Red, White & Blue Cookies

The Fourth of July summer holiday is coming soon so I thought I'd post some a few of our stars and stripes decorated sugar cookies. The colors of red, white and blue always remind me of summer, the colors just seem right for a hot summer's day. I like the simplicity of these decorated sugar cookies in shapes of stars. We are baking the stars in different sizes, frosting with royal icing and then rimming with sanding sugars. These cookies can be made easily at  home, star cookie cutters are easy to find and if you don't want to bother with royal icing, just use a simple buttercream icing and add some sprinkles. The buttercream frosting we use here is so easy!

Easy Buttercream Frosting

2 LB Confectioner's Sugar

1/4 cup ( 1/2 stick ) melted Butter

1/2 cup Water ( approximate)

1/2 tsp Pure Vanilla

Mix the melted butter in a bowl with the sugar. Just mix until the butter is coating the sugar. Add the water slowly and beat until you like the consistency for frosting. Beat for 1-2 min  for a creamy mixture. Add vanilla or any other flavoring you may like. This frosting is so easy to spread and sets up nicely at room temperature, but you can also place the cookies in the refrigerator to help set your icing. The key to this recipe is the amount of water you add, add slowly and if you add too much, you can always add more sugar.

I really like the look of white icing with colored sprinkles, but you could also use food dye to add some color to your frosting, just allow for the added liquid. Food dyes will thin your icing somewhat.

We will be shipping our 4th of July Cookies next week. You can place your order online now and we'll ship the cookies when baked. This is a festive gift for a fourth of July summer picnic or to ship to friends and family. Visit our website for more ideas for your holiday gift giving today! We bake our cookies fresh daily and ship Nationwide!

Enjoy your summer get-to-gethers and cook outs! This is one tradition that seems to have remained in our lives despite our everyday "I'm so busy" schedules. Everyone enjoys a backyard cook out and getting together with friends and families. I love when everyone brings a favorite dish or dessert. You know people will prepare a dish that is one of their best, so the food is always great! Hope you can add some new recipes to your file this summer, I  know I've already picked up a few, starting with the great 5 bean salad I enjoyed yesterday at my niece's grad party!

A Father's Day Cookie Delivery

Father's Day is June 19th, Sunday this year, 2011. We are starting to make our boxes and plan our baking for next week when we start to ship cookies for this special day. Cookies and brownies are a perfect gourmet treat to send for a Happy Father's Day message. If you have time, mix up a batch of cookies, most men love classic chocolate chip cookies, what could be easier. A plate of homemade cookies would go well with any other gifts or card you may want to give the special guy in your life. My dad loves Oatmeal Raisin, I know I'll be taking him a batch when I go to visit!

           If you are creative and want to try your skill at cookie decorating, shirts with #1 Dad on them would be fun especially for children to design. We used a "onesie" cookie cutter, then just cut off the bottoms with a knife prior to baking for these cute shirt decorated sugar cookies. We will be decorating them daily during this week and next so we'll have lots of variety to add to our Father's Day cookie gifts.


 

A Cookie Delivery that says Thank you from your pet!

I grew up on a farm in Southwestern PA where dogs and cats ran around outside with the horses chickens and pigs. Dogs and Cats did NOT come into the house and though we loved them, they were just another part of the farm animals family. Move ahead to 2011. Now our pets are living right next to us inside the house and yes, they are part of our family. We take photos of them with us, buy their favorite pet treats and include their names on certain gift cards. Although my parents still living on that farm have a Newfoundland dog that they adore and he lives outside with the horses and does not like entering the house.

He's way too large anyways.

 On to the point of this post today. We noticed at our Cookie Bakery that customers were including their pets names on their gift cards, thanking their Vet for excellent care, sending thank you cookies to friends who watched their pet while they were on vacation, etc. We designed this box for those kind of occasions, a PET LOVERS BOX complete with a natural eco-friendly box and matching ribbon with paw prints.

The decorated sugar cookies are cut-outs made with butter, sugar, vanilla, eggs and flour. In other words, people cookies. These cookies are not meant for pets to eat, though I think that may be a fun business to run. We can even personalize one of the cookies with your pet's name!

We are now offering a CAT pet lovers box and a DOG pet lovers box. We also add an assortment of our gourmet cookies too such as chocolate chip, snickerdoodle, oatmeal raisin and peanut butter. Enough cuteness and good taste for anyone to enjoy! We will start shipping these adorable cookie gifts  in early June. I think they could be a unique thank you gift for your pet sitter this summer!

