Pumpkin Sugar Cookies

These pumpkins were so much fun to make! Way better than carving a real pumpkin and having to grab out ooey, gooey pumpkin guts. Wait, I still get to do that too so I guess I get the best of both worlds.

I actually worked on these cookies over about a week's time which was a nice experience. I'm usually of the mind frame of waiting until the last minute because I want them to be the freshest possible. However with these particular cookies that just wasn't going to work. Well, I shouldn't say that. It worked for about half of them.

I made two batches, one for my son's preschool class treats on his "star" day and one for my class at school a week later. His cookies for preschool were baked on Sunday, iced on Monday, and eaten on Tuesday. It was a long night on Monday after working a full day, coming home and making dinner, putting him to bed and then getting started on decorating. Let's just say the picture I had in my mind wasn't what came out on the cookies. The only saving grace I had that night was the reassuring thought that they were going to be eaten by preschoolers who hopefully had not yet developed into sugar cookie snobs.

Looking back on it they really didn't turn out too bad. The other batch was also baked on Sunday night, a few were iced on Monday. Most were then put into the fridge where I took them out every few days to add the icing. One day I iced all the stems. Another day I got almost all of the orange finished. The last day I finished the orange and did the green leaves and curling stems. It was so much fun on that last day to be able to add detail and not feel rushed.

I'm really happy with how they turned out. My husband ended up buying me a decorating tip and smaller disposable bag because the squirt bottles I typically use were just not small enough to get the leaf and curly stem detail. More practice needed, but not too bad at the end of the day. Enjoy!

You can find my favorite recipe for sugar cookies and royal icing here.

Leaf Sugar Cookies

All last year I wanted to make leaf shaped sugar cookies but I couldn't find any leaf cookie cutters locally. I didn't want to buy online, and I couldn't get down to the big city to check out the cookie cutter store. A whole year has gone by and I finally made not one, but two trips to the big city just to get a leaf shaped cookie cutter!

I guess technically it was three times that I made the trip. The first time we were just passing through and we got there about an hour after the store closed. No big deal, we'll just stop by on way back through tomorrow. Um, nope. Didn't happen to notice the sign on the door when stopping by the first time that stated that the business would be closed on the next business day. Oops, a bit out of the way so hubby was not a happy camper. A week later, a special trip, and voila, leaf shaped cookie cutter in my possession! (I'll also have you know that I purchased a few Christmas ones and another apple because who knows when I will be getting down there again.)

Was it worth it? Absolutely! One happy boy who got to take cookies for his preschool star day, one happy mama who now has a leaf cookie cutter, and one happy hubby who gets to eat the spoils.

I used my tried and true sugar cookie recipe that you can find here.

Bushels of Apples Sugar Cookies

What better way to mark the start of the school year than with a bushel of apples. Or maybe I should say a batch of apples . . . sugar cookies that is. These cookies were made in honor of me going back into the classroom after an almost 5 year break and my son starting preschool.

All but one was either green or yellow, with just one red apple to complete the trio. I had planned to divide the cookies evenly into red, green, and yellow but after adding too much red food coloring for my taste and conscience I decided that all but one would be green or yellow. They turned out quite nicely, beautiful thick icing evenly coating the apple and a bit of glitter dust to finish it off. They were a hit at work and already have me thinking about what other cookies I am going to be baking this school year. Enjoy!

Note: This is the same recipe I have used for all but one of my sugar cookies. It is the best ever. Not overly sweet and the royal icing is a great compliment for decorating but doesn't add to the taste.
 
Sugar Cookies
Source: Treats

1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla extract and mix until egg is completely incorporated. Add flour, baking powder, and salt; mix until no trace of dry ingredients remain.

Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to about 1/4" thickness and cut shapes using cookie cutters.

Bake for about 10 minutes or until bottoms are golden brown.

Royal Icing
4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup meringue powder
slightly less than a 1/4 cup of water
food coloring

Mix powdered sugar and meringue powder until well blended. Add water and mix until you get the consistency that you want. Add food coloring to achieve your desired color. Use pastry bags with #1 and #3 tips or plastic squeeze bottles to decorate.

