Joanne Fluke's Lake Eden Cookbook
Page 10
Andrea chuckled. “And then they tasted it. And Mother asked me if I’d added some chopped nuts to the recipe.”
“And Andrea said no, she’d followed my recipe exactly. But everyone agreed that there was something crunchy in the lemon filling.”
“Then I said, No, that was probably the eggshells,” Andrea confessed, “And maybe I should have broken them up before I stirred the whole eggs into the lemon filling.”
There was silence for a moment, and then everyone started to laugh. Andrea laughed the hardest of all, and Hannah was glad she was no longer embarrassed about her baking mistake.
“I’ve got one, too. It’s the reason I haven’t tackled a cookie recipe again,” Claire announced.
“What happened?” Lisa asked her.
“It was the first cookie recipe Grandma Knudson ever gave me,” Claire told them, glancing over to smile at her new husband’s grandmother. “Bob was taking Grandma to the doctor and I promised them that I was going to bake cookies while they were gone.
“I read through the recipe, got out all the ingredients, and got ready to do the first step. It said, Cream the butter with the sugars, and that stopped me cold.”
“But why?” Alice asked the question.
“Because it didn’t say how much cream to use!” Claire said.
Hannah started to laugh. She couldn’t help it. It was true that some baking terminology could be confusing.
“Did Grandma bake your cookies for today?” Carrie asked sympathetically.
Claire shook her head. “My friend Leigh sent me a recipe that’s so easy even I can make it. They’re called Lime Balls, and they’re really good.”
“How about you, Andrea?” Carrie asked. “Did Hannah bake yours?”
“No, I did,” Andrea looked proud. “You told me you really liked the lemon cookies I brought last year, the ones made from the cake mix, so I changed the recipe and experimented a little, and they’re called Double Chocolate Puffs.”
As the ladies began to discuss the cookies they’d brought for the cookie exchange, Hannah poured more coffee while Lisa sliced the cheesecake and served it. It was really too bad their youngest sister, Michelle, wasn’t here. She was crazy about cheesecake, and she baked like a dream. She’d told Hannah she would try to make it now that Macalester College was in recess for the holidays, but obviously something had come up and she hadn’t caught the early morning bus from Minneapolis.
Hannah turned around at the sound of footsteps on the stairs. “Michelle!” she called out. “You’re just in time for Tapioca Cheesecake.”
“Great! I could use a gallon of hot coffee, too. The bus got stuck just outside of Elk River and we had to wait for a replacement bus.” Michelle held up a large tote bag. “I’m lucky my cookies got here at all. We were still waiting for the second bus at lunchtime and I thought they’d suffer the same fate as some of the Donner party.”
“Michelle!” Delores chided her, but she was having trouble holding back a smile.
“Anyway. . . I need about a gallon of hot coffee and I’d love a piece of that cheesecake. And then I want to know what kind of cookies everyone brought.”
Cookie Exchange List of New Cookies & Bar Cookies
*Almond Fudge Cookies — Rose McDermott
*Bourbon Brownies — Bertie Straub
*Cranberry Pineapple Drop Cookies — Lisa Beeseman
*Chocolate Date Drops — Edna Ferguson
*Double Chocolate Puffs (Chocolate Whippersnappers)
— Andrea Todd
*Heavenly Eggnog Cookies — Alice Vogel
*Kiss My Grits Cookies — Hannah Swensen
*Leigh’s Lime Balls — Claire Rodgers Knudson
*Lemon Softies — Carrie Rhodes Flensburg
*Mincemeat Cookies — Grandma Knudson
*Minty Marvels — Florence Evans
*Norwegian Chocolate Pizza — Ellie Kuehne
*Raspberry Vanilla Swirls — Michelle Swensen
ALL-NIGHTER COOKIES
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F., rack in the middle position.
Hannah’s Note: Florence didn’t have any bananas and I ended up taking one of Edna’s shortcuts in this recipe. If you don’t like shortcuts and want to do this the original way, use cup very ripe, almost all black on the outside, pureed bananas instead of the baby food bananas and banana pudding mix. The other change you have to make is to use 4 cups flour instead of 3 and ½. The dough will be stickier and you’ll have to chill it for at least 4 hours in order to make the dough balls. I made these cookies both ways, and Mother was the only one who could tell the difference. (I still think it was a lucky guess.)
1 and ½ cups melted butter (3 sticks, 12 ounces, ¾ pound)
1 cup white (granulated) sugar
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 beaten eggs (just whip them up with a fork)
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup baby food mashed bananas (I used Gerber)
5.1 ounce package banana cream pudding mix (NOT sugar-
free) (I used Jell-O, 6-serving package.)
3 and ½ cups flour (no sifting – pack it down in the cup
when you measure)
1 cup chopped nuts (I used salted peanuts)
2 cups peanut butter chips (one 10-ounce package will do
just fine)
½ cup white (granulated) sugar for later
Melt the butter in large microwave bowl. Stir in the sugars, beaten eggs, baking soda, and salt.
Measure out a half-cup of baby food bananas and add them, along with the package of dry pudding mix. (Make sure your baby food bananas don’t have anything else, like cereal, added to them!)
Mix in the flour by one-cup increments. Add the nuts and then the peanut butter chips. Stir until everything is incorporated.
Roll the dough into walnut-sized balls with your hands. (If it’s too sticky, chill it for 30 minutes or so, and try again.)
Put ½ cup white sugar in a small bowl and roll the balls in it. Place the dough balls on a greased cookie sheet, 12 to a standard-sized sheet. Press them down with the heel of your hand, or with a metal spatula sprayed with Pam or other nonstick cooking spray.
Bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes at 350 degrees F., or until they’re lightly golden in color. Let them cool for 2 minutes on the cookie sheet and then move them to a wire rack to finish cooling.
These cookies freeze well. Roll them up in foil, and place the rolls in a freezer bag.
Michelle asked for this recipe after Lonnie Murphy tasted them at The Cookie Jar. She says she’s going to freeze some so he’ll have them when he visits her, but she’s going to mark the package “Raw Fish Patties” so her roommates won’t get into them.
Yield: Approximately 8 to 10 dozen, depending on cookie size.
*ALMOND FUDGE COOKIES
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F., rack in the middle position.
2 cups melted butter (4 sticks, 16 ounces, one pound)
4 one-ounce squares semi-sweet chocolate (I used Baker’s)
2 cups powdered sugar (not sifted)
1 cup white (granulated) sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
4 and ¼ cups flour (not sifted – pack it down when you
measure it)
½ cup white sugar in a small bowl (for later)
7 to 8 dozen blanched almonds (one to decorate each cookie)
Melt the butter and chocolate squares in a saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly, or in the microwave. (I melted mine in a quart measuring cup in the microwave on HIGH for 3 minutes.) Once the butter and chocolate are melted, stir them smooth, transfer them to a large mixing bowl, and add the powdered and white sugars. Stir thoroughly and set the mixture aside to cool.
When the mixture is cool enough so it won’t cook the eggs, add the eggs, one at a
time, stirring after each addition. (You can use an electric mixer at this point if you like.) Then add in the almond and vanilla extracts, baking soda, and salt. Mix it all up thoroughly.
Add the flour in half-cup increments, mixing after each addition. You don’t have to be precise – just divide your flour into roughly 4 parts. (One very important reason for adding flour in increments is so that the whole mountain of flour won’t sit there on top of your bowl and spill out all over the place when you try to stir it in.)
Once the dough has been thoroughly mixed, roll one-inch dough balls with your fingers. (You can also use a 2-teaspoon scooper to form the dough balls.) Dip the balls in the bowl of white sugar and roll them around until they’re coated.
Place the dough balls on a greased cookie sheet (I usually spray mine with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray), 12 dough balls to a standard-size sheet. Flatten the dough balls a bit with your impeccably clean palm so that they won’t roll off the cookie sheet on the way to the oven. (Oh, yes. That’s happened to me!) Press one almond into the center of each cookie.
Bake the Almond Fudge Cookies at 325 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes. (Mine took 12 minutes.) Cool them on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes, and then remove the cookies to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Yield: Approximately 7 to 8 dozen mouth-watering cookies.
ALMOND KISSES
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F., rack in the middle position.
1 and ½ cups melted butter (3 sticks)
2 cups white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
cup molasses (2 Tablespoons)
1 and ½ teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt (if you use salted almonds, cut the salt to ½
teaspoon)
1 and ½ cups finely ground almonds (grind them up in
your food processor with the steel blade – they don’t
have to be blanched)
2 beaten eggs (just whip them up with a fork)
4 cups flour (no need to sift)
13-ounce bag Hershey’s Kisses (or small squares of milk
chocolate)
Microwave the butter in your mixing bowl to melt it. Add the sugar, vanilla and almond extracts, and molasses. Stir until it’s blended, then add the baking soda, baking powder and salt. Mix well.
Grind up the almonds in your food processor. Measure AFTER grinding. Add them to the bowl and mix. Pour in the beaten eggs and stir. Then add the flour and mix until all the ingredients are thoroughly blended.
Let the dough firm up for a few minutes. Then form it into walnut-sized balls and arrange them on a greased cookie sheet, 12 to a standard sheet.
Cut the Hershey’s Kisses in half (from the top down, so that each half has a point and a base.) Press the halves into the middle of your cookie balls, cut side down. They’ll look pretty on top as a yummy decoration. If you want to splurge a little, press a whole Hershey’s Kiss into the center of the dough ball, base down and point sticking up. (If you do splurge, you’ll need double the amount of Hershey’s Kisses or squares of chocolate. If your kids help you unwrap the Kisses, you should probably triple the amount!)
Bake at 350 degrees F. for 10 minutes, or until the edges are just beginning to turn golden. (Don’t worry – The Hershey’s Kisses won’t melt.) Cool on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes and then remove to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Yield: Makes 10 to 12 dozen cookies – if that’s too many, just cut the whole recipe in half. And if you have any Kisses left over, the baker deserves a treat!
