Thimble Cookies

What a beautiful glorious day it was today! It’s even better in my house since I got to bake Thimble Cookies and the smell is amazing. Nothing better than a home filled with freshly baked cookies! The dough is really simple to prepare with basic ingredients that everyone has on hand. The rest is just as straightforward. Roll dough into balls, dip in egg whites and roll in walnut pieces, then press the center with a thimble. I sew so I had a thimble. I wanted to be authentic to the recipe so I used the thimble instead of my thumb because then I would have made thumbprint cookies. I sanitized the thimble for those who are wondering. Alternating baking sheets, bake for 5 minutes, then press down again with thimble and bake 12-15 more minutes. I got too distracted at times and had to stop and think if it was the 5 minute mark to re-press or the 12 minute mark to take out of the oven! I doubled my recipe today so I’ve been at this for quite some time! I got smarter by the end and started to load up the cookie trays with more cookies than I should. Typically, this would be a recipe that I would have passed over to bake because the jelly filling just looks like too much work – not! It’s just a quick dollop on the top and the jelly adds the perfect texture and flavor to this delicious cookie. I am converted! Theresa wrote that she has had this recipe for 45 years in her recipe box and now we have the privilege to make this keeper of a recipe go on for years to come.

On a different note, I know many families are having a difficult time making ends meet in our tough economy. I learned of three more families I know, just this week, who have been dealing with job losses. My family, working in the auto industry, certainly has had our share of scary times. So when Danielle G. introduced us to www.bargainstobounty.com, I knew this was something BIG! Bargains to Bounty helps Metro Detroiters stretch their dollars by featuring deals & coupon matchups for stores, along with online deals, coupons, money-saving strategies, and more. This site has been an incredible blessing to my family. This week, I was able to purchase 1 oz extracts for .25 each saving me $3.68 per bottle at Meijer. Needless to say, I will not have to buy anymore vanilla for the year. My best deal was purchasing $71 worth of Cover Girl Make-up for free (I did fork over $4 in sales tax). In the last three months, I personally have saved $1000. Couponing is a commitment; however, I feel that it is my responsibility to save my family money and now I am even able to donate groceries to those in need because of the bounty I am receiving! Please share this information so others can have these blessings for their families.

I certainly was in a sharing mood today. There were many surprise cookie deliveries…giving is definitely more fun than receiving! If I missed you, perhaps I’ll get you on the next round, my friends! Danielle “Phoebe”

P.S. Some of the later deliveries got to see me in my standard baking attire. However, I wanted to say to the man at the gas station, haven’t you ever seen a woman pump gas in an apron and pearls??? Shelly, I was clothed!

Oatmeal Cookies with Butterscotch Chips

I am so glad that this recipe was in my rotation. Oatmeal cookies have always been my favorite. My mom used to make them for us once in a while when we were kids but I don't think I have ever made them myself. I was reading about all the variations of ingredients that could be mixed into this cookie and the possibilities are endless!

It was a cinch to mix together all of the dry ingredients and it makes enough for 4 batches of cookies. I took out only enough for one batch (we need to keep our cookie consumption to a minimum these days!) The rest of the dry mixture will keep in the refrigerator for up to 3 months. I'm so excited that I can make oatmeal cookies anytime I want!

When the kids got home from school I mixed the wet ingredients (an egg, water and vanilla) and added the dry ingredients. It took one minute! I love this recipe! My son, Jake, found a bag of butterscotch chips in the pantry and made the decision to add that to the mix. I used my melon baller (so glad I have that tool-never once used it to ball a melon) to measure out the dough and get consistent sized cookies. I ended up with 3 dozen.

I got the cookies packaged up and delivered them to my girlfriends at the school concert tonight. It was a fabulous concert! I'll try not to eat Danielle G.'s cookies before she gets back from her vacation...but if I do, I know it will only take one minute to whip up another batch!

shelly

Aunt Irene's

I invited my friend Angela to guest bake for me today. After perusing the cookbook I realized that this recipe is the one I have been preparing for all along. I had every tool and gadget needed to make this a smooth wonderful experience. If you were not at the signing or do not have Sharon for a mother you may be overwhelmed by some of the instructions.

I mixed the dough on Saturday so Angela and I just had to get up Sunday and get to rolling and filling. I had all of the ingredients needed except for the sweetened condensed milk and 3 oz. cream cheese. At Meijer Gavin and I stood in the aisle not sure what to purchase as far as the condensed milk because I have never used or purchased it before and there were a lot of options. I made the mistake of writing just condensed milk on my list so that's what we bought. As Angela and I are getting ready to mix our filling I realize my mistake and call mom to say there is no substitution for sweetened condensed milk in the book. Off to Hollywood we go to buy sweetened condensed milk.

On our return everything went smoothly, Angela is a natural baker. She had no problems rolling out the dough. Theresa we used the green bands on the rolling pin, no width was stated and those seemed the easiest for us to work with. Mom had purchased the flipping tool Theresa used at the demo and it was invaluable. I enjoyed having my friend over and being able to take action shots of each step. Thanks for doing all of the work Angela.

In my finished product picture my edges of the cookie are not a smooth as Theresa's. Angela was correct I cut them to soon. After letting the next batch cool they turned out just like Theresa's. I figured that it's no fun to show all perfection so I kept the other picture in there.

Just a reminder that Kurt and I will be out of town this week. My friend Sandy also the mother of boys, is going to guest bake on Friday for me. Thanks Sandy, have fun, and happy baking.

Danielle G.

