catching up

Life is busy - as always - so I've been neglecting this site. Although if you follow me on Instagram you'll know I haven't stopped baking! But I am way behind on pictures. Some of these will look familiar to those who do follow my Instagram, but not everything. Since this is a picture heavy post just click on the link at the bottom to see all of the pictures.  Ok no more talking, here is a brief view of some of  what I've been up to over the last 3 months or so (I'm saving a couple of my absolute favorites for posts of their own).

conversation hearts - kid's edition

Valentine's Day is almost here and over a month ago I drew up lots of cookie ideas... and then never had a chance to actually make any. Matthew really wanted to make Valentines this year though, so I came up with a simple idea for him... conversation heart cookies!

 We cut out some heart and frosted them in red, and then I let Matthew pick out the sayings. Then with a black food marker he wrote out his Valentine messages (and I have to say, for a kid who only just turned 4 I think his handwriting is pretty good)!

Then he wrote out the names in his Valentines... he chose Avengers, of course! He is obsessed with the Avengers right now.

Lastly we sealed them in bags and stapled a cookie to the back of each card. So easy to do, and he is so proud that he did the work himself! And these could easily be adapted to something other than a cookie... pretty much anything the food pens will write on. Maybe I'll try chocolate next time!

So these may be the only Valentine cookies I get around to making this year, but I love them. So proud of my boy, maybe one of these days I'll be posting his own cookie designs!

And in case I don't get another post in...

Happy {early} Valentine's Day!

an early Valentine's Day party

 

Matthew has been begging to decorate cookies, so on Monday we invited a few friends over and had an early Valentine's Day cookie decorating party!

  

The kids had so much fun - we had icing and sprinkles to decorate with, and I also iced a few in advance so that the kids could use my food markers to draw pictures.

But of course my child was writing things on all of his cookies, he is so proud to be learning to spell! Here is his "Mommy Daddy Miles Matthew" cookie (complete with cheesy grin)...

There was lots of taste testing going on...

 

But the kids got the hang of it pretty quick, and they did such a good job!

 

And this little lady can certainly hold her own with the boys 

(which is fortunate, because just look at that face)!

 Love the cheesy grins!

The cookies turned out great, if a little over done in some cases.

 

 Wait, I think that one deserves a closeup...

According to Charlie, "Matthew told me that my cookie looks incredible!" 

Seriously, we had a lot of fun. Matthew absolutely loved it and keeps asking to do it again! Which we will, when I'm ready to combat that mess again.

And now for me to start on my own Valentine's cookies...

a christmas assortment

It's Christmas Eve! Well, the morning of anyway. Matthew could not be more excited... and actually I'm pretty excited too. This has been hard long and hard - but good - year. And I feel our Christmas this year is going to be our best yet. And thankfully I have my shopping done, Santa has his shopping done, and all of my cookies have been shipped or handed out. Tomorrow I clean house in preparation for family (and to try and get an early handle on what will surely be a tornado coming through our home Christmas morning)... and I can sit back. So happy about that.

I had so many cookies to show off this year, and I got a late start posting them, so I figured I would do a group post. This is a general assortment of the larger cookies I did... here is a favorite one of mine:

It's truly hard to capture the iridescent colors just right. The more I 

photograph the better I'll get though (in theory...). 

I had several people tell me the bells and big bows were their favorites. Truthfully, I only did one large bow cookie in the beginning, and it was only to cover up a somewhat failed experiment. (The bow cookie pictured above is that cookie!) But after a few comments I decided to make a few more, and I'm glad I did...

I might fit one more post in before Christmas is over... but in case I don't...

Merry Christmas everyone!

I can not believe Matthew in this picture... when did he stop being my 

toddler and turn in to such a kid...

twinkle lights

Christmas lights are beautiful, there's no denying it. But one of my absolute favorite things at Christmas time, ever since I was little, is twinkle lights. Technically I suppose they are C7 bulbs. Whatever. The best part is that they each blink independently... which means that on your tree you have different colored lights twinkling...

