Top O' The Mornin' To Ya

No, literally.  Hubby is so obsessed with St. Patrick's Day - despite only being about 1/16th Irish - that he is insisting we go to our favorite Irish Pub at 8 in the AM this Saturday.  In order to make it through, I decided I'd need sustenance.  In the form of cake and frosting of course. 

Last year, I made my first green velvet cupcakes per Hubby's request and I was all set to make another batch this year - why fix what ain't broke right? But then I started thinking, the first thing Hubby does whenever he is presented with a cupcake is to break the bottom off and put it on top of the frosting like a sandwich.   

So I said to myself: "Self, why not cut out the middle step and just make him a cupcake sandwich?" aka a Whoopie Pie.  But of course, I had to make a Green Velvet Whoopie Pie!

I originally tried using my tried and true Red Velvet recipe with just a reduction in liquids but that was an epic fail! I then went searching through the internet, but I just couldn't get on board with using brown sugar or a full 1/4 cup of cocoa since I still wanted them to taste red velvet-ey.  I finally decided to slightly alter a recipe I found on Tasty Kitchen.  


I started by creaming together the butter and sugar. 

While the machine did its work, I combined the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. 

Once the butter is creamed, I added the egg and vanilla and gave it another good whirl to combine. 

While it whirled this time, I added some green good coloring to the buttermilk.  I actually ended up adding more green once it was all combined so don't be afraid to add a lot.

With the mixer on low, alternately add the dry ingredients and the buttermilk mixture beginning and ending with the dry ingredient. 

Since whoopie pies are essentially the wonderful result of a cake and a cookie having a baby, you want to make sure not to over mix the batter.  


Once it is all combined, I filled a piping bag that I put into a pint glass for stability.

I then snipped the end off, fairly low down to make a nice small opening. 

Using the piping bag, I laid out my circles by applying gentle pressure for about 5 seconds which gave me circles about 1.5 inches in diameter.  

Bake for 8-10 minutes in a 375 degree oven.  You can see I put mine a little close together and the top row ended up being a little smaller (those were piped before I put the 5 second count together.) 


You will know they are done when you can gently touch the top and you can't see the depression.

Put them on a wire rack to cool the same way you would a sugar cookie.  

Once they cooled, I matched up the cookies into same sized pairs.  

And piped on some cream cheese frosting with an open star tip.  

I gently placed the top cookie on the frosting.  I only gently pushed down to secure it on the frosting, but not enough to cause the frosting to ooze out.  I then placed the tray in the refrigerator to solidify the frosting. 


While the pies chilled, I melted some white chocolate and readied a piping bag 

I gently drizzled the pies with white chocolate and put them back in the fridge to allow the chocolate a chance to set. 

Not before snagging one to have a taste test.  YUM!

Look how cute these guys are.  They will make the perfect breakfast, snack, treat or dessert for our super long day on Saturday. 

To make them easier to store in my purse, I wrapped each one in wax paper.  

Such a delicious little package.  I can't wait. 


Shopping List for Green Velvet Whoopie Pies - Yields 15 Pies

• 2-¼ cups All-purpose Flour
  
• ¼ cups Cocoa Powder
  
• ½ teaspoons Baking Powder
  
• ½ teaspoons Baking Soda
  
• ¼ teaspoons Salt
  
• ¾ cups Butter, At Room Temperature
  
• 1 cup White Sugar
  
• 1 whole Egg
  
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
  
• ¾ cups Buttermilk
  
• Green Gel Food Coloring
  
• Cream Cheese Frosting

Cinnamon Sugar Christmas Cookies

I believe I've mentioned how much I love my sugar cookie recipe.  I found the original recipe on Iambaker several months ago and after a few tweaks I was left with a cookie recipe that consistently gets rave reviews and is a cinch to make.  So far I've experimented with the originally suggest almond extract and my switch to lemon extract flavoring.  This was my go-to for a while.  Until one day.

