Would you like them here or there?* I think you'd like them anywhere!

Would you like them here or there?* I think you’d like them anywhere!

Cookies and Bars / January 18, 2016

For several weeks now, I have been creating a themed dessert, appetizer or entree for our weekly Carolina Panther game days. For today’s battle against the Seahawks, I decided to take a classic and add a little whimsy. Baking my cookies in a mini-muffin tin made each little hand-held morsel so much fun. But crowning each with a dab of Panther Blue buttercream frosting changed everything.

You may say, “Ew! Blue food!! I am definitely not into eating frosting unless it is pink, yellow, or an ever-so-tame shade of green. And I will respond by asking you, “Could you, would you, with a goat? Would you, could you in a boat?” And you would know I’d lost my mind.

Or would you.

I remember the first time I read Dr. Suess’ “Green Eggs and Ham.” It was a paradigm shift in the world of children’s literature. His fanciful prose about a narcissistic, fur covered pest who won’t rest until his green eggs are eaten, is a well known classic. I mean, Sam-I-Am was relentless? Right? “In a train? With a mouse? In the dark, In a house?” It’s like having The Cookie Monster in your face ALL. DAY. LONG. But anyone who can write an entire book about insisting you eat something green, that shouldn’t be green, is surely a hero in my book. And really, why can’t an egg be green? Or a cauliflower purple? Or beets yellow? Or frosting blue?

I’m not sure I went through this internal dialog when I reached for the mixer and turned on the oven, but somewhere — oh yes, somewhere in the back of my head I smiled knowing that my dessert would have an eerie resemblance to Theodore Geisel’s charming campaign to turn green eggs into someone’s new favorite food, and my beloved Panthers into winners one more week.
*Words by Dr. Suess.

Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookie Cups With Panther Pride Butter Cream Frosting Peaks

Inspired by a Betty Crocker recipe

Makes 44 cookie cups

Ingredients:

1 C shortening
1 cup granulated sugar
½ C light brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
3 t vanilla
2 C all-purpose flour
2 t baking soda
1 ½ t salt
¾ C chopped pecans
¾ C semi-sweet morsels
6 T softened butter
About 1 C of powdered sugar
½ t vanilla
1-2 T heavy cream

Direction:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly, VERY lightly butter the inside of a mini muffin pan. Set aside.
Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the shortening, sugars, eggs, vanilla until whipped and incorporated. For about 1-2 minutes on high. Scrape down sides of bowl. Add the salt, soda and flour, a little at a time until all incorporated. Add the pecans and chocolate chips and blend. Spoon a heaping serving spoon full of dough into each cup as if you were dropping each cookie onto a cookie sheet. Do not pack down. This recipe makes about 44-46 small mini cups. Cook each for 10 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes and then using fingers, simply lift each one out to cool on a rack.
In another small bowl, combine the butter and powdered sugar until mixed. Then begin adding heavy cream, about a teaspoon at a time, until it is the consistency of stiff frosting. Add a drop or two of blue food coloring (or color of your choice, for that matter!) Pipe out into dollops onto each cookie, using the amount of your choosing.
Serve with cold milk and hide your scales. Enjoy!