Happy Easter, Everyone!! Has it been a full weekend of egg hunts and candy? Are you burnt out on pastel colors and chocolates? Nah, me either!
Poor baby girl has been teething this week. It’s been pretty rough for her, so we spent a lot of time snuggling. That means I’ve had very little time for baking. I had other plans for what I was going to bake and post about this week, but I didn’t have the time to shop for ingredients. What is a baker to do, but take stock of the contents of her fridge and pantry and come up with Plan B!
Cookies immediately came to mind, but I didn’t know how I’d elevate them to holiday baking status. Then I had a stroke of genius! Cookie cups!! They have the shape of little Easter baskets or bird’s nests, and could be filled with Cadbury Mini-Eggs (which I always have on hand from Valentine’s Day until my after-Easter sale stash dwindles). If you have kids or grandkids at home, this recipe is going to make their day! They will have a blast filling and decorating these bite-sized cuties!!
The cookie dough comes together really quickly and requires no chill time. The recipe I used (from Life, Love, and Sugar) was intended for full cupcake-sized cookie cups, but I have a weird obsession with mini-desserts, so I adapted the size and bake time accordingly. I used a cookie scoop to quickly fill the mini-muffin tin. Each was about a tablespoon. If you don’t have a cookie scoop, roll heaping tablespoons of batter into balls.
Once I filled the tins, I used a 1/2 Tbsp measuring spoon dipped in flour to spread the dough up the sides and make an indentation.
When you bake them, they will definitely puff up, and that indentation may disappear on you. That’s fine! You can recreate it while they cool by using the handle of a wooden spoon to re-indent them. They will look underdone in the middle when you do it, but trust the golden color around the outside! You don’t want to overbake them.
Let them cool in the tin for a couple of minutes, and they should be easy to remove if you give them a little twist. The insides don’t have the cleanest look, especially if you had to take the spoon to them, but you’re going to end up covering that up with delicious fillings anyway!!
While they cool, make your filling (or fillings, if you got to the point where you couldn’t choose just one!). The choices here are absolutely endless! The base of the cookie isn’t too sweet that you can’t use buttercream frosting or chocolate ganache. They’ll also be awesome with a no-bake cheesecake filling with fresh fruit. Do you dream of luscious lemon curd? Do it! I support you! I also won’t tell a soul if you skip the mixing altogether, use store-bought sugar cookie dough, a jar of jam, and a can of whipped cream. You’re busy. I get it.
I experimented with three fillings. (Four, actually, but the cannoli cream wasn’t successful enough to make the cut!) I made a Vanilla Buttercream that I colored green and piped using a tip to make it look like grass. Then I topped it with some Cadbury Mini Eggs to make it look like a nest. For some, I used the blueberry jam I made from the blueberries we picked when I made my Blueberry Pie. My third filling was layered caramel and chocolate, and those tasted kind of like Twix! So yummy! However you choose to dress them up, they will be delicious, and they will look festive and impressive! I believe in you!
Sugar Cookie Cups
When regular sugar cookies don't seem fancy enough, make them into cups to hold any fillings you desire! Cookie recipe adapted from Life, Love & Sugar
Ingredients
- 3/4 cups Butter
- 1 cup Granulated Sugar
- 1 Egg
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 2 cups All-Purpose Flour
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 2 tsp Cornstarch
Directions
- Step 1 Preheat oven to 350F. Spray mini-muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray
- Step 2 In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and cornstarch. Set aside
- Step 3 In a large bowl or bowl of your stand mixer, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy
- Step 4 Add egg and vanilla and beat to combine
- Step 5 Add flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix until incorporated
- Step 6 Scoop a heaping Tbsp of dough into each mini-muffin compartment and, using the back of a 1/2 Tbsp measuring spoon dipped in flour, spread the dough up the sides, leaving an indentation in the center
- Step 7 Bake for 8-10 minutes until golden brown
- Step 8 Remove from oven and cool in tin for 5 minutes. If the centers have lost their indentation, use the handle of a wooden spoon to press the centers down
- Step 9 Remove from tin and allow to fully cool before filling!
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