Rugelach - My favorite Holiday Cookie

Rugelach is my favorite holiday cookie. The dough turns out incredibly flaky and moist filled with cinnamon and nuts (raisins optional). Just be careful too cook them long enough in the middle to be fully cooked. I used to make circles, then roll them like croissants, but found they don't cook as evenly as cylinders.

Ingredients:
Dough
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup butter, cubed
1 - 8 oz package cream cheese
1/3 cup sour cream
Filling
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tblspn cinnamon
1 cup finely ground walnuts
1/2 cup raisins (optional)

Servings:
about 30 cookies

Instructions:
In mixer cream butter and sugar, then cream cheese, eggs, salt, sour cream, and last flour. If it's too wet to handle you could add more flour, but it will be a sticky dough. Adding too much flour will make it a tougher cookie. Chill if it is too difficult to roll out.


Flour the work surface and the dough if needed. Roll out in a cylinder and top with the filling. Press filling lightly into the dough. Begin rolling the cylinder from one end, about 3 times. Cut along the cylinder and set aside. Keep rolling and cutting till it is all rolled. Then cut each cylinder every 1-2 inches. Place each cookies an inch apart on parchment paper. Bake a few cookies to start to get the baking time down (open up to check center is done). Depending on home much you rolled it they can bake from 20-35 minutes. Luckily, this is a forgiving dough and the sugar is the first thing that will burn on the bottom of the cookie. If you find you can't cook the center without burning the bottom, lower baking temp or roll thinner. Cool and store in airtight container.



Recipe Modified From:
Allrecipes.com

Heaven - aka Nutella Swiss Buttercream Frosting and Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

Two recipes here. One for "Heaven" frosting which is a swiss buttercream frosting; ideal for those who hate the sugary buttercream frostings almost all cakes have. When I added Nutella, I literally cried out "Heaven," hence the name. The other is for ice cream cone cupcakes - cake baked in an ice cream cone. The picture above is of a cake I made for 3 friends' 30th birthday party (myself included). The cake is made out of structural elements inside and Little Debbie and Hostess goodies outside. The top layer is actually a spice cake covered in the Nutella Swiss Buttercream. Spice cake was forgettable, but the frosting was "Unforgettable... That's what you are. So unforgettable..."

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
4 large egg whites
26 tablespoons butter,
softened (3 sticks plus 2 tablespoons)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup nutella

Recipe for the Ice Cream Cupcakes below (soooo easy!)

Servings:
For a 9-inch cake (plus filling, or some to spare)

Instructions:
Whisk egg whites and sugar together in a big metal bowl over a pot of simmering water. Whisk occasionally until you can'€™t feel the sugar granules when you rub the mixture between your fingers. Transfer mixture into the mixer and whip until it turns white and about doubles in size. Add the vanilla. Add the butter slowly a couple cubes at a time and whip, whip, whip. It may look curdled at one point, but keep whipping until all the butter is added. Then taste. Lick fingers clean. Taste again. Add the cup of Nutella. Whip. Taste. Tell the guests to go away the frosting is all yours. Threaten them with the licked clean spatula. Call a help line, you have a problem...

Recipe Modified From:
Smitten Kitchen" for full instructions. Some people report this was tricky to make, but it came together so easy for me. I had never made swiss buttercream before and had some Nutella I wanted to use up before moving. I searched for a frosting I thought would have a similar consistency and handle adding Nutella to it. Little did I know how wonderfully this frosting would come out even without the Nutella. Adding the Nutella just took it over the top - hence the name "Heaven." If you don't have to ice shapes on your cake, you just need to add more deliciousness, I would recommend swiss buttercream frosting above any other (unless it has to sit out in the sun - it is mostly butter after all).



Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

Ingredients:
One box mix and necessary ingredients (I used red velvet for the holidays)
One box of ice cream cones (yes those cheap flavorless ones...)
One batch Nutella Swiss Buttercream Frosting

Put ice cream cones into a high sided pan (so they can't fall over when you move the pan). Mix together box mix cake with needed ingredients. Pour batter into ice cream cones about 3/4 full. Too full and they will run over. Bake according to cupcake cooking times. When done pull out and cool. Frost. Decorate. Easy and delicious!

