Sallee's Six: July Pie Crust Designs

Use this technique with star cookie cutters for a 4th of July pie.

Pretty pies feed your eyes.
Just looking at pictures of gorgeous pie crust designs makes me want to get my rolling pin and bake a pie or two.

Listed below are five sources for pie recipes and pretty pie crust designs that I like.
Not a pie lover? Look at number 6.

1. MarthaStewart.com has 12 piecrust designs to share with you.                           Click Here
2. Sally over at Sally's Baking Addiction not only has an American Flag piecrust, but the pie has a blue fruit filling and a red fruit filling.                                                           Click Here
3. How about a Blueberry Peach Pie with a gorgeous crust?                                   Click Here
4. Food Network has some great new designs for apple and pumpkin pies.          Click Here
5. Ashton over at Something Swanky has a great recipe for a 4th of July Berry Pie that uses two purchased pie crusts. The top crust has cut out stars and the pastry star cutouts are layered on the crust.                                                                                                        Click Here
6. Not a pie lover, but you love crust? Bridget of Bake at 350 will show you 4 new ways to use pie crust.                                                                                                                   Click Here

Here is my never fail pie crust recipe     Click Here for the recipe

Snowman Cookie Exchange Winner

My adorable snowman cookies won 1st in the Best Decorated category in the annual Christmas cookie exchange at work. 

Sugar Cookie recipe   Click Here  Use a 3 inch gingerbread man cookie cutter

Royal Icing recipe      Click Here  Use clear vanilla extract to get snow white icing. 

Icing Colors

• Apply the white royal icing with a butter knife and allow to dry for about 20 minutes.
• Tint a small amount of icing black with Americolor Gel Super Black.
• Tint a small amount of icing orange with 1 drop Americolor Gel Super Red, and 2 drops Americolor Gel Yellow.
• Put tinted icing into a small decorator bag. Carefully snip the very end of the bag off. Pipe onto the cookies. 

Drivin' Down the Road Cupcakes and Smash Cake

Great way to use a number 1 cookie cutter: Gently press the cookie cutter into the frosting and carefully remove it. This will leave the outline of the number 1 and then you can pipe frosting inside the outline. 

Tip - Pipe the number onto the cake first. Then decorate the top of the cake from the center to the edges.

The Road: Pipe four strips of dark gray frosting, side by side, across the cupcake with a #47 basket weave tip with the smooth side up.

The Grass: Use a #67 leaf tip to form the grass on the cupcakes and the smash cake. Hold the pastry bag so that the long slots of the leaf tip are vertical. Pipe and lift to form the grass.

The Road Border and Stripes: Pipe white frosting along the edges of the gray frosting and down the center of the road with a #5 piping tip. 

I used a small, stainless steel pan to make this 5.5 to 6 inch smash cake. 

Decorating the Cake Top

• Gently press the brim of a large glass into the frosted center of the cake top. This will give you a perfect circle for your track center and road. 
• Fill in the center with a #67 leaf tip and follow the directions above. 
• Then pipe the road around the circular edge of the grass with a #47 basket weave tip with the smooth side up. 
• Having your cake on a lazy susan with greatly help with this part of the decorating. Turn the lazy susan as you pipe around the grass edge.
•  As with the cupcakes, pipe four side by side strips of dark gray frosting to form the road. 

Candy Bar Car Cupcake and Cake Toppers

• $3 bag of mini-candy bars - about 27 bars
• 1 large bag of candy coated chocolate candy - I used about half of the candy. 
• 1 box of teddy bear graham crackers
• small amount of semi-sweet chocolate chips. 
• 1 small pastry bag

Chocolate Candy Glue

I placed about  2 Tbsp. of semi-sweet chocolate chips into a pastry bag and microwaved them at 20 second intervals until they were soft and melted. Then I snipped the very end off the pastry bag. This was my "glue" to hold the candy wheels, steering wheel, and bear halves onto the candy bars. 

I have included the video that I watched before making my teddy bear candy cars.

In the video, it shows cutting the steering wheel candy piece in half and piping on headlights. As you can see, I didn't do this and am perfectly happy with the end results!

For video directions        Click Here

Basic Butter Cream Frosting

This is my favorite butter cream frosting and it will frost 2 dozen cupcakes or 1 - 8 inch cake. For 3 dozen cupcakes and the smash cake I made 2 double batches of frosting and had plenty of frosting for the 6 inch smash cake. The smash cake was cut in half and filled with frosting.

