Iced Snowflake Sugar Cookies

The Art.
    There's a reason why sugar cookies are everyone's favorite. They are easy to make, made from ingredients that are always on hand, and the simple flavor appeals to all palettes. In addition, sugar cookies allow endless decorating possibilities, with different cookie cutters, icings, and embellishments. We recently had a beautiful snowfall that inspired me to make these cookies using a snowflake cookie cutter, white royal icing, and edible pearls. Cookie decorating is a time when everyone can get creative and try out different designs. Your cookies will be as unique as real snowflakes when you're done!

The Science.
    In the time since I've made the Lemon Polka Dot Sugar Cookies, I decided to alter my recipe a bit. While the original cookies are very delicious, I wanted cookies that were a little less "short" for this project. This meant I would have to substitute another fat for some of the butter. I chose vegetable oil, because it has less saturated fats, and gives a lighter mouthfeel than butter [1]. The original recipe calls for 3/4 cup butter, so I altered it to include 1/2 cup butter and 1/4 cup vegetable oil. Usually I am a stickler for obeying the rules for volume adjustments when changing the fat contents in a recipe. However, when 7/8 cup vegetable oil should be substituted for 1 cup butter, it made the calculation for 1/4 cup a little tricky [2]. I figured that 1/4 cup vegetable oil was close enough to 7/32 cup for my purposes. I must admit I felt pretty racy for disregarding calculations here, and the cookies were still delicious. In the end, baking is both an art and a science, and it's important to remember that it should be fun. Getting too caught up in the numbers can take away from the enjoyment of making something pretty and delicious.

The Recipe.

Sugar cookies: (Makes 24)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
   

    In a small bowl, combine flour and salt. Beat together butter and sugar in a large bowl on medium-high until pale and fluffy. Beat in oil, egg, and vanilla. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture, mixing until just combined. Cover and chill dough at least one hour.

    Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Roll out dough with rolling pin until 1/4" thick. Cut out as many cookies as possible from dough with cookie cutters. Gather scraps and re-roll, cutting out more cookies. Transfer cookies to 2 ungreased baking sheets, 1 inch apart. Bake cookies until edges are golden, 12-15 minutes, then transfer to racks to cool completely.

Royal Icing:
1 large egg white
3 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk

    In a medium bowl, beat egg white until frothy. Gradually beat in sugar until icing is the consistency of toothpaste. Beat in milk. Store extra icing in the refrigerator, covering the surface with waxed paper.

Decorating:
    Place a #3 tip in a piping bag and fill with icing. Draw lines of icing on your snowflake cookies in whatever pattern you wish. Carefully place edible pearls on wet icing with craft tweezers. Allow cookies to dry, uncovered, for several hours. Store cookies in an air-tight container, separating layers with waxed paper.

1. American Baking Essentials Course 201. "Butter, Shortening, and Oils: The Fats We Bake With." The Prepared Pantry, 2005.
2.  All Recipes, "Common Ingredient Substitutions." Available here.

Orange Gingerbread Bundt Cake

The Art.
    After I made the syrup for the Traditional Greek Baklava the other day, I had some delicious honey-soaked orange peels left over. They have such a wonderful aromatic flavor that I didn't want to waste them, so I chopped them up and put them in a gingerbread cake. If you haven't made baklava recently, you can make your own candied orange peel by following this recipe. (I actually just watch this video for fun sometimes, Jacques is great). To top the cake off, I made a tart orange glaze and garnished it with orange peel curls. I have decided these curls are my new favorite garnish. I had no idea it would be so easy to make something so elegant!

The Science.
    We all know that unripe oranges are very tart, and ripe oranges taste sweet. This is because the fruit stores sugars in its flesh as it matures, to provide nutrients for the baby orange trees that will grow out of its seeds. One indicator that an orange is mature is the color of its peel, which changes from green, to yellow, to dark orange. With this color change, there are also chemical changes in the composition of the essential oils within the peel. The most abundant oil in both lemon and orange peels is limonene, and this compound's levels increase as the fruit ripens [1]. This is most likely because limonene, along with other flavonoid compounds produced in citrus peels, have antimicrobial properties which will protect the fruit from infection, allowing it to provide a healthy environment for the orange seeds to grow [1, 2]. Luckily for us, flavonoid compounds also have wonderful flavor, and we can gain energy from the sweet orange flesh just as the seeds do. Today, we will use the juice of the orange flesh for our glaze and bake the flavor provided by the orange peel into our rich cake.

The Recipe.

Gingerbread Bundt:
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons ground ginger
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 teaspoons grated ginger root
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
3/4 cup molasses
3/4 cup buttermilk
4 teaspoons candied orange peel, chopped

    Preheat oven to 350^oF and adjust rack to middle position. Coat bundt pan with baking spray. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and spices in medium bowl. In large bowl, whisk together sugar, ginger root, oil, eggs, molasses, and buttermilk. Add dry ingredients, and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Fold in orange peel. Pour patter into pan and bake for 40 minutes, or until tester inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then invert on wire rack for 10 minutes to cool slightly.

