Graham-men Cookies

It is going to be Christmas and I have made an advent calendar for the kids. Instead of getting a candy everyday, they get to do a craft or an activity related to the holiday. I did plenty of research before making the calendar, and was ambitious enough to think that I could attempt something like this. After procrastinating for too long, I decided to cut down on the budget for the project (to $0!) and save a trip to the craft store by rummaging through the stuff we have at home. This is the result:

Advent Calendar with Recycled Materials

Made from recycled table mat, leftover wrapping paper, recycled ribbon and pages torn out of a complimentary supermarket magazine.

We are now down to Day 7 of December and tomorrow's activity is to make and decorate a gingerbread man. Faced with the prospect of bickering kids and messy kitchen, I resolved to limit my frustration by making the cookie dough in advance so they can fast forward to the fun step of decorating the cookies.

All gingerbread cookie recipes contain ginger (surprise! surprise). Not my kids' favourite and I am certain they can detect the ingredient despite copious amounts of sugar. This is why I decided to use a graham cracker recipe instead, which leads us to.... the graham-men cookie!

I have only made graham crackers once, and my picky little boy devoured the whole lot. I figured that means I should use that same recipe. Here it is, adapted from one of my favourite food blog, Culinary Concoctions by Peabody.


Graham-men Cookie
(Adapted from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody - Key Lime Graham Cracker Ice Box Cookie)

Ingredients
180g graham flour
125g all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Pinch of salt
170g unsalted butter, at room temperature
200g dark brown sugar
2 egg yolks
2 TBS honey


Steps

1. Sift together all flours, baking soda, cinnamon and salt
2. Using a stand mixer on paddle attachment, cream together butter, sugar and honey at medium speed, until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes
3. Add egg yolk, mix until incorporated
4. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture, continue mixing until all traces of flour is gone.
5. Separate into 2 balls, wrap them up in cling wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight 
6. Preheat oven to 180C. Unwrap cookie dough, roll them out and cut them into desired shapes using cookie cutters. Bake until edges are slightly brown, about 12 minutes. Cool and store in an airtight container.  

Chocolate Modelling

The cake decorating trend nowadays seem to gravitate towards using fondant. Fondant does provide a very pretty and vibrant look to cakes, and are especially popular in cakes for kids. Plus it can be easily stored and made in advance so there is less stress when it comes to assembly on the actual day.

Personally, I am not fond of the taste of fondant, so I was actively searching for alternatives and came across chocolate modelling. This is an easy and tastier tool for decoration. Similarly, it can be made in advance and store well in the fridge. I used a mix of milk, white and flavoured (strawberry, orange) chocolate to get the colours. There are some websites that suggest the chocolate can be coloured using powdered or oil-based food colouring so I think I will try that next time.

Ingredients
200g chocolate
1/3 cup light corn syrup (eg. Karo)
Cling wrap
Icing sugar for kneading

Steps
1. Chop the chocolate roughly into 2cm square blocks
2. Heat the chocolate in the microwave at 50 percent power for a minute
3. Stir the chocolate. If it's not melted, heat it again for 30 seconds, keep repeating until all the chocolate is melted.
4. Add the corn syrup one tablespoon at a time and stir. Keep adding and stirring until it forms a thick ball. You may need to adjust the amount of corn syrup depending on the chocolate used.
5. Pour the mixture onto cling wrap and spread it with a spatula to about 5cm thickness. Wrap it up and put it in the fridge until it hardens.
6. When you are ready to use the chocolate, take it out of the fridge and break it into small portions. Spread some icing sugar on your hands and on the counter, knead the chocolate with your hands until soft and pliable. The warmth of your hands should help to melt the chocolate for easy kneading. If it's too hard, place it in the microwave and heat it again at 50 percent power for 30 seconds.

The chocolate dough and completed model can be stored in an airtight container for a month.



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Cream Cheese Frosting

I always have a problem with grainy cream cheese frosting until I found this method through extensive googling. The trick is to use room temperature butter and cold cream cheese. I can't really bring myself to use 2 to 4 cups of sugar for the frosting so this is my own recipe using only 1/2 cup sugar.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup sifted icing sugar
70g butter (room temperature)
8oz packet cream cheese (cut up into small cubes)
vanilla essence (optional

Steps:
1. Beat butter til soft and creamy
2. Add icing sugar and beat till fluffy
3. Add cream cheese and beat till mixed in

If the frosting is too hard to pipe, beat the mixture further or leave it at room temperature for a while and it will soften.


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