Baking Strawberry and Cream Cheese Cookies!

On Pinterest I was browsing around and looking for cookie recipes to add to my collection and chose to make Strawberry and Cream Cheese Cookies for its ease of finding the recipe’s ingredients and because I liked the combination of fruit baked with a cream cheese based cookie dough. I wanted to try making a dessert from scratch instead of from my usual store bought premade baking mix as something new. The next day I found all of the required ingredients at the local grocery store and tried making these delicious cookies later on during the same day. Something I messed up on while putting together the cookie dough was adding 1 tablespoon of baking powder to the mixture instead of 1 teaspoon (it gave an extra poufyness and almost cakelike texture to the cookies). Another thing is that I would not add as much lemon juice as specified in the recipe or to not add any lemon juice to the strawberries for less tartness. Trying this recipe made 12 cookies, my roommates ate all of them the same night and they actually liked how the cookies were more tart than sugary. I had a lot of fun baking these cookies and I would definitely try this recipe again!

Fresh strawberries chopped into small segments

Mixed cream cheese and sugar

Adding in flour to the mixture

Strawberries precoated with flour then folded in with spatula

prebaking

After baking!

Cookie with sanded sugar

All credits for recipe goes to Vera’s Kitchen Corner

Strawberry Cream Cheese Cookies

Ingredients

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup unsalted butter-softened

4 oz cream cheese-softened

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoons vanilla extract

3/4 cup chopped fresh strawberries

2 tablespoon lemon juice (optional)

1-2 tablespoon flour

5 oz white chocolate-chopped (optional)

sanding sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Pour fresh lemon juice over chopped strawberries, drain them after a few minutes.
3. Whisk together 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour, salt and baking powder and set aside.
4. Beat butter with sugar and cream cheese until it is light and fluffy.
5. Add egg and vanilla and mix well.
6. Gradually add flour mixture and mix until it’s well combined.
7. Sprinkle strawberries with 1-2 tablespoon flour, toss them until all strawberries are coated with thin layer of flour and then stir them really gently in the batter.
8. Drop heaping tablespoon of batter onto pan leaving an inch space between.
9. Set the cookies in the refrigerator for 5-10 minutes before baking.
10. Sprinkle the cookies with sanding sugar if you want, but do not overdo it because they are sweet enough.
11. Bake for 13-15 minutes or until the edges become golden brown.
12. Let cookies cool for a few minutes in the pan then transfer to a plate.

A Great Deal on Jalapeno and Cheese Focaccia at SF Taraval Safeway!

At a Safeway on Taraval Street in San Francisco is the best jalapeno and cheese focaccia that is baked fresh onsite every morning. For only 45 cents each I get a pretty big sized focaccia loaded with lots of melted cheddar cheese and a good amount of spicyness. I would say it is half the size of a regular plate if not sometimes made bigger. The 45 cent price is only for those with Safeway club cards otherwise the regular pricing would be around 89 cents. The jalapeno and cheese focaccia is not only a great deal at this price, but can also be addictive and it is very filling.  

Trying a recipe for rice burgers!

Yesterday I was inspired from watching Cooking with Dog’s video recipe on how to make rice burgers from Youtube to try it myself because it looked very delicious. I thought the use of rice formed into a hamburger bread slice was creative and it was something I did not know about before. Some of the ingredients I substituted due to me not finding all of them at the local grocery store (corn starch instead of potato starch, ground beef instead of sliced beef and adding sautéed spinach and mushroom for toppings). Another thing is I did not have the same mold as chef so I used two same sized circular plastic containers to shape the rice and grounded beef patty. Below are some pictures I took of my process of me making a rice burger, and an alternate version of the recipe too.

Adding medium grain fresh steamed rice with a bit of cornstarch mixed in to the substituted mold

One of the just made rice disc

Using a pastry brush to baste the rice disc with soy sauce

Pan toasting the rice disc on both sides

Forming the hamburger patty

Cooking the hamburger patty

Sauteed baby spinach and sliced button mushrooms for added texture

Assembling the burger

Adding the cooked spinach and mushrooms

Finished view

I had lots of fun making the rice burgers and the end tasting result was that it was so delicious! 

Rice Burger Recipe:

Steamed medium or short grain rice
1 tsp Corn Starch

Garlic Salt

Pepper

Ground beef
Soy Sauce

Vegetable Oil

Optional:

Spinach

Sliced Mushrooms

Have a pan of some oil ready on medium high heat. Take 4 to 5 big spoonfuls of rice and put into mold. Add 1 tsp of corn starch, mix in with hot or warm steamed rice. Use another same sized container and press down firmly on rice mixture. Gently pop out the rice disc and place on heated pan. Brush on some regular soy sauce on one side or both and lightly pan fry for 2-3 minutes each side. Once done pan frying place rice discs on a plate to cool. 

For the ground beef add 4-5 spoonfuls into a mold. Mix in garlic salt and some pepper up to taste. Once hamburger patty is formed, pan fry both sides or until fully cooked through. Sautee two big handfuls of spinach and some sliced mushrooms in pan after. 

Place the hamburger patty onto one of the rice discs, add the spinach and the mushrooms then top with the second rice disc. Can cut into halves to make eating the rice burger easier. Enjoy!