Toffee Sandies

A little shortbread, a little chocolate, a little toffee - who could ask for anything more? As I pondered whether my first Daring Baker Challenge will be an utter disaster (it's shaping up that way at the moment) I decided I needed to lighten my spirits with something I KNEW would turn out great and satisfy my sorely neglected sweet tooth.

So, I whipped up a batch of Toffee Sandies. These are super simple to do and are sure to please your cookie lovers. It starts with a simple shortbread to which is added chocolate and toffee bits. You can either use the pre-crushed kind from the grocery store or take Heath or Skor bars and crush them up by hand.

I used just a touch of orange peel in this batch for a little extra flavor depth, but it's not necessary if you prefer yours straight up. So, here we go with some Toffee Sandies.

Irish Soda Bread

With St. Patrick's Day upon us, I thought it would be appropriate to make some Irish Soda Bread. This is a very easy quick bread recipe and looks great on the table.

If you've never had Soda Bread, you can think of it along the sames lines as cornbread. The texture is similar and even the taste is somewhat similar although a bit more bland than cornbread.

According to tradition the "X" on the bread represents the cross and scares off evil spirits. This recipe is one handed down from an aunt and is pretty identical to the ones found in the older versions of the Betty Crocker Cookbook. You can use raisins in this recipe if you wish. I opted not to since I'm not a huge raisin fan.

For this recipe, I also did our first video segment! It's a bit rough and I learned a few things while making it that should make future attempts a bit better. In the meantime, enjoy this one and please rate the video on YouTube!

So, Happy St. Patrick's Day or Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig oraibh!

Old Fashioned Butter Finger Cookies

Here's an old recipe I came across recently. The original title is "Butter Fingers (Christmas Cookies)" and I suppose I can see where they might have gotten that title. However, I think they make a great little cookie for just about any occasion and particularly to go with coffee or tea.

The recipe is really very simple and the results are superb. The cookies are long, perfect for dipping in tea or coffee with a crisp texture. The addition of the ground almonds (or walnuts) gives them the slightest extra crunch and the butter provides the perfect buttery smooth counterpoint.

I chose to dip some of the cookies is melted chocolate and others I presented in the traditional way with a dusting of powdered sugar. These would also be fine with a little glaze.

If you are not familiar with blanching almonds, it's not hard to do. For almonds you want to start with raw almonds then boil some water in a pot or kettle. Place the almonds in a bowl deep enough to be covered. Pour the boiling water over them and leave them not a second more than one minute. That's really important! If you leave them longer they will get soggy and become useless for grinding into a meal. When one minute is up, drain them and rinse under cold water once or twice and drain fully. Once drained, slip the skins off the almonds then grind in a blender, spice grinder or food processor.

So, here's the recipe for the "Butter Fingers" and it's one I think will give you a lot of joy with your morning or afternoon coffee or tea!

Gingerbread Scones

This is a recipe that my mother received from her sister. Mama Noonie, as she was known to me (and don't ask why - it's a Southern thing) - anyway, Mama Noonie was considered something of a gourmet in our family. She enjoyed cooking things Mama considered "fancy." That meant they included such exotic ingredients as cooking sherry or cognac, neither of which Mama used in her more down home style cuisine. In fact, I think Mama would have considered it quite scandalous to be seen in a liquor store to purchase cognac.

Anyway, this recipe doesn't call for anything truly unusual. It's a scone recipe that is akin to a soft gingerbread cookie. I think it's the perfect complement to coffee or tea either in the morning or afternoon.

I prepared them the way Mama Noonie's recipe read with just an egg white wash on top to give them a bit of a sheen. However, if you like, these would lend themselves very nicely to a lemon or orange glaze or even whipped cream.

Spice Coffee Cake

Honestly, I had no idea that Saturday we were going from Spring back to Winter here in the desert! I'd decided to make a little coffee cake though because I wanted to do a cake but not something overly involved. I also had a taste from something with an interesting variety of flavors.

This cake fit the bill admirably. It's based on an old coffee cake recipe and as such is slightly more crumbly than I usually prefer. However, I believe that can be overcome by switching around how it is assembled. The original recipe calls for all the ingredients to be beat together. However, doing it in a more classic "cake" manner would probably help: cream the butter and sugar then add the egg, sift together the dry ingredients, and then add to batter alternating with milk. I'd also suggest sifting the dry ingredients which the old recipe does not.

The original coffee cake recipe calls for raisins and nuts. I'm not a fan of raisins (sorry) so opted to leave that out. I thought about including nuts but I've been using nuts in so much lately, decided it would be nice to have something more plain. If you're inclined to nuts and raisins you can add 1/2 cup of raisins to the batter just before pouring into the pan and 1/2 cup of chopped nuts to the Streusel.

I also used my Garam Masala spice mix instead of Allspice in this. However, you can use Allspice in the same amounts if you prefer.

Coconut Brownies

Good ol' Charleston Receipts comes through again with a wonderful brownie recipe. This is more of a blondie brownie but chock full of coconut and nuts. The original recipe calls for pecans (of course) but I decided to use some walnuts I had left over in their place. I think either works fine for this. I also reduced the nuts from 1 full cup to 1/2 cup since I'm not a huge fan of brownies with more nuts than brownie.

This is baked in two stages with a cookie/cake crust on the bottom. Be sure when you do this one that you make sure your crust is nicely browned before you add your other ingredients. The "topping" is very wet and if the crust isn't done it will soak through and be a bit mushy on the bottom. I found this out the hard way.

This has an intense caramel flavor balanced by the chewiness of the coconut and the nutty flavor of the walnuts (or pecans).

The original recipe is by Mrs. A Franz Witte, Jr. (Lula Thomas Jenkins) in case you're interested.

Lemon Sandwich Cookies

"If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands!" Remember that old song from kindergarten or pre-school? For some reason that little tune is tied up in my mind with those lemon sandwich cookies that come in huge packages in the grocery store. I can remember at "Little Folks Kindergarten" back in Newberry, SC that Mrs. Folk would pass them out to us as a snack. I also remember singing that song just before snack time. I assume that is where the link originated.

Anyway, I've always loved those little cookies even if the cookies themselves sometimes taste a little bland or the lemon has a faint chemical taste. But, wouldn't it be great to have a little lemon sandwich cookie that was actually good enough to serve not only to kids but adults?

Behold, an old lemon sandwich cookie recipe I found in a very old copy of a Betty Crocker cookbook. It's easy to do and the results are very good. The cookie has a nice texture and buttery taste while the filling has a true lemon tartness that really zings!

This is a great one for afternoon snacks for the kids or even an afternoon tea. Of course, if you're like me, they also go great with a lemon Coke and the TV!