Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies
After our trip to Japan last November, and realizing that one of my friends was more of a Japanophile than I had thought. We all became fully immersed in the concept behind Japanese idols. For anyone that’s not familiar with what I’m talking about, there is a large segment of Japanese pop culture that is devout to idol groups. These are typically young singers/dancers in the music industry that are sort of role models for the youth. These are not your typical starlettes, they’re not overly done up, they aren’t always the best singers, or dancers either 😉 they’re made to feel real and attainable with a “this could be you!” feel.
So what does this have to do with Nomday? As I mentioned in some previous posts, I’m currently cooking through the Easy Gourmet cookbook by Stephanie Le, my all-time favorite food blogger. And the other day, I started thinking… I think I have a food blog idol! Her book isn’t written by the head chef of a Michelin star restaurant, where you read it knowing they have knowledge you’d never know without attending Le Cordon Bleu. I find daily inspiration reading her blog with the “this could be you” feeling. ^-^ Now, enough idolizing, on to the recipe!
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Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl and set it aside. Cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the egg and mix well. With your mixer on low, slowly incorporate the dry flour mixture.
Stir in the chopped mint and chocolate chunks. Chill in the fridge overnight for best results.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone sheet. Using a melon baller, scoop and roll into balls placing them 2 inches apart.
Bake until golden brown but still soft, about 13-15 minutes. Cool on sheet for 10 minutes then move to rack to cool completely.
Guinness Braised Beef Stew
I have to admit, I had big plans for an Easter post, it involved a really cute rabbit cookie cutter, a light Spring loaf, and all kinds of bright Eastery colors. And then…. Jimmy decided he was going to completely throw off my weekend baking plans by proposing! Which was then followed by a crazy hot air balloon ride with a bunch of our friends from San Francisco and Los Angeles and a day at the winery. Needless to say I had noooo time to get a post out. So you can all blame Jimmy for the missing Easter post 🙂
So now a week later, I’ve finally stopped staring at my hand (no I haven’t, who am I kidding) and have gotten back into the rhythm of things! It’s weird taking the ring off while cooking, but I fear that I’ll end up like a tv sitcom, ring slipping off my finger, bouncing a few times, and then inevitably falling straight down the sink; so I’ve been taking it off. But it felt even weirder keeping it on while I was patting dry raw chunks of meat and getting my hands sticky with flour. I’m sure it’ll all take some getting used to but for now, I’m ready to continue cooking through the easy gourmet! I’m not sure if I mentioned this but I ordered Stephanie Le’s (i am a food blog) cookbook and I’m obsessed with literally every single recipe in it. Every time I flipped the page, it was another recipe that tugged at every single one of my culinary heartstrings. It follows the concept that I try to push across on this blog as well, “awesome recipes anyone can cook”. I highly recommend trying out some of her recipes, and I encourage you to buy the book as well, it has some amazing photography, and a great inspirational tool for when you’re looking to try something new; it covers so many different types of food, there’s something for every mood!
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Preheat the oven to 350˚F
Pat the beef dry with a paper towel. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, salt and pepper.
Add the beef to the flour and toss to coat. Heat oil in an ovenproof pot over medium heat until oil is hot. Brown the meat deeply without overcrowding, making sure to brown all sides. Transfer to a bowl.
Over medium heat, add the onion, carrot, celery, mushrooms and garlic to the pot and cook, scraping up all of the brown bits. Stir frequently until slightly cooked, about 6-8 minutes. Add the cooked beef with juices, along with the tomato paste, stock, beer, Worcestershire sauce, capers and thyme.
Bring to a simmer, then cover and transfer to oven. Braise until beef is very tender and sauce has thickened, about 1 1/2-2 hours. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Serve warm on its own or with mashed potatoes, rice or toasted bread!
NOM!
Peanut Butter Chocolate Banana Donut
Bananas are one of these fruits that are great, high in potassium, perfect in cereal, but have you ever noticed how they start as a bunch of super green unedible bananas but once they start waking up they go from sleepy to super party mode really fast if there are other bananas nearby! We see this happening every week in our office so my friend Lindsey and I got to cooking!
We took a paleo-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, everything free recipe and made some …. modifications. I mean… how can you pass up on chocolate? So if you’re looking to figure out what to do with those overly excited bananas, try whipping up this recipe. Don’t have a donut pan? No problem, double the recipe and bake it in a loaf pan and cook for 50-60 minutes.
