Happy Holidays from the EverCrew!
While we can’t all enjoy fresh-baked cookies in the Grinnabago, we wanted to share some EverCrew family recipes for your enjoyment this holiday season.
Snickerdoodle Cookies from Sonja Nagel
Basically anyone that’s met (or virtually met) Mike Nagel has heard him rave about Sonja’s baking. She’s that good. Here’s her recipe for her famous Snickerdoodles. This will be a recipe you’re sure to enjoy year round.
Here’s what you need:
2 3/4 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup softened butter
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 T sugar – keep separate
1 T cinnamon – keep separate
Here’s how you do it:
- Preheat oven to 350 F
- Mix flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.
- Put butter and sugar in a large bowl and mix on medium speed for ~3 minutes until pale and fluffy.
- Mix in eggs to butter and sugar mixture.
- Reduce speed to low and slowly add dry ingredients (excluding sugar and cinnamon)
- Mix cinnamon and sugar together in a separate bowl.
- Form 2″ balls and roll in cinnamon/sugar mix.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes.
Christmas Crunch from the Frey Family
In her role on the CSM team, Jessica Frey will most likely ask you what your favorite food is. It’s something she likes to know about all of our customers. Lucky for us, she shared one of her favorite family recipes with us this year! Once dried, this mixture is great to put out in a bowl or package up as gifts!
Here’s what you need:
4 cups each of:
- Rice Chex
- Corn Chex
- Cheerios
- Pretzels
- Your favorite colored M&Ms
5 cups of white chocolate
Here’s how you do it:
- Mix all your dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
- In a separate bowl, melt your white chocolate by microwing for 30 seconds at a time, stirring between each round, until melted.
- Pour chocolate over the dry ingredients and mix together.
- Spread mixture over a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and refrigerate until hardened. Jessica recommends not spreading the mixture too-thin so that you still have some big clumps at the end! (YUM)
Breakfast Bars from Elizabeth Abraham
A member of the finance team at EverTrue, Elizabeth tends to stay behind-the-scenes. Lucky for us, she’s sharing her family-favorite breakfast bar recipe with everyone this year! However, the name might be a little misleading! These sweet treats can be enjoyed anytime.
A note from Elizabeth on caramel: Caramel is one of a family of substances sometimes referred to as French Chef Napalm. Under no circumstances should you taste it until it has cooled.
Also, this makes more caramel then you need for the cookies. You’ll find a use for it.
Here’s what you need:
For the Caramel:
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup (note: I use Lyle’s Golden.)
1 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter (salted probably wouldn’t kill things)
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 tsp. Vanilla
For the Cookies:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup quick oats
3/4 cup brown sugar (recipe calls for light, Elizabeth prefers dark)
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted (if using salted butter, omit salt)
6 oz. chopped chocolate or semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
Here’s how you do it:
To make the caramel:
- Grease a large (more than 2 cup) heat proof measuring cup, and keep it near the stove.
- In a medium, non-stick, high-sided saucepan, heat the sugar and syrup over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until boiling.
- Stop stirring, and continue boiling until the mixture is a deep amber color (270 F on a candy thermometer, but it comes out fine if you just eyeball it).
- Remove pan from heat immediately, and add the butter and cream (pour the cream in slowly to avoid spatters).
- Return mixture to heat and continue boiling on medium-high heat until a candy thermometer reads 240 F, or until reduced to about 1.5 cups.
- Pour caramel into a greased measuring cup and allow to cool for at least 10 minutes, or up to an hour. Stir in the vanilla after 10 minutes.
To make the cookie bars:
- Preheat the oven to 350, and grease the sides (but not the bottom) of a 9x13x2 inch pan. (You know that thing they do sometimes on The Great British Baking Show, where they put strips of parchment in a pan and use them as handles later? If you have parchment, do that.)
- Mix together flour, oats, sugar, baking soda and salt.
- Add melted butter and stir.
- Pat mixture evenly into the bottom of the pan, and bake for 10-15 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and sprinkle with chocolate and nuts.
- Once nuts and chocolate are arranged to your satisfaction, drizzle with caramel. Proceed carefully, because (a) you can’t redistribute caramel, and (b) if you overdo it on the caramel, it’ll be tough to get the cookies out of the pan. You probably need about a cup of caramel on the cookies total.
- Return the cookies to the oven for 20 more minutes. Place pan on wire rack to cool completely.
- Once cookies are cool, loosen edge from pan with a butter knife or metal spatula. Invert onto a plastic wrap covered cookie sheet. The contents of the pan should wind up upside down on a cookie sheet. Place them onto a cutting surface and slice them up into neat little bars.
- Place the cookies on paper towels for 15 minutes to absorb excess butter. These keep 3 weeks at room temperature, several months refrigerated.
Pecan Sandy’s from Sarah Morgan
There are few things we love more than an E-A-S-Y cookie recipe. And one of Sarah’s favorites is this super-simple (and extremely delicious) pecan cookie recipe
Here’s what you need:
1 cup salted butter, cut into pieces and chilled
1/2 tightly cup packed light brown sugar (be sure it’s fresh)
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, divided
1/2 cup roasted pecans, finely chopped, plus extra for topping
Optional: powdered sugar for dusting
Here’s how you do it:
- Mix butter and brown sugar in a stand mixer till fluffy.
- Add in 1 1/2 cups of flour slowly.
- Turn mixture out onto a floured board and knead for 2 min (add additional flour as needed).
- Work in pecans. Split into two logs, wrap in saran wrap and chill for 30 min (or freeze for the future).
- Slice and bake at 325 for 12 min, or until the bottom edges are just golden.
Spencer’s Satisfying Stuffed S’mores
If you’ve ever wondered who genius@evertrue is, we have news for you. It’s Spencer. And Spencer’s most recent stroke of genius was trying out this new s’mores cookie recipe to share with us all. His #1 tip is to make a double batch. You’re going to want it.
Here’s what you need:
12 marshmallows
2 Hershey’s milk chocolate bars
6 Graham crackers, broken (or cut) into 24 square pieces (Spencer’s tip: You can also buy the crushed graham cracker crumbs used for pie crusts and either add directly to cookie dough)
1 cup room temperature butter
1 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg, plus 1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chip
Here’s how you do it:
- Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- To make s’mores, cut each marshmallow in half. Break each chocolate bar into 12 pieces. Break or cut your graham cracker in half, then break them in half again using the perforated lines. Now break each rectangle in half carefully. Form your S’mores ingredients into 12 miniature s’mores. Set aside.
- To make the cookie dough, mix the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on medium speed for 2 minutes.
- Add in the egg, the egg yolk, vanilla, baking soda, and salt, mixing for 1 minute until combined, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary.
- Turn the mixer to low and add in the flour, mixing until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips until evenly incorporated.
- Using a medium (~2 tablespoon) cookie scoop, portion out the dough. Divide the dough scoop into 2 halves. Flatten each into a flat circle. Place a prepared s’more on top of one of the circles. Place the other circle on top of the s’more and gently wrap the dough around the smore, making sure to seal it inside.
- Place the cookie dough balls onto the baking sheet ~2 inches apart and bake for 9 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown and the tops are just set.
- Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 2-3 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Enjoy.
Melby’s Sugar Cookies
We know we said Sarah’s recipe was super easy. But hey. It’s 2020. Nothing is truly easy this year. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying some yummy store bought cookies.
CSM Jess Melby shares her favorite recipe: Pillsbury Ready to Bake Sugar Cookie Dough. And they’re delicious.
Whatever your level of commitment to baking this year, we wish you a happy, healthy, and restful holiday season!!