December 25, 2010
Merry Christmas! Christmas part I was a virtual Christmas with the Howards & Olsons in California. Here's the 360 view of the kids posing with their last present of the morning!
Saturday, December 25, 2010
December 23, 2010
A bit of Austin funky to get us started today. No one knows why the cedar trees on 360 get decorated at this time of year. The only guideline that seems to be followed is the tackier the decorations, the better. The display this year has definitely been stepped up - in this section it's hard to find a tree that's NOT decorated! Everything from plastic bottles painted to look like bees to pink flamingos - you'll see it here. Magically at the end of the season, all the decorating elves make it back out to take down their decorations until next year....
Today's cookie is the Apricot and Nut with Amaretto Icing. I made the dough in advance and had it in the fridge. I found the dough to be soft and a bit sticky, even after 36 hours in the refrigerator. So I simply put the dough log in the freezer for twenty minutes and the cookie sliced up nicely. I do think I will add another half a cup of flour the next time I make these.
The icing s strong and looks a little wavy because I made them late at night and covered them with plastic wrap overnight. I think the icing could be thinned a bit with water and be more of a glaze as it's pretty strong. The almond liquor does add a really wonderful aroma so I wouldn't cut it out completely.
December 22, 2010
Today's cookie is my take on a Linzer cookie. Usually Linzer cookies are a butter-hazelnut cookie sandwich with jam in between. I'm a bit lazy and so I just use a traditional sugar cookie instead of toasting the hazelnuts and making a butter cookie. The only catch is that you need to roll out the sugar cookies a bit thin because otherwise they will spread too much when baking and obliterate the cut out shape. I also heat the jam to make it a bit more thin and spreadable. It's best to put a bit of jam in the center and not all the way out to the edges. If you spread the jam to the edges, it will just seep out the sides when you press the top down.
December 21, 2010
The week of cookies continues! Today I made one of my favorites - the pear spice cookie. I found this recipe in a holiday cookie magazine back in 1999 or 2000 and I've been working with it ever since.
The original recipe is as follows:Pear Spice Drops
1/2 C Butter
2/3 C Granulated Sugar
2/3C Packed Brown Sugar
1 t Cinnamon
1/2 t Baking Soda
1/2 t Nutmeg
1/8 t Cloves
1 Egg
1/4 C Pear Nectar
2 C Flour
1 C Chopped Fresh Pear
1 C Chopped Walnuts
Beat the butter and add sugars and spices and beat until combined. Beat in egg and pear juice. Beat in flour, chopped pear and walnuts. Drop rounded teaspoons of tough 2" apart on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned. Cool and spread with icing.
Powdered Sugar Icing
1/4 C Butter
4 C Sifted Powdered Sugar
1 t Vanilla
2-3 t Milk
Beat butter until soft. Gradually add 2 C of sugar, beating well. Slowly beat in milk and vanilla. Slowly beat in remaining sugar. Beat in additional milk if necessary.
I generally find that I need to add at least 1/2 C -1 C more flour to make this recipe work. This time I forgot to add in the pear juice and it turned out perfect.....except it didn't have as much pear flavor.
The powdered sugar icing is pretty strong in flavor as well as super sweet. So you need the strong pear flavor to balance out the taste. I've tried both fresh pear and canned pears and the recipe turns out fairly similarly, but I like to use fresh pears. Of course you're going to need to crack a can of pears to get the pear nectar anyway so for convenience you might just want to use the canned versions.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
December 20, 2010
Today's cookie is the ginger snap. I got this recipe at a cookie exchange about 3 years ago and have been wanting to try it. Just as delicious as I remember. I had to make a few modifications to come up with the little gems you see at the bottom of the post, but here is the original
Grandma Lampe's Sparkling Ginger Snaps 3/4C Butter or Margarine
1 Egg
1 C Sugar
1/4 C Molasses
2 C Flour
1/2 t Salt
1/2 t Cloves
2 t baking soda
1/2 t Ginger
1 t Cinnamon
Cream until fluffy butter and sugar. Beat in egg and molasses. Sift together flour, salt, cloves, baking soda, ginger and cinnamon. Chill dough. Shape into balls. Roll in sugar. Bake on an un-greased sheet 12-15 min at 350 degrees.
What I found was the balls needed to be near marble size. I ended up rolling the dough into a log and slicing it to get even portions for the cookies. I also went a bit short on the cooking time as I think these are smaller than the recipe calls for - only 10 minutes. These cookies spread like crazy so don't crowd the pan.December 19, 2010
This is really my picture from Sunday - doesn't Ginger look like the picture of comfort. At least the girls like to cuddle.
But my main Sunday project was to make Swedish Creams. Here is the recipe as written by my mother:Judi learned how to do these and did them for years. Then she stopped because too much work. Janet picked up doing them.
I have never tried.
Swedish Cremes
1 cup butter
2 cups flour, sifted - cut in and gradually add cream
1/3 cup whip cream
Make like pie crust and then chill in refrigerator. It will form a ball.
Work with 1/3 dough at a time.
Roll out 1/8” thick.
Cut with 1.5” cookie cutter – round – coated with sugar. Prick. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet 7-9 minutes 375 degrees
Frosting sandwich.
¼ c soft butter, ¾ c powdered sugar, 1 egg yolk, 1 t vanilla Doesn’t sound like you melt the butter, just stir the whole thing together? I will ask her.
Color red or green sometimes.
And this is what I came away with. I had no problems getting the dough to roll out to 1/8" thick. Of course I accidentally didn't get enough butter in it and compensated with cream. It was OK, but a little tough. I found that docking the dough before I cut out the rounds was much more efficient than docking it after I cut the rounds. Though many at the office thought the dough was a cracker until they tasted it.
I think Auntie Janet must roll hers out a bit thicker than 1/8". But alls well that ends well, the cookies tasted good!
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