Baking Archives |

Olivia’s Scrumptious Ginger Cookies | Printable Recipe

March 24, 2017 By Laura 2 Comments

I never considered myself to be a fan of the ginger spice. But somehow when my daughter Olivia (14 – the girl of the triplets) makes her ginger cookies . . . . I take one bite, and there’s a party in my mouth! I think it must be just the right amount of ginger, combined with the butter. Whatever it is, it can be hard to stop from having another. And if no one is looking, another. We don’t have treats like these around the house often. But when we do, they are homemade, and it’s a treat indeed! In fact, anytime Olivia bakes or cooks for us, which is frequently, it’s a treat! As I type up this post, she is actually packing up to head out for a cooking competition for the weekend! She’s got some real skills, and you can taste them in these cookies. (Like everything else she whips up for us!)

We’re giving you Olivia’s Ginger Cookies recipe today. There’s a printable version at the end of this post.
So, you can make some for yourself, and thank us later.
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Olivia’s Ginger Cookies

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Pumpkin Shaped Cookies | Recipe

November 1, 2012 By Laura 14 Comments

It’s the first day of November, and we’re still riding high on the beauty of Autumn all around us! I think we’ve done more baking than ever this year as well. I had an idea about trying to make some pumpkin shaped cookies, using a dough recipe I already had, and they came out so great! These are beautiful cookies to have around on Thanksgiving, or anytime during the pumpkin/Autumn season, and they were fun to make, too. It may seem like a lot of steps, but it is easy, and the dough recipe itself is very useful!

The dough is the same recipe from my God-Mother’s Italian cookies, found here in a post called Cookie Love. It’s a very I am going to give you the recipe right here as well, but you really can see how it is made at the other post. *Please note; you can mix the ingredients to make dough with a Kitchen Aid Mixer, but we did not have one at the time of the other post, so we did it by hand. For these pumpkin shaped cookies, we did use the mixer since we have one now. It’s just easier and faster with a mixer, but still doable by hand.

Ingredients

4 C Bleached All Purpose Flour
1 C Sugar
2 Tbs. Baking Powder
4 Eggs
1/2C Land-O-Lakes Margarine
4 Tsp. Vanilla Extract
1/4 C Milk
Confectioners Sugar
A Little Extra Milk for Glaze
. . . . . . and some kind of Coloring.

Which brings me to this stuff . . . . . .

Wilton’s Icing Colors.
Even though it says for icing, it works for any food coloring. I love it, because it IS concentrated. It gives a nicer color, and is more potent, so it gets the job done easily. Food coloring drops to me are a pain. It takes too much to get the depth of color you want, and adds a water content at the same time that you may not want. So this stuff is the bomb for me. It’s what I used to color my cookie dough orange. It is also great for icing, and we use it for that in this recipe too. ; )

1. In a large bowl (or your Kitchen Mixer bowl), put in flour, sugar, baking powder, eggs, margarine, vanilla, and milk.

2. Mix it all together with fork at first. Once it starts to form, you can use your mixer or clean hands.

3. Flour a counter or big board.

4. Remove dough from bowl, and knead for several minutes, sprinkling the surface more if the dough starts sticking.

5. Grease baking sheets with vegetable oil. (You probably can use Pam Spray…if you’re a fan of that.)

6. Once your dough is formed, it’s ready to color. Using a toothpick, mix up the orange container of coloring gel, and just wipe the toothpick onto your dough. Then fold it in and knead the dough some more until the color works through and is uniformly mixed into the dough. Add more color as needed to get the desired density of color.

** Two Things to Note Here: A) This gel will likely stain yours hands and/or clothing a little, so use kitchen gloves and an apron is your concerned with that. B) The color will lighten/fade a lot after baking. So keep that in mind. Although the dough may appear too dark orange, they won’t be when done. (See photos of baked cookies for reference.)

7. Grab a piece of dough, and begin to roll into a ball between the palms of your hands. You want it to be about the size of say….a large cherry tomato. You can place them directly on the cookie sheet, or keep working on a floured surface, such as a cutting board.

8. Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees.

9) First poke your finger down into the center of each orange dough ball.

10) Then, taking a toothpick, stand it up beside the dough ball, and press in your indentations for the pumpkin grooves, as seen above.

