Whole Wheat Spritz Cookies

This is my second post for today... to get the recipe for my homemade chicken noodle soup you don't want to miss the earlier post!


While I was visiting my Dad in California, his neighbor brought over the BEST cookies! They were whole wheat and made with sugar substitute! PERFECT! So I asked for the recipe. I finally had a chance to make a batch yesterday.


Whole Wheat Spritz Cookies
1 cup unsalted butter, room temp.
1/2 cup Stevia or Agave or sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp almond extract
1 large egg, room temperature
2 cups whole wheat flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl combine butter, sugar, and salt.  Beat with a spoon until smooth.  Add extracts and eggs, beat until blended.  Stir in flour just until incorporated.  (Divide dough into 4 equal portions.  Roll each portion into a log that fits into your cookie press.)  Press out onto cookie sheet.  Bake till golden brown 12-17 minutes, cool on tray 5 min then on wire rack.

My Grandma gave me this cookie press that was hers, many years ago... I think I have been using it to make Spritz cookies since Genna was 4-5 so about 20 years! I love it!

When she gave it to me it was in this old flour sack, and that is where I still keep it! 

The recipe made about 4 dozen cookies. When I made mine I substituted agave. I also didn't separate and roll out the 4 sections, I just plopped it all into my cookie press, and began pressing them out.

Mine took about 12 minutes to bake. I think next time I will place a sliced almond in the middle of the flower. She also brought a batch over that had peanut butter in it, so I am going to try to mix 1/2 butter and 1/2 peanut butter and leave out the almond extract and see how that turns out.

A nice healthy treat! The hubby tried a few when he got home from work, and said they were okay, he would eat them for breakfast because they are not overly sweet. 
If you bake them, let me know what you think! My sister made some and she and her kids enjoyed them.

Laurie

Perfect day for soup! On the menu... Chicken Noodle

Fall has arrived in the Pacific Northwest... I absolutely know the reason I love it here is the foggy, rainy weather. We woke up to it today! When it is cool and rainy it just makes you want to light a fire in the fire place, bake some cookies, make some soup and craft or read! Who wouldn't love it? Haha! Okay, I know their are many who wouldn't, you all love the heat and sun. That's okay, I'll keep it!

Koko and I headed up to the Semiahmoo Spit today.

We were the only one's there, so Koko got to chase the birds, off her leash. While I gathered some of these...

I found a cute crafty idea for Halloween.

When we returned home I made a pot of Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup (a recipe from a very sweet friend that I haven't seen in too long) and Whole Wheat Spritz Cookies.
I started out by boiling 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts in about 8 cups of water, that I added salt to.
When the chicken is cooked I shred it and put it back in the pot and add veggies. I usually add whatever I have in the fridge or freezer, but today I did it the hubby's favorite way. I added a few handfuls of prepackaged baby carrots, and half a bag of frozen corn. (If I had had any, I would have added peas too, but we were out). I then added 2 cans of cream of chicken soup. (I have also used 1 can of cream of chicken and one can of celery or mushroom, but all I had today was the cream of chicken).

Add more salt and pepper too! I usually let this simmer on the stove for a while. About an hour before dinner time I make the noodles.

I use the recipe from Better Homes and Garden Cookbook for my noodles.

Sometime I would like to make the wheat or spinach ones, but I made the basic noodles. (I will post the recipe below).

I make a double batch. Put 2 cups of flour, 1 tsp. salt in a bowl. Add 2 eggs and 4 Tbls. milk in a separate bowl and mix until the eggs are blended in.

Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture with a fork then pour the egg mixture into the well, using the fork mix until it starts to pull away from the sides and is all blended in.

Keep going...

Perfect! Let it sit for about 20-30 minutes. I just throw a towel over it so it doesn't dry out. About this time, if you made your soup earlier in the day and it is not hot, then bring it back up to a simmer, you want it to be hot when you add the noodles.

When you are ready, roll out half the dough at a time.

Cut it with a pizza cutter. It doesn't have to be perfect... trust me.

Here is mine. See not perfect, just random. Scoop them up and plop them into your soup. Roll out the second half and do the same.
Let the soup simmer with the noodles 10-15 minutes. Then Enjoy!

Mmmm, yum! So easy and so good! This is the hubby's bowl, I bought him some dinner rolls to go with his! I had a whole wheat pita with mine! Smother the roll with homemade jam, mmmm....

