Artsy Hallow's Eve Cookies!

Sick of the plain ol' sugar cookie with icing? Well, whether you answered "Yes" or "No"..I have quite a surprise for those taste buds of yours.

In these festive little cookies, you will be surprised at how flavorful they are with just the perfect amount of spice. Elegantly paired with pumpkin ( I used canned ). You can use fresh pumpkin if desired. Think of a pumpkin latte, but only in a cookie ;).

Halloween Cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon canned pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
2 cups Confectioner's Sugar
2 table spoons Milk or Water

How to make:
1. Using a mixer, combine butter and sugar. Beat until light and fluffy.
2. Whisk in pumpkin, vanilla and egg until blended.
3. In a separate bowl stir together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ground cloves, nutmeg and salt.
4. Pour your flour mix into the pumpkin mix. Using a rubber spatula to combine and form a dough.
5. Once thoroughly incorporated, cover in plastic wrap and chill in freezer for up to 2 hrs.
6. Preheat oven to 375 degrees farenheit.
7. On a floured surface roll out cookie dough to about 1/8" inch in thickness.
8. Use festive cookie cutters and transfer to a baking sheet.
9. Bake for 8 minutes until aromatic and browned on the top.
9. Allow to cool.
10. Combine Confectioner's Sugar and Milk or Water. Mix to combine in a shallow bowl, Just shallow enough to dip cookie in. Make sure the icing is thick enough to hold sprinkles. If you want a thicker icing to do some different color piping work, just add more sugar and test it out. If you prefer a glaze to just dip the cookie in for a 'base' color (what I did) then make it a bit more liquid-y.
*IMPORTANT: you must work quickly when using this icing. It hardens within seconds, especially the thicker the consistency. So have those decorations on site and ready!*

So have fun with your family and decorate some cookies for the upcoming holidays! Or just make these year round because they're just so darn delicious! Yumyumyum.

Chocolate Horseshoe :)

I made this for my neice Grace, she loooovesssss horses (as do all my neices)..and as you may have read in my previous blog of her Bday party @ the Equestrian!..I used Hershy's choc. chips in this for the grand horseshoe. It came out perfectly tempered with a clean, smooth, shiny, SNAP! (all the signs of well tempered choc.!)

What I used was Semisweet chocolate + Pink royal icing + Acetane paper = kaboom!

*Temper your chocolate and then pipe alone the acetane paper with an outline. I usually have a sketch/outline underneath the acetane paper (it is clear)..So I know the borders.

*Allow it to set for a few minutes and then fill in with the rest of the chocolate, Then to make the top flat as well, set another sheet of acetane on top of the surface, chill.

*Then I drizzled her name on it once it was completely set and chilled in the refrigerator. Along with some teeny tiny hearts on the sides.

Autumn Leaf fun!

This was a fun little project. It took well over an hour to prep., mix, chill (which I always do when making cut outs, no matter what the recipe says), bake and FINALLY my favorite..-drumroll-...DeCoRaTe!. Martha Stewarts basic sugar cookie recipe tickled my fancy for this one.
But a little mishap made them rather, hmm..special?

Basic Sugar Cookie.

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Assorted candies, sprinkles, or colored sugars, for decorating (optional)

*Cream butter and sugar - Making sure butter is room temp! (I like to mix the butter alone for a few, cut into same size cubes before adding the sugar, until smooth..then just pour on in the sweets)..Mix until smooth, creamy and NO lumps!..
*While that is mixing, Sift together the dry goods! (Sifting makes the final product, lighter because you are adding air in the process)..
*Add the egg and vanilla into the creamed butter mix, scraping along the sides of the bowl to make sure it is all together!..
*PRE-HEAT oven @
*THEN, add your dry goods until the dough forms. :) I personally like the roll the dough onto a lightly floured silpat. Now, with sugar cookies..they typically tell you to roll 1/8 of an inch. I played around and went a little thicker. With sugar cookies it is best to roll ontop of parchment paper, if you want to avoid, the messy..clumpy, stickiness on your rolling pin. It is just more of a clean-up then it already is! :)
*Freeze for at LEAST 15mins.
*Cut your funky shapes and place them onto your pan, lined with parchment paper (better results and better for your enviroment people!)..

*Bake 10-12mins, rotating pan halfway. They are done when the edges are golden.
*Let chill for 15mins. or so..

Royal Icing.

*Consists of Confect. Sugar, Lemon juice/water OR milk. powdered egg whites is optional. So check those cabinets!

1 1/2 C. Confect. Sugar
2 - 3 tblspns. of the desired liquid chosen

*Mix until desired consistancy.
*If you want to Pipe alone the edges for detail, make sure you have a thicker icing. If dipping or filling in spaces for detail, just add more liquid.
**IMPORTANT** when dealing with royal icing, just remember it hardens very very fast. When you aren't mixing or are busy decorating, just cover bowl with a damp towel. Locks in moisture like a charm.

*With my cookies here, I just dipped them into a semi hard/watery icing.
*Then, with tempered semisweet chhoolate, piped some grooves of the leaves.
*Also took some flakey sprinkles and luster dusts which I added some finishing touches when they were completely set.

*OH! and my little "mishap" that lead to surprise result was the cakiness of my cookies. Not so much cakiness, but lets just say that you won't have to clean up a mess after your kids eat these leafy goods! Rolling out the mix a little thicker than usual (not so much, but just scaling it out)..they are so yummy served warm. Melt in your mouth goodness. <3