Salt Dough Ornaments

Each Christmas I try to make hand-made ornaments.  This year I made salt dough ornaments, which are very inexpensive and relatively easy to make.

You'll need:
4 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 ½ cups hot water
2 teaspoons vegetable oil

fine gauge wire
small pliers
acrylic paint
paint brushes or sponges on sticks
clear top coat spray

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.

Cut fine gauge wire into inch-long pieces (around 30-40) and bend in half with a rounded tip at the center.  Set aside.

Mix together the salt and flour. Gradually add the water and vegetable oil.  Add additional flour or water as needed.  Knead the dough by hand until it is smooth and pliable.

Roll dough with rolling pin on floured surface to ¼” thickness. Cut out desired shapes with cookie cutters and place on a cookie sheet.   Insert the curved wires into the the top edge of the ornaments.  Only ¼” should stick out.

Bake at 200 degrees until ornaments are no longer soft.  This can take up to an hour. 

Once cooled, you can paint the ornaments on each side.  When the paint is dry, spray with clear spray paint.  Decorate as desired.   I used squeezable puffy paint for the gingerbread man ornaments and ribbon for the scottie dogs.

Check Out My Christmas Gift!

My mom made me an Everything's Baked tea towel for Christmas with her embroidery machine.  Pretty cool!

Pear-Cranberry Pie with Ginger

This is the second holiday that I've made this pear-cranberry pie with ginger.  I adapted a pear pie filling recipe from Allrecipes.com.  All I did was add 1/2 teaspoon of ginger and  2/3 cup of dried cranberries.   I also doubled a recipe for pie crust from the site as well.  This recipe produces an easy-to-roll crust.  Be sure to use pears that are soft but not over-ripe.

Gingerbread Leaves and Lemon Bars

I've used this gingerbread recipe from Allrecipes.com for a couple holidays now.  It calls for instant butterscotch pudding instead of molasses.  The dough is very easy to work with.  I just used leaf and acorn shaped cookie cutters.  Once the cookies cooled, I melted a half a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips in the microwave and poured into a ziploc bag.  Then I simply cut the tip of one of the corners of the bag and drizzled the chocolate over the cookies.  Be sure that the chocolate is not too hot, or the bag will be to difficult to handle.

This recipe for lemon bars is from MarthaStewart.com.  They are creamy and smell like freshly sliced lemons, because they are made from real lemon juice.

Halloween Cookies

I can't let a Halloween go by without making sugar cookies.  I found a great recipe on Allrecipes.com that I have made a few times with excellent results.  They are decorated with royal icing.

Pumpkin Pie Bites

I got this idea from Bakerella.com. They turned out well. My only suggestion is - be sure to use a pumpkin cookie cutter that is as evenly round as possible. My cookie cutter was horizontally oblong. So it made it difficult to fill the entire cavity of the muffin pan.

Caramel Apple Cake Pops

These tiny caramel apple-inspired pops are made out of apple flavored cake and cream cheese, which are dipped in caramel and finely chopped peanuts. To make these you will need:

1 cup butter

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

8 egg yolks

3/4 cup milk (or 1/4 cup apple cider and 1/2 cup milk)

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 large apple, diced

8 oz cream cheese, softened

14 oz caramels

1 1/2 cups finely chopped peanuts

32 lollipop sticks

First, I made the cake. I adapted a yellow cake recipe I found on Allrecipes.com. Instead of 3/4 cup milk, I used 1/4 cup apple cider and 1/2 cup milk. I also added a teaspoon of cinnamon and one large apple, diced. The apple was added by hand after all the other ingredients were combined.

Once the cake was baked and had cooled, I crumbled it into pieces in a large mixing bowl. Then I added 8 oz. of softened cream cheese and combined with a rubber spatula until incorporated. Next, I put the mixture in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. While I was waiting, I unwrapped 14oz of caramels and placed them into a microwave-safe bowl. I also finely chopped 1 1/2 cups of dry roasted peanuts and placed them onto a plate. Please note - If the peanuts are not finely chopped, they will be likely to slide off the pop, and take the caramel with it.

I rolled the mixture into one-inch size balls and placed them on a baking sheet lined with wax paper. Then I inserted lollipop sticks about three-fourths of the way into the balls. Next I melted the caramels in the microwave in one minute intervals until smooth. I dipped the balls into the melted caramel, trying to cover as much as the ball as possible. Then I quickly rolled the bottom half in the crushed peanuts, and the pop back onto the wax paper-lined pan. Once all the pops were coated, I placed the baking sheet into the refrigerator for 3o minutes. The recipe should make around 32 pops.

Graduation Caps

For my brother's graduation, I made graduation caps on a stick. I got the idea from Bakerella's blog. They're super easy. I cut 3" by 1/8" strips of Fruit by the Foot for the tassles.

Mom's Birthday Cake

My mom's birthday was this past weekend. This cake is a variation of the stars and stripes.

