justJENN recipes

When O.G. was a kid she ate chocolate covered potato chips. She has always said it’s the perfect blend of salty and sweet. It also happens to be two of her major food groups. The woman eats barely anything else but chips….and chocolates. This is her key to living to be almost 90, by the way.

I decided to do something similar for her birthday gift. I made up some potato chip cookies. I’ve been working on this recipe for a while now. By getting a good mix of just the right ingredients, you get a nice buttery crunchy cookie.

ingredients:
1 cup butter (2 sticks)
1/2 cup brown sugar (firmly packed)
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups crushed potato chips

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Prep cookie sheets with parchment or silpats, to keep the cookies from sticking.

In a freezer bag, crush the potato chips with your hands, and a rolling pin to bash it for good measure. I like to use the ridged potato chips, I found those give a nice amount of texture to the cookie. Measure out 1-1/2 cups of crushed chips and set aside.

In a mixer, cream the butter and sugars. Add the vanilla and the egg until combined.

In a small bowl combine the flour, baking soda and salt. Slowly add to the butter mixture until combined. Mix in the crushed potato chips by hand.

Drop by teaspoonfulls on a prepped cookie sheet. You should get about three dozen out of this mixture. Bake for 10 minutes. I like mine crispy with a little softness to the middle.

Take them out of the oven and let them set slightly for a few minutes. Then carefully lift them to a wire rack to cool. They will crisp up quickly. If you want, drizzle with some melted chocolate. But I kinda like them plain. You get a nice butter cookie with a slight salty crunch.

Mochi is fantastic stuff, it can be savory or sweet. When made into desserts it has a nice familiar ‘chew’ that let’s you know mochi is a key ingredient. These are dense little cupcakes with just a little sweetness.

ingredients:
1 (1 lb) box mochiko
1-1/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1-1/2 cups milk
3/4 cup oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 (16 oz can) an - sweetened red bean (optional)

Mochiko can be found in most japanese markets, it’s a white flour, in a one pound box. Really useful to keep in your pantry, you can use it for a lot of other recipes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prep a cupcake pan with liners. I get about 18 cupcakes out of this recipe.

Mix all the ingredients together, EXCEPT the an, in a bowl.

IF you are using the an, only fill the cups about 1/2 full, add a teaspoon of an, then cover with more batter. If you don’t want the an, just fill the cups 3/4 of the way full.

Bake for 30-40 minutes depending on your oven, until you get nice little slightly browned tops. Let cool on a wire rack. Now these are best, just like this, dusted with a bit of powdered sugar. However, I was making these for New Year’s Day and added a little something extra.

I made some kagami mochis out of fondant, iced the cupcakes with a lemon frosting and stuck my little fondant creations on top. They were festive for the party and were a fun nod to the tradition of New Year’s Day mochi.

As I was going through my pantry for ingredients for New Year’s, I noticed an unopened slab of fondant and realized that the white fondant looked just like mochi. Specifically, the kagami mochi, which is stacked just so - for New Year’s Day - with a little orange on top to signify generations of family.

ingredients:
fondant
orange gel dye
green gel dye

Since mochi is white and so is fondant, all you have to do is shape it into little slabs. SO EASY. I wish all fondant work was this easy. Pat them down to look like mochi and stack the smaller one on top.

Now dye a tiny bit to make little oranges. And a VERY small amount - dye green for the leaves. After you’ve shaped the oranges into balls, place them on top of the white mochi slabs, take a toothpick and poke a little hole in the top. That’s where we’ll add the leaf.

Take a teeeeny pinch of green and just freeform shape it into something that resembles a leaf. Poke that into the top of the ‘orange’ to stick.

When I made these they looked so cute but now that I had dozen of these things, now what? Cupcakes of course.

I made mochiko cupcakes and stuck these on top. Festive and fun for the new year!

Let’s not kid ourselves. I can just sit here and eat the 8 chocolate croissants and call it a day. But I needed a dish to SHARE. This one works really well.

ingredients:
6 large egg yolks
2 cups milk
1 cup half and half
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
8 chocolate croissants, cut into small pieces

Heat oven to 375° F. Grease an 8-inch square baking dish with butter. You can buy croissants, or make them, I did a combo and used Trader Joe’s frozen bake yer own, and MAN, those things are just as good as the real thing!

They are amazing! And to be quite honest I only used 7 croissants in this cause I ate one….oops. Anyway, you prep them over night, then bake them in the oven. I used 2 boxes, once they were cooled I cut them into 1″ pieces.

