A Snickerdoodle Fail

This spectacular fail is courtesy of the youngest borrowed kiddo. Our "bird" as my husband affectionately calls her (she leaves behind something every time she vists, we tell her she's nesting) was thoroughly disappointed. I decided to use it as a teaching opportunity and explain how this can happen when using my Snickerdoodle recipe.

People have told me these are so hard to get right, I've read lots of posts about how Snickerdoodles are too finicky, or the recipes simply don't work out. I'm here to tell you, that's not the case with my recipe. It's pretty foolproof as long as you follow the steps.

For those of you who haven't gotten my cookbook, or haven't read the recipe on this site yet, let me give you the backstory. I've been making these cookies since I was 5 years old, and it's the first cookie I teach all my new bakers. The kids do great with these, and our bird normally has no issues with them as she's been making them with me since she was 6 years old.

First, let me show you the "fail" photo. To be fair they tasted ok, but were a bit odd texturally and drier than usual.

They shouldn't be rounded up like this, they should have gone flat and spread more upon baking. Instead they look pretty much like they did once they were rolled and placed on the baking sheet.

There are several reasons why this may happen.

1. Either the Cream of Tartar or Baking Soda, or both, were left out
2. The dough was rolled too roughly
3. The dough was packed like a snowball - NEVER do this!
4. The flour was added in using a mixer - another No-No

In this case, she was rushing the dough. My mom was out for a visit and the kiddo wanted to impress her with her baking skills. She was adding the flour using the mixer, making the dough a lot tougher.

Here's how to avoid getting cookies that look like this picture:

1. Don't rush the dough, take your time; they don't take that long to begin with
2. Make sure you use the correct amounts of Cream of Tartar and Baking Soda
3. Mix the dry ingredients - namely the flour - in by hand [#1 Rule of cookie baking]
4. Treat the dough gently, pull a bit off and roll it like it's a raw egg; do not pack or squish the dough

If you still have issues, feel free to drop me a picture and notes in the comments section, or you can email me at merrymaryscookbook@gmail.com.

Happy Baking!

Lemon Blueberry Brownies

As promised in my previous post of the recipe, I finally grabbed a picture of the completed brownies. Fair warning, these don't travel well as the glaze has a tendency to melt. I prefer them chilled anyway as I make these in Summer and Summer in Michigan tends towards hot and humid.  Who really wants to eat hot food when it's already hot?

Bear with me, I am not a professional photographer and do not have the funds to pay one to stop by and snap shots every time I bake something new. These were taken with my old phone, not too bad for a older model.

 

Here's another view with a filter added:

If these are enticing you to whip up a batch you can grab the recipe here:  Lemon Blueberry Brownies Recipe.

These have been a big hit this summer, hope you enjoy them too!

Lemon Blueberry Brownies

Yes, that’s right. Lemon Brownies! I’ll need to experiment with some other flavors as well in the near future, but it’s summertime so Lemon is King.

I saw a posting for Lemon Bars while I was waiting on Lemon Blueberry muffins to come out of the oven and decided to play around a bit with lemon and blueberries. It’s taken me a bit to get this nailed down, I had a few flops, but this recipe has meet with several thumbs up, murmured approvals, and sarcastic statements like “oh yeah, these are just SO bad”, nom, nom, nom.

Using a mixer makes them more “cakey” than I prefer, so I do everything by hand. You all, of course, are free to fiddle with this as you please and come up with whatever works best for you.

The batch I made for yesterday’s vendor show were some of the best I’ve made yet. I put on a bit more glaze than I have in the past and I think that makes a difference. I plan on playing with this recipe a bit more and will post results as I get them.

At this point I do not have a picture of these, I failed to snap a picture before I gave them all away. I will grab a picture of the next batch and add it to this post.

