Snowflake Shortbread Cookie

It’s cookie day! It’s the perfect day to start your Christmas baking. I know some people may have started a while ago, but I think it’s the perfect time to make some baked goods to nibble during the lead up to Christmas. You can also make them ahead of time and freeze them for gifts or for Santa and Christmas day celebrations.

Shortbread cookies are one of the traditional Christmas cookies. I have always done the circular ones with the fork indents on the top, but today we are making a bit fancier shortbread. We are making snowflake shaped cookies and some we’ll leave plain, but some will get a little chocolate surprise on them!

Shortbread Cookie Recipe:

This is a really easy recipe. All you need is butter, berry sugar, and flour.

Start off by creaming 2 cups of butter/margarine.

Add in the 1 cup of sugar slowly.

Now add in almost 4 cups of flour, gradually. When I say almost 4 cups I mean almost. Add in the 3 cups and then on the last cup, don’t quite fill it to the top. A full cup would be too much.

Since we’re making the cookies into snowflakes (we tried a few other shapes too), knead the dough and make it into two separate balls, and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight. If you don’t plan on using a cookie cutter to cut out shapes, roll the dough into “logs” and wrap in plastic.

On a floured surface, roll out the dough and cut into shapes. If you made the “logs” then slice them into cookies.

Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and bake at 300 degrees for 20-23 minutes.

Once they have cooled a bit, you can leave them as is and serve or package them up or you can take them to the next level and dip and drizzle with the chocolate(s) of your choice. 

Allow the chocolate to harden before serving or putting away.

DIY Cat Toy and Dog Treat

It’s a week dedicated to your pets. We’re showing you how to make a DIY cat toy and some homemade dog treats. Of course not everyone has cats and dogs so create something for the pet that you have. I have a bird so I know that they like millet treats and seed treats made with honey so you can find a recipe for something that includes that.

First up...a homemade cat toy.

We used a brand new chopstick along with some colourful feathers that we got at the dollar store, some of our card making ribbon, jingle bells, some string, and a glue gun.

To start off, wrap the chopstick with ribbon. We had a design idea in mind (a candy cane). We chose a white ribbon and we tightly wrapped it around the chopstick. Start by gluing one end with a bit of the ribbon and wrap it around; then when you finish, glue that last piece of ribbon.

Next we took red ribbon and wrapped it around the white like a candy cane. Glue the ends only again.

Now that you have your stick/handle wrapped, you can prepare you attachments.

We tied string to some green feathers.

Tie some jingle bells onto the ribbons. We threw in some green, polka dots, and sparkly ribbon to the mix. We did about three with the jingle bells and left the rest of the ribbons plain.

Now tie some string to the pointy end of the chopstick; make sure you tie a tight knot and use hot glue to make sure that everything stays in place.

Secure all of the ribbons and feather strings together with string tie a knot and glue once again to make sure that everything stays in place.

Here’s your cat toy present for your little fluffy friend.

Now for the dog treat.

You will need:

¼ cup of hot water

8 chicken bouillon cubes

1 package of active dry yeast

1 tsp. of sugar

1 ½ cups of tomato juice

2 cups of flour

2 cups of wheat germ

1 ½ cups of whole wheat flour

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

In a large bowl, pour the hot water. Then add the sugar and yeast and let it stand for 5 minutes.

After that, add in the chicken bouillon and crush them with a fork as you stir them in.

Add in the tomato juice, 1 cup of the white flour, and wheat germ. Stir until you form a batter. Then add in the rest of the white flour along with the whole wheat flour. The dough will be dry and stiff so use your hands to mix it the rest of the way.

Sprinkle flour on a flat surface and start to roll small balls of dough out to a ¼ inch thick.

Cut out shapes, a dog bone might be a good shape.

Place on a cookie sheet and bake for about an hour.

Dry in a turned off oven for four hours or so.

Serve with a bowl of water or wrap up nicely for your pups Christmas present!