Super-soft Sugar Cookies

I was in the mood for some holiday baking, so I tried out a new recipe for copycat Crumbl cookies. A couple of Crumbl cookies locations opened fairly recently in our town and they might be my new favorite dessert spot. Crumbl rotates their menu every week so they offer four to five fun new flavors to try each week. Their cookies are also HUGE in size as well - almost bigger than my hand. Their classic sugar cookies might be my favorite. They are pillowy-soft with a hint of almond flavor.

If you don’t have a Crumbl location in your town, this recipe from the Lifestyle of a Foodie blog is really close to the real thing! Give it a try. I did modify the frosting recipe since I didn’t have heavy cream. The recipe and a few helpful tips are listed below.

Sugar Cookies

Dough Ingredients:

• 1 stick salted butter (softened)

• 1/4 cup vegetable oil

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar

• 2 Tbsp. powdered sugar

• 1 large egg (room temp. is best)

• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

• 1/4 tsp. almond extract

• 2-1/3 cups flour

• 1/4 tsp. salt

• 1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

• 1 tsp. baking powder

Frosting Ingredients:

• 1 stick salted butter (softened)

• 1-1/2 cups powdered sugar

• 1/4 tsp. almond extract

• 1 drop pink gel food coloring (optional)

• sprinkles (optional)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil for easy cleanup. No need to grease; the cookies shouldn’t stick due to oil/butter in the dough.

2. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, oil, sugar and powdered sugar.

3. Add the egg*, vanilla, almond extract and continue mixing to combine.

   *The recipe I found said the egg should be at room temp., but because I’m not patient, mine was straight out of the fridge/still cold and it seemed to work just fine. Next time, I will try room temp. to see if it makes a difference.

4. Add remaining dry ingredients and mix well until dough forms a ball.

5. Use an ice cream scoop or measuring cup* to measure out dough balls so cookies are all uniform. Flatten the balls using a rolling pin or the bottom of a large glass to around 1/2” thick. Note that dough doesn’t really spread as it bakes.

   *I used a 1/4 cup measuring cup to produce slightly larger cookies than an ice-cream scoop. To get the signature Crumbl cookie size, you could go slightly larger than 1/4 cup.

6. Bake the cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet for 7-9 minutes. To get the signature Crumbl look/texture, you don’t want these to be brown at all. They will look under-baked, but they will be fine!

7. Let the cookies cool for 15-20 minutes to set.

8. While cookies are cooling, you can whip up the frosting. Once cookies have cooled, spread the frosting, add sprinkles and enjoy.

The Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe You Need in Your Life

It's almost 100 degrees here in Texas, which means I really haven't had the urge to fire up the oven lately. But, I just got a text that my brother & sister-in-law are going to be dropping off some delicious home-cooked Thit Kho (Vietnamese braised pork and egg) for dinner. I certainly can't let them leave empty-handed, so I just whipped up a batch of my famous chocolate chip cookies. My nieces and nephews love these cookies and request them anytime there is a family gathering. These cookies are extremely easy to make. They only require a single mixing bowl and a few common baking ingredients. There is one "secret" ingredient, though. Without it, these cookies just won't taste the same. The secret ingredient is actually Quaker High Fiber Instant Maple and Brown Sugar Oatmeal. It needs to be the "high fiber" version because the maple flavor seems to be more prominent in that variety. I also like to think that the "high fiber" content makes these cookies more healthy. Well, maybe not, but they sure are tasty!!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

• 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar (packed)
• 2 packets of Quaker High Fiber Instant Maple and Brown Sugar Oatmeal
• 2 sticks butter (melted)
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups Nestle Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix all dry ingredients. Don't add the chocolate chips yet, though!
3. Mix in the melted butter (must be melted all of the way); add in eggs and vanilla.
4. Stir well.
5. Add in the chocolate chips last. If you add them before adding the melted butter, the chocolate will melt and cookies will be dark.
6. Use an ice cream scoop to measure out dough balls so cookies are all uniform.
7. Bake the cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet for 9-11 minutes.
8. Let the cookies cool for 15-20 minutes to set (if you can wait that long before stuffing them into your mouth!)

