Homemade Brownies with a touch of Orange

I have nothing against boxed cake or even brownie mixes.  I don't judge.

But brownies are really easy to make.  

And if you bake at all, you are likely to have the ingredients you need if you suddenly HAVE TO HAVE BROWNIES (I don't know if that happens to you but it does to me).

Here's how I make them.  You don't have to add the orange, but a hint of orange with chocolate is really good.

• 1 stick of butter, melted
• 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
• 1/2 Cup Sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 Cup Cocoa
• 3/4 Cup flour
• tsp salt
• Zest 1/4 - 1/2 Orange
• 1 Tbl Orange liqueor
• 1 tspVanilla

Mix the sugar with melted butter.  Add eggs, zest, liqueor and vanilla.  Beat well.  Add salt., Add the cocoa, mix well.  Then add the flour. Just mix enough to moisten everything.  DO NOT OVER MIX!

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes are so.  You want it to be a little underbaked. 

Sift powdered sugar,  and spring red, green and gold sugar over the top.  

There.  Wasn't that easy???

The Best Pumpkin Pie

I like to give pumpkin a hard time.  

Because compared to sweet potatoes or squash, pumpkin isn’t really that good.  It’s not bad.  It’s just kinda meh.  What makes pumpkin pumpkin is the spices.

But I make a really good pumpkin pie.  

The secret is the sweetened condensed milk.  It gives it a real nice creaminess.  And easy because you can skip a few steps. Oh, yea.  And the bourbon.  Bourbon makes everything better.

Also use good quality spices.  I like Penzey’s and they make pumpkin pie spice which is a combination of cinnamon, allspice, cloves, and ginger.  But because the spice is what makes pumpkin pie good, you need to use quality spices.

So here’s my recipe:

• 1 15 oz can pureed pumpkin
• 1 14 oz sweetened condensed milk
• 3 eggs
• 2 tbs Brown Sugar
• 1 tsp Penzey’s pumpkin pie
• ½ tsp. Penzey’s Vietnamese Cinnamon
• 2 Tbl REAL Maple Syrup
• 2 Tbl  Bourbon
• 1 Tsp salt (this is more than usual but because of the extra brown sugar and maple syrup a little more salt helps cut the sweetness.  TRUST ME!)

Preheat oven to 425.  Beat all the ingredients together.  Pour into unbaked 9-inch pie crust.  Good for you if you made it yourself.  I buy the pre-made crust that’s already rolled and cut and I think it tastes fine. 

Bake 15 minutes then turn the oven down to 350 and bake another 45-50 minutes.

Don’t ruin this pie by putting Cool Whip on it!

Take a cup of real whipping cream, add a tbs or more of sugar, and a capful each of vanilla extract and bourbon and whip that sucker up.  It hardly takes any time at all and it is sooooo good.

Time To Make the Sandbakkels. Again.

I wrote about Sandbakkels before.   

Time to Make the Sandbakkels

I'm going to write about them again because I've been baking them.

Sandbakkels are the Norwegian treat I decided to learn to master.  

They seem simple enough.  Butter and sugar.  What could be so hard about that?

Well they are not for beginner bakers.

I am a good cook.  Baking is different.  Baking is more of a challenge for me.  The way I like to cook is to change up the recipe.  Or even forgo the recipe entirely.  

That kind of cavalier attitude toward the recipe will get you in trouble with baking.  

You have to stick with the recipe when you bake.

 It has something to do with science. 

But what I like about sandbakkels is that there is some intuition involved.  

You can measure out the right amount of butter and flour but when you get them in your hands, after years of making them, you can feel that it is too greasy and will need more flour.  

You can set the timer, but you had better spend the last few minutes just looking right into the oven to make sure they are the right color. 

If they are too light, they will not pop out of the tins.  Wait too long and they will burn and they will pop right out of the tin into the trash.

I have my mother in laws tins.  One of the tricks to keeping the cookies from sticking to the tins is to never wash them with soap. Just rinse off the crumbs stuck.  It's kind of like your cast iron skillet. The years of seasoning beats any teflon.

So here is the recipe:

• 1 Cup Butter, softened - this you will want to use all butter, real butter - no substitutions.
• 1  Cup Sugar
• 1 Egg yolk
• 1 tsp (or capful) Amaretto or almond extract
• 2 Cups Flour

Oven 350

Cream butter and sugar. Add egg, beat. Add Amaretto. Add flour.

Take about a teaspoon of dough and roll into a ball, then press into the tin. Thinner is better.

Lay the tins out on a baking sheet.  

Set your timer for about 10 minutes.  When it goes off, stand in front of your oven door and watch.  When they are just tan around the edges, take them out.  

If you did it right, they will pop out fairly easy.  Some will break.  They will taste fine.  

