Tur-ta...

I can't sleep.  I think I'm too excited about turtles.  My son and his wife raise turtles, but that's not exactly what I'm excited about.  Sorry, S&A. 

I'm more excited about these turtles.  Our grandson, O, likes turtles.  I talked about out trip to Grant's Farm here and how the turtle was up and moving around just as we got there with O.  And I talked about looking for a special cookie cutter in this post as part of Baking Rule # 3. 

Well...tonight...we made these cute, cookie "tur-tas" as O has been known to say it, to take along and share with the grandkids!  And I think they turned out pretty happy looking!

 

Here is how they began.  We used G's mother's sugar cookie recipe, because that's the one O's, dad, R, remembers as a kid.  Since my left arm is still recovering from Pie Day 2013, G rolled the dough out for us to cut.  He's a happy little cutter, don't you think?

 Turtles like to lay on parchment.  It makes them happier.

 

That's all part of why they bake up barely tanned.  They get just enough of the oven heat to give them a slight bit of color but not too much.



Then it's time to turn them into even happier turtles.  Grandpa G got in on the act.  I believe this is one of his first times with a pastry bag in his hand, and you are here to witness it!  Exciting stuff, I'm tellin' ya.  G has TONS of caulk and caulk gun experience, but that's not quite the same as icing and a pastry bag.  Similar, no doubt, but not quite the same...

In the interest of speed and taste, I didn't try to flood the cookies.  I don't care for the royal icing flood plus I didn't want to take the extra time that flooding requires - even using this glaze icing from King Arthur which tastes much better to me that the royal flood plus it doesn't get as take-me-to-the-dentist hard, but still takes a bit more special handling.

Instead I used this method.  I outlined and filled, but not overfilled and then let them crust over a bit.  I call this the Pre-Viva'd State of Turtles.  It's an official state of being.

Notice how you can see the piped lines and white spaces of cookie showing? 

Now here is the Viva'd State of Turtles.  I don't recommend trying this with any other brand of paper towels besides Viva.  I keep a roll on hand that I only use for smoothing cakes...and turtles, of course.  It's a very light touch, but if the icing has crusted sufficiently, they will smooth out and give a flat surface that can be hard to accomplish if trying to spread with an offset spatula.  They won't be as puffy or glossy as the flood, but depending upon the goal, it works.  And all of the piping lines are smoothed out.

 

One little guy on the right is peaking in to tell you that he is ahead of the game from all the rest.  And one other little guy has a much darker underbelly than the others.  I think he is up to something...

 

And then these 3 guys all seem to have different feelings about being part of the Grandma Deb Turtle Brigade.  Did you know turtles had this many emotions?  It's true.  Poor little guy in the upper left looks like he is very perplexed about life.  He may need therapy.  I will see if he is better in the morning.



That is the end of our turtle tale.  Or really (shhh!  don't tell them this!) but I guess the end really is when O and A and K eat them up!  Oh no!  Dastardly deeds, I tell ya!  Poor little turtles.  Have no idea the fate that awaits them...now I'll never be able to get to sleep...