My cookie blog turns FOUR YEARS OLD TODAY! Please stop by to see a cookie set I made to celebrate the occasion…
CLICK HERE
Category Archives: Cookies
EASTER BAKES
A small collection of bakes to celebrate the occasion… Cupcakes, cookies, bonbons…
Let’s start with cupcakes, shall we?
For the cupcakes, I went with chocolate, and used this recipe which is simple and wonderful. Frosting was a simple American buttercream, but the gilding of the lily was the little nest made with rice noodles broken up in little pieces, coated with melted chocolate and assembled in mini-muffin tins. I have tried other methods to make the nests and this was by far my favorite.
This is really a very very messy process, and there was some colorful language going around The Bewitching Kitchen, I won’t lie to you. But aren’t those nest super cute? Totally worth the trouble. Get the noodles and cut them with scissors in small little pieces. It will make a Royal mess in your kitchen and you will find pieces of noodles in unexpected places. Melt chocolate, coat them well (gloves are mandatory), and while everything is still pliable and warm, stick little portions inside mini muffin tins. Add the eggs and let it all set.
TRI-DIMENSIONAL EASTER EGGS
These are not made of chocolate, the shells are my favorite chocolate cookie (click here for recipe, I omitted the chipotle powder for this version) baked into these cute little molds. Once they are baked, I brushed them with luster powder mixed with vodka, decorated with Royal icing and filled with mini peanut butter eggs.
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BUNNY BONBONS
A little labor of love, you’ll need a special mold for these babies, found at one of my favorite stores, Evil Cake Genius. It is a three component mold, so you make the top, let it set, fill with whatever you want (I used lemon brigadeiro), then close the bottom with more chocolate. A very detailed video is available here.
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EGG NESTS CHOCOLATE COOKIES
Very little icing on these cookies, I brushed them with Americolor White + a touch of turquoise before baking. Then just added a few details with piping consistency icing, and placed mini eggs on top. They went together nicely with the cupcakes!
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THE GOLFING RABBIT
Same cookie, made with the help of AI-generated image, and a mini-projector… Love these goofy fellows!
If you celebrate the date, I wish you a Happy Easter! Hope you have a wonderful day…
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ONE YEAR AGO: Bicolor Ravioli
TWO YEARS AGO: Crispy Asparagus Salad with Toasted Bread Crumbs
THREE YEARS AGO: Low-Carb Super Fast Chicken Parmigiana
FOUR YEARS AGO: Sundried Tomato Spelt Sourdough
FIVE YEARS AGO: A Duet of Chocolate Bonbons
SIX YEARS AGO: Chocolate Tartlets with Honey-Caramel Filling
SEVEN YEAR AGO: Zucchini Soup with Tahini
EIGHT YEARS AGO: Black Sesame Macarons
NINE YEARS AGO: Fine Tuning Thomas Keller
TEN YEARS AGO: Cauliflower Tortillas
ELEVEN YEARS AGO: Majestic Sedona, Take Two
TWELVE YEARS AGO: Secret Ingredient Turkey Meatballs
THIRTEEN YEARS AGO: Swedish Meatballs and Egg Noodles
FOURTEEN YEARS AGO: Italian Easter Pie
FIFTEEN YEARS AGO: Black Olive Bialy
PASTA FROLLA FOR LINZER-STYLE COOKIES
Some baking projects make me very happy. This was definitely one. For starters, the idea to make them came from my dear friend Jill, who shared a picture she saw in a Facebook group, and led me to investigate how to get my hands into those cookie cutters. It turns out, they are from Italy. That did not stop me….
PASTA FROLLA COOKIES WITH RASPBERRY JAM
(From the The Bewitching Kitchen)
200 g butter, cut in pieces and softened
75 g powdered sugar
40 g honey
2 g salt
1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp vanilla paste
300 g all-purpose flour
raspberry jam for filling
powdered sugar to shower the assembled cookies (optional)
Mix the flour with salt, reserve.
