OK, since I started this whole thang…this is what I made for The Fucking Cookie Exchange (and I’m just now appreciating the irony that these things aren’t even baked!):
Brickle Bars
Line 13 x 9 pan w/ whole graham crackers.
Filling:
1 c. melted butter
1 c. sugar
1 lightly beaten egg
1/4 c. milk
Cook to full boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and cool to room temp.
Then add 1/2 c. chopped pecans, 1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs, 1/2 c. brickle bits.
Mix well and spread over whole graham crackers. Top with mixture with another layer of whole graham crackers. Frost with:
1/2 stick butter
2 c. powered sugar
Just enough milk to moisten
Spread evenly over top layer. Sprinkle with brickle bits. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Cut into small bars.
These are even better after they sit for a couple of days, because the graham crackers get mooshy and the brickle bits on top soften.
Not to hijack, but BTW, eleanorigby, did you ever solve your problems with your printer???
Hey, I likes me some Tollhouse cookies too! (Especially just cool enough so the chocolate isn’t molten, but still melty, with milk. Mmmmm!) I don’t know what to say about the rice, except perhaps you should have someone that can communicate well with you be in the kitchen with you and guide you through the process? Maybe you will learn better in this instance by doing with a guide? I know some of my mom’s recipies were like that, it was better to do it with her guiding you. Don’t give up if you want to learn to cook, keep trying. sends good cooking inspirational vibes
Those count! You applied heat to them! (I make up rules as I go)
and no, I don’t think so-but I haven’t had to print out a pdf lately, so we’ll see. Basically I’m ignoring the problem in hopes it will go away. (and reading everything from the puter screen which dries my eyes out…)
Now I want to eat cookies…I can feel myself gaining weight just reading this thread…
At least the recipies in the books have measurable quantities. Try to get a pickle recipie to come out, when it says a handful of something and enough brine solution to cover pickles. How much is a handful and what composes a standard brine solution. They sure don’t taste like what grandma made, and why are they rubbery like snails?
C’mon, freckafree, look at the bright side. If your cookies were that good, you looked good. Would it make you feel better having done all that work only to have every one else’s cookies be much better? It’s a competition; sounds like you won. Unless…your cookies sucked. No offense, but just because they were a lot of work and you liked them doesn’t mean anyone else thought they were any good. The fact that in creating them you toiled more than anyone else guarantees nothing.
BTW, that overbrowned cookie bottom thing? Yeah, taking them out earlier might help, but if the tops are underdone, then try using an insulated cookie sheet or silicone baking sheet on top of a regular cookie sheet. Start with the original time that produced the overbrowned cookie bottoms; additional time adjustments may be necessary.
Somebody making it manditory deserves whatever comes in for cookies. I’ve never been around where it wasn’t a sign up on the bulliten board, and strictly voluntary. I have told people that post something they call manditory, that’s what they think, and never done the posted activity.
I find the best baking pans to be heavey alluminum. I never burn on them. The worst are those dark grey black steel pans, and I’m not speaking about a non stick surface.
This thread reminds me of one of the reasons I don’t participate in Christmas. It’s like a performance art. You’re being judged on effort, time, money, end-product and the judges aren’t even always very fair.
You could be the best and nicest worker in the office, but if you don’t make excellent cookies or spend the most time on the company potluck (if it’s mandatory), you’re the goat of the season. And given that I don’t cook, I dread the whole thing so much. I’d rather have everyone thinking that I’m scrooge than having made an effort and then found to be a loser in a contest I didn’t even want to participate in.
Thanks Guin for finally being able to get anyone to notice what I’ve been saying like three times or something. Can I bake you some cookies?
[/invisible faithfool]
Now that’s out of the way and hoping my cloak has gone to the cleaners, there are places that do make these attrocities (1) mandatory, (2) an avenue for others to complain about bad bakers/store bought/whatever, and (3) a breeding ground, after the fact, of much ill will and vicious sniping.
It’s even more disheartening for those who try their best only to ‘fail’ many someone’s criteria.
