Cooking

Football Game Day Cookies

~ lindy

Sugar Cookie Recipe

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Ingredients:

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*1/2 cup Butter

*1 cup Sugar

*1 teaspoon Vanilla

*1 Egg

*1/2 cup Heavy Cream or Whipping Cream, Sour Cream or Cream Cheese (I’ve used each one of these variation each gives the cookie a slightly different taste and they’re all yummy!) Note: If you use cream cheese use only 3 cups of flour

*3 and 1/4 cup All-purpose Flour

*1 teaspoon Soda

*1/2 teaspoon Salt

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In a stand mixer on medium-low speed cream together the butter and sugar. Then add the vanilla, egg and cream of your choice and mix just until combined.

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Using Sifter, sift together in a bowl the flour soda and salt and slowly add to the creamed mixture, mixing on low just until barely combined. Dough should be slightly sticky. Do Not Over Mix!

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Then divide the dough into 3 dough balls, flatten dough balls making disk shapes. Now wrap each disk in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 30 minutes or more.

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Remove 1 dough disk at a time from the refrigerator and rollout disk on a floured surface with rolling-pin or use 2 pieces of plastic wrap, placing the dough disk in the center of 1 of the pieces of plastic wrap and the second piece on top of the dough disk, use rolling-pin and roll out the cookie dough about 1/2 inch thick.

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Use a cookie cutter of your choice and cut out shapes in the rolled out dough. Repeat for each dough disk. Then add to the next dough disk the scraps from the first disk or (discard scraps of dough), continue this technic until all the dough is used.
Place cookies on a Silpat covered half baking sheet, 12 cookies per sheet.  For best results refrigerate the cut cookies on baking sheet before baking 5-10 minutes.

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Bake the cookies in a pre-heated 425* F. oven for 8-12 minutes or barely starting to turn golden on the bottom; baking time depends on the size of cookie cutter used. Do Not Over Bake! If you do over bake they will become to hard. Cool on baking sheet.

Recipe from Tested Recipes Cookbook, Central Milling Company third edition, now out of print an old family cookbook

Glac’e Icing

Ingredients:

*1 pound of Powdered Sugar (3 and 3/4 cup)
* 6 tablespoons Whole Milk or (I used 5 tablespoons whipping cream 1 tablespoon water it worked extremely well) you can use other milk but you will have to use more powdered sugar

Instructions:

Whisk together in a stand mixer on medium speed, the milk and powdered sugar until smooth no lumps.
Now stir in the light corn syrup and extract.

*6 tablespoon Light Corn Syrup (1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons)
*1 teaspoon Vanilla extract, use clear Vanilla extract if you need a white frosting and if you want an Almond Flavor use an Almond extract and use it in the cookie dough too.

Use this recipe for glazing cookies and the piping of the outside of cookies. Piping helps contain the frosting while pipe filling in the center of the cookie.

Use a pastry bag for each color of frosting you want to use, small round tip for piping around the edge and then I used a plastic bottle with a tip lid to fill in the center of the cookies which had a larger opening.

Special Supplies:

**Football Shape and Large Round Cookie Cutters, similar one found Here

**Platter Shaped Cookie Cutters, found on Amazon

**Pastry Bags with Small tips or Silicone Piping Bottle

Gel Colors:

*White, Football Lace, Stadium Cookies

*Green, Grass

*Brown Football

**Colorful Non-Pereils Sprinkles (Round Tiny Balls), Stadium/People

Also see Football Game Day Party

Enjoy!

Lindy

Cinnamon Swirl Sourdough Bread

~ lindy

Master Sourdough Sandwich Bread and Rolls

Recipe adapted from Amy Bakes Bread; she makes great sourdough recipes!  I changed the method on making her bread recipe, so my instructions are different than hers.

Makes 2 standard bread loaves (around 1.15-pound loaves) or makes around 20 cinnamon rolls (depending on size desired) or makes around 16 (1-ounce rolls)

Special Instructions:

YOU WILL NEED: ACTIVE UNFED STARTER

Note:  Sourdough Bread can be made in so many ways.  This method of making sourdough sandwich bread works best for me.  I hope you enjoy!

**You will need already made Active unfed sourdough starter to make this Bread.  (Note:  You could feed your starter the way you make your active starter but I can’t tell you how the finished result would be.)

