cookies – Page 6

Stars and Stripes Cookies

June 30, 2015

For those who know me personally or follow me on Instagram know that I have been really getting into cookie decorating lately. It’s taken a lot of practice, but I feel like I have finally got a hang of the art form.

With 4th of July coming up, I wanted to make some patriotic cookies for a bake sale we were having at work. I whipped up a batch of my go-to sugar cookies, cut them into 3 different sized stars, and flooded them with red, white, and blue flood consistency royal icing.

I started with the smallest stars and filled them with white icing. I outlined the edge first, filled in the center with icing, used a toothpick to spread the icing evenly over the surface, then tapped the cookie on the counter a couple times to shake out excess air bubbles.

: Outline the edge of the cookie.

: Fill the center with icing.

: Use a toothpick to cover the surface.

: Tap or shake a few times to get rid of bubbles.

Then I repeated the process with the medium-sized cookies and blue icing.

I made the largest cookies red and white striped. To create the stripes, I iced evenly spaced lines across the cookie. I then outlined every other section using the red icing, filling in the space, and spreading out the icing with the toothpick. For the sections in between, I outlined the edge in white, then created a white line right next to the edge of the red section. Then filled in the space with the white, repeating the same process with the red.

I packaged them with one of each cookie, stacked on top of each other. But they could also be arranged with the blue cookies in the top, left corner of a large platter, the red and white cookies filling the remaining surface area, and the little white cookies scattered over the blue ones to make a little flag.

For those of you who are more visual learners, here is a little video of the creation of these cookies.

Happy Independence Day!

Pumpkin Spice Snickerdoodles

October 13, 2014

It has been a while since I have been in the kitchen baking….but it felt so good to be back! And since the leaves are starting to change and pumpkin stands are popping up everywhere, I decided to jump on the seasonal pumpkin bandwagon.

While browsing Target’s candy aisle for goodies for a Fall themed care package for some girlfriends, I ran across some Pumpkin Spice Hersey Kisses. This isn’t really my type of candy – I am a classic Kiss girl – but I knew they would be an excellent addition to some cookies!

I started with a snickerdoodle cookie recipe, but instead of just cinnamon and sugar, I rolled the cookie dough in pumpkin pie spice (cinnamon, all spice, ginger, nutmeg, cloves) and sugar.

After baking the cookies for about 10 minutes, I immediately pulled them out of the oven and pressed a Kiss into the top of the soft cookie. Because these Kisses aren’t as dense and actually have a soft filling, they don’t keep their Kiss-like shape, and sort of melt down into a thumbprint.

And once they come out of the oven, your kitchen will smell like Fall!

Is there anything better?

If you can’t get your hands on a bag of the Pumpkin Spice Kisses, you can just skip that step. The snickerdoodles on their own with that extra spice are delicious! Plus, they are the softest, fluffiest, and crumbliest cookies I have ever made. Simply wonderful!

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Brown Sugar Cookies

September 29, 2014

There are lots of flavors that are synonymous with Fall, like pumpkin spice, cinnamon, and caramel. One that is probably lower down on that list is brown sugar. Even though it may not be as trendy and pumpkin spice, brown sugar is in a lot of Fall’s best treats! Apple pie, pecan pie, chocolate chip cookies, sweet potato casserole. I’m sure there are more. But because it is Fall’s unsung hero, I decided to make a brown sugar cookie. Which is essentially exactly like a sugar cookie, but made with brown sugar.

It might seem like a small change to a simple recipe, but by switching to brown sugar, the cookies are more moist and have a carmel-like flavor. They just taste “warm”, if that makes sense. They are truly wonderful and Fall’s perfect cookie.

And because of that, I thought it would be fitting to make a few in the shape of something quintessentially “Fall” – changing leaves.

Just like normal sugar cookie dough, I like to chill my dough over night so it rolls out a bit easier. I roll the dough out to about 1/4-1/2 inch and then bake them at 325 degrees for about 10 minutes.

To decorate the cookies, I made 15 second icing in 3 different color: golden yellow yellow and orange), burnt red (red and brown), and green. I first outlined the edge of the cookie, then flooded the cookie with all 3 colors. Using a toothpick, or in my case, a skewer, spread the icing around the cookie as well as mixing some of the colors together, like you would see in a Fall leaf. Then let dry for at least an hour or overnight.

