(This will be sort of a quick read, and I’ll be back at noon today with one more post!)

When I posted about my whipped-cream-is-healthier-than-butter-and-syrup revelation recently, I got some questions about how to whip cream.

It’s actually really easy and doesn’t require a lot of sugar. Plus, it’s cheaper than whipped cream in a spray can, more real than Cool Whip, and less trash-producing than either of those.

My method is nothing fantastic…it’s just the basic whipped cream recipe from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook.

(incidentally, I highly recommend having one of those in your kitchen.  It’s not full of fancy food, but it’s really, really great to have around for solid, basic recipes.)

So.  To make enough to top two recipe’s worth of pancakes, you need 1 cup of heavy whipping cream (light cream or half and half will NOT whip), 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, and 2 tablespoons of sugar.

Why yes, my cream is from Aldi.

I know some of you will wonder about the vanilla…I didn’t actually make that myself.   My sister-in-law, (you would know her as Adriana’s mom), made a bunch of jars and gave them to family members at Christmastime.  I’m definitely going to give it a try myself, though, because the vanilla is really good.

Just dump all those ingredients together in a mixer bowl and fit your mixer with a wire whisk attachment.  If you have time, you can stick your bowl and whisk in the freezer for 10 minutes or so, as cool temperatures help cream to whip better.

Mix on low speed for a minute or so, just to combine the ingredients, then mix on high until the cream is fluffy, like so.

If you don’t beat it enough, it’ll be a little soft. It should have a pleasant firmness in your mouth.

If you beat it too long, though, it’ll start to separate a bit. And if you beat it WAY too long, it’ll turn into butter (That takes a really long time. Trust me.)

I promise it’s not rocket science, though…just keep an eye on the cream as it whips. It should only take a couple of minutes.  And really, the degree of firmness is up to you, especially if you’re just putting dollops on top of waffles or pancakes!

Do you need something to top with whipped cream?  Here are a few recipes for you.

Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes

Buttermilk Waffles

Buttermilk Pancakes

When I’ve got fresh fruit, I like to pair that with the whipped cream, but I’ve also used frozen fruit successfully (the peaches up there on the whole wheat pancakes are local peaches that I sliced and froze this summer).  The key is not to thaw it to death…you want it to still be a little bit on the firm side.

Go make some breakfast food and whip up some cream for a change of pace from the usual syrup!  It’ll be delightful, I promise.

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Today’s 365 post: A page of awesome

Joshua’s 365 post: Movie Time!

Though I often tout chocolate pudding as a great way to use up slightly sour milk, and though I’ve posted at length about making homemade pudding pops, I have somehow neglected to post the actual pudding recipe here.

We’re going to rectify that today.

Homemade chocolate pudding requires only a short list of ingredients, all of which are pantry staples at my house…cocoa powder, sugar, salt, vanilla, cornstarch, and milk.

And thanks to my detailed calculations last summer, we know that it’s cheaper even than the $0.50 boxes of pudding mix at Aldi.

Ok!  Let’s get started.  First, measure the cocoa powder into a medium saucepan and whisk in just enough water to make a smooth paste.

Stir in the sugar and a pinch of salt.

Stir in all but 1/2 cup of the milk.

Heat the milk mixture over medium heat, stirring regularly.  If you are lucky, you can slough this task off onto some small people at your house.

While the milk is heating, mix the cornstarch with the remaining milk and set aside.

When the cocoa/milk mixture reaches a full boil, stir in the cornstarch/milk mixture, stirring constantly.

Bring the pudding back to a boil, stirring constantly, and boil for 1 minute.  The pudding should be noticeably thicker at this point.

Off the heat, stir in the vanilla extract.  Vanilla has more flavor if it’s not cooked, so that’s why we’re adding it now instead of earlier.

Pour the pudding into a bowl or into individual serving cups.   Of course, you can always dish it into individual bowls later on, but it looks neater if you do it while the pudding is warm.

Chill until completely cool.  Serve plain or topped with whipped cream and a cherry.

Or, you can use your pudding to make homemade pudding pops, which, as we discovered last year, are 50% less expensive than even Aldi’s pudding pops.

I almost always double this recipe, since 2 cups of pudding doesn’t go too far around here.

Homemade Chocolate Pudding

Printable Chocolate Pudding Recipe

2 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 cup sugar
pinch salt
2 cups milk, divided
3 tablespoons cornstarch
3/4 teaspoon vanilla

Measure cocoa powder into a saucepan. Whisk in enough water to make a smooth paste. Stir in sugar and salt. Add 1 1/2 cups milk, reserving 1/2 cup.

Heat cocoa/milk mixture over medium heat, stirring regularly, to boiling. Meanwhile, mix cornstarch and milk together.

When cocoa/milk mixture reaches a boil, whisk in cornstarch mixture, stirring constantly. Bring back to a boil and cook and stir for 1 minute.

Remove pudding from heat; stir in vanilla. Pour pudding into individual dishes or a large bowl. Cool to room temperature, then refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.

Makes 2 cups.

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Today’s 365 post:B  is for Betsy

Joshua’s 365 post: Colors

I saw this recipe on Money Saving Mom‘s menu plan last week, and decided to give it a try.  As I said yesterday, I’m sort of a slacker when it comes to making homemade desserts (especially in the summer when I don’t much feel like turning on the oven), but this looked so easy, I thought even I could get motivated to make it.

The first batch I made was just ok…it had sort of a weird flavor, and after a bite or two, I realized that the problem was a super-strong vanilla taste.  The recipe called for two teaspoons and that much vanilla in an unbaked product produces a really unpleasant vanilla overload.

So, for the next batch I made, I reduced the vanilla to 1/2 teaspoon, and the results were waaay better (and cheaper, too!  Vanilla’s kind of expensive).

This recipe is fairly customizable…you can use any type of nut butter you like, and you can vary a number of the other ingredients too. And since these are so simple to make and don’t require any heat, they’re a great project to do with kids.

First, mix the nut butter, honey, and vanilla together.

As I’m sure you know, measuring nut butter is kind of a pain since it sticks to everything.  To make this simpler and less messy, I put 1/2 cup of water into a measuring cup, add peanut butter until the water level reaches 1 cup, drain the water, and dump the peanut butter into my bowl.

This process looks exceedingly unappetizing, but it’s very not messy.

Ok.

Moving on.

(I thought about not putting the picture in there but then I thought that you might forget the measuring trick if you didn’t actually see it.)

So! Add the coconut, chocolate chips, and oatmeal to the peanut butter mixture.  If you have mini chocolate chips, I’d use those because they distribute better.  Regular chips work fine too, though.

Stir until it’s all nicely combined.

Place the bowl in the refrigerator for a half hour to make the dough easier to handle.

Take a tablespoon of dough, compress it into a ball shape, and roll it between your hands until it’s smooth.

If your balls are still pretty sticky, or if you just want to make them look fancier, you can roll them in coconut or wheat germ.

And that’s it!  You just eat these unbaked…it’s sort of like eating peanut butter/oatmeal cookie dough, except without the worry of raw eggs.  My kids love them, and as far as desserts go, I feel pretty happy about them eating these.  They may not be health food, but they’re definitely more nutritious than a lollipop.

I store ours in the fridge, but I don’t know if that would be completely necessary in the winter or in a colder air-conditioned house.

No-Bake Energy Balls
printable version

1/2 cup nut butter(almond butter, peanut butter, sunflower seed butter or any other nut or seed butter)
1/3 cup honey (I use a scant 1/3 cup)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
pinch of salt if using unsalted nut butter
1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut (or wheat germ)
1-2 tsp your favorite spices or spice combinations(optional-I haven’t done this)
1/2 C other add-ins(whole or roughly chopped nuts or seeds, dried fruit, chocolate chips, etc.)

In a medium bowl, stir together nut butter, honey, vanilla, and salt (if using).  Stir in oats, coconut, and add-ins.

Refrigerate mixture for 30 minutes. To make the balls, scoop out about a tablespoon of dough, press to compact, then roll into a ball.  Repeat with remaining dough.

Store in the fridge.

(recipe originally from FoodDoodles)

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Today’s 365 post: Mr. FG laughed at me

Joshua’s 365 post: Joshua is at his friend Thomas’ house, but I think he’s going to update his blog from there.

Every Wednesday (make that “occasionally”) I share a baking recipe. And lots of pictures of said baking recipe. I don’t call this Wednesday Baking because I bake solely on Wednesdays…no, my oven gets a workout much more frequently than once a week! Wednesday just happens to be the day I share baking recipes with you. All the past baking posts are archived in the Wednesday Baking category, which can also be found in a tab underneath my blog header.

Hi.

It’s me, here with a Wednesday Baking post.

Remember those?

It’s been a while.

Wednesday Baking posts are a lot of work, and so to maintain my sanity, I’ve kinda let them fall to the wayside.  Plus, I’ve shared most of my regularly-used baking recipes, so I’m a little lower on material than I was several years ago.

