Creampuff Recipe (mini-eclairs)

As I mentioned in my last post, about our bastille day themed housewarming party, I made creampuffs (eg, mini-eclairs) for the party and they were a big hit! I tried (arguably unsuccessfully) not to go too overboard with the baking, but I really wanted to try my hand at making an authentic french pastry - when I have visited france, the amazing range of delicious treats at the corner patisserie were one of my favorite things. Plus, it was a great excuse to get to use a new cookbook, Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston's Flour Bakery + Cafe, which I have been wanting to try out ever since I got it as a gift for the holidays.  While I visit Boston pretty regularly, I have never been to this bakery, but I had heard great things about the cookbook, and just from reading through it I could tell that a lot of thought and testing had gone into the recipes.  She has a lot of great tips in a techniques section, like just what temperature butter should be to best cream with sugar, how best to fold two ingredients together, and so forth - it's hard to absorb and remember in one reading but I'm sure I'll refer back to it over time to improve my baking.

So, I had pretty high expectations for the cookbook going in, and this recipe did not disappoint.  I have never made creampuffs before, but a guest mentioned that she had had trouble when she tried making them in the past and they didn't rise well - I can only think that they turned out well because of the excellent instructions, or possibly just dumb luck.  Hopefully if I make them again I can get it all to work as well!  I'm pretty tempted to try some of the other delicious recipes in this cookbook before I repeat these, however.  I had a lot of fun making them, but I'm not going to lie, as you can see from the extensive directions below, they were quite a bit of work - luckily, I knew what I was getting into and I did as much of the work the day before as I could and then basically just assembled them on the day of the party.


Chocolate-covered Creampuffs
Adapted from Flour

For the pate a choux (creampuff shells):

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 4 eggs, lightly whisked together

For the cream filling:

• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons cake flour
• pinch of salt
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 cup heavy cream

For the ganache (chocolate topping):

• 2/3 cup semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips (or 4 ounces chopped semisweet or bittersweet chocolate)
• 1/2 cup heavy cream 

To make the creampuff shells:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees, and line two baking sheets with parchment (or butter them).  In a medium saucepan over medium heat (or I did this in a double-boiler to be sure I didn't overheat or scorch it), heat the butter, sugar, salt and water until the butter is melted.  Do not boil - you don't want any of the liquid to cook off.  Add the flour and stir until fully incorporated, using a wooden spoon.  The recipe directs to keep stirring over medium heat until the mixture starts to get thicker and looks like a loose dough more than a stiff batter, and leaves a thin film on the bottom of the pan; she says this will take 3-4 minutes but mine seemed to get there very quickly, I'd say less than a minute, so I just stopped then.

Transfer the dough to the bowl of a stand mixer, with the paddle mixer attached (I used the paddle attachment with built in scraper and it worked well).  Mix on medium-low for 1 minute - you will notice steam coming off. (The recipe notes, if you prefer to work by hand you can mix in a bowl with a wooden spoon for 2-3 minutes).  On medium-low speed (or beating quickly by hand), add the eggs gradually.  Once the eggs have been added, increase the speed to medium and beat for about 20 seconds, until the dough looks shiny.

Using a pastry bag and the biggest tip you've got (the recipe calls for a 1 inch tip but I only had one that was probably 1/4", but it worked - or you could just use a plastic bag and snip off the corner), pipe out balls about 1.5" across onto the baking sheet.  As you can see in the photo above, I didn't space mine too far apart and it was fine, but you don't want them closer than an inch or so apart.  Bake at 400 for about 15 minutes, at which point the pastries should have puffed up and will be starting to brown.  Turn the heat down to 325 and bake for another 1/2 hour, until they are fully browned.  Place the pans on wire racks (or I just put them on empty burners on my stove) and let cool.  If you are making in advance, you can store in an airtight container - they can be frozen for up to 2 weeks, or stored at room temperature for up to 2 days.  To refresh, put them back on a baking sheet (straight from the freezer if frozen) and heat in a 325 oven - for 6-8 minutes if frozen, 2-3 minutes if not.  Again, let cool completely before filling.  (I made mine the day before and refreshed as the recipe directed and they didn't taste stale at all).

