Kolacky

This is an old family recipe from my Mother-in-Law.  Fortunately it is not a secret family recipe, so I am free to share it.  I was not originally planning on posting it, or else I would have taken a picture or two of the rolling process so you can envision it a little better.  But hopefully with looking at a picture of the finished product you'll be able to figure it out.  If you have any questions, leave a comment and I'll try to explain it better.

Ingredients:
1 serving yeast (1 envelope, 1 cake, etc.)
¼ cup warm water
6 cubes butter
5 cups flour
4 eggs
Boysenberry jam or other preserve of your choice
Sugar

Dissolve yeast in water. In the meantime, cut butter into flour until it’s the size of peas. Add yeast mixture and eggs. Mix together; frankly it’s easiest done with your hands. Take off your rings first, though ‘cuz it’s pretty gooey! Put dough in the fridge for at least one hour.

Roll dough out between two sheets of wax paper until thin; it’s kinda like rolling out pie crust. Cut dough into 3 or 4 inch squares with a cookie cutter. (I did 4 inch squares this time and I think they’re too big. Next time I’ll probably stick to 3 inch.) Put a scoop of jam in one corner. Fold the square in half so it’s slightly off-center, turning the corner with the jam.  Seal the edge and then roll it up and bend the corners like a croissant. Roll each kolaky in sugar to coat thoroughly. Bake in 350 degree oven for 10-15 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

Sugar Cookies

This is my mom's recipe. Well, from her cookbook. It's actually from an old friend of hers from High School. Anyhow, it's a really simple, no fail sugar cookie recipe. They taste great, and are very easy to make.

Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups flour
1 tbsp baking powder

Mix butter and sugar thoroughly. Add eggs, milk, vanilla and baking powder and mix well. Stir in flour. Chill for 10 minutes. (Makes it much easier to handle while rolling out and cutting) Roll to about 1/4" to 1/8" and cut into desired shape. Bake at 400 until very light brown 5 to 8 minutes. If you like a soft cookies, do not roll too think or bake too long. You can sugar these before baking or frost them after.

Super yummy, super easy.

Peanut Butter Cookies

This is a mom recipe. They're wonderful and tasty. We love them.

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Stir together flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Beat butter and peanut butter for 30 seconds. Add sugar and brown sugar; beat til fluffy.  Add egg and vanilla; beat well. Add dry ingredients to beaten mixture and beat til well blended. Shape dough into 1 inch balls; roll in additional sugar if desired (I've never tried that way). Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Press crisscross markings with a fork. Bake at 375 about 10 minutes or til done. Cool 1 minute, remove to rack. Cool.

Lemon Tea Cookies

As promised, I made some delights involving lemon zest. Mom's famous lemon tea cookies are so awesome! I love these! (And so does my sister Stacie) They are the best and they go way too fast in our house.

Ingredients

2 tsp lemon juice
½ cup milk
1 ¾ cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
½ cup butter
1/3 cup butter
¾ cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp lemon peels grated
¾ cup sugar
¼ cup lemon juice

Stir 2 tsp lemon juice into milk; set aside. Stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and ¼ tsp salt. In mixer bowl, beat butter for 30 seconds. Add ¾ cup sugar; beat til fluffy. Add egg and lemon peel; beat well. Add dry ingredients and milk mixture alternately to beaten mixture and beat til well blended. Drop from a teaspoon 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in 350 oven for 12-14 minutes or til done. Combine ¾ cup sugar and lemon juice; stir til sugar is dissolved. Remove cookies at once to a wire rack; brush with lemon mixture. Cool.

I cut the sugar/lemon juice mixture in half because I always have too much. However, I always make my cookies too big as well. I would recommend using the kiddie teaspoon. Not the big soup spoons. For some reason, they're better smaller. And then you have more. So it makes it seem like they can last longer. Anywho, we love these cookies. They rock!

More on Chocolate Chip Cookies

So, the last time I made chocolate chip cookies, I only did two batches, so I froze the rest of the dough. I found that it only takes a few hours to completely thaw out. That would be ideal for cooking. However, I was feeling lazy last night when the dough was thawed and put it in the fridge. So when I made them this morning, it was a little hard. However, it still worked out great. I would recommend letting the dough be completely thawed, but if you want to pull it out of the freezer one night and pop it in the fridge, you should be able to cook them the next morning doing it the way I did here.

Here's the dough. Just put it in a tupperware and popped it in the freezer!

Because the dough was cold, I couldn't plop them down like you normally would, so I molded them into balls with my hands like so.

They came out pretty well. They didn't cook as even because of the cold dough. I cooked them a few minutes longer than usual and they still looked doughy in the center. Of course once they cooled, they still tasted great. My husband can attest to this.

Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Well, I dared to venture and make chocolate chip cookies. As my mom probably knows, I have struggled with making her chocolate chip cookies (the only chocolate chip cookies I would dare make because they are the best.) Be it cruddy ovens, poor cookies sheets or a glitch in her recipe, I have struggled to make her cookies. However, for whatever reason, I dared to make them yesterday for Family Home Evening and they were a success! I can't tell you how happy I was! Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

1 1/3 cup butter at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup pecans
1 pckg milk chocolate chips

Heat oven to 375. Mix butter, sugars, eggs, and vanilla thoroughly. Measure flour. Blend dry ingredients, stir in. Mix in nuts and chocolate chips. Drop by teaspoons 2” apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes. Cool slightly before removing from cookie sheet. If using semi-sweet chocolate chips, use walnuts.

The only thing that was different was, I managed to run out of flour! I didn't realize I didn't have any reserves so I ran out. However, I had some cake flour (the same I use for my baking powder biscuits) so I ended up using about a cup of cake flour. I can't say yet if they make the cookies any better. I only know a bit about what makes cake flour different than regular flour. Anyhow, they turned out great. I make my cookies big, to a fault, but they were soft, fluffy and golden brown. The color seemed different, which may have been due to the flour. But they tasted great. I didn't use nuts, mainly because I didn't have any.