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Grease your donut pan very lightly and preheat the oven to 350˚
In a large mixing bowl, combine the mashed bananas, eggs, coconut oil, vanilla extract and peanut butter until fully combined.
In a small bowl, mix all the dry ingredients; coconut flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and sea salt. Mix into the wet ingredients and after fully combined, fold in the chocolate chips.
Spoon the batter into each donut mold. I like to start with the big donut molds and then use the remaining batter for mini donuts!
Place in the oven for 20 minutes when baking the regular sized donuts, and 7 minutes for the mini donuts.
Peanut Butter Glaze
- 1 cup confectioners' sugar
- 1 teaspoon peanut butter, smooth, room temp
- 2 tablespoons milk
Let cool for 30 minutes. While the donuts are cooling, prepare the glaze. Add all the ingredients together and mix until fully incorporated. Drop the donut into the glaze and evenly frost by twisting slowly and gently lifting them out. You can eat them immediately, or allow them to cool in the fridge for hardened icing.
Pour yourself a glass of milk and NOM!
Sous Vide Steak au Poivre
Pardon how pretentious this is going to sound, but for as long as I can remember, I’ve always favored filets. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good rib eye, and anything else in the red meat category, but nothing tops a perfectly cooked filet. There is a part of my Asian side that should appreciate a good steak with muscle, something that makes you fight for it, but I think the European side trumps my preference here. Back when my dad had his restaurant, he catered to the food connoisseurs; before there were “foodies”. These were Michelin star chasers, and so he specialized in French fine dining. Because of this, there was a surplus of lamb, veal, venison and steaks, and looking back, I’d give anything to just eat through my youth.
Of course, at the time, I didn’t appreciate it at all, and prefered someone trading me for a pb&j – or better yet, a grilled cheese! I was a fool. I guess I was just young and hadn’t developed my tastebuds yet. Yea – let’s go with that.
But now my tastebuds are fully developed and when I get to the butcher and look into his glass casing of all of his cuts of meat, I feel akin to the lion looking at it’s prey, ready to pounce – I literally start salivating. I’m not kidding. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve been at the store with Jimmy, and stopped dead in my tracks just to stare longingly at the red meats. I think it’s probably not terribly normal, but I think he’s gotten used to it. And this, is the reason why I’ll never become a vegetarian, because of the way I feel for me, and how badly I want it in my belly.
Something a lot of people don’t know, is that Costco actually has some really high quality cuts of meat, and the butchers behind the glass will actually come out and re-package your meat for you in case you want smaller sizes. The last time I went, I wanted a 2 pack of Prime filets, but only saw 4 packs. Not only did they repackage it, but I could pick the 2 steaks I wanted! I always feel like there are 3 equally sized steaks in each pack and one slightly smaller one, which just makes for an awkward dinner arrangement. Hey Bob, will you give a slice of your steak to Sharron, she got the little one. Yea, no, that’s not going to happen. The best though was the one time they repacked it for me and accidentally mislabeled my pound of filets as pork loins. Best. Day. Of. My. Life.
So when your retired chef dad comes into town and you want to impress him with your mad cooking skills, what do you do? Steak au Poivre seemed like a good choice but the steaks were so thick, I got nervous I would overcook the outside and the middle would be left raw. What would my father think of me? And then I thought, OH YEA we have a sous vide!
Sous-vide (/suːˈviːd/; French for “under vacuum”) is a method of cooking in which food is sealed in airtight plastic bags then placed in a water bath for longer than normal cooking times at an accurately regulated temperature much lower than normally used for cooking. The intent is to cook the item evenly, ensuring that the inside is properly cooked without overcooking the outside, and retain moisture.
Sous vide takes much longer, for this recipe I had the steaks in for 2 hours, but then threw them on the stove just to sear off the edges for a nice crust, and use the fond to create the sauce. If you don’t have a sous vide, that’s fine as well, you can cook a thick cut steak on the stove but make sure you make sure to keep the meat moist and not to overcook it! Keep in mind I’m a hybrid in ethnicity and a hybrid chef, so if I could have it my way, steaks would always be served with rice.
I got the stamp of approval from Chef Paul, so I thought it was good enough for my fellow Nommers.
