Monday, December 15, 2008

Day 9 Of Rosie's Christmas Baking.

After I took a break from baking yesterday, I jumped right back into it today. 3 little goodies I made today: Buckeyes Gingersnaps Lacy Oatmeal Cookies
Number 1 - my buckeyes. And this is quite a favorite.
1 1/2 pounds powdered sugar
16 ounces peanut butter 2 sticks butter, softened 12 ounces semisweet chocolate morsels 1 TB shortening
Process powdered sugar, peanut butter, and butter in food processor. Chill dough for at least 2 hours, then form into small balls.
Melt chocolate morsels and Crisco.
And dip and roll peanut butter balls in chocolate. Work quickly. And you may need to put the balls back in the fridge every now and then to chill up.
Chocolate covered peanut butter balls.
I actually had someone ask me one time, "How do you get the peanut butter inside the chocolate?"
These are delicious little morsels.
Number 2 item - Gingersnaps.
Ingredients: 3/4 cup butter 1 cup sugar 1 egg 1/4 cup molasses 2 cups sifted flour 2 teaspoons baking soda 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves 1 teaspoon ginger 1/2 teaspoon salt
First, cream the butter, and beat in the sugar.
Add in the egg.
And the molasses.
Next, mix the sifted flour, baking soda, cloves, ginger, and salt together.
And sift into the butter mixture.
Cover and chill for at least two hours.
Make small balls.
And bake on an ungreased pan for 5-7 minutes at 350 degrees. After 5 minutes, I take the pans and turn them around on the oven racks, and do a bit of a slap/bang, and they deflate. Then I cook for 2-3 minutes more. I like a crisp gingersnap. My children like a chewy snap. Cook more for crisp. Less for chewy. It's your decision. And thank you, Notmuchofacook, for reminding me of what I know I do, and did, but just didn't post about.
My gingersnaps. Yummy!
Number 3 - Lacy Oatmeal Crisps.
Ingredients: 1 cup packed brown sugar 1/2 cup shortening 1/4 cup butter 2 cups oatmeal 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 egg, well beaten
Combine the brown sugar, butter, and Crisco in a saucepan, cooking over low heat, until melted.
When melted, remove from heat.
Stir in the oatmeal.
Add in the baking soda.
Add in the salt.
And finally, add in the beaten egg.
Drop teaspoons 3 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake at 375 for 6-7 minutes. Cool 2 minutes on pan, then remove to cooling rack.
Lacy Oatmeal Crisps. It took me all day to prepare and bake these goodies. Now, it's time for supper. Mr. Hawthorne got home from work and pulled out some frozen chicken breasts from the loaded freezer downstairs.
He semi-thawed the chicken, then thinly sliced it.
Next, Mr. Hawthorne prepared the veggies for my stir-fry: broccoli, onion, carrots, snow peas, celery, sweet orange peppers.
In the meantime, I made a marinade: Orange marmalade, garlic, fresh ginger, soy sauce.
Poured the marinade onto the sliced chicken.
Here's the chick in the back, a cornstarch slurry, chicken stock, and the veggies (celery, onion, snow peas, broccoli, carrots, orange sweet pepper).
I chopped up some more garlic and fresh ginger.
A bit of ginger and garlic went into the hot oil. Then I added the broccoli in.
Next the carrots went in.
And finally, the carrots, snow peas, celery, and onion.
Toss and stir. And remove veggies to a bowl and cover.
Heat up some more oil (I use peanut oil.) and add in some of the chicken.
Cook the first batch of chicken, and add to the veggie bowl.
Heat up more oil, add in ginger and garlic, and the rest of the chicken.
Stir fry. Toss for show.
I added in some cashews.
Then the cornstarch slurry went in.
I poured in the marinade and cooked it.
Added in the rest of the stir fry ingredients.
And the chicken stock.
And serve with my sticky sushi rice.
Oh my. This was really good.
I had two helpings. I love my stir fries. Just plain good eats.

13 comments:

Unknown said...

Question on the buckeyes... well, a couple questions actually.... how do you store them when done? Just in the fridge? Also... do you know if you can sub something else for the Crisco? I'd rather not buy a whole tub just to make the buckeyes.

Rosie Hawthorne said...

MrsVJW, After I cook anything, I put it in a freezer bag and it goes directly into the freezer. All these items last for months in the freezer.

And about the Crisco. You don't have to buy tubs anymore. The Crisco people finally had the good sense to make Crisco in wrapped measured sticks, like butter.

If you don't want to buy that, I imagine you could just add butter or even nothing at all. I don't think the Crisco really adds anything to it except for maybe a sheen.

Rosie Hawthorne said...

But, MrsVJW, there's so much else you can use Crisco for. There's my cornbread for instance. Or even fried chicken.

Anonymous said...

Rosie-it all looks delish, but you left out the fun part for the gingersnaps where you have to bang the cookie sheet to flatten the cookies before they're done. Don't you do that anymore? Is it no longer necessary? That was the best part about baking those goldurn things.

Rosie Hawthorne said...

Oh gosh, I still do that, NMOAC. Going back in to edit. Thanks. I did it, just didn't post about it.

Rosie Hawthorne said...

I love it that my readers keep me on my toes.
Thank you all.

Anonymous said...

Hey baking queen,

Making your toffee bars today!

Anonymous said...

I am making a double recipe of those fabulous gingersnaps today and I am looking forward to rapping them! One question: if I double the recipe, do I double the salt, soda, and egg as well? AND I am using unsalted butter, so should I increase the salt? Or not?

Rosie Hawthorne said...

NMOAC, Double each ingredient.
Have fun with the smack down.

Rosie Hawthorne said...

And I use unsalted butter and don't put any extra salt in any of my cookies.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Rosie. Here I go, off to make some delicious gingersnap cookie dough. (Smackdown, hah!)

Unknown said...

Yeah, yeah, yeah... I might just buy the Crisco. A couple of the Red Velvet cake recipes I've been looking at use shortening, I might end up using it all anyway. Or it gives me the excuse to make chocolate chip cookies... I'm a fan of the butter flavored Crisco for chewy cookies.

Hairball T. Hairball said...

Mmm, I've got to make those buckeyes. Thanks for the recipe!!