“…one step further”
David is not the only one with a tendency to take things ‘one step further’. When he suggested I make “several” dozen cookies for the big UH Tailgate Party [special thanks to all the hosts, especially Anthony & Matty] I just could not stop at a simple sugar, chocolate chip &/or peanut butter cookie.
But how do you elevate humble little cookies and turn them into “Rowdy’s Roadhouse Cookies”?!?
Okay, so the peanut butter are simply that. No tricks, no twists, just topped with orange or blue sugar – you just cannot improve on a yummy peanut butter cookie. And, initially, there were plain old-fashioned sugar cookies – again, with the orange or blue sugar sprinkles. But I could not leave it with classic [read – boring] round sugar cookies; those you can improve, they needed some character. 😉
That is where I went a bit crazy. (That malfunctioning self-control mechanism that David mentioned in ‘about us’ showed up again.)
First, I found a Texas cookie cutter, a bit large but… this is Texas after all! <<These will be great! 🙂 >> Okay, turns out it takes a lot of dough to make cookies that big – I have little enough time to get these made and we’re anticipating a couple hundred people at this shindig. <<hmmmm>> So I hit the internet and found a great site for cookie cutters. They had a smaller Texas and even had a roadrunner! Skinny little critter, gets a bit crispy but he’s cute. <<Keep digging Linda, there’s got to be some more UTSA-type stuff.>> Then I found it, the perfect solution to making “cookies with character”, a kit to make-your-own tin cookie cutters. Epiphany! <<Surely I can make a Rowdy head!!!>> Yep! And it looks pretty good, too!!!
How much further could I possibly take this craziness?
Well… A few days later I ran into a cake supply store hoping to find orange paper doilies. Ha – nope, all white. But what she did have was a wall full of cookie cutters. <<cartoonish fireworks thingy>> There – near the bottom of the wall – <<orange and blue fireworks surrounding>> a hand-shaped cookie cutter! Having some experience with sign language my crafty little brain went into finger manipulation over-drive… <<“Birds Up” cookies!!!>> I nearly did a little Snoopy-style happy dance. So I grab that little Hand, hurry home to my cookie dough, cut-out the hands, fold over the appropriate fingers <<remember, the pinky finger goes straight up, not out>> and we’re in business. WooHoo….. 😀
But that still wasn’t enough to satisfy that malfunctioning self-control mechanism… <<The shapes are cool but they are still plain vanilla sugar cookies… What to do??? …tap, tap, tap…>>
I knew you could make colored sugar cookies with packaged gelatin so I found a couple of recipes online and tried them out. The taste was pretty good but they needed a lot of extra flour because the dough was too sticky and then the cookies ended up with a rubbery texture after baking. They also needed a LOT of extra food color – like 20 drops or more; not so great with the orange, just like red food color the orange has a bitter taste. So I scrapped that idea and discovered flavor packets for frosting. Certainly can’t hurt to try…
Thanks to Duncan Hines Frosting Creations and just a few drops of food coloring our plain sugar cookies became “Very Blue Raspberry” and “Extremely Orange Crème” sugar cookies. Just one packet per batch of cookie dough and we had something unique – screaming with UTSA spirit!
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Now wait just a minute…
Those of us who are chocolate freaks <<who me?>> would ask, ‘what is a cookie plate without chocolate chip cookies’? My fellow chocoholic/cookie-helper and I pondered…. <<What if we add orange & blue candy-coated chocolates to chocolate chip cookies?>> YUMMY!!! (I didn’t have the right color candies yet so we used candy melts. The final product is kind of messy looking… Stick with the candy-coated chocolates.)
My friend dubbed them “Rowdy Chip Cookies”. I know you can already taste them… Your mouth is watering with the thought… <<giggle>>
So when you visit our tailgate (Home or Away) please feel free to take a picture with “the boys” (George, Rowdy & Rowdy’s Minion) and help yourself to some of “Rowdy’s Roadhouse Cookies” and a little something to drink. Ironically, neither of us is supposed to be indulging… Save us from ourselves & enjoy a little treat!!!
Birds Up!!!