Annual repost because you need to learn from our mistakes.
"I'm Melting! Melting..."
You know those cute lil' squashed marshmallow fellows that have been popping up all across the blogosphere lately? The ones with the charming little scarves and glossy icing?
Meh, you grumble. Everyone knows how to make Melting Snowman Cookies.
These are not quite those cookies. Also, settle down there, Scrooge McDuck.
I wanted to make something that would knock the socks off of the girls at work for our cookie exchange. Knock their socks off but also not take too long or cost too much or require too much effort, you know?
Problem #1? No eggs. Unfazed, I found a great shortbread recipe that used powdered sugar, flour, and butter to make an egg-free cookie. I mixed up the dough and started a load of dishes, mixer parts included, while it chilled.
Problem #1? No eggs. Unfazed, I found a great shortbread recipe that used powdered sugar, flour, and butter to make an egg-free cookie. I mixed up the dough and started a load of dishes, mixer parts included, while it chilled.
Problem #2? Fearing they would burn, my first 2 pans of cookies were severely under-cooked. Why is it that you can't just put doughy cookies back into the oven and have them bake like they'd been undisturbed all along? Fearing that I'd invest the rest of my day decorating cookies that were inedible, I waited for the dishwasher to finish, then mixed up a brand new batch, complete with an additional hour of chilling time.
Problem #3? (Nothing is easy, right?) I'd saved a trip to the store by finding an egg-free, powdered sugar-filled recipe. Ready to decorate, I realized I'd used so much powdered sugar in the cookies that I didn't have enough left to make icing. Sexy Nerd found an old tub of frosting, one neither of us remembers buying, in the back of our pantry. It was incredibly thick, but he thought he could make it work.
The Strategy:
Mix with water.
(Remember my Dogs Wearing Earmuffs post? We keep our house a little chilly.)
Microwave.
Spread onto cookie.
Yeah...not quite what I was going for!
Luckily, I was able to improve on Sexy Nerd's frosting technique with my stand mixer. A melty marshmallow, a sprinkle nose, and some black gel icing later, and I was in business.
Ta da!
Gel icing, by the way, is a pain. And I won't go into details about the joy that is pressing minuscule sprinkles into tough Dollar Store marshmallows.
Repeat 35 times.
He's abominable.
The fella on the lower right is E.T.
Behind him is Mr. Hat Head
Señor Marshallito
I ran out of black gel icing toward the end. Sacrifices had to be made.
Santa Mallow
Can you spot Pedophile Mallow?
(Christmasy, right?)
"Adios!"