Jill FCS Puzzle Cookie (Guest Post)
I can’t express how thrilled I am to introduce you to my friend Jill FCS. Some of you already know her, but for those of you that don’t, go to her Facebook page and look at her amazing cookies! She has a unique style that makes her cookies super cute and super fun just like her! Wait to see what she has made for you today!! I am on cloud 9! Well, enough from me, take it away Jill.
I have an irrational fear of a plain cookie. If someone were to put one in front of me and ask me to decorate it, I would break out in a cold, sugary sweat. (I would completely fall apart on one of those competition baking shows.) I am a planner. There, I said it. I plan. I research and I plan. Then, I plan some more. Now, I do not always follow my plan exactly, but I like to know the approximate path I am taking to get to my end result.
The Planner’s Path of a Cookie Puzzle:
Step 1–Draw design and scan it into computer.
Step 2-Print scanned design, choose a color scheme and color in with colored pencils.
Step 3-Decide where to cut the cookie dough for the puzzle pieces.
Step 4– Make cookie dough (personally, I love-love-love LilaLoa’s Vanilla Sugar Cookie Recipe for cookie puzzles because it tastes great, does not spread and maintains sharp edges). Roll out the cookie dough and square up edges.
Step 5- Print scanned design on cardstock, cut into pieces and use as a template to cut the cookie dough.
Step 6– Bake cookies. After cookies have cooled, put together puzzle; if needed, gently clean up edges of individual puzzle “pieces” using a zester/grater.
Step 7-Using edible markers, sketch out background flooding areas.
Step 8- Color icing and gather supplies.
Step 9- Flood background. Depending on size of individual cookies, use a #2 or #3 tip and 15 count icing.
Step 10- After background flooding has dried, pipe outline using a #1.5 tip and very stiff detail icing.
Step 11- After outline icing has dried completely, fill in outline using a #2 tip and 5-10 count icing. I call this the “paint-by-number” step.
Step 12- Once the fill icing has dried (approximately 24 hours), add detail.
Thank you so much Jill FCS for being here today and sharing your wonderful creativity and amazing talent with us!! You made my day!
I told you all she was amazing!! That puzzle cookie is so dang cute!! I follow her on Facebook and look everyday to see if she has added new pictures to her albums. You might want to do the same because it is a great way to start the day. Don’t take my word for it! Look at these:
Owls and Flowers
Construction Cookies
You are My Sunshine
Bear hugs,
This is such a great cute idea I love it!!
I do too!! All the planning and love that goes into each cookie is what makes them fabulous!!!
It really does! Again amazing job I live your work.
I want to be Jill, too, Lisa!
This was a PERFECT tutorial to have before “Teacher Appreciation” next month….what a great gift this would be!
Great idea for Teacher Appreciation Week, Vicki!
WOW!! It would be super cute for a Sunday School teacher also!! Awesome idea:)
Wow!!! Just…wow!!! This is amazing! Thanks to Jill for showing us how to do it, and to you Lisa, for having her as a guest post.
Awwww, Sharon, you are SO sweet!
I am seriously on cloud 9 because she agreed to do this!! Jill FCS makes me happy!!!
Thank you SO much, Lisa, for inviting me to guest post on your blog — I LOVE everything about you!!!
wow, this is amazing!!!!
Super cute!! I never would have thought of it!!
Me either!! But I am glad Jill did:)
A-MA-ZING!!! No wonder her cookies turn out so stinkin’ cute…the amount of thought and design that goes into one cookie is mind blowing to me. I WISH I had the talent and the patience to pull something like this off! I check Flickr daily (I don’t do Facebook) hoping to see something new. Her “sunshine” design was one of my absolute favorites, but her little stick people never fail to make me smile! Thanks so much for sharing how you put it all together!
I LOVE her stick people!! Did you see the boy holding the bunny?? It was awesome!!
Terri: Those sunshine cookies are one of my favorite cookie sets too! 🙂
Great job Jill. Thanks for having her stop by Lisa!
Thanks, Tiffany!
Impresionante!!!!!
Great tutorial, Jill!!!
Thanks, Amber!
Wait, you flood them while they’re put together? How do you keep them from touching or ‘melting together, yet still look like one fluid piece?
Hey Sherry, I will direct this question to Jill and we will get back to you with an answer:)
Sherry,
This is what Jill said:
I flood all of the cookie pieces separately, making sure to flood as close to the edges as possible. Hope that helps!
Sorry for the confusion, thanks for clarifying, Lisa!
Makes perfect sense, thank you! They are excellent!
These are so fun! Thanks Jill. My kids would love this!!
Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. Jill…..you amaze me…..completely. 🙂
Awwwww, thanks, Pam, I love-love-love your work as well!
My jaw just dropped to the floor! I was already amazed, but now I’m speechless!!!
Thanks, Callye — I would not be playing with cookies if it weren’t for you, so, thank you!!!
OMG!!! That’s all I can say!!
