White and Wheat Snickerdoodles

I love holidays. They are the perfect excuses for me to bake sweets for fun. I'm always in for some good exploration in baking, and July 4th just happens to come along. I have a book at home from Pillsbury called, "Cookies, Brownies, and Bars," and it's a fabulous collection of these baked goods. Everything in there sounds and looks delectable. One of the ones I've been itching to make is their Wheat Snickerdoodles. I absolutely love things with cinnamon, and to have it paired with a sugar cookie??? Fantastic creation, truly. And, now, Pillsbury has the genius to add wheat flour to the recipe to add that hint of nuttiness and heartiness that I love. I just had to make these things.

It was rather quick to make, I just couldn't find my cream of tartar, so I switched it with equivalent fresh lime juice. The recipe said to roll it into balls then roll these in cinnamon sugar, but the dough was too sticky to do so. I added some extra flour to the dough to try to make it pliable, but it still was sticky. Instead, I just plopped tablespoons of dough onto the cookie sheets and sprinkled the cinnamon sugar over them. I was really happy taking them out of the oven: I didn't burn them! :D When you first take a bite, it takes a second for the flavor to hit you, but when it does...Mmmm!!! It takes so good. The buttery sugary goodness is heaven in the form of a cookie. Enjoy!

White and Wheat Snickerdoodles (adapted from Pillsbury)
8 Tbsp (1 stick) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup unbleached flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp fresh lime juice
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Beat sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Blend in vanilla and eggs.
2. Stir in both flours, lime juice, baking soda, and salt. Mix well.
3. Combine remaining sugar and cinnamon. Drop dough by tablespoons onto ungreased baking sheets, 2 inches apart, and attempt to mold into round shapes. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.
4. Bake 10 minutes. Remove from baking sheets immediately and let cool on rack. Serves 30.

Lower-Fat Peanut Butter Banana Cookies | Recipe from FatFree Vegan Kitchen

Oh man! These look amazing it's almost impossible to believe they're vegan! I'll have to try this soon. I just bought a bunch of bananas; just have to wait for them to ripen.

Lower-Fat Peanut Butter Banana Cookies | Recipe from FatFree Vegan Kitchen

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Three Savory Quick Breads the French Way

Definitely some breads I'll have to try this summer. My aunt would love to make them with me, I bet.

Three Savory Quick Breads the French Way

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Sauceless, Yeastless, but Delicious Pizza

Again and again, the predicament in my home is an over-abundance of food that needs to be eaten before they expire or mold. The case this week consisted of a Costco pack of Provolone cheese, a couple of tomatoes, mushrooms, and eggs. The back of the BelGioiso cheese pack had a recipe for Provolone, Tomato, and Basil pizza, so I decided to try my hand at that. I never have yeast in the house (yeast breads are really daunting, as many of you would agree!), so I looked up a no-yeast pizza dough recipe online. I adjusted the recipe slightly to include 25% whole wheat flour, which turned out well. We have a jar of pesto spread in the refrigerator, which I thought of using, but I felt too lazy to get it out yesterday morning. I was also too lazy to slice and cook the mushrooms and onions to put on the pizza as well, so it just became Margherita-style for all my laziness. ;-P My aunt and parents liked it, so I'm pretty proud of this, especially since it's healthy.

(Pacman Pizza?)

Tomato White Pizza (serves 8)
Dough: (adapted from here)
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup milk
1/2 olive oil
Toppings:
3-4 roma tomatoes, thinly sliced
Italian seasoning, bay leaves, oregano, or thyme (your choice!)
Grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
7-9 slices mild Provolone cheese

1. Mix together flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder, and salt. Add milk and olive oil. Stir thoroughly until mixture leaves the sides of the bowl. Roll into a ball, then knead 10 times. Divide into 2 balls.
2. Preheat oven 420°F. Roll out dough to a 13" round on a lightly floured surface. Move to a baking pan (I used parchment paper so the edges wouldn't burn). Brush with olive oil. Pinch up edges to create a crust so the cheese doesn't run over. Sprinkle grated Parmesan or Romano cheese on top. Layer Provolone slices on top, then place tomato slices cocentrically. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and your choice of seasonings to taste.
3. Bake about 15 minutes in the center of the oven, until the crust is brown but not burnt. Make sure the dough is baked through. Cut into 8 slices, 2 slices per person. Then do the same for the other dough ball and enjoy!

