Zesty Cook » Baked Goods

Cookie Me Up: Sweet & Salty

zesty — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 13:30:42 +0000

Happy Friday to you! Another week gone by and it is Friday the 13th. Good luck for some bad luck for others.. lets hope for some good luck. So let me start into a little story behind these cookies. A while back we attended a benefit dance/bake sale on for a colleague of Mrs. Zesty and well of course I get somewhat excited when I hear bake sale. We chatted about it and tried to come up with some fun ideas on what to bring to the “table”.

It turns out we came up with a few ideas:

Double Chocolate Chunk Brownies
Toffee Bit Chocolate Cookies
Sweet & Salty Cookies

As you can guess from the title of the post I decided to share the Sweet & Salty morsels of goodness. These fellas were delicious ( I had to taste test just to ensure quality). Packed with pretzels, m&m, smarties and a few potato chips… I could eat these all day. Super easy to make and check out my packaging idea(s) – Mrs. Zesty really thinks I am a bit over the top sometimes. Ha! We sold each for for $40. Totally joking… not even sure what the amount was but I had fun making them.

Ingredients

1 Cup unsalted butter
3/4 Cup Granulated white sugar
3/4 Cup Brown sugar
2 Eggs
1 Tsp. Vanilla
2 1/3 Cups All-purpose flour
1 Tsp. Baking soda
3/4 Tsp. Salt
1 Cup chopped candy coated pieces
1 Cup crushed or jumbled savoury snacks such as pretzels and potato chips

Method

In a large bowl, beat butter, and both sugars until fluffy.
Beat in eggs, one at a time; beat in vanilla
Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt; stir into butter mixture.
Stir in candy and crumbled snacks.
Drop balls onto parchment paper- lined baking sheets
Bake in oven at 350 degrees for about 10-12 minutes rotating the pan halfway through.

Makes about 30 cookies
ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: Make these cookies ahead and store in an air tight container for up to 3 days. Good luck having them last that long.

Alright, I hope you have a great start to the weekend and I really hope you give these cookies a try. I think we can call these cookies…. “clean out your pantry with whatever goodies you have cookies”. I will talk to you all on Monday.

Take care

zesty

A New Year Blueberry Muffin

zesty — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 13:45:37 +0000

Momma zesty has baked her fair share of blueberry muffins and all of them inspire this post. I love blueberries and as you likely heard before anything like “bread” I adore. Some years when I was smaller we would pick and freeze blueberries in the summer, then take them out of the freezer and jam as many blueberries as we could in each muffin. For this batch, we bought some blueberries off a local organic farmer and went too work – minus my mom.

There is nothing better than a warm soft muffin from the oven with a pat of butter the top. YUM. These are simple to make and pay close attention to the tip at the bottom. I made many a “tough” muffin in my day until I realized the science behind flour.

Ingredients

2 1/2 Cups All Purpose Flour
2 Tbsp. Baking Powder
1 Tsp. Nutmeg
1/2 Tsp. Salt
4 Eggs
1 Cup Brown sugar
1 Cup Milk
1 Cup melted butter
1 Tbsp. Vanilla
2 Cups Blueberries, frozen or fresh
1/4 Cup White sugar

Method

Preheat oven to 400 F. Light oil or butter the cups and top surface of a standard 12 – muffin pan
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, nutmeg and salt. In a separate bowl add the eggs, brown sugar, milk, butter and vanilla.
Pour the wet into the dry mixture. Stir together with a few quick strokes until a lump batter forms.
Spoon the mixture into the muffin cups and top with some white sugar.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean after insertion.
Rest on a rack for a few minutes. Serve with butter and your favorite liquid.
ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: Beating a batter until a form of smoothness develops strong gluten in the flour. This will cause your muffins to be tough. By just applying a few strokes and leaving the batter lumpy, this will allow the muffins to be tender.

Can you believe it is 2012? The time is flying but all we can do is embrace it. If you are a regular reader of zesty, sit back and get ready for some interesting happenings for 2012 and if you are new to the zesty world.. welcome aboard. No need to fasten your seat belt, we operate pretty slow and safe but hang in there and have fun.

I will be back on Wednesday with … well I don’t know yet. Depends on what I cook in the next couple of days.

Take care

zesty

Super Star Sugar Cookies

zesty — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 12:00:12 +0000

Hi ALl, I have a repost for today. Just traveling back home from Philly this morning and I really didn’t have much time to prepare anything new and fun. The conference was very busy but enjoyable, however looking to get back home to see the little turkies and Mrs. Zesty. Enjoy the sugar cookies and I will see you on Monday.

Do you like cookies? I love them and these may be the best darn sugar cookies you ever sunk your teeth, gums or dentures into. Now I can not take full credit as it is my Mom’s recipe but when these sugar cookies are cooked right – these are definitely super star cookies.