Orange Glaze:
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons ginger ale
1 teaspoon orange zest
juice from one orange
3 1/4-inch orange slices

    Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl. Transfer warm cake to cake stand and spoon glaze over the top. Gently remove the peel from the orange slices and twist them around a skewer or spoon handle to make orange curls. Garnish top of cake with orange curls.

1. Bourgou, S. et al. "Changes of peel essential oil composition of four Tunisian citrus during maturation." Scientific World Journal 2012, Volume 2012, Article ID 528593, 10 pages.

2. Shahwar, D. et al. "Identification of flavonoids with trypsin inhibitory activity extracted from orange peel and green tea leaves." J Sci. Food Agric. 2012, doi: 10.1002/jsfa.5910.

Meringue Christmas Tree

The Art.
    For my holiday party this year, I wanted to make an edible topiary to complete my table decor. I came across an idea for a beautiful meringue cookie topiary, so I decided to try my hand at making meringues. I was a little daunted by the three hour time commitment at first, but the small amount of active time meant that I could spend those three hours doing chores (read: watching tv). The cookies turned out wonderfully--nice and airy and not too sweet. Making the topiary was a breeze, especially because I used a couple cans of spray food color to tint the cone and the cookies.  This also meant I could rest easy knowing that everything was food-safe.

The Science.
    Meringue cookies are so light and crisp because they are mostly beaten egg whites and sugar. Egg whites are composed of water and protein, and when they are beaten at high speed the proteins begin to stick together, or "aggregate." The aggregated proteins make up a film that coats the air bubbles, and helps retain the bubbles in the mixture. Different conditions can cause egg whites to foam more efficiently, such as increasing the salt, acidity, and temperature [1]. This is why most meringue recipes call for room temperature eggs and cream of tartar. Pasteurization treatments can also increase the foaming performance of egg whites. Several groups have found that irradiating or ozonating egg whites increases protein aggregation and foaming, in addition to the sterilizing effects [2,3].

The Recipe.

Meringue cookies: (Makes 50)
3 large egg whites, room temp.
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
3/4 cup superfine granulated sugar
red spray food color

    Preheat oven to 200°F. In a large bowl, beat together egg whites, vanilla, and cream of tartar until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in half of the sugar, then beat on high until stiff peaks form. Fold in remaining sugar.

     Cover two baking sheets with parchment paper, sticking the paper down at the corners with a dab of meringue. Spoon meringue into an icing bag fitted with 1M tip, and pipe 2-inch stars onto baking sheets, 1/2 inch apart.  For the red cookies, spray 1/4 of the unbaked meringues generously with the red food color. I used Wilton Color Mist. (I really love this stuff, because tinting a batch of batter or icing deep red takes so much dye. By just spraying the tops, you can achieve the dark color quickly with less material.) Bake 2 hours, switching the top and bottom racks halfway through. After baking, leave cookies in oven to cool 1 hour with the door held ajar a couple inches with a spoon handle.

Topiary:
15" Styrofoam cone
green spray food color
1/2 cup powdered sugar (or royal icing)

    While cookies are baking, begin preparing your Christmas Tree. Place the Styrofoam cone on parchment paper and liberally spray with the green food color. Allow to air-dry several hours. In a small bowl, make an edible "glue" by adding a few drops of water to the powdered sugar.



    To affix the cookies to the "tree," dab a small amount of the sugar glue on the back of each cookie and press it on the tree. 

    For this spiral pattern, you can begin by making a spiral with the red meringues first, then fill in the rest with the white ones. Or, you can disperse the red ones evenly to look like ornaments.

    The meringue topiary was a big hit at the party, and added nice height to my holiday treats display. I highly recommend using color and height to liven up your edible spread. A little extra effort goes a long way to impress your guests.

1. O Chef, "Beating Egg Whites into Submission." http://www.ochef.com/223.htm
2. Liu, X. et al. "Effect of irradiation on foaming properties of egg white proteins." Poult. Sci. 2009, 88(11) pp 2435-41.
3. Uzun, H. et al. "Effects of ozone on functional properties of proteins." Food Chem., 2012, 134(2), pp 647-54.

Chocolate Candy Cane Cupcakes

The Art.
    One thing you must know about me is that I obsess about my baking. This past summer, I found a video tutorial on how to stripe a piping bag. The first thing that popped into my mind was to make cute little candy cane stripes on holiday-themed cupcakes. This idea has been waiting patiently in the back of my mind up till now, when the season is appropriate. To showcase this long-awaited striping effect, I made peppermint icing and used a large round tip. Chocolate cupcakes compliment the peppermint flavor perfectly, and mini candy canes add a little fun.

The Science.
    Not only does peppermint oil taste delicious, it also imparts antimicrobial properties. This is why food manufacturers use peppermint oil as a perservative [1].  Unfortunately, this essential oil is not very soluble in water and has a high volatility, so it will separate and evaporate over time. A recent publication has described a new method of creating peppermint nanoemulsions in order to overcome these obstacles [2]. An emulsion is a mixture of a hydrophobic substance (peppermint oil) and a amphipathic substance (ultrapure cornstarch) in water, where the amphipathic compound interacts with both the water and the oil and allows the mixture to stay in solution. Nanoemulsions are created by homogenizing the substances at very high pressure to create a very small particle size. Making the emulsified particles so small increases the number of amphipathic interactions and thus increases the solubility of the solution. In this way, the peppermint oil is protected from separating from the water content of the food, and retains its antimicrobial properties.

