Fudge Striped Shortbread Cookies

One of my husband's favorite cookies are Keebler Fudge Stripes. I decided that I'd make him some super special Fudge Striped cookies for Valentine's Day. You start with a simple shortbread cookie recipe and then add some melted chocolate, not nearly as daunting as I thought they might be.

To make your own Fudge Striped Shortbread at home you will need:

For the Cookies:

2 sticks of softened butter
1/2 cup vanilla sugar (you could also use 1/2 cup regular sugar and add in 1 tsp vanilla flavor instead)
2 cups flour (plus extra for rolling out your cookies/dusting your cookie cutters)

For the Fudge Stripes:

1 cup chopped dark chocolate
2 Tablespoons butter or coconut oil

Start by creaming your butter and sugar together in a bowl. Once the butter is light and fluffy and all the sugar us mixed in, add your flour and mix until incorporated. Pour your dough onto a floured surface and knead until smooth. Make your dough into a disk shape, cover with plastic wrap and allow to chill for about 30 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees (F). Take your dough out of the refrigerator and roll it out to about 1/4" thick on a floured surface with a floured rolling pin.

Select your cookie cutters (I chose the heart shapes above) and cut out your cookie shapes. Some of my heart shaped cutters are quite large, so I used a smaller cookie cutter to cut out another heart in the center. I will admit, one thing I never liked about fudge stripe cookies is that they have a hole in the middle, I want MORE cookie, not less. If you agree with me, then you can leave all of your cookies without the center cutout.

Place your cookies onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for 20-25 minutes, until they just start to brown a little around the edges. Once done, take out and place on a cooling rack until completely cool, mix up your chocolate for dipping while you wait.

I melt my chocolate in the microwave, but you can use a double boiler if you like. Just put your chopped up chocolate into a microwave safe bowl and add your butter or coconut oil. Microwave at 30 second intervals, stirring between each. It takes about 1 minute 30 seconds for all of my chocolate to melt (I stir as much as possible each time, if you need another 30 seconds don't feel bad-it happens).

Once you have your cooled cookies, dip the bottoms of each cookie into the chocolate and place them back onto some parchment (I even put mine on a cool baking sheet and then stick them in the refrigerator to help them set up faster). To make the stripes, I put the remaining chocolate into a sandwich bag, snip off a teeny tiny corner of the bag and use it to pipe on the stripes. These don't have to be prefect, because they are delicious either way. If you don';t want to mess with stripes, you can also just dunk the entire cookie in chocolate!

If you want to see some more "in progress" shots of these guys you can check them out on my Instagram. Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day Sampler on Tuts+

I'm working on a bunch of projects for National Letter Writing month, but in the meantime you may want to check out the Valentine's Day Sampler I created for Tuts+. It is super easy, so even a beginner can whip it up in no time. The pattern and some helpful tips are all included in the tutorial.

Look for some more tutorials from me up on their site in the coming months, as well as new additions to the stitch library here on The Craftinomicon.

Dark Chocolate Peppermint Truffles

Oh, hello there! Guess who remembered she writes a blog? Yeah, I've been MIA for a few reasons and now I'm back for more crafty fun. First I thought I'd beg your forgiveness by sharing these yummy truffles with you. Am I forgiven? Excellent.

Not only did the holidays get me bogged down, I also changed up my work life by quitting one job to go Full Time at the other! Yay! I'm super happy about it, but I have had to adjust to a new schedule, which now allows me to actually see my husband more than a few minutes each day while we are both awake. Don't worry too much, I have lots of crafty projects I am working on that I will share with you soon. Now, on to the truffles.

These are super easy, to make them all you need is:

1 pound of dark chocolate
1 cup heavy cream (you can substitute full fat coconut milk for the vegans in the house)
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
1/2 cup crushed peppermint sticks (I prefer the soft peppermint sticks, but you could use candy canes as well)

Start by chopping up your chocolate into small pieces, you want them to be as small and as uniform in size as possible so they melt evenly. Once the chocolate is all chopped up, pour it into a heat safe bowl.

Next, heat your cream in a small saucepan on the stove top. Stir continuously to prevent scorching. Your cream should be all ready to go once small bubbles start forming around the edges of the pan, we aren't bringing this to a boil, just getting it nice and hot.

Add your teaspoon of peppermint extract to the chocolate, then pour all of your cream on top. Don't stir yet, just let it all hang out for about 3-5 minutes. Then, go ahead and stir slowly and watch all the chocolate and cream melt together into yummy truffle goodness. If you have some small chunks that don't melt all the way, you can pop this in the microwave for 10 second intervals and stir after each one until your mixture is nice and smooth.

Let this stand for about an hour, then scoop out small balls of chocolate and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet. If your truffles need to firm up more before dipping them in crushed peppermint candy, refrigerate them for about 10 minutes. Otherwise, you can start dipping them right away and place them in the refrigerator to set up afterward.
Keep them in an air tight container in the refrigerator and they last a couple weeks (well, if they actually stay in there that long). If you plan to server these at a get together, I generally take them out of the fridge an hour ahead of time and serve them room temperature. SO GOOD!

