Halloween Sugar Cookies

In the realm of holiday enjoyment, my love of Halloween is unparalleled.  I freaking love Halloween! I love the costumes, I love the decorations (I'm partial to skulls and spiders), I love the candy and the parties and the tricks and OF COURSE the treats.   This sugar cookie recipe is a staple that can be used to make holiday treats year round.  It was originally featured on Alton Brown's show Good Eats.  (Oh man, you should watch the episode, The Cookie Clause, it's brilliant.  Santa's feeling merciful!)

This recipe uses the creaming method.  If you are unfamiliar with the creaming technique Alton gives a great explanation, or you can hop over to my post on it real quick.   Creaming the butter and sugar together properly will give your cookies the perfect texture.  

Ingredients:

Cookies:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 tablespoon milk
• Powdered sugar, for rolling out dough
• (optional) 1 teaspoon extract (vanilla, almond, lemon...whatever you like!)

Directions:

•  Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder, set aside.  Beat together the egg, milk, and any extract you are using and set aside.  
• Cream together the softened butter and sugar.  Beat together until the mix becomes a noticeably lighter color, bigger in volume and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
• Add the liquid ingredients to the butter and sugar and mix together.  Slowly add the dry ingredients and continue mixing until an evenly mixed dough forms. 
• Divide the dough in two, shape into flat squares and wrap in plastic.  Refrigerate for 2 hours.
• Once the dough is chilled, sprinkle your work area and rolling pin with powdered sugar and roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thickness.  Cut out your shapes and move to a parchment covered cookie sheet (or a greased sheet). 
• Bake for 7-9 minutes, turning halfway through.  When the cookies begin to turn golden brown on the bottoms and edges they are finished. Cool for two minutes on the cookie sheet, then move to a wire rack.

If you like look of the smooth, shiny, hard-drying frosting that is traditionally used on sugar cookies, you can use this recipe for your frosting.  (The frosting on the white cookies was made this way, the black frosting is Betty Crocker from a tube.)

Frosting:

• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 2 teaspoons milk
• 2 teaspoons light corn syrup
• (optional) 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
  
• (optional) assorted food coloring

Directions:

• Mix it all up!  If your frosting comes out to dry add more milk, if it is to watery add more sugar.  
• Spread a thin layer on your cookies and let it air dry for a few minutes. 

Hot Cross Buns

Hot cross buns have been associated with the Christian holiday of Good Friday for hundreds of years, although some people believe they have been baked since long before that and were simply adopted by Christians. Christian or not, the lore surrounding this simple confection is fascinating, and the buns themselves are delicious.  Traditionally containing currants or other dried fruit, Cinnamon and spices, topped with icing, these buns are supposed to ensure friendship throughout the year with anyone you share them with, and once you try one you will see why.

The oldest Christian lore surrounding hot cross buns states that sometime in the 12th century an Anglican monk placed the cross on the buns to celebrate Good Friday, which at that time was called "The Day of the Cross".   The actual recipe is said to pre-date this however, it is believed that the Saxons ate buns marked with a cross to honor the goddess Eostre.  It's thought that worship of the pagan goddess was so firmly rooted that early Christian missionaries adopted "Easter", hot cross buns and many other pagan traditions into their own yearly celebrations.   Hot cross buns came to be made of the same dough used to make communion bread.   Because of this, they were believed to have special healing powers and to bring good luck.   Some traditions say that a hot cross bun baked on Good Friday and hung from the kitchen ceiling can bring luck to your household, ensure all your bread rises, and ward off fires.   There is a popular saying, "Half for you and half for me, Between us two shall goodwill be".  If you share a hot cross bun with a friend it will ensure good relations between you for the rest of the year.   In the 16th century, early Protestant monarchs saw the buns as a hold-over from Catholic rule in England and attempted to ban them.  Their overwhelming popularity made this impossible, and Queen Elizabeth I passed a law allowing them to be baked only at Easter and Christmas. 

Recipe from Pioneer Woman

Ingredients (makes approx 18):

Buns:

• 2 cups Whole Milk
• 1/2 cup Canola Oil
• 1/2 cup Sugar
• 1 package (2 1/4 Teaspoons) Active Dry Yeast
• 4 cups All-purpose Flour
• 1/2 cup (additional) Flour
• 1/2 teaspoon (heaping) Baking Powder
• 1/2 teaspoon (scant) Baking Soda
• 2 teaspoons Salt

Filling:

• 1/4 cup Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
• Spices: Cardamom, Nutmeg, Allspice (optional)
• 1/2 cup Raisins

Glaze:

• 1 whole Egg White
• Splash Of Milk

Icing:

• 1 whole Egg White
• Powdered Sugar
• Splash Of Milk

Preparation: 

BUNS

Combine 2 cups milk, canola oil, and 1/2 cup sugar in a saucepan. Stir and heat until very warm but not boiling. Turn off the heat and allow to cool until mixture is still warm, but not hot--about 30 minutes.