To make the cream filling:
The recipe uses a cream filling that is a mixture of a custard and whipped cream, which she calls "Tropez Cream" - it's a bit time intensive but I thought it was really delicious.

Scald the milk over medium high heat (heat until almost boiling, when bubbles begin to form around the edges, but do not boil) - the recipe suggests using a medium saucepan again, but I used the double boiler (probably not necessary for the scalding but I do think it makes the later steps harder to mess up - I pretty much always use a double boiler when I make custard for that reason).  While the milk heats, mix together the sugar, flour, and salt in a small bowl, and whisk together the egg and egg yolk in a medium bowl.  Slowly whisk the flour mixture into the egg mixture - it will be pasty and thick.

When the milk is heated, remove from the heat and slowly add it to the sugar/flour/egg mixture, whisking thoroughly as you go.  Once all the milk is whisked in, scrape the mixture back into the saucepan and put over medium heat.  Whisk continuously and strongly for 4-6 minutes (I found that it helped to hold the whisk in an oven mitt so my hand didn't overheat, but that may have also been from the steam from the doubleboiler).  Initially the mixture will be very liquid and foamy but it will start to thicken and the bubbles will go away.  When it thickens, you can stop whisking periodically and see if it is at a boil - when it bubbles, whisk again for 10 more seconds then remove from heat.

Pour the custard through a fine sieve into a heat-safe medium bowl, and stir in the vanilla extract.  Cover with plastic wrap placed directly on the surface and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, until cold.  Or you can refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 3 days (this is what I did, as I made the day before).  Just before assembling the creampuffs, whip the heavy cream until it has soft peaks.  Whisk the cold custard and then fold the whipped cream and the custard together using a rubber spatula.  Refrigerate if not using immediately.

To make chocolate ganache:
I was relieved to find that this step was much simpler than making the other two parts.  Like the creampuff shells and the custard, I made the ganache a day in advance and refrigerated it, but then I ended up having to microwave it to get it back to liquid (mostly because I hadn't given it long enough to come to room temperature).  Since it was so easy to make, if I were making these again I would just wait and make it on the day of.

Put the chocolate in a small heat-proof bowl.  Scald the cream over medium-high heat, and pour the hot cream over the chocolate.  After it sits for 30 seconds to a minute, slowly mix it together until the chocolate is all melted and the mixture is smooth, then let cool to room temperature.  (It can be stored in a container in the fridge for up to a week, and then brought back to room temperature to use).

To assemble the creampuffs:
Fill a pastry bag with the cream filling, using a medium sized tip.  Use the pastry tip, a knife, or just your fingers to open each puff enough to fill with the cream.  I opened them from the side, which wasn't as pretty, and just noticed in writing this up that the recipe actually says to poke a hole in the bottom - maybe that would have worked better, although it seems like the cream might seep out then.  There's a surprising amount of space in there for cream and I was impressed that the recipe made just about exactly the right amounts of cream filling and ganache for the cream puffs.  Turn the puffs upside down and dip the tops in the ganache, and then let rest for a few minutes to let the chocolate set.  (Maybe because I had microwaved it to get it softened up, mine never really set up so the chocolate was a bit runny - but still delicious - when I served them).  Serve that day, ideally within 4 hours.

Pumpkin Orange Muffins

As I mentioned yesterday, I made these pumpkin orange muffins to bring to work and they were delicious!  The recipe is from Mollie Katzen's Sunlight Cafe (also the source of the decadent sticky buns I posted previously) - I really enjoy having a book of all breakfast and brunch recipes in my cookbook collection, and it was fun to have a chance to try out another one from this book!  I may have slightly undercooked these as we were running out the door to catch a movie so I didn't have time to put them in for another few minutes, but they were still very yummy, just not as golden and crispy on the top as they might have been otherwise.  Adding the chopped orange zest is what really makes this recipe - the tangy orange taste is a great balance to the sweet pumpkin flavor.  If you find yourself with leftover pumpkin puree this season, or if you just feel like making a yummy pumpkin breakfast treat, I heartily recommend them!

