Christmas recap, continued (baking edition, part 2)

After winning Bridget's book (from Bake at 350) this December, I got a little excited to decorate cookies. Plus, I knew it would be a fun activity for LE and me to do. Once I started, I didn't want to stop. It was a lot of fun for me even though it kind of makes a bit of a mess during the prep.

I didn't actually receive the book until January, but I was familiar with Bridget's recipes and website already. I coupled the recipe with some helpful tips that I have mentally filed away over time from a few different cookie blogs:

• Use two clean yard sticks or wooden dowels on the counter to roll on so that your cookies come out perfectly uniform in thickness. You have to roll less dough at once, but it's foolproof.
• Roll out your dough on top of wax paper/parchment/Silpat as well as with a piece of wax/parchment paper between the roller and dough in order to eliminate the need for flouring your surface.
• Bake your cookies on day the day before you prep your icing and decorate to prevent energy burn out. Decorated roll out cookies create a lot of dishes and mess (especially if doing alongside a child). 
• Start with the right supplies to make it easy. For beginners, everything aside from the mixer can be purchased at a craft store, like Michaels, with coupons to make it inexpensive. Grab at least two squeeze bottles, disposable piping bags, some couplers, and piping tips (I used a size 1, 2, and 3). According to the cookie experts (not me), the AmeriColor gel food colorings and Ateco meringue powders are best in quality/taste, though you could definitely make do with the Wilton brand ones that you'll find at Michaels. 
• Use tall glasses with damp paper towels at the bottom to hold your piping bags when they're not in use.
• Try to come up with designs that only use 2-3 colors to simplify how many bags/bottles/mess you'll create.
• Freeze your cut out dough on the cookie sheet for 5-10 minutes before it goes in the oven. This helps the cookie keep its shape while baking.

These cookies were made with Bridget's gingerbread recipe and royal icing recipe (also found in her book), which is firm enough to package up and stack without crumbling yet still chewy and soft. I'm not a gingerbread cookie person (or so I thought), but I found myself enjoying these. 

Simple Bite's Aimee also reviewed the recipe on her blog, which is where I won the cookbook and got the idea to use this gingerbread recipe to begin with.

Also, LE decorated her own cookies next to me. She helped me roll out the dough and press down the cookie cutters. Then, she had her own baking sheet with a bowl of pink icing (surprise, surprise!), some sprinkles, and a spoon to pour the icing onto her cookies. This let our 2 1/2 year old do hers without needing help while I decorated mine.

(Christmas recap, baking edition part 3 is coming tomorrow!)

Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Balls

Cookie exchanges are among us! I made these easy peanut butter balls as my contribution to cookie platters for the volunteer teachers who play with and teach LE for two hours on Thursdays. She adores them and often has to be dragged away when the two hours are up.

I found this recipe on Pinterest. Though it took a long time to patiently dip each ball, these were really easy to make and don't use the oven. The nice thing about these is that you can start and stop at any point without affecting the end product.

I imagine you could speed up the dipping process by doing it the way that the original poster does it-- get a big spoonful of chocolate and use your fingers to dip the ball. I'm not keen on using my hands all over the food I'm going to distribute, especially if it's uncooked. Even with washed hands, I feel dirty doing it. That's just me.

To get around rolling the balls in my hands, I quickly made all of the balls with a small portion scoop. Then, I dipped them one by one by balancing a ball on a fork, dipping it into the chocolate,  and scraping the bottom against the edge of the bowl or another fork to remove the excess chocolate.

(Instagram phone photo)

Chocolate Dipped Peanut Butter Balls

Adapted slightly from this recipe
Makes approximately 70 balls

You can easily scale this down or up depending on your needs. It's wise to have some extra chocolate chips handy in the event that you run out. I used 1 3/4 bags total.

Ingredients
1 jar smooth peanut butter, 18 oz (I used Simply Jif)
4 tbs butter, melted
1 lb (approx 3 cups) powdered sugar
3 cups Rice Krispies cereal
1 bag milk chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli)
1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli 60% Cacao)

In a large bowl, mix together (by hand with a sturdy spoon or by electric mixer) peanut butter, melted butter, and powdered sugar. Add the cereal and stir/mix until a ball. Add more peanut butter if you need more glue or powdered sugar if it's too sticky. (I didn't need to do any adjustments.)

