Snowflake Sugar Cookies

These fun snowflake cookies are made using the same recipe as my airplane sugar cookies.  I love this recipe for 2 reasons.  The first is that the cookies hold their shape really well, which is perfect for intricate cookies like these.  The second reason is that they're just yummy.  They really taste fabulous. 

Sugar Cookies (via cakecentral.com)
6 cups flour
3 tsp. baking powder
2 cups unsalted butter
2 cups sugar (white granulated)
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract or desired flavoring (I like almond myself)
1 tsp. salt

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Mix dry ingredients, and add a little at a time to butter mixture. Mix until flour is completely incorporated and the dough comes together.  Chill for 1 to 2 hours.

Cut cookies and place on greased cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. Once your cookies are completely cooled, you can frost them. I like to ice a border of royal icing around the edge of my cookies first, so that I don't have run-off.  It gives the cookie a crisp, professional look.

Royal Icing
3 large egg whites
1 lb. confectioner’s sugar
1/2 tsp. cream of tartar

Beat egg whites with cream of tartar until they reach the soft peak stage.  Add confectioner's sugar, a little at a time, until stiff peaks form.

To ice your cookies, fill a zippered sandwich bag with icing and cut a little off the corner.  Frost your border and allow a few minutes for the icing to harden.  Finally,  you'll want to fill in your cookie with regular icing.  I put about 2 cups of confectioner's sugar in a bowl and add a little milk until I get my desired consistency (not runny, but not stiff).  Fill another sandwich bag with this icing, snip the corner of the bag, and fill the cookie.  To get an even consistency, use a toothpick or your (clean) pinky finger to spread the icing. 

The cookie cutters were bought at Williams-Sonoma last winter, but I was just in their store a few weeks ago and they still have them!  I love the cookie cutters because you can be creative with how you design them.  Every snowflake can be different.

Jamie’s Family Cocoa Recipe

• 2 c. nonfat dry milk powder
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 1/2 c. cocoa powder
• 1/2 c. non-dairy creamer
• dash salt

Mix all ingredients and store in an air-tight container. For an 8 oz. serving, mix 1/4 c. of mix with 3/4 c. of boiling water. Serves 12.

For Heather’s gift presentation idea click here. Enjoy!

Gingerbread House {Recipe}

Every year I host a Gingerbread House Party and invite some people for a confectionary extravaganza that turns out some unique and beautiful houses. If you’ve never made one of these beauties, this is the year! I’ve got a great recipe for gingerbread dough, and icing, and a step by step tutorial to get you from baking to decorating in no time flat. Let’s get started.

Start with making the gingerbread house dough. This recipe makes about 2 houses the size of the template you can find here:

Gingerbread House Dough

• 1 ¾ c. flour
• ½ tsp. cinnamon
• ½ tsp. ground ginger
• ½ tsp. salt
• ½ tsp. baking soda
• ½ tsp. ground allspice
• ½ tsp. vanilla
• ½ c. margarine (not oil) softened
• ½ c. firmly packed brown sugar
• Scant ¼ c. molasses (to double, use 1/3 c.)
• 1 whole egg

Now, let me insert here that I don’t eat my gingerbread houses. They are purely decoration. This being said, I use margarine instead of butter when I bake them. If I were going to make these into cookies I would use butter. But since I am making a good dozen and a half houses every Christmas, I go for the cheaper butter-alternative and use margarine.

Alright, let’s get mixing.

In a medium bowl mix together flour, cinnamon, ginger, salt, soda, and allspice. In the bowl of your electric mixer, beat vanilla, butter, and sugar for about five minutes--or until mixture is light and fluffy. Mixture will not be completely smooth. Beat in molasses and egg until blended and scrape down the sides of the bowl once. Beat in flour mixture on low speed until well blended. Divide dough into 2 equal parts, and flatten each piece of dough into a circle. Wrap pieces in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least two hours.

