Family Cookies
Delicious And Easy To Bake Cookies Are A Great Way To Have Treats Ready For Every Occasion
Bake Up Some Cookies For Family Fun
There’s lots of reasons parents are baking with their kids these days. The delicious result is of course on the list. But more importantly, baking with children is a great way to spend time with them and to teach them things at the same time you’re all having fun.
Baking cookies with any or all of your children is a naturally fun activity. Cookies are portable, sweet and fun to make. They can be made in stages if time is tight-prepare the dough in the evening and bake them the next morning. Older children can read the recipe and direct adults on what steps to take. Small children can roll the dough into balls and flatten it with a fork, similar to making peanut butter cookies. There’s enough fun to go around for everyone.
What makes your cookies even better is to add corn starch to the dough. In fact, many recipes for baked goods from the early 20th century used corn starch in conjunction with flour. Bakers found very early on that corn starch gave biscuits, muffins, cakes, shortcakes, pie crusts and most notably cookies a finer texture and more tender crumb when compared to recipes using flour alone. Recipe books produced then by the experts at Argo and Kingsford’s Corn Starch bear this out. In fact, Argo, established in 1892, has offered their customers cookie recipes since its very early years.
Lemon Shortbread Cookies
Delicious Iced Cookies everyone will enjoy!
Here’s a recipe for Lemon Shortbread Cookies that’s simple and delicious and should make for a batch of family fun.
Lemon Shortbread Cookies
11/3 cups Argo or Kingsford’s Corn Starch
2 cups butter or margarine
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon finely shredded lemon peel
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
Makes six dozen
Preheat the oven to 350F. In a large bowl, beat butter until softened. Add powdered sugar, beat until well combined. Add lemon peel and vanilla; beat well. In a medium bowl, stir together flour and corn starch; add to mixture and beat well.
Roll dough into 1-inch balls (kids will love this). Place on ungreased cookie sheets. Press tines of a fork atop each ball to make subtle design. Bake about 15 minutes or until bottoms are lightly browned. Cool on wire racks. (Watch your cookies, ovens vary in cook time even when the oven is set at the correct temperature.)
Easy drizzle icing recipe.
Ingredients
1-1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 to 5-1/2 teaspoons milk (soy or water optional)
Instructions
In a small bowl, combine the sugar, vanilla and enough milk to achieve desired consistency. Stir until smooth. Drizzle over cookies, bundt cakes, turnovers, muffins, and holiday breads. Color with your favorite food coloring in appropriate colors for your celebration. Add a few drops of flavoring (vanilla, almond, licorice) or a fine shaving of citrus zest.
Note: Let your icing mix to be a little thick and then heat it just a bit in the microwave (not hot, just warmer) and it will drizzle easily. Drizzle with a dipped butter knife or spoon over cookies or cake that is completely cool. Then let your icing dry before handling your cookies.
Decorate shapes of pumpkins, bats, and ghosts!
Treats For Your Halloween Tricksters
If you are planning a Halloween party of any type, there is a good chance that food will be involved. However, with Halloween being a night of creeps and spooks, you might want to get a little more creative than the typical chips and dip. Here are some ideas for how to incorporate the themes of the season and the holiday into your kitchen.
Seasonal foods
Halloween comes at the end of fall, a time when there are plenty of fresh harvest items to enjoy. You can incorporate these into your Halloween dining for fresh, (and often inexpensive) delights.
One of the favorite Halloween traditions is the carving of the Jack-o-lantern. And as anyone who has ever carved a pumpkin knows, the glowing creation on your front steps on Halloween night leaves behind a pile of slimy pumpkin guts. However, you can use this pumpkin flesh to create delicious treats. Pumpkin cooks up well into pies, cookies, muffins, and soups that you can serve for your Halloween meal. And seasoned and roasted pumpkin seeds are a popular snack. You can always experiment with flavors to create your own delicious versions.
Another bountiful harvest item around Halloween is the apple. Apples work great fresh, candied, and baked into cakes, muffins, and pies. And of course there is always applesauce! If you are in need of some game ideas for your Halloween party, bobbing for apples has always been a long time favorite.
Other Treats
Of course, your ghouls and goblins are probably not thinking about healthy fruit when they are donning Halloween costumes. For many, Halloween is as much about the candy as it is about getting to dress up. So you will want to have plenty of sweet treats on hand as well.
Cookies are always a favorite with kids of all ages. You can use your favorite cookie dough flavor, and then shape it into fun Halloween shapes using cookie cutters. Bats, ghosts, and jack-o-lanterns/pumpkins all work well for shaped cookies. Or, you can choose to decorate your favorite cookies using orange, black, and white frosting and/or sprinkles. If you are pressed for time, pre-shaped holiday cookies are often available at your local grocer.
If you are looking for another treat idea, popcorn is always fun. You can take your favorite popcorn ball recipe and fashion ghosts instead of balls. Add a few pieces of candy for eyes and a mouth, and you have a fun treat. Or, put fresh-popped popcorn into disposable plastic gloves, with a piece of candy at the fingertip, to create monster hands.
Getting creative
You can always turn your kid’s favorite foods into Halloween dishes with a little creativity. Food coloring can turn ordinary foods into creepy monster dishes. Decorate cupcakes with licorice legs and candy eyes to create spiders. Or simply get a little creative with how you serve everyday items to design your own spooky feast.
With a little work and a little creativity, you can come up with your own Halloween treats for your little tricksters.
