Lemon Fudge

In our home growing up, it was a holiday tradition to have a big pan of my mom’s Rocky Road Fudge in the fridge. This recipe for Lemon Fudge is a fun flavor twist on the classic fudge. Now we can have 2 pans of fudge in our refrigerator, choose a flavor or have both!

3-4 lemons
1/2 cup sugar
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup butter
3 cups white chocolate chips
zest of 1/2 a lemon, very fine
yellow food coloring
sprinkles

Line an 8″x8″ square pan with parchment paper. To make the lemon simple syrup, use a peeler to peel strips of just the yellow of one lemon (you don’t want the white part). Juice the lemons until you have 1/2 cup strained lemon juice (free of pulp and seeds), I had large lemons and only needed 2. Place the peel strips, lemon juice, and sugar in a heavy-bottom saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and cook stirring often for 7-10 minutes, until thickened and reduced by about half. It should be the color of pale honey. Set aside.

Combine the sweetened condensed milk, butter, and white chocolate in a medium heavy-bottom saucepan. Stir over low heat just until warm and everything melts and combines (be so careful so the white chocolate doesn’t seize). Take off heat and stir in the lemon syrup, lemon zest, and as many drops of yellow food coloring to make the desired color. Pour the mixture into the lined baking pan. Top with sprinkles. Leave for 30 minutes to cool at room temperature, then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. Cut into squares and serve. Recipe found at sugarsaltmagic.com.

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Buttery Parker House Rolls

I wanted to eat the whole pan of these buttery, tender rolls!

3 cups all-purpose flour
2½ tsp yeast
3 Tbl sugar
1½ tsp salt
1/4 cup potato flour or 3/4 cup dried potato flakes
3 Tbl butter, softened
1 cup milk
1 large egg
3 1/2 to 4 Tbl butter, melted; for brushing on rolls

In large mixing bowl, or in bowl of electric mixer, combine all ingredients (except the 3 1/2 to 4 Tbl melted butter at the end), mixing to form a shaggy dough. Note: to speed rising process, whisk together milk and egg, and heat gently just enough to remove refrigerator chill; then add to remaining ingredients. Knead dough, by hand (10 minutes) or by machine (7 to 8 minutes) until it’s smooth.

Place dough in lightly greased bowl, let rise for 90 minutes; it’ll become quite puffy, though it probably won’t double in bulk. Transfer dough to a lightly greased work surface, divide it in half. Working with one half at a time, roll or pat the dough into an 8″ x 12″ rectangle. Brush dough with light coating of melted butter. You’ll have butter left over; you’ll need it for the other half of the dough, as well as for brushing on top of the baked rolls.

Cut dough in half lengthwise, to make two 4″ x 12″ rectangles. Working with one rectangle at a time, fold lengthwise. You’ll now have a rectangle that’s about 2 1/4″ x 12″. Repeat with other piece of dough. Cut each rectangle crosswise into four 3″ pieces, making total of 8 folded rolls, each about 2 1/4″ x 3″. Flip rolls over (so that their smooth side is facing up), and place them in lightly greased 9″ x 13″ pan. Repeat with remaining piece of dough, making 16 rolls in all. Arrange 4 rows of 4 in the pan, with the longer side of rolls going down longer side of pan. Gently flatten rolls to pretty much cover bottom of pan.

Cover pan, and let rolls rise about 45 minutes to 1 hour, until they’re puffy but definitely not doubled. Towards end of rising time, preheat oven to 350°. Bake rolls for 20 to 25 minutes, until they’re golden brown and feel set. Remove from oven and brush with remaining melted butter. Pull apart to serve. Recipe found at kingarthurflour.com.

More Rolls!

   

One Dozen White Cupcakes

This recipe makes 12 tender, fluffy white cupcakes, just the right size batch for the Fam while in quarantine! There are so many things to be grateful for, make cupcakes to celebrate! Also, it’s our 35th Wedding Anniversary!

