Honey Chocolate Chip Cookies

There has been a lot of experimenting and failing in my kitchen lately in trying to find a recipe that uses honey instead of 1 1/2 cups of sugar for chocolate chip cookies. The first two attempts were not even noteworthy. There was a lot of runny, flatness mixed with melted chocolate. It was painful to see.
Today I tried these and I think we have a keeper. I was actually surprised that they weren't cakey and didn't flatten everywhere. Hooray!

Honey Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 C butter, softened
2/3 C honey
1/2 C dry powdered milk
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 C 100% whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 C chocolate chips- I used 65% cacao chips

Cream the butter, honey and dry milk. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix well. It will look a little curdled. Add the flour, soda and salt and mix again. Stir in the chocolate chips. Drop by tablespoons on a cookie sheet and bake in a preheated 350* oven for 8-10 minutes.

Yogurt cheese cakes

I had some yogurt cheese from my last batch of powdered milk yogurt and wanted to try to make a cheesecake out of it. This turned out really good. The flavor is less tangy than a regular cheesecake but super creamy and yummy.
To make the yogurt cheese all you need to do it put it in a cheesecloth bag and hang it over a bowl over night letting all the whey drip out. I let mine hang from one of the cabinet knobs. You can also put cheesecloth over a large bowl, securing it with a rubber band, and let it drain over night. There are different ways to do this posted at Everyday Food Storage. 

Yogurt Cheese Cake

8oz yogurt cheese
1/2 C sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg

Mix together the ingredients until smooth.

6 graham crackers
1 T melted butter
Mix together and then press into the bottom of 6 muffin cups.
Pour the cheese mixture over the crust and bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until the middle doesn't jiggle. Refrigerate until set.


Here is the caramel sauce recipe we drizzled over it.


Caramel Sauce:
1/2 C buttermilk
2 C sugar
1/2 C butter
2 T corn syrup
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla


In saucepan add all ingredient except vanilla and boil for about 3 minutes or until browned through. Remove from heat and add vanilla. This stuff makes a lot and is divine!!!

Yogurt from Powdered Milk

The excitement of finding all these ways to use powdered milk seems to never end. I had a little bit of plain yogurt in the fridge from the beginning of last week and my kids LOVE yogurt. I thought I would give yogurt from powdered milk another try. I say another try because years ago I attempted it and it never, ever turned out. Well, true to form the first batch was disgusting. So curdled and gross. I am still not sure what happened. I watched some stuff on the internet and decided to try again with the very last yogurt that I had.
Now I have a yogurt maker but I did find video of how you can do it in your crock pot from Crystal Godfrey at Everday Food Storage.
So here is my take on it. I can't wait until I can go buy groceries again just to get some new starter.

Yogurt from Powdered Milk
2 3/4 C nonfat dry milk
2 qts water
1/2 C plain yogurt- make sure it says 'contains' live and active cultures otherwise it won't work

I mixed about 4 cups water and the powdered milk in my blender until it was completely incorporated. Then I put it a pan on the stove with the other water. Heat this to 180 degrees - I used a candy thermometer- and stir often so it doesn't scorch. After it reaches 180 remove it from the heat and let it set until it reaches about 110- 115 degrees. I put a lid on mine and went about my housework. It took about 2 hours to come down that far, but mine was also in a cast iron pan. A regular pan shouldn't take that long.
Take out 2 c warm milk and mix with 1/2 c plain yogurt. Then add it to the remaining milk. Put in a yogurt maker and let sit for 5-8 hours. Mine was completely set up in 5 hours and I am thinking next time I make it that I will check it at 4 hours to see how it is.

This makes an amazing parfait with a little honey, berries and granola. I used my maple granola to top it. A great way to start my day!

Whipped Topping from Powdered Milk

Wow- two posts in one day. This one is pretty dang close to whipped topping. It will definitely do the job and the kids that tasted it loved it. It takes a little bit of time to make so be sure to give yourself a couple hours before you need it.

Whipped Topping from Powdered Milk

6 T powdered milk
2 tsp plain gelatin (you could probably used flavored too)
1/4 C sugar
1 C water
1 tsp vanilla

Dissolve milk and gelatin in boiling water. Add the sugar. Stir and chill until it jells. Beat the mixture until it looks like whipped cream. Add vanilla and beat again. Store in the refrigerator until use.

Magic Chocolate Crumb Bars

This no grocery shopping experiment is ruining my diet. Today I made these MAGIC bars. The reason they are magic is because the sweetened condensed milk was made from nonfat powdered milk. I made it yesterday and the kids were all over it. Eating the condensed milk by the spoon. They continued that through out today. I think it was a success. I had some too and it was so good. Better than the real thing.SERIOUSLY!!! Condensed milk is over $3 a can here in AK. I just made it for pennies. Three times!!! Yay!!!


