CREAM WAFERS

I have been making these cookies for about 20 years. Everyone loves them and the best thing about them is that the actual cookie only uses three ingredients, butter, flour and heavy cream.  I usually triple the batch that way I use up all the whipping cream.

RECIPE FOR COOKIES

1 cup butter
1/3 cup heavy cream
2 cups flour

Just make sure the butter is soft.  Never use margarine.  Just whip together these three ingredients and let chill about 20 minutes.  If you are tripling the recipe like I do you will need to roll and chill, roll and chill, roll and chill, time consuming yes but you can also freeze the dough and use only what you need.  Roll a portion of the dough between two sheets of wax paper, using a sprinkling of flour on top and bottom so dough does not stick.  Use a shot glass to cut the cookies.  Then prick the cookies three times with the tines of a fork and dip both front and back in sugar.  Bake in a 375 degree oven for 7-9 minutes.  You dont want them to brown.  Let cool then freeze.  Yes I said freeze these cookies are so delicate you have trouble frosting them otherwise.

FILLING

Beat together 3/4 cup of soft butter, 2 egg yolks and 1 teaspoon vanilla.  Gradually add 2 1/4 cups of sifted confectioners sugar beating until smooth.

Put the filling between two cookies and there you have it!!!

COCONUT CAKE

Today we will be baking a coconut cake for Easter.  Usually at Easter in my family we have a blessing of the Easter basket on the Saturday before Easter.  The basket is filled with cross bread, fresh polish sausage, horseradish, a butter lamb, a chocolate bunny, some hard boiled eggs and a babka.  I don't know what other families do but that is what we usually put in our baskets.  The basket is taken to church where it is blessed by the parish priest.  When we come home for church that is what we have for lunch.  I love this tradition, but so far have not been able to find a church in the area that still does the blessing. I think I liked the blessing of the basket more than the Easter candy when I was little.  All the baskets would be lined up on tables and I could go around looking at all the pretty eggs in each of them.  Some of them would be decorated so beautifully. For some reason we always had coconut cake at that time too.  So today by niece is here visiting from Elba New York and she and I are going to make the cake.

We begin with preheating the oven to 350 degrees.  Grease three 8 or 9 inch cake pans, I use Bakers Joy spray cause it is just so easy.  Then into a large bowl sift
3  1/2 cups flour
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
1 1/2 cups sweetened coconut

Now with an electric mixer and using the paddle attachment mix 3 sticks of unsalted butter with 2 2/3 cups of sugar for about 3 minutes.  Then add four large whole eggs one at a time beating after each addition, then add 4 egg whites beat just until incorporated.

With the mixer on low speed slowly add the flour mixture alternately with  1 1/2 cups of unsweetened coconut milk.

Batter will be thick.  Pour into three greased cake pans and bake for about 55 minutes.

HOT CROSS BUNS

Today I thought it might be nice to try something new, so I decided to whip up some hot cross buns.  I am usually not very good at working with yeast but I somehow managed to accrue 9 packages of it !  Better get crackin!!

2 Pkgs 1/4 oz each active dry yeast (Yes got rid of 2 packages!)
2 cups warm whole milk
2 eggs
1/3 cup butter softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground allspice
6-7 cups flour
1/2 cup raisins I used golden
1/2 cups currants

In a small  bowl dissolve yeast in warm milk.  In a large bowl combine eggs, butter, sugar, salt, spices, yeast mixture and 3 cups flour.  Beat on medium speed until smooth.  Stir in currants and raisins and enough remaining flour to form a soft dough.  I used the remaining 3 cups and  changed the mixer from paddle to hook. Dough will be sticky.

On floured surface knead until smooth and elastic.  I just turned on the timer for 6 minutes and quit kneading after that.Place in a greased bowl, turn once and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place till double about 1 hour.

Just before I put them in the oven I used by kitchen scissors and just took a snip at the top one way and then another snip the other way to form a cross.  I am sure you don't need to do this but it looks good and gives you a spot to put in the frosting.

Bake at 375 for about 17 minutes. Now I am going to freeze these for Easter.  They are not very sweet. So the frosting you use to make the cross needs to be good and sweet and also quite thick. This recipe makes about 2 1/2 dozen.

BUTTERMILK COFFEE CAKE

Today we are baking a buttermilk coffee cake.  It is something we have at every Easter gathering.  It's very simple yet so good.

1/2 cup butter or margarine
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
4 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
3 tsp. baking powder
2 cups buttermilk

I have made this many times without actually using buttermilk.  So if you dont have any you can use 2 cups regular milk with 2 tablespoons of vinegar in it.  Just let it sit 5 minutes before use.

Ok first cream together butter and sugar.  Then add eggs beating well.  Mix in dry ingredients alternately with buttermilk.  The batter is very thick.  Spoon into a 13 x 9 inch pan.

Then make topping:

3 tbls butter very cold
2/3 cups sugar
1/2 cup flour

Mix this together with your fingers or a pastry blender until the size of peas.  Then spread onto the coffee cake.  Bake at 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes.

PECAN PIE BARS

Today is the perfect day for baking.  It is about 39 degrees out, foggy, gloomy and a light drizzle that just won't quit.  These pecan pie bars will be perfect with a cup of coffee and a movie in front of the TV.

First preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Line a 13 x 9 inch baking pan with tinfoil, overhanging the edge so it can be picked up easily.  I spray this some Pam.

Mix in the food processor 1 1/2 sticks of cold, unsalted butter, 1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour, 2/3 cups of brown sugar (light or dark) it really doesn't matter and 1 teaspoon salt. You will pulse this mixture until it resembles small peas.

Add 2 tablespoons of cold water and pulse 1-2 times.  I turned the mixture into a bowl for easier mixing.  Then I patted it into a 13 x 9 pan.  You can put some flour on your hands to do this.  The dough is a little sticky.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

Now to make the filling.

1 stick of unsalted butter soft
1 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup flour
3 cups coarsely chopped pecans
1 egg

I do this in the stand mixer with the paddle attachment.
Then simply spread on the now baked crust and voila pecan pie bars.  Just bake for 30 to 35 minutes and lift the foil out.  Let it cool, then cut into squares.

CHERRY SQUARES

Just a little aside, I went to the grocery store today and had such a taste for laberka (that's what we called it when we were kids, God only knows how to spell it. There is a rolled r in there somewhere) its really liverwurst and that just started me thinking about my Gramma.She was the best baker on earth  and one of my favorite things to eat when I was there was ,something she called cherry squares. OMG these things were the best.  Whenever I stayed at her house I would ask her to make them and believe it or not she did!! She never told me no I don't have time, or pick something else I don't have the ingredients. She found a way even if we had to walk to the store to get the ingredients.  Isn't it funny my Gramma never played video games with me or took me to amusement parks or gave me huge presents, but she was the best Gramma ever to me.  I knew she loved me just by looking into her face.  Now that I am a gramma why do I think I have to do all those other things with my grandkids?  I think they will love me just for being their Gramma and by the way my gramma could hardly walk, but she was always there for me.

The last time I visited my Mom I looked through her recipe book, OMG what a nightmare that was.  She has this book even older than the black and white marble composition books that you cant rip the pages out of cause the nuns at school would kill you.  This thing was an old 8 x 8 inch brown tablet with a black binding and it probably had about 25 sheets of white paper in it. My Mom of course had all the pages filled in with recipes she hand wrote but the tablet is now about 5 inches high held together with a rubber band with tons or recipes she cut out of magazines or the newspaper and just stuffed em inside the notebook put the rubberband around it and that was that. It took forever to find it.  When I did there were no instructions about how to mix, is the butter cold or soft, or anything that resembles a normal recipe just the ingredients and how long to bake the stuff. This will be an experiment.

Best as I can figure this is the recipe for the crust.

2 cups flour
1 cup butter
6 tablespoons of powdered sugar

I am going to cut the butter in with a pastry blender and then hopefully  press it down into a 13 x 9 pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

Next make the filling

4 eggs slightly beaten (I just used a fork and whipped them up a little)
2 cups of sugar
1 cup of flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups of walnuts chopped
1 cup of coconut
1 cup of maraschino cherries (drain the juice off you don't need it)

Ok so first I put the sugar and the beaten eggs into my mixing bowl.  I used one whole jar of maraschino cherries which i probably should have bought two jars cause I ate some and now I dont have a full cup!! Oh well I'm just gonna go with that and cut them up into quarters. While the eggs were mixing with the sugar I added the flour and baking soda, mixed them in and then added the walnuts, coconut and folded in the cherries last. Wow my fingers are all red!

You can see that this a really thick batter.  You don't have to let the bottom cool first just take it out of the over and pour on the batter. It will be hard to spread and of course the pan will be hot.  I used a flat spatula to spread the filling  and I  sprayed the spatula with pam first.  It really wasn't as hard to spread as I thought it would be. Then put it back in the oven for 30 minutes.  After it cools sprinkle some sifted confectioners sugar over it,  This is seriously good stuff!!

PEACH POUND CAKE

Today we are going to make a delicious peach pound cake.  If you dont like peaches it is still a wonderful pound cake.  Just dont add the peaches.  You can use frozen, canned or fresh.  This recipe is a taste of home recipe except I add a peach glaze.  When you use canned peaches make sure you save the juice.  You cant use a glaze with the fresh peaches.  In this case I sprinkle the cake generously with powder sugar. Also if you use canned peaches 1 can equals 1 cup of chopped peaches.

Recipe
1 cup butter (only use butter)       1/2 cup sour cream
6 eggs                                         2 cups chopped peaches
2 cups sugar
1 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla extract

Blend butter and sugar, add eggs one at a time, add extracts.

Mix together 3 cups flour, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp baking soda.

Add the flour mixture alternately with the sour cream just until mixed.  Fold in peaches.

Pour into a bundt pan which has been sprayed generously with Bakers Joy.  This stuff is great for not letting the cake stick to the pan. The batter will be thick.  Bake at 350 degrees for 60-70 minutes or until done.

Let the cake stand 10 minutes before turning over onto a cooling tray.

Glaze

Melt 2 tablespoons of butter.  Add about 1 cup of confectioners sugar.  Mixture should be thick, then add the reserved peach syrup (about 4 tablespoons) a little at a time until the mixture is spreadable and you can pour it over the cake while the cake is still warm.  You can also sprinkle with sifted confectioners sugar or use the glaze then sprinkle sliced almonds over the top.