Almond Joy cookies

Photo credit Friday is Cake Night

These are easy to make either dairy free or with dairy. Just sub the butter and chocolate chips with dairy free versions.

Makes 30 cookies.

Ingredients

• ½ cup butter, softened
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp coconut extract
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 1¾ cups flour
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• ¾ cup sweetened flaked coconut
• ¾ cup shaved almonds

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Cream the butter and sugars. Add the egg and both extracts until fully combined.
3. Add the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Stir together.
4. Stir in the chocolate chips, coconut and almonds.
5. Using a cookie scoop or spoon, form the dough into 30 balls. Place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and press down slightly.
6. Bake for 10 minutes. Let the cookies sit on the sheet for 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.

Chocolate Coconut Milk ice cream

Makes 6 servings (fits in my 2 qt ice cream maker)

Ingredients

3 (15 oz) cans full fat coconut milk

3/4 cup honey, agave nectar, or granulated sugar

3/8 tsp salt

3 T cornstarch

2-1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 cup dairy free chocolate chips, nuts, etc.

Directions

1. Shake the cans of coconut milk thoroughly before opening. Scoop out 1/2 cup of coconut milk and set it aside. Combine the remaining coconut milk, agave or honey, cocoa powder, and salt in a saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium-low heat until the sweetener thins and is easily mixed into the coconut milk, about 2 minutes.

2. In a small bowl, whisk remaining 1/2 cup coconut milk with the cornstarch until well combined. Stir into the warm coconut milk base and cook until over medium heat until the mixture begins to thicken — enough so that it coats the back of a spoon, 6 to 8 minutes. Do not to allow the mixture to boil. Whisk in the vanilla extract.

3. Remove from the heat and pour the coconut base into a separate bowl. Allow to cool on the counter for 30 minutes, then cover with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 4 to 5 hours — you need the base to be very cold before you process it in the ice cream machine.

4. Churn the mixture in your ice cream machine following the manufacturer’s instructions. Add the chocolate chunks at the very end. When thickened to an soft-serve ice cream consistency, spread into a large loaf pan (or pie pan) and freeze for a few more hours (or overnight) until the ice cream has firmed up completely.

Perfect Popcorn

Ingredients

3 T coconut oil (or other high smoke point oil)

1/2 cup popcorn kernels

1 T (or more) of butter

Salt to taste

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a 3-quart saucepan on medium high heat. If you are using coconut oil, allow all of the solid oil to melt.

2.  Put 3 or 4 popcorn kernels into the oil and cover the pan.

3. When the kernels pop, add the rest of the 1/3 cup of popcorn kernels in an even layer. Cover, remove from heat and count 30 seconds. This method first heats the oil to the right temperature, then waiting 30 seconds brings all of the other kernels to a near-popping temperature so that when they are put back on the heat, they all pop at about the same time.

4. Return the pan to the heat. The popcorn should begin popping soon, and all at once. Once the popping starts in earnest, gently shake the pan by moving it back and forth over the burner.

Try to keep the lid slightly ajar to let the steam from the popcorn release (the popcorn will be drier and crisper).

Once the popping slows to several seconds between pops, remove the pan from the heat, remove the lid, and dump the popcorn immediately into a wide bowl. With this technique, nearly all of the kernels pop, and nothing burns.

5. If you are adding butter, you can easily melt it by placing the butter in the now empty, but hot pan. Note that if you let the butter get just a little bit brown, it will add an even more intense, buttery flavor to the butter and to your popcorn. Just drizzle the melted butter over the popcorn and toss to distribute. Salt to taste.

Read more: http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/perfect_popcorn/#ixzz3n0Sh7XlD

Phil's Ice Cream

juice of 4 lemons
2 cans evaporated milk
4 cups fruit
1 qt. whole milk
4 cups sugar
1 pint whipping cream


Put in fruit and lemon juice when mixture is slushy.

90-minute Cinnamon Rolls

Ingredients:

3/4 cup milk

1/4 cup butter

3-1/4 cup flour

2-1/4 tsp. instant yeast (or 1 packet)

1/4 cup white sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup water

1 egg

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1 T cinnamon

1/2 cup butter, softened

Directions:

1. Heat milk in a small saucepan until it bubbles, then remove from heat. Mix in butter; stir until meted. Let cool until lukewarm.

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine 2-1/4 cup flour, yeast, sugar, and salt; mix well. Add water, egg, and the milk mixture; beat well. Add the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring well after each addition. When the dough has just pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth, about 5 minutes.

3. Cover the dough with a damp cloth and let rest for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, cinnamon, and softened butter.

4. Roll out dough into a 12 x 9 inch rectangle (or until dough is about 1/4 inch thick). Spread dough with butter/sugar mixture. Roll up dough and pinch seam to seal. Cut into 12 equal size rolls and place cut side up in a greased 9x13 pan. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

5. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until browned. Serve warm.

Blender whipped cream

2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Blend in blender at high speed until you hear the motor sound change and the cream is stiff.

Sweet and Spicy Popcorn

Description:
This is great for parties or a holiday snack.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Ingredients:
Pop 1 cup popcorn in an air popper
to make approx. 2 quarts popped corn.
Use an extra large metal bowl.

In a saucepan melt:
1 cube butter or marg.

Stir in:
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. Cinnamon
1 tsp. Salt.

Directions:
Stir constantly, scraping the bottom of the pan until mixture thickens and bubbles.

Remove from heat and, with a tablespoon, drizzle mixture to evenly cover popcorn. Continue mixing and drizzling until sugar mixture is gone and popcorn is fairly evenly covered.

Place metal bowl of popcorn into oven and bake for 15 minutes. Then remove from oven and stir until popcorn doesn’t stick together.

Chocolate Syrup

Homemade Chocolate Syrup
Ingredients
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup cold water
¼ teaspoon salt
2-3 teaspoons vanilla extract
Method
In a medium saucepan, whisk cocoa and sugar until all the lumps of cocoa are gone. Add water and salt and mix well with whisk. Cook over medium heat, bringing it to a boil. Keep boiling until thick, stirring to keep from scalding.
Remove from heat and allow to cool. When cool, add vanilla. Pour into an airtight glass container or a squeeze bottle and keep refrigerated.
To make chocolate milk, use at least 1 tablespoon of syrup for every 8 ounces of milk, adding more to taste.
Makes about 1 3/4 cups.