Reipe:
Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
 cups water
2 tsp. salt (or to taste)
1 tsp. pepper
4-5 cups of veggies of your choice. carrots, onion, peas, corn, potatoes, mushrooms, celery, green beans.
2 cans of cream of chicken soup (or one can and one can of cream of mushroom, or cream of celery)
Boil the chicken breasts in the water and salt until tender. Remove from water and shred, then place back in water. Add the two cans of soup, and the veggies, let simmer for an hour. Turn off heat until 1 hour before dinner.
One hour before dinner, turn the heat back on the soup. Begin making the noodles:
Home Made Noodles
2 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
2 (room temperature) eggs
4 Tbls. milk
Add the flour and the salt to a mixing bowl. In separate bowl mix eggs and milk. Pour egg mixture into flour mixture, stir with a fork until completely mixed, let sit for 20-30 minutes. Roll out dough using extra flour and rolling pin in two batches. Cut with pizza cutter into noodles, plop into simmering soup. Let simmer for 10-15 minutes. Serve and enjoy! Will make about 8 servings.
I have also just made the soup and added premade/prepackaged egg noodles, premade gnocci, dumplings, or just the chicken and veggies is good too!
Let me know if you have any questions! The Whole Wheat Cookies will be up in a bit!

Have a great Wednesday!

Laurie

Home made Blackberry Pie

Sunday afternoon the hubby picked blackberries from our "private patch" behind our house. We made a deal that he would pick the berries IF I would make the pie, a REAL pie, no agave, no wheat flour just a good old fashioned pie! I said okay.

These berries were perfect for pie. Your could smell the sweet sugary goodness of blackberry as soon as he brought them in the house.

So I of course went to my old Better Homes and Gardens cookbook to make the crust.

And the pie filling. LOVE this pie recipe!

Gathered my ingredients together and began making my mess, oops I mean pie! LOL!

Mmmm, the filling.

The beginning of the crust. I thought I would share a couple secrets to a great crust! My hubby always insists I make the crust because according to him they are delish!

When you add the water, make sure it is ice water! VERY cold! Be sure to add one tablespoon at a time, some types of flour require more water than others.

When it begins to pull away from the sides it is ready, you want the crust to be flaky when it is baked not doughy by adding too much liquid.

Roll out half the dough (I made a two crust pie).

Fill the crust with your filling... YUM! Roll out the second crust and put it on top. Crimp the edges and make some slits in the top for the steam to get out. Now comes another secret...

I brush the top of my crust ALL OVER with whipping cream.

Then sprinkle it with sugar...

I bought a pie crust shield from Pampered Chef to cover the edges of my pie.

I also place my pie on a stone from Pampered Chef, it seems to help the crust bake evenly. It also keeps the drips from getting to the bottom of the oven.

While my pie is baking I have to deal with the left over mess! Ick, I hate making my own crust for this reason.

Look at the view! It is a gorgeous day! Love being able to see the water through the trees like that!

My pie is done just in time... it's time for dinner... I want to serve my pie still warm with vanilla ice
cream!

Since we are being bad for dessert, we are being good for dinner. Fresh salmon burgers, and salad! I was in such a hurry to get dinner over with so we could eat the pie I forgot to take a picture of the burgers all cooked! LOL! Trust me they were go-od! I used whole wheat buns.

Mmm, time for dessert! Soo good!

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you have a great afternoon!

Healthy Blueberry Muffins

I made healthy blueberry muffins for breakfast yesterday morning. Yummy! These muffins are REALLY good!
A few suggestions however, I added too many blueberries! Stick with only 1 cup if your blueberries are large like mine were. Also do not try to eat them until they are completely cooled.
They do not rise so fill them all the way up!
A yummy healthy breakfast!
Here's the recipe:

Healthy Blueberry Muffins

3/4 cup Oat Bran

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/3 cup blue agave

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 cups plain yogurt

1 egg

1/4 cup oil (I used olive oil)

1 cup berries

Mix all ingredients together, bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes. Makes 18 muffins.

Let me know if you try them!! Enjoy!

Chocolate covered cherries, yum!

When I found out my BFF Kari was coming to visit me, I thought, hmm, wonder if she would teach me to make her chocolate covered cherries??? So when she graciously asked if I needed her to bring me anything, I asked if she was willing to share her recipe and teach me to make them. I am not a fan of chocolate covered cherries, but these are yummo! :)
We went out first thing Sunday morning to get the ingredients! Maraschino cherries at Costco, a stick of butter, 2 pounds plus powdered sugar, and a can of sweetened condensed milk.

We flattened out the dough and wrapped it around a maraschino cherry, then put them in the freezer while I cooked Chicken Fettuccine, yummy!
We melted the chocolate, I used half dark and milk, I like the combination of the two.

Then dipped the frozen wrapped cherries into the chocolate making sure to cover the entire cherry to the stem so they would not leak!

They are suppose to sit for a week before eating, the hubby couldn't wait that long! He he! He loved them! In fact we made 2 pans and one is gone already.

Thank you so much Kari for teaching me to make these yummy sugary morsels! My hubby thanks you too!