Hugs & kisses cookies

I'm having one of those times, you know... bloggers' block. I've literally been twiddling my thumbs for days now to come up with something interesting to say, and I've got nothing. Nada. Niente.

*sigh*

Good thing the pictures speak for themselves, *PHEW!*

 XOXO or Tic-tac-toe, they all taste delightful!!!

I've seen these checkerboard cookies for years, and have meant to make them for a while, but well, pretty much procrastinated til now. They're the type of cookies that you make for people you really REALLY love (Yes, keep reminding yourself of the love when you're kneading, rolling and cutting the dough, it will all be worth it in the end, LOL!!! )

Lemon sugar cookies:

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1-2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp lemon oil (omit if you don't have any)
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 1/2 cups flour

Cream butter and add sugar. Blend in egg, lemon juice, lemon oil, salt and flour. Roll dough into a block or ball and chill until firm.

Chocolate sugar cookies:

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 tsp vanilla
  
• 1 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder
• 2 1/2 cups flour

Cream butter and add sugar. Blend in egg, vanilla, salt, cocoa powder and flour. Roll dough into a block or ball and chill until firm.

When you're ready, roll the two dough out to your desired thickness (I went with an approximate of 1/2 inch thick) Baking Obsession made a really great diagram of how to stack the dough strips to make the cookies, so I'm not gonna sketch the same one because hers is already too awesome.

I will though, make one to show you another method if you want the quick checkerboard version instead :) (without the wrapping on the outside) The red lines are cut lines. After step two, refrigerate the block again until firm before moving onto step three.

Of course, if you lose patience with all the rolling, measuring, cutting, re-refrigerate, etc, just bring out your favorite cookie cutters and skip all the steps...

Once the cookies are all cut, put them back in the fridge, on a lined baking tray until firm again. Heat oven to 375*F and bake cookies for 8-10 minutes. They shouldn't brown :) (Well, I'm talking about the lemon part obviously!)

Pour yourself a glass of milk, sit back and enjoy the goodies. I really like the contrast of the lemon against the chocolate and I hope you will too. Happy baking and share these hugs and kisses ;) 

Mo cookies for Movember

Do you like mustache? Which style is your favorite?

According to this chart, mine is "The Connoisseur". I don't even like mustache, but for the health of men everywhere, I am supporting it this Movember in order to raise money for Prostate Cancer Canada.

What? Yes, MOvember, the month formerly known as November... A mustache-growing charity event that takes place every November, all month, to raise awareness, support and funds for research of prostate cancer.

It kills 4400 men in Canada alone each year
One in six men in Canada will be diagnosed with it in their lifetime.
There are no noticeable symptoms.
BUT 90% of cases are curable if detected and treated at an early stage. So, we need to spread knowledge and by doing so, we will save many lives.

As a girl who, fortunately, cannot grow a mustache (knock on wood) I can help by baking. Yes, everything can be done with cookies. And what else would I put on the cookies but the awesome "Connoisseur" mustache. These will make their way to the bake-sale (along with loads of other goodies) that my friend and I are organizing this Monday at work, and I really hope everyone will come by to purchase and show their support. We are donating all proceed to Prostate Cancer Canada along with our love. All for a great cause!

Now, if you would like to do something similar, which I highly recommend, here is the recipe that I found over at Lovin' From The Oven (She's really adorable!!!)

Sugar cookies

• 6 cups flour
• 3 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 cups butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp. of extract of choice (I used lemon oil)

Put flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl, set aside.
Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs and extract and mix well. Then slowly mix in the flour, continue mixing until the dough is well incorporated.
Chill dough for an hour or so.
Roll and cut, and freeze a few minutes before baking at 350*F for about 10 minutes. Make sure it only browns a little bit on the edge.

Lemon icing:

• 1/4 cup meringue powder
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/4 cup cold water
• 4 cups powdered sugar

Beat meringue powder, lemon juice and water until peaks from, then slowly add powdered sugar until icing reaches desired consistency.

UPDATE: My friend & I each raised $250 from the bake-sale!!!!! I am so happy! Yay!!!!

Coo-kees & tea

No, that's not a typo. Apparently I say "coo-kee" most of the time without noticing... I just realized that it's probably my Frenglish (instead of saying "biscuit" when I speak French, I say "cookie" instead and thus, my accent just automatically changes)

So anyway, I got this awesome cookie cutter stamp thingy thanx to 2 Stews and La Table de Nana. I was SO excited!!!!! It was shipped over from Germany, lol!!! Quite a long way for one cookie cutter, but worth it nonetheless.

I tried out the cookie stamp today with some leftover lemon sugar dough that I store in the freezer.

Lemon sugar cookies
(adapted from Annie's Eats's Ella White Sugar Cookies)

• 1 cup butter, softened at room temperature
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/2 tsp lemon oil
• 2 -3 tsp lemon juice
• 1 t. salt
• zest of 1 lemon
• 2 ½ cups all purpose flour

Preheat oven to 375F.

Cream butter with electric mixer or hand-held then add powdered sugar. Drop in egg, lemon oil, lemon juice, salt, zest and flour. Wrap dough in plastic & refrigerate until firm enough to work with.
Roll cookies to 1/4 inch thick & bake at 375° for 8-10 min.

Since I only rolled out a few to try with my new cookie stamp, I baked them in a preheated toaster oven at 400F for 25 minutes.

I poured myself from jasmine tea and brought the cookies back to my chair in the backyard, where I've been reading "Ratio: the simple codes behind the craft of everyday cooking" since this afternoon. Awesome book! I can't wait to apply Michael Ruhlman's ratios to make my own stuff.