Cupcake Batter:
1½ cups flour
1 cup sugar
1½ tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4  cup milk (can use water)
1 Tbl oil
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sour cream
1 egg

Vanilla Buttercream:
1/2 cup butter, softened
2½ cups powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1½-3 Tbl whole milk or cream

Preheat oven to 350°. Put 12 cupcake papers in a 12 cup pan. In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In another smaller bowl, whisk together milk, oil, vanilla, sour cream, and egg. Add liquid mixture to dry ingredients and mix together with electric mixer until well incorporated. Scoop mixture into prepared cupcake pan. Bake for 16-20 minutes, watch them and take them out just as cupcakes start to get a little golden and the top of the cupcakes are set. Transfer cupcakes to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

To make buttercream, whip butter with electric mixer until light in color. Mix in powdered sugar, vanilla, and 1½ Tbl milk and whip together. Add more milk to achieve desired piping consistency. Pipe or spread frosting on completely cooled cupcakes and sprinkle!

More Cupcakes:

Butter Swim Biscuits

This recipe is one of the most visited on my website, posted back on May 26, 2014. Stir together five ingredients, pour melted butter in a pan, spread mixture in the pan with the butter, and bake. A little crisp and very buttery on the outside and fluffy tender on the inside. A super easy addition for any meal.

2½ cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
4 tsp sugar
2 tsp salt
1¾ cups buttermilk
1/2 cup butter, melted

Preheat oven to 400°. Stir together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt. Stir in buttermilk just until combined. Pour melted butter into 8″x8″ or 9″x9″. Drop biscuit batter into pan and spread out evenly. Butter will come up over the edges and cover over the top of the biscuit batter, as if it is “swimming”. Cut biscuits about half way down into batter to create the individual biscuits (4×4). Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden and beautiful! Cool a bit and cut through again, but all the way through to the bottom of pan. Enjoy!

*This time I used a rectangle pan (7″x11″) that is comparable to the 9″x9″. Below is the picture from the first posting using a 9″x9″.

 

Biscuits

This is new to me, I have never made biscuits without cutting shortening or butter into the flour, the recipe just uses heavy cream. This is recipe #14 of the kingarthurflour.com Best Basic Recipes. The recipe says you will get 9-11 biscuits, I feel like to get even 9 biscuits, I had to roll the dough too thin and the biscuits are pretty flat. They do have really good flavor and reminded me of getting Fisher Scones at the Ellensburg Rodeo! A tasty breakfast that took me down memory lane.

1¾ cups flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
3/4 tsp salt
1 Tbl baking powder
2 tsp sugar
1-1¼ cups heavy cream
1-2 Tbl melted butter

Whisk together the flour, cornstarch, salt, baking powder, and sugar. Stir in enough heavy cream to moisten the dough thoroughly. You’ll probably use about 1 cup in the summer, 1 1/4 cups in the winter, and 1 cup + 2 tablespoons at the turn of the seasons. You want to be able to gather the dough together, squeeze it, and have it hang together easily, without dry bits falling off.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface, and very gently pat it into an 8″ circle about 3/4″ thick. If you’re uncertain about your ability to make a nice freeform 8″ round, pat the dough into a lightly floured 8″ round cake pan, then turn it out onto a lightly floured surface.

Use a sharp 2 ¼” biscuit cutter to cut rounds (I prefer to make a large square and use a pizza cutter and cut 9 squares, you’re only working the dough once). Place them on a lightly greased (or parchment-lined) baking sheet. Brush the biscuits with butter, if desired, for extra flavor. Place the pan in the freezer for 30 minutes. This will improve the biscuits’ texture and rise.

Preheat the oven to 425°F while the biscuits are in the freezer. Bake the biscuits for 20 minutes, till they’re golden brown. Remove from the oven. If you have any melted butter left over, brush it on the baked biscuits. Serve immediately.

More Delicious Biscuits!

Simply Perfect Pancakes

How about a stack of pancakes to make quarantine a little better? This is recipe #9 on kingarthurflour.com list of Best Basic Recipes. I have to admit, I haven’t had pancakes since…well, I don’t know when. So, this was a treat! Light and fluffy, an amazing vehicle for getting butter and pure maple syrup into my mouth!

