Cookies & Cream Bundt Cake with Vanilla Glaze

Henry's baby brother is going away into the army on Sunday, so we're having a casual party for him today. I thought I would make a cute bundt cake to thank him for his service to the wonderful USA!

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COOKIES & CREAM BUNDT CAKE WITH VANILLA GLAZE

Ingredients for Cake

•  1 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 stick softened butter
• 2 whole eggs (room temp)
• 2 egg whites (room temp)
• 1 cup skim milk
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 2 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 7 Oreos, crushed

Ingredients for Glaze

• 1 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup teaspoons light cream
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon butter, melted

Method

1. Double grease and flour your bundt pan
2. Beat butter, eggs, egg whites, and granulated sugar in large bowl until well blended
3. Add milk and vanilla and mix well
4. Add flour, baking powder, and salt, and mix until smooth (about 2 minutes)
5. Fold in crushed oreos manually until they are dispersed throughout the batter
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes
7. Place cake on wire rack over a cookie sheet and allow to cool completely
8. Melt butter for icing and add it to other ingredients for icing, mixing well until a loose, creamy icing has formed
9. Pour icing generously over cake 
10. After icing has hardened, remove cake from wire rack and place on a platter/cake dish. Garnish with Oreos

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Meat Loaf

Needed a use for some extra hamburger I had in my freezer and decided to try my hand at some meat loaf. I thought it turned out pretty well!

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MEAT LOAF


Ingredients for loaf:

• 1 1/2 pound hamburger
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tablespoon dried minced onions
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce 
• 1 1/2 tablespoon ketchup
• 1/2 tablespoon mustard
• 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons barbecue sauce 
• Salt & Pepper
• 1 teaspoon Lawry's seasoning salt 
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 1/3 cup finely ground Stacy's Sea Salt pita chips (or other form of dried bread crumbs, crackers, crouton, etc)

Ingredients for sauce:

• 1/2 tablespoon Worcestershire
• 1/3 cup ketchup
• 1 1/3 tablespoon mustard
• 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1/2 tablespoon barbecue sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon Lawry's seasoning salt
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar

Method

1. Line a casserole dish with aluminum foil (this is an important step for your sanity!)
2. Use a food processor to finely grind up your bread crumbs
3. Combine hamburger, egg, onions, milk, and the various other ingredients into a large bowl and stir together thoroughly using your hands
4. Place meat in casserole dish in a "loaf" shape--this is just an oblong shape roughly a foot long, 4 inche wide, and 4 inches deep
5. Mix together ingredients for sauce and pour on top of the loaf, spreading it around and allowing it to drip down the sides
6. Sprinkle just a little more brown sugar on the top
7. Place in 350 degree oven for 1 hour. After 1 hour, remove from oven, allow to "set" for 5-10 minutes, cut up like a loaf of bread and serve

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Cheese Bread

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
• 1 egg, beaten
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cheese. In another large bowl, beat together egg, milk and oil. Stir the flour/cheese mixture into the egg mixture, stirring until just moistened. Pour batter into prepared pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of loaf comes out clean.

Grape Pie

I bought some sour grapes recently--so sour that I have trouble eating them enjoyably--so I decided to find a recipe to use them. Of course, leave it to the southerner to make a healthy food into a really unhealthy food, right? So, here you go, the grape pie:

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CRUST:

3 cups flour

1 tsp. salt

1 cup Crisco shortening

1 egg

5 tbsp water (plus more to get right consistency)

1 1/2 tsp white vinegar

Thoroughly mix the flour, salt, and shortening in a large bowl. You can do this with a spatula. In a separate bowl, mix egg, vinegar, and water. Pour wet mixture into dry mixtur

e. Use hands to knead into a dough. The dough should be rather dry--I added a little bit more water to make it more cohesive.

Take approximately 1/2 of the dough and roll it out. Place your 9" pie pan over the dough that you have rolled out and approximate 1 to 1 1/2 more inches to add to the diameter. With a knife, cut the dough in a circle with an 11 inch diameter. Remove excess dough. This is the hardest part of the whole recipe: you can a) use a large spatula to loosen the dough from the cutting board and quickly convert it to the pie pan, or b) put your pie pan on top of the dough

, and quickly flip the whole thing over to let gravity pull the dough into the pie pan. If there are cracks in the dough, simply press them together.

