Category: Celebrations

Charissa Hayes pecan Christmas toffee

4 cups chopped pecan
2 cups butter
½ cup water
¼ cup light corn syrup
2 1/2 cups sugar
1lb chocolate milk or almond bark

Butter 12×18 baking sheet. Cover with pecans and set aside. Combine
butter,water,corn syrup,and sugar. Cook on high with wooden spoon until boiling.
Stir until begins to thicken. Reduce to low and check with thermometer. Cook to 278 or soft crack.
Cool 1 hour. Melt chocolate spread over the top. Sprinkle warm with warm nuts. Then press nuts in
lightly. Twenty-four stand. Then break.

Sugar Cookie Bars
Yield: about 60 bars (depending on how big you cut them)
Time: about 40 minutes + time to cool and frost
Recipe from MyDearMother
PRINT RECIPE

Cookies:1 1/2 C sugar
1 C butter, softened
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 egg
1/2 t almond extract
1 t vanilla
1/2 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
2 1/2 C flour

Frosting:
1/2 C butter softened
4 oz cream cheese, softened
3 1/2 C powdered sugar
3-5 T milk
1 t vanilla
food coloring

1. In a large mixing bowl or stand mixer beat the butter, cream cheese, sugar, and egg until nice and frothy. About 4 minutes.
2. Add the vanilla and almond extract and beat for 1 minute more.
3. In a small bowl combine the flour, baking powder and baking soda. Mix them around so that all ingredients are well incorporated.
4. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat for about 2 minutes.
5. Press the dough into a large jelly roll (cookie sheet) pan.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
7. Let the pan cool completely.
8. Time to make the frosting! In a medium sized bowl (or your stand mixer) combine the butter and cream cheese. Beat for about 2 minutes.
9. Add the powdered sugar, milk, vanilla and food coloring. Mix for 1-2 minutes or until smooth.
10. Frost your pan of cookies. Cut the cookies into bars and serve!

As a fun decorative option, you could pipe a bit of white frosting onto the bars. Just take about 1/4 of the frosting out of the mixer before you add the food coloring. Put the white frosting into to sandwich sized zip loc bag. Carefully snip the tip and pipe some fun decorations onto the bars.

1 (16 ounce) box saltine crackers, you won’t need the whole box
1 cup butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
1 cup finely chopped pecans
Directions:

1
Heat oven to 350°F.
2
Line a cookie sheet with foil.
3
Arrange crackers snugly in a single layer, filling the sheet completely, about 40 crackers.
4
In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium-low heat.
5
Add the brown sugar and mix well.
6
Pour the butter mixture evenly over crackers, spreading as necessary.
7
Bake 8-10 minutes, or until the butter is bubbly.
8
Remove the sheet from the oven and sprinkle chocolate chips over the crackers.
9
When the chips have softened, spread them over the crackers with a knife.
10
Sprinkle immediately with the nuts.
11
Let the cookies cool 5-10 minutes before cutting between the individual cookies with a spatula.
12
Remove them to a plate, keeping them in a single layer.
13
If you don’t remove them while they are still warm, they will stick to the foil.

I discovered very quickly that a cheesecake is a nice gift–people like them, they look fancy, and they freeze well (and therefore transport well).

So I’m posting the recipe here, since I keep promising to give it to friends.

Cheesecake:

filling:
3 packages cream cheese (8 oz each), softened
1 c sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp lemon juice
4 large or 5 medium eggs
crust:
1/3 lb graham crackers (1 pkg from a 1 lb box) crushed to about 1 1/4 c fine crumbs
1/4 c sugar
1/4 c butter or margarine

Beat cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and lemon juice until smooth. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each on medium or low speed, and scraping the bowl frequently. Mix graham crackers and 1/4 c sugar. Add melted butter and mix well. Press into 9″ springform pan or 9″ round cake pan lined with foil. You can just press it into the bottom, or part-way up the sides, too. Pour in filling. Tap it gently on the counter or run a knife through it to pop the bubbles, if there are any. Bake at 300-315 F for one hour. Then turn off the oven but leave the door closed for an hour. Then prop the oven door open with a butter knife for another hour. Chill overnight or freeze (this is an important step–it “fixes” the texture). Use the foil to life the cheesecake from the cake pan after it’s chilled or frozen.

You can actually freeze this overnight, remove the pan, and slide the whole cheesecake into a gallon-sized ziploc bag to serve later.

I discovered that you can cook two at a time, but not three–three pushes them too close to the oven walls and they don’t cook evenly.

Also, I discovered that cream cheese has a “use by” date that is six months down the road. So you can buy a bunch when it’s on sale and then have cheesecake whenever you want.

