Lemon Thins

Here's the story. At 10:00 a.m. I started to make this cookie-honest! I was just about to mix my dry ingredients into the mixture when the power went out. My son, Cole, was watching me and wondering how I was going to mix up the dough without my electric mixer. The boys and I just had a conversation the other day about how people lived without electricity. They thought it would be impossible! Well, I showed him! I got out the wooden spoon and started using manpower. I was feeling pretty good about the lesson I was giving him that life does go on without electricity. The batter was mixed up and I was ready to bake. Then Cole wondered how I was going to bake the cookie without the oven. Yeah, he got me there.

I called Angie to see if she lost her power since she lives so close to me. Her power went out for a minute and blinked right back on. Angie offered to pick up my batter and bake the cookies for me because I had guests visiting from out of town. She's so sweet! However, I felt that since her power came right back on, our power would be on soon.

Fast forward to 3:30 p.m. I am saying goodbye to my company and hustling my boys out the door for dentist appointments. Still no power! Danielle G. invited us over to her house for dinner since I couldn't cook. (Thanks again, Danielle!)

Well, the power was on by the time we arrived home at 9:15 and I got started on the cookies right away. It took a couple of batches to get my cookies flat enough to be considered "thin". I was very generous with the lemon zest in the batter and on top of the cookie so you can really smell and taste the lemon. I think this recipe is one that will be repeated!

shelly

Almond Crescents

Boy is it nice to be home. Our first trip without kids in 10 years. I have to say leaving your children and dog is more difficult than I thought it would be, but we had a nice time and Kurt bowled well. I was nowhere near a computer for four days and I really missed my friends and our blogging(and the kids and dog). You guys as always did an awesome job. Thanks again to Sandy for taking over for me and doing a beautiful, tasty cookie.

Well nothing like a little diffuculty to get me back into the swing of things. As you can see from the pictures Gavin took immense pleasure in grounding up our almonds. Cameron took part also but he's not into having his picture taken anymore. As I was reading my recipe I was wondering how I was going to get 7 dozen cookies out of such a small amount of ingredients. I was not able to, I must have made them to big. I think it made 31 cookies, and mine did not puff up pretty like Theresa's, they were very flat when they came out of the oven. The cinnamon and sugar makes them look much prettier. So all in all a very easy recipe with very few ingredients, the longest part was forming the half moons. The almonds make it a nutty, tasty treat.

My next baking day is Saturday and we are going up north to put the boat in the water!! This has never been done before the kids are out of school and we are excited. So I will either bake on Friday or Sunday. Maybe Angie or Shelly will trade with me??

Danielle G.

French Lemon Squares

Piece of cake! I think, the only thing I did not have on hand was the eggs! Easter robbed me of them all. I think mine could have cooked a little more however I was afraid to burn the tops. So out they came out after the 20 min. My only question, what is the significance to mixing for 10 minutes? Hope you all enjoyed them. Sorry for the short post however I am going back for a little lemon treat. Happy Easter. A

White Chocolate Chip Dreams

As predicted, I lost some sleep over baking and blogging. I was up late last night baking cream cheese bars and crepes for morning breakfast to go with the coffee that I’ve given up for the last 40 days. As soon as the clock hit midnight, my pot of coffee was perked and ready for a midnight swig but it wasn’t as good as I remembered! Perhaps, that’s an indication that my bad habit may be kicked!!! Technically, I baked on Easter Sunday since it was after midnight. My philosophy was if I was going to dirty my kitchen, I was going to do it all at once.

Next it was on to making White Chocolate Chip Dreams. This cookie calls for orange zest and white chocolate chips. I really, really love the orange flavor. It makes this cookie outstanding and I could have eaten the entire bowl of cookie dough. The white chocolate chips give it that oh, so sweet flavor. I know next time I need a cookie fix, which will be quite sometime after this venture is over, I will whip these up just for the yummy dough. The recipe is easy to follow and no sudden disasters occurred early Easter Sunday with every store closed. I think my cookies turned out great.

Drizzling the white and dark chocolate over the cookies was successful. I have always bought the specialty candy pieces from the cake decorating store but this recipe called for chocolate squares found at the grocery store. This new tip will save me an extra trip in the future. Sandy graciously lent me her small squirt bottle to drizzle the chocolate. This worked well but sometimes I would get an air bubble that would cause me to lose the continuous line of chocolate. I also wanted to experiment with the baggie technique too. I was able to get out most of the air thus eliminating the air bubbles. I found the difference between the techniques is in the amount of chocolate that was being released. The bottle had a wider opening so I used triple the amount of white chocolate required. I snipped a super small hole in the baggie to drizzle a fine line and had left over dark chocolate. In my opinion, it’s just a matter of preference. I like how beautiful the drizzle makes these look. I just may do this topping on traditional cookies to give a little pizzazz!

I had my sweet Easter Bunny making personal deliveries with me today. The only problem that we did have was getting the cookies to their destination without the topping melting some. He had to leave two deliveries on porches and hopes that your cookies didn’t turn out too messy. Angie, we hope those two beautiful dogs next door didn’t get to your cookies first!

I admire that Theresa’s daughter, Catherine, created this recipe. Apparently she has inherited the baking gene! Lucky her!

