Sour Cream Sugar Cookies

In honor of St. Patrick's day coming up, I made some shamrock sugar cookies. I love sugar cookie dough, and this is by far the best dough I have ever tasted! The cookies always come out perfect. I am always trying new sugar cookie recipes to see if I can find another one I like, and so far these still are my No. 1 sugar cookie!

1 c. sugar 1/2 c. shortening and mix together

add 2 eggs, 1 c. sour cream, and tsp. vanilla and beat until smooth

add 3 c. flour, 1/2 tsp. salt, 2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp. soda

Let stand in refrigerator for some time. add more flour when rolling out for the first time ( soft and sticky dough). Roll out to 1/4 inch thick. Bake at 350 for 6 to 8 min. TIP: these do not get brown so DO NOT OVERCOOK!

Mom's Famous Caramels

These Caramels are to die for! I can seriously eat the whole pan if I let myself. When the boys were first born I would always sneak a caramel during the midnight feedings, and it was so worth getting up just to sneak a caramel :). The trick to these is to not over cook!! Get a candy thermometer and test it out before you make the caramels by boiling water, water boils at 212, so if your water boils at a different temp then you know how far off your candy thermometer is. Enjoy!

1 c. butter
2 c. sugar
1 1/2 c. light Karo Syrup
2 c. light cream
dash of salt
1 tsp vanilla

Butter sides of heavy pan and combine sugar, karo butter a 1 c, cream. Bring to a boil stirring constantly. Slowly stir in remaining cream and cook over medium heat till 242 temperature. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Pour into buttered 9 x 13 pan. Mark into squares when partially cool. Cut when cold. Easier to work with when made a day ahead. Wrap cut caramel into waxed paper.

Pumpkin Roll

I know its not Fall anymore and not that many people cook with pumpkin, but in our house is it an ingredient that we use all all year round! I love pumpkin, and anything that calls for cream cheese, well you know it makes it that much better. I have always been afraid to make pumpkin rolls because the cake would always break on me, but this recipe never fails me! 

Pumpkin Roll

3 Eggs

1 C. Sugar

1 C. Cooked Pumpkin ( canned)

1 tsp lemon Juice

1 Cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. ground ginger

1 tsp. ground nutmeg

1 tsp. salt

Powdered sugar

Filling:

1 C. powdered Sugar

6 oz cream cheese

4 T. Butter

1/2 tsp Vanilla

Preheat oven to 375. Grease and flour jelly roll pan or cookie sheet. In mixing  bowl beat eggs for 5 minutes. Beat in sugar until smooth. Stir in pumpkin and lemon juice. In separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, spices and salt and stir. Fold dry ingredients into pumpkin mixture. Spread mixture in pan and bake for 15 minutes. Remove cake and turn it onto a dishcloth dusted with powdered sugar. Starting at long end, roll up together and cool. While cooling make filling mixture. Mix filling ingredient together until smooth.  Unroll cake and spread with filling within 1 inch of edge. Roll up cake and chill for 4 hours. Dust with powered sugar before serving. And enjoy this yummy dessert! 

Texas Sheet Cake

This is one of my favorite cakes. I think it is mainly because of the frosting... it is to die for!!! I would eat it by the spoonfuls if I could. This was the first thing I made that really made me sad about the gestational diabetes. I did manage to get ONE spoonful in though and it was divine :)

Texas Sheet Cake: Barbara Davis

1/2 c. butter

1 c. water

1/4 c. cocoa

2 c. sugar

2 c. flour

1 c. buttermilk

2 eggs 1 tsp. vanilla

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. soda

1 tsp. cinnamon

Bring butter, water and cocoa to a boil. Mix dry ingredients together and add cocoa mixture. Add buttermilk, eggs and vanilla and mix well. Grease a 12x17-inch cookie sheet and pour cake mixture into it. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes.

Frosting:

1/2 c. butter

1/4 c. cocoa

1 tsp. vanilla

1/3 c. buttermilk

1 lb powdered sugar

1 c. chopped nuts (optional)

Heat butter, buttermilk and cocoa. Add vanilla and powdered sugar. Beat until smooth. Pour over cake. Sprinkle nuts on top.

Peanut Butter & Snickers Cookies

We have been horrible about posting this July!  I guess that's what happens when summer fun takes over.  Lori and I (Brooke) have been in Montana on vacation, and have actually done a few recipes - we just need to post them!  So here's the first.  I was totally pleased - they turned out great.

