Snack or Die - Video Game Cookies

Snack or Die - Video Game Cookies tag:www.snackordie.com,2008://2 2008-05-06T16:34:01Z Video game cookies and other gaming food shenanigans. Movable Type Personal 4.1 GTA IV Sugar Cookies tag:www.snackordie.com,2008://2.43 2008-05-06T16:34:09Z 2008-05-06T16:34:01Z

Sugar cookies with various designs based off of Grand Theft Auto IV....

Jocelyn http://snackordie.com Sugar cookies with various designs based off of Grand Theft Auto IV.]]> Cookie Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour 1 cup butter (two sticks) 1 cup sugar 2 eggs 1/2 tsp. baking soda 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Soften the butter and blend in the sugar.

Add the vanilla extract and eggs, and mix for a couple of minutes.

Add in the flour and baking soda. It'll take a couple of minutes for the dough to ball up.

Once everything is well blended, cover with saran wrap and pop in the fridge for at least an hour. Cooling the dough will make it a tiny bit easier to roll out for cookie cutting. When you're ready to bake, set the oven to 350°F. Dust down a little flour to prevent sticking and roll out the dough to about 1/8". Cut out circles with a large round cookie cutter. Bake for about 8 minutes, until the cookies are golden brown. Pull from oven and allow to cool. While the cookies are cooling off you can whip together the royal icing! Ingredients for Royal Icing:

2 egg whites 3 cups powdered sugar 2 teaspoon lemon juice 1 teaspoon light corn syrup

The corn syrup isn't required for the Royal Icing, but it will make the frosting easier to squeeze out of the bag. Blend together the egg whites and lemon juice. Add the corn syrup, then slowly mix in the powdered sugar.

Royal icing only takes a long time to dry after you put it on a cookie. While it's in the bowl, it'll quickly harden into concrete. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth to help prevent a hard crust from forming. To draw with royal icing, you can use a pastry bag with a fine tip, or you can use a ziplock bag and snip the corner off and draw that way. I went with the latter and it worked out just peachy. All the below designs use royal frosting, along with their listed ingredients. Police Car:

Chocolate car Black decorator's gel Green sprinkles

If you can't find the cute chocolate cars at a grocery store, try looking in a specialty chocolate shop. That's where I found mine! Spread a thin layer of frosting on the cookie. You'll want it pretty thin so that it hardens quickly. Place the chocolate car on the cookie wisely - you won't be able to move it in a a few moments. Use the black decorator's gel to draw street lines. Once the first layer of royal icing has hardened, add a tiny bit more icing between the road and the sides of the cookie. Dash some green sprinkles on top of the cookie to create grass.

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Rockstar Logo:

Orange and blue food coloring Black decorator's gel

Add two dollops of white royal icing into a tiny bowl. Add orange (for Rockstar Games, the main office of Rockstar studios) or blue (for Rockstar North, the developer), and mix. Spread the colored icing on top of the cookie and allow to dry. Once hardened, draw the Rockstar "R" in black decorator's gel. Carefully draw the Rockstar star at the tip of the extended foot of the "R" with royal icing.

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Niko Bellic:

Chocolate sprinkles Chocolate frosting Black decorator's gel

This one came out a little more morose than is proper, but it's my favorite of the bunch. There's just something goofy about it. I need to try this cookie-head thing more often.

Even has the scar on his left eyebrow!
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All told, the recipes make a dozen large sugar cookies with enough royal icing for whatever GTA IV designs your heart desires.

]]> Duke Nukem Fruit Tarts tag:www.snackordie.com,2008://2.42 2008-04-22T16:49:38Z 2008-04-23T01:41:37Z

Simple fruit tarts with the Duke Nukem logo....

Jocelyn http://snackordie.com Simple fruit tarts with the Duke Nukem logo.]]> Ingredients:

Small graham cracker crusts Cherry or strawberry preserves One whole pineapple

You can buy pineapple rings instead of a whole pineapple, but pineapples are in season this time of year, and cutting up a pineapple isn't so bad. When picking out a pineapple, check for soft spots (they're usually near the bottom of the fruit) and healthy looking leaves. If the leaves can be easily pulled off, look for another pineapple.

A fine looking fruit.

First thing to do is chop off the top leafy part. Next, slice off the skin of the pineapple.

