Category: cookies and kindness

valentine’s share a heart cookies; a two-for-one, cookies and kindness, tuesdays with dorie post

Published on by alisahuntsman11 Comments

img_7389It is so nice to be back to baking with the Tuesdays with Dorie gang!  Especially when it means baking cookies, lots of cookies!  If you recall my post from earlier this month, Dorie Greenspan recently began a revolution to make the world a sweeter place with Cookies & Kindness.  Each month, she posts a recipe on her website and encourages us to bake and share the cookies.   For February, she chose these easy to make Valentine’s Day Share-A-Heart cookies and this is also the recipe chosen by the Tuesday with Dorie Bakers; a two-for-one recipe!

The recipe calls for making two large hearts that can be decorated and given as gifts.  As soon as I saw the recipe, I knew I would be making them for my daughters but having to ship them to Georgia and California, I chose a smaller size cutter so that the cookies would survive the trip.

img_7391Do not be intimidated by the call for rolling out the cookies with parchment paper.  Over the years, I have rolled out thousands and thousands of cookies and one issue I have always encountered, the added flour from rolling out the cookies can change the consistency of the dough.  If you have read any of my posts on rolling cookies, I have always instructed that you brush off as much of the flour as possible to prevent the dough from changing.  Dorie has a brilliant suggestion in her recipe; place the dough between two sheets of parchment paper and skip the flour!  For small quantities, this is absolutely the way to go and it is definitely a technique I will use again.  The parchment paper takes the place of the flour and the consistency of the dough remains the same from start to finish.  Keep in mind, repeatedly rolling out the dough will toughen it as the gluten becomes developed but for small quantities like this, you won’t have to worry about that happening.

img_7395If you enjoyed this post, think about baking along with us.  Pick up a copy of Dorie’s Cookies and bake cookies to share!  Sweeten the world one cookie recipe at a time!  To see what the rest of the gang did with their cookies, check the website!

cookies and kindness

Published on by alisahuntsmanLeave a comment

img_7300Join the revolution and change the world one cookie at a time.  We need more kindness and Dorie Greenspan has decided that baking cookies and sharing them is the way to make the world a sweeter place; I like her thinking and couldn’t agree more!  You can read her post and find the recipes on her website.

It is no secret that cookies are one of my favorite things and this is the perfect excuse to bake them!  Having a kitchen to bake them in is even better!!!  My only issue, the lighting.  Our last house was so bright and had many windows and a skylight; it was so easy to find a place to take a photo.  This house, is a challenge.  All of the windows in our kitchen face the covered patio and in the front, the porch shades the window.  The cedar plank paneling in the kitchen also gives everything a ruddy appearance.  It will take some time, and probably a lot of white paint but eventually, I hope to have an easier time of taking photos in my kitchen.  Until then, I go out to the garage-it actually has a decent amount of light in the window!

img_7304These are the January recipe, Olive Oil and Wine Cookies, and you can find the recipe here. While the title give the cookies main ingredients away, after you bake and age them, no one will know what is in them!  These cookies disappeared fast when I set them out on the buffet at the pot luck dinner for our last Master Gardeners meeting.   img_7308My advice, make these on a day that you have the time and then let them age for three or four days.  If you keep them airtight, you will be able to enjoy them for a week after that.  They are perfect for sharing and just a perfect for an afternoon cup of tea.  Spread the kindness; bake cookies and share them!  img_7308