Dessert

Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies – Day 5

Christmas baking wouldn’t be complete without a batch of these cute Gingerbread Men. They are fragrant with ground ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves; the amount of which can be adjusted to suit your own individual taste. Decorate them traditionally with icing eyes, smiles, wiggly lines around the arms and legs and buttons or use red hot buttons, raisins, sprinkles. Let your imagination run wild!

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Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies – Day 4

Whoopie Pies are so popular and you can make them festive to match the season just by adding some crushed candy canes to the marshmallow filling. They are then transformed into a Christmas cookie before your eyes. The magic of Christmas, a Peppermint Whoopie Pie! The filling is dyed pink or green to match the color of the candy canes and the crunch as another layer of delight. Now we are talkin’ a kid friendly way to make whoopie!

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Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies – Day 3

Here is Southern California we just don’t get the snow so we have to create our own winter wonderland. We do it with decorations of sparkling lights and these little cookies help to make our winter fantasy complete.

Snowflake Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Royal Icing, recipe follows
Garnish: silver dragees, sugar pearls, sparkling sugar

Directions:

In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until fluffy. Beat in eggs, vanilla and almond extract until combined.
In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Gradually add to sugar mixture, beating until smooth. Wrap dough in heavy-duty plastic wrap, and refrigerate 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut with assorted snowflake cookie cutters and place 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Chill dough 15 minutes. Bake for 10 minutes, or until edges are very lightly browned. Let cool for 2 minutes on baking sheet. Remove from pans and cool completely on wire racks.

Frost cookies with Royal Icing. Garnish with silver dragees, sugar pearls and sparkling sugar, if desired. Let cookies dry for several hours so icing can harden.

Royal Icing:

1/4 cup cold water
3 tablespoons Wilton meringue powder
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
Food coloring, optional

Directions:

In a medium bowl, combine water and meringue powder; whisk until foamy. Whisk in confectioners’ sugar until smooth. Add food coloring, if desired. Use immediately and keep covered because royal icing hardens as it dries.

Snowflake Cookie Cutters

Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies – Day 2

Praline Pecan Cookies

Ingredients:

Pralines Ingredients:

3/4 cup sugar
4 tablespoons water
2 tbs corn syrup
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup toasted pecans, finely chopped, plus 2 tablespoons for sprinkling

Cookie Ingredients:

1 cup butter, at room temperature
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
4 ounces bittersweet or dark chocolate

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Praline:
In a heavy sauce pan add sugar, corn syrup, water and salt and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until sugar is dissolved.

Raise heat to medium and continue to cook, stirring constantly, until mixture boils. Reduce heat and continue cooking to soft ball stage*, about 234° on a candy thermometer.

Remove from heat and stir in 1 cup pecans. It is important to remove the saucepan from the heat just as the sugar begins to darken to an amber color.

Carefully pour the hot mixture onto a parchment lined sheet tray. Let cool until completely firm.

Transfer to a plastic bag, crush with a rolling pin, and reserve for the cookie dough.

Cookies:
In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugars together with a hand mixer.

Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla extract and beat until combined.
Stir in the flour and baking soda and mix until incorporated.

Fold in the reserved crushed praline until combined.

Drop 1 tablespoon or a small ice cream scoop of the dough onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Bake for 13 to 15 minutes or until the edges are slightly browned.

While the cookies are baking, melt the chocolate in a double boiler and stir until smooth.

When the cookies are done, drizzle the melted chocolate over the cookies and sprinkle with the chopped pecans. You can dip the tines of a fork into the chocolate and drizzle or you can use a pastry bag with a fine tip.

*To Test for Soft Ball Stage A small amount of syrup dropped into chilled water forms a ball, but flattens when picked up with fingers (234° to 240°).

Twelve Days of Christmas Cookies – Day 1

One of the really great things about Christmas is all the pleasures you get to share with others. Who wouldn’t love a chocolaty, gooey little morsel as a pick me up while putting up the Christmas decorations. You’ll be their little cookie angel.

By rolling the dough balls in plain sugar first, the confections’ sugar does not soak in so much and stays on the surface better. Corn syrup in the dough helps prevent crystallization to produce the soft chocolate center. Oil greases flour proteins to produce a tender, to the point of gooey, chocolate center. When you bite in, they’re crisp on the surface and gooey and doughy inside.

Ingredients:

Makes 3 to 5 dozen, depending on size

1 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8.2 oz) spooned and leveled unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
2 3/4 cups (19.3 oz) sugar, divided, set 1/4 cup aside to roll cookie in
1/3 cup canola oil
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
2 large eggs (3.5 oz)
1 large egg yolk (0.65 oz)

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 cup (4 oz) confectioner (powdered) sugar

Directions:

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt, and set aside.

Chop chocolate with a serrated knife into fine pieces. Melt the chocolate in the microwave on 50 percent power for 1 minute, stir, and microwave for 15 seconds more and stir.

In a mixer with the paddle attachment, beat together 2 1/2 cups (17.5 oz) of the sugar, the oil, and corn syrup to blend. Beat in the eggs, egg yolk and vanilla. Then on low, beat in the melted chocolate. Add the flour mixture and beat in on low speed.

Wrap the dough in plastic to form a log and refrigerate for 1 hour or until firm enough to roll into balls.

About 30 minutes before you are ready to bake, arrange a shelf in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line a baking sheet parchment paper.

Take out about one-quarter of the dough at a time to shape. Roll the dough into 1 1/2 to 2-inch balls. If dough is softer keep in refrigerator between roll balls, if firmer leave out and roll balls. Pour the remaining 1/4 cup (1.8 oz) granulated sugar into one bowl and the confectioners’ sugar in another bowl. Roll each cookie dough ball lightly in granulated sugar first, then very heavily in confectioners’ sugar. (By rolling in plain sugar first, the confectioners’ sugar does not soak in so much and stays on the surface better.)

Arrange cookies 2 inches apart on the parchment paper. For crisp cookies, bake 12 to 14 minutes. You can have several sheets with cookies ready but keep them chilled in the refrigerator.

Allow the cookies to cool for 2 minutes, then remove to a rack to cool completely.

In Love with Butter Cream!

I was shocked! I am still amazed! I’m not much of a sweet eater and so have never been a fan of frosting. Now I realize that I am not a fan of cheap, sugary, granular frosting made with shortening substituted for butter……. but I am wild about Swiss Butter Cream frosting! It is so light, not sweet, almost a silky feeling on your tongue. I can’t find words to describe how wonderful it is so I will share the method to make it so you can have the experience yourself!

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Don’t Abuse the Scones!

Scones are among the pastry family’s most frequently abused members. The average scone is a dense, dry, powdery affair, with only a few sad little currents to relieve the monotony—unless, of course, you slather it, English style with clotted cream and Strawberry Preserves, which should make anything taste good. Scone is a Scottish word derived from the Middle English schoonbrood, meaning schoon (pure, clean) and brood ( bread).

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