Showing posts with label Dessert. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dessert. Show all posts

Potato Chip Cookies (hey, don't judge until you try it!)

Potato chips are one of our guilty pleasures, at home. I'm pretty good about doling out (and limiting myself) to eating a  small handful of chips, with a burger or a sandwich.


My husband, on the other hand, is a potato chip addict. The brand that he loves most is "Lay's" potato chips.  If they're in plain sight, they're gone in no time at all.

When the June/July 2012 issue of Cook's Country Magazine arrived, I began to eagerly read through all the of the recipes.  I paused at the Potato Chip Cookie recipe, and read the article, and it didn't tickle my visual taste buds.  Potato chips?  I then passed on to reading the rest of the recipes looking for something else to make.  My husband spotted the recipe, and exclaimed that they sounded "terrific"!

Moi: "Really?  You want me to make those?"
Husband: "Yes!"  "Please?"

How can I say no?

I had to buy baked potato chips, though.  I don't buy them otherwise, because I don't like the way they taste.  I mean, if I'm going to indulge in chips, I'm going to buy the real deal.  I figured that Cook's Country had a reason for listing reduced-fat chips, so I added that ingredient to my shopping list.   Cook's Country says, "It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it: We fearlessly ate many batches of cookies baked with potato chips of every sort. In the end, we preferred reduced-fat chips in this recipe. Because of the extra oil, the edges of cookies made with ordinary fried chips get too dark before the cookie is fully baked. Also, some testers detected a disagreeable fried taste in cookies that were made with fried potato chips. "

The ingredients listing also includes flour, confectioners sugar, granulated sugar, butter, egg, vanilla and pecans.

The dough is rolled into balls, then flatted with a floured glass-- actually, I found that spraying the bottom of a glass with non-stick spray works best. 


 
Bake at 350F for 10-13 minutes; cool and enjoy.


TASTING NOTES:  The cookies are crispy, with a subtle balance of sweet and salty.  These reminded me of "Pecan Sandies", because the pecan flavor is in the foreground of this cookie.  I nibbled on one or two, but I wasn't as over-the-moon about them as my husband was.  So, there you have it-- a cookie with an unusual ingredient, that got enthusiastic thumbs up. My husband is hinting around that he wouldn't mind my making them again, so I'd say that if you love potato chips, then these are the cookie for you.

A printable recipe card is at the end of this post.

BALL CANNING GIVEAWAY WINNER:   A big thank you to all of you who entered to win a Ball Canning Discovery Kit.  The winner is: Larry of "Big Dude's Eclectic Ramblings".   Email me at foodiewife (at) gmail.com with your mailing address, so that Ball Canning can ship this off to you.  Thanks, Ball, for sponsoring this giveaway!




Funfetti Cookies-- put some sprinkles in your life!

When my son was a little boy, I remember baking Funfetti Cupcakes for his classroom, because that was the cake mix he always chose.  (That was, back in the day, when I used to buy cake mixes.)  My favorite cake is white, as is my son's.


The colored sprinkles are festive, and I think that most kids love Funfetti anything for that very reason.

I first spotted this recipe on "Two Peas and Their Pod", that led me to "Tasty Kitchen", that led me to "Fat Girl Trapped in a Skinny Body" -- which is where this recipe originated. 

If I had to pick my favorite cookie, it would sugar cookies.  When I read that this cookie recipe uses both vanilla and almond extract-- and I happened to have a collection of colored sprinkles on hand, I decided to make them for me surprise my boys with cookies for their lunches.

These were super easy to make-- in fact, the batter was ready in less than 10 minutes.

Despite all the warnings about eating raw cookie dough, and raw eggs-- I have survived my addiction fondness of cookie dough.  This cookie dough rocks!  OMG!  The dough tastes just like Funfetti cake batter!
For the first batch, I used an ice cream scoop to measure the cookie dough; that yielded 8 cookies.

The cookies were huge!  We're talking the size of my hand, huge.

For the second batch, I used a smaller scoop and it yielded 12 cookies.

 I followed the recipes directions to bake them just until they turned golden brown.

They come out of the oven puffy, but quickly cool nice and flat-- and perfectly round.

 I set aside the larger cookies, and I taste tested a smaller one.

..and I smiled, and moaned, and devoured the rest of the cookie with glee. This cookie brought out the child in me, with the colors and the flavor of white cake!

TASTING NOTES:  There is a perfect balance of vanilla and almond.  The flavors remind me of white cake. The edges of the cookies have a light crispness, and the inside of the cookie is chewy.  This cookie has moved up on my list of favorite sugar cookies.  My husband and son gobbled these up very quickly.  

The large cookies became ice cream sandwiches, filled with a Buttermint Ice Cream that I made.  I think traditional vanilla ice cream would do just fine.   These cookies are so good, served warm.  The next day, I figured out that 20 seconds in the microwave worked really well.  

You want these cookies in your life.  My husband says that people, at his job, would pay good money for these.  Hmmmm....

A printable recipe is at the end of this post.  If you can view the recipe card, then click here to be directed to Key Ingredient.