Apricot and Ginger Butter Cookies

As I sit here typing in my pearls and apron ( and pj's) I have realized that a new baking genre is before us. We have successfully baked our way through the first half of "Its all About the Cookies" cookbook with Author Sharon. And our next half of the books' Author is Theresa. Which means only one thing, new ingredients. Just when I thought I had done it all, Section 2 kicks in and is ready and eager to show me some new ingredients as well as techniques. love it.

Once I read that I needed dried apricots I thought, this will be a quick trip to Kroger. However, after the apricots it asked for crystalized ginger? Something I don"t think I have ever heard of. My next thought, this is not going to be a quick trip to Kroger. Once in my car I had folded to the idea that I would have to go to Vince and Joes to get my crystalized Ginger. Still not sure if this is a ginger root that I am going to get to zest or something entirely different. But instead I called my standby Kroger to see if they had this item in stock. When the customer service person put me on hold I figured might as well turn right and drive the distance to V & J. Surprised again when the stock manager got on the phone and said he had it!!!! yippee. There it was right next to the regular ginger but this bottle with the crystallization was $9.99. Oh well at least the drive was short. Then off to get my dried apricots near produce. I started to panic, could it be this was the specialty item they might not have? Nope, they had it as well. My only question is there were 2 brands 1 from Turkey which was cheaper and the other from the Mediterranean. Does it matter? Another surprise was there was a different style of crystalized ginger in produce, that were not in the rock formation but more like an elongated apricot. They were only $2.00 guess what I put back?( see attached)

The recipe called for them both to be finely chopped. Let me give you a big tip. Do not put these in your processor. My mini broke. So with the knife I chopped. I hope these were fine enough.

After these small insights it went pretty smooth. That is until I asked my Sioux chef Jack to help on the dry ingredients. He put them together for me then I told him to pour it into my butter/sugar mixture slowly. To me that meant a little at a time, to Jack that meant all at once somewhat slowly. I yelped and he jumped. Then we laughed. I was afraid it would not come together if the flour was poured in all at once. However the baking Gods were with us and all was good.

The "Pearl Girls" prevail!

Thanks Theresa for waiting so patiently for us to get to your recipes. Its gonna be fun. Angie

Raisin Tarts

Coming off a wonderful night with girlfriends, I had a permanent smile on my face baking in my apron and pearls today! Thank you again, Sharon!

Theresa and Sharon, not only has your cookbook taught us much needed baking lessons but it has created so many special memories amongst friends! It is a new chapter in our blog as this is the first of Theresa’s cookies! So here’s to the next five weeks of baking!

Ever so proud of myself that I made my first tarts. They took a few steps but it was really fun making the crust and filling. I did these in stages throughout the day so I really didn’t notice how long they took. This recipe calls for a food processor to mix the dough for the tart crust. This delighted me to use my old but new food processor. I assumed I would have to cut the butter into the mixture with a pastry blender or knives but the food processor does all the work. I like that!

After chilling, I rolled out the dough, cut 30 circles with a biscuit cutter, and tapped each circle of dough down into the mini muffin tins with a special tool.

The filling is easy to make but very interesting because I’ve never boiled raisins before. Rhubarb, strawberries, blueberries but never raisins and they are delicious! I even had to thicken the raisins with a water/flour mixture and I always love the science behind the thickening process. I filled each tart with filling and baked. I used a toothpick to retrieve each hot tart out of the pan to cool. Nuts garnished on top to complete. They taste great!

What I like is that Theresa created this recipe with a combination of her mother’s best pie filling and adapted it into her own tart. I think Theresa’s mom would have been proud that her amazing filling is being enjoyed by so many others. Theresa, you inspire me to create my own recipe someday!

Danielle “Phoebe”

Miniature Cheesecakes

It's 5:25 p.m. I have 4 dozen miniature cheesecakes completely done and 1 dozen more that I just put in the oven. They will bake 20 minutes, then I will cool them on a rack for 5 minutes, dollop them with a topping and stick back in the oven for 5 minutes. If my math is right, they will be done just shy of 6:oo p.m. which is a good thing because I am going to a party at Angie's house tonight at 7:00 p.m. Hopefully I will figure out how to package these cookies so I can give them to my girlfriends at the party tonight.

Now, what I'm about to tell you will shock you...these little cheesecakes took me all day! In all fairness, I shouldn't say all day. I started at 11:00 a.m. Once I made the dough for the crusts, I was supposed to chill for 3 hours. I stuck it in the fridge and moved on to mixing the batter for the filling and topping. It was noon at this point so off I went to do some housework. After about 30 minutes of housework, I got bored and decided to get started on the cookies. I only grabbed a handful of dough out of the refrigerator so that the rest could chill as long as possible. I called Danielle G. and she talked me through how to use the wooden dowel to pat down the pie crust in the mini tins. It took me a while to get the first tray done. I found that the dough started to stick when it warmed up. So, I put some of it back in the fridge to chill and grabbed another handful of chilled. Finally I got them filled and in the oven. They came out perfectly beautiful and delicious.

The process did not speed up any with my new found experience so when Angie called at 2:30 p.m. I told her that I couldn't come to her party tonight because I would still be baking these cookies. She thought I was kidding!

I've had a lot of time to think today and I was thinking that if I had another mini muffin tin the process would have been a little faster. However, as it stands now, it would have to be a very special occasion for me to undertake this recipe again. Especially since I baked the much quicker, easier cheesecake cookies last week that were just as tasty and all the ingredients went into one pan!

