Earth Balance a try. It melts beautifully, is non-hydrogenated and doesn’t even contain the little bit of milk that the others do. If I can get it at my Wal-Mart, I’m sure y’all can find it at the grocery store.

All Dressed Up

My favorite salad dressing in the whole history of the world.

dressing in a jar

I like that you can get reusable lids for Ball jars.

Mustard Vinaigrette
(fits in an 8oz jelly jar)

1/4 c. rice wine vinegar
1 1/2 t. honey (look for local)
1 T. prepared brown/spicy/dijon whatever is in the ‘fridge mustard
2 t. minced garlic
1/2 c. vegetable oil – check the taste, you might want more

Dump everything in a jar with a nice tight lid and shake it shake it shake it. Chill about an hour and enjoy on pretty much anything.