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LIfe is Sweet

28 Mar '16

Recipe: Fondant

Recipe: Fondant

Fondant, wow. The things you can create with this magical frosting is amazing. I am still a novice but enjoy trying new designs and shapes with our daughter. She actually likes to eat it raw, ew. 

You can find fondant at a few key stores. So far I have found them at: Joann Fabric, Michaels, Hobby Lobby and a few Walmart stores. 

The image shown here was my first attempt at using fondant. I finished the edges with a piped frosting and called it a day. 

28 Mar '16

Recipe: Springerle Cookies

Recipe: Springerle Cookies

If you’re really in the mood to make something absolutely spectacular, try making a Springerle Cookie. We tried this recipe below and the cookies are not only edible, but are beautiful. We aren’t professional bakers so if we can make these – you can too! One thing to share is that this recipe (at least for us) was time consuming.

The picture shown here I just adore. The images are precise. This little cookie is gorgeous and being a novice baker, I was shocked. If you're willing to put in the work, you'll be rewarded!

Springerle Cookie Recipe:

  •  ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • 2 tablespoons whole milk
  • 6 large eggs, room temperature
  • 6 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar, plus more for dusting and surface
  • 4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon anise extract
  • 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
  • 9 cups sifted cake flour, plus more for dusting and surface

Glaze (Optional)
  • Pure lemon extract
  • Luster or petal dust, for decorating

Dissolve baking powder in milk in small bowl. Whisk eggs with a mixer on high speed until very thick and pale, about 10 minutes. With machine running, slowly add sugar, beating until smooth and creamy. Add butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating after each addition. Beat in milk mixture, salt, anise extract, and lemon zest until just combined.

Reduce speed to medium-low. Add 6 cups of flour, 1 cup at a time mixing well after each addition. Remove bowl from mixer, and stir in remaining 3 cups of flour, 1 cups at a time, until flour is incorporated and dough is stiff.

Transfer dough to a floured surface, and knead until dough is smooth and not sticky, adding more flour if necessary. Divide dough into 4 pieces, and wrap in plastic wrap.

Dust surface with flour. Roll out 1 piece/section of the dough with a non-patterned rolling pin to ¼ inch thickness. Dust your new patterned rolling pin with flour and press firmly into dough until the shape of the patterned rolling pin appears. Use a cookie cutter to cut out the cookies. Place cookies on parchment-lined baking sheet.

Preheat oven to 220 degrees. Bake cookies, 1 sheet at a time, until completely dry, about 1 hour. They should not color. Let cookies cool on sheets on wire racks. Cookies will keep, unglazed and covered, for up to 2 to 3 weeks.

To make the glaze, mix lemon extract and a pinch of luster or petal dust in a small bowl, adding more dust as needed to get desired color. Using a very fine paintbrush, brush the tinted extract onto the flat portion of each cookie around the relief. Using a clean, damp paintbrush, removed smudges. Mix additional extract and luster or petal dust in ½ teaspoon increments. (Recipe compliments of: www.marthastewart.com)

We would love to see pictures of your final project! Feel free to email or post to:

  • Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/sweetrollingpins
  • Instagram: #fsweetrollingpins (post a picture or even the recipe you used) 
  • Email: stacy.krems@sweetrollingpins.com
22 Mar '16

Sweet Rolling Pins - why the name?

Posted by Kurt Krems

If you're anything like me...you like to outsource.

Someone once told me that if you're not good at something, learn how to do it or outsource it. I opt for the latter. But when it comes to creating a website, I can't outsource it because my husband is actually a software engineer. Darn it. He doesn't have time to do it but I do. Double darn.

So what you see here is hours upon hours of editing, taking picture after picture and writing after re-writing. Kudos to those who can whip these websites out of thin air, it'a true talent and I admire it!

So many folks are now asking, why the new name? Incorporating the words "rolling pins" is a no brainer but adding the "sweet" in actually is what makes us smile. It's a double entendre and there is no way you can say the word "sweet" and think of something just that. Is there such a thing as a triple or quadrouple entendre? That might be more fitting. 

What you make with our pins can be sweet. Take a cookie for example, that can be sweet. Even if you burn the cookie and give them to someone, undoubtedly they will think the gesture is...you got it...sweet. By just being in the kitchen may remind you of your summers spent with grandma who lo and behold....was sweet. You can be baking in the kitchen with your children making an absolute mess with flour and sugar coating your floors - one day this will be a sweet memory. I can go on and on. 

Perhaps what resonates with us is the memory of a much loved grandmother. Every summer was spent in her tiny 1800's house and sitting around her tiny table, I would learn the ins and out's of how a kitchen works. I was so in love with my grandmother and would just hang on every word, every instruction and every piece of advice she offered.

I learned how to bake doughnuts, homemade bread, fruit leather and even brownies. What I would do to go back in time to just sit at her table and listen to her stories. I would admire the pink curlers in her hair, enjoy hearing the creaking of her slopping hardwood floor and would again savor every second of just being with someone who loved me unconditionally. And it all happened in a kitchen. 

Shipping our rollings pins has two phases. One is quite literal...you print the packing sheets, prepare the pins and seal up the box. The second is a bit quiet and more sentimental that no one ever sees. A little wish is made to each pin...hoping it goes to a home where it can bring joy, a smile, love, fun and even a memory. 

Now go call your grandma and tell her you love her. 

 

13 Mar '16

Rockefellar - the machine

Posted by Stacy Krems

Rockefellar - the machine

We thought we'd actually write a blog from time to time to share with you tidbits about our fun journey together. It's a little insight into our daily life and well, hopefully can make you smile and get to know us a little. So here goes:

What we do isn't that sexy. But honestly, being in our 40's, the whole sexy thing is overrated. We're more into laughing, eating and having fun.

That's exactly what this amazing tool, machine, or "Rockefeller" provides for us. It definitely makes us laugh, especially for Kurt. He's the tool guy who just "gets" stuff. He's like McGyver. Give him a band-aide and he can build an island. But me, not so much. I'm the people person so learning how to maneuver around this giant machine was a bit daunting. Learning the X vs Y, jog, job, blah blah blah. 

The most common question we get is "how do you make these adorable rolling pins"? 

We have amazing machines made by a Colorado company that specializes in  laser engraving machines. They have various types of machines will all kinds of bells and whistles. Being a non machine type of gal, I can even appreciate the capabilities of this machine and what it can do. 

We use a special type of design software where we create the scene and the machine engraves it. 

You want a picture of an alien holding a bag of groceries balancing on one foot while jumping rope? This machine can laser engrave it. 

Perhaps you want a bulldog holding hands with a butterfly playing in a meadow? This machine can laser engrave it.

It can engrave on wood, leather, acrylic, glass and I'm sure much more. It's only limit is truely your imagination.  For now, we are using it for our sweet rolling pins. 


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