D.C.B. Truffle Brownies

Hey everyone!

THE LAST DAY OF DECEMBER AND, THE LAST DAY OF A COOKIE BENDER. Today the cookie is a Truffle Brownie, and yes a brownie is a cookie... has been since the 1940s. This super chocolatey truffle brownie melts in your mouth with rich and creamy flavors. However this brownie is super labor intensive with a thick chocolate ganache... it takes about 3 hours from start to finish. It's definitely not a brownie to be messed around with! It has dense decadent flavors, even a tiny piece will carry you through a chocolate paradise.... have a glass of milk on hand!

From this picture you can see all the chocolate layers... I decided to add silver sugar pearls on top of the ganache with a few white and light blue pearls to give it a new years eve feel. I suppose this will be the last cookie for a while, how sad! Hopefully you guys have all enjoyed watching my insanity unfold! Maybe there will be more cookies down the road, until then...

Hope everyone has a wonderful new years eve... HAPPY 2012!!!

H!L.

D.C.B. Shortbread Cookies!!!

Hey everyone!

TODAY IS SHORTBREAD!!! YUMMMMM SO BUTTERY!!!! IT'S AWESOME.


So I made two pans of a fluted shortbread cookie, I took a picture of the cookie whole so you can see what it looks like originally before it's all cut up. It kinda looks like a delicious butter pie.... yea that's right, butter pie. Wonder what it tastes like? well, butter obviously! Crumbly buttery goodness... Yumm...

I thought it might be nice to show you the inside of the cookie... I realize how much I like looking at the texture of cookies while I'm eating them. I'll post my LAST cookie tomorrow... sigh, I'm really going to miss this whole December Cookie Bender thing. Anyhow I'm off to the pool hall!

H!L.

D.C.B. Chocolate Pistachio Biscotti

Hello all,

Tonight I decided to try my hand at making biscotti! It turned out pretty well I think, when you first pull them out they have kind of a brownie texture... Which if you've never made them is more than a little disconcerting. You have to let them cool on a rack for a while before they start drying out, like the ones you're used to dipping in your coffee or tea. There's even some extra chocolate chunks I cut up and stuck in the dough for that little extra something.



A pretty good turn out in the end if I do say so myself =D Biscotti are twice baked cookies and they take well over half an hour to make so if you're in a time crunch this may not be the cookie for you, but since I started at 7pm today I had some time to mess around and get something nice done. If you have a lazy weekend coming up I think you should give these a try, you'll be surprised at what you can make!

H!L.

D.C.B. Chocolate Sugar Cookies

Hey everyone!

Today is a Chocolate with the sugar cookie, I used a colorful coarse sugar to make these look like a kaleidoscope. These are really chocolatey and chewy and have a nice crunch from that sugar... THEY ARE SO GOOD!!! Don't let their looks fool you, these little cookies are delicious!

ALSO... they smell like chocolate cake! The house smells so good right now!!!!

H!L.

D.C.B. Coconut Butter Ball

Hey everyone!

Today's cookie is a Coconut Butter Ball which is awesome! It even as a pecan in the middle of a little added surprise. These are best eaten as soon as they come out of the oven when the coconut is still warm... and even when they're cold they're good so don't worry about that.



If you're wondering why they are a million colors.... it's only food coloring, a little color never hurt anyone. They are the same thing, not different flavors.

H!L.

D.C.B. Peanut Butter Thumbprint Cookies!

Hey everyone,

This is day a thousand and two of cookies... today is a thumbprint peanut butter cookie! It's delicious! It's not your usual chewy kind of cookie... I don't really care for those too much, however I do love light and crunchy which is just what this cookie happens to be.


I hope everyone had a good Christmas, I know I did! So much good food, gotta love the holidays! I think it's time to relax and get some art done.

H!L.

D.C.B. IT'S CHRISTMAS!!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Today the Christmas cookie is a Chinese Chew... NO I am NOT racist... it's really what it's called, I made these for my dad for Christmas, it's a memory of his childhood. His grandmother used to send these to him for his birthday which just so happens to be near Christmas! They are a date and nut bar which are dunked in powered sugar and put in a tin just like his grandmother used to...


H!L.

D.C.B. Twelve Drummers Drumming

Hey all!

