Big Soft Ginger Cookies

I never really liked molasses or ginger cookies, but they kind of grow on you. I think if you keep eating molasses little by little in baked goods, you acquire the taste for it. The texture of this cookie is amazing.. I wish all cookies had this texture-- just perfectly soft and chewy. If you like ginger cookies/molasses cookies, then I would definitely recommend you trying these. I got the recipe from allrecipes.com and they had over 850 reviews and five stars, so I had to give it a go. Of course, I played with recipe like always.. Here it is!

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup shortening
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon water
1/4 cup molasses
2 tablespoons white sugar

Directions:
1.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Set aside.
2.) In a large bowl, cream together the butter, shortening, and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then stir in the water and molasses. Gradually stir the sifted ingredients into the molasses mixture. Shape dough into walnut sized balls, and roll them in the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar. Place the cookies 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet, and flatten slightly.
3.) Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

Chocolate Crinkles

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I went over to the Wrights' house for the usual massive amount of delicious food. I'm so thankful to have them in my life, along with my family and friends. I baked chocolate crinkles to bring with me... The texture was good, I would definitely bake these for the recommended amount of time. I usually underbake all my cookies cause I like chewy ones, but I wouldn't do that to these. Also, I would cut down the amount of sugar by 1/4 cup the next time I bake these because they came out super sweet.

Ingredients:
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup confectioners sugar

Directions:

1.) In a medium bowl, mix together cocoa, white sugar, and vegetable oil. Beat in eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt; stir into the cocoa mixture. Cover dough, and chill for at least 4 hours.
2.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease the cookie sheets. Roll dough into one inch balls. Coat each ball in confectioners sugar before placing onto prepared cookie sheets.
3.) Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes. Let stand on the cookie sheet for a minute before transferring to wire racks to cool.

Banana Crumb Muffins

I had some ripe bananas to get rid of, even after my peanut butter and banana sandwich I made myself last night. In the college life, you learn to try and eat all of your food so that it doesn't go bad when you go home for the holidays. I always love a streusel/crumb topping on just about everything, so I thought I'd give this recipe a shot. It left my apartment smelling wonderful in the morning :) I also used Earth Balance in replace of the butter to make it vegan. Seriously.. what's up with all this vegan baking? Oh well.. these did taste amazing.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 bananas, mashed
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten (I replaced this with 1/4 cup applesauce)
1/3 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter

Directions:

1.) Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease 10 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.
2.) In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
3.) In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.
4.) Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

Good ol' Chocolate Chip Cookies

Mmmm... who doesn't love chocolate chip cookies? And you can't even tell they're vegan! I'm also learning how to take pictures of food - it's all about the lighting and angle. Anyways, my vegan friend invited me over for dinner tonight, and I never like to come empty handed. Hence, the vegan chocolate chip cookies. He makes dinner, I bake dessert.. works out nicely. I can never leave a recipe how it is.. I always end up tweaking it just a bit to make it how I like it. The original recipe is from vegweb.com, but here's my version of these delicious chewy cookies!

Ingredients:
1 cup cold vegan buttery spread
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup applesauce (you can sub this for a mashed banana)
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 bag vegan chocolate chips (about 6 ounces)

Directions:
1.) Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

2.) Stir the vegan buttery spread around in a medium sized mixing bowl to soften it up. Add the 1 cup sugar, and stir the two ingredients together very well. It will look creamy.

3.) Add the brown sugar, stir together again. Add the applesauce and vanilla, and (you guessed it!) stir together once more.

4.) Now add all the dry ingredients, excluding the chocolate chips, at once and mix together quickly. Try not to over-mix. Mix in the chocolate chip. Chill the dough for about 15 minutes, this helps from keeping the cookies from thinning out so much while being baked.

5.) Drop spoonful of cookies onto the cookie sheet at least an inch apart. Bake for 9-11 minutes at 375. Let cool slightly on the baking sheet, and then remove and let cool completely on wax paper.

