Week Fourteen: Rum Balls and Butter Rum Cookies

Rum Balls
Yields 4 dozen
Courtesy of MarthaStewart.com

Ingredients:

Vegetable oil, cooking spray

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into pieces

6 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

3 large eggs

1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons dark rum

Coarse sanding sugar, for rolling

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Coat a 12-by-17-inch rimmed baking sheet with cooking spray; set aside. Melt butter and chocolate in a small heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water, stirring occasionally. Set aside.

Whisk together eggs, brown sugar, vanilla, and salt in a large bowl. Stir in chocolate mixture, then fold in flour. Pour batter into prepared baking sheet. Spread evenly with a rubber spatula. Bake until top is shiny and a cake tester inserted into center comes out with some crumbs attached, about 10 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack.

Break up brownie into small pieces; transfer to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. With machine on low speed, pour in rum, and mix until crumbs start to come together to form a ball.

Shape into 1-inch balls, and roll in sanding sugar to coat. Transfer to a baking sheet; refrigerate, uncovered, until cold, about 2 hours. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Ms. Martha Stewart and I have a love\hate relationship. I love how crafty she is but sometimes her recipes and crafts are a little out of my league. I found this recipe when I was looking for rum recipes last week and wanted to give it a try. My mother-in-law makes awesome rum balls that are gluten-free. I wanted to try this recipe because I love brownies and figured this would be a new way to try them. I also tried different decorations for them as well. Hers are always rolled in powdered sugar. My friend Lisa gave me the cute colored sugar as a gift one year and I had the Christmas non-parels sitting in my cupboard. I like the sugar crystals better and it looks really cute! These are really strong. I didn't have dark rum on hand because I hate the way it tastes, so I used our St. Lucian rum once again. These also taste a whole lot better once they are refrigerated.
Since I feel as though I have jipped my readers by not continually making cookies and taking breaks some weeks, I decided I would double it up this week. Here is a bonus recipe that I also made tonight!! Enjoy!

Butter Rum Cookies
Yields 4-5 dozen cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar, divided by recipe directions
3 egg yolks
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
2 tbsp plus 1 1/2 tsp rum
2 1/2 cups unsifted flour
1 1/2 tbsp finely chopped orange peel

Directions:
Cream butter with 3/4 cup sugar until light. Beat in egg yolks, flavorings and rum. Gradually add flour, using hands to knead in last of it. When dough is smooth, shape into rolls about 1 1/2 inches in diameter, wrap in waxed paper (or plastic wrap) and place in the refrigerator. Chill for at least 6 hours or overnight. Cut into 1/4 inch slices and roll each slice with hands to form a ball. Roll balls in a mixture of the remaining 1/4 cup sugar and orange peel. Place on cookie sheet and flatten with a flat bottom glass dipped in the sugar-orange mixture. Bake on lightly greased and floured cookie sheet at 350 for 10-12 minutes. Store cookies in an airtight container for at least 1 day before serving for best flavor.

These cookies were easy to make but included a lot of waiting time. Once again I used the Admiral Rodney Rum from St Lucia to flavor these cookies. I tried one straight out of the oven and it tasted wonderful. The orange is a bit much so I wouldn't use as much as the directions say. They are very soft cookies and the added sugar in which they are rolled add some much needed sweetness with all the butter. These are cute and sparkly cookies that would be great in a cookie tin as a gift as they would package very well.

Week Thirteen: Chocolate Chip and Coconut Rum Cookies

Chocolate Chip and Coconut Rum Cookies
Yields 24-30 cookies
Courtesy of Cooks.com

Ingredients:
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
6 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, lightly beaten
3/4 tsp vanilla
3/4 tsp light rum
1/2 cup grated coconut
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375.

Sift the flour, salt, and baking soda together in a bowl and set aside. In another bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the egg, vanilla, and rum. Beat the mixture well.

Fold in the flour mixture, coconut, and chocolate chips. Form the cookies on a baking tray, using a small ice cream scoop. Bake at 375°F for about 8-10 minutes.

