Getting Your Eggs in a Pickle, Mustard, That Is

Something funny happens to the chickens in winter. They just don’t want to lay eggs as often, as much. Neighbor Dude is lucky to squeeze (no pun intended) a dozen eggs a week from his chickens. I’m thinking maybe they’re just into basketball, maybe hockey, this time of year.

Dude just says, “You’ll have this with chickens.” Like the rest of us in a much-too-long Pennsylvania winter, they don’t like the lack of sunlight. To make up for it, most folks who raise chickens will provide artificial light. Chickens aren’t the brightest crayons in the box; they can be easily fooled.

Dude gives them extra light, too, but there are still fewer eggs. They wander the barn yard free, but they’re still wasn’t enough to scratch at. So he started supplementing their feed a bit -- judiciously – with table scraps. It worked! By the end of the week, I had enough extra eggs to indulge my urge for mustard pickled eggs.

And it was Dude who turned me on to them. My husband is a big fan of pickled eggs but his favorite use pickled beet juice as the brine. Dude had shared with me a recipe he brought back from the Pennsylvania Farm Show and I loved these yellow guys. They’re pickled, all right, but they also have a piquant spiciness, thanks to the mustard and seasonings, that I like.

My husband still prefers the more traditional pickled eggs with beets.  Together, they make a pretty picture. (Just like us. Right, hon?)

Mustard Pickled Eggs
from the Pennsylvania Farm Show 2008

1 ½ cups white vinegar
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons dry mustard
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
½ tablespoon salt
½ teaspoon yellow food coloring (optional)
8 hard-boiled eggs

Mix all ingredients, except eggs, and pour over eggs. Let sit, refrigerated for 3 to 4 days to reach full flavor.
You can speed up the process by heating the pickling mixture before pouring over the eggs.

I did add yellow food coloring this last time I made them. They were a little pale the first time. I got to wondering, though, would a little turmeric yellow them up nicely and add an extra li’l kick, too?

A Good Recipe Travels Far: Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Just like it’s great to have breakfast for dinner once in a while -- or leftover pizza for breakfast -- muffins, especially jazzed-up versions like these Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins, can be a great dessert. Of course, since they’re “muffins” you’re welcome to have them for breakfast, too.

I learned about these muffins from Elly Says Opa!, who learned them from Annie’s Eats. Who knows where it will go next? Ain’t blogging grand! Elly made a few tweaks from Annie’s recipe, then I changed the topping. Not that the original crumb topping wasn’t good. It’s delectable. But I really was planning these for a dessert, so I made a glaze instead.

Apparently, these are a knock-off of a Starbuck’s muffin. I couldn’t fact-check that one, because the closest Starbuck’s is more than a few miles from here (not that we don’t have some great coffee houses!). But I can tell you they’re scrumptious! If you like pumpkin. (I do.) And warm cinnamony and clovey spices. (I do.) And cream cheese. (I do, I do, I do!)

These aren’t a spontaneous undertaking because you need two hours ahead of baking to cool your sweetened cream cheese logs in the freezer before baking – but it’s worth it.

I first made these for a Christmas brunch and we scarfed them up along with our Naked Fruit Salad, ham and broccoli quiche and mimosas. The muffins were so good I bet we could have just eaten more of them and skipped the quiche – but not the mimosas.

The next time I made them was for a friend’s birthday. Our friend Susie was baking her husband Dick’s favorite cake for his birthday but since there was going to be a crowd, we thought maybe some extra something might be good. So I volunteered to make these. It’s not like me to volunteer to bake, I’m that intimidated by baking. But I was so sure of these babies, I didn’t hesitate a minute – and even got so brave as to change the topping!

Elly added a little vanilla to the cream cheese filling, and changed the spice combination some. Annie’s Eats recipe included pumpkin pie spice, but Elly chose to increase the cinnamon and nutmeg and add ground ginger. She also used canola oil instead of vegetable oil. Since I had a bunch of pumpkin pie spice that won’t get used for anything but this, I followed the first recipe more closely.

