Romans 15:13 Ministry: Week #4

The shortbread crust looked bad...very bad. Not in the least bit appealing.
As I stared at that anemic shortbread bar base for my pecan pie bars I began to have a sinking feeling that these dessert bars were not baking into a delectable treat, like I had hoped. The crust had strange bubbles forming and the edges weren't crisping quite right. They had already been in the oven for their designated twenty minutes. My next step was to pour in my pecan and corn syrup mixture. But I was hesitant. I was leery of wasting precious ingredients on a disaster of a crust.
I pondered how to proceed. To pour the pecan mixture or to start over again on the crust, hold onto the mixture and hope that the second shortbread turned out looking more promising than the first. After thinking on it I decided to pop the shortbread back into the oven for another few minutes and see if they showed any sign of improvement.
Five minutes later and a glimmer of hope was found in those bars. The edges were just starting to brown and the bubbles were less pronounced. I decided to pour in the pecan mixture and hope for the best.
Thirty minutes later the pecan topping had set and the bars were a beautiful brown golden hue. I couldn't believe the transformation they had undergone in the oven. The pale bars were no longer sickly looking. Once cut they revealed a perfectly crisp yet delicate base for a decadent pecan dessert. I was relieved and beyond thrilled to see that what I pulled from the oven was just what I had hoped to create: a Starbucks look alike Pecan Bar. Perfect!
I must admit I was quite surprised at the success of this latest pastry/culinary/dessert adventure. In the midst of the baking process it looked as if failure was inevitable. I really didn't put much stock in the recipe or the future of my pecan bars. I was certain they would be a dessert disaster.
But sometimes when baking, just like in life, the desired outcome can't always been seen in the midst of the process. Sometimes the future of life and the future of our baking experiment looks bleak. We are standing alone with nothing but shortbread that isn't browning quite right and we wonder, "how can this ever turn out?"
It's the story of baking and it is the story of life. In the midst of our journey we can't see the finished product. All we know is the process isn't looking so hot. It doesn't look promising. It looks disconcerting. And we start losing hope that the end result will be anything positive or, in the case of Pecan Pie Bars, tasty.
But these little indulgent dessert bars reminded me to never lose hope in the process. God may have me alone right now, feeling as if the future doesn't hold much promise for a different tomorrow. But in just a blink of an eye God can change everything. In thirty minutes Pecan Pie Bars can go from lifeless shortbread to divine decadence. And with the snap of His fingers God can turn a life upside down and inside out. There is hope in the future. There is excitement and a thrill in the unknown of what God has up ahead. And there is a purpose in every step of the process to get there.

If you decide to bake these Pecan Pie Bars don't be discouraged if you pull the crust from the oven and find that it doesn't look appealing. It isn't done baking yet. They are still in the midst of their culinary journey to the ultimate crunchy, delicate perfection. Give them more time in the oven to complete the process of becoming your perfect base to the perfect Pecan Pie Bar. And don't give up hope on the deliciousness that is baking up in your oven. Even when you can't smell a tantalizing scent or see a golden brown forming on the edges of your crust, something magical might be happening as your bars bake in the oven. Just have patience in the process and keep your eyes set on the promise and hope of the future glory to come.

I baked these Pecan Pie Bars for the lovely ladies at the Women's Connection Ministry. I hope they enjoyed them as much as I enjoyed baking them. If you give them a try I hope you enjoy the process of baking them just as much as the process of devouring them!