The Recipe.

Chocolate Cupcakes: (Makes 15)
1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup boiling water
1/3 cup cocoa
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract


    Preheat oven to 350^oF and adjust rack to center position. Line cupcake tins with liners. Combine sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. In a small bowl, dissolve cocoa in boiling water to allow it to "bloom." In a large bowl, beat together egg, milk, oil, and vanilla. Add dry ingredients and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Stir in bloomed cocoa. Pour 1/4 cup batter into each cupcake tin, and bake 20 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

Peppermint Buttercream:
1/2 cup salted butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
3-4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon peppermint oil
No-taste red gel food color 

    Beat butter and shortening together in large bowl. Gradually beat in sugar until stiff, jagged peaks form. Beat in peppermint oil.



Decorating:
    Place a 1A round tip in a disposable piping bag. With a small paintbrush, paint four vertical lines of red gel food color on the inside of the piping bag.

    Fill bag with icing, and pipe onto parchment paper until the stripes come through. Pipe a swirl of icing on each cupcake and garnish with a mini candy cane.

 1. LisBalchin, M. et al. "Bioactivity of selected plant essential oils against Listeria monocytogenes." J. Appl. Microbiol, 1997, 82, 759-762

2. Liang, R. et al. "Physical and Antimicrobial Properties of Peppermint Oil Nanoemulsions."
J. Agric. Food Chem, 2012, 60 (30), pp 7548–7555

Gingerbread Cupcakes with Eggnog Icing

The Art.
    My youngest sister was born a couple days before Christmas, and has endured many hardships, what with Baby Jesus stealing her birthday thunder and all.  One year I was particularly insensitive and made her a giant gingerbread man birthday cake, because I wanted to try out my new novelty cake pan. Fortunately, my sister loved the idea and it became a tradition for her to have a gingerbread man every year--until the John the Baptist Incident.
    That particular year, my sisters and I were cleaning up after dessert and discovered that all that was left of the poor gingerbread man was his head. In a moment of comedic genius, we slathered his severed neck in red food coloring and mounted his head on my mother's sterling silver platter. My mother, drawn to the kitchen by our hysterical laughter, was horrified to find what her heathen children had done. She forbade us to ever make a gingerbread man again, and as penance we had to read a chapter from our Illustrated Children's Bible every morning for the next few weeks. Despite her valiant effort to recondition us, I still think Gingerbread John the Baptist was hilarious. Even today, I couldn't help giggling a little as I made these gingerbread cupcakes.

The Science.
    If we had really been true to form when making our gingerbread man blood, we would have used molasses, not food color. This syrup is what gives gingerbread its robust and distinctive flavor, and differentiates it from spice cake. Molasses is a byproduct of sugar production, made from the liquid produced when sugar cane juices are boiled to crystallize the sugar. In addition to some unrefined sugars, molasses contains many vitamins and minerals. It has particularly high levels of phenolic compounds, which have been reported to be strong antioxidants [1]. A group in Italy recently published a study investigating the antioxidant benefits of molasses, and they found that treating cells with molasses increased cell viability under oxidative stress, as well as decreased cellular reactive oxygen species [2]. While this is wonderful evidence that people should substitute molasses for other sweeteners, I'm doubtful this will happen since molasses has a very strong flavor that has gone out of style in the last century.

The Recipe.
 
Gingerbread Cupcakes: (Makes 30)
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons ground ginger
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 teaspoons grated ginger root
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
3/4 cup molasses
3/4 cup buttermilk

    Preheat oven to 350^oF and adjust racks to lower and middle position. Line cupcake tins with liners. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and spices in medium bowl. In large bowl, whisk together remaining ingredients. Add dry ingredients, and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Pour batter into tins with 1/4 cup measure and bake for 20 minutes, or until tester comes out clean. Cool on wire racks.

Eggnog Icing:
1/2 cup salted butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
4-5 cups powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup eggnog

     In a large bowl, beat together butter and shortening. Gradually beat in 4 cups sugar, 1/2 cup at a time. Beat in remaining ingredients. If icing is too soft to pipe, add more sugar.

 
Decorating:
    Fill a piping bag with icing and add a 199 star tip. Pipe a dab of icing in the center of the cupcake. Add a ring of stars around the periphery. Continue to pipe stars from the outside to the center. Add a cinnamon stick for garnish.

1. Payet, B. et al. "Comparison of the concentrations of phenolic constituents in cane sugar manufacturing products with their antioxidant activities." J. Agric. Food Chem, 2006, 54:19 (September 20).
2. Valli, V. et al. "Sugar cane and sugar beet molasses, antioxidant-rich alternatives to refined sugar." J Agric Food Chem, 2012, Nov 28. [Epub ahead of print]