Tomorrow is Valentine Cookie swap at work.  I thought long and hard about what I wanted to make.  Should I make something traditional like my chocolate espresso cookies or maybe my Chocolate Cookie Sandwiches?  Or do something revolving around Valentine’s?  Of course as you can tell I opted for going with the festive Valentine’s theme.  These are basic sugar cookies with a little twist.  They have a smaller heart cut-out which is then filled with chocolate.  I divided half the batter and added red food coloring (or red gel paste)  and the other half I left as is.  These take a little bit of time and maybe a little patience but they turn cute in the end.  The recipe below makes about 24 cookie lollipops plus little hearts….so plenty.  Placing the lollipop stick in the center of the cookies before baking is the key and can be a little tricky so just be careful.  But most of all have fun making them. 

I’ll let you all know how the cookie swap goes tomorrow at work.  Happy baking and Happy Valentine’s Day!!

 

Valentine Cookie Lollipops

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4 cups sifted all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

pinch of nutmeg

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 cups sugar

2 large eggs

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

red gel-paste or food coloring (optional)

24 lollipop sticks

pink or white chocolate wafers (such as merckens chocolate)

Instructions:

Sift flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg into a bowl.  Set aside.

Put butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.  Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy.  Mix in eggs and vanilla.  Reduce speed to low.  Gradually mix in flour mixture.  Divide dough in half.  If you want to have red hearts (as pictured above) then add about 1/4 to 1/2 tsp of food coloring or just a small amount of gel-paste to half the dough and mix well.  Wrap each half of dough in plastic wrap and flatten into a disk.  Refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour or overnight.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees, with racks in upper and lower thirds.  Let one disk of dough stand at room temperature just until slightly soften enough to roll, about 5 to 10 minutes.  Roll out dough on a lightly floured work surface to just about 3/16 inch thick, adding flour as needed to keep dough from sticking.  Cut out cookies with a 2 1/2 inch heart cookie cutter, then cut out the smaller heart in the upper corners of the cookies. 

Here are the cookie cutters I used for these cookies

Then carefully insert the lollipop stick into the center of the cookie being careful not to push the stick out of the cookie.  Place the cookies carefully onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.  Chill cookies in freezer until very firm, about 10 to 15 minutes.  Roll out any scraps, and repeat.  Repeat with the remaining disk of dough.  You can also use the smaller hearts you have cut out to make small sweethearts.

Bake cookies, switching positions of sheets and rotating halfway through, until edges are slightly golden, 15 to 20 minutes.  The sweetheart cookies will be around 10 to 15 minutes.  Let cool on sheets on wire racks. 

Place cookies onto wax paper once cooled.  Melt chocolate color of choice as directions state.  Using a small squeeze bottle,  flood the small heart cut-out with chocolate.  Gentle tap the pan to get the chocolate to set evenly in the small heart.  Let chocolate set completely before removing from wax paper.  You can place in the refrigerator of freezer to let the chocolate set faster.

You can wrap the cookies in lollipop bags and tie with a bow if your giving these treats away to friends and family.

The cookies can be stored in a airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week.

Merry Christmas everyone!!  I hope everyone has had a very blessed day so far filled with love, laughter, family, and delicious food.  Our Christmas day has been wonderful so far.  It has actually been the calmest of all the days since arriving here in Charleston.  We are actually towards the end of our visit and it has been a great one.  I have to say, it’s been very busy since arriving!  We’ve been non-stop visiting friends and family and entertaining the girls.  We were lucky enough to take the girls to the Charleston aquarium and children’s museum.  The girls had a blast seeing all the fish, penguins, and turtles at the aquarium.  If you are ever in Charleston they are both great stops for kids!! 

Here is a picture of the girls running after their dad as we were leaving the aquarium.  What fun!

Even though our trip has been busy, I was still able to get into the kitchen and make a few things.  I have to say walking into my mother-in-laws kitchen was quite interesting.  I’m very spoiled at home because I have all my tools close by and I know where everything is.  For Christmas Eve morning I made these quick and delicious cinnamon rolls.  I thought I would share with everyone because they don’t require yeast and the waiting for the dough to rise.  These are great for breakfast any time but even special during the holidays.

Again everyone….Merry Christmas!  And thank you for all your support on my blog.  I look forward to 2010! 

Easy Cinnamon Rolls

One package frozen Pillsbury Frozen Biscuits (12 buttermilk)

¼ cup (½ stick) unsalted butter, softened

¾ cup light brown sugar, firmly packed

2 tsp ground cinnamon

½ cup pecans, chopped and toasted

 

Icing:

1 cup confectioners’ sugar

3 Tbsp milk

½ tsp vanilla

For rolls:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Spray an 9 inch square or round pan with non-stick cooking spray.  Set aside.

Place the chopped pecans on a cookie sheet and place in oven about 5 to 8 minutes until toasted. 

Arrange frozen biscuits, with sides touching, in 3 rows of 4 biscuits on a lightly floured surface. Let stand 30 to 45 minutes or until biscuits are thawed but still cool to the touch.

