Brown Suga Shortbread Cookies

So apparently I was wrong: shortbread cookies are not always those hard little rectangular cookies. They are usually soft and chewy?! I was unaware of this, which was apparent when I kept putting the pan back in the oven so the cookies would harden up.. wooops. They turned out just fine though. Crisis avoided. Phewwww.

I made these up in Grand Marais, not sure what inspired me. I probably was craving one of those little hard rectangular cookies. I ended up with a soft, chewy, wedge of goodness. I must admit this was not a bad mistake.

Brown Suga Shortbread Cookies
(with a twist by Sarah)

Ingredients:
1 teaspoon unsalted butter, softened (2 sticks)
1 cup packed light brown suga
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup crasins (twist part 1)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (twist part 2)
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon granulated sugar

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F
2. Lightly grease a 9-inch round pan and set aside
3. In a large bowl cream the butter with an electric mixer
4. Add the brown suga and beat until light
5. Add the flour, salt, crasins, and walnuts. Mix just until incorporated, careful do not over mix
6. Press the dough into the bottom of the prepared pan
7. Pierce the dough all over with the tines of a fork, and press the edges decoratively with the flat side of the tines (piercing the dough allows the trapped air to escape while baking, Mom informed me of this.. probably wouldn't have done it if I hadn't asked her and found out why!)
8. Combine the sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and sprinkle lightly over the dough
9. Cut into 12 wedges before baking
10. Bake until set and pale golden brown, 30 to 40 minutes (note: it will still be fairly soft - do not keep putting it back in the oven thinking it will become a hard cookie. They won't!)
11. Let cool before serving, or store in an airtight container for up to 3 days and serve at room temperature (like any sweet actually stay in the house for 3 days)


I think it is kinda hard to tell from the photo above, but these shortbread cookies are fairly thick. The consistency is almost like a cookie bar. I think the addition of the crasins and walnuts made it delicious, however you can really add anything you want to them. Well, anything within reason that is!

Pumpkin Flan

It's a pie, no it's a cake, no it's FLAN!

This adventure began late one afternoon in the UP after we finished our daily snow shoe. Looking through the cabinets, I came upon a can of pumpkin. The following conversation unfolded:

Me: Mom you know you have canned pumpkin?
Mom: Yeah.
Me: What are you going to use it for?
Mom: Pumpkin flan.
Me: Oh why not pumpkin pie?
Mom: You don't need to make a crust for flan.

I should have know that her answer would be so simple.. Who has the time to bother with making a crust? Everyone knows that the most important part of a pie is the filling anyway, so might as well just skip the crust and go straight for the good part. We don't mess around in the Clement household.

So thus began my quest to find a pumpkin flan recipe. I searched through every page of every cook book in the house and then tirelessly searched the world wide web. Like a sailor spotting the faint glow from a lighthouse on a stormy night, I finally found the perfect recipe. A pumpkin flan recipe by the one, the only, the Martha Stewart.

Pumpkin Flan
Ingredient:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light-brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
1 cup cooked pumpkin puree
1 1/2 cups half-and-half or cream (we used whipping cream)
5 large eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup heavy cream, whipped

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
2. Put the granulated sugar in a 9-inch cake pan or pie plate, set on the center rack in the oven, and bake until the sugar is caramel colored, 8 to 12 minutes. Swirl to cover the bottom of the pie plate with the caramel.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt.
4. Stir in pumpkin puree.
5. In a medium bowl, whisk together the half-and-half, eggs, and vanilla.
6. Thoroughly blend the egg mixture into the pumpkin puree.
7. Set the pie plate in a large roasting pan, and pour the custard over the caramel.
8. Carefully pour enough hot tap water into the roasting pan to reach halfway up the sides of the pie plate.
9. Bake until the custard is set, about 1 hour and 10 minutes. Cool and chill in the refrigerator. 10. Run a knife around the outside edge of the flan and invert it onto a rimmed plate.
11. Whip the heavy cream until desired consistency
12. Cut into wedges or scoop and serve with a dollop of whipped cream.



