Message-in-a-Cookie

For Christmas, I got a TON of baking supplies from Mom and Dad. Pretty much awesome!! One of my new gadgets was a cookie cutter set from Williams Sonoma that allows you to write messages in your cookies.

The end product is pretty cute!

The 5th floor at the Molecular Foundry has a ton of birthdays in April, so I made some “happy birthday” cookies for the folks there.

Before you start make sure you have the following on hand: the Message-in-a-Cookie Cutter set, food dyes if you want colored cookies, decorating frosting (I used pre-made frosting from Cake-Mate to save time), and sprinkles/pearls for decorating.

Directions for non-leavened butter cookies: (I’d recommend using the masses, because not all butters, flours, and sugars are created equal!) For this recipe you’ll make the dough and let it chill for at least 2 hours. It also takes a considerable amount of time to roll out the dough, as well as decorating. So make sure you plan ahead!

In a small bowl, mix together the flour and salt. Either in a stand mixer or a large bowl with an electric hand mixer, beat the room temperature butter on high speed for 2 minutes. Add the sugar and beat at medium speed for 2 minutes. Stop occasionally to scrap down the sides of the bowl. If you’re only doing one color of cookie, add the food coloring with the sugar. Add the egg and vanilla and beat for 1 minute. Add the flour/salt mixture, one half at a time, beating on low speed just until most of the flour has been incorporated and the dough starts to pull away from the bowl.

If you’d like to make multiple colored cookies (like I did), you can divide the dough now and add the food coloring. I recommend doing this by hand to make sure all of the food dye is equally mixed in. But try to not overwork the dough, or else you’ll overdevelop the cookies, and they’ll feel more bread-like than cookie-like.

Shape each colored dough into a flat disk and wrap with plastic wrap. (If you’re doing one color, consider dividing the dough into 3 equal sized pieces and wrapping each individually.) Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. The dough can be kept in the fridge for up to 2 days.

The colors of choice this time where plain, red, and purple!

When you’re ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350°F and line your baking sheets with parchment or your favorite non-stick liner. (Trust me, you NEED to line the sheets for these cookies.)

Take out one of the dough disks from the fridge and let it warm up for 5 minutes on the counter. Then roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface until 5/16″ to 1/4″ thick (4.5 to 6 mm). You don’t want to go thinner or else the words will go straight through the cookie.

If you have the Message-in-a-cookie set, slide in your phrase of choice. Cut the cookie and press down the spring to impress the message on the dough. Repeat with the scraps until all of the dough is used. If you’re just using regular cookie cutters, you might try making your own design in the cookie.

Place the cookies about 0.5-1.0″ apart (remember they shouldn’t expand much) on the lined cookie sheets. Bake for 10-14 minutes, or until the edges are just starting to turn golden brown. When done, let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. Then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Now all you have to do is decorate to your heart’s content!

Review of the Message-in-a-Cookie set:

Pros: Really, really cute idea. It’s fun to make personalized cookies for your occasion. And the end product can be stunning, if you put enough effort and trial-and-error into the recipes and decorating.

Cons: The biggest con is that the letters need to be broken in. They really don’t want to fit into the slots in the cookie cutters at first. But after using the set maybe 3 times, they finally fit. This was, however, extremely frustrating. You also need to be careful to not push down too hard on the spring. Otherwise you’ll put holes in the cookies. You can see it below in my “You go girl” cookie.

Don’t push too hard on the spring, or you’ll poke holes in the cookie

Another important note is that you cannot just use your favorite sugar or butter cookie recipe. You have to use a non-leavened recipe or else your words will blur after they raise in baking, which is really terrible after you put all that time into the dough and cutting.

Overall, maybe 3.5/5 stars. If Williams Sonoma made a few small changes, they could be 5/5. But after trouble-shooting the recipe and the use of the spring, they’re starting to look pretty good! I’d recommend this product to anyone looking for a new idea to impress their pals!

Enjoy!

Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes

Hi everyone! Sorry I’ve been MIA for the last few months! It’s been busy in the lab, and it’s only going to get busier as my degree is coming to an end. But all that means is that I’ll have to budget my time a little better so I can post the recipes I love! Here is a St. Patty’s day themed cupcake that Joe’s mom sent me a while back: Irish Car Bomb Cupcakes! The overall concept: a Guinness chocolate cupcake filled with a whiskey ganache and topped with Irish cream frosting. Ya. Pretty awesome. Sorry you guys can’t use it this year, but it was a big hit, so plan on using it next year (or really for any occasion)!

(Also, now that I have a smart phone, I realize that my previous inclination to post a ton of pictures makes loading take forever on a phone. So I’ll probably start posting only end-product pictures and necessary how-to pictures.)

Directions for the cupcake: Preheat your oven to 350°F.  Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat and add the Guinness stout. Simmer for 1 minute. Add the cocoa powder slowly and whisk until the mixture is smooth. Make sure you use a non-sweetened cocoa powder, Dutch processed if you can find it. Cool until you can touch the pan without having to remove your hand (about 50°C).

In a small bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt. In a large bowl, beat the eggs and sour cream until combined. Add the cooled Guinness-chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and beat just to combine. Make sure you have cooled the Guinness-chocolate mix, or else you’ll end up with scrambled eggs. Reduce the speed to low, add the flour mixture a little at a time. Beat until just combined. Using a spatula, make sure you haven’t left any pockets of flour at the edge of the bowl.

Line your cupcake tins with cupcake liners. My newest trick for cupcakes: give the papers a quick spray of a non-stick spray.  Don’t use any flavored kind, just regular non-stick spray. This will help the papers come off the cupcake when you’re ready to eat!

Fill the cupcake papers until about 2/3 full. Bake at 350°F for about 15-17 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Cool the cupcakes on a rack.

Directions for the ganache: Make this when the cupcakes are cooled and you’re ready to start assembly. Start heating the cream in a small sauce pan. Make sure you stir frequently, otherwise you’ll end up with scalded milk (gross!). Finely chop the chocolate and put it in a heatproof bowl. Once the cream is simmering, pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for one minute to start melting the chocolate and stir the combo until all the chocolate is melted and you have a smooth mixture. Add the butter and whiskey and stir until combined. Let the ganache cool until thick but still soft enough to be piped.

Directions for filling the cupcake: Once the cupcakes are cooled and you have the ganache ready and cooling, you are ready to start assembly. Using the bottom of a large decorating tip or a 1 inch round cookie cutter, cut the centers out of the cooled cupcakes, going about two-thirds of the way down. You end up with a lot of extra cake bits, which I usually freeze and save for midnight snacks.

Transfer the ganache to a piping bag with a wide tip. If you don’t have a piping bag, just put the ganache in a freezer bag and cut out a corner of the bag. Instant piping bag! Fill the holes in each cupcake to the top with the ganache. And that’s it! Pretty simple.

Directions for the frosting: You’ll want an electric mixer for this step. Using a whisk attachment and starting with room temperature butter, whip the butter on medium-high speed for 5 minutes. Add the powdered sugar about 1 C at a time and slowly whisk so you don’t spit the powdered sugar all over your counter top. Once all 5 C of the powdered sugar has been added, add the Irish cream. Increase the speed and whisk for another 2 to 3 minutes, until it is light and fluffy.

Use a pastry bag with your fave decorating tip, or an offset spatula, to frost the filled cupcakes. and to be more festive, top with green sprinkles!!

This is probably my new fave frosting! It made much more frosting that I needed, so I froze the extra. Because it is mostly butter, it freezes exceptionally well. Just thaw and re-whip to use again.

I owed Geoff cupcakes for switching group meeting slots with me last minute. I think he liked them

Enjoy!

Roasted Brussels

I was at Cesar’s in Berkeley when I fell in love with brussels sprouts. They were roasted to caramel-y perfection, and I wanted more. Well…I’m pretty sure those were drenched in butter. But here is a comparable and quick roasted brussels sprout side dish.

Directions: Preheat the oven to 425°F. If you can find pre-cut brussels, this will save you a tremendous amount of time. Places like Trader Joe’s offer pre-seasoned and pre-sliced brussels in little microwave packs. Just open the packs and dump the brussels into a large casserole dish. Drizzle the olive oil and balsamic onto the brussels, and toss to coat.

It's not easy being green

Also, we used our special balsamic from Susan!!

But that’s it! Toss the brussels in the oven to roast for 20 minutes, giving them a stir mid-way through.

On the stove top, give the almonds a quick toast, just until a few start to brown. Make sure to keep them moving when they’re on the fire to prevent burning. Set aside until the brussels are done roasting.

Be careful to only lightly toast them. Burnt almonds are gross.

When the brussels have finished roasting, mix in the toasted almonds, and then you’re all done! If you have any bacon around, that would probably make a pretty awesome addition to this recipe as well! This recipe makes 4 generous servings.

Nice-n-roasty!

Enjoy!

Gløgg – Vin chaud – Mulled Wine

It is called Gløgg (pronounced “glurgg”) in Norway. Vin chaud in France. Glühwein in Germany. Vin brulé in Italy (search me why they use French words…).  And Kuhano vino in Croatia.

Warm wine, cooked wine, burnt wine, hot wine. Whatever you call it. It’s delicious. It’s mulled wine!

Mmmmm tasty

Mulled wine is an amazing treat that I was first introduced to in Paris while walking around the markets last Christmas time. It was freezing cold (especially for a California girl), and I kept seeing signs for Vin chaud. It looked like a hot drink, and I was cold. I figured out that vin was vine, and I saw a Santa Claus take a break and grab a cup. So of course, I figured, Santa knows what’s delicious, so I’ll try some. I was delighted that it kept my hands warm while walking around the shops, but I was even more happy to find that I really enjoyed the spices in the wine. If you’ve never had mulled wine, think of spices in mulled apple cider over hot wine.

Santa was thirsty

Although this was my first time having mulled wine, turns out that pretty much every country has figured out that this is an awesome idea. I guess since my southern California winters never got much colder than 60°F during the daytime, we had no use for a hot drink like this. But for the folks on the east coast, consider making this for you, your friends, and your family on cold nights.

I decided to make mulled wine this year after reading about Scandanavian Christmas traditions. It is very standard to make or buy mulled wine, or Glögg, on Christmas day. So this year, we tried it! It wasn’t an overwhelming winner with my family until it cooled down. It was described as too intense or too aromatic when it was hot. (But I thought it was great hot!) However, the overwhelming consensus was that it was best once it cooled down. If you make it, make sure to let us know what you think!

Directions for Mulled Wine: Find a large bottle of relatively inexpensive wine. One liter makes enough for six people, so scale up or down accordingly. I made 1 L of mulled wine from YellowTail Shiraz. We picked the YellowTail brand because it is tasty wine without breaking the bank. It’s also Australian, so it’s like Suz is that much closer to home! The Shiraz ended up being perfect because it is already a bit fruity, but any red ought to do. Pour the wine into a heavy pot and start heating on very low heat.

Next you’ll want to gather your spices. We cheated and used a mulling blend from Williams-Sonoma®. This particular blend has cinnamon sticks, allspice, cloves, cinnamon oil, and orange oil. All you have to do is tie it in cheesecloth or put the spices in a large tea infuser. We also got these cool reusable bags from Williams-Sonoma®.

These are reusable unbleached cotton bags, so you can use them for your stews and other spice-infused foods

I know Trader Joe’s also sells mulling spices pre-prepared, but if don’t want to go out of your way to buy them, just tie a few cinnamon sticks, whole allspice, and whole cloves in a cheesecloth square. In the end, you want 2 tablespoons of spices to 1 L of wine. Once you have your spice bag ready, add it to the wine.

These bags perfectly fit 2 tablespoons of spice

Simmer away, spices!

We also added a few extra rinds from an orange. Just use a potato peeler to get off the orange rind.

If you're making your own spice blend, make sure you add the orange rind

Lastly, add 1/3 to 1/2 C of sugar or honey. This will help keep the wine sweet as it gets hot. Stir well with a ladle to combine. And that’s pretty much it! Simmer on low heat for up to 20 minutes.

Serve the Gløgg in mugs. You can garnish them with cinnamon sticks or a twist of orange rind if you like. If your family and friends also think the wine is too intense, you can pour the wine over ice to make a mulled wine cooler.

Hot wine in a Mickey and Minnie glass? Bring it on!

We had the Gløgg with the pumpkin pie I had made earlier in the day. We even got to use my Mom’s new Christmas themed pie crust cutters to make a little scene on the pie.

There goes Santa!

Keep warm this winter!

Enjoy!