Snickerdoodles

Snickerdoodles are not one of those cookies that I often think of making but I'm usually so glad that I picked them to bake once they come out the oven. I don't know why we sometimes try to find complicated recipes that test our cooking and baking skills when we have some very delicious and simple ones to use.

I love how easy snickerdoodles are to make and how yummy they smell coming out of the oven. Truly a recipe worth keeping and using over and over again. Enjoy!


Snickerdoodles
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
2 eggs
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Mix 1 1/2 cups sugar, butter, shortening, and eggs. Stir in flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt. Shape into 1 1/4- inch balls.

Mix 1/4 cup sugar and the cinnamon. Roll balls in mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until set. Cool on wire rack.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies

Flower Bouquets

I would have to say that while I love baking I don't know that I will ever open my own bakery. Holy cow! I had someone ask me if I could make 8 flower pot cookie bouquets to give as gifts and I agreed. Probably not the best idea while one is trying to wrap up the school year, finish report cards, organize records, and such.

The cookie baking didn't seem too difficult, although I had to bake them in much smaller batches than normal because of the sticks. The icing though was a bit of work. I think I stood hunched over the counter for four hours straight. Seriously! After about an hour in my little guy went to bed and my husband was gone for the evening so I decided to plug in Pride and Prejudice (just my 2 hour version, not the 6 hour one). I watched (you can put air quotes around watched for me) the whole movie and then the second half again. Just as I was finishing up the last cookie and my movie my husband walked in the door. I think it was about 11pm by that time and I was sooo ready for bed. It was a fun experience but I don't know if I'll be volunteering to do it again any time soon. Enjoy! 

Every available counter space had cookies cooling or drying

For the sugar cookie and frosting recipe, click here.

Cookie Bouquet

Giving cookies as gifts must be one of my love languages! Many, many years ago, before I started baking and decorating sugar cookies I made a cookie bouquet for a birthday gift for someone. At the time it was a very "out of the box" kind of thing to do. Now, it seems that cookie bouquets are all the rage. Fun to give, but usually very expensive for the product you are getting. It was precisely the inflated cost that had me looking to make my own bouquet so long ago.

I realize that this is probably a much simpler version of what you might buy, but it just goes to show that you can give a fun gift at a much lower cost. I bought the terra cotta pot for around $1.00 and painted it in pretty "girly" spring colors to match the tissue and confetti paper. I used a special chocolate chip cookie recipe that worked well for large sized cookie pops. It was a while ago, but I believe I made butterscotch chip, chocolate chip, and chocolate chip with walnuts.

Now, these many years later I might do something different. Maybe spice it up with colors, or add more pizazz to the pot or decorations, or do iced sugar cookies. Who knows? The possibilities are numerous, so I guess I'll just have to find more occasions in which to parcel out my baked goods. Enjoy!

I Heart Sugar Cookies

Better late than never, right? I mean, technically, it is still the month of February and I consider this whole month fair game for gooey, squishy, lovey sayings and sweets.

That being said, I did have these cookies baked and cooled a few days before Valentine's. Then life happened. My husband left quickly to go back to be with his brother dealing with some not great stuff and I ended up spending Valentine's without my hubby around. Having to become the primary caregiver of our son while working full-time proved to be just a bit too much in finding time to ice cookies. My mom was over to help (thank goodness or it really would have been a mess) but I was pretty much exhausted by the end of every day. The idea of spending a few hours bent over cookies was not appealing at the time. So, I did what any cookie baker does when lacking motivation. I stuck them in the freezer.

A week and a half later when life slowed down, I pulled them out again and found the inspiration to get them iced and eaten. Enjoy!

You can find the recipe for the cookies and icing here.


And aren't these little candies cute! I ended up making them for my students as a little Valentine treat. They are easy to make and pretty tasty too. Square pretzels with a Hershey hug on top, bake in oven for about 3-5 minutes. Remove from oven and squish down center with a chocolate candy. I had all sorts of holiday colors swirling in my brain for an easy candy idea.

