Homemade Graham Crackers

Graham Crackers… smear some peanut butter or cream cheese and you have a instant snack for kids..  but to often they don’t fit into the grocery budget..  there is no way I am spending over three bucks for a box of crackers that they inhale in less than three minutes,  My kids love snacks and I like to have things around that are healthy and not full of additives that so many of the premade snacks have in them.  So I try and have oatmeal cookies or bars that I have slipped in carrots so at least they are getting some sort of nutrition that isn’t processed to the hilt. And is cheap.. not cheaply made but low in cost.

 When my oldest was a baby I came across a graham cracker recipe that was awesome but during our many moves and my lack of keeping things safe I lost it.... it has been my mission this spring to find the perfect recipe to make….  And remove one more store bought product that I can make at home off my list.

Gather you ingredients

Cream your butter and sugar

Add your Vanilla

In large mixing bowl add your flours, salt, baking powder, baking soda. Mix well

Add your flour mixture alternately with the milk. spill half of it on your counter....

Chill….

Dust your counter with flour generously, divide the dough and roll out to approximately 15” by 20” or until your dough is no more than 1/8 of a inch thick…

if your dough starts to stick to the counter roll up on your rolling pin like you would pie dough and sprinkle more flour…

Cut to desired size and prick a fork all over

Bake 10 to 15 minuets let cool and enjoy!!!

Print Recipe

Recipe

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups whole wheat flour

 1 cup all-purpose flour

 1 teaspoon baking powder

 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

 1 teaspoon salt

 1 cup milk

Directions

1.        In a medium bowl, cream together the shortening and brown sugar. Stir in the vanilla. Combine the whole wheat flour, all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, stir into the creamed mixture alternately with the milk. Cover and chill dough until firm.

2.      Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut into rectangles. Place 1/2 inch apart onto the prepared cookie sheets.

3.      Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, or until crisp. Edges will be golden brown. Remove from baking sheet to cool on wire racks.

Toppings :

2 Tablespoons of sugar

2 Teaspoons of cinnamon

Sprinkle  over rolled out dough before cutting then proceed as directed.

New York Cheesecake

Turtle Cheesecake

Desserts… Oh I love to make them.. You would think by looking at me I love to eat them too but no.. I might take a piece  of cake to see if it turned out the way I wanted or eat a cookie out of the six dozen I make but my true joy is watching other people scarf it down. (and for them to get fat muuuhhaaaaa) I shy away from decorated cakes unless it is for my kids, nephews or nieces birthday because really I can’t conquer that piping thingamajig that just over all baffles me.. I would love too and one day I will take a class on cake decorating but for now I just stick with drizzling chocolate over a bunt cake..  or sticking army men in a battle scene on top of a sheet cake.

 To me looks is nice but taste and texture is so much more important…. A chocolate cake needs to be dense and moist. An angel food cake needs to be light yet full of flavor and not leave that bitter after taste that so many of those packaged and store bought cakes leave. A cheesecake needs to be light, smooth and creamy and leave you wanting more… The latter is my favorite cake to make, with only five ingredients you can have a elegant cake that can be covered in fresh fruit or merely eaten plain.

 And they look pretty too!

I’m throwing a baby shower this week and even though it isn’t the norm to have cheesecakes for the dessert I knew I was going to be pressed for time and cheesecakes is the perfect dessert. I usually like to wait at least 48 hours after I make them to serve and this way I can do them a day or two ahead of time and still have time to get behind on all the other stuff. No Knead Bread is another make-ahead recipe that I love for times like this.

I make mine with a shortbread crust...

I forgotten to take the pictures of making of the crust so this is after I have made the dough (recipe follows) greased the pans and patted my crust into them.

                          Prick holes on the bottom of your crust with a fork...
                 

 Bake at 425 for 15 mins..

                                                             Tada!!

                Here we have our cream cheese, sugar, eggs, flour and whipping cream.  

In a large mixing bowl have your cream cheese, flour  and sugar  (remove child)

Mix well on low speed.. Cheesecakes crack when there is too much air whipped into them.. they also crack when they are cooked at high temps too, or if you don’t grease your pans, cooled down to fast, the wind is blowing from the west or if you sneeze when you first wake up in the morning.. but the beauty of cheese cake is you can cover it with anything and it tastes the same with cracks and with out them…  

Scrape down the sides of your bowl and add five eggs one at a time scraping down the bowl after each egg..

