So far I have made Chocolate pressed cookies from a recipe that came with the press. Far too stiff. I ended up filling the tube and then slicing the cookies off the end "slice and bake" style. For THAT it actually works quite well. It makes perfectly round cookies that are all uniform in thickness. Hmmmm, just like store-bought, but with ALL the WORK. Not exactly what I had in mind.
The next day I made Classic Peanut Butter Cookies from the label on Kraft smooth peanut butter. THOSE were quite successful. The dough is much softer for one thing, so the shapes actually came out through the decorative holes quite nicely. The recipe isn't meant to be used for a cookie press though and I think it contains a little too much leavener to have the cookies keep their details well when baked. Still, of all the cookies I have formed with the cookie press, these have been the most successful.
Look! These lasted long enough that I could actually take a picture. (Okay, I did have to slap a few hands!)
The ones in the picture are just the tip of the ice-berg. I don't seem to be capable of making a SMALL batch of cookies. It seems a sin to get all thosed bowls, measuring spoons/cups, and cookie sheets dirty and then only make 3 or 4 dozen. If a recipe makes less than 7 dozen cookies I automatically double (or triple) it. So....I have a lot more of these peanut butter cookies in my freezer. And yet.....still I baked on!
The next day I got an email from my mom. She had a couple more recipes for me to try. These from a Scandinavian cook book that belonged to her mother. So last night I gave the first of them a whirl. "Sprits" mom called them. I wonder if these are the same as the "spritz" you mentioned Debbie?
So I set in baking a large batch of "Sprits". Really large. Another failure. Once again the dough was too stiff and I ended up using the dough in a slice and bake manner. It's a good thing that all these "failures" are still edible. They aren't working the way I want them to, but they do taste fine and I have a large freezer......so don't weep for me.
With each successive failure I am learning a few things. I have a better idea now what the consistancy of the dough should be. I think somewhere between the stiffness of the spritz recipe (very similar in stiffness to regular shortbread) and the softness of the peanut butter cookie recipe should work.
Tonight I will try putting Whipped Shortbread through the darn contraption and see what happens. Mom thinks maybe it will be too soft. If that fails, I shall resort to altering recipes. I'll hold back some of the flour from the recipes I have already tried and see if that is more satisfactory.
I have decided to keep the cookie press. I need time to get the better of the thing!
1 comment:
In a loving act of self-sacrifice, I hereby offer my services as "official cookie-eater" free of charge, to help you with your problem of too many cookies. :-)
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