Cream Cheese Cookies

Recipe From: Maura Gallagher's mom
Notes:  I acquired this recipe when in sophomore year of college (so 1989-1990), a group of us decided we needed to see The Little Mermaid movie, which had just come out.  It wasn't playing in Williamstown, or North Adams, but it was playing in Red Hook, NY, Maura's home town.  So off we went.  We watched the movie, and then descended on Maura's parents house, where her mother graciously fed the completely unexpected horde of college students these fabulous cookies.

Ingredients

8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 lb butter, softened
2 1/2 cups flour
1 jar strawberry preserves (or any preserves)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup sugar
raisins
confectioners sugar

Instructions

Cream butter and cheese and mix with flour.  Chill dough.

Sprinkle powdered sugar over surface that you'll roll the dough out on.  Take small fists of dough and roll out into a thin circle about plate size.  Cut like a pie into 16 pieces.  Sprinkle with cinnamon, nuts and sugar.  Place one raisin & tiny drop of jam on each piece.  Roll up from wide to narrow end.  Bake at 375 degrees for approx 10 minutes or until lightly browned.  Repeat with remaining dough.

These freeze very well.

Mushrooms and Sauteed Spinach

Recipe From: Jared Cumming, Kirsten's friend from college
Notes: Made at Williams New Years in Cape May, NJ.  Can't remember the exact year, but would have to be 2010 or earlier.

Ingredients

Mushrooms, chopped
Spinach, rinsed and drained
cooking oil
herbs d'provence

Instructions

Heat cooking oil in skillet.  Saute mushrooms.  Add spinach, saute until wilted.  Add herbs d'provence and stir to coat.

Virginia's Very Simple Marinara

Recipe From: Virginia Behr, Williams New Year's in Charlottesville, VA, November 2012

In large pot with thick bottom, saute on medium-low heat for a few minutes: one medium onion, diced, in about 4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.  Add four to six cloves of garlic (smashed with the side of a large knife blade to release the oils and then dice small) and saute another few minutes.  Make sure that you do not burn the garlic- it will ruin the sauce.  If you like mushrooms, you can add some sliced mushrooms when you start the saute. If you like meat sauce, turn the heat up a bit and brown about 1-2 pounds ground beef or sausage in the already cooked onion/garlic.

Add in two 28 oz. cans of crushed tomatoes and one can of peeled plum tomatoes.  Use the stirring spoon to mash up the whole plum tomatoes. Brands imported from Italy are best, or use RedPack.  Hunt's and other American brands aren't very good.  Stir.

Stir in:

*2 T fresh or dried basil

*2 T fresh or dried parsley

*1/2 cup red wine- Merlot or Cabernet Sav best

*2 bay leaves

*pinch salt, 1/2 t black pepper

*1 t hot pepper flakes (optional)

*One chopped carrot or 2 t sugar (very optional)

Simmer uncovered on medium-low to low for at least one hour. In the last 10 minutes, add in some fresh or dried oregano.  It adds depth.  If you add it too early, it makes the sauce bitter.

Pull out the bay leaves. Serve over pasta sprinkled with parmesan cheese.  Serves 8.

Cinnamon Apple Cake

Recipe From: Maura Gallagher.  Made by her for the New Years Gathering in October of 2008.

Preheat Oven to:  350 degrees  

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups  sugar -- divided
1/2 cup  stick margarine -- softened
1 teaspoon  vanilla extract
6 ounces  fat-free cream cheese -- softened
2 large  eggs
1 1/2 cups  all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons  baking powder
1/4 teaspoon  salt
2 teaspoons  ground cinnamon
3  cups  Rome apple -- peeled and chopped (about 2 large)
vegetable cooking spray

Instructions

1. Beat 1 1/2 cups sugar, margarine, vanilla, and cream cheese at medium speed of a mixer until well  blended (about 4 minutes). 
2. Add eggs, one at a time , beating well after each addition. 
3. Combine flour, baking powder and salt.  Add flour mixture to creamed mixture, beating at low speed until blended.
4. Combine 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon. 
5. Take 2 tablespoons cinnamon mixture and mix it with the apples in a bowl
6. Stir apple mixture into batter. 
7. Pour batter into an 8-inch springform pan coated with cooking spray, and sprinkle with remaining cinnamon mixture.
8. Bake at 350° for 1  hour and 15 minutes or until the cake pulls away form the sides of the pan. 
9. Cool the cake completely on a wire rack, and cut using a serrated knife.