Baby Boy Cookies

Aren't these just as sweet as can be? My heart just melts when I think about a new little baby. What better way to welcome a little guy into the world than some sugar cookies just as sweet as he is.

I made these for a baby shower that never ended up happening. Not because the sweet little boy didn't make his appearance, because he did, well actually, they did since it was for two little baby boys. No, it didn't happen because we had a snow storm that ended up closing school for the week in which the shower was going to happen. I thought I was being super prepared by making the cookies on Sunday and icing them on MLK day. Plenty of time to be ready for the shower on Thursday. All I needed to do was to bake the cakes and I was golden. Or so I thought. Then the snow fell . . . and fell . . . and fell. The snow was followed by ice and my first requested "gig" was not to be.

It's not all a sad story. The cookies did eventually get eaten, and by the people who would have most likely attended the shower. I thought about saving them for the rescheduled date but the icing was starting to discolor because I didn't get them into bags soon enough. They were still tasty though. And in the end who can be sad when cute little baby boys are involved. Enjoy!

You can find the cookie and icing recipe here.

Gingerbread Snowmen

Sigh. Cheer. This is the last Christmas cookie post. I am torn because while it was fun to bake over the holidays it was also difficult to find ways to give these things away so we weren't eating dozens and dozens of cookies! Our neighbors, friends, and co-workers can only eat so many Christmas cookies. We know because we pawned them off on all these unsuspecting people.

Amazingly, in all my years of baking I had yet to make gingerbread cookies. In fact, as you can see from the title of this post, I don't even own a gingerbread man cookie cutter (hopefully that will be remedied sometime soon).

I was just about cookied out but really wanted to make gingerbread boys with my little boy this year. I decided to use a recipe posted by a friend since I was pretty sure that pure gingerbread made with molasses would be a bit strong for my little guy's picky palate. This recipe uses butterscotch pudding instead so it makes a gingerbread cookie that tastes like gingerbread without the overly sticky dough that isn't fun for a 5 year old (or his mom) to work with.

We had a very enjoyable time mixing the dough, rolling it out, cutting the snowmen, and baking. The 5 year old's attention span fell apart the next day when it came to decorating, but he was perfectly willing to enjoy the fruits of our labors while driving around after dark dressed in jammies, sipping hot chocolate, nibbling on gingerbread snowmen while looking at brilliantly glowing Christmas lights. Enjoy!

Gingerbread Men
Source: All Recipes

1 (3.5 oz.) package of cook and serve butterscotch pudding mix
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

In a medium bowl, cream together the dry butterscotch pudding mix, butter, and brown sugar until smooth. Stir in the egg. Combine the flour, baking soda, ginger, and cinnamon; stir into the pudding mixture. Cover, and chill dough until firm, about 1 hour. 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease baking sheets or use parchment paper. 

On a floured board, roll dough out to about 1/8 inch thickness, and cut into shapes using a cookie cutter. Place cookies 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until cookies are golden at the edges. Cool on wire racks.

Christmas Tree Sugar Cookies

These were not cookies for just any old occasion, these particular cookies had a special destination. No, it was not my stomach! They helped disadvantaged kids have a great morning celebrating the Christmas season at a community event. I almost didn't get them iced in time, seeing as how I read the message and knew I needed to ice them Thursday night and then somehow transferred it in my brain to needing to ice them Friday night. Thank goodness I run by where the event was being held so I was able to stop in on my way back home to make sure there was still enough time to bring the 3 dozen cookies I had promised. Who can turn away a sugar cookie, after all? No one that I know. Enjoy!

You can find the cookie and icing recipe here.

Snowflake Sugar Cookies

The saying goes "no two snowflakes are alike". Do you know how hard it is to stick to that saying when you are decorating cookies? These snowflakes became a bit tedious, as you can probably imagine. The blue and white base went fairly quick, but the snowflake design took a bit of time. You may have noticed that there are three white ones underneath the decorated flakes that are completely white. Yep. I made the executive decision to throw in the towel. That is the great thing about doing this for fun. You don't have to keep decorating if you don't want to! Enjoy!