2 large eggs
1¼ cups milk
3 Tbl melted butter or oil
1½ cups flour
3/4 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
2 Tbl sugar or 1/4 cup malted milk powder*

Beat the eggs and milk until light and foamy, about 3 minutes at high speed of a stand or hand mixer. Stir in the butter or oil. Whisk the dry ingredients together to evenly distribute the salt, baking powder and sweetener (*I used powdered French vanilla coffee creamer). Gently and quickly mix into the egg and milk mixture. Let the batter rest for at least 15 minutes (hard to wait, but an important step), while the griddle is heating; it”ll thicken slightly.

Heat a heavy frying pan over medium heat, or set an electric griddle to 375°F. Lightly grease frying pan or griddle. The pan or griddle is ready if a drop of water will skitter across the surface, evaporating immediately. Drop 1/4 cupfuls of batter onto the lightly greased griddle. Bake on one side until bubbles begin to form and break, about 2 minutes; then turn the pancakes and cook the other side until brown, about 1½ to 2 minutes. Turn over only once. Serve immediately.

 

Fudge Brownies

Recipe #6 on the kingarthurflour.com Best Basic Recipes is Fudge Brownies. Now I already have my favorite brownie recipe that I have made a billion times (maybe exaggeration). So, I thought, ok I will make these but no brownies will make me change my favorite brownie recipe. The verdict is, I think this recipe ties with my recipe, I was happily and deliciously surprised!

4 large eggs
1¼ cups unsweetened dark cocoa
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp espresso powder, optional
1 Tbl vanilla
1 cup butter, melted
2¼ cups sugar
1½ cups flour
2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9″ x 13″ pan. Crack the 4 eggs into a bowl, and beat them at medium speed with the cocoa, salt, baking powder, espresso powder (if using), and vanilla for about 1 minute, or until smooth. You can do this while you’re melting your butter (next step).

In a medium-sized microwave-safe bowl, or in a saucepan set over low heat, melt the butter, then add the sugar and stir to combine. Or simply combine the butter and sugar, and heat, stirring, until the butter is melted. Continue to heat (or microwave) briefly, just until the mixture is hot (about 110°F to 120°F), but not bubbling; it’ll become shiny looking as you stir it. Heating the mixture to this point will dissolve more of the sugar, which will help produce a shiny top crust on your brownies.

Add the hot butter/sugar mixture to the egg/cocoa mixture, stirring until smooth. Add the flour and chips, stirring until smooth. Again, adding the chips helps produce a shiny top crust. Spoon the batter into a lightly greased 9″ x 13″ pan. Bake the brownies for 28 to 32 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, or with just a few moist crumbs clinging to it. The brownies should feel set on the edges, and the center should look very moist, but not uncooked. Remove them from the oven and cool on a rack before cutting and serving.

 

Sugar Cookies

This is kingarthurflour.com Best Basic Recipes’ #5. How are you doing with the “Stay at Home” or “Shelter in Place” order, depending on where you live, do you need a cookie? There’s something about a homemade cookie and a glass of milk. Well, I actually ate many of these cookies and a Diet Coke ;o). These sugar cookies have a crisp, sugary outside and a tender inside. I made half of the batch rolled in sugar and the other half rolled in cinnamon sugar, both are delicious! Wishing everyone happy baking and good health!

 

Dough
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup (16 Tbl) butter, softened
1¼ cup sugar
1/4 cup cream cheese, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
1 large egg

Topping
3/4 cup sugar (add 1 tsp cinnamon, optional)

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Lightly grease two baking sheets, or line with parchment. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, and cream cheese until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla and almond extracts, and the egg; scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Add the flour mixture, and mix at low to medium speed until the mixture is evenly moistened.

Place the 3/4 cup sugar in a large plastic bag, or in a shallow pan. Scoop the dough by tablespoonfuls into the sugar, rolling them in the pan or gently shaking them in the bag to coat them with the sugar. Place on the prepared baking sheets, leaving 2″ between them. Using a flat-bottomed glass, flatten the cookies to about 1/4″ thick. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes — 10 minutes for softer cookies, 12 minutes for crunchier. The edges of the cookies will just barely begin to brown. Remove from the oven and cool on the pan for 5 minutes, before transferring to a rack to finish cooling completely.

