Happy Halloween!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE !!!!

Don't Know WHAT to do with all that leftover Halloween chocolate?

Make a batch of Brownies! While it is baking, unwrap & chop up the

candy bars - choose combinations that work well with each other.

You can immediately sprinkle on warm, just out of the oven Brownie

(it will make a great 'frosting') OR cool Brownies, frost & then add them.

One of my favorites is Mint Andes umm

This is Chocolate frosted Brownies topped with Heath Bars.

I named it Chocolate Concussion.

A great tip my friend Robin gave me, is USE a PLASTIC knife to cut Brownies.

They will cut nice & clean - no messy irregular crumbly irritating edges and globs of brownie stuck to the cutting knife. lol

(see photo above)

Try it next time you whip up a batch.

Portugese Malasadas

TEX'S is our favorite place on the island of Hawaii

for the famously delicious Malasadas

see the joy they bring?

An incredible buttery, sweet taste on a delightfully crunchy outside coupled with a surprisingly light, fluffy inside is what makes malasadas, or Portuguese doughnuts, a unique and delicious pastry.

Malasadas, originated on the small island known as Sao Miguel, which is the most populous of the Azore Islands, a Portuguese archipelago of nine nestled together in the Atlantic Ocean. These fried desserts are similar to the more familiar doughnuts that people enjoy all around the world, particularly in the west, but with one very distinct and noticeable difference,
malasadas have no hole.


They remind me of the Dutch treat Olliebollen I tasted in Holland. (Ben, if you are reading this, do these look like the 'dutch doughnuts' from your mission?)

The isle of Sao Miguel was first colonized by the native Portuguese people, where these scrumptious treats are still regular fare on the island today. You can find malasadas in Hawaii thanks to the immigration of Portuguese workers back in the late 1800s. Throughout Hawaii, malasadas have now come to be a well known tradition to island’s natives and are a regular part of their elaborate feasts and celebrations which feature a variety of foods and desserts.

PUNALU'U ~Bake Shop~

Volcano National Park Lava flow into the ocean

Fun apron from the Bakery

I'll try that one, and that one and umm one of those...Mahalo !

Each year, more than 200,000 visitors from all over the world visit this bakery.

this sign was attatched to a giant palm tree

http://www.bakeshophawaii.com/

At latitude 19 degrees, four minutes north of the equator ~

the Punalu'u Bake Shop

is the southernmost bakery in the United States.

A good stop on the way to the Volcano National Park on the Big Island of Hawaii.

The baked goods are delicious !

Royal Icing Recipes from Cookie Craft book

Royal Icing
for piping:
2 Cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon powdered egg whites
3 Tablespoons warm water
1 Tablespoon (lemon juice) or 1/2 - 1 teaspoon extract (Vanilla or Almond)


Royal Icing
for flooding:
2 Cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon powdered egg whites
6 Tablespoons warm water
1 Tablespoon (lemon juice) or 1/2 - 1 teaspoon extract (Vanilla or Almond)

Combine all ingredients in the bowl of your electric mixer. Beat on high for 5 minutes = or for 10 minutes if you're using an electric hand mixer.
(If your mixer has multiple attatchments, use the paddle.)

When you reach the desired consistency, it's important that you immediately cover the mixture or store it in airtight containers.

*Depending on the humidity in your kitchen & your weather, you may need to adjust the water amounts needed.

When first mixed, piping icing will start out with the consistency of white glue.
The icing should squeeze easily out of a #2 tip but should stay in place and hold its shape on the cookie when it lands.

this is where I am still trying to find the right consistency. It has been tricky even though it seems easy...practice practice ...nibble nibble ...LOL

Flood icing (sometimes called Flow icing) will first appear very soupy. In abt 5 minutes your icing will be shiny and an opaque white color with the consistency of heavy cream.

Use paste food coloring to tint to desired colors for best results. If you use liquid food coloring you may need to add more powdered sugar to accomodate the extra liquid.

The icing can be adjusted if it is too thick, add a bit of water...too thin? add a bit of powdered sugar.

I ***HIGHLY*** recommend the book 'Cookie Craft' by Valerie Peterson & Janice Fryer. It it packed full of recipes, tips and beautiful photographs.

this is not a Sharpie

You can add a bit of embellishment (or alot) using

Gourmet Writer Food Decorating Pens.

The set I have has 10 different colors.

so very quick & easy

Icing Cookies

Pipe Royal Icing around the edge of cookies. Let dry at least 20 minutes. Thin the remaining royal icing with a small amount of warm water & corn syrup. I use a spoon to 'pour' this inside the piped edge. Be careful not to use too much, to avoid it overflowing. It will need to sit for several hrs to dry & harden.

Mixer Paddle Attachment

I just received a "New & improved" paddle for my Kitchen Aid mixer.

http://www.beaterblade.com/

It has a 'wiper blade" on it that continuously scrapes the sides & bottom of the bowl! How inventive & WHY didn't I come up with this???

It claims to cut mixing time by as much as

50 % !

