Tuesdays With Dorie—Baking Chez Moi—Palets de Dames, Lille Style

Palets de Dames, Lille Style from Baking Chez Moi

Guess what?!  It’s Tuesdays With Dorie back on my blog again!  I have missed it after baking my way through Dorie Greenspan’s cookbook, Baking From My Home to Yours and participating in some of Baking With Julia as well as Around My French Table.  Well, now that Dorie has a new book out, Baking Chez Moi, I’ve decided to get back with the program.  Many others have still been baking and cooking their way through the other books, but I had to stop for a time.  I’m back!

The first recipe that was chosen from Baking Chez Moi was these simple little sugar cookies, Palets de Dames, Lille Style.  The recipe can be found on the link for the book on Amazon.  We won’t be posting recipes in the group.  We all think you should get Dorie’s book.

I love that these cookies were so easy and used just a few basic ingredients that are almost always in my home—butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, salt and flour.  Mix up the dough, refrigerate it for an hour or more, then scoop the dough with a small cookie scoop, bake, cool and dip them in a powdered sugar lemon glaze.  You don’t have to, but you can also sprinkle a little coarse sugar on them—in any color you’d like.   Perfect cookies for a baby or bridal shower or just for easy entertaining or giving as a gift. 

I made the dough on Sunday morning and wasn’t able to bake the cookies until later that evening.  My boys have happily munched on them since and they are almost gone.  I’m sure my family…..and friends will be happy to receive a lot more goodies to come as I bake with the Tuesdays With Dorie group again!  The group will be baking twice a month.  See you for the next one right before Thanksgiving with a perfect holiday dessert, Cranberry Crackle Tart.

Peach Cobbler and Blueberry Pineapple Pecan Crisp—Lucky Leaf Pie Filling Giveaway

You might recall back in June with I posted a bunch of delicious recipes and had a giveaway for Lucky Leaf, who make canned premium pie fillings.  I loved trying out some of their fillings and was happy to have a giveaway for a lucky reader as well.  They recently contacted me again and asked if I wanted to try some more of their products.  I received a package with pie fillings, some recipe cards and a nice cloth pie carrier.

I have enjoyed trying a couple of the recipes and now I want to share them with you.  Lucky Leaf has also offered a giveaway again for another lucky winner.  Pictured below is what you could win---some of their pie filling, recipe cards and a kitchen towel.

In two of their recipes I have tried, one for an Amaretto Peach Cobbler and a Blueberry Pineapple Pecan Crisp, I made some adaptations to the recipe.  The cobbler was to be made with a packaged sugar cookie mix while the crisp was topped with a packaged yellow cake mix.  So, again (like I did in my last Lucky Leaf post), I made my own cookie dough and yellow cake mix, since I would rather have homemade than boxed treats.  I know, the pie filling is a canned product, but I really like it and love that it doesn’t have high fructose corn syrup.  I would certainly keep some in my pantry for times when a quick dessert is needed.  While as a lover of all things home baked, I hate to say, but my family almost prefers some canned things—like cherry pie filling.  I still have a can of Lucky Leaf cherry pie filling and will be trying their recipe for Cherry Kuchen soon!

The Peach Cinnacake I made last time was a big hit and Kevin really likes peach desserts, so first up, I made the Peach Cobbler.  The recipe is supposed to have Amaretto in it, but since we don’t use or drink alcohol, I left it out. 

Peach Cobbler, by Katrina, Baking and Boys! adapted from Lucky Leaf

2  21-ounce cans Lucky Leaf Premium Peach Pie Filling

1 recipe for sugar cookie dough (14  1/2 ounces), see recipe below

1 cup sliced almonds

1/2 cup butter, cubed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 

Make the sugar cookie dough:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar

1/2 a large egg (2 tablespoons or about 25 grams)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 tablespoon milk

1  1/2 cups (180 grams) all purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

Cream together in a mixer the butter and sugar.  Add the egg, vanilla and milk and mix until well combined.  Scrape the sides of the bowl.  Add the flour, baking powder and salt and mix just until combined.

For the cobbler-- 

Spread the two cans of pie filling into an ungreased 9x13 inch baking dish.  Break the cookie dough up evenly into little pieces and sprinkle it evenly over the filling.  Sprinkle the sliced almonds over the top.  Dot the top with the cubed butter.  Bake for 35-40 minutes or until filling is bubbly and topping is golden brown.  Serve warm with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, if desired.

Ready for the oven—while the Lucky Leaf recipe called for dry sugar cookie mix and I used actual cookie dough, I think it turned out great!

  The BlueberryPineapple Pecan Crisp, which also had crushed pineapple was also delicious and I was very happy with the way it turned out using a homemade dry yellow cake mix!  I looked at different homemade cake mix recipes online, and then adapted a few things to come up with this mixture for sprinkling over the blueberries. 

Blueberry Pineapple Pecan Crisp, by Katrina, Baking and Boys! adapted from Lucky Leaf

For the cake mix--

2 cups (240 grams) all purpose flour

1  1/2 cups (300 grams) granulated sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 cup nonfat dry milk (not instant)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup cold butter, cut into pieces

1  1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, dry milk and salt.  Pulse a few times to mix together.  Add the pieces of butter and the vanilla and pulse until crumbly and the butter is mixed in to a sand-like texture. 

For the crisp--

1  20 ounce can unsweetened crushed pineapple, undrained

1/2 cup (110 grams) packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1  21-ounce can Lucky Leaf Premium Blueberry Pie Filling

18.25 ounces homemade yellow cake mix (there is about a cup leftover so weigh it if you have a kitchen scale, if not, just measure out a scant cup of the mix—you can use it to make your own microwaveable mug cakes!)*

1 cup pecan halves, chopped

1 cup butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Lightly spray with cooking spray a 9x13 inch baking dish.  Pour pineapple into the dish.  Sprinkle with brown sugar and cinnamon.  Top with pie filling and spread it evenly (it will not spread perfectly, but that is okay.)  Sprinkle the dry cake mix and pecans over the filling.  Drizzle with the melted butter.

