a fruit platter and sugar sticks

I love serving these sugar sticks along with a big platter of cut up fresh fruit - the more colorful the better. The recipe comes from Lee Bailey's terrific cookbook, Cooking for Friends.

I didn't use coarse sugar, which is called for in the recipe, even though I know it looks much prettier. The problem with that coarse sugar is that it's often difficult to chew, so I skipped that and went with granulated.

So enjoy these splendid, sunny August days so perfect for brunch or picnics, and make a tin full of these simple, crunchy sugar sticks to accompany a quick dessert of melons and berries.

Make the pastry several hours in advance, since it needs to sit in the fridge before baking.

To Make:

1 cup King Arthur flour

2 T. sugar

1 stick unsalted butter, cut into bits, frozen

3-4 T. ice water

pinch salt

Place the flour, sugar, salt, and frozen butter in a food processor.

Process until the butter is about the size of peas.

Turn the processor back on and add the ice water, a little at a time, until it gathers together.

Place the dough on a sheet of waxed paper and flatten slightly, then place in a plastic bag and put in fridge for several hours.

After dough has chilled, sprinkle a cutting board with granulated sugar.

Preheat oven to 350F.

Roll dough out slowly to about 1/2 inch.

Sprinkle dough with sugar, and cut dough into "sticks" of about 5 inches.

Carefully ( the dough is sticky), use a spatula to lay sticks on a foil covered baking sheet.

Bake about 25 minutes . The bottoms of the cookies should not burn, so if your oven runs hot, check them after 20 minutes.

After cookies have cooled a few minutes but are still hot, remove them carefully to a cooling rack and sprinkle with a little more sugar.

Store leftover cookies in a tight container.

This recipe makes about 18-24 cookies.