Using a Pampered Chef Cookie Press for the First Time

[pamperedlinda]

I'm planning to use my PC Cookie Press for the first timethis afternoon. I believe I remember that the recipe that comes with it is the best one - right?

Also - do I put the sprinkles on them before I bake them? do I need to brish them with an egg white first?

 

[forkatieb]

I would put sprinkles on them before you bake them. I have never used egg whites on them. The Cookie Press can be hard to use at first so don't get to frustrated with it. I always give up my first 5 or so cookies to "warming up the CP"... LOL Good Luck

 

[pamperedlinda]

thanks - I know there is a big love/hate relationship with that thing - probably why I haven't used it yet....LOL!

 

[AnnieBee]

And if one disc doesn't work, try another. I had a terrible time with the pumpkin disc with Ann's PB recipe, but when I switched to a different disc it worked perfectly... So just don't have your heart set on Christmas trees... And definately leave it a while against the stone/sheet before lifteing it up, to give the dough a chance to stick. If you have the time you could plan on doing two different recipes, as they all work a bit differently, and one might work better on discs that the other doesn't work for. Does that make sense?

And have fun! When it works, it really is so cool!

 

[gingertannery]

And remember to accurately measure the ingredients... and that the cookies are NOT better with double the butter..lol I didn't realize what I was doing and put in double the amount of butter.

 

[chef131doreen]

This is the one I got from my director years ago and I like it the best

Adapted All-Occasion Cookie

1 box Betty Crocker white cake mix, breaking up any lumps (other brands don’t work as well)
2 ¼ cups flour
1 pound (4 sticks) Blue Bonnet margarine, room temperature

Melt 2 sticks of margarine in micro cooker for 1-1 ½ minutes. Margarine should be melted but not blazing hot. Cut remaining sticks into 8 slices each and add to hot margarine. Let stand for 3 minutes. Stir until margarine is melted but still thick (the consistency of squeeze margarine from the bottle). Add to dry ingredients, forming dough. Divide dough into 6 sections.

Use the large round stone and the rectangle stone to place cookies. Arrange oven racks so one is in the top third of oven and one is in the bottom third. Preheat oven to 350°F.
The cookie press works better on a cold stone, so make the pressed cookies first.

Color section 1 green. Put in press with tree disc, #7. This disc always works. (If it is not working, something is wrong with your dough.) Make 6 trees. Then use #13 and make 6 wreaths. Remove remaining dough from press and set aside.

Make next section red and press #5 and then #14. Remove remaining dough and set aside.

Leave next section white and press 6 cookies with #3 and 6 with #4. Place 1/6 of a maraschino cherry in the center of the #4 flower.

Combine the leftover dough sections and press rainbow cookies out of disc #1.

Place one stone on top and one on bottom of oven. Bake for 7 minutes, switch top and bottom and bake another 7 minutes. Remove from oven and remove from stones to cooling racks.

 

[chefann]

These cookies are a favorite with a cluster mate. She says she's never had a problem with them in the press, except the time that she accidentally added twice the extract. She makes them with vanilla or with almond extract.

 

[dannyzmom]

Some helpful CP files...

 

[straitfan]

So how did they turn out Linda? I'm hoping to "christen" my cookie press tomorrow!

 

[janezapchef]

This is the one I got from my director years ago and I like it the best

Adapted All-Occasion Cookie

1 box Betty Crocker white cake mix, breaking up any lumps (other brands don’t work as well)
2 ¼ cups flour
1 pound (4 sticks) Blue Bonnet margarine, room temperature

Melt 2 sticks of margarine in micro cooker for 1-1 ½ minutes. Margarine should be melted but not blazing hot. Cut remaining sticks into 8 slices each and add to hot margarine. Let stand for 3 minutes. Stir until margarine is melted but still thick (the consistency of squeeze margarine from the bottle). Add to dry ingredients, forming dough. Divide dough into 6 sections.

