Day 3 - Ten Days of Turkey

This being Wednesday, it's time to share a recipe.  Only this one isn't so much a recipe as it is a concept.  If you are a follower, you remember reading about me purchasing some leaf cookie cutters in this post.  They were actually sought and bought for this project. 

I wanted to have some fall cookies for the kids. I had visions of beautifully decorated sugar cookies nestled into my children's lunch sacks.  Me in an apron with many bowls of tinted decoraters icing delicately decorating these cookies.  Then reality hit.  I don't own an apron, and I am so NOT a patient person.  So instead I came up with these:

I think they turned out very "Fall-y"  although I came to another realization while rolling and cutting out the cookies.  I don't particularly like rolling and cutting cookies!  That lead to the creation of these:

which may not look as appealing, but in my opinion these were the better of the two.  So this weeks Wecipe Wednesday is a 2fer.

You will need your favorite sugar cookie recipe.  Here is mine

Prepare your recipe.  For the leaves roll out the dough to about 1/4 of an inch and using a large cutter, cut out your leaf shapes.  Bake according to the recipe directions and allow to cool.
With the remaining dough, form round balls using about a tablespoon of dough each by rolling it in the palms of your hands.  Use your thumb to create an indent in the top of each ball.  Here comes the twist.  Open a can of cranberry sauce (regular or whole berry, your choice)  spoon about 1/4 teaspoon of sauce out and place it in the indent of each cookie.  Flatten the sauce out slightly.  Bake using the same time and temperature as for the cutout cookies.  When they come out of the oven you may need to press the jelly down again. 
Back to the leaves.  Put about 2 tablespoons of corn syrup in a small bowl.  (one bowl per color you want to use)  add about 1/2 teaspoon water and a few drops of food coloring.  Mix.  Using a clean, never used for paint paintbrush apply the lightest color first.  You don't need to be neat, just brush it on and cover the cookie.  I will say that you don't want to soak the cookie, but you don't need to be neat with this either.  Once you have painted all the cookies, go back and add another color.  I found it best to add the second color to the outside edges of the leaves and then kind of drag the color towards the middle of the cookie.  But feel free to experiment.  When done painting allow cookies to sit and for the color to soak in.  The syrup will leave the cookies with a glossy shine and depending on how much syrup you applied they may be tacky.  To add veins I used a food safe marker but you can also use straight food coloring and a toothpick.
Our favorite of the two is the cranberry cookies.  They are sweet with a tang to them.  But H claims that her classmates liked the looks of the leaves better.  Would love to see your leaves!

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Until next time,