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Go ahead and fill up your container with hot water (you want to use the sous vide to maintain the heat, not as the initial heat source.) Set your heating element to 130˚F and then as the water is heating, prepare your meat. Coat both sides of the steaks with a light sprinkle of coarse sea salt and a generous amount of fresh cracked pepper. Add a sprig of rosemary on top of one side, then place into a zip-lock bag (the official way to do this is to vacuum seal them in bags, but if you don’t have a vacuum sealer, you can just place the meat in a zip-loc bag, and slowly lower the bags into the water. This will force the air out, acting like a vacuum and then seal the bag). Make sure the bags are SEALED. Any opening will allow water into your bag and drown your steaks! Leave them in here for 2 hours.
Asparagus
- 1 bunch asparagus
- salt
- pepper
- enough to lightly coat the asparagus olive oil
When you’re about an hour in, prepare your asparagus. Preheat your oven to 350˚. Place a layer of aluminum foil on a baking sheet, pour olive oil over the spears and rub it evenly. Then crack salt and pepper over the spears. Bake for 20 minutes.
When the steaks are ready, take them out of the bag and throw them into a greased medium-hot frying pan. If there’s juice in the bags, set that to the side for now. You want to keep the steaks on the heat for just about a minute or two on each side, only flipping them once. This is going to get a great sear on the steaks without letting out too much of the juice. Take them off the stove and place them on a piece of aluminum foil, then wrap them up to retain the heat. If you want to keep them hot, you can throw them into the oven, but only for a few minutes, you don’t want to cook the steaks more than planned. I also like to throw my plates into the oven now too to keep them hot for serving.
Using the same pan you seared the steaks, you’ll want to use the fond (the brown bits stuck on the pan) to help flavor the sauce. Add a little bit of oil and saute the shallots until golden brown. Add the brandy or rye (I used Bulleit because it’s what we had in the house at the time, but typically we have a cheap cooking brandy on hand.) Let the alcohol burn off and when it doesn’t have that alcoholic smell anymore, add the juices from the sous vide bags, cream and butter; mixing with a rubber spatula until everything is melted and fully incorporated. Add salt and pepper to taste.
And now you’re done! Sauce your steaks, serve with your asparagus, and if you haven’t tried it with rice; live a little 😉 NOM!
Iced Lemon Pound Cake
There’s something about a Sunday afternoon that makes me want to bake. It’s a weird feeling I get come late morning (sometimes mid morning, depending on if I actually wake up early or not) eventually, that feeling sets in. I think it helps deals with that looming feeling that comes after 12PM on any given Sunday – you know the one where you realize the weekend is ending and you start to cherish every passing minute. Baking helps me feel a sense of accomplishment, even if I choose to spend the remainder of the day binge watching Netflix until the “Are you still there?” message pops up on the screen.
Last Sunday wasn’t an exception, I asked Jimmy what I should make because I was itching to bake something and had to kindly reject his request for ginger molasses cookies. Sometimes you’re just not in the mood for super ginger cookies, PLUS, I didn’t want to post a repeat for you guys. I wanted a cake but making myself a cake just because seemed too ridiculous and then I thought, I could make a pound cake! I baked some lemon sugar cookies for my office for Valentines Day and figured I’d put the rest of the lemon extract to good use.
*Fun fact: This pound cake goes well with tea, coffee, and can be eaten for breakfast – if your manager makes fun of you for eating cake for breakfast, just ignore him. Tell him I said it’s okay, and nom on!
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a 9″ x 5″ loaf pan; set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
In a standing mixer, beat together eggs, sugar, butter, vanilla extract, lemon extract and lemon juice until just blended.
Pour dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and blend until smooth. Add oil and lemon zest and mix well.
Pour into prepared loaf pan and bake for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick entered in the middle of the loaf comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool on wire rack.
Pro Tip: This loaf will dome, so if you’re planning to keep that shape, make your icing with 1 tablespoon of milk instead of two so it’s thick. If you keep the icing thin, it’ll run down the sides and won’t be even. Alternatively, you can slice the dome off the top to make it flat, and after the loaf has cooled, pour the thinning icing on top and wait until it cools.
Lemon Icing
- 1 cup confectioner's sugar
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
Whisk to combine. Pour over cooled loaf.
NOM!
Yorkshire Pudding
I feel like I consider myself somewhat of a foodie so when someone starts talking about a something I’ve never heard of, I get a bit taken aback. A couple weeks ago, Jimmy was talking about how he really wanted yorkshire pudding and I thought I was in the right to think he was talking about actual pudding. It was like that one time my parents and I went out to lunch at a cute French bistro in the city and they asked me if I wanted to order sweetbreads. I can still remember thinking, ‘yea, why not, sweet bread sounds pretty good, maybe it’s like those asian breads.’ I knew something was up when it came out not looking remotely like bread at all, then when I asked my mom what it was, she said that she would only tell me after I had tried it. There is nothing sweet, or bready about thymus glands – but it is very delicious spread on bread, once you accept that you’ve been mislead.
