How To Clean Clay Cookie Mold By Brown Bag

by on December 15, 2010 • Bakeshop

Written by Lynn Craig of Cookie Baker Lynn.
This is undeniably the season for making cookies. Cookie swaps, cookie plates for the neighbors, gifts of cookies for teachers, and nostalgia all demand that nosotros spend some time in the kitchen. Even people who rarely broil the rest of the yr will dust off their sometime, faithful cookie book and bake up a batch or two of the family favorites.

Because I bake cookies all the fourth dimension, I like to create something dissimilar, really beautiful and special for gifting. Unfortunately I accept the decorating skills of a four-yr-old on a sugar high. Lots of enthusiasm, not so much art.

I don't take the patience or steady hands to intricately frost a cookie, allow alone a dozen cookies! Fortunately there is a way to make gorgeous cookies for the artistically handicapped, similar myself, that doesn't take days and days of work.

Cookies molds enable the artistically challenged

You can take advantage of the artistic skills of someone else by using cookie molds. Molds are available in clay, ceramic, wood, and acrylic, and can exist plant in but nearly any pattern yous can dream of. One time you bake your cookies, they are works of art as is, just you can also hand-paint them with food coloring, or guild them with edible gold luster dust, if you demand them to be extra fancy.

Whether y'all're blistering molded butter cookies, springerle, shortbread, or speculaas, using a mold volition help you to brand memorable, beautiful cookies, with almost no extra attempt. And when you're washed blistering with your mold, you can utilize it to make paper ornaments, beeswax ornaments, or simply hang it in your kitchen to admire twelvemonth round.

Tips to Working with a Cookie Mold

Hither are only a few things to keep in mind when you're using a cookie mold:

Most important is mold preparation. By greasing and lightly dusting with flour or cornstarch, your mold will release the cookies easily. It'southward important to dust the mold before shaping each cookie.
Keep the dough cold. Take out just what you need for 1 cookie at a time. Warm dough is stickier and doesn't concord its shape as well.
And lastly, if the cookie blueprint seems to exist losing its crisp definition, take a expect at the mold. If the pocket-sized carved details are filling up with flour or dough, the design won't bear witness up as well. Clean information technology out with a toothpick, and so redust with flour before using information technology over again.
Cleaning the mold is a unproblematic matter. Run it nether warm water and scrub gently with an old toothbrush. Allow to air dry.

1 cup light saccharide (packed) or dark dark-brown sugar
3 Tablespoons low-cal corn syrup or dark corn syrup
one/8 teaspoon common salt
i big egg
one teaspoon vanilla extract
one/two cup unsalted butter 1 stick, slightly softened
2-2/3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour approximately
Boosted flour or cornstarch for dusting the mold

In a large mixing bowl, combine the sugar, corn syrup, common salt, egg, and vanilla. Mix them together till blended and then allow the mixture stand for v minutes to allow time for any lumps of brown carbohydrate to dissolve.
Add butter and mix gently until incorporated and shine. If the mixture appears curdled at this betoken, don't be alarmed. Information technology volition come together when the dry ingredients are added.
Stir in 2-ii/3 cups flour. If the mixture seems besides soft to handle, work in an additional 1 to 2 Tablespoons flour.
Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate it for at least ii-1/2 hours, or up to 48 hours.
Preheat the oven to 350°F with a rack in the upper third of the oven. Spray several baking sheets with cooking spray.
To prepare the mold, very lightly brush vegetable oil over all the inside surfaces using a pastry or basting brush, existence sure to reach into all the crevices and indentations. Lightly sieve flour or cornstarch over the mold, tipping information technology to ensure fifty-fifty coverage. Plow the mold upside down and tap lightly against a surface to remove all excess flour or cornstarch.
Annotation: The mold only needs to be oiled once, simply the flouring needs to be repeated each fourth dimension a cookie is formed.
Break off a piece of dough large enough to fill up the mold, leaving the remainder of the dough in the fridge. On a make clean counter, roll the dough briefly to approximately the size of the mold. Press the dough into the prepared mold.
You want to be sure the dough is pressed into the details of the mold, and no air pockets remain. Employ a rolling pivot to roll over the back of the mold, smoothing and evening the dough. Remove any dough that extends out over the edges.
Rap the mold on an border to unmold the cookie, communicable the dough as information technology peels out with your hand. If the dough sticks, advisedly loosen information technology with the point of a small pocketknife. Lay the cookie on the prepared baking sheet. Echo the process, dusting the mold before each use, until your baking canvass is full, with the cookies spaced about 2-1/2 inches apart.
Bake the cookies for x to fourteen minutes, or until cookies begin to brown around the edges. Blistering time will depend on the size and thickness of the mold used. While the first batch is baking, repeat the process with the remaining dough.
Remove the finished cookies from the oven and let them stand on the blistering sheets for several minutes. Slide a narrow spatula underneath the cookie to loosen it from the baking canvas and utilize a wide spatula to transfer them to wire racks to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining cookies.