CHOCOLATE COVERED OREOS AND A VIRTUAL PARTY!

Posted in Chocolate Bonbons, Cookies by sallybr

To say that I am excited about what will happen tomorrow is a severe understatement! As some might know, I never miss the weekly feature of cookie decorating that Haniela provides on Wednesdays at noon via YouTube and for a while also through Facebook. Much to my surprise, Hani invited me to do a little guest appearance in her weekly series and demonstrate how I make chocolate covered Oreos. So today I invite you to watch the live which you can join by following the link below.

You don’t need to watch it live because it will be available on YouTube later. In theory, youtube does not delete a video once it is published, but the way everything is so finicky these days, who knows? Still, you don’t need to worry about joining the event live, although of course it would be wonderful to see you there. In the live session, I will show you how to make two types of designs… The first involves painting with luster powder, to make these babies:

And I will also demonstrate how to use chocolate transfer sheets to make the ones below…

But there is so much you can do with this concept! Below some other examples using transfer sheets to cover the bottom of the mold.

Whenever I use transfer sheets, I brush the leftover area of the sheet with melted chocolate and then use a small cookie cutter to make circles that can be centered on top of the Oreos at a later time. They can sit at room temperature for a very long time! All you need to do is make the chocolate covered Oreo with a background color that will complement the discs, and then use a bit of melted chocolate to glue the disc on top.

One of the simplest ways to decorate is just a drizzle of melted chocolate of contrasting color…

Recently I started playing with wafer paper, which you can buy in many styles…

Just like transfer sheets, you cut circles but simply glue them to the fully set surface of the Oreo with a little brushing of corn syrup. Some Royal icing and sprinkles add a nice border to smooth things out.

DECORATION DETAILS

Just like Royal icing transfers, fondant and chocolate decorations stay good for a long time, so when you make some for whatever project you have going on, make extras and save. You never know when they will come in handy…

Royal icing…

Chocolate on chocolate… all made with a mold

Finally, a bit more time consuming and labor intensive, you can dye small amounts of chocolate and use to paint molds, allowing each color to set before adding the next one and before filling the mold with the main chocolate component.

I hope you can watch the live tomorrow, and if you do it while it is happening, make sure to say hello in the comment area.

Huge thank you to Haniela for inviting me to be part of my very favorite online event!

ONE YEAR AGO: Chicken Fajita Bites and a Cookbook Review

TWO YEARS AGO: Oreo Balls, Fun and Easy

THREE YEARS AGO: Pork with Prunes

FOUR YEARS AGO: Honeyed-Jalapenos on Spelt Pizza

FIVE YEARS AGO: Bulgur and Chickpea Salad with Pomegranate Seeds

SIX YEARS AGO: Purple Star Macarons

SEVEN YEARS AGO: Smoked Salmon, Fait Maison

EIGHT YEARS AGO: Kouign-Amann, Fighting Fire with Fire

NINE YEARS AGO: In My Kitchen, Yin and Yang

TEN YEARS AGO: Chocolate Toffee Banana Bread

ELEVEN YEARS AGO: In My Kitchen, June 2014

TWELVE YEARS AGO: Strawberry Frozen Yogurt

THIRTEEN YEARS AGO: Baked Coconut and “The Brazilian Kitchen”

FOURTEEN YEARS AGO: Honey-Glazed Chicken Legs

FIFTEEN YEARS AGO: French-Style Rolls

27Apr2025

THERE’S A PARTY NEXT DOOR!

Posted in Cookies by sallybr

My cookie blog turns FOUR YEARS OLD TODAY! Please stop by to see a cookie set I made to celebrate the occasion…

CLICK HERE

19Apr2025

EASTER BAKES

Posted in Cake, Chocolate Bonbons, Cookies by sallybr

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.

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.

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!

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…

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

13Apr2025

PASTA FROLLA FOR LINZER-STYLE COOKIES

Posted in Cookies by sallybr

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.