Lincoln Journal Star du lieu suivant : Lincoln, Nebraska • 25

SAVOR Lincoln Journal Star Wednesday, December 12, 2007 3C 10 things cookie bakers really ought to know Wo Better Cause Surprise ingredients make warm desserts special and delicious Brand New! yimtmw nlkm ailiilm "Perfect Peace" I includes hipping) Order now at wwyw.nobettercause.com thebousnobettercauBe.com 1 Other releases available on website too! 'f A Enjoy a quaint atmosphere with "made from scratch" lunches desserts! Special menu needs offered for vegan, vegetarian, gluten free more. Just call ahead. University Place Lunch: Mon Sat Hum Dessert 3 Tea; Tues Sur mnn-4mi In Historic change the texture of your cookies. Put each ingredient away as you use it, so you don't forget what you've used. Rinse bowls and utensils as you go.

If you don't already own a couple of good baking sheets, buy yourself some. Thin, flimsy sheets don't diffuse heat well or evenly and can result in scorched cookie bottoms. Generally speaking, bake only one sheet of cookies at a time, on the center rack. This allows for the most even baking. Cool the sheet to room temperature between batches.

This prevents the butter from melting out of the dough and puddling on the sheet. As a rule, let cookies cool on the baking sheet for 1 to 2 minutes, just long enough to firm them slighdy and make it easier to slide them off the sheet and onto a rack. Most cookies ship well, but for best results choose a relatively firm or dense type of cookie. Wrap cookies individually in waxed paper or plastic wrap and pack them snugly in a tin. Pack the tin inside a bigger box, cushioned on all sides with additional waxed paper.

The Old Faimerls Almanac pumpkin cookies. They're moist and chewy and make great holiday gifts, she said. The recipe calls for cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and nuts, but "you can pretty much add or delete whatever extras you want," for example, adding raisins, using chocolate or cream cheese frosting instead of a glaze, or substituting molasses for the brown sugar. Cathy Blythe, co-host of KFOR's morning radio show and host of "Problems and Solutions," who has compiled a number of -cookbooks of recipes submitted by listeners, shared her recipe for colorful Christmas gum drop cookies. We'll leave the last word to Dr.

Joann Schaefer, the state's chief medical officer with the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, who shared a recipe for her favorite cookie-cutter sugar cookies, plus this healthful comment: "Like all foods, cookies should be enjoyed in moderation. Match what you eat with exercise. Avoid the 7-pound average weight gain over the holidays by exercising, even if it's just a 10-minute walk." Reach Bob Reeves at 473-7212 or breevesjournalstar.com tyke xact Ha.it (Zotoi Mystery ingredient here? Dates! Combined with boiling water and soda, these dried fruits add richness and healthy fiber without ever revealing their true identity. Add one or both of these sweet mysteries to your holiday table, and instead of asking "who they'll be saying, "who'd a thunk?" Apple Bars 2xh cups flour 1 tablespoon sugar 1 teaspoon salt 1 cup Crisco 1 egg yolk plus enough milk to make Vacup liquid 5 cups Jonathan apple's (peeled and sliced) V-h cups sugar 'A Cups crushed cornflakes i tablespoon cinnamon 1 egg white cup powdered sugar 2 tablespoons lemon juice Toss flour, sugar and salt together. Cut in shortening with a pastry blender.

Add liquid to make a dough. Roll out half of the dough into a greased 10xl5-inch cookie sheet. Cover with crushed cornflakes, sugar, apples and cinnamon. Cover apple mixture with the rest of the dough. Mix egg white with a fork and spread with a pastry brush over the top of the dough.

Bake at 375 for 40 minutes. Stir together powdered sugar and lemon juice. Glaze apple bars mixture while they are still hot. Cut into Chocolate Chip Cake 1 cup chopped dates 1 cup boiling water 1 teaspoon soda 1 cup sugar V2 cup butter or shortening 2 eggs or egg substitute lVi cups flour 1 tablespoon cocoa 1 teaspoon vanilla Topping: cup sugar 1 cup chopped nuts 1 cup chocolate chips Preheat oven to 335 degrees. (Note: A higher temperature will melt the chocolate chips beyond recognk tion.) Combine dates, boiling water and soda in a bowl.

Set aside to cool and add later to other ingredients. Cream sugar and butter or shortening in a mixing bowl. Add eggs, vanilla, -flour and cocoa. Add reserved date mixture. Beat until well combined.

Pour into prepared round cake pan. (Note: Spray, butter or grease and flour according to preference and bakeware.) Sprinkle top with sugar, nuts and chocolate chips. Bake 35-40 minutes. Lynne Ireland lives to eat and welcomes comments and questions from others who do (or don't). Contact her at savorjournalstar.com.

43G-21Q0 FREE In-Home Consultation Estimates Each Franchise Independently Owned and Operated www.budgetblmds.com ORGANIC FARE FRESH PRODUCE LOCAL Make It A Special The Old Farmer's Almanac offers the following no-nonsense advice to bakers looking to make the perfect batch of cookies for family and friends. Organize! Clutter is your worst enemy. Clear your work area before you begin, and get out all the ingredients. Read the recipe through before you do anything. As you read, check your supply of flour, sugar, butter and watch for any unusual ingredients, steps or equipment.