Glazed Sweet Potato Pie Cookies

Google (or Bing if that is your preference) the question, "What to do with leftover sweet potato" and you will receive over 28,000 responses. Make a pie. Fix a casserole. Prepare a quick bread or whip up a batter for a cake. Some cooks even suggest forming the mash into little patties and frying them in copious amounts of butter. Or you could become your very own Paula Deen and turn those spuds (or yams) into biscuits.
As tantalizing as those options sound I knew I wasn't looking for another cake, a quick or slow bread or even a pie. Today I wanted to mold dough, whisk a glaze and create a cookie! The only trouble with this baking adventure was the lack of recipes featuring both a cookie and sweet potato and glaze. I saw a few chocolate chip sweet potato cookies that touted, "butter free, gluten free, healthy!" I eat healthy. I am a big fan of healthy. But my dessert loving family prefers their sweets not healthy. They like the gluten, the sugar and most certainly the butter!
So the chocolate chip cookies were out.
Finally I fell upon Sweet Potato Pie Cookies with Orange Glaze. I looked at the picture. Not the tantalizing image I was hoping for. I read the ingredients. Sugar, butter, flour, cinnamon, more sugar, more butter - all the necessities were there. I read the reviews. Five stars and rave reviews with few substitutions or tweaks from the bakers. Still I was hesitant to give this recipe a try. I did more searching for other recipes but kept coming up short. I turned back to the Sweet Potato Pie Cookies and decided to give them a try with the hope that I wouldn't be wasting a massive amount of ingredients and time.
So I put out a stick of butter and one egg to bring them to room temperature. I measured out a cup of leftover sweet potato and pulled out my sugars, spices, flour and vanilla extract. As I beat the ingredients into a moist dough I started noticing the scent of the sweet potato, all spice and sugar. It was divine. The consistency looked perfect, too. Not too thick and not too thin, perfect for shaping cookies. The color was even perfect for the fall season. My heaping tablespoons of dough looked like the rich brown of a leaf in its final stages of change before it is due to fall to the earth.
I said a prayer and popped my cookies in the oven set at 375 (convection - a must for proper browning of cookies). Twelve minutes later I pulled out the first sheet of cookies to find a golden crisp forming on the edges and a perfectly puffy top rising in my oven. And that scent! It had gained sweetness and deliciousness in those twelve minutes spent baking in the oven.
As soon as the cookies were cool enough to eat I employed my trusty taste tester (Mom) and waited with baited breath for a verdict. Success. The cookies were not a disaster! The ingredients were not wasted! The cookies were edible, even satisfying and scrumptious!
For the glaze, at the request of my taste tester, I decided to forgo the recipe's suggested orange flavor in lieu of maple and vanilla. I don't have a precise recipe for the glaze. I can tell you this much, it started with a lot of browned butter, confectioners sugar, a teaspoon of vanilla and then an undocumented amount of maple syrup and heavy cream. For that combination I must give credit to my official taste tester who had a sudden stroke of baking desire and took over in the completion of the glazing process.

From the creation of leftovers turned cookies I learned a lesson: trust the recipe. I was so concerned that the cookies wouldn't turn out. I vacillated over whether or not to give them a try and almost went in an entirely different baking direction. But in the end I decided to trust the developer of the recipe. And I'm glad I did.
Much like with baking, with Christ I have a choice: trust the author of life (the ultimate recipe developer) or rely on my own (very limited) understanding. Just like when it comes to baking, I will be better off to put my confidence in the instructions and follow them precisely. It is in heading the directive of Christ that I will get the best results.
I'm not a recipe developer for cookies or the developer of the best plans for my life. That's why it is best that I leave both the recipe instructions and the life instructions to those who know best. For Sweet Potato Pie Cookies that would be the Food Network website's Patrick and Gina Needly. In life that would be God.
The lesson is a simple one: trust and obey. As the little song goes, "trust and obey for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey."


Ready to take a leap of faith and trust an out-of-the-ordinary recipe? Try sweet potato cookies. Here's the recipe I used for the cookie: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/patrick-and-gina-neely/sweet-potato-pie-cookies-with-orange-glaze-recipe.html.

