More lactation cookies

I've been having great success with the lactation cookies I made back in February. So of course my stock is running low.  I did some research on making a different kind of cookie.  I found a pin on Pinterest that has very vague directions.  So I decided to give it a try.

Lactation Cookies

With 6-ish weeks left till Guppy makes her grand appearance I knew it was time to make some lactation cookies to help my milk supply!  So I went to a speciality store to get some of the ingredients and then went to mom's house to make some cookies!  We started by gathering the ingredients.

not pictured?  Sugars...brown and white...whoopsie!

Pumpkin overload!

I ended up with enough pumpkin to make two pies and still had some leftover!!!  My dogs will enjoy the bits of pumpkin mixed in their food over the next few days, and I really only made one pie...so what to do with the extra....I have one bag that will be destined for a Thanksgiving pie in a few weeks and I have one cup of puree that I have decided will become Pumpkin Pie Cookies

The recipe is simple!  Mix up the butter and sugar, then add the egg, pumpkin and vanilla...

Add the flour and spices and get it all mixed up and then after it's mixed, plop it on greased cookie sheets, or baking mats by the rounded table spoon and bake for 15-18 minutes

When the yummy cookies come out of the oven let them sit for 2 minutes.

Then move them to a wire rack to continue to cool!

Then you can glaze them with a little frosting drizzle!  It's part of the recipe so I guess I should do it!

Enjoy! And Happy Halloween!

Just add vodka

The holidays are not around the corner anymore, they are upon us!  And with the change in the weather (yesterday it was in the 60's, and today it's below freezing) it is time to break out the recipes and start baking!  There are a few recipes that are only out this time of year, so not all of the ingredients may be on hand!  Specifically anise extract which is needed to make Pfeffernuesse Cookies!  These beauties are super delicious so keep an eye out in the next week when I get together with my Mom and start baking!

So instead of going out and attempting to find Anise extract I searched for how to make it.  Why make it?  Because, I have star anise on hand and, why not? Did you know that you can make almost any type of extract you want?

You start with whatever you want to extract, in my case it's Anise

Put some in a glass jar

The add the vodka and close it up!

Let it sit "a while" and check it for strength, you can always add more vodka or let it sit longer!

I know what you're getting for Christmas

Only two more days!  I’m not quite sure how to feel about that.  I’m moving along quite nicely, the brownies from last night taste delicious!  The sugar cookies rolled out  

and baked quickly, and apparently a little too quickly.  As I had the same problem with them as I did the brownies…that I did not discover until the last batch with my round chunk of leftover dough came out…totally raw in the middle…ugh, so they are all getting another two minutes in the oven…please oh please…success!   Puffy, fluffy, and cooked sugar cookies!!!

I also mixed up Lambert’s Rolls.  I’ve made these and put the recipe in an earlier post.

The next item on my list, and I need to check it twice, is Pecan Pie.  An actual request by my boyfriend!  This is a rare instance.  He usually just says, “Whatever” cause he’s not picky.  But he asked for a pecan pie…I’ve never made one before.  Not a problem, I’m Batman.

At least I hope it tastes as good as it looks...

Oh I wish I had a camera!

After my last post, my boyfriend and I laughed a lot while wrapping Christmas presents.  Once that was accomplished I decided to pre-mix the sugar cookies for tomorrow so they could refrigerate overnight even though the recipe doesn't say to.  Wow, that is some AWESOME cookie dough!

After that was mixed up i thought, hey, why not go ahead and make the Hallelujah Brownies too! Except this time I was going to have my boyfriend help me...which is why I wish I had a camera!  I mixed up the chocolate chip cookies, and prepped the brownies for him, all he had to do was crack the egg, and mix them up for me.  But the faces he was making were priceless!  Let's just say that my boyfriend has been banned from the kitchen up till this point, he can tell me almost anything I would ever need to know about fixing cars and trucks, but is not the best in the kitchen.  I love to cook for him anyway.

Mixing complete, and the layers done they are fortunately in the oven, and there is chocolate all over the kitchen.  Well maybe not ALL over the kitchen, but it's a close thing.  I didn't have this much clean-up when I cooked a full meal!  But it was sooo worth it!  It is always more fun having a second person in the kitchen with you, even if they don't know what they are doing or feel comfortable doing it.

Hallelujah, the brownies are done!

Now to let them cool, then I can cut them and have a bite.

12:20 am...After posting this, I let the brownies cool for 10 minutes, and when I started to transfer them to a cutting board I realized they were still completely RAW...so back in the oven for 20 mintues, still raw, so baking for 20 more minutes...

Guess It's NOT going to be a white Christmas

Christmas is right around the corner.  The weather is more like fall, rain, and no snow in sight.  The last few times we have been told we were getting snow, it never happened...bummer.  Guess with just 4 days to go I should start the holiday baking.  For those that know me, I am the type of person to “schedule” everything.  I originally gave myself two days to do all of the holiday baking for both sides of the family (Thursday and Friday), however today I find myself bored, and craving something sweet!  So here I go, adding Spice Cookies to my list.  My neighbor sent some home with me, and I promptly at ALL of them (over two days) leaving none for my boyfriend…tee hee…so I’m going to make more, they were that good!

I am trying something a bit different, my posts have gotten long, not just because I love to blog, but because the recipes are long.  So I’m going to try to simply link to them via Google Documents. So here is the recipe for Spice Cookies.

To start, gather all the ingredients, cause you don’t want to forget anything! I want to mention here that I LOVE molasses, I really need to use it more often. 

These are quite simple to mix up, and they need to chill for 2-3 hours, so now that they are mixed it’s on to the next cooking adventure!

I recently made Copycat Pretzels, they didn’t last too long…very tasty…so this time I’m going to use a different recipe, and make Soft Pretzel Bites cause it’s all about the adventure!  Once again, gather all of the ingredients! The only change I made from the recipe was to substitute one cup of all-purpose flour with one cup bread flour.  These mix up almost the same as the other pretzels, so I’m not taking pictures, yet.

The Pretzels will finish rising (1 hour) before the cookies have completed 2 hours of chilling so those will get cooked first!  While I wait for the dough to double, I’m going to get out the fixings for some hot chocolate.  I’ll wait to spike it until after I’ve finished my baking for the evening, seems the safest! I use dark chocolate, and a lot of it!  That way it’s not overly sweet.  Of course you can do this with any chocolate (white, semi, milk, salted) you want, and add all sorts of “num” to it, vanilla, caramel syrup.

When it came time to roll out the pretzels and proceed with the recipe I was wishing for a second set of hands.  There is a lot to do, and do quickly.  However I now have them all rolled, cut, boiled, placed, painted and salted.  Time for baking!!!

After they are done baking you have to put it on a cooling rack and wait 5 minutes. Oh that is soooo hard…just look at them!

Now that the pretzels are done, it’s time to finish the spice cookies!!!

Thankfully the pretzels were baked on parchment paper…which means cleaning my only two cookie sheets will be easy!  I really do need more than two cookie sheets….

They get to bake...

Then again the waiting for 5 minutes, I think recipe writers are just trying to make us go crazy…

Cool fully on a wire rack and ENJOY!  I know I will!