Ann Clark Review & Giveaway

We have a winner - click here to find out who!


Hello moms & kids everywhere! I have the perfect cookie baking, playdo playing, playing house holiday gift for you!  The Ann Clark's family has been handcrafting cookie cutters in Vermont since 1990.  With the high quality and customer service they are known for Ann Clark has become known as THE #1 cookie cutter manufacturer in America!  Each of their individual cookie cutters are individually designed by Ann herself and the accompanying hand drawn recipe cards that come with each cookie cutter are too.


Here's a quick explanation of what the process entails:
"In the beautiful foothills of the Green Mountains, all Ann Clark, Ltd. cookie cutters are handcrafted out of tin-coated steel or copper. Strips of metal are first cut to length according to each specific cookie cutter design, and then made into rings. These rings are then molded into the correct shape using a manually-operated forming process. Finally, sturdy handles are attached, and recipe cards, hand tied with a piece of kitchen twine, add the finishing touch."








Ann Clark sent me 4 darling cookie cutters to review and they are wonderful.  Each is a little bigger than my palm, contains a handle and a great recipe too.  I loved the handle because when you are making sugar cookies or even those cinnamon ornaments I always have the hardest time because the cutter will get stuck and then you have to play with the cutter to get it unstuck - then I end up with deformed santas, bunnies, christmas trees - it's very annoying!


They have many different themes of cookie cutters - everything from holidays (christmas, hanukkah, easter, etc) sports & hobbies, animals, more contemporary cutters - states, flies, crowns, diva shoe, freedom flags, the breast cancer ribbon and more.


How can you order your cookie cutters?
To order your cookie cutters for your baking needs or gift giving, go to:  AnnClark.com and use this code: BLGA26 and receive a 10% discount on your order. Also, they offer free shipping on all orders of three or more items. Hopefully this will make holiday shopping a little easier. Individually most cookie cutters are $3.99, copper cookie cutters are $6.99, Sets of cutters are $9.99-$15.99.  Children's cookbook sets (w/ 4 cutters) are $19.99.


How can you WIN a SET of Cookie Cutters?
Ann Clark is also offering a giveaway of their cookie cutters.  I'm waiting to verify which ones and will update this post as soon as I know which sets.  

Mandatory entry:  Go to AnnClark and tell me which cookie cutters you would be most interested in getting or purchasing from Ann Clark.  Leave your comment with WHO you want to give it to, what it is and a link so we can all see what a GREAT gift giver you are!   

*** Pls leave your email address on EACH comment so I can contact you if you WIN ***

Optional:

*** Pls note: These entries are completely voluntary - you can do none or all *** (Rqst - if you do the tweets can you spread them out please to help with advertising to more people?  Thanks!)

• Become a member of MakeMoreCookies.com and find new friends who LOVE to make cookies, share recipes - It's the Make More Cookies blog by AnnClark! 
• Follow ME on Twitter and leave a tweet. "WIN Cookie Cutters from AnnClark.com - it's a unique & FUN gift for everyone!  http://ning.it/exmuHU @familyliteracy #giveaways, #cooking" (+2) Post up to 2x's a day for +2 entries each. Be sure to leave me the link so I can follow you if I'm not! 
• Follow me on Facebook, Blogs: Family Literacy and You, and GivingNSharing  (+1 entry each, pls leave me your sign on name so I can follow you back)
• Tweet: "Black Friday Giveaways @familyliteracy http://tiny.cc/yi7as Christmas Music, children's books, & more! #giveaways, #kids, #family literacy" (+2) Post up to 2x's a day for +2 entries each.
• Tweet: "12 Days of Xmas @familyliteracy http://ning.it/bZ7Bwk Gift ideas: Spice Hunter, Plow&Hearth, Hearthsong, AnnClarke! #giveaways, #christmas" (+2) Post up to 2x's a day for +2 entries each.

This contest will run until 12/05 @ 12  pm and then the winner will be drawn by Random.org.  Once the winner is drawn and notified they will have 48 hours to contact me with their contact information.  Winner must provide a street address (no PO Boxes & in the US) and not have been a Ann Clark Cookie Cutter winner in the last 90 days   Be sure to send your friends a link about this awesome giveaway!  

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received the a set of cookie cutters for review purposes. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

Halloween is coming.....

Cooking w/ Grandma Set $19.99

October 1st is here! It's time for all things spooky, creepy, scary - witches, black cats, haunted houses and ghosts. Time to dig in the attic, the basement or even the goodwill racks for a great costume that no one has a chance of being able to recognize us.  

I contacted Ann Clark, Ltd about being one of our 12 Days of Christmas sponsors and she is definitely joining us!  You will find the best cookie cutters on her website, along with kids cookbooks, holiday cookies, themed and more.  Her individual cookie cutters are $3.99 - $6.99), many have these handy little handles which make it easier for little hands and arthritic hands to press down and cut lots of cookies out.

Last week's newsletter from Ann Clark's Cookie blog is up and she shared a great recipe for Halloween Cookies that are Dairy Free - perfect for those little goblins with dairy problems to enjoy.  You can sign up for her newsletter and her cookie network at: http://www.makemorecookies.com/ .  You'll get all kinds of cooking and baking tips, there's a forum to visit with other cookie-maniac's and of course, recipes!

Aren't They Cute?

