Birthday Sprinkles Cookies

Dagan requested these cookies for his birthday. They are soft vanilla bean cookies with colorful sprinkles. I used the leftover sprinkles from a lot of different jars so there are jimmies, multicolored sprinkles, Valentine hearts, butterflies and fall leaves. The sprinkles are mixed into the batter and sprinkled on the top.

Leche Frita (Fried Milk)

Our studies of Spain led us to make this dessert. Leche Frita is translated as, "fried milk." First we made the custard and then refrigerated it overnight. Then we cut out star shapes and dipped them in flour. Finally, we fried them in oil and then sprinkled them with cinnamon and sugar. They were so delicious that we burned our tongues because we couldn't wait for them to cool.

Cocoa Mochi

A New Year's tradition in our family is to eat mochi. My mother says that it helps us to, "stick together." This year I tried out a cocoa mochi recipe. We don't have the means to pound our own mochi from rice so I find making baked mochi or buying it at the store, the next best ideas. In the past I have made coconut custard mochi, butter mochi, and tri- colored mochi. They all use mochiko (a sweet rice flour) and coconut milk. This recipe turned out more like a springy cake. I think it was due to it having 2 eggs instead of 4 like the butter mochi. The chocolate flavor was very light.

Polvorones- Spanish Walnut Cookies

I've made these cookies many times before. They are also called Mexican wedding cookies, Russian tea cookies or snowballs. In Spain they are known as Polvorones which means pulverized. We are studying Spain this month and were happy to make them again. These cookies are made of ground and chopped walnuts, flour, butter and vanilla extract. They are rolled in powdered sugar when they come out of the oven.  I usually have all of these handy in the cupboard.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins- Regular and Minis

These are the boys' favorite muffins. I made them twice this week. The first time I made them as minis and baked the left over batter in a mini loaf pan. The second time I made regular sized muffins.  They are easy to make. Sometimes I bake them the night before and the boys can easily eat them for breakfast when they get up the next morning.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Makes 12 regular sized muffins or 24 mini muffins and 1 mini loaf

Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup sugar

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup milk (I use soymilk)

1 egg, slightly beaten

1/6 cup vegetable oil

1/6 cup unsweetened applesauce

3/4 cup mashed bananas (about 2)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

1/2 cup semi- sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line muffin tins with paper liners. 

2. In a large bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder and salt.

3. In a medium bowl, beat egg, milk, oil, applesauce, and mashed bananas together.

4. Mix wet ingredients into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in chocolate chips.

5. Spoon batter into muffin tins. Bake for 15 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool on wire rack.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Vanilla Swirl Swiss Buttercream

Dagan came up with the idea to make these cupcakes. We were at home on New Years Eve, just the two of us and he exclaimed that he wanted to bake! Planning, measuring, mixing, piping and sprinkling we had such a great time. We even took some over to share with our neighbors.

Oatmeal Raisin Scones

Caramel Ice Cream with Cinnamon Star Cookie

Holiday Baking with Kids

Soft Pretzels

 

Cookies for Santa

 

Cookies for Family and Friends

We baked pretzels because we were studying Germany during the month of December. The boys shaped them and then later came up with ideas of what they looked like- a spaceship, an acorn, a face, to name a few. 

We baked sugar cookies using the cutters I grew up with as a child. The boys accidentally used bread flour instead of all purpose. We decided it was a good opportunity to experiment. We made another batch using all purpose flour. The bread flour cookies were darker, took longer to bake and were a little more dense with a slightly wheaty taste. The all purpose cookies were lighter, darkened at the tips, and the vanilla flavor more prominent. I liked the traditional recipe better but I don't think many people would even tell the difference unless you told them.

Sea Salt Caramels (Taramels)

I've made these quite a few times and now they are a holiday tradition in our family. I used to be one of those people who bit into chocolate and upon finding caramel in it, promptly gave it to someone else. I now realize that not all caramel is the same. Soft, buttery, melt in your mouth caramel, yes please. Hard or chewy caramel, no thanks. The boys have become my little elves, placing the salt on each piece and wrapping them in parchment paper.