Make the indentations deep! Really lay that toothpick in there, and rock it to the top, so the grooves are made all the way to the top. The cookies will puff while baking, and you will completely loose your groove indentations if you don’t make them deep pre-baked.

They should look similar to this when the are done. My little girl Olivia was a great help forming the pumpkins!

11) Now transfer to cookie sheets with thin metal small spatula if need be. (Try not to squich your pumpkins, as the dough is soft!) Place the dough pumpkins on the cookie sheets, about an inch 1/2 apart, staggered.

**You will have more pumpkins waiting for their turn in the oven. This dough makes at least a few dozen, depending on the size of your cookies.

12) Bake full sheets for 8-10 minutes. You want them to be pale – not browned, but if you are wondering if they are cooked enough, open one with knife and see if it is baked through well. If not, put back in for 1-2 minutes more, depending on how doughy they still were.

13. Remove from oven………and then place them each on a cooling rack.

For cookie glaze:
14) In a small bowl, pour some confectioner’s sugar, and add a little milk. I don’t really measure the sugar or milk here. I recommend adding one tablespoon of milk at a time, and stir well. You want the glaze thick, as it will be much easier it will be to work with if it is not thin and runny.. You will be surprised at how much powdered sugar you need!

15) Add in green gel coloring and mix well.

16) When cookies are completely cooled, transfer your green icing to a piping bag with a very fine point tip, or if need be, a zip-lock bag with the very tip of the corner snipped off.

17) Just pipe on a stem in the center top of the pumpkin, a leaf if you are really good, and maybe make some curly vines coming off.

As you can see, my piping skills could use some practice. But I thought they came out so adorable, and they are as delicious as the Italian Cookies recipe! It’s all the exact same ingredients, except for the tasteless coloring. What I love about this dough recipe, is it is flexible to make many different looking cookies.

Alexis kept some of the dough before it was colored orange, and made these traditional cookies. . . . . .

Also quite Autumn looking!
The cookies can be sealed in an air tight container, or even put in the freezer the same way, for a coming holiday, or unexpected company.

We hope you try this recipe out, and have some fun making them yourself. Your mouth will surely thank you!

. . . . . .

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Recipe for Apple Pie Pops

October 2, 2012 By Laura 20 Comments

If you only knew the recipes I see in a day, a week, a month – that I have every intention of making! I get to really making some, but most not, simply because there is really only so much time in a day, and so much food we can eat in it! Granted some (little) people (my kids and husband), eat way more than others (myself.) I actually am one of those with big eyes. I can be starving, and then eat 2 crackers, and I’m good. My kids cannot believe how little I eat. I just get full easy. Still, I consider myself a food lover, if only in my head. I love to find recipes, plan great food for my family, and photograph it too. And I really do enjoy eating. I’m just done sooner than everyone else.

Anyway, I first saw these pie pops almost 2 years ago at Bakerella’s site. As soon as I saw them that first time, I immediately fell smitten. She had seen them at yet another’s site. Since then I have seen them 100 times, all over the place. Of course, you can make these pie pops with any kind of pie filling you’d like. But I have a particular fondness for apple pies, so that’s what I was planning to make. We do a lot of baking in the Fall, so last year got away before we made them. But not this year! This past weekend we finally made them, as well as some cute cookies I’ll be sharing soon too!

So although these are not my idea, I thought I’d share how we made our Apple Pie Pops.

For any apple filling for baked goods, you want to start with good, firm apples, and a mix of the tart and sweet variety. Whether they are evenly mixed, or a little more of the sweet or tart, is all up to your preference. I chose to keep it even, and used Granny Smiths (tart) and Golden Delicious (sweet).

One of the greatest parts of making any baked goods that call for apples, is using my Aunt Dot’s apple peeler-corer-slicer. The peeler part actually needs to be replaced, but we have not been able to find it yet. But that’s alright – so we peel the apples by hand for now, or forever. We still feel so blessed to have this antique of my beloved aunt’s, that is such a part of my most fondest childhood memories.

But I’ll admit, it’s damn handy!