Pare out any parts of the skin that weren't removed during the first go-around so that all the brown spots are removed. Lay the pineapple on its side and cut a slice with roughly 1/2" thickness. You can go thinner, but the design pieces will be more apt to fall apart. Bust out all the circular cookie cutters. You want the outer ring to be pretty snug against the crust, so find one that'll just fit into the tart. Pick out another cookie cutter that's a bit smaller. You'll want the ring to have about 1/4" thickness. Any thinner and the pineapple ring will be apt to split when being cut with the cookie cutter.

Finding the right size cookie cutters.

Take a pineapple ring and place on the cutting board. Take the bigger cookie cutter and center around the core of the pineapplie slice. Put your weight behind it and push! Pop the pineapple out the middle, and repeat with the smaller cookie cutter to create the outer ring.

Use the rest of the pineapple slice to cut out the three triangles. You'll have to eyeball this part, but if they don't fit correctly in the tart, you can just trim 'em down. Avoid the core area of the pineapple when cutting out the designs. That part's not as tasty as the rest of the fruit. For the middle circle, I didn't have a cookie cutter that was small enough. So I used a frosting tip.

Fill the graham cracker crust container with the preserves. It took about four spoonfuls to fill 'er up.

Push the outer ring into the preserves. Place the triangles and center circle on top. You'll probably need to fill in the spaces between the triangle with a little bit more preserves, depending on how much you had in there in the first place.

You'll have enough pineapple for a half dozen tarts. No knife is needed, the pineapple will be soft enough to be cut with a fork.

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]]> PlayStation 3 Brownies tag:www.snackordie.com,2008://2.41 2008-04-21T16:39:09Z 2008-04-21T16:39:21Z

Cakelike brownies with crushed Thin Mint cookies mixed in....

Jocelyn http://snackordie.com Cakelike brownies with crushed Thin Mint cookies mixed in.]]> well. Ingredients:

3 squares (3 oz.) unsweetened chocolate 4 tablespoons butter, softened 2 eggs 1 cup sugar 1/4 milk 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/2 cup flour 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt Half a box (one sleeve) of Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies Chocolate frosting White frosting Red, blue, green, and yellow decorators' gels

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease up a 8" square baking dish. Use a double boiler to melt the chocolate. I used my typical setup of using a large pot of boiling water and setting a smaller bowl inside.

Combine the softened butter sugar and beat until mixed.

Add the eggs until the mixture is fluffy. Mix in the milk and vanilla and blend.

While the chocolate is continuing to melt, pour the Thin Mints into a plastic bag. Crush the cookies into as fine bits as you want. If you want big cookie bits in your brownies, not a whole lot of mushing of the cookies is needed.

Once the chocolate is melted, pour the chocolate into the other ingredients and stir until throughly blended.

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, then add to the chocolaty mixture. Beat until just blended.

Throw in the crushed Thin Mints and mix.

Pour the batter into the greased baking pan, making sure the batter is evenly spread around the pan.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick poked into the middle of the brownie pan comes out clean. Once the brownies have been pulled from the oven and cooled, cut brownies into six long pieces. You can go smaller, but the details will be harder to draw with the gel. Plus, giant brownies make people happier than small brownies. Proven fact.

Take about 1/2" of an inch of the right half of the brownie.

Frost the brownie with chocolate frosting, with the exception of the middle vertical face. You'll be coating that with white frosting.

With white frosting and decorator gels, draw the white faceplate, PlayStation logo, and buttons onto the brownie. Makes six big minty brownies.

]]> 360 Mini Cheesecakes tag:www.snackordie.com,2008://2.40 2008-04-17T16:32:36Z 2008-04-17T16:40:18Z

Individual cheesecakes with a sour cream topping....

Jocelyn http://snackordie.com Individual cheesecakes with a sour cream topping.]]> Red Velvet Red Ring 360 cookies, this recipe might just do the trick. The slight tanginess of the sour cream topping fits well with the creamy cheesecake. Ingredients:

2 packages of 8 oz. cream cheese 2 eggs 3/4 c. sugar 1 tablespoon lemon juice 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 12 vanilla wafers 8 oz. sour cream 1 tablespoon sugar 1/4 teaspoon almond extract Green decorator's gel

You can use the 1/3-less-fat kind of cream cheese and still have fairly tasty mini cheesecakes. Be wary of the fat-free cream cheese. Whatever that stuff is, it doesn't make for tasty eats. Preheat oven to 350°F. Once the cream cheese has softened, blend together the cream cheese, eggs, vanilla, lemon juice, and sugar until smooth.

