Various Wedding Cookies

My cousin Lauren, who happens to have her own blog, got married this past weekend. I love weddings, but I can't honestly say I've been to a ton. Most of my cousins on my dad's side are a lot older than me. In fact, they are all practically married. Was I invited to their weddings or showers? No. Is 17 too young for these things? Thank goodness Lauren doesn't think so. She's from my mom's side and is the second one on that side to get married. So I have high hopes that all the others on my mom's side will invite me to theirs as well. Let's hope!

Back: Amy, Becky, Me, Michelle, Brian

Front: Josh, Louie, John, Teddy

I had such a good time at the wedding. I danced the night away with my family, even though th DJ was a nightmare! Just when everyone would be getting their Brick House or Super freak on, he'd throw in something completely bizarre. At the very end, Telephone did make its way in somehow.

I don't know how it is other places, but it's tradition in Pittsburgh (Western Pa, really) to have a cookie table at a wedding (and the shower). So everyone in the family made a type of cookie to bring in and they got set up all fancy like. Here's the catch of this post, my mom made all of the three cookie recipes I'm going to share with you. I helped in no way! She did a fabulous job and I loved all her cookies.

As a side note, the food at the wedding was really good. I never eat pasta, I'm not really a fan, but I had some penne noodles and sauce with tons of cheese which was great. But the potatoes, oh the potatoes! Super ah-may-zing. Anyway, on to the recipes!

My mom made these ones for the wedding shower. These thumb prints were a great cookie, but the frosting rocked! It was real buttery and creamy. I saw a few finished thumb prints as my mom was icing them, and I forced her to put on more icing. I'm always right;)

I can't find the recipe, my mom couldn't remember where she got it from. This greatly saddens me. Sorry!

These chocolate cookies were easy, according to my mom. I tried one to please, though we all know I am in no way a chocolate fan. I give it a thumbs up, but one was plenty for me.

Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

from Joy of Baking

Ingredients:4 tablespoons unsalted butter
8 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Topping:
1 cup confectioners sugar, sifted
In a stainless steel bowl, over a saucepan of simmering water, melt the chocolate and butter. Remove from heat and set aside.
In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the eggs and sugar until thick, pale, and fluffy. (When you slowly raise the beaters the batter will fall back into the bowl in slow ribbons.) At this point beat in the vanilla extract and then stir in the melted chocolate mixture.

In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder. Add dry ingredients to the chocolate mixture, stirring just until incorporated. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm enough to shape into balls (3-4 hours, or even overnight)..

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (170 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, and set aside.

Place the confectioners sugar in a shallow bowl. With lightly greased hands, roll a small amount of chilled dough to form a 1 inch (2.54 cm) ball. Place the ball of dough into the confectioners sugar and roll the ball in the sugar until it is completely coated and no chocolate shows through. Gently lift the sugar-covered ball, tapping off excess sugar, and place on the prepared baking sheet. Continue forming cookies, spacing about 2 inches (5 cm) apart on the baking sheets. (If you find the dough getting too soft for rolling into balls, return to the refrigerator and let chill until firm.)

Bake cookies for 8 to 10 minutes or just until the edges are slightly firm but the centers are still soft. (For moist chewy cookies do not over bake. Over baking these cookies will cause them to be dry.) Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.
These cookies are best eaten the day they are baked.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Oh goodness my mom searched for days for those candies in the center! Apparently these nonpareil candies are basically extinct? I don't really know, but it was quite the ordeal. I'm not really a fan of mint, (I know it seems like I have very select tastes, well I do) but I enjoyed quite a few of these. The sugar cookie base was really bomb and the mint paired well. Again, my mom said these were a breeze to make.

Mint Blossoms
from Land O'Lakes
Yield: 4 dozen cookies

1 1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cup LAND O LAKES® Butter, softened
1 LAND O LAKES® All-Natural Egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
48 mint meltaway candies

Heat oven to 375°F. Combine 1 cup sugar, butter, egg and vanilla in large bowl. Beat at medium speed until well mixed. Reduce speed to low; add flour, baking soda and salt. Beat until well mixed.

Shape dough into 1-inch balls; roll in remaining sugar. Place 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are very light golden brown. Remove from oven; immediately press 1 mint candy in center of each cookie. Remove from cookie sheets to wire cooling rack; cool completely.

Toasted Almond Scones

Toasted Almond Scones

Now that school's started I've been thinking about trying to focus some of my baking on easy-take-with-you breakfast items. The first of which on my list is scones!

I adore scones, but haven't had too much luck making them. My first try was some Strawberry Sunrise Scones, and they came out way too doughy and soggy. They were underdone, yet I had put them in for way over the recommended baking time. So, they tasted okay but not premium scone quality. I also made Ina Garten's famous Cheddar Dill Scones, which was probably the WORST baking experience of my life. They were absolutely terrible. I can laugh about it now, but back then it wasn't so funny. 4 cups of flour was in the recipe and more was needed for kneading, but before you even took a bite of the finished product, you could taste the flour that was inhaling into your lungs. What I mean is; no cheddar taste + no dill taste + all flour taste = TERRIBLE!

It had been a while since my bad scone experience and I was ready to try again. I found a recipe for Toasted Almond Scones and had to try it. I love almonds and this recipe has it in three ways; almond extract, almond slivers, and ground almond.

It was simple enough to make. The only tricky part for me was cutting in the butter in which I gave up using the pastry cutter and found my hands worked fine.

I did eat them, though. I don't like tossing any recipes so I just slathered it in butter then added strawberry or blueberry jam on top of that. Then they were "okay". I probably did something wrong, so don't be afraid to give them a try. also, if anyone has a no-fail scone recipe, it would be greatly appreciated. I love scones, but they just don't love me!

Toasted Almond Scones

Ingredients:
1 cup blanched almonds (whole, slivered or sliced), toasted
2 tablespoons sugar
1 large egg
1/3 cup cold heavy cream
1/4 cup cold whole milk
1/8 teaspoon pure almond extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick (8 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup sliced almonds (optional for topping)

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat.

Divide the toasted almonds in half. Finely ground 1/2 cup in a food processor or blender with the sugar, taking care not to over grind the nuts and end up with almond butter. Finely chop the other 1/2 cup.

Stir the egg, cream, milk and almond extract together.

Whisk the flour, ground almonds and sugar, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl. Drop in the butter and, using your fingers, toss to coat the pieces of butter with flour. Quickly, working with your fingertips or a pastry blender, cut and rub the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture is pebbly.

Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and stir with a fork just until the dough, which will be wet and sticky, comes together. Don’t overdo it. Stir in the chopped almonds.

Still in the bowl, gently knead the dough by hand, or turn it with a rubber spatula 8 to 10 times. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and divide it in half. Working with one piece at a time, pat the dough into a rough circle that’s about 5 inches in diameter, cut it into 6 wedges and top each scone with a few sliced almonds, if you’re using them. Place them on a baking sheet.

At this point, the scones can be frozen on the baking sheet, then wrapped airtight. Don’t defrost before baking—just add about 2 minutes to the baking time.

Bake the scones for 20 to 22 minutes, or until their tops are golden and firmish. Transfer to a rack and cool for 10 minutes before serving, or wait for the scones to cool to room temperature.