Icing

Good morning, everyone.  Fall is in full sway here in Kansas City.  It's fantastic that we've already had a bit of snow; not a lot, but enough to call it a real snow, not just a dusting.  Here's hoping for more of the same.  I know many people don't like the snow, but for me it's the best part of winter.  Winter is a great time for cookies, and one I love to have around is my sugar cookie with bright yellow icing.

When I make sugar cookies, I'm particular about the icing.  I make it a very specific consistency every time.  The rough part is applying it.  Over time I developed a neat little trick.

This an icing we're talking about, not a frosting.  There is a difference.  I think of icings as thinner, more liquidy, they flow.  Frostings are thick and can be spread with a knife or a spatula, and they do not flow.  Since icings flow, they are perfect for my neat little trick.

I place a pastry ring on the baked cookie, which has been already cooled.  Since I've tested the process with this icing, I already know how much icing to use, and how long to let it sit.  I put in a specific amount of the icing using cookie dough scoops so that each cookie has the same amount.  The icing slowly spreads outward and down from the center.  And the pastry rings contain the icing flow.  They allow the icing to develop a nice neat circular edge.  I let the icing sit for precisely 10 minutes, and then I remove the ring.  The edge is disturbed just a bit when the ring is removed since some of the icing tries to cling to the ring.  But the icing hasn't completely set yet and so all by itself gravity does the work of smoothing out the edge.  And, voila!, the icing finishes setting.

It's much easier than using a knife or a spoon to apply.  And I'm always happy with the result.  If it's not quite perfect, that's ok.  Perfection is highly overrated.  

Have a great day, everyone!

Two week break

 

Hello, hello, everyone.  I have had a very busy couple weeks.  So if you go to the website, you'll see that I'm taking a break for the rest of October.  But I will be back in November with more food offerings.

In the meantime, looking ahead I've got a few different items I hope to put out for everyone soon.  So be on the lookout.  They will be announced here as always.

That's it for today.  But next post I promise will be more like usual.  

IDIC

 

IDIC -  Star Trek fans will know this acronym:  Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations.

In our language we have only 26 letters, and look how many words they combine to create.  I've read that the average vocabulary of a grown adult is over 20,000 words, and their passive vocabulary might approach 40,000.  All of that from 26 letters.

In music, there are only 12 different pitches (unless one is using microtonal scales), and there are different octave ranges for those 12 pitches; for instance the piano has 88 keys comprising just over 8 octaves.  All of music combines just a handful of pitches in different octave ranges and different rhythms to create who knows how many musical compositions which have been preserved in writing over the centuries.

The periodic table of elements contains 118 different elements which combine to create everything in the universe.  Just 118!

In cooking, just a handful of ingredients can create something incredibly delicious.  And if you alter those just a bit, then something entirely different results.  Today I'm making some frosted sugar cookies.  The cookie base is made of just butter, flour, eggs, sugar, salt, vanilla and baking powder.  Only 7 ingredients gives us a fantastic cookie.  Yet the same ingredients arranged slightly differently yields something new.  I find this to be incredible.  It's magical.  It's fantastic.

It's cooking.  

Enjoy the autumn day here in Kansas City.  The weather is fantastic and hints of winter will soon start appearing.  I can hardly wait for the first snow.

Iced sugar cookies

Hello, everyone.  It has been a bit longer than normal since my last post.  I have had a busy busy week with many things going on.  But I've caught back up and so here we go with another post.

Coming up in just a couple weeks the cookies above will be offered for the first time.  I won't go into explaining a lot about these particular cookies since you can read the details on the main website.  But these cookies are really good, one of my favorites.  Of course, I say that about all the cookies on the full menu.  That's because nothing gets put on the menu unless it is one of my favorites.  

It took me a while to find the packaging I wanted to use for these.  The frosting is set with just a bit of softness so I wanted packaging that would allow me to lay them all out flat to preserve the pristine smooth surface of the frosting.

I love cookies.  Whenever I think of something quick and easy to make for a snack to have around for a day or two, my mind goes to cookies first.

I hope you'll give them a try when they appear on a weekly menu offering coming up.  Have a great week.  Enjoy the beautiful autumn weather.