DAIRY FREE VANILLA AND CHOCOLATE HALLOWEEN COOKIES

When you want everyone to be able to join in the fun, sometimes that means accommodating food allergies, and two of the most common allergens for kids are eggs and dairy. With that in mind, I created a couple of cookie recipes—one vanilla and one chocolate—that don’t use butter or eggs. These cookies are suitable for vegans as well, and incidentally, the lack of eggs means that the dough is safe to nibble. I replaced the butter with dairy-free margarine, and instead of eggs I used a product called Ener-G Egg Replacer. This is a dry powder that comes in a 1-pound box; you can find it in the baking aisle or in the special diets section of most well-stocked supermarkets. It costs about six dollars, which might seem like a big investment for cookies, but it keeps indefinitely. Better yet, you can use it to make royal icing, which dries hard and is used for decorating Christmas cookies and gluing together gingerbread houses. The standard recipe for royal icing includes raw egg whites; meringue powder is sold as a safer-to-eat substitute, but happily this egg-free powder works just as well.

If you’ve never decorated cookies with royal icing, please give it a try. Royal icing is easy to make and easy to work with, once you get a feel for how thick it needs to be. Piping a border of thick icing and then filling in with thinner icing creates nice clean edges and allows you to neatly decorate a cookie using more than one color. And the resulting cookie is much more durable than one iced with soft frosting—perfect for ornaments.

You can read a good description of royal icing as well as tips for using it here. As for coloring, here are some of my own observations:

Food coloring paste, sold in small jars, gives you a wider range of color shades and intensities than liquid coloring does. It comes in dozens of colors, but to start with, you can stick to the basics and blend your own. If you’re an avid cake and cookie decorator, it’s nice to have orange, green, and purple in addition to red, yellow, and blue—and of course you need black.

A little paste color goes a long way. Dip the tip of a butter knife in the paste and then touch it to the surface of the icing before stirring it in; set the knife aside and retouch to add more color. Keep in mind that as the icing sits, the color will become more intense (for some reason, this seems to happen with yellow in particular).

You can blend colors either by using different pastes in the same icing or by combining two different tinted icings. To tone down the orange for my pumpkins, for example, I added a tiny amount of black icing.

Even if you don’t intend to use white icing on your cookies, don’t color the whole batch of icing; set aside a little plain white in case some of your colors turn out a bit too bright for your liking.

In the weeks to come, I’ll include more cookie decorating tips. In the meantime, I’d love to see your Halloween cookie creations—you can post photos on this site. Happy haunting!

Ann  www.AnnClark.com

    

VANILLA AND CHOCOLATE HALLOWEEN COOKIES 

Makes about 18

No eggs, no butter makes this a cookie recipe that just about everyone can love—suitable for vegans, people with egg and dairy allergies, those who need to watch their cholesterol, and cookie fans in general.

Stir together:
- 1 1/2 teaspoons Ener-G egg replacer
- 2 tablespoons warm water

Cream together until light and fluffy:
- 1 cup dairy free margarine room temperature
- 2/3 cup sugar

Beat in:
- Egg replacer mixture
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whisk together and add:
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt

Stir just until all ingredients are well blended; do not overmix. Chill dough for 3-4 hours before rolling. Preheat oven to 350º. Roll dough out on a lightly floured counter to 1/4-inch thickness and cut with your favorite Ann Clark Ltd Cookie Cutters, then transfer cookies onto cookie sheets that have been lined with parchment paper or silicone liners. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, until lightly colored. Let cookies cool slightly on cookie sheets, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Dairy-Free Chocolate Cookies
Makes about 18
The chocolate makes this dough a bit crumbly. If the dough cracks as you are rolling it, let it rest on the counter until it softens up, about 10 to 15 minutes. It can be hard to tell when chocolate cookies are done; rather than waiting for the edges to turn brown, remove the cookies when the surface looks completely dull and dry.

Melt and let cool:
- 2 1/2 ounces unsweetened chocolate

Stir together:
- 1 1/2 teaspoons Ener-G egg replacer
- 2 tablespoons warm water

Cream together until light and fluffy:
- 1 cup dairy free margarine
- 1 cup sugar

Beat in:
- Cooled chocolate
- Egg replacer mixture
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whisk together and add:
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon salt

Stir just until all ingredients are well blended; do not overmix. Chill dough for 3-4 hours before rolling. Preheat oven to 350º. Roll dough out on a lightly floured counter to 1/4-inch thickness and cut with your favorite Ann Clark Ltd Cookie Cutters, then transfer cookies onto cookie sheets that have been lined with parchment paper or silicone liners. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, until the surface looks dry and cookies seem firm. Let cookies cool slightly on cookie sheets, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Egg-Free Royal Icing
The amount of sugar you add depends on what you are using this icing for. For piping fine lines, as for borders to be filled in with more icing, the consistency should be fairly thick, like frosting. It needs to hold its shape without being so stiff that it’s difficult to squeeze from a pastry bag. For glazing large areas, the icing should be just pourable, so that when spread, the surface flattens out. If you’re using the same icing for both purposes, make the thicker icing first, pipe the borders, then add water a few drops at a time to thin the icing.

- 2 tablespoons Ener-G egg replacer
- 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
- 3 tablespoons water
- 3 cups sifted confectioner’s sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract or clear vanilla extract (optional)
- Food coloring (optional)

Whisk egg replacer powder and cream of tartar together in a medium bowl, then whisk in water. Add 2 cups sugar and stir in until smooth. Add more sugar if necessary to get the proper consistency. Stir in the extract and food coloring if desired.