Kristin from Madison, WI (2017 Week 2: Cookies)

Baker

Kristin

Location

Madison, WI

Baking Challenge

Iced Cookies

Give your cookies or gingerbread creation a name based on the flavors and decoration – and tell us about your recipe.

Grain-Free Sugar Cookies with Coconut Cream Icing and Edible Violas. I used recipes from the websites againstallgrain.com and jenniferskitchen.com. My original goal was to make sugar cookies that were free of refined sugars and grains, but I didn’t quite get there with the icing. I also had a vision of somehow incorporating edible flowers.

Now that you survived this challenge, what words of wisdom do you have to share?

My biggest lesson was that it’s really hard to make an icing without refined sugar. In my first attempt, I made one with coconut oil, honey, and almond extract. I tried to color it with yellow beets, but it turned out more yellow/green than yellow, and the icing was really translucent. It just didn’t work. So I started again and used coconut cream and powdered sugar. It was all harder than I anticipated – even spreading the little cookies with icing was quite tedious.

Tell us about how you added a Wisconsin twist.

I used Gentle Breeze Honey and Harmony Valley Edible Violas, both from the Dane County Farmers’ Market. I also made one of my cookies in the shape of Wisconsin.

How did you do?

Feeling humbled.