When I told Jimmy I didn’t know what yorkshire pudding was, and that popovers sounded like it was some sort of hot pocket or calzone, he immediately grabbed for his computer and went straight to YouTube. I’ll admit, if you aren’t familiar with how these are made, you should check out that video, it’s pretty amazing. Determined to educate me on a food item I had apparently been missing out on my entire life, Jimmy was dead set on buying a muffin tin and making these for the past couple weeks. We then went on vacation and got busy, as life goes, but then this morning I woke up to clammering in the kitchen. It was finally time! While the first batch had to be scrapped because he accidentally added the oil to the batter, instead of just to the pan, the second batch came out perfect!
Combine eggs, flour, milk, water, and salt in a medium bowl and whisk until a smooth batter is formed. Let batter rest at room temperature for at least 30 minutes. Alternatively, for best results, transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate batter overnight or for up to 3 days. Remove from refrigerator while you preheat the oven.
Adjust oven rack to center position and preheat oven to 450°F (230°C). Divide shortening (oil, fat, or drippings) evenly between a 12-well standard muffin tin. Preheat in the oven until the fat is smoking hot, about 10 minutes. Try to use a fat or oil with a high smoking point.
Transfer the pans or tins to a heat-proof surface (such as an aluminum baking sheet on your stovetop), and divide the batter evenly between every well. The wells should be filled between 1/2 and 3/4 of the way (if using pans, they should be filled about 1/4 of the way). Immediately return to oven. Bake until the yorkshire puddings have just about quadrupled in volume, are deep brown all over, crisp to the touch, and sound hollow when tapped. Bake for 15 minutes.
Serve immediately, or cool completely, transfer to a zipper-lock freezer bag, and freeze for up to 3 months. Reheat in a hot toaster oven before serving.
Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies
I feel like there is one moment in every day that I crave just a little bit of chocolate. I mean it, every day, but not like a straight bar of chocolate or anything that straight forward. Usually I just want something chocolate-ish, like a chocolate croissant or peanut m&ms usually do the trick. But there’s nothing that satisfies the chocolate craving better than a gooey on the inside- crispy on the outside chocolate chip cookie.
I know many people like the sweet and salty combination, and I’m usually not a big fan, so I actually made this batch half salted and half none-salted and I’ll admit, it was pretty damn good with a little sea salt sprinkled on top.
I got this recipe off of i am a food blog‘s page as she has become my go to for just about anything. Her page has a certain standard of consistency, which is my way of saying I’ve been repeatedly satisfied with everything I’ve made on her site. If you haven’t ever seen her page, I’d encourage you to go check it out! I have yet to come across a recipe that doesn’t make me go, “omg! I want to make that tonight!” so beware, you might rush off to the store and buy up a bunch of ingredients or become inspired to start a food blog – that’s what happened to me and forevernomday was born.
Now, back to the cookies..
Preheat the oven to 360°F.
Cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy (5 minutes on medium speed if using a mixer). While the butter and sugar is creaming, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl. Set aside.
Add the egg and vanilla to the butter-sugar and mix until combined. Add the flour and mix, with a spatula, until barely combined. Fold in the chocolate. Portion the cookies out onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. I like to use a melon baller to help keep the cookie sizes consistent. Sprinkle with the flaky salt and bake for 12 minutes, until the edges are golden but the centers are gooey. Let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes and enjoy warm!
Tonkotsu Shio Ramen and Chashu Pork
We spent Thanksgiving this year in Japan which was probably my favorite Thanksgiving spent anywhere! Not only did I absolutely love traveling through the county and eating all of their amazing food, but I’ve never been much of a fan of Thanksgiving as is. We don’t even properly celebrate it at home because no one in my family likes turkey, I don’t think fruit has any business near meat unless it’s a charcuterie board, and what are marshmallows doing melting on top of my sweet potatoes? I’ve never quite understood it, and that’s why every year we always just make a prime rib and invite friends over.
We also don’t have any immediate or even extended family in the area so Thanksgiving has always just be me, my mom and my dad…. and any friends we can wrangle up. So I didn’t feel so bad this year not making it, my parents don’t care if I come home on a holiday or the weeks before or after, as long as I make it back every few months. So when we saw a chance to fly to Japan for super cheap, we booked it immediately!
