Saint Cupcake’s Brownie Cookies

Saint Cupcake’s Chocolate Cookies

Why bother with any other recipe this Valentine’s Day? That’s what I realized. These cookies, which I baked last weekend, were so good that my husband devoured almost the entire batch. He did leave some for a couple of workmen who happened to be at our house making some repairs on the oven. But I am about to make another batch. Or two. So I know I will have some available.

I got the recipe from Sprinklefingers, a tumblr blog I follow. The woman who writes the Sprinklefingers blog is an energetic, interesting person who lives in Portland, Oregon, and has this fabulous bakery called Saint Cupcake (actually there are two bakeries now). I say fabulous because the photos and the menu of goodies looks fabulous. I’ve never been there or met the woman, Jami Curl, who owns it and writes the blog. The place and the woman are clear across the country from me.

But I do know that all the posts are interesting and the recipes wonderful.

So the other day I tried her recipe for Chocolate Brownie Cookies. All I can say is: these are not to be missed. The cookies are awesome. Perfect for Valentine’s Day. Or any other day actually.

I made one batch of the larger cookies, one batch of the smaller. I prefer the smaller (then you don’t feel so guilty eating two).

I changed the way Jami’s recipe is written to conform to the way I write recipes, so maybe I should say it is adapted. But the ingredients and instructions are exactly the same. Maybe I should have this blurb like they do on TV when they say a movie has been edited to be formatted for your TV screen.

Saint Cupcake’s Brownie Cookies

• 4 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces

• 12 ounces semisweet chocolate

• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

• 2 large eggs plus one large egg yolk

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar

• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper (or grease the sheet lightly). Melt the butter and chocolate together in the top part of a double boiler. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside to let ingredients cool. Sift the flour, salt and baking powder together in a bowl and set aside. Beat the eggs, egg yolk, sugar and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer set at medium speed until well blended, about 5 minutes. Fold the cooled chocolate mixture into the egg mixture until thoroughly blended. Add the flour mixture and vanilla and blend them in thoroughly. Let the batter rest for 10 minutes. Use a 2-ounce scoop to form a rounded mound and place on the prepared cookie sheet. Leave space between the cookies for expansion. Bake for 15-17 minutes. OR, use a smaller (one-ounce scoop) and bake for about 10-12 minutes. Cookies should be cracked, with moist looking ingredients inside the cracks.

Frozen Dough Foldover Cookies

I don’t usually talk so much about desserts, at least not as a daily matter, but I looked back at my posts this week and noticed they were all sugar-loaded.

Is my body telling me something?

I did just call my dentist for an appointment …

Somehow it was dessert week at any rate, starting with Tangerine Tart and then Spice Cake. Yesterday I mentioned that it would have been my mom’s 100th birthday and I had a triumphant breakthrough with a cookie-cake recipe of hers (Nut Roll) I could never get right until now. And during the week, thinking I might not do the Nut Roll well enough to blog about it, I made some of my mom’s foldover frozen dough cookies. The ones I would have written about if not the Nut Roll.

I haven’t made these cookies in a while. All I can say is that the recipe yielded 84 cookies. I gave 4 away. There are 6 left.

So guess how many cookies Ed and I ate, just the two of us?

They are quite delicious is all I can say.

Frozen Dough Foldover Cookies

1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour, approximately

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 pound unsalted butter

1 cup dairy sour cream

1 large egg white

lekvar (prune and apricot), apple or pumpkin butter or jam

Place the flour and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer and mix briefly to add the salt. Add the butter in chunks and mix on low-medium for a minute or so until the mixture is crumbly. Add the sour cream. Mix until a smooth dough has formed. It might be slightly sticky. If very sticky add a tablespoon more of flour. Knead the dough on a well-floured surface and shape into a cylinder. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 8 hours. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Using small chunks of dough at a time, roll the dough thin (about 1/16th-inch) and cut into 2-inch squares. Place some lekvar in the middle. Bring up opposite sides corner points of the dough to the middle and press to seal the dough. Place the cookies on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Brush the tops of the cookies with some egg white. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until lightly browned.

Makes about 7 dozen

My Mom's Famous and Fabulous Nut Roll

Today would have been my mother’s 100th birthday and although she and my Dad died many years ago, I think about them a lot. You can’t possibly realize how much you’re going to miss people when they’re in your life. You only understand when they aren’t. And what happens from time to time is that something comes up during the day that reminds you of them. A smell. Or a magazine picture of a scarf in your mother’s favorite color. Or a song you hear on your car radio.

