Homemade Girl Scout Tagalong cookies

These are A's favorite Girl Scout cookies and my second most favorite cookie. Because I adore Chocolate and peanut butter! HOLY BATMAN!! I have died and gone to heaven and seriously will never waste $4.25 on Tagalong cookies again!
I have fell in love with this blogger because she has found the perfect Girl Scout cookie recipes and more importantly she has shared them with the whole world!
The basic cookie dough is like a thimble cookie recipe.
I chose not to melt the peanut butter and add it to a pastry bag. I chose to pat
mine out. It works beautifully, why add another step if it is not needed?? But, if you would like to melt it down, put in a bag and cool it down and then pipe it on your cookie then knock yourself out! I also chose to melt the chocolate into a very fluid state and have the cookies lined up on a wire rack on top of a cookie sheet butted next to each other and I chose to pour the chocolate right over the top of them. (like a candy factory) Once they cooled I then dipped the bottoms into melted chocolate. If I needed more chocolate I chilled the cookie sheet, scraped it into the bowl and heated in the microwave again!

Homemade Tagalongs (a.k.a. Peanut Butter Patties)
Cookies
1 cup butter, soft
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp milk

Preheat oven to 350F.
In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Mix in flour, baking powder and salt at a low speed, followed by the vanilla and milk. The dough should come together into a soft ball.
Take a tablespoon full of dough and flatten it into a disc about 1/4-inch thick. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet and repeat with remaining dough. Cookies will not spread too much, so you can squeeze them in more than you would for chocolate chip cookies. (Alternatively, you can use a cookie cutter, as described in the post above).
Bake cookies for 11-13 minutes, until bottoms and the edges are lightly browned and cookies are set.
Immediately after removing cookies from the oven, use your thumb or a small spoon to make a depression in the center of each cookie
Cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Filling
1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter (natural or regular)
3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar*
generous pinch salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
about 8-oz semisweet chocolate

In a small bowl, whisk together peanut butter, confectioners’ sugar, salt and vanilla. When the mixture has come together,
(I chose to omit the microwave part)

heat it in the microwave (again in short intervals, stirring frequently), until it is very, very soft. Working carefully with the hot filling, transfer it to a pastry bag (or plastic bag with the tip cut off) and pipe a generous dome of the filling into each cookie’s “thumbprint”.
(Once the mixture has come together just pat out and put on top.)

Chill cookies with filling for 20-30 minutes, or until the peanut butter is firm.
Melt the chocolate in a small, heat-resistant bowl. This can be done in a microwave (with frequent stirring) or on a double boiler, but the bowl of melted chocolate should ultimately be placed above a pan of hot, but not boiling, water to keep it fluid while you work.
Dip chilled cookies into chocolate, let excess drip off, and place on a sheet of parchment paper to let the cookies set up. The setting process can be accelerated by putting the cookies into the refrigerator once they have been coated.

Makes about 3-dozen
*You might need slightly less sugar if you’re using the conventional peanut butter, as it tends to be a bit sweeter. Taste the filling before using to make sure you like the sweet/savory balance.

TIPNUT.COM

I have been hanging out here. I absolutely adore this place and hope that you do too! It has everything you would ever want to know about. Since our blog is the place I want our children to turn to. There will be some things taken directly from this wonderful site with a link back!

But you may find things on this site that I might not share. Please head there and be a subscriber too! Tell them I sent ya!

This is among the many reasons why I absolutely adore the internet.

PERFECT COOKIE TIPS

I found this great helpful hint from allrecipes.com and knew I just needed to include this for our family recipe book! I intend to print this blog to book when one of my children marry. So, that should be in like 5 to 10 years. LOL, but seriously!
I have been trying to perfect my Chocolate chip cookie recipe. They look so beautiful and plump as they come out of the oven but as soon as the cool air hits them they deflate like a flat tire! ::bummer::

If you have any helpful tips about anything kitchen related I would love to add it to the helpful tip section!

Perfect Cookies
By: Allrecipes Staff

Some cookies should be crisp and delicate, while others ought to be chewy and tender.
Troubleshooting

If you have a cookie recipe that you love, but aren’t getting the desired results, use these tips to get your perfect cookie:

•Flat If you want your cookies on the flat side, you can do some or all of the following things: Use all butter, use all-purpose flour or bread flour, increase the sugar content slightly, add a bit of liquid to your dough, and bring the dough to room temperature before baking.

