Grassroots Gourmet

This Foodie Friday is brought to you by Butter. This is the best ingredient of all time!

Butter is made from churning milk or cream.  In America it is made into 4 ounce sticks that come 4 per box to make a pound per box. Typically, grocery stores carry sweet cream butter, salted butter, and unsalted butter. It’s the unsalted butter that you’ll want to use for baking, in most recipes.

You will need your butter nice and cold for flaky crusts like pie. The butter releases steam in the oven and that keeps the layers flaky. When making cookies, some recipes require a trip back to the fridge for the dough before baking. This allows the butter to cool down again and keeps the cookies from getting too flat.  If you cream the butter with sugar you add in air bubbles that will make your recipe, like buttercream or other frostings, light and fluffy.

We love Butter. We buy it in bulk, sometimes in excess.  But we also understand that to make some things, like vegan treats, you must forgo the butter.  You can use Earth Balance buttery spread or sometimes vegetable oil in the place of butter. And in other recipes, you may need to use shortening. This semi-solid fat ( as opposed to full fat butter) is easier to work with in terms of temperature. Many pie crusts call for shortening because it lacks water, unlike butter, so there will be fewer bubbles and layers but still the flaky texture we all love.

In short, butter is great. We think so and we hope you do too. We love the rich flavor of shortbread cookies and the simplicity of sugar cookies, both featuring the star ingredient -butter.  To a baker, it’s simply comfort food.

This week’s Tasty Tuesday is all about Sugar Cookies.
These simple cookies are a fan favorite regardless of age!

Most sugar cookie recipes have the same few ingredients: flour, sugar, eggs, butter, vanilla and baking powder or baking soda. Besides the measurement of ingredients there are two things that can change: how thick you rolled out the dough and the temperature at which you bake them.  The rest is up to you. You can add sprinkles, icing, frosting or glaze. You can use different shaped cookie cutters or even edible markers to decorate your treats.

When you order sugar cookies from us you can pick a theme for your cookies. We did a bunch of winter themed cookies in December: penguins, polar bears and snow flakes. Order a bunch for your next office party or to give as gifts.

This Tasty Tuesday is brought to you by our signature “John Hancock” Cookies

These triple chocolate-chip cookies are perfect for any occasion.

These delicious cookies pack in as much chocolate as possible with a ratio of almost 1:1 :: cookie : chocolate. You are sure to find a different combination of semi-sweet chocolate, milk chocolate and white chocolate in every bite. Enjoy these with a glass or milk or soy milk… or do as my roommates and I sometimes do and try them with your morning coffee (don’t tell my Mom).

The next time your afternoon meeting or training needs a little pick-me up, make sure you have some of these cookies to share. They bring smiles to faces, quiet hungry bellies, and satisfy the chocolate lover in all of us.

Well folks it’s time for another Foodie Friday. As promised, I’ll be sticking to the “key ingredients” theme this month. Since we already talked about chocolate I felt it only fair to discuss what some consider chocolate’s cousin, or step child- Vanilla.

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This weeks Tasty Tuesday is brought to you by one of my favorite things… Red Velvet Cake.  Now you may ask yourself “What does this Philly girl know about Red Velvet?”… but I’ve done my research.

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Welcome to another Foodie Friday Post! It seems as though this month will feature  key ingredients for baking. Last week was chocolate and this week we’re talking about Buttercream. Yes folks, Buttercream.

This wonderful ingredient is made by mixing a fat with a sugar- most commonly butter with confectioners sugar. While a standard buttercream usually includes vanilla, many flavors can be added such as chocolate- either melted or in the form of cocoa powder. You can add a few teaspoons of strong coffee (cooled) or instant espresso, mint extract, framboise- anything really!

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This Tasty Tuesday is brought to you by Blueberry Coffeecake Muffins.

These are my roommates ultimate favorites! Packed with tons of blueberries and covered in a cinnamon sugar topping these muffins are perfect for any time of day.  They even provide some needed nutrients. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, blueberries rank #1 in antioxidants compared to 40 other fresh fruits and vegetables. That’s twice the amount in spinach. Who said muffins weren’t good for you?

When you order these muffins for your next breakfast meeting consider pairing them with our carrot or banana breads. Then maybe your colleagues won’t mind be up so early!

This new feature aims to provide our foodie fans with news, tips, skills and flavor ideas. We hope that you enjoy reading and learning as much as we enjoy teaching and sharing.

Today’s Foodie Friday is all about Chocolate.  It’s my favorite ingredient. We kind of love it!

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Hello fans and welcome to a new feature of the Blogging Bakers.
Stay tuned every Tuesday for a delicious bite from our menu.

This Tuesday is brought to you by  Truffles. Did you know that the American Chocolate Truffle was named for it’s likeness to the truffle fungus? Both are little, sort of round, and a dark brownish color. Wanna learn more? Check Wikipedia

Our truffles (featured below) come in a variety of flavors: milk chocolate, dark chocolate, spicy dark chocolate, chocolate nut and a sweet cinnamon and sugar.

Two weeks ago I was honored as the 2010 recipient of the Young Woman of Achievement Award for Entrepreneurial Spirit from WIN. I’d like to thank Vaishalee Yeldandi, the YWA Chair, for her vote of confidence in this nomination.

The Women’s Information Network (WIN) is Washington’s premier professional, political, and social network dedicated to empowering young, Democratic, pro-choice women. WIN encourages women to make moves and change the world. As a member of this organization I am always impressed by how many women from all walks of life are part of this network.  These amazing women are policy makers, organizers, lawyers, fundraisers, and “movers and shakers,” all with the common goal of building a network of women who know that we can achieve whatever we set our minds to. I think of WIN as a place where we pool our resources and gain access to the places where women need to be more present in politics, on the hill and at the front of change.  It is networks such as this one that have encouraged and supported our new business every step of the way. Read the rest of this entry »