Freezing cookie dough

If you're looking ahead to Christmas and wondering how you're going to get all of your baking done, consider preparing and freezing your cookie dough now.  Before the busyness begins in earnest. 

Snickerdoodle dough balls

You can have a large assortment of cookie dough ready and waiting at your fingertips.  As Christmas inches closer there will be more time for family or last minute gifts instead of spending all your time in the kitchen.

Ziploc bag of chocolate chip dough balls

 

Molasses Crinkles

No real recipe for you today… just the steps to freezing your family favorites ahead of time  :) 

Freezing Cookie Dough

1.  Make the dough from any drop cookie recipe.  Just stay away from cookies that are made with an egg white dough (like meringue) or a more liquid batter (like macarons or brownies).  
2.  On a baking sheet, place heaping spoonfuls of your dough.  If the recipe requires the dough balls be rolled in a sugar mixture, do this before putting them on the sheet.  Continue plopping dough balls until the entire sheet is full. 
3.  Put baking sheet in the freezer for a couple of hours or overnight. 
4.  Remove from freezer and place in airtight containers or freezer bags.  Return to freezer. 
When Ready to Bake: 
Remove desired amount of cookie dough balls from the freezer.  Place on a cookie sheet and bake per your recipe instructions.  No need to thaw first, but you may need to add a minute or two to your baking time. 
Happy Freezing!

Thanksgiving subway sign

This sign was actually finished last fall, but it was too close to Thanksgiving to get it posted before everyone was focused on Christmas!

I’ve seen a lot of subway tutorials floating around, but they always seem to involve some sort of vinyl cutting device.  And I’m sure they’re fabulous to have.  But since I don’t have one…  my subway signs are of the hand painted variety.  And really.  It’s not that bad to paint a few words on a sign.  It may not be as perfect as vinyl would be, but that just adds to it’s “vintage” charm ;)

It all started with a plain pine board I found in the shed.  After a good sanding, I based it in dark walnut brown acrylic paint.  Next came a layer of mustard yellow and then a coat of red, allowing drying time between layers.  The final coat is a called old parchment. Perfect! 

Before the words were added, I gave it a another sanding.  Because I wanted it to look aged, I made sure to sand enough to allow a few areas of red, gold and/or brown paint layers to show. 

Then it’s a matter of printing out a variety of words in different fonts and arranging them on the board.  Once I was happy with their placement, I used graphite paper to trace the letters onto the board, removed the paper and started painting! 

Another bit of sanding after the letters were finished….

a coat of clear matte spray paint to seal and protect….

And we have a vinyl-less subway sign. 

Did anyone else notice the most prominent word is “pie?” 

Guess now y’all know what we’re really thankful for :)

with a whole heart

VIA

No Other Name

VIA

Be Ye Thankful

I have this little watercolor I painted a long time ago.

But I was never happy with the frame.  This fall, it was finally Thankful’s turn to have a little makeover.

I found an inexpensive frame at the thrift store, gave it a coat of orange and a chocolate brown glaze. 

SO much better and

a fun reminder to count our blessings!

Friday lovelies. . .

FLYING SALMON

Full Treasury {HERE}

Candy Corn Cookie Dilemma

I have a problem. 

And it has bothered me a lot. 

I love making candy corn cookies in the fall.  I’ve posted the recipe previously {here}. 

Now, this is not a cause for national alarm and most people don’t even notice, but it KILLS me that all the candy corn don’t look like real candy corn.  Candy corn are supposed to be yellow on the bottom, orange in the center and have a little white tip.  But, when made like my previous instructions say,  they don’t work out in the proper color order.  Every other cookie ends up with a yellow tip and white bottom.    Trivial?  Umm, yeah, but I just could not let it go.  I felt compelled to eat remove the imposters and needed to find a new way of constructing my candy corn!  

Here’s what I did: 
I started with my Grammy’s Danish sugar cookie dough (recipe below or use your favorite sugar cookie recipe).
Divide dough into 3 parts… a little more than half for orange, about one-third for yellow and the smallest amount will be left plain for the tips.  Use gel paste food coloring for the orange and yellow portions and knead it into the dough. 
Now make like it’s Play Doh and form into three “ropes.”  Stack them up in the proper color order :)  Pinch, smooth and coax it into a triangle shape: 

Refrigerate until firm.  Lay onto one of the long sides and slice thinly.  I use a thin bread knife.  But try a chef knife if that doesn’t work for you.

Dust with sugar or sprinkles.  Or not.  Bake as directed for your recipe. 

See?  Every little tip is white.  And all the bottoms are yellow.  Lovely, no?

  The birds are singing, the sun is shining brighter and now all is now right with the world…

So rest easy, friends.  I’m here, solving the world’s most pressing problems for you. 

DANISH SUGAR COOKIES

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoons grated lemon rind (the dried kind in a jar is fine)
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, well beaten
1 tablespoon cream
Cream together the shortening and sugar. Add eggs and whip until light and fluffy. Add cream, nutmeg, lemon rind, and baking powder and mix. Stir in flour to make a firm dough. Chill at least 1 hour. Roll thin and cut out with a floured cookie cutter. Place cookies on a lightly greased cookie sheet. If using sprinkles, add them before baking. Bake at 350, 7 minutes for thin cookies- up to 12 minutes for thicker cookies.