Category Archives: Cooking

Day Three- Suzanne’s Table Twelve Days of Cookies: Swedish Coconut Cookies

13 Tuesday Dec 2016

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Today I present to you Swedish Coconut Cookies.  They have the texture of shortbread, they are buttery and delicious.  Since they are a drier cookie, as opposed to chewy, they can be made in advance and still be tasty when you are ready to serve them even if it is a few days later.

My mom was quite proud of this recipe, in fact, she won a blue ribbon at the Michigan State Fair in the cookie category with this cookie.

She had this plaque done in decoupage and it hung in our kitchen.

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To make cookies, I start with toasting the coconut. To toast the coconut, preheat oven to 325 and spread coconut in cookie pan in an even layer

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Toast in oven for about 10 minutes, halfway through the process I stir the coconut around to make sure it toasts evenly.  When done, let it cool slightly before mixing into cookie batter.

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While the coconut is toasting, I like to start the batter. I begin with the butter, shortening and sugar, mix it well until it is creamy. Then add the remaining dry ingredients.

For the dough in the shape of balls and flatten slightly

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Once baked I let cool for only a minute and transfer to cooling rack

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Swedish Coconut Cookies

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2 cups white sugar

1 cup shortening

1 cup butter

1 cup toasted coconut

3 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

¾ tsp salt

Cream together butter, shortening, and sugar. Stir in flour, baking powder and soda, salt and toasted coconut.  Roll into balls about the size of a hickory nut. Place on ungreased cookie sheet and flatten slightly.  Bake for 28-30 minutes. Makes about 8 dozen.

Day Two- Suzanne’s Table Twelve Days of Cookies: Chocolate Fudge

12 Monday Dec 2016

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My original plan was twelve days of cookies, but when I think back to the memories of Christmas’s past, my grandmother’s cookies trays were filled with not only baked goodies but also pieces of my mom’s chocolate and peanut butter fudge.  I will be sharing the peanut butter recipe in a few days.

There are many versions of chocolate fudge out there, I have tried a few, but my favorite is mom’s, I have the most success with her recipe. In her cookbook, it is called Chocolate Fudge-Mamie Eisenhower.  However after a google search, examining many of the Mamie Eisenhower fudge recipes available, mom’s has a few variations from the others. The biggest difference, the recipe I have uses only one type of chocolate instead of two like the other versions call for.

One of the favorite things about my mom’s cookbook are the special footnotes she had placed by some of the recipes.  It brings back memories of  family dinners and holiday’s past.  As I was making this batch, I could see it so clearly, like it was yesterday, my mom and dad standing side by side, working together in the kitchen.  While making this recent batch I learned the reason why my dad was probably there to assist her. As I was getting ready to transfer my hot fudge into the pan to cool, it was quite heavy and I had to call my husband to help me. For some reason, this simple process made me feel closer to my parents.

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Now to make the Chocolate Fudge…..

Before I start cooking, I prepare my cooling pan by greasing a pan with butter.

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Next combine sugar, butter, and milk in a large saucepan.  Cooking over moderate heat, bring it to a boil and let boil stirring constantly for 7 minutes

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Remove from heat, add in remaining ingredient until all mixed and dissolved

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Pour into your buttered pan and chill until firm

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Chocolate Fudge-Mamie Eisenhower

Makes about 5 pounds

4 ½ cups white sugar

1 can evaporated milk

1-pint marshmallow fluff

½ lb butter or margarine

18 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 cups chopped walnuts (optional)

Combine sugar, milk, and butter in a saucepan.  Cook over moderate heat, stirring constantly. Once mixture comes to a boil, let it boil for 7 minutes.  Remove from heat and immediately add chocolate chips and marshmallow fluff and nuts.  Stir mixture until fluff dissolves.  Pour into buttered pan and chill until firm

Day One- Suzanne’s Table Twelve Days of Cookies: Milk Chocolate Toffee Squares

07 Wednesday Dec 2016

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Today I bring to you one of my all-time favorites, Milk Chocolate Toffee Squares.  If I let myself,  I would eat the entire pan in one sitting. The cookie has a shortbread consistency, it is rich and buttery, then it is smothered  with melted milk chocolate, making it amazing.  They aren’t fancy or a decorative cookie, but they taste delicious. You can also sprinkle chopped nuts over the top, but I have been sending my creations to friends and family and I worry about nut allergies.