With Valentine's Day on the way, I have another remix on these you could try: Instead of peppermint extract add a couple Tablespoons of Amaretto and then roll these in sliced almonds! You can also mix up your chocolate flavors: dark, milk, bittersweet, just make sure you have a pound of chocolate (chocolate chips will taste fine if it's all you have, but the stabilizers in them will make your final chocolate mixture a little grainy looking, so go forthe big chocolate blocks if you can).

Valentine Breakfast: French Toast

Here is another great Valentine's Breakfast idea: heart shaped French Toast. A heart shaped cookie cutter helps make these easy to do for anyone, even the kids can help.

To make this yummy French Toast you will need:

Bread of choice (I used French Bread)
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon milk
1 pinch cinnamon
heart shaped cookie cutter

Start by making your coating. Mix your eggs, milk, vanilla and cinnamon together in a bowl.

Next, cut your hearts out of your bread. Dip each piece and place onto a hot skillet to cook, flip to cook both sides. Each side usually takes around a minute for me on a medium heat. Plate and top with whatever you like: fresh fruit, syrup, jam, powdered sugar, etc.

To avoid waste, sometimes I use the outer parts of my bread as french toast as well, put jam on my hearts and place them back inside like so:

If French Toast isn't quite your style, you can also use a cookie cutter to make yourself some biscuits, cut out bread for sandwiches, etc.

Valentine Breakfast: Scones

I'm bringing some extra food crafts this weekend in honor of Valentine's Day. I'll start off with this easy scone recipe. It makes some super yummy, tender scones and you can substitute in berries, dried fruits and more to make any flavor you like. Also, while a lot of scone recipes call for cutting in cold butter, these use melted butter and make a spoonable batter. Easy for you, yummy for the ones you love :)

To make these super yummy scones you will need:

1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional--I really love cinnamon with chocolate)
1 pinch salt
1 cup chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate, you can use any chocolate fruit etc you like)
1 Tablespoon butter, melted
1 cup heavy cream

extra cinnamon and sugar to top (optional)


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, mix together your flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Pour in chocolate chips and toss around to coat them with the flour mixture (this will help keep them suspended in your scones).

Make a small well in the middle of your flour and pour in your cream and melted butter. Stir until all ingredients come together, batter will resemble a very thick pancake batter.

Using a large dough scoop or spoon, scoop scones onto baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Sprinkle tops with cinnamon sugar mixture if desired. Bake in 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes, or until slightly golden on top. Makes 10-12 scones.

Enjoy!

February Giveaway! (WINNER ANNOUNCED)

Those of you who read my newsletter already know that I was planning a giveaway for early February, and here it is! I have been steadily writing on this blog for just over a year now, and thought it would be nice to celebrate my blog birthday, Valentine's Day and being crafty in general all at once!

Being that everyone has different crafty endeavors, I have decided that the winner will get to CHOOSE their prize from a list I have compiled. So here are your choices:

1) $25 gift card to JoAnn Fabrics - get yourself whatever crafty supplies you may need!

2) $25 gift card to Chronicle Books - get inspired by some of the most beautifully made books around, they also have some neat kits and stationery. Plus, if cooking is more your thing, they have some amazing cookbooks!


3) Don't feel like getting a gift card? Let me know what kind of crafts you are most interested in and I will go on a mini $25 shopping spree for you and select some great products to send right to your door! Maybe you want to learn embroidery after my recent tutorials, maybe you are a scrap booking genius, just let me know!

Now, how to enter?

Leave a comment on this post letting me know which prize you'd most like and why! If you choose option 3, include what kind of crafts you most like so I can get appropriate items for you. Make sure your email is included so I can reach you if you are the winner!

If you follow me on Facebook or subscribe to my newsletter, leave an extra comment on this post saying so for an extra chance to win.

This giveaway is open Internationally, please allow extra time for delivery outside the U.S.

Giveaway entries must be received no later than 12 pm (noon) PST on 2/14/2012.

Giveaway sponsored by me, myself and I. I am not endorsed by JoAnn or Chronicle Books, I just shop there when the mood strikes. All prizes are purchased by me.



Thank you very much to all who entered! A winner has been chosen and it is #4, Ali!

Congratulations, Ali! I will be emailing you for shipping information.

Embroidery How To: Couching

Today is my final embroidery tutorial, and as previously mentioned it is on couching. Couching is basically using one thread the sew another thread into place, so to do it you will need two lengths of thread.

I start, as usual, by drawing my pattern onto my fabric. Since Valentine's Day is coming up, and I haven't really done any Valentine's projects yet (How is it February already?) I decided to go with this little heart.

Next, you will need a length of thread long enough to go all the way around your pattern. Thread your needle, tie a knot in the end and pull it through wherever you would like to start your pattern. I'm starting at the bottom of my heart.