Now it’s off to bed to snuggle with my little Easter Bunny. Happy Easter, Phoebe

Acorn Cookies

Happy Easter, Friends. I hope everyone is enjoying this special day with family and friends, lots of food, and of course, cookies!

I had every intention of getting my cookie done early in the day. In fact, I set my butter out last night so that it would be at room temperature and I wouldn't have to wait. Well, I don't know how it always happens, but the day slipped away from me. I was enjoying the nice weather early in the day and went shopping once the rain started. The next thing you know, it's 6:00 p.m. and I can't bake because the Spartans are playing in the Final 4. With their loss, boo hoo, came my deep depression which put me off baking for a while. Finally, around 10:30 p.m. I made my way into the kitchen and slipped into my apron and pearls. Instant pick up!

This recipe has very few ingredients so it only took minutes to mix it together. It took a little longer to make 50 little balls, and even longer to try to make them look like acorns. Theresa is an artist because I don't think mine resemble acorns very much-even after 50 tries! Maybe once the chocolate and nuts are on them they will look more like acorns.

As I sit here and wait for the cookies to come out of the oven, the Easter Bunny has arrived at our house and I'm watching him hide eggs everywhere.

The cookies are out of the oven and the house smells so good! I've prepared a few cookies for the picture and popped a few in my mouth. These cookies are dangerous because they are little bite size temptations!

I love the leaf plate that Theresa used in her picture. I don't have anything like that but I do have a bunch of leaves that I've pressed over the years. It's an obsession for me to pick up colorful leaves in the fall and press them. I've been doing this for at least 10 years and have never used the leaves for anything. Now I know my collection had a purpose!

Well, I may have to decorate the rest of the cookies in the morning since it is now 12:30 a.m. and I know it will be an early morning at our house tomorrow!

shelly

Lace Cookie

Hello, Ladies-when Danielle G. asked me to sub for her the day she had to make the "Lace Cookie", I thought, sure. This cookie requires no mixing and the ingredients seem simple enough. Little did I know what an experience it would turn out to be. The procedure of making the batter was rather easy. All on top of the stove in a saucepan. After lining the baking sheets with heavy duty foil, I was ready to drop my batter by 3/4 spoonfuls. (Here's a hint if you ever make these...the cookie batter spreads on the cookie sheet before baking-you kind of have to be quick.) Once the cookies were done, they cooled for a good 15 minutes. Carefully peeling them away from the foil was not an easy task. I used a special spatula to finally reach that goal. They are very delicate. So many of them cracked or broke at that time. Uniformity also went out the window. Some turned out larger than others, you will see. The next step was to simply drizzle them with the melted mixture of sweetened condensed milk, chocolate and finely ground walnuts-which, as stated, were optional. Of course, I integrated the nuts into the recipe, trying to get a product exactly as shown in the picture. I had the bright idea to put the chocolate mixture into one of the ketchup bottles that I just happened to have, and go on to drizzle them so perfectly. Ever try funneling before? Big mistake! What ended up happening was the nuts were not as finely ground as I thought so they would get stuck in the hole atop the dispenser. It was really comical to witness the chocolate mess I had going. I was panicked. Nino...can you please help me figure out how to drizzle the chocolate? (It was now 10:30, Thursday night...yes, I was cheating and baking prior to Danielle's actual day.) Problem being, the mixture started to harden as it sat out. He concocted a baggie with a slit and started some artistry work. Uh-oh. They looked terrible. The chocolate was globbed here and there and most of the designs looked like a capital "S". I surely didn't want you to think that I marked each one with my initial, and I realized that I cannot give these to the ladies looking like this. Well, I remade a batch today. They seem more uniform than last night's. The chocolate mixture is missing the nuts. I was not going to try that again. I also found a smaller squirt bottle (for lack of a better word) in the Chocolate Factory Kit" I've had for years, but forgot that fact last night. The drizzling is much more appealing. I also tried to sprinkle finely ground walnuts over the chocolate mixture, to no avail. They just wouldn't stick.

These cookies are delicious. Light and crispy and very chewy. I did enjoy making them both times. The old saying "Third times a charm" will be motto If I ever attempt these again. I kind of consider myself a semi-pro.

Enjoy, and Happy Easter!

Sandy

Chocolate Crackles

Good Evening, I had to work all day, pulling into the driveway at 8:30 this evening. My wonderful husband helped me out by being my last minute guest baker for tonight. Here is his journey for the night...

For over 40 days I've listened to how much chaos it is to pack kids school lunches, get them out the door, and get the ingredients together to make and bake the cookies that will be discussed in this blog. As my lovely wife was working, I had the pleasure of experiencing the "art" of baking the Chocolate Crackles. Not only was this enjoyable, it was therapeutic. The art of slowly adding ingredients at the exact moment while keeping the kids full of healthy snacks made me realize how much I should stay at work. Throw in the fact that I had steaks burning on the grill and two more boys being dropped off to spend the night, it's a miracle that we are able to blog this early in the evening. All kidding aside, these are the best cookies I have ever made and I certainly enjoyed participating - JR.

Thank you Jack, these are like mini brownies but with a twist. The two of us have eaten at least 5 each and that can not be done without a cup of milk. Thank you! so good! Angie