Tollhouse Oatmeal Cookies: Oatmeal Cookie Day!

Today is Oatmeal Cookie Day. Yes, I've posted many oatmeal cookie recipes with raisins, with chocolate chips, and recipes with both raisins and chocolate chips, but here's one more! Oatmeal Tollhouse Cookies. As I always say, you can never have too many cookie recipes. Here's a great Retro advertisement with recipe from Quaker Oats to celebrate the day! 

OATMEAL TOLLHOUSE COOKIES

CHOCOLATE RUGELACH: Rugelach Day!

Today is National Rugelach Day. I adore Rugelach, and I must admit, I usually buy them at the bakery, but sometimes I just want to make my own. Rugelach are made with a cream-cheese dough that is wrapped around a filling. Sometimes the filling is nuts or jam, but of course for me it's always chocolate!

This recipe for Chocolate Rugelach is adapted from Giora Shimoni on Kosherfood.com. She calls them Israeli Chocolate Rugelach because she says Americans tend to fill their chocolate rugelach with mini-chocolate chips, while Israelis make their own filling. Since I always have chocolate around, I make my own filling. This is a go-to recipe. It's easy -- 25 minutes to make and 25 minutes to bake! Be sure to scroll down for Giora's tips on rugelach making. You'll love these pastries for breakfast or brunch or with your morning coffee.Yum!

CHOCOLATE RUGELACH 

DOUGH:
7 ounces unsalted butter
8 ounces cream cheese
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour

CHOCOLATE FILLING:
1 tablespoon DARK cocoa
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup grated bittersweet chocolate  (65-70% cacoa)
butter, melted

TOPPING:
1 egg
1/8 cup sugar  (if you don't add cinnamon, use 1/4 cup sugar)
1/8 cup cinnamon (optional)


PREPARATION
In mixing bowl, cream butter and cream cheese together. Add sugar and vanilla, and mix until smooth. Add flour and mix lightly. Refrigerate dough for an hour or more.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Divide  dough into four balls. On floured surface, using floured rolling pin, roll one ball out into circle until about 1/8 inch thick.
In small bowl, mix first four filling ingredients together (cocoa, cinnamon, sugar, grated chocolate). Spread some melted butter on the center of the circle. Sprinkle the chocolate mixture on top.
Cut pastry into pie-shaped wedges. For bite-size and nice looking rugelach, thick end of wedge should be about 1 to 1 1/2 inch wide.
Start at wide edge of wedge and roll dough up toward point.
Line cookie sheet with parchment paper. Place each pastry, seam side down, on  paper.
Brush each pastry with the egg and sugar/cinnamon.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden.
  
And here are some great tips from Giora for making perfect rugelach

TIPS:
1. Using too much filling leads to messy looking rugelach.
2. A pizza cutter makes it easier to cut the dough into pie-shaped wedges.
3. If you don't want to use parchment paper, you can spray the cookie sheets with non-stick spray.
4. After rolling dough up and placing on parchment paper, you can stick them in your freezer. When you need fresh rugelach, take them right from the freezer into the oven and add a few minutes to the baking time.

BLUEBERRY CHOCOLATE PIE: National Blueberry Pie Day

I absolutely adore blueberries. When I was young, my Aunt Annie used to take us blueberry picking in the woods. It was such a treat. We'd return to the farm covered in blueberry juice, our mouths and teeth stained with dark blue liquid. I remember those blueberries as the sweetest I've ever tasted.

Since today is Blueberry Pie Day, I thought I'd post a recipe for Blueberry Chocolate Pie. I've posted other Blueberry Chocolate Pie recipes, but this recipe from Better Homes & Gardens is special because it also features a Cookie Dough Crust. Of course, you can substitute a chocolate cookie crust if you'd like more chocolate. This is a great recipe for Memorial Day and Fourth of July, so be sure to bookmark it!

BLUEBERRY CHOCOLATE PIE

Ingredients
1 Recipe Sour Cream Cookie Dough (see below)
1 cup semisweet chocolate pieces
1 egg
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 Tbsp all-purpose Flour
1 lemon, juiced
6 cups fresh blueberries

Directions 
Preheat oven to 450°F. Prepare Sour Cream Cookie Dough. Roll half of dough to a 12-inch circle on a well-floured surface. Line 9-inch pie plate with dough. Trim and flute edge. Line with double thickness of foil. Bake for 8 minutes; carefully remove foil. Bake 3 to 4 minutes more or until golden. Remove; Sprinkle with chocolate pieces and set aside.

