My friend James is as obsessed with robots as I am with monkeys. It’s kind of our thing. He’s robot. I’m monkey. We’re grown ass dudes and we’re cool with that. =) So the other day I got this idea for a tiny robot cookie and I am so pleased with how they turned out. Oh and they’re really easy to make so yay!
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Did you know that all snowflakes have 6 sides? I was gathering my cutters for today’s project when I realized I’d never noticed that before. I mean, I know the general shape but for some reason I thought that maybe some had 5 sides, others 8. Since every snowflake is different, I wondered, are there always 6 sides? I had to look this up.
Well, according to learner.org, “The oxygen atom has a particularly strong attraction to the electron clouds of the two hydrogen atoms and pulls them closer. This leaves the two hydrogen ends more positively charged, and the center of the “V” more negatively charged. When other water molecules “brush up” against this growing snowflake, strong forces between the negatively charged and positively charged parts of different particles cause them to join together in a very specific three-dimensional pattern with a six-sided symmetry. Each water molecule that joins the snowflake reflects this pattern until eventually we can see its macroscopic six-sided shape.” Science!!!
For today’s project I want to share with you an easy decorating technique to give your cookies a frosted look. Here is how to do it:
To make gingerbread dough, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater, mix together butter, brown sugar and molasses. Add spices, flour and baking soda and start mixing again on low. With the mixer on, add 2 tbsp of water and continue mixing until the dough comes together. Roll between 2 pieces of plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. In the meantime, preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.
Cut your cookies with snowflake cutters. The more shapes the better:
Bake for 12 minutes.
To decorate your cookies without getting sticky sugar all over the place, here is my set-up: cookies on a cooling rack over a baking sheet to catch any drips, corn syrup in a small bowl and white deco sugar in a large bowl:
Brush each cookie with a thin layer of corn syrup and immediately dunk them in the white sugar. Shake off the excess and set your cookie back on the cooling rack:
Let your cookies dry and enjoy!
Christmas music has been blasting at my house for over a week now and so far no one has cracked. Success! Today’s cookie project will have you singing your favorite holiday tunes as you decorate the tree: Christmas Carol Ornament Cookies!
To make your doughIn the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater, cream butter and sugar on medium speed until light in color and fluffy in texture. Add the egg and vanilla extract. Mix until combined. Add food coloring of your choosing and mix again. Add all the flour and mix on low speed until the dough comes together.
Roll out your dough between 2 pieces of plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. In the meantime, preheat your oven to 350°F:
I ended up making green and red dough for this project =)
Cut your cookies in seasonal shapes and place on a baking sheet:
Using a wooden skewer, poke a hole into each cookie:
To add carol lyrics to each cookie, I am using my trusted letter stamp set:
Here is a link to a set under $5: Cookie Letter Numbers Stamp Set
Press into some cookies and switch lyrics:
Bake for 12 minutes.
Once the cookies have baked and cooled, you can choose to add deco details with royal icing. I added some notes to echo the music theme. Once those have dried, use holiday thread to hang your cookies and you’re done!
Wanna get an awesome griddle just in time for the holidays? Well we’ve got you covered…
A few months ago I got this amazing griddle made by a company called Swiss Diamond (swissdiamond.us) and I am just crazy about it. I am pretty picky when it comes to non-sticks. See, during my days as a bakeware buyer, I tested every possible nonstick on the market: PTFE, silicone, ceramic, you name it. I would put these babies to the test: burnt cookies, melted sugar, dishwasher cycles and even chicken grease (fun fact: chicken grease is THE killer of nonstick coatings). So when my friend Mark started working at SwissDiamond, he knew I would love their line-up.
I started using my new griddle and I went easy at first. Pancakes and bacon, nothing crazy. But I was quite blown away by its coating so I started playing with it. I melted sugar for tatin-style pancakes, I grilled meats, I scorched veggies and still, it all wiped right off. I was sold.
So I could not be happier than to partner up with Swiss Diamond to give one of these amazing griddles to a lucky reader. In case you were wondering, that’s a $180 value!
All you have to do is fill out the app below to enter for a chance to win. The app doesn’t always show on tablets or phones so if you don’t see it, try with your regular computer and it should work. (Open to US residents only)
And because it’s the holidays, what better way to use your new griddle than with this simple recipe for Panettone French Toast!
If you’ve never had Panettone, you need to drop everything right now and go buy a loaf. Panettone is essentially an Italian brioche stubbed with dried fruit. Some fancy versions have chocolate chips or chestnuts but I grew up with the basic one so it still tastes best to me. Panettones can get expensive (up to $50!) but Trader Joe’s has a yummy one for $4.99. Gotta love Trader Joe’s.
Your first step is to slice it. Do so in thick horizontal slices. That way, each piece of French toast will be evenly cooked:
Then cut each slice into quarters:
In a shallow dish, crack open 5 eggs and about a cup of whole milk. I am not adding cream, sugar or extract like I normally would for traditional French toast because Panettone has enough flavor on its own:
Whisk it together with a fork and dip some of your slices. In the meantime, preheat your griddle on medium:
Panettone soaks up liquids very fast so flip your pieces after a minute. Melt a tablespoon of butter on your griddle. Once the butter has melted, place your pieces of soaked Panettone on the griddle:
Flip after a few minutes and cook until golden brown on both sides:
Christmas is all about giving so I had to make you a little something you could share with your loved one. Today’s free printable can hold all kinds of treats and makes a great addition to your stocking stuffer. Just print, cut, fold and glue.
First things first, here is the file:
Click here to download: Gingerbread Treat Box (975)
Print however many houses you’ll need. I used a thicker stock of paper. It made for a sturdier box:
Cut out the excess paper. Make sure to keep the extra white tab on the right side and cut into the flaps at the bottom so you can fold them later:
Start folding:
Flip it over and apply glue to the bottom flaps and that white side flap:
Bring it together:
Now fold the top like a milk carton. I found that holding it together with a paper clip overnight really helps:
All done!
Making sugars in shapes other than a cube makes me all kinds of happy and this Christmas edition is no exception. Sugars are so easy to make that I am always surprised by people’s reaction. What’s in them? How did you do it? What do you mean it’s just sugar? So here is how to make super cute Christmas sugars. Whether you want to share how easy they are to make is entirely up to you =)
I made 2 shapes: Gingerbread Men and Christmas Trees.
Let’s start with Gingerbread Men. Place about 2 cups of brown sugar into a small bowl. Add water 1 tsp at a time and mix until your sugar resembles wet sand:
Pour it onto your work surface and press it down with the palm of your hand to make an even layer about 1/4 inch thick:
Press a small gingerbread man cutter into the sugar mass. Don’t worry if it breaks around it, you can just press it back down:
Place your gingerbread men onto a baking sheet and place in a warm oven (about 150°F) for 15 minutes or so:
That’s it! They will dry into solid little sugars. You can add details later. For instance, I added dots of royal icing on mine to look like buttons.
Now on to the Christmas trees. Start with white sugar and a bit of green food coloring:
Continue mixing and adding water until the sugar looks like green wet sand:
Pour it onto your work surface and press down with the palm of your hand to create an even layer about 1/4 inch thick:
Use a small tree cutter to cut your sugar shapes:
Place your sugars on a baking sheet. You can choose to add some details to your trees. I had some silver pearls I wanted to try:
Place in your warm oven (about 150°F) for about 15 minutes to set.
All done!
Picking the perfect tree has got to be one the most fun activities leading up to Christmas. Well, at least for me =) See, being a total OCD kid, I would spend a fair chunk of time looking at every tree in the lot. No grab and go here. Proportions, fullness, height, I had a system. Looking back, my parents sure had a lot of patience with my quest for the perfect tree. Today’s cookie celebrates the joy of getting that perfect tree, strapping it onto the roof of your car and bringing it home. Here is how to make it:
I am using 2 kinds of cookie dough for this project: green vanilla for the trees and gingerbread for the cars.
To make green cookie dough, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater, cream butter and sugar on medium speed until light in color and fluffy in texture. Add the egg and vanilla extract. Mix until combined. Add green food coloring and mix again until combined. Add all the flour and mix on low speed until the dough comes together. Roll out your dough between 2 pieces of plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes:
To make gingerbread dough, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater, mix together butter, brown sugar and molasses. Add spices, flour and baking soda and start mixing again on low. With the mixer on, add 2 tbsp of water and continue mixing until the dough comes together. Roll between 2 pieces of plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. In the meantime, preheat your oven to 375 degrees F:
Because of the holidays, I always have gingerbread dough around but if you don’t feel like making 2 batches of dough, you can simply split your vanilla dough before adding the green color. Add food coloring and 1/2 cups of flour to one half in order to make vanilla dough. For the other half, add 1 1/4 cup of flour and 1/4cup of cocoa powder and you’ll have chocolate dough!
Here is how I figure out how to assemble 2 shapes into one: cutters, paper, pencil=):
Once I am happy with the shape on paper, I can make my cookies:
Cut tree cookies out of your green dough and place on a baking sheet. Cut cars out of gingerbread dough. Chop off the top part or each car with the same tree cutter you used earlier. Assemble the 2 shapes onto your baking sheet. Bake for 12 minutes.
To make royal icing, combine all 3 ingredients in the bowl of your mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Start on slow. When ingredients are combined, increase to high speed and mix for 7 minutes until light and fluffy.
To decorate the cookies, first tie up the tree to the car with thin lines and let those dry:
To add snow, first highlight the tree branches and car features with some royal icing. To give it a frosty look, while the icing is still wet, pour white sprinkle sugar over the cookie. The wet icing will catch the sugar:
Don’t worry about the excess sugar. Once the icing has set, you can easily brush it off.
The holidays are finally here!!! And what better way to start December than with gingerbread cookies? Today’s cookie project takes the classic gingerbread cookie to a whole new level. I’ve wanted to do a cookie train for awhile and finally found an easy way to put it together.
Here is how to make it:
To make the dough, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater, mix together butter, brown sugar and molasses:
Add spices, flour and baking soda and start mixing again on low:
With the mixer on, add 2 tbsp of water and continue mixing until the dough comes together. Roll it between 2 pieces of plastic wrap.
I used rolling pin spacer bands to get my dough as thin and as even as possible:
Place the dough in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to firm up. In the meantime, preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
To shape the cookies, I used plain locomotive and train car cutters and tweaked them to create a 3D effect. Here is how it works: Each train car is made of 5 cookies that are sandwiched together with royal icing. To create a 3D effect, each of the 5 cookies is modified just a tiny bit.
Let’s start with the train cars. First, cut 5 cookies using the same cutter and set them on your baking sheet (the pic only shows 4 but you’ll get the idea):
Next we are going to tweak the cookies to add a 3D effect. The 2 outermost cookies will need windows so cut those out using a tiny square cutter or a pairing knife. To shape the 3 other cookie layers, simply cut off the wheels:
To shape the locomotive, it’s a bit more tricky so I took a better pic =) Cut 5 cookies and set on another baking sheet. The center cookie is the easiest (on the far right). You just leave that one alone. For the other layer, you just cut out pieces like so:
Bake your cookies for 12 minutes or until completely set. You will want them crispy.
Here is how to assemble and decorate the locomotive using royal icing. First add the following details (no need to decorate the areas that will be sandwiched over):
Then add a bunch of frosting where the cookies will be sandwiched:
And stack together:
For the train cars, have fun with different designs. I used peppermint candies for the wheels:
And use royal icing to sandwich them together (oh yeah, avoid royal icing on the upper part of layer #2 or it will show through the window cut-outs):
Done!
It’s that time of year again. Trees are up, stores are crowded and many of us wonder what to get our fellow bakers for Christmas this year. There are a lot of habits I kept from my bakeware buyer days and one of them is to always look for what’s new and cool. So here is my top 10 list of gift ideas for bakers under $20.
This is NOT a sponsored post. I did not get paid by any of these guys. These are just tools I love =) Enjoy!
Finally an easy solution to blind bake your pie crust! No more hot beans spilling all over the place when you try to take them out of the crust. The soft sides hug whatever pie dish you want to choose and the bottom plate is nonstick. What’s not to love?
