Game Day Dips and Spreads

Any one of these dips or spreads would be perfect for game day. They are all easy to make and I guarantee they are delicious. They are so simple that there's still have time to make and enjoy them with your family and friends this afternoon. Without further here are some of my favorite quick dips and spreads.

Light and Chunky Clam Dip

Bizcochitos

My Thought for the Day can be found, here. If you like it, give us a thumbs up and share it with your friends.

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...This is the third and last of the recipes that I'll be featuring for bizcochitos this year. It comes from Jen's Favorite Cookies and it is my favorite of all the versions I tested. Bizcochitos are the state cookie of New Mexicao, and this traditional lemon and anise treat is a regional favorite that is served during the celebration of Cinco de Mayo. Jen's version has a slightly different texture than the others  because it uses less sugar  and it is made with shortening rather than butter. The cookie was originally made with lard. This is a perfect biscuit for those who prefer their treats on the less sweet side and they are wonderful served with coffee or tea. Bizcochitos are easy to make but I find them difficult to roll out because the dough is so soft. Keep the dough as cold as possible and roll it on a heavily floured board to keep sticking to a minimum. The process is irksome, but definitely worth it. Here is how this version of Bizcochitos is  made.

Bizcochitos ...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite courtesy of Jen's Favorite Cookies

Ingredients:
Cookie Dough
1 cup shortening
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon anise seeds, crushed
zest of 1 lemon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
2-1/2 cups flour
Cinnamon-Sugar Mixture
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup sugar

Directions:
1) Cream shortening and sugar.
2) Add eggs and vanilla and mix well.
3) Add anise and lemon zest, and mix well. Add salt and baking powder and mix well.
4) Add flour a bit at a time, mixing to incorporate. Dough will be stiff.
5) Wrap in plastic or parchment paper and chill for 30-60 minutes.
6) Meanwhile, combine cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl.
7) Roll onto a lightly floured surface, to about 1/4-inch thickness, and cut shapes. Place on baking sheet, and sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar mixture.
8) Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes. Cool on wire racks.









One Year Ago Today: Orange Blossom Sheet Cake














Two Years Ago Today: Roasted Strawberry and Cream Cheesecake













Three Years Ago Today: Strawberry Tea Bread















Four Years Ago Today: Circassian Chicken

Anise Butter Cutouts

My Thought for the Day can be found, here. If you like it, give us a thumbs up.

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...This lovely cookie is a riff on the bizcochitos that are served during Cinco de Mayo celebrations in the Southwestern United States. I have several recipes for cookies of this type. Authentic versions are made with lard and the cutters used to shape them are more elaborate than the 2-1/2 inch molds that I use. Fortunately, this cookie is about flavor rather than appearance, and I know those of you who enjoy barely sweet treats will love these anise flavored gems. They are perfect with afternoon coffee or tea and they transport reasonably well. That makes them a great candidate for bake sales or morning meetings. The recipe is straight forward and easy to follow, but be sure to work on a well-floured board in order to prevent the dough from sticking to the surface on which it is rolled. I hope you'll give this recipe a try. It makes a nice cookie. Here is how to make the anise butter cutouts.

Anise Butter Cutouts...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite inspired by Taste of Home Baking cookbook

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, divided use
1 egg
2 tablespoons thawed orange juice concentrate
2 teaspoons aniseed, crushed
3 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2) In a large bowl, cream butter and 1-1/2 cups sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in orange juice concentrate and aniseed.
3) Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well.
4) On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut with a floured 2-1/2-inch round cookie cutter. Place 1 inch apart on ungreased baking sheets.
5) Combine cinnamon and remaining sugar; sprinkle over cookies. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to wire racks. Yield: 2-1/2 dozen.










