Lemon Blackberry Shortbread Cookies

Every holiday season I’m always on the lookout for a great new cookie to add to my recipe box.  Last week, more than 500 cookie recipes were posted in the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap including my recipe for Candy Cane Crinkle Blossoms.

Lemon Blackberry Shortbread Cookies by JavaCupcake

While browsing through all the fantastic cookies, I came across these beautiful raspberry almond thumbprint cookies by Saving Room for Dessert.  Tricia’s recipe is so simple that I couldn’t resist trying them myself!

In my cabinet I have this beautiful jar of handmade Blackberry jam made by a local German couple.  I have tried 5-6 different flavors of their jams and they are THE BEST I’ve ever tasted.  I am definitely spoiled being able to have access to such quality, homemade foods here in Germany!  So, I decided to use this jam for these cookies and flavor the dough with lemon instead of almond.  Lemon and blackberry make an amazing combination, so I’m sure these cookies will be a hit!

PS…. If I were to make these again, I’d make them more like thumbprint cookies and make the hole for the jam bigger… more jam the merrier!

Enjoy!

 

Lemon Blackberry Shortbread Cookies

Prep Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes

Cook Time: 14 minutes

Total Time: 2 hours

Yield: 3 dozen cookies

Ingredients

    Cookies
  • 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 1 tsp lemon extract
  • 2 cups flour
  • Blackberry jam
  • Lemon Glaze
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 3-4 Tbsp heavy cream
  • 1 tsp lemon extract

Instructions

  1. In a medium bowl, cream the butter and sugar together. I used a hand mixer, but you can use your stand mixer if that's easier for you.
  2. Add the lemon extract and mix until combined.
  3. With the mixer on low, blend in the flour. The dough will be clumpy.
  4. In the bowl, knead the dough 8-10 times or until it's come together to form a ball.
  5. Wrap dough ball in plastic and chill for 1 hour.
  6. Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.
  7. Shape 1 inch balls of dough and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheet.
  8. Using the tip of a wooden spoon, press a hole into the center of each cookie at least 1/2 way down.
  9. Fill each hole with blackberry jam. (I used a piping bag with the jam in it to squeeze into each hole.)
  10. Bake for 13-14 minutes or until golden brown. Let cookies stand for 1 minute before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
  11. Once cool, mix the powdered sugar, cream and lemon extract. Drizzle over each cookie. (Again, I filled a piping bag filled with the glaze to drizzle over each cookie.)
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Pumpkin Scones with Pumpkin Maple Glaze

Mmmmm scones.  Really, is there anything better for breakfast than a scone, hot from the oven smeared with soft butter or your favorite jam?  No.  I didn’t think so.  :)

Scones have become a whole lot easier and quicker for me to make now that I’ve got a food processor.  Cutting butter into flour is sooooo time consuming and my food processor gets it done in just seconds! YAY for technology!

These pumpkin scones are full of pumpkin & spice and are so super moist and delicious.  They’d be great smeared with butter, hot out of the oven or slightly cooled with a pumpkin glaze on top!  Either way… they are a must make for your family this fall!

Pumpkin Scones with Pumpkin Maple Glaze

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 12 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Yield: At least 8 scones

Ingredients

    Pumpkin Scones
  • 2 cups flour
  • scant 1/2 cup sugar (1/4 cup + 3 Tbsp to be exact)
  • 1 Tbsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1/4 tsp ground cloves
  • 1/4 tsp ground ginger
  • 6 Tbsp COLD unsalted butter, cubed
  • 2/3 cup COLD canned pumpkin puree (just pop it in the fridge a few hours before you want to make these)
  • 1 egg
  • 3 Tbsp heavy cream
  • Vanilla Glaze
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 2 Tbsp heavy cream
  • Pumpkin Maple Glaze
  • 1 heaping cup powdered sugar
  • 1 Tbsp pumpkin puree
  • 1 Tbsp maple syrup