I’ve got a new one today, though…it’s a recipe I recently got from one of my sister-in-laws, and it’s so yummy, I have to share it with you!

It’s a bit of a twist on the usual sort of Rice Krispy treat, but it’s not much more difficult.

(incidentally, I met a kid recently who was amazed that you can make Rice Krispy treats at home.  Apparently, he’d only ever had the packaged kind!)

And happily, just like Rice Krispy treats, these require no baking, which makes them a perfect summer dessert.

To make the cereal base, start by melting together 1/4 cup of butter and 10 oz. of marshmallows (I like to use the small kind since they seem to melt more quickly).

You can do this in the microwave or on the stovetop.

Stir 3/4 cup of creamy peanut butter into the marshmallow mixture.  It’ll take some mixing, but the two do eventually become homogenous.

Measure 5 cups of rice cereal into a bowl (I usually use a generic brand), and pour the peanut butter marshmallow mixture over top.  Stir to combine.

This is a little bit difficult to do with just a spoon…I ended up mixing it with my hands some as well.  This would never work with regular Rice Krispy treats (it’s way too sticky!), but the peanut butter makes this mixture much less sticky.

Press the cereal into a greased 9×13 inch pan.

(I apologize for the boring picture…tan food on a tan table.  Yawn.)

Now for the frosting! You’ll need 1 cup of chocolate chips and 1 cup of butterscotch chips.

Microwave the chips, stirring often, until they’re melted. Actually, you could do this on the stovetop too…just take care to use low heat.

In my experience, butterscotch chips are a little stubborn when it comes to melting, so make sure you’ve got your frosting mixture thoroughly melted and mixed before you dump it out onto the bars.

Spread the frosting evenly over the bars.  If your house is cooler than mine, you can just let the frosting set up at room temperature.  At 78 degrees, though, I find that the frosting is a little too soft, so I’d recommend putting the bars in the fridge.

If you dislike butterscotch, I’m quite sure you could just frost these with 2 cups of chocolate chips instead.  The butterscotch does add a yummy flavor dimension to these bars, though, and that’s coming from someone who’s not normally a big butterscotch fan.

If you want more no-bake summer desserts, you’re in luck.  Here are a few from the archives (just click on the photo and the recipe will open…make sure to ctrl-click if you want it to open in a new window).

And here’s today’s recipe, with a printable PDF version.  Happy Un-Baking!

Peanut Butter-Butterscotch-Chocolate Cereal Bars
printable version

1/4 cup butter
10 oz. marshmallows
3/4 cup peanut butter
5 cups crisp rice cereal
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch chips

In a saucepan or in the microwave, melt butter and marshmallows together. Stir in peanut butter.

Combine marshmallow mixture and cereal in a large bowl. Mix thoroughly and press into a greased 9×13 inch pan.

Melt chocolate chips and butterscotch chips together (on the stovetop or in the microwave) and spread over top of cereal bars.

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Today’s 365 post: Just life

Joshua’s 365 post: Angry Birds

Every Wednesday (ok, most Wednesdays!) I share a baking recipe. And lots of pictures of said baking recipe. I don’t call this Wednesday Baking because I bake solely on Wednesdays…no, my oven gets a workout much more frequently than once a week! Wednesday just happens to be the day I share baking recipes with you. All the past baking posts are archived in the Wednesday Baking category, which can also be found in a tab underneath my blog header.

I showed these little cookies to you all on my 365 page (incidentally, if you don’t want to miss a 365 post, you can subscribe by email…just enter your email address on the right side of the 365 page), and today, I’m sharing the recipe.

My German grandmother, who’s been gone since Lisey was a baby, used to make these at Christmastime. I first remember eating them on an extended family skiiing vacation, and I was hooked.

These little cookies, which are Peppernuts in English, are flavored with multiple spices, but the strongest flavor comes from the anise extract. Anise sort of tastes like black jelly beans to me, so if you loathe those, you probably won’t be in love with this cookie. My siblings all hate Pfeffernusse, but Mr. FG and my kids adore them.

Here’s the small army of spices and extracts you’ll need.

The dough-making process is very simple, though.

First, cream butter and sugar together.  My grandma used lard, but since I don’t usually have lard around, butter it is.

Add milk (my grandma used half and half, I think, but I’ve used skim milk and everything in between with similar results), corn syrup, vanilla extract, almond extract, and anise extract.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour and spices together.

Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, and mix it up until the two are thoroughly combined.  Place the dough in an air-tight container and refrigerate overnight (or two days, if you’re like me and can’t get around to baking the cookies on the appropriate day!).

On the day you want to bake the cookies, heat your oven to 375° F.  Then take a portion of the dough and roll it into a pencil-like strip with the diameter of a nickel, like so.

You’ll need to make lots of dough logs.

I find these to be too soft to slice even if they’re refrigerated, so I like to put my logs into the freezer for about 15 minutes before I try to slice them.

If you’ve got kids who want to help in the kitchen, this is a good time to bring them in.  Joshua and Lisey, who can be trusted with a knife, cut the logs into slices, and Sonia and Zoe helped put the slices onto the cookie sheets.

These don’t expand a lot while they’re baking, so you can put them pretty close together on the cookie sheet.

Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the cookies are lightly browned.

If you remove the cookies right away, the bottoms of them tend to get kind of torn up, like the ones on the right.  But if you let them cool a bit, the bottoms will be much neater.

Of course, if you line your sheet with parchment paper, removing the cookies is a total piece of cake.

Once the pfeffernusse have cooled completely, you’ll want to store them in an airtight container so that they retain their crunchy quality.  I love this glass and stainless steel container I found at Goodwill…the only plastic is a flexible ring that sits on the outer neck of the glass part, so no plastic ever even touches the food.

Sweet.

Oh, and I should add that I usually make a half batch of these because if I make a whole batch, I grow very weary of the rolling and cutting process.  One time when I was a teenager I made a double batch, and that just about did me in.  Never again!

Grandma’s Pfeffernusse
Printable Pfeffernusse Recipe

2 cups sugar
3/4 cup lard or butter
1 1/2 cups white corn syrup
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons anise extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
7-7.5 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon cardamon
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Cream butter and sugar; beat in corn syrup, milk, and anise, vanilla, and almond extracts.

In a separate bowl, combine flour and the remaining dry ingredients.

Add dry ingredients to butter mixture, and mix until thoroughly combined. Place dough in an airtight container and refrigerate overnight.

Heat oven to 375. Roll portions of dough into pencil-like logs with the diameter of a nickel. Cut into 3/8 inch
slices and place on a baking sheet (you can line the baking sheet with parchment paper if you like). Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Let cool thoroughly, and store in an airtight container.

Today’s 365 post: Can you guess which one I made?

Also, go find out how to win an iPad from BlogHer. 

Every Wednesday (ok, most Wednesdays!) I share a baking recipe. And lots of pictures of said baking recipe. I don’t call this Wednesday Baking because I bake solely on Wednesdays…no, my oven gets a workout much more frequently than once a week! Wednesday just happens to be the day I share baking recipes with you. All the past baking posts are archived in the Wednesday Baking category, which can also be found in a tab underneath my blog header.

Today’s recipe comes from an old 90s Pillsbury cookbook, titled Healthy Baking. Personally, I think a more appropriate title for the book would have been “Low-Fat Baking” because Chocolate Cheesecake is never really healthy.  Broccoli can be healthy, oatmeal can be healthy, oranges can be healthy, but cheesecake?  Not so much.

It is yummy, though, and if you want cheesecake that comes with a slightly lower calorie bill, this one can work for you. It can also be made in a higher-calorie version, of course, as substituting full-fat products is rarely disastrous.

Now, the original recipe had a very pathetic crust which basically involved putting dry crumbs into a pie plate and then spraying them with non-stick cooking spray to hold them together.

In my die-hard low-fat days, I actually did that, but I have since decided a cheesecake deserves a more proper crust.  So, I now mix butter into my crumbs before patting them into the pie plate.

The filling has an unusual ingredient…ricotta cheese. I’ve used fat-free (which might not actually be food!), part-skim, and whole milk ricotta, and I can’t say there was a vast difference in the end product.

Undoctored ricotta isn’t nearly creamy enough for a cheesecake, though, so you’ll need to run it through a food processor.  If you don’t have a food processor, never fear…I’m including blender directions at the bottom of this post.  If you don’t have a food processor OR a blender, though, this is probably not the recipe for you.

Don’t skimp on this step…the ricotta needs to be quite smooth so that the cheesecake has the proper texture.

Next, add cream cheese (softened), cocoa powder, and sugar to the food processor bowl.

Process this mixture until it’s smooth.

Once you add the egg, you have to be careful not to overmix, so make sure the cream cheese is nicely incorporated before proceeding.

