Mmmmmm.....Flavoring Cookies

Fall is a great time to add special flavors to your cookie assortment. A few weeks ago, I did an experiment. (My friends and family love it when I say I need them to try my experiment. ;o))

I have bought several natural flavorings from Spices, etc in the last year.....and wanted to try them out fully within my cookies AND icing. In my experiment (being the CRAZIE person that I am!), I made THREE types of dough and icing........great....THREE TIMES the work! lol

Caramel flavoring in my caramel apples that I've already shown you in this previous post:

Then pumpkin pie spice flavoring in my pumpkins......

And chocolate and coffee flavorings in my leaves and acorns (along with cocoa as described in my FAQ)......

 

Everyone enjoyed sampling my "experiment"! Yum....

I've got great news for you!

 Spices Etc is offering free shipping on ANY size order until Sunday, November 20. Go to their site and sign up for their newsletter (top left of home page....enter your email address) for the code.  Be sure to become one of their FB fans and let them know I sent you.

(I'm trying to get them to do a blog giveaway on CookieCrazie.....so maybe this will entice them. ;))

I hope you'll try a few flavors. I had a blast experimenting with them.....and everyone enjoyed the flavors. I have plans for different flavors for each holiday. Mmmmmmmm

Caramel Apples (Tutorial)

I've always wanted to do some form of caramel apples in a cookie.....so last week was my chance. And along with the fun shape, I decided to do three different flavors of cookies/shapes. It was a much bigger undertaking than I imagined. I'll save the multi-flavorings information for another time soon, but for now.....I want to show you how I made the caramel apples.

Trying to save time, I decided to color my dough red. That way, I wouldn't have to decorate the bottom part of the cookie.....plus no worries about red bleeding. :)

I chose to flavor my caramel apples with caramel flavoring from Spices Etc. Yum! I put the flavoring in both the dough and the icing.

 To decorated, use a medium brown color.....as close to caramel color as you can get. I think it helped to add gold Americolor to the brown icing. Outline the top of the cookie with a drippy caramel look....and then fill it in. If you'd like to add nuts over the top of the caramel, now is the time to do it.

 Let the cookies dry a bit, before adding the sticks. The sticks are a little tricky.....especially when you have really thick cookies like mine. I put a line of icing down the bottom of the stick and set my apple cookie on top. The larger ones wanted to flop over on one side of the stick, so I used folded paper towels to prop them up while they dried. The smaller apples didn't give me this problem. Please excuse this dark photo.....it was evening by then. ;)

And there you have it....caramel apples on a stick. Yum!

Lots more harvest/autumn cookies to come. So much to show you.....so little time.