Scoop with a small 1 1/2 tsp portion scoop the peanut butter mixture onto a lined cookie sheet or two (parchment paper, wax paper, or Silpat all work). Alternatively, roll into a ball in your hands 1 1/2 tsp of the mixture.

In a heatproof small bowl, heat together half of each type of chocolate in the microwave. Start at one minute on 50% power, stir, then 30 second 50% power increments until it's all completely melted and smooth. (Alternatively, use a double-boiler or glass bowl over a saucepan with barely simmering water).

Using a fork or your fingers, dip the balls one by one into the bowl, scrape and drip off the excess chocolate, and place on the lined cookie sheet. Continue with all the balls, reheating the chocolate as needed.

If you desire to add sprinkles, do a few at a time so that the chocolate isn't too soft (the sprinkles will slide down) or hard (they won't stick).

Refrigerate until the chocolate is completely firm then store in an airtight container in the fridge. These can be eaten at room temp or cold. These also freeze well.

Enjoy!

Granola Nut Clusters

It's not secret that I follow the Smitten Kitchen blog and love almost all of the recipes that I've made from there. Deb recently posted the recipe for these granola nut clusters, and I have to spread the word. I made these 5 times in one week because everyone who had them said they loved them and wanted the recipe.

I was surprised by how fast and easy these were. It only takes a food processor, 5-10 minutes of hands on time, and 20-30 minutes in the oven.  I like to save for breakfast the leftover granola that doesn't stick to the nut after baking. You could give these as neighbor gifts in lieu of sweets. I'm sure you'd be thanked!

Since I really didn't change the recipe from how it was written, I'm going to just send you to Smitten Kitchen to see how they're done.

celebrating Christmas all month long!

This year, I somehow managed to get all of my Christmas shopping done by Thanksgiving, leaving the month of December for us to concentrate on things other than worrying what to give to others. Yes, I love giving thoughtful gifts, but adding that on top of an already busy month makes it less fun than just shopping alone.

This year will be the first year that LE will start to enjoy the festivities of the season. I have a calendar [almost] full of activities for every day as well as an Advent scripture-based reading to do. There are some free Jesse Tree resources that I thought we'd do, but then I came across Truth in the Tinsel, which is aimed at kids closer to LE's age. It has a daily craft and scripture reading. I'm really looking forward to it.

Image source

We will be doing Elf on the Shelf (see last year's roundup if you're doing that, too) for the first time, but with a little different twist than it's intended. Instead of the elf doing naughty antics or reporting back to Santa, she'll be a clue to what we're doing for the day. For example, if we're planning on watching a Christmas movie together, the elf will be on the DVD player reaching down to push play. Or, if we are going to do snow angels outside, LE will find the elf making a snow angel out of flour on the counter. If we are going to do a painting craft, the elf will be holding the supplies. Hopefully, the elf will be a fun game of hide and seek that LE will enjoy playing every day with the added bonus of an activity.

Here are some of our planned activities:

• Cut down/choose our Christmas tree
• Decorate the tree
• Decorate coffee mugs using porcelain pens
• Watch a Christmas movie together in Mommy & Daddy's bed
• Make snow angels
• Go sledding
• Make snowman
• Make mint scented playdough
• Make cornstarch ornaments (like salt dough but comes out bright white)
• Decorate Christmas cookies with church
• Drive around to look at Christmas lights
• Make s'mores in our fire pit
• Decorate gingerbread houses or ice cream cone Christmas trees
• Shop for a kid on the angel tree
• Make footprint Christmas trees and reindeer faces
• (Truth in the Tinsel has daily crafts that correspond with the reading, too)

Do you have a favorite tradition or activity for this time of year? Be sure to let me know if I missed something!

