TOTORO BUTTER COOKIES WITH MATCHA LEAVES

SO, this is me lesson prepping for tomorrow's Creative Writing 11 Book Chat tomorrow.  I had my students select a Canadian Novel for an independent project which culminates in a Tea 'n Cookies Book Chat with their peers.

Silly me...I asked what they'd like me to bake and they said "Totoro Cookies!"  

I don't know why I was hoping they'd all say "CAKE!" --but they didn't.  

Ah well.  They're not for me to eat anyway!

I used matcha powder to create tiny leaf cookies to rest on Totoro's head.  With the leftover matcha dough I made some larger leaf cookies 'cause I didn't want to make any more of those time-consuming tiny leaves anymore 🤣

I added black sesame paste to a blob of cookie dough in order to make the tiny black sesame sprites. They were so cute but something about grey cookies is so unappealing to many people.  I guess they don't look appetizing being the colour of soot!

Raw cookie dough is so tasty-looking to me.  I prefer how it looks to the baked product because you can see the crisp lines and Totoro's cute expression very clearly.

In case you want to make these with a totoro cutter, be aware that they cost $$$.  All you have to do is google it and you'll find plenty of styles of Totoro cutters to buy.  Before I bought a cutter, I used a cardboard template that I cut out.  I traced the cookies with a knife and they were tedious but they turned out well.  Alternatively, if you're crafty you can cut up an Arizona Tea can and create your own personalized cookie cutter.  I have a pusheen one that I made like that because I'm too cheapie to pay money for more cutters.  

Totoro Vanilla Butter Cookies 

• 2 Cups unsalted butter, softened (2 sticks)
• 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 Large egg 
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 5 Cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp teaspoon coarse salt
• OPTIONAL: 1 teaspoon matcha powder (for the matcha leaves)
• OPTIONAL: 1 teaspoon black sesame paste (or ground black sesame seeds) (for the soot sprites)

1. Preheat oven to 350degrees F.
2. Put butter and granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in whole egg and vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add flour and salt and mix until combined.
3. Halve dough; shape each half into a disk. Place one disk in plastic wrap and refrigerate. You can use the other half for the optional coloured decorations or soot sprite cookies.  Continue making cookies with the remaining refrigerated dough.
4. Roll out dough and cut with a template or cutter.  Transfer cookies to parchment-lined cookie sheet.
5. OPTIONAL LEAVES & SOOT SPRITES:  take a handful of dough and add 1 teaspoon of matcha powder to it, kneading until thoroughly combined. Roll out and cut into tiny leaves to decorate Totoro's head.  Take a handful of dough and knead in 1 teaspoon black sesame paste and knead thoroughly until combined.  Roll out and cut into soot sprites.
6. Bake for 13-15 minutes or until lightly browned (Totoro's ears will get brown first, so watch them)  The soot sprites will take only 10-12 minutes and the tiny leaves take 7 min.
7. Let cool on wire racks. Store in airtight containers at room temperature up to 3 days.

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A Very Merry Totoro Christmas to You!

I regret that for the majority of my life I had not watched the movie My Neighbor Totoro (となりのトトロ) the 1988 Japanese animation written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, and produced by Studio Ghibli.  Just last year my kids and I watched it at home and thereafter I was smitten.

My kids love all things Totoro (and I do too)!  The storyline of the mythical cat-like ginormous creature that befriends the children in the animation had us wanting more Totoro.  I've bought a few items for my kids and I have attempted to make Totoro baked goods (like everyone else on Instagram!)

The thing is, I am kind of cheapie when it comes to shelling out mucho $$ for a cookie cutter. Today I decided I was going to make my own cookie cutter using pliers and sheet metal. My hubby said no way; that his scraps from work are industrial and heavy gauge so I won't be able to bend it.  I thought of using a tin tuna can or a pop can but I don't have any pop in the house...just homemade kombucha!  So I just drew a totoro outline and cut it out on a scrap piece of paper.  Then I traced over the dough with a knife; cutting out the totoro shape.  

My Totoro Cookie consists of the following elements:  Black Sesame Butter Cookie body, Vanilla Butter cookie tummy, Matcha Butter Cookie leaf, Dark Chocolate fur and White Chocolate eyeballs.  Everything is natural in colour; coming from the different ingredients I used.  The cookie base I used was my trusty ol' Vanilla Butter Cookie dough and I just tossed in the natural flavourings: ground black sesame & matcha powder.

