Chocolate Chip Biscotti
06 Dec 2010 Leave a Comment
in Bake, Cookie, Dessert, Gourmet, Sweet Tags: biscotti, Chocolate chip, italian cookie
Chocolate Chip Biscotti
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Here’s what you’ll need… Baking sheet, Oven Temp: 350 degrees, Bake time: 50 minutes.
1 ¾ Cups Flour
1 Cup sugar
4 Tablespoons Butter
2 Eggs
½ Teaspoon Baking Powder
¼ Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Vanilla
1 Cup Chocolate Chips
In a mixer, combine sugar, flour, baking powder and salt, and mix well. Add the butter and vanilla and mix until mixture resembles coarse. Beat the eggs lightly add to dough until evenly moistened. Fold in the chocolate chips until mixed throughout.
Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface. Form two 8’ long x 4’ inch-wide logs onto baking sheet. Bake until dough sets, about 30 minutes.
Cut dough on diagonal into 1/2-inch slices; place cut side down on baking sheet and bake for an additional 20 minutes at a reduced oven temp of 275 degrees.
Cool on wire rack. These will last for up to two week in airtight container.
Enjoy!
Dessert Plate Giveaway
04 Dec 2010 9 Comments
in Cake, Cookie, Cupcake, Dessert, Giveaway, Sweet Tags: Antique, art, Cake, cakeplate, Collecting, Depression glass, Dessert, dessert plate, Garage sale, glass, plate, Recreation, Shopping, Star Wars, stemware
Jeff and I have traveled up and down the east coast visiting antique stores, thrift shops and yard sales for years. Jeff is a musician and has a deep affection for old musical instruments, vintage toys, electronics and books. While I adore very pretty frilly vintage fabrics, tapestries, plates and glassware.
Throughout the years we have gathered countless objects of our desire – enough to furnish our own antique store. What’s more, we have learned that it’s really not necessary to acquire everything that sparks our curiosity, unless it a rare gem like the only 25 in print – Star Wars poster… well then, it’s without hesitation a keeper.
Over time I have cultivated a slight obsession for delicate beautiful glassware, especially Depression glass. Although some of the pieces I’ve bought are for my personal collection, they have sparked my curiosity for art. I began upcycling these one-off pieces that have lost their mates in time by making functional art, pairing together plates and stemware to create dessert plates.
I have been giving away these plates as gifts to family and friends and now I want to give one away to you!
Dessert Plate Giveaway
Here’s how you enter to for a chance to win:
Answer the following question in the comments section of this post.
“What have you created lately?”
A recipe? A piece of art? Decorated a room? Written a story? Let us know!
Jeff and I will select a response at random and announce the winner on the evening of Wednesday, December 8th.
Have fun & Good luck!
Eat These Snowballs
29 Nov 2010 6 Comments
in Bake, Cookie, Dessert, Food, Gourmet, Greek Dishes, Holiday, Sweet Tags: Christmas, Cookie, greek cookies, Greek dessert, Greek food, greek pastries, kourambiedes, Powdered sugar, Shortbread
Every holiday season the kitchen begins to resemble a powdery blizzard of flour and sugar slightly dusting the counters and floors with its snow like velvetiness. A reminder of what is soon to come with winter’s wonderland, I begin my Christmas season making several batches of all my favorite holiday cookies, and Kourambiedes are at the top of the list.
Greek Holiday Cookies
These delicious crumbly short bread cookies, covered in a gluttonous amount of white powdered sugar have me reminiscing of childhood Christmas’s visiting relatives, sleigh rides and snowball fights.
Let it Snow...
Some things will never change!
These scrumptious treats are a traditional Greek holiday cookie and I’m sending them from our table to yours to enjoy this holiday season!
Καλά Χριστούγεννα
Merry Christmas!
Kourambiedes
Kourambiedes
Here’s what you’ll need… 2 – 9 x 11 Cookie sheets, Flour Sifter, Oven Temp: 350 degrees, Bake time: 25 minutes. This recipe makes approximately 25 cookies.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees
Cookie Dough:
1 – 1 Lbs. Unsalted Sweet Cream Butter
4 – Cups Flour
½ – Cup Powdered Sugar
1 – Teaspoon Baking Powder
2 – Egg Yolks
Topping:
2 Cups Powdered Sugar
Allow butter to reach room temperature. Beat the butter and powdered sugar in a stand mixer for 15 minutes, until white peaks are reached.
Butter Sugar Whipping
Slowly add egg yolks one at a time to butter mixture beating for five minutes. Combine baking powder and flour mix well, then add to mixture one cup at a time mixing well in between each cup.
Cooling
Form round disc shape and place on greased cookie sheet. Bake cookies for 20 to 25 minutes or until a golden color. Remove from oven and let cool for one hour. Once cooled use flour shifter to drench cookies with powdered sugar until overflowing.
