cookies

Tutorial: Speckled Egg Cookies

April 8, 2020 By Ashley Leave a Comment

Today, I’m sharing this tutorial for an easy and fast way to decorate some Easter themed cookies. These speckled egg cookies are great to decorate with the kiddos and make super cute Easter basket gifts. The sugar cookie recipe I use for my speckled egg cookies is my go-to recipe. They are easy to roll out and they hold their shape when baked. They’re easily adaptable – you can add in your favorite spices, extracts, herbs, and more. You can find the recipe for my sugar cookies on my Snowflake Sugar Cookie post.

I used an oval cookie cutter to cut out my cookies, and I tapered one end, by hand, to have a slightly pointed egg shape. You can also use a larger circle cutter and shape it to look like an egg. Alternatively, you can use a sharp knife and cut out an egg shape, with or without a template. I don’t buy a lot of cookie cutters since I don’t use them often so I tend to make do with what I have.

Once you cut out your cookies, they need to be chilled. Chilling is important with sugar cookies as it helps them retain their shape. Once the cookies have been chilled throughly, they are then baked and cooled completely. While the cookies are cooling, I make the royal icing. The recipe for my royal icing can also be found on my Snowflake Sugar Cookie post.

I made three different colors of royal icing to replicate the colors of Cadbury mini eggs – robin’s egg blue, dusty pink and golden yellow. To mix color into royal icing, be sure to add very little at a time using toothpicks. Royal icing takes on color really well and can get too saturated really fast. Keep in mind that it will also darken a shade or two after it is colored. These are the gel colors I used to color my royal icing:

Robin’s egg blue: royal blue and ivory

Golden yellow: Americolor gold, and golden yellow

Dusty pink – electric pink, and ivory

Ivory helps to tone down the hues so that the colors aren’t overly bright. Ivory is super necessary to have on hand for coloring royal icing, glaze, fondant, gum paste, etc.

One of the main issues that I hear from readers regarding royal icing, is that they are unsure of what the consistency needs to be for outlining and flooding, and if it is necessary to have multiple consistencies. I’m a no-fuss, one piping bag per color sort of cookie decorator, so I use a medium consistency for both outlining and flooding. This royal icing consistency post by Sweetopia is super helpful when determining if your icing is ready, so be sure to check it out. Royal Icing post coming from me in the near-ish future.

I used a PME tip #4 to outline my royal icing. I flooded the cookie with an Ateco #12 tip. After flooding the cookie, lightly shake it to distribute the icing and create a smooth and even surface. Outline, flood and let the cookies dry completely on the surface.

For the brown splatter effect, I mixed cocoa powder with a little bit of alcohol until a liquid paste (or slurry) forms. You can also use extracts instead of alcohol. Aim to use an extract that will compliment the flavor of your cookies and/or icing. I also made a metallic gold splatter using edible gold luster dust.

Now, this is the messy part. If you have an airbrush box, do these next couple steps in the box. Otherwise, lay out some paper towels to catch the impending cocoa mess. Using a paintbrush that is designated for food only, or a small pastry brush, dip the brush into the liquid paste mixture and wipe off any dripping excess. Use your finger to flick the chocolate mixture from the brush onto the cookies. I do recommend that you practice on a paper towel first to get the hang of how much of the chocolate mix to add you your brush as well as a good distance to hold your brush from the cookies to achieve the overall technique. Variations splatter size looks best.

I repeated the same process with the gold, but I used much less of the splatter effect. I just wanted a little gold to pop on my cookies.

Let the cookies dry completely (preferably overnight) before storing or serving. Enjoy!

For another delicious Easter dessert, check out this recipe:

Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

Brown Butter Maple Pecan Cookies

November 25, 2019 By Ashley Leave a Comment

Oh my goodness guys, these cookies. It was so hard to not eat ALL of them when testing this recipe – they are so good. The other taste testers of this cookie have been eagerly waiting for me to share this recipe, so I’m super excited to be sharing my brown butter maple pecan cookies with you today.

There are so many yummy elements to these brown butter maple pecan cookies, it’s hard to peg down exactly what makes them so good. Buttery, nutty, and crumbly shortbread cookies made with brown butter and filled with toasted, finely chopped pecans are dipped in a maple glaze with REAL maple syrup, and just a bit of maple extract for some extra maple flavor. I top them with some more toasted pecans for some extra crunch.

