Tag Archives: Valentines Day

Pretzel Shortbread Cookies

The Toppings

Since these were for Valentine’s Day, I went all in on the toppings. I wanted a mix of texture, colour, and a little sparkle:

• Chopped pistachios – for crunch, flavour and that gorgeous pop of green.

• Crushed rose petals – because they’re just so pretty.

• Gold sprinkles – because, let’s be honest, gold makes everything better.

Pomegranate Glazed Pretzel Shortbread

Sweet, salty and tangy, these Pomegranate Glazed Shortbread Cookies combine buttery shortbread with the crunch of ground pretzels.

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Servings cookies

Calories 225 kcal

Equipment

1 #2 piping tip
4 disposable piping bags

Ingredients

Cookies

150 grams pretzels
132 grams all purpose flour
227 grams unsalted butter, removed from fridge 30 minutes before making dough
120 grams icing sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract

Pomegranate Glaze

500 grams icing sugar, sifted
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 cup Pomegranate juice
1/4 cup Freeze Dried Pomegranate Powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon Diamond Crystal Kosher salt, or 1/4 teaspoon Morton's Kosher salt

Decorations

2 Tablespoons edible dried rose petals, finely chopped in a spice grinder or by hand with sharp knife
1/3 cup shelled pistachios, toasted and finely chopped
2 Tablespoons gold sprinkles

Instructions

Cookies

In food processor or blender, pulse pretzels until the texture resembles flour. Transfer pretzel flour to a medium sized bowl, add all purpose flour to bowl and set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until smooth, 1-2 minutes. Add powdered sugar and vanilla and mix until fully combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix on medium speed for another 2 – 3 minutes, until the colour lightens and the texture becomes fluffy and smooth.
Add pretzel flour mixture to the bowl and mix on low speed until just combined. Gather the dough into a ball. Using your palms, press dough into a rough rectangular shape and place between 2 sheets of parchment paper.
Using a rolling pin, roll out dough to a rough rectangle, about 9×12 inches. The dough should be 1/4 inch thick. I use these rolling pin guides to help me get an even thickness. Place dough, still between 2 sheets of parchment paper, on a baking sheet and chill in fridge for about 45 minutes.
Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Remove dough sheet from the fridge and place on work surface. Peel off top parchment sheet and gently lay it back in place. Flip the dough over; peel off and discard second parchment layer.
Cut the dough, using cookie cutters of your choice. I used a variety of heart sizes and shapes. Transfer shapes to prepared baking sheets, using a wide metal spatula, spacing them 2 inches apart. Chill cookies in freezer for about 15 minutes before baking. This will help prevent spreading and help cookies retain their shape.
Adjust the oven racks to the upper and lower middle positions and heat the oven to 350°F.
Bake cookies for 5 minutes. Rotate baking sheets from front to back and switch positions from top to bottom. Bake for a further 5 minutes until golden brown. Set cookie sheets on a wire rack and allow to fully cool.
Gently re-roll dough scraps between 2 sheets of parchment, chill and cut out more cookies. Transfer to cookie sheets and bake as above.

