• Home
  • Eat
    • Breakfast
    • Appetizers
    • Main Dishes
      • Chicken
      • Beef
      • Seafood
      • Healthy Dishes
      • Paleo Dishes
      • Salads
    • Desserts
      • Decorated Cookies
      • Cookies
      • Bars and Brownies
      • Cakes and Cupcakes
  • Shop
    • Cookie Decorating Supplies
    • Bakeware
    • Cookware
    • Kitchen Gadgets
    • House
  • About
    • Contact
    • Bucket List
  • Cookie Decorating 101

Follow the Ruels

Carolina Panthers Cookies

February 3, 2016

Panthers-Cookies-B-1hp

I will be the first to admit that I am a bit of a bandwagon Carolina Panthers fan. You see, I grew up in San Diego and have been an avid Charger fan my entire life. It’s been a little hard for me to give up my allegiance. But now after being in Charlotte for three years, after some pretty outstanding Panthers seasons, it’s kind of hard NOT to be a Panthers fan. 

Now that they are going to the Super Bowl…well, make room folks, I am jumping on that bandwagon with both feet! So it only seems natural that I would resort to making some Carolina Panthers cookies for our watch party celebrations, right?

Panthers-Cookies-A-2hp

A few weeks ago I had every intention of making two different designs of football cookies, one for each of the Super Bowl bound teams. But once the Panther’s made it in (and also because Denver is an AFC rival of San Diego), I put all my effort making blue, black, and silver cookies just for them. Panthers Cookies B-5

I had made Super Bowl cookies last year that turned out rather well, so I used the lessons I learned on that project to make these helmet and jersey cookies. To get the logo just right, I traced it on parchment paper with the icing, then let the icing dry overnight. The next day, I flooded the helmets with grey icing, and placed the logo on the wet icing right where I wanted it. Panthers Cookies B-6

The jerseys were much easier since there was no logo on these guys. I started by flooding the jersey in either black, white, or blue. I added the contrasting stripes on the sleeves, then let it dry for a few hours (about 4). Once it was dry, I etched the number and the name on the cookie with my scribe tool so I could easily trace over it with the icing. 

See my whole process here:


 

Also, if you plan on making any football cookies at some point, a word of advice. Make sure you bake your helmets so that they are facing the right way. I made about a dozen helmet cookies. How many could I actually use? FOUR! The other eight were all facing the other direction and I didn’t have a logo that faced the other way either. Oh well, you live and you learn. 

Panthers-Cookies-B-2hp

These wouldn’t only be cute for the Super Bowl, but come college football season, you could make these for your favorite college team, too! Remember, you can bake the cookies ahead of time and freeze them for a couple weeks. Just make sure they are securely sealed in a zip-top bag. 

Hope you all have a great Super Bowl Sunday (if you even care about the Super Bowl). And GO PANTHERS!!!

[yumprint-recipe id=’98’][yumprint-recipe id=’99’]

/ Filed In: Cookies New, Decorated Cookies, Eat
Tagged: Carolina Panthers, cookies, football, Super Bowl

Cheese Stuffed Pretzel Bites

February 1, 2016

Pretzel-Bites-12hp

As a kid, my dad and I would often go to baseball and football games together. It was one of our favorite things to do together and it’s what instilled in me my love of sports. My favorite thing about these outings was the food. At home, my mom made me eat pretty healthy, but at the ball game, with dad, there were no rules!

The best were those giant pretzels with the “cheez” sauce. You know what I am talking about! Those pretzels, to me, are the epitome of game-day food. 

For the Conference Championship game last week, some friends of ours had a watch party and asked us all to bring football themed appetizers. I had made these pretzel bites before and was looking for a reason to make them again, so this seemed like the perfect one. To push them over the top and really pack the extra football-food punch, I threw in some cheese!

But serving some sort of fake “cheese” like substance on the side didn’t sounds as appetizing now as it did when I was a kid. So instead of making a cheese dip on the side, I put the cheese right in the middle of the pretzel!

