Cathedral Cookies

It's about time I blow the dust off the old computer and rejoin the blogging world! Thank you for your patience as I entered the oh-so-scary mommy world. What a crazy 4 months it has been. Lots of ups-and-downs...but mostly ups! Nolan is an awesome kiddo and I've loved watching him grow up so incredibly fast. Ironically, now that I've finally gotten ahold of this parenting thing, I find myself back at work during the week. Just when I think "Ok, I CAN do this..." I have to schlep back in to an office and leave him at home to entertain the nanny. Although Im sad to leave him, the good news is that I love my job. In fact, I'm happy to be back designing and I'm even happier to pick my #1 hobby (baking and eating raw cookie dough) back up! Pretty soon Nolan will be my in-house taste tester and critic. Until then, I'll continue to let my 2 dogs assist me. They LOVE everything I make, so I may keep them around to boost my ego. 

These Cathedral Cookies came about as I spent many days and nights staring out of my apartment windows. The sunsets are spectacular and the way the light enters my apartment at dusk is a real treat. I remembered making stained glass cookies as a child and holding them up to the window to let the light shine through. They look complicated but really are one of the simplest to make on the cookie spectrum. Of course, I couldn't just make a standard stained glass cookie. These cathedral cookies may look fancy, but they're just as easy to make as the ones from my youth. The addition of multicolored candy and royal icing mimics a cathedral stained glass window. I used a chocolate cut-out cookie but you can use any flavor of cookie dough–plain vanilla, gingerbread (great for the Holidays!), lemon or, my personal favorite, honey-cardamom. 

Chocolate Window Cookies
INGREDIENTS
8 ounces dark chocolate (can be semi-sweet), chopped or chips
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
14oz. large bag of assorted Jolly Rancher candies

DIRECTIONS
1. Place chocolate in a bowl and microwave on 20-second increments, stirring after each increment. Be careful not to overheat and burn the chocolate. Set aside to cool slightly.

2. In a medium sized bowl, sift or whisk the flour, salt and baking soda. Set aside.

3. In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined.

4. With the mixer on low, slowly pour in the chocolate, then add the flour mix in 2 batches. Mix until the dough is just incorporated, making sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

5. Turn the dough out in 2 batches onto large sheets of plastic wrap or parchment paper. Wrap tightly and press into flattened disks, then refrigerate for at least an hour (or overnight). While the dough chills, unwrap the Jolly Rancher candies and place in plastic bags or dish towels according to color. Smash with a hammer until you have small pieces.

6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a baking liner. Take one disk out of the fridge and roll out onto a floured work surface. Use the window template (Download the template here) and a sharp knife to cut cathedral window frames out of the dough. Collect scraps and re-roll until you have enough window frames to fill up a baking sheet. If dough gets too soft, place in fridge to firm up. Once the baking sheet is full, place in the fridge to chill for 10 minutes.

7. Drop a heaping teaspoon of the crushed candies into the window frames. Get creative with color, but remember not to overfill or the candy will overflow when it melts. Bake on middle rack for 7-9 minutes, or until all the candy is melted and dough is slightly firm to the touch. Make the royal icing while the cookies cool.

Royal Icing

3 tablespoons Meringue Powder
4 cups (about 1 lb.) confectioners' sugar
6 tablespoons water
Black gel food coloring

Beat ingredients together until icing is shiny and soft peaks form. Add black food coloring until icing is the desired shade of grey. Spoon into a piping bag or ziplock bag with the tip snipped off.

On a clean work surface pipe out stained glass details onto the cookies. I found inspiration and designs by looking up "stained glass windows" images on the internet. Let icing dry completely and store in an airtight container.

