On a side note; one accomplishment we did make this year was exploring child modeling. Because of all this baking and posting pictures; Joey ended up being a poster child for PeaceCycle - an organization in Haiti that makes bags, aprons, clutches among other things from water bags that are littered all over the country. www.peacecycle.com Because they are using a picture of Joey in a peacycycle apron, we toyed with the idea of Joey being a model for advertising. The problem is that he doesn't warm up to people all that quickly and can be a little temperamental with the camera - so in other words, a typical model.
With all my baking this month, all I can say is I'm sure glad for Norwex. It makes cleaning up powdered sugar messes, frosting disasters, and rising dough (into the holes of my mixer) so much easier.
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| Can you match the cookie to the descriptions below? #220 was talked about in the last blog (the ones in the lower left hand corner) |
#221 Frosted Snowman
A fun three ball snowman. Not as tricky to make as you would think. Just roll three different sized balls from the dough and place next to each other on the cookie sheet - and voila! they bake together. The decorating was the time consuming part.
#222 Dipped Pecan Spritz
These were a big hit this hear. So many people told me how much they love Spritz cookies. I had never heard of Spritz until I started this project. Thank goodness for the cookie press. Basically ground pecans mixed in with the dough (thank goodness for the food processor) - bake and dip in white chocolate or regular chocolate.
#223 Fruitcake cookies
Just like fruitcake, nobody wants this cookie. These have a little bit of everything: oatmeal, coconut, dates, red and green cherries, and pineapple. A little out there.
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#224 Pinwheels and Checkerboards
This was the cookie exchange cookie - 10 dozen of this complicated cookie - but I get two kinds of cookies from one dough - just requires separating the dough into four different sections and dying them different colors. If you're interested - check out the recipe below - they're beautiful, but I felt pretty plain as far as taste goes.
1 1/4 cups butter, softened 1 tsp baking powder
1 cup brown sugar 1 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar 1/4 tsp baking soda
2 eggs Red and green food coloring
1/4 tsp vanilla 1 square (1 oz) unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
4 cups flour
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well.
Divide dough into fourths. Tint one portion red and one portions green. Stir chocolate into another portion. Wrap chocolate and plain portions in plastic wrap; chill for 1 hour or until easy to handle.
For pinwheel cookies, divide red and green portions in half. Roll our each portion between waxed paper into a 9-in. x 6-in. rectangle. Refrigerate for 30 min.
Remove waxed paper. Place one green rectangle over a red rectangle. Roll up tightly jelly-roll style, starting with a long side; wrap in plastic wrap Repeat. Refrigerate for 2 hours or until firm. For checkerboard cookies, divide plain and chocolate portions in half. Roll our each portion between waxed paper into a 6-in x 4-in rectangle. Cut each rectangle lengthwise into eight 1/2 inch strips.
Now this is where it got tricky for me - stack the strips into groups of four (so choc, white, choc, white - do that eight times so that you have 8 stacks of choc, white, choc, white). Now take four of the stacks and put them together alternating chocolate and vanilla on top - now repeat with the other four stacks. Press it together gently. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least two hours.
Unwrap and cut pinwheel and checkerboard dough into 1/4 in slices. Place 1 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 375 for 9-11 minutes or until set. Remove to wire racks to cool completely.
#225 Danish Crispies
Perfect timing for the Star Wars movie - these look like Princess Leia's hair. I felt like a regular baker with these cookies. They looked like decadent cinnamon rolls.
#226 Frosted Ginger Creams
This is another one of those cookies that I feel I've already made. A soft ginger cookie with cream cheese frosting on it.
#227 Jam Filled Wreaths
Very pretty cookie with raspberry jam poking through. I went to 4 different stores to find a simple circle cookie cutter - you would think during the holidays I could easily find cookie cutters - not the case. If you're ever looking for cookie cutters - go to Michael's first.
#228 Apricot Cheese Crescents
I thought this was going to be a disaster (and disgusting). The outer layer is made from butter, flour and cottage cheese. Yep - cottage cheese. Then you roll all the crumbly dough into 1 inch balls - I just made my balls whatever would stick and stay together. Then the next day you take these balls and roll them into circles - fill it with apricots (that I cooked down), press the ends together and decorate with pecans and sugar. The first few were awful to put together, they just crumbled when I tried to roll them out (the trick, flatten it with your hand) - but some of them actually look like the crescent it's supposed to - and they taste good.
#229 Evergreen Sandwich Trees
Another multi-step, lots of work cookie - but very good. Christmas trees (that are like pie crust) filled with green frosting and a green glaze - very good.
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| Cookies for Santa |
