Cookie Round Up Continued!

So here are the rest of the cookies I have been doing.  Enough to keep me busy!  My sweet son has moved on to the real world after graduation.  Since he arrived in Chicago in early January, there have been about...NO days above freezing.  I know it has been a long winter.  I sent these cookies to his office, and he told me I am terribly popular!  That's fun.

I did the 2 types of hearts above in the Britto fashion.  Black outline, bright colors.  They were pretty fun.  Just to give you an idea of how, not interested, my family is in cookies, these are still under a dome in my kitchen, 3 weeks and counting.





I tutor a couple of kids in a school in town.  I made these for the kids in the class.  Needless to say they were a spelling challenge!  But they were thrilled to have a cookie with their name on it!  I love that

These are for my friends elderly mother.  She had a luncheon with a group she belongs to on Valentine's Day.  She asked if I could make her cookies the color of her robe!  No problem.

These snowmen made out of an ornament cookie cutter were my plan for Christmas presents for my friends.  But, Christmas came and went, and there were dozens of blank cookies in my freezer.  I decided it was still snowing up north even though it has been hovering at 70 here.  I decorated them and shipped them to some people I love!  My inspiration for these came from Glorious Treats.  She is an awesome cookier, and writer, and party planner and all kinds of neat stuff.  Also, one of the nicest people you would ever want to meet. 

These cool swimmer graphics are for my friend's daughter.  The school colors are black and silver, and thought these were pretty hot! 

Finally these were for a bunch of teenagers.  My friend's daughter goes to Christina's high school (all girls) and they have a formal every winter.  She had a large group of girls coming over to get ready and thought these would be great to munch on.  Well, of course they would!  And I love those super bright colors.  

Valentine's Day Cookies and Crafts

I made these for Valentine's Bunco!  

I know you expect cookies, here they are.  But how about a craft or 2?  And my reflections on Valentine's Day, even though no one asked...

It's the 70's and I am one of 16 kids in my small class in Iowa.  A day or two before Valentine's Day we all bring a shoebox to school and spend an hour in Art Class (everyone had it back then) gluing construction paper and doilies to the box. Sister would cut the hole in the top with the scissors that had a point.  And then on Valentine's Day, we would perch the box on our desk.  The little paper Valentines we had bought were signed and the little white envelopes that never stayed closed were addressed with each kids name.  And one for Sister.  We didn't bring candy, there were no Valentines with superheroes or cartoon characters.  They were sweet girls and boys holding hearts and saying Happy Valentine's Day.  Our class party would involve no parents, no chicken nuggets, no favor bags and no games.  We would have a napkin with a cookie or a cupcake and a paper cup of Kool Aid.  And we would sit at our desks and open our valentines and laugh and carry on like kids do. Sometimes we would do a craft, like making a Valentine for our Mom.  It was a great childhood.

Today I saw a commercial for a party store for all your classroom Valentie party needs.  Cupcake towers, pre-made boxes, bouquets of balloons, color coordinated M&Ms and streamers. Really?

This year I had a few Valentine projects.  The first was napkins for supper club.  I found a graphic print, 100% cotton.  Much to the dismay of many sewers, I did not prewash the fabric.  I think it makes mitering corners easier with stiff fabric.  You can learn to miter corners at Hipline Media,  It is found on the Home Decor download. I made 10 napkins with about 3 yards of fabric. Shop after the holidays for great prices and fill your stash!

Head to the quilting store for high quality cotton to make napkins for every occasion.  These have mitered corners and are oversized at 20" X 20" . 

This silly project was designed to bring a little light to my bar.  I really love this bottle.  Mr. Preppy drilled a hole in the back large enough to feed a small strand through, and then I found all kinds of things at Hobby Lobby to adorn the top.  It changes with the season!

Then I headed back to the sewing room for a Martha project.  These heart shaped potholders are so easy.  I whipped up a bunch and decided I didn't do a very good job with the binding.  But they are colorful and fun, and never look a gift horse in the mouth.  What does that mean anyway?  I did the pastel fabric for most of my friends.  The black and red for my friend that has a white kitchen with darker accents and finally, the mustache one for my mom.  She is a docent at the Dali museum, so I couldn't resist!