NOTES : If made in a 9-inch springform pan, reduce cooking time by 5 minutes.

MAURA'S SPECIAL VARIATION: instead of reading recipe carefully, mix the full sugar/cinnamon mixture in with the apples.  Then, when you realize you should have only used 2 tablespoons, sigh, beat head against the countertop, and mix together another 1/4 cup sugar & 2 teaspoons cinnamon to use for the topping.  [I suspect that this weekend is the first time i've followed the recipe exactly, since i was keenly aware that i wouldn't have any backup cinnamon!]

Source:
  "Cooking Light, October 1997, p. 120"

Williams College Bar Brownie

Recipe From: Williams College Dining Services  (note to other college/university dining services: if you want really good food, you have to do it yourself and not outsource it.  Williams College Dining Services is proof.  Because I had no experience with other college dining services while at Williams, I did not realize how good they were until I visited other colleges and went to graduate school.)

Story:  I came by this recipe as a result of staring at a knife in my cutlery drawer and thinking, "I'm pretty sure this is a Greylock Dining Hall knife."  I had a couple of spoons and forks of the same pattern and I felt some guilt over this.  It was a thoughtless theft as I hadn't intended to leave college with dining hall cutlery and I'm not even sure how I ended up with as I don't recall taking it having bought my own bowls and cups and such.  So I wrote to dining services, explaining I'd graduated over 10 years ago, I was pretty sure I had some of their cutlery and where should I send it back to?  Oh, and by the way, was there any chance of getting the Williams College brownie recipe?  Dining Services wrote me back and very kindly said I could keep the forks and spoons and also mailed me the recipes for brownies with helpful instructions on how I might go about reducing the quantity for home use.  Williams brownies tend to generate strong feelings from people.  They either love them or can't see how you could eat one, but few people are neutral.  I loved them.  They were almost fudge-like, they were so dense and chocolatey.  Just great!

Preheat Oven to: 370 degrees

Ingredients (original recipe)

1 pound, 6 1/2 oz granulated sugar
12 1/2 oz Shortening (Sweetex)
2 7/8 tsp spice salt
2 1/2 oz Numoline (invert sugar syrup used on commercial baking)
8 oz liquid eggs plus 1 1/2 oz for egg wash
4 oz cocoa powder
7 1/2 oz corn syrup
15 oz cake flour
2 oz water
1 Tbl vanilla extract
4 oz chopped nuts (opt)

Instructions
Cream sugar, shortening, salt and numoline. Add eggs and beat.  Blend in cocoa and corn syrup.  Add flour, water and vanilla.  Scale 9 lbs batter into greased full sheet pan and wash with egg wash.  Scale 4-8 lbs per half sheet.  Sprinkle 1/2 sheet with nuts; leave some plain.  Bake at 370 degrees for 35-40 minutes.  Makes 1 1/2 13x18" sheet pans, or about 90 brownies.

Notes
I have to confess I have no idea what "scale 9 lbs batter" means, since I don't think the ingredients add up to 9 pounds. However, I haven't tried it to see.  I assume this instruction would make sense to a commercial baker.

Ingredients (scaled recipe for home use)
Note: this is still under development.  I haven't perfected the Williams College brownie at home yet, so this post may change over time!

1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup + 2tsp butter or shortening
1 tsp salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup cocoa powder
7 Tbl corn syrup (1 Tbl shy of 1/2 cup)
1 cup + 1 Tbl cake flour
3 Tbl water
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Instructions
Cream sugar, shortening and salt.  Add eggs and beat.  Blend in cocoa powder and corn syrup.  Add flour, water and vanilla.  Pour into a greased 8x8 pan.  Sprinkle with chopped nuts if desired.  Bake at 370 for 35-40 minutes.  Makes 16 brownies.