|
Amazing Cookie Recipes
Welcome to Amy's
Cookie Recipes. Featuring some of the most amazing mouth watering
cookie recipes to please even the most picky cookie eaters. Feel free to
look around and
try out some of our great cookie recipes. New cookie recipes are
added monthly.
Please check back often. We hope you enjoy our quick and easy recipes.
More Cookie Articles
> Christmas Cookie Decorating 101
Christmas Cookie Decorating 101
Many
bakers ask for tips and
instructions on decorating
cookies. Well that's a tall order
because there are as many ways to
decorate cookies as there are
cookies! Here are a few guidelines
for novices and experienced bakers
alike to help you generate your
own ideas for cooking decorating.
DECORATING COOKIES BEFORE BAKING
Cookies can be decorated before
baking with materials that
withstand the heat of baking. Some
things that you can place on your
cookies before baking are:
colored sugars or natural sugars
such as pearl sugar jimmies, non-pareils,
silver and gold drag饳, and other
sprinkles raisins and dried fruits
such as cranberries nuts These
items can be placed on top of
almost any cookie to dress it up a
bit and give it a more festive
appearance.
Paint a masterpiece
You can also paint your cookies
before baking them. Make an edible
food paint out of an egg yolk
mixed with a few drops of food
coloring and paint the cookies
with a clean paintbrush. The paint
will dry while baking and give the
cookie a colorful, glazed
appearance. This is a fun activity
for kids!
A bit of trompe l'oeil
The folks at Better Homes and
Gardens have a creative recipe for
Colored Cream Dough ( http://www.bhg.com/bhg/)
which is a dough of frosting
consistency that can be piped onto
cookies with a pastry bag fitted
with a writing or star tip, and
then baked. The result is a cookie
that looks like it has been
frosted but the frosting is baked
on and hard.
DECORATING COOKIES AFTER BAKING
Decorating cookies after baking
them requires that you apply some
kind of liquid-based substance
that will adhere to the baked
cookie, or that will act as a glue
to attach other items. Usually,
this takes the form of frosting,
icing, or melted chocolate.
Frosting vs. Icing
There is a big difference between
frosting and icing. Frosting is
thick and holds shapes like
rosettes and shells like those you
see piped around the edges of a
birthday cake. It remains soft to
the touch and has a creamy
texture, and most people think it
tastes better because of the
creamy buttery flavor. Icing, on
the other hand, is a thinner, more
liquid substance, and as it dries
it thins out, becomes very smooth
across the surface of your cookie,
and hardens. This is the icing to
use for the most beautiful,
professional results.
Working with frosting
You can use frosting in two ways.
One way is to simply use a knife
or rubber spatula to spread the
frosting across the whole surface
of your cookie. The other way is
to place the frosting in a pastry
or decorating bag fitted with a
small tip and piping out thin
lines or rosettes of icing onto
the cookie. Either way, once the
frosting has been applied to the
cookie you can then further
embellish it by using colored
sugars, non-pareils, or any of the
decorating items mentioned in the
Decorating Before Baking section
above. Christmas-Cookies.com has a
delicious recipe for Buttercream
Frosting at http://www.christmas-cookies.com/recipes/recipe.php?recid=306.
See detailed instructions on
piping frosting from Better Homes
and Gardens at http://www.bhg.com/bhg/
Working with icing
Icing is a little more difficult
to work with but its smooth
surface produces the most
beautiful results! Icing should
always be piped onto a cookie
because it will run off the edges
if spread with a knife. Once iced
you can apply silver drag饳, or
other sprinkles just as mentioned
with the frosting above, before it
hardens. Christmas-Cookies.com has
an excellent recipe for Royal
Icing at http://www.christmas-cookies.com/recipes/recipe.php?recid=42.
There is also a recipe for
Powdered Sugar Icing ( http://www.christmas-cookies.com/recipes/recipe.php?recid=288
) that dries less hard than Royal
Icing and has a shiny surface.
Martha Stewart's website features
an excellent article on how to
pipe icing onto cookies for
professional-looking results (
http://www.marthastewart.com/page.jhtml?type=content&id=channel172011&catid=cat258
).
Melted chocolate
Just about any cookie can be
embellished simply by dipping it
in chocolate or drizzling
chocolate over it. You can even
dress up the everyday chocolate
chip cookie for gift-giving or
serving at parties. Melting
chocolate is a simple process, but
a few rules must be followed in
order to make it a success. For
Easter, try using white chocolate
tinted in pastel shades with food
coloring. Use the gel, paste or
powdered kind of food color,
because the liquid drops may make
the chocolate seize up.
What you need
You can either use chocolate chips
or baking chocolate (the kind that
comes in 1-ounce squares) and the
same process applies whether you
use dark chocolate or white
chocolate. A small amount of
shortening should be added at the
ratio of 2 tablespoons shortening
for 1 cup of chocolate chips or
chopped up baking chocolate.
Double boiler
Place chocolate and shortening in
the top half of a double boiler or
in a metal bowl that has been
placed on top of a saucepan filled
with hot water. The water must be
very hot, but not boiling, because
the steam generated by boiling
water could get moisture into the
melting chocolate which makes it
curdle. Allow the chocolate to
melt over the hot water and stir
it occasionally until it has
achieved a liquid consistency.
Microwave
Place your chocolate and
shortening in a microwave safe
bowl and microwave it on medium
power for 1 minute. Stir. Continue
microwaving 20 seconds, stir
again. Keep doing this until the
chocolate is almost melted. Remove
it from the microwave and stir it
until completely melted.
Dipping
Dip one end of your cookie, or
half the cookie, or even the whole
cookie into the melted chocolate.
Set the cookie on a wire rack to
let the chocolate harden. If you
wish, you can sprinkle chopped
nuts, coconut, or non-pareils over
the melted chocolate before it
hardens.
Drizzling
Scrape melted chocolate into a
Ziploc baggie. With a sharp
scissors, snip off a very small
corner of the baggie. Drizzle top
of cookies with zigzags of melted
chocolate. Cool until chocolate is
set.
Mimi Cummins is co-author of
the book
Christmas Cookies Are for Giving:
Recipes, Stories and Tips for
Making Heartwarming Gifts
By Mimi Cummins
Published:
|
|
|
