Vampire cookies, anyone?
I originally got this idea from a link my friend sent me. We had a Twilight DVD party and wanted some themed goodies to enjoy, so vampire cookies seemed like the perfect treat. I had some issues with the original recipe (i.e., it dough wasn’t rollable, thus not cuttable, thus not usable for this endeavor), so I ended up modifying a basic cookie-cutter sugar cookie recipe from one of my favorite baking books.
The original recipe called for round cookie cutters and two puncture holes on each cookie, but any good Twilight fan knows that these vamps don’t have fangs. A good fan also knows that, unlike in the movie, Bella actually gets bitten on her hand (not her wrist). My bucket of 101 cookie cutters just so happened to have a hand-shaped cutter, so I thought I was on to something good.
However, due to the raspberry filling (to look like blood - a basic homemade jelly is really easy to make and so yummy), the hands looked way too swollen…as did my sad attempt at making an Edward and Bella. They both looked pregnant, and let’s face it - not even Bella is pregnant in Twilight. I was disappointed. After these batches came out, I decided to stick with circles like the original idea (but with the half-moon shaped bite mark)…and also incorporated some hearts. Hey, it’s a love story, peeps!
I didn’t get any great pictures of the cookies, buy my friend Schneiderdoodle did, so I apologize you don’t get to see more detail, but we’re lucky to have any picture at all.
See the sad little vamps on the side? Crushing defeat.
As you can tell, the dough started to dry out towards the end so the hearts are cracked a bit. That’s why I stuck to the traditional vamp bites on those. Okay, fine, that and I was getting lazy and running out of time. The first batch of dough that didn’t turn out chilled for an hour before I discovered it wasn’t going to work. You can also see that I left some of the hands in the oven a wee bit too long, but they were still delicious. They took forever (each cookie needed two cutouts, and I’m terrible at rolling dough, plus adding the filling, sealing the cookies, poking the holes and then adding more jam to the bite marks post-baking to make them look fresh…) but they were definitely worth it!
And, for the record, I baked up the failed dough last night. For regular sugar cookies, they tasted pretty good. Too bad the consistency wasn’t right for rolling. I think it’s because I used the Kitchen Aid. I mixed the flour into the second batch by hand and that worked perfectly. Another lesson learned!
I’m not sure what’s up next, but probably some spring cupcakes. For now, though, it’s SassyCakes, out!