The memories can be sad or poignant or funny or thrillingly happy.

Today my memories are happy. I am celebrating with my brother and toasting our Mom, who was was funny and sometimes controversial and more than occasionally provocative, which would make us furious, but also make us think.

She was smart and interesting too. A feminist before the word feminist existed. I am sure that had she been born at an even earlier time, she would have been a Suffragette.

My mother was also a good cook. She mostly stuck to what she knew and wasn’t much for experimenting. She’d say “why change a good recipe?”

There is some wisdom to that, although I don’t follow it. My family never gets to eat the same thing too many times, except maybe for holiday dinners.

But for Mom, a winner was a winner, and she had so many it’s difficult to choose among her recipes to make one special thing for her birthday celebration.

I considered my Mom’s fried chicken (which was better than anyone’s, even Colonel Sanders) together with a dozen or so of the crispy-edged corn fritters she served with it.

For dessert? Her apple pie of course. It was legendary. We still talk about it every autumn, when I make a batch of my own.

Then again, speaking of apples, I remember how often she made that most wonderful apple crisp that was my Dad’s favorite and I would come in to their house through the garage and the perfume from the baking apples and the crunchy cereal crust would greet me before even they did.

Maybe I should choose that?

Or her rice pudding? It was baked custard actually, with a smooth inside and crispy top. I haven’t cooked it in a while.

I could go on and on. About her most comforting and wonderful chicken soup. Or her family-famous cookies that we all called Fannies, but are actually plain old butter thumbprint cookies. Or her most welcome roast beef hash which she made out of leftover meat and mashed potatoes and more sauteed onions than you can imagine.

She said she hated to use leftovers, a consequence of having struggled through the Great Depression and never wanting the memories.

And yet she used leftovers. Cleverly and creatively but for simple, uncomplicated, unsophisticated dishes that became our favorites. Like her Macaroni and Cheese, put together with scraps and bits from the fridge.

There was only one dish she ever made that I didn’t like (potato salad).

And one dish — Nut Roll — I could never get the hang of, even though she told me how and showed me how to make it many many times. Mine just never tasted as good.

That’s the one.

That’s the one I decided it had to be. I’d give this one another try.

Which I did this morning (I made the dough yesterday because it has to sit in the fridge for a few hours).

It’s almost as good as hers. Maybe it is as good but the memories of hers are too good to let me think it is.

But my Nut Roll is enough like it, anyway, to celebrate with. Superb with coffee or maybe a glass of dessert wine.

My Mom used walnuts in her Nut Roll; because of allergies in my family I never cook with walnuts, so I used almonds. 

In the photos you can see the lump of one section of dough that I started with, then, in the second photo, rolled it thin. The third photo shows how to scatter the sugar and nuts over the dough and the fourth photo, how to roll the Nut Roll. The fifth photo shows what the rolls look like when it comes out of the oven. The last photo is a plate of slices — let the rolls cool, then use a serrated knife to cut the pieces.

Enjoy. Btw, the rolls freeze beautifully.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Lily Vail’s Nut Roll

 dough:

• 1/2 pound unsalted butter

• 3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 2 large eggs, separated

• 1/2 cup dairy sour cream

• 2 tablespoons milk

filling:

• 1 cup sugar

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 12 ounces chopped nuts (about 3 cups)

Cut the butter into chunks and place in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and mix (using the flat paddle if your machine has one) at slow speed until the ingredients are blended and crumbly looking. Make a well in the center and add the egg yolks, sour cream and milk. Mix the ingredients at medium speed until a smooth, uniform dough has formed. Knead the dough 3-4 times on a floured surface; shape into a cylinder, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 8 hours.  Cut the cylinder into 3 parts. Mix the sugar and cinnamon together in a bowl. Working with one dough part at a time, roll out on a floured surface into a circle about 1/16-inch (very thin). Sprinkle each circle with 1/3 of the cinnamon-sugar and 1/3 of the chopped nuts. Roll up tightly into a compact roll, tucking in the sides. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Place the rolls in the refrigerator for about 20-30 minutes. Brush the rolls with some of the egg white. Bake the rolls for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool and slice.

