Thursday, December 22, 2011

Sweet Tooth Fairy

sugarcookie

Each Season the Sweet Tooth Fairy comes out with a new design for their amazing sugar cookies. This one is my favorite so far. (they Always use the same recipe, just change up the look per season/holiday) and once again these sugar cookies are soooooooooooooooooooooooo good, especially if you like Soft cookies

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Pink Hair




Pink hair! yeay! I like this so much better than being blonde(:

Monday, November 21, 2011

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Play Dough Cookies




So as I've mentioned before, I'm on the hunt for the perfect sugar cookie recipe. There are sugar cookies that taste really good and then there are sugar cookies that hold their shape really well. I want one that does BOTH. I know that both Bakingdom and DorieGreenspans recipes taste good but don't have the most perfect shape. (Greenspan's being the worst when it comes to shape.) AnnieEats and thedecoratedcookieblog cookies look way good but aren't sweet enough. I really liked the Bakeat350 sugar cookie recipe. It tasted really good and held its shape excellently, however it didn't taste as good as Sugarbelle's recipe. downfall with Sugarbelle's recipe, is it doesn't hold its shape very well. So tonight I wanted to make sugar cookies with the kids. Ive seen on several blogs the idea of coloring several chunks of sugar cookie dough with several different food colors and letting the kids create cookie sculptures /creations and then baking them. (Like play dough you can eat.) SO I though this would be so so fun for them. I wanted to use THIS recipe from the blog site that originally gave out this fun cookie play dough idea, however the recipe was the same as Annie-eats recipe and I already know that recipe isn't sweet enough. But (after making these cookie sculptures) I later emailed the blog writer about her recipe and apparently she had forgot to include 1/2 cup sugar in her posted recipe. so next time I'll for sure try her recipe. So anyway, before i was aware of the bloggers mistake, I at last second decided to give Sugarbelle's recipe one last shot because i was in the mood for a good tasting sugar cookie, and so far taste-wise her recipe tops the charts. (and by the way, every kid cares way more about taste than presentation. I really didn't want to hear the words "yuck or gross") The cookie play dough activity was a blast. Caleb's little friend Oliver was over and they both had so much fun, both making the dough and making their cookie creations. We made brooms, witch hats, wands, harry potter, a castle , etc... The cookie creations looked way cute before they went in the oven but they came out looking, mmm basically they spread out way too much upon baking. But... of course they tasted super good, and the kids didn't notice the spreading. To them, their creations looked perfect. Except they did notice the hats - or should i say the hats that no longer were. They at 1st were 3-d hats and then after baked, they were just round circles. But like I said, all and all the kids had a blast and the cookies were super yummy. I study recipes a lot and There are 5 recipes I have a strong feeling about that are going to be perfect in both taste and stability. 1st one: Iambaker, 2nd: IDmommy, 3rd: youngidealisticbaker, 4th: PeggyPorschen, and 5th: Cookiecraft. None of these recipes (except Iambaker) call for leavening agents (like baking powder) and leavening agents can cause spreading. I'll for sure be doing this with the kids again but next time with a sturdier recipe (probably IDmommys recipe.) After making the cookie sculptures, I had some leftover Sugarbelle cookie dough that I used to roll out and I made a few Christmas cookies with my new Christmas Wilton cookie cutters. And these turned out super cute. And then I iced them with royal icing. So pretty!! I still really LOVE Sugarbelle's recipe. Taste wise I honestly don't think I'll ever find better, and it does work decently enough as a cut-out cookie. But as a cookie sculptor, not so well.

Oh and no way will I EVER use THIS recipe. So don't suggest it. Cream cheese in my sugar cookie? no thank you!

One last thing: I'm not blasting any of the recipes I listed above. They're all really great recipes, that's why Ive even bothered mentioning them. I'm just saying what does and doesn't work for me or what I'm in the mood for at the moment. Recipes also just depend on personal preference. Like if you care more about taste, or more about presentation, or if your like me and have to have both. Recipes also depend on the situation: are the cookies for kids or adults, will they even be eaten or are they just for decor? Do they have to be shipped somewhere, so is stability a huge factor. It also depends a lot on your oven or the altitude of the state you live in. There are a lot of factors that go into baking and what makes a good recipe, so nothings personal here.

Friday, November 11, 2011

Sweet Tooth Fairy

I REALLY REALLY do love their sugar cookies. Not the small ones, just the big ones. they're more soft (and doughy). I can tell they dont use sour cream or cream cheese in their cookie dough which will make or break a cookie. Kneaders puts sour cream in their cookies and thats why theyre a no go. If you cant pull off a soft cookie without having to add sc or cc, your a sorry excuse for a baker. And the biggest plus about Sweet tooth fairy sugar cookies, is theyre awesome frosting (which i totally think has cream cheese in it). but with frosting, cream cheese is a positive. (The Giant pumpkin cookie pictured above is their latest sugar cookie design... so amazing) Note: Sour cream/cream cheese in cookies leads to cardboardy texture (thats how u can tell)

Monday, November 7, 2011

Pink Cookies

pink cookiesPink Cookies
Same recipe as blue cookies. I Just used pink food coloring instead of blue. And this time no M&Ms. Just white vanilla chips. And these cookies tasted better than the blue and purple cookies (blue cookies and purple cookies are exact same recipe) I honestly don't like chocolate (m&ms) all that much, so that's probably why I'd rather these without the m&ms. AND I LOVE white vanilla chips. FYI: white vanilla chips (otherwise known as: white chocolate chips) are not made of chocolate at all.

actually here's the exact recipe, since its now slightly different than it used to be:

Pink Cookies
1/2 c crisco
1/2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1 t vanilla
1/4 c brown sugar
1/2 c granulated sugar
1/4 c instant white chocolate flavored jello powder
1 reg or large egg (don't use extra large)
1.5 c flour
pink or blue food coloring (just a few drops)
1 cup white chips
Rainbow chip Frosting

beat crisco w/ sugars and jello till creamy. Beat in baking powder, salt, and vanilla. Beat in Egg till thouroughly combined. Gradualy beat in flour. Beat in food color. Mix in white chips. Drop by rounded tablesoons. Bake 6-7 min at 350. Remove from cookie sheet immediately. Transfer cookies to plate and Immediately cool in freezer. Once frozen (1 hour), place cookies in ziplock and store in freezer. Serve straight from freezer, topped w/ Rainbow Chip Frosting!


You want DOUGhY ish cookies??? Then you have to take them out at 6-7 min. At 6-7 min, they wont look done, but THEY ARE. Trust me, Anytime ive ever hesitated and left them in Longer, Ive ruined a batch of cookies. way too sad. I finally stopped doing that! These cookies are meant to be the doughy-like cookies. if u want them to not be doughy, and therefore chose to bake them longer, they will be hard little rocks. so ya, if you are wanting a crispy cookie, don't use my recipes. the ingredient ratios arent set up for crispy cookies.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Favorite sugar cookie recipe?

Hey Bloggers or web browzerers... i need you all to do me a huge favor if you can. Can you please email or comment to me your favorite sugar cookie recipe or a link to your favorite sugar cookie recipe. its really important to me to find out the very best one EVER. And if you send me your recipe (or link to your fav recipe) i'll make the cookies right away and then comment back to you and let you know what i thought of them. THANKYOU bunches!!! email me at anh5556@gmail.com or comment on this post
https://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dfgh3wxb_30hb9m6tdf&pli=1

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Purple M&M Cookies



The last 2 cookies I made (the m&m bars and the chewy butter cookies) were both good, however nothing is as good as my blue m&m cookies. Blue m&m cookies and the mini chip roll out cookies are my 2 most favorite cookie recipes. So theyre always what I want the very most and I usually have some frozen so that theyre available at all times. Howver I ran out of both a while ago so last night I had to make some more blue m&m cookies but this time I made purple m&m cookies. Same recipe, just purple instead of blue. Thought I would make purple instead of blue since its almost halloween. And I couldnt possibly make the cookies orange or black. Those 2 colors and yellow and brown are all my very least favorite colors.

Purple m&m cookies
(same recipe as blue m&m cookies, except substitute purple food coloring for blue food coloring)
Click HERE for recipe.