 

Hopefully by this time you have a plan for your house. Do you want windows? A door that stands open? Plain sides and front? If you want the standard cut outs, proceed as specified. If you would like some windows, let’s say, then you will want to line your cookie sheets with parchment paper, cut out the window shape you want, crush up some hard candies (like lifesavers or jolly ranchers) into teeny tiny pieces and sprinkle them evenly into your window cavity. Then proceed as indicated. The sky is really the limit here. Do whatever the inner architect in you is yearning for.

Next, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease large cookie sheets, or line them with parchment. If you’re doing the candy windows, please use parchment paper. My first time I didn’t, and the windows stuck to the pan. It was a mini tragedy.

Once your pans are ready, remove plastic wrap from one piece of dough and place it on a heavily floured surface. Roll out the dough with a thickly floured rolling pin to 1/8 inch thickness. Keep the remaining dough refrigerated until needed.

~For house template, and decorating instructions click here for the full tutorial.~

Gingerbread House Glue (Royal Frosting)

• 2 c. Confectioner’s sugar
• 1 egg white
• ¼ t. cream of tartar

Please note, you will want your frosting to be very thick and cement-like. You will get a VERY thick frosting from this recipe. If it is thinner, you will have trouble getting your house to stay together without having to hold it in place for a long time. If you would like your frosting to be a bit thinner, you can play around by adding more egg whites, or sugar, depending on the consistency you want.

Mix all ingredients together until thick and firm. Scoop into frosting bags with a rubber spatula. This recipe will fill one frosting bag very full. You can get disposable frosting bags at your favorite craft store in the cake decorating aisle. You may also use a Ziploc like I did in the beginning, snipping off a corner. Be aware that you may end up with blowouts from the Ziploc popping apart midway through decorating. Otherwise, these can be a good alternative in a pinch.

For detailed building and decorating instructions – with photos – click here for the full tutorial.

I hope this becomes something you enjoy from year to year. Merry Christmas from the WhipperChicks!

{Recipe} Cheesy Smashed Cauliflower

This may be weird, but I grew up with a Grandmother who hated potatoes.  She would not eat them in any form: fried, mashed, baked, cheesy or plain.  This made for some creativity on our family’s part when it came to Thanksgiving dinner.  Because as Bobby Flay recently found out, you cannot have Thanksgiving without mashed potatoes!!  {Sorry but I’m a huge fan of Throwdown on the Food Network, and an even bigger Ree Drummond fan—a.k.a. Pioneer Woman.  She just schooled Bobby on the finer points of Thanksgiving and won the Throwdown last week.  Way to go Ree!!}  Anyway…this recipe from Erin may fit the bill for your non-potato loving guests this year.  It’s adapted from a Rachel Ray recipe.

Cheesy Smashed Cauliflower

1 cup chicken broth

1 large head cauliflower

1 tablespoon of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1/3 cup Boursin cheese or 1/3 cup other garlic & herb      spreadable cheese

1/4 cup grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese or 1/4 cup romano cheese

1/8 teaspoon grated nutmeg

3 tablespoons chives, chopped

Add chicken stock and 1 tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil (one turn of the pan) to a deep pot.

Trim away greens and stems from the base of cauliflower. Cut away the core with a sharp paring knife. Set cored head into pot with broth.

Cover pot and bring liquid to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low and cook cauliflower, covered, until tender, 8 to 10 minutes.

Uncover the pot and let some liquid cook off as you smash the cheeses into the cauliflower.

 

As the mixture thickens, turn off heat and season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Stir in chives and transfer cauliflower to a serving dish. Enjoy!!

 

Creamy White Chili

The first time I had this tasty chili was right after the birth of my little guy and my good friend Neelie brought over a steamy pot.  I was in heaven!!  It was one of those taste memories that will always stick in my mind because it was so comforting.  Thanks, Neelie, for the comfort then, and for letting me share now!

Creamy White Chili

• 1 pound shredded chicken
• 1 medium onion
• 1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 3 cans great northern beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
• 8 oz green chilies
• 1 t salt
• 1 t ground cumin
• 1 t dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

In a large saucepan sauté chicken, onion, and garlic powder in oil until chicken is no longer pink. Add beans, broth, chilies, and seasonings.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat; simmer uncovered for 30 minutes.  Remove from heat; stir in sour cream and heavy cream. Serve.