If the dough has to chili for 12 hours, you should know this before you start. Get out all the ingredients that you will need. Use good, fresh ingredients. Spices lose their flavor over time. Use fresh local eggs if you can find them.

Unsalt-ed better is preferable to salted; it tastes cleaner, sweeter, and fresher than salted butter. If you forget to soften your butter ahead of time, cut the stick(s) into pats and place them on a room-temperature plate. Leave in a warmish snot for 10 minutes or so, until ihe feutter yields to gentle finger tn essure, When a recipeills for toasted nuts, make sure that they're thoroughly cooled before adding them to the dough. Adding hot nuts to a dough could melt the butter and drastically Cookies Continued from Page 1C uses milk chocolate and pecans, which are a staple of Southern kitchens. Dave Landis, former state senator who now heads Lincoln's Urban Development Department, waxed nostaligic about a Christmas cookie from his childhood.

"My aunt well, I called her my aunt but actually she was some kind of a cousin used to make chocolate cookies shaped like a wreath," he said. "She made them in some kind of a special mold, they were milk chocolate and melted in your mouth. They didn't have any frosting because they didn't need any. By far, it's my favorite cookie." Unfortunately, he can't get them any more because no one has the recipe or that wreath-shaped mold. "She probably didn't have a (written) recipe," he said.

Terry Uland, new president of the Downtown Lincoln Association, didn't share a recipe but noted that his favorite was sprite, which his wife, Sue, makes using a traditional family recipe and her grandmother's cookie press. Local jazz singer Annette Mur-rell, also known as Dr Diva, passed along her recipe for cooxcoox Nourish and indulge What you'll find in "The Healthy Hedonist Holidays: A Year of Multi-Cultural Vegetarian-Friendly Holiday Feasts" (Simon Schuster Paperbacks, $19.95) are 15 festive menus and a culinary smorgasbord of naturally satisfying recipes. Author Myra Kornfeld, a chef and a teacher, offers healthful alternatives with ethnic spins to the usual holiday fare, encouraging cooks to use their kitchens to transport diners to different worlds. From Hanukkah, Christmas and Kwanzaa to breaking the Ramadan fast, menus include starters, salads soups, sides and splashes to complement both a vegetarian main course and either a fish or poultry entree. Families Parenting, Relationships, Things to do Fridays in the JournaltStar Open Harvest is your Headquarters for OrganicNatural Food Groceries! Holiday Gift Baskets a a 1.

Available! I Open llarvosi 161 8 South Street, Lincoln 402.475.9069 www.openharvest.coop 9 9 DeliSeatood close ot 8 pm 1 1 'r 1 vCaU 1 1 V- fx 1 lilt 1 nvlj mlht Jt Check out our great selection of styles including: Shutters Draperies Wood Blinds Honeycomb Shades Roller Shades Vertical Blinds Silhouettes Woven Wood and more! Professional Measuring Installation Low Price Promise! FOODS WORLD CUISINE BREADS DAIRY COFFEES Holiday Season! a A "1 hi 1 i '1. LYNNE IRELAND Seasoned to Taste Mystery is what this time of year is all about. Not the who-dunnit type of mystery, but the miracle kind of mystery. The lamps in the temple that don't go out. The baby in the manger.

The lengthening of the days. Harvest and home. Miracles and mysteries are at the core of our winter holidays. And mysteries are at the core of some of the marvelous dishes that appear at holiday time. You go to a party and eat something terrific.

You think you've got a rough idea of what's been combined to make the tasty treat. You ask the cook or baker for the recipe, and that's when the mystery is revealed. The surprise ingredient that you never would have guessed, adding its certain something to create a little holiday miracle. So it was when our friend Debra brought her amazing apple bars to a holiday open house. A pastry base held sweet, cinnamony apple slices that were topped with a lemon-glazed pastry layer so delicate we thought it must be phyllo dough.

After oohing and aahing and deconstructing, imagine the surprise when the mystery was revealed. No exotic Greek pastry layers here just Debra's magic touch with a rolling pin, And the can- you-believe-it ingredient? Corn flakes. Crushed and added with the apple slices to absorb their juices and thicken the filling as it bakes. This little miracle has been a family favorite in the two decades since Deb's friend Susan shared the recipe with her. Equally mysterious and definitely delicious is the "chocolate chip cake" Ruth brought along when she joined my family 40-some years ago.

Crunchy, sugary, nutty, chocolate-chippy topping covers a dark cocoa-flavored cake, but what is that "je ne sais ou TOant Ot 3t's 'J-tee! 'iiirsi-i 7 t.e ei'ect yifl 1 mloy and 10 00 a to 2 SntuioVr, 4 AIw Sdon Spa 144 N. 44th St. Ste. 100 12 block north of on 44th) Mandi LeMaY 402-217-4247 Offer good for new clients only, hxpires 1 22607 1 1Z lISIilPIi. a aehid's Boutique 7 Lincoln F-ull Line jngbttnt.

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