Crunchy or Soft--How do you like your cookies?

One of my favorite memories of growing up is when I would come home to school and my mom had fresh baked cookies waiting for us on the table. They came in all different types, chocolate chip, chocolate-peanut butter chip, oatmeal, or even peanut butter, but what mattered was that they were D-E-licious. So I wanted to be like her today, since my mom had to go pick up my little brother from school, I got to do the cookie baking. No pressure...living up to her cookie baking skills. But when they walked in the door and smelled the cinnamon and sugar my mom and brother were pleasantly surprised. What kind of cookies did I choose to make, you ask?

Skickerdoodle!

Not only is that one of the coolest cookie names ever, but these cookies are light and not too sweet to handle. I wouldn't eat too many at once because of all the butter and shortening, yikes! Snickerdoodles are really easy to make, so no stress.

I got the recipe from reliable Betty Crocker online.

Ingredients

1 1/2  cups sugar

1/2    cup butter or margarine, softened

1/2    cup shortening

2        eggs

2 3/4  cups Gold Medal® all-purpose or unbleached flour

2      teaspoons cream of tartar

1      teaspoon baking soda

1/4   teaspoon salt

1/4   cup sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions
1.Heat oven to 400ºF.

2. Mix 1 1/2 cups sugar, the butter, shortening and eggs in large bowl. Stir in flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt.

3. Shape dough into 1 1/4-inch balls. Mix 1/4 cup sugar and the cinnamon. Roll balls in cinnamon-sugar mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet.

4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until set. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.

How do I like my cookies?
Well, I think they are best soft, but I don't mind crunchy cookies as long as I don't feel like my teeth are going to come out when I bite down. The Snickerdoodles are a little crunchy, but the good kind. They fall apart in your mouth right when you bite down and go perfectly with a glass of milk.

Baking the world a better place!

White Wine Cupcakes (Best yet!)

We had white wine in the fridge earlier in the week and I have always wanted to try to make cupcakes with wine or champagne. I've had chapagne cake before and it was delicious, but I wanted to try it on my own. My original plan was to use a cake mix and substitute the water for wine, but I wasn't sure how that would go. Instead I found an easy recipe from scratch. The recipe was on one of my new favorite blogs, We are not Martha.

On Friday was Clemson University graduation. I went back to see many of my close friends walk across the stage and receive their diploma. I thought it would be fun to make the wine cupcakes to bring down to for the festivities. My mother was quite jealous that I was giving them away.

Right out of the oven the cupcakes smelled amazing! It was hard to not to eat them!

White Wine Cupcakes (makes about 20):
• 2/3 C butter, room temperature
• 1 1/2 C sugar
• 2 3/4 C all-purpose flour
• 3 t baking powder
• 1 t salt
• 3/4 C riesling wine (or other sweet white wine)
• 6 egg whites
(Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees)



In your mixer or large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar, until light and fluffy.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt together.
Mix the dry ingredients into the butter mixture, alternating with the wine.
In a separate small bowl, beat your egg whites until stiff peaks form
Fold the egg whites into the batter.
Fill cupcake liners in tray about 2/3 of the way full.
Bake for about 25 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Strawberry Icing!

1 cup fresh strawberries
5 cups powdered sugar
splash of white wine
1 cup butter

Beat butter in a bowl until light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar slowly. Add the white wine to loosen and continue adding powdered sugar. Once fully mixed add the strawberries and finish mixing. Honestly, there is no method to the madness, you just have to keep adding sugar and liquid until you get the right texture of icing that you like best. Taste it along the way to make sure you like it too!

They were a hit! The cupcakes were even more delicious than I expected and everyone enjoyed them. We had a wonderful lunch after graduation! Congrats to all graduates!

-Baking the world a better place!

Strawberry Shortcake

Summer fun! I have very little time at home before going to Asheville to work at the best camp in the world for the summer, so I have been spending much of my time in the kitchen of course. I have not only been baking, while it is my forte, I do love making meals as well. On Monday afternoon, I got to spend some quality time with my mother. We went strawberry picking!! I was soo excited to get to do this since my room mate went a couple weeks ago. With fresh strawberries comes the classic of all recipes....strawberry shortcake.

The shortcake was so easy to make. It came out golden brown, light, and fluffy.

Ingredients

	4 cups sliced strawberries (1 quart)
	½ cup sugar
	2⅓ cups Original Bisquick
	½ cup milk
	3 tablespoons sugar
	3 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted

Directions

Mix strawberries and 1/2 cup sugar; set aside. Heat oven to 425 degrees. Stir Bisquick, milk, 3 tablespoons sugar and butter until soft dough forms. Drop by 6 spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet OR spread evenly in 8×8 inch ungreased pan. Bake 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

Recipe from KeyIngredient.com (off my mother's online recipe box)               

We usually just pour heavy cream over the shortcake and strawberries, but I have become a whipped cream purist. It can only truly be done well by hand. I whisked for over half and hour, but it was by far the best whipped cream I have ever tasted.

I know my picture quality needs a lot of work, but atleast I'm trying. Finished product was soo delicious and the perfect summer treat!

-Baking the world a better place!



Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. I love waking up and starting my day with a delicious bite to eat. When I am at school I often don't have time to eat breakfast, so now that summer has finally arrived, I begin with a classic breakfast treat: muffins.

My go-to recipe is usually blueberry-banana muffins, but I decided to try a new recipe. I made banana-applesauce muffins.

I added dark chocolate chips because my wise mother told me that if you have a little bit of dark chocolate in the morning it helps with weight loss. Not arguing with that, chocolate and weight loss in the same sentence...it's a go.

Ingredients

3/4 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup whole wheat flour

1 tbs baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

Pinch of salt

1 cup mashed bananas

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup applesauce

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and grease muffin tin. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl, beat the bananas, sugar, egg, and vanilla. Stir in flour mixture. Pour into muffin tin, and bake 15-20 minutes

Recipe from The Reality of Skinny blog.

-Baking the world a better place!