FLOWER SUGAR COOKIES ~ A GUEST POST BY PEACE & LIGHT

What do you do when you have little kiddies, little grandkiddies or little great grandkiddies? You put them to work. That's what you do. (Aside: I'm a grandma with a dab of mean. And invisible eyes at the back of my head)

I waited a long time for this post.  I was excruciatingly eager to get this post up because colors just make my knees go all soft and translucent, like sauteed onions. I think Peace and Light knew that. They knew I would adore these candy coloured sugar cookies. And they were completely right. I do. My sweetie pies.


(Aside : We're such girlie girls, my girls and I)

At only 11 and 12 they made these all on their own. After their brother H had made the brownies, a few posts ago, Peace and Light thought candy coloured cookies would make a cool post too. And the rest they say ........is a baking tray and cookie dough.

Peace loves horses, she rides, she cooks, she bakes, she sews, she knits, she crochets (surpassing her Mom..........and me), she decorates cakes but she also has a deep passion for animals. So she might make a great a vet one day or perhaps a great pastry chef.....the way I see it.


Light did nanowrimo and completed the challenge of writing 40,000 words in a month and submitting her story. Light is the story teller, the writer, the artist, the dreamer. She is the main creator of Zoe and Bo, their one-day-to-be-very-famous-comic-strip-series she says. Now why do I get the feeling that that might just be true?

As if that isn't enough they surprised me by making some animations so that you , dear readers, will know how to put the spiral and flower cookies together. Thank god for grandkids!

And in between a million other things their mommy took the cookie photos in their lovely gravel and rock garden just before the sun went down. Aren't they gorgeous? I think she did a great job. Thank you so much dear. 

Its beginning to dawn on me, very vividly, that I may have found myself the perfect dream team. I could form a nice little blog company where I could put my feet up, sit back, relax, sit on a rocking chair, rock myself to sleep, snore, croak out orders, look flabulous, wither away and not have to slog blog away at the kitchen counter computer all by myself. My little kiddies will do all the work. heh

Take it from here sweeties ~

I am Light, and this is my first time making these cookies, and I made them with my sister Peace. They are sugar cookies, and you get to color the dough. (That might be a messy job.) These are cool, chewy cookies, and I hope you will like making them!

I've been wanting to make these cookies for a long time, and voila! Super, amazing colorful cookies just baked! I got this from a kiddish cookie cookbook, and there are five recipes for these cookies. You can freeze and color the dough one day, and bake the cookies the other day, but you can do it in all one day. 

This is how you make Spiral and Flower cookies.

Yield: 24

Sugar Cookie Dough

1 stick softened butter (unsalted)

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 cup flour

1/4 tsp salt

You'll need this too:

Egg Wash

1 egg

Water

Crack the egg over a small bowl. Pour in some water and and beat with a fork, and that's it! 

The Cookies 

Preheat the oven to...hmmm...how about 375˚ F? Okay then, hurry up. 

Beep, beep, beep. 

Okay, next, cream the softened butter and sugar in a mixing bowl. (Use an electric mixer.) Did I say softened butter? Anyway, crack the egg into the butter-and-sugar mixture and blend very well. Then add the dry ingredients to the butter-sugar-egg mixture. Voila! Dough! Amazing! 

You have made Sugar Cookie dough all by yourself! 

Separate and color the dough. Roll it around in your hands or mix it in the electric mixer. Okay, anyway, wrap and chill the dough for 15 min. (Use a timer if needed.)  

To make the spirals, separate the dough into two blobs (or balls?). Color them and smash them equally into rectangles. Wrap and chill the rectangles for 20 minutes.

                                                 * * *

Unwrap the dough carefully _ it's delicate. With a pastry brush, brush egg wash between the two dough layers and stick them together. Wait for the dough to soften a bit, then roll the dough carefully into a log. Look at the side of the log to make sure you have a spiral pattern                                                            

Drumroll please...Okay! This is the waiting time. Freeze this spiral log for 2 hours. I repeat, 2 hours. 

Grease the cookie sheets. Unwrap the dough log and cut it into cookies about 1 centimeter thick. Put them on the cookie sheet and push it in the oven. Close the door. 

Bad cookie sheet! (Time-out for the cookie sheet!)

Well, you have made Spiral cookies! Congratulations!
 
Flowers
These might be hard.

Preheat the oven. Make the dough and Egg Wash. Separate the dough into two big ones and one small. Color and freeze them for 15 min. 

Roll the two big dough balls into snakes and stick them together with Egg Wash. Use the small blob for another snake and put it in the middle of the whole snake rectangle. Roll this whole thing together to make a log. Wrap it in plastic wrap and freeze it for two hours. 

Unwrap the log and cut it into cookies. (The flowers I made didn't turn out very well.) Put the cookies on the cookie sheet and put them into the oven. Slam the oven door!
 

The flowers are done!

~Light~

Thank you Sweeties ~ I just LOVE the sugar cookies! You know that don't you?. Bite, crunch, chew and yummmmmm.

Lotsa HUGSSSSSSSSS

Grandma

Aside : Don't you think these cookies are cool? If you have anything sweet to say to Peace and Light or to ask about the recipe I'm sure Peace and light would be thrilled to bits to help you out.;)

A PAINTED CHALLAH

What is large, fat, soft, huggable and can be eaten? A look alike teddy bear with its arms and legs crossed. 


This Challah turned out so huge that Z was constantly exclaiming as I cajoled it from the oven. This is the hugest braided bread I've made. It sat diagonally on my largest jelly roll tray and it just grew and grew. I created a beast.