Ingredients

• 4 Tbsp of salted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup of vegetable shortening Do not use pre-creamed shortening.
• 1/2 tsp. of vanilla or other extract
• 1/4 cup of water
• 1 lb. of confectioners sugar

Directions

• Place butter and shortening in a mixing bowl.
• Beat on low speed for 2-3 minutes
• Add half of the powdered sugar and extract
• Beat on low speed until the sugar is almost blended with the butter-shortening mixture
• Add the remaining powdered sugar and the water.
• Beat at low speed for 2-3 minutes, scraping sides of bowl once or twice. 

You will need to divide and tint your frosting the colors you want.

Lollipop Crispy Treat Pops

Lollipop meets rice crispy treat and the two merge to form a Lollipop Crispy Treat. The outside is rice crispy treat and hidden inside is a lollipop. This is how to make them:

• Make a batch of rice krispy treats. 
• Pour the warm krispy treats into a greased 10 inch by 15 inch  by 1 inch sheet pan or sided cookie sheet. 
• Press into an even layer. 
• Cut into two inch circles.

Unwrapped Dum-Dum lollipops

• Shape and form the cereal treat circle around a lollipop. 
• Use pieces of cereal treat as necessary to achieve a smooth, solid layer. 

• Continue until all of the krispy treats are gone.
• This will make about twenty to twenty-two  lollipop crispy treats. 
• If desired, dip the crispy treat cake pops into a glaze, melted candy melts, or melted almond bark and apply sprinkles. 
• Set on waxed paper until dry.

A finished lollipop crispy treat finished at midnight for an afternoon baby shower.

Nine Patch with Stars Birthday Cake and Cupcakes

Patchwork and Stars Birthday Cake with rolled butter cream fondant and royal icing.

My Grandma Pansy is my inspiration for the Nine Patch cake top.
Grandma's quilts were prized presents in my family. The quilt I received from her was a red and white, nine patch design that I treasured for years.
Love of barn stars is a quirk of mine. I LOVE barn stars. Mini stars were the perfect addition for this pretty cake top that I designed for my daughter Ashley's birthday. Ashley is a single mom with a toddler and she enjoys receiving a birthday cake from Mom!
Why Jumbo Cupcakes?
Just didn't feel like making two cakes. lol...lol Instead, I placed jumbo aluminum cupcake liners in a cake pan and cooked a nine inch cake and five jumbo cupcakes.

P.S. The cupcakes didn't go to Ashley's house. They stayed home for Bill and I to enjoy.

Jumbo cupcakes made with rolled butter cream fondant and royal icing.

Close up of royal icing beads and star.

The cookie cutters that I used to create the Nine Patch Cake and Jumbo Cupcakes : a 3 inch square cookie cutter, a 1 1/4 inch mini-star cookie cutter, a 3 inch round cookie cutter, and a 2 inch round cookie cutter.

Step by Step Pictures to Assemble a Nine Patch with Stars Cake

Step 1: Place corner squares and center square first, leaving a small gap as shown in the picture above. Next, set four contrasting squares into place. Don't worry, the stars will cover all of the cake top.

Step 2: Place 12 white stars as shown in the diagram above. 

Step 3: Place 19 pink stars as shown in the diagram above.

Step 4: Place 12 brown stars as shown in the diagram above
Step 5: Pipe lettering and then dots onto stars. Your Nine Patch with Stars Birthday Cake is done!

Five Easy Steps to Assemble the Jumbo Cupcake Design

1. Drizzle a small amount of royal icing onto the cupcake top.
2. Place a 3 inch round of brown fondant onto the cupcake top over the royal icing.

3.Using a small amount of royal icing as glue, stack a 2 inch round of pink fondant on top of the brown fondant circle.

4. Place a white fondant star on top of the pink circle.
5. Pipe royal icing beads around the edge of the brown fondant circle

My Butter Cream Fondant Recipe

I have broken two stand mixers trying to mix fondant with the little spiral dough hooks that came with them. The second one was supposed to be a heavy-duty, detachable, stand mixer - it wasn't. I am now using a 1960's model stand mixer with dough hooks to make this recipe. A Kitchen Aide mixer is at the top of my wish list!

