Melting Snowman Cookies

It has been snowing for 29 hours straight so I think that makes it a perfect day to make some Melting Snowman Cookies!  Granted, the weather isn't helping the snowman to melt but one can always wish, right?

I followed the tutorial found here: http://www.trulycustomcakery.com/tutorials/25.html .

You can use any sugar cookie recipe (heck, you could even use store-bought, unfrosted sugar cookies!) but I am a true fan of my my mom's recipe .

Instead of rolling and using cookie cutters to form the cookies, just take small balls of dough and flatten them out a bit and place them on the cookie sheet.  It doesn't matter if they are perfectly round since you want them to look like a melting blob anyway.


Bake the cookies and allow to cool. 

Once your cookies are baked, prepare the marshmallows by spraying a plate with cooking spray and setting about 7-8 marshmallows on it, spaced evenly.  Do not cook them yet, just have them on standby.

Now you can mix up some icing.   I just mixed about a cup or so of powdered sugar with some flavoring (either vanilla or almond; I used almond today because it's just what I grabbed) and a little bit of milk.  Add your liquids slowly-- the amount will vary, so I'm not even going to give an actual measurement.  You want to just add it until the icing is thin but not drippy.  When you spread it on the cookie, you want it to flow a little bit and not be too thick.  It's okay if it starts to ooze towards the edge of the cookie a little, but you don't want it to be so thin that all of it oozes and you end up seeing the yellowness of the cookie through the frosting.  Use your judgement; but remember, you can always add liquid but you can't take it away!  If it's too thin, add a little bit more powdered sugar.  If it's too thick, add a little bit more milk.

Now comes the fun part.

Once you have about 7-8 cookies frosted, set the plate of marshmallows in the microwave and cook on high for 15 seconds.  WATCH THEM.  You want them to puff up but not cook or explode. 

Grease your fingertips as well, and immediately place a marshmallow on top of each frosted cookie.  It's okay if they get denty and bumpy from your fingers since you want them to look like they are losing their shape anyway.

Follow these directions until you have all of the cookies with snowman heads on them. 

Tint any remaining icing the colors of your choice, and decorate your melting snowman.

Bounty Bars- Coconut Chocolates

Just in time for Valentine's Day! How pretty are these coconut candies? They taste like a Mounds Bar or an Almond Joy, minus the joy of the almond! They are extremely sweet, so I cut them to be bite-sized. I'm sure you could cut them into more of a candy-bar size if you really want the full effect of a candy bar.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 sticks plus 2 tablespoons butter (18 tablespoons)
3 cups shredded coconut
4 oz dark chocolate (I actually used semi-sweet)
2 Tbsp oil

Directions:

Dice butter; put cream, sugar and butter in a medium saucepan and heat until it boils, stirring almost constantly. Boil for another 5 minutes, while stirring constantly with a wooden spoon.

Remove from heat and stir in coconut.

Line an 8x8 baking pan with waxed paper and pour the mixture into pan. Cover pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

The next day, turn it out onto a cutting board and remove the paper.

Cut it into cubes or into shape of a rectangular cuboid (which is the original shape of a Bounty candy bar).



Combine chocolate and oil in the top portion of a double boiler. Heat until melted. Dip each coconut cube in the melted chocolate to coat.

Allow to dry on waxed paper. I put it in the fridge to speed up the process.

Serve at room temperature (or cold.... whatever!).

December Daring Bakers-- Gingerbread Houses

The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.







What a fun challenge! I will probably make this a tradition each year; I've bought the kits before but never realized how easy it is to bake it myself. I can hardly wait to try it again and modify the shape of my house! I didn't have a single problem, other than the dough being too dry at the beginning. I only used about 7 and a half cups of flour and it was already dry so I never added the remaining cup and a half. It didn't seem to make a difference- the finished product was perfectly tasty and formed!

I made one batch and it gave us enough to make all three of these houses! I made one and both of my children were able to make one! I didn't help at all with theirs; they both were able to make their own custom homes! Future builders (once the recession recesses?)?