Oh, and good on you for getting out of so called mandatory activities. I know that the job I mentioned before had one little clause attached to whether or not you participated; the correct answer was NO choice if you wanted to continue working. However, I guess, if you didn’t…
I know it sucks to be the one spending so much money to bring stuff in when other people barely spend anything, but what if those other people really want to contribute but are not in the best financial situation? You never know what is going on in someone else’s life…that woman you worked with may be the only one working in her household. She may be paying all the bills for a family of 4 and not be able to afford to feed her family, let alone feeding her coworkers. That may be why she loads up to take food home to her family too. Or maybe she is just a cheapo. But if it were me I would feel really bad about judging someone in that first situation.
Or what Huffalemp said. I also meant to add that for folks that live paycheck to paycheck, sometimes it’s impossible to even justify one $3.00 out lunch, let alone almost 20 bucks on cookie making.
One manager’s wife brought in baked goods every week. People ate the stuff like pigs, but I never once ate her stuff, because it always had peanut butter in it somewhere. They came to me demanding money for the cook to help pay for ingrediants. I said I wasn’t given her a dime. I got a you won’t get any then. I asked her to please remember one occasion where I ate any of the stuff. I told her that was because I hate peanut butter and never ate one thing as she already knew, so get the money from somebody that wolfs the shit down.
I have stated to people in some situations, that though they would like me to think I might get in trouble with the employer for not participating, I would then have to see the party that fired me in court. That’s for a places that insist employees volunteer for charitable work, but I don’t want to support their cause. I choose my charitable activities, not somebody else. There are other situations, but you get the idea. My sister bitches about wait she says is manditory charity to keep her job, and I hope one day she gets a backbone to say no.
Hey, kiz, your email address is disabled, so at the risk of continuing the recipe hijacks, here is the sour cream cookie recipe:
Mennonite Sour Cream Cookies
1 cup white sugar
1/4 cup butter
1 egg
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
Enough flour to roll dough.
Cream butter, sugar and eggs. Add sour cream. Add dry ingredients, then lemon juice, vanilla and flour.
Roll out thin (thinner than biscuits, but not too thin), and cut with cookie cutters. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. These are a very mild flavoured, very soft textured (not fall apart soft, but soft like a pillow) cookie that takes icing very well.
Thank you Harmonious, I’d certainly love and appreciate me some wonderful (as all y’all bakers here sound like you make) home-style cookies. However, my most important point had been about the potential mandatoriness (did I just make up a word?) of any of these things. As I said in my first post, this situation (not the one described in the OP, but everything else at that job – I just can’t speak to cookie exchanges around the holidays because I didn’t work there long enough) was the norm and, from what I used to find out from others, them to.
Anyhoo, I’m going back the Harry Potter route and vamoosing from the thread so that it may continue on to recipes and such in peace. May all you guys’ seasons be bright and have no burnt bottoms, with plenty to receive.
For the record, I love chocolate chip cookies as much as the next person and love to bake them. However, they are not my idea of Christmas cookies…unles you use the new red and green swirly chocolate chips in them. Christmas cookies imply special, once-a-year effort.
And since I see nothing wrong with hijacking this thread with recipes (hey, it’s a cite, right?) Here’s the one for the Lavendar Madeleines…I’ll post the other two tomorrow…too tired tonight.
Lavender Madeleines
3/4 c. sugar
3 Tbps dried lavender flowers
3/4 c butter, melted and cooled
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp. vanill
1 c unsifted flour
powdered sugar
madeleine cookie mold
Preheat oven to 400’. In food processor, process sugar and flowers until flowers are finely ground. In a large mixing bowl beat eggs with the lavender/sugar mixture until light and fluffy…about 4 minutes. Gradually beat in the melted butter. With a wire whisk, fold in the flour. Spray madeleine mold with cooking spray. Spoon a scant Tbsp of batter into each mold (if using small molds, use a scant tsp.) Bake 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately remove from pan, cool on wire rack. Dust with powdered sugar. Store in an airtight container.
A few notes: I borrowed two sizes of molds from a friend, and liked the texture of the smaller ones better than the larger cookies. I buy my lavender at World Market…a small pouch is $1 and it makes more than one batch. Don’t worry about spreading the batter out in the mold…it spreads on its own. If you don’t have acess to a madeleine mold, you could try using a mini-tart pan…just don’t fill it full. The cookies should be fairly thin, so just a dollop in each hole would be enough, though I haven’t actually tried it that way…they won’t be as pretty, but they should taste fine! The recipe calls for unsalted butter, but I’ve used salted butter before and they tasted better…but that could just be me!