In the bowl of a KitchenAid type mixer, beat the butter with powdered sugar and honey until lighter in color and the sugar is fully dissolved, about 2 minutes. Add the yolk and vanilla paste, and mix well at low-speed.
Gradually add the flour/salt mixture. Mix until fully combined, but it is best to finish mixing by hand. Remove the dough from the bowl, wrap in plastic refrigerate at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.
Roll the dough, one half at a time 1/8 inch thick. Cut shapes (tops and bottoms) and bake at 350F for 10 to 12 minutes, depending on the size. Remove shapes that are smaller as they get ready.
Once the cookies are cool, cover the bottom part with raspberry jam and add the top half. Shower with powdered sugar before serving, if so desired.
ENJOY!
to print the recipe, click here
Comments: Pasta Frolla might very well be my favorite for cookies at the present time. Texture, taste, everything works. As to the cookie cutters, they can be found here. Beware, that site has things that are VERY hard to say no to. I did not worry about how long it would take for shipping, and it was a little less than 1 month. Not bad. Here is the set I used for this first adventure.
You will need two of the large 7-petal flower, 14 of the other two shapes. Then the smaller cutter is used to make the empty space in half of the cookies before baking. It is best to do the cut while the dough is still in the large cutters as I show below:
By doing that, you prevent the dough from getting distorted as you cut the inner portion out.
The other thing to consider is that the cut shapes will bake faster. Either bake them separately or be sure to remove them before the larger pieces get done, or they will brown too much.
I am totally in love with this cookie set…
Stay tuned for more “Italian Adventures” in the future.
ONE YEAR AGO: Ravioli Cookies, the Shortest Path to Insanity
TWO YEARS AGO: Peanut Butter and Jelly Babka and a Cookbook Review
THREE YEARS AGO: Painted Sourdough
FOUR YEARS AGO: Over-the-Moon Blueberry Lemon Macarons
FIVE YEARS AGO: Springtime Macarons Bake-Along
SIX YEARS AGO: Macarons for a Little Princess
SEVEN YEARS AGO: Gilding the Sourdough Loaf
EIGHT YEARS AGO: Lolita Joins the Bewitching Kitchen
NINE YEARS AGO: Cashew Cream Sauce
TEN YEARS AGO: Blood Orange Margaritas
ELEVEN YEARS AGO: Smoked Salmon Appetizer
TWELVE YEARS AGO: Clementine Cake
THIRTEEN YEARS AGO: Springtime Spinach Risotto
FOURTEEN YEARS AGO: The end of green bean cruelty
FIFTEEN YEARS AGO: Torta di Limone e Mandorle
A COTTON CANDY DUET
A bit of an unusual flavor, but so much fun!
Cupcakes or cookies? You decide!
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COTTON CANDY CUPCAKES
I cannot share the recipe for the cupcakes, but the cookbook is a definite must-have if you like to bake cakes. It is full of fun ideas, unexpected flavor combinations and cute decoration ideas. Girls Just Want to Bake Cupcakes, by Courtney Carey. It is inspired by the 80’s and each recipe has a song associated with it. Huge trip down memory lane! I adore this cookbook…
In the book they suggest dividing the batter in two portions and adding pink to half, blue to half. I totally forgot about it. So my cupcakes were pure white. The frosting is marbled and the cotton candy flavor comes from LorAnn (click here). I used Cotton Candy jelly bean to decorate each cake.
MOVING ON…
COTTON CANDY CUTOUT COOKIES
COTTON CANDY SUGAR COOKIES
(from The Bewitching Kitchen)
1 cup (227g) room temperature unsalted butter
1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
1/8 cup agave nectar
3/4 tsp Cotton Candy Flavoring (LorAnn)
1/4 tsp vanilla extract or paste
1 large egg
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups (360g) all-purpose flour
Royal icing in pastel pink, blue and white, flooding consistency.