Sharon, I have had so much fun baking all of your recipes and have found quite a few that I will definitely make again. So far this process has taught me that baking really isn't that difficult. I was also surprised that there were very few ingredients that I had to purchase because most of the time I had everything on hand. Theresa, I am looking forward to making your recipe on Tuesday!

shelly

Basic Cookie Dough - Marmalade Slices

I must start with the truth. I baked and delivered yesterday. Thursdays in my house start with getting up at 6:30, kids up at 7:00, out the door for chess club at 7:30 where I am a parent volunteer, I leave school at 9:00 to get to work by 9:30 and usually work until 8:00 or 9:00. Today was different because I had to leave work by 6:00 to get the family and go to curriculum night at the junior high at 6:30. YIKES!! Yesterday when I realized all of this I was overwhelmed so I baked and delivered last night.

I had no idea what it meant to roll in jelly roll fashion. Unfortunately you can not see my log on the right very well but let me tell you it was the first one and so not pretty. I finally realized by the third one what it meant ( for the record I did this on my own without an s.o.s call to my mom.) I have to say I was not looking forward to this cookie because I do not care for orange marmalade or raisins. Surprisingly with all of the cinnamon and sugar and the walnuts it was actually quite good. My family loved it, I thought it tasted like a cobbler and suggested we have it over vanilla ice cream. My end product on this plate looks great. My girlfriends can vouch for me that they did not look like that when I delivered them. (Except Phoebe's) They must not have been cooled enough and turned to a mushy mess. I suggested to them to try them over ice cream too. I am going to bake early again next time. I was going to have a guest baker because Kurt and I are going out of town, but then I realized it was my first recipe on Theresa's side of the book and decided I could not do that. My friend Angela and I are going to bake them together on Sunday and I will blog on Monday. This is a challenging cookie and I feel up to the task, because I am a baker now. The 1st half of the book will be done tomorrow. We will be celebrating tomorrow night at Angie's can't wait.

Mom I just want to tell you how much I appreciate you and Theresa doing all of this hard work. I am having a wonderful experience with my awesome friends and also getting to appreciate how much love actually goes into "cookie day". You guys are wonderful and thank you for all of the cookies.

Danielle G. "the baker"

Basic Cookie Dough- Fruit Bars

I did it! and at 8:00 is was not looking like I was going to get these even started. I left the house at 6:00 am and by the time I got home I didn't feel well. By 8:00pm no cookies had been started and I was in bed. It wasn't till my oldest came to lay down with me and play with my hair in efforts to make me feel better, did I strive for more. Boy did that do the trick. I decided for the sack of our pact that this was not going to keep me down.

Kitchen lights on, no time to wait for the butter to come to room temp, so micro to soften it goes. Dalton comes down to see if I needed any more help. It is 8:35 pm I did not decline! We worked so well together, like a well oiled machine. Within an hour we were done. He even stayed to dry all the dishes. Yippee. This recipe called for a apricot preserve or jam. Since I was not feeling well, my dear husband ran out to get me a jar. He came back with sugar free ( I was concerned). In hind site this was a good thing. Did I tell you I have gained 10 pounds since the beginning of this challenge? not good. Anyway there is enough sugar in the crust and topping that it does not make a difference so you might as well save yourself some calories. Lastly as I look at my picture my top is golden however in the book it looks as if there might be powdered sugar added? Whos's to know what can be down with digital photography these days. I love the way these cookies make me feel. Even though they are not light in calories when you eat them you may think they are.

Delivery may be tomorrow you just never know! Angie

Basic Cookie Dough - Chocolate Sandwich Cookies

As long as you allow enough time for the butter to soften and the dough to chill, these are again quick and easy. I have this recipe memorized. That’s how easy it is. Once the dough was mixed, it was divided in halves and rolled into two equal logs on parchment paper and chilled. Later, I melted the chocolate in a double broiler. I sliced the chilled dough 1/8 inch thick, baked and sandwiched together with the melted chocolate. The completed cookies need a little time in the refrigerator to allow the chocolate to solidify. I love the perfect size of this cookie. My only suggestion is to make more because they won’t be around for long. I had a cute little cookie monster snatching up the dough before they made it to the oven. I caught him hiding in the next room eating his stolen goods. He was kind enough to leave some to be shared. Danielle “Phoebe”

Chocolate Pecan Balls

The only reason that I am posting so late is because I have not yet taken a picture of my cookies. I don't think I'm going to get a picture tonight so I will just add it when I get it (maybe tomorrow!)

You see, I started the batter last night because I looked ahead at my recipe and I realized that I wasn't going to get off as easy as I did for the last few recipes. Plus, I needed to chill the dough for at least 3 hours to overnight. The dough was simple enough; however, it had very little wet ingredients (1 c. butter and 2 egg yolks) and like Angie, I only have a hand mixer. It couldn't handle the amount of dry ingredients that needed to be added so I had to go old school and put some effort into hand mixing it. Into the fridge and off to bed!

This morning I figured I had this cookie in the bag since I had a big bowl of dough that had been chilled all night. All I had to do was form little balls, roll into powdered sugar, bake and roll again into powdered sugar. I figured that I could fit a million of these little balls on a cookie sheet and get them all in the oven at once. It didn't quite work out that way. The dough was very dry and crumbly, almost like old playdough so it took some work to form it into balls. Then I rolled each ball in a bowl of powdered sugar...what a mess! I was wearing black pants, too! I spent about an hour forming and rolling balls and I had only made it through half of the dough. I got tired so I decided to bake what I had and do the rest later.

