Hmmm...What to do? What to do? How do I make this week's selection from Baked Explorations a little more enticing? I mean, another mint dessert... so soon! Yes, the department stores have had their Christmas displays up for a couple of weeks (which is pure ridiculousness by the way), but we are still way too far away from Christmas for this baker to be overly excited about these cookies. Not to mention, we just covered Grasshopper Bars, their minty kin, a few weeks ago. It's mint overload....Aaaahhh! How will I ever survive?
Brace yourselves... I have an idea!
GOOGLY EYES....
The confectionery equivalent to duct tape. Everybody knows this. They're hypnotic, they make everything instantly cuter
and in some cases even taste better (I think the cute factor masks the
taste). Okay, so maybe I am giving them a little more culinary credit
than they deserve, but they are pretty magical.
With Halloween quickly approaching, I figured if you can't beat 'em join em. So, I whipped up a fresh batch of googly eyes (you can also by them at the craft store if you're not up for making your own), got out my food coloring and the kiddos and I had a little fun with these minty little buggers.
All joking aside though, these really were not one of my favorites from Matt and Renato. Don't get me wrong, they were not bad by any means. I'll even admit to eating my fair share. That being said though, they fell just a little short for me. The level of mintiness was well and good, but the cookie portion was too rich and a tad bit on the dry side (although, I think the dryness was more of a result of baker error than recipe error). There just wasn't enough sweetness from the white chocolate ganache to balance it out.
That being said, my husband (who is an "anytime of year" mint freak) thought they were rather enjoyable and my kids thought they were the "funnest, most coolest cookies ever"! Like I said, who doesn't love a pair of googly eyes.
To read what my fellow bakers thought of the recipe, hop on over to the new Baked Sunday Mornings website, or even better buy a copy of Matt and Renato's book Baked Explorations, and join in on the fun!
Have a Sweet Day!
Jaime @ The Great Cake Company
What a fun post, and yes, I love your googly eyes...but your daughter is the best part! I thought these cookies were better the next day. I think the moisture from the filling took away the dryness from the cookies which we also experienced...when I bit into a freshly baked and cooled cookie it crumbled. And I cheated and used only dark chocolate. That said...I love your Halloween version...way cute.
ReplyDeleteYou are so clever! I love the googly eyes and how you made this a Halloween dessert. I agree that these cookies sort of fell flat in the flavor category.
ReplyDeleteI forgot to mention.... I simply divided the white chocolate ganache into three separate bowls and added a few drops of food coloring to each. I used Americolor Electric Green, Electric Orange and Electric Purple.
ReplyDeletelove LOVE what you did with these! gorgeous... great ideas to put eyes on the cookies... but the eyes on your kid! Wow!
ReplyDeleteI think they are fun and cool, too! So very cute! Sorry you didn't care for them though. Your daughter is just beautiful and she has the prettiest eyes! P.S. Thanks for catching my kitchen tool error. Yes, I do know what an apple corer looks like! ;)
ReplyDeleteSo excited by the googley eyes! How do you make them?
ReplyDeleteI love, love, love this idea, and the colors are just fantastic! Who cares how these taste -- they look amazing! I also want to know how you make your googly eyes!
ReplyDeleteAdorable! I'll have to remember this for next year. I always like to do some fun decorating with my neices and nephew.
ReplyDeleteWhat super fun cookies!!
ReplyDelete