Orange-Almond Drop Cookies with Orange Icing

First let me say, a very Happy Mother's day to all you wonderful moms out there. I hope you all got properly spoiled today. I got my Mother's Day booty on Friday when my boys got home from school. My 7 year-old made me a red ceramic dish with a sweet little heart carved in the bottom, along with a homemade card. My 11 year-old made me a super cool black/orange/glittered, mod-podged flower vase out of a glass bottle. Then on Saturday, my husband surprised me with a beautiful potted azalea, a sweet card and some chocolates (which incidentally are now all gone, cause it's Mother's Day and I can do what I want). Unfortunately today my husband is on a trucking layover for work, in Idaho until tomorrow morning, but we have plans to do something special for lunch tomorrow while the kids are at school. Today it's just me and my boys and we are planning on heading out to see Grandma soon for ice cream and fun. Plus we'll be taking her some of these cookies I baked this morning.

Recently while on a thrift-store outing with my mom I picked up this little gem...

I have sort of a collection happening with Betty Crocker cookbooks. It was the main cookbook my mom cooked from when I was growing up, she had two editions, her main one was a 1969 edition, the other was a 1950's edition (the original, I think?) that came from my grandmother. So after I got married it was the obvious cookbook choice for me as a new cook learning the ropes. I used that cookbook a lot in my first years of married life. Now I feel kinda like I need to own all the editions for some reason even though I don't really cook much from the Betty Crocker cookbook anymore. I guess it just hold a lot of sentimental value for me.

So when I saw this little treasure I was very excited to pick it up. Plus the way they spell "cooky" just makes it unforgettable. There are quite a few great sounding "cooky" recipes in here. I started with the second recipe in the book, which is these Orange Drop cookies.

Orange-Almond Drop Cookies with Orange Icing

~makes about 3 dozen cookies~

Note* The recipe called for using all vegetable shortening for the fat component, as opposed to butter, or a mixture of butter and shortening. If you wanted to, I suppose you could substitute half or all the shortening with butter.

Ingredients:

for the cookies

2/3 c. shortening

3/4 c. sugar

1 egg

1/2 c. orange juice

2 T. grated orange zest

2 c. flour

1/2 t. baking powder

1/2 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

1/2 c. slivered almonds, toasted and coarsely chopped

for the icing

2 1/2 T. softened butter

1 1/2 c. sifted powdered sugar

1 1/2 T. orange juice

2 t. grated orange zest

Instructions:

1. Adjust the oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a medium bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer (or by hand) cream together the shortening and sugar. Add egg and mix thoroughly. Add in orange juice and zest, mix thoroughly. Add in the flour mixture. When the flour is almost completely mixed in, add the almonds. Using a wooden spoon or rubber spatula, give the cookie dough one final mix to make sure everything is mixed together.

3. Drop the dough onto an ungreased baking sheets by rounded teaspoons and bake until golden brown around the edges, 8-10 minutes. Remove from and let the cookies set up for a couple of minutes on the baking sheet before removing cookies (with a thin metal spatula) to a wire rack to cool completely.

4. Meanwhile, prepare the icing. In a medium bowl blend together butter and powdered sugar. Add in orange juice and zest. mix vigorously until smooth. Ice the cooled cookies, using about 3/4 t. icing per cookie.

Recipe adapted from the Betty Crocker Cooky Book

Tres Leches Cake

I wish I could follow the title of this post with a bunch of little hearts because I love this cake so much. Something about a cake soaked in a mixture that contains 3 types of milks (Tres Leches), sweetened condensed milk (which I could each straight up with a spoon, YUM!), evaporated milk (love it in my tea when I have it around), and heavy cream, just does something for me.

With Cinco De Mayo just around the corner, I thought I'd share this delicious cake with you.

Yum!

Tres Leches Cake

~serves 12~

Ingredients:

For the Tres Leches Mixture:

14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk

12 oz. can evaporated milk

1 c. heavy cream

1 t. vanilla extract

For the Cake

2 c. all-purpose flour

2 t. baking powder

1 t. salt

1/2 t. ground cinnamon

1/4 t. freshly grated nutmeg

8 T. (1 stick) unsalted butter

1 c. 2% milk

4 large eggs, at room temperature

2 c. sugar

2 t. vanilla extract

For the whipped cream topping

1 c. heavy cream

3 T. corn syrup

1 t. vanilla extract

Instructions:

1. For the Tres Leches mixture: Place the sweetened condensed milk into a large microwave safe bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Microwave on low power (I chose 30% power) stirring and replacing the plastic wrap every 3-5 minutes, until the milk thickens and darkens slightly, 9-15 minutes total. (you are kind of making dulce de leche.) Whisk in the evaporated milk, 1 c. heavy cream and 1 t. vanilla extract. Cover and set aside, cool to room temperature.