Since they were supposed to be a dessert, I thought I’d frost them, but since there was already cream cheese in the middle, a real icing might be too much, so I made a glaze by blending softened cream cheese with confectioner's sugar and thinning it with apple butter and spreading it on the warm muffins.

So here’s my amalgamation of two recipes.  I wonder what the next change will be?

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins
from Elly Says Opa!  and from Annie’s Eats
makes 24  muffins
For the filling:
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the muffins:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon  ground cloves
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 large eggs
2 cups sugar
2 cups pumpkin puree
1¼ cups vegetable oil

For the glaze:

1 cup confectioners' sugar
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
½ cup apple butter

To make the filling, mix together the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla extract until combined. Shape the mixture into a log (about 1.5″ in diameter), with the aid of plastic wrap, and wrap the log tightly. Reinforce with tin foil or place in a plastic freezer bag and freeze for 2 hours or longer, until firm.

To make the muffins, preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Line muffin pans with paper liners. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, pumpkin pie spice, salt and baking soda; whisk to blend. In the bowl of an electric mixer combine the eggs, sugar, pumpkin puree and oil. Mix on medium-low speed until blended. With the mixer on low speed, add in the dry ingredients, mixing just until incorporated.

To assemble the muffins, fill each muffin well with a small amount of batter, just enough to cover the bottom of the liner (1-2 tablespoons). Slice the log of cream cheese filling into 24 equal pieces. Place a slice of the cream cheese mixture into each muffin well. Divide the remaining batter among the muffin cups, placing on top of the cream cheese to cover completely.

Bake for 20-25 minutes. While the muffins bake, make the glaze by blending the cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and apple butter until smooth.  Whn muffins are done, transfer to a wire rack. Spread apple butter glaze on muffin tops while still warm. Let cool completely before serving.

"Goat's Beard" Soup

As I was making this luscious, velvety smooth and just-rich-enough Cream of Leek and Potato Soup, I was struck at what a pretty color it was: a lovely pastel green with a hint of yellow. It looked familiar and comforting. And it didn’t take me long to figure out why: it’s the color of my kitchen walls!

The paint chip was labeled “Goat’s Beard,” and I never really gave the name a second thought. It was the light shade of green I wanted to blend with the deeper sage green (called “Washed Khaki’) in the adjoining dining room and office/den, and coordinated perfectly with the golden orange (called “Himalayan Paw”) that accented the bulkhead all around. That Martha Stewart can get pretty creative even with paint names.

I merely thought these were unique names. Now I had to look up “goat’s beard.” It’s a perennial plant (aruncus dioicus) and the color of the flower does indeed look like my kitchen walls. (I learned this from my favorite perennial supplier, Bluestone Perennials, who happily shared this picture with me. Bluestone, based in Madison, Ohio, incidentally, ships anywhere at the right time for growing. Great greenhouse.)

I can figure out what Washed Khaki describes, but Himalayan Paw? Has to be a strange big cat, right? Kinda. It’s a popular Persian cat, although not big, but the colors of the pads, or paws, can vary widely. The closest thing I found to the color of my bulkhead was cinnamon-pink. Close enough.

Back to the soup.

I was inspired to make this soup thanks to The Splendid Table, the National Public Radio program hosted by Lynn Rossetto Kasper and Sally Swift. I subscribe to the weekly e-newsletter that never fails to offer something unique, but doable, for a weeknight. Highly recommend it. They were inspired by Julia Child. Imagine! All these great cooks right alongside me as I whipped up this soup and awed at my own walls!

As you can see, the recipe is not really a recipe, more like a framework, arming one with the right proportions to embellish to one’s heart content. I didn’t get carried away. Chopped chives was it. Next time, who knows.

I’m loving my new immersion blender. Making pureed soups like this is a piece of cake now. No transferring from pot to processor, in portions, and back again to the pot. No chance for spillage. It’s the best little appliance I ever introduced to my little kitchen, which can’t stand one more thing on the counter, or to store in the cupboard. A little rearranging was all it took to keep the new blender handy but hidden.

