After School Activity {Helpful Cookie Tip}

It can be really hard to get a few moments by yourself after the kids get home from school to get dinner going.  Anyone who's been in the room with a child knows that, but especially parents.  But I have a sweet solution to help out once or twice a week.

Cookies!

Well, not these particular ones. 












But why not let your little ones sit down at the kitchen table, where you can keep an eye on them without having to hover, and decorate their own cookies?  It should give you those 30 minutes after work and school for you to get dinner going.

The kids will love it and you will too.  Almost no screaming guaranteed!

Here's how to make it easy on yourself:

1.  On a day you have time, say, the weekend the kids are visiting Nana.  Make up your favortie sugar cookie recipe.  Or cheat, because who's gonna tattle on you--the kids are gone! - and buy the pre-made dough.  Resist the temptation to eat them.  It will be difficult, as stated before, no one will tell on you. 

2.  After the cookies are cooled, freeze the cookie shapes in a plastic container, separated by sheets of wax paper.

3.  Up to a week in advance, make some glaze icing and store it in the fridge, covered.  Again, you could buy the store bought kind of cookie decorator icing or if like me, you have buttercream already frozen too.

4.  Then, when the kids come home (and of course have done their chores and their homework because kids always do what their told), pull out a couple of cookies for each child from the freezer.  You could also pull them out the morning of the activity before you rush out the door.  That is, if you can remember to make Suzy put on shoes, Tommy to stop being grouchy and screaming he doesn't care if his teeth fall out, he's not brushing, and you to have actually taken the curlers out of your hair.

5.  Pour the icing into decorationg bags with tips or snip off the edges of Ziploc bags.  Put some sprinkles in separate little bowls.  You don't want those dirty kid fingers in the big containers of sprinkles.  They pick their noses with those fingers.

6.  Tell them to go to town decorating! On wax paper of course. 

7.  Make dinner without crying over the fact that the kids are doing something without you.  Praise God!

While you are eating dinner with the family the cookies can "dry" and then everyone can eat one for dessert. 
Voila! 

It works.  I know.  I've tried.  I always save the broken ones (and a few nice ones too) for the niece to decorate.  She gets the biggest kick out of this.  (You can do the same with mini-cupcakes too!  They also freeze!) 

Hope your day is delicious with this cute tip!

Owl Brownie Pops {Tutorial}

I really like making brownie and cake pops.  They allow you to be artistic and children, young and old, get a kick out of them.  I tried doing these for church on day, but I just didn't finish in time.  They ended up accompanying me to a Kinect Dance Party with the girls.  Whooo wants one?!

Since I did this late in the evening I didn't have natural light for photography so the pictures came out even more amateur.

I made the brownies earlier in the day, for a candidate (yes, we've had a lot of those it seems).  I saved all the "inside" brownies, the ones that weren't corners for the pops.  I removed the crusty tops of the brownies.  I think the pops taste better this way.  Then to help with the molding, I put the brownies in the microwave for 10-15 seconds.  This melts the chocolate chips inside the brownies which makes a great "glue".

Now squish the brownies between your hands and form an oval or egg shape.  Feel free to wear gloves as it can be messy. 

Next, pull out the lollipop sticks for the number of brownie pops you will need.  I had longer sticks and I chose to cut them in half. 

I also took an empty egg carton and poked small holes in it with the edge of a knife to hold the pops while they dried.  Styrofoam works better, but I didn't have any on hand.  Someday soon I'll have the hubby make a piece of wood into my stand but until then...

Melt your coating in coffee mugs or microwave safe bowls.  Most people use candy coats by Wilton.  Some people choose chocolate, but if you don't want it to melt easily then you must temper the chocolate.  That takes time.  Instead of these options I went the cheapest route and bought vanilla and chocolate almond bark.  Almost all my plastic spatulas are stained with various food coloring.  So don't be alarmed if you see pink.  I also tried coloring the white bark with a gel color which works great.  Alas, I thought it was too dark so I added water based white color, forgetting that water and chocolate do not like each other.  It seized and that was the end of attempting that.

