Meeting-friendly snacks to bake

[Kerry Beal]

Yeah I would too except their shipping cost to Canada would put me in the poorhouse! I have an in through Kerry Beal to a number of chocolate suppliers if I decide that I really really can't live without it..... But thank you for the suggestion.

Punjab market has it.

[Anna N]

Banana walnut sheet cake. I was not pleased with this and before it had completely cooled searched around for another recipe for which I might have the ingredients. No photos but I also made a batch of chocolate chip blondies.

I believe the problem with the sheet cake was that I was not fastidious enough when smoothing the batter. However I was able to rescue enough to send some squares along. You can see from the photograph how uneven it is.

[Anna N]

Apparently there is no meeting tomorrow but since the whole darn company eats what ever I send I made some classic shortbread to finish up the year.

[ChocoMom]

Anna,

Those lime-meltaways are fantastic!  I used to make them all the time, but I ate way too many so I quit making them.   They're quite addiciting.  I'm sure the crowd was overjoyed with them!

 

BTW, I think I gained about 10 pounds just looking at all the delectable brownies. Now, I must wipe the drool off my keyboard.... Thanks.     

 

Seriously though....that group has NO IDEA how good they have it- with all the tasty treats you make for them! WOW!

 

Andrea

[Anna N]

Anna,

Those lime-meltaways are fantastic!  I used to make them all the time, but I ate way too many so I quit making them.   They're quite addiciting.  I'm sure the crowd was overjoyed with them!

 

BTW, I think I gained about 10 pounds just looking at all the delectable brownies. Now, I must wipe the drool off my keyboard.... Thanks.     

 

Seriously though....that group has NO IDEA how good they have it- with all the tasty treats you make for them! WOW!

 

Andrea

Thank you so much. I really did not think the lime meltaways would hit the spot but they surely did. Not only that but my daughter and granddaughter were fighting over them.

[JeanneCake]

Sorry, can we go back a bit to the Katherine Hepburn brownies, please? 

 

Maida Heatter has a recipe in her All American Desserts book where she takes said brownie recipe (without the nuts) and pours half of it into the prepared pan then freezes it (unbaked).  When frozen, she spreads a layer of seedless raspberry jam on it, then pours the remaining batter on top, lets it come to room temp, then bakes it.

 

It. Is. Amazing.

 

Moreso than the original recipe.  If you serve them chilled, they are divine.  When this comes back in the rotation, you should try this!

 

She mentions that you can sub out other types of jam/preserves; even peanut butter and jelly (mixed up) but I think she cautions that the bars might come apart when cut with this combination.  It could also have been just plain peanut butter that causes the bars to separate when cut.   In any case, this is a wonderful recipe!

[Anna N]

Sorry, can we go back a bit to the Katherine Hepburn brownies, please? 

 

Maida Heatter has a recipe in her All American Desserts book where she takes said brownie recipe (without the nuts) and pours half of it into the prepared pan then freezes it (unbaked).  When frozen, she spreads a layer of seedless raspberry jam on it, then pours the remaining batter on top, lets it come to room temp, then bakes it.

 

It. Is. Amazing.

 

Moreso than the original recipe.  If you serve them chilled, they are divine.  When this comes back in the rotation, you should try this!

 

She mentions that you can sub out other types of jam/preserves; even peanut butter and jelly (mixed up) but I think she cautions that the bars might come apart when cut with this combination.  It could also have been just plain peanut butter that causes the bars to separate when cut.   In any case, this is a wonderful recipe!

Thanks for sharing this. I was going to give brownies bit of a rest but this sounds intriguing. I won't be doing any more baking for meetings until the new year but I will certainly keep this one in mind.

[Anna N]

Cinnamon elephant ears. Lest anyone think that I slaved over a cold pastry board these were made with President's Choice all-butter puff pastry. I made a double batch so that my granddaughter has treats to take to band practice on Thursday. It definitely feels like an indictable offense to call it home baking! But they are always received with such enthusiasm that I bury my guilt!

[Darienne]

In this case, guilt is highly overrated.     Making puff pastry from scratch?  Not in this lifetime...

[Shelby]

Oh Anna, can you tell me how you make those??? They look scrumptious.

[Anna N]

Oh Anna, can you tell me how you make those??? They look scrumptious.

