Louise's Crackled Sugar Cookies

Vanilla, Lemon and Orange Extract, have you ever heard of a cookie with all those flavors? Jack is amazed on how the sides are crisp but with a soft crackled puffy center. He loves them.

Wilson was my apprentice today- his job was mixing the butter & sugar and rolling the ball of dough in sugar. He said this was his favorite part.

The easiest part of the recipe was the cookie dough assembly. As I was cruising along getting ready to drop them onto the pan, I notice in bold letters "Put no more than 6 on a cookie sheet". A big screech in the fast department. That is 14 min per pan, then cool, then re- set. Thankfully I have 3 Silpats and 3 pans to make this a turn key operation. I still might be here all day. But I can say these are worth the wait. So you may see me later for a delivery or you may not....

My tip for the day:

Get a convection oven, to eliminate the one sheet baking method.

Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies

In my pjs and apron, I completed my Peanut Butter Blossoms before the pitter patter of feet hit the floor. This is my first recipe that requires shortening! I’m now in the butter & shortening club! However, I am out of almonds and almond extract – LOL. This cookie was simply easy to make and really cute! Why does it seem to be the simple things that sometimes go array? It is a straight forward recipe, standard ingredients and easy to follow instructions. However, when I was ready to roll my dough into balls I noticed that I forgot to add THREE ingredients. Not one…three! And important ones, eggs, vanilla and milk! Go figure that would happen to me ‘cause I thought I’d be on easy street this morning. Well, batch number 2 went perfect as I was paying close attention. The batter was much different with the eggs – ha! They turned out what I hoped for but has anyone else noticed that they look a little like ta tas? Maybe that will be my nickname for the PBB.

That reminds me of a funny story about nicknames. I brought ham roll ups to Sharon’s house when we made our beautiful caramel apples. Shelly asked me what appetizer I brought and I said, “Ham roll ups.” She asked me again and I repeated myself. Later when she tried one she asked what was in my “Hammerlips.” We laughed for so long thus ham roll ups are now always referred to as hammerlips! Apparently, I got the nickname thing going on. Perhaps, in my next post I will share why they call me Phoebe.

Back to cookies, I didn’t want the imperfect batch to go to waste so my family experimented and baked them. My oldest child’s hypothesis is that it didn’t matter if mom added the ingredients out of order, the cookies will bake & taste the same. I predict he is going to be wrong. Our conclusion is that is DOES NOT matter if mom added the ingredients out of order (at least for this recipe). The cookies turned out practically the same and they will not go to waste. Good to know!

This cookbook has given me new hope for the holidays. I always bake my standard goodies but seem to lose steam when it comes to cookies. I attribute it to not really having many “wow” recipes and always revert to the traditional cut out sugar cookies that look like children made them. Now I have so many cookies to choose from and we are just beginning! These especially are perfect ones to bake for company.

And if you haven’t figured out yet, I’m all about the presentation. I’m getting a bit razzed about my pretty packaging and raising the bar. I’m hearing rumors that it’s cause for a kick out –LOL! So girls how do you like your deliveries today? Danielle "Phoebe"

Grandma Ginny's Molasses Cookies

Since completing my first spot as guest baker, I can confidently say it’s not about the cookies…it’s about the friendship. Everyone expected these cookies to be baked, completed, and tackled on Laurie time, which would be about 4am. To their surprise my baking began at midnight and wrapped up at 2AM. So I was actually ahead of schedule without cheating. I did manage to sleep from 2-5:30ish, but had to forgo my morning exercise. All in the name of friendship:)

The recipe was very easy to follow. It was not complicated and the cookies turned out like the picture and tasted delicious!! My husband ate 5 before they were even cool. The best part of this recipe is that it is Matt friendly and he LOVES them!:) Matt is my son who has severe milk and peanut allergies and there are not many tasty cookies that he can have. This recipe is a blessing for him! I owe Shelly a thank you because she was kind enough to include me in the baking adventure and realizing that the recipe was ok for Matt. If it wasn’t for Shelly sacrificing her baking day I would never have known this would be so perfect for Matt.

When I heard what my friends were undertaking I was so grateful that I was not included in the baking rotation:) However, it does make me smile daily to read about their baking. I'm so glad that I was able to join them as a guest baker!

Laurie

Sharon's Egg Yolk Cookies

I have to say that my new apron, that Danielle showed off 2 posts ago, brought me a new sense of calm. I was able to fold my towel over the waist band, allowing me quick access to a clean hand. Thank you again, I love it!