Magic Chocolate Crumb Bars
1 C butter, softened
1 3/4 C flour (I used fresh ground whole wheat)
1/2 C sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 C chocolate chips
1 can(14 oz) or recipe (below) of sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 C chopped pecans (or your favorite nut)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x13 in pan.
Cut the flour, sugar, and salt into the softened butter until it resembles crumbs
Press 2 C of the crumbs in the pan and bake for 10 min or until edges are brown.
Combine 1 C chocolate whips with sweetened condensed milk in a saucepan over low heat until it is smooth. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Pour over hot crust.
Stir the nuts into the remaining crumb mixture and crumble over the chocolate layer.
Bake for an additional 25 minutes or until center is set.
Chill and enjoy!


Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 T butter
1 C sugar
1/2 C boiling water
1 C powdered milk
In your combine the butter, sugar and water and blend just until the sugar is mostly dissolved. Add the powdered milk and blend until smooth. Use immediately in recipe or store in the refrigerator until use. Or you could just spoon it into your mouth! :)

Never ending Buttermilk

I am forever running out of buttermilk and that stuff is expensive. I was reading somewhere on the internet thatyou can have a never ending supply of buttermilk if you have a little cultured buttermilk to start and regular milk. So I decided to give it a try. Last night I added buttermilk to milk and this morning I have a beautiful, creamy, delicious smelling jar of buttermilk. I am so excited. This is going to take my baking and cooking to another level.

I have powdered milk coming in a few days and I am going to experiment and see if I can make buttermilk from the starter and powdered milk. I hope it works. I am so super excited about this discovery.

Anyway, here is how you do it:

Never ending Buttermilk
1 part buttermilk
3 parts milk

Mix together and let sit on the counter for 24 hours but no more than 36 hours. Then keep it in the refrigerator until you need it. Once you need to make a new batch make sure you saved some from this batch and do it all again! If it doesn't get thick and creamy than the starter is bad and you will need to start again.

UPDATE: I just made this with the starter and nonfat dry powdered milk and it worked great! I am so excited about this because I was concerned I would have to buy regular milk to make buttermilk. Life is good right now!

Magic Mix Pudding

Okay, this was REALLY good. I had a hard time waiting for it to chill in the fridge. Well, let's be honest. I didn't wait for it to totally chill before I took a spoon to it. Good stuff!!! From everyday food storage.

Magic Mix Pudding

1/2 C. Sugar
1 C. Magic Mix
2-3 T. Cocoa (optional)
2 C. Water
1 t. Vanilla
Combine Magic Mix, sugar and cocoa in saucepan and mix well. Add water, stir over medium heat until pudding bubbles. Add vanilla and beat. Cover and Cool.


And as a reminder;
Magic Mix
Ingredients:
2 1/3 C. Powdered Milk
1 C. All Purpose Flour (Yes, use All Purpose)
1 C. (2 sticks) Margarine (***HAS TO BE REAL MARGARINE, NOT SPREAD***) or Butter, at room temperature
Combine dry milk, flour and margarine/butter into a large bowl. Keep refrigerated.

Magic Mix White Sauce

This turned out really good...with a little tweaking from the original recipe that I got. So here is my version:

Magic Mix White Sauce

2/3 C magic mix

1 C water

2 T grated romano or parmesan cheese

1/2 T garlic powder

1 tsp parsely

1/4 tsp salt

Combine all in medium saucepan and whisk over medium heat until it boils. I added 1 c cooked chicken and put it over noodles. Serves 4

Fudgesicles

Total YUM!!! Way better than store bought kind.

You have to use the Magic Mix to make these. I will be adding more recipes later to use the magic mix more. This recipe comes from Everyday Food Storage.

Magic Mix-

Ingredients:

2 1/3 C. Powdered Milk

1 C. All Purpose Flour (Yes, use All Purpose)

1 C. (2 sticks) Margarine (***HAS TO BE REAL MARGARINE, NOT SPREAD***) or Butter, at room temperature
Combine dry milk, flour and margarine/butter into a large bowl.Store in fridge.

Magic Mix Popsicles
Instructions:
Make the Magic Mix Pudding recipe as follows:
1/2 C. Sugar
1 C. Magic Mix
2-3 T. Cocoa (optional)
2 C. Water
1 t. Vanilla
Combine Magic Mix, sugar and cocoa in saucepan and mix well. Add water, stir over medium heat until pudding bubbles. Add vanilla and beat. (*note* you won't refrigerate this like you would if you were making the pudding, just go straight to the next step after adding the vanilla)
Add 1/2 C. milk (1-1/2 T. Powdered Milk + 1/2 C. Water) to pudding and stir.
Pour into popsicle maker and freeze. You can also use toothpicks and ice cube trays. Wala!