Add the milk, vanilla, and egg (s).  I’ve made this with two egg whites, one egg, and two eggs so far, and I think that the single egg works the best, with the 2 egg white option coming in at a close second. 2 eggs works, but the resulting cheesecake is a little bit softer.

Process this mixture until it’s smooth.

Pour it into the prepared crust.

And bake in a preheated 325° F oven for 45-55 minutes, or until the edges are firm.

Turn the oven off and let the cheesecake stand in the oven for 30 minutes with the door cracked at least 4 inches open.  I think this step is to help prevent cracking…I completely forgot about it when I made this particular cheesecake, and as you can see, it did indeed crack.

Cracks are only a visual concern, though, so don’t feel blue if yours happens to crack.

When the cheesecake finishes baking, it’ll be puffy, but as it cools, it’ll flatten out a lot, which is good…you want your cheesecake to be dense (at least, I do! Fluffy cheesecake is just not my thing.).

Let the cheesecake cool completely on the counter and then refrigerate it for several hours before serving.

The recipe suggests topping this with fruit, but I’m not a huge fan of a fruit and chocolate combo, so we usually enjoy our cheesecake unadorned.  You can certainly dress it up with fruit or whipped cream if you’d like, though.

Chocolate Cheesecake Pie
Printable Chocolate Cheesecake Recipe

Crust
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
6 tablespoons melted butter

Filling
1 15 oz container ricotta cheese (fat-free, light, or regular)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 8 oz. package cream cheese (fat-free, light, or regular)
1 egg or 2 egg whites
1/3 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla

Combine graham cracker crumbs and butter, and press into a 9-inch pie pan. Set aside.

In a food processor, blend ricotta cheese until smooth. Add sugar, cocoa powder, and cream cheese; process until smooth. Add egg, milk, and vanilla, and process just until blended.

Pour filling mixture into crust and bake in a preheated 350 F oven for 45-55 minutes, or until the edges are firm (center will be soft). Turn oven off and let cheesecake stand in oven for 30 minutes with the oven door cracked open at least 4 inches.

Remove cheesecake from oven; cool to room temperature on wire rack. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving.

Blender directions: Puree ricotta in a blender in two batches, adding half of the milk with each batch. Transfer the smooth ricotta to a mixer bowl and proceed with the recipe, using a standard mixer.

Every Wednesday (ok, most Wednesdays!) I share a baking recipe. And lots of pictures of said baking recipe. I don’t call this Wednesday Baking because I bake solely on Wednesdays…no, my oven gets a workout much more frequently than once a week! Wednesday just happens to be the day I share baking recipes with you. All the past baking posts are archived in the Wednesday Baking category, which can also be found in a tab underneath my blog header.

Pumpkin pie without a crust? Why would someone want such a thing??

Well, if you’re like me, and traditional pie crust really, really doesn’t blow your hair back, crustless pie is a gift from heaven. I know pie crust is almost universally liked, but I am just not a fan, even when it’s a perfectly executed crust. To me, it never seems like it should go with a sweet filling and I usually end up leaving the crust on my plate (there’s no point in forcing down something with lots of calories and little nutritional value!).

Now, graham cracker and cookie crusts are an entirely different story…they’re sweet and I think they go very nicely with a sweet pie filling. To me, those are some calories worth eating.

A crustless pie might also be appealing to those of you who like crust but who hate to make it. Pie crust is a somewhat time-consuming part of pumpkin pie because it has to be made, baked, and cooled ahead of time, and this pie skips all of that.

Also, a crustless pie is definitely lower in calories.  In fact, I originally found this recipe in a low-fat cookbook when I was in my teens, so calorie/fat savings were definitely the original reasons this recipe was devised.

The actual pie filling in this recipe has less sugar than a traditional pie filling (1/2 cup instead of 3/4 to 1 cup), but the 1/4 cup of sugar in the streusel kind of nullifies any sugar savings.  Still, if you like a very sweet pie filling, you may want to add more than 1/2 cup of sugar when you make your filling.

Since a pie crust kind of holds a pie together, a crustless pie needs to be firmer.  Otherwise, it would be impossible to slice and serve.  Normal pumpkin pie recipes don’t include flour, but this one does for the sole purpose of firming up the pie.

Anyways, this is really, really easy to make.  In fact, there’s only two steps for the filling: Dump everything together in a bowl:

and mix it all up until it’s smooth.

Pour the filling into a greased 9-inch pie plate.

That was easy.

Now for the streusel.  To make this, simply combine quick-cooking oat and brown sugar (you can also cut in 1-2 tablespoons of butter, which I discuss later.  Read on!).

