Cream Cheese Pastry Results

I blogged about using margarine this year instead of butter in my cookie baking. I tried making a batch of Grammy's pastries with margarine, even though the recipe warns "do not substitute margarine for the butter". I'm not often a rule breaker, but in the name of being frugal, I'm willing to step over the line, as long as it's legal!

Well, here is what happened. The margarine pastry was way easier to roll out and form into cookies, way easier. The cookies looked the same, smelled the same, but didn't taste the same. They were really lacking in flavor. CUP came downstairs and I offered him some, not mentioning the experiment I was doing. He ate a couple and said, "Did you do something different with these, they don't taste as good at all." I guess I have my answer, I'm going to have to splurge on butter!

Christmas Cookies

I started making Christmas cookies today. I made two batches of sugar cookies and two batches of vanilla refrigerator cookies today. I froze the dough so we could have fresh cookies when we are ready to make them. I've frozen cooked cookies before, but they don't taste quite the same.

In my ongoing effort to save money , I'm using margarine instead of butter this year. I prefer butter in baking, but since butter is $2.50 a pound and margarine is only .73 a pound, my choice has sort of been made for me! I even had several .50 off coupons for Blue Bonnet which helped even more. I was also able to get 4 pounds of sugar for .99 and 5 pounds of flour for .99. I'm going to be sending Mike and a few boys to the store for more before the sale ends, since only one per person is allowed. At those prices, each batch of cookies actually cost less than $1!

I love being able to pop some frozen dough out of the freezer and just bake it. It is so much less messy than pulling out all the individual ingredients. I'm working towards a stress-free Christmas this year, as I haven't had one of those since Jack and Drew were little!

Lemon & Lime Cakes

Alex was having a pot luck lunch between performances today and they were going to celebrate his birthday. He wanted me to make a dessert, so I made a recipe that I've been wanting to try. It came out really delicious and was so easy! I made a lime and a lemon cake. YUMMY!

Here is the recipe:

Pastel Pound Cake

One white or yellow cake mix
3 ounce any flavor jello mix
3/4 cup water
1/2 cup oil
4 eggs

Mix all for 3 minutes until light and fluffy. Pour into two sprayed loaf pans (9 x 5 x 3)and bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes.

Icing:

1 cup powdered sugar
lemon juice

mix lemon juice in until it is a good consistency and drizzle over the cake.

Banana Bread

This is our favorite banana bread. It is really moist and has a great flavor and doesn't use any oil. It does use butter, but I doctored it a bit to include plain yogurt, so I figure it is healthier that way. Too bad Luke is allergic to bananas!

The Best Banana Bread

1/4 cup white sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon

3/4 cup butter
3 cups white sugar (if I have it, I use Splenda for half of the sugar)
3 eggs
6 very ripe bananas, mashed
1 (16 ounce) plain yogurt (you can mix with some lemon juice, if desired)
2 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
3 tsp. baking soda
4 1/2 cups flour
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Use two large loaf pans and one mini muffin pan or four 7 x 3 inch loaf pans. In a small bowl, stir together the 1/4 white sugar and 1 tsp. cinnamon. Spray pans with Pam and them dust with the cinnamon sugar mixture.

In large bowl or stand mixer, cream butter and 3 cups sugar. Mix in eggs, mashed bananas, yogurt (and optional lemon juice), vanilla and cinnamon. Mix salt, baking soda, and flour in separate bowl. Add all at once to banana mixture. Stir in nuts.

If you are using the two large loaf pans and mini muffins, put all three into the oven. Take the mini muffins out after 25 minutes. The large loaf pans will take about an hour and a half to cook. The smaller loaf pans are supposed to be done in 1 hour, although I've never made that size. They are done when a toothpick comes out clean.

Shauna's Delicious Chocolate Chip Cookies

Shauna made some really good chocolate chip cookies the day the Alex and Hannah went tubing. For our family, we make a triple recipe. We decided to use the stand mixer, even though it is small so we have to make three batches. I helped Shauna with the first batch and then she made batches two and three all by herself! The cookies were delicious! We are still trying to figure out how to make them puffier, though. We used all butter because it tastes best, but them they come out flat. I am wondering if we cook them at a higher temp for a shorter time if they would spread less. We have tried Alton Brown's puffy recipe, but those had no taste. I guess we will have to keep experimenting, darn, darn, darn!