Instructions

    Scones
  1. Preheat oven to 425 F degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spray lightly with non-stick spray.
  2. In a small bowl, whisk together the cold pumpkin puree, heavy cream, and egg.
  3. In the bowl of your food processor, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and spices. Pulse 2-3 times to mix.
  4. Add the cubed butter and pulse 5-6 times or until the butter has been broken into pieces no bigger than a pea.
  5. Pour the flour/butter mixture into a large bowl. Make a well in the middle.
  6. Add the pumpkin mixture and fold in with a spatula until a dough ball forms.
  7. On a floured surface, knead down ball 2-3 times - not any more than this!
  8. Press the dough into a large rectangle and transfer to prepared baking sheet.
  9. Using a pizza cutter, cut dough into triangles. You can cut them as big or as small as you'd like. I cut 8 triangles. Separate out evenly on baking sheet.
  10. Bake 12-14 minutes or until edges just begin to brown and tops have slightly hardened.
  11. Remove from oven and cool for 2-3 minutes on the baking sheet before removing to a wire rack to cool completely before glazing.
  12. Vanilla Glaze
  13. Whisk together the sugar and cream until smooth.
  14. Spoon glaze over each scone so they are completely covered. Use the back of the spoon to spread evenly over the scone.
  15. Allow glaze to set up before pouring on pumpkin glaze.
  16. Pumpkin Maple Glaze
  17. Whisk together the sugar, pumpkin and maple syrup.
  18. NOTE: You want this syrup to be a bit thicker than the vanilla glaze, so be mindful of that when adding the maple syrup. If it's too thin, add a Tbsp more of sugar until you get the consistency you want.
  19. Using a piping bag and a very smell round tip, pipe pumpkin glaze in a back and forth pattern over the vanilla glaze on each scone.
  20. Allow glaze to set up before serving.
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Peachlove: Peach Crumble Bundt

I haven’t been able to participate in the Love Bloghop cause I’ve had quite a busy summer. My little baby boy is growing like a weed and taking up a lot of my time AND my dad came for a visit! He was here for 5 weeks and we traveled all over Southern Europe! It was a blast! Now, I’m back to my everyday routine and can get into baking again and being a part of the Bloghop! YAY!

My family + My Dad + Germany <3

The theme for this months’ Bloghop is Peachlove! PERFECT, cause peaches are in season and are one of my favorite fruits! This week I picked up a big basket of juicy ripe peaches and today I set off to put together a recipe that would be perfect to share with you.

So… I also have another confession. I’ve never successfully made a bundt. I got a new bundt pan a couple months ago on my trip to Poland, made a bundt (overfilled it with batter) and completely failed with it. *sigh* So, I learned my lesson (don’t overfill the pan!) and I’m trying again with this bundt!

Polish Pottery Bundt Pan

I took recipes from Week of Menus and Sweetpea’s Kitchen, put them together and added my own personal spin with the peach glaze on top.  The cake is moist, full of peachy goodness and the glaze on top adds just the right amount of sweetness.

I’m thinking the bundt would be a perfect summer bbq dessert, or for your Sunday brunch or even just for breakfast! YUM! Hurry, go grab some peaches while they’re ripe and in season and whip up a bundt for your friends and family!

A heavenly snack for the peach lover!

Peach Crumble Bundt

Ingredients

    Peach Bundt
  • 3 cups flour
  • ½ tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1 ¾ cups sugar
  • 4 large eggs, room temperature
  • Seeds of 1 vanilla bean
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • Peaches
  • 6 medium peaches, diced (about 2 cups)
  • 2 Tbsp sugar
  • 1 Tbsp vanilla
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • Crumble
  • 3 Tbsp unsalted butter, cold and cubed
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 2 Tbsp brown sugar, packed
  • 1 1/2 Tbsp sugar
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg
  • Vanilla Glaze
  • 1/2 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • seeds from one vanilla bean
  • heavy cream

Instructions

    Peaches
  1. Dice the peaches and place in a medium bowl. Toss with sugar, vanilla and cinnamon. Set aside until ready to use.
  2. Crumble
  3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugars, cinnamon and nutmeg.
  4. Using a fork, press the cold butter into the mixture until it's the consistency of a course meal.
  5. Peach Bundt
  6. Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Generously grease and flour the inside of your bundt pan.
  7. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.
  8. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
  9. One at a time, add the eggs, mixing thoroughly after each addition.
  10. Add the vanilla and combine.
  11. In three additions, add the flour alternating with sour cream.
  12. Fill the pan about 1/3 of the way with batter.
  13. Layer the peaches on top of the batter evenly. Sprinkle the crumble over the peaches.
  14. Scoop batter on top of the peaches and crumble and smooth out using an offset spatula. Make sure you leave about 1 inch of room from the top of the bundt pan.
  15. Bake for 60-80 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
  16. Allow to cool for ONLY 5 minutes in pan before removing a a plate/rack to cool.
  17. Vanilla Glaze
  18. Whisk together the sugar, extract and vanilla bean.
  19. Add cream until you reach your desired consistency.
  20. Drizzle glaze over the bundt so it covers the top and drizzles down the edges.
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Nothing better than cake for breakfast!