Makes 3 Nut Rolls 

Fanny's or Fannies or Just Butter Cookies

I will watch the presidential debate tonight. Because I am completely engaged in this election, following it with more than the usual interest. And anyway, I think it is important to listen to what the candidates have to say.

But I think this particular debate is going to be a nail biter. Every word, every gesture, every tic and drop of perspiration, every hanky, every downward look looms large.

Is that because we have stopped listening to what they are really saying and let punditry and distractions influence us?

Is it because we really don’t trust anything any politician says so we are guided by body language?

In any event, as I said, this is going to be a nail biter. Or at least a big munchtime. I’ll probably nibble excessively.

I need popcorn.

And cookies to get me through the night.

These:

Mom’s Butter Cookies

• 1/2 pound unsalted butter

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 2 cups all-purpose flour

• 2 large egg yolks

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• jam, preserves or lekvar (about 1/2 cup)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer set at medium speed. When the mixture is well blended, beat in the flour, egg yolks, salt and vanilla extract. Mix until the dough is a uniform color. Take off small pieces of dough and shape them into balls about 1-inch in diameter. Flatten the balls and press the center to make an indentation. Place the cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet leaving a small amount of space between each cookie. Fill the indentation with jam, preserves or lekvar. Bake about 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Makes about 60

Apple Cake

Sometimes simple is best. This is the time of year I buy a load of apples and bake pies and fancy cakes and gorgeous French apple tarts.

But, with all the cooking and baking I’m doing now, I also try to make a few really easy desserts that are light and fresh tasting so we can eat them even after a heavy holiday meal.

This one is a classic. Good plain, with a hot cup of coffee or tea. Or with ice cream of course.

I think I could write a whole book about different kinds of apple cake.

Apple Cake

3-4 medium tart apples, peeled, cored and coarsely chopped

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1-1/4 cups sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

4 eggs

1/4 cup apple, orange, peach or mango juice

1 teaspoon grated lemon peel

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 10-inch springform pan (or a 9”x13” cake pan). Combine the apples, 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon together in a bowl and set aside. Place the flour, baking powder, salt, 1-1/4 cups sugar and vegetable oil in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat at medium speed for 2-3 minutes or until thoroughly blended. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Stir in the juice, lemon peel and vanilla extract. Spoon half the batter into the prepared pan. Spoon some of the apple mixture on top. Repeat the layers. Bake for about 65-75 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

Makes one cake

Baked Apples with Raisins, Honey, Orange and Pistachios

Baked Apples with Raisins, Honey, Orange and Pistachioos

It’s apples and honey time. First, because those two ingredients are delicious symbols of Rosh Hashanah, which starts at sundown next Sunday.

But also because new crop apples are just beginning their season, and after months and months of mealy, dry, tasteless supermarket apples, we can finally find some that taste fresh, juicy and wonderful. Like maybe the kind that tempted Eve. 

And also because September is National Honey Month. Honey, too, is in a high season right now, especially in the Northeast.

So I was delighted to read an article in The Huffington Post that said honey has health benefits.

That means I am going to be terrifically healthy. I have several jars of honey in my pantry. That I keep replenishing because, well, I use a lot of honey.

Honey is so, so good, right from my fingers, as I scoop the remnants that remain on the outside as I close up the jar.

It also tastes really good poured onto ice cream, cereal and pancakes.

And it’s an incredibly useful ingredient in recipes for dessert, like honey cake and also in savory foods — like mixing it with apple juice to baste a turkey.

Honey as healthy?

Well, that’s just an added bonus.

When I read the article and it mentioned using honey to help with night time coughs I thought about where I had heard that before.

Oh yeah. My Mom. Ages ago, when I was a little girl and had a cold and she mixed honey into tea.

Some things never change, nor should they.

Here’s an old recipe that I can now say is healthy because it has honey. Also, fresh, new crop apples.

It’s also a wonderful treat for Rosh Hashanah or any other holiday or any day in the week.

BAKED APPLES WITH RAISINS, HONEY, ORANGE AND PISTACHIOS

• 4 large baking apples

• 6 tablespoons golden raisins

• 1/4 cup chopped pistachios

• 2 teaspoons grated fresh orange peel

• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 6 tablespoons honey

• 1/2 cup orange juice

• 1/2 cup water

• 1 tablespoon butter, cut into 4 pieces (or use coconut oil)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Wash the apples and remove the cores, leaving about one-half inch at the bottom. Peel the apples about halfway down from the top. Place the apples in a baking dish. Mix the raisins, pistachios, orange peel, ginger, cinnamon, 3 tablespoons honey and 3 tablespoons orange juice in a small bowl. Spoon equal amounts of this mixture into the hollowed apple cores. Combine the remaining honey, juice and water and pour over the apples. Dot the tops with butter. Bake for 45 minutes, or until the apples are tender, basting occasionally with the pan juices.