In a large bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, milk, half and half, sugar, vanilla, salt, and cinnamon. Add the croissants and stir to coat.

Transfer the mixture to the prepped baking dish. Place on a baking sheet just in case of spillage, and bake approx 40 minutes.

The top of the croissants get nice and toasty and the chocolate combines with the custard for an amazing taste. I made this for christmas but it’d be great for any time of the year.

These cookies look festive with white chocolate swirled chips around the holidays, but regular chocolate chips would taste just as good.

ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks butter, softened
1 cup packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
2-1/2 teaspoons peppermint
2 cups chocolate chips (for the holidays I use swirled white chips)

dip ingredients:
1 cup mini chocolate chips
1 teaspoon peppermint

I found these Nestle swirled white chocolate chips for the holiday, which was great for the kid who has a chocolate allergy. Of course I omitted the ‘dipping’ part for his…

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a medium bowl sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a mixer cream the butter with the sugars until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating and scraping down the bowl as needed. Add the peppermint, then on low speed add in the flour mixture slowly. Take the bowl off the mixer and stir in the chips.

On prepped cookie sheet, drop teaspoonfuls of batter about 2 inches apart. Bake about 8 to10 minutes, depending on your oven. Cool on a wire rack.

You can leave them as is, or go for the gusto and dip them in a peppermint flavored chocolate. Just put the mini chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl, heating it up in 20 second intervals, stirring at the end of each. Careful you don’t burn it, once the chocolate is completely melted, stir in the peppermint extract.

Take each cookie and dip halfway into the chocolate. Let dry on a wire rack.

I ran out of eggs. And butter. I had to improvise on the fly. Now don’t get me wrong, I bow down to the altar of Paula Deen, (entirely made of butter, btw) but it IS possible to cook without animal products if need be, even if it’s not my first choice. These are REALLY good, moist and you won’t even miss the butter…

ingredients:
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup light molasses
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons applesauce

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a cupcake pan with liners.

Sift together the flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, cloves, nutmeg and salt.

Whisk together wet ingredients – oil, molasses, syrup, water and applesauce.

Stir the wet into the dry until nicely combined.

Fill your baking cups about 2/3 full. Bake 15 - 19 minutes, depending on your oven, until a toothpick comes out clean.

I used a chocolate frosting, but any combination will do!

Decorating gingerbread houses is the best part. You’d be surprised at how creative you can get with candy. First, make assemble your houses…

Now that your houses have dried overnight, they are ready to take on the heavy decorating! Start by making a new batch of royal icing. These can be put into parchment cones or bag with piping tips. If you don’t have either of these just use a ziploc bag and cut the tip off one corner. Beware, these are not the sturdiest of contraptions, so don’t squeeze the bag too hard!

Now the fun part, CANDY. And lots of it. In the next sequence of pictures I will show you what we used, so that you can get a better idea of what candy works best for your decor.

On this house we used marshmallows around the window. It is nice and soft like snow and gifts alot of depth to the window.

I made a bridge by curving licorice and laying down pieces of pretzel down for planks. Black Crows were used to anchor the bridge.

On this roof we used licorice and candy canes. See how the candy canes hide the seams from when we put the house together? Also mini M&M’s work great as faux Christmas lights.

Sliced almonds make and attractive roof but take a darn long time to lay out.

A little pond can be made by spreading icing on the base and dusting with blue sanding sugar. Baby goldfish crackers are just the right size for this little pond.

This little snowman is made entirely out of fondant.

Mike & Ikes, along with jelly lifesavers make a simple and colorful roof.

A “stone” wall is made of chocolate covered raisins. The grassy knoll below is made of shrek swamp colored mini m&ms…

Necco wafers are the classic gingerbread house roofing material. They are pretty and make sturdy shingles. Like the almonds, layout takes a while, but the result is worth it.

The candy canes on the eaves and roofline add alot of color as well keep the house stuck together.

Broken Necco wafers are still usable. Just arrange them on some icing for a mosaic effect.

I have been making gingerbread houses for years, so much that people were asking for business cards and how to place orders. Only…I didn’t have a business. My mom and I just did it for fun.

I am not a fan of the glue the graham cracker to the milk container, only because we all know someone is going to eat that thing, so - bad idea. Maybe it’s the architect in me but I demand that my walls be stable and able to withstand a high psi load of candy. Meaning - an a$$ ton of candy. But more on that later. For now, here’s a little ‘how-to’ on gingerbread house assembly.

