Sweet & Simple Sugar Cookie Recipe

Our best selling Sugar Cookies and the foundation of our new cookie line, Sweet Hearts as seen on Better Connecticut. 

Sweet & Simple on Better Connecticut

We were on Better Connecticut this past Friday, showing hosts Scot Haney and Kara Sundlun how to make some cool cookies for the fall season. This is great for the kids: Have them help you out in the kitchen to create and decorate their autumn eats. Come back here tomorrow for the Sweet & Simple recipe!

CT Bites Checks Out the New Sweet & Simple Store

"Sweet & Simple isn’t just your neighborhood cookie and brownie bake shop. They are continually adding items to their menu and now offer dinner rolls, and challah. Her new breakfast offerings are wildly popular and now incorporate almond rings and pecan Danish. While I was there last Saturday the doughnut muffins were flying off the counters. Children just love them! Looking for a more savory treat? Her customers cannot seem to get enough of her egg and cheese biscuits. A corn muffin with bacon and cheddar cheese is the latest item to be added to the ever growing list of delectable treats."

Connecticut Open House Day

The last 4 months have been a whirlwind of activity. The new Sweet & Simple® Bake Shop has been a tremendous undertaking and both more work and more fun than I could have imagined. A big thank you to my family, friends, employees and customers for the support. I look forward to being at work every day.

We have lots of new products (think gluten free and sugar free) coming over the summer and I am especially pleased to announce that The Farmer’s Cow and Sweet & Simple came together to introduce the new Naturally New England™ Ice Cream Sandwiches featuring The Farmer’s Cow fresh Connecticut ice cream and all natural cookies made by us. Wow! I love this news so much, can you tell? I’ve sampled all the flavors and just may keep sampling ALL summer until I can decide which one I like best! It would be silly not to, right?

The Farmer’s Cow and Sweet & Simple® Bake Shop are celebrating CT Open House Day, Saturday June 8^th with events in the Northeast and Southwest corners of the state. In the Quiet Corner, The Farmer’s Cow will host a farm tour at Fairvue Farm in Woodstock. Stop by Fairvue Farms from 1-3pm to see a working dairy farm, meet the cows and learn about agriculture in Connecticut. Enjoy a wagon ride and free samples of products from The Farmer’s Cow including the all new Naturally New England™ Ice Cream Sandwiches, The Farmer’s Cow fresh Connecticut milk, ice cream, summer beverages and coffee. Fairvue Farms is located next to the historic Woodstock Fairgrounds.

In Fairfield, we will host an open house at 75 Hillside Road from 8am–2pm with complimentary cookies and free samples of The Farmer’s Cow Ice Cream Sandwiches. If you are local, please do stop by, say hi (even stay for a chat!) and enjoy a sample of the ice cream sandwiches and our cookies. Tell us what you think. We love feedback from our customers.

For more information about the new ice cream sandwiches, call 866‐355‐2697, email farmers@TheFarmersCow.com or visit www.thefarmerscow.com. You may reach Sweet & Simple Bake Shop by calling 203-292-8992 or e-mailing us at info@sweetandsimple.com.

See you soon!

Love,

Michelle

Happy Holidays

Thank you to our customers and vendors for all your support in 2012. Thank you to our friends on social media for making the online baking community so special. Thank you to everyone working on our new bake shop. We are grateful for each and every one of you and we couldn't do it without you, that's for sure.

We look forward to opening the retail store in early 2013. The last two months have been a blur trying to work on the bakery at 75 Hillside (Fairfield, CT) and keeping the wholesale and online orders filled in Milford. Every person we spoke to said it would take longer than we expected to finish the build out - they were right. Lesson learned? It's worth waiting to get the job done right.

To the families still struggling with the aftermath of Sandy and the families in Newtown, we are especially thinking of you and sending love.

Wishing you peace and happy baking in the New Year. 

Love, 

Michelle

Sweet & Simple Bake Shop

Big news. BIG.

We’re opening a bake shop!

It will be called Sweet & Simple Bake Shop, and located at 75 Hillside Road, Fairfield, Connecticut.

We’ve signed the lease. We’ve submitted the plans to the Town of Fairfield. It’s happening.

We. Are. So. Excited.

