Of guns and cookies...

This year we made our cookies for Santa the day before Christmas Eve. We had very important business to attend on the Eve - movies and appetizers... all of them! Who has time to bake cookies for Santa? We decided spritz cookies were the way to go this year. We asked Nicholas what he thought Santa might like - he didn't know. One I said these cookies were made with a cookie gun - he was sold. He's an 8 year old boy who is all about guns and knives... and plenty else he shouldn't be drawing at school and does. Oof. These cookies were fun to make and put sprinkles on and the best part, they were so fast to mix together, shoot out and bake. We got to use food coloring and sprinkles. They checked off many boxes! Nicholas set out the cookies and milk and the cookies were gone in one bite - because Bernard was extra interested in them. Ugh... so we replated and held them in the kitchen until Bernard was sent to bed. Santa must have loved them because only a few crumbs and sprinkles remained! Now that I've searched for Spritz cookies I've found so many new dies to make different shapes - not just Christmas! I just may get some to play - who knows!

Spritz Cookie Recipe
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon almond extract
2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon kosher salt
gel food coloring, optional

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Place two large light-colored baking sheets in the refrigerator to chill as you make the cookie dough.
In a large mixing bowl add butter and sugar. Use a hand mixer to cream together until creamy (about 5 minutes).
Add the egg, vanilla, and almond extract. Mix in until well combined.
Add the flour and salt. Mix the dough until just combined. (Do not overmix.)
If using food coloring, gently fold a few drops of the food coloring into the dough.
Add the dough to the cookie press with your desired shape, filling it with as much dough as it will hold. To start the press, double-press the first cookie so that there is some dough still sticking out of the press. Then, continue to press out the cookies onto the chilled baking sheets.
If you don’t have a press, you can pipe the spritz cookies. Add a decorating tip of choice to a heavy-duty pastry bag and fill the bag with the dough. Before piping, make sure to remove any pockets of air in the dough. Pipe dough onto the baking sheets.
If using decorations like sprinkles or decorating sugar, add as desired.
Bake 5-6 minutes, or until the edges are set, but not browned.
Let the cookies cool slightly (5-10 minutes) before removing them from the pan to continue cooling on a wire rack or parchment paper.
Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.

Cookie Box Mystery

This year's neighborhood Christmas cookie boxes were a mystery right up until bake day. Covid finally came to visit our family, four years into the pandemic and well... it hit me like a ton of bricks. I kept hemming and hawing about what cookies to make and finally decided I wanted to try these so these made the cut. These Cinnamon Roll Sugar Cookies are very fun. You make your own little cinnamon butter squares that get folded into the dough. They bake into these crispy cinnamon crunchies. I used a round cookie cutter to circle around the baked cookies to get them back into a round shape - something I've seen plenty but never felt the need to do. This made sense since some of the cinnamon butter crunchies ooze out a bit and make the cookie an odd shape and size.
These cookies were amazing. So good. Everyone in our house agreed these go on the make again list. I didn't ask the neighbors but I'm hoping they thought the same thing. Either way... we'll make them again. I was able to make the dough the night before then bake the next day - that worked out very well since I still had a kid in school but he didn't leave until 9 so I had cookies to bake before I went back to making magic for Christmas.

