• Chocolate Chip Cookies  
• Fudge
• Banana Bread
• Peanut Butter & Jelly Cookies
• Red Velvet Cupcakes
• Oatmeal & Cherry Cookies
• Coconut Macaroons

Enjoy!!

• 4 large egg whites, at room temperature (important)
• 1 c. sugar
• 1/4 t. salt
• 1 t. vanilla
• 1/2 c. cake flour, sifted
• 3 c. sweetened shredded coconut

In a stainless steel bowl, placed over a saucepan of simmering water, whisk together the egg whites, sugar, and salt.  When this mixture is warm to the touch, and nice and creamy, remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract, flour, and coconut. Cover and refrigerate for about two hours, or until firm. 

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. 

Place small mounds of the batter on the parchment-lined baking sheet, spacing several inches apart.  Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove from oven and let cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes and then place on a wire rack to cool.

• 1 c. butter, softened
• 1 c. brown sugar
• 1/2 sugar
• 1 t. vanilla
• 1 1/2 c. flour
• 1 t. baking soda
• 1 t. cinnamon
• 1/2 t. salt
• 3 c. oatmeal (I use old fashioned oatmeal.  Quick oats are more processed and more finely ground, they don’t give the cookies the same texture.)
• 1 c. dried cherries – they are sometimes quite large, so cut the larger ones in half – I use kitchen shears for this, it is easier than a knife. (of course you can use raisins or another dried fruit, even nuts if you like)

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Beat together butter and sugars until creamy.  Add eggs and vanilla, beat well.  Add baking soda, cinnamon, salt and flour, mix well.  Stir in oats and cherries.  Drop rounded tablespoonsfull onto an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake 10-12 minutes until golden brown.  Cool for a minute on the cookie sheet, and removed to a wire rack to finish cooling.  Store in and air tight container.

Red Velvet Cake:

• 2 1/2 c. sifted cake flour (this is key, must be cake flour, it’s a finer grade and must sift!)
• 1/2 t. salt
• 2 T. cocoa powder
• 1/2 c. unsalted butter, at room temperature (temperature is key here)
• 1 1/2 c. sugar
• 2 large eggs (yolks & white separated)
• 1 t. vanilla extract
• 1 c. buttermilk
• 2 T. liquid red food coloring
• 1 t. white distilled vinegar
• 1 t. baking soda

Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 1 1/2 c. heavy whipping cream
• 1 – 8 oz.  cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 – 8 oz. tub of Mascarpone cheese, room temperature
• 3/4 t. vanilla
• 1 c. powdered sugar, sifted

Preheat oven to 350° F and place rack in center of oven.

Butter/grease two – 9 inch round cake pans and line the bottoms of the pans with parchment paper. Or line cupcake pan with liners. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl sift together the flour, salt, and cocoa powder. In another bowl beat the butter until soft (about 1-2 minutes). Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes). Add the eggs yolks, beating well.  Add the vanilla extract and beat until combined. In a small cup, whisk the buttermilk with the red food coloring. With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk to the butter mixture, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour. 

Beat egg whites until soft peaks form.  Fold into cake mixture. In a small cup combine the vinegar and baking soda. Allow the mixture to fizz and then quickly fold into the cake batter.  Working quickly, pour batter into prepared pans.  

Bake for approximately 25 – 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean. Cool the cakes in their pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Then remove from pan and cool on racks.

Cream Cheese Frosting

With a hand mixer, mix the cream cheese and mascarpone cheese until smooth. Add the vanilla and powdered sugar and mix until smooth. In another bowl whip the cream until stiff peaks form. With a large spatula, gently but quickly fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture  If the frosting is not thick enough to spread, cover it  and refrigerated for an hour, or until it is firm enough to spread.

• 1/2 c. butter
• 3/4 c creamy peanut butter
• 1/3 c sugar
• 1/3 c brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 T. milk
• 1 t. vanilla
• 1-1/2 c. flour
• 1 t. baking soda
• 1/2 t. salt
• jelly, your choice of flavors (you can also add mini reeses peanut butter cups, hershey’s kisses, or other fun candy!)
• sugar

Preheat oven to 375° F.

Cream together butter and peanut butter in a large bowl. Add sugar and brown sugar; beat until fluffy. Add egg, milk and vanilla; beat well. Add baking soda and salt; gradually add flour into peanut butter mixture.

Shape dough into 1-inch balls, roll in sugar and place in the cups of ungreased cupcake pan.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Immediately press a small hole in the middle of each cookie, with a spoon.  If you are using peanut butter cups or kisses, press them into the center of each cookie immediately.  You want to do this while the cookie is still soft and plyable. The cookie will crack around edges, but that’s ok. Now remove them from cup cake cups to cool.

