MEL'S KITCHEN *** OH SAY CAN YOU SEE....

Happy Independence Day!!!

To celebrate, I adapted some recipes to make my very own
Stars & Stripes Cookies!
.

The Stars come from the baking book "Keks & Krümel" that Christoph gave me:
200g of softened butter
300g of flour
150g of sugar
1 pack of vanilla sugar
1 pinch of salt
1 egg
Blue food colouring

Mix all the ingredients together and place dough in the fridge to harden for 1/2 hour.

Roll out dough on a floured surface and cut out star shapes with a cookie cutter.
Place on a cookie sheet and bake at 180°C for about 10-12 mins!

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The Stripes are an adaptation of the Spumoni Cookies
in the Betty Crocker Cookbook that my Aunt Lois gave me:

1 cup (250g) softened butter
2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
Red food colouring

Mix together all ingredients.
Seperate into 1/3 & 2/3
Mix red food colouring into the 2/3
Line a rectangular cake mold with foil.
Spread 1/3 of the red mix at the bottom of the mold.
Spread 1/2 of the white mix over the red layer.
Continue with one layer red, one layer white and top with a red layer.
Cover the dough with the foil and leave in the fridge to harden for at least 2 hours.

Remove from the mold and foil, then slice into about 1cm thick slices & cut again in half.
Place on a cookie sheet and bake at 180° for about 10 mins.


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And for a bit of history & culture:

The national flag of the United States of America (or the American flag) consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the canton (referred to specifically as the "union") bearing fifty small, white, five-pointed stars arranged in nine offset horizontal rows of six stars (top and bottom) alternating with rows of five stars. The fifty stars on the flag represent the 50 states and the 13 stripes represent the thirteen colonies that rebelled against the British monarchy and became the first states in the Union. Nicknames for the flag include the "Stars and Stripes", "Old Glory," and "The Star-Spangled Banner" (also the name of the national anthem).

Happy 4th of July!!!