Cookie Gift Baskets Tip & Recipe Blog

Posts Tagged ‘baking shortcuts’

Love baking cookies but don’t have time to make individual ones? You can make a giant cookie instead. Making one big cookie saves time. And it can be presented as a cake. You can decorate it with piped icing and even write on it. You no longer have to go to the store to buy an expensive cake when you can make a giant cookie cake easily.

There are some ingredients that are common to all big cookie cakes. You’ll need really good butter, sugar, and fresh brown sugar. You’ll also need eggs, flour, and vanilla. Be sure to use the freshest ingredients you can find as they will affect the taste of your cookie. That’s where the similarity in ingredients between recipes usually stops. From here you can add chocolate chips, nuts, shredded coconut, and more.

One thing every recipe for a big cookie will call for is a pan. You can either use a flat sheet pan, a pizza pan or a molded shape like a heart or a moon shape. These types of specialty pans are found in the cake and baking aisle in stores.

Baking the cookie is easier than making cookies one by one. You don’t have to stand there and wait for the first batch to bake so you can put the next batch in. You just pop the whole batch of dough in on the pan at once. Couldn’t be easier.

Here’s a favorite recipe from Allrecipes.com. It’s for a giant chocolate chip cookie.

Giant Chocolate Chip Cookie

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup white sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup chopped walnuts

DIRECTIONS:

1. In large bowl, beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well.

2. Gradually add flour, salt, and baking soda, beating until well blended. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.

3. Spread in greased 14 inch round pizza pan. Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 20-25 minutes. Cool cookie in pan on a cooling rack. Decorate as desired.

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As you can see, it’s really no different than making regular chocolate chip cookie dough. The time-saving and super easy part is that you just spread the dough onto a pan once.

The decorating options are endless. Frost in blue frosting and make a Cookie Monster cake. Use black tinted frosting for the mouth and use cookies for the eyes. You can find frosting tints at a craft store that has a cake aisle. The powdered tints will yield a darker color than liquid food coloring. And the stain won’t come off on kids’ mouths if you use a powdered tint.

Other options for decorating a cookie cake include a harvest pumpkin (just frost in orange with a green stem), a soccer ball (use black and white icing to make the six-sided shapes of a soccer ball), or a spider web for Halloween (use white frosting and thin lines of brown frosting that you drizzle on and then drag a knife through).These giant cookie cakes make great birthday cookie gifts!

The white cake mix in this recipe not only cuts down on the ingredients needed, but it also creates a delicious twist to traditional rolled sugar cookies.  With the wide variety of cookie cutters available, you're sure to find one suitable for any occasion!

Ingredients:

* 1 box Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® white cake mix
* 1/2 cup shortening
* 1/3 cup butter or margarine, softened
* 1 teaspoon vanilla or 1/2 teaspoon almond extract or lemon extract
* 1 egg
* Sugar
* 1 cup Betty Crocker® Rich & Creamy vanilla frosting
* Food colors

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 375°F (350°F for dark or nonstick cookie sheets). In large bowl beat cake mix, shortening, butter, vanilla and egg with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, then on high speed 1 minute.
2. Divide dough into 4 equal parts. Roll each part 1/8 inch thick on lightly floured cloth-covered surface with cloth-covered rolling pin. Cut with 2 1/2-inch cookie cutters into desired shapes; sprinkle with sugar. On ungreased cookie sheet, place 2 inches apart.
3. Bake 5 to 7 minutes or until light brown. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack. 4. In microwavable bowl, microwave frosting uncovered on High 20 to 30 seconds or until melted; stir. Frost cookies.
5. Stir together small amounts of water and food color. Paint colors on freshly frosted cookies, using fine-tip brush, then swirl colors with brush or toothpick to create marbled designs.

Dry completely before storing.

Makes about 4 dozen 2 1/2 inch cookies.

Find more Cake Mix Recipes here!

I love peanut butter cookies!  They're crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside and they just seem to melt in your mouth!

Here are Peanut Butter Cookies with a twist!  These cookies start with a boxed yellow cake mix and end in deliciousness!

Ingredients

* 1 box yellow cake mix
* 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
* 1/3 cup water
* 1 cup creamy peanut butter
* 1/4 cup shortening or vegetable oil
* 2 eggs
* Granulated sugar

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375°F (350°F for dark or nonstick cookie sheets). In large bowl, beat cake mix, brown sugar, water, peanut butter, shortening and eggs with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth.
2. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in granulated sugar and, on ungreased cookie sheet, place 2 inches apart. Flatten in crisscross pattern with fork dipped in sugar.
3. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack.

Makes about 54 cookies

Note: You can always add your favorite chips to jazz up the recipe.

There are more Cake Mix Recipes on hand if you want to keep baking!