Some of you know, we’ve been looking for a just-right-space for months. We wanted something not too small, not too big and definitely closer to home. Sweet & Simple launched in December, 2009 and it’s been three wonderful – fantastic! - years of baking, learning the food business and building a wholesale customer base.  It’s high time to hang our own little shingle. We love the new location, the other businesses in the shopping center and the opportunity to be part of our neighborhood.

What’s the time table for opening? We’ll open as soon as humanly possible. Stay tuned right here on the blog. I’m going to be posting lots of pictures and progress reports. For any of you thinking about opening your own bakery, I hope some of the information ends up being useful.

What will we serve? Our signature American-style baked goods and great coffee, tea and hot chocolate. We’re going to launch with a modest menu of breakfast-y baked goods, cookies, cupcakes and layer cakes. Look for new products and specials every month. We’ll also have a “gift” store with pretty cake stands, note cards, cookie jars and other treasures. We’ll be taking catering orders and continue to serve our online customers. The party favor business has been great fun – we love parties! - and we look forward to customers now coming to the shop to sample in person before ordering.

Thank you for your continued support. We love you. We hope you know that!

XO,

Michelle

Cookie Baking Tips

Today I visited Morning Living on Martha Stewart Radio. So fun to see Brian Kelsey and meet Betsy Karetnick! They asked me to bring a recipe and some cookie baking tips. I went overboard and brought nearly 2 pages of my personal tips. Yup. I get excited about baking. 

Turns out I was a wee bit nervous and all I remember from the "interview" is saying that I love the way my flour looks and smells. Oh geez. In other words, I was babbling. But, it is true. And I also love the smell of butter and sugar, vanilla and spices. 

Here's to new experiences, on the radio and off,  and here's to happy baking! Love, M

Cookie Baking Tips from Sweet & Simple

Weighing ingredients improved the consistency of my baked goods. Invest in a good quality home scale and weigh all your ingredients. I cannot emphasize this enough! Be sure to use a liquid measure for liquids.

If you insist on using measuring cups for dry ingredients, or until you buy a scale, spoon flour into a measuring cup then level off with a table knife or small offset spatula. Do not pack your flour or shake to settle it.

When using measuring spoons, measure the ingredient(s) over a separate bowl or plate so any extra does not fall in your work bowl.

Have all ingredients at room temperature. Plan to take butter out 45 minutes before you begin baking. If it is a very warm day, sometimes half an hour is enough. If the butter is too soft (glossy looking) put it back in the fridge to chill.

If you use a stand mixer for cookies like I do, you can begin with a cool room temperature butter. The paddle attachment takes care of softening the butter. This goes against conventional wisdom, but works well for me. And better too cool than too soft!
This does not apply to other ingredients.

If you forget to bring your eggs to room temperature, you can bring eggs to room temperature quickly by placing them (uncracked) in a dish of hot tap water. Usually no more than 5 minutes.

Use best quality ingredients whenever possible. When my favorite brand of butter goes on sale, I buy in bulk for the freezer. Use real extracts in your baking.

Use the same ingredients, such as same brand of butter and flour, for consistent results.

Always read a recipe thoroughly before prepping ingredients.

Prep your ingredients before you begin mixing. For example, if a recipe calls for toasted nuts, do that ahead of time and make sure they are cooled to room temp before beginning.

Neatly organize and measure all your ingredients, prep your baking sheets, preheat your oven (if baking immediately) and then begin mixing.

Always follow a recipe exactly the first time you prepare it. It’s not fair to say a recipe is a dud if, for example, you only used 1 egg and the recipe called for 3. After you have made the recipe once, feel free and experiment with it!

Same size cookies bake evenly and are appealing to the eye. For uniform cookies, use ice cream dishers which are available in a variety of sizes, from teensy to whopper, at your local baking or restaurant supply store. 

I always use parchment paper, but it can be expensive. Consider going halfsies with a baking buddy and buying an entire 1,000 count box at your local restaurant supply

Use good quality, thick sheets pans. Why? Your cookies will bake evenly and the pans will hold up. Flimsy pans tend to warp. I purchase sheet pans from my local restaurant supply and they are virtually indestructible. Bonus? They are excellent for holding kids’ craft projects and Lego creations (sheet pans can be carried from room-to-room and make clean-up a snap).

For me, baking at home sometimes comes down to being organized and making time. Often I pre-measure all my dry goods the day/night before. When I’m ready to bake, I put out the butter, eggs and any liquid ingredients to bring to room temp and off I go!