Every time I went to pipe, I coughed and frosting went everywhere. End result, very sloppy cookies. Part of it too is the frosting I use. Royal icing is great for decorating cookies. Unfortunately, I don’t like how it tastes. It’s like wedding cake….fondant is pretty but butter cream is yummy. I’ll take yummy over pretty any day. This is a great tasting cookie. These ones tend to stay a little soft so they are sometimes hard to decorate due to breakage.

This is a short post since I am pretty wiped out and WAY under the weather. But here is cookie # 3 for my cookie exchange. Sadly, the cookies were really made to cheer my dog up after her surgery….she is obsessed with sugar cookies, but they work great for Christmas cookies too.

Sugar Cookie Dough 

1 1/4 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 egg
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp cream of tarter
3 cups flour
pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease a sheet pan well and set aside.
Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of a mixer and beat on high-speed, scraping down the sides of the bowl often, until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, add the egg and vanilla extract, and mix well. Add the cream of tarter, flour, and salt, and mix on low speed until all of the ingredients are incorporated. Increase the speed to medium and mix until the dough is smooth.
Remove the dough from the mixer and form into a ball. If it is too soft to handle, cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate untl it firms up a bit. On a well-floured board, roll the dough out to a thickness of about 1/4 inch. Cut into shapes with cookie cutters of your choice. Bake until golden brown, 10-12 minutes, depending on the size of the cookie cutter. Let the cookies cool for about 5 minutes on the pan, then transfer to a rack or paper towels and let cool completely. Frost and decorate the cookie after they have cooled.

Source: Adapted from Caprial’s Desserts by Caprial Pence and Melissa Carey 2001

It almost always seemed to happen when I was at school. I would be sitting there learning about who knows what and out of the corner of my eye, there through the window, little tiny flakes of snow would start to fall. Most of the smart teachers knew it was just best to take us outside for a bit because we were pretty much distracted from that point on. I too was distracted but for an entirely different reason. The first snow meant that my mom was at home feverishly baking….and baking with yeast! That was exciting to me because it was the only time of the year that she did. I knew she was making dough nuts, raisin bread, fried won-tons sprinkled with powdered sugar(I know they have no yeast) and most importantly, she was making orange rolls. Oh how I loved them so. It was the only time of the year we got them so it was a big deal to me. The bus ride home on the first day of snow was torture. I often found myself screaming in my head “get off the bus, get off the bus” to all the kids who took too long to gather up their stuff and get off the bus. Finally my stop. I would fly off the bus and start what would seem like the never-going-to-get there walk/run home. I would arrive home with flushed cheeks, out of breath with pieces of matted hair stuck to the side of my face….and there they would be. My mom would already have it out for me next to a nice glass of milk and a warm cup of cocoa. My gooey, sweet, orange-y goodness. Sadly, when I was 12 we moved to a place where snow does not exist and orange rolls were no more.

So when Ivonne and Orchidea decided to host a Dishes of Comfort(from your childhood) event, I knew that orange rolls were what I wanted to make. I called my mom and told her that I needed the recipe for the orange rolls that she used to make on the first snow day. She got rather quiet. “For your blog?” she asked. “Yes”. She went on to crush me by telling me that though the raisin bread and dough nuts were made from scratch, the orange rolls were made using refridgerator rolls from the store. Well crap. There went that idea. But since I loved those rolls, I just decided to make my own and see what I got. I used a cinnamon roll base and just messed around with it a bit.

Orange Pecan Rolls

2 cups plus 3 TBSP milk
1 cup plus 6 TBSP granulated sugar
2 tsp salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 egg, slightly beaten
2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
6 cups flour
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup chopped pecans
juice of one orange

Place 2 cups of milk in a saucepan over medium heat and birng just to a boil. Combine 6 TBSP of the sugar, the salt, and the butter in a large bowl, pour the hot milk over it, and let cool to 110-115F. In a small bowl, mix together the egg and yeast. Add to the cooled milk mixture, and mix well. Add the flour and mix until the dough is soft. Transfer the dough to a well-floured board and knead until very smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Place the dough in a large, well-greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise until doubled in bolume, about 1 hour..
Grease a 9X13 inch pan; set aside.
Punch the dough down, place on a well-floured board, and roll it out into a 10 X 14 inch rectangle and brush it iwth the melted butter. Combine the sugar and pecans and sprinkle the mixture over the butter. Drizzle orange juice over the pecans and sugar. Starting at one of the long sides, roll the dough up, and pinch the seam well to seal. Using a serrated knife, cut the dough into 2 inch thick slices, and place them in the prepared pan. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise one more time, until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 350F.
When the rolls have risen, bake until golden browm, about 25 minutes. Let cool for about 5 minutes. While rolls are cooling, prepare the icing(recipe follows). Drizzle the icing over the orange rolls and serve warm.

Orange Glaze
2 medium oranges
2 cups powdered sugar
zest of one orange

Combine the powdered sugar, orange juice and zest. Whisk to make sure all is incorrporated.

Source: Adapted from Caprial’s Desserts by Caprial Pence and Melissa Carey

Though not quite how I remembered, these were quite tasty and comforting. I unfortunately caught my hubby’s bronchitis and am sick. I’ve done nothing but eat these rolls and cuddle up under a blanket….so they are still definitely comforting.

