The long version: I spent 2 days in the kitchen.
On Saturday, I baked gingerbread cutouts, chocolate drop cookies, and polvorones. I also made a double batch of fruitcake biscotti. I made 12 cups each of Grand Marnier Pecans, and Amaretto Walnuts. Afterwards, I collapsed on the couch and vegged out in front of the TV. I totally ignored Mr. Christmas Tree other than to turn on his lights to admire them.
Sunday was frosting day and I intended to make chocolate bark. First I made a quick trip to the grocery store for weekly supplies, plus a few more white chocolate chips. For dinner, we decided a crock pot meal was the best, so I bought the fixings for chili and cornbread. I got the chili going before I attacked the frosting.
I made a triple batch of royal icing...that's 3 pounds of powdered sugar! I love that my KitchenAid Pro mixer can handle that much! I colored part of it green and the rest stayed white. I've finally learned that I don't need icing in 5 different colors to make the cookies colorful.
I iced and decorated most of the sugar cookies (about 80). I iced the snowflakes and ornaments and left them plain white (about 30). These 30 are the time-consuming cookies...they take three steps to complete and must completely dry after each step.
I iced and decorated the gingerbread cutouts to look like snowmen faces. I got the idea from Family Circle magazine. They turned out pretty cute, but I need more practice putting those chocolate chips on! My frosting is also a little thinner than theirs, but it works. You can totally control the snowman's expression by how you place the chips! This guy's is a little dopey:
If you decide to do this, take note: The recipe says to cut the candy corn in half. Only fresh candy corn can be cut in half. That leftover candy corn from Halloween? It will shatter or split. I gave up trying to cut them and put them on whole. It works fine!
After that it was on to the biscotti. I put chocolate on at least half of each batch except the fruitcake ones (I ran out of steam). Depending on the type, I sprinkled crushed candy or nuts on top. I tried mixing the coconut in with the white chocolate this time, but I'm not happy with how they look. The coconut will stay moist this way, but the biscotti look bumpy. Back to the drawing board for that one.
By the time I finished, it was dinner time, so I threw together the cornbread. While it was baking, I checked the snowflakes to see if they were dry. They were dry and ready for piping, so I did that after dinner. I finished in time for Dexter at 9pm!
(This is only part of what I did!)
I was feeling pretty guilty about Mr. Christmas Tree, so while I watched Dexter, I hung some ornaments. It's starting to look like a Christmas tree!
Last night I finished the 3rd step of frosting the snowflakes--painting on the pearl luster dust and edible glitter. I also made a batch of Macadamia-Lime fudge and a batch of Peppermint Marbled bark.
Tonight is cookie packing night. I deliver the gift bags to my co-workers tomorrow and need to start get things together!
I see light at the end of the tunnel!
.
1 comment:
You amaze me, as always! I was debating making frosted sugar cookies this year but might have given up on that idea as being too much work. :-) Nice photo of the trays of goodies all laid out.
Post a Comment