If they are not done enough or don't have enough flour they will not come out of the tin.  If you washed your tins too well they will not come out. 

Don't get discouraged.  Try it again.  Your tins will be greasy and they will probably come out this time.  

Lefse!

Lefse is a Norweigian Flatbread made with potatoes.   

My husband made good lefse and even made his own lefse stick for turning them.  My daughter and I made them a few years ago and she decided she wanted to make them again so that's what we did this afternoon.  It's time consuming and tricky.  

Most people make them on electric griddles but I used an old fashioned cast iron skillet.  Worked fine, but did result in brown spots which WE like but purists would frown upon.

This is the recipe we used:

5 lbs potatoes, peeled, cooked and riced.  

The ricing is the hardest part as far as I'm concerned.  I had some old ladies try to tell me I could use potato flakes but I don't eat that stuff, why would I cook with it?

I made two batches - this makes 1 batch:

4 cups riced potatoes

1/4 Cup melted butter

1/2 Cup whipping cream

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 Cup flour

Mix and then form patties.  This is tricky because you don't want to work it too much or it will taste rubbery, but you do need to work it enough to make sure there are not cracks on the edge, so that it will roll out nice and round.

Pastry is not my thing.  I cannot roll.  
I can barely roll out sugar cookies.  Sarah was a very good roller.  You want these to be pretty thin.  A lefse roller has grooves in it to prevent air pockets.  Look how nicely she rolled that out!

Then you slip the stick underneath in the middle and roll it over into the pan.  This takes some practice.  This is why you rice 5 pounds of potatoes.  Some lefse will go into the trash.

It will bubble like this when it is time to turn it.  Again you use the stick to turn it.

And you use the stick to take it out of the pan.  Stack them up about ten at a time, and then fold them into fours.  

Ours are pretty small because we make them on cast iron skillets.  If you make them on a lefse griddle you can make them much larger.  Of course then rolling and handling the stick is even more challenging.

We have lefse sticks and we know how to use them!

Time to Make the Fruitcake~2011

Last year about this time I was desperately packing to be ready to move at the end of the month so I did not have time to make my usual Christmas fruit cake.  

I posted this recipe two years ago under the same heading "Time to Make the Fruitcake"

Yea I know all the jokes about fruitcake.  Just try it.  

This year's is especially good because I could not find any candied lemon and orange peel so I made my own - with this really easy recipe from the Food Network

These were so good they did not all make it into the fruitcake.  Some fell into some dark chocolate. I may never buy these again.

Do not skimp on these ingredients. Yes it is rich and unhealthy. So what? You make it once a year, you give all away except one loaf (unless you are having a party). Enjoy.

Ingredients:

1 C chopped dates

1 c golden raisins

1 c. candied pineapple, thinly sliced

2 c. red candied cherries, diced

1 c. green candied cherries, diced.

1 c. candied lemon peel

1 c. candied orange peel

1 c peach preserves

about 1 c Apricot Brandy

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 c pecans, coarsely chopped

1 c butter

2 c all-purpose flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 pinch cloves

1 c. dark brown sugar

6 eggs

Directions:

The night before you bake, combine raisins, dates, cherries, pineapple, preserves with 1/2 C. brandy and vanilla in bowl. Cover. Let stand at room temperature overnight.

The next day, preheat oven to 300. Grease and flour four 9 x 5 loaf pans.  Actually nowadays I spray the pan and then dust them with sugar rather than flour, works the same to keep from sticking but it make them EVEN sweeter.  And it's all about the sugar with fruitcake.

Add nuts to fruit mixture. Set aside. In a large bowl cream butter and sugar. Beat eggs separately and add to butter and sugar. Add spices. Add flour. Pour batter into fruit mixture and stir to get all of the fruit covered. The batter is just there to keep the fruit together.

Pour into loaf pans. Pat down with fingers. Decorate with half candied cherries and whole pecans. Sprinkle with red or green sugar if you like. 

Cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake for two hours. Remove foil and bake 30-40 minutes or until cakes are browned. Cool completely in pans on wire racks.

When cakes are cool, pour 1/4 brandy over each. Cover tightly with aluminum foil or wrap in cheese cloth and store for at lease two but no more than 6 weeks before eating.

Note --if this is too much booze, you can pour orange juice over the cakes and it will be good too. But not nearly as much fun.

Time to Make the Sandbakkels

So this morning the lady I let ahead of me in the grocery store line because she only had a couple of loaves of bread looked at all the stuff I had and said "Oh are you having a big thanksgiving dinner?"

"Oh no" I replied. "My kids are coming home from college this week and this is just to feed them BEFORE Thanksgiving". 

She seemed rather horrified.

Okay so I went a little overboard and tried to get ALL their favorite food in one visit. 

But the one thing they always look forward to is Sandbakkels, a Norwegian cookie.