Sprinkle the streusel over top of the pie.

Bake in a preheated 350° F oven for 50-55 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

Now, since I’m very much not on the low-fat bandwagon anymore, I decided to try adding a little bit of butter to the streusel topping, hoping that it would keep the streusel from getting soggy by day two.  I wouldn’t say it accomplished that purpose, but it did make the streusel more crunchy initially and more appealing to look at.  Here’s with butter:

and not with butter.

So, if you don’t care about adding a little bit of fat to your pie, I recommend cutting a tablespoon or two of butter into the crumb topping.

I also recommend placing a hefty dollop of whipped cream on each piece of pie, especially since you’re saving yourself so many calories by not eating pie crust. 

Because the streusel topping tends to absorb moisture from the pie, this pie is best the day you make it.  So, if you live by yourself and will be eating the pie for a week straight, I’d probably just skip the streusel and add a little more sugar to the filling.

Crustless Pumpkin Pie with Streusel Topping
Printable Crustless Pumpkin Pie Recipe

1 can (16 oz.) pumpkin
1 can (12 oz.) evaporated milk
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (I use 1 t. cinnamon, and 1/8 t. each of allspice, cloves, nutmeg, and ginger)
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Topping
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup quick cooking oats
2 tablespoons butter, optional

Heat oven to 350° F.  In a bowl, combine pumpkin, milk, eggs, sugar, flour, spices, baking powder, and salt.  Mix until smooth.  Pour into greased 9-inch pie plate.

Combine brown sugar and oats, and cut in butter if desired.  Sprinkle over pie filling.

Bake 50-55 minutes or until knife inserted into center of pie comes out clean.

Today’s 365 post: I fold sheets twice a year

Every Wednesday (ok, most Wednesdays!) I share a baking recipe. And lots of pictures of said baking recipe. I don’t call this Wednesday Baking because I bake solely on Wednesdays…no, my oven gets a workout much more frequently than once a week! Wednesday just happens to be the day I share baking recipes with you. All the past baking posts are archived in the Wednesday Baking category, which can also be found in a tab underneath my blog header.

This is pretty amazing…I’ve baked cookies twice in the last two weeks.

The Frugal Girl family is a happy bunch indeed.

This recipe is another from my childhood, and I think it originally came from my maternal grandmother.  The cookies themselves are yummy, but what really makes these special is the frosting, which contains browned butter.  Browning the butter before adding it to the frosting adds a special depth of flavor, much in the same way that toasting nuts brings out more of their flavor.

These cookies are super-easy, so if you’re the sort of person who quails in fear when I post yeast bread recipes, today’s post is for you!  You can totally make these. 

Those of you who have smallish households will be pleased to know that this recipe makes a much more manageable number of cookies than last week’s Monster Cookie recipe. I didn’t count them, but I’d say the output here is probably only a 1/3 of the Monster Cookie output. If this is still too many cookies for you, though, you can definitely freeze some to eat later.

I used my Kitchen-Aid mixer to put the dough together, but you can easily do this by hand as well.

First, you’ll need to cream the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar together.

This is much easier when you let your butter soften first, and this is especially true if you’re mixing the dough by hand.

Add an egg, and blend it in thoroughly.

Hmm.  That looks a lot like the dough without an egg, doesn’t it?  I really did add one, though!

Next you’ll need to combine the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a separate bowl.  This helps to ensure even distribution of the baking soda and salt.  Add the flour mixture to the dough, and mix it until the flour is blended in.  Then add the oatmeal.  You’ll think that there is no way in the world that the dough will be able to handle 1.5 cups of oats, but it will.

The dough is pretty stiff after the oatmeal addition, though, so if you’re mixing by hand, this step will require some exertion.

To shape the cookies, roll the dough into balls.  I didn’t measure mine, but they’re maybe an inch across.

Since this dough is so thick, it won’t flatten on its own in the oven, so you’ll need to take care of that prior to baking.  You’ll need a flat-bottomed drinking glass and a small bowl of sugar to do this.

To flatten the cookies, just press them down with the glass, dipping it into the sugar between cookies (the sugar helps keep the glass from sticking to the cookies).

You’ll want to keep the glass as level as possible so that your cookies aren’t lopsided, but as you can see, mine aren’t perfect and they still turned out fine.

Bake the cookies for 10 minutes, or until they look almost done (taking them out slightly before they look done will help to make them chewier).

Now, these are pretty tasty as-is, but frosting makes them better.