Apple Pie and Brown Sugar Cupcakes

I did a lot of baking this weekend. It was the first time I attempted to make pie crust from scratch, and was pleased to find that it wasn't as difficult as I thought. I paired a pie crust recipe with the filling from an apple pie recipe on Allrecipes.com.

My second project was Brown Sugar Pound Cupcakes from MarthaStewart.com. They were easy to make and got rave reviews at work. These cupcakes smelled amazing too - like warm brown sugar.

Martha Stewart's Tiramisu Cupcakes

Martha Stewart is promoting a new book about cupcakes. I caught the recipe for her Tiramisu Cupcakes on her show the other day and decided to give them a try. I had a difficult time finding a vanilla bean at the grocery, so I used a teaspoon of vanilla instead. When piercing the top of the cooled cupcakes with a fork, be sure to press the fork down as far as possible. The coffee syrup will not reach all the way through the cupcake. They turned out well!

Baby Food Dog Treats

I wanted a recipe for dog treats that had beef flavor without using boullion. I had seen a recipe for cupcakes that used fruit-flavored baby food. I figured that I could incorporate a meat-flavored baby food into a dog treat. It worked out very well and the dogs love them.

Ingredients:

6 oz. jar baby food - beef flavored
2 eggs
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon Lawry's seasoning salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, mix together the baby food, eggs and olive oil. Combine the whole wheat flour, baking powder and seasoning salt; add to the wet ingredients until well blended. Pour in the oats and mix by hand. Spoon by the rounded tablespoon onto a baking sheet.

Bake for 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool completely before serving. Makes 24 treats.

Cinnamon Roll Cookies

This past Christmas, I signed up to receive a cookie-of-the-day email from Martha Stewart's website. So far I have tried three of the recipes and they have all been great. Yesterday I was craving a cinnamon roll and just happened to find this cinnamon roll-inspired cookie recipe that I had saved in my inbox. They weren't too difficult to make. The dough is buttery and the filling is made with brown sugar, nuts and cinnamon.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

I got this recipe from the Food Network website. It's a Paula Deen recipe. It makes a very red and fairly moist cupcake with awesome cream cheese frosting. I toasted some chopped pecans and sprinkled them on top. Just put them on a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for six minutes.

For the big heart garnish, I melted some candy coating in the microwave and spooned it into a Wilton plastic squeeze bottle. I drew some hearts on a piece of paper and placed a sheet of waxed paper over top. I then traced the outline of the hearts with the melted candy coating and filled then filled them in. They only took 10-15 minutes to harden and were easy to lift off the waxed paper.

I also added some Valentine's Day sprinkles on top of the cupcakes. Target always seems to have holiday-themed sprinkles for every holiday. They can be found in their dollar section at the front of the store.

It's Groundhog's Day!

I've been wanting to do a treat for Groundhog's Day for a few years now and finally got around to it. I built up their snouts with three mini-marshmallows in a triangle pattern and then iced over top of them. The eyes are one black jelly bean cut in half lengthwise. The noses are one half of a jelly bean cut horizontally.

Mexi-Mac

I've been trying out some new variations on traditional macaroni and cheese. My latest is an ode to the Taco Bell Mexi-Melt in macaroni and cheese form. It's not really a baked-good, but it is baked! It does taste amazingly like Taco Bell, but hopefully a little healthier.

l lb. ground beef or turkey
1 packet dried taco seasoning
2 cups macaroni, boiled and drained
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup sour cream
1 cup milk
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 1/2 cups cubed Velveeta
2 roma tomatoes, diced
1 (3 oz.) small can of sliced green chiles
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
1/4 cup unseasoned bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Boil macaroni and drain. Brown ground beef or turkey in skillet and add taco seasoning per directions on packet. Be sure to drain any grease. Set aside.

In saucepan, melt butter on low heat. Stir in flour and salt. Slowly add milk and sour cream, and heat through. Add Velveeta and shredded cheese, stirring constantly until melted and smooth.

Add diced tomatoes, green chilis and macaroni to cheese mixture and stir. Then add ground beef or turkey and mix through. Pour into a casserole dish coated in non-stick cooking spray.

Melt remaining butter and pour over the macaroni mixture. Sprinkle bread crumbs over the top. Place in oven and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Let cool at least five minutes before serving.

Soft Pistachio Chocolate Chunk Cookies

This is a variation of a recipe that I often make for birthdays and get-togethers that uses instant pudding mix. Since my husband is a big fan of pistachios, this really was a no-brainer. These are so good. They're soft, crunchy and full of chocolate. Here's the recipe, which is very easy to make:

INGREDIENTS
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 (3.4 ounce) package instant pistachio pudding mix
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3-4 drops green food coloring
2 cups semisweet chocolate chunks
1 ½ cups pistachios, chopped


DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Sift together the flour and baking soda, set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in the instant pudding mix until blended. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Add 3-4 drops of green food coloring. Add the flour mixture and blend.

Stir in the chocolate chunks and pistachios. Drop cookies by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven until lightly golden.

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