Painted Tile Cookies, or Excessively Ambitious Ideas

Celia!

Sometime last week I saw a mention of painted cookies on a food blog and thought, "hmm! I can do that!" And then somehow that prompted me to think about painted things, and then I convinced myself that I have a large square cookie cutter, and finally, that I was going to make sugar cookies that looked like Delft tiles - you know, the Dutch ones that are white with blue images, flowers and pastoral scenes and the like.

It took me a large part of the three-day weekend to actually accomplish this task. First, sugar cookie dough has to chill. I used the stuff we always make for Christmas cookies - I'll include the recipe below if you don't have it. That is where things first started to go wrong. Turns out, I do not have a big square cookie cutter. I have a small square. You may ask why I didn't just use a knife and cut squares. Well, I did, and let me tell you, it is far less precise and pretty and quick than using a cookie cutter. If I make these again I will find a cutter first. So my cookies are a little wobbly. It was also super hot out, so the dough instantly became squishy, increasing the wobbliness.

After baking, I had to pipe the lines in royal icing, which increased the general air of wobble, since I am out of piping practice like woah. After that I flooded the cookies with runnier icing, which went well except for a higher than usual number of bubbles in the icing. I will have to look into that.

Finally, after they dried, I painted on the tile designs. I used vodka and gel food coloring to make the paint. You can also use clear vanilla, but I happen to have a jug of cheap vodka left here quite a while ago after a party, which makes it much cheaper than vanilla. I find it is also less sticky if spilled. The vodka evaporates fast so it's a little like using watercolors. I could have used your skills here, because I haven't really painted anything artistically in ages (except the wood grain on a cake a while back.) I used a lot of images online for examples of tiles and copied some and riffed off of others. Overall, I think they came out well, although as usual the idea in my head was better. I know what to fix for next time, if there is one. These things were a lot of work.

Baker Family Christmas/Sugar Cookies:

1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup unsalted butter
3 tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 egg
3 cups flour
1.5 tsp. baking powder
.5 tsp. salt

Cream the butter and sugar together, then add the egg, milk, and vanilla. Mix until well blended. Add dry ingredients, preferably after mixing them together in a separate bowl, but it will work if you're impatient. Mix until everything is blended, especially rogue bits of butter. Shape into a ball and refrigerate at least one hour. Eat raw dough at whatever stage desired. You can leave this in the fridge for several days, or freeze in advance. When you're ready to use, roll it out on a floured surface to about an eighth to a quarter inch thick. Cut out shapes and bake 5-9 minutes in a 400 degree oven. Keep a close eye because they brown quickly.

If you would like a tutorial on how to flood cookies with royal icing I suggest this, although it might give you an inferiority complex. Holy Moses look at the cute owl cookies! Bakerella is also always a good bet to look at pretty flooded cookies for inspiration.

Love you!

Amanda

Chocolate Truffle Tartlets

Dear Amanda,

Here are the results of my first tart adventure--not perfect in appearance but certainly tasty. I've included the recipe at the bottom. I have the odd habit of baking late at night--I think these were finished around one in the morning. While the other occupants of the dorm stumbled through on their way to the bars, I was preoccupied with pastry mats, rolling pins, and tartlet pans.

Usually I follow Mom's classic Crisco crust for pies, but with the advent of tarts this week I've entered the great shortening vs. butter debate. (By the way, where do you stand there?) These were made with a combination of Crisco and butter. I confess, they were just as flaky, and I relished the buttery taste. I was worried that they would stick to the pans and thus didn't press the dough tightly enough into the fluted edges, but after I chilled them them slipped right out. Next time I'll do it properly, and have lovely crimped edges. You were right about the baking temperature--I put them in at the same heat as the large tart the recipe described and simply took them out sooner, when I noticed that they had mostly solidified. I think some homemade whipped cream or chocolate shavings would set them off to perfection, but Kelly and I were too greedy to wait. We ate them plain, warmer than the recipe advised, and loved every bite regardless.

Then we fed the collection of guys who had accumulated in the kitchen.


Chocolate Truffle Tart
Pastry:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
6 tbsp cold butter, cut into pieces
1 tbsp vegetable shortening
3 tbsp ice water

Chocolate filling:
6 squares (oz) semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 large eggs
1/2 cup heavy cream

Preparation:
1. In large bowl, combine flour and salt. With pastry blender, cut in butter and shortening until mixture forms pea-sized clumps. Sprinkle in ice water until dough is moist, shape into sphere, and refrigerate 30 minutes.

2. Preheat oven to 425. Roll out dough and fit into pans or pan. Refrigerate or freeze for a few minutes until firm.

3. Bake tarts until golden. Time depends on the size of your pans. Also, I have no pie weights, so when my lovely little crusts swelled up I simply attacked them with the back of a spoon. they behaved after that. It didn't seem to hurt them any...

4.Turn oven to 350. While the crusts are cooling off, make the filling. In a two-quart saucepan, melt the chocolate and butter over very low heat, stirring frequently. Add sugar and vanilla. In another small bowl, whisk together eggs and cream. Whisk this egg mixture into the chocolate mixture in the saucepan.

5. Pour the yummy filling into the tart shells and bake until the custard is set but the center is still a bit jiggly.

6. Cool, refrigerate, or attack it while it's hot. Whichever.

Much love,

Celia