Flora's Mexican Wedding Cakes

from epicurious

Polvorones

These "cakes" are really festive cookies.

Yield: Makes about 4 dozen

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup pecans, toasted, coarsely ground

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until light and fluffy. Add 1/2 cup powdered sugar and vanilla; beat until well blended. Beat in flour, then pecans. Divide dough in half; form each half into ball. Wrap separately in plastic; chill until cold, about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Whisk remaining 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar and cinnamon in pie dish to blend. Set cinnamon sugar aside.

Working with half of chilled dough, roll dough by 2 teaspoonfuls between palms into balls. Arrange balls on heavy large baking sheet, spacing 1/2 inch apart. Bake cookies until golden brown on bottom and just pale golden on top, about 18 minutes. Cool cookies 5 minutes on baking sheet. Gently toss warm cookies in cinnamon sugar to coat completely. Transfer coated cookies to rack and cool completely. Repeat procedure with remaining half of dough. (Cookies can be prepared 2 days ahead. Store airtight at room temperature; reserve remaining cinnamon sugar.)

Sift remaining cinnamon sugar over cookies and serve.

Ivria's Kugel

From epicurious...

Ingredients:
For noodles

• 1 pound dried wide egg noodles
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 1 cup whole milk
• 5 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 (1-pound) container sour cream
• 1 (1-pound) container small curd cottage cheese (4% fat)
• 1 (20-ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained

For topping

• 2 cups cornflakes, coarsely crushed
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into bits

Prep:

Prepare kugel:
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat to 350°F. Butter a 13- by 9- by 2-inch glass or ceramic baking dish.

Cook noodles in a 6- to 8-quart pot of boiling salted water until al dente. Drain well in a colander, then return to warm pot and add butter, tossing until noodles are coated.

Whisk together milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla, and salt until combined, then whisk in sour cream. Stir in cottage cheese and pineapple and add to noodles, stirring to coat well, then spoon into baking dish.

Make topping and bake kugel:
Stir together cornflakes, sugar, and cinnamon and sprinkle evenly over noodles. Dot with butter and bake until kugel is set and edges are golden brown, about 1 hour. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Flora's Flourless Chocolate Cake

This won top prize, good stuff, from epicurious.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup coffee liqueur
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 7 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar

• Powdered sugar

Prep:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 9-inch-diameter springform pan with 2 3/4-inch-high sides. Line bottom of pan with parchment paper. Stir chocolate, butter, coffee liqueur, and vanilla in heavy large saucepan over low heat until melted and smooth. Cool to lukewarm. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and 1 cup sugar in large bowl until thick and pale, and slowly dissolving ribbon forms when beaters are lifted, about 6 minutes. Fold 1/3 of egg mixture into lukewarm chocolate mixture. Fold remaining egg mixture into chocolate mixture.

Place prepared pan on baking sheet. Transfer batter to prepared pan. Bake until tester inserted into center comes out with moist crumbs attached, about 55 minutes. Cool 5 minutes. Gently press down edges of cake. Cool completely in pan. (Cake can be prepared up to 1 day ahead. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Let stand at room temperature 1 hour before continuing.)

Run knife around pan sides to loosen cake. Remove sides of pan; transfer cake to platter. Remove parchment paper. Sprinkle cake with powdered sugar and serve.

Ivria's Momma's Banana Bread

Banana Bread

Ingredients:

3-4 over-ripe bananas

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup water

2 eggs

2/3 cups butter or crisco

1 2/3 cup flour

1 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

1/4 t baking powder

Optional (but highly recommended!) - chopped walnuts/chocolate chips

Directions:

Blend ingredients together in order listed above. Bake in greased pan. Bake @ 350 for 25-45 min. (less in a ring, more in a loaf pan)

Hughes Family Pecan Pie

This pecan pie will please any southern boy's mama.

1 c pecans (whole and pieces)
3 eggs
½ c butter
¼ c white sugar
1 c brown sugar
1 c dark Karo syrup
1 t vanilla
Pinch of salt

Sprinkle pecans in bottom of unbaked pie crust. Melt butter. Mix eggs, butter, sugars, syrup, vanilla, and salt together well. Then pour into pie shell. Bake at 325 for 1 hour until almost set.