The other night I was pouring a bag of sugar into the sugar container and noticed a recipe on the side of the bag for ‘Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies’. Funny how we can see things all the time, but not really pay attention. This time, I did.

What else was I to do, but to make cookies at 9 o’clock at night!

As I started to get the ingredients together, I decided to try and make it a little healthier. I mean come on, it’s a sugar cookie, so I can only go for healthier, not healthy. So, I grabbed some hard white winter wheat berries, yet still, I wanted… more. In our kitchen pantry, next to the grain grinder is where I keep the bin for the oats. Click.

Love when that light bulb turns on! Oats!

Okay, we can work with this, whole wheat, oats, farro*, maybe use less sugar, and since I didn’t have any butter thawed, and no cream thawed to make butter, let’s change out the butter called for with shortening. That works, a crunchier cookie!

Quickly grinding some whole wheat, oats and farro together into flour (1 cup wheat berries, 1/2 cup rolled oats and 1/4 cup farro), I grabbed the other ingredients: shortening, whole powdered eggs, salt, vanilla extract and baking powder. Oh, and some water.

The original recipe called for the butter and sugar to be creamed together in a separate bowl, yada, yada, yada. I didn’t have the patience for all that. So, herein lies my ‘healthier’ sugar cookie and how I did it.

*Emmer (Triticum dicoccum) wheat is one of the three hulled wheats known in Italy as farro and is the wheat that is most commonly called farro. It is rich in fiber, protein, magnesium, and vitamins. I have been told that biblical spelt is now correctly identified as emmer wheat, and that spelt (Triticum spelta) wheat was not grown in ancient Israel.

Multi-grain Sugar Cookies

ingredients

• 2 cups flour (fresh ground whole wheat, oats and farro mixed)
• 1/2 cup PLUS 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup shortening (PLUS - 3 tablespoons water - see notes below)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon whole powdered eggs (PLUS 2 tablespoons water)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

directions

• Toss all ingredients into medium sized mixing bowl.
• Using hand-mixer (or use your stand mixer if you want) mix all ingredients for about 5-7 minutes. Mixture will be crumbly.
• Cover and place bowl in refrigerator for about 15 minutes. Scrape dough out of bowl and roll it into 2 equal logs. Wrap and chill for 2 hours. (I use waxed paper to roll mine.)
• Turn oven on to preheat: 350°F
• While oven is heating, slice logs, about 1/4-inch thick. Then gently pat them back into ’rounds’. (Mine all started turning into half-moons from the slicing.) Then I gave them one gentle squish between my palms to flatten them slightly and placed them about an inch apart on Silpat covered baking sheets.
• Bake at 350° for approximately 12 minutes, or until lightly golden (look at the edges, you will start to see that turn first). Let set on tray for 1-2 minutes and then move to cooling rack to cool completely.
• Cookies can be stored in airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. (Here I am guessing that long, because we used shortening instead of butter - but always check yours, if you aren’t sure, don’t eat it!)

Notes:

If you look on your shortening container, you’ll notice the conversion for replacing it for butter, is 1 cup shortening PLUS 6 teaspoons water equals 1 cup butter. Yup, that is teaspoons, not tablespoons.

Now, I’ll be honest, when I read the conversion at time of baking, I swear it said tablespoons, so that is what I based recipe on - needed to replace 1/2 cup butter, so changed it to 1/2 cup shortening and 3 tablespoons water. It wasn’t until 2 days later that I realized my oopsie. That is a big oops, but, I can only assume because of the whole wheat and oat flour (which is denser) that it actually worked out, perfectly. So now my oops, is a, thata girl! :o)

Oh, and another thing, if like me you decide late at night to bake something you’ve never baked before, before you start grabbing all those ingredients you’ll need and starting to grind and mix, read the instructions first. ALL of them. I didn’t until after I ground my wheat and oats and started mixing everything. That is when I noticed that they needed to be chilled. Oops.

I cannot wait to experiment some more with this recipe, maybe try using honey instead of the sugar, or other things. I’ll let you know!

Here is a quick tip: when making homemade butter, let your freezer do most of the work for you!

I’ve taught you how to make butter from heavy whipping cream, in a simple jar. Now I going to tell you how much easier it can be.

When I buy the whipping cream, I usually purchase 7 or 8 cartons at a time, and freeze them. When I need to make butter, I will take out a carton the evening before, say around dinner time, let it start to thaw in sink, and then I’ll put it in the fridge before I head to bed to finish thawing. Come morning, I give a quick shake, pour some into my butter making jar (halfway) and then quickly make butter. On the other hand, I’ve also had the cream thaw before I headed to bed and was able to quickly make it that night, which is great.