For outlining: consistency should be like glue paste
For flooding: add enough water so that when you lift a spoonful of icing it runs back into the bowl and blends into the other icing in about 2 to 3 seconds

Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have to admit that when I was flipping through the Better Home and Garden magazine while waiting for my son's appointment at the pediatrician I was either really  hungry or these cookies looked way better than they came out in my kitchen. Not that they were bad, but I wouldn't say that they were stellar either. Pretty much your average run of the mill chocolate chip cookie with some dried cherries thrown in. (You can see I added a few white chocolate chips as well as semi-sweet but that didn't do much for it.) I do have to say that one of the positives is that they seem to freeze well. We had a few fresh out of the oven and then threw the rest in a bag in the freezer where they still sit today waiting for us to get in the mood for chocolate chip cookies once again. Enjoy!

Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookies
Source: Better Homes and Gardens

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 12 oz package semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup snipped dried cherries

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugars, baking soda, and salt. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in eggs and vanilla until combined. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour. Stir in chocolate chips and cherries.

Drop dough by tablespoons 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 9 minutes. Transfer to racks. Cool.

Makes 6 dozen

Dipped Shortbread

Another item crossed off my top 100 list! Sugar cookies are usually my thing but I decided to branch out and try a dipped shortbread.  I'm so glad I did!

I chose a recipe from the Barefoot Contessa. Her thick, rectangular shortbread cookies drizzled with chocolate looked so appealing that I knew it was the one I wanted to try for my first shortbread recipe.

I made very few changes to the recipe. The ingredient list is the same except for the addition of 3 ounces of white chocolate along with the semi-sweet chocolate. The only change I made in the process of making them was to roll the shortbread dough to a sugar cookie thickness and to cut with a cookie cutter. Personally, I think that they could be cut even smaller and drizzled lightly with chocolate over the entire surface. Small, rich, chocolatey, good. Enjoy!  

Dipped Shortbread
Source: Slightly modified from the Food Network

3/4 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped
3 ounces white chocolate, finely chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. 

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix together the butter and 1 cup of sugar until they are just combined. Add the vanilla.

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour and salt, then add them to the butter and sugar mixture. Mix on low speed until the dough starts to come together. Dump onto a surface dusted with flour and shape into a flat disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.

Roll the dough and cut with a cookie cutter. Place the cookies on an ungreased baking sheet and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for about 10 minutes, until the edges begin to brown. Allow to cool to room temperature.

When the cookies are cool, place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Put 3 ounces of the semi-sweet chocolate in a glass bowl and microwave on high power for 30 seconds. Stir with a wooden spoon. Continue to heat and stir in 30-second increments until the chocolate is just melted. Repeat the steps with the white chocolate. Allow them to sit at room temperature, stirring often, until completely smooth. Stir vigorously until the chocolate is smooth and slightly cooled; stirring makes it glossier.

Drizzle 1/2 of each cookie with just enough chocolate to coat it.

Almond Cookies

These are the almond cookies that I baked for my middle layer of my last Daring Bakers challenge. They are yummy by themselves, and I have found that they also freeze pretty well. Enjoy!

Almond Cookies
Source: Taste of Home

1 cup shortening
1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar, divided
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sliced almonds

In a small bowl, cream the shortening, 1/2 cup sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and almond extract. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well.

Shape into 1-in. balls. Roll in remaining sugar. Place 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Flatten with the bottom of a glass. Press three almond slices into the center of each.

Bake at 350� for 9-11 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool for 2 minutes before removing to wire racks. Yield: 3 dozen.

Love Letters & Lingerie (Sugar Cookies)

WARNING: Some content further down the page may be offensive to very sensitive viewers. Don't say I didn't warn you!

I have had this sugar cookie idea bookmarked for a REALLY long time. At least it feels like a REALLY long time when you bookmark it on February 15th and don't use it until February 14th of the following year. Needless to say, I can now move it out of my saved bookmarks because I finally made these cookies. Really you could make love letter cookies anytime of the year, not just on Valentine's, but I decided that these were going to be my project this year for my sweeties.

Both of them were oogling the plain sugar cookies, asking me more than once what I intended to use them for and could they just eat them already. I just about had to give away the secret to stop the hounding that was happening more than once a day. Yes, you heard that correctly, more than once a day.

In the end though they were glad they waited. And after hounding me so much, I was surprised when I came home from subbing and my husband's love letter cookie was still sitting on the plate. He told me that he ate the envelope (yes, that sounds funny to me too) but he just couldn't bring himself to eat the love letter because it was so pretty. After a short pause I gave him permission and he proceeded to bite right in. No love lost, I guess? My son on the other hand was also super impressed but a little disappointed because he didn't get a smiley face signing off his letter.