Now that every thing is ready, dip one of you lollipop sticks in a chocolate and poke it gently into your brownie egg.  I let them dry on the plate for a few before I placed them upright in the egg carton. 

Next was the ears.  I used chocolate morsels attached with chocolate to the tops of all the pops.  I recommend after this popping them in the freezer for around 15 minutes.  With the chocolate bark I did this and with the vanilla bark ones I did not.  Since milk chocolate has a low melting point, the ears melted upon contact with the hot bark, resulting in saggy ear syndrome. 

 After removal from the freezer, begin dipping the owls in warm coating.  Let the excess drip for a few moments from the edge of the ears.  Place upright in the carton to set.

Now that they are dry, you can add the details!  For the white owls I tried to add chocolate bark bellies by melting some bark in a plastic baggie and cutting the tip off to pipe the details.  That didn't turn out with the precision that I desired. 









So I pulled out some MMF, rolled it out, and cut it with the large side of a piping tip.  I stretched it into an oval and cut one side off.  Then I added it just like you normally would with a cake.  I used the other side of the tip for the eyes.  The beak was a triangle I made with my fingers.  For the eye dots use a food coloring marker.  The I used a straw I cut length wise to put the details on the bellies.  Tada! 

The girls loved them.  We all ate more than we wanted, but I think we burned it off dancing so it was okay.

This also could easily be transformed for Easter bunnies or spring chicks.

Many thanks to Bakerella who is far more advanced than myself in this art.  I probably got the idea from some of her sister bakers at some point too, although I couldn't find a tutorial when I was looking.

Alfajores--Cookies from Across the Globe {How-To}

Alfajores, delicious little sandwhich cookies.

Many moons ago, I stumbled upon a blog with decedant desserts that began my obsession with French pastries.  Flagrantedelicia has a blog with pictures to boot that will make you fall in love with desserts from all over the world.  Her (and practically every other dessert blog) with make you green with envy with frame worthy photos posted all over.  It's a lovely place to visit when you are gloomy or so full of joy that you simply must share a dessert to express yourself.

Lately, I've been a mixture of the two.  The weather here has been cold and rainy and just plain depressing.  Like a record blizzard on the tiny abode known as my heart, the decisions ahead of me weigh heavily.  If the sun doesn't come out soon and melt the white blankets, the roof might cave in.  And who wants to go out in the cold?  I mean, besides crazy Northerners.  I'm a Southerner through and through.  Cold weather, snow--it's an excuse to stay in, snuggle, and relish in your depression.  Then, within hours, I remember the thousands of blessings I have.  How dare I hide under my down comforter and green velvet duvet?  I have a job, the most perfect husband God ever made (for me), and a little talent that allows me to share blips of happiness with tons of people known as dessert.  With that thought, I can hear rhythmic pattters of melting snow outside the window.  It's time to make cookies. 

Let's see if there is a reason to pawn 50 something cookies on someone...

This week at the lab, our department has been hosting several canidates for a new professor position.  We do our best to swoon the individuals with how lovely our university is, how cool our town is, and how interesting our research is.  It's quite facinating really.  Putting so many socially awkward individuals in the same room is really a hoot.  Don't take it as an insult.  It's just how many scientifically minded individuals are.  Give us a break!  We spend hours, days, decades completely focused on our work.  Trying to convince everyone in our perspective communities how important our research is.  So, after getting an email from the department about a free lunch to meet with one of the canidates for the grad students, I offered to make cookies. 

Honestly, I don't think anyone cares if I make cookies because most of us are "watching our diets", but if I keep them at home, I'll devore them all.  They really are a unique treat.  Now that I've forced you to read a page's worth of unnecessry insight into my messy head.  Here you go. 

Alfajores are a Spanish or Latin American treat.  As I said, I first saw them on this blog.  Aren't her pictures and posts exquisite?  Two crispy cookie biscuits sandwiching dulce de leche or caramel filling then covered in chocolate.  Yes, please!  I knew then I had to attempt them sometime.  I scoured various recipes across the web (they're aren't many) and blended them all together to get my own.  Some people have said these cookies are involved and too difficult.  Personally, they are easier than decorated sugar cookies.  I also included even the ugly pictures of them because I think it's important to know that no one is perfect, not every cookie is perfect, and it's a learning process.  It's easy to forget that when you look at other food blogs.

Dulce de Leche Filling
Ingredients:
1-2 cans of (fat-free) sweetened condensed milk

Directions:
Heat oven to 425 degrees F
Pour contents of the cans into a deep pie plate, cake pan, or casserole dish.  Cover with aluminum foil, crinkled high on the sides/top of the plate.  Place inside a large broiler pan and pour hot water into it until it reaches half of the pie plate sides.  Aluminum foil should not be touching the water.  Place in oven.  Cook for 80 minutes, checking for and adding more water to the larger pan as needed about every 20 minutes.  Cook for the full 80 minutes or until there is a lovely golden brown color in the dulce de leche.

OR you can boil the whole can in simmering water for 2 hours, unopened.  YOU CANNOT LET THE WATER IN EITHER SCENARIO EVAPORATE COMPLETELY!  The result is yucky, burned milk.

Can be made a couple days ahead if necessary and kept refridgerated. 

Alfajor Cookie
Ingredients:
1 cup of wheat flour
1 cup of all purpose bleached flour (or white)
1 cup of cornstarch
1 teaspoon of baking powder

1 cup of butter
2/3 cup of sugar (I'm going to try it later with just a smidge less sugar to see if that works too)
1 egg and 2 egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon of lemon extract or lemon zest
1 Tablespoon of vanilla extract

Directions:
Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.  Meanwile, sift all dry ingredients together.  When butter mixture is fluffly, add eggs, yolks, and flavorings one at a time, fully incorporating into mixture before adding the next ingredient.  Next, slowly add the flour mixture into butter mixture.  Mix well.

Take two pieces of wax paper and lay on your counter.  Place half of the dough onto each piece and cover with another piece of wax paper.  Roll out the dough and refridgerate until firm, about an hour, or longer if you like.  This saves a mess on the counter, reduces your contact with the dough and is just easier.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Then take a small round cookie cutter, about 1.5inches across and cut out cookies and place on either parchment covered cookie sheets or silpat covered cookie sheets.  Re-roll the unused dough between the wax paper and refridgerate or flash freeze each time.  The dough should be firm at all times.  If it isn't, stick the cookie sheet in the fridge/freezer until it is.  It keeps the cookies looking perfect.

Bake in preheated oven for 8-10 minutes, just as the edges begin to brown. The bottoms look like the pic on the right.  Under cooking makes a VERY delicate cookie.  But still tasty.

Let them cool at least 5 minutes on the sheet then move to a cookie rack until fully cooled.  Then add dollops of filling to two similarly sized cookies and lightly press.

I then refrigerated them again because as the filling warms the cookies slide on one another.  Then I melted some white chocolate or semisweet chocolate over a double broiler on the stove and dipped the cookies in them.  My chocolate was not tempered to save time and effort.  I tried to cover them competely in chocolate but the result was an ugly cookie as seen lelow and at the bottom.  I'll try finding a better way to do it so they look perfect.the ones with lots of filling over flowing I surrounded in sweet flaked coconut.  Others I just dusted powdered sugar on, which is also customary.  I even tried some fancy pictures like the other blogs, but since I have such a simple camera...





The ugly ones.  I was FORCED to eat them.  :)




I'm happy to say they were devored.  Even the grad students from across the globe loved them.  Success!
I'm making more for church now!

Ode to Stay at Home Moms (and Dads) {Hydrangea Cupcake How To}

During Spring Break from school, my 6 year old niece came to stay with us for a few days.  I absolutely love having her over.  What a great excuse to do all the fun things you loved as a kid but might be shunned doing now, like coloring with crayons or watching Beauty and the Beast 5 times in a row.  Plus, it gave me insight in what it might be like being a stay at home mom, which I've learned can be abbreviated as SAHM.  It seems people I know are either team SAHM or team successful working mom.