Homemade Vegetable Dumplings

This was not just an experiment in making dumplings; this was an experiment to use up vegetables sitting unused in the refrigerator. My mom bought some mushrooms last week to make stir-fried egg noodles, but we made Bun Bo Hue instead. So, the mushrooms were just sitting there for a while and I kept saying I'd make something with them. I decided to try my hand at dumplings! There were also leftover cabbage, carrots, and onions that I knew I could use. So, this morning, I got up, made myself another french toast with cinnamon apples and began preparing the dumplings!


It took 3 whole to get it all done. I didn't really measure anything out; rather, measured using my eyes. I felt so pro by not using a recipe, because that's how real cooks do it. Good food comes from feeling, not written instructions. At the beginning of making the actual wrappers, it was difficult and the dumplings were shaped funny. Eventually I found a better way to fold the seams together. Since I didn't measure, I can only rough out the recipe for you guys here. Just add what seems necessary to make it work! This made about 20-25 dumplings for me, with a little filling leftover which I just ate with my lunch cause I didn't have time to make more wrappers.


Ingredients
6-7 large mushrooms, diced
2 carrots, finely diced
1/4 white onion, diced
1/4 head of cabbage, diced
(Use less onion and carrot compared to the mushroom and cabbage. Also, make sure sure sure! that you cut the carrots small!)
Soy sauce (2-3 teaspoons?)
Sesame oil (1-2 teaspoons?)
Rice vinegar (1-2 teaspoons?)
Black pepper
Flour (about 1 1/2 cups)
Water

Directions
1. Mix the vegetables together with the soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, and black pepper, adjusting the seasonings to taste.
2. Mix flour with enough water to produce a dough ball that sticks only a little but also slightly recoils when stretched.
3. Take an approximately 1 1/2 inch ball of dough and stretch out to a thin oblong shape. Place 2 teaspoons of filling in the center. Starting from one side, pinch up both edges up and over the filling. Pinch up the seams outward so the dough isn't too thick there.
4. Prepare a steamer and steam the dumplings. I think I steamed them for 5-8 minutes.
5. Enjoy by themself, or with soy sauce or sweet chili dipping sauce!

Pound Cake

My Dad's birthday was Tuesday, and my mom wanted to get him a cake, so I offered to bake him one. That day, I asked (nonchalantly) what his favorite cake was, and he said it was pound cake! So, that night, when he was sleeping, I baked it for him, which was basically at midnight! Luckily, it finished sometime after 1 am - not too late. The recipe called for a loaf pan, but we couldn't find one, so I just did it in an 8" round cake pan, which probably was the reason 1 hour 20 minutes seemed to long for the cake to bake. If it wasn't for my mom, I would have left it longer in the oven and it would have burned! She told me to take it out. Mom's are so good. The cake came out very good, but I think I'll reduce the sugar next time I make it.

(H B D 47 stands for "Happy Birthday 47." We didn't have all the sprinkle letters -_-" )

Ingredients
2/3 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Grease and flour a loaf pan.
2. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, beating well after each one.
3. Mix milk and vanilla together.
4. Mix the dry ingredients, then add in batches to the egg mixture, alternating with the milk mixture. Do not overbeat.
4. Fill the loaf pan and bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour until golden brown.

(Recipe adapted from Southernfood.about)

Samosa – You can make Indian appetizers at home, these are spicy filled fried dumplings.

Samosa – You can make Indian appetizers at home, these are spicy filled fried dumplings.

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