LilSugar

Tasty Treats For Halloween Bashes: Sparkly Cookies on Sticks

LilSugar — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:00:35 -0700

If your little goblins won't be satisfied with fancy fruit lollipops, indulge their sweet tooth by making small sugar cookies on sticks.

These simple treats are easy to make and don't require a fancy production line. Just bake your favorite sugar cookies from scratch or a pre-made batter and impale round dough with lollipop sticks (can be found at a party or gourmet store) before they are baked. Ice with a simple sugar icing and decorate with sparkles or candy corn. If you're feeling adventurous ask your lil helpers to turn the cookies into pumpkins by drawing funny faces with candy or black cookie icing.

Wrap your final project in a cellophane bag with a ribbon for a pretty party favor.

Hosting a Halloween party this October? Whether spooky or sweet, we have you covered with our new designs for Pingg! Create your invite, then send reminders to your guests via email, SMS, and Facebook.

Toss Your Cookies! Nestle Voluntarily Recalls Dough

LilSugar — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 13:18:18 -0700

Think twice before letting your kids eat raw prepackaged cookie dough or taking a nibble yourself. This morning, Nestle Toll House initiated a voluntary recall of all its refrigerated cookie products. The company was informed by the Food and Drug Administration that E. coli illnesses have been reported by people who ate the uncooked prepackaged products.

Consumers can return the goods to their local grocery store for a full refund or call 1-800-559-5025.

Kiddie Soirée: Sweet Spring Treats

babysugar — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:00:00 -0700

The idea of giving every guest a goldfish or a furry lil snow bunny for a party favor sure sounds cute, but is it practical? Not so much. At your Spring chicken's next birthday party, keep with the "new life" theme with frosted cookies and cupcakes to go. Check out the slideshow of my favorite Spring sweet treats that you and your child can make together.

View Slideshow ›

Kiddie Soiree: Cookies on Sticks

LilSugar — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 09:00:34 -0700

What offers kiddos the crunch of a cookie and the fun of a lollipop? A fellow Sugar staffer was inspired by the website The Decorated Cookie and created what she promises is a simple party favor - sugar cookies on sticks. She says:

I am by no means an expert baker, but I'd seen this cookies on sticks phenomenon on a couple websites and realized they are the ideal bite-sized treat. The project took about two hours (I made about 50 cookies!), but the end result was a personalized, inexpensive and sweet party favor that elicited ohhhhsss and awwwwws from all the kids and parents at the party. I decorated the cookies with sprinkles, hearts and the letter "C" in honor of the birthday girl's name.

For recipe suggestions and tips, read more.

Don't be afraid to cheat a little. Instead of making the cookies from scratch, try a frozen pre-made cookie dough you just have to bake like Pillsbury's frozen Sugar cookies, which are sectioned into the perfect size for the sticks. Before you bake the cookies you skewer them with popsicle sticks (these can be found at a local craft or party store). The Decorated Cookie site has recipes for both the cookies and hard frosting. If you want to go natural, use natural food coloring from the health food store. The color of the cookies will be a bit pastel and muted (like the ones pictured here), but you can rest easy that there's no red dye.

View 8 Photos ›

Delilicious: A Shortcut to Cookies and Time With Your Child

LilSugar — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 09:00:00 -0800

Life is busy, so make it sweet. Moms on tight schedules may not have time to bake cookies from scratch after a long day at the office or park, but their children can still benefit from kitchen time together and indulge in a treat. A few weeks ago, I bought a bag of Chocolate Chunk Better Bakes ($4) at Whole Foods. The container of organic pre-portioned cookie dough from Immaculate Baking Company shortened the timely task of batter-making. My daughter just popped a few circles onto a baking sheet, and I put it in a 325 degree oven for 14 minutes. Once the cookies cooled, she had fun making them into lil sandwiches by spreading ice cream or peanut butter between two and fusing them together. To fancy up the edges, she then rolled them in chocolate sprinkles or crushed peanuts. Since the dough bits are quarter-size, they make great mini desserts.

Lil Tip: Create Warm Milk and Cookie Memories

LilSugar — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 12:00:46 -0700

For many people, warm cookies dunked in milk evoke childhood memories. And, though you may be a mother on the move without as much time to set aside for baking as past generations of mamas did, here's a lil trick that will help you give your kids the same delicious treat. Spend some quality time with your tots making their favorite cookie dough.

Then, using a small ice cream scoop, spoon cookie sized portions on to a baking sheet, cover with cellophane and chill until the dough is firm. Finally, take the individual portions and place the rounds in a zip loc bag before storing them in the freezer. When you want to bake up the sweets for your tots, take a few out and toss them in the oven.
Source

Delilicious: Extreme Cookie Contest

LilSugar — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 15:02:27 -0800

Mothers start your ovens! And, enlist the help of your lil one for the Second Annual WearEver AirBake Extreme Cookie Challenge.

