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Teddy Graham Sandwich Cookies – Recipe

August 3, 2009 By A Leave a Comment

Hi blog friends! This is {A} this time. Mama said she has noticed we haven’t blogged any recipes of ‘real food’ in awhile, and it’s looking like we’ve been on a ‘sweets kick’ lately, so she said to let you know we’ll have some meal-related type recipes coming up soon. She just needs to think of some. But today, I wanted to share this cookie recipe I came up with on my own. Everyone in my family loved them when I made them, so I hope if you make them, you do too.

Teddy Graham Sandwich Cookies

Participating Ingredients:

All Purpose Flour, Sugar, Butter, Vanilla Extract, Baking Powder, an Egg, Polaner’s Raspberry All Fruit, Salt, Hershey Chocolate Bars, and Chocolate Chip Teddy Grahams.

1/2 c. butter, softened (1 stick)
3/4 c. granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1-1/3 c. all purpose flour
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 c. Polaner’s All Fruit Seedless Raspberry Jelly
Chocolate Chip Teddy Grahams
2 regular sized Hershey Chocolate Bars

In a large bowl, put softened butter and sugar.

Cream until fluffy.

Add egg.

Add vanilla extract.

(He wanted to watch, so he hopped out of the box and made himself comfortable on the rolling pin.)

Mix and beat egg and vanilla extract in creamed mixture with fork.

In a small bowl, combine dry ingredients: flour, baking powder and salt.

(Oh…sledding in our dry ingredients now! Great! Do I have time for this?)

Little by little, slowly add dry ingredients into creamed mixture.

Mix all together really well.

You might need to eventually use your hands.

Once it’s a good ball of dough, cover the bowl with plastic wrap…

….and place in fridge for 2-3 hours.

Later, remove from fridge and cut dough into 1/2, and place that 1/2 back into fridge to keep chilled.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Start kneading remaining 1/2 with floured hands, and have floured surface ready as well.

Keep kneading, and get ready to roll it out.

Flour rolling pin.

Roll out dough to about 1/4″ thick.

With a 2 1/2 inch circle cookie cutter, cut out as many dough circles as you can.

And place them on cookie sheet. (Um, I wouldn’t recommend staying there, Buddy. You might be sorry in a minute.)

Get out remaining dough from fridge, knead and roll out same as above.

When about 1/4″ thick, cut out as many circles as you can again, removing all of the scrap dough around them, and using a melon ball scooper, cut a small circle out of the middle of the the dough circles from the second batch of dough only.

Now both sheets of the two shapes of cookies are ready to go into pre-heated oven.

(He’s a stubborn one, huh?)

(Oh, he jumped off at the last minute. Smart. Slow, but smart.)

Bake cookies for 7-9 minutes—but this varies from oven to oven. Basically you want to take them out as soon as you notice the edges start to turn golden.

Remove from oven when done, and let cool completely.

Take a Hershey Chocolate Bar or 2, break up into microwave safe dish, and microwave at 15 second intervals, giving stirs in between, until just melted.

Stir well.

Take whole circle cookies, one at a time, and dip in chocolate inside-face down to cover that side.

Place each on clean cookie sheet, as you go.

Grab your Polaner’s All Fruit.

Spread some on the inside-face if each holed-circle.

Place down onto chocolate cookies, making sandwiches.

Place sheets of cookies into fridge to harden up chocolate. When hardened, place into containers or zip lip lock bags for storage, but keep refrigerated in warm weather. Take out for at least a few minutes before serving, because they tend to be a little firm if you bite right away.

Just before serving, place a Teddy Graham in the center. I wait to do this, because the Teddy Grahams are on the soft side as it is, and so get a little too soft from absorbing moisture from the cookie/chocolate. They are just better with a little crunch.

Makes about 1 dozen sandwich cookies.

They are really delicious, and they aren’t just for kids!

Enjoy!!

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Cookie Love – Italian Cookies Recipe

March 26, 2009 By A 13 Comments

Have you ever seen cookies like these? They are called Italian Cookies, and maybe they are ordinary to you. But the very thought or sight of them, has always made my heart simply swell. The recipe will be below.

My Godmother has made these cookies for me, all of my life. I think she makes them a lot. She may even be known for them in the lives of many people who are in her life. But it doesn’t matter. Whenever she made them for ME, it always felt like such a gift of her love for me.