Browning butter is fairly fast and easy and really elevates any dessert you choose to use it in. Brown butter by heating it until the milk solids turn a deep golden brown. The butter will pop and bubble as it cooks, but as the popping and bubbling start to slow down, that means your brown butter is close to being cooked. It’s important to keep an eye on your browning butter as it can go from perfect to burned fairly quickly.

Toasting nuts before using them in a recipe does a few things to really bring out their flavor. The oils in the nuts are activated when toasted and come to the surface, which allows the nut to crisp up. This amps up their flavor and tones down the sometimes bitter flavor raw nuts can have. Toasting nuts is really the only way to allow nut flavors to shine through and work with stronger flavors, like chocolate, rather than being completely overshadowed by those stronger flavors.

I used to totally skip the process of toasting nuts for a recipe when I was in a hurry. I mean, why take the time to toast them when they toast while they’re cooking, right? Unfortunately, they don’t actually toast when cooking. The other ingredients prevent the nuts from getting hot enough to actually toast. Liquids in the recipe don’t allow the nuts to properly crisp as they would when toasting.

Luckily, toasting nuts is super easy. Just pop them on a cookie sheet into a 350F oven and toast for 6-8 minutes, stirring halfway, until they’ve darkened slightly and they have a toasty aroma. Keep an eye on them because if they burn, it’s game over and you’ll need to start over. Err on the side of under-toasted if you’re concerned about burning them.

I just used a simple, fluted round cookie cutter for my cookies but you can, of course use any cutter you would like. These cookies would look super cute cut out into maple leaves! Chill the cookie dough in the refrigerator after cutting out the cookies so that the butter firms up and decreases the chances of spreading when baked.

The maple glaze really takes these cookies to the next level. I use real maple syrup in this glaze, but I cut it with a little bit of water so that the glaze isn’t too sweet. To help amp up that maple flavor, I use a little bit of a good quality maple extract.

These brown butter maple pecan cookies would be the perfect addition to your holiday cookie platter. Bring these to your next cookie swap and they are sure to be a hit. Enjoy!

For more cookie recipes, check these out!

Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies

Funfetti Sandwich Cookies

Print Recipe

Brown Butter Maple Pecan Cookies

Buttery, crumbly and nutty brown butter shortbread cookies with toasted, chopped pecans and a sweet maple glaze.

Prep Time20 mins

Cook Time20 mins

Total Time40 mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Brown Butter Maple Pecan Cookies

Ingredients

Cookies:

1 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup pecans, toasted and finely chopped

Maple Glaze:

2 cups confectioner's sugar
3 tablespoons real maple syrup
2-3 tablespoons water
1/2 teaspoon maple extract
1/8 teaspoon Fine sea salt

Instructions

Make the cookie dough:

Place the butter into a medium saucepan over medium heat. Let the butter cook while occasionally stirring to ensure the butter is cooking evenly.
Cook the butter until it is a deep golden brown color and smells nutty and toasted, about 5 -7 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat.
Let the butter cool to room temperature. Place the butter in the refrigerator until solid but scoopable.
Combine the butter, the confectioner's sugar and the salt into a bowl of a stand mixer.
Beat on low speed until combined, stopping to scraping the bowl to ensure all ingredients are well mixed.
Add the flour and the pecans to the butter mixture and mix until just combined, and no flour remains in the bowl.
Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface or a non-stick mat, and form the dough into a ball. Flatten to a disc, about 1" high, and wrap tightly with plastic wrap.
Chill the dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Roll and cut out the cookies:

Heat the oven to 350F. Line two cookies sheets with parchment.
On a lightly floured surface or a non-stick mat, roll out the dough to about 1/4" thick.
Using a round fluted cookie cutter, cut out rounds out of the dough and place on the parchment cookie sheets, leaving about 2" between the cookies.
Bake the cookies for 17-20 minutes until the edges are just starting to lightly brown. Cool for 10 minutes on the cookie sheets. Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Make the maple glaze:

In a medium bowl, whisk together the confectioner's sugar, salt, maple syrup, water, and maple extract until smooth.
Dip half of the cookies into the glaze and place on parchment paper.
While the glaze is still wet, sprinkle with finely chopped pecans.
Let the glaze set completely before serving.

Notes

Cookies will stay fresh in an airtight container for up to a week.

