Marguerite’s Brownies

February 4th, 2011
by: Sue

6 eggs
1 stick butter (she used Parkay margarine and called Parkay butter)
1/2 cup shortening
2 cups sugar
1 cup flour
salt
vanilla
1/3 cup cocoa

Cream shortening and sugar, add eggs, and beat well. Add dry ingredients. Bake in a 9×11 pan at 325 degrees.

Life-Like Stained Glass Sugar Cookies

January 5th, 2010
by: Sue

When Grue and Blue were young, we used to make Christmas Cookies with this recipe. I would mix up three batches of this dough, refrigerate overnight, then roll out the following day. The dough was painted as described below before baking. We would invite our friends over and we had a table full of kids painting Christmas cookies while the Moms baked them and rolled the dough. Then we’d split up the cookies with the other families and have cookies for the entire season. Well, that is, if you hid some where the kids couldn’t find them.

The cookie dough:

3/4 cup Parkay margarine (don’t substitute butter)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Cream margarine and sugar until light and fluffy. Blend in eggs and vanilla. Add combined dry ingredients; mix well. Chill 4 hours or overnight. Roll out half the dough on floured surface to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut with floured cookie cutters, (the kind with the detail inside the cookie cutter) pressing firmly on cutter; place on greased cookie sheet.

Paint with Stained Glass paint after baking, or Paint Box Paint (below) before baking at 400 for 5 to 7 minutes. Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet. Makes 4 dozen cookies.

Stained Glass Paint

Combine one teaspoon of light corn syrup with a few drops of food coloring for each color. Colors will be intense but transparent. Mix six different colors in a six muffin muffin tin (red, blue, green, yellow, pink, orange). Paint on baked cookies.

Paint Box Paint

Blend three egg yolks with 3/4 teaspoon of water. Divide the mixture into six muffin muffin tin and color with food coloring, adding drops of color until you get the desired colors. Combining the basic colors will give you a wider variety of “paints”. Using small artist brushes, paint the Life-Like sugar cookies before baking them. Use your imagination when painting the cookies, following the lines or coloring large areas. One Christmas, a State of Texas cookie was made into pregnant angels! Kids think of great ways to vary the cookies. If mixture thickens, add a drop or two of water. Bake and cool cookies as usual. For an added sparkle, sprinkle the painted cookies lightly with granulated sugar, then bake as usual.

Sara Jeanne’s version of the alleged Grandmother Mitchell’s oatmeal cookies

September 27th, 2009
by: Sue

Note: As Sara Jeanne says, this is an “adapted and modified” recipe and she and she alone is responsible for all the trash talk in this recipe

6 sticks of real salted butter (not that fake stuff)
3 cups of firmly packed organic brown sugar
1 1/2 cups granulated organic “kind of white but not real white ’cause it’s organic” sugar
6 brown organically raised range free eggs (the big ones of course)
1/4 cup of Mexican vanilla (it’s a lot but it’s worth it)
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons of baking soda (not the container from the fridge)
5 teaspoons of cinnamon (a lot but it smells incredible)
2 teaspoons of nutmeg (subtle but sublime)
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt (We’re God’s people for God’s sake)
1 Huge 2 lb. 10 oz. container of Old Fashioned Quaker Oats (not the quick or the insant kind)
1 Big old box of raisins (you know, like 4 inches high) or Crasins are great
As many pecans as you can afford. 4-6 cups of pecans or walnuts (when you use craisins use walnuts for a cleaner, crisper, lighter flair with a sharp after-bite). Politically incorrect comment has been deleted because Sara Jeanne has decided she will not discuss politics any more.

Heat your oven to 400 degrees. Beat the butter and sugars in that huge Kitchenaid mixer until creamy. Add the eggs and vanilla, and mix.

