Cinnamon Swirl Bread

Just to prove I still cook, and even a couple times a week, here's a loaf of cinnamon swirl bread I made with my mom about a month or so ago. The recipe is here, and I just didn't include raisins.

Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

These cookies were pretty much some of the best cookies I've ever made. I made them for the family Christmas party and then for a New Year's Eve party. Delicious, all the way around. And the great thing is it's a basic chocolate cookie recipe that I just modified by adding peppermint chips, so you could just make chocolate cookies or modify them again by adding something else. I've been thinking of trying coconut, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, etc. I made them the first time using white flour, and the second time using whole wheat flour, and I'm told you can't tell the difference at all.

Recipe adapted from Dine & Dish
1 1/4 cups butter softened
2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup Andes red peppermint chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, then add the vanilla.
In a separate bowl stir together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Gradually mix into the creamed mixture.
Drop dough by teaspoonfuls onto parchment lined cookie sheets.
Bake 9 minutes in the preheated oven. Cookies will be soft and still look slightly doughy.
Let set and cool on cookie sheet for 2 minutes then remove from sheet onto wire rack to cool completely.

Holiday Coconut M&M Cookie Bars

This is a picture of the awkwardly cut Coconut M&M Cookie Bars I made for Thanksgiving. Very simple, and the red and green M&Ms make it kind of festive. This is a very coconutty recipe, so you should definitely enjoy coconut if you're going to make this. The recipe comes from Satisfy My Sweet Tooth. I love making cookie bars, because they're so easy.

Coconut M&M Cookie Bars (adapted from Satisfy My Sweet Tooth)

Ingredients
10 Tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 1/2 cups sweetened shredded coconut
1 1/2 cups M&Ms (red and green for a holiday feel)
Note: I didn't measure the coconut and M&Ms, and just added them by sight.

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Butter a 9x13 glass pan.
Melt butter in medium saucepan, remove from heat and let cool slightly.
In a large bowl and using an electric mixer, cream together melted butter and sugars. Add eggs, vanilla, and salt and beat until combined. Blend in flours. Finally, mix in coconut and M&Ms.
Pour into prepared pan and bake 25-30 minutes or until lightly browned around the edges.
Cool completely before cutting and serving.

Mini Cinnamon Muffins

I bought these really adorable mini muffin pans a couple weeks ago at Home Goods, and I figured a holiday is a great day to bake. It can be hard for me to find the time and the energy to bake. And I don't think it's that baking is terribly time consuming, unless you're making a bread. I think it must just be a combination of clean-up and the fact that I don't really eat baked goods. Anyway, so these muffin pans were cute, and I was going to make mini apple muffins, but seeing as how I didn't want to peel and core apples, I found this recipe instead (through FoodGawker, of course).

I substituted whole wheat flour (because I didn't want to open our white flour and hey, this is healthier, anyway, right?) and almond milk (because we don't keep regular cow's milk anymore). I thought the muffins were pretty good, maybe a little too dry (because of the whole wheat flour or the almond milk or perhaps overmixing?), and I would probably add a little more cinnamon and maybe a little nutmeg too next time. Also, they came out perfect looking. I was quite pleased with the lovely round muffin tops.

Mini Cinnamon Muffins
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs
1 cup almond milk
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
6 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla

Topping
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and grease mini muffin pans or line with mini cupcake liners.
In a large bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
Melt butter in the microwave, about 30-40 seconds.
In another bowl, beat together the butter, eggs, milk, brown sugar, and vanilla.
Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and mix just until incorporated.
Drop the batter into the pans, about a tablespoon for each muffin.
Mix together sugar and cinnamon for the topping and sprinkle mixture over the top of each muffin.
Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, until muffin tops bounce back or a toothpick comes out clean.
Enjoy!

No BS Cookie Dough

Some friends of B and I's hosted a dinner last night, and while I was in the kitchen watching the wife through together an impromptu tziki sauce (yum), I noticed a funny little note taped to the inside of her cupboard. For her (now) husband's birthday she had given him a batch of homemade cookies every month for a year, with little month pull tabs to count off every time the batch was made.

