Cranberry Shortbread for the Win

I saw this book in Williams Sonoma a while back, but managed to resist the temptation to take it home with me.

A few weeks ago it showed up in Marshalls and my resolve crumbled. (See what i did there?) With Christmas just days away, I had to have this book with its delicately frosted stars and beautiful candy cane pirouettes.  I finally got a chance to bake up a few recipes from it this weekend and I'm pretty happy with the results. I have yet to reproduce some of the more precisely decorated cookies, but the  simple shortbread has been quite a tasty success.
 
The original recipe called for dried cherries, but I substituted cranberries to Christmas it up. The results were surprising - it's been the sleeper hit in our house. Who knew shortbread could be so alluring? I bet the shortbread results to my jeans will be less so.

Dried Cranberry Shortbread
Adapted from Dried Cherry Shortbread from The Art of the Cookie by Shelly Kaldunski

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup dried cranberries, coarsely chopped

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Have a 10 inch tart pan with a removable bottom ready
2.  Whisk the flour and salt together in a bowl.  Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and 1 1/4 C of the sugar until light and fluffy. (about 2-3 minutes) Beating on low speed, slowly add the flour mixture, beating until almost incorporated. Add the vanilla and dried cranberries and beat on low speed, just until the dough forms large clumps and pulls away from the side of the bowl. Press the dough evenly into the tart pan with your hands. Prick the entire surface of the tart with a fork at 1 inch intervals.

It looks like a lot of pricks, if you ask me

3.  Place the pan on a baking sheet and bake until the the center is lightly golden-brown - about 30-35 minutes. Immediately sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar over the shortbread (I used vanilla sugar which was really tasty) and use a sharp chef's knife to cute the shortbread into squares. Let cool in the pan, about 30 minutes.
4.  Remove the cookies from the pan and store in an airtight container. Keeps up to 4 days.

This is the kind of picture you get after a long day of baking. Sorry. It's delicious, I promise.

- Jenn

Ze best Sugar Cookies.....Evah.

Every year it seems like the same old grind for Christmas doesn't it?  Pickle, can, bake, re-bake, give-away....at least for me that's what it's like.  And each and every year I try a NEW sugar cookie recipe because the previous one was only so-so.  Well folks, I can proudly say that this year I finally have a go-to Sugar Cookie recipe, they are crunchy, buttery and amazing- not your average sugar cookie, behold:

Sugar Cookies
3 sticks of butter- you heard me
3 cups of white sugar- again, you heard me
2 eggs
1 tsp almond extract
2 tsp. vanilla exact, preferably homemade- that's right, I'm THAT girl
4 oz cream cheese-or half a package
4 1/2 cups sifted flour
3/4 tsp salt
2 1/2 tsp baking powder

Crapload of sprinkles in various colors.  This year I went with gold, silver, clear and azure.

Cream sugar and butter together in Kitchen Aid mixer (or whatever you got), add each egg, one at a time, totally incorporating the mixture, add the extracts and then add the cream cheese, again totally incorporating the mixture.

Sift the flour, salt and baking powder together and slowly start adding to the creamed mixture- on the lowest speed- trust me.  After a while, your mixer might start making funny noises and seem really full, but don't fear- your mixer wants to get this done for you, but also wants you to know you should have used a bigger bowl.  Shut up mixer,  it can still be done.

Once everything is incorporated, but the dough in the fridge for at least a few hours, preferably overnight.

Roll them out, cut them in cute shapes, sprinkle with sugar-whatever.  Bake them at 350 degrees for 16-18 minutes- yep, there is a lot of butter in them they need to bake, when they are slightly brown get 'em out of the oven, they are done!

Only sprinkles this year, baby!

Editor's note:  If you want NORMAL, regular, run-of-the-mill sugar cookies just follow the recipe exactly except reduce butter and sugar to 1 1/2 cups each and bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

-Jenny

Barbie Cake

   Another niece’s birthday, another cake challenge.  When I made my niece an owl cake for her 8^th birthday, it seemed to go over pretty well.  I certainly learned a lot about making a character cake and also about patience. Let’s just say it’s easier to crumb coat a cake that hasn’t been sliced into multiple pieces. There may have been some cursing involved. 

