Sugar Cookies For Lizzy!

I bought a few new cookie cutters at A.C. Moore the other day and figured I might as well try them out :D I only used 3 of them today, so there are 2 mystery shapes to look forward to in the future, hehe.
Anyway, I decided to make some girly flower cookies for this 9 year old I used to babysit, Lizzie, since we were supposed to visit her and her grandparents today. (we didn't get to, but we will tomorrow)

After discovering that we weren't going to visit today, I decided to make more cookies. Ducks and Hearts! Because, you know, that's logical :P




I'd also bought some awesome gold pearl dust and figured that it'd look good on the cookies! (which it totally did)




On to the recipe!

Sugar Cookies:
1 1/2 Cups of Butter
2 Cups of Sugar
4 Eggs
5 Cups of Flour (you'll probably need to add more. This is a sticky recipe!)
1 tsp. of Vanilla
1 tsp. of Salt
2 tsps. of Baking Power


Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Cream together the Butter and Sugar, until fluffy and much lighter in color. Add in the Eggs, one at a time, and the Vanilla.
After combining the Flour, Baking Powder, and Salt, slowly add it to the Butter mixture.
LET CHILL FOR AT LEAST AN HOUR.

Please. Seriously. Unless you're planning to make drop cookies out of these, this dough needs to be chilled.

After chilling, roll out to 1/2 - 1/4 of and inch thick. Cut out your favorite shapes!
Bake for 6-8 minutes, or until the edges start to brown a little.

Decorate with Royal Icing. :)

Any kinds of things you guys would like to see next?

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Pumpkin Muffins

So about a month and a half ago, I asked my father to buy me a couple of cans of pumpkin.
He bought me 10.
Well, I figured I might as well start using them up so they don't sit in the pantry until Thanksgiving rolls around next year.
And so we get pumpkin muffins. I thought these were really awesome, because each of the spices I used hit me in turn, and then at the end, it was pure pumpkin.
I felt like I wanted to add something more, and had originally planned on making a sweet cream cheese to spread on them, but that wasn't cool enough, man. So I made sweet cinnamon butter. From scratch. So yes, heavy whipping cream was involved :D


Pumpkin Muffins:

3 Cups of Flour
2 Cups of Sugar
4 Eggs
1/2 Cup of Milk
1 tsp of Cinnamon (I added more...a lot more, but for most people, this should suffice)
1 tsp of Nutmeg (same as above)
2 Cups of Pumpkin Puree (not the pie mix!)
1 tsp of Salt
1 tsp of Baking Soda

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
Combine the Eggs, Milk, and Pumpkin (I suggest using a mixer). In a separate bowl, Combine the Flour, Spices, Salt, and Baking Soda. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the Pumpkin mixture until combined.
Either line or grease your muffin tins, and go ahead and fill them almost all the way with the batter. Bake the muffins for 20-25 minutes. (Do the toothpick test to check!)
(Toothpick test = sticking a toothpick into the middle of the muffin, or cake, or whatever. If the toothpick comes out clean with a few crumbs, it's ready!)

Sweet Cinnamon Butter:
1/2 Cup of Heavy Whipping Cream
A LOT of Cinnamon
1/2 Cup of Confectioners' Sugar

Pour the Cream into the bowl of a standing mixer. (please don't try to do this by hand, or with a hand mixer. You'll only end up frustrating yourself!) Set it to a medium speed until the cream starts to thicken a bit. Turn down the mixer and add in the Cinnamon and Sugar, slowly. Once they're both incorporated fully, turn the speed all the way up! (Or at least medium-high. I'm a daredevil! Haha) Just let it go until it turns into the crumbly/ wet looking mess in my second to last picture. (Unappetizing, I know!) At this point, if you have cheesecloth, use it! It's fantastic. I had to use about 4 paper towels :(. Dump the mixture onto the cloth (in the sink please, there's liquid). Wrap it up and squeeze squeeze squeeze until all of the liquid is gone. Use it right away! Or at least pretty soon. :)

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Pretty Pastel Cookies

• Today, with the addition of a spiffy new faucet for our sink, our kitchen is technically finished. (not at all organized, but finished :D )

To celebrate, I decided to make cookies! Unfortunately, we were out of eggs.
So I scoured the internet for a recipe that called for no eggs, and I found one. It's actually quite nice, but more similar to shortbread than your typical sugar cookie. Because they're rather plain-looking, I decided to ice them, royal style. Haha. :)
I wanted to save up my food coloring, so I made pastel colors. It looks like I'm going to a baby or bridal shower ;)








"Shortbread" Sugar Cookies:
1 Cup of Sugar
1 Cup of Butter
1 Cup of Milk
2 Cups of Flour (more may need to be added, until the dough is less sticky, so keep that in mind)
1 tsp. of Baking Soda
1 tsp. of Baking Powder
1 tsp. of Vanilla
1 tsp. of salt

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. (! I know, but they don't bake very long)
Sift together the flour and baking powder. Dissolve the salt and baking soda in the milk.
Cream together the butter and sugar. Once entirely creamed, add the vanilla.
While the mixer is going, slowly add in the milk mixture. After the milk is incorporated, add in the flour, bit by bit. After the dough is finished, I suggest chilling it for a while in the fridge, to make it easier to work with. Either way, when you're ready, roll out the dough and cut out your desired shapes. I used the rim of a glass, whatever you have on hand works :)
Bake cookies about 10-15 minutes. Really, whenever you notice the edges are getting a little brown. This especially depends on your oven. While they cool, get started on your royal icing.


Royal Icing:
by Alton Brown
Copied and pasted because it's easier that way :)

"3 ounces pasteurized egg whites (that's about 3 egg whites. You know Alton and his preciseness)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 cups confectioners' sugar

In large bowl of stand mixer combine the egg whites and vanilla and beat until frothy. Add confectioners' sugar gradually and mix on low speed until sugar is incorporated and mixture is shiny. Turn speed up to high and beat until mixture forms stiff, glossy peaks. This should take approximately 5 to 7 minutes. Add food coloring, if desired. For immediate use, transfer icing to pastry bag or heavy duty storage bag and pipe as desired. If using storage bag, clip corner. Store in airtight container in refrigerator for up to 3 days."


For the base color, I just spread the icing over the cookies with a knife. For the white piping, I cut the tiniest corner imaginable off of the tip of a plastic baggie. Make sure to clean the tip of that quite often, though, as the icing dries over the tip very quickly and makes it hard to make straight lines. I know -___-

So yay! First installment of flour on her nose. Stay tuned for more! (probably cookies. I love cookies. :D )

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And so it is!

This is the first, utterly useless post for flour on her nose.
Why, then, am I writing it?
To give you a little backstory, of course.

My name is Kiara.
I love to cook and bake.
I'm 18, and I live in Virginia.
I'm away at college, with only a microwave to cook in. (the horror!)
2 months ago, my father managed to ruin our home kitchen. (more horror!)
Since then, I've been going into culinary withdrawal.
Soon, we're getting a new stove, and my headfirst dive back into the world of cooking can happen.

Are you as excited as I am?

:)

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