Master Recipe for Leek and Potato Soup
Adapted by The Splendid Table from Julia’s Kitchen Wisdom: Essential Techniques and Recipes from a Lifetime of Cooking, By Julia Child

Makes about 2 quarts, serving 6

3 cups sliced leeks, white and tender green parts
3 cups peeled and roughly chopped “baking” potatoes
6 cups water
11/2 teaspoons salt
½ cup sour cream or crème fraiche, optional

Bring ingredients to the boil in a 3 quart saucepan. Cover partially and simmer, until vegetables are tender. Correct seasoning. Serve as is, or puree and/or top each portion with a dollop of the cream.

Cream of Leek and Potato Soup: After simmering the soup, puree it and whisk in ½ cup heavy cream. Reheat to the simmer again before serving.

Other variations:

• Substitute onions for leeks
• Add a bunch of watercress to the base soup for the last few minutes of cooking before pureeing.
• Add anything else you have on hand, such as cauliflower, broccoli, green peas, spinach, raw or cooked, making it your house soupe du jour. (Actually, I did this, adding broccoli stalks, asparagus stalks, spinach leaves not pretty enough for a salad, etc., and, frankly, the color just couldn’t match my goat’s beard, so I’m sticking with leeks and potatoes!)

Here's my favorite picture hanging on my Goat's Beard kitchen wall.  Thanks, Amy!

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Cheesecake

There are few things that go together as naturally as peanut butter and chocolate. (Okay, maybe peanut butter and jelly.) When I Googled the words peanut butter and chocolate I got 5.3 million results in less than 22 seconds. That’s simply amazing!

And at the top of the search list? Even more amazing – a blog dedicated to nothing but peanut butter and chocolate recipes!! Kristina from Hoboken, NJ, has been writing about peanut butter and chocolate for over two years and hasn’t run out of steam. (Can you imagine chili with peanut butter? Must try it.)

So when a friend requested “something peanut butter and chocolate” for her birthday celebration, I was secretly delighted because that meant if I was making the treat I got to lick the bowl. And the spoon. And the beaters. And my fingers.

I made a cheesecake, but it’s not a classic cheesecake at all. In fact the texture was more like a soft candy bar. Dense with rich chocolate and creamy peanut butter. I confess I didn’t get the recipe from the cpb gallery. (It was from Better Homes and Gardens.) But I’m definitely going back for the chili recipe!

You won’t be tempted to cut this into any sizes much bigger. The recipe says 16 slices and that’s exactly what it means. To make it easier to slice use a serrated knife dipped in water.

Decadent Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cheesecake
from www.bhg.com

18 chocolate covered graham crackers
½ cup unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons sugar
2 8 ounce packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup creamy peanut butter
¼ cup sugar
3 eggs
1 ½ cups semisweet chocolate pieces
2 tablespoons milk
½ teaspoons vanilla extract
Optional peanuts for sprinkling on top

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Combine crackers, melted butter and 2 tablespoons sugar. Press into bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch springform pan; set aside. In bowl beat 1 package cream cheese with electric mixer until smooth. Beat in peanut butter and ¼ cup sugar until combined. Fold in 1 lightly beaten egg. Set aside.

In saucepan, stir chocolate over low heat until melted and smooth. Remove from heat. Cube remaining cheese and add to chocolate. Stir to combine. Stir in milk and vanilla until smooth. Fold in two lightly beaten eggs. Spread half the chocolate mixture into the pan. Carefully spread all the peanut butter mixture over the chocolate layer. Then evenly spread the rest of the chocolate over the peanut butter layer.

Bake 45 minutes until top is set when slightly shaken. The outer two inches of the top will be slightly puffed and dry-looking; center will look darker and wet. Cool in pan on rack 15 minutes. Gently loosen the crust from sides and cool completely on rack. Cover and chill at least 4 hours. Let stand at room temperature 15 minutes before serving, to ease cutting. Sprinkle with peanuts if you want. Makes 16 servings. (About 400 calories each, but worth it!)

This is how beautiful the ice we had this week looked!

