June 22, 2006
Welcome to the Cookie Recipe Club newsletter.
I would like to apologize for not sending the newsletter for so long. I've been spending most of my spare time uploading new pages to the website.
I hope you enjoy the newsletter. Please tell your friends. Just forward the newsletter to everyone in your address book.
If you haven't visited the site in a while you can view the newest pages by just visiting this page.
The whole idea of the Cookie recipe club is sharing recipes. If you've got one please send it in.
If you do submit a recipe a little chitty-chat about it would be nice. If it's your favorite then why is it your favorite, etc...
It doesn't have to be a recipe. It can be a comment on a recipe or a recipe request or a request for cookie or baking information. Somebody out there will probably have an answer.
Just click on this link to Submit A Recipe.
There is not a link to this page on the site so you might want to bookmark it.
Is It Frosting or Is It Icing?
Home cooks most generally use the term frosting and icing interchangeably. This can cause confusion. In order to reduce that confusion I like to make a distinction between the two on my website.
Frosting
Frosting is a fluffy, thick concoction that will hold its shape. You can pipe decorations with it like you see on cakes.
Even though it holds a shape it stays soft and keeps its creamy texture.
There are as many variations of frosting recipes, as there are cookie recipes. One of the most popular is butter cream.
Even within the butter cream category there is no one definitive recipe.
It seems that every country that can get its hands on butter has its opinion of what butter cream frosting should be. Some are made with eggs and butter. Some varieties you have to cook sugar to a softball stage.
There are others that use shortening or a combination of shortening and butter. Still others don't use butter or shortening at all but another substance such as peanut butter.
A simple butter cream is just butter, sugar, flavoring and a liquid beaten and beaten until it is light and fluffy. It can be flavored with most any flavoring and colored any color during the beating stage.
After beating, other ingredients such as dried fruit, nuts or melted chocolate can be folded in.
Icing
Icing is normally much thinner than frosting and in this state will not hold shapes. Because it's more liquid it flows easily and thins out filling in nooks and crannies.
What differentiates icing from frosting is that as icing dries it becomes smooth and will harden when completely dry. This makes it perfect glue for cookie construction projects, such as a gingerbread house.
For the cookie decorator that's not handy with a piping bag icing is the ideal cookie decorating medium.
Just like frosting there are hundreds and hundreds of icing recipes and recipe variations. An icing recipe can be as simple as powdered sugar mixed with a liquid to more complicated meringue varieties.
One of the better known meringue variations is Royal Icing. Depending on the amount of liquid used Royal Icing can be piped and will hold shapes like frosting but it will harden as it dries.
So is it icing? Or is it frosting?
In my humble opinion it boils down to one thing. If it stays soft (within reason) it's frosting. If, when it dries, it hardens then it's icing.
Reader Recipes
Hello,I am looking for a special "No-flour cookie". If I do not find this cookie my wife will be very upset!
THX Ryan
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Hi Ryan,
We certainly don't want your wife upset. Cause when Mama ain't happy, nobody's happy. :)
My life seems to be full of coincidences these days. Today's is the fact that I received your request on the very day that I'm making cookies with oat flour!
It's a shortbread cookie and since shortbread has no gluten dependent leavening in it you can use any kind of flour you like. Even cornstarch!
I have a recipe that I like to use for experimenting. It makes a small batch but can be easily adjusted for larger batches. It's located here:
With just a little experimenting you could come up with an infinite variety of cookies.
Have a nice day Ryan,
Jim
(I initially misunderstood Ryan. What he wanted was a cookie without any flour of any kind. In that case you have to resort to a granola type cookie.)
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I am really excited about trying to make my first giant fortune cookie as well, and had a question about the size of the cookie you make. If you are limited because of your cookie sheets, do you think you could use a pizza pan or pizza stone (it's already round) and can fit in the oven! If I was to try making 1 cookie using the pizza pan, how long do you think it should bake?
Thanks!
Pam
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Hi Pam,
What a terrific idea!
I don't currently own a pizza pan but I'm gonna' get the biggest one I can find that will fit in my oven.
The only technical problem I can foresee is how much batter it will take to cover the pan with a thin layer. That's not a biggie though.
As for the baking time I think it would be the same since the batter is so thin. A little experimenting would tell for sure.
Have a nice day Pam, Jim
P.S. If you bake one be sure and let me know how it comes out. I'll do the same but it might be a while before I get to try it.
Read more about Giant Fortune Cookies.
That's it for this issue. Have a great day and send in those recipes.
Jim