After cleaning my kitchen, I realized that we have a lot of hard liquor that we never drink! I have used it in many a recipe but we just aren't big drinkers. I figure I need to start using some of this stuff in my recipes and the best place to start would be in cookies! When we were on our honeymoon in St. Lucia, we bought rum that is very cheap there but extremely expensive here. We thought it would be great to have on our one year anniversary. However, when we popped the bottle, it tasted horrible! Very rummy...so it has been sitting on our counter ever since. I loved it in this recipe. It was not overwhelming and the coconut made the cookies seem like a tropical trip. All these needed were little plastic umbrellas! They were very soft and tasted better once they had been sitting for a little while rather than right out of the oven. We had company so they were gone in a couple of hours, so I am not sure what they would have been like a few days out. I'm sure it would have been like getting on the plane coming home from vacation, sad, but glad to be back in the real world. Actually, nope. Just sad.

Week Eleven and Week Twelve: Thanksgiving

Although I have no pictures, I can honestly tell you that I did not slack off these two weeks. It was my first year making Thanksgiving dinner in its entirety for my family as well as my in-laws. I love to cook and bake, but this was a huge undertaking. My mother-in-law had been cooking Thanksgiving dinner for the past thirty years and this was the first time she was passing on the torch. No pressure, right? I used BonAppetite.com for all my recipes and guides. It was the best, most complete guide to the entire dinner that I could find. And the recipes were amazing! I am always for easy and make ahead recipes for a big event so these were perfect. I will add the menu in the comment section and if you would like any of the recipes, let me know!
It was a great meal and everything turned out wonderful! There were many long nights in the few days prior and even the night before I was up until three am. It was amazing to have such a great, supportive family telling me how yummy it all was and made all the hard work competely worth it. I am looking forward to making Thanksgiving dinner every year from now on! Happy Holidays!!

Week Ten: Homemade Apple Crumble Pie

With our bestest friends' engagment party this weekend, I went back to an old favorite that they absolutely love. I bought a cute purple ceramic pie plate and made their favorite pie as a gift. Please see October 3rd's post for the recipe. I love homemade gifts!

Week Nine: Nutella Pocket Cookies

Nutella Pocket Cookies
Yields 4 Dozen Cookies
Courtesy of La Fuji Mama

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
1 pkg 8oz cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups Nutella (probably more)

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, cream cheese, and sugar until smooth, light, and fluffy.  Add the vanilla extract and ground cinnamon and mix until well combined.  Gradually add the flour to the creamed mixture and mix well.  Divide the dough into four portions; cover and refrigerate until the dough is firm and easy to handle.
Preheat the oven to 350.  Remove one portion of dough from the refrigerator.  On a floured surface, roll out one portion of dough until it is about 1/4 inch thick.  Using a circle cookie cutter (or biscuit cutter) that is approximately 3 inches in diameter, cut circles out of the dough and place them on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Place approximately 1 1/2 teaspoons of Nutella on each circle, slightly off-center, then fold each circle in half so that the edges meet and lightly press the edges to seal.  Repeat this process for each portion of dough.
Bake the cookies for 12 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned.  Leave the cookies on the cookie sheet for 2 – 3 minutes before removing them to wire racks to cool.



My new-found love for Nutella led me to the recipe for these cookies. These cookies were a wonderful disaster. The directions listed above are straight from the website. Maybe they will work for you. However, for me, I wanted to rip my hair out. First, I did not have enough sugar and along with no sugar, no desire to go to the store to buy more. The only other sugar I could find was rimming sugar for margaritas that was colored pink and blue. Hence, the green color of the cookies. My sister-in-law swears the greenness makes them even more yummy. Then, after letting them set in the refrigerator, I took them out and tried rolling them out so I could cut them. They stuck like crazy to my rolling pin no matter how much flour I used. I ended up scraping pieces of the dough off the ball and rolling it in my palms and squashing it between them. I then placed the squished circles on the baking sheet and put the dab of Nutella on one side of the dough. When I rolled the Nutella-free half over, I pinched the edges together. They tasted amazing, but they were a lot of frustrating work. Totally worth it. The cinnamon adds the best sultry flavor with the hazelnut and chocolate inside the pocket.

Another great Nutella recipe can be found here:http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/nutella-lava-brownies. They are super easy to make and so gooey straight out of the oven. Again, I ended up using more Nutella than the recipe called for because it is sooooo yummy!!!

Week Eight: Iowa Trip!

