Baking Frustration: My Terrible Experience with a Pampered Chef Cookie Press

[lotsadots]

Okay I should start out confessing that I'm a terrible BAKER. I can cook most anything but when it comes to baking well I just stink at it, I don't know what it is about me but the doughboy gods hate me or something. ANYWAY a friend got a PC cookie press at a garage sale and thought I might want it, I used it at my shows leading up to the holidays hoping to get some sales for them, but I used it today and I hated it. Granted it didn't come with directions so I might just be using it wrong. I'm assuming that you press the trigger until it clicks and you should have your cookie neatly pressed? Didn't happen for me... Sometimes they never came out, sometimes it was a messy blob, sometimes pieces were missing. Sigh... it was frustrating. I finally got two batches of decent looking cookies, but that thing was a pain in the butt to use. I was hardly strong enough to pull the trigger to make it click most times. It took two hands and just wasn't easy to use. I was hoping my ten year old daughter could help me make the cookies today and that just wasn't going to happen. What am I missing? I used the Spritz cookie recipe from the website and an old all occasion cookie recipe using a cake mix. So I'm really not sure what I'm doing wrong. Maybe just because it was at a garage sale it was abused before and just doesn't work right? But I wanted to make cute cookies with it!

 

[cmdtrgd]

Okay, here are some tips I have gathered:1. Sift your flour BEFORE you measure it. Too much flour can make it too heavy to push through.2. Do not use Gold Meadow flour because it produces a stickier dough.3. Make sure the number on the die is facing out.4. Count to 3 after releasing the trigger before lifting straight up.5. Parchment paper makes a world of difference! I suggest placing the parchment on the counter and pressing the cookies and then sliding the parchment onto the stone.6. Look at the directions in the PIG on CC.Good luck!

 

[heat123]

ok, I am soo not the baker either! I can cook but baking, not my FORTE! Same with me and dough, my cookies no matter which recipe I use they come out hard and clumpy!

I did get the cookie press and have to say I did not really care for it at first use. I have heard many people I know complain that it's hard to use but after using it about 1/2 dozen times now it does get easier with practice, I swear!
I made some spritz just today and had a hard time with the dough at first so I stuck them in the fridge for it to harden up a little and they did better for me. The tree disc stuck to the dough so I switched to the snowflake shape disc and they worked well! I have my barrel facing perpendicular to the stone right ontop of it and click it 1 or 2 times before releasing it from the stone.

Hang in there: Practice, practice, practice is what I recommend.

 

[chefann]

I've had luck with the Easy Peanut Butter Presses recipe:
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg

 

[Chozengirl]

Major tip is that you need the dough thicker than usual.
I would post some recipes, but I lost them all when my computer crashed.

 

[thechefofnorthbend]

I got a really good tip from a chef that used the CP at the holidays...rub crisco in the tube before filling with dough and around the rim of the disc on the press and you should have smooth sailing! HTH

 

[cmdtrgd]

Darby, what a great idea!Hey, did you ever live in Houston, TX?

 

[scottcooks]

They told us about this at NatConf - the holidays bring the most calls to HO regarding the cookie press because...
We over-measure Dry ingredients (too much) and we under-measure wet ingredients (too little)

Solution: Stir-Spoon-Scrape your flour, to get dough as light as possible. Stir the flour in the bag/container with a whisk. Spoon it into your measuring cup, being careful not to press it down (think opposite of brown sugar). Scrape the top of the cup off to level, and put that in your recipe.

Also - be sure your stone is cold before you put cookie dough on it - I've had a difficult time getting cookies out of the press before, but not onto Parchment Paper on the counter - then put the parchment onto the stone, and you're good to go! And--you Can Re-Use Parchment Paper! I've cooked as many as 8 batches of cookies on a sheet. It's handy, to get the next batch ready, while the one batch is in the oven. Good luck!

 

[letscook04]

Here are some tips with the cookie press.

 

[lotsadots]

Thanks!Thanks for all the tips, I won't give up on it yet... I'll keep at it. I think I really need to try the parchment tip and will definitely weigh out my flour next time. I have the kitchen scale that PC used to sell, it's wonderful I wish they'd carry it again. I have lots of weight watchers friends that would love to have one.

Laura
beachcombs.com

 

[lotsadots]

LOL With holiday cookie baking coming soon I thought it would be a good time to refresh my memory about the cookie press! Got frustrated again, and had to look up my old thread to figure out why in the heck I couldn't get the thing to work. Making my dough too stiff I believe... gotta get the hang of it! Think I gotta really sift my flour better as well.

 

[chefkathleen]

help!I wasn't able to get my cookie dough to stick to my stone or to parchment paper. It stuck fine on a cookie sheet sprayed with PAM though...and the cookies were tasty. I used the recipe that came with the press, so I don't think it was too dry. Any tips are appreciated! I'd rather use the parchment than clean cookie sheets

 

[lauradahl]

I am hearing you talk about a problem that I'm having with mine and I have had it for years and years and used it ALOT...that problem is not coming out consistently and that you have a hard time getting it out of the tube...sometimes using 2 hands. I am wondering, since yours was purchased at a garage sale, if yours has been used as much as mine and now not working properly. Two years ago, I was a host at a cookie show and my now director was my consultant. We made cookies here with that press and all of the batches came out perfect..even different varieties. And that was the case for many years previous. Now, it does not matter what variety I make. Sometimes mine doesn't even "click" and I'm pressing on it soooooo hard. I absolutely love the thing, but I think I have worn mine to the point it doesn't work right. I just had a Mystery Host show and had some FPV left and got me another one. I'm convinced I'll have good luck with it so I'm gonna try in a few more days. I have, with my old one, used the parchment paper and it does help a little, but sometimes I still can't get the trigger to click and release resulting in mismatched cookies, cute ones, blobs and so on.
Hope this makes sense....oh, and I've noticed on my old one that my circular plungers that go in the tube on the trigger piece are bent up and distorted...outta round anyway and I think maybe it's not sliding properly. So maybe the Crisco tip above would help that a little?