Hersheys Chocolate Syrup Cake

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup (8 oz) HERSHEY'S chocolate syrup
1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips(optional)

Method:

Heat oven to 350°F/180 deg C. Grease a baking pan. Beat butter, sugar and eggs until thoroughly blended in large bowl. Add flour and baking soda, blending well. Add syrup and mix thoroughly. Spread batter in prepared pan.



Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool completely in pan on wire rack.



Serves 6

Shortbread Hearts

Shortbreads are traditionally made with sugar, butter and flour, and one of the easiest cookies to make. Generally they are baked at low temperatures, and when cooked, they are nearly white or a very light golden brown in color.

I made these sandwich cookies for valentine's day - they are not too sweet, buttery and melt in your mouth kinds. My kids loved it and so did I!

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (~200 grams) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup strawberry/raspberry jam (I used a mixed fruit jam)

Method:

In a bowl whisk the flour with the salt.

In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the butter until smooth (about 1 minute). Add the sugar and beat until smooth (about 2 minutes). Beat in the vanilla extract. Gently stir in the flour mixture just until mixed. Flatten the dough into a disk shape, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill the dough for at least an hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C). Line baking sheet with parchment paper. On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough until it is about 1/4 inch (1 cm) thick. Using a 2 to 3 inch (5 to 7.5 cm) cookie cutter (round, square, heart, etc.) cut out the dough.

Place the cookies about 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheet. Use a smaller cookie cutter to cut out the centers of half of the cookies on the baking sheet. (You will be sandwiching two cookies together and there will be a small cut out in the top cookie so you can see the jam underneath). Place the unbaked cookies, on the baking sheet, in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes. This will firm up the dough so the cookies will maintain their shape when baked. Bake for about 12 minutes, or until cookies are lightly browned. Place the cookies with the cut-outs on a wire rack and dust the tops with the confectioners sugar. Cool on a wire rack.


To Assemble Cookies:

On the bottom surface of the full cookie, spread about a 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon of jam. Place the cut-out cookie on top and gently sandwich them together, making sure not to smug the confectioners sugar. Using a small spoon, fill the cut-out with a little more jam.

Makes about 10 sandwich cookies.

Raisin Cookies

Raisin cookies are soft and chewy unlike regular cookies, which are hard and crispy. These are simple to make - just beat all the ingredients in a bowl for a minute, and stir in the raisins. The recipe calls for dark raisins, but I used the golden ones and it turned out great!

Ingredients:

2 cups maida/all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup light brown sugar
10 tbsp/~150 gms unsalted butter, softened
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup raisins

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Beat together the flour, baking powder, salt, and ground cinnamon. Add the brown sugar, softened butter, egg, milk, and vanilla extract and beat for one minute. Add the raisins and beat until mixed well.

Drop the batter by heaping teaspoonfuls onto the baking sheet, spacing a couple of inches apart. Bake the cookies for about 12 minutes. Remove from oven and transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies