St Patrick's Day Cookies

Today I get to show off my Christmas presents.  I had $50 of Christmas money burning a whole in my pocket and I couldn't decide what cookie related things to buy with it.  I had bought the LilaLoa cookie cutter a month or two ago, but it makes a BIG cookie, so I rarely use it.  I happened on Copper Gifts' website and found out that they now make the plaque cutters in smaller sizes, so I splurged and spent all of my present money on their site.  I also got the rectangle plaque and the teeny tiny square plaque. 

I don't have any orders coming up so I finally had some time to play around a little bit.  I tried a new recipe for oatmeal rollout cookies and they were really good.  The dough was definitely harder to work with, so I'm not planning on replacing my sugar cookie, but I'll definitely be making them again.

I decided to use my new cutters to make some St Patrick's Day cookies since that's the closest holiday.  I wanted pretty cookies rather than stereotypical bright green clovers and pots of gold, so I ended up with these.  The celtic crosses were my husband's idea.  It was a rainy day yesterday so it's impossible to see the true colors, but I used moss green instead of leaf green.

Chocolate-Covered Mint Patties (St. Patrick's Day Version)

These were very spur of the moment, which is pretty much a rarity for me.  Since I do most of my baking during my little guy's naps, I usually plan everything out in advance so I can get as much in as I can before he wakes up.  But I guess I was feeling spontaneous yesterday.  And my husband was home, so that makes it easier to make a sweet treat when I get the whim.

Today we're having lunch with my baby's honorary grandparents, and all they wanted us to bring was chips and drinks.  I felt like I needed to bring a little something extra for them, but not something so big that it trumps the dessert they said they'd provide.  And honorary grandma can't eat gluten, which limits the possibilities since, apparently, everything I make has gluten.  Except for these babies:

These are my chocolate-covered mint patties.  I decided to try something new (man, I was spontaneous today!), so instead of the usual peppermint extract, I tried some wintergreen flavoring.  They tasted good, but I think we both prefer the peppermint.   Actually, my favorite version is when I make it with raspberry extract instead of mint...yum!  Anyway, of course I had to make the filling green for Saint Patrick's Day, because as I mentioned last time, they love the holiday.

Saint Patrick's Day (Sanity Sunday)

It's been awhile since I've had a Sanity Sunday.  My toddler keeps getting sick, which means I keep getting sick, and then my husband was on a business trip last Sunday.  So finally I got a chance to play in the kitchen and I thought it was time to try out my Saint Patrick's Day cookie cutters.  I didn't really plan these out the way I usually do, so I didn't end up getting creative at all with the clover cookies, but oh well.  It was still fun to play.

For the pots of gold, I couldn't decide if I wanted to use gold luster dust or sanding sugar, so I tried both.  I can't decide which I like more.  It's hard to see in the picture, but the left one has luster dust and the right sanding sugar.  I think it might have been better if I did the luster dust wet.



I love making mini cookies.  I liked how the little round ones with the clovers turned out.

And here is what happens when you give a two-year-old a cookie with green icing that isn't quite dry yet.

Yes, my two-year-old needs a haircut like crazy, but we've been sick practically nonstop the last month, so don't judge.

I'm going to send most of these off to my little guy's preschool, but of course I have to send a little care package to my little guy's Saint Patrick's Day-loving honorary grandparents.