Pumpkin Muffins
Adapted from Mollie Katzen's Sunlight Cafe

• Nonstick spray, or cupcake liners
• 1 1/3 cup white whole wheat flour (or whole wheat pastry flour, or just regular all purpose flour if you don't have either or prefer white flour)
• 2/3 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt 
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon chopped orange zest (use a vegetable peeler to peel just the outer layer off about 1/2 an orange, then finely chop)
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 cup pumpkin puree (or she says you can substitute cooked sweet potato or winter squash)
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick / 1/4 cup) butter, melted

Preheat oven to 400, lightly spray 12 muffin cups in a muffin pan with non-stick spray, or use cupcake liners (I inadvertently used both because I wasn't paying attention, which was kind of overkill).  Combine dry ingredients through orange zest in a bowl and mix together.  Add the brown sugar and mix together until blended using a pastry blender thing or your hands, or just a spoon.

Mix together the remaining (wet) ingredients except the butter in a second bowl, whisking or stirring until well blended.  Pour the wet ingredients and the butter into the dry ingredients and mix together until everything is moist, but without overmixing.  Spoon the batter into the muffin pan and bake for 20-25 minutes, until browned on the top and a toothpick inserted into the top comes out clean.  Let cool on a rack before serving.


I'm linking up over at Tuesday at the Table at A Quilter's Table again - and this time there is a (fabric!) giveaway if you link up - anything about your cooking or your table.  You can link up through Friday night, so check it out!

Decadent Sticky Buns

I started making these sticky buns planning to have them for Easter brunch, but they didn't get done and we ended up going out for brunch anyways, so I actually finished them a few days later.  I am not kidding when I say these are decadent... I am sure they are no worse for you than any other sticky bun, but you really realize it when you are making them yourself and see all the butter and sugar (and more butter, and more sugar) that goes into them.  They were totally over the top delicious and are a great treat for a special occasion, but I can't imagine eating these too often.  Plus, they are pretty labor-intensive so I can't imagine making them all the time either.  I would like to note that that is low fat greek yogurt in the photo above, not whipped cream, however!

I have been mainly making bread from the Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day recipe lately, so my first thought was to adapt that basic dough to make sticky buns.  I actually didn't have a batch going at the time though, and I came across this recipe in Mollie Katzen's Sunlight Cafe (a delicious breakfast cookbook) and it sounded too good to pass up.  It was fun to really make, and knead, a regular yeasted bread for a change!  I didn't take any decent process photos unfortunately but hopefully you can get the idea from the recipe.  Also, I thought the amount of topping was really pretty excessive, so you could easily halve it (or more) and still have plenty of sticky deliciousness.

Sticky Buns
Adapted from Sunlight Cafe

For the dough:

• 1/4 cup wrist-temperature water
• 1 1/4 teaspoon yeast
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 3 tablespoons melted butter
• About 2 1/3 cups flour
• nonstick spray

For the filling:

• 1 tablespoon softened butter
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons sugar

For the sticky topping (see note above - I think a half recipe or less would be plenty):

• 10 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 3/4 cup light corn syrup or real maple syrup (I used maple syrup)
• 3/4 chopped walnuts or pecans

To make dough: place the water in a large mixing bowl, add the yeast and let stand for 5 minutes.  If your butter is hot from melting, mix it together with the yogurt to cool it down, then add the butter/yogurt, egg, sugar and salt to the yeast mixture and whisk to combine.  Add the first cup of flour and whisk to combine.  Add the second cup of flour and mix in with a wooden spoon.  Add about 1/3 cup more flour, kneading it in with your hands - you may need to add slightly more flour, but the dough should remain soft.  Knead until all the flour is incorporated.  Spray under the dough and on top of the dough with nonstick spray and cover with a clean dish towel and leave in a warm place to rise.  It should rise by half to three quarters, which should take an hour or longer.  You can refrigerate or freeze the dough (in a covered container or a ziploc bag) at this point if you want to finish making the sticky buns later.

