Candy Corn Slice and Bake Cookies

When my kids were little and accompanying me on grocery store errands, they would beg me for the Pillsbury slice and bake cookies every time we went down the refrigerated grocery isle. You know the kind, they have a printed picture down the center of a pre-packaged cookie dough log. Every holiday has a different design.  Easter bunnies, snowmen, shamrocks, you name it…cookies for every season. Now, if you know anything about me, it is that I believe in butter…I joke that this is a religious belief, but I do in fact LOVE real butter. It makes everything taste better. If I am going to eat something that will go straight to my thighs, it will only be the best, highest quality ingredients, no hydrogenated oils for this girl. So these cute little logs of cookie dough don’t quite meet my standard for something I am willing to waste my calories on. I do, however, see the appeal. They are colorful, festive and fun to make. Not to mention the ease and convenience of having cookie dough ready in your fridge at any given time.

What did people do before the good old Pillsbury cookie dough log? I remember my grandmother making her own. She called them icebox cookies. Cookie dough shaped, put in the fridge, ready to slice and bake at a moment’s notice. Between the 1920s and 1930s the invention of the icebox made these convenient cookies popular and gave them their name. Now, we may have eliminated the need for Ice with the invention of the refrigerator, but that certainly did not eliminate the need for chilled, ready to bake cookies.

A couple of years ago, I had a neighbor leave the cutest little candy corn butter cookies at my door. When I saw the bright colors perfectly shaped, I was convinced that these would make the perfect icebox cookies. I love candy corn everything. From September through November I bake and decorate everything with these adorable little tri-colored candies in mind. Getting ready for a Halloween party this week I made a batch of spritz cookie dough to make festive holiday cookies. When I went to load the dough into the cookie press, I quickly learned that my trigger was broken and I would be unable to press and shape the cookies. I had already mixed a huge triple batch of almond paste spritz cookie dough and I was unwilling to let that goodness go to waste. Spritz cookie dough is the perfect dough for a slice and bake icebox cookie so I decided to seize this opportunity and attempt candy corn icebox cookies.

I divided my dough into thirds, colored one-third yellow, one-third orange and left the other third white. I then layered the colored cookie dough in a parchment-lined brownie pan. I covered the entire pan and refrigerated it until cold and hard. The beauty of real butter is it chills perfectly hard for these cookie slabs and slices without losing shape. Once cold I removed the cookie dough and cut into rows. I then cut the rows into triangles and placed the cookies on a parchment-lined cookie sheets. These little cookies cooked up to perfection! The best part is they taste as good as they look. These cookies would be the perfect addition to any thanksgiving buffet…if you can resist the urge to eat them straight out of the oven!!!

Ingredients:

8 oz Almond Paste

1/2 cup sugar

3/4 cup room temperature butter

2 egg whites

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp vanilla

Instructions:

1. In a food processor, process almond paste until it has the consistency of coarse meal.
2. Add in the sugar and process until well combined.
3. Add room temperature butter and process until smooth.
4. Scrape batter into mixer and beat with egg whites and vanilla on med high until smooth batter forms.
5. Add remaining dry ingredients and mix until well incorporated dough forms.
6. Separate dough into thirds. Color with paste, one third orange, one third yellow, leaving the remaining third white.
7. Layer dough yellow, orange, then white in parchment lined brownie or bread pan.
8. Cover with plastic and refrigerate overnight.
9. Remove cookie dough from fridge and slice in rows 1/3 in thick.
10. Take rows and slice in alternating triangles, creating the “candy corn”.
11. Place on parchment lined cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 6-8 minutes.

*** I like to double this recipe in order to make bigger candy corn cookies. The amount of dough you make depends on the size pan you have to form the dough and the size cookies you cant to make.