Cookies

Although I am not the greatest baker, I have recently started to do it a little more. I once read that cookie baking is a good place for a beginning baker to start. So that's what I did. I will tell you they were not all yummy, delicious or pretty (nothing like the picture), but it didn't stop my family from eating everything I put in front of them. Hours of preparing and baking, but no cookies to show for it. Nothing but tidbits left!


My mother always said that you spend hours in the kitchen and minutes at the table....




COOKIE- A flour-based, sweet, hand-held small cake (from the Dutch word "koekje," meaning "little cake"). Cookies can be prepared in different shapes and textures and are usually categorized by the way they are formed. Drop cookies are dropped from a spoon. Rolled cookies are made from a chilled dough that is rolled out and cut into shapes. Bar cookies are baked in sheets and then cut into squares or bars. Molded cookies can either be shaped by hand, stamped with a pattern before baking or baked directly in a mold. Bagged or piped cookies are shaped with a pastry bag or a cookie gun.




What better way to start then to try a recipe from Cookies For A Cause First Annual Cookie Book.

http://www.cookies4acause.com/


One of my favorite cookies from the book is:




PEANUT BUTTER BARS


1 cup butter or margarine, melted

2 cups graham cracker crumbs

2 cups confectioners' sugar

1 cup peanut butter

11/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

4 Tb peanut butter


In medium bowl, mix together the butter or margarine, graham cracker crumbs, confectioners' sugar, and 1 cup peanut butter until well blended. Press evenly into the bottom of an ungreased 9x13 pan. In a metal bowl over simmering water or in microwave, melt the chocolate chips with the peanut butter, stirring occasionally until smooth. Spread over the prepared crust. Refrigerate for at least an hour before cutting into squares.



Buy the book, pick your favorite cookie and tell us about it...or one of your own favorites.