Baby Shower Cut-Out Cookies

The big news is that my sister is having a baby next month. The other big news (although not as important) is that I've discovered the best cut-out cookie recipe and you'll be surprised what makes it so delicious. Drumroll please....The secret ingredients are cardamom and honey! Although many cultures love this spice for savory cooking, Nordic people take credit for discovering cardamom's true calling in baking. Now I have something else to thank you for, besides Eric Northman from HBO's True Blood:)

I've been waiting for a while to use this set of adorable baby shower cookie cutters and Haley's shower was the perfect opportunity! I wanted to enhance the traditional cut-out cookie recipe that I use every year around the Holidays, but I also wanted to please the palates of all the guests expecting a sweet and traditional cookie. Most guests could't point out the use of cardamom and honey, but they knew there was something extra special about these cookies. Here's the recipe along with some shots from the shower!

Cardamom-Honey Cut-Outs with Lemon Royal Icing

Makes 3 dozen cookies

INGREDIENTS

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

1/2 tsp. ground cardamom

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup honey

1 large egg

1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

1. In a bowl, combine the flour, cardamom, salt and baking soda. Set aside. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add the honey, egg and vanilla. Continue mixing on medium speed until well blended, about 1 minute. Add the flour mixture and mix on low speed until the dough comes together. Scoop out the dough ball onto a sheet of plastic wrap and smooth into a flattened disk. Wrap tightly in the plastic and refrigerate until chilled, at least 1.5 hours. Dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for 1 month. 

2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 or more baking sheets with parchment paper or non-stick baking liners. Working with your chilled disk, roll out the dough on a floured work surface to about 3/16 inch thick. Use cookie cutter to cut out shape and place 1 inch apart on the lined cookie sheets. Gather and re-roll scraps to make more cookies. Bake one sheet at a time for even cooking for 8-10 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown. Let the cookies cool on the sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer them to a cooling rack.

Lemon Royal Icing 
Makes 6 cups

INGREDIENTS

2 lbs. confectioners' sugar

5 tablespoons meringue powder

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1/4 warm water (as needed)

Red, Yellow, Blue and Green Food coloring (for pastel colors, use just one drop)

DIRECTIONS

1. In the bowl of your electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment (or with a hand mixer), beat the confectioners' sugar, meringue powder and lemon juice until combined. Beat on medium to high speed, adding water as needed, until until very glossy and stiff peaks form (5 to 7 minutes). This is the proper consistency to pipe a border around your cookie. 

2. Separate the icing in your mixer into 4 equal batches, leaving one batch in the mixer and placing the other batches in smaller bowls (one for each color). Add a small drop of food coloring into the bowl and beat the icing until the color is fully incorporated. Use a rubber spatula to scrape all of the icing into a small bowl, and cover. Repeat with the 3 other colors, cleaning your mixing bowl between batches. After mixing, you should have 4 bowls with colored icing. Place half of each batch into a prepared piping bag with coupler and no.3 tip on it. Note: If you don't have a piping bag and piping tips, you can use a sturdy sealable sandwich bag and snip the very tip of the corner with scissors.  

3. Using a whisk, thin down the remaining batches of icing with water. The proper consistency is when you lift the whisk, the ribbon of icing that falls back into the bowl remains on the surface of the icing for a few seconds before disappearing. Cover the icing immediately as exposure to air will harden it. 

4. Assemble the cooled cookies on a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper (for easy clean-up). Pipe borders around the perimeter of each cookie with the colored icing. Set piping bags aside and let dry completely. 

5. Using a small spoon, cover or 'flood' the entire surface of the cookie with the thinned icing. Use a toothpick to push icing into hard to reach areas. Let dry completely before decorating with remaining icing in piping bags.  

(Left) A snapshot of the invite. (Right) I dressed up the dessert table with some nostalgic candies. 

These colored paper flags were easy to make and a festive addition for the baby shower. 

We all decorated onezies for the mom-to-be. I picked this idea up at a friends baby shower a few years ago. It's easy to do and lets everyone at the shower design a personal message for the baby.

My sister lives in Baltimore, so I had to include a National Bohemian Beer onesie. Natty Boh! And I had to represent for NYC!

Even Tom got in on the decorating. He took the shower motif literally with 

his black lab onesie.