King Bob's Birthday 2013

I was so happy to be invited to the 2nd Annual King Bob's Birthday party on the beach!  Bob's wife, Sally, puts on a great party...which included beach-front umbrellas and lounge chairs in front of Wanna-Wanna, ice chests filled with icy libations, yummy snack trays. Sand Castle Queen of the Island, Sandy Feet, her very entertaining "sand slaves", and a bunch of interesting people to talk to!  I really enjoy meeting new friends.  I also love talking to people who have moved to the area and find out where they come from.  There's always a story...I just love hearing the tales!

I enjoyed using some of my stencils on the minis!  These
came from Designer Stencils

My offering was a set of cookies made for King Bob (Bob's 71st birthday and his 1st anniversary of retirement makes him King of the Day!).  The cookie set included a large layered cake-shaped cookie, some crowns for the king, and a few minis to fill in the set.  He was kind enough to share the cookies and it seems the Acorn Squash Sugar Cookies were a success.  Even my trial with a new royal icing recipe seemed to work out okay (I didn't have time to taste a dry cookie before leaving for the beach so I wasn't sure how taste and texture would be after drying...risky on my part but...whew...it apparently worked).  Nothing makes me more happy than people enjoying my treats!

These were drying to the very last minute!

Photo by Sally Scaman
I was having a big hair humidity day...the
curls were blowing wildly as Sally snapped
a photo of me and Bob and the box of cookies

While a lot of the United States is enjoying Fall weather, folks on South Padre Island are enjoying one of our favorite times of year.  The beautiful days of September and October are PERFECT beach weather.  So, it being a perfect day on the beach, I'll just end the post with a slew of photos featuring Sandy Feet, Dennis,and Ken working hard (did you know, it's important to place your beer higher than the sandcastle...else you fill your can with sand???) Enjoy!

This stuff is hard work!

Things are shaping up as the creative genius kicks in!

Hot work when you are working on the side where there is no wind!

Sandy Feet carving the King's Sculpture

Dennis (L) and Ken (R) carving supporting castles on each side
of the King Bob sculpture 
(yep, they are a lot more than just sand slaves - 
they are talented sculptors themselves).  
This is the status when I had to leave.


Following Photos from Sally Scaman

The King and his Pampered Princess
The Sand Sculptors (behind)

Bob and Sally...beach royalty.  Great party and Fabulous Sand Sculpture!

Bon Appetit, Y'all...and May Your Day be Filled with Sunshine!!!

Squash Sugar Cookies, Take Two!

Undecorated allows you to see how nicely they
are rolled and cut as well as the bits of squash and
spices in this wonderful Fall-ish cookie!

In early August, Ian asked for a spice cheesecake for his birthday.  I didn't recall having a recipe for a spice cheesecake but we looked back at the blog because he remembered I had made one before.  We found a 2010 recipe for Squash Chocolate Cheesecake.  He said "yes, that's the one"!  I was so surprised!  Squash? I asked of the "vegetable-hater"... Yes, he confirmed...that's the one.  Fortunately, I've got a couple of cups of roasted and peeled acorn squash in the freezer - it's a wonderful staple to have on hand for sweets (I use it often in lieu of pumpkin) and as a wonderful addition to soups.  The recipe only called for a cup of the squash, so I decided to re-make the Squash Sugar Cookie recipe, I had also done in 2010, with the remaining squash.

I noticed, when reviewing that recipe, that it didn't include any egg.  Huh?  Was that a mistake?  I tried to find the source recipe and it is no longer posted on the B&B Recipe web site.  Hmmmm.  I set out some butter and followed the recipe and I have to say "this MUST be a mistake"...the dough was way too crumbly.

After 2 1/2 more years of baking experience since I developed that recipe, I knew of a couple of tweaks that would make a much nicer cookie...still keeping the sweet flavor of the squash silently in the background.  So, here's the recipe I ended up with.  The texture is now perfect for rolling and I can only apologize if anyone tried to make the one I posted in 2010!!!  I try to be very careful...but sometimes mistakes happen...and I think that may have been one of those times.

Printable Recipe

Squash Sugar Cookies, Take Two!

Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated white sugar
1/2 cup drained, dry, roasted acorn squash (I squeezed the squash in a cotton kitchen towel, twisting until quite dry - then I pulsed it in the food processor...I remember the previous cookies having some long strands of squash - the food processor didn't truly puree the squash, but it did cut the long strands)
1 large egg
1/2 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

Method:

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar until combined.  Add squash and mix until combined.  Add egg and vanilla bean paste and mix until well incorporated.

In a 4-cup measuring cup, mix all of the dry ingredients with a whisk and add to the wet mixture in the mixer bowl.  Mix just until blended.

Divide dough in two parts.  Form a disk and wrap each half in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour - preferably 2 or 3 hours for a nice rolled cookie.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
Remove dough 5 minutes prior to being ready to roll the dough.  Roll either on a lightly floured surface or between two sheets of parchment paper.
Use your favorite cookie cutter to cut various shapes.  Place on a parchment lined cookie sheet or on a baking mat lined cookie sheet.  Bake for 8-10 minutes, depending on thickness (some thick cookies that were cut with a large cutter took 13-14 minutes to bake...light brown along the bottom edge is the indicator).  Allow to cool on rack before decorating with a glaze or buttercream frosting....or royal icing if you want to decorate nicely!

These are a great Fall flavored spice cookie with an unusual cookie ingredient.  However, they are great any time of the year.  They are an awesome cookie!  The photos I took were of the naked cookies...the next post will include some of these that I baked recently and decorated for an on-the-beach birthday party.  Keep an eye out for that!

Bon Appetit, Y'all!!!




 

Graduation Cookies

I made a little over 6 dozen graduation cookies this past week.  The entire endeavor took about 6 days...a day of baking, another day of baking and making royal icing, a half day of preparing 12 bags of royal icing in various consistencies and colors (at the time I was thinking I'd be decorating Memorial Day cookies too...but those only got base coated and I gave up on them to finish the cookies that needed to be shipped).  The rest of the days were spent decorating, drying, balancing family time, putting on another layer, more drying... and it was very humid.  I had 3 fans going almost the entire time.
It was a labor of love!

Shipping cookies has not been successful for me in the past.  My poor kids and grandkids have received cracked and crumbled cookies when I have tried sending via US Postal Service.  This time, I bubble -wrapped the heck out of them and put them in a larger box.  Mission fairly accomplished. I have heard from both of the moms now.  One batch had only 1 cookie broken...the skinny #1 in the number series 2013.  The other mom reports 4 cookies broke...a tassel on one of the caps, one of the diplomas, and 2 stars...not bad I guess...but not 100%)...here's a picture my niece sent of the survivors.  I'm hoping for a picture from the other mom too :-)

The survivors for Addison - Lago Vista High School grad 2013 - yay!
Photo by Melanie Wiesman

I made several  large cookies to go on a platter, if desired, and a lot of medium-sized cookies and about a dozen or more minis.  I'm not the best at writing on cookies, but I made the attempt anyway.  The more I did it, the better I got at spacing.  That's my downfall...spacing.  I don't have a KopyKake projector, so it is always free-hand for me.  It's another of those things I need to practice on more!

So, to Addison (my nephew) and Karlie (our dear friend) - congratulations on your graduation from High School, I hope you both have wonderful graduation parties, and I hope you know that our family is there with you in spirit.  Hope the cookies are yummy and you enjoy eating them and sharing them with your guests.

The dark brown ones are Apple Butter Sugar Cookies.  I've linked to a post with the recipe.  The light cookies are Vanilla Bean Sugar Cookies - you can see the black vanilla bean seeds in the dough - I like them a lot.  They are also a bit more sturdy for decorating and packing.  The Apple Butter are softer (but also tastier and I like the mouth feel better than the crisp sugar cookie).  The recipe for the Vanilla Bean cookie is below:

Vanilla Bean Sugar Cookies
Adapted from Recipe for World's Best Sugar Cookies
by Laurie Mather

Ingredients:
1 cup salted butter - softened
1 cup granulated white sugar
2 Tbsp Vanilla Bean Paste
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 Tbsp Cream
1 Egg - room temperature
3 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

Method:

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the softened butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add the egg and blend until incorporated.  Add the cream, vanilla extract, and vanilla bean paste and beat until fully incorporated.

