December Daily 8 ~ Christmas Cookie, Round 1 + Sugar Cookie, Gingerbread and Frosting Recipes

Last night Ellie, Kohlton and I had our annual Christmas Cookie decorating evening, though we got a late start, so I did not actually decorate my cookies yet.

I have a new set of cookie cutters that I purchased from Crate and Barrel back in February. I was very excited to use them. I also noticed that they have a new kitchen towel with the same animals on it.

I also happened upon a lovely new cooper bear cookie cutter that I found on Amazon (it is funny to me that it is not from William Sonoma). I might have to get that one, too, although it is kind of expensive. I found another one that I like just as well that is half that cost. I also like this one. I love good quality cookie cutters.

Here are to recipes I usually use. I am going to include a new recipe for a Royal type frosting that is supposed to be good and tastey. I have not tried it, yet.

Sugar Cookie Recipe

2 1/2 cups butter (at room temperature)
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
seeds from 1 vanilla bean (or 3 tsp vanilla)
5 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

1. Cream the butter and sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer on low to medium speed. (Use the paddle attachment). Mix until thoroughly incorporated – for about one minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a plastic spatula and mix again for a few seconds more.

Over mixing the butter and sugar in this step will cause too much air to be incorporated into the dough. If you’d like a light and fluffy cookie, that’s ideal, however the dough will spread more during baking; not ideal if you’d like the cookie to hold its shape.

2. Add eggs slowly and mix. Scrape down the bowl with your spatula at least once and mix again.

3. Cut open your vanilla bean and scrape the seeds out. Add to mixing bowl. Alternatively, add liquid vanilla extract. Stir briefly.

4. Sift your dry ingredients together. (Flour, baking powder and salt).

5. Add all of the flour mixture to the bowl. Place a large tea towel or two small tea towels between the edge of the bowl and the electric mixer so that the flour won’t escape. Mix on low speed for 3o seconds. Remove the tea towels and observe the dough mixing; when it clumps around the paddle attachment it’s ready. It’s also important at this stage not to over mix the dough (the glutens in the flour develop and the dough can become tough).

6. Roll the dough out between 2 large pieces of parchment paper. Place on a baking sheet and into the fridge for a minimum of 1 hour.

7. Roll out the dough further if you need to, and cut out cookie shapes. Place on parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Re-roll scraps and repeat.

8. Put cookie dough shapes back into the fridge for 10 minutes to 1 hour to chill again. They will then hold their shape better when baked.

9. Preheat your oven to 350°F or 176°C.

10. Bake cookies for 8-12 minutes or until the edges become golden brown. The baking time will depend on the size of your cookie.

11. Let cookies cool to room temperature and decorate!

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Royal Icing Using Egg Whites:
from: JoyofBaking.com

2 large egg whites
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
3 cups (330 grams) confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar, sifted

For Royal Icing with Egg Whites: In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the egg whites with the lemon juice. Add the sifted powdered sugar and beat on low speed until combined and smooth. The icing needs to be used immediately or transferred to an airtight container as royal icing hardens when exposed to air. Cover with plastic wrap when not in use.

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Butter Cream Frosting
from:the Created By Diane Blog

1 cup butter
1 cup shortening (* I use all butter, and no shortening. The shortening makes a nice consistency, but a funky taste in the mouth.)
6 cups powdered sugar
2-4 Tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract. if you are making white frosting use clear vanilla.

Beat butter with mixer until pale and fluffy, add sugar and milk along with extract mix until smooth and creamy.

*If the weather is super hot, over 100 and I’m afraid the buttercream will be a mess, I sometimes use all shortening.

**If I want a very rich butter taste, I use all butter and no shortening.

*** for Chocolate Buttercream I use ½ to 1 cup of unsweetened cocoa in place of some powdered sugar.
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Gingerbread Snowflakes
via: Martha Stewart

* These cookies are excellent for decorating and hanging up. They are very hard and very spicy. We don't usually eat these cookies. They become Happy New Year cookies for the squirrels in January.