Your hosts for this month’s #peachlove:

Baking and Cooking, A Tale of Two Loves| Becky Higgins
Elephant Eats | Amy | @elephanteats
Java Cupcake | Betsy Eves | @javacupcake
No One Likes Crumbley Cookies | TR | @TRCrumbley
Oh Cake | Jess | @jesshose
Pippi’s In the Kitchen Again | Sheila | @shlylais
Rico sin Azucar | Helena | @ricosinazucar
Savoring Every Bite | Linda| @spicegirlfla
Teaspoon of Spice | Serena| @tspcurry
That Skinny Chick Can Bake | Liz | @thatskinnychick
The Spicy RD | EA Stewart | @TheSpicyRD
The Wimpy Vegetarian | Susan Pridmore| @WimpyVegetarian

Please join in on the #peachlove fun by linking up any peach recipe from the month of August 2012. Don’t forget to link back to this post, so that your readers know to come stop by the #peachlove event! The twitter hashtag is #peachlove.

Cinnamon Crescent Rolls & a New Baby

I’m baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!  Well… back to baking, that is.  I’m about at 20% right now, but I wanted to get back in the kitchen and bake something our first weekend home with my new baby boy.

Oh, you didn’t know I had a baby?  YES… this week, Monday!

Matthew William was born (via c- section) on Monday, March 5, 2012 at 8:31am in Weiden in der Oberfalz, Germany weighing 5lbs 12oz and 19.5in long.  He has all 10 fingers and 10 toes, blue eyes, brown hair and looks just like his daddy! He’s pretty  much perfect and I’m so in love with him.

Matty came home on Thursday and this morning I decided that I wanted to bake something simple.  I can only stand for a few minutes at a time since I’m healing so slowly.  (In Germany, they don’t give you any pain medication or send you home with anything after a c-section, so I hurt… a lot.) I decided to use a can of pre-made crescent rolls and saucy them up with ooey gooey filling of cinnamon, sugar and butter.  It only took me about 10 minutes to put together and a few more in the oven before these breakfast pastries were ready!  A perfect way to get back in to the kitchen!

Cinnamon Crescent Rolls

Prep Time: 7 minutes

Cook Time: 11 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

8 rolls

Quick, simple and delicious breakfast rolls filled with butter, sugar and spice! YUM!

Ingredients

    Rolls:
  • 1 can of refrigerator crescent rolls (I used Original Pillsbury)
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter, soft
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar, NOT packed
  • 2 Tbsp sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg
  • Glaze:
  • 1/4 cup powdered sugar
  • 1-2 Tbsp heavy cream (you can use milk if you don't have cream)
  • pinch cinnamon

Instructions

    Rolls:
  1. Preheat oven to the temperature listed on the refrigerator crescent rolls packaging. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.
  2. In a small prep bowl, add butter, sugars, cinnamon and nutmeg. Using the back of a spatula, press the sugars and spices into the butter until combined.
  3. Roll out the crescent rolls and separate each triangle, laying them out on your counter or work surface. Scoop a Tbsp of the butter/sugar mixture onto each piece of dough and spread evenly across the entire surface.
  4. Roll the dough as you normally would and place on prepared cookie sheet.
  5. Bake 1-3 minutes longer than what the crescent roll baking instructions require. NOTE: Filling will ooze out of the rolls onto the sheet. Don't worry! You can scoop this out with each roll and it's delicious!
  6. Remove immediately to a wire rack to cool.
  7. Drizzle with glaze before serving.
  8. Glaze:
  9. In a small bowl, mix together the powdered sugar and 1 Tbsp of cream with a fork.
  10. Add upto one more Tbsp of cream until you come to a consistency which can be drizzled over the rolls.
  11. Add a pinch of cinnamon and mix in.
  12. Drizzle glaze over slightly cooled rolls.
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Cinnamon Breakfast Cake

My last morning before baby arrived I decided I needed to do some baking.  Usually, I wake up in the morning and eat a bowl of cereal topped with raspberries and other fruit… but I’m always in need of a mid-morning snack.  So this breakfast cake will be perfect for that!

