Cookies From the Cookie Making Party

 

Cookies (start from the upper right cookie and then clockwise): Sticky Fingers , White Chocolate Oreo Bark, Cupid's Regret, and Stratford Toll House

 While I was looking through my pictures for the Cream of Broccoli Soup and the Minestrone Soup I found the pictures of the Cookie party that I hosted January 23rd 2010. I spent a lot of time making the night before/into the morning two different bases of cookies. I was thinking my guests could meet up at my condo and then we decide what to mix in the cookie batters the day of the party. I did not budget my time well which caused me not to get much sleep. I also spent most of the party in the kitchen next to the stove shoveling in cookie pan after cookie pan. Even with all of that wear on my body I have to say that it was great to have a lot of people together to make cookies.

  The process goes by so much faster with good friends and helpers! You also get a variety of sizes, variety of details and all with cookie recipes you have been making for a while. Also you get to introduce new people together that live near by and you get to catch up on all of the gossip. I am thinking about doing it again for around Christmas. Maybe have people bring either batter or cookies they have made ahead of time.

Cookies Top right are sugar cookies in the shape of the the Alphabet and the lower half are Cupid's Nipples

Left side cookies are the Crazy 8's and the right side cookies are Cupid's nipples

  

  It was really nice and convent that we did the cookie party. At the end of the night the guest left with different types of cookies and it was not as much effort as if I did it all myself. Cookies, especially Christmas cookies, have taken me forever in the past to make in my small/inefficient kitchen. When the remodel is done there will be more counter space and more areas to sit down and create. I spent a lot of hours the last two Christmases on my feet. My back would hurt, there was not a lot of space to work so I could not get a lot done and it was just exhausting.

  Not only did I give out some cookies to my guests but also for Valentine's Day to my friends/family that were in the local area (ie in the Northeast and two in Canada which is kind of local if you really miss the people that live there). It looked like I spent a whole week doing all those cookies but for the time I spent on two batches I got eight or ten batches. Of course I made sure to include the ingredients and the names of the cookies along with the names of the cookie party guests. It was worth the all the cookie scooping and the oven slave labor at the end.

  I packed the cookies  in small  inexpensive white pails with a covers that I got at the container store which I sent home with the dutiful cookie makers and out to the cookie fans. Now I know why Martha Stewart can do it all because she has all of those helpers. I would love to get for Christmas some interns or helpers because imagine all that I could do with all those helpers! Hubby if you are listening if you can fit two or three interns under the tree that would be fantastic! I just need them after Thanksgiving to plan and make the cookies. Or readers once again if you like cookies and cleaning then Stepford CT Wife has a spot for you!

  The advantage of baking with a group of people is that people have different strengths and make cookies differently. I do not have much experience with using cookie cutters and I like to make big hunky cookies. While my friend B was really good at doing details, made delicately detailed/small cookies and taught me how to use the cookie cutters correctly. M was very different from her wife. She wanted to get the cookies done as quickly as possible and helped a lot because she was very fast at making the cookies. Also she was very helpful in cleaning up and doing the dishes-- my kind of lady! M2 made medium sized cookies and did the crazy 8's and that led to a new cookie I named the Cupid's Nipples (a pun on Nipples of Venus the French Candy and they had little Cinnamon hearts in the middle of a round sugar cookie). Also M2 noticed that we were working on wax paper not parchment paper. Wax paper is not oven friendly at all. So that was discovered rather late so we had to transfer the letters/number and the big heart that B was making for M onto the silicone baking mats. Without that discovery there would have been a lot of mess and less cookies for the guests/ cookie fan club. Now I have more silicone baking mats so everyone should get those next time plus I have extras. It is true that too many cooks can be bad in the kitchen but outside the kitchen friends scooping out cookies/helping to clean up are just right.

  Cookie parties can be expensive so I had people bring materials: Butterfingers, cinnamon hearts, Oreos, white chocolate and etc. You could also have people bring appetizers or a main meal. I made some appetizers and we order from the best Thai restaurant Little Buddha. I made two cookie bases: a sugar cookie base and a chocolate chip cookie base without the chocolate chips (if that makes sense then you know the recipe for chocolate chip cookies). I recommend having people bring different ingredients so that the party does not have to run too expensive. Also to cut down on expense/time like I mentioned before have people either bring cookies or batter that they made at home.

 

 So on the day they arrived we decided on what cookies we would create with the mix ins we brought. I named all of the cookies because well that is just as fun as making up the recipes!

SUGAR COOKIE BASED COOKIES:

  The Cupid's Regrets are the sugar cookie base with white chocolate and Cinnamon hearts.

   Cupid's Nipples are sugar cookies the inside circles of the 8's from the crazy 8's with a cinnamon heart in the middle. The Cinnamon hearts were great addition to the cookies and they made a sort of sugar stain glass.

  Alphabet and number cookies were sugar cookies with either cinnamon hearts, sprinkles or decorating sugars (or some combo of all three).

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE BASED COOKIES: 

  Sticky Fingers uses the chocolate chip cookie base minus the chocolate chips plus Reese peanut butter pieces and mini Butterfingers candy bars smashed in the batter. The name is of course a pun on the fact that Butterfingers were in the batter and I love the Rolling Stones. In fact Sticky Fingers was the first album that my husband and I ever listened to together.

  Stratford Toll House Cookies are chocolate chip cookie recipe with coconut, marshmallows and chocolate chips.

   The Oreo Bark I did incorrectly as I learned from chocolates and confectionery recently but I am going to melt the chocolate correctly next time. You can see in the first picture that it did not have that shine that I would have had if I tempered the chocolate. It did not have that correct breaking sound and texture that I would have had if I once again tempered the chocolate. I have to say that with my inexperienced taste buds  it still tasted really good and it was enjoyed by a lot of my cookie fans. White Chocolate Oreo bark is going to be better next time. The Oreo cookie bark is made with Oreo Cookies and White Chocolate. I crushed up Oreo cookies and put them in the melted white chocolate. Then I put down on plastic wrap in a jelly roll pan a thin layer of the product. Then I put in roughly chopped Oreos and in some parts even whole Oreos. I did this because the attempts to make chocolate covered Oreos did not work. It did not work because I used white chocolate chips instead of  white chocolate pistoles. Basically I heated up chocolate and then just stuck stuff in and then let it cool in a jelly pan. When I perfect tempering chocolate I want to then chop up the Oreo Cookie bark in a cookie. I want to use the bark in both a sugar cookie and in a chocolate chip cookie base. To the victor goes the spoil.

A Cinnamon Heart Sugar Cookie that did not make the transfer to the baking sheet.

 There were some failures at the cookie party and it was exhausting but it was a good time. I learned from the people that I worked with and I got  to experiment with recipes that I knew. I came up with new cookie ideas and used ingredients that I had never used in cookies. I am hoping that I can do it another time. I am hoping to recruit more people this time and be more efficient in the upcoming new kitchen.