Unfortunately, the totoro cookies don't bake evenly because the ears stick out and are a little more brown than the rest of the body but that's okay. I actually like brown cookies because they're tastier--that's caramelization, folks!

The most difficult part of the totoro cookie decorating experience is those dang whiskers and fur chevrons.  I contemplated using a fine round tip for my piping bag. Then at the last minute I decided to do everything by hand and a toothpick.

This one turned out the best I think. He's a cutie! The matcha leaves melded onto the Totoro foreheads no problem as they baked.  I'll be giving away one Totoro Cookie away with each gift bag of cookies I'm making this year.  Each bag will consist of tiny round sparkly butter cookies in each flavour: Matcha, Black Sesame & Vanilla.

I have plans for this Copper Snowflake cutter I recently bought on sale at WS.  It's resting on a log of my Vanilla Butter Cookies that are waiting to be cut and baked off.

I was pretty handy this Christmas and made everything by hand...even my Christmas Cards. This is my LawnFawn stamps & die cut set employed in my butter cookie packaging frenzy

The little penguin throwing a snowball at his deer friend is a so cute!

See those vanilla butter cookies? Those cookies are the base recipe that all my flavoured cookies evolve from: toss in flavourings and you will have delicious cookies in no time. Easy-Peasy Christmas Cookies!

Here is my trusty Vanilla Butter Cookie Recipe once again:

VANILLA BUTTER COOKIES

• 1 Cup unsalted butter, softened (2 sticks)
• 3/4 cup organic evaporated cane sugar (or granulated sugar)
• 1 Large egg
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 Cups sifted all - purpose flour (or gf flour blend)
• 3/4 tsp teaspoon coarse salt
• 1/2 Cup fine sanding sugar or extra organic evaporated cane sugar for rolling cookie logs

FLAVOUR VARIATIONS:  

MATCHA:  add 1 tablespoon matcha powder (1 tsp if you don't like matcha flavour)

BLACK SESAME:  add 2 tablespoons ground black sesame

1. Put butter and granulated sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in whole egg and vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add flour and salt and mix until combined.
2. Halve dough; shape each half into a log. Place each log on a 12-by-16 inch sheet of parchment. Roll in parchment to 1 ½ inches in diameter, pressing a ruler along edge of parchment at each turn to narrow log. Transfer to paper towel tubes to hold shape, and refrigerate until firm or freeze until firm, about 1 hour.
3. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Roll log in extra evaporated cane sugar or sanding sugar. Cut into ½-inch thick rounds. Space 1 inch apart on baking sheets lined with parchment. Bake until edges are golden, 18 to 20 minutes. (cakebrain note: ensure the cookies are golden brown and they'll taste much more flavourful as well as have a better crunch). Let cool on sheets on wire racks. Store in airtight containers at room temperature up to 3 days.

TOTORO COOKIES:

1. Divide batch of dough into 3 bowls (pull off one handful to colour green with matcha, 1/3 should be vanilla and 2/3 should be black sesame).  Add various flavourings: matcha, black sesame and keep one plain vanilla.  Roll out black sesame cookie to an even thickness.  Roll the vanilla dough into a log shaped to the size of Totoro's tummy.  You will slice off thin pieces to place on the black sesame totoro.  

2.  Using a paper template as a guide for Totoro's body.  Trace with a knife with the black sesame dough.

3. Slice off a thin piece off of the vanilla dough log.  Place it on Totoro's tummy area.  

4. Take a tiny piece of matcha dough and cut out a leaf shape and place on top of Totoro's head.  

5. Bake the cookies, keeping a close eye on the ears so they don't burn.  I started checking the cookies at the 10 minute mark.  Depending on the thinness and size of your cookies, it'll take from 10-18 minutes.  Just keep an eye on those ears!

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CHRISTMAS IN JULY COOKIE CONTEST: Vanilla Pod Butter/Tiffany Snowflake Cookies

Christmas in July Cookie Contest!

Can you believe I've been blogging since 2007 and this is the 1st contest I'm entering?  I'm submitting my butter cookie recipe to the Eat In Eat Out 3rd Annual Christmas in July Cookie Contest

Christmas Cookie Box

I decided to enter my Vanilla Pod Butter/Christmas Tiffany Snowflake Cookies because they are awesome and also a cookie I made the first year I started this blog.  They were part of the 1st boxes of annual Christmas cookies I gave away for gifts and they have proven to be very popular on the internet since then as I've seen them on everyone else's blogs now.   Technically the Tiffany Snowflake Cookie is just the Vanilla Pod Butter Cookie recipe blinged up with royal icing.  So the recipe in question is the Vanilla Pod Butter Cookie.  The Tiffany Snowflake Cookie is simply technique to make the cookie over-the-top.

