Archive for: cookie cutters
Dinosaurs are something that fascinated me as a kid, their look and size made museum trips amazing and I had dozens of books and videos that almost brought them to life. Now, you can bring them to life in your own kitchen with a set of 3D Dinosaur Cookie Cutters. The cookie cutters are designed so that your dinosaurs, once cut and baked, can be assembled to stand on their own feet. They’re not quite as mighty as the real thing, but the cookies do stand several inches high and that is enough to make them tower over most other baked goods. The cookie cutters come in Triceratops, T-Rex, Stegosaurus, and Brachiosaurus options, so you can choose your favorite or build a whole prehistoric scene. This type of cookie cutter works best with cookie doughs that don’t spread too much, such as butter cookie dough, so that you get clean lines that will allow for easy assembly.
I admit that I’m not going to “ooh” and “ahh” over dinosaurs in quite the same way that I once did, but these cookies are extremely cute. And I suspect that if you have kids who are dinosaur fans, they will really appreciate seeing a batch of these cookies turn up in their kitchen!
And if you really want to get in to the dinosaur spirit with these, you could bury the cookie pieces in cookie crumbs (say, in a baking pan or other large container) and let your kids unearth and assemble them – like an edible archaeological dig.
Some of the most iconic things associated with Valentine’s Day are conversation hearts. These little candies have been putting smiles on people’s faces with their messages for nearly 150 years. Their distinctive heart shapes and short, sweet messages are easy to reproduce on other mediums, as well as in sugar, which means that you can make conversation cakes, brownies or cookies for your own Valentine’s Day celebrations. These Conversation-Heart Cookie Cutters, made by Chicago Metallic, are just one tool that you can use at home to easily make your own conversation hearts this year.
The plastic cookie cutters are double sided, so that you can cut out the cookie with one side and flip it over to imprint one of the messages onto the dough (or, you could simply leave some of the cookies plain). The messages include Love You, I’m Yours, True Love, Be Mine, Kiss Me, Hugs, Kisses, and XOXO – not quite as modern as the “text me” message that they’re putting onto the candies, but these are classics that are still perfect for the holiday. I like the fact that the cookie cutters aren’t solid, since it means that if any dough gets stuck in the cutter you can press it out with a finger or a butter knife without messing up the shape of the cookie. The scalloped edges around the cutters don’t make it onto the finished cookie designs, but they do make the cutters easy to hold – especially for small hands. The cutters come with a cookie dough recipe, although any butter cookie recipe will work with them if you prefer to use one of your own.
I love the idea of 3D cookie cutters because they promise to add so much depth to an ordinary plate of cookies. This is why the Sweet Creations by Good Cook Halloween cookie cutters appealed to me the moment I saw them, and I picked up the 3D Vampire Coffin Cookie Cutter and the 3D Frankenstein Cutter to test them out.
Some 3D cookie cutter sets are complex, with multiple cutters for forming one simple design. The thing that really appealed to me about both of these cutters is that they only needed one cut from a single cookie cutter to cut out every piece that you need to create a 3D design. The cutters are sturdy plastic, with a nice grippy top that includes an illustration of how the cookie pieces should fit together when you’re done baking them. The cutters also included recipes for cut-out cookies, though I used one of my own when trying them out.
The cookie cutters couldn’t have been easier to work with. They cut clean edges and the details that came through – the faces on the Frankensteins, for instance – were very impressive. My cookie dough retained all of that detail during baking, too, and once the cookies had cooled down it was very easy to figure out how to put the pieces together. The cookies are quite large (one of the reasons that they are so easy to work with), so you do need to use some frosting to ensure that all the pieces stay stuck firmly together when you are assembling them, but decorating these impressive cookies is just part of the fun.
Update: Get the recipe for the cookie dough I used here.
I’ve seen these cutters at several large grocery stores in my area, but they don’t seem to be available on the Good Cook website. They’re definitely worth keeping an eye out for if you’re looking to put a new spin on cookies this Halloween!
The idea of a Do-It-Yourself Cookie Cutter Kit may sound a bit silly at first, because most cookie cutters allow you to “do it yourself” and punch out cookie dough in a variety of shapes and sizes. What makes this kit unique is that it allows you to do so many different things with your cookie dough when it comes to punching out shapes and embellishing it with unusual designs. These types of decorations are usually only available with specialty cookie decorating kits, and getting so many different options in one place sets it apart.
The kit includes three basic cookie cutters – a circle, a heart and a star – as the foundation for your cookie designs. The rest of the tools include cookie stamps, which stamp one of six designs into your dough, and cutter wheels, which again give you six options for either embossing, edging or cutting the dough in creative ways. There are also six premade words/messages that you can stamp into your cookies: Happy, Birthday, Holidays, Thank You, Congrats and I Love You. You won’t get this kind of detail with just any cookie cutter and once you start adding those little embellishments to a batch of simple sugar cookies, you can see just how dressed up they can make plain cookie dough look and how that basic cookie can turn into the perfect way to celebrate.
If you’re working with kids, this kind of kit also gives them a lot of new options when it comes to cookie decorating, since the stamps and wheels allow them to express a lot more creativity than putting a few sprinkles or chocolate chips on to the top of the dough.
Cookies are associated more strongly with fall and winter – thanks to the Christmas holiday where cookies are an absolute staple – than they are with summertime. This is a shame because the summer can be a fine time to bake cookies. The days are longer, so we usually feel like we have a little extra free time and, if you have kids around, you can get some extra helping hands to shape and decorate them. Nordicware’s Summer Series 3D Cookie Cutters is a summer themed cookie cutter set that allows you to make three dimensional cookies that can stand up on their own. The set makes six different shapes with twelve cookie cutters, and the shapes include a boat, a dolphin, an airplane, a unicorn, a dinosaur and a teddy bear. The first three tie in to a summer, travel-theme, while I will admit that the latter three aren’t as obviously summery. They are, however, very cute and because the dinosaur is my favorite cutter from the set I’m willing to overlook the fact that not all of these are beach themed.
The cookie cutters come with a cookie dough and icing recipe that works well with them. If you are going to use a different recipe, choose one that doesn’t spread very much during baking (such as a stiff butter cookie dough, rather than peanut butter or chocolate chip cookie dough) because you need the cut outs to hold their shape, or you won’t be able to fit them together. The cookies are generously sized (4-5 inches) and there is a lot of surface area to decorate, which is fun for kids and adults – and not a bad way to spend a warm summer evening at home.
