Cookie Gift Baskets Tip & Recipe Blog

Archive for October, 2009

With it's creamy sweet center and crispy dark wafers, it's no wonder that Oreo cookies is the best selling cookie of the 20th century.  Created nearly 100 years ago (in 1912), the Oreo has changed very little from it's original form.  Oreo cookies are also the best selling cookies in China, although it's not as popular in the UK (the British prefer to dunk their lower-sugar burboun biscuits in tea).

Over the years, Nabisco has experimented with Chocolate Creme Oreos, Strawberry Oreos, Mint Creme Oreos, Double Stuff, Mini Oreos and holiday Oreos (the creme is tinted orange for Halloween, pink for Easter and red for Christmas).  You can also find 100 calorie Oreo packs if you're looking to watch your weight.

We've taken what is arguably the world's most popular cookie and made it even more sweet by enrobing it in luscious Belgian white chocolate and applying a happy edible image.  Each decorated Oreo is then "framed" with colorful candy sprinkles.  The result is a cheery gift basket that is sure to bring a smile to nearly anyone!

Intrigued about cookies now? You can learn about the top ten commercial cookies in the U.S. now.

The Perfect Treat for a Halloween Party!

If you want to get creative with your Halloween treats this year, look no farther. The following is a recipe that is sure to satisfy even the scariest taste buds.

Ingredients:

*1 package (about 18 oz.) of your favorite flavor cake mix (we use pumpkin or apple spice mix for Halloween)
*1 tub (16 oz.) vanilla or cream cheese flavored ready-to-spread frosting
*orange food coloring
*1 tube black decorating gel or melted chocolate
*black string licorice
*25 large gumdrops
*24 Halloween themed baking cups

Instructions:

1. Get out a couple muffin pans (enough to hold 24 cupcakes) and place your Halloween-themed paper baking cups inside the tin holders. Also preheat oven to 350°F.

2. In a mixing bowl, follow the package instructions to prepare the cake mix batter. Spoon the batter into the muffin baking cups and bake as directed on the cake box (follow the instructions for 24 cupcakes). Cool the cupcakes on a baking rack.

3. In a mixing bowl, mix the tub of ready-made frosting with some orange food coloring until you achieve the desired color. Frost the 24 cupcakes. Be sure to reserve a tablespoon or so of orange frosting to make the spider eyes. NOTE - you can leave the frosting white to make black and white webs if you prefer.

4. Using the black decorating gel, make a series of concentric circles on top of the frosted cupcakes. Then use a toothpick or knife to pull the black gel from the center of the cupcake to the outward edge of the cupcake about 8 times around the cake. This will create the web appearance.

5. To make the spider, take one large gumdrop and attach 3 pieces of black string licorice on each side to create the legs (tip...use a toothpick to make small holes for the licorice insertion into the gumdrop).  Use the reserved orange frosting to make a the eyes on each gumdrop with a toothpick dipped in the frosting. Place a large gumdrop spider on the top of each cupcake.

If you don't have time to do your own Halloween goodie baking, check out our Halloween party cookie gift basket which is overflowing with iced cookies in the shapes of monsters like mummies, cyclops, and witches.

Want to get spooky with your Halloween treats? Try some of these Halloween party food ideas.

Photo courtesy of cutco.com

If you live in the Midwest or Northeast like I do, you know that the warm summer months are clearly behind us and it seems that winter has settled in....even though it is only October.  The cool temperatures mean that we can now ship our chocolate-covered treats such as our giant fortune cookies and our tins of Belgian chocolate-dipped Oreos using standard shipping (instead of air-shipping).  This translates into big savings so be sure to stop by and check out our delectable chocolate-covered goodies today!

Consistently rated 5 out of 5 stars by our customers, this giant fortune cookie features a football-sized crisp vanilla fortune cookie that our artisans dip in a rich caramel and Heath toffee bits.  Then they add a lovely pattern created with fine milk Belgian chocolate.  Add your own custom message to the foot-long fortune that we tuck inside. No matter what the occasion, this gift is a winner!

You can enjoy them in cookies, ice cream, granola bars or by themselves as a sweet little snack, but where did chocolate chips come from?  In 1933, a very inventive Ruth Graves Wakefield was baking cookies at the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts.  She modified the cookie recipe by cutting up a Nestle chocolate bar and adding the chunks to her batter.  The result - the world's first chocolate chip cookies!  Once Nestle got wind of Ruth's ingenius addition to her cookie recipe, they offered her a lifetime supply of chocolate if she would allow them to print her recipe on the packaging of their chocolate bars - which were sold with a chipping tool so customers could "chip" away at the bar.  In 1939, Nestle started packaging the chocolate "morsels" in a bag and selling them with Ruth's recipe - renamed the original Toll House Cookie Recipe.

In the last 70 years, the chocolate chip has been duplicated and re-invented with different flavors including peanut butter, mint, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate, butterscotch and white chocolate - even white and dark chocolate swirls.  You can buy mini chips, regular size chips (a little less than 1/2" across), or jumbo chips.  The teardrop-shaped morsels are available from a number of manufacturers.

No longer used exclusively for baking, chocolate chips are a staple in most American households - including mine.  I always have at least two bags on hand for cookies, pancakes, brownies, 7 layer bars, or melted down to form a chocolate shell over my famous Christmas bonbons - I've included the recipe below:

Simple Chocolate Bon Bons

• 2 lbs confectioners sugar (powdered sugar)
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk

Melt butter and mix all ingredients together (easiest to do this with greased hands).  Roll into balls and place on cookie sheets lined with wax paper.  Freeze for 2-3 hours.  When the balls are solid, melt together a 12 ounce package of chocolate chips and a bar of parrafin wax (shaved - the best way to do this is with a cheese grater), either in the microwave or in a double-boiler.  Dip the balls into the chocolate mixture and place back on the wax paper to try.

Variations: You can separate the dough into smaller batches and add mint flavoring, coconut, chopped nuts or maraschino cherries.

Depending on the size of your bon bons, this recipe will make up to 7 dozen candies.

Find out more about the history of chocolate chip cookies here.