These sugar cookies are not difficult to make and I love how chewy they are. Have these along side a tall chilled glass of milk and you’ll never turn back!

Ingredients

1 1/2 Cups butter, softened
2 Cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 Tsp. vanilla extract
5 Cups all-purpose flour
2 Tsp. baking powder
1 Tsp. salt

Method

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth.
Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt.
Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour.
Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick.
Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter.
Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven.
Cool completely.

Zesty Tip: When asked to preheat your oven in the recipe, ensure you follow those directions and do not start the baking process before the oven is preheated.

Things are looking up. I hope you have a great day and let me know what you think of these cookies.

Take care

zesty

Special Delivery: Blueberry Zucchini Cake

zesty — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 13:00:56 +0000

Happy Friday! I have a blueberry cake craving and I thought I would give the zesty-in law a subtle hint just in case she is reading this…. It would be nice if she was to make this cake again. I still remember this cake to the very day. Moist, flavorful and and a great texture. I was lying on the couch last night I thought of blueberry baked goods and this is the first one that came to mind.

Do I have a post for you today? Well of course I do. This is not just any post, this recipe is brought to you by a “zesty in-law” created for a birthday celebration recently. I am pretty excited to share this recipe with you because I love both zucchini and blueberries… so I knew this was going to be a huge success.

But before we go to far into the cake details, you have to focus on the crumble top. It was so gooooood.

Ingredients

3 Eggs lightly beaten
3/4 Cup Vegetable Oil
3 Tsp. Vanilla Extract
2 Cups White Sugar
1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
3 Cups shredded zucchini
3 Cups All purpose flour
1 Tsp. Salt
1 Tsp. Baking Powder
1/4 Tsp. Baking Soda
1 Tbsp. Ground Cinnamon
1 Pint Fresh Blueberries
Sprinkle of Nutmeg

Crumb Topping

2/3 Cup Flour
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 Cup Softened Butter

Method

Preheat oven to 350 Degrees
Lightly grease Bundt Pan

In large bowl, beat together the eggs, oil, vanilla and sugar.

Fold in zucchini. Beat in flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon.

Gently fold in blueberries and move to pan

For the crumb topping, mix the ingredients with your hands and sprinkle over the top of the loaf pan.

Bake 55 minutes in the preheated oven or until a knife inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

Cool 20 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack
ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: Now as you noticed in the title, I called this a cake – which indeed it was. However if you would like to make it in loaf pans and call it “bread” I am fine with that as well.

So, I have to come clean. The night of the birthday I had two really large pieces of this cake with Vanilla ice cream and could not get enough of it. On the way home from the party we were given a big slab to take home. Once home I quickly got into that and had another piece. I am seriously suggesting if you like the ingredients in the above mentioned recipe… you so have to make this cake and tell me about it. I am so confident you will love it! Thanks again zesty in-law! It was delicious.

Next week I am on the road in Atlanta but I will be posting from the Georgia peach. I hope you have a great weekend and stay warm if it is cold, stay dry if it wet and if you are really hot… than I am totally jealous.

Take care

zesty

Finally A Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookie

zesty — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 14:00:27 +0000

The finally portion of this post title is for me. I have been telling myself what feels like years that I am going to make a gluten free cookie to share with you and my family. Finally the time has come where I did it and I was totally surprised by the results. Not that I thought they would taste terrible but I was not expecting that they would be this yummy.

To put it in perspective, they lasted 3 hours and 15 minutes. zesty juniors, Mrs zesty and a couple of zesty in laws popped over after the cookies made their way out of the oven and every one gave the thumbs up. I had to improvise slightly with the recipe as I found it was a little dry prior to adding the chips. That is when I went with the yogurt addition. As I said earlier, the results were very positive.

When I took them out of the oven I was a bit skeptical. They were very delicate and I thought maybe I made them too thin. Zesty junior was the first tester and my biggest critic. His face said it all and as he placed the cookie on the counter and immediately placed “two” thumbs up – I knew we had a winner.

I am not gloating by any stretch but I seriously suggest to try these cookies. For the recipe, I had put a number of recipes together based on the ingredients I had on hand. In the end I used this recipe as a guide and modified a few ingredients based on taste and added in the yogurt.

Ingredients

1/2 Cup butter (softened)
11/4 Cup rice flour
1/2 Cup white sugar
1/2 Cup packed brown sugar
3 Tbsp. Plain Yogurt
1 egg
1/2 Tsp. Baking soda
1/2 Tsp. Baking powder
1 Bag chocolate chips

Method

In a bowl beat butter,flour, sugars, egg, baking soda and powder with an electric mixer until well blended.
Add yogurt and mix until thoroughly combined.
Add in chocolate chips and mix with a fork.

Drop onto an ungreased cookie sheet ( makes about 24 normal size cookies – I made 16 ) I also flattened them down a little so they would be thin and chewy.

