I have been a very bad blogger. Bad. I was hoping to get a refresh on my blog and dive in with new enthusiasm after the events of May. What event? Just the last child graduating from college...holla!!! I now have 2 kids working, paying rent, paying taxes, and officially out of the nest. It really gives a mom a sense of pride, but also makes me very sad.
We may have made signs at Baccalaureate....and her name is NOT Tina!
I long for those long summer days with kids running in and out of the house with wet feet, looking for towels and popsicles. And I miss those sleeping wet kids on a sweltering afternoon, sprawled on the couch. Nothing can stir that exhausted post swim nap. So here I am. They closed Williams Sonoma over a year ago, so no job. I have my cookies, but I really hate being trapped indoors all day on these gorgeous days. My pool will finally get filled tomorrow after a long repair job, and i have to just enjoy the moment for what it is. And I have to write. It really is part of who I am.
My first blog is here. Boy have things changed since then. Nic was just 2 months past high school graduation. Christina was starting her sophomore year of high school. Over the last 7 years, I have documented events at the Air Force Academy, a transition to civilian college at OU, high school volleyball, going to Millsaps, lots of birthdays, holidays, work events and loss. I have baked with groups, I started my 50 chefs for 50 years (started, but no where near finished!), I have cooked, grilled, cleaned, sewn and of course baked loads of sugar cookies. I have come a long way on my sugar cookies in 7 years and 3 cookie conventions!!!
So here is to today, and new beginnings. Fresh starts, new recipes, new cookie designs, and who knows what else! Please stay tuned. I am always so humbled when I get a comment or an email from a reader. Here we go. What are you waiting for? Oh, me! I'll be right back!
There are lots of times I am baking up a storm with a purpose. Perhaps a few dozen for a friend or family member. But when you have extra dough, what is a baker to do? It's a lovely dilemma. This is when I go pawing through my bins of cookie cutters and start thinking of what I would like to attempt to decorate. Cookie cutters I have never used. I have some great antique ones, but I was not happy with the results, some children's characters', those will require some time to decorate. But there in my freezer were some miscellaneous hearts and stars, some anchors and squares, just some basics to remind me that I never got around to doing all the 4th of July cookies. Enough to satisfy a few, but not as many as I ambitiously planned when I was rolling dough. It works like that sometime. But it is nice when you are doing an order and have all this great frosting and there in the freezer is a bevy of cookies ready to go. I did these to take to my childhood friends and a few relatives on my Midwestern road trip. They were a hit! Never mind they were intended for the Fourth, a birthday party or a thank you. They're just cookies...and no one ever complains! Back to the road trip soon. And I suppose at some point I will have to cook too. Thanks for hanging around. I will, get in there and cook!!
Is there anything as cool as your "tweet of fame"? It used to be your 15 minutes was the pinnacle, but now if you can get a tweet by someone with a posse of followers, well, that just rocks! So, who you ask? Iliza Shlesinger, winner of The Last Comic Standing is the host of a pilot called That's So Cute. I was asked to bake some Sweetie Petitti cookies for the shoot and it turns out that not only is Iliza funny, she has great taste in cookies and she dropped a Twit Pic. I sent out 3 sets of the show name to my sister Lori and was told they had been put in the freezer....Panic! In the south when anything comes from the freezer it weeps in the humidity so I was afraid of the quality of the cookies when they thawed. So Lori decided she needed to test them and took out "SO" , thawed them and ate them in the name of culinary investigation and they survived. So what to do with "THAT'S CUTE" that was left over? She decided to substitute them for a friend's birthday cake, why not? That left a couple sets for the pilot which apparently was very successful. Look for it soon on a network near you! And good luck Iliza, nice tweeting with ya!
It is no secret to my friends and family that my very most favorite thing to eat and bake is sugar cookies. Not fluffy anemic looking cookies, but flat, crisp, buttery cookies with some sort of icing. Recently we spent a weekend at a friend's lake house, and instead of bringing a hostess gift, I decided to see what they needed in the kitchen. So after a fun weekend of skiing, good food and relaxing, I bought her a few essentials she needed and baked her "thank you" cookies. These were particularly fun, no rules, I kept them colorful and interesting. I used a pastry wheel and ruler to cut my squares and rectangles, and cutters for hearts, circles, fluted rounds. Any shape works, and the variety of shapes and colors made it a stunning thank you. Earlier this spring I posted the Springtime Sugar Cookies with my first video attempt. http://sweetiepetitti.blogspot.com/2009/03/springtime-sugar-cookies.html The icing for those cookies was a little more involved with the decorating tips and the icing was more of a buttercream knock off or fluffy frosting. The other sugar cookie method of icing is the Royal Icing. Royal Icing is traditionally made with confectioner's sugar, egg white and water. Now that little egg white can churn up a big controversy. Let me just say, I am not compromised health wise, and neither is anyone in my immediate family. However, I share everything I bake, so I tend to use either Just Whites, which are a pasteurized egg product, or Meringue Powder, a product made from dried egg whites and put out by Wilton. The egg white is an integral part of Royal Icing. It lends to the sheen of the finished product and also the stability of it. The icing will dry hard as a rock so the cookies can easily be stacked. Also, the icing can be thinned to flow over the cookie. But, a word of warning, Royal Icing is very sweet, without the presence of fat there is nothing to cut that sugar. Some recipes call for a squeeze of lemon juice which does help, and meringue powder has a little citric acid in it, so it doesn't taste quite as sweet. I like many people find it to be the perfect contrast with the simple sugar cookie. But try both types of icing and decide for yourself. As stated many times on my blog, be sure to use gel paste food coloring for the most vibrant colors, use only real butter for the cookies and Nielsen Massey Vanilla in anything that calls for vanilla. If you are using white icing for your cookies, use the clear artificial vanilla from Wilton, it tastes terrible in comparison, but it gives the icing a boost. Royal Icing 3 egg whites 4-5 cups confectioner's sugar depending on consistency pinch of salt water a few drops at a time as needed In the bowl of electric mixer, combine whites, 4 cups sugar, salt and mix until combined. Turn up power and whip about 5 minutes until fluffy. Add additional sugar and or water to get the proper consistency. To substitute pasteurized whites, follow the measurement chart on the package. To substitute meringue party, follow the manufacturer's recipe that is included for the best results.
