Stained Glass Cookies

A crowd pleasing favorite; stained glass cookies.  These are amazing cookies to look at and even better to taste.  The only limit to the design of stained glass cookies is your own imagination and patience with a sharp knife, they can even be made as lollipops. These are the perfect cookies any time of the year whether it's Christmas ornaments, valentine hearts, spring flowers or fall pumpkins they make a gorgeous treat to see and a tasty one to eat.  

These can be made from many different cookie types as long as they bake quickly at a maximum temperature of 350˚.  That being said I prefer to use sugar cookies for several reasons.  They contrast really nicely with the bright candy colours, it's a cookie that doesn't seem out of place during other seasons, they are simple and never fail to turn out as well as being one of the easiest doughs to work with.  

This is a fairly large recipe and can be made in a half batch with out ill effects, but really who wants less cookies?  I do seperate the dough into two sections however and bake one section as regular sugar cookies and the other as stained glass.  There is no real reason for this other than I tend to run out of patience since I don't have many cookie cutters in multiple sizes and cut most of the windows out by hand.   

Stained Glass Cookies

Ingredients

2 cups softened unsalted butter

2 cups sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

1 tsp salt

6 cups flour

About 40 hard candies (I prefer life savers)

In a large bowl cream sugar and butter together until fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla.  Sprinkle with salt and slowly add the flour to the mixture one cup at a time.

Separate the dough into two flattened disks, wrap with plastic wrap and place in fridge to chill minimum one hour (I tend to leave them overnight).

Preheat oven to 350˚

Roll out dough on a flat surface lightly dusted with flour to about 3-4mm. Cut out shapes remembering to cut out and area for the “window” and transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. An extra hint; if you plan on hanging any of the ornaments use a straw to make a small hole at the top of the cookie.  

Separate hard candies into separate plastic bags by flavour.  Crush with a rolling pin.

Fill the open spaces in the cookies with one flavor of hard candy each.   

 Bake for about 10 minutes until cookies are fluffy or just beginning to brown.

Allow cookies to cool for at least ten minutes before removing from the parchment paper and enjoy.

Holiday Sweets

I make many different kinds of cookies and sweets around the holiday season and will often try something new but each year there are a few special ones.  These are the cookies and baking that I make every year without fail, they are the must have favorites that everybody loves.  

These recipes are all tried and tested traditional items which mostly come from several recipe books which are older than I am and which never fail to please.  Gingerbread, ginger snaps, sugar cookies and shortbread make the short list and I thought I’d share mine, and my whole families, favorite one.

Ginger Snaps

Bake at 375˚ for 8-10 minutes

 ¾ cup shortening

1 cup Sugar

¼ Cup molasses

1 egg

2 cup flour

2 tsp baking soda

½ tsp cloves

½ tsp ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

Pinch of salt

small bowl of white sugar

Pre-heat oven to 375˚

In a small saucepan melt shortening at low temp then transfer to a large mixing bowl.

Slowly add sugar, molasses and egg stirring constantly.

Mix dry ingredients in a separate bowl then add slowly to shortening mixture.

Blend well before forming into teaspoon sized balls.

Roll balls in the small bowl of sugar and then place on an ungreased baking sheet.

Flatten with a fork.

Bake for 8-10minutes.

Allow to cool and enjoy. 

Lavender Love

"There's a few things I've learned in life: always throw salt over your left shoulder, keep rosemary by your garden gate, plant lavender for good luck, and fall in love whenever you can"
- William Shakespeare

I don’t recall much about my paternal grandmother but one thing I do remember is the scent of lavender. This exquisite and soothing scent will always remind me of grandmotherly hugs and brings with it a sense of calm and peace.

Naturally with these pleasant thoughts brought on by the scent of lavender it is a scent I particularly enjoy.  So when I found this wonderful recipe I just knew I would have to share it.

Lavender Crème Bruleé

Preheat oven to 350º

1 tbsp lavender flowers (dried)
2 cups heavy cream
3 egg yolks
1/4 cup white sugar
dash of salt
1 tsp vanilla
4 tbsp Grand Marnier (if you want -- gives it a nice hint of orange)
About 1 cup white sugar for sprinkling on the top

You will also need four ramekin containers and a large glass or ceramic baking dish.

First put a large pot or kettle full of water on the stove to boil.

Combine heavy cream and lavender flowers in a small sauce pan and bring to a simmer then remove from heat and allow to sit while you prepare your other ingredients. The longer it sits the more the lavender will infuse the cream.

In a bowl combine egg yolk, sugar, salt, vanilla and Grand Marnier and mix. 

