Sharing my St.Patrick's Day cookies...
Someone on the KT forum linked to sugar cookies decorated in plaid designs. They used royal icing, but I had some left-over cooked buttercream, so I used it instead. The heat from my hands eventually made the buttercream a bit too soft, so some of the lines are a little wiggly. The large cooky in the middle was for my grandson.
HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!
Comments (20)
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Thursday Tea on St. Patrick's Day :)
Comments (6)Thanks for the reminder about St. Pat's Day - I used my Irish tea cup, I have a little green tea pot somewhere that I think was probably originally restaurant ware, only makes one cup though. The tea I made is my favorite, Lady Grey. Should have had some Irish Breakfast tea - need to buy a tin. I bought iced pumpkin bars. Just awhile ago I was walking my dog and noticed the Bush Clover shrub needed cut back, so I got the loppers and by the time I was finished I was huffing and puffing! Either allergens are messin' with my asthma or I've gained 30lbs. What do YOU think. ; )...See MoreSt. Patrick's Day Decorations
Comments (13)Thanks for the compliments and encouragement! The castle is actually a teapot, the center "plate" is actually a stepping stone and I have no idea what the emblem on the goblet means...it was a catalog item from Gael Song. The garland and the picture are pictures I downloaded from the web and I got the garland idea from one of the bloggers on the Graphic Fairy's website. I made a much bigger one for Valentine's day and liked it so much that I thought I would make a smaller version for this holiday as well. It was fun putting all of my TS and YS finds together to make this little display....See MoreAre You Cooking Anything Special For St. Patrick's Day Next Week?
Comments (35)Tea Brack recipe first, then how to make homemade buttermilk. -Grainlady TEA BRACK (source: Irresistible Irish Breads - magazine article by Deborah Krasner) Brack, an Irish word for bread, is often used when referring to fruited mixtures. Tea Brack is a traditional tea bread which is an easy version of barm brack. Makes 1 loaf. 2 c. dark seedless raisins or dried currants (I use currants) 1-1/2 c. firmly packed dark-brown sugar 1-1/2 c. strong brewed tea, chilled 1/4 c. rum (I use 1/8 c.) 2 c. unsifted all-purpose flour 1-1/2 t. baking powder 1/2 t. ground cinnamon 1/2 t. ground nutmeg 1/2 t. salt 1 large egg, at room temperature, lightly beaten 1. Several hours or the night before baking, in large glass bowl, combine raisins/currants, brown sugar, tea, and rum. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let sit overnight. 2. Heat oven to 325°F. Grease an 8-1/2x4-1/2-inch loaf pan and line with waxed paper. Grease waxed paper. 3. In medium-size bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Slowly beat flour mixture and the egg into raisin mixture just until combined to form a batter. 4. Pour batter into greased loaf pan. Bake brack 1-1/2-hours until browned and cake tester inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack 5-minutes. Turn brack out of pan and remove waxed paper. Cool brack completely on wire rack. Grainlady note: I use two 7-1/2x3-1/2-inch loaf pans or three 5-3/4x3-3/4-inch loaf pans and reduce the baking time accordingly. This is a very moist bread - more currants than bread, almost. I like the smaller pans so I can cut the bread into thin slices that don't fall apart. If you make it in a regular loaf pan, the slices tend to split and fall apart. -------------------------- I use a large amount of buttermilk when it comes to baking on St. Patrick's Day, so I make a homemade version of it using information from "Natural Meals In Minutes" by Rita Bingham. I use a non-instant powdered milk, but regular commercial milk works VERY well. Homemade Buttermilk To a 1-quart canning jar add 1/2 c. buttermilk and fill the jar with regular milk OR reconstituted powdered milk. Note: You can use commercial buttermilk as the starter, or a reconstituted liquid made from powdered buttermilk, or buttermilk from a former batch of homemade buttermilk - your choice. Stir well and cover (I use a plastic lid designed to use with canning jars). Let stand in a warm place (at least 80°F) until clabbered, about 12-18-hours. Stir until smooth. Refrigerate. Grainlady note: I keep mine in my oven with the light on. The temperature at the opposite side of the oven from the light is about 80°F. You can use homemade buttermilk from a previous to culture the milk for the next batch. Just make sure you use it within 2-weeks. Older buttermilk doesn't work as well as newer buttermilk. If you've ever used reconstituted powdered buttermilk, it's rather insipid, thin, and tasteless compared to commercial buttermilk. The homemade buttermilk is more like commercial buttermilk....See MoreHappy St. Patrick's Day!
