THE VIDEO:

5 Ways to Use Melted HERSHEY’S Chocolate

First, I made a video on 5 Ways to Use Melted Chocolate, HERE, with the HERSHEY’S kitchen team. I melt  HERSHEY’S Premier White Chocolate Chips, Milk Chocolate and Semi-Sweet Chips to make chocolate snowflake cupcake toppers, to fill holiday molds, to drizzle over treats, to make marshmallow dippers and to make cute Rudolph pretzel rods. I promise despite my dull tone, I really AM excited to be there? I never said I was a TV natural, folks. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve said that I’m a nervous wreck when the cameras go on.

Some more tips:

Melting Chocolate. Melt chocolate either in the microwave or on the stove-top. On the stove-top, use a double boiler or rest a bowl over a pan of simmering water to slowly melt the chocolate chips and to avoid direct heat. Or, nuke in a microwave-safe bowl at 50 percent power for 1 1/2 minutes, then 30 second intervals, until melted. My favorite method is to nuke directly in a disposable decorating bag. Easy clean-up and total control over piping. Snip from 1/8-inch to 1/4-inch from the tip of the decorating bag to pipe.

Chocolate Snowflakes. After lining a baking tray with parchment paper, I just piped white chocolate snowflakes, topped immediately with white sprinkles, and refrigerated until set.

Chocolate Molds and Drizzling Chocolate. The decorating bags make filling holiday molds super easy. No spoons and drips and drops! And using the bags, you can easily control a chocolate “drizzle” by piping back and forth over cookies, cupcakes, brownies, pretzels, anything that goes with chocolate.

Marshmallow Dippers. Here, I just skewer a marshmallow, dip in melted chocolate, then roll in a mixture of HERSHEY’S Cocoa and granulated sugar. You can also roll in crushed candy canes or in finely chopped HERSHEY’S candy bars. I think the Cookies n’ Creme would be perfect.

Rudolph Pretzel Rods. To make these cuties, I first melted HERSHEY’S white chocolate chips in a decorating bag and piped antlers on a baking tray lined with parchment. Then, I dipped a pretzel rod in a bowl of melted HERSHEY’s Milk Chocolate chips and immediately lay on top of the antlers. Add two candy eyes (found at the craft store) and a red candy nose, refrigerate to set, and you have Rudy!

THE PHOTO SHOOT:

HERSHEY’S HUGS Sugar and Spice Blossom Cookies on a Stick: A Gift Idea for Your Kids’ Class

Next up, I had an assignment.  To come up with a gift idea for packaging my favorites, the HERSHEY’S HUGS Sugar and Spice Blossoms, as a sweet treat to bring to your child’s class. Yeah, cookies and lollipop sticks and HERSHEY’S Kisses. Tough assignment, huh? Bringing treats to your child’s class poses a unique challenge. You need to bake in bulk, usually quickly and cost efficiently (if you’re like me, a mom with limited time and funds). You need to package the cookies just as quickly and cost efficiently, but still appealing to little hands, which also means packaging one, small cookie to look bigger. My go-to with kids? You know the answer. Lollipop sticks. If it’s possible to put anything on a stick, put it on a stick. To make these, simply, insert a lollipop stick–found at the craft store–into the ball of cookie dough on the tray. Bake as usual, add your HUGS, and let the cookies cool completely and the chocolate set well before packaging in cellophane bags with ribbons and tags.

MORE PLACES TO VISIT:

Be sure to check out my PINTEREST page on holiday sweets with HERSHEY’S products.

Find more information HERE at Cookie Headquarters.

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Sparkle, shimmer and glitter! Despite the annoying specks of glitter that inevitably will sit for weeks on your carpet. And your table. And your hands. And your forehead, I love the sparkle and shimmer of glitter. That’s why I use sprinkles so much when I decorate cookies (that and it’s an easy decorating tool that covers mistakes). So when I got the best box of holiday packaging awesomeness from EK Success Brands to test for this GIVEAWAY over at my other gig, Edible Crafts, I was thrilled to get a 24-set of Martha Stewart Crafts glitter. Um, for free. And that stuff is expensive. I also got all kinds of packaging and decor for the holidays, including Martha Stewart Crafts glitter set,  bakeable trays, treat boxes, beverage labels, treat bags, garland, Christmas light window clings, and Jolee’s Boutique Christmas lights stickers.

And one of you can win the same! This giveaway is hosted by Edible Crafts at Craft Gossip, so you MUST enter over there. Find the details and enter HERE.

how to make glittery mason jars of cookies

to make the mason jars, you will need:*

Martha Stewart Crafts glitter

craft glue

paint brush

mason jars

wax or freezer paper

*I used the small mason jars, 6-ounces, available at grocery stores, craft stores and some hardware stores, but you can use any size you like.