Makes 4 servings

Strawberry-Rhubarb-Blackberry Pie

Is there any food more “American” than pie?

Okay, maybe. Hot dogs, hamburgers and stuff. Cole Slaw. Potato salad. And lots of others.

Actually, none of the ones I mentioned were “American” at the start. Hot dogs, burgers and potato salad are German foods, Cole Slaw is Dutch and Pie began as British.

No matter. They’re American now, all terrific summer foods also. And all perfect for any Fourth of July celebration.

So, when our local Hadassah decided that our biweekly Tea (for cancer patients and their caregivers at Stamford Hospital) should have a Fourth of July theme, I decided to bake a pie to give. 

This one is red (sort of), white (beige crust/white sugar) and blue: a riff on Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie. It includes blackberries because I had some in the house and figured why not. You can leave out the blackberries and add more rhubarb and/or strawberries.

Also, I used orange peel as flavor, but you can switch to lemon peel. And I used orange juice for the crust. First because orange goes really well with berries and rhubarb and also, my mother, a consummate pie baker, always told me that the liquid you use to make pie dough can be just about anything. She frequently used juice for fruit pie (the juice depended on the pie). Juice not only gives the crust more flavor, it helps the dough bake into a lovely brown color crust too.

Strawberry-Rhubarb-Blackberry Pie

dough:

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon grated orange peel

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/3 cup chilled vegetable shortening

4-5 tablespoons orange juice

filling:

3 cups sliced (1/2-inch pieces) rhubarb, about one pound

2 cups strawberries cut in half

1 cup blackberries

2/3 cup sugar (or to taste)

1/4 teaspoon salt

5 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon grated orange peel

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon butter

Combine the flour, salt and orange peel in a food processor. Add the butter and shortening in chunks and process on pulse about 24 times, until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Gradually add as much of the juice as is needed to make a soft, but not sticky dough. Cut the dough in half, flatten into disks and let the dough rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Roll the dough into circles to fit a 9” pie pan. Place one circle inside the pie pan.

To make the filling, combine the rhubarb, strawberries, blackberries, sugar, salt, flour, orange peel and cinnamon. Add the filling to the pie pan. Cut the butter into chunks and place on top of the filling. Cut strips from the second dough circle and place them in a lattice design on top of the fruit. Seal the edges where the strips meet the bottom crust. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until golden brown.

Makes one 9-inch pie

Honey-Oat Granola Bars

Honey-Oat Granola Bars

Are granola bars healthy?

When they first became popular, back in the 1980s when my kids were little kids, I thought so. And in my efforts to be a “good mother” who tried to give my children healthy food, I bought what was available then. Granola bars were frequent snacks in the house and for school.

I later learned that many of those so-called healthy snacks weren’t.

Just because something is called granola doesn’t mean it’s healthy.

Like if the bars are loaded with trans fats, hydrogenated vegetable oil, high fructose corn syrup, marshmallows, chocolate, artificial color and so on. 

Here’s a recipe for Honey-Oat Granola Bars. Yes, they have chocolate. And honey is a sweetener. And there’s a little brown sugar in there. Still, there’s oats and dried fruit and nuts. You can add some sunflower seeds if you wish.

And they taste good. These are rich, so you just eat a little and feel snack-full.

Honey-Oat Granola Bars

• 2 cups quick cooking oats

• 6 tablespoons vegetable oil 

• 3/4 cup honey

• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar

• 1/2 cup chopped almonds

• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

• 1 cup dried cranberries

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon 

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9-inch-square baking pan with parchment paper, letting a few inches hang over the side of pan (to help you lift the bars out of the pan). Brush the paper with vegetable oil. Place the oats on a cookie sheet and bake for 5-6 minutes, mixing them once during the baking process, to toast them slightly. Mix the vegetable oil, honey and brown sugar in a saucepan and cook over medium heat for 1-2 minutes or until blended, smooth and hot. Combine the toasted oats, almonds, chocolate chips, cranberries, cinnamon and salt in a bowl. Pour in the honey mixture and stir until well blended. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until toasty brown. Let cool in the pan. Lift the square out of pan using the overhanging paper. Cut into squares or rectangles.

