Lemon-Ginger Drop Cookies

http://community.jeroxie.com/groups/cookbook-challenge/

The current Cookbook Challenge theme is baked. I chose to make cookies because they are what introduced me to the world of baking, when I was about 8 years old. Also, I already had all the ingredients on hand, and I really didn't want to go to the supermarket to buy anything, haha.
This recipe is from The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook, published in 2000. There are so many recipes in this cookbook that sound amazing, but this is the first one I've gotten around to making, mostly because a lot of the recipes call for expensive or hard-to-find ingredients or expensive equipment. This cookie recipe, however, contains only cheap ingredients! It does say to use a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, but I don't think that is necessary at all. The dough can easily be mixed by hand or with any kind of mixer with basic attachments.

8 tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter
3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar, plus more for sprinkling
1 large egg
1 tbsp grated lemon zest
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup finely chopped crystallized ginger

 Preheat the oven to 350F with two racks centered. Line two baking sheets with parchment; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl twice. Add the egg; mix on high speed to combine. Add the zest; mix to combine.


In a bowl, whisk together the flour, ground ginger, baking soda, salt, and crystallized ginger; add to the butter mixture; mix on medium-low speed to combine, about 20 seconds.

Using two spoons, drop about 2 teaspoons of the batter on the prepared baking sheet; repeat, spacing them 3 inches apart.

Bake for 7 minutes. Sprinkle the cookies with sugar, rotate the sheets between the oven racks, and bake until just golden, about 7 minutes more. Slide the parchment with the cookies on it onto a wire rack; let cool 15 minutes. Store in an airtight container up to 1 week.

Lemon Cloud Pie

http://community.jeroxie.com/groups/cookbook-challenge/

  

The current CookBook Challenge theme is American. I decided to do a recipe from Pillsbury's Best of the Bake-Off Cookbook (published in 1996), because the Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest is such a classic American event. This recipe for lemon cloud pie was a prize winner in the 11th Bake-Off in 1959 and was submitted by Shirley Ordiway of Jamesville, New York. 

Before we get to the recipe, I need to complain about this:

 This happens every time I make a one-crust pie with refrigerated dough. Do I just need a pie pan with shorter sides, or am I doing something wrong? I follow the directions so carefully. And if I make a filled pie, it turns out perfect. Oh well, it's rustic, right?

Anyway....

1 refrigerated pie crust (from 15-oz. package)

FILLING:

1 cup sugar

3 tbsp cornstarch

1 cup water

1/3 cup lemon juice

2 egg yolks, slightly beaten

1/2 (8-oz.) package (4-oz.) cream cheese, cubed, softened

1 to 2 teaspoons grated lemon peel

1/2 cup whipping cream

TOPPING:

1/2 cup whipping cream, whipped (with powdered sugar to taste)

Heat oven to 450F. Prepare pie crust according to package directions for one-crust baked shell using a 9-inch pie pan. Bake at 450F for 9 to 11 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool completely.

 In medium saucepan, combine sugar and cornstarch; mix well. Stir in water, lemon juice, and egg yolks.

Cook over medium heat until mixture thickens and boils, stirring constantly. Boil 1 minute.

Add cream cheese and lemon peel, stirring until cream cheese is melted and mixture is smooth. Cool to room temperature.

In large bowl, beat 1/2 cup whipping cream until soft peaks form; fold into lemon mixture. Spoon filling mixture evenly into cooled baked shell. Cover surface with plastic wrap; refrigerate 6 to 8 hours or overnight. Spoon or pipe whipped cream over filling. Garnish as desired. Store in refrigerator.

 So fancy.

When I was making the filling for this, I thought it was going to turn out as a slightly creamier lemon meringue pie without the meringue. It actually turned out creamier and fluffier than I thought it would. It was delicious, and I will definitely be making it again.

Cranberry-Orange Muffins

I have found my inspiration to post more often! As of last night, I'm taking part in The Cookbook Challenge. My blog focuses on recipes from cookbooks anyway, but now I have the fun of themes and deadlines with this. And I just love a challenge!

Today is the final day for the current theme, citrus, so I had to use what I had on hand. The only citrus fruit that I had was oranges, so I started searching through all my cookbooks looking for a good recipe that uses oranges, and I really couldn't come up with much. For some reason, if people want to make something that involves citrus, they pretty much only ever want to use lemons.

So I had to settle for a recipe that wasn't very citrus-y, being outshined by the cranberries, but still very good.

This is another recipe from Betty Crocker's New Cookbook, published in 1996.

1 tbsp grated orange peel

1 cup milk

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 large egg

2 cups all-purpose or whole wheat flour

1/3 cup sugar

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup fresh cranberry halves

Note: I felt that these could have been sweeter, so you might want to increase the sugar slightly.

I honestly had no idea what the inside of a cranberry looked like before today.

Beat orange peel, milk, oil, vanilla, and egg in large bowl. Stir in flour, sugar, baking powder and salt all at once just until flour is moistened (batter will be lumpy).

Fold in cranberry halves.

Heat oven to 400F. Grease bottoms only of 12 medium muffin cups or line with paper baking cups. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups.

(This is what overstirred muffin batter looks like. I decided at the last moment to add a little bit of cinnamon, and stirring that in made the batter a lot less lumpy.)

Bake 20-25 minutes or until golden. Immediately remove from pan to wire rack.