Glee Cookies!

Any Gleeks out there? I happen to love TV comedies, plus I'm a sucker for musicals, so Glee definitely fits my bill for awesome TV. Because the season premiere for Glee's second season is tomorrow, I decided to make some Glee character sugar cookies.

The challenge I had with these cookies was translating real people into a cartoon-y cookie form. Luckily, all the characters on the show have distinguishing hair and clothing, so it wasn't that big of a problem. I used the Glee Season 1 Volume 1 DVD set as my reference for the characters (which explains why some characters are missing and why Quinn is still a Cheerio), so for non-Glee watchers, if you're wondering who is who, you can always search up the DVD cover.

Seems like there will be some interesting couple drama in the upcoming season with the introduction of John Stamos's character as Emma's new beau, a love triangle between Artie, Tina, and Mike, the now post-baby Puck and Quinn, and Rachel and Finn getting back together. Oh, and fun cameos like Britney Spears, I can't wait!

CCC Twist 1 & 2

Today's post is rather short because I've technically already posted the recipe before. I made two twists on my favorite CCC (chocolate chip cookie) recipe. At first I felt a bit like a cheater posting about these, but then I realized that they're really are that good that they deserve their own post :).

In one cookie, I subbed in chunks of white chocolate and chopped macadamia nuts. In the other cookie, I mixed in milk chocolate chips and bits of caramel. White chocolate and macadamia nuts are a winning combination in these cookies; the chunks of chocolate and nuts go well with the chewiness of the dough. The chocolate caramel cookies turned out great as well, best fresh out of the oven, with warm pockets of melted chocolate and gooey caramel in every bite.

Stained Sunglasses Cookies

Hi everyone, I'm finally back! Thanks to all of you who left comments on my last post; I really appreciated the suggestions :). I'll write about Paris (desserts!) in a future post, but right now I already seem to be behind after my two month break, so let me start off by sharing a cookie I baked back in June, at the beginning of the summer.

Stained Sunglasses Cookies, with cookie frames and candy lenses. They're a twist on the stained glass cookies that are made during the holiday season, adapted for summer. Colorful, crushed candy pieces melt to become lenses as the sunglasses frame cookies bake. After cooling, the eyepieces are "glued" onto the frames with semisweet or white chocolate to finish off these playful, edible sunglasses.

The fun part about these is how customizable they are. I used images of interesting sunglasses: red heart lenses, Lady Gaga's Mickey shades, funky star glasses, the popular oversized black lenses, trendy round shades, and even the old school 3D glasses for the patterns. The dough can be dyed with food coloring to change the frame coloring, while an assortment of hard candy can vary the lens tinting. By the way, the larger actual sunglasses-sized cookies are actually easier to make than the smaller ones, but in the end, they're all worth it.

A Paris!

Hi everyone! Just wanted to let you all know that I'm here studying abroad in Paris for all of July, so I apologize in advance for being slow at updating, if I do at all this month, especially with my lack of an oven here. By the way, do any of you have any suggestions for things that I must see/do/eat/buy in Paris? Any tips? Comments on such would be greatly appreciated :). Oh, and Happy (early) 4th of July!

Gnomes always make me think of traveling, in part due to those Travelocity commercials with the gnome in the hotels, but for the most part, due to Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, those polaroids of her dad's gnome abroad. Since I'm traveling in Paris, I thought gnome cookies and another Amélie reference would be appropriate. If the photo above looks familiar, it's because I saved it from Easter, when I also made a couple of gnome and mushroom cookies (because gnomes always seem to be associated with mushrooms). Enjoy!