Marguerites Cookbook

A cooking blog all about making vintage recipes from a cookbook we inherited from our grandmother

Cream Cheese Brownies

cream cheese brownies header

I’m not sure if I’ve made it clear enough (although I think I have), but I love desserts. Chocolate desserts might be my favorite, and brownies are near the top of the list. Since its been a few weeks since our last dessert, the Southern Lane Cake, I think it’s time to do another. These cream cheese brownies were a great treat.

Cream Cheese Brownies

Here’s what Marguerite’s friend Susie Matha had to say:

cream cheese brownies recipe

Susie also gave us the Coffee Cake recipe, which is one of my favorite recipes I think we’ve done on Marguerite’s Cookbook. So when it came time to make these brownies, I was hopeful they would be as much of a success as the coffee cake. To be honest, these brownies didn’t quite live up to the coffee cake, but they were still tasty. It was fun to make brownies completely from scratch, and we enjoyed working on making each of the layers for this interesting brownie recipe.

Brownies Cream Cheese

The cream cheese brownies turned out really nice. They were soft and moist and had great flavor. Both the chocolate layers and cream cheese layers were delicious, and the two mixed together well to make a wonderful brownie. We both enjoyed these brownies, and they disappeared pretty fast. I’m sure we’ll be making these again!

Marble Brownies

Cream Cheese Brownies
Print Recipe
Prep Time
25 minutes
Cook Time
40 minutes
Prep Time
25 minutes
Cook Time
40 minutes
Cream Cheese Brownies
Print Recipe
Prep Time
25 minutes
Cook Time
40 minutes
Prep Time
25 minutes
Cook Time
40 minutes
Ingredients
Chocolate Layer
Cheese Layer
Servings:
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Melt chocolate and 3 tablespoons of butter over very low heat. Stir frequently. Cool.
  3. To make cheese layer, cream 3 ounces of cream cheese with 2 tablespoons of butter. Gradually add 1/4 cup sugar, creaming until fluffy. Blend in 1 egg, 1 tablespoon flour, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Set aside.
  4. To make chocolate layer, beat 2 eggs until lightly colored. Slowly add 3/4 cups sugar; beat until thickened. Add 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt, and 1/2 cup flour.
  5. Blend in chocolate mixture, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and 1/4 teaspoon almond extract.
  6. Spread half the chocolate batter in a greased 8 or 9 inch square pan. Top with cheese mixture. Spoon remaining chocolate patter over top. Zigzag knife through batter to marble. Bake for 35-40 minutes.
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Fruit Bread

Fruit Bread header

I don’t know about you, but sometimes it definitely makes me feel better to bake. And eat the thing I’ve baked, but that’s besides the point. However, I really enjoyed making this “Fruit Bread” while we are in the depths of winter here in Chicago. It was also a great way to use up any extra candied cherries you might have leftover from making a delicious batch of Christmas cake cookies.

Here’s what Marguerite had to say:

Fruit Bread Recipe

I was really looking forward to making this bread, since our other bread recipes here at Marguerite’s Cookbook have been very successful. I was happy with how the bread turned out, but it sure was a process to get there! First of all, it took quite a while to chop up the candied cherries and they were extremely sticky of course. Then, as you may imagine, four cups of flour and a bunch of nuts and fruits make for a very thick batter. I was exhausted by the time the bread was all mixed together.

Fruit Bread

I did have a little trouble baking this bread. It seemed that when the time was up, the insides where just barely done but the bottom crust got burned a little bit. I suppose I may have put the bread too close to the bottom of the oven. That little issue aside, the fruit bread turned out to be quite tasty. The combination of candied fruit, nuts (we used walnuts), and orange juice added vibrant flavors to an already sweet tasting bread.

Fruit Bread

We both really enjoyed this bread. I’ll probably have some with my morning coffee, but its so sweet this may be more of a dessert bread. This might not be my favorite bread so far, but it is definitely close. I’m looking forward to sharing this with my coworkers, and I’m sure they’ll be happy to see some more delicious food coming into work with me.

