Cranberry Hootycreeks

[Guest]

(I know, ABS, I know - STS!)

Very yummy cookies. In a jar. You know, you layer the dry ingredients in a mason jar and then attach a card with the recipe remainder (add egg and butter, stir and bake, etc.).

My kids made them last year to give out to teachers and such at Christmas. They're easy to make and they look great. Just thought I'd share with those folks who have kids and are looking for some type of inexpensive teacher gift.

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b318/sweetsubsarahh/cranberryhootycreeks.jpg

http://cookie.allrecipes.com/AZ/CranberryHootycreeks.asp

Cranberry Hootycreeks
Submitted by: Susan O'Dell
"A beautifully festive cookie in a jar recipe. These make great gifts." Original recipe yield: 18 cookies.

INGREDIENTS:
5/8 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/3 cup white sugar
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped pecans

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DIRECTIONS:
Layer the ingredients in a 1 quart or 1 liter jar, in the order listed.
Attach a tag with the following instructions: Cranberry Hootycreeks 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a cookie sheet or line with parchment paper. 2. In a medium bowl, beat together 1/2 cup softened butter, 1 egg and 1 teaspoon of vanilla until fluffy. Add the entire jar of ingredients, and mix together by hand until well blended. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets. 3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until edges start to brown. Cool on baking sheets, or remove to cool on wire racks.

 

[matriarch]

Just a small moan........love the idea, the kind of thing I would have done at home......but.....I can't make heads nor tails of your recipes over here........whatever happened to pounds and ounces, and weighing scales???

I never did get the whole, 'cups' thing. Very confusing.

[/moan over]

They look gorgeous.

My own thing with the kids was to make tree decorations, not from edible biscuit/cookies, but the good old, flour/water/salt mix, that you can roll out, shape, (stars, christmas trees, parcels, baubles, DarthVader ) and slow-dry (either air dry or barely warm oven) overnight, then paint and varnish and of course, add the essential glitter. Everywhere. Cheap, practical and a great deal of fun.

 

[Guest]

Mat, I found a terrific conversion site. You just plug it in and go.

http://southernfood.about.com/library/info/blconv.htm

Dry Measures
3 teaspoons = 1 tablespoon = 1/2 ounce = 14.3 grams
2 tablespoons = 1/8 cup = 1 fluid ounce = 28.3 grams
4 tablspoons = 1/4 cup = 2 fluid ounces = 56.7 grams
5 1/3 tablespoons = 1/3 cup = 2.6 fluid ounces = 75.6 grams
8 tablespoons = 1/2 cup = 4 ounces = 113.4 grams = 1 stick butter
12 tablespoons = 3/4 cup = 6 ounces = .375 pound = 170 grams
32 tablespoons = 2 cups = 16 ounces = 1 pound = 453.6 grams
64 tablespoons = 4 cups = 32 ounces = 2 pounds = 907 grams

Liquid Measures
1 cup = 8 fluid ounces = 1/2 pint = 237 ml
2 cups = 16 fluid ounces = 1 pint = 474 ml
4 cups = 32 fluid ounces = 1 quart = 946 ml
2 pints = 32 fluid ounces = 1 quart = 0.964 liters
4 quarts = 128 fluid ounces = 1 gallon = 3.784 liters
8 quarts = one peck
4 pecks = one bushel
dash = less than 1/4 teaspoon


We need to do the dough decorations again - our kids really love that. Even though I don't believe I've gotten the glitter out of the kitchen carpet from last year . . .

 

[cloudy]

Thanks, girl....those will make great neighbor/mailman type gifts, too.

 

[Guest]

Thanks, girl....those will make great neighbor/mailman type gifts, too.

You bet, gorgeous.

You can do it with chocolate chip cookies, too. Anything. Just stick a bow on it and it's festive.

And my kids loved the pouring and measuring and arranging of the dry ingredients. It's kind of like sand art.

 

[matriarch]

Mat, I found a terrific conversion site. You just plug it in and go.

http://southernfood.about.com/library/info/blconv.htm

Dry Measures
3 teaspoons = 1 tablespoon = 1/2 ounce = 14.3 grams
2 tablespoons = 1/8 cup = 1 fluid ounce = 28.3 grams
4 tablspoons = 1/4 cup = 2 fluid ounces = 56.7 grams
5 1/3 tablespoons = 1/3 cup = 2.6 fluid ounces = 75.6 grams
8 tablespoons = 1/2 cup = 4 ounces = 113.4 grams = 1 stick butter
12 tablespoons = 3/4 cup = 6 ounces = .375 pound = 170 grams
32 tablespoons = 2 cups = 16 ounces = 1 pound = 453.6 grams
64 tablespoons = 4 cups = 32 ounces = 2 pounds = 907 grams

Liquid Measures
1 cup = 8 fluid ounces = 1/2 pint = 237 ml
2 cups = 16 fluid ounces = 1 pint = 474 ml
4 cups = 32 fluid ounces = 1 quart = 946 ml
2 pints = 32 fluid ounces = 1 quart = 0.964 liters
4 quarts = 128 fluid ounces = 1 gallon = 3.784 liters
8 quarts = one peck
4 pecks = one bushel
dash = less than 1/4 teaspoon


We need to do the dough decorations again - our kids really love that. Even though I don't believe I've gotten the glitter out of the kitchen carpet from last year . . .

