Thursday, September 27, 2012

Easy Pumpkin Bites

These little bites size cookies are the perfect treat! 

Easy to make and so cute! 

These ones here are made on my favorite pumpkin spice cookies, but you can make them on any roll out cookie recipe you like!

They are much quicker to decorate than a normal decorated cookie.

Here is what you'll need,
  • Your favorite cookie dough recipe all baked up into little bite size rounds ( I used one of the smaller ones from the Ateco graduated round cutter set here).
  • Super thick orange and green royal icing
  • Wilton #32 large star tip
  • Wilton #2 small round tip or you could use a large round Wilton #12 if you don't want the ridges. I think they add a nice touch of whimsy ;)



Just whip up a batch of your favorite cookie dough, have you tried this one? Yum!

While your cookies are cooling, mix up your royal icing. You can use your favorite recipe, or try mine here. You won't want to thin your icing much at all, just add a few drops of your desired color and mix it up. I used Americolor orange and leaf green for these. But maybe you want to make violet pumpkin with yellow leaves, you can do that!

If you're having trouble deciding how think your icing should be, take a look at Sugarbelle's tutoriall! She has the best and most helpful tips for perfect royal icing. You can find  lots of great ideas over there  I could read and re-read her entire blog every day!

When your icing is all mixed up, scoop in into your bottles or bags and fit your large tip on first. 

You're going to place the tip in the center of the cookie and squeeze firmly and raise up as you squeeze so the mound of icing gets taller and fatter. If your icing is thick enough if will leave those little ridges which to me make it a pumpkin instead of an orange ;)

You can pipe each one pretty quickly and you'll look back and have 6 dozen before you know it! 
Let the orange pumpkin part set for a few moments before you start the stem and vines and leaves.

It shouldn't take too long to set since the icing is so thick. So grab your green icing and add your small round tip, I used a Wilton #3, but you can use a 1 or 3 if you prefer thinner or thicker vines and stems. 

You probably noticed when you piped the orange out that the icing left a little tip sticking up when you pulled the icing tip away from the icing. I left the little tips sticking up and piped around them to create a stem. Easy peasy!  Just a few twirls of the hand and you'll have a stem, you can use the same tip to create your little tendrils or vines down the side of the pumpkins and you can use a small leaf tip if you want to add those :)



Are you as excited to see fall roll up as I am? This is my most favorite season! I could spend the next hour listing all the things I love about fall, but I'll let you get back to the kitchen so you can whip up a batch of these for your neighbors or co-workers or that sweet friend who helped you move your couch last week and didn't yell "PIVOT" at you ;)

Your friends and co-workers and neighbors will love these cookies and you can be happy they don't take as much work as your other most requested fall favorites! 

Samantha
Flour De Lis

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

S'more Drop Cookies


Today, I am guest posting over at Trilogy Edibles. I shared a super easy and quick treat for an after school snack or for gifting! Pop on over and say hello to Karen! I'll wait here for you, because once you make those treats, I have an uber delicious cookie you can throw it into for pure magic!

This is my favorite and most requested drop cookie recipe. I think everyone has a cookie recipe they are "famous" for, you know the one that everyone in your family and all your co-workers request?

I used to make this recipe all the time and it's super easy to add your own variations. At one point a few years ago, someone mentioned to me that thy put corn starch into their cookies and it make a smoother, creamier textured cookie This one "secret" ingredient made my famous cookies even better!

The recipe is pretty basic, but also pretty perfect!  It doesn't spread and it's not dry or crumbly.  You get a delicious , soft and chewy cookie.



For this post, we're calling these S'mores Drop Cookies.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter, cold
1 large egg
2 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups s'mores snack mix

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cut cold butter into cubes and add to mixer with both sugars.
3. Cream butter and sugar until smooth and fluffy.
4. Add egg and vanilla and blend well.
5. Add flour, corn starch, baking soda, salt and blend.
6. Add in s'mores snack mix and stir just until incorporated.
7. I like to use a 1 TBSP cookie scoop for medium sized cookies. You can use a larger one, but adjust your baking time and temperature.
8. Bake cookies for 9-10 minutes, remove from oven and cool.



Just look at those bits of melted marshmallow and cinnamon and chocolate chip goodness! Oh and those chewy and crispy chunks of graham cereal. Yum!
Make these as soon as possible if you want to experience delicious cookie perfection!


Samantha
Flour De Lis