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"