One Batch Of Sugar Cookies

The cookie question I get asked over and over again is "how many sugar cookies does your recipe make?"

Well,  that's a hard question to answer because it all depends on the size of the cookie cutters you use.

So to help answer the question here's a picture of the all the Easter cookies I got from one batch of dough using an assortment of cutters from 1.5-inches (the small rabbit) to 3.5-inches (the large round and rectangle).  I hope this visual helps.

Here's my favorite tried and true sugar cookie recipe:

Sugar Cookie Cutouts

1 cup unsalted butter (at room temperature)
2/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

 In a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter and sugar until blended, then beat on high speed until creamy. Add egg, vanilla and almond extract and beat until well blended. Add flour and salt; beat on low speed until combined, then on medium speed until well blended. Divide dough into two equal portions. Place dough between sheets of plastic wrap. Press evenly into a disk and chill until dough is firm, at least 20 minutes. Working with one portion of dough at a time (keep remaining chilled), peel off plastic wrap and roll on a floured board until 1/4 inch thick. Cut with floured cutters and transfer onto bare baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees (325 for convection) for 7 to 9 minutes or until firm to the touch and slightly darker brown around edges. Cool on wire racks. 

Pickled Onions

A salad with pretty pickled onions.

It takes less than an hour, just a few ingredients and a microwave to make delicious homemade pickled onions.

The sweet and tangy onions are a nice addition to salads and sandwiches but they are so good that I usually find myself eating them straight up.

The pretty violet color of the pickled onions screams Spring and would be a perfect addition to your Easter table.

Here's the recipe:

Pickled Onions
2 large red onions
1 2/3 cups apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons Kosher salt plus 1 teaspoon
1 tablespoon sugar plus 1 teaspoon

Peel, halve and cut the red onions into 1/8 to 1/4-inch wide slices and place them in a medium-sized glass bowl that is microwave safe.

Sliced onions that are ready for apple cider vinegar, 2 tablespoons of Kosher salt and 1 tablespoon of sugar.

Add the apple cider vinegar, 2 tablespoons of salt and 1 tablespoon of sugar and mix well to evenly coat the onions and help break them apart.

Place the bowl in the microwave and cook on high for 5 minutes. Remove and give the onions a mix.

After 5 minutes in the microwave, they will look like this. Give them a good mix and return them to the microwave to cook for another 5 minutes.

Repeat this process three more times for a total cooking time of 20 minutes. It's important to mix the onions after each 5 minute interval of cooking.

After cooking for a total of 20 minutes, the onions will look like this.

Let the onions cool in the bowl, covered with plastic wrap for 10 minutes.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the onions sit for 10 minutes.

Place the onions in a colander and rinse them for just 5 seconds under cold running water and drain. You can reserve the vinegar mixture for another batch of pickled onions or for mixing with olive oil for salad dressing.

Rinsed and drained pickled onions.

Once the onions are drained, put them into a smaller bowl and toss with the remaining teaspoons of salt and sugar.

Once the onions are tossed with the remaining teaspoons of Kosher salt and sugar, they are ready to enjoy.

Store the onions in the refrigerator. They are best used within 10 days after making them.

A Sunny Service

Two super volunteers named Martha side by side in the sunny dining room at today's Wednesday Community Meal. Martha on the left volunteers in the kitchen and is in charge of preparing and serving the soup and Martha on the right works in the dining room, resetting tables and serving.

Diners at the Wednesday Community Meal got to eat by sunlight thanks to a bright and beautiful day in Portland, Oregon.

It's amazing how quickly a sunbeam can brighten the mood and enhance one's outlook. There were lots of smiles in the dining room.

The guests today were treated to a revolving menu that utilized food donated from Good Samaritan Hospital, Phil's Uptown Meat Market and The Oregon Food Bank. To start off, there was meatloaf, then it was onto chicken skewers, turkey, curried chicken, beef fajitas, fish, sweet and sour pork and finally spaghetti and meatballs.

Sweet and sour pork was just one of the meals we served today.

The constantly changing  menu kept our volunteer servers hopping but they were good sports about it, understanding that we simply do the best we can, using as much donated food as possible to help keep the cost of the meal down. 

For dessert today there was homemade marble cake made by volunteer Cheryl and of course there was also soup and salad.

Slices of homemade marble cake ready to be served.

We served 242 meals today.