Store in and air tight container.

• 1 c. sugar (1/2 white sugar, 1/2 brown sugar)
• 1/2 c. butter
• 3 T. buttermilk
• 2 eggs
• 1 t. vanilla
• 1/2 t. salt
• 2 c. flour
• 1 t. soda
• 2-3 ripe bananas (only use 3 if they are small)
• 1 c. nuts

I also add cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg.  I don’t know how much – just sprinkle some in at the end.  If I had to guess..it would be 1 ½ t. cinnamon, ½ t ginger, 1 t. nutmeg…but I am just making it up.

Your bananas need to be ripe, even over ripe is fine.  This what I do with bananas when they get too soft and brown to eat fresh.  Smash the bananas in a bowl using a fork. They should be pretty creamy, no large chunks of banana.  You’ll have about 1 1/2 – 2 cups of bananas.

Cream together sugar and butter.  Add eggs and beat well.  Add bananas.  Add dry ingredients, add baking soda and salt first, then flour,  and nuts. Put into 2 loaf pans, these should be greased and floured.  Bake in a slow oven (slow turns out is about 250°F)  for one hour.  Like a cake you test when these are done with a tooth pick.  Insert a toothpick in the center of the loaf, if the toothpick is clean and dry when removed – it’s done! Otherwise bake another 5-10 minutes and test again.

•  2 c. granulated white sugar
• 2 squares (2 ounces) unsweetened chocolate, chopped (you can also use cocoa 1T, 3/4 t cocoa + 1 T, 1/2 t sugar + 1 ½ t butter = 1 oz. unsweetened chocolate)
• 2 T light corn syrup
• 2/3 c half-and-half
• 2 T butter, cut into pieces                                                
• 1/8 t salt
• 1 t pure vanilla extract

Place sugar, chocolate, corn syrup, and half-and-half in a saucepan, over medium heat stir the ingredients, until it comes to a boil. Cover the pan with a lid for about 2-3 minutes to dissolve any sugar crystals.  Remove lid boil the mixture gently until the temperature reaches the soft ball stage (236 degrees F) (113 degrees C). Very important, do not stir or shake.

Remove from heat and drop the 2 tablespoons of butter on top of the fudge, do not stir the butter into the fudge.  Once the fudge has cooled to lukewarm (110 degrees F) (38 – 43 degrees C) add the vanilla extract and salt. Beat the fudge (you can do this by hand with a wooden spoon or with an electric hand mixer) until it loses its shine  Pour into a greased 8 x 8 x 2 inch pan.  Let it cool for several hours – you can rush this process by putting the fudge in the refrigerator.  Once it’s cooled, store at room temperature.  The fudge is better on day 2 or 3.

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup oatmeal-for more texture, for a soft cookie-1/2 cup flour or ground oatmeal (put it in the food processor)  Without the extra flour or oatmeal, the cookies will be flat and greasy…you can adjust the amount making them more crispy vs. cakey, but you will need more than the 2 1/4 cup.
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened (real butter people!)
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) chocolate chips
• you can use this same cookie recipe with just about anything, m&m’s, chocolate chunks, reeses pieces, white chocolate, nuts, raisins, dried apricots, or anything.

Preheat oven to 375° F.

Beat butter, eggs, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large bowl until creamy. (you can use a hand mixer, but I usually do this by hand if the butter is soft enough.  A few seconds in the microwave will make the butter soft enough to mix by hand).  Add salt and baking soda, mix well.  Add flour and oatmeal 1/2 cup at a time.  Stir in chocolate chips or other fun stuff.

Drop a rounded tablespoon onto an ungreased baking sheet.  Cookies should be about 2 ½ – 3 inches apart.

Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown.

Cool for about 8-10 minutes, or burn your lips with boiling chocolate because you just can’t wait!  

 Store in and air tight container to keep them from getting hard.

There is an entire aisle dedicated to cookbooks, so I had quite a nice time.  I purchased Buffet Catering by Charles Finance, an award-winning chef.  The book was published in 1958. Gotta love it!    There is a whole chapter on Aspic!  Beef, fish and shrimp aspic.  I’ve never had aspic…a meat Jello!  The concept is charming – “a savory jelly used to garnish meat or fish or to make a mold of meat, fish or other edibles.”  Maybe someday I’ll give it a try.

 My friends at the bookstore recommended  Janet Jarvits Cookbook store in Pasadena.  She has 30,000 used and rare cookbooks…field trip!

Be back tomorrow!