Eggnog-Filled Cookie Cup


Note that the title of the post is Eggnog-Filled Cookie Cup, not Cups. That's because exactly one of this recipe came out. This is it.

It's irritating whenever a cooking disaster happens, but it's especially so whan it happens to a 13-year-old cook. Young cooks don't have the experience to know that when a disaster happens, it's as likely to be the fault of the recipe as it is of the cook. I'm fairly convinced that this is the fault of the recipe because I was around when he was baking.

My son loves eggnog (I don't) so he was excited about making this recipe, from his own cookbook, Best-Loved Cookies and Bars, published by Taste of Home. It consisted of two elements: an eggnog pudding and cookie cups.


The first task was making the eggnog pudding, which consisted of pudding mix, eggnog, milk and vanilla extract (which he used instead of rum extract). The instructions said to bring the mixture to a boil. Because the mixture was foamy, it was hard to tell when it was boiling, but eventually some fat, thick bubbles broke the surface.


The pudding was put in a bowl, covered with wax paper, and cooled. THAT part of the recipe my son loved. But then came the cookie cups, which were pretty fussy.


You make a dough (which I noticed was very soft), form it into balls, roll the balls in a sugar/allspice mixture and put them in mini tart pans. (We sprayed those tart pans well with cooking spray.) The directions said to use floured fingers to press the dough up the sides of the pan, which is not an easy task. Luckily, I had this handy dandy mini-tart shaper to make quick work of it. (I purchased it from Pampered Chef, and I mention it here because I like it; they did not compensate me in any way to mention it.) He needed to dip it in flour each time so that it didn't stick to the soft dough.


When they came out of the oven, they had filled in quite a bit, so he used the tart shaper to gently push down the middles a bit. Would this have caused what came next? I truly don't think so.

These buggers would not come out of the pan. He tried right when they came out of the oven, as directed, and they fell apart. Then I stepped in. We tried waiting a few minutes, and they stuck to the pan. When we did manage to get them out of the pan, they still fell apart. We tried waiting until they were completely cool. They completely stuck to the pan, so we tried running a knife around the outside of each cup. That caused them to crumble right in the pan.

I'm not printing the recipe here because I don't want anyone to experience the same frustration he did. If, for some reason, you want to try it, you can find it here, on the Taste of Home website. (I noticed that the two most recent reviewers had the same trouble he did.) If you come up with better results that he did, please let me know and give us a clue as to what went wrong. I will post my son's version of the pudding because he enjoyed that:

Danny's Eggnog Pudding

Adapted from a Taste of Home recipe

1 package (3 ounces) cook-and-serve vanilla pudding mix
1 1/2 cups eggnog
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a small saucepan, combine the pudding mix, eggnog and milk. Cook and stir until mixture comes to a boil. Remove from the heat; stir in extract. Transfer to a small bowl. Put a piece of waxed paper right on top of the pudding so that it doesn't form a skin. Refrigerate until chilled.