Green Bing.

"Bake-Sale Pie" Cookies

I needed something that would turn some heads at this year's company cookie contest. I saw some "Bake-Sale Pie" cupcakes and decided to modify the recipe for cookies instead. Since I knew I'd be topping these with frosting, jelly beans and M&Ms, I used a cookie that wasn't particularly sweet. (BTW, I won the cookie contest and my cookie was the talk of the water cooler for days to follow!)


Cookie:
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 cups sour cream
5 1/2 cups flour (until desired consistency for rolling)

Cream together butter and sugar. Beat in eggs and sour cream. Mix in dry ingredients. Cover and refrigerate overnight (6-8 hours). Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Roll out dough to a 1/4 to 3/8 inch thickness using a generous amount of flour. Cut out circular shapes and bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 8 minutes. Cool on wire rack. Frost and decorate as described below.

Frosting and Topping:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pinch salt
Yellow food coloring
1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder
M&M's chocolate candies, Jelly Belly jelly beans

In a small bowl, beat together butter, sugar, milk, vanilla, and salt until light and fluffy. Tint the frosting with 3 or 4 drops of the yellow food coloring and the cocoa powder to make a light brown for the "piecrust." Spread some of the frosting on top of a cookie, leaving 1/4 inch of the cookie edge exposed. Arrange desired amount of like-colored candies close together on top of the cookie. Repeat with the remaining cookies and like-colored candies.

Spoon the remaining light brown frosting into a Ziploc bag, press out the excess air and seal. Snip a small (1/8-inch) corner from the bag. For the lattice crust, pipe 4 or 5 lines across the top of a cookie, about 1/2 inches apart. Pipe 4 or 5 more lines, on the diagonal. Pipe a beaded edge around the top of the cookie. Repeat with the remaining cookies and frosting.

I cut some foil cupcake shells and placed the cookie inside so it looked like a little pie tin. Then, I placed the "pies" in a tiny bakery box. ... What can I say? I'm a sucker for details. Apparently, the judges were, too! ;)