Whisk the flour and baking powder together and add about 1/3 of it at a time to the wet mixture, mixing just until incorporated, scraping down to the bottom of the bowl before the next addition.  The last cup can be mixed in by hand but I usually add it and give it a little pulse or two then turn it out on my counter to insure complete mixing by hand - being careful not to overwork the dough - a couple of kneading mixes is all that's needed.

This cookie dough may be rolled and baked immediately, but I find my edges are much crisper if I divide the dough into two or three portions and wrap in plastic, gently patting flat to prepare for easy rolling.  I put in the fridge for at least 2 hours and more-frequently overnight.  This dough also freezes well when wrapped in plastic wrap and then placed in a freezer bag.  I actually try to keep some in the freezer at all times.

When ready to roll out the dough, let sit on the counter for 5 minutes or so.  Prepare your rolling surface with a light dusting of flour on the counter/surface and the rolling pin.  I bake on a silicone baking mat.  Have your prepared pans at hand.  I roll my cookies to 1/4" thickness and work in small batches to ensure the dough stays cool and firm enough to transfer to the cookie sheet without getting messed up.  If anything sticks to the counter, I slide a floured offset spatula gently underneath to release.  I will re-roll twice with flour and then if I have a lot of bits left (which is almost always), I will roll them between parchment paper and put the parchment paper covered and rolled dough on a cookie sheet and place it in the freezer to firm up.  This keeps the dough in perfect cutting condition.  If you keep re-rolling in flour the cookies get tough and dry.  I freeze my cut outs on the cookie sheet while I'm rolling out the next pan and another pan is baking.  This firms up the butter and the cookies don't spread much at all!  I keep alternating into freezer, into oven, onto rack, cool, remove to rack to continue cooling, roll, cut, freeze, etc... it's a process!

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Bake cookies for 8 to 10 minutes...if a really large cookie, sometimes it takes 11 minutes to get the light brown color at the base of the cookie.  That's what I'm looking for - no color on top, light brown on bottom edges.  That's perfect.  Once they come out of the oven, I take the pan and sit it on a cooling rack.  I immediately take a fondant smoother and gently "iron" the cookies flat.  This ensures a smooth decorating surface.  I allow them to cool on the pan until cool to the touch.  I use a sharp-edged Wilton cookie spatula to remove them to another cooling rack to finish cooling completely, gently cleaning the edges of any crumbs.

My usual process is make the dough(s) on one day.  Refrigerate overnight.  Bake the cookies the next day and allow to cool all day then put in containers with wax paper between each cookie.  Make the basic extremely thick royal icing batch and let it sit, covered with plastic wrap on the surface, to release air bubbles.  While I'm waiting on that, I write out my plan for each cookie, drawing my idea, identifying the consistencies and colors I need then I go mix and color my icing and place them in piping bags.  I used to only use squeeze bottles...I've gotten away from that and am back to piping bags.  The next thing is to lay down the base coats and leave them to dry overnight under a fan.  Depending on the number of layers, decorating can take 3 days total.  Then, I individually bag all of my cookies.  They stay fresh longer.  It's quite the endeavor.

Unfortunately, I had already bagged up a LOT of the graduation cookies by the time I realized I had no photographs!  I was quite tired and it was Monday night.  I grabbed a few photographs and finished individually wrapping all 6 dozen cookies then wrapped them in bubble wrap and boxed them for delivery to the post office.  Here are the few I photographed!  I think I got a sample of each type of cookie I made...graduation caps, rolled diplomas, some shooting stars, some plaque cookies, a lot of mini and mid size stars, a bunch of scallop-edged rounds and each set had number 2013 cookies in their package...all done in their school colors (or as close as I could get to their school colors).

A basic sampling of the items included in each packet (obviously multiples
of each cookie...except the number set).

I stenciled a few of the cookies (with varying degrees of success).

It was helpful that the two grads had similar school colors!

I talk about this stencil in my post on stenciling
trials and tribulations.  You can click here to
check out that post.

Another cookie featured on my stencil post.  Hopefully,
my fighting Viking, Addison, didn't think it was too girlie looking.
That boy can put away the cookies...I doubt he cares what is on top!!!
I wonder if he will share???  Of course he will...he's an awesome person.

