Valentine's Day Cookies

I made RV some cookies for Valentine's Day...in the heart shape and everything! And the best part? Low fat, low cal! (Not that he needs that, haha). I recently got a cookie press that has 12 different shapes, and this was the first time that I got to use it. It was pretty exciting. It was a little bit tricky to work at first, but once the cookie dough was loaded it was pretty easy to use. I'll show you the press, the recipe and the cookies, just keep on reading.

They came out a little bit...blob-ish. But you still get the general idea. And I added the Valentine's Day M&Ms, just to be absolutely adorable!

Here's the recipe. I doubled the recipe to get enough cookies...there were more than the picture above, but I burnt a batch. The cookie press puts out thinner cookies, so I had to reduce the baking time from 9 minutes to 5 minutes.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg white
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup miniature chocolate chips

Preparation:

-Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

-In a large bowl, beat butter and sugars together with an electric mixer until creamy. Add egg white and vanilla and mix until well blended.

-In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder. Gradually add flour mixture to egg and sugar. Use a wooden spoon to work the dough together. Don’t worry if the dough seems a little crumbly at first. Stir in chocolate chips.

-Drop cookie dough by the teaspoonful on to a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat if you have one.

-Bake for 8-10 minutes. Cool on cookie sheet for 1 minute, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

For this I added the M&Ms after I had clicked out the dough through the cookie press, there was no way they, or chocolate chips, would fit through the opening. 

Here's a few pictures of the cookie press so you know what I'm talking about. I got it from Michael's for $7-8, I can't remember exactly.

The cookie dough goes right into that tube, and you pull the trigger. You'll here a click (when it's lined up correctly) and it disperses the perfect amount of cookie dough for the shape that you have.

Here's the end where the cookie dough comes out.

That is what pushes the cookie dough through the tube.

It comes with 12 plates for different shapes.

This is the plate that I used for heart cookies.

Valentine's Day is tomorrow, so there's still time to make some of these cookies! Hope everyone has a great Valentine's Day with your loved ones! (Or happy Singles Awareness Day...trust me, been there plenty of times!). 

CM

Candy Corn Cookies

So, before USPS totally made me angry by delivering my cookies over a week later than they should have arrived in AZ (more than once) I used to make RV cookies once a month. And for October I decided to use the really cute candy corn sugar cookie recipe in a little magazine that I had bought. Now, life would have been a lot easier if I had a triangle shaped cookie cutter, but I used a pizza cutter and got lazy towards the end, haha. But here are the recipes and the pictures. I still think they were pretty cute. And thank God these were the last cookies I made with whole wheat flour, seeing how I finally bought some all-purpose flour haha.

Butter Cookie Dough Recipe:

3/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg yolk
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt

Combine butter, grnulated sugar, brown sugar and egg yolk in medium bowl. Add flour, baking powder and salt; mix well. Cover, refrigerate about 4 hours or until firm.

Cookie Glaze Recipe:

Combine 4 cups powdered sugar and 4 tablespoons milk in medium bowl. Add 1 to 2 tablespoons milk as needed to make medium-thick, pourable glaze. (Be careful, my glaze was a bit runny).


Candy Corn Cookies:

1. Prepare butter cookie dough.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Roll dough on floured surface to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut out 3-inch candy corn shapes from dough Place cutouts on ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Remove to wire racks; cool completely. Prepare cookie glaze.
4. Place racks over waxed paper-lined baking sheets. Divide cookie glaze into thirds; place in separate small bowls. Tint 1/3 glaze yellow food coloring and 1/3 with orange food coloring. Leave remaining glaze white. Spoon glazes over cookies to resemble candy corn. Let stand until glaze is set.

Mine turned out a little bit thin, but again I didn't use the right flour because I didn't have any. I still think they're adorable! 

CM

Pumpkin Spice Cookies With Cinnamon Frosting

So, over this past weekend Richard and I made pumpkin spice cookies and cinnamon frosting. They were from two different recipes but we decided to combine the two because we only had so many ingredients. Anyways, they were so moist and just perfect! And it's so nice to come home after working and smell all that pumpkin...I love this time of the year! And I especially love that Thanksgiving is coming up next week! So excited for that food coma. Anyways, here are the recipes!

Pumpkin Spice Cookies:

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
•  

• Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt; set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the 1/2 cup of butter and white sugar. Add pumpkin, egg, and 1 teaspoon vanilla to butter mixture, and beat until creamy. Mix in dry ingredients. Drop on cookie sheet by tablespoonfuls; flatten slightly.
3. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven

Cinnamon Frosting:

• 1 stick of butter, softened
• 4 cups of confectioners’ sugar
• 1/4 cup of milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 to 2 tsp. ground cinnamon (We used 2 and it was perfect!)

1. Put the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat until smooth.
2. Add the confectioners’ sugar, milk, vanilla and cinnamon.
3. Mix until blended and creamy; make sure to scrape the bowl with a spatula occasionally to get any renegade cinnamon hiding at the bottom.
4. Frost the cookies once they’ve cooled.

We didn't frost them all, they were just as good without the frosting. But instead we would just dip the cookies into the frosting and scrape it along so that it would stick. We're just lazy like that, haha.

Here's what's left of the cookies right now.

And the frosting in the bowl. It looks so unappetizing right here, but I promise when it was fresh yesterday it was so sweet and cinnamon-y and just perfect!

Until next time!

CM