Fruit Bread

Fruit Bread
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
2 loaves 40 minutes
Cook Time
45-50 minutes
Servings Prep Time
2 loaves 40 minutes
Cook Time
45-50 minutes
Fruit Bread
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
2 loaves 40 minutes
Cook Time
45-50 minutes
Servings Prep Time
2 loaves 40 minutes
Cook Time
45-50 minutes
Ingredients
Servings: loaves
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Beat together eggs and sugar.
  3. Sift together dry ingredients and add to eggs and sugar.
  4. Add the oil and orange juice.
  5. Chop the candied fruit and nuts (if not already done).
  6. Fold into batter.
  7. Grease and flour two loaf pans and fill with batter. Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes.
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Southern Lane Cake

Southern Lane Cake Header

I hope everyone out there is having a good start to their new year. Some of you may be working on a resolution to eat healthier. While we are also attempting that goal, there is an important milestone that requires this week’s recipe to be a cake. It’s Marguerite’s Cookbook’s birthday! That’s right, we launched Marguerite’s Cookbook a whole year ago, and knew that we wanted to do one of Marguerite’s many cake recipes as a birthday treat to ourselves. This Southern Lane Cake turned out to be an excellent choice that was fun to make and delicious to eat.

Southern Lane Cake

Here’s what Marguerite had to say:

Southern Lane Cake Recipe

As usual, the planning for this recipe required a little more work than just reading Marguerite’s notes. I had to research how long to bake the layers for, what a cooked white frosting was (more on that later), and a little more about just what a Southern Lane Cake was. That’s where I discovered that some fillings or icings included things like nuts, which is why I decided to put some almonds on top of the cake.

Southern Lane Cake up close

As you may or may not be able to tell, there are only three layers in the final product here. I’d like to say that is on purpose, but of course I made a little mistake and was forced into the decision. We have a tiny oven in our current kitchen, and it was a struggle fitting two 8″ and two 9″ pans into it. On top of that, the two sets of pans are not the same ages and not the same shade of aluminum. In the end, one of the four layers burned while the others turned out great, so the height of our cake was decided for me. I do think a three layer cake looks great though!

Southern Lane Cake with piece

I also had some trouble in attempting to make a homemade icing, so instead I just used some plain store bought white icing. That is why there is no accompanying icing recipe to go along with the cake. As great as it can be to make something by hand, Marguerite knew the value of making it easier when she needed to, too! In my opinion, the lack of homemade icing did not take away from this cake at all!

Southern Lane Cake piece

This “blogiversary” cake was delicious. I used to not like cakes with fillings, or filling that wasn’t more icing. Now that I am older and wiser I have seen the error of my ways and am less narrow-minded towards filled cakes. The actual cake parts cooked great, and were light and moist. The combination of the cake, cherry pie filling, and icing worked very well together to make this a very enjoyable dessert. Shannon agreed that this cake was tasty, but was happy to see it go to work with me so we didn’t eat it all.

Southern Lane Cake

My favorite part of this Southern Lane Cake was putting it together and decorating it with Shannon. She took a Wilton cake decorating class before so she is the resident cake expert. Making icing walls to hold the cherry pie filling and stacking the layers on top of each other together was a lot of fun. I also love spreading icing, so I got to do that over the whole cake, too. Here’s to the first year of Marguerite’s Cookbook. Thanks for spending some time with us and with Marguerite. We had a great first year, and hope to have many more to come!

Southern Lane Cake

Southern Lane Cake
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
1 cake 25 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
20-25 minutes 1 hour
Servings Prep Time
1 cake 25 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
20-25 minutes 1 hour
Southern Lane Cake
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
1 cake 25 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
20-25 minutes 1 hour
Servings Prep Time
1 cake 25 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
20-25 minutes 1 hour
Ingredients
Servings: cake
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease and flour 4 nine inch round layer pans.
  2. Cream butter and sugar. Add vanilla.
  3. Combine dry ingredients (flour, powder, salt). Alternately add dry ingredients and milk to creamed butter and sugar.
  4. Fold in egg whites.
  5. Bake 20-25 minutes.
  6. Let layers cool before constructing cake using cherry pie filling and icing. Add nuts like almonds to the top if desired.
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Christmas Cake Cookies

christmas cake cookies header

A Merry Christmas Eve to everyone! As Christmas approaches, many of you have probably made countless desserts to share with family and friends this holiday season. If you haven’t started yet, or you’re looking for something different to add to your Christmas time cookie arsenal, we have a Christmas Cake Cookie recipe that is a fun and tasty twist on the traditional holiday fruitcake.

christmas cake cookies

Here’s what Marguerite had to say:

christmas cake cookies recipe

As you can see in Marguerite’s ingredient list, she called for dates in addition to quite a few other ingredients. We couldn’t find them easily and we also weren’t too keen on putting them in this recipe anyway. So we decided to skip them and just go with the ingredients we were more familiar with. Now, some of you may be looking at this and saying, ‘a pound of nuts and a pound of candied fruit is going to make a lot of cookies.’ Aaron really wishes he had thought that before he mixed all these ingredients together. Over an hour later and a lot of spooning of dough, Aaron had churned out almost 90 cookies! Now that we’ve made and tasted these cookies, we’re glad we made that many to share with our friends and families, but boy was it tiring at the time.