Ah how time has passed and my food blog has morphed into something else.  The 1st year of blogging was bumpy.  I was still using my tiny Sony point and shoot camera.  I didn't bother to photoshop and left all the time stamps on my pics.  I look back at that first year and cringe but I think it's important to leave posts as they are rather than update and fix them because I like to see my growth.  I also went through a phase where all my food pics were with my Nikon D700 and macro lens in high res and I spent several hours photoshopping.


Today I have ditched the expensive lenses and opt for my iphone5.  Yes,  I have lower res pics because high res pics don't really matter especially since the episode of everyone stealing my Coconut rice pudding brulee picture and attributing it to another recipe.  After several months of trying to fix it on Pinterest, Google, Facebook and various food sites by reporting it as an image stolen from me, I gave up. I even watermarked my pics for a while and today I have simply given up.  I'm just not going to put high res pics online.  I have the ability to, and want to, but it isn't worth the grief.  Truthfully, the picture wasn't that great and today I could do way better.  But, it is the principle of the thing.  It's mine dagnabbit.  To this day there are several sites that still have my picture taken from my post and used for another recipe.  It peeves me still but I've moved on.

For the recipes for my other Christmas Cookies, click HERE

ONE recipe: two totally different looking cookies!

Vanilla Pod Butter Cookies: the one recipe you need to make it all!

VANILLA POD BUTTER COOKIES 
NB: if you cannot get your hands on a fresh vanilla bean pod, substitute with 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or pure vanilla extract...it'll taste good but of course it won't be exactly the same.

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg plus 1 egg white, beaten
• 1 whole vanilla bean pod (for grinding with the sugar)
• 2 ½ cups sifted all-purpose flour
• ¾ teaspoon coarse salt
• ½ cup fine sanding sugar

1. Split vanilla pod if it is fresh and scrape out the seeds for creaming with the butter. Place empty pod in food processor with granulated sugar to grind. Sift out the larger chunks of the bean. If you have a stash of dried vanilla pods, use that and supplement with 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.
2. Put butter and vanilla seeds into mixer with paddle attachment, mixing until seeds are distributed thoroughly. Add the granulated sugar/vanilla pod mixture into the bowl and continue beating on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in whole egg and vanilla extract, if using. Reduce speed to low. Add flour and salt and mix until combined.
3. Halve dough; shape each half into a log. Place each log on a 12-by-16 inch sheet of parchment. Roll in parchment to 1 ½ inches in diameter, pressing a ruler along edge of parchment at each turn to narrow log. Transfer to paper towel tubes to hold shape, and freeze until firm, about 1 hour.
4. Preheat oven to 375ºF. Brush each log with egg white; roll in sanding sugar. Cut into ½-inch thick rounds. Space 1 inch apart on baking sheets lined with parchment. Bake until edges are golden, 18 to 20 minutes. If you want great flavour, go golden-brown and bake longer.  It's a fine line between browned-butter flavour and burnt so watch it!  Let cool on sheets on wire racks. Store in airtight containers at room temperature up to 3 days.

TIFFANY SNOWFLAKE COOKIES

For intricate snowflake cutouts:

1. Halve dough; create discs and wrap one in plastic wrap.
2. Take the other disc and roll out the dough to the desired thickness (usually 3-5 mm) out between two pieces of parchment paper. I place the whole sheet of parchment/rolled-out cookie dough onto a plastic cutting board and pop it in the refrigerator to firm up (about 30 minutes).
3. Take other disc out and roll out as above. Pop that into the refrigerator to firm up too.
4. When the rolled dough is firm enough, take it out and use your snowflake cutters to make as many cuts as possible. Transfer to a parchment-lined cookie sheet. With the tiny cutters, you can now make more cuts into the cut cookies on the parchment. This way you won't have to transfer delicate snowflakes and avoid tons of frustration.
5. Do leave a proper amount of space between the cutouts (about 1 inch) to allow for a little spreading. Lift off the surrounding dough carefully. You may need a pointy knife, thin spatula or other such tool to assist you in this endeavour. I use the tip of a plastic kiddie chopstick to poke out the dough from tight crevices. If you leave marks, you can always flip the cookie upside down onto the parchment to bake.
6. Place snowflake cookie-laden cookie sheet back into the fridge to firm up again before baking.
7. Ball up the remaining dough and do it all over again.
8. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Bake the cookies on the middle rack until golden, about 18-20 minutes--more or less depending on the size of your snowflakes. Just keep an eye on the first batch for an indicator.
9. Decorate with royal icing, if you wish (see below for recipe and instructions)

