Snowman Oreo Pop's

I saw these on a fellow blogger's site (The Sweet Swiper) and absolutely fell in love with them and had to make them for my hard working co workers this Christmas season.  I was so sure these were going to be a lot faster  to make then cake pops.  And they would have been if not for a couple of speed bumps along the way.

Everything started off great.

 The vanilla candy melt was melted.

The Oreo's were ready to go

And then were ready to dry and have faces.

Then disaster. 

I started making the peppermint snowman.  I had just taken the peppermint candy melts out of the microwave and placed them on the counter, when they went crashing down on to the floor. I guess I put them on the edge. First lesson learned, I will from now on melt my candy melts in a microwavable safe plastic bowl and not glass.  The bowl broke . The candy hardened on the cold tile floor.  I had a hard candy with glass mess on my floor.  I had to get on my hands and knees and use a spatula to scrape off the candy and glass.  It was not a pretty site.  I did not take a picture, because at the moment I was very mad.  Thank goodness for the extra bag of white candy melts.

The second lesson learned was this.  You can not use food colouring in candy melts.  It makes it hard and lumpy, and no matter what I did, I could not get it back to a nice smooth texture.  Next time I will think ahead and either by the colour of candy melts I want to pipe or use royal icing.   I used royal icing to pipe the nose, eyes and mouth.

In the end my co workers were extremely pleased with the result and that's all that matters.

Baking with Grandmaman

My 90 year old Grandmaman from New Brunswick has been in town for the last month.  It is always nice to have her come down, especially since every time she leaves she always tells us it will be her last time.  However her grandchildren keep having babies.  She is up to five great grandchildren.  Kind of hard for her to pass up seeing all these cute little babies.

Last week I had the pleasure of having her over and making one of my favourite cookie recipes that she made every time she was visiting when I was kid.  And the best part was watching my 2 year old son help her ( she gave him a measuring cup with a little bit of flour).  The recipe comes from a great aunt. The name of the cookie that I grew up with is "Biscuit au Sucre Blanc" de ma tante Marie.
Translation, Aunt Marie's White Sugar Cookie.  These however are not you normal sugar cookies.  They are soft and fluffy, and the best part is that they are doubled up with jam inside. I make these every Christmas, it is tradition in my family and hopefully the tradition will continue.

Ma Tante Marie, Biscuit Au Sucre Blanc

2 eggs
1 3/4 cup white sugar
1 cup shortening (almost melted)
3/4 cup warm milk
3 tsp cream of tartar (slightly rounded)
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
4 cups flour (may need up to 4 1/2 cups)
Strawberry Jam

Bake @ 350f for 10 to 12 minutes

Prepare shortening

In large bowl cream together shortening, sugar eggs and vanilla.

Prepare dry ingredients.  Measure out flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt.

Prepare milk (30 seconds in the microwave)

Alternate adding flour mixture and milk to the batter.

May need to add more flour, keep in mind dough needs to be refrigerated (30 minutes) and you will use more flour to roll it out.

Divide dough in 4 and roll out shapes.  Half the cut outs should have a hole to let the jam through.

Bake at 350 for 10 to 12 minutes.  I have a hot stove and only needed 8 minutes.  Just keep an eye on your first batch.  They should be white on top and slightly golden on the bottom.

Let cool, jam and then double up.

I find these cookies taste best after they have had time for the jam to absorb into the cookie, for a bit.

Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies

This might be a bit embarrassing to admit, but I have (until this afternoon) never eaten or baked a whoppie pie.  I have always seen them on TV or in my baking books, but for some reason have always gone with a different recipe.  Well after today I think I will try a whole bunch more of these soft little pillows of yummyness.

Now as you can see from the title, the recipe that finally grabbed my attention is for a peanut butter whoppie pie.  I LOVE peanut butter.  I eat the stuff everyday and now it seems I have passed down my love for it to my two year old son, who like me needs to have it on a slice of toast every morning. 

I got this recipe from my 2006 Holiday Cookie Magazine by Martha Stewart.  It was super simple to make and really did not take up to much of my time.  Meaning I was able to make this recipe with no kids napping.  The stand mixer definitely helps speed up the process, but no big deal if you don't have one.

 PEANUT BUTTER WHOPPIE PIES

For the cookie
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the filling
2/3 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup confectioner's sugar

1.  Preheat oven to 375F.  Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a small bowl; set aside.

2. Put butter, shortening and sugars into a bowl of an electric mixer with paddle attachment.  Mix on high speed until smooth, about 3 minutes.  Add egg; mix until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Mix in half the flour mixture, then milk and vanilla.  Mix in remaining flour mixture

3. Drop rounded tablespoons of dough on to baking sheets lined with parchment papers, spacing 2 inches apart.  Bake until cookies spring back when lightly touched, 12 to 14 minutes (my oven was 10 minutes).  Let cool on sheets on wired racks for 10 minutes.  Transfer cookies to wire rack and let cool.

 4. Make filling: Put peanut butter and butter in bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment.  Mix on high speed until smooth.  reduce mixer speed to low.  Add confectioner's sugar; mix until combined.  Raise speed to high, and mix until fluffy and smooth, about 3 minutes.

   
5.  Assemble cookies:  Spread 1 tablespoon filling on bottom of 1 cookie.  Sandwich with another cookie.  Repeat with remaining cookies and filling.  Cookies can be refrigerated in an airtight container up to 3 days.








**My husband and 2 year old approve this recipe, and I am sure my baby would also, if he was allowed to eat one. I mean look at the drool coming out of his mouth.**

Welcome

Hello and welcome to my new baking blog. 

To make things more simple on myself, I have decided to try blogging about my baking adventures on an actual blog site and not my photo sharing site (it did not have the best format). I have always enjoyed baking, but have been doing more and more since I became married and have had children. I hope you enjoy baking and eating these goodies as much as my family and I do.

Alissa