Good Housekeeping's Flapjack Cookies

Unlike the name suggests, this is not a pancake. They bake looking like one though. They're incredibly easy to make and use only 4 ingredients. So for those of you with a sweet tooth and little time on your hands (like me) this one is for you.

Ingredients:

5 tbsp butter
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 1/3 cup uncooked oats
pinch of salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease 8 inch round cake pan. Line pan with foil, extending it over rim; grease foil.

In 2-quart saucepan, melt butter over low heat.



Add sugar and cook, stirring, until well blended, 1 minute.



Remove saucepan from heat; stir in oats and salt until evenly mixed.



Sprinkle oat mixture evenly over bottom of prepared pan; with metal spatula, firmly pat down mixture.



Bake until golden, 16-18 minutes. Let cool in pan on wire rack 10 minutes.

Lift foil with cookies out of pan and place on cutting board; peel foil away from sides. While still warm, cut into 16 wedges. Transfer foil with flapjacks to wire rack to cool completely.

Checkerboard Cake for A Very Merry Unbirthday!

Ee gads! It's been forever since I've updated and I've several cookies backed up that need to get posted. Before we turn to those though, we're going to take a trip to Wonderland.

Because yesterday was my dear friend Lani's birthday and she was very disappointed that she didn't get cake (any reasonable person would be), I decided to give her an unbirthday party.

I knew the key to making this a success was to have the perfect cake. Of course, being the ambitious woman I am, I decided to sort of improvise.

I will now tell you have to make a checkerboard cake... without a checkerboard cake pan.
Dun dun duuuun!!

First step- bake two cakes.

I decided to use a chocolate cake and white cake. I found both recipes on Suite101.

The first cake I made was the chocolate.

Ingredients:

4 (1 oz.) squares unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup butter
1 cup water
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
pinch of salt
1/2 cup buttermilk
1-1/4 tsp. baking soda
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp. vanilla

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large saucepan, melt 4 squares chocolate and 1/2 cup butter in the hot water and bring to a boil.
(Ok, this sentence confused me. In my baking research I had discovered that it was a poor idea to mix melting chocolate with water. So I went with my gut and melted the chocolate in my usual makeshift double broiler over medium heat.)




Remove from heat and add flour, sugar and salt. Mix well with a wire whisk or eggbeater.
(This is when I discovered I am awful at "whisking" and decided to hand over the job to a more reliable source. Hello electric mixer.)




Then stir in buttermilk, baking soda, eggs and vanilla and beat until smooth. Pour into 13x9" pan (I used a 9 3/4 circular pan.) and bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes (mine was in for almost 40...), until the top springs back when touched with a fingertip.




Yay! You now have chocolate cake! While waiting for that one to cool, it's time to make the white cake.

Ingredients:

1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 egg whites
1 whole egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup milk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Grease and flour a 9x9 inch pan or line a muffin pan with paper liners. (Again- used the circular pan)
In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter.



Stir in vanilla. Beat in the eggs, one at a time - alternating with the flour/baking powder mixture.



Stir in the milk slowly, constantly mixing, until batter is smooth.



Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until golden brown and toothpick comes out clean.



Super Yay! Now you have two cakes!



Next step. Frosting.

It is important that this step follows immediately for two reasons- 1. cakes need time to cool; 2. the frosting will act as a glue, without it things will get very ugly when it's time to cut the cake.

This recipe I found on Cooks.com

Ingredients:

1/2 c. squeeze butter
1 tsp. vanilla
Dash salt
4 c. sifted confectioners' sugar
2 tbsp. milk

Directions:

Combine butter, vanilla and salt.
Add sugar alternately with milk, beating until light and fluffy.
Frosts 2 (8" or 9") layers or 1 (9"x13") cake.

I made 1 1/2 of this recipe. The first time as directed and the second time with some blue and red food colouring for a purple hue, and only half as much.

Because I didn't not have a sifter I improvised and whisked the sugar in a bowl and then measured it.



Now for the tricky part. How do we take these two circular cakes and make them into a checkerboard cake? Well I'm glad you asked. Here's what I did-

First step- stack cakes, one on top of the other

Then, using a circular objects as a guide, cut out at least two rings.




Now separate all your rings, then mix and match. Vanilla ring, chocolate ring, vanilla center, and vice versa.
Use frosting in between the rings to keep them together and then inbetween the two layers of cake.






Last, but certainly not least- Frost and Decorate!




Enjoy!

Mrs. Field's Brown Sugar Shortbread

Ok, this one isn't from the book. Our friend Lani made this a little while ago and darling could not get enough of them. He's been begging me ever since he finished the last batch to make more.