Cinnamon Roll Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
Cinnamon sugar filling:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
⅓ cup brown sugar, packed
1½ tablespoons all purpose flour
2½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
pinch salt
Cookies:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened but still cool to the touch
1 ⅓ cups granulated sugar
1 ¾ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 ¾ cups all purpose flour,
¾ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cornstarch
¼ teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350°F with racks near the center. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
Cinnamon sugar filling:
Mix together all ingredients (I use a small rubber spatula or fork) until well combined. Place in the freezer for about 10 minutes while you prepare the cookie dough.
Cookies:
Using an hand mixer, or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add vanilla, egg, and egg yolk, and beat until combined, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary.
In a separate bowl, combine flour (see note), baking powder, cornstarch, and salt. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and beat until combined.
Remove half of the dough from the mixing bowl and spread the remaining dough out across the bottom the mixing bowl.
Remove the cinnamon mixture from the freezer and use two spoons to scoop small pieces (about a teaspoon each) of the cinnamon mixture and place them all over the dough in the mixing bowl.
Once you have used half of the cinnamon mixture, get the cookie dough that you have set aside, and spread it or press it with your fingers into a somewhat even layer on top of the cinnamon and dough in the mixing bowl.
Proceed to add the remaining cinnamon mixture (in little pieces) all over the top of that piece of dough. Your bowl should now have two layers of cookie dough, each layer topped with cinnamon sugar bits.
Step by step cinnamon roll cookie dough in a white bowl.
Once you have your dough layered you are going to fold and mix it just barely. I do two folds, scraping up and over, followed by one to two stirs by hand with a rubber spatula. Do not use an electric mixer, this needs to be a brief stir that leaves some pieces of the cinnamon mixture in chunks and some pieces swirled into the dough.
Cinnamon roll cookie dough in a white bowl with a rubber spatula.
Scoop the dough into two-tablespoon portions using a cookie scoop. Pay attention while scooping to ensure that each scoop has a fair amount of dough mixed with cinnamon.
Place the dough balls on a plate and freeze for 10 minutes. This quick chill firms up the butter so the cookies don't spread too much.
Scoops of cinnamon roll cookie dough on a white plate.
Place dough balls a couple inches apart on parchment lined baking sheets. For thicker cookies leave the dough balls in higher mounds, for thinner cookies give them a slight pat down before baking. Any dough balls that do not fit into this batch that's baking should be refrigerated (not frozen) until the baking sheets have cooled and you're ready to bake them.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the cookies have spread, the edges are beginning to brown and the center is still slightly underdone.
Some of the cookies will bake up a little misshapen. This is because pockets of cinnamon sugar might melt out while baking. Don't worry, I have two techniques that work for getting a perfectly round shape for every cookie in the batch! See notes for shaping cookies as soon as they come out of the oven.
Place baking sheets on wire racks and allow cookies to cool completely. They will firm up as they cool.

Tag Team Pie Making

"What kind of dessert do you want for your birthday?"
"One you can't make or eat - Lemon Meringue Pie"
Hrm... great.
The birthday boy gets what he wants since he rarely asks for something specifically. Good thing B isn't allergic and did the lemon part, Actually she did quite a bit of the pie. The giant winning part of the pie in our house was the meringue. BOTH kids could not get enough of eating the unbaked fluff. The lemon part came together wonderfully - we didn't scramble the eggs - which we were VERY proud of - and it looked lemony yellow and wonderful. B piped the meringue on top and we baked it into a beautiful pie. The pie came out of the oven SO tall. Eventually it settled and wept a little but I found out that's normal. The birthday boy loved his pie and has been enjoying it. The kids tried it. The meringue changed texture from the amazing fluff... so that was unexpected... it was a bit tart for N. I'm glad we were able to tackle this for Andy, Happy 45!

Classic Lemon Meringue Pie
Preformed Pie Crust
5 large egg yolks (use the whites in the meringue below)
1 and 1/3 cups water
1 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1 Tablespoon lemon zest
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
Meringue
5 large egg whites, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C) and adjust your oven rack to the lowest position. Partially blind bake pie crust in a 9-inch pie dish. (Follow blind baking instructions on package). Tip: You can get started on the lemon meringue pie filling steps while your crust is blind baking. But making the filling is time sensitive because you will temper the egg yolks, so if multi-tasking isn’t your thing, just wait until your crust is done blind baking before beginning the filling.
Reduce oven temperature to 350°F.
Make the filling: Whisk the egg yolks together in a medium bowl or liquid measuring cup. Set aside. Whisk the water, granulated sugar, cornstarch, salt, lemon juice, and lemon zest together in a medium saucepan over medium heat. The mixture will be thin and cloudy, then eventually begin thickening and bubbling after about 6 minutes. Once thickened, give it a whisk and reduce heat to low.
Temper the egg yolks: Very slowly stream a few large spoonfuls of warm lemon mixture into the beaten egg yolks. Then, also in a very slow stream, whisk the egg yolk mixture into the saucepan. Turn heat back up to medium. Cook until the mixture is thick and big bubbles begin bursting at the surface. Remove the pan from heat and whisk in the butter. Spread filling into the warm partially baked crust. Set aside as you prepare the meringue. (Don’t let the filling cool down too much as you want a warm filling when you top with the meringue in step 7. The warm filling helps seal the two layers together, preventing separation.)
Make the meringue: With a handheld mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar together on medium speed for 1 minute, then increase to high speed until soft peaks form, about 4 more minutes. Add the sugar and salt, then continue beating on high speed until glossy stiff peaks form, about 2 more minutes. Spread meringue on top of filling. (I like to make decorative peaks with the back of a large spoon.) Make sure you spread the meringue all the way to the edges so that it touches the crust. This helps prevent the meringue from weeping.
Bake pie on the lowest oven rack for 20-25 minutes. (If the meringue is browning too quickly, tent a piece of foil over it as best you can without the foil touching the meringue.) When pie is done, remove from the oven, place on a wire rack, and allow to cool at room temperature for 1 hour before placing in the refrigerator to chill. Chill for 4 hours before slicing and serving.
Cover any leftovers and store in the refrigerator. Lemon meringue pie tastes best on day 1 because it doesn’t keep very well. No matter how hard you try to prevent it, the meringue will wilt and separate over time. Best to enjoy right away.

