Hello All! I apologize for the long hiatus, but unfortunately I have been struggling with a bad bout of migraine headaches (I’ve had migraines all my life). I worked hard these last couple of months to get better control of them, and while they are improving, I am still not 100%. So please hang in there with me, as I know I have horribly neglected the blog. I do, however, vow to be more faithful to my fellow cyberchefs and keep posting!

So now on to the fun stuff.  Here are the new Winter cookies at the store  (The Crown Market.)  While I would love to take full credit, I simply cannot. I created these cookies last year, however, since then, our intern, now-turned assistant pastry chef, Samantha Persaud, has improved upon them and made them her own.  Sam insisted that something in our bakery repertoire be pink, so she introduced a pink mitten alongside my original blue, and added the addition of colored sugar, which I think makes the cookie entirely.  Not only does it add extra color to the cookies, but it gives the great illusion of a fuzzy yarn.  These cute mitten cookies are perfect for the season and are as fun to look at as they are to eat! Glazed in blue or pink icing and decorated with royal icing and accented with blue and purple sanding sugar, they are the perfect winter treat!

Each cookie retails for $1.69.

Ok, I know that it is not technically Fall yet, but even the slightest chill in the air makes me start to crave all the great autumnal flavors.  (Fall is my favorite season after all.)  While baking pumpkin bread and breaking out the cranberries is a little premature, I compromised and baked these fantastic Carrot Cake Cookies.  A sandwich cookie, these treats are comprised of a soft, cake-like carrot cookie and a sweet cream cheese frosting.  Everything you love about carrot cake in a bite-sized package.  The cookies are easy to make and combine shredded carrots, dried currants, and oats, along with cinnamon and ginger to recreate the flavors commonly found in the classic cake. (Currants are similar to raisins, but are smaller and therefore work well for these small cookies.)

I was looking though the blog and noticed a lack of cookie posts/recipes.   You may have guessed: cookies are simply not my favorite.  These cookies, however, are winners – and coming from a non-cookie lover such as myself, that is quite an endorsement.   I wish I could take credit, but these cookies are Martha all the way.  I first made these in college as part of a care package for Scott, who at the time, was studying at a different university two states away.  (Yes, he was as lucky as a bachelor as he is as a married man.)  Baking was my stress reliever when I was in school (or vehicle of procrastination, however you choose to look at it.)  But when the papers were piling up and the reading seemed endless, I would head to my little kitchen and bake.  I would rarely make anything twice, and in reality, those college years were the foundation to my culinary repertoire.

So for this short period of time where the weather is sunny and 75, but the leaves are beginning to turn, try this seasonal hybrid.

Recipe:  Carrot Cake Cookies

Watermelon Cookies

These are the new “Summer” cookies at work.  While they don’t taste like watermelons, they sure do look like them.   To make these cookies, we cut large circles from rolled out dough and then half the circles to achieve our “watermelon slice” shape.  After they are baked, we spread a thin coat of icing (colored pink, of course) and pipe on the rest of the details.  These would certainly be fun to serve at a BBQ as a small treat, especially if served alongside real watermelon slices.

As I have said before, one of the main things that drew me to pastry was the artistry of it all.  A butter cookie, although seemingly simple, can be a blank canvas on which to create pretty much anything.  All you need is a fun cookie cutter, now found in such unique shapes from winter sleighs to leaping frogs, some cookie dough, and batch of royal icing.   So grab your favorite cookie cutter and let’s get started.

I love to decorate cookies, (this is where I really let my creativity fly) and it is one of the staples that I offer at work.  To keep it interesting and exciting, I change the cookies seasonally, offering a fun new item in our showcase every couple of months.  In the fall I create maples leaves dusted with red, orange and yellow sugar, winter brings mittens and a version of these snowflake cookies, with spring comes daisies and ladybugs, finished by watermelons slices for the summer.  Really, the sky is the limit.  (more…)