Stained-Glass Christmas Cookies

Hello! I can't believe Christmas is a couple of days away. I've been baking tons this month but just haven't had the time to blog about my creations!

This weekend I went to THREE parties all within 24 hours of each other. Tis the season...to be exhausted.

The first party was a surprise birthday party for my dear friend Doug. Doug likes lemony treats. In the past I've made the normal lemon bars etc, but I wanted to do something special this year.

I saw stained-glass cookies on the Chew last week when I was visiting family in AZ. I figured Lemon Heads would work well in the middle of these cookies. I was right. I also added lemon frosting on the edges and sprinkled edible glitter on the frosting. I was feeling so Martha Stewart-y...

Speaking of being a crafty home-maker, I made Christmas cards again this year.

I'm already receiving lovely feedback from the folks who received them so far. Yay!

 

These cookies were very yummy and pretty, but fair warning: the middle is VERY hard seeing it's made of melted hard candy. Don't chip a tooth!

Stained-Glass Christmas Cookies

recipe found here: recipes.com

Bake well and prosper!



Lavender Lemonade Cocktail

Hello faithful readers and those who have stumbled across my site by chance! Let's lift a glass together and help me celebrate my next journey in life: after seven years at a desk job, I'm off to pursue singing opera! I'm finally taking that next step and throwing myself out there. But first I'll be doing some travelling. Yay!

So look forward to blogs from abroad and blogs from Pittsburgh this summer. They might be sporadic, but they should be interesting!

Lavender Lemonade Cocktail (my own recipe)
Bring 2 cups of water to a simmer and stir in 2 Tablespoons of honey. When honey is mixed into the water, turn off the burner. Add 2+ Tablespoons of lavender and steep for at least 15 minutes (longer for a stronger lavender flavor.) Strain the lavender through a fine mesh and pour the liquid into pre-made lemonade (1/2 gallon or less.) Stir in and cool in refrigerator. Add Jack Daniels or some vodka to the drink or enjoy by itself.

Bake well and prosper!

Cherry Lemonade Bars with Lavender Frosting

I got to use my new mixer to make these bars!

Check out this sleek, vintage model. How great is it?!

Well, my fellow runner who gave me these cute plates also had this amazing mixer that she wasn't using. I know, I know...I already have a vintage blender. (Yes, the one I got my finger stuck in.) It's still groovy, but I must admit that it has it's drawbacks. This new for me metal one covers those disadvantages. While I LOVE both of my blenders, I still wouldn't mind a Kitchenaid mixer!

 

That's why I am entering these Cherry Lemonade Bars with Lavender Frosting in the Creative Recipe Contest hosted by Confessions of a Cookbook Queen and Cookies and Cups! The top prize is a pretty Kitchenaid mixer! (Although I'd be fine with the 2nd and 3rd place prizes, I'm trying to go for the gold!)

The contest is a fun one. Entrants had to look through  recipes on Confessions of a Cookbook Queen and Cookies and Cups and pick one that we like, but thought could be switched up a little bit.

 

Well, I saw these lemonade bars which reminded me that I wanted to make some lavender lemonade and thus my idea was born. I decided to go one step further than making a lavender frosting and added in some delightful cherries.

 

The combination of cherries with lemonade is a win-win. I was a little hesitant to try adding another flavor on top of that, but the subtle lavender flavor in the frosting makes the perfect medley with the tart of the lemon and sweetness of cherries.

 

I personally thought that these were some of the best dessert bars I've made but I couldn't confirm that until my taste testers (aka my coworkers) tried them. They agreed. One said that the flavors were "delicate and yet complex" and another one said that they were "better than monkey bread!" lol

 

You should definitely try making these because it's rather easy and your taste testers will love them! 

Cherry Lemonade Bars with Lavender Frosting (adapted from Cookies and Cups' Lemonade Brownies)

Ingredients for Bars

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1/3 cup dry lemonade powder

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 egg, plus 2 yolks

1 tsp vanilla (Erika's Extras: I was tempted to use almond extract but didn't...NEXT time.)

3/4 cup flour, plus 2 Tbsp

1/4 tsp baking powder

6 sweet cherries, diced (add more cherries if desired)

 

Ingredients for Glaze

3/4 cup water

2 teaspoons of honey

1 Tablespoon of dried lavender

2 cups powdered sugar

 

Instructions for Bars

Preheat oven to 350°. Spray or butter an 8x8 pan with cooking spray/butter and set aside.

