Friday Fun

On Friday I hosted a play date at my house for my daughter and 10 of her friends. Since she didn't get to help me with the cookies I did for the baby shower I decided to host her very own cookie decorating party. I made the cookies and had the icing in little zip locks for the kids to use. I'm not sure what I did wrong but my cookies didn't come out quite right. They spread (just a little) which is not supposed to happen. I'm thinking it was caused by one of three things...

1. I didn't let the eggs come to room temp.
2. I beat to much air into the dough.
3. I didn't let the dough chill enough.



Whatever the reason, it didn't really matter, the cookies were fine for a party for 3 year olds! I also decided to try out a different icing recipe (Wilton's poured cookie icing) that didn't call for meringue powder so I used the kids cookies as Ginny pigs so to say. I did not like the icing as much as the recipe I generally use. It was fine for piping edges and filling in but you could not do any detail work with it. Here are the cookies I decorated after the kids were gone. I like the shininess of the icing but like I said you can't do any detail work with it.





Since play dates are as much about the mama's as they are about the kids I wanted to make something for us to enjoy. Being fall (even if it was like 85 degrees today with 200% humidity) I choose a cranberry-pumpkin bread with a cranberry-pecan streusel on top. The recipe calls for you to drizzle a simple icing on top after they've baked but I never got around to doing it and IMO they didn't need it. I decided to make the recipe as muffins rather than as a loaf..easier to serve and prettier presentation wise (again IMO).



Cranberry-Pumpkin Mini Loaves
By Publix (my local grocery store)


2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. finely shredded orange peel
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/3 cup cooking oil
1/3 cup milk
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup cranberries, coarsely chopped
1 recipe Cranberry Streusel Topping
1 cup powdered sugar
1 to 2 Tbsp. milk



Cranberry-Pecan Streusel


3/4 cup coarsely chopped cranberries
1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground ginger



Stir well to combine.

Prepare your muffin pan (or 6 mini loaf pans as the recipe calls for) and set aside. In a large bowl combine flour, sugars, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, orange peel, salt and ginger. make a well in the center and set aside.

In a medium bowl combine pumpkin, oil, milk and eggs. Add all at once to the dry ingredients. Stir just until moistened. Fold in the cranberries and pecans. Using an ice-cream scoop, spoon the batter into the muffin pan (or spoon evenly into loaf pans). Sprinkle streusel over batter.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes (35-40 minutes for loaf pans) or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool completely. Just before serving combine the 1 cup of powdered sugar and milk, then drizzle over the tops.

Notes: As you can probably see in the picture I didn't use very many cranberries in the streusel. I didn't measure what I did use but it was probably only about 1/4 - 1/3 cup. And I used Sun Maid Cranberries (the kind you find by the raisins) NOT fresh or frozen cranberries. And as mentioned before I didn't put the icing on top.

No Fail Sugar Cookies

By Fancy Flours

6 cups flour

3 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

2 cups sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

2 cups butter

2 eggs

Make sure all ingredients are at room temperature. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy (about 5 minutes). Add eggs, and flavoring (you can also use almond). Mix dry ingredients in separate bowl and add a little at a time to butter mixture. Mix well.

Put a handful of the dough between two pieces of parchment paper (or wax paper) and roll to desired thickness. Repeat with the remaining dough. Put the rolled dough, including the parchment paper, on a cookie sheet and refrigerate for 10 minutes or longer. Your dough will be ready to cut and bake with no added flour! Repeat with scraps after cutting cookies.

NOTES: If you have not yet discovered Fancy Flours, I highly recommend you check them out. They have the most wonderful products, they even have a catalog you can receive for FREE, that is filled with ideas. I just love it!

Poured Cookie Icing

By Wilton

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tsp. milk

2 tsp. light corn syrup

Place sugar and milk in bowl. Stir until mixed thoroughly. Add corn syrup and mix well. For filling in areas use thinned icing (add small amounts of corn syrup until desired consistency is reached).