 Peanut Butter & Snickers Cookies

2 sticks butter

1 c. creamy peanut butter

1 c. brown sugar

1 c. sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

31/2 c. flour

1 tsp. salt

1 pkg. miniature Snickers (we used fun size and cut them in half)

Beat butter, peanut butter and sugars, then slowly add in the eggs and vanilla.  Mix in the flour, salt and baking soda.  Then cover and chill for 2-3 hours.  After the dough has chilled, unwrap your candy, and divide the dough into 1 tablespoon pieces.  Flatten the dough, place a piece of candy in the center and form a ball around it.  Finally bake at 300 degrees for 15 minutes - though it may take longer.  Ours took about 20 minutes to cook.

These cookies were fun and yummy - and something  your kids would enjoy helping with.  I'm trying to think of another candy which would also be good in the center.  Any suggestions?  

Fresh Strawberry Pie

This is probably my favorite pie to eat. It was very similar to the Fresh Peach Pie I made a month or so ago. Pretty fuss free - and perfect for all the yummy fresh strawberries at the market and in our back yard.

Fresh Strawberry Pie
4-5 c. strawberries
1 baked pie crust

Glaze:
1 1/2 c. crushed strawberries
1 1/2 c. water
1 1/4 c. sugar
4 1/2 T. cornstarch
Red food coloring (I skipped this)

For the Glaze, cook the crushed strawberries and water for 2 minutes. Combine the sugar and cornstarch and stir into the berry juice. Cook and stir this until it is thickened and bubbly. Arrange half of the strawberries into your crust then poor half the glaze on top. Arrange the other half of the strawberries and cover with the rest of the glaze. Chill and serve. Easy!

Fresh Peach Pie

We have a young peach tree, and this is our second year getting a ton of baby peaches in May. They are so good and sweet, and nothing is better than eating fruit straight off the tree. We haven't quite yet figured out how to consume all that the tree produces though. One thing we did make with this crop was a delicious fresh peach pie.

Fresh Peach Pie
8 to 9 peaches, peeled and sliced (or if your peaches are smaller - like ours that number goes up to about 20)
1 baked pie crust

Glaze:
1 1/3 c. sugar
1 1/4 c. cold water
1/3 c. cornstarch
1/8 tsp. salt
1 T. lemon juice

Place sugar and 1/2 cup cold water in saucepan. Dissolve cornstarch in remaining 3/4 cup cold water. Then gradually add it to the sugar mixture. Cook this over medium heat until it's thick. Add salt, lemon juice and 2 drops yellow food coloring and 1 drop red. (or you can do what we did. Just puree up some of your left over peaches and add them instead of the food coloring. It worked really well - and added some yumminess as well!). Pour the glaze over peaches, mix and pour into your pie crust. Chill in the fridge and enjoy!

Fresh Strawberry Dessert

I love this one. It was my first time making it - even though my Mother-in-Law gave me the recipe 8 years ago at a bridal shower. It just looked too complicated for me to try sooner. But I was craving it this week and I had to make dinner for a friend, so I decided to tackle it.

Fresh Strawberry Dessert

2 pkgs vanilla cream-filled cookies (my package - Ralphs brand - was twice the size of the oreo's so I just needed one)

1 1/2 c. chopped nuts

3 baskets fresh stawberries sliced in halves or thirds

2 c. wipped cream, whipped and sweetened

Filling:

1 c. butter, softened

2 c. powdered sugar

4 eggs, seperated

1/4 c. lemon juice

Crush your cookies in a food processor. Then layer them (about a 1/2 layer) in the bottom or a 9 x 13 pan. You'll have cookies left over. Sprinkle your nuts on top. (I'm sorry to admit that I just don't like the nuts layer, so I left it out.)

Now for the filling - Beat the butter, powdered sugar and egg yolks until smooth. Then add the lemon juice. In a seperate bowl beat the egg whites until stiff. Then fold the two mixtures together. Spread the filling on top of your crumbs (and nuts). Then add your sliced strawberries. You can do one or two layers of strawberries. This time I did one and next time I'm definitely doing two. I LOVE the fresh strawberries! Whip your cream and sweeten with powdered sugar. (give it a taste to tell if it's sweetened enough). Then spread it on top of the stawberries. Finally add some more cookie crumbs on top of the whipped cream. (I had my 4 year old help me with that, and we went a little crazy!)

I think this dessert tastes best after a couple of hours in the fridge. You can even make it the day before. It honestly wasn't as scary as I thought it was going to be. And it's one of my favorite desserts for this season of yummy strawberries!

Mom's chocolate chip cookies

So many fond memories of these cookies. I use to love to freeze these and then eat them straight out of the freezer, letting them defrost in my mouth. They are are the best chocolate chip cookies I have tasted! Haws makes a close runner up, but I have to stay true to these. We had some people over for dinner and planned to make pizookies. We realized half way in that we didn't have enough chocolate chips to make the whole batch, so we made two pizzokies. One with semi-sweet chips and one with white chocolate chips. Then we saved the batter until I bought some more semi-sweet chips to make the cookies. I was surprised by how much I like the white chocolate chips pizookie. I think next time I will make more cookies with the white chips.