Well, it's later (10:30 p.m.) and I still haven't rolled the rest of the balls! The ones I did make were DELICIOUS and worth all the work. I bagged up all the cookies I made (except for the few I tasted) for my friends before I took any pictures. I hope to get the rest baked tomorrow and post a beautiful picture that captures how delicious these cookies taste. Until then...shelly

Basic Cookie Dough - Thumbprint Cookies

This basic cookie dough is fantastic. This recipe called for the basic ingredients with orange zest added. I was able to use my zester again. That is an indispensable tool to have on hand in the kitchen. If you don't want to spend the money on an expensive one my husband, the finish carpenter tells me you can pick one up at the hardware store for under $5.00. It is called a drywall rasp and is exactly the same thing. I was low on jelly so my last batch I filled with nutella it is good but not as awesome as I thought it would be. The ones with the raspberry jam have more flavor. I did not get 5 dozen out of this recipe I think it is because I made them to big, they took much longer than the time indicated in the recipe. Overall a very simple user friendly cookie. Danielle G.

Basic Cookie Dough- Cinnamon Sugar Cookies

Well I have really messed up by not posting last, and Danielle is right on schedule so I am really behind. I did bake and get things done yesterday however I thought I would make it home in time to post before the midnight hour. I was wrong! So I am sorry to mix things up a bit.

The ingredients for this recipe were very simple to assemble. However if your like me and only have a hand mixer your worries are how long do you mix so as not to burn out your motor? this is a fine line that luckily I have not crossed. The recipe called for the 1/8" roller pin bands which I have, however I chose not to look at my cheat sheet which says what color corresponds to which thickness. I thought I could eye it and make an executive call. Guess I was wrong, I used the 1/16" which is why my cookies look like mini pie crusts. oops. They are definitely light and fluffy.

I will sign off and will promise to stay on my scheduled day of posting. Happy baking this week girls. Angie

Basic Cookie Dough - Spritz Cookies

To prepare for this recipe, I watched a quick tutorial on-line on how to use a cookie press cause I’m such a rookie. It was helpful and thanks again to Sharon for lending me another baking tool! The dough was so simple to prepare but I have been cursed a couple of times messing up the rather easy recipes. This one didn’t avoid the curse. I accidentally grabbed the wrong teaspoon and added double the amount of salt – yuck, yuck, yuck. An unrecoverable error! On to batch two – perfect but not enough time to bake so into the fridge to wait.

At 10 pm, I stuck my cookie sheets in the refrigerator for 5 minutes prior to pressing out cookies. Apparently, this trick helps the cookies stick to the pan for easy release. I re-whipped the dough to get it back to a soft consistency. It only took me a couple of minutes to figure out how to press out cookies and they came out so cute and charming. I didn’t spend much time decorating these as I am not fully recovered from the painted Sour Cream cookies.

Danielle "Phoebe"

Cheesecake Cookies

Another easy cookie for me! In fact, this was so easy that I almost goofed it up! First I enjoyed another beautiful day and didn't start my cookie until about 3:00. Two steps to this pan cookie-first I pressed the crust into a pan and baked. I set aside a bit of the crust to crumble on top. Then I mixed the filling and popped it back in the oven. Five minutes later, Angie called me and I was gloating about how I got another easy cookie recipe. She was looking at a picture of it in the cookbook and asking me questions about it when I suddenly realized that I forgot to put the crumble on top. I ran to the oven, pulled out the pan and rectified the situation! Thanks to Angie for calling me at that exact moment in time! I will be delivering the cookies to my friends tomorrow morning. My neighbors have enjoyed them already tonight!

shelly

Almond and Hazelnut Cookies filled with Nutella

7:30 a.m. I began blanching my almonds. This is the first time I have had to do this. Phoebe is right, super easy. The hardest part was the time it took to peel them. It was a morning of many firsts, all of them good. I was able to ZEST 3 tbs. of orange peel which was also a first. I am now a zester!! One small orange gave the three tbs. I needed and there was no peel left. As you can see from my picture the recipe called for five egg whites whipped until peaked and then "add the sugar to make it stiff and glossy." I can not express how excited I was that when you do this correctly it works just like every one told me. If you have not been following since the beginning I urge you to look at my first recipe, "My Moms Lemon Meringue Tarts" it was truly a disaster. I feel I can confidentally state that I am an egg white whipper!! These cookies are a little time consuming about three hours start to finish. They are definitely worth it. I have never had Nutella that I can remember, combined with melted chocolate, wow divine. I do have to admit I cheated just a bit. My mom gave me the hazelnuts she had left and it did not quite equal the amount I needed. Rather than go out and get them I substituted a 1/4 cup of walnuts. You grind them in the food processor all together and I decided nuts are nuts. (Don't tell my mom.) they taste awesome and are ready for delivery. DanielleG.

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookie

Good Morning, You have know idea how thrilled I am to be posting by 9:30 in the morning. After last weeks debacle and taking more than 2 days to deliver my cookies I had to recover by completing my batches early today.

Chocolate Chips cookies are my thing. I have the Nestle recipe memorized and could make them in my sleep. Growing up in was not unusual for me to come home from school and make a batch of Chocolate Chip cookie dough. Yes, just the dough! My brother and I would eat it till it made us sick to our stomach then my Dad would finish it off when he came home. So this recipe was pretty easy.

