Let's talk about butter...

Once again, I must warn you...I am by no means, a professional cookie decorator!  I'm learning as I go, and my newest lesson is about butter.  When I first started making and decorating cookies, I just went to the local grocery store and bought Breakstone's All Natural Unsalted Butter.

I soon started to realize that I was going through ridiculous amounts of butter.  So what's a girl to do?  Take a trip to BJ's!  It was perfect...I had a coupon for Land O' Lakes Unsalted Butter AND I could buy it in bulk!

Fast forward a couple of weeks...

I'm getting really annoyed at my cookies.  They're spreading and not holding their shape well, AND I'm seeing these unsightly dark spots on the icing after it's dried (it looks almost like grease stains).  The really annoying part was that the cookies looked great as they were drying, but the next morning, BAM! Dark spots appeared all over my cookies (it was really noticable with the darker icing).  What the?!

So, I'm going through my head, trying to figure out if I changed any ingredients.  Nope!  Well, after having three children, my mind isn't what it used to be, so I'm not sharp like a tack...more like sharp as children's scissors.  Anyway, I finally figured out that the ONLY thing I switched was the butter.  I immediately ran to Shop Rite and bought about 5 boxes of Breakstone's (never mind the 5 boxes of the Land O'Lakes I still have in my freezer!)...I did a trial run with a batch of cookies, and DAMN those cookies held their shape!  I also did a little research about the dark spots and found that it might be the butter seeping through into the icing.  Just to cover all my bases, I now add a layer of paper towel on top of my cooling racks, so it will absorb some of the excess butter grease...

 

Of course this all happened right before I had an order of 80 cookies for a surprise party to get done...and the icing was DARK!  I had those babies isolated on my lined cooling racks, under a fan all night.

 

 

 

And guess what?  No spots!!!

 



Gobble Gobble

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday!  I love getting together with family over the holidays, and our Turkey Day celebration always lasts until Sunday.  We take the trip over the river and through the woods...to Nanny and Pop Pop's house we go.  It's like a mini vacation for us...we have two extra sets of hands to help with the Peas (and the grandparents LOVE to have them visit)...it's a win-win situation! 

Surprisingly, I did not bring turkey cookies to the festivities (my job is the mashed potatoes), but I was happy to hear that the 8 1/2 dozen turkies that I made for customers were a big hit!

One of the problems I've run into is...space.  Space to cool the cookies, space to decorate, space to make meals, etc.  I never thought this would be a problem, since we recently upgraded from a townhome to a single family home, but it has.  Last week I found a solution to the problem.  Well, not a full solution, but this item definitely helps!  If you're short on space in the kitchen and love to bake, this might help you too!

 

 

Ahhhh....an adjustable folding baker's rack !!  This little beauty can be bought on Amazon.com and it fits on the countertop under the upper cabinets!  Head to the dollar store and purchase two 2-packs of wire racks and you're all set!  The racks sit beautifully on the shelves (as well as my "good" baking racks) and the rack can be folded up and put away after you're done!  Awesome.

Busy Little Crafter

I'm sorry I've been MIA for a bit...I've been quite the busy crafter!  My sewing machine and I are friends again.  All has been forgiven.  I took a short break from baking to build up some of my crafty inventory. 

More headbands...

New Boo Boo Bags...

 

Aaaand new children's scarves...

 

 

 

Oh, and I could only leave my precious baking supplies for a short time...

 

 



 

Why, might you ask, would I need to make 24 headbands, 7 boo boo bags, scarves and cookies in such a short period of time?  And I'm sure my husband would like to know why I looked and smelled like a homeless person, while sitting for hours and hours at my beloved sewing machine.  Well, I had an amazing opportunity that I needed to prepare for!

 

My friend Jen...awesome friend and awesome photographer...(did I mention she is awesome?) introduced me to the owner of the Bellies and Booties boutique in West Windsor.  Stephanie, the owner...also awesome...is now selling some of my items at her store!!!  If you're in the West Windsor area, Bellies and Booties is having a 40% off sale this week...very dangerous!

 

 

 

 



Post-Sandy Pumpkin Cookies

What a crazy week we've had!  The damage and devistation that Hurricane Sandy created was unbelieveable.  Our family was definitely lucky, only losing power for one day (and phone / internet / cable for about five days).  Our thoughts are with everyone that are still without power, or that have lost their homes.

As you can imagine, I wasn't baking much this week...but I did get one order done!  My friend, Kerry, had reminded me about a website we had pinned on Pinterest that had pumpkin flavored roll-out cookies:  Life's A Batch
Kerry had recently tried them and said the flavor was amazing...and since I trust her taste completely, I thought they would be perfect to try for my next order!

The cookies smelled delicious...and I guess they're a bit healthier, using whole wheat flour, brown sugar and organic turbinado sugar.  Aaaaand, the final product:

 

 

Now onto my knitting and sewing projects.  During the power outage, I was able to get some prepping done for my new headbands.  Hopefully this week I will have another post about my progress with them!