Well, that's all the photos I took.  I can't believe I didn't do more...but I was NOT unpackaging a ton of cookies!  Photos of cello-bag wrapped cookies are never good - too reflective.  I hope the kids love the cookies and, again, Congrats Grads!!!

Bon Appetit, Y'all!!!

Cookie Memories

My regular readers may have noticed I have been very "off" lately.  I have experienced some losses that nearly wiped me out and baking and blogging on a regular basis have been more than I could handle.  I just worked on putting one foot in front of the other to make it through the last 7 months or so.  As Dory the fish so eloquently said it, I just had to "just keep swimming, just keep swimming".

For the past 3 days I have been baking cookies and decorating them for a Memorial Service for my big sister.  She loved the beach.  Everyone is encouraged to wear coastal attire to the service.  I have my new tropical shirt, my best flip flops, my dolphin necklace, and my mermaid earrings.  I'm almost ready.

In her honor I made cookies for after the service fellowship.  The entire endeavor was a cathartic walk down Memory Lane.  I began with sand dollar cookies - which brought back memories of our regular childhood camping trips to Mustang Island and Port Aransas.  We'd search for shells for hours and, in those days, the sand dollars were the primo find.  Now-a-days we rarely find more than the occasional broken sand dollar.  It's a sad commentary on the state of our oceans!

Sand Dollar cookies with a pearl sheen

I also made "my version" of conch shells.  Big sister loved The Keys.  She had one last chance to try to make it to her beloved Keys in December when I called her back home because our Mom died. She never was well enough again to make the journey...so, conch shell cookies are my offering.  I'm sure she is smiling.



My version of conch shell cookies - a little dry brushed pink
lustre dust gives the edge a little shimmer

She loved bright colors - yellows and oranges and aqua - the colors of the tropics.  So, my version of scallop shells with orange and yellow feathering.

Scallop Shell cookies with orange and yellow feathering.
After drying, embellished with some dots and lines.  I liked this set.

Palm tree cookies - she loved laying on a hammock hanging between two palms.  Reading a book or napping or just swaying to the gentle breeze off the Atlantic Ocean.  My first piping icing wasn't thick enough, so I had to get creative.  I think they turned out okay...but they sure do have a lot of royal icing on those palms!



The rustling sound of palms is one of my favorite sounds
These cookies have coconuts - our palms do not.
I liked the look though, so coconuts they are!

Dolphins - ahhhh, the dolphins.  We used to ride the ferry to Mustang Island and the dolphins danced around the ferry, smiling their happy smiles, delighting the souls of children and adults alike.  When I moved to the South Padre Island area I told her about our tribe.  She told me in January "I want to go see the dolphins with Scarlet...it's on my bucket list".  I knew that wouldn't happen because she would never have been able to make the 7 hour journey.  She entered at-home hospice care in January.  We met in Port Aransas instead, as one of her final wishes, and the dolphins were at the ferry waiting for her.  So, dolphin cookies were a must.  Dolphin Love - it's the best.

A happy pod of dolphin cookies

Flip Flops - we were two true flip flop devotees!  I know I have a LOT of flip flops - but she may have had more.  Flip flop cookies were mandatory!



Flip Flops - piled up like mine are.  I had fun making these.

The last batch of cookies are more about her beautiful grandchildren.  She had a lot of grand kids for a 62 year young woman!  She loved to tickle their tummies when they were little and say the belly button bug was getting them (a ladybug of course).  So, the final batch was my first attempt at lady bug cookies.  I hope they love them.  Unfortunately, I know they will turn their mouths black and red.  I did try the trick of adding cocoa powder to the icing to darken it before adding the black food coloring.  I definitely used less black gel color, but still...I'm anticipating some colorful mouths!  I used a tutorial from O So Sweet Cookies - and it was perfect.  I have had the lady bug cookie cutter for a while and never got to making them.  This was the perfect opportunity.

Lady Bugs - my first attempt...cute!

My cookie dough was in the freezer waiting for me (thank goodness) and I used both my long-time favorite Mather World's Best Sugar Cookie Dough and Lila Loa's Vanilla Variation.  I used Ali's Sweet Tooth's method of making royal icing and not a single bag separated!  Yay!!!

Now, after this I hope life will return to the more gentle pace I grew accustomed to when we moved to the coast.  I need the peace and tranquility of the waves lapping, the gulls calling, the pelicans soaring, and the sand between my toes.  I know, then, I will be able to feel the previous joy I felt for baking and blogging and sharing my meandering thoughts with my blog readers.  Thanks for hanging with me during this really icky time of my life.  I'm hoping this will be the final melancholy post you will have to endure from me!

Bon Appetit, Y'all!!! 

UPDATE: 4/29/2013:  At the reception in Fellowship Hall,
the tables were decorated with leis, coastal ornaments, and
my cookies!  Everyone seemed very appreciative.
It was a lovely ceremony, filled with spirituality and
love and caring.  Happy Trails my dear sister!

Beach Cookies

The Beach Cookie created following
tutorial from Marlyn of Montreal Confections

I know it is February and many folks North of the equator are having a nippy week...but where I live, it's pretty nice weather!  I live on the Gulf Coast ...right on the water... and this week-end, I'm driving up the coast a few hours to spend time...at the coast.  Yep, weirdly enough, it's true.  My flip flops are happy to be in the sand, wherever the sand may be.

So, cookies were requested by the traveling companions ...apple butter cookies specifically.  Ask and ye shall receive!  I made 30 cookies and got them all decorated in one day via carefully scheduled fan drying of layers and starting early in the day.  I used a different method for making royal icing this time...from the wonderful Jaci at Ali's Sweet Tooth.  We both live in a land of great humidity.  Her method worked beautifully.  Not a bit of separation all day long...and a good thick base to work from with my handy dandy spray bottle. Yay!

My favorite cookies were a "beach" with waves I meticulously created using the YouTube tutorial from Marlyn at Montreal Confections.  I am slightly addicted to her tutorials...she is such a good teacher.  I saw it earlier last year and knew I would eventually get around to trying it out.  Today was the day!  Mine doesn't look as sharp as hers... but I'm pleased with the result for a first effort.  I didn't make fondant sea shells, I used some white and milk chocolate instead in a Wilton silicon mold I bought from Amazon.  I'm not fond of fondant...but I surely do love chocolate.  They came out sort of cute, so I'm glad I took that turn.

I didn't have the cool sanding sugar Marlyn used.
I used turbinado sugar instead.

I also used, for the first time, my air brush.  I carefully covered my table and used a 3-part science poster board to protect over spray as recommended by the talented Melissa at The Baked Equation .  I was so joyful to spray the shades of blue and then pearl the waves.  I am laughing myself silly now, though.  Guess what I didn't protect?  The inside of my nose!  I blew blue icky stuff this evening (OK - blue boogers - I'll just say it).  Good grief!  I'm thinking a mask may be in order next time.  Now that I see how cool the airbrush is, I know I'm going to try to find ways to add more depth to future cookies.

Since I didn't take photos during the process (and you can see Marlyn's online tutorial here) I'll just post these photos of the finished products.  Dolphins, sand dollars, star fish, and some scallop shells add to the beach theme.  The teen informed me "uh, those shells look a little different", in reference to the colors of the scallops.  Heck, I needed to use up some of the blue and peach icing from other cookies...so we have "different" scallop shells.  Leave it to the teen to point out the obvious!

Happy dolphins, funky scallops...it's all good when it gets in the belly!

The sand dollars are much better than my last attempt!  Still
a few issues to work out.  Still, better!
 

Slowly but surely, I'm trying to get back to enthusiasm for baking.  I have some more stencils I want to use as well as quite a few new cookie cutters.  I need to start sketching out some ideas.  I'll keep you posted!

Bon Appetit, Y'all!!!

I airbrushed pearl on the center starfish and used sugar pearls to accent.
The rest of the starfish were just piped dots and no pearl.
I think I like the pearl best...and I like the dots better than the sugar pearls.
Next time :-)

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"Love" Cookies

The beginning of the 2013 Valentine Cookie Season

I don't know that I'm saying "I'm back"... but I have scraped myself up and "put on my big girl panties" and BAKED.  Finally!  Rough family stuff (too much to share here) resulted in a nearly two-month hiatus from doing most anything creative.  My brain just wasn't on that page.  Hopefully, I can keep myself motivated now that I got started!