That's our tree this year... I always get a lot of comment on the lights. And every year it seems a little harder to find replacement bulbs, so maybe they are on their way out... but I certainly hope not. In any case, I've seen many people's interpretations of Christmas lights done in cookie form. Here is mine...

 And here is a closer look at number 4, because it's hard to see in such a small picture:

Step 5 is where these lights come to life... the base of the bulb was painted with gold lustre dust mixed with a little brown coloring to make a sort of bronze color (the black tip is also painted with this to make it metallic)

I did the bulbs a mixture of colors but for every one of them I used lustre dust (I always keep the white pearl color on hand because it can be mixed with any gel color!) to give them a little bit of a twinkle effect.

These are hands down my favorite cookies I did this Christmas. But how can you not love something that reminds you of Christmas as a kid?

homemade almond roca... or... just about the best stuff ever

 

 This stuff is... just the best. Seriously. It's like crack. I can't take credit for it, the recipe comes from my mother-in-law Karen. I've made one addition, but otherwise this is hers. I asked her a couple years ago if she wouldn't mind me sharing it, but I just never ended up having the time. 

Aside from the fact that it tastes amazing, the best part about this recipe is that it is EASY. SO EASY. I only make it around Christmas otherwise it would probably be the death of me. And everyone who comes over.

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Homemade Almond Roca

Ingredients

2 sticks (1 cup) salted butter

2 cups sugar

a splash (1 teaspoon? 2 teaspoons? whatever suits you) of vanilla

1 large Hershey's Symphony bar, broken into pieces

1 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips

chopped almonds

The directions are simple and pretty straight forward:

On medium-high heat, melt butter in a pot on the stove. 

When the butter is mostly melted add the sugar and vanilla.

Then you stir...and stir and stir. As it heats up it will change consistency and color 

(more on that below) but you keep stirring until it turns a nice toffee brown.

Pour into cookie pan with raised edges (in my pictures below I used parchment paper - this is not necessary, nor is buttering the pan - I only used parchment so that I could easily lift it from the pan before breaking it up). Immediately sprinkle symphony bar and chocolate chips. Use a spatula to spread chocolate around into an even layer.

Sprinkle chopped almonds on top. Then let it cool... which takes a while.

To break it up use a sharp knife (such as a steak or paring knife) like an ice pick and it will break in to small chunks.

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 The recipe is truly easy, but it helps to know a few things...

You'll start out with your butter (melted), sugar and vanilla.

A wooden spoon or a heat resistant spatula are good for stirring. Careful about the spatulas - if they aren't made for high heat then they will melt in this mixture!

As you stir, and as it heats up, it will change consistency and be sort of  cloudy and frothy. Just keep stirring. And make sure you are consistently scraping the sides, bottom, and corners of the pot. You really want to make sure all of that sugar stays incorporated. 

 It will stay frothy for a little while, but eventually you'll see the color start to change

 

 Keep stirring! It will start to turn a nice amber toffee color

At some point the frothy-ness dies out and it goes smoother

 You'll see in the picture the color I like to end it at.... you can cook it a little more or less depending on taste. Cook it longer and you'll have a much stronger flavor (too long and it can taste burnt, but you'll know if you went to far), and cook it less time and you'll have a lighter flavor.

Also, like I said, there is no need for parchment paper underneath. However if you'd feel better breaking up the candy on a cutting board then parchment is a good idea because it allows you to move it. 

When you pour the candy out - just give the pan a good shake to spread it around. Sometimes I'll use a spatula, but just make sure it's one that can withstand high heat... the cheaper ones will melt with how hot this gets!

When it's time for the chocolate, don't feel you need to pre-melt it. The candy will be so hot that it will do all of your melting for you.

I usually try to get a nice even layer and spread it right up to the edges. 

As you spread, bear in mind the chocolate will never be 100% smooth because the Symphony bar has chopped almonds and toffee in it already.