I was making cookies for Christmas and I just couldn't wrap my head around using lemon extract.  I didn't want the almond extract as I wasn't completely in love with that flavor.  I also couldn't shake the idea of a yummy snickerdoodle.  But snickerdoodles aren't roll/cut cookies.  They spread and have a sugary coating that keeps them from being iced.  Still, I couldn't be dissuaded.  So I decided, what the hell, I'd try it.  I love my original recipe, so I decided to use that as a jumping off point.  And I must say - without any modesty - that I may have even topped myself in the deliciousness factor.  And after a couple of missteps with decorating, I think they turned out pretty cutely too.

I started by creaming 3 sticks of SALTED butter with 2 cups of sugar.

Once the butter and the sugar are good and creamy, add in two egg yolks

Mix until they are blended in and then add in two whole eggs.

Finally, add in a tablespoon of vanilla extract.

While the wet ingredients are being creamed together, it is time to mix the dry ingredients.  To four cups of flour, add a teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of baking powder and a teaspoon of cinnamon.

Little tip from Martha - you can use a whisk to stir this all together instead of sifting it.  Works for me!

Very slowly add a cup at a time of the dry ingredients to the creamed butter and eggs.  Only mix it enough each time to barely incorporate the flour mixture into the butter.  You don't want to over mix at this stage or you could end up with tough cookies.

When I finished with the last batch of flour mixture, turn all the dough out onto a sheet of plastic wrap.

Wrap the dough into a cylinder and store in the refrigerator overnight.

The next day, roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thick.  I always roll my cookies on a piece of parchment paper so that clean up is nice and easy.  I also line my baking sheets with parchment paper.  Basically - when there is a sale on parchment paper, I stock up!

In addition to the 3 different size circles, I also cut out some Christmas trees.  Make sure to put the cookies in the freezer for 15 - 30 minutes before baking.

Bake for 10 -12 minutes at 350.  If your oven runs a little cool (like mine does) you can push the temperature up to 375.  Just start checking the cookies at 10 minutes.  The reason for this is you don't want the oven temp to be too low or your cookies could spread into blobs.

The cookie on the left is baked at 350, cookie on the right at 375.  The difference in spreading is slight but important

Once all the cookies are cooled, it is time to decorate. I decided on three different decorations for my trees and circles:

Trees:
When I made the first batch of these cookies a few weeks ago as a tester, Hubby picked up one of the pieces of white chocolate I had just unmolded for another project and put it ion top of the still warm cookie.  It melted.  And once it solidified again, this time coating the entire cookie, it was tremendous.  Because of this, I decided I wanted to coat the trees in green white chocolate.

Full disclosure - this was a mess.  I originally put the melted chocolate into a piping bag to make layered levels of needles on the tree.  About half way through, I realized it wasn't going to work so I just started spreading the chocolate.  But some of it was already dry.  So they were a lumpy mess.

They still tasted amazing, but I was hesitant to put them out on a buffet table looking like my 2 year old nephew had run his hands through them.  What was I going to do? Well, if watching Debbie Decorates Dallas has taught me one thing, it is that anything will look pretty if covered in enough glue and sparkles, so I reached for the baking equivalent - royal icing and sparkly sanding sugar.

I made "garlands" out of royal icing

Dunked the cookie in the sugar

And voila! A decent looking and delicious cinnamon sugar Christmas tree covered in white chocolate.

Next up were the large and medium circles.  I had it in my mind that I wanted to make snow flakes.  And again, I wanted to use white chocolate.  And again, it was a mess.  Note to self: self, white chocolate is not an easy swap for royal icing, it is more for a drizzle.

To hide the squiggly lines and uneven edges, I once again turned to my glue and sparkles.

I put a dot of royal icing at each point of the snow flake.

And after putting the cookie face down into a plate of sanding sugar, you couldn't even see all the uneven lines, all you could see was sparkle.

Finally, after reading Glorious Treats' blog I wanted to do some cute little snowballs out of the smallest size circle cookie.

I started out by outlining and filling the cookies with royal icing.

Next, I put four cookies at a time face down into some sanding sugar and give them a light press to really set the sugar.