By letting the freezer and thawing action do their parts, I can make a pound of butter in a half-hour. The jar I use, I can do 1/2 pound at a time, if I had larger jar I’d be able to do more. Remember though… to let the cream set out first so it is not so cold. The colder it is the longer it takes to make butter. I let mine come up to about 60° F, or until I walk back in the kitchen and go, dang, I knew I forgot something! :o) It really won’t hurt it, just give it better flavor, and less work for you.

Everything else is the same from the other article (just remember that it takes a lot less time shaking!), so, grab some cream out of the freezer, thaw it, and make some butter!

I know that I have sorely lacked in updating, and anyone who has read my blog in the last 2 years pretty much knows all the struggles that we have dealt with. Well, we were dealt another one…on Mother’s Day.

My Pappap passed away.

My Pappap, for those who are uninitiated, was my grandfather. But more than that, and I can say this with all due prejudice, one of the best!

This man, with a ready smile and a twinkle in his blue eyes, taught me to fish, to love watching all kinds of movies, to play with my food, to ‘drive’, to be careful when telling ghost stories cuz you yourself might just get the jibbies scared out of you, to enjoy a good fried bologna sandwich with Fresca®, to laugh, to love and so much more.

He also taught me, along with the other 3 great men in my life (my Daddy, my Uncle Art and my Uncle John), what real men are supposed to be like, act like, live like. I mean for heaven’s sake, the man let me sit on his lap when I was little and ‘pluck’ his whiskers from his chin after he got home from work, with my fingernails, and never flinched! Yeah, thinking back on it, ewww, but when I was little, all I knew was that his whiskers tickled when I went to get my hugs and kisses when we saw him.

I’ll have to scan some images into computer, but let me tell ya, I know why my Nanny married the man. Sure, he was great, sure he nice…etc., but, I know the real reason! It was his black hair mixed with bright blue eyes!

There is so much more to tell and maybe one day I will, but for now, my heart is still hurting and I want to keep the rest of my memories to myself. For now.

What does one of the worst days of my life have to do with pancakes?! Well, I’ll tell ya, my Pappap was a great cook, and he taught me that it was okay to play with my food, to experiment if things didn’t work. He, along with my Nanny, also taught me that great things can be made from scratch and not from a box!

Well, about a week ago I was kinda down, not really hungry, but having not eaten for 2 days, decided that I really should, but what?! Thought about pancakes, which I hadn’t had in years. I’ll be honest here, my Mom had a husband in the military, she worked, plus had 4 daughters, our pancakes came courtesy of Bisquick® Baking Mix. Don’t get me wrong, I loved them! But now, I don’t keep it on hand, because I make my biscuits, breads, buns, rolls, etc., from scratch. I love the flavors and it’s better health-wise. But, I hadn’t tried making pancakes. Didn’t even have a pancake recipe that didn’t call for help from a baking mix.

Good Housekeeping to the rescue! Up on the cookbook shelf was one of my Mom’s old cookbook from the 50’s and there inside it, Homemade Pancakes. Awesome! Until I read, how much sugar, how much salt and butter in the mix. Hmmm, I well, I’ve been baking for a couple of years now *smirk*, I’ll just switch things up a little and test it.

I am happy to say that I’ve tested and tweaked and I think came up with a pretty gosh darned good recipe, and it helps in rotating out my food storage! So, I thought I would share it.

In honor of my Pap, here you go…

Homemade Pancakes

• 1/2 C = all-purpose, unbleached, flour
• 3/4 C = whole wheat flour (freshly ground if you can!)
• 2 t = baking powder
• 1 1/2 T = brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 t = salt
• 2 T = powdered whole eggs
• 3 T = powdered milk
• 1/2 t = vanilla extract - I use 1 tsp, cuz I really really like it. :o)
• 1 C = buttermilk (I use the ‘milk’ left over after I make my butter, you can use it or real buttermilk, or, even use powdered buttermilk)
• 1/4 C = warm water

Reminder: C = Cup; t = teaspoon; T = Tablespoon!

• Preheat pan or griddle on medium heat, you’ll know it is ready when drops of cold water dance and skate across it.
• Add all DRY ingredients to a medium sized mixing bowl and grab a whisk. Mix the dry ingredients together.
• Add the vanilla extract, as well as the other liquids. Whisk all together, just until dry ingredients are completely incorporated. Batter should be just slightly thick. If you want thinner batter (thinner pancakes too), then add a little more water or buttermilk.
• Check pan for readiness, then using 1/3 C measuring cup, drop batter onto pan. I usually make 2 at a time. Watch closely, when the edges take on a matte/dry look and bubbles start to pop, flip them once. Do NOT press down the middle when it rises. Let cook another minute or so, check bottom, and then turn out onto waiting warm plate. I usually keep plate in oven, set on warm. Make sure your plate is allowed in oven!
• Add real butter if you want, and then your favorite syrup.
• Only one thing left to do at this point - ENJOY!