Well hello there! Happy Holidays!I know you've been crazy busy. What have you been up to? I'd love to hear how you're celebrating your Holidays or not.
So I decided that this year, due to the State of the Economy in my apartment, that I would bake! Bake! So I gathered my wits and headed into the kitchen. I pulled the Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer out (which really there is no pulling out, it's so heavy it kind of lives where it lives LOL), dusted it off and proceeded to lose my mind! And this was premeditated mind losing!
So at 11:00 I sit here waiting for the last batch of the night to come out of the oven. I've made Cranberry and White Chocolate Divas (my name for them LOL), Peppermint Coolers and Lemon Frosties. I started with a base cookie:2/3 cup shortening
2/3 cup butter
2 tspns vanilla extract (I've substituted this with other flavors of extract and they all worked.
1 1/2 cups white sugar
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tspns baking powder
1 tspn salt
Preheat the oven to 350. Cream the shortening, butter and sugar together. stir in eggs and vanilla. Combine all of the dry ingredients and mix into the creamed ingredients. Mix until dough is formed. That easy. It's kinda shortbready :-)
The fun part comes with the additions. I separated the dough into batches. Since it made enough to feed a small army. In the first batch I added a cap full of peppermint extract and white chocolate chips! Topped them off with Peppermint Sprinkles. Very cooling bite. YUMMMMY!
The second batch I added Cranberrys and White Chocolate Chips.
To the third batch I squeezed the juice of 1 lemon and added some lemon zest. As soon as they came out of the oven I put them into a ziploc bag with confectioners sugar and more zest! Oh my, I bet you can feel your cheeks puckering up from the lemony goodness! LOL These babies are to die for. And if I ate them all I would! Which is why they are gifts :-) I can keep my snacking to a minimum!
The final touch was to cut some pieces of parchment paper, trimming the edges decoratively. I closed it with a label and then added the lemon cookies by folding them into a square of parchment paper. This way the powdered sugar doesn't get all over the other cookies. Adding a card with a recipe for the base cookie is a nice touch. Then I place the cookies in those Ziploc or Glad containers and tie it with Ribbon. I just wish you could taste these yummies.These make great gifts. They show you care...and you cook! Nothing like Aunt NooNoos fruit cake.
Tomorrow I'm going to venture even further into Cookie Land. I love creating my own recipes and am thinking I can come up with something yummy or deadly LOL.
This is one of those things that I'm weak for. Ginger. I'd never seen Ginger Juice like this and thought it'd be great for a try. So I'm going to add it to a cookie recipe and see what happens. If you don't hear from me by Christmas, contact the recipe police. LOLA Legend in My Living Room! :-) LOL LOL so now that that part of the night is over it's on to complete my last Youtube video of the year LOL. Which I plan to post tomorrow. Quick last minute gifts that are a joy to make and give! Oh... there's a big mess in the kitchen LOL. Dang!
:-) And I'm not done. Well done for tonight, more cookies tomorrow.
Ok so here's a little secret, if it's too close to gift giving time and you can't squeeze the recipe build in, you can probably buy those packages of already mixed sugar cookie dough and add your own goodies to it.
Forgot to mention that I did take a break today LOL. I drove this beautiful road. Mesmerized by the beautiful sky. This actually inspired me to get home and get those cookies done!
Hope you're having a yummy week too!Big Holiday Hugs to you!