Camp Merri-Mac Chocolate Chip Cookies 2019

Another summer of Merri-Mac cooking is off to a great start!  This year we decided to explore chocolate chip cookie recipes and offer the campers a variety of options for mix-ins and spices.  We were inspired by Dorie Greenspan’s chocolate chip cookie recipes, but also looked at recipes from America’s Test Kitchen, Tasty, and our previous years’ camp recipe.  Here is our new recipe with a few suggested options:

Ingredients:

• ½ stick (4 Tablespoons) margarine-softened
• ½ stick (4 Tablespoons) butter-softened
• ½ cup sugar
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup whole wheat flour
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 SCANT cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Place margarine, butter, sugar, brown sugar, egg, and vanilla in mixing bowl and beat at medium speed until combined…do not overbeat
3. Add flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda, and salt and stir with wooden spoon or spatula until combined
4. Add chocolate chips and stir until evenly distributed
5. Chill dough for one hour
6. Using small scoop, place level scoop on parchment lined baking sheets, leaving about 2” between scoops
7. Bake 12 minutes, flipping pans from top rack to bottom rack and turning front to back after 6 minutes
8. Remove to cooking rack

Options & Notes:

• Substitute different types of chips (white chocolate, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, butterscotch) AND/OR dried fruit and nuts…in any combination…as long as it totals 1 SCANT cup!
• Add ¼ teaspoon coriander and ¼ teaspoon nutmeg (a la Dorie Greenspan)
• Add ½ teaspoon cinnamon (a la my friend Janie)
• Can be baked right away, rather than chilled, but may spread out more on pan…undermeasuring your flour and overbeating the butter/sugar/eggs will also result in flatter cookies.

The Merri-Mac Grilled Cheese Menu

My obsession with grilled cheese sandwiches began when I was a child and intensified when my children were little—they had a favorite sandwich which they called ‘Grammy’s Famous Grilled Cheese.’  It was Pepperidge Farm white sandwich bread, I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter spread, and American cheese—made in her Teflon electric skillet.  Nothing I did, including buy the electric skillet, duplicated or was as good as Grammy’s Famous.  We thought it would be fun for campers to create their own Famous Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, so we offered the following options.  They had a choice between putting them on the griddles inside or grilling them outside!

BUILD YOUR OWN:

Breads:  White, Italian, Sourdough, Whole Wheat

Cheese:  American, Swiss, Cheddar, Mozzarella, Colby-Jack, Parmesan

Meats:  Ham, Turkey, Bacon

Sauces:  Butter, Mayonnaise, Honey Mustard, Stone Ground Mustard, Dijon Mustard, Apricot Jam, Pesto, Maple Syrup

Vegetables:  Tomato, Spinach, Lettuce, Roasted Peppers, Shredded Carrots, Eggplant

Miscellaneous:  Apples, Pears, Blue Corn Chips, Potato Chips

Leslie’s Pumpkin Spice Donuts

My very first job was in a bakery in Ridgefield, CT called Les Alps.  They made the best donuts and their raspberry jelly donuts were my favorite.  In NYC, I went to the Doughnut Plant where I discovered a square vanilla bean donut filled with blackberry jam and the Doughnuttery, which makes an amazing variety of tiny donuts, including the Purple Pig-made with purple potatoes, maple syrup, and bacon!  In Pike’s Place Market, Seattle there is a small stand called Daily Dozen Doughnut Company, that deep fries tiny cinnamon sugar donuts to order…you watch the dough drop into the fryer, get scooped out, tossed in cinnamon sugar, and placed in a brown paper bag, still warm in your hands.  In Naples, we have a small shop that started on the side of a gas station called Peace, Love, and Little Donuts.  They make a variety of deep fried and cake mini donuts and inspired me to go on my own quest for the perfect donut recipe.  I decided to start with the baked variety; here are three varieties we made this summer.  The fruit skewers were sprayed lightly with coconut oil, grilled, then drizzled with maple syrup and sprinkled with coconut.

Ingredients:

• ¼ cup canola oil
• 2 eggs
• ½ cup sugar
• ¾ cups pumpkin
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoon ginger
• ¼ teaspoon cloves

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• 1 ¼ cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Whisk together canola oil, eggs, sugar, pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves
3. Add flour, baking powder, and salt and bend together
4. Pour batter into Ziplock bag and cut a small triangle off the corner of the bag
5. Spray mini donut pans with cooking spray
6. Pipe batter into donut pans so that they are half full
7. Bake 8-9 minutes.
8. Remove from pan when warm and dip in glaze OR roll in cinnamon sugar

Glaze:

• Mix 3 cups powdered sugar, ½ cup cool water, ½ teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon white vinegar

Cinnamon Sugar:

• Mix 1 cup cinnamon sugar with 3 Tablespoons cinnamon

Camp Merri-Mac Chocolate Glazed Donuts

Ingredients:

• 2 Tablespoons butter-melted and cooled
• ½ cup milk
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

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• 1 ¼ cup flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
• ½ cup dark brown sugar
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ cup mini chocolate chips

