Very UN-successful cutout cookies:
Last night I came back from the gym and relaxed with the boys for a while. Just as it was time to put the baby to bed and I was going to finish cleaning up, take a shower and go to bed early, I remembered that I was supposed to make cookies for Nick's Halloween party on Friday. My plan was to make the dough, roll it out and cut out the cookies last night, bake them tonight and decorate tomorrow. So I didn't have time to work on a new post for today and since we also have a parade (or swimming lessons if it rains) tonight, I don't know when I will get around to it.
So here I go again. This type of cookie vexes me. I have no problem making the cookies. I used the King Arthur All-Purpose Cutout Cookie recipe again. Since learning the trick of immediately rolling out the dough between sheets of parchment paper I have not feared rolling out cookie dough. You don't need to add flour or anything to the parchment paper. Once you roll, you cut the cookies out right on the parchment and place the parchment with the cookies right on the cookie sheet. Easy peasy.
My next challenge will be to bake them. I figured out my oven problem. A few small bits of foil had ended up on the oven floor near the element. Oven elements and foil do not mix. Hopefully I caught it in time. The oven is still working but I'm not sure how well it's working. Someone reminded me that there might be a Cash for Clunkers type program for appliances so I'm hoping to wait and see if that is really going to happen before replacing my oven. Certainly I won't have a new oven or element by tonight so hopefully there's enough life left in it to make these cookies.
Then on to decorating. As you see up top, I've had success and failure in that department. I'm cooking frosting challenged. I usually end up with a sticky mess. I used Toba Garrett's glace recipe in the top picture with spectacular results (it set up wonderfully) but I've tried it at least twice more with no success (stayed sticky). I used melted almond bark in the second pick. I don't think those cookies left the house. They certainly weren't sticky but the colors were bad and I prefer a glaze or frosting on a cookie.
So this time I bought Wilton's premade cookie frosting but they only had one bottle of orange and several of white left by the time I got to the craft store with my coupon (they had black the week before and curse me for not buying it them). I bought two bottles of white hoping to tint one black and/or purple. We'll see. I'm sure it doesn't taste the greatest but I just want it to be easy to work with and to set up so I can stack them.
I will probably have to deliver the cookies myself since they would probably be crumbs by the time my 5-year-old got to school (or he might start eating them).
Why didn't I just offer to send a bag of candy corn?
I think they look great.
ReplyDeleteLove the pop of the colors in the first pic, but bet they all tasted delish - lucky kids!
ReplyDeletePaula, the easiest frosting for cookies is this: buy one of those tubs of white frosting and plop some in a small bowl and zap in the microwave till it's rather thin. Then just slather it on the cookie. It hardens up like the ones in the first picture. You can tint it if you wish. I made ghosts so left it white and just made two dots of melted chocolate for the eyes. Easy and it was good. Yep, a bag of candy corn definitely sounds easier!
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