You can find the recipe for these sugar cookies and icing here.

Mitten Sugar Cookies

I love cute little mittens! In the form of sugar cookies they are even better! I can't rave enough about this sugar cookie and icing recipe. It makes cookie baking and decorating so much fun. Enjoy!

You can find the recipe for the cookies and icing here.

Pumpkin Cookies with Brown Butter Icing

I know that people think pumpkins are usually for October or Thanksgiving, but really pumpkins are great any time of the year, right. I did actually make these cookies in the middle of November and I've had them sitting in my folder waiting to get posted since then. I thought about doing a 12 days of Cookies theme, but I only have 7 cookies planned for the Christmas break and between a lack of time and a husband who balked at even these 7 different cookies I thought I wouldn't push my luck. 

These cookies were a bit of a challenge for me. They didn't seem to puff up as much as I thought they would. A bit flat, but very tasty. The icing had a great browned butter flavor but also seemed a bit thin to me. It worked for the event that my husband took them to, but I think if I make them again there will need to be some changes. What, I'm not sure about yet. Enjoy!    

Pumpkin Cookies with Brown Butter Icing

Source: Brown Eyed Baker

2¾ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1¼ teaspoons kosher salt
1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
1¼ teaspoons ground ginger
¾ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¾ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2¼ cups light brown sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1½ cups pureed pumpkin (or canned)
¾ cup half-and-half
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Icing:
4 cups powdered sugar
10 tablespoons unsalted butter
¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon half-and-half
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter and brown sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the eggs until combined. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the pumpkin, half-and-half and vanilla. Beat until very well blended, about 2 minutes (the batter may look grainy at this point, but don’t worry, it will come together). Keep the mixer on low and gradually add the dry ingredients, mixing until just combined. Use a rubber spatula to give it a final mix, incorporating any flour on the sides and scraping the bottom of the bowl.

Use a large cookie scoop to scoop balls of the batter onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving about 1½ inches between them. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the tops of the cookies spring back when lightly pressed. Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack and let the cookies cool for 5 minutes then remove them to the rack to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining batter.

To make the icing: Add the powdered sugar to a heatproof bowl. Put the butter in a small saucepan over medium heet and let it start melting. Continue cooking, swirling occasionally, until the butter becomes golden brown and smells nutty (be paitent and watch carefully, it can go from brown to burnt quickly). Remove it from the heat and pour it over the powdered sugar, scraping the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Add the half-and-half and vanilla and stir until the icing is smooth. Using a small offset spatula, spread icing on each cookie. (If the icing stiffens before you get them all frosted, stir vigorously to lighten it up.)


Note #1: You can substitute evaporated milk for the half-and-half in both the cookies and the icing.

Note #2: If you don’t have a cookie scoop, transfer the batter to a pastry bag fitting with a plain tip (or use a ziploc bag with the corner snipped off) and pipe 1½-inch rounds onto the prepared baking sheet.

Makes about 3 dozen

Pumpkin Sugar Cookies

These pumpkins were so much fun to make! Way better than carving a real pumpkin and having to grab out ooey, gooey pumpkin guts. Wait, I still get to do that too so I guess I get the best of both worlds.

I actually worked on these cookies over about a week's time which was a nice experience. I'm usually of the mind frame of waiting until the last minute because I want them to be the freshest possible. However with these particular cookies that just wasn't going to work. Well, I shouldn't say that. It worked for about half of them.

I made two batches, one for my son's preschool class treats on his "star" day and one for my class at school a week later. His cookies for preschool were baked on Sunday, iced on Monday, and eaten on Tuesday. It was a long night on Monday after working a full day, coming home and making dinner, putting him to bed and then getting started on decorating. Let's just say the picture I had in my mind wasn't what came out on the cookies. The only saving grace I had that night was the reassuring thought that they were going to be eaten by preschoolers who hopefully had not yet developed into sugar cookie snobs.