Place a vanilla wafer in the bottom of the muffin tin. Cover with filling until the muffin container is 3/4 full.

Bake for 15 to 18 minutes. Take the tiny cheesecakes out before top of cheese cakes start turning brown. They are done when they are firm and the tops begin to crack.

The tops haven't began to fall yet. Bigger image.

Don't worry when the centers of cheesecakes fall. We'll be filling that up with, well, filling. Tasty filling.

Fallen top!

While the cheesecakes are cooling, you can put together the sour cream topping. Crank up the oven temp to 425°F. Mix together the sour cream, sugar, and almond extract.

Spoon the mixture into the depression of the cheesecake. It'll take a couple of tablespoons per cheesecake.

After five to seven minutes, the cheesecakes will be done. Pull from the oven and allow to cool.

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Once cooled, draw the 360 logo on top of the cheesecake with the decorator's gel.

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Refrigerate and chill before serving.

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]]> Hearthstone Cinnamon Buns tag:www.snackordie.com,2008://2.38 2008-04-01T16:48:00Z 2008-04-01T16:55:06Z

Huge cinnamon buns with cream cheese frosting and a hearthstone design....

Jocelyn http://snackordie.com Huge cinnamon buns with cream cheese frosting and a hearthstone design.]]> Joy of Baking's cinnamon rolls with some minor changes. Ingredients for cinnamon bun dough:

4 1/2 - 5 cups all-purpose flour 1 package (1/4 ounce) active dry yeast 1 cup milk 1/3 cup unsalted butter 1/2 cup sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 3 large eggs

Ingredients for cinnamon bun filling:

3/4 cup light brown sugar 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon 1/2 cup butter

Ingredients for cream cheese frosting:

1 bar of 8 oz. cream cheese 2 tablespoons melted butter 1 tsp vanilla 1 cup powdered sugar Blue decorators' gel

That may seem quite the list, but it's really not too bad. The hardest part is waiting for the dough to rise. You will have to let the dough rise twice, so this can turn into a long affair with the dough's cooldown time. Luckily, you can get the buns ready to go and pop them into the fridge. You'll be all set for baking for fresh cinnamon rolls the next morning! Start off with 2 1/4 cups flour and stir the yeast in.

In a saucepan with the heat on medium, heat the milk, butter, sugar, and salt. Constantly stir the sauce. When the butter is almost melted, check the temperature. Once it's between 120 - 130F, pull the saucepan off the stove to add to the flour mixture.

Add the liquid to the flour mixture, stirring slowly until it's well incorporated. The dough will be awfully thick at this point. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Once all the eggs are added, mix on high for three minutes.

If you have a stand mixer, you can use the dough hook to mix in the remaining 2 1/4 to 2 3/4 cups flour. I don't have one, so I kneaded by hand. Add in 1/2 cup of dough at a time until the dough is no longer sticky.

Form the dough into a ball and place into a greased bowl, flipping once. Cover and allow the yeast to go to work until the dough as doubled. It will take anywhere from an hour to three hours, depending on the temperature of the room. Yeast are happier when they are in a warmer room. It took my dough about two hours to get to the proper size.

Two hours later.

After the dough has risen, punch it down (my favorite part when working with dough!)

PUNCH!

Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and give it another cloth blanket while making the filling.

For the filling, take a stick of cold butter and chop into roughly 1/4" slices. Place into a bowl and add the brown sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Use your hands to mix everything together. You'll have to mush around the butter with your hands, so it'll be pretty messy.

Roll the dough out into a 12" square so that the dough is about 2/3" thick. Evenly distribute the filling on the dough.

Roll the dough up very tightly into a long cylinder and pinch the seam shut. The middle of the dough will be a little bigger than the ends, so gently roll the dough log so it evens out. Cut the dough into eight cinnamon rolls. I lightly scored the dough log with a knife before cutting to make sure I had even proportions.