 

Cream butter, sugar and lemonade powder in mixer on low speed until completely combined. Add in egg, both yolks, and vanilla. Continue mixing until incorporated. Then add in the flour and baking powder.  Once completely combined, add the diced cherries.

 

The batter will be slightly stiff so scoop the batter into prepared pan and then spread it out evenly.

 

Bake 15-20 minutes until edges begin to golden and center is JUST set. Do not over bake.

Remove from oven and cool completely.

 

Instructions for Glaze

In a small pan over medium heat, stir the water and honey until completely combined. Once the water starts steaming, turn off heat, stir in lavender, and then place a lid over the pan and let the lavender seep for 10 minutes.

 

Strain the lavender water through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl.

 

Put the powdered sugar in a medium bowl and add a Tablespoon of the lavender water to the powdered sugar. Stir and add a teaspoon of water at a time afterwards and stir in between each teaspoon. Stop adding the water when you get a thick, even, glue-like consistency. If it gets too watery, add more powdered sugar. (You will have lavender water left over.)

 

Pour the glaze on top of the cooled bars and let set for an hour before cutting into squares.

 

(adapted from Cookies and Cups' Lemonade Brownies)

Bake well and prosper!

Sugar Cookie Lemon Pies

My coworker made me aware of this recipe since she loves lemons and knows that I'll bake something lemony for her birthday. (See the creations for the last two years below.)

Super Lemony Breakfast Rolls            Lemon Pull Apart Bread

 

Extra savvy readers will notice that we are still a month+ away from my coworker's bday. Well, I figured a test run wouldn't hurt for the 4th of July where the host of the fireworks watching party I went to is a big lemon fan.

 

(Don't worry...I was nice and saved some for my coworker and brought them in the next day.)

 

I must say, these lovely lemon pie filled sugar cookies are really good! It's like a lemon meringue pie but in a sugar cookie crust and without the meringue.

 

If you love lemony desserts, I highly suggest making this one.

Sugar Cookie Lemon Tart Recipe (from The Lady Behind the Curtain - has great step by step photos)
Ingredients (crust)
1 package of pre made refrigerated Pillsbury cookie dough (Erika's Extras: I used the roll of dough which requires a little more slicing work than a pull apart cookie dough rounds)
Directions (crust)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place each square of dough (Erika's Extras: or cut the roll of dough into 1 inch slices and cut the slice in half) into a mini muffin cup. Bake for 15 minutes.
While the cookies are still hot, dip the end of a wooden spoon into sugar and carefully make a well in the cookie making sure a hole in the bottom of the dough is not created. (Erika's Extras: I found you can be rather tough with the dough at the top of the cup without creating a hole.)
Sprinkle cups with sugar. Put pan back in oven and bake for an additional 5 minutes. Cool completely in muffin pan.
When cooled pop out of cookie cups. (Erika's Extras: Make the filling while the cookie cups are cooling.)

Ingredients (filling)
2/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 teaspoons finely shredded lemon peel
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (Erika's Extras: my lemon lover friends could tell I squeezed the lemons myself!)
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons butter
3 egg yolks, lightly beaten
additional lemon zest (optional)
Directions (filling)
In a medium saucepan stir together the sugar, cornstarch, lemon peel, lemon juice, water and the butter. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly. Gradually stir about half of the hot lemon mixture into the egg yolks while whisking. Return egg yolk mixture to the saucepan along with the remaining lemon mixture that was left in the pan. Bring to a gentle boil, reduce heat. Cook and stir for 2 minutes. Transfer to a small bowl. Cover surface with plastic wrap; chill until needed.  Fills ~18 cups. 

Bake well and prosper!

Lavender Biscotti with Dried Cherries and Pistachios

Lavender: isn't it lovely? I've wanted to bake with it again but last time I stopped at a farmer's market to pick some baking lavender up they were all out. Then I forgot about it until last week when I passed by a lavender stand in Union Square. I happily whipped up this recipe which I had waiting patiently in the wings (aka my "to make" folder.)

 

It was worth the wait. The slight hint of lavender mixed with lemon zest, dried cherries, and pistachios is a perfect combination.  