One of my favorite cookbooks is more like a tribute book to great chefs. It's called My Last Supper and chefs tell what they would want for their last meal. I can't decide what my main course would be, but I can promise you I will choose my sugar cookies for dessert without a doubt. They are my all time favorite. This week we decided to shoot a few Flip videos (Flip is a very cool video camera) and sugar cookies for Spring seemed like the perfect project. The video runs 4 minutes, and we think it's a great first attempt! The sugar cookie recipe I use I cut off a bag of Pillsbury flour about 15 years ago. However, I have altered it, surprise! The dough is easily doubled or tripled, freezes beautifully raw, freezes equally well cooked and unfrosted. I usually make a good number of batches at Christmas and freeze dough for Valentines. However after the blog where I cleaned out the freezer in front of God and you, I am really keeping the frozen inventory on the low side. I used my new SideSwipe blade in my Kitchen Aid and have to say I love, love it. Creams butter in a jiffy and no scraping the bowl down. I also have to give a shout out to the Dough Bands. Basically they are giant rubber bands that come in varying widths and you put them on the rolling pin and it keeps your dough at the perfect thickness. No slanted cookies, and works as well for pie and pastry dough. Of course I use a Silpat so nothing sticks, but you have to watch them like a hawk. A minute too long and they'll be a little too brown, not inedible, and nothing a good coating of icing can't hide.
The icing is always a little controversial. I love royal icing because it dries like a rock, holds it shapes and absorbs color, however, it isn't really tasty, just very sweet. I found an old Wilton book and made the icing recipe from it. It will harden your arteries just reading it, but it was yummy, made great decorations, took color well and was the absolute perfect flavor for these cookies. I'll never go back. I added Meringue Powder (Wilton) to give the icing a little firmness as it dried and this is the only time I will tell you to use...are you ready?...Clear Artificial Vanilla (also from Wilton). I know, wonders never cease. But who wants to ruin that snow white frosting with brown vanilla? Exactly.
You can see from the video clip I used an assortment of icing colors. Paste food coloring will give you great color saturation and you can start with a small dab on a toothpick and add more to get it darker. If you have those little squeeze bottles of coloring from the supermarket, throw them out, it's just not worth it. Wilton sells disposable pastry bags in bulk, no washing the vinyl bags! I divide the icing and use a coupler on each bag so I can change out the tips for stars, writing, grass, outlining, whatever. You can pick up a starter kit of tips and a starter pack of paste colors and if you watch the Sunday paper, you can nab a coupon or look for a Wilton sale at the big craft retailers like Michael's, Hobby Lobby or JoAnn's and start buying the necessary stuff that you will use forever.
Buttermilk Sugar Cookies 1 cup sugar 1 cup butter, softened 3 Tablespoons buttermilk 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 egg 3 cups flour 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder ½ teaspoon salt
Cream butter and sugar. Add buttermilk, vanilla and egg. In a separate bowl sift dry ingredients and add to mixer until well combined. Place dough on plastic wrap and shape into a flat disc. Refrigerate at least an hour or freeze in a zippered plastic bag. Preheat oven to 400° If dough is frozen, thaw completely in fridge. Remove disc from fridge and divide in 4 pieces. Use one piece at a time and keep remaining dough in fridge. Generously flour work space with flour and roll cookies to 1/8" thickness. Bake cookies on Silpat with a couple of inches between cookies. Bake for about 3 minutes and switch from front to back, top shelf to lower shelf and bake about 3 minutes more. Watch closely. Once you find the perfect time, all sheets should bake the same because all the cookies are the same thickness if you use dough bands. Cool on Silpat on racks, and then move directly to rack. Cookies can be frozen when cool, or get ready to decorate. Old Wilton Icing 1 cup white crisco 1 pound, about 4 cups powdered sugar 1 teaspoon Wilton clear vanilla extract milk, anywhere from 1-5 Tablespoons 1 Tablespoon Wilton Meringue Powder 2 Tablespoons warm water
In a stand mixer bowl, place meringue powder in warm water to dissolve a little. Add the Crisco and whip for a good 3 minutes, add vanilla and add powdered sugar a cup at a time. Add milk as needed to make icing the right consistency. If you are piping it, you want it a little firmer. If you are simply using a spatula, the icing can be softer. I always have extra powdered sugar on hand to thicken it if needed. Decorate the cookies as desired, and let the frosting firm up before packing into airtight containers.