Add two egg yolks.. mix well

Add ½ cup of heavy whipping cream ( if you don’t have whipping cream half & half works just as good but I had some to make buttermilk with)

Pour into pan and bake at 425 for 10 minutes then reduce heat to 200 and cook for 1 hour.

The middle of the cheesecake will be jiggling ( like my thighs) once your hour is up but just turn the oven off and leave the cheese cake in with the door cracked for anouther hour.. since I have little fingers that stick into everything I leave mine in with the door closed until I remember it several hours later and then finally wrap it up and put it in the fridge..

Cheesecake with Raspberry sauce

                 

Print Recipe

Recipe:  

Shortbread crust:

1 1/4 Cups All-purpose Flour

1/3 Cup White Sugar

1 Stick Of Butter

1 Egg Yolk

Directions:



Combine 1 1/4 cups flour, 1/3 cup sugar and one stick of butter in food processor. mix till small crumbs form. Add egg yolk and mix until you can form the dough into a ball. I like to pick up my processor and tilt in back and forth to throughly mix.. if one egg yolks doesn't work ( and it never for me because I am a sloby messurer) add one more. Spread to the edges of the pan. Prick all over with a fork, then bake 15 minutes at 425 degrees F.



Cheesecake:

2 1/2 Pounds Cream Cheese, Softened

1 3/4 Cups White Sugar

3 Tablespoons All-purpose Flour

5 Eggs

2 Egg Yolks

1/2 Cup Heavy Whipping Cream

Directions:

 In a large bowl, Beat cream cheese, until smooth add 1 3/4 cups sugar, 3 tablespoons flour, then one at a time add 5 eggs and the yolks and mix thoroughly. Stir in the cream and mix only enough to blend.

Pour filling over crust and bake for 10 minutes at 425 degrees F. Reduce temperature to 200 degrees F. and continue to bake for one hour. Turn oven off, but leave cake in for another hour

Butter

Butter… luscious sweet creamy butter…

Butter on baked potatoes, butter on fresh baked bread, butter smothering green beans, pea’s, corn, brussels sprouts…

Butter…  elixir of the gods…..

Hindu gods….

Sometimes I feel like Gollum… and I guess in a way I am.. where some women get all giddy and swoon over jewelry I do that with butter… as I stack it in the fridge I find myself petting it and whispering my preeeeciousssssssss then quickly look up to find one of my kids wondering if I finally cracked… but really.. butter is a magical thing..  with I know I can make everything more tasteful, fattening and fluffy… Like ME!! Only I am not tasteful… not in the slightest .

Ask Zoe’s doll.

I look in the fridge and count the sticks..

“If I make cookies I will have 8 left, for tomorrows dinner I need one.. so this means I could make those cakes and put in the freezer… freezer.. oh! LOOK! I have three lbs in there!”  then I am happy.. I set off to bake for the day knowing that I have enough to last me..

I sound like a addict.. wow..

But lets look at butter.. and it’s alternative evil margarine.

 Margarine was originally manufactured to fatten turkeys. When it killed the turkeys, the people who had put all the money into the research wanted a payback so they put their heads together to figure out what to do with this product to get their money back. It was a white substance with no food appeal so they added the yellow coloring and sold it to people to use in place of butter.  the difference between margarine and butter?  Both have the same amount of calories. Butter is slightly higher in saturated fats at 8 grams compared to 5 grams. Eating margarine can increase heart disease in women by 53% over eating the same amount of butter,   Eating butter increases the absorption of many other nutrients in other foods... Butter has many nutritional benefits where margarine has a few only because they are added Butter has been around for centuries where margarine has been around for less than 100 years.  And now, for Margarine...  
Very high in trans fatty acids.
Triple risk of coronary heart disease 
Increases total cholesterol and LDL (this is the bad cholesterol) and lowers HDL cholesterol, (the good cholesterol) and increases the risk of cancers up to five fold.
Lowers quality of breast milk.
Decreases immune response.
Decreases insulin response.
And here's the most disturbing fact....
Margarine is but one molecule away from being plastic.   This fact alone was enough to have me avoiding margarine for life and anything else that is hydrogenated.

That pretty much means anything that is processed in my book. Chips, breads, prepackaged foods… I think it is easier to list the things that don’t have hydrogenated oils in them……

I wonder what those researchers thought when the turkeys died…  Lets feed it to PEOPLE!! And what did we do? Scarf it up like a bunch of pigs..

Oh no that is offensive.. I think even the pigs would know not to eat it.