One More Cookie Recipe

Posted on by theexileskitchen by Amanda Ellison Anglin

Playing in the kitchen this afternoon, I really wanted to make peanut butter fudge, but the milk was out of date. A search through the pantry found no canned milk. An experiment was in order and Peanut Butter Shortbread Cookies was whipped up.

Ingredients:

1 cup butter

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup light brown sugar

3/4 cup granulated white sugar

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Colored sprinkles, about 1/2 cup

A couple tablespoons extra granulated white sugar

1/2 cup or so of powdered sugar

What to do:

Preheat oven to 325°. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In a large mixer bowl, combine butters and sugars, till fluffy. Add in the all-purpose flour and mix on low speed at first, then increase the speed till everything is incorporated and the dough forms a ball.

Divide the dough in half. Wrap one half in parchment and keep in the freezer for another day. Roll the other half into 1 inch balls. Pour sprinkles in a shallow dish and roll the dough balls in the sprinkles. Place sprinkle coated balls 2 inches apart on parchment lined cookie sheets. Dip a small glass dipped in the granulated sugar and flatten each cookie ball. Bake for 15 minutes. Cool slightly, then roll each warm cookie in the powdered sugar.

This recipe makes about 4 dozen cookies. They are crispy and have a great flavor. I used red and green sprinkles, because it’s Christmas time, but you could change it up depending on the season.

With Christmas on a Saturday this year, it gave me an extra day off from work. Cookies and coffee this afternoon were a welcomed pause; a little respite to sit and reflect.

Blessings for a sweet Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Orange Slice Fudge

Posted on by theexileskitchen by Amanda Ellison Anglin

We honored my mother this weekend, with a big party to celebrate her 85th birthday. Love you, Mama.

One of my mother’s favorite store bought candies is the old fashioned orange slice gumdrops. Here’s a recipe for a fudge that stars that old timey candy.

Orange Slice Fudge

Ingredients:

12 ounces white almond bark

10 to 12 orange slice candy gumdrops, cut into 1/4 inch pieces

12 ounces of sweetened condensed milk

1/2 teaspoon of zest of a clementine

1 teaspoon of either orange extract

A pinch of salt

What to do:

Line a 9×9 pan with aluminum foil.

IIn a microwavable bowl melt the almond bark, a minute at a time in the microwave. Should take 2 minutes. Stir in the rest of the ingredients.

Mix well and pour into lined pan. Chill till firm. Turn out onto a cutting board and cut into smallish pieces. Store the orange slice fudge in the frig in an air tight container.

While the fudge set up in the frig, Mama scraped the mixing bowl, taste testing. Again, love you Mama.

Cindy Lou Who Shortbread/Cookie Dough 102

Posted on by theexileskitchen by Amanda Ellison Anglin

We did it again; got together and made up rolls of different cookie dough to stash in the freezer for easy holiday baking.

A 1949 cookbook from Crisco held two of this years recipes. The third was the shortbread from August Cookie of the Month: Cranberry Pecan Shortbread, a request from the daddy of one of the young ladies at today’s party.

With these traditional cookie recipes we chose different add-ins to make specialty treats. Can you guess by the titles what was put in each cookie creation?

For my shortbread cookies I did a plain recipe and chose to roll the log of dough in red and green sprinkles. I named it the Cindy Lou Who Shortbread.

I will slice, bake and roll in powdered sugar, when I need cookies…. probably really soon…

We had a blast spending time together and prepping for the hectic holidays ahead.

Blessings from the Exile’s Kitchen.

Continue reading Cindy Lou Who Shortbread/Cookie Dough 102

Linens and Things

Posted on by theexileskitchen by Amanda Ellison Anglin

Sherwood ForesIt’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas Blessings from the Exile’s Kitchen.

I Know It’s Not Even Thanksgiving Yet….

Posted on by theexileskitchen by Amanda Ellison Anglin

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I know it’s not even Thanksgiving yet. And I know I’ve been preaching against rushing the seasons, but I guess I’m going to blame the frigid cold spurt we’ve had this week, for my Christmas ornaments project.

The tinsel tree never made it to the attic last year. It was boxed up, but not squirreled away with the other decorations. I’ll admit I have recently been tempted to set it up, not festoon it with baubles, just put it quietly in the sitting room corner.

Instead of pulling out the tree, I pulled out unused canning lids, pretty Christmas tape, seasonal paper, pompoms, miniatures and old buttons to make vintage looking, dioramic ornaments.