Hot Chocolate & Marshmallows

It's the start of the new year, which means that most people vowed to lose weight, eat healthier, and exercise more. Maybe, if it weren't so cold today, I would have been on board with that. According to our local NBC station, we have a morning forecast of "blustery and cloudy with scattered snow flurries. Temps in the teens," and an afternoon forecast of "colder." Colder?

This year, we gave our neighbors little kits of hot chocolate cubes and homemade marshmallows. The cubes were supposed to be hot chocolate on sticks, but after I tested a few out to determine the proper number of cubes per cup, I realized that I prefer a spoon instead of a stick to stir the heck out of the chocolate into the hot milk. The sticks would just get thrown out. Plus, I don't want to stir my hot chocolate with a marshmallow, melting my mallow into the hot chocolate. I prefer to have a glob of marshmallow on top, and, since everyone shares my preferences (right... right?!), stickless hot chocolate cubes and stars they were. *Delicious, rich, warm, wish-I-didn't-already-eat-all-of-the-scraps* hot chocolate cubes and stars they were.

Both recipes take a little bit of effort, but neither are expensive to make. If you have some friends or neighbors over this winter, these would make sweet little favors to hand out. Or, if you do Valentine's Day gifts for your kids' teachers, these are perfecto. Really, just make up an excuse to make them.

If you decide you want to put them on sticks, I've heard that you should put the marshmallow on the stick first (slide from the bottom) and then put the hot chocolate cubes on underneath. The marshmallow will leave a sticky mess if you slide it down from the top of the sticks. 

Here are the links to the two recipes I used and a couple of notes to help clarify how I did things:

Cocoa Blocks - King Arthur Flour

• These are a little soft after resting 12 hours, but they'll continue to harden after you cut them. I made these 2 or 3 days before I made the marshmallows, and they were perfectly firm and not sticky.
• I found that 50 grams (about 2 cubes for me) were the right amount of chocolate per 8 ounces of milk. 
• I used half semi-sweet chocolate chips and half 60% Bittersweet chocolate chips with vanilla extract. I was tempted to use mint extract, but I only had spearmint on hand (and that would be gross). 
• I weighed the chocolate since not all chips are made the same size. I like how they give you the option to view the recipe in weight as well as volume.

Springy, Fluffy Marshmallows - smitten kitchen

• I have made these twice and both turned out perfectly. John's supposedly not a marshmallow lover, but he really liked these.  Here's how it went last time.
• If you are like me and only have one stand mixer bowl, you'll need to whip your egg whites while the sugar is on the stove. Transfer them to another bowl, wipe out your mixer bowl, and then soften your gelatin in the mixer bowl while the sugar is still on the stove (you should have plenty of time to do all of that). If your egg whites separated while resting, try to only add the whipped part into the marshmallows when that time comes (and discard the separated liquid part). Some separation will be normal, but it shouldn't affect your outcome.
• I used cookie cutters to cut some of the marshmallows. Others, I cut into cubes with a knife. 
• If you don't have the same sized pan that she recommends, err on the size of using a larger pan. 

I really hope you make these sometime! They're fun to eat and inexpensive as far as gifts go. And the mess? Yeah, it makes a mess, but it's an easy mess to clean up.

New Year's Eve Tradition

Back in March, before I started using Pinterest, I saved to my Evernote notebook a post from the blog Eighteen25. They created this cute box to store a printout of the kid's interests/favorites/dreams every year (both of the following images are theirs).

This is a great idea to do on birthdays or the start of each new year.  I really like the idea of a tracking the current interests of kids and even adults. Though I think the box is cute and a great idea for a many families, a digital file would work better for our family.


I'm constantly trying to purge our belongings so that we actually know where things are and remember that we have things! So, for us, we'll be using the printable below, scanning it back into the computer, and then including it in our photo books that I do through Shutterfly.  We have a big collection of Shutterfly books; I like how it keeps all of our memories accessible without the bulk.

Click the image for the full-sized printable JPG

For the adults, I recommend taking a look at the list that Simple Mom's Tsh came up with. The last page of her PDF is formatted so that you can print it out and cut out little cards. 

