Printable Recipes (RTF format)

Awareness Ribbon Cookies

Silvery Icing

Sugar-free Icing

Pre-made Dough and Icing

Cookie Cutters

Food Safety

 

AWARENESS RIBBON COOKIES

1 cup Butter or 1 cup CRISCO all-vegetable shortening, butter flavor or 1 cup Stick Margarine (containing at least 80% vegetable oil)
1 cup Granulated Sugar or 1 cup SPLENDA no-calorie sweetener, granular
2 large whole Eggs or ½ cup Egg Substitute
1 Tbsp. Vanilla Extract
1 tsp. Baking Powder
4 cups All-Purpose Flour

Preheat conventional Oven to 350-degrees Fahrenheit.  Cream Butter & Sugar with an electric mixer or by-hand until light & fluffy.  Beat in Eggs and Vanilla.

In separate bowl, thoroughly mix Flour & Baking Powder.  Blend together creamed & flour mixtures—do not over-mix / over-work the dough.  Divide dough into 2-3 portions & wrap each with SARAN WRAP or place in an airtight container, then place in the refrigerator for 1-4 hours or overnight or if in a hurry you can put it in the freezer for 1-2 hours until firm enough to roll out.
The whole idea behind chilling the dough is to make it firm enough to roll out easily & evenly.

Remove 1-portion of dough at a time from the refrigerator & roll it out with a floured rolling-pin on a lightly floured surface to approximately ¼ to 1/8-inch thickness.
 

Cut dough into as many cookies as possible, wrap & refrigerate the trimmings to be re-rolled again later.  Unbaked dough can be covered & refrigerated for up to 24 hours or frozen in an airtight container for up to 3-months. Thaw just until soft enough to roll-out again.  If dough seems too soft, refrigerate it longer or add Flour, 1 Tablespoon to ¼ cup at a time, until it is stiff enough to roll out.  Discard cookie dough that has been UN-refrigerated for more than 2 hours!

Using even spacing, place cookies about 1-inch apart on large UN-greased cookie sheets, allowing room for baking-spread.  If cookies under-go too much baking-spread & loose their shape, add more flour to the dough at 1 Tablespoon to ¼ cup increments, until cookies retain their shape when baking.  Dip cookie cutter into flour or confectioner’s sugar & shake-off the excess, before EACH use.
 

Bake one cookie sheet at a time in preheated Oven on center / middle rack for 10-12 minutes or until cookies appear lightly browned on the edges & set / cooked in the center.  Cookies will continue to bake for several minutes after taken out of the oven, while on the hot cookie sheet.  Note: Your cookies will bake faster on dark colored cookie sheets, so adjust baking time.  If the baking / cookie sheet is only partially full of cookies, it will take less time to bake them.

The tricky part of cookie making is baking them properly—AVOID the temptation of answering the telephone or leaving the kitchen—as you risk over cooking & burning them!  Allow cookies to cool for 5-minutes BEFORE removing them from the cookie sheet with a pancake-turner type implement.  This will prevent their shape from being damaged / distorted while they are still extremely hot & pliable.
 

Cookies can be stored in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 1-month or up to 3-days at room temperature.  When COMPLETELY COOL, cookies can be decorated with cookie Icing (preferably not frosting).  Icing is more liquidy & thinner than frosting.  When icing dries out, its surface becomes smooth, shiny & hardens (frosting usually remains soft)—allowing you to stack them for serving or storage.

SILVERY ICING

1 cup powdered confectioners’ sugar
2 tsp. milk or 2 tsp. non-dairy substitute
2 tsp. light corn syrup
½ tsp. vanilla extract (optional)

Mix powdered sugar, milk & vanilla. Add corn syrup. Mix. For thinner icing, continue adding small amounts of corn syrup. For silvery color, add edible silver luster dust (from local cake decorating or cake decorating section of arts and crafts store) to the liquid icing or edible sparkle glitter onto wet or dry icing.

Many other exciting silver food-coloring products can be found by searching the web on sites like: www.wilton.com, www.kitchenkrafts.com, www.intotheoven.com, www.chefrubber.com, www.sugarcraft.com, www.americancakesupply.com to mention only a few. Wilton’s black food coloring can also be added to white icing for gray color; however, takes on a violet hue, then blue over time.
 