christmas cookies

I mentioned earlier that these Christmas Cake Cookies are a twist on the holiday fruitcake. We here at Marguerite’s Cookbook have never actually had a traditional fruitcake, but we know all about the negative stereotype fruitcake has been saddled with. If fruitcake has been labeled as dry and hard, these Christmas Cake Cookies are the exact opposite! The cookies were soft and cooked through perfectly, turning out to be yet another success.

cake cookies

We both really enjoyed these cookies, because well, they’re cookies. Having more brown sugar than other cookie recipes was a big plus for me, since I would bathe in brown sugar and butter if it we’re practical. Aaron liked the combination of nuts and candied fruit. The reds and greens of the candied cherries helped put us in a holiday mood and makes these cookies extra festive.We hope our friends and families enjoy these Christmas Cake Cookies as much as we did as we share them over the holidays!

christmas cake cookies and milk

Christmas Cake Cookies
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
90 cookies 1 hour
Cook Time
30 minutes
Servings Prep Time
90 cookies 1 hour
Cook Time
30 minutes
Christmas Cake Cookies
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
90 cookies 1 hour
Cook Time
30 minutes
Servings Prep Time
90 cookies 1 hour
Cook Time
30 minutes
Ingredients
Servings: cookies
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs.
  3. Sift dry ingredients together and add fruits and nuts to dry ingredients.
  4. Add dry ingredients to the rest of the batter.
  5. Drop by teaspoonfuls into tea sized (mini) cupcake liners. Do not grease papers or trays.
  6. Bake for 13 minutes at 350.
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Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin Pie Header

What pie would be better to make as we approach Thanksgiving, than a classic homemade pumpkin pie?! Nothing quite beats a well executed pumpkin pie, and we were able to do just that. Of course, we used Marguerite’s perfect pie crust to go with this timeless pie.

Here’s what Marguerite had to say:

mother's pumpkin pie recipe

As you can see, this recipe is titled Mother’s pumpkin pie. That would be Marguerite’s mother, or Aaron’s great grandmother,  Allen. One of the best stories from Aaron’s mom regarding this pumpkin pie recipe is that she remembers Marguerite pouring the milk for this recipe straight out of a glass bottle (that was delivered by an honest to goodness Milkman!) As usual, Marguerite didn’t give us too much direction.

Pie Recipe

For as short as the ingredient list is, we should have had an easier time. The pie you see in these pictures may or may not be the third one we made (don’t ask.) But in our first failed attempts, we learned things to improve our process. On our first try, we just added all the ingredients together without any real order, rhyme, or reason. The successful change we made was to mix the dry ingredients into the pumpkin thoroughly first.  Then we beat the eggs well and add them, followed by the milk. The baking step was also a bit tricky for us, but in the end the pie came out of the oven looking just fine.

Pumpkin Recipe

Now, on to taste. Mercedes gave us the insight that those who tried Marguerite’s pumpkin pie liked it for its more mild pumpkin flavor, which Aaron also noted. Marguerite attributed this milder flavor to the higher concentration of eggs and milk versus pumpkin. Aaron liked this pumpkin pie well enough, although pumpkin is a little farther down his list of favorite pie flavors than others. I care not for pumpkin, and the small bite I sampled was not appealing to me. The crust, I could eat all day though.

Pumpkin Pie Piece

So where could we take this pumpkin pie to find willing taste testers? That’s right, Aaron’s co-workers. They all enjoyed it, and Aaron’s pretty sure they weren’t just being polite! One of them, who claimed to like pumpkin pie even more than any cake, ate a quarter of it in one sitting! We hope if you try Marguerite’s pumpkin pie this fall that you like it as much as Aaron’s work pals.

Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin Pie
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
1 pie 30 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
60-70 minutes 30 minutes
Servings Prep Time
1 pie 30 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
60-70 minutes 30 minutes
Pumpkin Pie
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
1 pie 30 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
60-70 minutes 30 minutes
Servings Prep Time
1 pie 30 minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
60-70 minutes 30 minutes
Ingredients
Filling
Crust
Servings: pie
Instructions
Crust
  1. Blend flour and salt in large bowl. Cut shortening into flour mixture using pasty blender or fork. Stir in just enough water with fork until dough holds together.
  2. TIP Test dough for proper moistness by squeezing a marble-sized ball of dough in your hand. If it holds together firmly, do not any additional water. If the dough crumbles, add more water by the tablespoonful, until dough is moist enough to form a smooth ball when pressed together.
  3. Shape dough into a ball. Flatten ball into a 1/2 inch round disk.
  4. Chill for 30 minutes or up to two days.
  5. Roll dough from center outward into a circle 2 inches wider than pie plate on lightly floured surface. Transfer dough to pie plate.
Filling
  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
  2. Mix pumpkin, salt, nutmeg, and sugar well.
  3. Beat eggs well, and add to pumpkin. Mix together well.
  4. Slowly add milk, mixing ingredients together well.
  5. Pour into shell.
  6. Cook in oven at 425 degrees for 15 minutes, then lower temperature to 350 and cook until a knife inserted in the pumpkin comes out dry, around 40-50 minutes.
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Perfect Pie Crust

pie crust header

Happy Pie Month! To kick off this month of delicious desserts, we’re going to start with the basics. According to many people in our family, the best part of Marguerite’s pies were the crust. While there was not a handwritten recipe anywhere in the cookbook, Aaron’s mom was able to give us the low-down.

Perfect Pie Crust

Marguerite used a basic Crisco pie crust recipe. Aaron’s mom, Mercedes, is a bit of an expert on this crust. She tried to make pies with Marguerite and similar to Marguerite’s many times. A difficult task, because Marguerite said the best crust was one that you didn’t handle too much. Mercedes confessed it was something she was never great at. We think we aren’t quite there yet either, but with the amount of pie’s we’ll be making on this blog, we are hopeful we can get there someday! We already covered it a while ago with our Cranberry Cherry Pie, but we think it’s worth giving it it’s own post.

Cranberry Cherry pie and slice

Aforementioned Cranberry Cherry Pie, made with this crust

Some of the pies in this month will not be made with Marguerite’s perfect pie crust. We’re trying to balance out some of the more “traditional pies” with some unique ones; many of which don’t involve a traditional crust. Just for ease, we’ll also be using a few pre-made pie crusts in place of this crust as well.

That being said, Marguerite’s perfect pie crust is something we enjoy making, because it is one of the things she made best that everyone remembers. So keep an eye out during Pie Month for this crust!

Check out the recipe below and enjoy Marguerite’s Cookbook’s Pie Month!

Perfect Pie Crust
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
1 pie crust 10 minutes
Passive Time
30 minutes
Servings Prep Time
1 pie crust 10 minutes
Passive Time
30 minutes
Perfect Pie Crust
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
1 pie crust 10 minutes
Passive Time
30 minutes
Servings Prep Time
1 pie crust 10 minutes
Passive Time
30 minutes
Ingredients
Servings: pie crust
Instructions
  1. Blend flour and salt in large bowl. Cut shortening into flour mixture using pasty blender or fork. Stir in just enough water with fork until dough holds together.
  2. TIP Test dough for proper moistness by squeezing a marble-sized ball of dough in your hand. If it holds together firmly, do not any additional water. If the dough crumbles, add more water by the tablespoonful, until dough is moist enough to form a smooth ball when pressed together.
  3. Shape dough into a ball. Flatten ball into a 1/2 inch round disk.
  4. Chill for 30 minutes or up to two days.
  5. Roll dough from center outward into a circle 2 inches wider than pie plate on lightly floured surface. Transfer dough to pie plate.
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Pumpkin Bread

pumpkinbreadheader Happy Autumn everyone! As the weather cools down around us and the leaves begin to change, that brings to mind one of the most popular fall flavors. Pumpkin. The most famous pumpkin recipe is probably pumpkin pie, but we’ve got that coming for you a bit closer to Thanksgiving.  Today we have a delicious pumpkin bread that really ushers in the fall season.

Here’s what Marguerite had to say:

 

This recipe is actually from another of Marguerite’s teaching colleagues and friends from her many years of teaching, Kathy Hoffman. You may notice it appears one thing is missing from this recipe. While making it, Aaron wasn’t sure the flour was mistakenly forgotten, but it was obvious once all the other ingredients were mixed together that this wasn’t going to turn into bread without flour.

Pumpkin Bread Loaf

After that, this pumpkin bread recipe was very simple to make. It was actually on the same page in the book as our zucchini bread recipe, and is very similar as far as ingredients and prep. I do not like pumpkin flavored things, but I found this pumpkin bread to be delicious! It tasted like autumn. That is, the spices masked the pumpkin flavor enough that I was able to enjoy this. I had too many pieces!

