Ginger Sugar Cookies, Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies, Chocolate Peppermint Bars, and Chewy, Chunky Blondies w/ holiday add-ins

These are the cookies that I made and sent in the mail to some family members. When I am making a bunch of treats at the same time, I always try to choose a variety of flavors and textures. Since it is Christmas time, I made sure to choose some cookies that had appropriate flavors for this time of year. Ginger, pumpkin, peppermint, cranberries, etc.

I recently received a copy of The Gourmet Cookie Book, a cookbook in which the best cookie from the pages of Gourmet magazine was chosen for each year, from 1941-2009.
I thumbed through this book and chose a couple of recipes to try. The ginger sugar cookies stuck out to me because my family loves ginger and they looked like a chewy, delicious cookie.
They smelled yummy and my kids each sampled one. My 4 year old thought they were too spicy, but my other kids loved them.
These pumpkin oatmeal cookies look ordinary enough, but boy are they tasty. I was curious about their flavor, so I ate one. These were sooo good. Usually it seems like oatmeal cookies have all sorts of add-ins, like raisins, or nuts or chocolate chips, but these were so yummy because the stars of the show were just the pumpkin/spices and oatmeal. I will definitely make these again and again.
These chocolate peppermint bars were described by my son as "brownies with candy cane flavor". I didn't try one, but my son really didn't want me to send these in the mail. The batter was hard to spread, but it evened out in the oven. Not very pretty, but good to eat.

The last cookie I made is a classic bar cookie that always gets great reviews- Dorie's Chewy, Chunky Blondies. I have made these multiple times before and they are always a crowd pleaser. Usually they are chock full of nuts, chocolate, toffee bits, coconut-basically whatever you want to add.
This time I decided to add in some holiday flavors, so I went with dried cranberries, white chocolate chips, chopped macadamia nuts and toasted coconut.
These bars are perfect for sharing.

Ginger Sugar Cookies from The Gourmet Cookie Book
March 1965
Cream 3/4 cup softened butter and gradually beat in 1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed.
Stir in 1 egg and 1/4 cup molasses and blend thoroughly.
Sift 2 1/4 cups flour with 2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp each of cinnamon and ginger, 1/2 tsp cloves, and 1/4 tsp salt.
Gradually blend the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture and chill the dough for 1 hour.
Drop by heaping teaspoons into 1-inch balls and dip the tops in sugar.
Arrange the balls at least 3 inches apart on a greased baking sheet and sprinkle each cookie with 2 or 3 drops or water.
Bake the cookies at 375 degrees for about 7 or 8 minutes, or until they are firm.

Chewy, Chunky Blondies adapted from Dorie Greenspan's “Baking: From My Home to Yours” p.109

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups (packed) light brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup coarsely chopped macadamia nuts
1 cup toasted coconut

Getting Ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a 9×13-inch baking pan and put it on a baking sheet.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until smooth and creamy. Add both sugars and beat for another 3 minutes, or until well incorporated. Add the eggs one by one, beating for 1 minute after each addition, then beat in the vanilla. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients, mixing just until they disappear into the batter. Using a rubber spatula, stir in the chips, cranberries, nuts, and coconut. Scrape the batter into the buttered pan and use the spatula to even the top as best you can.

Bake for about 40 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center of the blondies comes out clean.(I usually have to keep adding 5 minutes at a time, until they are done- don't be afraid to let them cook a little longer). The blondies should pull away from the sides of the pan a little and the top should be a nice honey brown. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for about 15 minutes before turning the blondies out onto another rack. Invert onto a rack and cool the blondies to room temperature right side up.

Cut into 32 bars, each roughly 2-1/4 x 1-1/2 inches.

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies as seen on The Way the Cookie Crumbles

2½ cups (12 ounces) all-purpose flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¾ teaspoon salt
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup (7 ounces) white sugar
1 cup (7 ounces) packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup pumpkin puree

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line two baking pans with parchment paper or a silicone mat. In a medium bowl, mix the flour, oats, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or a large bowl with a hand mixer), beat the butter and both sugars until fluffy, about one minute. Add the egg, beating until incorporated, then mix in the vanilla and pumpkin. With the mixer on the lowest speed, add the flour mixture, mixing until just incorporated.

