Before I begin, I have to say that this blog is now officially natemakescookies.com! Tell all your friends!

I made friends with another dessert blogger, Carrie at cookiecarrie.com. We decided to send each other some goods and this is what I decided on:

Cute, but where do you get a moose cutout? IKEA! 

Thanks, IKEA, for being there for me. These were in the “Kids Cookies” section of the app, so they should be easy, right?

Wrong.

Step 1: Make Cookies. Gather ingredients: flour, powdered sugar, vanilla, salt, cinnamon, egg, cocoa powder, butter.

Step 2: Whisk to combine flour, cocoa powder, salt, and cinnamon.

Easy enough so far.

Step 3: Beat butter and powdered sugar until pale and fluffy.

Step 4: Add egg and vanilla.

The consistency at this point was gross.

Step 5: Gradually mix in flour mixture.

I’ve bragged about how much I love this bowl. It’s true. However, they don’t make a bowl guard that fits. I assumed it’s because this one is taller than the steel bowl and that it wouldn’t explode with flour.

I was wrong.

Pff! All over me.

Step 6: Divide dough in half, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for 1 hour.

By now you should know that I hate rolling dough. I’m terrible at it. It’s hard and my dough is always uneven.

Well let me tell you something! I have been eyeing the Joseph Joseph rolling pin for months because it has rings that help you roll to the perfect thickness! It’s $20, though, and I didn’t want to spend that much on a rolling pin. Well, I was at TJ Maxx the other day and they had it for $10!

MINE!

Step 7: Roll dough to 1/8″ thickness.

Um, my rolling pin only has 1/4″ and 1/16″ rings. WHY?!

Naturally, I used the 1/16″ ring and just tried not to push all the way down. I can’t say I was consistent.

Step 8: Cut out moose.

This was going well. UNTIL I REROLLED AND MY MOOSE RIPPED!

I’M PISSED.

Step 9: Bake some moose. Repeat, repeat, repeat. 

I didn’t think this was magic dough, but I was a little worried. I didn’t want it to be like that time on Sabrina the Teenage Witch where they made boyfriends out of dough! Imagine 3 moose in my kitchen! Phew…

Step 10: Make the glaze. Gather ingredients: milk, cocoa powder, powdered sugar.

Step 11: Whisk until smooth.

Step 12: Glaze the moose.

The glaze was pretty thin. I thought it wouldn’t set, but the recipe said to let it stand for 30 minutes. I put them in the fridge to speed it up.

It still didn’t set! And why is it so swirly light/dark? Why is this happening to me?

Link to original recipe (it doesn’t exist online, so I copied it over from the app)

Yields: 24 (are you crazy?)
I got: 17 (that was lucky)

Start time: 9:25
End time: 12:55 (3 hours, 30 minutes) + 1 hour, 30 minutes the next morning to finish = 5 HOURS!
Martha’s estimated time: 3 hours, 30 minutes.

What did I learn?

• Don’t start cutout cookies if you’re not ready to spend several hours working on them.
• I’m not terrible at cutting out cookies, but they’re still hard.

What do I need to learn?

• Why did my glaze fail? I even added 2 more heaping tablespoons of sugar and it didn’t thicken.

So I ended up not glazing any more of them, including the ones I sent to Carrie. I hope they weren’t stale when they arrived! What did you think, Carrie?

I used every last bit of the dough. When it got too small to make a moose, I made a couple sharks with antlers.

I tried to make my best cheesy kid face.

Ugh, I look like a mess. I spent too long in the kitchen. And I need a hair cut.