National Cookie Network September Challenge

After first seeing that Septem-ber's secret ingredient was strawber-ries, I thought, "Geez that is going to be a snap!" However it took the entire month for my creative juices to flow and come up with an idea. I knew I wanted to use fresh strawber-ries, and in the end I chose to make a shortbread thumbprint type of cookie. For some extra pizazz I added shaved white chocolate to the cookie dough. I thought that these cookies were super good (unfortunately I'm the only one in the house that will eat strawberries, so these cookies have not been good for weight loss!) However, next time I would dice the strawberries instead of just using halves. I didn't like that the cookie spread and the strawberries got smaller as they baked, leaving "exposed" parts of the cookie middle. If the strawberries were diced, I think it would look a little nicer.

Strawberry Shortbread Cookies
1 c. butter, softened
2/3 c. sugar
1 tsp. strawberry extract
2 c. flour
1 oz. shaved white chocolate
white chocolate chips/white chocolate/white candy melts
fresh strawberries, cut in halves
Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add extract, then flour and shaved white chocolate. Form into tablespoon size balls. In the center of each ball, make a hole or indentation large enough to place a strawberry half. First place a small amount of white chocolate in each hole, and the top with a strawberry (cut side down.)\
Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 12ish minutes (I'm so awful about timing!) or until the cookies are set to the touch (do not let them turn brown.)Stripe with more white chocoalte. Yummmmmmmm!

Cystic Fibrosis Cookbook

Last November, when my blog was just starting and I had no followers I posted about the cystic fibrosis cookbook that I put together as a fundraiser. Since more people are reading my blog I thought I'd post about it again, especially since I've had some updates.

I put this cookbook together for a fundraiser for the Great Strides walk; a walk that I've done since I was a little girl. My brother was diagnosed with CF when he was 12 (I was 6.) Cystic fibrosis is a fatal, genetic disease that affects primarily the lungs. Since he was diagnosed, there have been several ups and downs, but the biggest changes have come this year. In March I received a phone call from my mom that my brother wasn't doing so well (he was already in the hospital) and he was going to be reactivated on "the list." His condition was very, very serious and if he didn't have a double lung transplant right then, he probably wasn't going to make it too much longer. In June, after 72 days of waiting, he received a new set of lungs.

In August while he was still in recovery I went and spent a week with him. I cannot say how incredibly thankful to the donor I am for his selflessness when he chose to sign up to be an organ donor. My brother and I had grown apart, and if it hadn't been for this donor choosing to pass life on to someone else, I never would of gotten the opportunity to know my brother again. Again I am just so thankful and grateful to his donor.

I am a big believer that things don't just happen by chance; everything happens for a reason, and there is a bigger hand in the picture. After I went to visit my brother in August, I was on my way back home. I had a connecting flight; on the first flight I got on the big, completely full plane and sat down in my seat next to a woman. We started talking immediately, and the conversation quickly turned to why I was visiting the area. I told her that my brother had just had a double lung transplant, and her eyes got huge. I continuted, and told her that he has cystic fibrosis. She said, "You are never going to believe this...my SON has cystic fibrosis." She started telling me about her son, Joe......yes, my brother's name too! We talked nonstop the entire flight; neither of us even remembered taking off! Earlier this week I got an e-mail from this woman. Her son has taken a turn for the worse and has been in ICU for the last several weeks. His wife is pregnant and is being induced today. It's weird to me that this woman I barely know could touch my life so deeply like she has. And it hurts me so much to know that this disease has brought yet another person so close death. It's not fair.

I know this is a foodie blog, and this isn't really a foodie post. I just wanted to bring some awareness to CF and to organ donation. If you aren't an organ donor, please consider becoming one! You don't have to wait to renew your driver's license...you can go here and sign up today. My brother is an awesome, awesome person and I am so lucky to have him in my life! If you ever see people campaigning for CF fundraisers or Great Strides, please consider giving something. Scientists and researchers are pretty close to finding a cure, but like everything else in our world...it's expensive! It breaks my heart and brings me to tears every time when I go to Great Strides walks and see the little kids that have CF. I have seen their future through my brother if a cure is not found.

Fall Topsy Turvy

Here is the cake I made to match the leaf cookies. For once, I think it actually looks better in person than in the photo! The original design came from Pink Cake Box; of course I didn't do hers justice, but I don't think I did too badly either. The last time I attempted to make a topsy turvy I swore I would never again make one after it completely split down the middle! I learned from my mistakes in that cake, and corrected them with this cake....and it only took me 1 1/2 years to get the nerve up to try it!

Fall Decorated Spiced Sugar Cookies

I absolutely love the fall. Ad and I have toyed with the idea of moving down to Florida several times since we've been married, but one thing always stops me........there is no fall in Florida. No crisp air. No beautiful leaves changing. Don't get me wrong...once winter comes and I'm reminded of how incredibly cold NY in the Catskills can be, I'm back to thinking about warm weather and beaches.
I think that when every fall rolls around I start looking at baking projects that involve aspects of fall...leaves, pumpkins, etc. Naturally I was excited when a friend asked me to make these cookies for her AND a cake that coordinates. I love making decorated cookies, but don't do it very often and forget how time consuming and how much work they are. Props to the people who do it all the time, and bigger orders (I only did 30!)
For these cookies, I chose to use the No Fail Sugar Cookie recipe that is found on Cake Central. I wanted to make the flavor a little more fall like, so I added 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. cloves, 1/2 tsp. ginger, and 1/2 tsp. nutmeg. The results were excellent. I really love working with this dough. I didn't refrigerate it at all, just cut out my shapes and baked them off. My shapes stayed nicely; no spreading. You do really have to watch how long you bake them, though...they need to stay completely white, but not look dough-y on the top. If they start to get brown at all, they will be too hard.
For the royal icing, I don't ever follow a recipe. I believe I used 4 egg whites and maybe a little more than 1/2 a bag of confectioner's sugar. I was pretty excited with how these cookies turned out...hopefully they go over well at my friend's event.

