White Chocolate Blueberry Macadamia Nut Cookies

This month for Secret Recipe Club we were assigned 2 Cookin Mamas. They are a mother/daughter duo just like Nicole and I are and are both living in Florida. I have looked at their blog many times since they were assigned us two months ago so I was very happy when we got them this month as our assignment. They had a bunch of great things I wanted to make like the Healthy & Fruity Waldorf Salad which reminded me of what my grandmother used to make and the Banana Upside Down Cake which looked delicious.  But I decided to try the White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies because I've never made anything with Macadamia nuts before and I haven't made cookies in a while. The family loved them. They make plenty of healthy dishes to try but you know how I love desserts.  

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening (I substituted cream cheese)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 large egg
1-1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
6 oz. white chocolate chips
5 oz. macadamia nuts, chopped
4 oz. blueberry craisins (I added to recipe)


Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or grease sheets lightly.
In a large bowl beat butter and cream cheese until creamy.  Gradually add sugars and beat until well mixed.
Continue beating while adding the egg and vanilla extract.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt.

Gradually add this mixture to butter/sugar mixture and continue beating until well mixed. Stir in white chocolate chips, chopped macadamia nuts and blueberry craisins.

Drop by rounded teaspoons 2" apart on prepared cookie sheets.  Bake for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned.  Cool on cookie sheets and then move to racks.

Enjoy!!

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Chocolate Dipped Pistachio Shortbread

It's that time again - Secret Recipe Club.  We were assigned Pale Yellow this month.  I had a hard time deciding this month as she has so much delicious food to pick from. I always pick sweet over savory because I usually like baking better than cooking.  I was between the Peanut butter cup cheesecakes, the 

Chocolate covered cherry mini cupcakes, and the Chocolate Dipped Pistachio Shortbread.  I finally decided on the shortbread as my family loves anything pistachio and this recipe was perfect.  We love cookies and anything dipped in chocolate.  I know I will be going back to her blog for other recipes soon.  

Ingredients:
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1 box 3.4 oz instant pistachio pudding mix
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp almond extract (recipe called for vanilla extract)
8 ounces all purpose flour
7 ounces bittersweet or dark chocolate (2 Lindt bars)
1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 cup pistachios, finely chopped

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 8 x 11 pan with cooking spray.  Cut a sheet of parchment paper to fit bottom of pan and grease that as well.
Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment until light and fluffy.  Add in the pudding, salt and almond extract.  Mix until well combined, scraping the bowl as needed.
Add flour and mix on low until just combined.

Press the mixture as evenly as possible in the prepared pan using a spatula or your hands.

Bake for 30-35 minutes until the edges begin to brown.  Remove from oven and immediately use a knife to cut the shortbread into pieces.

Let cool completely in the pan.
Melt the chocolate and vegetable oil in the microwave on a low setting stirring until smooth.  Chop the pistachios or pulse in a food processor until finely chopped.
Dip of third of each cookie in the chocolate and then press in the chopped pistachios.  Let dry on a piece of parchment paper.  Allow the chocolate to harden.

Enjoy!!



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Chocolate Pistachio Thumbprints

If I could make my own version of Christmas it would be Christmas tree decorating, listening to Christmas carols, watching Christmas movies, driving around and looking at Christmas lights and decorations and making endless amount of Christmas cookies. I would skip the shopping for gifts, endless wrapping, and card sending.  Do you think my family would mind if I gave cookies as gifts? These are adapted from How Sweet Eats  who posted the cookies over at Delish Dish which is a Better Homes and Garden food blog.

Ingredients:
1 egg
1/2 cup butter softened
2/3 cup sugar
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup finely chopped pistachios
1/2 cup heavy cream
10 ounces dark chocolate

Directions:
Crack egg and separate egg white and egg yolk putting each in separate bowls.  Chill egg white until needed. In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer for 30 seconds.  Add sugar and beat well.  Beat in egg yolk, milk, and vanilla.  In another bowl stir together the flour, cocoa powder and salt.  Add flour mixture to butter mixture and beat until well combined.  Wrap the cookie dough in plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours or until easy to handle.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a cookie sheet.  Shape the dough into 1" balls.

Chop the pistachios in a food processor.  Slightly beat the reserved egg white.  Roll the balls in egg white
and then in the chopped pistachios.

Place the balls 1" apart on the prepared cookie sheet.

Taking your thumb or the back of a melon baller and press to make an indentation.

Bake for 10 minutes or until edges are firm.  If cookie centers puff during baking, repress with your
thumb or melon baller.  While cookies are baking prepare ganache center by microwaving the heavy cream for a minute.  Quickly add chocolate into heavy cream and stir until ganache forms.  Chocolate will be shiny.
Pour into center of lightly cooled cookies.  Let chocolate set for at least an hour or two before serving.

Enjoy!!

Baklava Cookies

A Spoonful of Thyme was the blog we were assigned for this month's edition of Secret Recipe Club. Kate who lives out in beautiful California has quite an extensive recipe index. I have really been in the mood for India food lately so originally I through I was going to make Chicken Tikka Masala but the sauce has a ton of different spices that I don't keep in the house. So instead I couldn't resist these Baklava Cookies. Baklava is one of my all time favorite desserts and my mom has actually made a whole tray of it for a previous month of Secret Recipe Club but working with phyllo dough is difficult and time consuming. These cookies are quick, easy and taste surprisingly similar to baklava because of the honey glaze topping with the sprinkled walnuts and cinnamon.