Looking back on it they really didn't turn out too bad. The other batch was also baked on Sunday night, a few were iced on Monday. Most were then put into the fridge where I took them out every few days to add the icing. One day I iced all the stems. Another day I got almost all of the orange finished. The last day I finished the orange and did the green leaves and curling stems. It was so much fun on that last day to be able to add detail and not feel rushed.

I'm really happy with how they turned out. My husband ended up buying me a decorating tip and smaller disposable bag because the squirt bottles I typically use were just not small enough to get the leaf and curly stem detail. More practice needed, but not too bad at the end of the day. Enjoy!

You can find my favorite recipe for sugar cookies and royal icing here.

Leaf Sugar Cookies

All last year I wanted to make leaf shaped sugar cookies but I couldn't find any leaf cookie cutters locally. I didn't want to buy online, and I couldn't get down to the big city to check out the cookie cutter store. A whole year has gone by and I finally made not one, but two trips to the big city just to get a leaf shaped cookie cutter!

I guess technically it was three times that I made the trip. The first time we were just passing through and we got there about an hour after the store closed. No big deal, we'll just stop by on way back through tomorrow. Um, nope. Didn't happen to notice the sign on the door when stopping by the first time that stated that the business would be closed on the next business day. Oops, a bit out of the way so hubby was not a happy camper. A week later, a special trip, and voila, leaf shaped cookie cutter in my possession! (I'll also have you know that I purchased a few Christmas ones and another apple because who knows when I will be getting down there again.)

Was it worth it? Absolutely! One happy boy who got to take cookies for his preschool star day, one happy mama who now has a leaf cookie cutter, and one happy hubby who gets to eat the spoils.

I used my tried and true sugar cookie recipe that you can find here.

Bushels of Apples Sugar Cookies

What better way to mark the start of the school year than with a bushel of apples. Or maybe I should say a batch of apples . . . sugar cookies that is. These cookies were made in honor of me going back into the classroom after an almost 5 year break and my son starting preschool.

All but one was either green or yellow, with just one red apple to complete the trio. I had planned to divide the cookies evenly into red, green, and yellow but after adding too much red food coloring for my taste and conscience I decided that all but one would be green or yellow. They turned out quite nicely, beautiful thick icing evenly coating the apple and a bit of glitter dust to finish it off. They were a hit at work and already have me thinking about what other cookies I am going to be baking this school year. Enjoy!

Note: This is the same recipe I have used for all but one of my sugar cookies. It is the best ever. Not overly sweet and the royal icing is a great compliment for decorating but doesn't add to the taste.
 
Sugar Cookies
Source: Treats

1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla extract and mix until egg is completely incorporated. Add flour, baking powder, and salt; mix until no trace of dry ingredients remain.

Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to about 1/4" thickness and cut shapes using cookie cutters.

Bake for about 10 minutes or until bottoms are golden brown.

Royal Icing
4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup meringue powder
slightly less than a 1/2 cup of water
food coloring

Mix powdered sugar and meringue powder until well blended. Add water and mix until you get the consistency that you want. Add food coloring to achieve your desired color. Use pastry bags with #1 and #3 tips or plastic squeeze bottles to decorate.

For outlining: consistency should be like glue paste
For flooding: add enough water so that when you lift a spoonful of icing it runs back into the bowl and blends into the other icing in about 2 to 3 seconds

Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have to admit that when I was flipping through the Better Home and Garden magazine while waiting for my son's appointment at the pediatrician I was either really  hungry or these cookies looked way better than they came out in my kitchen. Not that they were bad, but I wouldn't say that they were stellar either. Pretty much your average run of the mill chocolate chip cookie with some dried cherries thrown in. (You can see I added a few white chocolate chips as well as semi-sweet but that didn't do much for it.) I do have to say that one of the positives is that they seem to freeze well. We had a few fresh out of the oven and then threw the rest in a bag in the freezer where they still sit today waiting for us to get in the mood for chocolate chip cookies once again. Enjoy!

Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookies
Source: Better Homes and Gardens

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 12 oz package semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup snipped dried cherries

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugars, baking soda, and salt. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in eggs and vanilla until combined. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour. Stir in chocolate chips and cherries.

Drop dough by tablespoons 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 9 minutes. Transfer to racks. Cool.

Makes 6 dozen

Dipped Shortbread

Another item crossed off my top 100 list! Sugar cookies are usually my thing but I decided to branch out and try a dipped shortbread.  I'm so glad I did!

I chose a recipe from the Barefoot Contessa. Her thick, rectangular shortbread cookies drizzled with chocolate looked so appealing that I knew it was the one I wanted to try for my first shortbread recipe.

I made very few changes to the recipe. The ingredient list is the same except for the addition of 3 ounces of white chocolate along with the semi-sweet chocolate. The only change I made in the process of making them was to roll the shortbread dough to a sugar cookie thickness and to cut with a cookie cutter. Personally, I think that they could be cut even smaller and drizzled lightly with chocolate over the entire surface. Small, rich, chocolatey, good. Enjoy!  

Dipped Shortbread
Source: Slightly modified from the Food Network

3/4 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped
3 ounces white chocolate, finely chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. 

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix together the butter and 1 cup of sugar until they are just combined. Add the vanilla.

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour and salt, then add them to the butter and sugar mixture. Mix on low speed until the dough starts to come together. Dump onto a surface dusted with flour and shape into a flat disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.

Roll the dough and cut with a cookie cutter. Place the cookies on an ungreased baking sheet and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for about 10 minutes, until the edges begin to brown. Allow to cool to room temperature.

When the cookies are cool, place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Put 3 ounces of the semi-sweet chocolate in a glass bowl and microwave on high power for 30 seconds. Stir with a wooden spoon. Continue to heat and stir in 30-second increments until the chocolate is just melted. Repeat the steps with the white chocolate. Allow them to sit at room temperature, stirring often, until completely smooth. Stir vigorously until the chocolate is smooth and slightly cooled; stirring makes it glossier.

Drizzle 1/2 of each cookie with just enough chocolate to coat it.

Almond Cookies

These are the almond cookies that I baked for my middle layer of my last Daring Bakers challenge. They are yummy by themselves, and I have found that they also freeze pretty well. Enjoy!

Almond Cookies
Source: Taste of Home

1 cup shortening
1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar, divided
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sliced almonds

In a small bowl, cream the shortening, 1/2 cup sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and almond extract. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well.

Shape into 1-in. balls. Roll in remaining sugar. Place 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Flatten with the bottom of a glass. Press three almond slices into the center of each.

Bake at 350° for 9-11 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Cool for 2 minutes before removing to wire racks. Yield: 3 dozen.

Love Letters & Lingerie (Sugar Cookies)

WARNING: Some content further down the page may be offensive to very sensitive viewers. Don't say I didn't warn you!

I have had this sugar cookie idea bookmarked for a REALLY long time. At least it feels like a REALLY long time when you bookmark it on February 15th and don't use it until February 14th of the following year. Needless to say, I can now move it out of my saved bookmarks because I finally made these cookies. Really you could make love letter cookies anytime of the year, not just on Valentine's, but I decided that these were going to be my project this year for my sweeties.

Both of them were oogling the plain sugar cookies, asking me more than once what I intended to use them for and could they just eat them already. I just about had to give away the secret to stop the hounding that was happening more than once a day. Yes, you heard that correctly, more than once a day.

In the end though they were glad they waited. And after hounding me so much, I was surprised when I came home from subbing and my husband's love letter cookie was still sitting on the plate. He told me that he ate the envelope (yes, that sounds funny to me too) but he just couldn't bring himself to eat the love letter because it was so pretty. After a short pause I gave him permission and he proceeded to bite right in. No love lost, I guess? My son on the other hand was also super impressed but a little disappointed because he didn't get a smiley face signing off his letter.