2. Make the cake: Grease and flour a 13x9 inch baking dish. Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat to 325 degrees. Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Heat butter and milk together in a small saucepan over low heat until the butter melts, set aside to cool slighlty while preparing the cake.

3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, add eggs. Beat at medium speed for about 30 second. Slowly add in the sugar. Increase the heat to medium high and beat until very thick and glossy, 5-7 minutes. Reduce speed to low and slowly add the butter/milk mixture and vanilla. Add the flour mixture in three additions, scraping down the sides of the mixing bowl as necessary. Then mix at medium speed for 30 seconds to fully incorporate. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 30-35 minutes. Transfer cake to a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes.

4. Using a skewer, poke holes all over the cake at 1/2 inch intervals. Slowly pour the tres leches mixture all over the cake. Let sit at room temperature 15 minutes, then refrigerate for at least 3 hours prior to frosting the cake.

5. Remove the cake from the refrigerator 30 minutes before serving. Beat the remaining 1 c. heavy cream, corn syrup and 1 t. vanilla to soft peaks. Spread evenly over cake. (Cake can be assembled up to 3 days ahead of when you want to serve it.

Recipe Source: Adapted slightly from Cook's Country Magazine.

Chocolate Chunk, Oatmeal, Pecan Cookie Bars

I don't do a whole lot of baking. But I am intrigued by the idea of baking things in a healthy way. It can be a challenge to reduce fats and replace ingredients like white flour with whole wheat, so when it can be successfully done, I love it. One of the things I have recently learned is the virtues of browned butter. Browning butter intensifies its buttery flavor enabling you to use less of it. Such a lovely thing!

One of my families baked goods weaknesses is definitely cookies. Gosh I love cookies. The chewy-salty-sweet yumminess of a home baked cookie makes me weak in the knees. I made chocolate chip cookies a few weeks ago and was craving them again but I was having a battle of wills inside myself over indulging in all those butter calories again. That is how this recipe was born.

Now I am not claiming that this is a healthy recipe, but based on a standard cookie recipe, I did manage to cut the butter in half. I figured I needed to compensate for some of the moisture this was removing so I added a little bit of lowfat sour cream and an extra egg white. I also replaced over half of the white flour with whole wheat pastry flour. 

Loaded with dark chocolate chunks, toasted pecans and oatmeal. These are still a decadent cookie for sure, but maybe one you can feel just a little bit better about eating.

Chocolate Chunk, Oatmeal, Pecan Cookie Bars

Note* When browning butter, be sure to use a stainless steel pan. A dark nonstick surface will make it impossible to tell when the butter browns.

Ingredients:

1 stick unsalted butter

1 c. dark brown sugar

1/2 c. sugar

1 t. vanilla

1 egg 

1 egg white

1/4 c. lowfat sour cream

1 1/4 c. whole wheat pastry flour

1 c. all-purpose flour

1 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

10 oz. package dark chocolate chunks

1 c. pecans, toasted and coarsely chopped

1 c. old-fashioned oatmeal

nonstick cooking spray

Instructions:

1. Adjust oven rack to the middle position, preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a 13x9 inch baking pan with foil and spray with nonstick spray.

2. Whisk together flours, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl, set aside.

3. Melt the butter in a stainless steel, medium skillet or saucepan over medium-high heat until the butter turns golden-brown and has a nutty aroma, about 3-5 minutes. (Be sure to watch the butter carefully, it goes from browned to burnt in seconds.)

4. Add the butter to a large bowl along with sugars and vanilla. Whisk to combine. Add the egg, egg white and sour cream. Vigorously whisk this mixture for 30 seconds  then let rest for 3 minutes, whisk again for 30 seconds and rest again for 3 minutes, repeat this step once more. (This is done to ensure that the sugar melts, and helps make the bars chewy.) 

5.Stir in the flour mixture, mixing until most of the way combined. Add in chocolate chunks, pecans and oatmeal. Mix to thoroughly combined. 

6. Pat into prepared pan. (The cookie dough will be sticky, it helps to use wax paper or even a plastic bag over your hand to keep it from sticking to your hands.) Bake for 20 minutes, until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. Remove from baking dish and cut into squares.