The only major difference in this recipe is using crisco over butter and adding the oatmeal. To be consistent I decided it would be a good idea to burn one batch. Not in the original plan but once I walked the kids outside to grab the bus, the fresh air must have put a trance on me. The next thing I knew, I engaged in a long conversation with a neighbor and as I started to walk back inside, my baking brain woke up this made me run. Obviously the cookies were going to be burnt but I wondered "How bad?" We'll just say I will be throwing that dozen away.

It's a great start to the day. Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone. Back to blog in 4 more days. Angie

Sour Cream Cookies

I am pleased to present Sour Cream Cookies to you today! With one bite, this cookie had me hooked and I couldn’t stop talking about it at the book signing. When I found out it fell on my bake day I was skipping with joy! Then anxiety quickly set in. A great deal of anxiety! The picture in the cookbook shows painted Sour Cream Cookies. I am serious, cookies painted with a fine paint brush in great beautiful detail and colors. After two weeks of totally freaking out, I decided to tackle this cookie with a fun attitude and if I failed at least I would be able to eat the best cut out cookies I’ve ever tasted! I got a head start and made it a TWO DAY cookie. Glad I did cause I’m just wrapping up in the nick of time.

I borrowed the Evendough Bands to put on the rolling pin ends to achieve the consistent thickness of dough. A cookie genius invented these! I also borrowed the extra long wooden rolling pin that I fell in love with! So long to my heavy, marble, monstrosity of a rolling pin. The sour cream made the dough super soft (and incredibility delicious). After chilling , a well floured surface allows for this cookie to be easily workable without sticking. I lost some sleep rolling, cutting, and baking my cookies last night. Today, I spent time figuring out icing colors, designs, flubbed a few cookies and then just got down to business icing and painting designs. I really enjoyed turning my ideas into cookies even if they don’t turn out exactly like the beautiful, unachievable, pictures in my head. I am a rookie cake decorator but what kills me is that I never knew cookies could be painted with food coloring. This opens up a world of possibilities for my children’s party treats! I think my sister in law will put these on her bake list. I can’t wait to see what designs she comes up with!

I could have saved a lot of time sticking to just one cookie design but I really wanted to showcase these cookies as much as possible. They are not hard and just take time and patience. The four of us have 10 boys between us so I wanted to make some cookies that they would have fun eating, thus the basketball and football cookies were a given. I also wanted to showcase our blog title and with all these boys I never get to make girly cookies, so that was fun! However, those who know me know how much I LOVE Bon Jovi. I am so excited that they will be entertaining, Detroiters like me, in two days for a live St. Patrick’s Day concert! So I had to make a cookie in their honor. Hope you like it Jon!

This cookie satisfied my creative need. I feel I have conquered my toughest cookie challenge in the book! For those followers who want to bake this cookie, to taste the deliciousness I am speaking of, you can omit the painting stage and just frost them. I’m off to bed to dream of JBJ! Danielle “Phoebe”

Peanut Butter Meltaways

A day late on blogging this cookie. There's really no excuse for it because they were one of the easiest cookies to make. I planned on blogging after our company left last night but I promised my son I would lie down with him at bedtime...and the next thing you know it's 1:00 a.m. Oh well!

When I say this one was simple, believe me, it was. In fact, I was thinking that I might make them again today since I don't have a single cookie left after packing them up for my girlfriends. Oh, the recipe made enough, but they were so tasty that they just didn't make it through the night. I scolded my husband several times for taking cookies off the tray before I took my picture and packed them up for my friends. Every time I left the room, a few more cookies were missing!

You mix up the ingredients, press it into a pan and bake for 20 minutes (or more, if you're like me and don't read the oven temperature correctly). The hardest part of this recipe is unwrapping 26 carmels. I AM starting to feel a little guilty that my recipes are so easy. Especially since I know that Phoebe has to paint her cookies today. Good luck, Phoebes!

shelly

Les Dames Blanches

Well my first roll out and cut cookie of my life. I have never had the desire to tackle a sugar cookie with a cookie cutter. This cookie was actually a lot of fun to do. I am sure it helped that I had an expert on hand at my disposal. I asked my girlfriends if they minded my mom coming over and helping me. My mom however said she would only do this if the other girls were allowed to use her expertise also. My mom has always believed you don't do for one and not the other. So there you go girls she is now fair game. I truly believe this would have been torture if not for her help. There are not a lot of ingredients in this cookie, but there are odd things I did not have on hand. Almond flour, cake flour, and raspberry jam. Surprisingly I had a vanilla bean or two because my client Linda went on vacation and brought me some back as a souvenir. The problem was I stored it as per the Internet and it dried out and was unusable. So halfway through mixing our ingredients off to Meijer we went for fresh vanilla beans. Imagine my surprise when they turned out to be $12.00 for two beans. We think the reason for the fresh bean is for the little black specks in the cookie, but as you can see between the powdered sugar and jam you can't see them. If I make this again I will skip the fresh $12.00 beans and use extract. Funny side story when we got home we finished mixing the batter and I was sure I put the flour in before we left. Again thanks for the expert because I did not add the flour yet. she says they would have been so sticky I could not possibly have rolled it. Thanks again mom.

As the picture shows my mom has these awesome cookie cutters so you don't have to try to measure out the center of the heart. At first I was struggling with my dough sticking to my mat and rolling pin. Once I figured out to use smaller balls of dough for rolling and sprinkling it liberally with flour (the dough, the mat, the rolling pin, myself) it went super easy and quick.