Royal icing in thick consistency for cotton candy (I used pink)
Royal icing in piping consistency for writing and cone (I used gold)
Sprinkles for edges.
Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Combine baking powder, salt and flour in a bowl. Reserve.
Cream butter and sugar until smooth, at least 2 minutes. Add the agave nectar and mix until combined.
Beat in cotton candy flavoring, vanilla and egg. Add the dry ingredients and mix just until a dough forms.
You can roll it right away or place in the fridge for 30 minutes if you prefer.
Roll the dough, cut shapes and freeze for 10 minutes before baking until slightly golden at the edges. Depending on the size of the cookie, 10 to 14 minutes.
Decorate with Royal icing as desired.
ENJOY!
to print the recipe, click here
Comments: Decorating these cookies is quite straightforward, just pipe the border with white icing and coat with sprinkles. Then flood the whole cookie with three pastel colors and marble them with a spatula. Allow it to set and add the details. Once it all set, I painted the letters and the cones with Rose Gold luster powder from SugarArt. I am not sure one can really detect the flavor of Cotton Candy but they were delicious anyway…
ONE YEAR AGO: Helen Fletcher’s Pineapple Kolache
TWO YEARS AGO: Blood Orange and Cranberry Mini-Cakes
THREE YEARS AGO: Simnel Cupcakes
FOUR YEARS AGO: Oat and Sesame Seed Sourdough
FIVE YEARS AGO: Moroccan Turkey Pie with Olive Oil Crust
SIX YEARS AGO: Another Twisted Sister of the Shepherd’s Pie
SEVEN YEARS AGO: Cashew Chicken, My Way
EIGHT YEARS AGO: Two Deliciously Simple Salads
NINE YEARS AGO: In My Kitchen, April 2016
TEN YEARS AGO: Spring has Sprung with Suzanne Goin
ELEVEN YEARS AGO: Chai Brownies
TWELVE YEARS AGO: Pomegranate-Molasses Glazed Carrots
THIRTEEN YEARS AGO: Braised Brisket with Bourbon-Peach Glaze
FOURTEEN YEARS AGO: The Real Vodka Sauce
FIFTEEN YEARS AGO: Spring Rolls on a Spring Day
OUR LITTLE STAR TURNS TWO!
ZIGGY STAR BARKER IS TWO YEARS OLD TODAY!
To celebrate, we baked her a batch of dog biscuits which she will share with the brothers, aka The Grumpy and The Royal.
DOG BISCUITS
250 g smooth peanut butter (about 1 cup)
2 eggs
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 + 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
3/4 cup of water
pinch of salt
Whisk peanut butter and eggs in a large bowl until smooth. Add all other ingredients and mix, adjusting with more water or flour to form a nice dough.
Roll out, cut shapes and bake at 350F for 18 minutes.
Serve to your well-behaved pup and wait for the two paws up!
to print the recipe, click here
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ONE YEAR AGO: Incredibly Simple: Air-Fried Salmon Bites
TWO YEARS AGO: Chocolate-Covered Oreos
THREE YEARS AGO: Pan-Steamed Broccoli with Miso Vinaigrette
FOUR YEARS AGO: Cookies and Rubber Stamps
FIVE YEARS AGO: Macarons for all Seasons and Reasons
SIX YEARS AGO: Lentils and Radicchio? Yes, please!
SEVEN YEAR AGO: Tres Leches Cake
EIGHT YEARS AGO: The Joys of Grating Squash
NINE YEARS AGO: Auberge-Pecan Walnut Bread
TEN YEARS AGO: Gluten-free and Vegan Raspberry Bars
ELEVEN YEARS AGO: Lasserre, a French Classic
TWELVE YEARS AGO: Sourdough Bread with Walnuts and Dates
THIRTEEN YEARS AGO: Braised Brisket with Bourbon-Apricot Glaze
FOURTEEN YEARS AGO: The Real Vodka Sauce
FIFTEEN YEARS AGO: Pork Tenderloin and Blue Cheese
Bewitching Kitchen 