And now (remember if you easily offend you won't want to proceed further) . . .

I haven't had this sugar cookie idea bookmarked for long at all. In fact, I think it was only a week or two ago that a friend posted it on her facebook page as a link and I had to go take a peek. After looking at a few different sites I decided that I had to make these. They were fun, but it is a little disconcerting when you think about the fact that you have to take a bite out of them! Enjoy!

Love Letter Source: Slash Food
Lingerie Source: How Does She
Sugar Cookie and Royal Icing Recipe (I only did half of a batch of icing): All Betz Off

Flower Pot Cookies

For the start of our MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) year I made these flower pot cookies as a giveaway gift. I tried to decorate the cookies to look like the flowers on the pot, and as you can see they are close but not exact. I guess I could have put a few more lines in there and it would have looked okay. Isn't it funny when you have one picture in your mind and then you put it next to the real thing and it's not quite like you had pictured it!

You can find the cookie recipe here. Enjoy!

And the cookies below were given to the MOPPETS workers (those who watch the kids) for their first thank you gift of the year.

Daring Bakers - Decorated Sugar Cookies

 The September 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Mandy of “What the Fruitcake?!" Mandy challenged everyone to make Decorated Sugar Cookies based on recipes from Peggy Porschen and The Joy of Baking.

I knew this day would come sometime, I just didn't know when. It is the day when I hesitate to write my Daring Bakers post because I wasn't exactly thrilled with the challenge. I know, I know, and I feel terrible even typing this up. I know that our hostess worked hard to come up with a challenge, search for recipes, show examples, and give encouragement. That being said, I still really didn't like this recipe.

I'm not sure if it is because I have a great sugar cookie recipe already and this didn't exactly measure up or just because of life's circumstances those couple of days or what. I don't want to be too dreary so I'll just tell you what I didn't care for about it and be done with it. The cookies were completely blah. They really didn't taste like anything. I know that royal icing isn't supposed to have a flavor, it just adds decoration and pizazz to the cookie, but this cookie didn't have any flavor either. I also love the fact that my stand-by sugar cookie, while tasting great, also requires no refrigeration. I actually came across my stand-by recipe on another Daring Baker's blog while searching around when I was new to the club.

Okay, back to the current cookies. We were challenged to decorate a cookie based on September and what it means to us. A few years ago when I was a teacher in a public school classroom I would have chosen a myriad of school supplies or some such thing. I also thought about leaves but couldn't find a leaf cookie cutter and wasn't adventurous enough to make my own. I got to thinking and realized that while I do think of objects for September I more often than not think in terms of color. Colors for fall, like orange, brown, yellow, red, and maybe even some green are what roll through my head and flood my vision. That got me to thinking that I could use some practice on marbling colors together and just playing around with the royal icing because I've never really had a chance to do that before.

I started by using a toothpick to add some color to the icing while still wet. Once I got a feel for that, I moved on to trying out objects and designs using my fall colors. I started with the green leaf and after thinking it looked a little plain, I added some brown. I then did the same for the red leaf.

I then moved away from using white as a base, for the most part, and started swirling the other colors together to see what would happen. I had fun with this but it was a bit tedious only using little dabs of colors here and there. My designs definitely aren't perfect and there are some not quite round circles and some air bubbles in others, but on the whole I was pleased with the way they turned out.

By the time I got to these cookies I was just trying to finish. I wanted all the cookies iced and all the icing gone. I thought that they actually looked decent, for the most part, and once again realized that sometimes you can try too hard (as with the earlier cookies) and when you stop trying you might get what you wanted in the first place.

I did enjoy this challenge in that it gave me an opportunity to sit and play with royal icing for a few hours while my son was napping. I also enjoyed the fact that I didn't have to make them for anyone in particular or for any event so I could just experiment with some different techniques. I also liked the fact that I really didn't gain any calories from this challenge since I wasn't enticed to eat them.