For this recipe I made one trip to the grocery store for lemon extract. One item to purchase? This is a good sign that I am beginning to have more and more basics in my cupboard. While I was there, I grabbed more butter and anise extract thinking I may need it in the future ( I thought anise was a powder). Who knew? I was eyeing the orange extract but didn't want to get too "Extract Happy". Little did I know my next recipe would call for "orange extract". The other thing I do now is buy 'pure' not imitation extract. Thanks for the tip, it does make a difference.

Because this cookie is called the egg yolk cookie, you can imagine that I would have a few egg whites left over, so I decided to hold onto them and will make a healthy omelette in the a.m. I hoping this will offset some of the taste testing I've enjoyed.

The only thing I would have altered was my flattening technique. Apparently you do not need to flatten these out so much before cooking because due to the butter and shortening it will release on its own. This is why my cookies look a little more like cookie crisps. I tried to alter my pressure on the third dozen but to no avail I love smooshing with the glass a little to much. I did yield 4 dozen cookies but had left over chocolate and almonds.

Easy cookie to make, this time I even timed myself. From getting out my first ingredient to putting my last cookie sheet in the oven, was at about 1hr. and 10 minutes. I then had to let the last cookies cool, spread with chocolate, and top with almonds. In total 2 hr. including clean up. Not bad.

My tip today,"Allow enough time to bake so you can enjoy the process", today was that day...thanks to Danielle G.

I am now off to find packaging and label my cookies...Angie

Angel Cookies

Angel Cookies.

If you are following our endeavor closely you will realize that we are out of rotation today. The reason for this is that Angie our baker for today has another birthday. Her first baking day fell on one of her boys birthdays and now another one has. I work all day tomorrow and have a meeting for science Olympiad in the evening so I was thrilled when she asked if we could switch.

These cookies were a cinch to make. I wasn't sure how well they were going to turn out because I got distracted when mixing my ingredients and put the baking soda with the sugar!!( I have always wondered why you have to mix the ingredients separately) Thankfully the baking gods were good to me and it didn't ruin the cookies at all. They are delicious. This is another recipe for those of you that want something not to challenging.

I had a thought the other day about my mom and baking. When I was younger my mother used to always do my nails for me any time I asked. At the age of twenty I started an apprenticeship with her to learn to do nails. Once I began said apprenticeship she told me she would no longer do my nails until I could make right hand look as good as my left (with acrylic). Anyone that has ever filed or polished their own nails knows that this is a huge challenge. I will have you know I finally got to the point that I could do my own nails very respectfully. So my thought is this: Will my mom still make me cookies, because I don't think I will ever get to her caliber in this:)

Danielle G.

Amaretti Cookies

Beginning this venture I knew we’d have a lot of fun experiences but I didn’t realize how emotional it would be at times. Today was one of those emotional days as I received my own beautifully embroidered, “It’s all about friends..and the cookies,” apron from Sharon. I love, love love it! It is super cute and I was taken back with her heartfelt generosity! Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness and know it will be worn with admiration for the both of you! I think we need a new group picture with our matching aprons! Ashamed to admit that I have been gifted a beautiful food processor, for my wedding 13 years ago, and never have used it. This recipe called for processing part of the ingredients and well it was certainly time to get it out of the basement. I got a few “how to” processing tips from Danielle (thanks for saving me)! I’m going to be a pro at blanching almonds, round two for me, but this time 3 cups. It took a few minutes longer but no biggie with help from an eager child. While the almonds were roasting, I whipped my egg whites into stiff peaks. It’s been a long time since I did that but remembered from Danielle that it took a bit for this process to peak. I processed my almonds with the rest of the ingredients. Folded that into my egg whites and ended up with an interesting cookie dough texture. I had to taste test the dough and let me tell you that they barely made it into the oven (yum). I dropped the cookie dough onto the pan with an ice cream scoop as suggested and baked. I like this recipe a lot because it has very few ingredients and there is something about the texture of this cookie that I really love. It is, so far, my favorite cookie! I have never made anything like it before and it does melt in your mouth! Yeah, we had ordered out tonight cause I baked…that’s ok ‘cause the cookies were worth it! Packaged and delivered to the girls! Danielle "Phoebe"

Danish Almond Shortbread

I finished my cookies with only 2 hours left in the day but I got them done! I was supposed to make the cookie dough last night but it took forever for my butter to get to room temperature (it was one of those one pound blocks.) I didn't want to have another failure so I waited until morning to start. Once I made the dough and put it in the refrigerator to cool "overnight" I went outside to shovel my first ton of snow. In total I think I shoveled about 3 tons. So needless to say, after a long day I was pretty tired. Thank goodness these cookies were a piece of cake! Although the chocolate and walnuts make the cookies very pretty, they are delicious without it! In fact, I think they are the most delicious cookies yet! How could they not be? Butter, butter and more butter, sugar, and almond! Yum!

