Time to stock up on half-price Peeps!

Maybe you're coming down off of an Easter candy high. Raise your hand if you had a Reese's Peanut Butter Egg for Easter breakfast. #protein


At this very moment, I'm sitting next to kiddo's Easter basket, and it's taking quite a bit of willpower not to steal a few Whoppers Eggs. Here's what will help:

Peeps Show S'Mores Bars

That's right. Go grab all of the 50% off Peeps you can this week and make a batch or two of these babies.


These are like s'mores kicked up a few notches....graham cracker-y goodness with a brown sugar and oat crumble, gooey marshmallows, and melty chocolate. They're just the thing to keep you our of your kid's Easter basket.
Maybe.



Peeps Show S'mores Bars

ingredients:
6 TBSP salted butter
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
6 TBSP dark corn syrup
2 & 1/4 cups rolled oats (not instant, not steel cut)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 & 1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
15 Peeps


Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350.  Grease an 8x8 pan.  Set aside.

In a medium saucepan, heat the butter, brown sugar and corn syrup over medium heat, until the butter is melted and sugar has dissolved.  Remove from heat and stir in the oats, flour, salt and graham cracker crumbs.

Press a little more than half of this mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan.  Place on a wire rack and let cool completely.

Sprinkle the chocolate chips evenly over the cooled crust.  Top with the Peeps, making 3 rows of 5 Peeps.

Cover with the remaining topping/crust mixture.

Bake for 20 minutes; the Peeps will looks slightly misshapen under the topping.

Place on a wire cooling rack and let cool for 20 minutes.  Serve warm.
{adapted from S'mores Granola Bars, King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion; recipe first appeared on the blog in 2012.}

Do it! Do it! Those half-price Peeps are waiting for you!!!

Watercolor Gold-Speckled Easter Egg Cookies

There are so many things I love about these watercolor cookies: 

1. They're not my idea. ;) The inspiration and technique for these cookies come from Rosie of Sweetapolita and her brand new book, The Sweetapolita Bakebook. (More on this later.)


2. There's no making or dividing or tinting or thinning royal icing. The cookies are topped with a mixture of fondant and candy clay...so cool.


3. Here's a chance to release your inner princess. Pink, purple, disco dust, gold edges and speckles? Not only will your cookies be sparkly, but so will your hands and your entire body. Embrace you inner princess...I didn't even know I had one!

4. These cookies are imperfectly perfect. Do you ever fall into the "perfect trap" when making cookies? You think...oh, my lettering is off...or, there's a peak where there shouldn't be...or, my piping is a little shaky. Well, these cookies are abstract...and not perfect. And, I think that's what makes them so cool.

Next time you find yourself falling into the perfect trap, get yourself to an art museum. I'm serious...do it! The imperfections, the textures, the quirks...those make the art all the more beautiful. I love Rosie's watercolor inspiration for these cookies.


So, try a little cookie watercoloring. Rosie shows these in the book as circles, but they are just so pretty for Easter. She also makes hers a little extra special with the addition of 24-karat gold flake. I'm going to have to try that next time.

Here's how to make some watercolor cookies of your own:
{inspiration, ideas, and recipes from The Sweetapolita Bakebook, with permission}

• cut-out cookies
• 7 ounces white ready-to-use fondant
• 7 ounces white candy clay (recipe follows)
• confectioner's sugar (I used corn starch)
• piping or fruit jelly (I used corn syrup)
• Americolor gel paste food coloring 
• vodka
• disco dust (I used rainbow)
• gold luster dust

Make the candy clay:

14 ounces white candy coating

1/3 cup light corn syrup

2 TBSP Americolor Bright White gel paste food coloring

In a microwave-safe bowl, microwave the candy coating in 25-second intervals, stirring after each interval. Repeat until melted and smooth.

Combine the corn syrup and white food coloring, and microwave for 10 seconds. Add the corn syrup to the candy coating and stir until blended and thick, about 30 strokes. Turn the clay out onto wax paper and flatten it to about 1/2 inch thick. Let dry out for about 1 hour.

Knead the clay until it is smooth and pliable, about 1 minute. Put it in a well-sealed zip-top bag. Let the clay sit overnight at room temperature before using.

*for this project, I didn't find it necessary to let it sit overnight since it's mixed with the fondant. 

For the cookies:

Knead 7 ounces each of white fondant and the candy clay together. Dust work surface with confectioner's sugar (or cornstarch). Roll a ball of candy clay mixture to 1/8" thickness. Cut with the same cookie cutter used to make the cookies. Let the cut-outs sit to firm up, about 30 minutes. 

