Desserts

Lemon Blueberry Cookie Pizza

Dear Sis,

William loves to help in the kitchen. He was able to make this with very little help.

The recipe was inspired by one I found in the Taste of Home: Almost Homemade 2013 cookbook, I recently picked up at our local little free library.

Lemon Blueberry Cookie Pizza

Print Recipe
Course Dessert
Servings 12

Ingredients
  

  • 1 (16.5 oz) pkg. refrigerated sugar cookie dough
  • 1 (8 oz) pkg. cream cheese soft
  • 1 (5.3 oz) tub lemon yogurt
  • 2 T powdered sugar
  • 1-2 c fresh blueberries

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 350. Press dough into a 12 inch round baking pan. Bake 15-18 minutes. Cool completely. Slice cookie.
  • Beat together cheese, yogurt, and sugar. Spread over sliced cookie. Top with berries. Serve. Chill leftovers.

Although any round cake, pie, or pie plate will do the trick, a tart pan creates a lovely fluted edge and makes for easy serving. We only had a 9 inch tart pan on hand, so we removed about a 1/4 c of dough and used it. In hindsight, we could have halved the icing, for the smaller cookie crust:)

Love,

b

Forth Night of Hannukah 2020

Dear Sis,

William got a good old fashioned metal top I found a Menards. It took him the better part of the day to master it, but he thinks it is great! Much easier than our dreidel:)

Charlotte got a Montessori horizontal dowel, but we quickly discovered she isn’t quite ready for it yet.

Linda, the mother of my best friend, Cindy, dating all the way back to middle school, sent William some holiday stickers. He made this skating scene and decided to mail it to Gran:)

William and I started making cookies during nap time and it took the ENTIRE rest of the day to complete! Plus them had to dry over night. Royal icing is tricky, and I still haven’t practiced enough, so they aren’t perfect… lol.

For anyone else who dreads a messy menorah, I recommend beeswax candles, they are a bit more pricy, but they do drip much less. Also, I finally learned to put one of my silicone baking mats underneath. The wax just flakes off over the trash easily!

Book of the Night

All-of-a-Kind Family Hanukkah By Emily Jenkins

Based on the All-of-a-Kind Family book series by Sydney Taylor

This book is set at the turn of the century, so a bit of history is mixed into a very relatable family story. William really related to the youngest daughter, who is also four. 

Happy Hanukkah!

Love,

b

Amelia Bedelia’s Sheet Cake

Dear Sis,

We read Amelia Bedelia Bakes Off by Herman Parish. William is just starting to be familiar enough with language to catch the humor in books like this. There was a recipe in the back of the book, so naturally we needed to make it:)

Chocolate Frosting: We melted a stick of salted butter, stirring in 1/4 c of cocoa powder, and added 2 1/2 or 3 cups of powdered sugar, thinning with 1 T heavy cream when the stirring got too hard:) It is the best chocolate cake I’ve had in years!!! What a pleasant surprise!

Love,

b

Perfect Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Dear Sis,

I’ve been hunting for the perfect Oatmeal Raisin Cookie recipe for a long time. Today, I found it!!!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Margin Making Mom
Print Recipe
Servings 3 dozen

Ingredients
  

  • 1 cup unsalted butter soft
  • 1 c dark brown sugar
  • 1/2 c sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 2 t vanilla extract
  • 3/4 t salt
  • 1 t baking powder
  • 1 t baking soda
  • 1 t cinnamon
  • 1 c old fashion oats
  • 2 c unbleached flour
  • 2 c raisins

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 350.
  • Cream together butter and sugars. Beat in eggs and vanilla.
  • Stir in dry ingredients. Fold in raisins.
  • Drop spoonful onto cookie sheets and bake 10 minutes. Cool on sheets a few minutes before cooling completely on wire racks.

Josh was hesitant to try them. He loves oatmeal raisin cookies, but historically not mine! He wasn’t sure if he could take the pain of another disappointment:) I’m so glad to have another kind of cookie in the bag!

Love,

b

Other Perfect Cookies

Butter Cookies (Cut-outs)

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Gingerbread Cookies (Cut-outs)

Sugar Cookies/Snickerdoodles

Birthday Visitors

Dear Sis,

Mom arrived with her parents Thursday evening. We had a really great visit! I’ll share the highlights each day and the photos too:)

Friday, September 18th

The kids and I with Great Grandma

William and Daddy were checking out an eyelash with the new microscope William received from Granny Bob and P-Pop as a birthday gift.

We had a festive dinner for Rosh Hashanah. The family really enjoyed the challah🙂

Saturday, September 19th

Gran took the kids for a nice long morning walk, so I could work on Charlotte’s birthday Cake!