Glaze and Decorate

Place sifted icing sugar into large bowl. Add lemon juice, pomegranate juice, pomegranate powder, vanilla and salt whisk vigorously until smooth and no lumps remain.
In a small bowl, mix together finely ground rose petals, chopped pistachios and gold sprinkles.
Prepare border icing. Place about 1/4 cup of glaze into a small bowl. Fit one disposable piping bag with a #2 tip. This will be used for piping a border/outline of the cookie shape.
Place about 1/2 a cup of glaze into a small bowl. For outlining, the glaze should be thick but pipeable, similar to toothpaste or soft frosting. It should hold its shape without spreading but still flow smoothly from a piping bag. When you lift a spoonful, it should ribbon off slowly and settle back into itself after several seconds. If it’s too thick, add a few drops of liquid (pomegranate juice or lemon juice) until it reaches the right consistency. If too thin, mix in a bit more powdered sugar to thicken.
Transfer border icing to bag with piping tip. Cut a small hole in bottom of bag to allow tip to come halfway through. Twist top of bag and close with twist tie. Set aside.
Prepare flooding icing: Pour about 1 cup of glaze into a small bowl. For flooding, the glaze should be thin enough to flow smoothly but thick enough to hold a slight shape before settling—similar to honey or maple syrup. When you lift a spoonful, it should ribbon off easily and disappear back into the bowl within 10-15 seconds. It should spread evenly when piped but not be so runny that it drips off the edges. If it’s too thick, add tiny amounts of pomegranate or lemon juice; if too thin, mix in more powdered sugar until you reach the perfect balance.
Transfer flooding icing to bag without piping tip. Twist top of bag and close with twist tie. Do not cut hole in bag until ready to flood icing.
Glaze cookies: Arrange about 4 cookies on baking sheet and outline cookies with border icing. I just outlined half the heart. Cut a small hole in flooding icing bag and flood the center of each cookie with the thinner glaze. Use a toothpick or wooden skewer to gently coax the icing to the edges of the border.
While the glaze is still wet, sprinkle with pistachio mixture. Repeat decorating the rest of the cookies. Let set for several hours until glaze has hardened.
Store cookies in airtight container, separating layers with parchment or waxed paper so they do not stick to each other. They will be fine at room temperature for a few days. For longer storage, freeze.

Notes

Pretzel shortbread cookie recipe created by Amy of Constellation Inspiration. The pomegranate glaze recipe was my addition.

Nutrition

Calories: 225kcalCarbohydrates: 32gProtein: 2gFat: 10gSaturated Fat: 6gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0.4gCholesterol: 24mgSodium: 153mgPotassium: 58mgFiber: 1gSugar: 20gVitamin A: 297IUVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 9mgIron: 1mg

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

These cookies are proof that decorated cookies can be both stunning and packed with flavour.

Cider Caramel Apple Pie

Valentines Heart Brown Sugar Cookies

6 Replies

I’m very excited to share these cookies with you. This little cookie box, packed with hearts would be such a lovely gift! While I love the look of decorated sugar cookies, most of them are just too sweet and lacking in flavour. I have solved that problem by flavouring and colouring the icing naturally, with freeze dried fruit powder. These are sugar cookies that people will actually want to eat.

Freeze dried fruit is not the same as dried fruit. Dried fruit is dehydrated and only about 75% of the water is removed. With freeze-drying, the fruit is placed into a vacuum chamber where the temperature is well-below freezing and 99% of the moisture can be removed from the fruit.

There are so many fruits that are freeze dried these days. I chose strawberry, raspberry, blueberry and peach. I buy my freeze dried fruit online. You can grind up the fruit in a food processor or spice grinder. I like to strain the powder after grinding, to eliminate any seeds. I mixed up a big batch of royal icing and divided it into 4 bowls and added the fruit powder until I got the colour and flavour I wanted. I also mixed in a little fresh lemon juice to brighten the flavours.

For the cookies, I used my favourite sugar cookie recipe from Bon Appetit. It uses brown sugar instead of regular granulated sugar, They are a little bit chewy in the centre and very delicious. I used a variety of heart cookie cutters sizes. I bought these ones on Etsy this year.

Click here to print recipe for Brown-Sugar-Heart-Cookies-Download

Citrus and Brown Butter Shortbread Sandwich Cookies

2 Replies

After almost 35 years of marriage, what passes as a romantic gesture changes with the progression of time. Many years ago, his expression of love was was a gorgeous bouquet of tulips, since he learned that I hate roses. Mine was bringing him coffee in bed. These days we convey our affection a bit differently. I surprise him with a “morning, noon and night” pill tray, and he arranges to have the divots I have made in our new wood floors fixed, all with a smile on his face. (I dropped my marble and my wooden photography backdrops a few too many times.)

