Sunday, February 19, 2012

Rubber Stamps, Chocolate, Sprinkles & Cookies

On Friday evening I did a bit of a cookie experiment. I really planned to make these cookies for Valentine's day after having an epiphany about it as a combination of piniterest and a very long line at Michael's.  The idea was to use rubber stamps to create designs in cookies.  I figured it would work the same as any cookie mold and plus there were a bunch of valentine's themed rubber stamps for sale in the line.  I bought two.

I then didn't have any time to make anything around Valentine's day and put the idea aside--but I had purchased some sugar cookie dough for the project so I knew it had to happen at one time or another.

I would like to let everyone know that I didn't watch or read anything to do with the Pioneer Woman before making these cookies. This is all my idea and she obviously copied me! ;) Or we both had an excess of colored sprinkles available due to making unicorn poop.

So anyway, my original idea was this: stamp cookies, bake and then dip thick cookie edges in pink or purple frosting and roll them in sprinkles. However, being Friday night, I wasn't actually interested in making frosting--it sounded messy.  It also sounded like a whole lot of powdered sugar.  Instead, I decided I could use some chocolate, which I happened to have, and melt it with a bit of butter.

The actual output of this project was not as great as expected.  The first part of my method was to cut thick slices of cookie from a roll of store-brand sugar cookie dough. Then, I pressed the stamps into the center of the cookies which made for thick edges that cracked and, quite honestly, hardly any stamps in the center of the cookie but more off to the side.  I threw the tray of cookies in the oven and when I pulled them out 7 minutes later the designs were barely there--the cookies spread into regular sized cookies.  So, I pulled the tray out of the oven and pressed the stamps hard into the middle and then baked the cookies for an additional minute. It worked!

I think that the resulting cookie has a bit of a texture surprise.  The cookies are only soft in the middle part where they were stamped and crunchy on the edges.  The sprinkles look awesome but they are also a little crunchy so these cookies are all about the crunch. Also, store-brand sugar cookie dough is a bit boring. Note to self.  But! These cookies are otherwise a success! I might actually try it again but with different sprinkles--that sugary kind that come in stars and dolphin shapes.  I also would make my own dough or at least use pillsbury.

Rubber Stamp Chocolate Sprinkled Cookies
Ingredients:
Never-used with ink, clean rubber stamps of any design
1 roll sugar cookie dough (I actually only made half the roll because this recipe was a gamble)
2-3 oz dark chocolate
1 T butter
Sprinkles
2 shallow bowls

1. Preheat the oven according to dough directions.
2. Slice thick rounds of dough onto a baking sheet
3. Bake 7 minutes and then pull the sheet out of the oven.  Stamp the hot cookies without touching the hot cookie sheet by pressing the stamp into the middle of the cookies--start more to the edge than you think so the middle of the stamp actually gets in the middle of the cookie.
4. Bake 1 minute more or until golden brown
5. Let cool completely
6. Melt chocolate with a bit of butter (up to 1 T) and stir to melt completely (I did a few seconds in the microwave and then mixed to get it to melt smoothly).
7. Pour sprinkles into another shallow bowl.
8. Spread a sheet of parchment or wax paper on the counter so that you don't get sprinkles and chocolate everywhere from the cooling cookies.
9. Pick up a cookie by the edges and dip the non-stamped side into the chocolate, spread evenly with a knife
10. Dip the chocolate side of the cookie into the sprinkles and move it around a bit to coat the entire bottom. Lay the cookie chocolate side up on the parchment and repeat until all cookies have been coated.
11. Let the chocolate dry for several hours or overnight.  Once dried, the chocolate will be a little bit hard and hold the sprinkles without being messy.  Enjoy!

1 comment:

Jenny said...

I liked them! But then again, I like pretty much any cookie.