Preparation Time

10 minutes to mix the dough
4-8 hours at least to chill it
5 minutes to roll
10 to rest
10 to cut
Another 30 minutes to rest, if necessary
25-30 minutes to bake, depending on the size of the pieces

I would estimate 2-4 hours to decorate, depending on how ornate you want to make everything. It could certainly take longer if you are doing a lot of intricate royal icing designs or making your own candies. Altogether, this will take 7-13 hours, including chilling time

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar
1 1/2 cups heavy cream or whipping cream
1 1/4 cups molasses
9 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons baking soda
1 tablespoon ground ginger

1. In very large bowl, with wire whisk (or with an electric mixer), beat brown sugar, cream, and molasses until sugar lumps dissolve and mixture is smooth.

*Tip* When pouring molasses or other things of the like, spray a measuring cup with nonstick cooking spray first; the molasses will slide right out!

In medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and ginger. With spoon, stir flour mixture into cream mixture in 3 additions until dough is too stiff to stir, then knead with hands until flour is incorporated and dough is smooth.





(see my "big cup of tea" in the background? That's the soul of my blog!)


2. Divide dough into 4 equal portions; flatten each into a disk to speed chilling. Wrap each disk well with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight, until dough is firm enough to roll.



Be sure to take your jewelry off before handling the dough or else you're left with this:



3. Grease and flour large cookie sheets 17-inch by 14-inch

4. Roll out dough, 1 disk at a time on each cookie sheet to about 3/16-inch thickness. (Placing 3/16-inch dowels or rulers on either side of dough to use as a guide will help roll dough to uniform thickness.)




We dug out the Play-Doh cutters for this project! It seemed as if we had our own zoo made from gingerbread by the time we were done!

Bears included!

5. Trim excess dough from cookie sheet; wrap and reserve in refrigerator. Chill rolled dough on cookie sheet in refrigerator or freezer at least 10 minutes or until firm enough to cut easily.

6. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F

7. Use chilled rolled dough, floured poster board patterns, and sharp paring knife to cut all house pieces on cookie sheet, making sure to leave at least 1 1/4 inches between pieces because dough will expand slightly during baking. Wrap and reserve trimmings in refrigerator. Combine and use trimmings as necessary to complete house and other decorative pieces. Cut and bake large pieces and small pieces separately.





8. Chill for 10 minutes before baking if the dough seems really soft after you cut it. This will discourage too much spreading/warping of the shapes you cut.



9. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, until pieces are firm to the touch. Do not overbake; pieces will be too crisp to trim to proper size.

10. Remove cookie sheet from oven. While house pieces are still warm, place poster-board patterns on top and use them as guides to trim shapes to match if necessary. Cool pieces completely before attempting to assemble the house.



Royal Icing:
1 large egg white
3 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon almond extract

Beat all ingredients until smooth, adding the powdered sugar gradually to get the desired consistency. Pipe on pieces and allow to dry before assembling.




If you aren't using it all at once you can keep it in a small bowl, loosely covered with a damp towel for a few hours until ready to use. You may have to beat it slightly to get it an even consistency if the top sets up a bit. Piped on the house, this will set up hard over time.



We had to find some support items to hold up the rooftop while waiting for the Royal Icing to dry:

Life Savers Candy Cane Ornament

I found these directions for making cute lil candy cane ornaments on one of my recipe cards. I have no idea where it came from or when I cut it out (or why I didn't put a picture with it) but I thought we'd give them a try tonight.

What a fun project that was so easy! It goes like this, literally:
1. Unwrap.
2. Arrange.
3. Bake.
4. Hang.

For more detailed instructions, follow these:

Preheat oven to 325° F. Cover baking sheet with parchment paper or foil. Cut a 1 1/2 inch piece from a plastic drinking straw; set aside to make hole in ornament. Unwrap and arrange 7 individually wrapped Life Savers Five Flavor Hard Candies (sold in a bag) on paper into 6 inch candy cane shape (in any pattern you desire!).