TIFFANY-COLOURED ROYAL ICING RECIPE

• 3 tablespoons Meringue Powder
• 4 cups (about 1 lb) confectioners' sugar 
• 6 tablespoons warm watter
• blue or teal gel food colouring
• toothpicks

1.  Place all ingredients into a stand mixer and beat until stiff peaks form.  (7-10 minutes at low speed with a heavy-duty mixer, 10-12 minutes with a hand-held mixer)

2.  Place 1 cup of the icing in a small bowl; cover and reserve (this will be for piping the white lines on the snowflakes).  
3.  Tint the rest of the icing with blue or teal food colouring.  Use a toothpick and gradually add gel food colouring until you get the desired tint of the special jewelry box you and I know very well.  Beat well after each addition of colouring.
3.  Thinned Royal Icing:  To thin for pouring add 1 teaspoon of water at a time and beat with a spatula by hand; checking the consistency each time.  There are two types of consistency you'll need to make for the Tiffany Snowflakes.  I will direct you to this wonderful post about flooding and piping consistencies.  
In total you'll need 3 bowls of icing: one white piping bowl, one blue flooding bowl and one blue outlining bowl.  
4.  Outline your cookie perimeters with the blue outlining bowl.  This consistency should be stiffer than your flooding bowl.  Then use the blue flooding bowl to cover your cookies.  Allow the cookies to dry thoroughly.
5.  With the white piping icing, pipe decorations on top of the dried flooded icing.  Be creative.  I like to use straight lines and add dots of icing because it's easier on my hands. 

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MOMMY, I NEED SOME GLUTEN COOKIES!

Dark and White Chocolate Chunk Nirvana Cookies

Guilty as charged.



I'm baking with wheat flour.  GF friends, avert your eyes!   My (almost) 10 year old approached me the other day and buttered me up with the statement that she really likes my baking and wished I would bake more often.  I asked her what she wanted me to make and she said "something with gluten!"

Well, yah. About that.  As you've noticed my food blog dedicated to my love for cake has morphed a tad over the last couple of years to include mostly Gluten Free baked goods recipes since my Hashi's diagnosis.  I'm the only one in the family who's gluten intolerant.  I figured that the kids wouldn't really mind if I didn't bake gluteny ever again.  Wrong.  Obviously they miss it.

So here I am making a huge batch of my favourite Dark and White Chocolate Chunk Nirvana Cookies (based on Jacques Torres' recipe) and dumping in the real thing: wheat flour. Yikes.  I know I won't be able to eat the cookies.  So I decided to refrigerate the rest of the batch and bake one sheet at a time because I hate to see good cookies go stale.   A sheet will last the two kids about 2 days I figure.

Also, I was intending to bake a fresh sheet of cookies for company during the summer.  You know, to accompany that tall glass o' lemonade while chatting with friends about how fast summer's passing while sitting on your deck.

Here's the recipe BELOW if you're inclined to make it (it's a winner!)


chocolate chunk nirvana cookies from Ms K on Vimeo.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Nirvana

makes 3 dozen ridiculously large cookies

adapted from Jacques Torres' A Year in Chocolate

4 3/4 cups all-purpose flour [I used organic, unbleached]

2 t salt

1 1/2 t baking powder

1 1/2 t baking soda

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar

1 1/4 cups plus 2 1/2 T granulated sugar [I used organic evaporated cane sugar]

3 large eggs, at room temperature, lightly beaten

2 t pure vanilla extract

1 2/3 pounds bittersweet chocolate, chopped into bite-sized pieces [I used Lindt Dark(85%) chocolate bars and broke along the lines]

1 cup white chocolate pieces [I used Callebaut]

