Showing posts with label strawberry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label strawberry. Show all posts

Friday, May 15, 2015

Firecracker Sugar Cookies

Happy Friday! After relaxing last weekend, it's been another busy week around here, with end of the school year activities, and still unpacking! Where does all this stuff come from? After next week, things should start slowing down here a bit, or at least for a short while! So excited, Katelyn graduates 6th grade next week! More to come!

Today I am, seriously thrilled to share with you these perfectly sweet and super soft cookies, that explode with bursts of  fresh fruit flavor in your mouth. My husband was asking for something sweet again, and I was planning a chocolate cake for Katelyn's graduation party, so, I was thinking, something with lemon, something with key lime, or something pina/colada-ish! I came up with blank, nada, zilch, nothing! That is until I saw these on Flickr.



These can be made really quickly with store bought Sugar cookie dough, frosting, and really any type of fruit you prefer!

For red, white and blue, I used strawberries, and blueberries.



I just made a batch of my favorite sugar cookie dough, and cream cheese frosting. It is the perfect sweet treat for any upcoming special event!

When it comes to rolling out the dough, a few things might surprise you.

One, I prefer to work in small batches, and by small batches, enough to make 6 cookies. Why?
 If I make all of the cookies, they would all be gone, and I try to be considerate, as well as trying to be a little more health conscience, in cutting back the amount of sugar,

AND, the dough stays colder longer, which means I don't have to put it back in the fridge and wait until it gets cold, a second time,


AND finally, it's a perfect size for Lindsay to work with. I give her my fondant roller, and show her how to roll them out, by flipping and rotating the dough; makes it easier for her to work with.

LIFE HACK 101, why I didn't think of this sooner!



With all the unpacking, I found unbelievably ALMOST all of my baking tools, except for one!
You guessed it, my 2-inch round cookie cutter! Have no idea, where it is!! Has this ever happened to you??

I remember watching a cooking show, sorry I don't remember which one, I think it was Guy Fieri, and he was making biscuits, and using a Rocks glass to cut them out.

So I looked through all my glasses, (I have a rocks glass, but I have small hands, and it just didn't feel comfortable), then I found this plastic glass worked perfectly!

And then we were on a roll, me and Lindsay cutting cookies out, taking turns frosting and garnishing the cookies! This turned out to be a fun cookie decorating night!
Firecracker Sugar Cookies
Cookies:
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 egg
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup heavy cream
Frosting:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces
 4 oz. cream cheese
 3 cups powdered sugar
 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
  2 Tbls.  milk
Fresh Fruit for garnish
 1.Preheat over to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2.Cream butter and sugar for  in a stand up mixer. Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl. Then add the egg and beat until just blended. Again, scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl, and add the vanilla, and beat until well blended. 
3.In large bowl stir together flour and baking powder; add alternatively with heavy cream to butter mixture, beating until well blended.
4. Gather dough into one large ball, and refrigerate for 1 hour. Lightly flour surface and rolling pin. Working in small batches; keeping remaining dough in refrigerator, roll dough out to 1/2 inch thick. Using a 2-in round cutter, cut cookies out!
5 .Bake 8 minutes or until edges are lightly browned and cookies are set.
 6.Remove from oven, and transfer cookies off the cookie sheet to a wire rack. Cool completely.
7. Frost and garnish cookies with fresh fruit of choice!
Yields approximately 2 dozen cookies.


As always, I saved a couple cookies, especially for you!
Until next time!
xo Christine
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Monday, May 11, 2015

A Week in CASL photos: May 4th- May 10th

Happy Monday!  I am glad you stopped by to visit me today! Hope you all had a wonderful relaxing weekend! My weekend roadtrip to visit my family up North in Prescott, was lovley but very cold. My mother actually had snow the day before we arrived. I will have more to share soon!

What I like about doing a Photo365, is that I get to share with you a peek into what my week has been like, and possibly a sneak peek to what next week will bring. I've tried 365 Photo or Daily photo memes several times before, and surprisingly, I am getting farther posting my photos once a week, instead of once a day. It makes a big difference, and it's really nice to look back and see a slice of my day!

May 4th- Something RED- Nothing like the sweet taste of red, ripe strawberries with whipped cream topping! Yummm!
 

May 5th- Today I saw...For Cinco de Mayo Lindsay's class had a really nice party. The parents all brought in homemade Mexican food; enchiladas, beans, tamales, and rice. It was all muy delicioso! Not only did I see my daughter, but the memory quilt her teacher made from all of her students' art work!

