ArcaMax

Gunk Gone

I love learning new things in the kitchen.

I have been cooking since I was six years old, so I have over a half-century of culinary learning under my belt (wow, that makes me feel old).

Most of the time I’m inventing new recipes, so I learn things about the ingredients and the processes related to cooking all the time. I find new ways to do things with similar ingredients. One day I’ll cook a French chicken dish and the next I’ll do a Cajun one. Or one day I’ll use a roasting application that I’ve never done before and then I might switch it up and poach something. I’ve been learning a lot in the last few years about low carb baking. That’s a whole different animal. It’s like going back to Home Ec again.

But there’s one thing I’ve never learned. And that’s how to get that gunk off of cookie sheets. You know what I’m talking about. It’s that brown-to-black gooey film that forms on cookie sheets. We know where it comes from. It’s that cooking spray. It’s usually fairly easy to scrub it off of the middle of the sheets where the cookies laid. But it’s the corners that get all gross. You can scrub and scrub. You can use steel wool or any new-fangled scrubbie pad, but it just doesn’t want to come off. I suppose if I had all day, the steel wool would eventually work but I also get frustrated when my cookie sheets get all scratched in the process.

So in steps Heloise. I’ve read her household hint column “Ask Heloise” for years. I read her mother’s column before her and maybe even her grandmother’s version. The name Heloise has been synonymous with household hints for more decades than I’ve been cooking in my kitchen. I’d just never seen a write-up on how Heloise suggests you clean that insidious gunk off of a cookie sheet...until now.

So here she comes to the rescue of those of us who no longer want to get so frustrated with that filth that we resort of tossing out our cookie sheets only to buy new ones and start the build-up process all over again.

And it’s easy...

Read the full column at PlanZDiet.com

Almond Snickerdoodles

Related Recipes at PlanZDiet.com:

Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Fried Pound Cake with Cream and Fruit

Servings: Yields approximately 18 cookies

Ingredients:

2 cups almond flour
10 packets truvia (10 tsp)
1 stick softened butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp almond extract
1 tsp cinnamon

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Blend all ingredients together. It will take a few minutes to all blend and then will be a bit crumbly. I got all the butter incorporated with my electric hand mixer and then used my hands to finish the mixing.

Roll cookie dough into 1-inch balls (should make about 18 cookies) and place on greased cookie sheet.

Bake for five minutes and then press down slightly with a fork. Bake another 15 minutes and remove from the oven.

Serving Suggestions:

If you desire you can sprinkle the tops with a little extra cinnamon and truvia. Let cool completely on the cookie sheet. The cookies are fragile and if you remove before they have cooled they will crumble.

Enjoy!
Cheers,
Zola