Chocolate Cloud Meringue Cookies

I went on a month long vacation recently to New Jersey and New York. Which also put my house hunting to a pause. However, upon returning from vacation late last week, my husband and I went back to house shopping that weekend. I guess we did not get jet lag or tired from the flight. There's a point to this story. A delicious one. In one of the houses we saw, they had a platter of cookies. They appeared to be normal brownie cookies. Until you bite into one, it was like a meringue macaron type brownie cookie.

The outside was a hard, crunchy and crispy shell. The inside was like a brownie, but it melted in your mouth. Together, it was something similar to a macaron, but the outside was more like a meringue. Whatever it is, I fell in love. I set out on a mission to try to recreate this dessert.

After the first try. I made something similar, but not still on the dot. I decided to call them Chocolate Cloud Meringue Cookies. The shell is a delicate crispy. Much like a macaron. The inside is melt in your mouth brownie and chocolate heaven. I'm happy with the inside, but want a more harder and crunchy shell, so I will continue to alter this recipe until I get as close as possible to that open-house crunchy brownie cookie dessert. I hope I get the recipe correct soon!

But I do like this accidental dessert, so I will share the recipe with you! These are nothing like you had before!

Ingredients:
2 large egg whites
1/8 tps cream of tartar
1/2 tps vanilla extract
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup finely chopped walnuts
6 oz semisweet chocolate

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave at 50% power, stirring every 15 seconds.
3. Add the chopped walnuts in to the chocolate, allow to cool slightly.
4. Whip the egg whites on medium until frothy. Add the cream of tartar and vanilla extract. Continue mixing on medium and add the sugar gradually.
5. Turn the mixer on high, and whip until stiff peaks form.
6. Fold in 1/3 of the chocolate mixture into the egg whites, being very gentle. Continue to add more chocolate mixture until fully incorporated.
7. Scoop a tablespoon worth onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper or mat. I get about 12 scoops on my tray. Bake for 18 minutes. Or until dry on top.
8. Allow to cool before peeling off. Enjoy!

The recipe makes about 24 cookies.

I decided to call them chocolate cloud meringue cookies, because when you scoop them onto the baking tray, they look like a soft chocolate cloud. And then of course, the outside is meringue like and it looks like a cookie. I thought it would be too long to add the word 'brownie' in the name, but also because it doesn't define a brownie. Brownies have flour and butter, which this cookie does not!

Cookies Advent Calendar

It took me about a week to make this edible advent calendar. I made it for my in-laws. It's a big calendar, measuring 20 inches wide and 30 inches tall. I used my biggest square cookie cutter for all the cookies, so the numbers wouldn't be tiny. I also submitted each cookie to Julia Usher's Christmas Countdown Challenge.

I had the poster on my dining table, and I couldn't get a good photo of it. I ended up standing on my dining table to take this picture, I was surprise my table didn't break. =]

I will be putting each cookie in individual cello bags and gluing the bags to the poster board. This way, the cookies are still edible.

Here are the 25 cookies, up close and personal.

To make the calendar, I used a white foam poster board. Glued on some decorative scrapbooking paper, and letters. It was pretty simple, so everyone can make one.

I have a huge dining table, and this cookie advent calendar project took up most of it. My husband wasn't happy. =] He is really happy it is done.

I packaged the cookies individually in their own bags, taped in to the poster. Now the calendar is hanging in my home. Ready to be eaten.

=]

Google added some snow and twinkle animation to these two pictures for me. It's awesome!

Simple Sunflower Cookies

Summer is almost over. I can't believe it, because I haven't made a single summer themed cookie. The last cookies I remember making were graduation cookies in June...and suddenly summer just slipped by. I guess I have been very occupied with other things.

I got a baby green cheek conure bird in mid June. Like...2 weeks old baby. He had no feathers. I was busy hand feeding this baby until early August. Then I had to celebrate my 1-year anniversary with the hubby is Costa Rica. Time just slipped by. Below is a picture of my baby bird, he is about 6 weeks old here.

Anyways. Back to the main subject- cookies. I actually am still very busy, I'm working on a cake for my father-in-law's birthday this week. He's into biking. So I opted to make a very simple cookie for summer.

It takes less than 2 active hours to make these. That simple.

You start with an iced cookie. Let is dry overnight.

While the cookies are drying, make the sunflower. I used a silicone mold and gumpaste.

After the cookies dry, paint on the gingham stripes. I used a ruler to help with straight lines. It didn't work as well as I hoped, but oh well. I mixed a couple drops of vodka with the gel food colors to make paint.

