Lavender Pistachio Coconut Cream Puffs | Natural | Dye-free

MAKES: 18-22 SERVINGS
Prep time: 30 minutes, Cook time: 32 minutes

INGREDIENTS

CRAQUELIN TOPPING
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup brown sugar 

CHOUX PASTRY
½ cup whole milk
½ cup water
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
¼ tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 large eggs 

COCONUT CREAM FILLING
1 13.5-oz cans coconut cream, chilled overnight
6 tbsp confectioners’ sugar
½ tsp lavender extract
½ tsp pistachio extract
1 Color Kitchen Green Food Color packet
1 Color Kitchen Pink Food Color packet
1 Color Kitchen Blue Food Color packet

DIRECTIONS

Make the craquelin topping.  Using a stand mixer or hand mixer, mix the butter, flour, and brown sugar until they come together into a dough. 

Form the dough into a ball, then sandwich it between two sheets of parchment paper.  Roll out the dough to be about ⅛ inch thick, then place it in the freezer while you prepare the pastry.

Make the choux pastry.  Place the water, milk, butter, sugar, and salt in a medium saucepan over medium heat, and bring to a boil.  Once boiling, add the flour to the pot and stir vigorously for two minutes.  The ingredients should come together into a ball of dough.

Transfer the dough to a stand mixer with a paddle attachment and beat for 30 seconds to a minute to cool.  Add the eggs to the dough, one at a time, to create a thick batter.  The batter has the correct consistency when you can lift up the paddle, and the batter drips off in a V-shape.  If the batter is too thick and does not create a V-shape, add one additional egg.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Spoon the batter into a piping bag with a large round tip.  Pipe 1 ½ inch rounds onto the baking sheets.  Cut 1 ½ inch rounds from the craquelin topping.  Press a craquelin round onto each piped cream puff.

Bake the cream puffs at 425 degrees for 10 minutes, then turn the oven temperature down to 325 degrees and bake for an additional 22 minutes, until golden brown.  Let cool for at least 15 minutes.

While the cream puffs are cooling, prepare the coconut cream filling.  Open the chilled cans of coconut cream and scoop out the cream from the top of the can. Discard the coconut water that has settled to the bottom of the cans.  Place the cream in the bowl of a stand mixer with a whisk attachment and add the confectioner’s sugar.  Whisk on high speed for 1 minute, until smooth and fluffy. 

 Divide the coconut cream between 2 bowls.  In one bowl, fold the lavender extract, blue color packet, and pink color packet into the cream.  In the other bowl, fold in the pistachio extract and green color packet.

Combine the two coconut creams in a piping bag with a star tip.  Cut each cream puff in half.  Pipe the coconut cream into the bottom half of each cream puff, then sandwich the two halves together.

Pink Pancakes | Naturally Colorful

Add a little color to your morning cakes. Perfect for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, or any day.

INGREDIENTS

PANCAKES
any pancake mix or recipe from scratch
1 Pink Color Kitchen Color packet
1 Color Kitchen Rainbow Sprinkles packet
raspberry syrup

WHIPPED CREAM
⅓ cup powdered sugar
1 Pink Color Kitchen Color packet
1 ¼ cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla

DIRECTIONS

WHIPPED CREAM
Chill a medium-sized bowl in the freezer for at least 10 minutes.

Blend dry ingredients: powdered sugar and color.

Add heavy cream and vanilla extract.

Beat with an electric mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form. Keep in refrigerator until pancakes are ready.

PANCAKES
Mix pink color with dry pancake mix. Add wet ingredients and blend fully until all the color is dissolved. Add ½ sprinkle packet to batter and mix lightly. Do not let sit for long after adding sprinkles. Save ½ sprinkles for topping.

Use low heat on pancakes. Let cool slightly and top with whipped cream, syrup and sprinkles!

Watercolor Cookies with Cream Cheese Glaze | Natural

Unleash your inner artist with these delicious blank canvases!

INGREDIENTS

CREAM CHEESE COOKIES
2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
8 oz package of cream cheese, softened to room temperature 
2 cups of granulated unbleached sugar cane
2 large egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract¼ tsp almond extract 
4 ¾  cups unbleached, all purpose flour
½ tsp sea salt

CREAM CHEESE GLAZE 
4 oz of cream cheese, softened at room temperature
4 tbsp buttermilk (or any type of milk or cream)
3 cups organic powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean extract
2-3 Color Kitchen Color packets  for "gel" (powdered colors with a few drops of water or glycerin) 
1 cup of additional powdered sugar set aside for the piping

DIRECTIONS

COOKIE
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl using the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, cream-cheese and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add the egg yolks and extract and mix until smooth.

Add the flour and salt, mix until combined but don't over mix!

In plastic wrap, chill the dough for 2 hours (or up to 12 hours).

