Super Bowl Spritz Cookies

The cookie gun strikes again.

In honor of the big day when people all across the country pretend they like football, I unholstered my cookie press to make some football-shaped spritz cookies. I used a chocolate recipe -- good, but not as good as the plain, almond-flavored cookies in my previous post -- and the rectangular disk design at the top right of this image. To get that rectangular cookie shown in the image, you'd have to shoot the cookie out and drag it across the sheet. But when the cookie is pressed onto the baking sheet, the dough compresses perfectly into these football shapes. Touchdown!

Super Bowl Spritz Cookies
(from Wilton Chocolate Spritz Cookies)

1 1/4 cups butter
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
2/3 cup cocoa
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time. Add vanilla extract and blend.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, salt and baking soda well. Add in small doses to creamed mixture, until wet and dry ingredients come together into a soft dough.

Working with dough at room temperature, form roughly into a log and cram/push into cookie press until full. This dough will result in about five refills of the cookie press.

Press (shoot) cookies onto ungreased, room-temperature baking sheet.

Bake at 375 degrees for 7 to 8 minutes until cookies are set.

Cool. Frost with basic icing, if desired.

I mixed a basic white frosting out of powdered sugar and a dab of milk, scooped it into a sandwich bag, snipped off a minuscule piece of the corner, then striped on the football stitching.

Spritz, Spritz Cookies

I am such a follower. But you know what? I'm OK with that if it leads me to new and better things. Better always for someone else to taste-test the goods before I drop dead eating them, right? Right. Not that I'm wishing any harm on you, Lisa.

This uber domestic diva has lead me to some pretty wacky things, which I've always embraced whole-heartedly: hot yoga, knitting, and now...cookie guns. Luckily, I'm a lover, not a fighter. The only things popping out of the barrels of this gun are flowers -- tiny, delicate, blue-dotted flowers no bigger than 1 1/2 inches in diameter. I tried the scary contraption out just 24 hours after my friend gifted me it for Christmas. Yay, experiments!

Cookie guns -- or cookie presses, as the rest of the world likes to call them -- make what are known as spritz cookies by pushing a soft sugar-cookie dough out of a choice of variously shaped disks to form cute, professional-looking cookie shapes. For this batch, I used Wilton's recipe for spritz cookies, as I've recently had great results with the company's roll-out sugar cookie recipe (but that's a post for another day).

Spritz, Spritz Cookies
(from Wilton Classic Spritz Cookies)

1 1/2 cups butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add egg, milk, vanilla and almond extracts and blend.

In a small bowl, mix flour and baking powder well. Add in small doses to creamed mixture, until wet and dry ingredients come together into a soft dough.

Working with dough at room temperature, form roughly into a log and cram/push into cookie press until full. This dough will result in about five refills of the cookie press.

Press (shoot) cookies onto ungreased, room-temperature baking sheet.

Bake at 375 degrees for 9 to 11 minutes until edges of some cookies are just beginning to brown.

Cool. Frost with basic icing or dip in chocolate or icing, if desired.

Is It Mulled Wine or Spiced Apple Cider?

Having immigrated to the U.S. of A. and gotten together in the '70s, my parents owned a Crock Pot decorated with lovely brown detailing, like every other good, old, American family. And, as with every other useless appliance in our home, it was brought out no more than once a year, to remind us why we had a garage (remember those white, single-bladed hand mixers? or sandwich irons? ice cream makers?). I explain because this is why an innocent, second-generation Filipino child like myself would have grown up having hot, spiced apple cider around the holidays. Ahh, new American traditions.

But my parents have been keeping something from me. Apparently, one can substitute wine for the cider brewing in the slow cooker and it is a perfectly acceptable holiday beverage. Who knew? I first tried hot, mulled wine at work, of all places, when we were "testing" some comped Crock Pots. Sold, I researched recipes for mulling spices and brewed up another batch for a holiday party I hosted the next night. My addition of apple cider to the mix -- a tip from my coworker -- helps tone down the harshness of the wine as it heats up and becomes more potent.

Tip: Conveniently assemble this before your guests arrive so they can't tell you're dumping the cheap stuff in this. Trader Joe's Charles Shaw "Two-Buck Chuck" works perfectly!

Spicy, Hot Mulled Wine-Cider
(don't fret, all amounts are scrappable and flexible)

2 750mL-bottles of dry red wine, i.e. Cabernet Sauvignon
750 mL apple cider or apple juice, to taste
1/2 cup brown sugar, to taste
1 orange, sliced, rind reserved
3 cinnamon sticks, broken in half
20 whole cloves
8 whole allspice
4 peppercorns
pinch grated nutmeg

cheesecloth
4-quart slow cooker*

Pour two bottles of wine into slow cooker.

Add apple cider to slow cooker a little bit at a time, tasting to determine desired potency and flavor. Set slow cooker to high heat.

Peel rind from orange with a vegetable peeler, avoiding white pith, so it forms strips.

Rinse and wring a 12"x12" square of cheesecloth. Add orange rind, cloves, allspice and peppercorns. Bundle into a small sack, tie off with kitchen string or strip of cloth and add to slow cooker to seep.