I hope you enjoy making this simple cookie.

Diamond Ring Cookie Cutter Challenge

LilaLoa is having a contest/challenge to see what creative designs we can come up with using a diamond ring shaped cookie cutter. We can't make a diamond ring. We can make everything else using this cutter.

I have 6 ish designs I came up with. I'll slowly post each one as they get finished. I'm really excited.

My first design is this skull face.

My second design is this gold fish.

My third design is this potion bottle.

My 4th design is this ice cream sundae.

EDIT: So today - 4/18/13 - I had extra diamond cookies and royal icing. I decided to throw together the last designs I had in mind. I won't be able to decorate after today, because I will be busy packing! I will be moving to a new home in a couple weeks.

So excuse the color bleeding...and messy deigns. I never let any of the colors dry properly.

My 5th design is this tulip.

My 6th design is this gumball machine.

And my 7th design, completely thrown together randomly is this snow globe.

Coloring Chocolate with Gel Paste & Cookie Giveaway

A little over two years ago, I decided to make a food blog to share my tips, tricks, and recipes with other foodies out there. A couple months after that, I got engaged. Wedding planning was on! I wanted to help pay for the wedding, so that my husband wasn't the only one. So a couple months after that, I made a facebook page to help sell and advertise my baked goods.

I took a giant break 2 months before the wedding and several months after the wedding. Maybe some of you noticed nothing was being posted on the facebook page during those months? I had a few old clients contact me while I was on my break, and I realized I love doing this! So I decided to end my break, and keep my facebook page active again with new posts from the new orders!

Yay! And just in case you didn't know, for the bloggers that follow me, my facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/GwensKitchenCreations. Sometimes I post photos on there, and not on here, and vice versa. I am a little inconsistent. I will try to be better!

So to thank everyone for being there to support me in my creations, and for all the nice comments about them...I decided to do a cookie giveaway. I will be giving away 1 or 2 people a dozen decorated sugar cookies. They can pick the design of their choice. These will be mailed to the winner(s). This contest is not international, and is only for people in the United States, sorry.

But before I let you know how to enter, I wanted to share an amazing, and cool tip and trick with you about the colors of these cake pops.

These cake pops were colored/dyed with wilton/americolor gel paste food color. What?!?! Yes, the chocolate did not seize up. The chocolate was still chocolate. I was always taught that water based food coloring will make chocolate seize up, and become unusual as a dip for cake pops. I was told to always use oil based colors for chocolate. I decided to do an experiment.

I took a dollop of white chocolate/candy melts, added some gel food color...and it did form some lumps. Experiment 1 failed. 

Experiment 2: So I decided to add paramount crystals to my next dollop. I added some gel food coloring. And nothing bad happened. It was still smooth chocolate. I used both wilton and americolor gel paste, and they both worked wonderfully!

Can you imagine the crazy colors cake pops will be in the future because of this? I sure can.

I even made the cake pops match the sugar cookies for the same order.

The secret is to add paramount crystal to your chocolate/candy melts. Then add the colors. I'm sure a lot of people will be thrilled to know they can make teal or tiffany blue cake pops using gel food color instead of playing with blue or green oil color. That's what I did here to these cake pops. I added teal gel paste. Getting teal was difficult using just blue and green oil colors. There's not that many oil food colors out there compared to gel food colors.

The best part is, if you use gel paste food coloring for cake pops, you can use the same color for frosting/buttercream for cupcakes...and even for fondant. To make all your desserts match the same exact color!!! This was good for me, because I had a customer that wanted tiffany blue cake pops...and tiffany blue cupcakes. I made them match exactly using a small amount of teal gel paste in white candy melts and white buttercream. They match perfectly! Yay =]

OK...now to thank everyone! I will be giving away a dozen decorated sugar cookies to 1 or 2 winners. The winner(s) will choose the designs of the cookies, and will receive them in the mail! Anyone in the United States can enter.

How to Enter: CONTEST CLOSED!

There is 3 ways to enter, and even more if you have tons of friends. Leave all comments on this blog.

1. Like my page on facebook, and leave a comment below saying you did or already do. Click here to go to my facebook page.

2. Follow me on this blog. Leave a comment below saying you are following me.

3. Let your friends know about this giveaway. If they come back here and leave a comment with your name on it, both of you will win a dozen custom decorated sugar cookies.

The winner will be chosen via random.org. The winner will be drawn on April 20, 2013 so enter before then!

Good luck everyone!

Congratulations Sarah!!! You are the winner! Please contact me within 2 weeks!