A Simple Bayou Stew, with a Side of Jewelry

I used to work with a graphic artist who did the same thing every time we were discussing a project: He’d draw a triangle -- wherever, on a board, on a piece of paper, a napkin -- and he’d label the corners Good, Fast and Cheap. Then he’d say, “You can have two of these, but you can’t have all three!”

Didn't believe it then, and I don't believe it now, especially when it comes to cooking. 

It is possible -- quite possible – to make good food and make it well and quickly. It does take a little planning, a few things in the pantry, some effort, a bit of imagination.

But none of that means a whole lot of money or time. It might take a modicum of skill, but only a modicum. And with a little practice, a little repetition, that skill feeds itself along with the growing knowledge of what complements what.  Fresh ingredients are a big plus, but often, armed simple staples – rice, onion, a pepper, an egg or two, garlic and soy sauce -- one pan and twenty minutes, you can make a great dish like fried rice. And something as simple as keeping a jar of capers or chipotle in adobo sauce on hand can transform simple into exotic.

My step-daughter Krista and her husband Dan are like a lot of young parents who, after a full day of work, would rather spend time with their two pre-school (and lively!) boys or working on a home improvement project than cooking. (Can't blame them; those boys are pretty darn adorable!)

But they still want to eat well – healthily, inexpensively, and without a lot of time in the kitchen, something that everyone (even a sometimes finicky four year-old) -- will eat, and without getting stuck in a rut. Got to hand it to them, they’ve honed some pretty good habits to do that: shopping in bulk, stocking the freezer and pantry, keeping shopping lists, and planning weekly menus they actually post!

On a visit to their house several weeks ago, while Grandpa and I were busy playing with the boys, Krista and Dan slipped into the kitchen and whipped up this simple and very good soup/stew. They served it with some great bread and it was a wonderful lunch!

They told me the recipe came from a cookbook I’d given them some time ago: Cheap, Fast, Good! The authors, Beverly Mills and Alicia Ross, have assembled hundreds of dishes to make great food cheaply, along a whole lot of good advice about getting the most for your dollar. (I hear inflation’s coming!) The recipes are very family friendly, too. You can further healthy-up this recipe by using turkey kielbasa and low-sodium beef broth.

One of the reasons Krista needs all her spare time is so she can work on her hand-made jewelry, available on her etsy.com site. Classy and elegant stuff. She’s talented and imaginative with her designs.  I love her stuff!  Before taking a look at the recipe, take a look at this sampling; and be sure to visit her Behind the Moon etsy shop and her blog.

Bayou Stew
from Cheap, Fast, Good!

1 cup long grain rice
2/3 pound skinless boneless chicken breasts
2 tablespoons butter
2 large onions
8 ounces kielbasa sausage
1 medium sized green pepper (about 1 cup chopped)
2 cans (14 oz each) beef broth
2 teaspoons Cajun blend seasoning
2 tablespoons flour

For Rice: Bring 2 cups lightly salted water to boil in a covered saucepan. Add the rice. Stir and reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer until rice is tender, about 20 minutes.
Melt butter in 4 ½ qt Dutch oven over medium heat. Peel onion and finely chop them, adding to the pot as you chop. Cut the chicken into bite size pieces adding them to the pot as you chop. When all the chicken has been added, raise the heat to medium high. Cook stirring until the chicken is almost cooked through, about 4-5 minutes. Meanwhile cut the sausage in half lengthwise, the slice both halves into roughly ¼ in pieces.
Add broth to the pot, raise the heat to high and add the bell pepper, cover the pot and bring the soup to a boil.  Add Cajun seasoning and cook at a moderate boil until the green pepper is tender, about 3 minutes. (Uncover the pot partially if pot begins to boil over.)

In small jar with lid, mix flour with 3 tablespoons cold tap water. Cover jar and shake well until the mixture is combined and the lumps have disappeared. Gradually add the flour mixture to the soup stirring constantly until the soup has thickened slightly. Remove the pan from the heat. Divide the hot cooked rice among four large soup bowls and ladle soup over the rice and serve at once.  Four generous servings.

Great Steak, Dr. Salisbury!