Ingredients

Yield: about 1 1/2 pounds of fondant

1/2 cup light corn syrup                   1/4 cup shortening                          1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract                      1 pound confectioners sugar - about half of a 2 pound bag

This recipe can be doubled and the yield will be 3 pounds of fondant. 

Directions

• In a large bowl, stir together the shortening and corn syrup.
• Mix with an electric mixer until the mixture is creamy and smooth.
• Add the vanilla extract and salt.
• Gradually mix in the confectioners sugar until it forms or begins to form a stiff dough.
• Knead by hand until the fondant holds together in a smooth ball that is not sticky. Add a little more confectioners sugar as needed. 
• Divide fondant into three 1/2 pound balls
• Flatten each ball and wrap in plastic wrap
• Place wrapped circles of fondant into a container with a tight fitting lid. I use a 4 qt. ice cream bucket.
• Place container in refrigerator until you want to use it. 
• Remove the  fondant from the refrigerator and let it warm for about 15-20 minutes. 
• Knead with your hands until fondant is pliable. 

I like to make the fondant 2-3 days ahead of time and keep it refrigerated until I need it. Plus, I feel like the fondant handles better after is has been in the refrigerator for two or three days. 

Variation:

For chocolate butter cream fondant, add 1/4 cup of cocoa powder with the vanilla extract, and salt.

Gingerbread Snowmen, Snowflakes, and Stars

Snowflake snowmen, star snowmen, and gingerbread snowmen are the theme for my 2015 Christmas gift plates. 

I have been waiting since January to create these adorable snowman cookies. 

Why January you say? In January, I saw a plate of star shaped and snowflake shaped snowman cookies on Pinterest. Seriously, I fell in love with a plate of snowman cookies.

To create my Christmas plate of cute cookies,

I made a double batch of holiday sugar cookie dough, a double batch of homemade gingerbread cookie dough, and one batch of old-fashioned royal icing that was somewhere between piping and flow consistency for decorating. Old-fashioned royal icing means I used real egg whites and lemon juice. 

At the end of my baking and decorating, I had 10 plates with 1 dozen cookies on each plate.

Plus, I made stocking stuffer snack bags for our grandchildren, nephews, and nieces. Each stocking stuffer snack bag holds one gingerbread snowman and one sugar cookie snowman.

Sallee B's Go To Recipes

Roll out sugar cookie recipe      Click Here

Gingerbread cookie recipe        Click Here

Royal icing recipe                      Click Here

Note: I did not use molasses in the gingerbread cookie recipe. As a substitute, I used butter pecan pancake syrup. The dough will be a little softer and has to be chilled at least two hours. 

The picture below shows the cookie cutters that I chose. 

Cookie cutter sizes starting at the top left: 

• 3 inch gingerbread cookie cutter
• 3 inch five point star cookie cutter
• 3 inch Christmas tree cookie cutter
• 1.5 inch snowflake cookie cutter
• 2.5 inch star cookie cutter

Decorating with Zip Top Bags

I did not use any decorator tips on this baking project. I did fill 1 pastry bag with white royal icing and two snack size, zip top bags with  orange and black royal icing. With a small pair of scissors, I snipped the end of each bag. Make sure you barely snip the corner, or tip, of each bag because if you snip too much off, the royal icing will make a gloppy, wide line. Not telling you how I know this. lol...lol

Frosting the Sugar Cookie Snowman Stars, Sugar Cookie Snowflakes, and Gingerbread Snowmen

1. Outline the cookie with white icing
2. Pipe a few lines onto the cookie, inside the outline, to partially cover it.
3. With a short, thin bladed knife, carefully spread the icing to cover the cookie inside the outline. Add more icing if necessary I used a dollar store paring knife. 
4. Let frosted cookies dry until the icing is hard. Royal icing dries FAST.
5. Use a dot of black icing to form eyes, mouth, and buttons. I used five dots for each snowman's mouth. 
6. Add an orange dot and line for the nose. Mine are vaguely triangular. I made a dot, then added a small line to shape each nose. 
7. Let dry until frosting is hard. 