Festive Happy Birthday Cookies & More

Still raining in Pittsburgh with not much sunshine yet for the first week of May, but I'm thinking summer colors! I really like these new colors of lime green, aqua blue, creamsicle orange and fuchsia pink. The Birthday cakes are very popular with our Cookie Gifts as they can be added to any homemade cookie assortment. Add a decorated Birthday Sugar Cookie to a box of freshly baked Chocolate Chip cookies and you've got a winner for any Birthday celebration. I also like the simplicity of the Daisy Cookies for the spring and summer!

We're shipping sweet  Mother's Day Gifts today so I took one more photo of these adorable shoes and purse cookies. The combination of Pink and chocolate brown is nice too. I think we may add some other colors this summer for this line of decorated cookies. Maybe some chocolate brown with turquoise blue? Black is nice for handbags and shoes but not for cookies so I'm not sure about that combination.  The problem with black is a lot of food dye is required for the frosting to attain the perfect black shade. So I think we will stay with more neutral colors. Maybe a tan and blue??

Cookies for Mom

 I do not wear high heels because I am more concerned about my comfort than how I look, but I do love to look at them and appreciate how really special they can make an outfit. The longer you go without wearing a shoe with a heel, the more pain you are in when and if you do. So that said, these gourmet cookies are just so cute!! I do enjoy a nice handbag, no pain there.

We are baking these for Mother's Day this year. What a nice gift for that special lady in your life! Each box will also include 8 assorted classic homemade cookies such as Decadent Triple chocolate, Snickerdoodle, Chocolate Chip and Cranberry White Chocolate. Yummmmm. I also love the chocolate brown and pink and white colors for this gift box. And a nice option with this Mothers Day Gift is you can personalize one of the cookies with Mom, Nana,Grandma, etc.

We're Busy decorating Easter Eggs ...Cookies, that is!

 No matter how busy I am each spring, I always find time to decorate eggs for Easter. Sometimes I'm in my kitchen late at night with 12 hard-boiled eggs and food dyes wondering why I keep this up when my daughters are adults now and my husband is more into carving pumpkins at Halloween than sharing this old family tradition with me! But each year, I find it relaxing and nostalgic and I do enjoy Egg Salad in the days after Easter! Here at our cookie bakery, we are busy decorating Easter Sugar Cookies in beautiful spring colors. The Easter Bunny Cookies are so cute also, and we're adding jelly beans to some of our Easter Gifts this year.




 Chocolate Bunnies, and the myriad of Easter candy available, I'm sure are the popular items for Easter Baskets, but homemade baked goods I think are a close second. Fresh Baked Cookies, Brownies and Shortbreads have a place at any Easter Table. I'm planning on baking poppyseed rolls and homemade cake doughnuts for my family's Easter Dinner. I'm hoping my sister brings her pickled eggs and maybe potato salad. Of course, we will enjoy my Mom's famous baked ham along with kielbassi that my Dad enjoys preparing. Yum.

Fresh Baked Easter Goodies can be delivered Nationwide from our Cookie Bakery in Southwestern Pennsylvania. Visit our website if you are interested in a Cookie Delivery today. Enjoy your Easter Weekend coming up soon. It's such a nice time to enjoy time with your family and celebrate!

Polka Dot Easter Bunny Cookies



Decorated Easter Bunny Cookies for your Basket!
These decorated Easter cookies are both delicious and fun to make. I love the spring colors and the simplicity of all white polka dots. We mix our hand-rolled sugar cookie dough and after baking the bunny shapes, pipe the outlines of the cookies followed by a flooding in the same color. The next step is to add the polka dots with white flooding. We then package the cookies after drying in clear cello bags and gift box them in chocolate brown boxes tied with sheer polka dot ribbon in purple, blue, pink and brown.  We also have many other ideas on our website for Easter Cookie Baskets 

Happy Spring! Happy Easter! Order some-bunny special a  Cookie delivery for Easter with these homemade cut-out sugar cookies from Country Cupboard Cookies !  Or maybe you'd like to try your own. We used the following recipe for these cookies. This sugar cookie recipe is so easy, does not require chilling, and is so easy to roll!

Cut-out Sugar cookies
Ingredients:
1 pound softened Butter
2 cups Sugar
2 eggs
1 TBL pure Vanilla
4 to 4 1/2 cups Flour
1 TBL Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt

Cream butter & sugar. Add eggs & vanilla & mix well. Add dry ingredients gradually and mix until soft dough forms. You may find that you need to use more or less flour depending on humidity of day, etc. Roll out and cut out with desired cookie cutter. Use only enough flour to avoid sticking to table or to rolling pin. Bake 8-10 minutes in 325- 350 degree oven. Avoid overbaking. Bake only until very light browned around edges. Frost and decorate with your favorite icing.

Salted Caramel Chocolate Chunk Cookies

    My new favorite cookie: Salted Caramel Chocolate Chunk: Chocolatey, Chewy and Salty. We'll have these baking next week for the month of April in our bakery. I think they would make a wonderful cookie gift for someone who likes a little old-fashioned and a little gourmet in their cookies.

I've been craving these cookies for awhile now. I love chocolate, I love sweets, I love salt. I know salt does not have a healthy sound to it with all the talk of "too much salt is bad for your blood pressure" but I do love salt. Combine salt with my OTHER favorite flavor of Sugar and then add chocolate and something chewy ( caramel ) well, you've just tasted one of my new favorite cookies. I recently said that the blueberry cobbler cookies we were baking at Country Cupboard Cookies in March was my favorite, but well, it's a new month and this cookie, Salted Caramel Chocolate Chunk is my Favorite.

We baked this cookie using our original Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, everyone has a favorite, just be sure to use butter and the best chocolate you have. We use Barry Callebaut chocolate chunks, a nice semi-sweet chocolate here in our bakery, but any high quality chocolate will work. Then we added bits of Caramel. We used caramel bits from CK products, but you could caramel bits from the grocery store. One thing I learned is not to use large sizes of caramel, you want small pieces, no larger than a chocolate chip. This way the chewiness is not over-whelming and you won't spend all your time chewing and not enjoying the rest of the cookie! Press down the cookie slightly before baking and then sprinkle a nice Sea Salt over the cookie. Bake as usual. I found that a lot of the salt does dissolve when you bake so I added a very slight sprinkle after they came out of the oven. Don't overdo the salt, just a surprise flavor while you are enjoying the caramel and chocolate!

Mini-Sugar Cookies for Spring & Easter

Spring this year brings our new Mini Sugar Cookies!

We are very excited about this line of sugar cookies. The size is small, 1.5 inches to 2 inches, perfect bite-size cookies. Everyone who sees them starts with "oh how cute!" or "So sweet! " The details are simple but for such small cookies, they really make a statement. We've chosen pretty spring colors, but I'm already thinking that later this summer we could decorate some of these sugar cookies in bright hot colors of orange, fuchsia and teal. The sugar cookies are made with a simple sugar cookie recipe, hand-rolled then cut with mini cookie cutters. We've flooded some of them and piped others with royal icing, also in springtime colors. Adding a sprinkle of sanding sugar gives a sparkly touch and a slightly crunchy texture to the cookies. They really do melt in your mouth!

The mini-sugar cookies in shapes of hearts and flowers are packaged in clear favor bags and tied with colorful raffias. Then the bags of 12 cookies each are gift boxed, ready to ship out for any occasion from Happy Birthday to Get Well soon!

An array of mini-sugar flowers in different sizes. So fun to decorate.

          Can't wait to start baking these mini-eggs, bunnies, flowers and chicks for Easter this year. These favor bags would make a great addition to any Easter Goodie Basket. Yummmm!

Pretty Decorated Heart Cookies for Valentine's Day

 We introduced beautiful new colors this year for some of our Decorated Heart Sugar Cookies in shades of sky blue, lavender, pretty pink and minty green. The orange reminds me of creamsicles.

                        Happy Valentine's Day!

 Conversation Heart Cookies popular again this year for a cute Valentines Day Gift

We are finishing baking today for shipment of Valentine's Day Cookie orders. I loved the selection this year.Red & white designs with pink are classic Valentine but this year the new softer colors of blue, lavender, orange and green reminded me that spring is on it's way! It's been cold here in Pittsburgh lately and combine that with the Pittsburgh Steelers losing the Super Bowl , Spring will be an especially welcome event this year.

Black & Gold Cookies for Pittsburgh!

