Just add milk – Page 2 – Kara Cooks and Eats

Pumpkin chocolate chip bread

Pumpkin bread!

It was a perfect morning for baking, especially something pumpkin-y. I tried to use the baking attachment on my Ninja, but since the recipe made two loaves, the bowl of the food processor only had the capacity for the wet ingredients. It made quick work of mixing those up, and then I mixed the wet and dry ingredients the old-fashioned way.

I only have one loaf pan so I made one loaf of bread and 12 muffins. For the bread, it was hard to tell when it was done. The edges looked a little overdone while the middle was still undercooked. My oven tends to run a little hot, so I was checking on it periodically and ended up pulling out at just around 60 minutes. I really hope it’s not overcooked because I’m giving it as a birthday gift.

On a side note, my place smelled amazing for hours!

Ninja, pre-mixing

Pumpkin chocolate bread
Source: adapted from My Baking Addiction
Makes: 2 loaves or 24 muffins

Ingredients
1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin puree
4 eggs
3/4 cup canola oil
3/4 cup water
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
2 cups sugar
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp cloves
1 (12-ounce) bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions

Ninja, post-mixing

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 8.5 x 4 x 2.5 inch loaf pans or two 12-cup muffin pans.
2. In a large bowl, combine pumpkin, eggs, oil, water, vanilla, and sugar. Mix with electric mixer (or use stand mixer) until well blended.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves.
4. Slowly add the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture and stir until just blended. Fold in chocolate chips.
5. Pour batter into the prepared pans and bake for 60-70 minutes (bread) or 17-20 minutes (muffins) or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Nemo cookies

Poor Bianca

I was going a little stir crazy thanks to Nemo (aka ~30 inches of snow), a snowed-in car, a travel ban, and non-running MBTA.

So I decided it to bake cookies…warm and delicious right out of the oven, they were perfect for a cold, snowy day. I *might* have had cookies for breakfast. Don’t judge…it’s a snow day, anything goes!

Chocolate chip pecan cookies
Source: adapted from Martha Stewart cookies
Makes about 3 dozen

Just add milk

Mixing up the cookie dough

Ingredients
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tsp coarse salt
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup pecans, chopped

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Whisk together flour and baking soda in a medium bowl. Put butter and sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Reduce speed to low. Add salt, vanilla, and eggs; mix well until blended, about 1 minute. Mix in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and pecans.

2. Drop heaping tablespoons of dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper, about 2 inches apart. Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until edges turn golden but centers are still soft, 10-12 minutes.

3. Let cool on sheets on wire racks for 2 minutes. Transfer cookes to wire racks and let cool completely. Cookies can be stored between layers of parchment in airtight containers at room temperature up to 1 week.

Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

4.5 pounds of chocolate chips…thanks Costco!

I have a confession, I could probably be fine without raisins in my life. But I do love oatmeal cookies, so we usually make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Another pretty delicious variation is to use butterscotch chips instead of chocolate chips. We’ve tried out a few different recipes over the years, and this year we used the recipe that was on the Quaker oatmeal box. This year I also discovered Denise’s obsession with Costco…six cups of oats did not really make a dent in her ten pound box of oatmeal!

Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies
Source: Quaker

Oatmeal chocolate chip goodness

Ingredients
1 3/4 sticks of butter (1/2 cup [1 stick] plus 6 Tbsp), softened
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt (optional) – Denise did the mixing so I’m not sure if we included the salt
3 cups oats
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugars on medium speed of electric mixer until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well.

3. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Add to butter-sugar mixture and mix well. Add oats and chocolate chips and mix well.

4. Drop dough by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

5. Bake 8-10 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheets; remove to wire rack and cool completely. Store tightly covered.

Molasses cookies

We started to make this recipe in 2009, and they’ve become a regular. The recipe is from Sofra Bakery & Cafe, when it was published in the Improper Bostonion (I think)…thank you Ana Sortun! Some of the directions were a little confusing as written, such as “chill dough until it reaches room temperature, about 2 hours”. Huh? We decided to chill the dough in the refrigerator…and let it chill while we worked on a different batch of cookies.

