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.

Baby Shower Desserts - Woodland Sugar Cookies and Meringue Mushrooms

As I mentioned yesterday, we co-hosted an owl-themed baby shower for friends over the weekend.  Other folks brought lots of yummy food to share too, these desserts were my contribution.  As far as the desserts were concerned, I broadened the theme to be woodland more broadly, with owl, deer, squirrel and leaf sugar cookies and mushroom shaped meringues.

I used my family sugar cookie dough recipe but I tried royal icing for the first time, using the recipe from Prudent Baby.  I only made white piping because I couldn't really handle making three colors of piping icing and three colors of flood icing.  But I actually like how it looks that the colored cookies are all outlined in white so I think it was OK.  I made the flood icing a little thick at first and then tried to thin it down when it was already in the bottles, which I don't think was the best idea and made some of the cookies come out a little funny.  I made it with some lemon juice as they suggested and it really did taste quite good... but I love my family's traditional cookies, including the icing, so I will probably make them my old way in the future.  Although I really should give royal icing another shot since I didn't totally do it right.  Or I may try to come up with a hybrid icing that works well for the pipe and flood technique but tastes more like what I am used to.

I also made these little cutie mushroom meringues, inspired by the ones that decorate a traditional buche de noel (yule log).  I used the same meringue recipe as I used for the valentines hearts, but didn't overbake them this time - they only took an hour and 20 minutes to bake since they were so small.

The meringue mushrooms actually weren't very hard to make.  I used a pastry bag with a size 11 tip (about 1/4" wide circular opening) and piped some stem shapes and cap shapes, making the stems wider at the bottom for stability.  I also tried to make a bit of the swirl on the top of the cap so that they wouldn't have a point sticking up.  I baked them on my favorite silicon baking mats again, which worked great.

After baking them, I took them off the cookie sheet and then I broke the tip off each stem to give it a flat top, then I put a dab of the piping consistency royal icing on the end and just squished it into the mushroom cap.  I found that lowering the mushroom cap onto the stem was actually best if I wanted to get them to stand upright.  I didn't have too much trouble breaking the pointy ends of the stems off but I did break a few so you probably want to make more stems than caps if you are doing this yourself.

This is going to be baby shower week on the blog, I guess - I'll be back next with a post about the fun craft activity that we did during the shower!

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!