Shelby,

They are embarrassingly easy. Best I point you to the recipe that I riffed off. Google Ina Garten cinnamon elephant ears. I used one half teaspoon cinnamon per sheet of pastry and used an oven temperature of 400°F. If you can, find all-butter puff pastry not the Pepperidge Farm mentioned in the recipe. Apparently Dufour pastry is available in the US although I am not sure how widespread it might be in terms of availability. Watch these cookies very carefully. Because of the amount of sugar involved they can burn in the blink of an eye which is why I prefer 400° Vs 450. These are not for those afraid of sugar or butter!

[rajoress]

Those elephant ears look awesome! Just for the record, I believe Trader Joe's puff pastry is made with all butter although they don't always carry it. I was pleasantly surprised this December to see they brought it back.

Ruth

[Anna N]

Those elephant ears look awesome! Just for the record, I believe Trader Joe's puff pastry is made with all butter although they don't always carry it. I was pleasantly surprised this December to see they brought it back.

Ruth

[Deryn]

Can't say I have ever seen President's Choice puff pastry in the States, but, interestingly, a local grocery store in the Asheville area occasionally has some products labelled President's Choice - with a slightly different packaging 'look' than the Canadian ones but the same script/layout for the PC name so I am pretty sure they are from the same company. Who knows, perhaps the butter puff pastry will migrate too, especially with the Can $ so low these days.

[Anna N]

Taking a page from Kerry Beal's book I am calling these "Not Your Mother's Tollhouse Cookies". They are soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies using single origin Belgian chocolate.

[ChocoMom]

Anna, all I can say is YUM!!!!

 

  I haven't had breakfast yet, and suddenly, that looks like the perfect mate for my lonely cup of coffee.    

[Anna N]

Anna, all I can say is YUM!!!!

 

  I haven't had breakfast yet, and suddenly, that looks like the perfect mate for my lonely cup of coffee.    

[Anna N]

Just got an instant message from the meeters. "So good. They should be illegal." That is the chocolate speaking. They are nothing special as far as the recipe goes. Still a compliment is never amiss early on a gray winter morning.

[emmalish]

Sorry, can we go back a bit to the Katherine Hepburn brownies, please? 

 

Maida Heatter has a recipe in her All American Desserts book where she takes said brownie recipe (without the nuts) and pours half of it into the prepared pan then freezes it (unbaked).  When frozen, she spreads a layer of seedless raspberry jam on it, then pours the remaining batter on top, lets it come to room temp, then bakes it.

 

It. Is. Amazing.

 

Moreso than the original recipe.  If you serve them chilled, they are divine.  When this comes back in the rotation, you should try this!

 

She mentions that you can sub out other types of jam/preserves; even peanut butter and jelly (mixed up) but I think she cautions that the bars might come apart when cut with this combination.  It could also have been just plain peanut butter that causes the bars to separate when cut.   In any case, this is a wonderful recipe!

[CatPoet]

Anna, this used to be a recipe I loved before I got intolerant to citrus, it called Cobblestones and is a Danish recipe. My Danish side left Denmark in 1935 and never returned so the recipe is old.

 

Cobblestones 50 cookies

250 gram of honey

150 ml of brown sugar

75 gram butter

2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

zest of one orange

100 gram almonds ground

50 gram succade or candied orange peel

1 whole egg

1 egg yolk

2 teaspoon baking soda

600 ml self raising flour

 

In a thick bottom pan,  melt honey, brown sugar and butter.  Remove the pot from the heat and  ground almond,finely chopped succade or candied orange peel, cinnamon,ginger and zest. Stir with a spoon until combined. Whisk egg and egg yolk  in a separate bowl and add to the mix. Add the flour + baking soda and stir in .  Wrap in plastic and leave  to mature over night in the fridge.

Next day roll the dough out to ½ cm thick  and cut round circles . Bake at 200 C for  about 8 minutes. Leave to cool on a rack.

 

If you want to you can ice them too

200 ml icing sugar

the juice of one orange.

Mix and spread on the cookies.

[Anna N]

Thank you. I'm sure they're delightful.

[andiesenji]

This recipe with spectacular photos of various cookie toppings has been trending on FaceBook yesterday and today.  Numerous shares.

 

The direct link to Lavender Shortbread with Fruits, Flowers and Herbs  is  HERE!

 

I have baked one of the Bon Appetit shortbread recipes in the past with fantastic results.

[CatPoet]

Anna the dough holds for 3 days in the fridge, so it can be spread out over days .

[Anna N]

Butterscotch Blondies this week. They look a little darker than usual because I used dark brown sugar.

[rotuts]

AnnaN : could you taste the difference ?