Eclipse Galaxy Cookies

Eclipse Galaxy Cookies

Eclipse Galaxy Cookies

Galaxy Cookies

I love the Galaxy Cookies on Sugar Spun Run (link below) and last month for July 4, I made Marbled Star Cookies using the marbling technique I learned from this blog. With the Solar Eclipse tomorrow, I wanted to make a cookie resembling the Eclipse and Galaxy Cookies. They are so pretty and really fun, and super easy to make! The only thing to keep in mind is the mess on your fingers from dipping each cookie into the glaze so wash your hands often, have paper towels handy, and place them under the wire racks to catch any excess glaze. For the eclipse cookie, I used a sun and a round cookie cutter, and a star cutter for the galaxy cookies. The dough is a decadent Dark Chocolate and has a great chocolate taste, and is not too sweet with a chewy texture. See recipe and directions below.

Yield: About 4 Dozen depending on cutter size

Galaxy Cookies

Galaxy Cookies

Ingredients
2/3 cup Granulated Sugar

2 cups King Arthur All Purpose Flour

1/3 cup Dark Cocoa Powder

1/2 teaspoon Coarse Salt

1 cup (2 sticks) Unsalted Butter, softened and each stick cut into 8 cubes

1 Large Egg, beaten

1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract

Galaxy Cookies

Galaxy Cookies

Directions
In a large bowl whisk together the flour, dark cocoa powder and salt; set aside.

In a stand mixer with paddle attachment on medium speed, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 1 to 2 minutes.

Scrape sides of bowl and mix for 10 seconds.

Add vanilla extract and incorporate for 5 seconds.

Add egg and incorporate for 5 seconds.

Scrape sides of bowl and then mix for 5 seconds more.

Turn mixer to low speed and slowly add flour mixture until incorprated. Scrape sides of bowl and continue to mix until dough starts to clump around the paddle attachment.

Form dough into a ball, cover with plastic wrap and chill in fridge 2-4 hours or overnight. If pressed for time, place in the freezer for 45 minutes.

Heat oven to 350°F.

Eclipse Cookie (sorry about the flash exposure)

Sun, star and round cookie cutters

Use two sheets of parchment paper with dough in between and roll with rolling pin until desired thickness is reached.

Make the sun with the sun cutter, and eclipse using the round cutter making one of each. Use the rest of the dough with the star cutter and make shapes. Repeat until you have used up all the dough.

Place onto cookies sheets lined with parchment paper, and put in freezer for 20 minutes. The cookies hold their shape when you do this.

Bake 10-12 minutes or until the edges have slightly browned. My cookies baked in 12 minutes.

Make sure cookie sheets cool in between baking. I place them in the freezer for a few minutes.

Then I place cut-out dough on cold cookie sheets lined with parchment paper, and put in freezer for 20 minutes as mentioned above.

This is important. Do not use hot cookie sheets or the cookies will spread and lose their shape.

Wait 2-3 minutes before transferring cookies with cookie spatula to cooling racks to complete cooling, about 1 hour.

Decorate once the cookies are cool to the touch.

Luster Dust on the cookies except the Eclipse

Luster Dust on the Galaxy Cookies

Marble Glaze Icing Ingredients
3 cups Powdered Sugar

3 tablespoons Light Corn Syrup

3-4 tablespoons Milk

1/2 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract

1/4 teaspoon Almond Extract

AmeriColor Soft Food Gel Paste Food Color in Yellow, Super Black, Violet, Royal Blue, and Fuschia

Optional: Wilton Edible Accents Silver Stars

Optional: Wilton Silver Luster Dust

Added Silver Stars and now they need to dry

Silver Stars on

Directions
In a large bowl whisk together the powdered sugar, 3 tablespoons of milk, and light corn syrup until smooth.

If the glaze is too dry, add 1 more tablespoon of milk.

Add vanilla and almond extracts and stir.

Put a little amount of glaze just to cover the sun cookie in a container, and use 1-2 drops of AmeriColor Soft Gel Paste Color in Yellow.

In a separate container put a little amount of glaze to cover the eclipse cookie, and use 1-2 drops of AmeriColor Soft Gel Paste in Super Black.

Use the remaining glaze and divide in equal amounts in 3-4 containers with lids.

One of my swirls to dip the cookies in

1 tray of stars out of the oven

Use one bowl at a time and dip toothpick (1 toothpick per color) into each of the gel colors and then into glaze, and swirl with Wilton Scribe Tool or a toothpick to make a pretty design.

Take the round cookie and dip it into the black glaze making sure you cover the entire cookie, and place on wire rack to set.