Sprinkle yeast over mixture. Add 4 cups of flour and stir to combine. Mixture will be very sticky. Cover with a towel and set aside for 1 hour.

Add 1/2 cup flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir till combined.

Combine 1/4 cup sugar with cinnamon and whatever other spices you want to use.

Lightly flour surface. Press to slightly flatten dough. Sprinkle a couple tablespoons of the sugar/cinnamon mixture. Sprinkle on about a third of the raisins. Then fold the dough over on itself and flatten again so the dough is "plain" again. Repeat the sugar/raisin process, then fold the dough again. Repeat a third time until all the raisins are used. (You won't use all the sugar/cinnamon mixture.)

Pinch off ping pong or golf ball-size bunches of dough. With floured hands, quickly roll it into a ball, then turn the edges under themselves slightly. Place on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Cover and allow to rise in a warm place for at least 30 minutes...an hour-plus is better.

PREHEAT OVEN TO 400F degrees

GLAZE

Mix 1 egg white with a splash of milk. Brush onto each roll.

Bake for 20 minutes, give or take, or until tops of buns have turned nice and golden brown.

Remove from pan and allow to cool on a cooling rack.

ICING

Mix 1 egg white with enough powdered sugar for icing to be very thick. Splash in milk as needed for consistency.

Add icing to a small Ziploc bag and snip the corner. Make icing crosses on each roll, making sure they're completely cooled first.

Black Marshmallow Fondant: Badass and Tasty

A few months ago I made marshmallow fondant for the first time. I was also making my first tierd cake. My friends who were getting married have the utmost confidence in my baking skills, despite the fact that I had never done anything remotely like making a wedding cake. God bless them. It was a fairly low key wedding but I had a lot to do (as the only bridesmaid, cake maker, bridesmaid dress maker, and brides makeup artist). The cake was my wedding gift to them and I decided to make them a Star Trek themed cake (yes, we are all nerds) to match the Star Trek themed invitations that the bride's artist father had made. Sadly, I do not have quality photos to show you of this endeavor but I'll slap my crappy snapshots up here so you'll get the idea.

Check that out. Awesome right? I made the topper on there too (out of sculpey, not fondant. I cheated a little).

Naturally, the first time I make fondant I decide I want it in the two hardest colors to get right, red and black. The red involved dumping nearly two jars of Wilton food coloring in with the marshmallow fondant and then some more until it finally wasn't pink. Grey fondant wasn't going to fly, so I had to try something even more intense for the black parts. Here's how you do it:

Marshmallow fondant is fondants tastier and easier to make cousin. Your basic marshmallow fondant recipe involves a bag of mini-marshmallows, a little bit of water, and powdered sugar. You dump the marshmallows in a bowl with a tiny bit of water and throw it in the microwave for 30 second intervals, stirring in between rounds until the marshmallows are melty and gooey. Then you stir in powdered sugar until you get the consistency you want. Easy enough. Black fondant requires going a step further and adding another special ingredient: chocolate chips.


Black Marshmallow Fondant:
- 6 oz. of semi sweet chocolate chips (white for light colors, milk choc. for dark) (about half of a bag)
- 1 16 oz. bag of mini marshmallows
- 3 tbsp. of clear Karo syrup
- 3 tbsp. water
- 1 1lb. bag of powdered sugar + 1-2 Cups
- gel black (or other dark) food coloring and paste
- Crisco

1. Dump your marshmallows in a microwave safe bowl and add the water then microwave for 30 second intervals, stirring between intervals until the marshmallows are melted (approx. 2 minutes)
2. Add the chocolate chips and stir until the chips are melted. Pop back in the microwave if you need to.
3. Add the karo syrup and stir in with a butter knife. The syrup is not used in regular marshmallow fondant, it appears in this recipe to keep the chocolate from hardening to much to use.
4. Add 1-2 tspns of black gel color (as much as needed to get your mixture good and black) and mix it in.
5. Add about half of your powdered sugar and stir. Your mixture will start thickening and becoming doughy and look like this:

Keep stirring! It will become black again!
6. Add the rest of the powdered sugar to the bowl. Grease your hands and the counter liberally with the crisco and kneed in the rest of the powdered sugar. At the end you should get this:

To store your fondant coat it with a layer of crisco, wrap it in plastic wrap and keep it in an airtight container in the refrigerator. When you are ready to work with the black fondant you may need to pop it in the microwave for a few seconds to soften it up. Regular marshmallow fondant can be warmed up enough to use in your hands, but the chocolate gets much stiffer and sometimes needs a little help.

And that, ladies and gentleman, is the most badass baking I have ever done. Also, marshmallow fondant is pretty tasty so don't be surprised if people (especially kids) eat it instead of peeling it off the cake (like most do with regular fondant).