Slice used orange -- or a new orange, to preserve the pretty orange-rind border -- into rounds and add, along with cinnamon sticks and pinch of nutmeg, to slow cooker.

Add brown sugar a little bit at a time to slow cooker and stir, tasting to determine desired sweetness.

Slow cooker may take up to 3 hours at high heat to sufficiently warm the liquid. Once mulled wine has reached desired temperature and flavor, turn heat to low and remove spice sack, respectively.

Makes about 20 mug-fulls.

*Can be made over low heat on the stove. However, take great care not to allow the wine to come to a boil, or you will lose all the warm, alcohol-y goodness.

Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting

I first made my red velvet cupcakes using this recipe for whipped cream cheese frosting. Light, airy and cream cheesy, the flavor and texture was delicious. We piped the yumminess onto the cupcakes as if dispensing fro-yo and the interplay between the flavors of the cake and the frosting was unmatched. Unfortunately, our spirals didn't hold up too well once they sat outside of the refrigerator for too long, even in the cooler air of a California winter. It is for that reason alone that I now stick to the very stable Sprinkles' Cream Cheese Frosting for my red velvet cupcake needs.

Still, this frosting was good -- fuller and richer than a frosting without the whipped cream. Use this frosting for any cake that will have a close relationship with the fridge.

Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting
(from allrecipes.com)

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1 cup white sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

Beat whipping cream until stiff peaks form.

In a separate bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar, salt and vanilla. Fold in whipped cream.

Frosts 24 cupcakes.

Shortcut German Chocolate Cake

I like taking shortcuts by using things like boxed cake mix because, well, it's easier that way. I will agree that everything tastes better fresher (when a good cook is involved), so feel free to make the cake part of this recipe from scratch by grabbing the original recipe from allrecipes.

But if you want a quick, impressive cake coated in a delicious frosting -- and only want to buy half the ingredients -- try my take.

Shortcut German Chocolate Cake
(based on allrecipes.com German Chocolate Cake III; contains alterations)

1 box German chocolate cake mix

1 cup white sugar
1 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup butter
3 egg yolks, beaten
1 1/3 cups flaked coconut
1 cup chopped pecans
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 bar good quality milk or dark chocolate

Follow directions for cake mix and bake in two round, 9-inch pans. Cool for 10 minutes and turn out onto plate, parchment paper or rack.

Combine sugar, evaporated milk, butter and egg yolks in saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until bubbling and thickened. Remove from heat and stir in coconut, pecans and vanilla. Cool until thick enough to spread.

Spread cooled frosting between two layers and on top of cake.*

Melt chocolate in a double boiler and drizzle decoratively over frosted cake.

*Double frosting recipe if you would like to also coat the sides of the cake in frosting.

Sprinkles' Cream Cheese Frosting

Yes, this is the same deliciously sweet frosting that tops those $3.50 cupcakes at Sprinkles Cupcakes. The cake maker sells a ready-made cupcake mix at Williams-Sonoma and prints this frosting recipe on the back of the pack. Eat your heart out.

Best paired with Shortcut Red Velvet Cake, or a finger.

Sprinkles' Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz cream cheese
4 oz butter
3 3/4 cup (= 1 lb box) confectioner's sugar, sifted*
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt

Cream the butter, cheese and salt in a stand mixer until light and fluffy.

Gradually add the sugar until incorporated, then add the vanilla.

Frosts 24 cupcakes.

*This is a lot of sugar. You can decrease by at least 3/4 cup for still very good results. After adding only 2 cups of sugar, you'll wonder, "What? Only halfway done?" But yes, if you make this recipe as is, all the sugar ensures that you can touch the frosting without getting your fingers sticky. Miraculous. Delicious.

Shortcut Red Velvet Cupcakes

We here in L.A. are spoiled with delectable cupcakes in the Red Velvet department from Beverly Hills' Sprinkles and yummy brunch place Doughboys, but there ain't nothin' like homemade (or shortcut homemade).

This recipe came from much research and testing by my friend Lisa and me earlier this year in preparation for a surprise party for our mutual friend Stella. With Valentine's day just a few days away, we repeated the exercise for that red-tinged holiday for cute results -- mine taking the form of a self-sculpted broken heart cake that time. For Christmas this year, I recreated the recipe with another heaping of food coloring for red and green velvet cupcakes.

Delicious with both whipped cream cheese frosting (needs to be refrigerated to remain solid enough to hold up) or Sprinkles' recipe for cream cheese frosting.

Shortcut Red Velvet Cupcakes
(based on allrecipes.com's Red Velvet Cake III; contains alterations)

1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
1 (3.5 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
1 ounce red food coloring (why, yes, that is a whole bottle)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup water
1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar
4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Line cupcake pan with paper liners.

Blend all ingredients, adding food coloring after everything else has been incorporated. Pour into cupcake pan.

Bake about 15 minutes for cupcakes, checking often.

Cool. Frost.

Makes about 23 cupcakes.