And that made me think... I love cookies and wish that I had a good go to recipe that was simple and didn't require a lot of ingredients, so that whenever the mood struck me I could just whip up a batch.

This morning I set off to my local coffee shop, which has the best vegan cookies I've ever had (ok, the only vegan cookies I've ever had), and while I didn't get one (they also have the best breakfast burritos I've ever had, and those always win out) it got me to thinking what I would want my go to cookie dough to taste like. And then I remembered a time that I made honey based cookies instead of brown sugar based cookies. And then I was sold on my go to cookie dough.

I'm not a big fan of brown sugar. I think that it is a really over powering flavor, and also I hate that it dries out so fast and makes it had for me to keep a stock pile for on the fly cooking. So here's a new recipe for cookie dough for you all to try.

Please note that when your reading the recipe I've included measurements of everything because... we'll baking is a science... but I didn't exactly follow all of them. As our cooking together experience goes on you'll learn a few things about my measuring techniques, especially that I don't like to measure some ingredients (like extracts, spices, anything especially tasty, ect). So I'll include all measurements for those of you that like to stick by the rules, but will also indicate when I think you should just pour till it feels good, for those of you that like to blaze your own path.

No BS Cookie Dough

2 1/2 c. Flour

2 Eggs

1 tsp or till it feels good Vanilla Extract

1 c. White Sugar

2 tbs Honey ( I used clover, but bet any would be good)

1 1/4 c. Butter (I used salted, as this is what I had. But if I had used unsalted I may have added 3/4 tsp Salt)

6 0z or till it feels good Your choice of Mix Ins ( I used M&Ms to beat a craving, but you could use just about anything, as the cookies have a very soft taste and wouldn't overpower nuts, fruit, chips, ect)

Preheat oven to 380. Cream together butter, sugar and honey. Stir in eggs and vanilla. Add the flour and baking soda. Mix in your mix ins.

Place teaspoon sized balls of dough about 1 1/2 to 2 inches apart (these cookies don't spread much, so don't be too worried about it). Bake for 10 minutes, rotating 1/2 way through.

Yields about 50 small cookies.

ICBC Pumpkin

This is the first time probably since this Iron Chef Blogger Challenge started that I've actually cooked an ingredient during the week it was selected. Blanca, our newest Iron Chef, chose pumpkin as the secret ingredient, perfect for the season! For my secret ingredient recipe, I found this recipe on one of my favorite food blog sites, Annie's Eats. Annie makes a lot of amazing looking baked goods, and also has a lot of really accessible recipes for the type of cooking I like to do, simple, homemade stuff. Here's a link to her recipe, Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins.

I ended up making two dozen muffins, and still had batter left over. The muffins are pretty delicious, and I love the surprise of finding the cream cheese in the center. There's a little too much clove in it, so I would probably recommend taking the clove down to a 1/2 teaspoon or 3/4 teaspoon. But the cream cheese balances the spice in the muffin nicely. And overall, I would say the effort behind the recipe isn't too bad. For a little bit of bragging, I made these muffins in the morning before I went to work.

Here's a link to La Monica's Iron Chef Blogger Challenge, Pumpkin.

Carrie: ICBC Buttermilk

Ages ago, I started this entry, and then got too lazy. Now I'm finally going to finish it. Several weeks ago, the secret ingredient was buttermilk and I decided to make drop buttermilk biscuits for a Tuesday night dinner. I found this recipe via FoodGawker, and it's a Cooks Illustrated recipe adapted by Two Peas and Their Pod. The biscuits were easy to prepare and quite delicious, especially with a little honey on top.

Drop Buttermilk Biscuits (from Two Peas and Their Pod)
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon table salt
1 cup cold buttermilk
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly, plus 2 tablespoons melted butter for brushing biscuits

Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt in large bowl. Combine buttermilk and 8 tablespoons melted butter in medium bowl, stirring until butter forms small clumps.