I was so shocked as a young teen the first time I had these. It was amazing to me that you could bake cake in the ice cream cones and it comes out better than either of the two alone. I was glad to find out the other day that others have similar reactions when a group of friends had them for the first time. Need to make cupcakes for a class, want less mess? Try these!

Ginger Glazed Beef Short Ribs or Shanks

Short ribs are all the rage now, but I find that using beef shanks results in a lot less greasy fat with the same amount of flavor and shanks are usually a very cheap cut of meat. Any stew meat should work in this recipe. While I did not end up with a glaze, I did end up with a very flavorful sauce (lick the bowl clean!) and tender meat (fall off the bone) with gingerized vegetables (yes I am inventing words now). The vegetable soaked up a lot of the ginger flavor and were a real treat. Enjoy my adaptation.

Ingredients:
2 cups dry red wine
4-5 pounds bone-in beef short ribs, cut into individual ribs
1 tsp salt
1 head garlic (I used roasted garlic)
5 large fresh shiitake mushrooms (I skipped this)
1 large onions, peeled and quartered
1 cup baby carrots
2 inches fresh ginger, grated
8 allspice berries, freshly ground
2 tsp cinnamon
12 sprigs fresh thyme or other herbs on hand
3 cups low-sodium chicken stock
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

Instructions:
Put all ingredients in a crockpot and let cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours. The original recipe called for beef short ribs, but I find these too fatty and the grease needs to be skimmed off. Using beef shank, there is a lot less fat and just as much flavor. When completely cooked, pull meat out and strain the liquids. My vegetables were still crisp (not mush like most long cooked stews) so I retained those and served them with dinner.
Take the liquid and reduce significantly in a pot till sauce thickens. Add cornstarch or flour if you want to make a gravy but I enjoyed it as a nice sauce with some crusty bread to mop it up.

I reduced my liquids down to about 2 cups of liquid and it could have reduced more. Since I used too much vinegar the first time, I added a ¼ cup of brown sugar to cut the acidity. This liquid was supposed to make a glaze for the meat (if braised) and I thought adding the sugar would help make it into a glaze. But after reducing the liquid and braising the meat in the oven for a while it did more to dry the top layer of meat than to create a glaze. So, I will skip this step in the future and just serve the reduced liquid over the crockpot cooked meat.

Serves 5-6.

Nutritional Information:
Estimated using Recipe Calculator

Amount Per Serving
Calories 589.6
Total Fat 15.1 g
Saturated Fat 5.5 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 1.0 g
Monounsaturated Fat 6.4 g
Cholesterol 218.0 mg
Sodium 697.2 mg
Potassium 1,895.2 mg
Total Carbohydrate 8.6 g
Dietary Fiber 1.2 g
Sugars 2.0 g
Protein 87.7 g

Recipe Modified From:
Kitchen Konfidence

Cream Cheese Stuffed Pumpkin Monkey Bread

The perfect fall breakfast or dessert! Sweat sugar and butter combine to make a sticky coating on fluffy pumpkin bread bursting with cream cheese. Best served a little warm but still excellent cold.

Ingredients:
Pumpkin Yeast Bread
1/2 cup warm water
2 Tbsp SAF instant yeast or 2 packets of rapid rise yeast
2/3 cup warm (NOT HOT) whole milk (or 2%)
2 large eggs, beaten
1-1/2 cups canned pumpkin (This is *almost* the entire 15oz can. I was tempted to just use it all. If you do, you'll just need to adjust the amount of flour needed.)
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1/2 heaping tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/4 - 1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp nutmeg
4 cups bread flour
2+ cups whole wheat flour

Filling*
8oz (1 pkg) cream cheese
1 cup powdered sugar
1 heaping tsp cinnamon
*May need to double, see notes*

Coating*
1/3 pumpkin bread dough
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
dash nutmeg
any other spices you like - ginger, cloves, cardamom - go crazy
1 stick butter, melted
*May need to double, see notes*

Servings: One large bundt pan

Instructions:

Pumpkin Yeast Bread
In bowl of stand mixer, add 4 cups of bread flour, yeast, salt, spices. Mix until blended. Add water, milk, eggs, pumpkin, oil, and sugar. Beat well about 2 minutes. Add whole wheat flour, 1/4 cup at a time until the dough comes together and switch to the dough hook. Knead until the dough clears the sides (you'll need to scrape them down once or twice) adding just a little bit of flour at a time. The dough will eventually clear the bottom as well. The dough should be slightly tacky but not sticky and should be fairly smooth. This will take about 10 minutes all told.