Jill’s designs are so cute. Great tutorial but I was doomed on the step #1 “draw your design”. Wish I was that talented.
You got me thinking, Brenda … a page from a coloring book would be a nice template for a puzzle!
A coloring book!!! YES!!!!
Awesome tutorial! Love it…and I love JILL!! Cool guest post.
Awwww, thanks, Melissa — right back at you!
Awesome tutorial! I love the guest post by Jill.
Wow! So cool. The finished product looks amazing!
What a neat idea! I think this would be great as a kids bday treat.
Jill, this is so cute! That’s a lot of cookie planning and precision work! I can see why your cookies are so perfect now 😀
Fantastic to see all the magic come together!
Hahaha … not perfect, but well planned for sure!
Lisa I’m so excited that you had the amazing Jill on your blog today. Her designs are so absolutely incredible. I’m in awe every time I see one of her cookies! Having her on YOUR blog is just icing on the cake or the cookie as it is 😉
Jill I absolutely idolize you and your creativity and how neat and PERFECT your cookies always look. I’m so completely amazed by you! Thanks for sharing your beautiful cookies in a tutorial for us!
Awwww, Cristin, you are so incredibly sweet!
WOW!!! A lot of work, and even more talent, goes into your cookie puzzles! Awe-inspiring, Jill! Great tutorial!
Thanks for having Jill here, Lisa! You’re amazing too!
Thanks, Sue — I adore your creativity!
I love Jill! Even though we’re good friends, I now see that we are exact opposites. I am NOT a cookie planner and I break out in a cold sugary sweat if I had to think through a cookie process. Mind boggling! Super guest Lisa. Thank you!
Liz, you make me laugh — I had a feeling we were opposites. When you mentioned 15 minutes to paint a cookie I thought it takes me that long just to figure out what paintbrush I am going to use!!!
I don’t EVER want to make cookie puzzles. I just want to watch you do them over and over again Jill!! Thanks for asking Jill to share her process Lisa! This was fascinating!
Little LilaLoa, thanks to your fabulous recipe I was actually able to cut out a bunch of steps (if you can believe it)!!!!
Thanks Lisa and Jill! Seeing Jill’s process is incredible. She’s so amazingly talented!
Jill, thank you for sharing your creative process with us. Your cookie designs always make me smile and I admire your unique style. Have you ever considered teaching decorating classes?
Lisa, thanks for arranging to have Jill present a tutorial for us.
It was my pleasure having her here!
Diane, I am SO glad they make you smile because I do this simply to bring a little joy into the world. I have taught a couple of friends and family members — it’s always fun spreadin’ the love through cookies!
This is so much fun! Love your guest, Lisa! And I love you!!
Bea, Bea, Bea — I hope you know how much I love your artistry and incredible talent!
Fabulous! When I grow up, I want to be a planner just like Jill. Can I ask about your amazing techniques? Can you tell me how you use the zester to “clean” up the cookie edges? Also, do you do your fine piping with bags or bottles? One more thing: canning jars for storing icing = awesome idea.
You are silly, Kristina! About the zester, I really only do that for cookie puzzles simply to achieve a nice, straight line between the “pieces.” I take the zester and lightly file down the sides of the cookie just in case they spread a little (although, with LilaLoa’s fabulous vanilla sugar cookie recipe, or her chocolate cookie recipe for that matter, there is minimal to no spreading). I am a “bag lady” — I pipe everything with pastry bags. I like to trim the disposable pastry bags down to about 6” so they are not so cumbersome and then use an icing cartridge (using Press ‘n Seal wrap) so everything does not get too goopy and messy. I re-use my disposable bags over and over and over again — so much for the word “disposable”! The canning jars, well, I have a ton of them and I like that I can see the colors through the glass and they are just so darn pretty when they are filled with icing!
I knew it would be a process, and a process it was! With a fantastic, wonderful, beautiful result! I’d love to put this puzzle together, but one of the pieces may be missing….I’m just saying! I once sent out a puzzle invitation….how about a cookie puzzle invitation?? I know you would make it brilliant!! 🙂 !
Ohhhhhhhh, awesome idea! How about one piece to each guest and they put it together when they arrive?!?!?!
Cute idea! 🙂 Everyone is so smart!!
This is awesome! I have a few nephews with birthdays coming up. I was planning to send cookies… Maybe I’ll do this! That would be great! Thanks for such an AWESOME idea! Thanks for letting me see through your thought process, Jill. Thanks Lisa for all your great ideas and guest posts!
WOW! Being new to decorating cookies, I am duly impressed – not only with this wonderful and creative idea and tutorial, but with your blog at large!! Consider me a new follower!! Thanks! ~karen
This is just so cool! Jill, you amaze me and it was wonderful to see the though process behind how you do your wonderful creations!
WOWWWWW………I did exactly as you taught. Mine look like a 3 year old did it. Then I remembered something………………I CAN’T DRAW.
I’m so glad you have a talent and you share it. I only wish you also blogged so more hints might be shared with us “3 year olds”.