I’ll use any excuse to bake a special cookie. Whether it’s heart cutouts for Valentine’s Day, Brownie Thins for National Pistachio Day or Piparkakut for Epiphany — I’m going to bake cookies!
Just because Thanksgiving Day has passed, doesn’t mean we can’t stretch it into the weekend, or farther! Especially when it comes to Sugar Cookies or Pumpkin Bread, both of which are featured in my latest entry of Our Cookie Journal.
Bake Brave! That’s this year’s challenge on World Baking Day, which is being observed on Sunday, May 19. The idea is to test yourself with a recipe that challenges your skills in the kitchen. To that end, 100 recipes have been compiled by Bake Brave Ambassadors (baking enthusiasts from around the world) at worldbakingday.com.
The interactive website encourages you to “step out of your comfort zone and bake something you’ve never baked before.” From the homepage, you are prompted to select your baking level, from “I bake and cross my fingers” to “I bake, therefore I am.” If your particular skill set can’t be categorized, feel free to skip that step and head straight for the recipes, which are ranked from 1 (Banana Muffins) to 100 (The Ultimate Challenge Cream Puff Cake).
There doesn’t seem to be many recipes aside from cakes, though. I might be a cookie cuckoo, but I love baking cakes too. In fact, I recently bought a new bundt cake pan that I cannot wait to use. So, I would think that the website would include a greater variety of baked goods, with more cookies, breads and pies. There is a recipe for chocolate chip cookies (level 3) and a treacle tart (71) but you’ll find greater choice if you decide to bake a cake.
Once you select a recipe, you click on a bar that says what level you’ve chosen. This takes you to a badge that you can download and share. I chose No. 53, Cream Cheese Brownies (they pass for cookies) along with 29 other people (so far).
I’m also going to bake a cake using my new bundt pan, which makes such an elegant presentation. The only thing left to decide is whether I’ll make lemon or chocolate. Then I’ll simply drizzle the top with a vanilla glaze, letting it drip down the sides and slice according to the number of guests – hunks or slivers!
I’ll be writing more posts about World Baking Day here through Sunday, so check back often for more recipes and information. And let me know what you’ve decided to create for World Baking Day.
Here are six Chocolate Chip Cookie recipes (including a low-cal version and a gluten-free version) to help you celebrate National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day. According to this ABC News story, the popular treat was invented by accident when Ruth Graves Wakefield mixed semi-sweet chocolate chunks into a batch of Butter Drop Do sugar cookies. That was in 1930 at the Toll House Inn, in Whitman, Mass.
Today is National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day! I almost missed it! Fortunately, I was able to rustle a bag of cookies from the freezer and we’re sorted.
Any day is Chocolate Chip Cookie Day around here! We love them. So do most Americans: 25 percent of cookies sold there contain chocolate chips. Of course, you could eat them straight out of the bag. Or have them in pancakes, or cupcakes or ice cream! But I’m a purist — I’ll have mine in cookies, with a glass of milk! 🙂
Here’s another cookie recipe that would go down a real treat in your Cinco de Mayo festivities tomorrow. Originally, the holiday commemorated freedom and democracy in the American West during the first years after the American Civil War. Nowadays, the May 5 holiday is important in the American calendar as a celebration of Mexican culture, heritage and pride. These Chocolate and Coffee Cookies are a perfect fiesta in your mouth because they combine three traditional tastes often associated with Mexican cooking: chocolate, cinnamon and coffee. Olé!
You don’t have to come from Down Under to appreciate the goodness of ANZAC Biscuits, but you might not be familiar with this Australian acronym or day of remembrance.
Let’s have just a bit of history before we get down to the business of these wholesome biscuits: ANZAC (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps) was a formation of soldiers who were grouped in Egypt before landing at Gallipoli in April 1915 during World War I. ANZAC also referred to any soldier who fought at Gallipoli; and later to any Australian or New Zealand soldier of the First World War.
ANZAC Biscuits are crunchy, coconut-oatmeal cookies created to give the troops a taste of home cooking and to fortify their limited diet with a nutritious snack that bolstered their spirits and energy. They now form a traditional, celebratory element of ANZAC Day — commemorated on April 25 in Australia, New Zealand, The Cook Islands, Niue, Pitcairn Islands and Tonga — to honor all those who served and died in military operations for their country.
So bring a little of the Outback into your kitchen with a batch of these bikkies — they’re sure to be ace with your mob, particularly the ankle biters!