Cinnamon Apple Butter Cookies

Fall has wormed its way into my head and won't get out. Everything I make has to be spiced and autumnal, or I will explode.

Cinnamon Apple Butter Cookies



These cookies were meant to be spritz cookies, but I fought with my cookie press a lot and couldn't get it to work, so I added about 1/2 cup more flour and turned them into cutouts. This worked just as well, and they made lovely pumpkins and maple leaves.

I found the recipe here at Wilton's site. They were spiced and autumnal, soft on the inside with just a little crunch on the edges.

Ingredients
-1/2 cup apple butter
-1/2 cup butter, room temperature
-1 cup granulated sugar
-1 egg yolk
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract
-3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
-2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
If making cutouts, add 1/2 cup flour

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In large bowl, cream apple butter, butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
3. Add egg yolk, vanilla, cinnamon to butter mixture and mix. Mix in flour until well combined.
4. FOR COOKIE PRESS: Roll dough into logs and fill cookie press. Using desired shapes, press cookies onto ungreased cookie sheet. FOR CUTOUTS: Roll dough out on lightly floured surface to about 1/4 inch thickness. Cut shapes using desired cookie cutters, rerolling scraps.
5. Bake 10-12 minutes or until light golden brown. Let cool for two minutes on sheet. Remove from cookie sheet and continue to cool on a baking rack.

Great American Taste Test--Arby's Apple Turnovers

The Great American Taste Test is a blogging event for the new book, America's Most Wanted Recipes by Ron Douglas.



America's Most Wanted Recipes is a book of copycat recipes for some of the most loved dishes from America's restaurants. Every blogger chose a recipe, took friends to try the real thing, and then recreated the dish using the recipe from America's Most Wanted Recipes in their own kitchen. I chose to make Arby's Apple Turnovers.

Arby's Apple Turnovers



Walter, my friend Roger, and I all went to Arby's and sampled turnovers. I must admit, we were not impressed. The pastry dough was thick, dry, and flaky, but not in the delicious way. There was very little apple filling in our turnovers, and I got a couple of cherries in mine as well. They tasted...okay...but they were not the most delicious turnovers we had ever had by any stretch of the imagination.



And then, I made the ones listed in America's Most Wanted Recipes. THESE turnovers were what Arby's turnovers should have been. They were flaky (in the good way), warm, and delicious. The apple filling was absolutely delicious and the dough was perfect. The recipes in the cookbook were supposed to be copycats...and, I think they did a good job, honestly. If the Arby's turnovers had been given a little more love and had been fresh (I assume ours had been there for a while, judging by how hard and dry the dough was), I think they would have tasted the same. The apple filling tasted the same across the board. The only difference between the copycat recipe and the Arby's one is that the copycat one was better. I think improvement is always a good thing. :)



Ingredients
-4 large apples
-1/2 cup sugar
-1 Tablespoon cornstarch
-1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
-1 teaspoon lemon juice
-1 17.3-ounce package frozen puff pastry sheets, thawed

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Peel, core, and thinly slice apples.
3. Cook the apples with the sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, and lemon juice over low heat, stirring often. Cook until apples are tender, then remove from heat.
4. Unfold the pastry dough on a floured surface. Roll two sheets into 120inch squares, and then cut each sheet into four 6-inch squares.
5. Place 1/4 cup of the apple mixutre in the center of each square. Brush edges with water, then form to fold triangles. Seal edges with fork.
6. Bake on parchment paper lined baking sheets for 25 minutes or until golden. Let cool on a wire rack.
7. In a small bowl, mix together 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar and 1 Tablespoon of water. Drizzle over cooled turnovers and allow to set.

Strawberry Walnut Streusel Cookies

I must say, sending sweets every week has made me quite popular with Walter's co-workers.

Strawberry Walnut Streusel Cookies



These cookies came from the Reader's Digest 1,001 Cookie Recipes cookbook. I altered the recipe a bit because I found that it didn't quite suit me normally. I had to add about 1/4 cup more flour to the dough to make it stiff enough to roll, and the streusel topping was a bit bland, so I added more cinnamon and some sugar. After my changes, these cookies were quite good.

Ingredients
For the streusel:
-2/3 cup all-purpose flour
-1 Tablespoon finely ground almonds (I used walnuts, hence the name)
-1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
-1/3 cup butter, cut up
I also used 1 Tablespoon sugar and an additional 1 Tablespoon cinnamon

For the cookies:
-1 cup all-purpose flour (I used 1 1/4 cup)
-1/8 teaspoon salt
-2/3 cup butter, cut up
-2/3 cup ricotta cheese
-1 Tablespoon vanilla sugar (For this, I just used 1 teaspoon vanilla with 1 Tablespoon sugar)
-1/3 cup strawberry preserves



Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Prepare streusel: Combine flour, walnuts, cinnamon, and sugar in a small bowl. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Set aside.
3. For the cookies, sift flour and salt into a medium bowl. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
4. Stir in ricotta, vanilla, and sugar to form a stiff dough. Form dough into disc and chill for thiry minutes.
5. Roll dough to thickness of 1/4 inch and cut into 2 1/2 inch shapes. Place on cookie sheet 1 inch apart.
6. Heat strawberry preserves over low heat until thin. Spread over each cookie. Top with streusel.
7. Bake cookies for 15 to 20 minutes or until the tops are golden and the edges are beginning to brown. Cool on wire racks. Sprinkle with more cinnamon and sugar if desired.

