January 28th, 2010 | 
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Many bakers ask for tips and instructions on embellishing cookies. Well that’s a tall order because there are as a heap of ways to decorate cookies as there are cookies! Here are a few guidelines for novices and experienced bakers similar to help you generate your own ideas for cooking decorating. DECORATING COOKIES BEFORE BAKING Cookies may be prettified before baking with materials that withstand the heat of baking. Some things that you may place on your cookies before baking are: -colored sugars or natural sugars such as pearl sugar -jimmies, non-pareils, silver and gold dragées, and other sprinkles -raisins and dried fruits such as cranberries -nuts These items may be placed on top of almost any cookie to dress it up a bit and give it a more festive appearance. Paint a masterpiece You may also paint your cookies before baking them. Make an edible feed paint out of an egg yolk mixed with a few drops of feed coloring and paint the cookies with a clean paintbrush. The paint will arid while baking and give the cookie a colorful, glazed appearance. This is a fun action for kids! A bit of trompe l’oeil The folks at Better Homes and Gardens have a originative recipe for Colored Cream Dough ( [http://www.bhg.com/bhg/story.jhtml?page=2&storyid=%2Ftemplatedata%2Fbhg%2Fstory%2Fdata%2F11429.xml&catref=SC1407] ) which is a dough of frosting consistency that may be piped onto cookies with a pastry bag fitted with a writing or star tip, and then baked. The result is a cookie that looks like it has been frosted but the frosting is baked on and hard. DECORATING COOKIES AFTER BAKING Decorating cookies after baking them requires that you utilise a great deal of kind of liquid-based substance that will cohere to the baked cookie, or that will act as a glue to attach other items. Usually, this takes the form of frosting, icing, or melted chocolate. Frosting vs. Icing There is a huge divergence among frosting and icing. Frosting is thick and holds shapes like rosettes and shells like those you see piped around the edges of a birthday cake. It remains soft to the touch and has a creamy texture, and most people think it tastes better because of the creamy buttery flavor. Icing, on the other hand, is a thinner, more liquid substance, and as it dries it thins out, becomes very smooth throughout the surface of your cookie, and hardens. This is the icing to use for the most beautiful, professional results. Working with frosting You may use frosting in two ways. One way is to plainly use a knife or rubber spatula to disseminate the frosting all over the whole surface of your cookie. The other way is to place the frosting in a pastry or embellishing bag fitted with a little tip and piping out thin lines or rosettes of icing onto the cookie. Either way, once the frosting has been employed to the cookie you may then further embellish it by using colored sugars, non-pareils, or any of the embellishing items cited in the Decorating Before Baking division above. Christmas-Cookies.com has a delicious recipe for Buttercream Frosting at http://www.christmas-cookies.com/recipes/recipe.php?recid=306. See elaborated instructions on piping frosting from Better Homes and Gardens at [http://www.bhg.com/bhg/story.jhtml?page=3&storyid=%2Ftemplatedata%2Fbhg%2Fstory%2Fdata%2F11430.xml&catref=SC1407] Working with icing Icing is a little more difficult to work with but it is smooth surface develops the most gorgeous results! Icing ought to always be piped onto a cookie because it will run off the edges if disseminate with a knife. Once iced you may apply silver dragées, or other sprinkles just as brought up with the frosting above, before it hardens. Christmas-Cookies.com has an splendid recipe for Royal Icing at http://www.christmas-cookies.com/recipes/recipe.php?recid=42. There is also a recipe for Powdered Sugar Icing ( http://www.christmas-cookies.com/recipes/recipe.php?recid=288 ) that dries less hard than Royal Icing and has a shiny surface. Martha Stewart’s internet site features an splendid article on how to pipe icing onto cookies for professional-looking results ( http://www.marthastewart.com/page.jhtml?type=content&id=channel172011&catid=cat258 ). Melted chocolate Just when it comes to any cookie may be embellished plainly by dipping it in chocolate or drizzling chocolate over it. You may even dress up the each day chocolate chip cookie