Cookies, a holiday gift, and blog vacation news…

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Hello!! Welcome to the weekend! :o) Kylie here!  I have lots to share today so lets jump right in!

I love baking cookies anytime of the year but it feels extra special in December…and today I’d love to share two little recipes with you – Sugar Cookie ‘Stars’ and Little Gingerbread Cookies.  Both are must-haves for the holiday season and these are my go-to recipes – super simple with hardly any fuss!

First we have the Sugar Cookies.  Even though these are “sugar” cookies they aren’t super-sweet.  Compared to most cookie recipes this one doesn’t have loads of sugar and is more like a simple shortbread style cookie.  Plus, when you add the layer of icing you’ll get all the sugar you need and then some…so it’s nice to have a bit of balance with the base.

Ingredients

• 250g (8oz) unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup caster sugar (superfine sugar)
• 2 1/2 cups plain flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• a few drops of vanilla essence/extract or the zest of one lemon (depending on what flavour you prefer)
• rolled fondant, icing, edible glitter, cachous or sprinkles to decorate…whatever you want to use!

Directions

• Cream butter and sugar with electric mixer
• Add egg slowly with vanilla or lemon zest
• Add dry ingredients and combine well to a smooth dough (but try not to overwork the dough)
• Cover bowl with plastic wrap.  Rest in refrigerator for 15 minutes.  When you take it out again, let it sit for a bit at room temperature if it feels too hard to start rolling out.  (It all depends how hot your kitchen is to start with etc)
• Roll out approx 5 mm (1/4 inch) thick and use your cookie cutters to cut out the shapes you want.  I’ve used an ornate ‘star’ but use whatever you have on hand - circles, hearts, flowers, Christmas trees, letters etc.
• Place the shapes on a baking sheet.  Rest again for 5 minutes.
• Bake at 160C (325F) for approx 10-12 minutes
• Cool on cooling rack and then decorate as you wish

My cookie cutter is part of this set that I purchased a couple of years ago – I love it!!  I chose the one that most looked like a star from my snowflake collection.  I was afraid that my snowflakes would melt in the summer heat (here in Australia) ;o) …so disguised it as a “star”…shhh, don’t tell anyone!

To decorate: First I needed to knead my fondant to allow for easy rolling.  I then rolled it out nice and thin and layered the texture mat (that came with my cutter set) onto the fondant.  Using the rolling pin I then rolled over the texture mat to create the pretty embossed pattern.  I used the same cookie cutter to carefully cut out the “star” shape.  With a few little dots of icing sugar paste (a few tablespoons of icing/confectioners sugar and a tiny amount of water) used as my “glue”, I gently pressed the fondant star onto the cookie.  You just need to be very careful not to press too hard as you will press away the pattern.  To finish, I added a sprinkle of edible glitter and some silver, blue and pink cachous.  Simple but oh sooo pretty!

This is just one shape and one way to decorate…once you have the base recipe you can do whatever you wish!  So many options!

Now onto the Gingerbread!

Love, love, love anything with ginger in it!  Plus gingerbread people are always so much fun to make, especially for kids.  I also cut out some stars with a “wide split” up the middle so that they would hang over a mug or glass after they were baked.  I thought I’d give it a try after seeing the cookie cutter version in a store.  But again, same as the sugar cookies above, feel free to choose whatever shapes you want…they all taste the same!

Ingredients

• 125g (4oz) unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar (dark brown sugar is best)
• 1/2 cup treacle or golden syrup (treacle will give the cookies a richer flavour and darker colour)
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 1/2 cups plain flour
• 1 tbs ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Directions

• Melt butter, syrup or treacle (whichever you have chosen to use) and brown sugar in small saucepan.  Allow to cool slightly.
• Sift flour, spices and bicarbonate of soda into large bowl.
• Add the butter/syrup mix to flour, along with the egg yolk.
• Combine together until a smooth dough forms.  Shape into flat ball, cover in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.
• Bring dough to room temperature.  Divide into small batches and roll out to desired thickness.  Cut out shapes.  Space out on lined baking trays.
• Bake each batch at 180C (350F) for 10 minutes or until golden.  If you are using large cookie cutters or have a fairly thick layer of dough then you may need to adjust the cooking time to 12 or 15 minutes…just keep an eye on them to gauge when they are ready. (They will start to colour around the edges)
• Leave plain or decorate with icing/frosting…again, the choice is yours as to what you use to decorate – currents, candy/lollies, chocolate…hmmm, maybe not!  With mine I left them very simple, a tiny bit of lemon flavoured icing and some silver cachous.

And, if you wanted to gift your special cookies, you could put one or multiples in a cellophane or plastic treat bag and use one of the toppers from the JOY confection collection or why not make Jenelle’s gorgeous gift canisters – perfect!  Or check out Lu’s cookie flower bouquet from last year!

Time for some recipe cards!  Just click on the image to download (or click HERE)!

Happy Baking!

