Lemon Crinkle Cookies

Last week I satisfied my recent love of lemons in my baked goods with two new recipes that I found on Pinterest. This one, Lemon Crinkle Cookies, was very well received at work for Monday treat... well, by the few folks I shared with anyway. I managed to eat most of these myself. I substituted the lemon juice called for in the original recipe with lemon extract. The other recipe for Lemon Velvet Cake used both lemon zest and lemon extract. That blog is coming soon!

½ cups butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp lemon extract
1 whole egg
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp baking powder
⅛ tsp baking soda
1 ½ cup all-purpose flour
½ cups powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease light colored baking sheets with non-stick cooking spray and set aside. On my second tray I used parchment paper and that worked much better for me.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

 

Whip in egg and vanilla and lemon extract. Scrape sides and mix again.

 

Stir in all dry ingredients slowly until just combined, excluding the powdered sugar. Scrape sides of bowl and mix again briefly.

 

Pour powdered sugar onto a large plate. Roll a heaping teaspoon of dough into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. Place on baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough.

Bake for 9-11 minutes or until bottoms begin to barely brown and cookies look matte {not melty or shiny}. Remove from oven and cool cookies about 3 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

*If using a non-stick darker baking tray, reduce baking time by about 2 minutes. I sifted just a little extra powdered sugar onto the cookies once they had cooled a few minutes.

Applesauce

In my efforts to improve my diet and eat healthier and more naturally, I've been seeking recipes to make foods my daughter likes as well. Applesauce is one of the recipes for my daughter. I found the recipe on Pinterest named Crockpot Applesauce. I shared tastes of this with several friends at work, and the response was very positive. However, the most important verdict came from the teenager... she said it was very good! She loved the different apple flavors represented. She also loved the cinnamon flavor. The original called for one stick of cinnamon, but I used three. Of note here, I thought I was going to use 7 lbs of apples, but I quickly realized that my crockpot was not large enough to hold that much. 

6 lbs of a variety of apples (Golden Delicious, Honey Crisp, Fuji, Gala, etc.) 

1 strip of lemon peel (I started with three strips and removed one each hour until only one was left)

1 tsp fresh lemon juice
3 3-inch cinnamon sticks

 1/2 cup brown sugar

Peel, core and quarter the apples and place in the crockpot.

Add brown sugar, lemon juice and lemon peel. 

Turn heat to low and cook about six hours until the apples are soft and disintegrating. Stir occasionally.

Remove cinnamon stick(s) and use an immersion blender or a stand mixer to blend until smooth, or if you prefer a chunky sauce, leave sauce intact. (You could also use a whisk, which will give the sauce a nice chunky consistency.)

 

Can and process as you would other recipes or keep refrigerated up to 3 weeks.

Orange Pound Cake

This has a been a year for trying new things for me. I have tried about a half dozen different pound cake recipes so far, and I really haven't been disappointed with any of them. Another thing that has been new for me this year is working with fresh citrus fruit using zest and juice in recipes. There really is nothing quite like it. Seriously. You should try it! I found this recipe for Orange Pound Cake Mini Loaves on Pinterest, and decided that this would be a great Monday treat at work. It went very well and I received quite a few compliments on it. I decided to just use regular loaf pans and it worked well. Another alteration is that I used about 1/2-1 tsp of almond extract in the glaze. It was a divine addition.

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
2 tsps pure vanilla extract
2 sticks unsalted butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs, at room temperature
1/4 cup orange zest

For Simple Syrup:
1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1/2 cup sugar

For Glaze (optional):
1 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 Tbsps freshly squeezed orange juice

Preheat oven to 350°F. Generously grease and flour four 5 3/4" x 3 1/4" x 2" mini loaf pans or 2 regular size loaf pans and lay a strip of parchment paper along the bottom and up the two long sides of each pan, pressing the paper into the corners of the pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. Measure buttermilk, orange juice, and vanilla into a measuring cup. Set aside.

In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the butter until creamy. Blend in sugar and beat for a few minutes until light and fluffy.

 

Mix in eggs, one at a time, and orange zest, and beat until well incorporated.

With mixer on low, slowly pour in 1/3 of the flour mixture. Mix in half of the buttermilk mixture. Blend in another 1/3 of the flour mixture and remaining buttermilk mixture. Add remaining flour mixture and mix until just blended.

Divide batter between prepared pans and bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

While loaves bake, prepare orange simple syrup. Stir together 1/2 cup orange juice and 1/2 cup sugar in a small pot. Bring to a boil over medium heat while occasionally stirring, then reduce heat and simmer for a few minutes. Remove pot from heat and set aside to cool.

When cakes are done, cool for 10 minutes before turning out onto wire rack. Set rack over a sheet pan or piece of foil, and using a brush or a spoon, soak each cake with simple syrup.

 

Allow to cool completely. For glaze, whisk together powdered sugar and 1/2 tsp almond extract and enough orange juice for a smooth spreading consistency (about 1 1/2 Tbsps) in a small bowl. Drizzle over cakes and allow to set and harden before wrapping loaves or storing them in an airtight container.