Tuesday, December 17, 2013

The Best Cookies You Will Ever Make

Hey, Peeps. It occured to me that as I do my baking and cooking, I should turn my culinary creations into a blog post, so here goes.

These are my very favorite cookies of all time. We call them Lace Cookies. They're similar to Pepperidge Farm Brussels, only I think they're better. They're somewhat labor intensive, but it's SO worth it.  My neighbors MAKE me bake them for the neighborhood cookie party every year. One year, I didn't make them, and I thought I was going to be lynched. 


Lace Cookies

Ingredients:

2/3 c. butter
2 c. quick oats
1 c. sugar
2/3 c. flour
¼ c. corn syrup
¼ c. milk
1 t. vanilla extract
¼ t. salt

2-3 c. semi-sweet chocolate morsels


1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line your cookie sheets with non-stick Teflon sheets or parchment paper. 
Heat butter in saucepan over low heat until just melted. Remove. Cool slightly.


2. Mix oats, sugar, flower, and salt in a large glass bowl or measuring bowl. 


3. Stir corn syrup, vanilla, and milk into melted butter. Mix wet ingredients into the dry ingredients in the large glass bowl. 


4. Put glass bowl into a larger bowl that's filled with hot water. This keeps the mixture warm and easy to spread.


5. Use a plastic or metal spatula to spread the cookie dough. The dough must be quite thin. Just a little dollop will do. You can make them bigger if you'd like, but they should all be about the same size.




If your spatula gets sticky, you can just warm it in your water bath, wipe it, and continue to spread your dough thinly on the liners.




I put about 12 on each cookie sheet. They will spread out a little.


6. Bake 7-10 min. until the edges are crispy. Watch them closely until you figure out what works in your oven. I have an electric convection oven and a gas oven, which both vary with cooking times. I prefer to make sure the edges are darker than lighter because these are much better when they're crispy.




7. Cool slightly, then lift off of the liner and place onto foil sheets to cool thoroughly. 




8. Match up the cookies to size.


9. Heat about 2 cups of chocolate morsels in a microwave on low (I find that heating mine for 3 min. on power level 5 works perfectly).


10. Stir morsels, then spread a cookie with as much chocolate as you'd like (about a teaspoon or so), then apply another cookie on top to make a sandwich.




Let cool, then enjoy with a large glass of milk!


The other perk is that you might have leftover chocolate, so mix it in with some pretzels and save them for your cookie tray. Yum.


Thanks again for reading! Fondly, Tami


P.S. If you keep these in the freezer, they keep very well, especially since they're out of eyesight.


I'm linking to:

Monday, December 16, 2013

Christmas Subway Art

This is just a quick post today since I'm going to Longwood Gardens to see their Christmas display, which is always a special treat!

Here's a favorite piece of subway art I did for a friend. She sent me the pic, and I'm so excited that she's enjoying it.


I like how she displayed it with her angels. 


And just for fun, here are some of my paper mache santas that I made several years ago. The facial expressions are so different. They're quite easy to make, and perhaps I will write up a tutorial at some point.


I believe this guy is singing.


And this guy is a little surprised. Perhaps he was seen in the chimney.


And here are some cookies that my daughter and I spent literally all day decorating. It was great fun. We became rather obsessed with making them beautiful. 


One year, we did all pastel colors, which I think I liked the most. 


It was definitely a joy doing these for friends and family. There was definitely a wow factor when they were placed on a cookie tray with some others of our faves...


...including Russian Tea Cakes.


And, this was my organic decoration on my chandelier. My neighbors had some curly willow that I sprayed gold and just stuffed into some fake greenery. It's a little departure for me, but I was happy with the results. 


Again, thanks so much for looking. 
Fondly, Tami