Bake at 375 for 6-8 minutes or until lightly browned.
ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: I added sliced almonds to the second batch and made them slightly larger. They puffed up slightly higher but still had the soft texture. The almonds added a nice crunch and texture. In the future, if no one was looking I would add the almonds every time.

Have a super Wednesday! I cannot believe the week is half over already. Stay tuned on Friday as I announce the final arrangements for the Disney World trip and a very special thanks to a fellow blogger. Talk to you on Friday.

Take care

zesty

It’s Baking Day!

zesty — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 14:00:05 +0000

Happy Monday to you! It is a scattered holiday throughout North America today with presidents Day in the US, family day in some parts of Canada and Islander day at home here in PEI. With that said, I have deemed it baking day! We have 3 items on the agenda to tackle this morning and I am excited. Gluten free chocolate chip cookies, lemon blueberry muffins and possibly a homemade biscotti recipe will round out the morning.

Before I rush off and get elbow deep in rice and almond flour, I wanted to share a few photos to get your taste buds going of some past baking times with zesty. I hope you enjoy and be sure to check back in on Wednesday for the results.

Zesty’s Baking Past

Have a great Monday, enjoy the weather if you can and I will see you mid week for some delicious fun.

Take care

zesty

Would You Like A Snicker Bar Cookie?

zesty — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 13:00:14 +0000

Middle of the week…. Middle of Christmas vacation…. Middle of a cookie with snicker bar….. Oh My! Hey How are you? Time is flying by but I am having a relaxing and fun time home for the holidays. I have to say I am not even on the computer nearly as much as normal despite having a lot of work to do for clients. But this time of the year is time to recharge and get the battery pack full for 2011.

So I wanted to try a new cookie for a holiday event last week and I did a combination of a snicker ball surprise and a cookie. Were they the best cookie ever made…. No not at all. Were they good? Yes they were!

Below is the lowdown on how I came up with this cookies.

Ingredients

1/2 Cup Butter
3/4 Cup Sugar
1 Egg
1 1/3 Cup Flour
1/2 Tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 Tsp. Salt
1/2 Tsp. Vanilla
2 SNICKERS® (cut in sm. pieces)
1/3 Cup Dark Chocolate (Chopped)

Method

Cream butter and sugar until smooth.

Beat in egg.

Stir in other ingredients.

Chill and drop by teaspoon on greased cookie sheet.

Bake in 375 degree oven about 10 minutes.
ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: This cookies need to be soft! Do Not Overcook. Add a slice of bread to the storage container as well to keep these cookies soft. It really works!

OK, there you have a quick simple cookie for everyone to enjoy. The one negative fact about this cookie besides the fact that it is not great for your hips is that by cutting up the cookie I find that you spread out the taste of the SNICKERS bar and my taste buds were lost. The cookies were good and I think you should try them but I think a better option would be to wrap the cookie dough around bite size pieces of snicker bars…. similar to the snicker ball recipe.

Have a super Wednesday.

Take care

zesty

Soft Chewy Ginger Cookies w/ Molasses

zesty — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 12:00:08 +0000

I love any cookies that have molasses in them and these soft, chewy ginger cookies are no exception! I don’t know what my issues have been as of late but I feel I am hooked on SWEETS. It is crazy and normally I am just hooked on potato chips, french fries and double cheese burgers. Haha kidding…. maybe! Ok so as I type this post I am still reeling from the fact that as I was driving home last night – I get pulled over by the cops for speeding. Grrrrrrrr. Anyway my own fault as I was driving pretty fast and well over the speed limit. But what a way to dampen your day!

Let’s lift our spirits with a soft chewy ginger cookie. Usually when you eat these, I recommend 2-3 per serving and a heaping glass of chilled white milk. YUM!

Ingredients

1 1/4 Cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 Tsp. ground ginger
1/2 Tsp. baking soda
1/2 Tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 Tsp. ground cloves
1/4 Tsp. ground nutmeg
1/8 Tsp. allspice
1/3 Cup butter, softened
1/2 Cup sugar
1 Egg
2 Tbsp. molasses
2 Tbsp. white sugar (for rolling cookies)

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a medium mixing bowl, blend flour, baking soda and spices together and set aside.
In another bowl, cream together butter and 1/2 cup of sugar until fluffy. Beat in egg until well mixed. Then add the molasses and mix to combine.
Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture.
Using rounded teaspoonfuls (or not quite full tablespoons), form dough into balls and roll them in the extra 2 tablespoons of sugar.
Place cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet, lightly flatten and bake in preheated oven for 8 to 10 minutes.
Allow to cool on cookie sheet for about 5 minutes before removing to wire rack to cool completely.
ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: The rolling in white sugar really adds a nice dimension of both flavor and texture to these cookies. Whatever you do – do not skimp on this step. You will be disappointed if you do.

