Showing posts with label cookies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cookies. Show all posts

CAST Shop of the Week: MmmMmmYummy

Take a look at the CAST Shop of the Week, MmmMmmYummy. Well, what can I say?  I know you won't mind browsing through this shop, but please try not to drool on your keyboard.  Cookies, sweet breads, savory bread, brownies, kitchen items, pet treats and more can be purchased and shipped right to your home. You know you want to look now . . .

2 dozen russian tea cakes mexican wedding cookies snow balls



Please note that the only way to be featured as the CAST Shop of the Week is to tag your shop items "castteam" on Etsy and to not hide your teams in your Etsy profile. You will also have to have at least 12 items to feature. Those are the ways that I find great CAST shops to feature each week. 

CAST Members: If you have a minute or two, please feel free to favorite ♥ this shop or promote it on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, or other social media.  Thanks!

by Sue of SueRunyonDesigns
8:26 AM | Category: , , , , , | 3 comments

Recipe of the month: Peanut Butter / Chocolate Oreo Brownie Squares


PEANUT BUTTER/CHOCOLATE OREO BROWNIE SQUARES

Line a 9 x 13 baking pan with a double decker of peanut butter Oreo cookies spreading your favorite peanut butter in between each cookie. Mix two or three boxes of your favorite brownie mix- following direction on the box- then pour batter over the cookies. Bake at 350 until the brownies form at the edges and a toothpick comes out dry when inserted in the middle. Cool for 10 minutes, cut and serve with your favorite ice cream.

by Regina of reginatherrienstock
7:00 AM | Category: , , , , , , , | 0 comments

February Recipe of the Month by sammysgrammy
by Rita of sammysgrammy



the FRANCES cookie

This is a "reissue" of a recipe I shared with you about a year ago. It's wonderful tasting, and easy to prepare and, depending upon how your dress it, can be quite a ***sTaR***. It's making a reappearance because of Valentines Day coming up soon, plus I just made a batch of heart shaped ones and will probably make a couple more before Valentines Day 2011 rolls around.

For those of you who didn't see it the first time, it's named after my Mother's next-door neighbor, who gave me the recipe. She was a wonderful baker and her house always smelled like something wonderful was happening there.

For the FRANCES cookie you'll need:


  1. 1 cup of room temperature margarine (2 sticks)

  2. 1 & 1/2 cups of granulated sugar

  3. 1 whole egg plus 2 egg yolks at room temperature

  4. 3 cups of AP flour

  5. 1/2 tsp. of baking powder

  6. 1/2 tsp. of salt

  7. 1 &1/2 tsp. vanilla

Put dry ingredients (flour, baking powder and salt) into a bowl and whisk together to combine thoroughly. In another bowl, cream together margarine and sugar with electric beater. Add eggs and vanilla to creamed sugar/margarine.

Add the dry ingredients in thirds to the wet ingredients, incorporating each addition of the dry ingredients. Depending on the power of your beater, you may need to mix the final flour addition in by hand. Knead this dough either in the bowl or on a floured counter top, into a silky, smooth ball.

I divide the dough ball with a pastry scraper into workable portions. Pat the dough portion (on your lightly floured counter) into a flat, pancake shape about 1/8 to 1/4" thick. Cut out shapes with a cookie cutter. Remove the shapes from the counter with your scraper and onto a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet about 3/4" apart. Gather up the unused dough and pat it out again. You may need to get another portion from the dough ball to make it the right size to pat out. The great thing about this cookie dough is: it does NOT need to be refrigerated, it can be used immediately and you can pat it out over and over again. Bake for 7-9 minutes in a preheated 375 degree oven.

Cool completely before glazing.

Glaze: note: I use the same parchment I used for baking as a table protection while glazing. Put 1 cup to 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar into a small, deep bowl. Gradually add hot water by the tbsp. to the sugar, beating vigorously with a wire whisk. Optional: add flavoring to this - i.e., lemon, orange, almond, or vanilla. You'll want the glaze to have the consistency of melted chocolate or gravy . Apply to cookies using a pastry brush. While the glaze is wet, sprinkle with colored sugar or nonpareils.

Pass around to your family, the neighbors, or bring to work (so you won't eat them all yourself)

*********************************************************

For several days now I've been singing the scripture, "I will love the Lord with all of my heart, I will love the Lord with all of my soul, I will love the Lord with all of my strength............" I've been waking up with that song permeating my consciousness. Years ago we sang it in "rounds" . One would start, "I will love the Lord with all of my heart", then while they continued on to the next verse ("I will love the Lord with all of my soul") the second group would sing the song from the beginning......and so on. What the Lord heard was the entire scripture sung at the same time.

This verse, Matthew 22:37, was Jesus' response to a lawyer (one well versed in the Mosaic Law) who asked Him, "which is the greatest commandment in the law?" Jesus' answer was " you shall love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind" NKJV

When we sing that song or make that confession - "I love the Lord with all my heart", we are in effect, saying, with all my being, with everything in me.

The heart is a very powerful symbol. It is the core/center of our being, both physically, emotionally and spiritually.

