Early Cookie Experiments

I was cleaning up a number of different folders of pictures the other day and ran across this picture:



Lorrie and I had made cookie baskets for Easter one year and we churned out 5-7 dozen cookies. Unfortunately, this was before I was blogging so taking pictures wasn't all that important and I only took this picture, with a disposable camera no less, to use up the film.

I do think this was a great batch of cookies. I'll try to zoom in and highlight some of them.



This is an Easter bunny face. The eyes and nose were candy dots, the kind that come stuck to pieces of paper. The whiskers were black licorice; we had to cut these in half because the licorice was still too thick, even as this thin rope. That was tough. The ears were done with pink sugar and I used a stencil to get the shape right.



The cookies on the left are another version of the rabbit, sitting in grass. Again the eyes and nose were the candy dots. No whiskers, we just couldn't get the whiskers small enough. The grass is coconut dyed using green food coloring. Other cookies in the picture are various Easter eggs and a church with gummi bears lined up.

Other cookies in the main picture are robin eggs (on the left), sheep, tulips, and butterflies. The robin eggs had a turquoise base with purple sugar. The sheep were just covered in coconut. The tulips were just simply designed with pink, white, or yellow frosting and then a contrasting sugar color. The butterflies were yellow or pink with M&M's as the body sections and then spots in the wings.

The white tower of drawers is where I keep the cookie decorating supplies. You can see some of the left over candy in the lower right. In the lower left you can see what looks like spray painting. I found a spray can color spray thing. I think it is meant to be like a poor man's air-brush. I played around with it, both alone and with stencils. I wasn't thrilled and probably, OK, won't, use it again.

All in all, I think they turned out pretty good and they were well appreciated. My personal favorites were the two rabbits.

Cherry Spelt Muffins

The final item in our Easter baskets were these cherry spelt muffins. My whole "trying to make something healthy" mania was in full swing here. I had purchased the spelt flour a little while ago to try it so somehow I thought giving an experimental muffin as a gift was a good idea. The cherry idea came from Sam Adams Cherry Wheat beer. Yep, I made a muffin based on a beer. In fact, it was a beer that sorely disappointed me so I made a muffin based on a beer I didn't like. Yep, that should have told me how this would go.

The first batch I made went like this: Only used half of a cup of cherries and soaked them in the Kirschwasser alone. Didn't like that flavor overall so I added the tart cherry juice. I wanted to use honey for this recipe but instead of measuring out 1/2 cup I measured 1 cup and didn't notice until I had mixed it with the eggs so I had to start over at that point and oops, out of honey so I'm using brown sugar instead. Mix it up and bake it. Cool them off and have a bite...of the half of the muffin not permanently attached to the muffin paper. And you really only tasted the spelt. *sigh* I couldn't use these as a gift.

So while I was waiting for the cupcakes to cool, I tried again. This time I doubled the amount of cherries and added a little vanilla and also used some of the cherry juice in the batter. The batter itself was really light. It was good to not use the paper lining the second time because having the crust around the muffin gave it more structure and gave it a little tooth versus the airy center.

But again taste was an issue. If you had a muffin with a number of cherries in it then it was just as I imagined, cherry complimenting the spelt flavors. If you didn't get enough cherries, it was a decent dinner roll.

I liked them but I think there are better ways to implent this. First, it was a light, wet batter which I think would work well for pancakes, especially the stuffed varieties. Baking these without the papers reminded me of the stuffed pancakes using a pan like this.Instead of adding the cherries, use jam in the center. But if I was to stick to muffins, I would probably go more to the savory ingredients. When I worked at the Deli, we had a bacon and cheese muffin that I think would work well using spelt.

Cherry Spelt Muffins

Makes about 12 muffins

2 1/4 cups spelt flour
1 Tbls. baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup wheat bran
1/4 cup (packed) light brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/4 cup buttermilk
2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup dried cherries
2 Tbls. Kirschwasser
2 Tbls. tart cherry juice

Preheat the oven to 425° F.

Soak the cherries in the Kirschwasser and tart cherry juice for up to an hour before using. Do not get rid of the liquid when you are done soaking the cherries.

Combine the eggs, vanilla, and buttermilk in a bowl, mix well, and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients (all the remaining ingredients except the cherries) and whisk to combine. Now add in the cherries and give a quick stir to cover with the flour mixture. Finally, add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture and stir until everything is just mixed. Don't over mix.

Spoon the mixture into greased muffin cups. Fill each to the top and mound slightly in the center if possible.

Bake for 16-20 minutes. About halfway through, rotate the pan 180°. The muffins are done when a cake tester comes out clean and they spring back when pressed lightly. Remove from the oven, let cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Healthier Blackberry Oat Muffins

The second baked good in the Easter basket was a version of my blackberry oat muffins. My mother had commented on how they sounded good the first time I made them so I included them this time, but with a little twist. This recipe I tried reducing the oil and sugar a little bit. I like the original batch I did but I wanted to see if I couldn't reduce some of the ingredients I thought might have used a little too much of. Well, that and I wanted to switch this to use buttermilk instead of whole milk.

I thought these muffins were pretty good. Seemed very similar to the first batch. My parents loved them and we got compliments from Lorrie's cousin.