Arrange the buns in a 13x9 baking pan. You could use a bigger pan, but any smaller and the buns won't fit. Don't worry if the buns look a little squished; they'll puff out into a proper bun shape. Cover the pan and buns with plastic wrap to allow the dough to rise.

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At this point, you could pop the dough into the fridge for two to twenty-four hours. If you're planning on baking buns the next morning, allow the dough to stand in room temperature for 30 minutes right before baking. If you're going straight to baking, allow the buns to double in size. My dough took an hour to plump up. After the buns are done rising, bake in a 375F oven for 20-25 minutes or until the tops are light brown. You can tell the buns are done when a toothpick that's poked into the middle of the cinnamon bun comes out clean. Almost done! While the buns are baking, you can put together the frosting. Put everything – cream cheese, sugar, vanilla, and powdered sugar – into a bowl and mix until it's well blended.

Once the buns are done, allow them to sit for a couple of minutes so the frosting won't melt off the buns and you don't burn your hands.

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When you're ready to frost, grab a bun and slather on the cream cheese frosting.

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For the final bit, use blue decorators' gel and follow the cinnamon bun's natural swirl to create the hearthstone marking.

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Makes eight huge buns.

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]]> Ultros Cookies tag:www.snackordie.com,2008://2.37 2008-03-31T16:04:09Z 2008-03-31T16:04:02Z

Large sugar cookies with almond slices....

Jocelyn http://snackordie.com Large sugar cookies with almond slices.]]> gluten free Octopus cookies. Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour 1 cup butter (two sticks), softened 1 cup sugar 2 eggs 1/2 tsp. baking soda 1 teaspoon vanilla extract Purple food coloring Sliced almonds (or pine nuts) White frosting Red decorators' gel

Preheat oven to 350°F. Zap the butter for 30 seconds in the microwave to soften (but not melt), and add to a large bowl. Add the sugar, vanilla extract, and eggs. Mix well.

Add the flour and the baking soda. Mix until everything is well blended. This dough is rather thick, so it will take a few minutes to get everything mixed up.

Once the dough is sticking together, add the purple food coloring. Mix until the color is spread throughout the dough.

Form the dough into about twelve balls. The balls should be almost the size of your meaty fist. Cover with saran wrap and place in the fridge for an hour.

Once the dough is cooled, roll out a ball with your hands into a log shape. Use a roller and run over the dough a few times to stretch it out. The thickness of the dough should be around 1/3". Slice one end of the dough four or five times to create the legs.You can try for more slices to create the proper number of octopus legs, but be careful when transferring to and from the cookie sheet. The thinner legs will make them more apt to break off.

Transfer to a greased cookie sheet and shape the legs. Press some almond slices down into the dough to create Ultros' mouth.

Pop into the oven for about twelve minutes.

Allow the cookies to cool. Use white frosting, followed by red decorators' gel to create the eyes.

Makes a dozen large cookies.

]]> Koopa Shell Cookies tag:www.snackordie.com,2008://2.36 2008-03-25T16:35:07Z 2008-03-25T16:39:05Z

Slightly crunchy, delightfully buttery cookies dipped in bright royal icing....

Jocelyn http://snackordie.com Slightly crunchy, delightfully buttery cookies dipped in bright royal icing.]]> Ingredients for cookies:

1 cup butter, softened 1 cup powdered sugar, divided 2 cups all-purpose flour 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 3/4 cup finely chopped pecans (walnuts work as well)

Ingredients for Royal Icing:

2 egg whites 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar Green food coloring White decorators' gel or white frosting Black decorators' gel

Preheat oven to 350°F. Blend the softened butter and vanilla extract until it looks like mayo.

Add in the flour, 1/2 cup of powdered sugar, and salt. This is a thick dough, so it will take a few minutes for the dough to become well mixed.

Mix in the chopped pecans or other chopped nut of your choice.

Form into one inch balls and place on cookie sheet. These cookies don't spread, so you can pack a lot of them on a cookie sheet.

Bake for 10-12 minutes. The cookies are overdone if the tops are brown, so check out them often. They're done when they are firm and the bottoms are golden brown.

Just pulled from the oven.

Pour the remaining 1/2 cup of powdered sugar into a bowl. While the cookies are still warm, roll them in the powdered sugar. I rolled the cookies right after pulling them from the oven; it was like playing the game Hot Potato. If the cookies are allowed to cool for a minute or two, you won't have to bobble the hot cookie around.