Take the sun cookie and dip it into the yellow glaze making sure you cover the entire cookie, and place on wire rack to set.

Make each container a different variation of color with more or less of the colors.

I only used Super Black with Violet and Royal Blue in one container and for the rest of the containers I used Fuschia, Violet, and Royal Blue in different amounts in each one for variation.

Dip each cookie into glaze, swirl around, and place on wire rack to set.

Make sure cookies are on wire racks in cookie sheets with paper towels under the racks to catch icing overflow.

If you wish, add Wilton Edible Accents Silver Stars and repeat until you are done.

To make the Eclipse Cookie, make sure the glaze is dry and with a brush dipped in Light Corn Syrup dab onto the center of the sun cookie. Place black round cookie on top pressing lightly to adhere. Be gentle or you will break your cookie.

Once cookies dry, take a brush and gently add a little Wilton Silver Luster Dust on each cookie. To do this, dip the brush into the luster dust and gently flick the brush with your finger over the cookie. Repeat until you are done dusting all the cookies. This is optional but makes the cookies shimmer.

For the Galaxy Cookies recipe, visit Sugar Spun Run:
https://sugarspunrun.com/galaxy-cookies/

Enjoy!

-Sophia/Two Frys

Firetruck Cookies

Firetruck Cookies

Firetruck Cookies

My nephew Matthew celebrated his 3rd birthday and for his party, my sister-in-law Sonia made an awesome firetruck cake, and the decorations, plates, napkins, and balloons all had a firetruck theme. My sister-in-law asked me to make firetruck cookies for the party yesterday, and bought me the firetruck cookie cutter. Since my nephew cannot have royal icing due to raw egg whites and this is a common allergy for many kids, to be safe I made an egg free icing.  I used this icing when I made Christmas Cookies for my nephew and his friends at the daycare he attends, and the icing worked great. This icing behaves like royal icing and dries hard, tastes great, and is so shiny giving the cookies a pretty look. The firetruck cookies are vanilla, but you can substitute any extract flavor you like. I think lemon would have worked great in this recipe as well. The kids and adults loved the firetruck cookies. See recipe and instructions below.

Yield: 2 1/2 - 3 Dozen Firetruck Cookies or more depending on cookie cutter size

More Firetruck Cookies

Ingredients
5 cups King Arthur All Purpose Flour

2 cups Granulated Sugar

1 teaspoon Coarse Salt

2 cups (4 sticks) Unsalted Butter, softened and cute into cubes

1 tablespoon Milk

2 XL Eggs

3 teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract

Firetruck Cookies dry and ready to transport

Directions
Whisk together flour and salt; set aside.

Cream butter and sugar in a hand held mixer or stand mixer with paddle attachment on low; 1-2 minutes. Do not overmix.

Scrape sides of bowl with spatula and mix for 10 seconds.

Add eggs one at a time, mix until incorporated. Scrape sides of bowl and mix for 5 seconds.

Add milk and vanilla extract, and mix on low until incorporated, about 20-25 seconds.

With mixer on low speed, slowly add flour mixture and incorporate. The dough is ready when it begins to clump around paddle attachment.

Cut in half and roll dough into 2 balls, cover with plastic wrap and chill in fridge for 1-2 hours or overnight.

Take half of the dough leaving unused dough covered with plastic wrap in fridge until ready to use.

Heat oven to 350°F.

Use two sheets of parchment paper with dough in between and roll with rolling pin until desired thickness is reached.

I did not need to use flour but if you do, dip firetruck cutter in flour, shake off excess, and make shapes. Repeat until you have used up all the dough.

Place onto cookies sheets lined with parchment paper, and put in freezer for 20 minutes. The cookies hold their shape when you do this.

Bake 12-15 minutes or until the edges have slightly browned. My cookies baked in 13 minutes.

Make sure cookie sheets cool in between baking. I place them in the freezer for a few minutes and then place cut-out dough on cold cookies sheets lined with parchment paper, and put in freezer for 20 minutes. This is important. Do not use hot cookie sheets or the cookies will spread and lose their shape.

Wait 2-3 minutes before transferring cookies with cookie spatula to cooling racks to complete cooling, about 1 hour.

Decorate once the cookies are cool to the touch.

Yay, Firetruck Cookies are all dry

Egg-Free Icing
(Double recipe if you have more than 40 cookies)

6 cups Powdered/Confectioners' Sugar, sifted

1/2 cup Whole Milk + 1 tablespoon extra (for flooding cookies)

1/4 cup Light Corn Syrup

2 teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract

Finished filling the Red icing and they are all wet and need to dry

Directions
In a large bowl, sift powdered sugar; set aside.

