Create special cookies to reflect your loved ones!
Spring is in the air and I can't help but think of my sweet Grandma. She passed away on the first day of spring. She shared a famous name but it was her cookies she was known for. In fact some of her cookie recipes are the ones I used in my own bakery. I even used the base of her recipe when I competed on the Food Network. In fact, three time James Beard Award winner, Pastry Chef, Sherry Yard said "Gradma's cookies, were fudgey and delicious" during the tasting element feedback. Oh how I wish Grandma could have seen that, she would have been so proud.
We have a long tradition of baking in my family. I'm a fourth generation baker and a second generation cake decorating. I was fortune enough to have been able to watch my great grandma bake along with my grandma. And I also dropped a few trays of donuts helping my mom in the bakery on summer vacations from school. :) So when asked to bake cookies for my grandmas service, I wanted to do something that reflected some of the things that remind me of her.
The colors of spring, as that was the start of gardening season for grandma and her favorite time of year. The color yellow because she loved the sun, she would spend countless hours gardening in the sunshine and have the best tan. The flowers and patterns on the cookies reflect the many floral patterns found on sweatshirts and casual shirts my Grandma always wore. And the leaves represent all the things that grew in her yard. From the large trees we use to climb as kids, the grape vines grandma use to make jelly from, to the apple trees that produced countless mason jars of apple sauce and apple butter. The tunnel of Bridal Veil that produced the most dainty flowers that when the wind would blow covered the ground in white floral confetti. And of course the vegetables that grew in her garden. My mom and I would always fight over who got the lemon cucumbers, our favorite.
All my creations tell a story, but this one tells a very special story about an amazing Grandma who also baked the most delicious cookies.
How I Created the Cookies
I created these cookies using my favorite no spread, sugar cookie recipe. From there I made white chocolate, modeling chocolate in three colors; white, green and yellow. Next, I iced the cookies in a thin layer of SMBC, then placed a disc of modeling chocolate cut out of the same cookie cutter I used for cutting out the cookies.
I used a number of beautiful edible images from the Lucks Food Decorating Company to create the flowers on the cookies. I used Sizzix floral dies to cut the flowers out of the sugar sheets. Once cut I pulled the backing off and centered the flowers on the cookies.
For the leaves, I used the same cutter I cut the cookies out, with my green modeling chocolate. I placed the green leaf on top of the sugar cookie, thinly iced with SMBC. I used a veining tool to create the veining on the leaves. The SMBC under the modeling chocolate helps create more of a 3D effect to the veining of the leaves. It also tastes delicious!
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