 

Fall Chili & Cornbread

Chili and cornbread go together like bosom buddies. One is always asking for the other, inviting it over for sleepovers, and giggling together under trees dressed in their autumn colors. So why try and separate what should be together? I know, I know, you’ve been burned before. Chili so hot you’ve had to pop Tums all night just to keep from breathing fire, or cornbread as thick and dry as a hay bale. If you’ve ever suffered from such moments of culinary disaster, let me give you some free dinner therapy. It starts with a quick and easy chili so warm and delicious, you’ll ask for another bowl. It’s low on heat, but if you’re into that kind of thing feel free to add more. Then you’ll top it off with wedges of cornbread that will make you talk with your mouth full. When it’s warm, a slip of butter melts in like a memory, and my kids come away with yellow freckled crumbstaches. Mmm hmm! It’s that good. So grab your beans and corn and let’s get started!

In-a-Hurry Turkey Chili

Ingredients:

• ½ small onion chopped
• 1 lb ground turkey
• 1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 28oz can stewed tomatoes, chopped
• ½ c. ready made salsa
• 1 T chili powder

Alright, now get out your knife and Master-Chef your onion into a nice dice. Put it into a pan with your ground turkey and brown it. Meanwhile, drain and rinse your beans, and then chop your tomatoes. This is where you might decide to do things differently. I’m not big on huge chunks of tomato swimming around in my chili, so I plop the entire can into the blender and do a coarse chop before dumping it into the pan with the rest of the ingredients.

Add the salsa and chili powder, stir and let it come to a bubble. Serve with your favorite toppings.

Now on to the cornbread. I often make an 8x8 pan instead of 9x13 so there will be less for me to indulge on as the night goes on. I’ve included the half measurements in parentheses for your convenience:

Gimme More Cornbread

Adapted from Myra’s Corn Bread

• 2 c. (1 c.) flour
• 1 c. (½ c.) cornmeal
• 2 ½ t. (1 ¼ t.) baking powder
• 1 t. (½ t.) salt
• ¾ c. (6 T.) butter
• 3 (2) eggs
• 1 c. (½ c.) milk
• 1½ (¾ c.) sugar
• 1 t. (½ t.) vanilla

See that vanilla? It gives you the hint of the deliciousness you’re about to embark into. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Sift together your flour, cornmeal, powder, and salt, and set aside. Beat butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy (about five minutes).

Once your batter is fluffy, begin mixing in the dry ingredients and milk by fourths, alternating dry and wet (beginning and ending with flour) until smooth. Pour into a well greased 9x13 pan. Bake for 30-35 minutes.

If possible, cool in pan ten minutes before cutting into fat squares and serving with butter, or better yet – honey butter.

Now dust off your upper lip and tell me that didn’t make you smile.

{Halloween Table} Yogurt Filled Chocolate Cups

• Semi-sweet chocolate chips
• White chocolate chips
• 2 cups vanilla yogurt
• Food coloring paste in two colors of your choice.

Either purchase pre-made chocolate cups, or make your own using a chocolate mold. Melt semi-sweet chocolate chips in the microwave for 1 minute. Stir and continue in 15 second intervals until smooth. Pour into chocolate molds and allow to harden completely, then remove from molds. Melt a few ounces of white chocolate chips in a small  plastic baggie. Cut off just the tip of one corner of the baggie. Pipe in all different directions, drizzling the white chocolate over the chocolate cups giving them a spiderweb effect. Allow to cool completely again.

Set aside a small amount of vanilla yogurt for the design in the center. Color it with desired paste. Color the remaining yogurt with a varying paste. Divide the larger portion of yogurt equally into prepared cups. Drop 1 teaspoon of the remaining color in the center of each yogurt cup. With a toothpick, swirl it around to create a design. To get the spiderweb design, swirl it heavily, but not so the colors are completely blended. Then cut through the color as if cutting a pie, dragging the color out slightly, creating the strings of a web.