Everyday Food for Busy People
Inspired by a cookie on Kristal’s blog, Knit 1, Kids 4 I created this cookie. I made one batch on Friday night, which my family polished off. I made another batch on Sunday evening for our small group. Judging from their rapid disappearance, I’d say the cookies were a hit.
I wish I could say that I was able to make this with strawberries from our garden. Or anyone else’s garden, for that matter. Instead I just used grocery store strawberries. The results still caused me to eat two helpings. Summer food at it’s best.
I have been wanting to make Black and White Cookies for a long time and since we had several “snow” days (really snow and ice days) a few weeks ago, it seemed like the perfect time. I used a recipe I found on smittenkitchen. It made quite a few cookies. Mine aren’t nearly as pretty as those on SK.
Gather up the ingredients:
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 sticks butter
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. lemon extract
2 1/2 cups cake flour
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
These are the ingredients for the cookie part. We’ll get to the icing later. I did wonder about using that lemon extract, but I had it on hand and it turned out to be very good – subtle.
Cream the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Add in the eggs, extracts, and milk. In a separate bowl combine the dry ingredients and then mix them in with the wet in batches.
Use a spoon to drop the batter onto a baking stone or cookie sheets that have been sprayed with cooking spray. Bake at 375 degrees for 18-20 min. The cookies should spread out. The first couple batches of mine were too puffy and rounded so I stirred some milk into the batter to thin it. That helped them spread out in the oven and flatten a bit. Mine also didn’t turn out very round. I think one of those cool cookie scoops from Pampered Chef would help with that. I just used spoons.
Now for the icing:
You’ll need:
4 cups powdered sugar
1/3 – 1/2 cup water
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1 tsp. light corn syrup
1-2 Tbs. cocoa powder, optional
I just love this close up of the chocolate
Boil a cup or so of water in a pan on the stove. Put the powdered sugar in a large, heat safe bowl and stir in enough of the boiling water to make a thick, spreadable mixture. Be careful with the water – it’s easier to add water to thin it down than to add powdered sugar to thicken it back up.
Spread the white frosting on half of all the cookies. Place the bowl over the pan of boiling water on the stove. Add in the chocolate and corn syrup, stirring to melt. You can also add cocoa powder if you want the icing really black. I had to add some more boiling water to get this spreadable.
You’ve basically got a double boiler going here.
Ice the other half of the cookies with the chocolate frosting. Yours will probably look prettier than mine.
I get frustrated when my pictures don’t show the food very well. This is one of those times. This bread is beautiful, golden brown braid with cranberry filling peeking out. Use your imagination, because my photography just isn’t going to help you see it.
Oh, and it tastes wonderful too! The recipe is from the Country Living: Country Morning cook book. It makes 2 loaves.
Gather up you ingredients:
Filling:
1 12oz package cranberries
1 cup sugar
1 Tbs. cornstarch
1/3 cup orange juice
Bread:
1 1/3 cup water
1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
7 – 7 1/2 cups flour
2 packages rapid-rise yeast
2/3 cup sugar
2 Tbs. finely grated orange rind
1 tsp. salt
4 eggs
Prepare the filling: Rinse the cranberries. In a 3-quart saucepan combine the sugar and cornstarch. Stir in the orange juice and cranberries. Heat to boiling over medium heat, stirring constantly until the berries are crushed and the mixture thickens to the consistency of preserves, about 10-15 min. Remove from heat, cover and refrigerate for about 2 hours.
Prepare the dough: Heat the water and butter till melted together. In a mixer bowl combine 2 cups flour, yeast, sugar orange rind and salt. On low speed, gradually beat in the water-butter mixture. Beat for 2 min.
Separate 1 egg, reserving the white for later. Add the yolk to the dough mixture, then beat in the remaining 3 eggs and 2 cups of flour until if forms a soft dough. With a wooden spoon, stir in enough flour to make a stiff dough. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface.
Lightly oil a large bowl and set aside. Knead the dough, working in more flour if necessary until it is smooth and elastic, about 5 min. Shape it into a ball and put it in the oiled bowl, turning to bring up the oiled side. Cover it loosely and let it rise in a warm place for about an hour or 1 1/2 hours.
Grease 2 baking sheets (or use baking stones). Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and cut it in half. Shape each half into a ball and let them rest 5 minutes. Use a floured rolling pin to roll each ball into a 14 x 10 inch rectangle and place on the baking sheets. Lightly brush the top of each with the slightly beaten egg white.
Spread half of the cranberry mixture in a 3 inch wide strip lengthwise down the dough. Cut the dough crosswise on each side of the filling into 1 inch wide strips. Fold these over to braid. Cover and let them rise again for 20 min. Brush the braids with the egg white and bake at 350 degrees for 20 min. Brush again with the white and bake 10 more min.
You can see my dough was a bit too long for the baking stone.
Braiding is easy.
I ended up cutting off the ends to make it fit the stone. I have no perfectionist tendencies. Your bread will probably look prettier than mine. I also tried to make a round braid on my round stone, but there wasn’t enough dough to go all the way around. I’ll spare you the picture. It might not have looked good, but it sure tasted great!
My sister-in-law shared this recipe with me. She got it from a bed and breakfast she stayed in. These cookies are soft and chewy, a little butterscotchy with sweet powdered sugar gathered in the crinkles. Yum!
