Cranberry Cornmeal Cookies

I checked a gluten-free Christmas cookie cookbook out of the library.  Most of the recipes had ingredients I didn't have (particular flours) and/or were just normal cookie types, gluten freed.  These ones caught my eye though -- they weren't like cookies I'd seen recipes for before.  They're delicious.  Like little bites of cornbread, with a crispy outside & a fluffy inside.  I tweaked the recipe to work with what I had around.

3/4 cups dried cranberries
1/4 cup Southern Comfort
1 1/2 cups cornmeal
1 1/2 cups corn starch
3/4 cups sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp salt
1 stick butter
2 eggs (or egg substitutes)
4 tbsp milk (I used almond milk)
1 tbsp orange zest
1/2 tsp vanilla

Put cranberries & SoCo in a bowl together so the cranberries can soak it up.  When I did this, I accidentally put in a half cup of SoCo -- when it came time to add the cranberries to everything else, I fished them out with a fork & left behind some cranberry infused SoCo (which you could use for mixed drinks).  I think this resulted in the cookies having slightly more than a quarter cup of SoCo.

Put the dry ingredients (cornmeal through salt) into a food processor; process until they're mixed & the cornmeal's as finely or coarsely ground as you want in the final product.  I didn't have a big enough food processor, so I put in everything except the corn starch & mixed in the corn starch afterwards.

Add the chopped up butter to the food processor; pulse a couple times to chop it in.  Again, I have a small food processor, so I did this by halves.  Pour into a bowl.  Add wet ingredients (eggs through vanilla); mix until it makes a nice dough.  The recipe as written above is what I made; it includes 2 more tablespoons of milk than the original recipe, because my dough didn't come together well with just 2 tablespoons.  I also didn't realize how much moisture the cranberries would add -- if I were making them again, I might just do 3 tablespoons at this point & only add the 4th if there was still dry mix after adding the cranberries.

Add in the cranberries & mix to combine.  If you only used 1/4 cup SoCo, add any remaining liquid in the bowl to the cookies as well.

Form cookies on a silpat lined cookie sheet.  These cookies don't really grow much, so you can put them pretty close together; they also don't change shape much, so if you put them in with little spiky bits of dough sticking off, the spikes will still be there when they get out.  Bake for 20 minutes or so at 350 until they get a little golden brown around the edges.  Best as dough (note: boozy dough) or when fresh & warm out of the oven.

The original recipe calls for rum rather than SoCo, but I was lacking in the rum department, so I ate a couple cranberries and sniffed different liquors while I was chewing them so I could imagine what the final result would taste like (rejected possibilities: Fireball whiskey & cinnamon spice Kahlua, because I felt both would overpower the other flavors).

This was also my first use of fresh orange zest -- I happened to have an orange around, so I zested it then ate the rest.  I ended up with slightly less than a full tablespoon, but I feel like the cookies had enough orangeiness to them with just that.  And it made the kitchen smell very fresh.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

This is the second batch -- the first batch had those little spiky bits I mentioned.

Adzuki Buns

You know what's really exciting?  Asian bakeries.  They're always full of delicious snacks, and I'm usually not entirely certain what I'm ordering, unless I'm ordering an Adzuki Bun.  These appear in most Asian bakeries.  They're slightly sweet buns with a glossy outside & a sweet red bean paste in the middle.  And they're amazing.

So, after a long weekend of sampling various cultural foods around the city with a friend who was visiting from out of town, I decided it was finally time to try my hand at making these delicious buns.  And while mine didn't turn out exactly like the bakery buns, they were about as close as I could hope for on a first try.  I used roughly this bean paste recipe & this bun recipe, and I ended up with 27 buns.

Bean Paste
1 cup dry adzuki beans (available at your local Asian grocery story)
1 heaping cup sugar (I used a mix of about 2/3 white & 1/3 brown, and it turned out well)

Rinse & sort beans.  Put in a pot with water; bring to a boil; boil for about 5 minutes.  Strain & rinse beans, replace water, simmer for about 1.5-2 hours, or until the beans are squishy.  Strain beans again, put 2/3-3/4 of the beans into a food processor & pulse a few times, return all beans to the pot & add sugar.  Stir regularly over heat until almost all of the water evaporates.  Let cool & put into a container (if making beforehand) or set aside (if making buns right now).

This made a bit more paste than I actually needed; it'd probably be enough to use 3/4 cup beans & about 1 cup sugar.  It doesn't taste terribly good on its own -- it tastes a bit like dirt, with a slightly grainy texture -- but it gets a bit better once it's in the buns.

