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Cookie Crunch

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Traditions of cookie decorating can be traced back to the Middle Ages, and got a start in North America during the 17th century with the introduction of cookie cutters, molds and holiday decorating by Dutch and German settlers. About 200 years later, decorating cookies for Christmas gained popularity in America as more German-imported cookie cutters became available and cookbooks featured cookies cut in holiday inspired shapes sparked creativity in home kitchens. Today, the popularity of cookie decorating continues to grow during holidays throughout the world with all sorts of creations.

This holiday season, Zandy R (@pillbug) has been working on a cookie cookbook and experimenting with different iced cookie recipes and techniques (sugar cookie cut-outs decorated with royal icing).  You can do it, too.  Here are her cookie decorating tips:

it's fun to bake and decorate holiday cookies with these On2In2™ recipes and tips.

• Use your favorite sugar cookie and royal icing recipes, try something new or go nostalgic with a family recipe.  Find Zandy R’s (@pillbug) absolute favorite sugar cookie and royal icing recipes here → Roll & Cut Sugar Cookies.  If this is your first cookie decorating adventure, best to do a little research before starting. The Complete Photo Guide to Cookie Decorating by Autumn Carpenter

• It helps (a lot) to have the right equipment.  To decorate cookies with royal icing, you’ll need piping bags and/or squeeze bottles (a bunch, if using different colors) and a small offset spatula or rounded butter knife (to help spread the icing).  Also, toothpicks come in handy for tiny, precision work.

See Zandy’s favorite cookie baking tools below.  The stainless steel rolling pin eliminates the sticky dough problem by keeping the dough cool, the battery-powered sifter is genius, the 4-tier cooling rack is a great space saver during mega cookie baking projects, and the Kitchen Aid mixer—well, that’s really a dream machine.  For more information on any item, click/tap on the photo within the in the ad, and there’s a search box to help you find anything else your heart desires.


• Roll out cookie dough with a chilled rolling pin to avoid sticking.  Have fun cutting out a variety of cookie shapes     Holiday Cookie Cutters

• After cookies are baked and cooled, keep at least overnight (loosely covered with a sheet of parchment paper) before decorating.

• If using royal icing (as Zandy R did for her cookies), there are no quick short-cuts.  Let each application dry before applying the next one.  Check out Betty Crocker’s advice for decorating cookies with icing ⇒ here

• It’s a creative process of experimentation and experience, and that takes time and patience.  Don’t be afraid to try different techniques and colors because you’ll get better and better the more you decorate.

• When something goes wrong and you totally mess up a cookie, eat it immediately.

This page includes affiliate links to a shop website. If you purchase a product or service directly through the link, Zeester Media LLC may earn a small commission. This in no way affects the price you pay for the purchase.

 

 

Feature photo courtesy of Pixabay/Pexels CC0

Pumpkin Bread

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Since spotting the pumpkin bread recipe in a 1973 issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine, many loaves have been baked, eaten, and gifted by family and friends, and the recipe has been shared countless times because pumpkin bread is perfectly sweet and spiced with tastes of fall and winter holiday seasons and does not require special baking skills or technique (just a strong stirring arm).  It freezes well, too.  That means you can start baking now, and fill your kitchen with the aroma of delicious holiday happiness.  Here’s an updated version of our long time favorite pumpkin bread recipe.

♥ Please share the joy.

Pumpkin bread is a fall classic and always a favorite

 

PUMPKIN BREAD

 

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp   Light Olive Oil (or ¾ cup margarine)*
2½ cups   Sugar
4   Eggs
16 oz   Puréed Pumpkin (canned or homemade from scratch)
2/3 cup   Water
3½ cups   Unbleached Flour
2 tsp   Baking Soda
1½ tsp   Salt
1½ tsp   Baking Powder
1 tsp   Cinnamon
1 tsp   Ground Cloves
2/3 cup   Chopped Walnuts or Pecans (optional)
1/2 cup   Dried Fruit (optional)  e.g. cranberries, cherries, golden raisins

*The original recipe called for margarine, but that was more than 40 years ago.  Substituting olive oil is a contempo tweak.

ESSENTIAL EQUIPMENT

2 mixing bowls (1 large & 1 medium or small size)
1 or 2 spoons for mixing, wood or metal
1 whisk or a fork
2 loaf pans (approx. 8.5″x4.25″x2.75″) Only have one? Bake one at a time.
Measuring cups and spoons
Cake tester or skewer (wood or metal)
Cooling rack
Plastic wrap for keeping & freezer paper/plastic bags for storing in freezer

INSTRUCTIONS

• Preheat oven at 350°F/177°C, and prepare (grease & flour or spray with non-stick cooking spray) 2 loaf pans.  You can use loaf pans made of any material (e.g, metal, glass, silicone), but using different types and sizes requires an adjustment of the baking time which you may have to do anyway as timing often varies with different ovens.  Best advice to avoid a disaster, frequently check your pumpkin bread while baking, and don’t take out of the oven too soon or too late.

• In a large mixing bowl, lightly beat the eggs, then add the olive oil, water, pumpkin purée and sugar. Combine thoroughly.  [If you are using margarine, first cream softened margarine & sugar in large bowl, add eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly, then mix in pumpkin purée and water.]

• In a separate, smaller sized bowl, combine the flour with all the other dry ingredients and spices.

• Stir the dry ingredients into the large mixing bowl of wet, pumpkin mixture, just a little at a time, and keep stirring until batter is thoroughly blended.

• If you’d like to add nuts and/or dried fruit, stir into the batter after it’s thoroughly blended.

• Pour batter into the prepared loaf pans.

• Bake for 1 hour+10 min @ 350°F.  Check the pumpkin bread by inserting a cake tester stick or skewer in the center of each.  Adjust time, if necessary.  It’s ready to come out of the oven when the tester comes out clean.

• Cool on rack for 10-15 minutes before removing bread from loaf pan.  Let loaves cool completely before wrapping tightly in plastic wrap.  Pumpkin bread should keep a week in the refrigerator.  If freezing, add another layer of wrapping (freezer paper or clear plastic freezer bags).

 

Everybody loved the German Chocolate Cupcakes made with traditional coconut-pecan frosting.Another family favorite → German Chocolate Cupcakes

 

 

 

 

 

 

Feature photo of baking table courtesy of Andy Chilton/StockSnap CC0
Pumpkin bread photo by Flickr user, Rebecca Siegel CC BY 2.0