Chocolate Sugar Cookies

Every year, I make little Easter treat baskets for my nieces and some of my kids' friends.  This year, instead of including my regular sugar cookies, I decided to try chocolate ones instead.  I cut them into bunny, carrot, egg, and chick shapes and decorated them with Vanilla Royal Icing.

Chocolate Sugar Cookies

1 stick butter, room temperature

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup cocoa (I used Ghirardelli ground chocolate this time and really liked the results!)

2 cups flour

Cream butter and sugar until smooth.  Add eggs and vanilla continuing to beat until fluffy.

Sift together cocoa and flour.  Add to mixture until dough forms. 

Wrap dough in plastic and chill at least 2 hours.

Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface.  My dough was a little sticky, so I kneaded in some extra flour before rolling it out.  Cut out your shapes and lay them on a lined cookie sheet.  Freeze them for 5 minutes.

Bake cookies in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10 -12 minutes and then transfer them to a rack to cool.

Here they are all decorated!

Bunnies and Chicks and Eggs, Oh My!

I took the basic cake pop recipe and turned them into sweet Easter treats to give to my nieces and the kids' friends.  These are a few I made last year.

For the bunny, I dipped the pop in white candy melts and placed  it in the Styrofoam block to dry.  Then, for the ears, I cut a marshmallow in half and dipped the sticky parts in pink sanding sugar.  I attached them using a toothpick and some candy melt.  The nose is an m&m, attached the same way and I drew the eyes and mouth with an Americolor Gourmet Writer.

For the egg, I took the cake ball and shaped it like an egg as opposed to a ball (duh!)  Then, I dipped it in pink.  When it was dry, I used some yellow that I put into a bag and snipped the corner off of.

The chick, was by far, my favorite!  He got dipped in yellow and when he dried, I "glued" an orange rainbow chip for his beak, yellow chips for his wings, and orange leaf sprinkles for his feet.

This year, I did make more, but I also tried them "upside down" and think they came out just as cute.
What do you think?

Caramel and Chocolate Covered Pretzels

This is one of my favorite treats to make because they're easy and the possibilities are endless.  Sometimes I like to use the full size rods and sometimes I use the "penny" sticks.  Either way, there's nothing like that balance of salty and sweet.  Today I made a batch of pennies to put in Easter baskets that I'm making up.  I found these cute pastel mini chips at Target.

You will need:

pretzels (any kind)

            individually wrapped caramels (Kraft)

milk or cream

candy melts

sprinkles, m & ms, toffee, etc.

Spray a glass bowl or measuring cup with cooking spray.  Unwrap caramels and place them in the bowl.  Drizzle with a little bit of milk or cream and microwave at 30 second intervals, stirring until completely melted.

Once the caramel was melted, I transferred it to my Wilton melting pot and kept it on the warm setting.

I put the mini chips in a shallow dish.

Then, I dipped the pretzel in the caramel and used a spatula to pour some higher up on the stick.  Once it was covered, I rolled the pretzel in the chips, pressing gently so they would stick.

I set them on waxed paper to dry.

I also dipped some in regular chocolate candy melts and when they dried, I drizzled different colors on top.  This was done by putting the melted chocolate in a plastic bag and snipping off the corner with a scissor.

Like I said before, the possibilities are endless!

Perfect Pound Cake

My copy of  Everyday Food (a Martha Stewart magazine) came in the mail the other day and, to me, it's one of those where EVERYTHING looks good!!  I had a hard time choosing what to make first, but knowing how much my son loves pound cake, finally decided on this one.

Perfect Pound Cake

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten

1/2 teaspoon salt

Beat butter and sugar on medium-high until very light and fluffy, 7 minutes.  Then, scrape down the bowl and beat for 1 minute more.

Add the vanilla (my friend, Sarah, got me some AWESOME vanilla in Mexico!) and gradually add the eggs.

Change the mixer to low and add salt, then gradually add the flour, scraping down the bowl until fully combined.

Pour batter into a greased 4 1/2 x 8 1/2 inch loaf pan and bake 65 minutes at 350.  Let it cool in pan on a wire rack for 1 hour.  Remove from pan and cool completely before slicing.

*To store, wrap in plastic and keep at room temperature up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 weeks.

Chocolate Mini-Chip Cookies

This recipe is from Sugarbakers Cookie Cutter Cookbook.  While the cookies are absolutely DELICIOUS, I didn't really care for the glaze I used to decorate them with!

Sugarbakers' Chocolate Mini-Chip Cookies

1 cup unsalted butter

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1 large egg yolk

2 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour ( I started with 2 and added more bit by bit until I had a good dough)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cup semi-sweet mini-chocolate chips

Cream together the butter and sugars and then add the vanilla and egg yolk.

Sift together flour and salt and add one cup at a time until incorporated.

Fold in the chocolate chips BY HAND!

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes.  Roll out cookies on lightly floured surface and cut into desired shapes. 

I like to chill my cookie cut outs for 5 minutes in the freezer before baking to hold their shape.  Bake at 350*  for 10-12 minutes.

I let my cookies cool and decided to decorate them.  I usually decorate my cookies with Royal Icing, but thought I'd try a corn syrup glaze.  While it does taste good, I didn't really care to work with it and probably won't any time soon!

Here is the finished product!