Chew On This: June 20 , 2011 - Baking and Pastry I

Okay...so it's COOKIE DAY!!! We were able to pick between three types of cookies (Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip, Peanut Butter). As you may see below, We chose peanut butter to start off. Making these cookies really took me back to my childhood. One of my aunts is a baker. She used to give us (children) of the family coupons for free cakes (personal size) and cookies. She always forked (made the checkered marks using a fork) her cookies. At any rate, she made some AWESOME COOKIES...and still does. These were great but I'd say that her cookies tasted more peanut buttery :). All in all, I enjoyed making my first batch of scratch peanut butter cookies. Maybe one day I'll make the actual peanut butter and use that for the cookies. ;-)

Giant (approx. 3-4 inch diameter)Peanut Butter Cookies

The second batch of cookies we made were a little more elegant. As a kid, we always called them a fancier sugar cookie, but today I found that the actual name is a Spritz Cookie. Spritz cookies are made from a softer dough. We actually used a pastry bag and star to put them on the cookie sheet. I've seen my aunt (the same one mentioned above) use a pastry bag all while growing up, and, I've seen television shows where the Chef used pastry bags with the greatest of ease. Little did I know that they obviously practiced a whole lot to get that part down. Just as with everything else, with practice comes a better product. So these spritz cookies aren't so round, but they were as tasty, if not tastier than those that I've eaten before. Maybe eating them just a few minutes from pulling them from the oven made the BIG difference. :)