I want to take a minute to thank Sharon and Theresa for always graciously answering the questions in my first two blogs, even though the answers could be found in the first few pages of their recipe book. Leave it to my friends to point that fact out to me on several occasions! (They're just jealous that I asked all the anticipated questions!) So now you know that I didn't read the beginning of the book but just jumped right into my recipes. That's really how I do things in general. However, I sat down Sunday and read the beginning of the recipe book. Not only was it informative but very sweet and charming as well. It's obvious that Sharon and Theresa put a lot of thought into their tips and nailed those anticipated questions!

Well, I'm coming off a successful baking day and enjoying the whole process. I have invited my friend, Laurie, to bake my next recipe, Grandma Ginny's Molasses Cookies. I want to spread the joy!

shelly

Snickerdoodles

Well I have to say that I feel like

I cheated in some way. For the record I did not, I just got off easy on this one. These had to be the easiest cookies to make, I highly recommend anyone who is not a baker tackling this recipe. I put my butter out last night so it would be room temp. When I awoke this morning thought I was ready to go. I figured I'd have cookies delivered by 10:00 a.m. The reason this did not happen was that you have to chill the dough a few hours so I must not have thoroughly read my recipe last night as intended. For the record I only did two hours because I wanted to get baking. I did everything the recipe said, it was not clear if you leave the cookies in a ball shape or flatten them so as you can see by my picture I went with the flattening. Baked them for 10 minutes and that was that. Ready to deliver.

I feel like I should have some entertainment for you guys so I will share a funny story. The Boys and I went to run some errands last week when we had a snow day. We went to the library and the grocery store (Hollywood market at auburn and dequindre.) We had our very large black lab, German shepherd mix dog with us.....he loves car rides. We were in the store about 10 minutes when there was an announcement "will the owner of a black caravan with a beautiful black dog inside please come to the front of the store." I have to say I am always afraid someone will call the police when we have Cisco with us thinking I am being an irresponsible pet owner, so my first thought was that had happened. I left the cart with the boys and went racing up front to see what the problem was. The manager of the store very calmly informed me my dog was o.k.......He had just been IN the store!! I wanted to die. The manager told me he told him to sit and he sat on command (good boy.) When he came around to check his tags Cisco ran out of the store. He followed him and watched him hop right back into my opened van door. We discovered when I went to check on him and close the door that the seat belt was stuck in the door so when my son hit the button it opened right back up. By that time we were in the store. So we will now always make sure all doors are closed and locked before we walk away from the car.

Bit of Heaven

Woke up early and inspired to get baking. Knowing that I needed my butter to be at room temp. this is where I started. Has anyone timed, how long it takes to get butter to room temperature? Well now I know, at the minimum 2 hours. even then its not perfectly soft. On to the bigger issue the filling, after Shelly's concern I was ready for a battle...... however it came together without much issue. It could have been due to my stove that does not work very well. By the time my stovetop became warm, the half & half and sugar mixture was already dissolved. My question is, Do I then call it a day with the heating? For security I kept in on a little longer. I put it aside and moved on to the cookie part, that way it would have plenty of time to cool. When I did add it I listen and only put a little at a time so as to not over saturate the blending. As far as the cookie part---yummy I was a little unsure of how big the finely cubed bananas should be cut so I took a picture so you can see what I did? I also used a cookie dropper which probably resulted in the mounding middle. I should have dropped them with a kitchen teaspoon, like the recipe called for but I didn't think it would make a difference. (It does) By the end of this I think we will take all the obvious and hidden words of wisdom to heart not learning the hard way. But it probably wouldn't be quite the same if we didn't learn by our mistakes. What I learned today... patience- don't rush the small things. Cookies are out for delivery via Jack... Angie

Biscotti "Bisoni"

