Sisters folks learn cookie decorating

Poppies, Sisters' newest café, began its Professional Cookie Decorating Class last week to rave reviews.

For $25, students decorated and took home 24 cookies. Poppie's pastry chef, Meg Lubinski, taught the class and made sure all the students went home with recipes for all the cookies and icings she created. Budding bakers were also treated to a glass of wine and delectable snacks throughout the evening.

Lubinski shared many of the baking techniques that have helped her become a highly respected pastry chef in the area (see related story, page 19). She covered a variety of topics that demystified many baked treats most people love to eat but don't know the finer points of recreating themselves.

"I have all of this knowledge and I want to share it; not just keep it to myself," said Meg.

Ever wonder how to make those half-dipped chocolate cookies? Lubinski included a soft ganache recipe that covers dark, milk chocolate and white chocolate ganaches. For the class, she included a warm melted container of dark chocolate ganache to dip chocolate chunk cookies in. In the center of each table were a variety of ingredients to add to the melted chocolate. Students chose from items like shaved coconut, graham cracker crumbs, chopped hazelnuts and walnuts and dried cranberries.

One of the more difficult cookies to execute well was the Checkerboard Cookie. Lubinski showed students the tricks of the trade to end up with cookies that are uniform in size and shape. She demonstrated the necessity for keeping the dough at a cold temperature and how to cut through the chocolate and vanilla dough without pulling one color into the other. The end result was an adorable, thick, delicious cookie that could then be decorated with a royal icing piping.

Another difficult task when baking is using a piping bag to embellish holiday cookies. Students got a chance to practice their techniques on a cutting board before trying their hand at the real thing. Students were amazed to see how quickly they could pick up the techniques for writing and decorating their cookies.

"It's all in the height and angle of your hand when you move across the cookie," said Lubinski. "It's important to pull the piping towards you and keep your hand high so you can let the piping line run straight."

Poppies will be offering more cooking classes throughout the autumn and winter months. Call 541-549-1033 for more

information.

Poppies is located at 221 W. Main Ave. in Sisters.