Look at these adorable little cookie feet! [Insert obligatory sticking foot in mouth joke here.] Bet you are wondering if you stumbled upon the wrong blog. Well, my sister The Queen is pregnant with another girl! We are all thrilled!
She is due Dec 27 which means now is the time to celebrate! I decided to make this baby party a Just Desserts party. The appeal of a Just Desserts party was more than I could resist. There are so many desserts you can make ahead, in small sizes, and just plop down when the guests arrive.
I made these lovely cookies, cheesecake in a glass, almond mini cupcakes with dark chocolate frosting, and these amazing dipped grapes. Post on the grapes coming soon. They will blow you away!
These cookies are light as air and melt in your mouth. I LOVE shortbread. LOVE! Since Kate and baby-to-be (aka Pippa) are Christmas-y babies we painted ornaments for them. Kate and "Pippa" have big sister, Lily, whom we also painted ornaments.
Here's my exciting discovery about baking. btw - I actually really enjoyed baking which is usually not the case. btw2 - BIG THANKS to my mom and dad for watching Z-Man ALL day Saturday to make this party possible!
ok my big baking revolution. Are you ready? Are you sitting? Weigh everything! That's it. Rather than measure cup after cup I just dumped into a bowl to the right weight and I'm done. It sounds really silly but it made a huge difference.
This is embarrassing but I have to admit I so often lose count. Let's say the recipe calls for 3 cups of flour... in my brilliance I decide to use a third cup to measure the 3 cups. Naturally, right as I'm starting to measure the 9 one-third cups C starts talking to me about something and hey wait what number was I on???? Arg! Weigh it, so simple. Done and done!
Lemon Shortbread Cookies
The America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book
2 1/4 cup (11 1/4 oz) all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp table salt
16 Tbsp (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup (2 oz) powdered sugar
2 tsp fresh lemon zest
In medium bowl combine flour and salt. Using mixer beat butter, lemon zest, and powdered sugar together on medium speed until light and fluff, 3 to 6 minutes. Reduce mixer speed to low and slowly add flour mixture until combined.
Use your hands and press dough into a ball onto a lightly floured surface. Knead it until smooth, about 3 minutes. Divide into three or four manageable pieces. Roll out the first piece to about 1/4 inch thickness. Use cookie cutter to make cookies and pastry cutter or spatula to slide cookies on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Repeat with all dough. It is ok to incorporate leftover dough with new piece and reroll.
Once all the cookies are cut chill in refrigerator for 20 minutes up to 24 hours. When ready to bake preheat oven to 300 degrees. Use a fork and poke holes in all cookies to keep them from puffing up.
Bake for about 16-18 minutes rotating cookie sheet halfway through. They will look pale golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool on cookie sheet 10 minutes then remove from pan and let cool completely, about an hour.
Using glaze recipe below make glaze. Put several tablespoons glaze in piping bag with the smallest round tip or ziplock back with a tiny corner cut off. Use it to make the little toes. Next use an offset spatula or the back of a spoon glaze the rest of the foot. Let dry completely, about 30 minutes.
Pink Lemon Glaze
The America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book
2 cups (8 oz) powdered sugar
3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 Tbsp cream cheese, softened
Whisk all ingredients together until completely smooth. Once combined add pink food coloring, if desired, to make glaze pink.
I have to confess that I went for the cupcakes, and not a cookie feet. Cupcakes were great.
ReplyDeleteCookies were the best, as was everything else!
ReplyDeleteThe desserts and the rest of the party were WONDERFUL!!! thank you
ReplyDeletewspaniałe stopy. Pozdrawiam serdecznie z Lublina :)
ReplyDelete