Good Grief -- Is It a Ghost or a Kid in a Costume?

I like Halloween a lot – like seriously who doesn’t? – treats and costumes just means pure cuteness (even the scary stuff is still cute).  And nothing is as cute at Halloween as the Peanuts in The Great Pumpkin.  Remember how, every year Linus would sit in the pumpkin patch on Halloween night waiting for the Great Pumpkin which invariably did not show and Lucy would ask for extra treats for her “blockhead” brother and Charlie Brown would get rocks.  I loved ghost costumes each of the characters dressed up in and how they sort of shuffled together to trick-or-treat.  I made this cookie to look like a kid in a ghost costume and was inspired by the Peanut kids.

Now We Are Talking Turkey

Monday is Canadian Thanksgiving and that means I am “Talkin’ Turkey”.  Nice thing about these turkeys is that all the fixins are included and there is no fear that they will be dried out because I used my chocolate brownie cookie recipe. 

Materials Needed for Decorating:

- candy caramel corn – I used the Thanksgiving colours that you can sometimes find but if not the Halloween one will look just as cute

- small heart sprinkles

- candy eyes

- tweezers

- melted chocolate in a squeeze bottle if you want royal icing will also work

- royal icing – orange and white –- as always I stress how much I like Ateco meringue - --- powder because it takes like marshmallows

- round cookie cutter – any size will work the one I used was about 3” around

Instructions and Tips:

Roll out the dough and bake according to the recipe.

I actually sorta placed everything around the cookie to see how it would look before I stuck everything on – just as practice.

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler and pour into squeeze bottle OR melt right in the bottle.

Squeeze a line of melted chocolate (or royal icing) and place caramel corns across the top to form the tail feathers.  Let dry (I actually put in the fridge for a few minutes).

Add the eyes with white royal icing.

Draw an orange triangle for the beak and place the heart sprinkle for the wattle – that thing that hangs down under the beak – who knew it was called a wattle?  My sister-in-law that is who knew because I did not know and called her for vocabulary help (THANKS Jill).

Draw the legs.

If you take time to make these, take a little more time and let me know how they turned out.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Fall Fashion Cookies

I’m back from Italy and, all of a sudden, the leaves are starting to change, the weather is getting a bit cooler and the days are getting shorter.  It is quite properly the fall season which means I can start to pull out my turtlenecks and tights, go for long walks with the dogs and make fall cookies.  I LOVE the fall – the colours are so awesome and the air is fresh.  I tried to replicate the reds, oranges, yellows and browns of the fall colours in these cookies.  But to really appreciate the beauty of autumn, please take some time for a walk to see and smell the best of the season (although the cookies smell pretty good too).

Busy as a Bee for Rosh Hashanah

I’m already starting to think about the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, and dreaming of apples and honey because I know September 28 will be here sooner than I want.  And, as always, I’m making apple cookies with sugar sprinkles and royal icing bumble bees.  Bags of cookies and bigger baskets with individually wrapped cookies will be available.  Send me a note if you are interested.  Wishing you a happy and healthy year full of sweet things.

Happy Back to School!

At least I waited until the end of August to remind everyone it is back to school time.  It is simply not fair when companies start advertising back to school in JULY!  What’s up with that?  But here at Flour Child the reminder is as fun as it can possibly be given the circumstance – COOKIES!!!  I really like the cute pencil but I love the note paper (thinking these would be great for notes to Santa at Christmas and love notes at Valentines Day too).  I hope everyone going back to school – whether starting kindergarten or graduate school in university – has lots of success.  Wishing everyone an A+ year full of learning lots of new things.


P.S. leave a comment on your favorite thing to buy for back to school (I always had the best pencil case -- just ask my friend Suzanne;)

Chunky Monkey or Coco Loco Banana Bread

I think everyone has a favorite banana bread recipe.  I know I do – its from The Complete Magnolia Bakery Cookbook. I particularly love it because it has coconut in it and anything with coconut I just adore.  I adapted the recipe, ever so slightly, as it calls for pecans and I put in peanut butter chocolate chips instead.  You can adapt your fav banana bread to include coconut and chocolate chips instead of using the one below. I love these President Choice mini chips – they come in three flavors – fudge, caramel and peanut butter – each is yummy and could work in this recipe.

Recipe:

3 cups flour

1½ tsp baking soda

¾ tsp cinnamon

¾ tsp salt

¾ cup canola oil

1½ cups sugar

3 large eggs, room temperature, well beaten

1½ tsp vanilla

1½ cups mashed ripe bananas (approx. 4 depending on the size)

¾ cup sour cream

¾ cup sweetened shredded coconut

1 to 1½ cups of chocolate peanut butter or other chips for a nut free alternative

Instructions:

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees.

Grease and lightly flour a 1-=inch tube pan – this makes a big cake which is super if you are having people for brunch.  I have also make it as 3 medium sized loafs – I use one and freeze the others.

Sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt – set aside.

In a large electric mixer bowl, beat together the oil and sugar.  Add the eggs and vanilla, beat until well combined.  Add the bananas and sour cream and mix really well.  Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. 

Stir in (by hand) the coconut and peanut butter chips. 

Pour the batter into the prepared pan (or pans).

Bake for 60-70 minutes (45-55 if using smaller pans), or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the bread comes out with moist crumbs attached.

Let cool for at least 1 hour before removing from the pan and serving.

--

I was not sure if the name should be coco loco (because of the coconut) OR chunky monkey (because of the whole banana and chocolate thing).  Let me know what you think!

Funky Town Disco Cookies

Not sure if you have seen Glee 3-D or not but these funky disco cookies are a great way to get down and celebrate any Saturday Night fever.