Home Cooking with Trisha Yearwood... Shortbread

A few years ago my dad bought me "Homecooking with Trisha Yearwood" it had been on my Amazon wishlist for awhile and I was really excited to get it.  It's beautiful and I love all the little personal tips and notes she has put into it. If I had a large enough coffee table, it would definitely be one of those books you leave out for guests to go through.  Anyway I've had it for years, but never got around to making any of the recipes, I love cook books, but typically don't use them. I don't know... weird quirk of mine I guess.

I happened to be looking through it yesterday, and saw this recipe and HAD TO MAKE it. HAD TO. I even went to the store to get the ingredients (even though most of them are staples in a baker's kitchen).  This is seriously the easiest cookie recipe I've ever made.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup self rising flour
• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick) room temperature
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and spray a 9in pie pan with cooking oil (I used coconut oil, but any spray should do).
• Mix all ingredients in an electric mixer until combined.  It doesn't get smooth, it's kind of grainy looking.
• Spread mixture evenly across the pie pan
• Bake for 25 minutes
• Allow to cool, then slice and serve.

I'm thinking this would be DELICIOUS if they were dipped/drizzled in chocolate and topped with fresh berries and homemade whipped cream, just make a whole decadent dessert of out it. I haven't tried that yet, but I can't see how it could possible go wrong.

Cream Cheese Cherry Pie Crumb Bar

so one night this week my friend had an excess of tasty dessert treats (I'm not sure how that happens, will power that I don't have perhaps) and I picked them up on the way home (because again, not going to turn down free treats)... Oh.My.God. so worth the calories... these were amazing little squares of awesome. Try them at your own risk (to your waistline).

She found the recipe at Brown Eyed Baker and you can see the link to the recipe here. But for your baking convenience, and mine, I thought it would be great to post it here.

this photo is from the
Brown Eyed Baker's Site

INGREDIENTS:

For the Crumb:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
1 egg

For the Filling:
24 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 (21-ounce) cans cherry pie filling

For the Powdered Sugar Glaze (optional):
½ cup powdered sugar
1 to 2 tablespoons heavy cream or milk
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking pan.

2. Make the Crumb: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Use a fork or pastry cutter to blend in the butter, and then the egg (the dough will be crumbly). Press half of dough into the prepared pan and bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until light golden brown. Set on a wire rack to cool.

3. Make the Filling: In a separate large bowl, beat the cream cheese and sugar on medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add the vanilla extract and mix to combine. Using an offset spatula, spread the cream cheese mixture into an even layer over the crust. Spoon the cherry pie filling in an even layer over the cream cheese mixture. Crumble the remaining dough evenly over the cherry layer.

4. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until the top is light golden brown. Cool completely before adding the glaze.

5. Make the Powdered Sugar Glaze (if using): In a small bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, cream and vanilla extract. Add more cream if you want a thinner glaze, or more powdered sugar if you want a thicker glaze. Drizzle over the bars and allow to set.

6. The bars can be served at room temperature or chilled. Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.

Aunt Josphine's Carrot Cake

Aunt Josephine’s Carrot Cake

Cake Ingredients:
• 3 Cups Packed Shredded Carrots
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 can (20 ounces) crushed pineapple drained (save juice)

• 3 cups unsifted all purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground cloves
• ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ½ teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 ½ cups vegetable oil
• 5 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup flaked coconut
• 1 cup chopped nuts
• 1 cup chopped raisins 
Frosting Ingredients:
• ½ cup Butter
• 1 Box Powdered Sugar
• 8 Ounces Cream Cheese
• 4 Tablespoons pineapple juice


Directions:
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Grease and flour cake pan
• Combine carrots and lemon juice in small bowl
• Squeeze as much juice as possible from pineapple
• Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, & allspice in bowl.
• Beat in oil until blended
• Mix in carrots
• Beat eggs in one at a time
• Stir in vanilla, coconut, nuts, raisins, and pineapple until well blended
• Pour batter into prepared pan
• Bake 1 1/2 hours or until cake springs back from sides of pan
• Cool cake on wire rack for 5 minutes 
• Remove from pan and cool
• Beat together all frosting ingredients until smooth and cover top of cake when cooled.


SIDE NOTE:  I chopped some of the left over walnuts from the bag and toasted coconut to top the cake, I think it was one of the best decisions (baking wise) I've ever made... it was AMAZING and possibly my favorite part of eating it. 

Oreo Buttercream Frosting

My grandmother's 81st birthday was this weekend, and my mom wanted it to be potluck style.  I was assigned to bring the birthday cake, which is awesome, because if I'm bringing anything to a potluck type party I want to bring desserts or an appetizer, I'm not usually too stoked on bringing a main course if I don't have to.  Grandma requested a chocolate cake, and the rest was left to my imagination.  I used a Duncan Hines Devil's Food Cake box mix, but instead of using oil, I used butter, and instead of water, I used milk, and added a packet of chocolate instant pudding mix. These substitutions help the box cakes taste more homemade.  I wanted to do something different with the frosting than chocolate or vanilla, and I remembered the MOST AMAZING cupcake I had in Los Angeles, at a cupcakery called Crumbs, a few years back and it had a cookies and cream frosting.  I wanted to see if I could do something similar, so off to Google my fingers ran, until  I found the recipe that I was able to slightly modify to make the best frosting I've had in my whole life.  The original can be found here. 

This is the recipe I used (nearly identical to the link)

• 1 cup softened butter
• 3.5 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 1 cup finely crushed/packed Oreo pieces (I ground them up in the food processor, about a sleeve and a half of the regular Oreos )

·         Cream the butter for a few minutes until it is light (I had to stop the mixer a couple of times to clear the whisk beater)

·         Sift in the powdered sugar (I just dumped it in, couldn’t find the sifter, didn’t seem to make a difference)

·         Beat until entirely combined with the butter

·         Add vanilla and milk, beat for 3 minutes

·         Add crushed Oreos and mix well to combine

**add more milk to gain a thinner consistency, more sugar and/or Oreos to thicken

It was a complete hit... however, if I were to make it again I'd want to double the recipe. This was just enough to cover the cake, and I didn't have enough ingredients to make more to pipe on decorations to have a more finished look.

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Oatmeal Coconut Cookies

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Oatmeal Coconut Cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup butter

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

1 Tbsp. milk

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. double acting baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup Coach's Oats

1 cup shredded coconut (I toasted mine, 10 min, 350 degree oven, stirring frequently, until golden brown)

1/2 cup chopped macadamia nuts

1 cup white chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream together butter and sugars for about 30 seconds.

Beat in egg, vanilla, and milk.

Mix just until smooth

In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

Add the dry with the wet ingredients and beat, be careful not to overmix.

Add oats, coconut, and white chocolate chips.

Beat until combined.

Drop by rounded teaspoon (or medium sized cookie scoop) onto ungreased cookie sheet (I always prepare my cookie sheets by putting parchment paper on them, and dropping the dough onto the paper, less mess and no sticking).

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.

The recipe I used/modified (from the container of Coach's Oats) said that it would make about 3 dozen cookies, with the cookie scoop I used, it made about 2 dozen.  The original recipe did not call for white chocolate or macadamia nuts, and did not toast the coconut.