Random Christmas Present stuff
I decided this year I would make a bunch of random things for some of my friends (along with a couple small purchases) for Christmas. I decided to mail two packages out to friends, and wait until I see the other two. In the packages for the first two, I made cookies (click here if you want to see them). The square ones are pistachio shortbread, the round ones are sort of like a sugar cookie with a bit of a butterscotch flavor, and the scrolly looking ones are cinnamon with a chocolate swirl. I generally bake a lot for my friends, and figured I would expand past raspberry/lemon tarts and "regular" cookies. I pulled the recipes out of a magazine from a couple years ago. So, behind the cut you'll find the three recipes (I bastardized them a little), photos of lots of hair clips/accessories, cell phone charm things, a decorative box to hold some earrings I bought for someone, a stenciled shirt... Yeah. It's a pretty random collection of things.
Pistachio Shortbread:
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup finely ground pistachio nuts (mine was just over a cup)
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup butter
(the original recipe included some notes on dipping the shortbread into some sort of coating stuff... I'm not a fan of that sort of stuff)
1. Preheat over to 325 F and mix the flour, nuts, and sugar in a medium bowl. Cut in the butter until the mix looks like fine crumbs clumping together. (I did all this by hand, no mixer)
2. You can either take half of the dough and roll it out to use cookie cutter, or do what I did- take small amounts of dough at a time, roll it out and use the sharp edge of a spatula to cut the dough into squares.
3. Put cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 15-18 minutes or until edges are firm and bottoms are barely browned. Remember: the size, shape, and thickness will affect how long they need to bake. Watch the first batch to figure out what your ideal is.
Butterscotchy Sugar Cookies:
These are actually sandwich cookies, but I didn't think they would do well being mailed that way. I also substituted chocolate for butterscotch (I'll make a note of it in the ingredients)
cookie:
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1/2 granulated sugar
2 ounces semi sweet chocolate, melted (I used about 3 ounces of melted butterscotch pieces)
1/4 cup cooking oil
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour
filling:
2 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup sifted powdered sugar
1 ounce semi sweet chocolate, melted (again, I used about 2 ounces of butterscotch pieces melted)
1 tablespoon Irish cream liqueur or strong brewed coffee (I used a fair amount more to cover up the taste of the cream cheese... probably 3 or 4 tablespoons)
1. in a medium bowl, mix the egg, egg yolk, granulated sugar, 2 ounces of chocolate, oil, baking powder, and vanilla. Stir in the flour. Stick it in the fridge for an hour or two so it can chill and be easier to work with.
2. Preheat oven to 375 F. Shape the dough into 1/2 inch balls and space them an inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 6-7 minutes or until the edges are set. 3. For the filling, mix the cream cheese, powdered sugar, the melted chocolate, and liqueur/coffee in a medium bowl.
4. Spread half a teaspoon of the filling onto one cookie's flat side, and sandwich a second cookie on top of it.
Chocolatey Scroll Cookie:
filling/chocolate swirl:
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
2 tablespoons coffee or hazelnut liqueur
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans or hazelnuts, toasted (optional)
cookie/light part of the scroll:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1. Put all the filling ingredients in a medium bowl and mix (if you're using nuts, add them after the mix is creamy). Set aside.
2. Beat the butter in a large bowl for a minute or so. Add both sugars, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Beat until combined, and then beat in the egg, milk, and vanilla. Beat in the flour - this gets hard about 2/3 of the way in... It was a nice workout. Divide the dough in half and throw it in the fridge for half an hour so it's easier to work with.
3. On a lightly floured surface (too much will dry this out), roll one half of the dough out into a 12x8 rectangle. Spread half the filling on the cookie dough leaving a half an inch frame all the way around. Now you need to roll it up into a log. Roll the longest side halfway into the rectangle, and repeat for the other side. Dampen the connection point with some water, and squeeze the two sides together a little.
4. Move the log on to some saran wrap, roll it up, and stick it in the fridge for 4-24 hours to firm up (I actually threw it in the freezer for an hour or so and it worked out well for me).
5. Preheat the over to 375 F and grease some cookie sheets. Using a thin bladed knife (I used a paring knife), cut the log on the short side so you get the shape in the above picture. Slices should be about 1/4 inch thick. Place them about 2 inches apart on the cookie sheet and bake about 8 minutes or until the sides are firm and the bottoms are lightly browned.
