Elegant Jewelled Snowflake cookies

I made up a list and I checked it twice,

trying to work out who was naught and who was nice.

But seriously my nice list way waaay too long and I really had to cut it back.

In the end I sent out just a few of cookie packages to a couple of people on my nice list.

Well actually the people that I did a cookie swap with last year because I forgot to organise one this year.

It seems Noo from Dessert Menu Please had the same idea and the day after I posted out my treats I received a package with a cracker and inside the sweetest hand drawn little festive cookies :)

Follow random pictures of my life on instagram: http://instagram.com/p/Tewm3zwlAy/

Above is a picture that I posted on my new instagram account. If your following me there you may have seen a few random photo's of my new creative/craft space and other random pictures of my life.

Anyhoo the cookies I sent out are an updated version of the elegant snowflake cookies I made a few years back but I added jelly gems.

Which by the way I am a bit smitten with at the moment.

Oooooohhhhhh Jelly Gems, so pretty..........

The actual cookie was a Christmas inspired cinnamon and cranberry sugar cookie. You can find my recipe in the free online Christmas edition of 'Tickle the Imagination' Magazine if you CLICK HERE.

The original decorating tutorial for the Winter Wonderland Snowflake cookies has a recipe for plain vanilla sugar cookies if your not keen on the Christmassy version. CLICK HERE for the original post and recipe. 

and thank you all so much for reading this year, it always brightens my day to receive comments or see my treats pinned.

From my family to yours wishing you safe and happy Holidays.

Xx
Linda V

Elegant Jewelled Snowflake Cookies

Sugar cookie dough
Snowflake cookie cutter (mine from Bisk-art)
Decorative stamp or embosser
White fondant#
Small plastic rolling pin
brush and water
Jelly Gems
2 round tip (mine was Wilton)
Royal Icing (I used queens royal icing mix from Woolworths - just add water)
Piping bag with small tip
 
edit update - I have a youtube video tutorial on how to make sugar cookie dough

#Fondant dries out pretty quickly so I work with a little fondant at a time covering one or two cookies. The remaining fondant I leave wrapped in a little cling wrap/ glad wrap until I need it.

Line a couple of trays with parchment paper.

Make up batch of sugar cookie dough, chill, roll out on workbench lightly dusted with flour and cut out snowflake cookies.

Pop the cookies onto the prepared trays and put in the freezer for around 15 minutes.
 

Meanwhile preheat over to160C (320 F) and then bake cookies for around 12 - 15 mins.

Remove from oven when they just start to become golden and using the small end of the icing tip quickly remove a small hole from the center of each cookie.

Ooops - no photos of the cookies with holes in them. Just use your imagination :)

Knead fondant until pliable and roll out on a surface lightly dusted with cornflour and using the same snowflake cookie cutter cut out the snowflake shape. Make sure the cookie cutter is clean and dry before you start cutting.

Brush a tiny amount of water onto the cookie and then adhere the snowflake fondant cut out to the cookie, gently rolling on with a small rolling pin if required.

Take the #12 tip and press down to remove a round of fondant from the center of each cookie. I needed to poke it out with the end of my brush.

OK just imagine there is a hole in the middle - I didn't get a picture of one :)

Using a clean foodsafe stamp or embosser press into the middle of each cookie to make a pretty indentation.

Pipe a circle of royal icing around the edge of the round hold in the center of each cookie and place a jelly gem inside using the royal icing to glue it into place.

Pipe decorative dots on the cookie as desired.

Leave out until royal icing is set.

Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for a week.

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Recipe, photo's and post by Linda Vandermeer author of Sweets on a Stick: More than 150 Kid Friendly recipes for cakes, candies, cookies and pies on the go. You can pick it up at all good online book shops including these shops:

Or here at fishpond (Aus/NZ)

Snowflake flurry cookie bites - cute mini square Christmas cookies

 
I feel like the supermarkets dragging out the the Christmas decorations half way through the year, but I do have a valid reason.

One of my friends is hosting a Christmas in July celebration and asked me to make some of my white snowflake cookies and snowflake cake pops.

Anyhoo to cut a long story short I had just spied some super cute square cookies here and here I was really feeling the square cookie love.



So I decided to try out some incy wincy little square snowflake cookies in a few simple designs and colours.

I'm a bit of a fan of bite sized cookies. I would rather have 2 or 3 tiny cookies than a large one any day so these are perfect for me.

Equipment and Ingredients

24 mini square chocolate cookies
Ready Rolled Fondant (I used Bakels) or marshmallow fondant
mini square cookie cutter (mine was a plastic one from a d.line set which is straight on one side and ruffled on the other)
ball tool
edible silver balls
non toxic glitter or preferably edible glitter
Edible glue (I made mine up with water and Tylose powder)
Snowflake plunger set

Each set was 12 cookies made using a 3.5cm (1 3/8 inch) square cutter then I covered each cookie with ready rolled fondant rolled out on a benchtop dusted with cornflour (cornstarch) to a couple of mm (1/8inch) thick and adhered to the cookie using a little water and pressing on with the rolling pin.

For the single snowflakes I pressed out a snowflake using the smallest cutter from a snowflake plunger set and adhered it to the fondant covered cookie with a teeny amount of water. Using the small end of a ball tool I made an indent into each corner, brushed the indent with a little edible glue and pressed in an edible silver ball.

For the cropped double snowflakes I cut out two snowflakes using the smallest cutter from the snowflake plunger set for each cookie arranged them like I wanted them to sit on the cookie and using the same square cutter I used for the cookies I pressed down to remove the excess edges, using a sharp knife I evened up the edges and adhered the snowflakes to the fondant covered cookie.

For the large cropped snowflake I used the medium snowflake cutter from the plunger set and using the same technique described above cropped the snowflake. In the opposite corner to the snowflake I used the small end of a ball tool to make an indent, brushed the indent with a little edible glue and pressed in an edible silver ball. I then used a ziplock bag filled with royal icing to pipe 5 dots in a curved around the snowflake.


For the random line cookies I piped 2 lines close together at the bottom, a line at an angle crossing the double lines, a single line near the middle of the cookie and another further up near the top. For the white cookie I sprinkled a little non toxic glitter onto the bottom lines to add some interest.