Funfetti Pudding Cookies

I have a lot of things in common with kids. The lives of kids involve a lot of "treats and snoozin', snoozin' and treats" as my sister likes to say. I also aspire to snoozin' and treats (and I bet you do too). We are one.

This particular treat is extremely kid friendly. Besides that it's easy to make, it tastes like something a kid (and a honest human) would love. Key ingredients are pudding and sprinkles. Need I say more?

Make them, eat them, be a kid and take a nap. Goodnight!

Recipe source: barely adapted from Crazy for Crust

Funfetti Pudding Cookies

Ingredients:

1 stick butter, softened

1 cup white sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 small box (3.4 ounces) instant vanilla pudding mix

1 & 1/2 cups flour

Sprinkles

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Beat together butter and sugar until nice and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and beat in.

3. Combine dry ingredients (I actually rarely do this, but I know it's a good idea :) Slowly add to wet ingredients and mix in until fully incorporated.

4. Stir in whatever sprinkles your heart desires.

5. Roll into small 1" balls or use a mini ice cream scoop and place dough on trays.

6. Bake for 7-8 minutes. Allow to cool on cookie sheets.

7. Share with your favorite little.  

Cinnamon-Log Slices

The thing about science is - it's amazing. Three cheers for science! Remember when you used to have science lessons about nature in school and you would go outside and count the rings on trees? That was so awesome! Well, it's about time that tree with all its magnificent rings signifying it's age and wisdom was turned into a cookie. And so it's been done. Thank you, science.

These cookies are tasty and a nice variation from the usual. Although they take a good amount of time owing to frequent chilling and rolling, they are nice and chewy in the middle and crispy on the outer edges. I think my favorite taste in the these cookies was the milk, though. There was milk in the batter and you could taste that milky goodness coming through in each little bite. They have those great cinnamon and cocoa elements as well, that no one can resist. And the best part - they look like little log slices! If you have small kids, you can count the rings with them and compare them to trees and branches. If you don't have small kids, even better - more for you!

Cinnamon-Log Slices

Note: This recipe makes a nice huge batch. I made half of it and froze the other half for later.

Ingredients:

3 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1 cup white sugar

3/4 cup light-brown sugar

2 large eggs  plus 1 large egg white

1 teaspoon coarse salt

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, divided

2/3 cup whole milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

5 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1/3 cup turbinado sugar

Recipe:

1. Beat together butter, white and brown sugars until creamy. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time (reserve egg whites for later). Beat in salt and 1 teaspoon cinnamon until combined, then milk and vanilla until also combined. Add flour 1 cup at a time until completely incorporated.

2. Divide dough into 4 balls (they don't have to be perfect spheres at all, just rough shapes will do). Wrap 3 of the balls in parchment or saran wrap and place in fridge. Take the final ball of dough and roll into a 12" log. Wrap and refrigerate along with other balls of dough about 1 hour or until firm.

3. When dough is firm remove from fridge. Combine cocoa powder and remaining 1 teaspoon cinnamon and sprinkle on surface. Roll out 1 ball of dough into a rectangle, roughly 6-by-12 inches (again, it does not have to be perfect). Flip rectangle over onto a lightly floured surface. Brush off excess cocoa. Place 12" log of dough in the center of the rectangle and wrap the rectangle around the log so that it is completely covered. Squeeze it together tightly until it is a single log of dough. Repeat with the other 2 balls of dough, each time adding to the log until you have a large log of dough. Wrap and refrigerate log until firm, or up to a day.

4. Remove log from fridge. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly beat egg white and brush it on outside of log. Next, roll the log in turbinado sugar, lightly patting it to help adhere. Refrigerate the log until the sugar is set, about 10 minutes. Slice log into 1/4" thick rounds and place on baking sheet. Bake 18-20 minutes. Immediately remove from baking sheets and cool on racks. Rings may slightly separate. Cool and enjoy!

Recipe Source: Martha Stewart Living

Edible Valentines

Love should always be sweet. And edible. Yes, definitely edible. This is why Valentine's day is one of the greatest days of the year. It is a regular love fest for all! 