 

After you sprinkle your almonds (as you can see I prefer them chopped extremely fine), press them down with your hand a little to make sure they stick.

 

This last part is great if you need to get some aggression out! Just use the tip of a sharp knife to break it up, ice pick style.

And there you have it! I do have two more side notes though...

1. If you leave this out, uncovered, overnight it will change consistently slightly. Personally, I prefer to do it that way... it makes the crunch of it slightly less tooth shattering. 

2. The first time I made this I was a little horrified at the thought of cleaning the pot. The leftover candy coats the sides and is rock solid. As it turns out though, fill it with super hot water and within a few minutes it will all be dissolved. Easy peasey.

I hope you enjoy this - it is seriously the best stuff ever! And it's hands down the number 2 (after my cookies, of course!) thing people request from me!

snowy christmas trees

One of the first sets of cookies I ever decorated were Christmas cookies. I did a set of Christmas trees and even then I knew they weren't exactly great. I'm pretty sure I was over thinking the design. I felt like I had to think of some fancy design which of course means my mind went completely blank... what I have learned about myself since then is that that sort of thing is just not my style. Decorating cookies is just so much more fun when you are happy with your design!

Because of that first set I've shied away from trees ever since. This year I had to give them another try, and I'm much happier with the result. Simple, and they remind me of snowy Christmases in New Hampshire. I always feel the need to add some slight variety in but, instead of over complicating it this time I just chose a variety of tree shapes and did the same design on each...

As you can see there is a break between each layer of tree. If you let the icing dry a few minutes in between, you'll end up with that small ridge. I like the layered effect it gives the trees.

The snow was done with white icing, and then dusted with regular sugar. I used regular baking sure instead of decorative sugar because, at least to me, it gives the snow a slightly more powdery look. Decorative sugar is just too grainy looking in my opinion.  

This is the sort of feel I hoped to achieve...

not sure if I did, but I'm happy.  

And on another note, I get people asking me about deep colors in the icing. As Christmas colors are particularly difficult ones to mix (red and dark green) I thought I'd talk a little about that! I'd like to do a post just about that sometime, but until then I'll say this: mix them ahead of time. If you mix red with the intention of  using it immediately, you will have to use practically an entire bottle of color. If you mix it with the intention of using it tomorrow or the day after, you can make a sort of salmon-y pink color and then just let it sit and it will deepen over time. This goes for all colors especially reds, greens, and blues. Black of course is the same, but if you want a decent black that actually tastes good then there is only one answer: CHOCOLATE. I never - ever - make black icing that isn't chocolate. But more on that another time.

More to come tomorrow!

holly

Well, Christmas is almost here... and I've been making cookies like crazy. Now that I'm finally finished, and everything has been shipped, I actually have a chance to put some pictures up! Props to all those bloggers out there that gets posts out on a regular basis while still having a life. I haven't figured that one out yet. 

I didn't get to do Christmas cookies last year... thanks to Miles being due December 28th, making cookies was the last thing on my mind (and thanks to my vanilla aversion, it was the last thing I wanted to be near!) He tried to thwart me again this year, but I managed. 

 That kid right there is a troublemaker. Don't be fooled by those chipmunk cheeks and innocent blue eyes... if you turn your back for even a second he will find a way to simultaneously empty the garbage on the floor and pull all of the clean clothes out of the dryer. Well his newest discovery is my cabinet where I keep cookies cutters. Guess who walked in to a kitchen blanketed in those things! Let me tell you, stepping on a cookie cutter is about equal to stepping on a lego. Oh yah, and he dumped the legos on the floor, too. 

But despite my sweet helper, I managed quite a few cookies this year. In fact, I may even have enough to post one design each day until Christmas! I did several large and small designs. The chocolate cookies are all small, about an inch-ish long. For a look at my process, here it is...

I hope you enjoyed these, and I have many more to show! 

A few good - no, great -recipes as well!