While cleaning out my freezer I found a double batch of Apple Butter Cookie Dough all nicely wrapped and ready.  I had completely forgotten that I'd made that before everything crashed around me.  Score!  While that was thawing, I felt motivated to make a batch of LilaLoa's "The Vanilla Variation"" of her Sugar Cookie Dough and between the two, that got me baking!  I ended up with 16 large hearts, 40 medium size "shapes" and 60 minis.  I still have some vanilla sugar cookie dough in the fridge.

My first efforts were just some circles, squares, and rectangles in hopes of getting my piping skills going.  I'm one of those "don't use it you lose it" people.  I felt vaguely cursed because NONE of my icing turned out the way I wanted.  Again, when you do it regularly, you do it right.  This time, well...not so much.  My piping icing was too thin to hold some of the shapes, my flood too thick to lay down straight, I got craters, my little heart transfers didn't "heal" properly, and I learned I can't make my nail flower go in a complete circle without having to reposition my fingers.  (oh, so clumsy) Add to that, my icing didn't hold it's shape for the ribbon roses either.  It was supposed to be the thick stuff! Man, I was screwed.  I kept telling myself the Dory-the-fish line "Just keep swimming.  Just keep swimming".

I decided I would indeed just keep going and finish the cookies I had... I was trying out new tools I got for Christmas and as part of my retail therapy shoppingin January.  I got a heat gun from my son and I bought myself some stencils and new cookie cutters and better tasting Red Tulip AmeriColor gel from Karen's Cookies (man, I love opening boxes from Karen and Mike!).  I read a post from Sweet Sugarbelle about why this red food color isn't as icky as some of the other reds we've all used.  I ordered a big bottle!  Between Valentine and Christmas and Patriotic cookies - red is a popular color!  I also broke out my new airbrush and practiced with water...that will be the next thing I attempt "for real"!

Anyway, I got to it and this is just a post with a few photos (with the good, the bad, and the not-so-ugly).  Why I would share some of these?  I don't know.  I think I just have to start somewhere.  This will help me move along so I prove to myself I can do better.  I won't point out all the booboos, but the cookiers will be able to see everything I'm talking about.  No need for anyone to point out the obvious (like when I was wiping my tip and accidentally sucked up a drop of water from my too damp cloth and then aimed right down at my cookie...oh mercy).

I am dot crazy apparently.  I just felt like
everything was looking better with dots!

I love having the virtual friendships that have allowed me to continue to talk about cookies and tips of the trades on Facebook.  I think I now officially converse with cookiers more than my "regular" friends (oh wait, none of my friends are regular...they are all unique).  I'm not sure that is a good thing...but for now, it's what I need.  Cookie Convo!  I am also completely dedicated to finding my way to Cookie Con 2014.  Fingers are crossed.

I'm no van Gogh...but this is MY blue period!

So, here they are.  They are packaged up and ready to give to people who don't care that I'm not perfect and know what I've been going through.  Now that I think about it, I'm really surrounded by lots of good souls.  I feel happier than I have in a good bit.  Hope it's a trend!

Bon Appetit, Y'all!!!

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Turkey Cookies (a tutorial)

I have struggled with turkey cookies for years...just couldn't seem to "get it" because I'm not really an artist when it comes to drawing and painting on paper.  My drawings are rough and only used to guide me through the decorating process.  This year I must have looked at a hundred different examples from all over the Internet.  I even looked at photographs of real turkeys and turkey feathers (that just confused me even more).  I finally decided to "break it down".  First I did it on paper, using the cookie cutter for the outline...then I used a pencil (and used up an entire eraser) and I plotted the parts like I was doing plastic surgery!

Fortunately I only had 6 large turkey cookies baked...and nine minis.  I considered skipping the minis, but you can see from the photo above I pressed on.  Somehow this time it seems to have gelled for me.  If I'm unhappy with anything, it's that it seems like there should be a wing.  The core body looks bare.  Maybe next year I'll address that issue!