This morning, I noticed that 30 Handmade Days also did a New Year's printable. Go check hers out, too! The image below is hers.

Happy New Year!

LE on Christmas Day (21 Months Old)

Easy Lemon Curd Pastries with Sugared Cranberries

If you're in need of an easy yet festive dessert, these are a perfect option for you! The tart, sugared cranberries pair well with the sugary sweet lemon curd and flaky puff pastry. These are fuss-free; you can prepare parts of them days in advance and assemble hours before you need. It's also really nice to be able to make as few or as many as you'd like, and, best of all, they are three bite finger foods.

I feel a little like what's her name... Sandra Lee... coming up with ideas that combine homemade with store bought. There are things that I'm just not ready for, like making homemade puff pastry dough.

Right out of college, I lived on a modest salary in Chicago. For dinners, I survived on meals of Lean Cuisines or steamed frozen brussel sprouts (seriously). It wasn't until I moved to Madison and started cooking for John that I actually took an interest in making things that taste good.

One of my first cooking attempts was making homemade puff pastry for a tomato, basil, prosciutto tart. At the time, I was using a British cookbook (where ingredients were in grams) without a scale. I knew so little about what I was doing, and my weight to volume conversions yielded a dough that was an absolute mess. I don't even think "dough" is the right word for it.

I haven't tried to create my own puff pastry dough since then. I'm perfectly content with saving my sanity and opting for store bought dough, especially if it's Trader Joe's puff pastry. It's a seasonal item (so stock up now!), Trader Joe's puff pastry is made with... wait for it... wheat flour, butter, salt, water. You know, the same things I would have made it with. So now that I've done a free endorsement for Trader Joe's, let's continue on with this easy dessert!

The lemon curd is also store bought when World Market had a buy one get one free deal over the summer. I don't think that lemon curd is that hard to make, but opening a jar of lemon curd that has good ingredients is ok by me, too. I am, after all, trying to make this a quick dessert.

The only thing homemade here is sugaring the cranberries. It's SO easy! You need to think about it at least a day ahead for soaking purposes. You could even do it many days ahead and refrigerate them until you need them. They keep well without getting sticky, and if you have leftovers, they can be served with pumpkin bread pudding (like we're doing for Christmas breakfast), dark chocolate, over cereal or yogurt, or by themselves as a tart snack.


Easy Lemon Curd Pastries with Sugared Cranberries

Ingredients
1 1/2 - 2 cups of fresh cranberries, washed and picked over
2 cups sugar, divided
1 cup water
1 box of puff pastry, thawed (2 sheets)
1 egg plus a splash of water
flour for dusting the counter before rolling the dough
1 jar of lemon curd (I used Sticky Fingers Bakeries; one jar will yield 32-48 pastries, depending on how much you use)

Sugared Cranberries
These need to get started at least a day in advance so plan accordingly!

Make a simple syrup by combining 1 cup of sugar and water in a pot over medium heat. Stir occasionally, until the sugar has dissolved completely. Let it rest for about 10 minutes or until the syrup is warm but not hot.

Place the cranberries in a bowl. Pour the warm syrup over the cranberries, making sure to coat them well. If the syrup is too hot, it will cause the cranberries to burst. Cover and refrigerate 1-3 nights.

Drain the cranberries. In a small bowl, add a few spoonfuls of white sugar. Drop a few (10 or so) cranberries on top of the sugar and shake the bowl back and forth to coat. Don't worry if they have a few spots because you can go back later.

Carefully move the cranberries to a baking sheet to dry in a single layer. Repeat the process until you're out of cranberries, refreshing the sugar in your bowl every couple of batches (so that it doesn't get too gunky).  Allow to dry in a single layer for at least 2 hours at room temp.

After 2 hours, if you still have sticky parts or gaps without sugar, repeat the sugar in the bowl technique. Allow to fully dry for another hour or so. After they are dry, you can put them in a bowl and allow them to touch. They will not be sticky and will last for at least a week in the fridge.


Puff Pastry
Preheat your oven to 400 with the rack in the center of the oven.

