I wanted to make some snickerdoodles, but all the recipes I found were in cups, which aren't used here. Instead, things are measured in grams and mls- and neither are consistently used. For example, our measuring cup has mls on one side, and grams for sugar and flour on the other.
Which is kind of bizarre since they're assuming the density of all sugar and all flour is the same. I don't know, maybe they're not statistically significant difference, but it seems like volume would just be much easier.
So I was having trouble finding a recipe I could use, when I realized that I could use google.co.uk to search for recipes (and I'm sure google.ca, google.com.au, google.co.nz or another would work), or google "snickerdoodles uk recipe" to get the measurements in metric.
In a previous post I wrote about how I wanted to try making ornaments. I don't really have a whole lot of time and money to invest in decorating for Christmas, especially since I don't know how long I'll be here in Germany for. I found some neat tutorials I wanted to try, but haven't got to all of them yet, but here are my results so far:
I tried this one, but for some reason either my red thread didn't ship or I must have mistakenly taken it out of my online shopping back. In Germany, they don't have places like Target or Walmart that sell everything, so I'd have to order crafty stuff either on online or find a specialty store. So I started it using gold thread and red felt and ... it just didn't look right, so this one is currently to be continued. I think as long as you have a color combo you like it should look great though, and not be too hard to do.
Could not get this one to work. When I threaded it together, the top and bottom did not line up and it was wonky. However, I used some colorful wrapping paper, and I think I'll try it again with card to see if that helps it keep it's shape.
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| My attempt - not quite as pretty! |
Since my thread was MIA, I made some out of wrapping paper what was really cute. The tutorial also links you to instructions to use this design to make a 3D snowflake/star, like the one we have on our little tree:
These worked really well. Since nothing measures inches here, I made my paper strips 1.5cm by 11cm. Now that I'm returning to the tutorial, I realize that their brass brads/paper fasteners are really small. Hmmm... I don't think I've ever seen some like that in the US, and I don't think I'm making my little lantern ornaments disproportionately tiny.
Anyway, I made a bunch of these using different kinds of scrap booking paper that I bought on sale. I think our tree is done, but we could certainly use more decorations around our house!
Happy Holidays!
I love your trial-and-error with the ornaments. They always seem like a good idea on paper (well, not paper, but you get the idea), but you know the blogger made like eight different versions before they found one pretty enough to document.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I was, oddly, JUST reading an article about the importance of sifting flour. Apparently this gives it a more uniform density in accordance with different recipes. My response to that issue was "who has time for that? I'm going to fly by the seat of my pants on this one." Which is the sort of attitude that I'm sure Chef Ramsay would despise. (Among other things. Why is that man so cranky?).
Anyway, happy holidays -- xoxo -- Starling (http://www.superstarling.com)