Decorating the Sugar Cookie Stars and Sugar Cookie Christmas Trees

1. Pour desired sprinkles into a soup bowl
2. Outline a cookie with royal icing. Add icing lines anyplace you want sprinkles to adhere.
3. Hold the cookie over the soup bowl and drop sprinkles onto the wet icing.
4. Repeat until all of the cookies are outlined with sprinkles. 

I spread a thin coat of icing on the top of a few stars and then applied sprinkles onto the cookies. Personally, I like the sprinkle outlined cookies better than the cookies with a solid coating of sprinkles. 

My Big Cake Adventure - A Trio of Half Sheet Cakes Part 2

The completed cakes

My "Big Cake Adventure" began at work. In Part 1 I told you about my job. I am employed full-time AND am a home baker. A home baker who did not fully understand the amount of work it would take to complete three half sheet cakes in a small home kitchen, using a normal oven, and a hand held mixer. However, the end result was worth it! The third through sixth grade students made a point to tell me how much they liked the cakes and how good the cakes were. Was it worth all the work on my weekend? I think so. 

Our MAP theme for this year - "Superheros Fly Away With a Good Book" 

 

Planning the Decorations

Once the theme for the testing was set, the search for three, 8.5 x11 inch clip art pictures began. The clip art pictures can not be too intricate because you will be cutting each picture apart to use as pattern pieces. I found the two clip art pictures below using a Google image search.

 

I made two copies of each picture. One copy is to determine color, add my variations, and give me a master picture to guide me. The other copy is cut apart to be used as pattern pieces for cutting the fondant pieces out. I use a paring knife that has a thin blade with a very narrow tip. A pizza cutter, round and square cookie cutter sets, and the open end of decorating tips are all very useful for cutting out fondant pieces. I use square cookie cutters to cut out squares of fondant. Then, a pattern piece is laid on top of the square and the square is trimmed and shaped into the correct shape. 

Color Selection

The first colors I knew would be on the cake are our school colors - black and gold (yellow). Plus, I wanted to use blue and green for the super hero costumes. Another item to think about was the color of my home made, rolled butter cream fondant.

I make chocolate fondant for black decorations and white rolled butter cream fondant (vanilla) for all decorations that are not black. This led me to make the following color choices:

• black - super hero eagle silhouette, boots, belts, masks, letter tiles, and hair
• yellow fondant - capes, belt buckles, and chest emblems
• yellow butter cream frosting - lettering
• dark brown (chocolate) - books and hair
• light brown (a blend of both fondants) - skin and eyes
• blue - costume and letter tiles
• green - costume and letter tiles

Type of Food Coloring

• yellow liquid food coloring
• black gel food coloring
• royal blue gel food coloring
• kelly green gel food coloring
• pink and copper gel food coloring (for the girl super hero's skin)

Suggested Timeline for a Home Baker 

Three days before the event

• Buy or make cake boards. If making cake boards, use a heavy duty material! Believe me when I tell you even two layers of cardboard is too light for a cake this heavy. If I EVER tackle a cake this big again, I am making cake boards with quarter inch plywood. Then, I am keeping them forever! Learn from me.......Please.
• Buy, or make all the frosting and fondant that you will need for cakes. I ended up making two double batches of butter cream frosting. I made each doubled batch of butter cream frosting in a four quart ice cream bucket. It was so nice to make and store frosting in the ice cream container.
• Rolled butter cream fondant is easy to make and store. I like to separate the fondant into four equal parts, of about three quarters of a pound each, and flatten each into a disk. Then, I wrap each disk in plastic wrap, place the disk in a zip top bag, and place the bagged and wrapped fondant in the refrigerator. 

Two days before the event

• Bake the cake, or cakes. A half sheet cake takes about 55 to 60 minutes to bake. 
• Cool the cake for 5 minutes in the pan.
• Put cake on a cooling rack and cool completely. Overlapping two cooling racks will work. NOTE - Do not use a cooling rack with a grid pattern. The grid will remove part of your cake top. Learn from my experience. 
• Remove your fondant and frosting from the refrigerator so it can warm up and be ready to roll, or spread.
• Place cake on prepared cake board. I did not find it necessary to trim the cake tops after cooling them. 
• Frost cool cake with a thin, "dirty frosting" layer to seal the cake. 
• Keep cake in a cool room, or in a refrigerator
• Make your fondant pieces and place them on a parchment paper lined tray. Apply lettering to any fondant letter tiles you are using. Air drying them will make placing them on the cake top much easier. Keep far away from water, or moisture of any kind. Fondant will melt if it gets wet, or damp.