for gift-giving or serving at parties. Melting chocolate is a simple process, but a few rules must be followed in order to make it a success. For Easter, try using white chocolate tinted in pastel shades with feed coloring. Use the gel, paste or powdered kind of feed color, because the liquid drops may make the chocolate seize up. What you need You may either use chocolate chips or baking chocolate (the kind that comes in 1-ounce squares) and the same procedure applies whether you use dark chocolate or white chocolate. A little amount of shortening ought to be added at the symmetry of 2 tablespoons shortening for 1 cup of chocolate chips or chopped up baking chocolate. Double boiler Place chocolate and shortening in the top half of a double boiler or in a metal bowl that has been placed on top of a saucepan filled with hot water. The water will have to be very hot, but not boiling, because the steam generated by boiling water could get moisture into the melting chocolate which makes it curdle. Allow the chocolate to melt over the hot water and stir it on occasion until it has achieved a liquid consistency. Microwave Place your chocolate and shortening in a microwave safe bowl and microwave it on medium power for 1 minute. Stir. Continue microwaving 20 seconds, stir again. Keep doing this until the chocolate is closely melted. Remove it from the microwave and stir it until exclusively melted. Dipping Dip one end of your cookie, or half the cookie, or even the whole cookie into the melted chocolate. Set the cookie on a wire rack to let the chocolate harden. If you wish, you may sprinkle chopped nuts, coconut, or non-pareils over the melted chocolate before it hardens. Drizzling Scrape melted chocolate into a ziplock baggie. With a sharp scissors, snip off a very little corner of the baggie. Drizzle top of cookies with zig-zags of melted chocolate. Cool until chocolate is set. Using these simple proficiencies will support you develop a assortment of beautiful-looking cookies at Christmastime and all around the year. Copyright 2004 Mimi Cummins. All Rights Reserved.
Most helpful customer reviews 39 of 40 people found the following review helpful. These molds are the traditional 2.1 inch (height) size. Smaller, copper molds are available, but this is considered the appropriate sized mold for Caneles. Be sure to season the molds before the first use – coat interior with vegetable shortening and heat in oven at 350 for one hour; flip upside down and heat for five minutes to drain oil; leave molds in oven as it cools down. Then find a good recipe and create these wonderful, handheld desserts. Martha Stewart’s “Baking”, Paula Wolfert’s “The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen” and Pascal Rigo’s “American Boulangerie” all have recipes, each of which differs slightly from the others. It is worth noting that Martha Stewart’s recipe for caneles in the book “Baking” is different than the Stewart recipe found online. Try using the “Look Inside” feature for the Stewart and Wolfert books on Amazon and run a search for “canele” to get a peek at the recipe. Wash using water only so as to ensure the tin surface stays seasoned with oil (soap would remove it). Soak if necessary to remove hardened sugar crust from Canele batter. When the molds are properly seasoned and oiled (mixture of beeswax and sunflower oil or just oil), the Canele should release, but if does not, gently go around the top edge and/or down the ridges with a toothpick or wooden kebab skewer to release any part of the crust that is sticking to the mold. Do not use metal since this will eventually scratch the thin coating of tin from the copper. If after much use the molds smell rancid, boil the molds and season then them as done when new. The molds are expensive and given the long cook times (up to two hours), you will most likely wish to have at least eight molds, and possibly twelve or more, but after you produce your first batch of Caneles, you will quickly forget the cost. Pictures I posted in the customer Images section provide an idea of the results that can be achieved with these molds. 14 of 15 people found the following review helpful. 3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. [...] |
Traditional, Beautiful and Functional.
Lovely yes but not essential and not the best price
Posted in Copper Cookware | 
Tags: Amazon, Copper Cookware, Ebay, Mage, Martha Stewart, Source News, Stewart Martha