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Once the cookies have been rolled in powdered sugar, allow to cool. While they cookies are cooling off, you can put together the royal icing. Mix together the powdered sugar and egg whites. You'll want a pretty thick frosting, otherwise it will run right off the cookie.

Add the green food coloring. It took quite a bit to get this bright green color. I used coloring gel; it took four good squeezes of the bottle.

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Royal icing hardens quickly so you'll have to be quick with this dipping part! Grab a cookie and dip halfway into the frosting. Shake off any access frosting, then place on a sheet of tin foil to dry. Drying time takes about an hour.

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Once dried, use black decorators' gel to create the turtle shell pattern on the top of the cookie. Use white gel or frosting around the edge of the green frosting to complete the cookie. I found that using the smaller gel container was less awkward to use than the bigger frosting can.

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Makes two dozen Koopa Shell cookies.

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]]> Hunt the Wumpus Footprint Cookies tag:www.snackordie.com,2008://2.35 2008-03-24T16:30:06Z 2008-03-25T18:28:13Z

Buttery jam-filled thumbprint cookies from the 1980 game Hunt the Wumpus....

Jocelyn http://snackordie.com Buttery jam-filled thumbprint cookies from the 1980 game Hunt the Wumpus.]]> Hunt the Wumpus Footprint Cookies

Title screen of Hunt the Wumpus.

In this game, you walk through a network of caves, looking for the Wumpus. Three red spots in a row meant the Wumpus was one circle away. Killing the Wumpus meant you had to fire an arrow in its direction, but guess wrong and you were eaten. When you were eaten by the Wumpus, the evil grin of the Wumpus popped up on the monitor. It was a little scary when I was younger.

Frightens small children.

These cookies are a tribute to this fine piece of entertainment. The recipe is based off thumbprint cookies, with the design coming from the blue grid of the game.

A screenshot from the game.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup cup butter, softened 1/4 cup sugar 1 large egg 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 cup flour 1/4 teaspoon salt Red jelly Blue sprinkles

Preheat oven to 350°F. Start off by mixing the softened butter and sugar until creamy.

Add in the egg and vanilla and mix until everything is well blended.

Add in the flour and stir things up.

In a bowl, pour in the blue sprinkles. Form a ball out of about a tablespoon of dough and drop into the bowl. Roll around in blue sprinkles until you have a good coating. You'll need a lot of sprinkles, I had to refill the bowl o' sprinkles every four balls or so.

Reminds me of the bonus levels in Sonic 3. Bigger image.

After all the balls are well coated, it's time for the thumbprint part! Smush the middle of the cookie with your thumb.You don't want the indentation in the ball of dough to go to the bottom of the cookie, but you want to make a good mark.

Add a 1/4 teaspoon of jelly to the center of the cookie. You don't want too add too much, or else the jelly will overrun the cookie.

Once all the cookies are jelly-filled, pop in the oven for about 10 minutes. This is a cookie you don't want to brown. If you're unsure when to pull them, poke them with your finger and see if they're firm. You can also pick one up and check to see if the bottoms are golden brown. If they are, it's time to take them out.

All done!

Makes about a dozen cookies.

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]]> Triforce Lemon Slices tag:www.snackordie.com,2008://2.34 2008-03-17T16:04:08Z 2008-03-17T16:10:10Z

Lemon triangles with a shortbread crust and a tangy lemony filling....

Jocelyn http://snackordie.com Lemon triangles with a shortbread crust and a tangy lemony filling.]]> anyone would buy a box of cookies. So many people would walk by and not even look at the table of goodies. Every once in a while, some nice person would stop by and pick up a box, or even two boxes! Remembering those days has lead me to purchasing numerous boxes of Thin Mints, Shortbreads, and Peanut Butter Patties (those are the best.) This recipe uses one sleeve of Girl Scout Shortbread cookies. The other sleeve you'll have to eat. Or, you can double the recipe and take care of the entire box that way. Ingredients for filling:

Half a box of Girl Scout Shortbread cookies 2 eggs 1 cup sugar 4 tablespoons lemon juice 3 tablespoons flour 1 teaspoon baking powder Cooking spray

Ingredients for glaze:

2-3 tablespoons lemon juice 1/2 cup powdered sugar, plus some for dusting

Preheat oven to 350°F. Pour the Shortbread cookies into a ziplock bag. Crush the cookies up with your hands to get things started.