After preparing the royal icing (I'd prepped many colors because I had a total of 108 cookies to decorate).  For this particular project I used a lot of brown, small amounts of blue, orange, yellow, red, and white.  I primarily use squeeze bottles with a coupler that allow you to change decorating tips.  Sometimes I use piping bags too, especially with thick icing.  For this project, though, it was all bottle work.  All icing was roughly the same consistency.  Makes for an easier task!

I decided to start by drawing on my bare cookies.  Yes, draw.  I got out my little pack of Wilton Food Writer edible markers with fine tip...mostly just use them when I'm making turtle cookies.  I dot-outlined the areas I needed to pay attention to.  The body, the wattle, the beak, leaving room for the feet.  I wasn't really sure what those little feathery things to the left of the feet were (a photo showed them to be a series of white and gray feathers).  Maybe it was supposed to be the wing???

Then, I outlined and filled the body section on all of the large turkeys. I use a #2 tip for outline and filling - spreading out the fill with a toothpick until it touches the outline.  Then carefully hold the cookie with your fingers and give it a little shimmy shake to help everything even out.  I carefully placed, with craft tweezers, a black sugar ball in position for an eye while the first brown set was still very wet.  I pushed it in and it looked better than leaving it sitting on top of the icing.  It looked a little bug-eyed until I pushed down.



I set that rack over on the chair where I had a fan blowing.  This allowed that section to crust while I worked on other cookies.  You have to be careful - you can work on the next sections after crusting - but the icing is certainly not dry.  That takes many hours down here in humidity land.  Always at least over night.  Just let it get crusted.  You can "see" the difference - but don't touch it - you'll have an indentation - I promise (been there done that)!


Next I filled in the wattle on each turkey with red icing, taking care to leave room for the beak (as outlined in in the first step).  Using a #1.5 PME Supatube tip I completed all the wattles and then moved on to start on the tail and feathering.  Since you won't have fresh icing touching the red, you don't have to wait for it to crust...just be careful.  It was at this point I decided to leave the lower feathers unfilled.  You can see how I just outlined the tail section.  (Note - the brown icing ALWAYS darkens as it dries...this was the same bottle of icing!)

Since feathering is a wet-on-wet technique, you must move quickly before crusting begins on the tail section.  So, rapidly outline and flood brown on the tail, then pipe the 3 or 4 curved lines which will become your feathers, working on one bird at a time.

Taking a round toothpick, start at the top of the "tail" and drag the toothpick down through the wet icing.  Wipe the toothpick and move to the next feather, drag, wipe, repeat, circling around the tail...viola, you have tail feathers!  Set that tray of cookies aside and let the tail and wattle crust.

Next I decided to fill the lower feathers with brown and pipe three "sort of" horizontal white lines and, using the same feathering technique, pulled straight down to make the lower feathers.  Since the next section I worked wasn't touching anything that wasn't crusted,  I was able to go ahead and put a fine tip on my icing bottle (I used a #1 PME tip) and piped on some little feet and filled in the beak.

Ta da - that's all there was to it!  Just let them dry up overnight and they will be ready to package as a nice gift for your Thanksgiving guests to take home - or you could use some white icing to write names across the body and use them as placards for your Thanksgiving table...or, like my family is wont to do, grab them off the cookie plate...dig in and eat it!

Note how the browns all became the same color after the turkeys were dried!

The mini turkeys were much easier - I outlined and filled the entire body, leaving room for the wattle, beak, and feet.  I quickly feathered the tail and tweezed in a black sugar ball for the eye and set them aside to crust.  Next came the wattle...let it crust, then pipe in the feet and beak.  Easy peasy compared to the big birds!

These are fun and not too challenging once you break it down into "parts" and "steps".  I feel much better about my turkey-bility now that I've got this set under my belt!

Gobble, gobble!

Bon Appetit, Y'all!!!

Apple Butter Cookies

I wanted a different kind of "cut out" cookie for the holidays...something not gingerbread-like...but more than vanilla sugar cookie dough.  I found a huge selection of roll-out-and-cut dough recipes at Ann Clark Ltd.  I made the dough a couple of weeks ago and froze it.  Day before yesterday I took out all of the Apple Butter Cookie dough and 1/2 of the Cardamom Cookie dough and 1/3 of the regular sugar cookie dough I usually bake with, and let it thaw in the fridge overnight.  This week, I'm baking.