The rest was just time intensive waiting for the cookies to cool, sprinkling the tops with powdered sugar, spreading the jam. Just for the record I love raspberry jam so I used almost a whole jar rather than the 1/2 cup called for. While we were waiting for the dough to chill we hopped back in the car so I could do some shopping for packaging my cookies. These are to pretty for sandwich bags. I found the cute buckets and lace doilies and am now ready for delivery. One thing I forgot to mention is my mom bought these very cool bands you put on each end of your rolling pin and they are colored coded. When you roll out your dough it makes it the exact width you need. Very cool. highly recommend this so no rulers needed.

Danielle G.

Pecan Nut Bars

This Dessert is more like mini pecan pie bits, but with a softer side. My whole family enjoyed them. Their favorite part is the cool whip dollop on top.

This particular recipe is made on a "jelly roll pan". Easy right? Well I thought it was going to be, however apparently there are different versions of a jelly roll pan. A jelly roll pan is described as a pan with four sides. However my filling did not care. As you can see in my picture my pecan nut bars were about to runneth over. Had it not been my quick thinking of, "stop pouring, its not going to fit"mentality, the situation would have been way worse. But then again it did get worse. As you can see it just fit. This was pre- baking and since it had eggs butter and sugar, guess what? It grew more. So over the sides in all directions it went through out my oven. I should have taken a picture so you could have felt my pain. But that was not the worse part, the combination of eggs butter and sugar burnt in the stove had to come out so at intervals I would open the door so the house could be overcome with smoke and take on a new flavor. Lets just say I open all the windows, slider, back door, garage door to diffuse the smell but 6 hours later it is still kickin. The best part is it really did not ruin the Pecan Bars. Yippee

Lesson learned: if you have 4.5 c. of brown sugar, 4 sticks of butter, almost 4 c. of flour, a boat load of eggs, and misc. other items.... make sure your jelly roll pan has higher sides. And definetly do not over fill. Think of it like a cappuccino coffee, fill only 2/3 full.

Girls I am beat delivery will be in the am. Signing off. loving my waist line. A

German Chocolate Cookies

If you don’t have a cookbook to follow along with us yet, I suggest you get one just for these cookies! They only have four ingredients. One is a cake mix and another is frosting from a can. The best part is that there is only one ingredient that needs to be measured and that means little dishes to clean up too! So I mixed the three ingredients together, rolled the dough into balls, baked 8-10 minutes, cooled and sandwiched together with coconut pecan frosting from a can! I used the large end of a melon baller to get a consistent amount of dough to roll into small balls for bite size cookies. I have way too many interruptions to time myself but it didn’t take long. Waiting the 8-10 minutes for each cookie tray to bake was the longest part in the process because I have a conventional oven.

In the past, I’ve had my children read a recipe and prepare it from start to finish on their own with the exception of the hot oven. This is a great recipe to practice reading and following instructions without a child being overwhelmed.

Since I’ve slaved all day in my kitchen and have so many dishes to clean, I just can’t drag myself to deliver cookies today! Danielle "Phoebe"

Chocolate Oatmeal No Bake Cookies

I almost feel guilty (but not really!) These cookies were so simple that it took me 40 minutes from start to finish. How do I know that? Well, I called Danielle G. this morning as I pulled out the cookbook. As we talked, I located all of the ingredients and started putting it together. It took only minutes to mix it. By the time we finished our conversation, I had dropped all of the dough into little cookies on my cookie sheets to cool. I looked at the phone as we said goodbye...40 minutes.

If you like chocolate and sugar, this is the recipe for you. In fact, I would bet that most households have the ingredients on hand. It was just peanut butter, butter, sugar, cocoa, oats, vanilla and salt. Quick, easy, DONE! There's really not much more to say.

I tried to jazz up the packaging a little since I got off so easy on the cookies. I used chinese take out containers and pasted scrapbook paper on them to make them pretty. I can't compete with Phoebe's pictures so I did my best to be creative and still capture the cookie.

I plan on saving our planet by waiting to deliver these cookies to my friends tonight when we get together for a movie night. I'm chuckling at this thought because once I was determined to get through the whole summer on $100 of gas. It was the summer that gas spiked to $4.00/gallon. Well, I saw Angie at a 4th of July fireworks party and she asked how it was going. Unfortunately, it was only the 4th of July and I had already blown through the $100. Then I admitted to her that I accidentally locked my keys in the car a few days earlier while the car was running! Oops!

shelly

Five Chip Cookies

I had decided I was going to get these done before work today. Because of Angie switching on one of her days, I am baking for the first time on a work day. I realized last night when we got home from bowling that not only was it a work day but Lost was on. We have neighbors come over every Tuesday to watch our favorite show. I was sure no one would appreciate me getting up every ten minutes to pull the cookies out and reload my trays. My butter was already out so I thought well midnight is approaching so technically it will be tomorrow when I finish. I knew my girlfriends would never believe I was on Laurie time.

This recipe has a ton of different flavors, most of you have the book so you can see what I am talking about. For those of you that don't, let me just mention a few. Peanut Butter, (which I had to borrow a little bit at 10:30 at night thanks Angela) oats, brown and white sugar, and as the name mentions five chips (thanks mom) . I did not realize there were that many chips. I ate four cookies just while baking them to see if I could find all five of them. They are awesome. I am not sure I want to say light but they almost are. I think it's the peanut butter. Kurt has not asked for a single cookie to take to the guys at work but he did this one so I sent him with some this morning.

I finished at 12:05 this morning and went to bed. It was fun and super easy.

Danielle G.