Put dough in a large, oiled bowl, turning once to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and put int a warm spot to rise and double, about 1 hour.

Filling
In medium bowl mix all ingredients until smooth. If you use room temperature cream cheese it mixes easier. You can mix it by hand, with a hand mixer or in your kitchenaid.

Coating
Melt butter in small bowl. Mix sugars and spices in another small bowl. Grab a slotted spoon and a large regular spoon.

Assembly
Spray bundt pan with cooking spray, coating entire insides well.

Roll dough to approx 1/4" thick with a rolling pin or carefull stretching and pressing with your hands but not more than that. Thinner is ok. Take a pizza cutter and cut the dough into squares (I did roughly 2x2 inches) covering dough with a barely damp towel as you work.

Place a dollop of cream cheese mixture in the center of each square then pull edges of dough around the filling, sealing as best you can. Roll into smooth-ish ball shape repeating as needed and covering the completed balls with a damp towel.

Then dunk each ball into the melted butter, remove with a slotted spoon and roll in the sugar mixture. Place each in prepared bundt pan. Repeat with remaining dough layering the coated pieces as you go.

Drizzle a little bit of butter over the pan of dough and sprinkle on a bit more sugar, too. Cover and let rise about 45 min.

Bake in 350°F oven 40-45 minutes or until internal temp is 190°F. Cover the pan with foil if it's getting too dark.

Remove from oven and let cool for a bit on a wire rack, when the bundt pan is still warm but not too hot and run knife around all the edges. Grab a large plate or serving platter. Place on top of the bundt pan. With one hand on the bottom of the plate and the other holding the pan (with an oven mitt or towel) flip them together keeping bundt pan on top of the plate. Let the weight of the bread pull it it from the pan. You might need to tap it a bit. Slowly pull the pan off the bread careful not to force it and break up the bread.

Let cool about 30 minutes before eating. It really does get better when it is warm but not too hot. And molten cream cheese is not fun.

Recipe From: SomethingShinyblog.com

This recipe was awesome! Sweet and pumpkin with awesome cream cheese centers, it was perfect for fall. It makes a good party food, looks interesting and shares well. Makes a sweet breakfast or an nice dessert.

I used the proportion of spices listed in this recipe however eyeballing it is just fine or replacing the total used with pumpkin pie spice will be just fine. If you like more or less of something, go for it. The recipe will be very flexible.

The original recipe said that I would have left over cream cheese mixture, butter and sugar but I ended up needing more. I guess I over filled mine. So feel free to double the recipe if you want a lot of filling (then you might have some leftovers) or be stingy with it if you want less filling. I wanted mine to be -filled- with cream cheese, and loved how they came out. I thought they were perfect!

The original recipe has you unmold this as soon as it is out of the oven but I don't think this is needed. Let it cool a little bit so you can handle it, but don't let it get cold. You want all the butter and caramelized sugar to stick to the dough, not the pan.

Watch out for under cooking! I under cooked this the first time even with a temperature probe so be careful of the center. The bottom and top were cooked to perfection but the center had a few doughy ones. So make sure to use a temperature probe and poke it in a few places focusing on the center. It will look done but might not be. It was still good, even a little doughy but not as good.

Caramel Apple Cheesecake Cookie Bars with homemade Apple Cider Caramel Sauce

An over the top sweet fall treat filled with apples and cinnamon drizzled with apple cider flavored caramel on top of cheesecake and a crunchy buttery crust.