Punch!

Place the crushed cookie bag into another ziplock bag just in case any holes in the first bag show up. Use a rolling pin to finish creating the cookie crumbles.

Spray a 9" baking pan with vegetable oil and pour the cookie crumbs into the pan. Even the crumbs out and press down into the pan. Spray the crumbs with another blast of vegetable oil and pop into the oven for five minutes.

In a small bowl, mix together the eggs, sugar, lemon juice, flour, and baking powder. It'll fizz a little bit due to the lemon juice and baking powder.

Once the crust is done baking, pour the filling mixture on top of the warm crust. You might have to angle the pan around to make sure the filling completely covers the crust.

Pop back into the oven for about 10 minutes. It'll be done once the crust is a golden brown. Once it's done, pull from the oven. While it's cooling, it's glaze time!

Add 1/2 cup of powdered sugar into a small bowl. Add two tablespoons of lemon juice and mix. If the frosting is too thick, add another tablespoon of lemon juice. Keep adding lemon juice until the thick glaze can be poured from the bowl.

Take a spoon and drizzle the glaze over the pan. Dust with powdered sugar. Allow the glaze and the lemon slices to cool. Makes 18 cookies.

Once cooled, cut into triangles and remove from pan. Makes 18 cookies.

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]]> Pacman Mini Pies tag:www.snackordie.com,2008://2.33 2008-03-14T11:53:52Z 2008-03-14T14:56:43Z

Celebrate pi day with pacman mini pies!...

Jocelyn http://snackordie.com Celebrate pi day with pacman mini pies!]]> Ingredients:

Two packages of refrigerated pie crusts (four crusts total) Cherry pie filling Egg white

I was hoping to find some fresh cherries to make the sauce, but my grocery store didn't have any cherries to be found. So I ended up with a can of cherries. You could go for the apple or blueberry filling, too. I went with cherry since it seemed more fitting for a pacman theme. Preheat the oven to 375F. Grease the muffin tin well. Cut out the bottom crust with a cookie cutter. You might have to experiment to get the right size. The dough should just reach over the lip of the muffin pan when it's pushed down into the pan.

Fill with a couple spoonfuls of filling of your choice.

Brush the crust with egg white to help seal the top crust to the bottom crust.

Use another cookie cutter to cut out the pacman shape. You'll want this size to be just a wee bit bigger than the size of the pie. Taking the same technique that was used for the cheddar pacman crackers, use a pointed cookie cutter to create the pacman mouth. If you're handy, a knife also works.

Place the dough pacman on top of the filling. Crimp the mouth parts first and move along the side of the mini pie.

Pop in the oven for about 10 minutes or until the pies look golden brown. Once the mini pies look done, pull from the oven. Use a spoon to clean up any topping that's bubbled over and caused a mess around the mini pie.

Allow the pies to cool, then gently pry from the muffin tin. I completely skipped the greasing-of-the-muffin-tin part, so this part was a little rough. And by "rough" I mean not one pacman pie survived the trip out of the muffin pan. So, don't forget to grease the muffin pan! Although they lost their shape, the mini pies were still darned delicious.

Makes about a dozen pacman mini pies.]]> Red Velvet Red Ring 360 Cookies tag:www.snackordie.com,2008://2.32 2008-03-12T01:04:54Z 2008-03-12T01:59:44Z

Red velvet cookies with cream cheese frosting adorned with the Xbox 360 red ring....

Jocelyn http://snackordie.com Red velvet cookies with cream cheese frosting adorned with the Xbox 360 red ring.]]> Ingredients for cookies:

Box of Red Velvet Cake Mix 2 eggs 1/4 cup vegetable oil Red gel Green gel

Preheat oven to 350°F. Pour the box of cake mix into a bowl, but don't follow the instructions on the box. Instead add in the above amounts of eggs and oil. Mix well. The mix will turn from a brownish color to a bright, bright red.

Now that's red.

Spoon the mix onto a greased cookie sheet and bake for about 10 minutes. You'll know the cookies are done when the top doesn't look moist.