• 6 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 1 cup packed dark-brown sugar
• 4 teaspoons ground ginger
• 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon finely ground pepper
• 1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup unsulfured molasses
• Royal Icing
• Fine sanding sugar, for sprinkling

Directions
1. Sift together flour, baking soda, and baking powder into a large bowl. Set aside.
2. Put butter and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until fluffy. Mix in spices and salt, then eggs and molasses. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Divide dough into thirds; wrap each in plastic. Refrigerate until cold, about 1 hour.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out dough on a lightly floured work surface to a 1/4-inch thick. Cut into snowflakes with a 7- inch snowflake-shape cookie cutter. Space 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper, and refrigerate until firm, about 15 minutes.
4. Bake cookies until crisp but not dark, 12 to 14 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks.
5. Put icing in a pastry bag fitted with a small plain round tip (such as Ateco #7). Pipe designs on snowflakes; immediately sprinkle

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New recipes that I want to try from the Carrottopmom blog.

Classic Sugar Cookies

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. Refrigerate dough for at least 2 hours. Roll dough on lightly floured surface, until approximately 1/4 inch thick (for larger shapes, I prefer approximately 1/2″ thickness). Cut into desired shape, and place on cookie sheet with parchment paper. If you are going for a shaped cookie, place cookies in freezer for 10 minutes. This will help prevent the cookies from spreading, and will help maintain their cut shape.
Bake 10-12 minutes in the preheated oven, or until very lightly browned, and puffy in the middle. Let stand on cookie sheet three minutes before removing to cool on wire racks. Allow cookies to cool entirely before frosting.

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Sugar Cookie Icing

2 cups confectioners’ sugar
2tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
assorted food coloring
In a small bowl, stir together confectioners’ sugar and milk until smooth. Beat in corn syrup and almond extract until icing is smooth and glossy. (See picture below, showing consistency.) If icing is too thick to spread, add more corn syrup.
Divide into separate bowls, and add food colorings to each to desired intensity. Spread the frosting onto cooled cookies. Allow cookies to sit for 2-3 hours before stacking.

Social Sketch Event at Two Hands Paperie with Camille and Ben + Snickerdoodle Cookies Recipe

Last night Camille, Ben and I took part in the Social Sketching event with Courtney Cerruti, hosted at Two Hands Paperie in Bouder and we all had an absolute blast. I think it ended up being way more fun that either of the kids had expected.

Courtney Cerruti works at Creative Bug, a place where you can take all manner of online art classes. She also travels around teaching classes and hosting these social sketching events. We were not sure what to expect, although I knew it would be fun.

I picked up the kids in the late afternoon and headed to Boulder where we had a quick and tasty slice of pizza at Nick and Willy's.

Once we arrived in the store, we picked out some seats and checked out what was on the tables. There were the usual piles of fun and interesting paper that is a trademark for Two Hands. There were note cards for drawing on and bowls of lovely washi tape.

Courtney talked a little about the history of this kind of event and invited us to play along, drawing for ourselves in our own sketchbooks, or taking part in collaborative pieces where several people contribute something to each card, or back and forth trades. I loved the idea that this was all about just having fun making art; it did not need to be finished, or fancy, or artistic or accomplished. It was all about playing.

It took me a while to get my head in the artistic game as I was having fun just making designs with the washi tape.

Ben was in the groove pretty quickly. He sat next to two young professional artists and across from Courtney. They engaged in some lively chat and talk about what they liked about being an artist. The young professionals (Rebecca Green and Neil Yarnal) talked about their youth and when they knew they wanted to be artists. I loved how they all talked as equals.

These are some of the cards the traded. Ben drew the fox and the owl.

Camille also had a great time. She loved learning how to make packaging tape image transfers and talking about her recent volunteer working trip to Guatemala. She traded cards, too. She made the wonderful card with Santa's beard on it. I love the nose.

Rebecca and I also traded cards.

I did not want the evening to end, but alas, it had to as we all had work or school in the morning. Here are a few images of the cards created during the event:

And of course, you have to have a little paper shop eye candy to stir the creative soul in all of us.

Everyone loved the event and many people are hoping that Courtney teaches at Two Hands again soon.