And now (remember if you easily offend you won't want to proceed further) . . .

I haven't had this sugar cookie idea bookmarked for long at all. In fact, I think it was only a week or two ago that a friend posted it on her facebook page as a link and I had to go take a peek. After looking at a few different sites I decided that I had to make these. They were fun, but it is a little disconcerting when you think about the fact that you have to take a bite out of them! Enjoy!

Love Letter Source: Slash Food
Lingerie Source: How Does She
Sugar Cookie and Royal Icing Recipe (I only did half of a batch of icing): All Betz Off

Flower Pot Cookies

For the start of our MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) year I made these flower pot cookies as a giveaway gift. I tried to decorate the cookies to look like the flowers on the pot, and as you can see they are close but not exact. I guess I could have put a few more lines in there and it would have looked okay. Isn't it funny when you have one picture in your mind and then you put it next to the real thing and it's not quite like you had pictured it!

You can find the cookie recipe here. Enjoy!

And the cookies below were given to the MOPPETS workers (those who watch the kids) for their first thank you gift of the year.

Daring Bakers - Decorated Sugar Cookies

 The September 2010 Daring Bakers� challenge was hosted by Mandy of �What the Fruitcake?!" Mandy challenged everyone to make Decorated Sugar Cookies based on recipes from Peggy Porschen and The Joy of Baking.

I knew this day would come sometime, I just didn't know when. It is the day when I hesitate to write my Daring Bakers post because I wasn't exactly thrilled with the challenge. I know, I know, and I feel terrible even typing this up. I know that our hostess worked hard to come up with a challenge, search for recipes, show examples, and give encouragement. That being said, I still really didn't like this recipe.

I'm not sure if it is because I have a great sugar cookie recipe already and this didn't exactly measure up or just because of life's circumstances those couple of days or what. I don't want to be too dreary so I'll just tell you what I didn't care for about it and be done with it. The cookies were completely blah. They really didn't taste like anything. I know that royal icing isn't supposed to have a flavor, it just adds decoration and pizazz to the cookie, but this cookie didn't have any flavor either. I also love the fact that my stand-by sugar cookie, while tasting great, also requires no refrigeration. I actually came across my stand-by recipe on another Daring Baker's blog while searching around when I was new to the club.

Okay, back to the current cookies. We were challenged to decorate a cookie based on September and what it means to us. A few years ago when I was a teacher in a public school classroom I would have chosen a myriad of school supplies or some such thing. I also thought about leaves but couldn't find a leaf cookie cutter and wasn't adventurous enough to make my own. I got to thinking and realized that while I do think of objects for September I more often than not think in terms of color. Colors for fall, like orange, brown, yellow, red, and maybe even some green are what roll through my head and flood my vision. That got me to thinking that I could use some practice on marbling colors together and just playing around with the royal icing because I've never really had a chance to do that before.

I started by using a toothpick to add some color to the icing while still wet. Once I got a feel for that, I moved on to trying out objects and designs using my fall colors. I started with the green leaf and after thinking it looked a little plain, I added some brown. I then did the same for the red leaf.

I then moved away from using white as a base, for the most part, and started swirling the other colors together to see what would happen. I had fun with this but it was a bit tedious only using little dabs of colors here and there. My designs definitely aren't perfect and there are some not quite round circles and some air bubbles in others, but on the whole I was pleased with the way they turned out.

By the time I got to these cookies I was just trying to finish. I wanted all the cookies iced and all the icing gone. I thought that they actually looked decent, for the most part, and once again realized that sometimes you can try too hard (as with the earlier cookies) and when you stop trying you might get what you wanted in the first place.

I did enjoy this challenge in that it gave me an opportunity to sit and play with royal icing for a few hours while my son was napping. I also enjoyed the fact that I didn't have to make them for anyone in particular or for any event so I could just experiment with some different techniques. I also liked the fact that I really didn't gain any calories from this challenge since I wasn't enticed to eat them.

If you would like the recipe, please email me.

"Mock" Levain Bakery Cookies

Ever heard of the Levain Bakery? Ever heard of their monster chocolate chip cookies? If you have, and you don't live in New York, then you most likely heard about them on Throwdown with Bobby Flay. And if you have not heard of them yet they are monster-monster-monster cookies.