These are made with special tins. I use my late mother-in-law's molds. She died of cancer before I knew my husband. Using them always makes me feel connected to her in some way.

It is best not to wash these tins, just rinse them out and dry them....that keeps them from sticking. Of course some always break when you tap them out. 

Since I usually made them for special occasions and gave the broken ones to the kids, they were always grateful that so many broke! But now the unbroken ones are for them. I'll probably eat the broken ones before they get here.

Recipe:

• 1 Cup Butter, softened - this you will want to use all butter, real butter - no substitutions.
• 1  Cup Sugar
• 1 Egg yolk
• 1 tsp (or capful) Amaretto or almond extract
• 2 Cups Flour

Oven 350

Cream butter and sugar. Add egg, beat. Add Amaretto. Add flour.

Take about a teaspoon of dough and roll into a ball, then press into the tin. Thinner is better.

 Put the tins on a cookie sheet and bake 9-11 minutes until just golden. Cool. Tap the bottom with a spoon to pop out.

Some recipes say to fill these but I never knew any Norwegian who filled them.

Cranberry White Chocolate Bars

Several years ago in another parish I used to host an open house between Christmas and Epiphany.

Tried it a couple of times in this parish and hardly anyone came and it really wasn't worth making all that food so I quit. But I have a lot of recipes from all the goodies I made. 

 This one I make whether I have a party or not.

Notice that I used half butter and half butter flavored Crisco. I have found this works perfect in cookie and bar recipes. All butter just doesn't bake as nice. That's butter flavored Crisco.

 DO NOT TRY TO BAKE WITH MARGARINE! 

 Margarine should not even exist as far as I'm concerned.

• 2 1/4 C All purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 Cup butter (1 stick)
• 1/2 cup butter flavored Crisco
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla (do yourself a favor and buy REAL vanilla)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 12 oz package white chocolate chips
• 1 C dried cranberries

Preheat oven 350

Cream the butter, Crisco and sugar. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until well mixed. Mix in flour, salt and soda a little at a time. Add chips and cranberries and mix.

Spray a 10 x 8 baking ban. Spread dough in pan and flatten. Bake about 25 minutes - I like it when it's still a little soft and chewy.

This is my basic chocolate chip cookie recipe as well. Like the one on the chips package only more sugar (because I like my sweets, well - sweet) and the half butter, half Crisco.

Time to Make the Fruitcake!

Actually I'm late this year. You really need to let it soak in the brandy for at least 4 weeks. Still time for Christmas though.

Trust me this is not the fruitcake people joke about. People always make jokes when they hear I am making fruitcake but if I can get them to actually taste my fruitcake they shut up real quick. There was a very nice gentleman in a former parish who always help me put up my Christmas tree in exchange for my fruitcake. He would talk about it all year.

There are mostly two reasons people don't like fruitcake. 1) they are into healthy food and don't believe in eating fruit that has been preserved in heavy syrup with artificial dyes. There's nothing I can do to help those people. They probably don't believe in Santa Clause either...

The other reason people don't like fruitcake is because they don't like citron and a lot of fruitcake is heavy on the citron. I don't like citron and so this cake does not have it.

Do not skimp on these ingredients. Yes it is rich and unhealthy. So what? You make it once a year, you give all away except one loaf (unless you are having a party). Enjoy.

Ingredients:

1 C chopped dates
1 c golden raisins
2 c. candied pineapple, thinly sliced
2 c. red candied cherries, diced
1 c. green candied cherries, diced.
1 c. candied lemon peel
1 c. candied orange pee
1 c peach preserves
about 1 c Apricot Brandy
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 c pecans, coarsely chopped
1 c butter
2 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 pinch cloves
1 c. dark brown sugar
6 eggs

Directions:

The night before you bake, combine raisins, dates, cherries, pineapple, preserves with 1/2 C. brandy and vanilla in bowl. Cover. Let stand at room temperature overnight.

The next day, preheat oven to 300. Grease and flour three 9 x 5 loaf pans --or smaller, I never know how many I'm going to fill.

Add nuts to fruit mixture. Set aside. In a large bowl cream butter and sugar. Beat eggs separately and add to butter and sugar. Add spices. Add flour. Pour batter into fruit mixture and stir to get all of the fruit covered. The batter is just there to keep the fruit together.

Pour into loaf pans. Pat down with fingers. Decorate with half candied cherries and whole pecans. Sprinkle with red or green sugar if you like. Cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake for two hours. Remove foil and bake 30-40 minutes or until cakes are browned. Cool completely in pans on wire racks.

When cakes are cool, pour 1/4 brandy over each. Cover tightly with aluminum foil or wrap in cheese cloth and store for at lease two but no more than 6 weeks before eating.

Note --if this is too much booze, you can pour orange juice over the cakes and it will be good too. But not nearly as much fun.