Panning Out Sweetly!
Grab your spatula, roll out your dough, and get ready to taste these 3D (for Delicious!) Toy Story-inspired treats!
The key to these cookies is a self-leveling frosting that dries hard and shiny. For convenience, it's hard to beat the tubes of decorating cookie icing found in the baking aisle of the grocery store. To create custom colors, such as the right shade of alien green, simply mix food coloring into white icing by cutting off the end of the tube and squeezing the icing into a small mixing bowl.
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With three movies under their cowboy and space belts, everyone's favorite
Toy Story characters have taken their popularity to new generations and dimensions. While
Toy Story 2 left Woody safe and sound in Andy's room, the latest 3D installment uproots the entire animated cast. In
Toy Story 3, a grown-up Andy is getting ready to head to college when his faithful toys are accidentally donated to Sunnyside Daycare Center. Once there, they do their best to fit in with the other daycare residents. But things turn stormy once Woody and the others learn that some of their new fast friends are anything but allies. Not to mention that Buzz goes on the fritz during a foiled escape attempt and starts speaking Spanish.
To find out exactly how and where this lovable toy collection ultimately lands, you'll have to catch the movie. Meanwhile, you can cook up a
Toy Story adventure of your own that's guaranteed to pan out well. Start with a batch of sugar cookie dough, add colored icing and assorted candies and you've got the makings for a trio of Toy treats: Woody's Cowboy Boot cookies, Sweet Three-eyed Aliens and
Hamm-it-up cookies!
Sugar Cookie Dough
When you're making cutout cookies, you need dough that will hold its shape during baking, and this recipe fits the bill. Many of the ready-made refrigerated doughs sold at grocery stores tend to spread, so if you plan to use one of them, you'll probably need to add flour to stiffen it. Either way, it's always good practice to do a trial run by first baking a single cookie to see how it holds up. If the dough loses its shape, try chilling it or kneading in a bit more flour.
Ingredients:
2
3⁄
4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1⁄
2 teaspoon salt
11 tablespoons butter, softened
3⁄
4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Preparation:
Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl and set aside. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and well combined. Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat well. Stir in the flour, a third at a time. After the last addition, knead the dough briefly if needed to incorporate all of the flour. The finished dough should be smooth and stiff.
To make the eyes, in a small bowl, tint a couple tablespoons of the icing black. Then use the tip of a toothpick to apply a small dot of black icing to the center of each white-shelled candy. Set them aside to let the icing harden.
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Divide the dough into two portions, pressing each into a disk and wrapping it in plastic. Keep the dough chilled until you plan to use it.
When you're ready to bake the cookies, work with one disk of dough at a time. Allow the dough to set briefly at room temperature so that it softens just enough to roll it. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set the dough on a flour-dusted sheet of waxed paper and roll it out to
1⁄
4-inch thickness. Cut out the cookies and bake them until the edges turn a light golden brown, about 6 to 9 minutes, depending on the size. Then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool.
Three-eyed Alien Cookies
The key to these cookies is a self-leveling frosting that dries hard and shiny. For convenience, it's hard to beat the tubes of decorating cookie icing found in the baking aisle of the grocery store. To create custom colors, such as the right shade of alien green, simply mix food coloring into white icing by cutting off the end of the tube and squeezing the icing into a small mixing bowl. (When not working with the icing, cover the bowl with plastic or a damp paper towel to keep it fluid.)
Ingredients:
Batch of sugar cookie dough
1
3⁄
4 cups white decorating cookie icing
Food coloring
York Pieces (peppermint-flavored dark chocolate candy in a crunchy shell), three white-shelled pieces per cookie
Green Swedish Fish candies
Green (Zappin' Apple) Sour Punch Straws
Green Dots candies
Preparation:
Use a 2
1⁄
4 -inch oval cookie cutter or fondant cutter to cut ovals from the rolled sugar cookie dough and bake them according to the recipe directions.
While the cookies are cooling, prepare the aliens' eyes. In a small bowl, tint a couple tablespoons of the icing black. Then use the tip of a toothpick to apply a small dot of black icing to the center of each white-shelled candy. Set the eyes aside to let the icing harden.
Next, create the aliens' antennae. Snip the Sour Punch Straws into 2-inch lengths. Then slice the Dots candies into thin disks. Press each disk, sticky side down, onto the top of a Sour Punch Straw length.
When the cookies are cool, tint the remaining frosting a shade of green that complements the green candies. Working with one cookie at a time, use a dab of frosting to stick the bottom of a candy antenna to the back. Then set the cookie on a tray or another flat surface and use additional dabs of frosting to stick a pair of Swedish Fish candies to the sides of the cookie for ears. Allow the cookies to set while the icing stiffens a bit.
Again working with one cookie at a time, frost the top and gently press three candy eyes into the icing before it sets. Then use the tip of a toothpick to draw a grin in the icing. Once you've decorated all of the cookies, allow the icing to fully set before handling or serving them. Makes about 2
1⁄
2 dozen cookies.
Woody's Cowboy Boot Cookies
These cookies call for a template in lieu of a cutter. Simply use a piece of parchment paper to trace a shaded boot shape of your own design, or print out the
template. For reference, the cookie shown here measures 5 inches tall and 4
1⁄
2 inches from heel to toe. Be sure to include a rectangular tab at the heel for attaching a candy spur.
Simply use a piece of parchment paper to trace a shaded boot shape of your own design, or print out the template.
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Ingredients:
Batch of sugar cookie dough
Black cookie icing
Caramels (two per cookie)
Round yellow hard candies
Yellow M&Ms or Skittles candies
Preparation:
Place the template atop the rolled sugar cookie dough and use a sharp knife to cut around it. Transfer the dough boot to a prepared baking sheet. Cut boots from the remaining dough and place them on the baking sheet at least an inch apart. Bake according to the recipe directions.
When the cookies have thoroughly cooled, spread icing on the heels and allow to harden.
Create spur straps by using a rolling pin to flatten a caramel. If the caramel is too stiff to roll, microwave it for 4 to 5 seconds to soften it. Use a sharp knife or kitchen scissors to cut two
1⁄
2-inch-wide strips from the rolled caramel. Set the vertical strap in place first, folding one end around the bottom of the boot beside the heel and sticking it to the back of the cookie with a dab of icing. Trim the top of the strap level with the spur tab. Now set the horizontal strap in place, wrapping the right end around the edge of the cookie and trimming the left end so that it just reaches the spur tab. Use dabs of icing to hold the strap in place.
Next, create a pull tab for the top of the boot by flattening another
caramel and cutting out a 1- by 3-inch strip with rounded corners. Use a
knife to score a decorative line about 1⁄8 inch
from the edge of the tab all the way around. Fold the tab over the boot
top and use dabs of icing to stick the ends to the cookie.
For the finishing touch, use icing to stick a yellow M&Ms candy atop
the spot where the spur straps cross and a yellow hard candy spur atop
the pull tab. Makes about 10 cookie boots.
For the finishing touch, use icing to stick a yellow M&Ms candy atop the spot where the spur straps cross and a yellow hard candy spur atop the pull tab.
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