Holiday Cookies

We got a nice snowfall today in Michigan so it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here. My shopping is done and all the presents are even wrapped so I am ready! I love this time of year. Lots of time with friends/family and lots of yummy goodies to eat too.

Sorry it's been SO LONG since my last post!!! I've been wanting to blog for weeks now but have just been too busy. The holidays are approaching so that means more hours at work.  I've been decorating cookies, cookies, and MORE cookies.  But it's been a blast so let me show you some of my work.

Holiday Recap

The holidays are over and we are back home and all unpacked, getting back into our normal routine. We had such a wonderful Christmas and New Year's and loved spending so much time with our family and friends. Here is one last Christmas recipe I want to document so I don't forget. A candy cane shaped breakfast pastry. One of the many delicious things we ate on Christmas morning.

My hubby's birthday was just a few days before Christmas and I was able to surprise him with a birthday cake at his work and also a surprise party at home with friends. Over the next few days, I will share a picture of his cake and several small appetizers we made for his party. Have a wonderful day and Happy 2013!!!



Cherry Cheese Coffee Cake

1 pkg. crescent rolls
1 pkg. cream cheese, softened
1/4 c. powdered sugar
1 egg yolk
1/2 t. vanilla or almond extract (I used almond extract)
1/2 can cherry pie filling

Glaze:
1/2 c. powdered sugar
2 - 3 t. milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Separate dough and shape into a candy cane. Reserve a couple triangles for the top stripes on the candy cane. Combine cream cheese, powdered sugar, egg yolk, and vanilla. Spread over dough. Spoon pie filling over cream cheese mixture.

Cut each of the remaining dough with pizza cutter into strips. Arrange over filling in candy cane-like fashion. Press ends to seal. Bake for 25 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes.

Combine glaze ingredients. Drizzle over warm coffee cake. Serve warm.

Merry Christmas!

This has been a crazy couple of weeks at the bakery! It's the busiest time of the year and I've decorated so many Christmas sugar cookies that I'm starting to have dreams about them! The bakery is closed for the next two days and I'm excited to rest and have a good time with family and friends this holiday season.  But first I want to show you a few of the holiday cakes/cupcakes I made this past week.













Wishing you and Very MERRY CHRISTMAS to you and yours!

Santa Hats

Look at these adorable Santa Hats my niece made!  Aren't they cute? They are such a fun dessert to eat and would be great to make for an upcoming Christmas party or family get-together.



With brownie bites, whipped cream, fresh strawberries and some imagination you can make these too!



Only 18 days left until Christmas? Do you have your shopping done yet?

Chocolates, Chocolates, and More Chocolates!

My brother-in-law and hubby's best friend's families are staying with us for the holidays. It's so fun having everyone here. C and K are loving the extra playmates and overnight guests! While our company is here, I thought I'd show off my new chocolate skills! I posted the recipes below however please keep in mind that you need to have a good understanding of how to temper chocolate in order to make them. (It took me weeks to learn this!) The chocolates I chose to make are (from left to right): gingerbread with a little gingerbread man on top, molded salted caramel, minty lemony hand dips, and peppermint! I hope everyone enjoys them!




Gingerbread Rolled Truffles
3 ¾ oz. Heavy Cream
½ oz. Corn Syrup
Pinch Salt
4 oz. 72% Dark Chocolate, chopped finely
1 oz. 38% Milk Chocolate, chopped finely
¼ oz. (1/2T) Unsalted Butter, room temperature
¼ oz. (2t) Pumpkin Pie Spice

Combine and scald the heavy cream, and salt. Pour over the chocolate and let sit for 2 minutes. Stir to combine the ingredients. When the temperature of the ganache falls to 95˚F, add the butter and spices. Emulsify with immersion blender or a whip. Let ganache firm at room temperature or by placing in cooler for short period of time. Scoop or pipe into desired size. Ideally, you would like the ganache to sit overnight to dry. Roll into round shape, place in cooler. Dip the truffles in 31 % white chocolate for a finish. (I dipped in dark chocolate.)

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Salted Caramel
1 ¼ oz. Granulated Sugar
1 oz. Water
3 ¼ oz. Heavy Cream
¼ oz. Corn syrup
1/8 oz. Sea Salt
5 oz. 31% White Chocolate, finely chopped
¾ oz. Butter, Unsalted, room temperature
¼ oz. Cocoa Butter, melted and cooled slightly

Mold the chocolate shells according to proper procedure. 58% Dark. Scald together the cream, corn syrup and salt. Caramelize the sugar. Add the cream mixture. Pour over the chocolate and let sit for 2 minutes. Stir to combine the ingredients. When the temperature of the ganache falls to 95˚F, add the butter and cocoa butter. Emulsify with immersion blender or a whip. Let ganache cool to below 85˚ F. Pipe into pre-molded shells. Ideally, you would like the ganache to sit overnight to dry. Cap the molds with 58% dark chocolate, tempered.