It really is just ground meat, after all.  Not really “steak” as we know it. And, usually, you’ll only find the humble Salisbury Steak (pretty high fallutin’ name for something so modest) in diners and homestyle restaurants. Right alongside the meatloaf. Or chicken and biscuits.

But the name comes from Doctor Salisbury! I imagined it was just named after a place – Salisbury Hill? Apparently James Henry Salisbury, a 19th century British physician was a big advocate of lots of meat -- red meat, no less -- in the diet, contrary to everything we read today. He believed that vegetables and starchy foods could produce substances that poison and paralyze the body’s tissues and cause everything from heart disease to tuberculosis to gout.

He claimed our teeth are "meat teeth" and our digestive systems designed to digest lean meat, and that vegetables, fats, starches and fruit should only be 1/3 of our diet. Starch is digested slowly, so it ferments in the stomach and produces vinegar, acid, alcohol and yeast, all of which were poisonous to our systems, he claimed.

His “meat cure” was a special diet that included Salisbury Steak, which should be eaten three times a day (!), with plenty of water to flush the body’s system.

All pretty interesting and certainly a signal that I was to try Salisbury Steak at home. I'm a great guinea pig. I don’t think I’ve ever had it. I’m always looking for different ways to use ground meat because we have a freezer full of beef/venison mix. (Talk about local! Some of beef is from Dude who lives down the road, and some of the venison, from our own woods.)

My husband could live – happily – on hamburgers three days a week. Probably pizza at least two of the others. I like just a little more variety. So when a sample of Cuisine At Home arrived with a recipe for French Onion Salisbury Steak in it, I earmarked it. Then, I saw a blog I follow, Casa en la Cocina, * posted another version. Karma strikes again. The photo in the Cuisine at Home made the glorified hamburger look very much like a steak. What really makes it special is the sauce, a little in the cooking method, and definitely the shape. It’s shaped into a nice oval, not round like a regular hamburger. I suppose that nurtures the notion of “steak.” I know we thought it was great comfort food for this winter that doesn’t seem to want to take a break.

Salisbury Steak
from Cuisine at Home

1 ¼ pounds lean ground beef
¼ cup minced parsley
¼ cup finely chopped onion
2 teaspoons shallot-pepper seasoning (from Penzey's)
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
For the sauce:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup sliced onions
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 cups low-sodium beef broth
¼ dry red wine
¾ teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon dried thyme

Combine the ground meat, parsley, shallot-pepper seasoning (or substitute freshly ground black pepper and kosher salt and increase the amount of chopped onions to ½ cup.)
Divide the mixture evenly into four patties and shape into ¾ inch to 1 inch thick oval patties. Place the flour in a shallow dish and dredge each patty in the flour. (Reserve 1 teaspoon flour for the sauce.)
Heat oil in a pan over medium-high heat. Add patties and cook about three minute on each side or until browned and remove from pan.
Add the onion and sugar to the pan and cook about 3 to four minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook another two minutes longer. Stir in the garlic and tomato paste. Cook until the paste begins to turn brown in color, about 1 minute.
Sprinkle the reserved flour over and cook 1 minute. Then add the broth and wine, salt and thyme.
Return the meat to the pan; bring sauce to a boil and then reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer about 10 minutes.
Sprinkle a little fresh parsley and grated Parmesan if you’d like. I served the steaks on top of lightly buttered noodles with peas and spooned the sauce over all.
Makes 4 steaks.

*What I did differently from Cuisine at Home was to use sweet onions instead of scallions in the meat mixture as well as use the Penzey's shallot-pepper seasoning instead of shallots and pepper.  I also added mushrooms to the sauce mixture.  The magazine's recipe also suggests serving the steaks atop cheese toasts.

* Mary's, Casa en la Cocina, birthday is Friday, January 28.  Stop by and wish her a happy! *

My Mom’s Best Cookie: Sour Cream Twists

In memory of my mother, who died six years ago today, I made her favorite cookie, which has been the family’s signature cookie for well over 40 years. And I have to say, Mom, they’re the best batch I’ve ever made! They turned out just the way they’re supposed to – a crunchy, caramelized sugar coating on the outside, a delicately flaky pastry-like cookie on the inside. Just the right golden color. Perfect!