Lavender Biscotti with Dried Cherries and Pistachios (adapted from u Try.it)

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup sugar
4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tablespoon dried lavender
Zest of 1/2 a lemon, grated
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup pistachios, coarsely chopped
3/4 cup dried cherries

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or silpat, set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour and baking powder together. In the bowl of a stand mixer with paddle attachment on medium speed, cream the sugar, butter, lavender, lemon zest, and salt until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, 1 at a time. Turn mixer to low, add the flour mixture slowly until just combined. Fold in the pistachios and cherries with a rubber spatula.

Slightly flour both hands and transfer the dough onto the prepared baking sheet. Form the dough into a log. Approximately 14-inch in length and 3-inch in width. Bake for 35 minutes or until light golden on the edges. Let it cool on a wiring rack for 30 minutes.

Transfer the log onto the cutting board. With a sharp serrated knife, cut the log on a diagonal into 1/2-inch thick slices. Return biscotti to the same baking sheet, arrange the biscotti cut side down. Bake the biscotti for another 15 minutes or until they are pale golden. Transfer the biscotti to a wiring rack and let them cool completely.

Bake well and prosper! 

Super Lemony Breakfast Rolls

Sometimes I feel like a mad scientist in my kitchen. Or at least a genius. (Maybe they are one in the same?)

My coworker's bday came around again (as it tends to do in August) and I had to try to trump last year's loved dessert: Lemon Pull Apart Bread.

She loves lemon, so I had a theme to work with.

Last year I had devised a way to make the Lemon Pull Apart bread with Pillsbury Seamless Dough Sheets. So I again turned to them to make up this new recipe.

My mad scientist/genius kicked in and I formulated a great idea for a breakfast treat that involved parts of three different recipes! The dough and lemon filling from the Lemon Pull Apart Bread, the technique used in the popular Mini Cinnies recipe, and the frosting adjusted from Orange Drop Cookies. Muhahahaha!

The results were SUPER lemony, which made my coworker SUPER happy. 

This is a great breakfast roll and also works well as an afternoon snack especially with some strawberries on the side.

Super Lemony Breakfast Rolls

Ingredients for rolls: 

2 cans of Pillsbury Seamless Dough Sheets

1 C white sugar

zest from 6 lemons

2 T butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease two cookie sheets.

2. Place the sugar in a bowl and rub the lemon zest in with the sugar.

3. Unfold one baking sheet and with a pastry brush or small spatula, spread half the melted butter on the dough.

4. Add half the lemon zest over the unfolded dough.

5. Roll the dough short side up.

6. Cut 2-3 inch slices and place all the rolls on a cookie sheet.

7. Repeat steps 3-6 for the other dough baking sheet.

8. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until the top is golden.

9. Cool for 10 minutes and add frosting on top.

Ingredients for frosting:
2 T soft butter
1 T grated lemon rind
2 T lemon juice
2 C powdered sugar

Blend and spread on rolls when they are mostly cooled.

Or, if you like, you can make just the rolls and not add the frosting. Still yummy!

Bake well and prosper!

Sometimes You Throw Away Your Camera's Memory Card

What? You've never thrown away the memory card to your camera? I hadn't either until two weeks ago. I was throwing away some trash and didn't notice that my card and card reader were in the pile I threw away. It wouldn't be that big of a deal if there weren't pictures of the desserts I had made that week on there. But they were.

I was asked by Deana of Lost Past Remembered to make some desserts for a movie filming in Queens. Even though I was super busy with work and operas, I decided this would be too cool to pass up.

The assignment consisted of making a citrus tart, a chocolate icing cake, and something else that I felt like making.

Thankfully, Deana took some pictures of the desserts I made while they were on set. (You can see her whole post on the food for the film here. She made some great dishes!)

The Citrus Tart

Deana sent some pictures of what to make and I read up on the process of candying lemons. I was really happy with the outcome. However, my recipe didn't have a carmelization process and the director wanted a darker looking citrus top. (I wish I had my pictures to show you how yellow and fresh the lemons were when I made it.) Thankfully, Deana is a master in the kitchen and easily whipped up a topping to add to the lemons to make them darker. She also let me know that one of the producers really liked the tart and wants the recipe. (See bottom of post.)

The Cake

I was also sent a picture of a round cake with chocolate icing and some white frosting swirls. Deana said to make the cake and make it pretty. So I put shredded coconut in a circle on the top edges of the cake. Well, the director really wanted those swirls so Deana came to my rescue again by taking off the coconut and adding the swirls (and some canned frosting...over my butter cream frosting! For shame!) ;)

The Extra

I had decided to experiment with my mom's recipe for Orange Drop Cookies. I figured they would make cute little tarts if baked in a cupcake pan. Well, they made cute little cupcakes instead. Hmmm. I iced them quickly because the lady from the movie crew who was picking up my desserts was close by. Once again, Deana spruced them up by adding white icing and a raspberry on top. Now why didn't I think of that? They are so cute like that!