1 c. butter

1 c. shortening ( I just used 2 c. butter because I refuse to use shortening. If you choose to do the same, just know that your cookies will be a little more flat, but just as delicious.)

2 c. sugar

2 c. brown sugar

4 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

4 1/2 c. flour

2 tsp. soda

2 tsp. salt

2 tsp. cinnamon

2 c. chocolate chips

2 c. chopped nuts (optional)

Cream butter, shortening (if using) and sugars together. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Add flour, soda, salt and cinnamon. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts. Place golf ball-sized dough on greased cookie sheets. Bake at 350 for about 10 min or until little cracks appear but cookies are still soft.

For the pizookies, we place about 1 c. of the cookie dough into pie tins, spread out and baked about 15 min.

Adding in the chocolate chips with the rest of the dough.

Swiss Chicken & Broccoli Crepes and Aunt LaRee's Carrot Cake

We had the missionaries, some church friends and my mom (dad was at the final four... lucky!) over for dinner last Sunday. I wanted to make something special/different, so I turned to the family cook book and decided on crepes! Now, I have had and made dessert crepes before, but never made crepes as the main dish. These took some work, but were totally worth the effort! The crepes add a touch of sweetness to the meal and the sauce mixed with the broccoli and chicken was delicious! Everyone enjoyed it along with the carrot cake I made. I will give you that recipe too while I am at it :)

Swiss Chicken & Broccoli Crepes

1 (10oz) bag of frozen, chopped broccoli

2 TB. butter

2 TB. flour

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1 1/2 c. milk

3/4 c. shredded swiss cheese (I used light cheese)

2 c. chopped, cooked chicken

12 crepes*

Cook broccoli according to package, drain and set aside. For sauce, melt butter in medium sauce pan. Blend in flour, salt and nutmeg. Add milk all at once and stir until thick and bubbly. Cook for 2 more minutes, stirring constantly. Add swiss cheese, stir until melted; set aside. For filling: combine chicken, broccoli and 1 cup of sauce.

Spoon about 1/4 c - 1/2 c (depending on the size of crepe) along the center of the unbrowned side of each crepe. Roll up crepe and place seam-side up in a baking dish.

Pour remaining remaining cheese sauce over crepes. Sprinkle with paprika if you like. Cover and bake in 375 degree oven for 18-20 minutes.

My mom and James. Had to post this picture of the woman behind a lot of these recipes (and my sweet baby James :)

*Crepe recipe

3/4 c. cold milk

3/4 c. cold water

3 eggs

1 TB. sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 1/3 c flour

5 TB. melted butter

cooking spray

In a blender, combine all the ingredients and blend for 1 minute on high. Refrigerate for 2 hours. Spray skillet or crepe pan and place over med-high heat. When the pan is just beginning to smoke, remove from heat and pour 1/4 c of the batter in the middle of the pan and quickly tilt in all directions for 2 to 3 seconds to evenly distribute the batter. Return the pan to the heat and when slightly browned on the underside, turn the crepe with the spatula onto the other side and cook for a few seconds. Remove from pan. Repeat with remaining batter.

Carrot Cake

1 1/2 c. oil

2 c. sugar

4 eggs

2 c. sifted flour (I used white wheat flour)

2 tsp. baking powder

2 tsp. soda

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. cinnamon

3 c. grated carrots

1 c. chopped nuts (I used walnuts)

Blend oil and sugar together. Add 1 egg at a time and beat well after each. Mix and sift dry ingredients together, then add to sugar mixture. Add carrots and nuts last. Bake at 350 for 50 minutes or until done.

Frosting:

1- 8oz cream cheese, softened (I used light cream cheese)

2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cube butter, softened

1 box powdered sugar.

Whip all ingredients together until fluffy.

White Chocolate Raspberry Almond Bars

(aka White Chocolate Brownies)

Yum Yum!

1 1/2 c. butter
36 oz. white chocolate chips
6 eggs
1 1/2 c. sugar
3 c. flour
1 1/2. tsp. salt
1 T. almond extract
1 1/2 c. seedless raspberry jam (I just used the whole bottle - it's just so yummy)
3/4 c. sliced almonds

Spray a 12x17-inch cookie sheet with cooking spray.  Melt butter and while it's still hot add 18 oz of the white chocolate chips and let stand.  In a mixer beat eggs until foamy, then add sugar and beat until they are lemon colored.  Add the butter/chocolate mixture and mix until combined.  Add flour, salt and extract and beat until combined.  Spread 1/2 of the batter on the cookie sheet then bake at 325 for 15-20 minutes.

