Tag Archives: baking

Volkswagen Cookies

14 Jun
Volkswagen Cookies

Volkswagen Cookies

If you’ve been following the blog, I recently had some Royal Icing (RI) posts up. I wanted to share the cookie set those How-to’s came out of. I love this set. Blue and yellow has always been one of my favorite color schemes.

Details

Details

Cookies Details

Cookies Details

Hand made card

Hand made card

 

inside of handmade card

inside of handmade card

 

All ready to go

All ready to go

Business card details

Business card details

 

Royal Icing

2 May

Practice makes…well…better. When it comes to cookie decorating I don’t think I will ever reach perfect but I can try to get better with Royal Icing. Tried a new recipe today and added vodka for a little bit faster drying time.I think it was a success.

5 egg whites* (you can use pasteurized egg whites too)

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

2 teaspoons clear vanilla extract* (you can substitute a different flavor here)

2 pounds powdered sugar

Gel food coloring

Vodka/ water for thinning

  • Mix powdered sugar and cream of tartar on the stir speed with a electric mixer
  • stir in egg whites on low speed
  • add flavoring * I used vanilla
  • add more sugar if needed
  • when you pull your beater

Use water and vodka to thin the icing to correct consistency for decorating as needed

animal parade

animal parade

Pancakes

25 Apr

My daughter asked for pancakes this morning so thought I would share the recipe I use. Homemade pancakes are worth the little bit extra work and you probably have everything you need in the pantry. From personal experience make sure you use the proper amount of baking powder, otherwise you’ll have some very flat and chewy pancakes! I never have buttermilk and not to keen on the idea of sour milk, so I just use regular ol’ milk and added vanilla extract, because vanilla makes everything better.

Pancakes

(adapted form Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook 15th Edition Buttermilk Pancakes)

1 3/4 cup flour

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups milk

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

 

 

In a bowl mix together all the dry ingredients by hand. Flour, sugar, baking powder and salt

In a separate bowl combine all wet ingredients, then slow pour and mix  the wet ingredients into the flour mixture

Mix by hand until flour mixture is evenly moistened, the batter should be slightly lumpy

in a hot buttered skillet pour 1/4 cup batter

cook over low medium heat for around 1-2 minutes per side *you know the first side is done when the exposed side is bubbly

Pancakes

Pancakes

Mother-In-Law’s Oatmeal Cookies

23 Apr

My mother-in-law makes amazing oatmeal cookies and serves them up warm at breakfast time. This is a recipe she had made for her boys when they were little. I love it because there’s not a lot of flour in them, they are mostly oats.

Mother-In-Law’s Oatmeal Cookies

3/4 butter, softened

1 egg

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 cups oats

1 cup raisins

  • preheat oven 350 degrees
  • in a small pot boil 1 1/2 cups water, when it comes to a boil turn off the burner and dump in the raisins, let the raisins soak in hot water
  • in a bowl mix flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon and set to the side
  • beat egg, butter, sugars until combined
  • mix in flour mixture
  • add oats and mix by hand
  • drain raisins and add to cookie dough, mixing by hand
  • drop spoonfuls of dough onto greased cookie sheets
  • bake for  approximately 12 minutes
  • cool on racks

Walnuts or chocolate chips also make good additions to this recipe.

Mother-In-Law's Oatmeal Cookies

Mother-In-Law's Oatmeal Cookies

How-to: Make cut-out cookies without a cookie cutter

20 Apr

Here is a really simple solution to cut-out cookies if you don’t have or can’t find the proper cutter. I made these for some Game of Thrones cookies. I wanted to put the different House’s sigils from the books by George R R Martin and show on to banners and shields, similar to what a knight might carry. Of course I didn’t have any cutters to fit what I wanted, I did a quick search for images on Google for shields and free handed the banner.

What you need:

  • Thin cardboard (I used soda box, it was thin and easy to cut)
  • Scissors
  • Marker
  • printed out images* (you can free hand your shape or print an image from your computer)
What you need

Supplies

Super Simple Steps

  1. Print your image and trace or freehand shape onto cardboard
  2. cut your shape from cardboard
  3. roll out your chilled cookie dough onto a floured surface
  4. place cardboard cut-out onto cookie dough and run a sharp knife through the dough
  5. place cookie on parchment covered cookie sheet and bake
trace your shape

Trace your shape

finished stencils

Finished stencils

cut the cookie

Cut your cookie with a sharp knife

finished cookies

Baked Cookies

Helpful Tips

  1. Cold Cookie dough:  You’ll be handling the dough more using this method if it becomes tacky throw it back in the fridge for a little while.
  2. A little extra flour: Use flour liberally since you’ll be holding the stencil on the cookie dough its more likely to stick to the surface

For more info on The Game of Thrones check out HBO for TV series info or Tower of the Hand for all sorts of info

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