Moravian Ginger Cookies
Ingredients & Directions 1/3 c Molasses 1/4 c Shortening 2 tb Sugar, brown 1 1/4 c Flour 1/2 ts Salt 1/4 ts Baking soda 1/4 ts Baking powder 1/4 ts Cinnamon, ground 1/4 ts Ginger, ground 1/4 ts Cloves, ground 1 ds Nutmeg 1 ds Allspice EASY CREAMY ICING 1 c Sugar, confectioners 1/4 ts Salt 1/2 ts Vanilla 1 1/2 tb Cream, light Mix thoroughly the molasses, shortening, and sugar. Blend in the remaining ingredients except the icing. Cover. Chill for at least four hours. Heat the oven to 375 F. Roll the dough to 1/8-inch thickness, or, if desired, paper-thin on a lightly floured cloth-covered board. Cut into the desired shapes. Place about 1/2 inch apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for eight minutes or until set. Remove from the baking sheet immediately; cool. Frost with Easy Creamy Icing. EASY CREAMY ICING: Mix all of the ingredients together until smooth and of spreading consistency. Tint with food color if desired. Makes about 3 dozen 2-inch cookies (about 5 dozen if rolled paper-thin). [Betty Crocker’s Cookbook] Yields 36 Cookies
Raspberry Mirror Cheesecake
Ingredients & Directions 1 1/4 c Chocolate wafer cookie crumb 1/3 c Butter, melted FILLING 8 oz Semisweet chocolate, -coarsely chopped 2 c Cream cheese, softened – 2×250 g pkgs 1 c Granulated sugar 3 Eggs 1 ts Vanilla -GLAZE- 300 g Frozen raspberries, thawed 1/2 c Granulated sugar 1 1/2 ts Gelatin 1. Assemble 9-inch springform pan with base lip-side down. stir cookie crumbs with butter until moistened; with back of spoon, press evenly onto bottom of pan. Centre pan on foil squar; press foil up to cover side of pan. Bake in 325F 160C oven for 5 minutes. Set aside. 2. filling: Meanwhile, in large bowl set over hot (not boiling) water, melt chocolate; set aside and let cook to room temperature. in separate bowl, beat cream cheese with sugar for 2 minutes or until smooth and light. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, scraping down side of bowl often. Beat in vanilla. 3. Stir half of the cream cheese mixture into cooled chocolate; scrape onto baked crust. Gently pour remaining cream cheese mixture evenly over top. 4. Set pan in larger pan; pour in enough hot water to come 1 inch up sid eof pan. Bake in 325F 160C oven for 1 hour or just until no longer shiny and top does not jiggle. Turn oven off. Let cool in oven for 1 hour. Remove from oven and water; let cool to room temperature. Refrigerate uncovered, until chilled. 5. Glaze: Meanwhile, press thawed raspberries through fine sieve to make 3/4 cup juice. In saucepan, bring juice and sugar to boil over medium-high heat; cook, stirring, for 30 seconds or until dissolved. Whisk 1/4 cup into gelatin in bowl; let stand for 1 minute. Stir in remaining raspberry mixture. 6. Refrigerate glaze, stirring often, for about 1 hour or untilconsistency of liquid honey. Pour over chilled cake, gently spreading with back of spoon to evenly cover top. Refrigerate for 1 hour or until glaze is set. Yields 1 Cheesecake
Lots-of-blueberries Coffeecake
Ingredients & Directions 4 tb Unsalted Butter 1/2 ts Salt 3 c Blueberries 3/4 c Milk 2 c All-Purpose Flour 2/3 c Granulated Sugar 2 1/2 ts Baking Powder 2 lg Eggs TOPPING 2 tb Sugar — MIXED WITH 1/4 ts Ground Nutmeg Heat the oven to 350 F. Grease an 8- or 9-inch square glass baking dish. Melt the butter in a medium-size saucepan (or in a bowl in microwave). Let cool. Wash and drain the blueberries; spread them out on paper towels to dry. removing bits of leaves or stems. Put the flour, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl. Stir to mix well. Add the milk, sugar, and eggs to the butter. Whisk to blend well. Add to the flour mixture, stirring to blend well. Fold in the blueberries. Spread the batter in the prepared dish. Sprinkle with the nutmeg-sugar topping. Bake until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, 50 – 60 mins. Place the dish on a wire rack to cool at least 30 mins before serving. Note: Use small berries if possible. Frozen berries work just fine; don’t bother to thaw or rinse them. YIELD: 9 to 12 portions. Yields 9 servings
Biscuits