To assemble the sticky buns: spray two 8" or 9" cake pans and a clean, dry countertop with non-stick spray.  Spray your fist with nonstick spray also and then punch down the dough and move it to the countertop and let it rest for 5-10 minutes.  While the dough is resting, melt the butter for the topping in a small saucepan over low heat, then add the sugar and stir until it melts.  Add the maple or corn syrup and stir until combined then remove from heat.  Pour the topping into the two prepared pans, dividing it equally, then sprinkle the chopped nuts in the pans as well.

Adding more nonstick spray to your hands if needed, stretch the dough into a rectangle measuring approximately 10" x 16".  Use a rubber spatula to spread the softened butter on the dough except for a 1/2" border at the edges.  Combine the sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and then sprinkle the mixture evenly over the buttered surface.  Roll up the dough along the long edge to make a long log and pinch the dough together to seal where it overlaps.  Cut the rolled dough log into 16 equal slices (although I think I only got 13 or 14 out of mine, and it was fine), and stand them on end in the cake pans, on top of the topping and nuts.  If you had extra cinnamon sugar (I did), you can sprinkle it on the ends of the buns.  Cover the pans loosely with a clean dish towel and let stand in a warm place for an hour - the buns will rise by 1/2 to 3/4 in size.  15-20 minutes before the end of the rise, preheat the oven to 350.  Bake for 15-25 minutes, until the tops and edges are golden brown.  While the buns are baking spray a serving platter or a cookie sheet with nonstick spray to keep the finished buns from sticking.  When the buns come out of the oven carefully lift each one out of the pan with tongs and invert it onto the prepared tray/cookie sheet.  Spoon or pour the extra syrup over the tops of the buns (don't worry if it pools up under them).  Wait at least 20 minutes to serve.  These are super delicious if eaten within a few hours but will also keep fine if refrigerated for a few days or if frozen.

Enjoy!

Tea Party and Lemon Squares

I had the tea party this weekend that I made invitations for earlier and it was lovely!  I didn't get any good photos of the setup for the party but since I kind of collect teapots (since I keep making them and don't give them all away), it worked out really well.  I wanted the party to feel like spring so I made more spring flower and animal themed sugar cookies (using my regular icing recipe this time), and we had blueberry muffins, fruit salad, cucumber tea sandwiches and hummus tea sandwiches, and lemon squares.

The lemon squares are, like the sugar cookies, from my family recipe, and they were really yummy as usual.  I actually cooked them a bit less than usual accidentally and they were less fully set but still light and delicious with a fresh lemon taste.

Lemon Squares

For shortbread crust:

• 1 cup butter (2 sticks)
• 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
• 2 cups flour

For lemon layer:

• 4 eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 5 tablespoons flour (1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon)
• Juice of 2 lemons (5-6 tablespoons)
• confectioner's sugar to sprinkle on top

Preheat oven to 350 and grease a 9x13 pan.  Mix together ingredients for shortbread crust until combined and dump mixture into the greased pan and pat into an even layer.  Bake 20 minutes.

Mix together ingredients for lemon layer and pour over crust.  Bake for another 25 minutes or slightly more, until edges are brown and top is beginning to slightly brown.  Remove from oven and lightly sprinkle confectioner's sugar on top (I use a sieve to evenly distribute it).  Let cool, cut into squares and serve.

Valentines Meringues

I haven't blogged in a few days but it is mostly because I have been SO BUSY making stuff!  I spent most of the weekend sewing up baby blankets and tote bags for the craft hope charity project I am doing (originally mentioned here) and will be back to share more with you on that soon (lets just say I may have been a bit overambitious when I decided to make 12 kits...). 

Then I whipped up a really special Valentines day dinner for my sweetie, if I do say so myself (apologies for the crummy photo quality above - this was the best I got).  I adapted the delicious butternut squash and walnut lasagna that I made before into a filling for handmade ravioli and then made the bechamel sauce to go on top.  To adapt the lasagna to make the filling, I basically prepared the squash as described in the recipe, then ground the nuts in the food processor, and then added the squash/onion/garlic/herb mixture, the cheese, and an egg and processed a bit (leaving it somewhat chunky not totally pureed).  I also made braised leeks again for the side, which were yummy and a good complement to this dish - I plan to share that recipe some time too.