Continuing with the festive food fun we have an EXTRA GIFT for you today!  Just our small way of saying THANK YOU and HAPPY HOLIDAYS to all our lovely readers…and, something you might like to use as a last-minute gift idea for family and friends! :o)

I have put together three printable Recipe Card Boxes, each with their own co-ordinating recipe card that you can personalise by adding a photo and your own recipe.  Sharing favourite recipes is always FUN, and such a lovely thing to do, and with three very different styles you will have lots of options this season.  We have the very cute and festively sweet sugarplum set – pinks, aqua and little Christmas stockings…awww!  Then we have an elegant winter (but not too wintery) set using the fabulous Brrrr! kit.  And I couldn’t resist creating a Gracie recipe card box set…it’s perfect for a lil’ something homemade with love.  The recipe cards are all 4×6″ at 300dpi (high quality and ready to print).  All you will really need is a printer, paper and adhesive.  You can use your photo-editing software to add your text, photos and any other ‘extras’…or simply print out blank ones and write your recipe and special messages by hand and attach a photo.

You can click the image above to download the printables…OR…simply click HERE!

The download includes:

• sugarplum holiday recipes card box (8.5×11 print page) JPG file (created with items from Sugarplum dreams)
• sugarplum holiday recipes card PNG file (created with items from Sugarplum dreams and Sugarplum Additions
• winter holiday recipes card box (8.5×11 print page) JPG file (created with items from Brrrr! and Goose bumps)
• winter holiday recipes card PNG file (created with items from Brrrr! and HopScotch)
• gracie holiday recipes card box (8.5×11 print page) JPG file (created with items from Gracie)
• gracie holiday recipes card PNG file (created with items from Gracie)

For each holiday recipes card box we have also included an assembly instructions file that you can refer to.  The recipe card boxes are super easy to put together and we’ve tried to make the instruction file as easy to understand as possible.  For even more information, tips and suggestions…from downloading -> printing -> trimming -> assembly -> gifting inspiration, and more…you can find all the information you need by viewing the forever-popular ShabbyPrincess.com Holiday Recipe Collection information page… HERE!  If this is your first attempt at making something like this, I would definitely recommend you read through this information first.  I know it’s lots to read but if you are new to hybrid projects it’s soooo worthwhile!!  SP will readily admit to sharing more info than necessary, but only in an effort to answer any questions you may have…and to make your project a success & bunches of FUN, from start to finish!

Need help filling your new recipe card boxes?  Why not pop in some of the Shabby Shoppe Blog free recipe card downloads you’ve collected along the way.  And if you are new to the blog, or just missed a Food Friday post or two…here’s a list of some of the recipes cards you might like to add to your personal collection and/or gift box: Oreo Truffles, Garden Pizza, Watermelon Granita & Espresso Granita, Buttermilk Pie, BBQ Chicken and Roasted Carrots, Passionfruit Cake, Chai Tea, Pumpkin Ginger Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting, Chili, Apple Lattice Slice, Ginger Creams (holiday recipe), Lemony Ginger Sugar Cookies (holiday recipe),  Choc-Cherry Brownies with Spicy Hot Chocolate Drink, Marshmallow Bunnies, Jello Dessert, Smoked Salmon Tarlets, Apple Cupcakes with Maple Buttercream, Chicken Corn Soup, Corn Bake, and then we have the three holiday recipes I’ve posted this week – Christmas Pudding Cake Pops and today’s Sugar Cookie Stars and Little Gingerbread Cookies.  And, we’ve had other delicious food posts that didn’t feature a recipe card…if you want to check them out just click on the Food Stuff category on the right-hand side of the blog, and then simply scroll through all the deliciousness!  Enjoy! :o)

Some other gift ideas:

• Pop in a couple of favourite family photos along with the recipe cards.  The box size is perfect for your 6×4 photos and your family and friends will love receiving your latest pics in a fun new way!
• Add a couple of blank cards so that the lucky person receiving the set can add some of their own recipes to the box.
• Add a holiday recipe card set to a gift basket…especially if it’s a baking/cooking themed one!
• If you are giving homemade baked treats as gifts already, why not add the recipe card (with or without the card box) 

Have lots of FUN creating these litte recipe card box sets and if you feel like sharing we’d sooooo LOVE to see your creations in the gallery!

Happy Creating!

Now onto some blog news…

We are all looking forward to taking some time off to spend with family and friends throughout this holiday season…and as a result, we will be taking a brief blog vacation…back on JANUARY 9th!  We’ll be returning with all your favourites, starting with a super-sized LOTW post…so don’t stop uploading your gorgeous layouts to the gallery.  We’ll announce the winners to the here we go a-caroling RECIPE CHALLENGE…and we will be wrapping up our PROJECT SCRAP 2011 - so don’t forget to pick up the December templates we shared on Thursday so that you can scrap through the holidays.

And of course, I’ll be back to fit in the FREE JANUARY DESKTOP somewhere before the end of the month rocks around…maybe on or around the 28th of December :o)  So stop by and pick it up!

MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY HOLIDAYS :o)  We all wish you the best and most wonderful ‘end of year’ and joyous & safe start to 2012!  Hugs & Kisses to all!  :o)

KylieFood Stuff, Free (not desktops), Uncategorized 20 Comments