Who said that Blue cannot become the Colour of Love?

The Crystallised cookies, from A. and V. with love

letterstoantoinette
The Crystallised cookies, from A. and V. with love

The
other day V. mentioned that she was considering baking some love inspired
cookies for St. Valentine?s Day and decorating them accordingly (hearts, reds,
and all that). Though not being a passionate cook myself, I thought that assisting
her while preparing them could actually turn into a great adventure ? we could catch up,
while


I could
simultaneously lay my hands on her recipe (sorry V.) for the yummiest cookies
I?ve ever tasted (yes, she has surprised us with her extremely delightful
desserts on quite a few occasions before, not
to mention
the heavenly cake she prepared for my last year?s birthday).

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* Sorry for the poor quality of the picture, sweeties; it was quite late and the only device I had  brought  with myself to the dinner party was my phone…
Quite excited about
the upcoming baking tutorial, I put on my biggest smiles and I headed over to
V?s. When she opened the door she actually took a step back clearly stunned by
my obvious keenness (but, hey, I was just about to get a hold of her secret recipe,
remember?). And just like that I was finally led into the mysterious world of cookie
baking.
Quite a few hours
later, with flour spilled all over the floor, fingers covered with blue food
colouring (this thing should be forbidden by law!), a few cookies stolen by her
dog, and a few disastrous attempts to decorate the shapes ? I can finally proudly present to you our ?Crystallised cookies?.
And of course, I cannot skip the occasion to apologise to V. for my obvious
lack of knowledge within the field of baking. Well, I did help a bit (with the colouring mainly ? hence my dyed in blue hands), though unfortunately I should admit that my support was more of a moral support than
anything else.
Stage one: The dough!
Ah, it looks cute, doesn’t it?
letterstoantoinetteblog
Stage two: Baking the cookies!
Check them for
doneness occasionally. You are aiming for golden brown cookies and not for
coal-looking ones.
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letterstoantoinette
Stage three: Decorating the cookies!
Be bold! And let
your imagination run wild. But meanwhile ? please wear a glove!
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Stage four: Our cookies!
Barney, quite shocked by the look of our blue cookies. Yes, we did try creating some
blue ones (and a combination of a blue and red as well), but as you can probably guess and also see – the final
result was quite disastrous. So for now we are keeping them only to Barney and
ourselves (and you, but you can keep a secret, right?). 

letterstoantoinettecookies






For those of you who have liked the final results move on to the next stage and get a glimpse of V’s recipe! 




Stage five: Crystallised cookie recipe

 *Please, use it
wisely. It?s highly addictive.
  • Ingredients needed for the cookie dough:
2/3 tea cup butter
1 cup white sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla
extract
3 cups all-purpose
flour
1/3 cup milk
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking
powder
Instructions: 

  1. In a large box
    cream together with a mixer the butter and sugar until perfectly smooth;
  2. Add in the vanilla
    extract and the eggs;
  3. Sift the flour in
    another bowl before stirring it with the baking powder and the salt;
  4. Add the egg-butter
    mixture and the milk to the flour;
  5. Take the dough out
    and knead it; if you find it too sticky to knead sprinkled it with extra flour;
  6. Cover and chill the
    dough in the fridge for at least 30 minutes;
  7. Roll out the
    ready-to-go dough on a floured surface until its around ½ inch thick;
  8. Preheat the oven to
    180 degrees C. (350 degrees F.);
  9. While waiting for
    the oven, start cutting the dough with the lovely cutting shapes you?ve prepared;(
  10. Don’t forget to cut
    some smaller shapes within the already cut cookies? see Stage 1 for
    reference; They will be essential during the decoration process; 
  11. Place the batch of
    cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet;
  12. Bake the cookies in
    the preheated oven for around 8 minutes depending on the cookie?s thickness;
  13. Cool completely
    before you initiated any art-related activities 😉 
  • Ingredients for the
    Royal icing:

1 large egg white;
2 teaspoons of
fresh lemon juice;
2 cups (200 grams) confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar,
sifted
Instructions:
  1. Mix the ingredients together with a mixer until the frosting
    is stiff (like a meringue) and of piping consistency. Add more sugar if you
    feel the mixture it not thick enough and conversely if it?s way to thick add some extra
    lemon juice;
  2. When the mixture is ready, take your pastry pen and start
    outlining and flooding the cookies with the icing; for reference see Stage 3. J

  • Ingredients for the crystallised sugar mixture
    to fill in the little holes you?ve previously cut within the cookies
    :
3
tablespoons of sugar
Different
sugar flair food colourings (the colours of your choice)
¾ cup
water
Instructions:
  1. Mix the
    sugar and the water together in a saucepan; when the sugar crystals disappear
    boil the mixture until it reaches 110 degrees C (230 degrees F) and cool it
    down to 90 degrees C (194 degrees F);
  2. Add some
    food colouring of your choice;
  3. Fill in
    the little shapes that you?ve previously cut within the cookies with the melted
    sugar;
  4. Wait
    until the sugar has completely hardened before picking up the cookies.

Now you?re
ready to go and have some fun while creating your crystallised cookies!
Turn on your
imagination and start decorating the yummy hearts. Use food-decorating pens, don’t be afraid to drip some of the melted sugar mixture to create some petite drops all over the cookies. You can also use smaller cookie cutters to create 3D shapes on the surface of the cookie.
Important: 
  1. Custom-design your crystallised love cookies so as to suit your taste.
  2. Make sure to serve
    with lots of love and tea.

From V. and A. with love
 

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