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!

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!

fall cookies and a little how to

 

It's November! Which means Thanksgiving is coming and people are starting to think about the things they are grateful for. Mostly I just think about the fact that between now and the end of the year I have to prepare for 11 family birthdays, 2 major holidays, and an anniversary. Apparently we like making things difficult in our family... 2 of those birthdays are on Christmas Eve, one is on New Year's Eve, and my anniversary {for that matter my sister's too - theirs is the same day} is on or around Thanksgiving every year. But anyway. I'm going to force that out of my mind for the moment.

I've been getting more requests lately for some how-to's. I haven't really bothered with that up until now because there are so many extremely talented and popular cookie bloggers out there whom I feel have covered the how-to better than I ever could! But it occurs to me that - while I have learned a lot from them - everyone's style is a little different. Everyone has their own methods and what works for them. And now that my work situation has changed - I should actually have time for this! I will just have to learn to take more pictures as I do things. Half the time I forget to take pictures at all.

Today I just wanted to show a quick little trick I've used. Sometimes I want a shape that I don't have and I either don't have time to buy or just simply can't find. If I only plan to cut out a small handful off cookies I'll just make a template and cut around it with a knife. But in this case I didn't want to do that. So I made my own shape - out of an old shape I didn't want.

Ok so that's not the original shape - it was actually a large star. But I have a thousand start cutters for some reason so I deemed it ok for this one to go. I straightened it out a bit and undid the fasteners. Then I drew out the shape that I wanted {make sure the size is small enough that it won't need more metal than you are starting with!}:

and then used needle nose pliers to work it into the shape I wanted, while constantly setting it on top of my guide to make sure it was right.

When it was done I clipped of the excess with metal cutters, and used some super strong glue to set it - and then used a c-clamp while it set.

 

It looks all wonky from the top, but I'm not worried. I haven't tried it {yet!} but I imagine a home improvement store would have some sheet metal or something that could be cut and bent to the right shape. I definitely plan on experimenting with that, and will let you know when I do.

But in the meantime I'm happy with my shape.

So there you have it, my cookie cutter hack I guess you could say. 

Happy Fall everyone - as busy as this time of year is, it is definitely my favorite.