Day Eight: Frosted Sugar Cookies

It's not Christmas without frosted sugar cookies, right?  This year, I googled a recipe that was a roll-out cookie dough recipe that used Cream of Tartar.  My grandmother's cookie recipe is the best, but it's a drop sugar cookie recipe and I always end up adding all of this extra flour, so I decided to try a new recipe this year.  I also decided to make my "signature" butter cream instead of royal icing or any other type of frosting.

 Another recipe that calls for powdered sugar instead of granulated.

 Gotta soften that butter up!

 Mix the dry ingredients first, set aside.

 Other "stuff."

 Flour up that baking mat.

  I actually had to add a lot of flour to this recipe in order to get it to roll out as well.

 Ready for the oven!

 So yummy all baked and fresh!  My friend Beckie recently reminded me that our first Christmas in NC we made sugar cookies like these and kept wondering if they were done since they don't really get browned!  So funny.

 Cooling and ready for the frosting.

 I could go all "Martha" on these, but some things are just left classic.  I think I made them cute, but not over-the-top!  I used a lot of my cupcake decor on these cookies.

 And a Michigan State stocking, too!

Merry Christmas!!!

By the way - Steve said that these cookies were his favorite sugar cookies ever!

Day Seven: Candy Cane Cookies

 When I saw these cookies on one of my favorite blogs I squealed!  My mom and I used to make these at Christmastime, and I was so excited to find a recipe and to try them again this year.

Candy Cane Cookies

 I like to soften my butter on the oven that is preheating, but I have to be careful that it doesn't get melty.  The best way to soften butter is really to just let it come to room temperature, but that takes a long time!

 I got to use my fancy almond extract again!  This stuff smells so freaking good!  But - just a warning - don't try to lick it off your hand if some drips on your finger.  Nope, don't try that at home!

 I like to use this method for sifting sugar and flour lately because the sifters all get rusty.  I've read a lot of the bloggers do it this way too, because of the rusty sifters.

 This recipe calls for butter, powdered sugar, almond extract and vanilla extract.

 Oops!  And an egg!  I almost forgot the egg. 

 Weird - adding the egg made it soupy and weird-looking.

 Never fear, the flour and salt made the batter turn into this beautiful mixture.

 I always have a hard time dividing the dough into two batches, because the one left in the mixer never looks like enough.

 I just couldn't tell!  But anyway, I wandered over to my new cupcake cart - isn't it great?

 I opened up my accessory drawer to get some food coloring (all three of those boxes in front there are food gel coloring - long story.)

 I chose my "super red" or whatever, and I also added a bit of brown to darken the red from a "pink."

 What a pain!  I remembered why I haven't made these since I was young with my mom - they do not roll well, they do not twist well, it was a huge pain in the butt!

 I had these little balls and rolled them - it was hard to take a picture because my gloves were all red and sticky.

 Here they are all baked!  They are cute but a lot of them broke, and they really don't taste all that great.  They are okay.  Definitely cute and I'm glad I tried them again!

Day Six: Cinnamon Blobs

Well, you win some, you lose some, right?  That's what they say?  These gluten free bakery favorites just did NOT turn out for me, even though I tried twice!!  They may not be pretty, but they taste - well, okay.  I guess they taste okay.

                                                             Cinnamon Blobs

I started out strong:

 8 oz of blanched almonds, ready to be ground.

 My handy-dandy little grinder.

 Lemon grater with lemon zest and leftover lemon.  Poor lemon - I didn't a particular use for the fruit this time!

First you mix the ground almonds with cinnamon and lemon zest.

 Next, you froth up some eggs, add some salt, and keep on frothing.  This is where chaos set in.  I got the eggs to stiff peaks as required, but adding the sugar made it this ooey, gooey mess.  Steve said just to keep beating but it kept being gooey.  Not stiff.  so I started over again.  The next batch was headed in the same direction, and after reading up on meringues, it said that you really should only use about 1/4 c sugar for each egg white.  But this recipe called for 2 egg whites and 1 1/2 cups of sugar!  So I just added less sugar.  The mixture wasn't perfect but it wasn't gooey. 

 I then added the nut mixture and instantly knew this was not right. You were supposed to be able to roll it out and use a star cookie cutter, but the dough was far too wet and wouldn't stick together the right way, so after I sat on the couch and pouted for about 20 minutes (it was 11:00 at night after all) I went back and just made blobs of dough on the baking sheet. 

 After baking 10 minutes, you add some of the meringue and bake for 5 additional minutes.

They aren't pretty, they taste "ok" but not great, but at least they're made.  I learned a lot from this, too.  That is true of all baking disasters!  Looking back on it, I'm thinking that one thing I could have done differently is grind the almonds even more, so it would act more like flour. 

Oh well!  Live and learn and keep on baking.

Day Five: Peanut Butter Blossoms

These cookies are an old stand-by, but I like to add this little twist:

 These chocolate stars are the bane of my existence. Seriously. I have been looking for them EVERYWHERE.  I saw a suggestion a few years ago to use these stars instead of Hershey Kisses.  Last year I easily ordered them on amazon, but this year no-such-luck.  I went on the Brach's website, found a local reseller, and when I got there they told me they were no longer available, unless I wanted to order a case of 24 bags.  Several drug and grocery stores later, still no luck.  I went back to amazon and found ONE reseller who said that these used to be unavailable but recently came back into stock.  So I ordered them up, and paid shipping and everything.  That is how committed I am to my little chocolate stars.  Not only are they cuter, they also spread the chocolate-to-cookie ratio out.  And they are just a higher quality chocolate overall, which of course leads to a better cookie!

I didn't take many photos this time around, but I did want to take picture of this beautiful batter!  It was close to last night's but different - this one made with Crisco.

Rolled balls of goodness!

These actually go into the oven in balls - no pressing needed. 

When done, they come out fluffy and cracked.

You then push your chocolate down immediately - and get that crackled, delicious look.  The chocolate will melt a bit, but that is great because it adheres to the cookie this way.  Just be patient and let them harden back up before storing them, or you'll have a chocolaty mess.

This batch only made 42 cookies, and these are my favorite, so I am definitely going to need to make a second batch sometime after Christmas.  Yum, yum!

P.S. All of my cookie recipes can be found on google.  :D