The owl

   Last month, my other niece requested that I make her a birthday cake with the following words, “Auntie Jenni, you are making my birthday cake!” 

   

   I like her style. She wanted a Barbie cake, so you all know what that means--the classic rounded skirt doll cake. After intimidating myself with all a bunch of amazing Barbie cake photos on the Internet, I went to Michaels and scoped out the available tools. I couldn’t bring myself to spring for the $20 Wilton “Teen Doll” skirt pan, but the thought of it haunted me later during the baking process.  (The Wilton pan has a metal core that sticks up in the middle of the dome to help ensure even baking for this odd-shaped cake.) I did grab the “Teen Doll” torso pick. I think because I was getting nervous and felt like I had to buy something. Once I got home, I realized that I couldn’t possibly use this imposter doll. I remember being a little girl and knowing when someone was trying to pass off a fake. Needless to say, I bought a Barbie.

Teen Doll, you aren’t fooling anyone.

   So here’s how it went down. I made one Funfetti cake mix (I know…) in a domed ceramic bowl. It had to cook it for 55 minutes before the wooden satay stick came out clean. The edges were a little brown, but I trimmed the darkest bits off and they tasted fine. (This is when I started wondering if I should have bought the damn Wilton pan.) Next, I baked a Devil’s Food cake mix (sigh) using the Cake Mix Doctor’s recipe, but I baked half the batter in a 9 inch round pan, made one oversized cupcake, and then used the rest to make 10 regular cupcakes. 

   Once the cakes were baked, I assembled the cake in the following manner: 9 inch round, icing, bowl cake, icing, large cupcake upside-down. Next, I wrapped Barbie, cut an X through the cake and then pushed Barbie all the way down and gave the whole thing a crumb coat using classic buttercream icing with a touch of shortening to make sure the icing would be firm. 

Is it just me or is this picture almost offensive?

The architect assists

After some time in the refrigerator, I was able to apply the fondant bodice and then do the final base coat of buttercream. The hard part was over. Piping on the decorative touches is the most fun, if you ask me. I find that using repeating patterns and simple designs is best with limited decorating skills. Also, I try to avoid the temptation to over-decorate. The final touch that really made this cake sparkle was the silver luster dust I brushed on Barbie’s fondant bodice.  All in all, it was a pretty good cake for a 5^th birthday. 

Extra cupcakes for the party

   Let’s not make one of these cakes again anytime soon.

- Jenn

Salted Caramel Sauce Dreams

Do you ever go to sleep at night and dream of salted caramel sauce?  I did 3 nights ago and ever since then I have been trying different techniques to get the best salted caramel sauce on earth.  The first technique involved heating sugar in a sauce pan until it melted- no water.  Tell you what, this recipe was for the birds.  Have you ever watched sugar turn into a liquid while staying rock hard in certain places?  One word-frustratingly stupid.  Two words.

Hate this method.  I had to strain the sauce at the end as not all the sugar fully dissolved.

The other method involves adding a small bit of water to your sugar to help turn it into a syrup quicker- and smoother.  This will be the recipe I'm sharing with you below, not the first recipe I tried.  Oh no, I save that only for my masochist cooking friends....you know who you are.  You are the ones who try recipes even though you are fairly certain they will fail, you are the ones who put things in your mouth even though the temperature just said 240 degrees on your candy thermometer, and you are the ones who poke sleeping bears.

Salted Caramel Sauce
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup water
1 cup heavy cream- warmed
3 T unsalted butter - Don't ask why it's unsalted or I will sic the bear on you
1 1/2 t vanilla extract
1- 1 1/2 t sea salt- all based on how salty you like it

Add the sugar and water in a heavy sauce pan and turn the heat on medium.  I like to swirl the water/sugar mixture every minute or so to help it dissolve evenly.  Once dissolved, you will let this bubble for about 10-12 minutes, until the sugar syrup turns a dark amber.  Once it is this color, turn off the heat.