Chicago Metallic Ventilated Pie Weight
I use these all the time to print names or expressions directly into cookies. There are a lot of sets out there but I found a super affordable one (under $5):
Saying that this tool changed my life feels like an understatement =) So let’s try this instead: this attachment is THE first thing any KitchenAid mixer owner should get. Its soft silicone edges scrape the sides of the bowl as you mix so you don’t have to stop and use a spatula after each addition. Like a lot of popular tools, there are a lot of versions out there but here is a very affordable one:
Scrape-A-Bowl Blade for Kitchenaid
This tiny tool will save you a ton of time if you like stuffing your cupcakes with yummy filling. Just plunge, pull out and push the cupcake core out. Done! At under $5, that makes it a great stocking stuffer =)
I tried all kinds of oven mitts over the years and I’ve been stuck on these for 2 years now so I’m guessing I have a winner. They are thin but heatproof and the surface has a nonslip texture. Love ’em
I just DIED when I saw this tool. Just press the cutter into your dough and all the pieces are ready to bake. And it’s on sale for under $4!!!
Tiny Gingerbread House Cookie Cutter
These bowls are awesome if you use a stand mixer. They have a bunch of really cool features like a little channel that lines up with the edge of the mixer bowl to “lock it” into place and a comfortable handle that goes over your hand. They were developed by a really nice inventor I met years ago. He’d invented the bowls when he started losing his sight to be able to continue baking without spilling flour all over the place. Great story. Great product. Make sure to buy the original under his brand Pourfect and not a copycat =)
Pourfect Original Spill-Proof Bowls
A fantastic gift idea for kids. Just made a ball of dough and flatten it with this stamp.
My go-to rolling pin whether I am making cookies or pies. Guide rings screw on each side of the rolling pin to set a precise dough thickness. So easy.
Joseph Joseph Adjustable Rolling Pin
I must have tested every frosting tools over the years and this one is by far the best. This might sound surprising to many who know how much I love my basic piping bags but this one is a winner. So what makes it so cool? The main reason I love this frosting tool is that I can get the same amount of frosting with each squeeze of the trigger. Pick a tip shape, pull the trigger, and BAM! cupcake done and on to the next one! Other great feature: you can take it apart and place pieces in the dishwasher. Secret awesome feature: You get to hold it like a machine gun. Yes, I’m a dork but I got a loaded tool full of frosting and I’m not afraid to use it.
Nordic Ware Cupcake Frosting Decorator Press
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. A whole day dedicated to friends, family and food sounds just about right. I am never really sure what to eat leading up to the big dinner though. Should I have a big breakfast or eat as little as possible and save room? Should I have lunch? What time is dinner anyway? 2? 3? 4? No one’s ever sure. Whatever I choose, I always end us with a growling stomach for a few hours. I’m like a kid the night before Christmas. All this deliciousness just hours away… Today’s project is a cute way to sneak in a snack before dinner – Place Card Cookies! Here is how to make them:
To make the dough, in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater, cream butter and sugar on medium speed until light in color and fluffy in texture. Add the egg and vanilla extract. Mix until combined. Add all the flour and mix on low speed until the dough comes together. Roll out your dough between 2 pieces of plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. In the meantime, preheat your oven to 350°F.
To shape your cookies, start by cutting out large fluted circles:
I am using these:
Cuisipro Fluted Cookie Cutters Set of 5
Basic tiny cutters like this one will work just fine too:
To personalize each cookie, I am using my trusted letter cookie stamps:
Here is a super affordable set (under $5) if you don’t already own one:
Estone Biscuit Cookie Alphabet Stamp
Using a wooden skewer, poke a hole into each cookie:
Bake your cookies for 12 minutes or until the edges start to turn a light golden color.
To create the stained-glass effect in the acorn, in a microwave-proof glass measuring cup, mix 1/4 cup of corn syrup with 1/2 cup sugar. Microwave for 90 seconds:
Mix and add food coloring. Microwave for another 90 seconds:
Place your cookies on a silicone mat for easy release. Pour some of the melted sugar syrup into each cookie:
Let cool completely. If you live in a humid area (most likely this time of year), store your cookies in a single layer in an airtight container.