I’m a ramen girl, and I knew the best bowl of ramen I had ever had was in Osaka. I was determined to eat as much ramen as I could on that trip, while also eating as much curry, tonkatsu, tsukemen, sushi… and pretty much everything else. When we were on our final train ride back, Jimmy announced to our group that he was going to come home and learn how to make ramen, real ramen, not just pre-made broths and noodles. This was our first shot and it came out way better than expected! We’ll be going on a ramen creating journey, finding out how to make the clearest broth, the more flavorful tare, and the best chashu and everything in between. Be warned though, if you’re looking to make your own ramen, this is a day long adventure so you might want to start on the weekend, when you can leave your stove on for an entire day straight.
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I think we need to start by explaining that your soup is made up of two parts, the broth and the tare. The broth which in this case is 100% pork bones (tonkotsu) is where you’re going to pull the depth of flavor out of your bones. On it’s own, you’re not getting any of the salty or spicy components you often associate with ramen. Many ramen shops though make one broth, and that’s the base for every bowl on their menu. If you really think about, it takes 16+ hours to simmer, so you really have to plan ahead. Now, the tare is actually where you’re getting most of the distinctive flavor from. You’re probably already familiar with the concept, when you order shio ramen (salt), shoyu ramen (soy) or miso ramen. Essentially what you’re ordering is the ramen shops base broth, mixed with the type of flavoring that you want. Below we’re going to start with a pure tonkotsu broth.
Start by adding your pork feet, to a large stock pot and filling it with water 1-2 inches above the bones. You’ll want to boil the bones for 15 min, stirring occasionally. Foamy sentiment will rise to the top and by boiling it, it’ll be easy to remove all the junk from inside them.
With a needle, tap lightly to poke a small hole into the larger end of the egg. This is going to allow the extra gas to escape the egg while it’s boiling. You don’t want weird shaped eggs do you? Of course not, you’re a ramen master!
When you notice your pot boiling up with what looks like a cloud of brown gunk, remove it from the heat, strain the bones and you’re ready to clean. We use the end of a chopstick (the thinner the better) to scrape out the marrow and everything else. You’re aiming for bare bones here, the more you leave on the bones, the less clear your broth will be. You can even go at the bones with a toothbrush if you really want to get at every last little piece.
Place back in the pot and add water a few inches above the bones. Bring it to a rolling boil and reduce down to a simmer for a minimum of 16 hours.
Boil eggs for 7 minutes and 30 seconds and then gently drop them into an ice bath. This will make sure that your eggs have that creamy goodness inside instead of becoming hard boiled. When completely cool, gently crack the shell off the eggs.
Put the soy sauce, mirin, sake, and sugar into a bowl big enough for all of your eggs. Soak a paper towel in the marinade and drape on top of the eggs. Doing this keeps your eggs from floating up and not soaking in the marinade evenly. Allow this to sit in your fridge for minimum 4 hours, up to 12 hours, flipping the eggs once midway through.
Using a piece of thread or floss, hold the egg from one end and slice the eggs in half. Don’t use a knife!
Chashu Pork
- 2 pounds pork shoulder
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 1 cup mirin
- 1 cup sake
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 6-8 garlic cloves, crushed
- 4-5 green onions
- 2 inch piece ginger, peeled and sliced
- 2 small shallots, halved
Preheat the oven to 250°F.
Place all of the ingredients in a large, heavy-bottomed, oven safe pot and bring to a gentle boil over medium heat. When the mix comes to boil, cover with the lid and place in the oven and cook for minimum 4 hours, up to 6, flipping pork occasionally. The pork should be super tender.
Remove the pork from the sauce and, gently slice.
Serve atop as a topping for above ramen. You can also save any leftovers and serve over rice with green onion or on a bun. Reserve the liquid to use as sauce over noodles or rice, if desired.
Tare (Shio)
- 2 tablespoons sea salt
- 2 tablespoons sake
- 1 tablespoon mirin
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
Creating the tare is really about making it however you want to make it. I realize this might seem incredibly unhelpful if you’re here on the blog trying to learn how to make ramen and here I am telling you to figure it out on your own. What I mean by this is, this is where you can decide if you want it to be simple but salty, fatty and spicy, and really just build up the umami.
For this bowl, we went with a shio ramen, keeping things simple but flavorful. Mix together all of the ingredients of the tare and then start by adding a spoonful to the bottom of each individual bowl. Add the broth and season with more tare accordingly.