Rhubarb Clafoutis

Rhubarb is one of my favorite springtime offerings. I love the beautiful pink hues that definitely encapsulate the feelings of the season. And I love it's sweet tart flavor. I picked up some rhubarb at my local grocery store this week and I wanted to try something with it I'd never done before.

I decided to make a French clafoutis, which is essentially a pancake batter poured over fruit and then baked in the oven. I sliced the rhubarb into about 1/2 inch slices and tossed them in a couple of tablespoons of sugar to macerate. This is an important step because rhubarb contains a lot of water and tossing it with the sugar helps to draw out some of the excess moisture. Plus it sweetens it up a bit. Then I drained the rhubarb in a colander before adding it to the recipe.

This recipe is such a snap to make, it literally took me 5 minutes to throw the batter together. It bakes and puffs in the oven. The center becomes just set, like a custard, surrounding tart and sweet little gems of tender rhubarb. Delish!

I had it for dinner tonight & I'll probably have it for breakfast in the morning too. (Bad, I know it.) It would be heavenly served hot with a tiny scoop of vanilla bean ice cream.

Rhubarb Clafoutis

~serves 8~

Ingredients:

1 lb. rhubarb, sliced into approximate 1/2 inch pieces

5 T. unsalted butter, 4 T. melted, 1 T. used for buttering the baking dish

2/3 c. sugar, plus 2 T. sugar, for tossing with the rhubarb

3 eggs

3/4 c. flour

1 c. milk

pinch of salt

2 t. vanilla extract

confectioner's sugar (for dusting the top)

Instructions:

1. Toss the rhubarb with the 2 T. sugar in a medium bowl and set aside. It's good if you can let this sit for at least an hour.

2. In a separate large bowl whisk the eggs and sugar together until combined. Add the flour and half the milk, whisk until smooth. Add the remaining milk, the salt, vanilla and melted butter. Stirring gently until just combined. Let the batter rest at room temperature for about an hour. (You can skip this step if you are in a rush, it just makes the dough a little more tender.)

3. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Use remaining 1 T. butter to grease a 10 inch pan, (I use a cast iron skillet here, but you could use a ceramic dish, a cake pan, or a 8x8 inch Pyrex baking dish). Drain the rhubarb well in a colander and spread evenly in the prepared pan and then pour the batter evenly over the top. Place the pan on a baking sheet (in case it overflows) and bake for 1 hour. Let cool slightly before serving. Dust the top with confectioner's sugar before serving.

Recipe source: Adapted from, Glorious French Food by James Peterson

Orange "Brownies" with Orange-Rosemary Glaze

It has been a dreary rainy Monday morning. Not at all a rare thing to see here in the Pacific Northwest. And myself being a born-and-raised Northwest girl, this weather doesn't get me down in the least. For me it means warm and cozy, in my house, no TV or radio, just the peaceful sound of the rain falling outside. I love rainy days, always have, always will.

Another thing I love contrary to most everybody else is Mondays. In my house there resides 2 growing boys, ages 11 and 7, and weekends around here usually include a lot of raucousness, loud action movies and video games, and a lot of "Mom, I'm hungry!"s. So when Monday rolls around, I cheerfully herd those sleepy-eyed boys on outta here, walk back into my house and embrace complete silence. Monday is my Saturday!

So to celebrate my Monday liberation, I thought I'd bake up something sweet! Cheers! Happy Monday!

Orange "Brownies" with Orange Rosemary Glaze

Tip: Don't be so fast to throw those butter wrappers in the garbage. You can use them to butter up the baking dish.

Ingredients:

For the cake:

1 1/2 c. unbleached all-purpose flour

1 t. salt

2 c. sugar

1 c. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 T. grated orange zest

4 large eggs

For the glaze:

1 c. confectioner's sugar

1 t. grated orange zest

1/2 t. minced fresh rosemary

2 T. fresh orange juice

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 13x9 inch baking dish, set aside.

2. Combine flour and salt in a medium bowl. In a stand-mixer or using a handheld mixer, cream together sugar, butter and orange zest. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add in flour mixture, mix until thoroughly combined. Spread batter into prepared pan. Bake until golden brown and set, about 30 minutes. Let sit for 10 minutes. Using a fork, prick the cake evenly all over.

3. Prepare the glaze. Combine all the glaze ingredients and whisk until smooth. Pour and quickly spread evenly over the brownies. Enjoy!