• Preheat the oven to 325°F. Have ready 2 nonstick cookie sheets, or line 2 regular cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats. Set aside.
• In a bowl, stir together the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle, beat the butter on medium speed for about 5 minutes, or until very light and fluffy. Add the brown and granulated sugars and beat until well blended. Add the eggs and beat just until incorporated. Beat in the vanilla. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture a little at a time, beating after each addition until incorporated. When all of the flour mixture has been incorporated, remove the bowl from the mixer and, using a rubber spatula, fold in the chocolate.
• To shape the cookies, using a tablespoon, scoop out a heaping spoonful of the dough and, using the palms of your hands, form it into a 3-inch ball. Place the balls on the prepared baking sheets, spacing them about 1 inch apart.
• Bake for about 15 minutes, or until lightly browned around the edges. Remove from the oven, transfer the cookies to wire racks, and let cool completely.
• Store, in an airtight container, for up to 5 days.
• [cakebrained note: I keep prepared dough in their 3-inch ball shapes, refrigerated in a ziploc bag for a few days and bake as I need them. I only ever bake 6 cookies on a sheet at one time. This way you have a constant supply of fresh cookies. They're so good hot from the oven! Alternately, you can freeze the cookie balls too and keep them longer, but you may have to add a few minutes to the baking time]

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Valentine's Day Butter Cookies with Red Royal Icing (GF)

I've made Valentine's Day cookies several times with similar results. All were tasty. My first version was tasty but the red icing well, was a weird pinkish orange hue. Creating deep reds is perplexing. Do you add a whole bottle of fakey "no taste" food colouring? Often this renders the tongues bright red of the people who ingested your cookies. Or do you add a dab and hope that it'll do?  My second version was made with white chocolate but in the end the same washed out colours resulted.



I usually add a dab and complain to myself later about how I should have added more food colouring. But I'm torn. I don't like having so much fakey red food colouring in my food in general. I'm sure too that most people if given a choice would rather not ingest that much food colouring too. So I thought oh well, I'll live with the crappy muted red colours I was getting.





The other day, I thought I'd research and revisit this problem with red icing. I compiled a few tips for bakers who want better reds:
1. Do toss in a few tablespoons of Dark Cocoa powder to the icing. This will improve the depth and darkness of the icing.  Bonus: it adds great flavour!
2. Use "no taste" red food gel (I used Wilton brand) or red powdered food colouring
3. Allow the icing to sit overnight (covered) and the red will be deeper
4. If you have burgundy (which I don't) I hear a bit of this will help too.
5. You can always add more, but you can't take away! Add a little colouring at a time and thoroughly combine before repeating as necessary until you get the red you want
6. Don't sweat it if it's not bright red. You tried. Let it go. Just eat it.

VANILLA BEAN BUTTER COOKIES (GF)

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

¾ cup organic cane sugar
1 large egg plus 1 egg white, beaten
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (or 1 vanilla bean, ground up)
2 ½ cups Gluten Free Flour Blend  (see gf blend recipe below) OR if you're not GF, then sifted all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon coarse salt

1. Put butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in whole egg and vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add flour and salt and mix until combined.

2. Halve dough; roll into a disk about 1/4 inch thick. Cut our heart shapes with a mini heart cutter.

3. Preheat oven to 375ºF.  Space cookies on baking sheets lined with parchment. Bake until edges are golden, 12 to 15  minutes.  This depends on the size of your mini cookies.  Just keep an eye on the first batch to make sure.  (cakebrain note: ensure the cookies are golden brown and they'll taste much more flavour as well as a better crunch). Let cool on sheets on wire racks. Store in airtight containers at room temperature up to 3 days.

4.  Decorate by flooding the cooled cookies with red icing.  See recipe link HERE.  Let dry.  Pipe with a small round tip around the edges to create lace design with white icing.  I gently tap the tip to touch the cookie at short intervals as I trace around the border.

CAKEBRAIN'S FAVOURITE GF FLOUR BLEND RECIPE:

2 1/4 cups superfine Thai Rice Flour (Asian market)

1/4 cup potato starch

2/3 cup tapioca starch

3/4 cup sweet rice flour (Thai brands are best)

1/3 cup cornstarch

2 teaspoons xanthum gum

• In a large airtight container, combine the flours together well.  I use a large wire whisk to mix the flours thoroughly.  Be particularly vigilant about distributing the xanthum gum as it is a small quantity compared to the rest of the flours.
• Use this GF Flour Blend in place of regular cake flour or all-purpose flour.  
• You do not have to worry about sifting as it's not lumpy
• You do not have to worry about overbeating as there's no gluten to develop.

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