Holiday Spice and Everything Nice ~ Cookies

Cookies in Cookies?  YES!!!

Tis the season for the Ruby's Musings month of sweets. Well obviously by now you have figured out that I am a bit behind with all that. I did not line up a bunch of retro recipes, I have not been up to baking non stop all day, no, truthfully I just have been a bit slow with much of anything on the holiday front, but I will not go into a list of the why's with all that, let's talk cookies! You all KNOW, I have a sweet tooth, I could eat cookies and baked goods all day , and I love it when the house smells like warm baked goods...plus when it is cold the oven helps warm things up. So when my middle daughter, Rebecca asked for my help, (which then became me doing it for her  and I did offer) , with baking cookies for her future in-laws cookie exchange party , I gladly said 'yes, of course!'.  

She told me that she had a very easy recipe and all the ingredients, she just does not have a big kitchen and her oven has been busy baking our jewelry for Housewife Chic by Ruby . She told me that the recipe was from Pinterest and was basically a dump cookie using cake mix and wait for it.... OREOS! A sort of cookies and cream flavor profile.  It contained cream cheese, a full stick of butter, chocolate and white chocolate chips as well, how could you go wrong? The cookies were indeed very easy to make, and tho the recipe called for folding in the oreos and chips, which is hard for me, and then scooping chilled dough, something that is also hard for me, lucky for me my stand mixer with a bread hook helped with part of it and hubby did the latter. The results MMMMMMMM SOOOOOO GOOOD! So then when knowing I was in a pinch for a holiday sweet and treat post I decided to do my own version , hence this post/recipe! So what is my version? Well, I substituted spice cake mix for the white cake, instead of chocolate Oreos I bought the cinnamon Oreos , and I replaced the chocolate chips for cinnamon chips and the final touch I shaved in some nutmeg. The result was originally supposed to be like a egg nog in cookie form, but the use of the spice cake mix made it more like a gingerbread cookie , YET, not. No matter what , and aside from hubby saying next time "spice it up even more", they were VERY tasty!  So you want the recipe??  Ohhh ok..... 

Holiday Spice Cookies

pre- heat oven to 350 degrees 

1 spice cake mix 

8 tablespoons of melted butter or margarine

1 egg room temp.

1 teaspoon of vanilla 

fresh nutmeg ( and other baking spices if you like) to taste

4 ounces of cream cheese, softened 

2 cups of cinnamon Oreos , crushed 

(I put mine in a bag and beat them up with a rolling pin)

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

1/2 cup cinnamon chips

makes 24-36 cookies* 

Combine cake mix, butter, egg vanilla and cream cheese , 

beat until a soft dough forms.  Stir in cookies and chips by hand

( tho I used a bread hook on my mixer and slowly blended), Refrigerate

dough 30 minutes to one hour.  

Then either with your hands or with a small cookie scoop 

( and we actually used a medium size cookie scoop) , roll/scoop into 24 balls ( we got 28).

 Place on baking sheet ( we used parchment paper), and bake for 10 minutes 

(* 9 minutes if you got 36) , DO NOT OVER BAKE!!  The cookies will seem underdone,

but they will continue to bake/set up as they cool.  Let the cookies rest for 2-3 minutes, and

then with the back side of a flat spatula, flatten cookies out. Transfer cookies to wire racks 

( we, because we used parchment paper, just slid the cookies, paper and all to the counter for

another two minutes before transferring to the racks.), and let the cookies fully cool and set up. 

Store in a sealed container, with layers of parchment between layers.  

All the goodies...many if like me, I often have most on hand. 

Get your aggression out on the cookies LOL 

Stage One 

Stage Two

Dough ready to be chilled 

Using a medium scoop ( but you can use your hands)
to keep them as uniform as possible and
parchment paper makes for easy clean up. 

After the 10 minute baking time and and 2-3 minute cool off.....

Smash those cookies...be sure to clean off the spatula as needed to prevent sticking issues. Now
let them cool a bit longer if using parchment paper on the counter,
then transfer to a cooling rack and cool completely before storing. 

Christmas lights on, a holiday special on the tv and our
choice of libations are perfect when accompanied by
a fresh baked cookie! It is Holiday Spice and Everything Nice! 

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Vegies For Dessert....

This week has certainly had it's memorable
moments in baking....
just like the title of this old book cover.

So did you miss me? Life has been a handful this past week, I shall not go into details, but let's just say it has been often recently that I have wanted to hide under the covers and stay there!! I know we all have those weeks. I decided to just not push myself. So that would be why there has not been a weekly post as of late. Plus technology has not been my friend. But, moving on, this week is not a life post, it is a baking post. I have both a new recipe for you as well as a take THREE on one that I have shared with you in the past. Let's get started!

