Lavender Lemon Bars

Ingredients:
2 cups white sugar
2 tsp dried lavender buds
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup virgin coconut oil, softened (mine was liquid)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 dash salt
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 c lemon juice
1/2 tsp lemon extract
1/2 tsp dried lavender buds
1/4 cup confectioner’s sugar, for dusting

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease an 8x12 inch baking dish.
2. Make lavender sugar by blending the sugar and 2 tsp lavender buds in a blender; blend until the lavender is powdered.
3. With a electric mixer, blend together 1/4 cup of the lavender sugar, butter, coconut oil, 2 cups of flour, and salt in a bowl until dough forms; press into the bottom of the prepared dish.
4. Bake in the oven until the top begins to turn golden brown; about 15 minutes.
5. While dough bakes, mix together remaining lavender sugar, 1/4 cup flour, eggs, lemon juice, lemon extract, and 1/2 tsp lavender buds; pour over the baked crust. Return to oven, and bake until the center is set—about 20 minutes. allow to cool completely, and dust with sugar.

*Notes:
This is a pretty phenomenal little lemon bar. I was nervous about using the lavender buds, since I actually bought them for a different reason other than cooking with them, but the lavender is just there. It isn’t super overpowering. The aftertaste with the bars is a hint of lavender. I really like these. I’m definitely putting these down as a “to-use-again” recipe. Yum.  

Delicious Pizza!

Ingredients:
1 pkg active dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
1 cup warm water (105-115 degrees)
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp olive oil
2 1/2 to 3 1/2 cups of flour, divided

Directions:

1. Dissolve yeast in warm water in a large bowl. Add salt, olive oil, and 2 1/2 cups flour. Mix with dough hook on low for about 1 minute.
2. Continuing on low, add remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, and mix until dough clings to hook and cleans sides of bowl, about 2 minutes. Knead on low about 2 minutes longer.
3. Place dough in greased bowl (i just used olive oil), turning greased top. Cover. Let rise in warm place, free from draft, about 1 hour—or until doubled in bulk. Punch dough down.
4. Brush intended pizza pan down with oil. Press dough across bottom of pan, forming a collar around edge to hold toppings. Add toppings as desired. Bake at 450 for 15 to 20 minutes (we went with 16 minutes).

*Notes:

This is absolutely, wonderfully delicious. We just used some spaghetti sauce for our sauce, grated up some Colby-jack (our favorite cheese) and Jake put some ham on his side. All i can say is i don’t think we’ll buying pizza anytime soon; it’s all homemade form here.

Update

So while I have not been documenting every pizza or burrito I've made since...well forever ago, I have still been cooking...kind of. I made gingerbread men the other day...who actually turned into balls because making men took too much time. Anyway, with Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas on the way, I am hoping that the Blogging world will get to see more cooking! (Let's just hope my dress size doesn't regret it)

Molasses Cookies

made with help from the lovely assistant Melly

Ingredients:
1 cup butter (2 sticks) room temperature + 2 tbsp warm
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup molasses
1 cup sour cream
2 tbsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt
3 tsp baking soda
3 tbsp white vinegar
3 eggs, beaten
4 cups sifted flour
2 cup packed confectioners’ sugar, sifted
5 1/2 tbsp milk warm + 3 tbsp, very hot
1 tsp lemon extract

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350. Beat butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in molasses, sour cream, ginger and salt. Combine the baking soda and vinegar in a small bowls, and add to butter mixture. Beat in eggs until well combined. Stir in flour. Place a heaping tablespoon of dough per cookie, 2 inches apart, onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean—about 15 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.
2. To make frosting, beat confectioners’ sugar, 5 1/2 tbsp warm milk and remaining 2 tbsp warm butter together using a wooden spoon. Stir in lemon extract. Add remaining 3 tbsp hot milk and beat until smooth. use immediately to frost cookies. Spread 1 tsp frosting on top of each cookie. Let frosting set before serving.

*Notes:
As always, too much frosting. Our conclusion was these cookies taste like Thanksgiving, so if you’re looking for a Thanksgiving cookie…we found one. This could also be fun to make with little kids because you mix baking soda and vinegar together and that’s always fun.

Whipped Cream

Ingredients:

1/2 cup heavy cream, chilled
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Combine the cream, sugar, sour cream and vanilla in a medium bowl. Use an electric mixer to whip to stiff (but not grainy) peaks. Chill until using. Use within one day.

*Notes:
I didn’t make the cake, just the whipped cream and used it as frosting and decorated with raspberries and strawberries

Macaroons

Ingredients:
1 (14 oz) can Eagle Brand Sweetened condensed milk
1 egg white, whipped
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp almond extract
1 (14 oz) pkg flaked coconut (i used shredded cause it was what i already had)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees (i burnt the first batch and cooked the rest at 300…but don’t forget, i have a crazy oven). Line baking sheets with foil; grease and flour foul (i just used parchment paper). Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, combine sweetened condensed milk, egg white, extracts and coconut; mix well. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto prepared baking sheets; slightly flatten each mount with a spoon.
3. Bake 15-17 minutes or until lightly browned around edges. Immediately remove from baking sheets as macaroons will stick if allowed to cool; cool on wire racks. Store loosely covered at room temperature.
4. *To make macaroon Kisses just press a kiss into the middle of the Macaroons after having transferred them to the wire rack

*Notes:
these are majorly sticky and (according to my husband) very sweet. overall, i say grab a glass of milk and enjoy! (if you slightly over cook them, just add the kisses and Poof! they’re fixed!

Jam (technically ours are Cream) Doughnuts

Ingredients:
1/2 cup warm water
4 1/2 tbsp (2 packets) dry yeast
1 tbsp granulated sugar
1 stick (8 oz) butter
1 cup whole milk
2 large eggs
5 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
4 cups peanut oil
Raspberry jam (we used banana pudding), for filling (pastry bag with metal tip) 
Confectioners’ sugar for dusting

*Warning!! Be prepared to spend All Day  doing this. ok, now you know.

Directions:

1. Combine the water, yeast, and 1 tbsp sugar in a mixing bowl and let it stand until the yeast is dissolved and the mixture is puffy. heat the butter and milk in the microwave or in a small saucepan over low heat until the butter is melted. (take off heat) Whisk the eggs into the milk mixture.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the flour, sugar, and salt. Whisk together the milk and yeast mixtures and pour it into the flour mixture. attach the dough hook and knead the dough on the slowest speed for about 10 minutes; after the first few minutes the dough should clean the sides of the bowl (i mixed it by hand). If the dough is very stick, add more flour 1/4 cup at a time. Remove the dough from the mixer and knead it for 30 seconds on a lightly dusted surface. You can also knead this dough by hand, either in the bowl or on a floured surface. Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl, turning to coat the dough on all sides. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and leave it to rise in a warm, draft-free place, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until doubled in size.
3. Remove the dough from the bowl and roll it out 1/2-inch thick on a floured surface. Cut circles of dough with a 3-inch butter. Cut remaining scraps into 3-inch pieces. Place dough circles and scraps on a piece of floured parchment paper and leave them to rise for 1 1/2 to 2 hours (do you see why this takes all day?) until doubled in size.
4. Line two or three baking sheets with four layers of paper towels. Clip candy thermometer onto a 4-quart pot and pour in the peanut oil. Heat the oil over a medium flame until the thermometer registers 350 (or a piece of bread dropped in the oil bubbles instantly but doesn’t turn dark brown right away).
5. Carefully place three or four doughnuts into the oil. Fry until golden, about 1 to 1 1/2 minutes per side (i found 1 minute worked). Bring the temperature back to 350 between batches. Transfer the doughnuts with a metal slotted spatula to the paper-towel-lined baking sheets. Repeat until all the doughnuts and scraps are fried.
6. Sift confectioners’ sugar generously over the warm doughnuts. When the doughnuts are cool, fill a pastry bag fitted with a plain metal tip (mine was plastic and worked fine) with jam. Plunge the tip into the bottom of each doughnut and squirt in a small amount of jam (or pudding; if you decide to do pudding make sure you make it ahead of time…like during one of the “rising period”s for the doughnuts).

*Notes:
We got way more than 18 doughnuts, which is how much it says there will be. Overall these are really good. I didn’t wait until they cooled completely to put the pudding in. But they still taste great.