Easy, inexpensive baking gift (kid friendly)

Mattsmom277

Active Member
So I'm going to be hosting my yearly cookie party in a few weeks. I was looking for ideas, something fun and different. Keeping in mind that I host, get my house ready, cook up a storm for a nice lunch buffet for all of my guests, and provide a door prize, beverages etc, it becomes a lot of work without even counting making my cookies to exchange. I stumbled on a no bake recipe that looks like a ton of fun. I figure the fun packaging and efforts for decorating will get me off the hook for not actually baking fresh cookies.

I'm going to pick up chocolate and white oreos, along with dark and white chocolate melting wafers. I plan to melt the wafers and dip the cookies in alternate chocolate (white chocolate for dark cookies etc). Some I will mix a little peppermint frosting into the melting wafers. Cool on parchment lined cookie sheets. I'm going to decorate them with a wide array of things such as christmas sprinkles, use those little squeeze tubes of colored cookie frosting to paint snowman faces, crushed peppermint candies or candy canes, etc. Once they are all set, I am going to place each cookie in its own shiny colored foil muffin cup. I am then going to pick up tissue paper and christmas cookie tins at the dollar store. I will line each tin with colored paper, then stack the cups with cookies into the tin. It will end up looking like a box of chocolates, albeit oversized and chunky. I plan to cut circles of parchment to cover the top of the stack, then print out a pretty looking "guide" to the cookie flavors (like the ones that come printed on the lid of chocolate boxes) and tape or glue to the inside of the lid.

I think this sounds super fun and easy, and will look really pretty if decorated well and several different types are placed into each tin. These should freeze well also.

Because my cookie exchange is sugar free, I'm going to make these with sugar free oreo type cookies and sugar free wilton melting wafers. I may have to cheat a bit on some decorations, but there are sugar free peppermints and other things to decorate with. I'm going to be keeping my eye out the next week or two for sugar free decoration options.

I'll post photos when I make them in a couple of weeks. I thought I'd put this here because many of you may like to try this for a fun afternoon with your kids or grands.

PS. You can also use double stuff cookies, and insert lollipop sticks into the frosting center, then dip and decorate. Use those little baking bags to cover each one and tie with a festive ribbon.
 

tiredmommy

Well-Known Member
I think you could many different types of cookies: vanilla wafers, sugar wafers, peanut butter sandwich cookies, etc!
 

Mattsmom277

Active Member
If you use the nutter butter stuffed cookies shaped like peanuts, you can put a lolli stick in them and dip them in dark chocolate. Use frosting for eyes and a red candy for the nose, you can add antlers made of pretzels. Reindeer. Too cute. Google has photos
 

susiestar

Roll With It
For a fast, yummy treat take any shape of pretzels like the waffle weave, mini twist or even the xmas shapes I saw at Sam's last month. Melt the white choc wafers or white almond bark or white choc chips and crush candy canes or hard peppermint candies. You can just spread out the pretzels, mix the white choc and the crushed mints and put a small spoonful of that mixture on top of the pretzels. Or you can dip the pretzels into the plain white choc and roll them in the crushed mints for a fancier look. We get a box of six 1 pound bags of pretzels for about six bucks at sams and they do well in this.

You can also dip pretzel rods about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way into melted choc and then roll in toppings of your choice.

For a fast, super yummy easy baked treat, make a batch of brownie batter and dip an oreo type cookie into the batter. put it into a paper lined muffin cup and bake for 15-30 mn, checking after 15 min.

You can also do a no-bake snowball by crushing oreos and mixing them with cream cheese. Chill and then portion into 1 or 2 tsp size balls. Chill again and dip into white chocolate.

Take a look at various cake pop decorations and see what you can adapt to your cookies. your ideas are cute and will make your day a lot easier.

For an easy punch, if you do one, take 1 can of frozen juice concentrate and mix it wtih a 2 liter bottle of soda. If you want pink punch, use a cherry or cranberry or strawberry based juice. For a peachy or yellowish juice, use white grape peach juice. I usually use lemon-lime soda but it is great with ginger ale and if you want an extra kick to a pink punch, use the raspberry ginger ale or 7 Up type soda.

Focus on foods you can serve from slow cookers and cook in them, like various soups etc.... I have a super easy taco soup that you just pour the ingredients itno the crock pot or pan and let it go and it is great if you wnat the recipe.

I hope you have a great time at the party - it sounds like a blast!
 
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