I hope everyone's cookies and treats are turning out well!
The church windows turned out great; they were really easy and yielded too much! I wrapped them in wax paper and left in the fridge a couple hours to harden, then sliced them about an inch thick and they look just like the picture. I have the slices in tins and the fridge and they are keeping just fine. I doubt they even need to be refridgerated now, so long as the layers of slices are separated by wax paper as a precaution if your house is hot.
My Ginger-Dog Houses turned out all right given it was a first try I suppose. I reformatted the online pattern to be shaped like dog houses, with the arched doorway to boot. I put treats inside and a toy (racketball in 2, squeaker toy, stuffed toy in the 4th one) then put on the roofs. After icing the roofs I stuck a toy figure atop center, santa-ball snowman-ball candycane-squeaker on another, and it occured to me that I wish I had found little snoopy and woodstock squeaker figures to put on the roofs. Maybe next year I will do the Ginger-Dog Houses again, but with the snoopy theme.
I tried this recipe, and it works great, except adults will want coffee to wash these down with...Night Before Christmas Mice...The batter holds the shape well, so you can even curve little gestures by lowering a mouse ear quizically, and it holds that shape through the baking and cooling! The only thing I changed was to not use chocolate chips for the eyes, as the batter is cocoa color anyway, but to wait until they cooled and then use bright green icing for the eyes to complement the red showstring tails, kinda Christmas-y
....Enjoy
....
Night Before Christmas Mice
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup shortening
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
mini semisweet chocolate baking chips
red string licorice, cut into two-inch pieces
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Beat sugar, butter and shortening until fluffy. Add vanilla and egg. Blend well. Stir in flour, cocoa and baking powder. Mix well. Shape dough into one-inch balls. Pinch one end of ball to form nose of mouse. Make two tiny balls of dough and flatten for ears. Gently press into upper front of each mouse where ears would be. Press two mini chocolate chips into dough below ears for eyes. Place two inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until set. (You won't see a change in the color or size of the dough). Immediately press licorice into the mouse for a tail. Remove and cool on wax paper. Yields three dozen.
These are some of the cutest cookies you'll ever see! Children love them!
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We had a fog roll in the night I was making divinity, and so it turned gummy like marshmellos!
I ended up having to pour it into a pan rather than making cute little scoops like Southern Living had illustrated, heh. But in an 8X8 pan with pecan halves and an inch in between them, I was able to chill the batter to where it could be cut into squares and dipped into a chocolate chip/parafin melt so that they made perfect little chocolates, and still retained the divinity flavor, so I am pleased with that turn out.
My pumpkin spice cookies turned out too cake like, so I dipped those in white chocolate. I dunno if it is cause I used fruitcake filling instead of candied cherries, as the stores were out of the cherrires if they even carry them anymore. The coating is a little too thick and sweet really, but they were salvaged adequately, heh.
All that is left is to wrap the 2 GingerDog Houses that are gifts, and I can start on the REAL food for tomorrow, LOL!
I'm personally looking for another sugar cookie recipe for the kids to decorate that are soft, thick and big.