My mother found this recipe when her first daughter got married many more years ago than I’m sure my sister Anne wants to remember! It was a simple wedding with a reception on the lawn of our parents’ home. I was all of five or six at the time, but I do remember the flurry of activity and I sure remember those cookies.

My older sisters tell me that Mom found this recipe when she was searching for something special for the reception. We thought it must have come from her favorite cookbook– Woman’s Home Companion – but maybe it was another (because I looked there.) Mom herself told us that it was an “old German recipe.” We thought that was a little unusual since she had an Irish Scot heritage and Dad was 100% Italian!

Every woman in the family learned to make Sour Cream Twists. Over the years, we’ve all contributed the recipe to many a benefit cookbook of any organization we’ve belonged to. I’ve taken them to book club, church potlucks, parties, card club, women’s meetings. We’ve all often been asked for the recipe. Once  I happily shared the recipe with a woman I admired as a great cook (who moaned so appreciatively as she ate a cookie in front of me.) She came back to me later and told me I must have left something out because hers weren’t quite the same as mine.

“Ahhh!” I thought, “It must all be in the technique of the twist!”

It did take me a while to get the hang of twisting the raw dough just right, and judging just how much vanilla sugar to roll into the dough. I do remember well my younger sister and I learning how to make the cookies with Mom. And how much raw dough we’d sneak in while she wasn’t looking.

We’ve all thought it was a unique cookie and not your standard fare. But if you do a quick Google search today, you’ll find hundreds of versions. And imagine the family’s dismay when our Sour Cream Twist, our family’s signature cookie, was featured in a 2005 Good Housekeeping magazine cookie contest! Not so unique after all! The Massachusetts woman who submitted the recipe said that a co-worker gave her the recipe. “She gave me the recipe for these twists, which are delicious – like puff pastry. That was 40 years ago and I still make them every year.”

So do I. And they are delicious. Mom made them for just about every occasion, no matter how special or ordinary. Someone coming home from college for a weekend? Sour Cream Twists. Great report card? Sour Cream Twists. Home on leave from the service? Sour Cream Twists. And certainly every Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Simply a family tradition we can’t -- won’t -- let go of.

The recipes I’ve looked at all have slight variations. More or less eggs or varying amounts of sour cream. But none of them have any sweetness in the dough; the sugar is added in the rolling later. They all have sour cream, yeast, flour, butter and vanilla extract in the dough. Mom always insisted on Fleischmann’s margarine and she used cake yeast. I think she would have easily latched on to using parchment paper or a silicon mat. Cleaning up those &*^$# pans of caramelized sugar was always tough.

I’ve messed around with the recipe from time to time – adding orange zest or crushed almonds or almond extract. But I always come back to the original.

Because they remind me of you, Mom. Especially today.

I miss you very much. Always will.

Sour Cream Twists

1 package active dry yeast
¼ cup lukewarm water
3 ½ cups flour
2 sticks butter
2 eggs
½ cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For rolling:
1 ½ cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Dissolve yeast in water. Mix flour in butter in bowl with pastry blender until mixture is well blended. Beat eggs until foamy, then add yeast mixture and sour cream until well blended. Add the flour and butter mixture and mix well. Gather into ball and wrap in clear wrap and refrigerate at least two hours. (It will keep in fridge a couple days.)

When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Line rimmed baking pans with parchment paper.

Combine a mixture of 1 ½ cups sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla and blend well. Sprinkle rolling surface with some of this mixture. Using half the dough, roll it to a rectangle about 4 by 12 inches. Cut in half lengthwise, then each half into 12 even pieces. Roll the piece in the vanilla sugar, then twist it two or three times and roll it again in the sugar and place two inches apart on baking sheet. Follow same procedure with second half of dough. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until lightly golden brown on bottom. Remove immediately from pan and cool on baking rack. Store in tightly covered container about a week. If cookies lose their outside crispness, reheat in 350 degree oven for about five minutes.

Makes 4 dozen cookies.