Using stand or hand held mixer with paddle attachment on medium-high speed, combine sugar and 1/4 cup of milk and mix for 1-2 minutes until smooth.

Add remaining 1/4 cup of milk one tablespoon at a time until you reach the consistency you need. (I made one batch for the borders, and 1 batch to fill the cookies). For filling the cookies, I added 1 extra tablespoon of milk.

Add corn syrup and vanilla extract and mix for 10 seconds.

Note: The corn syrup gives the icing a lovely shine.

Made the ladders after the Red icing dried

I separated the icing in plastic containers with lids according to the different colors needed for tinting.

I used AmeriColor Soft Gel Paste Food Color in Black, Super Red and Yellow.

Use 1 drop of the Black to make the Grey color, and 2-4 drops (or more) for the Red, Black, and Yellow colors.

Keep the containers covered until you are ready to color.

Transfer the icing immediately into squeeze bottles using a small funnel to prevent spilling and keep covered when not in use.

I first made the outlines of the wheels and window of the firetruck using the Black icing.

After 30 minutes, I filled each one.

I then did the outline for the firetruck light in yellow. I made the border consistency for this color not both.

After 30 minutes, I filled each one.

I did the border for the firetruck in red.

After 30 minutes, I filled each one. This step takes awhile since there is a lot of Red icing to fill the cookies with.

Firetruck Cookies on wire rack to cool

I waited 6 hours for the Red icing to dry and then with the Grey icing made the ladder. I made the border consistency icing for this color not both.

Use a paintbrush or cookie stick to reach edges, and use tip of cookie stick or a toothpick to pop any air bubbles.

Let the firetruck cookies dry overnight. This is essential so the icing does not stick together when you stack them or place in cookie tins for gifts.

If you are baking and it is humid, you will need additional time for the cookies to dry. In my case, it was hot, humid and also raining the next morning, so the cookies took longer than expected to dry completely.

For further information:
Please visit, Sweetopia for the Vanilla Sugar Cookie Recipe:
http://sweetopia.net/2009/12/sugar-cookie-recipe/

Please visit, The Slow Roasted Italian for the Egg-Free Icing Recipe:
http://www.theslowroasteditalian.com/2013/12/best-tasting-sugar-cookie-icing-recipe.html

Enjoy!

-Sophia/Two Frys

Allegheny City Farms Products PA

Allegheny City Farms Products
Tom Motta - Founder
Pittsburgh, PA.

Hot Sauce on breakfast sandwiches

Sauce close up you can see the hot pepper pieces

I have been for some time cooking with and trying out both a hot sauce and a outstanding rub from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. These products were made by Tom Motta in PA. The Sauce is called Allegheny City Farm Hot Sauce "Pittsburgh Style" and the rub is called Allegheny City Farms BBQ Pepper Rub. The sauce is extemely hot and could be used as an additive for your home cooking. The sauce straight up is HOT and contains some of the Worlds Hottest Peppers. The sauce is so hot it comes with a Warning to use with extreme caution due to the heat level. I used the sauce on various breakfast meals and it packs a punch. The ingredients contain a fermented super hot mash of Ghost, Scorpion, 7 Pot, Primo, and Reaper Peppers. Also there is lemon juice, spices, Turbinado Sugar and More.

Nice sauce consistency on the sandwich, hot stuff!

The Allegheny City Farms BBQ Pepper Rub was a nice addition to oven baked sweet potatoes. They came out wonderful and also I made baked cubed Butternut Squash. This is an easy recipe that worked well with the BBQ Pepper Rub. I also had the Rub on a Bacon Egg and Cheese Hero and it added a sweet spiciness to the sandwich. The Allegheny City Farms BBQ Pepper Rub is a good addition to your pantry, and the hot sauce is extreme and only for lovers of extreme heat. I am the only one in my family that could tolerate the burn.

Two Frys Baked Butternut Squash Recipe using the BBQ Pepper Rub

BBQ Pepper Rub close up

Dinner using the rub, Pork and Roasted Butternut Squash 

Also an honorable mention to the Allegheny City Farms pepper jelly which combined well with a bagel and cream cheese. NOTE: This company is currently changing their product line and adding to it so be sure to see the website for the more current and available products.

Website: alleghenycityfarms.com

Facebook: alleghencityfarms

Two Fry Butternut Squash Recipe: 
(add the rub instead of salt and pepper)  
Two Frys Roasted Butternut Squash  

- Allen/TwoFrys