Apple Pie Filling Recipe

6 C. peeled *apples, chopped small, and evenly sized as possible
3/4 C. sugar
2 T. all purpose flour
3/4 t. ground cinnamon
1/4 t. salt
1/8 t. nutmeg (Optional. I don’t like it.)
1 T. lemon juice

*Reminder: Use a mix of sweet and tart firm apples.

Mix it all up well in a bowl.

Pie Crust Dough: You can make your own, or use store-bought ready pie crust, such as Pillsbury.
On a flour dusted surface, roll out your dough. If you are using ready pie crust that is already round, remember that the size of the circle of dough does not matter for our purpose with pie pops, as it would for a pie dish. So you can roll it out larger and thinner than as it comes, and get more out of it. (We wish we did roll ours out thinner, and will next time. I’ll tell you about that at the end.)

Use a scalloped or plain circle cutter, or any other manageable shape that you would like, that is about 2 inches in diameter. I like the idea of our pops looking like real little pies, but using shapes like an apple, or a maple leaf, or a pumpkin, etc., would also be cute. Cut your shapes out of your crust dough as closely as possible, to get as many out of your dough as you can. Weed out the scraps of dough, re-roll, and use again. (As seen 2 photos up.)

Put a good dollop (what a great word…dollop..) of apple filling in the center of half of all of your cut dough shapes, because you’ll need the other half as tops, of course. You want to put as much as possible on there, but remembering you’ll need to cover it with the other dough circles, and be able to seal it. Too much apple filling will be a problem, and too little will just be….sad.

Transfer your pie bottoms with the filling onto a greased or sprayed cookie sheet.
If it easier for you, you can transfer the dough shapes first, and then put the filling on.

Also add your pop sticks. These are found in the candy making aisle of the craft stores. Now, I have seen that some cover their sticks with aluminum foil, to prevent them from burning. That is too tedious for me, and I was sure they wouldn’t burn anyway, and they didn’t, except where they got a little juice on them. No biggie, and still not worth covering them in foil. But you do what you want!

You may want to pre-heat you oven at this point, to 375°

Now put on your tops. We had a little dish of water, just to dip one finger in, and wet the under-edge of the top all the way around, just to help it stick the bottom better. It also helps to stretch the top piece out bigger, to better fit over your dollop : ) of apple filling.
To make the wavy edge like a real pie, just cut off the end of a pop stick, and use it to press grooves all the way around each pie. This is a a bit tedious too, but one that is worth it to me!

Lastly, just brush each pie pop top with a little egg white, and if you wish, sprinkle with a bit of sugar for sparkle. The egg whites really help the pie crust kind of blister and look nice.

When the oven is up to temperature, you can put your pie pops in for 12-15 minutes.

How’s that for a high cute factor?
We bagged each one, and tied them closed with a little red stitched ribbon. Presentation is everything, Folks!

As mentioned earlier, we did not roll out our dough as thin as we will next time. Our pops seemed to be a little more crust, and a little less apple filling than we would have liked. We must remember the filling soaks in just a bit, and the dough really puffs as it bakes into pie crust. Nonetheless, they were oh so good, and next time they’ll be perfect. : )

There are SO many Fall-time apple treats to enjoy – Apple Pie Pops, big Apple Pies, Apple Crisp, Caramel Apples, Apple Sauce, Apple Cake, Apple Cider…..it’s endless, and there are no complaints here! My favorites are Apple Crisp and Apple Pie, both with Vanilla Ice Cream, please.
Do you eat more apples this time of year? What are your favorite apple or Fall treats?

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Valentine Ladybug Mint Cookies

January 24, 2012 By Laura 4 Comments

These adorable Ladybug Cookies I came up with, come right in time for Valentine’s Day, and I promise you, they couldn’t be easier to make! (There’s not even baking involved!) I think you are going to love what they are made with, too! (You know…besides LOVE.) I’m talking ingredients. These cookies are also a sweet idea for a little girl’s birthday party, or to send in with your kids to school, to share with their class. You’ll look so clever. (You don’t have to tell a soul it was my idea. ; )

Does the word fondant scare you? Ever heard of the stuff? I know it makes more than a few nervous. But it can actually be a LOT of fun to play with! (Think Play Dough. ; ) Truth be told, in this recipe, we did make and dye our own marshmallow fondant, simply because we knew how, and we think it tastes a little better than store bought. But you don’t have to! Rolled and ready fondant is available in craft and baking supply stores, and even comes in colors! I know Wilton sells ready-made fondant, but I heard a brand called Satin Ice, tastes better. I see that the Satin Ice brand is available to order online. I’ve seen it in a container so you probably roll that out yourself. I have not tried it yet, but I will. But if you’d like to learn how to make your own marshmallow fondant like we did, we have a tutorial coming up on that. For today, we’re just going to show you how simple it is to put together these cookies, with some light pink fondant all ready to go!