Prepare your puff pastry by rolling the thawed pastry sheet out to about 1/8 inch on a lightly floured surface (doesn't have to be perfect). Cut out your desired shapes with cookie cutters, keeping in mind that a 3 bite size cutter is a good size to aim for. Alternatively, you could use a sharp knife and cut squares out.

Tips: 

Make sure to get your shapes as close together as possible because puff pastry isn't the type of dough that you can glob together and roll out a second time. Your scraps will either need to be made into personal bite sized nibbles or toss them.

The sharper the cookie cutter, the better for maximum puffiness.

If you have more dough than room on the cookie sheet, refrigerate the dough between batches. 

Line your dough shapes on a parchment lined (or silpat lined) cookie sheet, leaving at least 1/2 inch between each shape.

Optional (for browning and shine): In a small bowl, lightly beat one egg with a splash of water. Brush lightly over the cut dough.

Place in the oven and bake for about 17 minutes, or until fully puffed and browned. Don't peek by opening the oven; use the oven light instead! The puffing normally happens at the last minute.

Remove from oven and allow to come to room temp, either on the sheet or on a wire rack.

Assembling the Pastries

Use your finger to make a slight indention on the top of each puff pastry shape. Arrange the puff pastry on your serving platter (makes it easier to arrange now rather than trying to move them with the toppings).

Add a small dollop of lemon curd into the indention in each shape (about 1- 1 1/2 tsp) and then top with three sugared cranberries.

Enjoy!!

Elf on the Shelf Idea Roundup

Like many of you, we have Elf on the Shelf. LE doesn't understand the concept this year, so for now, our unnamed elf sits on the same shelf every day.

Those of you who have been doing this every day this December probably got all of your good ideas done in the first week. And those of you who have done this for multiple years... I'm sure you are done thinking of new hiding spots and mischievous antics!

Well... you're in luck!

I did a little searching around, and here's a big roundup of ideas for you. It's amazing what people think of!

Elf on the Shelf Roundup


If your kids are past the age of elf magic, you could still join in the fun by making elf cookies, like Bridget at Bake at 350.


From Living Locurto,  you can download a PDF of 25 ideas. Those little donuts are made with Cheerios.

This Flickr pool has 510 photos uploaded from a variety of people. Loads of ideas! Here are three from the pool.

Full Plate Cooking Antics has 16 ideas listed, most are cooking related (if not all... I didn't go through them all).

Living Locurto gives the script and details on how to pretend that your elf "grew" gingerbread cookies from chocolate chip "seeds."

Lil Blue Boo's ideas are a lot of fun. 

My favorite is probably the one of her elf sipping syrup:

I like the idea of putting little elf tracks to help give the kids clues when it's an especially tough hiding spot:

Oh, and she has some rated PG-13 and "almost R-rated" part 1 and part 2. 

Another flickr pool has over 520 submissions! Of course, there are duplicate ideas, but at least you can see them in thumbnail form.
From an elf planking (not sure if a toddler will get it. Maybe a hip toddler.)

to classic elf angels

to graffiti on photos

You'll find a big variety there.


Jen McKen photography documented their first few nights with their elf. I laughed when I saw their elf on the toilet. This one of the elf making s'mores is well done, too.

Of course, the Elf on the Shelf Facebook page has a bajillion photos linked up. This is one of the more original ones that I saw of elf rocking baby Jesus:

Ray of Light Photography has loads of great ideas that are really well photographed. My favorite is of their elf painting the noses of the kids while they were asleep. Then, when they woke up, they found the elf with a paintbrush.

Imagineate Photography (A step inside blog) turned her milk green. Gross.

Hot air balloon elf from Paint the Moon.net

Chubby Cheek Photography has shared only a few of her ideas. I like the idea of a marshmallow snowman.

Then, when December has come and gone, if you're really with it, you could put together a decorated box for your elf, like Ellie G from less cake {more frosting}, so that your little elf can rest for the year and then return in style.

Ok, I think that's all I've got for ya! Have you done anything special with your little elfie?