One day before the event

• Remove frosting from the refrigerator and let it warm up. You will need to stir it, but I do not beat my finished butter cream frosting with a mixer. You can ruin a batch of home made butter cream frosting by over beating it. The fats and sugar separate and the frosting will look curdled. 
• Early in the day, frost cake with its final layer of frosting. I waited about an hour for the butter cream frosting to form a crust. My home made butter cream frosting forms a crust in about thirty minutes, but I usually wait about an hour. 
• Begin assembling decorations on top of your frosted cake. Push fondant decorations gently into the crusted frosting.

Sallee's Silky Smooth Butter Cream Frosting recipe                     Click here

Rolled Butter Cream Fondant recipe                                                Click here

Chocolate Fondant - Use the Rolled Butter Cream Fondant recipe. You will add 1/2 cup of baking cocoa along with the vanilla extract and salt. 

Is this enough information to help you begin a big cake adventure?

If you have any questions, post a comment, or email me through my website: 

www.salleebonhamwrites.com

Holiday Cookie Box for Christmas

Individual packages of homemade, decorated holiday cookies waiting to be boxed with a nine inch by eight inch Christmas tree cookie. 

A Recycled Cookie Cutter

Last year I received  Ferrero Rocher chocolates packaged in a plastic, Christmas tree shaped container. Thrifty gal and recycler that I am, my first thought was to reuse the empty container as a cookie cutter for an extra large, nine inch by eight inch, Christmas tree cookie.

Changing An Annual Baking Tradition

For years I have been making Christmas tree mini-cakes for my family. Hopefully they won't mind not getting a mini-cake this year. Instead, I decided to make a large Christmas tree cookie and package it with a variety of holiday cookies.

9" by 8" decorated, sugar cookie, Christmas trees.

Cinnamon candies, or red hots, yellow candy stars, and white piped garland and white Christmas bulbs decorate each cookie tree. I used a #3 piping tip to form the white bulbs and garland.

My classic, almost famous, sugar cookie dough became Christmas tree cookies, holly leaf cookies, and snow flake cookies. 

Sallee's Sugar Cookie Recipe

I used a #3 piping tip  to form the white icing features. The black icing was piped using a sixteen inch piping bag with the tip snipped off. To form the reindeer eyes, first pipe a bead of white icing with the #3 inch tip. Next, pipe a dot of black icing on top of the white icing bead. Now you have an eye looking at you.

Peanut butter, roll out cookie dough became Christmas trees and Rudolph, the Red Nose Reindeer cookies. 

My first time using this dough did not work well. The dough is sticky and soft UNLESS you refrigerate it for at least twenty-four hours. Then, you still have to work quickly to get it rolled out on a pastry mat. An additional, necessary step required flipping the dough over and re-flouring my pastry mat.

Also, I gave my cookie cutters a flour bath. Seriously, I had to submerge them in flour to prevent the dough from sticking to the cutters.

I will be looking for a different peanut butter cookie recipe to use.

Snowflake sugar cookies decorated with pale blue icing and Betty Crocker snowflake decor mix.

Sugar cookie holly leaves and peanut butter Christmas trees. For the holly leaf berries, I sorted out the red trees from the Christmas tree sprinkles and used them for the berries. Later I used a #3 piping tip and white icing to pipe ribbing onto the holly leaf cookies. This detail can be seen below in the fifth picture, or next to the last picture.

Sugar cookie trees decorated with yellow candy stars and Betty Crocker snowflake decors.

Christmas tree cookies decorated with a Wilton sprinkles mix. 

Chocolate bells with crushed candy cane trim. Piped borders were formed with a #5 piping tip.

Chocolate Roll Out Cookies 

Chocolate, roll out cookie dough became Christmas bells and Rudolph, the Red Nose Reindeer cookies.

Chocolate Cutout Cookie Recipe

I've used this dough before and it rolls out well after being chilled for two hours. 

Decorating Icing Recipe

Decorated and ready to pack in a shirt gift box from the local dollar store.
Christmas print, shirt gift boxes are sold in a three pack for two dollars.

Carefully placed and ready for a lid!