One Year Ago Today: Moroccan Spiced Carrots














Two Years Ago Today: Cream of Tomato Soup with Fresh Basil













Three Years Ago Today: Blueberry Glace Pie

Triple-Peanut Peanut Butter Cookies

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...If I still packed lunchboxes, or their brown bag alternative, I guarantee you'd find this confection carefully wrapped and tucked between the sandwiches and fruit of our standard box lunch fare. There are a score of recipes for this triple-peanut cookie, and, over the years, I think I've tried every single one of them. I love peanut butter cookies and I stumbled on this kid-friendly version last year. It immediately became a favorite in my kitchen. The recipe was developed by Kate Ramos and I found it the CHOW website. The cookie is less sweet than most and I love its texture and intense peanut flavor. While the cookie has crisp edges, the center remains soft and chewy and is perfect with a glass of milk. These cookies are very easy to make, but you'll have to keep an eye on them as they bake. They'll probably need more time than is suggested in the recipe. I baked mine in a conventional oven on half-sheet pans and they needed 15 to 18 minutes to set. One of these days, hopefully before my 80th birthday, I'll get real cookie sheets and be able to see what happens when cookies are baked on a thin metal surface. Till then, vigilance will remain my watchword. I know those of you who try these cookies will love them. They are easy to make and they'll disappear long before they can stale. They would be a lovely treat for the first day of school. Here's how they are made.

Triple-Peanut Peanut Butter Cookies...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite courtesy of Kate Ramos via CHOW

Ingredients:
1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick), at room temperature
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup roasted, salted peanuts, coarsely chopped
1 cup peanut butter chips
1 tablespoon sanding sugar, for sprinkling

Directions:
1) Adjust a rack to middle third of oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2) Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl and set aside.
3) Combine butter and sugars in bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat on medium high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down sides of bowl. Add eggs, peanut butter, and vanilla and beat on medium speed until thoroughly combined. Add flour mixture and beat on low until incorporated. Scrape down sides of the bowl. Add peanuts and peanut butter chips, and mix on low, just until incorporated.
4) Scoop dough into heaping tablespoon-sized balls and drop about 1 inch apart onto ungreased baking sheets. Sprinkle with sanding sugar and bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until brown on the edges but soft in middle. Transfer to a rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough. Yield: 48 cookies.

One Year Ago Today: Savory Monkey Bread

Two Years Ago Today: Sweet Raspberry Tea

Three Years Ago Today: Uptown Hoe Cakes with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

Browned Butter Brown Sugar Cookies

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...This is another cookie jar favorite that I know our grandsons will enjoy. As a matter of fact, if I had to limit myself to a single kind of cookie for the for the remainder of my life, these brown sugar treasures would be my choice. I think they are fantastic. They are crispy, chewy, buttery, and delicious. Simply stated, they are everything I want a cookie to be. The brown butter gives them a rich, nutty taste without adding enormously to the complexity of the recipe. It has to be watched carefully, to be sure, but it is not a difficult task to accomplish. Your cookies will have better texture if you use a soft, fresh brown sugar that is easy to work. The only problem I've ever had with this recipe, is that the cookies tend to run together when they are baked twelve to a cookie sheet. I've solved that by only baking six per pan. Genius is like that. It takes a bit more time, but if appearances are important, it is worth the extra time. These cookies are good keepers when they are stored in an airtight container. I have also frozen baked cookies with some success. I hope you will try this recipe. It comes from Cook's Illustrated, so you know it has been thoroughly tested and is trouble free. I suspect that those of you who try it will be really pleased with the results. Here's the recipe.

Browned Butter Brown Sugar Cookies...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite courtesy of Cook's Illustrated, More Best Recipes

