Sunday, April 3, 2011

Shooting Stars To You

A Star Was Born...........thanks Pennie for the idea of making Star cookies! You must be feeling all patriotic lately with your Stars and your Patriotic Apple Pie references (more on that later). But a Star was born this week.......well last week really I guess, but this week was when it was made. It was fun to see my follower numbers go from 4 to 12 in less then 3 days. And I was more then excited to make and send you all cookies!
They are in the mail by the way..........unless you live near by - then if I haven't given them to you yet (Susan should be the only one left) - They are in my van. I will drop them by after church. These cookies were pretty fun to make and I took a little extra time to try a new recipe out on you all. A lot of Stars were made. A LOT. So many cookies were sitting out as I iced them that they caught the attention of my youngest and Dawson asked, "Who are you giving these too?" and I said "My Fans" (because it is good to have an ego). He looked at me and said "Are you hot?". "Huh?" and then I realized F-A-N + 5 Year old ='s LITERAL INTERPRETATION........."Oh, not Sweets I am not hot, well......I mean I am hot (remember good to have an ego), but I am not that kind of hot. These cookies are for my friends who read my blog stuff." Generally he leaves once I try to be funny with words, but I guess I peaked his interest because he asked, "They all have fans for you?".........in his head you all were sitting somewhere (probably Chuck E Cheese) holding fans - or standing near fans - waiting for me to show up with cookies. After I told him a Fan can also mean a person who likes cookies A LOT - he cocked his head, looked at me like I had again (and I truly mean again) gone MAD and he went to jump on the trampoline.


Kids are funny like that. So anyway..........back to cookies. I made 2 sorts. And I also took some pics for my sis-in-law (even before she sent me a link as to how to flood cookies) - mainly because another friend told me that the way I was flooding looked too hard. And she was kinda right. The flooding wasn't hard, but the putting the flood icing into a piping bag was a bit idiotic - runny sugar doesn't stay in a bag with a tip hole at the end. Duh Patti. So I invested in a few bottles. Step 1.........line the cookie with the stiff (I don't know how else to describe it) Royal Icing - and let dry a bit. Most sites with instructions say hours - ahhhhhh.........I think I waited 15 minutes. Then take the remaining icing you were using (if you are staying with the same color) and add a teaspoon of water or more - until you have the desired consistency. Pour that into a bottle (unless you have a better idea - as I thought I did) - these can be found at deco stores or at Michael's/Hobby Lobby. And basically flood the inside of the lines you drew.


Simple enough. The trick - is you also need something pointy - like a tooth pick - and then you scoot the icing out to the sides or into the corners (stars have lovely corners) to make certain the cookies are evenly iced. Then you let this dry overnight. Really I would wait overnight - the flood icing has a great deal more liquid in it and it does not dry quickly. So if you are planning on adding any decorations on top wait.


Now I forgot to take pictures of the drawing of the faces..........it was a crazy week. But again - 2 types of cookies. The cookies that are Yellow Faced are Traditional Shortbread cookies. The cookies that are White Faced are Peanut Butter Shortbread cookies. I was interested in trying a Lemon Icing, but time left me. The Peanut Butter cookies are VERY YUM!!


And I would Love Feedback on the cookies please..........and on if any were broken.

Speaking of broken - how to ship them to you was a question. So I searched the deco supply store. I wanted it to be cute - I wanted it to be safe for the cookies - and I wanted it to be inexpensive. Love you all, but I also didn't want to spend $50 shipping cookies. $50 is a crazy amount I picked out of the top of my head - I never really thought........okay I did think it was possible, but since I wasn't planning same day delivery I didn't expect that type cost.


Back to this and out of my head. I picked up these cute little white candy boxes. The shop clerk and I measured them with one of their star cookie cutters. We measure I could fit 9 cookies per box. Done. Bought. Then at home I looked at them............boring...........white...........needed flair. So I added in my other favorite hobby - STAMPING!! I have some great cupcake stamps and there were this perfect saying........so I did that really quickly.

Then I packed in the cookies. My Star cutter must be different from the Star cutter they had - because I could only fit 2 cookies per level in the box when I got home. No matter how I finagled the cookies they would not fit 3 across. And I didn't want them broken when you receive them - so I had to pack less in. Still 6 cookies is a Sweet Treat!! And these shortbread's are PERFECT with a cold glass of milk - melt in your mouth perfect. Or my favorite way - with a hot cup of coffee that is hardly sweetened so that the sugar on the cookie pops.


Dang...........wish I hadn't mailed them all - I have coffee right here.

All that said........your cookies are In The Mail. Cute packages - cute cookies - for FABULOUS friends helping me get rolling!! Rolling where is still here to be seen.........but as Pennie said - listen to the Siren. So I am listening.


These cookies are Traditional Shortbread and Peanut Butter Shortbread. Both have a simple Royal Icing top. ENJOY!!


Please let me know what you thought and when you get them how they survived.

5 comments:

Kathy Felsted Usher said...

Darling cookies! I can't wait to try them.

HalfPint said...

I can't wait to hear that you got to try them.

mjblaze said...

I like the idea of flooding...I'm thinking...make the royal icing edge 1/4" high, then flood...nothing better than icing! can't wait! and I'm thinking about not sharing with anyone else who lives here:)

Kathy Felsted Usher said...

I can't believe I got them- Dan and Gina didn't eat all of them before I picked them up!!!!!

For the review:

One of them made it in one piece but most had a little to moderate damage, but of course that doesn't affect the taste. They may need to have some padding between them if you intend to ship them for sale, as a nice gift it doesn't matter. I just may take the crumbles and sprinkle them over some ice cream.

The peanut butter variety was a nice twist on the shortbread that I am used to. Your icing worked out nicely and I liked that it was thinner than some of the commercially made cookies that are iced much too thickly. The faces are adorable.

Thank you so much for really sending cookies. Very thoughtful and very tasty.

HalfPint said...

oooh vanilla ice cream and a crumbled peanut butter shortbread cookie - that sounds like the start of summer!!!