     We just finished a batch of  Freshly Baked Sugar Cookies in Black and Gold for the Steelers Game coming up next weekend! I'm a Pittsburgh Steelers Fan and my husband is a Green Bay Packer fan. Well, we've been waiting for this game for years!! Why are all the cookies all black and gold? I'm the baker.

Gingerbread Cookies decorated in Pittsburgh Black & Gold colors

Sunday's Win in Pittsburgh got me thinking about the Black and Gold Gingerbread Cookies we shipped this past Christmas. We are baking some sugar cookies today in our town's black and gold colors, we should have them online by tomorrow, Wednesday. Steelers football fans everywhere will be able to send a box to their family and friends!

Valentine's Day Cookies make great gifts for Everyone

These may be my new favorites this year for Valentine's Day, Chocolate decorated Hearts. We bake our all natural sugar cookies, hand roll and cut out with heart cookie cutters. The cookies are baked in our convection oven, then hand decorated with homemade chocolate buttercream frosting and then detailed with royal icing and sprinkles. After they set up overnight, we package them and add them to a gift box ready to ship.Yes, they may be my new favorites. But then there are the adorable conversation heart cookies...

Gingerbread Cookies for the Local VFD

I love these fire engine red gift boxes with a customized gingerbread cookie decorated like a fireman. Packed up and ready to hand out.

Snowflakes coming soon!

I heard today that we may have snow coming our way this Friday. Well, it is November, so I won't be surprised but it's so sunny today it seems strange that winter could be coming so soon. I'm sure it won't be more than a few flurries, but the prediction made me think of the new snowflake gingerbread cookies that we'll be decorating soon. I love the contrast of the dark and spicy gingerbread with the white royal sweet icing topped with sugars. We've been baking gingerbread boys for a few years now, this year we are adding both the snowflakes and cute cottages. The aroma in the bakery is the very best this time of year with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, orange and chocolate! Yum.

Christmas Cookie Plans

I'm behind this year planning our Christmas Holiday Treats for our website, Country Cupboard Cookies. It's taking me awhile to believe that the season is near. In the Cookie Gift Business, the Holiday season is a stressful time. But we also look forward to it as there is an excitement in the air. Our entire staff is here and sometimes this is the only time during the year that we all get to work together. We manage to have fun despite all the stress and hard work each year, though each year I say 'never again! ' Seriously, how can a business expect to do 40% of it's annual business in just 6 weeks. Yikes.

But it's coming and we can't wait. Gingerbread are everyone's favorites. The bakery aromas are so wonderful and the gingerbreads are so fun to decorate. This year we're adding cute cottage houses and snowflakes to our gingerbread boy collection. And yes, we will also decorate girl gingerbreads.

Puppy Party!

We baked these for a a get-together party where a few dogs showed up. No, the cookies are not for the dogs, but we thought the pet owners would enjoy them. I thought they turned out so well, we are planning on placing them online for dog lovers to enjoy. They would be a great gift to send to a friend who loves dogs, or to thank a neighbor who took care of your dog while you were away or to a family who just added a new puppy to their household. So cute.

Cowgirl Cookies are so yummy

Sassy Cowgirl Cookies with dark chocolate, chipotle chili powder and cinnamon

Cowgirl & Cowboy Cookies for August

Each month we bake a featured cookie for just that month, August is our Cowboy cookie. I think of it as a trail mix wholesome cookie. Based on an oatmeal cookie recipe, the cookie has m&m's, chocolate chips and pecans. People ask why they are called cowboy cookie, I'm not sure, but if I were out riding on a trail, it would be a great cookie to have with me. I haven't been out riding on the trail lately, but I certainly have in the past. My Dad is a cowboy of sorts, he still rides at 83 and keeps horses at the farmily farm in Pennsylvania. He's always talking about buying a ranch in Colorado, he hasn't yet, but you never know.

My favorite thing to do with this business is to create new recipes. I have to be careful that we don't have too many cookies, though, because I'm always dreaming up new recipes. And other people here contribute to that. For example, Danielle, just gave me a recipe for Key Lime Cookies. Now doesn't that sound good! When I get a chance to try those, I'll be posting a photo and sharing the recipe also. But back to the Cowboy Cookies. I got the idea this year to partner a Cowgirl Cookie along with the usual Cowboy cookie. But it was impossible to choose a favorite with the possibilities that we came up with. So we've decided to offer an assortment of three this month and see how they go. If they prove to be popular, maybe we'll continue them for the year. If not, maybe just an August thing. 