Self-raising flour

Self-raising flour


215 g (2 1/2 cup) all-purpose flour (plain flour)
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp fine salt


Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Funfetti Gooey Butter Cookies



FUNFETTI GOOEY BUTTER COOKIES
(adapted from HERE and HERE)

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup Crisco
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 (8oz) pkg cream cheese
1 Funfetti cake mix
2 cups mini vanilla chips
powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350. In large mixing bowl, beat butter and cream cheese until creamy. Add egg and vanilla, beat well. Gradually beat in cake mix. Add and Mix in mini chips on low speed just till combined. Cover and refrigerate 2 hrs. Roll dough into Tablespoon sized balls and then roll them in the powdered sugar. Bake 10 min at 350.

Monday, October 24, 2011

m&m sugar cookie bars



M&M SUGAR COOKIE BARS
original recipe: click HERE

Ingredients:
1 stick butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
3/4 tsp. vanilla extract
1.5 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
M&Ms

Directions;
1- Preheat the oven to 350.
2- Melt the butter in a large mixing bowl. Stir in the sugar.
3- Once it's slightly cooled (about 3 minutes) beat in the egg and vanilla.
4- In a separate bowl combine the flour and baking powder. Stir this into the wet mixture.
5- Pour into a greased 8x5 baking dish (or similar size). Bake for approximately 15 minutes.
6- Pull out of the oven and top with M&Ms, gently pressing them into the dough.
7- Return to the oven and bake for an additional 10-12 minutes, or until the top is set and the cookies don't wiggle when you shake the pan. They should still be white with barely golden edges.
8- Cool completely in the pan before slicing. Yields 8 cookie bars.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Mini Chip Cut-out Cookies

PHOTO SOURCE: CREATEDBYDIANE

This is officially my new favorite cookie recipe EVER. Of all cookies I've ever made or tried. And I've tried a lot. So that's to say a lot. History behind this cookie: when I was little, we had a Mrs fields cookie shop at our mall and every time I went there, I had to get a cookie monster cookie. They were soooo good. They were thick cut-out cookie monster cookies with tons of bright blue butter cream frosting. But it wasn't a frosted "sugar" cookie, it was a frosted chocolate chip cut out cookie. And I remember always thinking that that was so cool. Yet at the time, It never even crossed my mind that I could one day make my own cookie just like it. I was way too young. The only thing I knew how to bake was nestle toll house original chocolate chip cookies that always came out super flat and gross, but even that was a huge accomplishment for me. The Internet was also a new thing at that time. We had one computer and It ran super slow and wasn't even worth taking the time to use it. Blogger sites didn't yet exist and so it wasn't as easy to research recipes or get blogger inspiration. But through the years, Ive always remembered my cookie monster cookie and then when I saw a recipe for mini chip cut out cookies on both nestles site as well as sugarbelles site, I knew It was possible to replicate my favorite long lost cookie. BTW: Ive looked online to see if Mrs fields still makes those same cookie monster cookies and they don't): But If I ever find a picture of one, I'll for sure post it. One blogger actually happened to make some cookie monster mini chip cut out cookies. HERE'S the link. (that's her photo I have posted above) I wonder if she used to buy them too when she was young(: So tonight I didn't actually make mini chip cookie monster cutouts, instead I made mini chip "heart" cutouts. I don't have a cookie monster cookie cutter yet, but as soon as I get one... Regardless, this was the same concept, same taste, and honestly this is the best cookie Ive ever had. Not just because of my childhood memory, but holy shiz! this is a really good recipe!



Mini Chip Cut-out Cookies
(adapted from THIS recipe)
(or adapted from THIS recipe)

1 cup butter (unsalted)
1 c powdered sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup white mini chips
1 cup milk chocolate mini chips

Cream together the butter and sugars. To that add the vanilla, salt, and egg yolk. Add flour one cup at a time until completely incorporated. Then, BY HAND or on low speed w/ mixer, fold in the mini chips.

