Shrimp Purses

These are a  fancy looking appetizer that is actually pretty easy to make. They are baked instead of fried so they are low in fat and not greasy like fried wontons. I found the recipe in a magazine, but it is also on the Contessa foods website under "Kid approved foods".  My kids wouldn't eat them, but friends of mine who have more adventurous eater, loved them. The creator of the recipe called them Shrimp Krispies, but I think they look more like little purses.

It says to chop all the ingredients and then mix them. I minced the ginger root, and then just put it all in the food processor, which was much faster and worked really well. The package of wontons that I bought (in the produce area of the grocery store) came with about 48 wrappers and the amount of filling the recipe makes was exactly enough to fill them all.  The photo is a professional one from the Contessa website, but mine looked just about exactly like this. Not bad considering my 6 year old son "helped" me with them. 

• 12 ounces cooked shrimp
• 8 ounces cream cheese (low fat works fine)
• 2 shallots, chopped fine
• 1 teaspoon ginger root, minced
• 1 tablespoon chives, chopped
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• Wonton wrappers
• Sesame seeds
• 
  
• Sauce:
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon rice wine
• 1 tablespoon cold water

Wet the edges of the wontons and then the corners together, twist and pinch tight.  Place on a cookie sheet, brush with water, and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Bake 10-12 minutes until golden brown. 
Serve with dipping sauce made by combining soy sauce, rice wine and cold water.

Not so great Peanut Butter Cookies

My youngest son is a peanut butter fanatic, so when he wanted to make cookies, we decided to make peanut butter ones. I put chocolate chips in some of the cookies which my kids loved, but I prefer the straight peanut butter cookies, no chips, nuts or anything like that. 

Well, they looked pretty tasty, but they were actually kind of dry. I won't bother to post the recipe because I don't think it is worth repeating. Fortunately high school students will eat virtually anything, so my husband took them into his school and they disappeared. 

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Mixed Berry Muffins

These are really delicious muffins. I think it probably has something to do with the half cup of melted butter that is in them. I found the original recipe at Under the Highchair and her photos of the muffins looked so delicious that I had to try them. I changed the recipe slightly, but mostly it is just the way she wrote it. They really are just as good as they look.  And of course I like the fact that they have oats in them so I can pretend they are good for you.

Ingredients:

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup buttermilk

1 large egg

½ cup brown sugar

½ cup melted butter, cooled

1 cup flour

¼ tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup mixed berries, fresh or frozen

Topping:

additional buttermilk

large grain sugar (Turbinado sugar crystals)

 Directions:

1. In a large bowl, combine oats and buttermilk and let stand for one hour.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prepare a 12-cup muffin pans with nonstick spray or liners.
3. Stir the egg and the sugar into the oat mixture, followed by the melted butter.
4. Add remaining ingredients (except berries) to the oat mixture and stir the batter until just combined.
5. Fold in the berries carefully without over mixing.
6. Spoon the batter into t he muffin tins, brush with buttermilk and sprinkle with sugar.  Place in the oven and bake about 10 minutes if using fresh berries, longer if using frozen berries.

Chocolate Crinkles

These are one of my husband's favorites. He  likes to take these in to the school that he runs and hand them out to the students. They are very chocolate-y and soft. So good.

Sift together:

1 ¾ cups flour

2/3 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp baking powder

½  tsp salt

 

Mix thoroughly:

½ cup margarine

6 Tbs  butter, at room temp

1 cup sugar

1 eggs

2 Tbs milk

½ tsp vanilla extract

 

Optional:

Chocolate chips

Large grain sugar for coating

Cream the shortening, butter and sugar in a large bowl. Using an electric mixer set on high speed, beat until fluffy. Add the egg, milk and vanilla and beat on high about 2 minutes.

Reduce the speed to low, add the flour mixture and mix until just incorporated. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or as long as overnight.

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees. Lightly butter baking sheets.

Using damp hands, form the dough into 1 ½ inch balls. Roll the cookies in sugar and place on prepared baking sheets, spacing 2 inches apart. Sprinkle with a few drops of water

Bake until puffed and slightly cracked on top but still soft, about 10-12 minutes. Let cool for 1 minute and transfer to wire racks

Lemon Butter Cookies

These are one of my most requested cookies. Sort of a lemon flavored sugar cookie. You can make the dough and shape it into balls and bake it right away. I prefer to form it into logs and then let them firm up in the refrigerator over night. Slice them into rounds just before baking. They come out looking very professional this way. 

