A Cookie As Good As It Looks

When it comes to taste, fancy decorated cookies unfortunately have a bad reputation.

"I love how your cookies look but I honestly didn't expect them to taste delicious too," is what I hear time and time again when I serve my creations.

There is good reason for the skepticism, because in all honestly,  most decorated cookies don't taste that great. They are often thin, dry, flavorless and over-iced, sometimes with more sickly sweet icing than cookie. And although they look pretty, I absolutely abhor cookies topped with gumpaste and fondant decorations. Ugh. It's like eating straight up sugar with an artificial aftertaste.

Because of the negative preconception of fancy cookies, I always offer samples when I sell my creations and surprise people when they discover that a decorated cookie can taste as good as it looks.

Making a delicious decorated cookie isn't hard, it just takes good recipes and consideration. Here are my best tips for making a delicious tasting decorated cookie:

*Most important is having a good cookie recipe.  My favorite tried and true recipe contains all-butter, not too much sugar and a good dose of vanilla and pure almond extract. Click here for the recipe.

*When I roll out cookie dough, I aim for 1/4 inch in thickness. I want to be sure to end up with a product that's more cookie than royal icing, 3:1 is ideal.

Quarter-inch thick cookies ready to be baked.

*If I want to make a cookie with an intricate layered design, I go the double-decker route by topping a base cookie with another cookie. It's essential to have more cookie than icing!

For these Gardenia cookies, I went the double-decker route and added layer of "cookie petals" to keep the flower design from being all icing and making the cookie too sweet.

*As for the royal icing, powdered sugar is a necessary ingredient so I cut the sweetness with some tablespoons of lemon juice. The addition makes a world of difference and compliments the vanilla almond flavor of the cookie. Click here for my royal icing recipe.

*Remember that less is sometimes more. I've learned from experience that it's very easy to take a cookie into the realm of being overdecorated. Practice restraint with your decorating because simple is often what's most beautiful.

Colorful dot cookies are simple and beautiful!

Here are some of my favorite designs but most importantly, these are also great tasting cookies!

Gardenia Cookies For Billie Holiday

I always try to come up with a special decorated cookie to serve at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral's Alternative Liturgy worship services because my husband Joe is the organizer and the freewill offering collected goes directly to Trinity's Hunger Ministries which supports the Wednesday Community Meal.

The Alternative Liturgies are always based around a popular music theme, musician or band whose songs are performed live by a group of fantastic musicians who donate their time and talent.  Special cookies I have made for past alternative liturgies include a yellow submarine (The Beatles), a lightening bolt (David Bowie) and a smiley face (Nirvana).

This weekend's liturgy is Billie Holiday and I knew right away I needed to make a Gardenia cookie since that's the flower she always wore in her hair.

I wanted to make the flower three-dimensional and it took me a while to figure out how — My solution was to make one layer of Gardenia petals out of cookie and a second layer of petals out of royal icing.

I'm very pleased how these turned out and can't wait to serve them this weekend. Please considering joining us, the music and messages are always inspiring and it's for a great cause.

Here are the details:

GOD BLESS THE CHILD: BILLIE HOLIDAY LITURGY
Saturday, April 11, 6:00 p.m., Trinity Episcopal Cathedral (147 NW 19th Ave, Portland, OR), Kempton Hall, Free and Open to the Public. An alternative Eastertide liturgy set to the songs popularized by the Angel of Harlem, jazz legend Billie Holiday. An evening of live music, readings and reflections to benefit Trinity’s hunger programs.

And, here's how to make Gardenia Cookies:

You need a round cutter and a mini heart cutter.

Cut and bake the round cookies with 2/3 of your dough and then roll out the remaining 1/3 and cut mini hearts. These will be used to make flower petals.

Cut a heart cookie in half.

Use your figure to flatten and shape it into a petal.

Pinch off the bottom to shorten the petal like the two on the left. The dough you remove can be re-rolled. You need a lot of petals, five for every cookie.

After you've made the petals, bake them for 4 to 5 minutes in a 325-degree oven.

Outline and fill your round cookies with flood icing. Set them aside to dry overnight.

With white icing, outline and fill all of the petals and set them aside to dry.

Once your base cookies and petals are dry, you can assemble. Use medium consistency royal icing to pipe six dots — First add one in the center and then add five evenly spaced around it.

Place a petal on each of the five dots.

Using stiff white royal icing and a petal tip (I use Wilton #104), pipe a petal on top of the cookie petals. This takes some practice so you may need to first try piping onto a plate. The most important thing is that a petal tip is wide on one end and narrow on the other and the wide end should be on the bottom and the narrow end on the top as you pipe a petal.