If you would like the recipe, please email me.

"Mock" Levain Bakery Cookies

Ever heard of the Levain Bakery? Ever heard of their monster chocolate chip cookies? If you have, and you don't live in New York, then you most likely heard about them on Throwdown with Bobby Flay. And if you have not heard of them yet they are monster-monster-monster cookies.

When we were in Hawaii we had some early nights because of our son's bedtime which forced us to watch television more than we normally do at home. Anytime I get the chance to watch a myriad of channels I head straight for the Food Network, Travel channel, and TLC because we basically just get local channels at home. Woohoo to extended channels! Anyway, as I was saying, after watching Throwdown both my husband and I were fascinated by these cookies. So fascinated that he requested that I make them for a meeting where he was supposed to provide the refreshments. That was all the prompting I needed. I headed straight for the computer and typed in my key words but the result was a little deflating. You see, they don't publish their famous cookie recipe, and although I understand the reasoning behind it was definitely disappointing.

I had to console myself with the links they have to "mock" Levain chocolate chip cookie recipes. These are basically other people's attempts to try to figure out their secret combination of ingredients and baking methods. I guess imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!

I needed to make three batches (since one only makes 14 cookies), so I was actually able to try two of the recipe links. There didn't seem to be a huge difference between the two and unfortunately I didn't keep them separated long enough to get pictures of each side by side. Both recipes are posted below.

I don't think I can adequately portray just how large these cookies are. I had to use my biggest tupperware bowl (which does not get used very often) to hand mix the dough. I also measured the entire amount of my dough and then divided by the total number of cookies I needed so I knew how much each cookie should weigh. You can also see from my picture of the halfway baking time that no matter how good your oven is it still bakes somewhat unevenly and it's always a good idea to turn the pan halfway through.

These cookies were fabulous! They were large and they were yummy. I think the difference with the Levain cookies is that they not only have circumference but they also have height and volume to their monster cookies. You could make a monster cookie out of any cookie dough recipe but you won't get the height and volume like these guys. Click here for the Levain Bakery site with their recipe links. Enjoy!

Just for kicks, here is a cookie comparison between a regular sized oreo cookie and a "Mock" Levain chocolate chip cookie!

Recipezaar "Mock" Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookies
Source: Food.com and Cheeky Kitchen

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup cold butter
3/4 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
2 large eggs, cold
12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup walnuts or pecans, if desired (not chopped or coarsely chopped)

In a large mixing bowl, add flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut in cold butter until mixture resembles crumbs. Add sugars and stir well, breaking up any brown sugar clumps. Add eggs and mix until dough forms. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts (if desired).

Chill dough for one hour (and keep chilled while baking first batch).

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Put half of the dough on an ungreased baking sheet in 7 large balls. (I weighed my dough so each cookie was equal.) Bake for 8-10 minutes; turn cookie sheet around back to front and bake until light golden brown on top, another 5-8 minutes. (Mine took about 6 minutes and 5 minutes.)
Remove from oven and cool on sheet for a few minutes, then place on wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with the rest of the dough after cookie sheet cools.

If you'd like to make them somewhat smaller, use a 375 degree oven so they don't over-brown. And remember that they most likely won't get as high.


Cheeky Kitchen Recipe
Makes 14 cookies

1 cup butter
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 cups walnuts
12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cream butter, brown sugar, and eggs until fluffy. Mix in flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, vanilla, and cornstarch until thoroughly combined. Stir in the walnuts and chocolate chips. Dump dough on counter and knead to completely mix dough.

Gently pull lemon-sized hunks (or weight them evenly) of dough. Keep the dough loose and with air. Place mounds on cookie sheet.

Bake at 390 degrees (just above 375 but not quite 400) for 10-12 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies have turned light brown. Remove from cookie sheet, cool.