For shortbread:

Ingredients:

1 cup salted butter, softened
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed (I used dark)
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325.
Cream butter & sugar. Add vanilla & flour and blend thoroughly on a low speed.




Shape dough into 1 inch balls, then form into logs about 2 inches long and 1 inch wide. Place on ungreased baking sheets, 2 inches apart.

Bake for 17-19 minutes, the cookies will spread out and turn a light golden brown. Cool.


For Topping:

Ingredients:

1 tbsp salted butter
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup pecans, finely chopped (I used hazelnuts for the nuts)

Directions:

Melt butter & chocolate chips in a double boiler over hot (not boiling) water or in a microwave on high - stir chocolate every 30 seconds in a microwave.

Dip top of each cooled cookie into melted chocolate then into nuts.





Refrigerate cookies to set chocolate.

Enjoy tasty goodness.

Cookie 6-Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies pg. 74

Peanut Butter cookies have always been a favourite of mine. I was very excited to make these. I hope you'll enjoy them as much I enjoyed making them!

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup creamy peanut butter (YUM!)
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar*
2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract

In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt until well combined. Set aside.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, cream peanut butter, shortening and brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.



Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Scrape down sides of bowl. On low speed or using a wooden spoon, gradually add flour mixture, beating just until blended.



Cover dough with plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes.



Preheat oven in 350F (180C). Lightly greate hands with nonstick cooking spray. Roll pieces of dough into 1 1/4 inch (3 cm) balls. Place about 2 inches (5 cm) apart on parchment paper lined cookie sheets.



Using a fork, make crisscross marks on top of cookie, pressing dough to 1/2 inch (1 cm) thick.



Bake one sheet at a time for 10 to 12 minutes or until edges start to turn lightly golden.

Immediately slide parchment paper onto a wire cooling rack. Cool cookies for 5 minutes, then transfer from parchment paper to cooling rack and cool completely.



*We did not have light brown sugar, only dark. For those of you who don't know, what makes brown sugar brown is molasses. The lightness or darkness depends on how much molasses is in the sugar. So, in order make the recipe as accurately as possible, I simple used 1 cup dark brown sugar, 1/2 cup white sugar. Of course this is NOT exactly the same as using a light brown sugar, as the molasses is not evenly mixed, however, it's closer than not. If you are interested, you can make your own brown sugar. There are many sites on the web which will explain how to do this and how to get many different results. In a later post, perhaps I will explore this in more detail.

Happy Pi Day!

In honour of Pi Day I had intended to bake pies all day. Pie for breakfast, pie for lunch, pie for dinner. However, due to Daylight Savings, errands to run, and let's face it, overall laziness, I only succeeded in baking a pie crust.

Just as well, because it was fun and I think it was a fitting tribute to pi.

Here's the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, chilled and diced
1/4 cup ice water

Directions:

In a large bowl, combine flour and salt.
Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
Stir in water, a tablespoon at a time, until mixture forms a ball.
Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.

Roll dough out to fit a 9 inch pie plate.
Place crust in pie plate.
Press the dough evenly into the bottom and sides of the pie plate.

N.B.- In order to ensure that I would get the butter small enough to work into the dough, but still make sure it was frozen, I froze the stick of butter, grated it into a bowl and then put that bowl back in the freezer until it was time to use it. It worked out rather well I'd say.

Also, as you can see below, I didn't use a pie plate, I used a cookie sheet, considering we only planned on eating the crust.





If I dare say so, I think it was delicious.

Cookie 5- Butterscotch Slices pg. 252

These were not as well received as I would have liked, but that's ok. Every cookie can't be liked as much as the last.

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt until well combined. Set aside.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.



Add egg and beat well. Beat in vanilla. Scrape down sides of bowl. On low speed or using a wooden spoon, gradually add flour mixture, beating just until blended.



Divide dough in half.



Shape each portion of dough into a log 2 inches (5 cm) in diameter. Tightly wrap each dough log in parchment paper or plastic wrap and chill for 2 to 3 hours or overnight.





Preheat oven to 350F (180C). Working with one dough log at a time, remove parchment paper or plastic wrap. Using a sharp knife, cut log into 1/4 inch (0.5 cm) slices. Place about 1 inch apart on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake one sheet at a time in preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until edges start to turn lightly golden.

Immediately slide parchment paper onto a wire cooling rack. Cool cookies for 5 minutes, then transfer from parchment paper to cooling rack and cool completely.

Sorry for the lack of pictures at the end. I can't seem to find the ones I had taken (if I had taken them...)

Enjoy!