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Bat and Cat Cookies Two Ways - Beginner and Expert

YumSugar — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 03:00:26 -0700

While I may not want a bat in my coffee, I do love to celebrate Halloween with festive cookies. Bat and cat cookies are the quintessential Halloween dessert. If you're looking for something fast and simple, or you don't have Halloween cookie cutters on hand, try the first recipe, which simply calls for store-bought sugar cookie dough. If you're in the mood to make something from scratch, these dark, luscious cocoa bat and cat cookies will do the trick (or treat!). To get baking, read more.

Beginner Bat and Cat Cookies
From Pillsbury

Ingredients

1 roll (16.5 oz) refrigerated sugar cookie dough
1 container (1 lb) vanilla creamy ready-to-spread frosting
Orange gel food coloring
Black string licorice
32 green miniature candy-coated semisweet chocolate baking bits
1 tube (0.68 oz) black decorating gel
24 miniature semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

Heat oven to 350°F. Make and cool cookies as directed.
Remove 1/2 cup of frosting; tint remaining frosting with orange gel food color. Frost 8 cookies with white frosting. Frost 8 cookies with orange frosting. Place remaining orange frosting in food-storage plastic bag, and cut small hole in 1 corner.
For bats, use white-frosted cookies. Place 1-inch spiral of string licorice in center of each cookie for body. Pipe wings on sides of body with orange frosting. For eyes, attach 2 green baking bits onto body of each with frosting; squeeze a dot of black decorating gel in middle of each eye. Place 2 miniature chocolate chips on each for ears.
For cats, use orange-frosted cookies. Unroll and separate string licorice; place pieces of string licorice on cookies to look like ears and whiskers. Attach 2 green baking bits to each for eyes and 1 miniature chocolate chip for nose.

Makes 16 cookies.

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Expert Bat and Cat Cookies
From Martha Stewart

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, (spooned and leveled) plus more for rolling and cutting out dough
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
Small candies or sprinkles, for decorating (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, and salt; set aside.
In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy; beat in egg. On low speed, mix in flour mixture. Divide dough in half, and form into 2 disks, each about 3/4 inch thick. Wrap disks in plastic; chill until firm, at least 45 minutes and up to 2 days.
On a lightly floured sheet of waxed paper, using a floured rolling pin, roll dough 1/4 inch thick. (If dough becomes too soft to work with, refrigerate for a few minutes.)
Using 2- to 3-inch Halloween cookie cutters, cut out shapes, dipping cutters in flour as necessary to prevent sticking; place on a baking sheet, spacing them 1 inch apart.
Bake until surface is dry to the touch, 10 to 15 minutes (if decorating, press candies into dough halfway through baking). Cool cookies 1 to 2 minutes on baking sheet; transfer to a rack to cool completely. Serve, or store in an airtight container up to 3 days.

Makes 40 to 50 cookies.

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Foodie Flashback: Kirsten Dunst Loved Her Pillsbury

YumSugar — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 07:28:33 -0800

The other day, when I was looking for vintage Pillsbury Doughboy commercials, I came across one for Pillsbury Microwave Side Dishes. The novelty of the slogan "lovin' from the oven" referring to a microwave is sort of fun, however it's the wee Kirsten Dunst loving her microwaved scalloped potatoes that makes me giggle. The video is a wonderful slice of the 80s and you won't be able to get this Beep! Beep! jingle out of your head. To check it out, just read more

Foodie Flashback: Nothing Says Lovin' Like Something From the Oven!

YumSugar — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 11:18:11 -0800

At the age of 42, the Pillsbury Doughboy - aka Poppin' Fresh - is looking good for his age. He hasn't needed any Botox and looks just as good as he did when he first debuted on Nov. 7, 1965. Although his outside appearance has stayed the same - he's computer generated now, but was originally a plaster and foam-rubber puppet - his interests have changed. Over the years he's appeared as an opera singer, a painter, a sky diver, a skateboarder, an accordion player, and more.

If you're wondering what he was like when he started, check out an early commercial below. When you're done, jump to the next page for a few more.

To check out two more vintage Poppin' Fresh videos, just read more

Source

Discover a Million Dollar Cookie

YumSugar — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 13:28:33 -0700

What if I told you that baking cookies would bring you a million dollars? You probably wouldn't believe me, but it's true. This past weekend 100 finalists - all amateur bakers - competed in the 43^rd Annual Pillsbury Bake-Off. And Carolyn Gurtz of Gaithersburg, MD brought home a million bucks for her Double-Delight Peanut Butter Cookies. The cookies are essentially peanut butter cookies with a bit of creamy peanut butter filling in the middle. They sound pretty fantastic and look simple to make. Carolyn created hers by using the Pillsbury peanut butter cookie dough, but you could follow her idea with your fave pb cookie recipe instead.

