Ingredient: flour

Andrea’s Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting

These are a nice, soft cupcake. Many who taste them say they are the “best” cupcakes they have ever had. She has also had a few people who do not like cupcakes compliment them and eat more than one.

Molasses Cookies

A favorite, special cookie our neighbor, Marilyn shares with us over the holidays. The recipe is slightly vague, but if you have made cookies before, adjusting the amount of flour to your preference is easy. I kept the recipe mostly as written, because that is part of its charm.

Pita Bread

Even though this bread does not always puff up or pull apart into a pocket, it is still a very good flat bread.

The longer the dough has to sit in the fridge, the better it tastes. It can be made up to three days ahead, but it is also good if you are making it last minute.

Pistachio, Cranberry, White Chocolate Biscotti

Andrea decided we needed some biscotti for our tea. Instead of using plain white chocolate, she caramelized some. She found many different recipes for caramelizing white chocolate online. It made the biscotti extra good, but the cookie was a little sweeter than we liked. Next time we make this, we plan to reduce the sugar some.

Laugenbrezel (German Soft Pretzels)

This is not the super soft, sweet pretzel that many malls offer. This has a bagel like texture that is much better I think! Salt as much or as little as you like and serve with a favorite mustard or cheese sauce.

Pumpkin Apple Streusel Muffin

These muffins are a wonderful fall treat. My mom was given this recipe years ago when she spent the day with her cousin Kathy. They made a few muffin recipes and other fun fall treats. This is probably my favorite. Not only do these freeze well, they are also good for a few days after baking and toast nicely.

You can use all purpose flour, but these are also great as a 50/50 mix with AP flour and 50% white whole wheat. We rarely use the full amount of sugar. They are good with or without the steusel. If you chose not to add the streusel, they are even less sweet, which is a nice change sometimes.

If you prefer to make a loaf of bread, pour into a greased and lightly floured pan and bake for about an hour.

Chicken Pot Pie Soup

This is basically the inside of a pot pie. Instead of a crust, either serve with fresh biscuits or, like Audrey recommended, cheese crackers! While this is good the first day, leftovers for lunch was even better.