holiday Archives - Fresh From Oregon

The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2015 ~ Christmas Swirl Sugar Cookies

December 16, 2015 · by Carrie Trax · 3 Comments

This is my second year as a participant in the 5th annual The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap. From across the United States and 5 other countries 467 Food Bloggers participated this year raising $1,790.44 for Cookies for Kids’ Cancer. These great sponsors matched all of our donations bringing it to $7,000 raised, so a big thank you to OXO, Dixie Crystals, and Land O Lakes. OXO sent everyone who participated an 7 piece set of liquid measuring cups and a silicone baking sheet from Dixie Crystals which was perfect for baking my Christmas Swirl Sugar cookies. The way it works each blogger sent out 3 batches of home baked cookies and received 3 batches of cookies from other bloggers in return. Not only did I get boxes of homemade cookies delivered to my door, but I also got to support Cookies for Kids’ Cancer.

I packaged 1 dozen of my Christmas Swirl Sugar cookies in cute tins and sent to 3 bloggers. Whole and Heavenly Oven from Wisconsin, Micky What Micky Eats from Washington DC and The Full Tummy from California. All three have created some great blogs with interesting recipes, you should check them out!

The first batch I received was from LeAndra at Love & Flour she sent Bourbon Chocolate Chip Cookies. The next batch I received was from Take Two Tapas. They sent yummy cookies packed in a cute tin! My third and last batch was from Alicia at The Baker Upstairs. Her melt in you mouth Honey Lavender Shortbread cookies were amazing! Check our their blogs and get the recipes for the cookies they baked for the cookie swap.

Here is the recipe for the cookies I baked for The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap!

Christmas Swirl Sugar Cookies
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1¼ cup sugar
1 egg
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
½ teaspoon almond extract
3 cups of flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
Non-pareils for decorating
In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add in egg, vanilla extract, and almond extract and mix until combined. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until completely combined.
Divide dough into three equal parts. Put one into the mixer bowl and with your finger make an indentation and add at least 8 drops of red food coloring. Turn on mixer and mix until the dough is all red. Wipe out bowl and add the second piece of dough and doing the same but in the indentation add green food coloring, mix until solid green. Add more food coloring if you desire a deeper color. Leave remaining dough as is. Wrap each piece in plastic wrap and refrigerate 30 minutes.
On a piece of parchment paper about 18-inches long place one of the balls of dough. Place a second piece of parchment paper on top of the dough. With a rolling pin roll out dough until flat and about 1/8” thick. Do this with each of the two remaining pieces of dough until you have all three colors rolled out about the same size on parchment paper.
Carefully take the red dough and flip on top of the plain dough. Then take the green dough and flip on to the red dough. You should now have all three doughs stacked on top of each other.
Get a knife or pizza cutter and trim the edges so all sides are square. Set scrap pieces aside*. Once it is trimmed turn the dough so the long side is facing you and roll it up. Wrap in a piece of parchment paper folding ends over to keep from drying out. Place in the refrigerator until hard, about 1 hour. Once it is ready unroll from paper and using a sharp knife cut the dough in ¼-inch slices. Next roll the edges in the non- pareils. I found that if the outside dough is too dry they will not stick. Just dip your finger in some water and go around the edge to wet it and then roll into the non-pareils.
Place on a baking sheet that has been covered with a silpat or parchment paper. This will give the cookies a nice bottom. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 8 minutes and turn the pan 180 degrees and bake another 2 minutes. The cookies should be light brown on the bottom and no brown on top. You will need to adjust the time to your oven’s temperature. Remove baking sheet from oven and place on wire rack for two minutes. Remove cookies from baking sheet and place on wire rack to cool completely.
*You will have pieces of dough scraps left after trimming. Just mix them up together slightly and roll into log and you can slice like the other cookie but you will have a marbled cookie instead of a swirl.

Gingerbread Cookies Gone Wild!

December 13, 2014 · by Carrie Trax · 1 Comment

Gingerbread cookies in my house have “Gone Wild” this year. Living in the foothills of Mt Hood, Oregon I was inspired to make my gingerbread cookies shaped from nature. On a family trip to Yellowstone my husband surprised me with these animal shaped cookie cutters of a deer, salmon, bear, duck and tree. This gingerbread cookie recipe has a mild flavor of ginger so I added an almond flavored royal icing to top them off. This was also a great opportunity for me to try the OXO 8 piece Baker’s Silicone Decorating Bottle Kit that was send to me. OXO is one of the sponsors for The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap and they sent everyone participating this amazing decorating kit. When I first opened the kit I thought this is a small bottle how is this going to work. To my surprise almost a whole batch of royal icing fits in the bottle and this was the easiest way I have ever decorated cookies. This would be great for kids to use they will still get a little messy but the bottle really keeps the icing from oozing everywhere. With the decorating tip making these gingerbread cookies was a snap to frost.