Boil ramen noodles for 2 and a half minutes, add all your toppings on, serve and enjoy!
NOM!
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Mint Mustard Rack of Lamb
Rack of Lamb
- Preheat oven to 350˚ on bake
- Trim the fat off your lamb, I prefer to keep the muscle and fat on the rib bones but you can also French the bones by completely cutting the excess.
- Lightly spread garlic salt and pepper across rack
- Oil the pan and sear the lamb on both sides, then pull your pan off the heat
- Spread Dijon mustard evenly over entire rack (minus the bone)
- Spread 2 spoons of garlic parsley mix across the rack. (See below for directions)
- Do the same now with the mint sauce. (See below for directions)
- Sprinkle thin layer of Panko crumbs over the lamb. This is a great way to soak up the flavor of both sauces and keep it from running off the lamb while cooking.
- I like to chop a Portobello mushroom into 6-8 pieces and place it on the pan under and around the bones to soak up the juices.
- Cook for 20 minutes, use a meat thermometer and cook until 160˚, let sit for a couple of minutes, slice between the bones, and serve.
Garlic Parsley Spread
- 1/2 head galric
- 1/4 bunch parsley
- 1/2 cup olive oil
Garlic Parsley Spread
- Add 1/2 a head of garlic, 1/2 cup of olive oil and 1/4 bunch of parsley to the food processor; blend.
Mint Sauce
- 1 bunch mint
- 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
- 2 spoons Dijon mustard
- 1 spoon sugar
Mint Sauce
- Add a bunch of mint, 2 spoons of Dijon mustard, ½ cup of balsamic vinegar and a spoon of sugar to the food processor; blend
Rolled Sugar Cookies
I have to admit, when thinking about holiday cookies to make in time for Christmas, my mind immediately jumped to gingerbread; perhaps a whole family of ginger-people and matching houses all bound with white icing. But as I was reading one of my favorite dessert books, it hit me – I don’t really like gingerbread. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I hate it, but did I really want a couple dozen cookies hanging around the house? Probably not. Shortly after, I was browsing my favorite food blogger’s instagram and noticed she had made a batch of sugar cookies that were perfectly iced and inspired by @hol_fox. I then progressed to spending the next 15 minutes flipping through every photo on her insta-feed and that’s when I knew, we were going to be making rolled sugar cookies!
- Sift together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder and salt)
- In a standing mixer, whisk together the butter and sugar until they are fully incorporated.
- Add egg and milk to combine.
- Turn the mixer to low and slowly add in the dry ingredients, continue to mix until the dough pulls completely off the edges of the mixer.
- Divide the dough in half and slam the dough against the counter until you form a soft ball, then form into the shape of a square slab. Wrap both squares with plastic wrap and store in the fridge for 2 hours.
- Preheat oven to 375˚ and lightly dust surface with powdered sugar and take 1 square of dough out at a time.
- Roll your dough 1/4 inch thick. Try to do this as quick as possible, the colder your dough is, the easier it will be for you to punch out your cookie cutters and peel them from the surface without them losing shape. This is especially crucial if you’re doing something like 3d cookies as they’ll need to fit exactly together and any stretching will cause you to grab a sharp knife and start shaving off cookie. Not that I wouldn’t know anything about this -_-
- You want to fit as many cookie cutters on the dough as possible, any extra will need to be re-rolled and the dough will start the warm and soften. Using a spatula, pick up each cookie to transfer onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Do this without lifting the cookie cutter up and it will help keep form.
- Bake for 7-9 minutes, rotating the baking sheet midway through. Once your cookies start turning light brown on the edges, you’re done!
- Let sit and cool for 2 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack.
Royal Icing
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 2 eggs egg whites
- 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
Royal Icing
- In a standing mixer, whisk together the confectioner’s sugar, egg whites, and cream of tartar on low speed.
- Once fully incorporated add in the almond extract (you can sub vanilla here as well if you’d like). Throw your mixer on high speed for 3 minutes.
- If you’d like to color your icing, separate the icing out to how ever many colors you’d like, start by dropping in 2 drops of your food coloring and adjust from there. Using a piping bag or a squeeze bottle, start by outlining your cookies and flood the rest of the space with icing. I recommend fast back and forth motions within the lines to make sure you don’t pack on more icing than you anticipated. With a piping bag you might lose control of the precision if you don’t work fast and efficiently.
- Let your cookies sit overnight to allow your icing to set.