Dear Lord, what a glimpse I got.  I was trying to spend time with her, clean, bake, and still shower and look presentable.  I've seen TV shows and met women who can do it.  They look amazing!  Their houses are perfectly ordered.  They violate thermodynamic laws of entropy!  It's disorder to order. 

From a scientific standpoint this is NOT POSSIBLE!  I tried.  Those women must be TV magic or aliens.  Or perhaps it takes years of practice.  That's not to say I didn't complete some of my tasks, but all were not accomplished or all were only half done.  How do they do it and make it look so easy?  How is it that our society shuns these individuals as if they don't have 'real' jobs?  Let me tell you, before you DARE insult a stay at home parent, try it yourself for a few weeks.  Some people can't even handle their own kids that long.  It's challenging.  However, it was a truly rewarding experience and I only did it for a few days.

One thing we did she got a big kick out of was frost some leftover strawberry cupcakes I had frozen for this exact purpose.  I placed some purple buttercream frosting I had from a couple of days before in a pastry bag with a 2D tip.  I've also heard you can place the same tip in a big plastic bag you snip a corner off of.  I've even done the work with a smaller star tip when I didn't own a 2D.  The result of this is hydrangea cupcakes.  Yep, the beautiful 'snowball' flower as we called it when we were kids.

She was so proud!

Then with me holding and positioning the cupcake I taught her to "squeeze and lift" the frosting bag all around the cupcake.  I said, "Boo, you just hold the frosting in the same hand you color with like you are about to milk a cow."  Being a country girl, I think this was the easiest way to explain it.  So all over the cupcake we "squeeze and lift".  It's a decent amount of pressure to get medium consistency frosting out so I helped hold it a bit too, but she did most of the work. 

Isn't this just the cutest!?

Since we were also working on decorating cookies (a later post), she added some yellow royal icing centers to a couple of the cupcakes for a different look.





These cuppies would look even better with a mix of lighter purple and blue or pale green and pink to mimmick real hydrangea flowers.



Oddly, she really just wanted the icing off them.

It's a really simple activity that you can get the kids in on.  While they eat the fruits of their labor you might even be able to fold a load of laundry. 

Hope your day is as delicious as ours was and God bless SAHM's everywhere.



I Am Baker--Vertical Cake

Not too long ago I stumbled upon "I am baker", the blog.  I loved her vertical cake tutorial.  Mostly because I have an inappropriate obsession with French pastries.  Vertical cakes remind me very much of the beautiful designs seen on so many sophisticated cakes in patisserie shops.  I'd seen the Cake Boss do a checkered cake and it seemed more involved, but the vertical cake was a perfect compromise.  Naturally, I had to try it. 

Maybe, I should have a reason for making cake (silly, I know).  Well conviently, I knew someone have a birthday soon and our church does a weekly potluck.  Who better to force cake on than your church members and your friends?!  Most will be kind enough to compliment you, boosting your self esteem, and the rest will be honest with your mistakes without breaking your heart or refusing to order from you again. Perfect!  

So following Ms. Amanda's tutorial I made the cakes using my own recipes.  Here is what I learned.

I decided to make my husband's favorite recipe from scratch.  What I call Vanilla Nut, or Yellow cake from scratch.  I made it with almond milk, which I do often for us since we don't typically drink regular, cow milk.  It adds to the "nut" factor (I also put about 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract in it).  It's a typical scratch cake: cream butter and sugar, whisk dry ingredients, etc.

Notice in the picture above that I used "real" vanilla, rather than imitation.  I've noticed that imitation vanilla doesn't have as pure or as tasty of a flavor compared to its counterpart, at least in cakes.  If you aren't a cake snob or concerned about artificial flavor addititves and you want to save some cash, use imitation.  I'd wage to say no one, not even cake snobs would know the difference.

