Welcome To My Blog!

For the past year, I've had the experience of being a part of the Niagara Falls Boys and Girls Club Cookbook Committee. Our committee is in the process of finishing our cookbook, A Stir In The Mist: Tastes and Traditions of Niagara Falls. It is a collection of recipes from the Niagara Falls community and local restaurants. All proceeds from the sale of this book will go directly to the Niagara Falls Boys and Girls Club. Just recently I have relocated to Ohio, but still wanted to be involved with the book. After watching the movie Julie and Julia, I was inspired to share the great recipes from our cookbook and the experience I had making each of them. I hope you will enjoy the journey I will take stirring my way through A Stir In The Mist!

Let the "stirring" begin!

Well I have started this venture through the cookbook. First things first, each recipe I do will only be a little story about the steps it took to get to the final product. There will be no ingredients given out and no steps to how I got every great tasting recipe to turn out so delicious. That is for you to find out when you purchase or when someone else purchases"A Stir in the Mist" for you!!

I will apologize now for any grammar or punctuation mistakes I may make. I know I am coming from a family of educators, therefore I should know better about these things, but I may make a few mistakes. Soo lets get started....

Thursday, November 18, 2010

White Wine Cookies

With the holidays coming up, the stores will be busy and the carts will be full with all the baking ingredients for all the holiday cookies.
White Wine Cookies are in the dessert section of "A Stir in The Mist". You will love this recipe and want to share it with your company for the Holidays.
You can use any type of white wine for this recipe. They say if you do use homemade white wine it is the best. I just did not have the time this week to stomp grapes and make our own, next time....maybe...




















Most ingredients for cookies call for margarine, butter or even eggs. This recipe is all dry ingredients except for the wine and oil.
This recipe was brought right from Sonnino, Italy in the early 1900s. It is usually made by “eye and feels,” but the recipe has been converted to modern measurements. As with most old world Italian recipes, a little practice will produce great results.
The "eye and feel" part of this recipe comes into play when you add your oil. Depending on how big of a batch you are looking to make you may need all the oil. I made this recipe by mixing my dry ingredients and as I mixed everything with my hands I added the oil a little at a time.



You will notice as you continue to mix the ingredients and add the oil you will start to create a dough consistency. You want it to be "doughy" (if that is even a word) just not too sticky and of course not to oily. You will not need all the oil that this recipe calls for. If you feel it getting too slippery and oily just add some more flour. You will know it is the right consistency when you can roll out the dough in your hands.
I rolled each one out about the length from my thumb to my pinky. You can really make them any shape you would like.  I twisted mine. I also did a few "S" shaped ones. (For Soffritti of course).
Once you have rolled them out and made them into the form you desire, you can then sprinkle or even dip one side of the cookie into sugar. This step again is your preference. you can roll the whole cookie into the sugar, dip the top half or even just one side.
Once your cookies are all in there desired shape and covered with sugar, you can now bake away. I used the exact temperature and baking time for these cookies. They seemed a little under baked once the timer went off, but they harden a little more once they are out of the oven like every other cookie. If you want to bump the time up a few minutes you can, or even keep an eye on them and as soon as the top starts to look golden I would remove from oven. Again when you bake these cookies you will use "eye and feel" and most importantly "taste". Practice makes perfect and I of all people have discovered this by baking more and more.

This is the final product. The cookies towards the bottom look a little darker than the rest. I sprinkled a little cinnamon sugar on top just to test it out and see how that would taste. They both came out very tasty. This is a delicious cookie that your family will love.