In celebration of National Chocolate Cake Day, here is my favorite chocolate cake recipe. Everyone in my family loves chocolate and this is the best recipe. Who can resist chocolate cake and chocolate frosting? I found this recipe on Hershey’s website. Hershey’s cocoa is used for the cake and the frosting. It is very easy to make and one of the most delicious cakes I have baked.
The recipe is found here
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Every year cookie baking is our holiday tradition before Christmas day. I have the kids pick out their favorite recipe and the baking begins. Baking is therapeutic and I enjoy it during the holiday season. This year I only baked three varieties that included our favorite chewy chocolate chip, vanishing oatmeal raisin and a new sugar cookie recipe. Last year, I started substituting sea salt in all of my cookie recipes. We love the combination of extra salty and sweet. This was a very easy recipe and no refrigeration is required.
I found that after rolling cookies in sugar to try and keep the cookies slightly round. When I pressed down the dough the batch was flat.
I found the recipe on Pinterest, from AddAPinch.com:
Recipe Credit here
I found the best chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe. What is the perfect chewy chocolate chip cookie? I love a homemade chewy cookie that remains chewy days after baking. On Pinterest, there are hundreds of recipes for a “chewy” chocolate chip cookie and it varies depending on the combination of ingredients. I found the perfect recipe that incorporates cornstarch(this was a first for me) and this was from GrandBabyCakes. This year I added my sea salt in place of regular salt.
This was my first time using any of these recipes and this was clearly a great recipe and KID APPROVED! My kids could not stop eating.
The recipe begins below, PERFECT CHOCOLATE CHIPS
Ingredients
Instructions
There are some really great tips on how to get a perfectly chewy cookie. One tip includes under baking the cookie for a chewy cookie. I wanted to stick as close as possible to the recipe, however, on my next batch I am definitely going to remove from the oven a few minutes before the full baking time.
Tips*: Refrigerate for 2 hours instead of 1 hour. Watch the time closely!
We are now adding this cookie to our recipe box under COOKIES.
Chocolate Chip Cookie Batter….
Before Baking
PERFECT……..
I hope you enjoy with a cold glass of milk….
2 to 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 envelope Fleischmann’s® RapidRise Yeast
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons butter OR margarine Directions
COMBINE 3/4 cup flour, undissolved yeast, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Heat milk, water, and butter until very warm (120º to 130ºF). Add to flour mixture. Beat 2 minutes at medium speed of electric mixer, scraping bowl occasionally. Add 1/4 cup flour; beat 2 minutes at high speed. Stir in enough remaining flour to make a soft dough. Knead on lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 8 to 10 minutes. Cover; let rest 10 minutes. *
DIVIDE dough into 12 equal pieces; shape into balls. Place in greased 8-inch round pan. Cover; let rise in warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about 30 minutes.**
BAKE in preheated 375ºF oven for 20 minutes or until done. Remove from pan; brush with additional melted butter, if desired. Serve warm.
*For rest period, it is not necessary for the dough to double in size
**For a higher roll, I suggest allowing the rolls to rise longer than 30 minutes(maybe 45-1hr) with a pan of boiled water underneath the pan. Do allow to over-rise.
Recipe: Classic Dinner Rolls
For this carrot cake recipe, it was a real winner for Thanksgiving. I found this recipe at AllRecipes.com. This is one of my go-to sites for recipes. A few tweaks to the recipes I omitted the coconut. I love carrot cake however I am not a fan of extra ingredients like coconut and raisins. The finale of the cream cheese frosting which is absolutely delicious.
The recipe is as follows:
Click the link above for the rest of the recipe. As you can see I covered the remainder of my walnuts around the cake. A baking confession: After I poured the cake batter in my three cake pans I forgot to shake the pans to evenly spread the cake batter. Once the baking time was over I realized that two of my three cake pans were uneven. Frosting hides blunders and the walnuts was a nice added touch. I hope you enjoy as much my family!!! This is now my go-to recipe for CARROT CAKE!
This is my favorite time of the year and I love to bake these Oatmeal Raisin cookies. One of my traditions is to ask the kids their favorite cookie for me to bake. This year my daughter has asked for sugar cookies (in various shapes of choice) and my son wants the peanut butter blossoms. My favorite is the oatmeal raisin cookies that I have baked for at least the last 6+ years.
You can find the recipe on the lid of the oatmeal container, Enjoy!!!! I bake these every Christmas!
INGREDIENTS:
1/2 Cup(s) (1 stick) plus 6 tablespoons butter, softened
3/4 Cup(s) firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 Cup(s) granulated sugar
2 Eggs
1 Teaspoon(s) vanilla
1-1/2 Cup(s) all-purpose flour
1 Teaspoon(s) Baking Soda
1 Teaspoon(s) ground cinnamon
1/2 Teaspoon(s) salt (optional)
3 Cup(s) Quaker® Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
1 Cup(s) raisins(SunMaid Baking Raisins, if available)
PREPARATION:
Heat oven to 350°F. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugars on medium speed of electric mixer until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. Add oats and raisins; mix well. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack. Cool completely. Store tightly covered.
Before Oats and Raisins
Serving Tips: Bar Cookies: Press dough onto bottom of ungreased 13 x 9-inch baking pan. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars. Store tightly covered. 24 BARS. VARIATIONS: Stir in 1 cup chopped nuts. Substitute 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips or candy-coated chocolate pieces for raisins; omit the cinnamon. Substitute 1 cup diced dried mixed fruit. HIGH ALTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: Increase flour to 1-3/4 cups and bake as directed.
This was my first time baking Snickerdoodles. My 10yo had them at a school event so she insisted I bake for our Christmas cookie list. I never tried a Snickerdoodle so this new for me. I scoured Pinterest for a recipe and found multiple recipes most required cream of tarter. Finally, I found a recipe that did not have cream of tartar as an ingredient. This led to me researching the need for cream of tartar and found it is leavening agent when combined with baking powder. I would say a snickerdoodle is a butter cookie rolled in cinnamon sugar. My 10 yo gave these two thumbs up!
Thanks to WannaComeWith for this simple recipe:
Ingredients:
2-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1-1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Here is the link for the rest of the http://wannacomewith.com/2013/03/snickerdoodles/recipe, Happy Baking!
Cinnamon Sugar
I found this donut pan @HomeGoods
My love of baking has extended to a donut recipe. After months of telling my donut fan, we would bake donuts I finally found a great pan and decided to do it over spring break. My go to place for all recipes is usually Pinterest. For all new recipes, I check the cabinet shelves to make sure I have all the ingredients. The only missing item I needed was buttermilk. After going to Target over the weekend of course I forgot the buttermilk. If this happens to you don’t worry! As a substitute for buttermilk,I added 2 TBSP of vinegar to 1 cup of my whole milk and let it set for about five minutes.
I also had to make my own pastry bag using a storage bag and snipping one corner of the bag.
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cinnamon
You can find the recipe on the link below.
Recipe credit: The Busy Baker
The recipes yields 2 dozen mini donuts. *One tweak I made was reducing my oven temperature for the second batch. I found my first batch burned on the bottom at the recipe temperature.
Before, I rolled in cinnamon sugar.