•Puffy For light, puffy cookies, use shortening or margarine and cut back on the amount of fat; add an egg, cut back on the sugar, use cake flour or pastry flour, use baking powder instead of baking soda and refrigerate your dough before baking.

•Chewy Try melting the butter before adding it to the sugars when mixing. Remove cookies from the oven a few minutes before they are done, while their centers are still soft but are just cooked through. The edges should be golden. Use brown sugar, honey or molasses as a sweetener. Let cookies cool on the pan for several minutes after baking before transferring to cooling rack.

•Crispy For crisp, crunchy cookies, use all butter and a proportion of white sugar. Use egg yolks in place of a whole egg. Cookies should be baked completely. Let cool on the baking sheet for one minute before transferring to a cooling rack.

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Ingredients

Using the correct ingredients is key. Follow the recipe closely and measure ingredients carefully for best results.

Fats Cookies are made primarily with butter, margarine or shortening. Fats play a major role in the spread of a cookie--whether a cookie keeps its shape or flattens in the oven. Shortening and margarine are stable, and will help cookies keep their original unbaked shapes. Butter melts at a much lower temperature than other solid fats--it melts at body temperature, resulting in a “melt-in-your-mouth” burst of flavor. Cookies made with butter tend to spread out. Butter is essential in certain cookies, such as shortbreads; if they don’t hold their shape, consider lowering the amount of butter, sugar, or baking soda in the recipe. The amount of fat also affects the cookies: in general, more fat equals flat, crispy cookies while less fat equals puffier, cake-like cookies. Whipped spreads are not suitable for baking: use solid sticks of margarine instead.

Flour Flour also affects how cookies behave. Most cookie recipes call for all-purpose or pastry flour. Both bread flour, with its high protein content, and cake flour, which is high in starch, produce cookies that tend to spread less. (The gluten in the bread flour and the absorbant starch in cake flour are responsible for the similar results.) Higher flour-to-liquid ratios are needed in shortbread and crumbly-textured cookies.

Baking Powder and Baking Soda Baking powder and baking soda are the two most common leaveners in cookies. Baking soda is simply bicarbonate of soda, while baking powder is a combination of bicarbonate of soda plus cream of tartar, an acidic ingredient. Baking soda neutralizes the acidity of the dough, allowing the cookies to brown in the oven. Since baking powder already contains its own acid, it will not reduce the acidity in the dough, and the resulting cookies will be puffier and lighter in color.

Sugars Like fats, sugars liquefy in the oven. The type and amount of sugar used play a big role in cookie performance. White sugar makes a crisper cookie than brown sugar or honey. Cookies made from brown sugar will absorb moisture after baking, helping to ensure that they stay chewy. Most chocolate chip cookie recipes contain both brown and white sugars. If you lower the amount of sugar called for in a cookie recipe, the final baked cookie will be puffier than its high-sugar counterpart.

Eggs and Liquids Eggs are a binding agent. Liquids can either cause cookies to puff up or spread. If egg is the liquid, it will create a puffy, cake-like texture. Just a tablespoon or two of water or other liquid will help your cookies spread into flatter and crisper rounds. Egg yolks bind the dough and add richness but allow a crisp texture after baking, whereas egg whites tend to make cookies dry and cakey. To make up for the drying effect of the egg whites, extra sugar is often added. This is why cookies made with just egg whites tend to be so sweet--think of macaroons.

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Mixing
Cookies are not as delicate as cakes, but proper mixing is still important. Some recipes require a creaming step in which the fat and sugars are beaten together until light-colored and fluffy. Other cookies require a sandy texture, so the fat is cut into the flour. Over-mixing can incorporate too much air into the dough, resulting in flat, overly spread-out cookies. Follow the recipe instructions. Once you combine the dry and wet ingredients, mix until just combined.

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Temperature
Unless otherwise specified, ingredients should be at room temperature before mixing. Cookie dough that is chilled before baking will hold its shape better. Rolled and cut-out cookies should be refrigerated before baking for sharper, clearer edges. Drop cookies, such as chocolate chip or oatmeal cookies, can be at room temperature before baking; the spoonfuls of dough will spread and flatten out to the desired result.

