Test Kitchen Thursday - Raspberry Butter Braid

In the spring, one of our daughters' schools sold Butter Braid® products as a fundraising event. Because it took time to prepare, I had kept mine in the freezer until I had time to make it. In the end, it wasn't very difficult.

You remove the Butter Braid from the freezer and place it on a lightly greased 9 x 13 pan or  11 x 17 cookie sheet. Loosely cover in plastic wrap and allow to thaw and rise at room temperature for 8 to 12 hours.

Remove the plastic wrap and bake at 325 degrees Fahrenheit for 22 to 27 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool, slice, and drizzle icing (packet included) over braid. I ended up drizzling the icing on before I sliced it.

This was absolutely delicious! Even my girls, who aren't big pastry fans, loved it. I choose the raspberry version, but they come in a variety of yummy flavors. These are only available through fundraisers, so if you're looking for something new and unique you might want to consider Butter Braids. If I knew they were this good, I would have ordered more.

Fundraising with a Mission

Every fall and spring our daughters' schools run fundraisers. Not all the time, but often, these fundraisers involve products I really don't need, but I buy to support the schools. This time, however, I was pleasantly surprised by the offering.

Mixedbag Designs sells attractive reusable bags made of woven polypropylene. According to their website, 10-40% of the polypropylene used in their bags is recycled from post consumer use.

I picked up these great looking garden tote. I would love to buy one of those harvest baskets to collect my vegetables in this year, but they're a bit pricey. This tote should do the job quite nicely.

I also bought two sets of Foodies--bags that are FDA Approved for snacks, fruit and sandwiches. I've used them every day since they came in.

I'm very impressed with their products. I'm glad the school opted to choose them for their fundraising this spring.