Team USA Spiral Cookies

USA! USA! USA!


Okay, so I may be a little over-excited for the Olympics. But seriously... it's a 2800 year old festival! It started in 776 BC!

In honor of good ol' Team USA, I made red, white, and blue spiral cookies. And they're CUTE.

USA! USA! USA!

I adapted the recipe from Rachel Cooks.

Spiral Sugar Cookies

Yield: 30 cookies

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups all purpose flour
Blue or red food coloring
Sprinkles

1. Cream butter and sugar. The butter should be softened, not room temperature. Here's the difference between softened and room temperature:

Left is softened and right is room temperature. See how much the room temperature spreads? That's too soft, and will produce a different texture of cookies. 

Creamed butter and sugar

2. Add vanilla and egg. Mix until it's mostly incorporated. Scrape bowl. 

3. Mix dry ingredients. With the mixer on, slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. 

4. Cut dough in half. Take one half out and put it on wax paper. Make an impression with your fingers in the remaining half and add about 10 drops of food coloring. Mix until the dough is evenly colored. 

5. Put another piece of wax or parchment paper atop the uncolored dough. Roll it out until it's about 1/8-1/4" thick. Do the same with the colored dough. 

6. Take the top layer of parchment paper off of each dough and put the colored on top of the uncolored dough. Roll it so it's long. Put the sprinkles on the plastic wrap and roll the dough in the sprinkles. Wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for about 1 hour. 

7. Cut the dough into 1/4 inch cookies. Place them 1"-2" apart on a cookie sheet lined with silpat or parchment paper. Bake at 350 degrees fahrenheit for 10-12 minutes. 

8. Remove and let them cool before eating (all of them)!

Mini French Cruller Donuts

Donuts. We all love them. 

Let's be honest and say that we've all eaten a whole dozen when no one was looking... just me? Okay. 

There are so many great varieties-- cake donuts, classic glazed, chocolate filled, sprinkle donuts... and then there's the French Cruller. French Crullers are so soft and light, almost crepe-like inside, while still maintaining a crispy delicious outside. They can be served with any variety of glaze, sauce, and they can even be cut open and sandwiched with fresh fruit inside. I chose to do all of the above tonight. 

The best part? They were so simple! It's essentially just a fried Pate a Choux, and you know how friendly I am with Pate a Choux lately!

Mini French Crullers

Adapted from Use Real Butter. 

Yield- about 15 donuts

1 cup water
6 tbsps (3 oz.) unsalted butter
2 tsps (10 g) sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup (135 g) all-purpose flour
3 large eggs
2-3 egg whites, slightly beaten

oil for frying (I used peanut oil), about 2 inches up the pan

1. Using heavy bottom pan, bring water, butter, sugar, and salt to a rapid boil over medium-high heat, stirring with a wooden spoon.

 

2. Add flour, all at once, to the mixture. Stir rapidly to get flour clumps out. When a film begins to coat the bottom of the pan, turn heat off. You can see if a film is developing by scraping the bottom of the pan with the wooden spoon. 

3. Stir for a minute or two to cool it down. Add the whole eggs, one at a time, incorporating thoroughly in between eggs. Add the egg whites and make sure everything is fully incorporated.

 

4. Turn the oil on to heat up. Put the dough into a gallon ziplock fastened with a 1/2 inch star tip. Cut 3"x3" parchment squares and butter each thoroughly. 

5. Pipe 2"-3" circles, making sure to barely overlap. If you overlap too much, they will be lopsided.

6. Test a little piece of the dough to see if the oil is ready. If it is, gently place one of the squares dough-side down. The parchment paper will come off by itself. Take it out of the water with tongs (unless you just happen to love the interior decor of the Emergency Room- then you can use your hands). Flip the donut over when the bottom side seems golden brown enough.

 

7. After frying both sides, take the donut out and place on paper towels. Dip in glaze, dust with powdered sugar, or eat plain! 

8. Repeat step seven until you've gained 5 pounds. 

This one is filled with fresh peaches and drizzled with fresh blueberry reduction... Oh man my keyboard has drool all over it!

Get creative and enjoy!