Strawberries and Cream Shortbread Cookies

January 31, 2019 By Ashley Leave a Comment

This post may contain affiliate sales links. Please see my full disclosure policy for details.

While the sea of heart shaped pink and red filled chocolate boxes and pastry cases in stores this time of year make this sweets lover swoon, there’s nothing quite as special as a homemade sweet treat on Valentine’s Day. So, given that Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, I wanted to share the perfect sweet treat for you to make for those you love most in life – Strawberries and Cream Shortbread Cookies. Nothing says “I love you” like carbs and homemade cookies.

I’ve been a long time fan of shortbread cookies. They’re amazing in their simplicity and in all of their adaptable ways. When I was in college, I would purchase boxes of Walker’s shortbread cookies from the British shop in the historic area of our town. They were my favorite. I still visit that British store to buy loads of things – tea, Lyle’s golden syrup, and all things Cadbury but I stick to making my own shortbread nowadays.

These strawberries and cream shortbread cookies are buttery and crumbly and full of strawberry flavor. A creamy strawberry white chocolate drizzle on top takes these cookies to next level. The star of these cookies is freeze dried strawberries. These little nuggets are made by extracting all the water from the berries, resulting in a super concentrated flavor. Freeze dried strawberries and lots of other freeze dried fruits can be found at your local grocery store.

This shortbread cookie recipe is made like a traditional shortbread, by combining the butter and sugar, adding flavoring and then the flour and add-ins. It’s important to not whip your butter and sugar, just mix until creamy and well combined. Whipping air into the butter/sugar mixture can contribute to spreading cookies. After the flour is added, and the dough is still crumbly, crushed pieces of freeze dried strawberries are gently mixed in.

The dough is then refrigerated a bit to make it easier to roll out and cut out shapes. I chose to make cute little heart shapes for Valentine’s Day. Once the hearts are cut out, the cookies go back to the fridge to firm up completely before baking. I like to bake my cookies until the edges start to brown slightly. Baking the cookies at a slightly lower temperature than usual will ensure that they cook through but don’t brown on top.

My favorite part of the strawberries and cream shortbread cookies is the creamy pink white chocolate strawberry drizzle on top. Coloring chocolate usually requires oil based food color, or candy color so that the chocolate doesn’t seize. Luckily you don’t need any food color to tint the chocolate for these cookies. Pulverized freeze dried strawberries are mixed with melted white chocolate to make a super creamy, strawberry flavored pink white chocolate, perfect for drizzling onto your cookies. So, so good.

Turn these into conversation heart cookies by using these craft embossing stamps to imprint your favorite conversation heart sayings. Just stamp the letters into the dough before baking.

I’m kind of obsessed with this photo. Those little hands belong to my littlest cupcake, who so badly wanted to be a part of the photo process for these cookies. Those little pink fingers also promptly shoved that cookie in her mouth upon completion of taking the photo.

If you try these strawberries and cream shortbread cookies, let me know! Leave a comment in the comment area below and be sure to snap a photo and tag it #littlevintagebaking on Instagram. I love seeing your Little Vintage Baking creations!

For another delicious and fruity dessert, check out my recipe for Raspberry Swirl Cheesecake Brownies!

Print Recipe

Strawberries and Cream Shortbread Cookies

Buttery, crumbly strawberry shortbread cookies drizzled with pink strawberry white chocolate

Prep Time15 mins

Cook Time20 mins

Chilling time1 hr 10 mins

Total Time35 mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Ingredients

For the strawberry shortbread cookies:

1 cup (226g) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup (60g) confectioners sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cup (306g) all purpose flour
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
1/3 cup (10g) freeze dried strawberries, crushed

For the strawberry white chocolate:

1/2 cup (90g) good quality white chocolate, chopped
3 tsps freeze dried strawberries, pulverized