Sourdough has a different texture than yeast breads, softer and stickier.  Use small amounts of flour to handle the bread or use wet fingers.  I like to keep a small bowl of water and flour nearby when forming the bread and rolls. 

Feeding Starter:

*30 grams of your unfed Starter

*125 grams Filtered Water or good bottled water

*140 grams Unbleached All- purpose Flour, preferably organic

I use a quart mason Jar.  I start the night before around 7 or 8 pm.  Then 12 hours later in the morning I make the Levain.  (You can make starter anytime as long as you let it rise around 12 hours and/or so as long as it doubles in size.). After this step make the following Levain

Levain:

Note:  The levain is made 3 to 4 hours before making your bread.  Also I like to use silicone bowl for this step for easy cleanup.

*140 grams Bubbly Active Sourdough Starter, see above made 12 hours earlier

*140 grams Water, 78 to 80*F.

*140 grams All-purpose Flour

*30 grams Granulated Sugar

Mix together in a bowl the active starter, flour, water and sugar. Stir together set aside 3 to 4 hours inside an unheated oven covered with plastic wrap or shower cap works well too.

Sourdough Sandwich Bread 

Ingredients:

*Levain, see above 

*330 grams Water, 78 to 80*F. (about 1 and 1/3 cups)

*160 grams Honey (about 1/2 cup) or 1/4 cup to taste

*1 large Egg, room temperature

*50 grams Extra Light Olive, has to be extra light or neutral oil (1/4 cup)

*20 grams of Sea Salt (about 1 tablespoon depending on coarseness of Salt)

*725-800 grams of Bread Flour or use 1/2 Kamut Flour and 1/2 Bread Flour, (about 5 to 7 cups depending on the flour you use). Add flour gradually dough should be semi-sticky.

Instructions:

In a stand mixer with dough hook add the wet ingredients levain and water and on low-speed mix for 2-3 minutes.  Then add the honey, egg, oil, and salt, mix on low-speed until combined.

Add 1 cup at a time of the flour to the wet ingredients.  Mix/knead on medium-low until all ingredients are incorporated.  Then continue kneading for the next 10 minutes.  Note:  This Bread needs the full 10 minutes of kneading with the dough hook.

After kneading cover mixing bowl with your dough in it and cover loosely with plastic wrap or a shower cap.  Place covered bowl in an unheated oven to proof for 2-4 hours or until dough has almost doubled.  Note:  When proofing dough a good temperature for the dough is around 78 to 80*F.  not too hot or cold.  But if you need to or if you want to wait and bake the bread the next day you can refrigerate the dough at this point.  When you bring the sourdough out of the fridge you will need to bring the dough back to room temperature about 2 hours around 72*F.  or so…. Then shape into loaves or rolls etc… When bread is placed in cooking sprayed pans allow bread and rolls to rise until about double in size 1 to 2 hours.  Note:  This makes it nice to make cinnamon rolls for breakfast or fresh dinner rolls, hamburger buns and etc…

Bake in a preheated 350*F.  oven for about 50 minutes for bread loaves or internal temperature of 200*F. The Rolls around 35 to 40 minutes or until internal temperature 198*F.

Note:  Also, I don’t like my sourdough bread to be that sour.  So, remember the longer the sourdough sits the sour it becomes.  I’ve put my sourdough in the fridge after proofing and left it for 12 to 14 hours without getting too sour.  

Cinnamon Swirl Sourdough Bread

*Cinnamon

*White Sugar or Brown Sugar or Honey etc…

*1 Egg white, whisked with a teaspoon of water

*Extra Light Olive Oil or warm Butter

Helpful Tips:

Divide the dough in half, roll out each half into oblong shape. Drizzle on olive oil or spread on butter and sprinkle with Cinnamon and Sugar of choice. Rollup like you would cinnamon rolls and then tuck up the ends to the middle of the loaf. See pictures below and add to loaf pans seam sides down. I like to smother the top with olive oil and then top with cinnamon and sugar.

OR

You will need 1 egg using only the egg white. Brush each loaf with the whisked egg white before baking or with olive oil and sprinkle on cinnamon and sugar. Note: the egg white will hold the seasoning on better than the olive oil.

Proofing in unheated oven with light on keeping temperature 72-80*F.

Also see Sourdough Sandwich Bread and Everything Bagel Sourdough Bread

Enjoy!

Lindy