Baking Adventures

After so much positive feedback from C's Baptism cupcakes we went cupcake crazy this year to bring along to some fun Christmas parties! I got this snowman idea from Martha Stewart.
The only thing I would do differently is make almond or peppermint buttercream icing instead, because as soon as I added the vanilla I regretted it: looked more like yellow snow next to the pure white marshmallows! So I dipped them in shiny clear sprinkles to lessen the damage :)
Many have asked for my vanilla buttercream recipe, I got it here.

Then I ran out of marshmallows so I decided to go with melting snowmen! (The eyes are chocolate jimmies and the noses are orange jellies cut into triangles, I love that they look like duck bills almost!)

Then I was REALLY out of marshmallows so we did some fancy icing dyed light blue and added some sparkle and snowflakes!

I have off this year for Christmas (thank you Celia for being born at such a wonderful time!) I am enjoying living a home-y lifestyle this holiday season. (Most holidays vacation time is unheard of and I work half the holidays...makes relaxation and travel nearly impossible. If you know any hospital nurses, give them some love during the holidays!) This prompted me to decorate like crazy and tackle some family recipes. I was talking with Patrick Decker, and he nailed it on the head: perhaps once you have children of your own, you want to be able to pass things on to them. Hence my inspiration for some Lithuanian cookies. I grew up with these and other cookies every Christmas back when we would travel up to Pittsburgh to Nanny's house!

Anise Cookies

The first thing you need is a bottle of Anise Oil. Not easy to find. We had to special order it from a family run pharmacy in Downtown Charlottesville. It came in the very next day, most impressive!

Then next thing you need is some inspiration and motivation. Enter the first snow of the year:

This was the view from my kitchen:

And finally you need a small army of strong women. I gathered everyone in the family I could:

OK, here are the ingredients for the cookies:

6 eggs
3 cups sugar
2 cups mazola oil
14 cups flour sifted (yes you read that right)
1 tsp. salt
2.5 tsp baking soda
2.5 tsp baking powder
2 cups sour milk or buttermilk
3/4 tsp anise oil

And the directions verbatim from "Aunt Nell:"
1. Beat eggs well. Add sugar and mix well. Add oil and beat well. Add milk and anise oil.
2. Sift 4 cups flour and to this add baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
3. Add dry ingredients (#2) to step #1 liquid mixture. (Just the 4 cups flour to start)

4. Add more flour to make a soft dough (about 10 more cups). 1 cup of this should be used on board to knead at the end. Use beater until it becomes too thick: (I got 7 cups of flour in. You know it is too thick because your red Kitchen aid mixer will start to smell like burning and will be hot to the touch! eek!)

...then use heavy spoon. (This lasted for one more cup of flour =8 then I gave up)...

...then knead it as a dough. Becomes heavier as your progress. Knead it well. (This is where the army of strong women starts to pay off. Thank God I have had a baby to carry around as an upper arm workout.)

5. Take about the size of a walnut and roll in had into string and put together in a circle. Make hole rather big as it closes up when baked. (This was very time intensive, really wishing I had army of women at this point)

6. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes on greased cookie sheet. Turn pan in oven after 8 min. (I don't know why but I'm sure they wrote that for a reason so I did it)

Then you get this, but you aren't done yet!


Icing for Anise Cookies

Ingredients:
1/2 box powdered sugar (AKA 2 cups)
1 tablespoon butter melted
boiling water
a couple drops of anise oil (to taste)

You will use about 1 box powdered sugar for whole recipe. It is best to start with this 1/2 recipe or it becomes hard until you ice all the cookies (true that).

Leave icing in bowl and dip cookies one at a time. Dip upside down and blow hole so it opens then take spoon and remove whatever runs down on sides.

Now here is the thing. They don't specify how much boiling water. Or what to do with ingredients. Basically you get a small bowl and melt the butter then add the powdered sugar. Then you add the boiling water and mix until it is not too thick or too thin. I topped it off with 2 drops of anise oil at the end. You just have to get a feel for it. You want some transparency but not too much...so here are what mine looked like:

I got a little fancy and added some extra flair here by flinging extra frosting all over:

Is it worth the work? YES. Husband and friend approved. Makes enough to mail to family for Christmas, and take to 2 Christmas parties, and eat some everyday for a week. :) Now all you need is a shot of Veritas and you are a true Lithuanian!