Caramel Apple Cheesecake Cookie Bars with homemade Apple Cider Caramel Sauce

Ingredients:
Dough:
1 cup All Purpose Flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter

Cream Cheese Filling:
2 8oz packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tsp Vanilla extract
2 eggs

Apple Filling:
2 Large apples (firm)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp white sugar

Crumb Topping:
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter (room temp)
1 cup all purpose flour

Apple Cider Caramel:
3/4 cup apple cider
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 Tbsp maple syrup
3 Tbsp corn starch
1 tsp ginger powder
Dash or two of cinnamon
2 Tbsp lemon juice
pinch of salt (opt’l)
**You will only use about half of this for the Cheesecake bars, so half the recipe if you don't want any left overs, but trust me, you will.

Servings: One 9x13 pan or two 8x8 pans

Instructions:
Caramel Apple Cheesecake Cookie Bars

Preheat the oven to 350 °F (175 °C).

In a bowl, combine the flour (1 cup – 140 grams) and brown sugar (1/2 cup – 100 grams). Cut in the butter (1 cup – 230 grams) with a pastry blender (or a fork) until the mixture is crumbly, kinda. If your butter is closer to room temp, just toss all that together and cream it in the mixer, you will end up with the same thing. A gooey dough.

First with lightly floured fingertips, then with the bottom of a cup (or a glass), press the dough evenly into a 13 × 9-inch (33 x 22 cm) baking pan or a cookie sheet with edges. Bake 15 minutes or until lightly browned. It will look wet and under baked, you will think you have screwed up, it is fine.

In the meantime, in a larger bowl, beat the cream cheese with 1/2 cup sugar until smooth (about 1 minute). Add the eggs, 1 at a time (beat about 20 seconds after each addition). Next add the vanilla and mix until combined.

Peel the apples and chop them into 1/2-inch chunks. Mix the apple chunks with the cinnamon and two tablespoons white sugar. Add a dash of pumpkin pie spice if your so inclined.

Pour the cream cheese batter over the warm crust. Spoon the apple chunks evenly over the cream cheese mixture. Or place them evenly over the cream cheese if your a bit anal about it like I was.

In a smaller bowl, combine the flour (1 cup – 140 grams), oats (1/2 cup – 60 grams), and brown sugar (1/2 cup – 100 grams) for crumb topping. Cube the butter (1/2 cup – 115 grams) and using a pastry blender (or a fork), create a crumbly mixture.

Crumble over the cream cheese mixture. Bake 30 minutes, or until the filling is set. Reduce the temperature to 300 °F (150 °C) for the last 5 minutes.

Cool these over night in the fridge. You might be able to cool them for 5 hours or so before slicing but they need to be cold in order to cut them! Drizzle with the Apple Cider Caramel sauce listed below when they are fully chilled. You can make the sauce the same day as the cheese cake and just rewarm prior to drizzling.

Apple Cider Caramel sauce

Dissolve the corn starch into the cold apple cider.

Add the cider/starch to a sauce pot with the other ingredients. Bring the mixture to a boil – stirring constantly. When the bubbling becomes intense, reduce to medium heat and continue stirring until the mixture thickens a bit. Remove from heat. Pour the sauce into a bowl

Recipe From: Caramel Apple Cheesecake Cookie Bars from ZoomYummy.com and Apple Cider Caramel Sauce from Family-kitchen

I think next time I want to try the crust with a 1/2 cup more flour. The whole thing had too much butter and was too wet in my opinion, when chilled this isn't a big problem but some of the butter had congealed on the bottom when I sliced them and I found that to be an indication of too much butter. I have seen other recipes for this call for 2 cups flour which I think would be fine but lead to a more dense crust. I think 1.5 might be perfect but I have not tried it yet.

The original recipe called for regular caramel sauce, with an implication of store bought. So not skip the apple cider caramel sauce. You will get so much more apple goodness out of this recipe. I think it takes it from food to wow. The apples are a bit faint without it, this brings them to the forefront.

This recipe is also very sweet and very buttery. It is not diet friendly. If you have someone who doesn't care for sweets, don't make this. You could possibly cut some or most sugar from the cheesecake layer since the caramel and streusel topping carry enough sugar to make up for it to cut down on an overly sweet taste. Better still would be to cut some from the caramel but tinkering with sugars in caramel gets complicated and might take some trial and error.