............Too bad it doesn't also remove 50 % of the recipes' calories..... anyway I can't wait to try this out.

Sugar Cookie Recipe

Recipe for Rolled Sugar Cookies

3 Cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 sticks of unsalted butter (1 Cup- softened)
1 Cup sugar
1 large egg
2 tsp almond (or vanilla) extract

Mix flour & salt together in separate bowl. Set aside.
Use a mixer, cream the butter with the sugar until light & fluffy.
Use a paddle attatchment if you have one. Add egg & almond extract.
Mix until well blended.

With mixer on low, gradually add the flour & salt until well blended.

Turn out dough on counter, divide into 2-3 pieces. Roll the pieces out separately between wax paper. Place the flattened, rolled out dough 'sheet' into the fridge to chill. Abt. 20 minutes.
(If you do this ahead of time, or forget it is in there, don't worry...just take it out & let it rest on the counter a few extra minutes til you can work with it.)

Preheat oven to 350.

Cut out shapes, place on parchment (NOT wax) paper lined (or use Silpat) cookie sheet. Bake them approx. 12-16 minutes until the cookies start to turn slightly golden around the edges (smaller cookies will be done quicker!) Watch them the first time to gauge your oven / recipe timing. Half way through, I open my oven & turn the pan to rotate them for even baking. My oven is gas, so I guess that is why I need to do this. Cool cookies completely before icing or decorating.

this recipe will make abt 30 2 1/2 " cookies
OR abt 16 31/2"
OR abt 12 4 1/2 ".




.

This Short Cut backfired....

I used a package of Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix for the demo in previous post. While they taste good, they certainly are not as delicious as the recipe I used from my 'Cookie Craft' book. They did not keep their shape very well. (Yes, I added the 2 extra TBSP of flour & decreased the butter) When I peeked at them in the oven they were puffy & practically bubbling. (Click on the top photo to see what I mean) They kinda flattened out after coming out of the oven, but are not even.

I decided they were not worthy of my time to pipe the edges & use flood icing. LOL !
Jordan had asked how the icing was so smooth on the Palm tree cookies & I was going to take pictures to show the technique! argh...Next time...
The mix must have baking powder in it - so that is why they spread out. I used some leaf cutters. The maple leaf looked the worst, the alder leaf was fine...weird.
Regular frosting would work well, but I wanted to show the kind that dries hard & is shiny and smooth.

Rolled Cut Out cookie demo

I recently purchased these 3 cookbooks, which

I am using as my learning 'manuals'.

Each one has good tips,ideas & different suggestions

on the art of cookie making & decorating.

And they are loaded with beautiful photos of COOKIES!

I read about this technique in 'Cookie Craft' written by Valerie Peterson and Janice Fryer.

Go to the hardware store, and purchase a couple of wood slats.

(Sometimes called lattice slats)

1/4 inch thick, 2" wide & 2 feet long.

The cost was less than $3.00 for two. How cool is THAT ?!

(I lightly sanded the edges of the wood. Wiped the slats but did not soak them ~ they'd warp)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*Cookies bake best when they are uniform thickness.

*It also is a good idea to place similar size cutouts on same pan, small with large will result with the small burning before the larger ones are done.

*Because they are 1/4" thick they will hold up to the icing techniques too.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Roll out dough, then chill (still between the wax paper) for abt 20 min.

(This is much faster than chilling the dough in the bowl and THEN trying to roll it out when it is stiff & cold & a big lump & using a bunch of flour on the counter and on the rolling pin. )

because No extra flour is necessary ..............there is no mess! I always roll out my pie crusts with wax paper, but I never thought to do it with cutout cookie dough...........

TRY this, You'll get a lighter tasting result too

(See how the slats are placed over the 2 pieces of wax paper

& the dough is sandwiched in between.)

Roll out dough. Voila! Cookies are perfectly even ....I love this method!

Cut out shapes, use appropriate size spatula to lift them, place onto cookie sheet.

If the dough warms up, just place between wax paper & put in the fridge again. Always work with chilled dough. Repeat until all dough is used up.

No cookie cutter necessary!

I used chocolate covered peanuts for the Coconuts

Royal icing recipe for piping edges & Glossy flood recipe for fill.

These palms are abt 6" tall.

Cool completely before moving off of pan ( I didn't & one broke)

Always use parchment paper or Silpat to line cookie sheets

Anything can be made into a cookie ~ Just draw a shape,

cut it out from cardstock.

Roll out dough between wax paper, then put it into fridge for abt 20 minutes.

Then cut out the shape with a paring knife.

Giant Spider Web Cookies

These spiderweb cookies are very large.

They measure 6 inches across.

I do not recommend eating the whole thing in one sitting.

Trust me.... they are a sugar bomb.

They were a fun 'first' project. I have always liked the look

of the Marbeling, or Web design, but had never attempted

it before. It is so easy & fun.

I have been wanting to learn how to create pretty Sugar Cookies - you know, the kind that not only taste good, but look good. Here I will post my progress as I go !