Sugar Cookies

When I was 21 I packed up everything, quit my job, sold my house and went on an adventure. I landed at JFK airport and after a week in New York City, flew to San Francisco where I spent 7 months as a nanny to four very delightful and very busy boys, they were 9,7,4 & 18ths at the time. One day, when I was grocery shopping in Draegers, I found a cute little cookie cutter set, which I thought was gorgeous, so I bought it and tucked it away in my suitcase. Years later when I finally opened it, there was a recipe in the tin for 'sugar cookies'. It soon became ritual at Easter time to make these cookies using the tiny shaped cutters I bought in the States. Over the years I have slightly changed the recipe and now converted it to the Thermomix. It's a great recipe for kids baking, as it rolls out well and is great for cookie cutters. The dough is very forgiving and is easily able to be brought together again numerous times after it has been used to cut out the first lot of shapes.

I think of my time in the Bay Area whenever I make these. The four cheeky boys are now handsome young men and just as delightful as they were as children. 

Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:
125 grams Butter
200 grams sugar, (raw, caster or white)
300 grams plain flour
1 egg
half vanilla bean, or a dash of vanilla essence
1 pinch salt1/4 teaspoon baking powder 

1. If you are using raw sugar, mill for 5 seconds to make caster sugar.
2. Add butter and sugar to TM bowl, cream for 20 secs | sp 4
3. Scrape vanilla seeds from vanilla pod into the bowl (if  using) add rest of the ingredients and bring together 10 secs | sp 6, scrape down sides and then mix for a further 10 secs | sp 6  again.
4. Turn to closed lid and mix on wheat setting for 20 seconds - mixture should resemble bread crumbs but wont be brought together entirely.
5. Tip out onto Thermomat or a floured board and gently bring together into a ball. Put into a zip lock bag or wrap in glad wrap and rest in the fridge for minimum of an hour.
6. Take dough from fridge cut into into 4 and keep out 1/4 of the dough, putting the rest back into the fridge. Roll out on a floured board with a rolling pin to approximately 5 ml thickness. Cut shapes and place onto a cookie tray lined with baking paper ready to bake. 
7. Cookies can be decorated with a scattering of sugar or coloured cashou balls or left plain. 
8. I use a small start cutter and get approximately 80 cookies out of a batch. Bak for 5-7 minutes, 180 degrees on a fan bake and cool on a wire rack.

Note: For a larger cookie cutter, your cooking time may vary and need to be adjusted accordingly. The star cutter I use is 5cms wide. 

If you are doing different sized shapes, try to keep similar sizes on the same tray or you will have some smaller ones burning while the larger ones are not quite done. 

We made a batch this afternoon & had our very own tea party.

Its starting to look a lot like Christmas...

Christmas Craft - part 1

So today was the first chance I've had to start to work on that to do list in my head - you know - the one that you think about as you lay in bed at 2am wondering, when and in what universe you're ever going to get time to get it all done. Thats me!!! ... anyhoo - todays things to cross off the to do list - 1. Christmas craft - I promised N last night we would do Christmas craft today - and if you promise an almost 3 year old something, it absolutely, no questions asked, has to happen - the consequences of it not happening are dire and could include (but not be limited to) melt downs of apocalyptic standards and constant harassment until the said thing is rescheduled. It's just not worth the heartache! So Christmas craft it was today! I decided we would make some 'white clay' Christmas ornaments that a friend had posted on my Mixed up Minxes page - of course I converted the recipe into the Thermomix (see below for recipe) - once the dough was done, we rolled and cut and played - I'm not sure who had more fun - N or myself! After a good 'play dough' session, we rolled the dough out one last time and cut out with christmas cutters, using a straw to make a hole at the top so we could thread with string and hang. As an afterthought I printed S's footprint into a larger bit of dough and N's thumbprints into the centre of a couple of the stars - it was so much fun. After baking and cooling, we threaded with pretty ribbon and we hung proudly on our Christmas tree. It was such a lovely activity. N was kept entertained with a few mini Christmas craft activities while the ornaments were baking and then cooling - including some gluing with glitter and stamping with christmas stamps. We finished off the day with some nice fresh cold red and green watermelon - completing our Christmas theme. 

White clay for the Thermomix: 

Ingredients:
-390gms bicarb soda
-80gms corn flour
-170gms warm water
-3 tablespoons fine glitter (we used silver)
Method:
Add dry ingredients to TM bowl, add water, cook:
80 degrees | Sp 4 | 4 mins. 

Roll out with a rolling pin and cut into shapes or press into hand/footprints. Use a straw to make a hole to thread with ribbon if desired.

Bake 100 degrees for about an hour. Cool and enjoy <3

For a non Thermomix version - visit http://theimaginationtree.com/2012/12/white-clay-ornaments-tutorial.html