Last Friday Artwalk - July

I made these delicious thumb print cookies for the last Friday Artwalk in July. They're made with my homemade strawberry preserves:

I used this recipe from Cooks.com

THUMBPRINT COOKIES

1/2 c. shortening - part butter 1/4 c. brown sugar 1 egg, separated 1/2 tsp. vanilla 1 c. flour 1/4 tsp. salt 3/4 c. chopped nuts Jelly or tinted confectioners sugar icing Mix shortening, sugar, egg yolk and vanilla thoroughly. Blend together flour and salt. Stir in. Roll dough into balls, 1 teaspoon per ball. Beat egg white slightly with fork. Dip balls in egg white. Roll in nuts. Place about 1 inch apart on ungreased baking sheet. Press thumb gently in center of each. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until set. Cool. I fill the thumbprint with pink and green (almond flavored and mint flavored) confectioners icing. However, you can use different flavored jellies if you like. These make a pretty Christmas cookie.

I didn't have nuts to roll them in, so the dough was probably a little wet and had trouble holding the jam. But they taste just like little strawberry shortcakes.

I used the Red Red Strawberry jam recipe from Joy of Cooking, very sweet. Recently I've started making jam with low-sugar pectin and will try that next time around.

And here's a beautiful pie my sweetie made for a potluck BBQ meeting of the Eugene Oregon Glass Guild. He's been really getting into presentation lately:

I won't be available for the August Last Friday Artwalk, so I'll just have to cool up something special for September.

May Last Friday Artwalk!

I'm a little behind, but I wanted to post the recipe for the Double Chocolate Cherry Cookies I served. They're delicious:

Double Chocolate Cherry Cookies -

• ¾ cups all purpose flour
• 1 ¼ cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 ¼ cups unsalted butter
• 1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
• ¾ cups firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• ¼ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 12 ounces bittersweet chocolate coarsely chopped
• 1 ½ firmly packed cups dried sour cherries (9 ounces)

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugars until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat until well combined. Add dry mixture and beat on low speed until just combined. With a wooden spoon fold in chocolate pieces and cherries.
4. Form balls of dough, each about ¼ cup; place balls on prepared baking sheets about 3 inches apart. Bake until puffed and cracked, 9 to 11 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. DO NOT OVERBAKE!

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I got this recipe from a friend on a the lampworking message board, Lampwork Etc, it comes from the Martha Stewart cookbook.

These are FABULOUS! I think I spent $15 on Bittersweet chocolate and cherries alone, could have spent more.

I had a little trouble getting them to set, they're like molten blobs of chocolate with a cherry bonus. I started making them smaller, like tablespoon small and only baking one sheet at a time in the center of the oven. Worked well, they took about 15 minutes of baking time.

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I threw some of the dough in the freezer. I took it out, let it set for an hour or so and then baked it. The cookies held their shape better and I wasn't compelled to over bake them.

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Teague

Super Easy No-Knead Bread

Zac and I have been gorging ourselves on fresh bread for about two weeks. This bread:

Mmm...bread.

Doesn't it look delicious? Like it would cost $4 at your local swanky grocery store? It's heavenly. And so easy. And costs us roughly $1 a loaf to make.

No-Knead Miracle Bread

Time Start to Finish: 21 hours
Active Time: 15 minutes.

Ingredients:
3 Cups all-purpose flour
2 1/4 teaspoons rapid rise active yeast
1 1/4 teaspoons salt

Yep. That's all ya need.

Step 1. In a medium to large bowl, combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 and 5/8 cups of water.

mmm...yeasty.

Stir together until blended, dough will be sticky and "shaggy."

mmm...shaggy.

Step 2. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let rise about 18 hours, in warm room. I little longer or a little less won't hurt it.

Yep. It's sitting on my washing machine, this is what
it looks like after 18 hours. Kind of like a pancake in
the pan, when it's ready to be turned.

Step 3. Lightly flour a working surface, place dough on it, sprinkle it generously with flour. Fold it over once or twice and form it into a ball.

Sprinkle generously with flour.

No those aren't my man hands. Those are my
sweetie's. He does my bidding. Work faster lackey!

Step 4. Place a clean cotton towel on your work surface. Generously coat it with flour. place the dough on top. Then more flour. Then another towel. It's a sandwich.

Towel. Flour. Bread. Then add another towel.

Step 5. Let Rise for 2 hours. When it's ready, the dough will increase in volume and not spring back when poked with a finger.

Step 6. Before dough is done rising, put a heavy 6-8 quart covered pot in the oven and preheat your oven to 450 degrees. We use an old dutch oven. This process can take 30 minutes or more, depending on how long it takes your oven to heat up.

Step 7. Carefully removed pot from oven. Remember it is very hot. Slide your hand under the bottom dough towel and flip the dough over into the pot. You can shake it a bit to even it out, but it will do that as it bakes. It's okay if it looks messy.

Step 8. Cover the pot with a lid and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the lid and bake another 15 minutes, until it's a nice golden brown. Step 9. Remove from oven and try to let it cool on a wire rack before devouring half a loaf.

Here's the bread again.

Here's a close up. Look at that texture and crust!

And here's a more accurate picture, moments after
pulling it out of the oven, it will be gone.

Enjoy!