Cookie Crust

I decided to make a last minute batch of Magic Cookie Bars for tonight's David Bowie alternative liturgy at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral but didn't have graham crackers for the crust and didn't feel like running out to the store.

So I improvised and substituted a sweet crust recipe that I use for making tarts and it worked just fine. The only difference was that I knew that the crust would require a bit more baking time than a graham cracker one so I pre-baked the crust for 10 minutes in a 350 degree oven before adding the cookie bar toppings and baking according to the Magic Cookie Bar recipe.

This simple cookie crust would also be great for cheesecakes, cream pies, really any recipe that calls for a graham cracker crust. If you want to use it in a recipe that calls for an already baked graham cracker crust, bake the cookie crust in a 350-degree oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until done and golden brown.

Here's the recipe:

Cookie Crust
(enough for the bottom of a 9x13 baking pan or a 10-inch tart pan)

2 cups flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup unsalted butter, softened

Beat the butter, sugar, salt and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add the flour and mix just until a dough forms.

Mix just until a dough forms.

Press this dough evenly into the baking pan or tart shell and pre-bake for 10 minutes in a 350-degree oven before adding fillings or topping and baking according to your recipe instructions.

I pressed the dough into a 9x13 baking pan that I lined with parchment.

After pre-baking the crust, I topped it with condensed milk, coconut, chocolate and walnuts for the Magic Cookie Bars.

I lined the baking pan with parchment so that the whole thing lifted out which made cutting the bars a breeze.

Bars ready to be served at tonight's David Bowie alternative liturgy.

David Bowie Lightening Bolt Cookies

 

These lightening bolt sugar cookies are for the upcoming David Bowie alternative liturgy at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral.  

I wanted to mimic the lightening bolt on the cover of David's 1973 album "Aladdin Sane," but I couldn't find a two section lighting bolt cookie cutter.  My solution was to buy a three section lightening bolt cutter and simply cut one part off before baking.

The cookies came together fairly quickly and were fun to make. The real secret to success is making certain your icing isn't too thin because the areas you need to fill are narrow and you don't want the icing running off the sides.

Usually I use 10 to 15 second icing for flooding. This means that a line drawn through the icing with a table knife settles back into place and disappears in 10 to 15 seconds.

For these cookies I used 20 to 25 second icing and had a scribe tool on hand to help ease the icing into place.

Here's how to make them:

The only lightening bolt cutter I could find.

Cut out the cookie.

Cut off on section of the lightening bolt.

Cookies that are ready to be baked.

Using a #2 tip, outline the lightening bolt with red 20 to 25 second royal icing, leaving a blank strip on one side.

Using the same #2 tip and red icing, fill in the section.

Repeat this on all of the cookies.

Using piping consistency black royal icing and a #1 tip, add a single line to all the cookies.

Add a few lines of blue royal icing, using a #2 tip and 20 to 25 second icing, to fill in the rest of the cookie. Use a scribe tool or skewer to blend the lines together. Now all you have to do is let the royal icing dry before packaging or serving.

If you don't have a lightening bolt cutter, an alternative is to pipe lightening bolts onto plain round cookies that have been flooded with white icing. I made some of these for the liturgy too. I hope you can join us.

David Bowie Liturgy

 

What do David Bowie's classic rock song "Space Oddity" and Christ's anguish in the garden have in common? Come to this alternative Lenten liturgy with a live band, set to the songs of a consummate musical chameleon, to find out. 

From a theological examination of "Major Tom" to the meditation on death found on "The Next Day," the music, mingled with readings and prayers, span Bowie's career. 

There is no charge to enter but there will be a free-will offering to benefit Trinity's hunger programs, which supports the Wednesday Community Meal and served more than 40,000 meals last year.

If that's not enough to get you to join us, there will be cookies!

Here are the details:

David Bowie Liturgy
Saturday, April 5, at 6 p.m.
Trinity Episcopal Cathedral (147 N.W. 19th Ave, Portland, OR)

 

Attentive Service

Our Wednesday guests love volunteer waiter Thomas.

We have the best group of volunteers at the Wednesday Community Meal - dedicated, hard working and kind.

One of the stars in the dining room is volunteer waiter Thomas who has a bright smile and is so attentive to the diners' needs. I love that Thomas always dresses up to serve on Wednesdays with his white shirt and black bow tie. He is a four-star waiter and the guests adore him.

Today we served 317 meals during our two hour service. Our main entree was oven-baked chicken with rice and of course there was also soup, salad and dessert.