Mixed Fruit Tartlets

I've had some packs of mini graham cracker crusts sitting in my pantry for awhile.  You know how it is.  You see them at the grocery store and buy them because you can use them to make something really yummy to take to a get-together.  But then life happens and you never get around to making that yummy thing to share (and instead run to the grocery store where you buy that plastic box of baked goods from the bakery).  And there the mini graham cracker crusts sit, patiently waiting on the shelf for months until you finally decide it's about darn time they get used.  (Thank goodness they have a long shelf life!)

The other day, an email from Pillsbury showed up in my inbox with a great recipe for a Mixed Berry Cream Tart.  While it didn't call for using mini graham cracker crusts, I immediately realized this would be the perfect way to use up those crusts before they expired....plus I needed something to take to a 4th of July BBQ and what could be better than mini berry cream pies?!

I ended up making a few changes to the recipe...partly because I let the kids at the container of strawberries and they ate over half of it before I remembered I needed them for the dessert.  Still, they were super simple to make and even better to eat!

4thof July Cookies

So I've been meaning to try making a batch of chocolate sugar cookies.  I've never tasted one (I know!) but I figured they can't be bad...I mean they have chocolate in them for goodness sakes!  But as the Fourth crept nearer, I figured I'd have to put them on the back burner.  In my head, it just didn't make sense to make 4th of July cookies using chocolate dough.  But then the chocolate craving started to elbow it's way in and the next thing you know, I'm online, searching through my extensive list of cookie blogs to find the  recipe for chocolate sugar cookies....and of course I couldn't for the life of me remember which blog I found it on.  I finally came across this entry:  The End-All Chocolate Cookie Recipe over at LilaLoa.  I know it wasn't the one I was looking for but a) it was a chocolate cookie recipe, and b) she touted it as the best one ever...the one all the cool kids are doing.  Made me laugh I guess because her enthusiasm reminded me of me.  No need to search any further...this would be the one I tried.  The dough was amazingly easy to make, even easier to work with and with only a 6 minute cook time, I think I might just have to make chocolate sugar cookies all the time!

As for what shapes to cut out, that was a toughie...I have seen SO many different 4th of July cookies this past week out in blog land.  I settled for using my flag cutter (that I bought for another occasion and never got the chance to use), a scalloped round and a small star.

It's funny how the end cookie result isn't always what I pictured in the beginning.  I'm sure a lot of that has to do with procrastinating and then being rushed to finish the cookies.  Of course, this was the case again.  My flags came out okay, but if I had had more time, I would have done them differently and I think they would have looked better.  Still, I can't complain...they don't look that bad.  As for the scalloped rounds, those I envisioned as being fire works.  In the past several days, I saw numerous references to the Martha Steward "firework" cookies that are on the front of this month's Martha Stewart Living, so I figured I'd have to give those a try.  They were pretty easy to make and turned out very nice, but I think I like my version of a firework better.  They look less like a flower and more like what you would seeing bursting in the sky...if you didn't live in Texas where it is drier than the desert and has resulted in the cancellation of all fireworks.  We'll just have to settle for cookies.

As for all the stars I had to decorate, let me start by saying I'm not sure what I was thinking when I cut them all out.  Staring at the pile of undecorated cookies, I started to dread the daunting task before me.  But in the end, it was the stars I enjoyed decorating the best.  I'm not sure which style I like the best, but I like how they look with the tiny hearts on them...especially the ones with the tiny burst of hearts in the middle...again, they kind of remind me of fireworks.

Overall, I'd have to say I am VERY pleased with how my cookies turned out.  I cannot wait for the next holiday...bring on the start of school!!!

4th of July Cake Pops

First off, I just have to say that the person who invented the cake ball is just pure genius.  I love that I can use all my "leftovers" to whip up such an amazing dessert in such a perfect, bit-sized package.  For this attempt, I used scraps of my red, white and blue cake mixed with strawberry and vanilla icing leftover from Maddie's birthday.  They are dipped in white chocolate and sprinkled with Wilton's Patriotic Mix.

As a funny aside, I was having trouble locating a red, white and blue sprinkle mix.  I did find a red and white mixture from Wilton but what are patriotic cake balls without blue sprinkles?!  So I decided to improvise...I had a large container of mixed sprinkles and I spent the last 2 days (with a little help from the kids) sorting through it to get out all of the blue sprinkles.  This afternoon, before I assembled the cake balls, I made a quick trip to HEB to get some things I forgot on yesterday's trip, and of course this is when I found the container of patriotic sprinkles....go figure!

Anyway, I'm am slowly learning how to make the perfect cake ball, but I have to admit that dipping those darn things is a lot harder than it looks...at least if you are going for perfection.  I decided to go the cake pop route because I thought this would make them easier to dip.  My guess is it is, but I think I might have used a little too much icing, because the batter was a little on the moist side, the balls didn't firm up as much as I would have liked them to and they kept slipping off the sticks.  Still, I managed to only completely destroy four out of the entire bunch and ended up with half-way decent looking cake balls.  Maybe I just need to sign up for a cake ball class so someone can show me how simple it really is.