Then, thread your second needle, knot the end and pull it through slightly ahead of where you started your first. This thread is going to be used to sew your first thread into place along your pattern lines. I try to space my stitches with this second thread as evenly as possible. To go around curves, you may need to make your stitches a bit more closely together to keep a smooth curve.

Simply pull your needle up through your fabric, then sew it back through with your first thread ending up wrapped neatly by your second.

Continue on, spacing your stitches as evenly as possible. If you come to a space in your pattern that has a sharp angle, like the top of my heart, make sure that you place a holding stitch on that point. Couching makes it very easy to do embroidery in a single line that can make very tight turns because of the anchoring stitches that hold your actual line in place.

Once finished, you will sew your original thread back to the back of your fabric at your ending point, and tie it off. I generally tie the ends of my first and second threads together into a knot on the back. Voila! Your finished heart!

For those who are curious, the back of your project will look a bit like this:

I hope you enjoyed my mini series on embroidery! This month will be filled with lots of new projects like more paper flowers, some cute crafts for babies, a couple more Valentine's and much more!

DIY Magazine Envelopes

As promised, here is a tutorial on making your own envelopes for stationery sets. While this template makes a rectangular envelope, you could certainly modify it to make squares as well, and as usual this image is scalable (the actual jpg is quite small, I printed it at 250% to make the cute envelopes shown in the tutorial--I just like cutesy small stuff, my original envelopes were much larger).


To make these envelopes you will need:

Paper or magazine pages of your choosing.
scissors or an X-Acto knife
a ruler
Envelope template (below)
glue (elmer's or glue sticks work just fine--if you do not have glue, you can go without and use stickers to close your envelope as well)

Start by printing the following template to your desired size:

Cut out your template and trace it onto your paper of choice. You could use scrap booking paper, thicker card stock, magazines, maps, old book pages, etc. For this tutorial I decided to use a jewelry advertisement from a magazine. The rose and jewelry are very Valentine's Day appropriate, don't you think? You could also use home and decor magazines to make envelopes for a housewarming party, or wedding magazine's for wedding invites and thank you's!

Once your image is cut out, as show above, you will want to take a ruler or other straight edge to aid you in folding your envelope flaps in evenly. I generally use the ruler as a guide and push my paper up against it to give me a general line of where my fold will go. If using thicker paper, you can gently score your paper to give a more defined guide, just be careful not to cut all the way through.

Now, you will want to fold all the flaps in with a harder crease. Turn your envelope over to the "pretty side" to decide which end you want to be the top and bottom. I generally like to fold over a straight edge on my "bottom" flap, but you can always leave all the points if you like that look.

Now, you will use your glue (very little is needed, so I generally use a brush to make a thin layer, or use glue stick) to glue down the bottom flap to the two side flaps. Here is your finished envelope!

If mailing these, I use white address labels to make it easy to read. You could also use white or silver paint pens on dark envelopes like this, just make sure to print clearly so the postal service can get it where it needs to go.

Friday Food Craft: Dark Chocolate Truffles

Feast your eyes on these! In honor, yet again, of Valentine's Day I decided to throw you yet another gift idea: Dark Chocolate Truffles. You can certainly change up the recipe a little bit depending on your taste, but I assure you these are super easy and VERY delicious.

You will need:

1/2 pound (8oz.) dark chocolate (I get mine in the bulk bins at the grocery store)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1 Tablespoon coffee flavored liquor
1/2 tsp vanilla

Cut up your chocolate as finely as you can (try to get uniform pieces so they will all melt the same, or you will get some little chunks). Place the chocolate into a bowl (I use a glass mixing bowl).

In a small saucepan, heat your cream just until it comes to a boil (bubbles will begin forming around the edges). Add the heated cream to the chocolate and allow to sit a few minutes.

Add in your vanilla, cinnamon, cayenne and coffee flavored liquor (you could also use just a Tablespoon of regular fresh brewed coffee). *you do not have to add the cinnamon and cayenne, but I find it adds a nice flavor to the truffles.

Whisk everything together until it is smooth. If you happen to have a few larger chunks, do not fear, you can place the bowl into the microwave for 10 seconds, then remove and stir again. Do this until your mixture is smooth, then allow the bowl to sit at room temperature for 1 hour (and good luck not "tasting" it every time you walk past for that hour).

With a small spoon or cookie scoop, scoop out small balls of the truffle mixture and place on a cookie sheet (to avoid a huge mess I generally line my sheet with parchment or wax paper) and place these into the fridge for 30 minutes to set.

Take out and gently roll to form round balls, then roll these into any coating you want. Pictured below I have toasted coconut, powdered sugar, cocoa, roasted almonds and candy melts (if you want a hard outer coating I highly recommend the candy melts--you can get them in several colors as well). You could also fancy it up with a sprinkling of some salt if you are into the sweet and salty flavor. I have made these several different ways and no one has ever complained.