Add buttermilk mixture to dry ingredients and stir with rubber spatula until just incorporated and batter pulls away from sides of bowl. Form small balls of dough and drop onto parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake until tops are golden brown and crisp, 12-14 minutes.

Brush biscuit tops with remaining 2 tablespoons of melted butter. Transfer to wire rack and let cool 5 minutes before serving.

Carrie: ICBC Blackberries

A couple weeks ago the secret ingredient was blackberries. I'm actually not overly fond of blackberries; of all the berries, it's probably my least favorite. However, a couple days after learning what the secret ingredient was, The Pioneer Woman posted a recipe for blackberry cheesecake. It seemed a little like fate to me. So last weekend when I decided to go on a cooking frenzy, I decided I wanted to make the blackberry cheesecake. However, I didn't make it through everything I wanted to make for my cooking frenzy and held off on the cheesecake until Monday night so I could serve it for dessert at Tuesday night dinner. The cheesecake ended up being absolutely delicious. It's definitely a win, and the blackberry sauce looked so pretty on top. I also finally used my springform pan that I got last year from Whitney, and it was amazing. Oh my goodness. It was pretty cool just popping the cheesecake out of the springform.

Blackberry Cheesecake (adapted recipe from The Pioneer Woman)
For Crust
one box of nilla wafers
one stick of butter, melted
1 1/2 tsp of vanilla

For Filling
three 8-ounce packages of cream cheese
1 1/2 cups of sugar
4 whole eggs
1/2 cup of sour cream

For Topping
2 cups of blackberries
1/2 cup of sugar
2 Tbsp of water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place wafers into a food processor and pulse into crumbs then add melted butter and vanilla and pulse until combined. Pour into a 10-inch springform pan and press crumbs into the bottom. If it comes up on the sides a little, that's okay.

Beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Add sour cream and mix again. Pour mixture over the crust, smooth the top and bake for 1 hour, 10 minutes. Turn off oven, open oven door and allow the cheesecake to sit in the oven with the door opened for 15 minutes. Remove and allow to cool.

For the topping, add all the ingredients to a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat and cook for 4 to 5 minutes. Turn off heat and allow to cool slightly. Pour the topping over the cheesecake and allow it to set in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

Mini Cheesecakes

I didn't actually eat one of these mini cheesecakes, but the reviews of them came back positive. I made these for the neighbors and brought it over to them the night of their housewarming party. I like individual-size desserts for parties because there's no need to slice anything, and people can just hold it in their hands and eat it. I thought these were especially cute and adorable as well as relatively easy to make. I'd make them for a party again for sure.

Mini Cheater Cheesecakes (Recipe from Delish)
18 vanilla wafers
2 (8 oz) packages of cream cheese
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line 18 muffin tins with cupcake liners and drop a vanilla wafer in the bottom. In a bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, eggs and vanilla extract until light and fluffy. Fill the liners 2/3 full with cream cheese mixture. Bake for 17 minutes. Top each with fruit of choice.

Carrie: ICBC Puff Pastry and ICBC Goat Cheese

When puff pastry came up as the secret ingredient, I found a recipe for a caramelized onion tart on Annie's Eats that looked delicious. In case I've never mentioned it, I absolutely love caramelized onions. Then I never got around to actually using puff pastry, and goat cheese came up. And I realized I could combine two secret ingredients into one recipe. I kind of winged this one, and I'm not sure that was the best idea. The flavors were good, but the texture in the middle of my pastry was all wrong. The edges puffed beautifully, but it was too squishy in the middle. I followed Annie's instructions to bake the tart for 25 minutes...and I just realized that I had two sheets overlapping just a little on one cookie sheet and that's probably why it needed longer. Ohhhh. Haha. But anyway, caramelized onions and goat cheese tart is definitely a winning combination. The onions are nice and sweet and the cheese is just a little salty. Loved it.

How to Caramelize Onions
Slice some yellow onions. Add a few tablespoons of olive oil to a skillet. Turn the stove to medium heat to let the oil heat up a little, then add the sliced onions. Let them cook over medium heat without stirring them around too much. They'll turn tender and brown a little. They should be really tender and all a beautiful golden brown color. And they'll taste delicious.

