Fix-It and Forget-It Christmas Cookbook (128 page)

Carrot Cake

Colleen Heatwole

Burton, MI

Makes 6-8 servings

Prep. Time: 20 minutes

Cooking Time: 3-4 hours

Ideal slow cooker size: large enough to hold your baking insert

½ cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

1 Tbsp. hot water

½ cup grated raw carrots

¾ cup flour

¾ cup sugar

½ tsp. baking powder

⅛ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. ground allspice

½ tsp. ground cinnamon

⅛ tsp. ground cloves

½ cup chopped nuts

½ cup raisins,
or
chopped dates

2 Tbsp. flour

1. In large bowl, beat oil, eggs, and water for 1 minute.

2. Add carrots. Mix well.

3. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, allspice, cinnamon, and cloves. Add to creamed mixture.

4. Toss nuts and raisins in bowl with 2 Tbsp. flour. Add to creamed mixture. Mix well.

5. Pour into greased and floured 3-lb. shortening can or slow-cooker baking insert. Place can or baking insert in slow cooker.

6. Cover insert with its lid, or cover can with 8 paper towels, folded down over edge of slow cooker to absorb moisture. Cover paper towels with cooker lid. Cook on High 3-4 hours, or until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean.

7. Remove can or insert from cooker and allow to cool on rack for 10 minutes. Run knife around edge of cake. Invert onto serving plate.

Easy Easy Cake

Janice Muller

Derwood, MD

Makes 8-10 servings

Prep. Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 2-3 hours

Ideal slow cooker size: 3½-qt.

20-oz. can crushed pineapple, undrained

21-oz. can blueberry,
or
cherry, pie filling

18½-oz. pkg. yellow cake mix

cinnamon

1 stick (8 Tbsp.) butter

1 cup chopped nuts

vanilla ice cream

1. Grease bottom and sides of interior of slow cooker.

2. Spread a layer of pineapple in bottom.

3. Top with a layer of blueberry pie filling.

4. Top that with a layer of dry cake mix. Be careful not to mix the layers!

5. Sprinkle with cinnamon.

6. Top with thin layers of butter chunks and nuts.

7. Cover cooker. Cook on High 2-3 hours, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

8. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

Variation:

Substitute a pkg. of spice cake mix and apple pie filling.

Fudgy Peanut Butter Cake

Betty Moore

Plano, IL

Makes 4 servings

Prep. Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 1½ hours

Ideal slow cooker size: 2- to 3-qt.

¾ cup sugar,
divided

½ cup flour

¾ tsp. baking powder

⅓ cup milk

¼ cup peanut butter

1 Tbsp. oil

½ tsp. vanilla

2 Tbsp. dry cocoa powder

1 cup boiling water

1. Butter or spray interior of slow cooker.

2. Mix ¼ cup sugar, flour, and baking powder together in a small bowl.

3. In another larger bowl, mix milk, peanut butter, oil, and vanilla together. Beat well.

4. Stir dry ingredients into milk-peanut butter mixture just until combined. Spread in buttered slow cooker.

5. In bowl, combine cocoa powder and remaining ½ cup sugar. Add water, stirring until well mixed. Pour slowly into slow cooker. Do
not
stir.

6. Cover. Cook on High 1½ hours, or until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean.

Serving suggestion: Serve warm with
vanilla ice cream
.

Note:

I take this to potlucks and it is always a hit.

Notes from Tester:

1. I was pretty sure my kids would love this, so I doubled the recipe. I cooked that larger recipe for 2 hours. The kids came back for second and third helpings!

2. This is a pretty sturdy cake. I kept one of my test cakes for over an hour before serving it, and it was just as good, if not better, than the one we ate right away.

Lemon Poppy Seed Upside-Down Cake

Jeanette Oberholtzer

Manheim, PA

Makes 8-10 servings

Prep. Time: 10-15 minutes

Cooking Time: 2-2½ hours

Cooling Time: 2 hours

Ideal slow cooker size: 2-qt.

1 pkg. lemon poppy seed bread mix

1 egg

8 oz. light sour cream

½ cup water

Sauce:

1 Tbsp. butter

¾ cup water

½ cup sugar

¼ cup lemon juice

1. Combine first four ingredients until well moistened in lightly greased slow cooker.

2. Combine Sauce ingredients in small saucepan. Bring to boil. Pour boiling mixture over batter. Do not stir.

3. Cover. Cook on High 2-2½ hours, or until toothpick inserted in center of Cake comes out clean. Edges will be slightly brown. Turn heat off and leave Cake in cooker for 30 minutes with lid slightly ajar.

4. When cool enough to handle, hold a large plate over top of cooker, then invert.

5. Allow to cool before slicing.

Graham Cracker Cookies

Cassandra Ly

Carlisle, PA

Makes 8 dozen cookies

Prep. Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 1½ hours

Ideal slow cooker size: 4-qt.

12-oz. pkg. (2 cups) semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 1-oz. squares unsweetened baking chocolate, shaved

2 14-oz. cans sweetened condensed milk

3¾ cups crushed graham cracker crumbs,
divided

1 cup finely chopped walnuts

1. Place chocolate in slow cooker.

2. Cover. Cook on High 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Continue to cook on Low, stirring every 15 minutes, or until chocolate is melted (about 30 minutes more).

3. Stir milk into melted chocolate.

4. Add 3 cups graham cracker crumbs, 1 cup at a time, stirring after each addition.

5. Stir in nuts. Mixture should be thick but not stiff.

6. Stir in remaining graham cracker crumbs until batter is consistency of cookie dough.

7. Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls onto lightly greased cookie sheets. Keep remaining mixture warm by covering and turning slow cooker to Warm.

8. Bake at 325° for 7-9 minutes, or until tops of cookies begin to crack. Remove from oven. Cool 1-2 minutes on rack before transferring to waxed paper.

Tip:

These cookies freeze well.

Note:

This delectable fudge-like cookie is a family favorite. The original recipe (from my maternal grandmother) was so involved and yielded so few cookies that my mom and I would get together to make a couple of batches only at Christmas-time. Adapting the recipe for a slow cooker, rather than a double boiler, allows me to prepare a double batch without help.