Lovin' From the Oven

Day 4: No Fail Sugar Cookies

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Yay! Finals are done! Time for me to bake all I want… So you can expect a lot of posts for the next three weeks. I have a lot on my agenda.. from buying Christmas gifts for everyone to catching up on my much needed SLEEP! I’ve been sick for the past week. I came home from LA and my mom greeted me with “You’re sick, huh? You look like a dead person. I can tell.” Haha, Thanks, Mom. And the next morning, she said to me after hearing me cough, “You’re going to get water in your lungs and die from pneumonia! Wear a jacket. And pants. You sound like an old man. I’m going to go buy you medicine so you can sleep at night and stop coughing.” She’s so mother-ly, overexaggerating everything and worried all the time. I love her.

I’ve been obsessed with looking at puppies lately. I want one soooo bad. Preferably a german shepherd or a siberian husky. Ahhhhhh they’re so cute. Anyways, back to the cookies…




Day 4 of my 12 Days of Cookies: No fail-sugar cookies. So I knocked down two birds with one stone on day 4 of my cookies. I’m going to my boyfriend’s cousin’s engagement party tonight and baked this for the newly engaged couple (hence the bride & groom cookies). Now, I’ve NEVER had any luck with baking sugar cookies simply because they either turn out flat, lose their shape, taste terribly, or are too crumbly. I discovered this recipe a couple of years ago and I haven’t used another one since. I mean, look at the name of the cookie: No-fail sugar cookies! How can you go wrong with that? This dough stands up to the most complex cookie cutters and always come out perfect. I made them a little thicker than normal so that they would be sturdy enough to stand on a cookie stick for my bouquet. I also halved this recipe because I didn’t need that many cookies. After they were cooled, I decorated them however I wanted.

I haven’t had a lot of experience with piping frosting, so don’t be too harsh! This is actually the first time I’ve piped with royal icing. This royal icing is very forgiving and can be stiff or thin, depending on what you want to do with it. Either add more powdered sugar for a stiffer icing to pipe, or add more water to make it into a thinner consistency to fill in cookies. I halved this recipe as well, and still have a ton leftover.

I used my heart cookie cutter from my Crate & Barrel set I got for Christmas last year from one of my cousins that can be found HERE. It has a cookie cutters that will last you throughout the year.. one for each month! How cute is that!? And it even comes in a cute container, that could be used for cookie storing.

Ingredients

  • 6 cups flour
  • 3 tsp. baking powder
  • 2 cups butter
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tsp. vanilla extract or desired flavoring
  • 1 tsp. salt

Directions:
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Mix dry ingredients and add a little at a time to butter mixture. Mix until flour is completely incorporated and the dough comes together.

Chill for 1 to 2 hours

Roll to desired thickness and cut into desired shapes. Bake on ungreased baking sheet at 350
degrees for 8 to 10 minutes or until just beginning to turn brown around the edges. This recipe
can make up to 5-dozen 3” cookies.

For the Royal Icing:
6 oz (3/4 cup) of warm water
5 Tablespoons meringue powder
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 kilogram (2.25 lbs.) powdered icing sugar

In mixer bowl, pour in the warm water and the meringue powder. Mix it with a whisk by hand until it is frothy and thickened…about 30 seconds.

Add the cream of tartar and mix for 30 seconds more.

Pour in all the icing sugar at once and place the bowl on the mixer.

Using the paddle attachment on the LOWEST speed, mix slowly for a full 10 minutes. Icing will get thick and creamy.

Cover the bowl with a dampened tea-towel to prevent crusting and drying.

Tint with food colourings or thin the icing with small amounts of warm water to reach the desired consistency.

Ok, I have to add a picture of the love of my life at the moment. I bought myself a little Christmas present and am SO excited! It’s Wilton’s 56 Piece Tip Set. I can pipe all sorts of things now! 🙂

Day 3: NY Times Chocolate Chip Cookies

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It’s finals week and the workload is driving me crazy! It’s really such a cruel time of the year for students.. minimal sleep & maximum work. I’ve already written 37 pages of papers and still have 15 left to go. I’ve finished 2 finals, and have 2 more left throughout the rest of this week. Can we fast forward to Friday already? Yesterday, I wrote about 25 pages for a paper that was due today (we all procrastinate, it’s no surprise) and had roughly 3 hours of sleep. After driving to UCLA to turn my papers in, I was stuck in LA traffic for a good half hour or so on the streets trying to get to the freeway, only to have bumper to bumper traffic on the 405. Ugh! I hate LA traffic.

When I got back, I told my boyfriend that I had to bake something in order to relieve my stress and take a break from all this madness. He told me that I couldn’t because I had another paper to write due tomorrow and should be working on that. Granted that he was probably right, I rummaged through the pantry and pulled out all my baking ingredients, anyway. I opted for something simple because I was short on time and just needed something comforting: chocolate chip cookies. Thank goodness I did!

Day 3 of my twelve days of cookies: The infamous NY Times chocolate chip cookies by Jacques Torres (found here if you have no idea what I’m talking about). These belong in my cookie countdown because it’s such a classic! Everyone loves chocolate chip cookies & loves receiving them as well. Even though I’ve found my go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe, I can’t help but try new ones. There are just so many versions out there and I want to try them all! These cookies were absolutely AMAZING. The sea salt made a world of a difference, and it tasted like the Trader Joe’s cookies that you buy in a bag (theirs are amazing as well, even the vegan ones!). I replaced cake flour & bread flour for AP flour, since that was all I had on hand. I used more brown sugar than white sugar because I prefer softer, chewy cookies and swear by brown sugar. I also didn’t chill the cookies at all. I know, I’m impatient.. but I can’t help it! Regardless, they still turned out great. This might even replace my current CCC recipe. Maybe if I have the patience next time and chill them for at least 24 hours, they’ll turn out even better! Heres my version of the CCC adapted from the NY Times:

Time: 45 minutes (for 1 6-cookie batch)

INGREDIENTS:

  • 3 2/3 cups minus 2 tablespoons (17 ounces) AP flour
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
  • 2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter
  • 1 3/4 cups light brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 1/2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
  • 1 1/4 pounds semi sweet chocolate chunks (I used Guittard)
  • Sea salt.

DIRECTIONS:
1. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.

2. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Drop chocolate pieces in and mix.

3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

4. Scoop 6 3 1/2-ounce mounds of dough (the size of generous golf balls) onto baking sheet, making sure to turn horizontally any chocolate pieces that are poking up; it will make for a more attractive cookie. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day. Eat warm, with a big napkin.

Yield: 1 1/2 dozen 5-inch cookies.

Day 2: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Day 2 of my twelve days of cookies: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies- Even though Thanksgiving is over, I can’t bear the thought of pumpkin being out of season. I mean… Why should it? It’s definitely is an essential ingredient for the holidays. Anything pumpkin always turns out cake-like and fluffy, so be prepared for that light consistency when making these cookies. The combination of chocolate and pumpkin is also divine, so you know that you can’t go wrong. These cookies made A LOT, and I only made 1/4 of the recipe. They pretty much keep their form from how you place the cookie dough on the baking sheet, so using a cookie scoop helps keep all your cookies uniform. This recipe comes from the foodnetwork, courtesy of George Duran.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 1 cup light brown sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 2 cups (12-ounce bag) milk chocolate chips, not semisweet
  • Nonstick cooking spray or parchment paper

Directions

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray cookie sheets with nonstick spray or line them with parchment paper.

Using a mixer, beat the butter until smooth. Beat in the white and brown sugars, a little at a time, until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs 1 at a time, then mix in the vanilla and pumpkin puree. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. Slowly beat the flour mixture into the batter in thirds. Stir in the chips. Scoop the cookie dough by heaping tablespoons onto the prepared cookie sheets and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the cookies are browned around the edges. Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and let them rest for 2 minutes. Take the cookies off with a spatula and cool them on wire racks.

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