Holiday Cookies On a Stick

It's October already and I'm sooo excited about it! :)
Holidays are pretty much here!
But personally for me, holidays started as soon as September came around.

I've been basking in the "spirit" by burning my Holiday candles for a month now. :)
This one is a cozy, 3 layer "Our Own Candle Company" candle.
I'm burning through the 2nd, layer as we speak and the whole house is filled with this jolly goodness.

Speaking of goodness!
I am most excited about all the food i will be making for the next 3 months! I have already "broke in" the season with some fun and tasty treats!

These little guys are Cookies On a Stick! They are so fun to make by yourself but they are even more fun to make with someone you love and cherish! Makes for a fun holiday activity! Right about this time every year i regret not having 4 kids of my own by now. It's when the holidays pass that i forget about how fun it would be to start a family. Well a new year is coming! ;)
Back to our Cookie on a stick. They are great for giving and gifting! They also make for a festive center piece on a table!! And nothing beats just eating them off of a stick! Fun! :D




Here's How I made these:

First of all I love it when things are easy and simple!
Though occasionally i do thrive on challenging myself, this time I wanted to keep it very simple. There are harder and fancier ways to make these cookies but not everyone would be able to make them. I wanted you to be inspired to make these on your own too.

Here's what you will need:
1. A sugar cookie recipe
2. Cinnamon powder or even something more fancy like Pumpkin Pie Spice.
3. Small cookie cutters.
4. Paper, pencil, scissors.
5. 12 inch Bamboo Skewers that you can pick up at any grocery store.
6. Cookie sheet and of course an oven.


I used this real simple recipe:

1 cup (or 2 sticks) of butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tablespoon Vanilla Extract
3 cups All-Purpose Flour 
1/2 teaspoon Baking Power
1/2 teaspoon salt


Instructions:
Preheat your oven to 350.

In large bowl, with mixer on low speed, beat the butter and sugar until blended then increase speed to high and beat it until it is light and creamy. Now, on low speed, beat in egg and vanilla into the butter and sugar mixture and put aside.

In a separate bowl, using a spoon, mix your flour, baking powder and salt together. (You are doing this so that the salt and baking powder are evenly distributed in the flour.) Now, take your large bowl with the butter mixture and mix in the flour mixture portion by portion until all of the flour is mixed in.
The dough should be stiff and crumbly as in the last image on the right. Do not refrigerate the dough as you usually would for sugar cookies. These don't need refrigeration.

Now, get your cookie sheet and  spray it with non stick. Pinch off a piece of dough (about a meat ball size) and roll into a balls. Get your bamboo skewer stick and insert it (a little more than halfway) into the cookie dough ball and flatten the ball after the stick is in. Place your next ball of dough on a cookie sheet but keep in mind that the sticks will have to cross each other so arrange your dough balls depending on how your stick will fit on to the sheet. Don't crowd the cookie sheet it is better to have fewer cookies on it as long as there is plenty of space for the sticks.

Next, you will want to decorate the cookies before putting 'em into the oven. I wanted to stencil the designs on to the cookies and wanted to use what i had in the cupboards and in the house. I didn't have stencils but i had small cookie cutters so i traced them and made my own stencils on paper. I used Pumpkin Pie Spice and sugar mix as the topping decoration.  You will mix equal parts of Pumpkin Pie Spice and sugar together into a small bowl. You can also use just Cinnamon powder and sugar. To sprinkle the spice and sugar on you can use a spoon or a small strainer.
Place your stencil design in the center of the flattened cookie dough and carefully sift the spice and sugar mix on top. Gently pat the mixture into the cookie.
Then remove your stencil very carefully and move on to the next cookie.

This is what your cookie should look like before you toss it in the oven. :)

You will bake at 350F for about 10-12 minutes. If your oven is like mine than you will want to check the cookies 8 minutes into it. Better safe than scorched!

The cookies are done when they get golden brown on the edges. When you remove the sheet from the oven let the cookies cool down for about 5 minutes before you take them off the sheet. Do not pull by the stick. Remove by gently twisting the cookie off of the sheet.




I planned to give some of the cookies away because i made a bunch so i wrapped a few of them for gifting. But my hubby has a sweet tooth and the cookies were so good and well...we ended up eating all of them in a few days. haha!



If you are better at giving than me and would want to give some of your cookies away, you can wrap them with saran wrap and tie with a ribbon.


Here's a simple way to do that:
I tore off a square of saran wrap and cut a small hole in the center of it. Then pulled the stick through the wrap, bunched the wrap at the top of the cookie and tied it with a ribbon and there ya have it!

I hope I have inspired you to start this season off with some cookies on a stick! :) 

If it is easier for you to find popsicle/ice-cream sticks at your local grocery store than you can use those too. I just used what was available at my grocery store.

I already have another holiday goodie in mind for my next blog, so come back soon!!

~the end~