what's cooking wednesday - two for one

As I have mentioned I have been wanting to play around more in the kitchen, so in honour of St. Patrick's Day I made some treats to share with the girls at work. Neither was a recipe I had tried before (yeah that's right you get two this week, to make up for taking last week off -- I'm nice like that), but judging from the empty container I took home they were a hit.

My Grandma B (that would be my Dad's Mom) was an incredible cook/baker. One of my favourite things she made (besides the belgian cookies) was the spritz cookies. She always dyed the dough, so we'd have green wreathes, pink hearts and so on. Oh they were delicious. Recently my Mom gave me a cookie press and I thought I'd try to relive my childhood and make some spritz cookies like my Grandma used to make. Well actually I attempted to relive my childhood before Christmas and decided to bake a batch at about 10:30 at night. It was a stupid idea from the get go, but not having all the pieces for the cookie press *and* not finding that fact out until it was loaded with dough -- made it a really stupid idea. So since I finally had all the pieces it seemed like a good time to make some of these -- yep shamrocks, am I too cute for words or what?



Classic Spritz Cookies

1 1/2 cups butter, softened to room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
3 1/2 cups flour

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Place butter in a bowl and beat on medium speed until creamy. Add sugar, egg and vanilla, beat well. Add flour, 1 cup at a time and mix well. Dough will be soft, do not refrigerate.

Fill cookie press, fitted with disk of your choice, with dough. Following your cookie press instructions press dough on to baking sheet 1 inch apart. Bake for 11 - 13 minutes or until firm, but not brown.

Recipe notes: These turned out pretty good, but they weren't as creamy as I remember my Grandma's. I think I may have overworked the dough. I only had gel food colouring so it took a bit to work the green colour through the dough. I'll have to pick up some liquid ones. The cookie press is proving to be a little tricky to master, so if anybody has any cookie press experience I am accepting any tips you may have. I finished up feeling a little frustrated and a bit discouraged, but nothing bad enough to make me pitch the whole thing in the trash.

And now before we go further I have to ask -- why hasn't anybody told me about Bakerella yet? Seriously I am already in love with her and am desperate to try to make everything on her blog. Hello little reindeer cake pops you are adorable!



Oreo Truffles

1 package oreo cookies (divided… use cookie including the cream center)
1 8oz. package cream cheese (softened)
white chocolate

1. Finely crush 7 cookies in a food processor or place them in a ziploc bag and crush into a fine consistency. Reserve for later.
2. Crush remaining cookies and stir in softened cream cheese. Use the back of a large spoon to help mash the two together.
3. Roll the mixture into 1" balls and place on wax paper covered cookie sheet.
4. Melt chocolate as directed on the package and then dip balls into chocolate, tap off extra and set aside on wax paper covered cookie sheet to dry. You can sprinkle the tops with the 7 crushed cookies for decoration.
5. Once dry, refrigerate and enjoy!

Recipe Notes: I think it's safe to say these were the hit of the day. So very good and easy to make. I actually had green candy melts, so I dipped them in that. There isn't anything else I'd do different. I will definitely be making these again and again.




What is What's Cooking Wednesday and how can I play?

What's cooking Wednesday was born out of a desire to get out of that what's for dinner rut. Playing is easy, on Wednesday post a recipe that has been tried and tested by you and then pop over here and add your name to the Mr. Linky. When entering your name also add the name of the recipe in brackets and make sure you link to your What's Cooking Wednesday post and not just your blog's front page. And don't forget to link back here, the home of What's Cooking Wednesday.

So for example I would write Shan (Speedy Chicken Stir Fry) in the name section. For the URL section I would post this: http://shanrev.blogspot.com/2007/10/whats-cooking-wednesday-speedy-chicken.html

I'll let you in on a little secret, my WCW recipes are almost never made on a Wednesday. So feel free to cook and photograph whenever you have time and join us posting on Wednesday.