Fun with Jake!

Eating dessert is one of our favorite things to do; but today our master chef, Jake, took some time out of his day to help us make our own desserts! Though we love our sweets, Jake knows that there can be too much of a good thing; so he decided to help us make a healthier alternative to sugar-filled desserts. He helped us make Dessert Pizza.

First, Jake baked the pizza crust – it was made out of cookie dough! Once the crust was ready, we started working our magic to make some delicious Dessert Pizza. Jake carefully cut pizza slices out of the monster cookie he had made and told us to put the “pizza sauce” on the slices – but it wasn’t pizza sauce at all! We had made the sauce with yogurt.

Next we carefully selected pieces of our favorite fruits – blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, mango and grapes. We then made patterns and decorated our pizza slices as we saw fit. It was a blast to see how creative we could be with food – even though our mothers made sure we wouldn’t dare do something like this in her kitchen! It seems Jake is a little less strict….

After we finished decorating, we couldn’t wait to be done with supper so we could all enjoy our delicious Dessert Pizza! Not only was it a blast to make, it was also the tastiest treat of the day!

Amish Friendship Bread

Here at Serenity we’re all about making friends; so it seemed like a great idea to make the Amish Friendship Bread recipe that was brought to us by Maren. Friendship Bread is interesting because you must be given some batter as a starter kit before you can make it. Maren gave us a few starter kits and we worked at mixing and adding new ingredients for about ten days until we could finally bake our bread today. Claryce and Lois were the main helpers today; and they loved it! We mixed in all the final ingredients and couldn’t wait until it was done baking so we could try it.

If you would like to try this Amish Bread just let us know and we will provide the starter kit. Below is the recipe for the Friendship Amish Bread that we made here at Serenity!

First, you must obtain about 1 cup of fresh starter from a friend (thus the name Friendship Bread). If you have no success in finding some, you can make your own – you’ll just have to wait a whole lot longer (traditionally about 16 days) for the finished product! Within CCF’s website, you will find some recipes for this starter and other uses for it besides this bread.

The instructions that follow are for that 1 cup of starter that you have obtained from a friend.

Do not refrigerate the starter. This batch is the starter’s day one.

Day One – Do nothing.
Day Two – Mush bag two times during the day.
Day Three – Mush bag two times during the day.
Day Four – Mush bag two times during the day.
Day Five - Mush bag two times during the day.
Day Six – Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup milk. Seal bag, letting out as much air as possible. Mush thoroughly.
Day Seven - Mush bag two times during the day.
Day Eight - Mush bag two times during the day.
Day Nine - Mush bag two times during the day.
Day Ten – Squeeze the contents of the bag into a large bowl. Add to the bowl 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup milk. Stir and measure out 4 (1 cup) starters into Ziploc bags to give away, along with a copy of this recipe and instructions (the friendship part of this recipe). Don’t forget to keep one bag of starter for yourself.

To Bake: To the small amount left in the bowl, add 1 cup oil, ½ cup milk, 3 eggs, 1 teaspoon vanilla. Mix well and set aside.

In another bowl mix together 2 cups flour, 1 cup sugar, ½ teaspoon baking powder, 2 teaspoons cinnamon, ½ teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon baking soda, 1 – 6 ounce box of instant vanilla pudding mix, 1 cup chopped nuts (optional). Add these ingredients to the first mixture and mix well.

Grease two 4 x 8 inch loaf bread pans. Sprinkle pans with cinnamon sugar. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for one hour or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Tomorrow starts day one on your starter. Enjoy!

A Day For The Dogs

Josh Billings once suggested, “A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself.” With this in mind, today we decided it was about time to show a little appreciation to the canines in our lives. We spent a portion of the afternoon making gourmet dog treats for our beloved dogs. It was fun for all of us to get our hands dirty by mixing the dough, rolling it out and cutting fun shapes out of it (such as dog bones)! We finally baked these treats and packed them up to give to our favorite dogs.

Aside from the fun gourmet dog treats, Hubert even made puppy cakes. These are cupcakes made especially for dogs! Hubert mixed apples, cheese, milk and many more healthy ingredients into this fun treat. And since Bentley is Hubert’s favorite dog we can all bet that Bentley will be spoiled in the next few weeks!

To get a glimpse of all the fun we had just take a look at these photos. Pictured above are Gen, Lois, Jodi and Mary who are getting ready to roll out the dough. To the right is Hubert who is creating the ideal puppy cake!

Mary's Kitchen

Debbie Fields once said, “I absolutely love making chocolate chip cookies. I mean, it’s fun. It’s exciting. Beyond the fact that I love making them, I love eating them.” As it turns out, our very own Mary Joan and Mrs. Fields have a lot in common! Mary spent some time baking delicious chocolate chip cookies today. She had a lot of fun being the queen of the kitchen and even tried on a chef’s outfit just for the fun of it. And once the cookies were finally done baking she couldn’t wait to taste her creations! Just check out these pictures of Mary to see all the fun she had!

If baking cookies (and eating them) sounds like a lot of fun to you, try the delicious recipe below!

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups (12-oz. pkg.) NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
1 cup chopped nuts

Directions:

PREHEAT oven to 375° F.

COMBINE flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

BAKE for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

PAN COOKIE VARIATION: Grease 15 x 10-inch jelly-roll pan. Prepare dough as above. Spread into prepared pan. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool in pan on wire rack. Makes 4 dozen bars.

SLICE AND BAKE COOKIE VARIATION: PREPARE dough as above. Divide in half; wrap in waxed paper. Refrigerate for 1 hour or until firm. Shape each half into 15-inch log; wrap in wax paper. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.* Preheat oven to 375° F. Cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices; place on ungreased baking sheets. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely. Makes about 5 dozen cookies. * May be stored in refrigerator for up to 1 week or in freezer for up to 8 weeks.

FOR HIGH ALTITUDE BAKING (5,200 feet): Increase flour to 2 1/2 cups. Add 2 teaspoons water with flour and reduce both granulated sugar and brown sugar to 2/3 cup each. Bake drop cookies for 8 to 10 minutes and pan cookie for 17 to 19 minutes.

(Recipe adapted from http://www.verybestbaking.com/recipes/detail.aspx?ID=18476)

Cookies

As an impromptu project, we decorated heart shaped sugar cookies to celebrate Valentine's Day! The cookies were HUGE and there was one for everyone. It was really fun to see what the ladies and gentlemen came up with for their designs. The cookies were decorated in the afternoon and were saved for dessert at supper.