Pretzel Bites-7

I even did some testing to figure out the best way to put the cheese in the middle and keep the cheese in the middle. Turns out, it’s best if the cheese is frozen before you wrap it in dough, instead of cool or at room temperature. Go figure. 

Now if you have never made pretzels before, this might seem a little daunting. I would love to tell you how easy it is (I feel like I say everything is easy), but this can get somewhat complicated and there are a few steps involved. But they are sooooo worth it! There is nothing like a fresh, homemade pretzel. Those ball park pretzels have nothing on these bad boys!

Sprinkle yeast on sugar water
Yeast is ready when it starts to foam
Mix all ingredients with dough hook

Mix/knead until dough ball has formed
Let dough proof in a warm space.
Dough is ready when it has doubled in size.

As you might have guessed, it all starts with the dough. If you have made bread or pizza crust before, pretzel dough is very similar. Mix together yeast, sugar, water, flour, salt and you’ve got yourself some pretzel dough!

The tricky part comes after you get the dough mixed and proofed. What worked for me, is sectioning the risen dough off into 1 ounce pieces (I use a kitchen scale to get them all around 1 ounce). I then flattened the dough into a disk and placed a small piece of frozen cheese in the middle and then sealed the dough around the cheese. (Side Note: I used cheese curds because my grocery store had them, but you could use just plain cheddar cheese cubes, or your favorite hard cheese)

Pretzel Bites-8 Pretzel Bites-9

After each dough ball was stuffed with cheese, I place it on a baking sheet to wait for it’s boil. Yes, you read me right! You have to boil these little suckers in some baking soda water before you bake them. It’s very similar to what you would do with bagels to get that brown crust that pretzels are known for. (Unfortunately there is no picture of this step since it was hectic enough trying to babysit pretzel balls in some boiling water).

Pretzel Bitesb-1

After their boil, I put them back on the baking sheet, then brushed them with some egg wash and sprinkled on that characteristic salt. Now it’s time for the oven!

Pretzel Bites-11

You know they are ready when they are nice and golden brown. Some of mine split a bit to expose their white inner pretzel layer. Some even split open a bit too much and oozed out their cheese. Oops!

Regardless, they were equally delicious!! I recommend serving them either right out of the oven, or at least warmed up to 300 degrees so that the cheese in the middle is a bit melty. Although my husband has some cold and said they were still good.

Pretzel Bites-10

Gahhhh…look at that cheese!!! Of course I couldn’t eat these since I was on the silly Whole 30 diet, but I did watch my husband while he ate it and had him explain to me everything that he was tasting (the Whole 30 makes you do weird things). You should have seen the smile on his face when he told me how good they were. I could tell immediately without even tasting them that they were pure pretzel perfection!

Pretzel-Bites-13hp

You better believe that I will be making these again for the Super Bowl. Everyone at our previous watch party loved and devoured them, so I know they will enjoy some more. I would highly recommend these for your Super Bowl party, too! I would encourage you to plan this out in advance, and maybe make your dough a day ahead so that you have less to do the day of. Just a suggestion! 

Hope you all have great Super Bowl parties and GO PANTHERS!!

[yumprint-recipe id=’97’]

/ Filed In: Appetizers, Eat, Other Savories New
Tagged: appetizer, cheese, football, pretzel, Super Bowl

Follow

Hey There!

Hey there, I'm Lindsey. I'm a number cruncher by day and a home cook and baker by night. While I love to eat healthy and find fresh and healthy alternatives for my favorite foods, I will never turn down dessert! Life is all about moderation, right?

Recipes

  • All Recipes
  • Breakfast
  • Appetizers
  • Salads
  • Main Dishes
  • Side Dishes
  • Desserts
  • Drinks

Favorite Finds

[show_lookbook_widget id=”388783″]

Theme by 17th Avenue · Powered by WordPress & Genesis