For dessert, I made homemade strawberry ice cream and heart shaped meringue nests like the one shown above, as well as a bunch of heart shaped meringue bites.  Somehow making meringues seemed like a totally normal thing to do since my mom always used to make them, but then I realized I had never made them myself and it seemed like it might not be so easy.  So I poked around in a number of my cookbooks and then forged ahead.  I found some recipes that called for more complicated ingredients but ended up going with an ultra-simple approach and it worked well.  I overbaked them a bit which mostly meant that they were still delicious and even more crumbly and delicate, but slightly brownish in color.  I was OK with that although it does make me want to make them again to see if I can hit it spot on. 

Sorry I don't have a picture of the ice cream, it was pretty good but not phenomenal, being made with frozen strawberries rather than fresh, in season ones.  This too I will have to try again [insert noises from husband in background pretending to be disappointed that there will be more of this in his future].  Also no pottery notes - we decided to eat off our nice china since it was a special occasion!  You can see the cute pink and red flowered tablecloth that I recently thrifted in the pic above which served perfectly.

Meringues

• 3 egg whites, carefully separated to ensure no yolk at all is present
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 250F and line baking sheets with either silicon baking mats or parchment paper (I used my fave silicon mats and they worked great).

Apparently if any oil gets into your meringues it really messes things up, so for starters make sure that your mixing bowl and mixer are extremely clean, and make sure you don't get any yolk in your egg whites.  I used a stand mixer but I am sure you could do this with a hand mixer and a bit more elbow grease.  With your mixer on the highest speed and using the whipping attachment, beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks.  With the mixer still running at high speed, gradually add in the sugar.  Stop and scrape down the sides if needed, then continue whipping at high speed until the mixture glistens a bit.  I read that in a recipe and didn't think I would be able to tell when to stop but it really does get a bit shiny. 

To form meringues, you can just scoop the raw meringue onto the baking sheets by the spoonful, but you can get more elegant shapes if you pipe them.  I used a regular pastry bag and the largest tip that I had, I think a size 11 or 12, it was about 1/4" across.  You can also use one of the tips that looks like a star at the end, I just used a plain tip so that I could make the cute hearts in the first picture.  To get a thicker shape just hold your tip in one place while you squeeze out the meringue.  To make a nest, pipe a concentric shape (usually a circle, but I did a heart), and then pipe up a few layers at the outer edge to build a kind of wall.  You can play around and see what shapes you like.

Bake for 1.5-2 hours (I baked for 2 hours or maybe a bit longer) - you can check but pulling one out and eating it to see if they are done.  When they are done remove from oven and then remove from the sheet.  Warning, these are addictive!

Valentine Heart Sugar Cookies - Part 3

OK, I'm back with the third and final post about my valentines sugar cookies - if you missed them, Part 1 was the recipe and instructions for making the cookies, Part 2 was about icing basics and piped designs, and Part 3 (today) will be about how to make these cool marbled/swirly types of cookies.  I forget where I originally saw about making these types of cookies, but I have tried them before and really liked how they turned out.  A lot of the ideas for valentines cookies with this technique came from this post - and there are a lot more ideas there that I didn't try, so check it out if you like this kind of decoration.

I tried making three different basic designs with this technique - an overall marbled design, scattered hearts, and a heart border.  I had a hard time getting the scattered hearts to turn out well, I think because my icing was a bit too far on the runny side, but the other two sides turned out well.  For all of these designs, you basically just pipe the wet flood icing in a design - either dots or lines for the ones I did - on top of the still wet cookie icing, and then draw a toothpick through it to create the marbled/feathered look.

In addition to have the right consistency icing, I found that it helps a lot of there is enough contrast between the base icing color and the piped color.  The designs were harder to see on some of the light pink on white cookies that I made.

These heart border ones look really cute and aren't hard to make at all!  You just pipe evenly spaced dots around the border and then draw the toothpick through the middles all the way around the border.

Thanks for reading!  I am still planning to try out royal icing to compare to my normal icing recipe so I will report back on how that goes.  Are you making any special treats for valentines day?

Valentine Heart Sugar Cookies - Part 2

I'm back with part 2 of my valentines cookie-decorating posts - yesterday I shared my family recipe for sugar cookie dough and the steps to bake them.  Today I'm going to share decorating tips, although as I started writing this post I realized that it would really be too long for a single post, so I am going to cover most of it today and then wrap up tomorrow.  Today I'll focus on the basic icing technique and piped designs, and tomorrow will be about the cookies with the fun swirly/marbled designs.

The way we have usually iced cookies in my family is to make icing that is not too runny and spread it on with a small knife.  If you get it the right consistency, you can spread it so the edges look nice and it stays on the cookie without running all over the place, but it kind of smooths out and doesn't look like you just spread it on.  Then we usually make somewhat thicker icing in just white for piping.  This system works pretty well, but it doesn't allow you to do some of the fun designs that I made for these valentines cookies, especially the swirly designs.  So for these cookies I used the more complicated technique of piping an outline and then flooding it with runny icing from squeeze bottles to fill in the center.  Prudent Baby has a good overview of this technique here.

Unlike that tutorial, though, I didn't use royal icing - I used basically the same recipe I posted here, but about doubled so I would have enough to make 3 colors of icing, each in a thicker consistency for piping and a thinner consistency for flooding.  I actually have never made royal icing but my sense is that it is kind of like fondant - great looking but not so great tasting.  This icing isn't as fabulous for decorating (and I think I made my flood icing a bit too thin - aim to have it about the consistency of yogurt I think), but it is really quite tasty.  It also gets a kind of grainy look sometimes, especially when you use a lot of food coloring or thin it out a lot, it seems (you can see it in the top pictures showing the darker cookies).  In any case, I am a firm believer in the idea that sugar cookies should taste as good as they look so I will forgive this icing its faults.  In the interest of a fair comparison, however, I bought meringue powder today so that I can try out royal icing when I make the second half of this batch of cookies, so I will report back on how that goes.

The first step is to pipe the outlines of where you want to ice.  For most of the cookies, I just wanted to lay down a base layer of icing over the whole cookie in a single color, so I piped an outline close to the edge.  I also made some cookies where I wanted a solid heart in the center surrounded by uniced cookie, so I piped a smaller heart in those.  Then I also made some cookies (shown on the bottom left) where I piped an outer edge and an inner heart, so that I could flood with two different colors of icing.

The flooding is pretty simply, and you don't have to wait until the piping is totally dry, just until it has set up a bit and isn't likely to give way and let the icing out.   To flood the center, I covered about 1/2 to 2/3 of the area and then used the tip of the squeeze bottle to push it into all the uncovered spots.  If you wanted thicker icing you could certainly use more.

This shows how I made the cookies with two different flood colors.  It is pretty much the same technique but you do want to let the first flood layer dry a bit before you go back and add the second one, otherwise they could run into eachother (which mine did a bit, I didn't wait long enough).

I really liked how the lefthand cookie above looked so I left it as is, but you could go back once it sets up a bit and pipe a design on top.  The righthand cookie above was one with a heart in the center where I went back and piped on top once it had dried.

Most of the cookies that had a heart in the center I used to make these cookies that were intended to look like lace or doilies, with an intricate decorative border around them.  I only used white piping (this is with a #2 tip) but these would also be fun using a contrasting color for the piping.  You can see I tried out a couple different types of borders and I am sure you can think of more!  I like the polka dot heart center and I also tried crosshatching across the heart, which I thought looked a little too busy (not shown) but that is worth a try too.

These are some cookies that I left bare and then piped designs straight on the cookie.  This is another option if you want to do a fancy looking cookie but are offput by the idea of putting down a base layer of icing and then also piping a design - this would certainly be faster.  I think all of these designs would also look nice on an iced background too, and probably nicer.  FYI the red piping was done with a #4 tip which I think is larger than ideal but I couldn't find the second #3 tip I could have sworn I bought.

I had a lot of fun making the conversation hearts, I wish I had made more colors but the logistics of making two thicknesses of each color made that hard to do.  If you just want to make conversation hearts I would skip the pipe and flood method and just make one thickness of each color to spread on, so that you could do more colors.  I looked up conversation heart sayings online (see here and here) but ended up deciding to stick to some of the more traditional messages rather than getting into "text me" or any of that.