Use the large round stone and the rectangle stone to place cookies. Arrange oven racks so one is in the top third of oven and one is in the bottom third. Preheat oven to 350°F.
The cookie press works better on a cold stone, so make the pressed cookies first.

Color section 1 green. Put in press with tree disc, #7. This disc always works. (If it is not working, something is wrong with your dough.) Make 6 trees. Then use #13 and make 6 wreaths. Remove remaining dough from press and set aside.

Make next section red and press #5 and then #14. Remove remaining dough and set aside.

Leave next section white and press 6 cookies with #3 and 6 with #4. Place 1/6 of a maraschino cherry in the center of the #4 flower.

Combine the leftover dough sections and press rainbow cookies out of disc #1.

Place one stone on top and one on bottom of oven. Bake for 7 minutes, switch top and bottom and bake another 7 minutes. Remove from oven and remove from stones to cooling racks.

This is the only recipe I use in it, and I love it! Tonight, I added Hershey's kisses to the shapes that were appropriate with them also (I was trying to remember my plain kisses thumbprint recipe with no luck, so, I tried this). I make these exactly as explained above. The rainbow cookies are so pretty! And, the snowflake is my absolute favorite!

 

[ChefPaulaB]

This is the one I got from my director years ago and I like it the best Adapted All-Occasion Cookie 1 box Betty Crocker white cake mix, breaking up any lumps (other brands don’t work as well)
2 ¼ cups flour
1 pound (4 sticks) Blue Bonnet margarine, room temperatureMelt 2 sticks of margarine in micro cooker for 1-1 ½ minutes. Margarine should be melted but not blazing hot. Cut remaining sticks into 8 slices each and add to hot margarine. Let stand for 3 minutes. Stir until margarine is melted but still thick (the consistency of squeeze margarine from the bottle). Add to dry ingredients, forming dough. Divide dough into 6 sections.Use the large round stone and the rectangle stone to place cookies. Arrange oven racks so one is in the top third of oven and one is in the bottom third. Preheat oven to 350°F.
The cookie press works better on a cold stone, so make the pressed cookies first.Color section 1 green. Put in press with tree disc, #7. This disc always works. (If it is not working, something is wrong with your dough.) Make 6 trees. Then use #13 and make 6 wreaths. Remove remaining dough from press and set aside.Make next section red and press #5 and then #14. Remove remaining dough and set aside.Leave next section white and press 6 cookies with #3 and 6 with #4. Place 1/6 of a maraschino cherry in the center of the #4 flower.Combine the leftover dough sections and press rainbow cookies out of disc #1.Place one stone on top and one on bottom of oven. Bake for 7 minutes, switch top and bottom and bake another 7 minutes. Remove from oven and remove from stones to cooling racks.

Am I being a little slow here? It says to divide into 6 sections but you only used 3.......

 

[chefann]

Right near the end, it says to use the leftover dough sections.

 

[AnnieBee]

Right near the end, it says to use the leftover dough sections.

But that is talking about the leftover *coloured* sections... Maybe the rest of the dough is for making shapes without the cookie press, like thumb prints, etc...

BTW Ann, last night I tried the recipe you posted and it worked well with the Christmas tree (only disc I tried). Thanks! Oh, and I took out 2 tsp of flour and replaced it with cinnamon. Yum!! I will use this one again .

 

[pamperedlinda]

I made the recipe that came with the press. They turned out fine - kinda bland though. I wanted to use parchment paper since I only have 1 rectangle stone - but the dough wouldn't stick to it. So instead, I baked them on my air-bake pans and they were fine. I used 3 different disks - tree, wreath, and one that looks sorta like a snowflake.

 

[AnnieBee]

I think I felt that way about that recipe too. Try Ann's one above and add somedifferent flavorings, I thought they were way better. I'm curious to try the cake mix recipe, but it sounds so wierd to me... I really like more shortbready cookies!

 

[straitfan]

SUCCESS! I used Ann's recipe and used Almond extract instead of vanilla! Came out great with the Christmas tree disk. Now I just have every flat stone I own to wash!