SUGAR-FREE ICING

1 ½ cups SPLENDA no-calorie sweetener, granular
¼ cup Cornstarch
2 Tbsp. Water
½ tsp. Vanilla Extract (optional)

Blend SPLENDA & Cornstarch in blender until powdery consistency is achieved.
Pour powder into a small bowl, add Water, then stir well.  If a thinner icing is desired, continue adding small amounts of Water.  Icing should always be piped onto cookies, because it runs off if spread on with a knife.  It can be squirted onto the cookie surface via a variety of means such as using a cooking syringe or by placing icing in a new, disposable lotion-type container with a pour-spout (these can be purchased at most beauty supply stores).



PRE-MADE DOUGH & ICING

Cookie dough can be purchased pre-made at your local grocery store or the internet.  Sites for sugar cookie dough include www.pillsbury.com, www.davidscookies.com, and www.bettycrocker.com.  Pre-made Cookie Icing by Wilton is available at Michaels Arts & Crafts stores in the cake decorating section or by visiting their site at www.wilton.com.
 

Buying the pre-made dough & icing can save you a lot of time & energy, so you can concentrate on promoting your Silver Ribbon - Campaign for the Brain event!  Once opened & thawed, cookie dough should be kept refrigerated & used within a few days.
 

When a friend of mine uses pre-made cookie dough, she always adds extra Flour at approximately, again, 1 Tablespoon to ¼ cup increments, just to get the dough stiff enough to roll out easily, otherwise cookies loose their shape when baking (due to baking-spread).  Remember: dough can also be stiffened up by placing it back in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours.  MICHAEL’S, TARGET, SMART & FINAL, and other retailers have nice disposable aluminum / clear plastic containers to transport your cookies with ease to their destinations or for storage in your freezer.

I usually purchase Wilton’s pre-made White Cookie Icing at Michael’s Arts & Crafts store, on the cake decorating isle. I follow the containers directions to liquefy the icing by heating it (at 50% power / defrost) in the microwave.
Once it’s liquidy, I pour it into a small bowl & add my silver color product (usually silver luster dust), and mix it in thoroughly.  I place the bowl back in the microwave & heat the icing (as before) to re-liquefy it, then pour it back into its original container with the easy-pour spout—from which it is very easy to decorate the cookies.

Sometimes it’s necessary to re-heat the icing (if not using it immediately), so that it can be easily squeezed from the container.  I don’t coat my cookies with icing! I usually make the design of a Ribbon—just like a hand-written, small-letter—“e”—on the surface of the cookie, following the cookie’s basic design / image / out-line.

See, it’s simple - and in no time you’ll be a silver ribbon, awareness cookie-maker pro too!
 

COOKIE CUTTERS

Awareness Ribbon Cookie cutters can be purchased over the WEB simply by doing a search for “Cookie Cutters” or “Awareness Ribbon cookie cutters”.
They come in all shapes & sizes.  The larger ones (5-6 inches in length) are fragile, in that the cookies are easily broken if not made thick enough.  The medium size ones (3 ½ - 4 inches in length) are a nice, easy to handle size.  The small ones (2 inches & smaller) are time consuming to cut-out, and sometimes require some prompting to get the dough to leave the cookie cutter—I use a q-tip or a disposable, sponge tipped make-up applicator to push them out—and that works real well.

The small cookies are a great size for meetings or booths, as their bite size & with icing, one if just enough. You have to be careful though, as they’re addictive!

 

FOOD SAFETY

Always wash your hands thoroughly with antibacterial soap before cooking or touching food; and if interrupted, wash them again.  Don’t allow refrigerated ingredients to sit out on-the-counter / at-room-temperature indefinitely.  Use safe cooking practices by promptly storing foods in the refrigerator or freezer to eliminate food poisoning bacteria.  Unbaked cookie dough containing raw eggs is not safe to eat.  To avoid getting egg shell fragments in the cookie dough, break eggs into a separate smaller bowl, then pour them into the creamed mixture.

Always be prepared to tell the public your cookie dough / icing ingredients, as some person’s are severely allergic to dairy-products, eggs, flour, fats / shortenings / margarines, flavorings, nuts, or are sugar / sweetener sensitive, etcetera.  If you’re not sure on an ingredient, it’s ALWAYS better to error on the safe-side & suggest that they avoid your cookie product—rather than have them experience a potentially life-threatening allergic reaction.

Most persons with food allergies are usually aware of them and are eager to avoid anything that might trigger a reaction. You can take the opportunity to tell them about your enthusiasm for your cause — the Silver Ribbon Campaign for the Brain!

All things considered, these cookie events usually go over quite well, create many fond memories which enhance personal & professional relationships, warm-lasting friendships, create much laughter & are cherished for years to come.