Participating Ingredients:

Keebler Grasshopper Fudge Mint Cookies *(peanut safe)
Junior Mints Candy (*peanut safe)
Fondant – in light pink (rolled and ready)
Any kind of icing (for piping glue)
Sprinkles in Valentine shapes/colors (*peanut safety varies with brands)
Confectionery Sugar
(Mini marshmallows and color dye seen are for making your own fondant, if you are.)

* One of our boys has a serious peanut allergy, so we are always checking ingredients carefully, for his safety.

We rolled out our fondant on wax paper and a little dusting of confectionery sugar, making sure to roll it thin and even.

Next, we cut circles out of the fondant. These will be the wings. We started with this small cookie cutter, but it turned out to be a little bigger than we wanted the circles to be, as the cookies were smaller than this. It was the smallest actual circle cookie cutter we had, so we needed to improvise. And so the search began throughout the house, to find something that will cut the circles smaller.

Phew! Good think we have a drink now and then! ; ) This shaker/mixer top turned out to be just right!

Cut the circles in half, and the wings are done!

valentine-ladybug-cookies-5 I told you! Easy, right?

It’s mere assembly, from here on out, Friends.

Put some of that icing in a piping bag, with the smallest tip, and just put a little on each side of the cookies.

(These cookies do tend to come a little stuck together in the packaging, so we made efforts to pipe on the messy sides, leaving the smoothest and nicest part of the cookie at the bottom, where it will show between the wings.)

Put the wings on, as shown above. Like a ladybug’s wings, slightly spread.

Pipe a little dab of icing on the back/flatter side of a Junior Mint candy…..

….and stick on the head.

All that is left to do, is decorate the wings a little! We tried to arrange them, like the dots usually on the wings of a ladybug, as we recalled. You do want to be sure, that you press the decorative sprinkles down into the fondant. You may even want to add a dab of water? (Didn’t try that). If the sprinkles aren’t pressed down enough, they’ll fall off when the fondant sets up more.

THAT’S IT!! How CUTE are these? How EASY are these?

You can make a whole bunch, in no time at all. And it’s fun!

Our kids all got in on the action! They were on their own (the three younger ones are 9 years old here.). But even younger ones can put these cookies together with a little help!

We used the red cots from Confetti Sprinkles too.

If you think about it, you could use some alternative ingredients, to make these cookies similarly as well. Oreo cookies could be cute. Dark brown M&M’s can be used as heads. (They are not peanut safe, for us.) Use your imagination!

Just for fun, can you spot the ladybug, who’s wings were cut too big?

We hope you liked this cute little idea. Share it. 🙂 And thanks for stopping by the House!

Stay tuned, for more thoughts and shares on the way! Valentine’s Day related, and otherwise.

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Our Baker’s Dozenth Birthday – Our Oldest Kiddo

July 7, 2009 By Laura 3 Comments

{A} turned 12 years old on Sunday. She’s our oldest kiddo. And our baker.
We thought we’d share with you a bit about her day, while more importantly, documenting this special day for her, when she’s older. Her birthday morning started out as all birthday mornings do around here…..with the birthday pancakes, of course. Daddy always makes birthday number pancakes, usually by cutting out the numbers. But this time he surprised us all, with yet another twist of his pancake creativity.

If you’d like to use this idea for a special birthday celebration in your own family sometime, how he did this is too easy to believe. He just took a sharp razor, and very gently cut the numbers through just the very, very top of the pancake, and peeled off the surface of the numbers. That’s it!! Easy.

If you’re wondering, once in awhile our kids do have butter and syrup on their pancakes. But most times they love just eating them with strawberry yogurt.

