Basic Cheese Pastry & Soft Ginger Cookies

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              FOOD FUNNY
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Here's one from the mysterious "DRSPAGHETI":

A woman was trying hard to get the ketchup to come out of the
jar. During her struggle the phone rang so she asked her 4-year-
old daughter to answer the phone. "It's the minister, mommy,"
the child said to her mother. Then she said to the minister,
"Mommy can't come to the phone to talk to you right now, she's
hitting the bottle."

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              TODAY'S RECIPES
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This recipe was contributed by Harriet St. Amant in the October
21, 2003 edition of the ezine, and my mother and I have made
them virtually every time we have entertained dinner guests since
then. The cheese wafers and cheese-nut wafers have also appeared
in many gift baskets (Mom has a habit of giving baked goods to
most of the people she knows), and the cheese-olive balls are a
particular favorite of mine. Here is Harriet's introduction:

This starts out with a basic cheese pastry (which recipe I've had
and used for over 30 years), and I'll enumerate it as well as some
of the other treats which can be made from this simple pastry. I
usually use Cheddar because we prefer it, but it's good made with
Swiss or Parmesan as well.

Basic Cheese Pastry

1 1/2 cups finely shredded Cheddar cheese
1/2 cup sweet butter
1 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cayenne, or to taste (optional)

Cream together cheese and butter; combine with flour and salt
(and cayenne) until it's well blended and forms a ball. Use in any
of the following ways and serve warm or at room temp to adoring
friends and relatives.

Variations:

Cheese Wafers: Form pastry into rolls 6 inches long and 2 inches in
diameter. Refrigerate several hours. With a sharp knife, slice rolls
thinly. Place slices on lightly greased baking sheets and bake at 400
for 8-10 minutes until lightly browned on the edges.

Cheese-Nut Wafers: Start out as above, centering each wafer with a
pecan half before baking.

Cheese-Olive Balls: Wrap 1-1 1/2 tsp pastry around stuffed green
olives (depending on size of olives), sealing well. Bake at 400 for
10-12 minutes.

Chicken-Cheese Tartlets: Substitute Swiss cheese for Cheddar;
roll pastry out as for pie shell and cut into 3-inch rounds with a
cookie or biscuit cutter. Fit pastry rounds gently into mini-muffin
tins; prick with fork. Bake at 425 until golden. Cool and remove
from tins carefully. Fill with chicken salad. Each filled tartlet
can be topped with a small green grape for an elegant presentation.

Cheese Straws/Twists: Roll dough of your choice out as above.
With a sharp knife, cut into pieces about 3 inches long and 1/2
inch wide. Place on sheets either flat or twist gently once or twice
and bake at 400 for about 8 minutes or until golden brown.

Cheese Puffs: Form pastry into 1-inch balls. If desired, roll each
in paprika, chili powder, cayenne, sesame seeds, caraway seeds,
finely chopped nuts, etc. Bake on cookie sheets at 400 until
puffed and golden, about 10 minutes. To vary this variation, form
pastry into 1/2-inch balls and lay them on the baking sheets in
clusters of three. Bake as above. These are interesting on St.
Patrick's Day if you sprinkle the freshly-baked clusters with finely
chopped fresh parsley immediately upon removing them from the
oven.

Cheese-Date Balls: Fill pitted dates with almonds, pecans or
walnuts, cut or broken to fit as necessary. Wrap each stuffed
date with enough cheese pastry to cover completely, sealing well.
Bake on lightly greased sheets at 400 for 10-12 minutes.

This recipe from Margaret Roberts appeared in the Pen-Pal forum
just a couple of weeks ago, in the November 29 edition to be precise.
My mother made a batch for the above-mentioned gift baskets,
and we both fell in love with the flavor and texture. They taste like
old-fashioned ginger bread, sweet and fragrant with molasses, and
the chewy cake-like center on top of a crisp base made them an
immediate favorite. Here is how Margaret introduced her recipe:

This recipe has been a family favorite for years. I have been known
to use these cookies as birthday gifts for co-workers, friends and
relatives. I won't give them the recipe... so they BEG for the cookies.
Maybe someday I'll let my niece have the recipe... maybe I'll just
leave it in my will... he he. I use less cloves than listed for less of
a "bite" to the taste. I also use dairy-free margarine and egg beaters
to make these cholesterol free (NOT calorie or fat free though).

Soft Ginger Cookies

2 1/4 cups flour
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter (or margarine), softened
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 large egg (or 1/4 cup egg beaters )
1/3 cup sugar (see recipe)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, baking soda and spices.
Set aside. (Tip: I use 1/4 tsp cloves, and 1 tsp cinnamon) in a large
bowl beat the butter and 1 cup of sugar until fluffy. Add the egg
beaters and molasses, mix well. Stir in the dry ingredients until
well blended. Meanwhile pour the remaining 1/3 cup of sugar
onto a plate (you may need more sugar). Shape dough into 1 1/2-
inch balls and roll in the sugar. Place about 2 1/2 inches apart on
ungreased cookie sheets. (Tip: cover the sheets with foil to help
with cleaning) bake 10-12 minutes or until puffed and light brown.
Do not overbake! Let stand on pan for 2 minutes then cool on wire
rack. Yield: about 36 cookies.
Received on Wed Dec 20 08:50:27 2006