Thursday, March 11, 2010

I Won't Tell If You Won't


Have you ever heard the phrase "Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery"? Well, in the baking business when someone tries to pass of something you have made for their own, that is the most sincere form of flattery. I love it when someone wants their family and friends to think that my food came from their oven. Now you really can "make it yourself".
Since everyone loves our cookies so much, I decided to put together dry mixes that are the very same recipe as the cookies we sell, what is even better is that you can also get a healthier version of each cookie and brownie with our whole wheat mixes. Our Chocolate Chip cookies are our best seller along with the Double Chocolate but you can also get, Oatmeal Chocolate Chip and White Chocolate Macadamia, as well as a yummy Fudge Brownie mix.
The whole wheat varieties are made with 100% fresh ground whole wheat, hand rolled oat groats, and the natural sweeteners Sucanat and Evaporated Cane Juice. Sucanat stands for “Sugar Cane Natural.” The process for making Sucanat™ starts out like that used for other forms of cane sugar, with the harvesting of the sugar canes. The canes are cut, leaving the roots behind so that they will sprout new canes in the coming year, and then they are crushed in a mangler which extracts their naturally sweet juice. The juice is then heated and allowed to cool, forming granular crystals of what is basically dried sugar cane juice. Because Sucanat retains 100% of the sugar cane, and the molasses (which is where the nutrients are) that is normally taken out of white sugar, it ranks highest in nutritional value of all the sweeteners that come from sugar cane. It also has the most distinct and natural flavor.
I am really excited about these mixes, especially the whole wheat variety. I feel like this is a great way to give your family a treat that actually has nutrients in it, not just empty calories. The mixes are so easy, you just cream your own fresh eggs, butter and vanilla and add the dry mix one cup at a time then bake. Delicious and nutritious fresh from your oven. They get the treat, you get all the credit, what could be better?
I WON'T TELL IF YOU WON'T ;)


Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Adrienne's Famous


One of the things that has set Red Riding Hood's Basket apart from others is our cookies. Every cookie we do, even our whole wheat variety, is a take off of our original Chocolate Chip Cookie. This cookie has been years in the perfecting and I have never tasted anything to equal it. They are soft, thick, chewy and yummy. Years ago when my daughter Adrienne was about 12 she took over making cookies because at the time it was just one of the things I didn't get around to, so if she wanted cookies she had to learn to make them herself. Well, she would make them and then share them with neighbors and friends and pretty soon they became known as "Adrienne's Famous" cookies and people were always asking her to make them. She is grown up now and off to college and I have taken over the job as "chief cookie maker". But despite that these cookies will always be known as "Adrienne's Famous"! If you want to try them yourself, you can try bribing Adrienne to make them for you :) or just go to www.redridinghoodsbasket.com and order some for yourself.