Well to continue this pumpkin flan adventure, of course I forgot one of Martha's steps. I didn't put the pie plate in a roasting pan and fill it with water. Also the 9-inch pie plate that I used did not hold all of the liquid. So needless to say, my flan over flowed while cooking and got all over the bottom of the oven. A few choice words may have been heard from the kitchen. I ended up putting aluminum foil on the rack below the flan to catch any falling debris. However, the bottom of the oven was already covered. That was a joy to clean up the following morning. Despite a few hiccups along the way, I must say that in the end the pumpkin flan was a success.

Liz's "Shhhh, don't tell the yoopers" Pasty Recipe

My husband has always told me "pasties should be meat, potatoes and onions...nothing else." Well, I'll admit that my husband knows a true pasty, but not being a true yooper (not yet, at least), I reserve the right to tweak the recipe a little bit. Below is the standard pasty recipe:
4 cups diced potatoes
1 cup diced onion
1 1/2 lbs. ground beef
2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper

My adaptation is:
3 cups diced potatoes
1 cup diced sweet potatoes
1 cup diced onion
1 cup carrots
1 1/2 lbs. ground beef
2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper



Usually my crust is quite tough, probably due to over mixing...I cheated a little this time (due to the impending visit from one youngest sister) and used Pillsbury pie crust. The recipe for homemade pie crust is:
3 cups flour
1/2 cup shortening
8-9 tbsp. cold water



A true yooper showed me how to roll the pasties and I have yet to fully get it down. The first two are always mashed together and dough is pasted all over to cover the holes...but by the third, I usually have a decent handle on putting them together. Bake at 400F for 12 minutes, then turn the heat down to 375F for another 35 minutes and enjoy!

Christmas Cookies

Santa, reindeer, and elephants oh my! Yes, ohhh yes it is Christmas-cookie-making time in the Clement household. Don't you fret, the usual cookie cutter suspects were there: Mr. Gingerbread man, the mistletoe, the lone apple, and the random coyote. Can't make a batch of Christmas sugar cookies without them.
This year we did not use Grandma's traditional sugar cookie recipe. We wanted a recipe that would not require us to chill the dough for several hours or over night. So after an extensive search on this amazing new invention, the world wide web, we discovered a recipe that only required the dough to chill for about an hour. In the end it didn't really matter since we let the dough chill for a couple hours while we had dinner and hung out with the rest of the family (aka played with Rory). So here is the recipe we used, followed by Grandma's sugar cookie recipe!

Sugar Cookies
(Makes 24 cookies - we doubled the recipe)

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
egg whites and sprinkles (for decorating)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375
2. Beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy
3. Add the egg and vanilla, mix until just combined
4. Add the flour and baking powder in intervals (dough will seem as if it doesn't have enough moisture, but it will come together when chilled)
5. Divide the dough into four equal parts, shape into disks, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for an hour or until firm.
6. Lightly flour a clean surface and roll out one of the four parts at a time
7. Cut out shapes with cookies cutters (one must be an elephant or rubber duckie)
8. Place the cutout cookies on a lightly greased cookie sheet
9. Brush each cookie with egg whites and decorate to your little hearts desire!
10. Bake cookies for 7-8 minutes
11. Let the cookies cool

(note: The above photo is obviously exactly what it should look like while cutting and decorating these cookies. Messy counter: flour, cookie cutters, and sprinkles everywhere)


Well now what you've all been waiting for, the real deal:

White Rolled Cookies
(note the index cards are covered in saran wrap? Why? We may never know..)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup sugar
13 tbsp melted butter
2 eggs
4 tbsp milk
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
2 3/4 cup flour

Directions:
1. Sift 1 cup of the flour with the cream of tartar and baking soda
2. Mix all the ingredients together, the dough should be soft
3. Wrap the dough in saran wrap and chill it in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight
4. Preheat the oven to 350
5. Roll chilled dough, in small chunks, on a lightly floured surface with a floured rolling pin - roll very thin (note: Dad will be the judge of the appropriate thinness of the cookies)
6. Cut with cookie cutters quickly and place on greased cookie sheets
7. Brush with egg white and decorate
8. Bake for 7 minutes (to bake to Dad's liking, the cookies must be cripsy!)

