Accidently spill everything
Friday, January 20, 2012
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Christmas Cookies With Natural Sweeteners
Devouring sweets is tradition all through the holiday season. Rather than eat refined white sugar or high fructose corn syrup, why not try some favorite holiday treats made with natural sweeteners, such as unrefined cane sugar, honey, maple syrup, and agave?
I've found that these sweeteners taste even better than sugar or corn syrup.
Here's a basic recipe for a shortbread butter cookie that can me made into many variations. I have successfully made these using
* unrefined cane sugar (such as Sucanat or Rapadura) -- this is like brown sugar
* powdered unrefined cane sugar (sold as "organic" powedered sugar -- this is like white sugar
* agave nectar -- a good low-glycemic option
* rice syrup -- a personal favorite, subtly sweet with no extra flavor
SHORTBREAD BUTTER COOKIES
makes about 2 dozen 1-inch square cookies
3/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup sweetener
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 2/3 cups whole wheat pastry flour
small pinch of salt
1. Put butter out to soften. This could take 20-30 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
3. In a mixing bowl, with a hand mixer, beat the soft butter until fluffy. This step is important to make the cookies light and crispy.
4. Add sweetener and vanilla and continue to beat until both are incorporated.
5. Add flour and salt slowly, mixing until a stiff batter is formed.
6. Put parchment paper or a silpat on the cookie sheet.
7. Flavor and cut as desired.
8. CHILL before baking. Cover the shortbread tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least two hours or up to 4 days. If you don't chill, the shortbread will spread.
9. Bake for 20-30 minutes, or until lightly browned just around the edges. Thicker cookies need a little more time, very thin cookies need less.
10. Remove the cookies to cooling racks.
VARIATIONS:
* Roll out dough and use to make cutout cookies
* Add any extract and bits of nuts, citrus peel, dried fruits, coconut, chocolate chips
* Top with spices such as cinnamon sugar
* Sandwich any plain or flavored cookies together with fruit-sweetened jam, flavored cream cheese, nut butters...
* Place dough in parchment paper, roll into a cylinder, then chill and cut as refrigerator cookies. Edges can be rolled in nuts, coconut, etc.
* Add any desired ingredients and bake as bar cookies.
Used Polk Audio Psw10 Subwoofer Used Rotozip !8!# Argos Rowing Machines Save You Money!
Sunday, January 1, 2012
5 Side Dish Options to Serve With Steak
You've got a nice, fancy, steak dinner planned. But then-what do you serve with it? A side dish can really help make a steak night exceptional--and without a lot of work. Think simplicity. Some of these look really fancy, but actually require little effort.
This is technically more than 5 side dish options to serve with steak, because some of them have multiple suggestions for how to prepare them, but I've separated them by the main ingredient.
Mashed potatoes and butternut squash. This makes mashed potatoes special, and the butternut squash gives the potatoes a buttery/cheesy taste. You simply chop up the potatoes and squash into squares, boil them (separately because they have slightly different boiling points), and then mash them up together. I like to mix in some butter, and I like a bit more potato than squash.
Steamed pepper strips. I like to mix this up with some corn, and possibly some edamame. This really only needs a little bit of butter mixed in, but you can also mix in some salsa, or red pepper flakes. Steaming keeps this a low calorie side dish, dependent only on how much butter you decide to mix in.
Another great steamed side is green beans. Steaming them gives them a great crisp summer flavor. Mix them up with a bit of salsa, or toasted almond slivers and thyme, for two very different low calorie sides.
Brussels sprouts. If you haven't liked these in the past and are thinking about skipping to the next idea straight away, it's probably because the ones you've had were overcooked. Before you give up on them altogether, try steaming them! They should have a great nutty flavor.
Asparagus is probably the best looking side dish for a steak. You can steam it up and serve it plain, or steam it with some sliced garlic, or if you want to abandon all thought of calories pour a nice hollandaise sauce over it!
Martin D16gt Order K Cups Cafe Mocha Purchase !8!# Chiroflow Pillow Best Quality
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |