Camp Granma: Making Memories With My Grandchildren: Cookies

Showing posts with label Cookies. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Girlfriend Cookie Gifts

During this busy time of year, I think every woman needs to make time for girlfriends. I held a Christmas Cookies with the Chicas event last night. I invited friends from church and we just sat, talked, and ate homemade cookies! Only four ladies were able to attend due to the craziness of the season, but it was almost better that way because I was able to take the time and really chat with my ladies. I gave these little pint sized cookie jars as favors. Give your girlfriends the gift of no fuss Christmas cookies. Make a few of these for your favorite girlfriends and take some time for girlchat.

Most cookies-in-a-jar recipes are made for quart-sized mason jars. I made several changes to Allrecipes.com Julia’s Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies In A Jar recipe in order for it to fit a pint-sized mason jar, include festive M&Ms, and keep the dry ingredients separate from the chocolate chips. I like the pint-sized jars better because I think they are more appropriate size for a favor and they make only six to eight cookies which I feel is a good proportion for two to three people to share! You can find the original recipe for quart size here.

Dry Ingredients to pack in pint mason jar:
3/4 cup and 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup Christmas M&Ms
1/4 cup packed brown sugar

Directions: Combine the flour and baking soda. Place flour and soda mixture in a clean pint sized glass jar, and pack firmly. *See NFF Tip below! Place sugar on top. Pack firmly. Layer with chocolate chips and M&Ms. Place the brown sugar on top, again packing firmly. Cover with a lid.

Attach an index card with the following directions: Empty contents of jar into a large bowl. In separate bowl combine 1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons of butter, 1 egg and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until creamy. Add to dry mixture. Drop by tablespoonful onto an ungreased cookie sheet, and bake in a preheated 375 degrees for 6 to 10 minutes.

NFF Tip: The best way I have found to keep the flour from getting all over your clean mason jar is to simply cut a large tip into a disposable decorating bag (a large plastic Ziploc would work as well), place the cut bag into your mason jar and use it as a funnel for your dry ingredients. This keeps the sides of your jar crystal clean and will give you the clear layered look you want.

Using festive napkins or fabric, add a little holiday cheer to your Christmas jars by screwing on a small square to the top of the jar. I used Martha Stewart Christmas napkins – I know… I know… nothing is too good for my girlfriends! I then place ribbons around the jar lid and around the center of each jar. I then added a Girlfriend Cookies tag. I’ll be making the Girlfriend Cookies tag printable available for free download tonight! Come back and it will be here! in the meantime, make some girl time!

HERE IT IS! Click here for the free tag!

Blog to you soon,

Popularity: 54% [?]

Teabag Short cake coolies

http://www.accenttheparty.com/party-blog/view/56359/cute---teagbag-shortbread-cookies---a-must-for-the-next-party

Monday, March 28, 2011

Cupcake Cookies

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 23

Cupcake Cookies, An Experiment Gone Right

An experiment. A test. A trial. In reality, that's all cookies really are. The only limitation is your imagination and how far you are willing to go to make your dream a reality.

A week or so ago, I had someone ask me about blogging. She's shied away from it, because she was not sure she wanted to document her mistakes. Although I completely understood where she was coming from, it reminded me of one of the most important lessons this great adventure has taught me...

You never really know how a cookie is going to go. Sometimes it's exactly what you expected. Sometimes it's a cleverly saved cookie-gone-wrong. OFTEN, it's a total bust, and then, every once in a while, you hit the jackpot.

This does not by any means imply that you hit the jackpot the very first time, but that sometimes a rough idea, with a little tweaking can really become something wonderful.

This is my latest cookie kick, an example of an idea gone right {after several tweaks}...

CUPCAKE COOKIES!!!

These aren't your everyday average cupcake cookies. I've done more of the flat version than I'd like to remember. This was my attempt at an idea I have been toying with for a few years, ever since I saw these babies on Martha Stewart's website {click on the image to see the original post}

{FYI, the photographs of my attempts are in the chronological order of attempts from the beginning to end.}

I found that for the first set, I made the flood icing a little to watery, so it was a bit more translucent than I liked.

So the second time around, I thickened my icing, and added a layer.

The thicker icing worked a lot better, but I didn't like the look of the taller version, so I tried again. This time leaning more toward simple.

This time I also used a LOT of icing to attach the crown to the cup. I was going for a "drippy" look.

Still, not quite what I pictured, so...

Learning something with each attempt, I tried something else. I changed the cutters I used to make the base, hoping to achieve the "drippy" look another way.

I liked them okay, but they still weren't quite there. Plus, I got to learn how much I appreciate the nice oven at our house after spending some time with the stone age model at my parent's cabin =)

I made one final attempt because I wanted to see what they would look like coated with glaze icing rather than royal, and I also wanted to use my wonkey flower cutters for the crown. I think I liked this version of the top best.

For now, I am going to take a little rest. But this won't be the last 3-D cupcake cookies you see from me. I already have another idea I need to try.

It usually takes me about three stabs at any design to get it pretty much where I want it to be, sometimes even more. In this case, I think it will be right between the first and final attempt.

I made a tutorial for this that I will be glad to share, but since I was learning also, I didn't know if it would be as helpful as one after experience. But, I'll post it if everyone's interested. Just me know!

For me, there is no by-the-book decorating. It's trial and error, mixed with a little fun, a lot of frustration, and even some tears. But if you keep at it...eventually, something works. And when it does, it's amazing!

http://go.tipjunkie.com/pa/819/sweetsugarbelle.blogspot.com/2011/03/cupcake-cookies-experiment-gone-right.html

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Ice Cream Brownie

http://www.pillsbury.com/recipes/mini-ice-cream-cookie-cups/b562af5e-c063-4c0e-8b34-9072f37b2faf/?ESRC=16033&%3FWT.mc_id=partner_facebook_pillsbury

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