More Comforting Cookies!
Peanut Butter Fudge Oatmeal Cookies
Fruity Pebbles Cookies
Brownie Cookies with Chocolate Fudge Frosting
Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies
Peanut Butter Oatmeal M&M Cookies
Biscoff Spread Cookies
Chunky Oatmeal Cookies

Scones

Recipe #3 of kingarthurflour.com Best Basic Recipe Collection is SCONES! I will eat any scone from plain to savory to sweet (sweet will always be the favorite, of course). The secret with scone dough is to handle it as little as possible to keep those littles bits of butter nice and cold until they hit the oven. This is a basic recipe and you can choose your mix-ins and flavoring, this time I used 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips and vanilla. Next time I might use raisins, pecans, and maple, oh, that sounds amazing!

Dough
2¾ cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 Tbl baking powder
1/2 cup cold butter
1-2 cups chopped dried fruit, chocolate or other flavor chips, nuts, or combination
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla or flavoring of choice
1/2 – 2/3 cup half-and-half or milk

Topping
2 tsp milk or half-and-half
2 Tbl sparkling sugar or cinnamon-sugar, optional

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Cut in butter just until mixture is unevenly crumbly; it’s OK for some larger chunks of butter to remain unincorporated. Stir in the fruit, chips, and/or nuts, if you’re using them. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, vanilla or other flavor, and half-and-half or milk. Add liquid ingredients to dry ingredients and stir just until all is moistened and holds together.

Line a baking sheet with parchment or silpat; if you don’t have either, just use pan without greasing it. Sprinkle a bit of flour atop the parchment or pan. Put dough onto floured parchment or pan, and divide it in half. Round each half into a 5″ circle. Brush each circle with milk, and sprinkle with coarse sparkling sugar or cinnamon-sugar, if desired. Using a knife or bench knife that you’ve run under cold water, slice each circle into 6 wedges. Carefully pull wedges away from center to separate them just a bit; there should be about 1/2″ space between them, at their outer edges.

For best texture and highest rise, place pan of scones in freezer for 30 minutes, uncovered. Chilling scones relaxes the gluten in the flour, which makes scones more tender and allows them to rise higher. It also chills fat, which will make scones a bit flakier. While scones are chilling, preheat oven to 425°F with a rack in the upper third.

Bake scones in upper part of your oven for 18 to 23 minutes, or until they’re a light golden brown. Remove scones from oven, and cool briefly on pan. Serve warm. They’re delicious as is, but add butter and/or jam, if you like.

When scones are completely cool, wrap them in plastic and store at room temperature for up to several days. To reheat room-temperature scones, place on a baking sheet, tent lightly with foil, and warm in a preheated 350°F oven for about 10 minutes.

Southern Praline Bars

Our son has been in South Carolina serving a mission for our church for two years. He comes home Thursday! In honor of him, I am posting a southern recipe. Southern Praline Bars, they taste like pecan pie in a graham cracker crust, so easy and delicious!

Whole graham crackers, enough to make a layer in a sheet pan
1½ cups butter
1½ cups brown sugar
2 cups chopped pecans
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350°. Line a sheet pan with foil, leaving overhang on each end. Place graham crackers in a layer completely covering bottom of pan. You will have to cut some crackers to make them fit, a fun little puzzle. In a medium saucepan, melt butter and whisk in brown sugar. Bring mixture to rolling boil, stir in pecans and boil for 2 minutes; stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla (careful, it will bubble up when you stir in the vanilla). Pour mixture over the graham crackers, working quickly but gently to spread mixture evenly. Bake for 10 minutes. Entire surface will be bubbly. Remove from oven and cool 15 minutes. Using foil overhang, remove bars from pan to large cutting board. Gently peel foil down from sides of bars, cut into squares and cool completely. You can also drizzle them with melted chocolate!

One Year Ago: Breakfast Pizza

Two Years Ago: Nutter Butter Chocolate Cake

Three Years Ago: Peanut Butter Chocolate Sweet Rolls

Four Years Ago: Dark Chocolate Cookies