Hanging A Screech Owl Box

Jam House and the Cookie Factory

The holiday season is a special moment that we share with family and friends, and it's also time to say thank you. I did not mention the Thanksgiving holiday, the last Thursday of November, which celebrates the recognition of the pioneers to the Indians of America. I was in a small town in the north-eastern Minnesota, a few kilometers from the border with Canada. I was in Grand Marais the lake the largest in the world, Lake Superior. Very often I think of you my friends, bloggers, but as you readers, especially those I know, because you were kind enough to show you it is you that I do so enjoy sharing my adventures. Today I tell you, in my own way, a shy, however great, THANK

Many Americans consider the day after Thanksgiving as the date quasi-official start of preparations for Christmas. This day being a holiday party, too, families can enjoy the pleasure of decorating the house, decorate the tree and, without waiting any longer, start filling the kitchen aromas of sweet and spicy Christmas cookies.

Legacy of Christmas cookies arrived in America through its immigrants in Europe: Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Holland, Germany, of course ... This multiplicity of cultures and traditions has built a legacy of colorful Christmas and flavors. The creativity of each other, and sharing revenue brings novelty to every Christmas. But, as I am very attached to traditions, those who make us dream big and small, each year I build a new house with gingerbread, and gives life to new doodles.

Here are two classic cookie recipes that fill our jars already. You can prepare in advance, they are made for it, and enjoy your cookies until Christmas.

Spritz Cookies

Ingredients:

- 230 g butter at room temperature
- 125 g icing sugar sifted
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 teaspoon and a half 'almond extract (or 2 tablespoons if you like)
- 340 g flour

Utensil: A press cookies (those found in some supermarkets, or on sites specialized utensils and cooking equipment ). Otherwise, you can just drop small mounds of dough or refrigerate the dough before rolling and cut with cookie cutter.

Method:

Preheat oven to 175 C or 350 F.

In the bowl of a mixer fitted with the blade, combine first 4 ingredients. Add flour, mix until a dough is formed, no more.
Fill cookie press and form cookies directly on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. If cookies do not come off the press themselves, is that the dough is too dry. The moisten with a little water at a time.
Bake 7-8 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Spritz Cookies

will keep several weeks in a jar cookies in airtight, or a metal box.

Cookies Christmas Spice

United States, there are two kinds of cookies with spices called "gingerbread cookies. The most common is based on molasses (organic store) and is of English and Scottish origins. The second is the honey, Germanic and Scandinavian origins. Both are used to make snowmen and houses the famous gingerbread.

You will find here recipe gingerbread cookies with molasses. It's a great recipe to build a gingerbread house that is kept for weeks or cookies to hang on the tree. We do not eat them especially after they took the dust, but they are splendid scenery. This year I chose a recipe without molasses spice instead of Scandinavian tradition. The dough is so easy to work, cookies can be stored for so long, and we prefer its taste. The cottage has already been eaten, it remains a thing ;-)

Ingredients:

- 230 g soft butter
- 225 g sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon soup and half orange zest
- 2 tbsp honey pine or mountain
- 1 tbsp water
- 450 g flour
- 2 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 tsp Coffee
cinnamon - 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 / 2 teaspoon clove powder

For the frosting:
- 1 egg white
- 300 to 400 g
icing sugar - 1 teaspoon of almond extract
- 1-2 tbsp water or milk

Method: Blanch

butter and sugar until of a smooth cream. Add egg and beat until mixture is very light, then add the orange zest, honey and water. Gather the dry ingredients in a bowl (flour, baking soda and spices). Stir the mixture until a dough before forming. Gather into a ball, flatten into a disk that is wrapped in plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 165 C or 330 F.
Roll dough on a lightly floured work plan, about 3 mm thick. Cut out shapes with cookie cutter transfer them to the baking sheets. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, until cookies are lightly browned on edges. Cool on a wire rack.

