Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

I've been hearing a lot of talk about the U.S. birthrate being down, but you would never know it based on my friends and family. Lots of new babies have been born around here lately - to friends and family alike.

To celebrate the latest baby girl, I made some playful sugar and spice cookies. I wanted to do something fun that I could manage on a weeknight.

The "golden-brown" edges on the lollipops are just my oven's way of saying, "Gotcha!"

The spice component consisted of chai tea cookies with buttercream icing. I omitted the crystallized ginger and instead used sanding sugar as a decorative center for my cut-out flowers. These cookies are very crispy and with the buttercream icing they become truly addictive. You have been warned.

For the sugar, I made a basic sugar cookie recipe and then divided it up into three equal parts, coloring each with white, pink, and purple food coloring. I couldn't begin to detail the process anywhere near as well as SweetSugarBelle does, so please check out her post for more details on how to twist the dough into these cookie lollipops.

The results were tasty, fun and not as much work as you might think. What a rare treat!

 - Jenn

Welcome, Baby Jack!

If anyone is actually still checking this blog, I will be very impressed by their dedication. As it turns out, Jenny and I are not as active at blogging as we would like to think we might be. She has a pretty good excuse though, what with having a newborn and all. I have no such excuse.

The good news is: we haven't stopped baking. It's the bakiest (I just made up a word!) time of year again, so maybe we will find the time to share some of our creations over the next few weeks.

To follow-up on my nonchalant mention above that Jenny had a baby, I should mention that she's doing great. Jack is a quite the cute little man and both Jenny and her husband are enjoying the newest member of the family. Rumor has it that Grendel is thrilled to finally have a brother!

To welcome Jack home from the hospital, I baked these sugar cookies using the Fred Letterpress cookie cutters. They took a little figuring out, but it was pretty simple once I got the hang of it. Although, there's nothing like baking sugar cookies during a 90 degree October heatwave to make you wonder whether you have lost your mind. Totally worth it though.

We are so glad you are here, Jack! Congrats to Jenny and John!

- Jenn

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

It’s Like Buttah

Some friends graciously invited us over for brunch at their house tomorrow morning. I offered to contribute some scones and I knew just the type I wanted to make: cherry almond. I’m a pretty big fan of all kinds of scones, but cherry almond seems to have that extra special something. I think it might be the pairing of the sweet almond with the slight tart of the cherry.

Since my best scone recipe relies on eggnog, I turned to the all-knowing Internet to find a recipe. I came across this great-looking one by Anne Burrell, and that’s where things got a little wild. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/anne-burrell/dried-cherry-almond-scones-recipe/index.html

As you can see, her recipe comes with an added bonus recipe for “honey butter.” As in “butter made from whipping cream and flavored with honey.” Well, I couldn’t think of a better way to burn up the afternoon, so I got the ingredients and gave it a whirl. Or rather, I gave it many, many whirls in the stand mixer. I followed Anne’s instructions carefully and beat that cream, honey, and orange rind until it curdled and gave off the buttermilk liquid. However, you will note that the recipe tells you that the solids will separate from the liquids and to continue beating until the butter comes together in one large clump. What she doesn’t tell you is to drain off the buttermilk and that’s pretty much a key point. If you don’t get rid of the liquid, it just keeps sloshing around and mixing the liquid through your butter solids and continues to look disgusting. After I realized this omission and drained the buttermilk off, I also added more honey to taste and beat it all until I liked the texture and form. Here’s the finished product.

We will see how it goes over tomorrow. I think it will be wonderful on the cherry almond scones.

Here are my two butter Pro Tips for anyone else who wants to attempt this perfect Saturday afternoon project.

1.)  Use a kitchen towel to cover the mixer so that you don’t get heavy cream and the inevitable buttermilk all over you, your mixer, and your kitchen.

2.)  For the love of Pete, drain off that buttermilk!

- Jenn