Gingerbread Cookies
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup molasses
1 egg
2 tablespoons water
2-2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

In a large bowl, cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in molasses, egg and water. Combine flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice; add to creamed mixture and mix well. Divide dough in half. Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes or until easy to handle. Preheat oven to 350°. On a lightly floured surface, roll out each portion of dough to 1/8-in. thickness. Cut with a floured cookie cutter. Place 2 in. apart on greased baking sheets. Re-roll scraps and continue to cut out cookies until the dough is gone. Bake 8-10 minutes or until edges are firm. Remove to wire racks to cool completely. Yields about 2 dozen.
Recipe from ~ Taste of Home

Almond Royal Icing

1 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons milk
2 teaspoons light corn syrup

1/2 teaspoon almond or vanilla extract

In a medium bowl add confectioner’s sugar and milk and blend with a whisk until smooth. You can also mix with a stand mixer on low for about 1 minute. Add corn syrup and extract and continue to blend until smooth for about 45 seconds – 1 minute. If it’s too thick, add milk by the drop (a little goes a long way). If it’s too thin, add more confectioner’s sugar.

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To decorate the cookies first outline around the edge of the cookie with a thin line of icing and let dry a few minutes. Add a little more milk to the icing to make thinner, I added about 1 – 2 tablespoons. Fill in the cookie with the thinner icing, let dry for 1 hour before packing in a air tight storage container. I layered parchment paper between each layer of cookies in the container.

Oatmeal Cookie ~ Trio

December 9, 2014 · by Carrie Trax · 2 Comments

Oatmeal cookies are a must at Christmas time at my house… that’s what my husband tells me. This is his favorite cookie there is always a batch baking in my oven throughout the year. He prefers dried cranberries in his cookie instead of raisins so this year I decided to dress his oatmeal cookies up a little. I took the basic oatmeal and cranberry cookie and dressed it up with a dip in some white chocolate and a sprinkle of pecans. Dipping a cookie halfway in white or milk chocolate and adding some accents like nuts or jimmies will make a plain cookie into an extraordinary cookie. Remember to always leave a few plain for the ones who just like them just plain. Oatmeal cookies come in all shapes and sizes, chewy or crisp so another recipe I am sharing below is for a crisp oatmeal cookie glazed with a confectioners sugar icing. Both are easy and simple to make for your holiday cookie tin.

Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies
1 cup salted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 cups uncooked quick cook oats
1 1/2 cups dried cranberries
1/2 cup pecan pieces
12 oz white melting chocolate

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat butter and sugars together until well combined. Add egg and vanilla extract and mix until well combined. Add flour, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon and mix until well combined. Add oats and mix until a thick dough forms. Stir in cranberries and pecan pieces. Place heaping tablespoon-sized balls of cookie dough onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake 8-9 minutes. Cookies may look a little undercooked in the center, but they continue to cook and firm as they cool. Do not over bake. If cookies look cooked (not a little undercooked) when you take them out, they are probably overcooked. Let cookies cool for about 2 minutes on the cookie sheet, then remove to cooling rack to finish cooling. Once cookies are cool, melt white chocolate in a small bowl. Dip cookies, one at a time, into white chocolate and shake to remove excess white chocolate. Set on parchment paper and sprinkle with crushed pecans before the white chocolate dries. White chocolate dries fast so I dip three cookies and then sprinkle on the pecans before dipping more.

Recipe from ~ Live, Love & Sugar

Iced Oatmeal Cookie
1 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light-brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
Icing:
2 cups powdered sugar
3 Tbsp milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour oats into a food processor and pulse until partially ground, about 15 seconds. In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ground oats, for 30 seconds. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, whip butter, granulated sugar and light-brown sugar on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 – 4 minutes. Add in eggs one at a time, mixing until combined after each addition. Stir in vanilla. With mixer set on low speed, slowly add in dry ingredients and mix just until combined (scrape bottom and sides of bowl as needed). Allow cookie dough to rest 10 minutes at room temperature. Scoop dough out about 2 Tbsp at a time and drop onto a silpat or parchment paper lined baking sheet. Bake in preheated oven 11 – 15 minutes. Allow cookies to rest on baking sheet several minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

In a mixing bowl whisk together powdered sugar and milk and dip tops of cooled cookies in icing and allow excess to run off or alternately spread icing over cookies. Return to wire rack and allow icing to set. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Recipe from ~ Mother Thyme