What to do: Cover your surface with wax or freezer paper. Remove the two parts of the mason jar lid. Paint both parts with craft glue and immediately coat with glitter. I used the green, purple, red and blue glitter. Turn over to remove excess and set aside to dry completely. I funneled the excess glitter back in to the glitter container to save what I could.

to make the sparkly cookies, you will need:*

cookie dough

royal icing

circle cookie cutter, 1 1/4- inch

food coloring to match glitter lids

matching sprinkles for each color

disposable decorating bags

couplers

size “4″ or “5″ decorating tips

*I suggest Americolor Soft Gel Pastes (Red Red, Electric Green, Electric Purple, and Sky Blue used here). Find the cookie cutter (perhaps as part of a set), decorating bags, couplers, tips and sprinkles in the craft store. For tips on basic cookie decorating, click HERE.

What to do: Prepare cookie dough according to the recipe, chill, and cut out little circles. Let cool completely. Prepare icing, divide and tint preferred colors. Prepare decorating bags with couplers and tips, fill with the icing colors and close with rubber bands. Working with one color at a time, pipe and fill a circle of icing on a cookie and cover with a matching color of sprinkles. Let the cookies dry overnight before packaging in the jars.

REMEMBER: You MUST enter the giveaway for the Martha Stewart Crafts prize package HERE at Craft Gossip!!! Comments left here (while always appreciated) are NOT entered in the giveaway!!

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Feel free to share (nicely)! While my blog's photographs and text are protected by copyright, I do allow (and encourage) you to share ONE photograph with credit to "the decorated cookie" and link to this blog post. PLEASE don't reprint any part of the blog post and PLEASE don't post a photo without credit. Thank you!

I’m a huge fan of mini decorated cookies. While the smaller canvas can make for more difficult decorating, there are so many advantages to working on a pint-size scale. The cookie cutters are so much cheaper. You get way more cookies out of a batch. Small cookies are easier to eat. And most importantly, when giving as a gift, many, small cookies are easier to share than a few, large cookies.

That last one was especially my reason for going small with these camping cookies. I sent these to my niece away at camp, assuming she’s currently surrounded by cookie-loving peers.  Scroll to the end for tips on shipping cookies!

To make these, I just prepared my cookie dough, chilled, rolled out, cut out, baked and let cool. I made my royal icing, tinted with Americolor Soft Gel Pastes (Super Black, Bright White, Egg Yellow, Orange, Chocolate Brown, Leaf Green, Electric Purple and Peach). I prepared disposable decorating bags with couplers and round tips sized 2 and 3, filled with the icing, and tied closed tightly with rubber bands. I let the cookies dry well overnight after decorating, then packaged them each in little cellophane bags tied with ribbon. For tips on finding supplies, click HERE. For basic cookie decorating how-tos, click HERE.

Look how tiny…

To ship cookies, below are some tips. The beauty of decorated cookies is they are the perfect sweet to make ahead and ship.

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Let the cookies dry very well first, at least overnight.

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Package the cookies individually in cello bags tied with ribbon or closed with tape.

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Find the smallest box you can to accommodate all your cookies (this make take some trial and error).

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If only shipping a few cookies, layer the bottom of the box with bubble wrap, then arrange the cookies in a single layer. Place popcorn in between the cookies, another layer of bubble wrap, then top with popcorn or crumpled tissue paper tightly.

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If shipping many cookies, stack cookies of the same shape and lay on their side on a layer of bubble wrap. Place popcorn in between the stacks, and bubble wrap on the sides of the box. Top with bubble wrap and fill all the gaps with popcorn or crumpled tissue paper.

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The key to successful shipping is to seal the box and shake it. You should hear NO MOVEMENT AT ALL in the box. Yes, it should be packed that tightly.

•••

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Just to give you one more option for the bite-size, mason jar, I heart you mom cookies… You can also fill your jars with mini daisies. So super easy to make, too. I make dot daisies a lot, since they are handy to have around for parties, too.

Find the original how-tos to make dot daisy cookies HERE.

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Feel free to share (nicely)! While my blog's photographs and text are protected by copyright, I do allow (and encourage) you to share ONE photograph with credit to "the decorated cookie" and link to this blog post. PLEASE don't reprint any part of the blog post and PLEASE don't post a photo without credit. Thank you!

On my to-do list this month:  Head downtown to see the cherry blossoms. Because I live in Washington DC, so it’d be a dang shame to go a year without seeing the cherry blossoms around the Tidal Basin bloom. And I’m ashamed to admit there have been many years in my over twenty in this city that I’ve not seen the blooms. What is it about people who live in tourist attracted cities that don’t take advantage of the tourist attractions themselves? My daughter has changed much of that. Before she was in school and we spent our days trying to get out of the house, at least once a week we’d head down to the Nation’s Mall and tour museums. Museums I hadn’t been to in years before she came around.

This week I’ll be pulling out a couple new ideas for cherry blossom-themed sweets, but to tide you over, I’m revisiting a couple ideas from the archives. Above are painted cherry blossom cookies I made for BRIDES magazine last year.

To make painted cookies in paper cones,

find how-tos HERE.

And these cookies I made almost two years ago. My how time flies.

To make cherry blossom cookies,

find how-tos HERE.

 Stay tuned for more cherry blossoms….

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Feel free to share (nicely)! While my blog's photographs and text are protected by copyright, I do allow (and encourage) you to share ONE photograph with credit to "the decorated cookie" and link to this blog post. PLEASE don't reprint any part of the blog post and PLEASE don't post a photo without credit. Thank you!