Blue Mass Group

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I endorse…DELICIOUS COOKIES…

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Peanut Butter Spotlights                      

(Very moist and peanut buttery)

1 pkg Yellow cake mix

1/4 cup Water

1/2 cup Peanut butter

2       eggs

1/4 cup Butter or margarine, soft

1 cup M&Ms

1. Heat over to 350 F

2. In large bowl, combine cake mix, peanut butter, margarine, water, and eggs.

3. Stir until well blended.

4. Fold in M&Ms.

5. Drop by teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart on lightly greased cookie sheet.

6. Bake at 350 for 8 minutes or until light golden brown.

YIELD: 3 1/2 dozen.

Christopher Dodd Family Cookies

(Better than you might expect)

1/4 lb Sweet chocolate, melted

1 tsp Cloves

1 tsp Nutmeg

1 tsp Allspice

1 tsp Cinnamon

2 cups Brown sugar

2 tsp Baking powder

2 cups Flour

3 Eggs, beaten

Grated rind 1 lemon

1/4 cup Chopped almonds

Egg white

1. Mix all but the last two ingredients thoroughly

2. Mix in almonds gently

3. Spoon, or roll and cut dough on greased cookie sheet

4. If desired, wipe top with egg white

5. Bake 10 to 12 minutes at 350 F

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Comments

  2. 3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
    2 teaspoons baking soda
    1 teaspoon cinnamon
    1 teaspoon ground cloves
    1 teaspoon ground ginger
    1 teaspoon ground cardamom
    1 cup butter
    1 cup white sugar
    1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
    1 egg, beaten
    2 tablespoons dark corn syrup

    <

    p>1.Sift the flour together with the baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and cardamom in a mixing bowl.

    <

    p>2.Beat the butter together with the white and brown sugars in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Mix in the egg and corn syrup until smooth. Gradually stir in the flour mixture until evenly blended. Divide the dough into 4 equal portions and wrap tightly each with plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least 1 hour, or overnight.

    <

    p>3.Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease baking sheets.

    <

    p>4.Using 1 portion at a time, work on a floured surface and roll out dough to 1/8 inch thick. Cut into shapes with cookie cutter, and place 1 inch apart on prepared baking sheets.

    <

    p>5.Bake in preheated oven until set, about 5 minutes. Cool completely. Store in tightly covered tins.

    <

    p>Gingerbready-chewy, but a different flavor.

    • These are supposedly Scandinavian in origin, and my daughter started making these a few years ago to celebrate her Norwegian heritage.  Delightfully different from any other cookie you’ve had, and dangerously addictive.

  3. This diary is an important first step in getting my family past bland sugar cookies with green and red sprinkles.

    <

    p>On a related front, I love fruitcake. I eat buttered slices of it with my mid-morning coffee all January. I’m thinking of developing an online way of getting people to send me all their unwanted fruitcakes.  

  4. the real treat is her fresh bread made with raisons. She makes 5 loaves from her family recipe (Lithuanian). The house smells awesome for a day or two. The only down side is the bread doesn’t stay fresh that long but while it does we toast fat slices with butter on them.

    <

    p>Can’t wait!

  5. the holidays are a time that we do a lot of baking, of cookies, cakes, and various things with multi-syllable German names. Every recipe begins with “one pound butter”, and most involve large quantities of dark chocolate.

    <

    p>Thank you, Sabutai, for reminding us of what really matters.

    • Unfortunately I don’t know the recipe’s but my Italian-American mom makes peceli’s which are quite delicious, and these cookie balls with frosting and sprinkles on top that are just to die for. She inherited both recipes from my grandma so I have a feeling this stuff has been in my family for awhile-as are the best Christmas traditions.  