When we were in Hawaii we had some early nights because of our son's bedtime which forced us to watch television more than we normally do at home. Anytime I get the chance to watch a myriad of channels I head straight for the Food Network, Travel channel, and TLC because we basically just get local channels at home. Woohoo to extended channels! Anyway, as I was saying, after watching Throwdown both my husband and I were fascinated by these cookies. So fascinated that he requested that I make them for a meeting where he was supposed to provide the refreshments. That was all the prompting I needed. I headed straight for the computer and typed in my key words but the result was a little deflating. You see, they don't publish their famous cookie recipe, and although I understand the reasoning behind it was definitely disappointing.

I had to console myself with the links they have to "mock" Levain chocolate chip cookie recipes. These are basically other people's attempts to try to figure out their secret combination of ingredients and baking methods. I guess imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!

I needed to make three batches (since one only makes 14 cookies), so I was actually able to try two of the recipe links. There didn't seem to be a huge difference between the two and unfortunately I didn't keep them separated long enough to get pictures of each side by side. Both recipes are posted below.

I don't think I can adequately portray just how large these cookies are. I had to use my biggest tupperware bowl (which does not get used very often) to hand mix the dough. I also measured the entire amount of my dough and then divided by the total number of cookies I needed so I knew how much each cookie should weigh. You can also see from my picture of the halfway baking time that no matter how good your oven is it still bakes somewhat unevenly and it's always a good idea to turn the pan halfway through.

These cookies were fabulous! They were large and they were yummy. I think the difference with the Levain cookies is that they not only have circumference but they also have height and volume to their monster cookies. You could make a monster cookie out of any cookie dough recipe but you won't get the height and volume like these guys. Click here for the Levain Bakery site with their recipe links. Enjoy!

Just for kicks, here is a cookie comparison between a regular sized oreo cookie and a "Mock" Levain chocolate chip cookie!

Recipezaar "Mock" Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookies
Source: Food.com and Cheeky Kitchen

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup cold butter
3/4 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
2 large eggs, cold
12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup walnuts or pecans, if desired (not chopped or coarsely chopped)

In a large mixing bowl, add flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut in cold butter until mixture resembles crumbs. Add sugars and stir well, breaking up any brown sugar clumps. Add eggs and mix until dough forms. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts (if desired).

Chill dough for one hour (and keep chilled while baking first batch).

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Put half of the dough on an ungreased baking sheet in 7 large balls. (I weighed my dough so each cookie was equal.) Bake for 8-10 minutes; turn cookie sheet around back to front and bake until light golden brown on top, another 5-8 minutes. (Mine took about 6 minutes and 5 minutes.)
Remove from oven and cool on sheet for a few minutes, then place on wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with the rest of the dough after cookie sheet cools.

If you'd like to make them somewhat smaller, use a 375 degree oven so they don't over-brown. And remember that they most likely won't get as high.


Cheeky Kitchen Recipe
Makes 14 cookies

1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 cups walnuts
12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cream butter, brown sugar, and eggs until fluffy. Mix in flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, vanilla, and cornstarch until thoroughly combined. Stir in the walnuts and chocolate chips. Dump dough on counter and knead to completely mix dough.

Gently pull lemon-sized hunks (or weight them evenly) of dough. Keep the dough loose and with air. Place mounds on cookie sheet.

Bake at 390 degrees (just above 375 but not quite 400) for 10-12 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies have turned light brown. Remove from cookie sheet, cool.

Original Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies

Everyone has to have a go-to recipe for chocolate chip cookies, and this would be mine. When I have to bake something up fast or wrap something up for a goodie bag this is usually the one that I turn to. It sometimes seems like the possibilities are endless for mix-ins. I typically stick to the basic chocolate chip cookie ingredients but there are times when I use semi-sweet chips, sometimes a mix of semi-sweet and white chocolate chips, sometimes walnuts, sometimes pecans, sometimes a mix of the two. I have halved this recipe as well as doubling it. I have formed these into monster cookies, regular size cookies, miniature cookies, bar cookies, and I have recently just rolled them into balls and popped them in the freezer to take out on the road for our camping trip. You can never go wrong with chocolate chip cookies! Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes about 5 dozen cookies

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teapoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups (12 ounce package) semi-sweet chocolate chips (or 1 cup semi-sweet/1 cup white chocolate)
1 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in chips and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake for 9 to 11 mninutes or until golden brown. Let stand for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

For Bar Cookies:
Prepare dough as above. Spread into greased 15x10-inch jelly-roll pan. Bake in preheated 375 degree oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into bars. Makes about 4 dozen.

