Maiden Voyages

Treat #2 for the World Champions!

The competition that the girls won at worlds was the choreography competition. For this competition each dance school comes up with an original story that is read before the dance begins. Then, the dance should tell the story through both traditional Irish dancing techniques as well as original choreography. The story that our choreography tells is called 'Maiden Voyages'. It tells a tale of young Irish girls who have to leave Ireland and travel to America because their families have no money. Once they arrive in America they start out working as maids and eventually rise to become part of the middle class of America.

So, long story short, I tried to make these cookies look like little ships to represent the story. I was going to pipe milk chocolate on the cookies to look like wood planks, but it was 80 degrees here and we had not yet turned on our air conditioning, so that didn't go so well. To make these ships I used round cookie cutters and then cut the circles in half. When the cookies were finished, but still warm, I stuck a toothpick in them with papers I cut to look like sails. The girls seemed pretty excited when they saw the cookies, so I think I got my point across, even if they weren't as "ship like" as I had hoped.

Brownie Roll Out Cookies
(Source: Smitten Kitchen)

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup lightly salted butter, softened (Deb note: I don’t really see “lightly salted” much these days, so I used one stick salted, one stick unsalted)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa (I used the “good” stuff–Droste or Galler–but I can assure you that my mother only used Hershey’s growing up, so your choice)

Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Whisk dry flour, salt and baking powder in bowl and set aside. Mix butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and cocoa in mixer. Gradually add flour mixture, and mix until smooth. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least one hour.

Roll out cookie dough on floured counter. Cut into desired shapes, brushing extra deposits of flour off the top. (It does disappear once baked, though, so don’t overly fret if they go into the oven looking white.) Bake on a parchment-lined baking sheet for 8 to 11 minutes (the former for 1/8-inch thick cookies, the latter for 1/4-inch cookies) until the edges are firm and the centers are slightly soft and puffed.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool.