Friday, February 13, 2009

Layered Finger Jell-o and Sugar Cookies

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I was reminded of my good friend, Cori's 12 layer Jell-o when I saw this at The Food Librarian's blog (her pictures are much better than mine, go see!)  Cori's recipe uses sour cream for the white layers.  It's good and really fun when you do as many different colors as you can find.  But this recipe from Food Librarian has sweetened condensed milk for the white layers.  It was SO good.  I always buy fat free condensed milk. 

I made these for Taylor's preschool Valentine's party.  The only heart cookie cutter I have is pretty big, so I cut them into flowers.  I followed the recipe Food Librarian posted to a tee, well except that she had 5 layers and I had 6.  I do think this looks better ending with a red or colored layer rather than the white.

6-Layer Finger Jell-o, adapted from The Food Librarian


3 pkg. 3 oz Jell-o (any flavors, I used raspberry, wild strawberry and cherry)
4 pkg. Knox unflavored gelatin
1 can fat free sweetened condensed milk


Mix 1 pkg flavored Jell-o with 1/2 pkg of unflavored gelatin. Add 1 cup boiling water. Stir to dissolve. Cool to room temp and pour into 9 x 13 glass pan. Refrigerate for 15 minutes (and make sure your refrigerator  is level!)

Mix 1 can sweetened condensed milk with 1 cup boiling water. In a small bowl, sprinkle 2 pkg unflavored gelatin over 1/2 cup cold water. Let stand a few minutes and then add 1/2 c boiling water to dissolve gelatin; add to milk mixture and stir to combine. Cool to room temp and pour 1 cup of milk mixture over first layer of Jell-o. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.

Repeat for next two flavors. Let Jell-o set. Cut and serve!

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For Scott's class party, I signed up to bring a treat and decided on our very tried and true sugar cookies.  Not sure where my mom got this recipe, but we've loved it in our family for years.

I'm Gonna Call These My Mom's Sugar Cookies

1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks, or 8 oz.), softened

1 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon cream (I almost always use milk , but this time had some cream, so I used cream)

3 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

Cream the butter and sugar together.  Add the vanilla, egg and cream (or milk).  Beat until fluffy, scrape sides of bowl at least once.  Add the dry ingredients until it comes together.  Turn dough out on floured surface, knead it into a ball, just a few times.  Do not over knead the dough.  Making sure there is enough flour on your surface that it doesn't stick, roll out dough until desired thickness.  I always do about 1/4 inch.  Cut dough into shapes with cookie cutters.  Laying on baking sheet lined with parchment paper, bake cookies at 400 degrees for 7-10 minutes (until desired doneness.)

Transfer to cooling rack.  When cool, frost cookies.

 

Sugar Cookie Icing

1 cup powdered sugar (I usually double it for my cookie recipe above)

1-3 teaspoons corn syrup

1-3 teaspoons milk

pinch salt

vanilla extract to taste

food coloring

Beat all together well with electric mixer until smooth adding one teaspoon of corn syrup and milk at a time until you get the consistency you want.  It's pretty runny, but not TOO runny.  It still needs to be spread on with a knife, but it sort of "floods" into place on its own.

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I doubled the recipe and made 36 big heart-shaped cookies.

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12 comments:

Julie C said...

Man oh man. I LOVE jello! Those look so good, I'm going to have to make them. I've never stopped craving that 3-tiered Jello dessert that they stopped making about 20 years ago. This ought to help! Plus, I adore sugar cookies, especially frosted ones. You've really got my sweet tooth going. Sigh. Loved the pictures of the boys!

Sara said...

I love frosted sugar cookies, they're one of my favorites. Those jello shapes are so cool - Happy Valentine's Day!

Anonymous said...

hat jello lookd so, so cool! Very nice and Happy Valentine's Day.

Judy said...

I love those finger jellos -- they're so pretty! And your heart shaped sugar cookies are beautiful. Who doesn't like sugar cookies? Happy Valentine's Day to you and yours.

Maria said...

Cute treats!! I hope you have a great V-day!

Clumbsy Cookie said...

The Jell-o thing is so much fun!!! I bet your kids loved it! Now don't get me started on heart sugar cookies... I've made so many these last days...

Amanda said...

I bookmarked these on Food Librarian's site too! They look wonderful, can't wait to try them :)

Anonymous said...

The sugar cookie recipe looks alot like my favorite cut-out cookie recipe, except I use 1/2 tsp vanilla and 1 tsp almond extract.

test it comm said...

That layered jello looks really good!

Elyse said...

Your jello and your cookies look just awesome! I can't wait to try your sugar cookie recipe...in fact, I think I may go do that right now!

RecipeGirl said...

Absolutely love the layered jello. SO fun!

Stacey Snacks said...

You are an amazing baker!
You should open your own bakery!
Love that recipe for the lime hazelnut cookies! wow.