The acorns are even easier! Pipe around the top portion in dark brown, then flood that section. Then pipe around the bottom section in light brown and flood it. Too add the white shine, pipe a small line in the wet icing and let it sink in. Do the same with brown icing to make the shadow on the bottom.

The acorns are definitely my favorite and I feel like I’m really improving with my cookie icing skills (thanks to all those you tube videos). My husband wasn’t a fan of the leaves, and he might have gotten himself into the dog house by saying so. Oh well, he just doesn’t understand my creativity….or something. 😉

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Gluten-Free Sugar-Free Peanut Butter Cookies

August 28, 2014

This gluten-free sugar-free peanut butter cookie was inspired by the book, Year of No Sugar, which is essentially this woman’s diary of her (and her family’s) year trying to eat no added fructose. Part of the book details her adventures in satisfying her sweet tooth by baking with sugar substitutes that do not have fructose (the bad sugar). After some trial and error (and some research), she determined that brown rice syrup was her best option.

Taking her lead, I decided to do my own experimenting with baking with brown rice syrup. Clearly I have a weakness for baked goods, so if I can find away to reduce or completely eliminate the amount of fructose in those baked goods I’m all for it!

I also wanted to experiment with gluten-free flours as well, and why not mix the two for an even healthier combination, right?!

To make these cookies gluten free, I used a mixture of coconut flour (purchased at Trader Joe’s) and buckwheat flour (found at my local supermarket). To make these sugar-free, I obviously used the brown rice syrup, which I found at Whole Foods (it was in the same aisle as the honey). You could also replace part of the brown rice syrup with a half of a banana if you like that banana taste (I do not).

The resulting cookies are full of peanut butter flavor with a hint of coconut from the flour and oil. They also have a hint of sweetness that is highlighted by the sea salt sprinkled on top of the cookie.

But if we are being totally honest here, these do not compete with normal gluten-full and sugar-full peanut butter cookies. You just can’t get the same taste with the coconut flour and brown rice syrup. I’m sorry, but you can’t. HOWEVER, if you are on a very restricted diet and cannot consume gluten and/or sugar, these cookies are pretty dang good.

How do I know? I made these right before a friend came in town. Over the course of the weekend I saw her sneak a couple cookies from the container, and by the end of the weekend, they were gone.

I mean, if that doesn’t tell you they are good, I don’t know what will.

Have you ever made gluten-free or sugar-free baked goods? What ingredients did you use?c

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Lemon Slice Cookies

August 18, 2014

Sometimes I get inspiration from the strangest places. The inspiration for this recipe was a random Instagram picture that someone took of those lemon slice candies. “Wouldn’t those make cute cookies”, I thought to myself. So I set out to spend my husband-free weekend baking and decorating these lemon slice cookies.

I started with a basic sugar cookie dough and added lots of lemon zest so that the cookies would be full of flavor. I rolled out the dough to about 1/4″ thickness and cut out circles with a biscuit cutter. Then cut those circles in half to get “slices”.

After baking, I let the cookies cool completely before icing so that the icing won’t totally melt off the cookie. That might seem totally obvious to you, but I have made that mistake before.

Now I am no icing expert. I am far from it. I have studied Glory’s blog, Glorious Treats, and her techniques to try to get a hand on how to effectively decorate cookies. Her cookies are just the cutest – you need to check her blog for even more cookie inspiration!

I started by outlining the “rind” in a dark yellow, then outlining the “pith” in white just inside the yellow. I also made the little lines for the sections of the lemon with the white icing (Glory has a different technique with the “pith” lines, which I think look better). Both the dark yellow and white are fairly thick so that they don’t run off the edge of the cookie. For the inner, lighter yellow, fill icing, I thinned it out with a bit more water so that it easily flooded the little sections I created with the white icing.

This kind of cookie decorating is very time consuming, which makes me even more impressed with people like Glory and Sweet Sugar Belle, who make it look so easy.

I made the dough and baked the cookies on Friday. Outlined in the yellow and white on Saturday to let that icing harden. Then iced the yellow sections the on Sunday. I just tell you this so that if you plan on making these, or any other iced cookie with multiple colors, you will need to carve out some time over a couple days.