Parents and their kids between the ages of five and 15-years-old should submit their craziest cookie recipe by January 31, 2008.

Those who come up with the five tastiest inventions win a trip to New York to compete in a live cook-off in April. And the competition gets sweeter with a grand prize of a $10,000 savings bond. For more details, check out the website.

Lil Tip: Give Your Kids Cookies

LilSugar — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 04:00:31 -0800

The Lil Tip feature is normally a daily mom to mom helpful hint, but today I can't resist posting this advice straight from the mouth of babes. If you want your kids to love you? Feed them cookies.

Biscotti with the Handstand Kids

YumSugar — Mon, 07 May 2007 14:28:19 -0700

A month or two ago, Yvette Garfield told me about a new cookbook she was (sorry for the pun, but wait for it...) "cooking up." It is a series of ethnic cookbooks aimed towards children called Handstand Kids.

Fast forward to last week and a copy of Handstand Kids Italian Cookbook was waiting on my desk. Actually make that a decorative box with a smart spiral bound book (with a nice sealed cover) and a little chef's hat (shorter than the average chef's hat and meant for kids - although it did fit my rather large noggin). The concept was created by Yvette Garfield, a law school graduate with a background in international children's rights and is designed to introduce children to other cultures and volunteer opportunities. In general, I really like the concept and think it would make a great gift. The artwork is vibrant, the characters diverse (ethnicities and eating habits) and there is even a section that tells you the ingredients in both English and Italian. The recipes, however, seem a bit complex (mom & dad, get ready to help out!). Granted, there is a difficulty level on each recipe, but flavored popcorn and homemade biscotti get the same rating, so I'd take it with a grain of salt. I also question the font choice, it's "fun" but seems like it could be a little hard to read.

Overall, it's an interesting concept and a series worth keeping an eye on. This is the first book in the set and I'm sure there will be some tweaks along the way. Available now for $28 +S&H.

To check out the Handstand Kid's biscotti recipe, read more

Bella Biscotti Cookies
From Handstand Kids Italian Cookbook

Makes about 20 biscotti cookies

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups flour
3/4 tsp of salt (sale)
2 tsps of baking powder
1 1/4 cups sugar (zucchero), plus more for sprinkling
5 eggs (uova)
1 tsp of vanilla extract
1 cup of toasted whole almonds
1 tsp of cinnamon
1 tablespoon of butter (burro)

Tools:
Baking Sheet
Cutting Board
Large Bowl
Measuring Cup and Spoon
Serrated Knife
Small Bowl
Wooden Spoon

Preheat the oven to 375° F.
Grease a large baking sheet with a light coat of burro and then sprinkle the sheet with flour.
Mix the flour, zucchero, baking powder and sale together in the large bowl and make a hole in the middle of the mixture.
Add the 4 uovo, cinnamon, and vanilla into the hole and use the wooden spoon to stir it thoroughly.
Add the almonds evenly throughout the dough and using your hands make the dough into 2 logs.
Place each log onto the baking sheet, leaving 4 inches between the edges and the dough.
Beat 1 uovo in the small bowl and use the pastry brush to coat the logs with the uovo.
Bake the logs in the oven for 15 minutes, until they are a nice golden brown color.
Allow the logs to cool for 10 minutes and place them on the cutting board and cut them diagonally into 2 inch slices.
Arrange the slices back onto the baking sheet so that the cut sides are facing up and bake for another 5 minutes.
Cool the slices and bite into the crunchy goodness!

Alternative: Add 1 cup of chocolate chips to the dough. Also, melt chocolate chips in the microwave for 1 minute and dip the ends of the cooled biscotti into the mixture. Refrigerate dipped biscotti for 1 hour and enjoy!

Print recipe with images | without images

Cookie's Swan Song With Rachel Griffiths

babysugar — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:00:21 -0700

Cookie magazine promises "All the best for your family" and this month, they were right on the money with mama Rachel Griffiths gracing their final cover. While the Australian beauty looks classy and beautiful in the glossy print, it is her outlook on parenting that has me in awe of the career mama. The laid-back yet hardworking mommy shares a beautiful life with her husband, son and two young daughters. As the sage sister on her popular television show, Brothers and Sisters, it is only fitting that she imparts words of wisdom on parenting that every mum should hear:

Motherhood is defined differently here... Child rearing reaches a different level of stress and self-immolation. In Australia, I don't think women stay up all night baking cupcakes for their kids' bake sales when they're a lawyer working an 80-hour week, just to prove they're a good mommy. You just stop at the 7-Eleven and buy the cupcakes. And no one would judge you for it.

The woman from down under could teach a lot of us a thing or two about motherhood. Make sure to check out Cookie's last November issue for tips on a stress-free Thanksgiving!