Spread a small amount of piping or fruit jelly (I used corn syrup) on each cookies. Gently press the candy clay cut-outs onto the cookies.

Dilute one or two drops of gel paste food colors with a splash of vodka -  the more vodka you add, the more washed-out the color will be. Using sponges, dab the color onto the cookies, letting them merge and blend. Be careful not to oversaturate the surface. Press a tissue onto what you've painted and pull off to reveal a textured surface.

Sprinkle the cookies with disco dust. Mix a small amount of gold luster dust with a few drops of vodka. Paint the edges of the cookies using a clean, food-only paintbrush. Spatter a few drops of the gold paint onto the cookies. Let dry overnight. 

The cookies will keep in a box or container with some airflow for up to 1 week. 

Let me show you a little peek of the rest of The Sweetapolita Bakebook...

You're going to find cakes and cookies that are utterly dreamy! Instructions and recipes are included for each project. It's like a delicious fairy tale kind of book. 

I encourage you to hop over to the Sweetapolita blog because there is a super fabulous giveaway going on right now! 

(Including a pair of ballet flats with sprinkles....yes, sprinkles!!!) 

Then, go make these cookies! 

Bunny Silhouette Cookies ... and a special guest!

Hey guys! You're in for a treat because my friend Lupita is sharing a cookie tutorial with us today!  You've met Lupita before...I just love her cookies!  She has been posting the prettiest Easter cookies on her blog lately, and I kind of begged her to share one here. ;) 

I know you'll want to see all of her Easter creations...like these speckled eggs where she baked the cookies AND the icing!!!  These little lambs, sweet bunnies...and oh my gosh...these Faberge Egg cookies!

{Lupita's blog is written mainly in Spanish.  Follow the picture tutorials, or do what I do (no thanks to 4 years of high school Spanish), use Google Translate.  Just pop the URL into the translate box and Google will translate the ENTIRE post for you.  So cool!}

Alright...here's Lupita!  Y'all give her a warm welcome!

---

We are just few days away from Easter, I hope you are already preparing to celebrate this big feast. 

I love to decorate my table with cookies as you may imagine and I am always looking for practical ideas or ways to multitask my cookies, and I will share with you how to make a silhouette cookie that if you personalize it it can be a place card for your Easter table. 

It is really easy to make and it will add a cute touch to your table. 

You will need...

*  Your favorite cookie dough (click here for my favorite)
*  Square cookie cutter
*  Rabbit cookie cutter
*  Royal icing medium and flooding consistency
*  2 Pastry bag, couplers and decorating tip #2
*  Americolor food gel in Turquoise and Black
*  Edible black marker


PROCEDURE:

1) Bake a square cookie and let it cool, prepare a pastry bag with medium consistency white royal icing and tip # 2.


2) Trace the bunny in the center of your cookie using your marker,  outline the border of the rabbit  and the border of the square with white royal icing. 

3)  Prepare flooding icing in light turquoise to fill up  the square and black for the bunny.

4)  Flood the square with turquoise royal icing and let it dry for 6-8 hrs.




5)  When the turquoise icing is dry, flood the bunny with black icing and let it dry completely. 




6)  Prepare some firm medium consistency royal icing in  black and fill up a pastry bag and with tip # 2 make some little dots all around the cookie. 

7)  You can write down the name of each guest on the cookie or just add a little detail that represent each of your guest,for example, you can add some pearls to the Mother Bunny, or some glasses to the Granpa Bunny, or a bow to the Sister Bunny.

What I like the most of decorating cookies is that you have endless posibilites to make your own creations. 

Happy Easter Everyone!!

---

From boy crushes to cookie crushes...

I was the girl who *always* had a "crush" on a boy.  ALWAYS.  I think it started about 5th grade and went all the way through college.  I'm not sure why I had these crushes...none of them ever paid me any attention. 

Can I tell you an embarrassing story about one of my crushes...and you promise you won't tell?  Ok, good.  In 7th grade, my crush, Andy, asked another girl in band to "go with" him.  ("Go with"...that's what we called it in the olden days.)

Anyway...I was so, so heartbroken. 

(Now,  at this point in the story, please keep in mind that these were the olden days like I mentioned earlier with no caller ID.)
I came home from school that day, called his house, and when he answered the phone...

...when he answered the phone...

...I set the needle down on my Grease album (vinyl: olden days), and played Hopelessly Devoted to You to him over the phone.  And, then hung up.

Yep.  I did.


Happily for everyone involved, crushes on boys have morphed into crushes on cookies.  It's kind of like school all over again...a new crush every week or so...but without the heartache.