This weekend we went to the Iowa game. For the tailgate I made my choco covered doughnuts again. However, this time I colored the almond bark with yellow food coloring and drizzled melted semi-sweet chocolate over the tops. They were a bit hit! I, however, made it to the DL for not taking pictures of them! ARGH!!!

Week Seven: Halloween!

Every year on Halloween, for the past three years, we have a Halloween brunch. We invite our immediate family and watch the Iowa Hawkeyes play. I used to make creative invitations but they have since gone by the way-side because of my busy schedule. However, I do try to make the party as creative and fun as possible for the fam. I make some signature recipes and then supplement them with fun new recipes I find in Halloween recipe books and magazines. I took some pictures of the treats on which we dined.

Candy Corn Jellies

http://jelly-shot-test-kitchen.blogspot.com/

For this recipe and others, click the link above!

Alcoholic and non!

Doughnut Dreams

Original recipe is from and Everyday with Rachel Ray

These are great. I buy Old Fashioned Sour Doughnuts from Jewel, usually two boxes because they go so quickly! You dip each doughnut in melted almond bark and let it dry on either wax paper or foil. I've made these with several diferent decorations. For Halloween this year I made ghosts with mini choco chips and pumpkins by using food coloring to make them orange and cutting mini mallows in half and dipping them in green food coloring. I have also make them into eyeballs by using a red hot and red frosting for eye veins. You can make them into pretty much anything. For my nephew's birthday I used red frosting and made some into baseballs, blue frosting to make others into volleyballs, and dipped the rest in choco almond bark and used white frosting to make footballs. The pictures will follow.

Gluten Free version of Hungry Girl's Ultimate Move Snack Mix

I am OBSESSED with the Hungry Girl website. And it is super easy to make a lot of her recipes gluten-free. Most of the recipes use Fiber One cereal to make breading. I use Chex Mix instead which is already gluten free. The recipe for this sweet mix can be found here: http://www.hungry-girl.com/biteout/show/1991

Swap out Chocolate Cheerios for Chocolate Chex cereal and it is instantly gluten free! This is really sweet and an easy spin on a traditional Chex party mix.

Not that these are recipes, but I found a great alternative use for the silicone baking cups I bought years ago. Each one had a different veggie stacked inside.

I had many other dishes, but by the time I remembered take pictures of the food, most of it was gone!!

Week Six: Iced Pumpkin Cookies

Iced Pumpkin Cookies
Yields 36 cookies
Courtesy of allrecipes.com

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cupos white sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups confectioners' sugar
3 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350. Combine flour, baking poweder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, and salt; set aside.
In a medium bowl, cream together the 1/2 cup of butter and white sugar. Add pumpkin, egg, and 1 teaspoon vanilla to butter mixture and beat until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients. Drop on cookie sheet by tablespoonfuls.
Bake for 15-20 minutes. Cool cookies, then drizzle glaze with fork.
To make glaze, combine confectioners' sugar, milk, 1 tablespoon melted butter, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Add milk as needed to achieve drizzling consistency.

In the fall, I am always looking for new pumpkin recipes. I have always made pies before, but this time I wanted to do something else. Since they fit the cookie project mold, they came to fruition. I like recipes in which my cabinets already contain the ingredients and in this case, they did. I chose to dip the cookies in the frosting instead of drizzling so I had to make it a little thicker. These taste like little bites of pumpkin pie. I only baked them for 15 minutes so they are quite soft, but I like them that way. Bake them 2-3 minutes longer and they'll crisp up nicely. Yummy fall recipes!!

Week Five: Peanut Butter Choco Chunk Cookies GF

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Yields 16 servings
(C) Everyday with Rachel Ray

Ingredients:
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips or chunks

Directions:
Beat the first four ingredients in a mixer. Stir in chocolate. Drop rounded tablespoons of dough 2 inches apart on parchment lined baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Let cool on pans.

After the deboucle of the apple spice cookies, I broke the rules and went to a familiar favorite. We were off to see my GF mother-in-law and these were super-duper easy to make by the time we had to leave. Plus, I knew they would turn out. These are great. They are super peanut buttery and soft right off the pan as well as a few days later. They stay very well. They are (surprise!) gluten free! But you would never know it.