I did try this batch again later and they didn't turn out. Basically they were overmixed and then overbaked so be careful of both (besides being bad for muffins in general overmixing made this recipe purple from the blackberries, which then meant it really didn't brown until it was way past done). I knew better but went ahead and did it anyway.



Blackberry Oat Muffins
differences from the original recipe are highlighted

Makes about 12 muffins

3 1/2 cups (11 3/8 oz) oat flour
1 cup (3 1/2 oz) instant oats
1 Tbls. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
2/3 cup (4 3/4 oz) sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
1 cup roughly chopped blackberries

Preheat the oven to 425° F.

Combine the eggs, oil, and milk in a bowl, mix well, and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients (all the remaining ingredients except the blackberries) and whisk to combine. Now add in the blackberries and give a quick stir to cover with the flour mixture. Finally, add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture and stir until everything is just mixed. Don't over mix.

Spoon the mixture into greased or paper-lined muffin cups. Fill each to the top and mound slightly in the center if possible.

Bake for 16-20 minutes. About halfway through, rotate the pan 180°. The muffins are done when a cake tester comes out clean and they spring back when pressed lightly. Remove from the oven, let cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Easter Bunny Cupcakes

If you came to my site on Easter (or scrolled down a bit I guess), you were greeted by a picture of the finished army of these cupcakes. This was the first part of the Easter baskets Lorrie and I created. Originally, I hadn't planned on doing these. As Easter approached I assumed I'd be doing cut-outs again in rabbit and egg shapes. I changed my plans when I decided to try to do some things with less sugar but I still wanted a couple things in the basket that still were pure, unadulterated sugared-up treats.

I used a yellow cake recipe for the cupcake base. Lorrie and my uncle can't have chocolate so that's always in the back of my mind and something I plan for. I've used this recipe before for cupcakes and I know it tastes good. Going forward though I think I will look for something else. This recipe tastes good and is easy enough to make but still it is much more dense than I would prefer. I think I can do better.

I spent a lot of time trying to think of how to decorate these. I had the idea to do an Easter basket theme right away but it was trying to figure out the execution of it that took a while. My first thought was the Peeps chicks, but when I saw the packages and the actual size of each chick, I knew there wouldn't be room for anything else. It had to be the bunnies. I liked the malted milk robin eggs over any of the jelly bean options at the store and they stayed in the theme well as the decorated eggs in the basket. The grass was something I didn't expect to find or use. I used green-dyed coconut last year for the grass and wasn't going to give it a second thought this year until I found this new candy grass right next to the Peeps at Target. Made from potato starch and corn starch, the grass really didn't have much flavor but worked as an alternative to the coconut. Plus, I hate coconut so I was really going to try anything else. I think I spent the longest time brainstorming on how to stick all this on the cupcakes. I didn't want strong flavored frostings and some just don't hold well. In the end, I used marshmallow creme as the frosting. This worked really well. A little dab on the bottom of the Peeps bunny held it in place, for the most part. The marshmallow creme as frosting actually worked very well and was rather easy to put on and spread. Much easier than some of the frostings/glazes I've used in the past. Some did dribble down the sides and it did melt slightly in the sun but really, frosting makes a mess too.


Yellow Cake
from page 352 of the The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion: The All-Purpose Baking Cookbook

Makes 12 cupcakes

12 Tbls. (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 3/4 cups (12 1/4 oz) sugar
3/4 tsp. salt
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. vanilla extract
4 large eggs plus 2 yolks
2 3/4 cups (11 1/2 oz) unbleached, all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups milk, buttermilk, or yogurt (I used buttermilk)

Preheat the oven to 350° F.

In a large bowl, cream together the sugar, butter, salt, baking powder, and vanilla until the batter is fluffy. This should take at least five minutes. Also, make sure your butter and eggs are at room temperature. This is a requirement for making a butter cake.

Add the eggs and yolks one at a time. Beat thoroughly before adding the next. Then slowly fold in a third of the flour, then half of the milk, then another third of the flour, the remaining milk, and then the last of the flour. Only stir until mixed. Overmixing will reduce the volume of air trapped in the butter and sugar.

Pour into your greased or paper-lined cake pans or cupcake pans. Cooking times vary by shape but the cupcakes took about twenty-five to thirty minutes and rotate the pan 180° about twelve minutes in. Cool in the pan for about five minutes for cupcakes and ten minutes for a cake and place on a wire rack to cool completely.

Easter Baskets

Lorrie likes to bring little baskets of gifts when we visit family and of course, I enjoy baking something for it. Easter is definitely one of those times. Last year's baskets were collections of sugar cookie cut-outs in Easter themed shapes. Rabbits with green-dyed coconut for grass, Easter bunnies with licorice whiskers and candy eyes, robin eggs, etc. (I took pictures but only one turned out.) But my dad is diabetic and a dozen sugar cookie makes me feel like a bit of an enabler.

So this year, I tried some different things in the baskets. A couple of 'Easter basket' cupcakes, a version of the Blackberry Oat muffins, and something new, a Cherry Spelt muffin. A couple of sweet things but a little more healthy and a lot less sugary. Other things in the basket to round it out were a small stuffed animal and a Peeps candy container filled with sugar-free jelly beans.

Happy Easter

from the Peeps bunny army!