The winner of my Jeni's Ice Cream Recipe Book Giveaway is #15 (chosen by Random.org)...Joanne Bruno of "Eats Well With Others"!  Congratulations, Joanne.  Thanks for being such a loyal follower, and I hope you enjoy using Jeni's ice cream recipe!  Email me at foodiewife@gmail.com with your mailing address, so I can get this shipped off to you.






Buttermint Ice Cream with White Chocolate, From Jeni's Ice Cream

July 15th will be National Ice Cream Day, so I'm getting an early jump start. Truthfully, every day is a good day for ice cream-- rain or shine.   I have posted five egg custard style ice cream recipes, since I started my blog. I give credit to David Lebovitz's book, "The Perfect Scoop" for introducing me to egg custard style ice cream.  It's one of my favorites. This book remains one of my favorite places to find flavor inspirations.

But, wait! I have a new "favorite" reference book for ice cream-- Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams At Home.   I've seen blog posts, that rave about Jeni's Ice Cream.  California is a long way from Ohio, so I've never had the pleasure of experiencing them myself.  My Reader's Digest Condensed cookbook review is this-- the majority of the ice cream flavors are completely out-of-the box!  To name a few: Chamomile Chardonnay, Sweet Corn & Black Raspberry, Olive Oil with Sea-Salted Pepitas, Gorgonzola Dolce with Candied Walnuts. and Goat Cheese and Roasted Cherry.  For those who don't find think these sound appealing (I do, I do!) there's salted caramel, milk chocolate, mint chocolate chip-- and lots more.  I rest my case.

I've been told that Jeni's ice creams are pricey.  I can understand why.  She uses organic, top-of-the-line quality ingredients.  It's a lovely book, with lovely photos of each ice cream recipe.

Each recipe has been created and tested specifically for a home ice cream maker. If you don't own an ice cream maker, or yours is gathering dust in a future garage sale box-- now is the time to dig it out!  I'm a fan of Haagen Dasz commercially made ice cream.  Making your own ice cream isn't as much hard work as you might think, especially if you buy an ice cream maker that doesn't require ice and salt..  Creating your very own flavors is even more gratifying-- as I've done with Lemon Curd Ice Cream, Pumpkin Pie Custard and Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

Jeni's recipe doesn't include eggs.  Instead, she uses cream cheese, corn syrup and a cornstarch slurry. In her stores, she uses tapioca starch, but she says that cornstarch is a fine substitute and easier to find.  She says that this prevents crystallization when the ice cream freezes.

 Cream cheese, sea salt & turmeric, whisked together

I enjoyed reading about how Jeni arrived at her recipe, and I bookmarked several flavors.   The first one I made is this "Savannah Buttermint" flavor.  Whenever I see the packaged mints at restaurants, I grab a couple.
 I love that buttery mint flavor, and how they dissolve in my mouth.  That's what this ice cream tastes like.  I love white chocolate, so this would be the maiden voyage Jeni's Ice Cream recipe for me!

Right out of the gate, I ran into on stumbling block-- I didn't have "natural butter flavor" nor "pure peppermint essential oil".  I did, however, have Loranns Buttery Sweet Dough Flavor and pure peppermint extract.  That will have to do.

Tumeric is used to give the ice cream a soft, yellow color.  (I keep turmeric to make yellow rice, and it's a cheap substitute for saffron.)

The base uses whole milk, heavy cream, sugar and light corn syrup. (2 Tablespoons of the milk is whisked with cornstarch, and set aside.)

Bring the mixture to a rolling boil (and don't walk away, like I did-- the milk almost boiled over!) This is important-- boil for four minutes.  Then, remove from heat...

...and whisk in the cornstarch slurry.

Bring the mixture back to a boil, then stir with a heatproof spatula until slightly thickened; about one minute.

Gradually add the hot mixture to the cream cheese mixture...

...then carefully pour the mixture into a 1-Gallon ZipLoc Freezer Bag and submerge the bag into an ice bath.

It takes about 30 minutes for the mixture to cool, as long as you use plenty of ice.  I wonder if I could just put the hot mixture into the refrigerator?  I'm not sure.  I rarely stray from a recipe's directions, the first time.  I might test this, but today, I'm following directions.

I was disappointed to discover that in my vast collection of chocolates, I did not have a bar of white chocolate.  I had to use white chocolate chips, and I don't recommend that.  You see, chips have an additive that makes melting them not very easy to do.  Trust me, stick with chopping chocolate. I forged on, and did my best to melt it over a pot of simmering water.  While I struggled with that...


...I grabbed the ice cream bowl from my freezer (I no longer use the ice & salt method), but off the corner of the chilled mixture and squeezed it into the ice cream maker-- and let it churn.  I added 1 Tablespoon of the Buttery Sweet Dough Butter Flavor and 1/4 teaspoon of peppermint extract... tasting and adding more, until 1 teaspoon seemed just right.   (I didn't want the peppermint to overpower the butter flavor.)

When you slowly drizzle melted chocolate into churning ice cream, it will break off into flecks.  In my case, though, I got chunks.  Ah well, I love white chocolate, so chunks will have to do.