The trio of Cowgirl Cookies includes the Signature Cowgirl: an oatmeal cookie very much like the Cowboy cookie without the nuts. Instead we've added semi-sweet chocolate chips and White Chocolate Chunks. The 2nd cookie has a kick to it with Dark Chocolate Chips, cinnamon and chipotle chili pepper powder. This is a new flavor combination for me, but my daughter has moved to Dallas Texas so she is always mentioning chipotle in this and that, thus the idea. The third cookie, the Wrangler, is my favorite. Oatmeal based with creamy peanut butter and milk chocolate almond toffee. The peanut butter softens the cookie and the toffee gives it a crunchy texture. Perfect!  The cookies are sold in a cute chocolate brown box tied with twine and natural kraft fill. Kind of rustic and very delicious!

Sunflower Sugar Cookies

A Sunflower cookie to go with our Sunflowers blooming out in front of our cookie bakery in Pittsburgh Pa. These decorated cookies would be a great idea for any summer event or party. Or to brighten someone's day or week!

Sunflower Season

The seeds I planted in early June have bloomed! I love sunflowers in the middle of the hottest part of summer. Everyone smiles when they walk by.

New Baby Cookie Favors coming this summer at Country Cupboard Cookies!

So sweet Cookies to welcome a new baby!

This summer, we will be offering a larger line of baby shower and new baby cookie favors which will include the ability to order online. Each cookie is baked from scratch using all natural and wholesome ingredients such as Butter, pure vanilla, whole eggs, unbleached flour and white cane sugar. We hand roll our cookies and then decorate each cookie with royal icing. When the cookies dry, they are simply gorgeous! We package each cookie in a sealed bag and tie with a matching raffia ribbon for a festive look. We can ship the cookies anywhere in the US.

Watch our website for new additions all summer long.

www.CountryCupboardCookies.com

Recipe for Dirt

Recipe for Dirt  ( Dessert that is)

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup softened butter
1 ( 8oz.) pkg cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
2 ( 3.5 oz each ) boxes instant vanilla pudding
3 1/2 cups milk
1 container ( 12 oz)  Cool Whip
32 oz. Chocolate Sandwich cookies ( Oreos)

DIRECTIONS:

Cream butter, cream cheese and confectioner's sugar in bowl. In another bowl, mix milk, pudding and Cool Whip together. Combine the two above mixtures together.

Chop Oreos ( I put the cookies in a ziploc bag, then use a rolling pin to crush them, but you can also use a food processer if you want finer "dirt " without chunks. )

Start with a container : You can use a dessert bowl or get creative and use a brand new flower pot, plastic beach bucket and shovel would be cute, childs plastic ( new) wheelbarrow, dump truck, etc. I've also used a plastic tray for a garden display with artificial flowers and gummy candies.

Layer in your container, starting with the crushed cookies ( dirt), then cream mixture. Repeat layers, then chill until ready to serve. Just before serving, add your accessories. For example, gummy worms for the flower pot, artificial flowers for the garden, etc.

Kids love this dessert and it's a great one for the hot summer months, NO oven required. As much as I love baking cookies and do almost daily at Country Cupboard Cookies, when the summer months come with the heat and humidity, the last thing I want to do on the weekend is run our oven. That's when the grill comes out and desserts like this one become more popular on my list. I've never tried other flavors of pudding, but I think chocolate pudding might be yummy for a chocolate treat.

Cookies for Summer Celebrations

Summer Celebrations and Cookies go together!

We're still in the middle of Father's Day this weekend but are also thinking ahead to Summer occasions. The colors for the Fourth of July, red, white and blue remind me of summer so much and are a refreshing combination of colors. We're going to package this collection in an adorable summer white box with red dots and red, white and blue raffia ribbon. A simple, Americana gift package. This is such a nice gift to send, we'll have it available all July. You can also choose to add some "traditional" cookies such as chocolate chip, Oatmeal Raisin, Snickerdoodle and Creamy Peanut Butter.

Baked from scratch, wholesome, soft & chewy Cookies

           Freshly Baked Cookies

                           Oatmeal Raisin, Cranberry White Chocolate, Snickerdoodle, Chocolate Chip & Walnut Chocolate chip