Take the dough out of the refrigerator and let it rest at room temperature until it is pliable enough to roll out.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silpat liners.  

Roll the dough onto a *lightly* floured surface between ¼"-½" thick. Thinner cookies will bake up crispier and thicker dough will be softer.  Use cookie cutters to cut into shapes and place them 2" apart on the prepared baking sheets. 

Bake for 7-12 minutes depending on the cookie size. If the centers puff up while baking, they will be soft. If they start to brown on the edges, they will be crispier in texture.  Pull them out before they start to brown if you want a softer cookie.

Cool the cookie completely before removing off the paper, otherwise they will break easily. Glaze and frost as desired! 

GLAZE  
For the flooding:

Mix together the cream cheese and 3 cups of powdered sugar with a paddle attachment until the mixture is smooth and there are no lumps. 

Add the buttermilk and extracts of your choice for desired flavor.  Continue to beat until smooth and creamy.  (If you can't get the lumps to dissolve, gently warm up this mixture over a double boiler or microwave for a few seconds.)

Remove the contents of the bowl and divide into several smaller bowls to add the coloring.  Save one cup of the mixture in the mixing bowl. The runny mixture will be used for "flooding."   and the remaining 1 cup mixture will be thickened for piping the borders. 

Add 1 cup of powdered sugar to the remaining mixture and mix until smooth.  You may need more or less depending how much buttermilk and powdered sugar you added. If you get it too thick you can add a spoon full of buttermilk at a time and/or add more powdered sugar if it is too runny.  The goal is to thicken it up enough to be able use for piping a border around the edge of the cookie to hold its shape.  If it's too runny, it will slowly drip off your cookie onto the pan.  

Pipe a border around each cookie shape and while this is setting up you can start mixing up your flooding colors. 

COLOR GEL
In a small bowl add ¼ tsp water or glycerin to 1 tsp color powder.
Blend with brush or spoon until color is dissolved.
Add another ½ tsp water and blend.
Colors will be concentrated.

WATERCOLOR EFFECT
To create a marbled "watercolor" effect, divide up your flooding icing into 2-3 colors. Mix in a few drops of your pre-mixed “gel” coloring until you get at least one medium-darker shade and 1-2 colors in white or pastel shades.   

Pipe a little swirl of each color onto a cookie and continue swirling it around until it reaches the edge of your border.  Avoid over mixing so that your colors stay defined. 

To get splattered effect, tap brush on top of glazed cookie..

Color tips:  The medium-dark shade will blend in with the lighter white or pastel shade and create a 3rd color so keep this in mind when choosing colors. If you use all pastel colors for example, you won't be able to see the marble effect.    

The bright pink and yellow mixed together created a peachy orange hue when swirled.  We used uncolored white, yellow and pink to create this effect.  

Choose primary colors that make secondary colors, such as blue and pink will create purple when mixed.  Blue and green create a foamy sea green, and so on...    

Colors like purple and yellow swirled together will produce a muddy-brown color when mixed.

NOTE: This glaze will not harden up like royal icing and will take much longer to dry, but it is a delicious substitute   We especially love the "brown sugar" flavor of the unbleached organic sugar cane, but you can use white sugar instead. 

Recipe by: Kayla Peters, The Round House Bakery

Colorful Natural Cookie Glaze | Dye-free

You’ll love this quick and easy glaze recipe to drizzle on cookies, doughnuts and all your favorite treats.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup + 3 tbsp organic powdered sugar, sifted
2 tbsp water
1 tbsp natural flavor (optional)
½ tsp organic vanilla extract
½ Color Kitchen Color packets

DIRECTIONS

In a mixing bowl, add the powdered sugar, water, flavor, vanilla extract and color. Whisk or stir to combine completely into a smooth glaze.

Drizzle glaze over cookies and sprinkle with white pearls. 

Shortbread Cookies with Royal Icing and Candied Flowers and Herbs | Artificial Dye-free

These cookies are absolutely gorgeous and invite you to get creative in decorating with nature!

MAKES: 16-18 COOKIES

INGREDIENTS

COOKIES
⅓ cup rice flour
1½ tsp kosher salt
2½ cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling dough
1 cup (2 sticks) plus 6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into pieces, room temperature
¾ cup granulated sugar
candied flowers and/or herbs for decorating

ROYAL ICING
3 large egg whites
4 cups powdered sugar
½ tsp cream of tartar
2-3 Color Kitchen Color packets
a couple drops of water or glycerin for mixing colors

DIRECTIONS

ICING
Using a wooden spoon or rubber spatula, stir egg whites, powdered sugar, and cream of tartar in a medium bowl until a thick paste forms with no dry spots. Ideally, icing should sit at least 12 hours for sugar to fully hydrate (it can be covered and chilled up to 1 week), but it can be used as soon as cookies have cooled.