Brown Sugar Peach Cake

Print Recipe
Servings 12

Ingredients
  

Peach Jam

  • 4 c peaches peeled and diced
  • 1/4 c dark brown sugar packed
  • 2 T lemon juice
  • 1 T cornstarch

Brown Sugar Cake

  • 1 1/2 c dark brown sugar packed
  • 3/4 c unsalted butter soft
  • 4 eggs
  • 3 T avocado oil
  • 1 t vanilla extract
  • 1 1/4 c whole milk
  • 2 1/2 c unbleached flour
  • 2 1/2 t baking powder
  • 1 t pumpkin pie spice
  • 1/2 t salt

Peach Mascarpone Frosting

  • 1 (8 oz) tub mascarpone cheese soft
  • 1/2 c salted butter soft
  • 1/3 c homemade peach jam
  • 4 c powdered sugar

Instructions
 

Peach Jam

  • Combine all ingredients in a sauce pan over medium high heat, simmer until soft. Mash and cook until thick. Chill.

Brown Sugar Cake

  • Preheat oven to 350. Grease three round cake pans and line bottoms with parchment.
  • Cream together sugar and butter. Beat in egg, one at a time. Stir in oil and vanilla.
  • In another bowl, wisk together dry ingredients. Add alternately with milk, to creamed mixture.
  • Pour batter between prepared pans. Bake 16-18 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

Peach Mascarpone Frosting

  • Cream together cheese and butter. Beat in jam. Beat in sugar, 1/2 c at a time.
  • Generously spread jam between each layer of cake. Frost. Garnish with fresh peach slices.

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You’re a Peach Party Favors

In the evening, our neighbors came over with their six month old to celebrate Charlotte’s first birthday with us. It was a very relaxed and wonderful evening:)

Sunday, September 20th

We spent the afternoon at the park. Gran cooked our hotdogs on her camp stove and we had a wonderful picnic. Afterward we walked half the mile loop… while William raced ahead on his bike. We concluded our visit with kite flying and time on the playscape. 

Monday, September 21st

Mom and her parents left this morning just before book club. We did an impromptu photoshoot:)

Love,

b

Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies

Dear Sis,

We used to make Strawberry Banana Bread every time we had over ripe bananas on hand, now we make these:

Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies

Creations by Kara adapted by b
Print Recipe
Course Dessert

Ingredients
  

  • 1/2 c salted butter softened
  • 1 c dark brown sugar packed
  • 1/4 c granulated sugar
  • 2 over-ripe bananas
  • 1/2 t baking powder
  • 1/2 t salt
  • 1 t baking soda
  • 1 T cornstarch
  • 1 T vanilla extract
  • 2 c unbleached flour
  • 1 11.5 oz pkg milk chocolate chips

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 375. Line baking sheets with parchment or silicone baking mats.
  • Beat together better and sugars. Beat in bananas. Beat in dry ingredients and vanilla. Fold in chips. Drop spoonfuls onto prepared baking sheets.
  • Bake 10 minutes. Cool on sheets 5 minutes before placing cookies on wire racks to cool completely. Store airtight between layers of parchment.
Keyword banana cookies, chocolate chip cookies

The batter is loose compared to other cookie doughs. I find that parchment causes less browning or caramelization than the silicone baking mats. I hope you enjoy these as much as we do!

Love,

b

Chocolate Chip Perfection

Dear Sis,

I didn’t know I needed a new chocolate chip cookie recipe, but one of my favorite vlog moms assured me I did. She was right!

Check out the video on the THE WADS Youtube Channel.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Print Recipe

Ingredients
  

  • 1 c salted buter softened
  • 3/4 c dark brown sugar packed
  • 1/4 c granulated sugar
  • 1 (3.4 oz) pkg instant vanilla pudding
  • 2 eggs beaten
  • 1 t vanilla extract
  • 1 t baking soda
  • 2 /14 c unbleached flour
  • 2 c milk chocolate chips

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 350.
  • Cream together butter, sugars, and pudding mix.
  • Beat in eggs and vanilla
  • Stir in dry ingredients.
  • Fold in chocolate chips.
  • Drop spoonfuls onto baking sheets and bake 10-12 minutes.

Love,

B

101 Cookies

Dear Sis,

A few months ago William found a huge tub of cookie cutters in a clearance bin for $2.50. He saw it in the basement last night and decided we needed to make cookies. He washed all the cookie cutters while I made Butter Cookie Dough. 

This morning we rolled out our dough and made a bunch of cut-out cookies! We frosted them and used them as our letter lesson for school that day:)

To get ride of the excessive cookies, we decided to make cookie plates to share with neighbors. We made some brownies and Cherry Cheesecake Cookie Cakes to add to our assortment. William is a social distancing cookie delivery pro:)

Cherry Chip Cheesecake Drop Cakes

b
Print Recipe
Servings 3 dozen

Ingredients
  

  • 1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese soft
  • 3 eggs beaten
  • 1 t vanilla extract
  • 1/2 c salted butter melted
  • 1 box Cherry Chip Cake Mix

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 350. Line baking sheets with parchment or silicone baking mats.
  • Cream together cheese, eggs, and extract.
  • Stir in melted butter.
  • Stir in cake mix until smooth.
  • Drop onto prepared baking sheets. Bake 10 minutes

Happy Mother’s Day!

Love,

b