Well, it has been quite a while, hasn’t it? Sorry for the hiatus, but life is funny like that sometimes. Things are starting to calm down again, so I *should* be updating more regularly. Once again, my apologies.
Theses cookies are great–they’ve got a little bit of everything (hence the name) but without being too sweet. All of the flavors work together nicely and none of them over power one another.
The Everything Cookie Clusters
Yield: 2 dozen
Ingredients:
- 1/2 stick salted butter, room temp
- 1/2 c peanut butter
- 1/2 c sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 c flour
- 1 c oats
- 1/2 c raisins
- 1 c semi-sweet chocolate chips
Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, cream butter, peanut butter, sugar, and eggs.
2) Mix in cinnamon, baking soda, and vanilla. Stir well. Hand stir in oats, raisins, and chocolate chips.
3) Spoon onto a cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Cookies will start to brown slightly, but not much. Lightly lift up the cookies and if the bottoms are completely cooked, then so is the rest of the cookie. It only took me 10 minutes though, so it really shouldn’t take much longer than that (unless you have a weird oven).
I love muffins in the morning. You can just pick one up and eat it on the go and they’re so simple to make. These muffins remind me a bit of coffee cake because of the crunchy stuff on the top. You can use either walnuts or oats for the topping. I prefer oats.
Cinnamon-Apple Muffins
Yield: about 16 muffins
Ingredients:
Muffins
- 1 and 1/2 cups flour
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 salt
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp cloves
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 stick salted butter, melted
- 1 diced medium tart apple
Topping
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1/2 cup uncooked oats
- 3 Tbsp sugar
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp nutmeg
- 2 Tbsp cold butter, cut
Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients for the muffins. In a separate bowl, combine eggs, sour cream, and butter. Stir into dry ingredients until well mixed. Fold in apple.
2) Pour batter into prepared muffin tins. Set aside. In a small bowl, combine all ingredients for topping and cut in cutter with two knives or a pastry cutter. The topping will be crumbly. Sprinkle over muffins and bake at 375 degrees for about 20-25 minutes, until an inserted knife comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before handling.
These are quite tasty. They remind me of a Reese’s cup in cookie form, which is why I guess I like them so much (Reese’s are my favorite!). They’re fun to make too, but the dough tends to dry out if you handle it too much, so work quickly! Also, the peanut butter part needs to chill for about a half hour before you use it, so make it up a little before you make the chocolate part.
Chocolate-Peanut Butter Surprise! Cookies
Yield: about 2 dozen
Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup peanut butter
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 stick salted butter, soft
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
- 1 egg white
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 and 1/4 cup flour (you might need a little more)
- 3/4 cup baking cocoa
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
Directions:
1) In a small bowl, combine peanut butter and powdered sugar. It will be crumbly. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for about 20-30 minutes.
2) Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a different bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in egg white and vanilla. Combine flour, cocoa, and baking soda and gradually add to butter mixture.
3) Roll chocolate dough into balls that are about 1 and 1/2 or 2 inches big. Flatten. Roll smaller balls of the peanut butter mixture and place in the center of each chocolate circle. Fold chocolate up and around the peanut butter, sealing all edges. Flatten the dough once more using the bottom of a glass, until it is about 1/4-1/2 inch thick. Bake at 375 degrees for approximately 10 minutes.
These simple, buttery cookies go great with just about any kind of tea. They’re delicate and just melt in your mouth. The fresh lemon juice and lemon zest gives it a little bit of a zip but the sugar keeps them sweet.
Lemon Tea Cookies
Ingredients:
- 1 and a half sticks salted butter, soft
- 1/3 cup sugar (maybe 1/2 cup if you like them to be sweeter)
- juice from 1 lemon
- zest form 1 lemon
- 1/2 cup cornstarch
- 1 and 1/4 cups flour
Directions:
1) In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Slowly beat in flour and cornstarch until well combined. Beat in lemon juice and zest. Shape dough into a log that is 2 inches in diameter. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 45 minutes. Be careful not to handle the dough too much.
2) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Unwrap dough and slice, about 1/4 inch thick. Bake for 10 minutes, until edges are golden brown. Cool completely on a wire rack.
I love how light and fluffy cheesecake is. And it’s surprisingly easy to make. You can substitute other flavors for lime, if you prefer. Or leave out the fruit juice all together and just have a plain cheesecake. Yumm. I find this recipe tastes the best when you use fresh lime juice, but if you’d rather just use the kind that comes out of the bottle, you should use about 1/4 or 1/3 cup juice.
Lime Cheesecake
Yield: about 8 servings
Ingredients:
- 1 prepared graham cracker pie crust
- 2 pkgs (8 ounces each) cream cheese, cubed
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 Tbsp flour
- 3 eggs, beaten
- 1 cup sour cream
- juice from 4 limes
- grated zest from 4 limes
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In large bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Mix in sugar and flour. Add eggs; beat on low speed just until combined. Stir in the sour cream, lime juice, zest, and vanilla. Pour into crust.
2) Place in a large baking pan and add about an inch of hot water to the pan. Bake at 350° for 40-45 minutes or until center is just set and top appears dull. Cool on a wire rack for about an hour. Chill overnight.