Chocolate Chip M&M Blondies

For the dessert at the bridal shower, I decided to make something really super simple. I'm really just not a dessert kind of gal, and the simpler the dessert, the better in my opinion. So I made these delicious chocolate chip M&M blondies and served them with some mint chocolate chip ice cream. Not fancy by any means, and I probably could have selected something that would have matched the rest of the menu a little better, but in my opinion, the blondies were still delicious.

Chocolate Chip M&M Blondies (recipe from Two Peas and Their Pod)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 stick butter, melted
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup mini chocolate chips
1/3 cup mini M&Ms

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8x8 pan with cooking spray.
Whisk flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda in a medium bowl. In another bowl, stir together the melted butter and brown sugar. Stir until smooth. Add in the egg and stir. Next, stir in the vanilla until smooth. Add the flour mixture and stir until the ingredients are combined. Stir in the chocolate chips and M&Ms. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 23-25 minutes.

Carrie: ICBC Spinach

Once upon a time, I tried to make spinach and feta turnovers-basically, spanakopita. It worked alright that time, but I had a hell of a time trying not to tear my phyllo dough. I tried again for ICBC Spinach and ran into the same problem. My turnovers were also a little bland this time, probably due to my constant issue of underseasoning food. But if you're a fan of spanakopita and you want to make life harder on yourself, this is the way to do it.

Spinach and Feta Turnovers
(Recipe from Pinch My Salt)
1/2 onion, chopped
1 tablespoon of butter
2 small cloves of garlic, chopped
1 package frozen spinach, drained and squeezed dry
4 ounces crumbled feta
1 egg, slightly beaten
dash of fresh-grated nutmeg
freshly ground black pepper
pinch of salt
20 sheets phyllo dough
1/2 cup of butter, melted

In a small skillet, saute onion in butter over medium heat until soft. Add garlic, cook for 30 more seconds and remove from heat.
In a medium bowl, combine spinach, feta, egg, onion and garlic, nutmeg, pepper and salt. Stir until well combined.
Remove one sheet of phyllo from stack (cover the remaining sheets with a damp cloth to keep from drying out) and lay it on a work surface. Brush entire sheet with a thin layer of melted butter. Place another sheet on top, brush with butter and repeat two more times (you will have four sheets stacked with a layer of butter on the top sheet). Cut this stack in half lenghwise with a knife.
You now have two long rectangles of phyllo in front of you. Place about 2 Tablespoonfuls of filling on the bottom right side of one of the rectangles. Fold the bottom left corner up and over the filling so that the bottom edge is now even with the right side. Continue folding up and over until you end up with a triangle. Brush triangle with melted butter and place on a baking sheet.
Repeat this procedure with the other phyllo rectangle.
Repeat steps again using the rest of the dough.
Bake in preheated oven, 375 degrees, for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.
Yields: 10 turnovers (in theory)

Condensed Milk Pound Cake

I had leftover condensed milk from my banana cake recipe, so I searched FoodGawker and discovered Condensed Milk Pound Cake. I love pound cake, and I love sweetened condensed milk, so I figured I'd give this recipe a try. The cake's delicious. Sweet, moist, and actually I think improved over the course of a few days. Click here for a link to the recipe, from Blue Ridge Baker.

Carrie: ICBC Banana Cake

Jen W. chose bananas for this week's challenge, and since my latest obsession is FoodGawker, I headed there to find a banana recipe. I stumbled upon this Banana Cake recipe from My Kitchen Snippets, and decided that's what I would make. Recipe success! The cake was moist and delicious, despite my fears that my batter was too lumpy (which it probably was) and me being just shy of a cup of sugar. Oh well. Still tasty.