Emily made one in the shape of an E!

Bake 3 to 6 minutes or until candies are melted. Remove from oven. Make a hole, about 1/2 inch from the top, by pressing the drinking straw piece into ornament, leaving in place until candy is cooled. (I found it hard to get out so I sprayed it with cooking spray and held it in place for a minute or two before letting go.)

Cool completely before removing ornament from paper. Gently remove straw. Thread a 6-8 inch piece of yarn, ribbon or shoestring licorice into the hold to hang the ornament. (Mine will last all of 1 day hanging... I'm sure the kids will be munching on them by this time tomorrow!)

*Prepare only one ornament at a time on each baking sheet. Since the candies melt at different rates depending on the color or the variety, baking more than one at a time could cause some ornaments to over-bake.

Homemade Marshmallows

What a perfect treat to top off your mug of hot cocoa this time of year! You can also roll the freshly cut marshmallow cubes in sprinkles for a cute holiday treat to share with loved ones.

This is Alton Brown's recipe-- I just love him and his recipes!


Ingredients

3 packages unflavored gelatin
1 cup ice cold water, divided
12 ounces granulated sugar, approximately 1 1/2 cups
1 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
Nonstick spray

Directions
Place the gelatin into the bowl of a stand mixer along with 1/2 cup of the water. Have the whisk attachment standing by.

In a small saucepan combine the remaining 1/2 cup water, granulated sugar, corn syrup and salt. Place over medium high heat, cover and allow to cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Uncover, clip a candy thermometer onto the side of the pan and continue to cook until the mixture reaches 240 degrees F, approximately 7 to 8 minutes.



Once the mixture reaches this temperature, immediately remove from the heat.

Turn the mixer on low speed and, while running, slowly pour the sugar syrup down the side of the bowl into the gelatin mixture. Once you have added all of the syrup, increase the speed to high. Continue to whip until the mixture becomes very thick and is lukewarm, approximately 12 to 15 minutes.

It'll start like this:


and will get thicker:


and thicker:


and thicker:


and even thicker:



Add the vanilla during the last minute of whipping.



Until you're left with this:


While the mixture is whipping prepare the pans as follows:

For regular marshmallows:
Combine the confectioners' sugar and cornstarch in a small bowl. Lightly spray a 13 by 9-inch metal baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Add the sugar and cornstarch mixture and move around to completely coat the bottom and sides of the pan. Return the remaining mixture to the bowl for later use.

When ready, pour the mixture into the prepared pan, using a lightly oiled spatula for spreading evenly into the pan.

It will take some elbow grease (and remember that cooking spray is your friend) to get it out of the bowl and into the prepared pans!


Be sure to spray your spatula and any other tools (fingers included) when working with the marshmallow.


And of course, don't forget to leave enough on your whisk/beaters so you can taste test the fluff!


Dust the top with enough of the remaining sugar and cornstarch mixture to lightly cover. Reserve the rest for later. Allow the marshmallows to sit uncovered for at least 4 hours and up to overnight.

Turn the marshmallows out onto a cutting board and cut into 1-inch squares using a pizza wheel dusted with the confectioners' sugar mixture. Once cut, lightly dust all sides of each marshmallow with the remaining mixture, using additional if necessary. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks.

For miniature marshmallows:
Combine the confectioners' sugar and cornstarch in a small bowl. Line 4 half sheet pans with parchment paper, spray the paper with nonstick cooking spray and dust with the confectioners' sugar mixture.

Scoop the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a 1/2-inch round piping tip. Pipe the mixture onto the prepared sheet pans lengthwise, leaving about 1-inch between each strip. Sprinkle the tops with enough of the remaining cornstarch and sugar mixture to lightly cover. Let the strips set for 4 hours or up to overnight.

Cut into 1/2 inch pieces using a pizza wheel or scissors dusted with the confectioners' sugar mixture. Once cut, lightly dust all sides of each marshmallow with the remaining sugar mixture and store in an airtight container for up to a week.