Oh! Not forgetting.. I'm so excited to share with you that recently I got my very first order from my very dear friend, who have requested me to bake a birthday cake for her mom. Gosh.. I'm excited yet a little intimidated. Will keep you posted in the next post.
Anyways, for now.. I'm eager to share with you the treats I made for Christmas, and I'll continue to bake a couple more in the coming week.
For my Cranberry Cookie, I've decided to use my trusty cookie dough recipe and added in the cranberry and some white chocolate myself. This cookie will not have a strong white chocolate taste, that is if you're concern about the level of sweetness. I only used the white chocolate to add hint of natural sweetness to bring out the lovely cranberry flavour. Also no christmas cookie will be complete if it's not frosted. So this is my first time working with royal icing. I don't think my hands were steady enough to frost the cookies. Will definitely have to practise more ;p.
{Christmas Cookie: Cranberry Cookie with Lemony Royal Icing}
Recipe:
Yields approx. slightly over 4 dozens medium sized cut out cookie
Note: Over the past few years, I've always stick to the trusty cookie recipe below for any type of cookies; I would like to shape using a cookie cutter. I found that the recipe below to be delish as the cookie will be buttery, flakey and melts in the mouth. Plus it stores well in an air tight container in a fridge close to a month. Cookie thawed or eaten directly out of the fridge is not hard at all, and still taste really good.
Ingredients (Basic Cookie Batter)
3/4 stick or 225g butter, softened
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour, sifted
pinch of salt
Ingredients (Cranberry Cookie)
1/3 cup dried cranberry, diced roughly
1/4 cup white chocolate buttons, chopped roughly
2 tbsp orange juice
Note: There will not be much of a white chocolate taste, as I used the white chocolate to enhance the flavour of the cookie, and to leave some natural sweetness apart from the cranberry.
To make Cranberry Cookie:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees/ 180C. Line baking tray with parchment paper.
2. With a paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar until sugar is incorporated and turns light and fluffy.
3. Beat in the egg yolk, orange juice and vanilla extract.
4. In a separate bowl, sift flour and salt. Then mix the dry ingredients into the mixture.
5. Fold in cranberry and white chocolate.
6. Cover dough with cling film wrap, chill for 30 mins. Unwrap the dough and roll out 1/8 inch thick. With your favourite cookie cutter {I used a snow flake cookie cutter}, stamp out the cookies, and put them on the prepared baking sheets spaced well apart.
7. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until cookie is golden brown. Leave to cool on baking sheets for another 5-10 minutes before transferring them on to a wire rack to cool completely.
Ingredients (Lemony Royal Icing)
1 1/2 tbsp meringue powder
2 cups icing sugar1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3-4 tsp lemon juice, or according to taste
** food colouring of your choice, optional
** colour sprinkles, optional
To prepare Royal Icing:
1. Mix all icing ingredient in a bowl and dilute between 1/4-1/3 cup warm water, or just enough until mixture is slightly thick and runny.
2. Add in your favourite food colouring, preferably gel colouring. I used Wilton's Rose Petal Red gel colour.
For this post, I've broken it down to 2 parts. So read on further in part 2 for the Chocolate Profiterole recipe..
Happy Christmas!!
xx
Cranberry and lemon sounds amazing! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHi Wilde in the Kitchen! Thanks for stopping by. Apologise for the delayed response. Cranberry and lemon are a good pair ;p. All the tangy taste and natural sweetness is really refreshing. Happy New Year! Cheers, Jo.
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