Gingerbread Men

I cannot wait for Christmas! It's definitely my favorite holiday and I already bought a mini 4 feet Christmas tree for our apartment and put it up yesterday. :) What goes best with a Christmas tree? Gingerbread men! It kind of looks like they've been decorated by a little kid, but keep in mind I have no cookie cutters at my apartment and no toothpicks to decorate with! I had to hand cut these out with a knife and wing it with the icing. I adapted a recipe to my liking.

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons molasses
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:
1.) Cream the butter and the sugar together. Add the egg and mix well. Mix in molasses. Add the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, ground cloves and salt, mixing until well combined. Chill dough for at least 2 hours.
2.) Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Grease cookie sheets. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough out to 1/4 inch thick. Cut into desired shapes using cookie cutters. Place cookies 1 inch apart on the prepared cookie sheets.
3.) Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until cookies are firm and lightly toasted on the edges.

This really is my go-to gingerbread recipe. I like to under bake mine just a bit and let them sit on the cookie pan for a minute or two after they are taken out of the oven. I used a basic royal icing recipe to decorate the cookies with, but they taste marvelous plain! The cookie dough is delicious, too... that's the best part of baking cookies!

Baked Mac n' Cheese

I know, I know, I haven't posted enough desserts to be posting real food yet.. but mac n' cheese is baked so I figured I'd be able to post it here. :) Nothing beats good ol' comfort food!

Ingredients:
8 oz Elbow Macaroni
1/4 cup of butter
3 tbsp AP flour
1/4 tsp dry mustard
1/8 tsp black ground pepper
1/8 tsp salt
2 cups milk
4 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
3/4 cup of Cheez-It® brand crackers
1/2 tsp paprika

Directions:
1.) Cook elbow macaroni for 5 minutes. Drain, cover, and set aside. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.) In medium saucepan, melt the butter. Blend in flour, mustard, pepper, and salt. Cook mixture until smooth and bubbly. Gradually add milk. Cook and continually stir until mixture boils. Simmer for a minute.
3.) Gradually mix in 3 cups of shredded cheese. Stir over low heat until all the cheese is melted.
4.) Add pasta to melted cheese mix and stir together. Pour into 2 quart greased casserole dish. (I just used an 8x8 pan cause that's all I had) Top with remaining cheddar cheese.
5.) Crush the 3/4 cup of Cheez-It®'s and spread evenly over the mac and cheese mixture. Sprinkle paprika over the top.
6.) Bake for about 30 minutes.

Peanut Butter Cupcakes, Vegan Style.

Having vegan friends sure does make you step outside your normal comfort of baking. I mean, I would've probably never used flax seeds in my entire life if it hadn't been for vegan recipes. I've had a lot of successful recipes from the PPK, and decided it was about time for me to attempt my first recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I topped it off with some melted vegan chocolate chips and dusted them with some powdered sugar. I love how something so simple can make desserts look so elegant. I'd give it 4 out of 4 stars... for being vegan. I just can't seem to acquire the taste to love vegan desserts as much as I love my normal, full of dairy, desserts. But they definitely tasted a lot better completely cooled and left to sit for a couple hours rather than straight out of the oven. Anyways, without further ado, here's the recipe:

Peanut Butter Cupcakes
Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz

Ingredients:
3/4 cup soy milk
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup natural chunky peanut butter (i used creamy)
1/3 cup canola oil
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tbs dark molasses
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp ground flaxseed
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons AP flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Directions:
1.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin pan with cupcake liners.
2.) Mix soy milk and vinegar in a measuring cup and set aside to curdle.
3.) In a large mixing bowl, cream the peanut butter, oil, sugar, molasses, vanilla, and ground flaxseeds until well combined. Add the soy milk mixture and mix until incorporated.
4.) Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a separate bowl and mix. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix until just combined.
5.) Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full. Bake for 23-26 minutes. Remove from oven and transfer to cooling racks.