I made hair clips for one friend of mine who also has crazy hair and is a fan of all things crazy and rainbow-esque/bright (I'm not mailing them because one of them is a bit too fragile):
More detail shots: Glow in the dark, purple, and peacock, peacock, peacock, and
peacock.
I made my first Fascinator for another friend of mine (using this tutorial):
Oh there's a couple more of those fabric flower clips (You can use the tutorials here to make the flower part and figure the rest out for yourself)!
I made some cell phone charms for one of my friends (I still need to complete some other ones before I can say they're done). I used some of the tutorials posted here:
I also made some other shapes/things here. I can provide some detail shots if requested.
For the same friend as the cell phone charms, I bought these really awesome chainmaille earrings from Armoured Raven on Etsy. I couldn't stand to see them floating around loose in a big envelope, so I made a little "giftbox" for the earrings and charms:
I used an old Altoid's tin and made it pretty. I used magazine cut outs and a hangtag from a shirt or something, some mod podge to glue it on, and some polyurethane for a clear coat. On the top of the lid, I added a thin layer of glass beads before clear-coating so it gives a really neat effect. It works best on strong color contrasts and visible lines... not like a watercolor, all pastel, undefined image.
Lid is on the right, bottom is on the left. I had some sort of soda ad covering the sides.
I managed to make a shirt for a friend of mine. He's been wanting it or a while, and so I figured I would put it together (he's a nerd, so it's his logo and username):
Back and left arm
Front (the text on the left side of the shirt says DanishDonut in the Halo font (it was a bitch and a half to cut it out).
I made some little note cards out of a Nordstrom bag of all things. it was a heavy paper, the print was basic enough, and it was light! I just wanted to give everyone a heads up about what was in the cookies and sending best wishes:
Still on my list of things I need to get done asap:
A scarf for my brother out of this material (he's a diehard canes fan, and even though I'm going to graduate from there soon, I'm not big into the school spirit thing. I made him a blanket/pillow set 2 years ago and he still curls up in it all the time according to my mom)
Maybe make some funky jewelry things... I have time on that one though
Making apple/pear turnover/pie things Christmas Eve
I'm SO done for now. If you have any questions whatsoever, feel free to leave a comment and I can clarify. If there's something listed that you can't find a tutorial for somewhere, let me know and I can arrange it :)
Happy holidays everyone! Be safe for the new year too!
♥
Pistachio Shortbread:
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup finely ground pistachio nuts (mine was just over a cup)
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup butter
(the original recipe included some notes on dipping the shortbread into some sort of coating stuff... I'm not a fan of that sort of stuff)
1. Preheat over to 325 F and mix the flour, nuts, and sugar in a medium bowl. Cut in the butter until the mix looks like fine crumbs clumping together. (I did all this by hand, no mixer)
2. You can either take half of the dough and roll it out to use cookie cutter, or do what I did- take small amounts of dough at a time, roll it out and use the sharp edge of a spatula to cut the dough into squares.
3. Put cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 15-18 minutes or until edges are firm and bottoms are barely browned. Remember: the size, shape, and thickness will affect how long they need to bake. Watch the first batch to figure out what your ideal is.
Butterscotchy Sugar Cookies:
These are actually sandwich cookies, but I didn't think they would do well being mailed that way. I also substituted chocolate for butterscotch (I'll make a note of it in the ingredients)
cookie:
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1/2 granulated sugar
2 ounces semi sweet chocolate, melted (I used about 3 ounces of melted butterscotch pieces)
1/4 cup cooking oil
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour
filling:
2 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup sifted powdered sugar
1 ounce semi sweet chocolate, melted (again, I used about 2 ounces of butterscotch pieces melted)
1 tablespoon Irish cream liqueur or strong brewed coffee (I used a fair amount more to cover up the taste of the cream cheese... probably 3 or 4 tablespoons)
1. in a medium bowl, mix the egg, egg yolk, granulated sugar, 2 ounces of chocolate, oil, baking powder, and vanilla. Stir in the flour. Stick it in the fridge for an hour or two so it can chill and be easier to work with.