I baked the Vanilla Nut cake in two 9 inch pans.  While that baked I made a raspberry cake using the same recipe, but substituting raspberry flavoring for the vanilla and almond flavor.  Raspberry cake should be pink too, right?! 

When they finished baking they looked like this. 

My cakes were almost level, but they have a "skin" on them which I typically rub or peal off when they're cool.  It's a texture thing for me.  And I saw a French baker do it to his sponge cakes.

*Make sure you grease and flour your pans well and/or use wax or parchement paper in the bottom of you pans for easy release.  Also, smooth out the tops of the batter in the pans prior to baking to decrease domed tops.

Now, the original tutorial said to level them, stack them within 5 minutes, and put them in the freezer for several hours.  I believe this is to assist in adhering to one another.   However, I don't feel this is absolutely necessary as there are other ways to assure adherence.  Also, because I tried to get them out so fast, I forgot to run a knife along the edges on the raspberry cake.  When a cake is warm it is also more delicate and some of the sides longed to be with the pan more than they longed to be in my belly.  See where it's messed up?  No worries though, frosting covers a multitude of sins (on cake, not you, so don't cover yourself or your spouse in frosting.)

She also said to put simple syrup at various stages on the cakes.  I skipped this.  I was fearful for this particular recipe for it imparting too much sweetness, making it less stable for carving, and adding unnecessary calories.  Now, it's a flippin cake.  Calorie counting was kinda silly so forgive me.  In hindsight, the simple syrup was a necessity FOR the stability.  It would have adhered the pieces together and I could have let the cake cool more which is an absolute must for more delicate cakes.  (A box cake would have crumbled had it not cooled for more than 5 minutes being handled that much.)

I  froze the cakes overnight.  I cut the cakes the next morning in the circles with a VERY sharp knife, not a serated one to reduce crumbs.  I was very careful when I separted the layers because I knew I would have missed spots cutting the circles.



Alternate your cake colors or flavors.


  

Cut and separate the layers while the cake is still frozen.



 

I assembled the two cakes and refroze.  One cake I froze until the end of the week (wrapped up).  The other I "dirty frosted" and then took to a cake class to frost and begin decorations.  I actually then froze it, also for a week.

*This is when I should have simple syruped the cake a bit between the layers so they would have stuck together better when we cut it to eat it.

I used a basic buttercream recipe, not a smooth meringue buttercream.  In general, I don't have problems with this recipe, but as I've been making flowers I've noticed that this recipe will leave "feathered" flowers.  They might look more like they do in nature, but I dislike it very much so.  I mean, look at the original cake from Amanda.  It's breathtaking.  The roses are perfect.  So, if you attempt it, use a creamier buttercream, or heck, cheat and use canned frosting. 



The buttercream was a medium consistency, not quite thin.




My assortment of frosting spatulas.  The offset one is a must.





Dirty frosting crumb coats the cake.



The frosted bird cake prior to smoothing out.

If you are doing the roses all over your cake, it's not necessary to smooth the frosting because you won't see it anyway. 

 

For the birthday cake I put a buttercream blue bird on it. 
For the church cake I used my 1M tip as suggested and did the roses.  People seemed rather impressed with the roses, which was flattering considering it wasn't my idea and it was ridiculously easy to swirl frosting all over it.


Prior to airbrushing.  See the feathering?  ARG.

  

Finished!  Pink airbrush out of a can!  Thanks Wilton!





Little Birdy told me it was yummy!



Raspberry and Vanilla Nut vertical cake.

Here is the inside.  Cool, huh?  But see how the layers anen't snug?  I think the simple syrup would have fixed that.  It might not be necessary with a less dense cake but this one doesn't smoosh together.  Also, this one didn't fall apart as badly as the other for whatever reason.  We cut the other one up all at the same time and as people got thier pieces it separated a bit. 

Now you try.  People will think you are an absolute genius.

What's for dinner?

I like easy, healthy dinners.  Cake is an easy dinner, but not the healthiest.  So, although I didn't bake it, I did make a mostly healthy dinner last night.  There are parts of it you could bake yourself, but like I said, I like easy dinners.  I don't have children yet, but I already know what it's like to so busy you don't have time to think. 

