Amigurumi Owl

This little guy goes by the name Filbert. He is my latest creation from a book Favorite bought me of patterns called "Tiny Yarn Animals". I put this guy together as a gift for my mentor at Pilgrim station who took me under his wing and taught me the ways of nuclear. Little Filbert was shipped off along with some good old Tollhouse Cookies and some sugared molasses cookies the recipe for which I stole from the TWD Crowd. The molasses cookies tasted delicious, but I had a problem with the spreading and over baking just like the Cookies with Boys Blogger. I ended up adding an extra 1/2 cup of flour to the recipe to get the right texture and baked them for the minimum amount of time. Because of the trials and tribulations of those that came before me I had thankfully done a few single cookies as test batches. I recommend this approach until you find an amount of flour and bake time that works for you.

Sugar-Topped Molasses Spice Cookies
Dorie Greenspan

2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour (plus 1/2 cup or so)
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
pinch cracked or coarsely ground black pepper
3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup molasses (not blackstrap)
1 large egg
1/2 cup sugar, for rolling

1. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, allspice and pepper.
2. Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until smooth and creamy. Add the brown sugar and molasses and beat for 2 minutes or so to blend, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the egg and beat for 1 minute more.
   
3. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients, mixing until the flour and spices disappear. If some flour remains in the bottom of the bowl, to avoid over-beating the dough, mix in the last of the dry ingredients by hand with a rubber spatula. You'll have a smooth, very soft dough.
4. Divide the dough in half and wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Freeze for 30 minutes, or refrigerate for at least 1 hour. (The dough can be kept refrigerated for up to 4 days.)
5. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
6. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats. Put the sugar in a small bowl.Working with one packet of dough at a time, divide it into 12 pieces, and roll each piece into a smooth ball between your palms. One by one, roll the balls around in the bowl of sugar , then place them on one of the baking sheets. Dip the bottom of a glass into the sugar and use it to press down on the cookies until they are between 1/4 and 1/2 inch thick.
7. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 12 to 14 minutes, or until the tops feel set to the touch. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and, if the cookies have spread and are touching, use the edge of a metal spatula to separate them while they are still hot.
8. Transfer the cookies to a rack to cool to room temperature.
   
9. Repeat with the second batch of dough.

Christmas Cookies and Kitties

So it's the Sunday before Christmas and Favorite and I are preparing to head over to my parents' house tomorrow so we are wrapping up what Christmassing we can. I had previously found some really cute snowman jars and decided I would fill them with cookie mix and give them as gifts. I also decided to crochet an animal friend as a gift. Here are the results --------------------------->

I got the cookie recipe from razzledazzlecookies.com. It's called Chunky Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix in a Jar. I didn't quite follow the layering instructions because I decided I wanted the snowmen to be mostly white so I separated the cocoa out and stuffed it in their hats and hid the nuts and chocolate chips inside the flour (the base is brown sugar).

Now I couldn't just give these as gifts not knowing how the recipe would turn out, so I HAD to bake a batch for myself and Favorite to make sure they were worthy cookies. I made sure to follow the directions of mixing the mix first and then adding the butter, egg and vanilla because I wanted to see how it would come out without creaming the sugar and butter first. I ended up having to mix it with my hands a little to make it come together ( it's tricky cutting in butter when chips and nuts are getting in your way!) but the cookies turned out scrumptious! They were nutty and chewy with just a little crispness to the outside. The chocolate of the cookie was tasty without being overwhelming (I could even eat them WITHOUT milk) while the melty chocolate chips satisfies any chocolate craving. By the way I used GOOD chocolate chips. Big dark chocolate ones.

So I was satisfied with the cookies making good gifts. I made sure to print a cute little instruction tag for the instructions and crocheted up some tiny little snowman scarves to attach the instructions to the jars.

While I was taking pictures to post here I got a little sad. I've crocheted a little kitty like this one before and I was wondering if my old kitty would miss my new kitty when he was gone. As such I did a little photo shoot with my two sleepy little guys.


































Man, those little kitties are just too cute.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Threadbear

So I did it. I managed to finish my first tiny animal friend. I haven't decided on a name for him yet though. Maybe Winslow. His arms didn't come out exactly how I wanted them to and I had a hard time getting the face right (you can tell the nose is just, well, not QUITE), but he is here. So no one can complain any longer that the Threadbare Bakery has no threads. I feel really bad because I know any faults in the bear are not his fault, but mine, but still, I kind of just want to sacrifice this one, say I did my best, and give him to a kitty that needs something to chew on... It's hard to tell because the picture is so close up, but he's only about 5 inches tall and would be a perfect toy once rolled in catnip. Well he would be a perfect toy for about 10 minutes until his stuffing innards got all over the floor. This is probably why I haven't committed to naming him. Naming an animal and then sending it to it's death is just wrong.

Fibers

It has recently been brought to my attention that although the title of my blog is the threadbare bakery I have conspicuously left out any fiber relating posts. This is actually because I have been too lazy to create that which does not give immediate gratification. Cookies are splendid because you can throw all the ingredients together, bake them, and eat them all in under an hour. Knitting and crocheting take a little more time and patience. I am happy to report, however, that thanks to my wonderful husband there will soon be a fibrous project to display! Incredible man he is he knows of my need for creation, my lack of time, and my love of the adorable so he bought me this book for my birthday.



His idea was that I can crochet all the little animals in the book, each one in very little time, and then maybe I can design my own tiny animals. I have actually already started and I have begun with the koala featured on the cover. I have all of his body parts made and all I have to do is darn them together. I have made amigurumi designs before and I find although attaching the body parts may sound simple it is actually the most difficult part. This is because the location and angle of the attachment is what really determines what the final critter looks like and whether or not their body shape seems natural. Well I will see if I can get the motivation to sit down and attach the little koalas bits and pieces and I will most certainly post the final results.