Friday, January 30, 2009

Sweetheart Cookies


This is going to be my last post until after tomorrow, my Winter Crop. I'm in the thick of the preparations and happy to say that everything is going fairly well. No kitchen mishaps as of yet.

Yesterday I finished the lunch dessert, Ultimate Sugar Cookies, tricked out with lots 'o sugary frosting with no nutritional value whatsoever. All empty calories. My favorite.

If you're inclined to make these sweet little sugar bombs, I put together a few tips for you. Just in case.

To save you some trouble.


First off, I like to use this little dough scraper to get the ginormous cookie shapes to the cookie sheet without too much distortion. It really helps. Also, make sure you're pushing it on with plenty of flour so there will be no sticking. Sticking stinks. It means you have to roll it all over again.


I experimented a little after the cookies came out of the oven, but were still sitting on the cookie sheet. My anal retentive gene sort of freaks out when the cookies puff out too much and lose their perfectly symmetric shapes. I've come to the conclusion that this was just dumb though. Don't waste your time. Deal with the puffiness and apply a little extra frosting to disguise the puff. I say this because this causes the edge of the cookies to crumble easily. And I don't like my cookies to crumble.


I do, however, recommend cutting any shapes you want out of the center after they bake. There are three reasons for this:

1) Trying to transfer a cookie shape with the center cut out onto the cookie sheet without distortion is dang near impossible. You could do this after transferring the shape to the cookie sheet, yes, but you still have the cold hard truth of number 2 coming at you.
2) When the cookie puffs, so will the center and you won't be able to tell what the center shape was supposed to be anyway. Trust me.
3) If you cut center shapes out after baking, you are then left with two perfect shapes to use.


During all this scientific exploration, I discovered that there were fewer chances for droppage if I transferred the cookie with cutter to my cooling rack before separating them.

On account of my mom never gave me ballet lessons, and she will disagree with me here, I am a super clutz. Just ask Peanut Head.


See how nicely it comes out with a little patience.


My super anal, unnecessary trimming of the outer edges left me with mass quantities of this nasty stuff. Cookie bits. Blech.

Whatever will I do with this by product?


Ooh look. The girlies are home from school. Time for a nutritious snack my Little Pretties. Bwah, ha, ha, ha . . .


Dang, give Drama Llama a little frosting and some sprinkles and she'll outdo herself. Stinkerbell was more into slapping the frosting on, and knocking it all back with a handful of sprinkles. Dainty, she is not.


I cannot share my cookies with you without first sharing this little guy from Pampered Chef. It's one of three from the Decorator Bottle set. I love these things so much because there is no squirtage of frosting out the opposite end when applying pressure. That, and they're super easy for kids to use.

The only negative is how to get the frosting in there in the first place.

To which I have a solution that works most excellently.


I spoon frosting into a zipper baggie, close it up, cut off a corner, and squirt it all in. It works.


Here we go, all set up and ready to make the ultimate mess.


This is a two-layer cookie, also known as Heart Attack. Get it?

I kill myself.


Another Heart Attack. I like them. The sugary kind anyway.


A swirly do. Whatever, I made it up.


Dot, dot, dot. Dork.


You know you want one.


And for my croppers, I had to have a scrapbooking specific cookie. The first year I made these I did a "Nail it Down" one for Smash because she over thinks everything and ultimately paralyzes herself in the process. It's maddening. We're always telling her "NAIL IT DOWN!"


Here's one more look before I nail you with the recipe card.


Have a great weekend!

16 comments:

  1. You are my personal hero!!They look GREAT!!

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  2. You are too awesome, do you know that?! First of all, the cookies are AMAZING! UH-MAZE-ING! LOVE the one that says "I *heart* paper"! SHUT!UP! Way too cool! Second of all, you take the time to take pics and document it all on your blog! THAT IS AWESOME! I love your blog the most. The most out of ANY blogs I read! (TO INCLUDE MY OWN!) PLEASE take pics of the crop, I am SO JEALOUS that I can't be there, but I really wanna see pics!!! I'll scrap at home and pretend I'm having fun with yoU!

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  3. WOW!! Those are gorgeous! You are the queen of the kitchen.

    I love the little pampered chef doo dads. I haven't see them before.

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  4. I do want one of those amazing icing squirters!! Too cool! And you are amazing, neighbor.....I hope everyone at your crop appreciates you and all your hard work. If they don't I'll have to email them, because it's too far to come choke them a little. Awesome cookies, wish I had one, you're the best cooker and your blogging is fun.....see I made a rhyme!!! ;)
    Have fun!!

    Suzanne

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  5. Those are some fabulous cookies for your Winter Crop party! Man, I wish I lived close by. I can tell you there wouldn't have been any cookie edges cause as soon as they were cut off they would have been in my mouth! YUMMY! Have a great time. I know everyone there will!♥

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  6. Oh Dear God, those look good. I'm a sucker for a sugar cookie with frosting. Have fun tomorrow!!

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  7. Very nice! Wish I was coming to your scrapping party! Especially with those cookies to eat :) Have a great weekend!

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  8. I haven't enjoyed myself so much baking cookies- I mean watching someone bake cookies- in a long time!:)

    I was cracking up at your comments. Very witty!

    But I'd have to say, even the cut-off parts looked good to me!! Great job decorating and thanks for showing us how to do it the right way!

    Linda C

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  9. Oh my. No really. OH MY! I am so jumping in my car and crashing your crop. Just for the cookies. My scrapping supplies are still in the garage in a box ... somewhere. But that's okay. I'm just in it for the cookies. The photos can wait. :)

    I loved this post, I was laughing and oohing and ahhh and laughing some more. Hubs kept asking what was so funny, I told him he wouldn't understand. (smile) Then I told him you were preparing for your crop this weekend, he told me he doesn't miss that AT ALL. Well, gee honey, tell me how you really feel. Guess he doesn't want me to go back to being a CMC now that we are living in the States again. Ah well.

    Thanks for the giggles tonight. Was fun!

    Kiy

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  10. I'm so impressed. They are beautiful... I don't even think I could eat them... YES I COULD! happy weekend to you.

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  11. Mmmmmm... I love sugar cookies with frosting, but hate making them because they are so much work. You make it look too effortless.

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  12. Those cookies are beautiful and look so tasty! I'm so glad you posted the recipe and the pictures. I really do want to learn to make these!

    Jamie
    www.oktxok.blogspot.com

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  13. Yum, yum, yum! I am dying to make up some sugar cookies now. SOOO gonna have to get me some of those squeeze bottle things from Pampered Chef. Never seen them before and they look like a MUST have! By the way..the cookies are GORGOUS!

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  14. OMG how in the world do you get it all done??? Those look so yummy and I love the paper one. Very clever you are girlie! So now i have to get those squeeze bottles since you raved about them...add that to my ever growing list. :)

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  15. Yowsah! Those cookies are awesome! What patience you have!

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