Clifford Sized Cookie

The title of this post, as well as the frosting on the cookie, require a little explanation. A few weeks ago, our theme for preschool was cookies. One of the books we chose to read was called Cookie Crazy, and it was about Clifford visiting the local fair and giving in to the temptation presented in the form of a giant cookie. I don't think the life lesson they were trying to teach was about giving in to temptation, but after reading about giant cookies it's only appropriate that we would bake a giant cookie.

The frosting is in honor of our song for that week of preschool. You know the one . . .  sung by the great vocalist, Cookie Monster . . .

C is for cookies, that's good enough for me,

C is for cookies, that's good enough for me,

C is for cookies, that's good enough for me,

Oh, cookies, cookies, cookies start with C.  

And we could go on with the words but since you already have it stuck in your head like I do, I'll just let you finish it out. Oh, and if you were like me and you had never heard this song before because you didn't really watch Ses.ame Street as a kid, then you can g.oogle the title and actually see Cookie Monster performing it on youtube. 

**On a side note, I'm not sure if you need a baking stone for this or not. It might work with a pizza pan, but I've never tried it because I have a baking stone.**

Colossal Candy Cookie

Makes about 10 servings

1 cup candy-coated chocolate pieces

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Reserve 1/3 cup candies for decorating; coarsely chop remaining candies. Set aside.

In a bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt; mix well. In a mixing bowl, beat butter and sugars until creamy. Add egg and vanilla; beat well. Add flour mixture; mix well. Stir in chopped candies. 

Place dough in center of pan. Using a lightly floured rolling pin (or your hand) spread the dough to an inch or two from edge of pan. Decorate with reserved candies.

Bake for 16-18 minutes or until light golden brown. Cool completely. Carefully loosen cookie from pan. Cut to serve.

Starfish Cookies

Don't you just love starfish? Well, maybe not the real thing so much, but these sugar cookies sure are cute! We wrapped these up and gave them to our MOPPETS workers as thank you's. Included was the following story.

The Starfish Story

Original Story by Loren Eiseley 

One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed 

a boy picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean.

Approaching the boy, he asked, "What are you doing?"

The youth replied, "Throwing starfish back in the ocean. The surf 

is up and the tide is going out. If I don't throw them back, they'll die."

"Son," the man said, "don't you realize there are miles and miles of beach 

and hundreds of starfish? You can't make a difference." 

After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish, 

and threw it back into the surf. Then, smiling at the man, he said . . .

"I made a difference for that one."

You can find the cookie recipe here. Enjoy!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I believe these may be my son's favorite cookie. He could have cared less about the chocolate peanut butter cookies and he does not mind chocolate chip or sugar cookies, but for some reason these oatmeal raisin cookies had him coming back for more and more and more and . . . I'm sure you get the picture.

I planned to bake a batch of these, divide them into three groups with a few leftovers for home, and deliver them to three friends. That was the plan. I ended up having a few more than I planned at home because a good portion of the batch baked up so differently than the others that I didn't think they were fit for public consumption.

 I don't know if you can see in the picture above but I tried to line them up on the cooling rack in the order that they came out of the oven, first ones to the far right and last batch to the far left. Notice how the cookies on the far right are very thin, and I mean so thin that there were holes in some spots when I lifted them off the cookie sheets. They cooled to a hard crunchy cookie that still tasted good but their look was kind of blah. Yes, those are the cookies that remained at home. I couldn't bring myself to hand over cookies that looked less than desirable to someone outside of our house. The next row is a bit better, no holes but still very thin and crunchy. The third row were probably the best as far as looks and texture. The final row was very dense and they barely spread at all. My thoughts are that the butter somehow did not get distributed evenly throughout the dough and the first cookies had a lot of butter and the last cookies had a lot of oats.

Although they were yummy, I think I might just stick to the recipe on the back of the Quaker Oats box or look in my handy dandy cookbook for future oatmeal raisin cookies. Enjoy! (I didn't use walnuts since I was taking them to people and wasn't sure of nut allergies.)