I grew up eating homemade frosting and was unaware until recently that some people think making frosting is hard or tricky.  If you’re one of those people, let me assure you that that is not the case.  Homemade frosting is not difficult, it tastes way, way, way, waaaaay better than the stuff in the cans, and it doesn’t have weird stabilizers and preservatives.

I personally think that butter is the best fat to use in most any frosting, but if you can’t eat butter, you can certainly make substitutions.  However, I don’t know that you can brown vegetable-based fats, so if you’re using something other than butter, just soften it, skip the browning, and proceed with the recipe.

If you’re one of the happy people who can eat butter, though, read on.

To brown the butter, place it in a saucepan over medium heat, and cook it until it starts to turn brown.  You should see little brown bits on the bottom of the pan.  Do be careful not to burn the butter…the line between browned and burnt is a fine one, so I highly recommend staying in the kitchen and near the stove while you do this.

Cool the butter to lukewarm, pour it into a mixing bowl, and beat in the rest of the frosting ingredients (evaporated milk, sugar, corn syrup, and vanilla).  I happened not to have evaporated milk in the house, so I substituted heavy cream.

Heavy cream definitely didn’t ruin the frosting.

(Does heavy cream ruin anything?)

I think the corn syrup is added to make the frosting glossier, but it’s only a tablespoon so I imagine you could leave it out by just adding a bit more milk.  The corn syrup is not the high fructose kind, though, so I don’t stress about it.

Frost the now-cooled cookies and let the frosting harden for several hours before you store the cookies in an airtight container.  Otherwise, the frosting will make your cookie piles a big mess.  Putting waxed paper between the layers of cookies is also a good idea.

The frosting recipe makes a relatively generous amount, in my opinion.  You can solve this by making two batches of cookies per batch of frosting, or you can just use more on each cookie (you wouldn’t want to waste frosting, now would you??).

Frosted Oatmeal Cookies
Printable Frosted Oatmeal Cookie Recipe

1 cup butter (2 sticks, or 16 tablespoons)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups uncooked quick oatmeal

Cream butter and sugars; blend in egg. Mix flour, baking soda, and salt; add to cream mixture, blending well. Stir in oats.

Shape dough into balls, place on cookie sheet, and flatten with the bottom of a drinking glass dipped in sugar. Bake 10-12 minutes in a preheated 350° oven.  Frost when cooled.

Browned Butter Frosting

1/3 cup (5 1/3 tablespoons) butter
3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup evaporated milk (or cream. Ahem.)
1 tablespoon corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla

Brown butter in saucepan over medium heat. Cool to lukewarm. Beat in remaining ingredients until smooth.

Today’s 365 post: Post-Haircut

New $100 Visa Gift Card Giveaway: Meal in a Bowl

Every Wednesday (ok, most Wednesdays!) I share a baking recipe. And lots of pictures of said baking recipe. I don’t call this Wednesday Baking because I bake solely on Wednesdays…no, my oven gets a workout much more frequently than once a week! Wednesday just happens to be the day I share baking recipes with you. All the past baking posts are archived in the Wednesday Baking category, which can also be found in a tab underneath my blog header.

Usually on Wednesdays, I post bread recipes, but I thought it would be fun to change things up a bit and do a cookie recipe. I don’t bake a cookies a lot, so my kids were super pleased that I needed to make a batch for this post!

The moniker for these cookies makes it seem as though they’re something to be served at a Halloween party, but no…the monster portion of the name is there because you’re supposed to produce massively sized cookies when you bake these.

I tend to make more average sized cookies when I make this recipe, though, so “Monster Cookie” is probably not quite the right name for these. Just calling them cookies is sort of boring, though, so Monster Cookies they are.

These are some seriously heavy-duty cookies…more like granola bars than ladyfingers, that’s for sure.  The main reason for this is that they contain no flour at all. The only starchy ingredient is oatmeal, and a lot of it.  That makes these 100% whole grain, I suppose, and I’m pretty sure that  means they must be health food. 

Ok, maybe not.

But they are delicious and chewy and moist, and I think you should bake a batch.

Gluten-free readers…if you make these with gluten-free oats, these should be safe for you to eat, right? I’m fairly clueless about gluten issues, so correct me if I’m wrong!

Making these is super-duper easy.  First, you’ll want to turn your oven on to 350° F so that it’s ready when your cookie dough is.  To make the dough, you’ll need to combine the butter, peanut butter, eggs, and sugar, and baking soda.

