Coconut Milk Rolled Biscuits

I've been having some really disappointing cooking days.  I just haven't been in the mood to cook much of anything.  I try to force myself to cook at least 3x/week, but even that is a stretch.  We've been getting by with a lot of "breakfast for dinner" kinds of dinners.

One thing good about having breakfast for dinner is the leftovers make good breakfast food (duuuhhhhhhh).  The other week we had waffles, and we were blessed with waffles for breakfast for the better part of the week.

Our breakfast food de la semaine is biscuits.  I made a bunch of them last night to start our week on the right foot.

Recently, I've been making baked goods with coconut milk. D2 has a thing for coconut milk so I've been buying Silk coconut milk whenever I go to Costco (they sell the double pack).  She doesn't like to eat coconut, except in shortbread cookies, but she loves the flavor of coconut.  Do you know someone like that?  Coconut milk adds just a hint of coconut flavor, and it seems to pair well with jams, jellies, and honey.  If you have a precious jar of special honey, eating it on one of these biscuits would be a great way to enjoy it.

Thanks to my boss, I can get local honey delivered directly to me.  This past week, he gave me a generous jar of honey for "all the help".  He said the honey was "Volcano honey", meaning it came from his hives in the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park area.  In that areas, bees source nectar primarily from the ohia lehua blossom (found only in Hawaii).  Pure ohia lehua honey is white (due to crystallization), and makes a great Big Island souvenir.  It's definitely not the cheapest honey, but it is a special treat.

This coming week (or the week after that, for that matter) will likely not be the week my cooking activities return.  Boys volleyball season began last week so I will probably scrounge dinner at athletic concessions on game nights.  Last season, I must've eaten close to a dozen bowls of smoked meat and onion!  Not grumbling at all.  I wonder what kinds of goodies will be sold this year.

If I had more gumption/energy, this would actually be an excellent week to cook all kinds of things.  Miss Picky (D2) went on an early vacation with Mr. Dependable.  They went to take advantage of spring skiing in the Sierra Nevadas.  D1, who is on spring break (legitimate), met them in Reno.  I always shake my head at how large the Ds live. 

click on recipe title for printable recipe

Coconut Milk Rolled Biscuits

     2 c flour

     2 tbsp sugar

     4 tsp baking powder

     3/4 tsp salt

     1/3 c butter

     2/3 c cold coconut milk

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Grease a baking sheet or line with parchment paper.  Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Cut butter into flour mixture until pea-size particles form.  Stir in coconut milk.  If mixture is dry, add up to 2 tbsp more coconut milk until dough holds together.  Turn dough onto floured board.  Pat into a 1"-thick slab.  Cut with a 2" biscuit cutter and place on prepared baking sheet.  Bake 13-14 minutes or until just starting to brown.  Remove from oven, cool slightly on wire rack before eating.

where did all the time go. . .

Holiday Tradition: Fancy Cookies

Was Santa good to you this year?  Santa brought me two waaaay kewl McLaren-Mercedes-Vodaphone shirts.  I can't wait for 2012  Formula 1 season to begin! The Ds managed to stay off the "naughty" list this year and had their stockings filled with goodies:  instant udon, Targus stylus, kindle case, Bizu, and the ever-timeless Lindt chocolate Santa.  Can't wait for next year.  I'm gonna ask Santa for a Somali cat!

One reason why I think Santa has been so good to us is because the yummy homemade cookies make our home a worthwhile stop on his world tour.  This year, we were armed with a variety of cookies for Santa.  The first cookie we made was spritz wreaths (not pictured).  Then we moved on to the cut-outs.

Like Santa, I love fancy cut-out cookies too, but the many details that go into making a kick-ass cookie can be totally daunting.  The cookie itself is the main part of this monumental task.  I love it when cookies snap rather than bend.  But making rolled sugar cookies is tricky.  Many recipes which I've tried produce soggy cookies. Yuck.  And that's after spending all that time to mix the dough, chill the dough, roll it out, and bake it.

The cookies here were made with totally awesome sugar cookie dough.  These cookies are crisp.  An added bonus is that the dough, when properly chilled, is easy to work with.  This recipe will not make a lot of cookies.  Scraps can be re-rolled no more than twice.  After the 2nd time, gather dough and roll into 1" spheres.  Flatten to 1/4" and place on an ungreased cookie sheet.  If you have festive sanding sugar on hand, feel free to sprinkle some on.  Pics of these cookies can be found near the bottom of this blog entry, just above the recipe for royal icing.  Sanding sugar will remain intact during baking.  Another option is to leave these buttons plain so they can be decorated with icing.  Bake as directed below.


Decorating these cookies is the ultimate way to make these cookies outstanding.  I rely on 2 different icings to get the effect I want.  The bells, stockings & candy canes were decorated using a corn syrup icing.  This icing doesn't dry as firm as royal icing, but the colors are vibrant, and its a lot more convenient to make different colors.  The icing has a nice almond flavor to it.  The snowflakes and round shapes were decorated with royal icing.  Royal icing dries harder than the corn syrup icing, but its inconvenient to make more than one color at a time, and colors are muted rather than vibrant.  Royal icing has no particular flavor, other than sweet, so if I'm using royal icing, I make sure that the cookies are made with almond extract.

click on recipe titles below for printable recipes
Rolled Sugar Cookies

     1/2 c butter, softened

     1/2 c sugar

     1 egg

     1/2 tsp almond or vanilla extract

     2 c flour

     2 tsp baking powder

Cream butter and sugar.  Add egg and extract.  Stir together flour and baking powder.  Add to butter mixture.  Pat dough into a flattened square, wrap in plastic, and chill for at least 2 hours.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Working with 1/3 of dough at a time, roll out (1/4" thick) onto lightly floured surface and cut with desired cookie cutters.  Place on ungreased cookie sheet and bake 19 minutes.  Remove to wire rack and cool completely.   

Shiny Cookie Glaze

     2 c powdered sugar

     2 tbsp milk

     4 tsp light corn syrup

     1/2 tsp almond extract

     assorted food coloring

In a bowl, stir together sugar and milk.  Beat in corn syrup and almond extract until icing is smooth and glossy.  Divide into bowls and tint each bowl a different color.  Icing may also be placed in small plastic bags for piping.

Royal Icing

     1 c powdered sugar

     3/4 tsp meringue powder

     1 1/2 tbsp warm water

     food coloring, if desired

Combine powdered sugar and meringue powder.   Add food coloring to water (color will become washed out when combined with powdered sugar, so make color strong).  Add to powdered sugar mixture.  Beat on high speed for 10-12 minutes until icing holds stiff peaks.  Place in a pastry bag and pipe designs on cookies.