Cookies+Mrs. Kingsbury=The Holiday

Originally derived from the “Crusteos” at Some Crust Bakery in the Village, the homemade oreo cookie science teacher Sadie Kingsbury is famous for delights students and faculty alike. I had the pleasure of baking them with her last month.
The cooking day began as sophomores Vincent Law, Ivy Yeung, and Marissa Pang, Shasta (their dog) and I gathered around the Kingsbury’s kitchen to commence the baking. Each of us was assigned a different task, either making the filling or making the cookie. The recipe was easy and simple to follow. Once we baked the cookies two sheets at a time in rotation, we let them cool, then started filling them.
The cookies were delicious, the frosting identical to what you would find in an Oreo. Instead of the imprint Oreo usually stamps on the front, we changed and personalized it. To make them festive, Mrs. Kingsbury suggested that we decorate the sides with sprinkles or color dye, or we could just leave them black and white. “Especially when I do the cookie from scratch, I love it because I put a lot of effort and time into it, and it’s one of the ways of expressing my love for my family,” said Kingsbury.
Mrs. Kingsbury loves cooking for her family, especially healthy meals. “I love being able to serve and help my family in that way,” she said. Kingsbury focuses on using vegetables in her meals, but strives to maintain good flavor throughout the meal. “I like baking, but if I really had to choose, cooking meals is probably my favorite thing to do” she said. Her favorite type of cooking is California fusion. She enjoys working with different ingredients. “I enjoy the science of it, I like the flavors,” she said.
For those of you who don’t cook OR bake, here’s some advice from the science teacher, “For baking, you can do it. Get a cook book that you trust. If you get a recipe from a magazine, don’t do it for the first time for an event. Always do it the second time, always test it out…be patient and don’t give up!”
Other tips from Mrs. Kingsbury…
- Keep recipes in a safe place ( like behind the cupboard board)
- When making your own bread, add only enough flour till it just starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl, “You don’t want to always add the amount of what the recipe says.”
- One of the basic cookbooks: Better Homes and Garden New Cook Book, “you start there because it has all the basics.”

Recipe:
cookie
2 boxes of devil’s food cake mix
4 eggs (room temperature)
1 ½ cups shortening

Filling
1 package of gelatin
5 cups powder sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup shortening


First, make the filling, since it takes longer.
Preheat oven to 350 F
Heat the gelatin in a porcelain mold until it becomes firm, prepare dry ingredients.
Add powder sugar, shortening, vanilla extract and gelatin when ready. Mix.
Next, add good cake mix to the mixer and eggs one at a time and then 1 ½ cups of shortening. After that is done, make round shaped dough and place on cookie sheet.
To make a round shaped cookie, use a glass cup to press down on cookie and flatten.
Bake for approximately 8-10 minutes.