Instructions

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the softened butter, confectioners sugar, and vanilla and beat together on medium speed until creamy and combined.
Place the mixer speed to low. Add the flour to the butter mixture and beat until the mixture is crumbly and resembles curds.
Remove the bowl from the mixer. Add the crushed strawberries and gently mix until the strawberries are mixed in thoroughly.
Turn the dough out onto some cling film. Press the dough together, forming a disc shape, about an inch in height. Wrap the dough with the cling film and place in the refrigerator to chill for 20 minutes.
Dust your work surface with flour. Roll out your cookie dough to about 1/4 inch thick. Cut out the desired shapes and place on a parchment paper lined cookie sheets, leaving about 2 inches in between the cookies.
Place the cooking sheets into the refrigerator to chill for 45 minutes to an hour. If baking the following day, wrap the cookie sheets with cling film to prevent drying absorbing odors.
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F while the cookies are chilling.
Once the cookies are properly chilled, bake for 20-25 minutes or until the edges of the cookies start to turn a light golden brown.
Let cool completely on the cookie sheets or on a cooling rack.
Place the white chocolate into a microwave safe bowl.
Melt the chocolate in 30 second increments in the microwave until only a few lumps of chocolate remain.
Remove the bowl from the microwave and stir until there are no longer any lumps.
Add in the strawberry powder and mix to combine.
Pour the strawberry white chocolate into a piping bag and decorate the cookies as you wish.

Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies

June 24, 2018 By Ashley 13 Comments

These bakery style chocolate chip cookies are an essential staple in my house. They’re fantastically delicious and everyone goes crazy for them – they never stick around for long. The dough can also be made in advance, scooped and frozen so I always have a supply in the freezer. I just pop them in the oven when I need a sweet treat for last minute guests or for an after school snack for my girls.

There are many, many recipes and variations for chocolate chip cookies, but if you have been searching for the ultimate bakery style chocolate chip cookie, then this is THE recipe. These are everything a chocolate chip cookie should be. Thick, chewy, soft, buttery, caramel-ly and full of ooey-gooey chocolate chips. Use good quality chocolate chips here as it makes all the difference in flavor. Make these super indulgent by using chunks of chopped up semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate instead of chips. Melty chocolate puddles are life.

This recipe is similar to many other chocolate chip cookie recipes but with a few differences that take these over the top and make them bakery style chocolate chip cookies. Melted butter is used here, instead of softened butter, which results in chewier cookies and less spreading when baked (think thick and chewy!). It has both granulated and brown sugar but has more brown sugar which adds to the chewiness and contributes to more of a complex caramel flavor. I use high quality pure vanilla extract in all my baked goods, and if you can, use it here as the flavor is far more intense and complex than imitation extracts. You can use any size ice cream scoop to portion your dough (I used a standard size in these photos) but to get large bakery size cookies, use a large (quarter cup) ice cream scoop.

This dough does not need to be chilled before baking, BUT, I will say that you should. Refrigerating your dough allows the flavors to meld together and some of the water content to evaporate, concentrating that caramel flavor, as well as re-solidifying the butter for less spread. Less spread=thicker, gooey-er cookies. Even an hour in the refrigerator can make a difference, overnight is even better. I have baked these cookies right after mixing and they’re still amazing, but if you have some time to optimize the flavor and refrigerate, you’ll be happy you did so.

Print Recipe

Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies

These chocolate chip cookies are large, thick, chewy and full of melty semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Prep Time10 mins

Cook Time15 mins

Resting Time2 hrs

Total Time25 mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies

Servings: cookies

Ingredients

3/4 cup (170g) unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
2/3 cup (146g) light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
2 cups (240g) unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
1 1/2 cups (262g) high quality semi-sweet chocolate chips - I use Guittard

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Melt the butter and let cool for a bit. You don’t want the butter to be too hot otherwise the eggs will scramble when added.
Combine the flour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl and whisk to combine.
Combine both sugars to the bowl of a mixer followed by the melted butter and beat together on medium low until well blended.
Beat in the vanilla extract followed by the egg and the egg yolk until light and creamy.
Slowly add in the flour mixture and mix on low until just combined.
Remove bowl from the mixer and fold in the chocolate chips.
Using an ice cream scoop (or ¼ cup measuring cup for larger cookies), scoop out the dough onto the cookie sheets leaving two inches or so between each cookie.
Bake for 14-16 minutes or until the edges are lightly brown and the tops look just set. Transfer to cookie sheets to wire racks to cool slightly.
Serve warm with a cold glass of milk for the ultimate indulgence.

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cookies

Brown Butter Maple Pecan Cookies

Ingredients

Cookies:

Maple Glaze:

Instructions

Make the cookie dough:

Roll and cut out the cookies:

Make the maple glaze:

Notes

This post may contain affiliate sales links. Please see my full disclosure policy for details.

Strawberries and Cream Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients

For the strawberry shortbread cookies:

For the strawberry white chocolate:

Instructions

Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

Instructions

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