I need some ideas on what to write for the Christmas edition of the G! magazine. I was thinking a fun gum drop cheese cake recipe, some sticky date pudding but I need a third recipe. Any ideas? Have a super Friday and a fun weekend.

Take care

zesty

An Oatmeal Raisin Cookie To Remember

zesty — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 12:00:09 +0000

Help The Students Event: Day 22

Welcome to the finale of Help The Students Event. For the final post, I wanted to share with you a little treat. Nothing over the top, but one of my all time favorite type of cookie – Oatmeal Raisin. Who loves oatmeal raisin cookies? My hand is way up in the air right now and I bouncing in my chair for you to see me. These cookies go down the hatch like water on a hot summer day. I normally eat 5-6 in a sitting with frequent sittings until the batch is gone.

Do you bake cookies and store them in the freezer? I attempted that game plan but failed miserably as all I had left after they cooled were 4 cookies. Whether you are home, in an apartment or a dorm room on campus, this cookies are quick, simple and fun to make. You will not be disappointed with the results. Give them a try.

Ingredients

3 Eggs, well beaten
1 Cup Raisins
1 Tsp. Vanilla extract
1 Cup White sugar
2 1/2 Cup flour
1/2 Tsp. Salt
1 Cup Butter
1 Cup Brown sugar
2 Tsp. Baking soda
1 1/2 Cup Oatmeal

Method

Preheat oven at 350 degrees.
Combine eggs, raisins, & vanilla and let stand for 1 hour, covered w/ plastic wrap.
Cream together butter and sugars and then add flour, salt, and baking soda to sugar mixture; mix well.
Blend in egg-raisin mixture, oatmeal.
Drop by using a teaspoon onto ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake at 350 for 9 – 10 minutes. Let cool on a rack for 10-15 minutes.
ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: There really are two tricks to creating this amazing cookie. Do not over bake and to ensure the soaking of the raisins. If you do not have time to soak the raisins – that is OK and the recipe will still be fine. By soaking you plump up the raisins and make them much juicier thus a moister cookie.

HELP THE STUDENTS EVENT: WRAP-UP

I first want to thank everyone who participated in the event by talking to me and sending me their tips, recipes to share with everyone. I think it was a resounding success from my side of the fence and I will definitely doing something similar in the future. Before we wrap up today I thought it would be fun to give you a little recap of where you can find all the recipes that made up this successful event.

For all the recipes and ideas you can go to the Help The Students Event category and thumb through the recipes. Have a super Thursday and I will see you tomorrow for a wrap up of a fun week.

Take care

zesty

Oh Yummy Cream Cheese Gumdrop Cake!

zesty — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:00:56 +0000

Good morning, good evening or goodnight…. depending of course on when you are reading this delicious post. We had a very productive weekend – lots of things are happening. We completed the back splash in the kitchen, and the painter put the final two coats of verathane on the stairs (they look amazing). We then emptied half of the storage trailer into the basement/garage and we even did some Christmas shopping.

I am not going to show you any more pictures until the final reveal next week. We are so close to being complete I can hardly stand it. We have professional cleaners coming in on Wednesday to do a thorough cleaning from top to bottom. Once everything is complete I will do a whole post dedicated to the house so stay tuned.

On to the Food

I am pretty sure you are going to like today’s post. It resembles some more Christmas baking like the fudge but this cake can be made year around for your enjoyment. I can pretty much eat this cake in large chunks throughout the day but I have issues.

As you will see in the recipe below – I think the key ingredient is the cream cheese. It keeps it moist and the texture soft. It is quite simple to make and you do not necessarily need to use a bundt pan if you do not have one. You can just use a large loaf pan.

Ingredients

1 Cup Butter
1 1/2 Cups White Sugar
4 Oz. Cream cheese, softened
4 Eggs
1/2 Cup Milk
3 Cups White All Purpose Flour
2 Tsp. Baking Powder
1 Tsp. Salt
1 Tsp. Vanilla, almond and lemon flavoring
1 lb. Gum Drops ( the baking ones)
1 Cup Flavored Cherries ( optional )

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Cream together butter, sugar and cream cheese and then beat in eggs one at a time.
Add flavoring; sift in dry ingredients, saving 1/2 cup of flour for gum drops and cherries.
Add dry ingredients and milk into previously creamed mixture; stir in gum drops and cherries
Transfer to bundt or loaf pan.
Bake at 350 degrees for 1 1/4 Hours.

ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: By adding the half cup of flour to the gum drops and cherries it will prevent them from sticking together and staying in clumps throughout the cake.

Well – I only have a partial week at the office this week as I am taking off Friday and the following Monday for moving and getting settled in to the new pad. I hope you have a great start to your week and I will talk to you tomorrow.

Take care

zesty