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.).

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.

Menina cookie portrait made by Mischief Mari.

If my dogs were still alive today, they would have recently celebrated their birthdays.  Menina, would have been 17 years old and her daughter, Cadeau, would have been 15.  In celebration of the dogs’ lives, I asked friend and fellow blogger Mischief Mari to make some cookies for my family and me.  Even though she’s super busy, she agreed.

We loved our dog-inspired cookies!  We loved that they were whimsical and fun and made us laugh.  Not only did the cookies look terrific, they tasted delicious.

Thanks so much dear Mari!

Oh, by the way, you can find other cool cookies that Mari’s made for me here, here, here, here and here.

Paz

Menina cookie portraits

Cadeau cookie portraits

**I haven’t been cooking or food blogging lately.  So,  I’ve decided to go through my archives and repost some of my earlier posts, from the days when I started learning to cook and bake (I’m still learning).   It certainly brings back good memories. 

I remember when I first made these Butter Pecan Cookies.  They were really good.  I made them several times afterwards.   I’ve gotta make them again, very soon. 

Happy Holidays to all! 

Paz

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Originally posted December 25, 2006  

Hi everyone: 

I want to wish you a Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukhah, Winter Solstice, Kwanzaa, Eid-al-Adha… Whatever you celebrate, I wish you all the best during this holiday season.

Here’s a delicious Butter Pecan Cookie recipe I’d like to share with you. It’s from Simply Recipes. The buttery taste, along with the pecans will have you going back for more. I made them Christmas Eve and again on Christmas Day. They keep disappearing. Fast! I may make it one more time on Tuesday. The more I make it the better my cookie-making skills become.

This recipe only makes 12 cookies, but you can double the ingredients to make more. Thanks, Elise for the recipe and tip on creaming the butter and sugar. Very helpful.

Paz

 

 

Butter Pecan Cookies
Simply Recipes

 

By the way, here’s a tip I learned over lunch with Bay Area pastry chef Shuna Fish Lydon of Eggbeater. Cream the butter first. Then add sugar and cream them together. This is the way it is supposed to be done. (Thanks Shuna!)

 

3/4 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar, plus more for coating
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour

1- Preheat oven to 350°. On a baking sheet, toast pecans until fragrant, about 6 minutes. Let cool completely; finely chop.

2- With an electric mixer, cream butter for about a minute. Add 1/3 cup sugar and cream until light, about 1 minute more. Beat in vanilla, salt, and flour, scraping down sides of bowl, just until dough comes together. Fold in pecans.

3- Separate dough into 12 pieces; squeeze dough to shape into balls. Roll in sugar. Place, 3 inches apart, on a baking sheet.

4- Gently flatten with the bottom of a glass (reshape sides if necessary). Sprinkle with sugar.

5- Bake until golden brown, rotating sheet halfway through, about 15 minutes. Sprinkle with more sugar. Cool cookies on a wire rack.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**I haven’t been cooking or food blogging lately.  So,  I’ve decided to go through my archives and repost some of my earlier posts, from the days when I started learning to cook and bake (I’m still learning).   It certainly brings back good memories.

I remember the first time I made these cookies.  I was so proud of myself.  

Paz

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *  

Originally posted December 26, 2007

Okay.  So, one of the questions in a Christmas meme that I recently completed got me thinking.  It asked what I left for Santa.  My answer was nothing.  Then I started to think that this year, perhaps, I could bake some cookies for him. 

I saw the most enticing, delectable-looking cookies — Stained Glass Cookies — on Elise’s Simply Recipes site.  Actually, I’d first seen these cookies on Pille’s blog some time ago.  Looking at them, again, this time on Elise’s blog, I was ready and knew that they were the cookies I’d bake for Santa!  Yeah, baby! 

I put all the ingredients together without incident and then the adventure began:  The instructions called for placing the hard candies (that made the stained glass portion) in a bag and then crushing them.  Anxious to make my cookies, I forgot to put the candy in a bag before crushing them.  I placed them on the chopping board and started whacking away at them.  Each time I banged on them with my mallet, pieces of candy would fly all over the kitchen. 

Oh, my!  However, I didn’t let that minor hiccup stop me.  Determined to get my stained glass, I continued to bang away.  I think half of the candy must have landed on the kitchen floor.  Haha!  I’m sorry to say that it never occurred to me on my own, to put it in a bag to contain it.  Duh.  What a scene.  Definitely, next time, I’ll remember to use the bags to crush the candy. 

I cut out my cookies and filled in the shapes to make the stained glass, put them in the oven, and voila!  I made my very first ever Stained Glass Cookies.  They didn’t look too bad and they tasted G-R-E-A-T!  I think Santa liked them because the next morning, I found the cookie plate empty and I found some gifts under the Christmas tree with my name on it.  Thankfully, he didn’t leave me any coal.  So, I think I did all right. 

Thanks, Elise and Pille, for the recipe and inspiration.  Now that I’ve started, I plan on making these cookies again.

Paz

Oh, by the way, I did my best but for some reason couldn’t get decent photos of the cookies.  I was unable to capture how much they really looked like stained glass windows when held to the light.  Check out Elise and Pille’s cookies for an accurate and beautiful photo.

Stained Glass Cookies

Simply Recipes

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon molasses
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 2 cups flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 30-40 hard candies (such as Life Savers), preferably in several flavors/colors

1 Pre-heat oven to 375°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat.

2 In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, cream together butter and sugars until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add molasses and vanilla extract, mixing until incorporated. Add egg and mix until light and smooth, about 1 minute on medium speed.

3 Sift together flour, salt, and baking powder. Fold dry ingredients into wet mixture. Use electric mixer to blend just until flour is incorporated. Divide dough in half and flatten into two disks. Wrap disks in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least an hour and up to 2 days.

4 Remove any wrappers on candies and separate them by color into plastic bags. Using a mallet to crush candies.

5 Place one disk between two large sheets of waxed paper and roll to 1/4-inch thickness. Use cookie cutters to cut dough into desired shapes. Transfer cookies to prepared baking sheets, about 1 inch apart. Using a smaller cookie cutter or a knife, cut shapes into centers of cookies, reserving these center bits to add into extra dough.

6 Use a spoon to sprinkle the crushed candy into the hollowed-out centers of the cookies, filling to the edges. Try to keep the candy within the centers. Any candy specks that fall on the cookie will color the cookie.

7 If cookies will be hung as ornaments or decorations, poke a small hole in the top of each cookie before baking.

8 Bake 9 to 10 minutes. The candy should be melted and bubbling and the cookies just barely beginning to brown. Remove baking sheets from oven and place on wire racks to cool. Allow cookies to cool on pans at least 10 minutes; otherwise, the candy centers may separate from the dough. When cookies are completely cooled, remove and store in an airtight container. String with ribbon if you want to hang as an ornament.

Makes 2 to 4 dozen cookies, depending on how large you make them.