It’s hard for me to imagine getting to this point. I remember seeing a food blog(sadly I don’t remember who’s), I dragged my poor hubby(the computer nerd) out to my computer, pointed to the screen and said, “I want to do that.” And so it began….badly. I wrote the first couple of days and that was about it. I wasn’t inspired, I had no camera and I had no direction. I went out and got a camera, the cheapest one I could find($100) that I liked. I still lack direction but the overall them for the most part is to take food(mostly baked goods) and make it accessible to the average baker. Honestly, I could do many more complicated things, I have the schooling, and though it is beautiful(truly works of art) I know that none of my friends would ever go out and make it. What good does that do me if my food is pretty but only a few could go and replicate it. I want to inspire people to go to their kitchen and bake! I realize from time to time I do make some stuff that people are not going to go out and do but for the most part I strive to make it possible for almost anyone to make.

Deciding what to make for my 100 post was really hard. I thought of making a beautiful, complicated dessert by one of my all time favorite chefs Marcel Desaulniers…but that would have defeated my whole everyone can make it thing I was just rambling on about. I decided that I should make something that is a recipe of my own. For those who read this on a regular basis know that I love cheesecake and that I had the great idea that if I worked in a bakery and made cheesecakes that I would get sick of them. As I pointed out before all that did was just fulled my creativity to make different types of cheesecakes. This is one of those cakes from that time…. Irish Coffee Cheesecake. I’ve said before and I will say it again, I’m not the biggest fan of graham cracker crust, so I usually try to come up with something that compliments the flavor of the cheesecake…. for this one I chose a oatmeal cookie crust. These cheesecake definitely has punch and you know it is IRISH coffee.

If you can not find coffee extract, which I often can not unless I special order it; brew up some coffee or better yet espresso. Put a cup of the coffee in a saucepan and reduce by half. If you are doing that I only use a very generous TBSP of it instead of 2. Also, I often don’t have whiskey in the house, you can omit it from the recipe. If that is the case I usually throw in another TBSP or 2 of the Bailey’s Irish cream.

Irish Coffee Cheesecake

Irish Coffee Cheesecake

Crust:
6 oz oatmeal cookies
3 TBSP brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
3 oz butter

1. Place cookies in a food processor. Grind to make crumbs. Add in remaining ingredients. Process to blend.
2. Pat crust mixture into a 10 inch spring form cake pan. Bake at 325F for 5-7 minutes.

Filling:

2lbs 6oz cream cheese
2 1/2 cups brown sugar
3 TBSP flour
5 eggs
2 egg yolks
5 TBSP whiskey
3 TBS Irish Cream Liquor(like Bailey’s)
2 TBSP coffee extract

1. Cream the cheese on medium speed until very soft and creamy.
2. With the mixer running, add the sugar. Beat until well combined. Stop the mixer and scrape down the bowl.
3. On low speed add the flour. Then add the eggs one at a time, stopping the mixer before adding each egg so that shell does not get into the batter. Scrape down the bowl at least twice while adding the eggs.
4. Add the liquors and the coffee extract. Scrape down the bowl.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared crust and bake at 325F for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Topping
1 1/2 cups sour cream
3 TBSP brown sugar
1 tsp coffee extract

1. Combine all the ingredients. Spread on top of the baked cheesecake after it has come out of the oven and set for 10 minutes. Bake cheesecake again for 5-7 minutes.

 So thank you all for reading my blog. I love reading all the comments and the nice words of encouragement. I would especially like to thank Ivonne(the Cream Puff), she was the first food blogger to start leaving comments. She has always been positive and patient with all of the photography questions I ask her. I look forward to another 100 posts and to see what that will bring!

Our second cookie featured in my cookie exchange is called a Coconut Pecan Cookie, but it is really close to being a German Chocolate Chip cookie in my opinion. Let me start off by saying that this cookie is sweet, and for me to say that is saying a lot. I could definitely only eat one. Also note, do not pile on the frosting so high, I only did it for the picture….you would go into complete sugar shock if you made them to look like the picture.

What attracted me to making these cookies was the frosting, very similar to the frosting used make German Chocolate Cake. The frosting calls for evaporated milk, only when I poured mine into the pan it was brownish black….hmmmm, that is one funky cow producing that. So I had to use condensed milk, which was fine because in my short bakery stint, our German Chocolate cakes used condensed milk in the frosting. If you go that route you are going to want to not add the sugar to the frosting. It’s a two part cookie: frosting and cookie. The recipe never said to put the frosting on top of the cookie but from the picture in the magazine, I could only assume that is what you were suppose to do. This recipe comes from Taste of Home Best Loved Cookies and Bars 2006 edition. If you don’t know the Taste of Home magazines, they are recipes sent in from various people through out the country and are usually easy stuff to make….nothing fancy. My mom loves the magazine. I usually just buy there cookie book each year, there are always some repeats but it’s a nice resource to have.

Coconut Pecan Cookies

1 egg, slightly beaten
1 can(5oz) evaporated milk
2/3 cup sugar
1 1/4 cup flaked coconut
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Cookie Dough
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided
1/4 cup flaked coconut

For frosting, in a large saucepan, combine the egg, milk, sugar and butter. Cook and stir over medium-low heat for 10-12 minutes or until slightly thickened and mixture reaches 160F. Stir in the coconuts and pecans. Set aside.
For Dough, in a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars. Add eggs, on at a time, beating well after each addtion. Beat in vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; gradually add to the butter mixture. Stir in 2 cups chocolate chips and coconut.
Drop TBSP 2 inches appart onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350F for 8-10 minutes or until slightly browned. Cool for 10 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.
In a microwave, melt the remaining 2 cups of chocolate chips;stir until smooth.
Take a TBSP of frosting and place on top of cookie. Drizzle melted chocolate on top of that.
yeilds: 6 1/2 dozen