Ingredients & Directions 1/2 c Shortening; Vegetable More for the pan 5 c All-purpose flour 1/2 c Sugar 4 ts Baking powder 2 ts Salt 1 1/4 c Milk 4 Eggs; large 1) Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Grease an 11 by 7 inch pan with shortening. 2) Stir the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl until blended. Make a well in the center of this dry mixture and add the milk, 1/2 cup shortening, and eggs. Mix the wet ingredients with your hands until the eggs and milk are blended. (There will still be some lumps of shortening.) Slowly work the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients with your fingertips. The finished dough should be soft but not sticky, so you may have to add a little more flour if it seems too wet, or stop mixing before all the flour is added if it seems too dry. 3) Turn the biscuit dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough out to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into 3 1/2-inch rounds and place side by side on the greased baking pan. (The biscuits should be touching but not overlapping.) Reroll the dough as many times as necessary to cut all the biscuits possible. Let the biscuits rest in a warm place 10 to 15 minutes (on top of the warm oven is a good place). 4) Bake until the biscuits are deep golden brown and light to touch when you pick one up, about 20 minutes. If some of the biscuits are browning more quickly than others, rotate the pan after about 10 minutes. Break apart and serve. Yields 24 Servings
Macadamia And Pear Buttercake
Ingredients & Directions 5 Firm brown pears POACHING LIQUID 6 c Water 3 c Sugar 2 Bay leaves 1 Cinnamon stick A lemon; rind of -FOR THE CAKE- 150 g Unsalted butter 180 g Castor sugar 3 Eggs Grated zest of I lemon 350 g Plain flour 25 g Baking powder 170 g Plain yoghurt 120 g Macadamia nuts; finely -chopped THE GLAZE Smooth apricot jam Icing sugar Poach the pears in the syrup ingredients for about 1/2 hour until not quite soft. Allow the pears to cool in their liquid then slice 5mm thick pieces from the pear on either side of the core. Set aside the nicer large pieces to garnish the cake, then dice the remaining pear to have about I cup of pear cubes for the cake batter. The cake: Cream the butter, zest and sugar until light and pale, then add the eggs individually, beating well after each addition.. Sieve the flour and baking powder together. Fold the macadamia nuts through the butter batter then add the pear and yoghurt, followed by the flour. Do not overmix. Pour the batter into a buttered and floured 26cm round cake tin and bake at 170 c for approximately I hour. While the cake is baking, boil the poaching liquid for about 15 minutes, or until the it is quite syrupy. When the cake is removed from the oven, brush about 1/2 cup of the syrup over the cake. When cold, glaze the whole cake with a fine layer of smooth apricot jam that has been heated to boiling. Fan the reserved pear slices over the cake, drench with icing sugar then carefully caramelise the top with a blow torch or place under the griller for a few seconds, until the sugar caramelises. Yields 1 servings
Applesauce Cookies
Ingredients & Directions 1/2 c Shortening, soft 1 c Brown sugar, firmly packed 1 Egg 1 1/2 c Sweetened canned applesauce 2 c Sifted all-purpose flour 1/2 ts Soda 1 ts Salt 1 ts Cinnamon 1/2 ts Allspice 1 c Quaker Oats, uncooked — (quick or old-fashioned) 1 c Raisins Beat shortening and sugar together until creamy. Blend in egg and applesauce. (Mixture may separate but it will blend evenly when dry ingredients are added.) Sift together flour, soda, salt and spices. Add to creamed mixture; blend well. Stir in oats and raisins. Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls onto greased cooky sheets. Bake in preheated moderate oven (375 F.) 12 to 15 minutes. Yields 60 Cookies
Biscuit Tortoni
Ingredients & Directions 3 lg Egg whites 3/4 c Sugar 1 ds Salt 1/4 c Almonds; blanched 1 3/4 ts Almond extract 1 1/2 c Heavy cream 3/4 ts Vanilla 12 Maraschino cherries BAKE 350 (almonds) Let whites warm to room temperature. Mix 1/4 cup water with sugar in 1 qt. pan; stir over low heat to dissolve. Boil, uncovered, without stirring to 236. Meanwhile, at high speed, beat whites with salt just until stiff peaks form. Pour hot syrup in thin stream over whites beating constantly till very stiff. Refrigerate, covered, 30 mins. Place almonds in shallow pan; toast till lightly brown (8 – 10 mins). Grind finely. Put into small bowl and stir in 1-1/2 t. almond extract. Beat cream with 1/4 t. almond extract and vanilla till stiff. Gently fold into egg white mixture. Spoon into 12 paper-lined muffin pans. Sprinkle with almond mixture; top with a cherry. Cover and freeze overnight. For longer storage (1 month) remove from pan and wrap individually. Yields 6 Servings