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Equipment and Baking

Different baking sheets and ovens produce different results. Thin baking sheets may allow the bottoms to brown too fast. Special insulated baking sheets allow air movement and help cookies bake evenly, but they can be expensive. Semi-thick rimmed baking sheets--also called jellyroll pans--are available just about everywhere, and are a fine multipurpose baking choice. Rather than greasing each baking sheet, consider investing in a roll of parchment paper or a nonstick pan liner to make cookie removal and clean-up easy.

Follow the recipe’s instructions for baking. Invest in an oven thermometer to be sure your oven temperature is calibrated correctly. Generally, cookies are baked in a moderate oven--350 degrees F (175 degrees C)--for 8 to 12 minutes, depending on the size of the cookie. For chewy cookies, allow them to cool on the pan for 3 to 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. For crispier cookies, let cool for one minute on the baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack.

Samoa or Caramel Delights Girl Scout Cookie bars

These have always been my favorite Girl Scout cookie. I adore these cookies. So imagine my joy when I stumbled across this recipe. This recipe is the same recipe everywhere. The caramel is soft and chewey and the cookie is light, airy and crunchy. mmmm...
I found this recipe on foodgawker.com, and more specifically here.

They are fairly simple to make but they take a bit of time because you need to toast your coconut and melt your chocolate but you must also wait for ingredients to cool between each step. I quickened the process by putting it in the fridge to cool. However, they are every bit worth the time. They will definitely be a welcomed addition to my Christmas cookie trays!

This is a three step recipe. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

STEP 1. COOKIE CRUST
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened ( i use 1 cup softened butter)
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
Preheat oven to 350F.

Add sugar and butter to mixer and mix until light and fluffy.

Beat in egg and vanilla extract.

Add flour and salt. At a low mixer speed until mixture is just blended. It does not have to come together. It will look like wet sand.

Lightly grease a 9×13-inch baking pan, or line with parchment paper.

Press crumb mixture evenly into pan and bake for 20 to 25 minutes.
Until edges are lightly browned.

Cool completely in pan on wire rack before adding next step.
While cookie crust is cooling, reduce oven to 300 degrees.

STEP 2.
3 cups shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened) I used the entire bag
12-oz chewy caramels (my bag was 14 oz. I used the entire bag)
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp milk
10 oz. dark or semisweet chocolate (I used a bakers sweet semi chocolate in a bar but choc. chips will work)
Paraffin wax or 1 tbsp. butter. I felt the chocolate was too thick, so I thinned it by adding a tbsp butter. If you have paraffin wax you can add this if you like.


a. Spread coconut flakes evenly onto cookie sheet and place on middle rack. Every 5 minutes turn the flakes until they are lightly brown and toasted.
Remove from oven and allow to cool.


b.
While coconut flakes are cooling unwrap caramels and place in med to large microwave safe bowl.
Add 3 Tbsp milk
1/4 tsp salt
Place in microwave and stir every 35 to 45 seconds until smooth.

c.
When smooth stir in toasted coconut flakes until well blended.

Pour over cooled cookie crust. Use a greased spatula to spread coconut flakes evenly over crust.
Allow this to cool and set completely.


When cooled cut with a large knife or pizza cutter into even bars. Remove bars from pan and place on lined cookie sheet with wax or parchment paper.

STEP 3.
Melt 10 0z. of chocolate in a microwave safe bowl. Stirring every 10 seconds until melted. (Once again, I thinned my chocolate slightly by adding 1 Tbsp. butter.)

Drizzle with spoon chocolate over cookie bars going in one direction, (side to side)

Drizzle with spoon chocolate over cookie bars going in opposite direction, (up and down)

Place cookie sheet in refrigerator until hardened.

Once chocolate has hardened remove from fridge and Dip the bottoms of each cookie into melted chocolate and place back on lined cookie sheet.

Return back to fridge to set. Cookies are ready to eat and should be stored in an air tight container in refrigerator or freezer.

Naan Bread

I wanted to make naan because I was inspired by a long ago friend who made naan for her family a few days ago and shared on face book.

I absolutely love naan bread. This recipe was decent and pretty good but not quite the perfect recipe for me. So, I combined the two recipes together and made my own.