My Godparents are AMAZING people. Not just to me, but to anyone who knows them. They are the essence of unshakable faith, completely selfless sacrifice, sincere compassion, and always a lot of very unconditional love. As Godparents, they always gave all of those gifts to me. They also truly had a BIG part in forming the foundation of my faith. They were ALWAYS there for me. ALWAYS with some wise words, without judgement. ALWAYS lived an example of inspiration. I have always felt so blessed to be their Godchild. Even though I have always known, I am one of umpteen of Godchildren that they have. Again…a testament of the kind of people they are to everyone. But they have always made me feel like their only one. Now as a grown adult with children of my own, they give that same kind of love to my husband and my children. And my they all feel it, powerfully, just as I always did.

My Godmother is a retired teacher. I have spoken about her in this blog before, I am sure. In the years of her teaching, she reached the hearts of 100’s and 100’s of children. If you were in her student, you knew you were very sincerely loved. And she taught each one with all she had. She instilled in me the love for books, which thank God, my children have been able to embrace as well. When she retired from teaching, her grown former students from all over the world, came to give her their thanks, or sent notes of the beautiful impact she had had on their lives.

When I was a teenager with troubles on my mind, my Godmother was there to talk with me, and she made me these cookies. As an art student, when I came home for the weekend, she wanted me to come visit, and she made me these cookies. When my family and I go visit them, she has these cookies made for us. And when my mother died, she was there for me, and she made me LOTS and lots of these cookies.

So I don’t know if you have ever seen or tasted cookies like these. But whenever I think of them, see them, or taste them…..I am filled with the comforting feeling of her love.

{A} bakes A LOT. And lately, more than ever. I think baking posts like this will become quite regular from her, here on our blog, because it is a big part of her. I will share more about that another time. But suffice it to say, she got the recipe for these cookies from my Godmother, having grown up with her own sense of how special they were. So this is {A}’s post, sharing this Italian Cookies recipe, and how to make them. They are indeed delicious. But it’s the memories of love that the familiar taste of them bring, that we love even more.

~ Laura

~~~~~

Hi Everyone! {A} here now. I am going to share with you how to make these cookies that are very special to us. You will find a printable version of this recipe at the end of the post.

Here is what you’ll need:

Participating Ingredients

4 C All Purpose Flour
1 C Sugar
2 Tbs. Baking Powder
4 Eggs
1/2C Land-O-Lakes Margarine
4 Tsp. Vanilla Extract
1/4 C Milk
Confectioners Sugar
A Little Extra Milk for Glaze* This cookie dough was formed by hand. But you can use a Kitchen Aid or other mixer, and it will be much faster.COOKIE DOUGH

In a large bowl, put in flour, sugar, baking powder, eggs, margarine, vanilla, and milk. (Add your own special love.)

2. Mix it all together with fork at first. Once it starts to form, you can use your clean hands.

3. Flour a counter or big board.

4. Remove dough from bowl, and knead for 8-10 minutes, sprinkling the surface more if the dough starts sticking.

6. Grease baking sheets with vegetable oil. (You probably can use Pam Spray…if you’re a fan of that.)

7. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

8. Grab a piece of dough, and begin to roll into a ball between the palms of your hands. You want it to be about the size of a chestnut.
(I decided the ones in the photo below are too big. I made them all smaller after Mama took a photo. But see how I am rolling them in my hands into balls.)

9. Place the dough balls on the cookie sheets, about an inch 1/2 apart, staggered. You will likely have more dough balls waiting for their turn in the oven.

10. Bake full sheets for 8-10 minutes. You want them to be pale, but if you are wondering if they are cooked enough, open one with knife and see if it is baked through well. If not, put back in for 1-2 minutes more, depending on how doughy they still were.

11. Remove from oven………and then place them each on a cooling rack.

GLAZE and SPRINKLES

12. In a small bowl, pour some confectioner’s sugar, and add a little milk. I don’t really measure the sugar or milk here. I recommend adding one tablespoon of milk at a time, and stir well. You want the glaze thick-ish. You will be surprised at how much powdered sugar you need!

13. Pour sprinkles into shallow bowl. Watch out, because these things are ridiculously bouncy!!!

14. Once the cookies are COMPLETELY COOLED, you can start glazing them. We just dunk the top of the cookie into the glaze, lift out, and really let it drip off as best as you can.

15. Place dunked cookies back on rack. The glaze needs to set a little.

16. Continue dunking cookies, but when keep checking the first ones you dunked, and once you see that the glaze on those is starting to become clear, they are ready for sprinkles! (If you sprinkle them when the glaze is too wet, the colors of the sprinkles will run, and your cookies will be a multi-colored mess. Kind of pretty anyway, but not what we are going for here!)

17. Now to get the sprinkles on the cookies, we think Mama’s Godmother shakes them on out of the container. She has patience like that. But this is how we do it:

Pretty easy, huh?

18. Keep glazing and sprinkling, putting them on the rack as you go.

19. Any air tight container is great storage for these. They are so pretty all together!

* This recipe makes 6 dozen cookies. But trust me, they go fast. (Especially if Mama is around these cookies.) Below is what was left after filling two larger containers.

ENJOY!!!

ENJOY!

I hope you enjoyed this recipe post! You can print it out below.

~ {A}

Cookie Love - Italian Cookies Recipe

Prep time

30 mins

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

40 mins

Italian Cookies Recipe Recipe Type : Baking Cuisine: Italian Author: House of Joyful Noise blog / houseofjoyfulnoise.com Prep time: 20 mins Cook time: 10 mins Total time: 30 mins Serves: 6 Dozen

: House of Joyful Noise blog / houseofjoyfulnoise.com

: Cookies

Cuisine: Italian

Serves: 6 Dozen

Ingredients

4 C All Purpose Flour
1 C Sugar
2 Tbs. Baking Powder
4 Eggs
½C Land-O-Lakes Margarine
4 Tsp. Vanilla Extract
¼ C Milk
Confectioners Sugar
A Little Extra Milk for Glaze

Instructions

* This dough for this cookie recipe is formed by hand. You can also use a Kitchen Aid or other large mixer.
COOKIE DOUGH
In a large bowl, put in flour, sugar, baking powder, eggs, margarine, vanilla, and milk. (Add your own special love.)
Mix it all together with fork at first. Once it starts to form, you can use your clean hands.
Flour a counter or big board.
Remove dough from bowl, and knead for 8-10 minutes, sprinkling the surface more if the dough starts sticking.
Grease baking sheets with vegetable or olive oil oil. (You probably can use Pam Spray...if you're a fan of that.)
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Grab a piece of dough, and begin to roll into a ball between the palms of your hands. You want it to be about the size of a chestnut.
Place the dough balls on the cookie sheets, about an inch ½ apart, staggered. You will likely have more dough balls waiting for their turn in the oven.
Bake full sheets for 8-10 minutes. You want them to be pale, but if you are wondering if they are cooked enough, open one with knife and see if it is baked through well. If not, put back in for 1-2 minutes more, depending on how doughy they still were.
Remove from oven.........and then place them each on a cooling rack.
GLAZE and SPRINKLES
In a small bowl, pour some confectioner's sugar, and add a little milk. I don't really measure the sugar or milk here. I recommend adding one tablespoon of milk at a time, and stir well. You want the glaze thick-ish. You will be surprised at how much powdered sugar you need!
Pour sprinkles into shallow bowl. Watch out, because these things are ridiculously bouncy!!!
Once the cookies are COMPLETELY COOLED, you can start glazing them. We just dunk the top of the cookie into the glaze, lift out, and really let it drip off as best as you can.
Place dunked cookies back on rack. The glaze needs to set a little.
Continue dunking cookies, but when keep checking the first ones you dunked, and once you see that the glaze on those is starting to become clear, they are ready for sprinkles!
- (If you sprinkle them when the glaze is too wet, the colors of the sprinkles will run, and your cookies will be a multi-colored mess. Kind of pretty anyway, but not what we are going for here!)
Now to get the sprinkles on the cookies, we think Mama's Godmother shakes them on out of the container. She has patience like that. But we dip them in a bowl of the sprinkles.
Keep glazing and sprinkling, putting them on the rack as you go.
Any air tight container is great storage for these. They are so pretty all together!
ENJOY!

~~~~~

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Hand-Taming Chipmunks – by {A}

November 16, 2008 By A 3 Comments

Hi there! If you’ve been visiting our blog from the beginning, you may have seen posts on my chipmunks troop before. If you’ve missed them and want more background, you may want to go back to here, and also here. I have hand-tamed / trained 3 of them, and am working on my fourth, named ‘Sergeant’. The one in these photos that Mama took, is ‘Chipmouse‘, which was the easiest one to train.

