...I rolled, and cut and baked sooooo many cookies this afternoon! (I left work at lunch time!)
And then the decorating starting.
I've confirmed I'm not a friend of royalty, or more specifically, royal icing. I like the concept of it, and I like when other people pull it off nicely - hell, I've even gone to a class on it with Erica from work - but it doesn't like me, and it doesn't like to cooperate. I used meringue powder with the instructions for making royal icing, and it's either too thick, or too airy, or ends out not setting. Grrrr... Screw it. You know my secret trick? Get those little tubes of icing from the grocery store, nuke them 10 seconds to really soften them up to ROYAL ICING consistency, and then use decorator tips to apply them (meaning, in most cases, I'm squirting it from the plastic tube into icing bags). Once nuked it gets really manageable AND seems to set better. I don't know why. I know it's cheating. But I like the results AND I like the colors.
I used to do just milk, powdered sugar, and almond extract - LOVED it, but it didn't always set. Not too surprising. I preferred it's flavor over royal icing with water, but didn't always get the desired results.
Decorating cookies shouldn't be this much of a pain!
Anyhow - I had Brett pick up more icing on his way home. That was after I'd already trashed the kitchen (I'll clean it tomorrow. Promise. Maybe.). So we finally had enough icing for all of the cookies...sorta kinda. We'll see. They're almost all decorated and I'm sick of cookies and sugar at the moment.
Brett helped me decorate the snowflakes - he's the dragee king now... (In this case, maybe royal icing would've been thinner and better, but oh well)
Two types of Christmas trees. Unfortunately I forgot to get a close up on the much-more-detailed snow men.
The ever popular chocolate crinkles!
Also very popular - snickerdoodles! YUM! Sadly, these are starting to crisp up - honestly, they're best right from the oven, still tender and warm!
Picture is a little blurry, but these are from Peter's mom's ginger cookie recipe. Yum yum yum - I LOOOOVE these things! It's the combination of molasses AND powdered ginger, plus cloves and cinnamon, that give 'em a real kick. I honestly expected to find candied ginger and/or black pepper in the recipe...
Gay gay gay...yes, I know, but here's me with one of the trays of cookies. Hm, it doesn't look so big here. What you can maybe make out if you zoom in is that there's all the cookies above, plus different kinds of fudge, peanut brittle, chocolate biscotti, various Christmas candies and mints (storebought), chocolate clusters with cranberries and pecans, and more!
Ok, no more sugar for a week - please!
11 comments:
1. WOW. Your decorating is always gorgeous. And I'm sorry I don't have time this week to attempt some of the ideas you've given me for next year.
2. I'm glad you like the ginger cookies so very much.
3. Royal icing is easy. Meringue powder? Seriously, until you mentioned it last week, I'd never heard of it. Use egg whites. It will work out fine. I have a simple recipe I can send you.
4. That last photo of you and the cookies? Forget Brett. I've never wanted you more!
:-P
I second that...awesome decorating, Jeph! You and Peter make me want to start baking my own Christmas cookies :)
holy canoli! that is a lot of cookies!
and you are so lucky. i live in california where it is against the law to buy dragees. :( i can't even order them online and have them shipped here.
Jeph, you look SO cute with your plate of cookies! I want you to show up on my doorstep on a sad, rainy day, smiling and holding a huge plate of cookies like that!
Beautiful cookies Jeph. I don't have the patience for icing at that level of hand-eye coordination and I'm glad you do.
I'm in total agreement with Peter, meringue powder is a waste of money unless you're a commercial bakery.
That, my friend, is a LOT of cookies. I do not believe I have seen a house quite so festive.
Be grateful that I do not live nearby, as I can consume my body weight in cookies and gin.
Peter and Steven - while I've dabbled with a little meringue powder from the bulk store before, I probably wouldn't have bought it again. While in NY for Thanksgiving, mom and my sister-in-law picked up a ginger bread house kit for my nieces, and the instructions said to use meringue powder to make the icing for cement/decorating. All they could find was this tub of it, and then mom said she would never use the rest so she sent it home with me.
I have to admit - it smells kinda yummy, kinda gross. Love that egg white smell (even though I'm honestly not certain there's dried egg whites in it!?)
Anon/Cindy -
Hey - you were here at work, so I think you got some of the cookies. Why do I have to go out in the rain all the way to your house to drop off more?! ;-)
Ginger and Barbie -
Thanks! And I know it doesn't matter to others, but I feel the decorating of the cookies wasn't quite on par with what I was pulling off a few years back. Gotta get my mojo back!
Finny -
I was cracking up over the cookies/gin comment. Now would you soak the cookies in gin and use them as a transportation method, like dunk them in it and pretend it was milk? Or just wash the cookies down? LOL
I have to say that I love everything. The deco is really nice. Have a wonderful Christmas.
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