Tuesday, October 30, 2012

PUMPKIN PATCH AND BATS


Jill makes small, thin, pop-in-your-mouth sugar cookies flavored with a combination of vanilla and almond extract and sprinkled with sugar that DaddyO loves. It's her specialty. She surprised her Daddy last week with a box of Halloween shapes in the mail. Good job, Jill! -Momsu


SUGAR COOKIES
Printable Recipe

(This is from a group of cookie recipes published in Woman’s Day magazine in 1964 – still our favorite plain sugar cookie.)

2 3/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup soft (not runny) butter
1 cup granulated white sugar
2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or a combination of vanilla and almond extracts) 

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl and reserve. Put the butter in the large bowl of the electric mixer (or other bowl if mixer is not available). Beat with mixer or wooden spoon until the mixture is light and fluffy. Stir in the flour mixture with the mixer or spoon, blending until smooth. 
Chill 1 hour or until firm.

Roll a small amount of dough at a time on floured board to 1/8” thickness. Keep remaining dough in refrigerator until ready to use. Cut into desired shapes with floured cookie cutter. Put on ungreased cookie sheets. Sprinkle with granulated sugar.  Bake in moderate oven (375°) 8 to 10 minutes or until pale brown. Remove to wire racks to cool.

Makes about 4 dozen 3” cookies. Store cookies airtight. These cookies keep well but are not good shippers as they break easily.


I always double this recipe:
 
5 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups soft (not runny) butter
2 cups granulated white sugar
4 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract (or a combination of vanilla and almond extracts)

Thursday, October 25, 2012

JACK IN A HAT


This year I became obsessed with finding a witch's hat to put on a pumpkin - cookie cutters that is. I searched locally and found one in a set - but I didn't want the cauldron, the boot or the broom. Online I found just the hat I wanted - several places of course, and then it became a matter of how much shipping did I want to pay for just one cookie cutter? I needed other things too but no one site seemed to have all of the things I wanted to amortize the cost of the shipping. Well actually one site came close but they charged by weight and I seemed to have heavy wants - it adds up fast! 




Finally I decided this was stupid and ordered my witch's hat from Off the Beaten Path through Amazon for $1.25 plus $3.78 shipping. They are one of the sites that charges by weight - not so bad if you only want cookie cutters. The hat was here in two days - WOW!



I love that someone decided to add green (other than a witch's face) and purple to Halloween colors a few years ago. With orange they are the secondary colors and they make for so many more possibilities. -Momsu

Saturday, October 20, 2012

PUMPKIN AND A CAT



I've had this cat cookie cutter for a long time but had never made a black cat cookie - because I didn't know about Americolor! Black Americolor has no taste and it isn't messy. The pumpkin is from my Nut Tree collection of cutters and is big - 5x5 inches. The pumpkin cookie is from my archives and through the magic of Photoshop apears with the cat. -Momsu


Saturday, October 13, 2012

CANDY CORN & GHOSTS by Nina

I love candy corn! I thought a sugar cookie with a glaze would be perfect, giving the cookies that slightly waxy appearance. And it turns out the imperfections in my glazing technique look similar to the texture on the real thing!

These are 2" high. I cut a 2" thick strip of dough, then used the end of an ice cream cone cutter to cut the triangles.

This little ghost is part of a set of 3 sizes of ghosts. I love the simple shape and thought he could share the white glaze from the candy corn.

What do you call a group of ghosts? I read on another blog someone calling it a "haunt" which is cute!

I reclaimed my small letters from the play dough toys. When ghosts and candy corn share a cookie platter, this is what happens, candy corn colored BOOs!

A happy plate of yummy treats.
See more over at Nina's Show & Tell.

Happy Halloween!

-Nina

Friday, October 5, 2012

HALLOWEEN BEARS & PUMPKINS by Nina

Halloween Baking has begun!
Bear is dressed for the occasion.

He's been to the pumpkin patch!

It was fun to pipe the vines onto these pumpkins.

I have lots of ideas for more Halloween cookies, it's still early in October so I hope to have more to show soon! See more over at Nina's Show & Tell. -Nina


MOMSU SAYS:  I remember the first time you made that cute ginger bear with the pudgy nose - one Christmas a long time ago! It's fun to see him again in his pumpkin T-shirt.
I like the color on your pumpkins - is it Americolor orange or did you mix it? I need to replace my odds and ends of colors and invest in Americolor - it's the best!

NINA SAYS: I used Americolor orange and I may have added some egg yolk yellow. You'd think I'd remember since it was just last week! I'd better start taking better notes. It's great to work with!

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

A COOKIE CANVAS by Nina

blank cookie
A cookie canvas.

square initial cookies
Perfect for a personalized gift.

flower and initial cookies

birthday card on a cookie
And a card you can eat.

fall birthday cookies
To make a special gift.

-Nina

FALL FLOWERS by Nina

It may be fall, but flowers are always one of my favorite designs. So I used an autumn color palette for these cookies.

flower cookie


sugared centered flower cookies
Colored sugar in the centers.



sprinkles in center cookies
Sprinkles in the centers.

fall colored flower cookies
I love experimenting with design and color variations.

You can see more about this project over at Nina's Show & Tell.

-Nina