At Eleni's NY, you can get these polished, super-posh iced sugar cookies that look so cute, you'll want to just sit and admire them instead of stuffing them in your mouth. (And rightly so: 16 will set you back $60, not including shipping and handling. That's $3.75 a cookie, folks). They're a perfect solution to your lack of romantic poetry skills.
If you're not so into the love notes, you can go the traditional route with Eleni's hearts, love birds, or "prince charming" frogs, which are all just as cute (and just as expensive). The bakery also specializes in cupcakes and brownies, so browse the site to your heart's (and stomach's) content.
When I was a kid, my dad had a music production and distribution company. One of his business partners was a woman named Eleanor and every year she would have a holiday cookie baking and decorating party. My sister and I would go over to her house some Saturday afternoon in early December and join Eleanor's kids around her dining room table, rolling, cutting and decorating our weight in cookies (we also ate quite a few).
It's been nearly twenty years since I made cookies with them, but I still have fond memories of those Saturday afternoons in early December. I also have very fond feelings towards this recipe, because it is tasty and fool-proof. Like the gingerbread recipe I posted yesterday, this dough keeps in the fridge for up to a week, so you can mix up a big batch and bake them off through the holidays. This is also another one that you can either decorate prior to baking or frost with a simple powdered sugar frosting after they've baked (which is what I did in the picture above).
There are very few activities that you can do that are as good as making cookies. Maybe playing a favorite sport or listening to your favorite CD or maybe even sex. But there's just something special about making homemade cookies.
Today is Homemade Cookies Day, which means if you go to the store and buy anything in a package the food police will come to your home and slap the handcuffs on you.
This is where I usually link to various recipes, but have you seen how many cookie recipes there are on the web? 94 trillion (I counted). So I'll link to a bunch of collections at various sites, such as AllRecipes, Food Network, Joy of Baking, and Kraft Foods.
This page dedicated to National Sugar Cookie Day starts by saying that today is "a day to satisfy your sweet tooth." Hey, sounds like every Monday to me!
But let's make some sugar cookies today. I think that sugar cookies are sometimes taken for granted, because people see them as "plain" or "basic." But there's something so simple and nice about the taste of a sugar cookie. Even the name tells you what you're going to get. Everyone who cooks should know how to bake a good one.
I'm not sure if dessert gets much better than this - infusing rich, creamy ice cream with bourbon and sugar cookies. This inspired creation was prepared by Catharine from 'Not Eating Out in New York', who added a 1/4 cup of bourbon to her basic ice cream recipe. In what seems like a (brilliant) afterthought, she tossed in come crumbled sugar cookies near the end of the churning process which added texture and sweetness to the frozen concoction.
I have to agree with her that there are a surprisingly low number of popular ice cream flavors that incorporate alcohol into the recipe (like rum raisin) since it is such a natural pairing. I'm planning to purchase an ice cream maker soon, so perhaps that will be my initial project. Suggestions for flavor pairings, anyone?
By now, with all of our Christmas cookies recipes - Gingersnaps (two ways!), Cranberry, Orange & Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies and Chocolate Peppermint Drops - your cookie plate is going to look very appealing when you put it out with a nice variety for Santa on Christmas Eve. But Christmas just isn't quite right unless you get to spend some time decorating cookies. Not only is it a great creative outlet, but you get to eat the results.
Rather than opt for the traditional gingerbread men with royal icing, especially in light of the fact that I made gingery cookies last week, I opted to make some of my favorite Vanilla Cutout Cookies. These cookies are soft, but not cake-like, and are very easy to make. They use both butter and buttermilk in dough, both of which add a richness to the cookie, and vanilla extract with a touch of almond to keep the flavor bright. As always, I recommend using a very high quality vanilla extract or something even more vanilla-y, such as vanilla bean crush or vanilla paste to boost the vanilla flavor.
We love it when we can support a good cause with some of our favoritethings, especially when those things happen to be delicious cookies like these. Eleni's New York, one of our favorite specialty cookie companies, has a whole line of cookies to raise breast cancer awareness. Everything is either pink or adorned with pink ribbons, as are these Reach for a Cure handbag cookies. No matter which set of cookies you choose from the collection, 50% of the proceeds will go directly to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
The cookie tins make fantastic gifts, too, especially if you know anyone who has had breast cancer. They range in price and the number of cookies that they include, but the cookies pictured here come in a box of 18 and sell for $58.50.
The World's
Greatest Mom cookie collection is offered for Mother's Day from Eleni's Bakery
in New York, though there is no doubt that Mom deserves something special more than once a year. Eleni's specializes in
elaborately decorated cookies, all done by hand, that are as much a treat for the eyes as they are for the taste buds.
This cookie gift set includes 21 iced sugar cookies, each one unique and mom-related. It's $65 for the cookies, which
come packaged in a lovely gift tin.
Eleni's also has an I Love Mom
set and a floral Mom's
Bouquet collection, both of which would also be great choices for a Mother's Day treat.
For the full assortment in the World's Greatest Mom tin and the other collections, click past the jump.
As Sarah pointed out, not
everyone has a heart-shaped cookie cutter to help them make Valentine's Day Cookies. While the use of a
cookie cutter can turn just about any cookie into something appropriate for the holiday, it certainly isn't your
only option. These Easy Sugared Hearts are formed by hand, rolling and pinching the soft dough into a heart shape. The
dough is easy to work with, so your kids can even help you shape them. The cookies are dipped into both red and
plain granulated sugar before baking, which adds extra sweetness and beautiful color. The cookies are light and crisp
without being crunchy. Not too sweet, despite the sugar coating, there is also a hint of butter and vanilla in them.
They go perfectly with a cup of tea, coffee or hot chocolate.
Because frosting cookies, even for a special occasion like Valentine's Day, sometimes to require more of a time
commitment than we are able to make, it is nice to have a simple decorating stick up your sleeve. Or in this case, in
your kitchen drawer. All you need to make these heartbreakers is a heart shaped cookie cutter and a knife. After
punching out the heart shape, simply use a small, sharp knife to cut a zig zag line into the cookie. Pull the edges
slightly apart so the line doesn't seal itself up during baking. You can roll them in sugar, as I did here, or simple
leave them plain.
Not having any particular allegiance to either team that is playing in Super
Bowl XL has its advantages. The primary one being that I don't feel bound to a particular color scheme
and can use blue, silver, black and gold with abandon. Not being one for tablescapes, I limited my wild color use to blue and gold
sprinkles. White icing outlined hand-drawn football helmets, which I decorated further with blue Seattle Seahawk S's and
yellow Pittsburg Steelers P's. Interestingly, the blue-sprinkled cookies disappeared much more quickly than the yellow.
Are more people supporting the Steelers or are the blue sprinkles just more enticing?
This photo was titled, "Waaaay early
V-Day cookies." But from where I'm sitting, it's never too early for Valentine's Day. I love all things pink, red,
sugary and heart-shaped. Especially when they're sugar cookies. Details and recipes promised over at Culinarily Obsessed.
We love it when we can support a good cause with some of our 
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