So as the title suggests, we are having our vegies for dessert! The first is a recipe that the main ingredient is tomato soup! Now many times I have seen tomato soup used in chocolate cake recipes, but never as the main ingredient as it is in this case! I had my reservations as did my family, but I was determined to give it a whirl. You know what, it was not bad, in fact I rater liked it. I made a few tweaks, but nothing major and nothing that would change anything taste wise. I will go over those in a bit. 

I will not bore you with all the prep photos. I am sure you can imagine what they look like, so instead I will go over a few things. The first, it says to cream butter and sugar, then it does not tell you what to do with it and when. I guessed that you add it in when combining all the wet and dry. Then it says to sit the flour and THEN measure it. So I sifted two cups of all purpose, not cake flour, and then I added all the dry ingredients, sifted again, so a total of four times!!! Now it mentions adding soda, but not if it was soda pop, or baking soda, so I took a chance and well I added both, I used soda water in with the soup, it did not change a thing, and I used baking soda in the dry ingredients. I then added the dry and wet as instructed in with the never mentioned again butter and sugar mix. It was a VERY thick muffin type batter, so there was no "pouring" into the loaf pan. I could see this being in individual muffins, even tho it said the loaf pan was "VERY" important.  I will say it took my oven 55 minutes to bake and it peaked like a bread loaf, so maybe it was supposed to be liquid soda?? I did exactly as said with the frosting, but found myself needing to add extra dry coco, thinking baking chocolate squares I used was not the same equivalent to those in the recipe...but we adapted and frosting came out perfect. 

So how did it taste? It was very dense like a good vegie bread, but very moist and well, it actually was really tasty!! it just tasted like a spice cake with chocolate frosting.  Changes? Well I would add a bit of spice to the frosting and actually it could be skipped and a light glaze used or even a crumb or raw sugar topping and be just fine. In fact next time I think I will make muffins and skip the frosting. Sol I mark this Ruby's Musings Approved! 

On to the next thing. Potato Candy! YES! I tried it a third time. If you have not read about my last two attempts, go to the web version of my blog and in the side bar there is a Recipes label and you can read all about it in the post(s) under there. This time I had success!!! Changes, I used a Yukon Gold potato, just one, the size of my hand. I microwaved it,  tho you could bake it. No boiling this time. I skinned it and mashed with butter and a bit of vanilla....not much of either...maybe 2 tbsp of butter and a splash of vanilla. I then put in a load of powder sugar until I got a dough. Tip....make sure that potato mash is super smooth! I then was able to roll it out on wax paper , and actually used my hands to shape it...be sure to dust your hands and paper with more powdered sugar. I spread the smooth peanut butter on it....I used a thin smear, but next time I would do it twice as thick. I rolled it into a log and shaped it within the paper and then popped it into the fridge to firm up so I could slice it. 

I would have rolled out thinner and made the PB
layer thicker...

How did it taste? It was super sweet...even for me..
so I think half coco mixed with powdered sugar and a
thicker layer of PB is the way to go...BUT that being said,
it was not bad.  

Till next time..... xx

Peanut Butter candy Cookie Brownie Cups~ A Pinterest Success

Sweet treats for the ones I love

This past Sunday was for many of us Mother's Day. I had informed my two daughters that live here that they would be cooking and divided up who was in charge of what and said I would handle desert. I wanted something truly decadent. I scrolled through the hundreds of recipes I have saved on my Pinterest boards and picked one that was super simple, but also would be something that unless it was a special occasion and calories be damned, would not be eaten. What I picked out was as I said simple, only a few ingredients....peanut butter cups, chocolate chip cookie dough, brownie mix, butter and a couple of eggs.

Smoosh the cookie dough into your muffin tin...I used foil
cups sprayed with cooking spray for easy clean up.
Put your peanut butter cup upside down on top....

put brownie batter that you pre-mixed on top 

Bake at 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes, Don't over bake... I did as hubby and kids like then crunchy and not chewy.

Serve with ice cream ...better served warm.

The final results... YUM!

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Going A Little Fruity for Mother's Day

Does your mama love cake? Don't use a mix,
bake from scratch! It's actually easier than you think! 

If you are new here you have no idea about my notorious sweet tooth. On occasion I post savory recipes, and if you go on the web version of my blog and look under the label RECIPES, you can find some, but for the most part it is all about the baked goods...mostly sweets!! Today is no different. I have shared "dump cakes" here before. this recipe I found that is actually deemed a "pudding" is very similar , simply in it's simplicity. Just in time for Mother's Day here in the U.S., using just a few simple ingredients, ones you may already have on hand you can make your mom a sweet treat!! 

THE RECIPE...