A peak into the oven.

Pull from the oven and allow to sit for about five minutes to cool. While they're cooling, you can put together the frosting. Ingredients for cream cheese frosting:

1 eight ounce package cream cheese 1/4 cup butter 1 cup powdered sugar

Soften the cream cheese and butter, then mix. Once it's well blended, add in the powdered sugar.

Drop some frosting on the red velvet cookie and spread around with a knife.

Draw the three curved lines in red for the red rings and add the power button in green.

Makes about two dozen cake-like cookies to help turn frowns upside down.

]]> Super Mario Question Block Brownies tag:www.snackordie.com,2008://2.31 2008-03-04T16:50:39Z 2008-03-04T16:50:31Z

Rich brownies with buttercream frosting....

Jocelyn http://snackordie.com Rich brownies with buttercream frosting.]]> Ingredients for brownies:

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter 3/4 cup granulated sugar 2 eggs 1 cup all-purpose flour 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon vanilla 1/4 teaspoon salt

Pre-heat oven to 350F! Chop up the butter and add to the chocolate chips and sugar in a double boiler.

The beginning of great things.

While the water's bubbling away for the double boiler, add the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt together into a bowl and mix.

To help the melting along, stir the bowl in the double boiler every once in a while. It'll take about five minutes for everything to melt.

Looks done!

Once everything's melted, pour the chocolate mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients.

Mix until everything is well blended. The dough will be thick, but it's not enough to blow out your handmixer's motor. Hopefully.

Scoop up the mixture and place into a greased 9" baking pan.

Bake for about 25 minutes. The brownies are done when poked with a knife and the knife comes out clean.

After the brownies have cooled, cut into squares. The easiest way to do this is do flip the brownie pan over, give it a little pat to help the brownies out, and then get to square cutting. I did lose a couple of brownies in this event as they broke into pieces. Very tasty pieces, I might add.

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Now to bring on the buttercream! Ingredients for buttercream frosting:

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened 3 to 4 tablespoons milk Food coloring Black gel Orange gel

Soften the butter in a microwave. You just want it the butter just soft enough so it's easy to mix, you don't want to liquidate it. To the butter, add the powdered sugar, two tablespoons of milk, and mix. Add in a tablespoon of milk at a time until the frosting is a good spreading consistency.

To get the color of the question block, add a few drops yellow and red food coloring until you get the proper color. This batch of frosting took five drops yellow and one red.

Everything's all set, so it's decorating time! Things shouldn't get too messy until you go hogwild with the frosting knife. Take a brownie and get a good dollop of frosting on it. Don't smoosh the frosting around too much, or else you'll pull the brownie top into the frosting.

Use black gel to create the question mark dropshadow.

Follow the outline with orange gel.

Add the black dots at the corners.

Makes about 16 brownies, depending how on big the blocks are.

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]]> Raving Rabbids Cookies tag:www.snackordie.com,2008://2.30 2008-03-03T17:37:53Z 2008-03-03T17:49:25Z

Raving rabbid sugar cookies with royal icing....

Jocelyn http://snackordie.com Raving rabbid sugar cookies with royal icing.]]> Ninja Gaiden Throwing Star Cookies. For the royal icing you'll want to have the following on hand.

Ingredients:

3 egg whites 3 cups powdered sugar Food coloring White frosting Red or blue gel, depending what color eyes you're going for.

Preheat oven to 350F! Dust some flour down, roll out the dough to about 1/8" thickness, and begin the cookie cutting process.

Because the bunny cookie cutter I was using had defined cheekies - something the rabbids don't have - I used a circle cookie cutter to form the proper shape.

Bake the cookies for 6-8 minutes, or until the cookies are golden brown.

While the cookies are cooling, put together the royal icing. Add the eggs and powdered sugar to a bowl and begin mixing on low. Once the eggs become incorporated and sugar won't go flying everywhere, kick up the speed to high. Beat until the mixer thickens and stiffens. It'll take about four minutes. Separate a third of the icing into another bowl. Add red and blue food coloring until you get the proper shade of pink. This particular batch of frosting took four drops red, one drop blue.

