My readers are growing each month; not a day does not go by without someone stopping me in a hallway telling me how they liked my recipes. Many have tried some. I got good reports on the fruitcake, cookies, and others as well. My Beltsville readers know what my background is, but maybe my readers here in Riderwood don’t.
I'm a professional retail baker. I owned and ran Raulin's Bakery in Beltsville for 20 years, and my son had it for 20 years. I have a master’s certificate in baking from the Retail Bakers of America. After operating the store, I went to work as a consultant to a European company and became an expert in croissants. Then I went to work for Safeway and retired from there in 1997. At the same time, I led a class called Basic Baking at Emmanuel United Methodist Church in Beltsville. All the recipes you read are class tested. You'll note they all are simple, no complicated wording. If you put all ingredients in a bowl and mix, they will turn out well. Just try one, and you'll see.
I'm working on getting more copies of The Beltsville News delivered to other hubs, but so far no action. Here at Montgomery Station, they go fast each month. This is where my readers live for the most part.
For the next few months, my recipes will be for baking cookies. Cookies are a fun: kids just love to make them. On a snowy day when the kids can't go out, not only do cookies taste good, but they smell good in the house.
I will start the year off with a great (not just good) chocolate chip cookie recipe. In a medium-sized bowl, place
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 sticks of butter
and cream well!
To this add
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. soda
vanilla to taste
and mix in 2 eggs and add 1 12-ounce pack chocolate chips
This is a basic recipe: instead of chocolate chips, you can use M&M's and so on.
Mix all well, spoon out chucks about the size of a ping pong ball, place them on greased cookie pans, and then bake @ 400 degrees for about 10 minutes. They will spread to about 2 inches in size. The cost is about 5 cents a cookie.
That's it this month. Questions? Drop me a line at bill@bakerbill.net.