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.