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Minty- Lemony Hand Dipped Chocolates
5 oz. Heavy Cream
1 peel Lemon zest
45 Mint leaves, chopped finely
2 oz. Glucose
3 oz. Butter, soft
33 oz. White Chocolate, melted
4 oz. Lemon Juice, warmed to 105˚F
40 oz. 64% Dark Chocolate, tempered, for coating

Bring to a boil the heavy cream, lemon peel, mint and glucose. Remove from heat and let steep 5 minutes. Strain through a chinois. Add the butter to the white chocolate. Massaging in to combine. Pour the cream and the lemon juice into the white chocolate. Use an immersion blender to combine. Spread the mixture to appropriate thickness, ½ inch thick and let crystallize. Foot the product. Cut into squares or rectangles. Dip into chocolate. Apply texture.

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Peppermint Rolled Chocolates
2 ½ oz. Heavy Cream
3 sprigs Mint, Fresh, just the leaves
Pinch Salt
6 ½ oz. 31% White chocolate, chopped finely
½ oz. (1T) Unsalted Butter, room temperature
Splash Crème de Menthe, mint liqueur
2 to 4 drops Peppermint Oil

Combine and scald the heavy cream, mint leaves and salt. Let steep for 10 minutes. Strain and re-measure the cream again. Warm the cream. Pour over the chocolate and let sit for 2 minutes. Stir to combine the ingredients. When the temperature of the ganache falls to 95˚F, add the butter. Emulsify with immersion blender or a whip. Add the liqueur and the oil. Let ganache firm at room temperature or by placing in cooler for short period of time. Scoop or pipe into desired size. Ideally, you would like the ganache to sit overnight to dry. Roll into round shape. Dip the truffles in 31 % white chocolate for a finish. (I dipped them in dark chocolate.) Immediately after dipping, roll each truffle in the roughly chopped candy cane pieces. Let set before removing from candy.

Homemade Christmas Ornaments

Three ingredients, some acrylic paints, and some Christmas music playing in the background = a fun afternoon with the kiddos and hopefully some great memories that they will keep with them forever. We had a blast making homemade Christmas ornaments this week! Even my 19 month old enjoyed getting her fingers a little dirty to create some adorable ornaments for our tree.

Here are a few of Kadence's...


Here are a few of Carson's...


They are both proud to see their artwork displayed on our Christmas tree this year. And I am one proud momma. I think they did a great job! :)

Homemade Christmas Ornaments
Source: Homemade Grits

4 c. flour
1 c. salt
1 1/2 c. water

Combine ingredients and knead dough for 15 to 20 minutes. (I used my stand mixer.) Roll dough out and cut out ornaments using cookie cutters. With a toothpick or straw, make a small hole for the hanger. Bake at 300ºF about 25 to 30 minutes or until golden. You may have to bake considerably longer depending on how thick your items are. They may not feel hard right away but will harden as they cool.

Tip: make sure to use a nonstick surface, or spray cookie sheet with pam. Paint and decorate as desired. Acrylic paints work best and use a varnish to make them shiny.

Homemade Christmas Ornaments

Three ingredients, some acrylic paints, and some Christmas music playing in the background = a fun afternoon with the kiddos and hopefully some great memories that they will keep with them forever. We had a blast making homemade Christmas ornaments this week! Even my 19 month old enjoyed getting her fingers a little dirty to create some adorable ornaments for our tree.

Here are a few of Kadence's...


Here are a few of Carson's...


They are both proud to see their artwork displayed on our Christmas tree this year. And I am one proud momma. I think they did a great job! :)

Homemade Christmas Ornaments
Source: Homemade Grits

4 c. flour
1 c. salt
1 1/2 c. water

Combine ingredients and knead dough for 15 to 20 minutes. (I used my stand mixer.) Roll dough out and cut out ornaments using cookie cutters. With a toothpick or straw, make a small hole for the hanger. Bake at 300ºF about 20 to 25 minutes or until golden. You may have to bake considerably longer depending on how thick your items are. They may not feel hard right away but will harden as they cool.

Tip: make sure to use a nonstick surface, or spray cookie sheet with pam. Paint and decorate as desired. Acrylic paints work best and use a varnish to make them shiny.

Snowmen Doughnuts

Spotted these adorable snowmen on Pinterest. I have a love/hate relationship with Pinterest. I love it because there are so many awesome recipes and ideas out there. I hate it because I will start browsing on Pinterest and before I know it, I've wasted an hour of two of my day!

Gotta love these snowmen though! You should have seen the huge smiles on my kids' faces when I let them eat one for breakfast the other day.



Snowmen Doughnuts
Source: Creative Gift & Party Ideas

Mini powdered doughnuts
Candy corn
Chocolate, melted

Push a candy corn into the middle of each doughnut. Melt chocolate and put into a small piping bag. Create eyes and mouth with the melted chocolate.

Scented Ornaments

These ornaments smell amazing! I wanted to make them last year and then time got away from me so I put it on top of my to-do list for this holiday season! My preschooler had a blast helping be dig through all my cookie cutters and find just the right ones for this project. We made snowmen, Christmas trees, crosses, gingerbread men, stars, candy canes, and even threw in a train or two.

These are super simple to make, just make sure you allow yourself about 3 days for them to dry. At first I laid them out on waxed paper on our counter and would flip them over each morning to make sure both sides were able to dry out. Then on the last day (when they were really starting to harden up) I laid them on a cookie rack to dry one last day. They look {and smell} wonderful on our Christmas tree!

Nutter Butter Santas

Ho, Ho, Ho!!!!

I get all giddy when I look at these little Santas. Love his {big} red nose! These little guys were in my last Kraft Foods magazine and I wanted to make them as soon as I saw them. Fun and easy to make. My preschooler loved putting Santa's eyes on and everyone loved eating them!

Pretzel Hugs

These are perfect if you need a small gift to give this Christmas. Buy some of those cute gift boxes and fill them up with these hugs. Let your friends know you are thinking about them this holiday season!

I found this cute idea on a blog called Eighteen25. It's a similar idea as the 5 Minute Turtles only this time using Hershey's Hugs. I made 1/2 hugs and 1/2 kisses.

Reindeer Doughnuts

Only 18 more days until Christmas! Does everyone have their tree up and decorated? We've had so much fun already and are in complete holiday mode! So far we've enjoyed playing in the snow, warming up with some hot chocolate, doing a little Christmas shopping, making smelly Christmas ornaments, and cuddling up for some great holiday movies. Over the next several days I am going to share some easy and adorable things you can make this holiday season. The first one up is Reindeer Doughnuts!

Is everyone familiar with Oriental Trading Company? You know, those fun catalogs with little gadgets, toys, and crafts of about anything you can dream of. I love sitting and browsing through those catalogs. I ordered some things from there for my son's Robot Birthday party last year. Well, did you know they also have recipes on their site? Who knew?!?! Not me, until I spotted these adorable Reindeer Doughnuts.

Reindeer Sugar Cookies

Can you spot Rudolph in this picture? :) I love these little reindeer cookies! The website where I got this idea from contains a sugar cookie recipe that you can use. Or you can take the easy route like I did and use already-made sugar cookie dough. My son had a cookie dough fundraiser a month ago so I had some in the freezer that needed to be used up.



The cookies in the picture above were made by taking baked sugar cookies and cutting them in fourths. The antlers are the letter "E" from a bag of alphabet pretzels I found at Meijer. I used mini M&M's for the noses.

The cookies below are bigger. I made one reindeer out of one baked cookie by just cutting a couple strips off the sides. I cut off the top edge of mini pretzels to make the antlers and used regular sized M&M's.

Mixed Up Snowman Snacks

My son's preschool Christmas party was this week and I wanted to take something fun to pass out to his classmates. I found this adorable idea on a blog call Gourmet Mom on-the-Go. It's called Mixed Up Snowman Snacks and it makes the perfect snack for little fingers. It consists of mini marshmallows (snowballs), mini chocolate chips (buttons and eyes), fruit roll up (scarf), pretzel sticks (arms), orange sprinkles (noses), and junior mints candy (hats). The kids are going to love these! Gourmet Mom even provides a link to the labels to print! Super easy and super cute.

*If I were to do this again, I would use either red or green fruit rollups for the scarves. The multi-colored fruit rollup just didn't look as pretty.

Santa Party Mix

I have found so many cute Christmas candy recipes this year! I've just been having a blast in my kitchen lately. Check out these adorable little Santa hats! Aren't they cute?!?!



They are made out of caramel bugles (you can use plain ones too) and mini marshmallows. I haven't had bugles for years and it was the first time I'd ever had CARAMEL bugles. They were so good that I seriously could have eaten a whole bag before I even started dipping them!

After making these Santa hats, you can add them to a chocolate covered party mix and it will be the hit of the party! Enjoy!!!

Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Snowmen

My almost-4-year-old and I had so much fun in the kitchen this morning! Isn't this family of snowmen the cutest?!?!?! I got a little extra creative and made the little babies by using pretzel sticks and mini marshmallows. I am in love with them!



The idea of using mini M&M's to decorate the snowmen came from a blog called Speckled Egg.



The idea of this cute couple came from a blog called Icing Designs. I just adore how the women have long eyelashes and scarves while the men are wearing hats.