It is an unwritten rule that one must decorate sugar cookies for Valentine's Day. Being law abiding folk, I dutifully made my sugar cookies and invited small people over to decorate them. The only thing I failed to foresee is that these little edible Valentines wouldn't actually make it to any recipient other than the decorators, themselves. All of the boys decorated their cookies and then promptly devoured them in about four minutes flat. So I guess they won't have anything to give their parents and teachers. But hey - when you're this cute, you can get away with just about anything.

Aren't these guys adorable?!

Oh, where are my own children, you ask? My camera battery died before I got to that side of the table. Parenting fail.

If you haven't made your Valentine's sugar cookies yet, it's never too late. It's never too late for a cookie.(I should stitch that on a pillow, or something.) 

Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

2 sticks butter, softened

1 cup powdered sugar

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 tsps. almond extract

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1. Cream together butter and sugar. 

2. Add eggs, vanilla, and almond extract and mix well. 

3. Gradually add flour and salt until completely mixed in.

4. Cover dough and chill for about 2 hours. 

5. When ready to roll dough, remove from fridge and briefly knead to make it workable again. 

6. Roll and cut in desired shapes. If desired, press popsicle stick into the toe about 1/3 of the up from the bottom. 

7. Bake at 375 for for 10-12 minutes

Royal Icing

Ingredients:

4 Tblsp. meringue powder 

1/2 cup water

6-7 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

2 Tbls. shortening

2 Tbls. corn syrup

Supplies:

Frosting Bags (Disposable always preferable)

Frosting Tips 

1. Whip meringue powder and water on high speed for several minutes until soft peaks form.

2. Gradually add the rest of ingredients until frosting is firm and falls slowly off an upside down spoon. 

3. If not frosting immediately, frosting can be stored in a sealed container for up to four weeks at room temperature.

4. Divide frosting into thirds. The first third will remain white and go into a piping bag. The second third will remain white and be thinned out for flooding the cookies. The last third is to dye red or other various colors.  I was going mostly for red, but I find that you need a whole barrel full of red food coloring to make it actually RED. I always end up with some sort of hot pink. 

5. Outline the cookies with white frosting using a 3 or 4 tip. Allow frosting to dry for at least 15 minutes.

6. Thin the white frosting left in the bowl using 1 tsp. water at a time until you reach desired consistency. The icing should be thin and able to spread easily but not too watery. Spoon it onto the outlined cookies and let the frosting fill the cookie, pushing the frosting to the edges. Allow to dry at least 15 minutes.

7. Dye the remaining frosting and place in piping bags. Pipe words or designs onto cookies.

OR

Just let the kids have at 'em. They're more creative, anyway!

Ninjabread Men

Who says you can only enjoy gingerbread at Christmastime? I understand that little gingerbread men and women have become a symbol for the holidays and a favorite Christmas past time for many. So I can understand why people associate this particular cookies with the holidays. But it's such a delicious flavor, it really shouldn't be relegated to just one or two months. The injustice! Now - how to break out the gingerbread sooner than yuletide? NINJAbread! These delicious warriors can be enjoyed anytime! I made them in the Halloween spirit because it felt like ninjas are a great go-to costume but you can enjoy a Ninjabread man anytime. Here's just one example:

When I was little we used to have something called Family Home Evening. Every (or most) Mondays we gather together as a family and talk about Gospel topics, do activities, and have treats together. One particular Monday we were learning about doing kind deeds for others. We read a variation of the Gingerbread Man in which you can never catch him because he is doing good deeds in secret for others. My mom had made a little plush gingerbread man and she had us do nice things for each other and then leave the gingerbread man as a calling card. For example, we would make somebody's bed for them and leave the gingerbread man on their pillow. When they would find it, they would do something nice for somebody in secret, and again, leave the little plush gingerbread man. It was adorable. Well, ninjabread men are even more sneaky then gingerbread men. They can do Service Without A Trace (S.W.A.T.!) You can wrap up these little cookies in cellophane or even ziplocks and have your kids use them as calling cards for good deeds that they do for each other. I see this as a win-win situation. Think of the satisfaction of a made bed AND a cookie simultaneously. The possibilities are endless!

You can purchase the cookie cutters here: here. I just used the recipe on the back of the box for my gingerbread. It was a pretty classic and standard recipe that also holds up well in the freezer. Besides frosting, I only used licorice and sprinkles for the decorations so you might even have everything on hand. Overall they were a fun and festive cookie to make!

