Pin Reaper: Laurallie
Original Inspiration: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/543106036289706143/, via
http://www.cakecentral.com/g/i/1171468/i-saw-this-cute-idea-on-here-and-had-to-give-it-a-try-they-are-gingerbread-with-buttercream-decorations/
What I Did: We used Nestlé® Toll House® cookie dough and a gingerbread man-shaped cookie cutter. We baked the cookies in the oven as instructed. We used Betty Crocker® cookie icing, however our cookies were larger and more flimsy than we expected. Don’t mind our silly reindeers.
Next Time I Will: place chocolate chips strategically and use a smaller cookie cutter. The only way this project will be saved is when it’s dunked in milk and eaten.
Try using gingerbread or shortbread next time! Chocolate chip cookie dough is softer and will spread out like yours did, but something like gingerbread, shortbread, or even sugar cookies would hold the shape of the cookie cutter 🙂
If you want the cookies to retain the shape, use gingerbread dough, not nestle toll house cookie dough. Unless you’re just looking for an excuse to eat a bunch of cookies because they didn’t work out…
Yeah that’s more of a User Fail, since that’s a different kind of dough, and a different kind of icing completely.
The Pinterest cookies remind me of the bakery shop cookies that look great and taste not so great.
Chocolate chip cookies are delicious in any form:)
I think the pinterest cookies look like gingerbread, which tends to be a drier dough and hold shape much better than a chocolate chip dough, which is is usually meant to spread out .
This is your fault because that kind of cookie dough is designed to spread and level. Gingerbread cookie dough (pictured in the original) has a higher baking soda content so it stays in place when cooking. Don’t blame pinterest. Use the right cookie dough!
the problem has to do with the dough. Premade cookie dough notoriously spreads out like this when cooked. Either make your own dough or chill the cut shapes prior to baking to minimize the spread. It’s not the cookie cutter 🙂
They also used the wrong kind of icing. Buttercream is meant to cover cakes and fill between layers. What the Pinterest cookies are decorated with is royal icing, which which has no butter, spreads very little, and dries rock hard. There’s no way that was buttercream.
It does say on the original pin (if you click the link) that they are gingerbread. These are called Gingerbread Men cookies. Of course, they are changed to be reindeer, but you have to make gingerbread dough in order for them to really work. And I’ve used buttercream frosting and it worked just fine. Also, they’re super easy if you use candy eyes and put them on with black frosting. Then they also look like characters from “Wallace and Gromit.” Super cute and super easy to make.