Avoiding the hot pan and searing hot caramel

Give me a cinnamon roll covered in caramel and pecans and I'm sold. Call them whatever you want... they are delicious. We had a lower key weekend and I decided that we needed delicious breakfast for Sunday morning. These sticky buns weren't super easy - especially the flipping part, that was potentially a burning experience. I have a girl who doesn't like frosting and glaze and a boy who loves pecans... so this worked out well for us. She saved all her nuts for Andy, which he was pretty pleased about.
I let these rise in the fridge over night because doing all this work on a Sunday morning isn't my style. As soon as I woke up on Sunday I tossed these in the oven with the light on so they would come up to room temp. they could have baked a little longer... the center buns were not at my ideal 190 degrees but we were getting closer and closer to needing to leave for church so we made it work. Very soft and very yummy. The pan flip was interesting... hard to get a hot glass dish off the buns you just flipped without getting burned from the pan or the searing hot caramel. BUT we made it work and got to church on time. TWO wins!

Pecan Sticky Buns

Dough:
1 cup milk
¼ cup (4 tablespoons) butter
¼ cup granulated sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon instant or active dry yeast
1 large egg
3 to 4 cups all-purpose flour

Caramel:
10 tablespoons butter
1 ¼ cup cups packed light brown sugar
⅓ cup light corn syrup
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 to 1 ½ cups coarsely chopped pecans

Filling:
4 tablespoons butter, softened
½ cup packed light brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

For the dough, heat the milk in a medium saucepan or in a microwave-safe bowl or liquid measuring cup until the milk is scalded (which is basically heating it until right before it simmers – it will start steaming and little bubbles will form around the edges).
Pour the milk into the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the dough hook (or you can do this by hand with a large bowl and wooden spoon).
Add the butter, sugar and salt. Mix until the butter is melted, and let the mixture cool until warm (if you dip a finger in, it should feel like a warm bath – not too hot, not too cold, just right).
Stir in the yeast and let rest for 5-7 minutes until the yeast is foamy (technically, you don't need to let the yeast activate before adding the flour, but I find in yeast bread recipes with milk, the dough rises quicker/better if I let the yeast activate first).
With the mixer running, add the egg and then gradually add the flour until the dough clears the sides of the bowl. The exact amount will depend on the temperature, humidity and how you measure flour. The dough should be soft and just slightly sticky without leaving a lot of residue on your fingers. Don't over flour!
Knead the dough for 2-3 minutes until soft and smooth.
Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl. Cover with lightly greased plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and let it rise until doubled, about an hour.
While the dough rises, prep the caramel pecan mixture. In a small saucepan, combine the butter, brown sugar, corn syrup, and salt. Heat over medium heat until butter is melted, sugar is dissolved, and mixture is well-combined (try not to let it simmer). Off the heat, whisk in the cream and the vanilla until well-combined.
Lightly grease a 9X13-inch baking pan. Spread the caramel mixture evenly in the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle pecans over the top. Set aside until the caramel mixture has cooled to room temperature or just slightly warm.
Roll or press the dough into a 10X16-inch rectangle. Spread the 4 tablespoons butter over the top. Combine the brown sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over the top of the butter.
Starting with one long end, roll up the dough into a semi-tight log (without stretching or pulling the dough!). Using a serrated knife or unflavored dental floss or thread, cut the log into 12 equal pieces.
Place the rolls in the pan (3 across, 4 down). Cover with a lightly greased plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel and let rise until noticeably puffy and the sides of the rolls are touching.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Bake for 20-25 minutes until rolls are lightly golden on top.
Remove from the oven and let cool for 10-15 minutes (too long and the caramel will harden and make the buns hard to turn out – too short and the caramel will be too runny).
Loosen the edges of the rolls with a butter knife. Place a parchment lined baking sheet (or serving tray) upside down on top of the pan of buns and grabbing the edges of both the baking sheet and 9X13-inch pan, flip over, giving a light tap on the counter, so the rolls turn out onto the baking sheet.
Scrape any additional caramel and pecans over the buns. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Unafraid of new recipes...