Equipment needed:

     Medium mixing bowl

     Small mixing bowl

     Whisk

     Wooden spoon or stiff spatula

     8”x8” baking pan (9”x9” works too)

     Parchment paper or baking spray

     Spatula for scraping and spreading the glaze

Groceries needed:

Brownies

     ½ cup butter, melted

     ¾ cups sugar, (granulated)

     1 packet TrueLemon^TM or Zest of ½ Lemon

     2 eggs (large or extra large)

     1 tblsp lemon juice

     ¾ cup flour

     ½ tsp baking powder

     2 cups frozen blueberries (or use fresh)

Glaze

     ¾ to 1 cup powered sugar

    1.5 to 2 tblsp lemon juice

    1 packet TrueLemon^TM or Zest of ½ Lemon

The glaze measurements depend on how thick a glaze you want. I used 1 cup powered sugar and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice for a thicker glaze. It’s still a light glaze, not a frosting but it packs a bit more lemon-y punch.

Full disclosure: I do not get any money from the True Lemon^TM folks, but I have found their product to be a really wonderful addition to my baking pantry. The blueberries I use are frozen Wild Maine Blueberries that I pick up at CostCo^TM. They have amazing flavor, and are a bit smaller, but oh-so-yummy! 

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350⁰ F
2. Line the baking pan with parchment paper OR spray with baking spray OR butter and flour pan
3. Melt the butter in a sauce pan or in the microwave
4. Place the butter and sugar into the mixing bowl and whisk until well blended
5. Add the True Lemon^TM or lemon zest to the mixing bowl and whisk very lightly
6. Add the 2 eggs, lemon juice, and baking powder and whisk until well blended
7. Lift the whisk from the bowl, letting the liquid drip into the bowl, then set aside
8. Add the flour and using the wooden spoon, mix until fully incorporated
9. Add in the blueberries and gently mix in
10. Pour the mixture into the baking pan
11. Bake for 25-35 minutes (my oven works best at 32 minutes), Let cool completely before making the glaze.

To make the glaze:

1. Using a clean whisk and the small mixing bowl, place the powered sugar, True Lemon^TM or lemon zest, and lemon juice into the bowl.
2. Mix until smooth
3. Pour the glaze on the cool brownies
4. Use the spatula to evenly spread out the glaze
5. Let sit until the glaze firms up a bit; you can “rush” this step a bit by putting the brownies into the fridge to set up

Cut when ready and prepare to get some sticky fingers from the glaze. These don’t last long though, so enjoy while you have them!

New Experiment

I was so excited when I saw this in Meijer the other day. Yes, I shop at Meijer, love it, love what they do for the community, and they are far superior to that awful place that starts with a W that I loathe to the ends of the universe and back.  (Ok, rant over).

I'd been playing around with ideas for thick ganache alternatives for my brownies. Then I saw this: (insert heavenly choir here, you know that "ahhhh" sound we hear on TV commercials)

My grandmother, Maga, was a big Eagle Brand fan, and it's the only sweetened condensed milk I use. Other shoppers stared at me as if I was an escapee from the nearby mental hospital. (It's literally a mile away, so I can understand their concern). The little jig and whoop of joy startled some, while making others laugh and come over to see what I was so happy about.

This is a little one-stop miracle! I love caramel and chocolate, especially in brownies. So I tried it out today. A batch of brownies with this turned into a thick ganache, it's more like fudge than ganache, and the flavor was almost perfect. Everyone seems to have truly liked it, and I'll be playing with this a bit more.

In case you'd like the ganache recipe, it's so simple that I don't know why I didn't try it earlier. Here's the recipe:

• 1 can Eagle Brand Caramel Flavored Sweetened Condensed Milk
• 1 package (11 oz.) semi-sweet chocolate chips (I use mini chips)

1. Empty the can of milk into a non-stick pan, or double broiler, warming on the stove top. Stir occasionally until the milk begins to bubble. 
2. Add in the chips a bit at time, stirring until fully melted and well incorporated.  
3. When all the chips are in and the mixture is smooth, pour the ganache while still warm on top of your brownies, cake, or cookies.

