First Cookies of the New Year 2013!
January 8, 2013 | Filed Under Cookies | 8 Comments
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Mischief Mari of Cha no ma-ri has always inspired with me with her cookie-decorating skills.
I never thought I could be capable of decorating my own cookies until I’d read her recently-released book:
the coolest cookies on the planet by mari pfeiffer.
It’s a really fun, inspiring and easy-to-read book.
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So, for the New Year, I set out to bake and decorate some cookies!
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I made sugar cookies from a recipe in Mari’s book.
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I made Royal Icing.
I had fun choosing my icing colors.
Then I set out decorate.
Of course, I need a lot of practice, but I‘ve just begun.
Let’s see what type of decorated cookies I’ll make during this new year.
I hope to get better and better!
Paz
You can find Mari’s book HERE.
Black and White Wednesday: Snow Balls
December 12, 2012 | Filed Under Black and White Wednesday, Cookies | 6 Comments
If you don’t have snow for your holidays, you can make your own! And eat it, too! Snowball Cookies! They also happen to be known as Mexican Wedding Cakes or Russian Tea Cakes, depending on who’s making the cookies.
Black and White Wednesday: A Culinary Gallery
created by Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook
Snowball Cookies
as seen on Lululu at Home
Ingredients (around 20 cookies):
1 cup cake flour
1 1/2 cups nut of your choice (I used walnut, pecan and almond), finely chopped
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup powder sugar
Directions:
Preheat oven to 300F.
In a bowl, mix together flour, nuts, salt and sugar.
Add vanilla extract, then butter in little pieces. Combine everything together with your hands until the mixture looks like a coarse meal.
Form the dough into tablespoon-sized balls, place onto a cookie sheet. Leave an inch apart between cookies.
Bake for 35 minutes. When they are still warm, but cool enough to touch, roll the cookies in powder sugar lightly. Set aside to cool completely. Then dust with powdered sugar again.
What I Did During the Storm (or Ginger Cookies)
November 14, 2012 | Filed Under Cookies | 10 Comments
I wasn’t very prepared for the storm. I didn’t have enough food or other essentials. On the second day of the hurricane, I started to become a little concerned. With the storm raging outside, I felt like eating something warm and comforting. I had just enough sugar, flour, baking soda and molasses (to my surprise), ginger, cloves and cinnamon spice to make some ginger cookies. My friend Sara had given me a simple reicpe. So, around midnight (I’ve found that I like baking late at night. That’s another story.), I baked my ginger cookies. I love chewy ginger cookies and mine came out that way. Perfect! It was a good thing I was able to go food shopping after the storm, otherwise our meals would have consisted of ginger cookies — for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. I’m very grateful the storm is over.
Paz
The Coolest Cookies on the Planet
December 16, 2011 | Filed Under Baking, Books, Cookies, Decorated Cookies, Mischief Mari, Mischief Mari Cookies | 10 Comments
A silhouette cookie of me.
Unless we meet in person, this is the only likeness you’ll see of me. You can thank mischief mari for this sneak peek of me. LOL! I actually love this cookie design. It is very accurate.! Mari did a special post entitled ‘The Three Pazes‘ and provided a tutorial on these type of cookies, which you can find HERE.
Book available HERE.
For the past few years, I’ve been enjoying mischief mari cookies and her blog, cha no ma-ri. Mari has made me several different cookies, which I’ve mentioned on my blog. I can’t say I have a favorite because I truly love them all. Each cookie design is creative, artistic, beautiful, amazing, fun, funny, cool and more. Oh, and they taste terrific, too. They truly are the coolest cookies on the planet.
Well, Mari has recently published a book, the coolest cookies on the planet by mari pfeiffer. In it, she shares cookie and icing recipes, baking and cookie design tutorials, and stories that inspired some of her most popular cookie designs (like her Jane Austen and Obama Hope cookies). That. Is. SO. Cool. In addition, the book features eye-catching photos by her husband, Aasulv Austad.
You can find the book HERE. Go check it out!
Thanks Mari for sharing your creative cookies and now your book with us. I can’t wait to bake and designing my own cookies. It’s going to be a lot of fun.
Paz
One of the first cookies Mischief Mari made for me. They were so fun to look at, that I didn’t want to eat them. Well, that feeling only lasted a few hours. We gleefully gobbled the cookies after that. They were delish!
If I were to run for presidency, I’d hand out these mischief mari cookies.
Surely, no one will forget me. 
Whimsical cookies in honor of my dogs that mischief mari made for me.
This is Menina wearing glasses. LOL!
Cookie portraits of my other dog, Cadeau.
Everytime I see these fun dog portrait cookie photos, they make me smile and happy, especially because my dogs are since gone. My sister was in the hospital when Mari made these cookies. I took some to her. Everyone — my sister, the hospital staff and other patients in her room got a kick out of them. They loved the cookies. One of the doctors began to speak to my sister on a more personal note and mentioned his dog, which he loved a lot. If it weren’t for the mischief mari cookies, he would have never become more personable and compassionate with my sister. We would have never known that he was a dog lover.
This is a package of animal cookies that mischief mari sent me one year.
This is a wonderful package to receive in the mail.
A close up of one of the animal mischief mari cookies.
One of mischief mari’s popular cookies (She made McCain cookies, too.).
Raisins and Walnut Cookies
October 13, 2010 | Filed Under Baking, Cookies, Raisins | 6 Comments
The recipe for these cookies come from My Turkish Kitchen. It’s another simple recipe, which I love. Who can resist raisins and nuts? Not me. There’s not much I can say about these cookies except for YUMMY!
Paz
Raisins and Walnuts
My Turkish Kitchen
Ingredients:
* 1+ 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
* 1/2 cup of granulated sugar
* 1/3 cup of light brown sugar
* 1/2 cup of raisins
* 1/2 cup of finely diced walnuts
* 1 egg
* 1/4 cup of plain yogurt
* 1 stick butter ( softened )
* 1/3 tsp of baking soda
* 1/3 tsp of vanilla sugar
* a pinch of salt
Sift flour, baking soda, vanilla sugar, and salt in a mixing bowl. In another bowl, whisk egg, melted butter, yogurt, granulated sugar, and brown sugar. Add sifted mixing and mix it with a spatula. Add raisins and walnut to the bowl and mix. Take one tablespoon of cookie dough and place it on a greased baking tray. Leave some room between the cookies. Preheat the oven 400 F. Bake for 5 minute at this temperature then turn it down to 350F. Bake the cookies for 10 more minutes or until light brown.