Recipe
2 sticks of butter
1 cup of sugar
4 eggs
4 Tbsp condensed milk
4 mashed bananas
1 tsp vanilla or banana essence
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350. Grease two 8" x 8" square baking pans. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and set aside. Beat butter and sugar on high until light and fluffy. Add in eggs one at a time and mix until smooth. Mix in mashed bananas, vanilla and condensed milk. Slowly add flour mixture and blend until smooth. Pour batter into baking pan and bake for 50 minutes or until golden brown and toothpick comes out clean. (I can't actually tell you if 50 minutes is how long I baked it, because Kevin put my banana cakes in the oven while I was plating dinner, and he didn't set the timer so I set it later but I'm not really sure if it was accurate because I don't know actually know how much time had already elapsed. I can tell you the cakes were in the oven for at least 30 minutes.)

Carrie: Iron Chef Blogger Challenge Nutmeg

Since Arizona is apparently under siege from wind, rain, potential snow, and the right conditions for a tornado, it seemed like a good night to bake banana bread. And I'm busy the rest of the weekend. This week's challenge was nutmeg, so off to google search I went. For the Love of Cooking is one of my favorite cooking blogs because her recipes are healthy and simple, the perfect recipes for the home cook. I found a recipe for Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips and Walnuts and since I'd been wanting to make banana bread for some crazy odd reason, it made sense that I turned it into my ICBC recipe. My sister and I decided the banana bread is delicious. I'd give you a roommate review too, but the roommate doesn't like fruit, especially bananas. I think I would definitely make this recipe again.

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread (adapted from For the Love of Cooking)
1 cup flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 ripe bananas
1 egg
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
chocolate chips
*The recipe also called for toasted walnuts which I don't really care for and ground cloves which I didn't have, but I don't think the bread suffered very much from the missing ingredients.

Grease and flour a loaf pan. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In one bowl, mix flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. In another bowl, mash bananas, egg, sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla extract and butter and mix thoroughly. Slowly add dry ingredients into wet ingredients and mix well. Add chocolate chips to the batter (I just eyed this) and pour the batter into the loaf pan. Bake for 40 minutes or until knife poked into center of loaf comes out clean.

Carrie: Iron Chef Blogger Challenge Grapefruit

I know, I know. I'm a little behind in posting this. I really liked the ingredient Lauren chose, but the holidays, they seep into you and keep you busy (even when you're really not). But here is grapefruit, and I swear I'm doing brie on time.



I found this Grapefruit Yogurt Cake recipe on Smitten Kitchen, and decided it would be a terrific way to utilize grapefruit. It was either this or a granita, and the granita involved being around for three hours, and that probably wasn't going to happen. So I picked up some really gorgeous grapefruit from Sunflower, at a steal of a price, and made this cake last night. Wednesday night dinner and a cake? I'm a rock star, I know. The cake wasn't too bad. Upon first bite, I was a little unsure, but it grew on me. Everyone else really enjoyed it too. In fact, we may have eaten 2/3 of the cake in about 10 minutes.

Grapefruit Yogurt Cake (Smitten Kitchen)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
2 extra large eggs
3 teaspoons grated grapefruit zest
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup freshly squeezed grapefruit juice

For glaze
1 cup confectioners sugar
2 tablespoons freshly squeeze grapefruit juice

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a loaf pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper. Grease and flour the pan.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the yogurt, 1 cup sugar, eggs, grapefruit zest, and vanilla. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. With a rubber spatula, fold the veggie oil into the batter, making sure it's all incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 50 minutes, or until a cake tester placed in the center comes out clean.

Meanwhile, cook the 1/3 cup grapefruit juice and remaining tablespoon of sugar in a small pan until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is clear. Set aside.

When the cake is done, allow it to cool for 10 minutes. Place it on a baking rack over a sheet pan, and while the cake is still warm, pour the grapefruit-sugar mixture over the cake and allow it to soak in.

For the glaze, combine the confectioners' sugar and grapefruit juice and pour over the cake.

Lemon Cookies

Last year, I found this lemon cookie recipe on a Livejournal community, and loved it. I've got a big lemon tree in my backyard that blooms like mad, and so this recipe turned out to be a great way to use some of my lemons. The cookies always turn out unbelievably soft, and I like them because they're not too sweet. (Have I mentioned I don't have a sweet tooth?) And, according to my youngest sister, they're "awesome." Sisters, they won't lie to you.