For the top of the pie, make another 9" wide circle and use the spatula method. Or, do what I did, and give up completely--roll the dough out and use a small cookie cutter to make little circles and use them to cover the top of the filling in an artistic way.

FILLING:

3 cups green grapes

1 1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

1/2 tsp cinnamon

dash of nutmeg

1/3 cup flour mixed with water to make a loose paste

Chop up the majority of the grapes into relatively large chunks (that should look somewhat

mushy), leaving the a few of the smallest grapes whole. Place grapes in a sauce pan with water, sugar, and nutmeg. Bring to a boil. When boiling, add the flour paste and stir. Let boil for approximately 5-7 minutes, while stirring constantly. Turn heat on low and examine mixture--it should be more thick and syrupy, and if there are any clumps of flour, remove them or try to break them up. Remove from heat and add butter and cinnamon; stir. Put back on low heat for 5 minutes, then remove from heat and let cool.

Pour filling into pie crust that you prepared earlier. Add dough to top of filling. Sprinkle granulated sugar over top of pie, and add a few tiny pats of butter in various p

laces over pie. Cover the dish with foil and bake at 375 for 25 minutes. Remove foil after 25 minutes, and let cook for another 20-25 minutes.

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I have never made a pie crust from scratch before, and it was literally the hardest cooking-related thing I have ever done to try to get that dough into the pan. My kitchen was a mess. But the pie is delicious, and I think it turned out beautifully despite the crust disasters!

Cinnamon Pie

'Tis the season for making lots of food! And, with a developing love for all things cinnamon, I am going to try out making a cinnamon pie today!

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• 1 cup white sugar
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups milk
• 1 (10 inch) unbaked pie crust

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, combine the sugar, flour, cinnamon and salt. Add the beaten egg, butter, and vanilla. Mix well and add the milk.
3. Pour mixture into an unbaked 10 inch pie crust (glass pie plate is best).
4. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) and bake for an additional 45 minutes. Let cool and serve. Refrigerate any leftovers.

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The batter for this pie is extremely thin...I mean, we are talking straight liquid. Don't be alarmed, it will turn out fine. I even upped the flour and reduced the milk from the original recipe, and it was still very watery. The pie may even be jiggly when you take it out of the oven, but it will set. There will be three distinct layers of flavor and it will have a smooth, custardy texture.

It's an ugly pie, so think about serving it with ice cream or putting some Cool Whip on top! Yum!

Wedding Cookies

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar, plus more for coating
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting hands
1 cup pecans, chopped into very small pieces

Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F. Line cookies sheets with parchment paper.

Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar at low speed until it is smooth. Beat in the vanilla. At low speed gradually add the flour. Mix in the pecans with a spatula. With floured hands, take out about 1 tablespoon of dough and shape into a crescent. Continue to dust hands with flour as you make more cookies. Place onto prepared cookie sheets. Bake for 40 minutes. When cool enough to handle but still warm, roll in additional confectioners' sugar. Cool on wire racks.

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Christmas Sugar Cookies

I make these every year. They are a mess and probably are way more trouble than they are worth, but it is a tradition!

You must let the dough sit in the refrigerator for a long time. It's annoying, but it will make your life so much easier.

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Prep:

2 sticks butter
2 small eggs or 1 large egg
1 cup sugar
2 1/2 or 3 cups flour
scant teaspoon salt
scant teaspoon baking soda
teaspoon pure vanilla

After cooked:

1 cup confectioner's sugar
milk or orange juice

Mix butter and sugar until fluffy. Add egg(s) and mix again. Add vanilla, salt, and baking soda and mix again. Finally, carefully mix in flour until well blended and sticky dough results. Let dough sit in refrigerator for at least 4 hours.

Take dough out of fridge and use flour very generously to spread it 1/4 of an inch and cut it into desired cookie shapes. Place cookies on greased bake sheet about 1/2 inch apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes at 350 heat.

