Pink Peppermint Cookies Food

PEPPERMINT MELTAWAYS

Steps:

• In a small bowl, cream butter and confectioners' sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in extract. In another bowl, whisk flour and cornstarch; gradually beat into creamed mixture. Refrigerate, covered, 30 minutes or until firm enough to handle., Preheat oven to 350°. Shape dough into 1-in. balls; place 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake 9-11 minutes or until bottoms are light brown. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool completely., In a small bowl, beat butter until creamy. Beat in milk, extract and, if desired, food coloring. Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar until smooth. Spread over cookies; sprinkle with crushed candies. Store in an airtight container.

PINK PEPPERMINT MELT-A-WAYS

Steps:

• 1. In a medium size bowl, combine the flour and cornstarch, then set the bowl aside.
• 2. In a large bowl cream together until light and fluffy, the butter and the 1/2 cup of powdered sugar.
• 3. Mix in the peppermint extract.
• 4. Gradually add the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture, and mix well.
• 5. Thoroughly mix the food coloring into the cookie dough.
• 6. At this point, I refrigerate the cookie dough (in a bowl covered with aluminum foil), so the dough firms up enough to shape into dough balls. This may take anywhere from 1-2 hours. (I let mine set overnight in the refrigerator, and bake mine the next day when I have the time.) I then let the dough sit on the counter (in the bowl covered with foil) for about an hour, before making the cookies.
• 7. When ready to bake the cookies, heat your oven to 350º F. And in a shallow bowl, add the 1-1/2 cups powdered sugar. Set the bowl aside. (Use more powdered sugar if need be.)
• 8. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
• 9. Shape the cookie dough into 1-inch balls. (I used a small cookie scoop which is equivalent to 1 tablespoon to make each cookie, then shape the cookie dough into 1" balls.)
• 10. Place the dough balls 2-inches apart on the parchment lined baking sheets.
• 11. Place baking sheets in the oven, and bake for about 13 minutes (until the bottoms of cookies are lightly brown) then remove from oven, and let cookies set 2 minutes on baking sheet before removing them to a wire rack.
• 12. Gently roll the warm cookies in the powdered sugar, then place the powdered coated cookies back on the wire racks.
• 13. Once the cookies have cooled slightly, gently roll them again in the powdered sugar, and place them back on the wire racks to finish cooling.
• 14. Note: I had noticed after baking 2 sheets of cookies, the cookie dough was becoming soft, so I place the remaining cookie dough back in the refrigerator, so it could firm up a bit, then finished baking the cookies. Also, once these cookies had cooled, I then place them in a container (such as Tupperware or Rubbermaid) and in the freezer, as these cookies do keep well if stored in the freezer. I then only take out a few cookies at a time when I want to serve them.

PEPPERMINT MUFFIN-TIN COOKIES

Steps:

• Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl. Beat the sugar and butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer, or in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in the vanilla and peppermint extracts and the egg. Turn the mixer to low speed, add the flour mixture and mix until completely incorporated, 1 to 2 minutes.
• Remove half of the dough and set aside. Add 5 to 6 drops of the red food coloring to the remaining dough in the mixer bowl and mix on low speed until completely incorporated.
• Alternating between the red and white doughs, spoon 8 heaping 1/4 teaspoon-sized pieces of dough (4 red and 4 white) into the bottom of each of the 12 cups of a standard muffin tin. Press to flatten the dough so the red and white pieces intermingle and form a slight tie-dye look. Place 1 frozen peppermint patty on top of and in the middle of each dough round, pressing very gently into the dough but making sure it does not break through and touch the bottom of the pan. Spoon 8 more heaping 1/4 teaspoon-sized pieces of dough (4 red and 4 white), alternating the colors, on top of each peppermint patty and press to flatten and completely cover the peppermint patties.
• Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of the red and white sprinkles on top of the dough in each muffin cup to completely cover it. Refrigerate until the dough is firm, about 1 hour (or freeze until firm, about 20 minutes).
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Bake until the edges are just starting to turn golden, 13 to 15 minutes. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then use an offset spatula to remove the cookies from the pan to a wire rack to cool completely, about 30 minutes.

PEPPERMINT MERINGUES

Steps:

• Position oven racks in the top and bottom thirds of the oven and preheat to 250 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Beat the egg whites and salt with an electric mixer on medium-high speed in a large bowl until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and continue to beat until soft peaks form. While beating, add the sugar 1 tablespoon at a time. Continue to beat until stiff peaks form. Beat in the peppermint.
• Fold the top of a pastry bag fitted with a round tip over and down a few inches. Dip a paintbrush in the food coloring. Starting inside the pastry tip, brush a stroke of food coloring from the tip to the top of the bag. Repeat with 3 more evenly spaced strokes. Fill the bag with the meringue; try to spoon it directly into the center so as not to smudge the food coloring (though some smudging is inevitable). Pipe 1-inch-diameter mounds of meringue spaced 1 inch apart onto the prepared baking sheets.
• Bake until the meringues are no longer glossy and feel light and dry when picked up, about 1 hour. Open the oven for a few minutes, then turn it off and shut the door. Leave the meringues in the oven until they are completely dry inside, about 2 hours. The meringues can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days.

PERFECT PEPPERMINT PATTIES

Steps:

• In a large bowl, combine the first 4 ingredients. Add milk and mix well. Roll into 1-in. balls and place on a waxed paper-lined baking sheet. Flatten with a glass to 1/4-in. thickness. Cover and freeze for 30 minutes. , Microwave chocolate chips and shortening on high until melted; stir until smooth. Dip patties, allowing excess to drip off. Place on waxed paper; let stand until set.

PEPPERMINT COOKIES WITH BAKING AMMONIA

Steps:

• Beat together eggs and sugar until white, then add sour cream and oil.
• In a cup, mix baking ammonia and warm milk, then pour into first mixture.
• Add peppermint extract and mix well.
• Add salt, baking powder and flour.
• The dough should be very soft.
• Refrigerate overnight.
• The next day roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thickness and cut with cookie cutters(I used a 2 inch round cookie cutter).
• Before baking, place a 9 x 13 inch cake pan full of water at the bottom of the oven.
• Bake at 400°F for 8- 10 minutes(for my convection oven I found this a bit too hot, I used 375°F for 8 minutes.).
• Cookies must remain white.
• Ice cookies after they have cooled, with a glace.
• You can use a pastry brush to apply the glace.

PINK PEPPERMINT PIE

Steps:

• In saucepan, over low heat, combine marshmallows and milk. Stirring constnat, just until marshmallows are melted and mixture is smooth.
• Remove from heat, add vanilla, salt, peppermint extract, and food coloring.
• Refrigerate, stirring occasionally, until mixture mounds slightly when dropped from spoon.
• Beat whipping cream in chilled bowl until stiff.
• Stir peppermint mixture, and then fold into whipping cream. Pour into crust and refrigerate at least 12 hours.
• Garnish with peppermint candy just before serving.