Apple Oatmeal Cookies

Last week, I made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Not a new recipe, but I realized that I have far too many oats that need using up. A coworker of Walter's recommended that I use fruit in the cookies one week, so I decided to give it a try.

Apple Oatmeal Cookies



These had a good taste, but I thought they had a sort of strange, gummy texture. Walter said they tasted okay. They were very moist and fell apart easily.

I found the recipe here at Allrecipes. I was originally going to add dried cherries as well, but I did not buy enough of them, and my car is currently non-functioning.

Ingredients
-1/2 cup margarine, softened (I used butter)
-1/2 cup honey
-1 egg
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract
-3/4 cup stone ground whole wheat flour (I used all-purpose flour)
-1/2 teaspoon baking soda
-3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon (I used pumpkin pie spice)
-1 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats
-1 apple, cored, peeled, and chopped
I also added 1/2 cup brown sugar.

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the margarine/butter, brown sugar (if using), honey, egg and vanilla until smooth.
3. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and cinnamon/pumpkin pie spice.
4. Combine dry ingredients with butter mixture and mix well. Stir in oats and chopped apple.
5. Bake for 8 to 10 or until light golden brown. Cool cookies on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Harley Davidson Cake

I made two cakes today. I think the quality of this one (which I made second) suffered because of it. But it's for my father-in-law, who has never seen one of my decorated cakes, so maybe he won't realize that it's not my best work. ;)

Father-in-law collects Harley Davidson memorabilia, so I decorated the cake accordingly.



I made a chocolate chip cake with a vanilla cream filling. I used marshmallow fondant for all of the details except the writing on the logo, which I did with Wilton's Icing Writers.



Chocolate Chip Cake

This cake tasted like a chocolate chip cookie. It was fabulous and incredibly moist. I did make a few changes, so I will write the recipe as adapted. The original recipe can be found here at Recipezaar.

Ingredients
-2 1/4 cup cake flour
-1 1/2 cups sugar
-2 teaspoons baking powder
-1 teaspoon baking soda
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1 1/4 cups sour cream
-3/4 cup margarine or butter, softened
-1 teaspoon vanilla
-3 eggs
-1 teaspoon cinnamon
-1 12-ounce package chocolate chips
-2 additional teaspoons flour

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 3 8-inch cake pans and set aside.
2. Combine first nine ingredients in large bowl and mix until smooth and well combined.
3. Combine cinnamon and additional flour in a small bag. Add chocolate chips and shake until they are coated. Fold into batter.
4. Pour batter into pans and bake for 20 to 30 minutes or until a pick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Vanilla Cream

This tasted just like vanilla ice cream! It was fantastic. This recipe makes about twice as much as was needed for this cake.

Ingredients
-2 cups heavy whipping cream
-2 cups powdered sugar
-2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions
1. Combine all ingredients and mix until thickened.

Chocolate Amaretto Meringues

I do not like baked goods. Those of you who read my blog regularly know this by now. The only ones I really like are brownies. Well, I have just discovered another treat I love: Meringues. I had never had one before, but I nearly ate ALL of these. They are so amazing, and I want to try every meringue recipe in existence now. And eat all of them.

Chocolate Amaretto Meringues



Hey, look at that, a cookie recipe from Reader's Digest's Cookies: 1,001 Mouthwatering Recipes from around the World that actually worked out the way it was supposed to! These were originally called cinnamon meringues, but while the cinnamon definitely comes through, I think the almond extract comes through much more, as does the chocolate, so I changed the name. I like changing names of recipes. Walter likes for the name of the treat to very much describe how it tastes so people will know what they are getting at the office.

These are perfect. They were easy, delicious, and pretty. And delicious. I recommend them 1000% to anyone. I did have one problem: The recipe said to cook them for 50 to 60 minutes, but mine were done after about 30. I don't know if my sizing was off or what. Maybe my oven temperature is off--need to get an oven thermometer and check. However, it has never been off before, so I am not sure. The other meringue recipes in the book say 20-30 minutes, so I am not sure. I would say to check them after about 20 minutes, and if they are not done, leave them in there.

This recipe makes about 30 cookies.

