Pound Cake p. 906-7

In my last post I plotted out a meal plan for a week. I stuck to it, but it only took me 3 weeks to post it. Sorry. Without further ado... pound cake!

I felt like I wasn't a true Southern girl since I am a quarter decade old without ever attempting to make my own pound cake. Although, to be truthful, I'm not crazy about pound cake. But it was a Sunday and I wanted to bake something sweet. I also wanted to use some yogurt I had laying around.

It was not too difficult to make, just a bunch of steps to add ingredients at just the right time. I'm sure there's a science behind it that I just do not care to learn.

The cake turned out great and we enjoyed it for several days. I didn't get a chance to toast some, which I wanted to do. I'm sure it would have been really delicious with a little homemade plum preserves.

Aunt Big's Gingersnaps p. 897

Ingredients: butter, sugar, molasses, baking soda, flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, salt. (No kitty cats are called for this recipe and none were injured in the making of these delicious cookies.)

I'm not entirely sure if I'd ever had gingersnaps before. I've had one or two gingerbread men, but that's different.

Start off by creaming the butter, sugar, and molasses. Then add your baking soda and water. In a separate bowl add flour and spices together and slowly add to the dough.



When its combined put your dough on wax paper to refrigerate for a few hours or few days. Helpful tip: Try to spread the dough into an even log. The dough is very sticky and messy and I just tried to get it on there without making too much of a mess.

Once you have refrigerated the dough for at least a couple of hours, take out and slice. If I had an even dough log I wouldn't have ended up with whoppy cookie shapes.



Bake for about 10 minutes and cool. A vanilla frosting or orange glaze would be good, but I was lazy. So lazy I even forgot to take pictures of the after product.

Mexican Wedding Cookies p. 896

Ingredients: butter, confectioners sugar, flour, salt, pecans (or any other nut you prefer), vanilla extract.

I was excited about getting to use my new Kitchen Aid mixer. Start off by beating the butter until fluffy before adding the powder sugar. In a bowl combine the flour, salt and nuts. Then you'll add those to your mixer. Once everything is mixed together it needs to refrigerate for a while. Mine sat in the fridge for a few days.

When you are ready to bake, shape the dough into about 1" balls.



Bake them for about 10 minutes until they start to brown. Let them cool for a minute or so and then cover in powdered sugar. Let them sit on a rack for another minute while you powder all the balls and then give them all a second coat of sugar.



I'm not a fan of Mexican Wedding Cookies or powdered sugar. Actually its probably the powdered sugar I don't like about Mexican Wedding Cookies. But I tried one and it was good. I promptly gave the rest away as gifts. Our neighbor raved about them.

Mocha Glaze p. 919

As I mentioned yesterday, I went on a huge baking spree before Christmas. One of the confections made were butter cookies. I decided to spice them up with a mocha glaze.

To make a glaze you simply stir together fresh coffee, cocoa powder, vanilla extract, and confectioners' sugar. Then brush on your cookies.



We had some glaze leftover after brushing all the cookies twice. Bryan made me save it and we'll top some vanilla ice cream with it. Or drizzle it on some cake. Or cover a finger with some and lick it off.

Butter Cookies p. 892

Ingredients: butter, sugar, vanilla, extract, egg, flour, baking powder, salt, milk.

One of my Christmas presents was a beautiful Kitchen Aid mixer (Thanks, Bryan!). So I did quite a bit of baking.

These cookies are an easy (I say easy, but cookies using a mixer are always easy, just dump everything in the correct order) and are great for everyday cookies or for dressing up.

Here are my cookies, dropped, and ready for baking:



Here they are naked:


They are great on their own, but excellent with a glaze or icing.

I opted for a mocha glaze (we love coffee around here) found on page 919 which I'll be posting tomorrow.

I gave each cookie two coatings and let dry. Easy and delicious!