Pumpkin Pie Crunch Bars

Labor Day is over, August has come to a close. The inevitable has happened, summer has ended and fall is falling. It happens every year and yet, every year, it comes so swiftly that it catches us all off guard. Of course August must end and summer must be replaced by fall and kids must go back to school. We all know the routine and the order of the seasons yet it never fails that it catches us all unawares.
This year has been no different. I can't believe that it is already September third. What happened to August? And July? They are just memories now, replaced by the sounds of school bells and the rumbling of big yellow buses full of children weighed down by cumbersome backpacks.
With the changing of seasons and the changing of daily routines comes another change too, a dietary change. Gone are the days of corn and blueberries, peaches and zucchini. The plates of seasonal eaters are replaced with pumpkin, potatoes, apples and all things cinnamon. Mom's break out their crockpots and soups are reintroduced to the dinner table. Ice cream treats take a back seat to pies, crisps and warm puddings. Everything in the kitchen turns from a refreshing escape to a warm, comforting embrace.
This morning when I awoke I couldn't help but sense this cosmic shift in seasons. It seemed to happen overnight. I went from craving strawberries to thinking of nothing but pumpkins covered in nutmeg and cinnamon. As I watched kids file down the road to catch the school bus the feeling of fall only intensified and my desire to break out a big can of pumpkin became inescapable.
And so it is to the pantry I went, can opener in hand, to break out my first can of pumpkin of the season. Even the act of twisting the openers lever and removing the tin top of the can felt like fall! As I peered at the rich orange inside the can I was overwhelmed with thoughts of school days, freshly sharpened pencils, school bells, tardy slips and corrected homework assignments. Those days are long gone but the connection they have to this season will never fade. Fall is a sign of school days and no amount of time away from a classroom can change that fact.
To reign in the season of pumpkin I decided to bake pumpkin pie bars. This recipe comes from a new cookbook my Mom bought me on vacation. "The Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook" is written by two bakers from Savannah, GA. They run one of the most beloved and respected bakeries in the south. If the pictures are any indication of the pastry perfection that comes from their kitchen then I don't doubt the goodness of their recipes! The pictures look divine! Each page is filled with tantalizing treats all prepared from scratch - no prepared pie crusts here.
So lets get to baking and inviting in a new season in nature and, who knows, maybe a new season in life! There is no telling what a change of leaves will bring. It may be just as good as these pumpkin pie crunch bars!

http://www.backinthedaybakery.com/cookbook.html

Peanut Butter Pie

Today I fell into a trap I like to call self-pity.
I can't speak for every chronic illness sufferer, but I know that for me the trap of becoming overly self-involved is as dangerous as quicksand. When my body is suffering all of my thoughts and attention focuses in on me, what I'm feeling and how utterly miserable I am.
I sound like a joy, don't I?
MS has set this trap for me and I've walked right into it, as if unaware. I use the excuse of my pain as justification. I rationalize being consumed with myself because I've been dealt a difficult hand.The truth is, no matter how severely my nerves may be on the fritz or how lousy I may be feeling I never have a  "Be Self-involved For Free" card.
Thankfully, baking provides the perfect outlet to get outside of myself and start thinking about someone else - their needs, wants and desires. Baking takes my eyes off me and puts them on the people around me. How can I bless them? What is their favorite treat? Can I perk up someone's day with a sweet goodie baked up especially for them?

Today that is my mission: bake up a blessing.
My baking experiment today is an ode to my sister-in-law, Kim. She is the full time mother of eight. That fact alone makes her deserving of a bakery full of all things chocolate. But Kim isn't just a mother, she's a great mother and a great friend and a great sister.
When I was considering what to bake today I didn't even know where to begin. Cookies were definitely out (just read yesterday's post). There were no peaches calling my name from the kitchen counter and cake just didn't sound quite right. It wasn't until I heard about Kim's stressful day ahead that the perfect baked good dawned on me. Peanut Butter Pie, Kim's favorite.
Today I was tempted to think of only myself and the physical suffering MS has been throwing my way. The trap of self-involvement was large and I was well on my way to being locked in its grasp…until I got back to baking.
When my hands are in a bowl of heavy cream, peanut butter and sugar I'm not thinking about me. I'm thinking about the goodness of a dessert delight that can brighten the life of someone I love. Baking is the perfect way to banish self-involvement and get back to blessing others.

Today's recipe comes from AllRecipes. I tweaked it just slightly. I upped the amount of Oreo cookies in the crust by about a 1/3 cup. I also decreased the amount of sugar in the filling by about a 1/4 cup. For garnish I used whipped cream along the edges with sprinkled chopped Reese's cups on top. Finally, a drizzle of chocolate syrup was the finishing touch!
All in all I would call this pie a success - and not just because of the taste or texture. It was a success because it was about more than ingredients or a perfect indulgence after dinner. This pie was about showing love and baking a blessing.

If you'd like the recipe so you, too, can bake up a Peanut Butter Pie blessing you can find the recipe I used at http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Peanut-Butter-Pie-I/Detail.aspx.