I tried the recipe with the Indian woman and she messed her ingredients up. It is written baking soda and in the video she says baking powder. I went with the written of baking soda and the bread was a flop. I am sure she meant baking powder.

Then I made the recipe by the russian woman and this recipe was perfect and easy to follow until it came to adding the eggs and milk. There is not a measurement for that milk. I ended up winging it and adding enough milk that I thought was in the video.

I will make this recipe again because it was pretty close to being a good thing!

Once again, sorry for the lack of pictures. My camera card got corrupted and I was left with just this. Once it baked in the oven on 400 degrees on my stoneware it eaten so I suppose my guessitmate on the milk wasn't that far off.

Coconut Curry Chicken

A few friends from work have been trying different ethnic cuisines each month. We have tried Indian and Thai foods. This is an Indian dish that I particularly liked and tried to duplicate. After surfing the net through various recipes. I came up with one that I like. I am still working on how to make a more pugnent coconut flavor. In this recipe there is just a tease of the coconut flavor.
I found my recipe from Allrecipes.com and foodgawker.com

The saddest thing about this dish. Is my card got corrupted and I lost all my pictures. At least I have the final product but the picture does not do this dish justice!
I did this over the stove top in a skillet but to save time you could brown your chicken pieces and then toss everything in covered dish and bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes or until chicken is super tender. Make sure your dish is covered with a lid or foil.

Coconut Curry Chicken
2 to 3 of pounds chicken (I had a whole chicken cut in pieces) I took most of the fatty skin off but left some for flavor.

1 can coconut milk

2 cups chicken broth

Cayenne Pepper to taste (our family likes it hot, I used 1 to 2 TBsp)

Curry Powder to taste Start with 2 TBLsp, (I used 2 1/2 and a few more dashesTBLsp)

Cumin Powder to taste ( I used 1tsp)

Salt and Pepper to taste

1 TBLsp crushed garlic or if you have garlic powder you can add 1-2 tsp.

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tsp vanilla, (this enhances the flavor of the coconut

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Wash and lightly dry the chicken. Put 1 TBLsp butter in hot skillet and add chicken pieces.

Brown the chicken seasoning it with salt and pepper. Add crushed garlic to pan.

Add the chicken broth and coconut milk.

Then sprinkle the rest of the spices and ingredients over the chicken and broth.

On medium to low heat and allow to simmer for 30 minutes.
Cover skillet with lid and allow chicken to tenderize and bake in sauce.

Remove lid and stir the coconut around. (this will clump some)

Continue to simmer on stove for another 30 minutes or so UNCOVERED until chicken is completely done.

Once chicken is tender and falling off the bone. Remove chicken from skillet.

Add 1 TBLsp of butter and bring the sauce to a full boil. Whisk til smoothe and reduce.

I took 1/4 cup of the broth mixture and added 2tsp of cornstarch. Stir until dissolved.

Add to remainder of broth in skillet. Continue to whisk over medium heat.

Taste the sauce to make sure that it is seasoned enough to your liking. If it needs something extra add it here.

We loved it. It was good.
Serve over rice and homemade naan!


***********Baking directions*****************************

If you were to bake. Oven 375
Add your chicken pieces to a 9x13 pan.
Pour broth and coconut milk.
Add all seasonings
cover dish with lid or heavy duty foil.
Allow to bake for 45 minutes.
Stir sauce around to mix coconut mixture.
Bake another 20 to 25 minutes.
Remove chicken from pan and pour sauce into a skillet.
Add 1 TBLsp butter and bring to boil.
thicken, you can add more seasonings and some cornstarch to thicken sauce slightly.
Cook your rice and naan and ENJOY!

baked corn dogs!

My family likes corn bread and we like your occassional hot dog as well. This is a simple quick snack or dinner that can be thrown together in minutes.
If you like little corn dog bites you could cut your hot dogs in bite sizes and place them in your pan as well.
I do not have a twinkie pan. Click this link to see a twinkie or canoe pan. Which I would love to have. My family also adore pancake sausages on a stick. This pan would be perfect for that. I am sure I could save myself a ton of money making our own. So, in retrospect the cost for this pan might be worth it for us.
I found this recipe idea here

Ingredients needed.
Jiffy corn bread mix
1 egg
1/3 cup milk.
8 hot dogs
oven on 350 degrees and bake for 15 to 20 minutes
*******************************************************************************

this is what I should have done
*******I would divide this mixture evenly into two 9x13 pans and instead of 8 hot dogs use 16 because you have another pan.**************.
This is what I did.
I used three jiffy corn bread mixes, so 3 eggs and 1 cup milk is needed.
Mix ingredients according to directions on box. I used one 9x13 pan and poured the mixture into a greased pan.