This one is simple, you start by creaming together butter, brown sugar, an egg yolk and vanilla.  Then add the flour and salt.

Once you mix all the ingredients together, form it into a ball and place on baking sheet.

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Working from the center out, use the palm of your hand to create a rectangle, then place in oven and bake.

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Don’t worry about the indentations, the chocolate covers them!

 

As soon as you remove from oven, pour chocolate pieces over the top and spread around until melted.

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Allow them to cool for about 10 minutes and then cut into squares, it can be quite messy, as the chocolate is still warm.

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Toffee Squares

1 cup butter or margarine

1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

1 egg yolk

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups all-purpose flour

¼ tsp salt

16 ounces of milk chocolate chips

½ cup chopped nuts (optional)

Heat oven to 350 degrees

Mix butter, sugar, egg yolk, and vanilla. Gradually add flour and salt, mix until dough is well blended.  Spread on baking sheet, leaving about 1 inch all around edges.  Rectangle should measure approximately 13” x 10” Bake 20-25 minutes until nicely brown, remove from oven and pour chocolate chips over the top, let stand for about a minute, until soft and spread evenly over entire surface, sprinkle with nuts if you choose to use them.  Let cool for about 5 minutes and cut into squares while still warm. The recipe makes about 36 squares.

Aunt Effie the Cookie Lady

05 Monday Dec 2016

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We moved into the house I grew up in on my 7th birthday. My maternal grandmother just retired from working at Michigan State University, where she had worked as an accountant. My parents built her an apartment into our home and it was in that kitchen that my grandmother Effie started a cookie business. She was known as Aunt Effie the Cookie Lady. People could buy a monthly subscription, in return, they would receive 2 dozen cookies per month. I don’t think my grandmother saw herself as starting a cookie empire like Mrs. Fields, she just loved to bake and my sister and I were her official taste testers. In addition to the cookie business, over the holidays, she would bake 100’s of cookies every year for our family and friends.

I was my grandmother’s shadow, it’s because of her that I love to bake. When I make chocolate crinkles or butterscotch toffee squares I am carried back to her kitchen impatiently standing next to the oven waiting for a hot fresh cookie. When I moved into my first apartment, I brought her rolling pin with me hoping her baking magic would guide me as I rolled out my pastry dough.

Obviously, she didn’t have the convenience of the internet to look up a recipe, besides the rolling pin, another thing I brought with me is her “go-to” cookie book. I love looking through it, there are notes such as “add this” or “skip that” and “my favorites” or “don’t make, horrible, why did they even publish this one.” Many of those favorites made their way into my mom’s cookbook.

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As you can see this book was put to good use, a good investment for only $2.95

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I guess she was concerned about making pretty cookies

I love the pages with comments

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One of my favorites!

In addition to cookies, she made bread, rolls, coffeecake, you name it, and she baked it. As the holiday’s approach, I think about not just her cookies, but her tarts as well. I would pay millions to have just one more of her mincemeat tarts. Over the next few weeks, I will be posting some of those family favorite cookies that made it into the cookbook, as well as a few of my favorites I have found over the past few years. My version of Suzanne’s Table’s 12 days of cookies, hopefully, you might get some ideas for your holiday baking.

Blueberry Muffin Cakes

30 Wednesday Nov 2016

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I should clarify something, as I said in my previous post, I wasn’t always a fan of cooking but I have always loved to bake.  As I was getting ready to start Suzanne’s Table, I started thumbing through my copy of my mom’s cookbook.  It did not come as a surprise to see the pages with cookies, pies and other baked goods were the ones with remnants of spilled ingredients stuck to them.