I remember the night of laboring with {A} very clearly. Getting to the hospital, through the fireworks traffic was no small task. Of course, being a first time mother, panting through what sure felt like intense contractions to me, I was sure she was coming out any second. I always laugh at that memory, as I learned with the passing of time, that I wasn’t feeling much of anything yet, compared to what was coming! One LONG night of labor, with contractions that intensified and multiplied by the hour! A pure, natural, drug-free labor rewarded me well at 10:08 a.m. , with the most beautiful and sweetest little face I had ever seen in my life.

scard

She truly kick-started our journey of parenthood that day, and we could never have imagined the ride she would take us on. The transformation of watching her grow, learn, grow, shine, grow, create, grow, give, grow, dream, grow, plan….and grow some more, has been amazing to witness. She’s a tad taller than I am already!

{A} truly is a dreamer. She plans out her life, in detail, cultivates her skills almost daily, and those dreams and plans grow all of the time.

scard

She loves to bake. She is baking in our kitchen way too often, and I’m telling you, it’s not jiving with my clothing sizes! But oohhhh….. she is such a wonderful baker! She loves to research recipes, experiment with them and put her own twist on them to make it more her own. She has been collecting recipes and writing a cookbook in her laptop computer for probably a year now. She is also a HUGE fan of Bakerella.….and asks if there is a new post on a daily basis.

So it was easy to figure out the kinds of things I knew she would be thrilled with to receive as surprises on her birthday…..

Baking cookbooks…….

and most anything……

…and everything…..

…to do with BAKING!!

She was really excited to see the cake decorating tips set! That’ll take some practicing for sure! (Oh darn….what ever will we do with all of those cupcakes!! We just love cupcakes. And her Daddy really-(really)-loves-cake!)

I found some really fabulous baking cookbooks at the book store, on the discount shelves! I was thrilled with that! I actually went in to see if I could find a copy of Black Beauty, and {O} spotted and suggested the cookbooks! What a great idea that little one had! Just beautiful books.

This one, above, has a great section in the beginning on all kinds of bake ware information. Photos of what various pans or tools look like, what they are called, and what they are used for. Then there is also photo-illustrated examples of various baked goods on ‘what went wrong’. These display common mistakes with baking, what they look like, and how to avoid them next time. Very educational for the baker enthusiast!

This is a great book too!!

She has just been pouring over these cookbooks since Sunday, and has even let the little ones join her in reading about them, deciding which ones look extra good, and which items to try and bake first.

Despite all of the baking that goes on, we are a pretty health-conscious family. (It’s true!) Even {A} is always checking the amounts and kinds of fat involved, and how many grams of sugar. We don’t eat much processed food at all, and really attempt to have a healthy daily diet. Thankfully, the kids are all great eaters, and have never been especially picky. But I must admit. The more {A} has gotten into baking, the more goodies we’ve all been eating. Not every day by any means. But, more than we ever used to.

We all always choose what kind of cake we want on our birthday, and she did the same this year. So it’s probably no surprise, she insisted on baking her own cake, herself.

For once, it wasn’t actually from scratch, but I was pleased with what she chose: Duncan Hines Blueberry Streusel cake. Made with whole wheat! It actually tasted wholesome and healthy. It was very good. And as of today, it’s GONE.

There’s no doubt that this girl is really passionate about anything she is interested in. She goes above and beyond delving into anything that tickles her fancy. Whatever she decided to do, we know she’ll succeed, and we know she’ll be happy She just has a light about her, that I can’t imagine will ever go out. I think part of it comes from her deep, spiritual faith, that is pretty astounding at her age. It’s certainly the core of who she is, and maybe that’s where that light comes from. Whatever it is, I just pray she keeps on shining. And may that light ALWAYS be BRIGHT and HOT enough, to keep baking some goodies for us now and then! : ) That would be SWEEEEET!

Happy Birthday, Darlin’! Shine On!!

So on birthdays in our family, no one ever works or has school, and we spend the day together doing something fun together, per request of the birthday person (or people, in the case of the triplets. lol). This birthday just happened to land on a Sunday. We also always have (number) pancakes, and cake of choice.

So our question to you is: Do you have any birthday traditions in your family? If so, what are they?

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Olivia’s Ginger Cookies

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