I rolled and cut 110 cookies...half of which were minis.  I have apple shapes, pumpkins, turkeys, acorns, and a few leaves.  That should do it for the Thanksgiving cookie baking!  My house smelled outstanding throughout the morning....like I'd already been baking pumpkin pies!  When I left for a while and then returned - the house smelled even better!  All those cookies sitting on cooling racks just infused the house with the smells of Autumn!

The Cardomom minis have a subtle spice taste

I went strictly by the recipe for the Cardamom Cookie dough as well as my usual Laurie Mather's World's Best Sugar Cookie dough.  You can check those links for the recipe.  What I'm sharing here is my favorite of the bunch - my new favorite cookie dough for Fall cookies.  It's mostly Ann Clark's recipe...with a few tweaks from me.  Here it is:

Apple Butter Cookie Dough
Adapted from Ann Clark, Ltd.
PRINTABLE RECIPE

Ingredients:

3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup apple butter (I used Musselman's)
1 egg yolk (room temperature)
1/2 Tbsp Pure Vanilla Bean Paste
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (I used King Arthur)
1 cup white whole wheat flour (I used Gold Medal)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp fresh grated nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder

Method:

Cream butter and both sugars together until light and fluffy.

Beat in apple butter, egg yolk, and vanilla bean paste.

In a separate bowl, whisk together all of the dry ingredients.  Add to wet mixture just until all ingredients are well blended.  Take care not to over mix.

Wrap in plastic wrap (I divided mine in quarters and formed into small rectangles for easier handling).

Chill for 4 hours or overnight before rolling out.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Roll dough out on a lightly floured counter to 1/4 to 3/8 inch thickness.  Keep the dough moving, lift to ensure it is not sticking to the counter.  Sprinkle more flour if needed.  Make sure your rolling pin stays floured as well.  This was a sticky dough when it got warm - hence the easier handling with small portions.

Cut the rolled dough with well-floured cookie cutters.  Metal works best!  Transfer to a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat (I use the Silpat mats).  If my cookies were difficult to move, I floured my thinnest metal spatula and lifted gently to help transfer them.  I refrigerated each tray while another was baking so they wouldn't spread.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes.  Remove from oven and rest in pan on cooling rack.  As soon as they are there, get out your trusty fondant smoother and gently glide it over every cookie.  This will remove any bubbles or plumped up areas - resulting in a nicely flat cookie.  Don't press, sort of like you are ironing something delicate.  Remove to rack to cool once cookies are cool enough to handle.  Allow to cool completely before decorating.

For the apple cookies I used my regular royal icing recipe but when I was mixing colors and bringing the uber stiff frosting to pipe and flood consistency, I used some apple cider instead of water to thin...and I added some cinnamon extract to complement the vanilla extract already in the icing.  It's barely a hint of difference, but I think it complements the cookies.

The decorating was a two day endeavor.  I made all the icing (3 batches) and colored them and let them rest (covered in plastic wrap - touching the icing).  When I returned from helping a neighbor with a computer task, I found the bubbles had all risen and were easily popped.  Filled all the bottles and a couple of piping bags and got to work.  Started about 6:00 p.m. and stopped at 11:00...in bed with cramping hands by midnight and up at 7:00 ready to start again.  Love Ibuprofen :-)

We are humid - we're always humid on the coast - but I used the fans and lowered the air conditioning to help with a good drying environment.  They did great.  The only thing that didn't do great was I tried to use a flood icing to pipe some detail on pumpkins and it ran together.  It was the last thing I did before going to bed last night so this morning - I had rather unattractive green blobs on my pumpkins - nicely hardened.  Drat.  Oh well.  I knew it was too loose and I didn't stop and fix it.  My bad!  Still, I think the cookies turned out well.

The apples, acorns, and large pumpkins were all made from the Apple Butter Sugar Cookie recipe.  All of the minis except for the orange pumpkins were made from the Cardamom recipe.  The large turkeys and the mini orange pumpkins were all vanilla sugar cookies.

Keep an eye out for a tutorial on putting together the turkey cookies.  Hope to have it up by Monday at the latest.

Turkey tutorial coming soon!

Bon Appetit, Y'all!!!

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