Improve your KitchenAid mixer

danish butter cookies

12/1/2019

You know those cookies in the blue tins that pop up at grocery stores and pharmacies during the holidays? Maybe you've had them at your grandma's or in the office. We all love them. Well....they're not so hard to make at home. And the results are more tender, crumbly and can be slightly less sweet than those tinned cookies. There's really no comparison with homemade.

We piped our dough into circles using a large star tip and sprinkled the top with sugar for crunch and sparkle. But you can use a smaller start tip and pipe them as bars or use a cookie press for a variety of shapes. You can also dip any shape into melted white or regular chocolate and decorate with sprinkles to dress them up. Check the end of this post for tips and options.

This recipe, slightly adapted from one by @browneyedbaker, makes about 36 cookies. They freeze well and can be kept in a sealed container at room temperature for around a week. They travel well, too - you can even fill your own tin!

VIDEO COMING SOON

ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter (room temperature)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 egg (room temperature)
2 cups all-purpose flour
granulated sugar (for sprinkling)

instructions

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two standard baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
In your stand mixer, fitted with SideSwipe or your flat beater, beat the softened butter and sugar on medium speed until combined and fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes.
Add the salt, vanilla and egg, and beat until combined, about 1 minute.
Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly add the flour until mostly combined. Give a final few stirs with a rubber spatula to ensure the flour is totally incorporated (the dough will be quite thick).
Transfer the dough to a decorating bag fitted with a large open star tip. Pipe the dough into 2-inch circles on the parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Sprinkle with sugar. TIP: This technique takes a little while and a little muscle to get the rhythm. If your first couple of tries look bad, just add the dough back into the decorating bag. Straight bars are a littler simpler, so if you're a beginning piper or have small children working with you, you may want to try straight shapes or using a cookie press.
Bake, one pan at a time, until light golden brown, 15 to 17 minutes. Allow to cool completely before storing or serving.

notes + variations

Use good-quality butter (we like Challenge and Kerrygold). Butter is the main flavor here, so if you can afford it, splurge.
You can substitute an equal amount of vanilla bean paste for the vanilla extract to give the cookies little flecks of vanilla.
Tips that will give you shapes like our photos include Wilton 1M and Ateco 827.
If you're not an experienced piper or are working with kids, try a cookie press to create a variety of cookie shapes.
You can also make sandwich cookies with these, as they are firm but tender. We filled with melted chocolate for the photos below. You might also try Nutella or white chocolate.
All shapes of these butter cookies look great dipped in chocolate and/or decorated with sprinkles. Plain is elegant, but sprinkles make them more fun!

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baked pumpkin doughnuts

10/8/2019

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Here's a pumpkin doughnut recipe that we really like for fall. Easy to put together, you can bake the batter in special doughnut pans or make them as muffins or as donut holes in your mini muffin pan. Moist, tender and packed with pumpkin and just the right amount of spice, you'll want to add these to your autumn baking rotation.

These doughnuts are delicious plain, but if you're hankering for a sweet treat, try them with the brown sugar icing. Sooo good!

This recipe is very slightly adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction. It makes 12-14 doughnuts.

ingredients

Doughnuts

1 - 3/4 cups (220g) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 -1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 cup (120ml) vegetable oil (or canola oil or melted coconut oil)
3/4 cup (150g) packed light or dark brown sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup (227g) fresh or canned pumpkin puree
1/3 cup (80ml) milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Brown Sugar Icing

3/4 cup (150g) packed light or dark brown sugar
1/4 cup (60ml) milk
1 Tablespoon (14g) unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 and 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
pinch of salt, to taste

VIDEO coming soon!

directions

Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Spray doughnut with non-stick spray. Set aside.
Make the donuts: Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice together in a large bowl until combined. Set aside.
In your stand mixer (fitted with SideSwipe) or a medium bowl, mix/whisk the oil, brown sugar, eggs, pumpkin puree, milk, and vanilla extract together until combined. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, then fold everything together gently just until combined and no flour pockets remain.
Spoon the batter into the donut cavities or for ease. We used a teaspoon, but you may prefer using a large zipped-top bag. Cut a corner off the bottom of the bag and pipe the batter into each donut cup. Fill each cavity about halfway.
Bake for 10-11 minutes or until the edges and tops are lightly browned. To test, tap your finger onto the top of the donut. If the donut bounces back, they’re done.
Cool donuts in the pan for 2 minutes then transfer to a wire rack. Re-grease the pan and bake the remaining donut batter. *For donuts holes, bake in a mini muffin tin for 8-9 minutes.
Make the icing: Combine the brown sugar, milk, and butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir until the butter has melted and mixture is smooth. Bring to a simmer. Allow to simmer for 1 minute then remove from heat and whisk in the vanilla extract and sifted confectioners’ sugar until smooth and combined. Taste, then add a pinch of salt if desired– we always add a little pinch too all our icing and frostings. Let the icing cool for 5-10 minutes to slightly thicken. Dip the tops of the pumpkin donuts into the icing. Place dipped donuts on a wire rack placed on a baking sheet so any excess icing can drip off. Top with chopped nuts or other toppings if desired. If applied lightly, the icing will eventually set in about an hour so you can stack or transport the donuts.
Don't cover the iced doughnuts until they are very cool and a little dried out. Otherwise your icing will melt and look terrible. They'll still taste delicious, though!