Zoe was helping me make these cookies, and she wanted a photo of herself doing this:

Ok, back to the cookies.

Next, you’ll need to mix in the oatmeal.  And after that’s mixed in, it’s time to add the M&Ms, chocolate chips, and raisins/walnuts (I never use raisins or walnuts).

It’s also time to realize that trying to fit a whole batch of this dough into a Kitchen-Aid Artisan bowl is a bad idea.

My big glass bowl from Aldi was a much better idea.  Still, it was none too big, so if you’re lacking in the large bowl department, I highly recommend halving the recipe.

Using a soup spoon, scoop out balls of dough and place them on a cookie sheet (I use the Cook’s recommended Vollrath Cookie Sheet which is so much better than dark nonstick cookie sheets!).  To make my cookies rounder, I like to wet my hands to smooth out the dough a little bit.

Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes, or until they look almost done (the cracks in the cookies should still look a little bit wet).  This helps to ensure that the cookies will be chewy.

Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for a minutes or two (this makes them less prone to breaking) and then remove them to a counter to cool completely.

I mentioned that this recipe makes a lot of cookies, right?  Even after I froze a portion of the dough (I’ll let you know how it bakes up after I thaw it!) and quite a few cookies were snagged, my large cookie tin was very full.

These cookies stay moist and chewy for several days, so we don’t have trouble finishing them before they start to dry out.  I know that these cookies freeze well, though, so if you don’t house as many voracious cookie-eaters as I do, you can still make a batch and freeze extras to eat later.

Monster Cookies-makes about 100 cookies
Printable Monster Cookie Recipe

2 sticks (1 cup) softened butter
2 cups brown sugar
2 cups granulated sugar
18 oz. peanut butter (I use smooth)
6 eggs
4 teaspoons baking soda
9 cups quick-cooking oatmeal
12 oz. chocolate chips
8 ounces M&M’s
optional:
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup walnuts

Cream butter and sugars together; mix in peanut butter, eggs, and baking soda until smooth. Stir in oatmeal, then stir in chocolate chips, M&M’s, and raisins and walnuts if desired.

Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet. Bake in a preheated 350° F oven for 10-12 minutes.

P.S.-a new baking-themed $100 giveaway is up over on my review page. Go enter before Monday…the $100 could be yours!

Today’s 365 post: I see blue skies…

My mom gave me a set of Tupperware popsicle molds years ago, and as I mentioned in one of my Kellogg’s posts, they’ve done nothing but collect dust here ever since.

I refound them while I was decluttering this summer, and I’m so glad because they are really handy for making homemade frozen treats.  I’ve seen a lot of books/blogs suggest using disposable cups  or ice cube trays for this purpose but the resulting popsicle is a really awkward shape and is hard to eat.  The molds I have produce a frozen treat that fits into our mouths perfectly, and I really like that nothing about them is disposable…not even the sticks!

So far I’ve only made pudding pops in these (and Joshua made a calorie-free pop!), but I can see lots of possibilities now that I’ve gotten off my duff and given these molds a try.

If you don’t already own molds, you can find quite a few popsicle molds on Amazon and my aunt mentioned that she’d seen them at dollar stores as well.  And of course, you can always go the paper cup or ice cube tray route.

If you’re wondering whether it’s worth it to buy molds, hang tight.  I’m going to pretend to be all detail-oriented again (I’m so not…I’d have made a dreadful scientist!) and do a price comparison between these and prepared pudding pops and I hope to post that soon.

Anyhow!  You’re reading this because you want to know how to make pudding pops, right?

This is so easy, it’s not even really a recipe.  To start, you’ll need 2 cups of prepared pudding (whatever flavor you like). You can use an instant mix, a cook and serve mix, or you can make your pudding from scratch.

If you make the cook and serve kind or the pudding from scratch, you’ll want to let the pudding cool down just a bit before pouring it into the molds.

Don’t fill the containers quite to the top, so that they’ll have room to expand as they freeze.

If you’re not using containers specifically for popsicles, you’ll want to freeze the popsicles for 10 minutes or so and then insert the sticks.  My popsicle sticks are built into the lids of my containers so I put them in right away.

Freeze the pudding pops until they’re solid (it’ll take a few hours). Before you eat them, let them sit at room temperature for a minute or two.  This will make it much easier to remove them from their containers and I think it improves the texture of the pops as well.

Look for a price comparison between these and Jello Pudding Pops next week.  I’m super curious to see how they’ll compare!

Today’s 365 post: Haven’t you just  ALWAYS wanted one of these?