Soft & Chewy Snickerdoodles

People always ask me what is the secret to my cookies, why they always come out chewy and stay that way after several days, and I tell them from my 25 years of experience with baking, that the most likely culprit of two flat or too round cookies is the temperature of your butter.

I never resort to microwaving my butter because for me that always spells disaster. I leave it out and let it soften at room temp. You don't want your butter melted, especially for snickerdoodles, because they will come out really flat, hard, and extra crispy. A good snickerdoodle is slightly chewy and soft, and only a tad crispy on the outer edges. At least that's how I prefer them!

Some people also swear by using shortening for snickerdoodles, but I always use butter. Shortening will give you a fluffier cookie, and there's nothing wrong with that either, but my personal preference is thin, chewy, buttery and cinnamon-y yumminess.

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened at room temp

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

2 3/4 cups flour

2 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

3 tbsp sugar

3 tsp cinnamon

Banana Cupcakes with Peanut Buttercream Frosting

These cupcakes always seem to be a winner when I bring them to parties. When I first made them they seemed to be all anyone requested from me. I hadn't made them in awhile so I brought em back for a New Year's party because I had some overripe bananas I needed to use up.

For the cupcakes:

1 cup butter (2 sticks), softened to room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 egg

3 large bananas (the riper the better)

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cup flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

For the frosting:

2 tbsp butter

1 cup powdered sugar

1 1/2 tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla

4 tbsp creamy peanut butter

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

These cinnamon rolls were the first time I ever tried to make a breakfast pastry from scratch and I learned a lot! The dough was surprisingly flaky and delicious.

Next time I will make a change:

• Make 1/2 the amount of dough. This will make the pumpkin & cinnamon to dough ratio higher. If you like your cinnamon rolls more doughy, leave the proportions the same but split the dough in half and use two 9x13 baking dishes. This will make the glaze easier to drizzle, since the dough needs room to rise. 

Ingredients (split these in half for less doughy, more pumpkiny rolls):

2 (0.25 oz) packages Rapid Rise Active Dry Yeast

1/2 cup sugar

2 cups warm water (approximately 110 degrees, I just used hot tap water)

1 tbsp salt

6 1/2 cups flour

2 eggs

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 brown sugar, packed

2 tbsp ground cinnamon

1 (15 oz) can pumpkin puree

Glaze:

2 cups confectioner's sugar

2 tbsp milk

Maple Pecan Cookies

These cookies are SERIOUSLY ADDICTING and super easy!

Ingredients

1 1/2 c. pecans, chopped

2 c. butter, softened at room temperature

1 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp maple flavor (found in baking aisle with vanilla extract)

2 eggs

4 c. flour

1 tbsp white sugar

Icing:

1 1/2 c. powdered sugar

2 tbsp milk

1 tsp maple flavor

Pear Almond Bundt Cake

When I was a little kid, I used to have an apple tree in my backyard that was always loaded with apples in the late summer/fall.  I used to make all kinds of things to use the apples, and I changed this apple cake recipe so many times to improve on it.  This the first time I ever made variations on a recipe and made it my own.  

It happened by accident, but one batch of apples I picked one year happened to be pretty tart, so I put half of the sugar in with the apples and let them soak until it was time to add them.  What I discovered was that the sugar drew out a lot of the juices from the apples and made the cake super moist.  A few years ago I tried it with pears instead of apples, and almonds instead of walnuts.  Both was are delicious!

Ingredients:

3 pears, peeled, cored, and cut into chunks

2 cups sugar

1 1/2 baking powder

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. salt

2 cups flour

2 eggs

1/2 cup oil

2 tsp. almond extract

3 oz. slivered almonds

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Easy Chicken Pot Pie

Here is my super easy chicken pot pie recipe!  

You can also make it more healthy by using low sodium broth.  I also would love to learn how to make my own crust, because as you can see below, the store bought ones tend to crumble and make the presentation not so pretty.  But it tastes good!

Excuse the quality of the pictures, I used my phone camera for these because I couldn't find my good camera.  :( I found it now, so the future blog entries should look better, I promise.

Ingredients:

1 cup frozen peas

1 cup carrots, diced

1 cup frozen corn

1 medium potato, diced

1 lb chicken thighs, cut into chunks

3 tbsp butter

1/2 medium onion, diced

1/3 cup flour

1-3/4 cup chicken broth (not pictured)

2/3 cup milk (also not pictured. Oops!)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp dried thyme

2 frozen deep dish pie crusts

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Boil peas, carrots, corn, potato and chicken for 15 minutes in a covered saucepan.  Drain and set aside.

Peach Cobbler

It's summer time, and for me that means the best seasonal fruits of the year.  Every year I look forward to peaches coming into season just so I can make this Peach Cobbler recipe I found on www.allrecipes.com, although as usual I made a lot of changes, mainly adding A LOT more peaches to the recipe.  Also, I learned a trick to peeling the peaches, which in previous years took the longest time to do.

I was so happy when I found this recipe because my in previous attempts at Peach Cobbler, something about the crust is always off -- too sweet, too chewy, etc.  This recipe makes the perfect fluffy and sweet crust.  

Ingredients:

6 fresh peaches, peeled and sliced

1 tsp cinnamon

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup butter, softened at room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 cup flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup milk

1 cup boiling water

3 tbsp. butter

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Grease 9"x13" baking dish (a good trick for this is to use the wrapper of the butter you are using in the recipe).  I used a smaller 8"x11" pan and my cobbler overflowed a little bit, so I will make sure to use a 9"x13" next time.