 

[pampermejolene]

I just used my cookie press for the first time. I made lemon bar cookies (I think disc #8) and they turned out WONDERFUL!! I was surprised how easy it was to use! We had a cookie press when I was a kid and it never seemed to work right! YAY!

 

[pcchefjane]

The Cookie Press is "my DD's job"! I never seem to make it work right. It really is a thing of "holding your mouth and the Cookie Press just right"! LOL!

 

[Teresa Lynn]

i LOVE our press so much so that when it came out I bought 1 for each of my 3 kids so they'd have one when they leave home
the recipe it came with is nasty, find either a betty crocker spritz recipe or if you are in a hurry buy the betty crocker sugar cookie mix and add 1/4 cup flour.

 

[pamperedlinda]

I just used my cookie press for the first time. I made lemon bar cookies (I think disc #8) and they turned out WONDERFUL!! I was surprised how easy it was to use! We had a cookie press when I was a kid and it never seemed to work right! YAY!

recipe please....

 

[ChefPaulaB]

I just used my cookie press for the first time. I made lemon bar cookies (I think disc #8) and they turned out WONDERFUL!! I was surprised how easy it was to use! We had a cookie press when I was a kid and it never seemed to work right! YAY!

Yes, Please! I am planning on making cookies today and was going to try the cake mix recipe, but these sound interesting! Recipe would be great!

 

[chefann]

These are another great spritz cookie, for those who think that the one that comes with the press are a little bland (although that's just a characteristic of Spritz cookies, IMO).Cream Cheese Spritz
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
1 package (3 ounces) cream cheese, softened
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanillaHeat oven to 375˚F. Mix butter and cream cheese in medium bowl. Stir in flour, sugar and vanilla. Place in cookie press. Form cookies. Bake 8-10 minutes or until set but not brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheet. Cool on wire rack. About 4 dozen cookies.When I was growing up, my mom would always tint the majority of her spritz dough green, then add in little sections of other colors so that when she made tree-shaped cookies, they looked like they had lights on them.

 

[ChefPaulaB]

Not that anyone cares, but I am just about finished making the All Occassion, kind of just like the recipe, with all the colors and numbers. My last ones didn't turn out so well, the rainbow ones... for some reason the red and green would stick but the white wouldn't so they're all kind of lopsided, and then I just smushed it all together so I kind of have just a wierd reddish greenish color, not the rainbow effect, but hey, Santa doesn't care! Haven't actually tasted them yet, but they're cute! Of course, as someone else said, every both of my round stones and both LBP and my Lg. Sheet Pan are all dirty waiting to be washed now. But oh well, at least they're easy to wash! Thanks for the recipe! Now on to my pies!

 

[pampermejolene]

Here's the lemon bar recipe I mentioned previously (it's from Taste of Home). I didn't put the chocolate on them. Lemon Butter SpritzField editor Iola Egle of Bella Vista, Arkansas is a veteran baker who counts this lemony spritz variation among her best-loved recipes. Her cookies are dressed up for the holidays with a pretty drizzle of chocolate.SERVINGS: 54CATEGORY: DessertMETHOD: BakedTIME: Prep: 20 min. Bake: 5 min./batch + cooling
Ingredients: * 1 cup butter, softened
* 1-1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
* 1 egg
* 1 tablespoon lemon juice
* 1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
* 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* GLAZE:
* 1 cup confectioners' sugar
* 2 tablespoons baking cocoa
* 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 2 to 3 tablespoons milkDirections:
In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and confectioners' sugar. Beat in the egg, lemon juice and peel. Combine flour and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well.
Using a cookie press fitted with a bar disk, form dough into long strips on ungreased baking sheets. Cut each strip into 2-1/4-in. pieces (do not separate pieces). Bake at 400° for 5-7 minutes or until set (do not brown). Cut into pieces again if necessary. Remove to wire racks to cool.
For glaze, in a small bowl, combine confectioners' sugar, cocoa, vanilla and enough milk to achieve desired consistency. Drizzle over cookies. Let stand until set. Yield: 4-1/2 dozen.