3. Drop heaping teaspoons of dough onto the prepared baking pans. Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until lightly browned around edges. Let the cookies cool slightly on the pans before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Recipe for Chocolate Peppermint Bar Cookies from The Gourmet Cookie Book-
December 2006

Mahi-Mahi with Macadamia Nut Crust & Braised Kale with Cherry Tomatoes

A couple of weeks ago when we were grocery shopping, my daughter wanted to try the "rainbow" fish. She said that because the package that contained the mahi-mahi had a pretty, colorful picture on it. It was on sale, so I decided we could try it.
I love nut-crusted fish andI had already marked this recipe to try in my Mayo Clinic Cookbook. I decided to pair it with the kale because that is what the cookbook suggested.

The fish was delicious and really easy to prepare. My whole family really loved it.
The cooking method for the kale was nothing new to me since I cook dark greens this way all the time. I removed some of the kale from the pan before I added the tomatoes though, since my husband doesn't like tomatoes at all.

Another great healthy dinner. I love the Mayo Clinic cookbook and the great thing is that you can find most of the recipes online at mayoclinic.com.


Recipe for Mahi-mahi with Macadamia Nut Crust


Recipe for Braised Kale with Cherry Tomatoes

TWD-Creamiest Lime Cream Meringue Pie with Mango

Sometimes a recipe in Baking:from my home to yours looks so good, that I just can't wait for someone to choose it for Tuesday's with Dorie.
Such is the case with the Creamiest Lime Cream Meringue Pie, which I opted to make with the mango that Dorie suggests in the Playing Around section.

I made this at Thanksgiving last year because I wanted something a little bit tropical to go along with the other desserts we had.

You can find my post and my version of the recipe HERE. Instead of the normal pie crust called for, I made a gingersnap/macadamia nut/ crystallized ginger crust- the crust from this recipe.

I also reduced the amount of butter in the filling by 2 sticks. Yes, you heard me right. I left out 2 sticks of butter in the filling. The lime cream filling in this pie is almost exactly the same as the lemon filling in The Most Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tart that we made last year for TWD. I remember tasting the cream before I blended in the 2+ sticks of butter for that tart and thinking that it tasted better without all the butter, so this time I just left it out. I think I added 3 Tbls and that is it.

I also doubled the meringue because I wanted it to be tall and tasty.

Thanks to Linda of Tender Crumb for choosing this great-tasting pie. You can find the recipe on Linda's blog also, as well as some beautiful pictures. Make sure you check out the rest of the TWD Blogroll to find a million great variations of this pie!

Tropical Muffins with Coconut-Macadamia Topping

I hope everyone had a great holiday break. We got a ton of snow and have been a little stir crazy. It is freezing outside and I am ready for a break in the weather. Somehow, something with the word tropical in the title, is really appealing to me right now. I can just start to dream about warm weather. I really should live somewhere that is warm and balmy all year round. I just can't take this cold stuff anymore! Oh, well. I can dream, right?
I received some dried kiwi in the mail a couple of weeks ago from Oh! Nuts and I have been wanting to use it in some kind of baked good. These muffins were the perfect thing. I had ripe bananas and a ton of macadamia nuts, so I decided to mix these up and throw in about a cup of chopped, dried kiwi. The kiwi added a nice little surprise inside and these muffins disappeared quickly. Another batch is going to be made by demand!

Tropical Muffins with Coconut-Macadamia Topping from Cooking Light
Muffins:1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour (about 6 ounces)
1 cup regular oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup mashed ripe banana (about 2)
1 cup low-fat buttermilk
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1/2 cup canned crushed pineapple in juice, drained
1/3 cup flaked sweetened coconut
3 tablespoons finely chopped macadamia nuts, toasted
Cooking spray
Topping:
2 tablespoons flaked sweetened coconut
1 tablespoon finely chopped macadamia nuts
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 tablespoon regular oats

1. Preheat oven to 400°.
2. To prepare muffins, lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 4 ingredients (through salt) in a large bowl. Make a well in center of flour mixture. Combine banana and next 5 ingredients (through egg) in a medium bowl; add to flour mixture, stirring just until moist. Stir in pineapple, 1/3 cup coconut, and 3 tablespoons nuts. Spoon batter into 12 muffin cups coated with cooking spray.
3. To prepare topping, combine 2 tablespoons coconut and the remaining ingredients in a small bowl.
4. Sprinkle about 1 teaspoon of topping over each muffin. Bake at 400° for 18 minutes or until muffins spring back when touched lightly in center. Remove muffins from pans immediately; place on a wire rack.