Valentines Day is not a big celebration in our house, but I can’t pass up an opportunity to bake something photographic and pink! These citrus and brown butter shortbread cookies are from Mindy Segal’s book, “Cookie Love.” I decided to sandwich these cookies with some strawberry jam and make them fancy with a pink top.

Start by browning some butter in a pot on the stove. Whe your kitchen begins to smell like heaven (or toasted nuts), it’s time to pull the butter off the stove and chill it. The dough uses lots of citrus zest. I incorporated lemon, lime and orange.

I decided to make round and square sandwich cookies with a heart cutout on the top cookie.

For decorating the cookies, I decided to do two versions. The first was to make pink powdered sugar to sift over the top cookie. I bought freeze dried strawberries and using my spice grinder, I ground them up in with some icing sugar. Most health food stores carry freeze dried fruits. They are also a fantastic way to naturally flavour and colour buttercream.

The second variation is to make a glaze. Grind up the freeze dried strawberries with powder sugar and mix in some citrus juice. I used a combo of lemon, lime and orange, since I had already zested them for the dough. It makes a lip puckering glaze that is perfect with the sweet cookies.

Click here to print recipe for

Citrus and Brown Butter Shortbread Sandwich Cookies

With a big glass of milk, these cookies are the perfect way to express your love!

Hazelnut Praline Truffles

Click here to print recipe for Hazelnut Praline Truffles

Blood Orange Poppy Seed Bundt Cake

6 Replies

If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, then I qualfy as insane. You might also say that I am a slow learner, and don’t always see the obvious clues that others spot so readily.

Last March I bought this beautiful heart shaped Bundt pan. I patiently waited 11 months to use it in a Valentines Day post. I decided to make a blood orange poppy seed cake. I used Ina’s recipe for Glazed Lemon Poppy Seed Cake as my base and adapted it so that I could celebrate blood orange season.

My pan was heavily buttered and greased and I followed the directions very carefully. I baked it for 45 minutes, cooled it in the pan for exactly 10 minutes. Holding my breath, I gingerly inverted the cake to release it from the pan. Half of it stuck to the pan. I cursed, chopped the broken pieces up and froze them for future snacking and hustled off to the store for more blood oranges and cake flour. Before starting again, I did a quick google search to see what went wrong. The King Arthur website advised me that buttering and flouring was not the way to go. I followed their tips and tricks and baked the cake again, and again and again. My freezer is now full of lots and lots of broken cake for snacking. Come on over!

I finally realized that this heart shaped pan was the problem. I’m not quite sure why. Nordicware baking pans are usually so reliable. But, slow as I am, I was not about to try this pan for a 5th time. I pulled out my trusty round fluted Bundt pan.Fifth time’s the charm! After a brief 10 minute cooling period, the cake slid out like a boss! Cue the fireworks.

While the cake cools, make a blood orange simple syrup. Pour this all over the warm cake to really intensify that blood orange flavour and keep your cake super moist.Once the cake is totally cool, it gets a final drizzle of the most gorgeous pink glaze. I adored this cake. Dense, but in the best possible way, buttery and bright, slightly tangy and not too sweet. A perfect ray of sunshine on a cold February day. Celebrate Valentines Day with this luscious love letter to blood oranges.

Click here to print recipe for Blood Orange and Poppy Seed Bundt Cake.

Painted Brown Sugar Cookie Hearts

1 Reply

I first learned about cookie painting when I saw the cover of the Bon Appetit December 2013 issue. When I looked inside and saw what was possible, my brain exploded with the possibilities. Who knew you could paint right onto the cookie, with an actual paintbrush? Kind of rocked my world.