 

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Here’s what to do: First trace around a canning ring (like Ball or Kerr) onto a piece of Christmas paper and cut it out with scissors. Using craft glue, pipe a bead along the inside edge of the lid. Place another ring, bottom to bottom, on top. Put these together with pretty Christmas tape. (Hobby Lobby has many options.) With two canning lids secured like this it makes a wide enough inside surface to place the miniatures. I chose tiny Christmas trees and deer and shiny little Merry Christmas signs. Cut up white pompoms look like snow glued at the base. Material scraps and small old buttons came together for a hanger on top.

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Crafty Blessings from the Exile’s Kitchen at Flowers Proper.

(And as always, if you enjoy the pictures, glean from the information or become inspired from my ideas, please click on the tiny star and give the post a ‘like’.)

The Sunday Before Christmas

Posted on by theexileskitchen by Amanda Ellison Anglin

20181223_173323The Sunday before Christmas and all through the kitchen, not a pot was I stirring, no spoon to be lickin.

The cookies in the pic are homemade slice-n-bake: white chocolate brown sugar, for reals, not fake.

Lightly salted pecans from the #CajunGrocer, by way of VA. This close to Christmas, easy supper is this way.

A hot cup of #CommunityCoffee to dip my cookie in, #Saints on the t.v., hoping for “the win”.

Whatever you are doing, wherever you are, my wish for y’all,

Is that your Christmas and New Year be the sweetest of all.

Blessings from the Exile’s Kitchen

Christmas Time/ Bad Dog

Posted on by theexileskitchen by Amanda Ellison Anglin

I haven’t written much lately; just haven’t been inspired by much of anything. The flu has kicked our behinds the last three weeks, with my mother in the hospital for one of them. It snowed while she was in the hospital. It was like a giant baker had taken his sifter and sprinkled the whole area with confectioners sugar. Driving home from the hospital that Friday afternoon, I thought I had taken a wrong turn and wound up in Narnia. White was everywhere. Beautiful and cold. I didn’t take a single picture.

My mother’s health has not improved much since we’ve been home. Saturday I listened to Christmas carols, while I baked sugar cookies and fought the dog, trying to keep her away from the bowls of icing.  She managed to lap all in the green. No, I didn’t use it. I made more. Bad dog.

I had thought about sharing a recipe for sugar cookies and decorating sugar cookies, but it’s late in the Season and really, do I need to add my trivial offering to the plethora of cookie traditions?

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This was as far as I got on documenting my baking yesterday. I finished them, filling them in with tinted icing to look like reindeer. They taste good- small bob of the head to acknowledge my accomplishment.

I mentioned the bad dog. Early yesterday morning I had her on her lead in the back yard. She slipped said lead and disappeared for a couple hours. The animal control officer was about to pack her in when I found her. Back at home, she acted a little off. She disappeared into the hallway and upchucked… Twice! Yeah…. Called the vets office. She’s fine and back to her normal self. Bad dog.

Not much in the mood for Christmas this year. Well, the commercial side of it, anyway.

I lost a sweet friend a month ago. Scrolling through my contacts today,  I saw her number and the heart emojis she had typed in answer to a text I had sent back in August.

Also yesterday, in between batches of cookies, I washed a quilt that had been given as a prize at a family reunion a few years back. Each family member present had signed it.  As I pulled it out of the washer to put in the dryer, the first name I saw was of my cousin Homer. He passed away in January of this year.

I guess I’m just sad this year and missing many people from my past. My Daddy. My grandmothers.  My cousins. My friend. I’m glad, thankful, that one day I’ll see them all again.

We get caught up in the hustle of a secular Christmas. Hey, folks, it’s not your birthday! It’s the Savior’s birthday.  Remember what is important.

Christmas Blessings from the Exile’s Kitchen.

 

Peppermint Fudge

Posted on by theexileskitchen by Amanda Ellison Anglin

It’s a new recipe for me; quick and easy  Peppermint Fudge. I usually make cooked fudge from scratch, like my mother and her mother before her. But my time this year is limited and I’m all about making life as easy as possible. So, I found this recipe and tweaked it a bit.

Ingredients:

2- 10 ounce packages of white Ghirardelli melting chocolate

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract

30- crushed Bob’s Sweet Stripes mints

What to do:

Line an 8×8 pan with tin foil.

In a 3 quart pot melt white chocolate over low heat and stir in sweetened condensed milk. When the chocolate is fully melted and combined with the milk, add peppermint extract and fold in crushed mints.

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Pour into foil lined pan. Chill in refrigerator till firm. Turn out onto cutting board and cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces.

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I made this for gifts, so I wrapped it up in doily lined pastry boxes, adorned with seasonal stickers.

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Enjoy!

Christmas Blessings from the Exile’s Kitchen.