Coming Tomorrow- Tuesdays with Dorie- Cheesecake

Pies with That- Holiday Songs- Dorie's Creamiest Lime-Mango Meringue Pie with Ginger-Macadamia Crust

This month's theme for You Want Pies with That? is Holiday Songs, chosen by Anne Strawberry. Pretty fun, if you ask me. I don't know for sure what my favorite holiday song is, I like them all. I like singing them, playing them on the piano, humming them, or listening to them on the radio. I decided to do a play on a holiday song- It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas.
I do not love snow or cold weather, but I do enjoy a white christmas. I thought I would make a tropical pie, so I could pretend that it isn't cold and snowy (Well, it isn't snowy yet, but it is cold). So, my pie is the opposite of my song.
For the crust, I found a recipe that used ground gingersnaps, macadamia nuts, and crystallized ginger, so it was nice and spicy. I decided to fill my pie with Dorie's Creamiest Lime Cream because she says " I save this pie for summer because, as fresh as lime and ginger taste on their own, when they're mixed together, they turn uber-zingy and so cool you'd think they'd been in the deep freeze. It may be an illusion, but one you'll be happy to play along with on a sweltering day." And what the heck, why not make it a little more tropical by throwing a ripe mango in the middle of the cream, like Dorie suggests.
So I pretended it was a hot, sweltering day and made this pie. I increased the amount of meringue, so I would get some height and have enough to cover the pie and also reduced the amount of butter in the filling by 2 sticks, because I have made Dorie's Lemon Cream before; that cream is just like this one, and I liked the flavor better without all the butter. So, if you were wishing you were on a tropical island because It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas- this is the pie for you!

Dorie's Creamiest Lime-Mango Meringue Pie with Ginger-Macadamia Crust

for the crust: (recipe from epicurious.com)

1 1/3 cups ground gingersnaps cookies
1 3 1/2-ounce jar toasted macadamia nuts
1/4 cup packed golden brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped crystallized ginger
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted

for the filling: ( adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Baking from my home to yours)

1 cup sugar

grated zest of 3 limes

4 large eggs, preferably at room temperature

3/4 cup fresh lime juice ( from about 6 limes)

1 1-inch chunk of fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated

2 tsps cornstarch

3 Tbls unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into chunks

1 ripe mango, peeled, cut into cubes, and sprinkled with a little fresh lime juice

for the meringue: (adapted from Dorie's Baking)

6 large egg whites, at room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

For crust:Preheat oven to 350 °F. Generously butter 9-inch-diameter spring-form pan with 2 3/4-inch-high sides. Finely grind first 4 ingredients in processor. Add butter; blend until crumbs are moistened. Press mixture on bottom and 1 3/4 inches up sides of pan. Bake until crust is set, about 8 minutes. Transfer to rack, cool.

For the filling: Have an instant-read thermometer, a strainer, and a blender at hand. Bring a few inches of water to a simmer in a saucepan.

Put the sugar and zest in a large heatproof bowl that can be set over the pan of simmering water. Off the heat, rub the sugar and zest together with your fingertips, until the sugar is moist and fragrance of lime is strong. Whisk in the eggs, then whisk in the juice, ginger and cornstarch. Set the bowl over the pan and start stirring with a whisk. Cook the lime cream until is reaches 180 degrees F, whisking constantly. As you whisk, the cream will start out light and foamy, then the bubbles will get bigger, and then, as it gets closer to 180 degrees F, it will start to thicken and the whisk will leave tracks. It won't be done yet, keep whisking and checking the temp, this could take up to 10 minutes or more.

As soon as it reaches 180 degrees F, remove the cream from the heat and strain the cream into the container of a blender; discard the zest. Let it cool until it reaches 140 degrees F, about 10 minutes.

Turn the blender to high speed and add the butter a piece at a time. Scrape down the sides of the container and continue to blend for about a minute more. Pour the cream into a container, press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.

To finish the pie with the meringue- Preheat the broiler. Whisk the cream to loosen it and spoon about 1/3 of it into the cooled crust. Top with the diced mango and Cover with the remaining cream.

With the whisk attachment of your mixer, whip the egg whites at medium speed until opaque. With the mixer running, add the sugar in a slow stream and continue to beat until the whites are glossy and form firm peaks.

Spread the meringue over the lime filling, swirling it if you'd like. Make sure the meringue comes all the way to the edges of the crust, because it will shrink when it bakes.