The "secret" ingredient.

Blueberry Citrus Cake

I've been craving blueberries lately, and although it is not the season for them, I ended up buying a few trays of them to enjoy. After a hectic work week, I was so happy that my weekend was wide open for some much needed baking therapy. I turned to one of my favorite white cake recipes and decided to mix in a few blueberries to make things more interesting. I added some citrus flavoring that I'd been wanting to try, Fiori di Sicilia. As it turns out, a little goes a long way, because any hint of blueberry flavor in the cakes was overpowered by more of a creamsicle flavor. The cake was still tasty, though, and I had fun putting them together. I used some Bonne Maman blueberry preserves to make a blueberry glaze for the cake. After using a fine mesh sieve to remove the seeds, I added the preserves to the buttercream to add a beautiful purple tint to the frosting. Next time I use blueberries in cake, I'll leave out the citrus flavoring and let the natural blueberry flavor come through.

Bonne Maman Wild Blueberry Preserves

Citrus Dream Cake

After the little photo shoot for my new blog header, I had a lot of citrus fruit left over. Never mind the fact that I've been hoarding limes since the Great Lime Shortage of 2014. We started the summer with a major lime shortage due to problems in Mexico (fruit diseases, transportation problems, etc.), so I snatched up limes just as soon as I was able to get my hands on them, and have been stockpiling them ever since. Along with lemons and oranges, limes are the epitome of a happy fruit, like a ray of sunshine on a summer day.

I decided to combine these three fruits into a happy little cake. I used a favorite go-to recipe, White on White Buttermilk cake and added some fruit zest and fruit extracts to impart the citrus notes to each of the layers.

Citrus Dream Cake:

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 Cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature (do not melt!)

• 2 1/3 Cups sugar

• 3 large egg whites

• 3 Cups cake flour (I use Swans Down)

• 3/4 tsp. baking soda

• 3/4 tsp. salt

• 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

• 1 1/2 Cups buttermilk (or use 1 1/2 cups whole milk with a splash of vinegar)

• 1 tsp. each of Lemon extract, orange extract and lime extract (added at the end after batter has been divided into 3 bowls)

• 2 tsp. grated Lemon, lime and orange zest (each added separately to divided batter)

• Yellow, Orange and Green food coloring (each added separately to divided batter)

Buttercream ingredients:

• 2 Cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

• 2 Lbs. powered sugar

• 1 Tbsp. heavy whipping cream

• 1/2 tsp. salt

• 1 tsp. fruit extract of your choice (lemon, lime or orange)

• 2 tsp. fruit zest of your choice (lemon, lime or orange)

Directions:

1. Prepare your baking pans. I used three 9-inch round pans. Line the pans with rounds of parchment paper. I never have a problem with cakes sticking to the bottom when I line the pans, so it is worth the extra effort. Grease the pans with cooking spray.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

3. Using electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg whites and continue beating for another minute.

4. Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl and gradually add these into the wet mixture, beating thoroughly.

5. Divide the batter evenly into 3 separate bowls.

6. To each of the bowls, you will add the flavor and color you want for each layer. 1 bowl will get lime zest, lime extract and green food coloring. The next will get lemon zest, lemon extact and yellow food coloring. The last will get orange zest, orange extract and orange food coloring. Mix thoroughly.

7. Add each batter into each of the 3 baking pans you prepared.

8. Bake for 25-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Tops of cake layers should be very lightly brown. Oven and baking times vary, so check regularly. Do not over-bake or the cake will be dry.

9. Remove cake layers from the oven. Allow cakes to cool.

10. While cakes are cooling, prepare the buttercream frosting.

11. Using electric mixer, beat butter, gradually adding in powdered sugar and salt. Mixture will be thick, so add in the whipping cream and flavoring/extract of your choice (I used lemon for mine). Add fruit zest. Whip thoroughly, scraping sides as needed so that it is well-blended.

12. Frost cooled cake layers.

13. Garnish with fruit slices or sliced/sugared fruit rind (avoid white pith when slicing rind to avoid bitterness)