Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Yo, yo! Party Cookies!

Those of you who live in the south and prowl the bakery section of your local Publix like me are probably familiar with the decadant, super sugary, artery clogging death cookie known as the Yo-yo. It exists outside the walls of Publix, but aside from a few references to the cookies I found on-line, it seems to lie pretty low on the cookie radar.
Delicious and wonderful in that "I think I can feel my thighs getting bigger" sort of way, the yo-yo is two cookies (chocolate chip at Publix, though most non-Publix references I found were sugar cookies) sandwiched together with buttercream icing and (sometimes) dipped in chocolate. They sell them individually at Publix, probably realising that if they sold them in multi-packs they'd have to make people sign a waiver. I'm usually good and just glance wistfully at them, but every now and then I break down and buy one. I eat it, bounce around like Mike Myers in that hyper-hypo sketch on SNL, then collapse into a little sugar coma.

Kyle and I had some friends over for game night this weekend, so of course I had to make some sort of dessert. I decided to make a homemade version of my favorite guilty pleasure cookie.
It's very simple- I used my standard chocolate chip cookie recipe (which has been modified and tweaked over the years), a "simple" buttercream, and chocolate candy coating for dipping.
If you really wanted to, you could even use store bought cookie dough and jarred frosting, though the recipes aren't hard, and will taste better. I did cheat a little with the candy coating (sometimes called "almond bark", though I don't know why). The coating is easily melted in the microwave and sets up hard, without having to go through the process of tempering like you would have to with real chocolate.
Pumpkin's Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes about 5 dozen 1/2oz cookies

2 sticks (8oz) butter, softened
1/2c sugar
1c packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2t vanilla
1t salt
2 1/4c flour
1t baking powder
1 bag semi-sweet chips
1c milk chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F. Cream butter and sugars together until combined. Add eggs one at a time, along with the vanilla, mixing until just combined. (Do not over-cream or cookies will spread too much). In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and baking powder. Add half to the butter and egg mixture. Mix until mostly combined, then add the rest of the flour. Mix until just combined. Fold the chips in by hand. Using a 1/2oz disher (or a spoon) drop cookies onto parchment lined cookie sheets and bake for 10-12min, turning halfway through. Cool on wire racks.

Simple Buttercream
Makes enough for 28-30 cookie sandwiches

1 stick (4oz) butter, softened
4oz vegetable shortening (yes, shortening.)
1 egg white (yes, an egg white. If you get grossed out by raw eggs, use the pasturized egg whites in a carton or the pasturized-in-the-shell kind.)
1lb confectioners sugar
1tsp vanilla extract
In a bowl, whip the butter and shortening until combined. Add the egg white and vanilla and whip. Add the confectioners sugar and whip (you may want to start on low and work your way up to avoid a mess.) Whip until fluffy.
Match cookies up in pairs to other similar cookies. Pipe or spread a generous layer of icing on half the cookies. Sandwich together with the remaining cookies. If desired, dip in melted chocolate candy coating and decorate with rainbow spinkles.

Enjoy with a glass of milk or mug of coffee and an insulin shot.

8 comments:

Craig Fisher said...

these cookies might just kill me, but I may have to make them...

Pumpkin said...

They will almost certainly kill you, but they are a delicious and sugary grim reaper...

Emily said...

Mmmm, gosh they look good. I've been craving something sprinkly lately.

I almost bought these store bought cupcakes today. They had that bright, fake icing on them. But I resisted.

Fantastic Figments said...

I AM SOOOOO making the pumpkin cookies YUMMMY thank you so much for sharing the great recipe! YUMMMY

Smooches,
Steph

Cindy Garber Iverson said...

Oh heavens! Those ARE decadent!!!! I think I'd be like you after eating just one... bouncing off the walls (followed by a "lovely" sugar headache).

Cindy

Ingrid_3Bs said...

Is the egg white to help stabilize the icing? How does the icing pipe? I'm looking for one that isn't sickening sweet from so much powdered sugar added so you can pipe it.

Thanks for the recipe!
~ingrid

Pumpkin said...

Ingrid- the egg white helps give it a smoother texture, rather than being gritty from the powdered sugar. It pipes VERY well, but is also VERY sweet. (In pastry school, we jokingly call it "Publix frosting" because it tastes just like sugary store-bought birthday cake icing!) You'd probably like Italian buttercream, which pipes very well, and tastes good, but isn't toothachingly sweet. French buttercream is also good, but not too sweet. I'll try to do an icing post soon, and include recipes.

Talita said...

Party cookies is the best!! I always have cookies in jar.