Thank you for that.
I used to work in a middle school, as a classroom assistant, mainly in the cookery department. The area was a mixed subject area, and the worktops and ovens were used for projects other than cookery, such as dyeing wool, chemistry experiments with foodstuffs. But mainly it was cross curricular projects. Apart from the dough decorations which were great fun, and trying to teach 9 year olds how to prepare a simple meal when they got home, without burning down the house, or themselves, my favourite memory is the simple chocolates the kids made.

In the Maths lessons they had to make a template for a box that would contain 6 individual chocolates, including the dividers. In the art lessons they decorated the boxes. In the chemistry lessons they learned about melting points/change in format (chocolate), and the corresponding cooling rate and appearance of the chocolate. In the cookery, they learned how to melt chocolate over a pan of hot water (no mean task with clumsy 9 year old boys around), they chose their centres, dipped them, coated them, and watched and waited excitedly while their chocolates cooled on the greaseproof paper. While they waited, they made up their 'chocolate guide', to go inside the box, detailing the individual centres.

They carefully placed each one in a tiny paper case printed with holly leaves and christmas trees, then transferred the 6 parcels of love to their own hand-made chocolate box, closed it with a last look at the tempting contents, and then the hardest part. Tying the box up with ribbon.

The look of joy and pride on their faces as they came back at the end of the day to collect their box from the fridge, to take home to their mothers (it was usually always for either their mother or grandmother), is something I could never forget, and always left me sniffly and a little tearful.

Silly 'ol Mat.

After that, it became a tradition at home, my two boys and I would spend a whole evening, filling the house with the smell of hot, melting chocolate, covering a whole work top with them - marshmallow, hazel nuts, brazil nuts, walnuts, cherries, fruit jellies (tricky - leave them in too long and the just melt - same with marshmallows), toffees, caramels.....decorating the tops with chocolate sprinkles, shavings, hearts, small jellies - they made wonderful gifts. We would store up the shallow boxes such as those that the christmas cards came in, and use those to hold our chocolates, covering the tops with cling film, sealing with christmas tape and then decorating with ribbons. *sigh*. The youngest so loved doing them, he was still making them when he came home from University on Christmas holiday. Mind you, he did eat most of them himself, but what the hell. I just loved watching the magic take him over, even at age 20.

Some things never die.

 

[Guest]

Thank you for that.
I used to work in a middle school, as a classroom assistant, mainly in the cookery department. The area was a mixed subject area, and the worktops and ovens were used for projects other than cookery, such as dyeing wool, chemistry experiments with foodstuffs. But mainly it was cross curricular projects. Apart from the dough decorations which were great fun, and trying to teach 9 year olds how to prepare a simple meal when they got home, without burning down the house, or themselves, my favourite memory is the simple chocolates the kids made.

In the Maths lessons they had to make a template for a box that would contain 6 individual chocolates, including the dividers. In the art lessons they decorated the boxes. In the chemistry lessons they learned about melting points/change in format (chocolate), and the corresponding cooling rate and appearance of the chocolate. In the cookery, they learned how to melt chocolate over a pan of hot water (no mean task with clumsy 9 year old boys around), they chose their centres, dipped them, coated them, and watched and waited excitedly while their chocolates cooled on the greaseproof paper. While they waited, they made up their 'chocolate guide', to go inside the box, detailing the individual centres.

They carefully placed each one in a tiny paper case printed with holly leaves and christmas trees, then transferred the 6 parcels of love to their own hand-made chocolate box, closed it with a last look at the tempting contents, and then the hardest part. Tying the box up with ribbon.

The look of joy and pride on their faces as they came back at the end of the day to collect their box from the fridge, to take home to their mothers (it was usually always for either their mother or grandmother), is something I could never forget, and always left me sniffly and a little tearful.

Silly 'ol Mat.

After that, it became a tradition at home, my two boys and I would spend a whole evening, filling the house with the smell of hot, melting chocolate, covering a whole work top with them - marshmallow, hazel nuts, brazil nuts, walnuts, cherries, fruit jellies (tricky - leave them in too long and the just melt - same with marshmallows), toffees, caramels.....decorating the tops with chocolate sprinkles, shavings, hearts, small jellies - they made wonderful gifts. We would store up the shallow boxes such as those that the christmas cards came in, and use those to hold our chocolates, covering the tops with cling film, sealing with christmas tape and then decorating with ribbons. *sigh*. The youngest so loved doing them, he was still making them when he came home from University on Christmas holiday. Mind you, he did eat most of them himself, but what the hell. I just loved watching the magic take him over, even at age 20.

Some things never die.

I still remember things we did when I was a kid; the specific holiday music my parents always played, the cookies we made, the special decorations for the tree, etc. Sometimes the scent of baking goodies brings all of that back.

We're working on developing some of those traditions at our own house now. Baking cookies is big, of course. And the dough ornaments. And each year our kids have made some craft item for grandparents (one year it was handprints in plaster).

I truly want for them to have those lovely holiday memories, too.

 

[ABSTRUSE]

And a lovely STS it is.....I like the idea of holiday cookie and candy recipe sharing.