My mom didn’t bake often, she left that to my grandmother, who you will learn about later, but when she did bake one of my favorite things she made were her blueberry muffin cakes.  The muffin itself is tasty, but what makes them so fabulous is you roll them in melted butter and cinnamon sugar as soon as they come out of the oven.  My favorite way to eat them is fresh out of the oven, but my husband disagrees with me. He swears they are better the next day. Hopefully you will try to make them and let me know which way you think is better.

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Blueberry Muffin Cakes

Makes 18 muffins

½ cup                Vegetable shortening

2                           Eggs

2 ½ tsp              Baking powder

½ tsp                 Nutmeg

2 cups                 Fresh Blueberries

¾ cups              Granulated sugar

2 1/3 cups          UN-sifted all-purpose flour

½ tsp                 Salt

¾ cup                Milk

To roll the muffins after baking

¾ cup                Granulated sugar

¼ tsp                 Ground cinnamon

½ cup                Melted butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

In small bowl, mix together all of the dry ingredients and set aside

In large bowl, cream shortening until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in sugar, once combined, beat in eggs.  Alternatively add the dry ingredients and milk to egg mixture, beginning and ending with dry ingredients.  Fold in berries (I like using them slightly frozen to keep them from splitting open during the folding process.) Spoon batter into greased muffin cups, filling to ¾ full.  Bake for 20-25 minutes.  While the muffins are baking, melt butter, and mix remaining sugar and cinnamon together in small bowl. Remove cakes from oven and cool slightly, remove from pan and roll muffins in melted butter, then in cinnamon sugar mixture.

Who is Kristi?

14 Monday Nov 2016

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Hi everyone,

Welcome to Suzanne’s Table. My name is Kristi.

Seven years ago, I was a single woman living in downtown Chicago. I had a rich and full life, working in the special events, weddings, corporate dinners and so on. One night I went to a party that I didn’t want to go to, but it changed my life. I am now married to my wonderful husband Brian and I am step-mom to ten year old Kelly and now live in the suburbs of Chicago.

As my environment has changed so have my interests, I still love finding new restaurants and trying different cuisines, but now I love to cook and experiment in the kitchen. When I first started cooking, I found reading blogs about what other amateur cooks had discovered to be quite helpful.

I have learned a lot over the past few years and I love talking about what I am creating in the kitchen. Hopefully you will share with me your favorites as well.

 

Best,

Kristi

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Welcome to Suzanne’s Table

14 Monday Nov 2016

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Welcome to Suzanne’s table.

My name is Kristi and Suzanne is my mother. I am a wife, stepmother, sister, friend and amateur cook. About thirteen years ago my mother assembled a collection of family recipes and put them together as a cookbook, dedicating it to me and my sister Jennifer. She wrote a beautiful introduction, attached below. Reading it, I can see the images she describes, imagining my mother as a young girl, I see the faces of my grandmother and great aunts. At the time, I didn’t realize what a treasure the book was, but now I realize how much love she put into every dish and I am so grateful to have these recipes and to revisit my family memories.

I grew up in a family of great cooks. After college, I moved into my first apartment, but depended on take out or my sisters cooking. In fact, when I met my husband, I told him I didn’t cook at all. My idea of dinner was a bag of microwave popcorn and a Diet Coke. My mother was always buying me kitchen equipment in hopes of jump starting an interest, but it wasn’t until a few years ago I truly began to appreciate the art of cooking and the fun you can have. I loved calling my mom to tell her what I had on the menu for that night or what I was going to attempt next. She was the one who not only inspired, but encouraged me to start this project.

My mother passed on in the fall of 2015, I miss her every day, and I miss calling her to tell her about my latest adventures in the kitchen and the new recipes I have created. She used to call me and ask me to print out recipes she had seen on all the Food Network shows she watched, I used to make fun of her for this, but now days I print just as many, have started creating my own recipes and spend hours researching food.

Suzanne’s Table is dedicated to the memory of my mother, a way to share some of my family’s favorites and delicious discoveries that I have found or created. Thank you for stopping by and taking a look. I would love feedback, ideas and suggestions.

 

page-1-of-introduction  page-2-of-introduction