Ingredients:
14 tablespoons unsalted butter (1-3/4 sticks)
1/4 cup granulated sugar (about 1-3/4 ounces)
2 cups packed dark brown sugar (14 ounces), divided*
2 cups + 2 tablespoons, unbleached all-purpose flour (about 10 1/2 ounces)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Directions:
1) Adjust oven racks to middle and lower middle position. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 large (18 by 12-inch) baking sheets with parchment paper. In shallow dish or pie plate, mix granulated sugar and 1/4 cup packed brown sugar, rubbing between fingers, to combined. Cover with plastic wrap. Whisk flour, baking soda, and baking powder together in medium bowl. Set aside.
2) Heat 10 tablespoons butter in 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat until melted. Continue to cook, swirling pan constantly until butter it is golden brown (it should smell nutty), 1 to 3 minutes. Watch butter carefully as it can go from brown to burnt quickly. Remove from heat and pour browned butter to large heat-proof bowl. Add remaining 4 tablespoons of butter and mix until melted. Cool for 15 minutes.
3) Add remaining 1-3/4 cups brown sugar and salt to bowl with cooled butter. Mix until no sugar lumps remain, scraping down sides of bowl with rubber spatula. Add whole egg, egg yolk and vanilla extract, mixing well to incorporate. Batter should go from a dark brown color to light. Scrape down bowl. Add flour mixture and mix to just combined. Give dough one final stir with spatula to distribute any remaining dry ingredients.
Divide dough into 24 portions, each about 2 tablespoons (2 tablespoon ice cream/cookie scoop works well here). Shape into balls. Working in batches, roll 12 balls in sugar/brown sugar mixture to coat. Distribute 6 dough balls per baking sheet.
4) Bake two sheets at a time, rotating half way though, until cookies are browned and puffy, about 12 to14 minutes. Edges of cookies should start to set and centers will look soft (cookies will look raw in cracks). It is important not over-bake.
5) Cool cookies on baking sheet 5 minutes. Remove from pan to wire rack and cool completely. Repeat above steps, starting with rolling remaining dough balls in sugar mixture. Baking pans can be re-used after baked cookies have been removed. Parchment can also be re-used for second batch. Cookies can be stored in an air tight container. Yield 24 cookies.

One Year Ago Today: Cuban-Style Pork Roast

Two Years Ago Today: Shrimp and Creamy Grits

Three Years Ago Today: Pistachio Chicken Salad with Goat Cheese

Peanut Butter Cookies with Peanut and Milk Chocolate Morsels

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...I'm afraid my grandson's aren't fans of the European-style cookies I usually feature here, so it behooved this grandma to get with the program and make something that's worthy of the cookie jar this summer. Longtime readers of my blog know that back in the day my family had a cookie jar we called Alonso. He was named after a pig who achieved some attention in the 40's because he was included in a verse much like the one that featured the Purple Cow.  At any rate, when Alonso was empty my mother would declare that it was time to feed the pig and he would be stuffed again.  The need to feed the proverbial pig led me  to the library in search of kid-friendly cookie recipes. I did some poking around and found the recipe for these peanut butter cookies in the Magnolia Bakery Cookbook.  This is a sweet and very interesting cookie. The cookies have  crisp edges,  but a soft, almost cake-like interior that's given some texture by the nuts and morsels that are folded into the dough. While the cookie is too sweet for my taste, the Silver Fox and the neighborhood cookie monsters have assured me that these will be perfect for the grandchildren, so space was made for them in my luggage and a batch of them made the trip east with us. Those of you who have a demanding sweet tooth will really enjoy these cookies. I hope you'll give them a try. Here's the recipe.

Peanut Butter Cookies with Peanut and Milk Chocolate Morsels...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite courtesy of Magnolia Bakery Cookbook

Ingredients:
1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup chunky peanut butter
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 large eggs
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup peanut butter morsels ( peanut butter chips)
1/2 cup milk chocolate morsels
1/4 cup chopped peanuts
1/4 cup sugar ( approximately, for rolling)

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2) In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
3) In a large bowl, beat butter and the peanut butter together until fluffy.
4) Add both types of sugar and beat until smooth. Add egg, milk and vanilla extract and mix well. Add flour mixture and beat thoroughly. Stir in peanut butter and milk chocolate morsels. Stir in peanuts.
5) Refrigerate dough for 10-20 minutes. Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls into a bowl of granulated sugar.
6) Place onto ungreased cookie sheets, at least two inches apart. Using a fork, lightly indent with a criss-cross pattern (do not over flatten).
7) Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Do not overbake. Cookies may appear to be underdone but they will continue to bake after removed from oven.
8) Cool cookies on the sheets for 1 minute, then remove to a rack to cool completely.
Yield: 3 dozen cookies.

One Year Ago Today: Chocolate-Caramel Crunch Cake

Two Years Ago Today: Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

Three Years Ago Today: Ice Cream Crunch Cake

Welfare Cookies and A Reflection on Poverty

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...Poverty has many faces. The most wrenching are, of course, those of hungry children whose empty eyes speak volumes without words. There are, however, other faces to which we have become enured or chosen not to see. My first encounter with real poverty came as a high school freshman. A service project took my class to Hull House, where we spent a year of Saturdays working with preschool children from the nearby Jane Addams Homes, one of Chicago's first housing projects. One of our tasks was to escort the children to and from the settlement house and those walks taught me a lot about attitude and the way it is worn. Some of the project poor wore masks of arrogance and indifference. Others, beaten down by circumstance, had given up the fight, and in surrender donned masks that were etched with weariness and a quiet despair. In both cases, the masks hid a gut-wrenching fear of tomorrow and what it might or not might bring. As newlyweds, Bob and I spent weeks hiking in Appalachia and learned that the uneducated can forever be kept poor. Housed in shacks, their reality was hidden by the masks of ignorance and pride they donned while rocking in their porch chairs. What was thought to be stupidity simply masked another type of fear. The Bronx was still burning when we moved to the East coast, and while not condoning what we saw, understood fully why it was happening. Sometimes poverty wears a mask of rage so fierce that it implodes and self-destructs. Over the years, we cast a wider net and our adventures led us to abject, numbing poverty of Cambodia and the stacked slums and filthy water of Kathmandu. On these trips, we've learned that despite a shared fate, climate and altitude can change the face of poverty. Those living at higher elevations seem more energetic than those begging on the valley floor, and not surprisingly, the faces of the religious poor are more serene than those of non-believers. Yesterday, I was re-introduced to the face of the working poor.

We've recently had heavy rains in Oregon. Despite the downpour, we decided to get out and drive along a really scenic stretch of the Siuslaw River. That put us on Highway 36, a route that is peppered with small dying mill towns and boarded and abandoned homes. We make this drive two or three times a year, and couldn't help but notice an increase in abandoned properties. Judging from the swings and basketball hoops in the yards, what was once a problem for the elderly has trickled down to the working poor who can no longer afford even these modest properties.

We stopped for some coffee. Two little guys, I'd guess them to be 8 to 10 years old, were riding bikes through puddles in the pockmarked parking lot. They were as clean as boys that age can ever be, but their clothes looked tired and were either hand-me-downs or thrift shop finds. What caught my eye was that one of them was riding a pink bicycle. He was remarkably sociable and told me the bike was new and that his dad was going to paint it for him when the weather broke. You would have been charmed by this child. Trust me. Born from another womb, he'd be fraternity president in another 10 years. Unfortunately, cream can't always rise to the top in our pasteurized, homogenized society. I hope the fates and furies will be kind to him. His mom clerked in the store and he insisted we try her cookies. She makes the cookies to supplement the family income. She calls it her egg money. The recipe actually belonged to her mother who found it on the back of a can of welfare peanut butter. The cookies are great, though I must admit I was so charmed by the company, my judgment might be impaired. I thought some of you might like to try them. All of the USDA recipes can be found here. Here's the version of the recipe that was used to make the cookies we had yesterday. I followed it exactly save for adding a teaspoon of vanilla to the ingredient list.



Welfare Peanut Butter Cookies...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite, courtesy of the USDA

Ingredients:
2-1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup margarine, butter, or shortening
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2) Whisk flour, salt, and baking soda together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
3) Mix fat and peanut butter in the bowl of an electric stand mixer. Add both kinds of sugar. Mix well. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat well after each addition.
4) Stir flour mixture into peanut butter mixture.
5) Drop dough from a teaspoon on baking pan. Flatten with a fork.
6) Bake 10 to 15 minutes, or until lightly browned. Yield: 4 to 5 dozen cookies.

Your might also enjoy these recipes:
Top Chef Worthy Peanut Butter Cookies - Cookie Madness
Tuesday's with Dorie: Peanut Butter Crisscrosses - A Whisk and A Spoon
Honey Peanut Butter Cookies - Baking Bites
Big, Super Nutty Peanut Butter Cookies - The Culinary Chronicles
Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies - Within the Kitchen
Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookies - The Baking Beauties
Over the Top Reese's Peanut Butter Cookies - Real Mom Kitchen
Peanut Butter Cookies with Ketchup - Cookie Madness
Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies - Gonna Want Seconds
Peanut Butter Chocolate Kiss Cookies - The Comfort of Cooking

This post is being linked to:
Smiling Sally - Blue Monday