Here are two videos about the work that Courtney does:





Here is a video on making packaging tape image transfers. Her technique is much more fussy than what we did, but at least you can get the right idea.


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Mrs. Sigg's Snickerdoodles
via: Allrecipes.com

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons white sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. Cream together butter, shortening, 1 1/2 cups sugar, the eggs and the vanilla. Blend in the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt. Shape dough by rounded spoonfuls into balls.
3. Mix the 2 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon. Roll balls of dough in mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.
4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until set but not too hard. Remove immediately from baking sheets.

Chihuly at the Denver Botanic Gardens, Part 1 + Chewy Brown Sugar Cookies with Brown Sugar Frosting Recipes

Saturday was a glorious, perfect day. Larr and I happen to be free of other commitments, so we decided to take in the Chihuly exhibit at the Denver Botanic Gardens and oh my, was it ever lovely. It was much more than I had expected.

Many of the cattail type pieces reminded me of something from a Dr. Seuss book.

It was a very popular place to have a photo taken.

I also love seeing my husband in action. He has such an artistic way of looking at and framing images. He says that before the advent of digital cameras, there was skill and talent involved in taking photographs. He thinks that now just about everyone can take a nice photo. While I agree that it is much easier to take a nice photo now, I still think that his photos are artistic. It is they eye, not the camera, that finds the art.



Ellie and Kohlton spent the morning at the Alamo Draft House cartoon Cereal Party: Halloween Edition. It was an event at a movie theater where there are tables and chairs so that you can eat a meal while watching a movie. They had access to unlimited amounts of sugary cereals like Lucky Charms, Fruit Loops, etc. and milk. They watched the Halloween editions of popular Saturday morning cartoons from the 1980's and 10990's. You are even encouraged to go in your pajamas. Ellie said that they had a lot of fun.

Later they stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few things so that they could make a few fun food items, including brown sugar cookies.

Chewy Brown Sugar Cookies with Brown Sugar Frosting
via: Cookies and Cups


Cookie:
14 tablespoons salted butter (1 3/4 sticks)
1 3/4 cups packed light brown sugar
2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
1 1/2 Tbsp vanilla
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar

Frosting:
1/2 cup light brown sugar (packed)
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup milk
2 cups sifted powdered sugar

Cookies:
Preheat oven to 350° and line baking sheet with parchment paper.
Heat butter in medium skillet over medium heat until melted. When butter melts slowly swirl the pan and continue to cook the butter until it becomes a nice, brown-caramel color. The swirling helps it from burning. Let cool for 15 minutes.
Whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl and set aside.
When butter is cooled mix 1 3/4 cup light brown sugar and browned butter with electric mixer until no lumps remain, about 30 seconds.
Add egg, yolk and vanilla and mix for another 30 seconds, until smooth.
Slowly add in your flour mixture and mix on medium-low until incorporated.
Combine remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup granulated sugar in a small bowl.
Roll cookie dough into balls and then roll in sugar mixture.
Place on lined baking sheet about 2 inches apart.
Bake approx 10-12 minutes or until edges begin to brown. Do not over-bake.
Transfer to wire rack to cool.

Frosting:
Combine brown sugar and butter in small saucepan over medium heat.
Bring to a boil and continue cooking 1 minute. Remove from heat and cool for 10 minutes. Mixture will slightly thicken.
With hand mixer beat in milk until smooth. Slowly add in powdered sugar until spreadable consistency. ( I used all 2 cups).
Spread approx 1 teaspoon on each cookie.



Chihuly's Glass Blowing Studio


Team Chihuly installs the exhibit at the Denver Botanic Gardens


Chihuly in the rain and at night

December Daily #14 ~ Decorating Cookies

It was a perfect day to decorate Christmas cookies. It seems that it was a good day to eat them, too.

I made the dough ahead of time, let it cool (and also firm up) in the fridge for a while. During that time I also made the frosting and gathered the sprinkles as well as the cookie cutters.

I also cut out and cooked a few batches so that the decorating fun can begin right away.