2. Preheat oven to 375 F. Shape the dough into 1/2 inch balls and space them an inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 6-7 minutes or until the edges are set. 3. For the filling, mix the cream cheese, powdered sugar, the melted chocolate, and liqueur/coffee in a medium bowl.
4. Spread half a teaspoon of the filling onto one cookie's flat side, and sandwich a second cookie on top of it.
Chocolatey Scroll Cookie:
filling/chocolate swirl:
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
2 tablespoons coffee or hazelnut liqueur
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans or hazelnuts, toasted (optional)
cookie/light part of the scroll:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1. Put all the filling ingredients in a medium bowl and mix (if you're using nuts, add them after the mix is creamy). Set aside.
2. Beat the butter in a large bowl for a minute or so. Add both sugars, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Beat until combined, and then beat in the egg, milk, and vanilla. Beat in the flour - this gets hard about 2/3 of the way in... It was a nice workout. Divide the dough in half and throw it in the fridge for half an hour so it's easier to work with.
3. On a lightly floured surface (too much will dry this out), roll one half of the dough out into a 12x8 rectangle. Spread half the filling on the cookie dough leaving a half an inch frame all the way around. Now you need to roll it up into a log. Roll the longest side halfway into the rectangle, and repeat for the other side. Dampen the connection point with some water, and squeeze the two sides together a little.
4. Move the log on to some saran wrap, roll it up, and stick it in the fridge for 4-24 hours to firm up (I actually threw it in the freezer for an hour or so and it worked out well for me).
5. Preheat the over to 375 F and grease some cookie sheets. Using a thin bladed knife (I used a paring knife), cut the log on the short side so you get the shape in the above picture. Slices should be about 1/4 inch thick. Place them about 2 inches apart on the cookie sheet and bake about 8 minutes or until the sides are firm and the bottoms are lightly browned.
I made hair clips for one friend of mine who also has crazy hair and is a fan of all things crazy and rainbow-esque/bright (I'm not mailing them because one of them is a bit too fragile):
More detail shots: Glow in the dark, purple, and peacock, peacock, peacock, and
peacock.
I made my first Fascinator for another friend of mine (using this tutorial):
Oh there's a couple more of those fabric flower clips (You can use the tutorials here to make the flower part and figure the rest out for yourself)!
I made some cell phone charms for one of my friends (I still need to complete some other ones before I can say they're done). I used some of the tutorials posted here:
I also made some other shapes/things here. I can provide some detail shots if requested.
For the same friend as the cell phone charms, I bought these really awesome chainmaille earrings from Armoured Raven on Etsy. I couldn't stand to see them floating around loose in a big envelope, so I made a little "giftbox" for the earrings and charms:
I used an old Altoid's tin and made it pretty. I used magazine cut outs and a hangtag from a shirt or something, some mod podge to glue it on, and some polyurethane for a clear coat. On the top of the lid, I added a thin layer of glass beads before clear-coating so it gives a really neat effect. It works best on strong color contrasts and visible lines... not like a watercolor, all pastel, undefined image.
Lid is on the right, bottom is on the left. I had some sort of soda ad covering the sides.
I managed to make a shirt for a friend of mine. He's been wanting it or a while, and so I figured I would put it together (he's a nerd, so it's his logo and username):
Back and left arm
Front (the text on the left side of the shirt says DanishDonut in the Halo font (it was a bitch and a half to cut it out).
I made some little note cards out of a Nordstrom bag of all things. it was a heavy paper, the print was basic enough, and it was light! I just wanted to give everyone a heads up about what was in the cookies and sending best wishes:
Still on my list of things I need to get done asap:
A scarf for my brother out of this material (he's a diehard canes fan, and even though I'm going to graduate from there soon, I'm not big into the school spirit thing. I made him a blanket/pillow set 2 years ago and he still curls up in it all the time according to my mom)
Maybe make some funky jewelry things... I have time on that one though
Making apple/pear turnover/pie things Christmas Eve
I'm SO done for now. If you have any questions whatsoever, feel free to leave a comment and I can clarify. If there's something listed that you can't find a tutorial for somewhere, let me know and I can arrange it :)
Happy holidays everyone! Be safe for the new year too!
♥