*MEANWHILE, PREHEAT YOUR OVEN TO 350°*

While you wait for the oven to warm, wrap your dough in plastic wrap and chill for at least thirty minutes. When it is chilled, roll out cookies on lightly floured parchment and bake at 350° for 8-10 minutes. (I rolled mine like 1/2" thick)

Frost cooled cookies however desired. For the purple heart cookies pictured above I used Royal Icing (this particular recipe.)



Royal Icing


Purple Moon Cookie (cookie dough: Bakeat350)


Royal Icing
1 egg white
2 to 2.5 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Assorted Food Colors

Beat egg white w/ electric mixer at high speed until foamy. Gradually add 2 cups powdered sugar and vanilla. Beat at low speed until moistened. increases mixer speed to high again and beat until icing is stiff, adding additional powdered sugar if needed. Add desired food colorings (optional).

Bakeat350 Sugar Cookies


2 more Bakeat350 Sugar cookies. I am so buying myself some meringue powder and studying up on royal icing and cookie decorating skills because i can make cookies but i cannot decorate for the life of me.. Its gonna happen. You will see!!!



Bakeat350 Sugar Cookies

So here are my awesome Halloween cookies for HALLOWEEN 2011. I ALWAYS use sweetsugarbelles recipe for my sugar cookies. Why? Because its the best. But then I started questioning myself. Is it "really" the best? Ive tried several other sugar cookies in the past and stopped when I discovered sugarbelles recipe because it was soooo good. I figured that there couldn't be a better sugar cookie recipe. But the Internet bloggers beg to differ. So I started doing a lot of online sugar cookie research. Verdict is. There are several sugar cookies that are so called "the BEST." Here's a list of the trendy blogger favorite:
bakeat350, ourbestbites and NFSC (which are the exact same and basically the same as bakeat350), Sweetsugarbelles, annie eats (which is similar to sugarbelles just 1/2 cup less powdered sugar- for who knows what reason, that cookie needs the full 1.5 cups powdered sugar,) sweetopia, peggy porschen, and iammommy. JUST TO NAME A FEW. And then there a lot of variations that stem from these recipes, like sweetapolita (similar to bakeat350). Anyways point is a lot of "best ever" sugar cookie recipes out there. And whats funny is Ive noticed that everyone who claims they have the best recipe hasn't tried the other ones. So my goal is to try all of these. I especially want to try Peggy Porschen. Whats unique about her recipe is that it doesn't have any baking soda or baking powder, because apparently leavening agents make for a puffier cookie that doesn't hold its shape as well. and leavening agents don't do anything for taste, so why have them in a cut-out cookie. This seems like a valid point to me, so I might start doing away w/ the Leavening agents(: So out of all of these interent popular sugar cookies I chose to 1st try bakeat350. mostly because it seems like anyone who tries it and then blogs about it has super pretty looking cookies come of it and also Bridget (owner of bakeat350 blog) has this one picture on her site of a sugar cookie that she made that makes you want to pull the cookie out of the commputer it just looks so perfect. Heres that picture...


That sugar cookie picture is my inspiration.. "sugar cookie perfection."
SO how did I like Bakeat350 sugar cookies and how did they compare to sugarbelles? The bakeat350 dough smelled amazing. Super buttery. I made sure to roll the dough like 3/8" thick. I only baked them 8 minutes because I wanted to make sure they were soft. I hate hard cookies. They baked up exactly how I expected them to. They tasted fabulous. Tasted a lot like the cookies from Provo Bakery... Shortbreadish like, I mean very buttery. But still not full on shortbread, because the recipe calls for one egg. Yet still that's less egg than most sugar cookie recipes out there. Do I like it better than sugarbelles? mmmm I say its 50:50. I like sugarbelles in that it uses powdered sugar which gives the cookie a unique tender texture (sort of melt in your mouth like). They're both super buttery they both have pretty much the same flour:butter:egg:sugar ratios. The pros on bakeat350 sugar cookie is that its definitely a sturdier cookie (meaning it wont break as easy). Sugarbelles recipe is pretty fragile, wouldn't be so good for shipping. I think I'll just have to stick with both recipes and use them according to circumstance(: But who knows, maybe peggy porshens cookie will win me over entirely, if that's even possible. these 2 cookies are both A-listers. OH, wait, so my momma just tried the cookies. she says she likes them better than sugarbelles... just to note. Oh, and FYI: I'll never go with a sugar cookie that has either cream cheese or sour cream in it, as a base ingredient. It can be in the frosting, but the cookie dough? bleh. It always makes them puffy and cardboardy gross tasting. Every gross sugar cookie ive either made or tasted had one of those 2 ingredients in the dough. Gross Gross. I go for just butter. "Butter is better!" Oh and another FYI: I dont like nor use Almond Extract. The few times in the past where I had put it in my cookies, my kids would say "they have a funny taste" or "these cookies taste weird" and then I though, "ya your right they do, its cuz of that gross almond stuff" so out went the almond extract. and i'm so glad its gone.

