Dog cookies... updated

A while back, I gave out the recipe for Siena's gluten free peanut butter cookies. The old recipe is still fine, but I played around with it a little today and really liked how the cookies came out. I wanted to make rolled out cookies in the shape of dog bones. The two things I changed were adding less water to the dough, from 3/4 cup to 1/3 cup, and replacing the baking powder with baking soda. I rolled out the dough between two greased pieces of parchment paper and but out the shapes. They baked at 375 degrees for almost 15 minutes, making them more crisp than the previous version. The girls enjoyed them too and are planning to share them with their boyfriends tonight when we begin the New Year's festivities! See you in the new year!

I'm making my own yeast. I know...

I can't recall how I came up with the idea. It just kind of came to me. I was sitting on the couch and googled "make your own yeast." I found this video which used a variety of fruits to make natural homemade yeast for baking. The raisins that were used worked the best, but it was an 8+ day process. Do I really want to make it that bad? Sure, why not. I have raisins, and water! And yeast isn't cheap. And it was easy enough to start.

Day 1

Throw some raisins into a glass jar, and fill halfway with water. Screw on the lid, give a little shake, and wait till tomorrow...

Christmas goodies

I haven't been blogging lately. I also haven't been baking as much this month. We went to Florida this month, but we also hosted Christmas for the first time ourselves. So I did a lot of cooking and baking this last week, anyway. For Christmas dinner, I made Betty Crocker crescent rolls and cloverleafs, sugar cookies, KAF's chocolate-pecan pie, KAF's cinnamon twists (and boysenberry twists), and America's Test Kitchen's peanut butter blossoms and mint chocolate cookies. I would have documented the pie and some of the other treats, but pre-Christmas drama overwhelmed me. And since KAF does a good job of detailing the pie, and the twists and crescents I've made before, I will show you how I made the cookies from America's Test Kitchen's holiday cookie issue.

Finished vanilla! and Christmas cookies

It's all ready to go! After more than two months of steeping in my cupboard, I've bottled and started giving away my homemade vanilla extract. I used some in my whole wheat m&m cookies tonight, and they tasted fine. I was a little worried because the extract isn't nearly as dark as I thought it would be. About a week ago, I was searching this problem online and came across Jamie Deen's (one of Paula's sons, who I usually find annoying) recipe for making vanilla extract. He heats and simmers the vodka on the stove before adding it to the beans. Does the heat draw out the vanilla faster than room temperature vodka? I should know this but I don't.