Betty Crocker - How to make the perfect rolled cookies

I made scotch shortbread for my fourth post. The directions told me to make the dough as directed and roll out part of the dough and chill the rest. I found that with the dough I made, the warmth didn't matter as much as other dough would have because of how crumbly it was.

It then said to lightly roll dough to desired thickness. I tries to do it as lightly as possible but every time I rolled out the dough it cracked everywhere, I compared it to a desert. I ended up squishing it together then squishing int down with my hands and a spatula.

I was supposed to dip the cookie cutter in flour so the dough didn't stick, which I did with the first 2 cookies, but then I realized it didn't make a difference whether I floured it or not. I ended up straying farther from the directions than I have in any of my posts. I did give up making the cookies after having to roll out the dough so many times so there was a bit of leftover dough.

If I do make this again, which I probably won't, I would maybe add a little bit of milk to make it not a crumbly mess. It was very frustrating making these cookies but I learned to exercise my patience and that cookies that take a lot of work sometimes don't taste amazing. The cookies were very bland and dry, probably needed to be dipped in something for them to taste better, like coffee or tea.

Ingredients

Mixing ingredients

Final dough

Cut out dough

baked

Final product

Decorating Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing (Post #3- Polka-dotted teacups, teapots, and umbrellas): Wet on wet icing detailing

Claire Andreski
Period 5
Post #3

Hi everyone! Just last week, I created another batch of sugar cookies which I decorated with royal icing. I feel that so far my attempts have been pretty successful and so I decided to try a different method of piping, which is slightly more difficult, as detailed by my book. I decided to kind of do "rainy day" themed cookies by decorating teacup, teapot, and umbrella shaped cookies with blue, white, and gray/brown royal icing. Keep reading to see the results!

So first I baked my sugar cookies after creating the dough and using cookie cutters to cut out the desired shapes. I set them on a drying rack to cool and the next night was when I decorated them. So yet again, I made a big batch of royal icing and once it was the right consistency (as described by my book and as I detailed in my first post), I stopped mixing it and began to separate it into different bowls to create the different colors. I decided to go with a blue/turquoise background for the cookies, so I put a majority of the frosting in a bowl and used drops of blue, yellow, and brown food coloring until the color was how I wanted it. I then took some of that icing and thinned it out with water, so that I had both piping and flooding icing for the cookies, as the background and main shape would be blue. I left the white icing as it was, but I did create a bowl of thinned out (flooding) icing that was white so that I could use that to create the polka dot pattern later on. I also tinted some of the white flooding icing light brown to be the "tea" in the teacups.

Once I had all my icings ready, I put them into piping bags and squeeze bottles as usual. I outlined most of the teacup cookies with turquoise piping icing, then regarded the book on which steps to take next. I would be using a new technique called "Wet-on-Wet Detailing", which the author defined as, "When you add details or a design in a different color on top of wet icing..." (Hession 28). With this definition in mind, I proceeded.

 

Many of the teacup cookies outlined and ready to be filled in. 

After many of the cookies were outlined, I began to work with one at a time to flood the main part of the cookie with turquoise icing and then pipe white polka dots on top of that icing. I had to work quickly and on just one cookie at a time because the book mentioned that the technique (wet on wet detailing) only works while the base layer of frosting is still wet (Hession 28). I used both turquoise and white flooding icings to create the polka dot design as the book said. Some tips to creating polka dots that were mentioned were in a section named "Wet-on-Wet Detailing". Two of the most relevant and important tips stated by the author regarding this technique was, "It is best to use two-step icing or flooding icing for a wet-on-wet design, as piping icing is generally too thick for the design to settle correctly. If you are adding a polka-dot design, hold your squeeze bottle straight up and down over the cookie instead of at an angle" (Hession 28). This information really helped my technique and I was able to create what I think is a pretty good polka dot design. I found that it was also important to try to squeeze the icing out with the same amount of pressure and the same amount of time to ensure polka dots of about the same size. It definitely wasn't perfect, but I had success when I really took the time to pipe on the polka dots. 

The "wet-on-wet detailing" technique used to pipe the polka dots. It was important that the icing was still wet while the details were piped on.

I continued using this technique to create polka dots on all the cookies, then used the pipe and flood method to pipe the plate below the teacup, the handles of the umbrellas, and the "tea" in the teacups. 

Outlining the teapots and the umbrellas, while regarding the book. 

The finished cookies drying on the drying rack. 

I am really pleased with how these cookies turned out and I feel that this new technique I learned will be really useful in future cookie designs and that it looks very cool! How do you think these cookies turned out? Would you try this technique? Do you think a different pattern such as stripes would have looked better or do you like the polka dots? 

Citation: Hession, Julie Ann. 100 Best Decorated Cookies: Featuring 750 Step-by-Step Photos. Robert Rose, 2013.

Betty Crockers Lemon Squares

For this post I decided to make Lemon Squares from Betty Crocker's Cooky Book. On page 11 there are tips on how to make the perfect bar cookie.

"With Spatula, Spread dough evenly in greased square or oblong pan. Bake minimum time in heated oven... Bake meringue-topped bars until delicately browned." (Pg. 11).

I started with the crust of the squares, I ended up using my hands to spread it evenly in the pan because the spatula didn't spread the crumbly dough. I baked the crust first and while the crust was baking I made the topping. When the crust was done I poured the topping directly onto the crust without letting it cool.

"Beat rest of ingredients together. Pour over crust and bake 20 to 25 min." (Pg. 13)

I think that the book should have said to let it cool first because there was a slight film over the crust that was stringy. When I took them out of the oven they looked very puffy but eventually flattened out. If I were to make this recipe again I would let the crust chill first and double the amount of lemon topping because there was more crust than the lemon which resulted in a dull lemon flavor.

All the ingredients 

Mixing the crust

The crust going into the oven

Mixing the lemon topping

Right out of the oven

If you guys were to make these what would you add?

Would you double the amount or would you keep it like the book said?

Would you add lemon zest to make the lemon taste more prominent?

Decorating Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing (Post #1- French designs): Precise Piping and Creating Multiple Colors

Claire Andreski
Period 5

Last week, I made my first batch of sugar cookies for this project and decorated them with royal icing, as is the focus of my project. I decided to try out two of the designs featured in the section "Vive la France" of my book, 100 Best Decorated Cookies by Julie Ann Hession, and to bring them into my French class to try. The two designs that I attempted to recreate were a French flag cookie and an Eiffel Tower cookie which both looked very unique and challenging to me. I first made the basic sugar cookie recipe (and doubled it) so I would have enough cookies for my class. I used an Eiffel Tower cookie cutter that I had purchased at Sur La Table, as well as a rectangular cookie cutter for the flags. To dye the icing the proper colors of the flag, I used food coloring found in the Wilton Color Right system which you can find at Michael's or Joann's stores. I found these colors to be very pigmented and to work very well for the project. 

Eiffel Tower cookies finished baking

Now, to the actual decorating part. I learned from my book, that one of the best ways to ensure a great looking cookie decorated with royal icing, is to create icings with different consistencies and to use each in different, beneficial ways. Hession states, "When you're using royal icing for designs in this book, it will be one of three consistencies: piping icing, flooding icing, or two-step icing (my personal favorite)" (Hession 23). She went on to explain that piping icing is a very thick icing that you often use to outline a shape before filling in that shape with the same color of flooding icing, which is slightly more fluid, resulting in this type of icing spreading and filling most of the cookie without assistance. Then she explained how to create two-step icing and that it can be used both to outline and flood cookies (Hession 23-24). It was important for me to read carefully about these icings and how they are used because in creating both the flag and Eiffel Tower cookies, it was necessary to use the flooding technique after outlining in piping icing. So, I first created a big batch of royal icing, waiting until the icing held stiff peaks after mixing all ingredients in (meringue powder, powdered sugar, light corn syrup, and water). 

 The batch of royal icing I made

Then I separated the icing into different bowls and dyed the icing into the different colors using the food coloring from the Wilton Color Right box. I used the red, crimson, blue, yellow, and black food colorings, mixing different amounts until the colors were where I wanted them and seemed to look correct. After I had created red, navy, and gray icings, I took some icing out of the red, navy, and white (main) bowl and thinned them with water to create flooding icing according to Julie Ann Hession's instructions. She said that, "To reach flooding consistency, add liquid (either water or lemon juice) to piping icing 1 teaspoon (5 mL) at a time, stirring after each addition" (Hession 23). I followed these directions, using water, and found that 1-2 teaspoons thinned the icing to just the right consistency as described in her book, to the point where it could pass the "ribbon test" she described in the book. 

The piping and flooding icings separated into different bowls. 

After I had my icings ready, I fitted them into piping bags with different, round piping tips, corresponding to whether it was flooding or piping icing (I put smaller tips with piping icing for the outlining/details which needed to be more precise and bigger tips with the flooding icing). Then I outlined the shape of the Eiffel towers and the French flag into rectangles by color. Then I flooded with the corresponding color. For the Eiffel towers, I outlined the whole shape and flooded with white, then went back on top with gray piping icing for the details. 

 The French flags and the first Eiffel Tower cookie on the drying rack. 

Working on piping the Eiffel Tower design like the book. 

Close up of the piping on an Eiffel Tower cookie.

In piping these cookies, I found some things out that I had not known before. I learned that you have to work quickly with the icing because the royal icing began to harden quickly, which I discovered when the tip of my piping bag became blocked by hardened icing. I poked it with a toothpick and the problem was solved, so it was not too big of a deal, but is just something I had and will have to keep in mind. It could affect your decorating if you need to pipe something on while the icing is still wet and it dries when you might not expect it to. I also learned that I could thin out the flooding icing even more because although it spread out, I had to use a toothpick quite a bit because the consistency was a little thicker than I believe it was supposed to be. I was worried of thinning out the icing too much because in the book Julie Ann had warned, "If you have a heavy hand with the water or lemon juice, your icing may be too thin" (Hession 34). So for next time, I will thin the flooding icing out just a tiny bit more for easy of piping. In addition, I felt that my cookies were a bit overbaked, so I realized that the baking time listed was more important to follow than the actual color of the cookies. Lastly, I realized that it is very important to make some extra icing because I just had enough for 32 cookies and was starting to worry at the end about running out of icing. These are all things I will take into consideration for my next batch of cookies. :) 

Have any of you made royal icing before? Did you use the pipe and flood method or a different decorating method? What is your favorite way to decorate cookies?

Citation: Hession, Julie Ann. 100 Best Decorated Cookies: Featuring 750 Step-by-Step Photos. Robert Rose, 2013.

Betty Crocker's Cooky Book - How to Make the Perfect Drop Cookies

I made Coconut Kisses from Betty Crocker's Cooky Book using the directions on how to make the perfect drop cookies.(All of these quotes are from page 7) "If dough is soft, chill,"(I was not able to do this because my cookies where more of a meringue than a dough.) "Spoon up dough as recipe directs," (I spooned the dough with a cookie scoop about 2" apart.) "Bake minimum time in preheated oven," (I baked my cookies for a little less than 20 minutes.) "Test cookies by touching lightly with finger. If almost no imprint remains and cookie is golden brown, it is done." (Since my cookies were more like meringues my cookies were slightly darker in color but not golden brown and were hard but flaky to the touch.) "Perfect drop cookies have: Fairly uniform mound shape, delicately browned exterior, and good flavor." (My cookies were around the same shape, they were not golden brown but more of an off-white, and they had an amazing coconut flavor.) I think that if I were not to have known the put them in the oven for the least amount of time I might have over cooked them, and I now know not to take them out of the oven to early or else the middles fall in because the outer shell is not fully cooked.

My ingredients

The recipe

Beating the egg whites

Mixing sugar into the beat egg whites

Mixing the coconut into the egg and sugar mixture

The cookies in the oven

The cookies about 5 mins before they were done

The final product

If you guys made these would you make them differently? Would you add different things or make them different flavors?

Flower Cookies

Welcome to my fifth and final blog post! For this last batch of cookies, I wanted to do a design that was more challenging but still kept it cute and simple. It wasn't long before I found some that matched this criteria perfectly.

Daisy cookies! Edwards' praises the versatility of these cookies by saying, "Because these daises are perfect for a variety of occasions, they're a great "go-to" project when you want to make cookies and can't decide on a design" (Edwards 30). I was especially drawn to the fact that these cookies could be done in just three steps.

For the cookies to turn out exactly how they were pictured in the book, Edwards recommends using her vanilla-almond sugar cookies cut into daisy shapes, royal icing tinted egg yellow and white, and an icing tip #3. I already ran into a couple problems: 1) I would be using the leftover chocolate-hazelnut cookie dough instead of the vanilla almond ones 2) I don't have daisy cookie cutters 3) I don't have yellow food coloring and 4) I also don't have a #3 icing tip. Since I couldn't replicate the cookies exactly, my flower cookies are "inspired" by her daisy cookies.

I started by cutting out the cookie dough with the flower shaped cookie cutter I actually did have. While those were in the oven, I made the icing with the same recipe I used in my second blog. I thinned out half of the icing, dyed it purple, and poured it into a squeeze bottle. With the remaining icing, I dyed it white and carefully put it into a piping bag.

On to decorating the cookie!

On each of the cookies, I piped a white circle in the middle and outlined each individual petal as best as I could. Once that set, I took the purple icing and squeezed an even amount into each petal. Using a toothpick, I gently spread the icing until it covered the entire petal and was touched the entire white border. The toothpick also helps to remove any air bubbles.

As you can see, my cookies weren't... perfect. Although, I do still consider this a success. I made more than two cookies, but when I came back to check on them the next morning, a few were missing (due to my sisters who insisted that it was okay to eat them without asking). Of the ones that were left, this was by far the best one.
One thing I was never able to try throughout my whole experience with sugar cookies was trying different flavors of royal icing. Have you ever worked with royal icing? Do you have any advice when it comes to flavoring it?

Icing Techniques - Marbling

                According to Galen Berry, a professional marbler, “Marbling is the art form of printing multi-colored swirled or stone-like patterns on paper or fabric.” Although, as marbling has become increasing in popularity, people have begun to get extremely creative with marbling different objects.

Water-marble Mugs

Water-marble Nails

These are just some examples of how people have taken the concept of traditional paper marbling and turned them into some pretty cool projects. 

In my book, Edwards includes a section on creating a marbled look on your cookie, which she uses several time throughout the book in her designs.The procedure is fairly simple, to begin, Edwards says, “Outline two or more cookies and then thin out two (or more) colors of icing for flooding” (Edwards 18). The purpose of having to use multiple colors when marbling is so you can easily swirl and manipulate the icing to achieve your “marbled” look.

The first cookie I did, I used white icing to outline and flood the cookie and an orange color for the marbling. As I was flooding the cookie, I immediately noticed I overfilled it. The icing was barely being held in by the outline I piped. I continued anyway and added orange lines across the cookie. Then, using a toothpick, I ran it up and down the cookie, vertically crossing the lines I made with the orange icing. It looked similar to the picture in the book, so I set it aside to dry. When I came back 5 minute later, the icing had spilled over the cookie in four different places and the marble design was nonexistent.

Although, now that I had gone through the procedure once and understood how easy it was, I decided to try it again. I tried the white and orange again, but in an attempt not to overfill it, I did not fill them up enough and you could see part of the chocolate cookie underneath. My next attempt, I used white and purple. The design came out nicely, but the border was a bit messy. This was because I felt the need to keep reinforcing the edges of the cookie to make sure nothing went over. My last design I think came out the best, I used white icing for the outline (which I did for all the cookies because I only had one piping bag and was too lazy to take all the icing out and tint it) and pink and purple icing for the marbling.

Do you have any tips on flooding cookies so I can get results that are more consistent?

Double Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

For my fourth blog post, I decided to create double chocolate oatmeal cookies. The recipe seemed easy enough, so I decided to try out the recipe.

Directions

• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 cup margarine or butter, softened
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 egg
• 3 cups quick-cooking oats
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 package (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

"Heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix sugar margarine, water, vanilla, and egg in 2 1/2 quart bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients. Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake until almost no indentation remains when touched, 10 to 12 minutes. Immediately remove from cookie sheet" (Crocker 47).

When I was mixing in the ingredients, the mixture seemed to be very dry and hard to move around. So I decided to try using an electric mixer, which helped greatly. The dough became smoother and easier to stir.

I also substituted the quick cooking oats to a one minute oats for oatmeal. I wasn't sure if it would turn out all right, but I couldn't find the quick cooking oats.

Does anyone know what isle they are in at the grocery store or where I could find them?

As the cookies were baking in the oven, I realized that by the time the timer was over, the cookies were still raw in certain areas. For some reason, when I put the cookies in for 10 to 12 minutes, the cookies would either be raw or over baked. I tried putting less and more cookie dough with both the same and different time frames, just by adding a couple of minutes. I couldn't get the cookies to come out perfectly. They were mostly a little overbaked. My cookies were also kind of dry. I think it has to do with the fact that I substituted the quick cooking oats for the one minute oats for oatmeal.

Overall, despite the recipe looking simple, it turned out to be very complex for me. The cookies were dry and overbaked.

Does anyone know how I could improve the cookies to make sure that they aren't over or under baked and not dry? 

Chocolate-Hazelnut Cookies

Hello and welcome back to my blog! My previous success with plain sugar cookies convinced me I could tackle something much more complex (or at least what I consider to be more “complex”). So, for my third blog post I decided to focus on different flavored sugar cookies. While first flipping through Brigit Edwards’ sugar cookie book, her recipe for chocolate-hazelnut cookies caught my attention right away, because who isn’t intrigued by anything involving chocolate? According to Edwards’ husband, these cookies are, “’as close to a brownie as a cookie will ever get’” (Edwards 24). After reading this, I immediately knew that I wanted to attempt them myself.   

Ingredients:

2 ½ cups unbleached, all-purposed flour

½ cup dutch-processed cocoa powder

1/8 teaspoon coarse salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup salted butter, cold and cut into chunks   

I cup sugar

½ cup Nutella

1 egg

I teaspoon pure vanilla extract

               Once I was sure I had everything ready and prepared, I really started by whisking together the flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda in a bowl and setting that mixture aside. I then combined the butter and sugar in a stand mixer, followed by the Nutella and egg. I slowly added the flour mixture, scrapping down the sides of the bowl when necessary.

               The next step was to separate the dough into two parts, mold each one into a disk shape, wrap them with individually with plastic wrap, and place them in the fridge to chill. Once 30 minutes had past, I took out one of the disks out and cut it in half, I put the rest of the dough in the freezer to be used another time. I lined my rolling area with wax paper and dusted it and my rolling pin with a mix of flour and cocoa powder. To cut the cookies, I used a small, star-shaped cookie cutter that was only about two inches big.

The instructions say to bake them for 9-12 minutes, but because mine were so small and thin, I took them out about 2-3 minutes early. Once they were out, I left them to cool for 2 minutes.

After taking my first bite of the cookie, I realized Edwards’ husband was right, they do taste exactly like brownies. These little chocolate cookies turned out pretty good and I’m excited to use the rest of the dough in the future.

I noticed myself being a lot more patient and much less frustrated through this whole process, which typically isn’t something that happens while I bake. Although, I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that I chose to listen to music to drown out anything distracting, and focus only on the task at hand. What are somethings you do that help you focus when you are frustrated or annoyed with something? A little more related to the cookies, how should I decorate/design my next batch?

Snowflake Cookies

My first attempt at making sugar cookies did not go as I had hoped. Before beginning this project, a second time, I looked back at my previous blog post, which did anything but boost my confidence levels. Despite my previous failure, I still planned on actually decorating my second batch.

Upon flipping through the book, I came across some snowflake cookie. In comparison to the other cookies, they seemed fairly simple. But based on past baking experiences I knew they would not be nearly as easy as the book entailed.

In the book, Edwards recommends using her recipe for gingerbread cookies in order to stay consistent with the “winter theme”. However, I chose to stick the basic cookies and mastering those before moving on to more complex recipes. While the cookies were chilling in the freezer, I went over what went wrong with the last batch of dough. I soon came to the realization that we had used the wrong type of flour. Once I took the cookies out of the freezer, I immediately placed them in the oven at 350 for 9 minutes. Edwards recommends freezing them before baking to ensure the cookies maintain their shape.

I then began making the royal icing. On page 16 of her book, Bridget Edwards gives thorough instruction on making the icing.

Royal Icing Recipe:

-        ½ cup meringue powder

-        1 cup water

-        2 lbs. powdered sugar

-        2 tbsp. corn syrup

You begin by combining the meringue powder and water in a stand mixer until they are combined and frothy. After, you add the powdered sugar and corn syrup and mix again until fully combined. At this point, I was reminded of why I dislike baking so much.

The icing was too thick to be piped through the icing tip I would be using. I began thinning it out by adding small amount of warm water. Once it reached the right consistency, I scooped about a fourth of it into a piping bag. At this point, I had taken the cookies out of the oven and they had been left out long enough to cool. I piped a thin lining along the edge of the cookies. I scooped a fourth of what was left in the mixer into a separate bowl and tinted it a light blue color. 

I then thinned out the remaining icing until it reached the consistency of thick syrup and poured it into a squeeze bottle. With the icing in the squeeze bottle, I “flooded” the cookies by squeezing the watery icing within the lining I piped before. 

Once they were dry enough to finally pipe the snowflake design, I used the blue tinted icing and followed her design to the best of my abilities. I wasn’t satisfied with the first design and just continued with the different patterns. Edwards stated that, “the royal icing needs overnight time to dry thoroughly and the icing kind of ‘seals’ the cookie from getting stale.

               The next morning, I returned to the cookies to find they had hardened completely, just as they should have. I decided to take a bite of one and immediately regretted it. It sucked. Though that is mostly because royal icing is incredibly sweet, since it is made almost entirely of powdered sugar. What can I add to the icing next time to make the cookies a bit more enjoyable to eat?