My FIRST Daring Baker's Challenge!!!

Fooling around on the internet over the summer, I stumbled on this great online community of cooks and bakers called the daring kitchen. I eagerly signed up and counted down the days until my first challenge would be announced, I know it sounds dorky, but it's true.

I have to admit I wasn't all that excited about making sugar cookies, I was looking forward to a cream  pie, cheesecake, ganache, or something else a little more luxurious. But cookies it was and the 26 page challenge details definitely did get me excited. Being the economizer I am I bought minimal supplies: parchment paper, which I had always wanted but never used before, and a disposable cookie sheet. Now I felt like a real baker.

The cookies dough was easy enough to make, using very simple ingredients, and rolling was great also. Annoyingly enough, my whole family wanted to get in on the fun, so I was trying to perfectly roll and cut out my cookies (without a cookie cutter I might add) surrounded by fifty eager fingers.

The theme for the challenge was Fall. A week before the Jewish high Holiday of Rosh Hashana, I knew I would make something in connection to it. I settled on shofars, the rams horn blown in synagogue on the holiday, and apples, which we dip in honey as a well known custom to have a sweet new year.

To make the apples, we used a shot glass to make a circle, then we used the tiny hole on the bottom of a funnel to make the rounded "applebottom" we cut a "bite" out of the apple using part of the shot glass, and used the "bite" as a leaf. Stems we cut out with a knife. Shofars were much easier: Using the same size shot glass we used a water bottle cap circle slightly off center and then cut it in half.

Baking the cookies was a charm. They were perfectly browned, and very very surprisingly the leaf and stem didnt crack off the cooled cookies like I thought it would. Also the cookies did not change sizes or shape which is a great blessing for sugar cookies. If I ever want to make sugar cookies again I will definitely be using this cookie recipe.

On to icing! This icing recipe was equally foolproof and amazing. Once made I used my finger to "paint" on the icing in a thin even layer, leaving a tiny one millimeter border at the edges. When the icing is too thick it doesnt frost nicely so that took expiriment.

For the shofars I used a chocolate icing (added cocoa to the royal icing recipe) which worked great. Unfortunately when it came to the icing for the apples I realized we didn't have any food coloring! Now that was a predicament! I decided against running out to the store and instead we used red tea essence of two teabags to color the pink frosting of the apple. For the apple stem we used a dab of chocolate icing and the leaf... That was another connundrum until we remembered the sprigs of mint we had in our yard. Yes real little mint leaves got glued on with icing to each cookie.

The platter looked cute and my mother was in love with them which is always nice. Personally I thought they tasted nasty, except I liked the mint taste. But they looked very cute and almost almost store bought, which is what I always strive for when baking.

So the recipe was easy to make and work with and if you have cookie cutters (and food coloring) you will probably have this recipe done in no time. And although the cookies have a bland sugar taste, kids love them, and they are a "crowd pleaser" due to the ooh and ahh affect of the icing and shapes. Had a great time on my first challenge and can't wait for the next one!