Add the warmed cream(either warm it on the stove until it barely simmers, or stick it in the microwave for 60 seconds- you're the one who has to do the dishes afterward.)  It will bubble up furiously at this point- that's what it is supposed to do- start whisking.  Once the bubbling subsides, add the butter and vanilla, whisking again until everything is incorporated.  Then add the salt, start with the minimum amount, wait for it to cool slightly and then add more if your palate desires.

Pour the caramel into 4 oz or 8 oz mason jars and give away for gifts.  Or don't.  Sit in the corner of your kitchen in the dark and eat the whole jar with a spoon.  I won't judge you, but you are the one who has to fit in your cute New Years Eve party dress, not me.

-Jenny

Macaron Class From An "Expert"

In September I took a macaron class at a certain upscale kitchen store that shall not be named. The class was a generous and lovely birthday gift from my generous and lovely friend Linda. I was so excited about the class that I told Jenny about it and she too wanted to attend. She even brought her mother-in-law along.

The class description promised to teach “fail safe” methods for making perfect macarons every time.  Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? It is.

When we arrived to the class, we all took a seat and received a crisp white apron and an info packet containing an overview of mac making, the class recipes and some traceable macaron patterns. In order to make all of the macarons that had been promised in the class description (Lavender with white chocolate ganache! Chocolate with chocolate ganache! Lemon! Coconut!), we broke up into five groups of four and then…basically read how to make macarons off a sheet and then did it ourselves with the occasional help from one of the assistants.  In other words, we read a recipe and then made it. In more smug terms, if Jenny and I didn’t already know how to make macarons, we would have been lost. There were no little tips and tricks offered, just the basic details--definitely not fail-safe information.

This is the only picture I took. It's too bad I didn't document the final results.

We chose to make the lavender macarons with the white chocolate ganache, which sounded like a possibly nice, subtle combination. We had our shells piped and ready before any other group and so our macs were the first into the oven. Thank goodness because there were only two small ovens going and most of the other groups macarons set out too long before making it into the oven.  This seems like something they could have managed better, especially considering that this is one of their more popular classes.

Every group also made a different filling and it seems that there was not enough time allowed for the ganaches to set up before it came time to sandwich up our selection of misfit macaron shells. Again, something a popular class should have figured out by now.

Our shells were not bad in terms of the form, but they tasted like nasty, bitter soap. Maybe the instructor was washing out our mouths in advance because he knew we would have some dirty, dirty things to say following this expensive class. Whatever the reason, the recommended amount of lavender was way too high to make an edible cookie. And for the record, I actually enjoy lavender-flavored sweets. Many of the other groups’ cookies were cracked, under baked, or over baked, but we were given cheap little paper plates to take around so that we could make some little Frankenstein cookie samples to take home. Have you ever tried to fill a sandwich cookie with runny ganache? It’s not pretty. 

And the greediest part of all? After extorting a large fee for this class that would given me a macaron-baking phobia had I not already known what I was doing, the assistants made us turn in our aprons at the end of class. Really, Overpriced Cooking Store? You couldn’t spare the aprons?

On the bright side, it wasn’t a total loss because it was still a fun way to spend the morning with friends, and I guess that’s what I will remember most about it.

- Jenn

Cherry Bombs- they just scream Christmas, don't they?

So yesterday, I made one of my annual Christmas give-aways: Cherry Bombs.  What makes them especially Christmassy you ask?  Well, they are red and they will get you wasted.  Sounds Christmassy enough for me.

Cherry Bombs
Makes 12- 8 ounces jars
3- 36 ounce jars of maraschino cherries(the only place I can get these is Costco- 2 jars for $6.99!  Let the Christmas cheer begin!)
Reserved cherry juice from 2 of the jars
1 1/2 cups of vanilla simple syrup (recipe below)
Bacardi 151- about 2 cups, but you can adjust the cherry juice and rum to your liking.  Me?  After 2 cups of rum, my nose hairs start to burn off.

Mix the cherry juice, simple syrup and rum.  Clean and sterilize the jars and fill each one to the top with cherries.  Add the cherry juice/napalm mixture 1/4" to the top.  Screw the lids on and wait 2 weeks.  You need sufficient time for the cherries to soak up the rum mixture- otherwise what's the point?

When ready, you can eat straight from the jar or use as a sundae topping!
Enjoy!