Pumpkin Bread

Aaron also loved how this pumpkin bread tasted more like spices than pumpkin. He also loved the color once it was baked, as well as the smell of the bread baking. He was so excited after tasting it, that he went right back into the kitchen and made another loaf with the remaining pumpkin we had! This was mostly because he knows his coworkers will eat it all up and there will be none left for us! We hope you enjoy this pumpkin bread recipe this fall with us.

Pumpkin Bread Recipe

Pumpkin Bread
Print Recipe
Prep Time
15 minutes
Cook Time
45 minutes
Prep Time
15 minutes
Cook Time
45 minutes
Pumpkin Bread
Print Recipe
Prep Time
15 minutes
Cook Time
45 minutes
Prep Time
15 minutes
Cook Time
45 minutes
Ingredients
Servings:
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Mix all ingredients together.
  3. Grease one pan for a large loaf or two pans for two smaller loafs.
  4. Bake approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour.
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Coffee Cake

coffee cake header

Coffee cake is one of those desserts that can be made in so many different ways and with many different flavors. This is just a basic coffee cake recipe given to Marguerite by another of her teaching colleagues, Susie Matha. Sometimes, plain and simple recipes are the way to go.

 

Here is what Susie had to say:

sour-cream-coffee-cake-recipe

First things first, Aaron was confused that this recipe was called sour cream coffee cake and he was confused that the recipe did, in fact, contain sour cream. He did not realize that sour cream can be a common ingredient in baked goods. He also didn’t realize how much work could go in to preparing a baked good to be made. We both felt that it took a bit too long of a time to put together, between the combining of ingredients, the grinding of nuts, and the layering of batter and filling in the pan. But it was sooooooo delicious.

sour cream coffee cake

It was soft and spongy like a well made cake should be, plus the cinnamon, sugar, and nuts (we used almonds), made a delicious filling. We made sure to grease and flour the pan before pouring the batter, which was great help in removing the pieces of cake after baking.

 

The aroma of this cake filled our apartment for like two hours. By the time we cut into it, we we’re impatient and hungry. Cutting the coffee cake a little too soon caused it to be too soft and to crumble as we tried to take it out. Once cooled the cake was easy to cut and plate to eat. Was it ever delicious! I wasn’t crazy about how brown the sides and bottom got, and that may be due to over baking it, or even due to the type of tube pan we used. But I did enjoy the insides of the coffee cake. Aaron enjoyed it greatly as well. He, of course, enjoyed several pieces along with coffee.

coffee cake

Thankfully for both of us, Aaron took the extra to share with his coworkers. They also really enjoyed it and upon cleaning out the container it was in, told Aaron he could “take it home and fill it with more coffee cake!” I think we would consider that a great success.

Coffee Cake
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
1 cake 40 minutes
Cook Time
90 minutes
Servings Prep Time
1 cake 40 minutes
Cook Time
90 minutes
Coffee Cake
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
1 cake 40 minutes
Cook Time
90 minutes
Servings Prep Time
1 cake 40 minutes
Cook Time
90 minutes
Ingredients
Batter
Filling
Servings: cake
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Cream butter and sugar together very well.
  3. Add one egg at a time, beating after each one.
  4. Add sour cream, then vanilla.
  5. Mix well.
  6. Sift together dry ingredients, then slowly add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Mix well again.
  7. Combine filling ingredients.
  8. Grease and flour tube pan. Put one third of batter into pan, then one third of filling. Then second third of batter and second third of filling. Pour on remaining batter and cut through as for marble cake. Top with remaining filling and bake one and a half hours at 350.
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Fourth of July Thumbprint Cookies

Thumbprint Cookies

Happy Fourth of July Weekend! We hope you’re having a safe and fun one. We happen to be hanging out with our family in Pittsburgh all weekend and maybe sharing a few of these delicious thumbprint cookies with them. Or keeping them all to ourselves…

This recipe happened to be a Christmas staple of Marguerite’s, but there are only so many desserts we can share with you in December. So, we adapted the decor of these thumbprint cookies to be a little more seasonally appropriate.

Thumbprint Cookies Recipe

Aaron and I decided to make the thumbprint cookies with nuts on the outside like Marguerite described, as well as a way we were more familiar with: substituting the nuts for sprinkles (or “jimmies” as we Pittsburghers call them.)