What I learned from this experience is how to make candied lemons. Oh, and that directors have a vision.

Lemon Tart recipe found at Epicurious. (I used premade pie crust since I needed to save time where I could.)

Bake well and prosper!

Lemon Pull Apart Bread

My rule for my coworkers regarding their birthdays is: If it's coming up and you want something, let me know because I'll bake it for you. It's very much "Ask and you shall receive."

Well, my coworker, Mel, always let me know that she expects something with lemon. (I can already hear her now, "I didn't EXPECT it. I just wanted it." Details details.)

Lucky for her I found a recipe for lemon pull a part bread on Buttered Up.

Lucky for me I found exactly what I needed to make this recipe much faster: Pillsbury Seamless Dough Sheets! I was planning on using the biscuits that I use for my Monkey Bread (aka Pull Apart Rolls) until I found these lovely things.

The bread turned out to be delicious and exactly what we needed in the office after an earthquake. Yep, I felt the earthquake way up on the umpteenth floor that I work on. Mel did too. And you know what? It was nice to have a coworker that likes desserts and likes to evacuate when the floor shakes while we're so high up in the sky. It was a pleasure and a relief to have a like-minded coworker to rush down all those stairs with!

Lemon Pull Apart Bread (my easy adaption)

2 cans of Pillsbury Seamless Dough Sheets

1 C white sugar

zest from 6 lemons

2 T butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a loaf pan (9x5).

2. Place the sugar in a bowl and rub the lemon zest in with the sugar.

3. Unfold one baking sheet and with a pastry brush or small spatula, spread half the melted butter on the dough.

4. Cut the dough into 4x3 rectangles and add half the lemon zest over the rectangles.

5. Stack the rectangles one on top of each other and transfer into the loaf pan. You will want the cut side down (the longer of the sides.) 

6. Repeat steps 3-5 with the other dough.

7. Bake in the middle rack of the oven for 30-35 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Cool for 5-10 minutes and invert loaf to release bread.

 Bake well and prosper!

Lemon Blueberry Cookies

My coworker who loves lemony things JUST came back from maternity leave last week. To celebrate, I made up my own lemony recipe. But more on that later. How adorable are the glasses I photographed these cookies in/on?!!!

When I was visiting my parents in Texas in Feb, my mom and I had a yard sale. Before we could even place the items out for sale there was a bunch of, "Wait! You're getting rid of that?!!! Oh, I'll take it." Well, my mom was getting rid of these cute glasses, so I grabbed them. Besides being gorgeous, it also helps that my new room has a purple color scheme.

Speaking of gorgeous things, the church I sang in last weekend was ornate and magnificent (like my singing). I kid...I kid. About the singing. I mean, I sang fine, but the church REALLY stole the show. I took some photos before the concert. Check St. Jean Baptiste church out:

I always tell tourists to wander into churches while in NYC. It's amazing what a huge, concrete filled jungle can produce.

Back to the production of the cookies. I pretty much took my chocolate chip cookie recipe and added some lemon zest and lemon juice. Mmmmm. They turned out to be quite refreshing and yummy!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 stick of margarine/butter (I used butter from my local farmer's market)
1/2 cup of white sugar

1/4 cup of brown sugar
1 egg well beaten
1 cup and 2 Tablespoons of flour
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla (use the real thing....imitation vanilla is a poser!)
Zest from 1 lemon
Half a lemon's worth of lemon juice
1/2 C dried blueberries (Add more to your liking)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix margarine, sugars, and egg together until margarine chunks are quite small and well beaten. Sift flour, baking soda, and salt together and then stir until well mixed. Add vanilla and then mix. Add lemon zest and lemon juice and then mix. Then add the blueberries. Place dollops of dough on cookie sheet with plenty of room between each dollop. Bake 8-10 minutes.

Erika's Extra Notes: To get very lovely and soft cookies, take out of oven when they are still fluffy/slightly uncooked looking. They will cook more while cooling. If baking two sheets at once, make sure to switch the top to the bottom and vice-versa half way through baking.

Bake well and prosper!