Canola Connect-Baked with Love
Persons like me: haphazard, un-exacting, short attention span, make terrible bakers and I am a terrible baker! At Christmas, when it is time to bake festive cookies, I typically choose to prepare a slice or a candy or avoid the task all together and depend on the talents and gifts of my friends and family.
We were as busy as little elves in the bakery. Friend Getty, is moving so fast, she went out of focus!
So when an opportunity came along from my friends the Manitoba Canola Growers to learn from one of Manitoba’s best bakers, in the company of many of my foodie pals, I jumped at it. Chef MJ Feeke is an instructor at Red River College, runs a multi-faceted food business AND perhaps most importantly, is a Mom to a busy family.
Benjamin’s Gourmet Foods on Eveline St. in Selkirk, Manitoba was already decorated for Christmas.
We were in expert hands.
Baking alongside with us were Jen and Will Bergmann, a third generation farm couple who are also raising a family (three under the age of 3 1/2). They, along with so many farm families that I have had the pleasure to meet through Canola Connect, are the new generation of farmers: young, hip, attractive, passionate, educated, hard-working.
If you are watching your grocery budget, have a dairy sensitivity or allergy, the recipes that we used all contained canola margarine. Sister #3 (as she is known in this space) came along to add an extra dose of sweetness to my evening. We were in the same group of four and split up our dough forming duties.
Chocolate Chip Orange Shortbread was rolled out and then cut into triangles.
Chocolate Mint Crackle Cookies, were rolled (to the exact size of an eye-ball), thumb-pressed, baked, iced and sprinkled.
Red Velvet Rose Cookies were piped (hard work I heard), baked, piped with cream cheese icing and sprinkled with red sugar.
Lemon Poppy Seed Slices were cut, baked and drizzled with lemon icing. They were the easiest and in my humble opinion, the tastiest of the cookies.
These festive wreaths were assembled from a myriad of mini holly leaf wafers and finished with a red bow.
The heart shaped Brown Sugar Cut Outs are seen below. Somehow I missed photographing the Spicy Logs. Maybe it was because we made zillions of cookies that evening.
I thought that these were the prettiest: White Chocolate Raspberry thumb cookies. They reminded me of the almond thimble cookies with raspberry jam that my little Polish Grandma used to make.
In the end, isn’t that what Christmas baking is all about? Sharing a treat, spreading love and good cheer, making memories and reminiscing about Christmases gone by. I hope that your Christmas preparations and the season ahead will be filled with peace, comfort, joy and….cookies!
Kath’s quote: “When I buy cookies, I eat just four and throw the rest away. But first I spray them with Raid so I won’t dig them out of the garbage later. Be careful, though, because that Raid really doesn’t taste that bad.”-Janette Barber
Live simply, laugh often, love deeply.