Don't forget to come back tomorrow if you want to learn how to make the swirly/marbled designs!

How about you - how do you ice your cookies - pipe and flood, spread it on, or another way?  And do you use royal icing or another recipe?

Valentine Heart Sugar Cookies - Part 1

While I seem to have been making a lot more gingerbread cookies lately (as seen here and here), iced sugar cookies are a long-time favorite in my family, both because of their delicious taste and because of the endless creative possibilities with the decorations.  My mom and I usually dedicate at least a day over the holidays to decorating cookies which is a nice way to get in the holiday spirit and chat while making treasures we will bring out for all the special occasions to ooh and aah over and then munch right up.  We spent the holidays with my in-laws this year so there were no sugar cookies at Christmas, so I decided to make a whole batch up for valentines day.  The decorating possibilities are nearly limitless, as you can see from the sneak peak above of the different cookies I made.

But you'll have to come back tomorrow to see more of the decorated cookies and get tips on how to make the different designs!  Today I am going to share all the steps to make the cookies, including mixing the cookie dough and cutting out and baking the cookies.  If you already have a favorite sugar cookie recipe you can of course use that, but while I may be biased, I really think that our family cookie recipe is the best.  The cookies are crispy, rich and flavorful, and they don't have any of that fluffy blandness you find in some sugar cookies.  I am not sure what the secret is, but I think it has something to do with making the cookies really thin... oh, and butter.  Lots of butter.

Sugar Cookies

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/4 cup vegetable shortening
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

In a medium/large bowl, cream together butter, shortening and sugar with a mixer or pastry blender.  Add eggs and vanilla and mix until fully combined.  In a separate smaller bowl, mix together remaining (dry) ingredients, then add to the wet ingredients a bit at a time, mixing as you add.  The dough should be fairly sticky but should come together.  Scraping out bowl to get all the dough, wrap in plastic wrap (or put in a zip-top bag) and refrigerate at least 2 hours and ideally longer.

Preheat oven to 375F, and either grease cookie sheets lightly with butter or use a silicone baking mat (as I mentioned, I love our new silpat mats!).  Take the dough out of the fridge and break off about 1/3 to 1/4, then return the rest to the fridge.  Use a clean countertop area to roll out the dough, liberally sprinkling flour under the dough, on top of the dough and brushing the surface of the rolling pin with flour.  With gentle but firm and even strokes, carefully roll out the dough, adding more flour if it seems to be sticking to the countertop or the rolling pin.  I generally roll these out to be 1/16" to 1/8" thick, but just try to get them as thin as you can.  Cut out cookies using cookie cutters of your choice and gently lift onto cookie sheet using a spatula, making sure to space cookies 1/2" apart.

Bake the cookies for 6-10 minutes - exact time will depend on your oven and how thin the cookies are rolled out.  They should be just starting to brown slightly at the edges when they are done.  Take out of the oven and promptly remove from the cookie sheet to a counter or cooling rack to cool.  I have found on the silpat mat that they come off with no problem, if you are using a greased cookie sheet you may have to use the spatula a bit more to get them loose, and there is a risk that they make break especially if you have made cookies with delicate shapes, so try to be as gentle and careful as possible.  Let cool and then store in an airtight container.

Don't forget to come back tomorrow for the icing recipe and decorating tips!

What are your favorite valentines desserts?  Do you make sugar cookies in your family?

Gingerbread Cookies

Looking for the Giveaway Day Post?  Scroll down or click here to find it.  I realized I never posted a closing time - I will keep the giveaway open until 9 pm eastern time, so you still have time to enter if you haven't yet!

Thanks to everyone who has commented to enter the giveaway so far!  It has been a great response and I have loved reading all of your favorite cookies (and other kinds of desserts).  In light of the theme, I thought I would post a favorite cookie recipe of mine to share with all of you.  I have mentioned making gingerbread cookies a few times on the blog and was just making them last week, so I thought that would be a good one to share.

