Cookie Bones Food

MEXICAN WEDDING COOKIE BONES

Steps:

• For the Mexican hot chocolate ganache: Put the chocolate, vanilla, cinnamon and ancho powder in a medium bowl. Add the heavy cream to a small saucepan and place over medium heat until it just starts to boil. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate. Whisk until the chocolate is melted and the ganache is smooth and evenly combined. Refrigerate until cold.
• Beat the ganache with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until thickened and lighter in color. Fit a pastry bag with a 1/4-inch round tip. Fill the prepared pastry with the whipped ganache. Refrigerate until ready to use.
• For the cookies: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F with racks in the upper and lower thirds. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Add the butter, vanilla and confectioners' sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat on high speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the flour, pecans and salt and mix until the dough just comes together.
• Take about a ping pong ball size piece of dough. Form it around a boba straw to make about a 4-inch-long tube (form it close to one end so that it is easier to remove from the straw later). Then, use your fingers to slightly scrunch the dough down on either end, rounding it and forming it into the shape of a dog bone. Repeat with the remaining dough.
• Arrange the cookies (on the straws) on the prepared baking sheets about 1 inch apart. Bake the cookies, rotating the pans halfway through, until they just begin to turn golden brown around the edges and are just set, about 12 minutes. Let the cookies cool on the pan a few minutes. Use a kitchen towel to hold the straws on one end and carefully push the cookies off the straws.
• Place the tip of the pastry bag just inside the hole on one end of a cookie and pipe the ganache so that it fills it about halfway. Fill the rest of the cookie from the other side. Repeat with the remaining cookies. Dust with confectioners' sugar and serve.

COOKIE BONES

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350°F. In medium bowl, stir cookie mix, butter, flour and egg until soft dough forms. Place dough in refrigerator to chill slightly, about 30 minutes.
• Roll dough into 96 half-tablespoon-size balls. Press and roll 1 dough ball around both ends of each pretzel to from bone shape; repeat with remaining dough and pretzels. Place 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 6 to 8 minutes or until edges of cookie are light golden brown. Cool completely on cooling rack, about 15 minutes.
• In small microwavable bowl, microwave baking chips uncovered on High in 30-second increments until melted when stirred. Dip each cookie into coating. Place on cooling rack until set, about 15 minutes.

MERINGUE BONES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 225 degrees F (110 degrees C). Line 2 baking sheets with aluminum foil and grease the foil.
• Beat egg whites with cream of tartar and salt in a bowl with an electric mixer until egg whites are foamy. Gradually beat in sugar, a few tablespoons at a time, beating until the sugar dissolves in the meringue before adding more. Continue beating until the meringue is glossy and forms a sharp peak when beaters are lifted straight up out of the bowl; beat in vanilla extract. Spoon the meringue into a pastry bag fitted with a small tip.
• Pipe meringue into small bone shapes on the prepared aluminum foil. You must pipe all the shapes at once or the meringue will deflate.
• Place cookie sheets into the preheated oven and bake for 1 hour. No not open oven door or peek during baking. Turn the oven off and let the meringue bones cool in the oven without opening door for 1 hour. Gently and carefully remove cookies from aluminum to prevent broken bones.