Directions:

9. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

• Melt butter and allow to cool
• Whisk together cooled butter, milk, egg, white vinegar, and vanilla
• Add flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and mini chocolate chips and bend together
• Pour batter into Ziplock bag and cut a small triangle off the corner of the bag
• Spray mini donut pans with cooking spray
• Pipe batter into donut pans so that they are half full
• Bake 8-9 minutes.
• Remove from pan when warm and dip in glaze

Glaze:

• Mix 3 cups powdered sugar, ½ cup cool water, ½ teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon white vinegar

Camp Merri-Mac Cinnamon Sugar Donuts

Ingredients:

• 1 Tablespoon butter, melted and cooled
• 1/2 cups milk
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

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• 1 ¼ cups flour
• ¾ cups sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoon salt

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Melt butter and allow to cool
• Whisk together cooled butter, milk, egg, and vanilla
• Add flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt and bend together
• Pour batter into Ziplock bag and cut a small triangle off the corner of the bag
• Spray mini donut pans with cooking spray
• Pipe batter into donut pans so that they are half full
• Bake 8-9 minutes.
• Remove from pan when warm and roll in cinnamon sugar

Cinnamon Sugar:

• Mix 1 cup sugar with 3 Tablespoons cinnamon and 1 teaspoon nutmeg

Camp Merri-Mac Sliders

Several years ago, Adam added the Spark Kitchen to camp, an outdoor space with four gas grills, an oven, and sinks.  Since then we’ve worked to incorporate grilling into our cooking classes and sliders have definitely been a favorite.  This year, we decided we could make our own buns.  I have been working with several non-yeast rolls, bagels, and buns this past year and Greek yogurt and baking powder are the key ingredients.  I use FAGE 2% Greek yogurt which has only 6 grams of sugar and 20 grams of protien in 7 ounces.  We made ground beef sliders, but you could also make ground turkey burgers or black bean burgers.

Ingredients:

• 1-pound ground beef (or ground turkey or chicken)
• Olive oil
• McCormick’s Montreal Steak Seasoning

Directions:

1. Preheat grill
2. Divide ground beef into eight 2-ounce pieces
3. Roll/compress each piece into a ball, then flatten, gently create a depression in the center
4. Brush both sides with olive oil
5. Sprinkle with Montreal Steak Seasoning
6. Grill for 3 minutes on first side, add cheese at this point if using, then grill another 2 minutes on the second side for medium/medium rare

Topping Ideas:

• Pizza burger: marinara sauce, mushrooms, pepperoni, mozzarella
• BBQ Bacon burger: BBQ sauce, bacon, cheddar
• Mushroom burger: Dijon mustard, sautéed mushrooms, Swiss cheese
• Deluxe burger: Special sauce, caramelized onion, bacon, Havarti or Swiss
• BLT burger: tomato, bacon, lettuce, and Colby-jack cheese

Special Sauce:

            Mix one cup mayonnaise, ¼ cup chili sauce, zest and juice of one line, ½ teaspoon garlic powder, ½ teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon paprika.

Camp Merri-Mac Slider Buns 2019

Ingredients:

• 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt

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• 1 ½ cups Greek yogurt
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) softened butter
• 3 Tablespoons honey

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OPTIONS:  1 egg, lightly beaten to brush on top of rolls, then sprinkle with assorted seeds—sesame, poppy, everything, onion flakes OR consider adding ¼ cup shredded cheese of your choice to dough!

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. In one mixing bowl, mix all dry ingredients-flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder, salt
3. In another mixing bowl, mix all wet ingredients-yogurt, butter, honey
4. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and thoroughly mix, using hands if necessary
5. Turn out onto floured surface and divide in half, then in half again (quarters). Divide each quarter into fourths to make 16 pieces of dough.  Roll each piece into a ball, then GENTLY press down on top to flatten into bun shape
6. Place on parchment lined baking sheet
7. Bake 15 minutes
8. Remove to cooking rack and let cool slightly before splitting in half

Camp Merri-Mac Scones

My favorite color is pink.  I like fancy dresses, miniature anything, flowers, bows, and tea parties!  Since I have two sons, I love having the girls at Camp Merri-Mac as an excuse to enjoy all of these things.  Last year we i

ntroduced the tea party and it was so popular that we decided to have another one this year and scheduled it to coincide with the Princess Party.  We called it the Princess Tea and campers made avariety of scones and tiny tea sandwiches and drank several different types of tea.