I took about 25 minutes, before I could hear the ice cream machine slowing down.  I took my first taste....

 ...and I did a Happy Dance!  Creamy. Rich. Buttery. Slightly Minty.  I got a taste of white chocolate.

I hid the ice cream way in the back of the freezer.  The wait for the ice cream to freeze had begun...

The next day... the ice cream needs to sit out for about 15 minutes.  It was firm, but not icy or rock hard.  Amen.    I loved the pretty light yellow color, too!

TASTING NOTES:   David Lebovitz, move over.  Jeni's in town!  You cannot distinguish the cream cheese flavor at all.  What you taste is creamy ice cream, that has a velvety mouth feel, and it's not super sweet.  This ice cream flavor tastes just like buttermint!  I love white chocolate.  If you don't, leave it out, and I think the flavor would still be great.

What perfect timing, when I spotted a recipe for "Funfetti Cookies".  I will post the recipe for these cookies, next, because you will want to make them.  I had this idea that the cookies would be a perfect complement to the ice cream.


My hunch was right.   Craig and I enjoyed our ice cream sandwich!

Would you like your own copy of this book?  If you love ice cream, and want to make your own, I'm giving away a copy to one lucky reader.  All you have to do is leave a comment, on my blog, and think up an ice cream flavor you would like to make.   That's right, I'm asking you for inspiration.  Sweet? Savory? Or something as simple as chocolate....or chocolate with....?  

I'll give you one more entry if you follow me on Twitter and tweet my giveaway-- please leave a comment that you've done so.  If you aren't following me on my Facebook Fan Page, and you do so, please come back and let me know-- and there's one more entry.    You can earn a total of three entries, this way.

My giveaway will close on Friday, at 4pm.  I will randomly choose a winner.  I hate to do this, but I can only ship to the Continental United States.   GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED. THE WINNER WILL BE POSTED WITH MY NEXT RECIPE.

Good luck!  I can't wait to hear our ice cream flavor ideas!

A printable recipe card is at the end of this post, so keep scrolling down; or click here to view it.





Cranberry White Chocolate Almond Cookies for the Secret Recipe Club


It's time again, to reveal a recipe that I've chosen for the Secret Recipe Club. Once a month, members are assigned a blog to peruse, and to choose a recipe, make it and blog it.  It's a really fun way to discover new blogs.

The fun part is that we keep our assigned blog a secret until the reveal day.  When I found out that I was assigned to "Through the Bugs on my Windshield", I cracked a big smile.  Suzanne has been a very loyal follower of my blog, and she's one of the sweetest people you'll ever meet. She's a Texas gal, who is quite the photographer. She's a wife, mom, and traveler.  Her blog name is derived from her saying "Life is like a windshield-- there's gonna be a few bug splats along the way".

Suzanne has a wide assortment of recipes, and it was hard for me to hone down my final choice.  Her Bacon and Bleu Cheese Dressing/Dip would have been something my men would love to sink their teeth into.  Then, I spotted the Southwestern Chicken Tortilla Stew. That's right up my alley. Her Southwestern Stuffed Poblanos is what I decided to make....

...and then I realized, that as much as I love baking cookies, I haven't made any in a long time.  So another savory recipe will have to wait, while I switch over to baking something sweet.  My husband always appreciates having some cookies to toss in his lunch box, and my son is known to eat a few at a time.  So, when I spied the Cranberry White Chocolate Almond Cookies, and realized that I had all of the ingredients on hand, this was my SRC choice for the month.

Cranberries and white chocolate does sound like a winter Christmas cookie combination. But, I use dried cranberries year-round.  (I stock up on them to make my homemade Cranberry-Almond granola.)  I love white chocolate.  Combine that with any kind of almond flavor, and I'm sold. 

The batter is similar to a traditional chocolate chip cookie recipe, except that this one uses all brown sugar. 

I debated between using pecans vs. almonds, but decided to use some toasted almonds-- and I ramped up the almond flavor by adding some almond extract and some vanilla extract.

While the oven preheated to 350F, I chilled the dough; then scooped the cookie dough onto parchment paper.

Eleven minutes later, they were baked to golden.

This recipe made 3 1/2 dozen.  For my own sake, so that I don't become a cookie monster, they are boxed up and ready to go to my husband's office.  I'm sure they'll be appreciate by his co-workers.

TASTING NOTES:  Cranberry and white chocolate are a great pairing.  If you like a soft cookie, that has a perfect balance of butter flavor, brown sugar, tart cranberries and just the right amount of white chocolate-- this cookie is for you.  I'd make these again, but I have to admit-- I'm a much bigger fan of cookies that are crispy on the outside and chewy in the middle.  I'm not saying these aren't good cookies, because they are.  I'm just going to tweak the recipe a little bit, next time, with a combo of butter and shortening, to get that "crispy-chewy" combo that I love so much.   

A printable recipe card is at the end of this post. If you can't view it, then click here.  At the very bottom, you'll find even more recipes from the rest of Group B, for the Secret Recipe Club.










 
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