I have the starter, so I figured, why not try bagels? How hard can it be?

( Photos of the sourdough bagel attempt under the cut! )

I did two batches of cookies for my birthday. The molasses spice are my favorites.

( Recipes for both under the cut, yo! )

I've dried some starter, and I'm ready to mail it off to those of you who have expressed an interest. Here's a little photo set of me drying, then reconstituting, the dry stuff.

( Six photos. )

In cleaning up and clearing out a bunch of old paperwork, I came across this recipe for "Danger Bars". They are dangerous only in that they are incredibly delicious (or maybe that they're SO naughty bad for you).

Danger Bars

1 box yellow cake mix
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
3 eggs
1 8-oz package of cream cheese
1 16-oz box of powdered sugar

Mix cake mix, butter and 1 egg. Press into 9x13 cake pan.

Beat 2 eggs, cream cheese and powdered sugar. Pour on top of previous mix.

Bake at 325° for 45 minutes, or until top is light-golden-brown. Cool, cut into bars (smallish, due to richness).

Gingerbread Cookies

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup molasses (light or full flavor)
1 egg

1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1-1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

3 cups all-purpose flour

Combine butter, sugar, molasses and egg. Mix well. Add next six ingredients (baking powder through nutmeg). Mix well again. Add flour gradually, mixing well every time.

Cover and chill for at least an hour, preferably two hours.

Roll out to 1/4 inch on a heavily floured surface (this stuff is sticky!) and cut with cookie cutters or a knife. Bake on a greased cookie sheet, nonstick baking sheet, or silicon baking mat at 350° for 6-8 minutes.

Frosting

1 box (16 oz.) powdered sugar
1 stick softened butter
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Blend well. Color if desired.

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I made the tiny houses with not much more than a bunch of squares. Each house consists of two 1" squares for the roof, two more 1" squares for the walls, and two peaked squares for the end. For those, I made a pattern that was basically a big plus sign, then chopped an X through the plus sign, giving me four home-plate-shaped pieces each time.

I'm going through all of my old recipes to see what can be adapted to be no- or low-salt. The first dessert is a butter cookie -- the recipe expects you to use salted butter, but a switch to unsalted butter is easily done. The flavor is slightly different, but they're both yumtacular.

These are the holiday cookies I grew up with -- my mom has had this recipe for as long as I can remember. The recipe has always read "Bunny Butter Cookies", as I suspect it was originally an Easter-related cookie. But it rocks for any holiday, from Halloween to Christmas to today ... Dia de los Muertos!


Bunny Butter Cookies

1 cup softened butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg

Blend with electric mixer until creamy, then add:

3 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking powder
3 cup flour

I add the flour 1 cup at a time, mixing well after each -- it cuts down on flour flying everywhere.


Make sure you're well-blended, then cover your dough and chill in the fridge for at least an hour.

Roll it out (I usually take half out of the bowl to start, because counter space is at a premium) and use cookie cutters or just a knife to cut out shapes. (My last few cookies are always rectangles, because there's not enough dough left to really cut out the exciting shapes.)

Bake on an ungreased nonstick cookie sheet or silicon pad: 425° for 5-8 minutes

Frosting

This is super-easy buttercream frosting. It's the same recipe you'll find on the back of a C&H powdered sugar box.

1 box (16 oz.) powdered sugar
1 stick softened butter
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix and color! This is enough frosting to give all cookies a base coat, with enough left over to do detail work.