Finally, we tried seriously whipping the mixture (usually a “no-no” with cheesecake) and it came out so incredibly fantastic–but it had cracks all over the surface, so it wasn’t pretty when it was done. Worth trying, though!

Three notes from my mom, the cheesecake master:
1. Cream cheese should be room temp so it doesn’t lump.
2. Beat as much as you want until you add the eggs. After the eggs, almost no
beating.
3. Cream cheese is good for months after the expiration date.

Baked Doughnuts
For Printable Recipe, Click here!
Makes: About 15 doughnuts (& donut holes)

For the Dough
3/4 cups Warm Milk
1 packet Active Dry Yeast
1 tbsp. Unsalted Butter
1/3 cup Sugar
2 Eggs
2 ½ cup All Purpose Flour
Pinch of Nutmeg
½ tsp. Salt

For the Glaze
* Enough to glaze all the doughnuts
¼ cup Milk
1 tsp. Pure Vanilla Extract
2 cups Confectioners Sugar

For the Cinnamon Sugar Topping
*Enough to cover all of the doughnuts
½ cup Unsalted Butter
1 cup Sugar
1 tbsp. Cinnamon

To make the dough, place ¼ cups of the warm milk in the bowl of a stand mixer. Sprinkle the yeast over the milk. Let sit for 5 minutes.

In a small bowl, combine the remaining ½ cup of milk with the sugar and butter. Add it to the yeast mixture. Stir to combine. Add the eggs and stir until incorporated. Add the flour, nutmeg, and salt and stir until the dough starts to form. Change to the dough hook and knead for until the dough starts to become smooth. If the dough is too sticky, slowly add more flour until it is no longer sticky.

Transfer to the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead for 5 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic and has formed a ball. Place the dough ball in a large lightly greased bowl, and cover with plastic wrap. Let sit in a warm place for about 1 hour, until doubled in size.

Once the dough has risen, roll it out on a lightly floured surface until ½ thick. Using a doughnut cutter (if you don’t have a doughnut cutter, you can use 2 biscuit cutters – 1 that is about 3 inches, and the other that is about 2 inches for the inner circle) cut out the doughnuts until you have no dough left. If desired you can gather up the scraps into a ball and roll it out and cut out more doughnuts. I prefer not too because I feel the dough becomes too tough.

Place the doughnuts on a baking sheet lined with a silicone mat or parchment paper, about 2 inches apart. Cover with a clean towel and let sit for about 45 minutes.

Preheat the oven 375 degrees F.

Place the baking sheets in the oven and bake for 7 minutes, until lightly golden brown. Be careful to not overbake these. You want them to be light and doughy inside. Let the doughnuts cool for about 5 minutes until ready to top with either the glaze or cinnamon sugar topping

While the doughnuts are cooling make the glaze and/or cinnamon sugar glaze. Each recipe makes enough to cover all the doughnuts. I made a half recipe of each and topped half of the doughnuts with each topping. Or you can choose to just do one of topping for all the doughnuts.

To make the glaze, combine the milk and the vanilla in a small saucepan. Heat over low heat until just warmed. Slowly add in the confectioners sugar and whisk until the mixture is smooth. Remove the glaze from the heat and place over a bowl of warm water.

To glaze the doughnuts, dip them halfway into the glaze and place on a draining/cooling rack set over a baking sheet. Sprinkle with sprinkles if desired. Let set for about 10 minutes.

To make the cinnamon sugar topping, melt the butter in a saucepan or a microwave, and place in a small bowl. Combine the sugar and cinnamon in a medium sized bowl.

To top the doughnuts with cinnamon sugar, dip the halfway into the melted butter. Then dip them into the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Set on a draining/cooling rack to set, about 5 minutes.

Serve and enjoy :)!

 

Ingredients

1-1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup crisp rice cereal, coarsely crushed
2 tablespoons plus 1/2 cup sugar, divided
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter-flavored shortening
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup butter, melted

Directions

Mix flour, crushed cereal, 2 tablespoons sugar, baking powder and salt in large bowl.

Cut in shortening with pastry blender or fork until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Add milk and stir just until moistened.

Roll dough into approximately 2 1/2 dozen 1 inch balls.

Mix cinnamon and remaining sugar in a small bowl. Drop balls into melted butter and roll in cinnamon sugar mixture.

Place balls onto greased 8 or 9 inch round pan.

Bake at 425 degrees for 15-18 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool for a few minutes in pan on wire rack before removing.

If you are looking for a perfectly rounded ball, try using a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan as mine baked together. They weren’t exactly round but they still turned out beautiful!