I saw the recipe for Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll Breakfast Cake on Six Sisters Stuff… one of my new favorite blogs to read!  There are so many blogs out there that it’s hard to keep up with them some times.  I was featured on their blog a couple of weeks ago, so I

bookmarked them, follow them on Facebook and keep coming back to their recipes!

This cake is good room temperature, but we sliced it right out of the oven after I drizzled the glaze on top and it was so OOOEY AND GOOEY and yummy!  Swirls and chunks of the cinnamon/sugar all through it with the sweet glaze on top.  It’s pretty much a perfect Sunday morning treat for the family!

Definitely a WINNER!

Enjoy!

Cinnamon Breakfast Cake

51

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Yield: 15 bars

Warm, gooey, breakfast cake that rivals any Cinnabon cinnamon roll!

Ingredients

    Batter - 1st layer :
  • 3 cups flour
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 4 tsp baking powder
  • 1 1/2 cup milk
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract (I used homemade!)
  • 4 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
  • Batter - 2nd layer:
  • 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature and soft
  • 1 cup light brown sugar, packed
  • 2 Tbsp flour
  • 1 Tbsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg
  • Glaze:
  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • 5 Tbsp milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • pinch of cinnamon for dusting

Instructions

    For the cake:
  1. Preheat oven to 325 F degrees. Grease a 13x9 in metal pan. (I also like to line the bottom of my In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder from the "1st layer".
  2. Add the milk, eggs, and vanilla from the "1st layer" and whisk until smooth.
  3. Gently mix in the 4 Tbsp melted butter.
  4. Pour batter into prepared baking pan and spread to the edges.
  5. In the bowl of your stand mixer, cream together the "2nd layer" butter and brown sugar.
  6. Scrape the sides of the bowl and mix in the flour, cinnamon and nutmeg until smooth.
  7. Using a tablespoon, drop this mixture evenly over cake batter. Use a knife or spatula to marble/swirl through the cake.
  8. Bake 35-45 minutes or until toothpick comes out nearly clean from center (a few crumbs is what you want). You may need to cover the pan with foil for the last 5-10 minutes to prevent the edges from getting too brown.
  9. Allow to cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes, then glaze, cut and eat warm!
  10. For Glaze:
  11. In a bowl, whisk together powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla until smooth.
  12. Drizzle over warm cake, dust with cinnamon , cut and eat!!
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Recipe adapted from: Six Sister’s Stuff

Baked Sour Cream Doughnuts

A couple weeks ago I bought my first set of doughnut pans and I’ve been waiting for a reason to make them.  But then I realized, do I really need a reason?  hehe  So tonight, my husband requested I make him sour cream doughnuts (they’re his favorite) to bring to work tomorrow to share with the office.

I searched the internet and didn’t really find a recipe that stood out to me as being simple enough for a first go-round with these pans but yummy enough to be successful.  So, I took inspiration from a few places and came up with my own recipe.

I made these three ways… first I shook them in cinnamon-sugar and second, I dunked them in glaze and third, I dunked them in glaze and sprinkles.

I think for my first round of baked doughnuts using these pans, they turned our pretty good! I’m not sure if they’re going to make it to my husbands work tomorrow! HA! :)

PS…. I even dressed a few of the mini’s up for Valentine’s Day!  These would make a super simple, easy treat for teachers on the special day of love!

Enjoy!