Serve with ketchup, chilli or mustard.

Cherry Coffee Cake

This was good but not great, in my opinion. Instead of resembling a coffee cake mine was more like a cobbler. But, that could be because we did not give it any time to rest or cool before we cut into it! Items rarely have a chance to cool in my house.

Ingredients:

1- 18 oz. yellow cake mix, divided
2/3 cup water
2 eggs
1 can (21 oz.) Cherry pie filling
1/3 cup butter (4 Tbl)
1 cup confectioners sugar
1 TBLsp. Water

Stir together 1 1/2 cup cake mis, water and eggs.
spoon into a greased 13x9 baking pan.
Top with pie filling
Cut butter into remaining dry batter, until mixture is crumbly.
Sprinkle over pie filling.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes. Cool.
while cake is cooling, combine 1 cup confectioners sugar and 1TBLsp water,
drizzle over cake. Serves 12

Pillsbury Donuts or Seminary Donuts

M, asked for these for her birthday cake.
These donuts have been a tradition in the Solomon Family. Bill's dad would make them for his seminary class every Friday morning and they have been passed down to each of his children, and then to his grandchildren. Everyone who spends the night at our house RAVES over these babies. They are so simple and good too.

PILLSBURY DONUTS
4 cans of Pillsbury rolls (we use 4 because there are 6 of us) but who am I kidding? I could eat a can all by myself.
wax paper
A skillet filled with oil, enough so rolls will float in oil. Not necessary to cover.
A medicine bottle, to create the hole.
Vanilla
milk
Confectioners sugar

Lay out wax paper on cookie sheet or counter.



open cans of bisquits and place individually on waxed paper. Use an empty medicine bottle to create the donut holes. Pierce through each one and save the circles for the end.


Heat oil in skillet until hot. Place as many donuts in skillet as you can easily flip with a fork.
Turn when donuts turn golden brown.


while donuts are browning make a glaze for donuts.
Glaze
confecioners sugar
vanilla and just a little water
Dip in glaze, let drip and then place on plate!

These should be called magical donuts because they disappear so quickly. I haven't met anyone who doesn't like them.

Polish Sausage casserole

I was down to the bare staples in my pantry and fridge. I had cheddar cheese, polish sausage and potatoes. Three main ingredients.

Sausage Casserole
1 kielbasa sausage
3 lbs of potatoes. (boiled, peeled and mashed)
1/2 onion chopped fine
2 cups of shredded cheese

Make potatoes as you would for mashed potatoes. Boil the water, peel the potatoes, bring to a bowl until tender, drain and then add 1 stick butter and 1/2 cup milk or chicken broth. Flavor with salt and pepper.

In a skillet brown kielbasa sausage and finely cut onion. Drain excess fat and set sausage and onion on paper towel lined plate.
If I had a blend of frozen vegetables, I would have blanched them in boiling water and then set those aside also.

Get a 9x13 baking dish and layer mashed potatoes, then sausage and onion mixture, then cheese, keep alternating layers until you have last layer of potatoes and then sprinkle with cheese.

Our family likes heat so I sprinkled red pepper flakes on the top just before serving.

Blueberry Smoothies

Blueberry Smoothies
2 cups fresh blueberries
1 pint plain yogurt, or non fat yogurt
1 banana
2 cups ice
Make mixture as thick or thin as you like by adding milk or water. (preference)
I do not add anything.
Honey can be added to mixture. It adds the sweet but I like to add a dollop
of homemade cool whip! Once you make your own, you will never by the store stuff again. YUMMY!

Home made whip cream

sorry, I didn't take a picture of just the whip cream.



Whipped Cream

1/2 pint whipping cream
3 TBS. sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Chill bowl and beaters. Add cream to chilled bowl. Begin beating. Be careful not to whip too much or it will turn to butter. As the mixture begins to thicken. Remove beaters and add sugar and vanilla stir. Refrigerate once blended well.