Peppermint Nutella blossoms

A while back I asked my imaginary friends on a message board what to make for a bake sale, and Sarah said I needed to make peanut butter blossoms. I used her recipe and whipped up a batch. They seemed to be a pretty big hit and I've made them three times since then (and the bakesale was only a few weeks ago!)
Well, I bought a two pack of nutella at Costco a few weeks ago, and with DH trying to lose 10 lbs, it was not a good combo. One of them had to go. So I decided to try to substitute Nutella in the Peanut butter blossom recipe. Nutella is softer than pb, so I added at 1/8 cup of cocoa powder for good measure, and omitted the vanilla.
They spread out a lot more than traditional pb blossoms, but with a candy cane kiss on top and their chocolately goodness: omg om nom nom. I'm sure I'm not the first person to think of this, so I'll check the interwebs and see if I can find a recipe that holds it's traditional blossom shape a little better before I make these again.

Nutella Blossoms

2 cups Bisquick
3.4 cup Nutella
1.8 cup cocoa powder
1 can sweetened condensed milk
white sugar
kisses of your choice

mix ingredients, roll into balls and roll balls in white sugar. Bake for 10 minutes at 350. Remove from oven, let sit for 1 minute, then press unwrapped kisses into top of cookies. Remove from cookie sheet and cool.
Makes 4 dozen

Tomorrow these will be off to a friend who asked me to make her Christmas cookies. How could I say no? :)

Shamrocks and gold! Cookies, that is.

Okay, so my adorable husband thought my "gold" cookies were lemons, but hey, I don't spend a lot of time around leprechaun gold so I did the best I could. This is only my third attempt at Royal Icing and I'm loving working with it more and more every time I try it.
I used my absolute favorite sugar cookie recipe from A Year in The Kitchen and the Royal icing recipe and tips from Annies Eats. I'm sure I'll never need another sugar cookie or icing recipe, as this is a most delicious combo (which usually isn't the case for highly decorated cookies).

I tried sprinkling sugar on a few, and I liked the look, but my poor arms were tired (and it was nearly 11pm) so I gave up. Those sprinkled ones went the fastest, though. People love sparkles! Also my pictures were taken at 6 am. That has nothing to with anything...I just wanted to share because the beginning of daylight savings is coming and with it comes the end of me being coherent at 6am!

Conversation Heart Cookies

Because everyone is doing it! Inspired by Annie over at Annie's Eats (have I mentioned her yet? That woman has my heart. Her pictures and food are beautiful and her recipes easy to follow. Go visit her now, it wont hurt my feelings!) I decided to attempt to make conversation heart sugar cookies.
Every season I forget how much I *hate* rolling out sugar cookies, and this time I figured out why, I'm impatient! I never wait for the dough to chill. After giving up on my cookies for 6 hours, I came back to perfectly chilled dough and easy to roll cookies. Doh!

Also, this is only my second attempt ever at royal icing. The first time I absolutely hated it, and swore never to do it again. This time I sat at the table and used Annie's Tips, and had a lot more fun. I will definitely be making royal iced cookies again and again.

I used this sugar cookie recipe, from a year in the kitchen, and Annie's Royal icing recipe. These are some of the best sugar cookies I've ever tasted! The lemon really makes them special.

I'm still a little impatient when it comes to decorating and I didn't wait until the base color was fully dry before writing on them, and my base color is pretty lumpy. Oh well, live and learn! I'll work on my technique for St. Patty's day! Also, I had the hardest time thinking of sayings to write! I didn't even think of "be mine", which is pretty much the ultimate Valentines day saying. It was 11pm, I'll blame my brain delete on that!

Spritz Cookies

I've always been fascinated by Spritz cookies, I didn't know that they were made from a press until a few years ago. I thought it was some cookie mould that would be very time consuming...

Anyways, the Wilton press was on sale at JoAnn's last week, and I couldn't resist. I love these cookies! I can't wait to try out new variations (I saw one where a spritz was pressed on top of a round cookie-so cute!)

Basic Spritz Cookies
1 1/2 cups butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 tbs milk
1 teas vanilla
1/2 teas almond extract
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teas baking powder
Also, the cookies pictured are my "seconds". I'd already packaged up the "firsts" to give to friends and coworkers. The cookie press is definitely worth the $6 I paid for it! :)

Russian Tea Cookies (Snowballs)

I've had these every Christmas as far back as I can remember. This recipe comes from my Grandmother, and it could not be easier (or more delicious). Now, I use margarine for these, because that's what her recipe says. Don't hate the margarine cookies, they really are awesome!

Sift together 2 cups flour, 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 teas salt. Then add 1 cup soft margarine (not runny!) and 2 teas vanilla. Blend with pastry cutter. add in 1 cup finely chopped pecans. Roll into balls. Bake at 325 for 25 minutes.

Remove and cool for 5 minutes, then roll in powdered sugar. They keep really well if you store them in an airtight container with powdered sugar.

Trying my hand at Royal Icing

It seems like every where I look online, I see pictures of gorgeous Sugar cookies, iced with Royal Icing. This morning I decided to try my hand at it.

I also used a new recipe this time, not my basic Wilton recipe that I've been using. I found this recipe on a year in the kitchen, and the icing recipe came from Creative Catering.

I halved Ashlee's recipe, and it made about two dozen cookies. And they are flakey and delicious. I omitted the lemon zest and the almond extract because I didn't have any on hand, so the cookies were a little blah until I added the frosting, then they were perfection.

As for the icing being...gorgeous, well, i fail at that. This is my third attempt to use frosting tips and bags, and I think my fate is sealed: I'm terrible at it. I have a very shaky hand, so I have to move really quick or my edges turn out funky. I also am not patient enough to spread the "flood" frosting with a toothpick, I gave up and used a spoon. Much easier. I also should've made it more watery.

Anyways the result:

So, they're not super impressive. But, they were tons of fun to make, and they're pretty cute. They served their purpose, though. I no longer have a Sunday Sweet Tooth :)

Sorry my pictures are sideways! I don't know what's going on.