Pipe four more petals. As you pipe, the stiff icing tends to soften because of the pressure and warmth from your hands. If the icing gets too soft you may need to whip it again.  It's worth taking the time to do this if necessary.

Let the cookies dry before adding a center.

With medium consistency gold icing and a #1 tip, add a tiny dot to the center of each Gardenia.

Birthday Cookie

This cute double-decker Birthday Cookie is so simple to make, decorate and customize with a personal message. All you need to make it is cookie dough, royal icing and an edible ink marker.

When it came to cutting the parts for the cookie, I used a knife and cut them freehand. I cut a large 6-inch square for the base and for the candle, a thin strip of dough and a teardrop shape for the flame. 

The cookies parts before baking.

Candle close-up.

Here's how I decorated and assembled the cookie:

Outline and flood the base cookie with royal icing and set it aside to dry completely.

With a paint brush, paint on the dark pink and gold royal icing for the candle and the flame and let these dry completely before attaching them to the dried base cookie. I even added icing to the sides of the candle and flame cookies so that there were no bare edges to be seen after they were attached to the base. Let the cookie dry for another hour or so until the "icing glue" is set.

Then just use an edible ink marker to write a birthday greeting and that's all there is to it.

A side view of the finished cookie that's for our good friend Elise's 15th birthday.

Cookie Borders

My recent batch of barn owl cookies. The cookies with a border look better to me and more complete.

A piped border whether it be dots, a line or a combination of the two, is a really nice way to finish off decorated cookies.

I just think a border makes a cookie feel really complete, it's a frame for your art — And that's why I added a variety of them to my recent batch of barn owl cookies.

When adding a border you want to use icing that is piping consistency and holds its shape yet isn't so stiff that it holds a peak and you can see your stop and start points.  You want icing that holds yet settles to a smooth surface. This might sound complicated but it really isn't and just takes patience and practice.

Having the correct consistency of royal icing when piping borders is the key to success so it's important to take your time to get the consistency right. Always test icing first by piping onto a plate before adding it to your cookies.

Once you have your icing right, it's time to add the borders. Here are a few ideas:

A line following the shape of the cookie is the simplest design.

A dot border. Practice making even-sized dots before adding them to the cookie.

Closeup.

Alternating dots and lines for a border is another option.

Adding dots all over the cookie creates a wide border and also helps "frame" the owl.

Hammer Cookies

My hammer cookies are done and ready to share. The design was simple but making 200 still took a lot of time and counter space!

I was lucky to have my friend Pam visiting me the day I decorated the tops of the hammers and she helped me find space for them in the kitchen and smooth out the icing after I filled them.
 
I purchased the cute hammer cutter online from a company called American Tradition Cookie Cutters.

Here's how I made them:

I baked a lot of cookies.

I used a #2 tip and gray colored medium consistency icing to add a line at the head of the hammer. I then let this dry for about 15 minutes before I outlined and filled the top of the hammer with flood consistency icing.

I just kept working in sections until I had the top of all the hammers completed.

I let the cookies dry overnight before moving onto the next step. Because I had so many cookies all over my kitchen, I knew I needed to be able to pick them up and move them around. Letting the tops dry overnight means that I will be able to touch that area and move the cookies when I decorate the handles.

To decorate the handles, I outlined them with red medium consistency icing using a #2 tip and also added two lines down the middle.

I let this outline dry for about 1 hour before moving onto the next step.

With flood consistency icing and a #2 tip I filled in the handles. I like the textured effect on the handles and think it adds a lot of interest to the cookies. Once the handles are filled in you just need to wait for them to dry completely. This takes about 8 hours.

Here are all the cookies packed and ready to be delivered. When tackling big cookie projects, be sure to give yourself three or four days to work on them. Big batches of decorated cookies aren't something you whip up last minute.

Double Decker Daisy Cookie

I just thought I'd show you these double-decker daisy cookies that are another option if you don't want to make a cookie bouquet. The pink colored base cookie against the bright white of the daisy looks so fresh and pretty. These would be perfect for a wedding or tea party.

I used a plaque-shaped cookie for the base but you could use any shape you want as long as it's bigger than the daisy cookie.

Here's how:

Cut and bake base cookies.

And, cut and bake the same number of daisy cookies.

Decorate the daisy cookies just like in the previous Daisy Bouquet post. For details click here.

Outline and flood the base cookie with pink royal icing and a #2 tip.

Use a skewer or scribe tool to evenly distribute the icing and give the cookie a gentle shake.

Let the base cookies and daisies dry completely before moving onto the next step.

With piping consistency royal icing, add tiny dots around the entire base cookie.

It will look like this.

Use the same piping consistency royal icing to add a blob to the back of the daisy.

Gently press the daisy onto the cookie. Let the cookies dry completely before serving or packaging.