Stars and Swirls Cupcakes

No, it isn't July in October. These cupcakes were made for an after school family night activity. The activity theme was the Statue of Liberty. I volunteered to bring patriotic, red, white, and blue cupcakes to accompany the Liberty Punch that was being served.

The Cupcakes
Ingredients

• 3 boxes of vanilla cake mix - yield 6 dozen cupcakes
• Red, blue, and yellow Wilton cupcake liners
• Canola oil
• Eggs
• Water

Directions

• Substitute unsweetened applesauce for half of the oil.
• Follow box directions to bake the cupcakes.
• Cool the cupcakes completely

Stars

• Use the recipe below and make rolled butter cream fondant. 
• Using gel food coloring, tint half of the fondant blue and the other half red.
• Roll out the fondant and cut out stars.

rolled butter cream fondant

Silky Smooth Ivory Butter Cream Frosting
Yield: frosting to decorate 5 dozen cupcakes.

Ingredients
2 sticks of salted butter
1/2 cup of vegetable shortening
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1-2 tsp. lemon juice, bottled
1/4 to 1/2 cup of water
2 lb. bag of confectioners sugar

Directions

• Place butter and vegetable shortening into a mixing bowl.
• Using an electric mixer on low speed, cream the butter and vegetable shortening together for 2-3 minutes until light colored and creamy.
• Add about 1/4 of the confectioners sugar.
• Beat with the mixer on low speed until well blended.
• Add another 1/3 of the remaining confectioners sugar, vanilla extract, and lemon juice. Continue to mix at low speed until the frosting is well blended. 
• Add 1/4 cup water and half of the remaining confectioners sugar.
• Beat until well blended.
• Add remaining confectioners sugar. 
• Continue to mix with the electric mixer on low speed. Add remaining water 1 Tbsp at a time until the frosting is the desired consistency for decorating. 
• If coloring the frosting, add food coloring now.
• Blend food coloring into the frosting until the desired color is achieved.
• Icing may be thinned slightly, but this is decorating icing and it should pipe easily from the bag and hold its shape well.
• Put a 1M tip into a pastry bag, fill with frosting, and pipe onto cupcakes. Begin on the outside edge of the cupcake and circle inward. End with the pastry bag perpendicular to the center of the cupcake and end with a star.

This is my favorite butter cream frosting to use for piping through a bag.

Small Batch Variation

 Ingredients
1 stick of butter
1/4 cup of vegetable shortening
1 tsp. of vanilla extract
1 tsp. lemon juice
1/4 cup of water
1 lb. of confectioners sugar

Follow the same directions as the large batch recipe. 

Faye's Angel Biscuits - Updated 11/16/2014

I had never heard of Angel Biscuits until I was at a carry in dinner at church. One of the older ladies had brought chicken pot pie with a biscuit crust to the dinner. After sampling a spoonful of the potpie, I knew I had to know what type of biscuit she had used for her crust. The tender biscuit crust had a slightly sweet tang that perfectly complimented the chicken and pea filling. Ruth smiled when I asked her about the crust. "Angel biscuit dough is what I used."she said. Angel biscuits? Ruth explained that they were a buttermilk biscuit, but you added yeast and let the dough rise like a dinner roll.

I had forgotten about Angel Biscuits until I was browsing through my cookbook collection a couple of weeks ago. The title, "Angel Biscuits", caught my eye and caused my forgotten memory to emerge. Hmmm....there was no doubt that I wanted to make these biscuits.

The hubby is a yeast roll man. Bill likes my favorite biscuit recipe, but he isn't really crazy about biscuits. Tonight, I made a batch of Angel Biscuits thinking that this just might be the biscuit that Bill will love. Why? It is the perfect yeast biscuit to eat with sausage gravy, honey, or butter.

Faye's Angel Biscuits 

    

Yield: about 1 dozen

This recipe may be doubled. Use 1/3 cup of sugar. Do not double the 1/4 cup of water. All other ingredients are doubled. and will yield about 2 1/2 dozen biscuits.