Today is the last day of my 12 days of Christmas cookies... and 2 days ago I ran out of shortening which, it turns out makes really nicely defined cookies... I'll post my ugly cookies because after all they are still cookies! These are 12 Drummers Drumming... however all the detail is gone! for a perfectionist like me this is highly horrible! Oh well... This December Cookie Bender was to learn about cookies and what makes a good, bad, and awesome cookie... here's what I've figured out. Shortening is only good for rolled cookies if it's not over worked cookies that are to be rolled out with butter taste really really good but they loose all definition... I'll let you know about everything as I figure it out... because maybe I can end up helping you in the future!

TOMORROW IS CHRISTMAS!!!

12 Drummers Drumming

11 Pipers Piping
10 Lords a Leaping
9 Ladies Dancing
8 Maids a Milking
7 Swans a Swimming
6 Geese a Laying
5 Golden Rings
4 Callings Birds
3 French Hens
2 Turtle Doves
and a Partridge in a Pear Tree

Merry Christmas!
H!L.

D.C.B. Eleven Pipers Piping

Hey everyone!

So today's cookies is 11 Pipers Piping! They didn't turn out how I wanted them to... oh well. I guess an ugly cookie is better than no cookie! I didn't feel like decorating them because of how disappointed I was when they came out of the oven, now I know why they look like this... bleh! Maybe I'll head to the store later and pick up some more shortening...

THERE ARE ONLY 2 DAYS TILL SANTA COMES!

11 Pipers Piping
10 Lords a Leaping
9 Ladies Dancing
8 Maids a Milking
7 Swans a Swimming
6 Geese a Laying
5 Golden Rings
4 Callings Birds
3 French Hens
2 Turtle Doves
and a Partridge in a Pear Tree

Merry Christmas!
H!L.

D.C.B. Ten Lords A Leaping

Hey guys and girls...

Today is TEN Lords a Leaping...

It's a simple rolled cookie but it seemed like all of the cookies I was rolling out were acting up... if I never have to make a leaping lord again, I can't say I'd miss it! Not to mention there's a lot more detail in these than all the other ones.... gah. However I think they all came out looking pretty nice!

Very Christmasy! I like the buttons on the Leaping Lord the best... I realized I didn't have any normal color coarse sugar so I had to deal with the green, but the out come is more of a Christmas elf than a leaping lord.

Anyway people here's where were at with this whole Christmas thing...

CHRISTMAS IS IN 3 DAYS!!!!

10 Lords a Leaping
9 Ladies Dancing
8 Maids a Milking
7 Swans a Swimming
6 Geese a Laying
5 Golden Rings!
4 Calling Birds
3 French Hen
2 Turtle Doves
and a Partridge in a Pear Tree

If for any reason you ever need to recall this song, I'm the person you should ask, I think I'm getting pretty good at it. Ha.

H!L.

D.C.B. Nine Ladies Dancing!

Hello everyone!

Today is Nine Ladies Dancing! They have blonde hair but you can't really tell because my camera was being kinda funky today. I gave them all glittering dresses since it's Christmas time and I always remember having really shiny dresses for the holidays as a kid.

After the icing was done they looked more like dancing barbies than dancing ladies... oh well, they taste deeeelicious though! The sugary icing is just the right balance for the cookie not too much sweet and not too little... juuuust right.

A close up of these sparkling dancers for your enjoyment!

And if you were wondering there are
4 days until Christmas!!!

9 Ladies Dancing
8 Maids a Milking
7 Swans a Swimming
6 Geese a Laying
5 Golden Rings
4 Calling Birds
3 French Hens
2 Turtle Doves
and A Partridge in a Pear Tree

Christmas is close people!!! Get your gifts wrapped and cookies baked, Santa's coming to town... You have been warned!

H!L.

D.C.B. Eight Maids a Milking

Hello everyone!

Today is Eight Maids A Milking....

...I ate a foot of a cow before I took the picture whoops... I don't think he'll mind too much, he won't be walking far.

Close up of a milking maid... damn I was trying to find the clip from family guy where peters drunk and singing this part of the song but i cant find it!!! effing!

H!L.

I Do Other Things Besides Cookies...

Hey kids....

Like I said, I do other things besides cookies.... Here's a few paintings and etchings I've done in the past month =]
This is from a plate I made... If you're sorta clueless as to what that means... It's when you etch with acid into a metal plate [about 1/4in] I don't have any of my plates here at the house because I left them in my locker till next year when I decided to do this stuff to myself again.
This is a watercolor EDITION VARIANT, I changed up the colors you normally see a squid as to see if it would read differently...I originally made one with a red squid and blue water but traded that with a friend of mine for a nice mono print on handmade Japanese tissue paper...

This jellyfish painting I finished pretty fast it's based off a photo but I didn't feel like going super in depth with all the paint mixing, this is acrylic paint if you were wondering. I'm sure one of you out there was thinking about it, the one up top with the panam bag is also acrylic! now you know. aren't you excited!


Next up we have my RAY GUN series... I think I may even end up doing more... who knows

"Planet Patrol Gun"

"Stingray"

"Atomic Jet Gun"

"Smoke-ring Gun"

"Prototype Model"

All of my ray gun's will have edition variants, when I get time I'll post those up for you too. This series of guns are all etchings... next up I'm going to get some clay food posted for you!

H!L.

D.C.B. Seven Swans a Swimming

Hello everyone,

Seems like I'm getting pretty good at this 12 days of Christmas song.... tonight the cookie is finally a good ole sugar cookie! I know seems like that should have come first. This is Seven Swans A Swimming! I used different colored coarse blue sugar to simulate water. I tried to take a picture so you can see the sugar sparkle as the light hits it.

Here you can see the different blues for the water, also before I stuck these in the oven I put sugar on the swans so they too would sparkle... Ooooo Ahhhh sparkly!

Okay people it's 6 days till Christmas!

7 Swans A Swimming
6 Geese A Laying
5 Gooolden Riiings
4 Calling Birds
3 French Hens
2 Turtle Doves
and
A Partridge In A Pear Tree

I'll be posting some art on this blog later tonight, stay tuned kids!
H!L.

D.C.B. Six Geese A Laying

Hello Everyone!

There is a week until Christmas, which means that this is Six Geese A Laying.... I tried to make it look like a nest under the goose, chocolate sprinkles for the win! This is a cinnamon molasses cookie, its soft and chewy...

Do you see the ducklings shes a laying? you see what I did there? clever right. haha... Oh man these cookies are getting to me.

I took this picture so you can see all the detail. I think tomorrow I'll start the double up process so I can use all my cookie cutters.... however first I need to make a run to Costco or Safeway because I'm running low on some essentials like sugar and flour >.< Maybe I'll get some Christmas shopping done too!

H!L.

D.C.B. Five Golden Rings!!!

Hey all!

So tonight is FIIIIIVE GOLDEN RIIIINGS!!!!

This is another lovely rolled cookie. I used gold luster dust to give the rings their shine but the cookie is a bit dark to show the gold color of the dust. Next time around I'll put a colored layer of icing under the dust so it'll be more vibrant.


The cookie cutter for this one is five golden rings tied with a bow, if you couldn't tell... don't be ashamed if you don't see it, it took me a while too! So a count down for Christmas you say, well if you're wondering about it there are 8 days till Christmas!!!

H!L.

D.C.B. Four Calling Birds

Hello everyone

Tonight the cookie is 4 calling birds.... also it's friday and i really want to go out and do something.... but it seems like today is the only friday out of the year when no one is going out. Gah.

I got bored making them all look the same so I did whatever I felt like on these.... Hence the helter skelter mess that is before you.

Okay people so were on 4 of 12 which isnt every far but here we go:

4 Calling Birds
3 French Hens
2 Turtle Doves
and a Partridge in a Pear Tree

TA-DA!

I think I need to post some of my art, what do you think? ....Actually nevermind you get no choice in this. I'm posting art and you're going to like it! BUT thats next post, so until then....

H!L.

D.C.B. Three French Hens

Hello everyone!

Today is day 3 and 10 days until Christmas!

Man, I just tried to type in here 5 different times all of which switched around and typed nothing... My laptop is way too touchy sometimes. This is a rolled cookie, a gingerbread ... since Christmas is only 10 days away. You have to have some gingerbread during the Holiday season!

So far it's been 3 French Hens
2 Turtle Doves
and A Partridge in a Pear Tree

Now sing the song! You know you want to! ...Tomorrow is my last final and I'll be posting more cookies when I have more free time =]

H!L.