I love making gingerbread cookies because they are delicious and fun to decorate with simple piped white icing.  As you can tell from this picture and the one in my blog header, my favorite holiday cookie shape is the snowflake.  I have a great snowflake cookie cutter set that comes with smaller shapes to do cutouts - the package looks slightly different but I think it is basically the same as this one.  Now that I am looking on Amazon I see lots of other fun snowflake cookie cutter sets... I may have to get this one to add to my collection for next year!  I think one of the things I love about making snowflake cookies is that like snowflakes, there seem to be an infinite number of variations to how you can decorate them, making each one unique.

This year for the first time I have been baking cookies using these silpat baking mats and I have been so impressed by how they work!  (sorry, the pic above is from when I made our halloween cookies, I forgot to take one when I was making xmas cookies this year).  We got them as a wedding gift and they really work - you don't need to grease the cookie sheet at all, and when the cookies are done they slide right off the mat.  I have had so many fewer broken cookies this year, it really has been great.  Does anyone else have these, and if so have you used them for baking things other than cookies?  I am wondering if there are other things they work well for.

My mom and I seem to have a hard time remembering which gingerbread cookie recipe is the one we like to make.  I remembered having copied down one from one of her cookbooks a year or two ago but couldn't remember which one it was when I was up for thanksgiving... we made some from Craig Claiborne but they didn't taste quite like the ones I have been making lately.  When I got home I checked and realized I had actually been using a recipe from Rosie's Cookie book (a favorite local bakery) and made them again for Christmas.  They are crisp and rich but not too buttery, and taste to me like a traditional gingerbread cookie should.  Here's the recipe -

Gingerbread Cookies
Adapted from Rosie's Bakery Cookie Cookbook

• 3 cups flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks)
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 1 large egg

Sift together dry ingredients in a medium or large mixing bowl.  Cream the butter and sugar in a separate bowl either by hand or with a mixer.  Add the molasses and egg to the creamed butter/sugar and blend.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until combined.  Put the dough on a large piece of plastic wrap (or in a gallon sized zip-top bag) and press into a flat disc, the refrigerate for 2 hours or longer.  Dust your rolling surface and rolling pin and the top of the dough (it may be easier to roll out 1/3 or 1/2 at a time), then gently rollout to 1/8" thick (or slighty thicker if you prefer).  Back 8-12 minutes at 350 F until just beginning to color at the edges, then remove from the cookie sheet to cool either on racks or on a flat surface.  Ice to decorate (icing recipe below).

Icing for Cookies

• 1-2 tablespoons of butter (room temp)
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1-3 tablespoons of milk

Beat together the butter, sugar and vanilla and a small amount of the milk.  Gradually add milk until the icing reaches the desired consistency - you want it to still somewhat hold its shape for piping, otherwise it will be too runny.

More Halloween Treats

We had a small halloween gathering, and in addition to the spider treats, I made a few other desserts.  I may in fact have gone a bit overboard.  Here is a quick rundown of what I made.

Iced gingerbread cookies... I love making iced cookies.  Iced sugar cookies are a big Christmas tradition in our family, and we have made them more and more elaborate over the years.  I have expanded into making gingerbread cookies with simple piped icing (see blog header for an example from last christmas) and thought they would be very fun for halloween.  I was especially proud when I realized that I could also make spider cookies with the bat cookie cutter (I got bored of making bats).  I don't have the recipe with me to post but may post it later...

Red velvet cupcakes.  These are Lawson's favorite kind of cake/cupcake and I thought the red color was appropriately spooky/bloodlike.  I used this recipe for the cupcakes, and a half batch of cream cheese icing from this recipe.  I still had a lot of icing left over and Lawson was very excited to hear that this may mean a carrot cake or carrot cupcakes in our future.  I had never made red velvet anything before and thought they turned out very well!  They do use really a ton of red food coloring.  You can see in the photo that I put the family heirloom cake stand my aunt Linda gave me as a gift to good use.

Finally, the coup de grace, I made a disturbingly realistic brain jello.  I more or less used this recipe but started with green jello and added red food coloring.  Also instead of using 2 packets of jello I used 1 packet of jello and then added plain gelatin.  The evaporated milk really does give it an opaque brainy look.  I tried some and it wasn't that delicious but definitely made up for what it lacked in taste with gross realistic-ness.  Thanks to Davis and Lauren for lending us the brain mold!