Makes about 2 dozen 

Lemon Oatmeal Cookies

I love when science and studies and experts say that some food item I love is healthy. Like in this article that speaks to the benefits of coffee. Apparently coffee can help prevent cognitive decline.

Wow! I am going to be cognitively okay then! 

Because I have been drinking coffee, and LOTS of it, since I was age 5 or so and my aunt Roz and Uncle Mac lived with us for a while. My Mom slept late and Aunt Roz took care of breakfast and got us off to school. But she was newly married and had no clue about kids so she served us coffee. Because that’s what everyone else had for breakfast.

Okay, there was lots of milk and sugar in that coffee.

Still.

Anyway, once you get that coffee habit in the morning it’s hard to break. I set up the coffee maker every night so all I have to do in the morning is turn the on button. On days when I know the exact time I am getting up I set it on automatic.

Cognitive benefits.

I wonder how I would do in Physics these days?

Anyway, when I was a kid there was nothing to go with that coffee. I like a little something with coffee. So, maybe these — not for breakfast. But they’re pretty delicious later in the day.

Lemon Oatmeal Cookies

1 pound butter

1 cup sugar

2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 cups quick oats

1 tablespoon grated fresh lemon peel

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

confectioner’s sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer set at medium speed for 2-3 minutes or until well blended. Add the flour, salt, oats, lemon peel and vanilla extract and mix to blend ingredients thoroughly. Chill the dough for at least 30 minutes. Remove small portions of the dough and roll the pieces into 1-inch balls. Place the balls on an ungreased cookie sheet. Spoon a film of confectioner’s sugar onto a dish. Press the bottom of a drinking glass into the confectioner’s sugar. Press the balls flat with the sugar-coated bottom of the glass. Repeat until all the cookies are flat (keep coating the glass bottom as needed). Bake for 13-15 minutes or until lightly browned. Let cool for 10 minutes on the cookie sheet, then remove to a rack to cool completely. Makes about 100

Chocolate Yogurt Pound Cake

"This is just like room service!"

That, from my almost 6-year old grand daughter Lila (who apparently already knows about room service!?!) after I let her have her dinner in the family room and watch TV.

This is something I didn’t allow my own two daughters.

But honestly, after 35 years I was a little out of practice. And, like bike riding, you may not forget how, but you also may not race through the streets or peddle yourself up a steep hill quite as often or as easily either. 

So, when the kids came for a visit, sans parents, from Friday through Sunday, there were occasional, let’s say, concessions. If my daughter Gillian, their Mom, is reading this now, I say, don’t worry. These kids are terrific and 2 meals in front of the TV won’t harm them.

As you can see from the photos we did lots of stuff like draw, have a pedicure, blow bubbles outside, ride bikes, have a fashion show. We also frosted a birthday cake for their cousin Nina’s birthday party on Saturday (although the top decoration, an Ariel rice-paper scene, was store-bought).

The little one, Remy, age 21 months talks a blue streak although sometimes it’s difficult to understand his pronunciations. However, one of the new words he learned this weekend was “chocolate cake,” which he mentioned to his parents as soon as they walked in the door Sunday night.

"Tzockickcake!" he told them, with his tongue literally licking his lips.

When a kid is this young you can’t depend on “what happens at Grandma’s stays at grandma’s.”

I had baked the chocolate cake for a Hadassah Tea and was cutting it into slices. There were a few not-so-lovely pieces that I didn’t include on the platter I sent over for that event. Remy had a small sliver of the leftovers. He liked it, that’s for sure.

Can’t say I blame him. Smart kid!

Here’s the recipe:

Chocolate Yogurt Pound Cake

• 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 12 ounces butter at room temperature
• 3 cups sugar
• 5 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 10-cup bundt pan. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt into a bowl and set aside. Beat the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and mix at medium speed for 3-4 minutes or until well combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, blending each one in. Stir in the vanilla extract. Add the dry ingredients in thirds, alternating with the yogurt, until the flour mixture and yogurt have been used and the batter is well blended and smooth. Gradually add the boiling water, beating slowly, for 2-3 minutes or until the batter is smooth and well blended. Stir in the chocolate chips. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 65-70 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then invert onto a cake rack to cool completely. Makes 12+ servings