All and all I am pretty pleased with how they turned out. They are not perfect, but they sure are cute! And tasty! But this does inspire me to work on my icing skills.

What do you think about these lemon slice cookies? What other candy would translate to a good cookie?

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Chocolate Hazelnut French Macarons

August 5, 2014

Its probably fair to say that chocolate and hazelnut is one of my favorite flavor combinations, which should be obvious if you read last weeks post. I am racking my brain to try and think of anything else that comes close…maybe strawberry and vanilla, chocolate and peanut butter, or caramel and sea salt. Coincidentally, all would make excellent macaron flavors.

I have shared a macaron recipe before, but this time I am really going to go into the steps of making macarons. I have done a lot of experimenting and found some techniques that have worked well for me and ensure that my macarons turn out perfect!

Every basic macaron recipe starts with the same 5 ingredients: almond flour, powdered sugar, granulated sugar, egg whites, and cream of tartar. I prefer to use Bob’s Red Mill almond meal because its a pretty finely ground and the skins have been removed. The Trader Joes stuff will work, but I would recommend processing it in a food processor before you sift it or else you will be throwing away good pieces of almond.

I also highly recommend sifting the almond meal BEFORE you measure it. Even if you use Bob’s Red Mill almond meal AND you process it, inevitably you will still have large almond pieces left over. Once I have 3/4 cup of sifted almond meal, I whisk it into my powdered sugar and make sure there are no clumps.

The next major step is to whip up the eggs until they form a meringue. To make the meringue, I start with room temperature egg whites. I separate the eggs about 2 hours before I want to make the macarons, but this can be done overnight, too. I start whisking the eggs on high until the look a little foamy, then I add a pinch of cream of tartar. Eventually, the eggs will start to look opaque, which is when I slowly add the granulated sugar. Once all the sugar is in, I basically set the whisk on high and forget it until the eggs are shiny and white and resemble shaving cream.

Because I wanted to flavor the macarons, I added hazelnut extract and food coloring to the meringue. If you forget, you can add it in when you mix in the almond meal, but I always worry that I might over mix the batter.

I fold the almond meal into the meringue pretty gently. I just keep going until I no longer see dry almond meal and sugar. A lot of people liken the consistency of properly mixed macaron batter to molten lava.

To me, that is kind of arbitrary since I have never seen molten lava. So I like to stir it until it slowly runs off my spatula in one stream of batter. If it is clumpy and and just breaks off in “pieces”, it needs a few more stirs.

The mat you see in the picture above is the best macaron related purchase I have made. I love it! It helps me pipe out the macarons consistently and evenly.

To pipe the macarons, I spoon the batter in either a piping bag or a plastic bag and snip off about 1/2″ from the end. I like the opening to be rather wide so that I can just pipe out the batter in the center of the circle and keep the piping bag in the center almost like I am piping out a Hershey Kiss (rather than piping around the perimeter of the circle). The batter is so runny, that it will settle out to form a flat circle like you see above. To encourage that, I tap the bottom of the baking sheet on the counter which gets rid of any bumps or air bubbles.

One thing about macarons that is very different from other cookies is that you must keep them out to dry out for at least 15 minutes until you can press your finger on the top of the macaron and it just barely tacky. I like to start preheating the oven at this point, so the macarons and oven are ready at around the same time.

I bake the macarons (one sheet at a time) at 300 degrees for 16 minutes. I set the timer for 8 minutes, rotate the baking sheet, then bake another 8 minutes. I find that the lower temperature and longer baking time helps them dry out and puff up, especially if you live in a humid area.

Once they cool, they should easily peel off of the mat. If they don’t, they are undercooked. But hopefully, you have a flat bottom on the cookie like the ones above. Then you can fill the cookies with Nutella or chocolate ganache. Guess which one I chose? (hint: Nutella).

I only spoon Nutella onto half the cookies. I take a plain matching cookie and press the Nutella down so it spreads across the surface and starts to peak out the sides.

Then I dig in! I am actually pretty good about not gorging myself on macarons. Partly because they are fairly rich for being so small and because I normally make them for other people. There is no sense in spending all that time and money (almond meal is expensive!) to just eat them yourself. Plus, I find that if you bring these to a party, people will be really impressed with your baking skills!