In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt with a fork until you think it’s incorporated and then mix it some more for about 30 seconds. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the egg/sugar stuff and mix on low. Add raisins or craisins and mix well. Add the oats a little at a time. This is where it gets tricky. Just add enough to mix it in slowly. Stop when your mixing bowl is about to overflow and cause an electric over-load in the West Texas grid. Transfer the cookie mixture to a very large roasting pan and slowly by hand (with gloves or zip lock baggies on your hands) mix in the rest of the oats. Don’t wipe your nose at this point. Add the nuts and mix it together, packing it down and compressing the dough into a big tight mound. You want really stiff dough because the end result will be be a little tiny mound of a cookie that will make you slap your pappy. A flat cookie is your enemy, it lacks soul.

Take a soup spoon and dig enough dough to make a ball in the palm of your hand. Place on a cookie sheet, the heavier the better. I like the Pampered Chef baking stone and a big cast iron pan. That really bakes the bottom well. Bake for ONLY 13-15 minutes (no more!) and remove. They need to be a dark golden brown because the interior dough should be soft and done. Place on a piece of the El Paso Times or Denver City Press to cool. Don’t use the Houston Chronicle because they will instantly develop mold, completely fall apart, and weep without cause. While they are hot coax them back into a little mound. That makes them hold together when times get tough. Cool for about 30 minutes and then flip them over so that the bottoms can dry out a bit. Take a load off and sit down and cool off. You’ve been at it for about 4 hours. Pour yourself a big glass of milk or a glass of wine if you happen to be Mimi.

Spicy Molasses Cookies

September 27th, 2009
by: Sue

These rolled cookies are crisp and spicy. They are great Christmas cookies, and do well with the plastic cookie cutters that have lots of detail on the inside. We began using this recipe with the Twelve Days of Christmas cookie cutter set that had some amazing detail; you use a glaze on it which collects in the detail creases so you don’t have to individually decorate each cookie, just brush on the glaze. On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me (etc etc etc).

1 cup butter
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 Tablespoons molasses
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoons ginger
1 teaspoons cloves

Cream margarine and sugar until light and fluffy. Blend in egg and nmolassess. Add combined dry ingredients and mikx well. Chill dough 4 hours or overnight. Roll out dough on floured surface to 1/8″ thickness. Cut with floured cookie cutters, pressing firmly on cutter; place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 f for 6 to 8 minutes. Cool slightly, remove from cookie sheet. Brush with glaze if desired.

Glaze:
1 cups powdered sugar
4 Tablespoons milk
1 Tablespoon corn syrup

Mema’s Oatmeal Cookies

September 27th, 2009
by: Sue

1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 cup shortening
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup coconut
3 cups quick cooking rolled oats
1 cup chopped nuts

Blend sugars and shortening. Add beaten eggs. Sift dry ingredients together and add to first mixture. Stir in vanilla, coconut, oats and nuts. Mix well and drop by teaspoonfuls on greased cookie sheet. Flatten with bottom of glass. Bake in 350 oven until light brown.

Recommended: lightly toast the oats in the oven, and toast the nuts before adding to the dough.

Best Peanut Butter Cookies

April 4th, 2009
by: Sue

After a forty year quest for the perfect peanut butter cookie, I found this gem. This cookie has just the right amount of chewiness and moisture and the perfect amount of peanut butter. Do yourself a favor and buy organic peanut butter that has no additives; the peanut flavor will be fabulous and well worth the extra cost. I make these cookies small so I can cook them just barely and avoid over cooked bottoms. The honey roasted peanut topping adds another dimension of flavor and texture.

3/4 cup crunchy peanut butter
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
3 tablespoons milk
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 egg
1 3/4 cups All-Purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda

Heat oven to 375. Place cooling racks or clean newspaper on counter for cooling cookies.

Combine peanut butter, shortening, brown sugar, milk and vanilla in large bowl. Beat at medium speed with electric mixer until well blended. Add egg, beating just until blended.

Combine flour, salt and baking soda. Add to creamed mixture, mixing until blended on low speed. Using small scoop, drop by teaspoonfuls about two inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten slightly in a crosscross pattern with a dinner fork. Bake at 375 for 7 to 8 minutes (use a timer for this) until just set and beginning to brown. Cool for a couple of minutes on the cookie sheet, remove to cooking racks and allow to cool completely.

Variation: I like to chop honey roasted peanuts and sprinkle on top of the cookie before baking.