Lay the cooled cookies down on a sheet of tin foil, or any surface that you can get really messy. Spoon the icing into a pastry bag. A ziplock bag also works, just cut off the corner once the bag is filled. If you've any icing left over in the bowls, place a damp cloth over the bowls to prevent a crust from forming on the icing. Pipe white royal icing onto cookies, following by the pink icing for the ears and face.

Allow a few minutes for the frosting to harden. Pipe white frosting and gel to create the eyes and mouth. Makes enough icing for about two dozen rabbids.

]]> Portal Icon Cupcakes tag:www.snackordie.com,2008://2.29 2008-02-26T17:08:28Z 2008-03-05T16:31:08Z

Rich chocolatey cupcakes adorned with the helpful and informative Portal icons....

Jocelyn http://snackordie.com Rich chocolatey cupcakes adorned with the helpful and informative Portal icons.]]> Ingredients:

3/4 cup sugar 1/2 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 cup butter 2 eggs 4 ounces (4 squares) semisweet baking chocolate 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon vanilla extract White icing Glass of milk (to drink after enjoying cupcake)

Preheat oven to 325F! Set up the double boiler with a big pot of water and a bowl of the butter and chocolate. Crank the stove top burner to high to get the water boiling while you're putting together the other ingredients.

Combine the flour, sugar, salt, eggs, and blend until it forms into a creamy mixture.

Once the butter and chocolate is melted, pour the mixture into the bowl with the other items. You might need a spatula to help the chocolate out of the bowl. Add in the vanilla and mix until everything is well blended.

Spoon the thick cupcake mixture into the cupcake pan, filling the cupcake liners half-full. I used about two tablespoons per cupcake.

Bake for about twenty minutes. It takes a little longer than most cupcake mixtures, but these are super rich cupcakes, and need an extra bit of time. The cupcakes are done when poked with a knife and the knife comes out clean.

Allow the cupcakes to cool for a few minutes, and then frost.

Testing one out to make sure the cupcakes came out okay. Delicious!

To decorate, take a tube of black gel and begin drawing. Black gel is flavorless, so you can go nuts with it and not worry about effecting the overall taste of the cupcake. The tricky part is that the gel container has a relatively big nozzle, so tiny details are tricky. You can still do it, if you are brave! If you're going to do a lot of drawing, you might want to invest in getting more than one black gel for frosting. I made eight cupcakes before running out. Makes a dozen cupcakes.

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]]> Yoshi Peanut Butter Eggs tag:www.snackordie.com,2008://2.28 2008-02-25T17:10:59Z 2008-02-25T17:11:45Z

White chocolate-dipped peanut butter eggs....

Jocelyn http://snackordie.com White chocolate-dipped peanut butter eggs.]]> Ingredients:

16 ounces (one package) powdered sugar 1 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter 1/4 cup butter 1 to 2 tablespoons milk 8 1-ounce squares (one package) white chocolate 1 tablespoon shortening for thinning the chocolate Green M&Ms

Zap the butter into the microwave so it's soft and mostly melted. Add the powdered sugar, peanut butter, and the now melted butter into a bowl and mix.

The mixture at this point will be a little dry. Add the milk a little at a time until the dough begins to form.

Before milk...

...and after!

Form the dough into egg shapes with your hands. You can make a lot of little eggs or one giant one. These eggs were made out of a handful of peanut buttery dough.

Place the egg shaped dough pieces on waxed paper and pop into the freezer for about an hour for the shapes to firm up. When you're ready to decorate the cookies, place the white chocolate squares in a bowl. Set up a double boiler by heating a large pan of water and placing the bowl with chocolate inside the pan. If the white chocolate is still too thick once it's melted, add in the shortening and mix. This is where you can get fancy! You can scoop out some of the white chocolate into a bowl, add food coloring, and drizzle the chocolate over the egg cookies with a fork. You can also add sprinkles or other toppings while the chocolate is still warm. For the Yoshi style egg, all you need do is dip the egg into the white chocolate, roll the egg around with a fork, and scoop out onto a sheet of waxed paper.

Quickly push the green M&Ms onto the cookie before the white chocolate cools, being careful of the still-warm white chocolate. If the chocolate cools too fast, you can dab a bit of frosting on the cookie and use it to hold the candy in place.

As mentioned above, these peanut butter eggs are super sweet, so be careful about a big bite out of one of the eggs. Sweetness overload!

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