My crush this week is this recipe for Lemon Coconut Cottontail Cookies.  They're TOTALLY crush-worthy.  And, they love when you belt out Hopelessly Devoted to You...they don't even find it creepy whatsoever.



Seriously, these little sweeties are *perfect* for your Easter dessert table.  Soft, citrus-y, and oh-so-pretty. 

Promise me you'll eat one warm...then bathe the rest in the lemon glaze and cover with sweetened coconut.


I'm sharing this recipe over at Imperial Sugar.

Guys!  Also, let me tell you about these Chocolate Sandwich Bunny Cookies with Marshmallow Buttercream that are also over at Imperial Sugar.  You may have seen these in their Easter ads recently.  I was thrilled to be able to create the recipe and then they were photographed for the ad by talented Heidi of FoodieCrush.  Click here for the recipe...there's also a how-to video! (Yikes!)

*And, please tell me I'm not the only one with an embarrassing "crush" story...or two.*

---

Double-decker Bunnies, take two

Two cookies always beat one, yes? 

Last year, I made little double-decker bunnies and thought this year needed some double-decker action as well.  (That sounds weird.)

Anyway...I love the shape of this bunny cookie cutter.  It's just perfect for a "chocolate" bunny.  I do have three egg cookie cutters (everyone needs three, right?), but none larger than the bunny cutter.  So, using the bunny cutter as a guide, I just cut large eggs with a paring knife:

These babies are big...the egg cookie is 6 & a half inches.  Easter is for celebrating.

{Oh, PS. That edible Easter grass?  Cute, but not exactly delicious.}

To make these double-decker bunny cookies, you'll need:

• sugar cookies cut with a bunny cookie cutter and hand-cut with a paring knife
• royal icing, divided and tinted with AmeriColor Sky Blue mixed with Ivory & Chocolate Brown, Bright White
• disposable icing bags
• coupler and tips: #2, #1
• squeeze bottles 
• toothpicks
• small ramekin
• small, clean paintbrush

Use #2 tips to outline both the bunny and the egg.

Thin the blue and brown icings with water, a bit at a time, stirring with a silicone spatula, until it is the consistency of a thick syrup.  (Reserve some of the blue icing for piping details later.) You'll want to drop a "ribbon" of icing back into the bowl and have it disappear in a count of "one thousand one, one thousand two." Four is too thick, one is too thin.  Count of 2-3 is good.  Cover with a damp dishcloth and let sit for several minutes.

Stir gently with a silicone spatula to pop and large air bubbles that have formed.  Pour into squeeze bottles as needed. 

Fill in the outlines with the thinned icing, using a toothpick to guide to the edges and to pop large air bubbles.

Let the cookies dry at least one hour.

Add the details to the bunny cookie, using a #2 tip for the bow and #1 tip for the eye.

Let the cookies dry uncovered, 6-8 hours, or overnight.

The next day, add the "speckles" to the eggs.  Mix equal(ish) parts water and chocolate brown food coloring.  Dip a clean paintbrush into the mixture and flick over the cookies with a GLOVED finger.
(For more details and pictures of the speckling process, click over to this post.)

This will dry in about 15-30 minutes.

Apply piping consistency icing to the back of the bunny cookies...just a bit will do, we don't want oozing.  Gently press in place on the egg cookie.  Let dry for 30 minutes or more to set.

Double-decker, 6-inch tall, speckled eggs & bunnies.  Just one placed in a treat bag and tied with a pretty ribbon makes the perfect Easter gift!

Happy Easter, bunnies! 

---

Carrot Cake Cookies

I won't even go into the "these-cookies-are-good-for-you-because-they-contain-carrots" lecture.
You know that already.

I love, love, love carrot cake.  I'm a chocolate girl through and through, but I think carrot cake wins almost every time.  The carrots ensure its moistness, that little bit of spice makes it intriguing, and cream cheese frosting?  You really can't beat cream cheese frosting.

It all starts with this dough...

....which I could have easily eaten with a spoon without baking one single cookie.

And, then you add the cream cheese frosting...

....hello, gorgeous.

Pipe on generous squiggles of frosting.  Heck, dunk the entire cookie in frosting...I won't tell.

You've got a little carrot cake in cookie form.  Big mounds of carrot and ginger-laden cookies, flecked with toasted pecans and topped with an orange-flavored cream cheese frosting.

They come together really quickly and will be such a welcome addition to your Easter desserts.

I'm sharing the recipe over at Imperial Sugar.  Come get your daily dose of veggies...
...and cookies.

---