Bring to room temperature before using. In separate bowls mix colors with a couple drops of water or glycerin to form a smooth paste. For pastels use about ½ a packet per bowl. Starting slowly add icing to colors. Stir and continue adding until you have reached the desired intensity of color.

Cover your bowls of colored icing well with plastic to avoid them drying out until you are ready to start decorating. 

SHORTBREAD
Whisk rice flour, salt, and 2½ cups all-purpose flour in a medium bowl. Using a stand mixer with the paddle on medium-high, beat butter and sugar until very pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Mix in dry ingredients on low until fully combined. Form into a flat disk and wrap in plastic and chill at least 2 hours, and up to 2 days.

Preheat oven to 350°. Roll out dough between 2 sheets of lightly floured parchment to ⅛” thick. Using large cutter, cut out 16 rounds, re-rolling scraps. Using small cutter, punch out centers. Bake on parchment-lined baking sheets until edges are golden, 12–14 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.

DECORATING
Ice your cookies using the instructions in the link below. This method is called “flooding”. While the icing is still wet add your candied flowers in any design you like. Let them dry completely before storing them in a single layer in an air-tight container.

Excellent video showing how to ice cookies.        
How to make candied flowers.

- Recipe by chef Rose Archer

Flower Cupcakes

These creations require a certain level of effort, but are oh-so worth it!

MAKES: 2 Dozen Cupcakes

Ingredients-Cupcakes

2 sticks (226 g.) organic butter, softened
340 g. organic sugar
1 T. + 1 tsp. organic lemon flavor
4 organic large eggs
1 cup organic heavy whipping cream
340 g. all natural cake flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. sea salt

Ingredients-Frosting

3 sticks (340 g.) organic butter, softened
680 g. (24 oz.) organic powdered sugar, sifted
1 T. organic coconut extract
Color Kitchen-Pink, Blue and Yellow Dyes

Ingredients-Chocolate Frosting

2 T. organic butter, softened
15 g. organic Dutch cocoa, sifted
42 g. organic powdered sugar, sifted
1 tsp. water

Tools

Piping Bags
Decorating tips #127, 864, 846, 56

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, add the butter, sugar and lemon flavor. Mix on low until all ingredients are combined.

Add the eggs and mix until combined.

In a separate bowl, add the cake flour, baking powder and sea salt and whisk together.

Add the cake flour and and cream in together and mix on low until you have a smooth cake batter.

Line two cupcake pans with liners, and fill cupcakes three-quarters full.

Bake for 17 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

Allow cupcakes to cool before frosting.

In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, add the butter, powdered sugar and coconut extract. Mix on low until all ingredients are combined, then speed mixer up to high for 1 minute or until light and fluffy.

Separate the frosting into four separate bowls, each bowl should weigh about 255 g.

In one bowl, color it pastel yellow by adding ½ tsp. ColorKitchen Yellow Dye. Stir to combine completely. Put in a piping bag with decorating tip #846.

In the second bowl, make pastel purple by adding ⅛ tsp. ColorKitchen Pink Dye and  ⅛ tsp. ColorKitchen Blue Dye. Stir to combine completely. Put in a piping bag with decorating tip #127.

In the third bowl, make pastel pink by adding ¼ tsp. ColorKitchen Pink Dye. Stir to combine completely. Put in a piping bag with decorating tip #846.

In the last bowl, add ⅛ tsp. ColorKitchen Pink Dye and ¼ tsp. ColorKitchen Yellow Dye to create a pastel orange. Stir to combine completely. Put in a piping bag with decorating tip #864.

In your stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, add the butter, powdered sugar, cocoa and water. Mix on low until all ingredients are combined, then speed mixer up to high for 1 minute or until light and fluffy. Put the chocolate frosting in a piping bag with decorating tip #56. Set aside.

We've included a video below on how to pipe beautiful flowers onto your cupcakes using our plant-based food coloring. 

To frost the pink and yellow cupcakes (like Roses), start in the middle and work your way to the outer edge in a circular motion.

To frost the pastel orange cupcakes, make dollops around the boarder, then in between each dollop, make another dollop on top, finally make the last dollop in the center.

To frost the lavender cupcakes, start with the piping bag in the center of the cupcake, with the smaller end of the tip towards the inside and the larger part of the tip towards the outside. In a swooping motion, make a petal. Right next to it, make another, and another until you’ve gone around the entire cupcake. In between the first two petals, make another petal and complete a second row on top.

Using the chocolate frosting, pipe small dollops in the center of the flower in a circle to cover up the beginning parts of the petals.

Eat flower cupcakes!

Store in a cake dome.

Baker’s Note: To make brighter colors you can double the amount of food coloring. You can also make different colors! To make these cupcakes gluten free, just substitute the cake flour for an organic gluten free flour blend.

 Recipe by Mimi's Cookie Bar

Learn how to pipe beautiful flowers using our natural food coloring.