It’s probably quite apparent by now that I have a thing for cookies. A lesser known fact, however, is that I also have a thing for goats. So I was recently inspired to combine the two, adding a valentine theme into the mix.
I figured the best way to do this would be to make some decorated sugar cookies in the shape of goats. I decided to go with my trusty (and fricking fabulous, thank-you-very-much) gluten-free shortbread recipe and substitute goat butter instead of regular butter. (As always, click the images to see them bigger.)
The goat butter turned out to be a lot more like shortening than I was expecting. It was white and very greasy, but it assimilated into the dough better than normal butter did. The dough had the proper consistency, though, and was a dream to roll and cut, so no problems there – yay!
They seemed to brown a bit quicker than with my normal recipe, so I baked them a bit less time than usual. They also spread a bit more than I was expecting, but they didn’t lose too much of their goaty shape, so it’s okay.
Next day I set about decorating them! I decided on white goats and black goats, each with a little red heart (you know, for the Valentine part of this whole project). I used my entire jar of black powder coloring and my royal icing STILL wasn’t black, so I had to make a quick run to the store to get some (real) gel coloring – thank goodness they hadn’t closed yet!
And, since I am devious, and goats are often associated with the devil, I decided to make a red devil-goat cookie, complete with a BLACK HEART. Isn’t he cute?
As for the taste? They’re awesome. The cookies are softer than my normal shortbread recipe, but still sturdy enough that they don’t fall apart in your hands (which is especially important in gluten-free baking). The royal icing keeps them together well, and the flavors work great together. Interestingly, the goat butter seems to have made these cookies taste a lot milkier than the normal cow-butter recipe.
Posted on January 28th, 2010 by Kelley
Filed under: Gluten-Free, Pâtisserie, Super Crafty | No Comments »
This week at school has been super busy. We did a dessert buffet for the Open House on Thursday night, so each of us had to create two mini desserts for the buffet. We had to consider color, shape, flavor, texture, volume, warm/cold, etc.
My two initial ideas were these (click to view them bigger):
The results? Well, I didn’t realize just HOW small they had to be, so my idea for the Mayan Chocolate cakes had to be scaled down a bit more than I wanted. I omitted the chantilly cream in the center.My joconde biscuit turned out lighter in color than I intended, so I had to change from a chocolate mousse on top to a bavarian cream so that the colors matched better. Also, the pecans in the ganache were way too big, so they screwed up the uniformity of my display. Argh. I also wanted to make blue chocolate decorations for the tops, but I couldn’t get the color I wanted, so I went with dark chocolate instead. My instructor chastised me for using blue, because the French say that the color on the outside needs to indicate the flavor on the inside. Bah! I still think the colors turned out gorgeous.
The other dessert turned out pretty much as I had planned. I decided against the brittle, however, because I didn’t want it to get soggy and melt into the custards while they sat in the fridge between Tuesday and Thursday night. I also didn’t get to put a cherry jelly inside the chocolate straws – it just wasn’t feasible since they’re so delicate. These were absolutely delicious, but the lime flavor kind of overpowered the coconut. Boo.
Posted on November 13th, 2009 by Kelley
Filed under: Pâtisserie | 1 Comment »
Well, it was a lazy Sunday afternoon so I decided to make some pumpkin muffins. This was my first time making a gluten-free muffin recipe from scratch and they turned out amazingly well. I dressed them up with a little rosette of cream cheese frosting and some decorative cupcake liners.
I’ve added them to the Autumn line-up of goodies in my Etsy shop – yep, I’m back open for business. Check out the pumpkin muffins in my shop. Cheers!
Posted on October 11th, 2009 by Kelley
Filed under: Gluten-Free, Pâtisserie | No Comments »
