Confetti Cookies

I spent the last few nights in NOLA celebrating my girlfriend Roxie's bachelorette. We had a wonderful time. I won't mention too many details about the trip, but we thoroughly enjoyed the food and drinks in New Orleans. We ate dinner at Seaworthy and Sylvain, brunched at Wilma Jean and Commander's Palace, munched on beignets from Cafe du Monde, and of course tried pork belly, shrimp, and roast beef Po'boys from a few different places.

I brought along some colorful celebratory cookies to have back at the house for when we weren't eating a million other snacks. These were simple to make, as I didn't use a homemade recipe. Sometimes, you just don't need homemade, especially in a time crunch! 

Instructions:

I divided pre-made Pillsbury sugar cookie dough and rolled into small balls and flattened with my hands. I varied the cookie sizes, the smallest being the size of a dime. Once the cookies were baked and cooled, I prepped the cookie icing. When following the directions to heat the icing, I only zapped in microwave for 10 seconds on 50% heat. I also let the icing sit for a minute before beginning to spread onto the cookies. Most importantly, I used a tooth pick to evenly divide and spread the onto the cookies. The alphabet cookie cutters and icing came from Michael's Craft Store. The icing portion part of this project took the longest, so give yourself a little time to work on this if you are making a lot of the confetti cookies. In the end, they are fun and worth it! 

This weekend was full of champagne, sweets, and lots of other food and drinks. I think I am in need of a little detox these next few weeks! xo RCN 

 

Snowball Cookies All Winter Long

Valentine's Day is fast approaching. It is a sweet time of year, so what better to do, than make some sweets? One of my favorite Christmas cookies that my Mom makes is a Snowball Cookie. Wow, this year they tasted better than ever. Snowball Cookies really apply to all winter long, so I figured I would turn them into Valentine cookies since I L-OV-E them so much. With a little extra help from the sprinkle and dessert cabinet, I made these cookies look fab and fit for any Valentine's Day affair. They are very powdery, you may need some extra napkins! xo RCN

You will find a few versions of the recipe if you search online. This batch was made from the cookingclassy.com recipe. Ingredients and instructions below, or link to direct source HERE. Also...the super cute mini cupcake liners (Meri Meri, $2.99) and napkins ( Lady Jayne Ltd, $3.99) came from Homegoods.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/4 tsp salt

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 Tbsp cornstarch

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup finely chopped Pecans (I used a little less than half a cup)

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, for coating

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Using an electric stand mixer fit with the paddle attachment, mix butter on medium speed until creamy, (about 20 seconds). Blend in 1/2 cup powdered sugar and salt. Mix in vanilla. Use a rubber spatula to scrape down edges of bowl before continuing to mix if dough is spread up towards the side of your bowl. Sprinkle cornstarch evenly around mixer bowl then with mixer set on low speed slowly add in flour and mix just until combined. Stir in Pecans. Scoop dough out 1 Tbsp at a time and roll into a ball. I shaped half of my dough into small hearts by splitting the 1 Tbsp into two pieces, rolling into cylinder shapes and then molding back together into a heart shape. Keep one end of each cylinder separate from one another and then press the other end of each cylinder together to form the point of the heart. They look cuter when they aren't perfect!

Place cookies onto ungreased baking sheets and bake in preheated oven for about 15 minutes, until bottom edges are lightly golden. Do not under bake, this recipe is meant to be more dry and cookies are not meant to be moist in the middle. The cookies will literally dissolve in your mouth, just like snow. Remove from oven and allow to cool for a few minutes. While cookies are still warm, pour 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar into a bowl and roll cookies in powdered sugar. Transfer to a wire rack to cool, then once cookies are cool, roll in powdered sugar once more. Coat until cookies are completely covered. Just after coating for second time, top with pink, red, white, and rainbow sprinkles. Cookies look great served inside mini Valentine themed cupcake liners .

 
Source: http://www.cookingclassy.com/snowball-cook...