Belgian Waffle Cookie

After my last debacle with missing ingredients, I thought for sure this week I would be ready for today. Think again, two small issues, as I was getting ready to make my dough I realized it calls for whiskey! And wouldn't you know we don't have any. So out to the store I go buying my bottle of whiskey at 9:30 in the morning. Thankfully the only curious eye was the cashier but she felt like this was a good idea? huh? Second, just as I get back to my mixing, I thought, "This is the easiest recipe yet". The breaks hit again, did it just say chill over night? Seriously. My theory since it was only 10:30 if I waited to make the waffle part tonight at 8:00 that would be like waiting through the night, so thats what I did. Much to my surprise the dough was hard as a rock. Perfect.

I did take the tip to put the dough towards the back of the press, great idea. That lets the dough spread to all areas, as long as you have the right amount to begin with. Lets just say as soon as I got the hang of it I was out of dough! However that may have been due to the few balls of dough that were never baked and possibly went straight to my thighs.

The kids loved this cookies texture, taste and smell. Thanks again it has been a ball learning how to do things I have never attemped. I can't wait to go back and perfect the things I have learned.

Lesson I'm still learning, always look at your recipe ahead of time.

Orange Tea Cookie

So I wouldn’t have a red ring around my cookie, last night, I drained & dried the maraschino cherries to make sure they were ready for my cookie day today. My fear was that they were going to disappear overnight to my child who could eat the entire jar of them if I let him. A 6am refrigerator check gave me relief that he didn’t sneak any! I had all my ingredients and made sure to pick up orange extract and oranges earlier in the week. However, I was just shy of the 3 cups flour needed. I probably could have winged that but then I couldn’t double the recipe as I planned. After an early morning hockey game I ran to the store for more flour. With Shelly’s post yesterday and my grocery run today, I think I’m ready for a bulk shopping trip for the standard ingredients so I’m not caught off guard again. I did have whole wheat flour too and wonder if it would have worked out like Shelly’s cookie did?

I thought I’d multitask a little bit. So while I was coaching a Science Olympiad practice at my house I challenged the kids to see who could finish first: me preparing the cookie dough or them taking their test. The time was 16 minutes ~ we both went into overtime!

Everything seemed to go smooth until it was time to roll the dough into balls. The dough was too soft so I just dropped them on the cookie sheet, sprinkled confectioner sugar on top, placed my cherry on that and baked. After they came out of the oven I covered the cherries and dusted again with more confectioner sugar. They taste delicious but didn’t look the pretty, pretty I was trying to achieve like the cookbook picture. Determined to make them look better, I added more flour to the dough but had the same results. However, after several cookie sheets of lopsided ta-tas I decided it was time to try the chill method.

Much, much better results as the dough easily rolled into balls and finally came out like I hoped. Whoo-whoo! However, I compare confectioner sugar to glitter. It is beautiful and fun to work with but my kitchen & myself look like we bathed in it! It is a dainty, delightful cookie with just a hint of orange that tastes so delicious! I also like how soft it is. What I learned is sometimes a cookie just takes a little practice & persistence to get it just right! Danielle “Phoebe”

P.S. I apologize to Danielle’s family as I sent home the first, imperfect, batch out of the oven.

Cranberry-Caramel Bars

Remember how motivated I was on Tuesday? I had my cookies baked, packaged and delivered to my friends by 9:00 a.m. Well, that didn't last long! It was such a beautiful day today that I took my kids and my frenchie to Partridge Creek for an outing. I felt confident that I would have enough time to get my baking done later in the day. I looked through the recipe yesterday and I was only missing a few ingredients.

About 6:30 I headed off to Meijer to get what I needed only to find that they do not carry fresh cranberries this time of year. Neither does Kroger. Not even Vince & Joe's. Oops! I started to freak out but then I remembered that I had cherries in my freezer. Cherries are red and round just like cranberries. Hopefully the substitution would work.

At 7:30 p.m. I drank a 5 hour energy drink (need to prepare for a focus group on energy drinks later this week) so I knew I wouldn't be tired before my deadline of midnight! I started pulling out all my ingredients only to realize that I didn't have enough flour! I have gone through more flour in the last month than I have in the last 3 years! I was freaking out as I grabbed my keys and headed out the door for another trip to the store. Then I remembered that I bought a bag of whole wheat flour a few months ago for a muffin recipe. I was already substituting cherries for cranberries so why not substitute whole wheat flour?

Once the ingredients were in front of me, it was very easy to make this recipe. At this point I'm really hoping that it will turn out because several of my friends who follow the blog have mentioned that they are looking forward to trying this cookie. After it was all done, a little taste assured me that they were delicious. I hope my friends think so, too!

I've included a picture of Angie delivering her cookies to me on Friday. She put a smile on my face first thing in the morning! There is also a picture of Roxy, my frenchie, to put a smile on your face! Signing off at 11:40 p.m...wide awake and full of energy!

shelly

Crackletops

If you like something a little different with a bit of spice this is the cookie for you. After Angie's day yesterday I feel bad saying I had another easy delightful baking day. This recipe was user friendly and very simple. The only issue I had was no ground cloves, so after a frustrating morning at the Dr. with Cameron I very happily put my whole cloves into a baggie and pounded them to dust with my meat mallet. Very therapeutic. This is a very tasty cookie with the molasses and cloves a very nice combination. Anyone who is paying attention to this blog daily will realize I have "staged" my cookies differently today. I have a wonderful client who has been watching this and informed me I had to something different with my pictures. (Thanks Kathy I hope you like this one better:) I don't think she realizes up until now I barely knew how to upload a picture and then download it. So now I have to say I am not just learning the ins and outs of baking but also computer stuff too. Thanks girls for taking away my "box". Danielle G.

