CHERRY CHOCOLATE CHIP SHORTBREAD COOKIES

 If you like shortbread, but think it is difficult to make, you need to check out this recipe for Cherry Chocolate Shortbread Cookies. The dough doesn't need to be refrigerated so making them is easier. You also can use a cookie scoop to form the balls that start these cookies. The hardest part for me was to flatten them with a fork like you do when you make peanut butter cookies. The dough wanted to stick so I dipped the fork in a little bit of flour. Flour worked a little better than sugar, my other choice. 

They make such an attractive cookie, also, and with the shortbread taste with the added taste of maraschino cherries and mini chocolate chips. Wow! How could they not taste delicious!

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CHERRY CHOCOLATE CHIP SHORTBREAD COOKIES

1       cup salted butter, softened

1/2    cup powdered sugar

1-1/2 cups flour

1/2    cup corn starch

1       cup chopped maraschino cherries (about an 8 -oz jar)

1/2    cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.  I lined the cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Soften or bring the butter to room temperature and place it with the powdered sugar in a mixing bowl and beat using an electric mixer until the mixture is creamy and smooth. Scrape the sides of the bowl as needed.

Add the flour and cornstarch to the mixture.

Continue mixing with the electric mixer until a sticky dough forms. (Start with the mixer on lowest speed and increase the speed once most of the flour is wet.)

Add in the chopped cherries and mini chocolate chips and

mix until all ingredients are mixed up.

Using a tablespoon cookie scoop to measure out dough, place balls about 2 inches apart on the cookie sheet.

Flatten the balls using a fork. Dip fork in flour or sugar to keep it from sticking to the dough.

Bake the cookies about 7 to 9 minutes until tops are dry, not shiny or wet.

Remove the cookies to another piece of parchment paper to cool.

OREO KRISPIES TREATS

 We added a new participant to our Cafe Treats Bakers a week ago. It is so exciting to have someone come up to the Cafe and say, "Well, I guess I could do this to help out." That's what New Baker Kathy said to me. So, of course, I invited her to join us and got her information. She then said, "I can bring something next Sunday." She later texted me that she would bring rice krispies treats. 

A couple of days later I was going through a box of junk - recipes, bills, letters, etc and I found a 2-page spread on "fancy" rice krispies treats. I took a picture of it and sent it to her and she decided to make these Oreo Krispies Treats for a change. 

AND they are so good and she said they were easy to make. It's just the right combination of marshmallows and cereal and cookies.

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OREO KRISPIES TREATS

6     tablespoons butter

6     cups mini marshmallows 

15   Oreo cookies

5     cups Rice Krispies cereal

white baking chips

cooking spray

Grease a 9 x 13 " inch baking pan.

In a medium pot over low heat, melt the butter and the marshmallows stirring frequently until completely melted.

While the butter and marshmallows are melting, crush the Oreo cookies in a medium bowl making sure to leave some bigger chunks of cookie.

In a large bowl, combine the cereal and crushed cookies. Once the butter/marshmallow mixture is completely smooth, pour it over the cereal/cookie mixture stirring until thoroughly mixed.

Spread the mixture evenly in the baking pan. 

Melt some white baking chips, if you like, and drizzle over the top of the bars.

Cool completely before cutting into bars.

LEMON POUND CAKE MUFFINS (SF)

 Each week when I look for a sugar-free recipe to make for the Cafe Treats for those people who are diabetic or just watching their intake of sugar, I sometimes find a recipe in a cookbook that uses all sorts of ingredients to reduce the sugar, such as no-sugar-added fruit or they use sugar substitutes of which there are a number of different sugar-substitutes on the market. Stevia is my personal favorite, but that is just one product out there. 

If a recipe calls for a cake mix other than chocolate, I will use a Zero-Sugar yellow cake mix and add flavoring or spices to make it closer to being the special cake mix the recipe calls for. It might not be exactly taste like it would if I used a lemon cake mix, for example, but it will be close enough without all of the sugar in a regular cake mix. I can also buy a Zero-Sugar Devil's Food cake mix that I will use for any kind of chocolate cake.