Take cookies out and let cool on wax paper. Mix a little no pulp orange juice or milk with confectioners sugar until a thick, smooth, white mixture results. Spread over cookies and place festive sprinkles on wet icing. Let icing harden for an hour, then place cookies in tins, separated in layers by wax paper. Keep refrigerated or frozen.

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Earl Grey Macaroon Sandwiches

I love all things tea--smell, taste, sound. I recently went to a dessert expo here at Duke and had some AMAZING Earl Grey Tea Cookies with chocolate in the middle...So I decided to try to find a recipe and create my own spin on it (which, of course, is modeled after the one that I tasted at the dessert expo).

The this recipe is adapted from this website.

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Prep:

3 oz almond flour (2/3 cup) or blanched sliced almonds (3/4 cup) or slivered almonds (2/3 cup)
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
3 tablespoons Dutch-process cocoa
3 large egg whites, at room temperature for 30 minutes
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon Earl Grey tea (from 1 tea bag)

After cooked:
1-2 slabs of Chocolate Almond bark (melt as needed)

Grind almond flour or almonds with confectioners sugar and cocoa powder in food processor until powdery. Sift twice through a medium-mesh sieve into a bowl. If it's not fine enough for almost all of nuts to go through sieve, regrind.

Beat egg whites with salt in a bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until they just hold soft peaks. Beat in granulated sugar, a little at a time. Increase speed to high and beat until meringue holds stiff, glossy peaks. Fold meringue into almond mixture with a rubber spatula until completely incorporated. (Meringue will deflate and batter will be loose.)

Grind tea to a fine powder in grinder.

Spoon half of batter into pastry bag (or gallon-sized bag with hole in corner). Holding bag vertically just above baking sheet, pipe 1 1/2-inch-wide mounds of batter about 1 inch apart, stopping pressure and flicking tip sideways to avoid peaks (tamp down any peaks with a wet finger). Refill pastry bag and repeat. Sprinkle tops with about 1/4 tsp tea powder (reserve remainder). Let stand, uncovered, at room temperature until a light crust forms, 20 to 30 minutes.

Bake at 300 heat for 22-28 minutes until crisp and interior does not give easily when a macaroon is gently pressed. Cool completely on baking sheets on racks, about 30 minutes. Loosen macaroons from parchment with offset spatula (they will be very fragile).

After cookies have cooled, melt Almond Bark and combine it with the remaining amount of ground tea leaves. Spread a very thin layer of melted chocolate onto flat side of cookie and sandwich it between another cookie.

Layer macaroons between sheets of parchment in an airtight container and let stand at room temperature at least 2 hours to soften before eating. Makes 2 1/2 dozen macaroon sandwiches.

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I will make this recipe during the holidays, and we'll see how it goes. Pictures to come.

Southern Cheddar Biscuits

Cheesy buttermilk buscuits: They have a Southern hominess about them that make them irresistible. The frame of the recipe is adapted from Alton Brown's recipe for Southern Biscuits, but I added a few of my own elements.

If you just want plain buscuits, take out the cheddar, Parmesan and garlic powder. They are delicious anyway!

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Prep:
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons shortening
1 cup buttermilk, chilled
1 cup sharp yellow cheddar cheese, coarsely grated
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, finely grated
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

After cooked:
2 tablespoons melted butter
1/8 teaspoon dried parsley flakes (optional)

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, butter, and shortening in large bowl with fork until sandy texture is achieved. Add milk, cheese, and garlic powder. Mix dough by hand until chunky, very sticky dough is achieved.

After placing dough on floured surface, sprinkling flour on it, and folding it over itself 3-4 times, spread dough into 1-inch thick layer over floured wax paper and cut dough into circles with a diameter no larger than 3 inches. Place biscuits close together on greased cookie sheet (they will not rise or expand much). Bake for 15-20 minutes on 450 heat until biscuits are light brown on top and until visible cheese is dark brown.

Remove biscuits from oven and brush melted butter with parsley flakes on top. Makes 10-12 biscuits.
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Henry and I made 3 batches of these, refining them each time. This is the final recipe that we produced. We had these with sausage, egg, and (more) cheese, and it was delicious! This will definitely be a staple of our home-cooked meals and breakfast foods.

Pictures to come!