Kourambiedes Sugared Up
Pour some honey on these…
22 Nov 2010 3 Comments
in Bake, Cookie, Dessert, Food, Gourmet, Greek Dishes, Holiday, Sweet Tags: cookies, greek cookies, greek pasteries, honey, melomakarina, orange spice cookies, spice cookies, walnuts
Now that I have you attention, serenading you the lyrics to Def Leppard’s “Pour Some Sugar on Me”, recreated as the cover song for my all time favorite, dangerously – sticky sweet — melt in your mouth Greek cookies, Melomakarona (Orange Spiced Honey Cookies).
Melomakarona on Geogiecakes handmade cake plate
I would like to dedicate more thank you love to Yia Yia Bessie for graciously spoiling us up with her wonderful family recipes while visiting us. And for also cooking heroic Olympic spreads filled with amazing meals that would satisfy any of the Greek gods.
Georgie in Greece at Rembetika Breaking Plates
Yia Yia Bessie would have preferred I picked a Greek rembetiko style song strummed on a bouzouki. Rembetika are classic old folk songs beautifully written about life, sorrow and unrequited love. However our music association differs from one to the other, these cookies for now and always will remain in my book – Sticky -Sweet!
Pour some honey on these
Melomakarona (Orange Spiced Honey Cookies)
Melomakarona (Orange Spice Honey Cookies)
Here’s what you’ll need… Two 9 x 11 Cookie sheets (no greasing is needed; the oil makes up for this.) Oven Temp: 350 degrees, Bake time: 20 minutes. This recipe makes approximately 40 pieces.
Cookie Dough:
5 – Cups of Flour
2 – Cups of Oil (Vegetable or Olive Oil)
1 – Cup Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice
¾ - Cup Chopped Walnuts (set aside ¼ cup for final topping)
1 ½ – Tablespoon of fresh Orange Peel
¼ – Cup Sugar
1 – Teaspoon Baking Soda
2 – Teaspoon Baking Powder
½ – Teaspoon of Cloves
½ – Teaspoon of Cinnamon
Topping:
1 – 16oz jar of Honey
1 – Cup of Water
¼ – Cup of finely chopped Walnuts
Beat oil and sugar for 10 minutes on medium speed. Add orange juice, cinnamon, glove, orange peel, walnuts (set aside ¼ cup of chopped walnuts for final topping,) and add to oil and sugar mixture gently whisking together. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and baking soda together, then gently fold the remaining ingredients together incorporating well.
Chopped Walnuts
Over mixing the dough can make it too dense. Prepare cookies by rolling two tablespoons of dough in your hands crating a oval cylinder (football) shape, flatten slightly and place on cookie sheet. Take a fork and create indents along the cookie surface. Place in oven at 350 degrees and bake for 20 minutes. Remove cookies from oven and place on wire rack to cool for ½ hour prior to dipping in syrup.
Forming Cookies
While cookies are baking begin the honey & nut syrup. Add all the ingredients (honey, water and walnuts) to a sauce pan. Place on a medium/low heat until the syrup reaches a frothy boil, lower temperature and simmer on low heat for another ten minutes, then turn off and let stand.
Mellisa Cookie (Honey Soak)
Once cookies have cooled, begin simmering the honey syrup on low heat. You can immediately begin adding 4 to 5 making sure they are covered, soaking for a minute each absorbing the honey throughout. Remove with a slotted spoon to allowing access syrup to drip. Place cookies on large dessert dish layering. Finish with a light sprinkle of finely chopped walnuts.
Sticky Sweet - Melomakarona
The Sweetest Things
06 Oct 2010 Leave a Comment
in Around Town, Cookie, Gourmet, Serendipitous Adventures, Sweet Tags: Baking and Confections, Cookie, Food, Home, Shopping, Sugar
Who doesn’t love a weekend day trip? Especially throughout the New England countryside traveling and discovering the different captivating villages, charming people and great new-fangled eats. Initially these getaways were a necessity – a much-needed sabbatical from the hectic work week, while in the end roaming into the unknown landscape was the sweetest of all pleasures.
Kim Welch Baker Owner
Our most recent spree was all about the sweets. We did all the sampling for you so all you need to do is show up. Red Rooster Baking Co. is neatly tucked away in a quaint country barn strip mall, beside the winding lush garden of Boston Post Road carefully preserved with traditional antique shops, Inn’s and local farms.
Owner and baker, Kim Welch who is as sweet as her offerings, has created some of the most memorable cookie combinations, mixing super scrumptious flavors like Kahlua Espresso Bean Chunk, Key Lime Butter, Oatmeal Butterscotchies and Lemon Poppy Sugar to name just a few. When visiting it’s a good idea to leave with as many as you can carry.
If you’re not a local and are craving something sweet, you can order online to quickly satisfy any cookie monster craving. Seriously these are some of the best, chewiest, moist and flavorful cookies ever!
Kahlua Espresso Bean Chunk Cookie
Lemon Poppy Cookie
Oatmeal Butterscotchies