I have never been exactly skilled with a paintbrush, but I figured even I could manage stripes. I began with the most delicious sugar cookie recipe I know, which uses brown sugar instead of granulated white sugar. Bake cookies and let cool completely.Mix up a bach of royal icing. Pipe an outline onto the baked hearts. Mine was a bit too thick. I’m sure you can do better than me.Thin some of the royal icing with a few drops of water to make a thinner consistency and fill in the hearts. Let them dry completely, preferably overnight. Consider this your blank canvas.To paint the cookies, you will need some clean paintbrushes in assorted sizes, gel food colouring (I like the Americolour brand) and some vodka. (Not for drinking, just to wet your brush with and mix with the gel food colouring to thin it out). Any clear extract (lemon or a clear vanilla) would also work. The reason for using alcohol is that it evaporates very quickly, meaning that the paint will dry quicker.

The Bon Appetit cookies were painted with luster dust, mixed with a bit of alcohol or extract. It comes in tons of colours. If you want to use luster dust to achieve that shimmery effect, here is a great tutorial on how to do it. I decided to do mine with just regular gel food colouring instead of the luster dust. Squeeze a blob of each colour you want to use onto an artist’s paint palette or a dinner plate. (I used a ceramic egg holder) Have a small glass of vodka ready for dipping your brush into. Dip the brush into the vodka or extract and then into the food colour gel. Have some paper towels ready to test the colour and adjust the amount of paint you have on your brush. Make sure you wash and dry the brush really well, before you change colours.I decided to up the adorable factor and write a message on my cookies. I used a thin tip paintbrush. Such a sweet way to declare your love this year.

Click here to print recipe for Sugar Cookies with Brown Sugar

Click here to print recipe for Royal Icing Recipe.

Sweet Talk Shortbread Hearts

9 Replies

I have been wanting to make the cookie equivalent of those candy conversation heats for some time now. You know the ones I mean, they have the taste and texture of chalk, but are kind of cute.When I went to buy some for the photo shoot, I discovered that SweeTarts also make a version of conversation hearts, and if you’re a fan of that mouthwatering fusion of sweet and tart, you’ll love them. I was thinking of doing an iced cookie, and piping the messages on them, but my fine motor skills aren’t precise enough for detailed piping and besides, my #1 valentine doesn’t like iced cookies. So, onto plan B. I remembered seeing these cookie letter stamps online.

Even though these are a novelty cookie, I still wanted them to be as delicious as possible. I thought I would try making them with a shortbread cookie dough. I used Mindy Segal’s recipe from her exciting and edgy new book, Cookie Love. After making the dough, I rolled it out using my new precision sticks. These have changed my life. I have always had difficulty rolling dough evenly, and then I was reading an article by cookie maven Dorris Greenspan. She was talking about these dough rolling sticks. They come in 1/4 inch, 1/8 inch and 1/16 inch thicknesses. They are genius in their simplicity.After rolling out dough between 2 sheets of parchment, I froze the sheet of dough before cutting out the hearts. I stamped the cookies with their messages before baking, but as soon as they were done I realized that would not work. The cookies puffed up a bit during baking and the letters were not crisp and clear anymore. I decided to try stamping the cookies immediately after baking, before cooling, while they were still soft. To make it manageable, from a timing perspective, I only baked 6 cookies at a time, so that the cookies would not harden before stamping. These cookies are both adorable and delicious. I was thrilled with the results.

Click here to print recipe for Sweet Talk Shortbread Hearts.

KK’s Coconut Cake with Coconut Caramel Filling

3 Replies

If you have a coconut lover in your life, this cake is the perfect way to declare your love for them. The very first time I had this cake was several years ago. My niece, KK, made it for my mom’s 76th birthday. She was only 10 years old at the time. She has been baking ever since she could grasp a spatula. At her house, half birthdays are celebrated with as much hoopla and joy as full birthdays, so with a five person family, that works out to 10 cakes a year and almost 150 cakes in her short lifetime. She has some mad baking skills!This is my twist on her cake. I have added a coconut caramel filling to spread between the layers. This filling, known as kaya is created by cooking coconut milk, eggs, granulated and coconut palm sugar and pandan leaves over a double boiler until the sugar becomes caramelized and everything thickens into a beautiful jam-like consistency. I learned how to make kaya from pastry chef Anna Olsen on The Food Network. Kaya is traditionally spread on toast and then dipped in soft boiled eggs for breakfast in Singapore and Malaysia. Clearly I grew up on the wrong continent. All I got for breakfast, when growing up was a bowl of Cheerios!