Then with a brush wielding hand (if you have read my earlier posts you'll know I'm on a bread painting binge) I painted it and I thought it looked all right until I saw the photos. The design was inspired by the two pots of ferns that stand guard on each side of our front door.

The longer I stared at the photos the more frightened I became. It looked reptile-ish because of the glaze-y and shiny finish. Oww. It's a Frankenstein. (I told you I preferred rustic). But I'm still posting this because  I'm not going to make another one so soon. It's huge! I don't think painted bread look too good glazed. Dusted with flour and rustic is so much better. In my opinion.

But as large as it is, it is very tender and soft and  delicious. A gentle beast. I was afraid of an egg-y smell and taste because of the number of eggs it used, so I had my apprehensions at first, but this had none of that.

This recipe uses 4 eggs ~ 2 whole and 2 yolks. Other recipes that I've looked at use at least 5. So that was the main reason I went with this one, from Cooking Bread. It turned out perfectly soft and rich and I'm very happy with the results.  I totally recommend it. 

I'm submitting this to Yeast Spotting. 

Enough said...here's the recipe ~

1 cup lukewarm water
2 eggs
2egg yolks
2 T oil
3 T honey
41/2 cups bread flour
1 tspsalt
11/2 tsp dry yeast (I used instant)


In a bowl combine water, eggs, honey and oil. Whisk.


Pour the egg oil water mixture into a large bowl and add 2 cups of bread flour, yeast and salt. Beat together. (I used the electric mixer with the paddle beater. Allow to rest 15 minutes uncovered. Then add the rest of the flour 1/2 a cup at a time until finished by which time you would get a sticky, soft dough.


Turn out onto lightly floured board and knead for 10 minutes. Although the dough is sticky and soft try to resist adding to much flour when kneading. As bread makers would always say ...it's better to err on the sticky side than the dry....


I would advise getting a metal scraper to scrape the dough off the board when you want to turn it over to knead. Rather than sprinkling flour onto the dough, flour your hands instead, and that way you will resist adding too much flour. There is no need to knead hard. Just some gentle kneading for 10 minutes continuously will do the job. (If you knead too hard you'll just get all the dough sticking and clinging to your hand).


When done kneading place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl cover with a damp cloth and allow to rise until double in size.


Once risen, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide the dough into 3 equal pieces ( I weighed them so that I got really equal sizes...each were 350 gm).


Roll each piece of dough into a long strand about 11 or 12 inches long then braid it. Please look here for braiding. Once braided place on a ready lined baking tray and allow to rise until double in size. Brush with the left over egg whites twice to ensure a shiny finish. I understand Challahs are suppose to be shiny. Sprinkle with poppy seeds or other seeds that you like.


Bake for 20 minutes then rotate the bread and bake for another 15-20 minutes.

Note : 3 risings (the 3rd being a very slow rise in the refrigerator if possible) would bring out a better, more flavourful bread. I painted it so I baked it until lightly golden without the egg wash, took it out, painted it and returned it to oven for about 3 minutes to allow the paint to dry and then took it out again to glaze it with egg wash and then baked it again for the rest of the suggested time.


Paint : I used egg yolk mixed with a very small amount of thick black coffee.

CASSAVA CRISPS IN CHILLIE JAM ~ KEREPEK UBI KAYU PEDAS

I would finish a packet of this so fast and then hunger for more.

But there really is no other way to enjoy this than to make your own because we all know that commercial varieties are deep fried in the same oil over and over again. Ick! I made this and it was oh! so delicious. It was sweet and spicy  clinging to crunchy. I was on high.

The cassava root may appear quite intimidating because it looks very much like the trunk of a small tree with a very rough, dark and thick bark. It looks hard and heavy too. But once you get the skin off (which is actually not difficult to do) you'll find the inside flesh a smooth, silky, pristine white albeit very firm. I'm always amazed at the contrast.  

These are sliced thinly and deep fried...very much like potato crisps ~ but they're not as fragile. Potato crisps almost break and dissolve the moment you put them into your mouth, without any effort at all, but these are more crunchy as opposed to crispy and slightly chewy. Lets just say you need to oil your jaw hinge a little. But they are so worth it. Trust me.

I made a brilliant, scarlet chillie jam which looked so glaze-y and tempting it should be declared illegal. It's sweet, sticky, spicy, thick and jammy. I doubt it can get any better than that. Trust me on that too. I coated the crisps with it. I believe I almost created nirvana then. To me at least.

Here's the recipe ~

The Crisps....

1  medium sized cassava (about 9 inches long and 2 inches across)
Any vegetable oil for deep frying

Skin the root, give it a quick rinse, pat dry and slice very thinly. I used a knife and it wasn't hard to slice at all. 


Deep fry in a wok or pot of oil. Don't over  crowd that wok. Fry until a light golden brown, drain and keep aside.

Chillie Jam ~ 

6 fresh red chillies, split and de-seeded
125 ml water
1/4 cup white sugar
1 T dark brown sugar
1 T bottled chillie sauce (I used Lingham's) optional
1 T cooking oil (I used grape seed)
salt to taste


Crush the chillies in a  small food processor until medium fine. Put all ingredients in a small pot and cook over a medium flame until it comes to a boil and then lower the flame and reduce until it becomes a thick jam. It should look just like jam. It doesn't take very long. Just watch and stir every now and then.


Place the crisps in a large bowl, dollop the jam on top of it and using a salad spoon and fork turn the cassava crisps over itself until they are well coated with the chillie jam. Store in an airtight container. Serve as a starter or snack. OH. MY. YUM!

LOVIN' THE ROSES

                                 ~ T'was Mother's Day ~