It was a good time. I followed it up with nice, warm bowls of beef, bacon and barely stew to offset the sugar crash that was coming. I am pretty sure that Kohlton ate nearly all of the cookies that he decorated. Remmie was happy to clean up the broken ones. I've included the recipes below. I've tested lots of recipes, and these are the best in my humble opinion.
-------------------------------
Sugar Cookie Recipe

2 1/2 cups butter (at room temperature)
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
seeds from 1 vanilla bean (or 3 tsp vanilla)
5 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

1. Cream the butter and sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer on low to medium speed. (Use the paddle attachment). Mix until thoroughly incorporated – for about one minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a plastic spatula and mix again for a few seconds more.

Over mixing the butter and sugar in this step will cause too much air to be incorporated into the dough. If you’d like a light and fluffy cookie, that’s ideal, however the dough will spread more during baking; not ideal if you’d like the cookie to hold its shape.

2. Add eggs slowly and mix. Scrape down the bowl with your spatula at least once and mix again.

3. Cut open your vanilla bean and scrape the seeds out. Add to mixing bowl. Alternatively, add liquid vanilla extract. Stir briefly.

4. Sift your dry ingredients together. (Flour, baking powder and salt).

5. Add all of the flour mixture to the bowl. Place a large tea towel or two small tea towels between the edge of the bowl and the electric mixer so that the flour won’t escape. Mix on low speed for 3o seconds. Remove the tea towels and observe the dough mixing; when it clumps around the paddle attachment it’s ready. It’s also important at this stage not to over mix the dough (the glutens in the flour develop and the dough can become tough).

6. Roll the dough out between 2 large pieces of parchment paper. Place on a baking sheet and into the fridge for a minimum of 1 hour.

7. Roll out the dough further if you need to, and cut out cookie shapes. Place on parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Re-roll scraps and repeat.

8. Put cookie dough shapes back into the fridge for 10 minutes to 1 hour to chill again. They will then hold their shape better when baked.

9. Preheat your oven to 350°F or 176°C.

10. Bake cookies for 8-12 minutes or until the edges become golden brown. The baking time will depend on the size of your cookie.

11. Let cookies cool to room temperature and decorate!

---------------

Royal Icing Using Egg Whites:
from: JoyofBaking.com

2 large egg whites
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
3 cups (330 grams) confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar, sifted

For Royal Icing with Egg Whites: In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the egg whites with the lemon juice. Add the sifted powdered sugar and beat on low speed until combined and smooth. The icing needs to be used immediately or transferred to an airtight container as royal icing hardens when exposed to air. Cover with plastic wrap when not in use.

--------------

Butter Cream Frosting
from:the Created By Diane Blog

1 cup butter
1 cup shortening
6 cups powdered sugar
2-4 Tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract. if you are making white frosting use clear vanilla.

Beat butter with mixer until pale and fluffy, add sugar and milk along with extract mix until smooth and creamy.

*If the weather is super hot, over 100 and I’m afraid the buttercream will be a mess, I sometimes use all shortening.

**If I want a very rich butter taste, I use all butter and no shortening.

*** for Chocolate Buttercream I use ½ to 1 cup of unsweetened cocoa in place of some powdered sugar.
--------------

Gingerbread Snowflakes
via: Martha Stewart

• 6 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 1 cup packed dark-brown sugar
• 4 teaspoons ground ginger
• 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon finely ground pepper
• 1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup unsulfured molasses
• Royal Icing
• Fine sanding sugar, for sprinkling
Directions
1. Sift together flour, baking soda, and baking powder into a large bowl. Set aside.
2. Put butter and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until fluffy. Mix in spices and salt, then eggs and molasses. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Divide dough into thirds; wrap each in plastic. Refrigerate until cold, about 1 hour.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out dough on a lightly floured work surface to a 1/4-inch thick. Cut into snowflakes with a 7- inch snowflake-shape cookie cutter. Space 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper, and refrigerate until firm, about 15 minutes.
4. Bake cookies until crisp but not dark, 12 to 14 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks.
5. Put icing in a pastry bag fitted with a small plain round tip (such as Ateco #7). Pipe designs on snowflakes; immediately sprinkle with sanding sugar. Let stand 5 minutes; tap off excess sugar. Let icing set completely at room temperature, about 1 hour.