Thumbprint Cookies Prep

We made these cookies twice, both times about 6 with nuts and 8 with sprinkles. The first time we made them, they were so dry! They crumbled in our hands and were not pleasant to eat. The second time, we cut back by about two tablespoons on flour and we used only softened butter instead of a butter/Crisco combo (noted below.) This would have been much better if one of us (we’re not sure whom) hadn’t bumped the oven during the thumbprinting step! Somehow it got turned up to 425 and our cookies had burned bottoms when we removed them. The third time is the charm I suppose?

Thumbprint Cookies with nuts

The nut version of the cookies were good. I’m not a huge fan of nuts, but the sugar off-set them nicely. I wish we had put an almond in the center of the nut cookies, but I was sort of on a roll with the piping bag…

Thumbprint Cookies

The sprinkle versions were amazing! Aaron, his cousin Kiersten, and myself all have fond memories of our childhood in a Pittsburgh grocery store called Giant Eagle. Whenever your parents dragged you in with them, you could always count on the friendly people behind the bakery and deli counters to give your adorable self a free slice of American cheese and a free thumbprint cookie, just for being a cute kid. This recipe definitely got me nostalgic for those days, especially with the substitution of sprinkles for nuts.

Thumbprint Cookies

Not only are thumbprint cookies a classic, but they’re so adaptable for any time of the year. Halloween? Black and orange sprinkles! Valentines day? Pink and red icing! The possibilities are endless.

Thumbprint Cookies

Tell us, are you making anything fun for the holiday weekend?

Fourth of July Thumbprint Cookies
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
1-2 dozen 15 minutes
Cook Time
10-12 minutes
Servings Prep Time
1-2 dozen 15 minutes
Cook Time
10-12 minutes
Fourth of July Thumbprint Cookies
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
1-2 dozen 15 minutes
Cook Time
10-12 minutes
Servings Prep Time
1-2 dozen 15 minutes
Cook Time
10-12 minutes
Ingredients
Servings: dozen
Instructions
  1. Mix butter, brown sugar, vanilla, and egg yolk thoroughly.
  2. Sift flour and salt together and stir in. Stir in a little at a time to ensure cookies don't get too dry.
  3. Roll into one inch balls.
  4. Dip in slightly beaten egg white. Roll in finely chopped nuts.
  5. Place about one inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for five minutes. Remove from oven.
  6. Quickly place thumb gently on top of each cookie. Return to oven and bake 5-8 more minutes. Cool.
  7. Place in thumbprints a bit of candied fruit, jelly, or tinted powdered sugar icing.
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Broccoli Cheese Soup

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

We’re in what looks like our last week of winter weather here in Chicago, and nothing quite shakes off those winter blues like a hot bowl of Broccoli Cheese soup. There’s just something comforting about the look of a nice big bowl of soup, isn’t there?

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

Aaron enjoys when Marguerite’s recipes have the instructions jammed on the right half of the page alongside the list of ingredients. It is so unlike the typical recipe format and that unique style seems distinctly “Marguerite” to him. Here is what she had to say this time:

BroccoliCheeseSoupRecipe

Another characteristic of some of Marguerite’s recipes is that they are usually only as detailed as she needed to remember how they went. We often have to read the entire recipe at least once through to make sure we don’t come upon any surprises. In this recipe, we noticed it made the most sense to sauté the onion in the big pot to begin with. This soup was so creamy, cheesy, and very easy to make. I’m not a huge fan of creamy soups, but I really liked this one.

broccoli cheese soup

Aaron felt it was a little too thin in consistency and would have liked more of a cheesy flavor. I think next time we try this, we’ll add more than just cheddar to really make it cheesy.

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

We hope you enjoy the creamy and cheesy goodness of this very simple soup!

Broccoli Cheese Soup
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
4-6 30 minutes
Cook Time
15 minutes
Servings Prep Time
4-6 30 minutes
Cook Time
15 minutes
Broccoli Cheese Soup
Print Recipe
Servings Prep Time
4-6 30 minutes
Cook Time
15 minutes
Servings Prep Time
4-6 30 minutes
Cook Time
15 minutes
Ingredients
Servings:
Instructions
  1. Cut up and cook broccoli until tender. Drain.
  2. Chop onion and saute in butter until transparent. (You will want to do this in the pot your soup will end up in.)
  3. Stir in flour and cook about five minutes.
  4. Add milk slowly, stirring continuously.
  5. Stir in and blend grated cheese.
  6. Slowly blend in chicken broth.
  7. Add broccoli and salt and pepper.
  8. Simmer about 15 minutes.
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