Ninjabread Men

1. Cream together the shortening, sugar, spices and salt. Blend in egg and molasses.

2. Sift together flour, baking soda and baking powder. Mix into molasses mixture. Stir until blended and then chill dough until firm and able to roll out.

3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

4. Roll dough to 1/8 or slightly thicker on lightly floured surface. Use ninjabread cookie cutters to cut out. 

5. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

6. Decorate any way you like - I outlined them with frosting or sparkle gel then filled in the middle leaving the eyes and hands open; then cut small licorice pieces and apply as shown in picture to create uniform. Use sprinkles for eyes.

Note: The Sparkle Gel was extremely easy to use and cute but I did not like the taste near as much as the straight cookie icing. It tasted very Gel-like, if you can imagine.

Recipe Source - Fred and Friends

Fourth of July Treat Bags

Happy Fouth of July, everyone! The Fourth of July is probably the best day of the year (barring my birthday, which is always the BEST of the best days). I might argue that it is even better than Christmas. I mean, right? Christmas season is the best, but Christmas day is practically all celebrated by 9am anyway (we get up early in my family). But the Fourth of July...what a breath of hot and humid fresh air. The celebration lasts all day long!

This year we will be starting with a pancake breakfast and then heading to the parade. Now, I admit that this is my first year in Napa and maybe they still throw candy here during the parades. But where I'm from in Utah, candy had been banned. Banned, I tell you! Is this regional? Does anybody else have candy-less parades or was it just my little town? Well, I don't know what little kid got hit in the eye with a piece of taffy, but I say it is quite egrecious not to be able to throw candy at a parade. Put on your goggles, everyone. Tootsie rolls oughta be a-flyin'!

In any case, these little treat bags can suffice if you also live in a candyless region of the parade world. If you are one of the blessed cities that still allows children to be children then these treat bags can augment either your parade or your firework experience. They will take you two seconds to make and put you right in the patriotic mood!

All you need are the following:

York Pieces

Red vines

Cellophane bags

Ribbon

Now for the instructions. Drumroll please...patriotic drumroll that is. These are complicated, so pay close attention.

1. Scoop York pieces into the bottom of the bag.

2. Next add Red Vines. I cut mine in half so that they would fit in the bag better.

3. Tie the bag with ribbon.

Treats have been served. God bless the USA.

Monster Cookies

My son is going to be a monster for Halloween this year - probably the cutest monster Halloween Town has ever seen, but I'm biased. These monster cookies are almost as cute as him! And you can make them with your kids/monsters, which is a great perk. I confess, I did not make them with my kid. He was asleep. But he's six months, so we'll cut him some slack (this time).

I got all of my decoration supplies at Walmart, so if you live in an even remotely populated town in America than you should have no problem finding the following:

Candy Eyeballs - a must!

Fruit snacks - for embellishing and snacking

Gel pen - makes "gluing" on and drawing quite easy

Monster Cookies

1 cup butter, room temperature                                   

1 cup powdered Sugar

1 tsp. vanilla Extract

2 1/4 cups all-purpose Flour

1/4 tsp. salt

1-2 Tbsp. lemon rind

Food coloring

Colored sugar or sprinkles

Decorations: candy eye, gel frosting, fruit snacks

1. Using mixing, blend butter, sugar and vanilla thoroughly.

2. Mix in flour, salt and lemon rind.

3. Divide dough into two parts.

4. Add a couple drops of food coloring to each half of dough according to desired color. Mix thoroughly. I found that mixing it in with my hands worked best to make the color even.

5. Work separate halves of dough into a ball and then mold into rolls, about 2-3" across.

6. Roll the roll (sounds like a dance move) into colored sprinkles or sugar. It should look like this:

 7. Cover with saran wrap and chill in the fridge for several hours or overnight.

8. Take dough out of fridge. Allow to soften a bit until easy to slice.

9. Slice in approx. 1/4" slices. 

10. Bake on un-greased baking sheet @ 375 degrees for 7-9 minutes. Do not brown.

11. Let cool on baking rack.

I made purple with colored sprinkles and green with orange sugar, however, there are lots of other monstrous combinations to be found. Use whatever colors you like! 

13. Decorate! 

14. Yum, yum.