In a large bowl, whisk together all glaze ingredients with an electric mixer (without putting the whip to start running to prevent the sugar does not fly). The mixture should be quite thick. Add powdered sugar or a little water at a time if necessary. Pour into a pastry bag fitted with the sleeve of your choice, failing in a Ziploc bag which is cut at an angle. Decorate cookies to your taste.

Note: we can make houses Gingerbread no punches. Simply cut three templates on cardboard or a thick sheet: a rectangle for the two sections of roof, a triangle on a rectangular base for both fronts, and a small rectangle for the sides. Here are the dimensions of my house:
- small side: 6.5 cm high, 7 inches wide
- facades: 17 cm in height (including 6.5 cm below the roof, for the rectangular, as the short sides), 11 cm wide at the base
- the rectangular roof panels: 13.5 inches high, 11 cm wide.
These parts are not built, unlike the sides with a punch, but it's more a matter of aesthetics than construction. The glaze is a powerful glue enough to hold the cookies together.

Here is the photo templates, to get a clearer picture of the cutout with a knife on the cookie dough down:

Jam House and the Cookie Factory

You've probably wondered what would Santa Claus without his elves? But have you also thought about what he would do without her teams Fairies pastry? In recent weeks, has Jam House not produce much revenue, and I will deliver you the reason for the silence ... I was recruited by Santa Claus himself! And it's very underground, in basements of churches, I helped to lower, baking and decorating Christmas cookies thousands of ...

Headquarters Christmas cookies

To become a Fairy Christmas (or a good Fairy Engineering fingers!), This is straightforward. You just have to believe in magic, armed with a little patience and have a bit of creativity.

The Cookie Factory is divided into two workshops: one of cooking and the decorating.

Cooking Workshop

Make sure you have cookie cutters, or shape it into cardboard templates around which you can cut at the tip of a knife, simple shapes like Christmas ornaments, snowmen, Christmas trees, stars, angels or mittens.

Some fairies are extremely well equipped! They provide direct from a store where the magic is all but legendary Williams Sonoma is his name.

Under these cutters magic is an arsenal that produces 3D look, and cut directly through to slip a ribbon and hang the cookies on the tree branches.

Everything is planned to succeed every time: Press to release the dough easily, directly on the hob.

And voila!

Transfer very carefully on a silicone mat or a sheet of baking paper.

After cooking, transfer to a rack, still very gently, and let cool.

I almost forgot the basics: recipes! You can find the recipe for cookies with vanilla here, and the delicious chocolate version by here. The recipe for spicy cookies, gingerbreads the honey is just a bit earlier in this post.

Decoration Workshop

Bring all your cookies.

These chips contain some candied orange ...

At the headquarters of the Fairies pastry, we happily enjoy the right arm of Santa Claus: Mister KitchenAid. It is very useful but not essential, do not worry. You will get excellent results with the force of his fist or with a good electric mixer.

If you do not feel the soul of a fairy decorator, you can still load the division and Icing Colors. It is very important. It is a position of high responsibility!

The mixture of icing sugar and egg whites should be neither too thin (it would escape cookies), nor too thick to save the trouble Fairies decorators who would not hesitate to return icing for a correction!

Once the ingredients are whipped and that the ideal consistency is reached, take a little icing in a small separate bowl and tint it with food coloring. Fill pastry bag or Ziploc bags that you cut a small piece of angle. Remember to cover the icing with a veil of tissue paper moistened to prevent drying.

Finally, at this point, hurry up! Fairies decorators are always eager to get started!

the side of the division Decoration is the excitement! Fairies have brought all their sprinkles, flakes, noodles, candy, chips and other decorations.

Some fairies are specialized in the display of white icing with a wooden stick and glitter decoration. Others excel at handling the pastry bag.

All share a patience of an angel,

and some dexterity, acquired with practice.

ideas too ...

and also applied for and perform as pretty decorations for each cookie, it should not no doubt many,

much, love!

Minnepolis At Headquarters, the lunch break is a pizza delivery! The charming delivery man promised not to reveal the address of the headquarters, held secret. He has not lost the North among the hundreds of cookies and asked if by chance there was not some broken cookies ... "No broken cookies?"