Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Churro Cookies Review & Glad to Be Back!

Oh my goodness, the last few weeks have been insane! We have been running around like crazy in this house, but finally things are starting to settle down and I can hopefully update a little bit more often. Summer vacation is starting and we can finally take a little breather.

Like I said, I have been very busy with family responsibilities lately, so I haven't been doing a whole lot for my shop and the sales have really trickled down to almost nothing. I don't really mind, I have needed all the time I can get lately haha! But now that I have some free time I am hoping to make a few more cute, Summery bows. So keep an eye out for that!

As for today, I have a review for you all! As you all know, Cinco de Mayo was just a couple of days ago. Normally our annual tradition is heading over to Taco Bell for dinner, but this time my hubby was working and so I decided to make something instead. But I am a super lazy cook. I don't hate cooking necessarily, but I do hate being stuck in the kitchen for a long time when I could be spending time with my family. Because of this I am a huge fan of Betty Crocker's Helpers. They are so easy and great for when you don't have a ton of time. So I used one I've never tried before on Cinco de Mayo - Crunchy Taco Hamburger Helper. It was one of the best I've had so far! It tastes like tacos, spanish rice, and nachos all mixed into one delicious bowl. Try it out if you are ever in the mood for some easy, delicious Mexican food.

But my review today is not about the dinner, it's about what I made for dessert! I 'like' Pillsbury's page on Facebook because I use their refrigerated doughs and such all the time for dinners (like I said, lazy cook here!) and they periodically post recipes that you can use their products in. The other day they posted one for Churro Cookies from Oh, Bite it! I love churros, and I thought this recipe looked promising so I tried it out. Here is the recipe I used, but you can find the original here.

Churro Cookies


Ingredients:
2 pie crusts (made from scratch or packaged)
4 oz cream cheese
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 Tablespoons melted butter
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 cup sugar

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. In medium bowl, mix together cream cheese, 1/4 cup of sugar, and vanilla until well blended. Spread over one pie crust, then layer the other pie crust on top.
3. With a cookie cutter, cut out as many cookies as you can manage, place on parchment-lined baking sheet.
4. Gently press together all cookie edges with a fork to seal them.
5. Bake in oven for 12 minutes, allow to cool.
6. Mix together 1/2 cup sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.
7. Brush top of cookies generously with melted butter and immediately dip into cinnamon sugar mixture. Enjoy!

Now, mine is a little bit modified from the original. For starters, I have to admit right here and now that I completely forgot to add the vanilla to the cream cheese mixture. I am super sad that I did because I'm sure it would have been delicious, but in the end I don't think it made too big of a difference. Also, the original calls for 2 Tablespoons of cinnamon. I looked at that and immediately thought that was a ridiculous amount. Even the 2 teaspoons of cinnamon that I used made the sugar a little darker than what I normally use. Another difference is that the original said to butter and coat both sides of the cookie with cinnamon sugar. I thought that was kind of overkill, and so I only did the tops and they were fine. You can do whatever you prefer, though. Oh, and one more thing - be sure to brush one with butter then dip it right into the sugar. Don't try to butter them all before you start dipping them - they won't retain as much sugar and the cinnamon sugar looks prettier that way.

The jury is still out on this one and whether I will be making them again. I personally don't care for pie crust. Never have. I like my pies with a cookie or graham cracker crust. Because of that, I didn't care too much for these cookies but I sort of predicted that from the beginning. My husband, however, could not get enough of them! The batch I made yielded 12 cookies, and I'm pretty sure my husband ate six. But he also loves pie crust, so I guess that's understandable. My 5 year old son loved them as well, but my 1 year old daughter licked the cinnamon sugar off and wouldn't touch the rest haha!

That being said, I think I am interested in making them again using sugar cookie dough. I am sort of worried that they would be way too sweet or even taste more snickerdoodle-y than churro-y, but I might still try it out and let you guys know what happens with that.

Feel free to leave any suggestions or tips in the comments below, and if you tried it then give me your own review! I'd love to know what you thought.

Thanks for stopping by!

1 comment:

  1. Yum! Those cookies sound delicious. I love pie crust much more than anything you could put in the pie, except maybe if it's a chocolate pie, and I love churros, so I may have to try them out.

    2 Tbsp of cinnamon does sound like a lot. I bet it was a typo in the recipe.

    Good luck with life's craziness!

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