stamped cookies

WHEN BREAD AND COOKIES COLLIDE

sallybr1 Comment

Have you heard of the Uzbek bread stamp? It is a very nice gadget used to create a design on flatbreads. I’ve had mine for many years, you can get it at etsy (click here). Many other patterns available, just do a search on the main site. I decided to use it to decorate cookies, and my adventures ended with a delicious recipe that I shared today on my main food blog (visit the post with a click here). So, for the first time I have two articles published on the same day, as I really wanted to share the recipe for this set.

It was important to come up with a recipe that would bake without any distortions, or the tiny holes would be closed. It is a little tricky to get the design to work well on the first attempts, you’ll need to play with the amount of flour on the stamp and on the cookie dough itself. But once you get the gist of it, I think it is a wonderful way to decorate with no icing, just food colors such as Sugarprism or luster powder diluted with vodka. Here I show a few examples…

The cookies look great even without any painting, but in the picture above I used Sugarprism watercolor (click here for the product).

In the versions above the top left was painted with metallic colors (luster powder diluted with vodka), and the other two with Sugarprism watercolor, adding a light spray of PME luster once the colors were dry.

The cookies above used both acrylic color from Sugarprism (click here for the product) and luster gold powder.

For these cookies I used once again Sugarprism acrylic colors, they blend very nicely even on a naked cookie!

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I have not tried yet, but will soon make the pattern on chocolate cookies, I think they will look great painted with metallic gold or copper. Also, I intend to fill the pattern with Royal icing, using the tiny holes as a guide. Stay tuned, I am super excited about all the possibilities…

ONE YEAR AGO: Happy International Macaron Day!

MOLDED, STAMPED, ROLLED

sallybr1 Comment

When you want to minimize icing and glazes on your cookies, resorting to molds, stamps and embossed rolling pins is the answer. The cookies will look great even if nothing else is done to them as far as decorating goes, but of course, if you go the extra mile, they will look super special. The key is to use a dough with little to no leavening agent. You might have to play with a few of your recipes to see which one performs best for each different pattern. It is fun to experiment, and even if some end up as failures, they will still taste great…

Links to every mold, stamp and rolling pin used in the cookies are included in the text.

DESIGN #1

FLOWER MOLD

For these cookies, I used this mold. Once they were baked, I sprayed the surface with PME pearl spray and then went over the details with luster powder mixed with vodka.

I love working with this mold, you can do egg yolk painting, egg white painting, work with marbled dough, or just add a simple light glaze with the color of your choice, for a more dramatic effect like below…

DESIGN #2

WOODEN MOONCAKE MOLD


I used this mold for the cookies, except the center one, which I don’t remember where I got, a while ago. They don’t need any adornment, the pattern is beautiful as it is, but a little bit of gold or copper never hurt! Working with these wooden molds takes a little bit of getting used to, but soon you will realize how much flour or cocoa powder to add to the mold for easier release. Chilling the dough helps a lot also.

DESIGN #3

PLASTIC MOONCAKE MOLD


For these cookies, I used molds similar to these. These make small but thick cookies. The plastic molds are easier to work with, because they come with a little thingie that pushes the dough out. Again, working with chilled dough is a must to help the pattern form well.

DESIGN #4

DRAGON STAMP


Stamp used can be found here. One of my favorites for sure. I just love the Game of Throne-ish look of this pattern. I do believe this one shines with a little gold or copper, but if you don’t have that available, no major harm done. Chocolate is a must, or any cookie dough that is dark and won’t expand during baking.

DESIGN #6

SPRINGERLE ROSES


Most of my springerle molds are from this shop at etsy. I need to optimize the recipe for these, that used strawberry powder in the dough, once I do that the recipe will be available on my main blog. I often paint springerle type cookies, but left these exactly as they baked for a change.

DESIGN #7

ROSES ROLLING PIN



The rolling pin used is available here. The cookies above were painted with Sugarprism, and made into Oreo-type sandwich cookies.

DESIGN #8

MODERN LEAVES ROLLING PIN

The rolling pin used is from this etsy store. I have used this pattern countless times, it looks great without any adornment, but I liked the mixture of copper and red that I used in this batch. It is just luster powder diluted with vodka and applied with a brush.

DESIGN #9

FOREST ROLLING PIN


This is the rolling pin used. In the batch above, the cookies were baked and left naked. The pattern alone is enough to give it a nice elegant look.

DESIGN #10

HIEROGLYPHS ROLLING PIN


This cute rolling pin is available here. In this batch I used lime and a touch of coconut, but they puffed a little more than usual, so the design was not as sharp. They were made into sandwich cookies with a lemon buttercream as filling.


ONE YEAR AGO: Baby Blue, from Me to You