Otherwise, I find a recipe that doesn't call for a lot of sugar and just substitute stevia for the sugar. I also buy a brown sugar that uses stevia and even a powdered sugar that is made with stevia. These products might cost a little more than just sugar, brown sugar, or powdered sugar, but I make the choice to reduce my sugar intake.

This recipe for Lemon Pound Cake Muffins actually is made from scratch and not with a lemon cake mix. That made it easier to make it sugar-free. The recipe was meant to be made as regular sized muffins and I made mini-muffins so I had to adjust the baking time. I ended up baking the mini-muffins one minute too long so they were a little darker than I would have liked, but they still tasted good. 

One reason I think they were so good is beating the sugar and butter for 5 to 7 minutes. I beat mine half way in the middle for 6 minutes. This adds so much air to the creamed mixture so the muffins are not heavy tasting. I also set the butter out until it was softened naturally. Melted butter creates a different baked good and it is hard to soften butter just right in the microwave.

I used two different mini-muffin pans and they are not exactly the same size cup even though they are both mini-muffin pans. I used the smaller one first and used my tablespoon cookie scoop to measure out the batter for each muffin. With the second pan, I used my 1-1/2 tablespoon cookie scoop and it made a nicer mini-muffin. I wish I had made 24 mini-muffins using it, but then I would not have had 10 extra mini-muffins. Next time I make mini-muffins I will use the "larger" pan and just have maybe 24 mini-muffins.

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LEMON POUND CAKE MUFFINS (SF)

1/2       cup butter (1 stick), softened (room temperature)

1          cup sugar (or sugar substitute such as stevia)

2          large eggs, at room temperature

1/2       cup sour cream (I used low-fat sour cream)

1          teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2       teaspoon lemon extract (ok to use 1 teaspoon)

1-3/4    cups flour

1/2       teaspoon salt

1/4       teaspoon baking soda

GLAZE

2          cups powdered sugar (I used 1/2 cup powdered sugar made with stevia)

3          tablespoons lemon juice (I used about 2 tablespoons to make the desired consistency)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Spray muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until

light and fluffy, 5 to 7 minutes. (Scrape the sides of the bowl as needed.)

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Beat in the sour cream and extracts.

Combine the flour, salt, and baking soda in a small bowl and

add to the creamed mixture just

until moistened (with a spoon or spatula).

Fill the muffin cups 3/4 full. (I used a cookie scoop to measure out batter to fill the mini-muffin pan cups.)

Bake for 9 to 10 minutes for mini muffins or 18 to 20 minutes for 12 regular sized muffins. 

Cool for 5 minutes before

removing from the pan to a wire rack. May need to use a knife to help remove the muffins.

Prepare the glaze ingredients while the muffins are baking by added the lemon juice to the powdered sugar. I used less amount of the powdered sugar than the recipe called for. I brushed the tops of the muffins with a rubber brush to ice the muffins. Store in an airtight container. May warm them up slightly in the microwave when ready to serve. 

Since I made 10 of the slightly large mini-muffins using 1-1/2 tablespoons of batter, I poured a little bit of water in the cups I didn't use so that the muffins would bake evenly.

I hope you give these muffins a try. Using the lemon juice with the powdered sugar gives a nice lemon taste when you bite into the muffin. 

 

POTATO CHIP COOKIES

 I made these Potato Chip Cookies a few weeks ago for the Cafe Treats at our church. I didn't get them written up that week and as you might expect, I couldn't find the cookbook/recipe. I kinda remembered that it was in a cookbook without a spiral binding and had to lay something heavy on it to keep it opened at the page, but that didn't keep me from looking at every cookbook I have out right now. Not once but several times. 

Feeling a little blue, I decided to try once more since I didn't have anything else to do. I ended up finding a few new recipes to try in the future and marked them with a sticky tab. And I also found the recipe.

Remember I was looking for a recipe called Potato Chip Cookies. The reason I didn't find it both of the times this week that I spent looking for the recipe is the cookbook it was it. Yes, I did find it.

I found the recipe in a tasteofhome COMFORT FOOD diet cookbook. Now would you expect a Potato Chip Cookie recipe to be in a diet cookbook? I certainly wouldn't and it was the only cookbook I never checked for it. But there it was in the second marked Desserts 101 - 150 calories. I guess for a dessert on a diet, that's not a lot of calories, but I would expect more than one cookie. 