Grandma's Christmas Bread

Nothing says it's Christmas time like Grandma's Christmas Bread! This year we may have been a little last minute; may or may not have finished baking the bread late Christmas Eve. But don't fret my little Christmas elves, it was made just in time for the enjoyment of all on Christmas morning! Waichey's delicious Babka also made an appearance on Christmas morning, along with eggnog, orange juice, plenty of coffee, and of course the teddy bear Christmas plates and the Christmas mugs.

So you may ask yourself: what is this recipe that brings joy to all on Christmas morning and puts that twinkle in Saint Nick's eye (or is that because Mommy was kissing Santa Claus?) Well either way, I will let you in on the little secret:

Christmas Bread 1992
(Remix created by: Mommio and Sarah)
Makes: 2 large braids

Ingredients:
2 cups milk
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter
4 eggs
1/2 cup warm water

10-10 1/2 cups flour (separated)
3 tbsp of instant yeast
4 tsp grated lemon peel
1/2 tsp mace
3 tsp anise seed

1/2 box of golden raisins
1 small package of candied lemon peels (optional)
Green and red candied cherries (for decoration)

Directions:
1. Put milk in the microwave and heat til it boils (scalded)
2. Combine heated milk, sugar, salt, butter, and water in a large bowl
3. Add eggs and beat with an electric mixer
4. In a small bowl, mix 1 cup of flour with the yeast, lemon peel, mace, and anise seed
5. Add the small bowl mixture to the milk mixture in the large bowl
6. Beat with the electric mixer until blended
7. Add 5 cups of flour slowly while blending with electric mixer
8. Add the raisins and candied lemon peel
9. Stir in the last 4-4 1/2 cups of flour with a wooden spoon. Add the flour until the dough leaves the sides of the bowl and is no longer "sticky"
10. Cover the dough with a towel, and let rest for 10 minutes
11. Divide the dough into two parts, recover one half
12. Knead the other half for 15-20 minutes on a lightly floured surface
13. Put kneaded dough in a greased bowl, cover, and place in a warm place. Let rise until doubled (about 1.5-2 hours)
14. Repeat steps 12 and 13 for the other half of the dough
15. Punch the dough down and divide each half into 3 equal parts
16. Roll each part into 12-15 inch strands
17. Braid loosely, starting at the center and tucking the ends under to seal.
18. Place both braids (consisting of 3 strands each) on a greased cookie sheet to rise until doubled (about 1 hour)
19. Bake in oven at 325 for 25-30 minutes (when you tap the top of the braid it should thump, or sound hollow)
20. Decorate with the candied cherries


The result should look something like this (okay perhaps minus the bowl of lemons):

Enjoy this delicious recipe, and remember starting at 4 pm on Christmas Eve is plenty of time to finish in time for Christmas Day!

Happy New Year 2011

2010 was an exciting year for us, very busy and chock full of new experiences with Aurora. We spent New Years in Grand Marais and enjoyed our visit immensely. My contribution to the New Year's Eve party was an olive oil cake. It turned out delicious, although it wasn't cooked in the correct pan and therefore the presentation wasn't quite what I was hoping. Regardless, it was delicious. Jeff searched for the pine cone decorations in the freezing rain and came back with 4 beautiful ones (although very sticky). The recipe follows:

1 tbsp. butter
3 cups plus 2 tbsp. flour
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
1⁄4 tsp. lemon zest
3⁄4 cup quality extra-virgin olive oil
2⁄3 cup milk
3 tbsp. Grand Marnier or other sweet citrus-flavored
liqueur (I used lemon juice)
1 tbsp. baking powder

Bake at 325 F for 40 minutes.

Babka

Although a traditional Polish Easter bread, Mom always used to bake this bread for us around Christmas-time. Some of my favorite Christmas memories are of eating toasted Babka on Christmas morning. It was a bit of a daunting task, but once I had one batch done the rest seemed easy and fun. The entire apartment smelled delicious the entire day. Lots of butter, cream, golden raisins, lemon rind and a pinch of this and that went into each loaf. Aurora says "baka" and enjoyed helping me as well.