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ cups flour  
• ¼ cup sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ cup (1/2 stick) cold butter

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• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ¼ cup milk

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• 1 cup mini chocolate chips OR raisins OR nuts*

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• 1 egg
• ½ cup milk

*You can use a combination that totals 1 cup; this year we used 1 Tablespoon orange juice with pulp, increased the flower to 1 ¾ cups, and added 1 cup or Craisins.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
2. Line baking sheet with parchment paper
3. In one bowl, mix flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder
4. Cut butter into chunks and press (cut) butter into flour mixture using forks or pastry cutter. Should make a dry crumbly mix with butter evenly distributed
5. In another bowl, mix egg, vanilla, and milk
6. Add wet mixture to dry mixture
7. Add chocolate chips or raising or nuts, etc…
8. Mix dough thoroughly, adding more flour if it is too sticky and more milk if it is too dry
9. Shape into round flat disk about 1” thick and place in freezer for 5-10 minutes

• Remove from freezer and place on parchment lined baking sheet
• Brush with a mixture of milk and beaten egg and sprinkle with demerara sugar
• Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown
• Cut into wedges or small squares

 Camp Merri-Mac Magic Cookie Bars 2019

The first day of any new session, by necessity, gives us a shorter time to cook as we need to introduce the new campers to the staff and the kitchen, to review our safety rules, and to learn about our new friends and any allergies or food restrictions.  This is a short, easy recipe that can be adapted in a multitude of ways including gluten free (use Annie’s Gluten Free Bunny Grahams for the crust) and nut free (we leave nuts out of almost all of our recipes at camp, but if you’re not allergic, I strongly recommend adding nuts to these at home!).  They are magical because there is no mixing involved—you pour the melted butter, then the graham crackers, then the toppings, and finally the condensed milk—into your pan, pop it into the oven, and out come cookies!

Ingredients:

• ½ cup melted butter (1 stick)
• 1 ½ cups graham crackers (9-10 graham crackers)

• 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Melt stick of butter in microwave
3. Break 10 graham crackers into pieces and put in food processor, making crumbs
4. Pour melted butter evenly into bottom of pan
5. Sprinkle graham crackers evenly over butter
6. Distribute your choice of toppings evenly over crust
7. Pour can of sweetened condensed milk evenly over toppings
8. Bake 20 minutes
9. Allow to cool, cut into squares

*EVENLY is your friend here…it will give you gooey deliciousness in every bite! 😊

BAKING:  If you are making these at home and are not under a 55-minute time constraint, I recommend reducing the oven to 350 degrees and baking them for 25-30 minutes.  It is also very helpful to let them cool before cutting!

OPTIONS:  If you do not have nut allergies, try adding nuts to these bars—pecans are great with the traditional ones, peanuts would be good on the s’more’s bars.  Try adding peanut butter chips to the snap, crackle, pop bars or almonds to the fruit & fancy.

Camp Merri-Mac Pizza 2.0

Pizza is my ‘you’re stranded on a desert island and can only have one food for the rest of your life, what will it be?’ food.  I love any and all kinds of pizza with every topping except pineapple (fruit on a pizza??) and anchovies (bony little fish on a pizza?)…but if those are your favorites, then you do you!  I’ve tried a variety of pizza dough recipes, but this one is the best for camp because we can make it, grill it, and eat it in one class period.  This year, we substituted half of the all-purpose flour for bread flour and it added a nice chewy texture.  The girls LOVED grilling their pizzas and choosing their own toppings!

Ingredients for dough:

• 2/3 cup warm water
• 1 Tablespoon yeast

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• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt

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• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup bread flour

Directions:

1. Gently mix warm water and yeast in bowl and let rest for 5 minutes
2. Add olive oil, sugar, and salt
3. Add two cups of flour and mix to thoroughly combine
4. Remove from bowl and form into large ball
5. Drizzle olive oil in bowl and return ball of dough to bowl, rolling it in olive oil and let it rest for another 5 minutes
6. Divide dough in half, then divide each half into thirds creating 6 pieces of dough
7. Lightly oil a small plate, press one piece of dough onto each plate to about ½” thick
8. Place oiled side down on grill for 3-5 minutes or until lightly browned
9. Remove from grill and put toppings on grilled side

• Return to grill (toppings side up) and tent with tin foil; grill until bottom is browned and cheese is melted, about an additional 5-7 minutes
• Be careful removing from grill; it will be hot!

 Camp Merri-Mac Pizza Sauce

Ingredients:

• 3 medium sized onions, cut into chunks
• 3 small green peppers, cut into chunks
• 1 cup shredded carrots
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 1 Tablespoon salt
• 1 Tablespoon oregano
• 1 Tablespoon basil
• 4-6 bay leaves
• 1 #10 can crushed tomatoes
• 2 15-ounce cans tomato paste

Directions:

1. Cut onions, green peppers, and carrots into chunks and place in food processor
2. Smash and dice garlic and add to processor until everything is finely diced
3. Put olive oil in large pot over medium heat and add onion-pepper-carrot-garlic mixture
4. Add salt, oregano, and basil and sauté until vegetables are soft, about 5-10 minutes
5. Add crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, and bay leaves.
6. Simmer for at least 30 minutes.

NOTE:  This makes a great spaghetti/marinara sauce; just leave out the tomato paste.

POSSIBLE TOPPINGS

• Mozzarella cheese
• Feta cheese
• Parmesan cheese
• Pepperoni
• Ham
• Bacon
• Sausage
• Sweet peppers
• Onions
• Artichoke hearts
• Black olives
• Spinach
• Fresh basil
• Pesto
• Olive oil
• Sliced tomatoes
• Mushrooms