Run the pie under the broiler until the meringue is golden and the tips are dark brown. Remove the pie from the oven and let it cool for about 15 minutes, then refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

Up Tomorrow- Craving Ellie in my Belly- Jewel Roasted Vegetables

Banana Cupcakes with Macadamia Nut Struesel and Buttermilk-Banana Pancakes with Pomegranate Syrup

Here are some great ways to use up those overripe bananas. It seems to happen every so often, you buy too many bananas and there they are, looking at you, in their sad, black peel. I actually get excited whenever I see them turning brown because I know that means I can make something yummy soon.
We were taking dinner to someone and I needed a quick treat. I grabbed a cake mix and came up with these banana cupcakes with a delicious struesel.
I have also been on a pancake kick lately. These pancakes were delicious and easy. A great breakfast and the syrup topped them off perfectly! If you have those quicky ripening bananas, put them to good use!

Banana Cupcakes with Macadamia Nut Struesel by Mary Ann

1 box white cake mix

2 large ripe bananas, mashed

1/2 cup water

2 egg whites

2 Tbls greek yogurt

struesel:

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup oats

1/4 cup madacamia nuts, chopped

1 Tbls cold butter, cut into 4 pieces

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, mix together cake mix, bananas, water, egg whites and greek yogurt. You can use an electric mixer or mix with a wooden spoon. Spoon cake mixture into cupcake liners (24).

In a small bowl, mix struesel ingredients with your fingers, until it comes together. Sprinkle struesel on top of the cupcakes and bake for 18-23 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes in the pan and remove to a wire rack.

Buttermilk-Banana Pancakes with Pomegranate Syrup from Cooking Light

Pancakes:1 cup all-purpose flour (about 4 1/2 ounces)

1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 (1-ounce) package uncooked instant farina (such as Cream of Wheat)

1 1/4 cups low-fat buttermilk

1 tablespoon canola oil

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 large egg

1 cup mashed banana (about 2 large)

Syrup:

1/2 cup pomegranate juice

1/2 cup maple syrup

2 tablespoons pomegranate juice

2 teaspoons cornstarch

To prepare pancakes, lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour and the next 6 ingredients (through farina) in a large bowl; stir with a whisk. Combine buttermilk, oil, vanilla, and egg; add to flour mixture, stirring until smooth. Fold in banana.
Spoon 1/4 cup batter per pancake onto a hot nonstick griddle. Turn when tops are covered with bubbles and edges look cooked.
To prepare syrup, combine 1/2 cup juice and syrup in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Combine 2 tablespoons juice and cornstarch in a bowl; add to pan. Cook 1 minute or until thickened; remove from heat. Serve with pancakes.

Up next- Weekly Lunchbox!

Tuesdays with Dorie-Lenox Almond Biscotti and Macadamia, Lime, and Dried Cherry Biscotti

This week's recipe was chosen by Gretchen of Canela & Comino. Check out her blog for the recipe or go to NPR where this recipe is posted. But really you should just be able to turn to page 141 of Dorie's Baking from my home to yours, because I know you all realize by now that you should own this book! Don't the goodies look good? Well, they are, and if you don't have this Cookbook you are seriously missing out, in my opinion.
A couple of weeks ago I saw a beautiful picture of biscotti on Steph's blog, A Whisk and A Spoon. She made some beautiful Chocolate Hazelnut Biscotti and put them in a glass cup with a ribbon. So, I copied her idea.Mine didn't turn out nearly as cute as hers, but it was the best I could come up with. At least I am giving her the credit right? What really happened to these biscotti, both batches, was that they got packed up really tight and were shipped to a lucky soldier for Operation Baking GALS. I figured that since biscotti are already crisp, it wouldn't matter if they sat in the mail for a week or two. Hope they tasted good!

I made 2 batches. The first was plain, Lenox Almond Biscotti and the second were Macadamia, Lime, and Dried Cherry Biscotti. I only kept the very ends, so we really didn't get to taste too much of these. Out of the scraps that we tasted though, the Macadamia version were much more popular. These turned out rather flat, but I think that is because I didn't shape the logs into precisely the measurements that Dorie suggested. I got close enough and decided that was fine.

I had to bake them for longer than suggested, but other than that, this was a pretty simple recipe. To see all the other gorgeous Biscotti, check out the Tuesday's with Dorie Blogroll! Coming up next week-Pumpkin Muffins, yum!