Behind the Scenes

I gotta tell you, I am having so much fun with this bakery business! Every new cookie or cake brings a new challenge or a new technique. I've had a few people ask about the ingredients of my sugar cookies and how to get the shapes nice and crisp, so that they don't spread out as they bake. While I'm working on a "pastel de cumpleaños" for a very special little 1-year-old, I figured I would give you a sneak peek at the process for making the cookie dough I use.

Yep, here it is - the recipe for my sugar cookies! I didn't come up with it myself (definitely borrowed it off of a website) so I don't feel any special claim to it. The only deviation that I usually take from this recipe is to cream the butter and sugar for less than 5 minutes. I've gotten to the point where I can kind of tell when it's ready... sometimes that takes 5 minutes, but often less.

Here's all the "scratch." This was before I got my nice pretty flour and sugar containers :P

And here's my girl... my KitchenAid mixer. I love this thing. It's definitely the best-cared-for item in our kitchen. Since I'm a Doctor Who fan, I've been meaning to get a Tardis-themed decal for it from Etsy... but I digress.

The kiddo likes to help Mama with the cookies!

I love using my clear plastic splash guard/funnel thing (technical term!) on my KitchenAid mixer when spooning in the dry ingredients. Otherwise, my kitchen would look like there was a recent snowfall of flour.

This recipe typically makes about 3 dozen medium-sized cookies, so I usually split the dough into three mounds and wrap them separately in plastic wrap. After that, they either go in the fridge or the freezer. If I'm going to use the dough that day, I let them chill in the fridge for about an hour and a half. If I'll use it in the next several days, it can hang out in the fridge (out of the way of little toddler hands, of course). Any longer than that and it can hibernate in the freezer for up to three months (I'm pretty sure it would be good for up to six months in the freezer, but I don't think I could bring myself to wait that long to make a batch of cookies!)

And that about it, folks. Perhaps if there's interest, I'll also share my recipe and process for royal icing, but at the moment I smell a wonderful Gibberish Cake ready to come out of the oven. I'm about to have a very happy husband!

See you later!