Sugar Cookies from Almost Practical

Sugar Cookies - made dough June 5, 2020 from Almost Practical

dough with butter

The only baking I've been doing is for Soldiers Angels and sending them in care packages to deployed military service members. Since it's summer, we're now in triple degree heat for where most, if not all, of the packages are going.

dough with butter

The volunteer bakers have been warned about products made with butter going rancid if the packages are too long en route or if they're not packaged properly or subjected to intense heat or all three.

dough with butter

I will be the first to raise my hand to admit that I love butter. I love it slathered on warm bread, I love baking with it and I can't fathom eating cookies not made with the goodness of butter.

dough with butter

But the term "rancid' will freak out any baker. We don't go to all the time, effort and pleasure of baking things for others only for them to receive something rancid or moldy. I mean, ewww.

dough with butter

So far, the few times I've heard back from the care package recipients, my boxes have arrived in good shape and have been enjoyed. At least, that's what they've been polite enough to say and I choose to believe them.

cookies with butter

However, I'm sufficiently leery of "rancid" to make some effort to avoid it if I can. Hence why you're seeing a ton of pictures in this post. Because I made this recipe twice, once as is with butter and the second time with butter-flavored shortening instead of butter.

cookies with butter

I've labeled which was which in each picture so you can see the difference. And if you can't tell the difference, I'll give you the cheat sheet: the dough made with butter was great to work with and easy to portion out. It spread like a normal cookie, not too thin but didn't stay super thick either. And it tasted amazing once it had cooled enough for the edges to be crisp and airy. The genuine butter flavor came through well and the middle was chewy. Yum.

cookies with butter

dough with shortening, original recipe as is

When I made the recipe as listed but with shortening, the dough was dry. As in, dry and crumbly enough that I knew I wouldn't be able to form into dough balls that would hold their shape and that an extra teaspoon of vanilla wasn't going to fix it. So I add an extra egg instead. That helped bind the dough together and bring its consistency closer to the butter version.

dough with shortening, added extra egg

dough with shortening and extra egg

If you look closely, you can tell the difference between the two doughs. And side by side, you can also tell the difference in appearance between the two versions of baked cookies.

cookies with shortening

cookies with shortening

cookies with shortening

When I did the taste test, I could also taste the difference between the butter and the shortening versions. While I have already rhapsodized about the butter version, the shortening version was more crisp and airy but lacked the depth of flavor that the butter version had. Which was not surprising.

cookies with shortening

cookies with shortening

butter (L) and shortening (R)

What was surprising, however, is, the next day, when I tried the second half of each that I had held back from the fresh-out-of-the-oven version, the two were much closer in texture and even taste. Yeah, I didn't see that coming.

butter (L) and shortening (R)

The butter flavor was less pronounced in the butter version giving the butter-flavor-Crisco version less of a handicap. The textures were also similar the next day. Huh.

butter (L) and shortening (R)

butter (top) and shortening (bottom)

So the good news is I can make this cookie with butter-flavor Crisco and not entirely compromise my butter-only principles. Okay, I am compromising them but it's better than "rancid". You can do your own taste test but if you do make this with butter-flavor Crisco, don't forget to add the extra egg.

butter (top) and shortening (bottom)

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened (or butter-flavor Crisco if you want to sub shortening)
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 egg (use 2 eggs if substituting shortening for the butter)
1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; set aside.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar together until well combined. Add egg and vanilla and mix to combine.
3. Add dry ingredients in two batches and mix on low speed until just incorporated. Do not overmix.
4. Portion into 1-tablespoon-size dough balls, flatten very slightly into thick discs. Cover and chill for several hours or overnight.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
6. Reduce heat to 375 degrees and bake for 10 minutes or until edges are set and middles no longer look raw. Do not overbake. Remove cookies to wire rack to cool completely.

Soft-Baked 4th of July M&M Cookies

Soft-Baked M&M Cookies - made May 31, 2020 from Together as a Family

I don't know what these taste like so, a rarity for me, I'm going to blog about them without being able to tell you one way or the other if they tasted good or not. I think they do. They looked good and they're a regular recipe for cookies so I think they turned out as well as any other M&M cookie recipe.

I baked these for military care packages and the reason I don't know what they tasted like is I packaged them all up for shipping. I normally hold back a taste test cookie or otherwise how do I know these are worthy of being sent??

