Easy Bake Oven or Message in a Cookie, Anything you Call it-it's a Winner!

Another meeting of the breakfast club was held, this time it was in the evening. Strange, I know -- a Breakfast Club in the evening, but we weren't making breakfast this time, but cookies. At one point someone suggested it felt a little like an "easy bake oven" experience. I think that might be due to the bright colored cookie dough or the alphabet letters you use to make any message you can think of to imprint in your star, heart or stamp shaped cookie. I picked this kit up at Williams-Sonoma for $20 and I do think we'll get our money's worth. Envision custom cookies for birthday, graduation, baby shower, wedding shower, bake sale, the welcome wagon, the list is endless!

Click to enlarge picture

What we learned:

• We used the recipe provided in the box and BRIGHT colored dough works out best
• Changing the message takes time, sticking to one message would make a quicker process
• Cold dough is a must for baking (no cheating on the chill time, 20 minutes at least)
• Small tips for decorating come in handy
• Plan on taking a longer time than usual for cutout cookies, but it's worth it

For another way to use the Message in a Cookie go here, to my friend Chris' blog. She is so creative-- scroll down to the end of the post--- it's more than worth it!!

Pocket Pies for the Breakfast Club

Saturday morning was an escapade of The Breakfast Club. We met to make hand held pies, or pocket pies as Williams-Sonoma has chosen to market them. Because it was for breakfast, we wanted to have a filling that would be conducive to that time of day. We ended up with a savory filling of eggs, potatoes, veggies and cheeses that was a knock out. And for the sweet tooth we made some simple ones out of homemade raspberry and peach jam (we didn't have any trouble giving those away either). All in all we had a great time being together and learning how to use these wonderful little tools. You would not need to have the gadgets that we used, it would be very easy to use a large cookie cutter and go through the same process. The video on the Williams-Sonoma sight is helpful to watch before you make these pies, with or without theirpocket pie molds.

On Sunday I tried my hand a second time at these cute little pies with a jar of pre-made homemade apple pie filling (recipe coming later). It was a one pint jar and I made 8 pies with 1/2 of a recipe of pastry dough. They turned out quite nice and having done the hand held pies twice now I have learned a few things.

1. The pastry dough should be rolled out thin, as thin as possible ( you are getting more than a regular amount of pastry in these little pies, so thin is a good idea unless you have double the time to spend at the gym).
2. Putting the egg wash around the edge of the inside of the pie to seal the two pieces is pretty much mandatory in keeping them together if you want the filling inside the pie.
3. Fillings should be cut into tiny pieces.
4. Brushing the egg wash on top should be put on the center of the pie, but not necessarily on the crimped edge (it gets a little over done).
5. These hand held pies are somewhat time consuming to make, plan on more time than you would to make a regular pie or playing the Tom Sawyer game and gathering others around you to help.

One addition to the recipe for these Veggie Cheese Scrambles- we did cook the shredded potatoes and asparagus in a frying pan with some olive oil for a few minutes before we mixed them in with the other ingredients. This allowed the pies to cook quickly in the oven.

Let me know if you try making these cute little babies and how they turn out for you!