Strain the lavender out of the cream then slowly add it into the egg/sugar mixture mixing gently.  Remember to do this step slowly or you could curdle the egg mixture. Once combined pour it into the four small containers/ramekin dishes.

Place the dishes inside your large baking dish and fill the large baking dish with hot water. If you’ve never done this before it’s called the bath cooking method. Make sure you don’t fill the larger baking dish all the way to the top and be CAREFUL boiling water can make some nasty burns.

Bake for 45-50 minutes.

Remove from the oven and let it sit until the bath water cools enough to touch without burning your skin off and remove the ramekins and place them in the fridge for 4-6 hours. You really can’t skimp on this step no matter how wonderful it smells or be warned you will be eating lavender crème soup instead.

When fully chilled through sprinkle the top of each with enough white sugar to cover the custard.  Check that your fire alarm is working and then with a small torch toast the sugar into a nice bruleé.  

100 word count - Crab Apples

Tis the season for crab apples falling from the trees. A bag quite near to bursting sits on my kitchen counter, full of apples waiting to be made into something tart and sweet.  A warm apple pie, a cold apple jelly, a  sticky apple crumble, sweet apple pancakes, flaky apple turnover, a warm baked apple, an ooey gooey apple topped cake or perhaps some crunchy apple chips. Lots of ideas and things I can do, perhaps I’ll even manage to use them all. Soon the whole house will be filled with the smell of cinnamon and nutmeg in the air.  

Picture Day - Easter Eggs

Another Easter come and gone and another dozen or so eggs decorated.  The first few found themselves baked right into my Easter bread which is the first time I've tried such a thing.  Bread making has always been a bit of a challenge for me but my husbands desire to have Paska a traditional ukranian bread made me give it another go.  I didn't have a recipe for Paska and was rather unsure of how to make it and so I instead made this and hoped it would be as special and tasty.  It was. 

Planning a Head Start

This weekend I have every intention of starting to figure out Christmas shopping and planning.  It seems that every year I start preparing for Christmas earlier and earlier.  The reason of course is the phenomenon which seems to be making time go by so much faster as I get older.

It also seems we add more and more yearly events to our calendar each year that become something that we must do and I know I'll only truly enjoy myself if everything is organzied and I'm not thinking of what still needs to get done.

Starting now will also help me avoid baking at midnight or having to face the madness of a holiday shopping crowds.



pumpkin cookies with maple glaze



Mind you it may just be an excuse to start making some of my favorite baking and sample it before freezing it.  As I was baking cupcakes last night it occurred to me just how much I actually do bake in the fall and winter months.  

I bake for special occasions, holidays, guests for diner, because I’m snacky or for any other reason I can think of once the change of seasons has hit. It seems as soon as Halloween is over we don’t visit friends without a tin of cookies and treats in tow or have people over without serving a plate of yummy little tidbits.

Just cupcakes



I always start out on a pumpkin kick and I make pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cookies and of course pumpkin seeds.  Most of these are actually quite healthy recipes and very little harm is done however the pumpkin kick leads into Halloween cupcakes and other treats which are not so good for you, see the cupcakes to the right. 

That in turn leads into Christmas baking with tarts and squares and cookies and gingerbread everywhere.  Also of course what has become a party favorite mini-pies.  These pies are a little bigger than my regular tarts and can be pumpkin, apple, blueberry, raspberry, lemon meringue or any other I can think of.  

I really shouldn't write when I'm hungry, time for a cupcake.



Mini apple pies



Baking

Last night I got to sit on the couch and read a book while E baked muffins in the kitchen. She is really getting into baking and I know she wants to do it by herself but I have a really hard time not going in to help her. It is hard to change perspective I still feel like I should warn her to be careful the stove is hot.  I get nervous, I can’t help it. 

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that she enjoys baking as she has always liked to help me in the kitchen and she often enjoys doing the same things I do, and I certainly do enjoy baking and cooking.

I've always enjoyed baking the wonderful scent of fresh cookies or pastries is the best smell. Many holidays it isn't until I bake that I get into a holiday mood.  It dosen't seem right until the smell of the corresponding baking is wafting around the kitchen. I grew up helping my mother bake in the kitchen and try to encourage my girls to do the same with me. 

My biggest problem with letting E bake by herself is that she has a hard time finding things or even the recipe to begin with.  I'm organized like crazy for most things but I've never been able to keep my baking implements tidy.  The best I have ever managed is to contain all the baking supplies to the same basic area.  I have a bunch of cookbooks and loose recipes floating around and would love to actually contain them all in one spot.  

I need one of the old fashioned index card recipe boxes but every time I try to buy one I can't find any. I wonder if any of my husbands cigar boxes floating around the garage would work. Hmm now that I think about it I must go find out.