Good Things by David

It isn't quite Easter at my house until I've iced a few sugar cookies and have brought out my vintage Fire King jadeite.  With spring in the air and the promises of sunny weather, it's the perfect time to initiate an Easter egg hunt, and to make a few Easter baskets for the kids this holiday. I love Easter to no end.  The pastel colors, the dyed eggs and the endless sweets, bring back good memories from childhood.  Who doesn't remember getting those Paas dye kits from the local Kmart or F.W. Woolworth store? Mom would usually set out bowls to hold the dyes, and us kids would carefully dunk each egg into the smelly solution, turning them around with the little wire holder that came with each kit.  Good times! As I said, Easter just wouldn't be the same without my sugar cookies.  For family and friends, near and far, I baked and iced some whimsical hatching chicks and some hatching bunnies.  A few small, blue-eyed bunnies decorated with colorful bows,

Irish soda bread is essentially a very large scone, one that isn't sweet, but yet is tender, delicious and perfect with a cup of tea.  American-style soda bread adds a little bit more sugar, some caraway seeds and a good amount of plump, juicy raisins.  It was such a bread that I was looking forward to baking this weekend for St. Patrick's Day. After asking several people for their favorite versions of soda bread, I settled on the recipe by Cook's Illustrated, which can be found in their Baking Illustrated book.  Their recipe uses buttermilk, and I have to say that it makes all of the difference.  The bread is tender, the crumb is light.   This is the Baking Illustrated recipe!  Please note that I doubled the recipe in these photos, because I wanted to bake 2 breads.   3 cups lower-protein unbleached all-purpose flour 1 cup plain cake flour 1/4 cup sugar 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda 1-1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar 1-1/2 teaspoons salt 1/2 stick

Sugar cookies in the shape of four-leaf clovers are a festive way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.  This year I was so happy to make several dozen for folks around town, especially after having spent days without being able to bake.  With a couple of batches of sugar cookie dough and some smooth royal icing, I set about gilding and icing some pretty shamrocks, for a little bit of that luck of the Irish.  The brand new shamrock cookie cutters (proudly made in Missouri!) that I purchased on eBay , make beautiful cookies.  The largest of the cookie cutters create a very generous sugar cookie, while the smaller ones make tasty mini bites.   After cutting out the large cookies, right before baking, I used the smallest of the cutters to score the dough in the center.  The impression of the small, four-leaf clover was etched onto the surface of the cookies as they baked.  This made it easy to ice them. Three shades of green royal icing were used for this project.  

This past week has been a rough one for our area of Pennsylvania. With snow, wind and downed trees, power was cut off for much of our region. Thankfully our power was restored after four long, cold day. However, we are in the midst of another Nor'Easter. I hope that everyone in the affected areas of the Northeast is safe and warm.