I knew that I couldn’t pull this recipe off and make it all today unless I pulled “Laurie” time. Laurie is another one of our girlfriends who regularly starts her days at 4:45am and I refer to rising before the roosters “Laurie” time. The recipe calls for a 2 hour chill time and I didn’t have that kind of time unless I canceled plans. I wasn’t waking with Laurie so I prepared the recipe last night and let it chill overnight with the best hopes that it didn’t matter. Is that cheating? This recipe calls for blanching almonds, so I thought I better get to reading all the pages in the front of the cookbook if my recipe was going to be a success. You should read this ~ good stuff in there! If I would have read it before my last recipe I would have already known about the lovely Grandma Zaccari. Sharon politely reiterated her background for me but ITS IN THE BOOK! Best lesson learned, not only read the entire recipe through, read the beginning of the cookbook too! I have a bit of an advantage with Biscotti “Bisioni” because Shelly led us with the first biscotti recipe! Surprisingly, blanching almonds went very well and was easier than anticipated. It was actually fun to slip the skins off and roast them, really! Great snack too! Good, good directions IN THE FRONT OF THE BOOK! Of course, I knew what almonds were but before this venture I didn’t know what “blanched” almonds were. The authors are teaching me a ton! I think my mother in law would be proud of me with this step as she normally chops her nuts by hand for her recipes but wonder if she has ever blanched almonds? Almond paste was a first for me. Yummy smell with a very interesting texture, perhaps comparable to play-doh or sugar cookie dough. It was easy to work with. I bought it in a can from Kroger. Sharon where do you get yours? This recipe also calls for some lemon zest. The authors also explain how much zest you can expect from a lemon or an orange IN THE FRONT OF THE BOOK. I am delighted to use my new zester thanks to my Sur La Table personal shopper extraordinaire, Angie! I owe you one! It was fun to zest. I zested the whole lemon just for kicks. Shelly shared with me lots of ways she uses her zester. Don’t let her fool you she can cook really well! Apparently, I have been living a deprived life without this miraculous kitchen tool and eating bland tasting food! I prepared the rest of the dough and chilled it overnight. This morning, following the directions, I prepared my two logs on my stoneware and baked accordingly. They turned out great. While they were cooling we went ice skating to work off all of my extra taste testing. This afternoon, I melted my chocolate in a double broiler and drizzled over the tops of the biscotti after slicing. What a delectable dessert! Can’t wait to share with my husband!

Waffle Iron Chocolate Brownies

Again I surprise myself by shopping for my needed ingredients ahead of time. If only I would take this approach on all aspects of my life! I actually read through the directions of the recipe before I went shopping and I'm glad I did. I chose to buy the cocoa powder for baking over the chocolate baking squares because it saved me a step in the recipe (I didn't have to melt the chocolate). I'm always looking for a short cut! Kids are playing at Danielle B.'s house today so there is plenty of time to make these cookies without any distractions. I put the brownie ingredients together and plugged in my waffle iron. Hey, is it bad when brown sugar is clumped up into hard little balls that will not crumble apart no matter how hard you try? Is it like honey, still good but needs to be brought back to the right consistency? Lucky for me I had an unopened bag in the pantry so I didn't have to use the hard little balls-but you know that I would have if I had to! I used a melon baller to measure out the same size cookie every time. I think they are bigger than the cookies that Sharon makes because there was no way that I was going to get 48 cookies out of that dough. I could only fit four balls of dough on my small waffle iron per cycle (that's only 2 cookies) so after about forty minutes, I finally had enough made to give to each of my girlfriends. I was exhausted at this point so I decided to go with plan B...I divided the remaining batter in half and made 2 full size waffles. What's the difference? It will still taste the same. Don't hate me for being lazy! Cookies done. Time to move onto filling. I mixed half and half and sugar in a pot and put it on the stove to simmer. Sharon has "do not boil" underlined in her book so that must be important. Well, I turned my head for ONE second and the next thing I know the mixture is boiling over the sides of my pot. Ooops! I immediately took it off the heat, added vanilla extract and let it cool. It was tasty. However, when I went to mix it with the shortening, it would not incorporate very well at all. I figured it was because I boiled it so I started over again. This time, I stood at the stove and DID NOT BOIL. Once it cooled, I tried to mix it in with the shortening and again with no luck. I was even using a whisk attachment (which I didn't even know I had!) I tasted it because if it tasted good I was going to use it whether it looked fluffy or not. However, it tasted like shortening with a little bit of sugar added. Yuck! Now you can only imagine how mentally exhausted I am at this point! In desperation, I pulled a tub of Cool Whip out of the freezer, thawed it and added sugar and vanilla and made the cookie sandwiches. Now I need a nap! shelly

My Mom's Lemon Meringue Tarts

"My Moms Lemon Meringue Tarts" How did this happen? I have never been a baker. I enjoy making toll house cookies, brownies from a box, and cupcakes. My mother has always baked so I grew up around it, I just wasn't interested. When my mom and her friend wrote a cookie cookbook I thought "great lots of cookies for us while they are writing their recipes," and that did happen. I invited my friends to her cookbook launch knowing they would enjoy it. While I was helping with the demos and filling more plates with cookies they were hatching this plan. I should give some background on this. We all rent a house together in Mackinaw in the summer. We bring ten boys, four husbands, and enough food to feed ten families (which always seems to get eaten.) This past summer we had a rain day and decided to go to the movies. Our wonderful husbands took all ten boys to one show and we saw something else. "Julie and Julia". We were hooked and talked about how inspiring the movie was, so now we are doing our own version. My recipe is "My moms lemon meringue tarts" (my grandma actually) My grandma was not much of a cookie baker but she could crank out some awesome pies. This is a recipe I believe my mom adapted from Grandma's favorite pie. I found some of the instructions confusing, like needing aluminum foil and dried beans and what exactly is cream of tartar? (I actually had this in my pantry but is was expired.) Come to find out the foil and beans is to put in your dough to hold it down so it does not puff up when you bake it. Genius. Cream of tartar is a mix of baking soda and powder. The boys and I had no trouble with the recipe for the pie crusts or the lemon pie filling. It was the meringue that was troublesome. We whipped our egg whites with the whipper on the electric mixer and then added the other ingredients as instructed. After seven minutes and no peaks I called my mother. She said we were supposed to whip it on high. So I did that for ten more minutes and it got thicker. I spooned this mixture onto my tarts and baked them. When they came out most of it had slid off of the tarts and onto my sil pad. It looked really pretty so I scraped it off and tried to put it back on the tarts. My son says they look nothing like Grandmas but they are delicious!! This is going to be a very fun experience and if my kids will stay in the kitchen with me to help it's going to be awesome. Thanks girls for all of the cookies. We did it. Our first recipes are done. I am lookin forward to the next batch. Danielle G

Grandma Zaccari's Chocolate Almond Cookies

Baking is fun when you have time to enjoy it... The pressure is on to find the time.

My recipe called for something to be zested, chopped, and a cookie sheet to be lined. What are the chances that I just so happened to ask for all 3 items for Christmas and got them!

Today I learned a few things that I have not done before. First off (Crisco), growing up in the 70's my mother had a container or 2 of crisco and as I remember used it for everything. Being a wife of 13 years I think I might have only purchased at the most maybe 2. Anyway my recipe called for it and was easy to use however I 'm still not sure what it is or what it really might do to my arteries. The second was zesting, I have never done this but always thought it would be fun. I have seen Giada on her cooking show use it effortlessly and it seems to make everything just that much better! I agree. The third is chopping my own almonds in lieu of purchasing them from the store. Thanks to the nutty tip on page 13, I was well on my way to the perfect finely chopped almond or so I thought. I pulled out my new processor and decided to hit the pulse button a few times so as not to over chop, inadvertently making almond puree. This went well for the first 10 pulses or so then I started to worry. I see finely chopped almonds in the processor but I also see a large amount of stubborn just chopped almonds not wanting to become finely chopped. I had to intervene. I took out my serrated ladle and started to sift them apart. As you can see in the picture there is a significance difference. Issue averted.

My favorite part of this recipe book is the easy to follow ingredients guide. Go straight down the list and read to the right. You really can not mess up unless the phone rings, your kids interrupt you 10x or more, the door bells rings, or you just second guess what you put in even if you were not interrupted. Or lastly you do have to go to the store because a standard item is just not where you thought it was.

On to assembly, everything was going smoothly until I started to roll out the dough into long ropes. See pict. what does it look like? My thoughts exactly. The major difference is that the taste by far out ways the rolled up humor I got from it. Once I cut the pieces into 2" lengths then I wondered do I pat them to give them a flatter look or just let it roll. I tried the pat method and it did help.

Glazing the cookie? I ended up using the basting brush because my first 2 dozen took almost 4 hours to dry, apparently I took the coating concept in the bowl a little to far. Even after hours of drying time my cookies were sticky is this normal? I need the professional inside tip whether or not I should have worried about this.

