Canadian Cookies in Australia

Watching the Olympics in Australia proved to be quite difficult. For one, there is a bigger focus on Australian competitors (obviously), which made it tricky watch Canadian competitors. Secondly, all the events I wanted to watch were at crazy times during the night or super early in the morning. 

One thing I knew I didn't want to miss was the final Men's Hockey games, as I always watch those at home! So, there I was, at 4am Saturday morning, bundled up on the couch watching the Canada vs USA semi-final. I cheered them on and for a split second, I felt like I was back at home again. 

The game ended sometime after 6am and I decided it was in my best interest to go back to bed for just a few more hours of sleep. However, once I laid my head on my pillow, my mind started wandering (as it often does) and I was thinking of things I could make for the final game on Sunday night. Once my mind was set on cookies, I couldn't get the thought out of my head. Needless to say, I was down at the Woolies by their 7am opening time to get the supplies I needed. 

Getting the maple leaf on the cookie was harder than I thought. Of course, in Australia, I am without all my fancy tools, so I had to make do with what I had. For the shape of the cookie, I used a wine glass for the round one and a knife for the others. I thought I could get the maple leaf on the cookies by cutting one out of cardboard to roll into the dough to make an indentation. Well, that didn't work as well as it did in my head, so I had to change up the plan. Instead, I used a toothpick to mark the points on the leaf, then played connect the dots in the dough. Although this wasn't time efficient, it worked well! 

 We found a place, which may have been the only place in the city, to watch the game with audio. It was at the Sports Bar in the Crown Casino. Each wall was lined with about ten tv's, tv's in the tables and a large screen up front! I don't think I've ever seen so many tv's in one place! 

We went early to grab seats, and good thing we did! We saw some red trickle in and some blue and yello (Swedes) trickle in little by little. When the game began, we quickly realized that the Canadians in the bar were outnumbered by Swedes...by a lot! (Yes, I took cookies to the bar! Ha Ha)

The game was so awesome to watch in an environment that was a mixture of Canadians and Swedes. I think it made it a lot more intense, although I like to think it was a given we would win anyway right from the get go. 

When the time ran out at the end of the game, all the Canadians in the bar came together and sang "Oh Canada" in unison. It was awesome to be surrounded by fellow Canadians celebrating the same moment in Australia. 

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Amaretto Sugar Cookies

Merry Christmas!

After my internship ended, I found it to be the perfect time to do some more baking. I wanted to make something for my co-workers to enjoy as I do baking for them each Christmas! 

This year, I decided to do Sugar Cookies, but not just any Sugar Cookie, Amaretto Sugar Cookies. I know I've mentioned before that I LOVE Sugarbelles Sugar Cookie recipe! It ALWAYS turns out wonderful! I read a  wonderful tip a while ago in Buddy Valastro's book "Baking with the Cake Boss" which I always follow. It's called carryover cooking which is leaving foods continue to cook on their own by the heat of the pan after they are removed from the oven. I especially love this tip for cookies as this way you can get the ultimate, lightly browned, soft cookies. 

I followed Sugarbelle's Basic Sugar Cookie Recipe and instead of adding flavouring, I added 2 teaspoons of Amaretto. I rolled the dough out and cut snowflakes with the cookie cutter I got from Michaels. I like this cookie cutter because it is BIG! Nobody wants to eat small sugar cookies! Also, the bigger the cookies are, I find them easier to decorate! 

Just like I said above, I pulled the cookies out of the oven after about 5 minutes once I could see that they were turning a very light brown on the base. I left them to continue baking from their own heat on the pan for another 3 - 4 minutes. They turned out perfectly!

After the cookies cooled, I began to decorate. This time I also used Sugarbelle's Royal Icing Recipe . I like this recipe because it is simple and turns out perfectly. 

To decorate the cookies, I prefer the outline and flood technique. You can use the same icing recipe and just adjust the consistency of that icing to make it do different things.

First, you pipe your cookies with an outline to create a "dam" so that when you go to flood your cookies, the icing won't run off the edges. You want the consistency of this icing to be similar to the consistency of toothpaste, so quite thick. When you pipe the icing it should be able to pipe easily and should not break..if that makes sense! 

Next, wait until the icing is dried. (I waited about half hour, in that time I cleaned up my pans and some of the kitchen.) Then you will need to change the consistency of your icing, you want it to be runny. To do this you just need to add water. I just add a little water at a time and blend it up until it gets to the consistency I am looking for. Then I put it in a piping bag and flood my cookies. It will run to fill your cookie until it reaches the outline. I had to use a toothpick to move it in to the tiny corners. When it's dried it will be so nice and smooth! 

Once your flooded cookies are dried (again, about half hour to an hour should be sufficient) it will be time to decorate any way you like. I needed to adjust the consistency of my icing back to a regular piping consistency. I did this by adding some more icing sugar and blending it up. I added Wilton's gel food colouring, but I added too much! (HA HA) I was going for a light blue but I accidentally dropped a big blob in! Oops. Oh Well!

Now, it is up to you to decorate your cookies any which way you'd like! Have fun! 

Kaits :)

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Cowboy Cookies

Oh my goodness! It has been forever since I've posted anything in this blog, but in all honesty, it's been forever since I've had time to do any baking!

The begining of the year few by as I traveled back and forth to Calgary several times and finishing up my third year at university! The summer was no different, it was jam packed and some how all too suddenly past by as well. Now, I am into my second month of internship and finding it all very busy! 

For now, I have some pictures of some wonderful sugar cookies I made in the summer time after I returned from Calgary Stampede. At Stampede, the only thing I bought was a set of lovely cookie cutters, and of course, I HAD to use them right away! So I baked up a perfect bunch of sugar cookies and iced them as soon as I could! 

For the cookie, I used a recipe I found on Sugarbelle's website. Here's a link to the recipe! Everyone should definitely check out her website! It has so many helpful things for cookie makers and the designs of her cookies are phenomenal! If you follow her basic sugar cookie recipe, you will absolutely fall in love with the taste of the cookies.

After baking and cooling the cookies I whipped up some icing and flooded the cookies with it. I went back and added a few simple detail once the icing had set. I love the way they turned out, especially for it being my first time "flooding" cookies. 

Let me know what you think of my Cowboy Cookies! 

KAITS ;)

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