Buns
3 3/4 cups bread flour
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup white sugar
1 tsp salt
2 1/4 tbsp yeast
1/3 cup butter
2 eggs (I used egg substitute with no ill effects)
2/3 cup milk (I used almond milk)
2/3 cup water

Something to brush over the buns -- eggs or egg yolks will give you that bakery sheen, but if you don't have them around, you can use some milk + honey
Sesame seeds (if you have them around)

Combine dry ingredients.  In a microwave safe bowl, combine butter, milk, & water.  Microwave, stirring occasionally, until the liquid is warm & the butter is soft (it needs to be warm for the yeast).  Add add liquids, including eggs, to the dry ingredients; knead until thoroughly combined, then knead some more.  Set aside for at least 45 minutes (I left mine for almost 2 hours with no ill effects).  Punch down the dough.  Split into 2 inch balls.  Let rest for 15 minutes; while it's resting, make small balls of the bean paste, a little less than an inch in diameter.  On a floured surface, flatten out the dough balls one at a time, put a bean paste ball in the middle, then roll up like a burrito, making sure the bean paste is totally enclosed.  Place seam-side down on your silpat-lined baking sheet -- I didn't have enough mats or sheets to put them all on at once, and they were a little hard to move later, but any flat surface should be okay.  Let rest for 15 minutes; it took me about 15 minutes to get through all of them, so once I was done balling I was ready for the next step.  Make a thumbprint in the top of the buns & brush with egg or milk.  Cover with plastic wrap & let rest for 45 minutes or so.  Remove plastic wrap, preheat oven to 375, brush with more egg/milk, sprinkle with sesame seeds if you want to be fancy, and bake for 12-25 minutes or until golden brown on top & bottom.

You could probably just make these buns on their own, or fill them with something else (jam? raisins? chocolate? almonds?).  They're very tasty.

The finished buns are about 3-4 inches in diameter -- smaller than the bakery version, but still tasty.  Because I didn't use an egg wash, they aren't glossy.

Filled with delicious beans!

Fruity Thumbprint Cookies

I have too many kinds of jelly in my fridge, so I decided to make these thumbprint cookies.  I only made a half batch, which made exactly 23 cookies -- considering I ate some of the dough, that's just about right.  I made some tweaks to make these easier & use the ingredients I had.  The cookie part ended up tasting basically like a butter cookie -- I suspect that if I'd let them sit for a day or two, the citrus flavor would've opened up, but I don't have that kind of patience.

1/4 cup jam or jelly (I didn't measure this, just used the spoon to scoop it directly from jar to cookie)
1 1/8 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, at room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 egg's worth of egg substitute
1 1/2 tsp dried orange zest
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Mix butter & sugar together until it's a little light & fluffy.  Mix in egg substitute, orange zest, lemon juice, and vanilla; mix until it's combined & fluffier.  Mix together dry ingredients, add to the wet mixture.  Put a silicone mat on a baking sheet.  Make 1 inch balls of dough, put them on the sheet -- they'll only expand a little bit, so leave a little space but you probably only need about an inch between cookies.  If you have a round 1/2 tsp measuring spoon, it works really well for making the "thumbprints" -- otherwise, just use your thumb!

I stuck the whole first tray in the freezer for about 10 minutes once I'd assembled it, and that worked wonderfully.  The second batch didn't work out as well. I just made balls of dough & put them back in the bowl in the fridge until the pan was free again.  What I didn't realize is that this dough gets really solid when it's chilled, so I couldn't shape it until I'd let it warm up a bit on the pan.  Even then, the cookies cracked, which led to the jelly spilling out of some of them while baking.  Maybe use two pans & stick one in the freezer while the other is baking?  Or find another way to shape the cookies before you chill them?

Bake for 6 minutes at 350, then take out & add your jam/jelly to fill the divots (if you used the measuring spoon, now's the time to use it again -- 1/2 tsp is the perfect amount of filling for these cookies).  Bake for another 10 minutes or so, until the bottoms just barely start to brown.

Cool on racks & enjoy!

First batch turned out beautifully

Second batch was less beautiful but still good

A variety of frosting tweaks

I bought some storebought cake mix & frosting to make birthday cupcakes for a friend, but I decided that it wasn't enough to just bake them & frost them.  Instead, I tweaked the frosting into four different types, and they all turned out awesome.

