The Abominable Cookie

I am entering my “Yeti Cookies” in the Creative Holiday Recipe Contest hosted by Confessions of a Cookbook Queen and Cookies and Cups!

Hey everyone! So I know its been a very long time since my last post (ok a very very long time) but one of my favorite blogs Confessions of a Cookbook Queen and the equally awesome blog  that I just found out about due to this contest Cookies and Cups is hosting a Holiday Recipe Contest and I just couldn’t resist! This is my first time making a recipe blog and tutorial so please bear with me!

The mission is to make a fun recipe that anyone can make…mission accepted. This recipe can be made by ANYONE even if you’re just starting out with baking, this is a fun way to get into it. My goal was to come up with a recipe that was more “wintery” rather than something that represented a specific holiday, because I want everyone to be able to join in on the fun! I also chose to make a cookie recipe versus my good ole’ standby of cake because I wanted to show you how fun cookies can be too!

May I introduce the “Yeti Cookie”

Yeti Cookies!

Aren’t they cute!? Don’t you want some of your very own?! Well guess what?!
I’m going to teach you how to make them.

The two recipes you are going to use are very basic. The cookies I used are my favorite Shortbread Cookie recipe that  have been “tweeking” over the years and I think Ive finally found that perfect blend of “melt on your mouth” cookie consistency. If you are not a fan of Shortbread, feel free to use your favorite cookie recipe instead. I can’t really give an accurate time frame that you will need because less experienced bakers/decorators may need a little extra time versus someone who really “knows their way around a kitchen”, but I would say set aside a few hours at least (the dough needs to be refrigerated for at least an hour so count that in too) and have your favorite cookie Elf help you (my helper was my mom). All in all they may take some time to make, but they are fun and everyone can achieve the same adorable tasty results!

Now on to the recipes!

Yeti Cookies

Makes approx 70 cookies (or if you like to eat 50% of the cookies like I do, 35 cookies)

Tools you will need:

• A mini muffin/cupcake pan (I used 3-24 space pans, the more you bake at one time, the more time you have left to prep the other ingredients)
• Stand or hand mixer
• Large mixing spoon
• Melon Baller, or as I like to call it, an “Elf sized Ice cream scoop”
• Cooking Spray
• 3 pastry bags
• small “round” cake tip (I used a wilton #3)
• small “Open Star” tip (I used Wilton #21)
• Measuring Cups
• Measuring Spoons
• Wax Paper
• Saranwrap

Shortbread Cookie Ingredients:

• 1 lb butter *ROOM TEMP*(In my experience it’s the butter that makes or breaks the Shortbread goodness, so use the best butter possible. Please make sure you are using softened room temp butter)
• 1 tbsp Shortening
• 1 Cup Cornstarch
• 1 Cup Powdered Sugar
• 3 Cups Flour
• 1 tsp salt

Frosting Ingredients:

• 2 Pkgs of “Jello” Candy Cane flavored instant pudding (if that is not available use 2 pkgs of “white chocolate” instant pudding mix and 2 tsp of peppermint extract *if you use vanilla pudding instead of white chocolate, your “yeti fur” will look yellowish)
• 3 cups of heavy whipping cream

For Decorating:

• Light Blue Fondant (you end up using a very small amount, I would suggest coloring only about a chunk of fondant roughly the size of a small apple)*If you dont have/like fondant any blue chewy candy will do, like “Starburst” or Laffy Taffy”
• Black Melting Chocolate
• White Melting Chocolate

Baking the Cookies:

1. In your mixing Bowl add your butter and shortening and mix on medium speed for approx 2 minutes
2. add powdered sugar and mix on low until combined (you may need to scrape the sides of the bowl a few times)
3. Beat on High speed for approx 10 min. Your butter/sugar mixture should be white and fluffy looking when finished
4. In a separate  bowl, lightly whisk the Flour, Cornstarch, & Salt for a few minutes until fully combined
5. When butter mixture is ready, add half of the flour mixture and mix on the lowest setting (be very careful not to get the flour everywhere) until almost fully incorporated
6. Clean “dough” of of the mixing attachment, add dough to mixing bowl, and add remaining flour mixture. Using your large spoon stir very slowly until almost fully incorporated and then continue to mix at a regular pace. Dough should be light and fluffy when ready.
7. Cover bowl with saranwrap and put in your refrigerator for an hour (now is the perfect time to make the decorations-see below)

1. When dough is ready, preheat your oven to 350°
2. Spray mini muffin tins with cooking spray (make sure to use enough to coat each space)
3. Take your melon baller (aka Elf sized Ice cream scoop) and scoop out some cookie dough and pack it in and place your cookie “ball” in the mini muffin pan.
4. Repeat until all spaces are filled
5. Bake cookies for approx. 11 minutes. Cookies should have a light golden color when ready.
6. Let cookies cool completely before removing from pan (I waited about 15-20 minutes)
7. If you have broken cookies…eat immediately

Making the “Fur” Frosting

*the peppermint pudding tends to have a slight pink hue, I added a VERY small amount of blue food coloring to make it look a little “icy”

1. Take your mixing bowl and whisk attachment and place in your refrigerator for 10 minutes so it gets nice and cold (the yetis prefer cold fur)
2. Take 3 cups of heavy cream and both packages of pudding and whisk on low until a loose pudding begins to form
3. Turn mixer to high setting until stiff peaks are formed (watch carefully and do not over mix)
4. Cover bowl with Saranwrap and place in fridge until ready to decorate

Yeti faces & feet

*See pictures above for more help

1. Take a small amount of fondant and roll into a ball
2. flatten ball with your thumb until you form a small flat oval. These are their faces
3. Repeat this process depending on the amount of cookies you are making
4. Take the same sized ball of fondant and split in two
5. make two small ovals (2 per yeti) and use knife to cut “toes”. These are their feet
6. Take pastry bag with “round” cake tip and add melted black chocolate
7. make 2 eyes on each “face” (or 1 if your yeti lost an each in the great blizzard war of 2012) *Be careful as melted chocolate comes out of the bag quickly
8. take a small piece of Saranwrap (about 12″ piece) and lay on a cookie sheet
9. Take pastry bag with no tip (snip the end off the bag, not too much just enough for the chocolate to come out) and add the melted white chocolate
10. squeeze chocolate onto Saranwrap to make little “horns”. I made my horns about .5″ long, you dont have to go crazy measuring them though, different sizes give these little guys character.
11. put all decorations aside, clean up a bit to get ready for the best part (putting them together!) and eat some more broken cookies

 

Time to make the Yetis!

Alright everyone, the hardest part is over, you mixed, baked, and prepared and now your efforts will be greatly rewarded.

*Use your last pastry bag and #21 star tip for your “yeti fur” frosting.

Check out the video and pictures below showing how to do the decorations, but let me just say, there is no wrong way to make these little guys. The crazier they look, the cuter they are.

my mom made the background out of scrapbook paper, how awesome is she?!

In the end you’re going to have the cutest cookies this side of EVER, and everyone will be asking “Oh my gosh! where did you get those?!” and you can proudly say, “I MADE THEM!” (enter trumpet sounds)…or in my case you’ll eat them all before anyone can see them, but hey, thats how the cookie crumbles….haha get it?…cookie….crumbles?! because we’re making cookies… *crickets* Anyways, I hope you all have a fantastic Holiday season and thank you for visiting my blog!!

xoxo

~Sara

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