Delicious molasses cookies

Molasses cookies
Source: Sofra Bakery & Cafe
Makes: about 4 dozen

Ingredients
3/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup molasses
1 cup sugar, plus additional sugar for cookies
1 large egg
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cloves

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Set aside.
3. Combine oil, molasses, sugar, and egg in bowl of a stand mixer. Paddle on medium speed until smooth. Be careful not to incorporate too much air. Mix 15-20 seconds (or vigorously by hand).
4. Add dry ingredients and mix until well-combined, about 20 seconds. Chill dough in refrigerator, about 2 hours. If preparing dough in advance, freeze it so the oil doesn’t separate.
5. Roll dough into about 1-inch balls and coat with sugar. Place on parchment-lined baking sheet and gently press cookie until slightly flattened. Bake 12-15 minutes. Cookes will appear underdone.

Double chocolate chip cookies with walnuts

We decided to bring this recipe back from 2006, except we updated it to include walnuts. Unfortunately a lot of these cookies broke when they got packed up, so I’m not sure I’d make them again…perhaps that’s the way the cookie crumbles when you play around with the recipe.

Mixing it up

Double chocolate chip cookies with walnuts
Source: Nestle

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup baking cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 large eggs
1 cup chocolate chips
~3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla in large mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture.
3. Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts. Drop by rounded teaspoon onto baking sheets.
4. Bake for 9-11 minutes or until cookies are puffed and centers are set but still soft. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Finished product, before they all broke!

Sugar cookies

It is hard to pick favorites, but these might be a close second (M&M cookies will always be my first favorite). I love the hint of lemon and the sugar coating. We mixed in some green sugar with the sanding sugar to give them a bit of holiday flair.

Sugar cookie deliciousness

Old-fashioned sugar cookies
Makes about 3 dozen
Source: Adapted from Martha Stewart Cookies, 2008

Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 Tbsp finely grated lemon zest
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
Sanding sugar

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt.
2. Put sugars and zest in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed for 30 seconds. Add butter; mix until pale and fluffy, about 1 minute. Mix in eggs one at a time, and then the lemon juice. Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in flour mixture.
3. Roll cookies into balls, then coat with sanding sugar. Place on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper.
4. Bake cookies until golden, about 10-12 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire racks using a spatula; let cool completely. Cookies can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature up to 3 days.

Cranberry pistachio cornmeal biscotti

We usually try a new recipe or two every year, and we also started making biscotti a couple of years ago. It’s a little more labor-intensive than the other recipes, so it’s a good one to start off the day off. Last year we made chocolate pistachio and this year we decided to try a new recipe.

Pretty biscotti

Cranberry pistachio cornmeal bicotti
Makes about 2 dozen
Source: Martha Stewart’s cookies, 2008

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups yellow cornmeal
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 Tbsp finely grated lemon zest
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup chopped pistachios

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F with rack in center. Whisk together flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt.
2. Put butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until smooth. Add sugar and mix until pale and fluffy. Mix in eggs one at a time, until well combined. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture all at once; mix until just combined. Add lemon zest, cranberries, and pistachios, and mix until combined.
3. Transfer dough to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Pat into a log that is about 14 by 3.5 inches. Bake until firm, lightly browned, and slightly cracked on top, 30-35 minutes. let cool on sheet on a wire rack, about 15 minutes.
4. Transfer log to a cutting board. Using a serrated knife, cut on the diagonal into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Arrange slices on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Bake cookies, rotating sheet halfway through, until they begin to brown at edges, 15-18 minutes. Let cool on sheet on a wire rack. Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature up to 2 weeks.

December is cookie month!

I’m designating December as cookie month. Denise and I started a tradition of baking Christmas cookies together back when we lived together in our tiny apartment on Park Drive, possibly even earlier than that. And before that, baking Christmas cookies was always an annual tradition with my mom. It wasn’t until fairly recently that I realized that my favorite M&M cookies can actually be made any time of year, not just at Christmas.

Every year we try to calculate how much of each ingredient we will need, but inevitably end up running out to the store to pick up something we ran out of or forgot. Last year we got smart(er) and wrote down the list of ingredients we need for eight batches of cookies. Yes, eight batches of cookies.

Martha and the ingredients list

Last year we also welcomed a new member of the baking team, the KitchenAid mixer. A-mazing.

Christmas cookie marathon 2011

The cookie marathon this year is taking place on December 8, so let me know if you have any requests! And throughout this month I’ll be sharing cookie recipes.