HAPPY ST. PATRICKS DAY!

I’m so glad I can type in green for today!

So for this entry, I thought I’d share some pictures of the cookies I made for my Irish friend!

The hardest part was kneeding in the green coloring!

My most favorite cookie EVER!

My attempt at an artistic shot using my phone!

And also talk about SIFTING! I never really thought about it when I first started baking, but now, I don’t know why I never did it! Sifting is really important in baking. It helps mix together dry ingredients, like flour and baking powder. And it also keeps it from being all clumpy. If your flour caught a little moisture while in storage, then a sifter separates those clumps and makes sure everything is the same! YAY FOR UNIFORMITY!My roommate recently made angel food cake (it was delicious), and the recipe said to sift THREE times. Totally totally necessary! Angel food cake needs to be airy and light, and all that sifting kept the dry ingredients from clumping together and weighing down the cake. Sometimes, it can be annoying to sit there, squeezing the handle of the sifter over and over again, but it’s totally worth it! If you’ve ever taken a bite of a baked good and gotten a face full of flour…. Then you’ve eaten something that wasn’t sifted! So next time you see a recipe that says “sift” …SIFT!

It's like white rain!

Now if you don’t have a sifter, which I didn’t until my roommate bought one for her angel food cake, improvise! If you have a sieve with really small holes, just pour your flour and such in there and tap it! Just be super carefully! If the sieve is larger than your bowl, you might get spillage. You might try putting small amounts of each dry ingredient in the sieve at a time to keep it from falling all over your workspace!

I hope this post was helpful! Also, if I start getting some readers who really like this blog, I may start a weekly entry where I answer one question a week about baking that you the readers have!

 

 

Where to begin?

I guess I can start with some terminology. I know most people now the little abbreviations used in a recipe, but confusing a teaspoon with a tablespoon can be a big thing when baking. Too much salt in your cookie recipe and BLEH! So here is a list of the abbreviations used in cooking.

Teaspoon- tsp. / t. (little t!!)

Tablespoon- Tbs. / T. (BIG T!!)

Fluid- fl.

Ounce- oz.

Package- pkg.

Pint- pt.

Quart- qt.

Gallon- gal.

Pound- lb.

Easy way to remember if the “T” you are looking at is supposed to be a teaspoon or a tablespoon is that a teaspoon is a smaller spoon and has a smaller “t”. Tablespoon is a bigger spoon so it has a bigger “T”. At least that’s the easy way for me!

So how about a recipe now? Let’s start with something simple… Sugar cookies!!!

These are not my cookies! Mine never look this perfect!

This recipe is great! I usually have all the ingredients, so if I ever feel like baking, I can just whip out a batch of these! They’re pretty yummy, and versatile too. Sprinkle some cinnamon on top and VIOLA! Cinnamon sugar cookies! Not the most creative name, but that’s what I call them. The dough needs to be refrigerated for a while before you can make the cookies, so make sure you have the time!

Ingredients-

• 3cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 Tbs milk

Directions-

Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt then set aside. In a large bowl, combine butter and sugar. Beat until light in color. Add the egg and milk, and beat until combined. Gradually add the dry ingredients and beat until the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Divide in half, and wrap in wax paper. Refrigerate for 2 hours. Preheat oven to 375º. Sprinkle powdered sugar onto flat surface. Work with only one half of the dough at a time. Roll out the dough on powdered surface then use cookie cutters for shapes. Place cookies on a greased cookie sheet and bake for 9 minutes or until lightly golden. Remove from oven and let cool before serving.

Variation-

Sprinkle cinnamon or colored sugar on dough before baking.

And there it is! I hope they work out well for you! The timing on the baking isn’t an exact science, so you kinda just have to watch them carefully. Good luck!

Hello world!

Eeeeee! Ok, so I’m newish at this blog thing, so… Bear with me?

I love to bake… Like a lot. I’m going to be that old lady on the block that always has cookies or a pie for the neighborhood kids. I even want to open up a little bakery! Not that I’m any good at the decorating of cakes or anything… I’ll hire someone for that. And I don’t think cakes need to be gorgeous in order to make someone happy… It just has to be made with love! Just baking for other people makes me happy. So my blog won’t be a bunch of cute little pictures showing off a designer cupcake or a cake that is an exact replica of anything… Unless it’s baked in a molded cake pan… Even then it’ll probably be lumpy and misshapen. Instead, it’ll be about the mechanics of baking! Like what a sifter is for, and why it’s important. And what’s the difference between regular sugar, brown sugar, and confectioner’s sugar.

Who needs a desk lamp with a cat like this?

This is going to be fun! …Right?