Ingredients
-2 large egg whites
-1/8 teaspoon salt
-2/3 cup sugar
-1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
-1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
-1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, beat egg whites and salt at medium speed until frothy.
3. Switch mixer to high speed and gradually add sugar to egg whites, and beat until stiff, glossy peaks form.
4. Fold in remaining three ingredients (I gave it a quick beating with the mixer to help combine the cocoa powder). Fit a pastry bag with a 1 1/2 inch star tip and fill pasty bag with batter.
5. Squeeze generous rosettes of batter about 1 inch apart on parchment paper-lined cookie sheets. Bake for 50-60 minutes (Like I said, it only took 20-30 minutes for me) or until crisp and dry to the touch, rotating the sheets halfway through for even baking. Cool completely on baking sheets.

Cinnamon Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies

My goodness, what a name. And the name Martha gave it wasn't any shorter...geez.

Cinnamon Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies



These were originally called Chunky Peanut, Chocolate, and Cinnamon Cookies. See? Still long. I got the recipe from Martha Stewart's Cookies cookbook. Overall, it was a good cookie, but I found that if I chilled the cookies and rolled them as small as she said to, they came out TINY. They hardly spread at all, and I do not want cookies that small. Still, they tasted good. After the first two batches I got the size thing down.

And then...after looking at the recipe, I don't know what I was thinking, but I know why they did not turn out like she said they would. There is no baking powder in her recipe, and there is light brown sugar. I put baking powder in and forgot the brown sugar. So, I guess that's why they aren't at all like the picture. My goodness, I am embarrassed. But not really, because they still taste fine.

I guess I will post MY recipe, as opposed to the one it was supposed to be.

Ingredients
-2 cups all-purpose flour
-1 teaspoon baking soda
-1 teaspoon baking powder
-1 teaspoon salt
-1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
-3/4 cup butter, at room temperature
-1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
-1/2 cup granulated sugar
-2 eggs
-1 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chunks
-2 teaspoons vanilla

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
3. Combine butter and peanut buter. Add sugar and mix until combined.
4. Add eggs one at a time to butter mixture, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla and mix well.
5. Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture and mix until combined.
6. Fold in chocolate chunks. Refrigerate dough for 5 to 10 minutes.
7. Roll dough into 2-inch balls and flatten to about 1/2 inch thickness on ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden in color. Cool on wire racks.

Cinnamon Graham Cookies

I wonder if Walter's co-workers love me yet. This is week four of sending tasty baked goods to the office. So far, I have heard no complaints.

Cinnamon Graham Cookies



This week, I may hear a few complaints. These cookies are good, but I overbeat the first batch, leaving some of them a little flat. Not so flat that they are not delicious, but not the best I have ever done. Still...they are good. They taste almost identical to snickerdoodles to me, but I can taste a hint of the graham cracker, which sets them apart. I found this recipe here at Allrecipes.

Ingredients
-2 cups graham cracker crumbs
-1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I used 1 1/2 cups plus 3 Tablespoons cake flour)
-1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (I used 2 teaspoons)
-1 teaspoon baking soda
-1 teaspoon salt
-1 cup butter
-1/4 cup white sugar
-1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
-2 large eggs
-1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine first five ingredients and set aside.
3. Cream butter, sugar, and brown sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each. Add vanilla and mix well.
4. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture and stir until combined. Drop dough two inches apart by rounded spoonful (I used a 1 1/2 teaspoon measuring spoon) on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until edges are brown.

Cinnamon Raisin French Toast

I almost feel silly posting something so simple in my blog, but why not? It is delicious and fantastic.

Growing up, the only time my father cooked was when we had breakfast for dinner. This was not incredibly often, but it was not uncommon, either (probably once every two weeks). Walter's family had "brinner" on a fairly regular basis as well. After we got married, we met a number of people who were not familiar with the concept, and it was so mind-boggling to us. Are we the only "brinner" fans out there?

Anyway, I love this French toast. It's sweet and fantastic, and so simple!

Cinnamon Raisin French Toast


I have also made other variations of this--chocolate and strawberry (by adding chocolate or strawberry syrup to the milk), brown sugar and cinnamon (by using different bread), etc. It is so fun and easy to switch things up.

Ingredients
-1 egg
-1 cup milk (I use vanilla soy milk because of my lactose intolerance)
-1 teaspoon sugar
-1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
-1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
-8 slices Pepperidge Farms Raisin Cinnamon bread (or any bread you prefer, but this is where you get the raisin)

Directions
1. Preheat griddle to 300 degrees. Combine egg, milk, sugar, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice in a bowl and stir until thoroughly mixed.
2. Coat each slice of bread in egg and milk mixture. Place each slice on the griddle.
3. Cook each side for about 1-2 minutes, or until browned. Serve with syrup, powdered sugar, fresh fruit, butter, or whatever you prefer to have with your French toast.