SUGAR HIGH FRIDAYS #14 (?)

COOKIE SWAP!!!

I've been sniffing around these food blogs for about a year now, and just recently put up my own baking blog. So this will be my first try to see if I can participate in the community. Here goes!

One of my all time favorite cookie recipes is a nutty, chewy, insanely huge oatmeal cookie, ten inches across, that you cut into wedges like a cake. It's so simple to make, and I usually slap on some frosting and sprinkles on top then serve. But for Christmas, I decided to try for something a little more ambitious.

THE PAROL COOKIE CAKE

In the Philippines, we like to start our Christmas around September. Yes, we basically have four months of Christmas, building up to December when we really go nuts. We get no snow, but we make up for it with midnight masses and midnight feasts and thousands of Christmas star shaped lanterns we call parols lining all the streets and houses and office buildings . They come in all shapes and sizes, but there is a special lantern called the Pampanga parol.

This is what a Pampanga parol looks like. It's lit up in different colors, blinking different light configurations every second or so.




So I figure, why not try and decorate my oatmeal cookie like the parol? They're both big, round and flat. Plus my sister, who has steadier hands, was willing to help (meaning she did most of the post-baking decorating, hehe).

So here's how it turned out.



Icing this monster cookie got my sister and I all cross eyed after a while, but I think it was worth it. The cream cheese frosting is not too sweet, the sugars add a nice little crunch, and the cookie as a whole keeps really well in the fridge. Hope you enjoy, and even thought it's only November, Merry Christmas, Pinoy-style!!!


GIANT OATMEAL COOKIE (from Elinor Klivans "Big Fat Cookies"):
1/2 c plus 2 tbsp flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
6 tbsp butter
1/4 c sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 c rolled oats
3/4 c raisins
1/2 c chopped walnuts

Position a rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Trace a 9-inch circle on a piece of parchment and line a baking sheet with the paper, marked side down.

Make the cookie. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon into a small bowl and set aside. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until smoothly blended, about 1 minute. Stop the mixer an scrape the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until well blended, about 30 seconds. On low speed, mix in the flour mixture to incorporate it. Mix in the oatmeal, then mix in the raisins and walnuts.

Drop spoonfuls of dough into the marked circle, then use a thin metal spatula to spread the dough evenly over the circle. Smooth the edges of the circle with the spatula.

Bake the cookie until the edges are light brown and the center is light golden, about 19 minutes. It will spread out about 1 inch. Let the cookie cool completely on the baking sheet on a wire rack.

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING:
makes 3 cups
1/2 c butter at room temp
6 oz cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 c powdered sugar

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on low speed, beat the butter, cream cheese, and vanilla until smooth and thoroughly blended, about 1 minute. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowls as needed during mixing. Add the powdered sugar, mixing until smooth, about 1 minute, then beat on medium speed for 1 minute to lighten the frosting further.

ROYLA ICING:
1 egg white
6-8 oz powdered sugar

Beat the egg white. Gradually beat in the powderedsugar, a little at a time, beating out any lumps.

Spread cream cheese frosting over cookie and pipe royal icing according to parol design (what we did was print out a picture to follow, like the parol above, then kind of improvised with star shapped cookie cutters, filling them in with icing). Finish off with colored sugar and candy covered chocolate pieces.