A Very Merry Createry Shop Christmas Greeting

Easy Sugar Cookies Recipe - Cookie Exchange Season!

Tis the season for Cookie Exchange!  Here is an easy sugar cookie recipe for all you exchangers of sweet treats.  I great basic cookie dough to start off with - good if you are a newbie at cookies.

EASY SUGAR COOKIES

Makes approximately 30 – 36 cookies, depending on how thin you roll out your dough

Ingredients:

-          1 cup butter (room temperature, not frozen and not melted)

-          1 cup sugar

-          1 large egg

-          1 tsp vanilla extract

-          2 tsp baking powder

-          2 ¾ cups white all-purpose flour

Directions:

1)      Heat oven to 400 degrees  F.

2)      Cream together butter and sugar.

3)      Add egg and vanilla.

4)      In a separate bowl, mix together flour and baking powder.

5)      Add dry into wet ingredients and mix together until dough forms.

6)      On a dry floured table, pour dough out, knead slightly, and then roll out flat to about 1cm thick.

7)      Use cookie cutters and cut out shapes.

8)      Place on a lightly greased baking sheet (no need for parchment or re-flouring).

9)      Bake for 7-10 minutes.  DO NOT OVERBAKE!  IF YOU START SEEING BROWNING EDGES THEN YOU HAVE GONE TOO FAR AND COOKIE WILL BE DRY!

10)   Let cool before decorating.

 

Easy Knit Cowl Buttoned Turtleneck One Shoulder (Emalyn Cowl)

A quick and easy cowl that I knitted up in one evening!  I love the look of chunky turtlenecks and one shoulder asymmetrical knit pieces.  Most of the cowl knitting patterns I see out there did not have a turtleneck look so I decided to experiment with mixing the two concepts together in a very simple way.  Oh, you will see that I knitted this cowl with a medium strawberry pink on one side that transitions to a light cotton candy pink.  Not only does it add an unexpected ombre look to the cowl, it also helps me figure out which way faces forward when I put it on!  I hope you like it.

 

Disney Frozen Cupcakes

Here is a batch of Disney Frozen cupcakes I made.  You would think that only girls would want to have a blue sprinkled strawberry flavoured cupcake with a Frozen ring on it.  However, I quickly found out that boys also love Frozen too!  Especially an Olaf or Kristian ring.  My take away from yesterday's party was all kids love icing, and nobody wanted Sven :(  Poor reindeer.....

 

Dairy-Free Zucchini Chocolate Chip Muffins (With No Added Sugar or Oil Too!)

 

Recently, I've really been trying hard to live a dairy-free life (just to see if I felt a difference or not from my previous dairy-full life of greek yogurt, skim milk, cheese, and more greek yogurt).  Well, it's been hard - the hardest probably taking coffee straight up with nothing else in it, and also trying to just find things to eat on a daily basis that contain no dairy at all.  

So to all my lactose intolerant and dairy-free friends in the world, I'm with you in the search and BTW here's my recipe for devilishly delicious zucchini chocolate chip muffins that are dairy-free with no added sugar or oil.  It's moist and oh so satisfying with that added chocolate touch (you will have to find vegan dark chocolate chips for this recipe).  Enjoy!

Dairy-Free Zucchini Chocolate Chip Muffins (No Dairy, No Added Sugar, No Oil too!)
 

Ingredients:

-          1 cup of zucchini – shredded and drained

-          1 ½ cups of whole wheat flour (I like using 100% whole grain whole wheat flour)

-          1 ½ tsp baking powder

-          1 ½ tsp baking soda

-          2 tsp cinnamon

-          ½ tsp nutmeg

-          2 medium sized bananas

-          1 tsp vanilla

-          4 egg whites

-          5 tbsp of unsweetened apple sauce

-          ½ cup of vegan dark chocolate chips (You can try "Enjoy Life" Mini Chips)

Steps:

1. Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees F.  Line your muffin tray with paper liners or lightly spray with cooking spray.
2. In a bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  Put aside.
3. In a blender, mash or puree the bananas.  Next, add vanilla, egg whites, and apple sauce and blend well in blender.
4. Pour the wet mixture into the bowl with your dry ingredients.  Fold the mixture together gently (careful not to over-mix)
5. Add your shredded zucchini and chocolate chips into the mixture, again careful not to over-mix.
6. Scoop mixture into your muffin tray cavities evenly.
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes.  You know it’s done when you can poke it with a skewer and the skewer comes out clean.