Bakeat350 Sugar Cookies
3 c unbleached, all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 c sugar (I use sugar that I've stored vanilla beans in)
2 sticks (salted) butter, cold
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
Mix butter w/ sugar till creamy. Add egg baking powder and vanilla. Mix well. Gradually add flour. Mix Well. Wrap dough in cling wrap. Chill 1 hour. Roll out on LIGHTLY floured surface 3/8" thick. Cut into shaped. Place on cookie sheet. Bake 8 min at 350. Frost and decorate as desired. (I used Basic Buttercream Icing.)





Saturday, October 15, 2011

Buckeye Cookies


I'm from Cincinnati OHIO. And when I moved out to Utah it took a while to figure out what was strictly "eastern talk," in other words, "Utah-unfamiliar vocabulary" and visa versa. For instance, you don't say "oh my heck" or "oh my gosh" out in Cincinnati. They don't know what "heck" and "gosh" mean. So that was one thing nice about moving out here. I got several new Mormon expressive phrases added to my vocabulary. So when I started talking about buckeye cookies when I 1st moved here, no one knew what I was talking about. Not only did they not know what a buckeye cookie was, they didn't even know what buckeyes were. So THIS is what a buckeye is.
buckeye-tree-nut-lg
And HERE is a buckeye cookie.
When we were little we would go on nature hikes and collect buckeyes. There are a lot of trees and woods and forests in Cincinnati, everywhere. Everyone's back yard has a ton of trees- One thing I really miss about Ohio. So in tribute to the Ohio Buckeye, A lot of Cincinnati-ins make these buckeye cookies. They're super good, and super easy. They Taste like a Reese's, actually better than a Reese's. Ive made them ever since I was little and your supposed to dip just 1/2 of the cookie in chocolate, but early on I started dipping the whole cookie in chocolate. The more chocolate the better. Sometimes I use just milk chocolate sometimes I use just white chocolate, sometimes I use both white and milk chocolate. Tonight I used BOTH

Buckeye Cookies
(original recipe: HERE)

3/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2.5 cups powdered sugar
3 cups white and milk chocolate chips
Crisco

With electric mixer, mix butter, peanut butter, and vanilla on high speed until completely/ thoroughly mixed. Gradually mix in 2.5 cups powdered sugar till dough comes together. Roll dough into walnut size balls and place on plate in freezer for at least 1 hour. Melt chocolate over double boiler. (If you don't have a double boiler, melt chocolate in microwave w/ Tablespoon Crisco. 30 second intervals till smooth and melted. Dip buckeyes into melted chocolate. Store buckeyes in fridge or freezer.

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Sopapilla Cheesecake


Sopapilla Cheesecake
original recipe here

1 can refrigerated crescent rolls
1 bar cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

In a mixing bowl, cream together cream cheese, 1/2 cup sugar & vanilla, set aside. Open the crescent rolls & slowly unroll the rectangle of dough & divide it into 2 square pieces, taking care not to seperate the individual crescent rolls as you do so. With a rolling pin, shape the 2 square pieces to fit into a glass, buttered 9x9 pan. Place 1 square into the bottom of the pan, spread the cream cheese mixture over top & then place the remaining square of dough on top. In a smaller bowl, mix together 1/4 cup butter, 1/4 cup sugar & 1 tsp cinnamon. Spread evenly over top of sopapilla. Bake at 350 25-30 min or until golden. Remove from oven. Let cool in the pan before serving. Enjoy!