According to the recipe, each cookie contains 123 calories. That's more calories in a cookie than I like to eat, but I decided to try them anyway because I was intrigued with the idea of potato chips in a cookie. It's the sweet and salty taste together.

Now that I have talked you out of making them, I'm still going to share the recipe because maybe you aren't counting calories or you don't plan to eat them yourselves because you are taking them to a party. You could always substitute stevia or splenda for the sugar and use a stevia brown sugar blend for the brown sugar and cut back on the sugar calories.

Whatever your story is, I hope you give them a try. They were a big hit with the church crowd; some trying them just because they were intrigued also with the idea of potato chips in a cookie.

I don't buy potato chips and the recipe called for two cups of crushed potato chips. Do you have any idea how big of a bag of potato chips it takes to make 2 cups of crushed chips? I didn't. I bought a 5-ounce can at first but then decided it might not make 2 cups crushed so I bought a big bag - 13 ounces the second trip to the store.

Well, according to my non-digital scale, the 2 cups of crushed potato chips weighed 5 ounces. So that meant the original can I bought would have been enough. But who wants to come up short of potato chips for the cookies. So I would recommend buying a 5 or 6 ounce bag at least. You can eat the rest.

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POTATO CHIPS COOKIES

1     cup butter-flavored shortening

3/4  cup sugar (or stevia)

3/4  cup packed brown sugar (or brown sugar blend)

2     eggs

2     cups flour

1     teaspoon baking soda

2     cups crushed potato chips (5 to 6 ounces)

1     cup butterscotch chips

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the shortening and sugars until

light and fluffy. (several minutes)

Beat in eggs.

Combine the flour and baking soda.

Gradually add the mixture to the creamed mixture and

mix well.

Crush the potato chips.

Stir in potato chips and butterscotch chips.

Using a tablespoon cookie scoop, drop the dough 2 inches apart onto an ungreased baking sheet.

(I pressed some of the scoops lightly to have a flatter cookie.)

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown.

Cool for 1 minute before removing to wire rack.

Will make about 3-1/2 dozen cookies. (Wayne thought the ones I didn't flatten some looked better -- on the left.)

PEANUT BUTTER CHOCOLATE CAKE

 Wanting to make sure our Cafe Treats are available for those who might have nut allergies, it has been a while since I made anything that included peanut butter as an ingredient. Since our canasta group was meeting at Friend Fran's house and I always supply the dessert for her, I figured it was a good time to get out the peanut butter. 

And it turned out so goooood. I had almost forgotten what peanut butter tasted like. An added feature was that the cake was low fat and I substituted some sugar free ingredients so we all enjoyed the cake with a little less guilt.

Friend Janice cut the generous servings but you could easily serve 24 with it. I think a little scoop of ice cream would be a nice addition, too.

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PEANUT BUTTER CHOCOLATE CAKE

1       package chocolate cake mix (I used a Zero Sugar Devil's Food Cake mix)

1-1/4 cups water

1/2    cup reduced-fat sour cream

2       egg whites

1       package (8 ounces) 1/3 less fat Neufchatel cheese

1       egg, lightly beaten

1/2    cup sugar (You could use stevia)

1/2   cup reduced-fat creamy peanut butter (I used no-sugar-added creamy peanut butter)

1/4   cup fat-free milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9 x 13 - inch baking pan with non-stick cooking spray and dust with flour. (I used Baker's Joy cooking spray with flour.) Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, stir the cake mix, water, sour cream, and egg whites until all ingredients are moistened.

Scrape the sides of the bowl, and 

increase the speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes.

Scrape the sides of the bowl.

Pour the batter into the pan and spread out evenly. Set aside.

In a small bowl, beat the cream cheese, egg, sugar, peanut butter, and milk until smooth.

(Oops, I almost forgot the egg.)

Scrape the sides of the bowl and beat some more if necessary.

Drop by tablespoonfuls over the cake batter and

swirl with a knife. 

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center of the cake. (I just press lightly on the center of the cake.)

Cool on a wire rack. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Cut into squares to serve. 

Store leftovers in the refrigerator.