At any given momment, I have a running list of everything I need to get done at work and home.  I need to: run that experiment, iron hubby's work clothes, do the dishes, make that frosting, grab milk from the store, get something made for the church pot luck, call the insurance company, call my mom, call sissy, who's birthday is next week?, what time is family dinner?, omg I just saw the funniest thing-gotta text Tomato and Liverpool, did I tell my hubby I appreciate him today?, ugh I've eaten too much bad stuff I need to workout, I want to nap, what did I need to do in the lab?.....  Yeah, the list is endless.  No, you aren't the only crazy person out there and your list is even bigger if you have babies!

So, like I was saying.  I made dinner.  Hummus and veggie stuffed pitas with falafel.  These are vegetarian, as I'm a vegetaria.  (I read A LOT of disturbing research articles and I have an over active imagination.  Plus, it's cheaper and allows me to consume those extra calories in dessert.)  I can't always find the flavor of hummus I like in a carton big enough for two people so I made my own.

Here's how:

Ingredients

2 cans of chickpeas, aka garbanzo beans, drained

1/4 cup of water

1/2 cup of your favorite oil based dressing--I've used a few flavors: Greek, Ginger and Sesame, Tomato Bruschetta, etc

1 TBS of lemon juice, up to 3 for taste preference

1 TBS of tahini paste (optional and not recommended if doing dressing with sesame already in it)

1 TBS of chopped garlic (optional)
1/2 teaspoon of salt (if you have cardiovascular disease, do not add this, the beans have enough, you addict)
*If you do not use an oil dressing, you will need to add 2 TBS of olive oil and another 1/4 cup of water.


After you have drained the chickpeas, you can rinse them if you prefer.  This removes all that, questionable preservative liquid they're in and will reduce any, uh, discomfort associated with eating beans.  I do this for all canned beans.  It helps keep the romance alive in my marriage, I think.  Dump the beans into a food processor or a blender.  I used a blender, as I don't have room in my teensy kitchen currently to use my food processor on the counter.  Remember, beans are good for you.  They have protein AND fiber, which is good for your stressed out arteries.  This also means they are filling, just like the meat you normally eat.  Unlike the meat you normally eat though, these little kernals of delish are lower in fat, among other things.

The beans

Add all your other ingredients, as well. 

Now here, are some pitfalls I have encountered.  Perhaps because I use a blender.  If the liquid isn't in there, the beans won't blend.  You may have to STOP the blender and use a small, flexible spatula to assist the process by gently stirring.  Generally, I have to do this 3-4 times because I don't want chunky hummus.  Using a potato masher doesn't work.  The "skins" of the beans elude this device.  So, when you are done, your hummus should resemble this.  Refridgerate it.  It's ready when you are!

Next I wanted to saute some fresh squash and zucchini up.  Alas, it had been wrapped up in a plastic bag with no air but lots of moisture.  It was rotten.  Now what?!  I was in lounge wear and I didn't want to run across town since I was going to have to do that later for a class.  Gotta save your gas money in this economy.  So I pulled out the frozen mixed veggies and some frozen califlower.  I did the not as healthy microwave, rather than the steam or quick saute.  It was easy though!

While that nuked (how appropriate a term), I took a falafel mix I found at Wal-Mart in the ethnic food aisle and followed its directions.  It says to roll it into 1 inch balls, so I assumed it meant with my bare, clean hands, but that was so darn messy I think its is better to use a tiny ice cream or cookie scoop.  I don't have that .  I used a spoon.  My falafel balls did not look near as pretty as the guy from Jordan down on the town square, but it was my first time.

Now since, those tasty little treats are cooked in oil, I drained them on a finely knit kitchen towl to reduce the impact on my muffin top. 

After that, I took my pita bread, store bought, rather than made fresh (I told you I cheated) and put in the chilled hummus, some veggies, and low-fat feta cheese with the falafel on the side.  A-MAZING.  And good for you too!