Most people believe in tried and true recipes for holiday baking and meals - not me. New recipes? Sure why not? There's group of people ready and willing to give things a try. Now, it wasn't a new green bean casserole or corn casserole - we have recipes for those that are winners, rolls? Let's try something new and different. This recipe was what we tried for Thanksgiving this year. We opted for a morning walk at our local forested park, some people walk after the meal - we did before. Gave Bernard all the sniffs and a walk before he got left behind for a few hours. This dough has a 1-2 hour rise - which was great, I mixed it up before we left, when we came home - I rolled out the dough into balls and let it rise again. We brought them unbaked to my folks and baked them there. I think the ride deflated them a little but they sure were soft, warm and delicious. The butter and honey on top made them sticky. I think next time I'd just do butter and leave the honey behind. These were great!

Soft Dinner Rolls Recipe
1 cup whole milk, warmed to about 110°F (43°C)
2 and 1/4 teaspoons Platinum Yeast from Red Star instant yeast (1 standard packet)
2 Tablespoons granulated sugar, divided
1 large egg
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature and cut into 4 pieces
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups all-purpose flour or bread flour* (spooned & leveled)
optional topping: 2 Tablespoons melted unsalted butter mixed with 1 Tablespoon honey

Prepare the dough: Whisk the warm milk, yeast, and 1 Tablespoon of sugar together in the bowl of your stand mixer. Cover and allow to sit for 5 minutes. *If you do not own a stand mixer, you can do this in a large mixing bowl and in the next step, mix the dough together with a large wooden spoon/rubber spatula. It will take a bit of arm muscle. A hand mixer works, but the sticky dough repeatedly gets stuck in the beaters. Mixing by hand with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula is a better choice.*
Add the remaining sugar, egg, butter, salt, and 1 cup flour. With a dough hook or paddle attachment, mix/beat on low speed for 30 seconds, scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, then add the remaining flour. Beat on medium speed until the dough comes together and pulls away from the sides of the bowl, about 2 minutes. If the dough seems too wet to a point where kneading (next step) would be impossible, beat in more flour 1 Tablespoon at a time until you have a workable dough, similar to the photos above. Dough should be soft and a little sticky, but still manageable to knead with lightly floured hands.
Knead the dough: Keep the dough in the mixer and beat for an additional 3 full minutes or knead by hand on a lightly floured surface for 3 full minutes.
1st Rise: Lightly grease a large bowl with oil or nonstick spray. Place the dough in the bowl, turning it to coat all sides in the oil. Cover the bowl with aluminum foil, plastic wrap, or a clean kitchen towel. Allow the dough to rise in a relatively warm environment for 1-2 hours or until double in size. (I always let it rise on the counter. Takes about 2 hours. For a tiny reduction in rise time, see my answer to Where Should Dough Rise? in my Baking with Yeast Guide.)
Grease a 9×13 inch baking pan or two 9-inch square or round baking pans. You can also bake the rolls in a cast iron skillet or on a lined baking sheet.*
Shape the rolls: When the dough is ready, punch it down to release the air. Divide the dough into 14-16 equal pieces. (Just eyeball it– doesn’t need to be perfect!) A bench scraper is always helpful for cutting dough. Shape each piece into a smooth ball. Arrange in prepared baking pan.
2nd Rise: Cover shaped rolls with aluminum foil, plastic wrap, or a clean kitchen towel. Allow to rise until puffy, about 1 hour.
Adjust oven rack to a lower position and preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). (It’s best to bake the rolls towards the bottom of the oven so the tops don’t burn.)
Bake the rolls: Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown on top, rotating the pan halfway through. If you notice the tops browning too quickly, loosely tent the pan with aluminum foil. Remove from the oven, brush with optional honey butter topping, and allow rolls to cool for a few minutes before serving.
Cover leftover rolls tightly and store at room temperature for 2-3 days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.