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Source: Annie's Eats and Deborah's Culinary Confections

1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
3 cups rolled oats
1 cup raisins
1 cup walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large bowl, beat butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, eggs and vanilla until well blended. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add to butter mixtures, stirring until just combined.

Fold in rolled oats, raisins, and walnuts. Drop dough by rounded teaspoons about 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet.

Bake for 8-10 minutes or until edges are lightly brown. Cool 2 minutes and remove to wire rack to cool completely.

Spring Flower Sugar Cookies

Sugar cookies are so versatile. I love them!

I think I have found my new "go to" sugar cookie recipe. While I like the version I tried for my Valentine heart cookies, this one was so much tastier and you don't have to chill them. That's right, you just mix them up, roll them out, and bake them. No chilling required. I was a bit skeptical at first because I have grown up making sugar cookies and they have always needed to be chilled prior to rolling them out. In fact, I thought it might be a typo in the recipe, but I figured I would see what happened when I made them. Turns out, the recipe was typed out correctly and no refrigeration is needed!

I also used a new royal icing recipe and found that it worked equally well. One thing I learned with my flowers is that I don't need to pipe an outline because the outline never really blends into the other frosting. You can see in the photo that the yellow center was piped and then the center was flooded. The outline wouldn't blend in for anything. For the petals I just flooded the cookie without piping an outline and I was MUCH happier with the results. Enjoy!


Basic Vanilla Sugar Cookie
Source: Treats

1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla extract and mix until egg is completely incorporated. Add flour, baking powder, and salt; mix until no trace of dry ingredients remain.

Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to about 1/4" thickness and cut shapes using cookie cutters.

Bake for about 18 minutes or until golden brown. (My cookies only took about 12 minutes to bake. The next time only 10 minutes, so keep an eye and a nose on them because you can smell when they are perfectly done.)


Royal Icing
A half batch of icing was enough for the cookies above.

4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup meringue powder
water
food coloring

Mix powdered sugar and meringue powder until well blended. Slowly add water and mix until you get the consistency that you want. Add food coloring to achieve your desired color. Use pastry bags with #1 and #3 tips or plastic squeeze bottles to decorate.

For outlining: consistency should be like glue paste
For flooding: add enough water so that when you lift a spoonful of icing it runs back into the bowl and blends into the other icing in about 2 to 3 seconds

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

I have made quite a few cookies in my lifetime, and a few different varieties of chocolate peanut butter cookies no less, but when I saw the pictures for this particular variety I could not get them out of my head. For at least a week, I would think about them anytime I thought about what I should make for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, or when I thought about how I could otherwise occupy my time when I was bored. I finally gave in last night and baked them for our movie night treat.

I think that because it was the first time that I made them they were a bit more time consuming than if I had just made any of my regular standby cookie recipes. One batch only made 18 which was a good and a bad thing. Good in that you don't have a lot of extra cookies hanging around and they end up being pretty good size; bad in that it takes a bit of time to only get 18 cookies out of the process.

One tip that I have is please, please, please, use fresh peanut butter. We use Adam's natural peanut butter for everything, but since the recipe called for Skippy or "kids" peanut butter I found that I had some hanging around in the cupboard so I used that. Probably not a good idea to use peanut butter that is a few years old. Probably not a great idea to use peanut butter that is not supposed to separate but it did separate and you just stirred it back together. Probably not the best idea to use peanut butter that has an oily odor to it because it has separated. Probably a bad idea when the peanut butter makes you think about how long it takes peanut butter to go rancid. I think you get the idea; probably not a good one. Surprisingly the cookies did not taste too bad even with the old peanut butter, so I know they will be positively yummy the next time I make them with fresh, creamy peanut butter.

I followed the ingredient list exactly. The only change I made in the process was to roll out all 18 peanut butter balls first to make sure I had 18 and that they were all about the same size; then I did the same with the larger balls of chocolate dough. I didn't want to get to the end of wrapping them up only to realize that I was a few short for some reason. Enjoy!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
Source: 99% Cacao Dark Chocolate

1-1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup "kids" peanut butter (like Skippy or Jif)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
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1/2 cup "kids" peanut butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar



Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, and baking soda - blend it well; set aside. In a large bowl, beat together the sugar, brown sugar, butter, and 1/4 cup peanut butter until it is light, fluffy, and well combined. Add the vanilla and egg; beat well.


