You need to make the dough at least half a day before you make the
cookies.
Get:
Large mixing bowl
Pastry cutter (don't have one? big fork,
fingers….)
1 cup measuring cup
a cup
teaspoon (tsp)
measure
tablespoon (tbls) measure
small mixing bowl - very small, like a
fruit nappi (can you believe I said that LOL)
fork
Ingredients: pastry flour, 4 eggs, sour cream, flieshmans dry-active-yeast,
Crisco, milk, and sugar.
* Measure 4 cups pastry flour into the big bowl
* in a cup heat 1/2 cup of
milk with 1tsp sugar (like 45 sec in microwave)
* while its warm add 1 tbls
dry-active-yeast (let this sit for 5 minutes) (yes it's supposed to stink and
bubble up to fill the cup)
* in a little bowl, mix together 4 egg yokes
(chuck the whites!) with 3 tbls of sour cream
* Cut up 1 lb crisco (the reg
not the golden) into little pieces and put it in the flour (or squish it in your
hands - this is fun!). The goal is the fully integrate the Crisco with the
flour… no big chunks!
* pour egg yoke/sour cream into flour as well as
milk/yeast . Mix it all up.
* You'll have to kneed it for a bit...
kneed in at least 1/3 cp of white sugar.
* wrap this in plastic wrap and put
it in the fridge over night.
* make cookies tomorrow
Note: you're going to need some thick thick jam... maybe plumb butter! Check out a euro trash deli or a German deli and look for the funky jam section. You'll find some good stuff… thick is key.
1. the dough is kinda dark ugly yellow (like a kraft envelope) and fresh
from fridge it's thickish and smells.
2. cut it in half and work with
one chunk of this stuff.
3. spread a bunch of pastry flour (table
spoon) and sugar (table spoon) on the counter and start kneading the dough then
flatten it and start rolling... if it's sticking to the roller, spread a little
flour and sugar on it.
4. YOU SHOULD ROLL IT OUT TO thin thin thin..
umm , no thicker than a 3 1/2 " floppy disk! 5. Then use a butter knife to
cut a grid pattern of 2 - 3 inch squares.
6. Peel away edges... you end
up rolling those out to make more...
use a spoon to blob a bit (um... maybe
as much as would fit in a normal thimble?) of jam - use thick jam or jelly -
onto each square and smush it so it spreads around a bit.
7. Roll from
the corner to make little crescents...
8. Line 'em up on a cookie sheet
and bake.
9. Don't let them get too 'golden brown'... go maybe 12
minutes in a 350 degree oven.
10. Get 'em off the cookie sheet right
away and on to cookie racks. Then use a hand held metal strainer (flour sifter?)
to "liberally sprinkle" icing sugar over the cookies....
Experiment with diff jams, or whatever - I've done it with CHEESE!!
or
Chocolate Chips, blueberries…
Last note: honestly (this sounds stupid) after I roll out the dough for the
first time I just scrape it together again and roll a second time starting over
with the spread out sugar and flour deal... makes it easier to actually roll
the
little crescents up with out it sticking to table.