1. Vanilla - Straight out of the tub.
2. Chocolate - Mixed about 2 spoonfuls of frosting with about 1 spoonful of cocoa powder.  Melted about 1/2 a shot glass worth of chocolate chips & mixed them in.  Added hemp milk until it was the right consistency again.  It's still got little chunks in it -- I think from the chocolate, and they only appeared after adding the milk -- but it's delicious.
3. Chocolate chip cookie - A friend (in fact, the one whose birthday it is) left a little less than half of a container of store-bought mini almond chocolate chip cookies here last time he was over.  I tossed four of them into the food processor, turned them into powder, mixed them in with the frosting, and added milk until it returned to the correct consistency.
4. Peanut butter - Two parts frosting, one part peanut butter.  Goes super well with the chocolate cupcakes.

Dried Cherry Coffee Cake

I bought some unsweetened dried bing cherries at Trader Joe's this weekend, and I learned that there's a reason they usually sweeten them -- they aren't particularly tasty on their own.  So I started searching for recipes to use them in, and this one came up.  It's very sweet and very tasty.  I'd disagree with the comments -- it didn't turn out light for me, but that may be because I tinkered with the ingredients a bit.  It's still super moist & delicious.  The cherries & almond extract smelled awesome while they were soaking.  And the sugar on top gave it a nice sweet crustiness.

Original recipe here.

1/2 cup unsweetened dried cherries
1/2 cup hot water
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1 (5.4 oz) container vanilla greek yogurt
A splash of milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1/4 cup sliced almonds
1 tbsp white sugar

Chop the cherries into raisin-sized pieces (or slightly smaller than whatever size you're comfortable with finding in the middle of a coffee cake).  Mix with the hot water & almond extract; let sit for 20 minutes (maybe poking/shaking occasionally).  Mix together the dry ingredients (except for extra sugar & almonds), then add wet ingredients, then drain cherries & add them (I used the cherry soaking water to mix with my egg replacer).  Grease & flour an 8x8 pan (or two loaf pans).  Pour in batter.  Mix together almonds & extra sugar; sprinkle on top.  Bake at 350 for 35 minutes or until a knife comes out clean.

Peanut Butter Granola

I wanted enough granola for the weekend, but not any leftovers.  This recipe scales up & down well and is super easy.

Original recipe.

2 tbsp peanut butter
2 tbsp honey
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 cup rolled oats

Microwave the peanut butter & honey for about 30 seconds so they're melty.  Stir together, then add vanilla & cinnamon.  Add oats & mix well.  Squish into a granola-cluster-thickness layer on a baking sheet (silicone baking mats are nice here).  If you keep it all as one pancake, you'll be able to have bigger clusters; this will fall apart a little bit when you pick it up, but if it's all one big piece then that's okay.  Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes or until golden brown.  It'll still be soft when it comes out.  Let it cool.  It's much better -- crunchier & more flavorful -- once it's cooled off.  If you're making it in the morning for breakfast, put as much as you want to eat that day into a bowl & stick it in the freezer for a bit.

I had already eaten half of it before I thought to take a picture.  Also, mine's slightly burnt around the edges; still tasty.

Lentil Loaf

I was reminded this weekend that lentils exist.  So I browsed a bunch of lentil recipes & found one that looked interesting.  I've made a lot of pseudo-meat loaf in the past, but I'd always used frozen veggie meat crumbles.  This turned out pretty well.  It was a bit too salty/savory for me, and I'd already cut the broth back from the suggested amount.  I'll probably cut it out completely next time -- the BBQ sauce already adds enough saltiness.  I'll probably also take a suggestion from the comments & use this recipe to make veggie burgers rather than a loaf.  It had that trademark bean-based squishiness that a lot of homemade veggie burgers have.  I couldn't get it out of the pan without it turning into just a pile of lentil stuff, but it was still good.  I think you could also make this in different flavors by replacing the onions/garlic/BBQ sauce with other stuff -- chopped + pureed pineapple is what came to mind first for me, to make funky burgers that you could put grilled onions, peach salsa, and guacamole on.

Original recipe here.

• 1 1/2 cups dry lentils
• 1 cup vegetable broth
• 2 1/2 cups water
• 1 large onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 2 cups pre-cooked mixed wild rice (I cooked this with half broth, half water)
• 1/4 cup barbecue sauce
• 1 tsp Italian seasoning

Cook rice if you haven't already.  Mix lentils, broth, and water together, and cook until lentils are well done (squishy), about 30 minutes.  Chop up the onion (a food processor works great) & the garlic.  Sautee onion & garlic until they're softened.  Once the rice & lentils are done, mix everything together.  Oil the sides & bottom of a loaf pan -- this will fill the loaf pan all the way to the top, and maybe beyond that if you have a stumpy pan.  Bake at 350 for 1 hour.