Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Vancouver - Baking 101 or How my Marathon Baking Session got Photobombed by Rose!

Hello bears and not-a-bears. Today we are going to do some baking! We are baking two types of cookies... traditional German Spritzgebäck and... Ben's World Famous Beary Yummy Cookies!! So, let's get started... First off... we measured the ingredients for the Spritzgebäck - basically, sugar, butter, flour (and then an egg, some vanilla extract, a smidge of baking powder and salt). Apparently Spritzgebäck recipes vary slightly all across Germany and get passed down from grandmother to mother to daughter... (to little bear!)

We used the "purist" method and pulled out the old weigh scale to measure the dry ingredients.

And then hauled out the extension cord (really??).

In order to make the cookies, you also need a meat grinder. Uh-huh... stay tuned and you'll see how it's used!

And then you... put... everything... sigh.. I got photobombed by Rose!!!

Anyhow... whip up the butter, add sugar and egg... then vanilla and flour... and watch it whirl around...

There... that looks good...

Now, you take apart the meatgrinder (leave the spiral thingie inside) and add a special do-dah to the front... see how it has 4 different patterns? It is for extruding the dough!

Then you get your trusty assistant to man the handle...

And the dough goes through the meat grinder and comes out the other end.... it gets cut off into short sections...

Which then get placed on parchment paper and baked in the oven at 375F for 10 minutes... more on them later.

You can also just roll out the dough...

And make cookie cutter cookies!! I wanted to use the one that Jerry and Ben sent me!

There we go... And I have to warn you... the raw cookie dough is super yummy!!! Gramma could never figure out where all the dough disappeared to so quickly when Mama and her sister were growing up... and why they always ended up with tummy aches after making these cookies!

And then you bake them... and... ummm... another photobomb!!

 Sigh... if you can't beat 'em... join em!!

Then... after the cookies have cooled... you can paint the ends with melted chocolate!!! And do funny bear outfits on the bear cookies!

Next up... Ben's World Famous Beary Yummy Cookies (see his link for the recipe!) You need peanut butter and icing sugar...

We sieved the icing sugar just because we always heard that's what you're supposed to do...

And there you have it... sieved... oh heck... another photo bomb!

Then you put it in the mixer and... sorry you can't see much... too many heads in the way!

Now... once the dough is ready, you need to have melted chocolate ready to coat them...

Whew!!! That was hard work!!! But there we go... it is all done!! I have to admit, baking is not my part of my natural skill set... but... I think we did an OK job! And Mama's sister had already baked some Berliner Brot (Berlin Bread... don't ask), marzipan and a few other things. I am set for Christmas!!

14 comments:

  1. Looks like you had a fun time making cookies and might I say the cookies look delicious. Now, I haven't seen a meat grinder like that for years and I am excited to hear of other uses for the grinder, especially cookie based uses. As I was showing the post to little bear I told him we have an old fashioned coffee grinder from years ago and I suggested we make the German cookies with the coffee grinder (since we don't have a meat grinder) and he simply starred at me blankly.

    My roommates grandparents used to make Italian cookies similar to the German ones (at least I think) called Pizzelle.

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    1. They are beary scrumptious cookies! And Jerry and Ben's peanut butter thingies were super yummy too! We have an old fashioned coffee grinder from way back too... Mama uses it to grind up All Spice...

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  2. Those look delicious Sandy! The dressed-up bears look a little like pandas. I would love to sample one, but my human says chocolate is no good for dogs.

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    1. That is beary true - chocolate is beary bad for dogs and unfortunately, all of those cookies have chocolate on some part of them. Oh well!

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  3. Those look amazing Sandy! Ben says you can be a guest on Ben's KitCHun anytime you like!! Happy Christmas!

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    1. Thanks guys! Merry Christmas to you too... I am sort of a one-recipe chef though...

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  4. Oh, and your baking helper is super excellent! Jerry tries to help Ben too, but he is more of an official taste tester than a real kitchen helper.

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    1. Yeah... the official taste tester this time was Mama... funny how the cookie dough disappears... and then the cookies!

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  5. Oh #2, Jerry says that if you do need some help finishing off those delicious cookies he is ready to sacrifice part of his winter holiday and would board a plane to come visit you...only in order to help finish the cookies mind you. Such a caring little bear!

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    1. Hmmm... does Jerry like chocolate covered marzipan balls?? Mama's sister gave us several score and we're not sure we can eat them all... at least not without putting on several pounds!

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    2. Well, we're with you on that one, we're not huge fans of marzipan. We did, however, have honey ham for dinner, and now we have enough for sandwiches all week! How did our seKretary ever know we liked honey ham? hehe

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    3. Hmmm... is that Jerry actually turning down a chance to have some sweets?? Now, honey ham sounds delicious!! Can you save me some?

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  6. Sandy, does Rose have her own blog? If not, I think she and you can start a cooking blog. Beary delicious...

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    1. Thanks Ajdin - I'll pass on the compliment to her. She seems to be a bit of a camera ham so I'm not sure how much food would be visible in the cooking blog photos!

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