My family and friends call me ‘The Chipmunk Whisperer‘. Sometimes they try to whisper back!! This REALLY tickles! Look at her little paw on my ear! My Dad said she was thinking, “I wonder if I can put some seeds in here?”.

I’ve spent extra time with them in the last month or so, knowing I’ll see them a lot less over the winter. I don’t believe that they truly hibernate, but they are like the squirrels. They stay in their burrows and sleep a LOT, only waking to eat a little bit from the food the keep right next to them. Or under them. They have been known to come out some in winter on milder days to collect nuts or berries or whatever they can find.

In this photo below, she is searching for some of her favorite treats that I might have dropped. Some of the things I’ve fed her that she loves to eat are dried corn, sunflower seeds, slivered almonds, and she has taken grapes cut into quarters when we didn’t have any of the other things in stock.

Just look at how she looks up at me! I think she loves me. Sometimes she gives me little wet kisses.

I don’t have a photo of it, but I actually taught Chipmouse how to shake paws. : ) I put my finger out by her paw, and she puts her paw on top of my finger. Then I push up, and she pushes down, and I push up, and she pushes down. It’s really fun!I think in the photo below she wanted to do a double paw shake.

I also love to twirl her tail.

I really love my chipmunks. I’m glad that God allowed them to trust me.

I’ve spent a lot of time with them, so I think they will probably remember me in the springtime. Especially ‘Chipmouse’, because we’ve spent countless hours together.

I know where her burrow is, which is on our property, so when I really miss her, I can at least whisper down to her and tell her. Notice how chipmunk holes are so nice and round? That’s how you know it’s not a snake burrow!

Well I hope you enjoyed my post. I should have another coming up. I won’t tell you what it’s about so it’s a surprise. : ) Also, today we got a very early, and very, very special Christmas present! We are all over the moon and were bouncing off the walls with happiness when we opened it! (We weren’t being impatient. We were told to open it right away.) I hope Mama blogs about it, but she wants photos. Of course!!

See you later!

Ssshhh…Chipmunks in Training!…by Alexis Grace

July 3, 2008 By A 2 Comments

I’ve trained yet another chipmunk!! Meet my new little friend, ‘Chipmouse‘. You may or may not have read my last post about my other chipmunks I have trained. I really love training chipmunks, and this is my third.

My Mama was the first one to spot this new one. At the time, he was such a youngin’ that she said,”What is that!? It looks like a mouse!” Dad and I said at the same time, ” It’s a baby chipmunk!!” He has grown a lot since we first saw him, only 2-3 weeks ago.

This little one was not as skittish as the other two, and caught on quickly to what I wanted him to do. First, I had my hand, full of seeds, on the ground, and slowly lifted it up until he had to jump in to eat. Then he jumped off to go spit out his seeds at his burrow. When he came back, I had my hand higher. He could jump in easily. Finally , I put my hand so high, that he could not jump in, so he crawled on to my legs, and ran up my arm to get to my hand.

It was only a few feedings later, that he let me start playing with his tail and really having fun with him. The last chipmunk, Flash 2 would only come out to eat if it was just me out there. Chipmouse went back and forth from his borrow to me, passing Mama, and letting her get some photos.

Isn’t he so cute!?

Bullfrog Tadpoles Progress Report . . . . . . by {A}

May 30, 2008 By A 2 Comments

The other day, I cleaned the bullfrog-tadpoles habitat and added fresh pond water. They are continuing to grow and develop, although slowly, when you consider that their whole cycle takes 14 months. This big guy below has developed quite the pair of legs since I have had him.(Or her! I am not sure yet.) You can see the front leg bump too!

The picture below shows where the habitat is kept. It is in the window well that has a convenient observatory window from Mama’s studio. I’ve used it as a habitat to observe other reptiles and amphibians over the years, and once there was even a mole in there.

See all those papers? One of them I use to record their growth and behavior in the sun and shade. The rest are guides to caring for my tadpoles. I feed them boiled lettuce and tropical fish food.

This is one of the little ones I have. Doesn’t he camouflage in with the water very well? The water is a little more murky than usual, because the sediment was trying to settle after I changed the water. I have mud in the bottom of the habitat, because the tadpoles like to hide in mud when it is cold out.

I hope you enjoyed this tadpole report!!!

Teddy Graham Sandwich Cookies

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