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chocolate chip bundt cake

9/17/2019

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This is one delicious cake. It's a family favorite that we make for parties and anytime we want something chocolatey but not too chocolatey. Best of all, it's EASY to make. It starts with a boxed cake mix and comes together quickly with SideSwipe on your KitchenAid mixer. It will be eaten just as quickly! Make this soon. Your friends and loved ones will thank you.

The recipe, adapted from one by the Cake Doctor, doesn't call for any icing. And we prefer it that way. But if you want to make it look more festive, drip a chocolate ganache over it as we did for the photos.

ingredients

1 bar (4 oz) German Chocolate or dark chocolate
1 package yellow cake mix
1 package vanilla instant pudding mix
1 cup whole milk, room temperature
1 cup vegetable oil
4 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup (6 oz) semisweet chocolate chips

directions

Place rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 325 degrees F.
Lightly mist 10-inch tube or bundt pan (or 3 eight in loaf pans) with vegetable oil spray, then dust with flour. (or use spray with flour)
Break German chocolate bar into four pieces. Grate the bar in food processor or with hand grater until the bar is finely grated. If using the food processor, insert the steel blade and drop the chocolate pieces into the processor one at a time.
In your stand mixer fitted with SideSwipe, add cake mix, pudding mix and oil. Mix on low to medium speed until combined. Add eggs one at a time and mix until thoroughly combined.
Add grated chocolate and mix on medium speed 1-2 minutes more. On lowest speed, allow the mixer and SideSwipe to fold in whole chocolate chips.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing it out with a rubber spatula and place in the oven.
Bake the cake until it's golden brown and springs back lightly when pressed with your finger, 58 to 60 mins for tube or bundt pan (50 to 52 mins for loaf pans). Once you remove it from the oven, place on cooling wrack and cool for about 20 mins, then serve.
You can store this cake in a sealed container up to one week. It also can be frozen for up to 3 months.

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Maple Pecan Cookies

9/10/2019

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These tender and chewy cookies are the perfect way to ease you into fall. They're loaded with maple flavor and studded with the crunch of toasted chopped pecans. Plus we top them with icing made with real maple syrup. If you're a maple fan - and even if you're not - you must try a batch of these! Perfect for tailgates, after school, bake sales, party treats and rainy Thursdays. Or by the campfire. Or breakfast - they're basically pancakes, right? So delicious.

On thing that may concern you in the recipe is the addition of artificial maple flavor as well as real maple syrup. Never fear. This addition amps up the maple flavor without it tasting like that artificial stuff we all grew up with. It just enhances the natural goodness of maple. You can find the flavoring in the baking section. My usual supermarket begins to carry it this time of year. You can also order it online.

Because the recipe, very slightly adapted from one from Sally's Baking Addiction, includes the extra liquid of the syrup, you MUST chill the dough in order for the moisture to incorporate into the dough.

Expect about a 4 hour turnaround time to make and glaze these cookies. Around 15 minutes to prep and mix, 2 hours to chill, another 15 to scoop plus baking time. We got about 30 cookies from our batch using a 1.5T scoop.

Make ahead directions: We made the dough one day, popped it in the fridge, then baked up batches over two days. You'll want to allow the dough to sit out for about 30 minutes so you can scoop and bake easily.

ingredients

Cookie Dough

2 and 1/3 cups (290g) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (115g; 1 stick) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1 cup (200g) packed dark or light brown sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1/3 cup (80ml) pure maple syrup
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon maple extract
1 cup (130g) chopped pecans

Maple Icing

2 Tablespoons (30g) unsalted butter
1/3 cup (80ml) pure maple syrup
1 cup (112g) sifted confectioners’ sugar
pinch salt, to taste

directions

Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
Using a stand mixer fitted with SideSwipe or your paddle attachment, cream the butter and brown sugar together on medium speed until smooth, about 1-2 minutes.
Add the egg and beat on medium-high until combined, about 30 seconds.
Add the maple syrup, vanilla extract, and maple extract, then beat on high speed until combined.
Add the dry ingredients all at once with the mixer stopped, then mix on low until combined.
Add the pecans, then beat on low speed until combined. Dough will be creamy and soft.
Cover and chill the dough for 2 hours in the refrigerator (and up to 3-4 days). If chilling for longer than a few hours, though, allow to sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before scooping/rolling and baking because the dough will be quite hard.
Heat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line 2-3 large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
Roll cookie dough into balls or use metal scoop, about 1.5 Tablespoons of dough per cookie. Bake each batch for 11-13 minutes until lightly browned on the sides. The centers will look very soft.
Remove from the oven. If your warm cookies look puffy, lightly bang the pan on the counter when you remove it from the oven. That will help slightly deflate the cookies, creating lovely cracks as you see in the pictured cookies. Cool cookies on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Make the icing: In a small saucepan over low heat, melt the butter and maple syrup together, whisking occasionally. Once the butter has melted, remove from heat and whisk in the sifted confectioners’ sugar. Taste. Add a pinch of salt, if desired. Drizzle over cooled cookies. Icing will set after about 1 hour. ALTERNATELY, with very soft butter, whisk together the butter and syrup until smooth and combined. Add confectioners sugar and whisk until smooth. Drizzle over cooled cookies. This is what we did and found it worked perfectly well.

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danish butter cookies

ingredients

instructions

notes + variations

baked pumpkin doughnuts

ingredients

directions

chocolate chip bundt cake

ingredients

directions

Maple Pecan Cookies

ingredients

directions

Recipes and mixing tips

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