(either my oven or cookie sheet is seriously uneven!)

Next stir the remaining white chocolate chips into the other half of the batter.  Heat the jam in the microwave or on the stove over low heat until it's melted, then spread the melted jam over the warm crust.

 Finally spoon the remaining batter on top of the jam and spread carefully.  Sprinkle with sliced almonds and Bake at 325 for 30-35 minutes.

Let it cool before cutting.  These are delicious treats and one of my absolute favorite desserts.  I made them for a baby shower last week - and froze half of them for another baby shower this week.  They freeze really well.  In fact, I've been known to make a whole batch just for me my family and stick them in the freezer, taking a couple out each day.

Oatmeal Bars

WARNING!!!!

THESE OATMEAL BARS ARE HIGHLY ADDICTIVE AND IF LEFT ON THE COUNTER, MAY DISAPPEAR BEFORE YOUR VERY EYES.

But seriously, these things are so delicious! I took Dana's originally recipe and made a few changes to fit the likes of our family... well just Haws, who does not like butterscotch (what a shame). The original version is equally tasty, so you can choose what you want to try. Just beware that these gooey, chocolaty, crumbly treats are too hard to resist not having more than one. I like to think since they have oatmeal in them, the are healthy oatmeal bars... but who am I kidding? Look at all that butter! :)

Oatmeal Bars

2 c. melted butter

2 1/4 c. brown sugar

3 c. Quaker Oats (or any other plain oatmeal)

3 c. Flour

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

Mix all of the above ingredients and spread HALF of the mixture out onto a cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 8 minutes.

Then combine:

1 jar caramel (original recipe uses butterscotch)

2 TB. flour

Pour on top of baked oatmeal mixture and then sprinkle:

2 c. chocolate chips

(original recipe uses 1 c. chocolate chips and 1 c. butterscotch chips)

I might try these sometime using peanut butter chips in place of the butterscotch... that sounds yummy to me. If you get creative, let me know what you like :)

Make sure the chips are spread evenly.

Crumble the remaining oatmeal mixture on top and then continue baking for 15-20 at 350.

Cool before cutting.

This made a lot or bars. I would say about 30, with a few casualties. They are very gooey and crumbly so be careful when removing from pan.

Snickerdoodles

I love my cookies. Cookies are probably my favorite dessert to make and i especially  love the dough :) I probably eat about half the dough before I bake them, which just means I have to make more of these delicious cookies! These snickerdoodles are a must have in the Hathaway household. They are just the perfect texture and Chase can just eat them all day (so can I).

Snickerdoodles

1/2 c. butter
1/2 c, shortening
1 1/2 C. Sugar
2 eggs
2 3/4 C. Flour
2 tsp. cream of Tarter
1 tsp. soda
1/4 tsp. Salt

Heat oven to 400. Mix thoroughly butter, shortening, sugar and eggs. Blend in flour, cream of tartar, soda, and salt. Shape dough by rounded tablespoon or ice cream scoop into balls. I like to make my cookies a little on the big side.

Mix 2 tbl of sugar and cinnamon and roll balls in mixture, Place two inches apart on ungreased baking sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes immediately remove from baking sheet.

CHOCOLATE MINT BROWNIES

These were a perfect treat for St. Patty's Day! The recipe comes from my Aunt Nancy. I changed nothing because I didn't want to mess with something so perfect! I gave these to my visiting teachees and they all loved them. Haws loves the chocolate and mint combo, so I knew the ones we kept around the house wouldn't last long. And between the two of us they didn't :)

Now if you are looking to whip up some brownies really quick, this is not the recipe you are looking for. But if you have the time, they are worth the effort. I split it up into two days. I made the brownies one day and then did the frosting and chocolate layers the next. This made it a lot easier. Here is what it looks like out of the freezer. Don't you just want to dig right in???

Brownies:

1 1/2 c. melted butter

3/4 c. cocoa

3 c. sugar

6 eggs, beaten

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

3/4 tsp salt

2 1/4 c. sifted flour

Frosting:

3/4 c. butter, softened

3 T. milk

3 c. powdered sugar

1 1/2 tsp. peppermint extract

green food coloring optional

Chocolate layer:

2 1/4 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

3/4 c. butter

Whisk together melted butter and cocoa. Add sugar, eggs, vanilla and salt. Mix well, then stir in flour by hand. Do not over mix. Spread in greased 12x17-inch cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 25-30 min. Cool and then put in the freezer for 20 min. For frosting, mix butter, milk, powdered sugar and extract. Can color with green (or red) food coloring if desired. Frost brownies and then put in freezer for another 20 min. Melt chocolate chips and butter in a double boiler and spread on top of the frosting layer. Freeze another 20 min to set.