Dec 22 2015 BAKING DAY

CHRISTMAS BAKING DAY

Care Box

Cookies:

Sugar Cookies
Spice Cake-Mix Cookies
Spritz Cookies
Gingerbread
Wedding Cookies
  






Sugar Cookies: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/sugar-cookies-recipe.html

Spritz Cookies
https://www.pamperedchef.com/recipe/Desserts/Other+Cuisines/Classic+Spritz+Cookies/87807
Use the above recipe. Sprinke with sprinkles or crystal sugar before baking.

Spritz Cookies

Gingerbread Men:

 http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/gingerbread-cookies-101-recipe.html 

Cake-Mix Cookies

1 box Cake Mix (any flavor, I'm using Spice cake)

1/3 cup butter, softened

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

 Cookie: Preheat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, mix cake mix, butter, vanilla and eggs with spoon until soft dough forms. On cookie sheets with parchment, drop dough using a leveled large scoop (3 tbsp scoop) 2 inches apart. Bake 7 to 10 minutes or until surface appears dry. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets to cooling rack. Cool completely.

Mexican Wedding Cookies http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/marcela-valladolid/polvorones-mexican-wedding-cookies.html

Breads:

Banana Bread
Apple Spice Bread
Grandma's Cinnamon Rolls

Grandma Long's rolls
Ingredients
1/2 + 1 tsp cup granulated sugar
1/2 warm water
2 (1/4 oz) packages or about 1/2 tsp total of dry active yeast
2 tsp salt
1/3 cup Crisco oil
1 cup water (not cold)
1 room temp egg, lightly beaten
4+ cups flour (2 cups All Purpose, and the rest Whole Wheat, if desired)
2 tbsp melted butter

Directions
Mix in a small bowl the warm water, sugar, and the yeast. Let this rest 5 minutes.

In a standing mixer (or large bowl), mix 1 cup water, sugar, salt, oil and butter. Add yeast mixture. Add 2 cups AP flour, mix in (on low) one cup at a time until the dough looks like pancake batter. On low, add in 1 cup wheat flour at a time until it forms a bread-looking dough and starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl.
Take the dough out of the bowl and form into to a ball. Set the ball in a large greased bowl. Cover. Let it rise for 1 hour - the dough should double in size. It is important that the room be warm for this, if your room is not warm for this place the bowl in front of a fire or heat the oven to 170F and then turn it off and place the bowl in the oven with the door open.
After the hour, knead dough for a couple of minutes to get the air out. Repeat these steps one time.
Then, you can roll the dough out and form rolls or form a loaf. The easiest way to form rolls is to roll it out to 1 inch thick, then cut into squares. Pick up the squares and roll in your hand to make round. Place on a greased baking sheet, with plenty room in between.
Bake 350F 20 minutes for rolls or 40 minutes - 1hour for a loaf or until golden brown.
This recipe can also be made into cinnamon rolls. Roll out to 1/4 inch thick rectangle. Sprinkle on brown sugar and cinnamon. Roll the dough into a long roll. Cut into rolls. Bake in a greased dish at 350F for 20-30 minutes.

Grandma Logsdon's Banana Bread
2 1/2 All Purpose Flour2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup brown sugar (this makes a very sweet bread, if you'd like yours a bit less sweet, cut b. sugar down to 3/4 cup)
1 cup mashed very ripe bananas 
1/2 chopped walnuts, if desired

Mix wet ingredients together until incorporated. In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients. Pour dry into wet, while mixing until incorporated. Pour into a greased loaf pan or muffin tins, and bake at 375F 1 hour for loaf or 20-30 minutes for muffins. The bread will be very dark on the out side, don't worry it's not burnt unless it's black! Let cool 10 minutes before slicing and enjoying. I like mine warm with a bit of butter!

APPLE VARIATION TO BREAD

Substitute bananas for shredded apples. Use all Granulated Sugar a instead of brown sugar. Add 1 tsp pumpkin pie spices.

Pies:

Apple
Raspberry

APPLE OR BERRY PIE:
2 Pie crust shells (recipe follows)3 cups berries (I like raspberries and blackberries best) OR 6 cups apples, cored and sliced
for apple pie: 1 tsp ground cinnamon and 1/2 tsp ground ginger,

1 cup granulated sugar for berries pie/for apple use brown sugar
1 tbsp corn starch
1 tbsp flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
Egg wash: 1 egg, 2 tbsp water beat together
In a large bowl, mix fruit with corn starch, flour and salt until the fruit is coated. Once fruit is coated. Add cinnamon, ginger and sugar to bowl. Mix. Mix in 1 tbsp vinegar. Place 1 crust shell in a 9 in pie dish. Pour mix in shell. Top with other shell. Cut slits in top crust to vent. Brush on egg wash. Bake 350F for 20-25 minutes or until crust is done and browning.
PIE CRUST

2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
6 tbsp butter
8 tbsp Crisco shortening
2 tsp white or apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp - 1/4 cup cold water
Using a fork or a pastry blender, mix butter, shortening, salt, and flour together until it looks like small beads. Add vinegar and 2 tbsp water and mix until dough forms. If it is too dry to mix add water, a tbsp at a time until it comes together. Roll into a ball, cover with plastic wrap, and let rest 20 minutes (can be refrigerated for up to 3 days). After resting, roll out into 2 circles for your pie.