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Jiffy Pizza

I like Jiffy crust mix more than Pillsbury refrigerated dough. Jiffy dough is bready, and chewy whereas Pillsbury dough isn't so bready; its more cardboardy and preservativey. I still think Pillsbury pizza dough is good, just not as good as Jiffy. I throw this pizza together quite often because its easy, fast, so cheap, and you almost always have these ingredients at home(at least we do). The Velveeta was at one point just an after though (from a left over box of mac & cheese) but it adds this buttery fried taste. Its good without the Velveeta but its absolutely amazing times 1 million with the Velveeta, so you decide.


Jiffy Pizza

1 jiffy pizza crust mix
8 oz pizza sauce
Velveeta cheese
shredded italian cheese blend
thinly sliced deli Ham
Ranch

Mix pizza dough according to pkg directions. Knead dough. Let dough Rise 5 min. Place/spread dough into buttered 9x9" glass casserole dish. Bake 3-5 min at 375. Top slightly baked crust with pizza sauce, several dallops of velveeta, italian cheese, and ham. Bake 18-22 more min at 375. Cut into squares. Dip in Ranch(:



Halloween Crispy Treats




Ive been wanting to make candy corn crispy treats for a while, but I wasn't sure what recipe to use. The one on Brachs site is similar to my recipe except it calls for chocolate chips, so the crispy treats turn out brownish in color. Taste wise, chocolate chips sound good, but color wise, not so much. So I decided to incorporate the chocolate chip idea, but use white chocolate instead. Then I found another site called itsybitsyfoodies that has a recipe very similar to my recipe however it doesn't use any chocolate chips whatsoever however the crispy treats call for marshmallow creme in addition to the marshmallows which I thought sounded like a fabulous idea. So I combined my favorite aspects of both recipes and came up with my recipe, which I believe couldn't look/taste more perfect. Also, I use a 9x9 pan which makes my crispy treats extra thick kind of like the ones at thecrispery.com.








Halloween Crispy Treats
6T butter
6 cups Rice Crispy cereal
1 cup white chocolate chips
4 spoonfulls marshmallow fluff
1 cup mellowcreme pumpkins
Pillsbury Vanilla Frosting

In large saucepan, Melt butter on low heat until almost melted. Stir in marshmallows, stir continuously on low heat until butter and marshmallows are completely melted. Remove pan from heat and immediately stir in cereal, until evenely combined. Quickly Stir in white chocolate and transfer mixture into buttered 9x9 glass square dish. Press down. Press globs of marshmallow fluff evenly scattered over top of crispy treats. Press in 1 cups worth mellowcreme pumpkins. Cut into 9 large squares. Frost top of each square with Pillsbury vanilla frosting

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Ginger Cookies

ginger cookies
ginger cookiesPillsbury Ginger Cookies
1 cup sugar
3/4 c Crisco
1/4 c molasses
1 egg
2 1/4 c flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 cups white chocolate chips

Beat Crisco and sugar till creamy. Beat in egg and molasses. Beat in baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, salt, nutmeg, and cloves. Gradually Mix in flour till well combined. Mix in 1 cup white chocolate chips. Roll dough into golf size balls; roll each ball in sugar. Place 2" apart on cookie sheets. Bake at 350 for 8 min. Melt remaining 1 cup white chips with 2 teaspoons Crisco, 30 sec intervals in microwave, stirring in between each interval. Dip cookies in white chocolate, coating 1/2 of each cookie.



Blue m&m Cookies

After making colored sugar cookies, just the other day, I started wondering why we sometimes add color to sugar cookie dough but never add it to chocolate chip cookie dough, so that's exactly what I decided to do and it turned out great. I used my new favorite m&m cookie recipe and added just a few drops of Betty Crocker gel blue food coloring. Here's the recipe (again) and a picture (below)

Blue m&m Cookies
1 cup sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
1 cup crisco
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 (3.4 oz) pkg vanilla pudding mix
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups flour
Few drops Betty Crocker blue gel food color
1 cup mini m&ms
3/4 cup mini white chips

