Finally, fall

It's is finally feeling like fall around here. As I type, it is 48 degrees outside and the high is expected to only reach 55!!! This is what I love....bring on the sweaters, jackets and boots! To go with our fall-like weather, we have some fall cookies! I made two versions of acorns and leaves...dotty and with GOLD sparkling sugar. I was in desperate need to update my acorns. You can see here...years ago, the first and only time I made them (with apples)...blah. I think my cookies turn out better if I try not to be so literal with them. Know what I mean? The dots make them fun...to me at least. Here's more info on applying dots. This gold sparkling sugar is so pretty. I found it online at sugarcraft.com. It comes in silver, too. I bought it for Christmas cookies, but couldn't wait to dig into it. I think these would be pretty with a monogram on the leaves for a fall wedding.Our dining room table was half covered in cookies (I have a hard time making one batch of cookies). A box went to our contest winner, a box to my nephew, 4 boxes with my husband for customers and one to the volunteers at the food pantry where my son & I work every Thursday. Someday, I'd like to do this. Lydia at The Perfect Pantry is the woman behind this wonderful idea!

Happy fall, everyone! I'm off to enjoy this weather while it lasts!

And the cookies go to....

.....KaseysKrazyMommy! Yay! Congrats...cookies are on the way! Thank you to everyone who entered!

And how is this for cool? Fellow Texan, Mandy, at Home with Mandy, had a giveaway on her blog celebrating her 100th post. I discovered last night that I won!!! Yee-haw! Take a look at these gorgeous martini glasses! Check out her blog, too...oh my, it's filled with delicious recipes and great step-by-step instructions. Thank you, Mandy...I can't wait to break them in! ;)

Are you ready for a GIVEAWAY?

Wednesday is Bake at 350's 1 year blogiversary! Woo-hoo! :) In celebration, I thought we'd have a little giveaway.

Leave a comment on this post....with either a link to your blog or an email address so I can contact you...and a winner will be chosen at random on November 19th. The prize is...a box of cookies! :) (US address only.)

I'll leave you with the cookies we're taking to the end-of-season baseball party this afternoon. (No, these are not the giveaway cookies!) Nothing fancy, but my son really wanted them to have the team name on them. The more I wrote "giants" last night, the stranger it looked. I had to come out of the kitchen and ask my husband..."is giants spelled G-I-ANTS?" It still looks weird!

Happy Veterans Day...Baking GALS, part 2

Happy Veterans Day to the soldiers (past & present) in our life...Dad, Bob, Jane, Nana :) and Mike. Thank you all for your service and sacrifice! These cookies are for Jason, our soldier through Operation Baking Gals. Coconut Snowballs from Everyday Food.... the recipe is posted on Martha's website, here.

If you like coconut, you'll love these. They remind me a little bit of Mexican Wedding Cookies. I think they would be a perfect addition to a cookie tray for the holidays!

I had to send a little chocolate! :) These are Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies. I was a little frustrated by the recipe, but they came out really yummy! They are topped with sparkling sugar, although it's hard to see in the picture, so they are pretty and sparkly! :)

Crisp Chocolate Chip Shortbread

(adapted from holiday cookies by Land O' Lakes)

3/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 & 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
3 tablespoons sparkling or large grain sugar

Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and almond extract in large bowl. Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until creamy. Reduce speed to low; add flour, cornstarch and salt. Beat until combined. Stir in chocolate chips.

Pat dough into an ungreased 15 x 10 x 1" cookie sheet. (This is where I had a problem. There was NO way I could get the dough to cover the entire sheet. Next time I make these, I will press the dough onto the bottom of a 13 x 9" pan and see if that works better.) Sprinkle with sparkling sugar and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until edges are lightly browned. Immediately cut into squares or triangles (I used a bench scraper). Remove from pan when cool.

We interrupt the scheduled blog post to bring you...cheesecake!

I'll post part 2 of our cookie shipment later, but I had to post this cheesecake we had last night first. It is SO good!
This is a recipe form Martha Stewart Living magazine...No-Bake Spiderweb Cheesecake. I never got around to making it before Halloween, so I added squiggles on top instead of a spiderweb. Ganache has a different consistency than the royal icing I'm used to...you can see where my hand got a little shaky piping. (I think that means I have to make it again? Just for practice!) :) After trying it, my son declared that it should be called "dream cake." It's really that good...and rich...and not fat free! :) I'll be making this the next time we have company.

Operations Baking GALS, cookies on the way

Cookies are on the way to our soldier....a Marine stationed on the USS Essex. Our baking team, Dani's Delightful Darlings (through Operation Baking Gals), has 18 members. It's really exciting to think about how many soldiers on that ship will have some love from home in a week or two. (There are over 20 teams total, with 6 to 26 members each...that's a lot of baking!)

My son & I spent most of yesterday baking. Here's part 1 of our shipment:

Gingerbread Biscotti...

I tried to pick cookies that would ship well and hopefully taste fresh when they arrived. This recipe is from The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion: The Essential Cookie Cookbook. If you don't own this book, I highly recommend it. It doesn't have a lot of pictures, but very detailed instructions and illustrations.

The recipe is actually on the King Arthur website. It seems daunting with 2 baking times, but really takes less time than rolling dough and decorating cookies. :)

My kitchen...house, actually...smelled like Christmas while these were baking. Absolute heaven!
Of course, taste testing is essential! ;) These were perfect with a cup of chai tea! See those vanilla beans in there? I used vanilla bean paste in place of the vanilla extract.
I've posted this recipe before for 1-2-3-4 Peanut Butter Cookies. They are delicious and from the same cookbook.

Stay tuned for part 2 of our shipment. Godspeed to our soldier...and we are thankful to all our service men and women and their families for their enormous sacrifice!

Baseball (?) season

Yes, it's still baseball season here in Texas. Our family was scheduled to bring snacks to my son's game yesterday. When I sold cookies, baseball cookies were probably the cookies I made the most. Texas is not just football country!

I realized Halloween night as I was getting ready to ice these, that I was out of disposable icing bags....my own personal Halloween horror!!! Rather than run out, dodging trick-or-treaters, I used gallon freezer baggies. In a pinch, they worked, although they were not as easy to use as the icing bags. My advice...baggies are for emergency icing situations only! :)

To make the baseball mitts:

• Using a #3 tip, outline around the edge of a baseball mitt cookie in dark brown icing....you'll make the "fingers" later. (AmeriColor Chocolate Brown)
• Thin medium brown icing with water to a syrup-y consistency and cover with a damp towel. Let sit several minutes. (AmeriColor Chocolate Brown)
• Run a rubber spatula gently through the icing to pop any bubbles that have formed on top. Pour into a squeeze bottle.
• Fill in the cookie with the flood icing. Let dry 1 hour or more.
• Again with the dark brown icing and #3 tip, pipe the details including the fingers on the mitt.
• In red icing, with a #3 tip, pipe the remaining details. (AmeriColor Super Red)