I'll post more experiments later as I think of items to try this in.

And no, I do not get any money from Eagle Brand, or Meijer. I'd love to if you know anyone in their marketing departments, but at this point my site is not monetized with ads.

Snickerdoodle Muffins

I've been making these muffins since I was in middle school. It's a modification of a French Puff and has been given several nicknames by some of the teens that like to hang out at our house. These are easy to make, and don't require a mixer if you have younger kids that would like to make them on their own.

Yes, those are Snickerdoodle cookies in front of the muffins!

These do not last long! The recipe makes a dozen regular size muffins or 6 jumbo muffins.

Miss Mary's Snickerdoodle Muffins

• 1/3 cup shortening or melted butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/2 cup milk

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 F
2. Mix sugar and butter together until well mixed, add egg and mix  in throughly
3. In another bowl mix together in flour, baking power, salt and nutmeg
4. Stir in flour alternately with milk
5. Grease muffin tin (I use Pam Baking spray) - DO NOT USE paper cups
6. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full (usually one big eating tablespoon full)
7. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes
8. Remove from oven, let cool a few minutes then remove from muffin tin

Cinnamon-Sugar Coating:

1. Mix 1/2 cup sugar with 2 tbsps Cinnamon (or mix to your taste) in a container big enough to fit a muffin
2. Melt 1/4 cup of butter (1 stick) - I nuke this in a bowl big enough to fit a muffin

Roll muffins in melted butter, then roll in cinnamon-sugar mixture
Final step: EAT!

This is what my cinnamon sugar mix looks like when it looks "right".

Charlie Brown's Brownies - Straight from the Original Book!

In 1960, Charles Schulz and June Dutton collborated on a cookbook. My sister and I each got a copy for Christmas, I was the one who used it most. My all-time favorite recipe was Charlie Brown's Brownies.

I thought I had lost my 1969 Peanuts Cookbook when I couldn't find it to fulfill a baking request from my brother.  A little over a year later, I found it! And discovered that the problem I'd had with the one recipe I could find online, purporting to be "the" recipe, was that the measurements were way off for some of the items.

My sincere apologies to the Schultz family and Universal Features Syndicate, Inc. if I'm treading on a copyright issue, this book has been out of print for a long time and it's not available in my county's library system. Not one single copy.

So, in an attempt to be appropriate, I do not have the copyright to this recipe, the recipe belongs to June Dutton and the Schultz estate (I'm assuming here). The Peanuts Cook Book was printed in 1969 by Universal Features Syndicate, Inc., with cartoons by Charles M. Schultz and recipes by Determined Productions, Inc..

On page 10 of this book is my brother's all-time favorite brownie recipe. Charlie Brown's Brownies.  This is how it is written on page 10 of the Peanuts Cook Book:

(beginning quote, in case you can't see it)
"
                                        CHARLIE BROWN'S BROWNIES

                                              1 stick butter (1 cube)
                                              3 squares unsweetened chocolate
                                              4 eggs, beaten
                                              2 teaspoons vanilla
                                              2 cups sugar
                                              1 cup flour, sifted
                                              1 cup chopped nuts

In a large bowl (over a pan of boiling water) melt butter and chocolate. Remove from heat and add beaten eggs, vanilla, sugar, sifted flour, and nuts. Stir well. Pour into greased baking pan. Bake at
325^o for about 35 minutes. Center should stay moist. Cool before cutting. If they last an hour, you're lucky.
"
(end quote)

I tried to get the formatting as close to how it looks in the book as I could. Yes, the title in the book is in all caps.

To clarify "1 stick butter" equates to 1/2 cup of butter and "3 squares unsweetened chocolate" is 3 squares of baking chocolate.

Here's my updated ingredient list in today's terms and more detailed instructions for those that may be making these with kids.