Finally, place them on a drying rack overnight to dry. The pictures don't really do these little cuties justice.  They are so sparkly and the texture is so nice.

Usually when I make cookies, they are all the same.  Which is nice.  But sometimes, I like to see a little variation on a platter and these were perfect for my Christmas party.  I love the way the platter looks with the green of the trees, the lightness of the snowflakes and the little pops of sparkly snowballs.  And they are all tied together with the use of the sanding sugar so they still look cohesive.

I hope you and your families have a wonderful Christmas and I'll be back and posting more next week.

Shopping List for Cinnamon Sugar Cookies - makes about 50 cookies, depending on size. 

• 3 Sticks SALTED Butter
• 2 Cups Sugar
• 2 Egg Yolks
• 2 Eggs
• 1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract
• 4 Cups Flour
• 1 Teaspoon Salt
• 1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1 Teaspoon Cinnamon
• Royal Icing and/or Candy Melts and/or Sanding Sugar For Decorating

Tastes like Christmas

There are just some flavor profiles that instantly woosh you back to a moment in history.  For example, every time I smell nutmeg, I think of my grandmother's tortellini soup. Or whenever I taste melted cheddar cheese, I think back to after school snacks made by my little sister.  A few years ago, I found myself seeking out a little piece of Christmas and I couldn't shake this craving I was having for these little candies my grandmother used to make every Christmas.  They were what our family put out for Santa instead of cookies.

The funny thing is, I hated these chocolates growing up.  There were just too many conflicting flavors for my 11 year old palate.  But I decided to give it a go.  After a quick consultation with my cousin Sara to help jog my memory about what was exactly in these bad boys, I was ready to go.  And the result was a huge success!  I have now made these for Christmas and even Easter for the past few years and every time, they are met with oohs and ahhs.  So let's make them, shall we?

Start by melting 2 cups of semi-sweet morsels in a double boiler.  Or in my case, a glass bowl set over a pot of simmering water.  Typically, I use the microwave to melt chocolate.  But in this case, the quantity of chocolate and the size of the bowl dictates that I use the boiler method.  It also helps to temper the chocolate so that it is shiny and doesn't melt too easily.

While the chocolate morsels melt, chop up another cup of almond bark or dark chocolate bar or candy melts.  Basically you want something that has already been tempered since the morsels are designed to melt and you don't want these candies to melt that easily once they are done because they'd be a big mess.

Once the morsels are melted, remove the bowl from the heat, add the chopped bark and stir until all melted.  This will temper the chocolate to give it a good snap.

Meanwhile, measure out 1 cup of raisins and 1 cup of crushed walnuts.  No no, stay with me here.  I know a lot of people don't like raisins.  But you guys, they are so good in this mixture.  I have known several people who initially turned down a candy because they didn't like nuts or raisins and then finally decided to try one and went crazy over them.

Add the raisins and walnuts to the melted chocolate and stir to incorporate them fully.

Next measure out about a cup of mini marshmallows

Add them to the chocolate, walnut, raisin mix and fully coat with chocolate.  Don't worry about melting the marshmallows, the addition of the bark, raisins and walnuts should have brought the temperature of the chocolate down enough that it won't melt the marshmallows.

Working quickly, spoon out small clumpfulls of the mixture onto a parchment lined baking sheet.

I've tried putting these in a mold or making them like bark, but part of their charm is the organic pieces you get by just spooning them out.

Put them in the refrigerator for at least an hour.  Pack them up in a cute tin and these make a great little holiday gift for coworkers or friends.

Ooops, I couldn't resist taking a sample.  Trust me, you won't be able to either.  All those yummy walnuts and raisins and marshmallows.  No bite is the same.

Now that these are done, I'm officially full of Christmas Spirit!

Shopping List for Melly's Christmas Chocolates - Makes about 30 chocolates

• 2 Cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Morsels
• 1 Cup Chopped Almond Bark, Dark Chocolate Bar or Dark Chocolate Candy Melts
• 1 Cup Crushed Walnuts
• 1 Cup Raisins
• 1 Cup Mini Marshmallows