My husband is not a big fan of sweets, he prefers to drink his coffee and maybe a couple of cookies on the side. This year for Father's Day I really wanted to make him some cupcakes, but I quickly realized that I would probably be eating the cupcakes by myself and wouldn't be much of a present for him. So I decided to make him biscotti. 

A classic biscotti is made with almond or amaretto extract, but that's not something I usually keep at hand, and the beauty of biscotti is that you can play with the ingredients and find what you like. I made this recipe using vanilla extract and I added walnuts to only half of the recipe to make plain biscotti as well. You can play with it and use any type of nut you like or change the extract for a totally different flavor. 

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups of flour, plus extra for dusting.

2/3 cup of sugar

1 teaspoon of baking powder

3 eggs

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

1/4 to 1/2 cup of walnuts (optional) 

 

Makes about 28 mini biscotti

DIRECTIONS:

Position rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. 

 

Place walnuts in a single layer on a baking sheet and toast in the oven for 8 to 10 minutes, or until just golden and aromatic. Remove and set aside. 

 

In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar and baking powder. In a small bowl, whisk eggs and vanilla extract until well blended. Add to the flour mixture. Work the batter with floured hands. It will be sticky but keep working it until it forms a dough.

 

 

Next, you can either add 1/2 cup of walnuts to the dough or separate the dough into two equal parts and add  1/4 cup of walnuts to only one piece of dough. I decided to make one part plain and one part with walnuts. 

 

On a floured surface, place one piece of dough and using your hands, roll into a log shape that is approximately 10 inches long and 2 1/2 inches wide. If it's sticky, simply dust your palms with more flour. Repeat with remaining piece of dough. Place two logs on a baking sheet.

 

Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes, turning the pan around halfway through, or until the tops of the loaves are deep golden. Cool on a rack for about 20 minutes before slicing. Place a loaf on a cutting board. Using a large serrated knife, cut 3/4-inch-thick slices, either straight or on the diagonal. Use a sawing motion to prevent crumbling. Each loaf should yield 12-14 cookies. If the cookie is crumbling, then let it cool a few more minutes. Don't let it rest too long, however, or it could become too hard to slice.

 

Place slices on their sides back on to the baking sheets. Reduce oven temperature to 200 degrees, and bake biscotti for 30 minutes, until toasted and crisp. If you desire, you can turn off the oven and let the biscotti stay for up to an hour. The longer they stay in the oven, the harder they will become. Remove from oven and cool completely before storing in an airtight container, preferably a tin, which helps keep them crisp. Stored properly, biscotti will last up to a month.

 

 

Recipe adapted from : npr.org

This week a dear friend of mine celebrated her 30th birthday and I was excited to make her a treat, so I thought of making her a pretty cookie bouquet of flowers! I used a mason jar cookie cutter and an egg cookie cutter for the flowers. I didn't want to use the basic tulip cutter because I thought it would be neat if the tulips looked more realistic and the egg cutter gave me more room to play with the petals. The leaves were cut by hand using a knife. I hand painted all the cookies using gel colors. 

I think they turned out great! And my sweet friend loved her bouquet.

Have you given painted cookies a try yet?

This Easter I really wanted to create cookies for some sweet new friends at church to enjoy. Plus I had a couple of new cookie cutters that I really wanted to try too!

When trying to figure out designs and colors for my cookies, something I find useful is to pick three to four different colors and to let them carry themselves through out all the cookies.

When I first started decorating cookies (not long ago) I used start with a clean bowl for every single color. And even though the colors looked good, once I used them all together in the set of cookies, they seemed a little off. Like they just didn't match. So I thought of something I normally do when doing an oil painting... I don't really clean my brush unless absolutely necessary. 

When mixing my royal icing and preparing the colors, I usually start by mixing my main color, then I use the same bowl (without cleaning all the icing off!) to start mixing a new color. This way, all the colors have a little bit of a similar tint and it really makes a big difference. Now, all the cookies will look like they belong together. 

The amazing moss technique you see in the bunny is all the rave in the cookie world and I just had to try it! Thanks to Mike from SemmiSweet for showing us how to make it. Here is a direct link to his tutorial.

These cookies were a request from my beautiful niece. This year she turned nine and she loves everything Paris, so Paris cookies it is! She is so precious! I can't believe she turned nine already!

I decided to go for the "painted" look on the cookies, that way I could use as many colors as I wanted to make them look fun and give them that spring look to them. 

I submitted a picture of the cookies to a contest that Michael's Stores is having  to win a trip to Paris too! They will announce the winner soon, fingers crossed!

Welcome to my new site!

I am excited to share my creations with you,  I will be be posting pictures of what I make and hopefully soon I will add some tutorials and yummy recipes as well. I hope this blog can inspire you to create beautiful edible art. 

Here are a few of my past baking projects, enjoy!

Beauty and the Beast Birthday Cookie Set

Bubble Guppies Cookie Set

Ice Cream Birthday Cookie Set