Recipe (from somewhere on the Internet)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
15-oz container whole milk ricotta cheese (fairly certain I used part skim)
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 lemon, zested

Lemon Glaze
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 Tbsp lemon juice
1 lemon, zested

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In the large bowl, combine the butter and the sugar. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating until incorporated. Add the ricotta cheese, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Beat to combine. Stir in the dry ingredients.

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Spoon the dough (2 Tbsp for each cookie) onto the baking sheets. Bake for 15 minutes, until slightly golden at the edges. Remove from the oven and let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for about 20 minutes.

Glaze:
Combine the powdered sugar, lemon juice and lemon zest in a small bowl and stir until smooth. Spoon about 1/2 tsp onto each cookie and use the back of the spoon to gently spread. Let the glaze harden for about 2 hours.

Cinnamon Rolls

Sarah Michelle got to meet The Pioneer Woman at her cookbook signing in Denver, and we were both so so excited. We love PW, and according to Sarah Michelle, she's just as fantastic in person.

PW always talks about her delicious cinnamon rolls. I attempted them once with another friend, and I wanted to make them again. So Sunday morning, Sarah Michelle and I rolled out of bed and hit the kitchen. Our cinnamon rolls turned out delicious, but oh man, what a mess. We were trying to catch filling with a bowl as it oozed out of our roll and off the table. Be prepared for a disaster kitchen when you make cinnamon rolls, friends. But when you eat one, it's totally worth it.

Link to recipe.

Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have leftover cranberries that I had to find a way to use so I settled on more baking. The holidays just put me in a baking mood, I think. I'm going to have a baking frenzy on Saturday. I love cookies. I don't eat a lot of them, but one good cookie is so satisfying. I picked this recipe from Just Another Foodie and modified it just slightly by using fresh cranberries instead of dried. I didn't know how that would turn out, but I think it turned into a fantastic success. I'll be making some more this weekend.

White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies (recipe from Just Another Foodie)
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking soda, then stir into the sugar mixture. Mix in the white chocolate chips and cranberries. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheets. (I very carefully made sure there was only one cranberry in each cookie so as not to overwhelm the cookie with any tartness.) Bake for 8-10 minutes.

Carrie: Iron Chef Blogger Challenge Cranberry

For the third week of Iron Chef Blogger Challenge, Michele chose cranberries. I don't really have much experience with fresh cranberries. I grew up in a household that served the canned cranberry stuff at Thanksgiving, and I love Craisins, and vodka cranberry cocktails, but other that, I'm not really friends with cranberries. I visited Ocean Spray as a kid, I think, for a class trip, and I didn't love it so it started a lifelong thing where I think I dislike cranberries. But Iron Chef Blogging is all about learning and loving new ingredients so here we are.

I chose to make this Lemon Cranberry Bread from Adventures in Baking. It ended up alright, a little too tart. Probably doesn't need the lemon glaze on top of the loaf, but it was a nice bread.

Lemon Cranberry Bread (recipe from Adventures in Baking)
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
1 beaten egg
1 cup milk
1/4 cup oil
2 tsp finely shredded lemon peel
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup cranberries tossed in 1 Tbsp sugar

Glaze
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp sugar

1. Grease the bottom and 1/2 inch up the sides of 8×4x2-inch loaf pan; set aside.
2. In a medium mixing bowl stir together the flour, 3/4 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt. Make a well in the centre of the dry mixture; set aside.
3. In another medium bowl combine the egg, milk, oil, and 1TBSP lemon juice. Add the egg mixture all at once to the dry mixture. Stir just until moistened (batter should be lumpy). Fold in the cranberries and lemon peel.
4. Spoon batter into the prepared pan. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 50 to 55 minutes or till a wooden toothpick inserted near the centre comes out clean.

5. Meanwhile stir together 2 TBSP of lemon juice and 1 TBSP sugar. While bread is still warm in the pan, brush lemon-sugar mixture over the top of the loaf. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove loaf from pan; cool on a wire rack. Wrap and store overnight before serving.