Pandan leaves are long narrow bright green leaves that grow on a tropical plant known as the Screwpine. Commonly found throughout Southeast Asia, they have been called, “The vanilla of the east.” They can be found fresh or frozen in at Asian grocery stores or online. Vanilla extract is a good substitute if you can’t find pandan leaves.

Making the coconut caramel (Kaya) filling takes time and patience. If you are short of either, just double the amount of buttercream frosting and use it to fill the layers as well as frost the top and sides of this cake. It will still be delicious, but I will say that Kaya pushes this cake further along on the bliss meter.

When you first start cooking the kaya, the pandan leaves will give off a grassy aroma. As they begin to steep in the coconut milk, eggs and sugar, the fragrance becomes more subdued, reminiscent of almonds and sweet cream.Although my sister would never do this, I weigh the cake batter to make sure I get an equal amount in each pan. That way, the layers all cook at the same rate. To frost the cake, I made an American buttercream. The recipe I used comes from Nila, over at thetoughcookie.com. She is a buttercream wizard. Check out her Battle of the Buttercream posts. She taught me that the addition of a few drops of lemon juice really brighten all the other flavours of the buttercream without making it taste like lemon. Really cool trick!

I piped a border of buttercream around each layer and then filled the center with the coconut caramel filling. The border keeps the coconut filling from oozing out,

Click here to print recipe for KK’s coconut cake with coconut caramel filling.

Dark Salty Caramels – A Labour of Love

7 Replies

I can not imagine anything more lovely than being presented with a box of these dark salty caramels from your valentine. They are unbelievably deep, dark and delicious, hovering ever so closely to the edge of bitter but narrowly escaping, thanks to the judicious addition of salt. These are adult caramels, for grown ups with a mature palate that no longer desires cloying sweets.

We have Alton Brown (and my sister Bonnie) to thank for this genius recipe. Reading through the ingredient list I did a double take when I came to the 6th ingredient…soy sauce! Soy sauce brings the funk to these caramels. It adds to the deep dark colour and provides a salty element as well as contributing umami, that savoury flavour that makes your mouth water.

If you are a fly by the seat of your pants baker, the kind who likes to bake free form, without any recipes or directions, and you know who you are, then this recipe is not for you.

If you are faint of heart and don’t like danger or risk taking, then this recipe is not for you either.

Making these caramels requires precision and nerves of steel. You need to stand over that pot and watch the candy thermometer. When it looks like the caramel is very dark and you are convinced it is going to burn any second now, do not remove it from the heat until the temperature registers 350°F. Have faith that Alton Brown knows what he is talking about. He is wise. If you remove the caramel too soon, you will end up with your grandma’s insipid blah caramels. If you are patient, you will be rewarded with caramels that have a depth and complexity of flavour that you have never experienced before.

That being said, please do not bypass the first step of the recipe where I instruct you to test your candy thermometer. Candy thermometers are not infallible.This molten caramel is VERY hot so wear oven mitts and resist the urge to lick the pot. It will take a good 3-4 hours to cool to room temperature so again, patience is required. After 3 hours I refrigerated them so they would firm up even more, making it much easier to get nice clean square cuts with a very sharp knife. I found this pretty little box at Target last week. It is part of the Nate Berkus Collection and is intended to be used as a jewellery box. I tarted it up with some pretty ribbon and turned it into a bon bon box.For storing the caramels, it is best to wrap each one individually in parchment paper.

Salt and Serenity

Tales from my kitchen

Tag Archives: Valentines Day

Pretzel Shortbread Cookies

The Toppings