Comments (19)Happy St. Pat's Day to all who celebrate. Sometimes I pretend the day doesn't exist and I'm mostly Irish with a touch of Scotland and Wales thrown in - all immigrant coal miners in the mid 1800's. DD is half. As a child growing up in Castle Shannon (a suburb of Pittsburgh) March 17th was the feast day of St. Patrick, not really the huge drinking event as it is now. The day began with a Mass in the Cathedral and then we'd march in the St. Patrick's Day Parade. I took step dancing lessons before someone decided that garish costumes and curly wigs were mandatory, sang all the old Irish songs with my dear Da, drank Brewley's or Lyon's tea with cream and sugar, and baked soda bread with currants with my Grandmother. We will have a special meal to celebrate this weekend when the kids come over for a birthday celebration. They always ask for corned beef and colcannon rather than the Irish stew or shepherd's pie we often had as kids. I took my son to Ireland for 10 days and we had great craic as they say - which means fun. He gallantly put up with me when I joined in the singing in the pubs at night but I spared both of us the embarrassment of dancing any jigs or reels. I hired a driver so that we could both sit back and relax and enjoy the scenery and not deal with the roundabouts and driving on the wrong side. DD's boyfriend is from London so we're trying to plan a trip to visit his family and then go on to Scotland or Northern Ireland. Maire...See Moremama goose_gw zn6OH
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoThank you all! I make a lot of cookies, but since my kids have grown up, rarely make decorated cookies. It was fun to get creative again. Steph, I used the recipe for Ethel's Sugar Cookies from the Betty Crocker Cooky Book, which was published in the days when butter was considered bad, and vegetable shortening was thought to be better for our health. Opinions have changed, so I use half butter and half shortening--I would use all butter, but I don't want the cookies to be too crisp. I short the sugar by about 2TBS per cup, especially if I know I'm going to decorate with icing or candies. I made a 4-batch recipe, so I chilled the dough overnight, and returned the remaining dough to the fridge, while the first batches were baking. (I definitely recommend a stand mixer for large batches.)
_______________________________
3/4 cup shortening (part butter)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon lemon flavoring or 1 teaspoon vanilla
2-1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder1 teaspoon salt
Cream shortening and sugar; beat in eggs and flavoring. Combine flour,
baking powder, and salt, and blend into egg mixture. Chill dough for at
least 1 hour. Roll out dough to ⅛-inch thickness on a floured board. Cut
into desired shapes and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 6
to 8 minutes at 400 degrees F, until cookies are a delicate
golden color.____________________________________
Exact baking time will depend on the size of cutter you use, so check the first batch often after 5 minutes--you just want to see a slight browned edge, no color on the top. I rolled mine a little thick, because I didn't want too much icing-to-cooky ratio, and of course, the big cooky, which was made with 3 large heart-shaped cooky cutters, took longer to bake.
The pre-baked dough also makes a good base for no-bake cheesecake, and no-bake fruit tarts. I rolled out a large circle, put it on another round pizza pan, then added a rolled-rope edge, and baked it for ap 12 minutes. When it was cool I spread a can of cherry pie filling (with a couple of TBS of blueberry PF, which was left over from some pastry tarts I made last week-end), then drizzled with the last of the white icing, for a more 'grown-up' dessert than sugar cookies. I could have made a fancier fluted edge, but by that time, I was tired of working with cooky dough. Canned pie filling get dis'ed by a lot of cooks, but I can eat it with a spoon, straight from the can. ;)
Here is what remains of the fruit tart:
mama goose_gw zn6OH
8 years agomama goose_gw zn6OH
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agomama goose_gw zn6OH
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agomama goose_gw zn6OH
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agomama goose_gw zn6OH
8 years agoThank you, bp. Plaid eggs, chicks and bunnies would be adorable.
I decided to test the frosting method before going all out on Easter cookies. I'd cut out some in the shape of eggs (using an empty food can, squeezed into an oval shape), when I made the other cookies, and I still had a small amount of green icing in the fridge--I'd mixed the left-overs of both green shades. I warmed it slightly in the MW--just enough to make it easy to stir, but not enough to melt it. I stirred it briskly with a spoon, then carefully spread it on each cooky, leaving a border. The cooked frosting doesn't flow like the royal icing, but it spreads easier than regular buttercream. As I mentioned before, it's smooth, and not crunchy, gritty, or greasy. I stuck the frosted cookies in the fridge until the frosting was firm to the touch, then used a grass tip to pipe a nest. The eggs are jelly beans:
This would be fun and easy for kids!
eam44