Baked Sour Cream Doughnuts
Makes about 1 dozen full size and 1 dozen mini doughnuts

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp nutmeg
3/4 tsp salt

2 2/3 cup flour
1 cup sour cream
1/3 cup milk

  1. Preheat oven to 425 F degrees.  Grease doughnut pans with cooking spray.
  2. Cream together the butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla until smooth.  (About 4 minutes)
  3. Mix in the baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg and salt.  Make sure to scrape the sides of the bowl so that everything is incorporated.
  4. On low speed, add half the flour and mix until just combined.
  5. Mix in the sour cream then add the remaining flour.  Mix just until combined.
  6. Add the milk and bring up the speed to medium for about 15 seconds or until the batter is glossy and smooth.  Do not over mix!
  7. Using a pastry bag, fill the holes of the doughnut pan 5/6 full.
  8. Bake for 10 minutes, rotating pan after about 7 minutes.  (This time works for both the full size and minis.)
  9. NOTE:  The bottoms of the doughnuts will be a bit browner than the top, but this will be covered by any glaze or cinnamon you add to the doughnuts.
  10. Let cool in pans for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool a few more minutes before glazing.

Cinnamon-Sugar
1-2 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 cup sugar

1 tbsp melted butter

  1. Combine the cinnamon and sugar in a zip-loc bag.
  2. LIGHTLY brush doughnuts with melted butter on all sides.  NOTE:  You don’t want to brush on too much butter because they won’t dry properly and will get mushy.
  3. Place 1-2 doughnuts at a time in the sealed zip-loc bag and gently shake the doughnuts until covered.  Be careful, because they are warm, they are very fragile and can break or crack, so shake GENTLY!
  4. Place on wire rack to cool completely before storing.

Glaze
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1-1 1/2 tbsp milk

sprinkles

  1. In a bowl with a flat bottom, whisk together the sugar and milk until smooth.  Add a few more drops of milk if you want a thinner glaze, but be careful a little milk goes a long way.
  2. Place sprinkles in a flat bottomed bowl just big enough to fit the doughnut.
  3. After the doughnuts have cooled, dunk the tops in the glaze and swirl a bit to shake off the excess.
  4. Immediately dip glazed top into the sprinkles.
  5. Set doughnut on cooling rack to drip.
  6. Allow doughnuts to set up for at least an hour before storing in containers with lids.
  7. If you are just glazing the doughnuts, set them on the cooling rack immediately after dunking and shaking off excess glaze.

Tiramisu Bundt Cake with Kahlua Mascarpone Glaze

My senior year of high school I lived in Monterey and worked a little restaurant on the wharf, Cafe Fina… not only do they have amazing pizza and pasta they also have delicioso dessert…

[Read more...]

Lemon Blueberry Poppy Seed Pound Cake

Emily spent the night at the neighbors house this weekend and I wanted to make something to thank them for having her over.  I had a couple lemons and big bag of frozen blueberries and thought a pound cake would be perfect!

Joy the Baker had a couple of recipes for some great pound cakes, but none that had all the elements I wanted to incorporate.  So, I took the basic recipe for her lemon pound cake and added my touch to it and created this deliciousness!!

Lemon Blueberry Poppy Seed Pound Cake

adapted from Joy the Baker

1 8oz package cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
The zest of one large lemon (about 1 tablespoon)
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
The juice of one large lemon (about 2 tablespoons)
4 eggs, room temperature
2 cups all purpose flour, sifted
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2  tablespoons poppy seeds
1 heaping cup frozen blueberries

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Sift together flour and baking powder, set aside.

Cream butter and cream cheese in an electric mixer.

In the mean time, using a spatula work the lemon zest into the granulated sugar by pressing the sugar and the zest together.  This process should take about five minutes, and the sugar will become very fragrant.  Add the sugar to the butter mixture and continue creaming.

Add the lemon and vanilla extract.

Add eggs one at a time, beating for about one minute each.  Scrape down the bowl after each addition.

Slowly add the sifted flour and baking powder.  Don’t over mix in the electric mixer.  Bring the ingredients together with a spatula.

Fold in the poppy seeds and the blueberries with a spatula until just incorporated.

Pour into a greased and floured pan and bake for 70-85 minutes, or until tooth pick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Let cool in the pan for at least 30 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

Basic Vanilla Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar
2-3 tablespoons milk
1 tsp vanilla

Mix together the 2 tbsp of milk and vanilla.   Add that mixture to powdered sugar in a small bowl.

Mix with a spatula until smooth.

Add remaining milk (or more) until you get the consistency you want.

Drizzle over the top of the cooled pound cake.

.