The Butter Council is Going To Love Me!

Today we are having a doesy of a storm. The snow is coming in horizontal, not vertical. You can't see more than two houses away. School was canceled. I don't know what we're going to do about finals! And I didn't bring home any essays to grade - oh, darn.

The practical girl in me went to the grocery store at 6:00 a.m. to make sure we had enough food. Then I did all of the laundry. If we are going to get snowed in, at least we will do it in clean clothes. Then the baking commenced. So far I have made four batches of Russian Tea Cookies (also known as buttery snowballs around here) and four batches of Pepparkakor (Molasses Spice cookies). I have learned a few things today: 1) The capacity of my stand mixer is three batches of cookies, or 12 cups of dough; 2) More flour and freezer bags should be on the emergency grocery store list. Once all of these babies are baked, it will be on to the sewing.

I tried to show you the progress I am making on my gifts, but the photos will not load. That is the problem of a dial up connection. So, I will share the recipes instead:

Swedish Pepparkakor Cookies
6 TBL. Butter,, softened6 TBL Canola Oil
1 1/2 cup Sugar
1 Egg
1 TBL Water
1/4 cup Molassas (Brer Rabbit is best!)
Cream the above items together.
Mix in:
3 cup Flour
1/4 tea. Cloves, ground
1/4 tea. Ginger, ground
1 tea Cinnamon, ground
2 tea Baking Soda
1/2 tea
Salt
The resulting dough will seem very dry. Form small balls. Place them onto the cookie sheet. Place extra sugar in a small bowl (I use a ramakin) , dip the flat end of a drinking glass in the dough, then into the sugar and use to flatten a mound of dough. Repeat until all cookies are flattened and sugared. Dough should be kept cool at this point.< Bake at 375 in a [reheated oven for 8 minutes. Watch closely as they burn easily. Remove onto a rack or paper towels to cool. This makes about 60 cookies. They freze well. Russian Tea Cookies

Cream together:
1 cup butter, softened
1 tea Vanilla Extract
6 TBL Powdered/Confectioners' Sugar

Add in:
2 cups Flour
1 cup Nuts (walnuts or almonds work nicely) , finely chopped

Mix until just blended. Make small balls of dough. They can be close together on the baking pan as they do not expand. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 12 minutes.

Once they are cool place them in a large baggie that contains a generous amount of powdered sugar, seal and shake gently to coat the cookies. It is important to wait for them to cook, or the powdered sugar melts onto the cookie.

Enjoy! Now, what else can I make?...
3 cups Flour