What is your favorite macaron flavor? What flavor should I make next?

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Ferrero Rocher Cookies

July 31, 2014

Ferrero Rochers are possibly my favorite candy. Ever. My husband knows that if he needs to cheer me up or apologize he can buy me a Costco sized package of these chocolate-hazelnut confections and all will be forgiven. And because he buys be the large box, I had a few extra to toss into a batch of cookies.

I started by unwrapping and chopping up about 10 Ferrero Rochers. It probably ended up being 8 because I kept stealing pieces. The Ferrero Rochers don’t need to be all that finely chopped, because once they get mixed in, they will break up a bit more.

I added the candy pieces to my basic chocolate chip cookie recipe. I did tweak it a little bit by adding in some hazelnut extract (totally optional), reducing the granulate sugar by 2 tablespoons (these candies are a lot sweeter than normal chocolate chips), and halving the amount of chocolate chips.

When it gets all mixed together, the Neutella filling is swirled into the dough, the chocolate-nut coating is broken up into smaller pieces, and the wafer cookie adds an extra bit of crunch.

But every once and a while, a piece of the Ferrero Rocher stays pretty much in tact. And those are my favorite cookies.

But really, all the cookies are wonderful. I am happy that I put chocolate chips in with the candies. My original idea was to use only FRs, but I would need a lot of them and they are really expensive! But the semi sweet chocolate cups helped balance out the super sweetness of the candy.

What is your favorite candy to add to cookies?

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Homemade Cookie Dough “Oreos”

March 31, 2014

There may never be two things on this earth quite so divine yet humble (especially to my sweet tooth) than cookie dough and Oreo cookies. If you find the previous sentence offensive or utterly ridiculous, then you are probably a better person than I, and we probably won’t ever be friends. I’m sorry….or, you’re welcome?

While I would love to take credit for such a glorious collision of childhood treats, I cannot. You should thank the good people in the Nabisco test kitchen for this flavor combination. I will, however, take credit for sharing with you how I recreated this treat so you can have yourself a homemade and all-natural(ish) take on a classic. I might even venture to say they are better than the original.

Like any ~~good~~ sandwich cookie, there are two key parts: the cookie and the filling. An Oreo cookie is light, crisp, and a bit crumbly so I knew I did not want to make a soft and chewy cookie. To get the cookie consistency I was looking for I employed the same technique you would to make a delicious, crumbly biscuit (full circle, people): cold butter. Before getting all my other ingredients together, I cubed up some butter and popped it in the freezer to get extra cold while I assembled everything else.

My other not so secret ingredient to make the cocoa flavor extra bold was espresso powder. You don’t taste the espresso flavor at all, but it adds depth and richness to the cocoa that will really make the flavor pop.The standard Oreo filling seems to be your basic buttercream, which is just butter and sugar…maybe some vanilla. To make the buttercream for these cookies a bit more cookie dough-like, I used both brown sugar and powdered sugar, a bit of salt, chocolate chips, and some flour to thicken it to be more “doughy”.

Assembling the cookies is the easiest part of the whole process, as you might imagine. But just be sure to let the cookies cool entirely or else you will have a melted puddle of butter and sugar (doesn’t sound so bad to me, actually). I scooped about 2 tsp to 1 tbsp of filling onto a cookie, then topped it with another. You may want to vary this depending on the size of your cookie.

Also, like normal cookie dough, this is also great to eat out of the bowl.

Or just lick straight off the cookie. No judgement here.

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Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies

March 26, 2014

This is another old recipe, but it is one of my favorites. The cookies are so unexpected. Sweet yet spicy. Crispy and gooey. Rich, but not overpowering.

What kicks these cookies up a notch is the cayenne pepper and cinnamon. I used just a hint of both, and while they don’t take center stage, they add incredible depth of flavor. Upon your first bite, you may not know that these cookies have some extra spice, but you will know it’s no ordinary chocolate cookie.

And of course, what good cup of hot chocolate doesn’t have a few marshmallows. On my first attempt making these cookies, I baked the marshmallows IN the cookie. Big mistake. So on my next attempt I melted some marshmallows down (marshmallow fluff would also be acceptable), spread them on top and put the cookies under the broiler to get the marshmallow nice and brown.

Seriously, what’s not to like? Make these cookies.

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