Reduce oven to 375°F. Roll remaining dough to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut into star shapes using assorted-size cutters. In small bowl whisk together egg and 1 tablespoon water. Arrange cutouts 2 inches apart on parchment paper-lined cookie sheets. Brush cutouts with egg mixture. Bake for 7 to 9 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Remove and cool on a wire rack.

For filling, in large saucepan stir together the sugar, flour, and lemon juice. Add 4 cups of the blueberries. Cook and stir over medium heat until just thickened and bubbly. Remove from heat. Stir in remaining berries. Pour into crust. Bake for 10 minutes just until berries are heated through, covering edge of pie with foil, if necessary to prevent overbrowning. Remove to a wire rack. Top with cookie cut outs. Cool completely.

Sour Cream Cookie Dough: 
In large mixing bowl beat 1/2 cup butter, softened, with mixer on medium to high for 30 seconds. Add 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, 1/8 teaspoon baking soda, and a dash of salt; beat until combined. Add 1 egg yolk, 1/4 cup sour cream, and 1 teaspoon vanilla; beat until combined. Beat in 2 cups all-purpose flour. Divide dough in half; wrap and chill, if necessary, until easy to handle.

DEVIL DOGS: History & Recipe for National Devil Dog Day

Today is National Devil Dog Day! This food holiday has nothing to do with devils or dogs. A Devil Dog is similar to a hot-dog shaped whoopie pie. It has a smooth fluffy filling between two devil's food cake fingers. The Devil Dog is produced by Drake's Bakeries, originally known as Drake's Cakes, and they've been making them since 1926. National Devil Dog Day was started by Sean Alexander Sobel, who as a child ate Devil Dogs with his grandfather, Howard Leslie Sobel, and wanted to share the history of the snack. In 2017, the same year Sobel created the day, Drake's introduced Fudge Dipped Devil Dogs. The holiday began being celebrated the following year.
 
The term "Devil Dogs" dates to 1917 or 1918—it is believed the name was coined by Germans to describe American soldiers during World War I and alluded to their tenacity. The term was picked up on the homefront: the German word for it, Teufel Hunden was used on Marines recruiting posters in 1918, and newspaper stories also mentioned the phrase that year. The name became firmly associated with the Marines at that time but began being used for the snack eight years later.

Want to make your own Devil Dogs? Here's a recipe for Home-Made Devil Dogs.  Use a Devil Food Cake mix, but be sure and follow this filling recipe.

HOME-MADE DEVIL DOGS

Ingredients

Cake
1 egg
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 -1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Dutch process cocoa
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder

Filling
6 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 7-ounce jar marshmallow creme (1-1/2 cups)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Directions

Cake
Preheat oven to 400
In medium bowl, blend together egg, shortening, sugar with electric mixer. Continue to beat while adding milk and vanilla.
In anotehr  bowl sift together remaining cake ingredients -- flour, cocoa, salt, and baking powder.
Spoon Tbsp of batter into strips about 4 inches long and 1 inch wide on lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake 5-6 minutes until done. Cool.

Filling:
Put butter in bowl of stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and cream until fluffy (about 4 minutes). Add confectioners sugar, marshmallow cream, and vanilla and continue mixing on low speed until combined, fluffy and smooth (about 2 minutes). But cream in pastry bag with large tip (or ziploc bag with corner cut in wide way). Pipe onto cakes as below.

Pipe marshmallow cream over surface to cover, chill 10 minutes so cream stiffens, then place second cake on top to make sandwich. Repeat with remaining cakes and filling. Cover and chill for at least 1 hour before serving. Will keep in refrigerator (covered) for up to 5 days. Can freeze for 2 months.

Makes a lot of Devil Dogs!

Want another recipe for Devil Dogs? Serious Eats has a more 'serious' recipe. I haven't tried this one yet. If you do, let me know what you think. Thanks!