Gingerbread houses are great gifts. They are a lot of work, and the fun part is definitely the decorating. But before you can get there you have to make the dough and bake the house components. Start by mixing the dough and then kneading it on a floured board.

Once it’s workable, roll out the dough, usually 1/4 of an inch is the best for baking evenly and building a sturdy house. Now cut out he sides and roof of the house. My mom likes to use small cutters, but you can always design your own or freehand it. I personally like to cut out my own shapes, but either way works.

Peel away the excess and transfer the cutouts to a silpat lined cookie sheet. At this point you can cut out doors and windows, or add embellishments.

Some recipes tell you to cut right onto the cookie sheet but I prefer to do it this way.

Now make your royal icing. This will be the edible “cement” that binds and holds the houses, as well as the decor. This batch is ONLY for assembling houses.

Use a heavy can to hold up the first side as you “glue” it down, then add the two remaining sides, making sure that there is enough icing to make the house completely sturdy.

Use plenty of icing. Most of the flaws will be covered up in the decor part.

Here’s where you can get funktified. The open doors and windows are just calling out for fun. Here we added the baked door that was cut out, and inside is a little gingerbread man cookie.

Here we did the same thing with a window. You can also put fruit leather on the inside - making a colorful stained glass window.

This house shows an added heart embellishment, as well as a porotico. What did I tell you, funky as you wanna be.

Here are all nine houses we did. Now these things have to dry overnight, to make sure they are nice and secure before we add all that candy decor.

Now how do you decorate it? Well…(to be cont’d…)

I promise you, you will LOVE these. They don’t taste sweet-potatoey at all, more like a lovely, moist, little spice cake. They came to me in a dream. Seriously. I wondered, how could I use them so that we had SOME sort of thanksgiving dish that incorporated sweet potatoes? I figured if pumpkin cupcakes worked, these wouldn’t be that far off. They turned out better than the pumpkin ones, then again…the marshmallow topper is KEY.

ingredients:
1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter melted, cooled
2 large eggs - beaten
1 cup roasted sweet potatoes
1 teaspoon maple syrup
3 TB orange juice

If you haven’t already done so - roast two sweet potatoes (prick them with a fork) on a baking sheet in a 350 degree oven for one hour. When they come out the skin will peel off easily and they can be mashed - you don’t even need a food processor. Set aside 1 cup for later.

Preheat the oven to 350. Prep your cupcake pan with liners and set aside. In a medium sized bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, white sugar, butter and add the eggs. Add the dry ingredients and whisk until smooth. Stir in the sweet potatoes, syrup and orange juice.

Divide batter evenly among the cups, it should fill 12 easily about 2/3 full. Bake for approx 20-25 mins depending on your oven. Let cool on a wire rack.

Now for the topping so it’s just like REAL sweet potatoes! No involved frosting here (although I have a recipe for that if you like) no, I was going for more of the traditional sweet potato side dish look - by simply topping it with a roasted marshmallow. But how?

Take 2-3 marshmallows and put them in a microwave safe glass dish. Microwave for just 20 seconds. They should come out nice and puffy. Using an offset spatula I carefully lifted one whole puffy marshmallow on top of the cupcake. I did that for each, then put them on a baking sheet, and broiled until the tops were just bruleed.

Lovely. Toasty. Delish.

Green Tea ice cream. Some people adore it, some people think it’s awful. It doesn’t bother me. I like this recipe 1) because you don’t have to ‘cook’ the base (I hate cooking ice cream bases) and 2) it’s not overly rich, but just…right. Great for an after dinner palate cleanser.

The thing is - the ONLY way to make this is to use MATCHA. That is powdered green tea. It’s super concentrated. Not for the weak. It’s also expensive as hell, but so worth it.

ingredients:
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup sugar
3 teaspoons powdered green tea (matcha)
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup whole milk

Cook the sugar and water over low heat, basically making a simple syrup. Remove from the heat, and add about 1/3 of the syrup into a separate bowl, with the matcha.

Don’t freak. The stuff looks nasty. Almost seaweed like, and believe me, it could smell better too. Dump that mixture back into the pan with the simple syrup and mix well.

In a medium bowl, add the cream and the milk - then add the matcha mixture. Cool it down in the fridge for about 15 - 20 mins. It will turn a lovely lime green color.

Pour it into your ice cream maker - according to manufacturer’s directions and there you have it. Yummy green tea ice cream….great with shave ice, too! If you like this, you should try my lychee sorbet…

Just look at all those toppings!