I started making these cookies because we had a huge lemon tree right outside my kitchen window. Every year we got tons of lemons, and they were big, juicy, fabulous lemons. I made lemon cookies, lemon poppy seed muffins, lemon bread, limoncello... everything I could think of with lemons. Then the tree died which was very sad. But we planted a new one, so in a few years I should have some lemons again. We also planted a key lime tree which immediately began to bear fruit. It ripened one perfect little lime every day or two for a month. Just enough for nightly gin and tonics with fresh lime. Fortunately for my liver the limes have a fairly short season.

Ingredients:

3 ½ cup flour

2 ¼ tsp baking powder

½ tsp. salt

1 c. butter

1 1/3 cup sugar

2 large eggs

2 tsp. fine lemon zest

1 Tbs. Lemon juice

lemon extract or lemon oil to taste if needed

Directions:

1.Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2.Combine flour, baking powder, and salt.

3.Cream butter and sugar. Beat in the eggs, lemon zest and extract.

4.Gradually blend in the dry ingredients.

5.Divide dough into 3 pieces. Form into 1 ½” diameter logs and wrap in wax paper. Chill a few hours or up to five days.

6. Cut ¼” thick slices and arrange on ungreased baking sheet.

7.Bake for about 6 minutes and transfer to racks to cool. Dip in powdered sugar or lemon glaze to finish. Set glazed cookies on rack over waxed paper until glaze is set.

Lemon Glaze:

Powdered sugar

Water

Vanilla

Lemon extract/zest/oil

Ginger Molasses Cookies

These are really delicious, chewy, ginger molasses cookies. The addition of orange oil or orange zest adds a really unusual touch. The cookies are also good with chopped Macadamia nuts or chunks of white chocolate mixed in.

I usually roll these cookies in a large grain sugar before baking, but this time I rolled them in pearl sugar for a different look.
 
Sift together:
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cloves
1 ½ tsp cinnamon
1 ½ tsp ginger
 
Mix thoroughly:
½ cup margarine
¼ cup unsalted butter, at room temp
1 cup + 2 Tbs dark brown sugar
1 eggs
¼ cup molasses
2 tsp finely grated orange zest or ½ tsp orange oil
 
Optional:
2 oz chopped Macadamia nuts
 
Combine the shortening, butter and brown sugar in a large bowl. Using an electric mixer set on high speed, beat until fluffy. Add the egg, molasses and orange zest or oil and beat until blended.
 
Reduce the speed to low, add the flour mixture and mix until just incorporated. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or as long as overnight.
 
Preheat an oven to 350 degrees. Lightly butter baking sheets.
 
Using wet hands, form the dough into 1 ½ inch balls. Roll the balls in sugar and place on prepared baking sheets, spacing 2 inches apart. Sprinkle with a few drops of water
 

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Cookies

Pretty tasty cookies and they have that “veneer of health” from the peanut butter and oats.  Makes 3 dozen cookies.

1 cup flour

½ tsp baking soda

½ cup butter

½ cup peanut butter (natural kind)

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs

½ tsp vanilla

1 cup rolled oats

In a bowl stir together flour and baking soda. Set flour mixture aside. In a large mixing bowl beat butter with electric mixer on medium to high speed about 30 seconds until softened.

Add peanut butter and brown sugar to butter. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat until well combined. Add flour mixture then beat on low speed until combined. Stir in oats.

Drop dough from a rounded teaspoon 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in a  375 degree oven for 8-10 minutes or until edges are golden. Remove cookies from cookie sheet and cool on a wire rack. 

Crown Muffin Pan

I just got a new muffin pan from Williams-Sonoma that I am really excited about testing out. It is a Crown Muffin Pan that is designed to make big muffins with the fabulous, excessive top like you get at a bakery. Of course it is just an excuse for more streusel topping!

Chocolate Bran Muffins

These muffins come out a delicious looking dark chocolately brown color. They have high fiber cereal and some whole wheat flour in them so I feel good giving them to the kids.

1 cup bran cereal

1 1/2 cup buttermilk

1/3 cup oil

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup white flour

1/2 cup unsweetened baking cocoa

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup chocolate chips

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Coat 12 regular sized muffin cups with butter.

lace the cereal in a plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin, or crush in a food processor.

In a medium bowl mix the cereal and buttermilk, let that stand for 5 minutes. Stir in the oil, egg and vanilla.

In another bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients and then add the cereal mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips. Divide batter evenly between 12 muffin cups. 

Bake for 16-20 minutes.