 
May 6th- 10o'clock- Nothing like a mid-morning snack to pick me up!
My Easy Southern Strawberry Shortcake
 
 
May 7th- Key- I love anything with old vintage keys! One of the items at HomeGoods, I almost bought!
 
 
May8th- Four things-- I wanted to buy all 4...Candles, again an almost buy at HomeGoods....Always room for one more!!
 
 
May 9th- Peaceful- Visiting my mother for Mother's Day, enjoying a peaceful, relaxing weekend. Admiring her last Iris bloom.
 
 
May 10th- Playground....All the kids are back in school, no one's out playing. That will all change in 10 days when the kids will be out of school! And yes, even I am counting down the days!
 
 
 Are you on Instagram? You really should be!!  You can find me here on Instagram! 
 
   I recently started following a photo a day prompt on #fmsphotoaday.
 Let me know if you decide to join in the fun!

Have a great rest of your week! Until next time!
xo, Christine
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Thursday, May 7, 2015

Easy Southern Strawberry Shortcake


Most likely, you are like me, and grew up enjoying your Strawberry shortcake with those golden spongy, prepackaged dessert cups. This was one of my favorite times of the year, growing up in California. My mom would stop at a Fresh Strawberry stand on our way home from church, and buy packages, of the reddest, sweetest, most gigantic strawberries, you'd ever seen.

She quarter and hull the strawberries, with my brother and I eyeing her like hawks, to see when she was finished, so we could put the sugar on the strawberries.

Of course, she'd leave a couple ones whole for us to enjoy. She was such a thoughtful mother. My brother and I would take turns, burying our strawberries into the sugar, and gobbling them whole; trying not to get their sweet, red juice all over mother's counters.

Of course, back in the 70's everyone used Reddi-Whip real whipped topping. My mother was a frugal mother after all, and only gave each of us, a tablespoon of whipped topping, to top our shortcakes with, and we'd always sneak more.

It wasn't until I worked at a resort restaurant in California, that I actually had my first real Strawberry shortcake.

Of course, at first I thought to myself, this isn't a shortcake. It's not a golden like cake with a well for my strawberries to sit in; this is just a slightly sweetened biscuit!

Then to my delight, there was one thing this shortcake could do, that the spongy prepackaged cake couldn't; it could sop up those syrupy strawberry juices, without turning to mush. I was delighted.

Fast forward; here I was attending culinary school and our Chef, a Executive Baker for a resort in Scottsdale here in Phoenix, taught us in class about Southern biscuits and how important that they be fluffly and contain the all important fat content,layer factor. I say fat content, because back in the day, shortening was used and I prefer butter, but this recipe I used actually used heavy whipping cream.

One thing my mother didn't really make for us was real Southern biscuits; buttermilk or otherwise. We'd mostly have a slice of fresh baked bread, or a frozen, baked dinner roll.

Of course, after my experiences, dining at the resort restaurant, and what the culinary school taught me, my family enjoys more Biscuits and Gravy than my brother and I ever did; and you can imagine their surprise, when they got home from school to find out they were having Strawberry Shortcake.

At first, my husband wished, I had bought those store bought prepackaged cups, but after his first bite, he told me that this was a real treat and requested that I make it again real soon.

Easy Southern Strawberry Shortcake (adapted from Food Network)
Ingredients:
1 pound fresh strawberries, hulled and quartered
2 Tbls. sugar
2 cups self rising flour, if you can find White Lily
2 Tbls. sugar
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream+ 1 Tbls.
Reddi- Whip whipped topping
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. Wash your fresh strawberries. Then hull and quarter them. Sprinkle, strawberries with 2 Tbls. of sugar. Let the strawberries macerate in the sugar for 30 minutes to 2 hours, the longer the better, the juicier your strawberries will be.
3. Sift the flour and the sugar together. Create a well in the middle of your flour/sugar. Slowly pour the heavy whipping cream in. I used a fork to mix it all together, until everything comes together.
4. I needed to add another 1 Tbls. of heavy whipping cream, since my dough was a little on the dry side.
5.  Put the mixture into an ungreased 8x8 pan, and sprinkle with some sugar.
6. Bake 18-20 minutes until golden brown.
7. Set aside to cool. I like mine a little warm, fresh out of the oven, but completely cooled is fine too.
8. Cut shortcake into 6 pieces. Halve one piece. Top with sugared strawberries, and whipped topping.
As always, I saved one for you!
Have a fantastic day! Until next time!
xo Christine
Taking this to these parties:
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