My photo is not like the pros but for the first time and not much insight on the correct techniques I think they came out pretty okay. As for Fat Tues... Jack my husband, would rather enjoy many of Grandma Zaccari's Chocolate Almond Cookies than paczki.

Thanks for sharing this recipe....

Grandma Zaccari's Pizzelles & Cannoli Filling

I am not a risk taker in life nor in baking so this venture is going to be a growing experience for me. I always stick to my few tried and true recipes that usually contain cream cheese such as those Cream Cheese Bars that everyone asks for the recipe and has trouble duplicating. So I have some hope and look forward to “baking” out of my box – ha ha. I am a creative person and really don’t get a chance to satisfy that need as a stay at home mom so I look forward to the blogging and ‘posing’ my goodies for pictures – darn wish I had a fancy camera! Someday, I will pursue my photography dream. My family looks forward to the sweets but I know that they secretly are wondering how all four of us are going to pull this off with busy schedules and unforeseeable circumstances. Heaven forbid my crew of three boys and a husband forgo a homemade dinner cause it’s my turn to bake. I predict that I will be the one losing the most sleep over baking and blogging. I look forward to the challenge and best part is I get to go through it with three amazing women who have taught me so much over the years. I suspect I will benefit from their baking successes and mishaps but hoping in the end we all will gain more than what we expect. Just think when our boys look back at 2010 they might say, “do you remember when our moms baked their way through the cookie cookbook?” Unknowingly, we are inspiring them to do something they desire to do someday just like Sharon & Theresa inspired us! Previewing my 19 recipes, I quickly realized that I will be using ingredients that I never worked with before and will be purchasing a few new baking essentials ~ always wanted a zester but never had a use for it and apparently a silpat is a must! Unlike Julie, she never had the privilege of asking Julia about her recipes but you bet I will be asking our expert bakers & authors where I can find Five Roses Flour, Magic Baking Powder and gold & silver edible powders. Keep in mind, our first 8 recipes are being accomplished while our children are on a week long winter break so our schedules might be more flexible, our patience might have to be exercised more and two of us have our children’s birthdays this week – phew! Shelly thanks for being a good sport and kicking off Day 1! So here goes day 2… First off, I didn’t have a pizzelle maker to even begin this recipe and only a serious baker would (or the daughter of a serious baker). Danielle G. graciously offered me hers to use. I expected a metal maker a little more modern than the one in the picture but this one is more like an electric waffle maker. Sharon did use one to demonstrate with but I still didn’t think this was what I was borrowing. Secondly, I had to make a Kroger run, like Shelly, cause I too didn’t have Anise oil extract. Making the cookie batter was simple and quick. I never really mastered the perfect amount of dough to put in the pizzelle maker. Either had too much or too little but they still came out so pretty and it didn’t affect the results. I didn’t have a cannoli tube to form the pizzelle around but I improvised. I tried a few kitchen items but the pizzelles were too small to stay formed. The pizzelle maker produces two at a time so I ended up rolling the pizzelle around the handle of a melon baller and stuck the second one inside a round biscuit cutter. We ended up with about 60 formed pizzelles. They are not perfect but I am totally impressed. The best part is that my oldest son wanted to be involved and made the last half on his own; however, you have to have fingers of steel, like Sharon, to get them off and rolled so that part is not recommended for kids. Easy to make with impressive results! You too can whoo your friends with these. The filling was easy to make too. Never thought ricotta cheese would be an ingredient, maybe cream cheese. I only have used ricotta cheese in lasagna before. I needed 3 lbs of ricotta cheese and how frustrating that it is not sold in 16oz tubs. You can find 15 oz tubs or 1lb 14 oz tubs! I am 3 ounces short but what the heck! I ended up buying roasted & salted pistachio nuts in the shell cause I was desperate and couldn’t find regular pistachio nuts. I de-shelled them, chopped them and I wondered if I really am supposed to be doing this? They are salty and look green. Wishing about now that my grocery store actually carried chopped pistachio nuts. I put the filling in a ziplock baggie, cut the end and filled a few pizzelles kind of like a real pastry chef! I could have used a pastry bag but it was quicker finding my ziplocks! My chocolate morsels weren’t small enough so I chopped them in my nut chopper and dipped each end into the chopped chocolate (I omitted the nuts for my kids) ~ viola! I think they look impressive and they taste delicious! I have a sentimental side that is really wondering more about the history of the recipe and Grandma Zaccari. I would love to know more about this amazing baker, her legacy, etc. I now have to switch gears and make a birthday cake for my son. I get to be creative with decorating it into a Detroit Tiger jersey (mind you I just finished a USA hockey jersey cake for my other son’s birthday on Friday) and hope I can endure more baking than I would ever do in one day/week! A final thought from “Pheobe” ~ I nor anyone in my household will be giving up sweets for Lent!!!!! Danielle B. “Pheobe”