Sprinkle thawed biscuits lightly with flour. Press biscuit edges together, and pat to form a 10- x 12-inch rectangle of dough; spread evenly with softened butter. Stir together brown sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle evenly over butter. Sprinkle chopped pecans evenly over brown sugar mixture.

Roll up, starting at one long end; cut into 12 (about 1-inch-thick) slices. Place rolls into a lightly greased 9-inch round pan or 9-inch square pan.

 Bake at 375° for 30 to 35 minutes or until center rolls are golden brown and done; cool slightly.

 

For Icing:

Stir together 1 cup powdered sugar, 3 Tbsp. milk, and 1/2 tsp. vanilla; drizzle evenly over rolls.

12 days to Christmas!!  12 more days left to prepare for Christmas!!  Are you ready??  I have to say that I’m not even close to being ready!  The reason being is because I have not bought one present yet!!  Not a one!  When thinking about this I go into panic and stress mode.  I will try not to get myself so worked up but I will probably be spending the afternoon shopping on the internet.  It’s doesn’t help that it’s in the 80’s in South Florida. This may be playing a part in why I can’t get into the groove of Christmas.  While everyone else is experience really cold weather right now we are dressed in shorts in t-shirts.  I guess there are pros and cons of living in a mild climate but this time of the weather is when I miss the cold weather.  My parents have been visiting since Thursday (which is one of the reasons why I haven’t posted…sorry) and they have to check their flight out because Atlanta might have a chance of flurries!!  Crazy! 

To help me get into the spirit of everything and to also satisfy my dad and husbands sweet tooth I made gingerbread cookies this weekend.  I have to say the gingerbread cookies are great by themselves or with the filling.  The original recipe I tried for the filling was a little too sweet so I reduced the sugar and they came out a lot better.  The recipe below reflects my changes and my recommendations.  The gingerbread cookies are soft and chewy which is how I prefer my gingerbread cookies.  Also on the cookies I made the mistake of making them too big and they ended up spreading and getting really big.  Since they were so big and to avoid making them again I used a biscuit cutter to make them smaller.  I advised below to drop about 1 tsp sized cookies and this should help you to avoid my mistake.  As you can tell I had a lot of distractions while making these, hence the “mistakes”.  I had the girls, the dog, grandma, and grandpa all running and going crazy inside the house while I was trying to make these.  The kitchen so happen to be the place of choice for their fun.

I have also included that these are a great option to package up in a tin and tie a bow on top and give as a gift.  Maybe I should use this idea for someone….one down so more to go. 

Ok stress level rising again.  I’m going to take a deep breath and start my list and know that in the end everything will be ok.

Good luck everyone as you finish your last minute Christmas preparations!!

 

Gingerbread Cookie Sandwiches

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For Cookies:

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp salt

1 stick plus 2 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened

¾ cup sugar

1 large egg, at room temperature

¼ cup unsulfured molasses

For Filling:

6 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened

1 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar

1 Tbsp milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and position racks in the upper and lower thirds.  Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

To Make Cookies:

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon and salt.  In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar at medium speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Beat in the egg and molasses.  Add dry ingredients and beat at low speed until well incorporated, scraping down the sides.  Drop tbsp size dough onto the baking sheets, 3 inches apart.  Bake the cookies for 10-15 minutes, until risen and fallen and slightly firm; shift the sheets halfway through for even baking.  Let cool slightly then transfer the parchment paper to racks to cool completely.

 

To Make Filling:

In the bowl of a electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter with the confectioners’ sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Beat in the milk until well combined.

Arrange the cookies in pairs on a large working surface and spoon or pipe onto the flat side of half of the cookie with filling.  Place the other cookie flat side down on top of cookie with filling and press down slightly until filling spreads to the edges. 

Sandwich cookies can be stored in an airtight container between sheets of wax paper for up to a week.

 

Muffins, muffins, muffins!!  That’s the 4^th holiday gift idea!  What a great thing to have in your pantry when you’re in the mood for muffins or like the pancakes need a quick breakfast idea.  The mix is easy to make and again I have combined whole wheat with regular all-purpose to get the whole grains in there.  I have also made this mix with using white whole wheat flour and whole wheat.  You do what you prefer.  For the girls I like knowing they are getting some of those whole grains in their diet.  Along with the recipe for the muffin mix I’ve included a recipe for Lemon Blueberry Muffins and Espresso Chocolate Chip Muffins.  There are so many other ideas you can do with this muffin mix which makes it so great.

For the packaging, I used the same white bag as I used for the pancake mix from My Own Labels.  The label is also the same one I used for the Cinnamon Sugar Pecans.  The labels are again so easy to use because Paper Source includes the template so all you have to do is choose the font you want and test it out.  Easy!

Happy Holidays everyone and I hope you have found some of these gift ideas inspirational.  There is one more to go so stay tune!

 

Homemade Muffin Mix

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