Be My Valentine

So I made dozens of cookies planning on sending them to Christina and her buddies as they have been working so hard in off season conditioning.  But they took a challenge for February and asked that I not send cookies.  I was so impressed!  So needless to say, I made a lot of other people happy.  Here is a sampling of what I whipped up.  Hope your Valentine's Day lives up to the hype!

Be My Valentine

Ah, the dreaded Valentine's Day. That is the great thing about being married and having kids. Lots of Valentines! I always cross my fingers for some super dark chocolate, and I always buy a little heart shaped something for my loves. Because I just never got around to extra holiday baking at Christmas, I never gave a box of treats to Christina's teachers. I felt pretty bad about that. Everyone knows I'm the baker, and how hard is it to put together a little something? Well, this year it was really hard with work. So we decided we would give them a sweet Valentine. Since it falls on a Monday, I sent the treats off on Friday so they could enjoy them over the weekend. I packaged the cookies in little Valentine's Chinese take out boxes. Very cute.

A Pile of Tuiles (tiles)

So this is my first official month as a Daring Baker. What, pray tell, is that? Well, it is mostly bloggers, a few strays, all foodies, many bakers, well over 1000 of us in all. We are a secret society (love that term), and we log into a cyber kitchen every month where the secret recipe is revealed. You have the whole month to plan your baking strategy, following the recipe as written. Then on reveal day, which is today, thousands of food bloggers are posting their creations.

This month's challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux. Tuiles translates from French as tiles, and they are generally formed as an oval and then shaped to a gentle curve to mimic the roofing tiles seen in France. Our challenge was to bake them, but we could use any shape. I have seen plenty of ovals, flowers and butterflies, but I chose hearts since the big Valentine's Day is right around the corner.
The recipe was actually very easy to prepare. The toughest part was cutting out that heart on heavy plastic with an Exacto knife!

It took a few tries to evenly spread the batter, and it was fun to experiment with the chocolate batter as decoration. All of the chocolate you see is actually baked into the tuile. Some bakers chose to use a color instead of chocolate, I love creative cooks! I chose not to make ice cream garnish on the coldest day of the year...brrr. So I used my favorite Blood Orange Gelato.

I tasted one of the first cookies and had a deja vu, but I just couldn't place the taste. Christina came home, took one bite and declared, "Fortune Cookies"! She's right. How fun to make them as such, the recipe would be perfect. You make them as a circle and fold them in half and then over the rim of a glass. I made them probably 18 years ago....a fun project. I would be much better at them now!

Recipe:
Yields: 20 small butterflies/6 large (butterflies are just an example)
Preparation time batter 10 minutes, waiting time 30 minutes, baking time: 5-10 minutes per batch

65 grams / ¼ cup / 2.3 ounces softened butter (not melted but soft)
60 grams / ½ cup / 2.1 ounces sifted confectioner’s sugar
1 sachet vanilla sugar (7 grams or substitute with a dash of vanilla extract)
2 large egg whites (slightly whisked with a fork)
65 grams / 1/2 cup / 2.3 ounces sifted all purpose flour
1 table spoon cocoa powder/or food coloring of choice
Butter/spray to grease baking sheet

Oven: 180C / 350F
Using a hand whisk or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle (low speed) and cream butter, sugar and vanilla to a paste. Keep stirring while you gradually add the egg whites. Continue to add the flour in small batches and stir to achieve a homogeneous and smooth batter/paste. Be careful to not overmix.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to firm up. (This batter will keep in the fridge for up to a week, take it out 30 minutes before you plan to use it).

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or grease with either butter/spray and chill in the fridge for at least 15 minutes. This will help spread the batter more easily if using a stencil/cardboard template such as the butterfly. Press the stencil on the bakingsheet and use an off sided spatula to spread batter. Leave some room in between your shapes. Mix a small part of the batter with the cocoa and a few drops of warm water until evenly colored. Use this colored batter in a paper piping bag and proceed to pipe decorations on the wings and body of the butterfly.

Bake butterflies in a preheated oven (180C/350F) for about 5-10 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown. Immediately release from bakingsheet and proceed to shape/bend the cookies in the desired shape. These cookies have to be shaped when still warm, you might want to bake a small amount at a time or maybe put them in the oven to warm them up again. (Haven’t tried that). Or: place a bakingsheet toward the front of the warm oven, leaving the door half open. The warmth will keep the cookies malleable.

So there you go, be daring yourself! Give 'em a try, just get in there and cook!