Texas Crunch

Texas Crunch? more like Texas Punch ouch! I almost pulled the white surrender flag on this one.

I usually do not get to discouraged if things don't work out however this one set me back bit today. The one ingredient that sounded like no big deal to find, "Almond Brickle", apparently is! I went to Kroger, no luck- put in my 911 call into the pro-got a tip that it should be by the chocolate chips. So I went back to Kroger just incase but no luck. So I thought Meijer, everyone tells me they have everything and at a good price, so why not? no luck. Then to Vince and Joe's- they had heard of it but felt it may be seasonal? huh! On to Papa Joes and then to Hollywood Market. No luck, after exhausting all my local resources I put in my 2nd 911 call into our Pros to steal from her stock but today was going a muck so I stuck with the closest thing to what the recipe called for, "Heath-Bits 'O Brickle Toffee Bits, (in small print it said it contain almonds). Sounded like almond brickle to me.

On to whipping up the recipe. This part was smooth until the final 4.5 cups of flour that had to be added to my beautiful creamy butter and sugar mixture. This turned into crumbles. Again not going as smooth as my past baking days. Still I needed to roll in sugar then cross press with a fork. Again no luck it all fell apart. Plan B patty like a hamburger dust with sugar put fake fork mark in, bake, take picture , and call it a day.

The dough tasted amazing but as you can see I've run out of time. Tip: Get all ingredients ahead of time!!!!!! Happy Baking Angie

Buckeyes

Some may think I’m getting off easy with a no-bake cookie today. Well, they’re right! It’s a quickie! It does require some chill time so plan the night before. I mixed the few ingredients, rolled the dough into balls and chilled overnight. The recipe yielded 60 balls and my count was 61! This morning, I dipped the chilled balls into the melted paraffin wax and chocolate. I just had to smooth over the hole where the toothpick was and voila ~ done! I think I should have concentrated more on getting the balls consistently the same size and roundness. As the recipe states, Buckeyes are freezer friendly. I would normally freeze and probably eat them directly out of the freezer but I know they will be gone in a snap!

For those of you who don’t know why I am referred to as Phoebe, I’ll share. Our four families vacation together every summer so two Danielle’s in one house became a little confusing. “Which Danielle?,” was the most asked question on vacation. For our trip, each family plans and brings a meal for the group. Last year, I arrived with an army of bread in every variety to feed 18 people/four days worth of lunches. While us girls were sipping wine and enjoying each others’ company there was always a lot of exclaiming how much I overcompensated in the carb department, “wow, that’s a lot of bread!” A comparison was drawn between me and Phoebe from the sitcom Friends. The particular episode was when Phoebe was put in charge of cups and ice by Monica for Rachel’s surprise party because she didn’t trust her with any other party planning. Well, Phoebe went overboard with the cups and ice as I did with the bread. It was hilarious and that’s why I am affectionately called Phoebe! Just so you know we ate ALL the bread I brought that vacation and ladies there will be decorations at the house this summer! Danielle “Phoebe”

"Fusciardi's" Favorite Oatmeal Cookies

I feel like I've been on an 8 day vacation since Laurie guest baked for me last week. Her cookies were delicious and I'm very grateful that she took the opportunity to try out one of the cookie recipes because I needed a break! I know what you're thinking...I only made 3 recipes. True, but they were difficult recipes and I'm not a baker! However, I felt rejuvenated and ready to give it another go!

I was going for the shock effect this morning as I delivered my cookies to my friends at 9:00 a.m. Yes, that's right, 9:00 a.m. I have been on "Laurie" time this week (so what if it's only Tuesday!) getting up early and trying to get a lot done before the craziness of the day starts. This was the perfect recipe to try and squeeze in early because it was very simple. I had everything set out last night ready to go so it only took me an hour from start to finish. I made an executive decision and left out the walnuts so that Laurie's son could have another cookie to try. Also, I had to cut down the baking time from 9 minutes to 8 minutes in my new oven because the bottom of my cookies were burning. I love baking on parchment paper-those cookies slip right off and no clean up! I used a melon baller to measure out the portion of my cookies so that they would be a consistent size. I got close to the 5 dozen the recipe states.

I packaged up my cookies in pretty little treat bags for my friends. So, I wonder if Laurie takes a nap in the middle of the day??

shelly

Marko's Unbelievably Good Chocolate Chunk Cookie

This cookie is exactly as described. Wow!! What a difference a Ghiardelli chocolate can make. This was a very easy, user friendly recipe to make. It's a basic chocolate chip cookie with a little extra pizazz. The only snafu I came across was a room temperature egg and chilling my dough for an hour. Once all of that was done it was as easy as one, two, three. The recipe called for a three inch cookie to make 22 in a batch. I opted for a smaller cookie so I could have more to share. I used my small melon baller and produced about forty cookies. I have to say I am loving all of this baking and sharing with my friends. My family feels like they have hit the cookie jackpot. Who else gets fresh cookies delivered daily to their house. The boys look so forward to the deliveries. I wasn't sure how they would be with this since they have had most of the cookies on my moms side of the book. I think they usually have so many choices when she bakes they always go for their favorites and don't try much else. Now they have the opportunity to try them all and they love it. We are going to have to do an exercise blog when this is all done though because I can already feel the cookies settling in. Danielle G.