Raspberry Shortbread Thumbprints via Allrecipes.com
My dear friend Sally whipped me up a batch of Raspberry Shortbread Thumbprints since I also whipped her a batch of my Chinese Almond Cookies for taste. Nothing is more pleasurable and delightful to me than to swap goodies to eat. This is how my relationship with Sally works and we’re going to keep it strong as long as we continue to make a conscious effort to bake and swap with one another.
To be honest, I did not know the official name of Sally’s cookies. I have always thought they’re called Verona Cookies because that’s exactly how it looks like. I didn’t know Verona is just some incredibly sexy name that Pepperidge Farm made up to entice people like me to come back with $2.99 to get another. So remember that they’re called shortbread thumbprints!
Allrecipe's Raspberry Shortbread Thumbprints
Delicious Chinese Almond Cookies
Chinese Almond Cookies
Chinese almond cookies are my absolute favorite of all time! I used to buy Amay’s Almond Cookies in the tub load! My god, I can eat handfuls of it at a time because that is how addictive it is. When you take that first bite, the crumbs from the cookies explode all over your lips and your front teeth, followed by the nice hollow crunch of subtly sweet almond goodness and ending with supreme buttery awesomeness. Oh yeah. The almond. Oh yes, you must have a whole almond on an almond cookie! You must! Now with Amay’s cookies, the almond is placed perfectly on the center of the cookie, which made my eating experience that much more exciting because I would always wonder if I should bite the almond in half or pick it out and then eat the rest of the cookie. Yes, consider that! You can find these cookies in any Chinese supermarket/grocery. If they don’t have it, you should no longer shop there!
Ok, that was my five minutes of droolage for that cookie. But this post isn’t about the Amay almond cookie, it is about the recipe that I found to imitate or improve on that cookie. Now, I have looked for recipes online, asked my favorite Chinese pastries chef at work, and even asked my distant aunts on how to make the perfect Chinese almond cookie and ‘lo and behold, it’s in an American recipe book in Borders. Yes Borders.
Last Friday I decided to stop into Borders to “take care of business.” I refused to use the Starbucks one because that’s absolutely gross and sometimes there’s no TP. I personally think some of the best public bathrooms are in bookstores. I could be wrong, but in my positive experience, I’ve been fortunate to be in the clean ones! But please don’t get the impression that I do not go to bookstores to read books. I go there all the time! Amazingly I never go there to look for recipe books, but for business and other pleasures.
Anyways, at the Borders on Wall Street, next to the “restroom” is the section for recipes! I don’t know whether that is a good thing or not, but I would definitely chose a recipe book for my reading material if I need to do my business there. After maybe 45 minutes of looking and deciding on which book I should get, I decided to get the “Favorite Brand Name Recipes: Cake Mix Cookies” published by Publications International, Ltd (PIL). Unfortunately I cannot find the book online, but I will take a picture of it next time. The only reason why I chose to buy this recipe book is because of the Chinese Almond Cookies recipe. I kid you not. Plus at $9.98 for over 60 cookie recipes and with pictures, I think that’s a bargain.
Please click on the following link to see the recipe and other pictures!
Quaker Oats Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies!
Quaker Oats Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Big courtesy to my loyal friend and avid FCG reader, Sally C!
Quaker Oats Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
How amazing is it that Sally can whip up a batch of cookies at 11:30 at night? I wish she lived in my house and baked for me all the time since I’m always looking to eat sweets! We had this energetic conversation via text about cookies early this evening and Sally wanted to make Oatmeal Raisin cookies! She was very hesitant in making them because she dreaded doing the dishes, but oh no, I had to motivate miss young thing to actually make it. I promised that if she makes it, I will feature it on my website! Not like I wasn’t going to, but it was just the extra cherry on the top for her to actually make it. As I am writing this, Miss Sally is cleaning up the dishes now. How I am so proud of her. Now, if only I can get access to these cookies! For more pictures and for the recipe, please click on the following link!
Impulsive Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies
Ask me about how my gym progress is going and I will show you what I have made and eaten.
Improv Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookies
Ok, here’s the story on why I made these cookies. For about nearly a month, I have not baked anything. As you may know, the last time I baked was on July 4th, when I made the ultimate patriotic cake. This day I was drained from work and did not feel like going to the gym. My brother wanted cookies and I wanted to bake, since baking to me is a very therapeutic and relaxing. The only thing I had in the house for cookies were butterscotch chips and oatmeal. I figure, why not combine the both and try making something out of it.
I decided to look up for a recipe for oatmeal and butterscotch cookies and ‘lo and behold I have found my recipe on allrecipes.com.
My only problem with this recipe is that it yields 40 cookies. Now I’m trying to tone up and look thin. If I made all those cookies, I can rest assure that I will eat all of it. So I decided to half the recipe as much as I can without screwing up the mechanics of the recipe. So to yield 20 cookies, this is what I changed:
- 1 stick of butter
- 2/3 brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon koshered salt
- 1 cups of quaker oats
- 1 teaspoon of karo corn syrup
- 3/4 cups butterscotch chips. Next time I will use 1/4 cup instead because it was way too sweet.
Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Prepare baking pan by covering it with a baking sheet/parchment paper. Do not grease it!
3. In a bowl, mix the butter and brown sugar. When thoroughly combined, add in the egg and karo corn syrup.
4. In another bowl, mix sifted flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Take this mixture and slowly combine it with the butter mixture until well blended. Afterward, combine oats and butterscotch chips!
5. Bake for 10 minutes or until the edges turn brown.
The reason why I did not use white sugar was because I personally think it makes the cookie hard which I hate. Brown sugar makes everything soft which is why I used all of that instead. Personally, I loved the cookies even with all the butterscotch. But according to my brother and my friend Rose who happened to be there, thought that the butterscotch was overwhelming. I guess I needed that sweetness in my mouth because I was in a bitter mood and I was already in withdrawal from not having sweets. But I guarantee you, if you use 1/4 cups of butterscotch chips instead, you’ll have a well balanced and tasty cookie!
Enjoy!
<3 FCG
July 4th Flag Cake – Ina Garten’s Recipe
Every July 4th, I usually follow the tradition of going to a friend’s or relative’s bbq for the weekend. Quite honestly, I have never been a fan of bbq, but I enjoy socializing and mingling with others. With these bbqs, the only part that I play is either clean up or maintanence which I’m not a fan of. So this year, I swear to myself that I will make dessert. And the only time I will clean up is after myself when I’m making the dessert. Now I’m not being lazy or selfish, but there are many others who could help and I refuse to do it since I’m going to contribute a huge cake!
Now understand that I’m not much of a baker. I think only recently that I’ve taken this interest. There are a lot of things that I’ve only done for my first time, like this cake that I will show you, for instance. My source of inspiration for a cake for the fourth of July is the Food Network website. FN is the only channel, next to Fit TV, which I really watch. And the website had a special section for July 4th recipes and one of them was Ina Garten’s Flag Cake recipe!
Ina Garten's Flag Cake Recipe