Found on Pinterest 

Simple right??? So a few suggestions... Don't be afraid to switch out the fruit, pineapple would be really good!  Use your favorite nuts....or not. I used candied almonds, but I could also see this be amazing even without nuts, and a traditional crumble instead, or if using tropical fruit a toasted coconut topping put on half way through baking so as not to get burnt. It is super sweet...so though I served as suggested with whipped topping, I think a nice frozen yogurt which as a bit of tang would cut the sweetness quite nicely...and if you left the topping off entirely or made an oat crumble or the mentioned toasted coconut and maybe macadamia nut mix, it would cut the sweet quite a bit as well.  One last suggestion I would use a lot less of the recipes topping...it was just too thick, you can see in the photos below it did not get as baked/browned, so I would cut the amounts in half and that would cut the sweetness, as would maybe adding some spices, maybe ginger, cinnamon or nutmeg to also help cut the sweet factor. 

How did it taste??

Well my hubby and I loved it, despite of the level of sweetness, but our middle daughter who is not into super sweet things got one bite in and that was it....she is the one that suggested the frozen yogurt topping...I agree it is super sweet, but with a few tweaks as I suggested above, it is really yummy and especially fresh out of the oven! Would I make it again? Yes, I think I would. If you make a different variation of this, I would love to hear about it and the results! 

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Ruby's Coffee Cake Muffins

Something yummy is baking here at Muse Cottage!

It is recipe time here on Ruby's Musings. This go around I have a sweet treat that though not sinless, isn't the worst for you either, and made into muffins, it helps with portion control! When I was formulating this recipe, based on a basic coffee cake recipe from the 1950's , I was having a hard time coming up with a good name for it, so hence the above title for them. These yummy coffee cake muffins have the sweet juice of oranges, chunks of semi sweet chocolate, and crushed bits of candied cinnamon almonds. It is a very dense, loaf or coffee cake texture, but it is still moist. It has a slight bit of chew from the almonds and then the creamy texture of the chocolate bits. The recipe does include shortening, but could be switched out for coconut oil, the solid variety, or even for a lighter version, sour cream...even fat free. The orange juice could be tangerine, but really any other would not go as well. The chocolate is optional, or could be substituted with dark, milk or even white varieties. The candied almonds could be substituted for any nut candied or not... I prefer candied/spiced nuts as it adds a nice flavor profile. I bought most of my ingredients, all but the flour which is King Arthur Flour, and my spices which I buy online through a spice company, at Trader Joes, but you can of course shop at your local market. This could be made into a loaf OR in an 8x8 cake pan, or a round one if that is what you have, and of course that will make baking times change, as muffins that are medium size, and make a dozen, I baked them for 25 minutes. If you made them smaller, you can of course get more and bake them for less. I chose muffins for portion control. 

Let's talk toppings. I chose to not use any, but I could see this with holes poked into them and some kind of orange glaze soaking them through, or a orange flavored powdered sugar and orange juice glaze drizzled on top. Perhaps you would like a cream cheese and chopped nut frosting on them, perhaps you want to top them with a crumble or raw sugar...all would be very tasty and kick them up a notch. So let's get onto the recipe.....

What you need...

 2 cups of sifted flour 

1/2 tsp of baking soda

*1/4 tspnutmeg

*1/4 tsp allspice

*1/4 tsp cinnamon 

( *I used a all purpose baking spice )

1/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup shortening 

1 cup brown sugar packed lightly

2 eggs, room temp...beaten until thick

1  tbsp grated orange rind..less if dried 

3/4 cup orange juice...with pulp 

1/2 cup chocolate chips or chunks* 

1/2 cup crushed candied nuts*

( you can add up to 3/4 cup without issue if you like, or use less if you like) 

What you need to do....

Sift flour, baking soda, spices and salt together and set aside. 

cream shortening and sugar until creamy.

If you have not already beat eggs until thick and then add to shortening mixture.

And in orange rind and mix to blend. 

Add sifted ingredients and orange juice alternately, beating thoroughly after each addition.

Add nuts and chocolate and blend once again until incorporated.  

Pour into either greased or lined cupcake pan or into a greased pan of choice at 350 degrees...

bake cupcakes for 25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean , if baking in a cake pan it can bake upwards of 50 minutes... adjust accordingly for your oven 

Don's skip the sifting, it is important. 

Ok you caught me, I bought a selfie stick so I can take my own photos.

Make sure you add your sifted ingredients a bit at a time.....

....with juice alternately .

I used my grinder to help crush the almonds, but you could do so in a baggie and a hammer or if a soft nut with a knife. 

Using a scoop helps to assure you get even amounts in the muffin cups. 

Cool thoroughly on a baking rack

Store in an air tight container. 

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