Instead of Gingerbread Cookies

I think every year since my son was old enough to help we've made gingerbread cookies and some kind of gingerbread house. As we still have some of last year's dough still in the freezer I suggested that we try something else, unless he wanted the cookies. I had seen a Gingerbread Scone recipe and told him about it and we decided to have them instead. I only used 1½ tsp of ginger (but might try the whole amount next time), left out the fruit, used regular brown sugar and left off the glaze. We had them for breakfast and they were quite good.

Do you make gingerbread cookies?

Bit of Baking

I need to bring something with me tomorrow so I made a half batch of the Low-fat Low-cholesterol Oatmeal Drop Cookies. I used a whole egg for ½ of the recipe, ½ brown sugar and ½ white and left out the raisins as I hadn't written them down on the recipe. I wanted to make something with oil so that anyone with dairy/soy/nut problems could eat them.

I need room to freeze some Christmas cookies that I'm hoping to make this weekend. I had to go through the freezer to see what I could get rid of. I came across a few containers of rhubarb so I thought I'd make a rhubarb crisp. When I last made an apple crisp I upped the amount of oatmeal and liked it. So I used the same recipe. I can taste the rhubarb but it seems to have disappeared into the oatmeal!

Seeing that I was going to have the oven on I thought that I'd try to make some focaccia. I used half of the Blitz Bread: No-Fuss Focaccia recipe without the spices or powdered cheese (never even heard of powdered cheese before!). Unfortunately as soon as I took the towel off and saw that it hadn't risen I realized that I hadn't added any yeast! The oven was all ready ready so I just brushed it with olive oil and sprinkled on some salt, forgetting the rosemary that I had wanted. It turned out as one might expect. But it's not so bad that it isn't being eaten anyway.

Happy Birthday to My Dear Son!

It was the first time I used this recipe for The Perfect Present Buttermilk Chocolate Cake Recipe that my sister recommended. It was really good.

Cheese and Crackers

I would like to find a versatile nut cheese recipe. Though this Simple Almond Cheese tasted good and was otherwise easy to make, it wasn't worth the hour it took to peel 2½ dl of soaked almonds. The recipe says to pop off the peels but only about 5 of mine slipped off. The rest I had to scratch off. Good thing for podcasts! I used dried dill instead of garlic. I think I'll try them again but either use unpeeled almonds or buy them peeled.

Spicy Sesame Crackers
2 dl flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ dl oat flour (I made it from rolled oats)
1/4 dl sesame seeds
1 ½ tsp pizza spice
black pepper, to taste
chili powder, to taste
dash salt
50 g margarine
3/4 dl milk

Preheat oven to 200C. Sift flour and baking powder together. Add oat flour, sesame seeds and spices. Cut in margarine until well mixed with dry ingredients. Add milk and stir to blend together. Flour board and roll out dough until thickness desired. (I try to roll it out as thin as possible, but that is just me.) Can use cookie cutter to cut shapes or just cut into squares or other shapes. Prick each cracker twice with fork. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or longer if thick, but check after 8 minutes to see how they are doing.

Ginger Snaps

I can't remember did we eat ginger snaps when I was growing up or did I find them after I moved out on my own. Every few years they pop in my mind (as do Fig Newtons, Cheez Whiz, etc.) and I miss them. I came across a Ginger Snap recipe from a Canadian blog and thought that I would try them. They were really good but not like the ones I used to eat. Next time I will try adding more ginger and less sugar and see how that turns out.

After I finished making the project bags I was left with the corners that I had cut out. I've been wanting a few mug coasters and I thought that I would try to use the scraps to make them.

First I cut off the rounded edges and sewed four of the squares together.

I wanted some padding but not so much that the mugs might tip over. I had no use for the rounded bits so I used them by placing them away from the seams as not to add more bulk.

Then I sewed two of the pieces together and turned them right side out and sewed in a spiral to keep the padding in place. They are just for me so I wasn't too careful how straight the edges or lines were. All that was left from the original piece of material were small scraps and I didn't feel bad bad throwing them away.