But I was baking a bunch of cookies to fill multiple boxes and I ended up needing every cookie from this batch for the boxes. I've been baking long enough that I can usually tell if something turned out and these seemed to turn out so I decided I didn't need to taste test them. Multiple military service members can do that for me. And I always tell myself they've got to taste better than MREs, right?

If you want to make the M&Ms "pop" in your cookies, reserve some M&Ms and immediately push them into the tops of the baked cookies as soon as you take the baking sheets out of the oven. The M&Ms that are cracked on top are the ones who baked into the cookies. The non-cracked ones are the ones I pushed into the cookies as soon as I took them out of the oven.

12 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup M&Ms, plus more for additional garnish

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine butter and sugars. Beat until combined, creamy and light in color, about 1 minute. 
2. Add egg, egg yolk and vanilla; beat until combined.
3. Add flour, baking soda, and salt, mixing on low speed until just combined. Stir in the M&Ms.
4. Portion dough into golf-ball-size balls. Cover and chill for several hours or freezer overnight.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly space dough balls. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until edges are golden brown and middles no longer look raw. Remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Hawaiian Bread for the Bread Machine

Hawaiian Bread - made May 29, 2020, modified from More Than Thursdays

I've been getting my money's worth out of my mini bread machine lately. I may have used it more times in the past 2 months than in the last 5 years. Not that I've been testing out a bunch of new bread recipes. Since I stumbled on the Honey Oatmeal Bread, that's pretty much the only recipe I've been using.

But I finally branched out to try this recipe for Hawaiian bread. Since my bread machine is the mini version that only makes a 1-lb loaf and most recipes are for larger loaves, I always have to adjust the ingredient amounts to make sure the dough won't overflow the pan.

I've figured out my mini bread machine will accommodate up to 2 cups of flour so I adjust the proportions accordingly. For the original recipe, please click on the post title, especially if you want to make two loaves.

This loaf turned out to be more dense and sweeter than the Honey Oatmeal bread which isn't surprising. I didn't mind the sweetness as it's meant to mimic King's Hawaiian bread but I think I preferred the softer texture of the honey oatmeal bread. This wasn't bad at all but I admit I went back to the honey oatmeal bread for the next round.

1 egg, slightly beaten
1/3 pineapple juice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 cups bread flour
scant 1 teaspoon active dry yeast

1. Place egg, pineapple juice, vanilla, melted butter and sugar in bread maker pan. Cover with bread flour. Add yeast. 
2. Follow bread machine instructions to your preference. I used the soft crust setting for a 3-hour cycle. Remove when done and serve while warm.

Instant Pot Lazy Lasagna

Instant Pot Lazy Lasagna - made June 1, 2020, modified from Margin Making Mom

I'm not sure I would consider this "lasagna" versus "pasta in spaghetti sauce with ricotta cheese". I think the ricotta cheese was supposed to represent the lasagna part while the rotini (or any other non-lasagna) noodles gave the nod to "lazy" since you don't have to worry about layering lasagna noodles with ricotta cheese and sauce.

I made some modifications since I used the whole bag of rotini noodles (I have a thing about not having leftover dry pasta hanging out in my pantry) rather than the 8 ounces the original recipe called for. I compensated by increasing the amount of liquid in the recipe.

For the most part it worked. The sauce was creamy and cheesy and this was a quick, easy meal trademarked by Instant Pot usage.

1 pound ground turkey
16 ounces pasta (I used rotini)
24-ounce jar spaghetti sauce
4 cups chicken broth
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1. Saute ground turkey in Instant Pot on Saute mode, until brown and cooked through. Drain excess grease.
2. Add noodles on top of ground turkey. Cover with spaghetti sauce and chicken broth, submerging noodles completely. Sprinkle garlic powder and Italian seasoning on top.
3. Close lid and place vent in sealing position. Manually put on 4 minutes at high pressure. 
4. When completed, allow 5 minutes of natural pressure release then do a quick release of remaining pressure. 
5. Remove lid and stir in ricotta cheese until melted and combined. Stir in mozzarella cheese until melted. Serve warm.

Snickerdoodle Blondies

Snickerdoodle Blondies - made May 31, 2020 from Baked by Rachel

I've started baking for military care packages again so you're going to see more baking posts in the next few weeks.