In a medium bowl, combine the 1/2 cup peanut butter and powdered sugar until completely combined. Roll the filling into 18 one-inch balls; set aside.

Stir the flour/cocoa mixture into the large bowl containing the creamed butter/sugars mixture until the ingredients are blended together.

Take a heaping tablespoon of chocolate dough (about the size of a ping pong ball) and roll it into a ball. (I would recommend you do this for all 18 cookies so you know you have enough dough.) Then use your hand to flatten the chocolate ball; place a peanut butter ball onto the middle; fold and shape the dough to entirely encase the peanut butter ball. Roll in your hands to make a smooth ball. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet (or you can cover with parchment paper).

Use the bottom of a drinking glass (or some other smooth glass object) to flatten the cookie balls to approximately 1/4- inch thick. Sprinkle granulated sugar over the top of the cookies - fairly liberally or the sugar will disappear when baked.

Bake for 7 to 9 minutes, or until the cookies are barely set and slightly cracked; they should still be soft. Do not overbake them or they will be dry. Let cool on cookie sheet for a few minutes before transfering to a cooling rack.

Valentine Sugar Cookies

What Valentine's Day is complete without sugar cookies, and heart shaped ones at that? We hosted a Valentine playdate with about 20 kids under the age of 5 and I knew this was the perfect opportunity to try out a new cookie recipe that would leave very few crumbs at our house. The joys of being able to sample the goods without having to eat them all!

I have to admit that while making these cookies I felt like a real baker. I mean like a real, professional baker. I had cookies in the oven, cookies cooling on racks, cookies in the fridge waiting to be baked, cookie dough being rolled out and cut, cookie dough in the fridge ready for the next roll out. It was amazing the assembly line production that got going once I got into my rhythym.

I also tried my hand at royal icing for the first time. Royal icing is a bit different than the frosting that many people use on cookies at home in that it is supposed to look more formal or professional. It was fun to work with and I'm sure as I use it more I will get better at it and be able to do more detail. I thought going into it that I was going to have all these elaborate designs on the cookies. Yah, right. I ended up getting some hearts that were passable, some that were great for a three year old, and a few in between. Enjoy!

Valentine Sugar Cookies
Source: Brown Eyed Baker


2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
10 tablespoons unsalted butter (room temperature)
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Whisk the flour, salt, and baking powder together. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat the butter at medium speed for a minute or so, until smooth. Beat in the sugar and continue to beat for about 2 minutes, until the mixture is light and pale. Add the egg and yolk and beat for another minute or two; beat in the vanilla. Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly add in the flour mixture, mixing only until it has been incorporated (because this dough is best when worked least, you might want to stop the mixer before all the flour is mixed in and use a spatula to blend the rest).

Turn the dough onto a counter and divide it in half. Shape each half into a disk and wrap it in plastic. Chill for at least 2 hours. (Well ,the dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months.)

Getting Ready to Bake: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment. Work with one packet of dough at a time; roll out the dough between sheets of plastic wrap or wax paper to a thickness of � inch, lifting the plastic or paper and turning the dough over often so that it rolls evenly. Lift off the top sheet of plastic or paper and cut out the cookies. Pull away the excess dough, saving the scraps for re-rolling, and carefully lift the cookies onto the baking sheets with a spatula, leaving about 1� inches between the cookies. (This is a soft dough and you might have trouble peeling away the excess or lifting the cutouts; if so, cover the dough, chill it for about 15 minutes and try again.) After you�ve rolled and cut the second packet of dough, you can form the scraps into a disk, then chill, roll, cut and bake.

Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 9 to 11 minutes, rotating the sheet at the midpoint. The cookies should feel firm, but they should not color much, if at all. Remove the pan from the oven and dust the cookies with sugar or cinnamon sugar, if you�d like. Let them rest for 1 minute before carefully lifting them onto a rack to cool to room temperature.

Repeat with the remaining dough, cooling the baking sheets between batches.


Royal Icing
4 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons meringue powder
6 tablespoons water


Mix all ingredients on low speed for 7-10 minutes or until the icing loses its shine. Add more water by the teaspoon if it appears too stiff. At this stage you want to be able to pipe it easily.

To flood the cookies add water a few drops at a time until it reaches almost a liquid consistency.


For step by step instructions on decorating with royal icing go here.