ANGEL KISSES
Preheat oven to 275 degrees F., rack in the middle position.
(That’s two hundred seventy-five degrees F., not a misprint)
3 egg whites (save the yolks in the refrigerator to add to
scrambled eggs)
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup white (granulated) sugar
2 Tablespoons flour (that’s cup)
approximately 30 Hershey’s Kisses, unwrapped (or any other small chocolate candy)
Separate the egg whites and let them come up to room temperature. This will give you more volume when you beat them.
Prepare your cookie sheets by lining them with parchment paper (works best) or brown parcel-wrapping paper. Spray the paper with Pam or other nonstick cooking spray and dust it lightly with flour.
Hannah’s Note: These are a lot easier to make with an electric mixer, but you can also do them by hand with a copper bowl and a whisk.
Beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar, vanilla, and salt until they are stiff enough to hold a soft peak. Add the cup of sugar gradually, sprinkling it in by quarter cups and beating hard for ten seconds or so after each sprinkling. Sprinkle in the flour and mix it in at low speed, or fold in with an angel food cake whisk.
Drop little mounds of dough on your paper-lined cookie sheet. If you place four mounds in a row and you have four rows, you’ll end up with 16 cookies per standard-size sheet.
Place one Hershey’s Kiss, point up, in the center of each mound. Push the candies down, but not all the way to the bottom. (You don’t want the chocolate to actually touch the parchment paper.) Drop another little mound of meringue on top of the candy to cover it up.
Bake at 275 degrees F. for approximately 40 minutes, or until the meringue part of the cookie is slightly golden and dry to the touch.
Cool on the paper-lined cookie sheet by setting it on a wire rack. When the cookies are completely cool, peel them carefully from the paper and store them in an airtight container in a dry place. (A cupboard shelf is fine, just NOT the refrigerator!)
Yield: 3 to 4 dozen cookies with a nice chocolate surprise in the center.
BLACK AND WHITES
DO NOT preheat oven, dough must chill before baking.
2 cups chocolate chips (12-ounce package)
¾ cup butter (1 and ½ sticks)
2 cups brown sugar (or white sugar with a scant 2 Table-
spoons molasses mixed in)
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour (not sifted — pack it down in the cup when you
measure it)
½ cup powdered (confectioner’s) sugar in a small bowl
for later
Melt the chocolate chips with the butter. (Microwave on high power for 2 minutes, then stir until smooth.)
Mix in the sugar and let the mixture cool.
Add the eggs, one at the time, mixing well after each addition.
Mix in the vanilla extract, baking powder, and salt.
Add the flour, one cup at a time, mixing after each addition.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill the dough for at least 4 hours. (Overnight is even better.)
When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F., rack in the middle position.
Roll walnut-sized dough balls with your hands. (Messy - wear plastic gloves if you wish.) Drop the dough balls into a bowl with the powdered sugar and roll them around until they’re coated. (If the dough gets too warm, stick it back in the refrigerator until you can handle it again.)
Place the dough balls on a greased cookie sheet, 12 to a standard sheet. (They will flatten when they bake.)
Bake the cookies at 350 degrees F. for 12 to 14 minutes. Cool on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes, then remove to wire rack to cool completely.
Yield: Approximately 5 to 6 dozen, depending on cookie size.
BOGGLES
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F., rack in the middle position.
2 cups butter (4 sticks, 16 ounces, 1 pound)
2 cups brown sugar
2 cups white (granulated) sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
4 eggs, beaten (just whip them up in a glass with a fork)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg (freshly ground is best)
4 cups flour (pack it down in the cup when you measure it)
3 cups sweetened dried cranberries (Craisins or another
brand)33
3 cups rolled oats (uncooked oatmeal - I used Quaker Quick
1-Minute)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter in large microwave-safe bowl. Add sugars and let cool a bit. Add the baking powder, baking soda, salt, eggs, vanilla, and spices. Add flour and mix. Then add the cranberries and oats, and mix everything up. The dough will be quite stiff.
Drop by teaspoon onto a greased cookie sheet, 12 cookies to a sheet.
Bake at 350 degrees F. for 12 to 15 minutes. Cool on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes. Remove to rack until cool.
Yield: 10 to 12 dozen, depending on cookie size.
These freeze well if you roll them in foil and put them in a freezer bag.
BUTTE R-SCOTCHIES
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F., rack in the middle position.
1 cup butter (2 sticks, ½ pound – melted)
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white (granulated) sugar
2 eggs – beaten (just whip them up in a glass with a fork)
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups flour (don’t sift – pack it down in the cup when you
measure it)
2 cups butterscotch chips (an 11-ounnce package will do
just fine)
1 and ½ cups rolled oats (uncooked oatmeal – I used
Quaker Quick 1-Minute rolled oats)
Melt the butter in a large microwave-safe bowl. (About 90 seconds on HIGH.)