  6. It’s part of my Christmas repertoire, and I make it “old school” – the way I learned from my grandmother.  It’s completely unadulterated by chocolate and other rubbish that people insist on putting in it.  It’s a great gift, or a dandy tea complement.  ðŸ™‚  Let me know if you want the recipe, but you must promise NOT to use margarine, or “I can’t believe I bought this BS in a tub.”  It would break my heart, and my grandmother would be spinning in her grave.

    • I start with one pound of “Plugra” (available at Trader Joes) — 83% butterfat (compared with 80% for those wimpy healthy American sticks).

      <

      p>We start making shortbread at Thanksgiving, and keep up all winter.

      <

      p>Recipe? WHAT recipe? 🙂

        • Here’s the way I learned it (at the hands of my grandmother Myrtle MacLeod) when I was a tyke:

          <

          p>1. Start with a lot of butter.
          2. Add a lot of flour.
          3. Add some sugar.
          4. Keep your fingers as cold as you can, and press the flour/sugar into the butter. Don’t be afraid to get your fingers dirty. Keep squeezing the dough together until it holds together and looks like this (showing me).
          5. Make two patty-cakes out of it, use a fork to make decorations like this (showing me)
          6. Bake it.

          <

          p>Your recipe is surely a better way for readers to get successful results 🙂

          <

          p>By the way, this approach is amazingly similar to my wife’s to-die-for Austrian pie crust (she adds solid shortening one-to-one with the butter, and a little ice water at the end).

          <

          p>Shall we share the secret of old-fashioned Scottish stone-milled oatmeal next? :-;

    • are Campbell and Hunter. All four of my grandparents are from Scotland – Paisley, Bonnybridge, Edinborough and Glasgow.

      <

      p>And shortbread recipe is so simple.

      <

      p>Preheat the oven for 325F

      <

      p>2 cups flour
      1/2 cup sugar
      1/2 lb butter (the real McCoy, none of that craaaaaaaap called “I can’t believe I bought this BS in a tub”

      <

      p>That’s all.  Now this is the thing.  You mix it with your (well-scrubbed) hands, and do not over mix, or your will bruise the dough.  Then separate the dough into two balls.  Line a pan with clean brown paper.  (Gran used brown paper bags from the store, but your call.)  Then gently pat each of the dough balls into a “cake” – a large, round shape about 1/2 an inch thick.  Place into the over, and bake for an hour.  Just before finishing, take out your press (not a cookie press, it’s a decorative press…think “thistle” or “heart.”  After removing from the oven, grab your biggest and sharpest knives and cut it into eighths.  Store in a tin, lined with wax paper.  Do cut before cooling, because it gets hard quite fast and it will be a bear to cut.  Also, let family members know that this is NOT a big cookie.  I failed to tell my new husband this and he ate the whole damned thing.  He probably had his cholesterol content for the year after that one.    

      <

      p>It makes a great gift.  If you must indulge – it can be dipped in chocolate and nuts, too. It’s wonderful with tea.  

      <

      p>  

  8. Pecan Pralines. Wicked easy.

    <

    p>Every year, my family used to do a big cookie contest, where everyone brought their own home-made cookies, as well as the recipe, and enough cookies for everyone to have some and bring a few of each home. The following recipe won me one of the two awards (out of about 15 contestants) 😉

    <

    p>

    Ingredients

    35 graham crackers, honey works best. Can substitute with other kind of cracker.
    1 cup packed brown sugar.
    1 cup butter.
    1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar.
    1 cup chopped pecans, or more.

    Directions

      1. Place crackers on ungreased 10 x 15 sheet cake pan, covering bottom.
      2. Bring brown sugar, margarine and cream of tartar to a slight boil, mixing constantly. The butter and sugar become a singular, brown substance when it’s ready for the next stage.
      3. Add nuts. Pour mixture over the top of the crackers. Use back of spoon to spread to all the grahams. Keep in mind that it dries quickly.
      4. Bake for 9-10 minutes. Be very careful not to over bake: if it burns, it’ll taste terrible. Cool for a few minutes, and remove from pan while still warm.
      5. It’s best served chilled.

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