Bake for 40-50 minutes or until filling is bubbly and topping is golden brown.  Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream if desired.

If you want to win the Lucky Leaf giveaway, here’s what you need to do (you have five entries for chances to win)---

Leave me a comment on this post after visiting the Lucky Leaf Cherry Pie Filling Recipes and tell me which recipe you’d try first.

Like Baking and Boys! on Facebook.  Come back and tell me you did or if you already do, let me know in a separate comment.

Like Lucky Leaf on Facebook.  Come back and tell me in another comment that you did.

Follow Lucky Leaf on Pinterest.  Come back and tell me in another comment that you did.

Follow Lucky Leaf on Twitter.  Come back and tell me in another comment that you did.  #LuckyLeafLuckyMe

The contest is open to U.S. residents only and entries will be accepted until Sunday, November 18 at 7 p.m. CST. 

LET THE HOLIDAY BAKING BEGIN!  Lucky Leaf has lots of great ideas and recipes on their website and Pinterest pages!

Lofthouse Sugar Cookies—12 Weeks of Christmas Treats

I have found my new favorite sugar cookie.  You know those grocery store, Lofthouse style cookies?  The big, thick ones with lots of frosting and usually sprinkles.  Those are the ones.  I recently found a recipe for them that I think is great.  I actually don’t remember the last time I ever ate one of those grocery store cookies—25 years ago, maybe?  But who doesn’t love a good sugar cookie?  And I particularly like them soft, not crunchy. 

I recently hosted a baby shower for a neighbor and got it in my head while trying to think of things to make for it, that I wanted to make cute, little button sugar cookies, but soft and thick.  That was when I found this recipe and made them for the first time.  That was about two weeks ago and I’ve now made the cookies three times.

Cute, huh?  While I was frosting them, I started with the pink ones.  Kevin came in the room and I asked him if he knew what they were supposed to be.  Yeah, you’ll probably guess what he said.

If you guessed that he said pig noses, you’d be right.  And then from then on, I even had a hard time seeing the cute “buttons”.  Oh well, they looked cute on the plate and for the shower, all the pink, yellow and blue pig noses.  (eyeroll, sigh)

Then, Taylor’s birthday was last week and he had some friends over for a zombie party.  Suppose I must brag about one of my creations again (though I’ve already done so on Facebook).  Just want to keep it for remembrance and posterity, you know. ;)  Taylor wanted a zombie pinata.  Yeah.  You try to find one.  I looked and couldn’t even find anything Halloween related—no ghosts, pumpkins, nothing.  So—look at this—I drew one and put it on a different pinata that I bought.

Free hand drew that guy from looking at the smaller picture.  Taylor didn’t want his brain sticking out.  I was happy with how it turned out—on the Hello Kitty pinata I got.  You couldn’t tell, could you?  Until I told you, now you see it.  Taylor made us all swear we wouldn’t tell his friends that it was originally a Hello Kitty pinata.  Here’s what we did for the back.

Anyway, back to the cookies.  For the party, we also made zombie cookies.  Each of the boys got to pick out chocolate eyeballs, plastic teeth, noses (Skittles) and put red icing (blood) gel on their cookie.  So again, I made the Lofthouse cookies and cut them in about 3  1/2 inch circles.

Parker’s cookie won for the grossest, with the eye hanging out.  The Lofthouse cookies were perfect and the boys had fun with them.

 

Today I decided to make the cookies again to share them here for the 4th week of the 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats.  So I had fun making some 2  1/2 inch round cookies with white frosting and some green, red, and white sprinkles.  A bunch of them are in the freezer (unfrosted) ready for another use sometime soon.

Lofthouse Sugar Cookies, adapted by Katrina, Baking and Boys!—don’t know where original recipe started, I adapted it quite a bit

1 cup (200 grams) granulated sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup (120 grams) light sour cream (you can use regular, but I never do, always use light)

2  3/4 cups (330 grams) all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

In the bowl of a mixer, cream together the sugar and butter.  Add the egg, vanilla and sour cream and beat on high speed for a couple minutes.  Scrape the sides of the bowl.

In a medium size bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Add the dry ingredients to the cream mixture and beat on low just until combined.  Put the dough in an airtight container and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.  (Can also refrigerate the dough for a couple days, if necessary.) 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.  Roll the dough out on a floured surface—not too thin, at least 1/4 inch thick, maybe between 1/4-1/2 inch.  Cut with shaped cookie cutters and lay each cookie on the baking sheets.  Bake for 10-12 minutes until cookies just look dry on the tops.  Let cool on the baking sheet for a couple minutes.  Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.  Frost the cookies and add sprinkles, if desired.

I don’t have a specific vanilla frosting recipe, I actually just kind of make it up as I go—Couple of cups of powdered sugar, some butter, a pinch of salt, some vanilla and cream/milk—beat in the mixer until it is the desired consistency.  Sorry, I often don’t measure.  I didn’t with the white frosting for these cookies.  Here is a link for a great buttercream frosting recipe that I have used before for cakes and it is similar to what I end up getting when I make up my own. ;)  http://savorysweetlife.com/2010/03/buttercream-frosting/

You can find out about the 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats on our host, Brenda’s blog, Meal Planning Magic and check out all the other treats this week—we’re at week 4, can you believe it—counting down the 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats.  Don’t freak out yet! ;)