Recipes – Fall/Holiday

Lemon Bars
Ingredients
For Crust
1 ½ cups flour
⅔ cups powdered sugar
¾ cups melted or softened salted butter
For Filling
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 ½ cups sugar
¼ cups lemon juice (juice of one large lemon or two medium)
3 tablespoons flour
(Optional) Zest of one lemon
Combine flour and powdered sugar, then stir melted butter in. If using softened, use a pastry blender (or fork) and combine until a consistent crumbly texture has been reached. Evenly pat the mixture into a greased 9×13 pan and bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes. Cream your eggs and sugar, then add the flour, lemon juice, and your zest. Vigorously whisk this until frothy, then pour over hot crust. Bake for 20-25 minutes and lightly dust with powdered sugar while still hot. Once cooled, slice into pieces. The lemon bars should keep for about 1 ½ to 2 weeks.
For a gluten-free version of this recipe, you can substitute the entirety of the crust for gluten-free sugar cookie dough (which is much easier to make than any variant using almond or coconut flour) and the flour in the filling with either gluten-free all-purpose flour, or a half and half mixture of tapioca flour and rice flour, in the same total amount as the original.

Overall, this recipe turned out pretty well. While it technically doesn’t matter which type of butter you use, beyond affecting the texture of the crust. Melted butter leads to a slightly chewier crust that stays together better, while softened butter leaves a flakier but more buttery-tasting crust. You can use parchment paper to line the bottom, but that if you do that, you also need to make sure it rises higher up the sides than the curd will hit, otherwise you risk baking the paper into the bars.

In the end, this recipe is only somewhat difficult, though it was originally confusing to read through because of my Grandmother’s vagueness. The bars also seem to be pretty popular, with the majority of people I had try them enjoying them a fair bit. If you don’t like lemon, you can always switch the lemon juice and zest for the citrus of your choosing.
Paula Deen’s Pumpkin Bars
Found on the Food Network

Around the fall time, my mom always makes this autumn treat to celebrate the new season. This has been a tradition for as long as I can remember, so I thought I would share it with the readers. This desert is the perfect treat to eat because it has a pumpkin cake with spices along with a cream cheese frosting to top it all off. This recipe is super easy and quick to make with a total of 45 minutes.

Ingredients
Pumpkin Bars:
4 eggs
1 ⅔ cup of granulated sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
15oz can of pumpkin
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 tsp of baking powder
2 tsp of ground cinnamon
1 tsp of salt
1 tsp of baking soda
Icing:
8oz package of cream cheese softened
½ cup butter or margarine, softened
2 cups of sifted confectioners’ sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.
In a bowl add the eggs, sugar, oil, and pumpkin. Using an electric mixer, combine the ingredients at a medium speed until light and fluffy. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda. Add dry ingredients to the other mixture and on a low speed, mix until the batter is smooth, and thoroughly combined. Next, grease a 13×10 inch baking pan and add the batter, making sure to spread it evenly throughout the pan. Bake for 30 minutes, and let it chill completely before frosting it.
To make the icing you are going to combine the cream cheese and butter in a medium sized bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Then you are going to add the sugar and mix at a low speed until combined. Next, stir in vanilla and mix again. FInally, frost the pumpkin bars!

All in all, the recipe turned out really well, for my first time making it. The only problem I had was the pan size. I used the wrong pan size and ended up making the batter thicker than the recipe stated, causing it to be in the oven longer. It didn’t really affect the bars, just the color. The pumpkin bars came out very moist, and dense while the frosting to top it all off, was creamy with the right amount of sweetness.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
By Paul Salazar
Ingredients
1 Cup All purpose flower, unsalted {1cup}
1 tsp Baking soda {1tsp}
1 tsp Salt {1tsp}
1 Cup Butter that is softened {1cup}
¾ Cup Pure sugar {3/4cup}
¾ Cup Brown sugar , packed down {3/4cup}
1 tsp Pure vanilla extract {1tsp}
2 eggs
21oz bag of chocolate chips
Steps
1. Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees
2. Combine flower, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl
3. beat/mix butter, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla extract in a large mixing bowl until creamy
4. add eggs one at a time mixing in one well before adding the other …… graduatlly beat in a flour mixture
5. add and stir chips
6. get a spoon to scoop and put on a good cookie plate.
7. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes
8. Let them cool !