With summer in full swing and most of the packages going to places with triple degree heat, chocolate isn't practical to send so I went with this non-chocolate option. Snickerdoodle bars are almost as good as snickerdoodles and are much easier to make.

I needed every bar the recipe made as I was sending multiple packages so I only ate a sliver for the taste test. It seemed pretty good, nice and moist with the requisite cinnamon-sugar topping. I'd make it again.

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Topping
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9 x 13 pan with foil and lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray; set aside.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until combined. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until combined.
3. Whisk together salt, baking powder, cinnamon and flour. Add to butter mixture in two additions and beat until just combined after each addition.
4. Press mixture in an even layer in prepared pan. Combine topping ingredients in a small bowl then sprinkle evenly over the top. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick inserted near the middle comes out clean. Cool completely before cutting and serving.

Teriyaki Ramen Chicken

Teriyaki Ramen Chicken - made May 26, 2020 from Good Cook

When I was a poor college student and even during my post-graduate student days when I had a car payment, housing payments and student loan repayments, I had the quintessential eating plan of ramen noodles to make my food budget stretch. Back in the olden days, you could even get them on sale for 20 packs for a dollar. Nowadays, technically the prices have quadrupled or more but that just means they went from a nickel to twenty cents, sometimes a quarter.

That's still affordable (thankfully!) but nowadays, you don't have to be satisfied with following the ramen noodle directions to boil water, add noodles and seasoning and serve. One trolling session through pinterest and you can get all sorts of ideas that basically just treats them as cheap noodles to serve as a base for many noodle dishes.

I ended up making this dish twice, partly because I like ramen noodles (I know, I know, they're not that healthy but noodles....) and partly because I made some mistakes that were easy to rectify the second time around so I did.

I rewrote the directions so I can save you the trouble of making the mistakes I did, namely to make a slurry with the cornstarch and some of the water before adding to the noodles so you don't add the cornstarch in one dry powdery lump that then congeals into multiple gelatinous lumps among your noodles. #yourewelcome

The original version was also a bit too salty for me so I cut back on the soy sauce and filled in with more water instead. The result was more sweet than salty but that suited my taste buds just fine.

4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup water, divided
1/3 to 1/2 cup soy sauce (if using 1/3 soy sauce, add enough water to fill 1/2 cup)
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 bricks of ramen noodles (without the seasoning packets)
sesame seeds for garnish

1. Heat large saucepan with a drizzle of olive oil. When hot, add diced chicken and cook, stirring with a wooden spoon, until cooked through. Add garlic and stir.
2. Whisk cornstarch with 1/4 cup of the 1 cup of water until a smooth slurry forms (no lumps).
3. Add soy sauce, cornstarch slurry, remaining water, brown sugar, rice vinegar and ramen noodles. Stir to combine and cover for several minutes until noodles have softened, 5-6 minutes. Stir mixture to coat the noodles with sauce. Serve warm, garnished with sesame seeds if desired.

Soft and Chewy M&M Cookies

Soft and Chewy M&M Cookies - made May 17, 2020 from Tastes Better From Scratch

At the time that I made these, I had planned to use red, white and blue M&Ms for the military care package they were going into. Unfortunately, Target didn't have those M&Ms when I went there and gone are the days when I went hunting around to different stores for ingredients.

So I made do with what I had and that was pastel M&Ms. Yeah, I know, a little out of season and probably looked odd when the package was opened but I always figure cookies are cookies and have to taste better than MREs, right?

This was a pretty good recipe. Like a regular chocolate chip cookie, it had crisp edges and the middle was chewy. I have to say, though, that I'm not a huge fan of M&M cookies. I like how they look and how, if you have the "right color" M&Ms, you can tailor them for particular holidays for a great festive look. But I don't eat M&Ms as a rule and they add more sweetness to a cookie than I normally go for. If you do like M&M cookies though, this is a good recipe to try.

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 egg
1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup mini chocolate chips (I used regular-size)
1 cup M&Ms

1. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.
2. Combine butter, sugar and brown sugar in a large mixing bowl; beat until well combined.
3. Add egg and vanilla; mix until combined.
4. Gradually add dry ingredients and beat on low speed until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips and M&Ms.
5. Portion into golf-ball size balls, cover and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight.
6. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Evenly space dough balls on baking sheets and bake 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are set and middles are no longer raw. Remove to wire rack to cool completely.