Grandma Zaccari's Biscotti

Cookie Day 1

Grandma Zaccari's Biscotti

I'm not a baker. I will bake birthday cakes and cupcakes (from a box) for my kids birthdays because I love them. I have a tub of cookie dough in the freezer that I bought at the school fund raiser two years ago that I haven't used because it seems like too much work. Now my friends want me to bake a cookie from scratch every fourth day?? Why did I agree to this? That's exactly what I asked myself all day today. Finally around 9:30 p.m. I dragged my butt to the kitchen because I love my friends and with me it's "All About the Friends." (That's Angie's tag line so I had to slip it in here!). Also, I figured that quicker we got this whole thing in motion, the quicker it would be over.

After the book signing party yesterday, I drove Danielle B. home and went straight to Kroger's to buy Anise oil, the only ingredient that I didn't already have in my pantry that I needed for the biscotti. I'm glad I did because if I would have had to run to Kroger at 9:30 p.m. on a Sunday night...let's just say that I'm glad I bought it yesterday.

What can I tell you about my experience? I think I need to start working out my arms because mixing 6 cups of flour into that batter by hand sure got tiresome. I don't know if I was supposed to mix by hand but when I tried to use my electric mixer, flour dust went flying everywhere. If there's one thing I don't like more than baking, it's cleaning! At the demonstration, Sharon said that the batter would be sticky and she was right. Her tip on getting your hands wet really did work. I didn't use a ruler or a grid to measure out the exact size of my loaves, but they all looked about the same. I fit two loaves on a stone and put the other two loaves on a silicone pad on my metal baking sheet just so I could stick them into the oven at the same time (to move the process along.) Even though Sharon recommends the baking stone for a more even cook, I found that the biscotti stuck to it when it was baked. It absolutely did not stick to the silicone sheet.

Do the cookies look like Sharon's picture? Well, no because I didn't brush them with egg whites and put sprinkles on them. I'm not going to lie, I stuck them in the oven before I read to the bottom of the paragraph that said, "brush with egg whites and sprinkle on candies." By then the loaves were already in the oven for 2 minutes and I figured that the important thing is for them to TASTE good, not look good. Also, I noticed 'after the fact' that the recipe called for blanced almonds. How do you blanch almonds? I wonder if Sharon would be able to tell that my almonds are not blanched. Oh well! The biscotti are baked and my husband tried one and loved it. And, honestly, it wasn't as much work as I thought it would be.

The cookies are bagged and ready to be delivered to my friends tomorrow!

shelly

How it Started

On Febuary 13th, at Trevarrow's in Auburn Hills, we were invited by our dear friend to the unveiling of her Mother and Friends', "Its all about the Cookies" cook book.

After sampling many different types of cookies, we were treated by the authors to a few cooking tips and strategies. This was not only inspiring but it stimulated our conversation regarding actually baking the cookies in the book we had all just purchased. I am not sure about you, but I have at least 20 cookbooks that have only taken up space in my cupboard and have left me uninspired to try something new. Today was a new day.

Our Game Plan:

Four friends cooking our way through each cookie recipe in a systematic way. The rotation will start with Shelly, followed by Danielle B.(a.k.a. Phoebe), Angie, and lastly our dear friend Danielle G. (whom brought us here). We have added the rotation and recipe calendar under Pages.

As original as our plan sounds, apparently this has been done before through a little known national best seller and movie, "Julie and Julia". However this is very different, it is cookies, baked with love and admiration between four friends that could only do it with the support and supply base from the authors!!!! Seriously, only serious bakers will have some of the tools needed to accomplish these recipes.

So we take our hats off to the two ladies that started baking as friends and have created a lifetime of memories in a little known best seller to us.... "It's All About The Cookies", by Sharon Bisoni and Theresa Grzadzinski.

To order this book please email:

sbisoni@wideopenwest.com or

terriandgerry@aol.com