Roasted Turkey with Homemade Cracker Stuffing

November 12, 2014 · by Carrie Trax · Leave a Comment

The roasted golden bird, the Turkey is the center piece of any Thanksgiving table. But in my family the favorite dish is my family’s cracker stuffing passed down from my mom from my grandmother and great grandmother. For four generations and probably longer it has been a holiday tradition making cracker stuffing in my family. My great grandmother comes for the town of Vejvanov, West Bohemia, Czech Republic a small city south west of Prague. I wanted to learn more about the history of cracker stuffing and read several Bohemian cookbooks and searched the internet. I found that it is called (Nádivkou) or Bohemian Cracker Stuffing. Crackers seemed to be an easy substitute for stale bread or bread crumbs. All the recipes I found online seem to be just a little different than mine, with an extra ingredient or seasoning but we like our basic one made with the recipe below. It was even featured on the Food Network’s kitchen website when I entered the recipe in a Stuffing Cook-off contest.

Cracker Stuffing

Cracker, onions and celery in vintage bowl

4 sleeves saltine crackers
2 stalks celery
1 cup butter
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 medium onion, chopped
4 eggs
1/2 cup milk

12-14 pound Turkey
4 stalks celery
6 carrots, peeled
2 can chicken broth
Olive oil
Salt & pepper

To make my cracker stuffing I used my Ninja food processor attachment this year to crush my crackers and chop the celery, it made my crackers more consistent in size. In the bowl of the Ninja food processor place one sleeve of crackers and pulse three times. That’s all it takes to make the perfect size cracker for this recipe. Empty crackers from the Ninja into a large bowl and repeat with the remaining crackers. In the same food processor bowl add the celery and pulse 8 times then add the celery to the crackers in the bowl. If you do not have a Ninja (add it to your wish list) you can crush the crackers by hand. With the crackers still in their sleeves, crush them with your hands (easier to crush this way, and it keeps your hands cleaner) then empty the sleeves into a large bowl. Chop celery into small pieces and add to the crackers. In a frying pan, saute the butter, onion and black pepper until the onions are tender, about 5 minutes. No need to add salt since you are using saltine crackers. Add cooked onions to the crackers and mix well. Add eggs and mix well. Add milk a little at a time (you might not use all of the milk), until the cracker mix is moistened. Cracker mix should form a ball which you can hold in your hand. When stuffing a turkey with cracker stuffing it does not expand, so you want to pack it in tight. With traditional bread stuffing you would pack it in the turkey loosely. When the turkey is ready, you pull out the cracker stuffing in one big chunk and slice it. Also great on a turkey sandwich the next day!

To prepare the turkey remove from packaging. Remove the neck (Do not worry it has been already cut off and is inside the turkey cavity). On the back end of the turkey there will be a bag of giblets including the heart, gizzard and liver. It may not sound good but do NOT throw away the neck and the giblets it will make a great turkey stock so just place all together in a bag and refrigerate. I will share in a later post the best turkey stock recipe using these parts and the carcass of the turkey after you have carved off all the meat. Rinse turkey under cold water and pat dry with paper towel. In your roasting pan add 4 stalks of celery and 6 carrots that have been cut up and toss with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. They will also be used later in making the turkey stock.

Place turkey on top of carrots and celery. Stuff the cavity of the turkey with the cracker stuffing and remember to pack it in tight. Do not forgot there is room in the back of the turkey where the giblets were so pack some stuffing in there as well. There is no need to tie the legs together just let the stuffing flow out the cavity. Rub some olive oil on the turkey and sprinkle with salt and pepper. This will help give your turkey a nice golden brown color and add flavor to the skin. Add two cans of chicken stock to the pan and cover with a nice tall lid.* Place in a preheated 325 degree oven and since we stuffed the turkey it will take 4 to 4 1/2 hours to cook. The turkey is done when the thigh meat reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees F.

* I have found over the years that if you have a tall lid on your turkey when it is cooking the air can circulate and your turkey will come out a golden brown without having to remove the lid the last 30 minutes to brown it. You may choose to bast the turkey once an hour with the juices from the bottom of the pan. I seem to get so busy I never remember and it bastes itself just fine with the tall roasting pan I use.

Do not forget after Thanksgiving dinner is over, save anything left in the pan, the turkey bones, pieces, carrots, celery, juice and bits left in the roasting pan. Place in a container and get ready to make some turkey broth to use in some other great dishes like turkey chili, turkey wild rice soup, turkey pot pie or in place of chicken broth in any of your favorite recipes.

The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2015 ~ Christmas Swirl Sugar Cookies

Gingerbread Cookies Gone Wild!

Oatmeal Cookie ~ Trio

Roasted Turkey with Homemade Cracker Stuffing

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