Baby Shower Cake

I haven't posted in awhile...it's been too hot and muggy this month to even turn on the oven. Luckily this week the temp nose-dived from 90's to 70's...just in time for the baby shower cake that my friend asked me to make for her sister-in-law. My friend is also quite pregnant, and asked that one of the layers of the cake be white with chocolate chips (a flavor I made a few years ago for her son's birthday.) For some reason my stand by white cake recipe that I've made at least a million times failed me the last few times I made it, so this time I chose to try a new recipe...and I found a winner. I found the recipe here on Cake Central. The second layer I decided to make pumpkin and fill with cinnamon-maple buttercream. This pumpkin cake is probably hands down one of my favorite cakes...it is super easy to throw together, holds up well yet has a soft crumb. I found the original recipe here. Both these recipes I followed as is, and they turned out great. The last tier I decided to do chocolate, and used my usual Moosewood recipe, which I've posted about before. You can find the recipe on Moosewood Restaurant's site. I dropped the cake off to my friend this morning, and she seemed pleased with it...hopefully the baby shower guests will be too!

Rustic Apple Tart

I love making pies. Really, they are one of my most favorite items to make. I just love the whole process of it...rolling out the bottom layer, layering in the fruit, crimping the top layer, and seeing how beautiful and shiny the egg wash makes it. I will admit, though, that it can be a little time consuming. Last week I held a bake sale, in which I made everything that was sold (and can you believe I took no pictures? Bad blogger!) I decided to take a different pie route and make some rustic tarts (peach, in that case.) I whipped up a bunch of them in no time, and they sold out quickly. I had some pie dough left, and also some odd sized apples that didn't get made into caramel apples for the bake sale table, so today I decided to whip up a rustic apple tart. The results were fabulous. Unfortunately I'm the only one at home that eats apples....darn, just when my shorts were starting to fit again!

Aunt Delia's Perfect Pie Crust

4 1/2 c. flour

1 Tbsp. sugar

2 tsp. salt

1 3/4 c. shortening (*see note!)

1 Tbsp. white or cider vinegar

1 large egg

1/2 c. cold water

Place flour, sugar, and salt in a bowl and mix well. Cut in shortening. In a separate bowl, beat together vinegar, egg, and water. Combine with dry ingredients. Stir until all is moistened. Wrap and chill for 1/2 hour.

*I never use all shortening. I used to use all butter, but recently had a "duh!" moment and realized that was why the crust wouldn't hold it's shape. For the rustic tarts, I used 1 c. shortening and 3/4 c. butter. The results were great; the dough held it's shape perfectly, and the taste of the crust was out of this world.

Once you have your dough, the sky is the limit for the filling. I rolled my dough out into a circle, spread out some brown sugar, sprinkled on cloves and cinnamon. Then I arranged thinly sliced apples within about 3/4 inch of the edge of the dough, sprinkled on more brown sugar, cloves, and cinnamon. Then I just folded the dough around the edges, and brushed on a french egg wash (egg mixed with heavy cream.) My tart was then ready to head into the oven. This apple tart I baked at 400 degrees for about 1/2 hour.

Speckled Pan Brownies

Attention, attention...ladies and gentlemen, I have a very important announce-ment to make (yes I'm being corny, but hear me out...) After weeks....months....years of searching for my perfect brownie, my quest has ended today. Yes, I know...the excitement can hardly be contained. After having one failed attempt today at a recipe that I've actually already made (ok, I will completely admit to failing at more than one baking project this week...I've started to question myself a little!) I went back onto Allrecipes, and found this recipe. Normally, I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to brownie recipes that use cocoa as the main source of chocolatey-ness, but the stack of brownie recipes that I've tried (and not liked) that use melted chocolate told me that maybe I needed to change up my strategy. I found this recipe; it had great reviews, so I gave it a try. Without changing it up. (Yeah, I know...I was a little amazed that I actually followed a recipe.) They are actually called Brooke's Best Bombshell Brownies, but that's a little too many "b"s for me to remember, so I'm calling them Speckled Pan Brownies, since I used my brand new (and completely awesome) red and white speckled pan from At Home America. This pan is larger than the 9x13 that the recipe called for, but that's ok...I like bar cookies a little on the thinner side.

Speckled Pan Brownies

1 c. butter, melted

3 c. white sugar

1 tbsp. vanilla

4 eggs

1 1/2 c. flour

1 c. cocoa

1 tsp. salt

1 c. chocolate chips

Combine butter, sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl. Add eggs and mix completely.

Add flour, cocoa, and salt (I would recommend sifting the cocoa; I didn't and had a little bit of a difficult time getting lumps out) to wet mixture. Stir until blended. Add in chocolate chips.

Spread batter evenly into a prepared baking pan. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven until they reach your desired fudgy-ness; baking longer will produce a cakier brownie. I baked these for about 20 minutes, but my batter was spread a little thinner due to the larger pan.

Enjoy!