How Tori Spelling transforms store-bought holiday cookies into baked masterpieces
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For actress and 90210OMG podcast host Tori Spelling, this time of year brings some of her favorite traditions: dressing up in matching pajamas for family photos, silly holiday sweaters and baking with kiddos. But sometimes putting together the perfect Christmas cookie platter can be stressful, so she likes to leave the hard parts to the experts so that she and daughter Stella can get straight to the best part: decorating.
Using just a few candies, sprinkles and some melted chocolate, Spelling shows us how to turn the tastiest store-bought treats into cool Christmas creations through a fun family activity.
First, Spelling gives Milano cookies a makeover, morphing them into reindeer. For each of her treats, she uses white melting chocolate as a sort of glue to help keep the decorative candy pieces fixed onto the cookies. “It’s super easy,” she explains. She just finds it in the baking section and pops it in the microwave and it’s all ready to go. On the reindeer she uses it to make eyes: a dollop to glue white M&Ms onto the cookie, then another dollop to glue miniature chocolate chips onto those. She pipes her antlers on using chocolate, but also offers an easier alternative – using pretzels. Finally, the reindeer gets a finishing touch: a Red Hot candy as a nose, affixed with that white chocolate.
Spelling’s Santa Claus — made from a Nutter Butter – shares the reindeer’s Red Hot nose and miniature chocolate chip eyes: “Santa hears and sees all,” she says. “Be nice!” But before she attaches those, she dips one end into the white chocolate and then into red sprinkles to make the hat, then the other end into chocolate to make the beard. To finish the hat with a little white pompom, she adds one more tiny blot of white chocolate. “Oh, Santa Claus,” she says to her cookie. “You’re so handsome.”
For her final cookie, Spelling shows how to transform Oreos into elegant ornaments. This time, she dips the whole cookie into the white chocolate and lets it dry, giving her a blank slate to paint on her decorations. A quick squiggle of chocolate acts as both design and glue for the tiny colorful candies that dot it, then she adds the final touch: a miniature Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup that looks just like the top of an ornament, but tastes much better.
With these holiday DIY cookies, Spelling shows the best way to bring sweetness to the season without the usual stress and mess. After all, even if your whole reindeer fleet doesn’t turn out perfectly, at least you know they’ll taste great.
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Melting white chocolate wafers
Mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
Read More from Yahoo Life:
10 home decor gifts to keep clutter at bay this holiday season
Chef Sandra Lee's secrets to hosting a dazzling holiday dinner
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