Also, I have to tell you, I think she's absolutely adorable and am thrilled she won. I managed to get a video clip of her when she was declared winner by Food Network's Sandra Lee, and her excitement is infectious.

To get the recipe and see the cute video clip, read more.

Double-Delight Peanut Butter Cookies
From Carolyn Gurtz, winner of the 43rd Annual Pillsbury Bake-Off

Ingredients

1/4 cup Fisher Dry Roasted Peanuts, finely chopped
1/4 cup Domino or C&H Granulated Sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup JIF Creamy Peanut Butter
1/2 cup Domino or C&H Confectioners Powdered Sugar
1 roll (16.5 oz) Pillsbury Create ‘n Bake refrigerated peanut butter cookies, well chilled

Directions

Heat oven to 375°F. In small bowl, mix chopped peanuts, granulated sugar and cinnamon; set aside.
In another small bowl, stir peanut butter and powdered sugar until completely blended. Shape mixture into 24 (1-inch) balls.
Cut roll of cookie dough into 12 slices. Cut each slice in half crosswise to make 24 pieces; flatten slightly. Shape 1 cookie dough piece around 1 peanut butter ball, covering completely. Repeat with remaining dough and balls.
Roll each covered ball in peanut mixture; gently pat mixture completely onto balls. On ungreased large cookie sheets, place balls 2 inches apart. Spray bottom of drinking glass with Crisco Original No-Stick Cooking Spray; press into remaining peanut mixture. Flatten each ball to 1/4-inch thickness with bottom of glass. Sprinkle any remaining peanut mixture evenly on tops of cookies; gently press into dough.
Bake 7 to 12 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheets to cooling rack. Store tightly covered.

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Stuffed Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

YumSugar — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 16:08:11 -0700

YumJimmy recently had a birthday, and to help him celebrate, I thought I'd send him off to work with some sweet treats for his co-workers. Last year's treat was an intense labor of love, so this year I decided to take it easy.

I was inspired by the million-dollar winning Pillsbury Bake-Off recipe and used it, along with a delicious peanut butter recipe from Melissa Murphy's new book, to come up with some treats. The cookies are deliciously chewy peanut butter cookies, with chocolate chips and a surprise mini Reese's Peanut Cup in the middle. To make these treats for yourself, read more.

I used the recipe below and made three different types of cookies. First I used 1/3 of the dough and made regular peanut butter cookies as instructed. Next I used another 1/3 of the dough and shoved a mini peanut butter cup in the middle. Finally I used the last of the dough, added a few handfuls of chocolate chips, and then shoved a peanut butter cup into that. These were the favorite, although the plain recipe is quite delicious.

The baking time didn't change: It was about 12 minutes for all three types. In total I made 18 cookies. There are captions on all of the photos if you're wondering how to make the variations.

Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies
From The Sweet Melissa Baking Book by Melissa Murphy

Ingredients

1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

Position a rack in the top and bottom thirds of your oven. Preheat the oven to 325F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper or aluminum foil.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the peanut butter with the butter and sugars until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Beat in the egg.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Add the flour mixture to the peanut butter mixture and mix until combined. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl so that everything is combined evenly.
Scoop dough by the rounded tablespoonful and roll into balls. Place the balls about 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets, and press down slightly. Using a fork dipped in flour, press down on the cookies first one way and then the other to form an "X" pattern, creating the crosshatch effect. (The cookies should now measure approximately 2 inches in diameter.) Bake for 10 minutes, or until the edges are lightly golden. Overbaking will cause these chewy cookies to become crunchy, so try to avoid it.

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Foodie Flashback: Space Food Sticks

YumSugar — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 07:28:11 -0700

For some reason I assumed energy bars were an invention of the 90s. However, I just discovered that back in the late 60s, Pillsbury developed "many special foods" for the space race. The first one was called Space Food Sticks and it was a "compact, nutritious, high energy food." And it was apparently good for everyone from astronauts - who strangely have a hole in their helmets for their space food stick to go through - to baseball playing tykes. And hey, it's only 44 calories.

They disappeared for a while, but now they're back in a slightly different format. You can get an entire case for about $30. Now you can blast off into outer space!

To check out the fantastic commercial for this fantastic flashback product, read more

If you're looking for more bizarre flashbacks, be sure to check out GiggleSugar.