Fall Recipe: Homemade Apple Pie

Homemade Apple Pie
Yields one nine inch pie

Ingredients:
Crust:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons white sugar
1/4-1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons milk
few shakes ground cinnamon

Place all ingredients in bowl and mix. Place in 9 inch pie pan. Press into bottom and up sides of pan.

Pie Filling:
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon, or a few shakes more
1/8 teaspoon salt
few shakes of nutmeg
enough apples to fill pie crust, cored, peeled and sliced

Mix. Pour into unbaked pie crust.

Crumble topping:
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup flour
1/3 cup butter
few shakes ground cinnamon

Mix into fine crumbs and pour over apples. Bake at 375 for 40 minutes.

I have alterede this recipe a bit. I am a huge cinnamon fan so I added it to each piece of the pie (all puns intended). I also am not a huge crust fan. I usually eat all the filling and leave the crust for my hubby, which he does not appreciate. So I added the cinnamon to force myself to eat the crust. I actually poured all the crumbs left of the crust from prior cut pieces into a bowl and ate just those. It is amazing. Since I am not a big top crust person either, I made a cruble topping. It is light and adds just a bit of crunch to the top. Love it. This might be the best apple pie recipe I've ever come up with. The second day it was almost gone. This is what is left the third day. I love me some apple pie...

Week Four: Apple Spice Drops

Apple Spice Drops
Yields about 3 1/2 dozen

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup apple juice
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup finely chopped peeled tart apple
1 cup shopped walnuts
Frosting:
1/4 cup butter, softened
3 cups confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 to 4 tablespoons apple juice

Directions:
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and apple juice. Combine the dry ingredients; gradually add to the creamed mixture. Fold in apple and walnuts.
Drop by teaspoonfuls 2 in apart onto greased baking sheets. Bake at 375 for 12-14 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to wire racks to cook completely.
For frosting, cream butter, sugar, vanilla and enough apple juice to achieve spreading consistency. Frost cooled cookies.

Ok. Here's the thing. These taste amazing. However, they fell flat. They lost their "cookieness" to me. I like a fluffy cookie with some fluffy frosting. These cookies spread out way too much while cooking. Here's the fix: if the recipe falls flat, replace half of the butter with shortening. This is great if you don't mind making a whole new batch of cookies. I, however, tried to fix the recipe by putting the dough in greased mini muffin pans. They are soft, but they still spread outside the muffin form. I had to scrape the edges back into the depression and continue baking for another three minutes. As they came out this time, these would not be a good cookie to put in a tin for gifts as they are way too brittle. Next time I try this recipe I'm going to make the switch. I also left out the walnuts and added more apples. We went apple picking so we are elbow deep in apples. They are absolutely applicious.

Week Three: Cloud Kisses

Cloud Kisses
Yield: 2 1/2 dozen   *GF

Ingredients:
2 egg whites
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/8 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
food coloring, optional

Directions:
Place egg whites in a small bowl; let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Add extracts and vinegar; beat on medium speed until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, on high until stiff glossy peaks form and sugar is dissolved, about 6 minutes. Beat in food coloring if desired.

Cut a small hole in the corner of a pastry or plactic bag; insert a round pastry tip. Fill bag with egg white mixture. Pipe 1 1/2 inch diameter clouds onto parchment paper lined baking sheets.

Bake at 250 for 40-45 minutes or until set and dry. Turn oven off; leave cookies in oven for 1 hour. Carefully remove from parchment paper. Store in airtight container.

I have always had many reservations about making meringue cookies. Especially when I am making thirty other cookies I've never had time to just let them sit for another hour in the oven. I was also afraid of not knowing if I had mixed the dough enough. However, I found them quite simple to make! The original recipe called for tiny chocolate chips that you would place onto them for the eyes of ghosts. I didn't have any around and after eating about seven of them when they came out of the oven, I didn't miss them either. This recipe does make quite a few and you could always double it to make a extra large batch. They are light and airy and have a great almond taste. The originall recipe also called for just regular cider vinegar but apple cider vinegar was all I had on hand. I don't think it changed it too much but made them perfect for fall. You could also add any type of extract you wanted instead of the almond extract. Orange or lemon might be great for a summery snack. I do like these better than the store bought ones I've tried because they are as crumbly. And surprise! They are gluten free!!

Football Weekend: Maple-Pecan Sticky Bars

Tailgating Weekend!      GO HAWKEYES!!
Maple-Pecan Sticky Bars
Makes 30
Epicurious.com, Bon Appetit, October 2003

Ingredients:
Crust:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1 large egg yolk

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

Filling:

1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1/3 cup (packed) brown sugar
1/4 cup whipping cream
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups coursely chopped pecans

Preparation:
For crust: Preheat oven to 350. Butter 9x9x2 inch metal cake pan. Using electric mixer, beat butter, sugar and egg yolk in bowl to blend. Add flour and salt; beat until moist clumps form. Gather dough together. Press dough over bottom and 1/2 inch up sides or pan. Bake crust until golden, about 20 minutes. Cool.

For filling: Combine first 4 ingredients in medium saucepan. Bring to boil, stirring until butter melts and mixture is smooth. Boil filling 30 seconds. Remove from heat; mix in vanilla, then nuts.

Pour hot filling into crust. Bake bars until filling is bubbling in center, about 15 minutes. Cool bars completely in pan on rack (filling will become firm). Chill at least 1 hour and up to 2 hours. (Can be made 3 days ahead. Cover and keep chilled.) Cut into 30 bars.

The directions sound complicated but they are very easy. I was in a hurry so I accidently put all the crust ingredients in the mixer all at the same time. It took a little more mixing, but the crust turned out just as well. Don't be worried if the crust is really crumbly. You press it all together into the pan anyways and it comes together. Unfortunately I cannot tell you what these are going to be like in a few days because they were all gone by the end of the tailgate. They almost taste like pecan pie but I don't think they are as sugary sweet. My husband, who claims to hate pecans but eats them in everything I add them to, loved these. They are what he would call "breakfast dessert", but they can be eaten any time of day. Bars are outside of the cookie project prerequisite as they aren't actually cookies, but I wanted something that would travel well that I haven't made before. Brownies and rice crispies are always prominent on the tailgate table, but at 7am, maple sugar and pecans are exactly what I crave.

Week Two: Iced Cinnamon Chip Cookies

Iced Cinnamon Chip Cookies
Yields about 3 1/2 dozen

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 package (10 ounces) cinnamon baking chips

Icing:
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup shortening
1 1/4 cups confectioner's sugar
1 tablespoon milk
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugars until light and fulffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; gradually add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Fold in cinnamon chips.

Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls 2 in apart onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to wire racks to cool.

In a small bowl, combine icing ingredients; beat on high speed for 1-2 minutes or until fluffy. Spread over cooled cookies.

These might be my new fave. Warning: The previous sentence might be repeated quite a few times throughout this blog. They taste like a cool fall morning cinnamon roll breakfast. I had forgotten I had these cinnamon chips in my cupboard until I saw this recipe. They spread out quite a bit on the pan so I would recommend placing them in the recommended alottment from each other. The frosting is chunky for quite a bit so you'll know when you've mixed it enough. It gets nice and creamy smooth. I didn't have enough to spread on all the cookies the recipe made and I spread it on pretty thin. I would recommend making one and a half batches of the frosting. They are hard to stack as the frosting sticks to other cookies but it is totally worth it. Yummy...I enjoy them with a cup of toasted almond coffee while my husband prefers the 5 year old's choice of appie juice.

Week One: Devil's Food Cookies

Devil's Food Cookies
Yields about 2 dozen
Ingredients:
1 pkg devil's food cake mix
2 eggs
2 tablespoons butter, softened
3 tablespoons water
1/2 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips (add more to your liking)

In a large bowl, combine the dry cake mix, eggs, butter and water (batter is super thick). Fold in chocolate chips.
Drop by tablespoonfuls 2 in apart onto baking sheets coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350 for 10-13 minutes or until set and edges are lightly browned. Cool for 2 minutes before removing to wire racks.
Recipe from: tast of home Cookies, Reader's Digest, copyright 2009

These are all that are left tonight. Since I just decided to start blogging my progress, I am surprised there aren't just meager crumbs left. These cookies are super easy. But they do taste as though they weren't made from normal cookie dough. I think the more chips you can put in these cookies, the better.