Cookie cutting without cookie cutters
Along with rum balls, we made gingerbread cookies with icing! We used Paula Deen’s gingerbread recipe. The flavor was okay but not great, I thought it was too molasses-ey and not enough ginger-ey. Thusly, I won’t describe the cookie recipe in detail.
The fabulous part about these cookies was our total lack of cookie cutters, forcing us to use our own ingenuity to make cookie shapes. I think we did quite well. Here are some of our ideas:
- We used a snowman head-shaped measuring cup to make snowman head-shaped cookies!
- A champagne glass to make round (ball, ornament) shaped cookies
- For the rest, a knife – some good shapes were stars, christmas trees and probably the winner of the creativity contest, Johnny 5.
Assorted
Johnny 5, or as I sometimes call him due to my 80's-specific cultural ignorance, Jackson 5
I can has cheezburger?
I really owe this recipe to my soccer teammate Corby. He made little cheeseburger cookies like this for one of our soccer bbq’s a couple of years ago, and I have never forgotten them. Don’t they just look amazing? Anyways, in tribute to the usual culinary treats associated with the 4th o’ July, this week’s treat is fresh off of the grill.
These cookies are great for a few reasons. First, did I mention that they look amazing? Second, they require no cooking. Third, they taste surprisingly good for a cookie mash-up. So go make some already!
INGREDIENTS (makes 20 burgerz)
- 40 Nilla Wafers
- 20 Grasshoppers (or thin mints)
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup coconut flakes
- 1 tblspn sesame seeds
- 1/4 cup vanilla frosting
- Red, Yellow, Green food coloring
DIRECTIONS
Start off by setting up your buns (aka the nilla wafers). Put half of them face up and half of them face down in two separate areas. The face up ones will be the tops. Bust open the egg and keep just the whites in a bowl. Using a small brush (or a papertowel all folded up if you don’t have one), coat the tops of the top buns with the egg whites. This will make them temporarily sticky. Before they have a chance to dry, sprinkle the sesame seeds on top, and press them down to set them. Set these buns aside to dry.
Now take your coconut flakes and shake them around in a baggie with a couple drops of green food coloring. The goal is for them to look like little shredded lettuce. Set these aside for now also.
In another bowl mix your vanilla frosting with a few drops of red food coloring and about 4X as many drops of yellow. Feel free to tweak the color to your desired cheese coloring. This frosting will act as both cheese on the burger, as well as the glue that holds the various pieces together. Once this is mixed up, grab your first grasshopper and put a dab of frosting on the bottom. The goal is to put enough to hold the bottom bun on, but not enough that the frosting visibly squirts out the sides. Press the grasshopper onto the bottom bun. Now add a much thicker layer of frosting on top of the grasshopper. This will be the cheese and it should be enough to be visible once the top bun is put on. Sprinkle some of the green coconut onto the cheese. Lastly, before you put the top bun on, add another small glue dollop onto the bottom of the top bun and press it into place. Repeat this assembly line for all of your cheezburgers.
Where is the cow this week? Who eats cheeseburgers with a glass of milk?