Beat Crisco and sugars till creamy. Add baking powder, salt, vanilla, eggs, and pudding mix. Beat till well combined. Gradually add flour till dough comes together and is well mixed. Add drops of food color, couple drops at a time, till dough reaches right color. Mix till color is even and well incorporated. Add m&ms and white chips. Shape dough into golf size balls and bake 8 min at 350


blue m&m cookies

Smart Cookie Company

smartcookie
Smartcookie is a cookie store where you can make customized cookie-ice cream-sandwiches or you can just order cookies, or you can use it to place cookie orders for missionaries. My mom goes to American Fork about once a week to pick up clothes from the dry cleaners so she decided to check out this AF Smartcookie store once and for all. I don't know what the selection was like since I wasn't there and I've never been, but She bought me 2 really pretty sugar cookies. I was skeptical about trying them since I hadn't heard much about "smartcookie" The 1st one I tried, the yellow one, was not that great. It was a lemony sugar cookie and I don't like lemon. The 2nd cookie, the flower cookie, was a normal sugar cookie, not lemony. It, however was really good. In fact I might have even liked it more than the sugar cookies from Provo Bakery. It was really doughy and I love doughy cookies. It was as doughy, if not maybe even more doughy than how I make my cookies. And the frosting, I believe, was a fantastic tasting cream cheese frosting. So a doughy professional bakery style cookie with super good frosting. What could be better than that? SmartCookie= A+ except for the gross lemon cookies (:

Friday, September 23, 2011

Marshmallow Fondant

marshmallow fondant
marshmallow fondant

Oh My Gosh!!!! omg omg omg i cant stop saying it. I just made fondant!!! And it was so easy. For so many years, I just thought "I cant make that, but it looks so cool" But then after reading cookies and cups, and Bake at 350, I realized I might be able to pull it off. It really was so much easier than I thought and it really tastes so good. I was looking for meringue powder today at wallmart and then harmons so I could make Royal Icing, what I thought could serve as an alternative to fondant, and what I thought would be easier, but forget royal icing when you can have fondant, which is so much better (in my opinion). better looking and better tasting, and so easy!!! So 1st I made the fondant, then stuck it in a ziplock and let it chill in the fridge. Then I whipped up some of sugar belles sugar cookies which are basically the same recipe as my sugar cookies. I added some food coloring to the sugar cookie dough just for kicks. I used halloween cookie cutters for both the cookie dough and the fondant. I then I topped each baked cookie 1st with buttercream frosting to make the fondant stick, and then I layered the rolled fonant over top of the buttercream. These cookies tasted A-MAZING. Favorite cookie from now on and for ever.

recipe source: thedomesticsugar.blogspot.com

Marshmallow Fondant:

  • 4 c (9 oz pkg) miniature marshmallows
  • 4 c (1 lb) powdered sugar + plus extra for dusting
  • 2 tbsp water
  • Food coloring or flavored extracts, optional
  • 1-2 tbsp shortening (for hands)

Directions:

1. Place marshmallows and the water in a large glass (safe) bowl. Microwave for 30 sec, stir marshmallows, microwave for 20 more sec. Do this until the marshmallows are puffy (melted).

2. Stir the marshmallows with a rubber spatula until they are melted and smooth. Make sure there are no lumps at all. At this stage, add colour or flavor (if desired) and stir.

3. Slowly add the powdered sugar and begin to stir with the spatula. Stir until the sugar begins to incorporate and it becomes impossible to stir anymore.

4. Scrape the fondant mixture out onto a sugar-dusted, smooth surface. It will be sticky and lumpy, with lots of sugar that has not been incorporated yet--this is normal. Place some shortening on yoru hands to keep the fondant from sticking, and begin to knead the fondant mixture like bread dough, working the sugar into the marshmallow with your hands.

5. Kneed until smooth and not sticky (you may need to coat your hands every now and again to prevent sticking). Be careful - too much sugar will make the dough stiff and hard to work with, juse only enough where the dough stays a little sticky, but can be handled. Let fondant sit for 1h or use right way. Fondant can be stored in an air-tight bag until ready to use. I coat mine in a little shortening, then wrap it in plastic wrap, THEN stick it in a ziplock baggie. But that's me :)


Recipe Source: sweetsugarbelle.com

To make my basic sugar cookies you need:

  • 1 c. REAL unsalted BUTTER
  • 1 1/2 c. confectioner’s sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 2-3 tsp vanilla
  • 2 1/2-2 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp. baking powder
  • 1 tsp. salt

Cream together softened butter and confectioner’s sugar. Beat in the egg, vanilla, baking powder, and salt till thouroughly combined. Gradually beat in the flour till dough comes together. Roll out to about 1/4" thick, use flour for dusting as necessary. Then, cut and bake at 350 for 8-10 min



Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Sugar Cookie Dough Balls





This recipe is a copycat recipe for the original cookie dough cookies created by Annie the Baker. You can order the original cookies online at this site or you can just try to make them at home like I successfully did. These cookies are catered towered "those who love cookie dough more than the cookie." So they're basically cookies that taste like cookie dough. The key to this recipe is not to overbake. Even if the cookies don't look done at ten minutes, they are.

Sugar Cookie Dough Balls
(original recipe: click HERE)
1/2 cup (slightly less) crisco
1/2 cup + 2 Tablesoons sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
PILLSBURY FROSTING

Beat crisco and sugar till creamy. Beat in salt, baking soda, baking powder, vanilla, and egg till thoroughly combined. Gradually beat in flour till dough comes together and is well combined. Use a small cookie Scoop to form perfect round balls of dough; place balls on baking sheet. Bake exactly 10 minutes at 360
REMOVE COOKIES FROM BAKING SHEET AND DECORATE WITH FROSTING

Friday, September 16, 2011

Puffy M&M Cookies

m&m cookies
m&m cookie
candy cookieI Love Puffy Chewy doughy cookies. That's why Ive always liked chocolate chip pudding cookies, but Ive always thought the main pudding chip recipe was a little too flat for what I like. I'm more into the Thick, chewy, doughy, puffy cookies. Luckily a lot of other bloggers like their cookies that way as well. Almost every current baking blogger has at some point tried to replicate the Levain Cookie and then Diana from TheChicLife started a new hype when she created a copycat recipe for Annie The Baker's Cookie Dough Balls. All of these Cookies have the same attributes, extra flour, and less baking time, which lead to a thick, chewy, doughy, puffy cookie. The cookies I made today turned out exactly how I was hoping they would. They're basically the original pudding chip cookie recipe with the addition of extra flour a specification for reduced baking time. I got this recipe from penniesonaplatter.com and then modified it just slightly. These are definitely thick doughy and puffy cookies. Of course Brooklyn Bently and Caleb loved them (they're kids,) so did I, so did everyone in my household. If u like thick, doughy, puffy cookies, you definitely need to try this recipe, its a no fail.


Puffy m&m Cookies
(original recipe here)

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup Crisco
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 (3.4 oz) package vanilla instant pudding mix
1/2 tsp salt
1 t baking soda
3 cups four
1 1/2 cups mini m&m's
In a large mixing bowl, beat the sugars & Crisco till creamy. Beat in the eggs, vanilla, pudding mix, baking soda, and salt; beat till light and fluffy. Gradually add the 3 cups of flour and then the m&m's. Mix till thoroughly combined. Roll dough into golfball-ish sized balls and bake on lightly greased cookie sheet for 8-10 minutes (do not overbake, these cookies are only good if underbaked.) Using plastic or rubber spatula, Remove cookies from cookie sheet to let cool. Makes 30 cookies.

Flour Girls and Dough Boys




My mom brought home a sugar cookie from Flour Girls and Dough Boys Bakery. She knows I'm on a sugar cookie craze and even though we decided Provo Bakery has the best and always will, she still thought we should at least try other ones. This cookie was really big and puffy. The cookie itself was good but kind of dry. And I'm Not sure if its because it was maybe dried out or if maybe its just not the best recipe. However, The icing was incredible. I wanted to eat it all off with a spoon. I think it was a 7 minute frosting recipe. That's what it tasted like anyway; tasted granulated sugar based, not powdered sugar. And the icing shimmered, like it had some sort of baking glitter in it. My goal now is to buy some baking glitter and find a good 7min frosting recipe.