Vanilla simple syrup
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
2 vanilla beans- cut in half and scraped of the seeds

Slowly dissolve water and sugar over a low flame.  Once sugar is dissolved, add vanilla beans and seeds and simmer for about 15 minutes.  Slowly strain the bigger pieces of the bean out, but you definitely want to leave the seeds in- so pretty!  You can use this for a number of recipes, so don't be shy, it will keep in the fridge for almost ever.


-Jenny

Pumpkin crack-um, I mean, cookies

Well, it seems I am off to a bit of a roll doesn't it?  Two in a row.  Like I said yesterday, we didn't stop baking, we just stopped writing about it and I feel like I have so many recipes and pictures to share that I need to start getting them out of my head and onto something more permanent like cyberspace.

When I was growing up, a sure sign of fall was the smell of pumpkin anything in the house.  My mom's specialty was the coveted puffy pumpkin cookies, you know the kind that are like a cake/scone without being too sweet?  I was in heaven whenever those were around and this year I knew I had to make them.

Pumpkin cookies
½ Cup butter
1 Cup sugar
½ Cup brown sugar
2 eggs- room temperature
1 small can pumpkin
2 ½ Cups flour
½ teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ginger
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Cream butter and sugars in a stand or electric mixer until creamy. Slowly add eggs and pumpkin, mixing until well combined.

Place flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Slowly add to wet mixture on low speed until just combined. With a cookie scoop, drop onto parchment or silpat lined baking sheet.

Bake for 11-13 minutes. Let cool completely.

To frost or not frost
I am obsesses with cream cheese frosting and this is how you make it, although, they are just as good unfrosted.

8oz package cream cheese, softened
3 Tablespoons butter, softened
2 ¼ Cups powdered sugar
1 vanilla bean scraped of its' seeds
Whisk cream cheese and butters in a Kitchen Aid mixer. Slowly stir in powdered sugar(with the mixer off people!) until smooth. Add in vanilla bean, mix for an additional 30 seconds.

Frost cooled cookies and sprinkle with candied lemon or orange peel or candy pumpkins- both are adorable.

Makes 3 dozen cookies

-Jenny

It's ok everyone, we are not dead

Well hello there!  It has been approximately 8 months since we have blogged and I wanted to assure everyone that we are ok.  We have not dropped off the face of the earth, we have not been in an accident where we have developed amnesia and started a new existence- say as rodeo clowns in Houston.  No, we simply became very lazy, a symptom of both getting jobs at the same time.  All of a sudden all of our normal, everyday activities, including blogging- became very difficult to accomplish after working an 8 hour day as we were incredibly tired.  Women with kids, our hats are off to you!

But we never stopped baking.  Oh no, in fact, I would say we have started baking more.  Between Barbie cakes, cake pops, macarons and brownies, we have using more sugar than ever, although I still haven't topped my personal best of going through 10 pounds of sugar in 1 week. 

So what is my new favorite thing to bake you ask?  Meringues.  I am obsessed with these little, lighter than air confections.  Fat free and full of sugar, yes please!

Meringues
3 egg whites- room temperature
1/3 c granulated sugar
1/2 c powdered sugar-sifted
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp flavoring- peppermint or vanilla extract
food coloring- if using

Place your 3 egg whites and salt in a Kitchen Aid mixer bowl and start whipping on a very high speed.  Once foamy, gradually add the granulated sugar, when the mixture starts to rise and look thicker gradually add the powdered sugar (You might want to do this with the mixer not running- trust me).  This is also the point you can add in any flavorings.  Once the meringue is set enough (about 10 minutes) so that when you tip the bowl over your head nothing moves you are good to go.

Add the meringue to a piping bag with a 1/4" or 1/2" tip (this is also the time I like to add food coloring, if you want your meringues to be cool and tie-dyed) and pipe 1 inch meringues- taller the better if you ask me.

Vanilla meringues

Red swirled peppermint meringues

Bake at 200 degrees for 2 1/2 hours.  After 2 1/2 hours turn the oven off and leave the meringues in the oven for another few hours.  Once completely cooled you can dip in chocolate, which is my new favorite thing to do.  Voila!

-Jenny