The left over cider syrup would be great on pancakes, waffles, ice cream, apples, crisps, crumbles, pumpkin cakes and breads... just about anything fall flavored!

Caramel Apple Cider Cookies Recipe

Super easy sweet fall treat. Strong apple cider taste with gooey or chewy caramel in the middle.

Caramel Apple Cider Cookies Recipe

Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar**
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 (7.4 ounce) box Alpine Spiced Apple Cider Instant Original Drink Mix (*not sugar free*)
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 (14 ounce) bag Kraft Caramels, unwrapped

**I used 3/4 of a cup, should have used 1/2 cup or none at all. The drink mix is sweet enough on its own!

Servings: ~45 cookies

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350° F. Line cookie sheets with parchment or a silpat. (The melted caramel may stick to the bottom if you just use cooking spray on a plain baking sheet.)

In a small bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon. With an electric mixer, cream together butter, sugar, salt and all 10 packages of apple cider drink mix powder, until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla and mix well. Gradually add flour mixture to butter/egg mixture. Mix until just combined.

Scoop out cookie dough ball about the size of a walnut (about 2 tablespoons). Flatten the ball of dough slightly in the palm of your hand. Press the unwrapped caramel into the center of your dough and seal the dough around it, covering it completely. Shape the dough into a ball, and place on parchment covered cookie sheets about 3 inches apart.

Bake 12-14 minutes, or until very lightly browned around the edges. Once the cookies are done, carefully slide the parchment or silpat off of the baking sheet right out onto the counter. Allow cookies to partially cool on the parchment/silpat. When cookies are cool enough to be firm but still slightly warm, carefully twist off of parchment and allow to finish cooling upside down (either on the parchment/silpat or on a rack).

Recipe From: Gimmesomeoven.com

These were pretty quick and easy to whip up, however they also taste a little quick and easy to whip up. The drink mix doesn't "dissolve" in the cookie, which keeps the strong apple flavor going but leaves it all a little "fake". This recipe could do with a small bit of tinkering. Right now it tastes like a "box mix" but I think with some improvements it could be made awesome.

As it is now, kids will love it, adults will like it, health nuts will cringe. Eat these warm (but well cooled, molten caramel burns!) from the oven to get gooey caramel, eat these cold and get chewy caramel (but not in a bad way).

Baked Spiced Pumpkin Mini Doughnuts

Little pumpkin treats for breakfast! Moist, tasty and easy. If you don't have a mini doughnut pan, just use muffin cups and only fill them 1/4-1/3 full.

Ingredients:
For the doughnut holes:
220g all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp allspice
½ tsp ground gloves
Pinch of salt
1 egg
75ml vegetable oil
100g brown sugar
185g tinned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
120 ml milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the coating (optional):
130g granulated sugar
2 tbsp pumpkin pie spice

Servings: 48 mini doughnuts or 18-20 holes

Instructions:
Spray the mini doughnut pan or 18-20 holes in a muffin/cupcake tin (depends on whether the muffin tin is for normal-sized or huge muffins). Pre-heat the oven to 175°C.

Sift the flour, baking powder, spices and salt into a medium-sized bowl and mix together.

Lightly beat the egg in a large bowl (I actually used 2 small organic eggs), then add the oil, brown sugar, pumpkin, milk and vanilla extract and whisk until smooth. Gently mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined (like with muffins, don’t over-mix!).

Divide the batter between the muffin holes or moulds (don’t fill them too much – these will puff a little bit as they cook) and bake for 10-12 mins until a toothpick comes out clean.

If you cook these the night before, by morning they will be moist from all the pumpkin, you can just roll them in the sugar and it will stick. The original recipe has you dunk them in melted butter and then roll them. I thought the extra calories wouldn't add all that much and this method worked just fine for me. However you need to do this right before you serve these doughnuts or they will just absorb the sugar and wont look as cute.

Recipe From: Sharkyovengloves


These came out nice and moist and quite good. Honestly I would like to try some glazed and some with spiced pumpkin cream cheese. I think I will be later with some of the left overs. Before you toss these in sugar, I think they would even freeze well so you could make a big batch and then same some for later.

Quick and easy to make, tasty and over all healthy.