Ingredients for Cookies:
2 3/4 Cups Flour
1 Tsp Baking Soda
1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Cinnamon
2 Cups Sugar
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
1 Large Egg
2 1/2 Sticks I Can't Believe it's not Butter - Softened
11/2 Cup Chopped Walnuts

Ingredients for Glaze;
2/3 Cup Honey
2 Tsp Vanilla Extract
3 Tbsp I Can't Believe it's not Butter
1 Tsp Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice
1/2 Tsp Cinnamon

Top with more cinnamon & finely chopped walnuts

Makes 4 dozen cookie

Preheat the oven to 350 F and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper, set aside. In your stand mixers bowl combine the softened margarine and sugar until creamy and smooth. Then add your egg and vanilla extract. 

In a separate bowl combine the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon. Gradually add the dry ingredients into the wet mixing on low in between additions until it is completely combined.

Using a spatula mix in the walnuts pieces. Using your hands or a Tbsp form the cookie dough into small balls. Place the balls about 2 inches a part on a cookie sheet and lightly press down to flatten them. 

Bake about 10 minutes or until the cookies appear firm and the edges are slightly browned. Remove from the baking sheet after 2 or 3 minutes of cooling and allow to cool completely on a baking rack.

While the cookies are baking and cooling you can make the glaze. In a small pot on the stove combine the honey, lemon juice, margarine, vanilla extract and cinnamon over low heat. Mix occasionally, allowing the margarine to melt. It will take about 10-15 minutes for this glaze to come together and thicken to syrup constancy. Let it slightly begin to bubble then remove it from the heat. Drizzle it over the cookies once it has thicken and cooled a bit. Top the cookies with the walnut pieces and cinnamon while the glaze is still sticky so everything will stay on the cookie.

Enjoy!!

Pistachio Butter Dark Chocolate Bars

My youngest daughter went through a phase last month.  She wanted to make different kinds of nut butters. She had bought some in the past from Whole Foods but wanted to make her own.  I wasn't even sure what they were until we had 3 jars of nut butters in the refrigerator - cashew, almond and pistachio. I found out that they can be used in place of peanut butter. So I tried each of them out on my breakfast english muffin for a little change. And who doesn't need a little change with their breakfast items? When we saw this recipe from Kevin & Amanda's we were very excited as we already knew all we needed to about making pistachio nut butter. This has to be made first and then is added to the rest of the ingredients. We thought these were delicious and if you are a pistachio lover like we are I know you will love them too!  

Ingredients:
2 cups (10 oz) shelled salted pistachios
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1-3/4 cup flour
1 bag dark chocolate chips (12 oz)
1/2 tsp sea salt (if desired)

Directions:

Place 2 cups shelled salted pistachios into the bowl of a food processor. Process for 10 minutes until smooth and creamy. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8 x 8 baking dish with foil, then coat generously with PAM.

With a stand mixer, mix pistachio butter, softened butter and both sugars on medium for 5 minutes until light and fluffy.  If your pistachios are unsalted add 1/2 tsp salt.  

Add flour and mix on low speed until blended.

Stir in dark chocolate chips.

Drop into prepared pan.  Spread out with spatula or fingers.

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes until top starts to brown. Let bars cool before cutting into bars.  Sprinkle with sea salt if desired.  

Enjoy!!

Baklava

It's that time of the month again....Secret Recipe Club.  This time we have been assigned Sids Sea Palm Cooking. I love that she takes pictures as shes going along like we do. She has such a wide variety of foods to pick from but I love Greek food so it was a very easy choice when I saw that she had made Baklava. Baklava has always been on my list of foods to make and I thought it was much harder to make than it actually was. There is no question that phyllo dough can be a little tricky to work with.  I ended up throwing one roll away as it was half frozen and broke everywhere was I was unrolling it.  It's good I had extras in the freezer. Even if the layer ended up not being in one piece brushing the butter the layers made everything come together. The hardest part was waiting 24 hours to eat it.  We only waited about 18 but that was enough for all the syrup to soak into the layers of dough.

Ingredients:
1 lb. walnuts, finely chopped
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
3 sticks unsalted butter
1 package phyllo dough (16 oz.) thawed
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
10 oz. honey
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
Melt the 3 sticks of butter in the microwave.  Set aside until a little cool.  Finely chop the walnuts in a food processor.  Add sugar and cinnamon and pulse.  Set aside.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Brush the bottom of the pan with some melted butter to start with.  Put phyllo dough to cover the bottom of the pan.  Brush all over with melted butter.  Put another layer down. Do the same with the butter.  Do eight layers total of dough brushing with butter each time.

Put 1/3 of the nut mixture on top of the 8 layers of dough.

Now do another 8 layers of dough again brushing with melted butter in between each layer.  Add another 3rd of the nut mixture and now another 8 layers of the dough with the melted butter. Then add the last of the nut mixture. Top with 8 more layers of dough with the butter.  Now before it bakes you need to cut it into your squares or triangles because it won't work if you cut it after it bakes.  This can be a little messy but make your cuts with a sharp knife carefully.  After its cut into pieces put in the preheated oven and cook for 40 minutes until the top is brown.

While the baklava is cooking in the oven its time to make the syrup.  In a saucepan add 1 cup water, 1 cup sugar and 1 tbsp of fresh lemon.  Bring to a boil and then cook for another 10 minutes stirring once in a while to make the mixture into syrup.

Take off the heat and add the honey and vanilla extract to the syrup mixture.

When the baklava comes out of the oven pour over the top making sure to pour the syrup everywhere.

It will look like too much syrup but it will soak in.  Now let it sit overnight on the counter covered with foil so that the syrup gets into all the layers.

Enjoy!!



Linked at: http://www.thecountrycook.net/

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