Ingredients

• 1  .25 oz. package active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup very warm water, 110 degrees to 115 degrees Fahrenheit
• 4 slightly rounded Tbsp. plain yogurt
• 3/4 cup of warm water
• 2 1/2 - 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup granulated white sugar
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 cup shortening

Directions

• In a small bowl, Pour packet of yeast into 1/4 cup of very warm water.
• Let stand five minutes.
• Using a one cup measuring cup, measure 3/4 cup of very warm water.
• Add four Tbsp. of plain yogurt to the warm water in the measuring cup.
• Stir. Add more water if necessary to measure one cup of liquid. 
• Microwave for 30 seconds. Stir. Mixture should be at 110 - 115 degrees Fahreheit.
• Combine yogurt mixture with the yeast. Stir briefly. Set aside.

• In a one quart bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
• Add shortening and blend it with a pastry blender, two butter knives, a small wire whisk, or by hand until the mixture resembles coarse meal.
• Stir in yeast/yogurt mixture, mix well. A soft dough should form.
• Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface
• Sprinkle flour onto sticky areas of dough.
• Knead dough lightly three or four times.
• Pat or roll dough to a half inch thickness.
• Cut into round biscuits with a floured, two and a half inch round biscuit cutter or sharp cookie cutter.
• Place biscuits on a lightly greased, twelve inch pizza pan, with biscuits barely touching.
• Cover with one layer of paper towels and let rise in a warm place for about one and a half hours.
• Bake at 450 degrees Fahrenheit for 8-10 minutes. Mine take 10 minutes in a preheated oven. 

Homemade happiness on a plate!

Update 11/16/2014 

An Alternate Way to Shape the Biscuits.

• Instead of rolling out the biscuit dough, divide your ball of dough into three equal pieces using your fingers to pinch off each piece of dough.
• Next, divide each ball in half  which results in six dough balls.
• Then, divide each of the six dough balls in half which results in twelve dough balls.

Ready to be sprayed with pan coat.

• Spray the cups in a cupcake pan with pan coat spray.
• Put a dough ball into each sprayed cup and turn it over once.
• Cover the cupcake pan and let the biscuits rise in a warm place for about an hour and a half.
• Follow the above baking directions.

Adapted from a recipe found in Recipes We Grew Up With. Recipe submitted by Faye Hintz, Springfield, MO.  Publisher: Reiman Publications. 

MYO Easter Bunny and Tulip Pancakes

Easter morning breakfast at the Bonham house is themed around the Easter Bunny. Making bunny shaped pancakes takes a little more time, but when you have a plateful they just look so darn cute. This year I added another twist to the breakfast because I also make tulip shaped pancakes using a metal Wilton cookie cutter. I wrote about this in a previous post, Cookie Cutters Aren't Just For Cookies, but now you will get to see how I did it.



Nice wide spatula and butter coated griddle

Equipment needed: 

• griddle - a flat pan with no sides
•  nice wide metal spatula
• quart measuring cup or batter bowl
• metal tulip cookie cutter or desired flower shape
• cooking spray, butter, or margarine

Bunny Pancakes

• First make up a batch of your favorite pancake batter and put it into a quart measuring cup or batter bowl.
• Preheat  your griddle until a drop of water will skitter, or move quickly, across the hot surface. Spray your griddle with cooking spray or a tablespoon of oil, butter, or margarine. I use canola oil spray or butter. However butter and margarine will turn brown on the griddle.
• Pour a small amount of batter out and pause for a second while it spreads into a circle. Then add two v or ear shapes to the pancake. Don't worry if the ears aren't perfect because you can trim them into a nicer shape after you flip them over with your spatula.
• Wait until the pancake surface is nice and bubbly and the edges will look a little dry. Gently ease your nice wide spatula under the pancake, especially the ears and gently flip it over. If you aren't happy with the ear shape, trim them at this stage.

Ear shapes will not be perfect.
You can trim them after you flip the bunny cakes over.

Flipped and trimmed bunny cakes

Tulip Shaped Pancakes - A Pictorial Guide

Spray the metal cookie cutter generously with pan spray, especially the stem and points. Place cookie cutter onto your hot griddle.

 Fill the metal cookie cutter about one third to one half full. Do not completely fill it or the batter will not cook through. Let it cook until the surface is bubbly. Then slip a nice wide spatula under the cookie cutter and flip it over.

The bottom should look like this. Gently push the pancake down until it contacts the griddle and let it continue to cook. You may remove the cookie cutter when the pancake will hold its shape.

Your tulip will hold its shape and you can start your next tulip pancake. You can see the bubbles forming in the batter of the next tulip.