Hot Air Balloon Cookies

The Hot Air Balloon Cookies

I love a cookie design that allows for a lot of variety in color and design, and hot air balloon cookies are perfect for that. These were part of a small batch, so by the time I “played around” enough to choose some of my favorites, the decorating was all done!

Avoid Cratering

You may notice that the balloon segments were flooded in 2 steps. This is because sometimes, when icing into skinny spaces, you can end up with cratering…this is when the icing looks great as you’re piping it, but dries to reveal a depression or even worse, a hole. These are some stained glass cookies that I made years ago before I knew how to fix the problem. It can happen to the best of us.

There are several different ways to deal with cratering, most commonly with toothpick and a lot of patience. But this method is a bit faster: pipe some of the stiffer piping icing in the center of your channel before filling in with flooding. It’s a quick fix and almost always does the trick.

Every September we have a hot air balloon festival at a part just down the hill from my house. For a week, dozens of balloons take flight in the early morning just as the sun rises. And when I remember, I can step outside and see them fly so close that we can hear their conversations and smell the singe of the fire. My kids love to have conversations with them, as we can usually do so in just a regular speaking voice. Perhaps this year I’ll try to throw some of these hot air balloon cookies into their basket. 😉 I’m sure they would appreciate that.

Happy baking, friends!