butter pecan shortbread cookies - kaboose

My Comments: Today I decided to make these because we had a bag of pecans and my mom loves shortbread cookies. It turned out amazing. The first batch I baked for too long, but the second was just perfect. I sifted powdered sugar on the ones that were baked too long. They are very chewy and crunchy at the same time, not too sweet. Perfect! My mom LOVED them, and shes a hard person to get compliments from.
(Pictures by me)

Ingredients

• 1 cup (250 mL) unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup (125 mL) light brown sugar
• 2 cups (500 mL) flour
• 1 cup (250 mL) ground pecans
• 2 tsp. (10 mL) vanilla
• pinch of salt

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (160 degrees C). Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl with an electric mixer or a food processor, beat together butter and brown sugar until creamy. Add flour, ground pecans, vanilla and salt and beat just until it forms a smooth dough. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes to 1 hour to allow it to firm up just enough to shape.
3. By hand, roll dough into 1-inch (2-cm) balls. Place them on the prepared cookie sheet and flatten very slightly (to about 1/2-inch/1-cm thickness) with the bottom of a glass that has been dipped in flour to prevent the dough from sticking to the glass. (If you have a cookie stamp, you can use it to flatten the cookies instead of the glass.)
4. Place in the oven and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until set and very lightly browned on the bottom. Remove from pan and let cool on a rack.

((Click to see larger))

possibilities

Here is a list of recipes I have found from smittenkitchen.com. My goal is to make all of these recipes and check them off as I go. I am so excited, especially because I will have a whole kitchen to use during the summer! The only dilemma is being able to get all of the ingredients I need. Oh that will be an adventure.

Cakes

• Strawberry Chiffon Shortcake
  
  
• Red Velvet Cake
  
  
• Lighter-Than-Air Chocolate Cake
  
  
• Pistachio Petit-Four Cake
  
  
• Pink Lady Cake
  
  
• Homemade Chocolate Wafers +Icebox Cupcakes
  
  
• Tiramisu Cake**
  
  
• Cinnamon-Chocolate Chip Sour Cream Cake
  
  
• Chocolate Whiskey and Beer Cupcakes
  
  
  

Cookies

• Chocolate Pretzel Cookies
  
  
• Margarita Cookies
  
  
• Graham Crackers
  
  
• Crisp Salted Oatmeal White Chocolate Cookies
  
  
• Green Tea Shortbread Sandwiches
  
  
• Ice Cream Sandwich Cookies
  
  

I can't wait to try these!

store baked goods!

Here is a good website that I found that tells you how to store any baked good so that it stays as delicious as possible!: Baking 911

cinnamon crumble coffee cake - big oven

My Comments: I decided to bake these because my roommates were craving them. They turned out great! But the recipe called for 30 minutes of bake-time, and that was not enough. I had to keep taking it out and sticking it into the oven for ten minutes that I actually lost track of how many times I did that! I think I did that around four times, so I estimate that the bake time is 50 minutes. Anyway, the inside turned out cakey and nice, and the crumbs on top were perfectly sweet, crumbly, and cinnamon-y! I sifted powdered sugar on the top of the cake. Everyone raved about it in my apartment!

Ingredients

5 cups flour or 1/2 cup all purpose and 1/2 cup Bisquick
3 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/4 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 1/8 milk
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 stick of cold butter
2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup nuts ground

Instructions

Oven Temp: 400F / 200C / Gas Mark 7

1. Mix together the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Add in the oil.

2. Divide this mixture - one half slightly larger than the other - into 2 bowls.

3. In the smaller portion add the eggs, milk and vanilla extract. Mix well until free of lumps ( mixture will be thin ). Pour into greased 9 x 13-inch pan.

3. In the larger portion add the butter, cinnamon & nuts. Mix with hands , making crumbs, leaving some large crumbs.

4. Bake for 25-30 minutes till browned. Cool and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

blueberry crumb bars - smitten kitchen

My Comments: When I first made these, I didn't know how much to layer on top and bottom. So i just went on a limb and eye-balled it, hoping that it would not turn out too thin on the top or bottom. It came out perfect! The only problem I had with it was that I did not know that I had to leave chunks of butter in the batter to allow the crumbs to be big. Instead, I crumbled the whole batter into tiny crumbs so the top of the Crumb Bar did not turn out as pretty. The second time, I nailed it but I baked it for too long so it came out harder than I would have liked. Anyway, I absolutely love this recipe. The first time I ended up eating it in one week.

" Recipes like this make me wonder why I don’t use AllRecipes.com more. After seeing a blueberry crumb bar on another site, I immediately wanted to make them but the first recipe seemed overly fussy. I knew there was a simpler way to do it, and lo and behold, All Recipes had it. Once I swapped the shortening for butter–of course–and dolled it up with some lemon juice and lemon zest, they were just as heavenly as the 176 commenters promised they’d be.

I could imagine easily swapping another fruit or berry for the blueberries–I’m especially thinking something tart like sour cherries or cranberries in the fall (I’d use orange instead of lemon with cranberries). But if you have blueberries on hand, do not miss a chance to make these.

These are easiest to cut once chilled, and store even better in the fridge than they do at room temperature–something unusual for cookies! "

Yield: I cut these into 36 smallish rectangles

1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup cold butter (2 sticks or 8 ounces)
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon salt
Zest and juice of one lemon
4 cups fresh blueberries
1/2 cup white sugar
4 teaspoons cornstarch

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 9×13 inch pan.

2. In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup sugar, 3 cups flour, and baking powder. Mix in salt and lemon zest. Use a fork or pastry cutter to blend in the butter and egg. Dough will be crumbly. Pat half of dough into the prepared pan.

3. In another bowl, stir together the sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice. Gently mix in the blueberries. Sprinkle the blueberry mixture evenly over the crust. Crumble remaining dough over the berry layer.

4. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until top is slightly brown. (This took an extra 10 to 15 minutes in my oven.) Cool completely before cutting into squares.