Taking the Scenic Route

Take a basic sugar cookie recipe, some spices, some food coloring, and some sprinkles, and you have fall leaves and acorns.  I was too tired to get up early to take new photos in better light, but you get the idea.

For the acorns, I added some cocoa to the batter, and then just a bit of food coloring to pump the color up a bit.   Next time, I think I will just make them more chocolaty.  I added some almond extract in addition to the vanilla.  (only ‘nutty’ flavor I had on hand) 

For the leaves, I divided the dough into 4 sections, colored the 3 larger sections red, orange, and yellow, and a smaller section green.  (next time I will work to make the green a little less bright.  lol).  Once they had firmed up a bit in the fridge, I pulled out the colored logs, laid down a large piece of saran wrap, and then pulled off various size lumps of cookie dough, including a small amount of the acorn dough, on the saran wrap to mix the colors.  Then I smashed them together and I used the saran wrap to help me fold it a few times to give a more layered look (and, try to prevent them breaking at the color breaks).  I rolled it out, and put it back in the fridge to firm back up.

The next time I do this, after I have cut them out, I will take a toothpick and make veins in the leaves…since the colors are layers, the veins would show different colors than the top layer.  In general, I do like how the various colors of colored sugar worked on these.  Put a nice finish on it.  (I attempted to put orange sprinkles over the orange, red over red, ect.)  My oven temp wasn’t quite “on target” either…it looks like they melted a bit before they rose, so you don’t get the good shape definition I like in shaped cookies.  Something to strive for next time.  Maybe they just needed a touch more flour….I used saran wrap instead of a floured surface and that might be where I need to make adjustments too.   *sigh*  baking is fun, but it is always a learning process. 

These ended up a bit on the spicy side…added some cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg to them in addition to the vanilla.

It was fun.  It was like the grown up version of play-do.  We have some left over dough too, so Zane will have fun messing around making more cookies today.