*********************************************************

Fellow castteam-mates shops where you can find wonderful heart/valentine/love related items....

cupcake toppers by

http://www.cardsbycarla.etsy.com/




Red and orange heart pendant by:
http://www.blogger.com/www.helixelement.etsy.com



Heart trimmed boxers by: dogbarks

http://www.dogbarks.etsy.com





coke heart earrings by wildappledesign

http://www.wildappledesign.etsy.com




heart puzzle by newcreatioNZ

http://www.newcreationz.etsy.com


7:00 AM | Category: , , , , , , , | 8 comments

Recipe of the Month: Italian Biscotti
by Rita of sammysgrammy


Italian Biscotti

5 room temperture eggs
3 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
1 cup of sugar
1 tbs. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 chopped walnuts, chopped dried cherries, and mini chocolate chips
zest of one orange

Method: Put all dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl (RESERVING 1/2 CUP OF THE FLOUR TO USE AS BENCH FLOUR). Use a whisk to thoroughly incorporate. Make a hole in the middle of the dry ingredients, pushing dry ingredients towards the side of the bowl. Into the hole, break the eggs, add the oil and vanilla. With a fork, begin to break yolks, stir wet ingredients together while gradually pulling the dry ingredients into the mix and incorporating with the fork. Eventually, you'll have a ball of crumbly dough. Add the cherries and the nuts.

With hands floured with some of the bench flour, knead this dough while its still in the bowl. When it all comes together and is not crumbley any longer, knead it on the counter which you have covered with a couple tbs. of the bench flour. (At this point is when I add the chocolate chips by flattening out the dough a bit, dumping the chips onto it and carefully kneading/incorporating them into the dough). As you're kneading, the dough will absorb this bench flour. Keep kneading and adding bench flour to the counter until you have a nice round lump of un-sticky dough (just a couple minutes).


Cut this lump into four quarters. Set three aside and roll the forth one on your floured counter into a loaf about 12" long and 1 1/2" wide. Pick up both ends of the loaf and carefully remove it to a parchment or silpat lined cookie sheet. Repeat with remaing quarters. Put two loaves on each sheet. Bake in 375 degree pre-heated oven for about 25 minutes or until very lightly browned. Because there are two baking sheets, I switch the them halfway through the baking time so that they both cook evenly.

Let loaves cool for about ten minutes. Then very carefully remove from cookie sheet with a spatuala onto a cutting board. Slice into diagonal slices with a sharp knife. Put these slices back onto the same cookie sheet and toast them on both sides until they again are very light brown (about 10 minutes for side 1 and 5 minutes for side 2).


Final step: melt about 6 oz. of both white and regular chocolate in separate small bowls in the microwave, according to package directions. With the cookies still on the cookie sheets, drizzle (with a fork) first the regular chocolate, then the white, over the cookies. I leave the whole thing alone, at this point, for the cookies to totally cool and the chocolate to set up. I store them in a large plastic container. Yeild is about 50 cookies.

~:~ ~:~ ~:~ ~:~ ~:~ ~:~ ~:~ ~:~ ~:~
Notes:

Chocolate set up can be hastened by cooling (either in fridge or cool garage or porch)

The hole in the middle of the dry ingredients is the Italian method of incorporating eggs and flour. Also used to make fresh homemade pasta. The hole is called the "fontana".
"Fountain" in English. It looks very much like the tops of volcanic mountains in Italy with the "fontana" being where the mountain erupted.

The word "biscotti" means cooked twice in Italian. The same root word for "two" is used for the English words bicycle, bi polar, bi-ped, etc.

About adding the chips last to the dough: I do this because I don't like the chololate to melt and stain the dough.

Proverbs 31:14 (the wife of noble character)
"is like a merchants ship: she brings her food from afar"

by Rita of sammysgrammy
8:00 AM | Category: , , , , , , , , | 11 comments

Recipe of the Month: the Frances Cookie
By Rita of sammysgrammy

The FRANCES cookie, is so called because of my Mom's next door neighbor, Frances, who made these cookies, in the 60's, for every imaginable occasion. In the spring, they were bunny and chick cookies, in February, they were heart cookies, then throughout the year: leaves. pumpkins, stars, angels, etc. The FRANCES cookie is scrumptious and so easy to make.

No rolling pins, no dough chilling. Just make the dough and pat it out with your hand, cut it with a cutter.........and "viola!", a FRANCES cookie.


INGREDIENTS: 2 sticks of room temperature margarine, 1 1/2 cups of sugar, 1 room temperature egg plus 2 yolks, 3 cups of all purpose flour, 1/2 tsp. of baking powder, 1/2 tsp. of salt, 1 1/2 tsp. of vanilla.

METHOD: cream together the margarine and sugar with an electric beater. Add vanilla, then set aside. In another bowl, put all the dry ingredients. Whisk them together to incorporate them well. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in thirds. When the dough becomes too heavy for your mixer, mix by hand with a spoon then use your hands to gather all the dough into a ball. Flour your counter well. Put the ball of dough on the counter and knead a couple minutes until you have a smooth ball. With a pastry scrapper, cut the dough into eighths. Take one eighth and pat it into a rough circle on the floured counter, flipping it a couple times so that all the dough has "bench flour" on it, preventing it from sticking. Cut out cookies. Use the scraper (see pic) to remove all the excess dough from between the cookies. Save those scraps. Remove the cookies with the scraper, to the lined cookie sheet. Bake until the edges begin to brown. Remove to a wax paper or parchment covered large flat surface (I use my kitchen table) to cool.


Add the scraps to another eighth and begin process again until you have used up all the dough.

bake @ 375 degrees approx. 9 minutes on lined cookie sheets. Yield approx. 50 cookies



Optional glaze. (I always do this step but Frances didn't)

GLAZE: 1 cup of powdered sugar and 2-3 tablespoons of hot water. Using a whisk, beat until you get a silky consistency like chocolate syrup. If glaze is too thick, add more water in very small increments. If it's too thin and runny, add more sugar. I "paint" this glaze onto the cookies with a pastry brush. If you want to put sprinkles on, do it while the glaze is wet on the cookie. Let the cookies dry for several hours or overnight before storing them in a container.

Enjoy.......

Rita

By Rita of sammysgrammy
10:12 AM | Category: , , , , , | 10 comments