1/2 cup butter, straight from refridgerator
3 squares baking chocolate, unsweetened
4 eggs, beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups sugar
1 cup flour, sifted
1 cup chopped nuts, optional (walnuts work best)

So here's how you do this without burning the chocolate or butter.

1. Grease and lightly flour an 8x8 baking pan (typical brownie pan).
2. Pre-heat oven to 325^o.
3. Get a big pan (I use a 5-quart pot and a large metal mixing bowl) filled with water and start heating the water to a boil. A very large double boiler is the ideal equipment, but few people I know now have those.  Alternatively, if - and only IF - you're really good with melting chocolate in a single pan, you can melt the chocolate and butter in about a 2-quart pot and have enough room for all the ingredients. Otherwise, stick with the double-boiler setup.
4. Measure out the sugar into a medium sized bowl.
5. Sift a cup of flour into the same bowl.
6. Add the nuts to the bowl with the sugar and sifted flour. This will help with pouring.
7. In a separate medium bowl, break all 4 eggs in and beat them with a whisk or electric mixer until throughly beaten.
8. Add the vanilla to the eggs, no need to stir.
9. Hopefully the water is boiling by now. Using a bowl that fits just inside the pot of boiling water, place the bowl in the water.
10. Place the butter and chocolate in the bowl to melt. Stir continuously until the chocolate and butter are melted. A silicone spatula is best for this task.
11. Remove the bowl or pan from the heat. Dump in the egg/vanilla mix and stir lightly (less than 30 seconds), then add in the dry ingredients. Mix throughly.
12. Pour the mixture into the greased and floured pan.
13. Place into the pre-heated over and bake for 32-35 minutes (depending on your oven). The middle should remain moist.

I will try to get a picture to post soon. Perhaps when the next batch is made by one of my "borrowed" kids.

Happy Baking!

Blame it on the Snickerdoodles

Snickerdoodles are kind of my calling card. I've been known to haul a gross of them, in plastic containers, in carry-on luggage, to technical conferences where I use them to bribe my way into meetings with executives and product managers. It's because of this that I wrote the cookbook; I kept getting requests for the recipe from new and old friends all over the globe.

They deserve to be the first recipe on the new site.

I learned how to make Snickerdoodles from my great-grandmother Dearie. She was lots of fun and her house always smelled of freshly baked bread. We had a special bond, she would teach me anything I asked to learn.

The first time I remember making these cookies was at Dearie's house, I was about 5 years old. These are great cookies to make with little ones as they will get bored before the batch is done, and the dough is very forgiving. Simply roll the dough, stick it into an airtight container. and toss them in the fridge. They'll store for up to 3 weeks.

Let's get straight to the recipe.

Note: Sugar means granulated (or white) sugar, Butter means salted butter, but you can use unsalted. If you do not have a mixer, don't despair. Simply melt the butter, and beat with a wooden spoon. Trust me, it can be done and the cookies will still taste great.

Groceries Needed:

1 cup	butter, softened or melted
1½ cups	sugar
2	eggs
2¾ cups	all-purpose flour
2 tsps	cream of tartar
1 tsp	baking soda
¼ tsp	salt

Cinnamon-sugar Mixture

½ cup	sugar
3 tblsp	cinnamon

(mix to your taste)

Directions:

1.	Preheat the oven to 400°F.
2.	In a separate bowl, mix the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt.
3.	Cream together butter and sugar until well blended.
4.	Place the mixer on slow and beat in eggs.
5.	Stir in BY HAND, using a wooden spoon, the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt until very well mixed. Roll dough into small balls (about the size of walnuts) and roll in cinnamon-sugar mixture.
6.	Place on lined or greased cookie sheet and bake 8 to 10 minutes. I usually pull mine out at 8 minutes.

These cookies are amazing right out of the oven. Depending on how large you roll your cookies you will get about 5 dozen, I can’t promise you’ll end up with that many when you are done as they have a habit of disappearing quickly.